Ohlife is a free online diary, compleatly private. They even log you off from the site often, which is good.

So, what is what makes ohlife special?

It is simple, neat, beautiful. Every day, at the time you wish, it send you an email saying: What have you done today?

You just answer the email and voila, it goes into your diary. It couldn’t be easier. Just responding to an email. Even with photos if you wish.

Downside? Well, I have tested it for a couple of days only, but there is no calendar so you can navigate easily to other years or months. You have to scroll…

Also nice that in the web you can edit your entries.

Give it a try. It is free.

I try to keep keep all my inboxes to zero. Whatever I have in my inbox requires action. Once the action is taken, and action could be just answer quickly, then I archive them.

I have unified inbox, meaning that my inbox has emails from 5 different accounts.

I have the following folders on all my accounts: inbox (sure…), Waiting For, Read Review, and the rest of achieves. I don’t have them by people but rather by location. I go up to 2 levels of depth, so something like this:

• inbox (aiming to zero, only things that should have some action)
• read review (things want to read but are not urgent so I don’t want them in my inbox)
• waiting for (air ticket for tomorrow, a delivery yet to arrive, etc…)
• friends
  • local (I don’t live where my family is)
  • home (my friends in my home country, school, university…)
  • abroad
• family
  • wife
  • mum
  • kids
  • other
• work
  • waiting for (sometimes I mix private email with work stuff… bad bad)
  • job 1 (if you do have more than one job, then here)
  • job 2
• personal
  • key stuff (sort of starred items, email with driving license, passport, tax, passwords)
  • statements
    • bank (if you receive a lot of e-statments then create a folder with statements, then bank, telephone, electricity, etc…)
  • jokes
  • travel
  • shopping
  • newsletters
  • other

Then some tips to manage large amount of email:

You can keep your responses short and add a signature following the http://three.sentenc.es/ tips.

“Treat all email responses like SMS text messages, using a set number of letters per response. Since it’s too hard to count letters, we count sentences instead.

three.sentenc.es is a personal policy that all email responses regardless of recipient or subject will be three sentences or less. It’s that simple.”

Example signature:
——————————————–
Q: Why is this email three sentences or less?
A: http://three.sentenc.es
——————————————–

Alternatively you can add “Sent from iPhone” under your short responses.  People don’t expect long responses when you’re on your phone.

Sure, count on me!!
Sent from iPhone.

If you do really have an email problem you can create a ‘VIP’ filter.  Add your boss, close friends and family. Flag them red and throw them in a separate folder. This is the first place I check every morning.

If you are using Gmail or Google apps and you are giving away your email address to a lot of sites you try or places that potentially can spam you, they you can give your regular email +name of site or group or whatever, example: yourname+namesite@gmail.com. You can then filter those emails into a specific spammy folder you check periodically.

If you are using apple Mail or similar program and you really can’t cope with the inflow of emails, you can create a filter that auto-responds to all unopened emails > 14 days old w/the following message:

Your email (below) is now 14 days old and has not been opened.  To minimize email buildup your email has now been placed in the archive.  Should you still require a response simply respond back and you’ll automatically be added to the priority queue.  Thank you.

Good luck

Currently the map shows the location 0f over 12,000 caves and 361 grottoes. As well as displaying the location of caves the map includes geological overlays for America, Australasia, Europe and the Poles.

If you click on any of the plotted caves on the map you can get further details and links to any relevant websites about the selected cave.

Then take a look at this. I’m sure you’ll like it…

You can buy this at this etsy shop. It cost $45.

Halfway towards 2015, a lot more needs to be done to meet the Millennium Development Goals. Ahead of the United Nation’s 25 September High-level Event on the MDGs, which will identify gaps and determine how to accelerate progress toward the MDGs, theUN has launched a blog to stimulate the discussion on how to make the most of the upcoming 7 years. Have your say!

Take a look at the google earth map or to the map they have online to se realtime progress towards the goals. We are 5 years and 134 days away from the “D” day. Still a long way to go. Unfortunately the site is not very well maintained. Google earth link does not work and map displays data old from 2007…. petty.

All praise the zipper: the ubiquitous, maintenance-free, no muss, no fuss fastener that trumps both buttons and Velcro! Zippers operate smoothly, silently and safely day in and day out, often in close proximity to our most sensitive bodily parts yet they rarely – “There’s Something About Mary” excepted – cause us anxiety or grief. These 10 toothy examples of zany zipper art illustrate the mix of appreciation, admiration and YKK-stamped tabs by which society holds these fascinating fasteners.

Zippered Walnut

(images via: Ellen Rixford Studio and WebMD)

Artist Ellen Rixford knows how to grab one’s attention, as this zippered walnut shells, er, shows so well. The walnut is actually crafted from clay, is 6 inches long and is highlighted by an industrial zipper. Rixford created this striking image for a drug company advertisement… perhaps regarding a non-surgical treatment to replace testicular surgery.

Juming Museum’s Zipper Lotus Pond

(image via: BIG art)

Fly fishing anyone? Get your rod (and reel) to Taiwan, where the lushly landscaped grounds of the Juming Museum are graced with a most unusual pond. Designed by respected Taiwanese artist and sculptor Ju Chun, the Zipper Lotus Pond was completed in 2009.

(images via: My Confined Space and Broccoli City)

Sharp eyes may notice that the zipper slider carries the logo “JU-JUN”. It’s not clear exactly what the artist’s intent was in using this logo though the similarity to his name may offer a clue.

Zipper Tongue

(images via: Stylelist and Snopes)

When zipping your lips isn’t enough… yes, this is a photoshop. Not completely though, the zipper hardware was added to an actual “lingua bifida” body modification for a Worth1000 photoshop contest. Considering the increasing number of bodymods that have crossed the Net of late, we may yet see an actual zippered tongue some day. You just won’t see it in my bathroom mirror.

Life In The Fastener Lane

(images via: Pixyard, TACO and Telovation)

This group of images highlights zippers that have been painted or otherwise integrated into streets, avenues, boulevards and other paved pathways. One might ask (in a Seinfeld-esque voice),“What’s the deal with zippers and roads?” Perhaps artists note some correlation between the role of roadways in society and the functionality of zippers on an individual’s clothing. Or, maybe they just need sufficient space.

(image via: Impact Lab)

While paint and chalk make sense for roadway artwork, more obtrusive installations such as the Big Zip above are best suited to sidewalks and soft shoulders. Pedestrians and bicyclists may disagree, however.

Sebastian Errazuriz’s Zipper Dress

(images via: Britannica and Newslite)

Guys who already have trouble “unwrapping” their dates aren’t going to be thrilled by the Zipper N3 dress. Designed and created by 31-year-old Chilean artist Sebastian Errazuriz, the intention wasn’t to facilitate hanky panky but instead provide women with a so-called “credit crunch dress” that can be adapted to form over 100 different styles. Errazuriz used 120 zippers to make the dress, which he hopes to have mass-produced by a major clothing firm.

Amalia Versaci’s Upcycled Zippers

(images via: AmaliaVersaci and Amalia Versaci – ETSY Shop)

Amalia Versaci has got a name made for fashion and indeed, the Rhode Island School of Design grad focuses her creative energies on clothing and accessories. Her special emphasis is on the zipper, however, and her designs often employ zippers and parts thereof in original yet appealing ways. Versaci has taken a special interest in vintage and upcycled zippers, taking inspiration from the shapes and designs popular when zippers were as new, exciting and futuristic as Velcro is today.

(images via: Amalia Versaci)

Hear no evil with Amalia Versaci’s zipper slide earrings! I SAID, HEAR… ok, we’ll move on. Upcycling vintage zipper slides and adding today’s colors, tones and shades adds up to an attractive combination well suited for today’s New Traditionalists.

(images via: Amalia Versaci)

Jewelry isn’t the only purpose Versaci dedicates her zipper creations. Above are magnets made from heavy-duty YKK industrial zipper slides and collages crafted from vintage zippers still attached to their backing fabric strips.

Hirotoshi Itoh’s Grinning Stones

(images via: ScienceBlogs Bio-ephemera)

Part of the fascination of fossils is that what’s been locked in rock for countless millions of years is suddenly displayed before your very eyes. Hirotoshi Itoh’s zippered stones are something like that, except weirder. From skull-like grinning boulders to congealed coin purses to a soupcon of seashells secreted in silica, Itoh offers a glimpse into the heart of rocks whose concealed treasures are revealed with a mere casual zip.

(image via: Jiyuseki)

Creepiest, of course, are Itoh’s granitic grinning stones. Funny, I don’t recall Han Solo smiling as he gazed out from Jabba’s imprisoning block of Carbonite… unlike Itoh’s mouthy marbles, I guess he just wasn’t into it.

Benoit Lemoine: The Zip Tape Experiment

(images via: Benoit Lemoine and Design-Milk)

The cool thing about zipper tape is that it can be used to reveal heretofore un-noticed shapes and structures that COULD be zipped but aren’t. Forked tree limbs, bipod street lights, anything that conforms to a Y-shape (don’t get cheeky now)… just zip it! Benoit Lemoine has made somewhat of an artistic career for himself being the Banksy of Zipperdom, an odd avocation if there ever was but hey – someone’s gotta do it.

(images via: Stupid.com)

A variation on the zipper tape Lemoine chooses to use is Popped Zipper Tape, which makes your parcel, package, briefcase or whatever look like it, well, popped a zipper.

Karen L. Davidson’s Zipper Mosaics

(images via: Zipper Mosaics by Karen L. Davidson)

Winters are long & cold up in Minot, ND, and residents have come up with some interesting ways to avoid cabin fever, snow blindness and the like. One of the coolest (sorry) ways to get through those frigid months – the ones with an R in them – is Original Zipper Art as practiced and promulgated by Karen L. Davidson. From pins to plates to Christmas Trees and more, Davidson knows how to make a zipper do tricks that’ll bust your buttons.

(images via: Zipper Mosaics by Karen L. Davidson)

Davidson takes advantage of the wildly diverse color palette bestowed upon today’s plastic, polyester and metal zippers by manufacturers, thus avoiding messy paints and volatile solvents. A bonus is that the colors are either baked on or mixed into the zippers’ substrates. Designed to be long lasting from the start, Davidson’s zippers do the same for her art!

Zipping Across The Ocean

(images via: Asiajin)

Japanese artist Yasuhiro Suzuki set out to make a big impress ion at the 2010 Setouchi International Art Festival, and one would have to agree his zany zipper motorboat helped him succeed in spades. Suzuki must have noticed that the long, radiating wakes left by boats on smooth water look a lot like zippers unzipping… well, somewhat. In any case, inspiration led to construction and the result was the world’s only Zipper Motorboat. Here’s a short video of Suzuki unzipping Neptune’s fly:

Zipper Motorboat at SIAF 2010, via Shumiyama

(image via: Funny-Potato)

Zippers: where would clothing (and zany art) be without them? Buttons and Velcro have their good points but zippers are faster than buttons and they make a cool sound; not that painful ripping sound that so irritated Morty Seinfeld and doubtless many others. The Art of the Zipper simply completes the zipper’s long interaction with modern society by meshing the functional with the creative. Not much more to say… so I’ll zip it.

(from weburbanist)

Back in August ;-)

Now with ebooks this is changing. There are still a lot of people who still things that all this kindle, iPad, Sony book reader are not the same, that they prefer to have a book in your hands. The smell of the book, the pages, the fact that there are no issues with direct light or if you take it to the beach… but if you think like this is probably because you are over 30.

Ebook readers have room for all the books you can have in a life time.

The parallelism would be CDs and MP3. Are you still buying CD’s? If you do, then traditional books are still for you.

Well what I wanted to discuss here is how do you organize your books. The ones you have on paper and the ones you have in your ebook reader and the ones you have in audio (this is my favorite now…).

For the paper ones, I take photos of each of them and I upload them to evernote. I have talked a million times about evernote, but briefly is a software that makes your photos indexable, so the text in it is searchable. I tag them and I put them all in a notebook called books.

Now every book has a note, so you can even add if you have lend it or tag it so.

True you have similar more dedicated software, but for me evernote works like charm. Same for the wine ;-)

If you want to have them in the cloud, so you can share, review, publish in facebook and so, there are 3 very good tools you should look at:

Visual Bookshelf from Live Social: This is a free software that it is fully integrated with facebook (and also they have a stand alone website), which is great for the following reasons:

You can have your full collection of books, those you have read, those you want to read and those you are reading.
You can publish at anytime in your wall that you are reading it. When you finish you are offered to give a rating and to write a review and then to publish it in your wall.
You can see what your friends are reading, which is the future of advertising. Direct recommendations from friends, who you trust in taste.

I started using this because my friend did.

Then I found:

Goodreads: They also have a dedicated site for this, also fully integrated into facebook. I also used it. I first exported all my books from Visual Shelf and imported them here. I prefer this site, but unfortunately none of my friends use it, and the fact I use and recommend this sort of sites is for the social aspect.

Finally:

Google Books: As a google fan boy I had to try this one. I don’t think they have an facebook extension, but I imported the book list too. It is ok because is google, but zero social

Conclusion:

For me Visual Shelf is the one that most of my friends use, so I use it, but I keep the three of them updated. Be aware you can import and export from all of them. Sometimes is not trivial though.

Expensify is an application developed with the premise that the process of creating accurate expense reports doesn’t have to be nearly as difficult as most people make it. Rather than letting receipts pile up and manually typing each item you’ve purchased into a massive spreadsheet, Expensify lets you import expenses directly from your credit card without any typing, photocopying, or calculator usage required. Although the application is aimed at employees, accountants, freelancers, contractors, and students, it could really be used by anyone at all who needs to keep track of expenses for tax purposes or to receive reimbursement from work.

To start creating expense reports with Expensify, create an account with your Gmail, Google Apps, or Yahoo! login. The application also integrates with FreshBooks, QuickBooks, and SalesForce, which means people who already use these services can input even less information before getting started. To begin creating expense reports, add your credit card or online banking information, and watch as Expensify begins populating the page with all of your most recent transactions. Click on any purchases that were business-related, and Expensify will automatically gather and save the e-receipt for that purchase. If an e-receipt isn’t available for the transaction, then Expensify will prompt you to scan the original receipt to be saved and archived as a PDF file. Once all of your receipts have been uploaded, Expensify will handle everything and produce an accurate, complete expense report without any math required.

In addition to handling basic expense reports, Expensify also offers a number of advanced features such as mileage logs, time trackers, and mobile applications that let you input expenses directly at the time of purchase. For managers who are responsible for reimbursing employee expenses, the application lets you approve expense reports online and reimburse via credit card or direct deposit. Now that paper receipts are increasingly becoming a relic of the past, Expensify is positioned to become the new way that expense reporting is done at businesses across the country.

Practical Uses:

• Create an expense report in minutes
• Take a photo of your receipt with your mobile phone and save it online
• Get reimbursed for purchases without a paper receipt by getting an e-receipt instead
• Receive expense reimbursements via credit card or direct deposit

Insider Tips:

• Download the mobile app to input expense information on the go
• Email a scanned copy of a paper receipt to Expensify to be added to your account
• Export any expense reports to QuickBooks
• Track cash purchases by sending a text message to Expensify with the transaction information

What we liked:

• Expensify calculates expense totals for you and reduces the chance of human error
• Mobile application lets you snap a photo of any receipt, to be saved in the system
• Creating expense reports with Expensify takes much less time than manually copying and adding up each receipt
• Expense reports can be approved or rejected in a matter of minutes, since everything is automated online

What we didn’t like:

• Expensify only handles expense reports, and users must use separate web-apps for other financial business matters like invoicing or accounting

Alternatives:

• ExpenseCloud – expensecloud.com
• ExpenseWire – www.expensewire.com
• FastDue – www.fastdue.com
• Freelance Total – www.freelancetotal.com

Company Info:

• Launched: May 2008
• Privately Held
• Headquarters: San Francisco, California
• Founded by: David Barrett
• Web site: www.expensify.com

Costs:

• Free to create and submit expense reports
• Free to approve expense reports from 2 employees (submitters) per month
• $5 per submitter, per month for additional expense reports

Rating:

• 5 out of 5 (wow)

(via appvita)

The best:

Folders: I used to have 7 or 8 screens, now I have only 1.
All inboxes in 1: I keep my inboxes to zero messages. I love to see all the incoming email in a single place, from any of my email accounts. Now you have subtile improvements such as highlighting stuff like telephone numbers, addresses, dates, so you can take action.
Bed mode: When you double click there is now an icon to block the screen so it doesn’t rotate. Great for reading in bed.
Tap to focus in videos: Great. The Zoom for photos not that great, but handy. Camera seems to be faster when shooting.

