world gone mad

Camping beside a windblown lake or a tundra riverbank, where the wind never really stops, is hard on tarps: grommets blow out, seams pop, and there never seems to be enough spots on the tarp to attach a line. Tundra Tarps are terrifically versatile, stout tarps. Instead of grommets the tarp is ringed with 3/4" nylon ribbon with loops sewn in every two feet on the outer edge and interior seams. The sil-nylon material is stitched together using a single needle lockstitch with double stitched lapped ends -- in other words, the cloth will fail long before the seams. The most delightfully ingenious innovation is a central "quad loop" that captures the end of a pole, staff, stick or paddle and hold it firmly in place so that when the wind lifts, the center support does not fall out.

After three years of canoeing, camping and backpacking with the Tundra, the tarp is still one of my favorite pieces of gear. I originally purchased one 10' x 16' tarp for a canoe trip to Canada with a crew of nine Boy Scouts. The tarp has sheltered a crew of nine in violent thunderstorms and been a palatial home for one on backpacking trips. There are cheaper options out there, but from my experience, none matches the true versatility and quality of the Tundra Tarp. Weighing a mere 2 pound 10 ounces, it does not add substantially to the load; there is also a 1 pound 10 ounce version available for an additional $80.00. Each tarp ships with 80 feet of polyester cord, a tube of SilNet sealant and a stuff sack. They are sized from 8' x 10' to 15' x 15'.

The company will also sew your choice of colors, either a single color for the whole tarp or multicolored panels. My tarps are multicolored -- orange, red, blue, and yellow -- which makes them very easy to spot when canoing back to camp. I purchased a second tarp this summer when we added a second crew to our annual canoe trip. We're going to get three more to outfit our entire Scout Troop this fall.

-- Clarke Green

Tundra Tarps
$80+
Available from Cooke Custom Sewing

Manufactured by Cooke Custom Sewing

Quad Loop

Related Entries:
Flea Market Canopy Tarptents

Lubix in cooperation with Skinit gives you a new possibility to express your inner world with the help of a picture on your headset. Skinit offers the Scotchprint Graphics 3M logos of the highest quality in the existing market. They use a special 6 color high resolution process to assure bright colors, as well as clear and accurate implementation. Skinit Skins provide a thin, photo quality protective membrane - be sure your device won't be occasionally scratched.

And now you can win a Lubix headset with a Softick logo!

All you have to do is

• to install Softick Audio Gateway (either registered or not) and
• send us a Device code in form (01234567:89ABCDEF) displayed in Softick Audio Gateway registration window (read more in Contest Rules, p.3).

The winner will be announced on the Softick.com site on September, 30, 2008.

Individual winner will be notified by e-mail. Winner have 14 days from notification to claim the prize. Prize may be claimed by return e-mail. Unclaimed prizes will not be awarded.

This week's StackOverflow Podcast is up: episode 20.

We talked about the deadlock that was fixed, which was the last thing holding up the public beta... caused by a very small bug in third party libraries, which is exactly why I've always had a bias against using third party libraries. I tell an interesting story about why the Excel team had their own compiler. And I explain to a listener why Jeff never listens to me.

Thanks to everyone who came to the Business of Software conference and made it a huge success. The speakers were all incredible, the attendees were fabulous, even the food was pretty good for a convention center.

P.S. The Conversations Network, a not-for-profit organization which hosts our podcast, is looking for sponsors for their podcasts, including this one. It would be a very modest, NPR-style intro at the beginning... "The StackOverflow Podcast is brought to you by Gummy Bears, Inc., bringing fine chewy treats to grubby children everywhere." If your company might be interested in sponsoring the podcast and becoming a hero to developers worldwide, or at least the eight developers who listen to the podcast, please email me.

