onizo#

Samsung 3D TV Commercial. It may not be art, but it's creative!

Getting your feet wet in GoogleWave

Getting started with googlewave can be a bit overwhelming for some. My first problem was that I didn't have any friends or co-workers to 'collaborate' on waves with. so, after a little digging around I found a great way to start 'catching' waves.

in your wave search bar, simply query for 'with:public' and watch your wavebox go nuts! refine your search by adding tags or arguments like 'with:public san diego'. It helps your search become manageable. I found this to be a great way to meet other people and start waving on topics and subjects that I don't need to manage.

Enjoy!

The 'near' future of everyday communications

I love technology. In particular, devices that increase the way I can communicate with people globally. Whether through a wire, antennae, or glass. Network speeds, data indexing, resource interaction, asset management... all of these things are enhanced in next generation cellular phones.

Soon, our phones will be our laptops. With full docking capabilities allowing us to use 100" HD projectors to watch the latest DVD that I just received from my peer to peer network. Full surround sound, the ability to find any network connection available, and video conferencing will be as typical as SMS messaging is today. oh, wanna stream my display to the rest of the TV's and monitors in the house? voice command sharing.

daydreaming...*drool*

Google Android and T-Mobile release the T-Mobile G1 on October 22nd, 2008

The T-Mobile G1 will be available to purchase on October 22nd in the United States.

Being a T-Mobile customer, I have been waiting quite a while to use a next generation phone that I would actually get excited about. I used the nokia e61 for a couple years and loved it. Switched to the blackberry curve about 5 months ago and have been complaining ever since...

Ever since T-Mobile announced their release of the G1, I have been thoroughly disappointed. No mentions of an accelerometer. GPS? ha! no such luck. You get a compass... Everyone needs a compass!!! just in case your are lost in the dessert... I realize the application of a compass warrants some merrit. I'd rather have GPS+accelerometer. wtf?

Also, the G1 falls short of other features the iPhone provides. The G1 is larger and heavier. How about some disk space. 256MB built in with a 1GB SDCard (should at least have 32GB. How about a video camera? Bluetooth?

I guess T-Mobile got cheap on the phone build and Google didn't have the pull to require better spec's for the inagural launch. Since AT&T has made a clear partnership with Apple, and Verizon announcing it's "iPhone Killer" with RIM, Google only as a few options. T-Mobile, probably being the best at this point.

On the day of the release I will be picking up my T-Mobile G1. Hopefully, I will be pleasantly surprised at the technical brilliance of the G1. If not, I may have to commit an entire blog to G1 hacks and how-to's.

To google and t-mobile:
please, make sure to have GPS+accelerometer on the G2 release.

Ubuntu on Thinkpad T43 laptop - Numlock stuck 'on'

A few months ago, I found a common bug that is shared amongst all ubuntu users on thinkpad laptops. The numlock function stays 'on' and cannot be turned off via keyboard command. So, here is the fix:

Step 1:
# run the gconf-editor from a terminal window
onizo# gconf-editor

Step 2:
# in the Configuration Editor window
go to Edit -> Find and enter "numlock" in the search field. be sure to enable "Search also in key names"

Step 3:
# use the checkboxes to enable/disable features
Turn off "remember_numlock_state"
Turn off numlock "numlock_on"

That's it. no reboot required.

playing .avi movies with ac3 sound encoding on mac os x 10.5.4

did you recently download a movie in the .avi format and can't hear any sound? this may be due to a couple of missing components that do not ship with a typical install of quicktime player. most commonly, I have seen movies that have the sound encoded in AC3 format.

make sure to clean out any other ac3 and sound components in /Library/Quicktime/ before installing the new ones.

STEP 1
Download and install the latest free version of the DivX codec

STEP 2
Download and install the latest version of A52Codec - 1.7.7

Good luck.

personal computing

A few years ago, I stopped using linux on my laptops due to the amount of time it took for me to configure my peripherals and custom application. When it comes to my personal computers, I have 3 basic needs: access to the internet, play audio and visual media, and of course; a shell. Anything less after an install is just a thorough disappointment.

Being a M$ hater. I naturally started using a Mac. a ~nix operating system, which I still use for it's feature rich applications.

I kinda jumped on the 'Ubuntu Train'. my experience with Debian was short lived as I was already pretty setup with fedora. I was pleasantly surprised at how organic Ubuntu seemed to run. With a little assistance pegasus (my laptop) was up and running within an hour of starting my install.

Currently, I'm running 8.04 LTS on an IBM T43 notebook. I also run the same version on a home built system as a development server

I gotta say, I'm very impressed with system overall. The online documentation is amazing. The community as a whole seem to be extremely active in helping the distribution integrate into larger networks.

word.