Tech Loop

Chicago, Chicago - Oh, how we love thee. I'd like to ask you something: When is the last time you really stepped back and viewed our magnificent city from afar? If you haven't done that in a while, give this page a look.

Many of us commute on the dirty trains, walk the gritty streets and see the horrors on the news, forgetting that there is a damn good reason nearly 3 million people call Chicago home. Some might say it's the job market, so might say it's the night life, but Scott Howard shows us that it's all about the skyline at his website. Not only is this a gorgeous picture, it is also a technological wonder. The photo clocks in at a gigatacular 1 gigapixel. Yes, you heard that right, 1 GIGApixel. So if you have a 10 megapixel camera, this picture is roughly 100 times larger than the pictures you take. Because of the picture size, Scott has integrated it into a scalable Flash "image" that you can zoom in and move around. This picture reminds us of exactly why we love this city...IT'S BEAUTIFUL!

Tech Loop thinks that the image of our man-made megatropolis is every bit as beautiful as a picture of the Grand Canyon, Niagra Falls, or Shangri-La for that matter.

Turkey day is neigh! After an evening of food, football and the inevitable unbuttoned-pants-nap, you need to plan your Christmas loot strategy. Today’s Daily Distraction has the perfect website for that Black-Friday wish list.

There is no arguing that holidays are thinly veiled excuses to consume, and consume a lot. Thanksgiving is no different. Call me cynical but, to me, Thanksgiving ends and Christmas begins right after the nap. You should carb up before a big race and get plenty of sleep before a big test, right? There is no reason you shouldn’t prepare for one of the biggest shopping days of the season. That’s where blackfriday.info comes in.

This website is simple. It is a collection of all the Black-Friday ads that most major news papers will distribute a week before the most notorious of shopping days. Retailers across the nation are trimming prices in preparation for a large wave of cranky and confused consumers. Blackfriday.info is the aspirin for that holiday headache. It lists sale items, coupons, and a breakdown of loot by store. Geek candy shops like Best Buy,Circuit City, Radio Shack, and Sam’s Club all have their wares neatly organized and ready to go on this page.

So get grandma, pull up blackfriday.info and make sure she doesn’t mistake an iPod touch for a Zune.

Do you have some extra money lying around? If you do, it’s high time you invest in some stock - particularly, Apple (APPL). Apple’s stock has been hovering right around $90 a share lately and if history is any indicator, you have the chance to more than double your money when Macworld rolls around next year.  If there is one thing that consumers have proven over the past year it is that despite economic uncertainty, they are willing to shell out the cash for Apple products regardless of their financial situation (myself included). During the past year, Apple has not dipped this low, and shares skyrocketed to about $208 after the release of the iPhone 3G. Tech Loop believes that once Macworld is over, Apple stocks will again take a steep increase and will likely hit up in the $160-$180 region once again after new and exciting products are announced, namely updates to the existing iMac and Mac Mini lines. We aren’t stock market savvy people here at Tech Loop, but it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell you that the time is definitely right to buy Apple stock – it’s as sure a thing as the CTA running late and the Bears losing. 

I'm not much of a Martha Stewart type, but there is something about cool home furnishings that gets me all giddy inside. Toxel.com has posted up a plethora of beautifully ceative and unusual lamps at their site, some of which are available for order. Hit the link for the full collection and give that $10.99 Target floor lamp you bought a mean look because it just isn't as cool as these lamps. 

Some may look at this as a cute lamp. It looks more like a morbidly decapitated Teddy Bear from your child's nightmares to us. Aside from the nightmares, I would also be concerned about the flame cocktail of a polyester bear with electricity running through it.

And, here is the bucket of blood that came from the decapitated bear above. 

If you want your friends to look at something, just post a link on your gchat away message. That is how I got sucked into staring at puppies for half an hour.

Free live streaming by Ustream

I am hesitant to call this a viral video for two reasons. First, that term was invented by a marketing hack somewhere and now my grandmother uses it. The term "viral video" ranks right up there with "bling bling" and "cyberspace." Second this doesn't really follow the same format as chocolate rain or dramatic chipmunk. Puppy cam is a live stream of Shiba Inu puppies that starts broadcasting at 9:30 am. There are 3 pups of each gender and they are about 6 weeks old. They wear different color collars and you can get the whole roster here. Just know that Akoni in the black is a badass and rules the kennel. If he could talk he would sound exactly like Jules Winnfield.

