The videos, news posts and Twitter buzz about Wave started quite a while before the first invites actually went out and are still popping up. Some of this news focused on the more technical aspects of Wave and some of it gave general “it’s an email killer” type hype. The best explanations I’ve seen though are the Google Wave Cinema videos by copyrighthater on YouTube. They’re clips from movies, recreated within Google Wave to show off how realtime, media-enhanced, group communication can actually work. Check out this remake of a clip from Good Will Hunting:

So, you get the idea…or maybe you don’t, but at least you’ve now seen how the interface works. As you could see (very briefly around 40sec) in the video, you can embed YouTube videos by hitting the G+ button, searching for the video you want to embed, clicking add to wave, then clicking the little light bulb icon to convert the link into an embedded video. You can also just paste a YouTube URL right into a blip you’re writing and the light bulb icon will show up next to it.

While that works great for YouTube, I prefer to share videos through Vimeo. Unfortunately, Wave hasn’t yet added embed functionality for Vimeo URLs and pasting in the embed script doesn’t work either. I tried finding an answer for this on Google with no luck. It wasn’t until I searched public waves with: “group:public@a.gwave.com embed vimeo” that I found an answer; actually 2 answers, both posted by http://InitialBLIP.com.

Option 1: HTML Embedding Gadget

Click on the “Add Gadget By URL” puzzle piece icon and paste in:
http://wave-ide.appspot.com/html.xml
This will insert a little textbox in your blip where you can paste in whatever HTML code you like.

Option 2: Video Embedding Extensions

Embedding HTML seems like the most versatile option, but the guys at InitialBLIP have made it simpler with their own Wave extensions. You still click on the “Add Gadget By URL”, but instead paste the URL below for your preferred video hosting service, replacing VIDEO_ID with the id of your video.

• 12sec: http://wave.initialblip.com/12seconds/VIDEO_ID
• Vimeo: http://wave.initialblip.com/vimeo/VIDEO_ID
• Viddler: http://wave.initialblip.com/viddler/VIDEO_ID

So, if I wanted to embed the video from SXSW of Me vs the SXSW MechBull, I’d simply click the puzzle icon, paste in http://wave.initialblip.com/vimeo/3817908 and there it is.

Ames saw a Fatwallet thread yesterday titled “Moving LED message banner on Gift Card = FREE from BB“. At the very minimum, this sounded like a good gift idea, so we decided to go to Best Buy last night and check them out. Sure enough, they had a BUNCH of them on the gift card display at the front of the store. We grabbed 5. One for each of us to keep and three to give out as gifts. When we got to the cashier I asked what the minimum amount was that I could put on each gift card. The answer: One Penny. He rung up all 5 gift cards, Ames dug a quarter out of her purse, and he gave us 20 cents back. SWEET!

Each Roboshop gift card can store up to 6 different messages. The first one can be a whopping 512 characters and the others can each be up to 256 characters. The back of the card has 3 buttons to operate and program messages for the display. You can adjust the speed and luminosity of each message to a value from 1-9. All the instructions you need to program the gift card are written on the back of the packaging. You can read more about the technical circuitry/LED/battery details from the über nerds in the Fatwallet thread, but for a penny each, I could think of hundreds of cool uses for these little scrolling LED message banners.

1. Cover the top and bottom of the gift card with duct tape and wear it as a scrolling LED Belt Buckle (That doesn’t cost $13.99).
2. Save “Occupied”, “Empty”, and “Do NOT go in there!” as three of your messages and use it outside the bathroom as a status message.
3. Program the same message into several LED units laid end to end and try to turn them on sequentially so that the message appears to scroll seamlessly across all of them.
4. Dissasemble (Johnny 5) and try to find a way to input messages into it through a computer.
5. Set up a scavenger hunt, hiding several units around a city and save the clue for the next stage of the hunt as a message on the LED.

I could go on for a while, but I’m curious – what would you do with a super-cheap scrolling LED display unit?

