Conference Archives

Cell phones locked to carriers still seems to be the norm (especially for the iPhone!).  Lots of customers correctly feel that if they pay for the phone, they should be able to take it with them if they change carriers.  We found a great article on unlocked phones, which can be read in its entirety here.

The great thing about unlocked cell phones is that they work no matter which carrier you choose. All kinds of handsets are available thusly, and though people often naturally go with the most recent releases, it frequently pays to think about yesterday’s offerings as well. Case in point, unlocked cell phones like the Nokia Surge make fine second handsets for folks who need to have two distinct contact numbers. It looks like a T-Mobile Sidekick but being unlocked means that you needn’t only use it with AT&T in the United States. It has the same form factor as the best-selling Sidekick, only instead of swiveling it slides to uncover the keyboard below the screen-cum-cover. The inclusion of text messaging and social media capabilities makes it clear that Nokia is targeting the youth demographic with this model.

You can’t do much better when it comes to unlocked cell phones to serve as second or third “lines.” But just what is the Surge? What’s it like? Well, it’s a 3G phone offering 2.4 inches of screen space at 320×240 TFT pixels and 16 million colors. The 2 >megapixel camera is inferior when compared to the 3 megapixel-plus version on the related 6760 Slide model available in the rest of the world (which phone, incidentally, isn’t carrier-exclusive), but the Surge did debut earlier, after all. Video recording is made at the standard QVGA resolution.

This phone runs on the Symbian Series 60 multi-tasking platform, which goes great with the provided feature-set, making it a mid-level offering. The Surge is compatible with Bluetooth 2.0, with A2DP support, and offers microUSB connectivity as well. Audio is delivered by a standard 2.5mm jack. As is the case with most Nokia products these days, the Surge comes with an on-board stereo FM radio. MicroSD cards are supported up to a maximum of 8GB of additional storage space, with a 2GB card included. This phone can also be found in black, white, or red color schemes. Talk-time is scored for decent five hours, with standby is a healthy five hundred.

Even better, being unlocked means not having to deal with AT&T and their long two-year contract with mandatory voice and data plans that could conceivably result in about a thousand dollars a year for even a relatively casual user! And of course the Surge is obviously meant for those who are constantly texting, chatting, e-mailing, or surfing the web. Such folks could quite quickly be charged over two thousand dollars a year!

In conclusion, picking up unlocked cell phones is not such a bad idea, since you never know when you might want to change services providers – you don’t want to have a useless handset that can’t change plans with you.

With the coldest winter months yet to come, we thought we would share this outstanding article on winterizing your herb garden.  Readers can find an great deal of useful information here for their gardens, and prevent the cold winter months from ruining their gardens.

We’ve only had one night of frost so far but that was enough to kill all our outdoor tía tô (perilla) plants. Luckily, we’ve already started winterizing our herbs garden. This year, we’re experimenting with hydroponically growing our herbs indoor with the hope that more godlike control over our plants’ world will keep us well supplied with fresh herbs until next spring. Growing hydroponically is a technique for growing plants without soil, with well defined nutrients solutions delivered directly to plant roots. Another advantage for us is the ability to heat up the nutrient solution coursing through the system and keep the plants warm in spite of the cold air temperature in the apartment. Lay the nutrient tubing underneath the other pots and even the non-hydroponic plants will have warm happy feet!

Winter garden : (front) tía tô / perilla, rau răm / Vietnamese coriander, lá chua / sorrel, kinh giới / Vietnamese balm. More of the same in the back & various húng varieties / basil and mints.

There are a number of ways to implement a hydroponic system. Our system is one where a low level of water is constantly flowing across the growth bed. This particular implementation was chosen because of its robustness – in the event of a pump failure, the minimal water level will keep the plants from drying out until the problem can be fixed. The minimal water level is determined by the filling and drainage holes drilled into opposite sides of the planters boxes. Rubber tubing and plastic hose barbs allow all the planters boxes to be connected to each other. The nutrient solution is delivered to one of the planter box and drained from the other end.

Plants were prepared for the hydroponics garden the same way we prepared them for rooting in the spring. In fact, the idea for the hydroponic system came when we noticed that plants in water waiting to be transferred to a proper pot of soil were actually thriving and growing new leaves, branches and so on. That wouldn’t have continued indefinitely – the plants needed food and well aerated roots – but the new growths were enough to spark the idea.

This tall guy here just kept on growing in water.

To root the plants we made an angled cut (to increase cut surface area in contact with water) in the stems of fresh looking veggies from the market, with both the stem and scissors submerged in water. We aimed to get about 4-5 inches off the top of the plant. All but the top 4 or so leaves were pinched off. Plants were placed in a clean cups with an inch or 2 of water and with at least 1 node (usually a bump on the trunk where side branches and leaves come off) under water.  (This was due to the hierarchy of plant cells: not all cells can form new tissues like roots and in many species the multipotent plant cells capable of forming new roots or stems are concentrated at or confined to the nodes. The special cells that could form new plant tissues were actually the original “stem” cells.) In 3-4 weeks, about 60-80% of the cuttings will grow roots. They were then transferred to small pots filled with pea gravel then placed in the flooded planter boxes.

The water system was very simple: An aquarium pump directed water through the planter boxes and an aquarium heater maintained the water temperature at 72 degrees.

Pump, drainage tube, and water heater

Upgrades being considered include an air pump and and airstone to make sure the water was well oxygenated. With all that, another upgrade would be a glass aquarium and a couple of fish – making our winterized garden an aquaponic system as opposed to simply a hydroponic system.

To read the full article on its original site click here

Winterizing your garden through the use of hydroponics is a great way to continue gardening through the winter months.  The use of hydroponics in combination with LED grow lights is an even better – and more economical as well as cost effective way to increase plant yields and growth.

Best wishes in 2012 with all your gardening and hydroponic experiments.