As for other cool retro stuff for the Pocket PC, check this out: FreeCiv port of Pocket PC, not yet released but coming soon hopefully. Here are a few screenshots to keep you going 'til they give us something to download (watch out for the popups though)
Umm, what's wrong with the high-tech approach of turning the keyboard upside down and giving it a whack?
If you want to get the rest of the crud out a few blasts from a £5 can of compressed air (with the kb upside down again) should do the trick. Well, either that or force the crud in further but hey, you didn't pay more than £10 for the keyboard did you?
ah, but that the beauty of geek marriages, instead of a antiquated ring, he could just buy her something a little more utilitarian, like, say, a Beowulf cluster of...
Hey, you don't get much more geeky than using the ringpull from a can of Jolt:)
Congratulations Rob & Kath! The question now is where to have the honeymoon - aren't they doing commercial trips to space yet?:)
Yup, Black & White is what made me buy a Logitech iFeel mouse, and I've got to say it's pretty good (Logitech licenced Immersion technology for this).
While the Windows desktop feedback gets boring very quickly, and their "Businessware" software (feedback for Word & Excel) is just plain annoying, in games it does actually work really well. The Half-Life/Team Fortress/Counterstrike plugin is pretty good, and Black & White definitely benefits plus you get a few extra mission-quests.
Just have to mention one of the Immersion-enabled quests in B&W (my favorite one), it's on first level:- You find a hippie standing outside his hut next to a ring of magic mushrooms and a boiling cauldron (ready to get his brew on), and to help him you have to pick which one is "buzziest" by holding your cursor over the them and feeling how strong the vibes are through the mouse! A great and funny use of feedback technology if ever there was one:)
A list of supported games can be found here and game download mods (including Serious Sam 1 & 2, No-one Lives Forever, and Unreal Tournament, but no Max Payne unfortunately) are here
OK I know this is a bit OT, but does anyone know of anything like this for VIDEO?
I'd like to set up a live audio & video stream from the Bushy's Beer Tent (see here for details - not my site design BTW so don't cuss me!:) ), one of the best parts of the Isle of Man's TT festival
(here
for TT-related sites, a simple description of the TT would be that 50,000 bikers or so arrive for 2 weeks for the worlds biggest road
race - an excellent party!), and would be grateful if anyone could point me in
the direction of something that was O-S (and hopefully free) that'd allow me to
do this.
For me, I am quite happy to pay the same money to Sky or a cable company to receive recent episodes of The Simpsons and Enterprise. The current status quo requires me to pay for the BBC as well. I would quite happily forgo all BBC services in exchange for the money I spend on them, but I do not have that option
Well if you're geek enough (or your local TV repair shop is willing to do it for you) then you can always remove the tuner board from your TV, making it incapable of receiving terrestrial signals. Thus - no need to pay for a TV licence, assuming that the licence doesn't cover radio (which I don't think it does).
I'm sure I remember reading about a guy who'd done this (he was like you - he only wanted Sky), got prosecuted by the "TV Van" people, but won the case in court, so a precedent has already been set. Or maybe I've just been drinking too much coffee today:)
So if you're so pissed off with paying for a licence, do something about it!
Personally I'll gladly pay for my licence as long as the BBC continue producing amazing programmes such as The Blue Planet, I mean, do you know another TV station that gives you programmes of this quality, sans adverts, for the small amount of £100?
Oh, and at the risk of sounding like an advert it's now available on DVD here or here (not a plug for Amazon, just a link for details). I'd HIGHLY recommend that EVERYBODY with a DVD player check this out, it's AMAZING, some of the best nature photography I've ever seen. Region-free too so you US people won't miss out:)
Just a quick second on that one, I can't say I'm too keen on R1 in general, but John Peel is ALWAYS worth checking out - who else in the UK would play Melt Banana on mainstream radio?:)
Stef
Re:Monsanto akin to evil corporations from the mov
on
Monsanto and PCBs
·
· Score: 1
because retained grain is a poor and inefficient way to grow your pants.
Chuckle!:)
Funny how one letter can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Another example: a single errant space and "IANAL" takes on a whole new meaning:)
Stretching a bit into the realms of OT here, but I'm quite surprised that NASA
are porting from Oracle to MySQL. Don't get me wrong, MySQL is good for what it does, but it's not a full RDBMS as it claims to
be (no real transactions, no foreign keys, no sub-selects, no views;
all essential for a robust DB). Failing the ACID
test is a big minus in my opinion, 'cause personally I care more about data
integrity than about speed (but maybe that's just me!).
