Showing posts with label gadgetry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gadgetry. Show all posts

Sunday, February 08, 2009

Annoyed with Your Push-to-Talk Button? Re-map it to MS Voice Command.

Not exactly breaking news, but during this flight (Hello again Denver!), I just got around to re-mapping my ATT Tilt's bothersome PTT (Push to Talk) button. You'll need to backup your registry and be enough of a tinkerer to know how to edit the registry in Windows Mobile.

PROCEED AT YOUR OWN RISK. INCORRECTLY EDITING THE REGISTRY CAN KILL YOUR PHONE.


Background:

There is a button on the top left of the HTC Kaiser a.k.a. 8125. With the, "ATT Tilt," branded version of this phone, this button, when depressed, asks something along the lines of, "Are you sure you wish to activate Push-to-Talk? Additional service charges will be incurred."

I'm not a walkie-talkie, "where you at?" kind of guy, so I do not wish to activate and purchase PTT Service. Heck, even if I wanted that capability, I could probably find some freeware IM/Voip app to work just fine, rather than purchase a new "service."

This reminds me- post a comment if you would like me to create a blog post about the Internet Connection Sharing app already built into Windows Mobile. There is no need to purchase a separate "computer" data plan and PC card. With a standard USB cable and Windows Mobile, the functionality is already available.


Here is the good stuff:

REMAP PTT, FROM,
http://forum.xda-developers.com/archive/index.php/t-335995.html

Worked for me. You have to read the whole post.
For my own purposes as well, here are the consolidated steps to take. Until someone improves on this, I keep all this stuff in a directory so I can reconfigure my device as necessary. Here goes...

I think the trick is the PTT settings take precedence when the device boots up so delete the PTT registry settings under HKLM/Services/PTT.

Delete the whole sub tree, then
From HKLM\Software\Microsoft\Shell\Keys
Add a new key called "40C6"Add a string under the key called "Name" with the value "Button 6"

Add a new key called "40C7"Add a string under this key called "Name" with the value "Button 6 (hold)"
(Note, do not enter the quotes, thare are to delimit what belongs in the registry entry)

Go to the Buttons settings and assign a program to the new entries. [Crockett note: I use MS Voice Command].

Do a soft reset [Crockett note: use a paperclip or pen to hit the reset button in the tiny pinhole on the bottom of the phone, or take the battery out] which will remove the PTT settings from the buffer and enable your key changes.

Thanks for all the help.

I'd say the only caveat is if you some day want to use the PTT features, it would be a good idea to take an inventory of what is under the PTT node in the registry.

Crockett Dunn [via Mobile Device]

Saturday, January 10, 2009

BACK IN STOCK!!! Carnivorous Plant Set (top candidate for most awesomest 2009 list)

BACK IN STOCK!!! Carnivorous Plant Set, from ThinkGeek.com:

Little Desktop Of Horrors...

Here at ThinkGeek, we truly understand you have needs. Especially at work where minutes often last hours and hours become days. You need to be entertained, you don't want your neurons to prematurely atrophy. You crave stimulation. You crave a Carnivorous desktop plant set. Perfect for the casual office worker who delights in watching insects slowly meet their makers as they are painfully digested by an engaging variety of meat-sucking flora. Nothing quite like it.




So what's our recommendation? Grab a set and grow your own collection of feared and famous carnivorous plants. This deluxe set has seeds from over ten varieties of carnivorous plants! Watch these fascinating plants grow into bug-eating monsters and delight in creating your own authentic bog with the included peat planting mix, blue Swamp Rocks, three Bog Buddies and full color decals. This rare and unusual collection of carnivorous plants will flourish for years in this specially designed terrarium with proper care...

Each Complete Kit Includes:
  • Growing Dome
  • Planting Mixture
  • Carnivorous Seed Pack:

    • Venus Fly Trap
    • Yellow Trumpet
    • Hooded Pitcher Plant
    • Purple Pitcher Plant
    • Pale Trumpet
    • Temperate Sundew Plants
    • Cobra Lillies

  • 3 Photo Decals
  • 3 Bog Buddies
  • Swamp Rocks
  • Instructions and Information Manual

NOTE: Unlike Insta-Pets(TM)like Sea Monkeys or Triops, your carnivorous plant set will take several weeks to get started. But have patience friends, the blood-curdlingplant-on-insect action will be worth the wait! We guarantee it or pay us double!

