Cool Gadgets and Things ...

NIKON AW100 rugged camera review - FAIL

2011-12-27T13:02:00.000-08:00

I did my homework: there are 3 "cool" rugged cameras on the market today: Sony TX10, Panasonic TS3 and Nikon AW100 - 3 latest and greatest. I have my second tough Olumpus (1030SW) that I use a lot and was looking to replace. I have Canon S90 that I absolutly love - my compromise to beloved Canon DSLR that I just can not carry with me.

All I wanted was some bump in quality. I have no idea why Nikon put 16Mpix on such a small sensor, but well. Flikr pictures looked OK, just a bit noisy. I played with camera in local shop. It was snappy. I ordered it in BH www.bhphotovideo.com - they had a best price a week ago.

Camera looked cool. Orange. I took it for a walk. Now.... I did not expected much. I just assumed technology advanced. It did for iPhone that I gradually updated form v 1 to 4S. I assumed it is a camera for ACITVE life style. Camera that should take a decent picture of adventures: ski, swimming or soccer. This is a rugged camera after all. Right?

Now, in this respect, Nikon AW 100 is a complete failure. You can not shoot moving objects. Not without super bright sun - I did not tried that, so can not promise it will actually work. I live in Seattle. It is a bit cloudy here, but that's life. I have no idea how people managed to took a picture of fishes. Sea turtles I do understand. :)

Now the punch line: when left to it own devices, even in SPORT mode with ISO Auto Nikon pick a silly speed: 1/6 for example. Oh, well. Even my old Olumpus Stylus 1030SW knows much better then that.

I got Canon S90 for exact this reason so I can set speed I want as SPORT mode on P&S historically sucked. I had old SONY many years ago and it was bringing it as low as 1/30 that was totally not cool, but... I would NEVER assume that in our day and age, such a respectable company as Nikon would do 1/6 sec. in Auto sport mode.

I took same picture with my iPhone 4S: no problem. It even snapped image quicker than Nikon.

Yes, in cloudy days I do not expect much, but Nikon have enough ISO range to leverage that.

If I force it to higher ISO, it will do better, but there are only 3 options: AUTO (Does not work as expected), Up to 400 (not enough?) and manual. Going trough menus to set ISO every time is not what I want to do.

Yes, I know that higher ISO means grain. But better grain than ruined image with motion blur.

Anyway, iPhone can do it, old Olumpus 1030 do it OK and Canon S90 does it fantastic.

Nikon AW100 does not do it. It is noisy, but it is also stupid: If it failed simple land test, I would not take it under water or to the mountains.

It went back to BH photo and video today.

Bottom line:

Nikon, please get real :)

All these GPS, 1080P, tilt control and 16Mpix are useless gimics if camera FAILS to take a basic pictures of my kids. Life is not still, get fucking real, make a rugged camera that can take a pictures of real MOVING world. In Seattle ;)

Nikon's advertisement picture with dirt bike stopped frizzed is a bull shit. IMHO. I was not able to take a clear picture of my kid standing almost still, not unless I manually deal in high a ISO.

Nikon AW100 - FAIL.

This is a Nikon AW 100 advertisement:
"

Sharper objects in motion

To ward off motion blur, the AW100's motion detector automatically tracks moving subjects and adjusts the camera's settings to keep them in focus."

This is a real life: best attempt. Auto or Sport mode. Kid is not moving too fast, he is doing bridge. Not riding a freaking bike. Sky looks not too dark, not much darker then bike picture. Right? Look on his legs. I picked this picture to show that camera was able to focus on subject and I was not moving too, but small movement will be blurred. Person turn head, walk, e.t.c. - I have many ruined pictures from this test walk. Camera is unusable for "real life". You can not walk and snap. May be it will work better in bright sun, but under water or in misty mountains? Duh .... It does not work in park.

Now, this is my OLD Olympus 1030SW. High in the mountains. Fog. Really dark. Skiing down slope. Picture was taken while I was also skiing down. Bumpy ride. But ... Magic! Stop motion! BINGO. They do not even have VR or stabilization on this camera. and I used simplest "AUTO" mode. Not even sport. You see how dark it is? I also used ZOOM on second picture that made aperture even smaller I suspect. Still, while may be a bit grainy it is totally OK and usable pix. It is memories. Not motion blur. :)

Now... What's wrong with Nikon? :)

This is awesome

2011-04-05T15:40:00.001-07:00

How do you like your sushi rolls?

2011-03-27T14:39:00.001-07:00

We proudly serve a Radio-maki, sir!
With all these rare micro elements. It is safe, unless you a small baby, capish?

If you are concerned that your neko (cat) glow at night, do not!

Upgrading through every version of windows

2011-03-03T20:32:00.001-08:00

This is just ... AWESOME!!!

Fushigi Ball! What is that?

2011-02-13T20:31:00.000-08:00

I got a new toy!!! It is very simple. It is a ... crystal ball! Cool one. It is heavy, it has some metal ball inside of clear plastic. While it is fun for itself, it used for practice of a cool skill: contact juggling.

Now, before I got mine in FredMeyer store :) I did some research, as I do not buy "As seem on TV" items often (I got cool a cleaning snake once and very happy with it: it helps to get my long hairs our of drains).

So, clearly, Fushigi is an item that target seemingly wrong customers and as result, there is a lot of bad rap on internet. :)

First, Fishigi is actulay very cheap, as if you would like to get in to contact juggling with plastic ball, you will need to pay some thing like 50$ on Amazon to get similar items:

Frequently Bought Together

Price For All Three: $50.89

These items are shipped from and sold by different sellers. Show details

Buy the selected items together

I would not argue about quality, but usually all these juggling supplies made in China anyway and does not look like iPhone anyway. Fushigi looks just fine and comes with DVD, bag and ball itself, that is kind of unique: it has metal shiny part inside that plane plastic ball does not have.

So, price is - steal.

Second, Fushigi IS not for small kids or people without coordination. It should not be drooped on hard surface. Enclosed one pager said it loud and clear. And it ask to WATCH DVD first. :)

If you watched YouTube clip with some strange lady ( I did!) dropping Fishing and Acrylic ball from here balcony on street ... Well... These people are ... you know ... a bit extreme ;) (they were catching bounced balls!). I would not do that and I do not think Fushigi or even high quality Acrylic balls are designed for that particular exercise.

But, Fushigi is a cool ball and mine survived many drops on carpet just fine :)

Now, here come the #3:

Fushigi is a wrong toy for people who do not want to invest in learning contact juggling and it may be a wrong ball to start learning contact juggling as you will drop it a lot :)

Otherwise, it is a greta toy and great buy!

But, you can learn with Fushigi if you are careful.

I personally love this ball and I think it worth 20$ with it DVD and bag. You can pick it up at Amazon (I bough it locally)

But, I would recommend to get SIL-X ball to do DVD tricks using it first

This way, your walls and room will stay safer and your Fushigi ball will be scratched less :)

But you can do some tricks form DVD with Fushigi itself it you are careful.

And if you want to get some cool Acrylic ball, this may be it:

Have fun!

Higonokame and Higonoknifu - Japanese pocket folder knifes

2011-01-04T19:21:00.000-08:00

I brought two of these folders from my last trip to Japan.

If you want to know more about history of this knife, read this - best info I found so far.

You can see two knifes on this picture: top one is not a real Higonokame, the bigger one is "the Higonokame (TM)"

Both have San-Mai blade (3 layers) and both are very sharp as of now. There are many Higonokame knifes exist, some are very expensive, but the real "pencil sharpener" one is really cheap. I even saw one for around 5$ (blade made from simple one layer steel).

What is common for "real" Higonokame is it is a roughest example of Japanese craftsmanship. It is so rough, you would not believe it is Japanese. And when I say "rough" I does not mean "artistically rough": I was making a better tools in school when I was a small kid: sure thing more straight and more finished than this one in a couple of hours. Sure enough this knife would get a very low, no pass mark from our teacher. It is ugly rough ;) Almost any Higonokame I tested was defective in some way. Luckily, blade itself seems to be mostly OK. So it is mostly fit and finish. But still, this would not fly even in China :-) (they do make some cool knifes and swords, btw, nothing to be ashamed off, but what I mean is a cheap knock-off knifes you can buy in USA for cheap: they will fell apart quick (or not!), but it will have a much better finish when you buy it)

Amazingly, that "fake" Higonokame, that came from respectful shop in Kyoto even more rough and handle is touches the blade: I bough some discounted re-sharpened knife with discount just for fun.

http://openkyoto.com/stores/real-kyoto-knives-aritsugu-knives.html

Just like most people I am planing to finish and "fix" my Higonokame :)

Also, they easily rust, so it is not a good "pocket" knife for place I live. Most importantly, there is no lock and I try not use knifes without lock: I have quite a few accidents with my pocket knifes when I was a kid (but luckily still have all my fingers). But there are a special holding bar, that kind of work like manual lock and this knife is probably OK to sharpen pencil :-) or do some wood sculpturing.

Amazingly, we found a new use for this knife: creating cuts in bread dough before putting it the oven. It works amazingly well.

Anyway, this is a cool looking knife for my collection. Not very useful, but it has some meaning for me and I like it.

Rails vs .NET

2010-12-01T13:17:00.001-08:00

Malware on MAC History

2010-11-27T12:45:00.000-08:00

I found this nice list on Sophos website.

I was looking for it for a long time.

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/11/24/apple-mac-malware-short-history/

You can also read a less detailed summary here

http://www.clamxav.com/

Btw, I was looking on this cool link

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/11/25/new-windows-zero-day-flaw-bypasses-uac/

I hope it will be patched soon, but not that sure about XP and many users who skip security updates or user pirate OS with update disabled.

But per Sophos it is not all bright:

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2010/11/18/free-anti-virus-for-mac-150000-active-users-and-plenty-of-malware-found/

Well...

HomePipe for Windows Phone 7 is Top Rated App in Productivity on Microsoft Marketplace

2010-11-12T16:43:00.000-08:00

It is a great application and free. Go get it if you have a new cool Windows Phone 7 :-)

iPhone 4 prototype was 1080p!

2010-08-04T15:50:00.000-07:00

Found in nature, grossly oversized, have more buttons.

:-)

Industrial design rulez!

Apple battery charger is a buity!

2010-08-02T08:25:00.000-07:00

It is very small and sure is a right step to keep our planet cleaner from toxic waste.

Best Applications for iPhone/iPod/iPad to study Japanese - my picks

2010-05-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

Here is a list of links to Apple AppStore for iPhone/iPod/iPad applications I found useful for my Japanese study.

Japanese – great dictionary, well worth the money. IMHO.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/japanese/id290664053?mt=8

Kotoba! (Japanese dictionary) – free alternative to the above.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kotoba-japanese-dictionary/id288499125?mt=8

Japanese Phrases & Lessons – awesome application with tons of audio files (huge), kana, kanji, grammar, lessons and flashcards, tests and even stories! – getting better and better with time. If you only buy one application to study Japanese make it THIS ONE.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/japanese-phrases-lessons/id303488128?mt=8

Human Japanese – yet another eBook with some extra like test and audio. Not as deep as above, but more systematic if that is what you need.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/human-japanese/id304090210?mt=8

Japanese 101: Kansai Dialect – if you need it or feel a sympathy to this popular Japanese dialect.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/japanese-101-kansai-dialect/id316390868?mt=8

Japanese Language Proficiency Test (JLPT) N5 Vocabulary - if you want to compare yourself with some standard level.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/japanese-language-proficiency/id318845560?mt=8

Kana (Japanese Hiragana & Katakana) – a very simple, but “game like” kana tutor. A bit less boring than similar apps, but I could not find anything more fancy.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kana-japanese-hiragana-katakana/id294280588?mt=8

KanjiPop: Kanji Practice in a Fun Game – similar to above, “game like” for Kanji. Nice, but not too addictive.

