Gear Bits | Gear Diary

Two Weeks Until the Olympics!

(image courtesy London 2012) There are only 15 days until the Summer Olympics! Are you excited yet? Of course, until the opening ceremonies all we have are the trickle of bits and pieces of trivia and news on the coverage, but it’s better than nothing! First of all, NBC and Facebook will be working together to promote the games. Apparently it’s a better deal if you plan to watch through the BBC, since you can stream right from Facebook there, but if you are watching on NBC there will be some synergy at least. Even better, the New York Times…

Gear Bits, Vehicles & Gear

Dragon Drive! Messaging Arrives in BMW 7 Series This Month

A short time ago we brought word that Nuance Communications, the company behind Dragon Dictation and many other voice-to-text technologies, was bringing even more woeful voice to the case through Dragon Drive! Messaging. Dragon Drive! Messaging ‘is Nuance’s new automotive-grade connected car service that lets people speak emails and text messages”. Now word comes that it will be available in the new 2012 BMW 7 Series, BMW 3 Series Touring and BMW 3 Series ActiveHybrid vehicles. Better still, the 2012 BMW 7 Series will be the first car ever to feature Dragon Drive! Messaging and it is coming to market…

Gear Bits

Revisiting an Old Geek Love, or the Amazing Endurance of Deep Space Nine

(image courtesy DS9 encyclopedia) Sarah was away camping all weekend, so I was left to entertain myself. Normally I catch up on the DVR on these kinds of weekends, but there is slim pickings this summer. So I fired up Netflix, started flipping through my queue, and remembered that I had wanted to rewatch “Star Trek: Deep Space Nine“. I expected to spend a few hours catching up on the first season and reminiscing about my insanely geeky childhood. Instead, I have rediscovered a show that is surprisingly current, despite being almost 20 years old! The premise of DS9 is…

Gear Bits, Yum Log

Desktop USB Fundue Set from ThinkGeek.com – You Can Fondue It

I occasionally wonder why they even bother to manufacture new fondue sets. Considering the number of folks who bought one of these contraptions in the late 1970’s to melt cheese or chocolate so that they could dip bread or cheesecake chunks in them, I imagine that there are thousands of these things tucked away in garages and attics all over the country. (Including mine. Don’t judge. It seemed like a good idea at the time.) Perhaps due to the sensual pleasures that were promised from the creamy hot food and the atmosphere of sharing that was encouraged by multiple people…

Gear Bits

Streaming Video and the Deaf Communtity: The Good and the Bad

I am fascinated by the ways technology can open up the world and make it more accessible for people with disabilities. What is a convenience for you and me may be a life changer for someone else. Unfortunately, sometimes technology outpaces itself, and leaves the accessibility features playing catch-up. It is something of a mixed bag in many areas, especially for the deaf and hard of hearing community. According to Slate, closed captioning is not required on Netflix, Hulu, and other digital media options. While Netflix does offer some closed caption titles, not all of their library is set up…

Gear Bits

Diana Beltran Herrera’s Paper Artistry

It’s not often that I spot something so creative that I am just amazed by the talent involved, but that’s exactly what happened when I found artist Diana Beltran Herrera’s three-dimensional paper creations. The British have a word for it: Gobsmacked. Ms. Herrera’s anatomy series is made of cut paper and vinyl, and they were created because, sometimes u ask me what the birds have inside. Well they have inside what real birds have inside. Little by little i am finding the way to discover what they are made of. Diana’s birds, animals, bugs and other paper critters are…

Gear Bits, News & Features

If You Thought Twitter Didn’t Have the Power to Effect Change, Think Again

Yes, this is going to come off looking like a partisan post. I can deal with that because (a) as someone who finished graduate school with some hefty loans, I really felt for the students whose loan rates were about to double, and (b) even if you sit on the other side of the aisle it is hard NOT to see the true power of social media. Student loan rates were set to double if Congress didn’t act and, for a time, it looked like that rate increase was a forgone conclusion. The White House got into the mix, and…

Gear Bits

Classic Books as Wall Art from Postertext

I’ve always been intrigued by word art, from the days of medieval illumination to more recent modern art using visual language as art, right down to simple nerdy ASCII art. However, the folks over at Postertext.com have put a different spin on word art, taking various classic literature books and printing them out on a single sheet, arranged such that words and blank space are adjusted to create images of the very characters and scenes within each book (care to guess the title of the example?). Below you can see an enlarged snippet showing an example of how spacing is…

Gear Bits, Outdoors

Oscar Pistorius to Compete at the Olympics!

(image courtesy Oscarpistorius.com) Does the name Oscar Pistorius mean anything to you? If you don’t follow track and field or Olympics drama, probably not. He is a gifted sprinter who will be running for South Africa in this summer’s games. He is fast, though probably not fast enough to be a serious threat. Oh, and he’s a double amputee. Because of his “blades” that he uses when running for legs, track and field officials have argued back and forth for several years as to whether it is an unfair advantage for him to compete with able-bodied athletes. Supposedly his legs…

Gear Bits

North Carolina Legislator Accidentally Hits The Wrong Button, Fracking Ensues.

