tokao.com

San Juan de Puerto Rico

We are now at San Juan de Puerto Rico. The ship leaves at 10pm (ship time) and we head towards Philipsburg. I found free wifi here and I managed to upload all previous posts. From the ship it is impossible to upload photos… I did not have the time and the occasion to take the [...]

In the way to Puerto Rico

Navigation day. Puerto Rico is far from Florida. The day started rainy and a bit cold but as the day was progressing the sun took over and the temperatures raised. 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 [...]

Fort Lauderdale, half way

Half way. For most of the people the cruise is over, but we continued. We discussed weather it was worth to go down and visit Fort Lauderdale and we concluded that we will be here next Saturday and with a rental car, so it was the best day to enjoy the ship, which was again [...]

Nassau, Bahamas

We arrived to Nassau this morning. now in an hour we will be leaving to For Lauderdale to start the second part of the cruise. 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. [...]

Navigation day

From Montego Bay to Nassau you have quite a long distance. The day was all day navigation. The ship is packed with activities: in the pool area, theatres, etc… and it was a gala night. Everybody with suits and ties… I did not bring any… like in the titanic. We spent most of the day [...]

Limited Internet Connection

I have been writing posts every day, but Internet on board of the MSC Poesia is limited, specially to upload stuff (photos). We are leaving Jamaica now, in our way to Nassau (Bahamas). Everything great.

Montego Bay, Jamaica

This morning we arrived at Montego Bay in Jamaica. The previous two days have been a bit of miss organization from the side of MSC. First it was supposed to stop in Playa del Carmen and not in Cozumel. Petty because playa del Carmen is a nice place and the place where it stopped in [...]

Georgetown, Cayman Islands

When we reached Georgetown in the Grand Cayman, we were supposed to leave the ship by 10 with boats. There were 2 other cruises and the sea was a bit moved. In fact the captain could not properly anchor and had to stay all day in the same spot using the engine. Plus the boats [...]

Cozumel, Mexico

Early this morning they announced that instead of stopping close by Playa del Carmen and take boats to the port (that was the plan), we were going to go to the island in front, Cozumel and stop in the port. We did, and we went down but seeing that to go anywhere we should take [...]

Key West

Just a quick note from MSC Poesia. We are in Key West. We arrieved this morning and we are leaving now to Playa del Carmen. I am writing from my iPhone using edge in roaming so no photos. I will write more as soon as I find wifi somewhere.

Key West, pirates town

We continue from the previous post, but now from the MSC Poesia. We woke up early. We decided to leave the curtains open so in the mornings we could see the sun rising in the sea. We had our shower and went to the 13th floor where the breakfast buffet is. Incredible choice and views. [...]

Driving by the coast to Port Everglades

We had to leave the room by 11am. We agreed that The Clay Hotel had the best location possible in Miami Beach. We left the bags in reception and walked to Ocean Drive where we had a nice breakfast. We went back to the hotel, took our stuff and put it in the car. [...]

Welcome to Miami

After our great dinner in the restaurant in the corner of this busy street, the cafe nuvo we went to bed. We had a good night. Woke up several times (as usual) but OK. The hotel is at the heart of Miami Beach, it is cheap a bit noisy but highly recommended. Just for [...]

Iberia sucks

Here I am, in the middle of the ocean writing again. I would have love to name this post something like our trip to Miami, but I can’t. 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 [...]

Getting ready

Wednesday, a day to take it easy, meet a couple of people and prepare the bags for the day after, for the long trip. 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 [...]

Lovely sunny day

We spent most of the day with Raquel, Kike and Eneko. In the morning they came here to my mum’s and we took the bus number 55 to Plaza Catalunya. 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 [...]

Eneko & co.

On Monday we went downtown. We met Kike, the traveler at Zurich in placa catalunya.He is doing fine. We went for a walk until the sea, then the port and then up to borne where we had a final drink and he left. We stayed around to eat some tapas (delicious) and went back home [...]

Calçotada

We woke up and… no sun today. This is starting to be like Geneva, where you never know if it is going to be sunny, cold… 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 [...]

Twitter adds local trends

Twitter has improved #trends by adding local trends. For me trends as twitter shows them are spammy and useless. For what I see with this improvement, only a few cities in the world are included. Obviously not Barcelona, where I am now, or Geneva where I live.

Villa Olimpica

We woke up and it was sunny. The day before it was raining and it was awful. 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 [...]

Barcelona: kai meets his great grandmother

Barcelona is proving to be a challenge in terms of meeting all the people we have to meet. I posted a note in facebook and sent an email to all my friend telling them to call us if they want to meet us (well meet kai). I wish there would be an easy way to do [...]

