GPS systems out there range anywhere from $70 to upwards of $400 depending on the feature sets included.

I recently took advantage of the fact that some of the low-end GPS systems on the market run on Windows CE. This leaves open the opportunity to hack the system, gain access to the Windows CE desktop, and from there, the sky’s limit.

The GPS system that I purchased is the Nextar X3-01, which is a portable 3.5″ screen unit that comes complete with car mounting kit and SD card slot (this is critical). You’ll most likely be able to find this kind of model in the bargain bin or at liquidation retailers. Online the prices range from $80 – $300, but you can probably find it at the low end of that range at some local store.

Sure, you won’t get the latest in GPS technology, but in my experience the results are very good and the connection to the GPS satellites is quite snappy, especially when mounted on your car’s dashboard with good line of sight to the sky. The other main challenge is the software. Typically the maps are a few years old and the navigation software is lacking features. This is where some ingenuity and willingness to void your warranty comes in (not a big loss since most of these end-of-line models only come with very short warranties).

Depending on the device you bought, chances are there’ll be instructions online as to how you can enter the Windows CE desktop, and once you’re there, you can install your own software. Pretty much anything goes, but of course your main objective will be to install more up-to-date, feature-rich GPS Navigation software. I decided on Nav N Go iGO 8 with maps that are less than 6 months old, a ton of great features, and the benefit of great customization tweaks online: Everything from custom themes to different vehicles to replace the boring arrow on the screen.

How much did that cost and didn’t it ruin the whole idea of a cheap GPS system? Well, use your Internet smarts and you’ll soon find out that it’s not so bad.

When it was all said and done, I had an $80 GPS running sophisticated navigation software, an image viewer, a media player (audio and video), a GPS Geocaching application (with support for waypoint files), and more. The main limitation to this Windows CE based marvel is that the system resets certain parts of its Flash memory on each reboot, which made it impossible (or at least too difficult for me to bother) to install things such as the Compact .Net Framework. We recently went on a trip to Vancouver and thanks to this GPS we did literally no planning at all, just punched in our destination and let it guide us. It was great!

GPS systems out there range anywhere from $70 to upwards of $400 depending on the feature sets included. I recently took advantage of the fact that some of the low-end GPS systems on the market run on Windows CE. This leaves open the opportunity to hack the system, gain access to the Windows CE desktop, and from there, the sky’s limit.

The GPS system that I purchased is the Nextar X3-01, which is a portable 3.5″ screen unit that comes complete with car mounting kit and SD card slot (this is critical). You’ll most likely be able to find this kind of model in the bargain bin or at liquidation retailers. Online the prices range from $80 – $300, but you can probably find it at the low end of that range at some local store.

Sure, you won’t get the latest in GPS technology, but in my experience the results are very good and the connection to the GPS satellites is quite snappy, especially when mounted on your car’s dashboard with good line of sight to the sky. The other main challenge is the software. Typically the maps are a few years old and the navigation software is lacking features. This is where some ingenuity and willingness to void your warranty comes in (not a big loss since most of these end-of-line models only come with very short warranties).

Depending on the device you bought, chances are there’ll be instructions online as to how you can enter the Windows CE desktop, and once you’re there, you can install your own software. Pretty much anything goes, but of course your main objective will be to install more up-to-date, feature-rich GPS Navigation software. I decided on Nav N Go iGO 8 with maps that are less than 6 months old, a ton of great features, and the benefit of great customization tweaks online: Everything from custom themes to different vehicles to replace the boring arrow on the screen.

How much did that cost and didn’t it ruin the whole idea of a cheap GPS system? Well, use your Internet smarts and you’ll soon find out that it’s not so bad.

When it was all said and done, I had an $80 GPS running sophisticated navigation software, an image viewer, a media player (audio and video), a GPS Geocaching application (with support for waypoint files), and more. The main limitation to this Windows CE based marvel is that the system resets certain parts of its Flash memory on each reboot, which made it impossible (or at least too difficult for me to bother) to install things such as the Compact .Net Framework. We recently went on a trip to Vancouver and thanks to this GPS we did literally no planning at all, just punched in our destination and let it guide us. It was great!

What is a MyCast from Orb? Well they have a great description and many details on their website so I won’t go into the details. But let it suffice to say that with this software, running on my home PC, I can view all of my videos, podcasts, music files, photos, and anything that’s either a video, audio, or media file, from anywhere I can access the web.

