The Wordulator

Oh goody,  a chance at fame.

gogobot, the super friendly social media travel site has just put out a casting call for their first-ever travel documentary.  Apply by February 8 2012 and if you’re the lucky chosen winner, you’ll be off to a six-day all expenses paid adventure with a gogobot film crew recording your journey.

Well, being somewhat of a ham and always open to travel, I thought I’d look further.

It’s open to registered gogobot users with over 10 original reviews of hotels, restaurants and destinations.  Check.

You have to be 21 years old.  Check.

Valid U.S. A. or E. U passport.  Check.

Free to travel from 20 – 27 of February.  Check.

Able to “handle rigors of extended travel including strenuous activity.” Check.

Able to work well in “stressful situations and in new environments with new people.”  Well, almost check.  I have this thing about small airplanes and sheer cliffs.  People stress I can deal with.  So that’s an  Almost Check.

And here’s the fun part.  You have to submit a link on youtube or vimeo to a one-minute video where you can explain why you should be selected and send it to casting@gogobot.com along with the form.  The winner is notified by February 11.  Sweet.

This company gets it.  They understand goodwill and connection with their public and the power of creative promotions.  They’re top of mind when it comes to recommendations and I’ve used them numerous times and contributed reviews as well.  While I don’t really care about earning badges, they have a good feel for rewarding their contributors.

So as long as they don’t have me dangling from a small plane or peering into a chasm from the edge of some glacier, this is an adventure I might consider.

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When I was just a kid I asked my mother for a Dymo label maker for my birthday.  I just thought it was the coolest thing and started making labels for everything in  wood grain, black , and red peel-off tape with embossed lettering in white.  Such a simple device but I had to figure out how exactly it worked so I took it apart.  BOING! The trigger spring jumped out and my labelmaker was no more. In tears I called the company and the somewhat amused woman upon hearing my sob story sent me out a new one that I have to this day.   (Aside from a few, my subsequent customer support experiences have been downhill ever since.)

While my husband resist my working on him, I still love taking things apart and finding out how things work.  I thought David Macaulay’s book, The Way Things Work, was a gift to inquisitive kids like me who always like to know what goes on inside of things.  Increasingly  I became fascinated by the digital world and cobbled together a PC or two myself…mostly in a big beige standard box.

So when chipmaker VIA just published its eBook,  Small is Beautiful: Ten Years of Mini-ITX, full of  the PC mods and projects people have created with the VIA Mini-ITX board, I was thrilled.  The 7″ x 7″ motherboard was unique in that it had a complete chipset:  audio, video, communications, and a built-in x86 CPU that used so little power that it immediately became the darling of modders who saw the potential of the board for robotics, car PCs, dorm PCs, and even in-wall PCs because it ran quietly and needed little cooling.  But then things got kinda crazy and PC enthusiasts latched on to the board and started shoving it inside things that were never meant to be a PC:  Accordions, model cars, gas cans, encyclopedias, even a model Millenium Falcon.   What VIA experience next was a flood of artisans who created unique cases, probably the most memorable being Jeffrey Stephenson’s cigar humidor PC and 1946 tabletop radio made out of splendid woods.

There were plenty of serious projects in the book too including SRI, which used the Mini-ITX for Centibots – autonomous robots that could be used in search and rescue where it was too dangerous for humans to venture.  And the DARPA Grand Challenge, another autonomous robot project, this time courtesy of the Department of Defense with a $1 million purse to the winning design.

I seized the VIA Mini-ITX and a lovely oak roll-top breadbox.  The Mini-ITX was easy, but my dexterity with a Dremel tool and woodworking was lacking.  My husband Russ had much greater luck with his World Vibrations radio station in a box, that continues to run his international radio station,  Connected Traveler Radio 24/7 with nary a blip on our utility smart meter.

So where does that leave us today?  Laptops are laptops and tablets are…well…tablets.  And they come in pretty standard configurations, though the quality varies wildly.  But you can’t take them apart.  You can’t modify them.  But with Internet Everywhere, we’re back in a place where things you don’t expect to be computers really are, with embedded PCs that will turn signs and kiosks into information devices (think of the display that recognized Tom Cruise in the movie Minority Report) and guide someone with a Starbucks app on their phone to the nearest barrista.  Consider pill boxes that alert the user that they’ve not taken their pill that day (and tattle to the patient’s doctor).  Sensors and cloud computing come together with GPS devices that let parents track remotely track the travels of their children on a school field trip.

And now as computers becomes ubiquitous, we may take them  for granted.  That said, we tip our hats to the creative people who took the VIA Mini-ITX and ran with it.  Early.  At a time that art and computers were rarely seen in the same sentence.

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When international banking exec, Jacques Mechelany would strap himself into a plane seat, he’d wonder about his three kids…what if this was to be his last flight?  Did he say what he wanted to say?  Were his affairs in order?  Would his kids really know who he is?

