Monthly Archives: May 2005

Most techies are also sci-fi fans. At a young age I remember my dad trying to explain what it meant to “Grok” something. Ironically enough at my tender age, I couldn’t understand it.

Knowing what it means now, I think it’s a great name for a search engine. Unfortunately Grokker, the visual search engine, doesn’t really live up to its name.

First off, it’s powered by Yahoo. Maybe I’m a search engine snob, but I often find that Yahoo’s results just aren’t as good as Google’s. But more important than that, its innovative design, while fun to play with, doesn’t really help you get to where you want to go.

But like I said, it is a fun layout to click around with. Check out the results for “LiveDigitally,” and see the different relationships we have to other sites.

The news I’d like to share with you today comes from this article. It talks about Hollywood studios requesting that digital TVs be designed with anti-piracy technology in place. Ok that’s fair, they don’t want people stealing stuff. However, I take issue with their threatening response to the FCC’s comment about how they can’t dictate how televisions or other similar devices are designed. I quote: “Hollywood studios say the ruling, if upheld, would discourage them from producing first-rate shows for over-the-air TV.”

Their comment would sort of imply they were shipping out first-rate shows right now. In which case I say to Hollywood BRING IT! Let’s see the second and third rate shows. If they lack plot, humor, drama, good acting they’re still not shocking me yet.

It would have been a much better threat if Hollywood had said the following: “The ruling, if upheld, would discourage them from continuing to flood the television with non-stop images of scantily clad attractive people attempting to act or avoid being voted off the island.”

They could have gone one further, if they really wanted to get something done. Hollywood COULD have said “In place of our first-rate programming, we will begin flooding over-the-air television with a veritable deluge of scantily clad, horrendously unattractive people.”

Such a threat would have one of two effects. Either a, it would help continue the transition many people are making towards cable and satellite for entertainment or b, it would shut down pirating activities at once.

I hope someone in Congress sees the merit of my solution, seeing as the battle over anti-piracy technology is now in their hands.

This small little ball plays 20 questions with you when you are trapped in the car with your grandmother and that strange grandmother smell.

Based on 20q.net, the ball will ask you questions that you can reply to with “yes,” “No,” “Sometimes” and “Rarely.” By the end of the 20 questions, the ball has to guess who you were thinking of. It’s a technological spin on one of the oldest games there is.

While 20q.net learns with every person it plays with, this ball’s artificial intelligence is static, but it’s still reported to be staggeringly sharp.

After a quick listen in on Leo Laporte’s podcast of TWIT (This Week In Tech, which is the new name for Return of The Screen Savers) I heard about and visited a site which put a quick smile on my face. BoxedThoughts.com is just that, thoughts in a box. You register a name (numbers only) and post away! The filter takes out all url adds, screen names, email addresses, and all other internet space junk.

The range of emotions people generate yet are not able to fully express is captured right here on this nook on the net. It also is a nice monotony breaker for the cubicle ridden 9-to-5er’s

Tianyutek, a company whose name I do not dare try and pronounce, sent me a little message about a foldable piano.

From what… echem the company says, it sounds like this roll-up piano is similar to the Keytare from the 80’s. Yes the keyboard-guitar infusion that rocked ever so hard, until everyone realized they sucked. But now, you can rock on your keyboard and roll it up before anybody sees you pretending to be Amadeus. The material looks pretty light, so you could stuff your pants with it when you are done and act like David Bowie from Labyrinth.

Also, I will try extra hard to stop all references to the 80’s for, a good week.

Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we are giving away (yes giving) iPod Mini cases from Slappa. That’s right, take your glasses off, clean them with your shirt, and reread that last line. Slappa and LIVEdigitally will be giving away thirteen Slappa Shockshell iPod Mini cases. Your response: “How do I get one!?!”

Each week we (LIVEdigitally) will post between one and four “contest posts”. Your mission should you choose to accept: find the “contest post” of the week (there may be more than one) and leave a comment. As long as your comment has a valid email address, that you have access to, then you are an eligible candidate for the hot, sleek, protective, Shockshell case.

The content of your comment is not required to contain anything specifically iPod, Slappa, LIVEdigitally related. A haiku written strictly about how good looking I am is just as eligible as a paragraph explaining how your ex-girlfriend now dates your exbest-friend.

Winners will be chose at random, and contacted via email.

There are two posts that have gone up today which qualify as “contest posts” so keep your eyes peeled and your browsers open, LIVEdigitally is going to hook you up!!

From the maker of montage-a-google comes a new Google based game called Guess-the-Google.

I wouldn’t recommend any game that I haven’t tried out myself and after a few rounds I can safely say this is a fun little pick-me-up. It’s almost the exact reverse of Montage-a-Google. For Guess-the-Google, a group of pictures are provided and you have to guess the keyword that they are all related to. Some can be a bit of a challenge. I tried really hard to get in today’s top scores, so I could show off here, but alas, I am not a Google image expert.

Check out this virtual image of Berkeley (my old college stomping ground).

Avideh Zakhor and her research team made this virtual map of the city in 4.5 hours. That’s 30 minutes of driving time, with a high powered laser strapped to your car, and four hours of data processing.

If you ask me, it kicks the crap out of Google’s Satellite images, if only because its up to date. This New Scientists article, however, makes it sound like the application of this mapping won’t be to amuse yourself in the cubicle, but to help soldiers conduct urban warfare.

I love modern art which not only recognizes, but is inspired by, technology and how it has changed our lives. Another guilty pleasure of mine are emoticons. As dorky as I feel whenever I use them, I can’t help but place an animated smiley face to emphasize my point. It makes me wish I had emoticon stickers to use in real life.

Web Are You comes pretty close. Leave it with a friend and update them with your current state through the Internet. You can let them know when you are happy, sad, upset just like in real IM conversations!!!!