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December 30, 2005
In Portugal (2005)
I shot these gentlemen during a vacation in southern Portugal (which followed a
conference about speech processing) in late summer. This and many more
pictures from Portugal are now up in my virtual gallery The Big Trip.
Posted by dr at 3:42 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 27, 2005
365 days, 101 diary entries. What for?
In mid-December 2004, about a year ago, I started David's World. I wasn't quite sure where it was heading - I just knew I wanted to write up some things that were on my mind. Writing is a means of channelling information through the filter of reason. When you write up something, you'll reflect on your thoughts, and you get a chance to run a simple check: are my ideas actually coherent?
So what have I been up to this year? Early on, I exposed myself with an experiment: what's my prettyness rating on Hotornot, a site where you put up your picture and people give you marks for your face. How does the rating change with different haircuts? On another occasion, I explained why I don't like Christmas. I complained about people in jail for no reason and a TV series condoning torture. And in January, things got a bit more serious with an obituary on my former employer, MIT Media Lab Europe. Since it appeared on Slashdot, an über-blog read by millions, many people stopped by to read the story and fiercly discuss the demise of MLE.
Other entries in my digital diary were about security. I explained how to encrypt and sign e-mails these days, an important topic that's probably way too geeky for most of my readers. I reviewed some books, and in one case a best-seller, where the author got back back to me. About a hundred entries, so far!
The bottom-line: this is very much a patchwork publication. It's lacking what media people call a format: a precise and narrow definition of what kinds of topics are addressed, and how they are presented. Radio stations have this since the 80's, TV programs and news magazines have formats. In a way, blogs don't, and that's charming. It's a blog precisely because it's not a mass media publication.
Posted by dr at 11:58 AM | Comments (1) | TrackBack
December 25, 2005
Motorola SLVR L6 - Driver pack for the Mac
As a Christmas present for all Mac users with a cool new Motorola L6 phone, I'm publishing some open source drivers for it. You can now use iSync (sychronizing) and Address Book (sending SMS).
http://www.david-reitter.com/software/l6.html
Thanks to John Moose and Derek Hellmons for their essential tips, and to Marco Wilka for his sms_send utility.
Frequently Asked Questions:
Q: Can you e-mail me drivers for Windows?
A: No, I'm sorry I can't. I don't have them, and I'm not aware of any free drivers that I could legally send you. You should turn to Motorola or your network provider to support your phone.
Q: Do you have a driver for the Motorola L7 (SLVR)?
A: Yes, this is in the works. I bought an L7 recently and I have made it work with Address Book. There is, however, an issue to be resolved when multiple phones with Bluetooth Modem capabilities have been installed on the machine. As my L7 has been stolen since, I'm unable to work on this. Sorry! (The L7 is already supported by iSync (latest OS X version) without a driver.)
Q: I'm looking for Motorola XXX driver which can help me connect my L7 to my laptop. Would you mind to email me its driver?
A: If I had written a driver for XXX, I would put it online here or sell it to you via this web site. I don't write a driver an keep hidden from the world on my hard disk, just to send it to people via e-mail. I understand that you might be despeate for a driver -- but I'm sorry, I can't help you unless you need iSync/Address Book support for your L6. I cannot support you individually, because I'm very busy with my work, my ex-girlfriend, my hobby and Aquamacs Emacs. Of course, you can offer me lots of money (that always helps), but I don't recall anyone do that :-)
Q: Where can I download USB drivers?
A: Most Macs come with Bluetooth nowadays, or you can simply get a cheap Bluetooth USB dongle. That's what I would do. The L7 seems to be supported in the latest OS X versions via USB. For Windows, check out this link (no warranty for this - I haven't tested the software.).
Q: Where can I download drivers for Windows?
A: Check out this link (no warranty for this - I haven't tested the software.).
Q: I keep getting "Resource busy" errors when I try to send a text message from within Address Book.
A: This is a known bug. I don't have the time to fix this right now, sorry.
Posted by dr at 10:49 AM | Comments (195) | TrackBack
December 19, 2005
The new Motorola SLVR L6 cell phone - a quick review
Sheesh. It's slim! No more bulge in my pants where there shouldn't
be one - you don't even feel the cell phone there! The flattest phone
yet comes with a nice-enough color display, a keypad that mostly works
for me and an extra key on each side, which can be freely assigned
to menu functions. Needless to say, the phone works well as a phone:
the sound is nice and clear, and when it goes off, it's loud
enough. Only the vibration is a little too smooth to be easily
noticed, but I guess that's owed to the lightness of the device. (It's tri-band GSM, by the way.)