That’s when he decided to give up the globetrotting financial world and start I-POSTMORTEM, a company dedicated to making death better.  Hey, we’re all going to get there someday and the company’s two sites, I-Memorial.com and I-Tomb.net are designed to, as he says, “change the way people deal with death.”  We saw the sites – one for the the living to create virtual tombs for the dead and the other for the living to tell their own life  story for generations to come, leave posthumous messages, park their insurance policies and other documents securely, handle their social media passwords after their departure, and make sure the subscribers get the send-off they wanted.

Did I say subscribers?  Yes, that’s the model that Mechelany chose, and we think it’s a good one.  Like the insurance biz, subscriptions let a company like I-POSTMORTEM focus on their core sites and invest in the latest technology without debasing its sites to selling advertising.  I mean who wants casket sales ads and bereavement counseling ads dotting what should be an elegant tribute to a loved one or to yourself?

I-POSTMORTEM launched tonight at DEMO, one of Silicon Valley’s longest running tech darling events where VCs and media rub elbows with hopeful entrepreneurs aiming to wow the audience and get traction in the market, not to mention some bucks from interested investors.

I-Tomb.net is exactly that – a virtual tomb built for one’s ancestors or even more recently departed.  The tomb can contain pictures, videos, text and is placed online alongside other (some amusing and amazing historical tombs) online in the World Virtual Cemetery at www.i-tomb.net, where anyone can visit it from anywhere they can connect to the Internet.  (The company was showing Michael Jackson’s tomb, already adorned with virtual candles.)  Cost?  $50 per year.  That’s a heckuva lot less than traditional cemeteries and more convenient for families and friends than flying cross country to visit someone’s grave.

Then there’s I-Memorial – your own personal journey where you chronicle your life, record videos that can be seen after your passing – even record a video message for your child who  might only be three now but may open it on her 16th birthday.  You can use it like a vault to store sensitive documents- I-Postmortem partners with a Swiss data warehouse that boasts of some pretty sophisticated security.  $120 per yearfor an I-Memorial account.

You work on your I-Memorial during your lifetime – kind of like a multimedia journal.  And when you pass on, your death declarator whom you appoint like an executor, says you’re really dead (an email goes out to you to make sure that someone isn’t messing with you) and your I-Memorial turns into an I-Tomb and goes on the World Virtual Cemetery, unchangeable by anyone, and is viewable by the public or only by those you designate.   Your friends can place virtual candles, incense, and flowers as well as comments, video and music in your I-Tomb. (These get screened by the I-Tomb administrator before being published.)

When I first heard about this I felt uneasy.  It made me thing of our mortality, of things left undone.  But at the end of the day, it’s products like these that make us think about the process of life itself.  And when the little stuff is taken care of and we know we’ve said what we want to say to the people we want to touch, then doesn’t that really make life a bit sweeter?

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China’s leading app store solution provider is teaming up with one of the country’s top mobile security technology providers to tackle security issues associated with mobile apps. ASC (“App Store Connect”), the leading provider of mobile app store solutions in China, today announced its strategic partnership with Tencent Mobile Security Lab, one of the leading providers of mobile security solutions in China. App Store Connect will use Tencent’s app security testing and certification service to provide users the assurance that the mobile applications offered by ASC-powered mobile app stores have been thoroughly checked and are safe for download onto their mobile devices. (more…)

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Sometimes we get so entrenched in our traveling habits that it takes an event for travel press like the recent  Connected Traveler Technology Showcase to open our eyes to some serious technology as well as gadgets and devices that make traveling more efficient and enjoyable.  Here are some of them.  My next post will look at the apps and other software at the event.

Every so often someone comes up with something so incredibly easy and so useful it just makes me smile. At the recent Connected Traveler Technology Showcase in San Francisco the inventor of (more…)

