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Domain: ecamm.com

Stories and comments across the archive that link to ecamm.com.

Comments · 9

  1. And if your printer hangs of a Linux box... by itsdapead · · Score: 1 · on Apple iOS 4.2 Hands-On

    (Stereotypical click-n-drool Mac users look away now)

    Now, it just so happens that my printer is connected to my old PPC Mac Mini running Debian because (a) that's my "always on" system and (b) the Mac OS USB driver for my cheapo Samsung laser is b0rked.

    I stumbled upon this page and, Lo!, now I can haz airprint from my iPad without even having to switch on my main Mac. This looks as if it should work from your typical hackable NAS boxen, provided it can run CUPS and AVAHI...

    I love Mac OS on the desktop, but, seriously, on the server side, Linux is cookin' with gas.

    If, however, you want something that Just Works on your Mac, though, Printopia is worth a look.

  2. Re:no more whining by naden · · Score: 1, Informative · on Fans Cheer as Apple's iPhone Finally Hits Europe

    well-known iTMS/iTunes coupling False: There is no coupling between iPhone and iTMS. The option is there but you are in no way obligated to use it. And with respect to iTunes: iPhone Drive

    the fact that Airtunes only works with iTunes False: Airfoil

    and is only configurable using an annoying program you get with it (no HTML interface) Debatable: I personally have no problems with Airport Utility for the very few times I need to reconfigure my router.

    and that you need Apple's BootCamp to have multiple OS'es on your Intel Mac. False: Parallels, VMWare

    However, I will not buy an iPhone unless I can put third party software on it Done: AppTapp

    and get one without a SIMlock and without a subscription. Done: iPhone Dev Wiki (you need AnySim)
  3. Re:iSight with iChat on Mac by Graymalkin · · Score: 4, Informative · on Video Chat -- Who Has the Best Quality Picture?

    iChat with a DV camera also tends to work really well. A big advantage of a DV camera is a big lens and manual controls. Instead of having to trust the iSight's auto white balance and brightness (or use iGlasses) you can manually set what you need to get a good shot. A DV cam with an IR remote also works well when doing presentations or group chats where you might want the camera to zoom in on the frame sometimes but zoom out to emcompass everyone.

  4. Inbox Zero, anyone? by mithras+the+prophet · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Hoarders vs. Deleters- What Your Inbox Says

    Ever since discovering Inbox Zero, I am a happier man.

    For me, this means:

    • Only check email every 30 minutes or 1 hour, on a schedule. No notifiers, no gorgeous translucent summaries, no stinkin' badges. I don't jump when email says to jump; I deal with it when I'm ready to.
    • When I'm reading through new mail, every message has one of four fates:
      1. Deleted, if it's useless
      2. Archived, where I can find it if I need to later
      3. Replied to or handled, if I can do so in 2 minutes or less
      4. Transformed into a todo -- either to do later in the day, or on a specific date -- and archived

    That way I don't have to wonder, "Say, I think there was some email I was meaning to deal with, where was it, somewhere in here, was it last week? And it's such a joy to have a perfectly empty It really is a great methodology / philosophy, and I heartily recommend it.

    Of course, I'd have more cred as a gettting-things-done wizard if I weren't reading Slashdot at the moment...

  5. iChatter by Kadin2048 · · Score: 1 · on AIM Now (Mostly) Open To Developers

    This is true, however you can get a plugin for $8 USD that does this.

    It's called iChatter, and it does a nice job of translating acronyms back to phrases using a customizable dictionary, etc. (So you can program "LOL" to be spoken as "ha ha" or anything else you want.)

    http://www.ecamm.com/mac/ichatter/

    I can't personally vouch for it, but it's out there. I use Adium (or AdiumX, I'm not clear on what it's 'official' name is) as my day-to-day client, and iChat for file transfers and on the very few occasions I've wanted to use audio or video chat.

    My killer feature is multiple-protocol support, because I always seem to have a few people who I can't talk out of using MSN Messenger or Yahoo Messenger, and I don't feel like running three clients all the time. The OTR encryption is fairly slick, too; I'd be nice if Apple took a hint and included that in the future as well, although they've seemed reticent to provide any kind of iChat encryption in the past.

