YouTube gets Political Video Texting

Speech Recognition technology has been brought to YouTube through it's new political section called YouChoose. (Is it just me or has there been a significant rise in people taking interest in political change. In the last couple of years, the younger generations are getting more involved in voting and bringing about their opinion to the public. It started with youth campaigns, celebrities and the major impacter player . . . . drum roll. . . . viral marketing. Funny how things always come back to the Internet. ) What YouTube is doing is, they are indexing all the words used in the clip of a speech. It's like what Google does with tagging. When you go to "Face the Candidates" link at the bottom right link of the page. It brings you to YouChoose which half way down the page it has a search box that says, “What did the candidates say?” Then you type in whatever concerns you, like "health care", "Iraq" or "gas" that brings up a list of videos that use those terms. When viewing those videos, the "playback bar will also have yellow boxes on it that you can mouse over bringing up a pop-up showing you relevant dialog contained in that section."
Read more at Beet.tv

Currently, YouTube is limiting recognition to just the YouChoose political videos. We will see if this changes anytime in the future.

This is a great advance in helping people find what they are looking for. Tags put on videos helps to a degree but with this new way of indexing. It could change the way we watch online content. With the more defined searching there is, the more positive and negatives there are. Some viewers will be narrow minded in the content they see but the other side of things is that people won't waste valuable time looking for exactly what they need. Time is money. . .

Other companies attempting this video search is blinkx.

Guess I should start getting politically involved with my blog. . . actually . . . not THAT involved.

[picture taken from Aquate research]

Birthday this Month?

I've noticed that many people have a birthday this month so here are a few shopping suggestions:



1. Think Geek

2. Noisebot

3. Give them a rock

4. Hand painted Martini Glass (for every occasion or person)

6. Some "Sweet Honey" that plays music while refreshing the air

These are just some ideas.

Otherwise, give your friend a sound card and call it a day.

I Smell Coupons!

First I wanted to tell everyone about Microsoft's "Mojave Experiment" but since I have been dealing with Vista all day, I thought not.

There are many things to blog about but not enough time to blog about it all. Unless I wanted to hire people to blog for me but then that would take away the enjoyment of doing something. I'm not sure if that made sense. My brain is slowly shutting down as we speak.This is my escape or "lunch break" at my insane temporary job (not insane like fun crazy but the other evil insane).

Getting to the point! Tokyo has introduced a new style of advertising using "Scent-emitting LCD Display system."
It "emits appetizing aromas along with the advertising videos shown on a 42-inch LCD display." It was created by NTT Communications Corp. and began in July. They plan on continuing this experiment until Aug 1st. The video advertises cafes and restaurants in the underground mall of Tokyo Station and in front of the monitor there are coupon books for the restaurants. IN other words, smell the food and pick up a coupon to buy today!

I would be angry by this new advertising because it would make me consistently hungry!

Who Let The Dogs Out!?!

I want to know who let the dogs out! Maybe it's not who but . . . what . . .

Finally, Dog owners can have their dogs let themselves out with the Plexidoor Electronic Dog Door. This electronic doggy door automatically opens and closes for your pet. Similar to a garage door, it responds to a signal. Since it can be very difficult to train a dog to press a button to go outside, they created a special waterproof RFID passcode chip that attaches to the collar. When your pet want to be one with nature, they approach the door and the door slides up. Once you animal friend is outside, the door closes and other animals can not infiltrate your home.

For those worried about your pet being hurt by a dog door. The door has an "anti-pinch mechanism that prevents your dog’s paws from getting stuck when the door closes."

If your interested in purchasing this product then you should know it comes in bronze or white and in different sizes (due to obesity being a problem in America). The cost ranges from US$129 at the lowest to US$800 for the largest model.

I wanted to share this with all the people I know who have pets. Every time I visit my parents, I have to let the dog out. NOW! With this product, I will never have to get up off the couch to let me dog out! I can be as lazy as I want! My point is, why have a pet if you only buy electronic devices that take care of it for you.

Responsibility! I end on that note.

[Via Geek.com]

Want a Hoverboard?

Who can't forget the wonder of "Back to the Future II and III!" (I know the original "Back to the Future" was the best. As most original movies are.)

Well, the hoverboard used in the movie by Michael J. Fox (aka Marty McFly), is up for grabs on eBay! If you want your hands on this genuine wooden Mattel hoverboard, then you need to be willing to shell out about 30k. (Couldn't you make a replica of this thing for less? I think the Fox is being sly and trying to get some idiot to buy a worthless piece of wood that starred in a movie.)

