Living With Data
An fascinating presentation by MIT grad student Pranav Mistry the possibilities of the digital world merging with the physical world. Recorded at Ted India, November 2009.
Technology, social media and other fun stuff...
Tech enthusiast, Apple Mac & iPhone fanboy, aspiring entrepreneur, social media & Disney geek, photographer and dabbler in video.
This is my best friend Nong. The most generous person I know.
Lock Down Your Windows OS With SteadyState
While my primary computing platform is Apple Macintosh, I still enjoy using other operating systems including Microsoft Windows primarily on my Asus EeePC Netbook and in a virtual machine on my MacBook Pro. As many of you know who are frequent users of the Internet, we have all had our share of problems with viruses, spyware and other malicious and unwanted "modifications" that seem to find their way onto our computers. This, in turn, tends to significantly slow online activities and in some cases cause major operating system and software i ssues. This can get so bad that you may have had to take the drastic and time consuming step of reinstalling your Windows operating system and start fresh. I know I have and it's not fun.
I recently came across an offering from Microsoft that many of you, who still rely on Windows XP or Vista as your operating system, may not be aware of that is designed to automatically revert your system back to it's original state if you run into any of these malicious software related issues. It's a free download called Windows SteadyState which essentially allows you to set-up a locked-down platform by way of separate user accounts. Once you have everything set up the way you want it, you can share the computer and rest easy. Any changes a user might make to the configuration or hard disk can be undone by simply restarting the machine. There is also an option to keep any changes which is especially handy when downloading Windows updates or other legitimate software installations. I'm currently using it on my netbook in leu of any other virus protection software and it's worked great so far.
Using Windows SteadyState At Home
Windows SteadyState is particularly helpful for parents who may wish to control and enhance their children's computer experience. They can customize the computer to be safer and easier to use. Internet access can be carefully controlled. Different levels of restriction can be applied for different children. In cases where a single machine is used by children and parents, the parents' configurations, programs, and files can be completely isolated from access by the children.
Control the Web
Parents may have concerns about their children viewing inappropriate content on the internet. Windows SteadyState helps give parents the control they want over their children's web access. All websites can be prohibited except for those the parent specifies as acceptable.
Control the programs
Windows SteadyState helps make it easy to control the programs and Windows features a child can access on a family computer. A parent can prevent a child from using Internet Explorer, Windows Messenger, or any other program installed on the computer. Windows management features such as Control Panel can also be restricted.
Control the experience
Parents can take full control of the family computer with Windows SteadyState. A few more examples are:
* Simplify the interface by removing options from the Start Menu that your child doesn't need.
* Apply a time limit to your child's computing sessions.
* Block access to any hard drive, partition, or removable media you don't want your child to access.
Below is a link to the Microsoft Windows page that contains more detailed information and some video demos you can check out. I hope everyone finds this helpful and I would be interested in reading your comments and feeback regarding your experiences.
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Snapture - A Better iPhone Camera
If you haven't guessed, I'm a big iPhone fan. I started with the iPhone 3g and this past June upgraded to the 3G-S. Along with just being faster, the iPhone 3G-S sports a video camera as well as a much improved still camera. I've noticed a definitely bump up in quality namely due to a three megapixel sensor, autofocus feature and improved low light performance. Unfortunately, one of the things that hasn't changed is the camera app itself. It's still quite basic in it's functionality. To try and remedy this, there have been many camera apps developed and made available for download on the iTunes App Store. In my search to find a good camera app, I recently came across Snapture from Snapture Labs, LLC. Snapture is a major upgrade to the built-in camera app and is loaded with a ton of much have features.
Snapture exceptional feature list includes:
- High speed multishot - capture three shots in rapid fire succession to insure getting the perfect shot. This is especially handy when shooting action scenes.
- Easy Snap - enbles you to touch anywhere on the screen to take a picture. No more hunting for that tiny shutter button. Great for self portraits.
- TouchZone - Enables you to hold your finger on the screen, compose your shot and simply release your finger to grab the shot.
- Multiple Image Sizes - Enables image capture at mutiple file sizes including full resolution. Most other camera apps don't allow full resolution photos.
- 5x Digital Zoom - Using the pinch gesture, you can zoom in on your subject up to 5x
- A2 Autofocus - Automatic auto focus. Works with the pinch and zoom feature on the iPhone 3G-S
- On Screen Level - aide to help composition
The photos above give you an idea of the 5x digital zoom feature. Even though it is a digital zoom and not optical, it does come in handy when shooting distant subjects even though some detail quality is lost due to the zoom. A small trade considering you've got a three megapixel image to work with. I've been using Snapture for the better part of a month and it has completely replaced the built-in camera app on the front page on my iPhone 3G-S. Snapture is available in the iTunes Store is is priced at a very reasonable $1.99 which is a great value for all the additional functionality it brings to the camera.
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Beatbox Dub FX and Mr Woodnote
A little music for a Saturday. Enjoy Beatbox Dub FX with "Love Someone" recorded live last October in Bristol, UK. Below is an additional clip of Beatbox Dub FX featuring Mr. Woodnote on saxophone with "Flow." Enjoy.
For more information, go to http://www.dubfx.com
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Sights And Sounds From The Big E
An annual New England tradition, the Big E is happening now through October 4th and earlier today I had the pleasure of making a trip to West Springfield, Massachusetts to check out the 2009 edition of New England's great state fair. I decided to include three random video clips from today's adventures. The first, posted above, is of the Eastern States Exposition calliope. Manufactured by the Stinson Band Organ Company of Bellefontaine, Ohio, the "Mighty 2000M" was delivered to the Big E in 2002 and now graces the main gate at the fair. In the above clip, you'll hear a rendition of the Beatles "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da."
