From the department of ‘I never knew I’d really need that’ comes the latest Google Chrome update that makes it dead simple to translate a Web page from many different languages into your native one.
I hadn’t realized how many Web sites I’d been missing out on until this update rolled through. Then I found myself browsing Web sites in Polish, Chinese, and other languages I have no idea how to read. Surprised it took this long for a browser to natively support a translation API.
Many young companies will leverage their founder’s or team’s personal brands to catapult the company’s brand. They’ll attempt to “get the word out” about the company’s product using the networks of their own team. They’ll try to mold the message of the company using their own voices rather than the company’s collective one. If you do it right, though, this catapulting process only lasts so long.
In the beginning your actions to help the company build its brand, or simply spread the word about something, may have a sizable impact. But as you continue you will notice your actions having a less and less of an impact. Sure, the metrics may stay the same (ie. the number of people you’re able to make aware of something) but it will be less noticeable than before.
This is a good thing. It means the company is growing up.
This should come as no surprise to those of you that follow me on Twitter but I’ve switched from Tweetie for Mac, which hasn’t seen an update for months, to the oft updated Echofon.
Tweetie for Mac still has a few standout features that draw me to using it – but any software that runs on a public social service that isn’t updated in months tends to fall behind rather quickly. Echofon keeps up.
Last night while watching the Oscars I saw this iPad commercial, which Engadget has shared, and I immediately thought it was too fast. I have seen the Keynote announcing the iPad and have poured over its features on the Web site – so I’m pretty familiar with what the iPad will do out of the box – yet I find this commercial too fast to really keep up with. If someone saw this having never seen much about the iPad then I’m wondering if they’d be left wondering what it was. But, perhaps that is the point?
Am I alone?
Recently Eliza and I signed up for Netflix. Ever since moving into our new apartment I haven’t had the Xbox 360 connected to the Internet because of the location of my cable modem/router and because the Xbox 360 does not come Wifi-enabled by default.
This hasn’t been too much of an issue since I haven’t been playing any games using the Xbox 360 (we’ve been playing a lot more Wii though) and haven’t needed any of the Live features. But, Netflix has an Xbox 360 application that makes it simple to stream any movies directly to your TV in HD. Daddy wants.
I didn’t want to spend the money for the “dongle” or whatever it is to give the Xbox 360 Wifi capability so I was very pleased when I came across Alex King’s blog post about using the Airport Express to provide a wired connection. I already have an Airport Express that I use for Airtunes to my surround sound set up which is right next to the Xbox 360. I’ve had Alex’s tutorial ’starred’ in Google Reader for weeks and today I finally took the time to get it set up.
It works great. (And the Airtunes capability remains.)
Alex links to an Apple Support article that, inexplicably, isn’t complete. Where the article lacks Alex provides some tips so be sure to read both the support article and his blog post in full before you begin to help alleviate any headaches.
The earthquake, which had an epicenter just offshore in Maule, Chile, has sent tsunami warnings across the entire Pacific region including Hawai’i, New Zealand, Australia, Japan, and many other countries.
(more if I find any)
Kids + Snow = Generally an awesome time (and soreness).
Five years ago today: We were at a hockey game.
Cape Lookout off the coast of Beaufort, North Carolina in October, 2008.
I was digging through this interview of GitHub developer Scott Chacon trying to find the most quoatable portion to paste here in hopes that you’d follow the link to the interview to read it. The fact is, though, the entire interview is dripping with awesome. Read it.
/via Simon Willison.
This has been passed around a bit lately but it is just too awesome not to share. Here is an image showing the Mariana Trench to scale showing a human being, a Blue Whale, and some various depths as you work you way down 36,000ft. of water. Amazing.
/via John Gruber (who called it “Spooky”.)
The vineyards on Franklin Hill. Credit: Eliza.
Eliza, my mother-in-law Carla and I took a drive last week to visit a few wineries along the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail. Due to winter hours, a long lunch, and some shopping – we only got to two wineries along the trail.
The first winery was Amoré in Nazareth, Pa. Although having recently been through a fire that ripped through their tasting room – they were still open for business. One of the things I enjoyed the most about Amoré, besides their decent selection of wines, was that they offered crackers, pretzels, and even chocolate with some of them. During the summer months, we were told, they sometimes have cheese too. More wineries should do this. Although some do have crackers it is rare that they are of any quality or that they have other things available.
