Monday, February 26

Not Talking about the iPod

Oddly, an article about portable media players that doesn't so much as mention the iPod. Granted, the article is about devices with wireless data transfer capabilities, but Apple's market-dominating player isn't even noted for the fact that it lacks such a feature.

Music and Video Players Add Wi-Fi Access - PCWorld.com

Wednesday, February 21

Putting cellular technology in... a doorbell?

Apparently a Dutch company has put a GSM receiver/transmitter in a new line of doorbells (not yet available for sale) that will call your cell phone when the bell is pressed. It will even allow you to have a conversation with your visitor via its built-in intercom, and, if necessary, will allow you to unlock the door for them by entering a code.

The other cool application is that the door will unlock for you if you place a call to your doorbell, since it will recognize your phone's number via Caller ID. The notion in general seems kind of weird (come on... calling your doorbell?), but it's an interesting technological step forward that may become commonplace in the future.

Wireless doorbell rings you in - Network World

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The Geek Code desperately needs updating, but in any case here's mine (as of 2010-02-28):

-----BEGIN GEEK CODE BLOCK-----
Version: 3.12
GIT/MU d+(-) s:+>: a C++> ULXB++++$ L+++ M++ w--() !O !V P+ E---
W+++ N o++ K? PS PE++ Y+ PGP t !5 X- R- tv+@ b++ DI++++ D--- e*++
h--- r+++ y+++ G+
------END GEEK CODE BLOCK------


If you really care about knowing what that all means, you either know the code already, or you can get it decoded for you here.