Musings from the Void

Weekend Craftiness: DIY Hollow Book

2008-09-22T09:20:00.003+02:00

A while ago I bought a Sony Reader, which I still use daily and which has given me lots of reading pleasure. However, a good carrying case (sturdy, shock-absorbing, stylish) has eluded me so I decided to craft my own.

Recently I stumbled upon a couple of "Hollow Book HOWTO"s on the internet so I decided to give that a go.

I bought a dummy book for 3.50€, some white glue, and a cheapo x-acto clone knife.

Mixed the glue with water and liberally soaked all the edges, then set it in a vise to dry:

...but quickly swapped it out for the advanced "bleeding heavy table" method of compression:

After it had dried I set to work with the knife:

Hey, a perfect fit!

I then repeated the process on the other side and applied glue to the inside edges to reinforce it, and papered them over to make it look nicer. I want one side to hold the reader and one side to hold extras like memory cards, sync cable, and so on. For now I've mashed in a transparent CD case as it fit and will hold what I want, but I'm still looking for the 'ideal' solution. I'm also looking for the perfect way to hold the reader, it will probably come down to either velcro or magnets.

If I find a nice enough book I might repeat the process for a "slimline" version. Not bad for a quick weekend side-project!

Hardware: Roomba 560

2008-09-19T22:05:00.008+02:00

It was my 35th birthday on the 16th, and I got a Roomba 560! Woohooh! Automated vacuum cleaning! A frigging robot! A serial port for hacking projects!

iRobot obviously anticipated the eagerness of new robot owners, so the battery comes precharged, inserted, with only a pull-tab separating you from hardcore robot cleaning action. *Yank* and with a cheerful set of beeps it is off.

My first impression was "wow, that is louder than I expected". The Roomba vacuum packs a surprising punch (suck?) for its size, and that makes noise. Way less annoying noise than a regular vacuum though.

The second impression is "wow, this thing is clever". A fifth-generation design, and it shows. When it approaches a wall or other solid object, it slows down just before it bumps into it and then changes direction. Clever. Furthermore, it will often follow the wall or the contours of the object, and seeing it hug the wall and round a corner or make a tight 360 turn around a table leg is just impressive. When it find a greater than average amount of debris it will start going around in tight circles until it is all gone, then resume its quasi-random meandering. It will head right for a staircase, and at the last moment swerve to avoid it.The software really is quite clever - no other word for it.

When it is done cleaning or when you hit the dock button on the Roomba or the remote (by the way, yay, remote control!) it finds the docking station and switches off to recharge. You can schedule cleaning sessions so it does its thing when you're off to work. When you get home, you have a spotless floor and it will sit quietly in the dock, recharging for another day. Brilliant.

Frankly I'm amazed at the amount of dirt it will find and remove. I considered my kitched/eating room area reasonably clean and just sat it down there for a first test. I let it run its program, and then opened the collection bin, which has separate compartments for large objects and fine dust. The amount of stuff it picked up was shocking. Because that is another thing about the Roomba: it is diligent. It doesn't get bored, or distracted, or lazy. It keeps going until it has hit every nook and cranny. Which, apparently, is more than can be said for me. I must be getting old.

One caveat is long hairs - you probably will want to shave your girlfriend's head, although the robot is fully modular and hair removal is fairly painless (and preferable over vacuuming several rooms). I recommend doing it at night when she sleeps - less of a struggle. Anything to keep our new robotic vacuum overlords happy. Also, while this Roomba has better wire detection than previous models, it can still manage to get itself tangled up, so I recommend not having loose wires all over the place. Which is probably a good idea anyway, both from an aesthetics and a personal safety perspective.

And then there are hacks: the Wiimote hack, the Wii balance board hack (with webcam on the Roomba), the Cylon Roomba, the weaponized Roomba (oooh), Cat Transport Roomba, the Axel F loving artistic Roomba, Knight Rider Offroad Roomba (WTF?), and OMFG is that a robot unpacking and operating a Roomba, didn't anyone learn from Terminator?

In closing, the Roomba is very friendly in use. Your grandmother could operate it. If she could get over her luddite tendencies that is. When you get bored with it or are inclined to hack, there are plenty of howto's out there. It works pretty much as advertised. The software is clever. You can just dump it in a room, turn it on, and return to a clean area a while later. You will spend some time cleaning the Roomba (hair removal, mainly), but far less time than vacuuming your home. Unless your house is extremely cluttered I definitely recommend this obliterator of a repetitive chore.

