Life doesn't have to be perfect...

Accept who you are meant to be...

Early Rising

Good Morning to those early risers! If you pack a lunch for someone, include a note! Everyone enjoys a note with their lunch. 

You’re never too busy to write a note. It takes less than five seconds to write out “I love you!” 

Pack. Write. Connect.

The Note Writer's Philospohy

THE NOTE WRITER’S PHILOSOPHY

1. IF YOU PACK A LUNCH FOR SOMEONE, INCLUDE A NOTE! EVERYONE ENJOYS A NOTE WITH THEIR LUNCH.  2. IF YOUR CHILD IS EATING, GIVE THEM A NAPKIN.  USING A NAPKIN IS A SIGN OF GOOD TABLE MANNERS.  3. DEEP THOUGHTS ARE NOT REQUIRED FOR A NAPKIN NOTE.  SOMETIMES IT’S BETTER TO COMMUNICATE A SIMPLE THOUGHT OR IDEA.  4. WRITING A NAPKIN NOTE TELLS THE RECIPIENT THAT YOU WERE THINKING OF THEM.  AND WHEN THEY READ IT, THEY’LL BE THINKING OF YOU.  IT’S A GOOD CYCLE. 5. MAKE SOMEONE’S LUNCH FOR THEM. DON’T USE TOO MANY PRE-PREPARED GOODS.  WASH AND CUT AND MIX AND WRAP IT YOURSELF. YOU’LL BE CONNECTED TO THE FOOD. YOU’LL BE CONNECTED TO WHAT YOUR CHILD EATS. 6. BUYING LUNCH IS THE LAST CHOICE. IT IS MUCH MORE DIFFICULT TO INCLUDE A NOTE IF YOUR CHILD BUYS LUNCH AT SCHOOL. YOUR HOMEMADE LUNCH WILL ALSO TASTE BETTER AND BE A HEALTHIER CHOICE. 7. WRITE NOTES TO CHILDREN WHO CANNOT YET READ. IT’S NEVER TOO EARLY TO START. YOU CAN DRAW HEARTS AND STARS. YOU CAN USE BASIC WORDS THAT EXHIBIT YOUR FAMILY VALUES LIKE “LOVE” AND “HAPPY”. 8. YOU’RE NEVER TOO BUSY TO WRITE A NOTE. IT TAKES LESS THAN FIVE SECONDS TO WRITE OUT “I LOVE YOU!”

Five Alternatives to the New iPad

Last week the new iPad was released and you couldn't go to a tech website or turn on the TV without hearing about the incredible display or how much nicer the camera is. I won't try to deny that it is an amazing and cool machine, but I think it's important to note that there are a ton of other tablets out there without the fruit logo on the back that are also pretty neat. None may have the signature, sleek UI that Apple has, but many offer plenty of bang for your buck.


1) Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1:  This is probably the biggest competitor to the iPad. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 has a 10.1 inch  screen (get it?), which is slightly larger than the iPad's, but without the super-high quality retina display. It's running on Android's Honeycomb OS, but is rumored to upgrade to Ice Cream Sandwich, the latest version, soon. The Galaxy Tab has 1GB of RAM and either a 16 or 32GB hard drive, which should be plenty of space to hold all of your apps and photos/videos taken with its 3 megapixel (MP) camera. Like the iPad, this tablet works on WiFi, 3G, and 4G networks (where available). It costs between $400 and $565 at the time of this post, depending on the specs of your particular model, which is quite a bit less than most iPad models.

2) Asus Transformer Prime: Asus' Transformer Prime has some of the same features of the Galaxy Tab (such as the 10.1" screen and the 1GB of memory) with some additional nice features. The rear camera is 8MP, which is pretty much the best on the market, beating even the new iPad. It runs on Android's Ice Cream Sandwich, which is the latest and greatest version of Android. It's also over a millimeter thinner and almost 100 grams lighter than the iPad. The coolest feature, though, is the USB keyboard docking attachment (purchased separately) which effectively turns the tablet into a netbook and boosts battery life. The Transformer Prime costs between $500 and $700, again depending on which hard drive you get. The keyboard costs another $150, but gives you functionality that isn't found with other tablets.

3) Amazon Kindle Fire: Amazon's tablet doesn't have the same high-power specs that the previous two tablets had, but it's great for more casual users who are not as concerned with intense gaming or watching high definition movies. It has a 7" display and only 8GB of hard drive space, but it offers free cloud storage for everything that you purchase on the Amazon store. The most impressive selling point is its $200 price tag, which is really nice for those who are just starting to explore the tablet market and aren't ready for a really big purchase yet.