They describe the prop as ". . . best example of all wood hoverboards to have survived the rigors of filming. It is in used but outstanding condition, and is very rare in that it is entirely complete and intact. Given the wood build and use of metal components, it looks and feels like a 'real' prop." I can't believe that it's real! They should have sold this product WITH McFly's Nike Shoes that were sold last week for about 3k.

I think the truth is I would pay $30,000 for the hoverboard, BUT ONLY if it actually could hover. Why get some lame board when you could get the real thing in a couple years! (I hope. Unless someone knows otherwise.)

[Picture taken from Engadget]

Cheap, Easy and Different for Business

This post isn't anything new, fancy or jaw-dropping shocking. I thought I should warn you.
I recently had a discussion with the president of a marketing communications company. After investigating my future aspirations and career interest, he gave me some bloggy advice (Yes, bloggy is a word. I should know because I JUST created it!). His suggestions were great (I'm not telling you what they were. Otherwise, you would steal them.) but what stood out to me was his comment. He told me to keep in mind that he would be reading these posts. Obviously, this doesn't mean I will be censoring my posts or creating dull post subjects. What this suggested to me was to begin sharing some things that the older generation (or less-technically advanced generation. No offense.) may not be aware of or know how to use.

This leads me to Zoho! You may think Google has it all and no other site could offer more open based software than Google. I am sad to tell you that you are incorrect. Zoho has a couple things Google does not. For example, it has business applications (Online Invoicing, CRM, DB and Reporting, etc.)as well as all Google products. You can easily get an account through you're Gmail or Yahoo account.

It can also be seen as a safe alternative. In case someday Google crashes and the world comes to an end. If this happen, I will travel to China and hope they have the cure for Googleitis.

[Picture taken from Larry Hendrick]

Cars Say RUN Red Lights!

We have cars built with the capability to support our crazy technological lifestyle. Now, it can support our crazy driving style! Audi is running a pilot program that will inform drivers of the speed needed to catch a green light.

Experimentation with the product has begun in Ingolstadt, Germany on 50 traffic lights. The traffic lights are equipped with sensors that beam information to specially equipped whips. The network of "smart" signals adapt to traffic patterns "to deliver optimum light switching."

It does more! It gives drivers a "heads-up" to help them catch the light. The object

of helping motorists get through lights are to cut down on idling / pollution / road rage.

You can guess what is going to happen when people get pulled over by running red lights. "I'm sorry officer, but my car told me to do it!" I know I will definitely be using that excuse on the pavement and in court. Try to stop me now, Coppa! (Coppa is slang for Cop, I think.)

[Image courtesy of NOLA]

Where Have I been?

I apologize for the delay in posts. I had an issue with my computer that made me almost have a heart attack. Some might not understand this (for example my grandfather who thinks we can live without the Internet and computers. He obviously doesn't understand.) We may be able to SURVIVE without a computer but to live without e-mail and the Internet is doom.

I think we take our baby computer and Internet for granted so I wanted to give everyone this advice.

1. MAKE A RECOVERY DISK


2. Back-up all your data


3. Sing your computer a lullaby before you turn it off


4. Last, place it somewhere safe and comfortable

I hope this has been good advice. I will be back to my technology blogging very soon. I promise I won't let this happen again.

Water to Bomb Alarm Clocks

I think inventing unique alarm clocks is becoming an obsession. Some obsessions can eventually create great products but some are just darn insane.

The first new alarm clock known as Bedol Wave Wall Clock runs on water. The clock is "powered by electrodes immersed in water that extract energy from compound particles." It's not available until August 15, 2008 and will cost about $19 and save you the cost of electricity. If we can make a alarm clock run off of water then why can't we do the same with cars?!?

[Via Cool Hunting]

That alarm clock is a lot better than this! Blast awake your sleepyhead! (I think that's catchy! They should use that as their slogan!) It's the Time Bomb Alarm Clock!

This alarm clock reminds me of the days where Road Runner would fool the Coyote. Are we sure this clock isn't made by ACME? (They could feature a commercial with the alarm clock in the cartoon movie of Peter Pan where Hook is scared of the ticking noise in the alligator. Do you know what I'm talking about?)

The alarm clock ticks before it goes off and to diffuse the bomb you must pull the fuse on the top.

You can get this Alarm clock for $40 at DrinkStuff.com (perfect gift for friends and family!)

Yuck! Hello Kitty portable TV uncute

If you are looking for a 1seg portable TV with a 2.4-inch QVGA screen and built-in stereo speakers that has a 4.5-hour battery life, then look no further. Sanrio has created an adorable Hello Kitty gadget with all that available. You can purchase this portable TV in Japan on July 18 for approximately 21,000 yen ($197). I think I have better ways of spending $197 dollars. Unless, we buy this product and then see if it blends! Should I?

