Monday, June 9, 2008
Jake's Quote of the Day
First we shape our dwellings, and afterwards our dwellings shape us." —Winston Churchill
Sunday, June 8, 2008
Jake's Quote of the Day
A fine quotation is a diamond on the finger of a man of wit, and a pebble in the hand of a fool. —Joseph Roux
Apple World Wide Developer Conference and Analysis Coming...
As many of you know, I am in the tech-business and own computer company named BulletTrain. Apple's World Wide Developers Conference starts tomorrow & I will be covering all the details, including the announcemtent of the 3G iPhone...
Saturday, June 7, 2008
Bodum Pavina Double Wall Thermal Glass Review
Want to see something really cool that is also really useful? Bodum makes these super-cool hand-blown 12 ounce double-walled thermal drinking glasses that keep warm drinks warm and cold drinks cold while the outside surface of the glass maintains comfortable room temperature.
This way if you have a cold drink your hand won't get cold when you pick up the glass—same with hot drinks—just like a Thermos. The Bodum Pavina glasses have a magical, otherworldly modern look.
Boudum Pavina glasses are hand-blown from super-pure borosilicate glass, so each glass has a very slight variation. Borosilicate glass is typically used in making optically clear scientific lab gear, which in this case makes the liquid look like it is floating inside the inner chamber.
Because each glass is hand-blown, and lighter in weight (about the same thickness as a wine glass), they are more fragile than regular glasses. Beauty, of course, is typically fragile, so you have to be more careful with these glasses than with regular glasses. For instance, you want to avoid using metal spoons and make sure if you put ice in the glass you don't drop it in like you would with a normal glass.
One thing is certain about the Bodum Pavina glasses: they certainly make a dramatic modern statement. They look really, really cool and they maintain your cold or warm drink temperature perfectly...form flawlessly following function. What more could you want!?!
I have have been using these Bodum Pavina drinking glasses for years now and whenever I hand somebody a drink in one of the Pavina glasses they are always so impressed with the coolness of the design. It is interesting, because even when I use them by myself, I always trip on how cool they look and how functional they are. They really are very useful works of art.
As you can see below the Bodum Pavina drinking glasses come in all sizes. You can have the Bodum Pavina Glasses delivered to your home or office by just clicking on an Amazon affiliate link below:
Jake's Quote of the Day
The ability to accept responsibility is the measure of the man. —Roy L. Smith
Lamborghini Gallardo Italian Police Car...
Italians are so stylish!!! They have this Lamborghini Gallardo Polizia Car that has 500 horsepower, coming from a V-10 engine with a top speed of 190 mph!!!
Friday, June 6, 2008
The Best Apple Podcast with Leo Laporte...
The best podcaster I know of is Leo Laporte and if you are into Mac's the Macbreak Weekly Podcast is the absolute best...
You can listen to it or download it free at:
Leo Laporte is the host with his awesome team of brilliant Mac experts that include, Alex Lindsay, Andy Ihnatko, Merlin Mann, and Scott Bourne...
If you have not heard the MacBreak weekly podcast, you will love it!!!!
Jake's Quote of the Day
It's a funny thing about life: if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you very often get it! —Somerset Maugham
Go Speed Racer...
I saw Speed Racer last night in a movie theater with my uncle. As anybody who knows me well will tell you, I hate movie theaters and almost never set foot in them because people do really strange and distracting things in theaters, like talk on their cell phone, or text message.
Of course, last night was no exception to the rule. My uncle kept yawning profusely. I had to put my hand up as a blinder because he was driving me crazy. Also he kept taking off his glasses because his eyes were watering. I can't blame him because he loves watching movies, but he had never seen the original cartoon of Speed Racer, so he had no frame of reference.
The thing that really drove me crazy, was there was a family sitting behind us with an infant who was not crying, but kept randomly making loud baby noises. People, don't take infants to movies!!!! Also, somebody in the family was literally slurping on a Slurpee and kept slurping it really loud, toward the end of the Icee. I wanted to jump over the seats and attack the people, who clearly had no common sense or manners.
