Sacred Order of the External Mind

Along the lines of my recent "best thing ever" discovery, I invite you enjoy an ode to the euphoria of accepting the backup brain.

J

Today's edition of The Best Thing Ever

Today I found out about Jott.com. It lets you call from your cell phone and leave messages that will be transcribed and sent to your e-mail, or the e-mail of anyone else you can get to sign up. You can capture all the thoughts that rattle around in your head while you walk to the train or shop for groceries or wait for someone at a coffee shop. You can write down someone's e-mail address and have it appear exactly where you need it. When you read something interesting, you can send a note to yourself, and it will be paperless and searchable. You can set it to send a text message reminder to your phone 10 minutes before the appointment you keep forgetting.

I heart the internet.


J

Beauty in... Nike Football?

This commercial is beautiful. Watch it. Make sure the sound is on. That's all I have to say.

J

Summer movies

Ah, summer movie season has arrived again. The summer blockbuster movie is one mainstream offering that I must admit to enjoying. Masses of people gathered at midnight to be the first to bask in the glory of a heroic new story (and cutting-edge action scenes!).

Thankfully, this year’s chapter of Pirates was better than the last. If you go to see that one, don't forget to wait for the last snippet after the credits. :)


J

Selling out

There are a few corporations out there that I have sworn off. Mostly because they offer poor product and poor customer service, but they somehow trick so many people into paying them that they don't care that they offer poor product and poor customer service. Take, for example, Cingular Wireless. (now, I know some people out there have no problem with Cingular, but I have to follow my own heart when I swear off a corporation :) )

But now... What can I do when Apple comes out with an 8 gig-widescreen-touchscreen music & video player/phone/internet device with a full-function web browser and voicemail that lets you pick messages from a list on the screen... and gives a multi-year exclusive contract to Cingular to run it!?

http://news.wired.com/news/culture/mac/0,72447-0.html?tw=wn_index_7


J

Hope

Mal: We're still flying.

Simon: That's not much.

Mal: It's enough.

http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72263-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

Pong's new frontier

Score another step in the scary/exciting blurring of the edge between science fiction and science fact. A few years ago, a man was paralyzed. This year, he plays Pong with his brain through use of an implanted chip. Someday, maybe we'll all Google with our minds. Collective, wireless, instant-access overmind, anyone? Or maybe just a reason to forget about memorizing the state capitals in alphabetical order.

"I know kung fu."

J

Calling all Firefly fans!

Charity showings of Serenity next week! Details at http://www.cantstoptheserenity.com/

Chris' Introduction

Well, since Jill introduced the blog yesterday, I'm afraid there's not much for me to say. Although, I should point out that if this blog is anything like real life, Jill will pontificate at length on abstract and detailed subjects, and I will make fun of her. Hopefully, I'll occasionally be funny.

Let me say a few things regarding subject matter. I realize it is probably a bad idea to talk politics on a personal blog, so I will attempt to resist. However, I will occasionally post links to articles about politics, science, and sundry that will waste large portions of your workday. Additionally, we hope to post some pictures of our apartment to make people visit us. Now that I have a camera phone, you can expect lots of pictures. Lastly, the blog will frequently reflect events in our lives, and will hopefully be a good way for us to keep up with people on the other side of the contenent or the other side of the world. Sort of like sending a mass e-mail, but with less guilt.

chris

Present Day. Present Time.

(bonus points if you catch the reference)

Welcome to our efforts to put a bunch of random thoughts in a place where friends and family can find them. Should they wish to.

This is the intro post by Jill; Chris will be along in a minute.

I tend to run into a lot of things that seem like they would interest particular people I know, and I'm planning to put some of that here. So, if you're a person I know, you should come see whether I've found anything for you. :) And if you're not a person I know, maybe you'll find out that you share the same interests as my best friend from second grade. Who knows?

Also, I tend to be terrible at keeping in touch, so if you're a person whose e-mail I haven't returned in 6 months, I'm sorry. Here you can find out what I'm up to. Or just confirm that I'm still alive.

Finally, I have a lot of random ideas. Some might call them weird. Chris might sometimes get tired of listening to the details of how I'm going to open a coffee shop on a floating city in 40 years, so now you all can be my audience on occasion.

Anyway, hope you enjoy!

Private Spaceflight

Start saving up!

Here's what The Economist has to say about the future of private spaceflight.