Close-up picture of your house

Call it awesome, call it freaky, but it's interesting. Google has apparently taken pictures of the entire world (or is working on it). Take little Manteca, CA for instance. If you search for the City Hall, you can see not only a satellite picture, but a view from the street. Apparently you can see most of that city, and many more. Search for any address on Google maps and then click "Street View" in the upper right corner. If the street is highlighted in blue, you can see up close pictures of the address. It doesn't work well back home, but I do get the option to click "pictures" or "wikipedia" which gave me more links. Eventually you'll be able to search for your address, fly through your window, and access your webcam.

I just want to know who took all the 360 degree pictures of these towns, how much they got paid, and how you get that job?! How often are the photos updated? Google is awesome.

Skype

I didn't know it until recently, but Skype (the free program that lets you make phone calls from computer to computer for free) lets you do video calls just as easily. What, you didn't know about Skype at all? Well, it's just like a chat program, but instead of typing to each other you actually use your microphone and speakers (and web cam if you want) to talk (and see) each other. You can type if you want, but why would you use Skype for that? As long as the call is from your skype account to another Skype account, it's a free phone call over the internet! You can actually call other phones too, for what I'm told is cheap, but I use my cell phone for that.

What I'm really using Skype for is an easy way to show the kids off to family while we're apart. If anyone wants to connect on Skype, shoot me an e-mail and I'll tell you how to find me. I think you can use my e-mail to search for me, too. It's as easy as clicking my name in your contacts list and you can see and hear everyone here. Super cool.

Updated: Goozex - trade your games

UPDATE: I've blogged about this site before. Right now, however, you get 100 points and 1 free trade just for signing up . . . that's enough to get a free video game for nothing! You've got nothing to loose by looking, and you get a free video game if you sign up! The only other time I've known them to run this deal was for military personnel, so if you were on the fence about this site, now's the time to try it out.

Click HERE to sign up: by using this link you get another 100 points when you complete a trade and give me 100 free points for referring you. Thanks!

(By the way, since my last post I have received Final Fantasy VII for PC and have World in Conflict for PC being mailed to me right now. GTA4 is pending approval for trade by its owner)

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I have to share this site. This is where I've posted all my bargain bin games and traded them to get points that I then traded for today's top games. I've gotten thest games COMPLETELY FREE (after trading my other games) from this site: Final Fantasy Ring of Fates, Smarty Pants, God of War Chains of Olympus, Innocent Life, Final Fantasy XII Revanant Wings, Turning Point Fall of Liberty, Crazy Taxi for PSP, Enemy Territory Quake Wars, Tony Hawk's Underground 2, Elder Scrolls IV Shievering Isles, The Lord of the Rings Tactics, Heroes of Might and Magic V, and the Sims Complete Collection. I'm currently in line for Final Fantasy XII for PC, Wild Arms XF, GTA IV, and Outlaw Golf for PC. You can trade your games, too. Click here to accept my recommendation. Once you complete your first FREE trade (get a FREE game! Honestly!! It's how I started!!), I'll get more points added to my account! It's easy! E-mail me if you have questions. My wife and I have both been putting our games on here for a long time now, and we love being able to get rid of games we no longer want to someone who will enjoy them, while being able to get a brand new game for ourselves!

Replica of Noah's Ark

Wow, talk about something awesome . . . Johan Huibers from the Netherlands has built a replica of Noah's ark using the scale from the measurements in the Bible. The measurements he used are: "Reckoning by the old biblical measurements, Johan's fully functional ark is 150 cubits long, 30 cubits high and 20 cubits wide. That's two-thirds the length of a football field and as high as a three-story house."

The really amazing part is that, according to several articles, "Noah's Ark as described in the Bible was five times larger than Johan's Ark."

You can see the articles here: Article1 and Article2 (with video of the inside). There are many more if you Google "Working replica of Noah's Ark" or something like it.

The ark was apparently built in 2007. I can't believe I've never heard of it until now. How did I hear of it? I can't remember what I was looking for, but a link of it popped up while I was just surfing the internet - completely unrelated surfing, at that. (I don't normally surf for real life replicas of Bible stories, but I may start).

So, what have YOU done this week? Johan built an ark . . . I can't even fault him for making it 1/5 real size - it's still awesome.

Geocaching

Got a GPS device (or want a reason to get one)? Have you heard of Geocaching?

