Thursday, March 27, 2008
Give One, Get One (Finally!)
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I donated to the One Laptop Per Child Give One, Get One program (G1G1). And now, two months later, our OLPC XO laptop has finally arrived.
One thing that's intriguing about the XO is using it as a ebook reader. Folding the screen back into "tablet mode" and turning off the backlighting you get a very crisp grayscale display. I've played with the Sony Reader and the XO screen in this mode looks just as nice. The XO includes a reader for PDFs as well as other ebook formats. Except for battery life, the XO compares quite favorably to the Amazon Kindle.
One last thing, with the arrival of the XO, our home has reached a new milestone — we now have One Laptop Per Congdon.
One thing that's intriguing about the XO is using it as a ebook reader. Folding the screen back into "tablet mode" and turning off the backlighting you get a very crisp grayscale display. I've played with the Sony Reader and the XO screen in this mode looks just as nice. The XO includes a reader for PDFs as well as other ebook formats. Except for battery life, the XO compares quite favorably to the Amazon Kindle.
One last thing, with the arrival of the XO, our home has reached a new milestone — we now have One Laptop Per Congdon.
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
Clean Is Happy
Clean Is Happy is an advertising campaign for the Washlet toilet seat. It's basically a heated toilet seat with a built-in bidet. Watching the clean and happy Washlet people in the video talk around what this thing is actually for is kinda funny: "You just sit down, do what you came to do and then... reach for the remote".
Amazon sells these seats. Who is buying them? According to Amazon, it's Macintosh users:
Amazon sells these seats. Who is buying them? According to Amazon, it's Macintosh users:
Naymz
Someone sent me an invitation to Naymz, an online identity aggregator. Not thinking too much about it, I clicked on the link, signed up and let it send out some invitations on my behalf. (If you received an invitation from me, you can ignore it if you like).Maybe I should have spent a little more time poking around. Although the UI experience is fine, it sends you down the path to upgrade to a paid account early and often. And it's both refreshing, and a little disturbing, that the first entry in the FAQ is "How do I delete my profile?". I was really tempted to just cancel my account when I saw that.
What Naymz provides is a way to aggregate personal online content so that it's easier for someone to find you. But I can already be found pretty easily via Google or Live Search. Do I really need Naymz?
Thursday, March 20, 2008
Netflix Profiles and Watch Now
Our family has been sharing one Netflix account for about two years. I wish I'd known about Account Profiles! I just split our three-at-a-time plan into three profiles: one for me, one for my wife and one for the kids. Each profile has its own queue.
We also started using Netflix "Watch Now" feature. The choices are somewhat limited but the quality is pretty good. If Netflix expands the program and adds support for XBox 360 and PS3, this could be a killer feature.
We also started using Netflix "Watch Now" feature. The choices are somewhat limited but the quality is pretty good. If Netflix expands the program and adds support for XBox 360 and PS3, this could be a killer feature.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Garfield-less
garfield minus garfield:Strange but it does work. And it's a lot less effort than the Live-Action Garfield over on LasagnaCat.
Who would have guessed that when you remove Garfield from the Garfield comic strips, the result is an even better comic about schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and the empty desperation of modern life? Friends, meet Jon Arbuckle. Let's laugh and learn with him on a journey deep into the tortured mind of an isolated young everyman as he fights a losing battle against loneliness in a quiet American suburb.
Sunday, March 16, 2008
Horton Hears a Who
My son and I went to see Horton Hears a Who this afternoon. I was a little skeptical based on the trailers but this is a terrific film. By far the best film adaption of Dr. Seuss. The storyline follows the book, but fills the rest of the time with more details and lots of humor; all wonderfully animated. Whoville reminded both of us of the landscape from The Neverhood. Huge recommendation; even if you don't have kids.
By the way, I assumed that Horton Hears a Who was the first Horton book, probably because I read them in that order. But it wasn't. My younger son and I read Horton Hatches the Egg this evening and discovered that it was published in 1940, 14 years before the other one.