PS: I feel no remorse about paying a penny for these things as it’s Best Buy’s own policy and because they make millions each year from unredeemed gift cards. I do not however, advocate buying a bunch of these things for a penny each. The fun wouldn’t last very long if very few people horded all of them. Have fun!

Anyway, enough background info…I have Vonage and I came across this forum thread titled: fun things to do with your Vonage line. The first post is pretty fun. Apparently there are a couple of easter egg numbers in the Vonage system. You can dial:

• 867-5309 – To listen to a clip from the Jenny song.
• 555-2368 – To listen to the theme from Ghostbusters.

There’s also the Dashboard Dialer widget for OSX users. The idea is simple. You type in and submit a phone number, your Vonage line rings, and when you pick up, it automatically dials the number for you.

Looking into the source of this handy widget, I discovered that it simply passes a few variables over a query string to: https://secure.click2callu.com/. That url is actually a Vonage-sponsored beta test of web-initiated calls, and the best part is that all the instructions for interacting with it are right there on the homepage with code examples in html, php, and java. SWEET!

Reading down to the bottom of the page, they even have development ideas and examples of how it has been used. One particular idea caught my attention:

Business web page where customers can enter their phone number to initiate a call from your customer service department to them.

When I thought about this a little more I realized that by giving the customer a way to initiate a call with you online, you are giving them a toll free method of talking to you. That’s pretty big! Rather than offering an 800 number for customers to dial, you could simply put a form on your website where they submit their phone number, which causes you to call THEM. As a Vonage customer with unlimited long distance, the call is free for you, and since this interface causes you to call them, it’s free for them too.

I took the php code they had posted at click2callu and made an example:
Call Me Toll Free

I disabled the actual dialing on that example, so you can’t really call me with it, but you can download the working sourcefile here if you want to play with it:
vonagedialer.zip (4kb)

Use this example at your own risk! The php code actually limits the input to 10 digits, and checks for a few of the typical area codes that you wouldn’t want people to make you call (900, 976, 809…), but it obviously wouldn’t prevent somebody from trying to make you call a number in the bahamas at ten cents a minute, or an impotency clinic, or The White House, or…well you get the picture.

The Last Picture:

For the bachelor party, we went out for a couple “house” size pizzas at Bizzaro and then on to Andretti Thrill Park for some Go Kart racing. I probably should have heeded the “keep both hands on the wheel” rule and kept my camera in my pocket, but I decided to take some pictures. At some point during the run, my camera fell down under my seat and I felt a bump as my rear tire ran it over.

The Damage:

It’s actually surprisingly intact having been run over, but the LCD is shattered, the camera body is scratched up, and it won’t stay on. Sometimes the status light just blinks red when you try to turn it on, and every once in a while I can get it to turn green and the LCD tries to light up, but it dies after a few seconds. I managed to keep it on long enough to get my pictures off the SD card, but now I think it’s time to say farewell.

The Bright Side:

It’s about time for a new camera anyway. If I hadn’t totally destroyed this one I might have hoped to make due with it for at least another year or so. It seems there are a lot more options on the market since I last looked seriously at digital cameras though, so I’m open to suggestions. Amy and I talked about it a little on the way home and here’s what we’re thinking so far:

• Less than $300 – Gotta set a budget.
• 3x+ Optical Zoom – Amy’s number one request.
• Compact or Ultracompact – I take our camera everywhere. I don’t want a bulky SLR.
• Long battery life – I like to actually be able to use the LCD every now and then.
• Quick Power-On and low shutter lag – The Kodak was BAD about this. I had a hard time catching the shots I wanted because it took so long to startup and to take pictures.
• 5+ megapixels – I usually take pictures for web stuff, so megapixels aren’t really that big of a concern, but it’s nice to know I can blow them up or crop in more detail if I want.