There's a good article here called "Why Not MySQL?" by Ben Adida [mailto],
part of the OpenACS Project [openacs.org], on
why MySQL wasn't the right choice for OpenACS (at the time). It's quite out of date (and is
recognised as such by the author), but still worth a read, and there many
interesting submitted comments. Take a look at some decent free RDBMS
alternatives such as Firebird
(open-source free Interbase) or PostgreSQL
while you're at it. Oh, and there's plenty more dicussion on MySQL in a
previous Slashdot article here.
called "Why Not MySQL?" by Ben Adida, part of the
OpenACS Project, on why MySQL wasn't the
right choice for OpenACS. It's quite out of date (and is recognised as such by the author), but
still worth a read, and there many interesting submitted comments.
Well actually it's pretty useful. Instead of going for the expensive TV
add-on (on slashdot about a week back but I can't find the link, sorry), if
you've got a Microdrive or large CF card you can watch a movie on your IPAQ
instead.
320 x 240 (or 320 x 180 if you want 16:9 widescreen).
Decimate (knock out) every other frame, so if your movie plays back at 25FPS
you want 12.5FPS. VirtualDub Ctrl-R will give you these options.
Encode using 2-pass DivX at 256KB/Sec or so, and put it on
"slowest" or "slow" for best quality/performance ratio.
Don't bother with "fastest", it actually makes the movies larger and
doesn't seem to increase the speed (remember you're cutting the frame-rate in
half anyway so it's not going to make it much smoother).
Encode the audio at a highly compressed rate, such as 16KBPS 16KHz Stereo using
DivX audio, as you don't really need higher quality.
You should be able to squeeze a 2 hour video into 150MB or so, easily enough to
fit on even the smallest microdrive or a big compactflash card (don't forget a
USB cable to transfer it though, 'cause that take forever with serial!). Don't
use the backlight when watching otherwise the battery will die well before the
movie is through, and make sure that Audio, KeepAlive and Clean Video
(dithering) are enabled in the PocketPC viewer. Oh, and use decent low
impedance headphones and keep the audio low to drain the battery less. I'd
recommend a battery pack backup such as this
as well (or make one yourself), 'cause the IPAQ's battery life with a microdrive
is pretty pathetic.
there's an interesting new article over on the Compaq
website about the upgrade of current iPAQs to Merlin (PocketPC 2002):
"You made a great decision when you purchased your iPAQ Pocket PC!
Compaq will offer an upgrade to Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 for the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 and H3100 Series.
You can place your order starting September 17, and shipments of the upgrade CD will begin in mid-October.
* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 or H3100 Series between September 6, 2001 and November 30, 2001, your upgrade is free*.
(*You only pay for shipping, handling, and applicable tax for the upgrade CD.)
The process will involve completing and printing a form, then mailing or faxing it to Compaq, along with your proof of purchase.
* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC before September 6 or after Nov 30, the upgrade will cost $29.95. Shipping, handling, and applicable taxes will be added to this amount.
Return to this site on or after September 17 to request or order the upgrade.
"
The URL is here
(thanks to Dave's Compaq iPAQ site
for the original source of this news).
This comes after Compaq's announcement
that "Customers can be assured that any iPAQ Pocket PC purchased today is
upgradable to future Pocket PC software--a feature unique to the iPAQ."
I think this is pretty bad form on Compaq's part. First they announce that all current iPaqs will support
Pocket PC 2002, with the wording of the announcement strongly reassuring potential buyers that it's really OK to buy one now, then they announce that they'll only supply the OS upgrade to people who've bought one from the 6th onward! Since I just bought an H3630 (ordered it on the 29th August) partly due to this announcement, I feel a little cheated. Compaq should supply the upgrade free to everyone who ordered an iPaq on or after the day they announced that the current generation would support the new OS.
Of course it does depend on how much the upgrade costs for us non-eligible owners, if it's say GBP30 (USD 50 or so) then while there'd be a fair bit of grumbling, most users would be willing to pay this (assuming there are significant reasons to
upgrade).
As for whether it'll fit into the 16MB flash ROM, well according to most reports I've read on the misc. Pocket PC sites there'll be TWO versions of Pocket PC 2002, a scaled down one for all the current devices and the full version for the next-gen machines. There's more info at CNet here http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-7025389.html% 20tag=mn_hd
Oh, I might as well part with a few iPAQ links of my own (in no particular
order):
Slashdot Mirror
OK so I'm posting this far to late to get it modded up, but anyway....
For those of us Pocket PC owners who've seen that it's been ported to Palm and are upset with the lack of a PocketPC version, well there is one!!:
Nethack 3.3.1 for Windows (98/NT/2000/CE)
This kicks ass! Handheld support for ARM, MIPS, and SH3, good job Alex!