Navigating the menus doesn't take ages - I was worried that the phone would be as slow as the last Motorola I had a few years ago (the T720). Only scrolling through the phonebook is a tad slow, I'd say. Motorola allows you to compose a menu of shortcuts to get to specific menu items more quickly, that is, with two keystrokes only.
What's cool is that the L6 comes with a standard USB plug - not a proprietary one that'll require me to spend lots of money on accessories. I can simply plug it into my laptop to recharge - a huge benefit when I'm travelling, since I can leave the house without the charger.
Bluetooth is fast and easy and allows me to put a few MP3s on the phone -- but not really in order to listen to them (no headphone plug and only 10MB memory - that's enough for only 7 songs if they're low-quality). What's cool is that you can put your own ringtones on the phone rather than stupid beepy ringtones that you have to pay for. Remember the special ringtone they used at CTU in the American action series 24? You can download that and just upload it to the phone, on the Mac via Bluetooth Exchange. Any sound on the phone can be used as ringtone or for incoming text messages, alarms etc.
The built-in camera takes snapshots in low quality (< 1
Megapixel, VGA) even when it's darker outside like here in Scotland - all
in all, nothing to phone home about. The ability to record
little movies is neat.
The phone is missing a few essentials software-wise, such as a timer that helps me remember things on the stove. But that's not really a problem, since it runs standard J2ME Java software, which you can download and install (on the Mac, just drag'n'drop the .jar file to a running Bluetooth Exchange in the Dock!).
So much for the fun side - let's talk about work. Of course, the phone has a calendar and a contacts database (with the phone numbers). But what good are these if you cannot sync them easily with your computer? On the Mac, iSync is the tool of choice for syncing devices, and it's a grave disadvantage at this point that you cannot sync your Mac Address Book and the iCal calendars with the phone: iSync is lacking the right driver. Also, Address Book cannot send text messages via Bluetooth - bummer! (Update: I've made my own drivers for iSync and Address Book available.) There is a little free command-line tool which manages to send text messages with the L6. BluePhoneElite works as well ($20). Salling Clicker is a tool that allows you to use your Bluetooth phone as a remote control during presentations, e.g. in order to advance slides in a Powerpoint presentation. It's a little problematic with the L6: you have to pretend that it's a "Sony Ericsson W600i Cingular" phone and then install the Java Midlet on the phone.
The L6 is a brand-new phone and clearly needs polishing in terms of software. For instance, you'd like to be able to easily check the time, by just looking at the display. Flip phones sometimes have an extra display on the outside that would show the time and some status info. The L6 doesn't show anything, and when you press a key while the keypad is locked (i.e. the phone was in your pocket!), it'll show a reminder about how to unlock the keypad instead of time and date.
The logical next step for such a phone would be to supply a Bluetooth stack for audio, so I can use the phone as a phone together with my laptop and voice-over-IP software like Skype. But I guess I'm day-dreaming.
All in all, if you need a good-looking, lightweight, flexible phone and not a whole mobile office with lots of bells and whistles, the Motorola L6 is highly recommended. As Aidan says in a sexist comment about the L6: "It's wafer thin, head turningly gorgeous, but also useless and not the most brightest of things. In a nutshell, its not big, its not clever, it just sits on my lap and looks pretty." Multimedia freaks without a real iPod who would like a less-crappy camera are better off waiting for the feature-packaged L7 model.
In the UK, the L6 is sold for only £90 by Virgin (without a contract, but with £35 in airtime vouchers) - a bargain for what is offered.
Motorola L6 drivers can be found here - see links under "Download". I DO NOT have drivers for Windows. I DO NOT have USB drivers. If you have a Mac, file transfer should work without any installations, just via the "Bluetooth File Exchange" program. You only need my drivers for iSync and for Address Book (SMS).
Posted by dr at 2:59 PM | Comments (293) | TrackBack
December 18, 2005
The Christmas Rules
Dear friends & family,
Christmas is a great time of the year - I get to see you over in Germany, and you get to cook wonderful dinner for me. I wish it was just that -- and usually I can successfully avoid the commercial side of things. I have spend an enjoyable hour at the bookstore buying things that I'd actually love to keep, and sipping Mocca.
If you'd like to return the favor and give me a present, please consider the following...
