The Gadgets Page

When Mike and I went with Stacey and Dan on Kane Creek Trail in Moab last May, we had no idea how difficult the trail they were taking us was. I filmed the hardest parts of the trail:

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My favorite highlights are:

• At the 3:38 minute mark, the dirt bike riders watch Dan drive up the trail and say, “It’s nice to see someone use a Hummer for what it’s for!”

• At the 6:55 minute mark, the Hummer is right on the edge of the drop off and is balanced on two wheels. Dan and Stacey get past the hard part and make it look easy!

• At the 13:57 minute mark, you can see some dirt bike riders make it up the hill. I used to think that dirt bikes would be easier than off-roading with the Hummer until I saw how tired these guys were.

• At the 18:45 minute mark, there is a photo of a Jeep that didn’t make it through the trail and went over the edge. Unable to retrieve it, the owners have left it to rot in the ravine.

• At the 18:57 minute mark, we are in the Hummer at the point where the Jeep went over the edge. It’s easy for the Hummer, but we laugh about it uncomfortably.

• At the 20:03 minute mark, Stacey asks us if we’re ready to do the Lionsback Trail. I unequivocally answer, “No, no, actually, this is our final, final trip.” Of course, two months later, I’m excited about it again and want to go on Lionsback!

• At the 24:00 minute mark, we are at the watering hole with lots of other people. Dirt bikes, quad-runners and Jeeps have only gone this far and stopped. The driver of the Jeep mentioned to us that he didn’t know it was possible to go any further. I guess you need a Hummer to get past that point.

I was exhausted and tired from hiking alongside the Hummer up the trail, but I’m so glad I got such good video of the trip. It’s a memory that will last forever.

It reads like a fake. Seriously, when I read this supposed email from Bill Gates to his team about the usability problems he encountered trying to download Windows Moviemaker for his computer, it felt like a fake. But it’s NOT. It was just one of hundreds of emails that were released into the public domain as part of the anti-trust suit that Microsoft was involved in.

• Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant

He encounters so many problems trying to download Moviemaker that he gives up:

So I give up on Moviemaker and decide to download the Digital Plus Package.

I get told I need to go enter a bunch of information about myself.

I enter it all in and because it decides I have mistyped something I have to try again. Of course it has cleared out most of what I typed.

I try (typing) the right stuff in 5 times and it just keeps clearing things out for me to type them in again.

So after more than an hour of craziness and making my programs list garbage and being scared and seeing that Microsoft.com is a terrible website I haven’t run Moviemaker and I haven’t got the plus package.

The lack of attention to usability represented by these experiences blows my mind.

To all the people who keep defending Microsoft, this is EXACTLY why I switched to a Mac. I had so much trouble just trying to edit a simple video on my PC that I bought a whole new computer, learned an entirely new operating system and it was still easier than trying to get Moviemaker to work.

Via: Sheldon: Sheldon Talk forum: As Bill Gates Exits…

Did they mean for this how to play Guitar Hero: On Tour video to be so bad? What’s with the guy screaming in the background?

I had to turn it off when he screamed:

“Sometimes you can’t yell!”

I have loved playing Guitar Hero and Rock Band this past year. It has been the number one party game in my life, but this video is just EMBARRASSING! I wasn’t planning on buying Guitar Hero: On Tour, but now, I’m wishing it didn’t shame me with its sheer corniness.

If Guitar Hero jumped the shark with its Guitar Hero Air Guitar Rocker, then it is wailing its final death knell with On Tour.

I have an old Powerbook G4. It’s in great shape, but it’s on power adapter #4, battery #3, and hard disk #3 is failing as I write this article. It’s been deprecated to “Kid’s computer” but it serves its purpose well and there’s little point in replacing it. It would be nice if it could survive the weekly slide off the couch to the floor without loosing sectors, however. With this most recent hard disk replacement, I had the opportunity to consider going to a solid state flash drive. But would it make sense to put such an expensive drive into an old computer?

