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Archive for the ‘Product Reviews’ Category

Light Touch – any flat surface becomes a computer

Thursday, January 7th, 2010
Light Touch

Light Touch by Light Blue Optics

OK, when this hits the consumer market I’m getting one.  I think this is one of the coolest things to come out in a long time.

Created by Light Blue Optics, this interactive projector works by detecting your finger placement and responds to your touches on any flat surface. It sports a 10 inch screen (same as many newer netbooks) and has full color laser projection.

Also included are features like WiFi, Video IN, built in speakers, headphone jack, and micro USB.

Website Link: http://lightblueoptics.com/products/light-touch/

Imagine going in to a coffee shop, setting the Light Touch down, and the table becomes your interactive computer screen. Your kitchen table could turn into a personal finance workspace. Watch a movie on the hood of your car. Or edit video clips using your bedroom wall. The possibilities are endless.

I really like the idea of leaving behind the bulky laptops and desktops we’ver been using for years.  This may not be the next huge technological evolution for computers, but I think we’re getting closer. This is at least a step in the right direction. While most companies are focussed on the need for more cool hardare, needing LESS hardware (no keyboard, mouse, or monitor) is actually a refreshing change.

One thing they didn’t explore on their website is the possibility that these devices could interact with each other.  Perhaps the devices would behave differently if the image from another device was detected. This could allow for security verifications, sharing profile information, granting privileges, etc.

Or what if this thing (now were into speculation) could see barcodes and instantly take you to the company’s website, or ebay, or youtube, or amazon, or wordpress and show related content.. I know we already have barcode scanners, but this could take that idea to a new level.

Right now the Light tough by Light Blue Optics runs Windows CE as it’s operating system and also has Adobe Flash Lite. So out of the box it is capable of doing some amazing things. Games, video, photos, office programs, email, social networking, web browsing, etc. 

Although I haven’t had hands on experience with this yet, it has sparked my imagination and so I think it is on it’s way to being a successful product.  We’ll see.

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The N game – The game that incarcerated my concentration

Monday, January 4th, 2010

The N Game

This game could have been created in the 80s.  The graphics are super simple. The game play is easy to learn. And yet it’s challenging enough to keep you enraptured for hours at a time.  The N-game (sometimes called N+) is simply amazing.

Remember “LINE RIDER”?  Yeah, this is sort of like that game in many respects. Simple yet adictive.

Now I’m not someone who plays a lot of computer games.  I find them a waste of time most of the time. Occasionally I will play a little Halo or Star Wars with my oldest son. Sometimes I spend some time with my 2nd son playing racing or flying. But in general I just can’t seem to find the time when I’m not trying to be ‘productive’.

Enter “The N-Game”. My son started playing this a couple of weeks ago and I though it was pretty funny to watch. When the little stick figure guy dies he sprays into little tiny pieces.  He can jump super high and runs very fast for his size.  And the playing arena is all done on one screen.

So I watched for a while and then one day said “Hey, let me try that.” That’s all it took. I was hooked. For the first time since college my wife will occasionally come into the room and catch me playing, to my slight embarrassment. But I just can’t help myself. It’s just so fun.

Plus the N-game is available for a bunch of different platforms.  X-box, PSP, and my favorite, the PC web browser. It is a flash-based game that plays with any internet connection.  (It may be available for more systems, but these are the ones I know about).

PLAY IT HERE: http://www.madgravityradio.com/ngame.html 

…THEN BOOKMARK IT!  You’ll need later. :)  

I hope you enjoy it as much as I have.
Let me know what you think. Comment below.

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Posted in Games, General Living, Product Reviews | No Comments »

Notepad++ (A programming life saver)

Thursday, December 31st, 2009

NotePad++ (Free Software)

I haven’t created a blog in a while because… well there’s not that much to say.  However, today I came across this great new little program that I know is going to revolutionize the way I create websites and edit code.  It’s called “Notepad++”

This little piece of software is just like notepad for windows… but oh so much more.

For code junkies like me this program color codes the different types of text in the document for easy visual reference.  Not only that, it also prints in color.  Add “tabbed browsing” style document management,  intelligent collapsible content sections and the ability to install plugins  and you have yourself a monster of a program.

The other great thing I noticed right away is that you have the option to put a “Context menu” selector in windows explorer.  This allows you to simply right-click on a file to open it in Notepad++. That is extremely handy.