4) Samsung Galaxy Note: The Galaxy Note is kind of a different animal -- it's something between a phone and a tablet (what some are calling a "phablet"). It has a 5.3" display, which is smaller than most tablets, but it gives you more screen-space than competing phones. The Note also has an HD Super AMOLED screen, rivaling the new iPad's crystal clear, colorful display. It runs on WiFi, 3G, and 4G networks also, and has enough memory and storage space to keep it running fast. Like the Asus Transformer Prime, it also has an 8MP camera, which will give you great quality photos, especially considering that it's coming from a phone. The feature that sets it apart from the rest (other than its size) is its use of the stylus for taking notes or making more precise annotations. It will be interesting to see if this catches on with other devices. The Note costs a steep $650, or $300 with a two-year contract through AT&T.

5) Apple iPad 2: It seems strange to buy the old version as the new version is coming out, but really, there's nothing wrong with the iPad 2. Although the new iPad is faster, you really can't call the previous version slow. It also still has the great display and the same intuitive interface that everyone knows and loves. When the new iPad came out, Apple dropped the price of the iPad 2, so you can now get the WiFi version for $400 and the 3G one for $530, which are both reasonable prices for such a great device. If you can stand not always having the newest version, the iPad 2 is still a great tablet and will definitely get the job done without feeling obsolete. 

If you really want the new iPad, by all means, go for it. It's a great tablet and will probably make you very happy. Most people don't even think about other tablets, though, so it's smart shopping to at least take a look at the competitors. If, after considering the options, nothing else meets your need, I hope you enjoy your new iPad!

Five Cool Projects from Georgia Tech

As I mentioned in one blog, I'm getting my master's degree from Georgia Tech. This semester is really getting crazy. When I finally had time to sit down and write a blog entry, of course the only thing that I can think of is school. That's why this week I'm going to highlight five interesting projects that I've seen since I got here in the fall. This is not to say that these are the five "best" projects here, but they are five that I have seen and been impressed by. As far as I know, these are all still in the research phase, but hopefully they'll all be released to the general public before too long!

1) BrailleTouch: In the last few weeks this app has really started to take the internet and news sites by storm. CNN and several other news outlets and tech sites have all reported on it. The idea is that blind or visually impaired users would be able to type in Braille on their phone without having to buy an extremely costly external device like they need to now. Sighted users could also use this to type without looking at the screen if they were willing to learn Braille. Early research indicates users proficient in Braille can type at around 32 words per minute with 92% accuracy, making this a very viable option for text input. When the research is done and the app is ready, it will be available for free on the iPhone and Android.

2) Argon: Argon is an augmented reality web browser, but what does that mean? Augmented reality is when sound, images, or other computer generated data is integrated into a live view of your real world. With Argon, anyone with the programming skills to make a website can develop their own Argon-enabled site to be used by everyone with this browser rather than having to spend countless hours learning about augmented reality from the ground up. In the video, Dr. MacIntyre gives the example of a grocery store being able to indicate what specials are going on so that the shopper can just hold up their phone and see exactly where the deals are around the store. I saw another example where a virtual character leads you on a historical tour of a cemetery through your mobile phone, and another that showed the architect's design of a finished building in place of a construction site that was in front of you in the real world. This all seems very sci-fi and futuristic, but Argon is actually available for iPhone and iPad now (although it's probably more effective to use it in the Atlanta area). All that's left is for people to develop for it.

3) PR2 Robot: Willow Garage's PR2 robot is currently being studied in Georgia Tech's Aware Home (an actual house on campus fitted with all kinds of gadgets and sensors used for research). The current area being focused on is how to let older-adults live full and independent lives at home for as long as possible. The PR2 can navigate the house without running into walls or objects in its path, perform simple tasks like turning lights on and off, retrieve objects like the remote, and deliver medicine to the right user at the right time, wherever they are. As time advances, the robot will be able to learn more tasks to help the person living in the home, like cooking and cleaning. I think I've heard that the same model robot at another institution has been able to shave someone's face, but I'm not sure that I'd like to be the first one to try that.

4) Mobile Music Touch: This device is a wireless glove with vibrating motors in each finger that can be connected with an mp3 player or phone to "teach" users how to play music on the piano. Each finger that is used to play each note vibrates in order, so that after about thirty minutes of wearing the glove while performing other tasks, the vibrations are turned into muscle memory. This seems great for short pieces like the first fifteen notes of "Ode to Joy," but the REALLY interesting part is that they have begun doing research about how this benefits people who have lost most use of their hands due to spinal cord injuries. It is very possible that this glove, originally intended for passively teaching music, will turn into a viable rehabilitation device.

