Now that everyone in Kuwait is rushing to get a bluetooth headset so that they can drive and talk on their mobile while driving, here is a little hack that allows you to listen in on people talking on their mobile when using bluetooth headsets.
So be careful, don't reveal any dark sinister secrets when you talk on your bluetooth.
PS
to be fair, some Linux know how is needed, a little bit of IP background and a some knowledge of Antennas, so maybe not everyone will try that hack.
Showing posts with label laptop. Show all posts
Showing posts with label laptop. Show all posts
2008-05-24
2008-02-07
2007-10-19
My Life With Blackberry
I have been using a blackberry for the last two weeks. A blackberry is a mobile device that has a full keyboard and a large screen but is small enough to fit in your shirt pocket. Its main feature is its push email, meaning emails sent to you apear on your blackberry as if they where SMSs.The blackberry has good support for business attachments like MS Office documents and Acrobat PDFs.
I hooked up my Blackberry to our corporate network so I now can see all the emails that I receive immediately.
The problem now is that the I am constantly checking my emails and responding or forwarding or zapping the ocassional spam. I wake up and first thing I do before I open my eyes is reach for my Blackberry, get dressed with my black centimeters away from me. Driving somewhere, my eyes go to my blackberry screen instead of the road ahead.
I am writing and answering emails at the strangest single digit nocturnal hours. Its like the blackberry is glued to my hands and my thumbs have permanent chicklet shaped indentations now.
Now I know why a lot of people call it a crackberry. It is addictive, it is dangerous, it keeps you on the job literally 24/7.
PS I wrote this post from my blacberry.
I hooked up my Blackberry to our corporate network so I now can see all the emails that I receive immediately.
The problem now is that the I am constantly checking my emails and responding or forwarding or zapping the ocassional spam. I wake up and first thing I do before I open my eyes is reach for my Blackberry, get dressed with my black centimeters away from me. Driving somewhere, my eyes go to my blackberry screen instead of the road ahead.
I am writing and answering emails at the strangest single digit nocturnal hours. Its like the blackberry is glued to my hands and my thumbs have permanent chicklet shaped indentations now.
Now I know why a lot of people call it a crackberry. It is addictive, it is dangerous, it keeps you on the job literally 24/7.
PS I wrote this post from my blacberry.
2007-02-08
Laptop Reincarnation
Reincarnation
The Hindu or Buddhist doctrine that a person may be reborn successively into one of five classes of living beings (god or human or animal or hungry ghost or denizen of Hell) depending on the person's own actions
---
My laptop died on me a few months back. My laptop just reached its third birthday, I know it is old but it survived being lugged around all over, being put in a suitcase and having lots of coffee spilt on it. I could not let an old friend die a miserable death. I mourned its loss for a few days. I had all my pictures and music on it. To emerge from my deep grief and depression, I went out and bought me a fully loaded desktop. I knew the problem was the hard disk. Hard disks usually have lifetimes of three to five years.
Once I got reconnected to the Internet from my desktop, I put on my surgical gloves, (not really, but it would have been more dramatic if I did). I looked for some magical software that would allow me to resurrect my now dead laptop back to life. After toiling night and day, I found a utility that builds a boot CD. That magical CD allowed me to recover my hard disk after booting from it.
I booted, my laptop came back to life, I wanted to scream, "its alive", just like Dr Frankenstein, when the thunder bolt zapped through the creature he was assembling.
I backed up all my music and digital photos to an external hard disk. Then moved them back safely to my new desktop. A little software tweaking and everything was safely back.
I left my laptop to collect dust and rest in peace. Everytime I passed my dead laptop a tear streaked down my cheek (not really). I always thought that if a laptop started misbehaving, it was as good as dead because you cannot fix it in Kuwait and I did not feel like shipping it to the US to be fixed. A few days ago, I met an old friend in Hawalli Bin Khaldoon Street. Marzouq mentioned him a few months ago in his post. It was Happy (yes his name is Happy). I knew Happy from Wazzan when he was working there. He always gave me the best prices. I was happy to see him again, I found out that he can fix laptops, so I brought my dead laptop to him. I knew everything in my laptop was working fine except for the dead hard disk. I bought a new 120 GB hard disk and went upstairs to Happy's workshop. The workshop was an apartment Kitchen, with different computer stuff thrown around.
