Author Archives: Donncha

My Nokia 6210 started acting up on New Year’s Eve. It would crash or turn itself off without warning. When I tried to enter the pin number the phone would only accept one or two digits. It was time to upgrade.
I wanted to stay with Nokia, so I had two choices, go for a Nokia 3510 (fairly cheap) or buy a 7650, the top of the range camera phone.
As it turns out, I was offered the 3510 for EUR4.50 and the 7650 for EUR9 and EUR20.83 each month for a year. I’m a Vodafone bill payer so I got EUR40 off the 7650.
I bought the Nokia 7650.
I’ve had it for a day, what do I think?

• The camera is terrible, but then if I want to take good photographs I’ll use my digital camera.
• The keyboard is a bit small for my hands, and the keys themselves don’t stick out enough for my liking.
• The keyboard is way too small for action games. Puzzle games should be fine. Snake and a picture shuffle game are the only ones that were included on my phone.
• Ringtones and sound are good, it plays midi files so I’ll have to go look for some of my favourite c64 tunes online!
• GPRS is nice, but expensive, Vodafone will charge 2c per K after March.
• Screen and GUI are fine. The GUI took some getting used to, and it’s fiddly in places (try setting the alarm: Navigate down to Extras->Clock->Set Alarm) There are shortcuts so I’ll have to read up on that.

I want to find out how to code applications for the phone now. Must go googling.

Nokia 7650 downloads:

• Lots of free games
• Nokia 7650 Doom (includes screenshots)
• Google Search for Nokia Games
• J*va On The Brain has some applets that may work on the 7650, plus source.

Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom – sci-fi book available for download!

A Survey of Common Design Patterns – glanced at it but I’ll read it tomorrow.. This article provides a summary of the “23 common design patterns”.
What’s a pattern? I never heard of these until a few weeks ago. They’re simply a description of how to solve common problems when programming. So, although I wasn’t taught patterns during my time at college, I used the techniques described to solve programming problems, and still do. Jeremy has had much the same experience I think, although he’s looked at the subject in more depth it seems.

:: phpPatterns() – Observer Pattern – read this carefully, it’s a good read.

RTÉ News: Browser project wins Young Scientist award

Adann Osmani, a 16-year-old student from St Finnian’s College in Mullingar, County Westmeath has won the Young Scientist of the Year competition.
His winning entry incorporates a new type of browser for speeding up internet usage by 400%.

That’s a fairly big claim, I presume it’s a UI development. A google search for “Adann Osmani” turns up blank so I hope his work gets published somewhere.

CNN.com: As family shrieks, police kill dog – This is horrible, I can’t imagine how upset the family must be.

Airport closed?

Edit in 2023: I’m amazed that link is still alive, but copying the GIF here, just in case.

www.fusecon.com :: View topic – DVD -> DivX – why you should buy the Mind Candy DVD instead of ripping it.

Slashdot | Put The Demoscene In Your DVD Player – excellent, excellent, excellent! Here’s a review of the DVD. With people like Trixter, Snowman and Dan Wright involved it’s a must buy for sceners! I’m ordering…

Consumer Electronics Show goes DVD crazy – wow! lots of dvd writers!

WHILE BILL GATES might have grabbed many of the headlines with his little watch, the bulk of the announcements at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) so far seem to be about DVD technology.

Read more: http://www.theinquirer.net/inquirer/news/1008525/consumer-electronics-show-goes-dvd-crazy#ixzz1RuEPej97
The Inquirer – Computer hardware news and downloads. Visit the download store today.