Long sunny drive to Barcelona.

We woke up early, but we couldn’t leave the house until noon. Logistics are difficult with a 2 month old… 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 [...]

Tomorrow we are leaving to Barcelona

We are planning to leave the house as early as possible, but lately with Kai looks like it is impossible to be out of home before noon. 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 [...]

Tall, Grande? no way…

Oblong Industries: minority report technology is here

Is this the future of technology? The co-founder of Oblong, John Underkoffler, is the man who came up with the gesture-based interface used in the Steven Spielberg movie. And now he’s building it in real life.Welcome to spatial operating system:

Google kaos of services. Integration problems and Google apps users discrimination

I wanted to write an entry on my thoughts about google services. Don’t get me wrong, I love google. I really like it, its strategy of providing everything for free and try to find revenue through other ways (it took them a while), in their case adds is absolutely great and has marked a before [...]

Stop Motion T-Shirt War

We are going on holidays!!

Yeap! we are all (the three of us) going on holidays! I will be blogging daily as we did in our previous trip around the world one year ago! You will be able to follow our trip on by going to: http://tokao.com/tag/caribbean-cruise/ It is our first trip with Kai. It is not like the trip we did last year [...]

Jamie Oliver’s TED Prize wish: Teach every child about food

Zoho Invoice

The productivity suite empire Zoho launched a simple invoicing tool, unsurprisingly called Zoho Invoice. Now, the startup is releasing a new version of its Invoice, dubbed Invoice 2.0, that has a fresh user interface and provides a more open application. The fact is that over the past two years, there have been a plethora of online invoicing startups that have [...]

AIDS graffiti

Google wave the future. Buzz the present. Stupid?

As you saw in a couple of previous posts, google released his social tool called google buzz (not to be confused with yahoo’s one…). I tried though it still does not work in google apps, and it is pretty good. It is sort of twitter with location and photos, in fact if you read me, you will [...]

OpenTable: booking restaurants online

There is a very cool service called OpenTable. OpenTable is the leading supplier of reservation, table management and guest management software for restaurants plus www.opentable.com, the world’s most popular website for making restaurant reservations online. With more than 12,000 customers throughout the United States, Canada, Mexico, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Japan, the OpenTable hardware and software [...]

The Muppets: Beaker’s Ballad

Creative Shoes: 13 of the Wildest Shoe Designs and Brands

[ By Marc in weburbanist ] While the majority of consumers are content to purchase the newest brand of name brand shoes, in the same color and style they always get, this doesn’t hold true for everyone. In our daily lives we only come across the occasional individual who truly works at expressing their personality via [...]

5 Insightful TED Talks on Social Media

As social media has become a game changer for industries across the board, you can bet the experts at this year’s TED conference will have their sights set on peeling back the hype and getting at the core of what social technology has in store for this year and beyond. Perhaps the best part of the [...]

Google Buzz

Google has just unveiled its latest attempt to become more relevant in the social media space: Google Buzz. The product is integrated within Gmail and will be rolled out gradually to all of the webmail service’s users over the next few days.

Siri: a personal assistant for your iPhone

You’re busy. Between meetings, social events, and hopefully a workout or two, your schedule’s packed. Don’t you wish you could hand off simple tasks so you could have more time to play? Take a look at Siri, your personal assistant. Just like a real assistant, Siri understands what you say, accomplishes tasks for you and adapts to your [...]

Google Could Unveil Gmail’s Social Features Today

Google could be launching later today a social status update feature in Gmail. The Wall Street Journal reports that it is a new Gmail module that could integrate status updates as well as content from YouTube, Picasa and potentially other social sources. Google is organizing at its headquarters an event where they will “unveil some [...]

Winsome Words: 18 Examples of Typography in Web Design

[ By Steph in Architecture & Design, Gadgets & Geek Art. ] “Web design is 95% typography.” That quote has been repeated around the internet so many times it has practically become gospel – probably because it’s true. While images are important, most of what we process while browsing the web is text. Using the same [...]

location based apps: the future

I have talked in the past about location based apps. Now google targets your searches depending on your location. New browsers ask you if you allow them to know where you are so the results are more location based, and not only traditional searches but more and more real time social network news from twitter [...]

Send Help: Disaster Response From The Cloud

Relief agencies, companies and volunteers came together and built a global network of systems and people to coordinate emergency aid operations for the Haiti earthquake victims. This piecing together of a jigsaw of different organizations and technologies with one common goal serves as a testament to what is possible using cloud computing and may serve as [...]