Wednesday, January 07, 2009

2008 Year in Review: Crock-Town's "Most Awesomest" List

Most awesomest people toys:

  1. This RULES. If you know me, you know I tend to have quite an obsessive personality. This serves me very well while I am obsessed with a client's success. However, it can be a liability if I am obsessing over clearing Tony Hawk Pro Skater.

    So this is the great thing: with these electronic RC helicopters, you only get about 10 minutes of batter life per charge... it's self limiting. The first time I circled the Christmast tree and landed, I felt like I "cleared a level" or "beat the boss" on a video game. Same as when I first lifted off downstairs and set her down upstairs.

    Twin Engine, 3 Channels Chinook Helicopter

    Images:















  2. Temperature-Sensitive Color Changing Faucet LightAND Shower Light!!!



    Why?

    Why not?

    Practically speaking, this works great as a nighlight when you don't want to blind a sleeping co-inhabitant.













Most awesomest dog toys:

In the past, I've been disappointed in dog toys, because the dog gets to have all the fun. This year, however, having moved into a town with abundant off-leash dog parks and open spaces, that has all changed. I'm not sure whether it is I or B-Rock who has the most fun when we play dog games.


  1. Franklin Soft-strike Teeball & Mini-Wooden Bat:



    I was a little disappointed. For some reason I can only find the mini-wooden bat with two multi-color balls at Longs Drugs out here in California. The multi-color action adds to the fun. Here is a customer image of one of the blue balls:




    They also come in red and silver... TONS MORE FUN.

    I don't know what's up, but I can't find a link to the mini-wooden bats online. It's like they go from foam directly to full-size wooden or aluminum.

    Soft T-Ball + Mini Bat= GREAT FUN, because I can strike myself out very easily. But the memories of nailing the "sweet spot" on the bat and slamming a line drive past the 2nd base man bring me back to the greatest joys of my childhood. I find myself tossing the ball up (pitch to me), and saying, "B, do you like your sugar with coffee.... or CREAM!!!!!!" as I slam a homer!

  2. Hyper Dog Sling Shot: 2 Ball Version:





    Hyper Dog Sling Shot:4 Ball Version:




    - Warning, this can be a lethal weapon. Note the fold out, assault-style wrist support.

    Dog must always be out of the line of fire.

    But the great thing about this is I get to play target practice. It's a lot like archery: calculating the ratio of drop to distance. So I setup a chair in my backyard (a taught, bouncy chair), and practice hitting it. The object fired from the sling shot, when it hits the chair just right, bounces directly back towards me at a 45 degree angle, letting B turn on a dime and chase the other way. Good times are had by all.

    Perhaps the greatest thing about the HyperDog Sling Shot is that for each time it is broken, it only becomes more powerful (for I clip the torn rubber tubing even shorter).

    Again, this packs some serious punch. Use with extreme caution- like old-school lawn darts.
The combination of these two toys makes me feel like a total mercenary bad-ass warrior when I arrive at the off-leash dog beach. Donning my camel-back hydrating backback, with bat in sheath behind my back, and high power sling shot locked and loaded in hand, I turn many heads. At first I was worried people would think I was going dog hunting or seal clubbing, but now I'm a regular and it's all good.

Happy new year everyone!

-Crockett

Thursday, November 20, 2008

FINALLY! Facebook profiles for my plants!!!

Let's face it, everyone needs one of these.

Look, I'm not complaining or anything, but the mainstream technology market is always 5+ years late delivering the stuff I really want. I always have to shop in Japan for the good stuff.

