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2/28/2006

Weird MP3 players

Filed under: — 5:58 pm

Techeblog has assembled their list of the top 10 strangest MP3 players. They vary from one that looks like a Teddy Bear to one that is an Altoids box. They are all pretty strange but interesting.

The list is at Top 10 strangest MP3 players

May I also suggest this entry. Here is an article about what could be coming in terms of the future of MP3 players, which is MP3 players inserted in breast implants. A signal would be relayed via bluetooth to a panel on the wrists.

The end of the article mentions (pretty comically I might add) that it also may help in other ways like detecting heart murmurs, breast cancer, and diabetes. Somehow I don’t know I thought this might be more important than the fact it could play music

Ray’s Pizza

Filed under: — 2:58 pm

Their are so many companies out there who people believe are taking over the world because they have such a large presence everywhere. Some examples are Walmart and Starbucks. You should be able to go anywhere and find yourself a Starbucks.

However, no one is keeping their eye on the real threat to this global economy….Ray’s Pizza. Within the block that I work on in Manhattan there are three Ray’s Pizzas. I see the store everywhere I go. Even Hollywood recgonizes this threat because Santa Clause in the movie “Elf” talks about the over saturation of Ray’s Pizzas’ in New York.

Watch out for a possible Rays’ Pizza-Starbucks merger anyday now.

In all seriousness though, there are a lot of them. Who is this Ray and why does he have so much pizza?

2/26/2006

Best of Web 2.0

Filed under: — 11:37 pm

Designtehnica has put together their list of the best examples of web 2.0 sites from each category. There are so many sites out there and this list will give you the best of the best in every category that best utilizes web 2.0 technology.

Photo - Flickr

Video- Vimeo

Social Bookmarking- Del.icio.us

Digg

Newsreaders/RSS feeds- Bloglines

Start Page- Netvibes

Collaboration/Wordprocessing- Writeboard

Maps/Directions- GoogleMaps

Local Directories- Google Local

Chat/IM- Meebo

You can check out describtions for all these sites at Designtechnica

2/24/2006

Your Fav Old Shows

Filed under: — 12:16 pm

Perhaps one of the greatest sites I have run into in my life is one my friend E pointed out to my yesterday called retrojunk. The site pretty much has video of every opening theme song from every TV show you can remember from the 70’s, 80’s, and 90’s. There is probably even more than this on the site but, this is what interests me.

You can all relive your childhood by watching the opening to such classics as Duck Tales, 21 Jump Street, Chips, and Doogie Howser. If you also want to remember disastrous shows you can check out Viper and Team Knight Rider (which were awful but I liked).

If you are expecting to watch the whole episode of any of these shows you will be dissapointed though, as they only have the opening. Check out all your favorite shows at retrojunk.com

Let me know what shows you want to see when you go to the site. I really hope they start getting some episodes on there.

2/22/2006

Video Gaming League

Filed under: — 12:52 pm

For all those times your parents said you would never amount to anything by sitting there and playing videogames, here is a fact you may want to enlighten them about.

A company called “Major League Gaming” has attained $10 million in Venture Capital and appointed former Moviefone chief exec Matthew Bromberg President and COO. The MLG’s championship will be held this weekend in New York with $100,000’s of dollars in prizes. It is also in discussions to air their “league games” on certain cable networks.

The next time I see one of those people who told me not to play videogames that much as a kid, I am going to go over to them and say “I could have been somebody, I could have been a contender”.

2/21/2006

Super Suit

Filed under: — 11:20 am

For all of you superhero fans your dreams have come true, they have finally invented a supersuit.

The suit, which is still being primarily tested for athletic use allows his user, in tests shown so far, to have %5.3 better energy output, %1.1 faster sprint, and %1.3 reduction in oxygen output. The suit works by using strips that link the legs and the upper body to the power center of the body. They based a lot of the technology in the suit on their studies of how the top athletes move. The suit is made by Adidas and is called the Clima-Tech cross country suit. The suit also regulates your body to maintain optimal tempatures for the user at all times.

Thanks to Gizmag for helping me find it.

2/17/2006

NetFlix controversy

Filed under: — 3:40 pm

There has been a big controversy recently about Netflix and how they treat their customers. Many people feel that they are purposely slower in delivering to their most active subscibers. However, they always hurry in getting to their novice customers right away, while their loyal customers wait for their Netflix movies.

The question is, is it immoral for them to treat their customers this way? or is it just smart business sense to not deliver the movies right away to the customers they already have hooked on their product, so they can spend their resources getting new ones as well. What do you think?

Interview: CEO of GE

Filed under: — 3:07 pm

Great interview in Fast Company with Jeff Immelt, the CEO of General Electric. I have always been facsinated by these people’s schedules and how they juggle being one of the most powerful men in the world and just being at the end of the day, a regular person.

Excerpt from the article……………………………………………………….

What parts of your ordinary life have you had to give up for this job? Do you ever get to watch The West Wing or ER?

