Masons got Rosetta Stone software for Christmas. We’ve been learning French every day since.
Here’s one of their TV commercials.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Rosetta Stone is interactive language learning software that teaches a new language by immersion, rather than translation and memorization drills. Learn more …
It works. It’s painless. Easy. Almost fun.
But it’s not cheap. Over $200 just to get started. Almost $500 for the complete French kit.
Warren sent me a link to this important video posted by new media guru Dr. Michael Wesch.
Assistant Professor of Cultural Anthropology and Digital Ethnography
2008 U.S. Professor of the Year
Kansas State University
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
If you like that, check out his famous 55min presentation called An anthropological introduction to YouTube. Brilliant.
his blog – Digital Ethnography
It doesn’t have to be great. But I need to drive it to Mexico.
Leave a comment if you know of something that might suit me.
I stay in a lot of different hotels. At least half the time there is some confusion on check-in.
Have they finally figured out how to do it?
From David Pogue of the NY Times:
The other day, I checked into a hotel for a TV shoot (the Omni in San Diego). I was astonished when the check-in desk attendant said: “Good evening, Mr. Pogue. Here’s your key. Have a great stay.”
Do you see what happened there!? There was no tappy-tapping on the keyboard for five minutes. No “May I have your credit card for incidentals?” No speech about the spa hours. No disappearing into the back room for a while. No interrogation of any kind. They just had my key already waiting, and just handed it over. …
Why isn’t that just the way hotel check-ins work everywhere?
Click through to see how they do it at the Omni.
Now that Edmonton no longer has an NHL hockey team … the Oilers were moved to Tuscon, right? … the fans (still talking about the Gretzky days) can get, instead, a season’s ticket at the recently renovated Art Gallery of Alberta.
… Why did I make a special trip to Bilbao, Spain to see the Guggenheim?
The AGA is Alberta’s Guggenheim Museum
It opens Jan. 31st. Thanks Rocco.
People love their Kindles.
But the electronic book reader from Amazon is a huge target. Everyone, including Apple, is scheming to eat their lunch.
How is Amazon responding to that threat?
They’ve announced the next generation, available January 19, 2010, called Kindle DX:
3G Wireless: 3G wireless lets you download books right from your Kindle DX; no monthly fees, no annual contracts, and no hunting for Wi-Fi hotspots
Global Coverage: Enjoy 3G wireless coverage at home or abroad in over 100 countries. See details. Check wireless coverage map.
Carry Your Library: Holds up to 3,500 books, periodicals, and documents
Longer Battery Life: Now read for up to 1 week on a single charge with wireless on, a significant improvement from the previous battery life of 4 days
Cost $490. About $10 / book. But no monthly charges. Sweet.
Many of the competitors require a monthly internet connection service.
Click through to Amazon to see details and videos on how it works.
… I’d still wait to hear about Apple’s Kindle killer device the end of January before ordering a DX.
Dan Brown, author of super popular blockbuster hit novels, has done it again.
The Lost Symbol, his most recent, is the best of his very, very similar books. They follow a formula.
Amazon review:
… The Lost Symbol begins with an ancient ritual, a shadowy enclave, and of course, a secret.
Readers know they are in Dan Brown territory when, by the end of the first chapter, a secret within a secret is revealed. …
Again, brilliant Harvard professor Robert Langdon finds himself in a predicament that requires his vast knowledge of symbology and superior problem-solving skills to save the day. The setting, unlike other Robert Langdon novels, is stateside, and in Brown’s hands Washington D.C. is as fascinating as Paris or Vatican City …
Brown is only an average wordsmith. But his plots are complex, interesting and entertaining.
The plot of The Lost Symbol is terrific. It had me guessing. The setting, Washington, D.C., is superb. I want to visit as a tourist now.
This book is highly recommended. Author Dave Adlard calls it one of his favourite books of all time.
There’s one glaring problem. This book is perhaps 30% too long. Dan Brown, get an editor!
Good news, Dana.
Here’s a much better device than the Kindle, only $490.
Click PLAY or watch the Entourage Edge on YouTube.
The computer in your Hard Drive will crash, sooner or later. That disk spins at up to 15,000 RPM. It’s inevitable.
I hate all spinning disk technologies. They are unreliable.
Most missed if you lose data are the music files, photos and videos.
Best way to avoid that grief, is to backup to the “cloud”.
The two biggest players are Mozy and Carbonite.
Click PLAY to watch a video review on both on YouTube.
I tried the free trial of Carbonite for Mac. If I sign on, the cost is about $3.50/month. (That’s cheaper than buying external hard drives as I’ve been doing over the past few years.)
But Carbonite in 2009 admitted loss of backups of “over 7,500 customers”. So I’ll keep doing the local backup to a 1TB drive using Time Machine software, as well.
I do have important data I don’t want to lose. This way all of my files will be backed up at least twice in two different places, one being the cloud.
UPDATE: My free trial was successful. Carbonite worked. But since my ISP only allows about 4GB / day upload, not all the files could be backed up.
I will be signing up for one or the other service … but I’m a little irritated with Carbonite because their customer service department did not reply to an email I sent them. Perhaps I’ll email Mozy and see if they reply.
Rick McCharles 