The disappointments:

Multitasking: is it a joke? True that there are not many apps making use of multitasking but the fact of having all the apps down in the dock when double clicking home and when you click on any of them is just like opening like before, makes it a joke. Where is skype? IMs? I guess it will improve in the future, but today, it just sucks. The only app I use regularly that uses multitasking is Evernote, and it is not that great the implementation they did. I read you can record a note and do other stuff but…

It is fine…

ibooks: ibooks app rocks. Far sexier and better than kindle. Bookmarks sync with iPad and books look great, but… who read books in an iPhone? I prefer a trillion times to listen to books, put the iPhone in my pocket and listen.
Tip for ibooks: they use .epub extension, so if you have any .epub books, just drag them to your iTunes and you’ll have them in your iPhone. Just great.

Now that I have iOS4 in my 3GS, do I really need to buy an iPhone 4???

I am sure a lot of people is going to be asking this question. What else do you get? A better display? A better camera? Maybe the killer feature for the switch is facetime, but I still don’t know how it works. Do you have to start a regular call before starting? If so, it is now worth it for me. The other end cannot be a computer and I don’t know anybody with an iPhone 4.

Now if you have to make a call, lets suppose my mum in Spain buys an iPhone 4, then I have to spend a lot of money to call her first to Spain from a Swiss phone. If you can start the call over wifi (no need to make a call) then it is a different story. It might be a good thing.

By the way, is Fring or Skype going to support the front camera? if that is the case, then yes…

First make sure that:

• If you have a Jailbroken iPhone 3GS with the OLD BOOTROM and you DID NOT use Spirit to jailbreak then you can create the ipsw with PwnageTool 4.0 and restore with your jailbroken recovery mode.
• If you have an iPhone 3GS with the NEW BOOTROM this is NOT supported by PwnageTool 4.01

This is what you have to do:

1. Download Official iPhone iOS 4 for iPhone 3GS here (official from Apple).
2. Download Pwnage Tool 4.01 from any of this locations:
   • http://www.iphone-storage.de/PwnageTool_4.01.dmg
   • http://dl.finalgaming.de/dev-team/PwnageTool_4.01.dmg
   • http://www.stimp.nl/mirrorfiles/PwnageTool_4.01.dmg
3. Download iTunes 9.2 (you can do that but opening iTunes and look for upgrades)
4. Now run the PwnageTool. If it is in the same directory of the image ipsw image you downloaded in the step 1, then it will see that it the image to use. Just use Simple Mode and this image. This will create a new image that by default will be placed on your desktop. You can then close the PwnageTool.
5. Now before you upgrade your iphone, you could consider installing from Cydia AptBackup (from BigBoss). That will know which Cydia apps you have installed and in a later stage restore them.
6. Now, back up your phone, by connecting it to iTunes
7. Switch off your phone by holding on the top button and sliding to switch it off.
8. Make sure that it is connected it to the mac with the image you created and iTunes is open. Now hold the top and home button to enter into recovery mode.
9. iTuenes will tell you it is in recovery mode. Now you have to hold the Option key and click on restore. That will allow you to select the image on your desktop.
10. That’s it. The restore upgrade will not take a lot of time. What takes time is once you have iOS4 to restore you latest config.

If you have gone to the 10 steps you should have an iPhone 3GS with iOS4 and after more than an hour (in my cases) the same you had before.

Now you go to Cydia and install AptBackup, click on restore and voila, all your Cydia apps.

I had a problem though. My iPhone had a safe mode due to a problem with an app in Cydia. The app in question was MyFi. I had to remove it and now everything is OK.

Anthropomorphic design is nothing new, but these furniture objects are quite literally made of people. A cross between art photography,performance artand home furniture design, these strange shots show us a surreal artistic perspective on everyday household objects. These photographs may not be safe for work … nor are the creations they depict safe, and they do not really work.

From stacked human shelves to place settings set on structural bodies, arched figures holding entertainment systems to a lamp-headed person, these images shot by photographer David Blazquez feel almost uncomfortably raw and personal.

The feeling of discomfort is augmented, of course, by the nudity of the posed figures – but is also tied to the surreal depictions of familiar forms. The composite ‘people furniture’ seems at once stable and solid yet also simultaneously soft and poised to collapse.

Sensual or sexist? Simplistic or sublime? It is said of the best and most controversial artists in history that they were masters of their craft before they broke away from mainstream techniques, materials or approaches. Likewise, Peter Rolfe did not simply start by making suggestive and erotic pieces of furniture – he began by becoming a master of fine wood furniture design and construction.

These forms may come as a shock to moral sensibilities – or might not, depending upon the cultural context of the viewer. Either way, however, the layered, carved and polished wooden forms are incredibly well-made despite the complexities involved with having opening and closing doors, drawers and other moving elements.

Whether sublime, sexy or something else entirely, each part is carved with incredible delicacy and precision – from the human forms themselves to the props with which they interact – such as the supporting object above designed to look the part of an remarkably life-like cloth draped over a dresser.

Before you begin to wonder whether this work is more sexist than sexual, it is worth noting that he has crafted male forms as well as female ones.

Still, some of the women are modeled with arguably unrealistically ‘perfect’ curves by societal standards – and the locations of some of the drawer openingsand storage spaces do leave open questions about just how erotic these pieces truly are. But perhaps that is their purpose, or at least part of the point: to create conversations, spark controversy and question our avoidance of sexually suggestive forms in contemporary furniture design.

(from dornob)

Remember The Milk

If you are one of these guys living in the cloud, using google docs, or zoho, online calendars… then you probably also use online task management tools. Maybe you are happy to use your outlooks todo lists, or you do it in the cloud using Google tasks or remember the milk.

BaseCampHQ

If you work with clients then you are probably looking for a way to manage your tasks, sort of ticketing system but not necessarily for IT projects, a way to organise your work and the work of your team: a project management tool in the cloud. The king up to new has been  37 signal’s star product basecamphq (click here to see the tour).

Now you have other players in the market that do it equaly or better than bascamp and that you should consider:

Assembla

This is the one I use. It is free and I can create a space for each of my clients. They can also create a free account and add tickets or tasks to it, that I can customize in terms of organising the fields, milestones, etc.. (content, newsletter, technic) etc…

I like assemble because I can track the time I spend on a ticket, so at the end of the month I can bill by hours of work if I wish. You can have a wiki, upload files, etc…

Producteev

They just launched version 2. Very very nice. I just opened an account. It is the more social oriented ticketing system. You can add tickets or tasks via IM, email, they have a nice iPhone app… very nice. Simple though. You cannot indent task or add projects but you can have different workspaces add tags and link it to your calendar. It is nice to be able to feed it via IM, email or iPhone.

Screencast Producteev Two from Producteev.com on Vimeo.

Trac

Open source. The king tool for managing your files in a team. Try the demo.

Redmine

This one is an open source solution. Never tried. Demo here.

Teamwork Project Manger

This is a good alternative to bascamp. It is cheaper and here you can see how they say it is better.

Unfuddle

This is good tool to ticketing. This is the one I used when I was working at Shelter Centre and developing the new Drupal site. You can also track time (money) manage your code, etc… They support trac and check ins for code. Assembla does too.

Others:

• http://achievo.org/
• http://www.projectpier.org/
• http://www.springloops.com/
• http://fogcreek.com/FogBugz/
• http://www.jivesoftware.com/products/employee-community
• http://collabtive.o-dyn.de/?lang=en
• http://www.hyperoffice.com/task-manager/
• http://www.myintervals.com/
• http://www.deskaway.com/

CERN (European Laboratory for Particle Physics) *

EFTA (European Free Trade Association)

GAVI alliance

IATA (International Air Transport Association)

ICC (International Computing Center)

ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross)

IFRC (International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies)

ILO (International Labour Organization) *

IOM (International Organization for Migration)

IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union)

ITC (International Trade Center)

ITU (International Telecommunications Union)

ISO (International Standards Organization)

OCHA – Relief Web (United Nations Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs)

SITA ( Société Internationale de Télécommunications Aéronautiques – NGO International Company)

UNAIDS (Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS)

UNCC (United Nations Compensation Commission)

UNCTAD (United Nations Conference on Trade and Development)

UNHCHR (United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights)

UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees)

UNOG (United Nations Office Geneva)

WCC (World Council of Churches)

WHO (World Health Organization) *

WIPO (World Intellectual Property Organization)

WMO (World Meteorological Organization)

WTO (World Trade Organization)

* With online application system.

You can also check: http://icsc.un.org/joblinks.asp

Please note that all UN organizations (UNCC, UNCTAD, UNHCHR, UNHCR, UNOG,..) have a common online application tool (e-Galaxy).

WHO and UNADS have a common online applications tool as well.

This are my thoughs on how I would like this sort of cameras to evolve in the next years:

1. Pixel-wise they are OK already. Around 12 to 20 Mpx is more than OK.
2. I would rather improve the sensor to be able to shoot at nights. I hate flash and noise. Nikon D3s in in these lines. My future camera should be great shooting with low light and have nearly zero grain (noise).
3. They should geotag photos. These cameras should come by default with a GPS. Now you can buy an external one (see my latest post), but ideally it should be integrated.
4. I shouldn’t bother to connect the camera to a PC. I should be able to get home, and via my home wifi (or you could configure this) the camera should be able to upload the photos to your media centre, to your flickr, smugmug, picasa or whatever service you use for online backup. Now you have eyefi doing something similar, but it should be out of the box with the camera, being able to configure it: local pc, HD, online service… or if you are traveling and find a hotspot, then be able from the camera menu to upload them somewhere.
5. HD video, sure.

Most of this things can already be done with your phone. Phones are getting beter and better on photos and video, with 8Mpx and HD video… so DSLRs should not be less. They will always be beter optic-wise and sensor-wise.

(from engadget)

How It’s Done

It’s surprisingly easy. Now that Google makes it simple to embed a Wave in any blog post, starting a Wave-based live blog is as easy as copying and pasting a URL into a Web form.

Step 1: Start a Public Wave

To create a public Wave, simply head over to Google Wave and start a new Wave. By default, Wave’s are not public. To make this live-blogging wave public – so that your readers can later see it on your blog – you have to add public@a.gwave.com to the new Wave. This account is probably not in your contacts yet, so just copy and paste the address and add this account to the Wave.

Now you have two options: 1) you can give your readers full access to your Wave, which means anybody can comment as you live blog, or 2) make the Wave read-only and don’t allow others to edit it. To change these settings (even after you start), simply click on the globe icon that represents the public@a.gwave.com account and change the access settings. By default, all public waves are set to “full access.”

Step 2: Get the Embed Code and Embed Your Wave

Now you need to get the embed code. Just copy the URL of the wave from your browser’s address bar and head to the Wave Elements tool. Paste the URL into the form, hit Return so that the tool recognizes the new URL, set the desired size of the embed, and then head to the bottom of the page where you can find the updated embed code.

After this, all you have to do is head over to your favorite blogging tool and paste the embed code into your new post.

Step 4: Start Blogging

Head back to Wave after you finish setting up your post and start blogging. Your readers will see every letter you type in real time.

Lessons Learned

Here are a few things we learned today:

• Wave worked like a charm. We did not experience any hiccups and our readers were very happy about seeing us type the updates in real time – live blogging really doesn’t get more “live” than this. Having Google’s infrastructure as the basis for your live blog definitely helps when you have lots of people hitting your blog at the same time.
• Adding a few extra people to Wave allows you to share the workload. If possible, have at least one extra person around to create and upload screenshots. We used a Skype backchannel during the event to coordinate in the background, but you could also use a second Wave for this.

A Few Things to Keep in Mind

• The default font size in the Wave embed is too small, and changing it for every new wavelet takes too long. Hopefully Wave will soon allow us to set a slightly larger font size as the default.
• Wave didn’t work well for Safari users and is obviously also still an issue for Internet Explorer.
• Uploading screenshots to Wave is easy, just click on the attachments icon, pick the desired image and hit submit. Sadly, you can’t just drag and drop images from your desktop onto your browser (yet), so having a second person to manage that is helpful.
• Spell checking in Wave is still a bit difficult even when you have a second person edit your posts.

One thing to remember when you use Wave to live blog is that your readers aren’t likely to reload your page often, so your page views will likely be lower than if you just posted regular updates into a static blog post. We think this is a worthwhile trade-off, given that the experience for our readers is superior to using a static post, but that’s a decision every publisher has to make individually.

(from readwriteweb)

It is a petty because I have tons of photos. It is a petty also that those that I have in norai I have not a full size copy of them as I just did it for the web…

I have a very peculiar workflow for photos. My media server with 2x2Tb HDs has about 150Gb of Jpegs and 150Gb of Raws.

When I take a photo with my nikon d300 I take it in Raw (only for the past couple of years), then I save it in a Photos Raw folder with the date-event folder. Then I process them with DxO which generates a Jpeg with the corrected noise, lens distortion and so. I move the jpgs to a folder named the same in a Photos folder.

Picasa is the program I use in the media centre to  see the photos.

On the other hand, the photos I take with my iPhone are in my Mac using iPhoto. I don’t know why… but I take a lot of photos with the iPhone.

Up to now I used to upload the Jpgs to my servers downstairs where I have Gallery2 from menalto. It is good, but videos are not great and again it is here and I am trying to move away from depending on my server.

Now I was considering to have an offsite copy of all my photos. I could go for something like backblaze (or mozy, though I prefere the first), pay $5 per month and forget, or go for an online cloud gallery. This backup solutions are good. Backblaze lets you back up usb drives connected to a machine, even if they are not always connected. I have the Media server with 2Tb and then it has 1Tb USB drive and a 500Mb one… so it would be a good option… but the stuff I really need is in my mac (320Gb) which backs up to a TimeMachine in the Linux Server….

The two major players are Flickr and Picasaweb. Sure you have Smugmug which is the one that looks the best and others such as expono, snapixel.

For me the ideal would be picasaweb basically because I don’t care about the community (where flickr is strong) and it is just a switch in picasa to have everything sync with the web. If I work on the face tags or locations, everything is happily synchronised. In addition to this I like the fact that I can keep my folder structure in the media server and picasa will just be a layer to display it and synchronise it with the web.

So what is wrong?

Google sells space. Basically 20Gb for $5 per year or 200Gb for $50. I have 150Gb of Jpgs. Unfortunately there is NO SERVICE that would allow me to upload my NEF (raw files) and they will create the Jpgs or something.

This is expensive. I would have to go for 200Gb so $50 per year.

Another problem is that there is no good iphone app to upload from the iPhone your photos and videos to picasaweb (hello!!).

Then we have Flickr. Flickr is cheap. $25 per year for unlimited space. If I just want a backup then why not go for flickr?

I don’t like it. I know the community is the best one, so if you want to promote your photos then it is far better. If you want to make profit by selling them then smugmug pro is the winner ($150 year).

Flickr has not desktop app. They don’t respect my folder structure. If I choose flickr and I have 150Gb to upload, I would love to keep my folder structure in sets (this is what flickr considers folders) but the flickr uploadr doesn’t allow that. So I would end up with 50.000 photos in a bucket and then do the job online to classify them on sets, collections do the map thing (which sucks compared to google map) and faces… (again!!).

