03 Oct 2006
I used to be a big Palm user, keeping all my contacts and calendars in sync between my desktop machine and my handheld. Over the years though, I’ve switched almost exclusively to using a laptop instead of a desktop machine, and always have a bluetooth cellphone with all my contacts in my pocket. The final nail in my Palm’s coffin, though, was getting an iPod which took over the last regular use I had for my Palm (Bhajis Loops notwithstanding).
So now that I’ve got no Palm in my pocket, I’ve got a new problem. What do I do if I want to just jot down a name, phone number, or URL when I’m on the go? Use my cellphone keypad? Eek. Thanks to a tip from Andy Hunt, I’ve found an excellent technology: Paper! PocketMod lets you create your own personal folded notepad/calendar/whatever to carry in your pocket. Just pick what you want to have on your pages, and print. An online guide shows you how to fold and cut the paper, and off you go. Normally I never carry a pen or pencil around, but since I started using PocketMods, keeping one in the same place at home where I keep my wallet and keys, I can’t help but stick it in my pocket along with a pencil in the morning. Now I can once again capture those important yet fleeting ideas that will surely lead to fame and fortune.
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27 Aug 2006
Together with my father-in-law, we built a playhouse this summer! Instead of just dumping the pictures into a ready-formatted .mac page template or something, I decided to share them using Tabblo. Click the thumbnail image to the right to get to all the pictures.
All in all, this new
Tabblo service is pretty cool. You can upload a bunch of pictures, create a nice layout of your own design (including text boxes of varying sizes), and Tabblo provides slideshows, downloads of the original fullsize images, etc. And of course it’s free!
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17 Aug 2006
I think I can safely call myself a “”http://www.python.org">python programmer". And a “touch typist”. And a “good speller”. And yet, hardly a day goes by that I don’t mistype “python” as “pythong”. I nearly did it while typing that sentence. I don’t know why, it’s just the way it is. At least I can console myself with the knowledge that I’m not alone.
Now I’ve decided to capitalize on this shortcoming with a novelty product that will surely make me rich. Behold,
the PyThong!!!
Please buy several for yourself and everyone you know. Christmas is just around the corner! Who wouldn’t want a PyThong in their stocking?! This is also, of course, the perfect attire for the next pycon or EuroPython conference.
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10 Aug 2006
As a child, I was often puzzled by the existence of some really lame comic strips in the newspapers. I could not for the life of me imagine why anyone would want to read strips like Gil Thorp, Rex Morgan M.D., or Mary Worth. Compared to the comics I loved best at the time, such as Bloom County and (yes, I’m man enough to admit it) Garfield, these print versions of soap operas just seemed completely useless.
Now I know the ultimate purpose of these comics: to be bitterly, hilariously mocked by
The Comics Curmudgeon. This site not only pokes fun at the soap-opera-style comics mentioned above, it also highlights
foolishness in Mark Trail,
timeless stereotypes in Crock, and
fearful grandparenting in Gasoline Alley. Go get your Josh on.
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21 Jun 2006
Last weekend, I took part in a film-making project sponsored by Stockholms Läns Museum and Film Stockholm. Here’s what I made. The voiceover is in Swedish, though I may do an English version later as well.
The idea behind the project is to have 100 people living in Stockholm create a digital story about some aspect of their lives. The project is executed entirely on Macs running
iMovie. I’ve used iMovie plenty in the past, but this is the first time I’ve so heavily abused the
Ken Burns effect! See more about the project, and watch other participants’ creations, at
www.hundrahistorier.se
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