Inside View from Ireland

My Dream Chair

I'M PUTTING MY LONG BET for a dream cafe into my blog's embargo release system because I think a virtual reality chair will be on offer before I die.

I think the ultimate out-of-body experience  can't be hard to program. It involves being able to press a button and have the whole room disappear, to be replaced by a virtual destination of my choice. This isn't too far away. I've been in rooms where people have been transfixed and lifted by Pink Floyd in 5.1 separation with lights. I already use 3D glasses to go inside things I never imagined. I've known friends who have used mind-altering drugs and shared dimensions beyond anything I've seen or heard. So I don't think it's too far-fetched to create a finely tuned and focused magnetic field coupled with direct electrical stimulation. You'd need a lot of electrical power if you used today's technology. I'm putting a "waking dream state" into my bucket list. If you check back onto my blog in 2030, you'll see "my dream chair" on my list of things that I hope transpire before I make my last post.

---

Shot I took of the Clarion Hotel's hanging chair from the North Quay in Dublin, Ireland.

Future Post: "Dream Chair on my Bucket List", February 7, 2032.

futuretech

Related articles

• Metamorphosis From Real to Virtual (artistimagination.wordpress.com)
• Eric M. Howlett, pioneer of "Virtual Reality" (hightechhistory.com)

15 Apps I Use the Most

IF YOU CAN'T ADD MONEY to your pockets by leveraging the tech you carry in your pocket, perhaps you should review your personal mobile technology on an annual basis.

There's no guarantee that the tech I love will be the tech that keeps our household ticking over, but I hold the following 15 apps in high regard since they are the ones I use at least three times a week.

1. Pocket Casts on iOS.

I use Pocket Casts every day. I paid for both the iOS and Android versions because it is the most intelligent over-the-air audio updating service I have ever used. It's especially helpful being able to annotate and share directly podcast episode segments directly from the app. The developers behind Pocket Casts have suggested they are working on a way to sync listening positions of segments between different operating systems. That would be magical because I could pick up on a podcast segment on my Android phone where I left off on my iPod Touch.

I'm comparing Pocket Casts to Dogg Catcher (a podcatcher I use on Android) and to Google Listen. The Pocket Casts crew are a generation or two ahead of anything else in the listening universe.

Tip: I often put the listening I enjoy the most onto my Huffduffer feed so if you like to share audio, Huffduffer is a good place to listen to work vetted by the community.

Pocket Backup Went USB 3

I HAVE A NEW CABLE in my life (see left) because I've just enhanced my personal data crash plan with a pocket-sized terabyte from Toshiba.

Unlike my 500 GB pocket drives, this TB offering can be powered from a single USB port on my laptop. However, the port used has to offer a 5V trickle of power because the drive needs to spin up for efficient data access. You cannot expect older desktop computers to have USB ports that meet this power requirement. One of the four USB ports on my Dell M2400 laptop does not have the power to run the drive.

My Toshiba USB Drive could transfer my bloated media files at 5 Gbit/s but I'm stuck with a Windows 7 Pro laptop at USB 2.0 so I get one tenth that transfer speed. That's actually not a big deal for me because I would rather do my back-up routines while working on my laptop. I bought the Toshiba Canvio for EUR 119 from D.I.D Electrical in Clonmel. It came with file, folder, and full system backup and recovery software with data encryption. I am mapping its use to Crashplan. This is the first time that I looked for the manufacturer to state that the drive had internal shock sensor technology on board because I've dropped these pocket-sized drives before. I hope to get more than two years' usage from this purchase but I think the connection point for the cable at the back of the portable drive is the weak link in this product because I cannot turn over the drive while it's running and expect it to hold its connection to my laptop. Toshiba Canvio 3.0 Plus Portable Drives are compatible with Windows 7, Windows Vista and Windows XP.

---

The Toshiba Canvio Portable TB Drive should cost you less than EUR 120. You're probably paying EUR 10 just for the brand name, one I trust with my data.

Read reviews of the Toshiba Canvio TB Drive.

sighting

Trace Heating for Our Water Main

UNLIKE LAST YEAR, we should avoid water freezing in our main supply line because I've installed trace heating around the pipe leading into the house. This cost me EUR 118 and two hours of mud-laced work.

I got the trace heating kit from the Electricity Supply Board Store in Ireland and all the rest of the tape, damp proofing and waterproof electrical supplies from Woodies DIY. This caveat may not be obvious in the YouTube clip I made: the Raychem kit sold by ESB isn't advertised as being suitable for underground use. But it arrived with aircraft-quality manufacturing standards and I think it will do fine buried and tripled-wrapped under our front window. I made a DIY YouTube clip with my dirty fingers manipulating my Nokia E7. It does the job, I think. And if it doesn't work, I'll update my blog with the sad story.

