It’s the same one I’ve mentioned in this blog’s ABOUT page, and featured in the banner image.  My HP32s cost a princely sum to someone just out of Junior College in the late 70s, but what value for money it turned out to be.  It came with manuals that were like text books, manuals that were a joy to read and literally work through.  There were problem sums within – mechanics, statistics, trig … (I vaguely remember one example problem about a rocket) that were wonderful ways to explain how to use RPN on the calculator.

It also came with a zip case – padded on the inside, strong on the outside with a faux leather texture.  There was a charger for the batteries.  And the best thing about it were the buttons.  You had to press firmly to get the buttons to do their magic (with the small, red LED display segments that looked like something out of a science lab), and the feel and tactile feedback enabled one’s fingers to dance quickly and surely.  It was about confidence.  You just knew from the buttons if something in the formula had not been keyed in right.

The calculator was a faithful companion during my years of engineering school and beyond.  I had to extend it’s life with some deft soldering handiwork, and needed to put in a couple of bypass wires when the copper tracks on the mylar film going from the charging port to the battery area experienced a tear.  I wish I had the ‘ol calc with me still.  Perhaps I’ll go out to eBay one of these days to look for a unit in good condition – just for the fun and nostalgia of it.

What sparked off this round of reminiscing was this article from CNET on the new software versions (iPhone and Windows) of several calculator models – the closest to the HP32s being the HP35s.  The Page on hp.com to view the software calculators on offer, and purchase online is here.  The image below was screen-capped using Ubuntu’s screenshot capture utility (I also make extensive of the snip tool that ships with Vista). 

Scott Goldstein was in Singapore this week to attend conferences, and was interviewed by Digital Life (Wed June 17th) on his now legendary role in engaging supporters of the Obama Campaign through social media and mobile comms.

Also this week, Tom Friedman in his NYT column (The Virtual Mosque) wrote about how Moderates in Iran were using social media to “meet” , communicate, mobilize and assert their strength as a political force.

For the same paper, Nicholas Kristof writes of an application written by Falun Gong supporters (called “Freegate”) that allows Iranians (and citizens of countries where internet access is restricted by Governments) to bypass the roadblocks erected to keep them away from “offending” websites and e-Services.

When Myanmar faced cyclone nargis and the uprising by Monks, it was text messages and uploaded videos that prevented the ruling Junta from hiding what was happening from the world.   The grassroots movement that was mobilised and inspired by the Obama campaign’s use of internet and mobile marketing gave us the election of the one many saw as the least likely of the US presidential candidates to succeed when the primaries first began.  In Malaysia, the BN lost heavily in elections where the PR had the upper hand in putting out their messages on the internet. Years earlier, Filipinos SMSed their way to bring down the presidency of Josef Estrada.

Dramatic as these examples are, it’s enough for us to know that the more the internet and computer literacy bring about transparency and the free flow of information and knowledge, the harder it will be for con-artists, tyrants, manipulators of truth and those who seek to oppress & exploit …. to go about their dirty business.

Be afraid of any leader who tells you that he is restricting information from you, or restricting your ability to communicate with others for your own good and for the good of society.   Be very afraid.

You will enjoy this post in the Daily Networker.

The post is available at this URL: http://www.dailynetworker.co.uk/2009/04/22/teens-turn-tenners-into-tonnes/ and begins with this paragraph:

This year’s Make Your Mark with a Tenner, the national challenge to see what thousands of young people can achieve with just ten pounds in one month, has come to an end.  The results are, we hope, a breath of fresh air amidst the doom and gloom of the financial crisis;

· The largest profit was £736 and the average profit was £42, compared with a return of just 2p from a savings account!

I caught this story on the BBC World Service’s “The World Today” this morning (Singapore Time) .  The story featured an interview with a gentleman whom I think might be the inventor of this beautifully simple solution.  (Not completely certain as I was half asleep -  my radio alarm clock turns on to the BBC to wake me up every morning).

It’s just two cardboard boxes and a sheet of clear plastic, and uses the same principle that makes the inside of my car blazing hot after a few hours in the sun with the windows all wound up.  I would not have made the link between burning flesh against my car seat or steering wheel, but someone has, with the realization that the heat trapped in such a system turns a pot of water put inside hot enough to cook food in.  It’s beautiful in it’s simplicity.  And it could help a large number of people in developing countries that get a lot of sun, people who are currently relying on burning wood in order to cook their meals.

The radio announcer referred to a video on YouTube.  This is it:

The kit is sold by a company called Kyoto-energy for 5 Euros.  It’s easy to ship, as the boxes can be packed flat, and the cost of materials is very low.  This is the page from their online catalog:

One of the points made by the interviewee was that the smoke generated by wood fires for cooking done indoors contributes to respiratory problems for the members of the household.  Laura and I got a sense of that during one of our walks in Sapa, up in the mountains north of Hanoi, Vietnam, close to the border with China.  Our guide took us into one of the small, dark homes on the hillside, and the walls and ceiling were covered with soot, and everything smelt of wood smoke.  The next morning, we attended sunday mass in a small and crumbling but extremely quaint Jesuit church  The sunday-best clothing of the locals we sat amongst had obviously been stored in homes saturated with regular doses of the smoke of wood fires.   There are many days in the year when the mountains of Sapa are completely covered by cloud, which obscures the sun and the stunning and amazing views.  Despite the cloud, there is still enough sun-light for the rice plants in the terraced padi fields to grow, but I wonder if the solar cooking box would work in such conditions.

