If I have a device that is labeled as needing 12v 250ma and I have a power supply that outputs 12v 1200ma am I putting my device at risk?
I seem to recall someone once telling me the milliamps don’t really matter but that doesn’t feel right.
Category: Gadgets
Devices to be purchased or made
CONFIRMED! Google IS mapping Knoxville.
I wasn’t sure if it was Google or a competitor driving around with the camera on the car. It is confirmed! That is a Google car!
Knoxville Street Views Happening Now
Narration with additional commentary (note: since this was ad libbed I misspoke and called the antenna on top of the car "a satellite" when I intended to say "a satellite uplink" or "satellite antennae): [audio:http://realityme.net/wp-content/uploads/2007/11/knoxvillestreetviewshappeningnow.mp3]
Put your best lawns on! A California company is driving around Knoxville taking pictures of your neighborhood for Google Street Views or a competitor. I saw one of these cars zoom through my cove a few weeks ago and I wasn’t quick enough to strike an interesting pose. 
I was also unhappy with the state of my lawn and porch but oh well. So, will Google catch you peeing on the side of the road? Getting a ticket? Breaking into a house? Growing pot? Or just showing off your favorite thong? (see also). Concerned about privacy?
Better picture:
Update: Confirmed! That is a Google car!
Update: The WebUrbanist presents 10 urban snapshots from Google Street View including one implying that the google camera van ignores traffic blockades. Mashable asks Should Google offer to blur Street View imagery for people requesting privacy? And get my cat off your website! If you are enjoying these links then you will also enjoy http://www.streetviewfun.com/, some bizarre splicing issues, and Wired’s voting system to find the best Street View pictures.
Update: Jon Hickman asks, "Where do you actually see the pictures they take?" I am pretty sure these will show up in Google maps and Google Earth. Mashable suggests that they will be accessible from http://www.googlestreetview.com/ and two others but those domains aren’t live yet. Ah! Here is Google’s video explanation of Street Views and a direct link to where Street Views are available.
Of course Microsoft has Windows Live Street View.
Update Feb 6, 2009: Top 10 Moments Caught on Google Maps Street View (link to the flasher – she’s just a blur of pixels now)
Say NO to speed cameras
I was against red light cameras (and still am! $2 million TN dollars went to TX because of Redflex!) and I sure am against speed cameras. Speed trapping makes roads dangerous! Roads should be predictable. We don’t need people slamming on their brakes for police cars and cameras. Sometimes to avoid a problem it is safer to speed up then slow down even if that means hopping above the speed limit. An officer can see, "that truck was about to sideswipe him and he avoided it by speeding up." A camera cannot make that judgment.
I often drive fast on the Interstate. It is safe because the relative speed of traffic is the same and visibility can be several miles. I don’t drive recklessly. There is a huge difference between driving fast and driving recklessly. A slow driver can drive recklessly. In town, I tend to drive the speed limit. I recognize the lights have been timed such that you will make little gain by speeding in town. The few seconds you shorten your trip by speeding is not worth the danger you place pedestrians and other drivers in within the unpredictable confines of busy roads.
Speed cameras and red light cameras are profit tools for public, tax funded law enforcement. We don’t need them! We fix traffic problems through better civil engineering (narrow roads, curves in roads, reduction of traffic signs, removal of speed limits, etc.) and through education. Could you imagine the impact it would have if a police officer pulled you over for speeding and instead of giving you a ticket brought a video player to your car and forced everyone in the car to watch a 15 minute educational video on how speeding wastes fuel, puts unnecessary wear and tear on the vehicle, places people at unnecessary risk, and reduces travel time by less than a few minutes than staying under the speed limit? The 15 minute delay per incident may be reason enough to slow down. But even if the message did not reach the driver, perhaps it would get through to some of the passengers and then you’ve made a difference. Will a bill in the mail have that same impact?
UPDATE: Michael Silence has put up a poll to see if Knoxville wants speed cameras. When I took it, 86% said no.
Update: UT to probe ethics of using traffic cameras. Think about the other cameras we can have in our future "beeeep Our facial recognition software has identified you as Jane Doe. You have been standing in the same spot for 5 minutes and one second which constitutes loitering under ordinance w37704. A fine of $45 has automatically been assessed to your cell phone bill."
Related: Google is mapping Knoxville. How will you be immortalized for the world to view? Do speed cameras change driving habits? See Driving Patterns – Let the Ass Merge.
Calling Marriot Housekeeping
On Saturday the 13th of October, Sarah settled into bed midnightish at a Marriot Hotel near Atlanta. She was traveling with the high school band to perform flags. On Sunday the 14th she awoke unable to find her phone that she had left on top of her luggage so she assumed it was in her luggage (that’s her official story..personally, I think she woke late and groggily shoved everything in her bag and rushed out to see her friends without giving the phone a thought). Sunday at 9pm as she came off the bus I asked, "where’s your phone?" She replied, "In my luggage." On Tuesday, she finally confided that her Motorola RAZR v3xx was lost or stolen.
I scoured her phone and text messaging records. The last number called was to Phoenix, Arizona so there was hope that we had a way to contact the person with the phone. After a few calls and several text messages we figured out that Sarah had actually placed those calls on behalf of a friend. Hope was lost. I contacted the housekeeping manager at the hotel and he confirmed no phone had been turned it. I deactivated the phone. A week later I called again and still no phone. LissaKay comes to the rescue (aided by Twitter) with a replacement phone for Sarah and Sarah flips with excitement spending the next 6 hours customizing the phone.
