I Missed the Lunar Eclipse

lunar eclipse
Originally uploaded by Grzesiek:

I'm sure a lot of you have heard of if not actually witnessed the recent lunar eclipse last August 28, 2007. I missed it, and apparently it was a total lunar eclipse which meant that the moon turned red due to the refraction of the sun's rays. I can't believe I forgot to look out the window that night. To make up for it, I searched the net for the best pic I could find. This pic from a Flickr user is the absolute best I've seen so far. Amazing. Click the link to see a larger pic. I'm even more sorry I missed it.

Thoughts on the Palm Centro

This isn't the first time the Palm Centro was leaked. But I held off blogging about it before today because the first few leaks weren't really blog-worthy in my opinion. They were grainy pics that didn't really interest me.

However, the latest Palm Centro leak looks great. Finally, an official-looking photo of the not-so-much-awaited Palm smartphone. In contrast to the first photo, this one certainly looks like something halfway interesting. Here's some more info about the Centro care of our trusty rumor mill...

• Smallest Palm OS smartphone to date
• Targeting a younger demographic... people who are new to smartphones
• Runs on EVDO network
• Features a full keyboard and touch screen

• It'll go for $99, and Sprint will have 90 days exclusivity

A bit disappointing... these are all nothing I haven't heard of before. Is it just me or is Palm losing it's touch? I mean I totally agree with Engadget's open letter to Palm (Dear Palm: It's time for an intervention) --> except for the Foleo bit. Palm needs to shape it up or the company might die a natural (or painfully unnatural) death. I especially agree with these statements...

• "Get thin - Three words: FIGURE IT OUT. If HTC, Apple, and Motorola can offer thin (and we mean friggin' thin) smartphones, you can too. We know you think the Treo is perfectly proportioned, but it's not. It's chubby. No excuses any more, ok? It doesn't have to be as thin as the iPhone, but you've gotta trim some of the fat."
• "Speaking of the keyboard, don't mess too much with it - Apple may or not add a physical keyboard to the iPhone (our money says it won't happen), but the one the Treo has now is pretty good and it's pretty much the one thing that's keeping a lot of Treo owners from jumping ship."
• "Add WiFi - Is it really almost 2008 and the Treo STILL doesn't have WiFi? No excuses any more, sort it out."

• Oh, and I have a request of my own. If you can't put a decent camera on a smartphone, don't put one at all.

These aren't difficult requests. They should be pretty obvious actually. Let's see how Palm fares in the future... I do hope they release some great gadgets pretty soon.

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The Prettiest iMac? (Photo History of the iMac)

Ever since Apple released the original bubble gum iMacs of the late 90s, iMacs have grown in popularity not only because of it's non-Windows (and therefore less crashy) OS, but also because that they're just so pretty. Now almost ten years later, we have the enth edition of the iMac, still looking as stylish as ever. I give my most sincere props to the iMac product designers for their continuously evolving and so-damn-cool designs.

Let me take you back in time to see the how the iMacs have progressed design-wise from the yummy candy colors to the sleek brushed aluminum...

1998

Announced in May 1998 and shipped in August, the brand-new iMac was Apple's computer for the new millennium. Next to the blah looking beige PCs of the nineties, the iMac looked so cool with it's colorful plastic exterior. They certainly caught the attention of kids, teenagers, even adults who never even used Apple computers before. And to be honest, I was one of them. Before this iMac came out, I didn't even know Apple computers existed (what an ignorant little teenager I was back then).

1999

New flavored iMacs were relased in 1999 which brought us brighter, more dazling new colors... blueberry, strawberry, lime, tangerine and grape (they even sound yummy). Personally, I love the strawberry. The iMacs also went from a tray type to a cooler looking slot loading CD-ROM or DVD-ROM drive.

2000

In contrast to 1999's fruity and candy colors, the year 2000 brought us iMacs with shiny, almost jewel-like exteriors. Personally, I like the previous colors better, although I'm sure some guys would think otherwise. These colors look too masculine for my taste.

2001

In 2001, Apple chose to get rid of Sage and Ruby in favor of "Blue Dalmatian" and "Flower Power". According to Apple-History.com, these two new patterns were molded into the case using a technique which took Apple 18 months to perfect. However, I do think that they should have thought of nicer designs, maybe took on popular graphic designers to do the designs for them. I mean seeing that they spent a lot of time perfecting their technique they should have put a lot more thought into the designs themselves.

2002

Next to the latest design, this is my favorite iMac design. It's the first time Apple introduced a flat screen iMac and boy does it look fantastic. Steve Jobs proudly announced, when this new iMac was released, that "The CRT is officially dead." I completely agree. I love the combination of the thin monitor with the spherical cpu and speakers. Apple also went all white this time, which I think is certainly a breath of fresh air. Pretty, pretty, pretty.

