Annoying recessed iPhone workarounds

So as you may know, the first gen. iPhone (like mine) has a recessed headphone socket and so many headphones don't fit. I looked at my options - stumpy adapters thru to headphone extension cables that fit. I decided on the Griffin SmartTalk, an extension that has a few features.

1. Most important: its designed for the iPhone so it fits in the socket, and I can use my headphones!
2. It has a mic, so I can talk hands-free.
3. It has a button so I can pause, skip tracks and answer the phone without looking at the iPhone.
4. The mic got reasonable reviews, and I'm happy with it so far
   

It is well made and has a thin cable with a rope-ish fabric weave. My only grumble in its design is the lack of tensioner on the headphone jack. In my pocket it gets bent 90 degrees and I worry that it will wear out or something.



Oh yeah, there is one other thing...

What do I do with the 2 meters of headphone cable?



I could zip-tie it to the top of my headphones.



From that angle, you hardly notice it. Unfortunately from other angles it looks dorky as can be.



Take 2: I built a short cable from some spare wires and cables.



This prototype is great, but its not soldered and won't be till I borrow or buy a solder iron :| The mechanical connection is good, but it sometimes makes audio crackles when I move.



Instead, I'm riding to work with the cable in my inner breast pocket for now. The mic has come in handy a few times already - its nice to have a hands-free bike kit !

Freedom Fry

No not that stupid American renaming of "French Fries", I'm talking about Stephen Fry.

Its GNUs 25th birthday, and Stephen is showing his support of free software by wishing GNU a happy birthday, and explaining why it is so good.

http://www.gnu.org/fry/


Check it out, and go GNU!

How awesome is MacGyver?

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

MacGyver used to be my hero - who else "defuses a highly advanced nuclear warhead using a paper clip to short circuit the timing device" in their pilot episode? He also made "a thermite torch using aluminium filed from a racing cycle frame and rust held in a long tube and lit with a roadside signal flare. "

What a guy!

I can has iPhone?

My pal upgraded his iPhone to a 3G, and his carrier nicely left him the old handset. Not only that, they unlocked it for him - rather decent.

That mean that I got my greedy little paws on a first generation iPhone for a super good price.

Aside from the annoying recessed headphone jack, I really love it. I could grumble about the lack of support for Linux (unless I roll back to the V1 firmware) but I won't, and heres why.

I got a BSD toolchain and ssh server running on it! Also, I have a terminal app on it. This means that I can ssh from my iPhone to any ssh box on the network (internet), and also ssh the other way into my iPhone. I can scp files to my iPhone. I also have an ebook reader on it and really liking that. Oh and anyone who hasn't tried shazam really should - thats a great app!

The phone is in good condition, just a little gnawing on the edges. Maybe the previous owner liked to chew it?



Zing: NZ wallpaper.

Things I thought would were in the "too hard" basket:

First up; check this video analysis and enhancement link:

http://grail.cs.washington.edu/projects/videoenhancement/videoEnhancement.htm

That shows a system that can take pictures and map them to moving video to upscale the resolution of videos. The processing can also do other depth based interpretation and correction. Amazing stuff there!

Also, Echonest audio analysis:

http://the.echonest.com/analyze/

It can take an audio sample (eg. MP3) and spit out a comprehensive XML giving you beat, timings, spectral and timbre quantities and timings (== separate instrument musical notes). It really is listening and transcribing audio with impressive precision.

Hardcore awesome.

Slingshots technical difficulties:

Via Stuff: http://www.stuff.co.nz/4657074a28.html

An error ... left the TradeMe, Bebo and Facebook accounts of its customers open to strangers for a time.

The error meant some Slingshot customers were randomly able to view other people's accounts when accessing these websites ...

TradeMe ... said the fault didn't allow people to bid on auctions, change details, or view passwords or financial details.

Slingshot ... said the problem ... was the result of a new caching configuration ...

Abridged for brevity. So that sounds like a pretty crap cache if its mixing up its end users! Guess maybe it just had NO discrimination so everyone got the single last cache item for a given URL. Maybe it was not considering the parameters at the end of URLs, to tardme.com/home.rar?IGNOREDID=dontMatter

Anyways, LOL !

My home cheapo mods:

Our flat is full of cheap mods that I have busted out. Example 1:

My Logitech x230s sound really good, but the sub control doesn't go low enough. Its quite boomy sometimes, so ...



Stuff it with a sock! The port looses its resonance and the cutoff is effectively brought above the (tuned) frequency (which is so boomy) - much better :)

My hackjob at fixing the laptop power has me worried because there is not much in the way of cable tug-proofing sensitive the laptops' tail.



I got a tug resistant know going so the tail doesn't get any rugged tugs.



I also managed to aquire a nice (free) USB light that was obviously a giveaway from Rabobank; (example shown)



Used to look like this, but unfortunately as its a lampshade, you couldn't point the light very easy. I didn't want it that way, so I did a few "mods":




I chopped and ghetto-glued it to point like a desk lamp should, and it is much better !




Blammo! it goes!