When I’ve heard that Apple sales a hand mirror as a Video Conference Kit I thought: That’s a joke.

Imagine yourself (a man) walking around, with a mirror in your hand.

Aarggghhh! Soooo, gay!!!

Very good joke indeed.

Here is my geeky solution, that you can use w/o being ashamed ;-)

iphoneconferencekit1

I would use a spring clamp, covered by rubber. The spring clamp will continue  with a flexible arm.

.iphoneconferencekit2

The video conferencing software could correct a little bit the image distortion.

Here is – as an example – a Video Conference with Milton.

iphoneconferencekit3

I’ve asked him if he can give me his RED stapler ;-)

And… well… here is a lousy prototype with my RED spring clamp:

iphoneconferencekit4
I didn’t even used a fisheye mirror and it worked.

I’m pretty sure that I’m not the first one having this idea, but why the hell nobody does it?!

At least the guys from ThinkGeek should do it :D

There is another alternative I found on YouTube, but I consider it not so “mobile” and a little bit bulky:

Feel free to comment on this topic.

In other news… Since a while, there is a Windshield Wiper available for iPhone.

It keeps your screen clean and it’s fully patented.

Since a few weeks Silverlight drives me crazy. It crashes Google’s Chrome bigtime.
I was searching for disabling it, but no success. Still searching…
Meanwhile I found some “about:” pages for Chrome.
The nicest one is “about:internets”. Yes… It made of tubes :D

Update: I found a solution. Add/Remove Programs -> Microsoft Silverlight -> Uninstall. Sayonara!

iPhone Update (2.2.1)

June 11th, 2009 | Posted by deCoder in Life Hacks - (29 Comments)

img_0002

Am gasit ceva timp sa-mi fac update de la 1.1.3 la 2.2.1.

3.0 e inca in beta ptr. curajosi (am auzit ca a “rasuflat” pe torrent). Cica o sa fie la download peste cateva zile.

Intai am facut update la 1.1.4 sa-mi exersez nervii si apoi cu QuickPwn la 2.2.1

Procedura e simpla:

 

Procedura a durat cam o ora (cu tot cu download-uri). Insa research-ul premergator m-a costat 2-3 ore :D

Acum, de ce am facut update? Pentru Cydia si Installer bineinteles. Aditional si pentru AppStore.

Ce applicatii utile am gasit? Iata o lista:

De pe Cydia

  • Bookreader
  • WinterBoard
  • SMSCounter si CallCounter
  • OfflineMaps
  • dTunes
  • Cycorder
  • File2Mail
  • MPlayer si VLC
  • MxTube
  • BossPrefs
  • Vibrus
  • Pysl

De pe AppStore

  • Skype
  • SHOUTCast
  • Free Wi-Fi
  • Google Earth
  • MeinStadt
  • TV Select
  • Shazam
  • DarkRoom
  • Wikipanion

Comerciale

  • WordRoll DE (un dictionar foarte bun la numau 1 Euro)

Deoarece nu am vrut sa-mi bag VISA card in AppStore, am luat un iTunes Card de 15 Euro si asa mi-au activat contul.

Cardurile astea se gasesc la toate magazinele de electronice din Germania (MediaMarkt, Saturn, etc.)

Ah… Sa nu uit. iPhone PC Suite e un programel destul de util. E made in China da merge mai bine decat iTunes ;-)

Wolfram|Alpha Fail!

June 3rd, 2009 | Posted by deCoder in Life Hacks - (3 Comments)

wfail

I was trying today to search a tool or something that calculates the shortest distance between two points on Earth.

My first thought was to google for it (as usual), but since there was some noise a while ago about Wolfram|Alpha I jump there for a search.

I’ve typed in: shortest path between two points on a sphere

and I got “Wolfram|Alpha isn’t sure what to do with your input.” and Wolfram|Alpha sent me to the mathematical model of the Sphere.

