Moving Time

April 16, 2009

I am currently in the process of moving this blog to a new location. It may take a couple days and then redirection will be functioning correctly. Until that time I’ve disabled commenting on any new articles (and blocked comments on a couple popular ones).

Please be patient as I get this fun technical stuff worked out. Everything should be back up and running normally by Monday … I hope.


Tweenbots Experiment: Human Assisted Robots

April 15, 2009

Tweenbots are a social experiment created by NYU student Kacie Kinzer.

Here is Kacie’s description of her Tweenbots:
Tweenbots are human-dependent robots that navigate the city with the help of pedestrians they encounter. Rolling at a constant speed, in a straight line, Tweenbots have a destination displayed on a flag, and rely on people they meet to read this flag and to aim them in the right direction to reach their goal.

Here is a short video showing the little guy in action and some of his helpers:

Be sure to check out her site for more information about her social experiment and how people reacted to the robots.


A Birthday And Some Free Stuff

April 14, 2009

Today is Engadget’s 5th anniversary! They are the premier stop for keeping up with the latest gadgets. They cover iPods and laptops all the way up to 108″ TVs and robots. Anything and everything electronic that makes you go “oooooo!”

The other thing happening today that you’ll want to look into is The Daily Cup of Tech doing a string of posts detailing 24 free apps that are extremely useful as part of his 24 in 24 series. These are some great apps to take a look at and at least bookmark for later consideration.


World Wide Web in Plain English

April 8, 2009

Common Craft is at it again… this time it’s World Wide Web in Plain English. Give it a watch for a quick explanation of the World Wide Web.


ARC Awards 2008

April 6, 2009

I mentioned the ARC Awards previously and how they are a great place to go to pick up some suggestions for anime to watch.

Well, they just recently released the 2008 Anime Reactor Community Awards.

Here is a quick rundown on some of the winners:

There are some others listed at the site as well as Jury picks – so go check a few of them out if you are interested.

I will say that Kaiba is completely original in its story telling and animation style – so original it may be a bit awkward for some people. If you are confused while watching it – just keep watching, it works itself out.

Also, if you’ve been following me on Twitter or Facebook you may have seen me mention an anime that was really excellent – that one would be Clannad and its second season Clannad ~After Story~. I highly recommend it as a drama/romance/comedy/fantasy/slice-of-life style story.

If you have any recommendations or comments about the ARC Award winners, shout ‘em out in the comments!


Fresh Baked Goods Via Twitter

April 6, 2009

Depending on who you talk to, Twitter is either extremely useful or just plain narcissistic babbling. Personally, I think Twitter can be both and it just depends on how you use it… but everyone has to agree that BakerTweet is just plain awesome:


Computer Software In Plain English

March 25, 2009

Common Craft is kickin’ video out pretty regularly lately. Here’s their latest video about computer software. It’s very basic, but that’s the whole point.

Be sure to check out their other videos and they even offer high quality versions for purchase to be used for training.


Switch from Hotmail/MSN/Live to Gmail (and why you should)

March 19, 2009

Hotmail (also used under the name MSN and Live) used to be the leader in web based email. Then Yahoo and Gmail came online and pretty much wiped Hotmail off the map. Unfortunately, it can be a real pain to switch providers but luckily Hotmail has now made that easier. They offer POP now.

No… not cola or soda. POP is a function of web mail that allows you to access your email from another place besides that company’s web interface. So what does this mean for Hotmail users? Well it means you can switch to Gmail with ease because you can still get your Hotmail emails after you switch! It makes the transition much easier.

If you are interested in switching then head over to the How-To Geek for detailed steps to swap your Hotmail/MSN/Live account for a Gmail account. Once you have setup your email then it’s time to go through some of the other Gmail switching tools like contact and email import. Check Lifehacker’s article about the Gmail switching tools for more details.

Why switch to Gmail? My main reason is that their spam filtering is top notch and there’s just something about the different options and tie-ins with other Google services that it has become extremely useful. A good example is a function they just added to allow Picasa, Flickr, YouTube, and Yelp to be previews in the email itself. Check out the Official Gmail Blog post about this update for more details. Look through some of their other posts to see some of the other recent updates and features.

The other feature I like but is hard to grasp for some new users of Gmail are the function of labels instead of folders to organize your email. Labels show up as links on the left of the Gmail interface similar to how folders would show but they work differently. Instead of moving an email to a specific folder, it can be assigned a label – kind of like applying the folder to the email instead of the email to the folder. The advantage of this is that an email can have multiple labels without having to be duplicated in order to be in multiple folders. Lets go over an example.

Pretend I run an anime viewing club (whee!) and I order Cowboy Bebop The Movie for an upcoming viewing. I get an email confirmation from Amazon about my order. I apply the label “Orders” and the label “Anime Club”.  Now I can find that email if I click on Orders or if I click on Anime Club. If I used folders it would only appear in one or the other. Add the power of Google search and I can do a quick search to show me all my emails that are labelled both Orders and Anime Club and I can see all my anime club orders!

That’s just the tip of the iceberg as far as organizing is concerned and luckily the Gmail help is very good at working you through all of these options. Another good place to check for getting the most out of Gmail is Lifehacker’s directory of Gmail tips, tricks and hacks.

Sorry about all the text of this post (the links have lots of screenshots though). To make up for it here’s a couple videos to watch that may brighten your day just a bit:

Cute (awwwww factor 11):

Kinda Dirty Funny:

UPDATE: Gmail has now also added an “Undo Send” function that allows you to recall a message within seconds of sending. A very useful function for those accidental sends.


The Megapixel Myth And Exposure Fusion

March 9, 2009

Ars Technica has an article explaining why the megapixel ceiling has effectively been reached at 12MP. The basics are that the megapixel rating is only part of what determines the quality of a digital camera’s photo ability. There are many other factors to consider and now that the megapixel ratings are so high such as lense quality, zoom factors, image stabilization, GPS tagging and a host of other useful functions. There is a lot of good information in the article to help you understand more about digital cameras (especially if you are looking to purchase in the near future).

The other interesting camera related information is about a type of photo processing called Exposure Fusion. Digital Photography School has an article all about this photography process that combines different exposure levels into one photograph (similar to HDR).

Exposure fusion combines different exposures of the same image together so that bright areas don’t look washed out and detail areas look crisp with good contrast. Look through the article for more details about how this type of process could make for some nice looking pictures and also a program that can help you do this type of process automatically.


You Need To Know This

February 25, 2009

Greg Rutter put up a site for all those new to the internet… or have been on the internet and don’t know who the Star Wars Kid is or Chocolate Rain or why “All your base are belong to us”.

Please visit You Should Have Seen This to catch up on all that you need to know to be sure you “get it” while browsing around the interwebs.

Here’s one of my personal favorites: