Remote Control Car

And it's a real car as well. Controlled by an iPod Touch. I think the thing I like most about this is the fact that the remote and the car aren't controlled directly - they each connect to the internet and then talk, meaning you could be on the other side of the world and really freak out the people back home. I just hope he's got some decent security on there as well, coz hacking into this would definitely be something fun if you had the technical skills.

Funny how timing works, but I started this book at the weekend, which also features remote control cars. Still only half way through, but it's a great book so far, and highly recommended (especially if you're a bit of a geek).

How Not to Run a StartUp

The 20 worst venture capital stories....

Apparently Today is Special

It's Blog Day. I wasn't really sure what it was all about until I read Tara's site, so now I know, I have to recommend 5 blogs for you to read - I think I was meant to let the blogs know in advance or something, but as I'm late to the party, I guess that's going to be missed. And it's meant to be new stuff that I probably haven't linked to before, which rules out the usual crew of suspects...

OK - so here goes (a very random sample of stuff that I occasionally get a chance to read)

• I Quit for LIJIT - I guess it's only fair as I found out about this whole deal coz I was hoping to catch her usual Friday interview with one of the staff. I've never met Tara, but she works for Lijit that develops the search widget over on the left. And they're based just up the road in Boulder, so I'm all for supporting the local tech industry.
  
• Blog.Pmarca.Com - Marc Andreessen's blog - very smart, very opinionated, and despite only entering the blogging world a few months ago, has amassed enough posts to keep you reading for a long time. Oh, and he does startup stuff.
  
• Feld Thoughts - Back to local stuff (well, Boulder again), Brad Feld writes about lots of different stuff, but mainly life in the Venture Capital world. The fact that he manages to invest in some of the (what I personally think are) cooler internet companies make it a pretty cool place to stop by on your travels.
  
• Gotham Gal - if you ever need a decent recipe, or are struggling to find somewhere nice to eat in NYC (mainly), you can always count on Gotham Gal for some recommendations (and her recipe posts make me way too hungry given my current starvations/eat mainly salads approach to life). In between the food, there's lots of decent life stuff as well, and she writes in a completely honest and open way that you kinda feel like you're following along with her life.
  
• Perez Hilton - I debated alot about the last one - so many choices, and only one space, but one thing that is sure to brighten up a tough day at the office is the latest celebrity gossip. Plus, he sealed the deal with the extra little white bits he puts on the photo's - sometimes annoying, mostly darn funny.
  

That's my duty done - hope you enjoy. I really should update my links section over on the left one of these days - now that Google owns Blogger, wouldn't it be cool if you could just auto-import your feeds from Google Reader as your Blog Roll on your site?

Google Maps Does it again!

Raises the bar I mean - this is pretty cool (even if you're not really a techie), but when you get directions on Google Maps now, if you don't like the route, or decide you need to stop off somewhere first, you can just grap a point and move it in pretty much real time - the route will recalculate everything and serve you up your new directions/distance/drink of choice.

When it comes to map stuff, it takes a lot to get me excited, coz I tend to deal with it pretty much every day in some form or another. Today, I'm excited. Go try it yourself...

Yahoo Pipes

I cna never quite decide whether I like Google stuff or Yahoo stuff better - Google for search, yes, but then Yahoo has Flickr (which I love), and they let me create my own homepage with random bits and pieces on it (and the add to Yahoo buttons that spring up on various different sites).

Anyway, Yahoo have released something new - Pipes (not Popes - that would be a little controversial) - the official explanation of what it is is:

Pipes is an interactive feed aggregator and manipulator. Using Pipes, you can create feeds that are more powerful, useful and relevant.

So basically a news reader with bells and whistles to merge and filter and only ever see the things you're really interested in. I haven't tried it, but the early reports are that it's pretty cool - you can also see some examples of what people have used it for, so check it out when you get a chance.

Things are never quite as they seem on the Interweb

I know how some parents are a little scared of letting their kids out into the fake wild world of the internet, given the opportunity for not nice people to pretend they're someone or something else than they really are, and take advantage of their sweet and innocent kids. However, it's not always the kids who have to watch out. Over at the SFGate, there's this weird story about a little love triangle via the internet, which resulted in the only person who was telling the truth about themselves getting killed in an alleged rage of jealousy. Let that be a warning to you all (and just for the record, I look like my pic up there - maybe a little better shaven today, and a few more wrinkles around the eyes, but it is me - why would I fake a pic like that?).