technology

May 28, 2008

There is no need to move, we are coming to you!: A Review of We Are Scientists’ Brain Thrust Mastery Album

By xgravity23 in guest posts, music 1 Comment

We Are Scientists: Brain Thrust Mastery album Cover

This, my husband’s fourth guest post, reviews the new We Are Scientists album, Brain Thrust Mastery. Rob’s passion for music amuses even the cats.

With their explosive debut record, With Love and Squalor, We Are Scientists took the world by storm in 2005. The debut was bristling with creativity and confidence that went right down into your feet. Even introverted people started singing along out loud while listening to it on their MP3 players on the subway.

Three years later, the Scientists are ready to prove to the world that they can do it again. Having gone through a lineup change, replacing drummer Michael Tapper with Adam Aaronson and adding keyboardist Max Hart, I was curious if and how that would affect the quality of the new record.

May 20, 2008

Twitter in the News: The Gettysburg Address, Twitpitches, and Twitstories

By xgravity23 in cool technology 2 Comments Tags: twitter

A couple weeks ago, I published a guest post on A Fool of Myself about Twitter, the micro-blogging site that is sweeping the web. Today, I came across several articles presenting unique uses of Twitter that I enjoyed reading about, and I hope you will too.

Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address Twitterized

Carter F. Smith at Kicking and Screaming asks if Lincoln could have delivered the Gettysburg Address (which is 271 words) on Twitter (which limits posts to 140 characters), what would it look like, an interesting, if not a bit silly, proposal. And so, Smith proposes Lincoln’s 140-character Gettysburg Address.

May 16, 2008

Diigo: Paper-and-pen Mark-up Meets Web 2.0

By xgravity23 in cool technology 4 Comments

Move over browser-based bookmarks! Make way, Del.icio.us! Diigo is here, and it’s changing the way people use and, in true Web 2.0 fashion, interact with the Internet.

Let’s start with a little history lesson.

Waay back in 1996, when Beth and I laughed to tears while trolling in chatrooms, when I created the “xgravity23″ nickname I still use today, the Internet was just gaining popularity. Internet Explorer and Netscape Navigator both offered users the ability to keep track of favorite sites via bookmarks. Unfortunately, bookmarks are only accessible from the computer you saved them on.

Along came del.icio.us: Suddenly, your favorite sites are with you wherever you go. In the end, unfortunately, del.icio.us is just a bookmarking site. You can tag and write a short note for each bookmark, but that is about the limit of interactivity between you and the sites you save.

Then there was Diigo

May 14, 2008

Let’s Spend Some Time, Love: A Review of Death Cab for Cutie’s Narrow Stairs

By xgravity23 in guest posts, music 4 Comments Tags: review

This, my husband’s third guest post, reviews the new Death Cab for Cutie album, Narrow Stairs. Rob’s passion for music stems from the many concerts he attended as a teenager living in a metropolis and his stint as a drummer in a alternative rock band.

The long awaited follow-up to Death Cab for Cutie’s great album Plans is finally here: Narrow Stairs hit the shelves this past Tuesday. Armed with high expectations and the patience a record like this deserves, I am more than ready to give Narrow Stairs a good listen.

“Bixby Canyon Bridge” opens the record and gives you what you know DCFC does best. Ben Gibbard serenades us with his soft voice over atmospheric guitars and scarce drums.

Ah: Death Cab for Cutie. This is what I put the money on the counter for.

May 13, 2008

Doodle 4 Google

By xgravity23 in cool technology 2 Comments Tags: Google Rocks

It is no surprise to readers of this blog that I love all things Google, so I really enjoyed reading about Google’s Doodle 4 Google competition on Lifestudent’s A Marathon Leap today. Take a few minutes to look at the creative entries, and be sure to read each artist’s brief written response to Google’s prompt, [...]

May 1, 2008

RSS is Really Simply–Try It Today!

By xgravity23 in cool technology 2 Comments Tags: rss

Today is RSS Awareness Day, and as a daily user of RSS feeds, I’ve got, né, want, to do my part! I love the convenience of RSS, and that convenience is behind every reason I love RSS feeds.

Easily Email Articles to Friends

Not a single day passes that I don’t come across an article that reminds me of someone. Some web pages provide an “Email this!” link, but then I have to go look up my friend’s email address. Google Reader, since it is linked to my Gmail account, auto-populates my friend’s email address after I have typed a few letters of their name, just like Gmail does.

Plus, I can send the article to as many people as I want (some sites only allow you to send the article to one person!) and include a note.

April 27, 2008

Hawaii Mountains Silhouetted by the Moon

By xgravity23 in science 3 Comments

Man, is this beautiful. Because the atmosphere is a bit thinner at 13,500 feet, space shines through more clearly. Maybe this is something that Rocky Mountain-dwellers are used to, but the Ozark “Mountains” I grew up in never afforded an image like this. Silhouetted mountains; a bright Moon and sparkling Venus; and clouds, lit up by the moonlight, make for a breath-taking image, even when viewed on a computer screen. I can only imagine how beautiful it must have been in person.

(Frayed Laces, maybe you can tell us!)

April 25, 2008

Twitter Saves

By xgravity23 in cool technology No Comments

On Monday, I told you about Twitter, how I use it for advertising this blog and interacting with Facebook. Today, Charity forwarded me a CNN story about James Karl Buck, an American journalism student who sent a one-word tweet—”Arrested”—when he was arrested while covering a protest in his adopted home, Egypt. That tweet alerted his friends to his fate and set in motion his release, thus proving that Twitter has some serious uses, other than telling the world what you’re doing, marketing your blog, and updating your Facebook status.

April 21, 2008

Twitter Guest Post on A Fool of Myself

By xgravity23 in cool technology, guest posts 3 Comments

Let me share a little email I got from Sarah:

Hey, how would you feel about doing a guest post about Twitter? I’m thinking about jumping on board…convince me!

And here was my response:

Sure!

Actually, my true response what much more detailed, as I was unsure of whether I should write the post. By the end of my email, though, I had convinced myself (and hopefully Sarah!) that I was ready to write it, but that it would not be much like any other other posts I’ve read about Twitter.

So, without further ado, you can read my first guest post on Sarah’s blog, A Fool of Myself.

April 20, 2008

A Marathon of a Different Kind

By xgravity23 in science No Comments

Messier Objects

A couple weeks ago, I announced my bid for the upcoming Berlin Marathon, and yesterday, NASA’s Astronomy Picture of the Day featured a marathon of a different kind.

In the 1800s, Charles Messier, a French astronomer, dedicated much of his time cataloging objects in the sky that he and other comet hunters might incorrectly identify as comets. Most of these items were deep sky objects, like nebulae and galaxies. He cataloged 103 objects in the sky, and this astronomical marathon challenges amateur astronomers to view all 110 Messier objects (7 were added to Messier’s list).