How Fast Are You?

That message alert on your phone is not the late-night call you were waiting for, but it might be just as good (riiiight). Cellfire has launched its nationwide phone service for Cingular customers, and more carriers are on the way. Only a few businesses In Cali have bought in, but the concept is great. Sign up, download the mobile app, get coupons on your phone and redeem them by either showing it to the cashier or have them scan the bar code on your mobile screen.

It just makes sense that people can make more use of one device in even more practical ways than carrying envelopes full of dead-tree discount delivery devices. Maybe you can even beam your number to that cute checker. (“Is this the checkout line? Well, I’m checking you out. Giggity-giggity. Aw-right.”)

Even though I expressed my desire to grow as a more open-minded geek in the previous post, I had to share this one from Penny Arcade. Rehab is for quitters. The first taste is free.

Well, that’s what my great aunt used to say, anyway. Sadly, it now applies to me.
Forgive me, for I have sinned… and not in a good, delicious way.

I’m the Mac Guy ’round these parts. The Cultist. The guy who almost got the tattoo. But now I’ve seen some of the error of my ways. Read on; I’ll be pentitent in short order.

The EFF has been doing wonderful, soul-affirming work against DRM. They are toiling day and night to make sure that your online and offline music purchases are yours when you pay for them, not rented or loaned or watched over like black market food lines by the KGB. Bravo, lads. Bravo.

On the other side of the clue bin was me, clicking on .99 crack in the ITMS like a happy little monkey. Ta-tick. Wee! Ta-tick. Neat!

Today, I got the point.
And from now on, no more clicking. No more endorphine doses in dollar increments. No more filling out my life’s history and having it dial back to the mother ship for approval. Today, I am a free man, and it feels real good.

You can say “Duh” now, if you haven’t already. So, thank you, Cory. Thank you, Bald Guy.

Hell, at this point, I just might go whole hog and install Ubuntu.

I would move in to a bar with one of these:

Gizmodo says:

The iBar turns a countertop into an interactive surface, where projectors mounted underneath can display graphics on the milky, semi-transparent surface. It has an intelligent tracking system that reacts to touch, and its software follows objects and is able to illuminate them where they sit. There are all kinds of possibilities with this technology, such as playing with a virtual ball on a bar, in a game called iBar pong, or creating graphics that circle and connect objects placed on the counter.

Via Gizmodo.

Rember Bob Ross, he of the soothing voice, perfect ‘fro, and above all, happy little trees? I loved that guy. He seemed to always be on some PBS station or another, and it was so relaxing to watch him do his thing while he hypnotized you with that nepenthean voice.

Turns out there’s some video from his show The Joy of Painting on YouTube:

Poking around the intertubes a little more, I discovered to my dismay that Mr. Ross passed away in 1995. His legacy lives on however, though his company Bob Ross, Inc. (now run by his son, I think) and, holy crap, it says here a video game!

In March 2006, Bob Ross Inc. announced plans to license rights to develop a Bob Ross video game. AGFRAG Entertainment Group will receive the license and is planning on developing the game for PC, the Nintendo DS, and Nintendo’s next-generation video game console, the Wii. The Wii was chosen because its Wii Remote is unique in its ability to sense 3D control, allowing the player to use the remote like a paintbrush, aptly suited to The Joy of Painting.

Whatever console that game comes out on, I guaran-damn-tee I’ll be buying one!

Just before I posted this, I saw that there’s a Marketplace report from 2003 about Bob Ross, Inc. I haven’t listened to it ’cause it’s in the crappy real audio format, so let me know how it is.

Via Positive Ape Index and Boing Boing.

Wanna make quick notes to yourself about what you do during the day? Kind of a log thing? Lifehacker has a tidy little VB script (sorry, Mac cultists) that’ll do exactly that for you.

I’ve updated it a tad to use my preferred date and time format (kinda Unixey), enclose the date in brackets, and separate the date/time from the description with a tab character to make it easier to import into a spreadsheet, should the need arise. (I would have posted it on the lifehacker comments, but you need an invite.)

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'-----------------------------------------------------------
' QuickLogger v.0.1a
' Appends the date and a line of text to a file.
' Based on code written by Joshua Fitzgerald, 7/2005.
' Modified by Gina Trapani, 7/2006.
' Modified by thatbaldguy, 7/2006 (unauthorized).
'-----------------------------------------------------------
Option Explicit
 
Dim filename
filename = "C:\logs\worklog.txt"
 
Dim text
text = InputBox("Add to "&filename&":", "Quick Logger")
if text <> "" then
 WriteToFile(text)
end if
 
Sub WriteToFile(text)
 Dim fso
 Dim textFile
 Set fso = CreateObject("Scripting.FileSystemObject")
 Set textFile = fso.OpenTextFile(filename, 8, True)
 textFile.WriteLine "[" & DatePart("yyyy", Now) & "-" _
  & Right("0" & DatePart("m", Now), 2) & "-" _
  & Right("0" & DatePart("d", Now), 2) & " " _
  & FormatDateTime(Now, 3) & "]" & Chr(9) & text
 textFile.Close
End Sub

Log on, my friend.

Worth1000 has a new Photoshopping contest, Bad Ads 3. I’m only posting this because That Bald Guy called me a cultist, and… um… maybe he’s right. Here’s the proof. Click on “view full”, ‘cuz the fine print is the kicker.

And, just for him, there’s this one, too. I won’t admit I laughed. You can’t make me.

Visual beings are we. Images surround us, filling our minds, cubicles and portable computing devices with indelible pictures from advertising and elsewhere.

Seems that an up-and-coming group of humans in Israel has come up with Zlango, “a new, inspiring messaging platform which transforms SMS into an expressive, juicy, colorful icon-based experience.” Juicy, indeed. One can see this being used in far-flung bars across Europe and beyond.

Then again, I can see myself getting slapped silly in a fine drinking establishment in the U.S. as well. But, you never know.

Please join me in welcoming Il Lupo to the HFAYHD! Signore Lupo brings with him wit, charm, good looks, stunning talents, a sterling sense of humor, and a breadth of geekiness unparalleled in the blogosphere.

I shall henceforth be known as “that other guy”.

Those who know me know my obsession strong interest in all things Newton. OK, so, older tech holds a certain fascination with me. I have a whippin’-fast G5 at home, but I’m also bidding on an 80-year-old Underwood typewriter. Luddite? Not me, brother. I just like good tech that works. Like the Newton. Excellent handwriting recognition (it learned my chicken-like scrawl) and a fast StrongARM processor made it indispensable. With a Wi-Fi card, you can take it to your local java pusher and catch up on email and RSS feeds, too.

Oh, right, my point: Recently, CNET.co.uk pitted a 10-year-old Newton 2100 against a Microsoft Windows Origami UMPC. Newton won, baby. Long battery life, a hot sturdy body (on the Newton, silly) and an insanely low price for that amount of tech knocked out the Origamatron in Round 6.

A color screen and a new browser and the Newton will live again! Bwa-ha-ha-ha-*cough *cough. You know how I get.