Current Projects

In lieu of anything worthwhile or extraordinary to write about, I'm going to regale you all with a long list of things I've accomplished lately.

Signed up for Amazon Cloud Drive

Yet another contender for cloud storage. Seeing as I can't/won't pay for online data storage, I've stuck with free limited accounts with Dropbox, Ubuntu One, Google Docs and another one that I can't remember the name of. Oh well. I'll test them all out to see which reigns supreme for my personal needs. So far, Dropbox is the winner, especially since they have a Chrome web app and an Android app. I'm sure the others are the same, I've just used Dropbox the most.

Amazon is pushing their Cloud Drive storage as a music-centric utility, so the first thing I'm doing is uploading a selection of my, um, legal music collection. I already see a recurring problem with cloud storage: uploading. The sorry state of broadband speed in the US means that I pay upwards of fifty dollars a month for anywhere from two to twelve megabytes downstream and half a megabyte upstream. Pitiful. If I were to try to fill my five gigs of Amazon storage, it would take me almost three hours, and Time Warner would probably disconnect me halfway through the upload for hogging the bandwidth.

Update: Apparently, in order to make use of the Android app, I have to purchase music from Amazon's MP3 store. Oh well, no such thing as a free lunch.

Set up my Android development environment

I reformatted my desktop a few weeks ago so that I could set it up to triple boot Windows 7, Ubuntu and Snow Leopard, and had neglected to reinstall Eclipse and the Android SDK tools. I made a half-hearted attempt to learn Java for Android about a year ago when I got my MyTouch 3G, but didn't get much further than the requisite "Hello World" app. My programming knowledge isn't what you would call extensive, or even existent, really. I took a basic programming course in college, didn't retain any of it, didn't take any follow-up courses, so now I'm left to teach myself.

Rooted and unrooted and rerooted my Nook Color

One of the reasons I love my Nook Color is that it has the potential to be more than just an e-reader. Sure, you can browse the web and play chess and listen to Pandora right out of the box, but not much more than that. Barnes & Noble put their own limited version of Android on the Nook, but Android developers everywhere have made it possible to install pretty much any version of Android you want. I've spent the past few weeks trying all of the different builds, starting with just a regular root of the stock OS, then booting Honeycomb from a microSD card, then dual booting the rooted stock OS and CyanogenMod 7, and many different configurations of those before settling on the CM7 tablet tweaked release candidate. Now I can watch Flash videos, play Angry Birds, add widgets to my homescreens, basically customize the crap out of it. I also overclocked the processor slightly, which has given me vastly improved performance at the expense of battery life, but whatever. I can always revert to the normal kernal and regain battery life if it becomes a problem. Check out the Nook Devs site or XDA forums for more info.

Installed an OS X Virtual Machine

Here's another thing I know virtually (ha) nothing about, but did anyway. After attempting to turn my desktop into a triple-booting Hackintosh and struggling with getting my graphics drivers straightened out, I came to the conclusion that it would probably be easier just to buy an Apple computer. Then I found a guide on Lifehacker on how to create an OS X Virtual Machine in Windows 7, and thought I'd give it a shot. As of right now, all I've done is install it and run it once to make sure it worked, which it appeared to. I'll have to keep tinkering with it.

Linking a Bluetooth Keyboard to Rooted Nook Color

I must say, this is pretty cool. I just paired my Nook Color, rooted with CyanogenMod 7, with my Logitech DiNovo Edge Bluetooth keyboard. That's actually how I'm typing this blog post. I downloaded the Blue Input Demo app in order to successfully pair my keyboard and Android tablet. It isn't perfect, however -- the connection is a bit weak, so some letters are left out as I type, and because it's a demo, every so often the name of the app will ins[blueinput demo]er[blueinput demo]t itself into my text. See what I mean? Looks like I'll have to either wait for Barnes & Noble to add Bluetooth functionality to the stoc[blueinput demo]k Android, or I'll have to pay for the full version of Blue Input.

If it was more error-free, I'd consider [blueinput demo]buying a small Bluetooth keyboard (like Apple's) and leaving my netbook at home more often. Lifehacker had a couple good articles [blueinput demo]recently about increasing productivity, and they talked about how using a tablet can help you focus on one task at a time. I'll believe it. This is[blueinput demo] actually a pretty good way to avoid the distraction of a full-featured computer when all you need is to get some writing done.

I like where Asus is going with their line of tablets. One model has a built-in sliding physical keyboard, and another can be docked in a keyboard shell, turning it into a laptop of sorts. The Nook Color is nice to play with, but not built as a productivity tool. I'd be interested in picking up a full-featured tablet once the iPad eventually gets some real competition.

Nook Color Book Case

If I told you ten years ago that I'd built a book case that could hold tens of thousands of books, you would've either looked at me in disbelief or questioned my ability to count. But that's exactly what I did over the past week, only it was less of a system of shelving to store paper books, and more of a case for my e-reader built out of a paper book. Book case, get it? I guess "Nook case" would be more appropriate. Either way, I turned an old hardcover book into a camouflage case to store and display my Nook Color. I destroyed an analogue book to protect a digital book... the whole project stinks of irony. Or something. Maybe it's just the glue.

