Category / Technology

by Greg

Recommended: Netflix

Sign up for Netflix today!OK, unless you really don’t pay attention to … well, anything… then you’ve likely heard of Netflix. 🙂 And, since you’re reading this online, it’s likely that you already know that if you are a Netflix subscriber you can stream much of their catalog of movies and TV shows via your computer (unlimited streaming for as little as $7.99/month now). (Do you also know that there are many other devices that you can use to do this, like the Wii, XBox, AppleTV, many TVs, Tivo, goodness.. there are literally dozens!)

(It also works great on an iPhone/iPad!)

Well GregsHead.net is a Netflix user, fan, and also affiliate. (That means, they will give us a “commission” for any referrals.) And today they sent out another email with a special link in it for that purpose. (This link … right … here.) asking affiliates to spread the word again, which I am dutifully responding to.

Really, it’s not a very large commission … that’s just a bonus. The reason I’m taking the time to post it here is that is is an excellent service. If you like TV, movies, documentaries, etc… for only $7.99/mo they have thousands and thousands available for streaming. For a few dollars more you have access to their DVDs as well, mailed to your house. We’ve used it for years, and they just keep getting better. (As a tech enthusiast, I appreciate the hard work they’ve put into getting their service to work so well on so many platforms. Netflix on the Wii is super easy to use. It’s fantastic.)

We also love the queue. Every week (on Tuesdays) there’s a list of all the new content available for streaming. I quickly peruse that and add items of interest to our queue. Then later, from any device we choose, we can pull up that queue and start watching. (And, it remembers where you left off, if you don’t have time to watch the full movie or episode. That is often very helpful, too!)

So, if you’ve not tried it yet, they offer a one-month free trial. Give it a try today. We highly recommend.

Note: I was not paid to write this… but I will be “paid” if you click the links and sign up today. 🙂

by Greg

Facebook Is Trying To Help

Facebook EventsThis morning when I brought up Facebook to check on a couple things (no, I do not have a Farmville farm or anything else like that…) I saw the list to the left at the top right of the page.

I had to smile as I thought of the stereotypical guy who can’t remember his own anniversary … and I think that might be what my own anniversary is doing in the list of upcoming events. (Believe it or not, I actually already knew that my anniversary is this Monday…) 😉 I wonder if this event (your own anniversary) is also shown for a woman’s Facebook account? I’ll have to check out Jen’s account…

Facebook is pretty handy for “remembering” friends’ birthdays, but then, if you just see it on Facebook, is it really remembering? (No… it’s not.)

The fact that my anniversary was on the list of upcoming important dates was both humorous and slightly sad as it’s one more thing that we are not using our own brains to do anymore. The more we “improve” technology it seems the less we actually use our own brains (or bodies). We can’t get anywhere without using a GPS, we can’t know anything without Google, and we also have no idea where our food comes from. (But that’s for another post.)

So thanks, Facebook. I know you’re trying to help, but maybe we need it to say something like, “Do you know what’s coming up in a week or so?” 🙂 (And maybe we just need to “unplug” in general… but again, that’s for another post…)

by Greg

A Planet in “The Goldilocks Zone”

NASA scientists (among others, I’d imagine) continue searching for planets and planetary systems in our galaxy and nearby galaxies with all the tools currently available to us, and they continue to discover those greatly sought after objects. And now apparently have found the first planet that is thought to be in the so-called “Goldilocks Zone”.

The Goldilocks Zone is the orbit where—like our planet, Earth—it’s not too hot, and not too cold. Gliese 581-g is apparently such a planet. (Hopefully you’ve watched the video above already, and know all the facts…)

Our two boys and I (and a little bit with the younger kids, too) have been learning more and more about our solar system, and galaxy, and the universe in general lately. The enormity of even just our own Milky Way is mind blowing. But then to think of how much larger still is the universe, it’s just unfathomable.

The boys and I have pondered the idea of other planets out there near or far where God has placed life. It’s possible! But who knows? So far we have found nothing. Pretty “lucky” how we were placed right in the “Goldilocks Zone”…

But the search continues. And meanwhile, we still have a ton to learn about our own solar system, life or no life. (There certainly is nothing like us in our own solar system… unless they have trans-dimensional cloaking devices?) We have sent many probes out to collect data and photos and explore for us … including New Horizons that is scheduled to get us our first real, up close view of Pluto (formerly the 9th planet…) in the year 2015. I can’t wait! 🙂

So, perhaps some day—if Jesus tarries, as they say—perhaps we, mankind, will be able to achieve some sort of transport that will take us to places like Gliese 581-g. Or beyond. And who knows what we’ll find there? And elsewhere? I have no doubt that, even if we don’t find anything anywhere, the curiosity the God placed inside is will keep us searching for more, and help us find more.