Here's a mirror of the ARM version, but please don't hit either of 'em too hard, or the boys might get some bandwidth bills from their ISPs.For more general PocketPC gaming news, check out Pocket Gamer
There's also an OpenGL version of Nethack which looks pretty damn cool (for the heretics who don't want to play in ASCII). Screenshots are here.As for other cool retro stuff for the Pocket PC, check this out: FreeCiv port of Pocket PC, not yet released but coming soon hopefully. Here are a few screenshots to keep you going 'til they give us something to download (watch out for the popups though)
Happy gaming,
ManxStef
Umm, what's wrong with the high-tech approach of turning the keyboard upside down and giving it a whack?
If you want to get the rest of the crud out a few blasts from a £5 can of compressed air (with the kb upside down again) should do the trick. Well, either that or force the crud in further but hey, you didn't pay more than £10 for the keyboard did you?
ManxStef
ah, but that the beauty of geek marriages, instead of a antiquated ring, he could just buy her something a little more utilitarian, like, say, a Beowulf cluster of...
Hey, you don't get much more geeky than using the ringpull from a can of Jolt :)
Congratulations Rob & Kath! The question now is where to have the honeymoon - aren't they doing commercial trips to space yet? :)
ManxStef
Yup, Black & White is what made me buy a Logitech iFeel mouse, and I've got to say it's pretty good (Logitech licenced Immersion technology for this).
While the Windows desktop feedback gets boring very quickly, and their "Businessware" software (feedback for Word & Excel) is just plain annoying, in games it does actually work really well. The Half-Life/Team Fortress/Counterstrike plugin is pretty good, and Black & White definitely benefits plus you get a few extra mission-quests.
Just have to mention one of the Immersion-enabled quests in B&W (my favorite one), it's on first level:- You find a hippie standing outside his hut next to a ring of magic mushrooms and a boiling cauldron (ready to get his brew on), and to help him you have to pick which one is "buzziest" by holding your cursor over the them and feeling how strong the vibes are through the mouse! A great and funny use of feedback technology if ever there was one :)
A list of supported games can be found here and game download mods (including Serious Sam 1 & 2, No-one Lives Forever, and Unreal Tournament, but no Max Payne unfortunately) are here
Stef
Thanks, FFMpeg looks like just what I need!
Cheers,
Stef
While we're on this topic, does anyone know of anything like this (streamable, open-source, and free) for VIDEO as well as audio?
Cheers,
Stef
OK I know this is a bit OT, but does anyone know of anything like this for VIDEO?
I'd like to set up a live audio & video stream from the Bushy's Beer Tent (see here for details - not my site design BTW so don't cuss me! :) ), one of the best parts of the Isle of Man's TT festival
(here
for TT-related sites, a simple description of the TT would be that 50,000 bikers or so arrive for 2 weeks for the worlds biggest road
race - an excellent party!), and would be grateful if anyone could point me in
the direction of something that was O-S (and hopefully free) that'd allow me to
do this.
Cheers!
Stef
Well if you're geek enough (or your local TV repair shop is willing to do it for you) then you can always remove the tuner board from your TV, making it incapable of receiving terrestrial signals. Thus - no need to pay for a TV licence, assuming that the licence doesn't cover radio (which I don't think it does).
I'm sure I remember reading about a guy who'd done this (he was like you - he only wanted Sky), got prosecuted by the "TV Van" people, but won the case in court, so a precedent has already been set. Or maybe I've just been drinking too much coffee today :)
So if you're so pissed off with paying for a licence, do something about it!
Personally I'll gladly pay for my licence as long as the BBC continue producing amazing programmes such as The Blue Planet, I mean, do you know another TV station that gives you programmes of this quality, sans adverts, for the small amount of £100?
Oh, and at the risk of sounding like an advert it's now available on DVD here or here (not a plug for Amazon, just a link for details). I'd HIGHLY recommend that EVERYBODY with a DVD player check this out, it's AMAZING, some of the best nature photography I've ever seen. Region-free too so you US people won't miss out :)
StefJust a quick second on that one, I can't say I'm too keen on R1 in general, but John Peel is ALWAYS worth checking out - who else in the UK would play Melt Banana on mainstream radio? :)
StefChuckle! :)
Funny how one letter can completely change the meaning of a sentence. Another example: a single errant space and "IANAL" takes on a whole new meaning :)
StefThere's a good article here called "Why Not MySQL?" by Ben Adida [mailto], part of the OpenACS Project [openacs.org], on why MySQL wasn't the right choice for OpenACS (at the time). It's quite out of date (and is recognised as such by the author), but still worth a read, and there many interesting submitted comments. Take a look at some decent free RDBMS alternatives such as Firebird (open-source free Interbase) or PostgreSQL while you're at it. Oh, and there's plenty more dicussion on MySQL in a previous Slashdot article here.
