I am a wireless keyboard guy. Actually, wireless everything. I like the freedom to type while spinning in my chair, email with my feet up, or throw the keyboard across the room without endangering my laptop.

So naturally I was puzzled when my co-worked chose to do her daily ration of typing on an older Apple keyboard. That is, until I noticed what she had plugged into it.

Since winter set in our office has been like a meat locker. Many Arcstonians go through the day wearing mittens or clutching hot cups of tea. My cube neighbor found a better way to beat the cold; sport a pair of USB fingerless gloves. With a port on each side, an old school Apple keyboard works great with the gloves, preventing tangles during intense typing sessions.

Alicia 1, Jack Frost 0.

Chances are, many of you have stopped to enjoy a sunset and taken a quick photo of your significant other to capture the moment. Chances also are that when you looked at the preview on your LCD (instant gratification!), you found that it was quite different than what you were actually seeing. Not in a bad way. In fact, some of those photos may have displayed even more vibrant colors and a nicely silhouetted subject. Not bad. Just different.

The reason for this is simply due to the nature of photography and exposure. New techniques and technologies, however, are blurring this discrepancy between our eyes and our images.

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Thankfully I live in a very wired(less) city, where even Arby’s operates a free Wifi hotspot so you can check your email while enjoying freshly fried potato cakes.

Continue reading to see my favorite Wifi spots in Minneapolis.

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Adobe’s new suite of design tools is fantastic, if you can get it installed. As I discovered today, if you have any CS3 trial software installed prior to doing your real installation there can be a few bumps in the road.

On my first attempt I was offered a rather puzzling reason for the software’s failure to install, as you can see from the picture above. It turns out the transition from trial to licensed software is so arduous Adobe has gone as far as to release tools to aid you in the process.

Perhaps I am too optimistic in thinking Adobe’s latest cutting edge software offerings would come equipped with equally impressive installers.

Oh well, maybe in CS4.

I’ve done some more experimenting with the Papervision3D class library. This experiment uses a “Plane” object, the ArcStone logo for the plane’s “material” property, and a little bit of math to allow a full 360-degree view of the logo. The logo’s X and Y-axis rotation is determined by the mouse position.

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Today Wonderfile rolled out an exciting new feature which makes sharing groups of photos a snap. Simply upload photos, tag them, and share the tag.

You can also embed the share in a web page or blog, as I have done above with my “Fun With Photo Booth” series.

To learn more about our revolutionary file sharing tool, visit Wonderfile.net and sign up to be a beta tester.

There are so many ways Google can be used beyond research, stalking, and finding the quickest route to the primaries. For example, Googlewhacking and Googlebombing.

Googlewhacking is a time sucking game where the goal is to find a two-word search term that returns only one result. It sounds easy, but is remarkably difficult. Thankfully, I seam to have an unnatural talent for it and can field this example to you.

Googlebombing is a little more sinister. In a Googlebomb the goal is to manipulate Google’s search results for fun or profit. The most famous bomb had the terms “miserable failure” linking to George W Bush’s biography.

Here is an interesting image Googlebomb I discovered. When searching for “Word” a seemingly official photo of the Word 2002 box appears. Upon closer examination however, it’s a clever parody.

When you leave software to make up its own mind, like which ads to show a user, sometimes strange things happen, or worse. I have been noticing this more and more, especially in high profile sites, like Gmail, CNN, CNET, and other sites you would think sport top-of-the-line advertising engines.

Here is CNET’s media player, currently sponsored by T-Mobile, playing a Sprint phone review. Before the review you get to enjoy a short T-Mobile spot professing the superiority of their phones.

Here is Google attempting to peek my interest in purchasing a heavily armored vehicle. I have also been served ads for body armor and night-vision goggles. Just how dangerous does Google think Minneapolis is?

The last twelve months; particularly the last six, have seen big steps in my photographic vision. I’ve taken a camera where I haven’t done so before, looked at things from new perspectives and improved my processing skills. I’ve selected 10 of my favorite photos from 2007 to share with you. Some of them I’ve selected for technical qualities as a “good photo”, others simply for the personal experience that surrounds it. I hope you enjoy what you see.
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A fellow word-lover of mine tipped me off to Scrabulous, the Scrabble-esque app for Facebook. You can play casual games with your friends over any span of time. (Name of opponent removed to protect the innocent.)

You know I’m already addicted.