An imaginary place in a reactionary time
This was seen driving through the intersection of Blue Island and 18th. On Tuesday morning.
No, it’s not the Google Autonomous Car, and it’s not their mapping car. You have no idea how low rent this thing really looked because the photo is form my iPhone. It’s just tacky looking raw sheet metal. Any ideas?
First off, thanks and double thanks to Brian Urbanik for the device. Brian gave up on this thing a long time ago, and even told me “I wouldn’t give it away, it’s that frustrating.”
Second off, Brian was right. The Nokia N770 sucks. It really blows. Every square inch of it’s almost perfect for me form factor screams wasted potential. Without going into details, because I do want to take the time to properly eviscerate it later, it’s slow, buggy and has an awful user interface. It made me, a confirmed Linux lover hate Linux.
If your looking for a PDA/PIM, forget it. It doesn’t sync to anything. If your looking for a Internet device, forget it. It can take minutes for it to fire up a browser, and more time to pull down a page.
In it’s defense, it’s a older device, dating back to 2005. They no longer develop for it, or update it’s software. It’s been replaced by the n800, which was replaced by the N810 which has a built in keyboard. But skimming reviews last night indicated they’re pretty much the same. I did upgrade the software to a hacked version of the 2007 software, which is slightly more responsive. But frankly, the only thing this device does well is emulate my dead Palm Tungsten.
More later…
I thought I’d jump on the hype train for friday’s iPhone 3G release with a post about some good cases that will work for said phone. It’s also a ramp up for my birthday wishlist, since I can find uses for these even though I don’t have an iPhone. Big duh, they’ll also work for your iPod Touch. All these cases will fit on your belt, and should work on a handbag strap or backpack strap as well.
TAD Gear has 2 cases, the vertical carry ICOMM ($16.95) and the horizontal carry BC8, ($13.95) which is also designed to carry 8 AA batteries in a holder. The ICOMM has more padding, and extra velcro straps for more carrying and attaching options. Both comes in a variety of earth tones and black, the coyote colored BC8 is on sale ($7.67). They’ll work with all MOLLE/PALS gear too. $6.50 s/h.
CountyComm has the vertical iPhone Carry Case ($10) and the horizontal PCC, ($7) which resembles the BC8 above (get the large). Any color you want so long as it’s black. $8 s/h.
But first, a message from Nostalgia…
Over 30 years ago I got my first digital watch. This was a big deal at the time, they were still relatively new, They were all the rage and everyone, nerd and commoner alike, had to have one, kind of like the iPhone or GPS in 2008.
Owning a digital watch lead to all sorts of day dreams ranging from two way wrist TVs ala Dick Tracey to wrist computers. But this being the 70s, and the peak of nutty Amerikan fads, I kept thinking about an LCD mood watch. My daydream watch would tell people in plain English how I felt, and would be readable in broad daylight. I never could figure out a goof proof mechanism to make it read my mood, since even now most bio sensors aren’t good enough to tell pissed off from horny (and PETs don’t fit into a watch case-yet-but they would let you read other peoples moods). So like most daydreams it faded.
Which brings us the the present. Internet time, and internet culture. The broken watch on my wrist has hands, most people wouldn’t be caught dead wearing a digital watch. And we have new ways to express our emotions, especially online: emoticons. They were invented to remove ambiguity in email text, and have since spread to IM, the Web and Twitter. They let readers know when your joking, playfull, angry or pissed off. We all know the basic emoticons, right 
Former Pilsen resident, international man of mystery and one time chewtoy of the gods, John Unger (and company) have produced something akin to my old day dream, but melded to contemporary style and culture. The Emoodicon ring. It’s an emoticon mood ring. First off, it’s a nifty stainless steal ring with a removable bezel, instead of an impractical LCD screen. Secondly, you replace the Emoodicons by hand, removing the need for complex invasive biosensors and batteries. Fourthly, you choose the message you share with the world, so you can put a smiley face on it even if your crying inside, or vice versa if your Goth. Fifthly, it’s cute: there are two sets of Emoodicons currently available, Kitteh and Bleep each a cute graphical interpretation of a emoticon with kitten or robot theme respectively. Finally, it’ll get you noticed by glitterati and technorati alike, and not in a “Who’s the nerd with all the wires hanging off his wrist” way. They’re even having a contest to design the next set of Emoodicons, and I believe plans are afoot for a blank set. It’s the 21st century, and it fits the post modern, post ironic lifestyle perfectly. Unless your an aging boomer nerd who wants a wrist mounted positron emission tomography unit to read your friends moods (and minds). So go check it out.
