On Wed, 2006-12-20 at 20:27 +0800, Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
Hehe, for others, for for myself?
The "others" on my list aren't much into gadgets.
For myself, I'm spying a small HDTV. I never cared much about HDTV, saw
the demos, was never really impressed ENOUGH to consider one.
However, my latest project at work was developing hardware to drive
SDTVs, HDTVs and computer monitors at all resolutions. That work had me
deep into research mode on HDTV standards, and now for some reason I'm
interested in getting one myself! :)
At the moment the only source of HDTV I've got is my XBOX360. I've never
really been blown away by the image quality on my XBOX until I played
one on an HDTV, and it is a different dimension when you play on an HDTV
vs. a 480i screen. My satellite provider offers quite a bit of HDTV,
however I won't get that for a while since I can't watch TV anymore
without a PVR, and the PVR HDTV sat receiver costs as much as the TV!
If I don't go for the HDTV, I have no clue what I'll get myself...
On 12/20/06, Herbert Graf <mailinglist3KILLspamfarcite.net> wrote:
> Hehe, for others, for for myself?
> The "others" on my list aren't much into gadgets.
My wife are not really into gadgets. So the Christmas gift for her
will be some cosmetics from various brands. For my parents
the new year gift will be some branded shoes and sweaters I
bought in US. They are much cheaper in the US factory outlets
than the shops in Singapore or in China even though they
are most likely made in China or nearby area.
(Chinese New Year is still two months away and I will go back
to China then).
> For myself, I'm spying a small HDTV. I never cared much about HDTV, saw
> the demos, was never really impressed ENOUGH to consider one.
I am thinking of several things but then I find out I really do not need
them.
PDA or PDA phone: I like them but I really do not use my cell phone
very often... I got three old PDAs: HP PocketPC, Palm IIIxe and an
old NEC Windows CE handheld. All are lying somewhere.
XBox 360: nice but too expensive and I do not play games anyway...
MP3 player: got an old one as well and I listen to FM more often...
Digital camera: got an old Nikon 3100 and it is still good enough. The
newly bought photo printer is also quite good.
Gameboy Advance/PSP: I really like them but again I do not play games.
MCU development tools: are there gadgets? Again I have not
really played with my Explorer 16 board and the Olimex LPC-P2148 yet.
LCD TV: are they gadgets? They are just too big...
Notebook: I like my desktop more. The old Dell 600M is still alive and
I have a Dell D610 at work.
I guess I should not buy any gadgets for this Christmas. But I bought
too many shirts/shoes during my stay in US. The main entertainment
during our stay was to visit factory outlets...
To get list for x'mas and beyond:
1. wifi skype phone, to cut down overseas phone bill and save doing long
distance IT support.
2. wii, finally a game console that has full approval from my wife.
3. umpc, eyeing sony vaio and samsung q1b now
4. MP3 player to listen to podcast and audiobook, but must be able to
slide back and forth (not fast forward and backward) and with built-in
speaker. So far only Besta dictionary has all the features.
The kids on my list are getting stuffed toys from Ikea- Ikea
donates $1 to UNICEF or Save the Children for each stuffed
toy sold. EVERYONE (kids too) gets a $25 gift card to
kiva.org, which is (to my mind) the best charity I've yet seen.
They facilitate microloans to entrepreneurs in less developed
nations to allow them to lift themselves out of poverty by
starting a business.
You pick the business, and they repay the loan to you (or,
to the people you gave the money to) at which point they can
re-loan or cash out.
This is how I'm going to help them save for their future- I'll give
a gift at each Christmas, birthday, Easter, whatever, with the
note that I expect the money to be cycled through Kiva until
they are ready to take it out for college.
Mike H.
On 12/20/06, Xiaofan Chen <.....xiaofancKILLspam.....gmail.com> wrote:
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
> -
> -----Original Message-----
> From: EraseMEpiclist-bouncesspam_OUTTakeThisOuTmit.edu
> [piclist-bouncesspam_OUTmit.edu] On Behalf Of Xiaofan Chen
> Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 6:28 AM
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: [OT] Gadgets you buy for Christmas?