2004

In 2004, Apple got rid of the extra lump at the bottom and completely integrated the processor and the rest of the computer's innards in the monitor casing, which they managed to keep just two inches thick. This streamlined new iMac is great and all, but I still prefer the 2002 design because of the screen's ability to rotate and change angle's easily. This two inch screen seemed too clunky in comparison to the last design.

2007

The latest iMac is a redesign of the 2004 model. They did a great job design-wise, if I may say so myself. The basic design is still the same except that everything is just so streamlined this time. The cpu and monitor is now so much thinner and is now made of anodized aluminum. Even the keyboard looks a whole lot better. This is my favorite design so far.

Apple iMacs have certainly made a lot of breakthroughs in the computer design department. They took risks, but all these (except maybe for a certain flower inspired iMac) certainly paid off. I no doubts that they will come up with more amazing designs in the future. But right now, I'd say their latest design is almost perfect. I say almost because let's face it, nothing is perfect. This one however, comes as close as it can posibly can.

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Tafiti Brings New Light To Searching

If you love pretty graphics and shiny interfaces you'll probably love Tafiti. It's an experimental search engine tool that was built on Silverlight, Microsoft's version of Flash. It works on any browser that supports Silverlight and provides the user a somewhat cosmetic solution to generic, boring search engine results and gives it a more stylish interface. Ironically, I would compare the experience of navigating Tafiti's interface to doing so on a Mac GUI. I got the same clean, shiny experience.

However, despite how nice it looks, I still think that it lacks the practicality and efficiency of a Google search. Keep in mind that Tafiti is backed up by Microsoft Live Search which I think is the crappiest search engine of the whole lot. It does have some potential though, as long as Microsoft keeps the interface quick to navigate and the seaches relevant.

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Kipkay's Battery Hack

I'm an Electronics Engineer but the thought of opening up batteries never came to me before. I mean, I know theoretically what the basic components of a battery are and how it works. I just don't know what exactly lies underneath the smooth metalic packaging of a regular 12 volt battery.

What Kipkay discovered inside these basic consumer batteries certainly surprised me. How can eight $4-$6 batteries equal to one $2 battery? It's absurd! However, now that I think of it more, packaging, shipping, and marketing does add up. Talk about not getting what you paid for. The proof lies in the video.

12 Volt Battery Hack! You'll Be Surprised... - video powered by Metacafe

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Yahoo Answers Your Questions

I'm a little obsessed with Yahoo Answers right now. This site allows you to participate in three ways: asking questions, answering questions and voting the best answers to questions. I personally like answering questions. I don't know, maybe there's a know-it-all inside me dying to get out. Questions range from thought provoking (How have you experienced the power of prayer in your life?) to practical (What is the best defense against mosquitos?) to "doh!" (Cole's and Diland phone number?).

It's a great time waster, although I don't know if that's a good thing or a bad thing, if you know what I mean. Still, it's not such a bad place to find answers to your questions as there are a lot of people like me willing to share their expertise.

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5 Great Instructables Projects

I love projects. Finishing a project and admiring the product of my hard work just gives me great satisfaction. Not to mention showing it off to my friends (although I have reason to believe that more than once the enthusiasm they showed was less than heartfelt, haha).

Instructables is a great resource for all types of do-it-yourselfers. The projects range from piece of cake to what the heck?. Check out these great project ideas (great reasons to dust off your soldering iron).

• The Barbie Box: This is a camouflaged case/boom box for your mp3 player. I'm not sure what the inspiration of the author of this was, maybe the Hide-a-pod? Although, if it was up to me, I would definitely choose a different theme. I'm not a Barbie type of girl after all.
• LED Throwies: These are gorgeous in the dark. You can use them to decorate your garden or house for a party, or just throw them around for fun.
• NES Controller MP3 player: Another great mod idea for an mp3 player. The author of this instructable used a fairly cheap mp3 player and it looks very easy to do.
• Use an LCD Monitor as a TV Without a Computer: This is such a great idea. LCD monitors are considerably cheaper than LCD televisions it makes sense to try to use them as a tv display. Why didn't I think of this before?
• Turn Your Old Monitor into a Fishtank: So you've got an old monitor? Rather than throwing it to the dumpster, why not turn it into a fishtank?

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The Palm Foleo Makes Sense

The Palm Foleo was announced a few months ago and is due to be released anytime soon. When I first heard about this device, I was seriously doubting the saleability of a device that was not quite a laptop and not quite a PDA. It seemed so in-between to me.