Post Posting Note:  One of the nice things about WordPress is that they suggest similar posts at the end of each page.  From the list of suggested links, I discovered this article – similar in concept, except that the box has hot coals in it.  Read here, on the Safely Gathered In blog.

I’ve just put up a page on my impressions of the way hp has customised a beautiful front end for Ubuntu 8.04 on the hp mini 1000 MIE.  Click on the tab labelled “hp mini MIE” on the lower edge of the top banner (showing the HP 32S calc) to read.  

The page talks about the bundled apps and suggests additional software you may want to add, and the command lines to do this with. (why command line?  hp “simplified” the add/remove programs list, probably to keep things safe and orderly for non technical users).  

Have a read if you’re interested in Linux for the common man, or are curious about the MIE interface, which I’m tempted to put on my other 2 machines running Ubuntu.  

If you’d like to read more on the interface, here’s a good post from downloadsquad.com

My podcast listening categories tend to be around tech and business.  I’ve just been compelled to add another podcast to my list.  Peter Day’s World of Business, a program you can catch on the BBC World Service, is readily accessible from the iTunes podcast directory.  It’s all business, of course, but often with a tech slant.  Last week, it was an interview with John Chambers.  This week, there’s no tech, but still about a “recent” trend that will reshape business -  fair trade. 

If you are an iTunes user like me, fire up iTunes and go to the iTunes store.  Type the following in the search bar:

podcast bbc peter day

If you’re not on itunes, you can go directly to the worldbiz podcast page on the BBC’s website.

Be warned – you can only get the latest episode so check in regularly or risk missing a program.

Strongly recommended.

Incidentally – my podcast listening life is not all work and no play.  If you’d like a bit of entertainment, there’s a new podcast from Shareen Wong and Joe Augustin – they’re now doing with podcasts what they used to do on their morning radio show, sans songs and sans station management censorship.  You’ll find the episodes listed on their morning jam website.

I’ve always loved newspapers.  

Newspapers and a cup of coffee and a few minutes to enjoy both together is my idea of an ideal start to any morning. 

Yes, I’ve sometimes resorted to having a laptop in front of me as coffee companion, with the news sites I love loaded up but this is only when I was not able to get a paper. 

The BBC World Service covered the closing of the Rocky Mountain News, a mere 55 days before it’s 150th anniversary, and attributed it’s demise to the trend of news consumers increasingly turning to the internet instead of the newspapers.  

The Media companies, once so powerful, so influential, are now either embracing a move to the internet in an attempt to survive, or folding up their businesses.  

Of course, the bad economic climate had a role.  But there have been bad economic climates before, many in fact during the Rocky Mountain News’ nearly 150 years of operation.  

As content is increasingly consumed in digital form, those involved in the packaging and distribution must evolve too.

It’s ironic that the first time I’ve ever read a page from the Rocky Mountain News is from their website – and it’s the goodbye article on the last issue front page.  I’m encountering the newspaper on the very medium that helped bring out it’s demise.  Ironic too that the other great anniversary being celebrated during this time is that of Charles Darwin. 

This is the last of the 3 posts on having a Linux based hp 2133 that, thanks to it’s size and the decent performance of Ubuntu, will be a machine I carry most places with me, for taking notes, checking mail, writing, organising my day, talking to my Daughter in california …….

I once thought this would all be done on a smart phone.  I’m now convinced that I’d rather have 2 separate devices – this mininote with a very comfortable keyboard and decent screen size, and a basic phone that does just one thing and does that very well – making and taking phone calls.

So the last piece of getting this machine set up is the audio aspects.  First, getting Skype working well in Ubuntu (microphone and built in webcam), and then being able to record Audio notes.

Setting up Skype:

In Skype’s Options/Sound Devices you should have “HDA VIA VT82xx (hw:VT82xx,0)” set for Sound In, Sound Out.
Double click the speaker icon in the task bar (top right) to open it.
In the Device box, it should say HDA VIA VT82xx (Alsa mixer)
Select the Recording tab.
CLick on the Preferences button.
Ensure Microphone, Capture and Internal Mic are all checked.
Back in the recording tab, make sure the microphone, capture and internal mic icons are enabled.  That is, the little microphone picture under the right volume bar should be clear, with no red box and white X in it.
Plug a headset with mic into the two sockets on the left of the machine.
Do a skype test call.  You should be able to hear your voice played back to you after the recording section.

The Webcam works nicely with Skype for video calls – no need for any additional installation steps or tweaking.

Audio Recording

Recording in the default Sound Recorder app does not work, whether with the internal or plug-in mic.

However, audio recording works well using Audacity:
Install using add/remove programs.
Accept defaults for audio in edit/preferences
Double click the speaker icon in the task bar, select the Recording Tab, and enable the mic and capture sections.
Back in Audacity, increase the mic recording level (default is 0, all the way to the left).
Click on the record button
Stop when satisfied, then click the play button to listen to what you’ve recorded.

For the other parts of this series:
>>Part 1 (setup)
>>Part 2 (BIOS & video tips)
>>Photos here and here

The books below are courtesy of the Singapore National Library…..

Wallpaper courtesy of the Watchmen movie site