Oh RIAA & MPAA, where will you stop? Children under the age of 10? No. The elderly? No. The homeless? No. The deceased???? No.
Google Wave Made Simple. This kid really does break down Google Wave with some drawings and Lego People in layman’s terms.
I’ve watched the whole Google Preview Video before, and it is informative but is very very long.
More to come on my experiences using Google Wave when I finally log some hours on there.
So I was trying to drive from point A to point B with the most direct route, the longer route I was used to taking being about 20 minutes out of the way. So I jotted down the directions, hopped in the car, and was on my way. Just to throw it out there, I do not have a GPS system and I, apparently, have a bad track record with car navigation. But my directions were accurate and specific so I felt good about it. Until I never saw a highway and the roads got narrower, bumpier, I was surrounded by tall farms and fields with no signs of life, and trees lined and loomed over the already scary road. Oh, and then I hit a dead end on the road I thought I was supposed to continue on (still no highway). After a phone call to direct me and backtrack me an hour to starting point A, I re-tried and got there successfully. However, I wanted to see WHERE THE HELL I ENDED UP because those roads I was on seemed like the end of civilization and the setting for a B-rated teen horror movie. So I followed my journey on Google Maps, pinpointed the spot I ended up with a blue bullet, and realized you can drag the little orange man above the zoom to that blue dot and see a 3d virtual tour of that exact street. But as I mentioned before, THIS WAS THE MIDDLE OF NOWHERE, and somehow, somewhere, somebody took photos of this street and uploaded them to Google Maps. Wow the mapping functions from everything from Platial!, GMaps, mobile GPS, it’s blowing my mind. Check out my link of my spot (mind you I was driving in the dark with no street lights), and then go ahead and create your own map and see what street views are available.
With holiday shopping right around the corner, I thought I’d reference this article I found on Mashable: Top 10 Gadgets for Social Media Addicts
The list includes a bunch of fun toys for social media and tech junkies alike.
At 10 on the list is the Roku player, which I’ve considered buying for a little under a hundred bucks before. I subscribe to Netflix, which is basically my magical movie version of Pandora, and hooking up a Roku player (or an XBox 360 Live/PS3 Live) will instantly stream the videos from your Netflix account to your TV. Sounds nice…..but if you want to save a few bucks, but you still want to watch the online videos on the big screen, just invest in a cord that connects your computer to your TV and you can watch it like that (just ask the computer salesperson at Best Buy or the Apple store if you’re a loyal Mac fan like moi.
Many of the items listed were cool new phones coming out on different networks. And you know they’re all holding out on being the iPhone killer (although the iPhone has just come out with an upgraded version as well). Personally, I’m holding out with Verizon to see how this new Droid phone measures up…fingers crossed.
And finally I’ll mention the Flip Mino they listed at number 6. It’s a cool little (fits in the palm of your hand) video camera that comes with pre-installed software for easy editing and sharing with FlipShare. For anyone posting videos on any one of the various social media sites, YouTube, Myspace, Facebook, Tumblr:), etc. this is a fast and easy fix and will probably result in better quality videos than the ones you record on your cell on the go.
Happy shopping in the digital realm.
“These laws mostly stem from the European Union Directive on Data Protection of 1995, which, among other regulations, prohibits collection of personal information without consumers’ permission, forbids employers to read workers’ private e-mail, and doesn’t allow companies to share personal information on users without their permission.”
-Stan Schroeder (via Mashable)