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kanjipop-kanji-practice-in/id295235915?mt=8

There are many others, if you see something you like, please let me know (especially if it mix game and study or use “brain tech” to increase and improve memorization).

While all these applications are great and there are many more for Kanji study for example on Apple App Store, the key is to use them and learn every day of course.

Facts about Facebook

2010-05-13T16:52:00.001-07:00

[Source: Online PhD Programs for MashableMashable.com]

Holly war on boobies again and what I think about it.

2010-02-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

Apple "rethink" it rules again. Read this:

http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/iphone-porn/

No more preatty girls in longenrie. Dunno why. They looks cute. I have no idea if there are Applications on Apple AppStore that are more open, but I never saw a fully nakid one yet. (Was not looking so)

As hypocratic as it is, Apple have to "bend".

I was thinking what will make sence to get out of this stupid nonsense?

Here is a simple rules for iTunes I would implement. Note: while it make sense, it does not
garanty profit: that is the main reason why implementation of such rules are very unlikly.

1) Age verification: no visa - no "adult" things. Deafult is -super safe. No games like Doom even. No kill, no sex. Even Stick Wars game should be baned - why let kids kill even a stick man? Bad Bad Bad.

2) They need parent/kid account split. I do not know if they do it today. Same as above: if parent put kid on his account, such sub-account do not have adults right.

3) For all grown up: deafult : no sex, no violnece, no ofecive language - this 3 check boxes should be manualy swithced on on iTune account

4) All this shit should be cross iTunes. ex: "Gamer" movie should not be visible to ANYONE unless loged in top iTunes as adulat and unless you have ( all 3 for this one) checked on.

That how I see it: very simple. If you are kid - tough luck, grow up, if you are adult, you have to opt-in for sex and violence. :-)

But it not gona happen in our hyprocratic society: blowing heads out is OK, while looking on nakid boobs is not. Shame: I would ban violence first.

And for the record: as iPhone developer I do not care much about this "ban" as I am not developing such adult applications myself, I just have a child like wonder why boobs are considered so bad by some one.

My favorite iPhone applications for 2009

2010-01-02T16:16:00.000-08:00

Some are free, some are not, but probably worth the money.

Classics - nice UI with some free classic books. Pure for amusement as Stanza became almost as good and much more usedfull

Stanza - MUST have. eBook ready and downloader.

Apple Remote - must have if you stream music around your house.

VLC remote (do not have it, as I use Apple Remote) but if you like browse your file system and play DVD folders.

X-Plane - fly sym, there are a few versions.

Wolfstein 3D - id s/w game, nostalgic

Google Mobile - search by voice - can be handy some times.

Google Earth - very cool

Bloomberg - you know...keep track on these stocks, even so build in app is probably good enough.

Flashlight :-) can be handy in dark (no kidding - while iPhone screen it bright enough, this give some extra light)

Evernote - if you use this cool service

Dropbox - if you use this cool service

Kindle for iPhone - if you have Kindle or want to check a free books

RedLazer - scan barcode and give you best price. Nice.

SnapTell - same as above, but do it from product picture

Snappr.net - can read square barcodes - better camera of 3GS made it working. If you want to read these funcy Japanese labels.

Skype - only work for WiFi, but nice to have.

MotionX GPS Drive - low cost navigation. Good if you need turn by turn.

Shazam - can detect some songs by listening

Yelp - nice when you come to a new city: see what around and read reviews. Nice.

1Password - if you use it

SketchBook Mobile from Autodesk - if you need drawing sophistication - allows to draw a complex things. Nice UI.

SimplePaint is free and very simple app.

Trace - nice game ;)

WordBook English Dictionary & Thesaurus = not as free as "Dictionary!", but best and most economical dictionary I found.

Pocket Universe - LOVE IT!

Doom resurrection :-) id... just to kill some zombies, ya know

LinkedIn - if you use

Facebook - if you use

Funny Pics

eBay - if you use.

Wikamo - Wikipedia client.

To Do's - a very simple and free To Do list ;-)

Most Addictive Game Free - very hard to play

Paper Toss - nice nice nice - when you are super bored ;-)

Japanese - absolutely best and amazing Japanese dictionary!

Human Japanese - kind of OK eBook for learning Japanese basics.

iRealBook - if you play jazz standards.

KanonDrum - free drums

TiltPiano - simple and nice looking and soudnig 3 octave piano

Virtuoso Piano - if you need more complex piano.

USA Fact book Free - know USA. Have some cool multimedia :-)

GoogleVoice - web app for now, but MUST have.

There are many others I have and you can probably find ANYTHING you need on AppStore.

If you do not, and think it is a good idea: let me know, I may write it :-)

New camera: Canon S90 and what I like and dislike about it

2009-12-27T11:17:00.000-08:00

After a lot of hesitation I got Canon S90. I was looking to get DSLR and Canon 500D was on my list. I looked for Nikons as well, even so I still have two Canon lenses and nice big flash. My old Canon 10D was stolen and I did not replaced it right away. I used my trusty all weather Olympus 1030 that replaced 720 I had for years. I had Panasonic TZ5 for a year: it has nice X12 wide lens with 720p video, but some how I was not 100% happy with it. As any P&S camera it was not providing a consistent quality. Also noise redaction even at base ISO made images look cartoonish. So I was looking for a better camera, but could not find it for a while.

I like DSLR a lot. My Canon 10D was a lot of fun. It was fast and images were silk smooth. Nice bokeh and all these cool pro-looking things. I saw that modern DSLR provide even more speed and quality. The main issue is that they are big. Rebels are light compare to say Canon 7D, but still a bulky camera. Even before I was often leaving my Cannon 10D at home and taking Olympus 720 SW in my pocket. It went with me to the snow hills and hiking and under rain. I even soaked it in beer. While images sucked, quality wise, I was still getting a lot of shots, enough to remember people, places and fun. But.. quality and slow speed keep me not fully happy.

The main reason I moved from my first P&S Canon Elf to 10D was to make pictures of kids. Over these years I missed a lot of good shots to P&S luck of abilities. P&S normally do not provide a way to control shutter speed, so even if you managed to focus and get ready in time, moving kids will smudge: hard to stop motion and even "sport" mode never provided enough "frieze" while decreasing quality dramatically.

While I love a good, arty shoots, my primary objective is snap life around me to aid my memory. That mean I need a small and capable camera. For some strange reason, despite years or R&D we do not have such a camera yet. But we getting closer.

Meet the Canon S90.

While this camera cost more than usual P&S, Amazon still got the lowest price and many others match it, so it is probably the market price ( $399 as of today)

I got this case

and while it pricey, I like it.

You do not need a big card: this camera is only 10Mp and no HD video, but I got 16G. Note that 4G is more than enough and you can get it free if you like to jump on the deal:

"Free 4 GB SD Memory Card

For a limited time, purchase this or other qualifying Canon PowerShot digital cameras and get a free Kingston 4 GB SD memory card with combined purchase from Amazon.com. Simply add both qualifying products to your Shopping Cart, and we'll apply the discount at checkout. Offer good while supplies last. Applies only to purchases of products sold by Amazon.com and does not apply to products sold by third-party merchants and other sellers through the Amazon.com site. See details."

There are some add on for S90, that I skipped:

grip

While some people like it, I found out that camera is too small and light and I can handle it with ends of my fingers, so grip may be a bit overkill.

You can always get it latter if you like so.

Now, what I think about camera after using it in real life for a couple of weeks.

It is a ver nice camera. Best P&S I ever had. It is not DSLR. But there is nothing today I know of that approaches it.

What I like about camera?

First, you can make shoots in low light. Like inside your house and WITHOUT FLASH! How cool is that? Your pictures come to life and you can see a beauty of natural lights and colors. Camera defaults to this in Automatic mode and in most situations if you keep lens on 28mm it will no pop flush. Super cool!

Second, flash works nice when you need to lighten up faces. It is popup type, so can get in your way, but you can get used to it. I did.

Camera is reasonably fast, especially when you prefocus, but do not expect flash re-charge time to allow you to do continues shooting. Even without flash, you can get about 1 fps or less. I want more than that, but, well, it is usable.

Camera have a lot of modes and what is most important, manual control, with all the same modes as DSLR. This is actually super cool and useful. While automatic mode works good, there are situations you want freeze the motion. You can do it in Tv mode and set your shutter speed.

I also use landscape mode and EV adjustments. Works great.

There are some bokeh if you put camera close to subject and have background far away :-) You can even do close up portraits this way. It is much more pronounced in macro: almost like DSLR. :-)

Canon S90 do produce noise and while it can shoot up to crazy ISO and do night shoots, you will see grain. Still, it is under control and looks more like film grain : mostly mono chrome, and less "color" speckles. It looks nice on screen and a bit less during printing. But it is still OK and best in class for P&S.

Also, noise redaction ( I use defaults) is not as aggressive as other cameras, meaning, you can see hairs! This is really nice. Most other P&S smudge it to mess. I believe foliage will behave just a nice, but I did not shoot much of trees so far.

What most important, images looks good. There are some kind of "life" in them. I like the way images looks: there are depth and some kind of "light". They look like "life snapshots".

Still Pros: Best quality for P&S thank to 2.0 lens and bigger sensor. All manual modes and very smart automatic. Have more cool modes than you may ever need: even "face triggered" self timer and "blink" warning. Have raw if you like to fiddle. Can shoot indoor without flash. Very cool! Small and light. Good image details even with high ISO. Noise is controlled and looks like grain not speckles. You can see hairs on photo, not brown mess. Image have "depth". Have two programable control rings. In general very responsive camera.

Still Cons: Slow flash re-charge. Slow continues mode. Can not yet match even low end DSLR in quality and shooting speed and cost about the same as DSLR ( D40 or Low end Rebel XS from Canon). Lens is only X 3.8 compare to Panasonic super zoom X12 that is nice, but not 2.0 of course. Not weather proof.

I hope that S90 will be replaced with even better model in the future, but I am surely enjoy using it for next 1-2 years.

As much as I want DSLR quality, I can not imagine lagging it with me again, while enjoying active live with kids.

I also wish S90 would be weather proof like my Olympus, but hay...

Video: Not HD, but I like quality better then Panasonic's ( it was grainy). Also, microphone, while mono, is much better and capture higher end well, so sound is not muted. I wish it be HD, but, it is kind of OK.

Video Pros: It is VGA, 30fps and image quality is good. Mono sound is decent.

Video Cons: No auto focus during video. No optical zoom (digital zoom suck). It does auto exposure, but focus is frozen. It is not HD, not even 720p. So, I can say, SHAME ON CANON. Video suck, compare even to cheaper cameras.