Then I googled the same phrase

First hit sends me to a Mathematica applet (a product of Wolfram). So, google knows much more about Wolfram that Wolfram itself.

The second link was an interactive web based Google Map, very easy to use wich gave me the exact response I’ve searched.

I know that Wolfram|Alpha is not a search engine and is maybe in Alpha state, but if it fails giving me responses on basic geometry questions then what the hell it is?

Hype?!

Motion Sensor

May 25th, 2009 | Posted by deCoder in Life Hacks | Work - (5 Comments)

I’ve been adding to the Talking Pixels application a real-time motion detection algorithm.
You add an area, you set the motion sensor sensibility and then you assign a script. Here are some examples with basic midi commands.


It works very precise and smooth. Here is a sample video on my Acer Aspire Revo.

Details about how-to-do-it here.

Acer Aspire Revo

May 8th, 2009 | Posted by deCoder in Life Hacks | Misc - (3 Comments)

Few days ago I got my Acer Aspire Revo from T-Online Shop for 299 Euro (shipping included).

Today I had time to roll some HD Video samples on it.

After few playback problems (most likelly because of the improper DirectShow splitter), I got a finally smooth playback in Media Player Classic.

To emphasize how nice the system behaves when playing back a Full-HD sample, I did some screenshots.

First a screenshot of the System Load for a Full HD 1080p mkv sample (sorry, german captions):

load1080p  

The CPU load fluctuates between 10% and 15% with a spike of ~50% (on full-screen start-up) and at the end a spike of ~60% (when returning from full-screen mode).

Here are some info about the 1080p sample:

  • AVC High@L4.1 ID V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
  • Bitrate: 7 494 Kbps
  • Nominal bitrate : 7 816 Kbps
  • 1 920 x 1 080

Here are some details for 720p, measured with perfmon.

720p

The spikes here are occuring because I’ve seeked the video while playing.

Here are some info about the 720p sample:

  • AVC High@L3.1
  • Codec ID  V_MPEG4/ISO/AVC
  • Bitrate: 3 717 Kbps
  • Nominal bitrate: 3 891 Kbps
  • 1 280 x 720

Now! Let’s see what you get for 299 Euro?

Acer-Aspire-Revo

  • Acer Aspire Revo
    • Motherboard – NVIDIA ION
    • Northbridge – NVIDIA ION
    • Southbridge – NVIDIA ION
      my comment : Hehe… Where Art Thou Intel?! ;-)
  • GPU
    • NVIDIA GeForce 9400
  • Processor
    • Intel Atom 230
    • Speed – 1.6 GHz
    • L2 Cache per core – 512KB, Single Core
  • Memory
    • Size / Config - 2 x 1024 (2GB)
    • Speed (MHz) – 800 MHz
    • Command Rate 1T/2T – 2T
  • Drivers
    • GPU – NVIDIA GeForce v185.38
    • Chipset – NVIDIA nForce v20.10
  • Hard Drive
    • Seagate Momentus 5400.5
    • Speed / Size – 5400 RPM / 160GB
  • OS
    • Windows Vista Premium x32 with SP1
  • Ultra-slim design
  • Windows Vista Home Premium experience (my comment: here I would say that this experience is not always nice ;-) )
  • 10x Faster Graphics than competitive graphics solutions
  • DirectX 10 graphics with advanced digital display connectivity
  • HDMI and eSATA ports
  • Premium 1080p HD video with true-fidelity 7.1 channel audio
  • Full support for 24-bit 8-channel LPCM uncompressed audio through HDMI
  • Great mainstream gaming experience on popular games like Spore, LEGO Batman, and Wall-E
  • Accelerated video enhancement and transcoding using NVIDIA CUDA technology
  • CUDA technology unlocks the processing power of the GPU to accelerate video transcoding and run the most compute-intensive applications 

More about this nice piece of Hardware at HotHardware.com

My personal conclusion: Impressed!

