Jay McGavren's Journal

Update on Max...

Looks like a friend of Diana’s can keep him for the 6 months until our lease is up, at which point we’re out of here like a rocket.

Just got informed today that we have until next Friday to get rid of the dog (the $1,000 dog) or be evicted. Apparently our senile neighbors have been complaining to the housing association about his barking (which we’ve kept to a more-than-reasonable level), and the landlord got fined. I thought all he could do for an unauthorized pet was refuse to return our deposit, but evidently that’s not the case.

As much as he annoys me, I’m really going to miss Max if we have to give him away. And I have no doubts about his attachment to us. I hope he’ll be all right…

Pac-Man invades the real world...

Strap on your VR goggles (and inertial sensors and GPS tracker), kids! It’s time to play Pac-Man!

http://www.cnn.com/2004/TECH/11/16/explorers.pacman/

While this particular application is pretty dorky, I like the whole “enhanced-reality” approach these folks have taken. The dots are merely overlays on visuals of the real world. This proof of concept is cumbersome at best, but when all this technology gets integrated into our cell phones, games like this might actually go mainstream. And there are real-world applications (like giving directions to an address), as well. (Directional beacons, here I come!)

On my way back from picking up lunch, I saw a guy going down the street with a cell phone cradled on his shoulder… That wouldn’t be so bad, except that he was riding a motorcycle.

I feel dirty...

I just posted a bunch of eBay auctions in an effort to boost my feedback rating before I make a big sale… I went through completed auctions to determine which drew the most bids, and wound up determining that it was important to use lots of bold, underlines, and really BIG text with a smattering of ALL CAPS and obnoxious colors. I didn’t go so far as to use the BLINK tag, but maybe I should’ve. :P