Team A'Hearn

Today Amazon unveiled the Kindle, their own digital book reader for a mere $399 … and I want one. It has a nice display, great storage capacity, tremendous battery life, and what appears to be a well thought out user interface. And no computers or syncing necessary – it connects to the net using the same kind of high-speed data network as some cellphones, but without requiring the customer to sign up for a cellular data plan. Hopefully the price for ebooks ($9.99 for bestsellers) and the unit itself will come down a bit in the coming months.

Check out this neat utility called Jing, a freeware program that will create screen captures or recorded actions and share them on the web. The capture capability is little more than an enhanced “Print Screen” (“Oh, so that’s what that key is for!”), but the video recorder is a pretty great way to demo a few seconds worth of computing (with audio!) and post it out to the ether quickly and easily. Available for Windows and Mac. Be sure to check out the “Video Tour”.

I came across a fun 60 Minutes piece today called The “Millennials” Are Coming, a look at the generation of 20-somethings now hitting the workforce. All I can picture is Morley Safer waving his cane at those darn whipper snappers who are always walking on his lawn, but he does make some really good points. Although I, myself, am in the tech business, I come home and am surrounded by teachers; and one of the most resounding complaints I hear from them centers around the following:

“They were raised by doting parents who told them they are special, played in little leagues with no winners or losers, or all winners. They are laden with trophies just for participating [...]“

Let’s not be afraid to use the red pen once in a while and teach these brats about failure! What with their iPods and the MySpaces and all.

It’s so simple, so ingenious. Not like I’ve even had a jello shot in maybe ten years, but still.

I support Google as much as possible; they’re my go-to brand for calendaring, emails, mapping/directions, image searching, photo storage/manipulation, and of course, web searching. And today’s news regarding Google Maps at gas pumps sounds pretty exciting to us techies. A net-enabled terminal for directions right at the pump? Nice. But after some more thought, I think I’m having doubts:

What will happen when there’s a line of cars around the block waiting on Grandma to print out directions to the Piggly Wiggly? Or the Griswold family mapping out all the stops of their week’s vacation? In 1997, Mobil spent a good amount of money introducing the SpeedPass, a device designed to speed up our time at the pump. But now it seems that I might be forced to wait for internet playtime to finish as the minutes tick away and my fuel tank empties.

And what about security? Google is a very responsible company, but how long until these terminals are hacked and I’m staring at … well … something questionable … as I pump my gas? Don’t get me wrong – that will be hilarious; but depending on the severity and dispersal of the exploit, it’s something that could potentially make Google look bad.

I can’t help but wonder if someone at Gilbarco was so excited about if they could, they never thought about if they should.

Congratulations to the newlyweds, Aaron and Kristy! Wedding bells were ringing on Friday in Williamsburg as we all gathered in the Wren Chapel to celebrate our friends’ nuptials. The afternoon ceremony was followed by a reception at the Williamsburg Winery which, oddly enough, saw host to a seemingly endless stock of tasty red wine. Best of all, the groom is Scottish; we groomsmen all got to wear kilts (a first for me), and I took the opportunity to grow a mighty Celtic beard. A great time was had by all. Best wishes to the happy couple!