I stayed there while my hard disk got replaced, a new Windows XP installed on the new Hard Disk and it booted normal. My laptop just got a new life. Now I need to download the updated drivers and it will be working like new.
The wonders of Reincarnation.
The Hindu or Buddhist doctrine that a person may be reborn successively into one of five classes of living beings (god or human or animal or hungry ghost or denizen of Hell) depending on the person's own actions
---
My laptop died on me a few months back. My laptop just reached its third birthday, I know it is old but it survived being lugged around all over, being put in a suitcase and having lots of coffee spilt on it. I could not let an old friend die a miserable death. I mourned its loss for a few days. I had all my pictures and music on it. To emerge from my deep grief and depression, I went out and bought me a fully loaded desktop. I knew the problem was the hard disk. Hard disks usually have lifetimes of three to five years.
Once I got reconnected to the Internet from my desktop, I put on my surgical gloves, (not really, but it would have been more dramatic if I did). I looked for some magical software that would allow me to resurrect my now dead laptop back to life. After toiling night and day, I found a utility that builds a boot CD. That magical CD allowed me to recover my hard disk after booting from it.
I booted, my laptop came back to life, I wanted to scream, "its alive", just like Dr Frankenstein, when the thunder bolt zapped through the creature he was assembling.
I backed up all my music and digital photos to an external hard disk. Then moved them back safely to my new desktop. A little software tweaking and everything was safely back.
I left my laptop to collect dust and rest in peace. Everytime I passed my dead laptop a tear streaked down my cheek (not really). I always thought that if a laptop started misbehaving, it was as good as dead because you cannot fix it in Kuwait and I did not feel like shipping it to the US to be fixed. A few days ago, I met an old friend in Hawalli Bin Khaldoon Street. Marzouq mentioned him a few months ago in his post. It was Happy (yes his name is Happy). I knew Happy from Wazzan when he was working there. He always gave me the best prices. I was happy to see him again, I found out that he can fix laptops, so I brought my dead laptop to him. I knew everything in my laptop was working fine except for the dead hard disk. I bought a new 120 GB hard disk and went upstairs to Happy's workshop. The workshop was an apartment Kitchen, with different computer stuff thrown around.
I stayed there while my hard disk got replaced, a new Windows XP installed on the new Hard Disk and it booted normal. My laptop just got a new life. Now I need to download the updated drivers and it will be working like new.
The wonders of Reincarnation.
2006-11-26
2006-08-14
Thailand plans 1 free laptop per child
BANGKOK, Thailand - Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra has announced that an ambitious project to provide low-cost laptop computers to all of Thailand's millions of elementary school students will begin in October.
I think this is an excellent idea, we should do the same in Kuwait. Our kids in Kuwait are very technology aware. They know all the ins and outs of their mobiles, understand how to set up an Internet connection and are Playstation game masters. Giving them a laptop will add to their technical skills. It is much better having light laptop bags to take to school instead of the 20 kg backpacks they haul around and end up with bent spines by the time they graduate. All their educational materials will be online or distributed as CD ROMs that they can load onto their laptops.
I also want to be very bold and allow laptops in exams with wireless Internet connections. That will help challenge teachers to teach kids how to understand, think and be creative instead of measuring their ability to memorize and recite endless pages of information that they will forget as soon as they finish their finals.
I think this is an excellent idea, we should do the same in Kuwait. Our kids in Kuwait are very technology aware. They know all the ins and outs of their mobiles, understand how to set up an Internet connection and are Playstation game masters. Giving them a laptop will add to their technical skills. It is much better having light laptop bags to take to school instead of the 20 kg backpacks they haul around and end up with bent spines by the time they graduate. All their educational materials will be online or distributed as CD ROMs that they can load onto their laptops.
