Sound, shower, battery

Yes, another Wired issue has been read and enjoyed - and here are some of the things that made me think and surf around for more information.

Steaming

The company Kohler has run some rather spectacular ads in Wired (and presumably elsewhere, considering the number of great ads) Great use of artists -not to mention that the product looks kind of fun as well, a build-in shower so you can put up several and have your own say in how and where you want the water. "22- and 54-nozzle bodysprays and showerheads that deliver lavish amounts of water for a stimulating or soothing hydrotherapy experience." Now to find a suitable house and I'm all set for Cribs dropping by.

Sweet small

I really enjoy having my Zen mp3 player - it works great for shuffling through podcast (using WMP and four smart playlists to sync only the new ones of various types) and the occasional burst of music. But I have to admit that the newer Zen Plus does look really nice, with about 40% less volume (cut in all dimension, 16 mm off the height) and a color screen. On the downside the battery is embedded so you can't just swap it - not that I've had to swap the one I have, or ever had both charged and brought along, and I'm unsure how well the joystick works on the go.

Lap-car

Well, seems like it is promotion time all over this post (which is why I've grouped all three together) - because bring up the rear, presumably not for long, is the Tesla Roadster featured in Wired as well. A battery-powered sportscar, it takes the li-ion batteries normally found in laptops and supercharges them - in fact 6831 of them - to make the light car go 0-60 in 4 seconds.


But with recent Sony-problems looming in the background, I'm not to sure about putting a whole batch together is the best stunt at present.

And speaking of laptop batteries - why are there (to my un-googled knowledge) no "minibatteries" for office use, containing only enough juice for the ten minute walk to the meeting - thereby making the laptop a bit less heated when used in an office setting day in and day out?

Since we are getting on a tangent here - have a math tidbit and read up on Pingala, an Indian mathematician who 'invented' binary numbers.
In the fifth century BC.

Flickr goes mapped

Now there is a new way to play with your flickr images - a drag and drop interface for showing where the images is from (or geocoding if you want it in technical terms). It is really easy to use, since you can filter your own images by several different kinds of criteria (date uploaded, set, not coded etc) - and then simply drag them onto the map to assign a location.

Convenient? Check
Fast? Check
Fun? Check

So, a visual online world has just taken one step closer to becoming a reality. Even if they might need to do some minor adjustments (such as easily allowing you to add to the same 'spot' as others by chosing accuracy or getting a pop-up), it is a great step forward and a good response to the ease of upload from the Picasa beta


...and the sun is well hidden, fall is coming on fast with rainclouds closing in from all direction...

Mix or match?

The myth of the living-room PC: "My tech-savvy friends who can afford anything they want set up a huge HDTV with TiVo, cable, and DVD playersÂ?then sit in front of it with a laptop on their knees. They use Google and AIM while watching TV, but they keep their 2-foot and 10-foot gadgets separate." (Paul Boutin - Slate Magazine)

So, no need for convergence? There is more than enough to do on each "island" (especially if you add in a PS2 and/or Xbox to the mix, then you have all you need both places) - youTube isn't ready for a huge screen, and with dvd burners you can easily transfer the content you want both ways.

Convenience is probably the key factor - at least for me. It is a lot faster to pick up a series on a dvd boxed set, than it is to program the vcr or hook the pc up to the cable and the tv. Because we have the whole season at once, we decide how many episodes to watch - and how frequently. And the quality is always top notch.

Maybe that is why I haven't included any TV cards in the planned setup for a new home pc - but have been considering getting a separate box and just use some of the old components for a pvr and mediahub.

And the new Slate design? Nice, especially the slide-menu.

MySpace on Daily Show

Youtube offers up several versions of this clip from Comedy Centrals The Daily Show, originally aired in February; MySpace trendspotting
Brilliant stuff, really catches the problem and the upside of social networking: you can have lots and lots of connections with very little effort - making it easier to experiment and find the ones you do want to stay in touch with more frequently.

Could 70 million "people" be wrong?