Weird Al just released a new single where he takes on the random stuff you can find on Craiglsit ala the Doors. This one is almost as as good as White and Nerdy.

You may have noticed that things have changed a bit around here. I’ve been working on a new design off and on for a couple months now, and have finally gotten to a point where it is “done enough” to implement. As these things go, it will probably never be “done.” In this new design, there are a few new areas and features that I didn’t have previously that I want to point out.

Photos
Photos aren’t really a new feature. I’ve always had a photo gallery on the site. I’ve decided to use a different gallery application, ZenPhoto, instead of Coppermine which I used previously. This new gallery is a little nicer to use, and allows me to finally turn comments back on for photos. This is something I used to have, but was so overwhelmed by spam that I had to remove it. So feel free to leave photo comments (especially on the mobile photos) whenever you see fit.

Blog Sidebar
This area is pretty much the same as I’ve as I’ve always had in the sidebar. Its information specific to the blog: search, blogroll/links, post archives, etc.

Social Sidebar
The Social Sidebar is mainly a collection of my interactions with social sites outside of techory. Some are fleshed out, and pull content directly in, and some are just links to my profiles on those sites.

• The “Latest Mobile Photo” isn’t a new feature, but comments are turned back on for those photos (see above)
• Twitter now lives in the sidebar. I’ve got a twitter account, so I figured why not bring it into my blog as well. You can see my last two tweets on the site, as well as follow the link to my twitter account and follow me if you’d like.
• Shared links is something totally new. I run across a lot of intersting links on a pretty regular basis, and unless you follow me on the various social bookmarking sites I use, you can’t see what weird and wonderful sites I find interesting. I’ve brought all my submissions to those social bookmarking sites together into that sidebar (and the payoff page for shared links archives) as a place to see what I run across out on the Internets.
• Flickr is the next in line, and is a link I’ve always had in my sidebar, but just called out a bit more. It now includes the latest two photos that I’ve posted to flickr.
• At the bottom of the Social Sidebar, I have included links to my social networking profiles. Again, these area areas I interact with on other social sites, so I decided to hook those into techory as well.

So there you have it, what’s new and cool with the new design. I’m sure there are still some rough edges on this, and I’ll be going over things with a fine-toothed comb the next few weeks. Let me know if you noticed anything flakey happening, or anything I missed.

I just ran across one of the coolest uses of Google Earth I’ve seen. Planet in Action has created an online simulation built on top of Google Earth. You can pilot several barges, a re-fuel ship, a container ship, a cruise ship, or even a blimp. This looks to be a proof-of-concept type game according the the banners they have plastered on the boats you get to drive.

Investors wanted to bring this game to the next level.

Regardless, it is a pretty neat use of the Google Earth technology. I can’t way to see what games come out of this when/if they get their inivestors.

A couple years ago I was on the hunt for a site to keep track a small bit of information on all the books I read in a given year. What I eventually settled on was a service called LibraryThing, that I’ve been using for quite a while now. When I started looking for this tool, my needs were very simple (and still are). All I wanted was a service or tool that would let me track very generic information about books, along with when I started, and completed reading them. The main thing I wanted to track was how many books I completed in a year, and whether or not I liked a book. LibraryThing did all of that and more. The “and more” part of that is what I’ve become increasing interested in lately. A few times a year, I make a larger order of used books (usually from wherever I have the most gift cards). Between my purchases, I try to keep a list of “want to read” books built up before I buy. Normally, I build this list out off of lists I run across online, or book award winners, or even recommendations from Amazon off of books I liked. LibraryThing also offers a recommendation service where your books are compared to other people on the service who have similar tastes as you à la Last.fm, and the iTunes genius features for music.  This feature has been ok (not great), and has given me a few useful recommendations. I still mainly build my book purchase lists from other places. Enter Book Army.

Book Army is a new site that focuses more on the recommendation feature, and less on the cataloging/tracking features that I use in LibraryThing. It is much closer to a Last.fm type service in that it looks at your likes, and suggests other books based on other people who like the same books. I spent a little while entering ratings on the books that I had been tracking in LibraryThing the past few years to see what I’d get back. There were a few good books that came back in my results – more than what I was getting from LibraryThing. I’m sure the service will get better over time, as the number of users goes up, and as I rate more books on the service. The things I like about Book Army recommendations is that it provides reasoning for a suggest book (you may like book X because you enjoyed books X, Y, and Z). The other nice feature is you can correct suggestions. If a book is suggested that looks incorrect for whatever reason, you can tell Book Army, that it was a bad suggestion to help it get even better data about your reading tastes. Since this service is new, the “Book Army” is still being recruited. We’ll see if recommendations improve as the size of the army increases. Who knows, maybe my tastes are just so eclectic (it certainly isn’t working for me in Netflix) that it’s hard to determine what I enjoy.

