So, today I discover that people are apparently not receiving my eMails. As near as I can tell, the last successful eMail I sent out was on the 15th. Seemingly, from the 16th on, outgoing eMail just disappears into the ethers.

No bounces. No failure notices. Nothing. On my end, every indication is that everything was sent successfully.

But, the eMail never reaches its destination. Even if I try sending to myself or my alternate eMail addresses: nothing.

Not quite the same as this Filtered Foto Friday, wherein I used a Photoshop filter. Nope, today’s filter is an actual on-lens filter for my digital camera.

But, I did combine the filtered and unfiltered photos in Photoshop to display them side by side, as shown.

The upper left side of the image is the unfiltered version. The bottom right side of the image is the filtered version.

I used a fluorescent light filter, which is supposed to correct for the greenish hue that fluorescent lights can sometimes cause.

But, I think the unfiltered version looks better, and is more true to the actual color of the wall and sign (which is white, not cream).

I think that the difference may be that, at the office, most of the fluorescent lights are full-spectrum, which is pretty much a necessity in the printing business, where you want to be able to see and show accurate colors.

At least I will have the filter on hand should I ever need it. As part of the three-filter set, I also received a UV filter and a polarizing lens filter. Haven’t been able to see a big difference when using either of those outdoors, but we haven’t had a really good sunny day. The last sunny day was still overcast, and my camera does pretty good outdoor shots on overcast or cloudy days. It’s on good sunny days when I can have difficulties taking photos of the sky. Also, haven’t had a clear night either, where I can try the polarizing lens on a moon shot. I can’t wait to try the polarizing lens in both of those examples and see how the photos turn out.

“Blind Irishman Sees with the Aid of Son’s Tooth in His Eye”
Source: Yahoo News

Earlier when I described the contents of a nurse’s bag circa 1903, I warned that you’ll just have to wait to see how some of those things were used in practice. Dark ages, indeed!

But, how about this story, where a man is able to see because of a… wait for it… tooth!

It’s called an Osteo-Odonto-Keratoprosthesis (OOKP), where a tooth is used to fashion a support for an artificial cornea. The procedure has allowed this formerly blind man, who lost his sight in an accident, to see again.

It’s quite an innovative procedure. But, it begs the question, just how did anyone think this up? What makes you think, hey, let’s see if we can restore someone’s sight by sticking a tooth in his eye?

I’m not one of those people that gets bent out of shape over “excess packaging.” I, for one, generally tend to take care of my stuff, so I’d really prefer that my stuff arrive in packaging that protects it from getting all scratched up before I even receive it.

Products don’t just magically arrive on store shelves. They have to be delivered and, if the packaging is insufficient, they could get messed up just by the bump and tumble of transportation. Let’s not forget to mention handling either, because, as anyone who’s ever worked in or shopped in a retail establishment knows, sometimes workers are pretty careless about things.

If it’s scratched or dented, I expect a discount. Thus, manufacturer’s and retailers want decent packaging so that people like me, which is probably like most shoppers, will receive unmarred goods.

Still, even considering that, there are times when the packaging is excessive. Take for example a product I got not too long ago, that actually included a battery, shown below.

Why, I ask you, would a single battery need to be shrinkwrapped? I could understand shrinkwrapping a pair or more to keep them together. I could understand it if there were metal objects inside the packaging upon which the battery could short itself out. I could understand if maybe they were trying to protect the product against battery leakage, should that occur. But, since the shrinkwrap was open on the sides, any leakage would have still escaped, so I doubt that’s the reasoning.

Since the outer packaging was a bubble package, certainly they could have made an extra bubble just for the battery that would have kept it separate from everything else, if that were a necessity. It’s shaped to fit the rest of the product, and there was plenty of room for a tiny battery bubble!

I just don’t see the necessity of shrinkwrapping a single battery when none of the above possible explanations would seem to apply in this case.

Are you using Google’s toolbar?

Many bloggers are still upset with the loss of PageRank Google inflicted on them for having PayPerPost articles. Others are upset with Google over declining AdSense earnings, or being “smart priced” out of profitability.

Are you among them?

Perhaps you ought to give the Yahoo! Toolbar a try.

The Yahoo! Toolbar is available for Windows, Mac OS X and even Linux systems. It has spyware protection, a built-in search box so you can search the web quickly, and it can even bookmark your favorite sites. Of course, you don’t really need the bookmarks, because you keep all your favorite sites in your RSS reader.

