Double tall nonfat caramel

iPhone App Roll from Gnomedex 9.0

canine — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 15:48:18 +0000

Below are some of the apps discussed at the app session yesterday, if you have more you would like to share add a comment and I’ll add it to the list.

From Josh Bancroft

BNO News: 1.99

pocket meter: 1.99

boxcar: 2.99

Pocket universe: 2.99

Geocaching: 9.99

bargain bin: Free

Sonar ruler: .99

Autostitch 1.99

From me

camera genius: .99

Bump: free

weather radar: .99

Nansen

Twittilator pro: 4.99

Erika

Star Walk: 4.99

Tyler Pruitt (Thanks Tyler for setting me straight, love the app)

waze: Free

appsniper: .99

I’ll add apps as other Gnomedexers chime in, most of these were announced during the TBD session, it ended up being one of my favorites of the whole conference. Maybe next year we’ll carve out a whole hour just for a SAG session. (Site, App, or Gadget)

Locked and Loaded

canine — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 16:45:04 +0000

My favorite #Gnomedex schwag item so far is the starbucks mug.

626104300_uXzgH-M.jpg

There is something cathartic about loading the mug with six coffee packets, and being ready for a hike, or work. It sort of feels like I’m preparing for a hunt.

Ok, first impression of Starbucks instant coffee it’s very strong, I’ll need to dilute it to my own tastes. I think the design of the mug is a work of genius though, it will be an excellent tool for my hikes in the Olympics.

626106447_SuQhw-L.jpg

Great Gnomedex schwag Chris, thank you.

Greg

Why a Dentist at Gnomedex?

canine — Mon, 03 Aug 2009 21:51:23 +0000

I go to a lot of conferences, generally all dental in nature; our wonderful tax structure forces me to stay within my discipline. I use enough technology in my practice to justify broadening my horizons, so I figured what the heck. It turned out to be broadening enough for me to have developed “OY,” the web site that will make it possible to sort businesses by time.

Gnomedex has at least provided me the grounds for inspiration to act outside of my profession. To see business hours represented graphically just check out openyet.com, and find some time.

Virtual luxuries

canine — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:57:29 +0000

I sometimes drive a 1992 Mini Cooper. I love it, it’s the car I’ve wanted since I was 10 years old. One of my dad’s buddies raced this little car when I was a kid, and let my dad and I take a lap in it at the end of a race. It still gives me goosebumps thinking about that little race car, and I think of it often when I’m driving my little rig. However, I don’t want a Ferrari, Porsche, Lambo, Prius (especially a Prius) or any exotic because I’ve driven many of those cars (except the Prius) virtually in Forza racing, or on other virtual platforms. Thrills that used to be experienced ONLY by having one of these vehicles, can now be at least partially had by playing games.

My point is the value of these before unachievable items, exotic cars, planes etc are now so easily had in games it has to effect the value of the REAL item. I love my mini for other reasons, in reality there’s maintenance, oil changes, tires, fuel, constant washing, you know tender loving care. With virtual stuff there’s none of that, none of the baggage that goes along with actually owning something, no tax, no maintenance, no storage. In fact there are way more advantages to owning VIRTUAL luxuries than the actual stuff. I’m not saying run out and sell your Ferrari, it probably gets chicks (virtual cars probably only attract virtual women in second life…. not much fun, unless you’re into that, wow this spiraled into a rat hole fast.) I’m saying the titillation I used to get just seeing a photo of an exotic car is pretty much gone. Top Gear does a great job of digging up those old emotions my friends and I used to have with the 911 Porsche posters over our beds, but after owning the car of my dreams, and being able to virtually drive almost ANY car I want, I’m very happy with cyber cars. OK there’s one car in real life I like that I haven’t been able to drive the Triumph GT 6, but that’s another blog post.

Play with your virtual luxuries, they get better gas mileage.

The Golden Apple (aka Ticket to Ride)

canine — Sat, 20 Sep 2008 18:29:33 +0000

Why doesn’t Apple give away a golden ticket for iTunes? A Willy Wonka golden Apple that allows a user to download as much as they can of anything they want for life? how about a year? month? day?

What an awesome gift for Christmas, here’s a golden apple you have free reign for a week, give comcast the finger and have fun.

Gift cards are nice; but rather than focus on money, giving someone cart blanc would be way more fun.

How about it Apple? How about a ticket to ride?

Kris Krug hands me my ass with my own camera

canine — Sat, 23 Aug 2008 07:06:59 +0000

I know what it is to be a professional - I operate a dental air engine that spins at 200k in people’s mouths - yep, two hundred thousand RPMs. It’s difficult to imagine what that means, because people can’t imagine 200 thousand RPMs in their mouths. They are usually afraid of the dentist. What it really means is… if you swallow during a procedure, and your tongue accidentally pushes into my handpiece, neither of us will feel a thing, but there will be a 1mm gash in your tongue that I may need to put a stitch in. Every dentist operates in unforgiving conditions, people swallow, gag, salivate, cry, and we’re expected to run a tool turning at 200k - enough to cut glass to within a 1/10th of a mm, every day. (Don’t worry. If you swallow, I’ll protect your tongue with my mirror. My mirror has very precise 1mm gashes in it.) Given my own experience, being a professional means making the difficult or impossible look easy. We dentists also take a lot of photos, the best way to communicate very complex tooth anatomy/shading to our lab. I can take photos of teeth, but that’s pretty much where my experience ends. Enter Kris Krug and his fantastic talk at Gnomedex. His lecture was spot on, and it was filled with advice for someone just like me, an amateur, but curious about what that manual setting is for. I have a Canon G9 I got with airline miles, I don’t have the time to figure out a DSLR, so I thought the G9 would be the next best thing, and really it is a NICE camera, and I’ve had fun with it, but it is inspiring to watch a professional take shots, and make it look soooo easy. I’m surprised when I get a really nice shot (of anything other than teeth) I know how precise I can be with a handpiece, Kris is the same way with a camera, his eye for light, subject, and frame is so honed he makes it look effortless. Here’s what he shot with my camera.