It looks like Mentos are doing pretty well in Great Britain. According to a recent press release, a new type called “Mentos Rainbow” will start to show up on shelves.

Mentos is now the largest brand within Perfetti Van Melle with an impressive brand awareness of 68% after being launched just 3 years ago.  In 2008 Mentos Mint was the fastest growing mint product in the UK confectionery market.

Building on the success of Mentos Fruit and Mint in the UK, Perfetti Van Melle are launching a limited edition Mentos Rainbow. Each roll will contain an exciting mix of 7 fruit flavours (grape, strawberry, orange, watermelon, pineapple, raspberry and apple) all made with real fruit juice.

What’s more, consumers are guaranteed to get two chews of each flavour in every pack.

Is there anyone going to the UK any time soon who can pick me up a roll or two?

Have you ever wondered what happens when you send back a Netflix DVD for a new one? The Boston Globe has put together a great photo walkthrough of a Netflix receiving warehouse. It is a lot less automated than I had assumed. A small army of people turn around an average of 60,000 DVD’s every day!

It’s that time of year again that I’m off to Austin, TX for another South by Southwest Interactive Conference. I’ll be collecting my notes on a side-blog again this year: http://sxsw.techory.com.

The SXSW Interactive Festival features five days of exciting panel content and amazing parties. Attracting digital creatives as well as visionary technology entrepreneurs, the event celebrates the best minds and the brightest personalities of emerging technology. Whether you are a hard-core geek, a dedicated content creator, a new media entrepreneur, or just someone who likes being around an extremely creative community, SXSW Interactive is for you!

Sometime over the past few weeks, Mentos has updated their website. They’ve got a much more interactive site now. It’s much improved over the one they’ve been limping away with for the past serveral years. The new site ads a full-screen video background of their commercials, and brings everything into a much more consistent package. The content hasn’t changed that much from previous designs, with the exception of updated media from their new TV campaigns. They did remove the Mentos store though. This had probably been planned for a while, since I’d noticed the store has been selling less and less merchandise. I’ll still miss it, since it was one constant place you could order some of the rare flavors not normally available in the US. Doubly sad is that I never got around to buying that Mentos wristwatch that they sold… oh well. Minus the loss of the store, I think the new site is a definite improvement.

http://www.youshouldhaveseenthis.com/

Last week I was talking to a coworker of mine and somehow the conversation moved towards the possibility of the internet disappearing. She came out and asked  me what I would do if the internet was gone. It’s an interesting question to think about since the Internet has become such an important part of our lives. I know some people do without it, but personally, I think it would be difficult. Just think of all the things you encounter that require visiting a website for more information, or need an email address to register for something. At least in my life, I think I’d run into issues rather quickly. Firstly, I probably wouldn’t have a job, since basically I make stuff to put on the Internet. Secondly, I’d probably have much more free time, given that a large portion of my day is spent in front of a computer (working and playing). It would definitely be interesting, and I can probably say that I’d be spending my time in many different ways.

During the conversation where this came up, I kind of turned the question around, and asked what would happen if any technology were to suddenly disappear. What if we didn’t have cars to drive around? There would obviously be some difficulty getting from place to place, but we probably wouldn’t be stranded since we have some history to look back on without cars. I think the same thing would go for the Internet. We haven’t always had it, so we could obviously do without it. We’d just need to remember how things got done without bits and bytes flying through space. Things would be difficult at first, but we’d figure out how to get by. Some people would probably have an easier time than others if they’ve lived without a certain technology, or had been trained on doing their job before a certain technology existed. I think maybe the point I was making is that we’ll learn to adapt with what we have. I think this coworker was trying to get at how much people rely on the Internet for everything these days, but I think the argument could be made reliance on just about any advancement in technology. What happens if something disappears? We deal with it, and figure out another way to get by. At the very least it’s an interesting thing to think about as you move through your day. How many places do you rely on the internet to get things done?

