I like the idea of taking a simple photo every day of something new. So every Wednesday I’m going to sync up the daily photos I posted on my DailyBooth page.
This week…
Texas Santa
Forgive me #ChickFilA, for I have sinned.
Windy today.
Every Tuesday I re-post all zee tweets that didn’t originate from this blog just to keep everything in sync.
This week on Twitter… two posts? TWO? Can I get my twitter license revoked for that?
Lipton? You're trying too hard.
Lipton? You're still trying too hard.
Every Monday I like to post some music to start the week off on the right foot.
This week…
Art vs Science – Magic Fountain
Benny Benassi – Cinema (Skrillex remix)
Calexico – Minas de Cobre (for better metal)
…and finally, Kylie Minogue – Can’t Get You Out Of My Head (Blue Monday Mix Edit)
Here are some news stories from this week that I think the mainstream media completely missed out on. All links are from legitimate news sources and not the fringe / wacko sites.
* Here’s the factual part: 100 watt bulbs are soon to be no more, so Hasbro is having to re-design their EZBake oven toy line to accommodate this. Pretty straightforward, right? Well, I expect any moment now the wacko far right brigade to whip something like this out… THOSE LUNATIC ENVIRONMENTALISTS HAVE TAKEN AWAY SUZIES MINI BAKE OVENS!!! COME ON AMERICA!! TAKING CHILDREN’S TOYS? WHEN IS ENOUGH ENOUGH?? [UPI]
* It takes thousands of dollars and years of research to come up with the idea that a man’s happiness is based on “how little criticism he gets and how much sex he gets”? OK, is there a Nobel prize for the AH DERRRRRR finding of the year? [HUFFINGTON POST]
* INTERNET FREEDOM BILL IS GOOD COMRADE! HAS PRETTY NAME! DISCONNECT INTERNET TO KEEP BAD PEOPLE AWAY FROM GOOD PEOPLE OF HOMELAND AMERICA! MOVE ALONG NOW GOOD CITIZEN! [CNET]
* And finally, scientists have determined that our universe may have bumped into another one fairly recently. Great. So our insurance rates are going to go up? Look, scientist dudes, kick this “universe size and age” thing to the back burner, and get going on the gravity/warp drive thing! Priorities!! [NEW SCIENTIST]
** Actually published Monday because, once again, my new Kindle ate up my weekend. Damn you Amazon!!!
With all the fires burning in the world, hardly anyone noticed today was the final launch of the space shuttle Discovery. Just another forgotten technological miracle, over 30 years old now, making its’ last incredible leap into space.
You’ve got to click to see it fullscreen.
Although watching this launch was great, the quote in the CNN story from NASA’s administrator Charles Bolden sums up my overall feelings about NASA and the shuttle program.
“”What is not acceptable is the fact that the most powerful nation in the world, the United States of America, finds itself in a situation that we didn’t do the proper planning to have a vehicle in place to replace [the] shuttle when it lands its last landing,” Charles Bolden said.”
All I can add is I hope the crew has fun up there and comes home safe.
Royce Store
Today I Learned Royce is a famous Japanese chocolatier company! You know, for years I was the only real holder of the “Royce” title. Then some ninja master starts some fancy fight club thing, and before him there was some car company that rolled with it, and now there’s even a Prince Royce out there! Did I miss a meeting somewhere?
Anyhow, Royce chocolatier makes and sells fun stuff like chocolate potato chips, marshmallow chocolates, coffee bean chocolate (my only kind of chocolate!) and a lot more “normal” chocolate varieties that look pretty awesome.
They’ve got stores in Singapore, China, Malaysia, Thailand and the Philippines so far. Some stores look more “upscale” than others, but it’s still awesome to see that name up on neon/billboard signage.
What really impressed me about the company is their criteria for working on the food production line. It’s much more strict than any kind of food assembly place I’ve seen on the Food Network.
Royce Store #2
“Before entering the production line area, everyone is required to wear a factory uniform and shoes before passing through an air tunnel which removes dust. Adhesive tape rollers are then used to ensure that no dust remains on the clothes. Finally, hands are to be washed and disinfected. No one may proceed to the production line until he has strictly completed this process. ”
Unfortunately they are “not able to ship products outside Japan for individuals” so I’m out of luck for getting a firsthand taste test for now.