So here I am. On one side the winner is google, but I think they are expensive and I don’t know how fast my storage demands will grow, but for me today is twice the price of flickr.

On the other side, everybody use flickr. I guess you get use to it, but the sycn and the process of uploading the photos… for that I continue with gallery2 in my servers, I copy everything to an external HD, I plug it in my mums and I rsync it once in a while. But then what do I do with the videos I take with the phone? Put them all in youtube?

Maybe…

Anybody went to this hard choice?

Anyway, why my next phone is going to be an iPhone 4G and not an Android?

Having migrated all my email to google apps myself (I was hosting it at home with zimbra up to now), I have thought several times that the best next phone for me would be an android based phone. I’m sure there is nothing better for Google apps integration, and I am a heavy user of google apps (mail, calendars, tasks, contacts, docs), but…

I love my current phone (iPhone 3GS) and even if sometimes I feel tempted to go for more powerful, quick and feature rich phone, such as the nexus one, droid incredible, evo… they are still behind apple’s iPhone in terms of the amount of apps, the simplicity and in terms of sync with google apps, I am pretty happy with exchange for having pushed email, calendars and contact from google, and geetasks app for the tasks.

Again I am not questioning the fact that android phones might be much better integrated, but, and this is the main reason why I am going to buy an iPhone 4G, and it is something everybody should consider:

I am not ready to see that my handset is obsolete after a month or two in the market. That there are trillions of handsets so always something newer and better than the one you have.

Same applies for android OS. They release versions like popcorn. Today you buy a motorola droid with android 2.1 and tomorrow you have the droid incredible and android 2.2.

With apple this is more reasonable: maximum one new handset per year, and the releases of updates maximum every 6 months, but always compatible with old handsets and easy and transparant to update.

Now you might also argue that android is not policed like apple is. True. That is why I get the most out of my phone by jailbraking it. No limits: MyWi, SMS confirmation, sbprefs, install apps from ssh…

My iPhone is my all-in-one gadget it does everything for me: I control the music on the mediacenter computer (windows) with iTunes using remote app, I see and control my IP Camera from anywhere, it is a terrific iPod, I listen and watch netcasts, listen to books, music, constantly!!, Navigon tells me how to get to a place when driving, I check in in places, write comments, check the web, have my email pushed, have my life archived (mail, bills and so) with evernote, I tweet, I see my webdav server, I can connect my computer with MyWi using 3G, I take quality photos and videos everywhere (I have thousands)… and if now I am going to be able to have skype running in the back with a front camera…

what else? ;-)

Now I would like to try to predict what what it is going to happen to what I think is one of the key avenues for social real time media.

Location as it is now I think it will change. Now you are forced to take your phone, open an application, locate yourself using GSM triangulation and GPS, then check in at a place that should be in the list (or create a new one). Most of the apps are like games: with gowalla you leave and take stuff, with foursquare you become a mayor of a place and earn badges… and tellmewhere has (under my point of view) gotten worse, while it was the one I was betting for.

In the future we should ask ourselves why would you check in in a place. As it is now is more like a trend. Fashion. I would see it useful if you could: get information of the place where you are: menu, promotions, how many people now in, etc…

Also with the right privacy settings, see who is there, and let them know (to those you want) that you are there. This should be done without check in, at least to a close group of friends.

To do it publicly, like it is done now should be done carefully and as it is being done now, baring in mind that it is not that advisable to keep broadcasting your precise location… not safe. Some one could check you are not at home and rob you, for instance. There was a funny site where you could see were people was located so you could go and rob their houses. (It was a funny site sure, not serious).

Continuing with what we would expect from such technology is a tool to broadcast to “your” public (closed group of people) where you are, what are the tips about that place, etc… A tool where you could upload photos, videos, stream, leave tips, comment on the menu, a reward program if you go often, order from your phone products or complementary services or packages, pay,etc… The potential is huge.

This is how I see location based apps in the future. The problem I see is that most of the times venues are in buildings where there is no GPS signal, so no precision in locating people automatically. Also I see the privacy issues a key delicate topic.

Gadgets:

Macbook pro
iPhone 3GS (as soon as the 4G is out… then … ;-) )
Nikon d300 with nikkor 18-200 and  sigma 10-20 (I wish it was a nikon d3s though…)
Fonera2.0n (great concept and community. I have two an convincing friends to join)
IP Camera (pan tilt) wifi
I hesitate about the iPad. I might wait for the second gen (with hopefully a camera for video chats)

Services:

Google apps
Google sync
Zoneedit (to manage dns)
Evernote (my brain basically)
Delicious (and a plugin for chrome)
Dropbox

For the mac (I have tons…):

Google Chrome
BusyCal
AppCleaner
Audiobook builder (to create audiobooks and put them in iTunes)
Backuplist + (to rsync my docs to my webdav)
Copypaste Pro
Mikogo (free app to share desktop with anybody, browsing together and granting control over your machine)
Paparazzi! (to create a snapshot of a website)
ScreenFlick (to make screencasts)
Skype (I use it via Adium)
Adium (all Instant Messengers into one: Skype, Gtalk, yahoo, msn, facebook, aol, etc…)
Proxifier (to put all the apps into a box, then you can tunnel them via ssh into a machine with squid)
1Password (to manage logins and passwords. Syncs with iPhone)

For the iPhone:

Tweetie (in fact for iPhone and mac)
Brightkite (like twitter on steroids: with images, location, notes, checkins)
Facebook
Foursquare, Gowala, Tellmewhere (location based apps. You can use http://check.in to check in at the same time in some of them)
GeeTasks pro
AutoStich (to create panoramas with several photos)
Pixelpipe
1Password
MyWi (use your 3g connection to become a wifi hot spot)
ezShare (remote desktop, VPN and access to network drives like webdav)
IP Vision Pro (to access you Ip cameras)

I don’t have but I wish I have (I am not in the US… that is why):

Google Voice
Mint

One of my favourite authors for this is David Allen and his “Getting Things Done” book and now philosophy. It does not fit my needs 100% but you can get a lot of good ideas. It is a read I recommend to anybody who would like to take a step back and see how to improve his/her workflow on executing stuff, not just at work but in your personal life.

I will write one day on which are my workflows but in the post I just wanted to briefly explain how I organise my todos.

First to clarify that I am heavy user of my iPhone and I could not live without Evernote. I take photos of everything, and I classify it all in evernote: from photos of all (yeap, all) incoming mail, to receipts (yeap…) to all my books, visiting cards, wines, etc… even when browsing it I constantly click shift and the evernote button to get a pdf of what I want to save.

For tasks and priorities I used to use things (a mac and iPhone program) but since I migrated my email to google apps, I use google tasks (as I mentioned in my previous post).

I have the following “lists” that I rather call “projects”.

@action (the @ is to bring it to the top) where I put most of the stuff I have to do and does not fall under a more complex task. Before I used to have an @inbox with the idea to drop everything there in a previous step and then put it in the right list in a second step, but I found out I could be disciplined enough to classify staff as it was arriving. In my Evernote and at home for my paper stuff, I do use an @inbox though.

Then I have a @wating for list. Here I put stuff like, waiting for an ebay thing I bought, or if someone is supposed to take some action on something that should come back to me, if you delegate a job for instance.

lent and borrowed lists. Don’t you hate when you lend a book to someone and it never comes back? Then you don’t remember who was it or which book. Well I keep track of everything I lend and I borrow, of course.

someday list. Here stuff that I have to do eventually but does not fall into the action list. Stuff like make a copy of the keys for the neighbours, upload latest holiday photos, etc…

scheduled list. Even if some of the stuff above can have a deadline or a day they should move to the action or you should execute them, the scheduled list is more for stuff that can be recurrent or that is far in time to be in the action folder but not as vage as someday. Examples: date that the subscription to a paper expires, an annual summer jazz concert…

wish list. Here I put all that I want to do, but that I am not necessarily do: buy a nikon d3s, go to x restaurant, buy x wine, visit japan, etc…

The specific project lists. One that it is always there is shopping where I write all the stuff I have to buy in the short term (salt, shoes, pasta, pesto…), you could add all this in the @action list but the idea of clustering similar stuff into projects is very convenient.  You could have lists such as: job hunting (and all the places you want to apply for), house works (and all the stuff you want to fix at home), etc…

This is in a nutshell how I organise my ToDo’s.

Another day I will explain how I organise my email, and Evernote.

This is how I manage mine:

I use google apps (you could use gmail tasks) and I use the tasks there. You can create a calendar with the tasks with due date.

In my iPhone I syncronize it with Geetasks pro which is a great app that syncs your tasks in google with your iphones… and works offline!!

Then, in my mac I use fluid. Fluid (which is free) what it does is it creates a program in your applications folder with a custom browser unique for that app (Site Specific Browser (SSB)), so when I launch norai tasks it opens a window with the tasks alone. Like a program. You can even choose the icon you want for the program.

For the URL you have to use something like (what I use):

https://mail.google.com:443/tasks/a/yourdomain/ig

or if you want a list on the left and the tasks on the right (nice if you are a heavy user)

https://mail.google.com:443/tasks/a/yourdomain/canvas

or if you want to see it like in a phone (you can use iPhone at the end instead of android but works better with android):

https://mail.google.com:443/tasks/a/yourdomain/android

Take a look at this site to know more about how to do it, but pretty straight forward.

The pros is that in my iPhone (main tool for tasks) I have them offline also. When in the office you can use google site or the second lint (canvas) to manage your tasks and projects.

The cons is that in my mac I have to be online (with fluid). It would be nice to have gears for that…

Reflecting their creators’ desire to step far, far away from the sheepish architectural clones that our culture has grown to accept as “normal”, these outstanding structures are among the unique global jewels that convey a quirky sense of personality tucked within an even more wackadoodle shell. While it may be hip to be square, these slightly left of center buildings demonstrate that marching to the beat of one’s own drummer – whether you’re of the animal, vegetable, mineral or architectural persuasion – is actually a whole lot more fun.

Ferdinand Cheval’s Le Palais Idéal or “Ideal Palace” (Hauterives, France)

(Images via: Nobiwan, The Bodacious Belgrade Blog, Arts Library)

Throughout a 33 year period, rural postman Ferdinand Cheval – who lacked any architectural background whatsoever – collected all the individual stones necessary to create his elaborate carved limestone and shell studded structure via pocket, basket and wheelbarrow. Incorporating a bizarre conglomeration of architectural styles inspired by Hindu and Biblical mythology as well as Algerian, Northern European and Chinese elements, he finally completed his outstandingly quirky monument just one year before his death in 1924 at the age of 88. Grottos, flying buttresses and statues of animals collide in what is today one of the most outstanding examples of “naïve art” architecture and France’s most beloved cultural landmark.

Waldspirale (Darmstadt, Germany)

(Images via: Pakway, Memucan, Germany Tourism, CheapOstay)

Viennese architect and painter Friedensreich Hundertwasser conceived of this fantastical, U-shaped, multi-earth-toned 12 floor residential building complex which emulates the layers of sedimentary rock that you might see in a jutting outcrop deep in the mountains. Completed just 10 years ago, his “Forest Spiral” features 105 apartments, 1000 different shaped windows, a café/bar, an inner courtyard with an artificial lake plus a diagonal green roof studded with botanical elements such as trees, grass, shrubs and flowers. Built by the Bauverein Darmstadt company, it currently serves as the home base for hundreds of lucky German residents.

Eliphante (Cornville, Arizona)

(Images via: Dymaxionweb, Organic Architect, Somethin Beautiful, You Live Where, Trip Advisor, Eccentric America)

An exercise in artistically imaginative organic architecture, this dwelling – built into 3 acres of natural Arizona landscape by husband-wife team Michael Kahn and Leda Livant – would likely trigger Seussian envy in Theodor Geisel himself. Consisting of five separate hand-crafted structures linked together by their shared idiosyncratic themes, the main living quarters are housed within Eliphante and connected to a meditation zone, art gallery, bath house, sculpture garden and wading pond. Raw materials were scavenged from the desert and integrated into the homestead with decisive artistic flair along with stone and glass mosaics, wood, tile, plaster and metal sculptures, yielding a one-of-a-kind home that lives, breathes and communes with Mother Nature.

The Ice Hotel (Jukkasjarvi, Sweden)

(Images via: Multemusic, Culture Shoq, Sophistikitty, Ice Luxury Items)

Quite like short-lived, seasonal treasures such as the emergence of cherry blossoms that are here today and gone tomorrow, Jukkasjärvi’s Ice Hotel exists just 4 brief months out of every year. The nearby Torne River is relieved of tons of its ice, which is then used along with well over 30,000 tons of snow to form the ethereal exterior structure, central supports, shimmering rooms and infamously surreal ice bar. At the end of the spring, what remains is recycled and stored for next year’s incarnation — which is just one of several eco-friendly efforts (including self-generated renewable energy) that add to the hotel’s carbon negative aspirations that they intend to achieve by 2015.

Experience Music Project (Seattle, Washington)

(Images via: Washington.edu, Steve Picture Place, Travel Dudes, About.com, Mibazaar)

An architectural train wreck or simply just a brilliant collision of our world’s most memorable landmarks? In fact, this Frank Gehry-designed museum – which offers a cultural exploration of science fiction and music within – pays homage to the Gehry Tower, Guggenheim Museum Bilbao and Walt Disney Concert Hall among other works created by the designer’s firm. Of course, critics have referred to it as being somewhat hemorrhoidal in shape and among the most supremely ugly buildings in the entire world, and while it IS risky with its clashing colors, textures and overall architectural identity crisis, the Experience Music Project kind of grows on you after awhile. Perhaps it’s high time for a little extra dietary fiber ;)

The Sheep Building & Sheepdog Building (Waikato, New Zealand)

(Images via: Cool Mags, Uphaa, Ray Tomes)

Known for its rolling emerald hills dotted with what can only be described as a sea of terrestrial sheep, it’s rather fitting that in a land where wooly creatures out number humans twelve to one that Tirau boasts the world’s only known corrugated iron sheep-shaped structure along with a companion sheep dog version. Housing a wool and craft shop, the sheep building provides a perfect complement to its canine compadre (which happens to be the location of the town’s i-SITE Visitor Information Center). Both are crafted by local artist Steven Clothier, the brains behind “Corrugated Creations” and the reason why this small New Zealand locale is now covered with hundreds of smaller scale but equally quirky iron sculptures.

The Urban Cactus (Rotterdam, Netherlands)

(Images via: Vision Decor, Arts Library)

Rising up into the sky like an alien urban desert invader, this 19 floor Rotterdam high rise offers city dwellers an opportunity to get their funk on along with their green thumbs. Conjured up by the visionary design team at UCX Architects, the graduating structure with star-shaped levels enables natural light to stream through the living spaces while also offering residents access to ample outdoor patio areas, all while overlooking the Rotterdam Harbor. Sounds and looks divine!

“Inversion”…Also Known as “The Hole House” or “Tunnel House” (Houston,Texas)

(Images via: Listphobia, David Airey)

Prior to its imminent demolition, the Houston-based art trio of Kate Petley, Dan Havel and Dean Ruck decided to make the most of a doomed dwelling in a Montrose neighborhood by transforming it into a short lived but very memorable installation called “The Tunnel” or “Hole” house. With its central vortex narrowing into a tunnel that spilled out into the exterior of the structure, local spectators were able to experience their own personal Alice in Wonderland fantasies (or nightmares as the case may be) before the whole thing was leveled in 2005.

The Mushroom House aka Tree House (Cincinnati, Ohio)

(Images via: at: 5chw4r7z, Rocketeer, AnDy631, The Wondrous)

Sprouting up in Cincinnati’s Hyde Park section, professor of Architecture and Interior Design Terry Brown – along with his students – hand crafted this one bedroom residence throughout a period of 14 years until its completion in 2006, at which time it was put on the market for $525,000. Sadly, Brown met his untimely demise just two years later in a car accident, but his Mushroom House – constructed with multiple types of metals, tinted glass, ceramics, wood and shell – serves as his most outstanding legacy and one of Cincinnati’s most esteemed landmarks.

