Sweet....a place to go when this one is ruined...and only 20 years away at light speed

Scientists have discovered a new planet in the constellation Libra. The small, rocky planet is special because it appears to have mild temperatures, like Earth. Researchers believe it looks like the first planet outside of our solar system that could be home to liquid water, and maybe even life.

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First Fork Art now Carved Crayons

A while back I reviewed some Fork Art.
Here is something along the same lines, Carved Crayons from Pete Goldlust take the everyday and making it much much cooler.

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last.fm

While I remain a Pandora fan, I have found some really cool music using last.fm lately. They also have a player widget for Netvibes, which if you read this blog you should know that is a definite benefit. It has found not only cool unknown artists for me, but even better totally unknown tracks from artists I love....example right now it is playing the perfectly overlooked track 'Sex Machine' (no not from JB) off of the Sly and The Family Stone's Stand album.

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Farecast, Remember The Milk, bubbl.us, Rollyo, and more...

Travel:
Ok just booked some travel, for a wedding anniversary trip to Napa Valley, I've talked about farecast before and I just used it to time the absolute best price on this trip, not only are they spot on with the fare indicators, but the interface is fantastic....every airline and reservation service should model this UI, needs a small tweak here and there, but all in all top notch.

To Do Management:
I've also been using Remember The Milk religiously. This is far and away the best to do list manager, again great UI, keyboard shortcuts, shareable, rss-feed, great Netvibes widget.

Mind Mapping:
A few years back I used Mind Manager to facilitate some brainstorming sessions and it worked pretty well, more recently I had the need to do something similar and leveraged free mind (an open source mind mapper). I just got turned on to Bubbl.Us I guess it was only a matter of time before this space became web 2.0 savvy. I love it.

Search:
Rollyo is a Roll your Own search engine that federates across sites of your choice, with a web 2.0 social network built in. I have basically been using a shared Guitar Tab search engine, which is awesome, and a Mr. Fix-It search engine for a home project I am doing.

Food:
You must check out Wheel of Food, basically enter a zip code and a query (like, Atkins or Asian) and the wheel of food spins.

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mint

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Knit hats

As a side gig my sister is making these killer knit hats and selling them online. They are totally customizable, 2 colors your choice and any text you want. I haven't picked mine yet, but the fact that I can have it say anything is awesome.

In any event its an awesome gift, I can vouch for the quality, quick turnaround and great price.

Enjoy and when everyone is asking you where you got the hat remember wonderfunk!

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Shameless plug

Not so shameless....it comes as no surprise, I am a huge google fan, and of course leverage a number of the tools coming out of the googleplex. I am asking each of you to check out the Free GooglePack....I know you already have some of these tools so why download....well easy you can opt out of the things you already have from the web page. So do me a HUGE favor and click the button to the RIGHT--->> in the sidebar and go get yourself some great software for the right price $0.

For those of you not familiar, GooglePack includes: GoogleEarth, Picasa, A Photo Screensaver, Google Desktop, Google toolbars for IE, Firefox, Norton Antivirus , AdAware SE, Adobe Reader, GoogleTalk, Skype, GoogleVideo Player, and an HD Image Player. You don't need to include everything, you can easily pick and choose what you need.

Get the googlepack, you will be pleasantly surprised.

Dennis
wonderfunk

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String Theory in Two Minutes or Less

What a great contest.

microdose if you are reading I think this contest is tailor made for you.

Discover Magazine has a brilliant contest challenging people to video tape themselves explaining string theory in 2 minutes or less, using what ever props they would like. Better hurry deadline is March 16th.

I am listening to: Presidents of the United States of America

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Yahoo Pipes Beta

Pipes:

Pretty cool aggregator+

In their own words:

Pipes is a free online service that lets you remix popular feed types and create data mashups using a visual editor. You can use Pipes to run your own web projects, or publish and share your own web services without ever having to write a line of code.

Here is an aggregate pipe I created....if you like this blog you will probably like this pipe....it is a subset of what I read daily.

What I am listening to: Wild Fire by Nelson DeMille

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perrine pods

I very much think the modular modern home is a great idea.

Enter perrine architecture with their perrine pod (available Mar 1) Not only is this cool on one story, but they are stackable to 30 stories and the expandable to your hearts content. Think life size lego home on steroids with a great look. Anyway if you spend some time and poke around their site, they have already thought of some cool ideas.