However, the more I hear about this device and the more I thought about it, the more sense it made to me. I mean a lot of people nowadays use their laptop just for email and web browsing, why not have a device that does this alone and does a good job on this? Think about this, it turns on instantly (no long startups), it's lightweight, it has 5 hours battery life, it has wifi, come to think of it, it is starting to sound like a very good idea.

All we have in the name of portable email and web browsing before the Palm Foleo were puny devices with tiny keyboards and/or equally tiny and clunky touchscreen pads. It's either that or laptop computers that cost and arm and a leg and with lousy battery life to boot. The only problem I have with this is the lack of support for video and multimedia. Come-on, even PDA's and cellphones can play multimedia. I'm not asking for dvd playback after all, just online embedded video or videos from email attachments. Surely they can add this feature later?

Anyway, you can check out these links for more info on this device.

• Brighthand's first thoughts on the Palm Foleo
• PCMag's Hands-on with the Palm Foleo
• Palm Infocenter's Hands-on Gallery
• Palm Infocenter's Foleo Webcast
• Palm's official site
• Palm Foleo Wiki
• ProFoleo - A Foleo centric website

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Guy Creates iPhone Replica

This guy just created his own iPhone from wood and metal. It's like taking shop class to a whole new level. It looks damn realistic too. Unfortunately, the whole site's in Japanese and I don't understand Japanese. However, the photos tend to explain every step. I want one!

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Losing Weight for Geeks

I don't know what difference being a geek has to losing weight but anyway I'm willing to try anything that sounds remotely sensible. Not that I'm overweight or anything, but I've been feeling like such a heffer since I gained around 20 pounds over the last 6 years. G333k (I suppose that's pronounced geeek) presents 8 practical ways to lose fat. Here you go...

• Drop sodas forever Sodas are the enemy number one of this society. Drop it and your GI will get lower instantly. This will change the direction your body is taking and will reduce the amount of food converted to fat. If you are addicted to soda or have cravings, make sure you have only one in the morning, and once every two days. Gradually drop to once a week until you are happy without them. They are the pest of our century and are the main reason of people looking unhealthy. (I completely agree with that explanation. Although, I must admit that dropping them is easier said than done. I don't know why but I just can't seem to help myself. I love sodas! But, for my health's sake I will try to give it another shot. Sodas are bad... sodas are bad... sodas are bad.)
  
• Drop fast-food forever Fast food are bloody expensive! They are the typical solution to an unorganized geek. Get organized at your next shopping day and make sure you don’t need it anymore. If you really like the taste and are addicted. Make sure you get what you like once a week only, and at lunch! That way, your addiction will fade away softly. (Again, easier said than done! I'm not addicted to fast food but eating fast food is my quick answer to hunger. I mean, fast food delivery is the best thing since sliced bread. Or is it the worst thing? I seem to have relied on fast food far too much. Fine, fine, fast food is bad... fast food is bad... fast food is bad.)
  
• Drop sugary food to only once a week Cakes, chocolate bars and such are also raising your GI and making your flubber shine. Don’t cut them off entirely of your life. For starters, it’s nearly impossible to do, second you will find that once a week is just enough! (That sounds like a piece of cake to me, no pun intended. I've never been a fan of sugary food because they make my throat hurt.)
  
• Drop carbs at dinner Carbs are easily put to use by the body during the day. At night, they sit in your stomach and as you go asleep they will be more likely to be converted to fat. Carbs are converted to energy, which is used in your daily life. Unlike models, don’t drop carbs entirely or you will have serious issues at 50. Instead, reduce the carbs intake at dinner, as it won’t sit in your stomach all night. Carbs include pasta, potatoes, rice and bread. Also check the labels of whatever you’re eating at dinner to find out how much carbs it contains. (This was a major Aha! moment for me. I knew carbs were bad but I could never cut them out completely from my diet. Carbs are everywhere! But cutting them out from dinner is a more doable thing. Brilliant!)
  
• Eat dinner earlier This simple fact will allow you to digest better, and sleep better. If your body is able to process dinner before bed time, much less will sit there all night and turn into fat. (This one looks like a difficult one... I can't stand sleeping on an empty stomach.)
  
• Get physically active twice a week Sport is good. Any sport. From boxing to table-tennis. It makes you move, and that’s good for you. We live in a society that doesn’t make good use of our bodies. We’ve never moved so little. We travel by sitting, we work by sitting, we relax by sitting. This is just bad and it’s only getting worse. Find what you like and get involved. (Physically active to me means standing up to go to the bathroom. Does that count?)
  