  6. Re:The ol' Hardware Monopoly by daveschroeder · · Score: 5, Interesting · on Real Begs Apple for Alliance

    1. Not allowing a person to upgrade a DVD/CD drive to a Superdrive. I bought my PowerMac two months before the superdrive was released. I get to use stupid DVD-RAM disks, but I can't burn DVD's unless I buy a whole new computer.

    Actually, anyone is free to add any internal or external hardware device they wish, including DVD+/-R/RW drives. However, if you wanted to use *specific* software, like iDVD, with your drive, then you needed to mirror one of Apple's OEM offerings with your purchase. The reason Apple tried to tie iDVD to their "SuperDrive" systems was more one of ensuring a very cohesive user experience, as opposed to the nightmare of support issues and bad reputation for iDVD as people with 400 MHz G4s tried to use iDVD with any old random DVD recorder.

    2. Apple keeps its iSync API locked up. There are millions of really cool things I could do to make Apple able to synchronize with things like LDAP servers, competing browsers, PC's, etc. But then Apple could use it as a leverage-point to keep people subscribing to the overpriced .Mac program.

    It's only a matter of time before there's an iSync SDK. And the second statement is kind of unrelated; if you think .Mac is overpriced, don't use it.

    3. USB video cameras, like the ubiquitous Logitech QuickCam, just don't work (well) and Apple seems to have put blocks into place to refuse iChat AV from working with anything but their iSight hardware product. (I exaggerate a little bit here, but not much.)

    ANY FireWire video source will work with iChat AV. Any video source at all will work with iChatUSBCam. Again, this decision was made to ensure a good user experience across the board with iChat AV, rather than letting people use any old crappy USB camera, which, right or wrong, reflects poorly on iChat AV.

    There is a reason why Apple products work and look great: because Apple tries hard to keep it that way.

    The iPod Quicktime-AAC is just another example. Where Microsoft fights to protect it's OS dominence, Apple refuses to make its customers' lives better if it suggests that they might loose the odd dollar in missed hardware sales opportunities.

    Well, first, you have to have a monopoly to start talking about monopolistic practices. Even with iPod, Apple doesn't have nearly a "monopoly". And QuickTime, while proprietary, is one of the best media architectures out there, with free live encoding, free streaming servers for multiple platforms, ability to use open standards for playback anywhere, etc. Not to mention that it was primarily Apple and Apple alone that made MPEG-4's licensing - one of the only hopes against Microsoft's VC9 - licensing leaps and bounds more palatable than it originally was. And Apple has to keep its hardware sales up, lest the analysts start a death knell for the 1000th time.

  7. Neat idea, please RTFA/W. by DivideByZero · · Score: 1 · on Real-World Hyperlinks

    I think they're just beaming links for PalmOS machines. Check out their instructions for PDA users (basically 'Turn your damned beam-recieve on!')

    Apparently they've found a way to implement BeamPro EXPO on a cheap PIC, and maybe threw in a few non-Palm OS beam standards into the repeat loop. I've been wondering how long it was going to take somebody to develop this.... The possible applications really are great:

    Go to a restaurant, wave PDA at symbol, pick up an address book entry with their number, address, hours, and a concise version of their takeout menu.

    See a movie you like, but it's not playing yet? [Wave] it offers to put the opening date in your calandar, then offers a ToDo link with the website address.

    (For those of you who haven't used a PalmOS PDA, beamed events are cached with a 'Would you like to accept [...] into your datebook?', so you can turn down things you don't want.)

  8. How to build/buy a Beaming Station: by DivideByZero · · Score: 2, Interesting · on "Tap" Palm Art at The Whitney's Artport

    You'd probably be interested in BeamPro Exhibition, for the PalmOS.

    It would be interesting to see a really cheap PIC-based solution, however - That would be what would bring beaming stations down from the one-off, rare item to standard usage.

  9. Re:Pocket Quicken and others by beagle · · Score: 1 · on What Are Your Ten Best Palm Apps?
    These are in no particular order, and many are repeats from earlier in the discussion. I went through much of Palmgear when I first got my Visor Deluxe and thought the enclosed list of companies made some pretty cool products.