Stoop

"The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or..."

Fri, 02 Oct 2009 19:54:09 -0400

“The nature of the personal computer is simply not fully understood by companies like Apple (or anyone else for that matter). Apple makes the arrogant assumption of thinking that it knows what you want and need. It, unfortunately, leaves the “why” out of the equation — as in “why would I want this?” The Macintosh uses an experimental pointing device called a ‘mouse’. There is no evidence that people want to use these things. I dont want one of these new fangled devices.”

- San Francisco Examiner, John C. Dvorak, 19 Feb. 1984
Via Signals vs. Noise
(via tmblg)

Toyota recalls vehicles

Thu, 01 Oct 2009 19:11:53 -0400

Toyota recalls vehicles:

Floor mats engaging the accelarator and getting stuck is the culprit. My quesiton is - isn’t this possible in every single car regardless of make or model that has floor mats? In the meantime - the Prius will be without floor mats at the driver’s seat.

Happy. davidkaneda: Is this a t-shirt? Because it needs to be....

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:03:04 -0400

Happy.

davidkaneda:

Is this a t-shirt? Because it needs to be. (via factoryjoe)

We've Run out of Planet for the Year

Mon, 28 Sep 2009 16:02:45 -0400

We've Run out of Planet for the Year:

Sad.

Although I agree it would be sweet to eliminate the wallet, I...

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:40:17 -0400

Although I agree it would be sweet to eliminate the wallet, I can still by stuff if my wallet unexpectedly falls out of my pocket and lands in a puddle. Not so much with an iPhone.

tmblg:

thijsjacobs:

Extremely frustrated with carrying around a heap of plastic, cash and a bulky wallet and just loving my iPhone; I quickly mocked up what an RFID enabled iPhone Payment app would look like. Obviously, one could do a lot better and integrate a nice “Receipts” tab inside the app, but I think this is a first step in the right direction.

All I want to do is take out my iPhone, swipe the thing, enter my PIN and complete the transaction. RFID is an awesome proven technology, that allows you to do just that and would be great on a next-gen iPhone. Please Apple help me kill my wallet!

Grab the individual pics here and here. Want RFID payments on your iPhone? Retweet this post.

An interesting infographic on how we are decimating fish...

Mon, 24 Aug 2009 15:38:18 -0400

An interesting infographic on how we are decimating fish populations in our oceans. Guiltily, I’m having salmon for dinner, though surprisingly, it didn’t make it on this graph.

herbivorg:

Where Are All the Fish?

Its about time. The PlayStation 3 has received a couple of cuts...

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 15:55:25 -0400

Its about time. The PlayStation 3 has received a couple of cuts today - one being to price ($100 cheaper) and the other to size. As seen in the photo, its lost some weight. I personally was a fan of the glossy plastic of the original, but I’m sure they switched to the textured plastics for cost-savings. It still looks quite decent. It will be available September 1st.

Click the photo for a full gallery of the updated console on Flickr.

Click here for some more news from the PlayStation blog.

Weeeeird. And coooool. devincastro: Marine Biologists in...

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:11:39 -0400

Weeeeird. And coooool.

devincastro:

Marine Biologists in Portobello, New Zealand made hand-blown glass shells to help study the life of hermit crabs. I am feeling really bittersweet with this idea..

It's getting hard to find an iPhone in Canada

Tue, 18 Aug 2009 13:04:23 -0400

It's getting hard to find an iPhone in Canada:

Should have just gotten one on opening day… there seemed to be plenty in stock and there weren’t even any lineups. I guess I lucked out!

Egads!

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 09:28:03 -0400

Egads!:

CBC’s list of product recalls. I particularly like Black & Decker’s trimmer warning: “The trimmer/edger’s spool, spool cap and pieces of trimmer string can come loose during use and become airborne projectiles, posing a serious laceration hazard to the user, as well as bystanders. The trimmer/edgers can also overheat, posing a burn hazard to consumers.” So not only can spool launch in the air and cut you, but you probably will be burned at the same time. Lovely.

Back to my Mac

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:50:15 -0400

Back to my Mac is not new, but every time I use it, I realize how cool it is. Sitting in a coffee shop I can get direct access to my home computer’s set of files or even share the screen so I can have direct control of it. All password-protected of course.

I’ve even used Back to my Mac to transfer a file that was sitting on my home computer to a client, because my home Internet connection is faster. That way I’m not using up bandwidth where I am. Neat.

In case you don’t know about it - its a feature that comes with your MobileMe account, and is useful when using multiple Macs. Though I haven’t really tried to set up something like this before, I would imagine its a little more complicated than this. MobileMe makes it really easy to get up and running with it. I just hope that they move this to the iPhone as well so you can have direct access to your computers from your phone.