While some people say it is technological issue (bigger and sensitive sensor, that is some how "slow") I feel this is a marketing BS. I wish Canon go extra mile and provide 720p vide WITH focus and zoom. My old Panasonic did it easily and effortlessly. If 100$ camera can do it today, a 400$ one should do it.

After all, the idea about S90 is small but high quality P&S, so ripping it off a decent video is a shame. Luck of autofocus is a real bammer, more than HD: if your kids move around, you should match the distance or they will blur. Just a shame on Canon.

Bottom line: Canon S90 is great camera. Despite it obvious drawbacks, it is the best P&S we have today.

With good light and low ISO settings still image quality approaches DSLR. Macro mode looks really good.

In low light and high ISO, images still good and usable (while not as good as DSLR's with it bigger sensor).

Has full DSLR control and raw mode. Lens is bright (2.0) and wide (28mm) and zoom range 3.8 is OK.

Lens is IS, and while it has barrel distortion, it is automatically corrected in JPEG. Canon s/w provide correction for

RAW files in s/w. It is not as snappy as DSLR, but it has shatter speed control, so if you

plan ahead you can shoot moving targets but you will have to wait for 1 sec or so for you next shoot. Best of all,

it fits your pocket and you cary it with you and use discreetly without scaring people with balk and huge lens of DSLR.

-----------------

I *Love* Canon S90!

Push for gmail on iPhone is here

2009-10-09T16:14:00.000-07:00

As usual it is a beta.

Here is how to configure link

Hint: it is exchange, so you will have to re-configure your e-mail settings on iPhone.

Mixed: you can now sync your Calendar and Contacts. Good thing, if you are organized :)

Good job, Google!

Thank you for Exchange, Microsoft :-)

Is Watch Phone cooler than iPhone?

2009-10-09T12:43:00.001-07:00

Ta-da-da-da! Here it comes!

Watch Phone!

Naturally, if you are a James Bond ( it is only for Europe!) you can afford 1300$ :-) on two year contract :-) This price is subsidized :-)

It is a toch screen, just like iPhone. It is small.

Hope Apple will make iPhone "nano" and "shuffle" for us all to enjoy for cheap ( 75$?! ). I will get it even if it come with AT&T plan :-) Just for LOLZ :)

PhotoSketch picture software is cool

2009-10-09T12:33:00.000-07:00

Check this out

link

Very nice. It will probably be better with pre-proccessed images that have a clear royalty :-)

Probably a commercial image composition s/w of the future.

Wanna try? :-)

Sure, go get a source code!

You can also read the paper here

Best UFO Resources

2009-07-28T14:31:00.000-07:00

What can be cooler than UFO? Here is a nice link for you!

"In 1953 US Air Force issued Regulation 200-2, which instructed Air Force officers not to discuss UFO reports that were unsolved, and to classify the reports at restricted level. By December 1953, the Joint Chiefs of Staff issued a Navy-Air Force publication 146 (JANAP 146) which made the unauthorized release of UFO reports a crime under the Espionage Act, punishable by up to 10 years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Thereafter, UFO sighting reports would be investigated by the 4602 AISS."

Now, with iPhone Video and YouTube posting I hope we will see more of a cool footage of UFO and may be even extraterrestrials :-)

"To quote Dr. James MacDonald, past head of the Institute of Atmospheric Physics at the University of Arizona, "If you are not interested or concerned about the UFO matter, you are simply uninformed." General Arthur Exon stated: "Everyone from the White House on down knew that what we had found was not of this world within 24 hours of our finding it". On 25-Sep-2005, in a startling speech at the University of Toronto that caught the attention of mainstream newspapers and magazines, Paul Hellyer, Canada's Defence Minister from 1963-67, publicly stated: "UFOs, are as real as the airplanes that fly over your head." "

The truth is ... out there :-)

iPhone 3GS come with SIM tool

2009-06-19T12:57:00.001-07:00

Nice! Now I have a dedicated tool to swap SIM: no strapless anymore.
Thank you Apple ;-)

INTRODUCING THE WARPSHIP

2009-06-15T19:47:00.000-07:00

If you ever wondered how a faster than light speed trevel will look like. Check this out.
It is super cool and I can see myself on the bridge of this ship!
Beam me up, Scotty!

INVIZIMALS: innovation from Sony for PSP

2009-06-04T13:57:00.000-07:00

INVIZIMALS looks like a pretty cool idea.

Air France flight 447 : missing plane

2009-06-03T10:38:00.000-07:00

What we learned from this tragic event?

There is no GPS on Modern jets that can automatically talk back to traffic control.

That is both shocking and surprising: Apparently traffic control do not have much idea WHERE most of the planes flying most of the time: what coordinates, what speed and what height.

Why satellites failed to find missing plane

Another disturbing information is about Airbus A330-200 and it flight computer:

From "Qantas emergency landing" :

"The air data computer, which is supposed to correct mistakes by the pilot, sent the A330 into a very steep dive. The computer mistakenly thought that the pilot was trying to climb too fast. In fact the aircraft was level and cruising normally.
The pilot managed to regain control and pull out of the dive but not before all those not strapped in had been thrown around the aircraft."

Some attributes it to bug in algorithm/software that interprets "spikes" from 3 probably also faulty ADIRU sensors.

If some thing similar happened on flight 447 during a very bad weather and potential lighting strike, it may not be enough time for pilot to "regain control" before plane breaks apart by violent forces.

It is not very cool, but as they say, it will take a lot of time and money before it will be sorted out.

Best parkour EVER!

2009-06-02T17:47:00.000-07:00

The most stupid Farting Application for iPhone

2009-05-08T11:12:00.000-07:00

Well, what is an ULTIMATE fun?

You bet!

Blow a Fat Fart from Apple AppStore!

This silly application helps you to fart, burp and do other noise musicaly, but most importnat, you can SHARE it with your iPhone bearing firends by e-mail.

How cool is that?

Check it out!

Fartesizer!!!!!

Do not hold it for yourself, SHARE IT!!!!! ( I did! )

Absolutely fantastic piano application for iPhone and iPod Touch

2009-04-17T19:26:00.000-07:00

I just come around ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC piano application for iPhone and iPod Touch.

The name is Tilt Piano

It comes with free lessons and my kids love it!

Holy molly ULTRA BRIGHT LED array! ( 100W )

2009-04-17T09:40:00.001-07:00

First, you MUST see this guy web site. He ABSOLUTELY ROCKS. Respect!

Second, this LED, UNFOCUSED!!! Burn staff! WOW!

How cool is that? What if you put a few and focus? That is right!

Quantum probability in a nutshell

2009-04-16T08:42:00.000-07:00

It was never a secret that human behavior can not be explained by simple logic. We make do some smart shit or some really dumb one. Finally, scientists may came one little step closer to explain this phenomenon. The name of the game is: Quantum probability!

You can read more here.

If you do not know what a Quantum probability is you can check this and this.

But that is way to long for your short attention span and way too scientific, even for me :-)

So, how it can be explained ? How you can calculate this staff? It is really simple. Let me illustrate using one of the best "Quantum probability" devices known to man: blond california girls! Here it goes:

"A Blond California Girl was give a test: what is a probability of you going downstairs and meeting a real life dinosaur when you open a door when you exit the building?

After a quick calculation girl provided the CORECT answer: 50-50 : I will either meet him or not, giving 1/2 chance to each outcome!
"

That how a quantum probability works. That why we believe that if we toss a coin and it landed on one side, it has a better chance to land on other.

:-)

I was kidding, of course :-) But there are a truth some where out there :-)

How to make Apple logo from kid's bubble dough

2009-04-15T21:32:00.000-07:00

Well, this is what kids of real Apple faithful do :-)

HAL is here for about 5000$

2009-04-10T08:35:00.000-07:00

This is WAY COOLER than Segway!

Move to 3:30

You can read more here.

( for Mario ) Do not play with your monkey so when you wear this :-) ( I do not know if it is X10 or just X5 times stronger, but that may be way too much to make it your sex toy )

I remember we had some kind of mechanical legs way way back that was driven by gas motor and you have to operate them with throttle. They can make you run like 40km/h. They did not make it so to mass production: to much stress on body :) but when I was was a kid I wanted to get these so I can run really fast :-)

I guess Japanese did it right: they already have some kind of power suit for hospitals, but from what I saw it was HUGE: almost like a forklift. This model looks much more like consumer gadget :-)

Way to go!

Domo Arigato! Mister roboto!

Picking The Most Secure Platform: by Dino Dai Zovi

2009-04-06T11:50:00.000-07:00

It is no wonder that Hackers recommend Mac and OS X for home users as more safe and easy to use :-)

You can also configure your Mac to be more secure ( not just more safe)

I alredy posted how I see Mac OS X "hardened" ( check my post below).

If you are extra paranoid, read NSA document :

Here are quotations from Tom's Hardware interview I found funny :

"Alan: If you had to make a recommendation: Mac, PC, or Linux? Or do you find them to be equally (in)secure?

Dino: For most consumers and home users, I recommend a Mac because they are currently targeted less by Web malware. They also tend to be easier to use so I get less tech support calls. If a user is slightly more technical and/or adventurous, I recommend that they give Ubuntu Linux a try. I recommend Windows Vista for businesses because it is a more secure operating system and better suited towards management in the enterprise"

Alan: I'm not surprised. Can you tell me about the computer you’re currently using as your primary system?

Dino: I use a number of computers on a regular basis, but they are almost all Macs. My main systems include a MacBook Pro and a Mac Pro. I have been using Mac OS X primarily on my personal systems since around summer 2001.

Alan: Why a Mac when it's inherently insecure?

Dino: I'm a die-hard Unix user and Mac OS X is the most convenient and functional Unix-based operating system that I have ever used. I can code in a traditional Unix environment, watch a DVD, and use Microsoft Office all on the same system. The system just works and lets me get my job done.

I have tended to focus a bit on Mac OS X security since I often had a Mac in front of me and I enjoyed hacking on it. I also clearly have a vested interest in having a more secure platform on the machines storing my data."

Read a full interview here.

Obamas Give Queen Elizabeth an iPod

2009-04-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

WOW! I was mildly impressed that Russian President use Mac, but this ... HUGE RESPECT... Mr. Obama ! You ROCKS!!!

He gave iPod ( from APPL ) to the Queen itself! Of course, because it is almost a symbol of USA ( what else our country can be so truly proud off?)! This President dude is just super cool!

Of course, no matter what Balmer try to say, but President and Queen is definitely "cool enough" to get Apple :-)

Funny thing is you can treat yourself to this "royal treat" in any Apple store or even Costco, because it is also very affordable in a matter of fact. You can be cool too! :-)

Go read NYTimes or go get iPhone or iPod, but be cool and feel great, because you pick "the best" ( #1 ) just like our cool Mr. President did!

Here is what one of the bloggers imagined about this "historical" event:

"
Obamas on Air Force One on the way to England...

Michelle: So, Mr. President, did you remember to pack the first-edition Walden that I wrapped for the Queen and put on your desk this morning?

Barack: He removes his iPod earbuds, and we hear the music softly before he presses 'pause' on the iPod resting on his lap. I'm sorry, honey, what were you saying?

Michelle: I was just checking to be sure you remembered the gift for the Queen. You know what happened last time.

