With the recent release of Transformers, I am having serious 80’s flashbacks these days, my buddy Sean from Depth Percept sent this to me - what a quality commercial this was. Now, if I could only get this bad boy in HD. lol
This was an interesting PR today from Ford on their new Ford Sync product - question is - would you use it? Very interesting!
Generation Y – which includes approximately 57 million people born between 1981 and 1995 – is the first group of car buyers that has grown up online, which means staying connected to friends and music while on the go is no longer a trend. It’s part of everyday life.
Dr. K. Prasad Venkatesh, group and technical leader with Ford’s Infotronics Research and Advanced Engineering department, says Sync puts Ford at the front of automotive connectivity, but the market is not standing still.
“The automotive user-experience, especially as it related to information services and entertainment, is in a state of rapid metamorphosis,” says Prasad. “Today’s user-experience is being defined by personalized digital content and information – anywhere, anytime.”
This content includes cassette players (which are on their way out, he says), CD players, DVD players, satellite radio, digital audio and video, text messaging, ring tones, games, navigation systems, e-mail, and others. There’s also telematics, such as roadside assistance or concierge services.
Ford organizes this content in three categories: built-in, brought-in and beamed-in.
“Given this new cast of actors and the maturity of enabling technologies, users now expect to sit in an automobile and have their brought-in devices and beamed-in services harmoniously integrate with the built-in interfaces in their car,” says Prasad. “The automotive user experience is being redefined.”
Enabling technologies include terms that seemed like science fiction just 10 years ago – just like such terms as high-speed Internet, USB, WiFi, TiVo and satellite are all becoming common in homes and businesses.
“Just as it’s unthinkable today to have a stand alone personal computer, perhaps the day is not far when the ‘move alone’ automobile will be considered an experience of the past,” says Prasad. “With the increasing presence of brought-in devices and beamed-in services, the effective computing and communication capability of the automobile is clearly on the rise.”
Even without brought-in and beamed-in elements, the computing and network communications ability of a vehicle’s built-in system is complex. A Ford F-150, for example, has 20 electronic modules, 50 sensors, 40 actuators and 3 networks. Luxury automobiles have more than 70 electronic modules.
Software and computing power are used for mission critical functions, such as safety and powertrain, plus comfort and convenience features, including climate control and heated/cooled seats.
As new versions of the software for Sync are rolled out, customers will be able to download updates from either a Web site or a Ford or Lincoln Mercury dealer.
“With such an increase in computing power inside cars in just the past few years, the computing and communication capability of tomorrow’s automobile might begin to approach what’s available in our networked office environment today,” says Prasad. “Right now, Sync effectively combines the car with a user’s cellular phone and portable music device, and it does so at a very affordable price point. We are speaking to the most connected and smartest consumers out there. With Sync as the foundation as we go forward, the possibilities for future user-experiences is limitless.”
Of 15 questions asked at the 19-year-old’s post match press conference, 10 were related to her underwear
29 Jun
Posted by ktowndaddy as Web Junk, sports and fitness
Something about this quote cracked me up “Of 15 questions asked at the 19-year-old’s post match press conference, 10 were related to her underwear”
In a knot over knickers … Tatiana Golovin (left) shocked more than a few plum-in-the-mouth Poms when she wore red knickers to her round one match. Maria Sharapova also used her imagination, modelling her dress on a swan. source: The Daily Telegraph
Granted she lost the match with the power red knickers, but hey I give her credit, lol.
Now watching Federer play - that is some amazing tennis. I watched the Tennis channel bio on him the other night, what an amazing player he has become.
Well Forbes.com that is - You can read the full article here titled “Instant RSS Feed and MySpace Profile Previews Become the Newest Additions to the Snap Shots Service” - it’s essentially a brief mention of the millionRSS project I started up a while back. Anyway, thought it was pretty and worth a mention…
So you got an old cell phone laying around collecting dust? I know I sure do, and tons of them to be honest. So what to do? Well I have been looking at a new plasma tv for some time now so I thought….”why not try and see if I can get rid of enough old electronic equipment to both help do my part and be green as well as clean out my house of old crap. GreenPhone.com is a great step to get me started. I will post my experience with my little “old electronics equipment for a new Plasma TV” experiment over the next few weeks. Here goes nothing….
Just a heads up that my posts will be sporadic the next couple days…but I wanted to pass on this awesome video that Google Developer Day 2007 put on about “Google Developer Day Beijing－Plumbing the Web” enjoy!
The Canon PowerShot SD1000 digital camera is one awesome little camera and really packs a punch for the price point. At sub $250 it’s a steal and it has 7.1MP to boot. My favorite feature of this little gem is the Widescreen mode for stills. It’s really cool they added that to a sub-compact camera and it takes amazing pictures. I mostly shoot in manual mode with the flash off but the flash does a good job for the times you do need one.
We previously used the SD400 version that Canon produced a couple years ago and were very happy with it’s video capability so when we got the SD1000 it didn’t disappoint either: Movie Clips @ 640 x 480 @ 30/15 fps, 320 x 240 @ 60/30/15 fps, 160 x 120 @ 15 fps.
It also supports continuous mode at 1.7fps which isn’t to shabby for a camera in this class. Hands down a steal under $250 and I strongly recommended this beauty.
Cheers! Matthew
There are still nice people in the world despite what you might think…
27 May
Posted by ktowndaddy as off topic, Nice People
On this memorial day weekend, I am taking a little break form the computer and doing some home projects - building a wall, painting a bedroom and bathroom and working on cleaning up the house in general. I will post some pics of my wall building project later, but just getting the stone for the wall was in itself a story…more on that later. The title of my post is what I wanted to write about. I was at target looking for some new picture frames and had a ton of family pictures with me. I wanted to see what some of them might look like so I took them in. Turns out that I didn’t buy anything and was in a hurry to leave Target to hit Old Navy and I accidentally left all my family pics in the buggy at Target.
The bad part was I didn’t realize this until 10:15pm - Target was closed and I wasn’t sure exactly where I had left the pictures. So I drove back in desperation. Everyone was gone at Old Navy and I wasn’t sure that was where I had left them anyway. A young guy was running from Target to round up some buggies so I stopped him and told him what happened. He was more than nice and stopped what he was doing to help me out. He went back in and looked around the Customer Service desk for about 10 minutes and came out with a smiling face and my family pictures. Not only had someone been so nice to turn them in, but he was even nicer to go try and search for them even after they were closed. What a relief!
Do you part today and help someone out whether they know it or - silent kindness during an unexpected opportunity will make someone’s day when all else seems to have been lost for that person. The opportunities are there, you just have to seize them.
Cheers! Matthew
After one week since my orginical Comcast disappointment I finally have channels 2-30 working on the motorola dct700 box - now after 5 more calls and 4+ hours on the phone, no luck and I still can’t get to channel 47 - ESPN - but here is the quote of the year…after talking to someone that had about as much customer service tech support as my 2 year old, I finally ask to talk to the girl’s manager to which she says “ugh, I don’t have a manager…..pause…30 seconds…I do have a supervisor though”. LOL - and I still don’t have any channels. UGH! lol
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