Category Archives: Hardware

Better PC control with anti-tremor mouse

Whilst many computer users take the mouse for granted, anyone who suffers with hand tremors finds it an extremely difficult device to use. Precise movements and static double-clicking are actions that anyone with unsteady hands and fingers can find well-nigh impossible, thus restricting them from the full potential of PCs.

To meet this need, IBM have developed an adapter that sits between a conventional PS2 mouse and the PC. Based on the ‘steadycam’ technology commonly used in video cameras to stabilise a picture, shaky hand movements are filtered out. The sensitivity of the adapter can be adjusted to the needs of the user.

The adapter is manufactured by the British electronics company Motrose Secam. Their products page gives more information about how the system works and how it can be configured.

A USB version of the device is under development, which should mean that it will be compatible with newer Apple Mac models—which have never used the PS2 hardware format—as well as being hot-pluggable. The system does not work well with laptop PCs as it interferes with their built-in tracking hardware.

The Assistive Mouse Adapter retails at UK£65 ($99.00 US/Canada/Rest of the world).

iPod bargains

A standard 20Gb iPod sells for A$439 retail.

40Gb iPods are being discontinued, but if you can find one, you’re likely to pay around A$479. Which given it comes with a dock that the 20Gb, makes it a bargain.

I just found one for $449 at ht.com.au, which makes it an utterly completely irresistable bargain. So I bought it.

750 Free MP3s – Come And Get It

You’ve got your fast net connection, you’ve got your torrent client, you’ve got you iPod with over 20G still free and you’re thinking it would be really cool to get 750 free MP3s to help fill it up a little.

Well, I can help you.

The South by South West festival have put together a 2.6G bittorrent of 750 artists associated with the festival and it’s free to all comers.

Check : http://2005.sxsw.com/geekout/fest4pod/ and don’t miss the 20 additional songs beneath the main link to take your swag to 770.

The perils of USB drives

My 3 month old USB drive has gone kaput, and just when I’d started to get used to it, and finding it really useful. It’s one of those Imation swivel ones, and had been fine until last week, when I plugged it into a PC that had a loose keyboard plug. Whether that was a factor or not I don’t know, but random keystrokes and beeps started emanating from the computer, until I figured out what had gone wrong. The drive hasn’t worked since then. Nothing happens when I plug it in, not into my home or work computers.

Imation’s web site is next to useless. They’ll be getting a call on their support line from me as soon as I get the chance. It’s still under warranty, so they should replace it.

Of course, those friends of mine who wondered why I bothered to buy a name-brand drive may well have been vindicated.

Me, I’m wondering if I should forget USB drives and just buy that iPod I’m covetting.

Update Tuesday 7am. Imation said find the receipt and take it back to place of purchase for a replacement.

F1 iTrip

Driving to work yesterday my iTrip suddenly stopped working. Where there should have been The Podcast Network‘s The Jazz Show was static, and screeching. When I paused the show there was a high pitched tone. It lasted all the way from half way up the bridge, down by Albert Park Lake to Malvern.

It wasn’t until I was driving home that the solution presented itself.

The Australian Grand Prix is on at Albert Park Lake and they have set up a temporary FM radio station for attendees.

So, if your iTrip is tuned to around the 91.5 mark and you are travelling through inner city Melbourne over the next few days you may wish to dig out the iTrip CD you never thought you’d use again and reconfigure your pod or you can download your iTrip software from the Griffin Technology site.

Adventures in PSU land

Well yesterday I got a PSU from Digiworld in LaTrobe Street. 400W ATX for $79. Took it home and discovered it didn’t fit in the case. No good. I did a little research on the net and found the Gateway page documenting the dead power supply I have. The page offers the following chilling comment: “This power supply is not backwards compatible with any power supply.”

I took the bought one back into the shop this morning, along with the corpse of its mutant cousin. A couple of guys in the shop concluded what I already suspected: it was a Gateway custom job. An evolutionary dead-end. They’d taken some kind of smaller version of an ATX PSU and turned it sideways. And thanks to Gateway no longer trading in Australia, the chances of finding another one are minimal.

Digiworld were happy to give me a refund (despite their notices up claiming they would only issue credit notes — surely contradicting statutory requirements), and to wish me good luck.

I tried the mob that Gateway left holding the fort. Despite their web site saying they stock parts, when I rang them up they said they don’t any more.

D’oh.

So I have an otherwise fine five year-old computer. Even if I upgraded, it would have been nice to keep it for the kids. I’ll take a quick look on eBay and the other secondhand outlets, but it seems the best I can do is strip it for parts (particularly the hard drive, which has all my useful stuff on it) and buy a new one.

Lesson for the day: When buying a PC, make sure it uses standard spec parts. The guy in the shop reckons Dell does this customised mutant fiddling too.

