Digital Technology for Digital Living.
November 30, 2006
Naked People on Google Earth
Like sunbathing naked outdoors? Who doesn’t (especially Europeans). Just keep in mind that one day a satellite might fly by and capture your naked body for the good of posterity. Services like Google Maps and Google Earth have made satellite photography accessible to anyone with an Internet connection. This topless sunbather became an overnight Internet sensation, but she’s not alone. Apparently the Hague is overrun with naked and semi-naked Dutch people.
So grab a magnifying glass and open up Adobe Photoshop, because here’s Google Sightseeing.com’s Top 10 Naked People on Google Earth!
10) This picture got a lot of people hot under the collar. Many people think she’s on her front, but personally I remain unconvinced.
09) Very close to the original topless sunbather, this one is definitely female, I think. It looks like she’s lying on her front, and she does appear to have some kind of top on, so keep your hair on people!
08) Just six doors down, here’s a half-naked Dutch, person. Wearing a sarong perhaps?
07) This ones been widely discussed on other sites, but I personally reckon this is a guy, wearing shorts. Phew!
06) This person thinks they have privacy on this rooftop (haven’t they seen Enemy of the State?) and they’re definitely topless! (Sex unknown of course, but topless nevertheless.)
05) Outside a cafe on the beach (presumably before it opened that day), we find someone sitting calmly in a chair, blissfully unaware the whole world can now see them in their birthday suit.
04) The previous nudist may have also been unaware that just on the other side of the building, there was another person sunning themselves - flat on their back and completely in the altogether! Does anyone know someone that works in this cafe by the way?
03) Again on the beach, here’s a couple of naked people who think they can hide behind a beach wind wall! Don’t they know there is no escape?
02) Hiding away behind some bushes is no escape either. Mind you, I wish that person would keep their legs together. Yeuch!
01) Well, do you know of a better picture? I’m sure there’s loads more brilliant ones yet to be found. So fire up Google Earth and start searching! Enjoy.
methodshop | Comments Off | Broadband, Digital Camera
November 29, 2006
USB Turntable
Need a reason to pull your records out of storage? A company called ION has created a USB turntable called the iTTUSB. The company claims that this is the world’s first USB turntable.
The iTTUSB allows you to convert your old vinyl collection directly to CD or MP3 with the included recording software (Mac/PC) and is a must have for people who don’t want to deal with clumsy adapters or mismatched audio formats.
The iTTUSB comes with Audacity, a recording application that works with both PCs and Macs, as well a trial version of Bias Soundsoap 2 to clean and restore vinyl recordings.
As an alternative, the turntable also works with any other software that supports USB audio input sound cards. Once connected, the turntable transfers both 33-1/3 rpm albums and 45 rpm singles to digital formats in mere minutes.
The iTTUSB is great for all those obscure releases that never made it to CD.
More info on the iTTUSB:
methodshop | Comments Off | Music
November 26, 2006
A Pain in the Wii
You will probably either sympathize or laugh at this latest story coming from the console gaming community. According to last Saturday’s Wall Street Journal (subscription required), gamers are finding that the new Nintendo Wii can be a real pain in the neck… back, shoulder, elbow, wrist, etc.
In case you are unfamiliar with the Nintendo Wii, the controller it comes with is a wireless, motion-sensitive wand-like device. Gamers wave the controller around in the air and depending on which type of game you are playing, the controller can be anything from a sword, gun, tennis racket, or even a steering wheel. However, since the console debuted in mid-November, Nintendo Wii owners are complaining of aching backs, sore shoulders, and even something now called “Wii elbow.”
Here are a couple quotes from the WSJ article from Nintendo Wii owners:
Blaine Stuart of Rochester, New York, mistakenly whacked his fiancee, Shelly Haefele, while playing tennis and also accidentally hit his dog while bowling despite the message Nintendo flashes up on the screen before each game which says: “Make sure there are no people or objects around you that you might bump into while playing.”
Ryan Mercer, a customs broker in Indianapolis, lifts weights several times a week. But that hasn’t helped much with the Wii. After playing the boxing game for an hour and a half, his arms, shoulders and torso were aching. “I was soaking wet with sweat, head to toe — I had to go take a shower,” he says. And the next morning? “I had trouble putting my shirt on,” says the 21-year-old avid gamer.