Now, I’ve only been using this program for about 15 minutes, so I have yet to see what it can really do when put through the paces. But so far I’m giving Notepad++ an A++ .

Actually, install was a little tricky because I always look at the wall of available files to download and think… “which one do I actually need”. But without too much trouble I found the file called “installer” and that was the end of my confusion.

Great little program. I think I will get MUCH use out of it in the future.

Download Here… http://notepad-plus.sourceforge.net/uk/site.htm  (Sort of a freaky website, but don’t let that deture you.)

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Review of Sara Groves

Saturday, March 7th, 2009

I appreciate a broad range of music and I’m really not loyal to any of them particularly.  There are some that I avoid like the plague, but even in those genres there are a few exceptions. I don’t care too much for modern Country or Rap or anything that requires high levels of drugs to get into.

Unfortunately, there’s a lot of garbage out there.  Not that it’s always profane or otherwise immoral… just not that good and often way over processed. Perhaps over publicised too.   I get the feeling that artists don’t spend time working on there lyrics and putting together a really good product.  It’s more about getting a CD to market quickly and then getting on to the next thing.  Like McDonalds – “Next!”.

Sara Groves - Tell Me What You Know

Sara Groves - Tell Me What You Know

Fortunately there are some bright spots in this otherwise gloomy atmosphere.  One of them for me is Sara Groves. 

Her Website: www.saragroves.com

I heard one of her songs on the radio a few years back.  The song was “What I thought I wanted”. It captivated me.  This was something you wouldn’t hear on the monopoly mainstream stations, and it was very creative and thought provoking.  The synth patterns and musical compositions were great. So, I immediately went out and bought the album (“The Other Side Of Something” 2004)  just for that one song. Then I discovered, to my pleasant surprise, that the others on the album were just as good. Particularly “The Boxer”, depicting life as a boxing match, and “Esther” about an African missionary. 

To bring this forward,  I recently picked up one of Sara’s later releases “Tell Me What You Know” (2007), and it’s surprisingly just as good. 

I’m not sure how to classify her music.  I want to say a mix between pop and folk, but that doesn’t really do it justice with the keyboards and electronics she uses. It’s definitely not hard ‘guitar drive’ music, but not back-woodsy either. 

To be honest, I get a little bit of criticism from some of my friends when I tell them I really like Sara’s music. Somehow I think she’s not ‘trendy’ enough for them.  You can’t necessarily “rock out” to her beats at a party.   However, she is a true artist, she’s original, not mainstream, and definitely not cookie cutter. Her lyrics are well placed and and thoughtful, and her melodies, although sometimes slightly on the melancholia side, are fantastic.  I would sacrifice ‘trendy’ for quality any day.

My hat is off to you Sara Groves.  Keep making good music.

I couldn’t find any clips on YouTube of my favorite songs, so here’s a promo clip.
Sara Groves Promo

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Posted in Music, Music Reviews, Product Reviews | No Comments »

Great Image Resize Tool – VSO Image Resizer

Tuesday, March 3rd, 2009
imageresizer-box

VSO Image Resizer

Ok, I decided to start things off on the lighter side.

I have always thought it was a pain to deal with images. Personally, I work with Photoshop on a daily basis, and Fireworks sometimes for batch image processing. I know how to process my photos and work with them pretty efficiently.

However, sometimes I just want to email a few pictures from my digital camera to a friend. What a nightmare it is to have to open Photoshop and manually resize each photo before sending it.  Not to mention that often the people I deal with as clients don’t even have Photoshop or any other image editing program. So what are they supposed to do to easily get their images to the correct size?

I have found the answer.  Well… ok… maybe “an” answer. I know there are probably many more options out there.

pictures_resizeIt works great.  You just select the images you want to resize, right click, select “VSO Imager Resizer and your off.   You can put in the exact size or percentage scale, and the software resizes the image(s) in seconds.

I like that you don’t have to open up a program and navigate to the folder to find the image you wanted to work with.  It all happens right there in windows explorer.

When you download the free version, it does pop up this box asking you to purchase the full version, but hitting “continue” bypasses that and the program works just fine vso_continuefor the rest of the session with no other annoying screens.

I like this little tool.  I will most likely buy it because it is so useful.

If you try it, comment on this post and let me know what you think of it.

VSO Image Resizer – Demo

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Posted in Image Editing, Product Reviews | 3 Comments »