| All | Electronics | Software | Security | Personal | Scouting |
Thu, 17 Aug 2006
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Sounds fair enough to me. Google is complaining about people using the term 'Google for it' as being a general replacement for the term 'search'. In reflection it is not unexpected. Once upon a time there was a company called BIRO who made pens. Unfortunately, the integrity of their trademark has been compromised because everybody calls Pens Biros. Linux had a bit of a kick in the teeth recently as well, as they decided to try to trademark their brand after it was generaly used. I wish Google luck in their quest to modify basic human behaviour. But keep in mind that there is a little bit of data available in the Australian Trademark Office - Google have only applied for a trademark under classes 9, 38 and 42. under trademark law, you have to specify the range of goods and services your mark applies to. This is to prevent name space conflicts. eg Ford have a trademark relating to cars, but not to hot beverage containers. I thought it would be prudent to list what was included in classes 9, 38 and 42: Goods & Services Class: 9 Computer hardware; computer software including computer software for searching, compiling, indexing and organizing information within individual workstations, personal computers or computer networks; computer software for electronic mail and facilitating workgroup communications over computer networks; computer software for creating indexes of information, web sites or other resources Class: 38 Providing electronic mail and workgroup communication services Class: 42 Computer services in this class, including on-line personalized information services; information extraction and data mining; providing access to proprietary collections of information; creating indexes of information, web sites and other information sources; providing information concerning a wide range of text, electronic documents, databases, graphics and audiovisual information Keep in mind that this list does not include the following products you may see on the shelves shortly:
Remember, you saw it here first... Isn't IP law silly (Kind of like genetic or software patents)... |
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Well, I finally decided to auction off a phone I decided that I do not need. I have been a happy ebay purchaser for quite a number of years, and have now entered the ranks of seller - Da Da! You wont believe the last 2 days - On day 1 - I initially put the auction up with a buy it now clause - and within an hour, somebody decided to purchase it - Wo Hoo - Unfortunately, it was a Mary Smith, with an account created that morning, living in the USA - Well, I calculated the fedex shipping charge as $135 AUS, on top of the $500 they wanted to pay, and sent off an email. I get the following response - Hi, I would like to pay for this item via Bank Transfer, you know my address is in US,but right now i'm in Nigeria,i was sent there on a Business Trip,and i want to give it to the Head of the Department as a gift, so i will like to know if you can ship it to Nigeria,i dont mind paying any amount for the shipping cost,pls if you can do this for me i'll be very grateful.if you accept kindly send your full name and account detials which am going to send it to.
Well, let me guess - An American, living in Nigeria, Just created an ebay account for dear little me - Gosh - Wow - I can't believe my luck - I just have to tell them my bank account details - << NOT >> I sent them a response that indicated that I believed that they were Dirty Nigerian Scammers, and relisted the auction - In 7 days, ebay will refund me the $8.00 listing fee. - The relisting was without the buy it now option. Next day, I discovered a bid - Yay - Looks like I might be selling the phone.. I also discovered a number of questions - All telling me that I can purchase similar crap from their ebay store. - Hmmm. And finally, it looks like I am now receiving about 3 random text emails from russia every couple of hours. - I wonder what those are. Right now, I am using them to teach my spam filter what spam looks like Yay! |
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I am seeing more and more evidence that Google is having trouble keeping up with the size of the internet.
A search that should find a page on my site - LED dice doug Jackson, finds nothing. It does find the original silicon chip article. The register has an interesting article. http://www.theregister.co.uk/2006/05/04/google_bigdaddy_chaos/ |
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I have discovered something interesting..
1) Google are sweeping my site. 2) My site has a set of project pages, one of which is a simple PIC based temperature logger. If I do a search on Google for 'extremely simple temperature data logger' 'PIC16F84 and a DS1820' which are 2 valid terms on the temperature logger page, I don't get any response. Does this mean that Google don't bother traversing into a site, and that they only look at front pages???? Possibly Mikal will be able to shed some light onto this. << Update - I have moved my Blog to Blosxom and are now using static generation - That may help >> |
Bernina Sewing Machine - Embroidery - External USB Hard Disk |
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I have sorted out how to add an external hard disk to a high end Bernina sewing / embroidery machine. It runs windows CE (an *old* version), and the USB support is a little suspect unless you have paid Bernina some cash for an upgrade (what an interesting, mainframe based, business model.)