Hopefully when we do, we can come up with a slightly better name… 😉

by Greg

Library Books App for the Mac

Library Books App for the MacI have a quick software recommendation for you today. And, if you’re like me and love taking advantage of the great resource that is your public (and/or private) library system, you will really like this free application for the Mac!

It’s called Library Books App. It allows you to track all of the books you have currently checked out (on as many accounts as you might have, which can be a lot for bigger families!) and even better, it lets you very easily, through the app itself, renew books and place holds for new ones (also monitoring when holds are available).

Integration with iCal is one handy feature, among many other great features. There are hundreds of library systems built in, and they are always adding more. The app adds a tiny icon in your menu bar and will tell you how many books you have checked out, when it’s time to return books, and when you have holds to pick up!

We use this application every day. One of the best free apps for the Mac (for avid readers) and we in the Campbell home highly recommend!

www.librarybooksapp.com/

(PS… I was not paid to say all of this. We just love it!) 🙂

by Greg

Book Review: The Age of the Unthinkable

The Age of the UnthinkableI just finished the book I began earlier this summer, The Age Of The Unthinkable. As I had mentioned earlier, the book presents a very intriguing look at the world as it currently is, partly due to the great amount of first-hand knowledge and experience that its author, Joshua Cooper Ramo, has with today’s world and some of its most influential people.

Story after story backs up a few central themes to his book: in this currently unstable and unpredictable world (politically, financially, culturally) one needs to be resilient, adaptive, and move towards a decentralized model of operating (be it politically, or in business) and always be aware of your environment—how everything is effected by and affects everything and everyone around it. Relationships are key, as is the power and responsibility of each individual.

What I found to be so intriguing were the success stories of companies and hospitals and other organizations entrusting individuals with more responsibility and ownership (and thus, retaining less centralized control over organizational structures). This goes against perhaps our natural instinct, and the current model of thinking. However, in many cases (and from my own experience) the more you spread out the power and ownership of an organization, the greater the innovation and production of that group of people. We are individuals, and our greatest desire is freedom… when we are granted that, we most often flourish. (And then, so does the organization we are aligned with.)

Ramo told of a doctor who trusted his illiterate, uneducated patients with a very complex treatment, and it worked. Where, the government had spent millions of dollars attempting to respond to another disease and, when those same people were treated as numbers rather than individuals, the treatments were abandoned and the people died. Given respect and choice and education, the people flourished. Given no choice and treated like parts of a machine, they perished.

There were so many great first-hand stories of successful adaptations to a rapidly changing world. It really was both encouraging and challenging. The book ends with the question, what will your part be in this world? Ramo puts forth the idea that another characteristic of this age is that we all have a role. I believe that’s true. We are all very interconnected and all have access to much more information and means of communicating and acting than ever before.

Definitely a well-written, intriguing book. I highly recommend.

by Greg

“Reader” Feature for Safari 5

iPhone 4

Along with the announcement of the new iPhone on Monday (including a fantastic new design, Apple’s A4 processor for greater speed and battery life, and many other great features like the new FaceTime video calling), Apple also released Safari 5 (for Mac/Windows).

As is my wont, I updated all our computers as soon as I heard of the available update, and didn’t think much of it. I always assume most of the updates are bug fixes and/or security patches, which are of course beneficial. But this time, I also noticed a fun new feature: Reader.

Reader lets you view a web page (like this very one) with all of the extraneous content “stripped” away, allowing the viewer a more enjoyable “reading” experience. So, header, ads, sidebars… all of that is gone, and up pops a nicely formatted version of the article in a window that sits on top of the one you were just viewing.

Once you’re in Reader mode, if you scroll over the content, several buttons appear near the bottom of the window. There are the two magnifying glasses with the plus and minus (for zooming in and out), an envelope (for emailing the simply-formatted article, along with a link to the full version), and a printer icon (for printing this reader-friendly format). There is also a circle with an X, to exit the Reader mode.

To access the feature there is a handy little button that appears at the far right end of the address bar whenever a page has content that can be viewed in the “Reader”. The button says, “READER”. 🙂 One click takes you to the new view.

Go ahead. Give it a try…

Now that you’re seeing this content in it’s purest, simplest form, you can just relax and enjoy reading all of the great content on the web—for example, you could start with a perusal of the archives of GregsHead.net, starting with any of the “Related articles” at the bottom of this post!