Solid State Disk

The newest small laptops, such as the Sony UX490 and the MacBook Air, come with Solid State Disk (SSD) technology. SSDs are flash memory with a hard disk drive interface and designed as a direct replacement for laptop hard disks. SSD has four primary advantages:

• There are no moving parts, so the drive lifetime is dramatically improved
• Much lower power consumption is reduced
• Seek time is eliminated to I/O operations like virtual memory are faster
• They are silent
• The next generation of SSD will be considerably faster than disk

The downsides is that SSDs cost 30 times as much per gigabyte as disk storage. At the time of this writing a 32GB SSD costs over $700 and a 64GB SSD costs over $1200 compared to $80 for a 120GB laptop hard drive. It made no sense to put a hard drive of that cost into a five year old computer.

CompactFlash to the Rescue

But there is another commonly available type of Flash memory that is much less expensive than a true SSD that can be used as a laptop hard disk replacement. Compact-Flash cards have an IDE interface exactly like a typical hard disk, but with a different pinout. Using an inexpensive passive adapter, a piece (or two) of Compact-Flash memory can make an effective laptop hard disk replacement, especially now that large sizes of CF are available off the shelf. A 32GB CF card costs just $170, compared to $600 in an SSD form factor–one quarter the price. The SSD may be faster, but a fast CF card works perfectly well as a primary hard disk.

Conversion Process

I converted my old Powerbook G4 to flash memory using an Addonics CF<>Mini-IDE adapter and a RiDATA 233X 32GB Compact-Flash card. A 16GB Compact-Flash card would have worked for half the price (OS X 10.5 Leopard takes 8GB of memory, so 16GB provides room for applications and virtual memory but no space for data). The cost for both the CF card and the adapter was $200. While I could have spent half as much on a larger disk, the extra space wasn’t a value because I didn’t need it, and the extra $100 was justified by eliminating disk-based failure.

The computer now uses reliable solid state memory, and has more than enough room for the operating system and all of its applications and data. It’s not enough disk space for my primary computer, but as a family computer its more than enough. Plus, with my kids using it, I no longer have to replace the hard disk when it slides off the couch. The computer is on its fourth (and last) hard disk now. Using the computer is almost exactly like it was before. Some operations take slightly longer to kick off, but others are faster. Overall, the usability is the same.

Compact Flash as a Boot Drive

A computer running from Compact-Flash will have slightly different performance characteristics than a hard disk drive based computer because the drive is slower for large operations but faster at random access because there is no head seek time. This means that long disk operations will take more time, but short disk operations will take less time. For example, virtual memory performance, which requires a lot of small operations, is dramatically better with CF than HDD, but file copies take about twice as long as with a real hard disk. Because small operations are fast, the computer is just as responsive to most user interaction, which is the most important factor.

To be honest, I was amazed how different the computer wasn’t. While there were the occasional moments where I noticed a half-second of delay, there were also operations that didn’t take longer, such as launching an application during a file copy–that didn’t take any longer than if a file copy hadn’t been going on, and it’s the sort of operation that normally lags quite a bit in that circumstance. Multitasking was easier and faster on CF even though bulk operations were about half the speed.

The process worked so well that I’m strongly considering a dual CF upgrade for my newer MacBook.

The Nitty Gritty Details

You need to be aware of how CF cards emulate hard disk drives. Older, slower CF cards emulate a simple “Programmed I/O” or PIO disk, which is very slow. Direct Memory Access (DMA) devices are much faster, with Ultra-DMA (UDMA) devices being the fastest. UDMA Flash cards will be listed as 120X or faster. You basically want the fastest memory you can afford, because it will affect all aspects of your computer’s operation. Also, some older non-UDMA cards cannot be reformatted to accept a boot loader, so be safe by sticking with UDMA CF cards only.

You also need a UDMA reader because the speed your disk runs at will be the lower of the speed of the drive and the adapter. I tested my Compact-Flash card in a typical PC Card to CF adapter in the PC Card slot and it was horribly slow because the PC Card I had was only a 16-bit card that forced the CF card into PIO mode. Putting the same card in a UDMA firewire adapter dramatically improved performance. Also, the Mac could not boot the PC Card adapter in 16-bit mode.

