Is there anything more pitiful than a dog on anti-depressants?
Our black lab, Belle, has an anxiety problem. She hears the slightest sound outside and hides under the table, quivering in fear. We give her love, attention and reassurance, but she still panics. Finally, my wife took her to the vet today, and he put the dog on anti-depressants.
What’s next? A dog whisperer?
Ever since I was a child I’ve loved maps. There something about a map that smells of adventure and discovery. Satellite imagry is much like a map, but with that birds-eye view of our real world.
Earlier this year, Google added satellite imagry to their excellent Google Maps. Now they’ve Keyhole, one of the many aquisitions from the past year, and created Google Earth. I first used Keyhole a couple years ago, and it was so fascinating that my wife would get annoyed and threaten to unplug my computer. Now as Google Earth, the basic service is free (it used to require an annual subscription). If you like maps or exploring the world, get this program.
If you’ve never used Keyhole, you might wonder how Google Earth differs from the satellite imagry recently added to Google Maps. First, Google Earth is a program you install that access the data (satellite images) from the internet. It can overlay topographic data from the USGS to give you a fairly realistic 3-dimensional rendering of geography. And it allows you to fly around in that 3D space in real-time (assuming your computer has a processor and memory that’s up to the task).
It’s a fantastic way to look at the world. And there are practical applications, too. You can use it to get an idea of what view you would have from that hilltop lot in La Cresta, for example.
Although Keyhole has been around for years, it’s newest incarnation as Google Earth is labeled a beta product. And people who never heard of Keyhole are now discovering Google Earth. The name “Google” attached to anything seems to turn it to gold.
The downside of Google Earth’s newfound popularity is that it’s overloaded their download servers. When I tried to download a fresh copy today, I got a message that their downloads were temporarily unavailable while they upgrade their servers.
I’ll try again tomorrow — it’s worth it.
UPDATE: As of Thursday, downloads are working again. Go get it!
Vicinity detection is hot. I’ve added an interesting little gadget to the right side of my blog. My BlogMap is a visual badge that shows the physical location of this blog’s point of origin, as well as links to other bloggers nearby. Get your own at feedmap.net.
UPDATE: Through BlogMap I discovered the blog of one of my neighbors down the street. Hi Alain!
Yahoo is beta testing a new search concept that adds a social aspect to search. My Web 2.0 gives you the ability to bookmark websites with your own tags, a la Flickr. You can share those links with friends and search for links based on tags. Neat concept. You can read more about it on Yahoo’s own Search Blog.
Few would argue that Steve Jobs is one of the more interesting characters in the Silicon Valley. Last week Jobs gave the Commencement address at Stanford University, and made some excellent points on work and life in general. Thanks to Heather for passing on this great link!
Yet another complete waste of time… it’s the car cam project!
Continue reading Webcam for the Road
I really don’t like Walmart. Their merchandise is generally second-rate quality and their business tactics hurt smaller, more personal local businesses. But the world’s largest retailer cannot be ignored. Recently, my wife had to print out some digital photos for a piano recital. Our printer, for whatever reason, has decided that all photos should be printed five shades darker than they appear on the screen, making them look as if they were taken in a dark room by candlelight. So I looked into ordering prints.
Walmart currently has the best deal going. 4×6 prints are just $0.12 each, which is cheaper than the glossy photo paper I buy (nevermind the outrageous cost of ink cartridges). The process is pretty simple. You upload your images, select which ones you want prints of, the size and quantity. You can either have them shipped to you or arrange to pick them up at the nearest Walmart.
In our case, we placed the order about 9:30pm, and picked them up at 10am the next morning. Not bad.
There were a few usability issues with their website. When the photos were printed, the order status showed them as being “shipped” (they were printed locally). And the sales tax calculated online was lower than the sales tax computed at the local store (about a $0.42 discrepancy). But the price is difficult to beat. If you need prints from your digital camera, check it out.