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

We heat our home with wood -- four full cords per year -- and began to feel guilty about borrowing our neighbor’s wood splitter for our annual restocking project. We don’t have room to store a full-size splitter, so I researched and found the Brave EZ split log splitter. At about 1/3 the size and 1/4 the weight (140 lbs) of a standard splitter, it doesn’t take up much more space than a lawn mower and can handle all but the most gnarled logs. The splitting wedge is quite narrow, so sometimes it actually cuts through the log rather than splitting it apart. A full cycle is about 18 seconds, so it's not as fast as a full-size splitter (closer to 12 seconds). Since the wedge isn’t as tall as on a full size splitter, I occasionally have to turn the log over to get a complete split. Also, the splitter only takes logs up to 18 inches long, but these are small trade offs for the ease of storage and transport. If someone wants to borrow it or if there is a downed tree that someone is willing to let us have, we can put it in the back of our van and not worry about a tow-behind-splitter bouncing all over the road. The engine, which runs on regular gas, always starts after one or two pulls.

-- John Savereide

E-Z Split
$700
Available from Northern Tool

Or $716 from Amazon

Related Entries:
MacKissic Mighty Mac Chipper Shredder Powerwagon Stack-It Brackets

This microwave popper is simplicity itself: 1/2 cup of corn, a little oil (or not), and a little time in the microwave yields a healthy, low-cost, low-cal snack you can eat right out of the popper's bowl. Unlike other microwaveable poppers or Tupperware containers, the Nordic Ware's top cover has nifty ridges that facilitate comfortable removal after popping (i.e. when everything is very, very hot). If you don't remove the cover immediately, the popcorn gets too moist. I've tried a variety of devices on my long march to the perfect popper... table-top poppers often made a mess (and big noise) and they're not machine-washable. Some microwave poppers require pads that deteriorate with use and need to be replaced, but are difficult to find. The stove top method, I just could never fully master: burned pans, burned corn, mess to clean. Lastly, those convenient microwavable bags of popcorn: if you eat a lot popcorn, you'll be spending exorbitant sums and -- depending on which brand you purchase -- consuming chemical additives. The Nordic popper does not require oil, if you so chose, so the end-product is essentially the same as an air popper. The Nordic can go in the dishwasher -- or just be wiped clean. Plus, the Nordic is perhaps the least expensive one out there. I paid less than $10 for mine. As of late, we've been producing popcorn five nights a week.

-- Daniel Wilson

Nordic Ware Microwave Corn Popper
$8
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Nordic Ware

Related Entries:
Popcorn Popper as Coffee Roaster Cheap Home Theater How to Cook Everything

Softick Card Export for Windows Mobile 3.14 released! In the new version the following new features were added:

• The latest firmwares for Eten X800 and Eten M800 are supported now.
• A card is now available on the device and on the desktop PC at the same time.

This update is free for most of registered users of Softick Card Export for Windows Mobile.

This small unit measures the effects of breathing on the parasympathetic system in order to help you feel calm and relaxed. My doctor actually prescribed it for me. The results are subtle but pretty amazing. My major successes have been trying to get to sleep at night. I fire up the small playing-card-pack-size box, which runs on two AAA batteries. Then I insert my finger into the trap door on the top left and begin working to control my breathing pattern. If you haven't used it in a while, it coaxes you to reset date and time. Then it begins with a straight line.... and you begin to breath. What the manual recommends is that you breath in through the nose and then exhale from your mouth. What's different from some other meditation and yoga methods is the StressEraser doesn't want you to count on the inhale, but just to breathe in as deeply as you can. On the exhale you should do it slowly with a count to three, four, or five. The idea is to create a curving graph of regularity that can be worth 1 or 3 points on the device. A meditation session can total as many points as you want. Usually I shoot for 30. It takes a while to get into the rhythm of deeply breathing in and then slowly breathing out with a pause at each end point. It takes me about 15 - 20 minutes to get into the pattern and then complete the breathing session. When I finish, I don't feel much different. But when I climb into bed I find it amazingly easy to fall and stay asleep. It's not cheap, but I paid $200 for a returned model at Sharper Image. My friend gave one to her father, who uses it after watching the evening news. She says it's worked well form him, too.