>
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
On 12/20/06, Xiaofan Chen <@spam@xiaofancKILLspamgmail.com> wrote:
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
> -
Well a scope for starters....... Tek scope which would
be the most expensive piece of test equipment I am
willing to spend on... Won't make it for this
Christmas
but hopefully somewhere next year.... But JUST maybe a
book or two for Christmas... :)
1) TI calculator for it's graphing capability.
2) Dremel. Love power tools...... Okay, if you repair
your house or remove rust. Dremel rocks.
3) A Fluke meter? Bets XBOX360 anytime...... Okay I am
lying here.
4) A new boardgame....... Scratch that.
>
> Notebook: I like my desktop more. The old Dell 600M
> is still alive and
> I have a Dell D610 at work.
>
> I guess I should not buy any gadgets for this
> Christmas. But I bought
> too many shirts/shoes during my stay in US. The main
> entertainment
> during our stay was to visit factory outlets...
>
> Regards,
> Xiaofan
For the sisters, and dadas: two way radios, usb flash, and a DVD
recorder
For moi: a new diseqc motor for my dish and a new cam... Yes I know, a
litte cheap this year... LOL
Salute!!!
Power to the penguins and the mighty PIC...
Sending all e-mail to /dev/null since 04-22-97...
> -----Original Message-----
> From: spamBeGonepiclist-bouncesspamBeGonemit.edu
> [TakeThisOuTpiclist-bouncesEraseMEspam_OUTmit.edu] On Behalf Of Xiaofan Chen
> Sent: Wednesday, December 20, 2006 6:28 AM
> To: Microcontroller discussion list - Public.
> Subject: [OT] Gadgets you buy for Christmas?
>
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
> -
Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
For my brother: (yet another) trading card game - "Munchkins" or something
like that.
For Mum: CDs. Nice and simple :)
For Dad: Not sure yet. Probably one of the Ray Mears wilderness survival books
if I can find one he doesn't have.
For me: A new mobile phone - my Samsung v200 keeps losing signal lock. I'm
currently (as in 'on the phone in a hold queue at this very second') trying to
order a new phone (Sony-Ericsson K750i). 22 minutes on hold and counting...
Ordinarily I'd just buy one from CPW, but given the abysmal service they gave
my mother, they're not going to see a penny of my money ever again. The Link
are no better, and Virgin Mobile's brick'n'mortar stores can't do the 'spend
£100 on airtime, get £10 off a new phone' offers. Are there no reputable UK
high-street mobile phone shops left?
>The kids on my list are getting stuffed toys from Ikea- Ikea
>donates $1 to UNICEF or Save the Children for each stuffed
>toy sold. EVERYONE (kids too) gets a $25 gift card to
>kiva.org, which is (to my mind) the best charity I've yet seen.
>They facilitate microloans to entrepreneurs in less developed
>nations to allow them to lift themselves out of poverty by
>starting a business.
>
>You pick the business, and they repay the loan to you (or,
>to the people you gave the money to) at which point they can
>re-loan or cash out.
>
I like Mike's idea.
On my Dad's side of the family (grandmother, aunts, uncles, cousins,
etc.) we used to have a small gift exchange. More recently we've just
been collecting the money we were blowing on the junk nobody
needed/wanted and giving it to a family with a genuine need. This year
it goes to a woman who recently lost her husband in an motorcycle
accident. He left her with some small children with another one on the
way. He bought the cycle in an attempt to save $ on gas.
Oh, and we could also remember James and help suport the piclist. :)
> Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> > Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
> >
> > What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
>
> For my brother: (yet another) trading card game -
> "Munchkins" or something
> like that.
>
Link for munchkin http://www.boardgamegeek.com/game/1927. There are
other games out there on the web-site. Check them out.