Barack: .......

Michelle: Barack?

Barack: I ... hm. He picks up the iPod and examines it. Do you think that Her Majesty likes Earth Wind and Fire?"

Love and Respect!

New Malevich code review system replaces older Mondrian system in Google starting today

2009-04-01T11:48:00.000-07:00

After hitting his 1000th code review, Malevich code review system created by

briliant Microsoft engineer and manager Sergey Solyanik has finally acquired the critical mass.

In today email to Google employes Sergey Brin

announced that Malevich is to replace Mondrian - an older code review system previously in use. "This is progress folks", said Sergey. With move to Malevich Google also posted an big order to Microsoft corporation for Windows Servers 2008 and Visual Studio Enterprise 2008 tools to run and support it across campuses. "In this tough times we are all for profitability and efficiency" , Sergey from Google added "and that why we can not afford run anything but best software. Malevich just fit the bill."

Sergey Solyanik also received an email from GOOG that solicits him to come back. Letter says: "We will pay you less, but we will love you SO MUCH MORE!" There is no official reply from Solyanik just yet.

Google announced several new products today as well. This what I call REAL INNOVATION!

Gmail Autopilot! check this out!

Picasa "Red eye Addition tool" : This is SUPER COOL!

Balmer is fired, Mario Esposito takes his place. Yeah!!!

2009-04-01T10:37:00.000-07:00

Finally, Microsoft stock (MSFT) got a chance to recover!

After a very lame Ad about 700$ junk HP 17'' Laptop for LA ( California, yo!) actress driving new WV Beetle and all mud-wash on Internet it generated, M$ directors had an urgent meeting today in a company headquarters, Redmond.

"Enough is ENOUGH" one of the high officials said: "Every time Steve open his mouth our stock price take a hit. We was all much better off when he was just throwing chairs."

This time he made our company a laughing stock. When people almost forgot our huge failure with Vista we confused them again and now they will blame our company for these cheap junk Laptops that we do not even make! We also made Apple brand stronger by showing Apple logo in Ad with a clear message "Apple is cool" and "You NEED Apple to be cool". We also paid for this commercial that do not even featured our products or logotype!

While it is clear for everybody now that QUALTY over QUANTITY is the key for recovery we try to push a cheap junk on consumer with "demo version" of our venerable OS : "Vista HOME". After all, this LA chick was driving WV not Ford :-) But , hell, she will not turn 1000$ down as well as what she got for this stupid Ad. And she is under NDA :-) - we show how we AFRAID her talk about obviously terrible experience with her new "great deal" of Laptop. We do hope she was not shoping for her car as a one that "green" and has "8 speakers" :-)

Everybody agreed, that M$ is better off with CEO that can truly drive INNOVATION that we all need so much TODAY and the one that can keep his trap shut. A quick search ( google, yo ) produced a result: the best M$ innovator is Mario Esposito. He not just innovate but got enough balls to push his ideas up, despite all the resistance of aging corporation.

Mario was voted 100% a new CEO of Microsoft starting today, April 1 and Balmer stepped down, without his golden parachute ( to avoid pissing off Obama and his administration that go ANAL on any corporate bonuses in current conditions and tax it 90% - waking up my dark memories of Communist Russia and iron feast )

Welcome a new CEO of Microsoft: Dr. Mario Esposito!

More Safe or More Secure ( Mac Vs PC )

2009-03-30T14:31:00.000-07:00

After our dear Mac been p0wned and Charlie gave a long interview to Tom's Hardware we came with this:

"PC is more secure ( technology wise) and Mac are more safe ( real world wise ) "

So, it is your choice: you can get a house in a really bad area with gun shots and police and FBI running around AND inside your house ( allow or deny ?) that will have a submarine style double steel doors and STILL have malware and spyware breaking in with or without your assistance : hackers are not sleeping. Or ... you can get Mac. It does not have all security gadgets build in Vista like memory randomization and you may not even find a Antivirus for OS X ( that will actually hunt some OS X germs - not much to hunt for and such products normally filter out windows viruses) but it will be like ... having a house in a nice place. I would not say : house without doors ( or walls - that is "Windowz(TM") ): OS X is based on secure multiuser core of UNIX, but it streamlined nature does not do much by itself to prevent turning bugs in to software exploits. Apple and other vendors keep fixing bugs and it is not that much different from other OS in this respect.

Per Charlie Miller, that trend may still continue for a while ( at least 2-3 years) and Mac and OS X may still remain "more safe", after all, not much changed after he broke into Safari a year ago and do not forget that all computers ( even Latest Windowz) was p0wned :-) So it is not like Windows security prevents hackers from breaking in ( sucks )

Also main attack vector is Browser+plugins and venerable JavaScript ( and it bugs)

So, it is up to you, dude, what to choose: more Safe or more Secure. :-)

We will see what Snow Leopard will add to security ( it is all about speed, stability and security ), but in the mean while, try to be smart: run as less privileged users, keep updating s/w, do not go to "bad sites", do not open attachments or run unknown s/w and if you extra paranoid you can disable Java Script and plugins ( but that will be hard to tolerate ) or try Opera for your browser.

... and of course, hope for the best and be "more safe":-)

Dreams about WWDC09

2009-03-25T12:37:00.000-07:00

This is me and Mario dreaming about WWDC09 and new iPhone 3.0 :-)

...btw, according to rumors it will happen in June 2009 (probably) . See you all in Moscone West :)

UPDATE: I guess Steve Jobs read my blog, so I got e-mail. After seeing how we are exited, a date is finally revealed!

When is WWDC?

WWDC takes place June 8-12, 2009

Yeah !!!!

Another update: Mario is NOT coming. He is drinking way too much of Cool Aid recently and started to like it.

Kantoku Banzai (JAPAN 2007) Glory to the Film Maker

2009-03-25T11:13:00.001-07:00

This flick is not yet available here in USA :-) But it looks super cool and real Mr Kitano-san ! :-)

Here is a link to Amazon but it just have a place holder and one lonely review.

YouTube have a few clips :)

Nice Tag

2009-03-24T13:15:00.001-07:00

see more pwn and owned pictures

New Bar Super Cool bar stool

2009-03-24T13:05:00.000-07:00

see more pwn and owned pictures

Sex Machines. How to build one

2009-03-20T16:06:00.000-07:00

This is a 5 star book :-) Just do not attach it to a saber saw as one dude did

Hardening Safari 4 OS X in light of p0wning by Charlie Miller

2009-03-20T14:25:00.000-07:00

It is an old news, but Safari , both version 3 and version 4 is "hacked" or p0wned. According to Charlie Miller, dude :-) , and his friends, it was very easy.
If you read some papers available on his site you will find out a fascinating Java Script exploit that probably can be called classics by now and as it seems Apple is aware of the mess, but did not do anything for more then a year : he claims that 2009 "p0wn" bug is essentially the same bug he found in 2007.

Now, may be , we fun boys still have time ( may be not) thanks to small popularity of our beloved platform, but it may be true that OS X is "less ready" to "tough realty" in comparison to Windowz that is suffering from hackers for years or even decades :-)

For the record: All Platforms and all browsers WAS hacked. It does not matter what went down first: I guess Mac was first because everybody wanted to get "p0wned" machine. So, no, you are not safer with Windows. Even so Vista + FireFox 3.0 seems to be a hardest combination ( if configured right of course), but , as I said, if you
go to the "bad site" or executed a trojan than you are the only one to blame for that :-)

Now, it is not all that bad: hackers did not found a remote exploits this year. While it does not mean there is none, it is calming, after famous Windows worm you probably know about.

So, what poor man ( Apple fun boy) do?

Before Apple reply try to make your Mac more secure. This called "hardening".

First some data points:

1) All browsers on OS X ( Safari, Firefox ) can be hacked per hackers, duh :-)
2) OS X is too friendly, memory layout is very predictable ( we know that, thank you very much)
3) You risking when you go to "bad" web sites. ( Well, Mac is no longer for p0rn! :-))
4) There are cases when malware was distributed via ads on a "good sites"
5) When you execute some thing it can be bad for you ... duh ... you know...
6) Did we say do not open mail from strangers or open attachments that you got even from friends? :-) Web mails like GMail or yahoo have virus scanner and may help as well as they have preview and you can upload documents to Google Documents to make them "safer"

There are extra measures you can take, if you are paranoid like me :

1) Firewall

Go to System Preferences. Security.Firewall. Pick last option: "Set access for specific services and applications" and watch the list. This is a most secure option.
You may also check all in "Advanced" dialog. Just in case ;-)

I hope you are behind NAT firewall of your router as well.

I do hope you never connect to un-trusted WiFi and that you house WiFi have WAP ( even so it is broken, but ... it is better than nothing )

2) Browsers , say Safari

This is a most important step for CURRENT situation. First, you should understand that you gonna loose some of connivence and functionality to gain some more security. Sucks, I know.

OK. Open Safari and go to Preference.

a) First tab : Uncheck "open safe files"

b) Security tab:

Uncheck : Enable plugins
UNCHECK: Enable Java
UNCHECK : Enable JavaScript

Make sure that these checked:

Warn when visition a fraudulent website
Ask before sending a non-secure form.

You will have to keep Accept cookies for at least : Only from sites I visit or Gmail and others will stop working.

Now you, can enable briefly JavaScript if you 100% sure about site and 100% need it ( for work for example). Do not do it for p0rn sites! :-)

You may want to do same with FireFox.

Opera browser was not tested, but it might be more secure ( less main stream).

Google Chrome was best, but it is not yet available on OS X.

3) System

Make sure it updated and keep updating: may be even make it daily. Check that it is working: in some cases, when say Mac log out or go down during update, cash may get fuzzy. In this case Update may stack. Happened to me :-) You need to Google and find 3 places you have cash on your system and then wipe it. I amy put a link here latter, it is not 100% relevant for this particular post. But DO fix update if this is broken.

There is another place : Remote Sharing . Check it out. Make sure you do not have much checked there if at all. There are OLD trick to enable REMOTE MANAGEMNT, but have it for " ONLY THESE USERS" ( even if it is empty). I do not know if Apple fixed that or not, but apparently it was more secure this way ( more system checks).

I will put some other tips here if I will recall or find out some new ones.

Keep it safe and have fun!

4) Applications

Adobe have a lot of security holes, some still un-pacthed.

If you have Acrobat or Reader go there and

a) DISABLE JavaScript !!!!
b) DISABLE Browser pluging : do not let Adobe open PDF in Safari.

I would recommend mitigate M$ Applications if you can same way.

Also, keep them updated.

Flash is another dark pony: you should go to www.Adobe.com and on your right see a get Flash and shock.
Check your \Library\Internet Plug-ins ( get Info) and see: if you have old version ( say 9.0) you may be screwed.
You have to update to latest ( 10? now) or disable it ( plugin in browser)

... As well as Apples own Quick Time.

5) User: you may create a "less privileged" user and use it to browse :-0

6) Virtualization: you can install a Sun's free Virtual Box and put say some Ubunty on it with FireFox ;) Keep a fresh image and swap it back after you done with session.
While malware can get out of VM, it is very hard and on OS X+Virtual Box+Linux+FireFox may be harder to do and find in the wild. That is yet another solution if you must have JavaScript .