O.K. So enough of my ranting about how I can't stand the movie theaters.
Speed Racer was very well done. It could have been better, but it was extremely true to the original in a way, I don't think I have ever seen a movie made. Every detail was exact. The Wachowski Brothers of "The Matrix" fame wrote, directed and produced Speed Racer.
I was amazed because there was not one example of product placement in the entire movie. Not one. Speed Racer was not drinking Coke or Pepsi. I can't remember the last time I saw a movie or TV show devoid of product placement?
I would give the movie a Thumbs Up, if you were a fan of the original Japanese cartoon. I am looking forward to watching Speed Racer on DVD without having to deal with people yawning loud, babies talking, or somebody slurping a Slurpee.
When I was a little kid, I used to love watching Speed Racer.
When I was younger I wanted to be an automotive designer, but I realized American manufactures had zero commitment to excellence so I ended up going into clothing design, then into computer User Interface and Hardware design.
Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go Speed Racer, Go!!!!
One thing is for certain about the Speed Racer movie, the props and graphics are incredible looking, and even though the Mach 5 is really cool, the Mack 6 is off the hook cool!!!
More on Speed Racer...
So Here is the deal: I can't seem to get the Speed Racer song out of my head, so I thought I would share the words with you:
Speed Racer Lyrics
Here he comes. Here comes Speed Racer,
he's a demon on wheels!!!
He's a demon and he's gonna be chasin' after someone.
He's gainin' on you so you better look alive.
He's busy revvin' up a powerful Mach 5.
And when the odds are against him and there's dangerous work to do,
you bet your life Speed Racer will see it through.
Go Speed Racer,
Go Speed Racer,
Go Speed Racer, Go!
He's off and flyin' as he guns the car around the track
He's jammin' down the pedal like he's never comin' back
Adventure's waitin' just ahead.
Go Speed Racer
Go Speed Racer
Go Speed Racer, Go!
I remember in this scene from the movie, all the other cars looked like Hot Wheels to me:
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Jake's Quote of the Day
A genius only makes the same mistake once. —Kevin Roberts (Satchi & Satchi add agency CEO)
Wednesday, June 4, 2008
Apple iMac...The Best Desktop Design Ever...
In my opinion as a designer, the current iMac is the best desktop computer ever made.
I very, very highly recommend the Apple iMac...
One of the things people always look for when they first see the iMac is the computer. They think they are looking at the monitor and don't understand the entire computer including power supply and the DVD player is inside this single unit.
It is amazing how trim and streamlined the iMac for factor is, but the most amazing thing is how powerful and fast it is.
The iMac comes in two sizes. A 24 inch pictured above and the 20 inch pictured below.
I highly recommend spending more and getting the 24 inch for 2 key reasons.
First, it allows you to lay out two full size pages so you can compare thinks side by side or keep 2 programs on the screen at the same time. The second reason, is because for some strange reason, Apple used a low quality LCD in the 20 inch.
The 20 inch look o.k. straight on but the off angle viewing looks awful. In other words if you are working with somebody and the are looking at the screen form the side it is hard to see.
Why Apple cut corners on this is beyond me!?!
The iMac comes standard with Apples new super thin keyboard which is a drastic improvement over the last generation Apple Keyboard. There is also a slot load for inserting CDs and DVDs on the right side of the iMac.
Many people seek out my opinion when they are going to purchase a new computer because they know I do so much research into them and that I am computer design expert and Apple enthusiast.
I have turned many people on to the iMac and they ALL tell me they absolutely love it. You can't go wrong with the iMac.
Never Before Contactated Amazon Tribe Photographed Near Peru-Brazil Border...
The Survival International photos in this story are of a never seen before Tribe that lives in the Amazon Basin that were taken in May of 2008.
The never before contacted tribe lives near the border with Peru in the Brazillian State of Acre.
Survival International estimate there to be more than 100 tribes worldwide that have never had contact with the outside world.