• Sleep more In our fast paced life, sleep is a very underestimated asset. Good sleep makes you more focussed. It also helps the body recover and then get to work on itself. It takes about 7-8 hours for the body to recover, then after that it only starts to build and focus on what needs improvement. You can’t really get any better if you don’t sleep properly. Why do you think that babies sleep so much? (This doesn't help me at all since I already sleep for about 8-9 hours per day.)
  
• Increase protein intake Imagine a balance. To lose weight or get leaner, you will need to raise the amount of protein intake. It’s a very simple ratio: more protein than carbs in a day, and you get leaner. As bloody simple as it sounds. However, this is a hard task as carbs are everywhere, but decent intakes of protein are rare. (That's no problem at all. I love meat. Looks like I'll just have to eat more meat than rice or bread.)

Web 2.0 Sites and Such

• If you love Web 2.0 sites like me, then get a load of Go2WE20.net. It's a nice visual directory of all (at least that's what they say) the Web 2.0 sites out there. And believe me, there are a LOT of sites in this directory. You'll probably need a whole day if you want to browse them all (and you probably will if you're a tech geek like me).

• Web 2.0 really is about sharing information. Listio is a Web 2.0 site that lets you share information and reviews about other Web 2.0 sites. They have also conveniently listed the top 100 sites according to users votes. Among the top are Del.icio.us, StumbleUpon and Reddit.


• Lastly, if you have a favorite website but would like to find others like it, then you'll definitely love Youlicit. It does exactly that... recommend other sites that are similar to a site you type on a text box. It works really well too. For instance, typing Engadget.com gets me these results. Nice.

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The New iMac

The new iMac is extra thin and extra yummy. I am a Windows user but I think this just might make me switch. I mean look at it. Ok, I can't think of anything else to say right now I'm just in awe. Here's some links for you...

• Official Apple site - get a load of all the iMac info here... I can't help but drool
• First iMac Unboxing - Engadget takes us through their first iMac unboxing. Read about their first impresions here.

Of course I'll post more info about the iMac when it becomes available to me. As for now, I still can't wait to get one. When my budget permits of course.

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Leaked Torrents from Warner Bros.

Looks like some media execs. are starting to realize the value of torrents as a means of publicity for their shows. Torrentfreaks reveal that a number of pre-air tv shows appearing on Bittorrent might have been inside jobs done for publicity. Apparently, these torrents are doing a good job creating buzz for these new shows that people would otherwise ignore. Hmmm, so is this a case of hipocracy on the media side? It looks like they want the best of both worlds. They use torrents when it benefits them and call it piracy and stop it when it threatens them. Hypocracy, indeed.

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All About the MOTOROKR E6

Are you looking for a (non-iPhone) media-centric smartphone? The MOTOROKR E6 might be just for you. With it's surface mounted touchscreen and the lack of a keypad, it looks almost like an iPhone.

However, what makes this smartphone stand out from the crowd is its open-source Linux based operating system making this the dubbed "the incredible hackable phone." And with all the hacking and moding communities out there, you're sure to find all sorts of hacks and mods to please your techie self.

Of course, it's always wise to read everything you can about a phone (or any consumer item for that matter) before buying. I've done the the liberty of finding the most reliable ROKR E6 reviews and resources.

• Slashphone has a brief rundown of the phone's features:
• 2.0 megapixel camera
• CIF and QVGA video capture for up to 5 hours
• Ffull screen video playback
• Integrated MP3 player with dedicated music keys and built-in FM radio
• PDA featuring Business Card Reader, POP3 e-mail, Document Viewer to view PDF, Microsoft Word, Excel, PPT, etc.
• Connectivity includes Integrated Stereo Bluetooth wireless technology, HTML Browser, Hi-Speed USB 2.0 EMU, 3.5 mm stereo jack
• Removable SD memory card slot, up to 2GB SD Card support
• 8MB dynamic user memory
• Mobileburn has one of the most in-depth reviews of the ROKR E6. It spans 9 pages and discusses several aspects of it like the physical aspect, features, and it's user interface. I've read the review and discovered that one of it's biggest drawbacks is text input. You can use the onscreen qwerty keyboard or handwriting recognition, both of which would have to be done using a stylus. So if you're a big with text messaging or email, then this phone is definitely not for you.
• One more valuable resource is the forum at MotorolaFans.com. A lot of the members there are very knowledgeable and helpful, and there are a lot of discussions about modding and troubleshooting.
• And finally, Youtube reviews:

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Create Your Own Facebook

These days, everyone's crazy about the online social network Facebook. However, if you're tech-savvy (and even if you're not), you'd probably want to have your very own profile page or site that doesn't limit you to the boundaries of Facebook or other social networking sites. This article from Wired How-To's shows you exactly how to do that. I'm free to share the article under their Creative Commons Licence so I'll do exactly that. Here's the full article...