7) Other box: if you are super paranoid, make a Linux ( Ubuntu or other ) box for internet browsing :-) make it boot each time from CD or USB Flash to keep it clean.

Well, when you absolutely need it, you may play with JavaScript ON/OFF ( when you need) and may be Googles Chrome or Apple updates ( Snow Leopard ?) will bring us some more safety in our so far, tfu tfu tfu ... small and safer little Mac world :-)

Poem about Safari 4 OS X p0wned by Charlie Miller

2009-03-19T15:57:00.001-07:00

"Firefox Three for the Elven-kings under the sky,
IE Seven for the Dwarf-lords in their halls of stone,
Netscape Nine for Mortal Men doomed to die,
One Safari for the Dark Lord on his dark throne
In the Land of Apple where the Shadows lie.
One Browser to rule them all, One Browser to find them,
One Browser to bring them all and in the darkness bind them
In the Land of Apple where the Shadows lie."

( Have no idea who wrote this :-) but it sounds cool )

Now... this is not so much cool

iPhone OS 3.0 is OUT in beta !

2009-03-18T10:50:00.000-07:00

Yeah!!!

It is out in beta.

See what Apple have to say about The most advanced mobile OS

Now more advanced:

"When iPhone OS 3.0 arrives this summer, it will introduce over 100 new features, including the ability to:

Search your iPhone
Cut, copy, and paste
Send photos, contacts, audio files, and location via MMS*
Read and compose email and text messages in landscape
"

Dudes, there are some nice things in SDK, I would rather not comment on to here, of course. :-)
But take a look on a Highlights!

I would be delighted to see even more cool "Designed to work with iPhone" labeled gadgets this summer !

Great job, Apple !

Now my only question is if iPhone 3.0 will be shipped with new h/w as well and when.

Per Apple information, iPhone 1.0 will run a reduced set ( no MMS for example) of 3.0 and 3G should be mostly fine.

iPod owners will have to shelf out 10$ as usual ;-)

This is not Cool, Google

2009-03-15T14:48:00.000-07:00

Google have a lot of open API that looks attractive and useful to me. AppEngine, maps, you name it. But reality check is that it is very dangerous to really on that "free staff" even in a very small applications. You should be EXTRA careful with so call "experimental staff" that have a smallest tolerance threshold. Read about a fate of Infinite SMS that Google effectively shut down in just a couple of days on iPhone AppStore : link

That brings a hard question : should you use Google API or not in anything bigger than a practical joke application? Go figure ...

My verdict : probably , yes, it is a cool gimmick, but do not bet your hole business on it :-)

Mother of All Funk Chords

2009-03-12T09:44:00.000-07:00

This is so SUPER cool :-)

Google Sync over Air to iPhone using M$ ActiveSync

2009-03-04T11:57:00.001-08:00

This is AWESOME !!!

I know for granted that M$ *HATE* Apple and Google so much they "sshhh" in corridors, pure dirt on they own Mac products and ban Google name on campus ( like Voldemort in Harry Porter) to avoid "making Google brand stronger".

Btw: Do you know that each time you say GOOGLE it make the "G-company" brand stronger?
Did you GOOGLED it ? Go GOOGLE it! :-)

GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE GOOGLE .... :-)

...now go check GOOG stock :-) ( was it up ?) Yeah! We just made some cash , keep saying GOOGLE ... GOOGLE... GOOGLE. Thank you! :-) you make me ( and yourself) rich!

Now check MSFT stock. It may go up ... even if just a little ( and I hope it will, damn it !), unless Balmer keep his trap .. shut ... Apparently even what sounds like a "good news", reported by Steve, put stock on 11 years LOW of al times and he was not even buying Yahoo this time :-) So, please, I want to see my portfolio grow, just ... say NOTHING, Stivy, pleeeeeeaaaseeee :-) ? Will ya? ( I do not think so :-( )

It seems that Apple and Google *DO* like each others. That starts from build in Google search in Safari, Google Applications on iPhone and ends with shared directors board members we will not name here , of course.

Apple is good for you. If you do not have it, go grab some NOW : they just got some fresh from the oven. If you do, go grab some more : Apple ( and AAPL) a day keep doctors( and MSFT) away ! ;-) Such a Gooooooood Apple funboy, aren't you ? ( we call ourselves "Apple faithful" )

Anyway. We just come closer to ETERNAL PEACE ON EARTH. Look, ma! Google use Microsoft ActiveSync on Apples iPhone !

All three big companies work together ! WooooW !

If you have Mac, iPhone and gmail you may want to check this to get going !

Note, it is all not that cool and shiny. I am not talking about MibileMe and Google Sync competition here. I am talking about ... yes ... YOU! You should back up and you should configure crap. You should make it work and you should LIKE the way GOOGLE work for contacts and calendars. It is not 1:1 to Apple way ( that I like).

If you happy with iTune sync ( I am, after I eat some crap with MobileMe and syncing my dirty Yahoo and Gmail with iPhone : stupid and un-organized me !) DO NOTHING. If you need INSTANT over the air sync ( you do have GMAIL and YAHOO sync via iTunes already ) and willing to take some risk and spend time on configuration, go cowboy and tell us how it was :-)

Technically, what Google did was probably THE ONLY way to do it on iPhone right now. There is no other "push" way to do this trick, thank to Apple :-) That probably cost GOOG some license $$$ that went to M$ :-) Auch ... :-)

Namashte!

Leatherman tool for $40.000

2009-02-27T10:47:00.000-08:00

I love my Leatherman like anybody else, but if you want to take your love to the next level :

"Like King Midas whose touch turned everything to gold, artist Adrian Pallarols extends his luxurious style to the Del Rey, Leatherman’s 25th Anniversary luxury tool. Using 18K gold from the Andes for the handles, Adrian crafts each of these with his unique Del Rey design, Tim Leatherman’s signature and the 25th Anniversary crest. Only 25 of the Del Rey model will be produced."

If you want to buy, click here for more info : $40.000USA

Now... imagine fixing some dirty track using this golden tool :-)

I bet, you can work out a cheaper deal if you ask some artist on Internet to customize your "regular" tool.

They only question is ... why ?

What "fu-kin" means in Japanese

2009-02-26T12:46:00.000-08:00

How about you ? Do you like FU-KIN? :-)

Rejected Game Ideas for Nintendo Wii

2009-02-25T09:58:00.000-08:00

Apple is a control freak. So is Nintendo. That why we may never enjoy these cool games : )

Safari 4 beta is out

2009-02-24T10:57:00.000-08:00

New s/w from AAPL :

Safari is out. It is beta, but I like it so far.

CNET

"Safari 4 includes the new Nitro engine for rendering Web pages, which Apple claims makes Safari not only the world's fastest browser -- something we'll be testing, naturally -- but also the fastest renderer of JavaScript, with rendering speeds 30 times faster than Microsoft's Internet Explorer 7 and three times faster than Mozilla's Firefox 3."

But what I like is HTML5 video and audio tags ;-) Hope it will kill freaking Flash and we can just use MP3 and MPEG4

Falling Leaves Animation: http://webkit.org/blog-files/leaves/index.html [webkit.org]
Bouncing Box Animation: http://webkit.org/blog-files/bounce.html [webkit.org]
Rotate and Fade Animation: http://webkit.org/blog-files/pulse.html [webkit.org]
CSS Recipes for Effects: http://developer.apple.com/safari/articles/webcontent/cssrecipes.html [apple.com]
CSS Gradients:http://developer.apple.com/safari/library/documentation/InternetWeb/Conceptual/SafariVisualEffectsProgGuide/Gradients/chapter_2_section_1.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/TP40008032-CH7-SW11 [apple.com]
Video tag (requires Quicktime): http://webkit.org/blog/140/html5-media-support/ [webkit.org]
CSS Gradients: http://webkit.org/blog/175/introducing-css-gradients/ [webkit.org]
Background Shaped Clipping: http://webkit.org/blog/164/background-clip-text/ [webkit.org]
Local Database Example: http://webkit.org/misc/DatabaseExample.html [webkit.org]

If you use 1Password you will loose 1P button. To get it back you will need to do 2 things
1) Edit configuration file or get Beta of 1Password ( http://support.agilewebsolutions.com/showthread.php?t=11637)
2) For me it also required to right clic on tool bar and add 1P button from "Customize toolbar"

I have no doubts that Agile Web Solutions will provide update very soon ( Safari 4 Beta was released just today)

I am a bit fun of HTML5 and hope it will kill scary closed proprietary technologies like Flash and Silverlight.
Why we need some stupid plugins when we can just use video tag that is perfectly scriptable?
Same goes for simple JS animations. It is not a big deal to do in HTML ;-)

It comes with 150 features and I do love what Apple did for us, developers

Developers, developers, developers ! ( :-))

Great Job Apple !

And HAPPY 54th Birthday , Steve Jobs! ( and ...live till 120! as we say :-))

How to learn Alpine or downhill ski

2009-02-20T15:43:00.000-08:00

1. Check if this is for you: Find a snow resort nearby or fly there. Take a few beginners lessons ;-) It normally come with rentals and lift. Here is example

While you can rent ski, boots and poles (advice: skip poles when you start ) you will need a winter clothing.

Snow-boots, waterproof coat and pants. You need warm, not soggy socks ( wool or special synthetic). Do not double sock. You should dress in layers: start with "long johns" ( pijamas) or use excellent Underarmor wear. Put few more layers on it if needed or just coat and pants if weather is too warm ( around freezing). Use wool or synthetic, not cotton. Say NO to Blue jeans :-) It will turn to ice. The reason you want to avoid cotton it will keep moisture. You do not want that, you want fabric remove it from you :-) Most high-tech fabrics do that. They will not smell nice after that :-) But they will do their job to keep your comfortable :-) Then just put it all trough a laundry machine as usual.

Goggles : get it. Snow will blind you. Hat or helmet is also nice to have to keep you warm.

If you will be comfortable, warm and dry you will have more fun.

Now, get gear, take lessons :-)

Hooked?

Now ...

2. Read books

These two are considered absolute BEST. Do not fall for hype books that you may spot. Start with these two:

3. Watch some videos:

Here is a nice linked session :

4. Watch some more :-)

5. Get your own gear.

I do not mean 20 years old give away free skis and boots. :-) As cool and great as it may be... chances are you will not have much fun compare to even used gear from a few years ago. If you got a long straight ski ... well... ;-)

Get modern staff. Period. ;-)

New or used. I like to "Play it Again" :-) but end of season ( FEBRUARY) sales are great too !

Most important: you should REALY get what you like. Boots should fit. Ski should fit and be type you need.
Bindings have to be PROPERLY set and tested by shop. Pay this 10-20$!

You may get away without poles initially and this is a good way to start.

6. Do you need a Helmet ? Read here

Other reason you may want to get helmet anyway is

a) show example to your kids
b) film your rides with this ABSOLUTLY BEST gadget that works great with ski helmet:

See what people do with it:

What is SUPER about this little and cheap gadget is that it is has many mounts and can be used under water, on snow and in the air and operated in glove. Most important it is 170 degree: WIDE! It is like you see what you saw or even more. SUPER COOL!