This stuff even works on my Dell Axim pocket pc. It’s somehow amazing that I was able to walk around the office, watching “The Office” in the palm of my hand, knowing it was streaming via the wireless LAN and then via the Internet, all the way from my computer at home. The current version is a little buggy, it tends to crash but it does a great job when it’s running. Streaming quality is excellent, of course dependent on your network connection, and the new flash player allows for even more flexibility than before.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who is on the go a lot and just doesn’t have enough time at home to watch their media stored on their PC.

What is a MyCast from Orb? Well they have a great description and many details on their website so I won’t go into the details. But let it suffice to say that with this software, running on my home PC, I can view all of my videos, podcasts, music files, photos, and anything that’s either a video, audio, or media file, from anywhere I can access the web.

This stuff even works on my Dell Axim pocket pc. It’s somehow amazing that I was able to walk around the office, watching “The Office” in the palm of my hand, knowing it was streaming via the wireless LAN and then via the Internet, all the way from my computer at home. The current version is a little buggy, it tends to crash but it does a great job when it’s running. Streaming quality is excellent, of course dependent on your network connection, and the new flash player allows for even more flexibility than before.

I would highly recommend this for anyone who is on the go a lot and just doesn’t have enough time at home to watch their media stored on their PC.

Linspire announced today that it plans to expand its CNR (“Click ‘N Run”) digital download and software management service to support multiple desktop Linux distributions beyond Linspire and Freespire, initially adding Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu, using both .deb and .rpm packages. And, the standard CNR service will remain free.

read more | digg story

Linspire announced today that it plans to expand its CNR (“Click ‘N Run”) digital download and software management service to support multiple desktop Linux distributions beyond Linspire and Freespire, initially adding Debian, Fedora, OpenSUSE, and Ubuntu, using both .deb and .rpm packages. And, the standard CNR service will remain free.

read more | digg story

This past weekend, the OSU Linux Users Group descended on a field in Oregon to create a 45,000+ square foot crop circle of Firefox. The photos of this, taken from planes and helicopters, are incredible.

read more | digg story

This past weekend, the OSU Linux Users Group descended on a field in Oregon to create a 45,000+ square foot crop circle of Firefox. The photos of this, taken from planes and helicopters, are incredible.

read more | digg story

How is this not on digg yet? I read this at TechCrunch last night.

An early alpha release of Firefox 2.0 has been quietly released. I don’t care if it is an alpha, it has to be more stable than v.1.5.

Downloaded and installed it and it works but I see no big difference to 1.5. Judge for yourself though.

read more | digg story

How is this not on digg yet? I read this at TechCrunch last night.

An early alpha release of Firefox 2.0 has been quietly released. I don’t care if it is an alpha, it has to be more stable than v.1.5.

Downloaded and installed it and it works but I see no big difference to 1.5. Judge for yourself though.

read more | digg story

I came across a new blog today that’s centered around Windows Vista.

The purpose of this blog is to keep an eye on events and developments related to Windows Vista throughout its beta cycle, launch, and beyond.

Guess what!  It’s my blog! Why another blog? Well, I found this cool blogging software that makes use of Ajax. Since I didn’t want to change this blog, I set up a new one. Head over to the Vista Watch Blog and check it out!

I came across a new blog today that’s centered around Windows Vista.

The purpose of this blog is to keep an eye on events and developments related to Windows Vista throughout its beta cycle, launch, and beyond.

Guess what!  It’s my blog! Why another blog? Well, I found this cool blogging software that makes use of Ajax. Since I didn’t want to change this blog, I set up a new one. Head over to the Vista Watch Blog and check it out!

eWeek has taken a look at the latest build of Windows Vista.beta

This release of Vista is “feature-complete”, the company says, meaning that all of the fundamental capabilities that Vista will eventually offer are now baked in.

Development efforts aren’t slowing—the user experience will continue to evolve, bugs will get fixed, performance and compatibility will improve—but the basic shape of the operating system has been solidified, and from here on out we expect to see mostly fine-tuning rather than wholesale changes.

We’ve been running this latest release, build 5308, for a couple of days now, getting a feel for its capabilities while Microsoft prepared to make it available to the community of MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscribers, TechNet users, and registered beta testers. Our expectations, set high by the quality of the previous December CTP (build 5270), were largely met.

We found this build of Vista is responsive and highly usable, though still far from bullet-proof (as is to be expected for beta software). Aside from some of the predictable problems with hardware-device support and still-buggy features, one particular problem was that Windows Explorer crashes frequently. To Microsoft’s credit, these crashes were hardly dramatic, since Explorer managed to restart itself and resume each time.