Hang Nga Guesthouse a.k.a Crazy House (Dalat, Vietnam)

(Images via: Webady, TrippyDoo, Travel Spot Cool Stuff)

Tumbling out of the imagination of architect Dang Viet Nga, Hang Nga’s Guesthouse and Gallery is…well…all sorts of crazy, from its rustic tree-like base with spiderweb windows to winding, nook-and-cranny laden interior that promises to keep you guessing at every turn. The artsy designer and daughter of Vietnam’s former president tapped into her entrepreneurial spirit by wisely charging admission to the storybook structure, knowing full well that spectators would happily gobble up its funhouse like details, including seemingly melting interior and exterior facades punctuated by somewhat goofy ‘what are THEY doing here?’ zoo animals keeping a watchful, protective eye upon the premises.

Mind House, Part of Park Güell (Barcelona, Spain)

(Images via: Unusual Architecture, Kripo)

Spanish Catalan architect Antoni Gaudi, known for his fantastically original architectural works that can be found throughout Barcelona, incorporated intriguing mythological imagery within his Park Güell, including an outstanding colorful mosaic lizard and a sea serpent-shaped bench which took its unforgettable form thanks to the impression of a woman’s curvaceous derriere in the wet clay. Slightly more memorable than his naked buttock design technique is the overall gingerbread-like layout of his enchanting city garden boasting a thicket of 88 twisted rock pillars along with meandering walkways that appear to exist symbiotically with the lush green landscape. Serving as the focal point of the sprawling botanical zone is the Pavilion or Mind House, a rock studded masterpiece with whimsical jesture-like roof crowned by a polka-dotted mushroom shaped turret.

Conch Shell House (Isla Mujeres, Mexico)

(Images via: Couture Carrie, Art Style Online, Home Away)

Located just 20 minutes away from Cancun, this Carribbean Ocean-surrounded oasis — crafted by Octavio Ocampo — certainly leaves a distinctive impression with its 180 degree ocean views and seashell inspired design. The 5500 square foot dwelling, incorporating concrete as well as structural materials plucked straight from the beach and surrounding region, has no angles…just smooth flowing lines that mirror real seashells. With an interior that is just as alluring as its façade (thanks to creative design details that make the most of real coral and assorted conch shells), Ocampo’s structure – which is available for vacation rentals – offers a true escape into an ocean bound paradise.

Grand Lisboa (Macao)

(Images via: Cool Mags, Nightlight, Wayfaring)

We’ve all seen the ritz and glitz of modern casinos, so this entry may not seem like it’s treading unchartered waters, however the Dennis Lua and Ng Chun Man-designed structure happens to be among the world’s tallest skyscrapers…so that’s somethin’. An eight-story spherical platform pulsing with ostentatiously gaudy neon lights supports an equally Liberace-like lotus leaf, providing onlookers with seductive eye candy which baits them into gambling their cares and bank accounts away. With 58 floors of 5 star debauchery, the $375 million dollar project is said to be among the most opulent, in part due to the ample bling scattered throughout…such as crystal balls, 580,000 Swarovski crystals, gold leaf accents and the permanent display of a flawless 218 carat diamond called the Star of Stanley Ho.

The School of Art, Design and Media at Nanyang Technological University (Singapore)

(Images via: Architecture List, CPG Corp, Kamwise Miao)

Blurring the line between nature and architecture, this 5 story learning institute is an outstanding example of green construction with its fluid, grassy roof which appears to nestle its inner structure with a protective hug. Amid an urban landscape traditionally studded with buildings that automatically conduct heat, CPG Consultants’ award-winning design offers innate cooling properties along with a roof top rainwater harvesting system and smart sensors that only hydrate the greenery when necessary. It almost seems as though the glass, concrete and metal structure is carved into its wooded valley, acting as a natural extension of what Mother Nature was like long before man stepped into the mix.

The Crooked House (Sopot, Poland)

(Images via: Xcitefun.net, Panoramia, 2Bored4fun)

With little elbow room to breathe due to its curious location amid a long string of boutiques and cafes in Sopot’s Rezydent shopping center, it’s not surprising that architect Szotynscy Zaleski’s 4000 square meter cartoonish structure is suffering from a serious squish factor. However, it’s all by design and reflective of the art of Per Dahlberg and Jan Marcin Szancer, both of whom created fanciful scenes that are brought to life in The Crooked House’s off-kilter lines and somewhat saggy overall demeanor. Containing three stories packed to the gills with shops, restaurants, bars and a handful of touristy sites, Zaleski’s most photographed landmark is memorable just as much for its quirky appearance as it is for its sheer artistry and rather pitiful, gravity-succumbing sadness.

(Top montage images via: iFood TV.com, Instant Shift, Vision Decor, Wayfaring, Top 10 Thailand, Jassy World, Art Style Online, Cool Mags,  Design Top News)

(from weburbanist)

Animoto does nice videos from your videos and images automatically. The output is pretty impressive and it is very easy to use. With the free account you get 30 sec videos.

Take a look at the one I just did for my son. It has taken me few minutes to do. Just upload some photos a couple of videos and write a bit of text:

Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Last week, the newly renamed Google Places added a ton of features to help local businesses create a directory page right on Google. Today, Google’s Street View is joining the party by showing links to local business listings right in Street View. As you turn around in Street View, names of local businesses and other “Google Places” will show up overlayed on top of buildings. As you hover over those names, a small pop-up window shows some of the listing details such as business name, phone number, and ratings.

There have been links from business listings on Google Maps directly to Street View for almost a year, but now those business listings appear right within Street View itself. Google clearly wants to own local and is sprinkling these listings everywhere it can.

The next step I’m waiting for is to see Street view in a mobile augmented reality app, so that you can just point your phone camera at a building and see the businesses listed inside. That would be so Tonchidot of Google. Our augmented reality future awaits.

(from techcrunch)

J.K. Rowling Speaks at Harvard Commencement from Harvard Magazine on Vimeo.

At her Harvard University commencement speech, “Harry Potter” author JK Rowling offers some powerful, heartening advice to dreamers and overachievers, including one hard-won lesson that she deems “worth more than any qualification I ever earned.”

(Images via: Make Sweet, Spot Cool Stuff Travel, Cool Family Vacations, Trendir, Dirwell, Momoy, Juvan Design,  Restaurant Tycoons, Home Architecture & Interior Design, Modeco Design, Autojogja, Momoy)

Feeling a little peckish? Longing for a dining experience that transcends the ordinary, taking your taste buds on an otherworldly journey into hot damnnnn territory? Fret not, foodies, for the act of eating can be easily elevated to that of a culinary adventure when good food melds with even greater digs. Tantalizing our taste buds traditionally begins with fresh ingredients, masterful preparation and an aesthetically pleasing arrangement, but once the extra ingredient of architectural genius is added to the mix, a perfectly satisfying meal becomes that of an event that lingers within our minds long after we unceremoniously lap up the last scrumptious crumb from plates. (Waste not, want not…mom would definitely approve.) You might want to make a point of visiting at least one or two of the following radically designed chow palaces for an experience you’ll undoubtedly dine for!

Germany’s Fully Automated, Quick-n-Quirky Restaurant

(Images via: Crust Station, s Baggers, Be Update, Anita Coco, 2Day Blog)

Boasting a Wallace and Gromit-like, spiral-configured and entirely automated gravity feed rail system, Michael Mack is the brainchild behind ’s Baggers highly entertaining and quite efficient automated ordering and direct-to-table delivery service. Essentially rendering waiters and waitresses obsolete, his patented, computer-networked process could enable other restaurateurs to focus on the business of serving good food and pass their saved personnel costs onto patrons. Endowing diners with greater control over the pace of their meals, the novelty aspect alone is enough to help Mack gain a devoted following and court fast food chains like McDonald’s, which he is very eager to license the idea to.

Japan’s Deeply Rooted Eatery

(Images via: Storm Seed, RVM Gratz, Cube Me, Best House Design, Cyana Trendland)

Upon initial review, this novelty restaurant perched atop a rustic looking tree is quite impressive with its 20 foot tall weathered foundation and internal elevator which transports patrons up to the main dining area. The hearty vines ensconcing the trunk add to the overall impression that this is a tree with a storied life, but in actuality, it possesses the heart and soul of plain old concrete. In spite of that buzz kill, the Naha Harbor Diner has earned a reputation as offering an outstanding view of Onoyama Park and the harbor as well as serving up really tasty, locally sourced organic ethnic cuisine running the gamut from Japanese and Indian to Italian.

A Maldivian Deep Sea Spectacle

(Images via: Elite Choice, Sydney Table, Koormann, Trip Advisor, Funking Dave)

For those who never quite got their sea legs down pat but still long for the hypnotic views that only the ocean can provide will undoubtedly be enamored with the Maldivian spectacle known as Ithaa, which in the region’s native tongue means “pearl”. Indeed, the $5 million restaurant is an ocean bound treasure, located 15 feet below the Indian Ocean to be precise, but you better be prepared to sell off any spare gold dental fillings you might have or at least a whole bunch of platelets to afford their $120 lunch or $250 dinner. Still, some might feel that it’s an experience well worth the bank account damage. Situated on Rangali Island, Ithaa restaurant is believed to be a one-of-a-kind underwater restaurant encapsulated entirely in very thick clear, aquarium style R-Cast acrylic, enabling patrons to enjoy 270 degree views of coral reefs and the naturally indigenous marine life.

Funky French Archipelago Dining Design is Especially Tres Fine

(Images via: Komokokomoko)

In a land dotted with endlessly quaint outdoor cafes, French designer Matali Crasset conceived of a vibrant indoor eating configuration that offers a modern interpretation of an archipelago with multiple satellite dining zones. Located inside a shopping mall at Cab 3000, St Laurent du Var, this Nouveau cafe design concept offers a dash of eye candy as well as a festive indoor solution to the open air dining culture that is so intrinsically a part of the French lifestyle. Even better, the designer created a fully movable unit which can be easily relocated to future locations that may be more optimal.

The Bee’s Knees For Diners Who Speak Chinese

(Images via: Ricarch, Shenzen Party)

Have you heard what all the buzz is about in Shenzhen, China? Ever since SAKO Architects constructed the 1300 square meter Honeycomb restaurant, area residents have been enjoying its large public space for special events as well as its intimate dinner nooks, all stylistically divided with a white spiral honeycomb-studded staircase. Featuring sleek transparent acrylic plastic partitions, undulating wave-like white aerated room sectionals, black granite flooring and mirror-like ceilings, the contrast of carefully appointed details with a space-age undercurrent work harmoniously to create a dynamic dining space that any diligent worker bee would happily want to cool their heels off in.

Pricey Crane-Bound Vittles a Light-Headed Thrill (or Chill)

(Images via: Spot Cool Stuff Travel)

Better not be afraid of heights if you step on board the swinging platform of Dinner in the Sky’s instant movable restaurant with a view. Hatched up by an apparently wacky and thrill-seeking Belgium company, they seem to be doing quite well given the fact that they are offering their distinctive crane-hoisted experience in major cities around the globe, including directly above the Grand Canyon, Paris’ Notre Dame, the Las Vegas Strip and naturally, glitzy Dubai. For the equivalent of an average blue collar salary ($30,000), you too can achieve new heights of dining glory with (hopefully) 22 of your closest seriously seat-buckled friends as you clink glasses at a height of 162 feet for two ever-so-brief yet undoubtedly memorable hours. Mangia!

Darkness Abounds in a Lviv, Ukraine Din-Din Shroud

(Images via: English Russia)

A Ukrainian undertaker and funeral home director must have thought to himself, “Egads! I know what’s been missing from the dining scene for far too long…a little dash of death to help us digest the bitter pill of our mortality!!” In keeping with his whopper of a brainstorm, the enterprising entrepreneur created a massive pine coffin restaurant replica called Eternity — acknowledged by the Guinness Book of World Records as being the largest in the world — and adhered to dreary thematic touches such as funeral music, depressingly crummy carnation wreaths and multiple human-sized coffins propped up against the black landscape plastic-lined walls. Whoo-eee, that’s one heavy scene. Who’s craving a Hello Kitty eatery instead?

Dining Kiwi-Style at What Seems Like a Mile (High, That Is…)

(Images via: Homedit, Cibo Archittetura, NZ Tramping, Springwise, Technovegy)

Standing 12 feet tall and spanning an equally impressive 10 feet in width, New Zealand’s plantation poplar-constructed Yellow Treehouse restaurant – nestled on the forest edge and accessible via a meandering 60 meter pathway – accommodates 18 diners in seriously lofty style. With its chrysalis-like vibe that spirals upward toward an open ended top, the organic design employs structural timber trusses which work in tandem with its central Redwood tree base to support the entire restaurant. Overall, the final look is one of an enchanting childhood fantasy come to life.

Airy, Woven Beauty With a Japanese-Themed Interior

(Images via: Dezeen, Design Boom)

With its bi-layer steel lattice exterior offering a practical yet highly dynamic way to repurpose what was previously an old house, Tori Tori Restaurant – located in Mexico City – is the exciting result of a collaboration between industrial designer Hector Esrawe and Rojkind Arquitectos. Filtered light streams through its open air pattern and into the perimeter of the very successful Japanese eatery, creating what seems to be an organic yet structured representation of the surrounding ivy-covered walls. This is one of those stop-and-stare structures that easily demonstrates that the days of cookie cutter box designs are fortunately over and done with – good riddance!

Sky-High Wood Pile (Better Keep the Splinters Out Of Your Eyes!)

(Images via: Ricarch)

Without its chaotic cacophony of criss-crossed wooden pieces streaming from four central cores and emanating up onto the ceiling, Sliver restaurant might easily be relegated to the ranks of attractive, modern dining spaces that are nevertheless easily forgettable at the end of the day. Fortunately, Russian based Dark Design Group exceeds our wildest design expectations with their simple yet incredibly compelling effect…as if a turbulent tornado of stripped trees is swirling overhead. Just be sure to shield your dinner plate from the splintery fall-out!

(from weburbanist)

I am running my time machine backing up in a Samba server (linux machine).

This new update is deletes your old time machine in order to create a new one probably in a newer and more stable format. I decided to go ahead.

The first part deletes the time machine partition on my samba, then it tries to start a new one but obviously, it can’t. So here some tips to create a new time machine in your samba server:

You will need to do this with the terminal ( Finder>Applications>Utilities.Terminal)

First you need to have the ethernet mac address of the machine that you want to backup:

ifconfig en0 | grep ether

This will give you a number like:  00:23:32:d2:f7:a0  keep it.

Now you create a new file with the sparsebundle that you will have to move to your samba machine:

hdiutil create -size 500g -fs HFS+J -volname “TimeMachine  tokao” tokao_002332d2f7a0.sparsebundle

Where in red what you have to change. In my case tokao will be the name of my machine and the mac address (en0 even if using wifi) 00:23:32:d2:f7:a0 will be 002332d2f7a0 (this is in my case, sure)

Once you have done this in your Users/you you will see this sparsebundle file. You have to move this file to the Samba where you want to back up.

You can copy it by draging it using the finder or by copying it

cp -R tokao_002332d2f7a0.sparsebundle /Volumes/YourSamba/

Then from the time machine preference you select the samba machine and that’s it!

What do they do – Their program supports broadcasters in meeting the needs of local small-scale farmers and their families in rural communities, and helps broadcasters build the skills to develop content that responds to local needs.

The Network facilitates an exchange of information that:

• is aimed at increasing food supplies and improving nutrition and health;
• is simple, safe and practical;
• is ecologically sound and environmentally sustainable;
• can be clearly communicated by radio;
• has been proven useful and transferable within the developing world;
• requires only resources ordinarily available to small-scale farmers;
• requires little or no technical help to implement; and
• meets the needs of both women and men.

