For this holiday season, Google has set up a site called Teach Parents Tech which has some easy video tips that you can send to those who often look to you for tech support. I found my way into one of the videos, which is about currency conversion. Check it out:
It was fun to be in front of the camera for a change, but I don’t think I’ll be making a habit out of it. It was a good excuse to see what wearing makeup is like though.
During the shoot, they asked everyone to share a story about giving their parents tech support. My story was about how I was showing my mom how to do something on the computer by controlling her screen remotely. (We live on opposite sides of the country.) Then, a week later, I was talking to my grandmother, and she was telling me how my mom was controlling my grandmother’s computer to do some tech support. So, while I was trying to show her something else, what I really taught my mom was how to do tech support!
Some of the family tech support stories were chosen for a promo video, but mine wasn’t as you’ll see it doesn’t really fit the theme! I’m sure my mom is glad she was too advanced to make it into this one:
Even today, I still get a cool feeling after ordering something online. I really like the odd idea that just by pushing a button, I’m causing someone hundreds or perhaps even thousands of miles away to put something in a box, which is then handled by several more people as it’s driven/flown a great distance before arriving at my door. It feels even cooler when I ship it to someone else’s door.
Then again, I also get excited when I send something to my printer from across the room. My keyboard is an amazing remote control.
I recently read that it’s good to dream, as that’s when you can have creative breakthroughs. Actually, that’s not quite right… I read that it’s good to take breaks and go for a walk or something for a creative breakthrough, but when I started writing this post I thought the tip was to dream.
I recently (like, 10 minutes ago) woke up from a glorious nap after an exhausting day. And what was I doing right before I woke up? Dreaming about work. Here’s what happened at the end of the dream:
Some sales person was visiting Google to show off some new devices that I suppose he wanted Google to buy. After he talked for a bit and I advised him to “get to the demo,” we got hands-on time with the products. One of the products that I noticed, which at first didn’t appear to be functioning, was an inkjet printer. What caught my eye about it was a button for “Panini mode.” This is certainly relevant to my interests. I opened up the top part of the printer, just like one would to change the ink cartridge (I was preparing to tell the salesman that I don’t typically purchase inkjet printers), and inside was a hot sandwich! What an awesome demo. I was about to eat the sandwich when I realized that it included slices of banana, which I dislike. Still, excellent product idea.
How about this for customer service? I was watching a movie, Amazon automatically detected that I had a less than ideal connection, and without any prompting from me, they refunded my money.
Hello,
We noticed that you experienced poor video playback while watching the following rental(s) on Amazon Video On Demand:
Twelve Angry Men
We’re sorry for the inconvenience and have issued you a refund for the following amount(s):
$2.99
While Amazon Video On Demand transactions are typically not refundable, we are happy to make an exception in this case. This refund should be processed within the next 2 to 3 business days and will appear on your next billing statement for the same credit card used to purchase this item.
At the test drive event, they had a little sales pitch thing with equipment displays and videos that they led us through first. I think they stretched it out a little too much to keep people occupied while they were waiting to drive, and it was incredibly corny. The style was almost exactly like what you see in the old World’s Fair films, so I’m sure that in the future people will be laughing at the marketing pitches, because we’re laughing at them today.
But, marketing aside, the test drive was okay. I could only take the car on a pre-defined route through the streets of San Jose, so unfortunately I never got to go more than 35 MPH and spent a good portion of the drive waiting at traffic lights. The car handles just like any other car, and I didn’t notice the regenerative braking as much as I did on the Volt. I’d have to try it out on a highway to form a more informed opinion, but right now I think I prefer the Leaf over the Volt in terms of driving experience.
Today at work I had the chance to test drive a Chevy Volt, GM’s electric (or plug-in hybrid, or whatever you want to call it) car. I’m a big fan of electric cars, so this was a lot of fun for me as it’s the first time I’ve actually driven one.
In terms of a review, there’s really not much to say, as it’s not much different than what you’d expect any car to be like. It felt like it had more torque than my Accord, so that was fun, plus I just like the sound of an electric motor. The only part of the driving experience that felt different than what I’m used to was during the regenerative braking, but it wasn’t distracting. You can also throw it into low gear which will also try to capture some energy when you let off the gas, which I suppose you could get used to and only engage while driving in a hilly area.
One night while I was driving back to my apartment after work, something unusual happened. In the lane next to me, I saw a Prius pull up with a spinning device attached to a large roof rack, and a passenger in the front seat who appeared to be operating a laptop. As it looked very similar to what Google’s our Street View cars look like, my only thought was, “Why doesn’t that Street View car have a camera, and why is it driving at night?” I guessed that they were just testing the laser scanning system, which is used to map building facades.
Shortly after that encounter, I learned about one of those projects brewing within Google that made me giddy. In fact, it made my dream come true. We were developing self-driving cars. In case you haven’t heard about this yet, take a break from my post and read Google’s official announcement or this piece in the New York Times, which includes a brief video.
I’m incredibly excited about this project, though I understand one of the biggest challenges will probably be getting humans to accept it. The only thing I have to say regarding that challenge right now is that a lot of airline passengers would probably be freaked out if they knew how much of their journey the human pilots voluntarily hand over to the autopilot.
It’s a quadricopter with augmented reality video games built in to the control system. It looks awesome.
High speed video camera
I looked at the EX-F1 from Casio, but it looks like the higher speed videos are recorded at lower-than-SD resolution, and I don’t think that’s worth $1,000. Anybody have other suggestions at or below that price point?
Full-frame Nikon DSLR
I need Nikon because Canon doesn’t have an acceptable GPS solution. I want full-frame because I don’t like noise. I’m not buying anything right now though, because the least expensive full-frame Nikon DSLR is the D700, which was released in October 2008. Assuming that there is either a price drop or a product refresh every two years, I think I just need to wait a little longer for one of those things to happen.
Anyway, just thought I’d put that out there in case you didn’t know what to get me for Columbus Day.
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