The Inventor in Me

I'm back from vacation, and although I haven't gotten into the usual grind yet, I have lots of things lined up for me to make. I took the boyfriend's advice about only asking for gifts that make me make stuff. So I asked, and I received. Among these are: a screenprinting kit, a good tripod, and the one I'm probably currently most excited for... an Arduino inventor's kit! I'm excited because I know almost nothing about it except for what I've read, but I'm looking forward to making computer/electronic signals have physical effects (sound, light, movement). Here and here are some projects that make use of Arduino technology.

Now Shipping: FastMac USB Socket!

This USB socket that came out as a product concept a little while ago is now shipping! Each one costs a little less than $20 and will currently ship out in 3-4 weeks. Definitely a conversation starter.

VIA ENGADGET

20 Things I Learned About Browsers and the Web

AMAZING online book illustrated by Christoph Niemann (author of Abstract City at the NYTimes) and created with HTML5. Falling leaves, floating clouds... see what else can be done with HTML5!

Instapaper

Ever come across an interesting article that's too long to read at the moment? Not to worry, you can read it later with Instapaper!

I was kind of "meh" about this app at first, but now I find myself using it all the time. It's proven to be quite handy while I'm waiting for someone or even as bedtime reading. The browser bookmarklet works very simply and elegantly -- quite a different experience from browser bookmarks or even del.icio.us.

Highly recommended! Get the bookmarklet and iPhone app here!

♥ new twitter

App of the Month: TrackThis

TrackThis is a great app for getting location updates on your online orders.
PS: It's also great for building anticipation, and therefore increasing happiness!

Cleaning Up the Menu Bar

 

 

 
I just noticed how my menubar had icons of applications I didn't use. After doing a quick google search, I figured out how to remove them: command + click + drag out of menubar. I love how simple that was to do :)

Lucy Phone

Browsing through Lifehacker today, I came across a smart iPhone app called LucyPhone. It solves the problem of wasted minutes during long hold times with a customer service rep. This would've really helped me when I ran out of minutes last month.
Here's the video showing how it works (warning: the background music sounds slimey).

LucyPhone from Decogram Corporation on Vimeo.

Download it from the iTunes app store here.

Pilot Handwriting

Coming from a Pilot pen distribution background, I was pleasantly surprised to see this video that shows how you can easily turn your handwriting into a font and send handwritten emails people. Looks like they are more progressive and relevant than I thought!

VIA SWISSMISS

Skype Group Video Calling

Skype has come out with a new beta version that includes group video calls, something I've been wanting for a very long time. BUT it's only available free temporarily, while in beta, and only for Windows systems. Thank god my mac runs Windows. Install now!

iPhone OS 4: Software Update

Hope you all got your OS 4 updates! If you haven't, I would set aside a good half day for it. Yes, it takes that long with all the backups and restoring. If you've already updated, you might still want to check this post out to see what nifty little things you haven't discovered yet! I have the 3G, and while I don't get multitasking, I now have threaded mail and 5x camera zoom among other things.

Will Our Memories Disappear When Technology Changes?

PHOTO FROM ALICE BELIEVES

I know I post a lot about technology, but don't get me wrong, I don't think online to-do lists can replace notebooks, nor can audio/e-books replicate the experience of turning the pages of a real book. It also makes me sad that my younger cousins won't have photo albums of their younger selves to pore through when they're older since the coming of digital cameras has resulted in photos no longer being printed. If I could see every family's albums all at once, I bet I'd see that they all stopped somewhere around the year 2000.

Here's a snippet of a really interesting article on the value of keeping things analog.

Because we are sharing so much of out lives digitally all of the time, we may not realize that we really aren't "capturing" any of it for the future. We have all of our photos on our computers and share our thoughts on our blogs and Facebook, but unless you are one of the few people who actually print these out, they will all disappear when the technology changes. And it will. Maybe not in the next few years, but 50 years from now the technology will all be completely different. Even in the years since I've graduated from college, I can't access any of my college papers that I kept on floppy disks. Technology changes, and along with it go all of your memories. This is why it is important to record your memories the old-fashioned way--with pen on paper.

Tech: Home and End Key Fix

This is for the Apple people out there. Have you noticed that the home and end keys don't behave like they should on the mac os? Meaning home = cursor to start of line, end = cursor to end of line. I fixed mine today, and it works like a gem. Get your fix by clicking the image below, downloading the KeyFixer, and running it; it takes less than a minute.

Gmail: Drag&Drop Attachments

Did you all know about this cool new gmail feature?? Update to the latest version of Firefox now to use it! This is the way things should be.

Evolution, Droplr, and Why White People Are White

This is interesting... I was just listening to this song on NPR this morning (not one I particularly liked), but it was about how Africa was the origin of everything, all people, etc. And then I got to thinking about evolution and blacks, browns, and whites, and why whites are white if we all came from brown. And then I was trying to install Droplr this morning, and decided to see who is behind the amazing app. Anyway, looks like the UI designer/whatever is TinyCrumb, apart from Culture Zoo, and he has a "Sort of a Tumbl" on his website, one post of which is Why Are Europeans White?. What a coincidence. I just Instapapered it. I really love Droplr. I also really like TinyCrumb's style and philosophy. Edit: Apparently, it has something to do with Solar UV and Oceans. And cereal too.

Thinking for a Living

Another really interesting website/experience! What is it keyboard controlled sites and pale colored backgrounds that draw me!
Thanks to my ghostwriter, Javi, who will hopefully never start his own blog and take away all my goodies! :)

Ommmmm

Ommwriter is a little gem of an app makes you feel like you're writing in heaven. It was designed to help writers stay focused and enjoy once again, the pleasure of writing. In their own words:

A wise man once said "We are all at the mercy of our wild monkey minds. Incessantly swinging from branch to branch." With multiple windows and applications all vying for our attention, we have sadly adapted our working habits to that of the computer and not the other way around.

Ommwriter is a humble attempt to recapture what technology has snatched away from us today: our capacity to concentrate.

Ommwriter is a simple text processor that firmly believes in making writing a pleasure once again, vindicating the close relationship between writer and paper. The more intimate the relation, the smoother the flow of inspiration.

If you are a scriptwriter, blogger, journalist, copywriter, poet or just someone who enjoys writing, welcome back to concentrating.

Ommwriter from Herraiz Soto on Vimeo.

Download it here!

Google Maps: Traffic

I LOVE Google Maps' new surface road traffic info! Every time I think about something that would be "really nice to have", it gets implemented soon after.

Playing with Google Suggests...

Google Suggests is that feature of Google that suggests popular search strings as you start typing something into the search bar. It's kind of amusing and will make you want to play with it yourself to see whether someone else out there wonders the same weird things you do.

HP 12C on iPhone

I never figured out how to use these 12C calculators from HP, but my dad's had it ever since I can remember. It's funny how they've developed an iPhone version of it now. The old is new again.

Seen on Cool Hunting.