Looks very cool larger and on black
Dwight Silverman of The Houston Chronicle’s Tech Blog and co-host of Technology Bytes proudly shows us his iPhone. I chose to let the iPhone remain in color while desaturating the rest. I find the contrast between the shiny new technology and the not so shiny new tech geek rather compelling.
Nothing personal, Dwight!
Google just announced a new feature of their map site that allows you to embed a Google Map right into a web page just like you would with a Youtube video.
KPFT
View Larger Map
The embedded map has all the functionality you find at the actual Google Maps site. You can scroll it, zoom it, get directions and that good stuff.
It’s way faster and easier than the in-line Google maps plug-in I was playing with before.
This will be a lot of fun to use during the upcoming trip to Spain….
Details are at the Google Lat Long Blog
Sure, sure…it’s browses the web, plays music and videos and even makes a half-hearted attempt to be a telephone.
But will it blend?
I’m not a huge cat fan nor am I cat cam fan but I am a technology fan and a fan of novel ideas. That’s why I find Mr. Lee’s CatCam quite fascinating.
Ever wonder what a cat who spends most of his time outdoors is up to?
Apparently J. Perthold in Germany did and came up with an idea…
So the idea was born and split into these parts:
1. find small, lightweight, inexpensive digital camera
2. develop a controller for the camera
3. protect the camera from cat attack
4. mount equipment to cat
For anyone who has lived with a feline, the mystery of a cat’s mind is an all-too-familiar quandary. This site does not venture any answers to that dilemma. But it does attempt to record what one cat.the illustrious Mr. Lee.does and where he goes when left to his own devices. Mr. Lee’s human companion, a clever man who lives in Germany, rigged a small digital camera to take a photo at regular intervals. He affixed the device to his cat’s collar and let Mr. Lee do his thing. What came back is an amusing, sometimes fascinating peek into Mr. Lee’s daily activities.
Out of the day of a cat - Trip 1
Out of the day of a cat - Trip 2
Out of the day of a cat - Trip 3
Out of the day of a cat - Trip 4
Got a call from Jeff Ehling over at the local ABC affiliate (Channel 13). He was putting together a story to tie in to the recent FBI press release regarding botnet cyber crime and needed a geek talking head.
Lord knows there’s no talking head geekier than yours truly and despite my fear of being in front of the camera, I agreed to do it. I try not to pass up any opportunity to promote the radio show. Plus I think I must secretly enjoy being scared out of my wits.
Much like the previous times, it went smoothly enough and I was not horrified with the results. Jeff did a great job on the story and used sound bites from me in the piece that worked well and I was very pleased to hear him use talking points that came from our more candid off camera conversation.
You can see the news story video here.
I have spoken before on the topic of “hot-linking” images.
As a photographer and as a person who hosts and posts a lot of images, I get people directly linking to my server all the time on Myspace, Friendster, Facebook and so on.
There’s my image, plain as day.
No credit for my work.
No thank you Jay Lee for this awesome picture!
No nuthin!
And to make matters worse, they’re pulling it directly from my server.
The John McCain team discovered that this is a huge no-no and they discovered it in a way that I can truly appreciate.
Apparently John McCain has his own Myspace page which utilizes a template created by Mike Davidson over at Newsvine.com.
The McCain team ripped the template without crediting Davidson and, to add insult to injury, hot-linked to one of his images.
Davidson retaliated.
By simply changing the picture on his own server, Davidson was able to give Senator McCain and new political outlook.
You can read Davidson’s own account on his blog, but be warned. As of this morning the story was “slashdotted” so his site is responding a little slowly.
*Screen capture of McCain’s myspace hack created by Mike Davidson
I’ve installed the Podpress plugin for Wordpress.
This means you can automatically pick up any audio content I post on this site as a podcast. Just add the RSS feed of this site to your iTunes and your iPod will do the rest.
The Podpress plugin also allows readers of this blog to play audio content I post to the site right inside the post, streaming in REAL TIME! No more waiting on a download.
If you are viewing this from the main URL (www.baldheretic.com) you should see a Podpress player at the top of this entry. Just click the play button and the song I have posted will start playing.
To test my new feature I have uploaded a song called I Blog Alone by M. Spaff Sumsion over at spaff.com
I’ve also included the lyrics below:
I BLOG ALONE
Parody of Green Day’s “Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
PERFORMED BY ROBERT LUND
Download MP3 (3.4 MB)
I spill my guts online
At live dot home dot blog my name dot com
No one hits my site
But it’s home to me and I blog alone
I dish out brilliant quotes
On the blogger board of broken links
Guess who leaves me notes?
Yes, I’m the only one and I blog alone
I blog alone
I blog alone
I blog alone
I blog a-
I work all
Day to make the Web admire me
It’s not my
Job; if my boss knew, she’d fire me
That’s fine; the
New York Times would beg to hire me
Till then I
BLOG ALONE
Bla-ah, bla-ah, bla-ah, blah-og
Bla-ah, bla-ah, blah-og
I mock celebrities,
Politics and sports and TV shows
Then I Google me
And hope it links to where I blog alone
I can’t sleep at night
Even on vacation far from home
I pull up my site
To know I’m still online and I blog alone
I blog alone
I blog alone
I blog alone
I blog a-
My only
Friends are avatars and smileys
I humbly
Post my views then praise them highly
Some day I’ll
Sell my soul like Bill O’Reilly
Till then I
BLOG ALONE
Bla-ah, bla-ah, bla-ah, blah-og
Bla-ah, bla-ah
I blog alone
I blog alone
I unmask media lies
On the blogger board of broken links
Guess who leaves replies?
