Jump
Scan my code
For most of the bar code‘s history, it has been relatively inaccessible to the public. It required a special reader and a computer system to decode it and most people just had no reason to catalog their lives. With cell phone cameras in every pocket, the bar code seems to be getting a hip new look.
A coworker pointed out to me today that the FCC is using bar codes on their broadband.gov website that stores meeting location information (see Location & Coordinators sidebar item). A visitor can scan the code with their camera phone and immediately see the location on a map, allowing them to get instant directions. Utility from the FCC!
While I had been aware of this application previously, I hadn’t revisited its potential since the iPhone came out. Now that cell phone software is easy to obtain and far more useful, bar code readers are finally available to the masses. Read more
Off the Grid
I spent last week in the Pemigewasset Wilderness with my brother. It had been 10 years since I last went backpacking in the White Mountains of New Hampshire. I wish I had better access to mountains like that. I sorely miss the serenity of New England’s wilderness areas.
I may have left the Internet and any form of modern communication behind, but I did read Tim Wu’s Who Controls the Internet. It’s been sitting on my shelf for over a year. I learned a lot about the origins of the DNS and resulting legal battles that had previously been pretty fragmented in my head. Great read. I need more nature in my life.
How I Use Google Voice
Judging by my Twitter feed, Google Voice has been handing out invitations for its newly updated phone and voicemail service. I know this because few people know what to do with it once they’ve got it and they’re asking for help. Here are a few examples of how it has helped me over the past three years and why you should give it a shot.
Google Voice, previously known as GrandCentral, does for your phone what Gmail did for email. It revolutionizes the way you handle phone calls and text messages. It releases the phone number from its associated device and frees it up for use in ways that actually make it interesting again. For decades, phone numbers have been like mailing addresses; pretty static, boring and only serving as a big receptacle for incoming data. Many changes in telephony have allowed phone numbers to become more useful again, and Google Voice is one of them.
Here are five questions that traditional phone numbers can’t answer with anything more than a shrug and smile:
- What if I lose my phone?
- What if my boss and friend call the same phone number?
- What if I give my number to some rando at a bar and don’t want him/her to have full access to my cell phone?
- How do I get my voicemails without calling in to your hard-to-use voicemail system?
- Can I silence my phone while I’m asleep but still get important calls from Caller Y?
Your standard phone number can’t do anything about these problems! Pretty lame, right? But, Google Voice can do a lot. Read more
Traveling food carnivals on Twitter
I met up with the Fojol Bros, (and snapped this pic of) DC’s newest and most buzz-worthy street food option, on Memorial Day at the Navy Memorial during the parade. I had wanted to partake in their served-from-a-carnival-on-wheels Indian food for a while but never seemed to match their schedule. The timing was perfect.
I wouldn’t have found them if it hadn’t been for their Tweets. They communicate with fans by announcing their location on Twitter, and they were right around the corner. They move through DC blaring music, donned in kitschy outfits and looking nothing like an authority on anything Indian. But the food is great, the utensils are biodegradable and the price is right.
I snapped the photo above with one hand while holding a cup of chicken masala in my left, posted it to Flickr! and got a note from the Bros. They sent it out to some press and it wound up here, in the August issue of DC Magazine.
They’re definitely seizing the power of social networking to build a scrumptious business model. Follow them at @fojolbros and fojol.com.
My personal morning briefing
I was thinking this morning about what sources I rely on for my news and which ones I read religiously. My Google Reader feed is my pride and joy. Categorized, filtered and always trimmed to cut the sources that are lacking, it is my go-to for a look at the world. But, sometimes I’m just too busy to get through the hundreds of new items every day. There is one source that always gets to the top, though.
The FP Morning Brief, from the writers at Foreign Policy, is that perfect dose of international news in the morning that reminds you there’s a world beyond the U.S. and Michael Jackson. Well-formatted emails, properly linked and expertly summarized at 9am, the FP Morning Brief is my favorite daily aggregate of news. While most get ignored or pushed to the side for more urgent emails, I always pause for my FP fix.
It’s like having my own intern that compiles the best news from around the world every day and sending it to me in a perfect little email. Maybe one day they’ll let me add my own header to the email like “Ben’s super important morning briefing from his own private news readers”. Some day…maybe. Until then, I let the staff at foreignpolicy.com and their blog, FP Passport, do it for me. They’re so kind.
Click here to get your own super important briefing.
Fireworks
Enjoyed the Independence Day fireworks from my roof with friends and neighbors. Great show.
Inauguration 2009
I’ve been absent awhile, but thought I’d write a few notes about the past week so that I don’t forget it. While the photos and videos won’t be going anywhere (backups!), I fear the raw emotion felt throughout this city will fade in time.
I’ve always been a sucker for parades. Whether it was my grandfather’s recordings of bagpipes and drums played on full, the countless parades my parents took me to as a wee one, or my affinity for bright and shiny things (haha), heralding trumpets and banners have always claimed a soft spot in my heart. It goes without saying that the inauguration of a president ranks right up there with the greatest celebrations in the world.
I even went to George W. Bush’s second inauguration, ticket in hand, just to see how it all went down. I was so torn between thinking “holy crap this is amazing,” and “wtf? I’m actually enjoying this? BUSH!? COME ON!” Alas, whoever it may be, the fact that our nation can transfer power without bloodshed or strife is pretty amazing in comparison to the rest of the world.
This week we inaugurated our 44th president, and the pomp didn’t disappoint. This time, though, the pomp didn’t matter. What filled me with emotion wasn’t the revelry supplied by lights and banners or the institutional showmanship, however spectacular they may be. It was the realization that this style of politics that has jaded me throughout my education in high school and college has finally come to an end. Read more
Radio to YouTube
President-elect Barack Obama recorded his first weekly address today, laying out policy objectives and restating some of the problems the country faces today. The weekly address has been a staple of Presidential communications for decades.
As many predicted, however, he made history again when he posted it not just on the radio and not on TV, but YouTube. Cross-posting it to several other video services, as well on the radio, he’s reaching Americans wherever they may be.
