Rocket's Great Escape

We crate our dogs when we leave the house and can't take them with us. Lately, Rocket, our blue Weimaraner  has been meeting us at the front door when we come back home.
We couldn't figure out how he kept managing to get out. We thought at first that perhaps we just didn't close the latches all the way on the crate door or perhaps he was pushing out with enough strength to bend the door and pop the two metal bolts out that hold the door shut.
I tried to force the door open but even with a lot of force I couldn't even get it to open. And even if we double-checked to make sure that the door was properly shut and fastened, he still managed to get out.
We were real curious as to how he magically was able to escape. One night we were to go to dinner at a friend's house and couldn't take the dogs. We decided to set up a camera to record Rocket's escape.
This is what we saw:

U-Verse and Me

Some might remember that almost a year ago I wrote a post about receiving an email from AT&T informing me that they were reserving the right to at anytime drop my current DSL internet service and switch me over to their U-Verse service. I also complained about the vast amounts of U-Verse related junk mail I receive every week.
We'll I finally succumbed.
Thankfully this was on my own terms for my own reasons and not directly the result of mountains of unwanted solicitations. For the past few months I've been tempted to switch over to the U-Verse internet service for far faster download speeds. Currently, I'm at the top of the DSL that AT&T offers in my area. It tops out at 6Mb/s... if I'm lucky. For the most part I probably average around 4Mb/s. Which is fine for the most part.
Problem is that I've begun doing a lot more video and music streaming than I used to using Amazon's Instant Video and Cloud Player as well as a host of other streaming media like YouTube and Pandora. I also have a whole host of internet connected devices from desktops, TV's, Kindles, Chromebook, notebooks, desktops, blu-ray players, smartphones, tablets and more... all tapping into the same bandwidth. Granted I'm not using all these devices simultaneously but I am using a lot of them at the same time. Uploading videos on a desktop to YouTube, streaming Pandora, checking my Google+ stream on my phone, writing this blog post with the Chromebook.
So I started to think about the future and how much more of what I do will be cloud based. Then I got to looking at my current bill. Currently I pay over $100 for my DSL connection and phone line combined. I rarely have need or even use my phone which is at least half of the bill. I keep it for emergencies, billing/banks, and an alternative in the event my cell phone isn't functioning. Nobody but telemarketers, family and some official business bothers to call my land line. But that being said, I don't want to give it up, just wished it didn't cost so much for what use I get out of it. If I'm keeping a phone line then I also needed caller ID as I screen calls to root out the telemarketers.
I decided that it would be wise to combine both internet and phone using AT&T's U-Verse internet and voice. I'm tripling my internet download speed, still getting phone with caller ID and cutting my monthly bill nearly in half to boot.
After all these years I've finally succumbed to U-Verse and I was able to do it on my own terms for my own reasons.
The installation is scheduled for next month, so it remains to be seen if this was a good decision or not.

Kindle Fire unboxing video and overview writeup

If you've read my other blog posts on Amazon's Kindle line of e-readers it should be no surprise that I'm a big fan.
The Kindle Fire is Amazon's very affordable entry into the tablet market, primarily as Amazon content consumption device. A brilliant bit of marketing if you ask me. Content purchased from Amazon such as Kindle e-books, digital music in Amazon's cloud music player, instant video and apps from their own app store, is all available on the device.
Their WhispherSync technology keeps all your devices and content in sync. So if you are in the middle of watching an episode of Breaking Bad on the Kindle Fire while on a business trip and then arrive home, you can turn on your Amazon enable TV and pick up right from where you left off. Same with e-books, perhaps you are reading Chuck Palahniuk's "Damned" on your regular Kindle while out at the beach and you get home you can pick up where you left off on the Fire.
A review, more pictures and unboxing video after the break.

