Saturday, August 19, 2006

 

Product Review: Logitech QuickCam IM now works for Mac OS X with macam

I have a Powerbook with Mac OS X 10.4.x (whatever that is latest as of August 20, 2006) and I finally got my Logitech QuickCam IM to work with it using macam, an open source USB webcam driver thing at: http://webcam-osx.sourceforge.net/

Apparently all the info was at http://forums.macosxhints.com/archive/index.php/t-40663.html

The software from Logitech unfortunately doesn't work and even then it's only for certain models. Wierd that Logitech would include Mac software in the CD. But one thing I didn't notice when I first bought it was to check the OS compatibility. I took a look around the box and sure enough Mac OS is never mentioned. Argh!! But then again even if I had looked for something with Mac support, I would have paid more.

Anyway, glad I found macam. :) Thanks macam folks!
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Next day... found out that Logitech's claim of 30 fps for video is misleading. I discovered that when I activate the "Low Light Boost" feature, the frame rate drops dramatically. I don't know what the actual number is but everything is stop and go. My PC system is a Centrino 1.7 GHz with Intel integrated graphics 915GM/GMS, 910GML.

Thursday, August 17, 2006

 

Basketball Diary #1

Today I had another great time playing basketball. There were some memorable plays. First my friend and I practically played hot potato near the basket and that drew laughter from everyone else on the court.
I was almost underneath the basket but a bit behind the backboard. My friend passed me the ball with a big defender in front of him(but I'm behind the defender) but I couldn't make a play so I underhand lobbed the ball back to him. My friend couldn't do anything so he passed the ball back to me while I was still in the same position. Unfortunately I still couldn't do anything so I passed it back to my friend. My friend probably noticing that I couldn't do anything finally decides to make something of it and lays it up and yes! count it!
My friend and I stared each other in the eye acknowledging the respect for each other. This was a very good play because the defender usually can overpower my friend so we got around it by almost getting him confused on who would finally shoot the ball.
Another play that happened earlier on was when I blocked a shot from a big man about the same size as the big defender just mentioned. I didn't think of it at the time because I didn't jump and block it, which is my ultimate. But looking back it was a good play because a block (I like to think) generally has a more psychological effect on the person than getting the ball in the basket.
On some things I should improve on is my flat-footed-ness. Usually it's because I get tired and can't move. But for the times that I can do something, especially on defense, I rarely jump up and follow the offense doing a layup. What usually happens is I follow the person with my arms and try to yank/block the ball. Of course the whole time my legs and feet aren't moving much and by the time I want to jump and try to do a block, I'm either long gone or don't have enough hops to get anything. I think this is due to reaction and reflexes and less on hops. I need to understand players more, see how they move and adjust my muscles accordingly. Because if I do my usual thing of swinging my arms around then I'm not really improving and anticipating their actions.
Looking forward to another good round of hoops!

Wednesday, August 02, 2006

 

Product Trouble: Motorola V3I (iTunes enabled)

If your Transflash/microSD memory card has bad sectors, then sometimes the multimedia stuff won't work.

The most notable problem, at least for me, is when you have iTunes playing your songs and suddenly there's no more sounds. That's the bad sectors kicking in. When you check your phone, you'll see that iTunes is still running and it's quickly going through your song list but it never plays one second of each song. When there are no more songs to go through, iTunes would still be there. The only sure fire way to get sounds again is by turning off and on the phone. But the problem is it will occur again. Just don't know when.

Additionally when this happens, you can't store photos and videos into the memory card. The phone thinks there's "insufficient storage space".

So anyway, I've found out that my memory card has bad sectors and most likely than not that's the cause.

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