With a little savvy, anyone can create a page that hosts all of the essential stuff one would find on a Facebook profile that can be set up with the same plug-and-play ease. You'll have to store all of your photos, videos, and contacts elsewhere, but at least you'll be able to get to your stuff.

Start by setting up a blog. Say what's on your mind. Unlike your blog on Facebook or MySpace, everyone will be able to read it. From there, you can pull in your photos from Flickr--> or Zooomr -->, show off your impeccible musical tastes hosted at iLike --> or Last.fm -->, share your favorite web bookmarks from del.icio.us --> or Ma.gnolia --> and put up a list of your most recent reads using Shelfari --> or LibraryThing -->.

All of these services have open APIs, making it easy for third-party developers to build widgets for displaying public data stored there. As a result, many such tools exist.

Need to keep up to date with your friend's activities? Pull in a feed from their blog
or from their Twitter page. The Upcoming --> event notification service has a dead simple code generator that will create a widget listing all of the events you plan to attend, as well as those your friends are interested in. Like to chat? Meebo -->
offers an embeddable widget for AIM chatting, and Jaxtr --> does the same for SMS. You can even drop in a Skype --> button that lets your friends call you with
one click.

One of Facebook's unique features is the "everything in one place" feed service (Mini-feeds and News Feeds), but you can build such a thing yourself. Just create an account at one of the many feed re-mixing sites like Yahoo Pipes -->, FeedShake --> or FeedBlendr -->. Plug in all the feeds from the various sources you want to track and paste the resulting URL into a widget on your site. Voilà.

The free blogging software from WordPress --> has all of the functionality to let you embed these widgets and RSS streams. WordPress also has a thriving plug-in ecosystem, so it's likely a developer somewhere has done much of the dirty work for you.

An even easier option is to use a sharable and customizable start page from Pageflakes --> or Protopage -->. Pageflakes in particular allows you to build a customized chunk of cyberspace that aggregates all of your desired content just like Facebook, which you can then publish publicly (Pageflakes calls this a "Pagecast"). And beyond a simple user registration, Pageflakes doesn't lock in any of your personal data.

Although it looks complicated, with all these Web2.0 services popping up, it couldn't be any easier. It's really a piece of cake if you think about it... the possibilites are virtually endless. So go ahead and create your own profile page. Have fun while you're at it too.

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My Top Make Videos

As all of you have probably guessed, I'm a huge techie. However, I'm crazy about crafts and the whole do-it-yourself thing too. Make Magazine is a great resource for me because it perfectly marries these two interests. They've got a blog and a podcast as well as an actual magazine (digital or made of paper) chock full of projects to keep you busy until the next millenium.

I present to you my top Make videos brought to you by Youtube:

1. Learn how to screenprint your own t-shirts: If I could wear t-shirts everyday of my life I would. This video shows you how to silkscreen your own designs onto t-shirts (or anything else that's flat and absorbs paint for that matter)... a very useful skill to have if you like having one-of-a-kind shirts. Although, if you want to be able to wash your t-shirt creations, I don't recommend doing the last bit... see for yourself.

2. Make a ring from a half dollar: I'm almost sure this should be illegal but the video says it's not. Anyway, the finished product looks really cool. Do this at your own risk though... I don't want anyone blaming me for getting arrested or anything. Haha.

3. Make a wallet out of tape: A wallet? Out of tape? Awesome. I love duct tape stuff. But this project uses different types of tape to make it more interesting. The video shows detailed instructions but feel free to divert and create your own pockets and designs.

Of course, their site Makezine.com showcases several other cool projects. So what are you waiting for? Go ahead and make something!

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I Love Tokidoki

I love Tokidoki! For the uninitiated few who still don't know, tokidoki is the creation of an Italian artist Simone Legno. It all started as a personal website, a portfolio and diary of sorts, and has grown into an international business. I don't blame the people who love his creations, they're the most adorable things I've ever had the pleasure of seeing. Here's a sampling of tokidoki art...

I just love the colors and the graphics... actually I love everything about Simone Legno's creations. I, and apparently a lot more others, couldn't get enough of them. They're so popular in fact that they have attracted the attention of collaborators... big name companies like LeSportsac, Smashbox and Fornarina.

If you're like me and love their stuff, head on to their online shop and get shopping. Here are some items I'd love to get for myself... (hint, hint)

These would make me buy an iPod just so I could carry it around in this tokidoki iSkin. Brilliant.

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