Cauciucuri de la Nicoleta

April 29th, 2009 | Posted by deCoder in Life Hacks | Romania - (1 Comments)

Asta e raspunsul meu la emailul donshoarei de mai jos care incerca sa-mi vanda cauciucuri de vara…

In conformitate cu muschii mei, acest post nu poate fi considerat rauvoitor, deoarece:
- acceptare de primire a mesajului nu va implica financiar
- adresa d-voastra de e-mail si celalate informatii au fost gasite in inboxul meu intr-un mesaj oarecare
- acest mesaj va este adresat cu scopul de a va invita sa beneficiati de serviciile mele si va este transmis in dorinta de a va tine la curent cu cele mai noi si mai profitabile servicii pe care vi le pot eu oferi.

Pentru ca inteleg si apreciez dorinta dumneavoastra de intimitate, imi cer scuze daca acest mesaj a ajuns din greseala la dvs., iar daca doriti sa nu mai primiti astfel de mesaje in viitor va rog eu sa nu mai trimiteti spam pe email.

Guy.Brush

Pal Nicoleta
marketing@westlake.ro
0761-105.100, 0269-252.05
yahoo id: nicoleta_cg
In conformitate cu legea 365/2002 privind comertul electronic, acest mesaj nu este si nu poate fi considerat spam, deoarece: contine datele necesare de iedentificare; acceptare de primire a ofertei nu va implica financiar; adresa d-voastra de e-mail a fost gasita fie pe un site public, fie intr-un ghid de afaceri, fie in adresele altor firme care ne-au trimis ofertele lor sau am primit-o cu ocazia unor intalniri de afaceri; acest mesaj va este adresat cu scopul de a va invita sa beneficiati de serviciile companiei noastre si va este transmis in dorinta de a va tine la curent cu cele mai noi si mai profitabile servicii pe care vi le putem oferi. Pentru ca intelegem si apreciem dorinta dumneavoastra de intimitate, ne cerem scuze daca acest mesaj a ajuns din greseala la dvs., iar daca doriti sa nu mai primiti astfel de mesaje in viitor va rugam sa ne trimiteti un reply cu textul UNSUBSCRIBE. Va multumim pentru intelegere.

Carte Postala Universala

April 1st, 2009 | Posted by deCoder in Life Hacks - (0 Comments)

Un Geek adevarat nu are timp de poezie. El merge direct, la subiect fara parabole literare. Inspirandu-ma de la Ji Lee, (via Troniu) am purces, in pauza, la revigorarea skill-urilor de Word.

All-In-One Postal Card (PDF Version)

Instructiuni:

  • tipariti pe A4 (fatza si spate) preferabil pe o hartie mai groasa
  • indoiti egal in patru (aveti 4 carti postale deodata)
  • taiati
  • bifati
  • scrieti adresa
  • puneti timbrul si gata

Daca textul dorit nu se gaseste in lista, bifati ultima optiune si scrieti ce vreti.

Download (PDF) : Romana
Download (PDF) : Engleza

Have Fun!

Checklist – Plan de afaceri

March 27th, 2009 | Posted by deCoder in Life Hacks | Misc - (0 Comments)

Un articol bunicel de aici via troniu.

De retinut intrebarile la care trebuie sa raspunzi inainte de a purcede la drum:

  • Care sunt clientii care vor utiliza produsele sau serviciile?
  • Care este amplasamentul adecvat pentru afacere?
  • Ce pret este potrivit pentru situatia pietei?
  • Cum vor fi distribuite produsele catre clienti?
  • Care sunt perspectivele pietei pe termen scurt si lung?
  • Cum poate fi extinsa gama de produse?
  • Cine sunt concurentii si care sunt punctele lor tari si slabe?
  • Care este conceptul de marketing cel mai potrivit?
  • Care este necesarul de capital?
  • Care este forma juridica cea mai potrivita pentru afacere?