Archive for October, 2009

Internet watch

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Timex used to make an “internet watch”. It was basically a pager that also worked as a watch. The pager function updated the time automatically, so that when I travelled across time zones in the usa the watch would automatically set to local time. It also came with an email address, which was basically the pager number@serviceprovider.com. I could receive emails and scroll through them one line at a time on the watch. This was the best watch I’ve ever owned.

Unfortunately, the battery in this watch lasted only about 2 months. Each time you replace the battery, you end up further destroying the waterproof seal. The result is that humidity, sweat seep in and corrode the insides. The watch stopped worked about a year ago.

Here is the PCB inside the watch. The corroded receptable for the battery can be seen. Look for the vibrator alert, which is basically a solenoid.

PCB from a Timex Internet Watch, Circa 2001

PCB from a Timex Internet Watch, Circa 2001

iTunes does not work in Singapore?

Saturday, October 24th, 2009

Strangely enough, the iTunes on my iPhone now says it does not work in Singapore. It won’t even let me download free stuff, like podcasts. This is very strange given that iTunes works on my laptop in Singapore. I can download and purchase just fine here, but only to my laptop. I googled this and found other people complaining about the same problem.

Apparently iTunes is only available in North America, Europe, and Australia/New Zealand. But it not available in Asia, though that’s where the people are.

Update: After writing this, I found a workaround.  I created new iTunes account with a US address, and when it asked for a credit card, I clicked “none”.   Then on the iPhone, I went to “settings->general->reset” and reset the location warnings.    It didn’t work immediately, but after the 1st failed attempt iTunes started to work.  I could download NPR’s wait wait don’t tell me!

YouTube vs Flickr

Thursday, October 22nd, 2009

I attended a great talk by Professor Eugene Fiume on Digital Media today.  He showed examples of technically brilliant computer graphics, which as he put it, still lacks “irony”. He also showed examples of great art where there is a lot of irony despite the lack of detail or technical brilliance (a clip from the Disney movie “Dumbo” was really moving).

The talk made me think about Flickr, the photosharing site.  There’s a lot of technically brilliant photos on Flickr, which are excellent in exposure, focus, etc, but they are not that interesting.    On the other hand, YouTube has a lot of poorly lit, grainy, shaky, technically crappy videos which are very compelling.  The YouTube videos have “irony” in the Fiume sense.

Why is that? Why do YouTube contributors “get it”, while Flickr contributors don’t? Is it video vs photographs, or is it YouTube vs Flickr (the way they are organized) that matters?