Google Goes Mobile

It's official - after months of speculation about a possible "Google Phone" (gPhone?), it has been announced that they are launching an Operating System for mobile phones. This will be in direct competition with the already established names like "Microsoft, Research in Motion, Palm and Symbian". However, one major factor that will affect phone manufacturers choice will be cost. In the best traditions of Google, they are providing their software "to handset makers free of charge". I don't know how much manufacturers pay for the likes of Windows Mobile, but you can bet the cost gets passed on (one way or another) to the end user - you and me. Will the free OS reduce costs for end-users, thus sparking a price war? Or will someone (or everyone) in the chain just increase their profit margins?

I wonder how well it will work with Windows. I have been using a Windows Mobile device for little over 6 months (and for a year about 3 years ago). I love the way you can synchronise it with Microsoft Outlook. However, I am also a fan of Google products. I have been using Gmail for a few years and have used Google Calendar, though since I've been unable to find a truly successful way of synchronising that with my Windows Mobile phone, I've abandoned it in favour of just using Outlook (I haven't had much success with RemoteCalendars, OggSync, gSyncIt or ScheduleWorld - but that story's for another day!). Perhaps this explains why Google haven't rushed to get their calendar to synchronise with Outlook? I would be very surprised if Google's new OS couldn't synchronise Google Calendar to an off-line version on the phone!

(Technorati Rank: 4,446,976)

Recovering From A Bad Flash

Dee has had a problem with her computer refusing to boot recently. It was just hanging at "Verifying DMI Pool Data..." I ruled out the hard-drive as the cause because when I plugged it into my computer, it worked fine. I cleared the CMOS and tried again - but that didn't work, so I decided to flash the BIOS to the latest version. It got most of the way through when disaster struck! It rebooted for no apparent reason. The worst thing was that when it booted, it didn't do anything! I shut it down and cleared the CMOS again, but when I powered it up - nothing happened. Everything powered up OK, but there was no 'beep' from the POST tests, no attempt to read the floppy drive - nothing!

Fortunately, all was not lost. I found a company called Biosflash UK who for less than £10 reflashed the chip with the BIOS file I e-mailed , and also sent me a chip extraction tool. When I got it back a couple of days later and put it in, everything worked! It booted straight back into Windows no problem!

Synchronise and To-Do List for Google - Please!

I've become a fan of Google's Calendar over the last couple of months, but there's an extra couple of things that would make it complete - synchronising with Outlook and a to-do list.

I (along with a lot of people I suspect) want to synchronise their calendar/address book etc with their phones and PDA's. Most devices seem capable of synchronising with Outlook, so it would be ideal if Google could do this. I have heard of RemoteCalendars, but it only works with Outlook 2003 or later and I only have Outlook 2000! There must be a way of doing it - Plaxo have a plugin for Outlook that does it with their service, so it can't be too difficult (I expect licencing could be an issue though).

I know there is a to-do list module for the Google Desktop, but that's not quite the same as a proper web-service. Again, if this could be synchronised with Outlook, that would be great!

Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining (how can you when it's all free?), I just think that these would be useful additions to an already impressive suite of applications.

Google Video

I must admit to being a big fan of Google and have been using the Personalized Homepage for quite a while. The other day, I went onto it from a friends computer, so of course I wasn't signed in. Just as I was about to sign in, I noticed the Google Video. Whilst I don't have it on my personalized screen, I have no objection to them putting it on as sample content. What I did object to was the actual video that loaded - it was called something like "2 girls fight" (I forget the exact name now). Refreshing the page several times revealed a number of similar videos which I would view as 'inappropriate' and certainly not the kind of thing I would be using to advertise my services if I was Google! I don't know whether or not they have any kind of filtering system in place, but I certainly think they should be a bit more careful about the kinds of things they have on their front pages.

My Computer Has Hiccups

I mean this quite literally. Every so often my computer makes a 'hiccup' sound (just did it then). I'm fairly certain its my main hard-drive, which is really annoying because I've only had it since October 2004. My secondary hard-drive has been going for over 6 years with no problems! To be fair, I suppose it gets a lot less use (the reason its me secondary hard-drive is because its smaller).

What's more annoying is that I wasn't even getting ready to replace it - its still plenty big enough! And I've only just managed to get everything back the way I like it after upgrading (and reformatting) my computer at Christmas. Just hope I can transfer everything across to a new drive without too much difficulty! If I can, I really just want to transfer everything across and not have reinstall Windows and everything else. Has anybody done this successfully? What's the best way to go about it?

Battery Converter

I read an article a while ago about someone who uses a GPS receiver and got fed up of it going through his 'AAA' size batteries so rapidly. What he did was to make some kind of adapter so he actually powered it by a couple of 'D' size batteries which were connected to a couple of dummy 'AAA' size batteries in his GPS receiver. This way, because 'D' size batteries are more powerful, he didn't have to change them as often.

I am interested in making a similar adapter, but my electrical engineering skills aren't quite up to the job. I was hoping to find something on the Internet about how to make one, but I can't find anything. Does anyone have any ideas?

Problem with Nokia PC Suite

I have recently started using the Nokia PC Suite to synchronize my phone with Outlook. I have all my contacts stored in Outlook already and I make use of both the 'Name' fields and the 'File As' fields. This allows me to record someones full name as Johnathon Smith but still lets me use their nickname of John.

However, Nokia don't understand that I would rather him be called John on my phone. They use the 'Full Name' field as the name when I synchronize with my phone. This means that in my phone he is called Johnathon Smith. The only other way is for me to tell Outlook that his fullname is John, which is just silly! At least give me the option of whether I want to use the 'Full Name' or the 'File As' name!

Back to the Future E-Mail

I have just read this article about a website that allows you to send an e-mail to yourself in the future. Looking through some of the public examples, there are a range of ideas that people are sending themselves. Some are quite deep & meaningful, but most are just light-hearted.

I'm definitely going to send myself something, probably in 5 years time. I just need to work out what!!

Plaxo

A few months ago I started using a service called Plaxo. It's a great way to synchronize my address book and calendar between Outlook and a secure website which I can then access anywhere. It's not one of these 'friends network' things that lets friends of your friends access your details, though, I really don't like the idea of that!

Anyway, I also use gmail which means I have to export my list of e-mail addresses from Outlook and into gmail every-so-often to make sure I have everyone's addresses there. This is rather annoying. However, Plaxo have just announced that they've set up a deal with AOL which will enable Outlook to synchronize with the AOL address book and the AIM instant messenger. Although this doesn't affect me (I don't use AOL), I'm pleased about it because it means Plaxo are going out and getting deals with other companies. This would be really good for me if they ever get round to working with gmail. Pretty please?

Time To Reveal My 'Geeky' Side!

Lately I've been writing a program in Java to send notes to a keyboard that is attached to the MIDI port on the soundcard and also to detect notes that have been played on the keyboard. I eventually got it figured out (or so I thought) and had code that could send a note to the keyboard and list notes as they were being played.

And then it stopped working. I've no idea why it stopped. My code didn't change. Nothing was changed on the computer. The keyboard didn't change. I could still play notes through the computer speakers, but I wanted to play it through the keyboard. Anyway, I resigned myself to the fact that it just wasn't to be. At least I could still play notes and detect notes, that's the important thing.

Then last night things got stranger. For no apparent reason, it just started working!

But today it's stopped again.

Just occasionally, I really hate computers!