Some screenshots below and more at the original article.

eWeek has taken a look at the latest build of Windows Vista.beta

This release of Vista is “feature-complete”, the company says, meaning that all of the fundamental capabilities that Vista will eventually offer are now baked in.

Development efforts aren’t slowing—the user experience will continue to evolve, bugs will get fixed, performance and compatibility will improve—but the basic shape of the operating system has been solidified, and from here on out we expect to see mostly fine-tuning rather than wholesale changes.

We’ve been running this latest release, build 5308, for a couple of days now, getting a feel for its capabilities while Microsoft prepared to make it available to the community of MSDN (Microsoft Developer Network) subscribers, TechNet users, and registered beta testers. Our expectations, set high by the quality of the previous December CTP (build 5270), were largely met.

We found this build of Vista is responsive and highly usable, though still far from bullet-proof (as is to be expected for beta software). Aside from some of the predictable problems with hardware-device support and still-buggy features, one particular problem was that Windows Explorer crashes frequently. To Microsoft’s credit, these crashes were hardly dramatic, since Explorer managed to restart itself and resume each time.

Some screenshots below and more at the original article.

Microsoft used to have a beta version of Microsoft Antispyware that worked quite well. When I moved to Windows x64, I stopped using it because it wasn’t compatible. Now Microsoft has released Windows Defender, essentially beta 2 of the antispyware software.

Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it’s detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.

I don’t really need to use antispyware software but a lot of people I know need to. So you should probably upgrade to this latest version. It updates itself automatically, can run nightly scans, etc, etc. Just make sure you have a legal version of Windows as this can only be downloaded after you’ve passed the  Genuine Advantage test.

Microsoft used to have a beta version of Microsoft Antispyware that worked quite well. When I moved to Windows x64, I stopped using it because it wasn’t compatible. Now Microsoft has released Windows Defender, essentially beta 2 of the antispyware software.

Windows Defender (Beta 2) is a free program that helps protect your computer against pop-ups, slow performance, and security threats caused by spyware and other unwanted software. It features Real-Time Protection, a monitoring system that recommends actions against spyware when it’s detected, and a new streamlined interface that minimizes interruptions and helps you stay productive.

I don’t really need to use antispyware software but a lot of people I know need to. So you should probably upgrade to this latest version. It updates itself automatically, can run nightly scans, etc, etc. Just make sure you have a legal version of Windows as this can only be downloaded after you’ve passed the  Genuine Advantage test.

Column from PC Magazine: Will Apple Adopt Windows?

This story sounds pretty incredible but John makes some decent arguments. It’d be pretty tempting to buy one of those cool looking Macs and be able to play all the latest games on it. I’m not a huge fan of the Windows OS, nor have I ever used Mac OSX, but I do prefer the style of Apple’s hardware over the usual Windows boxes.

Apple has always said it was a hardware company, not a software company. Now with the cash cow iPod line, it can afford to drop expensive OS development and just make jazzy, high-margin Windows computers to finally get beyond that five-percent market share and compete directly with Dell, HP, and the stodgy Chinese makers.

Column from PC Magazine: Will Apple Adopt Windows?

This story sounds pretty incredible but John makes some decent arguments. It’d be pretty tempting to buy one of those cool looking Macs and be able to play all the latest games on it. I’m not a huge fan of the Windows OS, nor have I ever used Mac OSX, but I do prefer the style of Apple‘s hardware over the usual Windows boxes.

Apple has always said it was a hardware company, not a software company. Now with the cash cow iPod line, it can afford to drop expensive OS development and just make jazzy, high-margin Windows computers to finally get beyond that five-percent market share and compete directly with Dell, HP, and the stodgy Chinese makers.

Juice, the cross-platform podcast receiver.

After using iTunes for a while and getting annoyed by its resource usage, I came across Juice. Previously known as iPodderX this app is much smaller, more light-weight, and cross-platform. Not to mention open source software. It’s much more responsive and quite frankly better at synchronizing Podcasts. I’m very pleased with it and promise you will be, too. If you listen to Podcasts, give this a squeeze.

Juice, the cross-platform podcast receiver.

After using iTunes for a while and getting annoyed by its resource usage, I came across Juice. Previously known as iPodderX this app is much smaller, more light-weight, and cross-platform. Not to mention open source software. It’s much more responsive and quite frankly better at synchronizing Podcasts. I’m very pleased with it and promise you will be, too. If you listen to Podcasts, give this a squeeze.