I think it has pretty much everything Google’s toolbar has. With Microsoft’s recent attempt to buy Yahoo!, and some loud objections from Yahoo! (okay, mainly Flickr) users, helping to keep Yahoo! in everyone’s minds might help them stay independent! Plus, if you aren’t happy with Google, you can help to break their stranglehold on search!

Give the Yahoo! Toolbar a try today! As of this writing, it’s free!

As I mentioned Saturday, I was attempting to do an LED conversion on a standard light bulb that I cleaned out with the help of the instructions on TeamDroid.com.

Not shown lit up, as doing so requires me manually holding the wires to the battery pack. Good thing we’re not dealing with 120V here. Just three AAA batteries will power it.

I used four Super Bright White LEDs. I wirewrapped them and inserted them into a blue straw. The second lead on each LED is then wirewrapped on the exterior of the straw, which you can see in the photo. I actually wired these backwards in respect to the way I wanted to do them, but that’s okay for the test.

The bottom is a bottle cap (from a suggestion in the comments of the aforementioned page). I carved out (yes, a drill would have been easier) a hole. The straw then comes through the hole and is cut in half, with each half bent and taped to the bottle cap. One wire comes down the straw and the other wire wraps around the light bulb thread-cap and then outside. In the future (hopefully), this second wire will be soldered to the existing internal wire (will have to be careful to leave more of it next time!) that connects to the thread-cap. Also, in place of the bottle cap, I’m thinking maybe a rubber stopper or something that will plug the hole while still allowing me to put a metal connection at the bottom, matching the original light bulb connection as closely as I can. That way, the bulb will screw into a socket like a normal light bulb; I would just need to use a non-120V socket naturally.

As I suspected, the clear bulb means that the light goes straight out and you don’t get a nice glow as you do with the “white” bulb. I placed a white t-shirt over the bulb, and that created a nice glow. I think my options are to try to sand the exterior of the light bulb to give that frosted effect which should help diffuse the light better, or to obtain some glass etching solution to “frost” the inside of the bulb. My preference would be the latter.

I also want more LEDs on the inside and to use something other than a straw! I’d like to try at least 16 LEDs on the inside, but preferably 24. I’ll have to look into things further to determine how many of these LEDs would equal a 60, 75 or 100 watt bulb. I’d also like to keep battery requirements to a minimum. A single 9 volt battery would be ideal, if it would work. A 9 volt is equivalent to 6 AAA batteries (in fact, there are 6 AAA batteries inside some 9 volt batteries). I know that 3 AAA batteries can power 8 Super Bright White LEDs, so a 9 volt would handle 16. Twenty-four? I don’t know. Of course, maybe I could do 32 LEDs and two 9 volt batteries?

Who knows if you’ll be able to do this kind of stuff after 2012, when incandescent bulbs will be illegal, thanks to Bush and countless dimwits in Congress. This is sure something you don’t want to try with a mercury-laced CFL bulb!

Anyway, so I’ve wanted to make an LED bulb for some time. The first stumbling block was, ahem, time. The second was figuring out what to use for the actual bulb portion. As I was thinking of it this evening, I figured why not try an existing light bulb (expired, dead, non-working, etc.) and see if I could figure out a way to turn it into an LED bulb. One that is battery-operated, by the way; I’m not yet ready to begin playing with LEDs and 120 volts.

I searched on Google for how to “take apart a light bulb” and this was the first result. The instructions were pretty good, and I was fortunate enough to get it right the first time, which is lucky considering I only had one dead bulb to work with.

Cleaning out the powder took the longest. I got most of it out with a paper towel, but then had to resort to pouring a little bit of sand (salt would work too) inside and shaking it about. Finally, I rinsed it out with water, and that took care of everything.

Of course, after doing that, I realized that I should have tried to keep the powder coating intact, as that would have served to diffuse the LED light.

The wattage and company logo that were imprinted on the outside of the bulb were easily removed with a broken X-Acto blade. A razor blade would have worked as well.

So, I have a nice, clean, empty bulb now. I’d take a photo, but my camera is recharging. I have to wait for the bulb to dry before I can start the LED conversion.

At any rate, if you read through the comments on the aforementioned page, you’ll see a lot of neat things people are doing with dead bulbs, giving them a second life!

