August 30, 2010
This is an excellent little iPhone application that has made its way on to my home screen. It allows you to save text messages — and even the recipients for the canned message — for those frequently sent items so you can access them with a single tap. You can also expand upon a canned message quickly and easily when you select it or add additional recipients on the fly. It’s also handy if you just want to store groups of recipients for text messaging at a later time. Check it out.
August 27, 2010
According to this article on a British study of music and cycling, participants were willing to work harder when the tempo of the music was increased during their workout.
As the researchers wrote, when “the music was played faster, the participants chose to accept, and even prefer, a greater degree of effort.”
Note that even though they put more effort in to their workout, the riders did not say that it felt easier. The workout was more difficult overall, but not unbearable.
As Tara points out in her article, it’s not as though using music to enhance exercise is a new phenomenon, but it is helpful to note that the tempo of your music could boost you to push that exercise just a bit harder.
I believe the music that Lesa and I use in our Zumba classes is a big determinant in how much I push myself. I know that our Zumba members work harder during faster songs. If you need some great music to accompany your exercise, stop by and take a Zumba class. I guarantee you’ll love it.
August 20, 2010
We have submitted a design concept to a competition being run by New York designer Richard Smith. The Dollar ReDe$ign Project hopes to bring about change for everyone. We want to rebrand the US Dollar, rebuild financial confidence and revive our failing economy.
A beautifully designed site takes a “through the years” look at a beautifully designed magazine.
An experimental film in tribute to Ridley Scott’s legendary film “Blade Runner” (1982). This film was made as a unique picture with a resolution of 60.000 x 60.000 pixels (3.6 gigapixels). It was made with 167,819 frames from ‘Blade Runner’.
August 19, 2010
Well, not exactly Farmville, but rather the makers of the game, Zynga. Together with a couple other developers, they created Membase, a NoSQL database to power the back-end of their game. The beauty of it is that it is available as an open source product. Powerful tools like this aren’t always cheap, but it’s great to see companies making excellent technology and sharing it with the rest of us.
August 17, 2010
calvetica is a sparse and beautiful iPhone calendar application. It oozes elegance and simplicity on the screen. The best feature — aside from Helvetica? Speed.
calvetica integrates with the built-in calendar database, so any external links, such as Google Calendar, are maintained and synchronization happens immediately.
The focus on typography makes it look like it belongs on Windows Phone 7. Interesting…
August 6, 2010
Virginia Heffernan ponders the value of Amazon Prime and considers differential pricing. A good read that left me wondering if I really need “free” two day shipping.
August 2, 2010
I am currently reading — more accurately working through — the book, How to be Rich and Happy, by John P. Strelecky and Tim Brownson. A full review is forthcoming, but while reading over lunch today, a particular bit caught my interest.
…[D]eath of our physical bodies will eventually happen to us all. I’m sorry if that news is a spoiler for you and you were unaware, but that is the way the game ends for everyone. You may be able to forestall death, but that’s about as far as you’ll get.
Double apologies if I’ve spoiled life for you.
Earlier today, I was told that a 27 year old woman had died unexpectedly of unknown causes. As I have spent a bit over 33 years of my lifetime, this was sobering news. I realize that deaths and funerals may cause all people to briefly reflect upon the fleeting amount of time given them, but reading the aforementioned quote after hearing of that death caused me to ponder.
You may think of life as a game, and as an analogy, that works quite well. The beauty of life as a game is that you choose how to keep score. For some, the score may be money, power, cars, while for others the score may be countries visited, grandchildren, books written. Also, you probably keep more than one scoreboard for life.
There are many tangibles and intangibles, so we keep track of those most important to us. Knowing this, are you happy with your scoreboard? Are there any scores you are keeping that can be removed? Are any of those scores necessary?
Whether intended or not, when we treat life as a game and keep score of its aspects, I believe we are missing out on the purpose. If the game ended tomorrow, how would you feel about your life thus far?
Be well.
July 30, 2010
This is an insightful article (yes, it’s longer than 140 characters).
Remember, before there was LOLing, there was lolling.