To exit the reader, click anywhere on the window, or click that READER button that got you to the simpler view to begin with.

A pretty neat new feature that I am going to give a go for a week or so. If it’s as usable as it seems… then I’ll be doing so for much more than a week!

Interesting take… Some are concerned that removing the ads and other extraneous stuff will limit the site owners’ money-making potential. However, once you see the feature, you’ll realize that first, you have to actually click the button to use this feature on EVERY single page you navigate to, and likewise, it’s completely a voluntary option—no way to make it the default.

by Greg

Steve Jobs Keynote at WWDC 2010 – 10am PT, June 7th

Steve Jobs Keynote

Apple CEO Steve Jobs is set to give another keynote address today, where most expect that the 4th generation iPhone will be announced (if not made available today) among the many other traditional rumors and speculations. (Personally, I’d like to see some sort of “cloud” music service, speculated to be “iTunes.com” or something similar to that…)

If you’d like to follow it live, there are a couple sites that I usually pull up in my browser tabs on such days:

MacRumors Live
Engadget’s live coverage

by Greg

Apple Posts HTML5 Showcase

I just saw a link to a new section of Apple’s website, showcasing the power of HTML5, the next coding language for the web. It of course was named in Steve Job’s open letter to Adobe as one of the main reasons Apple is not using Adobe’s Flash on their portable devices. (Almost) All of that can be done via the features of HTML5.

It’s a pretty neat little overview/demo, even if you’re not in the business of making websites as I am. But, if you are, there’s a link there for more info for developers.

by Greg

“That’s alright, I have a Mac.”

Today I stopped at Staples to pick up a couple ink cartridges for my printer. I noticed a banner as I walked in advertising “Free PC Tune-Ups” but thought nothing of it, since I don’t have the “PC”s to which they refer.

Upon further entering the store however, I saw the giant Genius-Bar-like construct that now replaced more than half of where the ink cartridges previously resided. Impressive (however unoriginal) as it was, I really only needed to get my ink and leave. I did however, read the various signage as I slowly walked past … curiously pondering in my head why people put up with Windows and it’s numerous susceptibilities to viruses, spyware, and all forms of malware.

Having located and procured said ink cartridges, I proceeded to the checkout lane. After a speedy checkout process, the friendly sales associate asked me if I’d be interested in their free PC Tune-Up service, “to eliminate viruses, spyware, and help your computer run faster.”

Almost without thinking, I cordially replied, “That’s alright, I have a Mac.” I then, almost sheepishly added, “See?” and pointed her to the tiny Apple logo on my sleeve. 🙂

The best part was, she, being apparently aware of the commonly known immunity that Macs have to such things, rejoined, “Oh, great. Well, it’s a good service for those of us who don’t have Macs…”

I’m not quoting her exactly, I wish I could. But it wasn’t really her words that were so fitting, so telling. It was the way she said them. Without thinking, both of us had summed up one of the most clear distinctions between the two operating systems (Mac and Windows) and simultaneously revealed a strange enigma within our technological society: For some reason, we’re all OK with some people having computers that work, and a great number of us not having computers that work… even if they are the same price!*

That is just so very, very strange to me.

So, if you’re going to buy a computer … would you at least consider a Mac? And if not, well… sorry.

* Note… this price comparison was from 2006. I don’t have the time to re-do it, but I know from very recent experience that friends who buy (comparable) computers running Windows OS are spending as much or more than what they’d spend on a Mac. But why?

by Greg

At The Speed of Information

The Age of the Unthinkable - Joshua Cooper RamosYou most likely know that we are currently in (really, at the beginning of) the “information” age. (Where previously there were the “industrial” and “agrarian” among other ages.) Most of us are in some way working in the business of information, or at least with the tools used for the communication of information.

I am reading an intriguing book titled, The Age of the Unthinkable, and I found this one little (mostly tangential) paragraph interesting enough to share with you immediately. (I’m sure a full report on the contents of this book will follow here at some later date.) It’s a neat way to think about how the transmission of information has changed ridiculously in relatively recent history.

But perhaps nothing has changed so much as the speed with which we can transmit information. A letter carried on horseback about 150 years ago would have moved information at a rate of about .003 bits per second (the average note carrying, say, 10 kilobytes of data, though of course that measure didn’t yet exist). As late as the 1960s those same 10 kilobytes might have moved at 300 bits per second. Today global telecom cables transmit at a rate of billions of bits per second, a many-billion-fold increase in speed over 150 years.

Many-billion-fold? Amazing. But very true. Definitely a completely different world, even just in my lifetime, but certainly in the last century or more. The times they are a changin’… (have changed?)