as i’ve mentioned before my latest cell phone has camera and video recording capabilities. it’s a Sony Ericsson z500a. i ordered an $9 USB cable so that I can download/upload media (pics, vids, mp3’s, etc). i have a small complaint… it took way too long to get connected. i downloaded a couple of free applications from Sony Ericsson (File Manager & Sound Editor) and figured that installed that software would be all I needed… and of course i was wrong. i had already installed (thought I did) the USB driver info that came on a CD with the cable i ordered. but nothing seemed to indicate a connection to my phone. so… for all those who may have similar problems (and for my own archival purposes) here are the steps necessary (for me anyhow) to connect my phone to my PC (WinXP).

Items Needed: 1 DCU-11 Data Cable

Software Needed:
– File Manager
– Mobile Phone Monitor
– USB Driver that comes with your USB cable (DCU-11)

Steps:
1. Install Mobile Phone Monitor
2. Install File Manager
3. Install USB driver (should come with your USB cable)
4. Make sure MPM (Mobile Phone Monitor) is installed. – Check for existence of “Phone Monitor Options” in the Control Panel (Windows).
5. Make sure the correct COM ports are activated!
– Go in the Control Panel -> “Phone Monitor Options” -> “Com Ports” (tab). There, you will find a list of COM ports available on the computer. Choose the COM port on which your phone is connected, and press the “Enable” button.
– If you don’t know which COM port the phone is connected on, you can find out as follows. If you use:
Serial Cable: Check the label on the port you plugged the cable in. It should be marked “Com 1” or “Com 2”, usually PCs don’t have more then 2 COM ports, so chances are it’s either 1 or 2
USB Cable: Check in the device manager (Windows) which COM port is used for the serial port emulation. (Look under “ports”)
Infrared: There is own applet in Control Panel for infrared. COM port used by IR is reported there. It is very often COM 2…
BlueTooth: When you open a “Serial Port” connection to the phone, the COM port used will be reported to you.

that’s all i got for you… seems simple enough right… well enjoy cause it took me a while to get it right. i hope this helps.

enjoy your phone… i’ll be enjoying mine.

btw, i’ve linked to pages that should lead to the needed files, however for my sake i’ve archived my files on my server. so, if u are having trouble finding the files u can try mine (they may not be the most recent versions by the time u download them… but better than nothing).

sorry, but i’ve removed the files from my server, since becoming an iPhone owner i don’t personally have use for the files and hopefully the links i’ve provided via Sony Ericsson well help you out!

this is a officially my first blog using voice recognition. i hope that this voice recognition thing will work out pretty good and it will allow me to make this blogging a snap. considering having just started training my computer to recognize my voice on certain uncommon words I have to say that it’s going pretty good. i’m going to keep this post brief (’cause I’ve got some serious stuff to take care of ) but I thought you guys might like to know that this voice recognition thing is kinda neat. if you wanna see what kind of errors i’ve run into just in the short post I’m going to repeat this post by reading it and leaving that unedited below:

this is officially my first blog using voice recognition. I hope that this voice recognition thing will work out pretty good and it will allow me to make this blogging Mason out. Considering having just started training my computer to recognize my voice on certain uncommon words I have to say that it’s going pretty good. I’m going to keep this post brief (’cause I’ve got some serious stuff to take care of) but I thought you guys my like to know that this voice recognition thing is Canonie. If you wanna see what kind of errors I’ve run into just in the short post on going to repeat this post by reading it and leaving it unedited below.

the other day i had to change monitor resolutions because a web site i developed wasn’t showing up properly in 1280×1024 resolution. after staying at that resolution for a while i thought i’d give it a try for a day or 2.

for the longest time now i’ve been using a 19″ monitor (recently got a ViewSonic [best monitors around??] from my bro :D) at 1024 x 768. it’s just always been comfortable for me. i’ve seen guys set their resolutions to the point that the text was so small that u had to squint to read it… thats not my style… and others who have it blown up so the icons are the size of a poker chip… yikes… again not my style.

the added room on screen is certainly helpful when u multitask like i do. who knows maybe i’ll keep moving up in resolution til i’m the guy who cant really read whats on the screen… i’ll definetly not go the other way unless age and loss of eyesight creeps up on me 😀

compared to Google Maps (with satellite imagery) Microsoft’s MSN Virtual Earth >> http://virtualearth.msn.com/ is pretty much WEAK.

but hey… give M$ time… they got cash and always like to be second with an idea but first in the marketplace.

supposedly Yahoo! is going to release a similar product too. i’m sure that won’t be covered up in banner ads << sarcasm.

have u heard of the optimus keyboard? i know if you checkout james’ blog then you have.

well according to slashdot… it’s expected to become a real product in 2006 and cost as much as a good cell phone ( i didn’t know there was such a thing). So, as I had figured it’s going to be an expensive keyboard… I’d guess… o… $150-200 USD.

be interesting to see how it sells if it does carry a sticker price that big.

for more info on the >> Optimus Keyboard

i tried out voice recognition back in 1999. a version of Dragon Naturally Speaking. it wasn’t cool… i took the software back to walmart and got my money back… (that’s why i bought it at walmart… in case it didn’t work out i knew i’d get my money back 😀 ). back then i thought ‘man it would be so nice not to have to type and simply be able to dictate to my computer.’ i mean if it worked with very few and rare flaws i can just imagine how much time it would save. i can think & talk a heck of a lot faster than i can type. and i’m not a slow typer either… well i type about 60wpm with 1 error or so… and that’s just cause i’m i stop and go typer most of the time (from programming) i don’t do documents or transcribing very often at all.

so anyone out there using Voice Recognition? if so PLEASE post some comments on your experiences… good or bad. and especially if you’ve tried and VR with programming!

o btw, i wondering if something like a 1.4Gz P4 Windows XP 256MB Ram with a … i dunno prob 32 bit sound card is sufficient hardware to really be ok with today’s VR software.