rubyconsumer

For those looking into bluetooth devices, a friend of mine recently went through the hassle of finding his perfect bluetooth headset.

The hardest part, for me, was getting the audio transmitter. That’s where avrcp (AV remote control) bit me, because i didn’t know it was a separate profile from a2dp (stereo bluetooth) and then in addition, you’ve got class 1 and class 2 bluetooth devices. class 2 are the “default”, but the range is fairly short and microwave ovens disturb it at work

i switched to a class 1 device, and now i can go upstairs and still have music. Then on top of class 1 and avrcp, you also have to know what media players it supports for the avrcp

(the bluetooth stack, rather; not specifically the transmitter) but the transmitter i got used the toshiba bluetooth stack, which has avrcp but only for a handful of players (not itunes) so if one were to buy a bluetooth audio transmitter, i would say: a2dp, avrcp, class 1, and comes with the bluesoleil bluetooth stack…for windows. i just realized macs probably have builtin a2dp/avrcp and would certainly be compat with itunes.

the specific headset i have is the Sony DR-BT22 and i don’t have any major complaints. music sounds good, it’s reasonably comfortable, and it’s got good battery life. It does have a flimsy feel to it because it’s foldable, but it doesn’t bother me.

the transmitter i have (for the pc) is a Zoom class 2 bluetooth 2. it works as advertised, but i don’t necessary recommend it. it came w/ the toshiba bluetooth stack, which doesn’t work with itunes. so i like the stats of the zoom, but i’d recommend a transmitter that comes w/ the blue soleil stack instead (since it works with itunes).

When messaging through Skype, it’s not unusual for geeks to write a little bit of regular expression to correct mistakes.

Example:
rubyconsumer> I like kake!
rubyconsumer> s/kake/cake/

Well it looks like the Skype client for the mac has taken this one step further.  And for once, the mac client is actually ahead of the windows client.

An up to date Skype client will now take that regex and run it against your last message.  The resulting message from the previous example would look like:

Example:
Editted: 10/9/08 7:30AM - rubyconsumer
rubyconsumer> I like cake!

Now that’s Geek Accessibility!

Now if only video sites like youtube would add key board shortcuts…

I really love OS X. Things are done right or can be easily changed… for the most part.

A few though, need to be configured through secret command line incantations.

I’ve finally ran across a way to add the full path of the directory into the Finder.

defaults write com.apple.finder _FXShowPosixPathInTitle -bool YES

There are more customizations available from the command line here.

I ran across a great menu shortcut on Leopard.

Cmd-Shift-/ (aka. Cmd-?)

Now just type in your menu command and the result comes up like quicksilver/spotlight.

Hit enter and volia!

use help to select menu items in leopard

A few weekends ago, I was at Ann Arbor Startup Weekend. It was a great weekend. We had a functional alpha/beta at the end of the weekend. This was despite the, to put it mildly, congested wifi.

A lot of folks are very reliant on the internet for information. Understandably so, but it doesn’t work in a weak and no wifi situation.

Using gem_server to get your documentation each time seems like a lot of work.

Enter Bashfully Yours, Gem Shortcuts.

By setting up my bash to load up gem documentation, I’m able to get documentation faster then you can off the web.

gemdoc hpricot

Done!

Try it out. It might even inspire you to help out with documenting a few gems.

I’ve been a long time VI user. Not a vi-ninja but definitely comfortable using the vi methodology.

Having used Block Mode editting in Textmate, I really needed to find a way to do the same in vi.

Volia!

Ctrl-V with ‘c’, ‘I’, and ‘A’ are the magic commands in vi

Vim Block Visual Mode

I’ve recently made changes to my bash profile after getting sick and tired of managing multiple environments in one profile.

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You heard it here first. Borders and Semler are back together again.

Wednesday was my first time in downtown Portland and boy has it made an impression. While looking for a lunch shot with Kevin and two folks we meet at the light rail (Wil and Dave), we walked by someone just as they were doing an ipecac skit. Except it wasn’t a skit. Then while eating lunch, we see a man and a dog crossing the street when his dog just suddenly stops and… um… takes care of business in the middle of the street as the oncoming traffic light turned green.

First impressions… interesting city.

It’s a couple days ’till RailsConf and not only did I decided to write in my sorely neglected blog but I also decided, for some strange reason, to reload my laptop. Brilliant!

Well, there are several reasons for reloading the old MBP.

1. free up some space on the pitifully small 100GB HD
2. install BootCamp so I can play my one turn per 24hrs in Civ 4.
3. clear the financial data from my laptop before traveling with it.

As if all the craziness associated with going to a conference on the other coast for about week wasn’t enough.
I backed up my HD onto an external HD using Carbon Copy Cloner… just in case. First bit of fun was discovering I had the wrong set of install disks (not for the Mac Book Pro). I’m still working on the reload, but things are working out well so far. I still need to figure out how to transfer over my old Address Book and Key Chain, but things are looking good.

After I’m done with this reload, maybe after getting back from RailsConf, I need to make a Carbon Copy of my drive so I can easily get back to a fresh start.