My day job is very time-sensitive. We have to be very careful if we are filling out forms online to be quick, but also make sure we select the right options. It isn’t hard, though mistakes do happen, and luckily for me, when they do we can fix it. However, if you are a legislator in North Carolina, don’t press the wrong button! One minute you think you’re voting against a bill, the next minute fracking is suddenly legal. Apparently, in North Carolina they use electronic voting for the legislature. If you hit the wrong option, you can explain you…

Gear Bits, Travel

A Few Thoughts on Traveling with the MacBook Pro Retina

As Judie and I posted last week, the MacBook Pro Retina may be pricey but it is also an amazing computer. Honestly, after using it for almost two weeks I can, without hesitation, call it the best computer I have ever owned. It is fast, quiet, runs cool and it has a screen that must be seen to be appreciated. Yes, it is the best computer I have ever used. It is also the heaviest notebook I have owned in the last 5+ years and, since it came to Dearborn Michigan with me last week for the GoFurther with Ford…

Gear Bits, News & Features

MOG Music Service Aquired By Beats

I used MOG as my subscription music service for a time but have settled in on Spotify and am quite happy with the decision. I have, as a result, been wondering what would happen when these various music services began to shake out. Who would survive? Who would close? Who would be acquired. Well it turns out MOG is the first to go. They have been acquired by Beats and, while they will continue to operate as an independent company, it clearly means we will see some changes coming. As the acquisition notice states Fellow Music Lovers, My first love has…

Gear Bits

That’s No Alien, That’s a 3D-printed Designer Pen

I love pens. That’s kind of funny since I don’t really use pen and paper any longer but I still have an amazing fountain pen collection and I truly appreciate a fine, beautiful or interesting pen. This one is all of that and more. (It does look like something you would see in an old scifi movie does’t it?) As Adrian Grenier’s SHFT webstore notes, We’re always interested in innovations in 3D printing, the new design tech that involves making three dimensional solid objects from a digital file. Designer Richard Elaver, a metalsmith by trade, has been busy developing useful…

Gear Bits

Some Developers Really Get It …

There are certain apps we love to use. Quite often they come from companies for whom we have the greatest respect. It is no surprise that the two often go have in hand. Case in point, Appigo. I’ve known them since my days at What’sOniPhone, and I have always been impressed. Their apps are great; ToDo has always been one of my favorites, and the folks behind the apps are a class act. This, however, this is above and beyond. The last update to ToDo introduced a new task input method. I liked it, but many (many!!) devoted ToDo-users didn’t. And…

Gear Bits

The Irony of Idiotic Idiots and the Rush to Be FIRST!

I hadn’t planned a direct reaction to the Supreme Court upholding all aspects of the Affordable Care Act (calling it ‘Obamacare’ is a pejorative term that shows clear bias), as it isn’t the focus of the site and there wasn’t a direct ‘hook’ that made sense. Well, there wasn’t until the announcement and the hour or so after it … and then there were TWO interesting developments! First, when the ruling came down, I saw a quick notification across my iPad; since I was on my PC I headed to CNN.com to check out the news and see what was…

Gear Bits

Photojojo’s DSLR Bank

It may not keep a thief from finding your valuables if you’re ever robbed, and it certainly won’t take a great picture, but Photojojo’s cool DSLR bank will definitely look cool on a shelf while collecting about a pint’s-worth of your change. Even better; it’s a Canon … and you know how much I love mine! Aside from the coin slot, this hyper-detailed bank looks just like the real deal. It even has all the buttons and switches of a real camera, plus a viewing screen and a detachable lens! For $24; what have you got to lose? =)

Gear Bits, Music Diary

What Do You Think of Muse’s Olympic Anthem?

Muse was announced as providing the ‘Official Olympic Anthem’ for the summer games in London, and today they have released the song video officially, with the full album coming in September. The song is called ‘Survival’ and Muse singer Matthew Bellamy said: “It’s a huge honor to have the track chosen as such a major part of the London 2012 Olympic Games,” Bellamy added. “I wrote it with the games in mind as it expresses a sense of conviction and determination to win.” And here is the entire song: What do you think? Personally … I have no use for…

Gear Bits, Music Diary

Tay Zonday Brings a Fitting End to the ‘Call Me Maybe’ Meme

If you haven’t experienced SOMETHING of the ‘Call Me Maybe’ meme, which takes the first line of the ultra-popular Carly Rae Jepson song and twists it around … you might need to come out from the bunker and tune into this whole ‘internet’ thing. The actual line is “Hey, I just met you … and this is crazy … but here’s my number, so call me maybe”. One of my favorites is also relevent to recent events, saying “Hey, I just met you … and this is crazy … but here’s my bath salts, your face is tasty”. But Tay…

Gear Bits, How to Do It Yourself!

Making Siri Work for You; Some Gear Diary Suggestions

Image courtesy of headlondon.com Siri is an interesting innovation. I remember back in my early days in the tech biz, when I read about and heard plenty of people talking about a) how voice recognition was just around the corner, and b) how voice recognition was dang hard, and it was going to be a long ways out in the future. Of course, in those days a 500 MB drive was considered “wow, that’s big!”, so you can guess how naive both sets of opinion were! Now we have Dragon Dictation and any number of other voice recognition software apps….

Gear Bits

Please Sir, May I Have Another? A Dropbox Request

I started using Dropbox several years ago at Thomas’ recommendation. At the time, I didn’t think I’d be using it for that much, so the 500MB that came in the free account seemed just right. I even managed to pick up some additional free storage space, because I did things like tweet about it, connect it to my Facebook account, and upload some photos. And then one day, I realized that I was using my Dropbox account in new ways I had never expected to: I was sharing folders with collaborators, uploading all of my family pictures and genealogy files,…

Gear Bits

Daddy Scrubs Clothing Gear for Expecting Fathers

Proud papas can gear up with Daddy Scrubs apparel to celebrate those special life additions to the family in these unique “delivery room duds”.