Cameron's Thoughts

Well, now that's courts have pretty much said that file sharing services can't be held responsible for people trading copyrighted content, the RIAA is now going after individuals. Fortunately the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) is watching the backs of those targeted. They have made a webpage where you can search by your file sharing username or your IP address to see if the RIAA has a subpoena filed to determine your identity. This can be very useful information if you are trading a fair amount of songs on file sharing networks like Kazza.

I'm working on a photo gallery for pics of Hailey. It should be up soon. I already have the software installed on the webserver and there are a few pics uploaded. I still have to design the page layouts and such though, and get some more pics added. Then I'll hand out the URL.

Haven't been doing much else recently. Been looking at getting a new cell phone. I really want the Nokia 3650. It's got all the latest features in cell phones. Will also play very nicely with the Clie NX!! Here's a random pic I just saw on the Internet. Has nothing to do with anything, but shows a true American redneck!

Actually, pic no longer available

I read this story at Brighthand and thought maybe their website got hacked. Apparently, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is donating $7.5 million to schools to purchase Palm Tungsten T2 handhelds for educators. If Windows Mobile is so great, why wouldn't they use that money to purchase some Pocket PC's for the schools. I personally think Pocket PC is a pretty good system and don't have a problem with it even though I use a Palm handheld. (I used to use a pre-Pocket PC/Windows Mobile device, an NEC Mobile Pro 450 running Windows CE 2.0 and loved it.) But, it seems like it would hurt Bill Gates' future credibility if he tried to convince people that his product is superior because when it was his foundations money being spent, it was spent on the competitor. If Bill Gates chooses Palm over Windows Mobile, then at least I know I made a sound decision.

Just wanted to plug some cool links. One is ErrorFM. It's a great Internet radio station that a guy I used to work with introduced me too. They play all kinds of music. It's got some really unique stuff that I haven't heard anywhere else. You should check it out.

Another intersting site I came across today is Digital Data Porn. It looks like a porn site, but actually is a collection of images of older computer hardware. It's pretty cool to look back at how things have evolved over the last couple of decades.

While the last couple of days, the big PDA news has been the UX handhelds. Sony actually announced two handhelds in the US, nit just the UX50, but also the UX40 sans WiFi. But today there have been pics going around from China showing a prototype of the Palm Tungsten T3 handheld. The Tungsten T2 hasn't even been released, but it looks like they are already testing this model that will probably be available by the end of this year or early next year.

Based on this article from The Inquirer, it looks like the updated Tungsten device that they are describing. So, this device might even be out by November. My Clie NX will be a year old by then, and might be ready to retire . If this is the same device that's described, then it will be running Palm OS6, though that's not shown in the screenshots. Probably the prototype is running a modified version of Palm OS 5.2 since OS6 isn't ready yet. From earlier screenshots at Palm InfoCenter, it looks like OS6 will natively be hi-res+ (320x480) like the device shown. Sony and Garmin already have devices with hi-res+ screens and Tapwave has a device on the way. The Clie UX is rumored to have the OS6 API's built-in for it's hi-res+ screen and so will the Tapwave device. I bet Palm will wait until OS6 is actually out until it has a device with the OS6 hi-res+ API.
I think that a hi-res+ screen is a must on any device I own in the future. The screen is amazing to look at. Plus, this TT3 looks fairly slim, especially compared to some of the recent Clie devices. I hope this device is really coming by the end of the year. I would miss abandoning the Clie platform, but if Sony doesn't put something like this on the market by then, I've have no regrets moving to a Palm device. Sony was keeping way above Palm with the quality and technology of there devices, but now Palm has Sony beat. The Tungsten C, and now the Tungsten T3. Sony better have something up their sleeve, and it better be something better than the toy of a PDA, the UX-50.

