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I'm tearing up a bit.
She started the blog to document her travels in India this summer. Have fun, sis!
UPDATE: I added a feed to the left-hand column of this page. Under "Photos", you should see "Zinn in India", with links to the most recent entries there.
If you haven't seen the new TV spots, you should check them out.
I mentioned a while back that I haven't yet had cause to do much video (TV or movie) downloading from the iTunes Store. I imagine if I had a video iPod I would do more, though I don't know when I'd really watch much on an iPod; I don't commute on a train or subway, and I don't find myself waiting with a time to kill very often.
Still, I think the availability of TV shows on iTunes is fantastic. Here are a few reasons why:
1. This week our TiVo had a hiccup in recording Heroes and Studio 60. (Long story, but it's actually not TiVo's fault.) What are we to do? Within hours of realizing the problem, I had downloaded the missed episodes from iTunes. Problem solved. (Even better, I set my laptop on the dresser, grabbed the Apple remote, and used Front Row to watch Heroes from bed. That's more in appreciation of the MacBook Pro than the iTunes Store, but it was fun.)
2. Last spring Dana and I started watching Battlestar Galactica on DVD; we'd been given season 1 for Christmas (a great gift). By that time season 2 was already on the air, but we stayed away from that so we could go in proper order. Season 2 was done in two halves, for some reason, so the next DVD set we got was Season 2.0, the first half of season 2.
When we watched the last episode in that set, season "2.5" had been on the air for a number of weeks, but the DVD set wasn't going to be available for a while. Having just watched the cliffhanger, we couldn't wait to see what happened next. Again, we downloaded just the episode we needed, this time within the hour. On that occasion we hooked up my laptop to the TV and watched it there.
3. Classic TV. They've got some great old shows on the store, as well. I downloaded and watched the pilot episode of The Incredible Hulk. That was fun. Glad I didn't have to buy a full DVD set just to watch it.
CBS posted on YouTube an iPhone demo given by Phil Schiller. I realized as I watched it that I hadn't yet actually hadn't yet seen the real screen being used by a real finger. Watching it made me want one more.
After getting up at 3:45 am to wait in line to see Steve Jobs deliver the MacWorld Expo keynote address this morning, I'm finally relaxing a bit this evening. Jessica is asleep, and I have a chance to collect my thoughts about today's biggest announcement: the Apple iPhone.
(image from Macworld.com)
Let me start with the bottom line: I want one.
In the months leading up to this announcement, there have been wild rumors and speculation about a cell phone/iPod thingy from Apple. My opinion then, as now, is that I'll probably always want a dedicated iPod anyway, so if my phone can play music (or even video), that may come in handy now and then but it's not a feature that I have to have. However, there is one area ripe for improvement: cell phone software interfaces and synching. I said before today that if Apple could apply their magic touch and really make contact and calendar synching work, and make an interface that is intuitive, easy, and pretty, then they could really have something.
Well, it sure looks like they did just that.
Interestingly, the widescreen iPod with touch control features on their own are pretty sweet. I would upgrade to a standalone iPod with those features, though maybe not for $499 plus a service contract (more on price in a moment).
I've been thinking about getting a "smartphone" recently, because I would like to be able to check for emails now and then while out and about. I've never had one, so I can't speak to the ease of use of the keyboards, but I'm inclined to believe Steve Jobs' claim that the touchscreen keyboard on the iPhone is as least as easy to use, if not easier, than the keyboards on Blackberries or other smartphones.
Even with all this, I'm not head over heels in lust. First, use of the internet features relies on data over the cellular network, which in this case uses EDGE. I still get confused by 3G cell phone technologies, but I'm pretty sure this is the slower of the ultra-modern data options. I suspect the reason Apple would go this way is simple: for other reasons they've ended up partnering with Cingular (soon to be AT&T), and EDGE is the technology Cingular uses. Why did they go with Cingular? Steve Jobs says "they're the biggest and the best". Maybe true, I don't know. I'm guessing they were the partner willing to bend and not enforce the kind of demands on Apple that wireless providers typically enforce on cell phone manufacturers.