So what do the doctors think about all this? Lana Kang, an orthopedic hand surgeon, had this piece of advice, “It’s just like athletic play…. Stretch out and be sure to take care of any injuries afterwards.”
With the rate of obese children skyrocketing worldwide, you’d think people would be congratulating Nintendo for combining gaming and exercise, not complaining. Oh well. Grab another Big Mac and wait for the next generation of gaming consoles to come out. Maybe they’ll feature ‘mind control ‘ so you don’t even have to lift a finger to play.
methodshop | Comments Off | General, Wireless, Console, Toys
November 25, 2006
iPhone Coming Jan 2007
Is the arrival of the iPhone, a hybrid mobile phone and iPod music player from Apple Computer, right around the corner?
According to analysts, Apple is rumored to be ready to release the “iPhone” at the January 2007 Macworld conference. “From a technical standpoint, the phone is pretty much done,” said American Technology Research analyst Shaw Wu. “It’s a big endeavor and we believe it’s beyond speculation.” Apparently the rumored existence of the iPhone has morphed from a question of “If” to “When.”
A trail of clues about the iPhone’s existence have been popping up all over the Internet for over a year now:
In June 2005, the source code of an iTunes update contained multiple references to an Autofill phone playlist function.
- In March 2006, a source at BenQ, a Taiwanese phone manufacturer confirmed that an Apple product called the iPhone was in the works. Why would BenQ leak info about the iPhone to the media? Sour grapes. Hon Hai Precision, a competitor to BenQ, allegedly won the iPhone contract with Apple.
- Apple’s CFO, Peter Oppenheimer, might have let the ‘cat out of the bag‘ on an Apple analyst 2006 Q3 conference call when he said the following: “As regards cell phones, we don’t think that the phones that are available today make the best music players. We think the iPod is. But over time, that is likely to change. And [Apple is] not sitting around doing nothing.”
Since Apple’s introduction of the iPod five years ago, the company has sold more than 67 million of the devices and more than 1.5 billion songs from its iTunes online music store. We can only speculate what the iPhone will mean for Apple’s bottom line. But as a result of all this iPhone hype and rumors, American Technology Research has upgraded Apple stock (AAPL) to a ‘buy’ and raised the target price to $92 (US).
Related Item: iPhone Apple in Canada
methodshop | Comments (0) | Mobile Phone, Music
November 21, 2006
iPod vs Cassette
In a battle of audio formats, one would think the iPod would easily outdistance the soon-to-be antiquated cassette tape. Au contraire, mon frere.
Daniel Turek (aka No Name No Slogan) performs a pictorial comparison of the two, including life span, price, repair, the drop test and more.
See who wins, then see yourself heading down to the gas station to stock up on cassettes.
Check it out here.
methodshop | Comments (0) | Music
November 16, 2006
MSNBC Gets Mac Friendly
I guess the Internet video battle between QuickTime, RealPlayer and Windows Media is over. Who won… none of the above. Sites like MySpace and YouTube have made Flash the standard flavor of video on the Internet. Even Microsoft has thrown in the towel. Their news website, MSNBC.com switched over to Flash in October.
It was probably a painful decision for Redmond to admit defeat, but they were losing eyeballs and ad revenue on a daily basis. If you wanted to watch video on MSNBC.com’s site, you had to be using Internet Explorer on a PC. But as the Macintosh user base grew (thanks to the iPod) and more and more people started using the FireFox web browser, Microsoft saw their audience start to shrink. Microsoft had to finally face the fact that they needed a cross-platform video player that worked with other web browsers.
Charlie Tillinghast, president and publisher of MSNBC.com, had this to say in a company email “We have been pushing for a player that works on Mac and Firefox for a long time and are eager to see it launch… Some people assume that Microsoft, and by extension MSNBC, are anti-Mac, but it should be noted that Microsoft makes an outstanding version of Office for the Mac, including the Entourage email system. I purchased a new iMac in anticipation of this release and we have several in use at MSNBC itself.”