John
__________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Tired of spam? Yahoo! Mail has the best spam protection around http://mail.yahoo.com
> You might have some other options there:
>
> 1) TI calculator for it's graphing capability.
Nice idea but I think my PDA can run HP48 emulator pretty well.
Actually that is a lie. I did not try to learn RPN.
> 2) Dremel. Love power tools...... Okay, if you repair
> your house or remove rust. Dremel rocks.
I do not have the luxuary of owing a landed property like you
guys in US/Europe/Malaysia. I live in a high rise building in
the tiny city state -- Singapore. The housing is subsidize by
the government . They are called HDB Flat (HDB stands for
Housing Development Board).
> 3) A Fluke meter? Bets XBOX360 anytime...... Okay I am
> lying here.
I like XBOX more...
> 4) A new boardgame....... Scratch that.
Good idea. My mom likes to play poker. My father like to play
Xiangqi (Chinese chess).
HEY! It's the solution to the wall-wart vs. Bus power argument. Jinx
you're a genius.
Announcing the new Zetor, PTO powered program-o-matic 4000. Programs all
known uControllers, EPROMs and Flash modules. Also programs Furbies.
Holiday sale, one week only, Price slashed to 1 gold krugerand.
Order now, quantities limited.
Jinx wrote:
>> A hydraulic tiller attachment for my tractor
>>
>
> Aw, you old romantic you. Nothing says Christmas like
> something for the PTO
>
> ;-)
>
>
On Wed, 20 Dec 2006 09:00:27 -0500, Jeff Findley wrote:
> Trying to find a digital picture frame for my dad and step mom. They take a
> lot of digital pictures and this seems like just the thing for them to show
> off those pictures. The nice thing about these is you can dump new pictures
> onto your memory card at any time and stick it in the picture frame.
I got one of these from ComputerGeeks (James lives near them! :-) http://www.geeks.com but they ran out - worth
checking from time to time to see if they have them back in stock.
Well for myself, I must have been one of the first to order
one of Olin's USB PIC Programmers - about an hour after he
announced it. I nearly did so a couple of minutes after he did
so, but I did a mental "walk round the block" to decide if I
really needed another programmer... gadgetry and Olin's
reputation for doing Good Stuff won out! :-) Since I'm
Stateside at the moment I also saved a bit on the postage. I
just hope it arrives before I head home again.
Now, I wonder what I should be buying for other people... :-)
It hadn't occurred to me that I buy myself something. I have been
thinking about purchasing Eagle but that means I actually have to get
something done that will pay for itself. I bought a remote car starter
for my girlfriend, I'll probably be trying to install that in the
driveway tomorrow...
--
Martin K
> On 12/21/06, John Chung <RemoveMEkravnusEraseMEEraseMEyahoo.com> wrote:
>
>
>> You might have some other options there:
>>
>> 1) TI calculator for it's graphing capability.
>>
> Nice idea but I think my PDA can run HP48 emulator pretty well.
> Actually that is a lie. I did not try to learn RPN.
>
>
>> 2) Dremel. Love power tools...... Okay, if you repair
>> your house or remove rust. Dremel rocks.
>>
>
> I do not have the luxuary of owing a landed property like you
> guys in US/Europe/Malaysia. I live in a high rise building in
> the tiny city state -- Singapore. The housing is subsidize by
> the government . They are called HDB Flat (HDB stands for
> Housing Development Board).
>
>
>> 3) A Fluke meter? Bets XBOX360 anytime...... Okay I am
>> lying here.
>>
>
> I like XBOX more...
>
>
>> 4) A new boardgame....... Scratch that.
>>
>
> Good idea. My mom likes to play poker. My father like to play
> Xiangqi (Chinese chess).
>
> Regards,
> Xiaofan
>
Hmm, big shipment of model railway stuff arrived last week, and had
notification yesterday that the last of the backorder has arrived, except
for one item ... won't see lot that until January sometime though.
Is it time to go home yet - replete with very nice Christmas lunch at one of
the local restaurants.
