A Moment of Wisdom

Track Me Not

Wally Atkins — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 22:24:47 +0000

I came across this FireFox extension while reading a post on Slashdot about losing our privacy. It looks like a different spin on how to fight back against those that data mine such as search engines and other entities out on the web. The approach that Track Me Not takes is to add noise and obfuscate instead of hide and encrypt your information. I haven’t tried it out yet but probably will give it go in the coming days.

If you have any thoughts on your privacy in general or this FireFox add-on let me know!

Putting a Spin on Maps

Wally Atkins — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 14:18:51 +0000

One thing that I love to see in web development is the advancement of the open standards that drives the web forward and their adoption by the browser community (excluding MS IE of course). This demo is a great example of a CSS3 capability being applied to Google Maps using jQuery which will allow you to simply rotate the map.

At first glance it may appear to be rather boring and pointless demonstration but if you think about it this is absolutely fantastic! In order to pull this off back in “the old days” you would resort to Flash or some other browser plug-in to display such wizardry on a web page … but now it is possible with only the web browser!

To me the future of web development looks very bright as coders create little gems like this and keep sharing their talents with the world. Very bright indeed.

Busch Gardens and Water Country USA Street View

Wally Atkins — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 20:05:41 +0000

View Larger Map
View Larger Map

Bluegrass Tribute to The Goonies – The Whiskey Rebellion

Wally Atkins — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 23:13:41 +0000

My brother-in-law, Jared Pool, with the band “The Whiskey Rebellion” released on Halloween their tribute to the classic movie -- “The Goonies”.

A wonderfully done video and song if I do say so myself. Check it out and passit on!

Google Building Maker

Wally Atkins — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 18:51:51 +0000

Wow. Seriously … just wow.

OS 3D Laser Map – Most Accurate Mapping Ever

Wally Atkins — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 13:23:19 +0000

Just thought that I would share a video I came across this morning:

Could you imagine being able to see the entire Earth at this level of detail from the comfort of your own home/office/school/whatever? The technology behind enabling us to capture and share our world in amazing precision and likeness is just a bit mind-boggling to me right now.

Work Out While Playing World of Warcraft (WoW)

Wally Atkins — Wed, 23 Sep 2009 22:52:51 +0000

Recently Slashdot revealed to me: Using a Treadmill and Wiimotes To Run and Fly in Aion

Now I know that MMORPG’s can be highly addictive and can even cause rather interesting interactions between the physical and virtual worlds. However, this is the first time that I have heard of people attempting to get a workout whilst playing these games. I just close my eyes and imagine a single guy in his apartment running on a treadmill flapping his arms up and down so he can move his Level 23 Elvish Mage across the virtual landscapes of WoW.

WoW.

Tweet My Mac

Wally Atkins — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 20:59:46 +0000

First off, the title of this software totally reminds me of the show Pimp My Ride. With a cool name like “Tweet My Mac” this little gem of technology has got to be cool … right? Well, let’s take it for a spin and see what it can do.

I found this tricked out article on LifeHacker and figured that I would give it try on my home iMac. The fun part of this application is that it can take pictures via the iSight or grab a screen capture and post the result over to TwitPic so you can see who is in front of the computer and what they are doing … sneaky huh? Then, my favorite, is the ability to make the computer say any phrase at your bidding. I actually got lucky and caught the wife and kids at home during breakfast and had the computer say, “Logan, get your finger out of your nose!” Within a minute I had a phone call asking why the computer was nagging our son!

If you currently use Twitter and have a Mac (or PC) then I recommend downloading and testing this software which is really simple to use. That is as long as you follow Google’s motto!

Researcher Dies After Studying Plague Bacteria

Wally Atkins — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 16:39:04 +0000

I am loving the headline of this story over at Slashdot. Apparently the guy died after working with a weakened strand of the bacteria that causes “The Plague”. Look, I understand that medical research is a good thing and all … but it’s the freaking plague!!! If I were the guy I would have avoided the thing.

New Watch Lets Parents Track Their Kids

Wally Atkins — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:49:12 +0000

From Slashdot:

A company called Lok8u (“Locate You”) has come up with a clever watch that serves as a GPS tracking device for your kids. Now, we can quickly ask the question of “how paranoid are we as a society?” but at the same time we can say, “Man, I wish I had something like this in my watch whenever I misplace the darn thing!” I have little ones and ponder over whether investing in something like this makes sense or not. I probably won’t wind up getting any of these but it’s neat to see ideas like these come along … I’m sure they will do well in the market.

Funny excerpt from the Slashdot forum on this topic:

Personally I wouldn’t use this for teenagers because at that age, they have matured enough that they deserve a little privacy

Exactly – if you put the wristwatch on a teenage boy, all they’ll find is that he’s spending most of his time in the bathroom rapidly jumping back and forth about 4″ at a time.

Ahh, nothing like a little potty humor on a Monday morning.