Is it me or did hell just freeze over at Redmond?
methodshop | Comments Off | Broadband
November 15, 2006
Turn on iPod Diagnostic Mode
Do you suspect that your iPod has a hardware problem? The iPod’s built-in diagnostic mode is a quick and easy way to determine if you have a “bad” iPod.
How to Turn on iPod Diagnostic Mode
The following procedure will activate the iPod Diagnostic Mode with the following iPods (Photo, Nano, Video, and Mini).
- Turn off the “hold switch”
- Press and hold “Menu” and “Select” buttons simultaneously for 10 seconds to reset the iPod.
- The Apple logo will appear and you should feel the hard drive spinning up. Press and hold both the “Back” and “Select” buttons at the same time.
- You will hear an audible chirp sound and the logo should appear backwards. Let go of the “Back” and “Select” buttons. You are now in Diagnostic Mode.
Once your iPod is in Diagnostic Mode, you will be able to run a series of tests. For more info on the types of tests and what they exactly do, check out this MethodShop.com iPod Diagnostic Mode Tutorial.
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Music
Apple Credits Already Purchased Songs
Has this happened to you before? You like an artist and buy a few tracks from their album on iTunes. Then you realize that you really like the artist and want to buy the rest of the album. But if you buy each remaining song on the album separately, it costs more than if you just buy the entire album all at once. And many times, several tracks on the disc as well as the PDF booklet are only available if you purchase the entire album at once (iTunes calls them Album Only offerings).
I’ve run into this dilemma a few times before. Sometimes I’ll want to buy the entire album but won’t just because I don’t want to waste the money.
Apparently I’m not alone when it comes to this problem. If recent reports are true, Apple is supposedly going to credit iTunes users who purchase individual tracks before buying the entire album. For example, let’s say you bought two tracks from the new live Foo Fighters album for $0.99 each and the album is priced at $9.99. If you decided to buy the album later, Apple would charge you something like $8.01 instead and credit you for the tracks you already own.
Why would Apple do this? Why not? Something as simple as this might be the deciding factor between you just buying 1 or 2 songs or the entire album on iTunes. And if you decide to buy the entire album, then everybody wins. You save some money and get the music you want. The record companies sell more albums (something they are struggling to do because everyone just buys singles now). And Apple makes a bigger commission.
It’s a great idea. I’m surprised Apple hasn’t done this in the iTunes Music Store since day one.
methodshop | Comments Off | General, Music, Software
November 14, 2006
Wallop vs MySpace
As the online social networking phenomenon continues to grow, more and more competitors are trying to get into the market. There has been a lot of talk about Microsoft’s new Wallop, but is it really worth leaving MySpace for this new social network?
Unlike MySpace, Wallop is an invitation only social network. Meaning you must be invited by another user to join. Upon joining, Wallop will ask for your credit card information. This is because of Wallop’s “mods.” For MySpace, all modifications to your profile are done using HTML code. The HTML may be written by the end user, or taken from the internet and as a result, is free. The pages on Wallop are more like Power Point pages, which do not use HTML code to change the look. To change your look on Wallop, you have to purchase these “mods” for about $0.50 - $1.00 a piece. An easy way for Microsoft to make more money, but is Wallop targeting the same demographic as MySpace?
The answer is no. Wallop is meant to be an adult social networking community. The concept is a good one but will adult users migrate from a free social networking community like Myspace to a pay version? More and more adults are using Myspace to keep in touch with family and friends and also to advertise their businesses. The network is huge mainly because of its ability to personalize your page with free and widely available HTML. Wallop is cleaner and easier to navigate but profiles are not searchable (yet) and you must pay to personalize your page.
With the addition of Wallop to the social networking community, adults now have a place to go where it is targeted strictly for adults. However, it appears that Myspace has provided a place for 14-35 year olds to go without having to enter a credit card number, and pulling those adults away from a free and open service to a pay service is going to be a challenge.
Is Wallop a “MySpace killer” for Microsoft? Not a chance. Is Wallop worth a try? Only if you like tinkering around.
methodshop | Comments (1) | General, Broadband, Software
November 09, 2006
Windows Vista Demo Goes Awry
According to Microsoft, Windows Vista contains hundreds of new features including advanced speech recognition software. Vista’s speech recognition software can be “trained” to understand a user’s voice, activate commands in any Windows application, and to enable voice dictation. It also supports multiple languages. Sounds great right? Well maybe not. What until you see this video of Vista’s speech recognition in action.
