Technical Support

For better or worse, I am the "IT Guy" in my household. I am the one who takes the photos off the digital camera, posts videos of the kids on YouTube and makes sure any guests can connect to the wireless router. Pretty basic stuff.

However, nothing sends a chill up my spine more than my mom handing me her laptop, saying something like "the screen just stays blue" or "it won't connect." I love her to death and she's pretty tech-savvy for a 77 year old. But I have explained the difference between plugging the power cable into the wall and plugging an Ethernet cable into the Comcast modem so many times I have pretty much given up trying to tell her the difference.

So when mom handed me the laptop for 'repairs' this morning, I shuddered, and then was reminded of a hilarious video that went around a couple of years ago. Enjoy.

GE Ad Campaign Lets You Merge Real/Digital Worlds

Sucked you in with that horrible headline, huh?

Turns out that a new GE ad campaign encourages you to print out an image and hold it up to your computer's Web cam, at which time the computer renders a rotatable 3D image from the printed image you are holding. I have yet to try it yet but it looks hella cool. This dude explains it much better:



If anyone pulls this off, let me know how it went!

Update - Just tried it on my iMac. Very neat. All you need can be accessed here.

Steve Jobs Dies - Ooops, Not Really!

It's fairly common for the press to pre-write obituaries so they are ready when the time comes. That is how a five page story on James Brown, for example, pops out five minutes after he croaks. All the media has to do is write the first paragraph about how he actually kicked off, call some folks for a few quotes, and they are all done.

We got a little sneak peek at Steve Jobs' yesterday when Bloomberg News decided to update his obit and accidentally published it long enough for a number of sites, including ValleyWag, to grab and re-post it.

The writer's notes on who they ought to contact for quotes when the time comes is an interesting look into how reporters think. The obituary itself is lengthy and you got to wonder if Steve Jobs has read it. Maybe he has a few edits or corrections he could shoot to Bloomberg!

Check it out here.

I wonder who else's obits are all ready? My guess is Amy Winehouse, Pete Doherty, John McCain and Robbie "Kaptain" Knievel. I just might write my own, so the world is ready! Ha ha ha.

Destroy The Earth With This RIA

Last week The Discovery Channel launched a very cool rich Internet application (whiz-bang Web site) called Earth Live that lets you play around with a 3D model of the Earth and unleash all sorts of havoc to see what happens when you do. One article gave these details:

Drawing on data from NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the new site and widget allow users to see nearly real-time satellite data of the globe's cloud cover, water vapor, and sea surface temperatures. Discovery and developer partner EffectiveUI have combined these elements to create "stories" around events like Katrina, La Nina, and a year in the life of the earth's biosphere. Users can also remix the elements of the biosphere into custom world views. All views can be added to web pages and Facebook as widgets.

Sadly, you can't unleash an attack by aliens. It's all weather-related. But it's very cool and may give you all something to do for a few minutes instead of actual WORK.

For more background, see this Computerworld story.

Check out the Earth Live site here.

Would You Trust This Piece of Gear?

I just got back from an extended vacation to Washington DC. The family and I were treated to numerous tours and outings thanks to my brother and his wife who are experts on the area. It was pretty fab, and we saw all the big monuments - Lincoln Memorial, Vietnam Wall, Koren War Memorial (see the photo - creepy at night), World War II Memorial, Iwo Jima statue, etc etc etc.

We also hit a lot of the killer Museums like the Smithsonian, Museum of Natural History and of course the Air and Space Museum.

Which brings me to this long overdue posting. Dig the crazy sci-fi B movie prop in the photo. Oh no, wait - that was an actual console used by NASA to get Americans into outer space. Can you believe it? What a piece of crap! Those astronauts had major cohenes for more than one reason...

I Have Seen the Future and its Name is...Microsoft?

I flipping hate Microsoft. For a number of reasons, but when anything goes wrong I usually blame them. Even if I stub my foot on the carpet. It's their fault. Yeah. The War in Iraq? Microsoft.

However -- and I am sure this technology has been stolen from a number of other companies and innovators (Microsoft does not innovate, they appropriate) -- you can't deny the cool factor shown in this Popular Mechanics video of the company's new Microsoft Surface table computer.

Once the price comes down, they work out the bugs and the thing actually supports all of the peripheral gadgets shown in the vid (year 2016 or so, in version 11), these things will be everywhere. Mark my words.

It's like the iPhone on crack - no, wait, that's me...

An Illustrated History of the Web

I know this is a music related Blog but many of my readers are geeks too (like me) and will appreciate this brief and slightly scary history of the Web. Will we teach it become so smart that it will take over?

And I quote "Those who know what's best for us must rise and save us from ourselves."