February 2008
61 posts
This is most vile computer input device ever...
(image from the shockingly mixed review on everythingusb.com) Seldom (as in never) have I put finger to keyboard with the sole intent of bashing a lowly computer input device. However, I feel it is my duty as a mammal with hands to warn the world about the ergonomic evil that is Microsoft Sidewinder Mouse .
A brief word about your humble messenger: I could be accused of being a computer input...
Cheap and bombproof: a little more...for now
I’ve been thinking about and collecting material on this idea for years, and I’ll be posting more of these regularly here as I have time. Check back occasionally…
If you’re hungry for more now, check out this thread I started on ask.metafilter.
Cheap and bombproof: the Toyota pickup truck
The Top Gear Toyota Hilux (image from carpages.co.uk)
The ethos of “cheap and bombproof” could be grocked almost completely by contemplating the humble Toyota pickup truck.
Across the world, for decades, the inexpensive Toyota truck has been the unofficial official vehicle of the rural Third-world, as well as second and first world inhabitants who require a tough, insanely reliable...
1 tag
Cheap and bombproof: Fenix P3D flashlight
It may be pushing the bounds of incredulity to call the Fenix P3D flashlight ”cheap” at $65, but if you compare it to the gold-standard light of similar size and function, the Surefire U2 at $275, it’s a positive steal.
Another point of ‘cheapness’ (as if I had to justify this to you): Fenix lights are mass-produced in China. Here’s a cute picture of the...
3 tags
Help me not buy a new phone
(image from techrepublic)
Help me. I’m already saddled with a phone mullet- Business in the front pocket (a Windows Mobile Treo for work email/contact/calendar) and an iPhone in the back (personal email, txt, web, music/podcasts, maps, etc).
And yet I long to acquire a Nokia N95.
See, it does two things that I really, really want in a mobile, internet-connected device: take really...
Dis-aggregation
I’ve decided to untangle the blog and only display things that I generate, and a subset at that. I’ll post here directly, via Flickr for photos and Youtube for video. My most active streams are my occasionally-profane Twitter posts and my Google Reader Starred items. You can find links to all that and more at screen right.
-sent from mobile
2 tags
A lazy man's successful war on email
(reposted from my old blog to maintain a copy…)
Like essentially everyone I know, I have struggled under the weight of an overflowing inbox for almost as long as I’ve had an email account (something like 15 years now). Like my smoking habit, I’ve tried countless times to wrestle email into submission using an endless stream of productivity strategies, tools and gizmos: GTD, ‘Take Back Your...
Almost knocked the truffle oil into the aged balsamic while making french press coffee this morning. Someone please shoot my foodie ass.
In an act of despiration, gave in and reactivated my facebook acct. to find out how to actually delete my facebook accout.
360 gizmos - one shot panorama camera for... →
@The NYC Toy fair 2008 I saw the first 360 panoramic camera for kids, but I suspect this will be popular with adults too. They set up the camera so it had an Eye-Fi wireless SD camera, so you’d take a photo and in seconds, literally - there was a 360 pano on the screen. The real magic is from the 360 one VR attachment for cameras, you can check that out here and here. More:
360...
Peacock Plans for Next Generation →
From cradle to grave, NBC wants to be your source for news. The network unveiled its new education initiative during a presentation at 30 Rock Thursday. NBC News President Steve Capus, Nightly News anchor Brian Williams and NBC News CFO…
Do We Really Want Video Ads in Search? →
Now this is one place I’d prefer not to see video advertising: Google search results pages. But the New York Times Bits blog tells us the company started testing such ads this week. Google already sells video ads for other sites, including syndicated YouTube partner videos and their ads. But recently its cleanly designed home page and search results have been gradually transformed to include...
Yahoo Relaunches Its Online Video Service →
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which just announced buying online video tech provider Maven Networks, has quietly relaunched its consumer video service. The service, which has been retooled a few times and hasn’t been a big competition to the likes of YouTube and others, still has the traffic funnel of Yahoo, so has to be taken into contention. The service has a bigger player, better resolution, a...