I also want to be very bold and allow laptops in exams with wireless Internet connections. That will help challenge teachers to teach kids how to understand, think and be creative instead of measuring their ability to memorize and recite endless pages of information that they will forget as soon as they finish their finals.
2006-08-12
What you cannot bring with you when you fly
You all heard the news about those crazies that wanted to blow up airplanes flying between the UK and USA. Well the immediate consequence is that you are not allowed to carry essentials like iPods, Cafe Lattes, cell phones, laptop computers, etc. This is very sad. Long flights are extremely boring and now without your entertainment electronics and liquid essentials they will get more boring.
I predict, other airlines and flight routes will follow suit and start banning these liquid and electronic items.
Resurect the Titanic, I want to float instead of fly.
I predict, other airlines and flight routes will follow suit and start banning these liquid and electronic items.
Resurect the Titanic, I want to float instead of fly.
2006-05-04
The Wonders of Technology
There was a gentleman walking with two heavy suitcases in an airport terminal. Someone approached and asked him what time it was. The gentleman bends down to park the two heavy suitcases and stares at his watch. But this was no ordinary watch! He touches a tiny button and his administrative assistant's face appears.
He asks her, "Mary, what time is it?" Mary answers instantly and with a smile!
The questioner is thoroughly impressed!!!
He asks, "What kind of a watch is that?"
"It's like a TV with two-way real-time communication," the gentleman explains. He adds that the watch is the latest technology with Intel's brand new 128-bit chip with processor speed of 10 Gigahertz.
The onlooker is now quite impressed and wanted to know if he could buy this watch from the gentleman. They agree on a price and the cash was handed immediately. The gentleman takes his watch out and hands it over and then walks away.
The new owner stares at the two heavy suitcases and shouts, "Sir, you forgot your suitcases."
The gentleman stops, smiles, and replies, "No, they are yours now. They are the modems you need for your new watch.
One thing that comes to mind after reading this joke is all the new gadgets like the iPod, no matter how small they build them, you still need a laptop and / or desktop to make it useful.
He asks her, "Mary, what time is it?" Mary answers instantly and with a smile!
The questioner is thoroughly impressed!!!
He asks, "What kind of a watch is that?"
"It's like a TV with two-way real-time communication," the gentleman explains. He adds that the watch is the latest technology with Intel's brand new 128-bit chip with processor speed of 10 Gigahertz.
The onlooker is now quite impressed and wanted to know if he could buy this watch from the gentleman. They agree on a price and the cash was handed immediately. The gentleman takes his watch out and hands it over and then walks away.
The new owner stares at the two heavy suitcases and shouts, "Sir, you forgot your suitcases."
The gentleman stops, smiles, and replies, "No, they are yours now. They are the modems you need for your new watch.
One thing that comes to mind after reading this joke is all the new gadgets like the iPod, no matter how small they build them, you still need a laptop and / or desktop to make it useful.
2005-11-17
Oil will run out by 2015
I recently was playing around with podcasts and I subscribed to this financial podcast. I forgot the name of the podcast but basically the gist of the talk was according to 2 studies, the oil reserves in the world will run out within 10 to 15 years and he was talking about the implications like reverse globalization because of no fuel or obscenely priced fuel. Meaning no travel, no import / exports except through sail boats,electricity becoming a luxury item. Communication would still continue, there would still be internet but very dark days ahead.
That got me thinking, what I would do with extremely high power costs, no travel, no purchasing power, different or no job especially for me in Kuwait.
I would probably sit down and write a book about the golden days when there was abundant oil. In hard times people get nostalgic and the book would be well received. I also need to learn how to write a book by candlelight and how to recharge my laptop from my exercise bike:
What would you do?
That got me thinking, what I would do with extremely high power costs, no travel, no purchasing power, different or no job especially for me in Kuwait.