Been a little busy recently. Back to work now, and Nickcole bought a new car, a 2003 Chevy Caviler.
Some big news in the PDA world. Sony is going to announce in the US on Friday a new Clie that is totally different from anything else they make. It looks a lot like the Zaurus unit that came out not to long ago.

This is yet another clamshell PDA and it has a hi-res+ (480x320) screen, but it is in landscape, not portrait orientation. The older Handera QVGA device was able to do landscape, but it wasn't the native orientation.
I'm not so sure if this is a device I would use. I am still very happy with my Clie NX60. But there are a few items the UX50 has that I like. It is the first PalmOS device with both Bluetooth and WiFi. Very 21st century. It has a new CPU made by Sony which is called the Sony Handheld Engine. Only runs up to 120Mhz or so, but it has a ton of functions built-in to the chip. It is a scalable chip, like the Intel XScale, but the scaling function is actually enabled on this device. (I don't think a single PDA actually takes advantage of the speed scaling abilities of Intels chip. The only softwares that do are a few over/underclocking apps. But this new chip scales on demand anywhere from 8MHz up to the top speed of 120-something MHz. This is great for the battery life because has fast does the datebook or your e-book reader have to go. You only use the battery power when you need it.
Sony has included some new functions into this device. One thing that opens up a lot of possibilities is the built-in software based OpenGL. It's only software based, so it will probably be limited, but Sony is already taking advantage of it by including a 3D application launcher.

The keyboard on this unit looks like it might be the best one of any of the Clie devices. I can see this as being more of an E-mail and IM on the go device. It kinda has a look like the Danger Sidekick device. If they made a GPRS version of the UX50, it might really be some competition for the Sidekick and the Blackberry.
What are some things that worry me though. Accessories. My NX60 was able to use NR screen protectors. As does the NZ. This is a new size screen I think. So no screen protectors for now. Sony probably has one, but it's probably priced high too. The Hotsync port. It has been a standard for a while now. All the T-series devices, the NR, the NX, the TG, the NZ, the SJ. They all have the same connector. Not the UX. So if you have something you want to hook up, too bad. Hope you didn't buy that $100 speaker cradle. Or a GPS unit. Or a game controller. Another thing, you can't use the headphones remote control with this device since it on'y includes just a standard stero headphone jack. Many of the higher-end devices (maybe they all do) have an extra plug that a remote control plugs into. Very nice for controlling your MP3's without having to open your device and fiddle with the stylus. Also, the jog-dial is no longer a tool to help with using your device one handed. Its on the bottom and is more of a knob, than a wheel. Sony pulled a Zire. They only have three hard buttons on the front. Every PalmOS device (except the $99 Zire) has had four buttons. We are looking at a $600-700 device here. Hope your certain app (or game) doesn't expect you to have certain buttons.

It's getting late, I need to sleep. I could probably go on, but you can find more info elsewhere. This is just my opinion, you might love this device. I think I'll hold out for the next NX. Hopefully OS6, Bluetooth, WiFi, 64MB (or more) or RAM. Doesn't sound too outrageous when looking at the UX.

Today is my day back from vacation. Ahh, so depressing. It was really nice to stay at home with Nickcole and Hailey for a week.
Plus, Nickcole is buying a new car today. A 2003 Chevy Caviler. Her Malibu is about to die, so it's time to get a new car. The tires all need to be replaced, the engine has an intake value leak, the brakes are bad and need to be replaced, and the wheel bearings are also going bad. I figure it's best just to get a new car than to invest a bunch of money into that junker. Plus, they are doing some great deals to get rid of the 2003 models. After rebates, my dads GM family discount, and a deal they have for families that own foreign vehicles (I drive a Toyota), the total price for the brand new car was just above $11,000!

Well, I got the movie to work. I had to do some slight trimming to the final movie I made because even though it was 123MB like I was looking for, it was about 300KB larger than my Memory Stick could hold. The movie did play like it was supposed to, though the audio was awful. Might be due to the MP3 compression I used. I still have a little bit of work to do to perfect converting the videos to playback properly. At least it's possible now!

