Dan Buettner (born 1960 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is an American explorer, educator, author, public speaker and co-producer of an Emmy Award-winning documentary who also holds three world records for endurance bicycling.^[1][2][3] He is the founder of the online Quest Network, Inc., which provides opportunities for students to interactively engage with explorers on expedition.^[3] In February 2007, an expedition led by Buettner to Nicoya, Costa Rica uncovered the longest-lived people known in the Western Hemisphere

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Buettner

There are a couple of ideas that jumped out at me:

A vegetable-based diet.

One of my best friends is a vegetarian, so I notice the differences in diet — and I can’t imagine myself going through it! Giving up chicken, and beef (I’ve generally given up pork) seems to be a huge step. With that said, if there were progress made in vegetarian substitutes for traditional food, and if this progress were widely available and convenient, then I might consider trying it. “Easy vegetarianism.” For now, this is my train of thought.

A close group of friends.

The Japanese woman that Buettner mentions has a ring of five women that she’s known for 97 years. That’s a long time — with bonds so tight, it’s like an amplified family — when one gets rich, the bounty is shared, and when one gets poor, the poor is helped out. I really like this idea, but I find it hard to imagine, especially in the modern world. Not to say I don’t have close friends, but to the extent where we share our fortunes and misfortunes? Can this even be applied to the developed world?

A reason to wake up.

The most prominent characteristic of these golden-aged people was the reason to wake up in the mornings. I don’t think I have one yet. But I think that it’s important for me to find one, real soon. This is, in many ways, similar to a ‘purpose of life’, which I believe to be very important to a human being.

Check the video out, if you haven’t already. 20 minutes well spent.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html

Image: Soylentgreen23

Similarly, the Nexus One and Droid phones are written by many columnists to outdo the iPhone 3GS — both in terms of hardware and user experience. But why is it that the iPhone is still capable of surpassing these two phones in sales and popularity? (Granted, the Nexus One is still a ghost.)

photo credit: doommeer

Smart marketing.

It’s not about commercial time. If it were, the Droid would probably be a lot closer to the iPhone. And in fact, I personally find the Droid commercials to be a bit more clever than the iPhone ones.

It’s the simplicity, the physical popularity, the word of mouth, the lack of exposure the Droid has to the non-geek world, and the reputation (or lack of, rather).

The iPhone definitely has a much more interesting ‘one-button’ hook than the Droid would. One-button to do all things. One-button to rule them all. Etc, etc. It’s just funny, and it’s a major selling point — plus, Apple is very well-known for it’s ’simplicity’ (in fact, OS X is maybe just a bit simpler than Windows, in my opinion).

photo credit: psd

Where do you see a Motorola Droid? Maybe in a Chinese mall, along with those next-level cell phones that only 0.1% of the population takes a note of. You don’t see classmates, friends, colleagues, bosses, or anyone using them. This is also a reason why Blackberry hasn’t been trumped by Apple yet. It’s because of the physical presence that both Blackberries and iPhones have; you see strangers in the mall scrolling with their thumbs, or texting on their QWERTY-keyboards. And maybe one person on a bench, on some phone that looks like an HTC model or a generic brand — nothing to pay attention to.

When the iPhone came out, the world knew about it. Sure, there are people that know about the Droid — but not many. And a lot of them are just…geeks. Enthusiasts. Where the iPhone appealed to fashionstas for its beauty, geeks for its applications (as well as gamers), media freaks for its screen, and insecure people for its popularity, the Droid is only known to geeks. Not your mother, not your sister, not your grandpops. Just geeks. Maybe you, and one or two of your friends. And, to be frank, no one really cares that much about it, because no one’s seen anything that it can do better than the iPhone (when in fact, there is quite a bit that can be shown).

And, lastly, the iPhone’s already proven to be fun to use. It’s proven to be worth its price tag. And its prices are dropping, while specs are rising. In contrast, the Droid is still very new to the market; although a lot of smartphones came before the iPhone, the iPhone is really the phone that brought smartphones to the mainstream crowd — Feist’s song, its clever demonstration of the Shazam app (which really wow-ed my friends when we saw it), and its variety of apps just really makes the phone. Whereas, the Droid (and Android) still has a lot to prove.

photo credit: dailylifeofmojo

I’m not saying it’s impossible, but it’s very difficult to dislodge Apple and the iPhone from their throne. There needs to be a shift — from simple commercials, to different marketing tactics. How about giving away free Droids, to certain people to try? Chanel did that with her perfume — only to a few select exclusive high-end people, for free. That way, when people are looking to see what the rich people are doing, they find that — Lo and Behold, they’re not using the iPhone, but a Droid! It’s only ideas that are out of the box, that will stand a chance against Apple’s iPhone.

Cover image by William Hook: http://www.flickr.com/photos/williamhook/3656233025/

As of today, CutEdge.org has around 2,300 monthly pageviews and 45 loyal subscribers. And we’re grateful for it, because Lord knows I don’t deserve it. CutEdge.org really hit a slump in 2009, mainly due to a huge creative block and lack of initiative (as well as very random spurts of writing). That’s shitty, for a website of any sort — let alone a tech blog. With our competitors updating multiple times a day, I figure that a daily post schedule has to be established.