That’s about all we need. I would say that’s all I want, but Ames knows how much of a tech-head I can be so I think this is a good list of requirements. After talking to my boss about his latest camera purchase, I was leaning toward the Canon Powershot, but after looking at the Ultracompact reviews over at dpreview.com I saw that the Casio Exilim series is pretty highly rated as well. I remembered that Mike Davidson had posted a while back about his latest camera purchase, and sure enough, he too is raving about an Exilim, the Casio EX-Z750. I guess we just need to take a stroll through Best Buy and try a few out.

OK Ryan, here’s your flowchart:

As you can see, things get a little hairy once we get past the windows server. I’m a little confused myself. Would anyone care to explain this to me?

We were all prepared to go to Sams Club and plop down a whole lot of money for new ink when I got the idea that I could probably buy a shiny new printer with ink for what I was going to pay for 4 cartridges. After talking to Amy about it, we began our search. We scoured the Internet and the Sunday advertisements to find the best bang for our buck and we discovered that we could do a lot better than just a network printer. We decided on the Brother MFC-5440CN from Staples.

For $99 after rebate, it’s obviously not the top of the line model, but it is a huge upgrade from our previous printing, scanning, and faxing solutions. Rather than having to get a USB hub, it connects directly to the router, which means if I set up some port forwarding, I could even print things from outside the home network. It would be amazing to me if Amy could print something out at home from her iBook at school. On the iMac, I followed some advice I read online and didn’t use the CD at all since there have been some changes since Tiger came out. I just downloaded the drivers directly from Brother which allow the iMac to communicate with the unit via Bonjour. They even have a handy dashboard widget that displays the ink levels. On the PC, I’m having some trouble communicating with scanner. Everything else is working great though, and I just got a fax this morning from the eye doctor with Amy’s contact prescription…so I know that works too.

Little did we know when we decided not to buy ink cartridges that we would be getting rid of such a huge pile of electronics. It all works…but it’s all old. The scanner takes up a lot of desk space and doesn’t play well with Windows XP, the fax machine works great, but was kicked out of it’s perch by the all-in-one, and the printers of course are out of ink. I was initially going to sell it all on ebay, but a friend suggested that I donate it to the Salvation Army, which I think is a great idea.

I forgot to mention that I bought a new desk toy while I was at Staples. I tried pressing it a couple times yesterday while I was working on some complicated database code, but nothing happened. Oh well…at least my printer works again.

I know a couple people who have switched over to IP phone service, one uses Vonage, and the other has BroadVoice. Both are happy with their service, but the problem is that there are a whole lot more reputable IP telephony companies out there. They all seem to be around the same price, include a boatload of features, and promise the moon. Here are the biggest contenders:

• BroadVoice – $19.95 and my friend gives them a thumbs up for value and for being a “neat little company”.
• Vonage – $24.99 makes them a pricey option…and to me, they seem like the AOL of VoIP right now. That just doesn’t appeal to me so much.
• AT&T CallVantage – $29.99!?! OK, now that I’m over the price, I’ve seen a lot of positive comments about their customer service and QOS.
• Packet8 – $19.95 sounds about right, and although they seem to have mixed reviews, I’ve read a lot of positive news about them.
• SunRocket – $199…yea, right. Like I’m going to prepay for a year of VoIP service? That’s only about $17/mo, and in my book, they stack up to the $19.95 companies, but I don’t think I’ll pay them by the month at $24.95.
• Lingo – $19.95, but check out the negative reviews. I think that a lot of the content at voipreview.org is grassroots marketing (AKA – mostly BS), but it seems that most of the Lingo reviews are authentic. I’ve seen good reviews elsewhere though, so they stay on the list – perhaps because I like repeating their name: Lingo, leeengo, Lin Gho!

Ok, I think it’s time for bed, but if you have any experience with these or other residential VoIP providers, please let me know:

1. How long you’ve been with them?
2. How long have you been doing the VoIP thing overall?
3. What is the best and worst thing about the companies service?
4. If regular phone service ranks 98% for clarity and cellphone service ranks 72%, How clear is your VoIP serivce?
5. Are you strangely delighted by saying the word “Lingo”?

