Google Voice is pretty good at transcribing voicemail but can come unstuck on more unusual messages. Perhaps it is able to read more into it than I can. Here are two messages I got today (flash player required).
In this post I’ll be describing how I made a head mounted IR camera for tracking where a person is looking. I’ve been working on getting low-cost home brew eye tracking running on my Mac. I want the computer to know where I’m looking on the screen and to be able to interact with my gaze. My first attempt uses a head mounted IR camera to determine the pupil position and a second remote camera to detect the head position relative to the screen.
Quickly switch your tablet input between multiple monitors using some simple Applescript – no programming required. All you need to do is download the free app bundle below and then assign them to the hardware keys on your tablet. This quick switching allows you to use your full tablet for each of your monitors rather than dividing your tablet space between displays.
Read on to make the most of your tablet in a multi-monitor set up.
Loc-line segmented adjustable hose
In this post I describe a simple way to join sections of loc-line hose with just a bit of wire. Loc-line make an amazing product. It is a hose composed of short sections connecting with ball and socket joints. The hose can be bent into the shape you need and it will stay there. It is great for making your own gorillapod for example. Connecting the sections with your bare hands is very hard so Loc-line sell a special tool for joining the sections. But you don’t need to buy that – read on and use my easy wire method instead.
I’ve started working on a project to perform low cost eye tracking. As part of this project I need to have an infra-red (IR) camera. So I’ve converted an old Apple iSight firewire webcam in a camera sensitive to IR light. In this post I describe how to convert the iSight camera to work with IR light.
In part 1 of this guide I described what a DNS was and how to set it up for GoDaddy hosting. In this part, I’ll show you how to check that you have the right DNS names and how to set them with your domain registrar.
Getting the name of the name server right is important. If you choose the wrong name servers no-one will be able to see your site. Changing name servers takes some time to process, during which time your site may be inaccessible. If you are transferring a live site you probably want to minimise down time and can’t afford to make a mistake or find the right name servers by trial and error.
Linking a domain registered with one company to a website hosted by a different company can seem complicated. There are several options to consider – frame forwarding, transferring the domain and changing the DNS servers. I think that changing the DNS is often the best option, but it can seem complicated.
In this post I introduce the domain name server (DNS) and what you need to set up. In the next part I’ll describe how to check that you know the address for the right DNS before you make the switch.
I am not a big fan of having too much stuff. So when I got married earlier this year we decided that we did not want to ask our friends and family for gifts. However, it turned out that people felt very strongly that they wanted to give us stuff. My wife found a great compromise which allowed us to help entrepreneurs in the developing world grow their businesses and achieve economic stability by providing micro-loans.
Titilayo is requesting a loan to purchase drinks to sell, so as to be able to meet the demands of her customers.
Instead of setting up a regular gift registry we asked that people gave us gift certificates for an organisation called Kiva.
Kiva facilitates person to person micro-lending. Entrepreneurs in developing countries are able to solicit funding for their business through the kiva.org site. Potential lenders search through these listings and provide some of the cash required. As the money is repaid it can be reinvested or withdrawn by the lender.
We support Kiva’s mission of facilitating economic growth in the developing world. Also we’ve since discovered that their headquarters is a block away from our house after their wireless signal showed up on our laptops.
Liz and I chose to focus our lending in Africa because we have personal connections there. We have made 19 loans so far which you can track on our Kiva lender page.
Having Kiva gift certificates as wedding gifts worked out pretty well. The process of giving a gift certificates could be made easier though. People had to create their own Kiva account before being able to give the certificate – which provided a barrier for some people. Wedding guest who were not so internet savvy, who were wary of using their credit cards on-line or not sure about paying in US dollars just gave us cheques to buy the Kiva credit ourselves.
This kind of micro-lending is fairly new and so some people were not 100% clear about what we were asking for. I think a few mistook it for just giving money to charity in our name. Since there is the option of cashing out however it is also a very useful gift to a couple starting out.
Liz and I would like to thank everyone who contributed to our Kiva lending. We’ll be posting updates of our lending experiences here.
I did some more yoga today. I went along to a class at Yoga Mayu. It is a studio which seems to have fliers all around the neighbourhood.
I went to an all level Vinyasa class which was my first non Ashtanga class. The space was good - a hard wood floored room on ground level. I paid $27 for a start pack of 3 lessons. Sara Levine was filling in for the person who usually does the class. It was not as intense as an ashtanga class, for which I was extremely grateful as my legs were shaking after 30 minutes. I was surprised that I was the only guy there out of 9 or 10 people.
I really needed the exercise. I’m very out of shape as it turns out and am pretty tight. Maybe these the next two classes will start my regular practice. I’ll sleep well tonight.
After an extended absense from my yoga mat, I returned yesterday morning to a Mysore yoga class. It was held above a Bikram yoga studio. It was pretty hot and quite crowded. It cost about £11 for a drop in session or about £110 for a month’s worth of classes. Seems kind of expensive.
I managed to get through to the boat. However, I found I had forgotton much of the order of the poses and I was very tight.
Today my back aches but I’m otherwise fine.