MMPlayer has been updated to include Clie support meaning now Clie handhelds can have a full multimedia player on our machine that doesn't require files to be converted. The sound playback for the Clie's ain't all that great though (8kHz) since Sony won't release any info to developers on how to fully use the sound system (and for the fact that even though Palm OS 5 has a standard audio system built-in, Sony decided not to use it). Right now I am doing some experimenting converting a Divx movie into a 320x176 Divx file that will fit onto a 128MB Memory Stick. But the Memory Stick will only actually hold 123MB of files. I have the movie down to 125MB by using a Divx calculator and changing the bitrate to 164kB/sec and changing the audio to a 1kB/s MP3 stream (which translates to 8kHz mono audio). Then I chopped off most of the credits and the opening sequence that displayed the 20th Century Fox logo. Now I have to converting the video from 24-bit to 16-bit color since that all the Clie can display. Hey, looks liked it worked and the file is exactly 123MB. Hopefully this will all work now.

Up until now, the only way to get movies on the Clie was to use either an app called Kinoma or use the built-in Sony Movie Player. Kinoma's okay, but the file sizes are large since it uses the older Cinepak mobile compression. The Sony Movie Player plays MPEG-4 based movies, but the are in .MQV format. It is based on a Quicktime format and the only way to make the movies is to run it through an app called Image Convertor which will convert .MPG's, some .MOV's and some .AVI's. If the movie doesn't work, you have to use another app to do a 'pre-conversion'. I use QuickTime Pro for .MOV files and convert the files to .AVI format. I use VirtualDub for Divx files. One thing to note is, the audio has to be uncompressed for the Image Convertor to work. Basically all Divx movies have the audio compressed using MP3 and a lot of higher quality Quicktime videos have some form of compression too.
So, for a video to work, you have to run it through an app like VirtualDub, and then just totally guess on what kind of settings to use to output since the Image Convertor does a pretty good job of compressing, but it's hard to tell how much it will do, especially if you want to convert a full movie and fit it on a 128MB stick. (These movies are over 4GB in their original format.)

So, whats this got to do with native support for Divx on the Clie? Well, to fit a Divx movie onto a 128MB stick, it still needs to be converted since these movies are normally around 600-700MB so they will fit on CD. But, the good news is, I can tell exactly the setting I need to use to convert in VirtualDub, since there is only one conversion being done. I just use an app called Advanced Divx calculator, plugged in the movie length, size the outputted movie needs to be and audio bitrate and it tells me what bitrate to use for the video. Plug these settings into the Divx settings (leaving some leeway) and away it goes. Takes about an hour to do the full conversion on my PC (Athlon XP 2000, 1.6GHz).

To anyone interested in handheld gaming, Brighthand has an article giving more details on the upcoming TapWave Helix game machine running PalmOS. It looks like it will be a jack-of-all-trades type device that probably won't be as good as the PSP at gaming, but will have a huge collection of Palm software available for it and you will finally be able to have a good PDA and a decent gaming machine in one, without having to carry both your Palm and Gameboy. One thing this device has that will blow away the Gameboy and PSP is the screen. This will have a 480x320 screen and will be very nice for gaming.
(Image from Brighthand.com)

I have now accumulated 2000 posts at ClieSource. I guess all that time posting and reading is gone forever! Seriously though, I don't miss it. It has been fun so far and I have made a number of friends along the way. I remember not too long ago, some friends of mine would meet people online and consider them friends, though they had never met in person. I thought they were freaks. But, now I can understand that even people online can be friends as many people at ClieSource have shown me. I have been to a number of message boards, and still post once in a while at some like PalmInfoCenter and BrightHand, I have never quite felt the sense of community I feel at ClieSource. I guess much of the crowd there thinks in a similar way to myself. I want to post more, but a big storm has just hit, and I'm kinda worried the power might go out. Maybe if I still have this on my mind, I will finish tommorrow.

