Thought I’d leave a note here that Versature is hiring. Notably, I’m looking for a developer with fresh user interface design ideas:
Versature is looking for a developer with experience designing and building awesome user interfaces for complex problem domains. Visual analytics tools, integration with Google Apps, Mobile Safari support, real-time user interaction are all topics we cover. Knowledge of the Java platform and experience using remote service APIs a must. Send your cover letter to the email address listed in the TXT record of hr.versature.net.
It is quite important to avoid the classic NiMH batteries as they show poor performance in cold temperatures and discharge extremely quickly while sitting in your pack waiting. “Low Discharge” or “LSD” NiMH batteries are a much better investment in my experience.
This is a programmable regulated version of the MYO XP. (I believe it is slightly brighter than the XP.) Although the “programmable” seems pretty useless at first, it allows you to program the lowest setting to be the first click–usually it is the last. Key feature: AA batteries.
This is “secondary” as in I don’t even carry spare batteries (AAA) for it. It really only gets used if I’m needing a reading light while in command. It has a built-in red filter.
Flashlights
I also have two flashlights… both are very bright, the difference is mostly in the colour of the light.
This is a very cool looking light that has a very warm yellow light, which apparently is better for finding evidence. It is also very narrow beam, which allows it to throw light extremely far. 2 AA batteries.
This one has a wider beam and is the classic LED bright white colour.
What Next
Also, if you were going to replace them…is there better out there that you know of?
Petzl has one called ULTRA which is insanely bright but is probably way too expensive and uses a proprietary battery pack.
EagleTac has a new light, the P20A2. It is a touch brighter than the P10A2. According to the website, both the P10A2 and the P20A2 are available with a “Neutral White” LED. You might like that better.
You can usually find these on eBay or elsewhere on the ‘net.
For the next time I have extra money burning a hole in my pocket, I want to get a bigger searchlight, something like the Fenix TK40.
Update: see my other post for how to power these toys.
Today marks the last day of my work with dotSUB. I decided some time ago to accept the full-time position of Chief Technology Officer at Versature Corp.
So today I reflect on the past and look toward the future.
So I bought a new 32GB iPhone 3G S this morning at a Rogers Plus store. Was painless and, since I give them so much money each month, I received the $299 pricing.
Different from last time is that the staff activated the phone before handing it over.
I plugged it into iTunes which offered to restore my previous unit’s backup and I’m good to go. Smooth!
I thought I’d let everyone know that I upgraded my iPhone 3G to iPhone OS 3.0 yesterday and tethering Just Works™ over both Bluetooth PAN and USB. In fact, it’s much simpler to use than I expected.
I have an original 6G data plan with Rogers and according to their FAQ, this is a supported feature and I am not going to get a multi-thousand dollar bill next month.
A client of mine in New York City recently dropped his iPhone in the snow where it stayed for some time before he noticed. Unfortunately, the unit no longer operated properly so he called AppleCare. After the usual attempt and a full wipe and restore of the iPhone, they then asked him to put his phone into a Ziploc full of rice for 3 hours. What a great idea! Since rice is a desiccant, this technique should completely remove any humidity from the device.
Sadly, this did not fix the problem. Luckily, Apple replaced it under warranty.
Recently I have been building a few packages under an OpenSolaris Zone hosted by Joyent. Ran into a few issues with shared libraries, so here are my notes:
Telling the Linker Where to Look
You will often get an error like ld.so.1: conftest: fatal: libreadline.so.5: open failed: No such file or directory. This simply means the linker can not find your library. The following command will tell the linker to append a new entry to the existing search path:
# crle -u /path/to/lib/dir
You can retrieve the current configuration by simply running crle on it’s own, output should be something like this:
You can easily get yourself into a situation where your system is a brick by having an incomplete search path for the linker. For example, if you run crle -l /foo/path/lib, you will no longer be able to run anything at all since the linker will not find basic libraries it needs. I found a great post on this topic which instructs you do use the LD_NOCONFIG environment variable to tell the linker to use a default configuration. You can then fix the issue:
$ sudo crle -l /opt/local/lib -l /opt/csw/lib -l /usr/lib -l /lib
ld.so.1: sudo: fatal: libpam.so.1: open failed: No such file or directory
Killed
$ LD_NOCONFIG=yes sudo crle -l /opt/local/lib -l /opt/csw/lib -l /usr/lib -l /lib
Since I will eventually be implementing OpenID in a commercial project, I thought I would go ahead and set myself up properly.
There are now a few free OpenID providers and I have setup my own account with VeriSign Labs Personal Identity Providerbeta. Of course, I do not wish to expose the actual provider as my OpenID: what if I lose trust in them or they simply stop offering the service one day?
The solution to this is actually quite simple and allows you to use your own domain as your personal OpenID, exactly what I needed. The technical term is delegation and is fully documented. To implement this trick using WordPress, simply edit your themes header.php and add two meta tags. Of course you can do this with your software of choice, or even plain vanilla HTML. This is what I added to my blog:
The above indicates that my personal OpenID is being delegated to https://adam.sherman.pip.verisignlabs.com which is hosted by the server https://pip.verisignlabs.com/server. Since the page at http://sherman.ca/ contains the above tags, I can now go to any site supporting OpenID (look for the logo: ) and simply use sherman.ca as my identifier.
I believe that OpenID’s time has come and I look forward to implementing it for some of my clients in order to give their users the ability to consume services without a registration page.
So Rogers (and their other brand, Fido) have Unlimited Data plans. And guess what? The fine print is so bad I do not know whether to laugh or cry. The Fido page says
The Unlimited surfing on your Fido option includes unlimited mobile surfing on your handset only and is only available on selected handsets (non-Fido certified handsets, WindowsMobile devices and PC cards are not eligible). Data usage incurred on ineligible handsets and devices, incurred while tethering (using a handset or device as a wireless modem or laptop) or incurred using non-Fido (third party) applications downloaded to your handset will be subject to pay-per-use charge of 5¢ per KB. Option applies within Canada only. While roaming outside Canada, data transmission charge of 5¢ per KB apply, except in the U.S. where data transmission charges of 1¢ per KB apply.
The Rogers page has a few good ones too, have a look.
This means that I can have unlimited data, but only on devices where I would likely not use much, right?
As mentioned in a previous post, Leopard uses launchd to automatically launch ssh-agent when needed. I just noticed that it does exactly the same thing for X11!
Try it: type xeyes in a Terminal window and watch X11.app magically launch itself. Very smooth. Relevant configuration is quite simple:
) and simply use