I found the bass in Apple earphones

I wear the earphones that came with my iPod at work because of their remarkably fantastic ability of not being able to block any external noise whatsoever. They’re perfect for hearing fire alarms or people walking into the office when I’m listening to Radio 6 Music.

The Apple earphones (I can’t speak for those newfangled EarPods) are also unofficially well known for their lack of bass and the way they seem to repel one’s eardrums, hence constantly falling out of one’s ears. After a couple of years, the rubber surrounds disintegrate, making them even more likely to hop away.

Then one day, I found the bass. And blimey, they hid it pretty well. One day when there were contractors making a lot of noise replacing the fire doors, I tried blocking out the noise by pushing the earphones deeper into my ears. Then I tried rotating them in such a way that it looked like this:

You wouldn’t have thought that you'd be able to hear very much, but you can hear a lot more than when they’re in the normal position.

Unfortunately, they are even more likely to jump out of your ears like this.

Also it looks stupid.

The End!

I wrote most of this in December, but I never got round to getting these photos done. Then Christmas happened, then I got distracted by my new camera, then Spring didn’t happen, then I realised it’s been ONE YEAR since my operation, so I thought I’d better get this post published.

It might have taken a REALLY long time, but it was definitely worth it.

Feb 2008, before everything happened.

 
April 2012, after the braces had done what they could, and the day before the operation

 
April 2013, a year after the operation

 

Raspberry Pi project #3: Beepy

Before you panic, you haven't missed my writings about any other Raspberry Pi projects. This is project number 3, but it's the first one I've actually written about.

The reasoning for Beepy came when the family were highlighting programmes in the Christmas edition of What's On TV. We used to set reminders on the TV, but it's rubbish - they only remind you if the TV is turned on.

Beepy is an alarm daemon that regularly reads a text file with a list of dates, times, numbers and words.

Website of the Week – ifttt.com

This "Website of the Week" isn't going to be a regular occurrence, but IFTTT sent me a text a couple of days ago, and I decided to write about it because it's pretty cool.

IFTTT stands for "If This Then That", and it is an online utility to perform a particular action when a particular event occurs.

I'll try to explain that again. You connect IFTTT to your other online accounts such as Google, Facebook and Dropbox. There are lots of different triggers that can occur. For example, every day at a particular time; when you are tagged in a photo on Facebook; or when you send IFTTT an email with a particular subject. You can add services like Yahoo weather and you can connect your mobile phone as well.

Ben Howard 30/11/12

"Ben Howard tickets? Buy or sell Ben Howard tickets!" many a person said once we left Brixton tube station. We could find our way to the O2 just by following the voices.

Once we got there, there was the queue jump line for O2 customers and the long line for the sensible people who had switched to Giffgaff. But apparently, having a phone which loads the O2's Priority app means we could get in quickly, even if it was on Tesco Mobile. Hell, I'm not complaining!

On entering the venue, I decided to try to take a warm-up photo of the stage to set up my camera properly. I felt rather special as I turned the camera on and the screen said "No SD card inserted". Realising that my card was in the other camera, I resorted to using my phone and its fantastic ability to take blurry, low res and non-zoomed-in photos. Woop.

X-Rays are Cool

I’ve got my retainers now. I’m still going to write about it, but I’ll do that later. I think this is cooler though.

It took quite a while to get them, but a few months and £30 later (!) I have the X-Rays on a CD.

2007

This was before any braces were put in, and before any teeth were pulled out. You’ll be able to tell at that time, my front and back teeth were meeting fine, but the ones in the middle weren’t. What you can’t really see here is how overcrowded they were. I’m sure they did an X-Ray showing it, but they didn’t give it to me.

:-# --> :-D

After 5 and a bit years (on and off, and on again) I had my braces out on Tuesday afternoon, and about time too! Though it was one of the weirdest appointments I've had at the hospital...

I got in on time, Monsters vs. Aliens was showing in the waiting room, pretty standard. My orthodontist was running late as usual, but when I eventually got called in, I saw another orthodontist instead, in fact she was the first consultant I saw 5 years ago. She said that the braces were coming off today and that I would need impressions taken. I was surprised how quickly the braces came off (there was a fair amount of pain involved), and at how long she took polishing the teeth to remove the residual glue.

iThingy app – JumiMouse+

A couple of years ago, I downloaded an app for my iPod called JumiMouse+. I found it because I was looking for a remote desktop app to control my laptop, and although this wasn't exactly what I was looking for at the time, it turned out it was better than what I wanted.

In order for the app to work, JumiMouse+ requires a server application, JumiController, to be running on your PC. It can sometimes be problematic connecting the iPod to the PC, but this is usually the fault of the firewall or your router. This app works both internally and externally, meaning your iPhone could be in the same room or in China and it will work just the same.

A few months later, JumiTech released an app called JumiTap, later branded JumiRemotes, which is now integrated into JumiMouse+. This allowed the user to create their own remote controls for specific applications, or download user-submitted remotes from JumiTech's gallery. Essentially, this means you can plug your laptop into your TV and run Windows Media Center using the remote control I made for it. Or you could play VisualBoyAdvance with a Game Boy controller rather than the keyboard. Or you could present a PowerPoint presentation without the need to go and press a button on the laptop after every slide.