02.02.07

New Bluetooth GPS Receiver coming

Posted in All, Tech at 12:36 am by Rodfather

I ordered another GPS Receiver. I lost my GlobalSat BT-359 so need another.

Even though I don’t have Bluetooth on my Q1 with Vista, I’m hoping by the time it gets here I’ll find some drivers that’ll at least do a serial connection.

I grabbed the Wintech WBT-200 from buygpsnow.com. It has a data logger, can be used as a GPS mouse through usb, and it’s a Bluetooth GPS receiver.

So just in case I don’t find Bluetooth drivers, I can always plug in through the USB port. Plus, data logging is cool. Curious what it looks like on Google Earth what your physical path is throughout the day, week, months, etc.

This would also be handy for syncing your pictures when geotagging your photos with Picasa and Google Earth. I guess I gotta sync by the timestamp from the receiver and the camera.

While looking that up, I came across a program that comes free with the purchase of another GPS receiver I was thinking of getting instead. Franson GpsGate (home) is an utilty for Windows or Pocket PC. You can send out the NMEA feed from your GPS device to virtual COM ports for mapping software or even to the web so your friends can track you live with a Google Maps interface. This has great potential here. You can be the ultimate stalker! jk. Anyway, you can do data logging and best of all, you can do all this all at the same time. Very cool.

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01.30.07

New Twitter Bar

Posted in All, Tech at 12:58 pm by Rodfather

I recently found out about Twitter and noticed now there’s a Windows Vista Sidebar gadget for it.

Twadget, a Twitter gadget for Vista’s Sidebar

I also added a sidebar thingy to this site to show my messages from Twitter.

Basically Twitter is a messaging system when you post what you are doing.

If other friends subscribe to you, they can get the updates through IM or text messages.

Honestly I haven’t used it much but I’ll see if there are some people or sites that update news that I can subscribe to.

Check it out. My profile is here http://twitter.com/rodfather.

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11.25.06

USB Hardware h264 Encoder

Posted in All, Tech at 1:28 am by Rodfather

This is pretty neat if it works.
If you ever tried to convert a DVD or any video to an iPod/PSP compatible h264 video, you’ll know it takes forever.
Here’s a USB stick that has a h264 encoder chip in it to make the whole process a lot faster.

ADS Instant Video To-Go

According to the site, it would normally take 5 hours to encode a 100 minute DVD movie to an iPod video. With this device, it’ll take 20 minutes.

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08.24.06

New Toy

Posted in All, Tech at 11:36 pm by Rodfather

I got the fever of buying a new gadget again and bought a new computer last night. It’s not the conventional computer you see everyday, but an uttracompact tablet PC… UMPC to be exact. Previously known as the Origami Project. I have the Samsung Q1. So far, in a nutshell, it’s awesome. I’m writing this blog all while writing on the screen with a plastic pen and having the XP Tablet Edition translate my very horrible handwriting. I’m very surprised it recognizes my handwriting so well.

Here’s an example of how it looks on my end.

The program I’m using is Windows Live Writer beta. It’s an offline blog writer that makes it extremely easy to post to a blog of your choice. It’ll even upload images automatically. Very cool.

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08.15.06

Wake up!

Posted in All, Tech at 12:59 am by Rodfather

I’m going to try to use the Windows Scheduler to be my alarm clock. These days I set my alarm at 7:00 for beeping and 7:15 for the radio. Well, the radio reception in my room is pretty horrible. Most of the AM stations don’t come in. I usually fall back to sleep and wake up around an hour later with the radio still playing.
So maybe if I set my computer as an alarm, I’ll get up to shut it off. Or just let it play and have the music wake me up..

My new alarm

Here’s how you do it.

1. Run Start->Accessories->System Tools->Scheduled Tasks

2. Find the file of the song you want to play and drag it into the Scheduled Tasks window.

3. Right-click the newly created schedule and click properties. Once the properties window pops up, click on the Schedule tab. Change the time you want to wake up. Press Ok.

4. Back to the Scheduled Tasks windows, Right-Click your new schedule again and select ‘Run’ to try it out.

5. Your mp3 should now automatically play with your default player.

Contender Opening [ 1:12 ] Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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08.02.06

Canon High Def Camcorder

Posted in All, Tech at 12:02 pm by Rodfather

This is sweet. The last few years, there were only Sony consumer HD camcorders. This one will record at full 1,920 x 1,080 resolution and retail for $1300.

Canon intros first consumer HD camcorder, the iVIS HV10