.KEYWORD ppcoolsite0799
.FLYINGHEAD PALMPOWER SITE OF THE MONTH
.TITLE Furby Remote Control
.DEPT
.SUMMARY Never let it be said that PalmPower doesn’t put the Power in the palm of your hand. In this edition of the PalmPower Site of the Month, we’ve found a guy who shows you how to use the Palm’s IR port to control a Furby’s little brain. Not enough power for you? OK, how about helping (or at least meddling in) a guy’s relationship? We include the email address of Eelko de Vos’ girlfriend. Eelko’s the guy who created the Furby Remote Control site and he’d like you to write to his girlfriend and tell her how cool he is.
.AUTHOR Heather McDaniel
Furby. That little fury thing that took over Christmas. Everybody wants one. Why? I don’t know. It’s one of those things I will never understand. If you’re lucky enough to own a Furby, you’ll love this month’s PalmPower Site of the Month: Furby Remote Control.
As you can see in Figure A, Furby Remote Control is a fun freeware site that tells you how you can use your Palm computer to manipulate that cute little Furby. The site also includes links to other Web sites that are all about Furby. The site is run by Eelko de Vos in the Netherlands.
.FIGPAIR A Turn Furby into a wild animal by using Furby Remote Control. Note the message that’s important to geeks.
The Furby Remote Control Web site started when Eelko heard there had been few Web sites who were investigating the infrared signals of the Furby. He bought his Furby to see if he could get it to talk with his Palm computer.
After he tried holding the Furby up to the Palm device to see if it would record any signals–to no avail– he took another approach. He took his universal-remote control for his TV and tried the signals of all of the buttons for all of the TV sets. Only three of them had an effect on Furby. Once he found the right signals, he stuffed them onto his Palm organizer using the demo version of OmniRemote.
Eelko then decided he had to share this new little program. He explains,
.QUOTE Though it wasn’t that elaborate, I knew people would find it funny. I did. So I built the Web site around my small package. Totally freeware, as I’m a Linux debian-guy who likes to keep things for free. Except for when someone really would like to thank me. Then you could email me or my girlfriend and tell how great I am. So far I’ve had no one mailing her yet, but my hopes are still alive.
Furby Control is a small database that can be installed on your Palm organizer. You will need a Palm III or a Palm III upgrade to use the Furby Remote Control. You should also have OmniRemote’s demo version, which you can get from http://www.pacificneotek.com.
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You can find out more about using Furby Remote Control by visiting http://www.sfreport.nl/furby/. Don’t forget to email Eelko’s girlfriend (at il@hetnet.nl) telling her how great he is!
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.H1 Your site can earn this special banner
Do you run a special site, one that provides a great resource for Palm device users? If so, your site may be eligible for consideration as the PalmPower Site of the Month. If chosen, you’ll even be entitled to display the snazzy banner shown in Figure B.
.FIG B Is your site cool enough to be the PalmPower Site of the Month?
If you’d like your site to be considered for PalmPower Site of the Month, send email to heather@palmpower.com. Please specify "PALMPOWER COOLSITE" in the subject field of your email.
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.BIO Heather McDaniel is the News Editor for PalmPower Magazine (at http://www.palmpower.com), Windows CE Power Magazine (at http://www.windowscepower.com) and DominoPower Magazine (at http://www.dominopower.com). She can be reached via email at heather@palmpower.com.
.DISCUSS http://powerboards.zatz.com/cgi-bin/webx?13@@.ee6d37c
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