So in case any Royce chocolatiers ever drop by this site… 私はあなたのビジネスは常に成功することを望む！!
I’ve always been a believer in the “you get what you pay for” motto. The Kindle leather cover (with light) is a great case in point. It’s slightly more expensive than most of the other Kindle covers out there, but it’s completely worth it.
The case itself is a high-quality leather, and feels like it’s one of those $100+ personal journals you can get at the nicer stationery stores. The “close” strap is bungle-like and flips over and away with ease using the attached non-silding leather tab.
Installing the Kindle is easy. You actually anchor it into the cover with the mounting posts on the side of the Kindle (which I never noticed until I got the case!) Just slide the bottom of the Kindle into the case at an angle…
…rotate it up, move the top case tab down a little, and align the top mounting post over the top tab. Release the top tab and it click-locks securely in place! I’m extremely confident the Kindle won’t fall out out of this case!
The real genius of this case design is that the Kindle powers the light source! There’s no batteries or micro get-a-paper-clip switches to toggle and mess with. The light source is on the back upper right of the case…
…and to activate it, you just pull out and extend the light. The lilght is mounted on some strong but flexible hard plastic and will only switch on once it has been fully extended and only if the Kindle is on and awake.
In the dark, the book light is awesome. Just awesome. It lights the Kindle perfectly, and I can read just like I am able to in a chair near a basic one-bulb home lamp. This photo just doesn’t do the awesomeness justice.
The Kindle is turning out to be one of my favorite tech gadgets in recent memory. It has completely blown away the iPad for reading and I’m finding more things to do with it every day. Adding the Kindle leather cover has, to paraphrase a Spinal Tap quote, just turned this baby up to 11.
Five out of five stars.
I like the idea of taking a simple photo every day of something new. So every Wednesday (starting today) I’m going to sync up the daily photos I posted on my DailyBooth page.
This week…
#Lipton Tea is trying too hard with their latest bottle art. (Feb 23rd)
Lipton? You're trying too hard.
Old colorful gumball machine. (Feb 22nd)
Old colorful gumball machine.
Fast food fix! (Feb 21st)
Fast food fix!
Newest tech: #Kindle 3G + WiFi. The #iPad 30% “only through us” BS was one of the big reasons for getting this. (Feb 20th)
Newest tech: #Kindle 3G + WiFi.
My Ploom travel kit with “gold” and “naked”. (Feb 18th)
My Ploom travel kit with "gold" and "naked".
Action desk shot. Sad. (Feb 18th)
Action desk shot. Sad.
I found something (else) Apple can do to improve on the iPhone.
Let’s say I want to email a client a photo. Right now here are the steps I need to take on my iPhone to do this…
Hey Apple, how about this…
Apple designers? Hello? Is this blog on?
A couple of days ago I brought home a Kindle from Amazon (the WiFi + 3G version). So far I’m absolutely nuts about it.
Kindle! Kindle! Kindle!
It does just about everything I wanted in a e-book reader and it’s much easier to take with me than the iPad. I’ll post a full review after I’ve used it for a month or two.
Anyhow, I was trying to connect it to my MacBook Pro with Internet Sharing enabled, but the Kindle would not connect to the MacBook.
After digging online a bit, I found the solution on a Kindle forum. You have to manually set up a Kindle’s connection if you want to use a Mac’s internet sharing because the Mac implementation of DHCP sucks giant nards of doom. (There’s a more technical reason, but that’s the gist of it.)
To connect a Kindle to a Mac that is sharing their internet connection, press the MENU button on the Kindle and go to SETTINGS. From there, choose WiFi settings and highlight the MacBook’s internet sharing name.
From there, you need to choose to set up the WiFi MANUALLY. Keep the security settings on WEP, but instead of DHCP, choose STATIC.
Then fill out in the following…
IP : 10.0.2.251
Subnet : 255.255.255.0
Router : 10.0.2.1
DNS : 10.0.2.1
TIP : Don’t forget on the Kindle you can press ALT-Q to enter a 1, ALT-W to enter a 2, ALT-E to enter a 3 and so on. (ALT-P is a 0)
Once I did that, the Kindle was on the wireless network downloading everything I wanted!
One final note – that last part of the IP can be anything from 220 to 254, but it’s better if you pick something high.
Thanks to ElkAintMoose and Obijohn for hammering this mess out.