Contents tagged with Cool Technology
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So what have we been up to lately at Speak With Me?
I noticed that this week I got five emails from friends asking "So what's been going on?" or something to that effect! I figured this would be the easiest way to tell everyone!
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Happy 2008 - 7 items of wisdom learned in 2007 to share with you!
Wow - 2007 has been a big year! Lots of great things happening for Speak With Me, Inc. - which will be revealed slowly in the upcoming year - and a whole lot of lessons learned - in both business and personal relationships. I'll use this post to reflect on things I've learned this year - and hopefully all of you can share your experiences too!
1. The Fraility of Life. The Joy of Life. The Thrill of Life. Enjoying the ride! -
Looking back at the Summer
Summer of 2007 sure has been an interesting one. It's been one of self discovery and a lot of growth, both for me personally, as well as Speak With Me, Inc. Speak With Me, Inc. has received it's first bits of angel funding, we've hired a few new spectacular people, and we're puttering along pretty well. I have been slowly getting used to the many more requests for my time from all of the new people both interested in the company, and working with the company! We're still in a bit of a stealth mode, so our website still doesn't show much yet - all good things come to those who wait!
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Speak With Me is hiring!
Well, this blog has been quiet for a long time. There have been lots of things in progress, most of which I unfortunately haven't been able to publicly talk about.
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Using the dialogue manager for 13 hours straight was as addicting as crack...
Nothing like changing your tunes at 90 mph while going through the tunnel on I-90 in the rain... while keeping all my concentration still on driving. How addicting? Almost as addicting as track day at Laguna Seca is for a speed freak and car nut like myself...
Oh, also while in Seattle, I attended the Podcast Hotel, caught up with Chris Pirillo and made a few new friends, including Bre Pettis and Cielito Pascual. Bre and Cielito so graciously helped me film a video of the dialogue manager in Seattle, which will be broadcast on Bre's Blog in about 2 weeks as a Podcast.
What in the world was my car and me doing up in Seattle for a week? Well, a roadtrip to visit friends of course! Oh and speaking of friends, I do believe I owe a thank you to an old friend who tried to set me up two and a half years ago with a group of people in Seattle I happened to finally meet with this time around... -
1835 miles of driving with the dialogue manager under constant use...
So... I finally worked out my vibration issues with the hard drives -- first by switching to laptop hard drives, then by adding some creative engineering:
and special foam and at first things were better than before, but not quite good enough for all the various road conditions out there.
The problem?
The computer needs to be rigidly mounted. Bungee cords weren't enough, and because I was tinkering with things so much, I had removed the wooden panel framing the computer as seen in this pic:
I put that panel back in, and with the computer now firmly held in place, ALL my vibration problems were solved. I tested this on my drive back from Seattle to San Francisco and throughout the Seattle and SF Bay areas as well, and everything worked great! I wonder if this setup would hold up on Laguna Seca... -
VW ads: "Unpimp your Ride"
Gotta say these ads are hilarious! Take a looksee here.
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Windows Live = Active Desktop 2.0?
So Mike Arrington and several others today blogged about the Windows Live announcement yesterday. Way back in 1997, there was something called Internet Explorer 4 that was just being finished, with a little feature called Active Desktop, that was, slightly ahead of its time. Most people didn't have the bandwidth to adopt it then, I personally quite liked it, and it goes down in my book as one of the most innovative things ever to come out of Microsoft.
Unfortunately, it was not a market success, despite the fact that some of the smartest people I know (Hadi Partovi, Mark Hammond, several others) were working on it. I see Windows Live, heck even RSS to a degree, is almost like a new implementation of the vision that old IE4 team had back in 1997. Talk about ahead of its time. Who says Microsoft doesn't innovate? They started as a platform and programming tools company, and always have shined in that arena.
Windows Live says something very politely: We're still a platform company. And, we're going to make a damn good one!
I am personally quite pleased to see that Microsoft found its mojo again!
I'd love to hear everyone's opinion on Windows Live as an extension to the old Active Desktop dream!
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Review of Speak With Me prototype system by Mike Arrington
Well, as I said, we officially started Speak With Me. Mike Arrington of Tech Crunch just did a review of a very early beta of our system, which he saw at TagCamp
The review is here:
http://www.techcrunch.com/2005/10/30/speakwithme-control-your-car-by-voice/
We fully plan to exceed your expectations. As for who our customers are, we can't say yet, other than that we are targeting both aftermarket car stereos and navigation systems, as well as those sold as part of a car you buy off the lot as well.
Special thanks to everyone who's been a great support to us so far, you know who you are!
Oh, and to anyone who even thinks about stealing my car the way Mike suggests, there is a very sophisticated alarm as part of the car that pages me if you so much as brush by it when you shouldn't.
You can however, see my car at the Toys for Tots car show in Los Angeles Dec. 11th, 2005. I am part of the Team Transport show squad.
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RE: Blaupunkt's Lucca portable car GPS unit
Blaupunkt showed off their Lucca portable car GPS unit at the IFA show in Berlin today, the audio-centric company’s first such unit. The Lucca will come in two different models, a £370 version that apparantly attaches to your windshield, and slightly pricier £430 Smart Cradle edition that’s wired straight to your car’s speakers. Both versions will play music and display photos in addition to giving you voice directions. Maps are stored on SD cards, so we presume that’s what you use for MP3s and pics as well. Both units should be on sale in the UK by mid-October. Also on display at Blankpunkt booth was a concept Bluetooth iPod dock that the company says will be available in 2007, which will let you control your iPod using the Lucca’s touchscreen display.