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Maybe this is exactly what the Cosmopolitan was going for — a 21 to 30 year-old stiletto-heeled and testosterone pumped crowd. While very average-looking tourists milled around the ground floor of the 100,000 square foot casino space, their numbers grew thinner with every floor as we rose up in glass elevators and escalators. Right above their heads were tight-dressed girls leaning over the balcony on upper floors, gazing through walls of chains of crystal hanging like glittery costume jewelry at a discount fashion store.
I expected more design, more elegance judging from the TV ads of that preceded the resort’s opening December 15 2010, but the first several floors of the Cosmopolitan were chopped up and lacking any flow although we felt more comfortable here than in the gaping City Center next door. Ironically Las Vegas has not implemented the sense of place that the same moguls of Sin City created in Macau’s opulent and more visitor friendly casino and resort spaces where a concierge-like attitude prevailed at every turn.
We did not visit any of the 2,995 rooms, some with terraces, some with mini-kitchens (I’d be hard pressed to cook during my stay in Vegas surrounded by countless restaurants). The Turkish-inspired spa is more my style as were the edgy fashions in the AllSaints boutique – a massive clothing store with a display of 500 stacked old sewing machines in the window – you can’t miss it.
Where does the Cosmopolitan shine? It’s massive, multi-level pool deck offering a sprawling view of the Las Vegas Strip. Though the evening was chilly during the Consumer Electronics Show in early January, space heaters and semi-private cabanas for two (all occupied by canoodling couples) gave us a taste of what would no doubt be a lush scene during warmer weather.
Sadly the pedestrian walkway over the strip stretching from the Cosmopolitan to Planet Hollywood has become a sitting space for Las Vegas’ homeless, a reminder that unemployment was 14.3% in November 2010. A gaggle of tipsy girls urged one of their group to squat next to one poor fellow shoving her thigh up against his face and posing for her friends’ flashing cameras. Their giggles merged with the hum of traffic as we continued on, wondering if they at least left him some money in exchange for humiliating him.
I’ve been going to Vegas for 25 years, at least once, often twice for trade shows like COMDEX and CES. With every year the city loses some of its sensibility and its edges grow harder, the greed deeper and the atmosphere more anxious. I’ll be happy when the economy is back on its feet and the air of desperation loosens. More places are gouging visitors with add-on “resort fees” – places like the Tuscany Suites hardly rated the extra $10 per day though I’d gladly pay for services a la carte.
We always enjoy the restaurants, the local shops, even cafes and delis where the waitress calls you hon’ and a cashier asks “where ya’ visiting from?” Our waiter and bartender at Mon Ami Gabi in the Paris Hotel and Casino were as professional and enjoyable as they come. And our waiter the cafe at Spago’s in the Caesar’s Palace Forum Shops was a pure delight, with his wry smile and just enough banter, making us feel like Vegas insiders. It’s that humor, reminding us that Vegas is one big spoof – take it seriously and you miss all the fun – that we hope will return in better times.
Will we be back? Of course. There’s nothing like Vegas and it continually changes. We look forward to seeing what’s next.

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There’s a new kind of remotesourcing that is offering people an opportunity to keep their job while taking care of their kids.  Visit Anybot headquarters in Mountain View and you’ll most likely be greeted by a pleasant-looking robot with an even more pleasant voice belonging to Suzanne, who is actually at home with her pink fuzzy slippers and kids, and still gets her job done (quite nicely thank you very much) as executive assistant at the robotics company.   

Whether for receptionists, doctors, educators, executives or supervisors, robots like Anybot provide eyes, ears and a voice at offices, hospitals, schools, and overseas headquarters and factories, and represent the next evolution in video communications.  Users can manipulate the Anybot with cloud-based controls enabling the Anybot to be used for everything from remote meetings to inspections of factory assembly lines.  

The Anybot will be available for $15,000 in December.  That might not be peanuts in consumer electronics terms, but that gets eaten up pretty quickly by just a couple of overseas flights that one could save by making a robot part of the company team.

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Ask me my opinion in a survey and I’ll usually decline, knowing that there’s some sales pitch attached, or my name and personal information will go into some deep repository to receive never-ending spam.  But there was something about the two freshly scrubbed kids in the Senado Square in Macao that made me stop, and willingly submit to their interviews.

This was not a solitary incident.  My husband Russ and I were interviewed no fewer than three times during our one-week stay in Macao: once on the square, once at the airport, and once at the EVA Airlines check-in counter, but more about that later.  The questions ranged from our lodging to how we spent time at this booming city (more…)

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Looks like the tablets are coming out from all over the place and the big boys are aiming squarely for Apple.  And today’s announcement of the Kno tablet is a very exciting one indeed, particularly for the education market. 

I bought a 7” Pandigital Novel tablet from the Walgreen’s web site a couple of weeks ago.  Yes, Walgreen’s, not Wal-Mart.  I couldn’t resist.  It’s been relegated to the kitchen where it sits happily and usefully as a recipe and cooking method reference and easy webmail client.  In my opinion the Novel’s strong suit is not as an eReader, though it is marketed as one.  The screen is simply too hard on the eyes.  I tried to read and after 15 minutes had to stop. (more…)

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ABI Research has issued a report that pegs tablet PC sales at about 11 million in 2010, with Apple iPads leading the way, of course and taking the wind out of the sails, or shall we say sales of other tablet contenders.  Still, we are seeing interesting and certainly affordable tablets running Android in the China market and again we have to ask ourselves how many will come to the US market and whether they will maintain their price points of about $130.

In this Wall Street Journal article by Don Clark, it appears that U.S. gadget sales  are headed for an uptick this year according to the Consumer Electronics Association.  Clark’s article cites the CEA as saying: “PCs will top the boob tube this year, with U.S. sales to consumers projected to grow 23% to more than $26 billion.”  While TV’s are on the downturn, the PC screen is on the uptick as people are viewing content more on their computers, notebooks and mobile devices.    Netbooks appear to be squeezed from both sides with pressure from tablets on the one hand and eroding notebook prices on the other. 

The CEA is expected to revise revenue projections for the CE sector up from 0.6% predicted in January to a 3% revenue increase.  We can only hope. 

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