Sharing with the world (really)

This impresses me a lot.  There is an article in the NY Times today about enterpreneurial Google fans who are creating downloadable versions of the open-source Chromium operating system, the precursor to Google's Chrome OS, due later this year.  The story highlights a 17-year-old in Manchester England who has built versions of the OS that run on all types of computers, just using a USB flash drive.

What gets me is the amount of sharing this guy has really done.  If you go to his site, you find builds for Windows, Linux and Mac computers.  And when you click, say, the Windows instructions, you find a very simple set of instructions - 7 single line bullet points.  But he has provided these instructions in 35 different languages!  Here's the list:

Table of Contents

• 
  
  • 
    
    English
  • 
    
    Français
  • 
    
    Español
  • 
    
    Català
  • 
    
    Tagalog
  • 
    
    Deutsch
  • 
    
    Dansk
  • 
    
    Hrvatski
  • 
    
    Česky
  • 
    
    Magyar
  • 
    
    Tiếng Việt
  • 
    
    Italiano
  • 
    
    Español
  • 
    
    Greek
  • 
    
    Nederlands
  • 
    
    Português (Brasil)
  • 
    
    Português
  • 
    
    Polski
  • 
    
    Româna
  • 
    
    Hebrew / עברית
  • 
    
    Türkçe / Türkiye
  • 
    
    繁體中文
  • 
    
    简体中文
  • 
    
    日本語
  • 
    
    Bengali
  • 
    
    Български
  • 
    
    Українською
  • 
    
    Русский
  • 
    
    한국어
  • 
    
    Svenska
  • 
    
    Norsk
  • 
    
    ไทย
  • 
    
    Bahasa
  • 
    
    Magyar
  • 
    
    Srpski

That is very cool, and the way information should be shared.

Star Trek crazy

Ok, people say I am a bit nutty about Star Trek.

Look at these guys:

Awesome!

Renovating the backyard

So we've begun the process of redoing the backyard.  We were going to update our deck and add some additional decking, but of course it did not work out that way.  So now it has turned into a major demolition and rebuild project.

Here's the location of the old deck:

This is the central portion, where the hot tub used to be:

Here's the area for our "retreat" - note the trench on the right (for drainage, because you don't want the retreat to be underwater):

And, just for fun, this is the way you saw out portions of your existing concrete patio:

It looks worse than it is, and it will be really nice when it's done.

The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged

We went out last night to see Abby perform in her latest school play.  The Complete Works of William Shakespeare, Abridged, was originally written for 3 actors.  Abby and her classmates did it with a cast of 15 or so.  It was very funny, and they seemed to get most of the plays in, not to mention 154 sonnets condensed down to a 3x5 card.

Here is Abby as Hamlet:

And here is most of the cast taking their bows:

All in all, a very creative play.

Conan

So Conan O'Brien came to talk at my company today.  I was not a big fan, but just because I don't know the guy. His show was always on too late for me to watch.

Today I became a fan.

He was hysterically funny, self-deprecating and very normal for a huge star.  The audience loved him - he spent 45 minutes taking questions, telling jokes and just being very entertaining.

Another good perk of my job.

Cinco de Mayo in Calistoga

We went up to the Napa Valley on Sunday, mostly because it was a perfect day for a ride in the convertible.  But we happened to arrive in Calistoga just before their Cinco de Mayo parade got underway, so we decided to find a good spot and watch.  Smart idea - it was total fun.

There were horses:

And great dancers:

And adorable little children:

And there was a whole lot of entertainment:

What a terrific day!

Invisible buttons

Kind of geeky, but interesting.  Apple has filed a patent on "invisible buttons" for mobile devices.  


TechCrunch describes it as "a way to create backlit micro-perforated holes on the aluminum casing of a MacBook or other device which could be used for buttons on the lid when the laptop is closed or below the keyboard when it is open. The buttons could serve as simple displays for WiFi signal or battery strength, control playlists and volume for iTunes songs or movies, or even replace the trackpad."  


And it quotes AppleInsider's description as follows:

The input appears invisible to the user because it would be made of the same material as the housing it is contained in. The use of “invisible” backlit holes could make the input selectively visible or invisible for the user.

One illustration included with the application shows an iPod-like control wheel located to the left of the notebook’s trackpad. Such controls could be displayed with the touch of a finger, and then disappear when they are not in use — such as when a user’s wrist is resting in that area for typing on the keyboard.

Not a bad concept.  Sort of like the disappearing dashboard display on high-end cars like the version demonstrated by Visteon last year.