Trying to get inspired so I bought a new monitor and wrote some
graphics code.

I think it's working!

Dang Flavia packets keep exploding on us. Maybe time to try another
brand. Would be nice to have compostable pods. Suggestions?

Google seemed to try to toss a bit of cold water on Apple's iPad announcement with a me too announcement of a Google Tablet.
One thing that caught my attention though was:Google is taking a different approach with Chrome OS. Instead of programs running straight on the computer's hardware and its underlying Linux operating system, Chrome OS applications run directly in the browser. What's similar to the iPad, though, is that both have somewhat of an applications head start compared with a computing platform that's starting from scratch: the iPad can run existing iPhone apps, and Chrome OS can run existing Web applications such as Google DocsThis reminds me of the Native Client project. It would be interesting to see Google take a web app approach to the tablet. Of course Apple launched the iPhone without an app store and initially pitched the idea that all apps could just be web apps. Of course today no one thinks of web apps as real iPhone apps. (Except maybe the Google Voice folks.)
Maybe the Google tablet could just leverage NaCl apps as a way to jump start a gPad device instead of the more complicated and heavy handed process that is involved in running an app store. After all, this is similar to the way the iPhone got started. Of course NaCl apps could do a lot more than the Javascript web apps of the iPhone 1.0 days.

Today Axis announced new thermal imaging camera model Q1910. Apparently you can get one for only $3,138 from your favorite reseller. The videos are kind of creepy, I have to admit.

I've been playing around with the ioBridge IO-204. This is a fun little gadget that allows you to hook up and control various devices in your home or office. The cool thing about ioBridge is that they have a web site for controlling and accessing the device. You plug it in and it connects up to the ioBridge website. You can then log into the website and configure the device. Since the IO-204 connects to their site, you don't have to muck with firewall issues or do any port forwarding on your router.

Since the servers at ioBridge provide the interface to the device at your home, you can easily create widgets that you can embed in your blog or web page. Here's one that shows the temperature in my basement.

document.write(unescape("%3Cscript src='" + "http://www.iobridge.com/widgets/io.js?SVTwVdVUZRg3' type='text/javascript'%3E%3C/script%3E"));

I must say that it took me way too long to get this graph to work. The site is still pretty confusing. I had to poke around on the forums before I was able to get everything configured properly. For instance, I kept trying to create the temperature sensor as a digital input. It sure looks digital to me. But in ioBridge terms, digital really means binary and analog means a range of digital values. Go figure.

Anyway, I think they have the right approach and it was relatively simple to setup. For months I've had a similar device from Mi Casa Verde called the Vera and I have yet to be able to get a graph of temperatures out of it. The Vera will do a lot more, but the web integration for the IO-204 is much simpler.

We've been alpha testing sensr.net for a few months now. I got an email from one of our early users that his camera caught a thief in action. See the shots below.



Unfortunately they haven't caught the guy, yet. At least the neighbors have been warned and they know what the guy looks like so they can keep an eye out for him in the future.

A touching video from Starbucks.

My favorites are the wacky folks from Japan and Denmark.



Click here to view on YouTube.

They are so cute together.