Monday, May 24, 2004

Reminds me of... Mark Frauenfelder at BoingBoing posted a picture today of a guy being duct-taped to the ceiling. This reminded me of a college prank that never happened: Eric and I had joined Michigan State's Mini Formula One team as part of the Society for Automotive Engineers.  As the only freshman on the team, we were delegated with designing the body of the car. [pictures of the car] The team needed to get to the engine quickly, yet the whole thing needed to stay on while driving pretty quickly around a test track. So we decided on Velcro as the means to attach the aluminum sheet metal body.  Our contacts at Velcro International were especially generous and provided more than enough 10lb / in2 test Velcro.  Something to the tune of over 200 yards of the stuff. Needless to say, we found the stuff was quiet strong.  With more than enough for the car, we thought it might have some other uses - such as hanging our (frequently intoxicated) neighbor Matt. After some tests, we discovered that the problem was less with the strength of the Velcro and more with the strength of the plaster and mesh ceiling.  Ah well. 8:09:51 PM    comment []  trackback []

No Palm Support: SanDisk Ships 256 Mb plus Wi-Fi SD Card "SanDisk continues to push combo envelope with 256 Mb and Wi-Fi in a single SD card: These cards still remain supported only by Pocket PC systems running Microsoft software, but it's a great technical achievement. As we move into a time when it's likely that digital cameras will offer driver-level support for Wi-Fi Compact Flash and similar memory cards, SanDisk could be poised to deliver their combo punch for that market. Some storage (at least temporary) coupled with the ability to transmit images...." more [via Wi-Fi Networking News] A juicy product indeed. However... <sarcastic voice> It sure would be nice to have some nice SDIO drivers for Palm, wouldn't it, SanDisk? It's too bad you promised them over a year ago and haven't delivered. </sarcastic voice> As a developer who works with Microsoft tools, I will hand it to Microsoft for always giving the developer a leg up. I've got bets on Microsoft's Pocket PC not because of the product, but due to the developer network and tools available. I love my Palm Zire 71 (now replaced by the Palm Zire 72). Usability wise, Palm ain't too shabby compared to the Pocket PC. I just wish the hardware out there worked. Don't expect a driver from Sandisk for a camera if they can't create a driver for a Palm. 7:39:58 PM    comment []  trackback []