Only one day to go, then a week off, curled up with the cats, catching up on
video, and doing a PIC project for the Model Railway Club.
Howard Winter wrote:
> Well for myself, I must have been one of the first to order
> one of Olin's USB PIC Programmers - about an hour after he
> announced it. I nearly did so a couple of minutes after he did
> so, but I did a mental "walk round the block" to decide if I
> really needed another programmer... gadgetry and Olin's
> reputation for doing Good Stuff won out! :-) Since I'm
> Stateside at the moment I also saved a bit on the postage. I
> just hope it arrives before I head home again.
I think I'll be sticking with my ICD2 for now.
I'm trying to get my Mk.II SX logic analyser (which is now a mixed-signal
scope of some description) to work. Managed to blow out my last SX48 the other
week, so I'm redesigning the thing around an SX28, and praying that there's
enough room in the CPLD to throw in a Multimediacard interface and some buffer
RAM...
Philip Pemberton wrote:
> Howard Winter wrote:
>
>> Well for myself, I must have been one of the first to order
>> one of Olin's USB PIC Programmers - about an hour after he
>> announced it. I nearly did so a couple of minutes after he did
>> so, but I did a mental "walk round the block" to decide if I
>> really needed another programmer... gadgetry and Olin's
>> reputation for doing Good Stuff won out! :-) Since I'm
>> Stateside at the moment I also saved a bit on the postage. I
>> just hope it arrives before I head home again.
>>
>
> I think I'll be sticking with my ICD2 for now.
>
The ICD2 has burned me a few times, by not actually programming a
device while I watched all the
text being thrown up as if it did. I have no idea what that is about,
but Olin's programmer looks better
all the time...
How much is it, Olin?
--Bob
> I'm trying to get my Mk.II SX logic analyser (which is now a mixed-signal
> scope of some description) to work. Managed to blow out my last SX48 the other
> week, so I'm redesigning the thing around an SX28, and praying that there's
> enough room in the CPLD to throw in a Multimediacard interface and some buffer
> RAM...
>
>
> Howard Winter wrote:
> > Well for myself, I must have been one of the first
> to order
> > one of Olin's USB PIC Programmers - about an hour
> after he
> > announced it. I nearly did so a couple of minutes
> after he did
> > so, but I did a mental "walk round the block" to
> decide if I
> > really needed another programmer... gadgetry and
> Olin's
> > reputation for doing Good Stuff won out! :-)
> Since I'm
> > Stateside at the moment I also saved a bit on the
> postage. I
> > just hope it arrives before I head home again.
>
> I think I'll be sticking with my ICD2 for now.
>
> I'm trying to get my Mk.II SX logic analyser (which
> is now a mixed-signal
> scope of some description) to work. Managed to blow
> out my last SX48 the other
> week, so I'm redesigning the thing around an SX28,
> and praying that there's
> enough room in the CPLD to throw in a Multimediacard
> interface and some buffer
> RAM...
>
> --
> Phil. | (\_/) This is
> Bunny. Copy and paste Bunny
> RemoveMEpiclistKILLspamphilpem.me.uk | (='.'=) into your
> signature to help him gain
> http://www.philpem.me.uk/ | (")_(") world
> domination.
I got a cool deal on a string of battery powered white LED Christmas lights.
18 REALLY bright, tiny white LEDs on a string, with a battery pack.
I was already planning on building a ring light (for macro-photography)
and another to give my cousin the professional photographer for
Christmas. I was thrilled to find this whole lights kit for $4 as I
can't even buy 18 white LED's that cheap locally, and these are
pre-wired, and have a battery pack with a switch even. Not to mention 18
goes into 360 nicely. ;')
So I grabbed a few extras so I can strip the LEDs from them later if I
want them.
I'm also building a bat-house kit for my nieces and nephews to put
together. Cheap, whole yard bug repellent.
I'm going to surprise my wife. She really wants some new Birkenstocks
but doesn't want to spend the money on them. I'm having my brother ship
her some from Germany as they're quite cheap there.
