[twen-tee-nahyn][fif-tee]

Old-School

info — Thu, 05 Jul 2007 14:20:54 +0000

Judith, an old friend of mine from back in Berlin, posted a bunch of pictures from the good old days.

IPhone Hype and More

info — Fri, 29 Jun 2007 17:52:32 +0000

I checked out the Clarendon, VA Apple store for lunch to see how big the circus is in front of the store. It turned out to be 46 people in line to buy an IPhone. The first guy in line told me he has been waiting since 8 p.m. last night and plans to buy two phones and sell one on eBay. Seemed he was there with a group of people and they took turns sleeping in the car and sitting in line. After lunch the line seemed to have grown. The other amazing thing seems was that there were four news crews on scene to record the whole thing.

Anybody want to buy me an IPhone please go hea: admin@twentyninefifty.com

Election 2006

info — Mon, 06 Nov 2006 18:41:40 +0000

Graphs, Retrieved November 6, 2006, from http://www.npr.org/news/specials/election2006/map/

Daylight Saving Time

info — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 18:50:27 +0000

Daylight Saving Time (DST) is a system of handling the changing amounts of daylight throughout the year. The goal of DST is to maximize the daylight hours available during typical waking hours. By adjusting clocks ahead a standard amount, usually an hour, people can have more daylight available during their typical work day. For example, suppose you wake daily at 7:00 AM. In the spring, the sun rises earlier each day. Instead of waking up at 6:00 AM to take advantage of the daylight, DST observers move their clocks ahead an hour. The effect is that they can continue to wake at 7:00 AM according to the clock and enjoy more daylight. In the fall, people set their clocks back an hour as sunrise happens later each day.

The United States has planned a change to its DST observance beginning in 2007. The Energy Policy Act of 2005 mandates that DST will start on the second Sunday in March and end on the first Sunday in November. In 2007, the start and stop dates will be March 11 and November 4, respectively. These dates are different from previous DST start and stop dates. In 2006, the dates were the first Sunday in April (April 2, 2006) and the last Sunday in October (October 29, 2006).

Some countries are still evaluating whether they will adopt the new rules for themselves. You should anticipate more changes in DST and time zone rules for countries that typically align with U.S. DST rules.

cAPS lOCK aNNOYANCE

info — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 00:40:39 +0000

Pressing caps lock will set a keyboard mode in which typed letters are capitalized by default; the keyboard remains in this mode until caps lock is pressed again. This functionality is mostly used by spammers. In QWERTY keyboards, though the caps lock mode capitalizes letters, it does not affect other keys, such as numbers or punctuation, in the way that the shift key does.

This is a guide to remap the caps lock key to the left shift key. The caps lock key has been a constant annoyance since I switched to natural style keyboard. Along with various other keys such as pause, print screen, scroll lock and insert, caps lock seems to be one of the most under utilized key. I was surprised that a google search for “Caps Lock” revealed nothing but websites and articles for the removal off the caps lock key, including CapsOff .org, an organization dedicated to the design of a Caps Lock less keyboard. The file will remap the key in Windows XP & NT operating systems. If prompted if you would like add the entry to the registry click yes.

At this point it would be smart to address other inefficiencies in keyboard designs: the QWERTY layout. The QWERTY layout was introduced in the 1860’s, being used on the first commercially-successful typewriter. The QWERTY layout was designed so that successive keystrokes would alternate sides of the keyboard so as to avoid jams. Some sources also claim that the QWERTY layout was designed to slow down typing speed to further reduce jamming. With improvements in typewriter design, key jams became less of a problem. However, when the electric typewriter was introduced in the 1930s, typist fatigue became more of a problem and, consequently, interest in the Dvorak layout increased.

Nokia 330 Auto Navigation GPS

info — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:12:40 +0000

Nokia released it’s Auto Navigation GPS System today. 3.5″ touchscreen, Europe-wide maps stored on a 2 Gb data card, Route 66 Navigator 7 software and NAVTEQ map data are the basic stats for the Nokia 330. It’s also rumored to have an mp3 player, bluetooth connectivity, and divx player integrated. One of many articles about the device from Engadget.

Birthday Bash

info — Mon, 30 Oct 2006 18:01:12 +0000

Picture from the birthday party on Saturday in Virgina near Braddock Road Metro. Awesome view over DC and Rosslyn Skyline. The theme was “A Night To Remember”, considering the party was broken up by the police at midnight it was a night reminiscent of high school prom. Overall, it was fun.

Optimus Keyboard (Art Lebedev)

info — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:30:52 +0000

I spotted an article in Wired about the Optimus Keyboard almost a year ago. Since then Art Lebedev has released the Optimus mini three keyboard and Upravlator. The Optimus mini three keyboard is well overpriced ($159.96) and impractical; however, it does have an Apple like design. Both, the mini three keyboard and Upravlator seem to work up to the Optimus Keyboard which is a concept as of now, but is scheduled to be for sale at the end of 2006.

Plusdeck2

info — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:10:45 +0000

Plusdeck2 is a fully functional cassette deck for your computer. You can convert recorded sound from tapes into digital files and save it on computer. It is possible to convert, save, and edit sounds in PC to CD, DVD, or MP3 player.

Imogen Heap

info — Thu, 26 Oct 2006 12:06:06 +0000

Had this song stuck in my head for a few days until I finally remembered where I have heard it. It was on a CBS show, Smith, that has been canceled after three episodes. The song is by Imogen Heap, “Hide & Seek“.