Terrence Malick's "The Tree of Life" Blu-ray release

Terrence Malick's new film "The Tree of Life" is set to be released on  Blu-ray tomorrow (October 11, 2011). Terrence Malik is probably best known for the Oscar nominated, The Thin Red Line. His seemingly stream of consciousness film set in World War II. I sat back and watched it some months ago after realizing I'd never seen the whole thing from start to finish.
The majority of the film is dominated by an "in your head" monologue from the characters as they try to come to grips with what they are seeing and experiencing in war. Not so much Saving Private Ryan action war film as it is a philosophical exploration of man and humanity in general. The story seemed very non-linear and I realized at one point that the purpose of the film is a vehicle to deliver the message in the monologue while still maintaining a stunning visual appeal.
I'm expecting that Tree of Life is no different.
Meredith had the pleasure of working a few days on the film during the filming in Austin and around Texas. She could see that he had a real vision for what the film should be and that the physical medium of film and the reality of actors and locations were somewhat holding him back. Things often seemed sporadic and not connected during the filming. Something that is not uncommon when shooting a film as scenes are shot out of order to accommodate locations and actor's schedules. She admired his quest for perfection. She described to me one day of filming in which they had shot most of the day on a neighborhood street before Terrence moved the entire production one street over to shoot it again. It's no wonder that it took so many years for this film to be completed and released.
Terrence is a real visionary and creative genius. I'm expecting that The Tree of Life will be similar in style to The Thin Read Line and have real attention to detail and visuals, but deal more with the emotional struggles of family life and growing up. I'm sure that it will be anything but a literal and linear telling of a family story.
I'm looking forward to it.

Here is the trailer for The Tree of Life:

Coming soon... My Kindle Fire

Well, I pre-ordered a Kindle Fire the day they were announced. It won't be released until November.
I'm excited about it. I have owned the 2nd gen and 3rd gen Kindles and have really grown to love them over the years. So much easier than carting around a stack of books whenever I travel.

Meredith just bought an iPad. It's nice. I've messed around with it a little. They've spent some time making things look pretty cool and aesthetically pleasing. Lots of little animations and graphical things. It looks sharp. But it was also crazy expensive.

A lot of people are thinking that the Kindle Fire will be a direct competitor or a "iPad killer." But I don't think so. I don't think they really have much intention of trying to dethrone the King of Tablets. Though with a $200 price tag and Android installed, these things are going to be popular.
I think it is all about having all of your Amazon content in one place and being able to enjoy it on one little device. So I already have a bunch of Kindle ebooks. I already have some Amazon Cloud player music that I stream on my desktop and phone. I already have movies and TV shows that I've bought on Amazon Instant Video that I play on my Sony TV. I'm also an Amazon Prime member, so I have access to a huge library of free streaming movies and TV shows. I already have a few Amazon App Store apps I bought for my phone. So I'm expecting that the Kindle Fire can collect all this content in one place and I can enjoy it from just about anywhere courtesy of "The Cloud". I like the concept a lot.
That way the next time I decide to do a Battlestar Galactica marathon on the big TV in the living room and get the evil eye from Meredith, I can just switch to watching it on the Kindle Fire and move to a different room.

Once I get mine in my little grubby hands and have a chance to play with it a little, I'll do a little write up about my impressions.
In the meantime, here's a video that Engadget did of a Kindle Fire demo done by an Amazon rep.

Google+ My first impressions

Almost a week ago I was invited by Google to participate in the limited "field trial" of Google+.

Google+ invite I received

 I assume my involvement over the last few years as a YouTube Community Forum "Top Contributor" made be a good candidate for the field trial.
I graciously accepted my invitation and within a few clicks I was in.
The first thing I noticed was the toolbar across the top of Google property pages (Google, Gmail, etc..) now has a "+Erik" button the left side and a "share" entry box on the right side.

Typing text into the "share" entry box, I can quickly make a post to my Google+ page. Any notifications I've received from Google+ show up in the box just to the left of it. Click it and you can read the notification and respond. Pretty handy since this shows up on other Google properties like Gmail.
Clicking the +Erik tab on the left brings me to my Google+ page.

Google+ Stream

Which if you've used Facebook, looks a lot like the news feed. New posts and comments pop up automatically in the stream. Which with posts with heavy comment traffic can make it a little challenging to read as the page keeps moving a bit to include new comments coming in. You can "mute" a post by clicking it's little arrow in the corner. This hides the post in the stream and prevents you from getting notifications if you've commented on the post and people keep posting after you. Which is fine, but if you are just trying to read the thing without it continually moving doesn't help. I can see once this really starts going and your circles grow larger that this can be problematic...seems as though there should be a pause button or a way of collapsing or hiding the comments.

That brings me to Google+'s most powerful and strongest feature, "Circles".

So what is a "circle"? Circles are ways of controlling how you share and see information from people you know or are following. This is an awesome way to share information with a limited group of people or see posts from only a select few. You can create many different circles and add people to them. People can be in more than one circle. Clicking the Circle icon at the top of the Google+ page brings you to a list of people you have in your current circles, as well as options to see who has added you to their circles and inviting more people.

