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July 29, 2005
Catching up with Sam
It's been a busy week for our little guy. Today, he turns sixteen weeks old. Amazing, really. He's already changed so much, and seems to find something new to amaze his parents with daily. Earlier this week, he decided that he really wants to sleep on his side. Trouble is, he sometimes rolls onto his stomach, and gets upset as he can't turn back over. We're working on that...He's also discovered he can reach his toes. He happily grabs both his feet and tugs and pulls on them for hours.
Yes, these sound like simple things - but they are amazing to watch - I highly recommend it!
Posted by jetrotz at 02:21 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Watchin' the Shuttle launch in style...
Could someone please buy the man a plasma TV? Doesn't he have, like, a situation room or something with a hi-def feed from the nose cone of the freaking shuttle available to him? Sad, sad, sad. (Via Engadget.)
If you don't want to make the same mistake as George above, MSNBC.com has a fabulous Flash application to review the Discovery launch. It's a user-selected, sychronized, multi-cam app where you pick your camera positions to watch the launch. Very slick execution. (Via LostRemote.)Posted by jetrotz at 01:01 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 28, 2005
AOL launches MyAOL beta, Feedster to do RSS search
Om Malik today takes note of AOL's new partnership with Feedster for their new 'MyAOL' - as he notes, Yahoo must be thinking that's soooo 1999 ;-). Interesting to see a tool like this on AOL; bringing RSS closer to the massses...
"America Online is one step closer in its bid to transform itself from a dial-up ISP into a content powerhouse. The company has just announced MyAOL (it must be 1999, Yahoo people are thinking.) The most exciting part of the news is that they are taking RSS mainstream. Yup - right out of the elites into the AOLplanet. Yahoo, Ask Jeeves (via Bloglines) and supposedly Google are already making RSS part of their future, and now even AOL has signed up."
He also notes:
"The new site will also allow folks to subscribe and read RSS feeds. This is also a good day for RSS spammers, who can now find gullible clickers amongst the AOL hordes. Going back to that step-closer remark, they are still amillion miles away from where they need to be."
(Via Om Malik's Broadband Blog.)
Posted by jetrotz at 09:21 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 27, 2005
New photos of kids from 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory
New photos of kids from 1971 Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory: Here's a link to a Willy Wonka fansite (the old-school version) with scans of Poloaroids taken of the five kids from the 1971 flick, all grown up. Augustus is just creepy. Link to larger image here
(Via Boing Boing.)
Posted by jetrotz at 04:34 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
PSP Firmware 2.0 Web Browser First Impressions
Update: Another much more complete review is now available at GamersReports.com. They actually got the thing to work ;-).
Previously Reported: I4U News - Sony PSP Firmware 2.0 with Web Browser First Impressions: Some intrepid soul has loaded up the PSP 2.0 firmware (Japanese version). So far no love with the browser - just an obscure error message.
(Via Terradome)
Posted by jetrotz at 01:06 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Shane Holland is having more offspring
My old buddy Shane and his wife Vicky have just let the world know that they are expecting child numero 2 in February 2006. Their 2-year old Ian, is still a bit confused about the whole pregnancy thing. According to Vicky's post:
Ian likes to lift my shirt and point to my belly and say 'baby'. But he also does that to Shane and my dad, so I think he is a little confused by the whole thing!
(Via Ian Xander Holland.)
Posted by jetrotz at 12:30 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Juicy Bits about Xbox 360 Extender
Jason Dunn got a peek at the XBox 360 the other day and reported about it on his site. To reduce it to some key bullets:
- MCE 2005 Rollup 2 will be the name for the MCE update currently codenamed Emerald
- Emerald will increase country support from 13 to 33
- Emerald will enable XBox 360 support
- Emerald will not include cable/sat HDTV support (current gen already supports OTA HD)
- XBox 360 will render the full smooth MCE experience as expected
- XBox 360 will support high-definition playback as expected
- XBox 360 does not support visualisations for music
- XBox 360 will include a short remote for basic functions, a longer full remote will be available for sale separately
(Via Pete Near on MCE.)
Posted by jetrotz at 12:25 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
More (digital) cowbell
Digital cowbell: "Cory Doctorow:
The Rad Monkey VLC800 is a digital cowbell that simulates the sounds of 12 popular analog cowbells through a high-quality digital signal processor. Will Ferrel and/or The Moody Blues should pick one of these up pronto.Link
(via Red Ferret by way of Boing Boing.)
Posted by jetrotz at 12:20 PM
PSP firmware v2.0 available
PSP firmware v2.0 available: "
The new PSP firmware with embedded web browser (no more need to hack WipeoutPure) is out in the wild now. If you keep up to date with these things then you probably already know about this; the PSP firmware v2.0 update has
been released. Currently it’s only available on the Japanese PSP site so unless you speak Japanese you’ll need to use a
web translator to find the right link. The US version should be out later in the day if you don’t want to take the
risk. One other word of caution - this will wipe out some capabilities for homebrew hacks. I'll probably patch later tonight and update tomorrow.