-- George Brett

StressEraser
$250
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Helicor, Inc.

Related Entries:
Salubrion Enso Clock Zen Flesh, Zen Bones HypnoBirthing

This two-color LED light is geared toward us aircraft owners and pilots, but it's also popular with hunters or anyone else working at night or in conditions where they need to preserve night vision. It has 26 LEDs -- 20 are bright white and six are a less-obtrusive red. The push button switch alternates between the colors. I use mine when I'm preflighting the aircraft and also during flights if I need something more powerful than the existing interior lighting inside the plane. I also know some law enforcement people who use them in vehicles at night. The light is sold by the big aviation supply houses like Aircraft Spruce, but also on Amazon. It's very inexpensive, especially considering how effective it is.

-- Robert Cullinan

Pilot's Flashlight
$18
Available from Amazon

Related Entries:
X-Plane Pilot's Pen Light Backpacking

I've made four kinds of alcohol stoves: the previously-reviewed Pepsi Can Stove, the Turbo Cat II, the Peyo Revolution, and the Super Cat. Of the four stoves I built and tested with a stopwatch (in my 60-degree garage), the Super Cat boiled water the fastest. While one of the others took as long as seven minutes to boil 500ml of water, the Super Cat did it in roughly 4 minutes and 30 seconds, and required no fuel re-fills to do so. Your use may vary, but regardless, the Super Cat called for the least number of materials and tools to make. A lot of tin can stoves require assembly with JB Weld, as well as cutting apart cans with scissors and X-Acto blades, which can lead to getting cut on sharp aluminum. To make the Super Cat, all you need to do is open the can (cat food, hence the name), dump the contents, and drill or punch holes in the prescribed pattern. Since it's just a simple dish of fuel that you light in the middle, the stove does not require a primer dish to pre-heat the stove, nor does it require a pot stand. The stove is actually designed to have the pot sit on top. Without the pot on top, it burns much less efficiently; it needs it there to force the fire out the side holes. In the field -- once on a summer mountaineering trip and twice camping -- it's held up and functioned great. It definitely seems more crush-proof than the other stoves. The only disadvantage: I had to throw out the cat food because I don't have a cat!

-- Steve Schmitt

Super Cat Alcohol Stove

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

Sierra Stove

Wall Tent Stoves

JetBoil

I am an architect and have been working with programs like Photoshop for years, but Spoonflower really opened up a new world for me: fabric design. It's a service that let's you upload an image to a web site and the company prints the design as a pattern on 100% cotton fabric. Their customer service is great, and I think the fabric is reasonably-priced: it costs $18/yard, not counting shipping, and an individual 8x8-inch swatch is $5. The site is still in beta, so I had to request an invite to use Spoonflower, but a week after contacting them I was experimenting with patterns and ordering fabric.

So far, I've placed three orders with three different designs (3x3 yards worth) at $ 66 per order, shipping included. The trickiest part was preparing the image file so the pattern matches up. I used the "define pattern" command in Photoshop to test my image files before I uploaded them. I defined the image size (150 dpi), set colors to LAB color space and saved the files in TIF format. After I uploaded them to the Spoonflower site, they were automatically tiled to fill the desired fabric size. Then I specified the shipping address, paid using my credit card and that's it! The turnaround was reasonably quick: my fabric arrived in a month (I live in Switzerland). I made a skirt with the fabric from my first order -- a present for my Mom (pic below).

A couple caveats: I have noticed some distortion after washing the fabric and there was a little color shifting from my original designs. Still, the color shifting and fabric distortion really are minor. Overall, I'm happy with the color accuracy and I've been very satisfied with my orders. I have been having a lot of fun with Spoonflower and will likely place my fourth order very soon. I am even considering setting up an Etsy shop to sell some of my fabrics.