Addonics CF to PATA and SATA adapters

Addonics makes a completely line of single and dual flash adapter for both parallel (PATA) and Serial (SATA) hard disk drives. You can browse their complete line of flash readers at the following URL:

• DigiDrive/Flash Memory Reader from Addonics

All of their adapters are UDMA and will drive CF cards at their maximum performance ratings. Windows users will need this sort of adapter to work at all because Windows will not boot from removable media. If you own a Mac, you also have the option of booting Flash from a USB port (Intel Macs only), the CardBus or ExpressBus slot, or from a Firewire port. Keep in mind that if you boot from your slot, you can’t use it for anything else because the boot drive can never be unmounted.

There’s an important difference between the Addonics PATA and SATA dual CF adapters however; The PATA adapter mounts both cards as two separate drives (a master and a slave) so your computer sees both, whereas the SATA dual adapter bonds them together as either RAID-0 striped, RAID-1 mirrored, or combined. You will almost certainly want to use RAID-0 striped mode with this adapter because is splits all data across both devices, doubling the read and write performance.

Summary

With Addonics CF adapter, CardFlash is inexpensive enough to use now for any computer that doesn’t have to store bulk data. There’s more than enough room on a 16GB card for both your operating system and your applications. 32GB is enough for everything, presuming that you’re not working with virtual machines, storing your entire iTunes library, or editing video on the computer. For most people, CF based disks can be an effective upgrade for their next disk replacement even in existing laptops.

I am a big fan of Swatch, so I’m happy to learn that they are releasing a new mechanical watch. This one has a window on both the front and back so you can see the inner workings.

• The Swatch Irony Body and Soul – Watch Reviews, Information, and News

Say hello to the Swatch Irony Automatic “Body and Soul”. It’s a skeletonized mechanical watch where both front and back are clear to allow an unobstructed view of the ticking heart inside.

It only shows the time (no date, month or day of the week), but it’s a mechanical watch for less than 200 bucks.

Have you noticed those insanely inexpensive HDTVs for sale at Costco? They are made by a company called VIZIO and they are currently being sued by Sony, Mitsubishi and Samsung over licensing issues.

• Consumer Electronics Daily News: Rival Manufacturers Sue VIZIO Over MPEG-2 Patent Licensing

“VIZIO’s suppliers have licenses for the MPEG-2 patents, and VIZIO believes that these licenses extend to VIZIO’s products,” the company said in a statement today. “VIZIO has notified its suppliers of the lawsuit and expects full support and cooperation by them in the defense of the lawsuit…VIZIO is working to resolve this matter with the plaintiffs and its suppliers, and it intends to defend its legal rights with vigor.”

This appears to be a classic case of “If You Can’t Beat ‘Em, Sue ‘Em.” Sony, Mitsubishi and Samsung have been gouging the buying public on HD televisions for the last couple of years and BRAGGING about their profits. VIZIO comes along and sells similar televisions for a full grand cheaper and the big companies don’t like them horning in on their profit margins.

If you have been sitting on the fence about buying a VIZIO television, hop to it now before Sony sues them out of existence.

Shiny Shiny wants to know if I would geek out with binary nail polish.

• Shiny Shiny: Would you geek out with binary nail varnish?

To quote James Joyce’s Molly Bloom:

“…and [my] heart was going like mad and yes I said yes I will Yes.”

Via: ZADI DIAZ

If you enjoyed last month’s episode of The Electronic Frontier that Andy Baio posted, then you’ll love the two episodes of the BBC’s “The Net” that he has made available:

• BBC Two’s “The Net,” Episodes 2 and 5 from 1994 – Waxy.org

Some highlights from Episode 2 (April 20, 1994):

1. Investigating the computers controlling critical safety systems at the Sizewell B nuclear power plant in Suffolk. It’s never had a serious accident, but two days ago, it had its first unplanned shutdown in three years. (0:50)

2. Talking to ordinary people who just started using the Internet, lightly touching on issues of identity, online dating, digital music, emoticons, and slang. Very charming segment, with great shots of CompuServe’s software and NCSA Mosaic for the Mac. (7:45)

