Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category
Google Play – Nexus 7 tablet
For the last several years, all my mobile devices have been Apple – iPhone, iPod, iPad… but eventually I needed an Android based device for some development. Honestly, it was the price that Google was selling the tablet for more than anything that made me choose it. At $200, it’s hard to say no to [...]
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: tablet android google
Open source alternatives
Knowing that I am involved with computers, people are often asking me if I can “give them a copy of” some piece of software. I tell them no, and then often suggest an open source alternative that they could use instead. Usually they end up saying that they’ll just get so-and-so from the office to [...]
iPhone call forwarding indicator
Ever since I started using my iPhone, I wished it had a call forwarding indicator. I typically give out my cell number as my main number when meeting people, and then forward the iPhone to wherever I am. Sometimes, I forget to turn off the forwarding when I leave again, making me unreachable. To my [...]
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: 3.0, 3G, call forwarding, icon, iPhone
Riding with the iPhone
I’m on a motorcycle trip this week, and left all technology behind… Except the iPhone. It gives me the chance to get away without having to lug along a laptop and plan my trip around wifi hotspots. Before leaving, I subscribed to the Rogers data roaming plan. It’s still unreasonable, but it’s better that the [...]
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: google, iPhone, maps, server, ssh
What’s right, now?
I recently heard that a study has shown that wikipedia was more accurate that Britanica as an encyclopedia. I don’t know the details of the study, but to me the important question is how do we define “right” when it comes to facts. Not so long ago it was a fact that the earth was [...]
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: information, truth, wikipedia
Life without laptop
I am on the road at a conference as I write this. Normally, I don’t leave home without a laptop – but since I was travelling by motorcycle and space is at a premium I left the notebook at home. This meant putting a lot of faith in my iPhone, and so far it has [...]
In: Uncategorized · Tagged with: iPhone, ssh, travel, word press
Open source sounds
Sometimes I need a short sound clip for a software project – maybe a click when a user selects something, a buzzer or bell when a timer expires, or some special effect for opening and closing documents. Making and recording sounds can be a real time sink, depending on the equipment and software that you [...]
iPhone sync with Google Calendar
I had been looking at different iPhone syncing options for my contacts, and it seemed that to do anything with a PC was going to involve using Outlook, which I was reluctant to install. In general, I try to use only open source applications, ones which run under Windows and Linux (and if there is [...]
Geocoding in PHP with Microsoft’s API
Yesterday I looked at using the Google Map API to geocode some addresses – today I examined the same using Microsoft’s API. The Microsoft API is somewhat more complicated to use, as it is a SOAP API we can’t just fetch and parse HTTP as we could with Google. To use these services with PHP, [...]
Twittering
Ok, so after hearing about twitter for a while, I decided to try it out. As I’m not normally particularly interested in communicating with anyone, the idea of broadcasting my comings and goings to the world at large seemed a little odd. I did however go ahead and set up an account (@ordmillar), and all [...]