Author: jezlyn

Interesting site. When you surf to it, it automatically plays audio of a rain storm that you can use as background for work, napping, or to fall asleep to at night. Good site if you don’t already have an iPhone/iPod touch app that has these types of relaxation sounds (like Ambience or White Noise).

Okay, if you’re like one of the jerkwad commenters to the post linked above who already saw 10 million videos like this on YouTube, stop reading and move along. :-/

If you haven’t seen a “real-time” video like this, and you’re all caught up on Lost, then check it out. Someone edited together clips from different episodes about when the crash happened and split-screened it, 24 style. It’s pretty great editing, for one thing, and it reminded me that I really should rewatch previous seasons of Lost to refresh my memory on what happened. There’s probably a lot that I’ve forgotten that will come back in season 6. And there’s only a week and a couple days left before Lost is back on the air!

Now onto the e-mail. I get this e-mail quite a bit, and I try to answer it the best that I can. The basic request is generally for any helpful advice I have for photographers just getting started, who are not sure how to get better, and are generally discouraged by looking at all the great photography out there and thinking they will never get there.

I have answered this question more times that I can remember, in e-mails, over the counter at Blue Moon Camera, in high school and college classrooms, out in the field, etc. Each time that I answer it, my answer tends to evolve a little, so here is the latest evolution:

If you are not already following Zeb Andrews on Flickr, do yourself a favor and click on the link above to get to his wonderful photo, read the advice he has for fellow photographers, and then add him as a contact. You will be amazed by his wonderful photos and prose, and be inspired and learn how to be a better photographer.

I bought this LEGO digital camera for my nephew for Christmas and I seriously almost bought myself one at the same time. Now I’m regretting not getting one already. Besides the nice review video, the linked blog post has a lot more LEGO camera goodness, so hit it up.

Trexa electric vehicle development platform – Click above for high-res image gallery

Are you one of those people who believes that, when it comes to developing an electric vehicle, you could out-think Th!nk, have keener karma than Fisker or more focus than Ford’s EV effort? Perhaps you’re just tired of waiting for a product that keeps getting re-designed and re-delayed. Well, now you can build your own damn vision of automotive perfection starting with the new lithium-powered all-wheel-drive platform from Trexa. Heck, given the scalable nature of this substructure, you can develop a whole range of vehicles! The team that brought us the EDrive plug-in Prius has taken that whole skateboard thing, combined it with the iPhone app concept and voila!, a blank mobile canvas awaiting your imagination.

Sony Ericsson has just launched a new flagship media smartphone, the Vivaz, running S60 5th Edition and a tweaked version of the software in the Satio. It’s a smaller device (think Nokia 5800), with 3.2″ screen and ‘human curvature’ design(!) and available in silver, black, blue and ‘ruby’. The star feature though is the camcorder functionality, with full 720p video capture and continuous auto-focus, a first in production phones. Stills are at 8 megapixels with single LED flash. Availability is this quarter.

Kind of a silly commercial, but the video/camera specs are impressive. I think Sony Ericsson has great cameras in their phones. I was really interested in the Satio, and this phone seems to be based on it, but with Android, webOS, and iPhone 4.0 at the forefront of my interests, S60 has unfortunately taken a backseat to them.

Stix+Stones is a line of jewelry that enables the wearer to create a wide variety of unique sculptural looks using two fundamental elements. The innovative design potential of Stix+Stones is hidden inside the hand-brushed stainless steel stix, with invisible magnetic stops positioned at precise intervals. This allows the user to play freely with the elements, while ensuring that the parts line up in a symmetrical manner, making possible a vast array of striking and elegant designs.

This is super cool. I already had some fun making a bracelet out of the Buckyball magnets I got for Xmas. I am seriously, seriously tempted to buy this necklace!

Cool idea to “steal” and DIY.

So friggin’ stop bugging me about it. :-/

I’m partial to Moleskines, but I could try these out.

Totally awesome. Perhaps I should replace my current motley crew of utensils with these.

Something cool to put in the new place after we’ve moved.

Bwahahahahahahahahahaha!

I was all ready to dismiss this product as all form and no function (the beginning of the description said it could be used as “a shelf to put any gadgets/accessories on”), but then I got to the part where it adds 6 USB ports to your desktop setup. Nice.

Wishing Wall Frame and Chest

We’ve never seen a Wishing Wall ($45) before and are brimming over with wonderful ideas for how to use this honeycombed holder and the colorful papers that fill it! Of course it would be lovely as a guest book alternative at a wedding, or a great activity at a baby shower, but why not keep it tucked in your home, filling it with ideas, dreams, wishes and plans for the future? You could use it as a time capsule or as inspiration on less than stellar days. The frame is completely customizable, so feel free to decorate it for any occasion.

I like the idea of using this “wishing wall” as a time capsule or inspiration board, kind of like a different way of doing a journal. Of course the savvy DIY-types could whip up something similar to this that would probably look better and would be cheaper.