Direct communication between cell phones using flashlight and camera

Aside from Wi-Fi and Bluetooth near field communication (NFC) cell phones can communicate (theoretically) by sending signals with a camera flashlight and receiving them with a camera. As alternative, the phone's screen can be used as a transmitter.


Here is document (a copy) and video describing similar communication method.

Also there are mysterious Morse Code apps I have to explore: http://www.androidzoom.com/android_applications/morse+code+communication

DECT cordless phones can talk to each without the base station

In discussion http://www.physicsforums.com/showthread.php?t=517690 user xts says:

"You may take a pair of handsets from your home for a picnic and talk in a walkie-talkie mode, even if handsets are out of range of your base station."

Interesting idea. I have to give it a try.

URL probing technique

With all those SEO-friendly URLs it's entertaining to see how the web application respond to misspelling/typos in different parts of the "folder hierarchy". Depending on how close misspelling to a root of the URL the application would throw something ranging from nice "article/product not found" to ugly 500 or 404 canned error page.

And that's how one can sniff what CMS and shopping carts website is made of ;-)

And duplicate records again...

Once on rainy Monday morning (like there is no better time for the error ;-)
Blackberry Desktop manager 6.0.0.43 gave up synchronizing my tasks with the Intellisync message "Connector specific error" which believed to be the sort of "Hell Knows What Happened" type of error message in the BDM v6.0.

Desktop.log said: "|ERROR|1|Rim.Desktop.Services.Device|0|[IRIMRasConnectionManagerImpl::_get_connection_entries] RasEnumEntries failed. Error: 26D"

And the synchronize.log said: "{0x670} CXLB[CXLBWrapperImpl::TranslateByIndex@902] CXLB_dTranslateByIndex failed with error code 0x80043C0A (ERRH_ENGINE_CONNECTORSPECIFIC)" and "{0xC7C} CXLB[CXLBWrapperImpl::TranslateByIndex@902] CXLB_dTranslateByIndex failed with error code 0x80040FB3 (Unknown error)"

None of that sound relevant to the fix: show completed tasks and kill dupes ;-)

See my previous posting about Blackberry Duplicate tasks

USA federal data published

White House launches Data.gov | ZDNet Government | ZDNet.com

Federal CIO Vivek Kundra has launched Data.gov, serving up federal datasets in standard formats like XML, CSV and geo-formats KML/KMZ and ESRI.

A private site, USGovXML.com, has already accumulated more links to government data in XML formats

SHARP XL-DK227 annoying demo mode

By default this micro system has the demo mode turned on which is bright enough to mess your sleep. To turn demo mode off you need to turn off unit (it will start to play demo animation) and then press X-BASS/DEMO button on the bottom of the remote control. Unit will click the relay and turn off completely. Power-cycling the audio system will not erase the setting. To turn demo mode on you need to press X-BASS/DEMO button again.

Recommended image size for the Craigslist posts

How To Enhance and Resize Photos for Craigslist recommends monitor-reasonable image size of 800x600 and file no larger 500K.

Actually Craigslist displays just a slightly over sized thumbnail of the uploaded image with the highest dimension not larger than 300 pixels and size about 5K. However <img> and <a> HTML tags can be used to embed links to a bigger image.

Blackberry Tasks Duplicate Record Internal Error #4238 Transaction Cancelled

Mobile Platform: Blackberry 8320 v4.5.0.110 (Platform 2.7.0.90)
Mobile Application: Tasks v4.5.0
Wireless Service Provider: AT&T in Brooklyn, NY

Desktop Platform: Windows 2000 Server v5.00.2195 SP4
Desktop Application: Blackberry Desktop Manager v4.2.2.14

Symptoms: Blackberry Tasks synchronization fails with $subj message.
Solution: Eliminate duplicate task records on the Blackberry Device:
1) Show completed tasks.
2) Sort tasks by subject.
3) Locate first group of tasks with the same subjects and remove all of the duplicates.
4) Attempt synchronization again. If the same error occur - repeat step 3).

Other solution that either did not help me or I never tried them:
Internal Error 4238 Transaction Cancelled for Microsoft Outlook
How to delete the Intellisync folder if synchronization is unsuccessful
How to turn on advanced synchronization logging for Intellisync when BlackBerry smartphone synchronization fails // comprehensive tutorial on how to overwhelm yourself with the useless and obscure log messages ;-)
Sync problem with Microsoft Office // personally preferred, but did not help either