-- Isabella Kuntz

Spoonflower

Beta invitation request

Skirt:

Pattern:

NOTE: definitely check out this blogger's enlightening side-by-side close-ups of fabric printed from her artwork. One of her conclusions: "strong graphic lines turn out better than images with subtle shading." Also, check the Spoonflower pool on flickr for more fabric samples, including this skirt. --sl

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

World Textiles

Books on Demand

Brother Sewing Machine

I am an architect and have been working with programs like Photoshop for years, but Spoonflower really opened up a new world for me: fabric design. It's a service that let's you upload an image to a web site and the company prints the design as a pattern on 100% cotton fabric. Their customer service is great, and I think the fabric is reasonably-priced: it costs $18/yard, not counting shipping, and an individual 8x8-inch swatch is $5. The site is still in beta, so I had to request an invite to use Spoonflower, but a week after contacting them I was experimenting with patterns and ordering fabric.

So far, I've placed three orders with three different designs (3x3 yards worth) at $ 66 per order, shipping included. The trickiest part was preparing the image file so the pattern matches up. I used the "define pattern" command in Photoshop to test my image files before I uploaded them. I defined the image size (150 dpi), set colors to LAB color space and saved the files in TIF format. After I uploaded them to the Spoonflower site, they were automatically tiled to fill the desired fabric size. Then I specified the shipping address, paid using my credit card and that's it! The turnaround was reasonably quick: my fabric arrived in a month (I live in Switzerland). I made a skirt with the fabric from my first order -- a present for my Mom (pic below).

A couple caveats: I have noticed some distortion after washing the fabric and there was a little color shifting from my original designs. Still, the color shifting and fabric distortion really are minor. Overall, I'm happy with the color accuracy and I've been very satisfied with my orders. I have been having a lot of fun with Spoonflower and will likely place my fourth order very soon. I am even considering setting up an Etsy shop to sell some of my fabrics.

-- Isabella Kuntz

Spoonflower

Beta invitation request

Skirt:

Pattern:

NOTE: definitely check out this blogger's enlightening side-by-side close-ups of fabric printed from her artwork. One of her conclusions: "strong graphic lines turn out better than images with subtle shading." Also, check the Spoonflower pool on flickr for more fabric samples, including this skirt. --sl

Related items previously reviewed on Cool Tools:

World Textiles

Books on Demand

Brother Sewing Machine

I have been considering buying a kitchen scale for quite a while, but was often underwhelmed with what was out there. Unlike a garden-variety kitchen scale, which typically weighs up to only four pounds, the Ultraship can handle up to 55 pounds. It reads in ounces, pounds, grams or kilos, so it's perfect for the kitchen, but can also be used for shipping packages and mail. Heck, you could even weigh a small child on it. Also, it features a just plain brilliant design:i f you are weighing a really big monster package that blocks the display, you can detach it! The entire face of the unit can be unclipped and pulled away from the scale with a 5-foot-long extension cord.

When I compared the Ultraship to a laboratory-grade scale used at my company, this one went gram for gram with the lab scale. Within the 0-2 pound range, it is actually accurate to essentially 0.035 ounces as opposed to the 0.1 ounces in the specification. If you take baking seriously, this is the only way to go. I fish quite a bit, so it's nice to be able to weight those 30-pound striped bass. From 2-55 pounds, the scale is accurate to within 0.5 ounces. While my initial motivation was for the kitchen, I have also been using it for boxes and packages.

-- Aram Salzman

Ultraship Digital Shipping Postal Kitchen Scale
$35
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by My Weigh

Related Entries:
Accurate Body Scales Body Fat Meter The Hacker's Diet

This week's StackOverflow Podcast is up: episode 19.

Jeff and I spent some time talking about the home page for StackOverflow. What goes there? What does it mean to vote on a question?

We also talked about Aaron Swartz's article on How to Launch Software. Big-bang launches can be disasters (viz.: cuil); quiet, gentle launches without announcements where you slowly build can work a lot better (viz.: Gmail). Will StackOverflow's launch overwhelm our servers and underwhelm our audience?

