I hate configuring things like GPS devices that run super restricted verisons of linux or some other OS. They never seem to deal with error handling very well. For example, here’s the oddball command for fetching ntp.conf and ntp.keys from a ntp server onto a Symmetricom GPS receiver. This is what you want to see, it just works. But in the many failures leading up to this configuration, it was finding problems fetching the files or having the correct access but it was happily coasting right along, overwriting its own configuration with jibberish and rebooting it self only to find the configuration was bollocks.

ATI eyefinity video cards support up to six displays and multiple cards can be used together in a single machine for a single virtual display. AMD says they’ll be able to chain together enough of their eyefinity cards to create a resolution that approaches eye-definition optical clarity at 12x 1080p.

Self tracking, or “personal informatics”, is a growing trend of keeping a log of data surrounding the events in your life, and the avenues are expansive. From monitoring weight, heart rate, and blood pressure, to geo-tracking using GPS receivers, to genome profiling and Internet meetup groups, there are a wide variety of people and interests involved in this new fad. I have a hard enough time tracking my fitness routine at the gym, so anything that takes the manual labor out of tracking my statistics is a plus to me.

Maybe i’m one of those minorities, but just last year’s Surrogates movie showed the darker side of avatars. Think of the expectations you face when avatars integrate into your working life. Avatars interacting between two coworkers is one thing, but between the HR department or other organizations is another. Now I’ll have to worry about being mistreated or discriminated against if I don’t choose the proper look.

The Nexus One was released today! Built by HTC, the unlocked version is $530 (the phone works with “nearly all” GSM SIM cards, according to Google) or you can pay $180 for the typical two-year contract with T-Mobile. if you already have tmob service, but don’t have a data plan, it will cost $280 for the phone. Google says there will be other carriers and plans coming sometime in the future. I think the arrival of the Google phone pretty much spells the end for the Droid.

Udev creates and removes device nodes in /dev, based on events the kernel sends out on device discovery or removal. In other words, Udev is the system that maps hardware devices to files you can interact with in the /dev directory. Udev runs in user space and creates points in /dev when the kernel detects and recognizes new hardware as it’s attached. It’s only been around since 2003/2004. All modern distributions use udev instead of the now depreciated hotplug.

U.S. District Judge William Alsup banned Psystar from selling Apple compatible hardware. On Psystar’s website, all of the products including Mac, Windows, and Linux products are listed as “Out of stock” except for Rebel EFI. Apple and Psystar filed to protect materials considered sensitive before going to court almost a year ago, so this injunction has been in the works for some time.

If you have two antennae, replace one with a direction antenna. Leaving the other as a omni-directional pole should give you a good area of coverage while the directional antenna serves to extend your wifi range to needed areas such as your backyard or that room down the hall and around the corner. If you only have one antenna, crack open the plastic casing on your router and look for a little socket for a second antenna. It’s cheaper for manufacturers to produce one hardware design and just downgrade the hardware to make more than one model than it is to have multiple, completely different designs.