4 News Companies Ally to Sell Ads on the Internet... →
Louise Story / New York Times: 4 News Companies Ally to Sell Ads on the Internet — Four large newspaper companies are joining forces to sell advertisements on the Internet, hoping that the combined heft of their Web sites will encourage large advertisers to spend more money. — Each of the four companies …
Yahoo Relaunches Its Online Video Service →
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which just announced buying online video tech provider Maven Networks, has quietly relaunched its consumer video service. The service, which has been retooled a few times and hasn’t been a big competition to the likes of YouTube and others, still has the traffic funnel of Yahoo, so has to be taken into contention. The service has a bigger player, better resolution, a...
Google iPhone usage shocks search giant (Slash... →
Slash Lane / AppleInsider: Google iPhone usage shocks search giant — Google on Wednesday said it has seen 50 times more search requests coming from Apple iPhones than any other mobile handset — a revelation so astonishing that the company originally suspected it had made an error culling its own data.
Do We Really Want Video Ads in Search? →
Now this is one place I’d prefer not to see video advertising: Google search results pages. But the New York Times Bits blog tells us the company started testing such ads this week. Google already sells video ads for other sites, including syndicated YouTube partner videos and their ads. But recently its cleanly designed home page and search results have been gradually transformed to include...
YuMe Bolsters Online Video Ad Platform -- YuMe... →
NBC News Shake-Up: Two Bureaus to Close →
Exclusive: Insiders tell TVNewser the current NBC News global news gathering system is in for an overhaul. Sources tell us a 9amET conference call among News division execs and the bureau managers will announce that the current system will be…
Livestation brings live radio and television to... →
Web-based, on-demand video services are all the rage, but Livestation aims to fill a serious gap by bringing live TV to Windows, Mac, and Linux computers.
Read More…
Men Are from YouTube, Women Are from ABC →
In what sounds like the setup for a bad joke at the Improv, Nielsen Online released stats showing how men and women consume online video differently. Men are more into user-generated content while women prefer McDreamy network television. The Wall Street Journal writes that 18- to 34-year-old men were more than twice as likely as women to watch videos on UGC sites like YouTube. Which makes sense...
MTV digital strategy includes web ‘assembly line’ →
Over the last year, MTV Networks has created 32 websites, most of which are connected to on-air programming such as Indecision 2008 and Jackass World. The idea is to create a type of assembly line for Web sites, according to MTV’s Jeff Yapp. Explains News.com, “Those sites that find an audience will continue to be nurtured and those that don’t will be stripped down and ‘reskinned,’ or refitted for...
Hands-on with NVIDIA's APX 2500, and yeah, it... →
Filed under: Cellphones
Yet another mobile platform, and this time with NVIDIA power. We had a chance to checkout the APX 2500 and its Quake skills at MWC today and we’re definitely enthused about this new toy. Engadget Mobile has all the pics so just wander over via the link to see this thing in action.
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iVillage Trims Staff By 4 Percent; Lays Off 13... →
While we were watching for Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) layoffs, iVillage cut roughly 4 percent of its staff—13 jobs out of about 300. Those laid off across divisions include Editor-in-Chief Jennie Baird. The spin is the cuts were part of continuing to refine iVillage since the NBCU acquisition in May 2006. Some folks have been offering numbers to show declines at iVillage and pointing to inroads by...
Affordable phones, built to order →
Last December, we featured a company that’s applying customization to cellphones. By plugging together different modules and maybe adding a few lines of code, a mobile device from Bug Labs can be customized to suit its owner’s (changing) fancy. zzzPhone is taking a different approach by allowing customers to select their preferred features online and then manufacturing a phone for them within 15...
Web community for greener living →
People band together online to date, discuss politics or lose weight. Now a US website called Greenopolis has created a community whose members help each other live in a more earth-friendly manner. After registering on Greenopolis, which is still in beta, visitors complete an online survey that analyses their daily activities to determine how ‘green’ their lifestyle is. Based on the survey...
First Tellme, the Yahoo, now Danger. i finally get it: Microsoft is trying to buy 2002.
