Dente Azul
Today I've become one of the unwashed wireless technology mongers - there's Bluetooth all over my desk.
I now have the Apple Wireless keyboard on the Mac Mini, which works amazingly well, the Logitech impossibly-long-to-remember-name mouse with Bluetooth, and a new Motorola Bluetooth wireless headset.
The Mac Mini supports all these devices without any drivers added. The built-in bluetooth pairing program configures things as needs must be - for example, you can't just walk into a room with YOUR bluetooth keyboard and start accessing someone's computer using it. You have to "pair" the computer with a given peripheral, and often this pairing includes a security key which makes it so someone with a bluetooth receiver cannot simply capture your keystrokes, voice conversations, or mouse actions.
Compare this versus standard wireless desktop products, which are considerably less secure and very accommodating should you get your signal (from the same manufacturer's product) to someone else's computer using the matching receiver.
The crappiest product seems to be the Logitech mouse. If I am talking or listening on the headset, the mouse signal apparently gets disrupted and even after the headset switches back off the mouse usually needs to be turned off and back on to resume operation. I will either try the Apple bluetooth mouse later in time, or (more likely) wait for their Mighty Mouse to come in Bluetooth.
Even before I had the Bluetooth keyboard and headset, the mouse would get squirrely (one rodent changing to another), and stop talking with the Mac Mini. So adding Bluetooth peripherals hasn't caused mouse troubles, it has just increased their frequency.
Xmas was kind - not only did I get most of the videos I asked for, but I had $200 cash which went toward the keyboard (about $60), and the headset (about $50), and a nice hardcover book Rand McNally sized that is an Atlas of WoW. It's even indexed well, so when someone mentions this city or that territory, I can find it quite easily. It looks very good, but is $25, so no casual WoW gamer would really care to buy one of these when they can almost get 2 months' subscription.
One of the videos I asked for is PSP format and is the Family Guy video about Stewie Griffin (The Untold Story). This has a standard 4:3 TV aspect ratio, but in full view mode, the stretching really wasn't too terrible on the PSP screen. This video is really pretty cute, and has content that in places I think is more risque than they'd put on broadcast TV. If you like the show, this is really pretty good and has a consistent theme throughout - there are 4 stories but they all concern Stewie getting a look into the future.
I kind of like him saying, "Everything looks the same!" To which he's told, "It's only been 30 years." Here we are in the 21st Century, and save for some personal electronics, we're hard to distinguish from 1970. Basically, it's just fashion that defines decades with us - the look of cars and stores really hasn't evolved much at all.
I got a new fleece pullover that's comfy and simple, and in a nice holidayish maroon.
WoW's holiday gifts in-game have been many - apparently those of us post 40 get 5 presents under the tree, plus 4 quests to do - the standard one getting treats to Great-Father Winter, then 3 new ones: Rescuing a reindeer, recovering items from the Greench, and a spendy quest to get preserved holly, which will allow transformation of your mount into a reindeer anytime you want. Regular holly, which is given out along with mistletoe, lasts but 10 days. The mistletoe is a "spirit" buff for players which actually is pretty good, but cannot be used on yourself.
The headset allows me to use voice chat in iChat, and record sound files using a free program called Audacity. I can also configure software that receives incoming voice data to route it to the headset, so the conversation is a bit more private.
Unfortunately, the Apple voice command feature does not work at all well with the bluetooth headset - the VU meter stays at an almost-too-loud level even in silence, and when I speak, nothing appears to be heard that it can recognize. Adjussting microphone level in the system settings as well as in the recognizer both have no helpful effect. That's too bad, because voice navigation in Mac OS is actually pretty cool. Plus you can make up new actions and associate them with voice commands - from simply opening a file or program to performing a complex set of actions via Automator.
I probably will use the headset primarily for online gaming voice comms - my WoW guild has a Ventrillo chat server, but their client for OS X does not like to communicate with anything other than SPEEX codecs, and their server is set on some proprietary PC format. Until I can get the host using SPEEX, I'll have to do without there.
Come next year, sweets will become unavailable in the house, and some higher level of activity prescribed for both myself and mom. What I will miss the most will be chocolate. Dove, Ghirardelli, and Toblerone stocks are going to plummet.
