Recent Geekage

Here are some of the cool toys I’ve been playing with lately.

• Squeezebox — My new favorite gadget. Really tight. The server side is open and runs nicely on Linux.
• Skype 1.4 Beta for Linux — The UI is much cleaner than before, but it still trails far behind the Windows version in features. Nice to have the improvements nonetheless.
• Flash Player 9 Beta for Linux — Working well so far.
• Linksys WRT350N with dd-wrt — The extra memory and flash on the 350N make for a nice dd-wrt platform. dd-wrt and openWRT are great for turning consumer routers into Linux boxes with lots of useful features. I wish the vendor supplied firmware was this good.
• Jungle Disk — I recently started using this to backup my music, photos, and such to Amazon’s S3. It’s working nicely so far, and the JD team seems to be very supportive of their users. Plus, their blog runs WordPress.
• Telenav with traffic on the BlackBerry 8800 — The latest Telenav makes some nice UI improvements and adds traffic. Very cool. I shall never again own a phone that doesn’t include a built-in GPS.
• Google Maps with GPS on the 8800 — Press 0 to focus the map on your present coordinates and have it follow you as you move.
• JiveTalk on the 8800 — Simple, clean multi-protocol IM that looks better than everything else I’ve tried on the BB.
• Canola— Good looking media player for the Nokia N800. Handy for Flickr slide shows and UPnP browsing.
• GrandCentral — I hate voicemail. This makes it easier to manage. Call blocking and call screening are great tools for this voice hater. I’m curious what Google will do with it now that it owns GC.  GC also has a WP blog.
• Google Desktop for Linux — Right now it looks like it is limited to desktop, gmail, and Google web history search. The gmail and history search distinguish it enough from Beagle to make it interesting for those who use Google’s services.
• LiterMeter III — A peristaltic pump for the reef. Useful for dosing two part additives.