Tech
Category archives for Tech
Trainblogging
Posted by Martin R on April 15, 2010 It’s been more than four years since the first time I blogged about how cool it is to have broadband on a train. But I still haven’t gotten over it. Trainblogging again! The sun is shining and Södermanland zips past outside the window. I’m on my way to Linköping to drop off finds at the…
Tech Note: Android Smartphone
Posted by Martin R on April 6, 2010 I recently switched from a 2008 smartphone running Windows Mobile to a Samsung i5700 Galaxy Spica that runs the open-source operating system Android put out by Google. Here are some impressions after two weeks of use. I really miss the old phone’s hardware keyboard. Typing on the touch screen is slow and error-prone, especially since…
Finnish Mail to Scan Paper Mail and Email It
Posted by Martin R on April 1, 2010 Like Swedish Mail, many mail services worldwide, I believe, offer a service where you e-mail them a letter and a list of addresses and they do the paper mailing for you. But now Finnish Mail is trying something pretty badass: they’re doing it the other way around to cut costs and CO2 emissions. Instead of…
I Axed My Heat Pump and Now It Works Again
Posted by Martin R on February 19, 2010 There was a lot more ice in the heat-pump box than I had thought, a 10 cm cake covering its floor, but getting rid of it proved easy. All I needed was a screwdriver and a small axe. The hot air gun wasn’t much use. I turned off the power feed, took the hood off…
Ice Buildup Under Heat Pump
Posted by Martin R on February 10, 2010 This morning when I got my bike out of the yard to take Juniorette to school, I heard a loud clattering noise from the box-like outdoor part of our air source heat pump. At first I thought the ball bearing on the rotor had crapped out. But the guy who installed it explained over the…
Tech Note: Help Me Choose a Smartphone
Posted by Martin R on February 2, 2010 Four years ago (when I had only been blogging for a month) I asked my readers what kind of smartphone I should get. Nobody replied, but I got some advice elsewhence and bought a Qtek 9100. Then, two years ago, I asked the same question again and got lots of answers. In the end I…
Golf Ball Autopsy
Posted by Martin R on January 7, 2010 Not everyone knows what’s inside a golf ball. I do. Or I thought I did. When I was a kid a friend of mine taught me how to open golf balls. You need a hacksaw (Sw. bågfil) and preferably a vise (Sw. skruvstycke). It’s impossible to open them with a knife or wire cutters –…
Is the Karmic Release Ubuntu’s Vista?
Posted by Martin R on December 30, 2009 After six or seven weeks of Windows, I’ve finally gotten Ubuntu linux to run again. My installation crashed when I tried to upgrade on-line to the most recent version, Karmic. And then I couldn’t boot Karmic from a USB stick. I thought the copy on the stick had gone corrupt. Yesterday Tor lent me a…
Obsolete Portable Music Players
Posted by Martin R on December 14, 2009 These are my obsolete portable music players. A post-1985 cassette player, a 2000 minidisc player and a 2002 iPod whose sole means of communication with the outside world is a firewire socket. In the 90s I didn’t listen much to music while on the move. Since 2006 I use a smartphone as my mp3 player.
Laptop Day
Posted by Martin R on November 17, 2009 I’m enjoying one of my infrequent laptop days, that is, days during which it actually makes sense for me to tote such a device around. I type these words from the Konradsberg campus of the University of Stockholm. Konradsberg is a name that resonates in my city’s history, because it used to be one of…
