Knowing his love for cameras, I sent some photos of one of my sister's latest cakes, a Canon 40D camera, over to Xavier at GBM. He loved them so much he had to post them on the blog (http://www.gottabemobile.com/2010/02/25/tasty-dslr-camera-cake). Thought I'd do the same with my favorite from the batch. Check it out: it's Appa from Avatar the Last Airbender (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avatar:_The_Last_Airbender) [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Often, despite my general disdain for the term, I'm seen as someone who "thinks outside the box". I even received an award (http://sumocats.blogspot.com/2009/09/got-award-at-work.html) for it, and certainly this hyperlinked ink post is outside the norm. And yet, I really enjoy working "inside" the box, maximizing the space.
Case in point, the new thumbnail system at GottaBeMobile (http://www.gottabemobile.com/). With our new layout, entries are listed on the front page with square thumbnail images. The system can pull it from the first image in the post, but I find it more fun to make my own. Drawing from the tips I picked up at AnotherUniverse.com, I've been playing with logos, taglines, bleeding pics past the borders, and throwing in outside references. Fun stuff. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Writer/Director/King of Nerds Kevin Smith (http://twitter.com/ThatKevinSmith) got kicked off a flight for being too fat (http://consumerist.com/2010/02/director-kevin-smith-kicked-off-southwest-flight-for-being-too-fat.html), which is ironic given this line about him from his movie, Mallrats (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mallrats). Guess we know what his rallying cry will be. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
So one of the things occupying my brain lately is the possibility that the iPad could turn out to be a decent ink blogging tool (http://www.gottabemobile.com/2010/02/04/fastfinga-breaks-my-resolve-ink-blogging-for-iphone-and-ipad). One of my ink blogging proteges Jezlyn dug up an iPhone app (http://jezlyn.wordpress.com/2010/02/03/fastfinga-iphone-app-iphone-ink-blogging/) called FastFinga (http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fastfinga/id320090110?mt=8) that does a good job turning handwriting to image. Well, not for my handwriting but Jezlyn's looks great, almost as good as when she uses an active digitizer.
I've been practicing a bit, but my style is so dependent on a pressure sensitive active digitizer, large screen, line smoothing, and resting my palm on the screen that I'm unable to ink very well on the small iPhone. Might be able to do it on the larger iPad though.
With a full-sized stylus like the Pogo Sketch (http://www.thinkgeek.com/gadgets/cellphone/b8dd/) and a glove like SmudgeGuard (http://www.smudgeguard.com/) to block contact with the side of my hand, I might be able to squeeze a decent inking experience on the iPad. More importantly, folks without my limitations might find it an easy way to get into ink blogging. Thus, I'm left with a dilemma: get an iPad and try to promote this avenue to ink blogging, or stick to my guns and risk being left behind if it catches on.
Granted, it's highly doubtful people will suddenly start ink blogging just because they have iPads, but if it's possible, well, shouldn't I be at the forefront in making it happen? And how sad would it be if ink blogging did finally leave the station and I wasn't on the same train as everyone else? I may be facing evolution or extinction. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Between fighting the snow, tying to catch up with work, and staying on top of the blogging at GottaBeMobile, I've been pretty lax with the updates here. Will need to be more diligent about that, maybe set a schedule. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
Did some pre-digging through the snow today, and I'm already spent. Well more than a foot high and that's on the spots that were cleared of Tuesday's snow. Out back there's a couple of feet on the deck and the snow is still coming. Looking at 30 inches when it's all done and no place to put it. Even with a day to dig out, it's doubtful we'll be able to get out on Monday. [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
In an interview with Kara Swisher of All Things Digital, Jason Calacanis clears the air on his now-discredited tweets in which he claimed to have been beta testing the Apple Tablet, now known as the iPad. It was all harmless fun, he says, and no one who knows anything about tech would have or should have taken him seriously. So basically, we're the stupid ones for believing the late night tweets of a prominent and trusted tech blogger and editor. Well, don't I feel stupid... or do I?
See, my mama didn't raise no dummy. I was ready to call BS, except, like a dummy, I gave the benefit of the doubt to "the founder of Weblogs Inc, TechCrunch50, reporter for Engadget, etc., at al", thinking he would not be so stupid as to burn his reputation on a hoax. My bad. I guess he was that stupid.
And to insult us by claiming we should have known it was BS because of how ridiculous it sounded. Yes, most of it was pretty absurd, but it was also peppered with negative comments about the "gimmic" solar panel, terrible battery life and "nothing new" video conferencing. Over-the-top absurdity only works if you go all the way. Bring the story back to earth every now and then shows intent to mislead.
It's like telling people a new car gets thousands of miles per gallon then saying its top speed is 10 mph. First part is ridiculous. Second part pulls it back to plausibility. The trustworthiness of the source determines if it's believable. Guess which part suffers if the story turns out to be false.
Even more damning is his tweet where he states, "I assure you I'm not joking." Oh right, how could I read that and not know he was joking? It's so obvious. It's like when a doctor says, "this won't hurt a bit" and then stabs you with a giant needle. Yeah, he lied but it's to soothe your fear of giant needles. Same situation, as long as your doctor's only stabbing you for fun.
But seriously (and notice how that transition helps you understand the previous part was not serious), the part about this debacle that irks me is that Calacanis has the audacity to blame everyone else for believing him. Sure, he co-founded a major blog network and is a member of the blogging "elite" but that means we should know "I assure you I'm not joking" really means "just kidding."
The sad thing is, Calacanis wields such power that he really doesn't need to apologize for lying, much like Dick Cheney never publicly apologized for shooting that guy in the face. His spin that this was a failure by the media, despite being a major media player himself, is likely to stick. Just another step toward "the end of empathy." (http://calacanis.com/2009/01/29/we-live-in-public-and-the-end-of-empathy/) [+/-] Hide/Show Text [+/-] Hide/Show Text