From the architect:

Picture a design so sophisticated and fabulous that it seems futuristic, yet so simple and uncomplicated that you wonder why no one has thought of it before.

"My design is about appreciating the beauty of simple, uncluttered space." The perrinepod is very functional, very sexy, very simple, with the form of the spaces inside following the function, there's no pretense, just simple, beautiful designs. It's a really cool thing to have no falseness - for example, the bathrooms are simply designed as a place to wash, backed up by quality materials.

Living spaces have become as transient and irrelevant as clothes. It's no longer a look for a generation, the look of 'now' only lasts for a three to four year period.

That approach is not sustainable and people are putting themselves under a lot of unnecessary pressure trying to keep up. The Perrine Pod is the antithesis of all of that - simple design, beautiful materials that will remain classic. It's not a 'look at me' statement, but a home that is comfortable, stylish and above all, functional."

- Jean-mic Perrine

Anyway, I'm a fan....I wish the price point wasn't outrageous, but hopefully this will come down over time, or someone will blatently rip-off the idea and provide it more affordably.

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Mother Nature - Fibonacci meets Fractals to create the coolest vegetable ever

Presenting the Romanesco Cauliflower
50 seeds for $3.99

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From WebProNews.com

Steve Jobs Blasts Teachers Unions

Submitted by David A. Utter on Mon, 02/19/2007 - 06:35.

Apple's CEO has a problem with public schools that he sees as rooted in the unions that prevent principals from firing underperforming teachers.

Even though Jobs shared a Texas stage with Dell's co-founder and CEO, Michael Dell, the iconic Apple executive stole the show at an education reform conference. He criticized teachers unions and textbook publishers during a talk that received applause from attendees.

An AP report on his remarks cited Jobs' observation that no amount of technology could turn around classroom performance. Jobs compared the inability to fire poor teachers to a small business that couldn't get rid of its bad employees.

He called out unions for specific criticism:

"I believe that what is wrong with our schools in this nation is that they have become unionized in the worst possible way," Jobs said.

"This unionization and lifetime employment of K-12 teachers is off-the-charts crazy."

Some observers commenting on Jobs' remarks saw money as the cure. Said Robert Scoble:

If you want better schools, pay teachers $80,000 a year or more, AND give the staff power to get rid of bad apples (bad pun, given the cause of today’s post, I know) and you’ll see school quality turn around in an instant.

Don Dodge disagreed with the money argument:

The problem is not money. Schools already get more than 50% of the local budgets in most cities and towns. Health care is the same deal. We spend more per capita on health care than any country in the world. The problems with education and health care are not lack of funding. The problem is lack of incentive.

Dell chose to keep his remarks less incendiary. He said a less-competitive job market for principals contributed to the problems in schools.

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Silverjet - great idea in air travel

I'm lucky enough to be on the East Coast and probably have a few trips required to London this year. The Silverjet idea is awesome...take a Boeing 767 which normally holds 300, gut it, put in 100 seats and 5 bathrooms, and charge $1600 for a round-trip...Oh did I mention the seats lie flat at 6'3" and the meals and service are top shelf. Every passenger gets a personal entertainment system and a library of things to pick from.

To top it all off they are the first airline to go Carbon Dioxide Neutral.

I love it when companies shake it up and while not ignoring capitalistic instincts. Then again I guess we need to check back in 5 years to see if they are bankrupt, but until then I'm a fan.

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Reinvigorate, RubyForge, Protopage vs. Netvibes, Splashr, WikiWalki, Pad Thai for beginners, TicTrak

Catching up....I have a bunch of links I have been meaning to blog about, so here they are, enjoy:

Reinvigorate

I got an invite to this private beta...looks great from a stat collection and analysis standpoint. I'll let you know more in a view weeks.

RubyForge

Great site, I have recently being using a tool called tracks, so I had to install Ruby on Rails on my PC, and since its already there, I started looking for other cool tools that I might like. RubyForge has been a very valuable tool for finding them.

Protopage vs. Netvibes: conclusion coming soon

I am wrapping up my multi-month comparison, and will write about my results shortly.

splashr

Ok so I got a new camera and I have been snapping shots left and right. Nevertheless I have been actively leveraging my flickr account. I ran across this tool and I love it particularly for distributing a nice dispaly of tagged shots.