Happiness is... a sweet media center (yes, I am that shallow)

2008-09-14T22:37:00.006+02:00

So a while ago I bought a show-model Fujitsu-Siemens Scaleo E mediacenter PC for a mere 400 euro, formatted it, and installed my favorite PVR software MythTV, which I've been running in some form or the other since 2004, and which has provided me with TV playback and recording featuring automated commercial skipping/timeshifting, integrated audio and video/image playback capable of playing every format/codec that is out there and more. In short, it is the dream prince of PVRs and I can't image life without it. Setting it all up is a complete PITA though.

The Scaleo E features an integrated LCD screen, and I never could get it to work. Today I stumbled over a German forum with a post from a guy who provided his own driver, and with a little tweaking I got it to work on my Fedora Core system. Instant joy as you can display nearly everything you want on it thanks to MythTV being compatible with a program called lcdproc. Current channel and program, elapsed and remaining time, song and artist titles, picture name and #, whatever you want. Pure awesome.

So, as a lark, here is the 2004 edition of my 'mediabox':

and the 2008 edition:

Progress is sweet.

The intarwebs as filtered through the eyes of me

2008-09-11T12:20:00.003+02:00

I've long been vaguely jealous of Anday Baio's linklog, but have been too lazy to actually do something about it. Finding content, adding a comment, posting it online, it just seems like work. Yes, I am very lazy, thanks.

I never realised that Google Reader , my news consumption method of choice has made this ridiculously easy - aside from reading all manner of RSS feeds at the touch of a key, another key press will share this item on your shared page and will even allow you to add a pithy comment.

My only gripe would be that the RSS feed for the shared page itself is obscured, I guess this is because the shared page will share the entire article, as opposed to Waxy's sharing of just the link (which I really would prefer). I understand that content creators might have an issue with people redistributing their content wholesale (then again, that seems to be what most of the web is about, the modern-day blogging world is like a great big inbred linkfest with everyone pointing to the same content or reproducing it in some way). There is actually a feed for your Google reader shared page ( the URL would be http://www.google.com/reader/public/atom/user/XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX where the Xs are your Google user ID) but it is not published anywhere, again, I guess this is related to legal matters and content reproduction. I wish Google would allow people just post just the link and your comments, but I never said this was a perfect world.

Anyway, if you are gagging for other people's content filtered by what I personally find interesting, knock yourself out. Saves me from having to produce actual content :P

Free fascinating ebook: The Biology of Mind - Origins and Structures of Mind, Brain, and Consciousness, M. Deric Bownds.

2008-09-01T08:30:00.006+02:00

Recently I stumbled across this free online book based on lecture notes prof. Bownds developed after starting the interdisciplinary Biology of Mind course in 1994. It is cross listed between four departments at the University of Wisconsin - Madison (Psychology, Anthropology, Neuroscience, Zoology). It was written both as a course text and also for a general audience.

It is a great read and provides a fascinating insight in the current state of neuroscience and the origins, nature, and limitations of our brain and thinking in general, with copious references, self-experiments, suggestions for further reading and more.

I originally reworked the text for offline reading and optimised it for ebook device reading to use privately, but the author kindly agreed to let me distribute the text, and so I've provided both a Sony-formatted file and raw HTML for conversion to whatever format you prefer here. The paper version is available from John Wiley & Sons and Amazon. Prof. Bownds also has a weblog here which is well worth reading if you're interested in this topic.

Hardware review: Logitech DiNovo Edge

2008-08-25T12:34:00.008+02:00

Okay, so you have to be nuts to buy a $180 keyboard, right? Well, yeah, but it is really pretty. I mean really, really pretty. Yes, I bought it. And it is great. I can't believe I'm waxing enthusiastic over a freaking keyboard. But here we are. I might even buy a second one.

So here is what happened. I've been running MythTV as my central entertainment center for some four years now. In that time, I've gone from a simple test installation to a backend database and storage server with frontends in the living room, the bedroom, and my computer room. Oh, how I've fiddled with it. Most interaction with the media center is governed by the excellent Hauppage remote that comes with the PVR-350 series TV cards. But sometimes you want more - a little typing, a little mousing around. And with today's hi-res LCD TVs which are perfectly capable of rendering legible fonts, it makes sense to use these frontends for web surfing, email checking, or really any other computing task.