First, if you plan on doing this with LEDs, you’ll find these links handy (all of which were mentioned in the aforementioned comments):

• LED Calculator for Single LEDs
• LED Calculators
• Rewiring Cheap Christmas Light LED Strings for Low Voltage Use

I’m not the only one who wants to make their own LED bulb; check out this one with photos and instructions.

Also, with larger bulbs some people are making small aquariums for bettas or shrimp. Read through the comments on the aforementioned page, and you’ll get ideas from a flower vase to a ship-in-a-bulb.

If you decide to give it a try, remember to be careful. I wrapped my bulb in paper towels and then placed that inside of a plastic shopping bag. Any broken pieces went right into the bag and, had things went badly, all the broken pieces of glass from the bulb would have (most likely) stayed right in the paper towels and bag for easy clean-up!

As I wrote last week, I have an Apple Newton MessagePad 100 and an eMate 300. For the benefit of those who may also have some variety of Newton, here are a few useful links.

NewtonSales.com
They have a small selection of stuff for your Newton. I found them while looking for battery options for the Newton. They offer a Newton NiMH Battery Refurbishing service for your Newton 2000, 2100 or eMate. You might want to give their service a try if you don’t want to do it yourself. (I haven’t used their service; I haven’t yet decided whether to attempt it myself or not.)

United Network of Newton Archives
Looking for software for your Newton? The UNNA is the best place to start. They seem to be among the last remaining Newton archives available and they are also claim to be the largest.

PDA-Soft
Looking for help with your Newton or other PDA? Check out PDA-Soft. They have a good selection of useful information, including detailed instructions for taking apart your eMate 300 so you can fix (or repair) the hinge, hopefully before it slashes the display cable.

I said that I’d write about the Newton eMate 300 in a future blog post. Well, this isn’t it. But, until then, if you want to learn more about the Newton eMate 300, read Tommy Thomas’ article, “My Great New Writing Machine: An Old Newton eMate 300,” on Low End Mac. It also provides some useful resources for current Newton eMate 300 owners.

This past weekend, I took my Apple Newton MessagePad 100 along for the ride, with which I had hoped to compose at least one blog entry, but wound up just playing games on it.

Many moons ago, I wanted a Newton MessagePad. It looked so cool! And ahead of its time, as a recent battle shows. I started setting aside spare change and extra money into my “Newton Fund.”

After a while (and a tax refund, perhaps), I had enough money in my Newton Fund to get one. So, I did.

Shown above is my Newton, still alive and kicking.

I didn’t find the handwriting recognition to be as bad as others thought. It wasn’t perfect, but it was manageable. I also bought a modem to go along with it, which only added to the coolness factor. I was able to get on the local BBS as well as compose and send faxes!

At work, there was a time when I was doing both my regular job as well as the production. The production facility was separate and down the road from the office, so I used my Newton to keep track of jobs that needed to be done.

And, had I known anyone else with a Newton, I could have beamed them information with the infrared link. As it was, its only use was as a remote control for the TV. (Yes, it could do that too with the use of shareware.)

I never used the Newton as frequently as I had thought or hoped that I would. Its main downfall, in my opinion, was that it just eats batteries. I’m not sure what the specs are for battery life, but it’s pretty short. I do have the AC adapter, but plugging it in is not always an option.

Another issue is screen glare.

I believe that both of those problems were resolved in later versions, but I never upgraded to a newer MessagePad. I had hoped for one with a color screen before I would upgrade, but that never happened.

My Apple Newton MessagePad 100 is 14 years old this year. And I still carry it with me nearly every day, even if I don’t use it so often.

I also have an eMate 300, which I purchased off of eBay a couple years ago. It has a nicer display and is pretty nifty too, with more functionality than my MessagePad 100, which has an older OS and less memory. The eMate is supposed to have a longer battery life, but as the batteries no longer hold a charge and I have not obtained a new set, I cannot verify that. But, perhaps I’ll write more on the eMate in a future post.

Would you have your thumbs surgically altered to make better use of handheld technology?

Whittling? If you’ve ever whittled, is that something you want someone doing to your thumbs?

On the one hand (no pun intended), I can understand the frustration in trying to use the incredibly shrinking technology of our age. But, to have your bones shaved to deal with it? To each his own, I suppose.

Perhaps it would be better, especially on touch screen devices, if the developers designed them such that the “buttons” could be of a variable size determined by the end user. Certainly a better option (for most people I would guess!) than surgery.

What do you think?