Josh wanted to know how fast the HSDPA networking built into my new LG CU500 is, and recommended going to http://www.dslreports.com/mspeed to check it out. The default WAP-based browser wasn’t up to the task, so I loaded Opera Mini onto the phone and gave it a try by testing it with the 1M file size (what do I care, I have unlimited Media Net 🙂 ). The result?

Apparently, the 3G network is pretty fast! I tried it multiple times, and this was just about the slowest time recorded.

Well, my venerable Motorola mpx220 has been acting unreliably lately, and after over two years of service, I figured it would be a good time to upgrade. I did a bit of scanning around, and settled on upgrading to the new LG CU500, which is equipped with Cingular’s new HSDPA networking stuff, enabling them to do video via MobiTV or their own CIngular Video service. I thought going to the high speed data would be useful: I don’t normally use real data services, but I like to be able to read RSS feeds via my phone while standing in lines and I like checking out the local movie times.

I’m not sure whether I’m going to keep this phone.

It’s got some minor annoyances compared to my previous phone.

• Menus, submenus, and sub-sub menus. The Motorola Smartphone I used to have created a list of recently used applications that you could access easily. There are some dedicated keys on this phone to do the same thing, but it takes some getting used to.
• Sucky WAP only browser. This wouldn’t matter too much, I could just download Opera for it, but…
• Java refuses to grant permanent permissions to establish network connections to apps which aren’t signed by Cingular. You get the “Yes, Grant” / “No, never” dialog every single time. Bleh. This is the real dealbreaker for me.
• Oh, no email client either. Or voice dialing.
• I’m having difficulty getting bluetooth to work with it from my ubuntu box, but that could just be my fault or Ubuntu’s.

I’m pondering using my “buyer’s remorse” period to exchange it for the Samsung D807. It doesn’t have the HSDPA, but it does have EDGE (which is all I can get most places I am anyway) and does have email. If I can confirm that Java apps will work properly on it, I think I’ll have a winner.

[tags]Samsung D807,LG CU500,Cell Phone[/tags]

I’ve had lots of fun playing with the UM virtual machine described in the last ICFP contest, and found this page by Michael Weber detailing his work on creating the virtual machine in Common LISP. My own virtual machine is written in C and is about three hundred very verbose lines long, with plenty of comments and support for I/O redirection (so you can easily script running the vm) and for dumping and restoring the entire virtual machine.

Anyway, neat stuff.

I think I’ve been watching too much CSI, but I’ve become interested in some of the science of forensics. That’s why I’ve found this to be interesting: The Science of Fingerprints published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation. An interesting basic look into forensics.

[tags]Fingerprints,Forensics,CSI,Public Domain[/tags]

Not perfect, but kind of fun.

Picking up the newspaper this morning, it reminded me tonight is the peak of the annual Perseid meteor showers. You can look on skytonight.com to find out details. It’s expected to be not the most amazing show, as many of the fainter meteors will be drowned out by the light of the full moon, but if you find yourself outside tonight, you might give it a peek. I expect we will have a pretty decent crowd up at the observatory tonight.

[tags]Astronomy,Meteors[/tags]

I’ve been wanting to do some GPU programming for quite some time, and tried to take a step in the right direction. I picked up a fairly inexpensive nVidia 7300GS card for my HP Pavilion a1310n, thinking that would be a good way to get started, but when I use the binary drivers that nVidia supplies, I get lock ups every few minutes when using any GPU accelerated functionality. Grumble. Some indications on the web seem to be that the particular chipset on the ASUS motherboard that lies within could be the culprit: many other people using similar 6600 or 6200 based cards appear to be having similar difficulties. Sigh. I guess this board will be going back.

In the mean time, I found that the Wikipedia has a nice table which tells you what the differences between all those nVidia GPUs are. Useful!

Addendum: Here’s the corresponding table for ATI GPUS.

Here’s an inspiring little project: The Time Fountain on cre.ations.net. Basically it is a tiny fountain which drops small drops of water tinted with a flourescent dye. A PIC microcontroller controls flashing of some UV leds to illuminate the drops, resulting in all sorts of neat stroboscopic effects. Very cool, check out the video.

Every year since time immemorial, the Springfield Telescope Makers hold a telescope making event called Stellafane. People get together to show off their telescope projects, some of which are very neat. Sean Graham posted this cool photoset on Flickr, check ’em out.

[tags]Telescope Making, Astronomy, Stellafane[/tags]

Posting has been a bit light lately, mostly because I was off in Boston for SIGGRAPH. I’ll try to post a summary of some of the good stuff that I saw in the next day or two when I recover sufficiently.

In the mean time, you can check out my pictures of Fenway.

Addendum: In the meantime, here is the list of all SIGGRAPH 2006 papers on the web. One of my favorites as Photo Tour, which seems almost like magic. Check out the video.

Yesterday I saw my first game at legendary Boston’s legendary Fenway Park. One of my fellow SIGGRAPH Sketch jurors, Daniel Maskit, had a spare ticket and was kind enough to let me tag along. If you saw Monday’s game, you know that the game was fabulous, but I’m going to hold off telling the larger story as a podcast. I also snapped about 180 pictures, and with my usuall ratio of one in fifty actually turning out well, I expect four to be good. I’ll have those online as soon as I can get a higher speed net connection. Till then, I’ll tease you with this small picture I nabbed from outside fenway after the game.

Another quick gimp job of Wells taken from our seats behind the bullpen…