I am putting together a new page on my website to keep track of all the random projects I am working on or have worked on in the past. I am hoping this will help me get all the stuff I have built over the years organized and out to the community so it can be useful to the world instead of just collecting dust on my backup hard drives.
Check it out here.
I was perusing around the website of the Federal Trade Commission brushing up on my rights as an american consumer (I was looking into policy related to telemarketing and cell phones). I noticed that they actually have a database for email spam, they ask you to forward mail to spam@uce.gov. So as you get annoying (and illegal) email messages you can do you part to help fight spam.
I have a fourth generation iPod and I have always been generally pleased with it. It is the last generation that had a black and white screen and I was glad to have it because the thing will go weeks to months between charges (casual use).
However a little while ago it started having problems. At first I was able to reinstall the firmware and get it running again, however that did not last long. Soon it started having sync errors in the middle of a transfer and that would destroy the entire device and I would have to reload it.
So it ended up on a shelf for a while until I came across this article on CrunchGear that described a design flaw in the iPod shell that would cause a drive to stop working. Apparently the heat produced by running a iPod for long periods of time will warp the metal shell on the under side such that it releases the pressure on the hard drive inside, which causes the drive to stop working. Therefore, to get the drive working again, all you have to do is put the pressure back onto the drive.
I finally got around to trying it for myself. The article gives better instructions but I basically took a small screw driver and pried the iPod open at its seam. The I took a business card and folded it into fourths and placed it on the middle of the drive and then just snapped the iPod case back together. It worked like a charm. I could hardly believe it. I am still using it today.
Although, this fix is kinda hit and miss; because I recommended it to a friend to try as well and he had no luck.
Here is the CrunchGear that has good pictures and better instructions.
http://www.crunchgear.com/2007/03/05/crunchgear-how-to-fix-an-ipod-that-wont-boot
I have been asked to write a column on Internet technologies for a small business website. This is part of the reason that updates have been so slow to come lately on this site (however I am working on improving that). The site is a small business resource site sponsored by COSE, which is one of the largest chambers of commerce in the nation. Anyway, I am going to post copies of the articles I write for the site here to store them for historical purposes.
You can keep track of my column here.
http://www.cosemindspring.com/technology/internet-technologies
I learned this trick about OpenOffice.org the other day and I wanted to write it down so I wouldn’t forget. It came up when I wanted to number the sections of a document I was working on, but I ran into trouble because a single section would be more than one paragraph. Which meant I would hit enter at the end of each paragraph and the it would automatically assume I wanted the next section number to show up. Which meant every time I would start a new paragraph that wasn’t a new section I would have to manually turn off numbering and then turn it back on and change the number when I needed it. This was rather annoying.
What I learned was that if you were using bullets or numbering and wanted to move to a new line without another bullet or number showing up; all you have to do is hold shift when you hit enter.
Needless to say this made my life easier. I am not sure if this works in Microsoft Office as well, because I don’t have the means to test it easily.
I am foregoing the ‘Clickable’ article this week because I am trying to roll out a new site look as well as focus on writing a few general articles. It will be back on track next week and hopefully I will be back to writing several normal articles a month. I have plenty of ideas that I want to write about, but it has just been crazy busy lately. Thanks goes out to my few regular readers for their patience.
When I was at LinuxFest the other weekend (Sept 30), I got the chance to find out about and talk to some of the people from Free Geek Columbus. They are an non-profit organization who provide computer training as well as hardware to people who are not able to afford it. Also one of their biggest projects is accepting donations of old hardware and either refurbishing or recycling it.
I am very excited to find an organization like this because I have been accumulating old hardware for some time now and I have been looking for a good place to donate it. I always tell my friends and family to not throw out the old computer, because it still has some life in it. Besides after reading some of the facts on their website a computer and/or a CRT monitor can be quite harmful to the environment.
From reading through the information provided on their site I would recommend that everyone look into recycling over trashing. They provide general information about what types of places take old computer materials and where. The information on their site is based mostly in the Columbus area but I image it wouldn’t be too hard to find a local recycling plant no matter where you dwell.
The organization in Columbus is modeled after the original Free Geek out of Portland, OR. Other useful information on donating and recycling is available on their site.
http://www.freegeek.org
The main website of Free Geek Columbus is as follows.
http://www.freegeekcolumbus.org
According to CNN, it looks like the One Laptop Per Child project is on its way to actually implementing its goal into the first set of countries next year. Which I think is great news and I think the project will go a long way in world education as well as spread Open Source technology and ideals across the globe.
I have been following this project for a while and if you don’t know what it is I encourage you to read more about it at their website. Basically they are trying to design and produce a laptop composed of durable yet cheap materials that can be mass produced, so they can give them out (or sell them cheaply to governments) around the world. It looks like they are set to move between five to seven million units in 2007. Their aim is to hit a $100 price tag per laptop.
Each laptop is water resistant and features a 10:1 crank charged battery (one minute of cranking yields ten minutes of power). It will have a basic Linux based operating system with just the basics, to be used for network communication (Web, Email, etc) and document viewing and modification (text, spreadsheet, etc). The laptop will use flash memory instead of hard drives and base network communication on a distributed network, so that if you get a laptop in range of another one they will be able to share data and build larger and further reaching networks based on how many laptops that can be stringed together. This will allow intercommunication at least on some level for even the most remote locations.
I chatted with some of the people involved on IRC for a little while and they seem very technology focused. They are working hard to get the hardware and software working together so they can give these units out for testing. Which makes it a little difficult to find opportunities to help outside of the realm of hard-core programming. I think as they get this project further along they will be able to outreach to more volunteer opportunities; the Getting involved in OLPC gives some ideas but is not complete.
It will be exciting to see this project develop.
I am starting this blog in the hopes that as I research and learn more about technology, I can record what I have learned as well as practice my ability to portray these ideas to others. So here is to hoping…