Interrupt-Driven

AmaroK allows you to set a custom image for an album (useful if the amazon based cover fetcher doesn’t return a result). So far i didn’t use this feature much because it was too awkward. You had to download the picture, tell AmaroK to use it and afterwards delete it. As a matter of fact it is way more simple. Just cut and paste the URL of the picture you want to use into the selector dialog. AmaroK will download it itself. KDE rules!

I got a fancy new GPS-enabled heart rate monitor for Christmas/as a birthday present ("Garmin Forerunner 305"). The device itself is nice (very lightweight/compact/lots of features) although i am not really satisfied with the time needed to pick up the satellites. For me it takes around 5 to 7 minutes even though the GPS chip is a SIRFStarIII. Unfortunately my flat is surrounded by high buildings so putting to device onto the sill for a few minutes before starting to run isn’t helping it.

The downside with the ForeRunner is the included desktop software. It is called "Garmin Training Center".

• It is XP/MacOSX only.
• The version shipping with the device aborts with a "Runtime error" every time (a more stable version can be found on the web).
• It allows you to install to any path (like "C:\Programme\Garmin") but puts most of its files to the default location anyways ("C:\Garmin").
• It uses some strange non-native UI-widgets.
• It may pack the needed functionality but it is plain ugly and has no UI concept what so ever.
• It provides only very basic vector maps. More detailed maps have to be bought optionally (199€ for Germany). This is not really a show stopper but i am spoiled by the quality and details other mapping applications are providing nowadays.

To sum it up. The Forerunner is a very nice device accompanied by some piece of software which is to some extent ruining the party.

Wer schon länger DSL-Kunde bei Alice ist sollte mal schauen, ob er nicht mehr bezahlt als er müsste. Alice stellt Altverträge nicht automatisch auf die jeweils neuesten Konditionen um (verständlich…). Stattdessen muss man die Umstellung selbst beantragen. Am bequemsten geht das über das "KundenCenter" auf der Alice-Site. Für mich hat es sich auf jeden Fall gelohnt. Ich zahle jetzt für 10Mbit mehr Bandbreite 10€  weniger.