Smartphone upgrade

 I am staying with Android for the next year or so. I bought the Samsung Galaxy Note II. After a week in "New gadget land" I am a bit disappointed because it didn't exceed my expectations (dam you marketing!). It has some nice features like all kind of motion sensing (e.g. double tap on top of the phone to scroll to the beginning of a list; shake to sync etc.), BIG screen and I am eager to find out how the S Pen was reinvented. I will have hard time saying goodbye to my old HTC Desire HD though. It is just that HTC has better end user software. Big screen and S Pen (although not yet proven useful) were major pros in deciding on new device. As final thought I wish that Note 2 would be made by HTC.

Ski jump distance?

How the distance of jump is measured? I'm not a fan and when I popped the question when watching a match out of boredom we had quite a dispute. I still don't know and in the end it doesn't matter since the relative distance is what counts (I guess...).

Mostly what was said was that the distance is the length of curved line on the ground over which the jumper jumps (flies? actually they mostly fall) - the line A. This was defended with "I've been there many times and saw markings on the ground!" and "When we built our own take off ramp we measured the distance on the ground!" and "What other way is there?".

We (read I) immediately came up with couple of distances in jump like this. To me the straight line from take off to land point is the most intuitive - the line B.

Vote for what you think or comment if you know what it actually is.

UPDATE: I think I have the answer (but vote first) - http://loveoftechno.blogspot.com/2013/12/measured-ski-jump-distance.html

See responses

Eurodance from Spain

Spain is Europe too.



Is remix better?

SKIL battery drill (Disassembly)

Rechargeable battery on a drill I took from my dad (too long ago to return) is now totally dead. What to do? Take the drill apart, reuse the parts (motor and gearbox) for an awesome new project and buy a new drill? Buy a new battery? Fix the battery? Battery pack holds 8 1.2V Ni-Cd batteries each giving 1200mAh connected in series resulting in 9.6V 1200mAh power supply. Replacement pack is about 30EUR (quick check on Amazon); I'm not sure that I can get a compatible replacement anyway. New batteries would cost roughly the same (but I could install 2000mAh ones).

While unscrewing I though: "I need a battery screwdriver." I will check for a new pack in local store while buying a screwdriver. Until than back in toolbox.

In case you are wondering (and I know you are not), the power control in drill is made with FDB5680 N-Channel MOSFET.

Looking down

Since I have the tablet I spend extra couple of minutes in bed every morning reading what's new. Since the tablet is hard to hold with one hand (when buying new tablet make sure it has wide edges) I balance it on my chest. Then I have to bend my neck to see it which is not comfortable.
Anyway... I thought prism glasses would be a good idea. They make you see down when looking horizontally. I got the first one that popped in Amazon search. I'm disappointed. Fist of all I somehow got women version. They don't fit nicely on my nose and the field of focus is really small. Couple of my friends tried them and had the same fillings. But there were some that saw through just fine. ...I'll try to sell the glasses to them.

PCBye

I'm retiring my PCB making equipment after 15 years. Services which are affordable to hobbyists are now available (specially in China). I made PCBs with photographic method with mini drill, UV exposure box and inkjet printer on first photo. Second photo shows some of my designs.

Inside cheap headphones (Disassembly)

Left channel went mute when moving the cord near the headphones. I shortened the cord for 20cm.

Respect BOBO

Peter René Cipiriano Baumann (born January 5, 1968), better known as DJ BoBo, is a Swiss singer, songwriter, dancer and music producer. He has sold 14 million records worldwide and has released 10 studio album... (from wiki).

Keychain remote control (Past Projects)

Small universal remote control I did. Features white illumination LED, blue status LED, IR LED and RF module. It had different states for various TV sets (and other devices). I never utilized the RF transmitter. The microcontroller is AT90S2313 from Atmel.

20 Four 7

Not fast enough 4 you? Try Nick Skitz Remix.

ARCHOS 101 G9 Turbo

I have it for 14 days now. It's like I read in other reviews:

• cheap housing - but good enough, 
• has problems with touch in bottom left corner - not a show stopper,
• without back camera - not a con; why do you need back camera on tablet anyway,
• GPS problem - without network locks after reboot (boots faster than my HTC Desire HD),
• impressive movies performance

[update] Touch is really bad and edges should be wider.

I wanted a cheap tablet for my first tablet to see whether such a device fits in my lifestyle. I decided to go with the best cheap variant available to me at the time - 10" screen, dual core & ICS for 250EUR on Amazon (but I got a bit cheaper :) ). I got the 8GB variant and now that I have installed more apps than I need there is still half of space left. I could still expand it with uSD card but hopefully I won't need to. I don't intend to use it for movies, musics, pictures and eBooks - straight forward network media is what I desire.
It also seems that it is based on totally same hardware as non Turbo device - there is sticker that says "Turbo" on the bottom edge which I immediately pealed off (and put it back to take pictures and then pealed it off again - I hate stickers).


I don't know any better so I'm satisfied with it and I actually use it every day. It is more than fine for RSS reading (still deciding: Reader HD or gReader app), YouTube, maps, emails and Skype (or Google hangouts). With conservative usage it went for more than 4 days (see image below - there was unfinished charge after 4 days).

Let's trance

Jam & Spoon feat. Plavka - Angel (Ladadi O-Heyo)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jam_%26_Spoon

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plavka