I did it. Shaved the moustache, dyed the hair. The moustache-lessness makes me look like a kid again, and the hair color I'm not so sure about. It is more red than I thought it would be. I probably will have to get used to it. Maybe I will like it eventually. Always fun to try new things!

Today, I have decided on a new look for myself. Since I'm on vacation, I figured it would be a great time to experiment in case I screwed something up! Just got done shaving off my moustache, which is something I haven't done in over 4 years. And last time I did it, I was told by many that I should let it grow back since I looked better with it. But, now I'm 21 and most people I work with think I'm 25-27. When I was 16, I thought it was cool that people thought I was 18 or 21, but now I'm not so fond of looking older. I guess it's not really all that bad, but without the moustache, I look more my age, and I just would like to see how that works. Also, I have some hair dye, and I'm going to lighten my hair color. That ought to be interesting. I've had blonde highlights once and I liked it, but this time I'm going to recolor all of my hair to a lighter shade. Not quite blonde, but 'sandstorm'.

Saw Terminator 3 tonight! I've been waiting about 12 years to see this movie, and I think it was worth it. I also got to see Zoolander again today since my friend Neil Vitale loaned me the DVD. It's one of my favorite movies and it's funny every time I see it.
Anyhow's, T3 really expanded on the Terminator series, and it seemed to be very true to the story. Takes place about 10 years after T2, and is full of a lot of action. Some of the best action scenes I have seen. Arnold is back, and he seems to play a darker Terminator is this movie compared to T2. He seems to be a bit more like the Terminator from the first movie. One thing I can say, is the movie is non-stop. The movie was coming to an end, and it was about an hour and a half through, but it felt like it went very quick. I don't think there was one scene that dragged out. T2, had some scenes where they would be driving in the car, or at a couple of different places hiding out, but this movie had everyone on the move, doing something non-stop. The only thing was, the end really made you feel like you only saw half of a movie. I know T4 is supposed to be out next year, but it's going to be a long wait. I wouldn't say the ending is necessarily bad, it does clear up a lot of things, and make much of the movie fulfilling, but at the same time, you feel like you want something more.

Ahh! Today I start my weeks vacation from work. I'm not going anywhere or doing anything special, but I don't have to go into work, and that's all that matters! I will get to spend a lot of time with Hailey, though, and that will be great.

Well, it look's like Sony is finally updating the NX series software. They did some updates to Clie Files and a few other things in the past, but now they finally updates the Macromedia Flash player to accept Flash files with MP3 encoded audio. This should have been included in the first place, and I've had it on my NX for a little while, thanks to the fact that the TG series Clies came with the updated Flash player a few months ago. Plus, an offical NetFront update is nice since I have heard of many issues with the software. Don't use it myself since I don't have any Internet access on my Clie, but it's still nice to know that maybe Sony does care just a little bit. You can find the links on my NX page (http://nx.cbulock.com), I am kinda tired, so I don't feel like looking them up at this moment.

I don't know if it's just a coincidence, or if there is actually something up, but I have noticed a lot of Clie NX users experiencing hard resets recently. Or maybe it's just being talked about more. Or maybe my recent experience with them has just made me notice more. I first noticed this trend in a thread at ClieSource titled "The NX Blink from Hell". Over the last week I have had two hard resets. Once, I was doing something that made my Clie freeze up, and a soft reset turned out to be a hard reset. Then, while playing TableTennis 3D , my Clie froze again. I think it had a Fatal Error. Upon reset, I didn't get a logo, but instead, my screen quickly blinked white on and off. Kinda like a strobe light. I tried soft resets, warm resets, nothing would work. So hard reset it was.
Well, today I was reading CliePlanet and noticed that Shaun McGill, another fellow NX user has also had a recent hard reset. I hope this doesn't continue, or else we can't make fun of those PPC users anymore.