3. Jules Gibbons “reviews” FIFA International Soccer for the SNES. Filler. (13:15)

4. Report on Apple’s switch to the RISC chipset and the marketing of the Power Mac. Interviews with the founder of Aldus, a PowerMac product manager, and a director at BBDO, the ad agency that won their account from Chiat/Day (before losing it again in 1997). Shots of an unknown 3D modeling application, the graphic calculator, and a SoftWindows beta. Also, clips from early Power Mac ads and a “road show” to educate consumers. (16:05)

5. Computer-aided surgery and CAT scans with 3D visualizations at Guy’s Hospital in London. (22:15)

6. Very short clip about a company called Ultrabra using computer-aided design to “take the bra into the 21st century.” (28:05)

Highlights from Episode 5 (May 11, 1994):

1. Fluffy coverage of the UK Internet infrastructure, loaded with language like “infobahn,” “cyberslobs,” and “digital superhighway.” Early UI interfaces for an Internet kitchen appliance, with an awkward 1 frame-per-second VRML interface. Great interview with a Blockbuster VP about video-on-demand, from inside a Blockbuster store using a ginormous cell phone. Footage of Al Gore talking about the Internet. (0:05)

2. Another fluffy explanation of the Net. How average people are using the Internet. Very basic explanations of email, Usenet, Web, Gopher, IRC, and FTP. Screen captures from Usenet, Ircle, and TurboGopher for the Mac. Shots of the W3C, World-Wide Web Virtual Library, and The Louvre website from Mosaic. (8:00)

3. Jules reviews Twisted for the 3DO. These are the worst game reviews I’ve ever seen. (13:45)

4. Nice look at Bletchley Park, the Colossus computer, and the 12,000 people that worked towards breaking German codes during World War II. Interviews with several of the women that worked there. (15:30)

5. How marketers are studying computer networks to learn about Generation X, with an emphasis on the San Francisco cafe and computer culture in the early ’90s. Interview with Wayne Gregori from SF Net, writer Andrew Hultkrans, and a very dated 3D tutorial for the inTouch iStation. (21:05)

6. Way too brief clip about parsing word frequency in Shakespeare’s works to detect plagiarism. (27:45).

These shows are an interesting time capsule into the perceptions of the Internet in the early nineties.

There has been a lot of protesting with the release of the new Grand Theft Auto IV. The media has really jumped on the idea that the game is bad for the people who play them. It’s nice to see an article that says the opposite:

• Prospect Magazine June 2008 issue 147: ‘Rage against the machines’ by Tom Chatfield

Here’s how one video game addict describes the benefits he has received from playing World of Warcraft:

I’ve developed confidence; a lack of fear about entering difficult situations; I’ve enhanced my presentation skills and debating. Then there are more subtle things: judging people’s intentions from conversations, learning to tell people what they want to hear. I am certainly more manipulative, more Machiavellian. I love being in charge of a group of people, leading them to succeed in a task.

Adam Martin, from NCSoft, explains further:

“Computer games teach, and people don’t even notice they’re being taught. They’re having too much fun. I think the next big change will come from the use of video games in education. A large part of the addictiveness of games does come from the fact that as you play you are noticeably getting ‘better,’ learning or improving your reflexes, or mastering a set of challenges. But humanity’s larger understanding of the world comes primarily through interaction and experimentation, through answering the question ‘what if?’ Games excel at teaching this too.”

All of these articles miss the biggest issue. Video games are like any other entertainment. Just like a movie, book or television show, they can be a shared experience. Even though I’m playing a game in Utah, I’m having a similar experience as a different person in another part of the world. Video games have become part of our collective unconscious and not experiencing them can make you as much of an outsider as the kind of person who never watches television or refuses to read the classics.

Via: Mind Hacks: In the midst of the video game fury

In the early eighties, my dad bought a broken Pong game from the local thrift store. He opened it up, soldered the connections and we were the luckiest kids on our block. We had a video game before anyone in our neighborhood had an Atari. Watching the creators of Pong play their game, brings back memories of how excited we were.

Thanks, Ralph Baer and Bill Harrison, for starting the video game revolution. Without you guys, there would be no late night Mario Kart marathons.

Via: Retro Futurism: Pong Seemed So Exciting Back in the 1970s