All Narfed Up photography and words by Bryan Villarin

Remember the Emergency Party Button photo I took back in March? My friend, Brian Gaut, finally explained its workings — geeky details and all. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Explanation of the Emergency Party Button [plasma2002.com]

Amir demonstrating the Nokia N95 - view at Flickr

On Tuesday, April 29^th, 2008, I went to The Sky Room in Long Beach for a WOM World “Open to Anything” meetup and demonstration of the Nokia N95 NAM.

I was extremely impressed at the quality of the photos produced by the device — 5 megapixels sure helps. Ms. Jen took a photo of us and uploaded it to her blog fairly quickly. That’s really awesome considering the dim lighting.

It was also nifty in streaming video directly to Qik and Flixwagon. Amir was streaming video of us and the lag was a little under two minutes, but still very cool.

Afterward, some of us drove to Alex’s Bar for drinks and karaoke. We Rickrolled Colin, Robbie and Donna. Hilarious.

I loved this meetup because it was about twenty of us hanging out, having a good time, then talking a little about technology. There was an agenda, but it wasn’t shoved into our faces — awesome.

Thanks again to:

• Colin, Robbie and Donna from WOM World
• Ms. Jen
• Amir
• Arnold (for inviting me and Jason Stone)

*****

I took lots of photos at this event, in addition to Amir, Al, Jason Stone, and Ms. Jen.

If you blogged or took photos from this event — and I didn’t include you — please leave a comment and I’ll update this post. Give me a card or something next time.

Update 5/3/08 12:10pm PDT: Here’s more photos from womworldnokia (Flickr) and Richardg Womworld on Facebook (part 1 and 2). Thanks Colin!

Months ago, I spotted the USB Skype Phone Adapter. I printed it out and kept it in my someday/maybe file. Last week, I finally ordered one.

Why?

My mom is the primary Skype user. I set her up on the $2.95/month unlimited calls to US & Canada plan for family and friends here, Canada, and Hawaii. Our AT&T landline costs extra outside our area code, so we use our cell phones for those calls. But, we should be using Skype since it’s unlimited¹.

When she uses Skype, she has a headset and sits in front of my computer. With this doohickey, she won’t have to. Yay!

The USB-RJ11 Skype Adapter lets you make and receive both Skype and regular landline calls, all from the same phone.

Continue using your phone for landline calls as you normally do. But when you want to make a Skype call, pick up your phone and press * to switch to Skype calling mode. Then dial a SkypeOut call to any phone number, or dial a Skype contact, all from your phone’s keypad. Your phone rings for both landline and Skype calls, just pick up the phone and start talking!

The USB-RJ11 Adapter transforms your existing phone into a dual-mode Skype/landline phone, no additional equipment required.

• Use any standard telephone for Skype and landline calls
• Phone rings on incoming Skype and regular calls
• SkypeOut and Speed-Dial integration with Skype
• USB powered, no external power required
• A landline connection is optional, so you can also use your regular or cordless phone as a dedicated Skype phone.

I’m not paying for SkypeIn, so the phone will only ring for standard landline calls.

The instructions are very simple. Once I had it setup, I took a screenshot of my mom’s contact list, had her choose speed dial numbers, then printed out the list and instructions for her.

Funny story — I changed the adapter key switch from “*” to “9” because I wanted it to act like a business phone. You know, like how you dial “9” for an outside line? Anyway, about 10 minutes into testing and making sure things work, we get a knock at the door. (It was about 8:50pm.) I open and it’s the police²!

He asks me if I called 911. I said I hadn’t, because nothing required me pressing that combination. He explained that it was cool³ and that dispatch just heard a phone call from this number, then a dial tone. I gave him my information⁴, then he was on his way. He was really cool about it.

I switched the key back to “*“.

Conclusion — I know, I’ve only used it for less than a day. But, if you use Skype and you’d like to use it away from the computer, the USB Skype Phone Adapter rocks!

Disclosure: I bought the product with my own money and I’m not getting paid for this review

Update 4/24/08 8:45pm: When on a Skype call and multitasking on the computer, the device will sporadically switch from USB to LINE. Then, I need to manually press “*” to switch back to the Skype call. Fortunately, the call isn’t dropped. Does this mean I can’t use the computer heavily while Skype is being used?

I emailed John Morley about this two days ago, but haven’t heard a reply from him yet. Not good.

I’m running SkypeMate 3.0.2.47 and Skype 3.6.0.248.

Since I’ve owned a cell phone, I don’t think I’ve worn a watch on a regular basis. I own a nice watch my dad gave me years ago, and I’ll wear that for certain occasions. For the most part, my wrists are barren.

Then, I saw “Jack Bauer Gear” from Uncrate. While I don’t need the ruggedness of the Special Ops Watch, I realized I just wanted something simple and kind of vintage (if that’s an appropriate word).

When I was a kid, I wanted something complex. Digital. Stopwatch. Timer. Now, I’m going backwards. We’re weird like that, aren’t we? Or, is it just me?

Anyways, I ordered the Timex Men’s Camper Watch #T18581. I should get it in a day or two, since I opted for one-day shipping. (Thanks Andy!)

