Techory.com - Regular Ramblings About Technology » General http://www.techory.com/blog Regular Rambling About Technology Thu, 29 Jul 2010 01:44:58 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0 OK Go – This Too Shall Pass http://www.techory.com/blog/ok-go-this-too-shall-pass/ http://www.techory.com/blog/ok-go-this-too-shall-pass/#comments Fri, 05 Mar 2010 18:10:39 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=1007 OK Go sure knows how to make a cool music video.

Click here to view the embedded video.

You may remember some of their other great videos:

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/ok-go-this-too-shall-pass/feed/ 1 Christmas Tree Rocket http://www.techory.com/blog/christmas-tree-rocket/ http://www.techory.com/blog/christmas-tree-rocket/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:41:10 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=970 It’s a shame I didn’t see this before taking our Christmas tree to the treecycle pile on Sunday… I think this would have been a lot more fun.

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/christmas-tree-rocket/feed/ 1 Guitar Hero Christmas Lights http://www.techory.com/blog/guitar-hero-christmas-lights/ http://www.techory.com/blog/guitar-hero-christmas-lights/#comments Mon, 14 Dec 2009 23:10:14 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=963 Click here to view the embedded video.

Now these are some Christmas lights!
This is another one of my favorites in the Christmas light department (be sure to dig into the making-of videos).

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/guitar-hero-christmas-lights/feed/ 0 2009 Holiday Gift Guide http://www.techory.com/blog/2009-holiday-gift-guide/ http://www.techory.com/blog/2009-holiday-gift-guide/#comments Mon, 30 Nov 2009 04:20:45 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=935 holiday-techoryWhat started a few years ago as a collection of helpful gift guides for my own gift giving has turned into a yearly endeavor. Here is the 2009 list. Most of these are geared more towards geeks and gadgets, but there are several for more general gift giving. If I run across more, I’ll keep this post up to date. Or if you know any that I missed, leave me a comment, and I’ll add ‘em to the list.

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/2009-holiday-gift-guide/feed/ 1 USPS Virtual Box Simulator http://www.techory.com/blog/usps-virtual-box-simulator/ http://www.techory.com/blog/usps-virtual-box-simulator/#comments Mon, 14 Sep 2009 21:42:53 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=899 I recently made a sale on ebay, and needed to figure out shipping charges when I ran across a cool new app from the good ole United States Postal Service. It’s called Virtual Box Simulator, and will help you determine which priority mail box is the best size for your items. All you have to do is print out a small indicator on piece of paper, which tells the app where to superimpose a priority mail box. You can then set your item on top of the paper to see if it fits into the virtual box. It is actually a pretty handy tool, and a nice use of technology. Way to go USPS

Click here to view the embedded video.

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/usps-virtual-box-simulator/feed/ 3 Personas http://www.techory.com/blog/personas/ http://www.techory.com/blog/personas/#comments Mon, 31 Aug 2009 21:07:31 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=893 How well does the Internet know you? I’m sure we’ve all googled ourselves at one time or another. The results from search engines can be a bit messy. If you want a more elegant depiction of how you’re represented on the Interwebs, give Personas a try.

Personas is a component of the Metropath(ologies) exhibit, currently on display until Sept 09 at the MIT Museum by the Sociable Media Group from the MIT Media Lab (Please contact us if you want to show it next!). It uses sophisticated natural language processing and the Internet to create a data portrait of one’s aggregated online identity. In short, Personas shows you how the Internet sees you.

Here are my Persona results.

persona

It doesn’t tell you where the results come from, so it’s kind of a fun game to guess what your persona is based on.

  • Books – probably from a recording I did of Lawrence Lessig’s Free Culture book, as well as work I did for The University of Iowa Libraries
  • Sports – I’m no sports hero, but maybe this is from SCUBA sites?
  • Committees – I’ve served on my fair share
  • Education – I’ve been working for higher eduction off an on for quite a few years
  • Movies – I like movies (?)
  • News – I read news (?)
  • Legal – not sure
  • Social – I guess I’m social.
  • Art – I have an art minor, and have done work on art web projects in the past.