This is seriously ridiculous:

A German tech company has found itself on the receiving end of legal action by Apple over the word ‘spod’.

The company behind iTunes has filed a preliminary action in a Hamburg court against Liquid Air Tab, the company behind Spodradio, a service which allows users to download podcasts to their Nokia mobiles.

Apple’s suit concerns the rights to both ‘Spodradio’ and ‘spod’, which are used as dot-com URLs by Liquid Air Tab.

The injunction states that the company must stop marketing its services under the brand Spodradio, alleging the inclusion of the word ‘pod’ infringes Apple’s trademark.

I vote that the apple orchards of the world rise up and sue the hell out of Apple for infringing on their fruit’s name…

This is seriously ridiculous:

A German tech company has found itself on the receiving end of legal action by Apple over the word ‘spod’.

The company behind iTunes has filed a preliminary action in a Hamburg court against Liquid Air Tab, the company behind Spodradio, a service which allows users to download podcasts to their Nokia mobiles.

Apple’s suit concerns the rights to both ‘Spodradio’ and ‘spod’, which are used as dot-com URLs by Liquid Air Tab.

The injunction states that the company must stop marketing its services under the brand Spodradio, alleging the inclusion of the word ‘pod’ infringes Apple’s trademark.

I vote that the apple orchards of the world rise up and sue the hell out of Apple for infringing on their fruit’s name…

I’ve upgraded my blogging software to WordPress WordPress 2.0. Along with a slightly different design, there’s many new features I can take advantage of, including the following:

More Abstracted Data Layer, New Import System, Admin Redesign, The Rich Editor, Image/File Uploading, Improved Post Preview, User Metadata, User Roles and Capabilities, Presentation Page Changes, Ajax Category Addition, Ajax List Management, Moved Javascript/Images, Theme Admin Pages, Ping Delay Removed, Persistent Cache, Database Versioning, New Built-In Plugins

Also note that the blog’s url has changed to its now final format, www.jpeek.net/blog/.

I’ve upgraded my blogging software to WordPress WordPress 2.0. Along with a slightly different design, there’s many new features I can take advantage of, including the following:

More Abstracted Data Layer, New Import System, Admin Redesign, The Rich Editor, Image/File Uploading, Improved Post Preview, User Metadata, User Roles and Capabilities, Presentation Page Changes, Ajax Category Addition, Ajax List Management, Moved Javascript/Images, Theme Admin Pages, Ping Delay Removed, Persistent Cache, Database Versioning, New Built-In Plugins

Also note that the blog‘s url has changed to its now final format, www.jpeek.net/blog/.

JH: Hello. I just downloaded some illegal MP3s and my friend told me that the RAII is going to sue everyone who downloads music. What should I do?

RIAA: Hold on just a sec.

[There was a hold of about two minutes. I was desperately afraid they were tracing my call, and that Agent Smith would come smashing through my door at any moment, wielding the severed arm of Jimmy Carter. But I courageously waited it out.]

RIAA: Sir?

JH: Yes.

RIAA: The best advice I can offer you at this moment is to go to dub-dub-dub-musicunited.org and you can learn there how to uninstall your peer-to-peer software or file-sharing service.

JH: But I don’t have a pee service. Someone just e-mailed me a song and I listened to it. Am I going to jail?

See the related link for the rest.

JH: Hello. I just downloaded some illegal MP3s and my friend told me that the RAII is going to sue everyone who downloads music. What should I do?

RIAA: Hold on just a sec.

[There was a hold of about two minutes. I was desperately afraid they were tracing my call, and that Agent Smith would come smashing through my door at any moment, wielding the severed arm of Jimmy Carter. But I courageously waited it out.]

RIAA: Sir?

JH: Yes.

RIAA: The best advice I can offer you at this moment is to go to dub-dub-dub-musicunited.org and you can learn there how to uninstall your peer-to-peer software or file-sharing service.

JH: But I don’t have a pee service. Someone just e-mailed me a song and I listened to it. Am I going to jail?

See the related link for the rest.

Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Server 2003. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Click the related link to download Paint.Net.

Paint.NET is image and photo manipulation software designed to be used on computers that run Windows 2000, XP, Vista, or Server 2003. It supports layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Click the related link to download Paint.Net.