Click on over to Geocaching.com and see what's hidden in your neighborhood. That's right - thousands of people with GPSs have hidden ammo cans, film canisters, and Tupperware around the world for you to find and sign their log book! You could be living right next to one and not know it. Once you create your free account you can view the exact coordinates and walk right up to it using your handy GPSr. I use a Garmin Sportrak, FYI. Most recent GPSrs have started tending to the street direction demands and aren't as good for this as the off road variety. Look throught the comments for Geocaching compatibility. You can even view the forums on Geocaching.com for some recommended brands.

Don't want to buy into my hobby but want to participate in the global scavenger hunt? Try Letterboxing.org. It was around before GPS was invented. It's a little different, though. Instead of trading an item for another item you are suppossed to trade a stamp for a stamp. Each letterbox has a stamp log and a stamp inside. You stamp your log with the stamp inside and then leave your mark on the Letterbox's log. There are some hybrid hides that are listed on both sites, which are way cool.

Let me know if you've heard of geocaching or if you create a new account. Leave a comment in the comments and I can give you some more pointers. If you're close by I can even take you on a hunt. Kids love this stuff - just tell them pirates hid a treasure nearby and you've found one of their maps . . . my boys had a fit the first time we did it! :)

Remember to read the expected behavior on the website, trade up, and leave nothing but foot prints. (There is even an annual Cache-In-Trash-Out clean up day "CITO" on Geocaching.com).

There are more cache types as well, such as web cam, CITO, multiples, etc, but I leave that as an exercise for the class.

Happy caching!

Lego Digital Designer

This is way too cool. I got this from the lifehacker blog entry about it, which has a link in it, but you can go directly to the link here if you would rather do that.

This program lets you play with virtual Lego blocks to design the ultimate Lego masterpiece. When you're done, it lets you order all the pieces you just used as a special kit!

There are starter models to work off of, and there are 763 available block types! This could be good just to get the pieces from the sets I have that aren't complete anymore - but I could make them more awesome now! . . . for the kids I mean! . . . yeah . . .

ThinkingRock for Getting Things Done

I'm always looking for a better way to stay organized and manage my lists in a way that's compliant with Getting Things Done methodology (GTD) and not exclusive to any of the 7 Habits thought processes. Today I've spent a lot of time with ThinkingRock and am very pleased.

The 2.0 version is set to be released soon with lots of fixes, but I must say the current version is quite polished. You really have to read "Getting Things Done" first to really understand why the program is doing what it's trying to do.

I have been looking at GTD software for about a year now, and have passed this one over several times as too complicated - in my searches I have come closer and closer to wanting something that does what this program does as I understood the GTD methodology in more detail. My last attempt was a spreadsheet that I made myself that is very close to this exact approach but no where near as easy to use.

There is a lot of support in the forums for the program. It's free, like a lot of programs trying to make automated GTD work, so it has a large forum. Someone even found a way to print on note-cards to make this compatible with the previously mentioned Hipster PDA. I prefer printing my lists from this program in the Pocket MOD format right now (fully supported by ThinkingRock), based just on today's expiraments. I'm going to transfer this program to my USB stick, too, so I may not need any paper to carry around.

This is a great program for anyone who's trying to get to a 4th generation planning tool. You should read about GTD regardless if you use this program or not (it's a great system). After you have, you should try this program.

Like this program? Use another? Let us know in the comments.

Firefox 3

FF3 is out, finally! It pulled all my old information from FF 2 so I get all the new features with all my old settings. If you have never tried Firefox, you really should. It is a full replacement for IE. It's better in so many ways. Once you try it and get to know it's full potential, you'll never go back. Click the picture to join the (ongoing) revolution - (or click HERE).

Free Senseo

Want a free Senseo coffee maker? "An $80 coffee maker for free? What's the catch?" you say. Well, you do have to click this link HERE. After you fill out a short survey it will tell you if you qualify or not. I have one of these babies in my office right now - 100% free. No less than five of the people I work with also received one (I haven't checked on all the others I gave the link to). My Brother and my Mom both also received one for free. There is NO catch, no membership, and no further obligation (unless you count the free coffee they sent me later, too).

It seems that if your answers show that you are influential and would be getting people to buy these, and/or the pods that go with them, then they want you to have one for free so you can show those people you influence how cool it is. It is a great coffee maker when I don't have time to wait for the whole pot to brew or only want 1 cup. Target makes pods that fit it, too (Archer Farms brand).

