I read this on CDM the other day and it made me think about when Bhajis Loops came to an end. If you were unaware, Bhajis Loops was an application for the PalmOS that was the nearest thing to a DAW for Palm devices. It lasted for some years, but, like all things, it came to an end. It’s creator went on to start Mutable Instruments, which has been infinitely more successful.
But the closing of Mutable made me wonder what, if anything, might be next. Of course the simplest answer is nothing at all, and that is entirely possible. In fact I’m not suggesting that anything will follow. However, if it does then I think it will be entirely unexpected.
If you’ve been here before then you may have heard me mention the Pebble smartwatch and have some idea of what seems to be some kind of obsession with making a pebble device useful again. Well, I’m sad to say that I am still trying. I had previously given up, but I couldn’t resist and picked up another one of these on eBay for a few pounds.
I have some ideas for how I want to use it, but I kind of want to get back to seeing how things are going at Rebble. Especially after their hackathon.
I suppose that this is really about an unswerving love of old, and even obsolete tech. I have a few ideas of what I’ll do with this one, and as things develop, I’ll probably post about how it works out.
I like technology, although in recent years my relationship with technology has changed in a lot of ways. For a start a rarely buy new technology unless I have a real reason for it and a real use for it. In fact I have sold off a lot of technology. Mainly music technology, but a lot of other stuff too.
However, at times I end up with a piece of technology that I really don’t know what to do with. The HomePod Mini is one such piece of technology. Don’t get me wrong. It is a nice thing in itself. It works well. It does what it’s supposed to do. I Just wish it would do some more.
I’ve had speakers before. I had an amazon echo and really had no use for that at all. The HomePod is better, but aside from using it as a speaker it does very little for me. Perhaps I just need to try harder.
I am a big Star Trek fan. I have been since I was a child. I have watched every episode and film and read quite a few books too. One of the best films, arguably is ‘The Wrath of Khan”. A great story that came out of the original story from the original TV series. But one question that always remained was, what were the Eugenics Wars?
I knew that there were books about these, but I always wanted read and never got around to it. So recently I decided to get these on audio books.
Overall they were alright. Not amazing, but alright. But I have to say that I was a little disappointed. I won’t go into why just in case you’re going to read or listen to these stories.
It fills a gap in the story line, but overall it is a bit of a disappointment. Not that it will stop me from watching, reading, or listening to more Star Trek. I doubt anything would
I have been a fan of Masami Tsuchiya for a very long time. In my teenage years I heard the album ‘Rice Music’, and it is still one of my favourites of all time for a whole host of reasons. However, my sampling of his other work has, for the most part, not resulted in a similar experience. Which is a shame, but something that I accept.
This album ‘Life in Mirrors’, was one I had never heard, and one that also featured other musicians who’s work I admire. Namely, Mick Karn and David Sylvian. I had this album on my want list at Discogs for a while, and then, just the other day, one turned up, so I bought it.
As albums go, this is no way as good as ‘Rice Music’. But then it was unlikely to be. I knew that. But, it does have a few good tracks.
Over the last few years I have sold off almost all of the PDAs I once owned. Probably a good thing overall, I had way too many of them to do anything with, and, for the last few years most of them languished in a drawer or cupboard for most of the time. I like to think that the ones I have sold off have all gone to good homes. Who knows.
What I have left is a handful a what I like to think of as select and somewhat unique devices. More about those another time perhaps.
One of the devices I have kept is a Palm Treo 750. A device running the Windows Mobile Operating System. I originally bought this with the thought that it would replace a Palm Treo 650, which runs the original Palm Operating System. However, not too long after I bought it the iPhone emerged and the smartphone era arrived in earnest. I kept both Treos and I still have them today.
I have often thought about reviving the 750 to see what I could use it for. To see how I could put it to real use, something I actually need it to do.
The first step is to see if it actually boots up. After all, it is old. But sometimes old tech lasts a lot longer than new stuff. It booted up fine. Which was great. However, I remembered one of the issues with the Treo 750 was the casing. For some reason the outer casing had become tacky and sticky. Very unpleasant to handle. For that reason I have this white case for it.
It makes it usable anyway. As you can see, the device is up and running. The next step was to get a SIM in it and establish if it could even send texts. Well, after some messing around with SIM card holders, I got it working and sending texts.
So far this has all worked well. Next comes the more interesting part, but that will require another post.
This device has been with me for seven years now, and so far I have never found a reasonable use for it. Most recently I tried to get it working again with a few ideas of what I might use it for. I bought this, or rather funded it on Kickstarter, and now, sadly, the company that made it has long gone. These things happen of course, all too frequently.
As a device it has a lot of potential, but potential doesn’t always equate to actual usefulness, or at least that is always the case with me. I have a few ideas about using it, or possible uses for it, but right now, as I’ve decided to revive it, I cannot seem to get it to work at all. Which is somehow typical.
I have a sense that this happened the last time I tried to revive it. I will continue to try and get it running again, but it may be that it has simply had its day.
I was really looking forward to this. The original film was so much fun, and stands up even now. So the thought of a series around the story was fantastic. Having watched the first episode I can safely say I am truly disappointed. It feels like it wants to be a teen comedy, which is about as far away from the original as it could be.
After starting to write this I watched the second episode, which was a little better, but not much. I will probably stay with it though, just in case it gets better, but I have very little hope that it will.
This is a lovely way to celebrate advent. A different coffee every day. So far these have been rather lovely coffees. Normally I grind my own beans each day, beans that I get from Pact Coffee, who make this advent calendar, and I would thoroughly recommend their products.
Over the next few days, in the run up to Christmas, you may hear some some about these coffees.
I am Ashley Elsdon 