I would probably sit down and write a book about the golden days when there was abundant oil. In hard times people get nostalgic and the book would be well received. I also need to learn how to write a book by candlelight and how to recharge my laptop from my exercise bike:
What would you do?
2005-08-11
Computer Storage Story
In these days of giga storage, does anyone remember punch cards?
A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, actually it was here on planet earth 45 years ago, punch cards where used to input your software into a huge mainframe computer, the output would come out the next day on accordion computer paper.
Each card would hold one line of software code. If you had a 200 line program, you would have 200 cards stacked together in a batch. You would submit this batch to the people maintaining the mainframe behemoth. These days, you might sometimes hear somebody say that he had a batch job running, meaning he was running his software overnight or in the background.
Technology improved, people got smarter or where tired of carrying heavy batches of cards for their software. IBM invented the 8 inch floppy with an amazing capacity of 242,000 bytes or characters.
The floppy was a a circle of plastic with a magnetic coat. It was enveloped by a plastic protective case. It was bendable, hence the term floppy disc. Although you could lose your data if you bent your floppy.
Later on the 5 inch floppy came out. That was basically the same except now it was 5 inches in diameter. More improvements came with the last innovation being double sided double density meaning you could write data on both sides of the floppy and the magnetic coating could carry more data. The first floppies for PCs where 150k, followed by 360k.
The IBM AT had 5 inch floppy drives with a massive capacity of 1.2 MB.
Back to the present, you have 80GB storage as standard, and your file size would be measured in megabytes. There is no way you are going to store these on 1.2 MB floppies.
Flash drives where invented that you connect to your PC / Laptop through the USB port. The latest model I saw could carry 2GB of data. Thats a lot!
Now I am waiting for someone to invent a flash drive that does not protrude from your laptop like a small diving board and slides into your computer without fear of damage because you move your laptop around and risk breaking your expensive laptop if you put it down somewhere.
A long long time ago in a galaxy far far away, actually it was here on planet earth 45 years ago, punch cards where used to input your software into a huge mainframe computer, the output would come out the next day on accordion computer paper.
Each card would hold one line of software code. If you had a 200 line program, you would have 200 cards stacked together in a batch. You would submit this batch to the people maintaining the mainframe behemoth. These days, you might sometimes hear somebody say that he had a batch job running, meaning he was running his software overnight or in the background.
Technology improved, people got smarter or where tired of carrying heavy batches of cards for their software. IBM invented the 8 inch floppy with an amazing capacity of 242,000 bytes or characters.
The floppy was a a circle of plastic with a magnetic coat. It was enveloped by a plastic protective case. It was bendable, hence the term floppy disc. Although you could lose your data if you bent your floppy.
Later on the 5 inch floppy came out. That was basically the same except now it was 5 inches in diameter. More improvements came with the last innovation being double sided double density meaning you could write data on both sides of the floppy and the magnetic coating could carry more data. The first floppies for PCs where 150k, followed by 360k.
The IBM AT had 5 inch floppy drives with a massive capacity of 1.2 MB.
Back to the present, you have 80GB storage as standard, and your file size would be measured in megabytes. There is no way you are going to store these on 1.2 MB floppies.
Flash drives where invented that you connect to your PC / Laptop through the USB port. The latest model I saw could carry 2GB of data. Thats a lot!
Now I am waiting for someone to invent a flash drive that does not protrude from your laptop like a small diving board and slides into your computer without fear of damage because you move your laptop around and risk breaking your expensive laptop if you put it down somewhere.
2005-06-29
The Best Product Designs for 2005 from Businessweek
The Best Product Designs, my personal picks out of the businessweek
158 long list are:
Johnson Controls 9100 Series Environmental Room Control Sensors. I have these mercury bulb thermostats in my house and with two settings, freezing or roasting and nothing in between.
The Mac Mini. Apple has always delivered beautiful products, the Mac Mini might not be so hot in terms of performance but it looks real nice.
