Promises To Keep

Computerized Christmas

2006-12-25T20:15:00.000-08:00

Some people take their holiday lights pret-ty seriously:
http://www.lightorama.com/Videos.html

Here's Carson Williams' (whose Mason, OH home Christmas lights synched to Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter" went viral video last year) latest project ... a Denver shopping district:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nsqBo-p2wU0

Celebrate Freedom!!!

2006-07-04T11:26:00.000-07:00

Here's my e-card for today's remembrance of our heroes and all that America means to us:

United We Stand

A Mind-Reading Computer?

2006-07-04T11:02:00.000-07:00

The Royal Society Summer Science Exhibition in London July 3-6 includes a computer that is being trained to read human emotions.

The computer connects to a camera set to locate and track facial features and movements. This technology will impact driver safety and medical conditions that make it difficult to interpret emotions, as in people with autism or Asperger's Syndrome.

Read all about it here.

GOOGLING FUN

2006-06-23T15:21:00.000-07:00

Got a little time on your hands? Make fun using Google! 55 Ways to Have Fun With Google by Philipp Lenssen will teach you how to Egogoogle, Googlehack, Googlewhack, Googlepark, Googleshare, Googlefight, Googlerhyme, Googlespeak, Googlepaint, game in Google, calculate in Google, translate in Google, and about all other things Google, including the shortest and longest searches. Lots of facts, trivia, and activities!

still more living LARGE

2006-06-19T06:02:00.000-07:00

Okay, there's lots of information online about some great stuff you can put into your very own electronic home for living LARGE.

Microsoft's Digital Home presents an online overview of controlling all of your entertainment equipment from one PC command center.

Electronic House ezine offers its 100 award-winning electronic homes with pics online. Amazing homes ... for amazing prices. Lots of info here about HDTV and other features as well as answers to questions about digital equipment you might want to include in your very own smart house.

For more on high-tech habitats, read an article on Smarter Homes on eweek.com.

Read about a now demolished project, Xanadu House, on Wikipedia. Follow the external links for more information on Xanadu and similar digital homes.

Bill Gates Showcases New Technology For "Smart Living" in the Digital Decade - an article about the man himself showcasing the first wave of smart devices in 2003.

more living LARGE

2006-06-17T08:18:00.000-07:00

Here is the exterior of Bill Gates' $95 million house on Lake Washington in Medina, Washington. Since it's earth-sheltered, most of it is underground. You can read some interesting facts about the house on Wikipedia and go through the virtual tour of the house. If you like, you can build your own paper model of the Gates house (which isn't inhabitatable by anything larger than a termite but will save you about $1 million a year in property taxes).

As a guest in the Gates' house, you take a survey as you enter and are given a microchip that adjusts the temperature and other conditions to your personal preference as you walk through the house. As you wish, music can follow you throughout the house, even to the bottom of the swimming pool. This house has many amazing electronic features, including a computer-monitored watering system specifically designed for the 40-year-old maple tree beside Gates' driveway. But watch out ... there are security cameras everywhere (even in the walls) and sensors in the floor track your location within 6 inches at all times.

Another intriguing feature of the house are e-pictures, a process patented by Gates in 2003. Plasma images are displayed throughout the house and controlled according to user preference. Gates founded Corbis for the purpose of buying and distributing rights to digital images for use within high-end homes, businesses, and educational institutions. They currently own tens of millions of images! (For a demonstration of how this might work on a plasma display and to download your own, visit GalleryPlayer.)

Now THAT is living LARGE!!!

living LARGE

2006-06-15T18:42:00.000-07:00

I just returned with my family from visiting Fallingwater in Pennsylvania, Frank Lloyd Wright's architectural cantilever house built for Edgar Kaufmann, Sr. We took the 1-hour regular guided tour at $16 a pop for a look at all of the rooms and the story behind Wright's design and the Kaufmann's lifestyle. Wright thought the perfect height was 5'8" and designed houses for that height. He was himself 5'8". We got a thorough look at an amazing house and determined this adventure well worth the trip and the time. Afterward we walked the self-guided nature tour and took some great photos of the exterior of the house.

Frank Lloyd Wright: "I'm all in favor of keeping dangerous weapons out of the hands of fools. Let's start with typewriters."

6-6-06

2006-06-06T20:27:00.000-07:00

Well, fortunately, the so-called "Day of Satan" has passed without major worldwide catastrophic incident. And we even have something to celebrate in our family. Today is my father's 79th birthday.

Happy Birthday, Daddy!

YOU'RE FIRED!!!

2006-06-02T04:10:00.000-07:00

It seems the Donald's catch phrase has prompted a plethora of new web sites, but here's one that gives people an opportunity to share their stories about how they ended up being fired.