1. Please, no presents. I'll have to bring them back across the continent.
2. Please don't give me books originally written by great American authors, translated into German.
3. Dad, I still don't wear ties. And all occasions that call for a tie require to wear a non-funny tie anyway.
4. If you think I should wear your present, I predict it'd be best accompanied by a receipt for easy exchange - just in case it's too large, too small, or orange.
5. Financial present? Make it less symbolical. Add a zero.
Merry Christmas,
David
Posted by dr at 6:47 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 15, 2005
Mac is What?
Switching to a Mac from a Windows PC easily gets people on the brink of suddenly becoming religious. The "Church of the Holy Steve". The "Mac Zealotists". The "Macians". I've stopped short of becoming that way, but I still admire the force behind that whole cult... If you want laugh about some really religious dork, watch this- it's funny!
Posted by dr at 11:34 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 14, 2005
The Don't-Be-Evil Companies
Richard Branson is my business hero. Well, second only to Steve Jobs.
It seems to me that Branson's company Virgin tries really hard
to make up for an awfully bad experience I've had with their broadband
customer service back in spring. They seem to live what Google's
"Don't be evil" policy. In other words: don't screw your
customers. They keep things simple, understandable and they stick
with it. Virgin is similar: here in the UK, they offer a mobile phone
service (using T-Mobile's network), and it's pretty much what one
needs. Decent (not great) coverage, fair prices and no hidden
fees.
I've been shopping around for a new cell phone, and both sales agents at the stores tried to pull every trick in the book to sell me a 12-month contract.
Monday evening, Edinburgh Princess Street, "The Link" phone shop. The sales agent tried hard to put me on an 18-month deal, with a special price during the first three months. From then on, I'd get a cheque back from the reseller every couple of months - probably subject to some terms and conditions. The last three months would have been cheaper as well. This is hell of complicated. I don't want to be tricked into buying and staying with the contract by means of getting some feel-good months at the beginning and end.
Tuesday evening, Edinburgh, St.James Shopping Mall, "phones4u". This time, my salesperson offers me a £5/month discount on the contract, but she would "have to ask the manager" and even "get authorization from the regional office". Authorization, my ass! The phone would have been sim-locked anyways.
Virgin was a bit more no-frills. I get a discount because I've been a customer for a while. I get some phone vouchers (£30), so the phone will cost me around £40 for a phone - free next-day delivery.
Similarly, Virgin Broadband. 2Mbit broadband for a competitive £18/mo. No joining fee, they don't charge you big-time when you move house, and there's no long-term plan to sign up for. I feel good that I don't get screwed.
I'm sick of complex offers that make me feel better about something that is already overpriced. I don't want American-style cash-back offers where you send in a voucher in order to maybe (!) receive a cheque from the company. I want no-frills service, with as few terms and conditions as possible. Companies have to take risks with their customers.
I hope we all vote with our feet and turn to companies whose offers aren't evil. Branson, you made it onto my hero list.
Posted by dr at 11:16 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
December 9, 2005
Mouse and Trap
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December 2, 2005
Moved House, Again
Having come to Scotland a bit more than a year ago, I have just completed my third house move - that's about one move every 4.5 months. The first - temporary - place I was staying at was beautiful, but my room lacked windows and I only had 30 seconds worth of hot water in the morning. The second place lacked essentials like a dining table near a window and was rather cold in winter, but at least it had cute turtoises in the backyard. The third apartment was in cool and convenient neighborhood, but too bad I didn't check the (nightly) noise and dirt levels thoroughly before moving in. My new place is great - my new roommates have promised to eat my food, and maybe I'll learn some Greek!
Following the 12-month tradition of my writing, I would now proceed to go on with a rant about the annoying housing situation in Edinburgh, the UK's second most expensive city to rent or buy a place in. But somehow I'm fed up with thinking about property and mortgages, tenancy contracts and applying-for-a-flatmate-position interviews.
Instead, I'm busy releasing Aquamacs 0.9.7, the most versatile yet user-friendly text and code editor on the Mac...
You find that boring? Naw. Look at this guy if you'd like to do know about something boring. He managed to fly a million miles on a flat-rate ticket with Air Canada, just to get $70.000 worth of tickets. At least he met some interesting people on the way, he claims. But the crazy thing is, he flies cargo in a 747 around the world for a living. Can't get enough, eh? Oh Heck.
Posted by dr at 3:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack