Snowboarding has always been high on my list of Things To Do Before I Kick The Bucket. I finally did it (not counting a lame, abortive initial attempt a few years ago) and wrote about it.
Pioneer Press photographer Richard Marshall took some nice pictures of me just prior to my third and last lesson at the Afton Alps complex just east of St. Paul. I have pasted them here.
Get a PDF of my article here, or in iTunes if you've subscribed to my podcast feed.
The citywide Wi-Fi network nearing completion in Minneapolis has been promoted as one of the few such municipal wireless services worth a heck, so I wanted to see for myself.
I spent the better part of a workday in downtown Minnepolis, with a MacBook Air laptop and an iPod Touch handheld, to see what life would be like on the go with Wi-Fi all about.
It didn't go perfectly, but I had fun. Fellow tech reporter Les Suzukamo wrote a companion piece for our biz section. Get both articles in PDF form here, or in iTunes once you've subscribed to my podcast feed.
Here are a couple of geeky tips for other road warriors availing themselves of this service for a day or a month:
Laptops work better than handhelds. The latter are best use outdoors; even laptops should be used by a window while indoors.
Can't get the initial splash screen to appear? Be persistent (I had to be). Type "login.usiwireless.com" into the browser address field.
Have multiple devices? You may need to log off one before using the other. This is easy, type "logout" (without the quotes) into the browser's address field.
On a semirelated note, the pineapple-curry lunch special at Sawatdee on Washington Avenue is killer (and don't forget the fresh spring rolls).
I'm a recent convert to Flickr, the popular but somewhat geeky photo-sharing service. Wrapping my brain around that site's complexities and eccentricities took a little while, but now it seems like a no-brainer.
So I have no plans to now embrace Photoshop Express, a new Adobe photo-sharing site. It's way too elementary for me since it's aimed at novices, and its 2-gigabyte storage cap is a deal breaker given Flickr's unlimited storage for a modest yearly fee.
Still, I'm impressed with the site's online-editing capabilities, borrowed from Adobe's popular Photoshop programs, and will likely avail myself of the Web-editing tools once promised Flickr integration arrives.
Here are some Photoshop Express screenshots presented in (what else?) the form of a Photoshop Express slide show:
BTW, I know you don't look anything like the above, our artist was just exaggerating for humorous effect.
Here's how today's article appeared in print form (grab a PDF with the full content here, or via my podcast feed in iTunes).
Update: A few of my geek pals pointed me to RSS-by-mail options for pointing content at my Mom and whatever e-mail program she's using, potentially saving her the trouble of switching or upgrading to another program.
Data backups are hard, but the right hardware and software can make them easier.
Apple's new Time Capsule is one of the most interesting because it blends a hard drive with a Wi-Fi router. It interacts with Macs via the new Time Machine software built into the latest version of Mac OS X, and will also work with PCs and various types of Windows-based backup programs.
I look at the Time Capsule and other backup options in this week's Tech Test Drive column. Grab a PDF here (these get downloaded automatically via my podcast feed). Bonus content on said PDF: My minireview today of a Microsoft mouse and Logitech webcam.
But here is the kicker: Myers said he was accompanied by Richard Dawkins, the famed biologist and atheist, who was not expelled. (Dawkins apparently is in the film, which he isn't happy about. So is Myers.) Wow, you can't make this stuff up.
Here's Myers' follow-up post on this MOA creationist vs. biologist smackdown.
I've written quite a bit about the coming digital-TV switch, the digital-converter boxes needed for older TVs, and the federal coupons needed to buy those boxes at a deep discount. (Here's a PDF of my recent columns on the topic.)
But while others have received their coupons, mine still haven't arrived (dang it). So when fellow Twitter-er @jpavleck tweeted that his coupons had arrived, I asked for photos. He obliged.
On a related note, I've been impressed with the DTV detail on the personal site of a local guy, John Weeks. He recently chimed in with detailed follow-up to my coverage, touching on several key topics:
Really old TVs. I read your columns, and I found them to be well done. I think some in the industry are trying to scare people with misinformation and conspiracy stories to get people to spend money that they don't have to. The message that most people need to do nothing, and most of the rest can get a converter box, is a good way to look at it.
On older TVs the only option is to feed an analog channel 3 signal into the TV. Some of the converter boxes have an RF output jack that puts the converted DTV signal onto a coax cable as channel 3 in analog.
The only trick is getting that connected to the TV. The easy way to do it is to attach a short length of coax to the converter, then attach a 75 ohm to 300 ohm matching transformer (available at stores for a buck or two).The matching transformer has an output that is in the style of the old flat TV wire. All you need to do is attach one wire of this lead to one of the rabbit ears, and the other wire to the other rabbit ear.
Dinosaurs, barring a “Jurassic Park”-like genetic miracle, will never walk the Earth again.
Yet they seem to do just that in “Walking with the Dinosaurs: The Live Experience.” This arena show, reportedly headed for St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center, features full-sized dinosaur recreations that are part puppet, part robot.
Xcel Center representatives are playing coy on the timing for any local version of the show, which has garnered rave reviews in other U.S. cities. A formal announcement of some sort is scheduled for April 8.
But Twin Cities media outlets received a DVD with eye-popping footage of humans walking alongside giant reptiles in an unidentified arena.
See that video here (if you're subscribed to my podcast feed, it drops into your iTunes for syncing to your iPod). Here's a YouTube version (also embedded below). The "April 8" cited in the video clip refers to the press announcement, not when the live show would debut for the public at the Xcel.
The show features 15 dinosaurs in all, representing 10 species. Examples include carnivores such as the Allosaurus and the Tyrannosaurus Rex (with its wee baby) along with other favorites such as the Stegosaurus and the Anklyosaurus.
The show depicts the dinosaurs’ evolution and demise, complete with changes to the Earth’s surface and climate, in what is described as “almost cinematic realism.”
The dinosaurs are said to weigh about as much as a family sedan. They incorporate hundreds of feet of foam, fabric and hydraulic hose, running off about a dozen truck batteries with about two dozen microprocessors to regulate a half-dozen hydraulic motors. They move on rollerblade wheels and typically require three people — a driver and two puppeteers — to operate.
The dino tour, launched in July, will have hit about 60 cities in the United States, Canada and Mexico by the end of this year. It plays next in Pennsylvania before moving to Massachusetts, Texas, South Carolina, Nebraska and New Hampshire through late April.
The show, which had an earlier run in Australia, is based on an acclaimed BBC television series.
Sorry, Toshiba and Sony, but comparisons to the MacBook Air and iPod touch are inevitable.
Here's a combo PDF with my present and past coverage of the Mylo and MacBook Air (if you subscribe to my podcast feed, you get such documents dropped into iTunes automatically).
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