Zubbles! The colored bubbles!

Now this is a good idea! Made with a special dye that actually disappears and doesn't stain, these bubbles are the culmination of 10 years of development.


Now Zubbles are going to take the toy industry by storm. Watch for them soon!

Intel creates a Tablet Telecaster

Yes, Intel has teamed up with Fender to create the world's first Tablet PC/Guitar hybrid. Personally, I wish it wasn't a Telecaster, as I'm not too fond of them. Gimme a Les Paul or Paul Reed Smith any day!

Who's fault is it when someone diesfrom online gaming?

Red Herring reports on a Chinese boy who jumped to his death re-enacting a scene from World of Warcraft, an online role-playing game he was addicted to. The boy's parents are suing the makers of the game, Blizzard Entertainment, for the death of their child.

Worse than that, the Chinese government is looking into how to restrict online game playing time for the entire nation to try to avoid similar incidents. Apparently, gaming addiction is big in China, and this is not the first fatality related to it.

But who is really at fault here? Blizzard? The parents? The boy? I can't say, but I will say that it should NOT be Blizzard. Just because they make a very successful game does not hold them responsible for people who have trouble telling reality from fiction. This law suit should be thrown out of court, in my opinion.

100 Most Often Mispronounced Words and Phrases in English

Very interesting site. How many of these words do YOU mispronounce? Check it out.

Does this mean what I think it means?

I shot this picture with my camera phone when we stopped at a gas station the other night. This sign was hanging over their garage.

Does this seem odd to anyone else?

What crazy holiday falls on your birthday?

Mine is "Run Up the Flagpole and See if Anybody Salutes It Day". What's yours?

History's 10 worst Software Bugs

As a computer programmer, I've seen my fair share of bugs. But none of my bugs have EVER killed anyone! Check out History's 10 Worst Software Bugs as compiled by Wired News.

e-paper coming!

Now this is cool! Imagine opening a magazine and seeing a video play as part of an article. Or having animated instruction manuals.

Gizmag reports that Siemens has developed a printable, low-cost, disposable video display that can be printed on paper, cardboard, plastic, just about anything!

Coming in 2007...Check it out!

Too many cooks? Open Source vs Commercial Part 3

(This is part 3 of my post titled Too many cooks? Open Source vs Commercial Part 1 and Too many cooks? Open Source vs Commercial Part 2)

There's no question that open source vs. commercial debate is interesting, heated, and neverending. I liken this debate to traditional bipartisan government politics. On the left we have the bleeding heart liberals, fighting aganst the man, struggling to make the little guy heard. On the right there's the corporate big-wigs, who support big business and share a laissez faire attitude.

Let's see...which is which? Not too hard to see that open source = left and commercial = right. The interesting part about all this is that almost all the people I talk to out here who are big open source supporters are also left leaning, Starbucks hating, Microsoft bashing, tree huggers.

Now I consider myself independent and non-partisan in my views. I believe in many Democratic ideals, as well as having some strong Republican views. Not to mention some of my Green Party and other leftist viewpoints as well. So you might say I am a political "mutt" with left and right wing leanings.

I like Starbucks, Microsoft, WalMart, Target, and all the other big businesses that have come to signify "the man", as well as Adobe, Windows, Macromedia, and other commercial software. I also like PHP, MySQL, Linux, Apache, and other open source software that I use daily in my career.

So where does that leave me here in Silicon Valley? Basically, nowhere different than anyone else. That's the magic of the Bay Area. Tolerance. Diversity. I have shared my views with many and have very interesting debates, but then continue with what we were doing. It's all good.

Which brings me to my conclusion on this entire topic. Open source vs. Commercial? Simple...it's all good.

The first annual World Usability Day

This is an important topic for everyone who has to deal with end-user products. So, basically, everybody. World Usability Day was created to help everyone know more about the ways to help create a better user experience of our world. Basically, take a user-centric approach to design.

Alternative uses for the bible

Interesting web page. I am not saying I condone these alternate uses for the bible, but I thought it was quite an interesting read!