The Nike Air Max Lineup
My recent lineup of Nike Air Max kicks. AM90 with Engineered Mesh (Beaches of Rio and Tianjin) and Air Max 1 Essentials, but not all of them made it into my rotation.
When You Need Stronger Peepers
When you need to augment your peepers with something a little stronger – Nikon 8245 ACULON A211 8 x 42 Binocular (Black)
Google Street View Trekker Hits Hawaii
The popular Google Maps service has a simple goal – to make the perfect map. With views from space to views on the street level to views underwater, you gotta be passionate, dedicated, and just a little bit crazy to get the “perfect map.” And that’s what the team at Google Maps is, a little bit crazy (crazy good, not crazy bad). From a car to a trike to a trolley to a snowmobile and now a wearable backpack version of the Street View Trekker, their passion for the perfect map is crazy.
Partnering with the Hawaii Visitors and Convention Bureau (HVCB), Google launched its third party Street View Trekker program. If your organization has amazing visual stories to tell, you can now apply to borrow a Trekker to capture your geographic stories. For the Hawaiian islands, the Big Island will be first to get mapped by Hawaii Forest & Trail whose focus is on popular Hawaii trails.
So what’s the Google Street View Trekker like? Well, it’s like this.
The backpack version is about 40 pounds heavy (with the batteries) holding a ruggedized rig of 15 cameras. Taking pictures every 2.5 seconds to compose a 360-degree view of the surroundings, you’d think this high tech gear is fragile. Not in the least. Constructed to take a fall, this rig is tough and is designed to be exposed to the elements. It raises your profile about 18 inches and along with its weight, your body’s center of mass is significantly altered. You have to be a little bit crazy to take this on a hike! I felt like I’d topple over with every turn, and you can’t lean over otherwise you’d surely topple over. A strong back and strong legs are definitely recommended.
How much does this backpack Trekker cost? A million dollars? Probably not. Buku bucks? For sure, and Google is letting you borrow it. Supposedly it has no comms although I find that highly unlikely since Google has the ability to remotely update and troubleshoot the packs. Images are stored on media cards which are then sent back to Google for processing. The cleaning and stitching of all the images could takes months before they’re live on Street View.
Street View collections recorded with this Trekker should be available in September and who knows, soon enough you may see this Trekker pack roaming the scenery of Oahu.
More pictures from today’s announcement.
Thanks to Nathan Kam for this invitation.
Digg Rises
After reading Wired’s exclusive coverage of the upcoming Digg RSS Reader, I’m intrigued. Besides the challenges of shipping in a short time window, who knew the complexities of RSS aggregation? Well, actually Digg has a lot more planned that goes beyond RSS.
After reading about the possible integration with other Betawork products, you can see where Digg can become relevant once again. While the Digg RSS reader is still only selectively available, you can get a taste of this Google Reader replacement via the Digg iOS app. The latest version of the app includes the reader function alongside the Digg Top Stories. But keep in mind that the RSS service is still in development so you might encounter an error or two.
Starbucks Prices Increased
I haven’t stopped by a Starbucks for a few days so I haven’t experienced the price increase. But if you’re wondering whether the prices seem different, apparently they’re 1% more.
Call It a Comeback
Sorry, LL Cool J, but this indeed is a comeback with Twinkies returning to the shelves in mid-July. Heck, even the boxes will be emblazoned with the phrase:
The Sweetest Comeback In The History Of Ever
So go ahead and indulge on those Twinkies you stockpiled. Don’t worry about that 45-day expiration window – still good, especially when stirring coffee.
What Happened to the Dried Cherries?
Seems like both Costco and Sam’s Club both stopped carrying tart dried cherries. These are a good addition to morning oatmeal, but I haven’t seen them in months. Let’s see how these Stoneridge Orchards Whole Dried Tart Montmorency Cherries
Testing Embedding Instagram Videos
With some work, it is possible to embed Instagram videos outside of the Instagram service.
Download video: MP4 format
Using the Embed.ly method seems easier and offers analytics, but for testing purposes, this is just fine. I think our microwave oven needs to be rebalanced, and that’s just 15 seconds of your life that you ain’t getting back. 😉
Buttery Coffee, Yum
Adding butter to coffee? Say what? And it could be beneficial to your health? Feel more energetic and lose weight by downing buttered coffee?
Sounds too good to be true.
I’m Getting a Trenta
Assuming the Trenta size still exists, I’m gonna get a Trenta-sized drink from Starbucks before they put up their new menus showing calories. Yeah, I know the nutritional information is already available online or via the Starbucks app, but seeing the calories right in front of you is more sobering.
Trenta up!
Scratch Magic Draw
Fun for ages 5 to 95. Acid and lignin free. Make sure you get the “boards” versus the sheets. Lots of complaints that the sheets are just too thin, making them easy to mar simply by handling them.
Buy the Scratch Art Magic Draw
Making the Sony HT-CT260 Sound Bar Work with Oceanic Cable
My pops wanted better sound to match his HDTV broadcasts from Oceanic Cable. But when The Wire Cutter says no to home theaters in a box and endorses Sony’s HT-CT260 sound bar then you heed their researched advice. Unfortunately, the CT260 was out of stock at Amazon.com. Fortunately, Best Buys in Hawaii just received their shipment, and the regular price is the same as Amazon’s. So there we have it, an instant Father’s Day gift.
Now the setup… The Wire Cutter is correct. Setting up the sound bar was easy since the subwoofer is wireless. Configuring the sound bar to work with the television and cable box was another ordeal. The Oceanic provided Scientific Atlanta cable box has a digital optical out that connects to the Sony sound bar, but sound is still sent to the other outputs as well. This causes problems with the television’s audio. With the sound bar in play, I don’t want sound coming through the tinny television speakers. The television’s volume needs to stay at 0 while volume control needs to go to the sound bar and not the television.
The solution is two-fold. Configure the cable remote to control the sound bar and change the channel volume lock. On the remote, I configured the AUD button to control the sound bar. I believe the Sony code for the CT260 is 1759. If you can power on/off the sound bar and control the volume from the cable remote then you got it right.
Next, remap the remote’s audio controls from the television to the sound bar. That’s the function of the channel volume lock. Follow the instructions for “Locking Volume Control to One Mode.” When you change the volume, the remote changes control to the AUD configured device. When changing channels, the remote switches back to TV (or CBL). And that’s what we want – audio exclusively through the sound bar and one remote to control it all (television, cable box, sound bar).