UPDATE 21:30. The most important thing – the hard drive from the dead PC – has been transferred over. I’ll have to do a little fiddling to get things like Outlook running again, but at least the data is intact. The data, after all, is the most valuable thing. And hey, the kids are rapt at the prospect of buying a shiny new PC.

Replacing the PSU

I need a new Power Supply Unit for my main PC. Why do so few people in this town seem to sell them? Or if they do, they’re not advertising effectively.

The local Dick Smith ran out yesterday (sometime between 4am when their web site stock level updates, and when I got there).

I had to hunt around, but seem to have found a retailer in the CBD that has a fair range (better than Dick Smith’s choice of one). Will have to go shopping at lunchtime.

iPod prices drop

Well the advance warnings the other day were a bit muddled up, but Apple has announced new iPod models and a price drop in the old ones. I don’t have one, but I’m certainly thinking about it… if you buy one in the next little while, make sure you don’t pay the old price!

To me the full-size iPod appeals because you can literally chuck all your music onto it, and the wide range of accessories available. But the iPod mini (especially the new bigger capacity ones) appeal for the smaller size and longer battery life. Maybe I’ll go shopping.

Printer problems

About two metres from my desk at work, is one of those new multi-function polisprinter things. It’s been churning away all week, page upon page upon page. Most of the time the noise isn’t unbearable, but sometimes it does get difficult to concentrate. Whiz, whirr, ka-chunk, all week.

So yesterday morning, for the first time this week, I needed to print something – two measly pages. Do you think it would do it for me? Hell no! Some kinda of network printer server outage.

And what’s particularly annoying is Word didn’t just come back and say “hey, I can’t do it”. No, it sat there for about two minutes with the print dialogue hung, Word disabled, while it worked out that it couldn’t do it. Somewhere, there’s a timeout setting that’s set way too high. I reckon if it’s not working in 30 seconds, it’s not working period. I’ll go rummaging around in the settings.

Default passwords, iPod mini and mobile games

Common default passwords, most-used passwords, lists of trojans, all good stuff for the network admin or hacker. (via Office Weblog)

Hot rumour department: iPod mini to get a colour screen and a bigger drive, probably 5 or 6Gb, with a probable announcement next week.

This mob is selling well-known games adapted for mobile phone use. They vary from clone games like Packman to the apparently fully licensed stuff like Shrek 2. My kids are addicted to Midtown Madness 3 on the XBox… would they go for it in 2-D on my phone? Dunno, but at AUD$8, it’s not too exhorbitant. Might give it a try, when they get bored of Bounce Back.

SMS spam from sms.ac

I got an invitation to join sms.ac. A quick Google seemed to indicate it’s not a great idea unless you want to give your mobile number to people who will SMS-spam you.

Further, if they convince you to reveal your Hotmail password (on the pretext of letting you read it from your mobile) they’ll also spam the people in your address book, inviting them to join. Delightful. And the person who “invited” me? She wasn’t even aware it had happened.

So remember kids: sms.ac is bad. Now email this warning to all your friends.

VoIP ain’t gonna happen this month

I’ve just moved houses and thought it would be a grand idea to replace our fixed phone line with a VoIP phone like that supplied by Engin. Save the $30/month fixed line rental, skip the $60 connection fee and also upgrade our net connection to broadband, come out ahead with features and finances. Everything would be great.

What a stupid idea.

The VoIP service offered by Engin is $20/mo, so you are saving $10/mo on connectivity. Our ISP costs $10/mo, so the most we can afford to pay for an ISP and come out equal is $20/mo. But if we pay only that then we are effectively getting broadband for free. The VoIP is $150, but we’ll just ignore that cost. It’s only $90 more than hooking up a fixed line.

Obviously, to use a VoIP phone you need IP connectivity – an ISP. Okay, so we’ll just sign up to one of those $20 / 200meg plans ADSL and that’ll be great; I did some figuring and we’d use nothing like that kind of traffic, even with voice calls consuming 1K/sec (all figuring based on Engin’s figures, supplied in the user forum, which has been pulled – methinks because the users were slagging them off). No problem signing up for a couple of years, no worries, I’ll be in the new place for at least that long.

You can’t have ADSL without a fixed line phone.

You Freaking WHAT?!

Fine. Cable, I’ll have cable. Call one of the two cable providers, the house has been cabled up by both. Except they’ve merged, to increase competition. No worries, I’ll call the only monopolistic cable provider, hook up (ought to be cheap, the house is already cabled up) and away we go. $279 to connect to your cable service?!?! $40/month to stay connected?!?! You Freaking WHAT?!

Fine. I happen to know that although cable and ADSL are widely regarded as your two options for broadband, there’s a third option here in Melbourne – radio. Alphalink provide superfast wireless access for only $33/mo; but connection is $286. But guess what? $33 is greater than $20. So we come out Losers.

So I resigned myself and we got a fixed line. And that’s why VoIP isn’t gonna happen this month, and I suspect won’t be happening for a long time yet.