Addicted to Placebos

If I was ever going to find “God”…

Marci — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 23:03:45 +0000

…s/he would be living in this cup.

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*sniffle*

It’s….beautiful.

Consider yourself warned.

Marci — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 11:18:13 +0000

Consider yourself warned., originally uploaded by Marci Maleski.

Rethinking the new iPhone.

Marci — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 03:20:37 +0000

AT&T finally announced their plans for the new iPhone and the news is not so good. I did anticipate the ten dollar increase for the data plan and was willing to pay it for the increased speed of the 3G network. What I’m still trying to figure out is where AT&T has discovered that SMS messages are no longer data. The previous plan for the first gen iPhone included 200 text messages. Now, since SMS ones and zeroes are apparently different from the data ones and zeroes, you get to pay another five dollars for those same 200 messages.

The score now is a total of fifteen bucks for them and nothing really added for me.

I used 872 text messages during my last billing cycle. If were to continue at that rate, I would have to increase my allowance to the 1500 plan - fifteen bucks. So, now we’re looking at twenty-five dollars total more each month. Three hundred extra dollars a year for the same service I have now. Granted, the AT&T subsidy of the phone makes up for that if you look at the lifetime cost but I just feel like the new plan nickel and dimes users.

I know that I’ll end up with a new iPhone, even after all of this. I’ll have to change my Twittering-via-SMS ways and stick with Hahlo. I should then have no problem with the 200 message plan. I’ll still be paying fifteen bucks more each month and I’ll still be grumbling about it but I’ll also have the added speed, more storage on the device and GPS. I don’t travel to make use of GPS in traditional ways but I think that there will be some very interesting location-based apps coming down the road and having my photos geo-tagged will be kind of nice.

So yeah…all whine, no spine.

And it’s still running…

Marci — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 23:29:01 +0000

And it’s still running…, originally uploaded by Marci Maleski.

Running Memtest on new RAM

Marci — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 22:16:56 +0000

Running Memtest on new RAM, originally uploaded by Marci Maleski.

100 Classical Pieces for 5.99

Marci — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 02:30:35 +0000

Got to give the credit for this one to Scott Kleinberg over at the Chicago Tribune. Heck, I’ll even throw in an Eat n Park smiley cookie!

While I usually like to point you toward free music, I think six cents a track is close enough. iTunes has a CD available that compiles 100 of what they call essential classical pieces. In other words, even if you don’t like classical music, you will probably recognize more than a few of them. And if nothing else, it’s a treasure trove of ringtones.

The operative word here is “pieces” - you’re not getting full recordings. Instead, it’s more of a sampler. That’s OK, really. Saying that a movement of a symphony cannot stand on it’s own is kind of like saying you can’t just listen to “Love, Reign o’er Me” from the Who’s Quadrophenia.

The direct link is here. (Will launch in iTunes.) And if you’re like me and awaiting iPhone news, make sure to stop by Scott’s blog: iPhone, Therefore I Blog.

Monday morning smile

Marci — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 12:28:43 +0000

Monday morning smile, originally uploaded by Marci Maleski.

My own Loch Ness monster

Marci — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 02:14:54 +0000

The blurry creature in the photo is a peacock eel. It lives in my fish tank. Tonight was the first time I saw it in several months.

I really had assumed it was dead. There had been a second eel in the tank but it had jumped out one night while I slept. By the time I found it, it was jerky. I really thought that a similar fate had befallen this one. It jumped out, Beau found it and had a sushi snack. Instead, it seems there is a portal to another dimension somewhere in my aquarium.

I guess this explains the disappearing baby fish, huh?

Web apps are great productivity tools.

Marci — Sun, 29 Jun 2008 03:26:16 +0000

Marci Lisa, originally uploaded by Marci Maleski.

Well, usually.

Sometimes, they’re just incredibly fun toys. Cameroid is one of those. The site allows you to take snapshots using your webcam and immediately apply filters, scenes or frames. Once saved, you can add them to Cameroid’s public gallery, send links to the photos or download them as JPGs.

I uploaded the rest of my pictures to my photostream at Flickr. I think they’re pretty funny but then again, I’m on my second beer.

Evernote - this is your brain on steroids.

Marci — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 23:40:42 +0000

Saying that I love Evernote is like saying I love oxygen.

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There are an increasing number of times that I find my mind to be simultaneously everywhere and nowhere at all. I have mounted a dry erase board on my front door with a checklist - coffee, lunch, phone. I have left the house without one or another of these items on far too many occasions. For me, Evernote has become an invaluable tool. And, scatter-brained or not, it’s a fantastic way to store and organize notes.

You may be thinking that you can do all of that with any number of task list apps. But part of the power of Evernote is its OCR capabilities. Take a photo of a street sign or upload a photo of a cool saying on a t-shirt. Once it hits Evernote’s servers and is cataloged, you can simply search your notebook by text. Type in “stupid” and up pops that great Bush tee you saw. Upload scans of your receipts to organize your spending. It’s really limitless - check out this blog post to see how other people are using the service. And from Evernote’s own suggestions:

* Create new notes using desktop, web, and mobile versions of Evernote
* Take a snapshot using your camera phone or webcam. We’ll even recognize the text in the image.
* Clip entire webpages, screenshots, and just about anything else you can copy
* Drag and drop content into the desktop clients for Mac and Windows
* Email notes directly into your account using your personalized email address
* Scan receipts, recipes, tags, brochures, and anything else into Evernote
* Record audio wherever you are and listen to it whenever you want

Evernote is cross-platform, so the info you clip on your Mac at home will be on the PC at work. You can get it from your mobile device and everything syncs within moments. The basic service is free. Zero dollars buys you 40MB of monthly storage, each month. That’s 480 MB/year. Not too shabby - think 4800 mobile pics. They have recently introduced a premium subscription at $45US per year that increases your monthly allowance to 500MB. Either membership option gives you access to the all of the available tools, desktop or web.

It’s your brain - everywhere you need it.