Technology

Am I bats? Part 2

I don't know about you, but there was a lot of excitement at the Tiemann household when this image popped up on the screen. It meant that nights of field work, evenings of programming, and a weekend of multimedia production all pointed at one, inescapable conclusion: my crazy bat project was a SUCCESS and the promise I made to my daughter was KEPT!!

First things first. If you have been following this blog, you know that a week ago I had the crazy idea of trying to record bats. After finally having an opportunity to use my aforementioned SONY PMC-D1, and after spending another few hours trying to convince myself I had captured something, in the end I felt a bit like one of the members of the Warren Commission looking at the Zapruder film and asking "you want me to make a finding based on this?" If I was going to convince my daughter that we had, in fact, captured and identified bat sounds beyond a shadow of a doubt, it was going to take more than a few suspicious noises of post-processed audio before I could be satisfied that the burden of proof could be met. In the days after my first blog posting, things were looking fairly bleak for the project, but I was determined to prove that with a little technology (a little more than you might suspect), I could, in fact, make good.… Read more

Smartpens and dotpaper

As a student, I struggled to keep my notes organized and I have only faired better as a journalist through my abandonment of pen and paper. Over the years I've encountered many other people who have also struggled to keep their notes organized and for many of us a notebook computer has been the only solution. Or is it?

Livescribe, an Oakland based company, has recently introduced a suite of high-tech products which will likely put a whole new spin on the low-tech world of pen and paper. According to Livescribe, the smartpen will be available for less than $200 and the specialized electronic paper products will supposedly be comparable to paper of the old-school variety. They have three video demonstrations of the product in action, and given what I've seen I'm quite excited to actually get my hands on a Smartpen soon and see for myself. According to Livescribe the pen will be available in the fourth quarter of this year.

Before you activate your iPhone, read this!

I was casually cruising the news sites yesterday when I came across a story about porting "ineligible" numbers to AT&T and iPhone. I clicked on the story because I know some of the people who lobbied for and won the rights to treat phone numbers more like personal property you own than corporate property you rent. I was right with the author until he said (without comment or outrage):

On that screen, enter your name, Social Security number, and your current billing information and home telephone.

Say WHAT!?

Apple and AT&T are demanding customers reveal SSNs to activate their iPhones. That should be the lead of every technology and business article written this week. If you don't believe me, read on.… Read more

Summer camp for the explosively inclined

There truly is something for everyone in summer camp these days. Just in time for July 4, The New York Times reports on a summer camp that's a blast. The University of Missouri-Rolla engineering school offers a Summer Explosives Camp that teaches campers how to blow things up.

From watermelons to tree stumps to a 50-foot-high wall of quarry rock, the controlled mayhem serves a purpose, to boost the dwindling ranks of mining and explosives engineers.

And yes, safety is emphasized. Camp adviser and engineering professor Paul Worsey said that

"he saw his role in part as helping … Read more

There is such a thing as too much "time-saving"

There is such a thing as too much "time-saving." I worry that our 24/7 culture is creating instant-gratification expectations for even low-tech experiences.

I was worried that our 7-year old was getting hooked on high-tech immediacy, but even she realized that the TV ad for "Roll 'N Grow," the "miracle garden in a box" was pretty ridiculous. Talk about inventing a problem that isn't a problem. The pitchman blared in an alarmed tone, "You hoe and your rake, you shovel and you ache, and for what? Flowers that might not grow? Forget all that work.....Cut & place or just roll and grow!"… Read more

Order an iPhone, get homework

With all the hype of the iPhone release, you'd think Apple would have them on hand ready to ship. I ordered one online on Saturday morning, about 12 hours after the official launch, and was told that the iPhone would ship in 2 to 4 weeks.

In the meantime, Apple gave me homework to keep me busy during this interminable wait. Helpful, or annoying? I vote for annoying.… Read more

Am I bats? Part 1

I enjoy walking my dog (a Shiba Inu) with my daughter, especially when the weather is pleasant. Earlier this week it was a particularly pleasant evening in Chapel Hill: the sweet air was cool like nighttime in summer, but the sun had at least 10 minutes to go before setting. All of a sudden, we both saw a bat swoop around a street lamp, eagerly pursuing its evening meal.

"IT'S A BAT!" my daughter exclaimed.… Read more

The most powerful button on any device

This week I am in New York for a child safety training session. After eight hours of work teaching kids how to avoid bullying and act respectfully toward each other, I went back to my hotel room and found the TV airwaves saturated with the story of Ann Coulter's continuing insults to John Edwards.

The brief on-air exchange between Coulter and Elizabeth Edwards was magnified into hours of coverage from Hardball to Good Morning America. Hardball was particularly interesting since Chris Matthews expressed a near-fawning admiration for Elizabeth Edwards, yet his show was the one that gave Coulter the … Read more

Web Video Summit

I'm in San Jose today attending the Web Video Summit today and tomorrow, and have been scoping out the latest innovations and learning more about online video for a few hours now.

In typical conference fashion, there are too many simultaneous presentations and each panel is filled with such a diverse group of individuals that the overall experience is almost like going out for dim sum. You get a taste of a lot of things, but by the time you stumble onto something truly satisfying, there just isn't enough to leave you fulfilled and you find yourself looking around you in the hopes that him or her crosses your path sometime in the near or distant future.

Right now, I'm sitting in on a panel focused on collaboration. JD Lasica is moderating the panel, and Kent Bye is speaking about his collaborative documentary The Echo Chamber Project. Kent's project has fascinated me ever since I first learned about it over a year ago and he's developed some rather robust tools to help establish a distributive editing process.

"The 4-Hour Workweek"--for parents

Efficiency expert Timothy Ferriss has written The 4-Hour Workweek for an audience who wants to "escape 9-5, live anywhere, and join the new rich." Ferriss uses a combination of techniques that take advantage of globalization, smart use of technology and outsourcing, and sheer brazenness to create a self-financing lifestyle that suits him.

Now, I do not have plans to ditch my homelife and move to Buenos Aires while my virtual empire churns away making money, but I wondered, could Ferriss' strategies help me break through some of the grunt work and limited thinking that typically comes with being a parent? I found that Ferriss has plenty to say that applied to busy families looking to create a satisfying life.… Read more