It’s that time of year again folks. The Finalists for the 2009 Independent Games Festival have been announced. Ever since I discovered this festival a few years back, I’ve been coming back yearly to see the new games that make it to the finals, and then ultimately win the competition. This year’s winners will be announced in late March, but definitely go and play with the games that are listed (many are a free download). This competition usually has some really creative games that are very different (FUN!) from most mainstream games available.

There was another big announcement from last week’s Consumer Electronics Show that I have purposely held off commenting on. Palm announced their next generation phone, the Pre, and their new WebOS. The tech media has been touting this device as the best announcement of this year’s CES. Full disclaimer: I have owned and used a Palm device since the year 2000, which is one of the reasons I’ve been holding off on this post. I watched the palm keynote, and was extremely excited about this device, and wanted to let the hype wear off before commenting on it. I also wanted to wait until I could get my hands on everything that has been written about this thing to date, and not just drink the “Ooo-purdy-new-phone!” kool-aid. Well, I’ve been sitting on this for a few days now, and can honestly say I’m still very excited about this phone. That said, there are still many things we don’t know yet, but from everything I’ve read out there, this thing seems to be the real deal.

So what’s so great about this thing?

Hardware
Some people love the look of the Pre, some people think it’s kind of ugly. Personally, I like it. It’s got a nice organic shape, the rounded corners are everywhere, from hardware to software. Plus, the best part about this thing, it has a hardware keyboard. Like I mentioned above, I’ve had several Palm phones, the first cell phone I ever bought was a Treo 300, and I’ve upgraded to future Treos from there (300>600>650>755p), so a hardware keyboard is important to me. I could probably learn to use a software keyboard (ala iPhone), but if I’m torn between two exact phones, and one has a hardware keyboard, I’d probably prefer to go that route. I also really like how it gracefully slides out of the phone. Most of the navigation, and simple day to day activities can probably be accomplished with the touch screen, but when I need to type an email or txt message, it’s really nice to have the ability to slide out a full keyboard. The other nice is the touch screen (ha!). It extends below the screen’s viewable area (around the silver button at the bottom) for a gesture area, which is a vital part of the user experience. Otherwise, the hardware on this device is what you’d excpect from any modern smart phone.

• High-speed wireless (EV-DO Rev. A or HSDPA, depending on version)
• 802.11b / g WiFi with WPA, WPA2, 801.1x authentication
• 3.1-inch 24-bit color 480 x 320 display
• Built-in GPS
• Bluetooth 2.1 EDR with A2DP stereo Bluetooth support
• 3 megapixel camera with LED flash and extended depth of field
• 3.5mm headphone jack
• 8GB of internal storage (~7.4GB user available)
• MicroUSB connector with USB 2.0 Hi-Speed
• Proximity sensor for detecting when phone is near face
• Light sensor to automatically dim display
• Ringer mute switch
• Removable rechargeable battery
• Width: 59.5mm (2.3 inches) Height: 100.5mm (3.9 inches) Thickness: 16.95mm (0.67 inches)
• Weight: 135 grams (4.76 ounces)

This device has only just been announced, so these hardware details could still change before it becomes available.

Software
One of the things that palm has been working on for quite some time is their transition from their old tried and true PalmOS (Garnet) to a new Linux-based OS (codenamed Nova). They have been talking about this transition for several years, and have been plagued by delays, leaving many to wonder if it was vaporware. So, with their existing PalmOS getting extremely long in the tooth, Palm had to come forward with something truly amazing, or be prepared to curl up and slowly die. To tell you the truth, I was fully prepared for the later of those two options. I heard about the announcement at CES, but was ready to be underwhelmed. My phone contract is up in May, and I was ready to leave the platform for the first time in almost 10 years. Palm had been sitting dormant for way to long. There were too many players jumping ahead of them starting all the way back with Microsoft eating away at their handheld market (before they even started making smart phones). Now with the smart phone market really taking off, with iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile as the big players, it was hard to see how Palm could even think about taking that lead back (for some interesting history on how Palm whittled away their lead in this market, Engadget has some good historical perspective). Given all of that, Palm definitely came out swinging, and is definitely prepared to compete on the same level with the iPhones and the Androids already out there, maybe even pushing the bar a little higher. Nova, now officially named WebOS is definitely an impressive step forward.

