The “Break it Down” Blog
Archive | September, 2006
Relativity Propulsion Engine from Microwaves
This is just too cool for anybody that ever wanted a flying car or to go into space. Roger Shawyer has developed an engine with no moving parts that propels itself using microwaves “by exploiting the strange properties of relativity”… whatever that means. The British government is funding Shawyer’s work with interested parties from the US, [...]
Continue reading...Replacing JDK Logging / Log4J / NLOG4J With LogBack
23. September 2006
If you are like me, you can’t decide on a logging framework for your Java applications. JDK Logging is so easy, Log4J logging is lauded as a “must-used replacement for JDK “crap” logging” and in one new project I downloaded I noticed the use of SLF4J (Simple Logging Framework for Java) for the first time. [...]
Continue reading...PS3: Price Drops and All Models Get HDMI/1080p Connections
22. September 2006
Well I think most of you have seen this floating around the web, but Sony announced that all the PS3s will get upgraded to HDMI connections that can output up to 1080p and there will be a price drop on all models. Hardly something a company with cutting edge tech does. Mix that in with the [...]
Continue reading...Synchronizing Palm TX with Google Calendar
22. September 2006
In light of my most recent post about the Palm TX and Gmail someone asked about synchronizing the Palm TX with Google Calendar. Unfortunately after some digging I found a bunch of *very specific* connectors for phones, iPods, mobile phones, etc. and then consistently found the CompanionLink product mentioned over and over again as the [...]
Continue reading...Setting up Palm VersaMail with Gmail
21. September 2006
Well we just got my wife’s new Palm TX in the mail and I have to say, I see why this thing continually gets 5/5 scores on all the reviews I read (highest rated mainstream PDA on Newegg, Circuit City and Amazon). It’s got this awesome metal/bluish finish to it. I’m browsing the web over [...]
Continue reading...Fix Windows “Unrecognized Device” on USB
21. September 2006
Well I just learned an interesting lesson today. Plugging some devices directly into the computer’s USB ports can lead to Windows (XP Pro 32-bit, SP2 in this case) reporting “Unknown Device”. In this case it was a new Palm TX. After digging online expecting to run through tutorial after tutorial of removing device drivers, I ran [...]
Continue reading...Generic Comparators in Java
21. September 2006
Are you using generics in Java? Are you trying to execute a Collections.sort method call and getting an “unchecked” warning from the compiler? This is something I just had to battle with, and here’s how you do it correctly. First your Comparator needs to specify that it is of the type you will be comparing [...]
Continue reading...PS3, Aparently Not a Hoax
21. September 2006
Well Laurence Hartje just dug up the FCC stickers for the PS3 units that are being manufactured… so we can no longer assume that this is all a Sony hoax and that come November 17th, they tell us that unicorns broke into the lab and stole them all:
Continue reading...Flat Panel Paradise, Take a Hike RPTV
20. September 2006
I don’t know what is going on in the HDTV market, but I have a feeling half the country is voting with their wallets and aparently they are voting for flat panel TVs (no more RPTVs). Taking at look at AVS, the flat panel forums have twice as many threads as the rear projection forums. While [...]
Continue reading...Troubles in Mitsubishi WD-65831 Paradise
20. September 2006
After what seemed a stream of endless praise some folks getting the new 65831 sets are starting to notice a few things that are not settling well. The most damning is a few folks noticed after some quick testing major jaggies in images when being sent to the set in 1080i. The concern here is [...]
Continue reading...DirecTV Lawsuit Over “HD-Lite” Goes to Court
20. September 2006
Thankfully it’s finally happened, the lawsuit that was filed against DirecTV in 2004 over the fact that the HD it broadcasts is so overly compressed that many folks refer to it as “HD-Lite” was allowed to go to court after a judge denied the DirecTV request for arbitration. For those of you that have DirecTV and [...]
Continue reading...Linux Kernel 2.6.18 Released
20. September 2006
For most folks running Linux with no hickups, this will just seem like a polish release, but for those of you on multi-core laptops with SATA drives, I think this is a start of a lot of good changes in the kernel to help us out down the road (if you remember blogging a while [...]
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23. September 2006
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