Yes, I’m the only one and I blog alone
Hey, look, they
Praised me in the News on Sunday
My site got
Thirteen million hits in one day
Okay, I
Lied, but that could happen some day
Till then I
BLOG ALONE
The Nintendo Wii game console is facing a bit of an unexpected challenge. It turns out that the controls, designed to make game play more interactive, have a habit of flying out of the users hands and smashing windows, furniture and expensive plasma screen HD televisions.
The problem has caused Nintendo to issue a recall on the original wrist straps. I guess they are taking Wii-sponsibility for their mistake…
The problem has caused so much damage to personal property that a web site featuring pictures and anecdotes of Wii related disasters has sprung up. You can find it at www.wiihaveaproblem.com.
“Well… I said I would never do something so stupid but here I am, I received my Wii recently (It’s been on order since November!) Anyway, I bought with it a copy of Red steel because I’ve been looking forward to it since I first knew it existed, anyway I was in a katana fight with the first boss, I’d made two good swipes and swung back for my third, on my third throw I noticed the remote was no longer in my hand…”
Not only is this causing a lot of property damage, there’s a fair amount of bodily injury going on as well.
“Last night I was playing Tennis on my Wii. My girlfriend was sat on the sofa behind me. I was really getting into the game, and I do play it hard! She tried to get off the sofa and do to the kitchen. I went to take a swing for a long forehand shot and I hear a massive BANG. The corner of the remote smacked her in the face, right next to her eye. When she stopped covering her face, I saw all the blood and had to rush her to the hospital.”
Yup, other peoples pain is your reading pleasure at this site.
A funny thing happened when Cynthia was reading the manual for her new camera.
From time to time, as she was reading the manual, she would come to my office and excitedly tell me about some feature or another that her camera had. I would stop what I was doing and we’d discuss the feature and I would impart whatever information I could to add to her understanding and, of course, agree about how cool it was or whatever.
At one point I heard her exclaim from the other room “That’s what the cupcake button does!!”
*blink*
“Cupcake button?”, I thought to myself. I thought she was exploring her camera. Maybe she had moved on to the bread maker and discovered a new feature or something.
Again Cynthia appears in my office doorways and again exclaims “I know what the cupcake button does!”
And then she points it out on her new camera.
It’s the delete button and most of us know that icon. But not Cynthia. To her it simply looked like a cupcake.
I can only imagine what it might be like if Cynthia were ever to take a Rorschach inkblot test.
I kind of like living in a world where technology comes equipped with a cupcake button.
This past Wednesday, Dwight Silverman came to the radio show packing one of the new T-Mobile Dash smart phones. It’s a slick little device. Lightweight, slim, nice big display. It features a built-in QWERTY Keypad, Stereo Bluetooth® wireless technology, a 1.3 Megapixel camera and best of all, built in Wi-Fi. Running Windows Mobile this means you can get online at any Wi-Fi hot spot and browse the web as well as instant message and send and receive e-mail without optioning up for the additional data service plan.
It was love at first sight.
As it happens, I am a T-Mobile customer and my current phone was starting to show signs of dying the death so I called T-Mobile customer care and was pleased to discover that I was eligible for a discounted upgrade. The discounted price minus the instant and mail-in rebates made it a VERY sweet deal.
The phone arrived yesterday and today I am fully operational on the new digitalia.
The built in Wi-Fi totally rocks!
Cynthia and I have begun planning and saving for our trip this year. Our plan is to go to Spain in the fall for about a month.
The last two trips I have taken a digital camera and Cynthia has brought along her trusty Pentax film camera. As we have been planning this trip Cynthia expressed an interest in converting to digital photography. I pointed out that this could be a very good way of cutting some costs, seeing as how she would not have to buy a ton of film and pay to have it all processed. As we discussed it further she became more and more sold on the idea of getting a new digital camera.
Since she already had a Pentax and a few lenses it made sense to go with a Pentax digital SLR. Perfect timing, too, since Pentax just released the K10D.
Cynthia and I have been discussing this since before Xmas and today was the day. We went this afternnoon to the camera store and picked one up.
The K10D is an awesome piece of photographic technology. It’s very similar to my Sony Alpha 100 in that it has the built in image stabilization as well as the anti-dust technology. It goes a bit further in that it is weather sealed and sports a handful of additional features that my camera lacks.
I wouldn’t say it’s a “better” camera than mine, but I must confess a certain amount of techno-envy since it’s a newer piece of technology and my camera was released a few months ago making it a relative antique in comparison.
I comfort myself by remembering the “what’s yours is mine. what’s mine is yours” agreement we have as a long term couple.
A great geek gadget weekend for us. Cynthia has a real twinkle in her eye as she is reading up on her camera. I am excited about getting to share my passion for photography with her as I am sure this new camera will inspire her to get out and take more pictures.