Examples:

  1. I yearned for a computer-sync-able pda/camera/mp3/GPS/phone in 1999. Windows mobile is still in its infancy, but I am slightly appeased.
  2. Currently the Internet Treadmill Workstation and Ultimate Wired Home Gym are only offered by me. The internet gym seems obvious.... I've been building it since 2006, but no merchant has yet come up with a high-quality, single packaged unit.
  3. And where are our standardized bluetooth connections to our in-car computer terminals??? No, not just for phone functionality- I mean the full terminal: address book, calendar, GPS, MP3. The whole 9 yards.
  4. For the above to work, speech recognition has to be ubiquitously integrated with all mobile or in-vehicle computers. They technology is available, it just requires a lot of processing power is all. But Ray Kurzweil's been doing this type of thing since I was 2 years old!
  5. And my Bill Gate's style smart-home, where I have an RF ID tag, and each room adjusts to one of my preset, personalized settings as I enter (lights on, perhaps TiVo begins playing the Daily Show... or based on time, lights dim over a period of 10 minutes, white noise machine activates, and bedtime sequence is initiated... and the dining room lights and soft Jazz music upon entry at 6 PM. Why can't this stuff be mass marketed? If it's a function of demand, c'mon everyone, demand it :)!!!
Oh how I digress. The point of this blog post is below.

An exception has occurred to my being ahead of the technology adoption curve. ThinkGeek.com
is ahead of the curve with me, delivering cool technology relatively shortly after I desire it. Heck, I love them so much, I'll give 'em a logo on this post:
ThinkGeek


SO, I am pleased to announce, that at long last, all of our household plants can finally have their own Facebook.com profiles, with automatic status updates via Twitter! FINALLY!

Check it out here, @ ThinkGeek.com..

I think I'm going to buy a $20 RC Helicopter from there, too, or a chain mail shirt to protect me from sharks and in battle. Can't decide. On the one hand, I already have one chain mail glove.
On the other hand, I don't have chain mail headgear or pants, and shark attacks are unlikely.


What to do, what to do.

I think I'll go with the vacuum-powered, wall-driving RC car.


Wednesday, October 22, 2008

Survival for the high-powered, IT Exec: The ultimate wired office/gym!



The ultimate wired office/gym! Walkstation! Internet Treadmill Workstation!

Sounds silly? Yes, as first? Like being alive? The this is no joke. I've been working with Physical Therapist on this for 4 years now:(see http://crockettdunn.blogspot.com/2008/02/holy-grail-found-introducing-best.html )


Survival for the high-powered, IT Exec: The ultimate wired office/gym!
Hello there.

My name is Crockett.

I own an IT business.

I love life... I mean, I love being alive, and I intend to postpone the cessation of my being alive for as long as possible.

This product list is for the serious information technology worker concerned for her or his physical health.

Let's face it, our generation has seen enough sedentary IT worker and computer addicts die of cardiovascular related illnesses anywhere from their late 20s to early 40s.

This is serious.

So perhaps it's more appropriate to say that this product listing is intended to help the IT/Knowledge worker stay healthy, and SURVIVE in an industry that constantly begs us to "please be seated."

The Ultimate Internet Treadmill Workstation, Totally Wired Home Gym, and generally surviving and staying healthy as an information technology professional have all generated enough interest to merit going beyond my
"generic, personal," blogs and offering this as an Amazon List, and an exclusive blog, here, http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com/.

With that, to those seeking physical and fiscal health in this post-information-revolution era in which we live, I say, "WELCOME!" (from the treadmill, in fact).

Come in, explore, and most of all SHARE your methods and experiences with countering what has historically been a purely sedentary vocation. [user community at http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com.


Thursday, October 16, 2008

Joyous Technology in your Bathroom

This week has been the perfect storm of business and personal "stuff." So I gave myself a little reward.

I bought a red, blue illuminated, temperature-aware shower head that streams light through the jets: red for hot and blue for cold.

The household revolution has only begun.

Next come the faucet heads:


TEMPERATURE-AWARE FAUCET HEADS EVERYWHERE!


THE PEOPLE DEMAND TEMPERATURE-SENSITIVE, LIGHT-EMITTING FAUCET HEADS!!!


[As soon as CDLLC achieves regional, national, then global domination, we will be upgrading to this one, much more elegant.]

Friday, September 19, 2008

Apple iTunes "Genius" vs. Pandora

So does the new Apple iTunes "Genius" playlisting feature hold a candle to the longstanding dominator, "Pandora," (formerly know as the music genome project)?