Here’s my review in advance: it works, doesn’t require maintenance, water resistant, and I can state 24-hour time in confidence. Yes, you can expect a dorky picture of me wearing it soon enough.

Last week, I bought a Kingston 1GB USB 2.0 flash drive. I didn’t need it, but it was on sale for $17. I think it’ll prove to be a worthwhile purchase.

So far, I’m using it for portable apps, a digital inbox (random files I’ll capture, process, and organize later), and a private blog to mess around with.

I’m doing my best to make sure the programs I choose don’t write to the flash drive intensively. (I’d hate for it to only live for a year, even though it has a five-year warranty.) I’m pretty confident John T. Haller’s PortableApps are optimized for the least amount of disk writes. I got a bunch of others from PortableFreeware, too. So far, the gripe I have is that opening apps seem a bit slower than I think they should. (Mainly Thunderbird, Firefox, and Gaim.) Maybe it’s in my head, but anyway, if speed is what you want, don’t go cheap.

For simple file transport, it’s all good. Since I’m still a college student, I’ll finally be able to take huge files around with me and not have to email them to myself.

I just read Podz’s tutorial, “Putting WordPress on a USB stick“, and now I have a blog is housing more private thoughts and aspirations.

I think I’d like a portable RSS news reader, but haven’t found yet. I’m currently using Bloglines.

Any other ideas? It doesn’t matter how far fetched you think it sounds, it just might be the next big idea!

Today, the left speaker of my Cambridge Soundworks PCWorks died. I don’t have any records of how long I’ve had them officially, but I know it’s been more than five years. I called tech support to see if they sell parts, but they don’t do that. (It was worth a shot.)

Basically, I’ll have to throw away a perfectly good subwoofer and one speaker because the other speaker died. I’m wondering if I could take it apart and fix the loose wire or something. I wouldn’t know how to go about doing that, though.

Any last thoughts or ideas before I purchase some new speakers? If not, I’ll probably buy a new set of speakers at PC Club tomorrow.

I have a Maha PowerEx C-204F charger and 8 Maha PowerEx AA batteries (at 1600 mAH). I can’t remember when I bought them, but it was probably right after I bought my digital camera. Maybe 3 years ago? I think I read this review at Imaging Resource that influenced my decision. Anyway, at Tokyo Wako tonight, I handed the waitress my camera to take our group picture, only to have her show me a black LCD screen. It was on, but it blacked out or something.

I haven’t been using my camera as much, until lately for the holidays and these birthdays. So when my camera was acting up, I came home to search about the batteries. I don’t know if I’ve charged them 500 times yet. But, I don’t think I’ve been conditioning my batteries once every ten charges like I’m supposed to. (See the Maha Energy MH-C204F FAQ)

I’ve also been noticing that it’s been taking longer for the flash to power-up. (I don’t know the technical term.) I’m hoping this was the reason why.

No longer will I need to play downloaded TV shows through my laptop, fumbling to change the connections from the DVD unit to the laptop. No more wires strewn all over the place. I’m the proud owner of a Philips DVP642 DivX-Certified Progressive-Scan DVD Player! (Well, it’s for my mom, but I’ll reap the benefits, of course!)

• Steve Bass recommendation
• VideoHelp DVD Player Compatibility List for the Philips DVP642
• Amazon.com listing for the Philips DVP642
• Official Philips website product details

I bought it at Best Buy. There was three pallets of them stacked! It was crazy in that store, but I got through the line smoothly.

I got home, opened it all up carefully, and plugged it into our old and cheesy 20″ TV. I had an issue with the first Divx movie, but the following fixed it:

For anyone that gets funny colors when playing some xvid/divx files: When the movie starts, press system menu, then press it again to go back to the movie. It should look normal now! I wish I knew that before I had to reencode 20+ movies…

I tested four more, and they’ve all worked since. Actually, one didn’t, but I think the CD is messed up. Oh well! Mom’s watching an older episode of Alias right now. Ahh…

I’m now an owner of a Griffin iTrip for my 3G iPod. My cassette tape adapter has had this annoying sound lately, and I was in Circuit City with a friend today. I can now see that Griffin Tech has an iTrip LCD FM Transmitter and a easy-to-use knob on the side - for $10 more. I have 14 days to return it to Circuit City, so I’ll ponder about it for a week.

How do I like it? It was surprisingly easy to install the frequencies onto my iPod, and lock stations into the iPod in the car. I was in the garage trying it out, but it sounds just fine to me. At least I don’t have to deal with the cassette tape adapter rattling between music tracks.

I’m not sure if I’ll return it to find one that has an easier way to manage it. But, if you have any thoughts (in addition to the ones in the reviews below), I’d love to hear how your iTrip has been for you.

• Griffin iTrip (May 8, 2003)
• Griffin Technology iTrip FM Transmitter with LCD for iPod (September 1, 2005)
• XtremeMac AirPlay FM Transmitter (January 31, 2005)

My mom keeps asking me if I want a video iPod. She’s already given me so much, I hate asking her for a Christmas gift on top of that. Anyway, Lifehacker posted a Metafilter roundup today, one in particular linking to a thread of some good Palm apps and tricks. Wow, TCPMP looks awesome! (more…)