So I'm curious to see what data access is really like on this phone. I'm also curious to get beyond the demonstrations and see if the interface and usability, which look amazing, hold up to actual, everyday use. I wonder if scrolling through long lists by "tossing" the list with a flick of the finger is really efficient, or if you'll end up overshooting and coming back and forth to find a given entry.
And what about the price: $499 for a 4GB model, $599 for an 8GB model, both with a 2 year contract with Cingular. I don't know yet what a Cingular plan would cost that would allow for decent data use. I will say this: if you're willing to pay $500 for the phone, you may as well pay an extra $100 and get twice the storage space. If you're going to keep a fair amount of music or photos on the phone, and any TV or Movies, you'll want the extra space.
Why is the price so high? Well, I wouldn't be surprised if it is expensive for Apple to make, at the moment. If it's very popular, they'll probably be able to bring down the cost. For what it's worth, the original 5 GB iPod was introduced with a price of $399, followed shortly by a 10 GB model for $499. They sold a few. These prices certainly came down. I also think there is value for Apple in having a product priced at a premium. They don't want consumers thinking this is just another cell phone. Better if it's understood that it's more; enough people will pay the premium for the superior product, and Apple's "coolness" and "gotta-get-one" factors are enhanced.
I was a little disappointed today that there wasn't more immediate gratification. No glimpse at Leopard, the next Mac OS, no new iLife or iWork. The AppleTV is kind of cool, but nothing that makes me drool. Maybe the AppleTV would move me closer to the tipping point where I would buy more video content from the iTunes Store. (Owning a video iPod, or iPhone, would also move me closer.) The iPhone was really the news, but there aren't any out at the Apple booth to play with.
When I got back to the hotel room, my initial explanation of the iPhone was tempered, I think, by the lack of anything to play with and the fact that being up since before 4 AM was catching up to me. The possible success of the iPhone may be portended by Dana's reaction when I showed her the demo movies at apple.com: "I can't believe you weren't more excited by this. This would be great for people like me. We should get 5."
Not the noun, but the verb.
Hopefully this won't go to their heads.
This is just fun.
[Note: I had to remove the embedded version, because it doesn't fit in the middle column of this page. I've wanted to widen this whole page for a while, but I don't want to take time to do it now. In the meantime, here is the link to the video remix of Bush singing "Sunday Bloody Sunday".]
This is my first time linking to Youtube on this blog. Who knows how long Youtube will be around, but they've definitely come up with a video sharing system that has caught the eye of the Internet. Don't worry, I don't want to turn this blog into nothing but a novelty-sharing list, but the occasional link to something goofy and fun couldn't hurt too much, right?
Found via O'Reilly Radar.
I had some time on the plane this weekend to make a couple of updates to the Photo Timeline:
The speed of the auto-play might be a little slow right now; I figure as the timeline gets more dense (as more time passes and has to fit in the same length line), the speed will seem better. If I get the chance maybe I'll have the speed automatically adjust so it never seems slow. In the meantime, it's already an improvement. Check it out.
Photo Timeline of the construction to add a room to our house.
http://www.theasics.com/nonzero/home_addition_timeline/
We're really underway, now. The brick, tree, and grass are gone, a trench has been dug for the footing, and they're prepping to pour some concrete before too long.
I thought of a kind of cool idea for a way to view the progress on our new room. What if you could do something kind of like time-lapse photos, but with a slider so you could scrub back and forth along the timeline? Once I'd thought of it, I almost had to see if I could build it.
I'm pretty happy with the result. If you're not at all interested in what I did to make this, stop reading now and just go play with it.
Aside from building the web page interface, which was a chance to use the Yahoo UI library for the first time for the slider, I also did some automation on my PowerBook to make the whole process a bit easier. I ran into some frustration with Automator; seems like there should be ways to do some things that there aren't good ways to do. Still, it's not too bad. I managed to create an Automator application that makes the whole workflow pretty easy.
Basically, I go take pictures. I import them into iPhoto (insert memory card and click 'Ok'). Then, I add "Home Addition" to the comments of the new pictures, and add "Position_A" to the photo taken from the first position, "Position_B" to the comments of the photo taken from the second position, etc. Then I double-click the automator application icon and sit back to watch. Automatically, the photos are found, copied, renamed, scaled down for web use, and uploaded to the right folder on the web server. Once there, the web page knows how to find the files, extract the necessary metadata, and build the photo timeline.
