Are you a Linux or Java geek looking for a phone?

January 4th, 2010

If so, then you *need* to get a Droid.

I think of the Motorola Droid as an “always on portable computer with G3, WiFi, GPS, Blutetooth, audio in/out, microSD, compass, accelerometer, keyboard and a reasonable size touch screen.” Oh, and you can make phone call with it too.

The open source dev tools for Linux/Windows/Mac integrate with eclipse and includes the can’t-say-Java-but-that-is-what-it-is compiler & runtime. Nice desktop phone emulator for debugging and on the phone there is a reasonable USB-based debugging tool. It was straight forward to compile some of the sample projects and put it on my phone.

My top 10 Android apps

December 29th, 2009

Everyone seems to have a top 10 list of Droid apps, so here is what is currently installed on mine:

Useful, go get:

  • Advanced Task Killer Free — very simple way to kill of apps that are left hanging around
  • AppManager — nice way to manage your apps includes info on space used and can uninstall apps
  • Barcode Scanner — used by other scanning apps
  • Battery Graph — track battery level
  • Book Mobile — scan ISBN from a book and have it added to your google book list. Sometimes it can’t add to the list on google.
  • Color Blindness Test — I’m red/green deficient
  • ConnectBot — ssh client
  • Divide and Conquer! — fun game
  • DroidLight — handy flashlight replacement, turns on camera flash
  • Foursquare — silly GPS location ‘game’
  • GDocs Notepad with Sync — little note taker that stores up on google docs
  • GDocs — not written by Google, but lets you get to your google docs
  • GeoBeagle — Excellent geocaching app, highly recommended,
  • Goggles — Take a picture of something and google will try to identify it, works best with books, logos, etc. By Google.
  • Google Sky Map — Very cool reality enhancement. Go out at night and hold the droid up to the sky to see names and info about stars, planets, etc. By Google.
  • Hypnotic Spiral — silly toy
  • Maps (Google) — Excellent interface. By Google.
  • Moon Phases — handy
  • My Tracks — Notes GPS tracks and uploads to both Google Docs and Google Maps, very handy for tramping around in the woods
  • NetCounter — track network traffic on 3G network vs WiFi network
  • Network Discovery — Sort of a nmap port to the android that lets you find out what else is on your network. Integrates with ConnectBot to ssh to servers.
  • Oblique Strategies — a Classic.
  • Places Directory (Google) — Show lists of what is nearby you. By Google.
  • Ringdroid — create ringtones from any mp3
  • Sand Blaster — physics simulation game similar to Powder
  • Seesmic — Nice twitter client
  • Show Accelerometer — toy to show off the accelerometer
  • Spark — toy
  • The Weather Channel — nice weather app with widget interface too.
  • ThinkFree Mobile
  • tickr — surprising handy Flickr slideshow app that needs a bit more polish
  • Voice Recorder — Excellent free voice recorder, integrates into email to send or upload audio recordings
  • Waze — fun mapping/directions tool that also has a game element (munch dots on untraveled roads)
  • WiFi OnOff — widget to turn on/off the Wifi from the homepage

Handy, will likely stay on the phone

  • androidVNC — VNC to linux boxes. Servicable, but tricky connecting to a 2 monitor system.
  • AK Notepad
  • Banshee Remote — requires downloading and running a little python server on the Linux box running Banshee. Could be handy, but may not fit how I listen to music.
  • Bluetooth File Transfer
  • Documents To Go
  • Dolphin Browser
  • Evernote
  • Favorite Recipes
  • iSilo — I use this on my palm pilot, may be useful.
  • NPR News
  • Photoshop.com Mobile
  • Pandora
  • Qik
  • SAT Vocabulary

Not fully evaluated

  • Aldiko
  • Amazed
  • Androbex
  • Android Network RSS
  • Beelicious
  • CompassNavi
  • Contact Owner
  • Craigslist
  • Flickr Photo Frame
  • Gmote
  • GPS Status
  • Hyperspace LITE
  • Layar
  • Listen
  • MeteorLiteWVGA
  • NewRob
  • On Air
  • OpenLoopz for Android
  • Opera Mini
  • Owner
  • PalmBookReader
  • Plasma Puddle
  • RaySpy
  • Reader
  • ScoreNinja
  • Shot
  • Simple GPS
  • Slacker
  • SmartTraining
  • SnapPhoto
  • StreamFurious
  • SwiftTweets
  • SystemMonitor
  • Trap!
  • Ustream Broadcaster
  • Ustream Viewer Beta
  • Where

Stormtrooper off duty at Nashua Winter Stroll

December 1st, 2009

Woman seated in a chair, with a man

December 1st, 2009


Woman seated in a chair, with a man, originally uploaded by marcn.

Wildcat Falls in Autumn (HDR)

September 29th, 2009


Wildcat Falls in Autumn (HDR), originally uploaded by marcn.

Across the street at Wildcat Falls.

This photo was created from three RAW files using qtpfsgui.

Spencer, freshmen class of 2013

September 6th, 2009


Spencer, freshmen class of 2013, originally uploaded by marcn.

Good luck!

Panorama of pro/anti health care protesters @ Carol Shea-Porter Town Hall

August 30th, 2009

Spencer and I got there too late to get into the Carol Shea-Porter Townhall meeting in Manchester yesterday.

Here are some photos of the pro/anti protesters outside: Protesters at Rep. Carol Shea-Porter’s Townhall meeting

Panorama of pro/anti health care protesters @ Carol Shea-Porter Town Hall

SheevaPlug is now my main home server

June 26th, 2009

I’m finally at the point where the little SheevaPlug can replace the aging Compaq DeskPro EN that has been our main home server.

Functions:

  • mail hub
  • network print server
  • scan server
  • mp3 file server
  • system monitor
  • proxy server

Here are the detailed steps needed to convert this $99 low power server into something useful:

Read the rest of this entry »

Marc Nom Nom Nom

June 20th, 2009


Marc Nom Nom Nom, originally uploaded by marcn.

More photos from Rock N Ribfest:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/sets/72157620002788046/

1st annual VMS Reunion

May 29th, 2009


VMS Quilt, originally uploaded by marcn.


Last night’s VMS Reunion in Nashua was great fun. My very first VMS manager that I had right out of college was there and first person I ever saw carry a cell phone (circa 1988).

Thanks to Susan Skonetski for setting it all up!

More photos here:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/marcn/sets/72157618959630572/