Domain of the Bored

Real artists ship.

—Steve Jobs

With the idea that an application that's 95% finished and in active use is better than an application waiting for 100% in the seclusion of my hard drive, Ship-It Saturday is where I dust off a program that I have 95% finished, call it done, and just ship it already. I hope to make this a regular feature, although I have no idea how frequently I'll do it.

Today's winner is Translate Text, an app I wrote to make handling Adium feedback emails easier. Just select some text, then choose the service corresponding to the language it's in (or the auto-detect-language-and-then-translate service). A window will open with the original, a couple of language pop-up menus, and the translation.

More information, both screenshots, and the downloads at the Translate Text web page.

The Kodak Zi6 pocket video camera has a switch on its upper-right corner that selects its focal length. It appears to have two settings: Distance, indicated by mountains, and macro, indicated by a flower.

That appearance is wrong. The switch is not binary; it actually selects within a range.

This is useful for things that are close to the camera, but not macro close. For an example, I took pictures of my keyboard. Fully macro was unusably blurry; fully distance looked like this:

whereas moving the switch a little bit up from distance mode got me this:

Neither photo has been adjusted at all. Both photos were taken freehand, but I can vouch for their sharpness-accuracy: What you see in the first photo is focal blur, not motion blur.

So, if you have a Kodak Zi6 (or, perhaps, one of their other cameras, especially in the same family) and you want to take a photo or video of something close but not macro close, adjust that focus switch a little bit.

Some of you remember that a few years ago, Rayovac introduced their “IC³” NiMH batteries and chargers. The IC³ chargers could charge the IC³ batteries in 15 minutes, but only the IC³ batteries—they could charge regular NiMH batteries, but in the usual 6–8 hours. Naturally, the magic batteries were expensive: $20 for a four-pack of AA.

At some point (I bought mine earlier this year, if I remember correctly), Energizer introduced their own 15-minute NiMH charger. Unlike Rayovac's, this one doesn't require special batteries; it'll charge any NiMH AA or AAA batteries. It can do up to four batteries at once, with the restriction that if you load both slots 1 and 2 or both 3 and 4, they must form a matched pair (no mixing ages or mAh ratings within a pair).

Besides requiring Rayovac's special batteries, the IC³ charger had other problems: Copious RFI output, and a very loud fan to keep the batteries from overheating. Energizer's charger has no RFI that I've been able to notice, and while it does also have a fan, its noise level is much more reasonable.

The Energizer charger has a car cigarette-lighter plug, so that you can charge batteries in your car. The IC³ charger plugged straight into the wall. I don't use that, but maybe you could.

There is one catch to the Energizer charger's “15-minute” claim: 15 minutes is its time for 2200 mAh batteries like the ones it comes with; higher-capacity batteries will take a few more minutes. That's actually good, compared to the IC³ charger, which charged in either exactly 15 minutes (Rayovac's own special batteries) or 6–8 hours (anything else). Energizer's charger doesn't have any special requirements, so it'll finish in 15–20 minutes no matter what NiMH batteries you put in it; the charging time scales with the batteries' capacity.

It's hard to find online. Amazon.com has it twice, but doesn't sell it themselves; the two listings are from independent sellers. Target.com doesn't have it, even thought I bought mine at Target (physical store).

The prices on Amazon are a little over $30; a bit expensive compared to other chargers, but it's helped me be much better about keeping my camera's batteries charged, so I deem it worth it.

In order that this review should not end without a link, here's the chargers section of Energizer's website. Unfortunately, they don't have a way to link to a specific charger; you'll have to find it in the list and click on it. That will give you a photo so you can find it at a store. Alternatively, here's Google Products.

With the attendance of Stuart Cracraft, Kurt Arnlund, Steve Malsam, and Johan Kool (in order of appearance), and the co-operation of the fine Philly's Best staff, tonight's pre-CocoaHeads cheesesteak dinner went smoothly and tastily.

I hope to make this a regular thing, especially if I get more location-agnostic buy-one-get-one-free coupons in future months. I'll try to post the invitation a week in advance of each CocoaHeads, to give people more time to decide to attend and to confirm their attendance.

Oh, and my presentation went well, too. Video to come once it's all ripped, edited, and uploaded.

This post is only for CocoaHeads Lake Forest attendees. Everyone else can safely ignore it.

I have a buy-one-get-one-free coupon for Philly's Best, expiring at the end of this month. I can only comfortably eat half to three-quarters of one (foot-long) sandwich, and they don't sell them by the half.

What I'd like to do is get together with two or three fellow attendees at the Lake Forest Philly's Best (street view) an hour before CocoaHeads (i.e., at 6 PM) for pre-meeting dinner. We'll split the sandwiches and the total cost; one sandwich is $6, so if we split the two sandwiches (one free) four ways, that's $1.50 a head. I'll cover tax on the sandwiches.

The coupon requires the purchase of two 32-oz. drinks. Assuming we each want something to drink with our sandwiches, we can simply buy three or four drinks, at least two of which must be 32-oz. I'll cover tax on the two qualifying drinks as well.

I say “three or four” because maybe one of you can comfortably eat a full cheesesteak. That would lower the head-count requirement.

I actually have two of these coupons, both expiring at the same time, so if enough of you (5–8, depending on who eats a full sandwich) show up, we could use both of them. I just realized that one of them is only for the Fountain Valley location, so I won't be able to use it at the Lake Forest location. We can only use the one coupon.

The next CocoaHeads Lake Forest is this Wednesday, the 9th, at 7 PM. If you'll be attending and want in on this, please leave a comment.