Author: timcalvin

Glass.

So I’ve now tried Google Glass, and thought I’d share.

It’s not a joke, and it’s not going away. It’s entirely too useful and easy for that. It’s comfortable. It’s reasonably reliable. It’s in some BakN4jXIQAAjThiways WAY slicker than a Beta has any right to be. I want one. I want one more now than I did before, and that’s saying something. The interface to manage the device- a web page currently- is clunky. You have to add contacts one by one from your G+ account. The best way to think of this, I feel, is to compare it to the original iPhone: expensive, without apps, and slightly before it’s time. Still, once I added the WorldLens app and Glass was translating what I was looking at from Spanish to English in real time, it was clear: This is the way forward.

Time to start saving pennies.

Misfit Shine Update

Here’s my update.

It’s gone. The crappy “sports band” that I was wearing it on doesn’t hold on worth a damn, and at some point during a Saturday morning grocery shopping run, my Shine popped out of my bracelet and is gone forever. And I’m angry.

What kind of “sports band” can’t hold onto the device while shopping? How is it supposed to hold on when I’m running or biking or doing anything more vigorous than putting a carton of OJ into a basket?

As much as I liked my Shine, the “loseability” of the device (combined with the price) means I can’t imagine buying another. If/when I get another activity tracker, it’ll be a bracelet for some sort- the new Nike Fuelband looks ok, and the new Jawbone UP is looking even better now. I’m running the Nike Move app on my iPhone 5S, and that’s working for now, but maybe post-holidays I’ll be picking up one of those two.

As far as Shine, it’s a shame to have to write off what could be a great device because of a terrible mount system.

StiRep

Here’s where I’m at (and what’s going on):

  • Finally think I have some of the DNS settings surrounding this site working properly
  • Experimenting with a Sony NEX3 (mostly for video purposes)
  • Figuring out I really, really like pancake lenses
  • New England 1:1 Summit logistics
  • Drawing more comics (a new series here!)
  • Reworking my work gear kit (more on this later)
  • Modified my Cuppow mason jar lid (it was squeaking when I drank, so I radius’d the vent hole)
  • Working on a setup for digital course material management (likely GDrive based)
  • Researching Audio podcasting- hosting and distribution mostly
  • Writing a post about OER (Open Educational Resources)
  • Always, always, always filming more

Fine Tuning.

I’ve been tinkering again.

I bought nothingfuture.com for the next five years or so, and I’ve directed traffic there to this page. Someday I’ll likely split it off as a separate entity, but in the meantime I didn’t want the URL to be bought be somebody else. I picked up one or two other domains while I was at it, but that’s for some other projects.

I’m going to be doing some messing with DNS settings soon for here, since I’ve not been thrilled with the way the internal links on this site have been looking- though, I need to mention, that’s my fault. I’m a very big fan of my hosting/DNS service.

I just helped getting EducatorU.org moved from a custom WordPress.org installation and hosting to a SquareSpace site. So. Much. Better. Especially for what we’re doing with it. It’s slightly more costly to host, but it’s still a very good deal for the service they provide. The site still needs a bunch of graphics work, but that’s all in the works anyway.

 

Vitamin C is a joke.

So it’s the winter, and I’m perpetually on the verge of getting some illness or another. There’s always a snivel or a throat thing or a ache or whatever. The single thing I’m told to do most by the folks around me is to take Vitamin C in order to not get a cold.

And they’re wrong.

Don’t believe me? Try here. Or here. Or here.

It’s not that Vitamin C isn’t good for you, or that it doesn’t have positive effects- it’s that people’s perception of what those effects are is divorced from reality. Information gets filtered and handed off and “summarized” and thus distorted. The difficult part there is that people have faith in their sources, and thus don’t think of the second/third/fourth hand information as distorted, and we end up thinking that Vitamin C somehow cures the common cold. The details disappear, and it is those same details that hold the truths that we were looking for.

 

Gear #2

I’m moving back to paper for my 2014-15 year calendar.

photo (1)

 

I still like the digital version for some things, buy for some long-standing reason, I have a preference for paper. To that end, I managed to get my hands on a (shipped in from Japan!). There are a couple of reasons I like it-
The size- it’s not as large as some of the Moleskine alternatives
The layout- one page per day (also, grid, and well thought out time stamps, and so on…)
The design- rounded corners! lots of pages!
Cache- you ain’t got one like this!

 

Research #22

Things I’ve been researching in the last week (or so):

  • Small HDMI/DVI monitors (ie 4″ or so)
  • Learning more about DNS/Domain mapping
  • Re-Learning Publishing on Demand services (CreateSpace, specifically)
  • Getting familiar with my Hobonichi Planner Book
  • Coding replacement TPMS to my car