Thursday, July 31, 2008

Garmin China navigator on microSD, received today, looks promising with lots of POIs. Doesn't match Google Earth lat/lon though
BeerLao to (possibly) get wider distribution. Hooray! http://ping.fm/W2GNv

Monday, July 28, 2008

Lightweight "Travel" GPS in Direct Sunlight

I'm looking for a GPS that I can put on the handlebar of a moto (small motorcycle) or bicycle when traveling instead of having my Garmin Vista HCx in the carabiner stretch holster (Garmin part 010-10480-00) I've currently been using.  The idea is to be able to view while riding, instead of having to stop/slow down to look at the screen.

Requirements:
--readable in direct sunlight
--waterproof
--relatively lightweight (especially for the bicycle scenarior)
--readable screen
--addon maps.

Other considerations:
--batteries (removable chargable; AA; non-removable)
--screen size
--controls (touch, button, manipulate relatively safely while moving)

Evaluation so far:
--the nuvi 270 isn't readable in direct sunlight as the HCx and 76CSx are, regardless of what I see in online reviews.
Tiger Direct offering Blackberry Bold for preorder, expected September. US$650

Sunday, July 27, 2008

iPhone (G1 orG2) for US; unlocked [future] GSM Blackberry Bold with local SIM for rest of world?

Friday, July 25, 2008

thinking about which Google services really need the overhead of httpS security. Maybe not Reader.

Tuesday, July 22, 2008

twinkle app on iphone dies when trying to display nearby tweets
GrandCentral is down (now in apparent proper format for outage tweets)
GrandCentral site apparently down
Yelp iPhone search brings up weird results. Search for Middle Eastern in 90630 area returned a veterinarian instead of a restaurant

Saturday, July 19, 2008

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Thai and Cambodian Troop Buildup at Preah Vihear

BBC reports:
Cambodia and Thailand moved more troops into an ancient border temple, as a stand-off triggered by a territorial dispute entered its third day.

Four hundred Thai troops and 800 Cambodian soldiers are now stationed at Preah Vihear temple, a Cambodian military chief said.

I wonder if more mines have been cleared in the last couple of years since it didn't appear that there's not that much room past the no-man's land to deploy a lot of troops safely. The condition of the approaches favor reinforcements from the Thai side.

Tuesday, July 15, 2008

Shazam iPhone music identification app working out better than Midomi, which seems to have more function, but has server busy a lot

Monday, July 14, 2008

Hotwire is showing grossly misleading prices. The $28.90/day car rental turns into $60.95 when selected

Sunday, July 13, 2008

Introduction Evernote iPhone app may make Evernote more useful than Google Notebook

Saturday, July 12, 2008

Apparently can't edit Loopt address details and it won't look them up to avoid filling them in

Friday, July 11, 2008

iPhone 2.0 update allows sync with Google contacts in addition to Yahoo. Yahoo offers more contact fields.
iPhone must be in cell range to complete 2.0 update. Otherwise brick. Is this documented?
iPhone showing as connected after 2.0 upgrade, though not. Won't reset. Uh oh.
iPhone 2 update took 6 tries to get started. Initially no update shown as available.
AT&T 3G coverage viewer at http://ping.fm/zlZ4P doesn't zoom and center under Firefox 3 or IE

Thursday, July 10, 2008

ypmap.com for Hong Kong doesn't work with Firefox 3/Vista. IE ok
dopplr bot receives twitter direct messages to add trips.
iPhone App: Lonely Planet Mandarin phrasebook, free
new HP laptop dv5 disks are slow 5400rpm. Maybe dv7t will have 7200 as now available

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

is Google's Lively worth taking for a spin or wait until there's a Mac client?
Google Apps Docs spreadsheets and Firefox 3 don't seem to be having the same constantly refreshing issues of last week

Tuesday, July 08, 2008

still can't sync GrandCentral contacts with anything else (Plaxo for Gmail/Yahoo, Yahoo for iPhone). Maybe I'm missing something.

Saturday, July 05, 2008

was pointed to an Shanghai interactive street map at http://ping.fm/xscxc

Friday, July 04, 2008

Wordspy, first use of coined words/phrases, as a trend indicator. http://www.wordspy.com/

Thursday, July 03, 2008

Google now fully mature with several simultaneously unreliable services. Predictable but frustrating

Wednesday, July 02, 2008

keeping track of cheap budget hotels in China. http://ping.fm/hVnhs
Firefox 3 + Google Apps Docs spreadsheet [still] continuously refreshing. IE is ok.

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Google Apps Docs continuously refreshing under Firefox 3/Vista inhibiting reading or updating