The guy giving the demo says the following into his microphone:
- Dear Mom
- fix aunt
- delete that
- select all
This is how Vista’s speech recognition software translated it:
“Dear aunt, let’s set so double the killer delete select all”
Of course the audience attending the live demo broke out into a fit of laughter. Wouldn’t you? Jim Goldman from CNBC called the fiasco a “live product demonstration gone awry.” He then went on to say the following, “Microsoft calls it voice recognition. But after today’s major technical glitch, you and I might want to refer to it as voice wreckognition.”
Windows Vista ships sometime in early 2007. Hopefully that will give Microsoft enough time to work out some more kinks.
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Software
Monitor Your Web Addiction in Firefox
Are you addicted to the Internet? How much time do you spend on your favorite websites everyday? If you are curious, a free Firefox extension called PageAddict can give you a summary of your daily online activity.
If you are already using the Firefox web browser, just install the PageAddict extension and surf the Internet like you normally would. When you want to see the results, just return to PageAddict.com. There you’ll get the time spent at each site, percentages of overall time and the option to apply tags. You can even categorize different sites and restrict how much time you spend in each category per day (if you deem necessary).
PageAddict results are often surprising. Will you use the data to help make positive changes in your lifestyle? You can download PageAddict here.
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Broadband, Software
November 06, 2006
Install Homebrew PSP Games
Think Sony PSP games are overpriced? Us too. Here’s a tutorial on how to download free homebrew games off the Internet and install them on your PSP.
In this tutorial we will be installing a homebrew game called SmashGpsp. If you are unfamiliar with this game, SmashGpsp is a lose PSP recreation of the popular Nintendo 64 game Super Smash Brothers by a very talented programmer named mATkEUpON.
Tutorial: Install Homebrew Games on Your Sony PSP
This guide doesn’t detail eboot loaders, which you’ll need for some of the more complicated homebrew programs out there. This tutorial is a good first step if you want to get your feet wet in the world of PSP homebrew.
Other Websites: Game Guides at mygameguides.net is where it is at!
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Toys, Software
November 03, 2006
How iTunes Saved The Office
The Office is one of the best shows on network TV. It’s clever, witty and very funny. But according to the Nielson ratings, The Office was a dud. The ratings were so bad that NBC almost cancelled it before the end of its first season. But since NBC owns and produces The Office, they had nothing to lose by posting it in the iTunes Store. At the very least, NBC thought they might make a little money on iTunes before canceling the show. But once episodes of The Office were available online, they became an iTunes overnight best seller. The Office had a huge fan base and the low Neilson ratings were basically just a lie.
Angela Bromstead, president of NBC Universal Television Studios, had this to say in Newsday:
“I’m not sure that we’d still have the show on the air” without the iTunes boost… The network had only ordered so many episodes, but when it went on iTunes and really started taking off, that gave us another way to see the true potential other than just Nielsen. It just kind of happened at a great time.”
Personally I think the Nielson ratings are a total joke. They only put a few thousand viewing monitors in dumb people’s houses. How is this an accurate sampling of US households? It’s not. Think I’m wrong? Consider the following:
- Why is COPS still on the air and getting good ratings 10+ years later?
- Why were shows like Family Guy and Futurama cancelled for low ratings, only to be renewed after doing well on the Cartoon Network and DVD.
- Why is wrestling now on the SciFi Channel?
- Why did Fox cancel Firefly before the end of its first season? The show went on to be a best seller on iTunes as well as on DVD. It was also made into a major motion picture called Serenity.
The answer to all these questions: only dumb people have Nielson boxes and the networks don’t have enough guts to ignore Nielson’s lies. Also, ponder this little tidbit. Until recently, the Nielson boxes were NOT compatible with home TV systems that had a TiVo, satellite dish or digital cable box. That’s a lot of people Nielson just decided to conveniently ignore.
If you are also a fan of The Office, just remember that the iTunes Store is responsible for keeping the show alive. Fans of the show voted with their wallets while dumb Nielson households were busy watching COPS reruns. Again.
methodshop | Comments (0) | General, Music, Video