How they work – Radio is their primary method of communication. We gather and research information about successful, low-cost practices in sustainable agriculture, nutrition, health and community development, and produce radio scripts for our partner-broadcasters and others engaged in rural development. They, in turn, share the information with an audience of millions of farmers and their family members around the world.

How to help – Read about their program, current activities, and challenges facing farmers in Network News. If you want to get involved or have any questions, they’d like to hear from you.

Facebook

First it was Facebook. They changed a lot. Before they had this bar at the bottom of the page with the apps, chat and so, which is now back to the traditional menus in the top and left.

People complained at the beginning, but this is normal. Changes of this type should be done in consultation with users, but in a dictatorship way. What do I mean with this? People do not like change. When people is used to a way of seeing information and to interact, to change it will always mean to go for worse, at least at the beginning. Over time, users will recognize that the changes were for good.

Twitter

Twitter was the second to change. The strength of twitter is updated tweets, and trends.
I have talked about twitter many times. At the beginning they struggled to cope with growth and they were down very often. Now they struggle to catch up with things like brighkite (which I love) does: location and photo. Even they could have video, maps and so… but no, they keep it simple. It remind me the fight between video VHS and Betamax. Betamax was the best technical option but VHS won. Well, twitter is not the best, but they have the most important ingredient: success.
Now popular topics, tweets, and users are clear in the frontpage. A “Top Tweets” section that dynamically updates using a custom algorithm to decide what is popular or of general interest. I have always though that the trends are absolutely useless but top tweets could be good, unless we start seeing “good night” or “followfridays”… They also have added a dynamically scrolling list of trending topics that when hovered over explain their trending status.

Youtube

The last redesign was for YouTube. Again people complained. If you take a look at YouTube you will be surprised by the simplicity. It is basically no design. Nothing. Very interesting that such a successful website chooses this simplistic approach. Their secret is in the ajax-like movement of things, with a new commenting system that highlights top-rated comments,  a “like/dislikes” rating system that replaces the previous five star system and a new “next video to watch” sidebar that is “smarter”. It feels different but not a lot. Take a look at the menus, the footer menu, just plain text. No lines no nothing. Is this more user friendly? It is less cluttered, that is for sure. Maybe because it is a google product and googles is not… well particular at design?

Then to Geneva.

We went to the lighthouse and to the beach, then we went to Boaters Grill, where we had some seafood before taking the car and drive to the airport.

End of trip. We took the plane, of course Iberia did not give us the right seats, but there was a very nice lady who gave us hers, so we could put Kai in his little bed.

We walked around and went to downtown. After that we took the car and drove to little Haiti and the design district where we had lunch in a very nice Italian restaurant (no pizza). After lunch we drove to coconut groove, visited a commercial centre and finally went back to Miami Beach. That day we had dinner at the hotel by the pool. Very nice.

There was a lot of people with incredible digital cameras just to photograph the birds. The wild life in the everglades was incredible, honestly. We took a boat the took us through the canal and to the lakes. Very nice experience, seeing all kinds of animals and birds.

When we arrived we took the budget shuttle that took us to budget where we took our car for the next 4 days.

First we had breakfast at bagels Einstein or something like this. Then was to visit fort Lauderdale. They said it was the Venice of Florida, and it is quite a Venice (huge extensions though).

We went to the river side, to the beach, where we had lunch, and then at around 6pm to Miami beach to check in at our new hotel: Indian Creek, no so centric, but with swimming pool and bigger rooms.

We realized that last time we did not see anything. Atlantis is huge! and you can spend a full day without managing to see it all. It is a sort of disneyland but in aquarium, with all sort of fish and sea life. To get it is 35 usd, but you can go around. We had a nice day there.

Road town again was a nice colonial town. Small.

We did not take any of the excursions suggested in the MSC Poesia.Normally it works this way: they are expensive. When you go down to the harbor, you have a pile of tour operators offering you the same thing cheaper. If you go out of the port, there you find the good deals, so this is what we did. We took a tour around the island. It took us to several places and it was fun and nice.

We stopped at a rum distillery, very very crappy but I bought some old rum. See the photo, it looks like a dirty place anywhere in Africa… but the rum, that I tasted yesterday, was not bad. Not great either but a nice souvenir.

The tour took us also to a beach crowded by the cruise people. We were there only for 15 minutes, but we soon continued our tour. There we met a couple from texas. The guy had big land where a farmer was growing cotton and where had some oil excavations. They were nice people. We also went to a hill (not a lot in these islands) where we could see the tons of little islands that are part of the Virgin Islands (american, british…), and of course the harbor with our “little boat”.

All these little islands had to accommodate their ports to this big cruises. Now they are digging even more in order to be able to have the “oasis of the seas” from Royal Caribbean.

Philipsburg was a very cute place. A long and narrow town, small and with the ocean at both sides.

The weather was variable. When the sun went out it was terribly hot, but when cloudy it was OK. It rained for a while.

When a ship of the caliber of the MSC Poesia arrives to a city like this, the town feels crowded and I am guessing that during the rest of the week, when no ships are there (normally they all go on the same day) it is a dead city.

Nuria had a bath in the sea and we had lunch there.

I did not have the time and the occasion to take the photos of the big camera out, so no photos now, but I will update this same post later on.

San Juan is a beautiful place. I wouldn’t mind staying here a couple of days. Honestly.

I am now editing the post again, from home. I am adding a couple of photos from the iPhone.

Puerto Rico was very nice. The old town beautiful and full of life. So far and now with the perspective of being back home, I can say that Key West and San Juan (both US) are probably the destinations we liked the most.

We spent most of the day in the pool area. I am reading “the Help”, from Kathryn Stockett which is about maids in Louisiana on the 60’s.

It was the gala day, with the captain and the nice dinner. Everybody (except me) with suits, ties….

Before I went to have a hair cut here at the ship’s hair dresser. Wow, beautiful with great views  over the sunset.

After the captain’s cocktail we went to listen jazz for a while and then to the theatre. It was Island, a story with dancers, magicians and more. Very nice.

In Nassau we had a great day. The temperature is great, it is sunny… mmm…

We went down and after us 4 more cruises arrived. We are all here. the last one in the biggest cruise ever build, and I encourage you to Google it or to look in a previous post in my blog. It is called “oasis of the seas” from Royal Caribbean. It is amazing. Huge! Ours, the MSC poesia is the second biggest and it is noticeable smaller.

Anyway, we went down and met the a couple with a kid that we know who live in Brazil. We all took an island tour with a very nice chap who explained everything and kept us entertained for nearly 3 hours. First we went to the Atlantis hotel, a 900 million dollar hotel, with an incredible aquarium.  We just saw part of it but as we are coming back to Nassau in a couple of days, we will take the whole tour, which has tunnels with sharks and other fishes. The suit of this famous hotel costs 25.000 usd per night. It is a nice hotel, but I was not that impressed.

After that we visited several places and when we were done, we had a walk around town, had lunch (seafood, of course) and went to the beach. Now the sun is going down and from the balcony of our room I catch several wifi (paid) so I am going to pay for one in order to post all the blog entries. By the way in the last photo you can see all the cruises from the beach. The one of the left is the Oasis of the seas.

ps; I did not succeed with the wifi in the balcony…. I try once more from the ship.

We spent most of the day in the pool area, reading. Nuria had a massage before the theatre and gala night.

We are leaving Jamaica now, in our way to Nassau (Bahamas). Everything great.

Then in Cayman island (Georgetown) again. They claimed bad weather, so the cruise could not properly stop. It took like 4 hours to take everybody in little boats to Georgetown.

Today, the cruise stopped at the port, we went down and were surprised that all the buses downstairs (a lot of them) where charging people to get them to town. Strange, but OK we are happy to pay 5 dollars each for that.

We went to downtown and you could see that Montego Bay is like any other place in Africa. Underdeveloped, dirty and not safe. Before, and when I go on mission, I don’t care, but with a baby…. it is a different story.

We walked a bit around downtown and were stopped several times by locals saying that we should now go beyond the couple of streets in downtown, as it is not safe. We decided to take a city tour with one of the tons of authorized drivers (JTB, Jamaica Tourism Board) who took us for an hour around Montego Bay, a very ugly city with NOTHING to see, a part from a nice old hotel on top of a hill with nice views. Plus the guy had no idea of anything. Anyway,the weather was not good either so no point in taking a taxi to the beaches so we decided to go to the ship. We had lunch in the 13 floor (buffet) in a table in the pool area with incredible views over the bay, and then we stayed until now in the pool area. Now I moved again to another table (facing the other side) and decided to write today’s and yesterday’s posts, even if I don’t se how and when I am going to be able to publish them, as the satellite internet is pretty slow, specially when uploading photos.

Now Nuria and Kai went to the room (Kai is hungry) and when they come we will enjoy a cocktail and try to connect to internet in order to try to check in with Iberia and the the right seats… which I doubt we will.

They distributed numbers and were calling. I think our turn came at 1.30pm and at 3pm was the last boat back to the cruise. Goood. Pretty bad organized. People complaining a lot. Probably they had local boats to help but with the other 2 big cruises there was not enough for all. Anyway, it was quite an experience to go in such a boat, with such a sea (it moved a lot) and with Kai. I would say it was interesting. Poor Kai did not complain at all. It was not very sunny but it was very hot.

One thing I did not like from MSC (our cruise organizer) is that they don’t care about babies or disable people. You cue like anybody else, and in our way back it was killing us to cue under the sun. Kai was suffering so we kindly asked to go to the front of the cue.

Well, in Georgetown there was not much to see either. It is packed of shops with jewelry, diamonds and watches. When I say packed is packed. We walked around but of course we did not have much time to do more due to the disembarking problems. I could not buy rum because they don’t allow you to buy food or drinks outside the ship… maybe I should ask if they can keep it at least until the last day.

All this places we are stopping by are great for diving. What a petty. We would have loved to dive, but looks like it won’t be this time.

Well so we stayed most of the day on board, which honestly is not bad. Judge by the photos… it is better than a super hotel.

I bought a wi-fi connection at the ship, it costs 20usd for 60 minutes, but it is so slow, that I tried to upload the posts and I did not succeed, so I will try later using the web interface instead of this Windows Live Writer. I cannot access to my email at norai because uses port 8080….

We spent most of the day at the MSC poesia. It was good. We went to the deck 13 and took a seat on a table near the pool. Relaxing with amazing views. Nuria had a swim and I took some time to write on the laptop. With visits and all the activities they plan on board, you have little time to actually relax and type or read a book. I don’t know how many restaurants, bars, shops, disco and so are onboard. I am starting to know the ship now. I went to smoke a pipe to the Hitchcock room and to read a book while Kai and Nuria were having a siesta. We have walkie talkies to be in touch (of course… you know me…). Now there was a concert in the central area, there is the theatre later today and there is a huge screen in the pool area where there will be a film at 10pm. I have to check but I think there was a jazz concert in the zebra bar. Every morning they leave you a paper with the activities and offers. You can buy excursions, but we did not buy any, basically because we don’t feel we can do the sort of things they do with Kai: catamarans, snorkeling, etc… which is a real pity. Today for instance we would have gone diving, but… even if we do one dive each, I think it is too much to take a 11 week old baby in a small boat.

Tomorrow we’ll be arriving at Cayman Islands. Now, we are going to go to have a cocktail in the pool mohito bar probably and see the sun going down. I don’t know when I am going to be able to publish all these posts because the internet is not good enough for that.

Now for instance we are leaving Cozumel and I am in the balcony with the laptop. The sun is still up, a bit cloudy but the temperature is just perfect. It is a great experience to be outside in your own balcony with the sea by your side, the sun going down.

After a full breakfast (eggs, sausages, bacon, pancakes,…)  we went down to deck 4 and left the ship. We spent the day in Key West, a beautiful small town at the end of Florida Keys.

We had buses organized driving everybody to town (5 min). We spent the day walking around that beautiful city, full of nice cars, nice Harleys and old people. We visited Hemmingway’s house and went to a small beach.

Houses in Key West are all colonial style. Beautiful lovely small town.

At 1.30 we went back to the ship and started our trip to Mexico. Nuria had a bit of sea sickness. Yes, this huge ship moves quite a bit…

It was the Captain’s cocktail and gala dinner. I did not bring any suit or any tie, but I went with a shirt. Everybody had their best dresses….

After the captain’s speech, there was the daily show but it is too loud for Kai so we left. Nuria rested for a while in the room and then we went for dinner. We always sit in the same table. The gala dinner was too much. I think we are going to put (more!!) on weight here.

Back at MSC poesia, we did the ritual of getting ready, have our cocktail and go to the theatre. Take a look at the video… the theatre is inside the ship, yes…

We went back to the hotel, took our stuff and put it in the car. We drove up towards port everglades, which is like an hour or so towards the north. We took it easy enjoying the road by the sea, stopping by to see the beach.

Once we found the budget agency we left the car and a shuttle dropped us at the port, where we checked in in an impressive place with security, photos for their record and so.

Once on board, we went to the cabin (8189) and when we saw it we couldn’t believe we were in a brand new room, with our own balcony, and all luxuries.

We went for a tour and finally to have dinner. The ship left at 19h direction Key West.

This video is the lobby, once we went to our room, we went and have a cocktail (I did) while listening to good music and waiting to depart.

The hotel is at the heart of Miami Beach, it is cheap a bit noisy but highly recommended. Just for sleeping though.

We wanted to have breakfast so we went out of the hotel at Espanola way (photo on the right), where all the bars and restaurants are, and walked along Washington Avenue to the north where you have a lot of shopping. A couple of blocks from here there is Lincoln a pedestrian road full of shops and places to eat. We had a hot chocolate with a huge cookie at Ghirardelli. (photo above) Then we walked Lincoln towards the ocean stopping by a bank to redraw some money, and then along the beach. Lovely day. Perfect temperature. Perfect day.

We walked down the famous Ocean Drive, with all the art deco buildings, full of  restaurants and hotels, beautiful people and incredible cars.Food here is cheap. We reached the bottom of Ocean Drive with a ton of leaflets on 9.95 usd meals.

We then went to the beach for a while, where Kai ate a bit and I had a bit of a “too much sun”, and went to have something to eat at Atlantic, in ocean drive.

Nuria had a lobster salad and I had a cubanito (excellent meat). We shared a huge mojito (photo above).

After lunch we went to the supermarket to buy some nappies for Kai (for the cruise) and back to the hotel.

We woke up this morning and went to the airport. In the airport they told us that we did not have the right seats in order to get a crib. We booked this flight long time ago! and after booking it, we called Iberia to make sure we had the right seats in order to put the baby with a crib. Right.

In Barcelona the supervisor changed everything so we could get this seats. We took the plane towards Madrid, we learned that we had to change planes… and they call it technical stop… but it is a joke, not only you have to change planes, you have one hour to go to the other corner of Madrid airport… so quite a bad start…. landing in Madrid Kai crying because he was hungry (he had great flight by the way) and running to get the connection train and to the other terminal…

Up to here OK. We made it. Now, when boarding they tell us that the seats we have are not the right ones for having a crib… I could not believe it. That the flight is overbooked and we have to see once inside.

Indeed the row 29 or the Airbus 340 is just one more raw, so of course we complained… I could not believe that after booking in advance (you already say you are traveling with a baby), calling by phone, and in Barcelona asking again, and being the 8th passenger to board (we went in advance to the airport) we did not have the seats for the crib… a 12 hour flight with a 8 weeks old baby and no place to lay him… incredible.

The story does not finishes here. We discussed with the cabin crew, and the chief ot the crew, but the people occupying those seats did not want to move. Can you believe it? There are a couple of places where the crib can go, one with 4 passengers (all together) and 2 couples. They all argue that for a long trip this is the best seats, and I agree, it is not their fault, it is Iberia’s incompetency, but come on!! don’t they have a heart? Could you tell a mum with her 8 week old baby to go and fuck off?