That is my best guess on interpreting how the results. How does the Internet see you?

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/personas/feed/ 2 College Mindset List http://www.techory.com/blog/college-mindset-list/ http://www.techory.com/blog/college-mindset-list/#comments Thu, 20 Aug 2009 00:33:26 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=886 mindset-listThe new school year is just about upon us -classes start here on Monday. With the influx of new students (and the departure of good parking places), your mind starts to drift back to the time when you were a scared freshman, out in the world for the first time. Beloit College has been putting together a mindset list since the class of 2002 arrived on campus. It’s interesting to see what experiences these new students have had up to this point, and how they know (and don’t know) the world.

Each August since 1998, Beloit College has released the Beloit College Mindset List. It provides a look at the cultural touchstones that shape the lives of students entering college. It is the creation of Beloit’s Keefer Professor of the Humanities Tom McBride and Emeritus Public Affairs Director Ron Nief.  It is used around the world as the school year begins, as a reminder of the rapidly changing frame of reference for this new generation.

Mindset list for the class of 2013

Here are some of my favorites:

  • 4. They have never used a card catalog to find a book.
  • 9. They have been preparing for the arrival of HDTV all their lives.
  • 14. Text has always been hyper.
  • 31. There has always been a Cartoon Network.
  • 52. They have never been Saved by the Bell
  • 72. Migration of once independent media like radio, TV, videos and compact discs to the computer has never amazed them.
  • 73. Nobody has ever responded to “Help, I’ve fallen and I can’t get up.”
]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/college-mindset-list/feed/ 0 Unnecessary Re-branding http://www.techory.com/blog/unnecessary-re-branding/ http://www.techory.com/blog/unnecessary-re-branding/#comments Mon, 10 Aug 2009 18:34:06 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=870 front_fixedLast week, word hit the Internets that Radio Shack was rumored to be re-branding themselves simply as “The Shack.” Since that rumor first hit, they have confirmed that it’s not just a rumor, and they will, in fact be changing their name to”The Shack” in the coming months. That doesn’t really make much sense to me given Radio Shack is a known brand that’s been around since 1921. I understand that the “Radio” portion of their name might be a bit dated, but it’s been dated for the past 30 years. Why make the change now to a brand that is so well known?

This re-brand follows on the heels of several other questionable re-branding efforts of late. Pizza Hut threw around the idea of becoming simply, “The Hut” back in June before changing their tune, and leaving the word “Pizza” intact. There is also SciFi Channel’s re-branding that switched back in July. SciFi Channel is now officially called “SyFy” (pronounced Siffee?). I understand the need to update your brand, and update your image, but this one just makes you scratch your head. Apparently it is pronounced the exact same way, just spelled differently. This one in particular only seems like it will confuse and turn off the channel’s core audience (SciFi lovers), and makes you wonder if it’s really worth the time and money (lots!) that it takes to carry out a re-brand like this.

What are we going to see next? Will Best Buy become The Buy? How about Mart for Wal-Mart? Or just The King for Burger King? Didn’t Circuit City try doing this a few years back, changing their name to “The City?” It didn’t seem to work out that great for them.

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/unnecessary-re-branding/feed/ 6 “Weird Al” Yankovic Takes on Craigslist http://www.techory.com/blog/weird-al-yankovic-takes-on-craigslist/ http://www.techory.com/blog/weird-al-yankovic-takes-on-craigslist/#comments Wed, 17 Jun 2009 00:01:36 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=789 Click here to view the embedded video.

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.

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/weird-al-yankovic-takes-on-craigslist/feed/ 1 Redesign #3 for Techory.com http://www.techory.com/blog/redesign-3-for-techorycom/ http://www.techory.com/blog/redesign-3-for-techorycom/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 18:07:17 +0000 Scott http://www.techory.com/blog/?p=755 Techory.com Version 3You 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.

]]> http://www.techory.com/blog/redesign-3-for-techorycom/feed/ 4