May
18

Welcome To Your Brain

One of the traits that I admire in people the most is their capability for research or respect for it. Betizuka is reading Angels and Demons and besides cracking up at the joke by Barry “Here’s a spoiler: The Angels did it. And the Demons.” it reminds me a lot about how sometimes science and aspects of our life clash. I don’t think it is just religion that is at odds with science, I think many facets of our life really contradict what science knows or has already proven.

One of the most surprising things I heard during a medical interpreting seminar I attended was how young internal medical science really is. Until not too long ago, a hospital was somewhere you went to die. We all like to think of computers being the field that has changed the most thanks to the microchip, but science as a whole has moved forward quite a bit. So we “know” a lot more than what we did 100 years ago, well some people do.

I recently started reading a book called “Welcome To Your Brain.” I have been amazed at the wealth of information that has been presented in such a simple format. It also has killed many myths that I myself use to believe. The format reminds me of the dummy books, but it is actually a lot more in depth about what is talking about than those. It has also been nice to read that some of the things I thought about were correct, well at least correct from a neurosurgeon’s point of view.

The first myth that was blown out of the water was the “We only use a small % of our brain.” I used to think that there was some unlocked potential there, and while it does seem that some people do turn off logic sometimes, most people use 100% of their brains. You can read about six other myths here and the book goes into great detail about how the myths came about, and what the science behind it is.

The book has a blog, and a lot of the topics in the book have been discussed. Some of the coolest things I have learned (or reaffirmed) after reading the book are the following.

Drinking does not kill brain cells.
Will power improves as we accomplish things, even small ones.
We react before we think. (I learned this from Blink)
Homosexuality has a very strong neurological component to it.
We retrieve memories, erase them and then record them again.
You cannot tickle yourself.
Woman have a disadvantage when it comes to math.
Video games improve brain function.
Love is a drug.

I recommend you read this book. Even if you just go to specific chapters, it is really a good resource for information.

Related Links
Will Power
50 Myths and Truths (in Spanish)
10 Amazing Facts about your brain.

May
06

Advertising and Social Media

One of the first questions that I get from a web savvy person when they see the stats for not just my blog, but the other sites I webmaster is why don’t you monetize it? The answer is quite loaded, since I do have google ads running on a couple of the sites and I have thought about putting more banners here and there. The short answer is because I don’t want this to become work. While I am totally open to the idea of using my web knowledge to make a company’s web presence more successful, taking the “Logtar” brand and making money with it might take some of the cool personal and social aspect away from it. I don’t have to answer to anyone and can post pretty much about anything I want.

That said, I believe that business using social media to reach their customers is one of the best thing that could have happened to advertisement in years. I have felt the advertisement world has been sick for quite some time. I was always annoyed by commercials where at the end I had no clue what the product was even if I could retell the commercial like I wrote the script. Unless they were going for full subliminal, I thought they were not doing a good job at all. Don’t even get me started with what I think of advertisement via blinking banners on the internet.

While Meesha is still very skeptical of the whole thing and pretty much feels like he is being attacked by all fronts from people trying to sell him stuff he does not want. I see the complete opposite. I see myself being closer to the product development and enhancement process than I ever have before. I feel empowered to not just #unfollow a shameless advertiser in twitter, but to support a company that is doing things right by talking about them. I do believe that social media finally earned its 2.0 with being the digital age word of mouth.

Being invited to the blogger/twitter preview of the AMC Mainstreet made me want to go again. It had nothing to do with me being given a free quesadilla or the ability to see a movie before its even on wide release, it had everything to do with the superior movite watching experience they offered. I am glad I gave AMC as a company a second chance because they had really lost me after a visit to the Fork and Screen.

Posting about something even in a negative manner still ranks the online presence higher. Being able to voice my opinion is powerful when you have an audience, and I feel that here in KC the local blogger/twitter group is raising the coolness level of this city. I have learned about more good places to visit in a short period of time than if I would have just visited the travel guide suggestions. I know some people like Meesha want to try everything for themselves first, but I don’t want to try a horrible place if someone else already had the bad experience. I have been told that I saved people a movie ticket with a movie review or at least made them wait until it became a rental.

I don’t think what social media is doing locally or even in a global scale is going to be easily manipulated. I don’t think a free sample makes you obligated to like something you would not already liked in the first place. At least from the places that have contacted me for a review yet, none have come with a “must talk positive about our product” rule, in fact most have wanted a very honest opinion in an effort to make their service of product better.

May
04

Let my Photos Go!

I like photography, I like it a lot. I like capturing moments in time, and I love to take way too many pictures… my problem now is where do I keep them?

The first service that I used to upload pictures to was actually webshots, and I still have some pictures there but I have not uploaded anything there for quite some time.