WOOF!

I am not going to lie, it isn't action packed and this isn't a Stephen Hawking lecture. They spend most of their time sleeping and shifting around to do more sleeping. However, there is a rare moment or two when they go puppy crazy and things get nuts. If you are the impatient type, or don't want to be caught gawking at puppies for extended periods of time there are some highlight clips.

So if you are looking for a slice of internet that is so sugar sweet it might give you cavities, check out puppy cam. While you are there you can check out the rest of Ustream.tv's offerings.

PS: I am going to start calling this a "strep stream." Yeah it's a play on words.

New President-Elect Obama has announced that upon taking office a mere two months from now, he plans to bring a CTO (Chief Technology Officer) into his cabinet. The newly appointed CTO would bring a level of tech-awareness never before seen in Washington. The appointee's sole purpose would be to ensure that our government and all of its branches will make efficient use of the best technologies available and research best practices to find shortcomings in our nation’s existing technology infrastructure. This includes, but is not limited to: internet technology, security technology, and networking technologies nation wide.

What does all of this mean to you? Well, in short, it means that the U.S. will now hopefully be able to crawl out of its dismal hole in the middle of the world-wide tech stampede with the help of the CTO. The U.S. currently ranks only 15th in the world in both the availability of broadband internet and the speed of our connections according to a study done by the ITIF (I know, it surprises me too). The average speed of a broadband connection in the U.S. clocks in at around 4.9Mbps while countries like South Korea and Japan are topping out at around 45-60Mbps of average speed. Unfortunately, this means that internet in the U.S. is, well, SLOW.  As far as availability, the U.S. has the most broadband subscribers by quantity, but the numbers suffer on a per capita basis – this means that broadband access simply isn’t available in very many places.

Google CEO Eric Schmidt was the first to be asked by Obama’s administration to take the position. Schmidt turned the position down saying that "I love working at Google and I'm very happy to stay at Google, so the answer is no". Tech Loop wonders who they will ask next….hmm, maybe Steve Jobs? If there is anyone that knows how to save dying technology it’s surely him!

Tech Loop is hoping that Obama’s new CTO will help bolster our fledgling internet situation over the course of the Obama administration. The fact that the U.S. ranks 15th in the world is completely unacceptable. We also feel like the CTO position is one that is long overdue in high level government - after all, ecommerce and internet infrastructure are just as big a source of economical life as any other. Technology is an important part of how the U.S. economy and communications operate on a daily basis. We are cautious about the position, however, because it could lead to overregulation and the undermining of the free-spirit that technology (especially the internet) thrives on. While the Obama camp promises to ensure net-neutrality, we fear that they may start regulating under the guise of national security…something that turns a cheek to net-neutrality.

Overall, as technology lovers and geeks, Tech Loop whole-heartedly welcomes the new position. Anyone or anything in our government that can foster better internet communication will always get love from the geeks. We are excited about the fact that we will now have a voice at the highest level of government. Here’s to more, better, and faster internet!!!

What do you make of the new position? Are you looking forward to it, or are you dreading it? Let us know in the comments below!

Photo courtesy of Wikipedia.

Every now and then, especially if you are a digg.com surfer like me, you come across a strange web page that has absolutely no place or purpose on the intertubes...the kind of site that makes you go "WTF?" Well, www.maninthedark.com is exactly that - a site that seems to have no purpose, but will more than likely waste about 20 minutes of your day as you fiddle around. Go ahead and give it a try - move your mouse around, click, hit some keys on the keyboard. Then ask yourself, WTF?

Remember, if you'd like to share your own daily distraction, please email us at windytech@gmail.com!

Tech Cocktail 9 closed out this past Thursday in Wrigleyville in the fabulous upper room of John Barleycorn. This was Tech Loop's first ever visit to a Tech Cocktail event, so by basis of comparison, we were quite impressed with the networking and social atmosphere offered at the event.

Tech Cocktail is a local tech community founded by Eric Olsen and Frank Gruber with a mission to “amplify the technology signal in under served markets and have fun doing it”. Because not every city can have the accomplished technology scene like Silicon Valley, these guys would like to do everything they can to amplify the local tech culture here in Chicago. For that alone, a geek like me has to commend them.