1.03 Invalid Cdkey Solution – Total Battlefield 2 Forums
1. START-> RUN… -> REGEDIT
2. in regedit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINESOFTWAREELECTRONIC ARTSEA GAMESBATTLEFIELD 2ERGC
3. there is the (default key), double click it
4. a window pops up change the value to your cdkey without dashes
5. run bf2cdkeycheck.exe that is in the attached rar fileBattlefield 2

1.03 Invalid Cdkey Solution – Total Battlefield 2 Forums
1. START-> RUN… -> REGEDIT
2. in regedit go to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\ELECTRONIC ARTS\EA GAMES\BATTLEFIELD 2\ERGC
3. there is the (default key), double click it
4. a window pops up change the value to your cdkey without dashes
5. run bf2cdkeycheck.exe that is in the attached rar fileBattlefield 2

Wired 13.09: On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Bot

In the booming world of online poker, anyone can win. Especially with an autoplaying robot ace in the hole. Are you in, human?

It’s late one Wednesday afternoon, and CptPokr is logged on to PartyPoker.com and ready to play. Onscreen, the captain exudes a certain brash charisma – broad shoulders, immaculate brown hair, restless animatronic eyes. He looks like he should be playing synth in Kraftwerk. Instead, he is seated at a virtual table with nine other avatars, wagering on limit Texas hold ‘em.

There’s plenty at stake. An estimated 1.8 million gamblers around the world ante up for online poker every month. Last year, poker sites raked in an estimated $1.4 billion, an amount expected to double in 2005.

Ever since the aptly named accountant Chris Moneymaker parlayed a $40 Internet tournament buy-in into a $2.5 million championship at the World Series of Poker in 2003, card shark wannabes have been chasing their fantasies onto the Net. Some even quit their day jobs and try to make a living at online poker. And why not? This shadowy world is driven by no less a force than the great American dream. As the tournament’s motto goes, “Anyone can win.” There’s one problem, though, as CptPokr is about to demonstrate: The rules of the game are different online.

CptPokr is a robot. Unlike the other icons at the table, there is no human placing his bets and playing his cards. He is controlled by WinHoldEm, the first commercially available autoplaying poker software. Seat him at the table and he will apply strategy gleaned from decades of research. While carbon-based players munch Ding Dongs, yawn, guzzle beer, reply to email, take phone calls, and chat on IM, CptPokr (a pseudonym) is running the numbers so it will know, statistically, when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.

Wired 13.09: On the Internet, Nobody Knows You’re a Bot

In the booming world of online poker, anyone can win. Especially with an autoplaying robot ace in the hole. Are you in, human?

It’s late one Wednesday afternoon, and CptPokr is logged on to PartyPoker.com and ready to play. Onscreen, the captain exudes a certain brash charisma – broad shoulders, immaculate brown hair, restless animatronic eyes. He looks like he should be playing synth in Kraftwerk. Instead, he is seated at a virtual table with nine other avatars, wagering on limit Texas hold ‘em.

There’s plenty at stake. An estimated 1.8 million gamblers around the world ante up for online poker every month. Last year, poker sites raked in an estimated $1.4 billion, an amount expected to double in 2005.

Ever since the aptly named accountant Chris Moneymaker parlayed a $40 Internet tournament buy-in into a $2.5 million championship at the World Series of Poker in 2003, card shark wannabes have been chasing their fantasies onto the Net. Some even quit their day jobs and try to make a living at online poker. And why not? This shadowy world is driven by no less a force than the great American dream. As the tournament’s motto goes, “Anyone can win.” There’s one problem, though, as CptPokr is about to demonstrate: The rules of the game are different online.

CptPokr is a robot. Unlike the other icons at the table, there is no human placing his bets and playing his cards. He is controlled by WinHoldEm, the first commercially available autoplaying poker software. Seat him at the table and he will apply strategy gleaned from decades of research. While carbon-based players munch Ding Dongs, yawn, guzzle beer, reply to email, take phone calls, and chat on IM, CptPokr (a pseudonym) is running the numbers so it will know, statistically, when to hold ‘em and when to fold ‘em.

After almost a day’s worth of fighting with my old webserver and trying to get all the proper software installed, my weblog is finally hosted on my own server. Just the way it should be. I’m hoping to post excerpts of my life here from time to time. Feel free to comment if you like.

After almost a day’s worth of fighting with my old webserver and trying to get all the proper software installed, my weblog is finally hosted on my own server. Just the way it should be. I’m hoping to post excerpts of my life here from time to time. Feel free to comment if you like.