So I can easily update the photo timeline a few times a week, or even daily.
Come back to check on the photo timeline for updates. In addition to new photos, I've got a couple of ideas for features to add, which I think will be pretty fun.
Found a video of a live performance of level 1-1 of Super Mario Bros. If you remember playing this game at all, you'll get a kick out of this video. Cleverly recreated.
Watch the video. It's 2-3 minutes long.
The latest web distraction to steal a few minutes of my day: Weboggle.
There's a new game every 3 minutes or so, you can see scores from other users (some of whom are cheating as teams and others must be cheating somehow, I just know it), and with scores comes a list of words you didn't get (as well as words only you got, but that hasn't happened to me yet).
Everytime I'm there, I have to say "just one more game" at least three times before I can actually leave. If you try it out, I'm usually there as "Ken"; look for me in the lower half of the scores list.
Google, in what I think may be their first promotional partnership of this kind, is hosting a puzzle challenge related to the upcoming release of The Da Vinci Code movie.
A new puzzle is released every day for 24 days (this is day 2). They say the puzzles will get progressively more challenging. Once those 24 puzzles are out, the first 10,000 people to submit answers get a 'replica' (I'm guessing cheap and plastic) of a codex from the book/movie. Those 10,000 people are finalists, and they have to solve 5 more puzzles. The winner gets a bounty of Sony goodies, and a trip to the major cities from the story: New York, Paris, Rome, and London.
I'm playing along for now; I like puzzles anyway, and a short daily puzzle never hurt anyone. I do hope they get a little tougher as time goes by, though.
If you're wondering "how they get you", it's this: to play, you have to have or establish a Google ID (free), and to play the puzzles you have to visit Google's Personalized home page. That's what's in it for Google; anyone playing will have to visit the personalized home page, possibly every day. If Google can convince new users to stick around and try the home page, that's eventually good news for them; they could someday have AdWords ads based on your home page content. Google's Personalized home page has some nice features, but I haven't made it my home page, and I've known about it for a while.
Anyway, if you are interested in the Google/Da Vinci puzzle challenge, you start here: http://www.google.com/davincicode.
I use my cell phone as my alarm clock. This has the added benefit of ensuring that I charge my phone pretty much every night. Dana recently said she was tired of the same old alarm noise in the morning, and I realized it was time to get a couple of new ringtones.
Several months ago I discovered, through Google and some trial and error, how to make a ringtone from an MP3 and transfer it to my phone (Motorola v600). The trickiest part, in my opinion, is editing the music to a short section that sounds natural when it repeats. I import the MP3 to Garageband, which converts it to AIFF, edit it there, then send it back to iTunes and have iTunes re-encode it to MP3, at a sample rate my phone will like. Then send it to the phone over Bluetooth, and it's done.
At the time I did this with music from Fantasmic, and loved the result. So last weekend I picked a few more, and I now have ringtones for the Overture from Candide, Doctor Who, Deep Space Nine, the Price is Right, and, probably my favorite, Linus & Lucy (the Peanuts theme).
I would post samples, but I'm pretty sure that would be breaking some copyright rules. I don't have a problem arguing that what I've done is fair use of music I own, but distribution would be different.
Anyway, it was a fun project. I'm overwhelmed, sometimes, with all the fun things one COULD do with music, photos, and movies (and iLife makes much of it easy), so it's nice to actually sit down and do a project like this.
Any of you unfamiliar with file extensions will likely still recognize common extensions like ".doc", ".xls", ".pdf", or even ".mp3" . Windows uses these extensions to determine a file's type, and thereby which application should be used to open it. Mac OS 9 didn't use file extensions at all; it kept type and application info in a small extra file 'attached' to a given file called a "resource fork". Mac OS X now uses a sort of hybrid system, which I confess I haven't ever fully investigated, but for the most part file extensions are the rule (though they are often hidden from the user's view).
