From the Inside Out

So, you’re driving down the road minding your own business when all of a sudden you see it. An unmarked police car sits on the side of the road waiting for an unsuspecting speeder to pass. If you’re lucky, you can slam on the brakes fast enough to avoid getting caught, but for many, it’s simply time for another ticket.

What if you could be alerted to speed traps before you hit them? Well, there’s a free Web community that attempts to offer this service to people. It’s called Trapster.

Trapster provides a forum where people can report speed traps and red light cameras by pressing a button on their phone or calling a toll free number. When a trap is reported, others are alerted as they approach the trap.

So how does it work? It combines technologies such as GPS and wireless location, voice transcription, geocoding, reverse geocoding, and SMS, with a central database server. It communicates in real time, using the Internet. Pretty cool, huh?

I’m signing up today, so I’m not sure how well it works yet. If you’re interested, check it out here.

I finally decided to download Skype this week.  Skype allows you to call people anytime, anywhere using a simple software application on your computer.  With Skype, you don’t have to worry about long distance fees or monthly subscription charges.  As long as you are calling people who use the Skype application, you can talk, chat and make video calls for absolutely nothing.  

If you want more advanced features (i.e. non-PC calling), you can add them for a low fee.  I’m not interested in those options, so I’m sticking with the free stuff.  

In the future, I’ll be using Skype to make video calls to Gary when I’m traveling.  We were also thinking it might be cool to have his grandmother use Skype.  The family could call her for free, and she could see them on video. Pretty cool, huh? 

If you have family or friends that you call frequently, check it out.  It’s easy, fun, and remarkably reliable.  And did I mention it was free?

Download Skype Now, and Skype me!

Do you ever find yourself channel surfing but not finding anything to watch on TV?  Do you ever wish you could go back and watch some classic 80s shows like Remington Steele, Knight Rider, or the A-Team?  C’mon, who doesn’t love a good episode of the A-Team?  Maybe you missed an episode of The Office or Friday Night Lights, and you want to get caught up on the show.  If so, then go online and check out Hulu.com. 

Hulu.com offers a cool, easy way to watch shows on demand.  The selection is decent today, and their Website boasts that they hope to provide watchers with the web’s most comprehensive selection from more than 50 content providers including FOX, NBC, MGM, Sony Pictures Television, Warner Bros., and Lionsgate.  You can watch full-length episodes of current primetime TV shows such as The Simpsons and The Office the morning after they air, classics like Miami Vice and Buffy the Vampire Slayer, and clips from Saturday Night Live.  Hulu also offers a good variety of full-length feature films. 

The best news is that it’s all available for free!  You don’t even have to register or sign-up for anything.  You just click and watch.  Three views are available — Web, pop-up, or full screen.  The down side is that the shows are ad supported, so you do have to put up with a few commercials, but it’s not overwhelming.  Hulu shows one-quarter as many ads - two minutes for every 22 minutes of content, as opposed to eight on TV.

Gary will be happy to know that there are high res offerings (480p Hi Res) today, and they are working on streaming high-definition video in 720p.  Check out the HD Gallery.  

The site offers some additional features like embedding and emailing of clips.  It also will link you to Amazon Unbox if you want to purchase a movie or a TV show.  Of course, I’m not sure why you’d want to purchase shows when you can watch them for free online.  I guess if you’re going to be on a plane or in some obscure location that doesn’t provide Internet access, it makes sense, but I still prefer to purchase my movies/shows on iTunes.  It’s annoying that Amazon Unbox can’t support iPods, but I digress.

Hulu.com makes it simple to watch your favorite shows and movies anytime, for free.  So, what are you waiting for?  Check it out and enjoy.

Tonight was fun.  We went to a minor league hockey game with a few friends from our young married’s group at church.  The seats were close to the glass so we had a pretty good view of the action. Unfortunately, the Texas Tornadoes didn’t win, but the action was good and the fight was entertaining.  Other highlights are the humorous commentary by Gary (who had strangers 3 rows in front of us laughing), YMCA, the 70s dance line (even though they never caught us on the big screen), Gary and Jami “monkey walking” down the stairs, and the pictures.  All in all, it was a good evening.

Oh, and for those who may be wondering how the new Dell XPS 1330 is doing….well, the battery completely died on me last night.  Let’s see, it lasted about 10 days before failing.  I hope that’s not a sign of things to come with the rest of the hardware.  Dell is sending a new battery, so hopefully the new one will last longer.  Besides that, I’m really liking the new computer.  It’s very fast, and I like the compact size.  I was able to replace most of my applications with alternatives that run on Vista.  There are still a few that I’m missing, but hopefully, they’ll have a Vista version soon.  I’m even trying a few OpenSource alternatives.  I’ll let you know how that works when I have time to play with the applications more.

Last week, I had the distinct privilege of visiting the Microsoft campus in Redmond, WA.  I was there for a business meeting which is rare because my company is not only a partner, but also a fierce competitor.   It was an interesting trip, and it was fun to walk through the famed halls of one of the most powerful technology companies in the USA.

Anyway, if you live in the states and have any knowledge of the tech industry at all, then you probably know that Bill Gates will retire in July.  During his keynote at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) last week, he showed a video that predicts his last days before retirement.  It’s one of the most hilarious corporate videos I’ve seen in a while, so I just had to share it. 

The video includes cameos by Matthew McConaughey, Jay-Z, Bono, Steven Spielberg, George Clooney, Jon Stewart, Hillary Clinton, Al Gore, and Brian Williams.  Check it out…

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RRD-0h7PiiE]