A new addition to that list is the Electric Imp, a set of minute circuit boards that may one day become a part of appliances and gadgets we use every day. The Imp is presently under development and will be available to developers as soon as June of this year. Its premise is to Internet-enable as many devices as possible. So, it will be possible to attach the Imp to a washing machine, garage door motor, swimming pool pump or anything else. An easy way to connect the Imp to the Internet via wireless LAN and an associated cloud service that permits programming the device will make the Imp attractive to hobbyists and developers alike. Best of all, the price of the minute circuit boards is expected to be around USD 20!

The intended production model will measure a scant 25mm square and includes 802.11b/g/n WiFi and a heavy-duty antenna. Powered by a Cortex-M3 processor the Imp has good performance and low power consumption. A wide range of output options are provided and catered for to enable communication.

A variety of boards are planned: an integrated board for use in new and existing appliances, a tinkerer’s kit programmable by hardware switches and even an Arduino add-on.

Exciting stuff, though would-be developers will need to embrace Squirrel.

The ideal solution is a combination of ballpoint pen and stylus. The Wacom Bamboo Duo would be my choice but is not yet available. Duo refers to the new Wacom‘s property of providing a pen and iPad stylus in a single pen. I picked up a reasonable alternative in the interim and am quite happy with my choice: an Ozaki iStroke L. The stylus has a large rubbery dome on one end for use on the iPad‘s screen and a black ball pen covered by a cap replete with clip on the other. The ballpen seems to be a standard refill, extending the lifetime of the rather slim gadget. I had to choose between red and white due to a limit in stock at the local Dion Wired (I chose white, though I would have preferred black).

The iStroke is manufactured in other colours, too.

For the ZAR 299 price, the iStroke does a good job. It is an imprecise stylus for precise drawing owing to its roughly 7mm wide functional end and is pretty much the same as the Bamboo in this regard. For more a far more precise stylus the Adonit Jot Pro is apparently worth a look, though that product features only a stylus without a ballpen. The iStroke is far lighter than the Wacom, making it easier to use for extended periods of time.

The Ozaki has changed the way I work, allowing me to take notes and doodle on the iPad and also to have a pen handy whenever it is needed.

Best of all, the two functions are combined into a single piece of hardware, so that the iStroke has become a steady companion to my iPad.

My general procedure is to pop a DVD into the iMac, fire up HandBrake and create the output file which is transferred to iTunes. In almost all cases HandBrake is more than adequate. A reminder: if you’ve upgraded to the VLC 2.0, the shared library that enables HandBrake to decode the DVD contents is no longer a part of the standard installation. It’s easy to fix. The file libdvdcss.2.dylib needs to be copied to the /usr/lib folder on Mac OS X. An easier way is to get the packaged installer for the decoder and run that to place the file in the correct place.

The one DVD that has been a tougher nut to crack is Thor. I still haven’t watched this movie and do hope my efforts to back it up to my computer are actually worth it. The DVD utilizes a newer copy protection scheme that fools the ripping software into believing more than 99 tracks exist on the disk.

HandBrake is unable to find the relevant title. Even RipIt, a reliable utility that is able to copy an entire DVD to an image file is unable to get through copying the entire volume, failing reliably at around 80% completion each time. My last resort: Fairmount, a utility that mounts a DVD and allows its entire content to be accessed via a file system browser. Fairmount fails, though I neglected to check whether a newer version is available. By the way, Fairmount doesn’t support VLC 2.0 and requires an older version to be installed, possibly in a different location if VLC 2.0 is already present.

The chance that I would get Thor to his knees seemed an unlikely prospect, until I happened on Mac DVD Ripper Pro. Similarly to RipIt, Mac DVD Ripper Pro creates an image on the hard disk based on the title chosen from the DVD. The utility had no issue identifying the main feature on the Thor DVD and proceeded to create an image file in a very short time.

It took HandBrake almost twice as long to suck that file in and create the desired m4v. Take that, puny God!

Mac DVD Ripper Pro costs USD 20, but the free demo permits five free rips to test functionality, which is really handy. I have four rips left and shall use them wisely. Why the hell one needs to go to such effort for a legal purchase is still beyond me.

Syslink‘s Xandria is a SAP landscape monitoring solution that is extremely easy to implement whilst being very cost-effective. Sporting a very low resource consumption agent that is deployed per SAP instance and a centralized aggregation server to consolidate and store data delivered via the SAP CCMS to the agent, Xandria provides an extremely simple realtime monitoring view in a web browser. Problems are indicated in red, potential issues in yellow and non-issues in green.

The technical team is able to ignore information provided in the green zone and simply needs to concentrate on yellow and red alerts. Drill-down into error information is possible, as is the sending of automated notifications. The realtime monitor is updated as often as is required and performs a slew of daily checks. It is no problem to add custom checks and Xandria understands the technicalities of both BI and PI systems to provide specific monitoring capability for such systems.

