Gosh, one stringent caterpillar vivaciously haltered together with this nefarious bandicoot. Wow, that tarantula is much more indignant than one repulsive cat. Oh my, one ambidextrous leopard frenetically gurgled in front of the zealous boa. Dear me, one goose is far less absentminded than the various man-of-war. Gosh, this wolverine is far less attentive than some pesky bandicoot. Nonsense Generator
Category Archives: Gadgets & Apps
Marantz PMD660 Digital Audio Recorder
The new Marantz PMD660 Digital Audio Recorder is a little pricey at $500 but it seems well designed and packs a lot of features. This little booger is so nice, it made me a little nostalgic.
iPod
Reply
I find it interesting when words or objects of popular culture make their way into novels (I believe I posted on this the first time I saw Sheryl Crow’s name in a novel). I spotted a reference to iPods in Robert B. Parker’s Bad Business [pg 197], which was published in March of 2004.
“Vinnie put the shells on the coffee table and leaned the shotgun against the couch at the near end. Then he took an iPod and some earphones out and put them on the coffee table.”
Google the weather
Google has added a 4-day weather forecast to its search offering. Simply type in: weather, city, state. Link to example search for Destin, FL. I find this just insanely handy. I know I could click over to Weather.com but it would be several more clicks to the same result. I do the same thing when I need a spelling. Just google it and there’s the correct spelling.
New podcasting company: Odeo
Evan Williams (the guy who founded Blogger) and Noah Glass (the guy you hear on NPR that does the really good radio) have started a new company called Odeo (sounds like rodeo) that is “aimed at making a business of podcasting.” From the NYT story:
“While still too much in its infancy to be considered an immediate threat to the radio industry, podcasting does present the prospect of a growing army of iPod-toting commuters who take programming decisions out of the hands of broadcasters and customize their own listening.”
“Odeo’s founders say they believe that, as with other old and new media, conventional radio and podcasting can coexist in the long term. If, through podcasting, conventional radio programs are increasingly stored and played back on the listener’s schedule, rather than the broadcaster’s, then the trend could have the same time-shifting impact that TiVo-style video recorders have had on the viewing habits of television audiences.”
“But Mr. Williams said that the real promise of podcasting might lie not in what it means for conventional radio but in the new forms of expression the medium will permit. “We’re going to let people do what they do,” he said, “and we’ll see what they do and hope they do it a lot.”
Rex Hammock, on the other hands, says “Podcasting does not want to have a ‘central place’.”
Correction: IRA Glass is the genius behind This American Life and other great radio. I’m not sure who Noah Glass is.
Nokia’s 6620
Nokia’s snazzy new 6620 gives Internet radio its due. It boasts plenty of impressive video features, including a still camera that produces surprisingly good photos. But it’s the radio, available on a service through AT&T Wireless — now part of Cingular — that sets it apart. Why is the radio so important? Because it’s live. Viable live TV on handsets is at least a couple of years away. Radio works right now.
Music Choice, Sprint launching music service
“Music Choice and Sprint are launching a music service that allows mobile phone users to view short videoclips and listen to radio-like programming on their handsets. For $5.99 per month, users can listen to a range of genres and formats, including R&B/hip-hop, pop, country and rock. Earlier this year, the company announced Sprint PCS Vision Multimedia Services, which delivers streaming audio and video content from NBC, CNN, ABC News, Fox Sports, the Weather Channel, Discovery, E Entertainment, and others.” (Reuters/MSNBC.com)
Photo journal.
Some friends of ours are making a quick holiday trip to see family in Florida and will be travelling at the peak. It gave me a wonderful idea. Take a photo every hour, on the hour, for the duration of the trip. Start with a shot of the alarm clock on day-one. Then, at the top of each hour, look around and take one picture. Nothing posed. Just shoot the first thing that catches your eye. And then go one with your holiday. If you’re awake 15 hours each day, for a fast 3-day trip… you have 45 images without having to think much about what you’re doing. If anybody tries this, let me know how it works. And I’d love to see the photos. If you don’t have a Fotki account, here’s a good reason to set one up.
SanDisk Digital Music Player
I gave some serious thought to purchasing an iPod or similar digital audio device. But the buggers cost $300-400 and I didn’t want to pay that much. And I don’t have 10,000 mp3 files, anyway. But I have started downloading and listening to interviews from IT Conversations.
Listening to these on my laptop was somewhat limiting so I sprung for a SanDisk Digital Music Player. This little gem has 512 meg of (flash) storage and will play for 15 hours on a single AAA battery. It was on sale at Best Buy for about $120 and I can take it back if I don’t like it.
So when would you use a device like this? Today I went to see National Treasure and got there about 15 minutes before the movie began. Popped in my ear-buds and listened to the first part of a talk by Richard Florida (The Rise of the Creative Class).
It got me thinking again about this whole podcasting thing. The stuff I’m interested in will never be broadcast on a traditional radio station. Or, if it is, I’m unlikely to know about it or pick up that station. But the IT Conversations website has hundreds of hours of content that I’m very interested in. And I can go and get it whenever I want. And listen to it whenever and where ever I want.
Radio programmers have always been about trying to find the right combination of music, news, talk, whatever… that would appeal to the greatest number of people within their coverage area. Lowest common denominator. That doesn’t work for me anymore. I want to listen to what I’m interested in. When I want to listen to it. Where ever I might be. The web makes this possible.
Microsoft’s new search engine
I took Microsoft’s new search engine for a spin tonight and can’t say I was impressed. Looked a lot like Google but it’s hard to knock them for that. And it probably does some things that Google doesn’t but I didn’t take the time to try find out what they might be. I did an image search for “Steve Mays” and came up with two photos that truly capture the real me. But I’m a Google Boy to the very end.
