Yearly Archives: 2005

I remember when I was younger, my parents allowed me to watch PG-13 movies before I turned 13, and Rated R movies before I turned 17. I remember hearing cuss words and seeing violence that my friends and I would talk about while waiting for our turn at tetherball. When I got home from class I’d kill King Koopa then shoot ducks with my Nintendo gun. Never once did I kill a fellow classmate, nor attempt to kill one. Watching movies and playing games were just that to me.

A recent survey has shown that parents are aware of video game ratings yet disregard them. Some may feel that it’s poor parenting to give a 15 year old child Doom 3 which is rated for 18+ year olds. But I think that it’s poor parenting when a 15 year old can’t handle playing a game rated for 18+ year olds. In this scenario the parent has 15 years to teach one simple concept of “this is a game, and it is not real life”, if they fail to do so, I cannot blame a video game for a child’s poor judgment. My optimistic view of the statistics here may be based on my personal experience only, but then again, isn’t that how everyone sees the world?

When I read articles like this I shed a small tear. For each wireless network that goes down an angel loses it’s wings, or something similar depending on your beliefs and religion. Orlando has lost it’s magic, and I’m not talking basketball. The free WiFi hotspots in downtown cost about $1,800 per month and about 27 people a day use the city funded resource. How unfortunate. If I were in Orlando, I’d bring two laptops just to help increase the numbers and preserve the free WiFi. Orlando wishes to have 200 users per day in order to keep the service up and running. I’d like to see Orlandoans protest the shut down by camping out with laptops in the downtown hotspot until WiFi is turned back on. But then again, if only 27 people show up for the protest, I’m not sure the course of action will reverse. Sorry wingless angels, walking isn’t so bad anyhow right?

In casual conversation about iPods (one of my few normal conversation topics) I have often been asked about wireless headphones. iPodlounge has reviewed a pair of Logitech iPod specific wireless headphones. These aren’t the first of their kind, and don’t really tickle the fancy of the iPodloungers. They do however give you a good idea what goes into wireless headphones and the other products that they’ve tested.

“At this point, iPod-specific wireless headphone technologies are nothing new; Bluetake started it with i-Phono (iPodlounge rating: B), Macally improved upon it with the BlueWave (iPodlounge rating: B+), and TEN Technolgy’s naviPlay (iPodlounge rating: A-) worked best”

Full article at iPodlounge

I live in San Francisco. There is no free parking here what so ever. Either you own a spot, rent a spot, or feed the meter. I find that between the Laundromat and the parking meters I’m always changing dollar bills for quarters. Sometimes I have to park in a vacant meter, run to a liquor store to buy a snack or soda, and ask for quarters. I fear that I could get caught one day parking in an expired meter. If only I could pay for the meter with something besides my laundry money. In Coral Gables, a Miami suburb, 4,573 parking meters allow you to pay with something other than quarters. You can pay for your parking meter by making a phone call. This isn’t new technology. Canada has been paying for parking via mobile phone for a bit now. But then again, it seems like every country starts out with the cool technology and it slowly comes to us in the states.

Americans get the land of the free, the home of the brave, and the last ones to get the cool stuff that comes out of Asia. CommunicAsia2005 showed some really awesome phones that I’ve decided I need to have or else I’ll most likely die. Samsung, LG, Panasonic, Sony Ericsson, and Motorola had booths that vr-zone.com covered. Samsung had the phone that I fell in love with immediately. The SPH-M7000 swept me off my feet as if I were Cinderella and it was prince charming, the shoe fits!

There’s a huge number of phones and the amount of mobile phone information is almost overwhelming. I may return to the site tomorrow just to take in more of the awesomeness that CommunicAsia2005 has shown us what we can’t have just yet.

Politics in Iran make me love being in America. I get a few emails a week making fun of President Bush or decisions that the government has recently made. I’m not saying that I support or back these jokes. I do however, appreciate the fact that I can receive these and not get prosecuted. Sometimes I forget that people died in order for us to be able to joke.

Iran is on a different level than us here in the US. They are now facing problems due to text messaging. Some people have even lost the ability to text message. Iran threatens to prosecute anyone who sends a text message that denigrates a candidate. There are only 6 million mobile phones in Iran, and 67 million people, but Iranian government officials believe that text messaging may sway the votes (which makes me wonder why they are even voting if it’s like that?). I now want to take advantage of text messaging and use up those 300 text messages I pay for each month, because I can.

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.