Except that you need a keyboard for that, preferably wireless, with integrated mouse, sleek, light, flat, and either stylish or unobtrusive. That is a tall order, and until now I haven't seen any keyboard that comes even close to fulfilling it. And I've shopped around. A lot. There are a lot of ugly, ugly keyboards out there.

So when I walked into a store and saw the Edge it was like the clouds parted, a heavenly choir started up, and, well, okay, that is hyperbole. But it really made an impression (besides the price tag). It is sleek, extremely flat and light. Handling it is a joy, from the responsive keys to the little extras like the area around the mousepad lighting up as you touch it and then slowly fading out when you let go. The keyboard strikes a perfect balance between features offered and minimalist-style design, gone are the many warts of option keys that mar almost the entire Logitech keyboard range. In its stead, simplicity and beauty. A distinct little tone accompanies actions like CAPS/LOCK on/off, pretty orange lights fade slowly in and out on special key events, and all this is handled by the keyboard's internals. The rechargeable battery of the keyboard will last a good while, and you simply stick it in the docking station to recharge.

Using the keyboard under linux is a cinch - no fiddling with bluetooth drivers here. Everything is handled by the small USB dongle. Plug it in, press the connect button on the dongle and keyboard, linux detects a USB keyboard and mouse, and off you go. Add a little modmap to your desktop manager's autorun scripts and presto, working multimedia keys. It is sitting in my living room right now, and like I said, I might even buy a second one for the MythTV box in the bedroom.

DiNovo Edge product page

11,000+ Project Gutenberg ebooks for the Sony Reader

2008-07-20T03:49:00.004+02:00

I found a script that can turn Project Gutenberg HTML files into well-formed BBeB (.lrf) files suitable for the Sony PRS-500 and PRS-505 reader devices (and hopefully retaining the images and chapter bookmarks and the nice text formatting). So I automated it to pull in all the books I could, loaded them into the Calibre ebook management software and cleaned them up a little, removed the magazines and journals and multi-volume history works, added a sprinkling of Creative Commons SF authors, and here we are. Some 7.5 Gb of books.

Since this was an automated process I am sure there are mistakes, omissions, and malformatted files, but the files I have spot-checked looked fine. It also didn't cost me a lot of time :)

All the books in this torrent are legal to download as the copyright has expired, they were expressly put in the public domain, or they are under a CC or similar license.

Here's the torrent page, and a direct link to the torrent.

Macy's 4th of July Fireworks in New York 2008

2008-07-13T20:48:00.005+02:00

[link to video]

It looks only about 10% as awesome on this small video as it looked while standing there (it made the ground shake!), still, here it is. Best fireworks show I've ever seen, well over 20 minutes. Recorded in a slight rain somewhere on the Manhattan east river bank across from a fireworks barge, juggling an umbrella and a camera while ignoring both and watching this awe-inspiring spectacle.

Did you know that...?

2008-07-10T04:45:00.004+02:00

Dieselsweeties, the awesome original pixellated webcomic has some 8 years of comics available in neat ebook archives? For free? All that AND they sell great t-shirts 'n stuff.

Hardware: Sony PRS-505 book reader

2008-07-08T06:10:00.018+02:00

So I've been toying and tinkering (geek, know thyself) with my new $299 Sony prs-505 book reader pretty obsessively for the past few days. As I learned the ropes and converted and loaded some 1000 books and some pictures and music to it, and stumbled on (and subsequently tried to solve problems), the following list of pros, cons, wishes, pitfalls to avoid, and random thoughts has been slowly building up in my head so here it is.

In a nutshell, it looks and works great, e-ink kicks ass, and I am extremely happy with it, although I would switch to the Irex iLiad in a heartbeat if the price difference wasn't so extreme (the iLiad v2 retails here at 599 EUR or 939 USD!). While the Sony book management/transfer software for Windows blows big great chunks, there is a great multi-platform (Windows, OS X, Linux) open source replacement written entirely in Python with a nice GUI and advanced CLI. Which as a bonus can convert a large amount of formats to and from the native LRF format. I've collected some relevant links here.