I got a couple of really cool things from my super cool wife today for
birthday presents. She rocks.
She gave me an LED light attachment for my dremel. This thing is cool.
It's a ring magnet that goes on the threaded collet shaft and a new grip
for the end of the dremel that contains (I assume) coils and a rectifier
or what not to generate the power for the two LEDs on the front of the
grip. You can see what you are working on, with no wires, and no
batteries. She also got my the router bit set she caught me eye balling,
but that I didn't want to spend the money on.
Also, last year I got one of those 20Q games.
Check it out at radica's website. http://www.radicagames.com/20q.php
I was fascinated by this thing because they managed to fit some pretty
impressive programming and a fairly large database into a hockey puck
sized game for under $10.
Basically this thing plays 20 questions with you, and if you are honest
with your answers, it will freak you out with it's accuracy.
This year, I saw an article on their new toy, Cube World. This is really
amazing.
At first glance, it seems like a tamagachi, it's a little cube with a
dot matrix LCD display and three buttons.
Each cube contains a character with a unique personality. Like a
construction worker or a clean freak. They all have habits and
behaviours. You can interact, play games with them, just watch them, or
even screw with them. It has a motion sensor and if you shake it, it
messes with them. If you turn it upside down they fall on the ceiling
(now the floor) and get up. Even cooler is that you can link cubes,
stack them, side by side, etc.. They have little magnets that act as
contacts. Once you link them, the characters will interact. Wave at each
other, play games (like tennis) and even fight.
They'll even leave their cube and go into another's cube and interact.
For example, the clean freak washes his hands a lot. Sometimes his sink
overflows onto the floor. If he's linked to the handyman, the handyman's
floor will flood too, and he'll go next door with his tools and fix the
sink. Then the flooding will drain away.
I've been fascinated with these things, from a geek perspective. The
programming, the components, etc. My family thought I was nuts trying to
describe them until we saw them in a store while Christmas shopping.
They were awed too.
So today, my brother-in-law gave me a pair of them. Very cool. I've been
watching them all evening. Now I need more of course, to see how they
act in groups. You can link up to 16 of them.
Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
>
On 12/20/06, Xiaofan Chen <xiaofancSTOPspamspam_OUTgmail.com> wrote:
> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>
> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
>
Yesterday we bought a Nokia 6280 3G phone with
MP3/Camera/FM. It is relative cheap (S$138 with 2 year
voice plan, roughly US$90). My wife wanted to buy the
Sony Ericsson W850 or the W810 Walkman phone but
they ran out of stock. Personally I did not like anything
Sony (okay, except Radio) so I think it is a good fit. We
always bought Nokia phones and all of them were good.
We spent quite sometime trying to find a pair of nice
earings for my wift but somehow she did not like them.
So maybe we will try next weekend.
Last year I bought my father-in-law a Ceiva. It's an LCD picture frame
that you can send pictures to over the Internet. He LOVES it. We send
him pictures of the grandkids etc and it works very well. So, this
year, we renewed his subscription to the service ($99/yr). http://www.ceiva.com
Xiaofan,
We have a saying in the US:
"A happy wife is a happy life."
You better try harder to find those earings!!!
Carey
*Carey Fisher*
Xiaofan Chen wrote:
> On 12/20/06, Xiaofan Chen <EraseMExiaofancEraseMEgmail.com> wrote:
>
> We spent quite sometime trying to find a pair of nice
> earings for my wift but somehow she did not like them.
> So maybe we will try next weekend.
>
> Regards,
> Xiaofan
>
On 12/24/06, Carey Fisher <@spam@careyfisher@spam@spam_OUTncsradio.com> wrote:
> Xiaofan,
> We have a saying in the US:
> "A happy wife is a happy life."
> You better try harder to find those earings!!!
> Carey
Thanks. Today I bought her two pairs of earring's and
she is happy now. She is now wearing the earrings and
learning how to use the Nokia 6280.
