A Different Use For Google SketchUp
Besides making 3D models of your house or your cat, you can be like Roche Limit and make a music video.
via BoingBoing
Hybrid2 Bike Turns Human Energy Into Bus Energy
![Hybrid2 Public Bike [Image from Engadget.com]](http://cupojoe.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/hybrid2.png?w=404&h=271)
Now here’s an idea that just makes complete and total sense to me: hybrid bicycles usable by city dwellers that store energy via regenerative braking which is then redistributed back into the city’s power grid via special bike stands to be used by a fleet of electric buses. Bikes are unlocked and tracked by commuters with an RFID card. Each cyclist then builds credits based on how much energy they produce. These credit can then be traded in for free bus rides.
How awesome is that?
via Engadget
Kindle Sheet Music
I’ve been seriously lusting after the Kindle DX as soon as it was announced mainly for use as a reference tool. The shelves of programming reference books (Python, Java, Oracle, etc.) lends itself well to the small, light form-factor and the search capabilities of the Kindle DX. Being able to load PDFs natively onto the DX opened another door of possibility for me in terms of sheet music. I have tons of scanned music in PDF form I’ve collected over the years that could conceivably be loaded onto the Kindle. No more death warrants for trees whenever I have a wedding gig, right?
Apparently Amazon.com is telepathically linked to my brain. There is now a Kindle Sheet Music store at Amazon.com. The Kindle DX is now one-step away from being a no-brainer purchase. My fate will be sealed when urtext editions of my favorite composers’ works are available.
There’s a short video review at ireaderreview.com. The reviewer downloaded some music to his Kindle 2 (not a DX):
The sheet music will obviously be better suited to the Kindle DX (all copies of Sheet Music have an Optimized for Kindle DX tag).
Thanks for the tip, Angelo!
7 Classic Star Wars Characters Who Totally Dropped the Ball [Cracked.com]
![Admiral Motti Insults Darth Vader [Cracked.com]](http://cupojoe.files.wordpress.com/2009/07/admiralmotti.png?w=480&h=145)
Even though I was in a coffee shop full of patrons furiously concentrating on their caffeine and newspapers, I couldn’t keep myself from laughing out loud like that annoying guy who always laughs out loud in coffee shops while IM-ing with friends just so it looks like he has some semblance of a social life.
An excerpt (to match the image above):
In Episode IV, Admiral Motti, riding high on the whole “Death Star” thing, finally decides he’s going to tell Vader off just like he practiced over the phone with his mother. After bragging that he’s not scared of Vader, he tells him that his “sad devotion to that ancient religion has not helped you conjure up the stolen data tapes, or given you clairvoyance enough to find the rebels’ hidden fortress…[Choking sounds].” Clearly Motti doesn’t realize that he was only named for the sake of the action figure packaging and will not be returning for any of the sequels.
Why It Was a Bad Call:
Even though Darth Vader is a seven-foot-tall bionic killing machine with a sword that can cut through anything, making a personal attack against the man’s religion is totally uncalled for. Any manager, be it of the Galactic Empire or Dunkin Donuts, is probably going to fire you if you interrupt a board meeting to call him the equivalent of “a f–king Jew.” Even if you were partially responsible for an incredible new product with limitless planet-destroying potential.
Of course Darth Vader, being that seven-foot-tall bionic killing machine, has a definition of “fire” that is more in line with the common definition of “strangle to death”. If Grand Moff Tarkin hadn’t told Vader to stop, he probably would’ve thrown Motti out the goddamn window like Patrick Swayze in Road House. As it stands, we’re pretty sure the Admiral had been promoted to cleaning toilets on the detention level by the time Luke blows the place up at the end.
The point of the scene seems to be that somehow Motti didn’t know Vader had magic telekinetic strangling abilities. But even so, and even if an Imperial officer like Motti somehow also missed the memo on what not to say to a Dark Lord of the Sith, that still means that he thought Vader only had about 37 different ways to instantly kill him instead of 38 (most involving a lightsaber neatly carving through his groin).
What we’re saying is that Motti was hired not for his tactical acumen but purely for his ability to sneer.
Thanks for the tip, Angelo!
via Cracked.com
Google Chrome OS
If you are hearing about Google’s foray into the operating system war for the first time, then I humbly thank you for being a follower of Morning Cup O’ Joe. When Google broke the news on its blog last night, the entire web was abuzz.
As a friend of mine pointed out, Google’s business model is about gathering information on you, profiling essentially, in order to build an accurate marketing model. Knowing this, would you still use the Google Chrome OS?
Surgical Tools of Old
I wonder which surgical tools of today will elicit the same visceral response that we get when we see these surgical tools of the past.
Yowza.
via Vital Signs via Boing Boing Gadgets
Enhanced Reality Apps for iPhone 3GS
This is a rough beginning, but it’s a beginning nonetheless. Can you imagine the possibilities? Can anyone say, “Urban Pac Man”?
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