As a point of comparison, we watched Bee Movie last night on DVD. It's not a bad film; just not much fun. The kids were bored well before the end. In the extras, Jerry Seinfeld says that all they initially had was the title and that it would be about bees. It shows; there are 10-15 minutes of fun and then the film runs out of ideas. And there's nothing really original here. Personally I found the early trailers for the phony "live action" version of Bee Movie to be a lot funnier than the film itself.
By the way, I assumed that Horton Hears a Who was the first Horton book, probably because I read them in that order. But it wasn't. My younger son and I read Horton Hatches the Egg this evening and discovered that it was published in 1940, 14 years before the other one.
As a point of comparison, we watched Bee Movie last night on DVD. It's not a bad film; just not much fun. The kids were bored well before the end. In the extras, Jerry Seinfeld says that all they initially had was the title and that it would be about bees. It shows; there are 10-15 minutes of fun and then the film runs out of ideas. And there's nothing really original here. Personally I found the early trailers for the phony "live action" version of Bee Movie to be a lot funnier than the film itself.
Saturday, March 15, 2008
MIX08
I've been busy the past week and just realized that I never blogged about MIX08. It was great. It's an interesting "mix" of designers and developers which I'd never experienced at a conference before. The IE8 Beta and Silverlight 2.0 Beta announcements during the keynote provided the most buzz during the week as did the demos: NBC showed an incredible demo of their Summer 2008 Olympics web site that will be entirely done with Silverlight.
If you're interested in learning more about MIX08 and Silverlight, the keynote and all of the sessions can be viewed online.
For anyone who's seen The King of Kong, star Steve Wiebe and the film's producer, Ed Cunningham were at MIX08. Steve made two attempts at the Donkey Kong high score record. I watched his first attempt for a while and was there at the end when he reached the kill screen with a score of 929,800 points. I talked to referee Walter Day afterwards and he gave me a bottle of Billy Mitchell's hot sauce.
Las Vegas is a weird place but fun in it's own way. I stayed at the Venetian which includes a replica of Venice complete with gondolas traveling through faux canals below an enormous ceiling painted and lit to look like you're outside.
My only gambling was feeding a dollar to a 25-cent slot machine. I won $20 with triple sevens on the second spin. A couple days later I fed that to another machine and it was gone quickly. I'm just not a gambler.
If you're interested in learning more about MIX08 and Silverlight, the keynote and all of the sessions can be viewed online.
For anyone who's seen The King of Kong, star Steve Wiebe and the film's producer, Ed Cunningham were at MIX08. Steve made two attempts at the Donkey Kong high score record. I watched his first attempt for a while and was there at the end when he reached the kill screen with a score of 929,800 points. I talked to referee Walter Day afterwards and he gave me a bottle of Billy Mitchell's hot sauce.
Las Vegas is a weird place but fun in it's own way. I stayed at the Venetian which includes a replica of Venice complete with gondolas traveling through faux canals below an enormous ceiling painted and lit to look like you're outside.
My only gambling was feeding a dollar to a 25-cent slot machine. I won $20 with triple sevens on the second spin. A couple days later I fed that to another machine and it was gone quickly. I'm just not a gambler.
Monday, March 03, 2008
(Not A) Portuguese Water Dog
Our dog Mocie is a Labradoodle, a mix of Labrador Retriever and Standard Poodle. Her hair is like wool; similar to a Poodle, but with a softer texture. And she has a broader face than a Poodle.
Since the Labradoodle isn't a pure bred dog breed, apparently some Portuguese Water Dog breeders and owners feel that their dogs are superior. I don't really care. Mocie is friendly and lovable, regardless of her breeding.
Since the Labradoodle isn't a pure bred dog breed, apparently some Portuguese Water Dog breeders and owners feel that their dogs are superior. I don't really care. Mocie is friendly and lovable, regardless of her breeding.
Sunday, March 02, 2008
MIX08
I'm going to be at MIX08 this week. It will be my first MIX conference and my first time in Las Vegas. Looking forward to the former, not so sure about the latter
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