So first and foremost, I will post daily on CutEdge.org. Whether it be guest posts, or my own, I will find some way of putting material on CutEdge.org.

What kind of material? That’s the second resolution. I struggled to find material to post because of how fast technology moves, and how crazy topics can range from. So I’ve decided to be more specific, and focus on three specific aspects of technology: electronics, software, and entertainment. Anything asides will not be included. While these three topics are still quite large, they provide a more useful guideline as to my own brainstorm of content, and open up for a transition from CutEdge.org the tech blog to CutEdge.org the magazine. I’ve even decided to implement a magazine theme in order make this transition. Why?

Blogs are blessed, but they carry a very ‘diary’-like stigma. When I’m trying to take CutEdge.org to a more professional direction, it becomes very difficult to make progress when people think you’re writing in your diary. So now, CutEdge.org will be known as a publication.

Secondly, magazines are perfect for ‘lifestyle’-centred topics. I want to take CutEdge.org into this direction — more of a ‘tech-lifestyle’ magazine than a pure-gadgets or pure-technology magazine. I want to introduce the world to technology and the lifestyle that’s possible with technology (hence the ‘entertainment’ aspect I’ve decided to include into CutEdge.org).

Like Chevrolet, we’ve had a rough year. But we’re going to weather this out — and resurrect CutEdge.org into the tech lifestyle magazine of the future.

I’m usually not an advocate of spending, but if you have $250 and need an external monitor, this is a must get. It’s a great deal; I’ve personally been a fan of Dell’s monitors ever since I got the S2208W (here’s my review on it: http://cutedge.org/full-hd-in-22-inches-the-dell-s2209w/), and this baby exceeds HD (even if only by a bit)!

Check it out, it’s only on till midnight so get cracking!

http://www1.ca.dell.com/content/topics/segtopic.aspx/days_of_deals?c=ca&cs=cadhst1&l=en&s=dhs&ref=hbn

The GUI’s acceptable (sorry, I can’t think of another word for it); the blue kind of matches Windows XP’s colour scheme (not Vista or Windows 7 though), the buttons have a light shadowed gradient and don’t have that millenium-glassy look that a lot of programs go for (thank the Lord). Everything seems pretty simple and accessible, which is a green light in my books.

Likely it’s just my virtual environment, but I found Double Anti-Spy to be awfully slow – I realize that it’s not the most fair judgment, but understand this: a lot of computers, both in corporate and small business environments, aren’t equipped with the latest dual-core processors or anything more than 512mb of RAM (my virtual environment precisely). I’d really like to see Double Anti-Spy’s client get streamlined a lot more so it performs more efficiently – heck, I’d like to see all anti-virus programs slimmed down.

A plus: Double Anti-Spy’s background process doesn’t take up that many resources (100mb is alright, right?) and doesn’t noticeably slow down my computer too much.

Double Anti-Spy automatically quarantined the EICAR test file and rendered it inaccessible; I couldn’t even locate it in the Downloads file. Kudos! (And yes, I turned it off and downloaded it and let Double Anti-Spy scan my computer – it detected the EICAR file.)

I really like the automatic quarantine; it’s been a while since I’ve used a Windows machine, and while there are many freeware antivirus programs out there, I think that Double Anti-Spy’s got some features that I’m really impressed with (automatic quarantine!). For $29.99USD on Amazon.com, the price is comparable to Norton’s Internet Security 2010 – which has a pretty good reputation. Either way, I think $30 is relatively cheap if you really want to pay – but why not give free antivirus programs a try?

First off, I’ve found a bunch of Mac Gems — a column constantly updated: http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/macgems.html

Secondly, TED.com was brought up to me by a friend. I started watching some videos today, and that stuff is alright. I’ve yet to see an exceptional one (I’ve only watched two — one about a writer turning into a homeless person, and one about a physicist explaining explanation, which I didn’t understand at all I’m not ashamed to admit). I think this is the direction that I want to put CutEdge.org in.

Thirdly, I’ve discovered Chuck Anderson’s graphic designs. Anderson is the designer that created (from scratch) the wallpaper and login screen of the recently released Windows 7. You can find his portfolio at: http://www.nopattern.com/nopattern/

I’ve always been interested in graphic design, so that’s a possibility of pushing CutEdge.org into that direction too. Of course, I’m still an amateur, so there won’t be any tuts.

Oh, the possibilities.

Face it – YouTube’s really convenient to hear indie, live, or underground music. Now by no means do I consider myself an ‘indie’ or ‘underground’ fan, but I do like many offerings of YouTube; for example, John Frusciante’s cover of the BeeGees’ “How Deep is Your Love” brings much joy to me. Similarly, the Klasix instrumental “I Can’t Help it” really helps me. I don’t carry my laptop everywhere, and it’s impossible to put YouTube on repeat (or is it?) so I decided to download it.

