One more for the road

Still the same issue, but the last post for now - fitting as the battery is running down, hp 2530p with Win7 - generally good battery life, but a bit worse for wear on wifi now...

And the overall topic of the issue was atoms as the new bits - how DIY is moving back out from the digital realm and into the "real" world. One company that was mentioned was SparkFun - offering a wide selection of products, like the 'get started' SparkFun Inventor's Kit along with blogs like Another Maker Faire? Don't Mind If I Do and 126 tutorials to get you going (and going and going... Duracell joke)

At times I'm both very glad and really sad that I don't live in the US, but in a country "guarded" by a $30 import barrier (ie taxes and fees above and beyond) and a lack of local alternatives as would be expected with a base population approaching 5 million (less than NYC, on par with LA) spread across a stretched out piece of land from 58' to 78' [well, technically 71' for the mainland, Svalbard is a bit further]

There are to many fun things to read, do, write, code

- even with just a few packages inbound 

Madden Madden ho

Game Changers: How Videogames Trained a Generation of Athletes was a major piece in Wired on how Madden in particullar was changing the way football (or american football in these World Cup 2010 times) is played. Because all of the players now competing grew up with second generation games consoles (PS2, xbox) and most of them probably have one or more third gen (PS3, xbox360, wii) - and the Madden franchise is so pervasive, the mindset changes - and the raw understanding of the game also changes

The same general ideas were discussed On The Media, were Bob G. interviewd the author of the piece, Chris Suellentrop in a segment called Field Guide February 05, 2010 (full transcripts online as for all OTM segments, transparency and "checkability" in effect)

I have no problem seeing the case for this, during the 99 cent sale from EA among other things I snagged the Madden iPhone app for use in 2x mode on the iPad. And it is just so increadibly immersive, escpecially for someone over here where NFL broadcasts are a rare treat - often shuffeled around on the program, and the few live matches are filled with overhead images of the stadium whenever there is a commercial or other break.

Maths is everywhere

Found Functions is a project by Nikki Graziano, that was mentioned in Wired 18.02 - where a variation of functions is superimposed on photos of nature after returning with promising snaps. The image to the left is the third on in the series right now.

Really inspirational, as there is a lot of both variation and repitition in nature, the possible avenues of development or investigation is rather large. I've got a couple of books in the library related to the crossover - currently unread is "Curves of Life" (unavailable at Amz now, whilst Elams book Geometry of Design: Studies in Proportion and Composition is a great read - as it combines the academic with the everyday.

btw, the amazon search widget needs some serious speed help, no wonder there is a separate "optimize" selection in the info - @blogger

Mo'money?

Yes, I've jumped on the glorious bandwagon - a double whammy of corporate inducements joined the ride as I jumped onto a new template based design for the blog (and finally got around to getting it wider, nice touch with slider for both total and sidebar widths)

First off I added AdSense to get some first hand experience from tweaking it and adjusting the settings - not that the current or historical traffic numbers give me too much to work with...

The second thing that has been on the todo list for a while, was to try out the Amazon Affiliate integration that was being touted. As a mild Amazon Addict myself, it seems like a good fit - and also a good excuse to actually write up a few short posts on some of the books I've flown through after getting the Kindle Global Edition.

I now have the Kindle software on my Touch (used mainly for listening to podcasts and podiobooks), my personal laptop (less and less in use - see next item), the iPad (great for watching web video, playing games, twitter, mail and general news overview) and on my iPhone.

But still I read on the actual Kindle device and love it - for a lot of the same points raised by JES in his post 
"Kindle – my perfect vacation companion" - this afternoon I was outside in the sun while junior was splashing in his tiny pool and running around the terrace. So the 'book' was in the side pocket of my cargo shorts, and I could get a couple of pages at a time when he was occupied. Lightweight, stays "on" and great in bright light? Perfect summer reading.

Fun distractions

The last shall be the first, so in order to work my way back through the pile of blog ideas, notes and clippings - I thought it would be easiest to start of with the newest stuff

And one of the newest items is in fact one of the oldest - Wired Reread is a blog going through back issues of Wired, presenting ads that might not have stood the test of time; like the book ad for Windows 3.1 Bible - because faith was required. So far the total is up to 36, with more sure to come as Mr. Søndergaard keeps on browsing.

The other fun concept seems to be either gone or down. 'twas a MacBook cover made as a book - hence the BookBook. The cached page is still at Google, sans the images. They have some products listed on Amazon, but no BookBook.


Then for the gripe of the day, @blogger; apparently either the new compose editor has "forgotten" a few shortcuts (ctrl-shift-a links yes thank you) - or Google Chrome feels the need to override them. 'tis a wonderful life - bold and italics work fine though

- ...and the sun just went away for some evening showers, still summer and warm so no complaints...

Going for broke, atomic or bust

There is room for one more test, this time after updating the blogger editor (now it actually says that it cant handle compose mode...) - and using the Atomic tabbed browser as the means of multitasking across the way of the web.

VeryShortStory It never really seemed right killing perfect strangers, but having come from a small family, I'd run out of options.

- twitter ultra short stories, and even automated thsirts over at the website

Another fun source of content is the twaiku, using twitterto send haiku poems around the world

So far the fans here in atomic actually do seem a bit smoother than the dual view of duet, especially with a custom search box for instant wikipedia goodness

Sing me a sing - with Duet

Trying o a new browser for the iPad, namely Duet,
Which should allow me to use the blogger interface along with the other window for grabbing and inserting links... Or thats the plan anyways.
And it seems to work pretty well, the link above is to an article in the New Yorker, on dystopian childrens books, supposedly a new trend or at least a bit more prominent than previously.
With this app it might actually be possible to get some writing done here again, with a small boy in the house pulling out the laptop just isn't as feasible, but a few minutes on the iPad is doable.
-...and the sun shines brightly still, 'tis summertime in Norway for sure...

May 5, 2010

May 5, 2010: "

oh yes - google reader has finally made a share function - chances of a small re-vival is good to moderate.

"

-...and the sun stays in the sky, bringing thoughts of summer and lazy days...

Fictional dimension

Dimensions in Mathematics - a phantom, a chimera

Readers who will have snagged a copy of Stieg Larsson's newest thriller The Girl Who Played with Fire ... HUP blogpost de-bunking the book - a shame since it sounded like a great read. As is the Millenium Trilogy by the afore mentioned mr Larsson (Stieg not Steig as the have it), crime with a twisted backstory and a bit of tech thrown in more or less likely.


As for the more meta dimension on this blog - I've been blogging a bit in Norwegian on two different WP blogs (consolidated them last week) the last six months, as well as playing around with Tumblr and WP in general to get a feel for the systems. Also Twitter has been eating up a fair share of time - skimming tweets, reading articles and re-tweeting rather than reflecting a bit more in-depth. But today being 2-2-10 (or binary 2 ;D) it was time to get some thoughts flowing again for the new month, year and decade

...and the sun shone somewhere behind the clouds today - as the snow kept on falling...

Soundtrack; Gareth Emery podcast, epi 87 - bit of backlog there as well