It’s LEGO’s 50th anniversary.
I’m not the only one who noticed
FInd your local LEGO store here, the Chicago store is on Boul Mich:
The LEGO® Store
Chicago, IL, USA
520 North Michigan Avenue, 3rd Floor
Chicago, IL 60611
USA
Phone: (312) 494-0760
Fax: (312) 494-0764
(and contact me for contributing to the Nathan Stoltz Future LEGO Fund, he’s not quite old enough yet.)
Here he is railing against the iPhone. Courtesy of Hell’s Donut House (see sidebar for link, I’m too tired for linking right now).
The other night I saw a Hybrid taxi zipping around Pilsen. Actually saw it twice. So I started to pay attention to the make and models of the cabs, and discovered they aren’t all Crown Victorias. Neither are all the cop cars in Chicago. Some Impalas and Intrepids creeping into the fleets. Then I found an article in my newsreader about how the Crown Vic sales were tanking (fleet and consumer) and 2008 sales were to be fleet only, no consumer sales. (an article which I have sadly lost) Finally. I hate those oversize gas guzzlers, they’re a throwback to the dinosaurs.
(with apologies tot he late great photographer W. Eugene Smith for the paraphrase)
It’s called name jewelry, commodity fetishism, and gadget lust.
It’s one of the greatest cameras of all time. It too is a time machine. And here’s an article fromt he New Yorker that names all the names and does the job properly of hailing the small Camera That Just Worked. The M series Leica:
I recently found a picture of Winogrand’s M4. The metal is not just rubbed but visibly worn down beside the wind-on lever; you have to shoot a heck of a lot of photographs on a Leica before that happens. Still, his M4 is in mint condition compared with the M2 owned by Bruce Davidson, the American photographer whose work constitutes, among other things, an invaluable record of the civil-rights movement. And even his M2, pitted and peeled like the bark of a tree, is pristine compared with the Leica I saw in the display case at the Leica factory in Solms. That model had been in the Hindenburg when it went up in flames in New Jersey in 1937. The heat was so intense that the front of the lenses melted. So now you know: Leica engineers test their product to the limits, and they will customize it for you if you are planning a trip to the Arctic, but when you really want to trash your precious camera you need an exploding airship.
Interview with Gary Winogrand, and his camera, mentioned in the New Yorker article. Henry Cartier Bresson and his Leica. Self portrait of Lee Friedlander. The middle camera here is the melted leica from the Hindenburg wreckage, the large Leica on the left is Mark Meyer’s SL-2 MOT, lost while bailing out of a jet. It was found on the ground by a hiker months later, easily repaired and shot with till Meyer’s death.
(and no, I haven’t forgotten the other time machine article…)
(UPDATED)
I have been fascinated by lock picking since i was a child, partly as a result of being raised by my grandmother on a steady diet of old PI, cop, Noir, and suspense movies and tv shows. I love watching locksmiths work. I have made, improvised and used my own picks (although no where as cool as Don DeRuiter’s tools). So the news that Medeco high security locks had been bypassed both by bump key and by a screw driver with shim technique took me by surprise. These are the famously un-pickable locks of the last 30 years, and some of the most finicky locks in general. I had two jobs were being issued bad keys to these locks or possibly damage from repeated attempts from others to pick them were the bane of my existence. I’ve never even tried to pick them since the literature says it can’t be done, short of drilling them out. Here’s the article, and make sure you watch the 13 year old girl bump one in the video: White House High-Security Locks Broken: Bumped and Picked at DefCon
(I just recieved an email correction: Jennalynn just turned 12. That is just so freaking awesome…)
Disclaimer: I have never used picks to gain entrance to anyplace I didn’t already have keys for and have legal right to be in: to date i have used picks on one of my apartments, my parents home, and my cars–since I no longer have any of these things I no longer make or carry picks. Hell, I don’t even carry all the keys I’m entitled to carry anymore. Weighs too much and takes up too much space in the bag.
OhMiBod is a vibrator that connects to your iPod. They also have a version for the Razr. The return of the Klingon Battle Dildo. Hilarious. Check out the video.Doesn’t work your Shuffle. At $69 you could get a drawer full of easy to clean silicon ones, and use them with your iPod.