I didn't think to take any pictures of the process, but it was fairly straight forward. I got the basic instructions from the How To Do Stuff blog, but made a few small modifications to accommodate my Nook Color.



They did a pretty good job of providing detailed instructions on the blog, so I'll just summarize. I painted a water/glue mixture onto the edges of the book, allowing it to soak in and dry. Once it had completely dried, I measured my Nook and drew guidelines on the top page of the pages I wanted to cut, and then used a metal straightedge and a box cutter to cut down through all the pages, removing the cut-out paper as I went. Once I had reached the end, I applied the glue mixture to the inside edges of the hollow and clamped the book shut while drying. When it was dry, I put my Nook in to make sure it fit, made a few adjustments, and eventually had a perfect snug fit.

I used the case for a few days to transport my Nook safely, and then decided I wanted to be able to use the book case as a stand for my Nook as well. The meant repeating the glue process on the remaining pages in the front of the book, and cutting out a notch the width and length of the edge of my Nook so that it could stand on its own. If I was going to do this all over again, I would've taken this into account at the start and tried to incorporate a vertical stand as well as horizontal.





All in all, I'm happy with how it turned out, and might even make a few more to sell online. Anyone interested?

Why I'm sick of my Cr-48

I’ve had the opportunity to test drive Google’s new Chrome OS for the past two months. The excitement I felt when my Cr-48 showed up on my doorstep has slowly disappeared as I encounter problem after problem. While I’m aware that this is just a prototype and there are bound to be kinks, the things that frustrated me are more than just bugs. On the computer user spectrum, I rate closer to the “power user” end of things, and that’s probably why I’ve been so disappointed in the Cr-48 as an everyday computer.

The most recent roadblock I’ve run into has involved the lackadaisical file management system and the inability of Chrome OS to properly interact with USB devices. I bought a Nook Color last week while visiting my parents, and while I was able to read books right out of the box, I was more interested in rooting it and loading my microSD card with music, videos and documents. Unfortunately, I had chosen to take my Cr-48 with me over my netbook, and was unable to do any of those things.

Within the first week of receiving my Cr-48, I had already downloaded dozens of web apps and extensions. I’ve been forced to disable or uninstall nearly all of the extensions to narrow down reasons for the browser crashing, and I’ve given up using web apps because they’re all pretty much just glorified web page links. I’m sure the quality and quantity of web apps and extensions will improve as Chrome OS and the Chrome browser gain popularity, but right now they’re in their infancy, and I want nothing to do with them.

Browsing the web on the Cr-48 makes me nostalgic for the days of dial-up. My usual routine of jumping between a dozen open tabs at a time causes so much stress to the operating system that I’ve had to try to train myself to work with five tabs or less, which I have trouble abiding by. If I had the time and energy to devote to maintaining my Google Reader, I could bypass going to my favorite sites and just get all the content in one easy place, but why should I be forced to do that?

I can’t watch Netflix whatsoever, videos on Hulu and Youtube are excruciatingly slow and choppy more often than not, and many popular web pages are just so damn media-rich that loading them on the Cr-48 drags down the performance of everything else. For something that is marketed on a platform of always being tethered to the Internet, the web browsing experience on the Cr-48 feels like a step in the wrong direction.

In its current state, Chrome OS isn’t an ideal substitute for a real computer. Sure, it might be a perfect single-tasking companion for students and technophobes, but for me, it’s more useful as a secondary machine for browsing Reddit, writing in Google Docs and checking my e-mail. However, as with all early forms of technology, Google’s Chrome OS will improve over time and slowly settle into the world of computing as an everyday service, just like everything else that Google touches.

Edit: Just a little post script to prove my point -- I tried doing a Google Image search for a Chrome logo to put in this blog post, and the page crashed. It can't even handle a simple image search. On Google, nonetheless.

NOOKcolor

Tonight is my first night with my new NOOKcolor. After months of drooling over new tablets and e-readers, I've inally taken the plunge and chosen something that is purportedly the best of both worlds. I don't plan on using this as my only means to read books, nor do I want to browse the internet solely on a tablet, but there are definite situations where I can enjoy a tablet/e-reader hybrid. I fully expect to experience buyer's remorse later in the year when the market is saturated with tablets of all shapes and sizes; if I let a silly thing like that stop me, I would never buy anything at all.

My first impressions of the NOOKcolor: decent web browsing, plenty of reading options, beautiful screen, good size. However, the screen seems almost too sensitive at times, going haywire if you touch it with slighly sweaty fingers. I'll have to keep a microfiber cloth on hand. No autocorrect is a pain in the ass, so I don't expect to do much writing on here. The back edge of the unit feels loose at times, moving around more than I would hope.

As of right now, I'm happy with it overall. There's talk of a B&N Marketplace coming soon, and if its a letdown, I can always root it and slap Honeycomb on a microSD card. Which I fully intend on doing anyway.

Welcome

After years of perusing different gadget and computer themed blogs and websites, I've decided to try my hand at writing my own. You won't find day-of-release reviews or breaking stories here, just a collection of how-to guides, gadget comparisons and reviews, technology news and my opinion on all things tech-related. I'm always engrossed in my own little technology projects, always trying to learn more about computers and gadgets and how to utilize them to their fullest potential. This blog will serve to combine my love of writing and my obsession with consumer technology.