Fighting with computers

Just after installing a software update that required a restart (I guess a kernel or firmware upgrade) our iMac did it again: After the initial chime, it started beeping and it refused to boot up. In a previous post I mentioned that as three beeps means a RAM memory problem it may well be caused by a non properly seated memory module. So this time I remove the power cable and I opened the memory hood on the bottom of the case. It looked ok but, just in case, I took the memory out and I plugged it in again. It looked to fit well (before and after). Unfortunately this procedure caused no change on system behavior: After the initial chime the system will beep twice and then it will continue making three beeps until you power it off. Knocking the unit did not help either. It's time to consider the choice of sending the unit back to Apple. But as I could not do this on a Sunday afternoon I decided to try to learn more about the issue. Googling lead me to some awful stories. I guess I&#

The March issue of Circuit Cellar Inc magazine is out and it features an article I've authored about the canvas painting machine I built a while ago. A video of it was also included here . It all started when I learned about another project on the net. However, though I have tried to contact the authors they've never answered any of my emails.

Just when the anger from a previous rip-off on eBay fades away, I'm watching myself doing it again: I was bidding on an item that had only 30 minutes left. I went to do other things and when I was back I tried to see what had happened. However, what I've obtained was the warning shown here. Apparently the auction had been canceled. After checking my emails I realized that I had been outbid by another bidder who actually won the bid. Nothing surprising here, but a few minutes later another email informed me that the auction can been canceled "Cancelled - Results Null and Void" was the subject. However not much useful information was provided, or so I thought We're writing to let you know that eBay has ended the following item you were bidding on due to factors beyond the seller's control: Item Number - 200201885499 Item Title - BRAND NEW *iPod touch* 16GB 16 GB WIFI,TOUCH WIDESCREEN As eBay removed the item, you are no longer obliged to send p

I know it is not new, but I've been surprised when my younger kid told me he was selling several of his accounts of certain on-line games for some money to his classmates. I just hope he'll stay out of trouble, but I'm surprised of his entrepreneurship character.

In my recent trip to northern Finland I had the opportunity to use a cool network service in the Oulu area: panOULU is an open wifi network you can freely. Freely meaning several things: not only that you do not have to pay but also that you do not need any type of user ID, which is great if you happen to just be visiting the area for a few days. Just opening your laptop and being able to use the network with the peace of mind it is not going to cost you an arm and a leg it's just great. I was able to upload the photos to my Picasa account so my family and friends could be updated. This same action would had been outrageously expensive should I were using the GPRS or 3G connection (getting the photos printed and sending them by a courier service is actually cheaper than your cellphone data service). This week I've read that European regulators are asking the mobile operators to reduce users costs when using their mobile data services abroad. The point is that as far as the EC

Not much could I anticipate this morning when I woke up at 4:00am to be, as advised, two hours in advance the boarding time of my international flight to Paris. It was actually the first round of a tiresome trip to northern Finland. My final destination was Raahe but I was flying from Valencia to Oulu. And to do this it seems one possible choice was to go through Paris and Helsinki. I bought my ticket online, with the freedom that gives no having any miles program, to the cheapest seller (not sure it is the safest choice now, but read on). I usually try to avoid Madrid airport, but I recently read on a BBC News article that Paris – Charles De Gaulle – was one of the worst airports in Europe. The only problem I've got there in the past was that they tend to add letters to the gate numers, so you may have, for example, several 53 gates. Of course the tickets do not reflect this “feature”. I'm writing this on my laptop while sitted on a very comfortable chairs next to gate

For those of you using Windows you wonder who might need another tool than the free (and great) software to manage your photo collection and to upload selected ones to your Picasa on-line photo sharing web application. Mac users have been wondering for a while if there was a better way to get photos from iPhoto to Picasa Albums. I discovered this morning that there is a new upload software for Macs that integrates nicely with iPhoto (I'm not checking very often so this feature may be available for download for a long time, I just do not know). Things for Linux looked really bright when I saw a post claiming that you can install a similar software to the one you use in Windows for Linux. Actually it was too good to be true because what they have done is to package a Windows binary with WINE. Unfortunately this binary lacks the upload feature. So if you want to upload many files at a time it is better to copy on a pen drive and then use a Windows or Apple computer to upload the bat