Pros:
- Light and sleek device. Looks good, handles well, solid view to it and the buttons.
- Easy to operate. Once you figure out the "menu" button always means "back" the whole thing becomes a breeze to sail through. The interface is sometimes slow, though, especially when browsing large or picture-heavy books. But it is linux, so breathe in, be patient, and eventually it will continue. Except for the music player, to which I will get shortly.
- Up to 10.2 Gb of Storage (~200 internal, 8 Gb Pro Duo, 2 Gb SD). For reference, the 1000 books (basically a wall of books) I have loaded right now took up some 450 Mb. Ha!
- Fantastic screen. No, really. E-Ink is fantastic stuff. I can't wait for color and animated e-ink. The 15.5 cm (6 in) diagonal size of the screen works for me - it stays on the good side of the display size vs. portability spectrum, offering decent page size while remaining easy to carry and stow. The iLiad screen is superior though.
- Easy to use bookmark system (great for those of us who read several books at once). Available both in the book menu (shows bookmarks for that particular book) and on the main menu (shows all bookmarks).
- Understands collections/series and makes them available from the main screen. You can use these for bundling, say, the Lord of the Rings trilogy and/or building categories (philosophy, reference, geography, and so on)
- Behaves like a USB mass storage device (when connected to a computer, you will see up to three separate USB disks for internal memory, pro duo, and SD card). This is a step up from the previous (500) model.
- Charges by USB (charger sold separately, but not strictly necessary).
- Great battery life (when only used for reading).
- Great ebook management software (Calibre) for OS X, Windows, and Linux
- Calibre can convert a massive amount of formats (HTML, LIT, MOBI, PRC, EPUB, RTF, TXT, PDF and LRS) to native LRF format, and can examine and add the contents of RAR and ZIP archives. It can also convert LRF back into HTML (non-DRM formats only both ways, although the DRM of all ebook formats I know is trivial to remove).
- Accepts and understands many (DRM-free) formats - LRF, PDF, TXT, RTF, MP3, AAC, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and BMP. For reading, stick to the native LRF format - it loads the quickest.
- RSS feeds (basic selection with Sony software, extended and customizable selection with Calibre)
- Decent price compared to other readers (less features, of course), and a great price when you buy it in the US coming from an Euro country right now.

Cons:
- Large libraries take a long time to boot (I saw definite slowdown after 500 books, wait 10-20 minutes on my current library of 1000 books + 800 songs + 50 pictures) after a restart. While I generally don't mind as I typically decouple it from the USB port, stash it in my bag, and start reading later but if you want instant gratification the wait will get annoying.
- The reader rebuilds entiry library on every cold boot (and after USB disconnect), this accounts for the long load times mentioned above. It is positively zippy on smaller libraries, but where is the fun in that?
- Long formatting time (when first opening an e-book on the reader) for non-native formats. Avoid by converting everything to .lrf format beforehand.
- Pictures loading sometimes just "hangs" for a while on large pictures (reformatting internally for screen?) - stick to 1024 max width, and pre-rotate your pictures to avoid this)
- Sony windows software sucks balls (seriously, it is a sad itunes-for-books affair). Switch to Calibre. In fact, don't even load the Sony software. You don't need it.
- (Semi-)closed hardware platform and OS , not easy to hack despite the fact that it runs a linux flavor.
- No Mobipocket support. No port, and it looks like none is forthcoming. But Calibre is a fantastic replacement.

Now I realise this is a reader device, meant almost exclusively for reading ebooks. However, it does offer an audio option and as an experiment I loaded some 500 mp3 files. It handled them well, however, it is the most bare-bones player I have encountered in any post-1995 device. So with that in mind, some cons strictly focused on the music side:
- Audio player is very rudimentary
- Audio player drains battery very quickly
- Audio not organised in any way, listed and plays only from A to Z
- While the reader can play audio while reading a book, you can't control it. Since the up/down/left/right and enter key are normally unused while reading, why not use them? The layout should include skip forward/backward, ff+rw, play/pause .

edit: In fact after some more testing I recommend you avoid the audio player altogether unless there is a dire need. While it may be okay for an audio book, using the music player and then going off browsing books and doing other stuff will sometimes crash your reader. It is rock solid otherwise, so it must be the music player. Stay away until an update comes along, in fact, stay away from the music module altogether. You already have a music player. Use that. This is a book reader.

bugs in current firmware (I have 1.0.00.08130 which came with the device)
- unexpected buttons (for instance, the upper next page button while in the audioplayer screen) will sometimes spontaneously reset the device. Not consistently, though.
- noise on audio output, even when not playing. A continuous slight hiss.
- random Ts are added to song and artist names

wishlist:
- limited font scaling options (small, medium, large), this should be expanded.
- on-the-fly font changes. See: mobipocket. It can render any text on the fly in something like 10 fonts.
- dictionary lookup. See mobipocket again.
- scheduled RSS feeds, downloaded and updated on the fly. This can be accomplished with Calibre - it has a CLI with many features.