 

By  dragging you mouse over the thumbnails you can see a quick pop up with a link to their Google+ page and whether they exist in any of your circles. If they are in one or more of your circles the circles they are in will glow.

Mousing over the circles will highlight the people contained with in it. A very cool and quick way of identifying who is in what circle.

The circle interface is all drag and drop. Dragging a person into a circle adds them to that circle, dragging them out removes them from the circle. An amazing interface for managing your friends and interests.

There are default circles for Family, Friends, Acquaintances and Following. 

You can easily create new circles by dragging people into the new circle on the far left hand side.

So you can create circles for your co-workers, for people who have a similar interest to you (music, film, books, tech, etc...), or any number of reasons. I need to spend more time on my circles, further defining sub-sets and interests. But I can already see that "circles" is the most powerful feature of Google+

Now, how do circles come into play. In the simplest terms it is a way of controlling the information you are receiving and the information you are sharing.

When you click in the share, you can choose which circles you want to share the information with. So if you find an article on the web that is only of real interest to a smaller group of people (family, your close friends, co-workers, fellow hobbyists, etc..) you can select only those circles in which to share that information with.

On the flip side, circles can also filter your stream to only showing posts from people within that circle.

On the left hand side of the stream is a list of "circles" ( denoted by the circle beside them) both the default built in "circles" and any "circles" you have created.

A handy quick way to show only posts from your family or co-workers or just the people you are "following".

One thing that sorely seems to be missing is the ability to show posts from multiple circles or exclude particular circles,  say if you want to see posts from your friends and family but not the 100 social media celebrities you are following. Hopefully they will add this feature soon.

The Incoming link will show you posts from people who have added you to a circle, but you haven't added them to one of your own. Pretty beneficial to celebrities who have hoards of stranger following them, as your unfiltered stream can get pretty cluttered real quick.

Your profile page can also be filtered using circles. So say if you want only people in your circles to see where you live, where you are employed, whether you are single or not, you can specify just your circles or just specific circles. As an added bonus, you can choose to view your channel as another person. A little reassurance that you are only disclosing the information you want to the people you want to. A nice touch for the paranoid and tin-hat types.

 

One feature I haven't had an opportunity to play with is "Hangouts".

A hangout is a video chat room. Looks a bit like this.

 

You can invite circles of friends to "hangout". The interface shows the videos from each person participating and I'm assuming attempts to intelligently feature in the larger window who every may be speaking at that time. There is also a traditional text chat as well. I've also heard that the chat can also use Google translate to translate from one language to another on the fly.
Google+ is also closely tied with Picasa, Google's photo app. Clicking the photo button at the top, will show you photos from others in your circles. There are options here to upload more photos, see images uploaded from your phone and see your Picasa albums. From here you can share photos with your circles.

Google+ also has an interest aggregatorc called Sparks. You can search for an interest, say "Video Editing" and it will create a "Spark" for you listed on your stream. Clicking it will scrape up web site articles and blog posts from around the net pertaining to that subject.

The sad part is that it doesn't seem to be as integrated into the rest of Google+. You'd think that it would also have the ability to search public posts and posts from your circles. Something similar to #hashtagging in Twitter. So kind of a shame there. I hope in the future they will incorporate some sort of functionality like that into Sparks.
Of course there is a portable mobile version of Google+. No need to be out of touch with your Google+ pals while you are away from your desk.
I have an EVO 4G running Android. Downloading the app was one of the first things I did.

The interface is simple. It's not as full featured as the desktop app. Seems more difficult to filter your stream and manage your circles. But the basics are here along with a few features that aren't available in the desktop app.
The main screen allows you access to your stream, your photos, your profile, circles, notifications and a mobile only chat feature called Huddle.

Selecting stream, you get your Google+ screen showing all the posts in your stream.

The unfortunate part here is that this is posts from all of your circles. Unlike the easy circle links on the side of the stream in the desktop app, in order to show only posts from certain circles you have to do a number of additional clicks through pages to choose a circle and then show the posts from that circle. You have to go back to the main page, click circles, click a specific circle and then click the Posts button.