The WebOS has some really cool things going for it, but again, we only know what Palm has told us, so until these get into people’s hands, it’s still up in the air. The interface on the Pre looks really impressive. Palm seems to have really taken the time to think through how you can and should interact with a handheld device. There has been a lot of thought put into using the Pre with one hand, for instance, if you touch and hold in the gesture area and then slowly move up the screen, you’ll get a floating quick launch-like bar of your favorite apps. These types of usability tweaks seem to be scattered throughout the entire OS. I guess this makes sense given that Palm pretty much invented the handheld interface, and these types of decisions are in their DNA. On top of the well thought out interactions, the UI design is beautiful. It looks like a modern smart phone.  Some other nice software features are true multitasking. Palm has created a great interface for multitasking on the device. They metaphor they use is a deck of cards spread out on the Pre’s “desktop” representing all of your open applications. You can flick through them, reorganize them, or close them all from one place. You can also set up a card or instance of the same application open multiple times. An example of this would be several cards of the browser application each open with a different website (kind of like a tabs interface in modern browsers). Another nice software feature in WebOS is how it handles alerts. Say you get a txt while you are writing an email message, or browsing the web. WebOS doesn’t take focus away from the task you’re in the middle of, it simply puts a small icon, or partial screen of the alert letting you handle it however you want. I think one of the truly great features of WebOS is how it uses the web (appropriately named eh?), or cloud to manage calendars and contact (and possibly more – we’ll see). The way this works is you’ve got contacts in all kinds of places on the Web (Gmail, Facebook, etc.). WebOS takes all of these collections of contacts and figures out where there are duplicates, or where a contact represents the same person, and brings it all into one place on the Pre. So if I have a contact on the device, and it sees there is a record of the same contact in facebook, yet maybe the Facebook contact has a different phone number not listed with the original, it pulls all that information together into one place. It does the same thing, pulling calendars together from across the web. If I have a work calendar on Exchange and a personal calendar in Google, it let’s me see it all together in one place on the Pre. I’m sure there are things I’m missing, but so far this software (what we’ve seen of it) looks really amazing. To see a good video demonstrating more of the UI, PreCentral.net has a great video of the device on their site.

There is one more piece of all this having to do with software. How difficult will the Pre be to develop for? That again, is a tough question to answer since many of the details haven’t been released yet. Palm claims that it will be very simple to do though, given the development environment is pretty much just web development. Palm has said it is all based on HTML 5, CSS, and javascript, and that everything they’ve demoed thus far was created using just that. The development environment was/is also a piece of whether or not this thing flies. Like I mentioned above, there are quite a few smart phones out there already established, all having their own development environment. Adding yet another way to make apps for a smart phone would just dilute that developer community more, most likely leaving Palm without quality apps. Choosing to go with technologies that millions of developers already know and use on a regular basis was very smart on their part. There is already a huge community out there to make apps for this new device. That does leave a few questions though. Exactly how powerful will this environment be given that it just uses web technologies. I think most common things can be created, but more complex development might take a bit more. A good example, and one were Apple’s iPhone really shines, is in games. It would most likely tough to create a well-made 3d game, like you see all across the iPhone App store with only web tools to do it with. It would some lower level access to the device to be able to do that. Maybe that will happen, it is still too early to tell what exactly Palm has up its sleeve. My guess is that most developers will be able to use the common web development environment to do what they need. For anything beyond that, I’m willing to be that Palm may have a little bit more complex SDK available, but with a few more hoops to jump through to get it.

Final Thoughts
I’ve mentioned several things that are cons on this device, but probably the biggest is we don’t know everything yet. Palm has been purposely tight-lipped on several things. What is the battery life on this thing going to be? At least they have a removable battery (yes, I’m looking at you when I say that iPod/iPhone!), but am I going to have to swap batteries in the middle of the day? How much is this going to cost? Palm is partnering exclusively with Sprint for the launch, which is fine with me since I use Sprint, and will have a contract end in May, but we don’t know how much this bad boy is going to run. Rumors say from $149-199 with a new contract or extension to $399-$499 without. If they’re smart they will price this thing at or below the price of the iPhone. Also, what kind of service plan will I need to use this? Will Sprint go AT&T on us and force us into a special (more expensive) Palm Pre plan? Will this thing only work with the cloud? The thing that makes this phone great is how well it works with the internet and data in the cloud. But, will it only work with the cloud? An example: I currently have an encrypted password application on my Treo that I sync between an encrypted password application on my desktop. This type of information I don’t want flying around the cloud, or being stored there. The cloud is great, but there is something to be said for a simply desktop sync when it’s called for. I guess we’ll wait and see how all of this lands. As we get closer to the release, (full) details of this device will finally make it into our hands.