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

Russell is a hundred-some-odd-year-old shoemaker I've been ordering from for the past 15 years. In addition to the quality of the workmanship and materials, you get the simple, timeless pleasure of a hand-crafted, made-to-order shoe/boot. Options include any number of various soles, hides (including supplying your own!), styles, insulation, toe cap, steel shank, and other custom options. For me, the Vibram sole was perfect. But others might be after oil resistance, traction, silence, longer life, etc. For instance, I'm not a hunter, but for those that are, Russell also has snakeproof boots and options for preventing thorns/cactus. That ability to customize your sole/leather/style per application is great.

There's a downloadable instruction form for sending in your measurements, which they keep on record for a decade. I am very flat-footed and they were able to accommodate the necessary additional space for orthotics. Not that unusual, but I recommended Russell to a friend with extraordinarily narrow feet (especially for how long they are). They were able to create his size no problem; and he's since ordered a half dozen different pairs over the years. One other thing I'd add is they do repair work as well, so you won't need to toss them as they get really old -- and you get the added bonus of having someone who knows the shoe doing the work. I have both the Cavalier boot and the Buckle Chukka. They're not cheap, but the Cavalier boots I mainly wear now I've had for at least 10 years, and the pair has only gotten better with age.

-- Wrye Martin

Russell Moccasin Footwear
$360 (cavalier)
Available from Russell Moccasin

Related Entries:
Rocky Side-Zip Paraboots Steger Mukluks Leather Therapy

“Another programmer came to us. ‘I thought you should know that people are really unhappy,’ he said bluntly, ‘and it’s starting to make it so that people just complain all day, instead of doing their work, and that’s not good.’”

From my latest Inc. column: How I Learned to Love Middle Managers

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

The Remington Shortcut is a clipper designed for self-administered haircuts. A curved clipper head makes it almost impossible to over-cut small or large regions, and the clipper's unconventional hairbrush-like shape makes it easy to reach the most awkward spots on your head. Before getting the Shortcut, I'd tried cutting my own hair several times and always had disasters. On my first attempt with the Shortcut, I got about the same results I'm used to from a pro, which rather astounded me. It seems almost impossible to mess up. Using the Shortcut takes me five to ten minutes, which I usually fit in just before showering for obvious reasons. The cutter can be set from "skinhead" to "George Clooney" and you can easily mix lengths on the sides and top for effect. Once you get used to five minute haircuts on-demand they're rather addictive. Going to the barber for a typical male haircut now seems as silly -- and time wasting -- as traveling across town for a shave. Every time I use the Shortcut I save about $20 and at least an hour and a half of my time -- a good return on my initial investment.

-- Jonathan Coupe

Remington Shortcut
$35
Available from Amazon

Manufactured by Remington

Related Entries:
Headblade Groom Mate Nose & Ear Hair Trimmer

Downhill skating is like surfing; carving back and forth on long downhills. Note: you guys who skated as kids and have quit. The technology is way advanced these days. Decks, trucks, wheels, designs. It's a different skating world. If you've ever skated, you've got the motor skills (due to "muscle memory"), and you'll be surprised at how much fun you can have skating downhill with today's boards. Here are three unique skateboards meant for downhill, as opposed to acrobatic street and ramp skating.

-- Lloyd Kahn

Loaded Carving Systems

This is my board of choice, after maybe 20 boards. The decks are made of 1/2 cm strips of vertically laminated bamboo (with the grain running truck to truck,) sandwiched between layers of fiberglass. The decks are convex (from end to end) and you can pump to accelerate, gaining speed from the flex of the deck and rebound from the truck bushings and wheels. They produce a graceful and flowing ride. I've got a Dervish model with Orangatang wheels. Check out the film clips on their website.