Framing, and knowing how the light will interact with the camera was just effortless for him.

This shot with the blurred folks in the background… damn

An off axis frame like this, I didn’t tweak, or correct any of these shots, they are just casual snaps with a nice point and shoot in the hands of a professional… I am not worthy.

Thank you Kris Krug for a wonderful talk, and for helping me make better content, we all capture our own experiences, and with people like Kris around our memories are that much richer.

The new Sonicare with UV bacteria killer

canine — Wed, 20 Aug 2008 17:23:41 +0000

I don’t know if Sonicare has sold out or what, but the new design is similar to every other sonic brush out there. They have redesigned the head, and eliminated the magnets that would be shaken back and forth by the counter rotating current in the handle. I believe the oral B sensonic has a similar mechanism, the Ultreo probably too. Where the Ultreo differs is in the generation of a sonic pulse. The Ultreo uses a piezo that drives an orange rubber nubbin to generate a consistent sonic wave, whereas the other sonic brushes depend on the back and forth action from the bristles. I’ve used them all now, and out of the box they all have about the same effectiveness. Philips has added this UV storage container, and it does make sense there are lots of different bugs growing on toothbrushes everywhere. There are some really cool UV bug killing devices coming out soon, one of them is a keyboard built by Vioguard.

I have told my patients for awhile now if you have a cold or cold sores in your mouth wash your toothbrush in the dishwasher. The high heat probably has a little effect on the bristles, but if my patients are replacing their brushes every 3 months it’s kinda mute.

In a nutshell if you want a high tech bacterial killing sonic brush get a sonicare, if you want to kill bugs on your normal every day brush run it through a dishwashing cycle.

See you at Gnomedex; I’ll probably bring a couple of brushes in for giveaways too.

brush and floss

Greg

PS About those magnets in old sonicare brush heads: they make awesome frig magnets; I always pop them off the head before I throw it away.

Spicer’s Deli in Port Angeles

canine — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 06:00:19 +0000

Went to Spicer’s deli in Port Angeles Sunday and had a really good lunch with my family. It took me a while to “get it,” but when when I did it was real. Real is the theme there: real spices, real food, real soda in real bottles. No fancy packaging, no extreme marketing, no sensory overload - just real.

I have to say that’s why I didn’t get it at first. I am so used to a barrage of marketing attacks that when something like this comes along that isn’t overhyped it gets overlooked. That would be a mistake; the “grocery” (probably my only complaint - it should be called a “spicery” and deli) welcomes you with a wall of Ball canning jars filled with bulk stuff. I figured at first it was a gimmick, a decoration, another marketing ploy to make you feel like you’re in an old general store until we were encouraged to open the jars and take a sniffy sniff of anything… what a blast! The family had a great time comparing likes/dislikes. “Oh, wow, smell the tapioca pearls…” I didn’t know tapioca started as pearls. We smelled the mulling spices, etc. My son tricked his sister into taking a huge whiff of the apple cider vinegar powder (don’t do this).

It’s real fun that makes real memories - not prepackaged, canned, vacuum packed, or marketed - just real. Sandwiches had a real amount of meat,

so much so that I couldn’t open my mouth wide enough to take a bite. What a wonderful addition to our Port Angeles waterfront! I have always claimed this area has more to offer than most places around the world. It’s not Disney around here - the mountains are real, the ocean is real, and the adventure here is real. Nice to have a place like Spicer’s in our neighborhood. It’s a good fit.

Bionx electric bike

canine — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 21:25:34 +0000

I got to ride a bionx bike the other day, it was a helluva rush to pedal a couple of times and feel like you’re being towed, it was a silent, awesome experience. My commute is 5 miles, but it’s up hill home, bionx also regenerates with the breaking so I would be making power most the way to work. You have the option of dialing in 20% assist to 100% throttle. They claim 3 hours to charge. Only downside I can see is it may cost a couple thousand to put this on my bike. (I only paid $600 for the bike years ago) Still, it opens up whole new possibilities for transportation. It’s an electric assist, so I won’t need tabs, license, or even helmet (I’ll still wear one, I always do) It will be light enough to carry on the back of the car, or on my boat. The math works out to under a penny a mile if the battery lasts for the advertised 60k miles.

I’m still grinding on the decision but I love biking, so I’ll probably jump in.

See ya at Gnomedex

Patient wisdom

canine — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 21:49:38 +0000

This may be a short post, I know Chris doesn’t like the shorter posts, but I thought this to be worthwhile. Over the years I have had many patients that have imparted their wisdom to me, there was one in particular that I have never forgotten.

He was a gristled farmer, hands and face worn from the sun, and desert heat. He talked slow, and admitted to me that he had never been to school past the 8th grade. One day as we were waiting for him to get numb he told me this bit of advice I will never forget. He said “I have been watching the ducks at the pond in the park for years and years now, a couple of years ago I began to notice people feeding them……..you know they used to fly South every year, and ever since people have started feeding them they don’t fly South anymore.”

Greg

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