Someone please explain to me this phenomenon on this little cartoon kitten. it doesn't have a mouth!!! It's eyes are dots! What is so adorable? Why do we have to make everything we humanly can into resembling this cartoon kitten? The only thing I get concerned about is human sized Hello Kitty dolls being sold at Adult stores. That would be creepy.

[Picture from Engadget]

Help Arecibo! Aliens Do Asteroids

Paul Miller at Engadget makes a plea to humans everywhere.

If you didn't already know ( I, for sure, was not aware of this) that the government has been funding the Arecibo Observatory, the world's largest radio telescope and SETI@home's data source, it can detect "earth-threatening asteroid before it's too late" and for aliens. The only problem with this is it may go into nonexistence.

SETIhome are pleaing for alien angels to save them from a possible budget cut. They are asking people to write urgent and persuasive letters to congress. A replacement would not be online until 2020, meaning we would be vulnerable to every asteroid that tries to attack us.

What do you think should be done?

[Picture via Engadget]

Religion hits Guitar Hero

I was wondering when this would happen. Digital Praise, Inc. has created "Guitar Praise," a inspirational PC (or Mac) guitar game. The game is VERY similar to Guitar Hero but it features 52 inspirational Christian hits from artists like tobyMac,Newsboys, Petra, 12 Stones, Plumb, Thousand Foot Krutch, Relient K, and more. The game can be one player or two player and the object of the game is "matching the notes to the fret buttons on the guitar controller." (Very similar to Guitar Hero and Rock Band). There are four levels of difficulty and:

"New songs, in sets of five, are unlocked along the way to keep the player's
interest. By tilting the guitar, players can activate spinner bonuses; as they
increase their skills they can earn new onscreen"guitars" with richer sounds and
different effects."

In other words, this is EXACTLY like Guitar Hero but for Christians. The big difference is you are using a computer for the game and not a gaming system like Wii, PlayStation or XBox. I like the idea but I'd rather it be offered on a gaming system. If the company was smart then they would team up with Harmonix. They would be able to get more publicity for the product and gain more interest from the public. There is a huge niche market for religion affiliated products. Too bad it won't come out in stores until September 25, 2008 and will cost about $100.

The future is unlimited as to what this product could become! What I really think is that it's a great idea that needs to be built upon.

What could happen next with this product?!? Anyone could become a praise team! Who needs church choirs when you have Guitar Praise?!?! Will the be a Praise Rock Band?!?! The next generation of churches will be led by Praise Rockers known for their top scores and gnarly looking digi rockers! (digi rockers is my new definition of the digital people created in Rock band). What does thou think?

Mobile Partying Gets You Free Drinks

If you are living in or plan on visiting the Metro New York, Jersey Shore, and Hamptons areas then you may want to pay close attention to this post.

Meet Now Live (MNL) is a public beta service that allows users with a "Web-enabled cellphone or mobile device to broadcast their party location of choice -- and receive free drinks in return." you can register for free on their site and then use it to find bars, clubs, lounges or your friends. (What about the free drinks?!?! Where does that come in to play! I'm tired of reading this non-important stuff)

To promote this service, MNL has joined with The Town Tavern, Whistling Dixies Texas Tavern, and Porky's NYC to offer "Free Beer Fridays!" When people "broadcast" their location at these bars to their friends, they receive a "on-screen mobile ticket that grants them the right to unlimited free draft beers." This promotion is not lasting all year long, it's only until Labor Day weekend.

They plan for the service to become popular enough that they will start offering special deals from certain drinking venues specifically to MNL users. In other words they want it to become a mobile social drinking network. Let the drinkers unite!

The problem that I foresee with this is more drunken texting and one night stands. I could be wrong, but phones and drinking seem to always lead to trouble. My other concern is controlling mothers and stalkers. Do we see a similarity with MoSoSo.

Here's the Press Release

Stanford Youtube Channel Got Oprah

We all know how Oprah is taking over the world. What does she not already own or have? She is connected or apart of some many different organizations and businesses that this recent news doesn't surprise me much.

Oprah Winfrey's 2008 commencement speech is the highlight to Stanford University's newly launched Stanford YouTube Channel. The new site has more than 150 videos of complete video lectures "by Clayborne Carson on African-American history, roundtable discussions on global issues led by John Hennessy, informative clips on innovation and entrepreneurship, microdocumentaries by marine ecologist Steve Palumbi, and other Stanford offerings from iTunes U." There are plans to continue it's growth of free educational content. tch This is the link to Stanford's YouTube channel.