Also, they joke that if you ski... you probably have 20 years left to go :-) People do ski in their 90's :-)

7. Now do it ! Have fun! See you in the mountains!

What adapter you need to connect ANY earphones to iPhone 1G?

2009-02-20T14:38:00.001-08:00

Yeah ... this one is a bummer, Apple :-)

They said it was done to "protect" iPhone board, but they found a better way, apparently in 3G :-)

Connector in iPhone 1G is still very standard, compare to most other phones, but it is just ... err ... a bit narrow :-)

It probably helped Apple brand : manufacturers had to put "iPhone compatible" on boxes ( Apple itself is not much in headphones business ... yet and only made some kind of OK headphones just a few month ago) It also probably made people hang on with silly white original headphones from Apple for a bit longer :-)

While connection is fixed in 3G, there are still so many of us who enjoy iPhone 1G...

Many manufactures already switched to slim plastic design of connectors that works with iPhone 1G... but you may have old sets that you like. I do! There are many adapter available today. Here are just a few.

I use one from DLO that has split as well. Here is a smaller version:

This is also a good brand and should work fine:

Now there are a minimalist adapters available, but they may damage your iPhone if you not too careful and hit the adapter:

You can try your luck with no brand, if you believe a good reviews are true ( but it is still a risk :-)) NOT RECOMMENDED even for a simple thing like this adapter. Bad quality connector can be VERY annoying with sound :-)

But ....

Now.... DO NOT *EVER* BUY anything that is 0.01$ or cheap: read review. There are some junk available in this department as well :-)

If you want to get fancy and have MIC so you can answer calls and still use ANY headphones, you can get some thing like this:

So, bottom line, here is how we can classify :

1) size
2) split ( 2 headphones) or no split
3) flexible or not
4) Brand or no brand
5) support MIC
6) Has MIC
7) Has iPhone music control ( pause, play )

Btw: Pay attention on MIC : you may not like how it works. It is always a very personal and sensitive part of such appliance, just like
your favorite headphones, that brought us here in the first place :-)

I LOVE paper junk mail

2009-02-20T13:39:00.000-08:00

As I found out recently: it is ABSOLUTLY critical part of my ski boots
dry strategy: I do not know what I would do without it. During winter
break when we went to ski more than usual I became concerned I am not
get ing enough. I doubt real email spam can be that usefull , but I
remember when post-Gorbachev economy in Russia started to pick up and
free newspaper started to junk peoples mail boxes , some one told me
they had: ' Please read before use' printed over: well , they mean a
bathroom use of cource:-)

David Merrill: Siftables, the toy blocks that think

2009-02-13T10:18:00.000-08:00

When I was a kid I used to have a electronic blocks, so I can build all kind of things like radio or buzzer.

Now as technology advance we put more electronics in single block and play is more fun.

siftables

I would suggest a cheap knock off here : before price on these blocks go down ( I bet one cost quite a bit now, so having collection of 20 will be like ... a lot of money even if one is only 20$ , that I believe for now is more like 500$ or so, but eventually it will be cheap, I hope )

There are similar toy already exist in Japan : I saw it in Tokyo Hands. It is a blocks that have a person inside. You can connect blocks and make kind of house and stick man can go see each other ;-) It is black and white and has less capabilities, but still cost like any electronic toy would.

So, idea, is simple: use a good old "do-it-all" computer. and camera and ... duh ... projector. Well, it is not perfect and not as seamless of course, but ... much more affordable. The key here is to color blocks the way it will be both easy for computer camera to detect ( may be we need IR camera and light ) and for projector to reflect. There are a cool very small ( pocket ) projectors now that are very low power, but seems perfect for such applications and you can probably hang it low over table on some kind of tripod.

Well, so it is posable to build both blocks, but the issue remains: after we all saw a nice demo, not it is time to write a real s/w that do some thing ( funny, or educational or practical). This is a critical point where most fails. Even iPhone with tons of it applications, still in position of very low utilization of it capabilities for majority of applications.

Alternatively we may think about applications first, then invent a device that will allow implementation: it can be done in parallel, but no matter how cool technology is it will remain a toy at best ( M$ surface ?) till it will be widespread and build upon ( like iPhone) :-) my 2 cents and yeah ... these cubes are cool, I want some !!! ( and SDK to program for!)

U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide

2009-02-11T16:32:00.000-08:00

U.S. And Russian Satellites Collide !!!

Fucking WOW! I think this is a FIRST time this kind of shit happens: we got way too much junk there :-)

"In an unprecedented space collision, a commercial Iridium communications satellite and a defunct Russian satellite ran into each other Tuesday above northern Siberia, creating a cloud of wreckage, officials said today. The international space station does not appear to be threatened by the debris, they said, but it's not yet clear whether it poses a risk to any other military or civilian satellites.

"They collided at an altitude of 790 kilometers (491 miles) over northern Siberia Tuesday about noon Washington time," said Nicholas Johnson, NASA's chief scientist for orbital debris at the Johnson Space Center in Houston. "The U.S. space surveillance network detected a large number of debris from both objects."

Air Force Brig. Gen. Michael Carey, deputy director of global operations with U.S. Strategic Command, the agency responsible for space surveillance, said initial radar tracking detected some 600 pieces of debris. He identified the Russian spacecraft as Cosmos 2251, a communications relay station launched in June 1993, and said the satellite is believed to have been non-operational for the past 10 years or so.

"As of about 12 hours ago, I think the head count was up (to around) 600 pieces," Carey told CBS News late today. "It's going to take about two days before we get a solid picture of what the debris fields look like. But you, I think, can imply that the majority of that should be probably along the same line as the original orbits." "

Read full text here.

There is a cool site that track such kind of close encounters LINK

Apple iPhoto 09 faces ... Rules!

2009-02-09T17:16:00.000-08:00

It even detects a face on ... snowman!!! Wow! I love this company!!!

Bill Gates Unleashes Swarm of Mosquitoes on Crowd

2009-02-05T20:27:00.000-08:00

Windows 7 benchmarks ( vs Linux)

2009-02-05T13:36:00.001-08:00

Here is benchmarks

My M$ loving
( and very famous , he made it on CNN no less ! ) friend Mario just licked his comapny ass ( or should we say a "feeding hand" ) here, but I wonder how Snow Leopard would compare? I think it will kick Windowz ass really bad.

OS X is already fast and much better than Windows, but that is not the point. Most important that even Open Source can beat M$ I/O by a nice margin. And I/O is what you feel when you work with files. Just look on benchmarks yourself.

Happy computing !

Why Japanese girls like Mac

2009-02-04T13:58:00.001-08:00

Why you have to buy Mac

2009-02-04T13:56:00.001-08:00

The Internet is for Porn

2009-02-04T13:54:00.001-08:00

how to draw a diamond

2009-02-03T15:47:00.000-08:00

If you been wondering how to render a nice looking gem stone, check this nice article out!

C# .NET and Mono on iPhone no jailbreaking

2009-02-03T10:13:00.000-08:00

If you like .NET you are lucky. Read this

Why you ask me ? The main reason would be if you like to use a cool enviroment like Unity

Static linking does the trick that allow you application to AppStore without breaking a strict Apple rules and there are rumors that few of 10.000s of applications actually use Mono 2.X

Apple OS X issues

2009-01-21T11:39:00.001-08:00

Some times Apple can not find their own ass with both hands...duh ! :-)

I would admit that it happens far LESS frequently compare to M$... but ... during a few years of using OS X as my MAIN computer I hit a few 'funny' issues. First two only very recently ...

1) See my post on Time Machine ACLs - have 'easy' fix, but you need to run command line
2) I hit similar issue with Update: it refused to save files and gave a stupid message I can not do anything about. Quick Google helped to find a solution : just wipe \Library\Updates - that was easy and can be done from Finder.

Funny, that in both cases I tried reboot and running Disk Utility so called "scan" and "fix permissions": in both cases OS X complained about it, but it found/fix nothing. That is ... a bit alarming.

Apple... you HAVE to do better in these areas. System SHOULD be able to diagnose and fix such nonsenses automatically. Duh!

3) Print dialog "stuck" in Safari. When this happens you can not kill Safari or do anything to it, but it is alive, kind of. They only way to get rid of this is to close computer with holding Power button: I had to do it a few times during last couple years and still have no idea when/why this happens.

I want this fixed ...

4) iPhoto refused to automatically open up when camera connected ; it happened once and been solved by reboot. I would blame Adobe Photoshop Elements that I run from iPhoto before and it was still running. Adobe is a pig... :) Reboot fixed that. Not biggie. :)

5) Last issue to complain about is iPhone SDK. It needs some Voodoo to make "simple" things work. Well, I guess Apple expect developers to deal with it, so we do, not a biggie :) But ... it should "Just work" :) Please ... :)

Last thing to mention: I would suspect that you can just bring your Mac to Apple store and they will help, if you can not Google and all issues I described were minor, so while nobody perfect ( not even Apple !) it is a clear win over Windows experience: a few minor quirks a year on OS X vs major issues on Windows every day :)

OS X is Zen ... my MacBookPro is delight ... iPhone is my favorite toy ... :)

Apple... RULZE

Sexy toys for man from Japan, Part 1

2009-01-10T18:23:00.000-08:00

I was not looking for it in particular, but in Discount Amysment Shop
in Ikebokoro I found this nice little gadget: rubber dick that grows
in size 600%! well it is probably silicon and not rubber and as
instruction in Japanese translated for me say: it grow SLOW if you put
it in water! Well, so no surprises :-( it say it will shrink back if
removed from water. I think it is still cool: 6 times grows is nice,
so I bought one for each of my good friends who will understand:-) as
lucky charm. I have no idea if this dick can be used practicaly as
say ... Dildo! But I will ask my lucky friends after they will grow
theirs! And post update here . Yeah... Japan is cool ... Like that!;-)

Japan is king of misspellng

2009-01-10T16:13:00.000-08:00

I own a honorable title of Language Obuser and Japan is my favorite
country : funny misspelings are everywhere: you can lough about 'coffy
jerry' and 'flabored tea', but when you need to pee, you'd better get
what it is writen here ! ;-)

This was found in center of Nara: English version of Kansai ben I
think:-)

OS X Time Machine disk switching trouble

2009-01-10T16:03:00.001-08:00

When I went to Japan I switched my Time Machine to smaller external disk, so I can still do backups on the go. It all worked well: new disk was empty. When I returned and tried to connect old disk back to Time Machine I got a funny message ( "You do not have appropriate access privileges ") about permissions. Quick google brought me to this web site

In a nut shell, running these simple command from terminal and entering password were about all it took to fix :

$ cd /Volumes/{volume name}
$ sudo chown $USER {file name}

Note: {volume name} and {file name} should be your Time Machine volume name and file reported in stupid dialog.

Before googling, stupid me tried to fix permissions using Disk Tool from Apple, but it did not found any issue after scan.

WTF? Apple?

APC Mobile Power Pack

2008-12-11T11:07:00.000-08:00

I was short on gadgets latly, but I pick this for 20$ in Staples. It
is Li-ion and can give extra juice for my iPhone or iPod touch. It
should be handy for Nintendo DS. You can get it from Amazon for like
35$.

Unit can be recharged using AC or USB of your laptop and have both
regular and mini USB ports.

It has 4 position level indicator.

Size is similar to other units of this type.

