blog.thomaspan.com » Gadget

MojoPac — The New PC Revolution

Thomas — Sun, 24 Sep 2006 07:39:14 +0000

MojoPac is a magic software allowing a Windows user to run her/his Windows applications anywhere via an external storage device as far as s/he has the access to a PC running Windows and having USB 2.0 connection. It is very easy to set up. Here, I have captured two screen snapshots.

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It is a revolutionary breakthrough in the sense that it makes things much easier for manufacturers to deliver preinstalled softwares bundled with external storage. It also make end users’ life much easier since they only need to take care of one device instead of mutiple PCs, which also ease the processes of both data backup and data encryption. The pontential is definitely unlimited. However, I DO have to point out that they have a software compatibility list. Please check the list out and make sure that one’s daily applications are covered by the list before jumping into the hot water. For example, any softwares require kernel support don’t run well within Mojopac, which includes both Adobe Acrobat and Norton Anti-virus.

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Stand-up Experience

Thomas — Sun, 19 Mar 2006 20:07:48 +0000

After sitting in the chair all day long, thanks to my career as a software engineer, my body hurts. Yes, it is better to have enough exercise. The second best choice is to set up a stand-up working environment, which, of course, depends on the ergonomics department in one’s company. Worse, what if someone has to work at home, due to various unfortunate reasons? A portable computer tripod might be the most easiest and cheapest way to set up a stand-up computing environment in one’s home. I have tried instand CR3 tripod for several weeks, which allows me to do my work almost everywhere within the house, especially when I am tired of sitting. It is a nice laptop stand providing a adjustable working height between 19″ and 41″. It weighs as 26 oz. Its footprint is 2″ x 18 1/2″ when folded. It also could be used as camera tripod. It comes with a lifetime warranty. I cannot be happier with the product, which help me avoid a lot of pain in the butt.

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Cold Weather Makes My Electronics Sneeze

Thomas — Mon, 13 Mar 2006 09:54:33 +0000

Today’s cold weather not only make me sneeze, but also makes my electronics sneeze: Broadband connection from Comcast dropped. Desktop computer failed to restart. Gadget battery died quickly. Hey, the temperature hasn’t reached 0 degree celsius. But, wait! It is not about normal electronics. All these are hi-tech related. How ironic it is?!

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Archos AV 500 — the First Glance

Thomas — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 01:47:47 +0000

Archos is one of the major players in the portable personal video recorder (PVR) market. Last year, it delivered AV 500, which might be the best hybrid PVR device on the market. Plus, it is very handy for amateur digital photographers to use it as an external hard drive backing up photos from memory cards.

AV 500 weighs 9 ounces and measures 3×4.9×0.7 inches. It is a little bit larger than a normal PDA. Its 16×9 4-inch wide screen has the resolution of 480×272, which has more horizontal lines than the famous Apple iPod Video (320×240), but less than the new Creative Zen Vision and Espon P-2000. The latter two both have 640×480 and have relative smaller LCD screens. Will higher resolution play a major role in such a small display area? You guess.

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As a PVR, AV500 deals with JPEG, WAV, WMA, MP3, AVI (including DivX, for both NTSC/PAL). It is bundled with bunch of sample image/audio/video files. It could output video at the best DVD quality when hooked up with external displays. It is designed to transfer video in a tranditional VCR fashion. Hook it up with a video output via its TV docking pod. Start to record video on AV500. The recording time is 1:1.

AV500 has two USB ports: USB A is used for accessaries, such as a memory card reader; USB B is for computer connection. USB A is operated as USB 1.1 (full-speed USB 2.0) while USB B is hi-speed USB 2.0. In my test, it took 8-9 minutes to transfer 424MB data from a hi-speed USB memory card. It is much better than iPod, but still behind EPSON P2000. Its battery life is superb — 4.5 hours for video on built-in LCD — far better than 2-hour from iPod Video and 3-hour from P2000. It is definitely not a storage device for pro-photographer, but amateurs definitly could enjoy its much lower dollar to gigabyte ratio: < $5 per GB.

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Treo 650 — the First Glance

Thomas — Fri, 23 Dec 2005 05:38:05 +0000

The famous Treo 650 has arrived! I have been attempted for a very long time since so many people have one in my company. Eventually, I have made up my mind to throw away some hundred bucks for a try . Hey, the first impression helps me understand why Palm’s stock is rising.

First, I installed Treo Palm Desktop. It has conflicts with garmin ique 3600. Be careful if you’ve already installed garmin version of palm software, which is an old one. I don’t. So, everyting went through smoothly.

Second, I installed Intellisync for Yahoo! since I solely depend on Yahoo! mail to management my personal information.

Log in by my Yahoo! account into mail.yahoo.com.
Click Calendar to the left.
Click the Sync link to the right.
Click the Install Now button at the left-bottom to download the software and to install it.
After the installation, disable the default conduit via HotSync Manager so that, respectively, there is only one conduit associated to address, calendar and notepad.

Third, I played with VersaMail. It is very easy to set up standard email accounts, including both Yahoo! Mail and GMail. Remember not to configure it in the way to download all the emails. I set it as manually syncing up with my email accounts and downloading subjects only.

Treo’s keyboard really makes the difference. I have played with PDAs for years, starting from Palm 5. It is always a headache to deal with stylus, which never works for me. The wireless data network from cellphone providers also helps in the sense that broadband network is still not as reliable as wireless cellphone network.

In the end, I list my daily applications as the following:

VersaMail: THE email client
Blazer: THE web browser
Contacts
Tasks
Memos
Calendar
World Clock
Calc
Mundu IM 3: the best IM client on palm

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Are You TiVoing?

Thomas — Mon, 21 Nov 2005 09:52:40 +0000

Two months ago, I ordered a 40-hour TiVo machine. The reason? Well, I hate to catch 60 minutes by cut short of my regular Sunday evening shopping trip. I was happy ever since. I have recorded series from Tripping the Rift, Firefly, Twilizone, Mad Money and 60 mintues. At beginning, it took about 30 minutes for TiVo to download schedule through phone line. Now, it connects to the network via a 108.11g wireless network adapter, which I bought from Tivo.com. TiVo Desktop 2 helps me download recorded programs to my PC so that I could keep as many programs as possible as far as I have enough disk space. Last but not least, TiVo remote control has the ability to control TV sets. It is commanding my SONY TV.

Underneath the cover, TiVo is just a hundred-dollar Linux box. It takes several minutes for it to reboot. These days, people are talking about quiet computing. However, TiVo machines make annoying noises so that they are NOT suitable for bedrooms. The control panel is not that user friendly, which took me a while to understand. It is hard to set up wireless network, especially because of TiVo’s limitted support of wireless adapters. After try and failure, eventually, I bought the netgear one from Tivo.com to save troubles. TiVo Desktop 2 is still buggy. I have to re-install it twice since TiVo box was not accessable during the first installation.

Would TiVo stock fly? The technology behind TiVo is NOT that advanced. Microsoft Windows Media Center or any PVR could cut into its revenue. As a small company, it could be overtaken by big players once the market is fully developed. Recently, DirectTV starts to offer its own digital video recorder, which caused TiVo stock to sink. Unlike Netflix, Tivo is not profitable yet.

Please check out the blog site for futher Tivo information.

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