How's that for awesome! :)

Free Office Suite

Can't afford Microsoft Office? The 2003 version can be found at around $160 for the Student and Teachers version - that's what I use. I bought it before there was a really good (any) alternative. I won't buy another version, though.

For those of you who haven't spent your money yet, you should really try Open Office first. It is fully compatible with Microsoft Office and does almost every exact same thing. Some of the user interface is different, and the menu names may be slightly changed, but the help files will help you figure it out quickly. There is a huge internet following of Open Office who will be glad to help. Go to the support tab on the Open Office page for their forums. You can probably find what you need with a quick Google search as well.

You can also get Open Office as part of the "Google Pack." Google Pack comes with several other free programs that you select, and it manages the updating of all of them so you always have the latest version. To see what I'm talking about, either click above or click the Google Pack link on the right side of the page (under the labels). I'm a big fan of Google Earth, personally. I waste a lot of time just looking at different places on the globe. It's fun (addicting) finding houses where I used to live and schools I used to go to. Don't say I didn't warn you!

Freecycle

Got junk around the house? Thinking about a garage sale . . . someday? Want to clear up some space but can't bear to through out that . . . whatever?

Try joining a Freecycle network. It's like "RE"cycling, but it involves giving stuff to other people for "FREE" (freecycling . . . get it). You post what you have and don't want, and someone comes and gets it. Easy.

Read the etiquette of your local organization. Posting in several areas is usually frowned upon. The group usually has specific words to have at the beginning of your listing ("OFFER," "TAKEN," "WANTED," etc).

Some groups have more "WANTED" than "OFFER" posts, but you can usually find a person to take your stuff and sometimes see a good deal every so often. Make sure you set your e-mail preferences to something you can live with. Until I switched to a one-time daily e-mail, I was going nuts as my inbox filled up. I don't get the first chance on many items, but I can live with that for the trade off.

EepyBird, Diet Coke, and Mentos

You HAVE to go to EepyBird.com. It's the home of this video. I still have not been given permission to recreate this by my wife, but one day . . .



The event make a Do-It-Yourself kit now!

Creepy weird stop animation of the day

This video amazes me at how long it must have taken. I don't have that much patience at work, much less for a hobby or for free. Very cool techniques.

Movie starts at about 25 seconds - it gets really going at about 45.

Practical joke of the day

The solution is to hold "ctrl" + "alt" and press the up arrow. What am I talking about?

Try this: hold down "ctrl" + "alt" and press the down arrow on your keyboard. If you are one of the many Windows users with Tablet PC features built in, your screen just turned upside down. It also works with the left and right arrow, but turns the screen on its side. That' why I put how to fix it (the up arrow) first . . . otherwise you'd be yelling at me and trying to read this upside down to see how to fix it!

It doesn't work on all computers. How did I find this "feature" on my desktop? Apparently toddlers don't need a manual to randomly press keys and scare the wits out of their parents. We had no idea what they did, but google helped, and showed me that there are millions of other parents who went through the same thing.

I'm not condoning it, but this seems like a real funny joke to play on people at work . . . you have to go back and help them fix it though - that's just not nice.

Free game - Trackmania Nations Forever

I was sitting here playing this game and then remem- bered that it cost me all of $0 - great price for a game that takes up a LOT of my time because it's so fun to play. I don't even like racing games, but I like driving up ramps, jumps, corkscrews, and the like, all at incredible speeds, doing tricks and trying to get the best time . . . you won't understand until you play.

This game has a solo AND online mode - you can play against people all over the world in races for the track record effortlessly. If you don't want to see all those other cars on your track you can try to earn gold medals by beating solo mode goals. If you want, you can build your own trick track and even upload it for others to play on.

You can paint your car with a very easy to use paint mode. You can see the fruit of my efforts - that fly purple ride in the pictures is mine. Others you play against won't be able to see your artwork unless you pay for the game or pay a monthly fee, but since I don't think it's worth my money to do that I haven't.

This is a smooth, polished game, and definitely worth the time for you to download and check it out. The game plays well, looks great, and is a lot of fun. If you have a controller and a good graphics card, it gets even better, but the game plays well even on my laptop. You can download the game at trackmania.com. Let me know if you start playing so we can add to each others' friends lists and take some races on together.

Here's the game's trailer. I hope to see you online.