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Category: Tech

Mars Curiosity’s Journey (From the Beginning)

I’m a big fan of NASA and space exploration in general. The Mars Curiosity video from JPL explaining the EDL sequence is one of my favorite videos ever. I’ve watched it about a dozen times and showed it to everyone I know. It has some great looking 3D animation and a top notch production value. I’ve embedded it below:

 

More recently I saw another video, apparently produced by a YouTube channel called SpaceRip. This video chronicles the Curiosity Space Rover’s construction, testing, shipment, and launch. If you have not seen this behind the scenes look at Curiosity’s journey, I suggest you grab a cup of your favorite drink, sit back and enjoy.

This feels like one of the most ambitious technological feats man has attempted!

This feels like one of the most ambitious technological feats man has attempted!
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/videogallery/index.html?media_id=146903741 #blog #nasa #mars

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CyanogenMod Running on my Epic 4G

As a technology enthusiast, I love my gadgets. Here’s my phone running the latest ROM from CyanogenMod. As a bit of an extra, the lovely shallow depth-of-field image is courtesy my Micro Four-Thirds kit with the 20mm f1.7 lens.

Here’s some info if you want to take your Epic 4G to CyanogenMod: EpicCM Blog

Web GL, Becoming a Programmer & Multimedia

I’ve thought a lot about the state of the web and 3D lately. This is odd as I haven’t done much research into WebGL other than checking out a few of the examples that are sent my way by friends and or co-workers in the web industry.

As a web programmer by day and a 3D artist in my spare time (or what little is left of it) I’ve actually switched roles and viewpoints since I was a 3D only guy.

Back in my 3D days I was what I now call an “end user”.

Read More

Triangulation on TWiT

 

TWiT (This Week in Tech) is where I get my tech news and general audio entertainment from. Whether I’m on my commute, writing some late-night code, or just unwinding there’s always something for me on the TWiT network. One of the more innovative shows (I think) is Triangulation. Read More

Motorola Roadster Mini-Review

I picked up a Roadster recently after the idea was recommended to me by a fellow gdgt user.

I’m not going to say much as there are a few reviews out there already, but I would like to touch on something that the reviews didn’t mention – the volume level. The Roadster is designed to sit just a foot or so away from your face on the driver-side visor of your car. At this small distance away, the volume level far exceeds my phone’s speakerphone and in fact, the volume of the Roadster is much higher than any phone’s built in speakerphone (that I have encountered). Read More

Cyanogenmod (The Way Android Should Be)

I’m going to start this post with two links. These links lead to the most valuable communities in the Android world (for the end user):

At this point if I don’t sound kind of silly it’s because you’ve heard of or enlisted the help of these communities. XDA is a collection of extremely talented developers how have normal day jobs like you and I, but spend their time trying to make their phones prettier, faster, and better. ‘Cyanogen’ is a custom ROM or Firmware that has had nothing but acclaim since the cellphone carriers started to treat your phone like a billboard (more on that in a bit). Read More

Wakemate Review

I’ve used the Wakemate for a while and the final verdict is that I love it. It’s a lot better than a regular alarm clock. However, when I first got my Wakemate it wouldn’t play nicely with my Samsung Epic 4G (Galaxy S). That’s a real shame as these are one of the most popular Android phones (Galaxy S) and the key with a product such as the Wakemate is that it works reliably across the board.

After much troubleshooting and testing I actually gave up on using it with my primary cell phone. (I would have tried my wrist band on my iPad, but unfortunately Apple’s policies forbid this… Don’t act so surprised) So instead, I bought an old Motorola Droid v1 from a co-worker. It works flawlessly with the Droid Read More

Microsoft + Skype = Less Privacy

It looks like Microsoft might be trying to modify the way Skype works to make it possible to listen in on your conversations; and then potentially advertise to you based on what you’re chatting about. (I’m guessing) Read More

Google’s Public Transit Navigation Looks Awesome!

Check out Google’s post about their new maps feature:
Google Maps 5.7 for Android introduces Transit Navigation (Beta) and more

Be sure to check out the video in the post linked above too. Read More

Android Error 1, -17 Audio/Video Playback

If you’ve been experiencing strange behavior on your Android handset, the culprit could be the official Twitter app.

Recently my podcasts refused to play without a reboot of my phone. The first few times it happened I simply chalked it up to Android and its quirks. But then it became consistent. Not necessarily scheduled, but regular enough  to be annoying. I found myself dreading the moment when I would grab my phone to listen to Tech news Today or Security Now and my phone would spit that annoying error at me.

What to look for:

Once I figured that it was a real issue, I started to notice it in other areas; do any of these seem familiar to you?

  • YouTube app: “Cannot Play Video”
  • Camera app: “Camera Failed”
  • Doggcatcher: “Error -17” (or something similar)
  • Listen: “unable to play file”
  • Pandora: It just sits and spins, no verbose error.

So basically it’s an epic fail of any audio and video. A fix that I figured out that was (arguably) faster than a reboot was to unmount and re-mount the SD card. Something was definitely up. Even worse than the error itself was the fact that the above errors were so numerous and app dependent. Searches online turned up nothing; that’s what this post is for. Read More

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