Our new employee review software identifies words that “may offend”. It suggest that, perhaps I should use “Vietnamese Tillinghast”.
Will this vodka be strong enough to kill the pathogens in this slightly expired orange juice?!?! Stay tuned to MythTwitter to find out.
Leica M8 Lens Codes →
We have arrived at the point in the Seattle year when I find myself describing any moment that it’s not actually raining as “Its sunny out.”
Cost to purchase an average live-weight beef cow using extrapolated vending-machine beef jerky price/ounce: $18,216. Just fyi.
Jupiter: $768M in Video Ads, Latent Demand for TV... →
JupiterResearch, which predicts online video advertising in the U.S. will reach $768 million in 2008 (that part is apparently from an older report, but I hadn’t seen it reported anywhere yet), said this week that there is latent demand among early adopters for full-length, ad-supported television shows online. The research focused on shows that are currently broadcasting, rather than classics....
Seismic Shift To Smartphones (ChangeWave) →
ChangeWave: Seismic Shift To Smartphones — ChangeWave survey shows consumers abandoning basic models for advanced RIM and Apple phones — Record numbers of consumers are abandoning their basic cell phones for more-advanced models, according to the latest ChangeWave consumer cell phone survey.
How Long Should a Web “Season” Be? →
Network TV series generally have 22 episodes per season, cable series hover around the 13-episode mark, but there is no standard “season” for web series. The prevailing theory seems to be make as many as you can — but is that always better? Given the attention span of online audiences, asking them to stick with you over countless episodes seems risky. Roommates had 47 episodes. Quarterlife is up...
Ballmer: Yahoo the Brand Will Remain; Means MSN... →
Steve Ballmer gave an interview to BusinessWeek, where he mentioned that Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO) the brand will remain if the company’s proposed acquisition offer goes through. He didn’t say in in the story, but does that mean MSN will go out of the window? Considering MSN’s weaker branding pull beyond its default traffic funnels, that wouldn’t be a huge surprise, at least in...
Wired 1.1: An Archaeology →
Wired magazine turns 15 years old this month. This column looks back at the very first issue. Wired didn’t even bother with a Beta release. It bustled onto the publishing scene 15 years ago this month, chirping like a broken modem and shrink-wrapped as a point release: Issue 1.1. Peeling back those matte pages now, one can’t help falling victim to a bit of nostalgia for this town...
Twitterific 3.1 (Beta) Annoys Less, Fixes Bugs →
The fine folks over at Icon Factory have release a beta (1.2MB zip file) update to their popular OS X Twitter client which fixes one really annoying problem in how new messages are displayed – no more autoscroll to the top – and adds a slew of enhancements, including NetNewsWire-like keyboard shortcuts (the spacebar moves to the next tweet that is unread, the ‘k’ key will mark all tweets as read,...
kodychamberlain.com - Kody's Moleskine iPod Hack →
LiveNewsCameras.com aggregates live Fox feeds →
This is fascinating. The team at Fox Chicago wondered what it would be like if users were able to see the same live satellite feeds as they see at the station. So they built LiveNewsCameras.com — a compilation of Fox affiliate feeds across the country. The site even has a live moderator, Kat Bockli, who explains what’s happening and what’s coming up. And they’re sending out text alerts of upcoming...
Browse Front Pages Worldwide at the Newseum [News... →
Want so see how the newspapers around your region played the Super Tuesday results on their front page? Just want to get a quick glance at your own newspaper’s front page without clicking through its Web site? The web site of the Newseum, an interactive journalism museum, offers a nifty “Front Pages Worldwide” tool that’s updated daily and comes in list, gallery, or...
HOW TO - Make a Rechargeable, pocket-sized 5V... →
Dave writes -
Sure power supply projects aren’t that sexy; but they are, generally speaking, the foundation for every electronics project. The voltage output for this project is 5VDC, and a practical output that can be applied to a wide variety of digital components. Even better, this power supply has a 2-pin plug that can be quickly and easily snapped into a common 2-pin header for a...
Gave myself a black eye smashing into a shelf… I mean defending an old lady from these 4 thugs. With chainsaws. And flamethrowers.