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I chose to go with the 'Planets' theme, but overall these themes are awesome. It doesn't detract in from the classic GMail interface in the slightest. Now if only they'd add the various GMail labs goodies to GApps... More info ... READ MORE >>
The cultural exchange of international travel is invaluable. The exchange of foreign currency for toys is also pretty cool. If these exist in the US, I haven't seen them. Found during a recent trip to Tokyo, Asoblocks are kinda like legos, but instead of interlocking blocks, Asoblocks use a unique combination of pieces that focus on ball and socket joints, press-together joints (i.e. legos), and clamps. This gallery is some pics of my first run at them. I bought two sets in Japan, a big 'starter kit' type of deal with loads of basic blocks, and one specialized kit with special pieces (the long clear rods and platform thingies). The kits don't come with any pre-fab instructions like a lego kit, so what you see here is an uncensored exh ... READ MORE >>
This is an excerpt from a post I did over at Random Animal, but I thought it was worth putting it up here as well as it's a good fit for the site. The other day a friend proclaimed that the laptop is the new desktop, and the smartphone is the new laptop. Laptops, once the defining symbol of mobile computing, are now pretty much just a "computer" in most peoples' eyes. In the geek communities there's some buzz around ultra-mobile machines, but to me they're a solution to portable computing like the Segway is a solution to walking. It's too big for your pocket, and if you're going to carry around a bag anyway, there are plenty of lightweight options that don't require tiny screens, cramped keyboards, and compromises in performance ... READ MORE >>
So I came across the Stryde Hax page on the Olympic gymnast age controversy a few days ago via Reddit, and thought it was pretty intriguing. Didn't really think much of it other than Stryde had done some slick searching. Then I saw it on the news. Then the Olympic Committee said they're investigating the claims further. Wow. It's not the first time bloggers have broken major stories, but in this case the reaction was pretty swift, and the effects felt globally. And with only three posts on the Stryde Hax blog, and the initial age-controversy post being #1, he nailed it right off the bat. Congrats! ... READ MORE >>
It's been a long time since our last redesign, and a few weeks ago we finally launched the new look. Designed by Six, a UK based agency, and coded up by your very own new media whiz based in San Francisco, we soft-launched June 1 and have been working out the minor bugs over the past few weeks. All seems to be well now, so in anticipation of a more 'formal' launch on July 1 I'm making this post. Feel free to check it out, sign up for the newsletter (no SPAM, I promise), and send along any feedback. http://www.grooveeffect.com/ Pics of the old design here ... READ MORE >>
As many of you probably know, June 17, 10am PST is the drop date for Firefox 3, and they're attempting a Guinness World Record of most downloads in one day as a kickoff promotion. I'm writing this at 10:11am PST, 11 minutes after the new Firefox 3 drop date, and the site has been down for the past ~15 minutes or so. In effect, the Mozilla foundation essentially DDoS'ed themselves with their record attempt (for the newbz, DDoS = distributed denial of service, where a site goes down due to massive amounts of connection requests)! You'd think they would have anticipated the massive load. Anyway, when you're ready to give it a shot check it out here. I've been using it since 3.0b3 and it's pretty good so far. http://www.spreadfirefox.co ... READ MORE >>
UPDATE - June 9, 2008 It's been ages since I last updated this post, and a bit has changed since then. I decided it's about time I make some changes, as well as migrate it to the new site template and get the pics in SimpleViewer instead of having them sprinkled throughout the post. Some things are still pretty much the same, but I've tweaked a few things out since my last run at it... The Audio Gear (2) Infinity RS-5 Mains (2) Infinity RS-3 Rears (1) Infinity CC-3 Center (1) Dayton "Tiny Mighty" 10', 100W Sub Powered by: Marantz SR-7200 6.1 105W/Channel Receiver w/ modded Volex 17604 Power Cord The Video Gear -Samsung LN-T4661F 46" 1080p LCD TV -Zenith DVB-318 Upscaling DVD Player (upscales DVD's to 1080i using the ... READ MORE >>
This is an amazingly intuitive interactive chart from the NY Times that dynamically breaks down the votes by age, race, income, and gender for the Democratic primary. It's amazing to see how different we really are. The young, educated, wealthy, and blacks clearly leaned toward Obama, while the old, less educated, lower income, and women clearly leaned toward Clinton. It's also somewhat surprising to see just how severe the split was in some places - there are instances of one candidate or the other simply dominating in some demographics. For example, whites in Arkansas favored Clinton by 63% - a huge landslide. On the flipside, men in Georgia favored Obama by a similarly huge 43% margin. I think the chart is valuable beyond tracking ... READ MORE >>
Random Animal is a mutant digital agency life form whose mission, strategies, and methods are amorphous, adaptable, ingenious, and rapidly evolving. Random Animal does what is necessary for the survival and replication of itself and its host organisms. www.randomanimal.com ... READ MORE >>
My wife comes from a middle eastern background, with family from India, Afghanistan, and Saudi Arabia. I've often asked her why - going beyond any cultural disposition toward such behavior - people in that region seem so angry and distrustful of toward anything besides family and religion. Her answer is clear: it is a result of sheer ignorance, plain and simple. What she means by that is that many people in these regions are essentially illiterate and disconnected from the modern world. Their world view is shaped by the 'media' they consume, i.e. family and religion. Those two forces become the guiding lights in their life. But he who controls the message controls the truth. Radical Imams can distort the message of Islam, families be ... READ MORE >>