Palm has been up and down a lot in their sordid history. They lead the way in the handheld market, and seemingly squandered it away over the years, building themselves up again with smart phone, but not without squandering that away as well. Before this announcement at CES, the death knells were definitely sounding for Palm. This was probably going to be their last time at bat, so they either had to hit it out of the park or lose the game. I think they did that with the announcement of the Pre and WebOS. The technology press has been a buzz since the keynote. I haven’t read much negative news about this thing. Some even call this thing an iPhone killer. I think saying that has become a little cliche lately, but if any device has a chance, I think this one does. Will I go right out and buy one of these when my contract is up? I doubt it. I like how it looks currently, but there are a lot of nice smart phones out there right now, and by the time I’m ready for one in a few months, who knows how much the landscape will change. I’m very impressed with the Pre, and what Palm has done, but we’ll have to see how it all looks when this device actually hits the ground.

Some new Mentos arrived in my mailbox the other day from my aunt and uncle (they’re now Mentos Ambassadors BTW). They send a couple 4-packs from France. One was a flavor I’ve had before, Soft Fruit (fruits rouges). The other was a new flavor I’ve not seen before, Fresh Cola. I’m always excited to get rare Mentos, but am especially excited when they are flavors I’ve never seen before. After a few photos, I opened up the fresh cola package and gave it a  try. The color of these candies is definitely brown (even though the photos make it look a bit orange). It’s a color of Mentos I’ve not ever seen. They are an interesting flavor to say the least. I don’t think I’d say it tastes like Coke or Pepsi, or even RC Cola. It tastes like… artificial cola flavor, like they tried really hard to make it taste like cola, but keep it sweet. I think cola is one of those awkward flavors that is hard to duplicate outside of the actual (liquid) thing. It is a sweet flavor, but also a bit tangy. I’m not sure if the tanginess is to try and mimic fizz, but it definitely isn’t a smooth flavor like the mint variations. There is virtually no aftertaste. These remind me a lot of the gummi cola bottles I had as a kid. There must be only one flavor our there for cola candy. Fresh Cola Mentos fits into the same category as the licorice flavored variety. They are definitely an acquired taste (which is probably why they aren’t sold in the US). So they at the bottom of the Mentos scale, but even the very last player on the Mentos scale is still head and tails above all other candy… c’mon they’re Mentos, the candy of the gods!

Asus, the company that started the whole netbook trend announced a cool new product yesterday. It’s called the Eee Keyboard, and is an entire computer (HTPC) built into a keyboard.

The keyboard has a built-in touch screen where the number pad normally goes, which can display widgets, RSS feeds, calendars and more.  This thing will supposedly connect via wireless HDMI, making it a perfect little HTPC that can be carried from room to room, or TV to TV. Unfortunately this is only a prototype, and no official release has been announced, so who knows when or even if this thing will make it to the market. If it does, it look to be a pretty sweet little keyboard… err computer.

ASUS Press Release – Eee Keyboard
Being the first multi-media center enabled by ultra wideband HDMI, the Eee Keyboard is not only a fully-functional PC; it also serves as a hub that wirelessly connects all multimedia devices to utilize any monitor or TV as a viewing platform.

More info and photos:

• Asus releases EeePC Keyboard with Integrated Screen @ CES
  [TechWareLabs.com]
• Eee – that’s a lovely keyboard, pet!
  [beyondstandards.com]
• ASUS to reveal ‘Eee Keyboard’ with a 5-inch touchscreen and 32GB SSD
  [aving.net]
• Eee Keyboard: An Entire Touchscreen Home Theater PC
  [gizmodo.com]
• Cruchgear hand-on video of the keyboard in action

One of the original, first person shooters turns 15 years old today. The video game Doom was released by ID Software in December of 1993 (a follow-up to Wolfenstein 3D). I don’t think I started playing Doom until the summer of 1994, when a friend (who had spent the time downloading it on a painfully slow 14.4 modem) gave me the pile of floppy disks to install the game. At the time, it was one of the best games out there, and had incredible graphics. We’ve definitely come a long way. Since ‘93, Doom has been ported to just about every platform you can think of, including a recent flash version that you can play in your browser. What better way to wish Doom a happy birthday than by blowing up some aliens!