Google PowerMeter

Google PowerMeter is a free software tool that allows you to view your home’s energy consumption from your personalized iGoogle homepage. Using information from utility smart meters and in-home energy management devices, Google PowerMeter helps you to save money and use less electricity. What is Google PowerMeter? Google PowerMeter is an opt-in software tool that allows users [...]

Memoria Casa Joaquin in Spain by A-cero Architects

Memoria Casa Joaquin is a house located in Spain and designed by A-cero Architects. The rich, pure and volumetric qualities of the forms are also apparent in the structure, which includes concrete walls that create the outlines of volumes. The design process is intended to discover new visions of everyday life directly related to Galician [...]

Sensors to Help You Get Fit – From Nike, Adidas & Others

One of the trends we’re exploring this year is how the Internet is being integrated into everyday objects. Called the Internet of Things, it’s seeping into some massive consumer industries. One of them is fitness. Many of you have heard of the Nike+ running shoes, which sends running data to your iPod via a sensor. Adidas [...]

bains d’Ovronnaz

The last few days I have not been posting in the blog because I was in Ovronnaz enjoying thermal baths for 3 days with Nuria and Kai. Yes Kai did try too ;-) I wrote a couple of stories with the iPhone wordpress app but they were lost… Ovronnaz is at 2 hours from here and it [...]

evolution

Kiva is a great idea: lending money to entrepreneurs in developing countries

Kiva.org allows individuals to make loans starting at $25 to low-income entrepreneurs in the developing world, also known as microcredit. By doing so, you can provide affordable working capital for the poor (money to buy a sewing machine, livestock, etc.), empowering them to earn their way out of poverty. Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending [...]

iTunes alternative for android… and the rest

doubleTwist is a iTunes clone to sync your android, palm pre, blackberry or in fact up to more than a hundred devices. It looks like iTunes, and you can buy music directly from amazon. If you have a nexus one, give it a try.

Tips

Internet in 2009: wrap up

What happened with the Internet in 2009? How many websites were added? How many emails were sent? How many Internet users were there? This post will answer all of those questions and many more. Prepare for information overload, but in a good way. We have used a wide variety of sources from around the Web. A [...]

Google search is going more social

Late last year we released the Social Search experiment to make search more personal with relevant web content from your friends and online contacts. We were excited by the number of people who chose to try it out, and today Social Search is available to everyone in beta on google.com. We’ve been having a lot of [...]

iPad from Apple

(from engadget) Here it is folks, the Apple iPad. The screen is gorgeous, tilting is responsive, and the thing is insanely thin and light. Still, if you’ve used the iPhone before — and you can see the two devices side-by-side here — there’s not a lot of surprises here so far. Here are some initial thoughts [...]

Diet and exercise. Calorie counters. iPhone apps.

I have put on weight lately and since two days ago I am trying to actively loose is, but this time by eating better and controlling my caloric intake. I have been researching online solutions with iPhone apps and there are quite a bit. Well normally I keep track of my weight with an apple software called [...]

Stupendous Steps: 15 Great Escalator & Stair Ads

[ By Steph in Architecture & Design, Guerilla Marketing & Ads, Subvertising & Counter-Ads, Urbanism. ] While spending 30 seconds on an escalator, where do you look? Most people just stare straight ahead – making escalators an ideal location for advertising. But some ads are more colorful, clever and controversial than others, using both the ideal [...]

WooRank: Website analysis tool

Wonder what google and others see in a website? Try WooRank, you will get a ton of information about a website.

Google Fast Flip

Google Fast Flip is a web application that lets users discover and share news articles. It combines qualities of print and the Web, with the ability to “flip” through pages online as quickly as flipping through a magazine. It also enables users to follow friends and topics, discover new content and create their own custom [...]

Creative stuff

Collection of photos of creative stuff.

Sleeveface

Google docs lets you upload your files to the cloud now

(from the official google blog) We’re happy to announce that over the next few weeks we will be rolling out the ability to upload, store and organize any type of file in Google Docs. With this change, you’ll be able to upload and access your files from any computer — all you need is an Internet [...]

Paste without formatting by default on a mac

Here’s something I know affects plenty of users out there. Have you ever pasted text in a document or email message, only to have it formatted differently than all the text around it? Irritating, right? There’s an answer, thanks to the Keyboard & Mouse pane in System Preferences. If you click the Keyboard Shortcuts tab, you [...]

Prediction for 2010

On the 31 dec 2009 I blogged about 2009 and I did some prediction for the future. 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 [...]