WikiWalki

A community edited trail guide.....Finally, now it just needs to get populated.

Pad Thai for Beginners

My favorite dish! Last year I got on a kick and must have made twenty different types of Pad Thai....here is my gift to you. Pad Thai is a great canvas for experimentation....Have fun.

TikTrac

Time tracking is a hassle, but its a necessary evil as well sometimes. Try TikTrac

Almost forgot this wild instructable....bound to get lots in trouble for v-day

listening to: The Gorillaz

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Everyone's Favorite Blog

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The World Is Flat

Curious what people have thought about this book. I've read it, I like it....my only criticism is that while I think Friedman draws brilliant conclusions, connects a lot of dots and I admire him....I do think his tech sense and timing is a little behind. Living a large scale transition to Bangalore right now, I think has made this more timely for me. Anyway watch this video of Friedman covering this book at MIT, made available to everyone for free....an effort worthy of applause. This one is worth it.

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Reasons to remodel

This gigged out john by Roto-Rooter is perfect. Xbox, Laptop, Kegerator, printer, iPod

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Princess Bertha

Princess Bertha of Schwenksville

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Find a Conference or Meeting with this great web 2.0 tool

Enter: Confabb

Their words:

Confabb combines an aggregate database of major conferences, conventions, and trade shows sorted by industry with social networking tools designed to empower conference attendees to improve their overall experience.

My thoughts: Finally, the task of finding a relevant conference especially when your work changes domains frequently has always been a hassle, well no more.

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Rodrigo y Gabriela

Rodrigo y Gabriela these guys are incredible. I haven't been blogging about what I am listening to lately but this will be what I am listening to for a little while certainly.

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Top 10 truly useful Firefox Extensions and 5 more for Web Developers

Actually this took some time, there were some tough ties.
Here they are:

1. Platypus combined with Greasemonkey

I just love this, the platypus UI makes it easy to select your page eliminations, and then facilitates easy install of the script for use by Greasemonkey. For me nothing comes close to this combo.

2. Morning Coffee

If you are like me and fire open a couple of pages immediately upon opening your browser, or know that you have a few sites that you will use for guaranteed reference through out the day then this is a great extension.

3. NoScript

I hate anything executing without my permission, this extension solves that problem.

4. Paste and Go 2

Pretty self explanatory, but useful.

5. IEView

This is great, if you work for a company that drinks the Microsoft Kool-Aid then this script is for. Invariably there are a ton of web pages that only work on or are optimized for IE....this lets you click into them or have domains auto-open in IE. Great and useful extension.

6. DownThemAll

Excellent multi-threaded background download manager, allows for Reg-Ex filtering, etc.

7. Fasterfox

Definitely speeds up the experience, minimally lets you see page load.

8. ForecastFox

Every once in a while you need to leave the cool luminous glow of your PC and go outside...this extension helps.

9. MouseGestures

I thought I would totally get addicted to Gestures, that didn't happen, but I still have four or five that I use constantly! Great flexible extension.

10. Map+

Nothing revolutionary, but it lets you highlight an address and map to it from some pre configured starting points....useful.

and 5 for WebDevelopers
1. WebDeveloper
2. MeasureIt
3. Colorzilla
4. CSS Viewer
5. View Source Chart

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More Tokyo

a view from AquaCity


pastry and confectionery shops are enormously big here


Ginza


Wendy's surprisingly popular, however they top every burger with a fried egg....


The art piece outside of our building....a 10ft garden gnome with an interesting hat

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Tokyo Day 1

Currently in Tokyo on business, here are some shots:


My car from the airport, crazy with electronics (not visible from this picture) but of course the car had DVD Nav, Multi-adapter phone charger, LEDs everywhere, mp3 stick radio, receipts printing with each ez pass toll....the Japanese don't have more electronics, they just seem to use them more effectively.




View in Ginza from the cab.













From my room at night.









Some contrast....Cherry Coke is still Cherry Coke, albeit with a totally different look (which I like) and an Ice Tea I bought at the local convenience store....made by Sapporo, seems as though all of the iced teas are made by beer companies (or vice versa)

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50 things to do before you die

I'm sure everyone has a list at least mentally....well here is an opportunity to write it down and manage it, not to mention pilfer the cool things on other peoples lists. My 50 is a great a site. I would start with their suggested 50 if you are drawing a complete blank.