The Final Verdict:
If you love reading and are at least semi-technically inclined (ebook finding, formatting, conversion does require a little fiddling although the GUI of Calibre takes a lot of the pain out of it), you will also love this device. I do. Over the years I've been reading ebooks on anything from a normal notebook TFT screen, PalmOS devices, Blackberries, and Windows CEs using a list of ebook reader software and formats longer than I care to remember, and the Sony beats the pants off any and all of them.

The $299 for the Sony was right for me, I might sell it and upgrade if the iLiad comes down a little in price. The Amazon Kindle is just too ugly, and I don't care for the rent-a-book model. Not to mention that it currently only works over-the-air (EVDO) in the USA. I haven't had the opportunity to fiddle with other book readers, and it looks like features like colors and animated e-paper are still in the future somewhere. But they are coming, and I think e-ink and its descendants will eventually (if/when the price point eventually tips in its favor) transform the way we absorb information, teach our kids, decorate our houses and other objects. That is an enormous potential impact.

edit 20080609: I've started collecting Sony reader related pages here. Software, free collections, HOWTOs.

edit 20080610: I am using this perl script with some modifications to pull in the entire Gutenberg project (slowly), convert it recklessly (but automated) into native LRF format and will post the torrent when done. This pretty script pulls in the zipped html files if possible and unpacks & converts them (and tries to retain what formatting/pictures/chapter marks there are), and if that is not possible it pulls in the plain text version and converts that. I hate hands-on conversion. The LRF format is proprietary but well-documented, highly structured, compressed, and it has a lot of interesting features. The developer site requires a login but is otherwise free and has all the documentation.

Final edit: I completed formatting a large stack of Gutenberg books for the Sony - you can download the torrent file here.

10 days in New York: day 10

2008-07-05T18:38:00.003+02:00

4th of July in NY! Walked around Coney Island, rode the Cyclone (I didn't think an aging all-wood rollercoaster could go that fast!). Headed into Brooklyn and had lunch at Junior's, including a massive slice of cheesecake. Then walked along the east river until I came across an open track and field stadium right in front of the Macy's firework barges and waited. Then the sky exploded. It was without question the most impressive 20 minutes of firework I've seen. Afterwards I joined the crowds shuffling back to the city center.

Video posted here.

And that concludes my 10 days. It was a great visit, and a lot of my stereotypical ideas about New York were shattered. The meme that New Yorkers are rude, for instance. I'm ashamed to say that my fellow Dutch countrymen are ruder by far, both in terms of talking to them, and in walking the streets/subways in crowds. And the public transport system, even though it is sometimes hot and smelly (but the cars are air-conditioned generally) puts our to shame both in efficiency and price. It was a great experience. Go New York!

10 days in New York: day 9

2008-07-04T18:24:00.005+02:00

So, I've zoomed all over New York, saw all the major landmarks, stood in numerous lines, braved the teeming masses over and over again, shopped my little geek heart out, and today I didn't feel like any of it. So I didn't. Instead, I toyed with my new shiny toy, the Sony prs-505 book reader. What a great little device. The accompanying windows software, not so much. Like a cheap itunes rip-off for ebooks, the software functions, but that is about it.

I am used to mobipocket which is very decent reader software for a plethora of devices, unfortunately, it looks like it won't be ported to the Sony. I have many, many books in the mobipocket format, so it looked like I was out of luck. Then I found Calibre, an awesome piece of ebook management software written in Python, so it will run on Windows, Linux, and OS X. This software can mass-convert and manage ebooks in a very easy to use way. After some fiddling with formats, I found that Sony's native .LRF format is the quickest on the reader - other formats take some time to load. Calibre can convert HTML, LIT, MOBI, PRC, EPUB, RTF, TXT, PDF and LRS to this native format. It also supports the conversion of LRF to LRS and HTML. That is quite an impressive feature list. So I ditched the Sony native software, bought an 8 Gb Sony memory stick, and started loading books. I'm currently up to 500 books or so, and I still have 7.4 Gb left. Whee!

