Words cannot describe…
How awesome this is….
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Ashley interviewed for the OC Register!
Ashley was recently interviewed for the OC Register to talk about her work for the Big Brothers Big Sister organization she volunteers for. Her little sister’s name is Jasmine, and their article was just posted here.
BTW, the reason she’s in a cow costume is because they met up for Halloween:
I’m so proud of her for doing this program!
Dying CMU Professor gives his last lecture
Saw this through digg today, excerpts from a bittersweet but inspiring lecture by a Computer Science professor at Carnegie Mellon University:
I watched the entire lecture, which is available in a few places. It is worth it if you have the time (about an hour and a half):
Photosynth Technology Preview
I meant to post about our recent trip to Breckenridge, but I’ve gotta talk about this. Microsoft isn’t the slow technology giant it once was and this a perfect example of some of the research they’re bringing to the public. Photosynth can take collections of photos (of, say, like a famous landmark) and map the photos out in 3D space for you. The best part is the interface is smoothly animated and intuitive. Check it out:
If you’re using Firefox, you may get a “installing” page and not much else. This is because you have to allow labs.live.com to be a trusted publisher that you can install software from. There should be a yellow bar near the top of the page, telling you that the software was blocked. Click on the button on the right, and put labs.live.com in the “Allow” list. Then refresh the page.
Fun at the DMV
Most people really care about how their driver’s license photo looks. They stress and try really hard to have a good picture. You can just see everyone in line, sort of tense ’cause they don’t want a bad photo. Yet with all that effort, the picture comes out horrible anyway.
But what happens when you go into the DMV trying to take a bad picture? Hilarity ensues.
Part 1:
Part 2:
If you didn’t find that pants-wettingly funny, you’re not drinking the lmaonade.
I hate mix tapes
Ipods and other digital music players are great, because they bring your music collection to the digital age. But they’ll never kill radio, as some people suggest. Why? Because people, like me, are lazy.
We want others to tell us what’s new or what’s good, so don’t have to always make mixes and playlists or constantly fiddle with our music players to find a good song. I would rather listen to a station that plays the kind of genre I like and have them decide what makes a good mix. That’s where radio comes in. However traditional radio has always been ad-infested and too mainstream, sticking to the 80-20 rule like white on rice.
Things are starting to change, though. Services like XM and Sirius have been great, and one could call them the next logical step in the evolution of radio. You can now listen to niche stations that would have never made it to traditional “mainstream” broadcast, thereby starting to break the 80-20 rule. However, the 80-20 hasn’t been eliminated, it’s been merely shifted down to individual stations. Go find the 80’s radio station, and you’ll find that the station will still play the more “popular” 80’s tracks.
What if you controlled exactly what kind of music you wanted to listen to? Internet radio, which used to just be like satellite radio, is starting to harness the social part of the net. Free services like Pandora and Last.fm let you provide artists or songs you like and they will compile a personalized playlist just for you, by analyzing the characteristics of your preferred music and by what other people with similar tastes are listening to. On Last.fm, you can even mark other users as friends and it’ll keep track of what they are listening to! It just doesn’t get any better than that, people. Go check them out:
Afternoon YouTubin’
Ahhh, nothing like a crazy man dancing at Best Buy. He just keeps getting better and better!
‘Studio 60′ Christmas Song available for free
So, I know I haven’t posted in a while, and I really should be posting about life updates, but AOL is in layoff mode today and I thought I’d share this mp3 link.
If you don’t watch NBC’s Studio 60 On The Sunset Strip, you should. It’s a great show, great dialogue and meaningful plot-lines. Anyway, in their last (Christmas episode) before going on break was a rendition of ‘O Holy Night’ by some Hurricane Katrina survivors. It turns out that the characters on the show were played by actual musicians who survived Katrina and NBC coordinated with the Tiptina’s Foundation to get the performance on the show. Well, the awesome rendition is available for free from NBC. Get it while it’s hot!
Creative Advertising
I’ve always had a soft spot for creative advertising. If it’s clever enough, it deserves a look. Anyway, check out this Flickr slideshow of some creative advertising.
I love the Body Odor one!!