Me and Max last summer... 

Real time language translator
Today's cooler Digg.com posts include this real time language translator (written using AJAX). Just type stuff in and it translates it on the fly to several different languages. I'm sure it's not going to be long before something like this is pocket sized. One of the side benefits of having wi-fi everywhere, along with having your own mp3's and tv shows anyplace you are, will be things like this. Imagine being anyplace in the world, but still able to communicate with everyone in a reasonable fashion. As the world gets older, it definitely gets smaller.

Also thought I'd mention that I saw a commercial the other day for an Acura car that is using voice recognition to handle all sorts of tasks. I knew it was only a matter of time until this was in use. Voice recognition is something that is becoming more and more feasible as processing power gets faster. The idea of a central computer in your car that handles everything from temperature controls, to voip communications, to being a dj and playing whatever song you want from your home pc just by asking for it, is coming soon.

HEY GOOGLE!

First up, you guys kick ass. But here's an idea... why not use some of your fancy schmancy AJAX development skills and create a personalized google homepage module that lets me blog straight from the homepage? It's not like you don't already own blogger anyway!

Also, here's some very interesting links provided to me by Randy Brandhagen regarding one of the visions of the future of Google as predicted by Robert X. Cringely.

Part I
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051117.html

Part II
http://www.pbs.org/cringely/pulpit/pulpit20051124.html

In Search of the Valley trailers...

Ran across (via digg.com of course) this page that has some excellent 10 - 15 second clips of some of the big names in IT giving interviews for a documentary called "In Search Of The Valley". http://stage4.co.uk/film/teaser3.php . The sucky part is that they are encoded with quicktime, so I suggest picking up the quicktime alternative program if you don't have a quicktime player already installed.

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While I'm in the posting mood, thought I'd mention http://local.live.com. Once again, Microsoft is relying on someone else to do their R&D. For a company that spends more money on Research than any other company in the world, you would think they would be a little more innovative than to rely on netscape/apple/google to create something and then blatantly steal it. I'm not knocking MS too much, after all, if it weren't for them, I'd have a different career lined up. Local.live.com is part of their new "LIVE"! suite of web 2.0 knock-off stuff. Local.live is basically the web version of GoogleEarth. I know that Virtual Earth from MS has been around a long time, but it takes someone like google to actually make it cool, then microsoft realizes that they are desperately behind in the "cool factor" area and plays catch up. Local.live.com does have some nice birds-eye view functionality that google earth doesn't have yet. I'm sure in the next few years, you'll have fully rendered full 3d fly thrus from every angle in these applications. Till then, they'll both be trying to one-up each other.

While I'm in the psuedo-knocking mode of Microsoft.. I thought I'd mention that I was "selected" to beta test the webmail portion of Live.com. This site basically will replace hotmail.com at some point in the future. What's it like, you may ask? Well, take Outlook Web Access, make it slower, take away the filters and functions you already have with hotmail and Outlook, and call it Beta. Don't get me wrong, it's definitely an improvement over hotmail, but that's a bit like saying "I'd prefer to have my eyes gouged out with a cold knife instead of a hot one". I don't understand why they don't just put the code from Outlook Web Access as the front end to the hotmail mailboxes. The best part I can tell so far is that I can delete the spam, which makes up about 99.9% of my hotmail email, much quicker than I could before. I'm keeping GMail as my primary email app.

There's a new version of TWiT out.. as it's a Monday. I'm a few episodes behind, but hope to catch up this week. The latest one struck me as funny as Roger Chang knocks his employers (Gamespot). Jason Robbins and I actually got to meet Roger last week in San Francisco after winning a contest sponsored by G4. Thanks G4 for the tickets to San Fran and putting us up in the swank hotel. Unfortunately, your channel still sucks and I curse you for ruining the only good geek tv that was on. While your at it, make sure you check out Jason's Blog at http://jasonrobbins.blogspot.com.

The real reason for this post wasn't a rant, but rather to point out this hysterical article that they talk about on TWiT this week. It's a posting from craigslist.com

BTW, I'm posting this comment using Flock (the new "social browser" based on firefox). I thought it was supposed to make blogging easier?

Make your Own Christmas light extravaganza!

So you've seen the video of the house possessed by Trans-Siberian orchestra music with dancing lights that I posted a few weeks ago, and you're thinking to yourself.. "How Can I turn my house into something that makes Clark Griswold's look like a dog and pony show?". Well my friends, today is your lucky day. Here are the step by step instructions complete with links to the software you need. Unfortunately, I've read that the city asked Carson Williams to stop his show as it was causing traffic jams. Bah Humbug.
update: here's a link to another video made of the house with a different song. Almost more impressive than the first...

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Mental note from jason and i is cheapbeer.com taken? Like cheapgas.com but for beer complete with google maps

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Mobile Email from a Cingular Wireless Customer http://www.cingular.com

Bend over central

Bend over central

The rock

The rock

Sea lions in the city

Sea lions in the city

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Im winning this

Im winning this