Swim Faster than Phelps with this Sweet Dolphin / Whale Fin

I have always had a fascination with scuba diving and snorkeling.

And, more recently, our 10 year old has shown some interest in masks, fins, and snorkels. And her swimming skills right now, are getting pretty close to mine already. She definitely likes being out in the water and checking things out.

But, not too long ago, we saw an AMAZING new invention that can allow you to swim as fast (or faster) than Michael Phelps. And that caught our attention. Not to mention - it is a freaking cool idea.

I FINALLY found it last night when scouring the web. And I had to share it with you.

Happy trails!

clipped from www.lunocet.com The lunocet was recently featured in Scientific American… clipped from www.lunocet.com We are surely within breach with a little more technique and a tad of Luno tweaking here and there… clipped from www.lunocet.com clipped from www.lunocet.com Busy week end at the Lunocet factory with the History Channel show “Modern Marvels” coming for a visit. The production team was surprised by the CNC machine shop look and the colossal massive human made pound in the back:”We call it the sink tank guys!”(that’s what we said) clipped from www.lunocet.com o get the clear head, grab your Lunocet jump in a nearby body of water (bathtub might not be the ticket) and contemplate for a second how lucky you are to be able to have your entire body functioning properly to swim like a dolphin. Then proceed to pursue the breach. After an hour of waterworks go back to the office and face the day and the economy that goes with it, you will solve problems one after the other.

Whoever Killed the Electric Car - It Has Been Revived

Chris and I watched the video about the death of the electric car several months ago. And, since the gas prices have gone nutso in the last year, that has caused companies to look at new options. This just happens to be an option that I'm sure will be in our futures.

Plug in electric cars will be a certain part of our future. I still think the hybrid - electric along with gas options - should be the current strategy.

What do you think?

clipped from www.dailymail.co.uk The world's first electric family car you can plug in at home Nissan has unveiled an affordable electric family car that could soon be sitting in thousands of garages around Britain. The five-seater Leaf hatchback will be charged from a plug socket at home and has a top speed of 76mph.  The Japanese car manufacturer believes that the car's 100-mile range is a distance that covers the needs of 80 per cent of drivers. Nissan will begin selling the first Leaf cars in the U.S., Japan and Europe towards the end of 2010, adding two more models soon after. The Leaf will also feature IT connectivity, so that drivers can programme their mobile phones to reset charging or even turn on the air-conditioning before they get into the car. And since the batteries are placed under the vehicle’s floor there will be plenty of room to stash the shopping. Other automakers such as Toyota and Volkswagen have also announced plans to launch electric cars

C3PO Image Projection Comes to Life on a Camera

Well, it's finally happened ...

Remember how Luke Skywalker first saw Princess Leia, with a video projection from C3PO, in Star Wars? How cool was that when I was a kid! And we've been waiting 30 years to actually see it come to life in a similar, real-life, compact form.

Nikon has created a great little 'go anywhere' camera that can also project images and videos. So that a group of people can see them, and not just the person holding onto the camera.

Don't believe me? Take a look. It's pretty cool.

clipped from hypebeast.com The COOLPIX S1000pj is the first compact digital camera in the world to feature a built-in projector. With a simple touch of a button, the camera projects favorite photos or movies clips on any flat surface at up to 40 inches in size. Pictures can be projected individually, or as slide shows complete with music and added effects that enhance the experience. It’s the fun new way to share pictures with family and friends in most any location.

Capturing Ideas

I've always been a big proponent of writing down ideas in notebooks. If you've known me for awhile, or even only for a couple of months ... you know I often carry around a notebook to store ideas in.

I love ideas - and with my bad memory - if I don't write it down, I'll never remember it.

However, we have also recently used Kait's digital camera to capture some cool ideas. This is more of an artistic tool, rather than an idea tool. But, I think the concept still applies. It's good to have something handy, that you can quickly and easily use to put down any idea you might have.

Here's a couple little artsy things we've grabbed while we were out and about (and since Christy is usually into creative art, she wanted these shots for inspiration):








Al

More off the top

Wow! I didn't expect to get such a reaction from the Dragon naturally speaking software. So I thought I'd write up a little extra clip using the software. And in fact I'm actually recording the audio so you can see how the software works along with hearing the audio speed.

What's really cools I'm going to try and read a little bit of art journal excerpt from arch rip so that you can get an idea of how this thing actually works. A couple things I do want to say the software we picked up at target. And it actually comes with a headset microphone system that you can use. And basically all I had to do was read for about five minutes and then it started working just like it is right now.

Now you can see I'm adding in the punctuation marks with my voice. And you'll be able to hear that in the audio as well.

So anyhow I want to read a little clip from our journal that I thought was kind interesting and just give you an idea of how this all works together.

This is in regards actually to the story where Kristy and I climbed up this hill in Zion national Park and someone fell at the top of the same trail that we were hiking. So this is a portion of that story.