Just buy an external USB hard disk enclosure, and a suitable drive (we used a 6gb one I had lying around), plug it into the bernina and power on (hot swapping would have been too simple for them) and let the Bernina format the disk - should take about 20 - 30 minutes. At this stage, your job is not done, as the Bernina machine fails to set up a suitable partition on the drive... Once that is finished, plug the drive into your laptop or desktop windoze system, and use computer manager to create a FAT32 partition. Format that and Bob's your auntie... It will all fly. Do not use NTFS... The version of windows CE that Bernina uses does not recognise NT partitions, so that will surely fail. It wont be recognised by the Bernina, and it will offer to re-format the drive. If that happens, just let it do it's thing, unplug it and set up a FAT32 partition. Have fun, and remember that you don't need to pay the stupid amount of money to Bernina for their overpriced hard disk. Doug. - Who's Mum owns a Bernina machine that in spite of its design flaws (it overheats..) still loves it. |
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"http://www.hearnet.com/at_risk/risk_at_risk.shtml" says; "One way to reduce hearing damage is by paying attention to noise levels and realizing when they are too high. According to the United States Safety and Health Standards, workers should not be exposed to more than 90 dB over a period of eight hours. Most audiologists would like to see that standard modified to 85 dB. If you work in a noisy environment, check out the decibel level you are being exposed to and take the proper precautions. Have your hearing evaluated at least once a year by a hearing health professional. Turn down the volume, or remove yourself from the noise area when possible." 92 is pretty close to 90. |
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I have been looking at installing a SUB under the passengers seat of my new car. A quick survey has discovered that most commercial subs are kind of vase shaped, and will *not* fit under any circumstances. In the garage, I have a 10" subwoffer I purchased a while ago for an instrument amplifier. It is much thinner than the subs I am seeing now, so it should fit. What actually worries me is that the Sound Pressure Levels (SPL) that kids today are exposing themselves to are actually quite scary. I did a quick test the other morning (as one does), and discovered that the audio system is comfortably loud at 92db, and uncomfortable at 98db. I have read of 'soundoffs' where they measure 127db +++..... What did yor say... I cant quite hear you..... he? Protect your hearing, it wont come back. Now, to do the research to ses if 92db is likely to damage my already damaged hearing further. |
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I am very carefull when blogging not to blog about every aspect of my life. As a person who used to employ people, I used to use information obtained from blog searches to decide whether to employ or not. [ You get a real insight into somebody, who at 10am is posting on his blog that his employer is an ^%^## and how he thinks that his job is crap] In this particular case, as a thoughtful individual, I make an exception... Those who know me know that I used to work for a Managed Services Provider (MSSP) here in Australia. It was a job that was fun and rewarding, until the management started to do strange things (like fail to pay super, and be tardy with the monthly pays.....) Today I learnt from a friend of a friend or a friend, (the grapevine) that the person who took my job when I left had to be paid 30% more than me.... I never thought of asking for that kind of raise... This is a simple case of do the right thing, and keep costs down, or screw up, and increase costs. I believe that employment satisfaction is not about your raw salary, but about the quality of the workinhg environment. I am with a new employer now (at a pay rise again), doing work that I enjoy, and leaving the ofice at between 4 and 5 pm every day. I also rarely work weekends. Kinda makes you feel loved.... Looking back, the cut and thrust of solving the worlds problems at 3am went past it's use by date. So, in summary, for all employers out there, look after your employees, and your corporate knowledge wont walk out the door. (It was kind of nice resigning, and saying "no amount of money wont keep me here, it is about the quality of the employer...") I could hear the fuming in the silence. By the way, Chris, I really hope that you enjoy the discussions with the officials who are chasing you. |
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Wo Hoo. I got a new Mazda 3 recently, and have dicsovered all sorts of interesting things I can do with it's electrical system. So far, I have added an ambient temp sensor to a socket behind the bumper bar. Now, the car tells me what the temp outside is (8 deg C). The trick to that was the the manafacturer was very carefull to put a blanking plug into the socket, so it looked like the part I purchased wouldn't fit  . I have also modified the radio so I have an AUX input. I plan to document the protocol that the modular radio talks so that I can do a propper AUX module. ( I know that they are available commercially) What gets my goat up is that in another forum, somebody was being helpfull, then went silent - with a post saying that any further information will affect the comercial vaibility of their product....) Hopefully, I can determine the protocol data required to put text onto the display, not simply say "TAPE" when the AUX module is used. Finally, the car has a CAN bus. This means that there is lots of scope for adding a car computer to calculate MPG, etc... Yes, I know that I could have spent $10K more when I puurchased the car, but thats not the point... |
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I dicsovered a company called Netgate today http://www.netgate.com They sell all sorts of pigtails for wireless cards, as well as antennas and cards. After much web research, I have determined that the wireless connector at the back of my ipaq h5550 is a U.FL. Pigtail to type N is on its way. Should arive just in time for my new antenna. I was a little surprised that the range of cards from them was poor. |
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Projects - Some of my projects
DRJ-Consulting - A site focused on saving energy. we Just Dont Talk About That - A site for sharing funny family stories. Megan's weblog Email me at doug@stillhq.com |
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