Off On A Tangent

The Star Trek A-Team

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 20:20:00 +0000

Jordan's brings back Jordan Marsh blueberry muffins!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:15:00 +0000

At Jordan’s, not Jordan Marsh - The Boston Globe:

"(Eliot Tatelman) even lured a Jordan Marsh baker out of retirement to recreate the department store’s classic blueberry muffins, now available for purchase."

Obama is having the best first year of any president since Franklin Roosevelt

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:12:00 +0000

Obama's Brilliant First Year. - By Jacob Weisberg - Slate Magazine:

"When it comes to foreign policy, Obama's accomplishment has been less tangible but hardly less significant: He has put America on a new footing with the rest of the world. In a series of foreign trips and speeches, which critics deride as trips and speeches, he replaced George W. Bush's unilateral, moralistic militarism with an approach that is multilateral, pragmatic, and conciliatory. Obama has already significantly reoriented policy toward Iran, China, Russia, Iraq, Israel, and the Islamic world."

Buy Nothing Day

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 13:59:00 +0000

Buy Nothing Day, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Visit the Buy Nothing Day site.

You participate in news creation along with your audience

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:16:00 +0000

You can't stop rock and roll by Tawny Rockerazzi CC BY-NC

Brownen Clune writes Journalists are the audience formerly known as the media:

Participatory media doesn’t mean you letting your audience participate in the creation of news, it about acknowledging that you participate in news creation along with your audience.

It still astounds me how many journalists on Twitter, many of whom have spoken here today (I know because I checked) only follow other journalists – and who are the first ones to complain that the internet is an echo chamber?

My second point about journalists using Twitter is the need for full transparency, which can run counter to the notion of objectivity.

How can you be honest and open about things – or have a personal opinion – when it might align you with one party in a story over another? It was something Mark Colvin and Leigh Sales touched on in their talks with regard to being cautious in letting their opinions on a subject known. I believe that if we knew where journalists stood on a matter, it would in fact increase their credibility and create a greater trust with their audiences.

As journalist Amy Gahran put it “when journos pretend to have NO opinions/biases, it *undermines* their credibility.”

Read her whole post. She gets it.

Follow her on twitter.

Adam Lambert: CBS - The Early Show singing What Do You Want From Me 11/25/09

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:30:00 +0000

Voting for me is like taking a dump in a diaper.

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:55:00 +0000

Voting for me is like taking a dump in a diaper., originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

YouTube video: "Change Washington" - Alan Khazei for Senate

Twitter: Everything that pops into my head is fascinating!

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 05:19:00 +0000

More Cowbell

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 22:32:00 +0000

Classically trained servo motor can play cowbell along with any song you want!

IMSBos09 - Day 2 - Session 09 - Steve Garfield - One Step to Putting Video Online

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 20:30:00 +0000

Martha Coakley, why haven't you saved more money?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 12:39:00 +0000

Democratic Primary Debate at WGBH: Transcript Time! - Bostonist:

"ER: Coakley, why haven't you saved more money?

Coakley: I've worked as a public servant for a long time now. I put money into a house, sold it to run for office. State pension, money in home, insurance. Husband has assets. 'I think we've focused on what's important to us.... I've never made a big salary.'

ER: Is it a point of pride not to have money?

Coakley: It's neither here nor there."

What do you think? Do you want someone representing us that hasn't saved much money?

Managing personal finances and planning for the future are important personal triats.

Can we entrust Martha Coakley to represent Massachusetts?

SARAH PALIN BOOK SIGNING - Interviews with Supporters

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 04:15:00 +0000

Martha Coakley: 18 Questions

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 18:03:00 +0000

IMG_3968, originally uploaded by Martha Coakley. CC BY-NC-SA

Coakley at Cup & Saucer in North Adams -- the girl who got away; 18 questions.

[PDF] QUESTIONS FOR MARTHA COAKLEY HAND-DELIVERED MONDAY, NOVEMBER 22, 2009 TO MS. COAKLEY AT THE CUP & SAUCER CAFÉ NORTH ADAMS, MASS.

Finder Preferences Mac OS X 10.6.2

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Finder Preferences Mac OS X 10.6.2, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

I had a problem where USB drives were showing up on the desktop, but not in my finder's sidebar.

The solution was to go into Finder->Preferences... Click on the Sidebar icon in the top of the preferences window. There are 5 checkboxes listed under DEVICES under Show these items in the sidebar:

The third choice is External disks. Click that and the next time you insert a USB drive, it will show up in the finder as well as the desktop.

