VOX Archive: N800 Stuff

This was originally posted to VOX on June 24, 2008

Last night I got portrait mode to work on my N800. I had tried to install it twice but never got it to work.



I finally got it to work, following the directions here:
http://www.internettablettalk.com/wiki/index.php?title=How_To:_Enable_screen_rotation_on_OS2008_/_N800

I was quite happy with myself until I woke up. I fired up Jaiku and found out Diablo was released.

I have more work to do today.

VOX Archive: N82 Camera and battery trials

This was originally posted to VOX on May 25, 2008

A while back, I went to watch wrestling in Burbank. I’ve attended a lot of local wrestling shows and learned that sport mode does not work indoors.

This is a picture using sport mode from September of last year:

N82 | Lights?

As you can see, this picture is practically all black.

Here’s an example of auto mode

N82 | PWG intros

The picture is still quite dark and very yellow. The flash fired, but it didn’t help. The ISO speed is 100 here.

I’ve found that using Landscape mode, Incandescent lighting, +0.5 exposure and high ISO settings gets accurate results. Here’s an example with these settings:


N82 | Ode to the Bulldogs

I have those settings set up in the User defined scene mode. These settings are helpful for capturing fast paced action, since there’s no time wasted on focus. The problem with the user defined mode is that it takes three clicks to activate. It would be really easier if the camera remembered the last settings used when closed. Another great alternative would be to have keypad shortcuts. Unlike the S60 Web browser, the number keys don’t do anything with the camera. For now, the only way to keep these settings active is to leave the camera open and let it go to standby. This leaves the lens unprotected and subject to dust.


N82 | Lookout!

This is a problem for me, since I love to sit in the front row. Often the wrestlers will fly out of the ring and into the crowd. When this happens, I usually close the lens protector. It gets pretty annoying having to set up the settings each time I open the camera.

I shot over 100 photos that Sunday and by the end of the night, 3 hours of taking pictures, I still had 5 bars left on the N82. This battery performance astounded me. My N95 would only last about 90 minutes before hitting 1 bar of battery left. The need for my Proporta mobile charger wasn’t needed any that night and made me very pleased.

There’s one thing the N95 has over the N82: left handed shooting. With the N95, I could hold it in my left hand and easily make one handed shots. With the N82, my left hand shakes due to the pressure required to press the capture button while maintaining a good grip. I have, however, gotten the hang of one handed shooting with my right hand. But this makes my wrist strap useless.

Addendum: Check out the rest of the photos from Pro Wrestling Guerrilla's DDT4 shows on flickr
Night 1
| Night 2

VOX Archive: Sportstracker at 35000 feet

This was originally posted to VOX on June 12, 2008

I recently flew home from Houston to Los Angeles.  I got myself a window seat.  I was pleased to find my seat had two windows.  Inspired by a post by Monadi at phone-rush, I wanted to try GPS in mid-flight for myself.

Before takeoff, I set the N82 to offline mode and then turned it off.  When the pilot started talking, I first turned on my N95.  It took a few minutes to get a GPS lock.  I couldn't move it around without losing the signal.

I turned the N82 on and it didn't take long for it to get a signal.  I was able to keep the N82 in my shirt pocket and maintain a signal lock.  I turned on the GPS data application and got this screenshot:

Taking a que from the great position artist Stavros, I turned on the Sportstracker application to make some of my own position art.

I first changed a few settings.  I set the units to imperial and the GPS filtering to low.  I then activated the Sportstracker. Here is a map of my position art:

View Larger Map

As you can see, Sportstracker logged my journey from mid-Texas to Southern California.

There is a log of the journey with a few images at the sportstracker website:
http://www.sports-tracker.com/#/workout/AlPavangkanan/e1648l52epd335lq

VOX Archive: Testing out Nokia Sports Tracker

This was originally posted to VOX on May 14, 2008

I could never get Sports Tracker working right on my N95. I'd always run out of ram. Since I'm trialling the black N82, with its 90mb of free ram, I can finally let loose with multitasking.

Yesterday I went on a walk to Radio Shack to buy an adapter. I was able to have the music player running in the background while I turned on the Sports Tracker. Taking pictures wasn't a problem. Each picture I took came out great and neither the music player or Sports Tracker application crashed. There was one problem though. I forgot to charge up the N82 so I ran out of juice halfway on my walk.

When I came home, I plugged the N82 back in and uploaded my workout. I had to search around a bit to figure out how to add pictures to the workout. I found the instructions at Black Phoebe

My workout/photowalk can be found here Edit: updated link

What I'd really like to see is a way to have an embeddable widget I could place here instead of just a link. There are widgets for facebook and blogger and some other sites, but they show only your last workout. I want to be able to share a specific workout.

I tried to upload the the kml file to google maps, but it wouldn't take it. I tried a bunch of methods, but I couldn't get it to work.

Ideally, Sports Tracker and Share on Ovi would be working together with Nokia Maps to get a great united solution. But I think we are a few years away from that.

VOX Archive: Black N82 is here!

This was originally posted to VOX on May 12, 2008

WOM World sent me a black N82 to play with. This thing is awesome. I'm in love! I can't wait until Amazon.com has it in stock


N95 | Me with the N82

VOX Archive: Lunar Eclipse at the Griffith Observatory

This was originally posted to VOX on February 21, 2008. It has been edited around dead links

I spent the evening of February 20th, 2008 at mecca of astronomy, the Griffith Observatory. It was a pretty chilly evening. There were quite a few clouds in the sky. They added a lot of drama, people cheered whenever the moon peeked out from the clouds.

The Los Angeles Astronomical Society and the Los Angeles Sidewalk Astronomers showed up and shared their telescopes. Kudos to them for not only sharing their telescopes, but their knowledge of the skies as well.

I shot some video for QIK where some staffers demonstrated an eclipse mostly for the many children who were in attendance.

Around 7:25 in the evening, we were informed an an extra special treat. A satellite focused its light to form an iridium flare for us.

Later on, I shot some video of Dr. E.C. Krupp, the director of the observatory, dressed up as a wizard to chase away the dragon who was eating the moon.


N95 | Lunar Eclipse at the Griffith Observatory

VOX Archive: Overturned

This was originally posted to VOX on June 23, 2008


N82 | Overturned

Overturned big rig. South bound traffic was all the way back to Nevada. What I love about geotagging is that I know exactly where this happened.

VOX Archive: HDR at the Griffith Observatory

This was originally posted to VOX on January 11, 2008


N95 | HDR Smog


N95 | HDR Los Angeles Skyline


N95 | HDR Griffith Observatory

VOX Archive: Lounging in the car

This was originally posted to VOX on January 2, 2008

I set up the N800 in the sun visor to watch some video. This angle is required because the N800 has poor visibility in daylight.


N95 | Car was parked, I wouldn't do this while driving

VOX Archive: Red Sunset

This was originally posted to VOX on January 1, 2008

I took a few photos at sunset today. This is my favorite, an HDR composite.


N95 | HDR via the N95

VOX Archive: Warped

This was originally posted to VOX on February 27, 2008

I used Sport mode for this one


N95 | Wacky stuff.

Comic Con 2008