Gamers everywhere are rejoicing, the next year or so is promising to be filled with many top-notch games, Spore, Fifa09, TG09, Battlefield, etc, etc. I don’t follow the gaming industry religiously as I used to, mainly due to a lack of wastable time. But I keep track of a few games I really like, and in my daily checks this morning I found this video.  It’s by EA, a brilliant marketing effort for their new Tiger Woods 09 game. Continue Reading “The Jesus shot, Tiger Wood walks on water.” »

I’ve been a big fan of the GTD methodology (see What is GTD, and GTD on Wikipedia). I can’t say that I’ve mastered it, but it works when you actually follow through. My problem is procrastination, or short attention span to things I don’t really want to do.

But I’m working on it… One of the tools I’ve been using lately with great success is GTDinbox. I would like to tell you more about it soon (see the procrastination creeping in?). But in the meantime, I just felt like saying thanks to GTDinbox for helping me keep a Clean inbox with such little effort! Great job with this awesome plugin.

Look at this nice shinny clean inbox….

Yeah! Clean inbox with GTDinbox

More about the whole privacy issue with Google and Streetview. I think going to a private road is crossing the line, no pun intended. I see both sides of the argument and as a photographer, I can see where Google may feel its okay to do this. In the other hand, if I went out of my way to make my house be in a private road, then I expect it to be that way. Satellite images are one thing, but when you can take a picture at eye level where you might see into someone’s house, that’s not cool.

Continue Reading “more google privacy issues, Norcal is not happy.” »

I’m getting more excited about Spore coming out soon. The date is getting closer closer. Did you check out the trailer?

Well, Cnet put out an interview with Spore game-master Will Wright on their site. The interview is short and easy to read, but it brings the spirit of the game forth and frankly it just increases the anticipation for this game. After seven years, it is finally coming out. Continue Reading “Spore coming out soon! - Interview with Will Wright” »

Geez! three TED posts in a row, gotta tell you about other stuff, but sorry got one more for now.

I got the chance to catch up on a few TED episodes. Couple of them were okay but eh, not exciting or anything. The one that did get in my head today was the one with Rick Smolan. Rick tells us about a very interesting story about a kid he befriends while working on a photography self-assigned project. I got hooked onto the story quickly and listened as the drama unfolded. The grandmother dies and Mr Smolan is “willed” this child.

Imagine getting a call saying that you have a person that has been “willed” to you. It was a great story to listen and watch. Natasha’s story is great to listen to and she even comes up to the stage at the end. At the end of the story, I thought of my own life and how it could have been different with just a few seemingly unimportant differences early on. It also reminds me of the DMB song, Dancing Nancies “Could I Have Been Anyone Other Than Me... ” Its a cool story; as far as I am concerned, two thumbs up. More TED comments.

This one is a must see, this purely an artistic presentation. If you like classical piano then you should watch this. She’s 14 years old at the time of this writing, which would make her 18 now. She’s amazing when she improvises and then also on the song she plays afterward. She has a lot of talent and obviously 4 years later she’s gone out to do some great things.

She speaks about how she composes her music. She goes on about her inspirations, and she then explains the technical parts of writing the song. The video has a good mix of “theory” and “performance”. Many people have said that when you’re an artist you should work with other arts besides your favorite, she explains how this is true to her as well; her other art? painting.
The volunteer that comes up, is Goldie Hawn.

This is the 13th video I watch from the TED podcast, its from 2007 and its by AJ Jacobs; he wrote one of the books I read earlier this year. The talk is good but I felt it was a little too much of a book promotional talk.
There is value on this video, it is when he explains the experiences he got out of the year of living biblically. Its about 18 minutes long and its a great introduction to the book and the idea of choosing certain parts of the bible and not others. When you have your podcast client working and receiving the TED feed you should see this video there. otherwise you can find it on the TED site.

Trivia that matters.

• 1,000,000. The number of plastic cups we use on airline flights every 6 hours.
• 40,000,000 - Paper cups we use a day for hot drinks.
• Out of all the countries in the world, US has the largest percentage of its population imprisoned.
• 400,000 People die each year from smoking cigarettes.

“On 911 when that tragedy happened, 3000 Americans died, and do you remember the response? It reverberated around the world and it will continue to reverberate through time. It will be something that we talk about in 100 years. And yet on that same day 1100 Americans died from smoking, and the day after that another 1100, and every single day since then 1100 Americans have died…” — Chris Jordan (@TED Feb 2008).

• 65,000. the number of Teenagers that will begin smoking this month.
• 213,000. ER visits attributable to abuse and misuse of prescription drugs.
• 384,000. Women got breast augmentation surgery.
• 32,000. Number of breast augmentation surgeries performed each month.

I extracted these numbers from Chris Jordan’s presentation at TED. I’ve been watching each of the TED videos that are available and I think they’re great. If you don’t know what TED is, you should go check it out. I also have a little page about TED. What is TED?

Funny and clean video of Ode to Joy as done by a puppet with multiple personalities. Great finish too.

lol play it again.