I used to keep all my mobile photos in a now defunct textamerica until they decided to charge and poof, all my mobile pictures were gone… I think that is one of the reasons I stop taking mobile photos as much as I used to because losing them all sucked a lot. I also kind of started using brightkite, but various past stalker incidents I have to keep my stuff private which kind of defeats the whole purpose IMHO.

I have been somewhat happy with flickr, I was one of the early adopters of the service before yahoo swallowed it and actually paid a membership for a couple of years. To really get good features you have to pay for a membership, and while it is not very expensive it just bothers me that I have to pay to give access to my own pictures. One thing that I still don’t like about their interface is that it is very configurable in some places, but not so much in others. The final presentation of the albums is not something I like. So once again I want to use something different.

I have used the google free service and I am liking how it works more and more, but now transferring years worth the pictures seems like a daunting task. I know that there are scripts and even services that I can use to move things around but it is just a big hassle and I just want a service that I can use for a long time.

I am working on the idea of getting a gallery and actual portal for my photography going, but the bandwidth is just not something I am willing to pay for just yet. The blog and other various websites are already eating the bandwidth that I pay for.
So I am in a total limbo when it comes to where am I going to stick all of my photos at? I am sick of them being everywhere and nowhere.

I have a bunch of family pictures that I would like to post, but some of the other people in my family started using the kodak easy share site and I just don’t enjoy it that much. Just try to look for something without making a user. Do I got for the ease of use for my (already in need of technical support constantly) family? or do I go for a feature rich place that would let me do some coding around it?

So if anyone knows of the killer website to keep all your pictures, with geo tags, conversation, access to static addresses, even if there is a price attached to it please let me know.

Also while we are talking pictures, you can check out a little slide show of some old pictures I am actually proud I took.

Apr
01

April Fool!

I don’t like practical jokes, but I do appreciate that Google makes a funny every April fools, and unless the internet comes to an end today.

Mar
24

iRude

I would like to redefine the word iRude. Right now it applies to the snobbishness exhibited by iPhone owners, to us not appled pleople. However, I think that iRude should apply to anyone that is more connected to a wireless device than the people around them IRL (In Real Life).

Tweetups are a perfect example, even though we are all there, there are people still freaking tweeting! isn’t the point to actually talk IRL with the people you “follow.” I guess we have to keep all those not in attendance, or those hiding in a basement, with all of our not so remarkable shenanigans.

You would think the most iRude person I know is my wife, who is connected to her social media and somewhat neglecting her actual blog, but no its actually my buddy Wookieluv. His iTouch gets more play than his nose has seen since the third grade. The thing is that he claims he is still connected and paying attention while he tries to beat an digital evil cheating penguin at Monopoly, or beating his score on TapDefense, or whatever the latest little iPhone app is. Obviously we cannot compete with something that gives tactile feedback, but I find it iRude to talk to the top of his head while he skee-balls his way to yet another high score.

Don’t get me wrong, I see the allure of those gadgets, so much so that when my old phone started to crap out I considered leaving verizon for ATT and joined the iRude crowd. Canceling my service with verizon proved to be a little harder since they gave me rebates and promised that the LG Versa would make coffee for me in the mornings. Turns out it was all a lie, I hated the LG Versa. I gave it a good try, but its gimmicky interface made it look like just a wannabe iPhone that did not excel at anything. Making a phone call would take sometimes 5 click! and thanks to screen “un-sensitivity” sometimes 7. So when I heard that crackberry’s were buy one get one free I mentioned it to the wife. She did not reveal that she always wanted one, but seemed interested so last night we went to check them out. Buy one, get one free and help the economy! win-win in my opinion.

This weekend talking to Nuke killed my desire for an iPhone. I have heard of the issues with the iPhone, and even though both of the issues that he has encountered were resolved, I found them to be a hassle that I just don’t want to deal with.

We both walked out of the first verizon store where I did not come out fuming with new crackberry curves. Same phone, different colors and different covers… mine is an industrial like tire thread, and hers feels like silk… kind of freaky and at the same time cool plastic material that feels soft to the touch. We went to dinner and I think we said 3 words to each other, and the only thing that brought us to reality was the server that was a super nice guy.

We both became iRude, and continued the rest of the night. I cannot get over how cool this device is. There has only been two drawbacks that I have been able to find, one is the button sensitivity of the side voice recognition button, which has since been turned off. The other one was the lack of games for it, but I am sure if I dig I will find some. The brick breaker that comes with is fun enough. However, the google, twitter and facebook apps work very well. The interface is one of the most intuitive that I have found in a long time.

I thought about still getting a iTouch to get the MP3 storage as well as the cool games available, but after the crackberry recognized all the songs I already had on the microSD card and played them on my car in full stereo sound it killed my desire.

So I guess I have now become one of the many minions of the technology age by having a device that I find more interesting than any conversation that does not happen 140 characters at a time. I am now iRude too.

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