Having just got back from a trip to San Jose to meet with a number of my new CenterBeam team members, I decided to plow through my Google Reader and have a look at some of the starred items I’ve been tagging over the past couple of weeks. In doing so, I’ve found a few nuggets that I felt should be shared. Thus, “Nothing to See Here” has been born. Hopefully, the title won’t live up to it’s name.
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Frustration-Free Packaging – Amazon Launches a multi-year plan to allow you to easily get to the products you’ve ordered. Not only this, but they promise to make the packaging environmentally friendly. Recall the last time you picked up a piece of electronics, toy, or other goodie from the store? Recall the fact that you flat-out can NOT open it with your own two hands due to the hard clear plastic with the kung-fu grip welding job along the edges? Amazon to the rescue. Someone tell me why it’s taken this long for someone to get this misery removed from our lives? This alone makes me want to buy everything from Amazon. Thank-you!
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How secure is your password? How long would it take a brute force attack to compromise your security? Use this Excel spreadsheet to find out! I was shocked by some of my passwords, both in good and bad ways. Time to make some adjustments where needed! You might want to read the tab that has instructions, as there are two ways to enter information about the structure of your password.
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Thriller as a 64-Voice Acapella – You’ve really got to appreciate the time and effort that went into the creation of this. Truly amazing. Make sure you check out the clothing used for the Vincent Price voice-over at the end…classic. I wish I had that kind of time on my hands!
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Windows Azure – Hmm, this may be an interesting topic for later…
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CIO.com offers a nice glance at some upcoming technologies. Some of the 15 that stuck out for me: Memristors, GPU shifts, USB 3.0, wireless power, a theoretical Google Desktop, better interaction with your TV. They also offer an entertaining look at their own “predictions we’ve gotten right” as well as “predections we’ve gotten wrong” at the end of the article.
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LinkedIn steps up to the Social Networking plate with Applications. I’m a fan of the BlogLink application, so I can show my blog posts on my LinkedIn page. Theoretically, it’s supposed to show you blogs from your contacts as well, but I’ve yet to really see that working correctly. Either way, cheers to them for building the framework. While you’re at it, have a look at My LinkedIn Profile.
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Guns N’ Roses (I should say, Axl Rose) released a single to radio a few weeks back from the Chinese Democracy album. Has anyone actually heard this yet? Amazingly I haven’t, considering I used to go to their concerts before anyone even knew who they were. I’ve not been dialed into radio much lately, but I assume that since I’m not hearing it constantly in typical beat-a-dead-horse radio fashion…that it must suck. Frankly, I hope I don’t like it because Guns N’ Roses doesn’t theoretically exist any more. <grin> On a side note…if you’re looking for a read, Slash’s Autobiography was surprisingly entertaining. EDIT: Looks like going to the main website (linked earlier) allows you to listen to the song. I’m not overly disappointed in my desire to not like it. Meh.
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Finally, a glimpse at Windows 7. So far, I really like what I see and am excited to get my hands on it. From what it sounds like, usability and speed were the main focus for this new operating system and I’m amazed (and happy) to hear all the positive feedback on-line about it. Below are some videos displaying the functionality. I think I’ll be quite entertaining to see how Apple chooses to market against this.
A good video of the new interface and usability changes including the new peek feature
Image Courtesy: SouthPark
Another shot of the peek and jump lists features
Windows Live Maps tied to touch gestures
Likely a 3rd party application, but nicely done regardless.
Image Courtesy: SouthPark