• You have a secret digital file (movie, audio, etc.) you want to send someone, but are worried about that file getting intercepted.
• You want to convert that file into a bitmap image to confuse anyone who might intercept your file.
• You choose a jpeg or gif that you would like to make the file look like.
• You use the conversion utility to turn your secret file into a bitmap, using your jpeg or gif image so that the image doesn’t just look like static.
• You transfer your secret file to your friend.
• Your friend (who has the conversion utility) can then “unhide” your file from the bitmap image.

Now for the contest. Click the image above to download a zip file called mysterysong.zip. Inside that zip file will be two files: mysterysong.bmp and bmp.exe. Your goal is to get an mp3 file from the bitmap and tell me what song it is. You will have to run bmp.exe from within a command window followed by a question mark to get the help text. Then you will want to convert file.mp3 using the “unhidefrom” command. Using the “mysterysong.bmp to file.mp3″ command will create an mp3 file of the right size, but it will not play – so be sure to use the “unhidefrom” command. The jpeg above is what the bmp in your zip file should look like. Acceleration programmers are prohibited from giving away the answer. :) Good Luck!

I feel like I’m much to old to be raving about a random toy I received for Christmas, but I’m really excited about the Blade Runner remote control helicopter that my parents got me. I remember last year around Christmas time, we got a lot of spam here at work advertising The Sky Pioneer RC helicopter, but I believe my mom bought this one at QVC.

My brother got the green 49 MHz model, and mine was the blue 27 MHz one. I say was because I cut the blue and white plastic body off of it this morning exposing the circuitry, battery, gears and motors. This also served to lighten it up a bit and make it more maneuverable. It’s so much fun to fly it around the office. Sadly, my helicopter is temporarily grounded as I just broke one of it’s rotors on a bad landing. I’m pretty confident that I’ll be able to fix it with a little scotch tape. If not…it seems that someone on ebay is already offering Replacement Rotors for a better “buy it now” price than the manufacturer’s. Although I haven’t posted to it yet, I can see myself getting involved with the Bladerunner RCGroups Discussion Forum on the little gadgets. It seems there are some decent modification ideas for the rear rotor to improve the forward-reverse motion. This is definitely a toy for me.

Since this picture was taken, it has been spray painted black, but it’s still the same die-hard trooper on the inside. The Nintendo looking panel on the front actually has the controller ports and buttons from an actual NES mounted on it. The buttons don’t really do anything yet, but the controller ports are wired to power and a parallel port so that my old Nintendo pads can be used as joysticks for NES emulator games. It’s just like having the old Nintendo working again, without blowing on cartridges and having the picture quality randomly go all pixelated.

The only wires connected to “The Box” are power, network, sound, and SVideo. I don’t have a monitor, keyboard, or a mouse hooked up to it, so the only display is the TV, and the only way to control it is remotely. I have the storage drive (aka The Monster) mapped on our 2 other computers, so accessing files is a snap. I also have Winamp set to run on startup and have Wawi setup to make playing music on the box easy as well.

Accessing “The Box” from remote desktop works great for using it like a server. I can login to it from the home computers or even at work to check on torrents and grab documents and pictures. Problems come in however, when we want to watch movies or play Nintendo from it. Because Remote Desktop logs the local user out when you log in remotely, there was no way to see the display on the TV when you are logged in from another computer.

Every time we wanted to watch a movie, or play Nintendo, I had to steal the keyboard and mouse from another computer. That got old really fast, and I’ve been looking for a solution to this problem for a while now. Last week, I found the option I was looking for. Enter Virtual Network Computing. VNC is a cross-platform software app developed by AT&T Labs that’s been around since 1998. It works very much like Remote Desktop, but with a lot more options. One of those options being the ability to leave the local user logged in when you log in remotely. That means I can login to the computer wirelessly from our laptop, and see my mouse move around on the laptop screen, as well as the TV.

Genius!