Now, if you are not a fan of YouTube or you want these free educational videos on the go then hook it up your "pod." (I like calling it a pod but it stands for Ipod. If you didn't get it). Just remember to be careful of updating your Ipod. The difference between what is being offered on YouTube versus Stanford's iTunes U is that iTunes has 20 full-length online courses. Go figure. I guess I wasted a lot of gas going to a university in person.

What i take from all this is that Oprah is taking over the world, including the Internet. Stanford is finally entering the digital age. I wasted time by physically going to college when I could have stayed at home and done YouTube University. last, where is this all going. Does this mean we will no longer need physical universities because everything will be online AND when will college students start secretly videotaping class and putting it online. Darn, why did it take me until after college to come up with that idea. I could have started Secret YouTube college trend!

Another thought! Mobile Education!

A New President who's unknown

Updating Ipods cause frustration

I usually don't wait until late in the day to post my blogs. I feel I need to explain what has happened that has occupied my entire morning.

NEVER UPDATE YOUR IPOD!

With that being said, my reasoning is that ITunes erases all your music on your Ipod once you update it. I have a 16GB Ipod Touch which is my musical companion. I take it with me everywhere (except into water for obvious reasons). I primarily need it to work out (because without music I can't get pumped up to "feel the burn.")

What happened is, I updated my Ipod Touch from 1.1.3 to the new 1.1.4. Afterwards, all my music was gone from my Ipod + I lost space. The bar at the bottom showed "other"(the orange colored part) to be taking up about 10GB of my storage.

I spent countless hours looking online to find out if anyone knew what was wrong. I couldn't find out anything but I did find someone who had a similar problem. He suggested to go to Setting>Reset on the Ipod. Then hook it up to ITunes and hit Restore. After I completed this, I had a fixed Ipod which now had to be loaded with music. Putting music on my Ipod can take A LOT of time. This is what I have spent all morning doing. If anyone has an Ipod then I warn you to be careful about updating the thing. I don't know how many times I wanted to scream at my musical companion and throw it against the wall. The problem was that I have a soft spot for the little gadget. Regardless of the torture and time consumption it causes, I can't let go of it. If you notice the majority of people have this addiction to Apple products. Look around and you'll notice 95% of the society has an Ipod. Even the elderly have come to accepting the little ear controlling gadget.

You may have to wait until tomorrow for something more interesting or until my Ipod has stopped luring me into it's shiny smooth screen.

Is Blogging to die for?

For all you Mac users, I felt it was very important for me to share this link with you: "Secrets of the Mac trackpad." You can get a lot out of your trackpad, but you have to give it a chance to prove itself.

Getting to the news, a law may be passed shortly in Iran to give the death penalty to bloggers. I think that's a little harsh but it makes me proud to say that I am American and have the freedom to blog. Geek.com explains:

"The bill will make punishable by death, anybody that 'establishes websites and
weblogs promoting corruption, prostitution and apostasy.' Apostasy is defined by
dictionary.com as 'a total desertion of or departure from one’s religion,
principles, party, cause, etc.' but in Iran it could have a wide-ranging net.
The government might simply use the bill at its discretion."

What I find interesting is that the Iran government tried to keep surveillance on bloggers a year ago by asking bloggers to register their sites with the government. Who would willingly register their blog when they know that if they do, they will most likely be put in jail or killed?

I think it's outrageous that they want to eliminate blogs. A blog is a freedom of speech in which people can discuss what matters to them. It can also be seen as a source of news. It has provided many companies a facet of communication that enables them to speak directly to consumers about issues or concerns they might have in real-time.

The next big search on Google will be how to hack the government's surveillance on my blog.

[Picture taken from Global Voices]

Back in Love, now give me Wall-E

It's been three days since I last blogged and a lot has happened. I hope everyone enjoyed their 4th of July. I wanted to share with you the fireworks from where I was located: (please ignore the background chatter)

Other than Fourth of July fireworks, I have missed blogging. I wanted to share the movie Wall-E with everyone but don't have enough money to pay for everyone to go. I highly suggest people to go see this movie. It has a little love theme intertwined but the main message is to become eco-friendly. I have nothing against a movie with a message that doesn't have to do with falling in love. I have seen enough movies in my lifetime to know that life is not all about falling in love.

Moving on, the reason why I am talking about Wall-E is the new Wall-E Gamecube case mod that makes me want to buy a Nintendo Gamecube.

I know this isn't very interesting of a blog post and I promise to write another today but I wanted to share something cute and fluffy. Am I allowed to do that?

