Category Archives: Uncategorized

To Grandma’s House! (via the Nokia N810 GPS)

Yesterday it was Spot the wonder-dog who took her master on a GPS walk via the Nokia N810. Today, Grandma gets here turn. In my continued testing of the Nokia N810 (see all posts) we learn how to use the embedded GPS capability of the Nokia N810 to reach Grandma’s house. While the test is in good natured fun, one could really use any address:

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Spot Takes a Walk (the Nokia N810)

As I mentioned a few days ago, Nokia sent me a loaner N810 to evaluate. As I really like my N800, I was excited about using the higher end model. There are two big differences between the N800 and the N810. The latter model has a slide out keyboard, and embedded GPS. Yesterday evening Spot (my bassamation) and I decided to test out the embedded GPS during our late afternoon walk. Here is short screencast that reviews our walk and the Nokia’s GPS featues:

With respect to the basic capabilities, link to my earlier post where I have a screencast which reviews most of the Nokia basic features. Finally, I also created a "silent slideshow" which assumes one is lost, and shows how to find oneself:

A couple of comments… My N800 cost me $200. Amazon lists the N810 for $390. I’ve invested $45 for a full sized bluetooth keyboard and plan to add a bluetooth GPS receiver soon (also $45). Thus, my N800 investment is $100 less than the price of an N810. I personally like using a full size keyboard, but I have found the N810’s slide out version also works nicely.
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Nokia Unplugged in Frostbite Falls!

I was excited this afternoon when my wife phoned me at work to let me know that my Nokia N810 had arrived. Actually, Nokia’s N810 had arrived. You see, Nokia has graciously agreed to provide me a loaner 810 for evaluation purposes. As I love my N800 … I thought why not??!

Well, there was one minor problem with the N810 that Nokia sent to me … the included power adapter is for the United Kingdom. Unfortunately all of my power converters assume that someone in the USA wants to plug American appliances into European or Asian outlets … not the other way around.

Now on one hand, an external power charger which is independent of a PC is nice; however there are times a trickle USB charger might also be nice! This is one of those times. Thankfully, my Nokia N800 charger works with the 810.  Thus, I’m still in business.

What was Nokia thinking when they sent me the English version? Regrettably, this is often a problem in we locals face in the frozen Northland. Minnesota is fly-over land … perhaps somewhere near Siberia? Ever heard of Frostbite Falls?!

Anyhow, over the next few weeks I’ll give you my impressions of the Nokia N810 and my own N800. (view all my Nokia posts)
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The Web Shall be Free!

Back at Wikimania in 2006 I met Larry Lessig. This Stanford professor has done more than most people to insure free access to knowledge (a founding goal of this blog). One of his top accomplishments was the founding of Creative Commons. This organization allows for "open sourcing" of ideas. Anyhow, Professor Lessig has decided to take on new challenges (corruption in Washington DC). If you’ve never heard of Larry Lessig or Creative Commons take a few moments to either:

  1. Download (w/o charge) Mr. Lessig’s book: The Future of Ideas
    (or)
  2. Watch Mr. Lessig’s last lecture on this topic, Free Culture

If your job has anything to do with eCommerce or the web, you will be doing yourself a major disservice by not accessing these resources. Whether you agree of not with Professor Lessig, you need to understand his point of view.
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Boeing’s 787 Dreamliner

I’ve been excited about planes and the aerospace industry since my first ride on a North Central DC3 back in the early 1960’s. Many years later in my adult life I’m working in the aerospace industry, and still get excited about new planes … thus from the University of Washington Department of Engineering:

The presenter for this 90 minute webinar is Al Miller, who is Boeing’s Director of Technology Integration. This free seminar is part of a three part series … Engineering the Best: Boomers, A Bridge and the Boeing 787 from UWTV (University of Washington TV). You may watch via streamed webcast, or download a MP4 file for off line viewing. I also added this webcast to the Materials Engineering Section of my Engineering Learning Wiki.

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