The second winery was Franklin Hill in Bangor, Pa. and my favorite of the day. Franklin Hill Winery sits far back off the road, nearly a half mile I’d say, and was recently renovated. This was my favorite of the day because we got a tour and got to meet the woman winemaker while she was working on some of their wines. Everyone there was very free with information when I asked questions about winemaking and the wines were good too.
We ended up coming home with a few bottles of wine. One thing I enjoy about buying wine directly from the wineries is that you have a chance to taste the wines before you purchase any. This way when you’re home and wondering what wine to have – you know exactly what each of them tastes like.
Hopefully we’ll find time this year to get to the other seven wineries along the Lehigh Valley Wine Trail.
A few years ago, and I have the video to prove it, I said that I wanted to try to eat 100 chicken McNuggets from McDonald’s. Those whom I asked to try the challenge with me refused (looking back this was a wise choice) and so it never happened. Since then, however, I’ve always wanted to attempt to eat 100 nuggets. This past weekend our bowling plans were foiled and ten of us found ourselves with nothing to do.
We made our way to McDonald’s and, of course, I thought it would be a good idea to have a nugget eating challenge. This time, though, I would only attempt to eat 50 nuggets. As I said on Twitter, I was trying to eat 50 just so I could see how hard it would be to eat 100 at a later date. I thought I could eat 50 with little problem. Boy was I wrong.
About 12 nuggets into the challenge I knew that I would fail. I wasn’t full. I was disgusted. The grease on the nuggets is positively revolting after only a few nuggets. The few times that I’ve order McNuggets in my life I’ve only gotten 4 nuggets at a time. Obviously not enough to be prepared for a 50-nugget (let alone a 100-nugget) challenge. Yuck.
So, I quit at 28. I had 2 nuggets left in my third box of ten and, although I could have eaten those, I thought ‘what is the point?’. I gave up and I will now not eat McNuggets until at least 2020. I’m glad I tried and now know that eating 100 nuggets – at least by me – is impossible.
My two fellow nugget-challengers, Sam and Austin, did better than I did with 40 and 32 nuggets respectively.
Photo credit: Ben Wagner.
Yesterday Google began to release Google Buzz to its Gmail users. Buzz appears to be a compelling service – especially since it plugs right into something many of us use already. For more information about what Buzz is and does visit the Google Buzz site for a nice demo.
I can’t have much more of an opinion on Google Buzz because I can’t use it. You see, I use something called Google Apps for Domains. Google Apps allows me to have Gmail, Calendar, Docs, and other services by Google for the CDEVROE.com domain name. My colin [at] cdevroe.com email, in other words, is simply a glorified Gmail account. But, for some reason, Google handles these accounts completely separate from all other accounts.
Google Reader Header
Take Google Reader as an example. I use Google Reader everyday. On the top right hand side of Google Reader (see the image above and click on it to zoom in), where it tells me whom I’m logged in as, it says colin [at] cdevroe.com. One would think that would mean that my Google Apps account was being used to authenticate me for Google Reader. This isn’t so. On the left hand side of the page there is a link for Mail (presumably my Inbox). If I click on that it asks me to sign up for Gmail. Wait, what?
To make matters worse Google does this for all of its services. Google.com, Maps, Adsense, Analytics, and more. I have accounts for all of these (using my same email address) but I don’t have a Gmail account. I have a Google Apps Gmail account.
Chris Messina, someone whom I admire very much, recently went to work full time at the GOOG as an Open Web Advocate. I know he’ll be busy striving to get Google to become the foremost example in the open Web but I also know that he understands this whole Google Accounts fiasco as well if not better than I do. I hope that, while he’s changing the world from the inside out, he’s also able to convince those at Google to consolidate all Google Accounts into a single-account-sign-on-something-or-other.
I look forward to one day playing around with Buzz but I’ll wait until it is available in my Google Apps for Domains flavor of Gmail.
Addendum: So I thought I’d try my hand at following through the Gmail setup process to see if, like with Google Reader, it just used my colin [at] cdevroe.com account as its primary account. Now I have no idea what it did and I have a new email address and Google Profile that are unrelated to my normal Apps account but it is linked to it somehow. I’m a professional Internet user and developer and I have absolutely no idea what Google is trying to accomplish. Wow.
NOOO! Now all of my accounts are associated to a new account.
Saw this at 12:30 on Sunday afternoon at the intersection of Routes 106 and 247. Everyone seemed to get out OK though.
A few more hands before our friend Burke goes away for two months.
Small honor system library in West Virginia
In West Virginia, last spring, we happened upon this small book store/library that was completely open with no one on staff at all. Just a building along a road with the door open, actually open not just unlocked, where you could go in grab a book or two. Totally awesome.