The cabin crew tried but no success. I also cannot believe that they don’t have the authority to tell the to move. How legal or just how can they allow this?

Well here we are, in a 3 seat for us, and we managed to put the crib on the floor. I did not want to go to this rows myself because I would be capable of beating them in the face with the laptop until their mother cannot recognize their faces… sorry this is how I am feeling now.

Iberia sucks. It doesn’t mater if you are a frequent flyer, if you have a baby… Ah, and if you seat in the seats at the end of the plane, remember you will not be able to choose your food… so we had pasta.

Anybody knows how to put a claim? I guess I should count 1000 and continue our trip…

Anyway, I will continue from Miami.

We are now in Miami, at the Clay Hotel in Washington avenue. What a cool place! This is a little street packed with bars and restaurants and the hotel is in an old style Spanish house, very nice. A bit noisy but nice.

We landed with delay, we went to customs which is process in itself where you have to put all your fingertips (digitally now) and photo. Now you understand how this TV CSI series have this incredible databases… well, the airport is pretty old. We arrive when the sun was going down. Once outside the terminal there are shuttles that take you to the rent a car dealers. We took the budget one and we were worried because it was taking us damn far. Once you get there you understand… a huge place with tons of cars. We cued for 10 minutes and we got our car. We took the option of baby seat for Kai and an economy car. Wow though, the economy car we have is a brand new car as big as our volvo… with 1000 miles in the counter! Very nice. It will cost us around 90 usd for 2 days. It is OK considering we are dropping it 80Km north where the cruise starts.

Well, we fitted the seat plugged the iphone to have the GPS, searched for POIs of hotels in Miami Beach, and headed towards the Clay hotel. We had to pay 1.25usd of toll road. In 30 min we where at the hotel. The valet .guy took the keys and parked our car.

We went upstairs to our room, where I am now, I found a free hotspot (typical linsys open router) and here I am.

We went for dinner downstairs to this busy street. We had a Caesar salad and Nuria tuna. Californian wine.  We shared a desert. Delicious! The tip is now included (18%!!) in the bill, so it is a bit misleading in the US. When you order food the price you see is without the taxes and without the tip.

Tomorrow will be another day.

In the morning we woke up pretty late because we the night before we went to bed at 2am from Alberto’s place. We took the 55 again towards placa de catalunya and we went to pizza marzano to meet Vanesa. We had lunch with her. Menu was 9.90 euros but quality is pretty bad.

We catch up with her over lunch. It was very nice to meet her and let her. She met Kai too, sure.

After lunch we had to meet with my friends from Salo de la Infancia, but we were going to meet late and my brother wanted to come over to my mum’s to say bye, so we cancelled (or postponed) with them and walked up home. We prepared the bags and went to bed.

We walked down portal del Angel and had a coffee in around placa del Pi. We walked down the Ramblas to the sea, to the Maremagnum where we had lunch at Wok. It was lovely. Nice temperature, close to the sea, sunny… and great company.

After that  we took the metro L4 back home and drove to the new terminal of the airport. There we had also some drinks and Kai had his first true laugh. Not just smiling and making noises but true laugh. Very funny.

Once they left we went to Gava de Mar to Marisol and Alberto’s house. They cooked for as a very nice cold soup and chicken. We stayed until late. Kai had one colic attach though, but dinner was great and they are doing great too, so I was great (once more) seeing them ;-) Gava de Mar is a great place, 2 blocks from the beach. We should come to visit them in summer.

We went for dinner to a Pans & co. and home to bed.

In the photos you can see Kai in the bus, drinking his cocktails. The first one is the “celler de tapes” or “lonja de tapas” at Borne where we had our tapas.

We had Gerard and Nuria with Clara coming over. Clara is lovely. Look at the photo…

Then we went to can cortada to have lunch with my uncle (my mum’s brother) and her wife (Angelo & Angels).

We had calçotada, a typical dish of this season. Great.

Then we were going to meet my friend from Salo de la Infancia but we cancelled as weather was crap. Instead we had siesta and a relaxed afternoon at my mum’s.

Look at kai’s way to sleep. By the way, the t-shirt is a present from my mum. We bought it at la maquinista a couple of days ago.

We walked towards downtown, stopping by Barbara’s parents so they could meet Kai as well, and then in Joanic we took the metro (L4) towards Barceloneta, where we walked to the beach and all along the beach until villa Olimpica. There we had paella, wine… mmm then we went to meet my uncle and cosine who live there.

Later one we met Barbara, Agusti and the twins, Nuria and Silvia. They are so nice! so beautiful, funny and lovely….

Finally they drove us to Mariajo’s place where we stayed for dinner and we met Joel who is 2 weeks older than Kai.

I took most of the photos with the nikon so … no photos here…

I wish there would be an easy way to do this. Currently people calls me, I check my calendar, add them and I keep creating busy slots. I guess I could create a writable online calendar (maybe with google calendar) and with a password allow people to allocate on free slots. Is that possible? I know that for events where it is one time inviting people it is easy, with tools such as evite (before) and facebook (now).

Anyway kai met his great grandmother. It was veeeery emotional. My grandmother is 94 and she was crying of joy. Kai of course is too young to remember this in the future, but I took a couple of photos. Maybe I should have taken a video. I will.

Before though, we went to la maquinista (sort of an open-air shopping mall)  where we had lunch and bought some stuff (like dodotis).

We also met my best friend Sebas and Nuria. We went out for drinks at a cool place (see the photos) in the new area of Barcelona called Diagonal Mar. I don’t know that district at all… I am ashamed. Then we went to where Seba’s Nuria works, the Hospitality school where we had a delicious gastronomic dinner. It was delicious and it is nice because you are served by students who are doing their test on you. The teacher is overlooking but it is a great deal because you get to eat very nice things at a very affordable price.

We packed the car and we headed towards Annecy after stoping by Nuria’s office because she had to drop some stuff there.

Once on the road, everything went smooth. Kai would sleep and wake up every 3 hours (so 3 times in total) to eat, so we stopped in the nearest exit to change his dippers and feed him.

Once in Barcelona the weather changed… raining… but there it was, my mum and my brother waiting for us. Finally my brother got to know Kai.

Now to organise ourselves in order to meet the maximum amount of people in these few days before taking the plane to Miami. By the way, I learned that we will have to change planes in Madrid…

We are going to the checklists we have: winter clothes for Barcelona, summer clothes for the Caribbean… replacing the batteries of the alarm sensors, putting up the system to water the plants, bought a 5Mb roaming travel data plan for the iPhone (just for email) and a long etc…

I have added a link on the top right corner of the blog to filter only the posts related to our trip.

In Barcelona we will block monday and tuesday next week to be with Kike and Raquel, who are coming from Bilbao to meet us. For the rest of the agenda, still to plan it…

As Internet is moving at giant steps towards smart phones which now provide a decent browsing and Internet experience such as iPhones and new Android phones (nexus one, droid and others) and why not by the new segment surging now in a serious way, such as iPad, and soon others (probable android based ones), location is the next big thing, so if you are an investor, consider new companies such as foursquare, gowalla, or what it has been and still is my favorite: tellmewhere.

All this smartphone apps allow you to check in at a certain place so you can know who is there (you set up your privacy levels, of course) and depending on the app you can do several things.

What I like about tellmewhere is that it is simple, you check in or you review a place. If it does not exist you can create it. You can upload photos of that place and read comments. You can add it to your todo list (if you would like to visit it) and give tips. It is linked to your facebook and twitter accounts so you can spread the word.

Tellmewhere was small at the begining. It was an app basically for France. I started using it (it is call dismoiou) but now they have received some funding and it is in english, a 2.0 version of the app with checkins and much more. The beauty of it is that is sort of a location based wikipedia. You can create/edit a place, list it under the right category and add photos, etc… Other apps such as foursquare had a game part like being a major of a place (if you check in often) which is a cool thing. Others, like gowalla allow you to take virtual stuff (a piece of pizza, a boot…) and leave stuff. Personally I don’t like this game side of the app and gowalla is the one I use the least.

Facebook is clearly the biggest social network out there. They have now redesigned their web interface for their 6th anniversary when they have reached more than 400.000.000 users. It still think it lacks location. Twitter is great too but location is basic. You can use nice clients such as tweetie to keep updating your profile location but I see this more like a workaround. Also it does not support natively photos. You have to use twitpic or yfrog (that I prefer) for that. I like to have all in one place. Ideally Facebook should have location but it would not be the ideal solution too, as I see facebook and twitter complementary. One for your network of friends (Facebook) and one for shouting out loud to everybody (twitter).

My work around is brightkite. I also talked in the past. Is the app I use in the iPhone to tweet/twit (not to read the tweets) and to update facebook. I can handle photos and location. Unfortunately not video like yfrog with twitter, but the best compromise out there for creating content (writing) and send it to your desired social networks.

Give tellmewhere a try. It will succeed if they get the right critical mass, and for the time being, in the US I guess the winner is foursquare.

Thumbs up fro tellmewhere.

I wrote a couple of stories with the iPhone wordpress app but they were lost…

Ovronnaz is at 2 hours from here and it is surrounded by snowed mountains. When we arrived we went to our little studio and then to the baths. All buildings are like huge chalets and they are all connected. It was -6 degrees celsius and it was snowing.

I have never had the chance of being in an outside pool with all the mountains painted in white, bubble below you at 37 degrees and snow falling in your face. Quite an experience. I do recommend it. If you choose to go to this particular complex, make sure you choose one of the chalet buildings close to the services and with a studio which is facing south and not located in the ground floor.

It was quite a test to see how our little 7 week old Kai was doing. He did pretty well. I guess he is ready for the big one then.

Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend to unique entrepreneurs around the globe.

The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on Kiva, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else.

Kiva partners with existing microfinance institutions. In doing so, we gain access to entrepreneurs from communities world-wide. Our partners are experts in choosing qualified entrepreneurs. That said, they are usually short on funds. Through Kiva, our partners upload their entrepreneur profiles directly to the site so you can lend to them. When you do, not only do you get a unique experience connecting to a specific entrepreneur on the other side of the planet, but our microfinance partners can do more of what they do, more efficiently.

Kiva provides a data-rich, transparent lending platform. We are constantly working to make the system more transparent to show how money flows throughout the entire cycle, and what effect it has on the people and institutions lending it, borrowing it, and managing it along the way. To do this, we are using the power of the internet to facilitate one-to-one connections that were previously prohibitively expensive. Kiva creates an interpersonal connection at low costs due to the instant, inexpensive nature of internet delivery.

In my case there is an extra problem, I live in France/Switzerland and most of the stuff out there are for american users (types of foods, stores, etc…) so there is actually no good solution for me, with the food I eat (that I buy at migros).

Here you have the options:

1.- I have been using for a while a service (free) called fatsecret (I know, horrible name) which is good. Most of the foods are there and it is sort of a community. Again, using the iPhone browser was not good enough but now lately they have open the API and there is an iPhone app (free) called Calorie Counter. I was going to give a try but it only works with iPhone 3.1.2 and I am not going to upgrade for that.

2.- I continued researching for similar solutions and I found myfitnesspal. This is a great service too (free) with the addition of exercices as well. Here you set up your target, and upfront you have the calories left for the day. I liked it. They have a nice iphone app, where you can add what you eat, classifying it in breakfast, lunch, dinner and snaks, discounting from the calories you have left for the day, add exercises. Very good, and the iphone app too.

3.- I found a third one called diet tv which has by far, the best website in terms of nice and graphics. I have not tried this a lot though. Looks like you can do most of what the other two can do: log food, weight, measures, see your progress, engage in the community, record your diary… and in a very nice interface. I don’t think they have an iPhone app, so for me is a no-going.

4.- Finally what is probably the best, but you have pay plans, is DailyBurn. You can do basically the same than with fatsecret and myfitnesspal but when you add food, the results are much better than with the chaotic other two. They have photos for each entry (which is a killer feature) and you can also track your workouts. They have two iPhone apps, one (free) to enter your weight and food, and another one (paid) to scan food code bars. Looks like it is good for the US, but not for Europe. What I don’t like is that you just keep adding food but you cannot structure it on breakfast, lunch and dinner. It is just what you eat. I also don’t like that you can only create 20 favorite food entries (otherwise you have to pay).

I guess for me the winner is myfitnesspal. With myfitnesspal and dailyburn you can use the withings scale (a weight scale connected to wifi), which make life easier. Withings scale can even twit your weight… cool (and expensive) gadget.

If dailyburn would be free, it would probably be my winner.

I would like to extract (literally) part of that entry in order to have an entry of its own:

What can we expect in the next 10 years?

Obviously the hardware will continue to explode. Hard disk, processors, screen technology (LED or something new, ebook readers, tablets), internet speed and connectivity (wimax, 4g)… that will make information easier to access and to share. Now a smartphone has GPS, accelerometers and a lot of sensors. I foresee a step towards this sort of uses: location, using the camera of the phone to take a photo from anything and have image recognition, reviews, who is there, where is cheaper, banking, payments… all!!. Search engines will go one step further and they will have other ways to search than text, photos videos, voice… everything indexable. With my phone I will be able to see where my friends are, what they are drinking, etc… reviews are important. I use internet to review and read reviews of what I buy, the hotels I go (tripadvisor), google, tell me where, etc… so location, location, location.

But not everything are flowers… I think that because Internet is going to be so big, Internet Governance is going to be a big issue. Now the US controls ICANN and a lot of other stuff. Internet Governance is going to be a difficult topic. Also Internet as a human right. ISP (internet providers) will try to get the maximum out of it, by capping, limiting connectivity, filtering content (like in China) and so. If this is the case, Internet could be in danger. It should be a 100% open platform. No restrictions. I hope governments intervene to avoid this sort of issues that we are already starting to see in the US with ISPs. Access to Internet should be unlimited and unrestricted. Government should be careful also not doing like in Finland where they are going to filter content at ISP level… a biiiiig mistake.

Privacy is also going to be an issue, but I guess we will be living in public. There is no problem for me, but privacy should be seriously managed. Specially when companies are outsourcing for instance email to google apps, or google docs and calendars…

Cloud computing will be big, and I don’t know if computers will trend to be more like terminals and run all the programs in the cloud. I do use google docs a lot I must say. Online photo services, backups, etc… I can’t wait to see how it progresses. The combination of cloud computing and terminals with strong browsers with offline technology could be a way. If you think about it, why not log in at any computer/terminal and have your files programs and so? Well this could be achieved with good connectivity and good cloud computing. But again, if this is where we go, we will start to see issues of compatibility and standards. Exporting things from a cloud to a computer or to another cloud… it should be standardized.

But the I wonder… when I bought my fiat 500, I printed out the price I was getting in internet and went to my local Fiat dealer. The salesman was furious. He said he could not compete with that. They have cost of personnel, stocks, training, etc… while the guy in internet buys bulk and gets incredible prices… so it made me think. There is no point in having shops or car dealers. They are simply not competitive with internet. So where is the business? Well, services I guess. Garage to repair. Warehouse to collect parts. Advise… but not in selling goods. I told the guy in Fiat that his business model was condemned to die.

There is another ethical question you could ask yourself. If you could buy cheaper 98% of people would buy cheaper. What about paying extra if it manufactured at home, or uses organic stuff, or is environmentally better? It is a difficult question. Specially for our generation. I hope next generation will think differently. Developed countries can not live from services alone, and the rest is more expensive than to do it abroad. So what to do? Free trade has given a lot of opportunities to developing countries, but we have seen with Doha failure that one size does not fit all. What about free movement of people? Goods and people are not strangers. If I am a farmer in France and all farming goes to … China (just a stupid example), then what happens to the french farmer? Should he go to China? Move to something else? Should we cluster activities wherever they are more productive? I don’t know. That would not be sustainable for the environment. Look at Indonesia, they have destroyed the forest to put palm oil plantations. It is so sad. Al fauna is dead and most of the country is monocorp…. but this is where we are going! Look at the farmers in the US. Maybe it should be studied where the environmental impact is lower and do it there.