I kept looking for a drop down or menu option in the main page stream to select a specific circle to show. Hopefully another area they will address to make it as easy as the desktop app.
From the circles page you can also also manage the circles to a certain extent.
Adding someone new to a circle is easy enough, click the little +people icon in the top right corner and click on the person you want, then click the "add to circle" button choose a circle.
It's a bit of a cumbersome process to move people around or out of circles as it requires a lot of clicks. Click the circle, click the person, click the circle, click what circle you want them to be in.
Seems to be another opportunity for improvement.
By flicking the stream screen from left to right, it shows a "Nearby" tab. This uses your location as determined by your GPS or wireless to show you checkins from other Google+ members close to you.

A neat feature to see if your pal is at a pub just down the street from where you are. The downside, is that checkins don't seem to terribly accurate with your position...often putting you a street over from where you should be. Probably due to the accuracy of the GPS...quite possibly that Google Places doesn't seem to have as many locations in the database as FourSquare or other apps, so instead of positioning you at a bar, restaurant, grocery store, it just uses the coordinates. Hopefully that will also get better with time and more use by the general populous. I think it has a lot of potential and something beyond what FourSquare offers.
The profile button allows you to see your profile as well as just your past posts and your photos. Not really much to see here.

The photos button has links to show photos from your circles, photos of you (photos you have been tagged in) and access to your Picasa albums.

There seems to be some constraints as apparently you can only share photos from your phone and not from an existing album. Little bit of a bummer if you are on the road and what to share that one photo from your Picasa album shown. Seems like something that should be an option.
Huddle is a mobile only chat or instant message app. I haven't really played with it much since I'm shy and anti-social (probably the reason I haven't done much with Hangout on the desktop app either).

I'm sure once more of my closer friends join in on Google+ this will be a great feature. I could see the potential for collaborative discussions while being bored in a meeting with several of your Google+ friends.
Well, that's Google+ in a nutshell. Overall, I think it has a lot of potential. Incorporating cool features from other social network sites as well as including their own innovative spin. There are still a few rough spots that need to be polished out. Google has already made some changes as to the way things are shared (previously one could re-share something publicly that they had received as a member of a limited circle). Within a couple of days, there were better rules in place for re-sharing content. So they are taking the opportunity of having a bunch of social media's heavy hitters beat on their app to fine tune and add features that matter and benefit everyone.
I hope that they will incorporate more features like themes (the immense bright white expanse is a little fatiguing on your eyes) to change the colors. The ability to pin your popular circles, adding and excluding them from the stream, being able to pin certain posts to the top of the stream...the list goes on.
If they keep it up, keep listening to their users and keep incorporating features that people want and can use easily, Google+ may just become the Facebook killer everyone keeps talking about. Until then there is still a lot of work to be done.
+Erik Pontius

The Tarantula Hawk

I had the day off last Friday and thought it would be a good day to hang out with my parents for a few hours as I hadn't seen them in a while.
Dad showed me around the yard a bit where they were trying to nurse their yard back to life from an unfortunate gardening mishap. I noticed that there were a lot of these little round dug up areas in the flower beds and other bare spots around the yard. Dad said they thought perhaps some critter like an Armadillo or squirrel had been digging around but they weren't sure.
We had breakfast our on their back deck looking out over a valley and nature preserve and I noticed a puddle of sticky sap on the deck that Dad had covered with a paper towel to prevent us from walking through it. It was dripping out of a branch somewhere far up into this towering oak tree covering their deck. Dad wasn't sure where it might be coming from specifically so they could patch it up to prevent the sap from dripping out.
After breakfast and a trip to the vet (another story) I left and went home. A few hours later Mom calls me all excited that they had discovered what had been digging the holes in the yard. "An armadillo" I suggested... no, Mom says. It was a Tarantula Hawk Wasp. She said Dad had been looking up into the tree trying to pin point where the sap was coming from and saw a huge wasp buzzing around an area of the tree oozing some sap. He watched this wasp as it flew around the side of the house and starts to attack a tarantula.
They Googled it up to try to figure out what this huge wasp was that was bold enough to attack a tarantula and came across the Tarantula Hawk Wasp.
In an almost horror movie fashion. They attack tarantulas and paralyze them with a huge 1/3 in stinger. Once immobilized they drag them to these little burrows they dig, planting their egg on the spiders body. Then they bury them. When the egg hatches it burrows itself into the still living tarantula and begins to eat their juicy innards and leave the vital bits 'til last.

Here's a bit of video I found on YouTube.




Made me think of this critter Dad and I came across on the trail on our last Big Bend hiking trip.