For some reason I find these photographs to be absolutely fascinating. I find the woman covered in black (could be a dude) to be really interesting looking.
It almost looks like they are wearing a Cat woman Costume.
I wonder two things: First, is what did that person do to make themselves blacker than night? and secondly, why did they completely cover themselves in black? The non-verbal body language is also fascinating.
In the two images above Amazon Tribesman are trying to shoot arrows at the Airplane taking the photos.
I think the most amazing part is to take into consideration how differently the remembers of the tribes life's must be compared to that of the average American.
To me, the people in the photo look like wild animals, and I bet if they saw me they would think the same thing. Human beings, including myself, tend to be so anthropocentric. We seem to forget that we are mammals and not machines.
Looking at these photos makes me feel like I am on the original Star Trek, exploring a distant civilization. As Mr. Spock would say, "Fascinating Captain."
Quote of the Day
Steve Jobs on managing through the economic downturn:
"We've had one of these before, when the dot-com bubble burst. What I told our company was that we were just going to invest our way through the downturn, that we weren't going to lay off people, that we'd taken a tremendous amount of effort to get them into Apple in the first place -- the last thing we were going to do is lay them off.
And we were going to keep funding. In fact we were going to up our R&D budget so that we would be ahead of our competitors when the downturn was over. And that's exactly what we did. And it worked. And that's exactly what we'll do this time." –Steve Jobs
Tuesday, June 3, 2008
The Original Batman TV Show...
When I was a child, I watched so much TV it is amazing, and of course, one of my favorite TV shows was Batman, starring Adam West (born William West Anderson in 1928).
I love watching old Batman TV episodes today because they are so kitschy, campy and comical in an Austin Powers kind of way. Groovy baby, Yeah!!!!!!!
Batman & Robin
The bad guys were so funny. Caesar Romero, who played the part of The Joker was actually a good pal of my dad, and my Uncle Louis Lurie financed the TV show.
The Penguin, The Ridler, The Joker
Quote of the Day
If you learn anything from me, I hope it's to get used to unsatisfying endings. –Stacey Grenrock Woods
Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of The Crystal Skull Review...
So I saw the new Indiana Jones movie last week. I have really mixed emotions about it.
On the one hand, it was great to see Harrison Ford as Indy. Totally, super awesome in a homecoming, heartwarming kind of way. The opening scene was amazing with Elvis singing.
The movie got off to a pretty good start, but I don't think there was nearly enough character development.
For the record, my three favorite movies of all time starred Harrison Ford: Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Blade Runner. I think with this latest movie, Harrison Ford was great in many ways, but a bit rusty in others. 18 years is a long time to reprise a role.
I think the movie was too fast paced. The action was exhausting. It never stopped. I think the best action adventure movies have a lot of action, then they slow down and go into character development, then action, then more character development, then action, then they end on a deep and prodound character development note.
I think the jury is still out for me, which is a disappointment in itself. I wish I could just say it was great, and perhaps it is. I think I need to watch it again on DVD.
Monday, June 2, 2008
Sunday, June 1, 2008
Apple Macbook Air Review: The Perfect Laptop...
I first saw the Macbook Air at Macworld at the Moscone Center in San Francisco at Macworld and I was very, very impressed with it. In many ways it delivers on the promise of what a “Portable” computer or laptop should be.
I was initially surprised at how many people were bashing the Macbook Air, and talking about the laundry list of missing things. It did not make sense to me. I had been praying that Apple would create a super light weight laptop without a Superdrive for a long time.
I think the ideal laptop is one that weighs 2 to 2.5 pounds, but the Air is close to perfection at just under 3 pounds.
Many people who were critics of the Macbook Air were saying that you are a wimp if you don’t feel comfortable carrying around an extra 2-4 pounds, but I will point out that those pounds are exponentially heavier. The Macbook is so lightweight. It just feels perfect...
I can't highly enough recommend the Macbook Air.
The Macbook Air is a close to perfection as the world has come to date, and if you don't already have one, you will love it.
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