If you go to Africa you will see how developed countries have destroyed. We imposed the capitalism there. The richer continent in earth is the poorest. Before people there did not have to work. If they were hungry they would take it from the trees. No effort. Simple and happy life….

The end of it is that we can not avoid to spread wealth with this model, meaning that developed countries will have to lower their living standards, otherwise I don’t see how this is sustainable. Closing borders? Big mistake… Anyway that is whole new story.

Once we learnt that, I was working at Shelter Centre where I was the Web Communications Chief, I asked for leave without pay, so we could have a dream trip around the world February and March. They accepted. The new Drupal website was up and running now it was just a question of fine tuning it.

We bought a round the world ticket with roundtheworldflights.com very nice people (thanks Jarvis) and very good price.
We did Geneva, London, San Francisco, Los Angeles, Tahiti, Auckland, Christchurch, Hong Kong, London, Geneva. All flexible. In Tahiti we bought internal flights to Moorea, Bora Bora and Huahine (see photos at http://norai.net)

Well we blogged every day in our TDM (tour du monde), so you can see our adventures, skydiving, and 9000 km driving in New Zealand.

There we conceived Kai. Our Christmas present for 2009.

Once back in Geneva Nuria started her job, and I was called by my former employer (the ITC) where I worked nearly for 5 years as a consultant and they asked me to join them, so I finished the site at Shelter Centre and joined ITC in July, where I have been an Advisor in Export Strategy and Competitiveness up to present, traveling extensively to Africa (Liberia, Kenya, Sierra Leone, Rwanda…).

When kai was born, 23 days ago, we also got our new car. We said bye to the 1989 red Golf GTI and said Hi to the new Fiat 500.

Now I can go to work in the car rather than in my Ducati. It is pretty cold and rains often. I’m very happy with my new little car too. Pack of technology by default (bluetooth for mobile, reads mp3 from USB key, vocal commands, … etc…)

So as you see, even if for most of the world it has been a bad year, not for us.

My brother lost his job. Nuria’s brother’s too. The economy is in pretty bad shape, but 2009 has been a very good year for us.

Now it is coming to an end. In less than 6 hours in fact. It is also the end of a decennium.

What happened this decennium technologically speaking?

This decennium has been a huge change in technology. Internet has changed the world. We carry our computers in our phones, specially since the iPhone came out. Internet is fast web2.0 has brought us video and ajax. The web experience has reached unthinkable limits. Google has become bigger than General Motors and one of the most profitable companies in the world… and it is in internet… who could have imagine something like that 10 years ago! They are even on the phone industry!

Information is now at the tip of the hands. Mobile phones have spread like mushrooms and have given Africa a huge step towards development and poverty reduction.

Now the big media companies (CBS, CNN and so) are not that big. Internet has provided real time news and information has been democratized with tools such as twitter or Facebook. We know what it is going on firt by social media tools than from BBC or CNN. We are the writers and we control the content with tools such as digg or delicious. Now we have millions of people feeding the news. It is a user generated era, even companies have started to learn that they should have API’s or be open source (google). Look at the contribution in kind done to the iphone platform! nearly 100.000 apps!

The hardware has progressed a lot too. My iPhone 3GS has 32Mb. Solid state memory has increased at huge steps too. Who could think 10 years ago that a mobile phone could have 32Gb or/and a 8Mp camera? 10 years ago we had 3Mp with a terrible screen. Now cameras like canon 5d mark II provide video at a HD quality with the plus of professional lenses.

What else have we seen… the web… the web has gone from a showroom to a two-way collaborative tool making our live more efficient. We buy all via internet now. I bought not only my car via internet but most of the stuff I own. And I have been doing that for a while already. My 42 LCD TV I bought in ebay in 2003. In my house, the shower with sauna, the massage chair, all the kitchen appliances and most of the stuff I bought via internet.

Last that I can think of for this last decade, having kai and Nuria sleeping on my right, is that finally the LHC (at CERN) is working! I am proud as I worked for 3 years in the conception phase of the LHC 10 years ago. To see it now running is great, specially when I contributed to it.

What can we expect in the next 10 years?

Obviously the hardware will continue to explode. Hard disk, processors, screen technology (LED or something new, ebook readers, tablets), internet speed and connectivity (wimax, 4g)… that will make information easier to access and to share. Now a smartphone has GPS, accelerometers and a lot of sensors. I foresee a step towards this sort of uses: location, using the camera of the phone to take a photo from anything and have image recognition, reviews, who is there, where is cheaper, banking, payments… all!!. Search engines will go one step further and they will have other ways to search than text, photos videos, voice… everything indexable. With my phone I will be able to see where my friends are, what they are drinking, etc… reviews are important. I use internet to review and read reviews of what I buy, the hotels I go (tripadvisor), google, tell me where, etc… so location, location, location.

But not everything are flowers… I think that because Internet is going to be so big, Internet Governance is going to be a big issue. Now the US controls ICANN and a lot of other stuff. Internet Governance is going to be a difficult topic. Also Internet as a human right. ISP (internet providers) will try to get the maximum out of it, by capping, limiting connectivity, filtering content (like in China) and so. If this is the case, Internet could be in danger. It should be a 100% open platform. No restrictions. I hope governments intervene to avoid this sort of issues that we are already starting to see in the US with ISPs. Access to Internet should be unlimited and unrestricted. Government should be careful also not doing like in Finland where they are going to filter content at ISP level… a biiiiig mistake.

Privacy is also going to be an issue, but I guess we will be living in public. There is no problem for me, but privacy should be seriously managed. Specially when companies are outsourcing for instance email to google apps, or google docs and calendars…

Cloud computing will be big, and I don’t know if computers will trend to be more like terminals and run all the programs in the cloud. I do use google docs a lot I must say. Online photo services, backups, etc… I can’t wait to see how it progresses. The combination of cloud computing and terminals with strong browsers with offline technology could be a way. If you think about it, why not log in at any computer/terminal and have your files programs and so? Well this could be achieved with good connectivity and good cloud computing. But again, if this is where we go, we will start to see issues of compatibility and standards. Exporting things from a cloud to a computer or to another cloud… it should be standardized.

But the I wonder… when I bought my fiat 500, I printed out the price I was getting in internet and went to my local Fiat dealer. The salesman was furious. He said he could not compete with that. They have cost of personnel, stocks, training, etc… while the guy in internet buys bulk and gets incredible prices… so it made me think. There is no point in having shops or car dealers. They are simply not competitive with internet. So where is the business? Well, services I guess. Garage to repair. Warehouse to collect parts. Advise… but not in selling goods. I told the guy in Fiat that his business model was condemned to die.

There is another ethical question you could ask yourself. If you could buy cheaper 98% of people would buy cheaper. What about paying extra if it manufactured at home, or uses organic stuff, or is environmentally better? It is a difficult question. Specially for our generation. I hope next generation will think differently. Developed countries can not live from services alone, and the rest is more expensive than to do it abroad. So what to do? Free trade has given a lot of opportunities to developing countries, but we have seen with Doha failure that one size does not fit all. What about free movement of people? Goods and people are not strangers. If I am a farmer in France and all farming goes to … China (just a stupid example), then what happens to the french farmer? Should he go to China? Move to something else? Should we cluster activities wherever they are more productive? I don’t know. That would not be sustainable for the environment. Look at Indonesia, they have destroyed the forest to put palm oil plantations. It is so sad. Al fauna is dead and most of the country is monocorp…. but this is where we are going! Look at the farmers in the US. Maybe it should be studied where the environmental impact is lower and do it there.

If you go to Africa you will see how developed countries have destroyed. We imposed the capitalism there. The richer continent in earth is the poorest. Before people there did not have to work. If they were hungry they would take it from the trees. No effort. Simple and happy life….

The end of it is that we can not avoid to spread wealth with this model, meaning that developed countries will have to lower their living standards, otherwise I don’t see how this is sustainable. Closing borders? Big mistake… Anyway that is whole new story.

Happy new year!!!

I would like to share my experience on the gear I think we have and what I think.

As the geek I am I started thinking about:

• stroller: that is the first thing a father looks at. At least I did. If you do a bit of research online you find out that there are very funky strollers, and very expensive too. Some are super cool in design, and most of my friends started buying some of these… for instance the stokke, quinny or bugaboo. Both are super cool. Bogaboo has the pack with the stroller, the car sit and the carrycot (be careful bugaboo carrycot is not homologated for car use) and when you see the videos you do want them… but… after talking to most of my friends with kids, who have bought one or another, they ended up confessing that at the end of the day, what you really want is a practical light stroller, that you can fold and unfold with a single hand, and that for that reason, the classical umbrella ones are the best… and they all ended up buying one of those. In this list we can find maclaren and red castle. You even consider to buy a 3 wheel one, in case you go to the mountain, or off road… bah! if you do, then it is better to buy a baby carrier…
  Now I knew I was going to skip the mistake of spending $1000 on a funky stroller, the question was: is there a light umbrella type stroller that can fit a maxi-cosi (the seat for the car) and a carrycot? Well the winner for me was a new model of 2009 from bebe confort, in particular the mila. Why? Well it is light, you can open it and fold it standing and easily, it is less than 1meter folder (so it can go as cabin baggage, most of maclaren can’t) you can push it while it is folded, it has a huge basket, and the most important is that with an adaptor you can put the maxi-cose and the carrycot, and the carrycot is homologated for car use.
    
• Car sit (also known as maxi-cosi): if you have chosen a stroller, then probably there is either a car sit model that goes with, or it is a standard maxi-cosi so you have more choice.
  You do need this piece of equipment. The reason why is because in the hospital they will not let you take the baby home unless you have one, as they are mandatory if you travel by car. Well you can use an homologated carrycot too, sure. In my case I bought the one on the photo above: the creatis fix. I just used it twice so far. People say that newborns can not be in one of these for too long, as their back is not flat like in the carrycot. I understand it is far safer in the car than the carrycot as the baby sits with his back to the front, so in case of an accident is much safer.
  In the car you have the isofix system to attach baby seats. Well not for the maxi-cosi. I guess this system is for proper big baby chairs. When I first bought it I attached it with the belt. It was damn complicated, so I ended up buying a support for the car with a simple click system. I bought it in ebay.
• Carrycot: We did not want to buy this in a first place. Most of the people would say that they used it only for a couple of months and they are very expensive. In our case the baby is ALWAYS in it. We bought it in ebay too. Second hand. New is very expensive (more than $350) and we paid less than 50%. It can go in the mila, and we put it inside the baby cot (that we bough in ikea). How is that we use it so much? well the baby cot is too big for a new born. This is confined. You can take the baby around even if he is sleeping (and he sleeps a lot!). Ours, windoo.
     
• Baby cot: that was a present. It is a cheap model from IKEA. We put the windoo inside. For the time being in our bedroom.
  
• Baby video camera: I bought this in ebay. I searched for a baby cam with pan and tilt and infrared. It is a key thing. You could do with audio alone, but isn’t it nice to see you baby? even in the most absolute black?. In our house the audio has some interferences, not 100% happy, but it is a house. During the day they told us that the baby should stay in his room rather than in the living room with all the noises, so we put him there with the camera, on the first floor of the house.
  
• Thermometer: One the key things you need is a thermometer. Well in fact you do need 3 of them. One to measure the room temperature, which should be between 19-21 degrees (celsius), one for the bath (37 degrees) and one to see if he has temperature.
  I found one in amazon that does the 3 things seamlessly. The Hartig-Helling 6 in one.
  • 6 functions: measurement of forehead and ear temperature, room temperature, and surface temperature (e. g. baby food or bathwater), stopwatch, time/date
  • easy-to-read LCD display
  • including multifunctional adaptor for measuring in the ear and on the forehead – no special adaptor for forehead measurement necessary
  • audible tone when measurement is complete
  • fever alarm when temperature is over 37.5 °C (99.5 °F)
  • storage of the last 9 measurements
  • 12/24-hour display
  • choice of °C or °F
    

• Travel baby cot: This you can find very cheap in big surfaces. We bought the ferrari of travel baby beds: babymoov. It costs more than $150 and you can buy it in amazon too. It has a changing table, light, music, pockets…

  They told us you might need one of this. We have not used it so far, but I guess if you travel, or once you are done with maternity/paternity leave and you have to leave the kid with the baby sitter, then this a fundamental piece of equipment you need. At the beginning we thought we might leave it in the leaving room but we end up having him on the carrycot all times.

  

All these gadgets we bought before kai was born. Now, once he was born we realized we needed a bath tube, a practical place to change his diapers…

Also you want to add some control on the breastfeeding, on the pooing, baths, and so.

I found a great iPhone app for that: Total Baby. There is a good review here. Looks like it is the best of its class. The problem is that Nuria has no iphone… and she is the one breastfeeding, obviously… but I am consider buying it myself, in order to control the visits to the doctor, and to try to extract some patterns se we can have a routine. It is important for the baby.

Finally we were given as a present one of this baby carrier that you put in front of you. We heard that it is not the perfect way, as when they are so small they cannot be there for more than a couple of hours.

The one I like a lot is this french one, looks like is very ergonomic and great for the baby. I am wanting to have kai always with me with this gadget. It was recommended at the hospital where he was born (la tour).

It is called “je porte mon bebe” which means “I carry my baby”. Look at the video… is elastic and so cool! They even organise gatherings to show you how to use it… but looks great. A bit expensive though…79 euros plus shipping.

The massive $1.5 billion vessel is nearly 40 percent larger than the industry’s next-biggest ship and five times larger than the Titanic. It has 2,700 cabins and can accommodate 6,300 passengers and 2,100 crew members. The ship also features various “neighborhoods” — parks, squares and arenas with special themes. One of them will be a tropical environment that will include palm trees. The Oasis of the Seas will embark on its first cruise on Dec. 5. Hundreds of onlookers turned out to greet the ship from shore.

Let’s hope everything goes back to normal soon.

Since this morning Internet keeps dropping so tokao and norai will not be available in a constant way until this is fixed. I just talked to the ISP customer service (yes…) and the only thing I can do is to cross my fingers…

If tokao (or norai) is not there when you visit them is because my modem is rebooting… sorry.

I would pay for… (would I?):

1. Domain registration (I pay)
2. VPS (linux) (I host it at home so I don’t)
3. Pingdom (I use the free version, but the thing is to check if you are online.)
4. MX backup (I pay, I thing that 35 usd for 5 years??)
5. Some cloud backup: Backblaze, Carbonite,  and others (I don’ t but I should. It is about 5usd per month. Another option to buy an external HD and put it in a friend’s house for off site backup)
6. Photo gallery (unlimited) such as the great smugmug, expono, etc… still no one offering full RAW support though… (I don’t)
7. Evernote (a must have… but I use the free version. Considering to pay though)
8. Online sharing storage such as dropbox (I use the free version)
9. Spotify (I use the free version, but I am a lazy guy, I prefer somafm.com)
10. Audible (audio books, great!)
11. Sync tool for iPhone such as mobile me (or use google for free. I use a friend’s mobile me as a family member)
12. Prezi, a great presentation tool (I use the free version…)

Anything else?

Today is a long day. After the week in Kigali (I am not going to give details on my work), yesterday being the last night, we went out for pizza. Close by the hotel there was a decent pizza place. Yesterday it rained most of the day. I asked the waiter which of the 100 varieties of pizza (seriously) was she recommending, and I went for it. After eating and having a chat with one colleague that just landed and had to have meetings all day today, we went to the hotel. I must have been 11pm. I managed to sleep pretty quickly (that is normal on me) but only for 2 hours. A one the “alert” alarm from my iPhone made me jump from the bed. It is like a nuclear attach sort of alarm, but an alarm that guarantees that you do wake up.

I went downstairs (I had to pack before going to bed) and waited for a couple of colleagues that are now traveling with me.