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

Great News for my Fellow Techie Road Warriors

It is just painful to have had that negative TiVo post as the most recent entry in Crock-Town-Traffic, so I'm going to see if I've got any goodies I've been saving up to lighten the mood in Crock-Town.

Ah, yes..... here's some good news for all of my fellow ultra-mobile road warriors. I've highlighted points of interest.

I'm left virtually speechless. Overflowing with gratitude, I can barely manage the word, "FINALLY!"



Although the California government may be able to prohibit me from using my windows mobile device without a hands-free headset, they can't stop me from working on my laptop or sketching behind the steering wheel (albeit while parked, only).

Thank you, anonymous inventor of the steering wheel desk.

Saturday, May 31, 2008

Going Postal, IT Executives, and the Home Offices

[Note, 12/8/2008: due to popular demand, all internet treadmill walk-station/work-station/desk-station posts have been moved the the following blog, http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com/. ]

Hello, my name is Crockett Dunn. I own a company called Crockett Dunn, LLC.

CDLLC was born around the time my business partner at Gold Zeppelin, Eric David, was had the good fortune of landing a sweet gig at MySpace. So we each took our respective accounts, and I gave birth to CDLLC.la (actually a more apt metaphor would be to say that I'm still pregnant with CDLLC.la, but the contractions are getting closer together and I'm about to go in for a scheduled induction). [my wife is an OBGYN].

Since late 1994, I've owned one internet business or another for14 years now, with some side ventures along the way.

Oh yes.... there is one very important point that you, the reader understand, to fully appreciate this post:

Hi. My name is Crockett, and I am a workaholic. ("hi crockett")




Yesterday around lunch time (which I never take off), the doorbell rang as I was actually checking my blood pressure to ensure I survive my current business growth spurt.

I shout, "I'll be right there." While noting the slightly high BP reading, I quickly triage and delegate 3 tasks that landed on my windows mobile phone, and run downstairs.

On the way downstairs, the red-phone rings so I tell the guys at the network operations center to take specific decisive action. Apparently another call had been rolled over to my reception while the red-phone rang, so I received another blip on my windows mobile device. "not urgent... HOORAY!"

Between the stairs and the door, the office direct line rings (in my pocket), and one of my support guys tells me a client that is currently beating the hell out of him verbally, without allowing him to help. The issue the client needed education on was the concept of the INSERT key, and how this is completely a function of a client computer and does not in any way relate to a change made to their web-based applications or hosted software service.

3/4 to the door, the mobile phone gets an SMS indicating some suspicious activity having been blocked by the firewall- I quickly forward this to the NOC, too.

I open the door, in my flip flops and non-client-site clothes, and the mailman, in a very cheerful, relaxed, mellow-California voices says, "Soooo.... You're not working today??"


Naturally, I immediately punched him in the face knocking him instantly earth-parallel-unconscious, removed the delivery from his limp hands, signed the appropriate documentation, and inserted it into his breast pocket, closed and locked the door, and returned to work, on the treadmill workstation.

Friday, April 11, 2008

notable first: bird crapped on laptop

With the wonders of modern technology have enabled me to work outside in the beautiful sunshine with the grass, birds, cows, and trees. But the birds... a bird had the audacity to defecate on my laptop!



Saturday, March 29, 2008

Treadmill workstation review: the best exercise plan for today's information technology/ knowledge-worker

[Note, 12/8/2008: due to popular demand, all internet treadmill walk-station/work-station/desk-station posts have been moved the the following blog, http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com/. ]

[2008. 04 . 23 update- I don't think I've included pictures of my setup here, but it is very important to have the keyboard flattened so as not to strain your wrist, elbow, and back. For a while I had the keyboard on the display panel with the mouse on the flat area below, and it caused pain in wrist and back. Currently experimenting with under-desk-style keyboard/mouse mount, or alternate flat surface for kb/mouse.]

