Customer Shocker

An impressive, and unexpected, customer service moment.  When a company penalizes themselves in the short term, I trust they are working hard to avoid that in the future, clearly demonstrating they want us to have a win-win relationship.

Netflix Test Movie

Netflix has a handy test movie that displays your bitrate (5800 kbps is the fastest), the resolution displayed and the PAR ("Pixel Aspect Ratio"; 1:1 indicates square pixels).  This is useful information if you're having issues with pausing or low quality.

The easiest way to find the correct movie is to add it to your watch list using the following link.

http://www.netflix.com/WiMovie/70136810?trkid=439131

Gameover Zeus Test

This link is a simple and quick test to see if your PC is inflicted with the "Gameover Zeus" virus which steals banking credentials.

http://www.f-secure.com/gameoverzeus

The Two Towers, Book 2

Kara Shallenberg, my favorite audiobook reader, has just finished up the second part of J. R. R. Tolkien's The Two Towers.  You can download them at her website, kayray.org.  I'm looking forward to the next 6+ hours in the car.

http://kayray.org/

Free Fonts

Here's a link to "The 100 best free fonts" and an example of the "Spring" font in the "tattoo" section.  "Arial" and "Times Roman" do get just a little boring (ok, a lot boring).  And I love free.

http://www.creativebloq.com/graphic-design-tips/best-free-fonts-for-designers-1233380

Octagon Picnic Table

I think this will be one of this Fall's or next Spring's home improvement projects. This picnic table seats eight, has no separate chairs to deal with, and everyone can sit down and get up without anyone else needing to move.

Nanocellulose

Wood-based nanomaterials, like many other less-than-micro-sized materials, show amazing properties. Nanocellulose, for example, is as strong as Kevlar.  Could this be part of the future of the pulp industry?

http://www.innventia.com/en/Our-Expertise/New-materials/Nanocellulose/

Level

It just happen to dawn on me the other day that with all the sensors built into today's mobile devices that there should be apps that would turn my device into a level. But the coolest feature, shown below, is a surface level, which measures both "x" and "y" at the same time.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/bubble-level-free-for-iphone/id465613917https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.androgames.level

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iOS 8 and OS X 10.10

Apple only:

Apple yesterday announced the fall availability of iOS 8 (for iPhone/iPad) and OS X 10.10 (aka "Yosemite") (for Mac).  The new iOS is compatible with Apple iPhone 4s, iPhone 5, iPhone 5c, iPhone 5s, iPad 2, iPad with Retina Display, iPad Air, iPad mini, iPad mini with Retina display.  The new OS X is compatible with iMac (mid-2007 or newer), MacBook Air (late 2008 or newer), MacBook (Late 2008 Aluminum, or Early 2009 or newer), Mac Mini (Early 2009 or newer), MacBook Pro (Mid/Late 2007 or newer) and Mac Pro (Early 2008 or newer).

Most useful half-dozen features (IMHO) seen so far:

1.  Improvements to iOS text messaging to easily include who you want, drop who you don’t, and leave the conversation whenever you want. Or turn on Do Not Disturb and then read through the messages when you have time.

2.  Apple is opening up the iOS keyboard so alternatives like Swype and SwiftKey are possible.

3.  Double button press now includes your most recent contacts.  Select one and you can call, text or Facetime with a single press.

4.  Notification handling no longer requires leaving what you're currently working on.

5.  One touch to use your cellular iPhone/iPad as a hot spot.

6.  When you get a phone call on your iPhone, you can answer it on your iPad or Mac.

The entire 2-hour keynote video can be had at:

http://www.apple.com/apple-events/june-2014/

MicroSD Card

One advantage of some Android phones have over their Apple counterparts is adding more storage. In the case of my new HTC One, I bought a 32GB (GigaByte) microSD card to load music and movies for about $20. At 0.6in high, 0.4in wide and 0.04in deep, a microSD card can currently hold up to 128GB. At that density, a cubic inch could contain 13TB (TeraByte). That's about $50,000 worth of DVDs in the size of 1/2 an ice cube.