one digital life

iPod Vending Machine

I’ve read about these a few times before, but this is the first time I’ve actually come across one in person. It’s an iPod vending machine. Just put in your credit card, and it will spit out any flavor of iPod, and a variety of cases, cables, and docks. What will they think of next?

I came across this one at the Serramonte Mall, in Daly City, CA.

2nd Annual San Francisco Mermaid Parade

photo by Armondo Walter

I’ve never heard of this, but it sounds pretty fun. This Sunday (5.7.06) is the 2nd Annual Mermaid Parade, here in San Francisco. The parade starts at 1:00pm at the 100 block of Minna Street, across from Yerba Buena Gardens, and ends at The How Weird Street Faire, with something called Neptune’s Ball starting at 5:00pm. Count me in!

Found via Laughing Squid

The Big Face on 4th

Tonight I walked over to the grocery store by our house, and I noticed this giant face. It’s painted on a big piece of plywood and mounted on a beam under the freeway overpass on 4th street, near Harrison.

I have no idea what it’s for, but it looked kind of eerie. Anyone with any info on this, leave the scoop in the comments.

UPDATE (9.13.07): It took a year and a half, but I now know what this is, thanks to Laughing Squid.

Eye-Fi: SD Card with built in WiFi

How would you like to upload your pictures straight from your camera to Flickr, or another photo sharing site, without ever going near a computer? That’s exactly what Eye-Fi wants to give you. They are a new startup here in the Bay Area, and they’re developing a product called Eye-Film. Basically, it’s an SD card with built in WiFi. They’re also working on a Compact Flash version.

The idea is to allow your camera to upload images directly to the internet, to a central server. That server would then route the pictures to a photo service of your choice.

There isn’t much information on their site yet but it looks pretty cool.

Found via Laughing Squid

Spring has Sprung

Woohoo! I think Spring has Sprung, here in the Bay Area. Our six weeks of rain appear to be over, or at least coming to an end.

Today was a beautiful spring day. Not a cloud in the sky… warm and comfortable. I hope it lasts :)

Stanford & Berkeley on iTunes U

As a followup to my last post, I should mention that both Stanford University and The University of California, Berkeley have made a substantial amount of audio and video content available through iTunes, including music, lectures, classes, speeches, and books. So far, everything I’ve seen is FREE!

Links: Stanford | Berkeley

Do what you love… Don’t settle

“…Your work is going to fill a large part of your life, and the only way to be truly satisfied is to do what you believe is great work, and the only way to do great work is to love what you do. If you haven’t found it yet, keep looking, and don’t settle. As with all matters of the heart, you’ll know when you find it, and like any great relationship it just gets better and better as the years roll on. So keep looking. Don’t settle…”

That was an excerpt from Steve Jobs’ commencement address at Stanford, June, 2005. I’ve been thinking a lot about those words lately. The entire speech is available through iTunes (FREE).

Link (Steve Job’s Commencement Address - iTunes): Audio | Video

Found via Daring Fireball

One Digital Life at The Apple Store

Tonight I went to a short lecture at the Apple Store here in San Francisco. It was given by Lara Hedberg Deam, founder of Dwell Magazine. It was a good lecture. It was interesting to hear about the background of the magazine’s founder, and the design that goes into each issue. The series of lectures take place every third Wednesday of the month. They’re put on by Apple and the AIGA.

Whenever I go to the Apple Store, I like to call up one digital life on at least one machine, and leave it that way… it’s a little game I play (check out the monitor behind me).

It’s hard to see, but yes, that’s an odl t-shirt I’m wearing too. :)