Fellas, I gotta tell you. All of the Crockapottomi in Crock-Town are feeling very lethargic, weary, tired, and depressed, due to a week off from the treadmill internet-connected email workstation.

spare me the sales pitch and show me the goods already! (click here)

This isn't just like, "oh I'm a little down today." For a person like me, exercise means the difference between life appearing to be good and life appearing to be bad, all other variables held constant. To be able to perform my email filing, help desk, and contract management jobs while getting a workout means everything to my quality of life.

Skeptics find it amusing and even silly that I have an internet-connected treadmill workstation and home gym with workstation displays available from other exercise equipment. However, when the 20 year-old internet babies begin suffering from cardiovascular problems in their 20s, we won't be laughing anymore.

Well, the good news is that Analisa and I are back in town from our vacation, and back into the groove. So I've had some more time to elaborate on the blog posting I created to share the life-quality enhancement that has so much improved my state of being on this earth.

I'm also working on an Amazon, "So you'd like to.... Engineer the Best Internet-Connected Treadmill & Home Gym Solution" guide.

I emphasize best, here, because for me this is neither a novelty or silly gimmick. This is my entire work-life: my very existence. My survival is more important than the car I drive or house I live in.

Time permitting, I will cobble together a low-budget version of the wired gym, for starving students and those who aren't full-time IT professionals. But this is not really necessary, because the solution is not a single product. All of the individual components have stand-alone value within themselves.

Speaking of which, here is a single product bundle version, called the "WalkStation by Steelcase." I won't say "amateur," but I'm not sure this would meet the demands of a serious IT professional committed to a change in lifestyle and fitness.

Take a look at this media coverage for the walkstation, which, again, I consider a great product for the light IT worker or desk-jocky, but not robust enough to suit my needs. For example, Walkstation is quoted,


"The Walkstation is the combination of a fully integrated electric height-adjustable worksurface with an exclusively engineered, low speed commercial grade treadmill. At a maximum speed of 2 mph, the Walkstation lets you walk comfortably, burn calories, feel healthier and more energized… all while accomplishing the work you’d normally do while seated. No sweat!"
it continues on to read,

"The Walkstation has as much to do with a traditional cardiovascular treadmill workout as a walk in the woods does with a marathon. Fact is, you’d never be able to do all your normal desk-based activities on a healthclub-style treadmill.
It just wouldn’t compute!"
This is where I strongly disagree. The reality is that if an exercise product sounds like it will require hard work, the exercise equipment will not sell to the casual buyer.

This does not mean IT work cannot be done on a treadmill workstation in conjunctction with hard exercise work.

Especially with the proper display, keyboard, air-mouse, and then client/throw-away laptop.

I speak from years of experience. It started with playing guitar on the treadmill, and for about one year now I have been performing routine office productivity tasks: filing, reading, forwarding, and deleting emails on my commercial-grade, healthclub-style treadmill. Other tasks include proposal writing, help desk staffing, and, well, good-old fun web surfing :).

The alpha version of the internet treadmill was simply me walking on this treadmill with the HTC Wizard a.k.a. Cingular 8125.

But whatever blackberry-style PDA phone I had chosen is now irrelevant, because the ultimate solution involved a farther-away, wall-mounted, larger display and keyboard. The short focal length of an onbaord or in-hand display is just too much like sitting back at your office desk. Adhering to a fixd focal distance for too long can actually be damaging to your eyesight and cause one's ability to change focal distance to atrophy.

Moreover, with the alpha version of the internet treadmill, my shoulders and elbows were required to support the handheld device. This is unnatural, awkward hand positioning that leads to odd arm cramping.

But my point here is that even with all of its shortcomings, this alpha version SERIOUSLY improved the quality of my life and health (we're talking going from unhappy human to happy human), while giving me more free time.

Here is the history that followed.

  1. About 6 months into my testing, I realized I was thinking too narrowly by envisioning a single unified workstation: treadmill, keyboard, mouse, and monitor. I was looking at this from the point of view of someone reading a paper book sitting atop a treadmill, which is already becoming a dated paradigm when one considers audio books, Amazon Kindle, and iPods
  2. The decision was made to engineer a solution rather than a product. Products are great for mass marketing, standardization, and all the other stuff that gets you rich, but one size never fits all. Plus, I've already go a full time job.