Read (Original link)
Read #2 (English Translation)
(Via Joystiq.)
Posted by jetrotz at 12:14 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
Watch MSNBC Video On MSN Messenger
Hat tip to LostRemote.com this morning. Interesting stats on how much video is viewed on their service, and their newly announced extension to MSN Messenger.
Watch MSNBC Video On MSN Messenger: "'Online video is becoming more and more mainstream,' says Charlie Tillinghast, GM and publisher of MSNBC.com. 'One out of every five visits to MSNBC.com includes a video play and we're reaching audiences that traditional broadcasters are struggling to reach.' Now the site 'plans to extend those videos to users of MSN Messenger,' WebProNews.com says. 'While many users do not stay on a web site all day, especially at work, many do have instant messaging clients available.' (Via Lost Remote)"
Posted by jetrotz at 10:37 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 25, 2005
Konfabulator Kraziness
Yahoo has added another one of my favorite sites to their service - first Flickr, now they have announced the acquisition of Konfabulator. And best of all - it's now FREE!
Konfabulator is a Windows/Mac tool to allow users to run small mini-apps (called Widgets). The company was created by former Apple employee Arlo Rose, and preceeded the Tiger Dashboard by several years. It remains my favorite over Dashboard - as it has a simply amazing catalog of user-created widgets, and best of all the apps remain on-screen at all times, easily accessible from a menubar icon or expose-like function key reveal feature.
Frankly, I keep one of my two office monitors cluttered with widgets. I've got several webcams on there, rotating through radar images, a local Atlanta TV station towercam (all via the WebImages widget). I have Hong Kong, San Fran, Denver, Atlanta and London wall clocks (WorldClockPro). I also have a minicalendar, a couple of spiffy uptime/cpu usage monitors, a weather warning widget, and a great widget called the iTunes Companion. If I play a song w/out album art, it fetches it and installs it in the MP3. Sweet!
I had paid for Konfabulator (it used to be a nag-ware product) for the Mac a couple of years back. When the PC version came out, I was bummed to discover that my existing SN wouldn't work on the new version - I'd have to pony up cash for the PC independent of the Mac. This past weekend, I was actually considering a purchase for the PC - but Y! made that decision a bit simpler.
Anyway, it's great news that Yahoo has seen this as a product to spread via their considerable market reach. The PR indicates that they saw value in using Konfabulator as a means to extend access to Yahoo's APIs. Seems like another in a series of major portals buying a pay service and setting it free. Google's Maps/Earth (Keyhole) and Picasa are just two examples...
Links:
Konfabulator's letter to the community
Slashdot reports on the purchase
Om Malik breaks the news about Pixoria's buyout
PaidContent.org on the new business model
Posted by jetrotz at 07:30 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 18, 2005
In the Pipeline
Over the weekend, CNN loosened some of the secrecy around the upcoming premium video product hinted at in June when free on-demand video clips were launched. The new product, called CNN Pipeline, will feature multiple live video streams from around the world, according to the press release. CNN News Group Pres (and my former boss at CNN/SI) Jim Walton presented a demo to the Television Critics’ Association summer press tour, and compared some other network's recently announced offerings as being to 'PONG' as Pipeline is to Playstation. Jim doesn't mince words, ya know.
There is plenty of buzz in the media and the blogosphere - here's a roundup.
Broadcasting & Cable - LINK
Reuters - LINK
MediaBistro - Code for the Pipeline
PaidContent.org - How different can Pipeline be?
LostRemote - CNN.com gives Pipeline sneak peak
What's Happening at CNN - Pipeline Revealed
Posted by jetrotz at 07:31 AM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 17, 2005
Rescue Stroller
Need to look into the Mountain Buggy Urban Double Stroller. According to published news reports, one of these $600 units collapsed around a baby girl and saved her from a building collapse in New York last week. Read the story here on CNN.com.
Posted by jetrotz at 05:00 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 11, 2005
Rollover
Big news today on the Sam front. Amy reports that during today's 'Tummy Time', Sam demonstrated his ability to rollover not once, not twice, but THREE times. At just over thirteen weeks, we think that's pretty cool. Picture updates to come shortly.
Posted by jetrotz at 08:10 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack
July 05, 2005
First Fireworks
Emily and Warren Hutmacher were kind enough to invite a crowd over to their place in Avondale Estates for July 4th. It's a cute little town in the Atlanta environs where Warren is the city manager and wields the unique power to tell them when to start the show. Trouble is, he couldn't control the weather, too. After a brief thunderstorm, Sam was able to enjoy his first fireworks. No crying! Amazing!
Click here to view the gallery.
Posted by jetrotz at 06:15 PM | Comments (0) | TrackBack