September 18, 2009, 2:52 pm
DRM, You’ve probably heard of it. Digital Rights Management. Bane of legitimate users, irritant of illigitimate users, hopeful tool of content owners. By those 3 statements, I mean to simply point out that the DRM effort ultimately fails completely. To the public, it seems like Industry Execs implemented DRM simply because they wanted to prevent piracy. To the conspiracy theorist, DRM was implemented because those execs wanted to force consumers to buy the same content again and again. They say that it’s really about you having to buy a movie once for your TV, and once again for your iPod. For the Media industry itself, it’s a way to protect their investment from malicious thieves. The internet is full of people who want to watch everything they offer, but refuse to pay for it. It’s downright Un-American.
Continue reading ‘Being a lousy advocate: Me and DRM’ »
September 12, 2009, 10:52 pm
You know I’m an Apple nerd. No one who builds a Hackintosh and sticks it in a G4 cube should be considered anything less than such. Naturally you’ll be able to guess that I’m also an iPhone nerd. I owned 3 phones prior to getting my iPhone. A throw-away Nokia that I don’t remember the name model number of, a Nokia 6600, and a T-mobile Dash. With the latter two, I was certain that I’d gotten the device closest to the perfect smartphone. Both failed me though. They just didn’t do everything they were supposed to.
Though I had long argued that Apple never would, they made a smart phone… and it was glorious. Besides the occasional hiccup (MMS, Copy & Paste,etc) the iPhone was a dream. At the initial release, it wasn’t an option for me. My wife and had decided to go with Tmobile because they offered a deal that made it more practical for us. Free calling to any 5 numbers.
Continue reading ‘The iPhone Dilemma’ »
August 11, 2009, 9:22 am
I’ve had a love affair with the Electric Vehicle (EV) for a few years now. I wish I could say I found it on my own, but I really only got into after watching Who Killed the Electric Car? Since then I’ve had dreams of building my own EV, and occasonally dreams of simply buying one. If you would have asked me two years ago if I thought we’d ever see EVs from major automakers, I would have told you “no”. Back in 1999, lots of companies leased EVs because of state mandates in California. As soon as those state mandates went away, so did the EVs. The Auto companies hated being told what to produce.
Continue reading ‘The Second Coming of the Electric Car’ »
July 26, 2009, 10:14 pm
If you would have asked me about e-readers a year ago, I would have told you that I knew Sony made one, the Kindle was pretty awesome, and there were a bunch more that were too expensive and far out to deal with. If you asked me three months ago, I would have told you that I had Kindle 2 Fever, and the Sony reader didn’t hold a candle to it.
Continue reading ‘Waiting for the E-Reader war to heat up…’ »
July 16, 2009, 8:45 am
When I wrote the first part of this series, I didn’t plan for it to be a series. I was just thinking about a couple of Electronics companies that I like that sold a product that I like. It turns out though, that there’s a deeper need for this kind of article. A mostly-comprehensive look at Arduino sets that will spell out what has what, and how they compare. I got one concern that I’d only looked at American companies. So I’ve dove in and I’m giving you no fewer than 5 more Arduino starter kits. Two more from North American providers, and Three from European providers. All different, and all cool. We’ll see if we can get a good list to help folks out.
Continue reading ‘Arduino Starter Rundown – Part 2’ »
July 15, 2009, 10:53 am
I’ve got a project coming up that deals with IR data transmission, so I thought I’d take some time and make a simple IR circuit to prove that I could. This is a very very simple IR Circuit. Basically, it goes as follows. (I’ll get a schematic up here eventually. I haven’t had success actuallly being able to make one… Linux: Still not ready for the Desktop IMO)
Continue reading ‘Fun with IR’ »
July 9, 2009, 4:20 pm
With the recent announcement of Google’s Chrome OS, I think the dreams of many of us are beginning to show signs of reality. Those dreams have to do with computers, and how they work.
Right now, we’re in sort of a strange limbo when it comes to computers. Many many years ago, computers were not like they are today (duh, you say.) The most common computers were terminals, and they were basically screens, keyboards, and a bit of electronics that connected you to a machine somewhere deep in the bowels of your company or university. I never really had to use one of those. The benefit of these machines was that they were cheap. You bought one computer, and a bunch of dumb terminals.
Continue reading ‘Google Chrome is a good idea, but there’s a coming problem.’ »
June 29, 2009, 7:24 pm
If you don’t know already, I am a huge fan of the Arduino. Arduino is the name of Microcontroller kit. It’s open source, easy to learn, and a great way to get into electronics/physical computing. This week, one of my favorite Electronics companies, SparkFun Electronics released an “Arduino Starter Kit”. Another one of my favorite Electronics companies, Adafruit Industries, released their own “Arduino Starter Pack” quite a while back. I thought I’d take a look a little more closely at what you get…
Continue reading ‘Arduino Starter Rundown’ »
June 25, 2009, 11:44 pm
“MacBook Mini” is a name that has been attached to making a hackintosh out of a Dell Mini 9 (or a Vostro A90… same machine really). When Hykel decided to fly out to Utah to help with some family stuff, and she needed a method of scanning, we decided to splurge (at $300 it wasn’t too much) and pick up this sucker. Ironically, Hykel didn’t need it after all, because she didn’t end up taking the scanner. Never-the-less, the best laid plans of Aaron are coming to fruition. If you’re wondering, I’d put the total cost around $400 and 2 hours of time to get the thing up and running.
Continue reading ‘My Macbook Mini’ »
June 18, 2009, 10:42 am
Back in February I decided to make a change to this website. It had gone from being a professional showcase to a blog. Part of the change was inspired by my seeing blogs out there where people made money. The formula is a common one:
“Hey! I can write stuff, and people will visit my site and I’ll get advertisers, and they’ll pay me!”
I don’t know if we’re still in the golden age of the paid blogger, but over the past 4 months I think I’ve realized something: Continue reading ‘Finding my Footing’ »