Brainstorming online tools

I have blogged in the past about prezi, and I think is one of the coolest presentation tools out there. I would like to share a couple of other brainstorming tools that might be useful for your thinking processes: Prezi xmind bubbl.us

More Than Fit to Sit: 15 Clever Bench Ads

[ By Steph in Guerilla Marketing & Ads, Subvertising & Counter-Ads, Urban Images. ] A bench is a bench – except when it’s also a platform for a surprising, thought-provoking, memorable advertisement that sometimes even functions as urban art. The best bench ads turn ubiquitous public furniture into interactive displays that entreat the public to get fit, go on vacation, try [...]

Square: iPhone payment system

A new payment system has been developed for the iPhone. Take a look to the video Square is Jack Dorsey’s (Twitter co-founder) new startup that now has Kevin Rose (Digg founder) on board as an investor and YouTube pitch man for the prototype payment device that plugs directly into the iPhone’s headphone jack.

Fishing show bloopers

Fonera 2.0n: How to upgrade to latest DEV firmware

I have been enquiring in the fonera forums on how to install the latest release candidate in my fon 2.0 as wifi for the iphone in the current version is unusable and in the 2.3.5.0 the drivers have changed. This is what I posted in the forums: 1.- Save your settings: Settings/System then the big settings button [...]

Is this where advertising is going?

Many times you have wondered who the hell reads the adds in websites and other places. You just skip them or close them, so you wonder how can the companies pay to advertise… Nowadays mass advertising is transforming into custom advertising. Google does so in its add sense and gmail. I would say it might work [...]

Haiti photos by the IFRC

How SharePoint Can Deliver Project Transparency

By DUX RAYMOND SY | Published Jan 14, 2010 on cmswire Transparency in projects is becoming a requirement for many organizations today. SharePoint provides a number of out of the box features and integrations with third party tools to support the transparency required. But even before you go about designing the solution, make sure you have your [...]

Remindo: personalized company intranet

With remindo you can create your company branded intranet in minutes and access it from anywhere on the web. Use it free for up to 3 GB of storage. Share information, collaborate and project manage with your team and clients. Here the features: Personalization & Company Branding Personalized URL Remindo gives you a personalized URL like http://intranet.yourcompany.com [...]

Design the case for your iPhone

There is very cool website called case mate where you can design a unique case for your iPhone, iPod, Laptop, etc…. It is made in flash and it is very very nice. Give it a try. The final price of the case is a bit expensive but you’ll get something unique.

Google’s new approach in China: they might pull out

This is from the official google blog: Like many other well-known organizations, we face cyber attacks of varying degrees on a regular basis. In mid-December, we detected a highly sophisticated and targeted attack on our corporate infrastructure originating from China that resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google. However, it soon became clear that [...]

yahoo sells zimbra to vmware

Zimbra is the email I am using with norai. I use the open source version and it is the best email experience you can have. They have announced that VMware has bought email and collaboration software developer Zimbra from Yahoo. Rumors of the sale have been floating around for some time now but the writing was [...]

the meaning of “open” for Google

At Google we believe that open systems win. They lead to more innovation, value, and freedom of choice for consumers, and a vibrant, profitable, and competitive ecosystem for businesses. Many companies will claim roughly the same thing since they know that declaring themselves to be open is both good for their brand and completely without [...]

Amazing Inklet trackpad tablet app for MacBook

The Inklet app essentially converts your multitouch trackpad in your MacBook into a drawing tablet by adding pressure sensitivity when using with a Pogo Sketch, as well as “advanced palm rejection” which lets you rest your hand while drawing or writing. As you can see in one of the videos after the break, you can [...]

Chat, share documents and whiteboards

Showdocument is free online service that will allow you to upload a document and in real time chat and highlight stuff together, like browsing the pages together. You can also open a plain one and write, and even link it with google docs. Very easy to use and very handy when wanting to go over a [...]

Notable: provide feedback on websites

Notable is an online tool that will allow you to easily provide feedback on websites. Quickly and easily give feedback on design, content, and code on any page of a website or application without leaving your browser. Works on iPhone, too! Notable helps your team collaborate through visual feedback on screenshots, via a chaos-free process so that everyone can [...]

Text recognition OCR in photos

I have blogged about Evernote in the past. Is one of my top ten apps for the web, mac, windows and iPhone. I use it extensively everyday. I take photos with my iPhone 3GS which has autofocus and in the past with my iPhone 3G with a berklin case with a magnifying glass. The fact is [...]

