Tongfamily Website

Gestures on Firefox and Macbooks

rich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 17:46:57 +0000

Wow, hack around a little. You can now twist your fingers and move from tab to tab in Firefox. How nerdy!

iPhone 3GS launch records

rich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 16:14:30 +0000

And it went amazingly smoothly, I got my 3GS in 15 minutes at the Apple store. They are getting really good at fulfillment!

9 to 5 Mac | Apple Intelligence

On this year’s launch day, iPhone sales exceeded sales recorded on 2008’s iPhone launch day, Black Friday 2008 and Dec. 26, 2008 — all heavy-volume sales days. In fact, this year we surpassed 2008’s launch day sales at about noon Central time, and sustained our previous peak hour record, also set in 2008, for 11 straight hours.

Soon no more random Apple connectors

rich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:43:10 +0000

Wow, this would be great news if true but it says that Apple is going to adopt the Micro-USB connector for charging and this is part of the an EU agreement. I sure hope this is true, having a standard cable really would solve lots of problems.

Miscellaneous iPhone facts

rich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:39:44 +0000

Where does iTunes store the IPSW files that is the atual IPhone SoftWare?

On a Mac
/Users/username/Library/Application Support/iTunes/iPod Firmware

On Windows XP
Userprofile\Application Data\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPhone Software Updates

On Windows Vista
UserProfile\AppData\Roaming\Apple Computer\iTunes\iPod Software Updates

Firefox 3.5 is out

rich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 07:34:56 +0000

Get it while it lasts

Random robotic things to buy

rich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:30:12 +0000

Fun things for the summer:

Lego Mindstorms NXT 2.0. While NXTs were fun, the new versions are amazing, the new sensor can detect colors and laso you can load images and sounds into the robots memory so it can talk and show picture. The new hardward has 3 servo motors, an ultrasonic proximity sensor, two touch sensors and a color sensor. Presales have started as #8547 NXT 20 from Amazon.com, Shop@Home and TRU.com.
Vex Robotics Design System is used at iD Tech camps for building more complex robots. These are more expensive at $400 for the starter system with the big difference whether you want a visual C compiler or a hardcore development environment called RobotC. Looks like Trossen Robotics is one of those great specialty sellers for all robotic cool stuff Besides Vex and Mindstorms, they also carry Robobuilder and Bioloid which are really focused on building human-looking things rather than being general purpose like Mindstorms and Vex

Arrgh Microsoft Sync crashes

rich — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 06:25:22 +0000

One of the more unobvious commands. Option Entourage and rebuild the database when you get a Microsoft Sync crash…

Mactopia Product Forums: Entourage

> When I upgraded to Microsoft Office 2008, I turned on Microsoft Sync
/> Services to sync my Entourage calendar and Contacts with iCal and
/> Address Book. It worked fine until I installed the latest patch, 12.1.2.
/> Now, Microsoft Sync Services is constantly crashing, with only the
/> following error message: “Microsoft Sync Services has encountered a
/> problem and needs to close. We are sorry for the inconvenience.”

Try repairing your database with the database utility (launch Entourage
pressing the Option key down).

Word game and puzzle tools

rich — Sat, 27 Jun 2009 17:31:14 +0000

Here are some that are useful tools if you ever want to create your own puzzle book or want to have a treasure hunt with clues:

Boggle Solver. Find all words in a scramble of letters. This is the essence of Boggle.
Acrostic Poems. These are fun puzzles and this helps you put the words into order
Su Doku Puzzles. This online Su Doku maker let’s you set the difficulty
Word Search. Just type a bunch of words in and then you can find them.
Word Scramble. To just scramble a bunch of words.

Be like IASUS 500K Headset

rich — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 18:07:19 +0000

Wow, be like a secret service agent and have one of those around the ear microphone sets for your iPHone. It’s called the 500K which is a pretty mean looking. Can’t wait until ships.

Headphones redux ER-4P, Hf5

rich — Fri, 26 Jun 2009 17:56:51 +0000

Having lost two sets of $180 Etymotics (4s and 4p) and two sets of $125 Shures (SE210s). I’m feeling miraculously stupid about holding on to anything. But at least I can try a new set of phones. I tried the $120 Shures for a while and they just don’t fit my ear that well. Too short a barrel, so not enough isolation really. Also tried these $50 headphones nuForce with special $15 ear thingies. It is still not comfortable for me as the ER-6i and the ER-4. So what to get now:

Gizmodo review is really great. They really like the new Etymotic hf5 which is $150 and between the $90 ER-6i and the $180 ER-4s and ER-4p. There is also a hf2 which is the same but with a microphone. I don’t normally use the microphone when listening to music. Most listening is in the gym or on the plane. As an aside at the lower end, they like the Ultimate Ears Metro.fi 2 and in the middle the Shure SE110 for $110 (although I can’t get them to fit).

TAFB on Amazon compared tthe ER-4P, Jays Q-Jays and Ultimate Ears 5 Pro and 4vi. His basic point is the $20 more for the ER-4Ps. So if you want the ultimate quality, then the Hf5 and the ER-4Ps. Head-fi.org says that the ER-4Ps are slightly better. Taikero says the Hf5. Finally Oldschool does really the best comparison across saying the issue is price performance. ER-4Ps are the best quality but cost the most at $180. While ER-6i are decent (and they fit me) at $90. And the hf5 is in between with nicer design and less microphonics (this means that when the cord rubs, do you hear it in the earphone because the cord is transmitting vibrations). He also says that for him the new sealing works better on the hf2/5s. One point is that technically the ER-4Ps are brighter at the high end, so this can sound bad. Google Shopping shows $175.

Headphone.com has a good review and is supposed to be more flat in terms of frequency response and have drivers that are hand matched which is why they cost more and they need a headphone amp because they have higher impedence (100 ohms) vs. 27 ohms for the ER-4P and in fact you can buy a $60 cable that adds 75 ohms of impedence to the line that converts the ER-4P into a ER-4S. Here’s the frequency response curve for ER-4P as an example. At left is the measured frequency response of the ER-4P. 35-42 dB of isolation for all of these is the main advantage of in-canal earphones.

Here are some dark horse alternatives and a good overview of iPod specific headsets from headphone.com. Denon AH-C452k is another headphone recommended by headphone.com. It is hybrid design that doesn’t require deep insertion and is just $60, so a good choice in continuing to find a cheaper alternative.

Sleek Audio SA6 is another dark horse. They are in the ear as well and their main thing is that you can tweak the frequency response by attaching various things. They have 15-20dB of isolation and cost $200 and measured, it seems a bit more bassy.