Simply Fired: "And you thought you got it bad. We have page after page of horrific firing stories here for your twisted reading pleasure. Did you hear about the guy who got canned over a dramatic paper towel incident? Or the sales rep who got the axe for vomiting on his boss? Read ‘em and weep."

And for those who think their jobs stink ... well, there are always worse jobs out there! Check 'em out at Here In Reality.

How 'bout that cell phone?

2006-05-17T10:06:00.000-07:00

Wanna consumer report about that cell phone before you spend the big bucks to buy it? Cnet offers a great resource for checking out those phones! Their experts rate each phone according to performance, features, extras and an overall rating of 1-10. Highest rating goes to the Nokia N90 with an 8.3 Excellent.

I love Cnet for their unbiased opinions about a wide range of technology consumer topics.

The Power of the Blog ... and ...

2006-04-17T09:59:00.000-07:00

Would you trade your house for one red paper clip? Kyle MacDonald hopes you will! Take a look at his blog, One Red Paperclip, and follow the fascinating journey of the paperclip and his dream to own a home. You never know ... on the internet, just about anything is possible! Remember the Million Dollar Home Page? We all thought that was a crazy idea, too, but it's definitely paying off for Alex Tew! I say, way to go, Kyle ... I can't wait to see your house!!!

Google Earth

2006-04-16T11:37:00.000-07:00

Want to take a quick trip to the Bahamas? Need to be back really soon? Here's an amazing desktop tool for letting you do just that with only an address and a quick click of the mouse. Google Earth uses recent satellite imagery and maps to put the world at your fingertips! This truly is remarkable technology. In some places on the planet, you can see extremely detailed images ... even a car in a driveway or a person mowing the lawn ... depending on the clarity of the image and when it was captured by satellite.

To find out more about it, check out Google Earth, or download a free version here. If you like it, you can buy the full version of Google Earth Pro (start with the 7-day trial) for $400 and even add a GPS Upgrade for only $20.

Happy 1-2-3-4-5-6!!!

2006-04-05T15:24:00.000-07:00

Happy 1-2-3-4-5-6 this morning!!!! It happened at 1:02.03 a.m. on 4/5/06. Cool, huh?

HAVE PHOON!

2006-04-02T07:52:00.000-07:00

This is one of those crazy phenoms that simply defies explanation! But it gives me a chuckle, so I'm gonna share it. This is called "phoon" and it's happening all over the world! Essentially, you make this pose wherever you are and someone takes a picture of you in that pose. Hopefully, you have an interesting or unique background that adds fun to the shot. Yeah, yeah ... I know ... it's really silly, huh? But it's harmless and it's cute so there you go. Check out a few Phoons from Around the World and maybe you'll find one that will make you chuckle, too.

Can Your Blog Be Used Against You?

2005-12-24T11:05:00.000-08:00

Interesting article on this topic in this week's WinXP News! Remember, anything we write in a blog is published for all the world to see. The words we say have great potential for good or bad, and once they're said they can never be taken back. One thing more eternal than the spoken word is the written word. Let's be careful out here!

Winter Wizardry

2005-12-06T11:26:00.000-08:00

I really love Christmas lights, but this computer geek in Ohio has taken it to the max:

• Wizards in Winter - Windows Media
• Wizards in Winter - Quicktime

The music is Wizards in Winter by the Trans-Siberian Orchestra. Wow ... impressive and amazing! I'm just glad he's not my neighbor!

Read more about this story on the Urban Legends web site!

Thankful Things

2005-11-04T07:12:00.000-08:00

These are things my 3rd, 4th & 5th grade students are thankful for:
Daniel: parents who care about me and that I can go to school
Kris: for living in a country that is free
Charlie: for a loving family
Nathan: freedom
Rebecca: safe laws
Ashley: religion
Melissa: friends
Hunter: sports and candy
Hernan: soccer, football, basketball, and baseball
Christopher: Playstation and my BB gun
Lindsay: sports and friends
Kayla: my pets - 3 dogs and a cat
Kristie: family and friends
Addison: having food to eat
Ashby: everything, but especially video games
Patrick: my four dogs
Keenan: going to the beach, game cube, and my gerbil (Bob)
Timmy: having a good family
Adin: my mom and my dad and my brother
Lynn: God
Ali: my sister
Joey: my two dogs, my cat, my two fish, my family, and all of the pets in the whole world
Emmanuel: my family and what I eat because God gave us something to eat
Guadalupe: my mom and dad
Morgan: my brother because I can play with him
Zack: a good mom
Noah: all my toys
Chris: clothing

Welcome!

2005-10-25T14:12:00.000-07:00

Glad you're here! Welcome to my blog! This is a class project I did for my EDIC 611 class taught by Stephanie

Sunflowers

2005-10-25T13:53:00.000-07:00

Sunflowers
by
Vincent Van Gogh