Learning My Lines for the iPhone Rehearsal App

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 13:38:00 +0000

Listen!

http://www.rehearsalapp.com/

Highlights from "Great Web Videos Made Easy" Video Workshop

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 19:37:00 +0000

Highlights from the pre-140 Characters Conference video workshop, presented by Kodak, featuring Steve Garfield, author of "Get Seen: Online Video Secrets". Steve talked about producing video for the web, gave some tips on editing and publishing, and highlighted the features of the Kodak Zi8 Pocket Video Camera.

Web 2.0 Expo NY 09: Baratunde Thurston, "There's a #Hashtag for That"

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 12:30:00 +0000

Whoa @baratunde keynote just blew my mind #w2e

Budget Cuts Could Shorten School Year

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 02:20:00 +0000

Budget Cuts Could Shorten School Year, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

Used here without linking back or posting CC license info:
www.gpb.org/news/2009/11/20/budget-cuts-could-shorten-sch...

iMake MakerBot

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:05:00 +0000

iMake MakerBot, originally uploaded by stevegarfield. CC BY-NC-SA

iMake desktop manufacturing system
www.boingboing.net/2009/11/19/maclife-imagines-app.html

MakerBot
makerbot.com/

New Apple Products--as Imagined by the Elite Gadget Press
www.maclife.com/article/feature/apple_their_eyes

Digital Designs in iTunes?
www.brepettis.com/blog/2009/11/19/digital-designs-in-itun...

Star Trek (Three-Disc +Digital Copy) [Blu-ray] (2009)

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 14:25:00 +0000

I was in Target the other day and walked by this Star Trek Blu-ray disk. It was on an end cap. The perfect position for an impulse buy.

I've got a Panasonic Blu-ray player that I got as part of the Panasonic Living in HD program, but haven't watched that many movies with it since we are always backed up with TV shows on Tivo.

This movie though was so good in the theatre that I wanted to get it to watch with my wife. I'm also interested in watching the extras including behind the scenes, deleted scenes and director commentary.

We All Have Sleep Cycles: Light, Deep, REM

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 14:37:00 +0000

Last night I started sleeping with a personal sleep coach to better understand how I sleep.

My wife is ok with it though since the coach is a Zeo which is made up of a headband and a bedside display.

You wear the headband when you go to sleep and the Zeo monitors and records your brain waves.

Very cool.

Disclosure:
I was sent the Zeo on a trial basis and have not been compensated in any way for this review.

Here's what the Zeo looks like on my bedside table:

It's no iPod, that's for sure. All the controls along with their text descriptions are very intimidating. The button descriptions are on a plastic strip that can be removed.

Here are my first impressions after unpacking the Zeo, which I sent in to the company:

I read over the instructions and plugged it in, it's charging.

1st impression is that it's way too complicated.

2nd impression is that there's no information to tell you how to use it.

There needs to be a Step by Step guide to using the headband at night.

If it's in the box, I didn't see it.

One pamphlet tells you how to set up the base unit, another tells you how to wear the headband, and the third tells you how to log in and send data.

Where is the step by step nighttime instructions?

Like:

1. charge headband
2. put on headband
3. sleep
4. wake
5. place headband in base unit to transfer data

There isn't any explanation about how data gets captured nad transfered.

It might be obvious to the designers, but to me, I have no idea.

How would I know when the data gets transferred, much less saved?

As a user, I'd like to know that I'l be wearing the headband and capturing data.

Question: How does the headband know you are going to sleep.

Where is the start button?

My guess: There isn't one.

;-)

I sent in the email at 7:38 PM.

Zeo replied at 8:10 PM.

THAT is responsive. Most companies only work 9-5. I think it's great that I got a response after normal workign hours. It makes sense since people are going to be setting the Zeo up at night time.

Here's Zeo's response to my email:

LOVE the feedback. Definitely noted - and will certainly make sure to get it over to the Zeo team.

It only takes about 2 hours to charge - so depending on how late you head to bed tonight, you should be able to use it tonight.