Since I have no rant content today, I've decided I'd make this a public entry. Howdy y'all who found this via some search or other.
I now have the Apple Wireless keyboard on the Mac Mini, which works amazingly well, the Logitech impossibly-long-to-remember-name mouse with Bluetooth, and a new Motorola Bluetooth wireless headset.
The Mac Mini supports all these devices without any drivers added. The built-in bluetooth pairing program configures things as needs must be - for example, you can't just walk into a room with YOUR bluetooth keyboard and start accessing someone's computer using it. You have to "pair" the computer with a given peripheral, and often this pairing includes a security key which makes it so someone with a bluetooth receiver cannot simply capture your keystrokes, voice conversations, or mouse actions.
Compare this versus standard wireless desktop products, which are considerably less secure and very accommodating should you get your signal (from the same manufacturer's product) to someone else's computer using the matching receiver.
The crappiest product seems to be the Logitech mouse. If I am talking or listening on the headset, the mouse signal apparently gets disrupted and even after the headset switches back off the mouse usually needs to be turned off and back on to resume operation. I will either try the Apple bluetooth mouse later in time, or (more likely) wait for their Mighty Mouse to come in Bluetooth.
Even before I had the Bluetooth keyboard and headset, the mouse would get squirrely (one rodent changing to another), and stop talking with the Mac Mini. So adding Bluetooth peripherals hasn't caused mouse troubles, it has just increased their frequency.
Xmas was kind - not only did I get most of the videos I asked for, but I had $200 cash which went toward the keyboard (about $60), and the headset (about $50), and a nice hardcover book Rand McNally sized that is an Atlas of WoW. It's even indexed well, so when someone mentions this city or that territory, I can find it quite easily. It looks very good, but is $25, so no casual WoW gamer would really care to buy one of these when they can almost get 2 months' subscription.
One of the videos I asked for is PSP format and is the Family Guy video about Stewie Griffin (The Untold Story). This has a standard 4:3 TV aspect ratio, but in full view mode, the stretching really wasn't too terrible on the PSP screen. This video is really pretty cute, and has content that in places I think is more risque than they'd put on broadcast TV. If you like the show, this is really pretty good and has a consistent theme throughout - there are 4 stories but they all concern Stewie getting a look into the future.
I kind of like him saying, "Everything looks the same!" To which he's told, "It's only been 30 years." Here we are in the 21st Century, and save for some personal electronics, we're hard to distinguish from 1970. Basically, it's just fashion that defines decades with us - the look of cars and stores really hasn't evolved much at all.
I got a new fleece pullover that's comfy and simple, and in a nice holidayish maroon.
WoW's holiday gifts in-game have been many - apparently those of us post 40 get 5 presents under the tree, plus 4 quests to do - the standard one getting treats to Great-Father Winter, then 3 new ones: Rescuing a reindeer, recovering items from the Greench, and a spendy quest to get preserved holly, which will allow transformation of your mount into a reindeer anytime you want. Regular holly, which is given out along with mistletoe, lasts but 10 days. The mistletoe is a "spirit" buff for players which actually is pretty good, but cannot be used on yourself.
The headset allows me to use voice chat in iChat, and record sound files using a free program called Audacity. I can also configure software that receives incoming voice data to route it to the headset, so the conversation is a bit more private.
Unfortunately, the Apple voice command feature does not work at all well with the bluetooth headset - the VU meter stays at an almost-too-loud level even in silence, and when I speak, nothing appears to be heard that it can recognize. Adjussting microphone level in the system settings as well as in the recognizer both have no helpful effect. That's too bad, because voice navigation in Mac OS is actually pretty cool. Plus you can make up new actions and associate them with voice commands - from simply opening a file or program to performing a complex set of actions via Automator.
I probably will use the headset primarily for online gaming voice comms - my WoW guild has a Ventrillo chat server, but their client for OS X does not like to communicate with anything other than SPEEX codecs, and their server is set on some proprietary PC format. Until I can get the host using SPEEX, I'll have to do without there.
Come next year, sweets will become unavailable in the house, and some higher level of activity prescribed for both myself and mom. What I will miss the most will be chocolate. Dove, Ghirardelli, and Toblerone stocks are going to plummet.
Since I have no rant content today, I've decided I'd make this a public entry. Howdy y'all who found this via some search or other.