Tom’s Hardware takes a look at the build-it-yourseld laptop systems. If you like building your own PC, this might appeal to you. It seems like it will always be a little more expensive, but you’ll get exactly what you want. The cool part is in the end you get to put it all together yourself, the article also includes a video. Thanks Spyder. Link.
I’m really interested in the Yahoo! Music Engine because of Ian Rogers who works for Yahoo! -he posted a list of reasons you should or shouldn’t use the new player and service. Napster taught us alll price matters, so $5/month is better, IM hooks (finally some does IM sharing), OGG and FLAC Encoding and plug ins for podcasting, as well as other roll your own type addons. I’m going to try it, looks different, looks like someone is listening…and that’s what it takes to get me to install something. Link.
Here’s a neat article on how to use keyboard LEDs to monitor the status of a linux server. MartyBug.net writes “I have a number of linux servers at home, and typically want to be able to monitor the status of them remotely. The servers are all located in a walk-in-cupboard in my office, and being able to see the status of some key parameters is very handy. In particular, I want to be able to see the status of my internet firewall, a Smoothwall box, ie, if my internet connection is up, and if traffic is being received and/or transmitted“. Link.
More intrigue, suspense and a roller-coaster ride on the PEZ MP3 project it seems. The PEZ MP3 is project started by a stay at home day with the dream of bringing a PEZ MP3 player to market- the latest: PEZ won’t let go for “Candy for your Ears” and PEZ won’t allow the player to use the same heads as the normal candy filled ones. This might all sound like bad news, but Pat has some new ideas and some solutions.Link.
Zunk writes “While traditional approaches essentially start with a “brain,” and attempt to build robots “downward” from that, BEAM robotics starts from simple reflexes, in a “bottoms-up” approach. The majority of BEAM robots are non-computerized (although simple CPUs can be used to drive them, in a “horse and rider” sort of way). Unlike many traditional processor-based robots, BEAM robots are cheap, simple, and can be built by a hobbyist with basic skills in a matter of hours. Because of this, BEAM is an excellent way of getting started in robotics, and of learning about electronics”. Link.
Wow, a Tablet Mac might be hitting the scene soon! Awhile back there were stories (2004) about a tablet Mac and today Mac Observer reports “Apple Computer was granted a patent for an enigmatically titled “Electronic device” Tuesday, May 10th, 2005. Illustrations for the device clearly indicate it to be a tablet-style Macintosh, and patent filings specifically compare it to the “HP Compaq Tablet PC” and several other tablet machines“. Of course if you’re jonesing for one now, you can always make your own.
Here’s a great step-by-step on using Firefox, Greasemonkey and Flickr to GeoTag your photos to use with GeoBloggers.com. Once you get the script installed, you browse to your Flickr image, add a new “geotag” and enter in a zip code. You’ll then use Google maps to locate a position and it saves the location data to the photo. Once that’s complete you can submit the image to Geobloggers. Link.