Zeo starts working as soon as you take the headband off the dock. So that's the equivalent of the start button. :)

Hope this helps for when you are ready to head to bed:
1. Take the headband off the dock and put on your head, with the sensor pod touching your forehead.
2. Adjust the headband using the Velcro tabs on either side of the sensor pod.
3. As soon as you put it on your head, instead of the battery symbol on the Bedside Display an image of a dash with half circles on either side will appear. This means it's engaging.
4. You'll also see the graph at the bottom will start flashing a line up to the "W" marker. It's showing how it's tracking your sleep stage - you are in "wake".
5. Head to bed as soon as you put on the headband for the most accurate monitoring.

In the morning:
1. Wake up.
2. Put the headband on the dock.
3. Give it a second, and then it will show your ZQ score and your sleep graph at the bottom.
4. Use the ZQ button on top of the Bedside Display and the arrow keys to display your data.

FYI - up to 2 weeks are stored on the Bedside Display. But you can upload it to myzeo.com and it will be kept there for a long time.

Hope that clarifies some of your initial concerns. Sleep well!

Great email!

So I followed these steps and wore the headband to bed.

In the morning I saw these statistics on the Zeo:

I took out the SD card on the ZEO and plugged it into my Mac and upload the night's data to myZEo. There it was graphed:

This got me interested in learning more about sleep cycles, which I'd never paid much attention to. Over on the Zeo site they have explanations:

Why REM is More Than a Rock Band:

A sleep cycle is a period during the night in which you go through each of the sleep phases, and perhaps some wakefulness. A typical sleep cycle involves: going into Light sleep, which deepens and can become Deep sleep, especially earlier in the night, then back into Light sleep which then transitions into REM sleep. It is very common to wake up either as you enter or exit REM sleep while transitioning out of or into Light sleep. This is the most natural time to wake up and can occur during any of the usual 3-6 sleep cycles over the course of a night. Notice that the body does not simply go into a sleep which just gets deeper and deeper over the course of the night until you wake up. Sleep deepens and lightens several times over the course of a night and waking up is often a normal part of this natural process.

The site also has you answer questions about your sleep habits and sleep environment. Each day you can enter "sleep stealers" to help determine how to get a better night's sleep.

All this info, that I'm entering, along with the sleep data, will result in personal recommendations. I'm interested in learning how this will all work.

The Zeo Personal Sleep Coach costs $249 and $399 and is available at www.myZeo.com. They also have a limited trial offer where you can try the Zeo at home for 30 days for $19.95.

Marissa, will you marry me?

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 01:55:00 +0000

Marissa, will you marry me? from justin on Vimeo.

Retweet

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 12:02:00 +0000

There are too many characters, 136, in this tweet by newmediajim to retweet the whole tweet the old way (copying the tweet and prefixing it with RT @newmediajim):

Integrated retweet at twitter.com allows you to click retweet, and have newmediajim's tweet show up on your timeline:

Integrated twitter retweeted tweet

I don't see any way to see who the 3 others who retweeted this are.

Integrated twitter retweeted tweet in timeline

When you click on the permalink of my tweet, it goes to Jim's original tweet.

~~I can't see who the 3 others are that retweeted this though. I saw that feature in a preview. Probably will be rolled out later.~~

To see your retweets, and who's retweeting them, you can go to your Retweets by you page:

To see who's retweeted your tweets, go to your Your tweets, retweeted page:

There's also a retweets by others page, which for me, has no data at the moment.

In search results though, the integrated retweeted tweet gets shortened.

Search results, leave off important trailing content from Jim's original tweet.

kthxbai! </snark> is missing!

Hmm... That doesn't seem right.

Meep Emailer Reported to Danvers Police Department

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 11:29:00 +0000

School-girls #1 by Ed Yourdon, on Flickr CC BY-SA

Danvers High School baned students from saying the word "meep", Theodora Michaels sent an email to the school principal:

An open letter to Principal Murray of Danvers High School (MA):

Meep.

Sincerely,
Theodora Michaels

Here's the reply email from Assistant Principal Mark Strout, which said (in full)

"Your E-mail has been forwarded to the Danvers Police Department."

via Universal Hub.

TedxSF Live Tonight on Livestream

noreply@blogger.com (Steve Garfield) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 21:17:00 +0000

TEDxSF Partners With Livestream to Stream Event Live for the First Time Tonight: "

Watch the live event unfold at www.tedxsf.org, http://www.livestream.com/tedxsf or on your iPhone at http://iphone.livestream.com from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. PST/ 7p.m. to 11 p.m. EST."

If you have an iPhone, you'll want to check in and watch the stream to see how awesome the H.264 HTTP streaming technology is.