Techestrian

"Full-Screen" View

Since we don't have a television, we were expecting to miss the Olympics again this year... but didn't want to. We were ready to sign up and pay for Internet video if it was available. It's available... and it's free!! Just visit nbcolympics.com and download the Silverstream plug-in for Firefox. At first we couldn't get Silverstream (Microsoft's version of flash video) to work on the Mac, but after a re-install we are super-hep with a video area of 846 x 480 pixels. For a shared experience, we pump it up to the big screen w/ an lcd projector.

The Olympic Live Control Room

So far, I have not had to watch a single dramatization of an athlete's story. Nor have I had to listen to any kind of commentary during the events (aside from some highlight reels.) We can watch events in their entirety, including the setup and the breakdown and all the slaggage during the proceedings. We can hear the grunts and the splashes. And, since we don't have a t.v., it's been easy to avoid spoilers and watch the events when we can / when we want to. This is important as the boys are enjoying everything from the swim races to judo to pistol shooting to archery to rowing and much more to come.  read more »  

Our friend Josh stopped by last night in a Tesla -- one of those newfangled electric cars that will retail for $100,000. He's a designer at their headquarters down in San Carlos and every now and then he gets to bring one home.   read more »  

"The Future and You" is an audio podcast that I download religiously. Created by Stephen Euin Cobb, the show discusses macro-humanity/real world trajectories with famous science fiction authors. Definitely something to geek out to in a useful way, now weekly.  read more »  

We've been undergoing some technical changes and improvements here at Boegerweb central. On Thanksgiving day, the motherboard of Jack's Delly (4-year old windows/pentium workhorse) died, making it time to build a new system.   read more »  

The latest Superclean site is for MCC Water, a systems integrator in the Bay Area. Their office has keys to their website to update the content and change the pictures and the navigation is totally dynamic.  read more »  

Nirvana Financial
One thing about being a web designer is this: I have a very transparent job. But what you don't see is this: my clients for these sites are totally empowered to update, edit, and expand their websites with a content management system (Custom CMS) set up especially for them!

These two sites, along w/ other recent ones like Bay Area Flooring Superstore and gfire, are built on the Drupal platform which, if I'm not mistaken, is the most powerful CMS on the planet. Drupal is a shining example of the benefits from open source development.
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This is how it works. It's free and you don't need any setup. Just dial 347-328-4667 ("DIR-ECT-IONS") and follow the super-streamlined voice prompts... it works surprisingly well. After you give your location and intended destination, the service will text-message the directions. The text messages are usually broken up into beginning, middle, and end so it's easier to access from your mobile phone.  read more »  

Bring on the heat wavesLiving in the fogbelt, we appreciate a good heat wave. We enjoyed a teaser 2 weeks ago and got the hint: 2 swamp coolers is better than one. Are you ready for a warm summer?

A swamp cooler is much like a fan that takes air through a "curtain of water." It uses far less electricity than air conditioning, which is overkill here in the Bay Area, especially when really hot days only occur in brief clusters a few times a year. But for those strings of swelter, a swamp cooler is perfect!

You can buy a small, portable swamp cooler online for 100 bucks w/ free shipping. Our model (by Sunpentown, from Compact Appliance, legos not included) has 3 speeds and oscillates. If you keep it running on high you will need to refill the water every 20 hours or so. One thing I don't like is the loud beeping when changing settings/low water notification.

These portable models won't cool your entire home but they cool everything in their oscillating paths... and you don't need to seal yourself in. We wheel it around to where we need it. The best part is: sleeping at night.

Need a guide for finding free tools on the internet? This site provides a constantly-updated list of freely available utilities such as firewalls, anti-virus, anti-spyware, ftp programs, and much more.  read more »