Yesterday I get a phone call from someone explaining they found the phone! Yea! Housekeeping came through. No, wait, this is guest! The phone, lost on October 13th, was found under the bed by an honest person staying in room 517 on October 29th. It still had power because Sarah had turned it off so the honest person was able to lookup "Dad" and found me. This means that room 517 hasn’t had a thorough cleaning in at least half a month and that for at least 15 guests, assuming the room is occupied every day, don’t check the room very well. Ewww.
Now, who gets the phone? Sarah or Tommy.
Presidential Hopefuls and their phones
Everyone knows Rudy uses his phone. Someone needs to teach him some manners. What other presidential hopefuls are using their phones? Twitter is a short messaging service that lets you barrage your friends (and others) with the overly mundane in your life. People have found different uses for Twitter from marketing to exhibitionism (look at me look at me) to making announcements and sharing information on the Internet. Presidential hopefuls have accepted that they can reach a large audience and become closure to the constituents by using (or having their staff use) Twitter.
Democrats
- Joe Biden
Hillary Clinton (doubtful that’s her)The Real Hillary Clinton- Chris Dodd
- John Edwards
Mike Gravel- Dennis Kucinich (doubtful that’s him)
- Barack Obama
Bill Richardson
Republicans
- Sam Brownback (maybe)
Rudy GiulianiMike HuckabeeDuncan HunterJohn McCain- Ron Paul
Mitt Romney- Tom Tancredo (maybe)
- Fred Thompson
Uhhhh
- Keith Sprankle
- Stephen Colbert
Ralph Nader
HOAX Your next battery might last 30 years!
The US Air Force Research Laboratory has invented an environmentally sound battery that can last 30 years and it could be available in the next 2-3 years.
The breakthrough betavoltaic power cells are constructed from semiconductors and use radioisotopes as the energy source. … Although betavoltaic batteries sound Nuclear they’re not, they’re neither use fission/fusion or chemical processes to produce energy and so (do not produce any radioactive or hazardous waste). … The best part about these cells are when they eventually run out of power they are totally inert and non-toxic, so environmentalists need not fear these high tech scientific wonder batteries. If all goes well plans are for these cells to reach store shelves in about 2 to 3 years. [Source]
Ooops. Remember, even if you are busy, check your sources! BoingBoing Gadgets explains. Until I can find something more redeemable than this, I’ll assume that Next Energy News is a farce.
Because you should have to chase your music
I guess this will be on someone’s Christmas list. via Engadget
Brick your iPhone
Well.. Everyone else was linking to it. NO! No attribution! Just a link.
Boycott the iPhone!
I hate AT&T but I love Cingular therefore I am an AT&T customer. And if I had the money and the time to stand in line we would probably have 4 or 5 iPhones in the house tonight.
Working Assets is a really top-notch organization, and they’ve nailed one of the reasons I’ve been skeptical of the iPhone since the start. Handset locking sucks, and AT&T sucks more: These people are criminal traitors who helped wiretap the nation, neutricidal maniacs bent on wrecking the Internet, and convicted monopolists besides. [Source]
See also (
Steve Jobs addresses new AT&T/iPhone controversy). More iPhone links.
Is the iPhone out of your budget?
Don’t worry. Apple will release a new iPhone within your budget soon. Imagine, the iPhone Shuffle! Randomly call people.
The Button That Beeps
From now on, everything I make is going to have one of these.
Today’s Technote – Motorola v3xx hidden feature
The Motorola v3xx has a "hidden feature," an easter egg if you will…ok, it’s a bug! At least it seems like a software defect. If the combined number of messages in the inbox and outbox exceed something like 300 messages, then the Motorola v3xx will quit sending SMS text messages and will default to sending MMS messages. This creates a problem for people trying to send to services like Twitter or to people with phones which cannot receive multimedia messages. The solution is simply to clear out your inbox and outbox.
The combined time spent rummaging through menus and comparing settings between the working phone and the bizarre phone, calls to tech support, and surfing the web for an answer well exceeded 3 hours over the course of many days. I’d like that time back please.
What’s in your future?
How about wireless lightbulbs? Or perhaps a toaster with no cord? Charge your laptop simply by setting it on your desk? How about a child-safe house that has absolutely no exposed outlets?
Researchers at MIT have shown that it’s possible to wirelessly power a 60-watt lightbulb sitting about two meters away from a power source. Using a remarkably simple setup…they have demonstrated, for the first time, that it is feasible to efficiently send that much power over such a distance.
…
Wireless power transfer is an idea that’s more than 100 years old. In the 1890s, physicist and electrical engineer Nikola Tesla proposed beaming electricity through the air.
…
The [MIT] team has minimized [safety issues] by making sure that the power is mainly in the form of a magnetic field, a form of energy to which the body is almost entirely insensitive.
[Source]
They’ve applied for a patent. I bet its not long before we see some form of this in new home construction.
Cingular Skipped Daylight Savings
Has anyone other than me that uses Cingular’s text messaging on a G3 phone noticed that the time stamp is off by one hour? I asked at the store and the employees had not noticed. I think a technician is working on it now.