Helicopter? there is an iPhone app for that

Ardone has released a quadricopter that can be controlled with an iPhone or iPod touch. Take a look at the video, it is a super cool gadget… it works with wi-fi and has two cameras…

Phanfare: Photo and Video hosting

I just wanted to introduce a new player in the photo hosting. I have talked in the past about flickr, picasa web, smugmug (one of my favourites) and now a small company from New Jersey, phanfare offers you options of unlimited photos from $49.99, and the pro $99.99 with Raw support. The galleries do not look [...]

iFixit tears down the new nexus one

Interesting to see how to waste $530 just to show up how is it made… See it at iFixit

Funny pacifiers, chupetes, socettes ;-)

You can get them at prankplace or at amazon. I just ordered the first and second one for Kai in ebay. Search for: billy bob pacifier

mysomeday: dream, plan, achieve

Keep all those resolutions you made. mysomeday is a website that helps you to make a list to keep track of these ‘Somedays’. You can share them with Friends and the community or keep them private. For each Someday, we’ll show you related step-by-step Plans for achievement. You can copy and customize a Plan or build your [...]

Kindle DX with Global Wireless ships on the 19 Jan at $489

Books in Under 60 Seconds: Think of a book and you could be reading it in under a minute Free Wireless: Free 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle. No monthly fees, service plans, or hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots. For non-U.S. customers, there are also no additional charges for wireless delivery in or [...]

New Google phone: Nexus one

Today Google has officially released the new android 2.1 phone manufactured by HTC called Nexus One. Here you have the official link. Engadget had an early copy to review. You can read the review here. It has videos and unboxing photos. It has a 1Ghz processor, 5Mp camera, microSD (up to 32Gb) and a 3.7 inches screen. Thiner [...]

Mind-Bending Digital Photo Manipulation by Erik Johansson

In the Age of Photoshop, few images are surprising anymore – but every now and then, you come across one that makes you do a double take and spend a few moments thinking, “how’d they do that?” Swedish photographer Erik Johansson has a portfolio packed full of such images, blending reality and artificiality together so [...]

Last day of 2009. How was it?

For me (us) it has been a great year. It all started in December 2008. Nuria got a new job at The Global Fund to fight AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria. A considerable jump in her career in a place where most of us would love to work for what they do, which is to save lives. [...]

Having your first baby? Here some gear you might want to consider

As you have noticed we had our first baby, kai, last 8th of December, so today 31st December he is 23 days old. I would like to share my experience on the gear I think we have and what I think.

Concept Motorcycles: 20 Bad-Ass Bikes To Hope For In 2010

Lean, mean and sometimes even green, concept motorcycles often make us want to head out on the highway and look for adventure. These bikes may not be quite ready to tear up the road as we zoom into the wind, but we wish they would move from concept to reality very soon! As we take a [...]

TuneUp

TuneUp is a tool that will allow clean up your itunes digital music collections which are probably a mess… rename tracks like track01, add the cover, album and so… and automatically. I did posted previously about another one: pollux but looks it does not work anymore….

Google Goggles brings visual search to Android; Favorite Places brings QR codes to restaurant reviews

Looks like Google’s been busy on the camera tip lately — not only is it launching a new QR code-based Favorite Places mobile search product today, it’s also demoing Google Goggles, a visual search app that generates local results from analyzing mobile phone images. Favorite Places isn’t super-complicated, but it sounds like it’ll be pretty [...]

Kai having a bath

Plug

Meysam Movahedi’s latest concept certainly isn’t the first revolutionary tweak to the tried-and-true power outlet, but it’s easily one of our favorites. Put simply, the Rambler Socket is an in-wall box that contains 1.5 meters of extra cabling along with a traditional AC outlet. Granted, you’ll need a pretty deep wall to make something like [...]

Merry Christmas…eve!!

Just to wish you a very merry Christmas eve! I’ll be celebrating it with Nuria, Kai and Nuria’s Mum, Dad, Brother and Brother’s girlfriend. For the first time not with my family (Mum, Brother, Grandma…) I wish you all the best!!

what were they thinking?

Blippy: what are your friends buying?

Blippy is a fun and easy way to see and discuss the things people are buying. Automatically share your favorite purchases from iTunes, Amazon, Zappos, Visa, MasterCard, and more. It is now in beta but interesting idea on a twitter like website.

Google Insights for Search

http://google.com/insights/search/ See what the people is searching for With Google Insights for Search, you can compare search volume patterns across specific regions, categories, time frames and properties. See examples of how you can use Google Insights for Search. Categories Narrow data to specific categories, like finance, health, and sports. Examples: Top Newspapers in the UK | Soccer in 2008, [...]

The Secret Life of Everyday Things: Art by Terry Border

When we go to bed at night, are the contents of our refrigerators, utility shelves and medicine cabinets throwing wild parties, getting amorous, acting out plays and engaging in cannibalism? Maybe not, but it’s fun to imagine them getting up to all kinds of mischief behind closed doors, and that’s exactly what a photo series [...]