Archive for June, 2006

BatteryGeek.net Portable Power Station

Published by
jon
at June 20, 2006 in Notes. 3 Comments

Thanks to Carl Worth’s recommendation, I have now purchased BatterGeek.net’s Portable Power Station.

I’m expecting big things out of this, like 10-12 hours (7-8 hours power station + 4-6 hours 2 laptop batteries) of no need to plug in laptop which is perfect for long flights, trains from Guangzhou to Shanghai (23 hours) and because my ac adaptor melted down because of a knicked cable.

I couldn’t resist the deal. This thing, while plugged into the wall and your laptop, charges both your laptop and itself and has a gazillion power adaptors and a +5V USB connector as well to power your cell phone (charge) and other devices at the same time. Oh, and it has airline adaptors and features “variable voltage selection from 3V,5V,6V,9V,12V,16V,19V,21V,24V,28V.” Power-up!

Save that money from not buying a macbook and get this instead (Did I get that right this time ;) Trust me, I don’t really buy that much stuff (except when in china) and try to stay away from the gear purchases. I think buying the “BMW M6 of battery packs” is worth it. Here is more from their site:

Welcome to the BMW M6 of battery packs which powers any device from 3V~28V. Features built in variable voltage selection from 3V,5V,6V,9V,12V,16V,19V,21V,24V,28V. Packed with power at 130WH Capacity. This scaleable power solution features independant power in and power out jacks making it possible to daisy chain multiple units for extended run times. Also features a power off button to conserve charge when not in use. Also features a built in USB port which outputs 5V. Also features a built in USB port which outputs 5V. Includes mobile cell tips to recharge and power most cell phones and PDAs including mini-USB tip for BlackBerry, RAZR and more.

Evolution: Keep on Replacing Your Windows Too (starting with Outlook)

Published by
jon
at June 19, 2006 in Notes. 2 Comments

UPDATE: Linksvayer keeps me in check while my brain is in overstimulation because of my new power station I just purchased (more in a second about that). I updated the post to reflect the non-cocoa/aqua nature of the Evolution release (oops).
Chuck your Outlook and use (Novell-funded) Gnome’s Evolution (which now has CalDAV support!)

Think Different. Apple. Boycott.

Published by
jon
at June 19, 2006 Uncategorizedin . 17 Comments

Its has always amazed me how brainwashed people, aka consumers, get from purchasing products in the name of “good design” and “ease of use” when the companies they buy their products from harm the communities they take their code from without reciprocity. And by company, I mean Apple. And, the aforementioned communities are Free Software, Open Source, and on-line music purchasers. Like Linksvayer, I’m not shocked by Apple’s latest moves and it reaffirms my committment to not buy their one button mouse products (I need three). Bring on the flames, it only increases my Google rank and gets me to laugh when I read the posts ;)

Come on, stand up, boycott Apple, aka switch, until they give back to the Open Source communities and rip out that DRM from their products. Think Different.

CalDAV + Life

Published by
jon
at June 19, 2006 in Notes. 1 Comment

Are there any free CalDAV services out there? I want to test my new evolution 2.6 out and see if I can get some shared calendar editing between some people. I can’t believe Google Calendar nor 30boxes supports this yet…c’mon! This is really a big missing piece of the groupware puzzle. Looks like the caldav spec is written by an osaf’er. ;)

I’m back in San Francisco after a great month in China. Now I’m in my house which is completely cleared out but with new roommate, post-peace corps Josh XXXXXX. Ladies, he’s up for grabs…

I’m heading to Brazil on Wednesday for a week for Creative Commons/iCommons iSummit. I apologize to all my friends I have not talked with about heading here and connectivity to this occasion.

Speaking at 1st Creative Commons Beijing Salon

Published by
jon
at June 9, 2006 in Notes. 0 Comments

Hello all, I am one of the speakers at the first Creative Commons Beijing Salon on Sunday in Beijing at Tsinghua University. This is from Chunyan Wang, the project lead for Creative Commons China:

I am now writing to invite you to our first CC China Salon, taking place in Beijing on Sunday, June 11 from 10:30 AM - 1:30 PM at the Thinkers Cafe (It’s just next to the campus of Tsinghua University. here is the detail address: All Sages Bookstore, No. 5 Building of Lan Qi Ying, Cheng Fu Road, Haidian District ) It would be a casual get-together focused on conversation and community-building with 2-3 brief presentations.

I am currently in Shanghai. This city is totally amazing and a nice temperature.

Please tune into Creative Commons Salon in San Francisco next Wed from 6-9 at Shinesf.com

It is going to be amazing.

HOWTO get your email/web/etc where you can’t get access to some connections

Published by
jon
at June 4, 2006 in Notes. 5 Comments

This is what I’m running from commandline:

ssh -L 1110:mail.rejon.org:110 -L 1143:mail.ctyme.com:143 -L 1125:mail.rejon.org:25 USERNAME@rejon.org

Then, all I do is change the places where normally I would put mail.rejon.org, mail.ctyme.com, etc, and replace the USERNAME and @rejon.org with your own server and hostname (possibly your web hosting provider) with:

localhost:corresponding_new_port

So, mail.rejon.org would become:

localhost:1125

So, this works for securing your email through SSH Tunneling.

Mac users, here is an app you can use to make this point-and-click.

Have fun and remember to use this when traveling abroad in places that won’t let you get your favorite WWW encyclopedia or CC.org email, for example.