I Dare You To Wake Up. . .

We all have problems getting up in the morning. Question is, does it affect our friends or people on our phone? If you purchase a Tyrant Clock by Alice Wang, then it just might. This clock calls someone randomly from your mobile cell phone every three minutes after the alarm goes off. You can stop it, IF you are awake enough to turn it off.

This seems like the best alarm clock. Sean Fallon agrees and suggests they add message playback:

"Something like automated drunk dialing—only more devastating. For example, record:“Hey sexy, it's me. Listen, I had to call because I had another dream about you last night. I can't get you out of my mind.” The horrifying thought of that message being delivered to your father at 6:00 in the morning is enough to
get anyone out of bed."

I think this alarm could also be dangerous. The worst thing would be if it dialed numbers that are not in your contact list but are numbers that you have previously answered or dialed. For example, you met a guy last night and put his number in your phone. You're not in the least bit interested but you felt bad for the guy and put his number in your phone. You plan on deleting it but forgot to before going to sleep. The next morning, your alarm clock goes off and starts dialing. When you FINALLY wake up, you have ten missed calls and a stalker. (Am I exaggerating? )

How would you explain to people (or your ex) why you called them at 5am in the morning? "I'm sorry, my alarm clock called you! I swear! Why would I call you? . . . No, I don't mean it that way . . . I just. . . I gotta go, my alarm clock is e-mailing people."

If I call anyone by accident from now on, I'm putting the blame on my alarm clock.

[via Engadget]

Bike to the Future!

If the gym isn't your place to work out and you don't enjoy running then bike. Unless you're concerned about getting hit by a car. Wait! We have a bike to prevent that from happening!

The Aeris Urban Cycle made by Hope, is the bike of the future. It has "indicators built-in the handle bars" to prevent you from collision or cars cutting you off. (Just wondering, what happened to humans having eyes and ears as their indicators? Last time I checked, I am capable of seeing a car coming at me.) Another feature of the bike is that it is made out of Hybrix, "a material that's supposedly so tough, it's comparable to stainless steel but lighter than aluminium. " (Next, we will start making bikes out of recycled plastic rubber.) The bike will be coming out in the fall for a mere 5k. (Are you kidding me? Why would I spend $5,000 on a bike! Does this mean that bikes are soon going to be the cost of a car?)

I would rather buy a pull wagon and use it like a skateboard than spend that much on a bicycle. Unless, the inventor adds a Knight Rider GPS to the handlebar, a miniature stereo system and cargo space. Then we might be in business. Any other ideas?

Airports collect laptops. Are we to blame?

A new study released Monday by Ponemon Institute LLC found 637,000 laptops are lost in airports every year. (I am astonished. I understand laptop's being stolen, but how can you lose a large rectangular thing that can cost hundreds to thousands of dollars? It's not like a cellphone that can easily fall out of a bag without making a lot of noise.)

The worst part is that laptops are commonly lost at security check points. I don't understand. At the security checkpoints:

1. You take out your computer
2. Put it on the conveyor belt
3. Go through the metal detector
4. Walk to the conveyor belt to get your shoes
5. Your laptop at this point has gone through and you put it back in your bag
6. Then walk away (with your shoes on)

Please explain to me how, during this process, 10,278 laptops are lost every week at 36 of the largest airports and 2,000 from mid-size airports. (I'm not done. It get's worse.)

"About 77% of people surveyed said they had no hope of recovering a
lost laptop at the airport, with 16% saying they wouldn't do anything if they
lost their laptop during business travel. About 53% said that laptops contain
confidential company information, with 65% taking no steps to protect the
information."

ARE YOU SERIOUS?!?! If I lost my laptop, (which would never happen because I'm not THAT blonde) I would be calling that airport to the point that they would give me a new computer just to stop calling. (They would probably give me one of the many lost laptops sitting around).

I am also wondering why people don't put password security on their laptop accounts and "confidential company information." It's not that hard to do, but for those of you that it is we have a solution. Absolute Software Corp. created a tracking device called LoJack that reports it's location via Internet connection. The other option is to get a Dell that has GPS technology and "data protection services" that enable you to remotely delete data on a hard drive and recover data from failed hard drives.

What I was really thinking about after reading this article was what do they do with all the lonely and lost laptops sitting around? Do they auction them off to employees? Do they give it back to trolls that steal them to sell them on eBay? (which could explain how the airline companies stay in business with rising fuel prices) OR are they collecting all the laptops to make a super laptop to take over the world. (A little out there, but we should never rule anything out.

On that note, maybe I shouldn't rule out that it could be human error on our part.