A1

Always good to see an idea I had in College, that folks told me would never work, sort of but not quite come to reality. In this case, someone has (supposedly) created a Robotic Telepresence system to help you and your meeting attendees feel like you're in the same room.

My personal idea was to build some smaller, somewhat more stable versions of these to rent out for going on trips. Instead of flying all the way to Venice, just go down to the local travel booth, rent one of these stationed near where you wanted to visit, and take in the town. Given the current cost of plane tickets, it might still be worthwhile...

The second PC I ever could afford myself was a Commodore 64. Even ran a BBS on it for a little over a year before I ended up going to an Amiga. At around the same time the place I was working at had just brought in some IBM PCs. Never realized that the two of them could share the same disk, but according to this article, it was possible.

Could have saved myself so much time translating data back and forth... except that it sounds like this was a pretty manual, brute force effort. So maybe it was just as well :-)

In general, I will be talking about the Android Market, and the couple games I'm developing for the Android platform over at my Android Games blog.

However, I did want to point out that one of the things I appreciate about Google is that they've kept folks informed on their plans, and are making the marketing platform open enough that a semi-pro has a chance to actually develop and publish a game. I had originally been planning on putting one of the games on the iPhone platform, until I saw all the restrictions. Have to have a Mac to develop for it. Have to pay to become a registered developer. Have to... well, you get the picture :-)

Android, on the other hand, has an SDK for Windows, Linux, and Mac. No charge to become a developer. Can publish to the market with few restrictions. Even with some of the shortcomings of the first handset, I can see the applications migrating to the platform. I suspect within about a year, anything you can find for Linux will be available in some form on the Android. That richness of application availability will help level the playing field for the hardware as well.

Just my .02 worth on the matter.

Thinking more about the bus things, I realized what I needed was a customized version of a Baby Carrier.

Just think if they made the back of the holding section a little firmer with a USB fan or two to keep it cool. The you could hike up the laptop a little more, and have it with you while you walk, or while riding the bus.

If it wasn't for the cost, I'd be tempted to buy one of these just to see if I could make it work.

As part of setting up my development environment for Android, I wanted to get more portable. My current notebook is ok, but I always worry about the HD getting messed up, and there is the battery issue and such.

So recently I've been considering getting an ultraportable like the Asus Eee PC. But then it occurred to me that my HP tx1000 (actually it's the 1210, but they're part of the same family) could boot from the USB. So the internal card reader uses a USB interface, right?

A little experimentation showed that indeed to be the case. So I DL'd the Ubuntu 8.04.1 CD from PenDriveLinux.com (they added a patch for a known USB problem), and then installed it to my 8 Gig SDHC card. Then took the CD out and rebooted, got the Grub menu, and then had a slight problem with Grub finding the card. It turns out the Grub problem was it getting confused about where the HD "moved" once I took the CD out. Changing the grub menu to
root (hd0,0)

worked once I realized that if I'd wait a minute it would finish booting. And it was QUICK after that. I am now having an issue with the wireless (Common Linux Problems for $100, Alex...), but that's something I'm working on.

What I like about this is that the SDHC card is almost flush with the case, as opposed to what a USB drive would be like. Speed is quite reasonable, and the machine is noticeably lighter without the CD drive and the HD. Have not yet tested how that affects the power usage, but presume it will go at least somewhat further.

Something you might want to think about, particularly if you have a laptop that you'd like to be more mobile.

For those of you who will respond about the limited read/write cycles of SD cards, the newer ones claim enough cycles that I suspect I'll get at least a year from running Linux using it. At the current price of SDHC cards, that's still a lot cheaper than replacing the HD (particularly if it turns out to take electricity).

OK, I recently started developing a program for the Android platform, and was excited a few weeks ago when it appeared that T-Mobile was going to reward folks for their loyalty by giving them first shot at the G1 phone. It also seemed they were going to give them the same price as they did for folks who were switching over.

Well, the upgrade page is now live, and unless you are near the end of your current contract, their offer is to take $100 off the "suggested retail price" of $399 for the phone. I've had my phone for about 15 months, but you don't get a real discount until you're in the 22nd month. So guess I will continue to develop using the emulator since I don't have an extra $160 (once tax is added) laying around.

Which unfortunately adds to the pressure for me to just save up and pay the early termination fee and try and get the next Android phone when it comes out. I suppose that since the amounts are about the same, T-Mobile is just as happy if I pay up one way as another...

Here's the final episode of the series "My Lovely Ghost" based on the Manga "My Lovely Ghost Kana" (?????, Itoshi no Kana) by Yutaka Tanaka. Amano and Kana reflect on how they've gotten to this point in their relationship, and then have to deal with a rough patch and figure out how to go on.

McLaren reacts to FIA decision

The ICA's full judgement

Hamilton appeal rejected

Pre-Singapore Q&A with Pascal Vasselon

Gutierrez in for Mexico

Singapore GP: Preview - Williams

FIA giving ammunition to its critics?

Singapore GP: press conference schedule

Appeal court hears Whiting recording

Singapore GP: Preview - Toyota

Singapore GP: Preview - Force India

Singapore GP: Preview - Honda

Pat Symonds looks ahead to Singapore

Renault drivers look ahead to Singapore

Renault hits the streets of Kiev

Testing the look and feel (music selection, use of color, use of subtitles) for the next fanimation series I'm looking at working on once My Lovely Ghost is completed. This is based on the first pages from Chapter 00 of Mysterious Girlfriend X (????X, Nazo no Kanojo X) by Riichi Ueshiba.

Let me know what you think!

Welcome to the fourth episode in the series "My Lovely Ghost" based on the Manga "My Lovely Ghost Kana" (?????, Itoshi no Kana) by Yutaka Tanaka. In this episode, Amano finds that there are good sides and bad sides to everything, including relationships.

This is the third episode in the series "My Lovely Ghost" based on the Manga "My Lovely Ghost Kana" (?????, Itoshi no Kana) by Yutaka Tanaka. Amano and Kana spend this week's episode learning more about love (physical and spiritual) as they spend a lazy summer afternoon together.

I'm more than a little pleased with how my vacation shots from my Rocky Mountain Road Trip turned out, and I've managed to sort through the pictures I took at Mesa Verde National Park. So, you can check out my gallery of pictures from Mesa Verde by clicking the thumbnail below:

Have just released the second episode in the series "My Lovely Ghost" based on the Manga "My Lovely Ghost Kana" (?????, Itoshi no Kana) by Yutaka Tanaka. In this week's episode, Amano and Kana begin working on making the apartment more of a home for both of them. This includes Amano learning about more of Kana's past, and figuring out just where the fuse box is. Enjoy this second episode of "My Lovely Ghost" by Ewan Grantham and the Robot Acting Company: