Although reading my wonderful rants may be the high point of your day, there is such a plethora of useful tools and sites on the internet that I just have to share them with you -- thus the links section. I'll post my favorites, and if you have one you'd like to share, please let me know. Starting us off is:
Qipit - www.qipit.com
I often find myself in class and at work involved in some sort of group work. Inevitably, only one person takes notes or acts as a scribe and then we're stuck with one copy of our work and no copier in sight. For this situation and others I've been turning for a few years now to Qipit. Its a free service that will take a picture you send them either via phone or e-mail and turn it into a handy PDF and JPEG. Just snap a picture of a paper, a whiteboard or a note and send it to their free e-mail. *TIP* make sure there is plenty of light on the picture, especially if your phone doesn't have a flash.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
Monday, February 9, 2009
Yeah, I know its been a while
Ok, so the last time I tried this, not so successful in the follow through, but here we go again.
First off -
Recent movie watchings:
Underworld Rise of the Lycans: Such fun trash to sit through, but no I could not accept an award for this movie even if I had directed it. Before any critiques, yes it is eons better than the last film, we're all still trying to forget that one. As for the acting, nothing truly spectacular, but it draws you into the story enough. I must admit, I just love Kevin Grevioux's voice, its just superb. In any case, nothing wonderful, but if you've got 2 hours to kill, its better than that family guy episode you've seen 8,000,000 times.
Futurama Into the Wild Green Yonder: yes it hasn't come out yet, and I know, surprise surprise, I haven't seen it yet. This is just a post saying how excited I am to see it after the last DVD, Bender's Game, as I really enjoyed that one. I did however just recently see all the special features off of Bender's Big Score and boy were they great. Everybody love's Hypnotoad didn;t dissappoint, and now I just have to find some suckers to show it to. The star was Bite My Shiny Metal X, a look at some of the mathematics in Futurama. I'm a sucker for extras like these where you get a glimpse at all the inside jokes and references put into a show. I used to have a teacher who knew everything in the Simpsons - it was kind of creepy.
Tech
So the MWC - Mobile World Congress is next week in Barcelona. I'm really excited as we should see the first real user experience with the Palm Pre (My next phone :-) ). The cell phone world in general is really changing, I think most notably in America. I was never, and still remain not a huge fan of the Iphone (although I must give props where props are due - Kudos Steve), but the huge demand and price wars with this phone have changed cell phone pricing dynamics. Now the the Pre is on the verge of release as an Iphone competitor, Palm - i.e. Sprint has had to lower their general smart phone prices so the legendary Treo 755P as well as the newer 800W are both down to $99 with new contract. This is of course in line with the Pre's intended launch price somewhere below that of the Iphone ($175ish). On the verizon side, I just saw the Blackberry bold going for $99 on Amazon with new contract. I'm liking this trend towards lowering prices (not that I think this economy could support a new $400 Iphone craze), but I'm also scared of being hoodwinked. Hoodwinked? By whom? Well the cell phone carriers of course. The average plan rate is up to nearly $60 with all the standard bells and whistles today (and yet people still act surprised when I tell them their phone has redial). Does this mean we'll save a whopping $100 on the price of a phone just to pay over $1000 extra in services we won't use? Just something to watch.
Disney
Even Disney is feeling the tension on the purse strings in this economy. The verdict is still out whether this will be good or bad for us Joe Shmoe consumers. On the one hand, they are offering some ridiculous deals from now until August (buy 4 days get 3 free on rooms and tickets), but on the other reports continue to pour out that new projects and developments have been frozen. All the current budget us going towards refurbs. Now while I understand that the paint on the carousel needs to be perfect so that Disney keeps it image. Do space mountain and the Frontierland Fry cart really need a makeover? This mouseketeer says no.
Family
I'll try to keep our personal lives off the internet, but e-mail me if you have questions :)
First off -
Recent movie watchings:
Underworld Rise of the Lycans: Such fun trash to sit through, but no I could not accept an award for this movie even if I had directed it. Before any critiques, yes it is eons better than the last film, we're all still trying to forget that one. As for the acting, nothing truly spectacular, but it draws you into the story enough. I must admit, I just love Kevin Grevioux's voice, its just superb. In any case, nothing wonderful, but if you've got 2 hours to kill, its better than that family guy episode you've seen 8,000,000 times.
Futurama Into the Wild Green Yonder: yes it hasn't come out yet, and I know, surprise surprise, I haven't seen it yet. This is just a post saying how excited I am to see it after the last DVD, Bender's Game, as I really enjoyed that one. I did however just recently see all the special features off of Bender's Big Score and boy were they great. Everybody love's Hypnotoad didn;t dissappoint, and now I just have to find some suckers to show it to. The star was Bite My Shiny Metal X, a look at some of the mathematics in Futurama. I'm a sucker for extras like these where you get a glimpse at all the inside jokes and references put into a show. I used to have a teacher who knew everything in the Simpsons - it was kind of creepy.
Tech
So the MWC - Mobile World Congress is next week in Barcelona. I'm really excited as we should see the first real user experience with the Palm Pre (My next phone :-) ). The cell phone world in general is really changing, I think most notably in America. I was never, and still remain not a huge fan of the Iphone (although I must give props where props are due - Kudos Steve), but the huge demand and price wars with this phone have changed cell phone pricing dynamics. Now the the Pre is on the verge of release as an Iphone competitor, Palm - i.e. Sprint has had to lower their general smart phone prices so the legendary Treo 755P as well as the newer 800W are both down to $99 with new contract. This is of course in line with the Pre's intended launch price somewhere below that of the Iphone ($175ish). On the verizon side, I just saw the Blackberry bold going for $99 on Amazon with new contract. I'm liking this trend towards lowering prices (not that I think this economy could support a new $400 Iphone craze), but I'm also scared of being hoodwinked. Hoodwinked? By whom? Well the cell phone carriers of course. The average plan rate is up to nearly $60 with all the standard bells and whistles today (and yet people still act surprised when I tell them their phone has redial). Does this mean we'll save a whopping $100 on the price of a phone just to pay over $1000 extra in services we won't use? Just something to watch.
Disney
Even Disney is feeling the tension on the purse strings in this economy. The verdict is still out whether this will be good or bad for us Joe Shmoe consumers. On the one hand, they are offering some ridiculous deals from now until August (buy 4 days get 3 free on rooms and tickets), but on the other reports continue to pour out that new projects and developments have been frozen. All the current budget us going towards refurbs. Now while I understand that the paint on the carousel needs to be perfect so that Disney keeps it image. Do space mountain and the Frontierland Fry cart really need a makeover? This mouseketeer says no.
Family
I'll try to keep our personal lives off the internet, but e-mail me if you have questions :)
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