Next up were the Peking Acrobats from China. I only caught a small part of their show but what I saw was spectacular. In the above clip, you'll see one of the male performers demonstrating some incredible feats of balance and concentration. He has to be at least thirty feet in the air and is performing without a net or safety gear of any kind. Really incredible.
This last clip is more fun than anything else. It is of a llama that thought the banner hanging on the wall in his cage was dinner. This was part of the livestock and 4H Club exhibition. It looks like our friend the llama was having a good day.
For those of you in the New England area and want to take in the Big E, the fair runs through October 4th. For more information, you can visit: thebige.com for hours and entertainment line-up.
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What Apps Do You Have On The Front Page Of Your iPhone?
This is a screen shot of the first page of apps on my iPhone as of today. Out of seven total pages of apps I have loaded on my iPhone, these are my current favorites and ones I use the most. Of particular note, I use IM+ (a multi-platform IM client;) Tweetdeck and Simply Tweet (both Twitter clients;) MobileRSS (a Google Reader client;) Mail and Safari as my most used applications. I have several other Twitter apps (Twittlelator, Tweetie, Twitterific to name a few) and frequently switch between them depending on particular features in need at the time.
With the new iTunes 9, rearranging your apps is a breeze. I frequently reorder my pages depending on new apps I download and how often I'm using a particular app. What do you have on the front page of your iPhone right now? Do you change it up often. I invite your feedback and comments.
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Send Private Voice Messages Via Twitter With Pockets
I came across a cool Twitter web app recently and would like to share it with everyone. The app is called Pockets and it's basically visual voicemail for Twitter. The app allows you to record and send private voice messages to anyone on Twitter via an @reply. Below is a screen capture of the main page interface. There's also a video tutorial you can view as well.
So how does Pockets work? When you go the to main page at http://pocketsapp.com, you'll need to sign in via Twitter to get started. Pockets uses OAuth secure sign-in. Once signed in, all you do is simply enter the Twitter ID of the person you want to send your voice message to and click "send voicemail." Pockets will then ask you for your phone number and will call you so you can record your message. That's it. Your message is then delivered via @reply to your recipient with a link to your message. Your recipient can then listen to your message and reply back. Since the messages are associated with your individual Twitter account, your messages remain private. I've tested this app recently and it appears to do what it promises. I invite your comments and feedback regarding your experiences with Pockets.
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Outliers on Audible
I just started an Audible.com account and for my first book, I've selected Malcolm Galdwell's "Outliers." I've been meaning to read this book for some time now. I was fortunate to see Malcolm Galdwell speak recently as part of a business forum and found his insights fascinating. As a side note, you'll notice the picture below is of my iTunes library. While audiobooks are available for purchase through the iTunes Store, I was able to download "Outliers" for free as part of the the AudibleListener Gold Monthly plan and using a coupon code. There are plenty of codes out there, I used "TWIT" as mine. The $14.95 monthly subscription plan includes one audio credit each month, savings up to 30% on all audiobooks and programs not purchased with audio credits, rollover of up to six credits month to month, a complimentary subscription to the digital audio version of The New York Times or The Wall Street Journal among other benefits.
Audible.com provides full integration with iTunes and your iPod and/or iPhone. Time to head out with my iPhone to enjoy "Outliers."
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Do You Think Science Can...?
By asking a group of space physicists the unanswerable this short film by Ruth Jarman and Joe Gerhardt from Semiconductor Films reveals the hidden motivations driving scientists to the outer limits of human knowledge. In an attempt to find meaning within the question, they open a Pandora's Box of limitations within science itself, revealing their own philosophical confines. Issues of faith, medicine and the laws of matter are raised to illustrate the infinitely complex universe we live in.
Credit: Semiconductor Films
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JING: Free Image and Video Screen Capture Utility
Have you ever needed and wanted to save a picture or image on your computer screen as a screen capture? Maybe just a specific portion of the screen? I've got a great, free solution that I've been using for some time now. JING from TechSmith is a free image capture utility that does just that. Available in both Windows and Mac versions, JING is a fast and fool proof way to capture and share screen images. What's even more impressive is JING can also record up to five minutes of screen capture flash video as well. A paid pro version adds additional features such as direct uploads to YouTube and MPEG4 encoding.
To get started with JING, simply download and install the appropriate version (Windows or Mac) and you're ready to start capturing and saving images and video directly from your computer screen.
As you can see in the above screen capture, you simply click and drag the crosshairs to select the area of your screen you'd like to capture and save. It's that easy. JING will give you the option to name your file and save it to the folder of your choice.
JING also allows you to make on screen annotations as shown above and save those as part of the captured image. This is very handy for illustrating or highlighting key portions of your saved image when presenting it to a third party such as in a live presentation or blog post.
JING is free to download and use. Again, they do have a pro version of the software you can subscribe to for an additional $14.95 per year that offers some enhanced features such as recording full motion MPEG4 video directly from your computer screen and dumping the JING advertising banners and logos to name just two. I've been using JING for some time now and it's the best free screen capture application I've used. By the way, all the images used in this article were made using JING.
I want to give special thanks to http://unhub.com/nongling who shared this tool with me and got me started with JING. Thank you Nong.
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