  3. If I can give someone an extra 2, 5, or 10 years to experience life on this earth, then this will be the most meaningful technology work of my career.
  4. Back to the topic of engineering a solution rather than building a product . Can we agree in general that any product that is too overly-specialized ends up collecting dust in the closet? Example: Have you ever seen the ads on TV for the egg wave? You can microwave 4 delicious eggs at a time, and it's so easy because tbe eggs gook inside plastic piece that go in the dishwasher, and there is no messy pan or even spatula to scrub, no egg too flip. Just insert into microwave, start, athen eat.

    If you promise not to tell anyone, I bought an eggwave once, around 1999. The egg wave has not been seen since.
  5. Walkstation says, "Exclusively engineered, low speed commercial grade treadmill," so now we're talking overly-specialized and cheap. Do not misunderstand me, the Walkstation is a good product for a casual IT user, needing maybe 2-4 hours at a desk per day. Just like the egg wave is a good product for a college student who cooks for himself 2-4 times per month.

    But this is my very LIFE and SURVIVAL that I am dealing with here, not just some impulsive resolution to improve my health or have nice eggs every couple weeks. Cheap does not seem like a good option when one consider's mortality.
  6. Sometimes I WANT to break a sweat. When, for example, I experience frustration with a client/vendor/colleague/prospect, I may choose to dock the mouse and keyboard, and crank the Smooth Fitness Treadmill up to L7 Cardio and run on an incline.
  7. Which leads me to my next point: INTERCHANGEABLE, REUSABLE PARTS- an engineered solution rather than stand-alone, overly specialized product. There is no commitment here to buy your super-specialized unit that you *hope* will transform your lifestyle and help get you into tip-top shape (see every item ever sold by Kevin Trudeau or in Sky Mile magazine). Since this solution is not a single unit, there is no risk of closet-dust-collecting. The treadmill can be re-sold or put in the garage. The flatpanel TV and motorized mount can go to the family room or be resold, as well. And the wireless RF keyboard and air-mouse can go with you everywhere (I love my Gyration air mouse).
Cardiovascular health in the post-information revolution is a great challenge to our society. Just look at all the press this concept is getting:

I've been promising product links to my solution for months now,

so here they are,


by popular demand:

Note that although these are, raw, uncommented simple product links, these are far from arbitrary. This is the best of the best.


1+ years of research went into this. I have a graveyard of burnt treadmills, inadequate laptops, too-little Smart phones, key-missing-keyboards, torn mouse cables, and so on.


Smooth Fitness 9.45ST treadmill with 60" Deck, Hydra Suspension and Motion Control

txt: Smooth 9.35 HR Treadmill with Wireless Heart Rate Control and Hydra Suspension


Evo 1 Treadmill'

Smooth Fitness 9.45 TV Treadmill with 15" Flat Screen TV

Samsung HPS6373 63" Plasma HDTV


OmniMount MOTION 52 Motorized Cantilever Wall Mount (fits 37"-52" flat panels)



COMBO 88KEY USB RF GO PRO AIR MOUSE and KEYBOARD BLACK 2.4GHZ 100FT (GP6105CKM)

[revision] oops- I omitted the entire computer (thin client/terminal) and network connection part. For geeks, use your throwaway laptop, and, well, you already know how to do you network hookup.


For non-geeks, please post a comment requesting network, computer hookup instructions, and, time permitting, I will post detailed instructions.

If there is enough interest in this, and I have he opportunity to help enough IT workers, I will start a new blog devoted to this, with detailed analysis of the product evluation and selection process for each component.

Also, if there is interest, there is also a whole lot more to this system. Full power backup and network fault tolerance, plus a 1000Mbs-wired home-network with 3 TiVo HDs that all talk to one another and the PCs.

[added april 2008]
More info, as promised, re: DVR (TiVo is the only one UI worth considering at this point) and wired/wireless networking.

TiVo TCD648250B Series3 HD Digital Media Recorder




TiVo TCD652160 HD Digital Video Recorder




Netgear GA311 Gigabit 10/100/1000 Mbps PCI Adapter




GA511 Gigabit PC Card