I just got it and my iPhone agrees to suck power if I plug it cable to
unit.

So far, so good: looking forward to get a couple years of survise from
this unit and will post updates here after I will use it for a while
on my trips.

Open Hardware projects list

2008-11-29T20:30:00.000-08:00

This is a nice compiled list of mots popular open h/w kits. Just for my and your reference :-) ( repost!)

Linux on iPhone

2008-11-29T20:19:00.000-08:00

Wow ! That finally happened !!!

Video of Linux on iPhone

There is not much yet, only shell, that is partially working, but looks like fun :-)

You can even do it to your own device ( I want see Mario hacking his iPhone 3G!!!)

Go here

:-)

2008-11-28T12:55:00.000-08:00

Each day, Wu No.25 pulls his inventor around the local area. It can walk for up to six hours on one battery charge.

Link

This is amazing !

2008-11-16T09:26:00.000-08:00

There are a lot of research in all kind of control technologies.

While what you will see is rather obvious idea and even have some applications in it old modification ( there are appliance control you can buy that will react to finger click for example), researches took it in a new more advanced direction.

While there is no much WOW you can yet see, imagine what could be done if you put some smart s/w : say one that used to spy on your keyboard input using just microphone and recording a clicking sounds it produce ? :-)

Yeah ... it can be cool future ahead of us.

2008-09-01T14:19:00.001-07:00

eBook is here and I am in. After long research I got Sony V2 ( 505 ) and with standard firmware update: no hacking! I am using it with my Mac and can read Japanese and Russian as well as English. You can get books from Project Gutenberg and other places, but you will be better off if you will format PDF to match it size: 3.5'' on 4.5'' ( 0.1 margins) and use font 9-10 size. Save files in PDF with fonts embedded ( default on MAC -> print, save as PDF). That's it! Do not forget to use Any Printer and customize a page size. You may need to make margins 0 in either document or page setup.

Sony 505 is much better reader than V1. It switch pages much faster and offer some kind of book search : Title, Author or Date and of course it keep all bookmarks for quick jumps, so more than one person can use it.

It is really small, and I wish it has a bigger screen than 6'' ( paperback size)

Sony book store is a joke, but device is open and unlike Kindle, Sony do support DPF and vector graphics ( and ANY language PDF support without hacking!) You can see it as mass storage device and you can simply copy files to SD card and put it in ( device show card if connected via USB so it can be used as reader)

If you use languages, do not forget to save file with English name and edit Title and Author in document properties or you may see gibberish.

Sony can re-flow a PDF with latest update: nice if you document is not formated for device.

That is about all: nice device for 300$ to read your books formated as PDF.

So, I only wish Sony had screen like iRex: 8-10'' and it will be perfect.

2008-08-17T16:10:00.001-07:00

I got an Incase shell to protect aluminum body of my MacBook Pro from dents. I was amaized to discover that Kensington lock port is not cut out, like any other port, but just have hole for tongue. Obviosly enough, no lock I tried will lock in. After googling for solution I just decided to use my Dremell and cut of about an inch of plastic. I used round saw and some file tool for finish. Now it locks! Shell is very nice and have soft feeling, it would be perfect if they just leave Kensington open. I think to make some more filing to improve screen open angle: shell material some what limit it as well.

2008-07-22T16:36:00.000-07:00

Last month I got a number of queries from my friends seeking advice on GPS device for a car. To avoid writing or resending same e-mail again and again I decided to post my wisdom on this matter here :

1) NO, iPhone or iPhone 3G CAN NOT be used as car GPS. There are legal issues with Google Maps (cannot be used for turn by turn navigation) and many others, technical, like a battery power, no mounting h/w, etc. It may be possible to write application for iPhone and make mounting/powering h/w for iPhone. We may see such contraptions in the future ( mini car PC !) :-) I am not aware of such as of today ( check AppStore ) often 

You can use iPhone in car to find your way or with help of second person clicking NEXT on build-in Google Maps application and provide you routing. This person will need to work hard, powering device back and fighting power management that dim screen. It has to do Text-To-Speech as well. It is painful ( trust me I tried) and best you can do is stop the car, get and understand directions and go having your eyes ON THE ROAD ( you may need to repeat this process a few times) :-)

iPhone is great device and can save you if you are lost, but it is not suited well as of today to replace your dedicated GPS navigator :-) Sorry :-) That was not the goal :-)

2) Can a Laptop be used as car GPS? There are programs with GPS receiver bundled ! :-) NOOOOOOOOOOOO ! :-) That is VERY PAINFUL. I tried this for a few years ( saving money : GPS units were much more expansive just a few years ago) and it is just plain lethal if you drive with a wife :-) Just image : computer power on, ...,...,..., program starts ............. ( are we THERE YET !!!???) Also, Laptop is UNWIELDY and I do not know if it will fit well even in your Macho Hummer. I say: yes, it is cheap, yes, you have Laptop, but just say NO! There are a MUCH BETTER way !

3) OK, REAL , car GPS. YEZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ!!! There are quite a few to choose and prices drop dramatically. You can even buy one for you motorcycle ( work with gloves on!) or bicycle. Cool! Best units are small and light, work outside of the car as well and you can put them in your jeans pocket. That is if you do not have one build-in your car already 

So, what unit to buy? Do your own research. I am very happy with Garmin NuVi unit. Mine is old , over 3 years, but ... maaaan!!! It was HAPPY years and I still use it. It works like a charm.

What are main points to look ?

1) Maps! Best if it has USA+CANADA+EUROPE build in. You can take it with you on travel. It have to be on SOLID STATE STORAGE: no Hard Drives please ! 

2) Real Text-to-Speech - you WOULD like street names spelled. Just turn LEFT or RIGHT is not good enough today.

3) Size - I like it small ;-), so I can take it from the car. Do not live it behind , GPS or even it wires will make your car a nice target for these nasty folks who brake windows to steal staff from your cars. I remember a cool radio was such a targets a while ago. :-)

Note : some people may like a bigger units.

OK. So there are only three recommendations. 

1) That what I would buy if I had to get a new unit NOW:

Garmin nüvi 370

It has all maps and Text-to-Speech: very much like mine current unit ( but if I need Europe I have to buy SD card with maps)

2) If you absolutely positively not going to leave USA and want it cheap:

Garmin nüvi 350

3) If you like ALL FEATURES ( like multi-point) and LARGE screen

Garmin nüvi 770

You can see a feature comparison table if you scroll down on this page

Garmin also have some cool features as Dictionary, Media player( your photos and MP3 from SD card ): it is not just a GPS. It is a nice gadget. It will even pause music to answer you call via Bluetooth( if supported) or give your advanced driving direction when you close to intersection.

There are others GPSs of course, do your own research, I can only tell what I use and like and I DO like Garmin NuVi a lot and would recommend it warmly !

2008-07-01T20:51:00.000-07:00

Japanese are very smart and like beer. This machine is just amazing :-)

2008-06-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

What is this ?

It looks amazing from the air. See :

View Larger Map

Apparently it seems to be Marsh

2008-06-14T14:14:00.001-07:00

I got it yesterday and hocked it up. It looks like lighter version of ATV ( Apple TV, that I also have). Unlike ATV Roku is solid state and very light ( and you can see what is inside - it has ventilation holes that are big), it does not look very cool, but not too ugly as well; just a box of random ( artistically wrong) proportions and random finish: no design, just utilitarian box done by some engineer, but it is fine, it is small and very light. Black. Remote is also "copy" of ATV, but with "non Apple twist". Actually, it seems to be nice in hand ( more 3D). It also have just a few buttons : few more than Apple, but placed in a way you do not need light in the room or RTFM. :-) Nice remote. Daddy likes and it has a nice finish and solid look ( just like device, but remote have more design)

So, hooking up was easy : enter pws for WiFi than uint upgraded itself , than I had to re-enter psw ;). Than I put code unit show on screen to Netflix online and filled my queue with 250 junk movies : selected some form what they have.

I let wife pick some as well ( you pick it on PC or MAC :-))

Well... Honey used unit yesterday ( watched some flicks alone) and she got a positive comment : it passed her test :-) Because flicks there is "kind of free" unlike ATV she have no discomfort at all and it much nicer compare to drugging Laptop to projector room and UI and instant start :-) ( unit is never of). Navigation is simple, but one level ( no subfolders) just one line of pictures that POP in the middle ( like Apple "dock" in OS X, no like folder flow -no 3D, but that is fine ). But for 200-300 units it is still works good : scrolling is fast and visual - pictures and big text.

There is FF/FR with preview ( like DVD chapters) - nice touch! and there is HOME that bring you back. It also remember ( Netflix) where you stooped. So... You can continue where you stooped.

There is a few seconds wait for buffering and you get progress. So it works. I use WiFI and may be for faster wired connector it will work even better. Quality of movie itself is very nice over WiFi: like VHS\DVD more or less ( on my 120'' projector screen anyway ) I think colors are kind of compressed a bit as well image, but it does not look bad. It is not HD, but totally OK. Sound is Stereo but just fine.

Some flicks come with close captions. I wish I could have this for all, like on DVD ( when kids go to sleep it is very handy)

All in all : nice and only thing desire is more good movies for online view :-)

Bottom line : if you use Netfix online I would say : Get it! It will make your life easier if you have TV room.

VUZIX iWear VR920 review

2008-05-29T22:17:00.000-07:00

During Google I/O I was lucky to play with a demo of Google Street
View conected to this device. It is amazing. Price droped and for 300$
you can get a very nice stereo glasses with head phones and ... Drum
roll... 3D orientation sensor: you move your head and ... Wow! I bet
it is super for games like Helo and Doom: I should try. While video
conects to regular VGA out, sensors go via USB: so for extra support
of cool features an extra programing is needed, but it can be done.
Glasses are light and nice: better than older devices I saw before.
Cool! Get one and enter The Matrix!

Birthday present from my motor mentor

2008-05-26T20:45:00.000-07:00

Finaly... My bike got a missing part and ... Well... Looks cooler and
may be safer to ride- this shiny cap-nut is a real Suzuki part
spesialy ordered by Oleg. Nice!!!

Never play poker drunk...

2008-05-20T12:23:00.001-07:00

If you want to win: see what alchohol make to your face and board
reading skills at poker table:

2008-05-12T10:16:00.000-07:00

Well, this is just to funny :-)

Enjoy!

How To

2008-05-12T10:09:00.000-07:00

As some of you know my dream is to build a robot that look like Data from Star Track, but I prefer female version of course :-)

See what is a current stage of technology we posses today :
Robot

We are getting there, but not quite yet :-)

And you might know Akiba: I like her better of course, but she is more like a doll. Nice doll so :-)

She looks closer to my wet dream :-)

2008-05-09T10:46:00.000-07:00

This is TOTALLY cool. It just rocks!!!!

processing.js rulz!!!!

2008-05-09T08:52:00.000-07:00

I was lucky to get my hands on this super cool Microsoft Surface. It is nice, but looks a bit bulky and it high price and luck of availability as well not open SDK make it a big frustration for me. It has no useful applications today, but I want to get it home for my kids and write some. But I can not. Unlike Apple that gave super amazing iPhone and iTouch to everyone who wants ... Surface does not deliver and I understand it target a "high end" market. Where the money are. Oh, well... But I bet a lot of knock offs will "surface soon" Apple made multi-touch popular so, it should became as common as regular keyboard and mouse today in just a few more years. So I can not understand why Microsoft not trying to "seize the moment" and deliver some thing not sucky, but cool to the masses. Hm... duno ... I mean just strike a deal with IKEA and some Chinese manufacturer and you get product for the market. Let developers make applications freely. People will snatch it from shelf. I would. So all my friends.