10 days in New York - day 8

2008-07-03T20:49:00.003+02:00

Today I spent a happy few hours checking out all the nooks and crannies of the MoMA. Great stuff. Headed for the harbour, and saw a helicopter tour offering which I couldn't refuse. So I didn't, and saw New York from above. Awesomeness! When I was finished I headed back to the city center, walked around and subsequently fell asleep in Central Park for a bit. After sundown I had dinner, then went to the top of the empire state for a panorama view of New York at night. It was great. The huge waiting lines, not so much. Still, it was worth it. I am going to have to sort out so many pictures when I get back!

10 days in New York: day 7

2008-07-02T21:18:00.002+02:00

Managed to get up early, went to the south edge of Manhattan and boarded the ferry to the statue of Liberty. A shame you can't get inside all the way to her crown any more. Took the obligatory pictures and then on to Ellis Island. Fascinating.

Eventually I made my way back to Manhattan and hit up the museum mile, included the Guggenheim (lovely building, but most of the installations didn't do anything for me), then down to the Metropolitan Museum of Art where I got thoroughly lost a couple of times. That is not a complaint.

After that I started to crash (sleep deprivation, stimulus overdose) so I had a quick dinner and headed for the hotel. Slept like a brick.

10 days in New York: day 6

2008-07-01T23:45:00.001+02:00

Woke up late because I spent too long last night fiddling with my new toys :) My feet hurt from all the walking the last few days so I took a three-hour boat trip all the way around Manhattan. Then a nice stroll around soho and little Italy, where I had a lovely dinner. Went home early, I want to make an early-morning stab at getting to the statue of liberty before the line wraps around Battery Park twice. Tinkered with the sony e-ink book reader some more. That is awesome technology. I can just see my walls covered in it and generating wallpaper on the fly depending on my mood.

10 days in New York: Interlude

2008-07-01T05:18:00.006+02:00

(updated with the full 10 days of GPS data)

A mid-holiday update with a pic of all the walking, bussing, and boating I've done so far. This has been one mobile holiday! The blackberry GPS has a hard time with all of these high buildings, but on average it works well, as long as I stay near the edge of the sidewalk (and recharge every evening, this stuff plays hell on your batteries). It seems like yesterday when I had to carry around my clunky Garmin and notebook, download the data, and convert it to a suitable format before uploading it. Now I just keep my phone in my pocket. I love progress. So when is the surgically-implanted GPS and head-up display coming (using parasitic power leeched from me, of course)? Any black-market surgeons I can volunteer with? Srsly guys, borgify me.

10 days in New York: day 5

2008-06-30T18:05:00.002+02:00

Today I slept in a little to give my overstimulated brain a chance to file all the experiences of the past few days, had a quick brunch, then checked out the nooks and crannies of Brooklyn. I like Manhattan better (sorry guys). Back in Manhattan thunderstorms broke loose and I wasn't in the museum mood, so back to inside shopping. With the dollar/euro in my favour I finally bought one of those e-ink book readers I have been lusting after (a Sony one, because while I liked the Irex Iliad better, the price was still too high), and a reasonably priced HMD (head-mounted display) that are either hard to get or insanely expensive in Europe. Can't get much geekier than that. Then straight back to the hotel to geek out a little :)

10 days in New York: day 4

2008-06-29T17:33:00.002+02:00

Today I checked out Madison Square, the Empire State building, then several bus tours around the city and harlem (it was nice after three days of walking to sit down and ride), after which I got lost at Macy's for several hours. That is one unbelievably big store. A quick dinner on Times square and then I went to see Wall-E, the latest and possibly best Pixar movie.

10 days in New York: day 3

2008-06-28T16:08:00.001+02:00

In the morning I tried to go to the statue of liberty, except the line wound around Battery Park twice, so I will try that again on monday. Crazy busy, like this whole city is crazy busy. I can imagine living here, but not without going a little crazy yourself. What a place.

After that I explored Little Italy and Chinatown, which kept me busy for most of the day. A great place to walk around and shop and eat. Eventually I wandered into the Wall Street region again and since the Bodies exhibition was here and my New York pass granted free admission, I checked that out.

