I got something very fun in the mail today (more than one thing if you count my new clay and silicone) that I’ve been eagerly awaiting — an inPulse “smart” watch. Basically it’s an Arm7 microcontroller with a single button, a vibrate function, bluetooth connectivity, and a small (1.3″ 96×128 pixel) OLED screen. I haven’t had a chance to do much with it yet other than set up the development environment (so now my netbook is an Ubuntu box again), but it feels very raw and rather alpha test still, even though it is officially “on the market” and up for retail sale. You program it in C, and it has a rather limited low level API that I’m sure will be expanded with apps and libraries by what I hope will be a lively developer community, myself included — time to pin up some ANSI C cheat sheets. Like I said, I have not done anything with it yet other than confirm it works, but when I do, I’ll post my results (for example, here’s a video of a binary inPulse watch interface that someone wrote akin to a TokyoFlash watch).
I’m sure I’ll be able to do something fun with it. I do worry though that they released the product a bit early in the development cycle. The tools require a fair amount of technical knowledge to use and there’s no way that a general consumer would be able to do anything useful with the watch, if they’d even be able to get it working at all. I also have to question why they went with such low-end components. It wouldn’t have increased the cost much to make it significantly more powerful (more memory would have been nice, as would a touch screen — I mean, one button is nuts). Also, it can only be updated by Bluetooth, since the cable is only for charging, which seems needlessly complex.
Other than that I have a few molds curing right now and tomorrow I’m getting tattooed which I’m both rather dreading because I’m still not up to full health and also looking forward to because I’m eager to get some more work on my leg done. We also wrapped up our bacteria growing experiment today, tossing a few groady petri dishes full of plaque and other yuckness… but not before we popped it under the microscope that Nefarious borrowed from her great grandmother (I think that’s who it’s from).
By the way, I’m going to repeat that the one really “nice” thing about being a cripple is getting handicapped parking. It’s really nice and makes such a difference both in convenience and function. That said, I’ve always gotten mad when I see people scam it — for example, being old doesn’t instantly give you the right to park there, even if some sign-anything family doctors let them get away with it — but now it bugs me even more when I see five or six spots all taken and then as I’m walking from the depths of the parking lot I see perfectly able-bodied people getting into their cars. By law you’re supposed to have serious mobility issues including requiring mobility aids… Very annoying.
Anyway, time to go read a bedtime story and watch Survivor.
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Years ago, I saw a female folk singer, Phrank, who opened for Morrissey. I remember nothing of what she sang except the chorus of one song: “so unless you’re crippled (and I hope you’re not) please don’t park in that handicap spot.”
I understand your frustration Shannon, and I’m sorry you have difficulty doing the things that many people take for granted. Please don’t cuss some of us out for using our cripple tags. I use my permit when needed and even though I might look just fine getting out of my Jeep and grabbing my bins at the market, I’m already hurting and by the time I’m done my shopping and struggling back to the parking lot with my loot, I’m wishing yet again that I brought my cane (and wondering how the heck I’m doing to tote my groceries up and down the stairs when I get home) and knowing that I’ll be good for nothing the rest of the day and the next. Not all of us have visible handicaps. I’m tired of getting the stink eye and feeling like I have to prove I have a “right” to be crippled because I’m young and seemingly “fine”.
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