Tickets were reserved via online RSVP and by the looks of the bash, all of the tickets were gone before doors opened. We would like to note, however, that it isn't all that difficult to get in without a ticket – the event staff simply had no idea what to do with the tickets. In fact, we would venture to say that 10% of the folks that attended were there for the free booze and had no business being at the event whatsoever.

Because I had never personally attended a Tech Cocktail meetup, I wasn't quite sure what to expect. I have been to a few tech meetups in Chicago, and I was really just hoping that it would be better than September's Gizmodo meetup. I walked in without question from any of the staff, proudly jotted down my name and affiliation on my name badge, and waltzed over to the bar, unsure if I would have to pay for a drink. Upon ordering, I quickly whipped out my wallet in anticipation of paying, but the bartender just gave me that “it's on the house” smile. I was quite relieved :-)

I drank up my first bottle of suds as I waited for some friends to arrive and took in all of the gloriously geeky atmosphere. There were laptops everywhere, and the TVs that would normally play host to a Cubs or Blackhawks game were littered with the logos of the event sponsors, namely Microsoft. I thought to myself “gee, no wonder they can afford an open bar, they've got the monopoly man sponsoring their event!” Ehh, ehmm....Andy and I later joked that the event probably cost Microsoft about .00000001 percent of their daily revenue.

I was relieved to find that the atmosphere was not at all as pretentious as the pictures of previous Tech Cocktail mixers would be, in fact, it was quite the opposite. After everyone had guzzled down a couple beers or mixed drinks, the crowd became very friendly an talkative. I spent time talking with a couple friends from college, and also spoke to some local tech heads with their own glorious dreams of tech stardom in the Windy City.

I also had the chance to speak to a few vendors who were on hand doing product demos, pic up a couple of freebies, and get some business cards of potential future contacts. My only real gripe was that the tech demos were set up at the tighter side of the bar near the wall so after the room was filled, there wasn't much room to get in and see the vendors or get a drink. I would like to see the Tech Cocktail folks either A) give out fewer tickets, or B) choose a larger venue.

Much like the Digg meetup, this was quite an awesome bash with plenty of tech-networking to be had by all. I am pretty sure that the crew at Tech Cocktail could have easily made this a Friday or Saturday night event and had it run into the wee hours of the morning until the bar closed – even if they had to stop running the free drink special and rev up the cash bar.

Tech Loop HIGHLY recommends that you attend the next Tech Cocktail event (10?) here in the city. Whether you are a tech junkie, industry insider, entrepreneur, or just a run-of-the-mill video game geek that needs more of a social life (you know who you are). I'd also like to take this chance to thank the guys from Tech Cocktail on behalf of the three Citizen staffers that attended the event – we had a GREAT time!

All images are courtesy of the great guys over at Tech Cocktail.

One of the best things about owning an iPhone, or any mobile wifi device for that matter, are some of the Wifi router names you stumble upon when you need a connection. Many folks opt for the default; e.g. "Linksys" or "WTG364", but every so often, there is one worth noting. I have no doubt, my friends, that the owner of this router is a fellow nerd :-)

Today marks the start of a new Tech Loop staple - the Daily Distraction. We will post an item each day that we feel curves us off the beaten path during the day. While most of these will be tech related, the standard Tech Loop rules do not apply. Make sure to stop by daily to check out what's throwing our brains off course, and please submit your own by emailing me at windytech@gmail.com!

Now, for today's distraction: Lethal Cell Phone Exposure Signs

I live in a beautiful building in Roscoe Village that happens to have an awesome deck on the rooftop with an amazing view of the city. There is one caveat, however, and that is the deadly cell phone signals I am exposed to whilst enjoying the view and sunshine. So this begs the question: Is the great view and sunshine worth getting cancer over? I think not. Here is the ominous sign posted at the entry door to the deck:

It reads that "exposure limits may exceed the FCC general public exposure limit". And, judging by the looks of the water tower at the top of the building, the sign isn't lying. In fact, I think it might be too delicate a warning:

I really can't wait to go tanning outside next summer and get a
quadruple dose of radiation from the sun and the cell phone antennas!