A long time ago, I had the idea of writing about technologies which I use on a regular basis.  To include my honest opinion about the technology and how I use it, whether to the full capability or not.  Time ran away, as moving can do, and I’m just now getting back to the thought.

I then had to think about what to start with.  Technology can, after all, include an extremely wide range of items from our world.  Language could be a technology, as computer languages are considered.  Why not English or Spanish or sign language?  I was struggling a bit.

In the end, I wanted to begin with something that didn’t plug into a wall socket.  No batteries.  No knobs or pins or wheels.  I finally discovered it last week when I was walking around Toronto and realized I left my map at home.  At that moment I realized what a valuable bit of technology it is.

The Map
I really don’t know why it took me so long to figure out I should start with maps.  I have tons of maps.  Use them all the time.  I have books on them, I have them on the walls (or will once I get a house), I’ve even created a few.

Maps are one of the oldest known technologies we have.  It is believed they existed prior to any written language.   They are, in many ways, the language of space as translated to two dimensions.  As much as musical notes, when written on a page, represent sounds.

The map I use the most frequently is from a British company called Mapgroup and is a PopOut Map of Toronto.  They offer maps for cities around the world and we originally used one for traveling in Munich last summer.  Using folding paper, you get four maps including southwest Ontario, the Toronto transit grid, a view of greater Toronto and a local view of the downtown area from the waterfront to slightly north of Bloor.  Overall, it gives you an amazing amount of information I can easily carry in my back pocket or my wife in her purse.

For $7 USD, this might be the most affordable per use item I have purchased with the exception of my keyboard or mouse (certainly not my Macbook Pro, though I love it, that thing is expensive).

Map Info
I could probably go on and on about maps, but I’ll cut it short (for once!) and give you some info about maps.  Take a moment and look at some different designs and understand a bit about one of our oldest technologies.

Links
Wikipedia entry on Maps
Wikipedia entry on Cartography (mapmaking)
Library of Congress: Geography and Maps
The Map Rooom: A Weblog About Maps

Online Map Collections
Odden’s Bookmarks: A massive collection of maps
American Memory
The British Library

Some Books I Recommend
As soon as I get them out of storage, I’ll list these as well.

N-Sided - Home

Nice software, but not quite there yet.  I downloaded the demo and played with it.  Nice beginning.  The interface has some nice features I would like to see in Poser.  Especially the view angle selector on the bottom right corner of the interface.

To get started, you select a character gender and then a specific look.  There is an option for a female face generator and male body building.  Both look to be more comprehensive on creating something from scratch.  Unfortunately, neither is active in the demo.

The interface has some nice features.  It doesn’t go as deep as Poser’s numeric range (no eyebrows to super-bushy for example) but it does give a wide variety of various body parts.   Eye shape, head shape, neck length and shape.  If you can name the body part it seems to a few options for customizing the body.  You can see the side angle view controller in the bottom right of the picture below.  Click on it and it gives you 6 angle selections from which to view the character.

The body bending methods aren’t as nice as Poser, but it is has some nice features.  One of the better features is the small dice in the left pane.  Clicking the dice randomizes the character features and clothing.  You can see what this feature created in the render below.

Finally,  the render is okay.  Not extremely great, but nice enough.  Though I am using the demo version, so the full version might be a bit better.  And I’ve never been a huge fan of Poser’s rendering either.  Quidam does include the ability to purchase some plug-ins for exporting to 3DS Max and a few other programs.

Not a Poser replacement yet, but for people new to 3D character creation, or who only want to create quick and simple figures, this seems to be a nice program.  Comparing Quidam to Poser is like comparing Paint Shop Pro to Photoshop.  Both nice programs, but one is limited while the other is comprehensive.  The learning curve, however, would reflect the complexity as well.

Creating Smoke tutorial

Nice tutorial for creating 2D smoke. I had to work around it a bit to get it right. In the end, I like the inner glow I was able to create. Gives the smoke a luminosity and depth.

Mac OS X: How to mount a Windows shared folder on your Mac - Lifehacker

Mac OS X: How to access a Mac’s files on your PC - Lifehacker

As the owner of both a Macbook Pro and a Windows PVR/server it is nice to find basic articles on how to share data between the two.  As always, Lifehacker does a great job of putting together the quick and dirty method in an easy to follow format.  Your system may require a bit more work, but this makes for a great start.

How to Choose a Home Improvement Contractor - wikiHow

Why reinvent the wheel?  I know we’ll have some work to do on any home we purchase.  Most of it I can do myself, but some if it will need to be handled by trained professionals.  While the list is mostly common sense, you can always overlook something and a good guide can help provide an accurate checklist.

Belkin : Front-Access In-Desk USB Hub - 3 Inch

I have a computer, a desk and a grommet hole (don’t know what size since it is in storage) and this looks like a great addition once we get everything set up.

ToonDoo - The Cartoon Strip Creator - Create, Publish, Share, Discuss!

This is a creative idea.  Build photo books from scratch.  One more thing for me to eventually try out.  The site seems a bit slow to load, but we’ve been having some internet access issues since yesterday so I’m not certain what the culprit is: site or our link.

Azarhi Software: Do Something When

Great idea.  Software which responds to the proximity of other devices and connections.  Basically make other software respond in the same way photo software does when a camera mounts.  Currently free, but a Pro version is forthcoming.  I assume it will include a fee.

The First Resume in Google Earth « Marketallica

Humph.  I thought my online resume wiki was cool, but this takes things to a whole new level.  I’m not as global, but I am now international.  A few more years and it might be worth developing a portion of my resume to give someone a visual clue as to my work area.

I can certainly envision a lot of professions which might value someone creating a map of their work history.  Especially individuals who want to leverage their knowledge of a wide area as well as the connections at those locations.

NewerTech miniStack FireWire and USB Hub

Okay, this is one sweet case.  Firewire and USB hub in one.  I don’t need any cases at the moment, but this will certainly be my next case when the time comes.