Toward the end of the trail we were kind of doing this speed walk. I remembered one kid with a tie dye shirt and a half and I specifically said hi to him. Later as we were getting back from going into Springdale, I see the kid there at the visitor center. I said... hey how did it go? Did you make it to the top? He said yeah I made it. I asked how was it? Did you have to hold on? He said going up no. But after the man fell, I had to grab onto the chain.

I said wow will good job! Not even realizing the man he was talking about was a real person. I had thought it was his dad or one of his teachers telling him some story about a person falling off so he got freaked out when he had the whole law. But no, he was actually telling me the true story and I didn't even realize it.

And so you can see how the software works its fairly fast. It's keeping up with me pretty good. And you can see pretty much else all worked out as I've gone along speaking to you. Know what I did was IE actually spoke this into the where the notepad software. And then I'm just going to copy and paste it into the blogger writing screen. Anyhow catch you soon. Bye-bye commission .

Al

P.S. - here is the audio file. You should be able to click this link, and it will open up inside your computers default audio player. Probably Windows Media. All I ask is that you don't click, and click, and click this link - PLEASE! If you want to hear it - please listen and save it to your computer. Otherwise you'll be using up my bandwidth ... I know picky ... picky ... right? Just asking - thank you!

Audio File from Transcript

off the top of my...

hello everyone,

This is kind of a test of the urgency broadcast system. I wanted to test out this new speech to taxed software and I thought this would be a great place to sample it.

So everything that I'm saying to you right now it's coming from my voice and not for my fingers. Which is kind of cool. However I don't really have a whole lot but I want to say because I haven't been feeling all that inspired lately. But I'm totally digging this new software is really cool!

The great thing is even the punctuation is coming from my mouth and the lying rates.

I'm not really trying to bore you your only give you a good sample of what this can do so I'm going to actually read a small bit of text.this would be really quick though. It comes from a sales letter for one of my chicken products.

I have a strange chicken topic to share with you today. I hope you don't mind. When you think about it, chicken poop is a pretty nasty subject. But some people get all excited to bring up the topic.

Why are they excited?

Because chicken who makes an excellent fertilizer or your garden, dirt, and soil.

Chicken and you were is a great source of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium -- all of which are excellent fertilizer ingredients.



So there you have it this entire post has been written with my voice. I know there've been quite a few mistakes, but I think it was a pretty cool test to run any how.

So until next time, have a Merry Christmas and I'll talk with you soon.

By!
Al

Typing 100 miles an hour

Last time ... I talked about a cool new tool that I just learned about for the first time the other day.


This time ... I wanted to share something with you that I've known about for a LONG time. And I've even tried it before, but with very limited success.

You see, last time I was trying to do this with a different software ... a name brand I don't even want to mention here.


BUT ... this time ... I actually splurged and bought the real deal.

What is it?



Dragon Naturally Speaking - the software.

What does it do?

It lets you talk, and then it decodes your spoken words into words on the computer.

You talk ... it types.

The really cool thing about this particular software, though, is that it actually seems to work. I was planning on giving you a sample with this post, but we're doing some rearranging, so it worked out easier for me to type it.

I'll give you a sample soon. No edits, just straight up talking to typing.

Anyhow ... for the price ... this is an OUTSTANDING tool to help you create products for selling online.

Just thought I'd share.

Al


Oh ... and a P.S.

A couple people are asking me if I'm getting all commercial, and promoting a whole bunch of products, and making money on them with the comments I've been posting up?


Well - if you aren't clicking on the links to my products, then NOPE, I don't make a single cent off of this site. Now, the links to the right, are sales products - and sometimes I do put links to my products in my posts. Most of you already know about all those, so that's not a big deal ... right?


BUT - this post, and the post about the Livescribe pen - I don't get a thing. PLUS + You'll notice there aren't a whole bunch of Google links on these pages. If I had those on here, I would get paid for them ... but we don't plan on doing that either.


I am just sharing them with you for ideas, and for sharing.

Cool New Tech Tool

I carry around notebooks almost everywhere I go.

At work they actually think I'm kinda nerdy, because of my notebooks, and all the stuff I write down.

Thankfully, most of the stuff I write down is journaling related. That way - when I get older, and seniler, I'll be able to look back over my life (in paper form) and TRY to remember how things truly happened. Needless-to-say ... I've written hundreds of pages over the last few years. I probably write more NOW, than I ever wrote in school.


That's why I was pretty impressed by this neat new techie tool. It lets you write and record audio all at the same time. So that if you were taking notes during a meeting, or something important, you'd be able to capture your own notes PLUS the audio from the event.

AND ... it ties them together. So - you could click on a note you wrote one day, and this tool knows the exact audio to play at the moment you wrote the note.

It's pretty cool!


I know this is kinda advertising like ... however ... I am a VERY STRONG proponent of note taking. So I can vouch for a handwriting system like this. And I can totally see how this could be used for a small business niche website.

I think they focus a little too much on the school aspect of it - but I guess if that's the only market they can get to look at it - then oh well.


Just thought I'd share.


Al