Dervish complete board w/wheels
$315
Available from Loaded Boards

Carveboard

This is a whole other animal. Surfers love them. They're heavy, have adjustable air pneumatic tires, and the deck tilts off springs so you can carve insanely tight angles. I use one with tires deflated to about 10 lbs. pressure to be able to skate a steep local hill that I can't handle on any other board.

43" Carveboard
$450
Available from Carve USA

Landyachtz Evo 2008

From British Columbia, land of heavy-duty mountain bike riders and downhill skaters, come these downhill racing boards. The drop-down decks give you a lower center of gravity and great stability at high speeds. Being closer to the ground makes it easier for skaters to get a padded glove on the ground for sliding (to slow down).

Evo 2008 w/Gumball wheels
$240
Available from Landyachtz

Safety Gear

1) Loaded sliding gloves -- best ones available. When you fall face down, these save the skin on the palm of your hand. They are also used for sliding.

2) TSG Force 2 knee pads. Top of the line; you can put these on over long pants.

NOTE: top image via the Northern California Downhill Skateboarding Association --sl

Related Entries:
Trikke COOL TOOLS UNTRIED The Surfer's Journal

When Apple’s iPhone 3G came out, I was pretty sure I’d get one. It had all the features I was waiting for. But the lines just weren’t going away.

I searched Twitter. For a week, then two, every day brought fresh reports of five-hour waits.

And then the reports of bugs started coming in. The Exchange synchronization features weren’t up to snuff, I heard. The phone crashed regularly, I heard. Basic operations were painfully slow. Battery life was abysmal.

Adam Curry suggested getting a Nokia E71. I had never heard of this thing. Nokia? Really? For years I had always thought that Nokia made chunky Europhones that were always just one button short of a usable user interface.

But, no, the more I investigated, the more it seemed that the E71 was a truly credible alternative to the iPhone 3G. The reviews coming in from Europe were stellar. There was one hitch: it didn’t seem to be on sale over here.

There was one last hope. Around the corner from the Apple Store on Fifth Avenue, Nokia had opened a pricy boutique where they sold unlocked, unsubsidized cell phones, mostly to foreign tourists who invaded New York to take advantage of our banana-republic currency.

“Do you have the E71?” I asked.

“I have a demo model you can look at,” the guy said.

It seemed very sleek. Smaller than the iPhone, all metal, nothing chintzy… with the best keyboard I’ve ever used on a phone.

“They’re not on sale until tomorrow… if we have any left after tonight’s super-exclusive launch party. Which is invite only,” he emphasized.

I’m shameless. “How do I get invited?”

“Well, um, put your name on this list.” He gave me a blank piece of paper. “And come back at 6 pm.”

Which I did. There was a short line of a dozen Nokia fans—a somewhat ghetto version of the five hour iPhone lines. Within minutes, I had my E71, and they even helped me with the arduous task of popping in the SIM.

Plink! It worked!

I’ve been using it for a month now, and I’m completely sold. This is the best phone I’ve ever had. I love it.

Now, don’t get me wrong: I think the iPhone is brilliant. The Apple iPhone is truly an inspired piece of design that pushed the state of the art and then went about ten steps further. If the iPhone competed in the Olympic swimming tournaments, Michael Phelps would have just retired on the spot and given up swimming for life.

For many people, the iPhone 3G is perfect. I thought that it meant “game over” for all the other handset makers. But Nokia is a fantastic company and they weren’t going to give up that easy. Their new E71 is a fantastic phone, clearly inspired by the competition, and the game is not over.

There were three reasons I was looking to upgrade.

1. I wanted a phone with a decent MP3 player, so I don’t have to carry two devices.
2. I wanted to be able to use the phone’s internet connection to get online with my laptop on the train out to the Hamptons (there’s tolerable 3G coverage on AT&T for the first two hours of the trip).
3. I needed great Exchange synchronization, not just an IMAP client. For the last few weeks I’ve been desperately trying to get Merlin Mann’s Inbox Zero concept working and you need a great Exchange client, not a 1.0 Exchange client.

