Online Tech Auctions

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I spend too much time online…I’ll fully admit it. It is absolutely necessary, however; I test SaaS for a living. My physical computing projects do not lend themselves to non-online research. Non-online…holy smokes. I think I just coined a new term: nonline. I should trademark that.

Anyhow, I spend a ton of time staring at screens. That has changed the way I conduct myself, in general. One of the fall-out things I have noticed is in shopping. Where I used to do product research at brick and mortar stores, now I do all of my research online. Most of my purchases are now done online too. I never thought I would buy jeans online, for example, but now I do, without fail.

Certain items are foolish to buy at a physical storefront… especially anything tech related. There are the conventional online stores, but if you have some patience and a good eye, online auctions can be the best source of deals.

My favorite auction site is DealFun…case in point:

deal fun auction tech site

!!!

A super cheap PS3 is par for the course. DealFun has all sorts of screaming low prices that end up winning auctions, but they also have the customer service aspect to boot. As the dealfun.com reviews indicate, they are reputable in addition to providing good deals. You want that…trust me.

Another cool thing about that site, is the notion of beginner’s auctions. You can learn the ropes without spending a fortune on bids. Pretty cool.

Take a look…holler if you see a Kinect.

Ubuntu Update Day

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The Dell Mini 9 always draws short straw. The little guy once again gets to play the part of guinea pig, and be the first to upgrade to the new version of Ubuntu.

ubuntu upgrade day

+1 Oneiric

V. 10.11 a.k.a. Oneiric Ocelot

We’ll see if they sharpened Unity up a bit. Preliminary reviews are pointing at a good release. Expect my review before long.

FWIW, ‘oneiric’ is a mouthy way to say dreamy. I don’t care for the word, and neither does my spell checker.

Android IOIO Project | IOIOSeek

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I hope you don’t mind, but I went ahead and stepped it up a few notches.

My newest project brings my end-goal a few steps closer. I now have the pieces in place to put together an actual robotic implementation with the IOIO…since things have officially reached the cool stage, I decided to drop this as a stand-alone project. Complete with pics, a vid, and an app.

IOIOSeek:

IOIO android servo seek

dig the lighting

What I have here are two slider bar controlled servos, an analog input-read solar panel, and some LEDs toggled via a button. The control is via the IOIO / Android.

servos and solar panels on ioio android

dig the wires

The pictures, however nice, don’t really tell the story. Take a look at the video to see this thing in action:

As the video alludes to, I am going to run with this concept. The automation (robotics) lies in the analog reading with respect to the servo positions. I plan to ‘scan’ the panel…that is the piece that is missing. Once I can implement that mess, I will have a tracking system. Implementations will fall out of that.

analog input ioio

+1 tape

As with the last few projects, I have dumped the app on the Android Market for general perusal. The app’s description provides the details of the pin configuration, which is straight forward. I have two PWM outputs, a pure 3.3V digital toggle, and a pin configured for analog input. That is that.

I will push my code to GitHub as well eventually, and provide a link therein. I still need to polish my generic servo code, since my latency was borderline awful in retrospect. Look for that in the near future as well.

As always, drop any questions to joe[at]swantron[dot]com. Feel free to share your IOIO projects with me…

Futuristic Looking Sinks

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What is the term? Form follows function? Not sure; I’m not a classically trained sink designer. I can tell you what I look for in Undermount Sinks… they should vaguely resemble robot eyes:

robotic sync sink sinc

robotic-looking sink looks robotic

Amazing. Katie and I rent. We cook a lot, and intend to buy or build before too long…mix that up and it is no stretch to think that we are into sinks. Mr. Direct sinks are great, functional, and have the added bonus of being cool to boot. When we make a move, suffice to say we will have an Undermount Sink like the bad guy pictured above. Cool looking, big, and easy to clean…the price is actually lower than the boring guys from Lowe’s and Home Depot as well…pretty much a done deal.

Stock Control System Info

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< disclaimer > I am not clarivoyant < / disclaimer >
I’ll make a bold prediction. You are reading this post on a web-connected device!

Cunning, righf?

I will do you all a favor and cut to the point. We all have access to the internet, nearly always. Why not put that to use for difficult problems, in general? Like stock control. Pretend, if it helps, that the stock management software is the robotic overlord, and your staff constitutes the minions…

robot manager

-1 jacked up robot

The take away in my whole rambling post lies in a centralized control system for hard goods. A system such as OrderWise allows you to handle arguably the most fundamental business need, inventory, in a convenient digital manner. When you have the same system in place for inventory, order processing, web integration, etc., you will know what your snagging points are.

Manage your physical goods, intelligently. That just might be part of business 101. I would have zero idea…I studied math.

Anyhow, hit that link and take a look. Computers really pay for themselves in managed applications like inventory…I do know that much for a fact.

Online Mind Fitness

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Fun fact: math guys find math stuffs in non-math stuffs

Fun tip: don’t study number theory

Fun tip bonus aside: If you think of numbers as things instead of numbers, they will take on funny little characteristics.

Fun anecdote: I was taking a look at a sweet site about Mind health, and noticed they had an awesome number on the page…

prime number 353

is prime (yes)

I have no idea whether or not Cognifit was trying to slap that particular number on their site on purpose, but it is a good math number. Do explain…okay.

353 is both prime, and a palindrome. Remember “Madam, I’m Adam.” from school? Take that, make it a number, and moreover make it a number that is only divisible by one and itself… you have a crazy little thing like 353.

How do I pick that up? Mental fitness. How does one pick that up? Practice. Plain and simple.

Your brain works much the same way that any other of your body systems work. Want big swollen biceps? Grab some dumbbells, do some curls. Want a big, awesome brain? Grab some mental dumbbells, do some brain curls. Curls get the girls…be them brain or biceps.

Joking aside, it is proven that you must keep your memory and problem solving skills working in order to fend off getting old, slow, sluggish, etc. That link above is of some serious value…fun brain fitness activities are the best type. Stay sharp, readers.

Holler with any palindromic primes…I’m on the hunt.

Managing Multiple WiFi Access Points

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So, every once in a while, my home WiFi connection will drop an error bomb on me. It always seems to be at a horribly inopportune moment; I am trying to do some actual work at home, and all of a sudden my wireless router is showing itself to be frozen. I will admit wholly: I find ethernet cables to be creepy reminders of horrible computing times past. Long story short, when my WiFi decides to dump out, I find myself digging through the ghetto tupperware containers in the garage, in search of a physical cable with which to connect.

Hard lines are for the birds.

It is easy to take wireless tech for granted. Between 3G/4G and WiFi, we can be connected pretty much wherever. The mobile companies bear the burden of maintaining the cellular connections…what about the WiFi? A single access point can be troublesome…what about multiple WiFi points?

bunch of routers

multiple routers are multiple

It doesn’t take much to create a messy situation. Put yourself in the shoes of an IT manager for a second. Say you have a few hundred users, and a dozen access points. Chances are pretty good that all of your WiFi routers are not the same version…chances are also good that you are tasked to juggle multiple companies’ routers. Easier said than done.

Take my word as truth…you need a management system. More particularly, you need something like Tanaza Cloud WiFi Management SaaS. I work in the SaaS game…this is a solution for which you are better off buying software for. Your lack of headaches will signal the significance of said purchase.

Take my word or take a look at that link. If it saves someone a wasted weekend on the phone with Netgear, I’ll consider this post a success.