>
> This year, I saw an article on their new toy, Cube World. This is really
> amazing.
> At first glance, it seems like a tamagachi, it's a little cube with a
> dot matrix LCD display and three buttons.
> Each cube contains a character with a unique personality. Like a
> construction worker or a clean freak. They all have habits and
> behaviours. You can interact, play games with them, just watch them, or
> even screw with them. It has a motion sensor and if you shake it, it
> messes with them. If you turn it upside down they fall on the ceiling
> (now the floor) and get up. Even cooler is that you can link cubes,
> stack them, side by side, etc.. They have little magnets that act as
> contacts. Once you link them, the characters will interact. Wave at each
> other, play games (like tennis) and even fight.
> They'll even leave their cube and go into another's cube and interact.
> For example, the clean freak washes his hands a lot. Sometimes his sink
> overflows onto the floor. If he's linked to the handyman, the handyman's
> floor will flood too, and he'll go next door with his tools and fix the
> sink. Then the flooding will drain away.
>
> I've been fascinated with these things, from a geek perspective. The
> programming, the components, etc. My family thought I was nuts trying to
> describe them until we saw them in a store while Christmas shopping.
> They were awed too.
> So today, my brother-in-law gave me a pair of them. Very cool. I've been
> watching them all evening. Now I need more of course, to see how they
> act in groups. You can link up to 16 of them.
>
I see them in Toys"R"Us store today. Quite interesting concept. http://www.radicagames.com/cubeworld/index.php
Not so expensive (Singapore S$59 or US$27 with two cubes,
totally there are 4 types of cubes).
However the game seems to be a bit too simple.
Technologywise, it is quite interesting with motion sensor and
"wireless" communication. Not so sure about the battery life
(a CR2032).
On 12/20/06, Ling SM <.....ipal11spam_OUTsingnet.com.sg> wrote:
> > What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
>
> To get list for x'mas and beyond:
> 1. wifi skype phone, to cut down overseas phone bill and save doing long
> distance IT support.
I do not think this is really true for Singapore. It is actually
cheaper to use the phone cards in Singapore and I believe
the phone call quality is better than Skype.
> 2. wii, finally a game console that has full approval from my wife.
Are there available in Singapore? It seems to me PS3 and
Wii will only arrive late March 2007.
> 3. umpc, eyeing sony vaio and samsung q1b now
Nice but they are quite expensive...
> 4. MP3 player to listen to podcast and audiobook, but must be able to
> slide back and forth (not fast forward and backward) and with built-in
> speaker. So far only Besta dictionary has all the features.
What do you mean by slide back and forth? So far I think my PC
is the best MP3 palyer for me. And Besta to me is too expensive
for a electronic dictionary and not as good as any PDA or PDA
phone due to the lack of programming capability.
I am a bit surprised to find out that the English-Chinses
dictionaries for the Nokia 6280 is quite good (one is bundled
with the phone and the other is from Kingsoft).
I can't wait till someone hacks these and thousands of consumers
worldwide get introduced to the world of Internet hacking and pr0n.
It might even make CNN when it happens.
> Last year I bought my father-in-law a Ceiva. It's an LCD picture frame
> that you can send pictures to over the Internet. He LOVES it. We send
> him pictures of the grandkids etc and it works very well. So, this
> year, we renewed his subscription to the service ($99/yr). http://www.ceiva.com
>
> *Carey Fisher, Chief Technical Officer
> New Communications Solutions, LLC
> *TakeThisOuTcareyfisher.....TakeThisOuTncsradio.com <TakeThisOuTcareyfisherKILLspamspamncsradio.com>
> Toll Free Phone:888-883-5788
> Local Phone:770-814-0683
> FAX: 888-883-5788
> http://www.ncsradio.com <http://www.ncsradio.com/>
>
>
> Xiaofan Chen wrote:
>
>> Merry Christmas and Happy New Year to all!
>>
>> What will you buy for this coming Christmas?
>>
>>
gmail.com> wrote in message 