5) Hydrosense: Technically this project was originally designed by researchers at the University of Washington (one of whom is a Georgia Tech graduate), but it is important to researchers here as well. The basic idea of Hydrosense is that a single pressure sensor can be placed on the water-line coming into the house to monitor water use and even determine which water source is being used, such as the dishwasher, the upstairs toilet, or the kitchen sink, based on its unique fingerprint. This could help people learn where they're wasting water, but it could also be used to detect when something is wrong. For instance, if someone seems to be using the bathroom a lot more often than usual or at different times (such as in the middle of the night) it might be an indication of a urinary tract infection or some similar ailment. This unobtrusive sensor has serious medical, economical, and environmental implications that are definitely worth exploring.

As I said earlier, none of these are quite ready for widespread use, but they all suggest some technology that could be found in or around the home in the next ten years or so. I'm very excited to be here around all of this interesting research, and I hope some others find these projects as cool as I do.

Five Useful Chrome Extensions

Many of the popular web browsers such as Firefox and Chrome have a huge library of free extensions that add functionality or change the appearance of the browser. None of these features are essential for surfing the web, but quite a few give the user additional features and controls that save time by making common tasks simpler and improve the overall experience of browsing.

This article will talk specifically about Chrome extensions, but many (if not all) of these can also be found in Firefox. To download these extensions and many more just visit the Chrome Web Store.


1) Smooth Gestures: This extension is made for either the lazy or for the efficient, depending on how you look at it. I choose to think it's for efficient people, but as a devoted user I'm a bit biased. By holding down the right mouse button and moving your mouse in a certain direction (or directions) you can perform a simple navigation or tab management task. For example, holding the right mouse button and moving the mouse up opens a new tab, and holding the right mouse button and moving to the left navigates back one page. You can customize the gestures to perform dozens of other tasks using more complicated gestures. None of these features are things that you couldn't accomplish with a click or two of the mouse, but Smooth Gestures saves the trouble of navigating your cursor to the button or tab by letting you perform the action anywhere on the page.

2) Xmarks Bookmarks Sync: Have you ever been using a different browser or computer and needed to get to a page you had bookmarked but couldn't remember what it was called? With Xmarks you'll never have that problem again. Once you create a free account, Xmarks will keep track all of your bookmarks and even transfer them across browsers. It also has the ability to keep track of your open tabs and the passwords you have entered if you choose to allow it. When you log onto their website you can get a list of your bookmarks without ever having to remember to back it up manually. This extension is essential for people who make a million bookmarks for all of the sites they visit and for people who don't want to repopulate this list manually in each browser or computer they use.

3) Adblock Plus: This one is a bit controversial. Nobody likes advertisements...except of course for the people who make money off of them. By installing this extension almost all of the ads on your favorite websites, from news sites to Facebook to Youtube, will magically disappear. You can whitelist certain websites you like which are able to stay free because of ads, but there is clearly a gray area surrounding this product. Millions of people are enjoying a cleaner web experience by using Adblock Plus or similar ad blockers, so if you can deal with it ethically you might want to see what all of the fuss is about.

4) Facebook Notifications / Google Mail Checker: While these are two separate extensions I believe they go hand in hand. Both install a small icon towards the top right of the browser next to the address bar and discretely notify you when you get a new notification on Facebook or a new email to your Gmail account. In the Facebook extension you can even enable a small notification window to appear saying who the notification is from, or you can click the icon to take you directly to that message. After installing these two extensions I found myself checking these sites much less frequently than before, as I could see that nobody was trying to contact me since I last checked, minimizing the opportunity for distraction. Of course, if that doesn't work for you there is one more extreme option...

5) StayFocused: "Alright, I have 24 hours to finish this report -- that's plenty of time. Let me just check Facebook...oh, Anna wrote on my wall. I better reply. And I should look at Sam's new photos...Ok, let me just check my email...I should check Twitter, too...Okay, back to that report. I still have...FIVE MINUTES?!?!"

That might be a bit extreme, but it's certainly a situation that many of us have been in. We're addicted to distractions online and sometimes we have to do something to force our way out of it. StayFocused allows you to make lists of blocked sites and allowed sites and allow yourself a certain amount of time per day to spend on these time-wasters. After that time is up they will be blocked until tomorrow. There's also the "Nuclear Option" which blocks all sites (or all but those which you allow) for a certain amount of time to make sure you don't get distracted. It's a simple concept but if you stick with it it will force you to be productive, or at least as productive as you were before the web.


There are thousands upon thousands of extensions out there, some of which are more useful than others. There's even a whole productivity section in Chrome's Web Store with similar options. I find these extensions listed above to be very useful and I feel that they save me time every day, either by making simple tasks simpler or by keeping me from distractions. Are there any extensions you couldn't live without? Let us know by tweeting us or by replying in the comments!