My friend Rohan (at www.yourworldwired.com) introduced me to VidtoMP3.com – and ever since then, I’ve been a fan. Sure, the website looks a tad sketchy, but it saves any video as an MP3 file on your hard drive, all processed online. Granted, it won’t have the best sound quality (actually I don’t mind it, it’s not as bad as I thought it would’ve been – definitely audible), but it’s a great way to get music you wouldn’t have been able to otherwise.

www.vidtomp3.com

Firstly, I had to buy a new version of Office. When mine was totally fine. Stupid.

Then Photoshop. Stupid.

Stupid, but at least do-able. I was able to get my hands on these items (which can be acquired by other “torrent”-ial means, I’ll just say) and install them into OS X. And they worked like a charm!

Friends over at APH Networks also introduced me to Darwine and TRiX, and I was able to get some Windows applications running. Most unfortunately, Windows Live Writer just wasn’t one of them (apparently some .NET incompatibilities were the cause or something like that).

Anyway, that was that. For a month, I’d had to write using WordPress’ built-in service. I tried Qumana, but that was mediocre (no offense) – even though it was easily the best out of all the free OS X blog publishing software I could find. Downgrading from Windows Live Writer to Qumana was probably the only negative to my transition to OS X.

So I finally took the dive and got Windows XP.

Similarly, I downloaded a piece of FREE software by the name of VirtualBox; in comparison to the software Parallels and VMware Fusion (both paid solutions), VirtualBox was free and still comparable. I finally got Windows Live Writer back on OS X, running simultaneously with all my OS X programs.

You must be wondering how I did it.

1. Get your hands on Windows XP. Preferably Professional, as always.

2. Get VirtualBox. http://www.virtualbox.org/

3. Create a new machine in VirtualBox, and don’t forget to go into Settings and make sure your computer’s optical drive is in-sync with the virtual computer.

4. Insert Windows XP into your optical drive, boot your new virtual machine and install Windows XP.

4i. Go into Devices, and install guest additions. Trust me, they’re a huge help (especially in adjusting screen resolution, whew).

That’s it! 4 simple steps, probably takes you an hour or two. And now you have Windows XP on OS X, and not using dual-boot (rebooting is so 1999). Haha.

I never really knew what to do with iCal before because I never had a need for it — I never planned my days because they were so rigid; school would be from 8AM-3PM, I’d do homework until around 6PM, and then do whatever until 8PM, when I’d eat dinner. And then, I’d do whatever.

But I’ve realized that those days are long gone, and aren’t coming back anytime soon (oh sweet summer, why won’t you arrive sooner?). And if I were to gain an edge over other students, and survive this semester of university, I would have to step up my game. Everyone’s focused, and everyone’s determined to be the best. How could I separate myself from the rest of the pack?

I decided firstly to make the most use of my time. I decided that I’d focus on whatever I was doing at the time, so I could work hard and produce good work for a series of days (getting into the flow of work), and then enjoy my time the rest of the days. How would I go about doing this?

Planning, friends. Planning.

I’ve decided to make it a habit before I go to sleep to open iCal and figure out what I would do with my day. I usually have a morning lecture (for about an hour or two), then a long break and an afternoon lecture. This can be seen as a beautiful or a disgusting thing; if I didn’t use the time wisely, then my day would end late and I’d have to do homework. If I did manage to use this time well, then I would be able to do some work, reinforce my learning, and possibly even kill the workload so I wouldn’t have to do it after my afternoon lecture.

Sweet.

What do I do with the spare time?

There are a ton of extracurriculars that I hope to be a part of at this university. Not to mention that CutEdge.org could use more updates and more content. I usually enjoy writing articles, because I find that it’s good practise and Lord knows I could use it. But my whole goal is still to be more productive — not to enjoy my time (well, there are times for that — they’re called weekends), but to kill everything so that I can recreate hard on weekends and focus on schoolwork on weekdays.

Here’s an article that I ran into today to inspire me:

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970203803904574429151858232582.html?mod=rss_careers

Hope I was of some help. I realize that this is taking off in an untraditional CutEdge.org direction, but I do hope to explore not only technologies, but also techniques that help people. And not just useless gadgets that people get sick of so very quickly.

HP has created an (almost) exactly replica of the MacBook Pro; taking the exterior design of the MacBook Pro and slapping an HP logo on it, but reinventing the inside to have a lot more juice, and a lot more power. Named Envy, this line of laptops was created to capture a portion of those interested in MacBook Pros — the Envy line is more than comparable to Apple’s MacBook Pro.

With an i7 processor and double-digit RAM, and a dedicated ATI graphics card, the Envy is definitely something to keep your eyes peeled for. Available in mid-October, I’d suggest holding off that MacBook Pro until you’ve decided whether Snow Leopard is that essential, and if you can live with Envy and the Windows 7.

Read: http://www.engadget.com/2009/09/15/hp-envy-13-and-15-bring-luxury-to-the-everyman-look-like-macboo/

Read: http://www.hp.com/united-states/campaigns/envy/discover_15.html