I recently learned of the file extension matching my initials: ".kmz". It's being used for a saved workspace in Google Earth. These files are actually zipped containers of several smaller files. Google acquired the technology behind Google Earth from a company called Keyhole, so I'm guessing the file extension comes from something like "Keyhole Map Zipped".
All in all, I could think of many much less interesting file types to have my initials on.
Found an interesting, small little web application called LoanBack (found via O'Reilly Radar).
This site does one thing: it creates a custom promissory note for anyone who wants to lend/borrow money between friends or family. You answer a handful of questions, and a professional note is produced, complete with payment schedule.
I like finding sites that fill a specific need by doing one, straightforward thing. LoanBack has plans to add features, but I hope they keep the clean, simple process intact.
Link: LoanBack.
I feel I should report on my experience attending the MacWorld Expo keynote. I will try to resist a long commentary on the new announcements from Apple (iLife '06, Intel iMac, MacBook Pro), but I will include a few comments.
Going to the keynote at MacWorld is quite something. I arrived in the line outside Moscone center at around 4:45 am. There were maybe 100-150 people ahead of me (I'm not great at estimating crowd sizes). I enjoy the conversations that can be overheard in this line. People talking about previous MacWorlds, favorite Apple hardware (and least favorite), favorite websites, favorite tech gadgets (iPods, and others).
Just after 6:00 am, the line is easily several hundred people long. At that time we're let inside, where those with priority seating are sent to one area to wait, and the rest of us are sent to a large holding area, where we take a seat. In this area, laptops and iPods all come out of their cases. Nowhere else have I seen so many Apple products in use at once. Around 8:30 am, the excitement level picks up, and folks begin standing up and putting away their laptops. And at 8:55 am, we were sent down the hall and up the two sets of escalators to the keynote hall. This part is not unlike a stampede. I'd be surprised if no one was hurt.
Let me describe the keynote hall situation. The ballroom is large. Not stadium concert large, but convention center large. The front 25-35% is for Apple Employees and other VIPs. They and the press are seated first. (Al Gore, who is on Apple's Board of Directors, was in the front couple of rows.) Then those with priority seating are let in. By 8:55 am, when the stampede I was in arrived, the back 25% was largely empty, and the density increased going forward. I was able to get about halfway back (single open seats were easier to find). I was just behind one of the big screens showing those in the way back what was going on. It was handy for me to watch that screen during demos, and then the live stage for the rest.
The crowd was impressed with some Apple financial updates, but the collective 'ooh's, 'aah's, and other mumblings really came during the iLife '06 demos. I swear I heard multiple mutterances of "I could have used that for such and such I did last month for the holidays."
The crowd was also very happy to hear that Intel macs were ready early, though the rumors were so prevalent that I can't believe too many attendees were surprised. Still, I think the crowd, used to Apple being an afterthought of chip suppliers, was happy to see the Intel exec make an appearance.
Coming out of the keynote, it's impressive to see the Apple ads up on bus stops around town. They must choreograph those to within an hour or so. Lots of people crowd straight into the exhibit hall to get to the new toys right away. Others, like me, are tired after a long morning, and take a breather before heading towards the exhibit hall. Eating lunch helps.
That's my story. It's fun; geek fun, to be sure, but fun.
For about 3 years, the website for Great Expawtations Dog Training, Dana's company, looked like this. I think that "k" was from a test we did once when moving the site from one server to another.
We've got a new version up now. There are still some additions and edits to be made, and tinkering to be done, but it's a nice step forward from the old placeholder. http://www.greatexpawtations.com
On a sort-of related note, I was pleased to discover recently that if you do a Google search for "east coast mineral", at the moment the first search result is for Martin Zinn Expos. Very cool.
I've been trying to learn a bit about using Google Maps for your own purposes. Since it's helpful to have a project to try out new tricks, I went ahead and made a sort of travelogue of our Road Trip.
It's mainly a lab I've used to experiment with Google Maps and layering data onto them. It's not the fanciest implementation I've seen, by any means, but it's been fun to work on.
If you haven't spent any time with Google Maps, yet, then you should definitely play around a bit. Drag, zoom, look at Satellite and Hybrid.
(FYI - Most browsers are supported, but Opera and IE 5.0 are not.)