Stef
called "Why Not MySQL?" by Ben Adida, part of the OpenACS Project, on why MySQL wasn't the right choice for OpenACS. It's quite out of date (and is recognised as such by the author), but still worth a read, and there many interesting submitted comments.
Get it here
Not that anyone tends to read/moderate Slashdot posts after they're a day old, so few will see this...
Well actually it's pretty useful. Instead of going for the expensive TV add-on (on slashdot about a week back but I can't find the link, sorry), if you've got a Microdrive or large CF card you can watch a movie on your IPAQ instead.
Encoding tips are:
Get the latest DivX (4.01) here
320 x 240 (or 320 x 180 if you want 16:9 widescreen).
Decimate (knock out) every other frame, so if your movie plays back at 25FPS you want 12.5FPS. VirtualDub Ctrl-R will give you these options.
Encode using 2-pass DivX at 256KB/Sec or so, and put it on "slowest" or "slow" for best quality/performance ratio. Don't bother with "fastest", it actually makes the movies larger and doesn't seem to increase the speed (remember you're cutting the frame-rate in half anyway so it's not going to make it much smoother).
Encode the audio at a highly compressed rate, such as 16KBPS 16KHz Stereo using DivX audio, as you don't really need higher quality.
You should be able to squeeze a 2 hour video into 150MB or so, easily enough to fit on even the smallest microdrive or a big compactflash card (don't forget a USB cable to transfer it though, 'cause that take forever with serial!). Don't use the backlight when watching otherwise the battery will die well before the movie is through, and make sure that Audio, KeepAlive and Clean Video (dithering) are enabled in the PocketPC viewer. Oh, and use decent low impedance headphones and keep the audio low to drain the battery less. I'd recommend a battery pack backup such as this as well (or make one yourself), 'cause the IPAQ's battery life with a microdrive is pretty pathetic.
Happy viewing,
Stef
then maybe I should sue Pause Technologies for infringing on my name. I wonder if TiVo would pay my legal costs? :)
Stefan Pause
Hi all,
there's an interesting new article over on the Compaq website about the upgrade of current iPAQs to Merlin (PocketPC 2002):
"You made a great decision when you purchased your iPAQ Pocket PC!
Compaq will offer an upgrade to Microsoft Pocket PC 2002 for the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 and H3100 Series.
You can place your order starting September 17, and shipments of the upgrade CD will begin in mid-October.
* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC H3600 or H3100 Series between September 6, 2001 and November 30, 2001, your upgrade is free*.
(*You only pay for shipping, handling, and applicable tax for the upgrade CD.)
The process will involve completing and printing a form, then mailing or faxing it to Compaq, along with your proof of purchase.
* If you purchased the iPAQ Pocket PC before September 6 or after Nov 30, the upgrade will cost $29.95. Shipping, handling, and applicable taxes will be added to this amount.
Return to this site on or after September 17 to request or order the upgrade. "
The URL is here (thanks to Dave's Compaq iPAQ site for the original source of this news).
This comes after Compaq's announcement that "Customers can be assured that any iPAQ Pocket PC purchased today is upgradable to future Pocket PC software--a feature unique to the iPAQ."
I think this is pretty bad form on Compaq's part. First they announce that all current iPaqs will support Pocket PC 2002, with the wording of the announcement strongly reassuring potential buyers that it's really OK to buy one now, then they announce that they'll only supply the OS upgrade to people who've bought one from the 6th onward! Since I just bought an H3630 (ordered it on the 29th August) partly due to this announcement, I feel a little cheated. Compaq should supply the upgrade free to everyone who ordered an iPaq on or after the day they announced that the current generation would support the new OS.
% 20tag=mn_hd
Of course it does depend on how much the upgrade costs for us non-eligible owners, if it's say GBP30 (USD 50 or so) then while there'd be a fair bit of grumbling, most users would be willing to pay this (assuming there are significant reasons to upgrade).
As for whether it'll fit into the 16MB flash ROM, well according to most reports I've read on the misc. Pocket PC sites there'll be TWO versions of Pocket PC 2002, a scaled down one for all the current devices and the full version for the next-gen machines. There's more info at CNet here
http://news.cnet.com/news/0-1006-200-7025389.html
Oh, I might as well part with a few iPAQ links of my own (in no particular order):
http://www.tekguru.demon.co.uk/
http://www.pdatweaks.com/
http://www.ludipocket.co.uk/
http://www.pdageek.com/
http://www.pdabuzz.com/
Sorry if this is a touch OT, just wondering if anyone knows where to get one of these babies in the UK, and if so how much does it cost?
Thanks!