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LEDs for Beginners

This instructable is great. If you have never wired LEDs before and would like to give it a shot then start here. After you have it down pat try a simple google search for LED projects and you will of course find an endless supply of ways to occupy time with your new skill.

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Dumbest Things Bush Ever Said

I am, generally, a believer of respecting the office of the president no matter who occupies it, but this is too funny to pass on. 50 Dumbest things Bush ever said.

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Interesting Fork Art

Fork Art. This really is a must see. I genuinely like when people turn the ordinary into the extraordinary, just like Matthew Bartik does here.

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Open Source Alternative

It goes without saying that I am a huge fan of open source software. Osalt.com takes it to the next level, this is a great directory with a great mechanism for browsing. I was an instant fan of this site!

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Caroline

My Niece Caroline. Born on 12/20.

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graphical history of religion

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What happens in your body if you drink a soda (Coke, Pepsi, etc.) right now

I don't know where this came from, but interesting. I find the part about the calcium, magnesium, and zinc most interesting. Also I'm sure I have had 10 teaspoons of sugar w/o phosphoric acid and not hurled...

• In The First 10 minutes: 10 teaspoons of sugar hit your system. (100% of your recommended daily intake.) You don’t immediately vomit from the overwhelming sweetness because phosphoric acid cuts the flavor allowing you to keep it down.
• 20 minutes: Your blood sugar spikes, causing an insulin burst. Your liver responds to this by turning any sugar it can get it’s hands on into fat. (There’s plenty of that at this particular moment)
• 40 minutes: Caffeine absorption is complete. Your pupils dialate, your blood pressure rises, as a response your livers dumps more sugar into your bloodstream. The adenosine receptors in your brain are now blocked preventing drowsiness.
• 45 minutes: Your body ups your dopamine production stimulating the pleasure centers of your brain. This is physically the same way heroin works, by the way.
• >60 minutes: The phosphoric acid binds calcium, magnesium and zinc in your lower intestine, providing a further boost in metabolism. This is compounded by high doses of sugar and artificial sweeteners also increasing the urinary excretion of calcium.
• >60 Minutes: The caffeine’s diuretic properties come into play. (It makes you have to pee.) It is now assured that you’ll evacuate the bonded calcium, magnesium and zinc that was headed to your bones as well as sodium, electrolyte and water.
• >60 minutes: As the rave inside of you dies down you’ll start to have a sugar crash. You may become irritable and/or sluggish. You’ve also now, literally, pissed away all the water that was in the Coke. But not before infusing it with valuable nutrients your body could have used for things like even having the ability to hydrate your system or build strong bones and teeth.

wonderfunk

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Increasing Brain Power

22 ways to overclock your brain.

The folks over at the ririan project have an interesting article definitely worth reading.

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The Mechanics Files - CarTalk - NPR

Anyone who knows me is certainly aware that I listen to npr almost constantly when I am in the car. WHYY is Philly is truly a blessing, and I find myself going crazy if I drive out of its coverage area.....particularly in parts of the country that have rationalized it to be a good idea to leverage half of their day broadcasting classical music instead of more interactive npr programming.

One of my favorites is of course Car Talk, if you haven;t listened you should give it a shot. Tom and Ray manage to make every call (whether pathetic or complex) a good time. The also have this great feature on their website called The Mechanics Files. Basically it is a community populated and reviewed mechanics directory. One of the most stressful things you can do is take you car to the shop, at least I am constantly feeling like I am being ripped off. With the Mechanics Files you can really have more piece of mind.

Dennis
wonderfunk

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Top 10 Guitar Tab Sites

The Wonderfunk - Top Ten Guitar Tab Sites

10. ActiveGuitar
9. Guitare
8. alt.guitar.tab
7. Guitar Tab Universe
6. 911 Tabs
5. Tab Robot
4. Ultimate-Guitar.com
3. Pink Floyd Tabs
2. Led Zeppelin Tabs
1. Grateful Dead Tabs / Jerry Garcia Tabs

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Gymkids Step2Play Great Idea for the Video Game addicted

Unless you have a Wii which forces interactivity, this product by GymKids is a great idea. Play all the Video Games you want, exercises the mind while you exercise.

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