Anyway....

My good friend Mario posted link to web site that have instructions on how to make ... Microsoft Surface for 50$. Almost ...

Well, this is not the Surface: it is multi-touch pad. It is very nice. But if you want to build some thing like a surface you will need to invest a bit more money. May be not as much as 500$, but look on REAL OPEN SOURCE surface implementation here: they provide design and code.

review

If you want to build CubIt go here directly ( they call it "touchkit" )

Cubit kit

But what I want to see for long time is a small film or shit of plastic that you can get in size of you LCD and apply over. This should both give you screen protection AND multi touch , just like normal touch screens of today works : it should come with driver and people will start develop standard applications around, just like mouse we have today for example. I think it is very feasible.

As for MS Surface ... there are more to it. I still fail to understand HOW, but that is a thing: it can work with "REAL THINGS": you put your cell phone : say iPhone on it and it can see it and communicate with it. There are a couple of ides how this can be done, like

1) get image of it back and do some smart image recognition ( "skin" make it touch if you ask me)
2) try to communicate via Bluetooth
3) get weight of device
4) have outside camera to get image of top of device and may be a person.
5) measure Electro-Magnetic radiation of device and narrow on it position.
6) Use thermal and ultra sound scans and alike :-)

Well, none work "as is" for all things we have today, also, there is no "identification" protocol exist today. Say I know you put iPhone on your table, but ... how I communicate with it ? Granted I can write application, but till we have a standard for that ... it will not not be easy. Microsoft will probably do it for WinCE devices and Apple ... may or may not follow the suit :-)

Anyway, handling glass of wine is even more challenging :-)

Some how, Microsoft Surface works today : see demo in AT&T store. It manage to recognize cell phones.

Check this cool web site from yourself

Hm... go figure.

There are also all kind of cool things you can do with your projector: kids love to jump and touch screen or wall or even ceiling. There are also some cheap and crappy projector in Target that may just do the trick connected to some cheap PC ( even 2G ASUS EEPC ) so you can get projecting multi touch h/w for like 500$ or less if you have old h/w.

Anyway... I am exited about technology where you interact more free with computers and I love PS2 Play2 game that use camera.

So h/w is almost there, now what we need is a ... cool and usefull s/w. Right!

California... here .... I ... COME>>>>>>>!!!!!!!!!!

2008-05-08T09:45:00.000-07:00

This is absolutely amazing scooter... for geeks :-) It does much more than MS Auto PC for Ford for example and done by just couple of dudes. Cooooooool!!!!

Read more here:

I wonder if Mario will agree to hack his scooter too ? I will help!

2008-05-05T09:05:00.000-07:00

Well... there is this trend in movies to make knock-offs before the feature. If you remember my blog post about Transformers/Transmorphers ( that fooled me, but after watching real Transfromers I am not sure anymore: at least Tarnsmorphers was so campy it looked like real comedy) Anyway, I saw an old Beowulf rendition few month ago and this one

is "real" ( with Angelina Jolie). Well, it sucks, obviously, but...you have to watch it if you like CGI. Because this movie is not movie, but animation, but look very real in most places ( some places they took short cut and it looks like Polar Express :-))

Well, if you want to see a naked avatar of Beautiful Angelina, watch it! :-) Unfortunately they partially hide her big boobs and put some golden paint and shadows over it, but ... you can still enjoy her in details... mostly. They did a great job on her famous lips and smile.

She is better in real life of course ( trust me, I know! or ask Bread Pitt), but just watch this one to see how far we got with CGI : not bad.

Btw, dragon was done very well, unlike most other flicks I saw. It fly nice and smooth.

2008-05-03T21:24:00.000-07:00

That what I was watching almost every evening before going to sleep :-)

Spokoinoi Nochi Malishi!

2008-05-03T19:54:00.000-07:00

I had to repost this from Serg. This LHC is super cool! Now you can find out what it does.

If you think that being a Rock Start is super cool, think again! Being a "Rock Star Physicist" is so much cooler :-)

The only question that remain after you watch this video is: will LHC produce a Black Hole, when started, so it will suck our Earth in to doom :-) Wooooooooooooooooooshhhhhh!

Let's live and find that out :-)

More likely they will find some partial or force and just like E=mc^2 produced a Nuclear Bomb and Hiroshima, LHC can produce some cool new super weapon that will function may be less dramatic than sucking Black Hole, but with similar effect for earthlings :-)

Let's live and hope they will find nothing :-) or at least that it will only be used for good ( to kill only bad guys or some thing :-) ha ha ) right!

2008-04-28T21:03:00.001-07:00

Well, do it on your own risk :-)

2008-04-26T10:52:00.001-07:00

Thoughts about Ecology :-)

I consider myself to be a balanced person and try not to jump to quick conclusions about things. For about all my life I knew that human change nature and in most cases we do it in a very messy, bad way ( look in the toilet every time you take a damp : does it look or smell as good as apple you just eat?:-)): we destroy forest and pollute water and air. Well, nature have also ability to recover quick ( turn our shit back to apples again so we can eat), may be not to it original state, but it manage to wipe our human deeds even in places like Chernobyl. Well, for the starters, Earth is huge compare to our biomass and it may not care much. After all, why would one prefer dead planet over live planet if this one is not living thing itself? And live come with changes in it environment. So that is fact of life, give or take.

Now, live come with domesticated politics and one of my most Ecosexual friends is in fact most political. I observed that both come together.

Now, I try to be sensible person and do less harm and waste, but never go to extreme and try to enjoy life. I did not bought Hybrid car, as my friend did: because it does not make economic sense to me yet. Do math yourself. Not did I changed my grass cutter to electric one ( I favor my other friend idea of just slacking and not cutting the grass better, but I do some times work on my grass and bushes - I like it )

Anyway, I also lucky to have friends that will ride 2-cycle motor bike ( dirty!) or kill deer for fun: they are also very human to me: all of above is just different aspects of humanity and well... just that.

Now, my wife try to recycle and save water and staff. She came from Japan and I do my best to help.

Why I say all this ?

Well, some information come to me recently and it confirms my own understanding of things:

I do not know if numbers are right, but it makes sense to me:

Here is about global warming ( human do less then 3% of CO2 in the picture )

CO2

Last WIRED wrote about water issues.

Guess what ? Majority of water goes to farming and next big part to industry. Even most wast full consumers in countries like USA or for some reason Australia ( hot there ?) can not consume more than 10%.

So, to make 1 pair of blue jeans they spend 2,866 fucking gallons of water !!!

WOW!

So, I drive used car and use my old gas lawnmower, but ask yourself, how much resources a new Toyota Prius consumed ? What will be more sensible: me driving my Toyota Siena for 30 min a day ( I choose to live close to work) or driving Prius for 1-1.5 hours a day in traffic + getting a new car ?

How about going to Fryes ? We know how China looks: industry! We help in making China dirty by getting more cool gadgets we all like :-)

Ruing 4-8 computers all the time ( Server farms) to store what ? Video! we almost never watch: versus fetching DVD or connecting to ATV or Netflix 1-2 times a week?
Electricity only looks clean: it is actuality very dirty to make :-) do you spend 1 Kilowatt and hour for 24/7 only to spin HDs? Well.

My wife like to buy blue jeans, yeah ( and other things made of fabric and leather- just like I do like buy computers and iPhones - all high industry things that consume a lot of resources and polute air and water in China and alike): do you remember how much water ( and probably other staff needed?)

Now, go kick my ass if I missed my mistake a recycling bin and putting this plastic bottle in trash :-)

My point is : best we can do is to fight with dirty industries and consume less hi-tech ;-) ( but I love it !) and try to make our own surroundings better: keep grass green and water clean where we live... at least so we and our kids can enjoy it :-)

Corteo by Cirque du Soleil

2008-04-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

We hit the first show in Redmond. It was amazingly cool. I was
reminded what some people are capable off. No CGI , no smoke and
mirrors: fun! Kids had a lot of fun! I saw a six pack and body I
wanted for this birthday: I am geting close, but it may take me one
more year;-) I hope:-)

2008-04-25T09:57:00.001-07:00

If you know me and my music taste you will be SHOCKED!. While I can listen to almost any jazz or classical music ( from hard core bi-Booop to Rachmaninoff

, not just sweet Baroqe or George Benson :-)) I normally rotate

Merlin Manson

,

Linkin Park

and

Korn

or put Obzen Meshugah ON. You may catch me listening to

Metalica ( :-) )

or

Nirvana

: but that is old classic :-)

But my favorite song of all times is this:

You can see this remix too:

Hot :-) Right ?

Can you say it better?!

2008-04-22T11:40:00.000-07:00

Vista!!!

2008-04-21T17:43:00.000-07:00

Well, guess what: my CD/DVD drive disappeared :-) on new laptop. Yes, I installed a few applications: Halo 2 and staff, but not even started to install my tool set.

I googled Internet for "Vista cdrom.sys error 39" and found that many folks have same issue.

Common Solution ( bad solution for regular user - involves registry editing that may not be safe !)

You need find and edit this registry key :

HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\
Control\Class\{4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}

1. Click on the start menu.
2. If this is a Vista machine in the search box type in “regedit” without the quotation marks.
3. Maximize the HKLM and then go ahead and browse until you reach the key listed above.
4. In the right panel you’ll see something along the lines of “UpperFilter” and “LowerFilter” you want to click on each “filter” key and hit delete. Click yes when it asks to confirm if you wish to delete the key.
5. Restart Windows.

Well, how cool is that ?

2008-04-20T12:00:00.000-07:00

We all know that high technology is ... yeah, baby ... sexy. Watch this mock up of Apple iPod commercial that take it ... well ... literally :-)

It is funny and tasteful, no ?

Have fun and keep it UP!

2008-04-20T11:23:00.000-07:00

View Larger Map

But ... you can not embed traffic. Hm...

Click here if you want to see it:
Redmond Traffic

2008-04-20T11:01:00.000-07:00

As you know I like green Ninja ZX6R a lot( but is not ready for 600c i4 yet )

Well, see: even Porsche is scared :-)

I ride "milder" and "low end torquer" 650cc V-twin based SV 650 S that is more like this tractor on the picture ( but mine not green )

Mind you so... my typical ride is not boring ... not at all. It is fun and look almost exactly like this ( my pipes sounds a bit better so ... to my ears anyway) :

... I have to learn a lot. Here is my ultimate goal anyway (on ZX6R of course):

and talking about these "track days" I would like to ride some cool Ducati like one in this video ( and I do not need a car to challenge me) :

:-)

Ride safe and have fun!

2008-04-20T10:54:00.002-07:00

You may see even more Magic on WWDC 08 that is coming soon in SF CA. June it is:
See you all there!

Pay attention on OS X: this guy show that it is actuality there and it is, as you know after you download SDK and check it yourself ( if iPhone shaking is not working for you for some reason)