I love my iPod photo and the JBL OnStage would make a cool addition to it. So far I connected my iPod to some old PC speakers so I can listen to music when I shower.
Alienware has always had cool designs and this Alienware ALX Desktop Computer beast is another one with silent liquid cooling.
This BenQ LCD Monitor Crazy Arm looks like it came right out of the Matrix. I think it looks real cool and would love to have all my gadgets hooked up to it.
Motorola Razr V3 Mobile Phone is an incredible phone, beautiful, useful and razor slim.
I am addicted to coffee and like to try all kinds, the CafeSolo coffee-maker is a new way to make your coffee. Buy the CafeSolo Coffee Maker from Amazon if you want.
Remember the Rubik Cube? well the 3D Mechanical Puzzle looks like it is going to be the new puzzle that will have everyone struggling to solve.
Nokia has some nicely designed phones and other that are not so great. The Nokia 2650 Mobile Phone is one of the better phones, not too complicated and nice looking also.
The MINI_motion Watch is a really ince looking watch, I understand they sold out and now they are making some more.
I always had a problem with those ear bud headphones that always fall off. The other headphones that have ear clips also hurt my ears after a while. These Philips HS740 Lasso Fashion Headphones look like they might be the best solution.
I don't need a knife but the Gerber Truss Clip Knife is so cool looking, I need to own this one and carry it around with me.
Is it a laptop ? Is it a TV? Is it an entertainment center? Is it cool looking?
This is what it is.
I wonder if this jeep is sold anywhere? I have not seen any on the road driving sidways.
HP has put together your own personal HP Masher Digital Music Mixing Device Concept which is a suitcase that can uses ipods and allows you to mix your own music. Truly amazing.
Other cool designs that I liked are:
Lexus LF-A Concept Car
Snap Bracelet Concept
HP DJammer concept
Microsoft Windows Home Center
Nike ID
158 long list are:Johnson Controls 9100 Series Environmental Room Control Sensors. I have these mercury bulb thermostats in my house and with two settings, freezing or roasting and nothing in between.
The Mac Mini. Apple has always delivered beautiful products, the Mac Mini might not be so hot in terms of performance but it looks real nice.
I love my iPod photo and the JBL OnStage would make a cool addition to it. So far I connected my iPod to some old PC speakers so I can listen to music when I shower.
Alienware has always had cool designs and this Alienware ALX Desktop Computer beast is another one with silent liquid cooling.
This BenQ LCD Monitor Crazy Arm looks like it came right out of the Matrix. I think it looks real cool and would love to have all my gadgets hooked up to it.
Motorola Razr V3 Mobile Phone is an incredible phone, beautiful, useful and razor slim.
I am addicted to coffee and like to try all kinds, the CafeSolo coffee-maker is a new way to make your coffee. Buy the CafeSolo Coffee Maker
from Amazon if you want.Remember the Rubik Cube? well the 3D Mechanical Puzzle looks like it is going to be the new puzzle that will have everyone struggling to solve.
Nokia has some nicely designed phones and other that are not so great. The Nokia 2650 Mobile Phone is one of the better phones, not too complicated and nice looking also.
The MINI_motion Watch is a really ince looking watch, I understand they sold out and now they are making some more.
I always had a problem with those ear bud headphones that always fall off. The other headphones that have ear clips also hurt my ears after a while. These Philips HS740 Lasso Fashion Headphones look like they might be the best solution.
I don't need a knife but the Gerber Truss Clip Knife is so cool looking, I need to own this one and carry it around with me.
Is it a laptop ? Is it a TV? Is it an entertainment center? Is it cool looking?
This is what it is.
I wonder if this jeep is sold anywhere? I have not seen any on the road driving sidways.
HP has put together your own personal HP Masher Digital Music Mixing Device Concept which is a suitcase that can uses ipods and allows you to mix your own music. Truly amazing.
Other cool designs that I liked are:
Lexus LF-A Concept Car
Snap Bracelet Concept
HP DJammer concept
Microsoft Windows Home Center
Nike ID
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