Electromagnetic Pest Controls Driving Our Mice Nuts

WINTER WEATHER BROUGHT three mice that we could see (and probably another two above the ceiling we could hear) so we plugged a Pest Clear 3000 next to our phone and got immediate results.

The little unit sends electromagnetic signals through the wiring of the house and drives out the little field mice who like using our home for their winter nesting ground. The only technical thing you need to know concerns a rotating switch on the front of the device. We're supposed to change the selector from "random" to "continuous" once a week. And the literature says to change the pulse daily if infestation is persistent. We have a mouse motorway entrance under our ground floor toilet where the main water supply enters our home. I clean droppings from that area frequently. But after three days with the electronic pest control switched on, all the droppings have gone away. I'm a happy camper and I'm now considering extending the power cables I have in the garage since and installing an outside socket near the point where our main water enters the house.

---

sighting

5PM-10PM Most Dangerous Time for Cycling

I USED TO RIDE to and from work on a 10-speed bicycle and had all sorts of lighting equipment to alert motorists.

Good lighting was important because I often rode through fog. After a few years, I concluded that the best equipment was the stuff that required the least input and no maintenance. That meant reflective attire. This week I discovered Project Aura, a system from my home state of Pennsylvania, that increases visual footprint of cyclists--especially near intersections. It works because of rotational surface areas. Light comes from RGB LEDs inside the rims of the wheels that change from red when slowing down to white when at cruising speed. The whole rig is self-powered by a dynamo. It deserves a look.

 

---

Project Aura: Bicycle Safety Lighting System from Project AURA on Vimeo.

technology

Recommending VTech Baby Monitor

BABY MONITORS HAVE IMPROVED dramatically in the past three years and that's very evident when using VTech's DECT equipment.

You can use this technology as a baby monitor, as a listening device or a wireless speaker extension. It hops around on 10 channels in the 1880 - 1900 MHz band. That means we get no interference from an immersion heater, a microwave, four different wifi signals pulsating through our house or two different mobile phones running all the time in the same 50m space where the monitors are positioned. We have a monitor set up where our infant sleeps and a receiver two stories below the child. You can hear a bird chirp outside the window pane, every little cough from the infant, and doors closing on the same floor where the monitor sits. The receiver lights up when sensing different levels of noise. That's helpful because sometimes I'm using earbuds while working or the monitor is blocked out by dishwasher noise.

Planning for Burst Water Pipe

WE WILL HAVE TO PAY for water based on a meter charge within the next three years so I'm looking for a tool that will save our budget in the event of a burst water pipe.

If we blow a water pipe, we'll pay for both hundreds of litres of water along with clean-up costs. I'm looking at devices like the $540 Watercop to save me money and hassle. Watercop attaches to the water main on your house and is triggered by remote RF water sensors that can be placed anywhere. When triggered, it shuts off the main and stops all water flowing into the house. We would need a sensor in the attic, one next to the furnace, and two others where the main water supply enters the ground floor. The WaterCop I'm evaluating has a 3/4-inch valve and three RF Sensors. It's powered by 120V AC but I think you can make the thing work with a power adapter on 240V power in Ireland.

---

Other stuff from DynaQuip.

wishlist

My Next Swimming Phone

I'M ALWAYS LOOKING for rugged technology and think the Sony Ericsson Xperia Active will set the bar above any other mobile phone I've used.

It's powered by Android 2.3 on a 1 GHz processor, has a three-inch touchscreen display and offers greater water, dust and scratch-resistance than any multimedia device I have owned. It snaps 5 Mp images--good quality but way below the superb Xperia Arc's optics. Its on-board memory (512MB RAM, 320MB internal memory and expendable memory support micro SD card slot) is fine for what I do with a phone but people with 100 apps in their lives could encounter the "force-close" message on account of the system memory of the Xperia Active. I have several Sony accesories so the Xperia Active's DLNA, proper Bluetooth (not the neutered Apple version) and industry-standard 3.5 mm jack will let me use all that kit for another five years.

 

---

Watch on http://youtu.be/2a0KEBx33qY or look at the specs.

mobile

Using Auto-Focus 720p HD Cameraphone

EVERY SUMMER I TAKE a big leap in technology. This summer the leap comes in the form of the Sony Ericsson Xperia Arc's 720p HD video recording capability. The phone cost me EUR 90 from O2-Ireland and it does more than I ever expected. I can make quick video recordings of newsprint, books, e-ink screens, and effortlessly record screen inputs on every kind of laptop and handheld device I own. That's "effortless" in that I don't have to do anything afterwards because the phone is set up to push photos and videos directly to private space on Google Plus. If I like the result, I toggle the item to "share" and designated people inside my Google Circles can see the imagery. If I make the file "public" then anybody can view it. Here's what today's video looks like on YouTube below the break.