You have to have different ways to interact with the world. What I’ll do is get a bunch of tapes of TV shows and watch them when I fly. I still protect working out every day. I get up at 5:30 in the morning, work out for an hour at home, doing the treadmill, the stair stepper, and the elliptical trainer. I flip between CNBC, Imus, and ESPN during the hour of cardiovascular. At least half the nights, maybe 60%, I’m away from home. Probably the one thing I’ve tried to hold on to is a relationship with my family, particularly my daughter, Sarah. When I got the job, she was a freshman in high school. She’s graduating this year and going to Boston College. As best we could, we gave her a fairly normal life. Beyond that, there’s nothing that is normal. You’re on 24 hours a day, seven days a week. I’m thinking about the company all that time. My wife and I are great friends, so it’s something that both of us have adjusted to. But there is nothing typical. It’s constantly about being on.
…………………………………………………………

Check out the whole interview at The Fast Company: Jeff Immelt

2/14/2006

Make your Living Blogging

Filed under: — 11:46 pm

Wired has an interesting interview with Harold Davis, author of the blog, Googleplex, about how realistic it is to make your living on blogging alone.

While I have yet to reach this plateau (I am sure any day now though), it is an interesting read.

How to Almost Live on Blogging

Skiing Body Armor

Filed under: — 4:57 pm

The US and Canadian Olympic skiers have a new weapon in their athletic battle against the world’s best. Scientists have developed a flexible form of “body armor” for the skiers to wear that is molded to the athlete’s bodies and hardens on impact. The material called “d30″ is made by skiwear maker, Spyder.

The developers want to expand the use of “d30″ for other things like police and military use.

2/13/2006

Smarter, Gentler Phone

Filed under: — 4:02 pm

Technology is being developed that will allow phones to learn different situations and how to adapt best to them. For instance, it will measure the sound in a movie theatre to tell itself that you do not want it to ring there.

The phone would know the right thing to do in each situation and it would learn and become smarter based on experience you have with it. Like it would know you nap between 4 and 5 and that it should not ring then. It would also measure the speed of your car so as to not bother you if are slamming on the brakes.

I know I have seen this technology in the movies before but, I can’t remember where.

Oh yeah…

This is how it begins

Here is the whole article Crafting a Smarter Gentler Phone

2/12/2006

Transformers-Finally?

Filed under: — 2:11 pm

Very Cool, finally a transformer. Now we just play the waiting game until they make one lifesize.

Thanks to the TecheBlog for helping me find it.

Al Michaels for Oswald the Rabbit- Fair Trade?

Filed under: — 12:04 pm

In what is probably the crazest trade I have ever heard of, one of the greatest announcers in sports history, Al Michaels was traded from ESPN to NBC. The only thing that is weirder than an announcer being traded is what this announcer got traded for.

The previous voice of Monday Night Football and the announcer who called the “Miracle on Ice” was swapped for the rights of the 4 Ryder Cups, more highlights on ESPN, and of course Oswald the Rabbit.

Many of you are probably asking, “who the hell is Oswald the Rabbit?”. Oswald the Rabbit is a character created by Walt Disney when he was at Universal in the 1920’s and after he left he created the character Mickey Mouse, which is essentially Oswald the Rabbit without the rabbit ears. Disney, the parent company for ESPN, has gone all those years without the rights to the pre-Mickey Mickey Mouse, Oswald the Rabbit.

Must be pretty weird feeling for someone who is not an athlete to get traded. Both Michaels and NBC Sports chief Dick Ebersol joked that at least there was more trade value here then the Jets got for their former head coach, Herman Edwards. Edwards was traded to the Chiefs for a 4th round draft pick.

I figured I would do a trade analysis much like they would do with actual athletes since they are the ones that usually get traded.

NBC gets:

1)Al Michaels for their new Sunday Night Football.

ESPN gets:

1) 4 Ryder Cup rights
2) Olympic Highlights
3) Oswald the Rabbit

Looks like NBC had the stronger offseason picking up Michaels, the premier voice in sports right now. ESPN did not seem to get too much to improve their team, getting golf, olympic highlights, and a forgotten rabbit.

Pick: NBC to win (-4 1/2)

vs.

2/9/2006

True Ipod

Filed under: — 11:45 pm

In case any of you are thinking about buying an Ipod it may pay to wait on that. There are reports that Apple is finally finishing their new Video Ipod. They have already released a 5GB IPod with video playback.

This IPod however, would be “the video Ipod”, as opposed to the one that just had video playback (if you get why they are both not video Ipods, please explain it to me). The new revamped Ipod will include a touch screen instead of the mechanical wheel as well as a 3.5 Inch diagonal display.

Flying Cars

Filed under: — 9:43 am

Tired of getting to work conventionally, if you want to spend a couple of extra bucks, you don’t have to anymore. The company US Helicopter will now begin short helicopter flights from JFK to Manhattan for the not so bad price of $159.

Saw the article in the great newspaper Metro today, (given out for free on the subway), that you can beat all the terrible Manhattan traffic by taking this quick 8 minute helicopter ride to the city. The new even more extragavant limo service. However, there will be federal screeners patting down would be passengers because of the obvious security risk.

Finally, now its only a matter of time before we finally get to what we all thought society would be like already, The Jetsons.

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