Monthly Archives: June 2005

So here is something that art geeks might really love. A cheap 3D scanner. This scanner only costs $90, which is a reasonable price. 3D scanning tech has been out there for awhile, but not really within a reasonable price range.

The scanner is run on open source software, so you aren’t tied down to any OS. Check out the story on how this little toy was made.

On a related note, art geeks (who would love to get their hands on this 3D scanner) met up in Los Angeles this weekend for DeviantArt’s first members summit. I went down to LA for fathers day and decided to cover the event for Wired as well. Here is my coverage. All in all, they might be artsy, but deep down they are still technocrats like us.

In College I used to date a girl who lived about 50 miles away. We got along really well, we could talk on the phone for hours at a time. That’s what killed my pocketbook. Back in the mid-nineties only local calls were free. The fact that she was out of my area code made her call a local-toll call, which usually ended up in $100+/month in phone calls. It’s much easier nowadays with mobile phones offering free long distance throughout the country, but you still pay a flat rate for a certain number of minutes.

When will we be satisfied, not until everything is the internet’s favorite price: free. Niklas Zennstrom knows this more than anyone else. Along with friend and colleague Janus Friis he created Kazaa, which became bigger than sliced bread after Napster. His new venture (which isn’t so new) is Skype. Skype uses the internet to make phone calls for little to no cost. Almost every day I read about Skype and how it’s making advances and becoming more popular. Soon you will be able to make a phone call from your computer to someone’s phone and vice versa via Skype. Needless to say I lost the girl, probably since I didn’t call her enough. So instead I’ll just have to Skype my sister who lives a few hundred miles away.

I never thought I’d see the day when Norton or McAfee had protection for your phone. That day still isn’t here, but I see it coming really fast. In the 6 months of 2005 over 50 mobile phone viruses have been spotted. The most notorious of them all is named Commwarrior, which spreads itself via Bluetooth. What would a phone virus do you ask? Drain your battery, erase your phone book, send out text messages to your contacts trying to flood mobile phone networks and incur charges for the handset user. Rather malicious considering that credit cards and bank accounts aren’t yet accessible on phones.

New electronics usually follow a trend. First, they come out and we (consumers) are totally wowed by the capabilities of the new electronics that appearance is usually a grey box. After the wow has worn thin, companies have to start flowing those creative juices and create an aesthetically pleasing product. It’s still the same thing, it just looks better. And those who say looks don’t count usually have ugly girlfriends. That’s why I’m going to be first in line to get the apple shaped TV. The fire engine one is pretty amazing, and the soccer ball TV is just asking to be kicked. I wonder what will come next, how about a nice toilet shaped TV for the bathroom?

This was too great to pass up. The Queen has purchased an iPod. Two days ago a friend of mine sent me an IM reading “My dad says he wants an iPod! I think I have a hip dad!” I’m going to have to tell her everyone and their Queen owns an iPod these days. I love the graphic for this! Does Bush have an iPod? I’m going to say most likely not.

When I was a kid, McDonald’s was a treat. I find it hilarious that my reward for good grades (my choice, not my mother’s) was dinner at McDonalds. “I worked hard and deserve a reward, how about some cheap unhealthy food!?. Gee Thanks mom.” Needless to say, happy meals made me happy. After I turned 14, I realized that McDonald’s wasn’t reward food, but more like broke college student at 2:00am food.

McDonald’s attracts the kids with heavy marketing via Ronald and the gang. Sometimes there’s a even a playground. The hipsters are sucked into burger land with urban commercials featuring new artists and trendy styles. Parents are lured through the golden arches by way of salads, bland ‘healthier’ burgers, and (a) satisfied rugrat(s). Us techheads have been left alone, until now. McDonald’s opened up a test site where WiFi internet, Plasma TV’s, real coffee, and new chicken sandwiches will be available. Come to think about it, some chicken nuggets and free WiFi would go well together.

Roxio just released a nice little bundle of software called The Boom Box. The 5 different applications are aimed at everything from recording LPs to mp3 to podcasting. Included with the neato looking iPod box comes:

CD Spin Doctor
Audio Hijack
iPodderX podcast software
MusicMagic Mixer Premium playlist software
iSpeak It text-to-audio software

I’m pretty excited about using iTunes as an alarm clock. I always wake up to some pop song on my clock radio that ends up sticking in my head for the first 3 hours of being awake. This way I can pre-determine my morning whistles and hums.

Found via TrendCentral

I called my pops yesterday. He didn’t answer the phone, so I left a voice mail. I’m unsure that he knows how to check the voicemail on his mobile phone. So I decided to call my mother instead and check in to see how momma was doing. I usually call mom on Sunday, and I usually talk for an hr so.

techdirt found a cool statistic that noted how Mother’s and Father’s Day, affect the amount of calls. Looks like there’s an 8% increase in phone usage during Father’s Day and 9% for Mother’s. From this you may jump to the conclusion that Father’s aren’t getting the love they deserve, that’s what I thought. But then I realized that Dad doesn’t really like to chat on the phone for so long, and that made it all better.

Yahoo! Bought Dialpad recently. Dialpad was a California based VoIP company that will soon enable Yahoo Messenger to not only do PC-to-PC calls but phone to phone or pc etc.

I feel that this isn’t the first type of deal that we’re going to see during this slow and painful VoIP movement. Using the internet to transfer voice in real time has had a few players to date. But I still feel that the big guys are sitting on their hands until the window of opportunity opens and mass market is ready to move into the next thing.

iTunes, Napster, Rhapsody, Wal*Mart, Seven-11, and now Google. If you didn’t recognize the trend on this string of company names then just crawl back to that cave you were living in for the last few years. Oh wait, there’s a new member to the ‘I want to sell mp3’s on the internet’ list, and you guessed it right, Google. Digg.com reports that multiple sources confirm this rather late entry into the game. But then again, Google isn’t usually first at doing anything, they’re just the best at what they do*.

*See Internet Search (google.com), Email (gmail.com), Maps (maps.google.com), and Photo Management (Picasa 2)

We at LIVEdigitally have chosen a digital lifestyle because without digital we would end up like this guy. Living an analog life obviously leads to picnic tablecloths indoors and goofy hats. I have seen mp3 mixers, CD mixers, iPod mixers, and of course record mixers. Tape cassette mixers is beyond anything I’ve seen, but alas it has been done. I wonder if he downloads songs and then records them to tapes? Sound quality on this system is not as nice as a freshly pressed vinyl, but I’m sure seeing this guy in action is quite amusing.