The E71 met most of these requirements. It’s got a decent music player, a built-in podcasting client (so I can download podcasts directly instead of going through my desktop PC), and it’s even got an FM radio. There’s a third party software app called JaikuSpot which uses the 3G connection and the WiFi in the phone to turn your phone into a mobile hotspot so you can surf from your laptop. When I tried JaikuSpot, it kept dropping the connection, so I can’t say that was the perfect experience, but I’ll keep trying.

Nokia’s built in Exchange synchronization is very 1.0. It doesn’t know about folders, which means there’s no way to get things out of my inbox into an archive folder after I deal with them. This was unacceptable. It meant I would have to go through all those emails again when I got back to my desk. But there’s a third party app, DataViz RoadSync, which handles Exchange synchronization and does support folders, and that works perfectly.

There are some other great features I discovered when I really got into this phone.

The GPS is great fun. It doesn’t work indoors. It doesn’t work in the city where the sky is a distant memory. But it works when you’re out in the country, and it’s really fun to get Google Maps satellite images showing exactly where you are. That is, if you’re not so far out in the country that there’s no cell reception. Combined with the 3 megapixel camera, if you’re really lucky, you can snap pictures and then upload them directly to your Flickr account, and the picture will be tagged with its exact location. You have to be pretty lucky for this to work: getting the GPS to find enough satellites is not always possible.

The pictures are, um, well, cellphone quality. I uploaded a few sample pictures. It's for snapshots and memories, not photography.

The fit and finish of this phone is amazing. It’s the slimmest Nokia I’ve ever seen: smaller in every dimension than an iPhone. It feels solid. The keys on the keyboard are really clicky and extremely easy to type with, especially combined with the predictive word autocomplete. (Why don’t desktop word processors have autocomplete yet?)

The battery lasts a couple of days under heavy use, and is easy to replace, so I keep a spare around for those days when I forgot to charge the phone.

The call quality is the best I’ve ever experienced. After years of using junky phones I literally did not know cell phone calls could be this good. The external speaker (for hands-free operation) is the loudest I’ve ever heard. The phone will announce your callers by name using a synthesized voice. There are probably dozens of other features buried in here which I haven’t found. I think there’s a second camera in front for video calls but I’m way too old to figure out how to make that work.

The music player is adequate, but not great. It’s amazing how something as simple as playing MP3s is so fraught with minor problems… Apple makes it look easy to build an MP3 player, so when someone else tries, it’s always surprising to see just how hard it is to get right. On the E71:

• The sound quality is not quite as good as Apple
• It takes too many steps to shuffle music
• You hear unexplained static in the headphones when no music is playing.
• The volume control has exactly ten choices. It reminded me of those old AT&T public telephones with three amplification choices for the hearing impaired. You have to choose between too soft and too loud.
• When you’ve listened only to a part of a long podcast, the phone doesn’t remember where you were up to, so if you go back to it, you have to search around for the point where you left off.

The built-in browser was decent, but ignore that… just install Opera Mini, which is stellar. I still haven’t found a website which doesn’t display respectably on this phone with Opera Mini. There's a built in GPS map application, which always freezes. Ignore that, too. The free Google Maps is better.

This phone is inevitably going to be compared to the Apple iPhone 3G, so I might as well list the big pros and cons of each.

• The iPhone has a bigger, touch-sensitive screen, which makes the browsing experience better. On the other hand, the Nokia E71 has a fantastic physical keyboard that makes it very easy to reply to email. This is just a tradeoff; you’re going to have to decide whether the browsing or the typing is more important to you.
• The iPhone apps are easier to use and simpler. Apps on the Nokia tend to have more features (for example, there is true multitasking, so you can listen to podcasts while working on email and downloading web pages in the background, and then you can take a picture without losing a beat). In general I think that geeks will prefer the Nokia for its functionality, while the iPhone is totally the phone for people who are less technical and don’t want to spend any time setting up their phone and downloading software to get it exactly the way they want it.
• The Nokia has a replaceable battery and a replaceable storage card which may make it fit your lifestyle better if you’re a heavy user.