There is no shortage of easy to understand information, aggregating all the important data the CCMS collects.

The iOS application provides an easy way for administrators to stay in control of their environment – users of other mobile devices may utilize a standard browser view.

There are many additional features and advantages associated with running a targeted, niche application. Cost and ease of implementation are certainly top of the list, but the time such a solution saves a technical team under pressure to meet business demands is certainly more important!

Disclosure: my company is the agent for Syslink Xandria in Africa. If you’re interested, contact us.

Trying to find large files without some good help around is difficult. The best tool I have found for the job is DaisyDisk. DaisyDisk performs a single function: it maps out the content of internal and attached volumes and graphically represents space utilization.

 An attractive graphic representation permits drilling down into directory structures and automatically updates what files have been found and their individual and combined space usage.

 A handy landing spot at the bottom of the application’s interface collects files and directories that have been dragged and dropped there. Click the delete button and after a five second countdown, the files in the landing area are removed from the disk and valuable space reclaimed.

DaisyDisk is available in the Mac App Store for USD 19.99 – presently, the application is being sold at a 50% discount. Even at the full price, DaisyDisk is a valuable tool to have.

Currently under consideration is a set I really hope makes it all the way to being packaged: the DeLorean from Back to the Future. This set even includes custom mini figures.

It’s a free iPad game that presents a series of obfuscated company logos and challenges the player to identify them. Various levels provide more and more logos that have been thoughtfully edited to make their identification rather difficult at times.

Instead of selecting from a list, the name of the company has to be entered using an onscreen keyboard. Incorrect answers result in a lower score, whilst a misspelling is indicated by an appropriate icon.

Completely stuck? By identifying a certain number of logos correctly an increasing number of lifelines become available. These may be traded in for a message to Twitter requesting help from the denizens of the Internet.

Well worth the download if logos and design are of interest to you. Download from the app store.

By selecting the SMS option, a message can be sent to a mobile number.

The recipient may reply to the message which is relayed back to Google Talk.

The list of supported network operators in South Africa is limited to MTN and 8ta at present. The list of worldwide mobile operators is provided here.

The Google Talk user incurs no cost, whilst the mobile user will be charged for each SMS sent back the service. Once Vodacom and Cell-C are added to the list of supported networks, this is likely to be far more useful.

• Improves reliability of using HDR option for photos taken using the Lock Screen shortcut
• Addresses bugs that could prevent the new iPad from switching between 2G and 3G wireless networks
• Fixes bugs that affected AirPlay video playback in some circumstances
• Improved reliability for syncing Safari bookmarks and Reading List
• Fixes an issue where ‘Unable to purchase’ alert could be displayed after successful purchase

Since my third generation iPad arrived a couple of weeks ago, I have been experiencing the all too common problem that the device is unable to reconnect to the cellular network after having spent some time on a wireless network. There is no direct correlation between the length of time the device has been used on a WLAN or whether or not it has been exposed to a 3G network in between being used on a wireless network. The problem manifests itself rather simply: no connection to the 3G network is possible and the only fix is a reboot of the device.

Similar issues on the original and second-generation iPad could be resolved by switching into aircraft mode and back again. Not so with the third generation device. I am hoping the listed fix for the 2G and 3G network switching provides a solution to this rather irritating feature.

A 50MB download should provide the answer…

At perigee, the moon is about 357,000 km away from Earth, whereas at apogee the distance is about 407,000km. The moon should appear more than 10% larger than usual and will be a whole lot brighter. Since there’s no such thing as a ruler hanging around in the sky that will prove the moon is indeed closer or larger you may want to compose an image that provides some contrast – possibly the moon rising above a house or similar to accentuate its size.

Some gear that may help includes a sturdy tripod fitted with a tripod head that is easy to adjust in small increments. A lens with a long focal length will help pick out detail and you may want to add an extender to get even closer. Remember to use a cable release and enable the mirror lock-up function to reduce vibration and enhance clarity.

Full manual mode is ideal with an ISO value that is low enough to capture as much detail as possible. A high aperture value helps capture detail and prevents the large lightbulb in the sky from blowing out your image! Since the moon is extremely bright, exposure bracketing is useful. If your camera is able to bracket three or more frames, this is also an ideal time to capture a sequence of images that could be post-processed for HDR.

Maybe this is the chance mankind has been waiting for to capture a full-colour image of the moon?

One more thing. It’ll be dark, so don’t forget to bring a small flashlight. Lighting up the camera’s LCD panel using built-in lighting is one thing. Finding the right button to modify a particular setting in complete darkness is quite another. Most important of all, make a note of what has worked and what you have tried out for future reference.