I’ve always thought that the yellow line used in football games was very cool technology. If you know a little about technology, programming, etc. it makes it even more amazing because the engineering that goes into something like this is incredible! Randomly came across this video that explains how they do it… Enjoy…

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Microsoft actually has some very cool research and development projects:

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This is why Apple rules …. Bought a 1TB (that’s “Terrabyte” for the uninformed — as in 1000GB) Time Capsule — which is basically a wireless network hub along with a hard drive. The cool thing is that this completely integrates with Time Machine, Apple’s answer to backing up your computer. With a single device you can wirelessly backup all of the computers in your house. Sweet!

You don’t have to configure a driver, or know anything about networks or computers … You just plug it in and it works.

This is why Apple is changing the technology game. Personally I do know how to configure networks, PCs, and all that stuff — I just don’t want to waste my time doing that crap! I want to plug something in and have it work.

Time Machine worked like a champ — I setup the Capsule and then started up Time Machine and chose the Time Capsule as the drive to backup to. It started the backup process and over the course of the night (the first backup can take a while depending on how much stuff you have on your computer) it backed up everything. It backs up incrementally after that — every hour, then daily, then weekly. So, not only do you have a copy of something if you delete it, you have the different versions of documents if you have made changes to them but then later realize that you have screwed up.

Excuse the geek post, but I was getting called out for not posting recently … I have other things to post on, but have to upload photos / video / etc. so that will come in a few days!

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I’m sitting in the T.G.I. Fridays’s in the Indianapolis airport working away… I started out this morning on a 7:20am flight out of Bush Intercontinental. So, I was up at some ungodly hour that I don’t want to even think about. After a connection in Detroit, I am now in Indianapolis waiting on John to get here so that we can head up to West Lafayette (where Purdue is) for the Mid-Continent conference camp.

Why the crazy flight times? Because I am trying to save money on camps and I flew on miles. Northwest miles. And there weren’t that many choices of flights, so these were the only ones that would get me here. John gets here tonight around 7pm, so at least I have access to “the internets” and a nice quiet place to work. Well, quiet if you are able to tune out I can’t get enough of your love and other lyrics that endlessly repeat in the background.

Anyway, after all of that travel, I really couldn’t figure out what timezone I was in. I thought central, but wasn’t sure — I knew that Detroit was eastern – but wasn’t sure about Indianapolis. I was going to ask the waitress the next time she passed by, just so that I could be sure of the time. Instead, while I was waiting, I just typed “indianapolis time” into Google.

This is why Google just rocks — the information that I want right at the top of the page, “according to Google”.

Nice.

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The News.com article “Driven to distraction by technology” rang home with me. Between email, instant messaging, texting, and my BlackBerry (or “crackberry” as some call it, an indication of it’s addictive qualities!), I am pretty connected. In fact, just flying back and forth to California this week was strange as I was “disconnected” for four hours at a time! GASP!

Many people nowadays expect an immediate response. I cannot tell you how often I have had someone email me, only to call within an hour just because I have not yet replied. Most work, especially programming for me, requires a good deal of concentation. Two or three hours of uninterrupted productivity can easily equal an entire eight-hour day of “work” when that work is constantly interrupted with emails, phone calls, etc.

One of the best things that I did a few years ago was turn off the “new mail notifier” in Outlook. Now when an email comes in I do not hear a beep, see a message, or even an icon in the system tray. Nothing happens. My new emails just sit there until I decide to check them. When I really want to get work done, I might hit the “do not disturb” button on my phone and turn my cell phone to “quiet” mode as well.

This can apply to social events as well. Sometimes when Carrie and I go to dinner I’ll leave the BlackBerry in the car – just to be unaccessible for an hour or two. Unless you happen to be on-call for work, there is not very much in life that won’t wait that long for you to respond to it – and the peace and quiet of an uninterrupted visit with a friend or loved one is worth it.

So, turn off that email notifier, shut down instant messenger, and turn off your cell phone. Instead get some really creative work done, or spend some time with someone important to you, or just read a book. You’ll thank yourself.

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