In any case, it’s the best phone I’ve ever had and I’m loving it.

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.

Mushrooms as solution. Fungi as ninja warriors. That's what this spirited, hyperkinetic book offers. Mushrooms as solutions to pollution (mycological remediation), fungi as a soil supplements for vegetables (companion planting), and as a source of human medical nutrition (harvested from inoculated logs, sawdust, cardboard) -- in other words, mushrooms to save the world. It's sort of crazy, far fetched ... but not. There's a lot of original ideas in this thickly illustrated book, with some fantastic visions, but all of it surrounded by deep strands of very practical how-to advice. How to grow fungi in your yard, or in toxic waste dumps, or anywhere. The author claims that the running mycelium of mushrooms were the first internet, and after you see what fungi can really do, you'll believe him. This book is about how to employ fungi to get things done. Mushrooms as overlooked tools.

-- KK

Mycelium Running
Paul Stamets
2005, 339 pages
$24
Available from Amazon

Sample excerpts:

Some of the mushrooms reached mammoth sizes, a testimonial to the nutrition they found in the petrochemicals.

Mycoremediation of Chemical Contaminants: Mushrooms as Molecular Disassemblers
With mycoremediation, brownfields can be reborn as greenfields, turning valueless or even liability-laden wastelands into valuable real estate. Remediation with living organisms addresses several expensive issues. Foremost, bioremediation and mycoremediation eliminate the expense incurred in removing thousands of tons of tainted soil to a remote toxic waste storage site. Current policy prescribes burning, hauling, and/or burying toxic waste. These steps leave a lifeless environment that is ecologically crippled or inert.

*

Spores in Oils
Spores can be immersed in canola, corn, or safflower oil, which can be used as a lubricant for chain saws or other cutting equipment. As trees, brush, or plants are cut, the spore-infused oil distributes spores to the newly cut surfaces, an efficient method of transfer. Another advantage of using oils is that they help the spores stick to the surfaces upon contact and have less chance of being washed or blown away.

One of these spored oils was made especially for Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters and contains hundreds of millions of spores of Psilocybe azurescens. See also figure 77, showing a mycelial colony emanating from point of contact with spored oil.

*

Growing Mushrooms on Stumps
Stumps and their root systems can be massive, often weighing hundreds of pounds. Once stumps are inoculated, colonization can occur for years before mushrooms form. Once fruiting.begins, mushrooms can sprout for prolonged periods, sometimes decades, before the stump totally decomposes. Growing mushrooms in wood chips or on logs is far faster. But this apparent disadvantage of using stumps to grow mushrooms also foretells of its advantage: mushroom fruiting can persist on a stump for many years longer than on wood chips and logs. I have seen a stump produce woodlovers, for instance, every October for more than 10 years. Stumps that are interspersed amongst overshadowing stands of trees have the best chance of success.

*

Oysters (Pleurotus ostreatus) and honey mushrooms (Armillaria mellea species) fruiting from the same stump. Such events suggest that oyster mushrooms, which are saprophytes, can be good competitors against honey mushrooms, which have a dual nature, first parasitic, killing trees, and then saprophytic, growing upon their dead tissue.

Related Entries:
Let's Grow Mushrooms! Mushrooms Demystified All That the Rain Promises and More...

This week's StackOverflow Podcast is up: episode 18. It was the first chance I've gotten to speak to Jeff since the beta went live, which is, honestly, exceeding even my highest expectations. Performance is terrific. The site is crisp and clear. Even with our tiny beta audience, you get great answers quickly. The bizarre wiki/q&a/discussion/reddit hybrid system does a great job of bubbling the right answers to the top, and the ability to edit old questions and answers means that answers just get better and better. It's fantastic.

Not loving your job? Visit the Joel on Software Job Board: Great software jobs, great people.