Our taxi driver (Peter Safari) was there. Like a swiss clock. As usual, one of the most reliable people out there. He took us to the airport. It was still raining. It took less than 30 minutes to go. We were a bit worried because yesterday, during the day, we heard a thousand versions of a story (that was real) that happened yesterday on the same day: fist that a plain just crashed in Kigali airport. All dead. The pilot tried to take off and he notice something wrong in the engine, he went back, they took a look and gave the green light, took off again and the engine go on fire, and in the attempt to return to the airport it crashed. Soon this version was changed. Only the pilots died. That they managed to land but they crashed with the VIP lounge and the pilots died. Then latter in the day a different version: that no body died but there were injuries, so an ambulance went to the airport, and the ambulance crashed with the pilots and they all died in the accident. Then that the CEO of Rwandan air (the company of the little plane) died in the crash of the ambulance when going to the airport, and finally, the one that looks the right one is that the ambulance killed a couple of people in its way to the hospital.

Anyway, there was an incident in the airport with a plane and we were a bit worried of encountering a crashed airplane.

The reality was somehow different. There was this accident and the little Kigali airport was pretty busy. When the little plane landed on an emergency landing it collided with the control tower, smoke started coming and the plane at 100 meters from this one had to evacuate (a bigger plane going to Nairobi), so in the airport we had the real version from all this people trying to get a place in our plane,which was the next one to Nairobi. At the end we manage to get our boarding passes (just on time) and here I am.

I don’t want to talk about the job we did during the week. I wonder if I am allowed and I would rather keep this personal, even if this is an official mission, I explain the personal experiences.

As I said it is going to be a loooong day. I woke up at 1am (11pm in Europe??) and I will be landing at 7.30pm. A friend will come and pick me up. Nuria is seek. She got the results from the hospital and she has the Swine Flu, so I feel terrible by being so far from her. She is in bed and because she is 8 months pregnant she cannot take any medications. I have tons of things to do in the office but I will try to get Monday off to be with her.

This stupid laptop wants to reboot every 5 minutes because it downloaded some stuff. Why all the stupid updates from Mocosoft require you computer to boot? Mac does not require you to reboot on every update!

I should consider studying the market for  a substitute for my dear old sony vaio t. The main requirements are: small (11 inches or so) great battery (more than 10 hours with wifi) and light. May be I should wait for January and see what Apple releases as a tablet. There are rumors that apple patented a pen touch screen with a pen (fingers cannot write…). I will have to wait. The vaio is old now. Is it from 2004?? Definitely one of the best investments. I have friends with netbooks and this is not the same… a high end ultraportable laptop is a different story.

Anyway, I am going to save this and let it reboot. I will continue listening to the latest audiobook of Malcom Gladwell, what the dog saw. Ciao.

Nuria was awake so finally she drove me… :-)

Once in the plane they announced that in Brussels there was only one runway open for take offs and landings due to the wind. Well that means that we had to wait for nearly one hour in the plane in Geneva. Honestly we thought we were not going to be able to catch the connecting flight, we only hoped that the delays would apply to all flights, including the one going to Kigali.

That was the case, so here I am, in the first row of business class, after reading part of my ton of documents, had a great lunch and watched what was probably the last movie I had left to watch from this route. Now I was expanding my readings to some documents I have not printed but that I have on my Vaio.

I will be going back home on Saturday night. The flights this time were busy due to a One UN conference that it is taking place now in the Serena Hotel in Kigali.

Well, I don’t want to talk about job in my blog, just about my trips and my passions (technology, internet, social media, photography and so).

Photography it has been a while since I don’t add photos to my norai.net site. In fact it is a bit sad but when I come here, one of the most beautiful countries in Africa, I do not even take the camera… but believe me, the only thing I see is the Iris Guesthouse and the Ministry of Trade.

Well if I don’t want to talk about job then I can talk about other things:

I am going to be a father for the first time in December. Nuria and I are attending this courses in the Hospital to learn about the x day, and everything. Pretty interesting. Yesterday we did the breathing thing.

A couple of weeks ago after a lot of research looking for the perfect prawn we finally bought it. 

The choice was taking into consideration a set of issues:

1. All our friends, they started buying fancy kits, like the bugaboo, but after 6 months most of them ended buying one of this umbrella prawns, like the mclaren.
2. Size and weight are very important, as well as the fact that they can last as long as possible, preferably from 0 to 3 or 4 years.

The conclusion was bebeconfort mila, a 2009 model of this brand. An umbrella sort of prawn, which weights less than 7 kg, that you can fold with one hand and standing, and that is less than 1m so you can take it in the cabin of an airplane. Also where you can attach a maxi-cosi for the car (that we also bought) creatis.fix and eventually the other one that it is like a small bed for newborns (that I bought two days ago on ebay at a third of its price, second hand but used one month).

So now we have everything to take him around.

We also went to Ikea where we bought a lot of stuff.

http://www.formwerkz.com

I am intrigued by which could be the best way to be synchronized and to backup in the cloud.

Well, after reading a lot of reviews I tried dropbox and I have to say that it is the best product out there…. now….

I continued my research:

I learnt that there are other good player outhere:

SugarSync, Microsoft Live Sync, Microsoft Mesh and Microsoft SkyDrive, and of course idisk from apple.

I tested them all.

Dropbox

Dropbox gives you 2Gb of free space. You can share folders with other users and the space is taken from everyone’s account (which makes sense as otherwise you could link several accounts). The beauty is the simplicity, that runs on mac, windows and linux, that all the files are locally stored and at the same time stored in the cloud. That in the cloud you have versions of these files, meaning that you can revert to a previous word document for instance, without the changes someone did or you did.

Now, 2Gb is not a lot. For $9.99 a month you could get 50Gb.

Microsoft mess of products (all free):

Sync: Sync (previously known as foldershare) is a peer to peer solution, so basically no limits on size. You select the folders you want to sync and if the two (at least) computers are on, then you forget, you keep the files in your office computer sync with your laptop or at home. Pretty easy. Very cool. The downside is that the files are not in the cloud, so you cannot access them via a web browser, and that if you don’t have the two (at least) computers on, they don’t synchronize. If you have a computer which is always on, then this is a very good solution.

Mesh: Mesh is like dropbox. They give you 5Gb free, which is better than dropbox. The idea is that you link as many computers to this mesh and you share files, which are also accessible via a website. The plus is that from the web, if they are on, you can take control via sort of remote desktop. Pretty cool. The downside: No file history. Not as neat as dropbox. Dropbox is the easiest thing in earth.

SkyDrive: Skydrive is big. They give you…. 25Gb free!!! It is no sync tool It is just space in the cloud for your files. You can share with live users, or public, it is very good!. The first thing I asked myself was how to map it as a network drive. The solution: with gladinet. It is free and then I discover that you can map webdavs, google docs, very nice tool. Not a substitute of dropbox because it does not keep a local copy.

SugarSync

SugarSync is in some sites rated as the best. I don’t think so. Its more complicated to use than dropbox. For me the least appealing of all these tools. I removed it after 2 days, but don’t get me wrong, it is good, you get 2Gb free or for $9.99 60Gb. Better than dropbox. The plus is that you can use it in a lot of devices (blackberry, iPhone, etc…)

Conclusion

If I have to choose one is dropbox. But depends on your needs. If you want to keep two computers synchronized then sync, if you want to share a lot of files skydrive. Mesh is cool to access remotely computers. Soon macs.

The last (but not the least) would be idisk from mobile me. I have a mac at home and I use mobileme to sync with my iphone. I managed to map it on my windows laptop as a network drive. Good, but only if you are online, like my other homemade solution that is the one I use mostly: webdav. I have webdav in my servers and I use netdrive (a little free novel program) which allows me to map webdav directores to letters in my windows, and that allows me to have a local mirror. I would look like the winner here, but… no so cool as dropbox, though I have as much space as my secondary  hardrive in my server (1Tb+1Tb in raid mirror)….  I wish someone released the open code for dropbox and I could install it in my server!

But none of these resolves my problem of massive external (offsite) backup.

I have tons of photos, and I would like to have an offsite backup. Backblaze is a tool that costs only $5 month and gives you unlimited backup, but I heard that some people is not very happy, about speeds, about the impossibility to select the folders you want to sync, only thouse you don’t… I might consider giving it a try. I might buy a NAS to my mum and sync it…

Other online photo services provide unlimited space for a reasonable, like smugmug which is very good looking and professional, but if you read carefully you cannot upload RAW files in the “unlimited” only jpgs and so.

Another that I use to upload photos for my iphone, that I have also reviewed is expono. Now offers unlimited for a reasonable price too, but is more a social photo sharing site than a professional site to upload your photos.

Another that I heard is carbonite, Nothing to comment there. It costs around $55 a year for unlimited space. A pretty well established company. I heard of it thanks to Leo Laporte and TWIT, but I cannot comment.

I think I might buy a NAS to my mum and schedule backups at night. The most cost-effective solution.

If you want to read a good article on Cloud storage (Carbonite, BackBlaze, etc… ) go to this link:

http://www.macworld.com/article/142606/2009/09/online_backup.html

I tried everything, from going to the settings of mobileme in my mac and reseting it, to delete everything on my mac in order to have mobileme overwritting…. nothing worked. I got a message saying that there was an inconsistency.

Finally I came up with a solution.

I do keep backups of the contacts of my macbook. The problem was that the ones in the iPhone/mobileme were updated and those in the mac were not.

The solution was:

1.- Export vcards from the mobileme site.
2.- Import them into the mac (here I lost all the profile photos and groups…)
3.- At this stage mac and mobile me and iphone was syncronizing again. Good.
4.- Import the latest backup to my address book in the mac. That overwrites the  everything. No big deal, in the back up, even if it was not updated I had all the photos and groups.
5.- Import the vcards but, do not merge them though. You will be prompted with what to do and you have to select to duplicate contacts, so you will end up with two different entries for each person (plus those unique sure).
6.- Now you go to the address book and click on find duplicates, then merge them.

There you are. Now you have all your contacts, plus the new ones, and you have recover the groups and photos.

C’Mon, Get Hippy!

(images via: David Icke, Buses On Screen and Career Capitalist)

Bubble gum on a bus? Sure thing – and not just stuck under the seats. One of the most enduring 4-wheeled symbols of TV pop culture hit the road in 1970 when The Partridge Family painted an old school bus in psychedelic Mondrianesque graphics and hit the road to faux-musical stardom.

(image via: TV Sinopse)

The series was revived in Partridge Family 2200AD, an animated cartoon version that, while supposedly taking place 200 years in the future, still managed a classic 1970s aesthetic right down to Laurie Partridge’s bell-bottoms. The Partridge Family bus also got a radical makeover, as seen above.

CatBus Cooler

(images via: GilNetwork and Amazing Facts)

First seen in the Miyazaki animated film My Neighbor Tortoro, the CatBusmoved on to bigger and better things… like Burning Man 2002. Stranger things have been spied upon the Playa but few have been more striking. It’s too bad every school bus didn’t look like the Cat Bus… generations of students would have arrived at school in a much better frame of mind.

Pimp My Bus

(images via: Guzer and More Cool Pictures)

Students at England’s Ellesmere Port Specialist School of Performing Arts don’t mind riding the short bus, and neither would you – if it was a low-riding, pimped out Caddy SUV bus! Info on the pimped-out bus is few and far between but it seems to be an actual bus that has received a Cadillac Escalade front-end conversion with air suspension.

The REALLY Short Bus

(images via: Oobject and Treehugger)

Didn’t make it into that swanky British performing arts school? Pity – instead of a cool Caddy you might be stuck riding the Tricycle Bus instead. This shortest of short buses brings kids to an Indian public school much the same way farmers bring their livestock to market. At least the kids aren’t destined for the stew pot… one hopes. Study hard, kiddies, study VERY hard!

School In A Bus

(image via: Hardware Zone)

At the opposite end of the scale is this rolling computerized school bussponsored by Microsoft and enjoyed by students in China. You’d better believe the kids riding on this bus will be exceptionally well behaved and won’t even think of tossing an action figure attached to a very long string out the window. Geez!

Sharp Dressed Bus

(images via: KJLyons, We Love Scotch and Art Car)

The American Visionary Art Museum in Baltimore is weird enough on its own but the bus parked right outside adds just the right amount of wacky. The bus is covered in pieces of broken mirror, then decorated with assorted bird and animal figurines because, well, why not? Forget that Caddy SUV bus, if I’m going to art school THIS is the ride of choice!

Panama Hat Tricks

(image via: The Panama News)

Panama has a long tradition of painting city buses as elaborately as the owner desires. Sadly, this blast of local color may be coming to an end – authorities prefer that all buses be painted in standard color schemes to match their route. On the bright side, do you really want to ride a bus that features The Undertaker on its rear emergency door?

Getting The Bends

(image via: A H Boon)

Advertisers just love buses; probably has something to do with huge, double-sided flat spaces that move through crowded urban areas on a regular basis. Since jaded city-types tend to tune out ordinary ads after a while, something striking is needed to drive home the message. In the images above, marketers take advantage of articulating buses and sliding entry/exit doors by incorporating their functions into eye-opening guerrilla advertising.

The Wheels On The Bus Go Round And Round

(image via: A H Boon)

Even big bus wheels are fair game – integrating a wheel or wheels into an ad also expands the area which can be used as ad space. Above are several choice examples that wheelie grab one’s attention.

Topsy-Turvy Bus Busts Budget

(images via: Gearfuse and Habeeb)

The Topsy-Turvy Bus was built by artist Tom Kennedy and commissioned by Ben & Jerry’s ice cream co-founder Ben Cohen working through BLSP, an acronym for “Business Leaders for Sensible Priorities.” The message being spread is that the U.S. budget is out of whack in a big way, to the extent that the government’s priorities are upside down.

Fast & Ball Bus

(images via: Just A Car Guy and Dark Roasted Blend)

Lars-Erik Fisk is a sculptor who turns things into balls. Trees, roads, barns and VW microbuses have all undergone the Fisk treatment, much to the awe & amusement of all who’ve viewed them. When not rolling up the world around him, Fisk is the Art Director for the rock band Phish.

Sky High School Bus

(images via: TBirds and Hacked Gadgets)

The good news? You’re riding on the coolest bus in your – or any – town. The bad news? On the jet bus, you’ll never be late for school again. That’s what happens when you yank a few rows of seats from a vintage school bus and stuff a Westinghouse J-34 turbojet engine through the rear doors. Ed Rooney approves… NOT!

World’s Ugliest School Bus

(image via: Oddity Central)

What do you call a hybrid of a truck and a bus? Perhaps this unnatural and ill-advised vehicle could be called a Truss; it’s that ugly. Students sit in the trailer portion much like cattle on their way to the slaughterhouse – on test days I’m sure they can sympathize. Only the bus driver gets some benefit from the configuration as he/she is isolated from the little monsters’ screaming, fighting and lunch tossing. It’s going to be very popular.

(image via: Cool Cars & Girls)

Now here’s the RIGHT way to build a truck-bus combo.

Bus Da Move

(images via: Ridelust and Nuffy)

The sides of the Shortcut High bus are emblazoned “Wanna be cool? Stay in school?”, and if all school buses were like this one, then it’s mission accomplished! Loosely based on a fabulous ‘49 Ford truck, this boss bus was the “principal” attraction at the 2002 SEMA show.

(image via: Michigan Bus Parts)

Here’s another view of this awesome gangsta bus that brings stylin’ to hypermilin’.

Stop The Bus!

(images via: Trend Land and Impact Lab)

Our final entry is not a bus – it WAS a bus. Three buses actually, who together have found new life as a bus stop in Athens, GA, home of The B-52s. Strange as it may look, the oddest thing about this bus stop is the fact that the City of Athens felt the need to set up a Bus Stop sign at the bus stop made of buses.

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These are the vibram shoes:

http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/

and a review: Vibram Five Fingers Classic .