A few months ago, I created a cookbook for this iPad App and Web site. Cookbook Cafe allows anyone to create their own cookbook and deliver it directly to user’s iPads. (You can also access the cookbooks directly on the web site)
This new app allows anyone — individuals, charities and non-profits, restaurants, etc — to create (and sell) their own cookbooks. It presents the cookbooks complete with photos and videos in an attractive fashion, just like a paper cookbook.
Like the LAPD scanner link I posted week or so ago, this link to LiveATC.com lets you listen in to that is happening at Van Nuys airport as aircraft arrive and depart. Van Nuys is the business general aviation airport in the US, so there is always a lot going on. You can also listen in on what other aircraft, like LAPD, are doing near the airport, as they need to stay in contact whenever working in the Van Nuys airspace. Van Nuys is also the base for LA County Fire Helicopters.
This feed could also be useful if you happen to visit the Van Nuys Airport Observation area off of Woodley Avenue. Using your iPhone or other mobile device, you could listen in on traffic as you watched the planes arrive and depart. When my son was younger, we used to visit here so he could watch the airplanes up close.
Every year my friend Ric Turner does some amazing light displays for Halloween and Christmas. This year’s Christmas show is a version of Angry Birds that plays on his Christmas lights?!?!?!? Watch the video below or see it for yourself on Philbrook Avenue in Santa Clarita, CA.
“Help! The pigs are trying to ruin Christmas. Grab the sling shot and fire those birds! From the people who brought you the Guitar Hero Christmas Light game! Running on two computers and 10 Light-o-rama 16 channel controllers, uses more than 20,000 lights and less than one cent of electricity per game. Audio is broadcast on 99.1FM, and the controller has a long enough cord for people to play in their cars on the street. Easier than the iPhone version, and bigger too.”
Yes, it is that time of year again when visions of iPods dance in your head and you are trying to figure what technology gifts to get your friends, family and co-workers. Do you need advice on this year’s technology gifts? Let me help you make your way through the dense thicket of tech possibilities.
It is that time of year again and my friend, Ric, has set up his annual Halloween light show. As in year’s past, this is an interactive video game you play on the Halloween lights of the house. Punkin’ Chunkin’ pits the player against flying pumpkins as they try to catch as many as they can in their characters mouth. The show plays through Halloween night on Philbrook Street in Santa Clarita.
This started to roll out here in the US yesterday, but I see today that the LA Public Library now has the ability to check out Kindle format books via its online eBook Catalog.
Even if you don’t have a Kindle, you can download free software to read Kindle books on almost any device including Windows and Mac computers, iPhone, iPod Touch and Android device. I have “checked out” several eBooks via the existing methods, but I think this Kindle method will open up the number of titles available and also make them easier to download and read.
Following my successful founding of CareerCampLA and CareerCampSCV, I am moving forward with another unconference idea I have had for a while — MediaCampLA.
This unconference will focus on New Media of all sorts including online video sharing sites, podcasting and social media like Facebook, Twitter and more. I have attended many New Media conferences over the years, but it always seemed odd that Los Angeles — the main hub of entertainment in the US — didn’t have its own conference. There are so many people that could greatly benefit from such a conference — both in entertainment and other businesses — so I wanted to develop some sort of event here in my own backyard.
Having attended several BarCamps and other unconferences, I am sold on the concept of a conference organizing and structured by its attendees. Instead of calling in the typical A-list speakers, unconference draw on the large amount of amazing talent and information that exists locally. It provides a space for the underseen and underheard people to start sharing their message. Often these messages turn into something much larger, but these people and their ideas need the opportunity to be heard and spread. MediaCampLA hopes to provides a platform that allows for creation of “The Next Big Thing!”
If you are interested in helping to organize MediaCampLA, you can join the mailing list for MediaCampLA and check out he MediaCampLA blog. We are also on Twitter at @MediaCampLA and Facebook.
This a is big book (544 pages) but quite an easy read. It has taken me less than a week to make my way through using both print and ebook versions of the text, depending on which was most convenient at the time. Both copies, as is typical, came from the Los Angeles Public Library, to which I offer my undying appreciation.
Now, granted, I am more than a bit of a geek, but I have come to love overviews of specific scientific concepts. In this book, Gleick follows the path of information in our history. More precisely, he discusses the progression of our understanding of information as it exists in all parts of our lives. The discussion of computers appears surprisingly late in the history. Information existed long before the digital computer. It might also be said that all the scientific theorizing about information that occurred before its introduction were critical to its discovery/invention. Without deep understanding of mathematics and boolean logic, the modern-day computer could not exist.
If you desire a deeper understanding of the information concepts that lie beneath your computer screen — as well as your entire life — The Information can show you the way.
Registration fees:Machine ProjectMembers– $10 per family or small group
Non-Members – $15 per family or small group
Register here:
Learn how every day appliances work and become more comfortable with tools through the disassembly of a small appliance. Work with real volunteer engineers who grew up taking things apart too. Every workshop is different. Kids from ages 3 – 18 have taken apart everything from sanders to blenders, DVD players, phones and toys.
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