In the evening I went to Keens Steakhouse where I had what is possibly the best porterhouse steak ever. With my belly fit to burst I walked around the general Times Square area gawking at the insane mass of people flowing through and around it, had a few drinks, and headed back to the hotel where I collapsed out of sheer exhaustion and slept a dreamless sleep of the dead.

10 days in New York: day 2

2008-06-27T17:07:00.004+02:00

Today the weather wasn't all that great, but not rainy enough for all the museum visits I have planned. So I trekked around and gawked at: Times square, Madison & 5th, Nintendo World (where I bought the most awesome shirt ever, pictured left), NBC studios, Rockefeller Plaza, st. Patricks, Apple Store on 5th, FAO Schwarz, Tussauds, Wall street, and more. So much to see. Went to sleep with my head reeling from all the sights I took in.

10 days in New York: arrival

2008-06-26T21:36:00.002+02:00

Landed at 15:00. Once I passed through the rather strict security checks I bought an unlimited metro pass and headed for Central Park as my hotel is near there. After some false starts I figured how the subway system works and dropped off my bags at the hotel. Since I had some daylight to kill and I wanted to stay awake to adjust to the timezone difference, I went out and had a walk around Central Park. A stunning park, with lots of people playing baseball and soooo many joggers! Eventually I started crashing from lack of sleep so I made tracks back to the hotel, ate a bit, and fell asleep with the TV.

Closing thought of the day: is there anyone in this city who doesn't have a blackberry?

A few days work in Poland

2008-05-22T23:20:00.007+02:00

You know, a GPS-enabled phone that can save your tracks directly to Google Earth's kmz format using this $24 tracker program makes it very easy to keep track of where you've been. If I had the Blackberry Curve with the built-in camera it could even integrate my snapshots directly with the recorded GPS track. It can wreak havoc on your battery, though, but that is where my little friend of the previous post comes in.

That little circle I walked a few times above the "o" in Wroclaw is the city center where the bars are. The tracks get wobbly after a while. That city square is a nice place to hang out - check it out.

Geek Travel Kit Must-Have: Philips charger

2008-05-17T17:58:00.005+02:00

Philips have (a while ago) kicked out a new range of travel chargers. The lineup consists of five different types, including the top of the line SCE7640, which will throw out up to 20 volts (enough to power a notebook) the little SCE2110, which is designed for mobile phones, and the SCM7880 (pictured right), which I opted for. There are also two car-charger variants.

It comes with internal battery (said to provide "15 hours of charging power" to whichever device you connect), a folding power plug and sleek charge indicator. The package includes a retractable USB cable with several tips and will charge most any phone, including Motorola, Nokia (old and new), Samsung, Sony Ericsson, and of course all devices that charge by USB (blackberry, headsets, iPod, and using this cable hack, the Nintendo DS). Here's a compatibility chart for all models and devices > PDF.

Plug in any device and it starts charging. Simple, elegant (although it could be a little flatter), and efficient. A good bet for any gadget-addicted traveler.

The Geek Travel Kit, Evolved

2008-05-03T22:13:00.007+02:00

Somewhere in July 2004 I got sick of packing and unpacking all my various power adapters whenever I had to travel, so I got a plastic box, integrated the lot, and put it in my backpack. The Juice Box was born, and incidentally, this weblog.

This is what it looked like when not in the backpack (click to enlarge):

Nokia phone, Bluetooth headset, Dell D400, TomTom GPS, 40 Gb iPod, Solar Charger, Dell Axim PDA

Yeah, it was a mess. And an potential airport security liability (strangely, I never got called on carrying a vague plastic box with lots of protruding wires). But it served me well for at least some 2 years of traveling with some minor modifications over time. These days, I have one power adapter, 4 devices, and three USB cables. It looks like this:

160 Gb iPod, Nintendo DS Lite, Blackberry 8820, HP 2510

Isn't that a lot better? Seriously, one adapter and three USB cables. The Blackberry has a 8 Gb SDHC card so on shorter journeys I load it with music and leave the iPod altogether.

The DS doesn't come with a USB cable charger by the way, I just spliced an old USB cable and the tip of a €7 DS lite charger and it charges just fine. It officially needs 5.2v as opposed to the 5v which a USB port gives you but I don't think it even notices the difference. I don't. This page explains which wires to solder, it is less than 3 minutes work. And one less adapter to carry.