3D Movies - just a fad (again)? I hope so...

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:39:15 -0400

My wife and I recently watched the 3D version of Coraline in the comfort of our own home. As the movie came equipped with 3D glasses, we obviously watched the 3D version (the disc comes with both versions).

It was suggested that we watch it in dark surroundings and that it would probably take about 15 minutes or so for your eyes to adjust. Well, sadly, our eyes never adjusted. Or maybe they did, but the result still wasn’t spectacular. Or good even. Wearing the 3D glasses really detracted from the story, the great visual effects (2D) and really just seemed more like a gimmick than anything else. Colours were washed out, and everything seemed to have this weird halo around it. If your glasses shifted a little you’d see everything in either red or greeny-yellow. For a good part of the movie, I was more concerned with fiddling with the glasses than paying attention. And that’s a shame, because it was (the parts I paid attention to) a great movie.

Now don’t get me wrong - I’m not totally opposed to making movies 3D in general, but the execution needs to ADD to the movie, not take away from it. After finishing the movie we queued up the 2D version and everything looked fantastic. Colours were saturated, the scenery and characters were clear. We plan on watching it again soon so we can watch the movie for what it is - a great story and great visuals - not a gimmicky 3D experience.

Street-cons as tour guides

Fri, 07 Aug 2009 08:23:03 -0400

Street-cons as tour guides:

Naples is using ex-cons as tour guides. They dispense advice on what to see and how to stay safe. Interesting!

"TCP/IP is to the Internet as the flux capacitor is to time travel!"

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 15:00:30 -0400

“TCP/IP is to the Internet as the flux capacitor is to time travel!”

- Me. (Why do I admit I say these things?)

These are some pretty sweet looking office chairs called...

Fri, 31 Jul 2009 08:45:17 -0400

These are some pretty sweet looking office chairs called “Cobi” from SmartFurniture. You can customize the colours and whether or not you want arms on it. Though stylish, I’m not sure about how well it would do as your primary office chair - there doesn’t seem to be all that many levers and the like to adjust your seating position which is key for office ergonomics. The materials are meant to adapt to your size/shape/weight, but I find there’s nothing like being able to specifically set your chair to your own comfort. SmartFurniture [via Gizmodo].

Searching for the best search

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:56:00 -0400

On the advice of a friend, I switched my default search engine on my iPhone’s Safari browser from Google to Yahoo!. I must say that I’m impressed. What I like most is that it is properly formatted and designed to be used on a mobile device, and specifically the iPhone. Search results are clear, readable, and formatted for easy clicking. The Google search results page still looks like the desktop version (even though it is a mobile version). That means its a little messy, busy and overall not optimized for mobile searching.

I then realized that I had become so dependent on Google that I never even bothered trying other search engines out in literally years. What I’ve found is that Yahoo! and yes, even Bing, have some nice features that Google lacks. For example, using Bing’s image search doesn’t present you with hundreds of thousands of pages, its just one page that you keep scrolling down. As you scroll more images get loaded up. I don’t know why they didn’t make their text search the same way, as I rather like this idea.

Perhaps Google has been resting on its laurels focusing on many other things than search these days (e.g. Android, Chrome, etc.) and has forgotten that they need to start introducing easier and more efficient ways to do search on their flagship service. I’m sure they’ve improved things on the back-end such as performance, search algorithms, etc. but the interface has been virtually unchanged for ages now and well… its starting to show.

Ok - thanks for the nightmares. Look at his hand! Oh and holy...

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 08:22:00 -0400

Ok - thanks for the nightmares. Look at his hand! Oh and holy crap - that’s Johnny Depp.

matthewb:

Mad. (via Dean Minifie)

Brothers. Looks like an intense movie. Hrmm - the potential...

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:06:28 -0400

Brothers. Looks like an intense movie. Hrmm - the potential problem is Toby McGuire in the movie. Though to his credit, he looks like he’ll play a psychologically disturbed character very well (and no, I don’t mean playing Spiderman’s alter ego “Emo Spiderman”). And really none of that matters since Natalie Portman is in it, so its worth a watch regardless!

LunchBreath Flickr Photostream

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:31:52 -0400

LunchBreath Flickr Photostream:

Here’s a collection of social commentary in the form of humorous drawings and cartoons.

Yeah - well they still taste good. herbivorg: Hot Dog Anatomy...

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 10:29:07 -0400

Yeah - well they still taste good.

herbivorg:

Hot Dog Anatomy 101 by lunchbreath (via).