Author: Tommy

First of all, check out this guy's adoration for this 60 Minutes segment over how badly geeks are in need.

I watch pieces like this and really wonder how long we'll be stuck in a society full of ludites. Seriously, how hard is it? There's not alot of variance among electronic items today. It might take a moment to inspect the product, understand it's uses and connections. After that it's just plugging it in. Things are so color coded and on-the-device labeled, it's not that hard.

I especially liked the bit about the NYC school teacher than spent a long time trying to hook up his new HDTV. Really? HDTV hookup? Things are labeled. Theres one input for the TV signal, one for the DVD or other video device. What could you get stuck on?

The guy with the Ph.D. that said "I have an engineering degree from MIT and I couldn't figure it out", really got to me. What could that possibly have to do with anything. Judging from his looks his undergrad was probably done when Roosevelt was president. Furthermore, what does it matter that he was an engineer? (Especially if you learned on vacuum tube technology!)

It still bothers me that people bank on their laurels of a college degree to show infinitely complicated something must be to figure out. "If I can't, than surely a person without a degree can't." AT this point, I'll remind my readers that I still don't have a bachelor's, and I can't think of any problems I've encountered with new products. I can't say that anything I've learned in any of my classes has helped me hook up and use consumer devices. (If anything I have a better understanding of how little bearing college has on "real life".
Grimlen and I hooked up my mom's HDTV on Christmas day without looking at the manual and we're not even Geek Squad employees! Go figure.

Well the presents have all been opened (mostly) and the trash is all bagged up. Gifts lay on the coffee table and piled around various rooms of the house - it's that cool time of the year I like to think of as Christmas Afterglow. It's not quite New Years and you have so many new toys you haven't even been able to play with them all yet.

Like when you grew up and ran outside to check out what Santa brought your friends, I'll ask the question, "So what did you get?"

What I got:

8Gb black iPod Nano
    - universal dock
    - iPod armband
    - JVC iPod Car Stereo Dock

Nike Air Pegasus 2007
    - Nike+ iPod adapter

Stihl Farm Boss Chainsaw

Crest rechargable electric SpinBrush

Smith's Jiff V knife-sharpener

Burt's Bees cologne + Old Spice cologne

some cash money and a Best Buy gift card

update: Grimlen got me the "perfect gift", as the box describes it. An imported "gem tree".

Tell us about your Christmas loot in the comments.

It's probably a bit too late to order one as a Christmas gift, but it's still a cool idea nonetheless. The website is OneShare.com and they sell single shares of a stock along with the certificate of ownership (something that you usually must pay extra for after you purchase the stock.)

Granted, you can't choose from just any stock (i.e. GOOG, AMD - which is a bargain right now), but there's a healthy selection of some of the more popular brand-names available. It's a neat idea, especially for someone that may be a big fan of a company. If I had thought of it sooner there are a couple of people I would have considering a certificate for.

It's a neat idea and thought I'd pass it along. If you know of any similar websites (preferably ones that are maybe more flexible in their stock offerings) please share.

update: Oh yeah, there's also GiveAShare.com which does have Google stock for sale, but it's rediculously priced.

After reading about them for several months and an overall curiosity in the subject, I have finally purchased some honey bees. (thus adding to my collection of rather disjointed interests.)

Rather than bore you with all the details, in short, I began reading and studying beekeeping for the past few months and found them truly fascinating. There's still alot that is unknown about the honey bee, but their behavior has been documented for centuries. Most recently is the plague of the mysterious CCD (colony collapse disorder). To help fight this, Burt's Bees is giving away free wildflower seed so you can aid the dwindling honey bee population. To read more on the art/science of beekeeping, here's the link to the Beekeeping article on Wikipedia.

For some pictures of my setup and me in a goofy hat, I've created a thread in the forums. I'll probably post future pictures in the forums, and post any updates to the project here on the main page.

update: Pictures are here.

I was rolling the idea around in my head how I'd do it (database structure, features, etc.), but I was considering making a Christmas wishlist that you could log into and edit/update, etc.Sure, Amazon does wishlists, but you can only link to items sold on Amazon, what if I want something they don't carry? Yeah, how about that? So, as all real programmers do, I started coding before I had a finished concept. I didn't get too far into it before I got distracted and hassled with schoolwork.

So, I stalled out. One day, whilst on Digg, I came across this lovely site: wishlistr.com. I guess they're trying to stay with the whole Web2.0 naming convention wherein you drop the "e" from an "-er" name, ala Flickr. Anywho, the site does just what I was planning to do. You create an account and start in on your list, you can reorder the list and add/remove as you wish. (here's my list)

One notion that I'm not sure if they captured is to scan the users' URL, if it links to Amazon or some other site that gives referral bonuses (like 10% of the sale), then pass the user through your referral link transparently, therein resulting in a nice pull for your time/effort. That's the only thing lacking in their design, that and no ability to include a thumbnail of the item on your list. Otherwise it's a solid site, wish I'd thought of it sooner ...or is it spelled "soonr"?