Take the Hop out of Barhop - Microsoft Surface

Your bar experience may just be getting the most exciting face-lift ever!

Now picture this: imagine yourself at a lounge you frequent, sitting in your favorite spot. The joint is packed and you can't seem to wave down a waiter or bartender to service you, and they just can't seem to keep track of who's who and who came in first. But, suddenly you notice a new table in front of you and it's glowing with animation. The first thing you and anybody else does is touch the surface. Immediately, the screen changes before you materializing into a graphically enhanced menu, detailed with all the available drinks and even has a sound effect. It then says "what would you like to order, today?" You and all your friends are now in awe. Then everyone else who hasn't placed their hand on the table begins to do so and their own menu's come up. Cool ain't it?

Think about all the possibilities. Forgot to bring a deck of cards? Not a problem, it's got a deck of cards build into it with a host of other amazing applications and interactive drinking games. King's Cup anyone?

I now introduce to you, the Microsoft Surface. It was originally unveiled by Microsoft's CEO Steve Ballmer at the All Things Digital Conference in May. It is able to recognize objects from a paintbrush to all your digital hand held gadgetry. What limited you on your personal computer at home was a mouse that allowed you to do maybe just one or two things at a time. This definitely broadens the horizons of the computing experience. Now with this new hands-on experience you can have direct control over the photos in one of your gadgets, as well as music, maps, files, and almost anything else you can think of that's on your computer today.

The Microsoft Surface is however aimed at commercial venues including hotels, bars, lounges, retail stores, restaurants, and other entertainment venues. So if you want this as your coffee table, you may just have to wait a bit or check out the Mitsubishi Diamondtouch, that is in development right now.

Now, enough of my blabbering, the video definitely does a better demo of what I've described, so here it is:

Aye Matee, Ye New Pirate Ship

The captain of this ship? His name is Tom Perkins, a Silicon Valley venture capitalist. Where did his fortune come from? The early investments in Genentech, Netscape, and Google. He's made a huge fortune and certainly has something to show for it, because not anybody can build a mega-yacht yanking $130 million from the bank. This yacht is the first of its kind. When most people think of large yachts, they don't have sails, but this one does. It is called the Maltese Falcon, and spans 289 feet in length. This thing is an engineering marvel because it is the biggest, riskiest, fastest, and the most technologically advanced, single-hulled sailing mega-yacht in the entire world. There are no ropes for the operation of its 26,000 sq. ft. of sail. This yacht has 3 towering 192-foot masts, with walls constructed of carbon fiber to reduce weight and endure stress that many metals cannot. The masts also have tiny fiber optic sensors embedded in them relaying the amount stress each mast is receiving as a necessary precaution. Those masts aren't light and could be catastrophic if rising problem is not detected. The yacht has a good number of microprocessors, that are linked to 131,000 feet of hidden cable and wire. There are a total of 75 motors all synchronized by computer. Perkins stated in Wired Magazine that he didn't want electronics governing every process, so it wouldn't be sailing by computer. "No way Bill Gates is controlling my boat." (Wired Magazine - 2007) Check out the additional pictures of this marvel of modern day yachting and then drool (=

A Little Humor for the Day: CHUCK NORRIS STOPPED...

"Chuck Norris had to stop washing his clothes in the ocean because the tsunamis he created were killing too many people."

Wanna kick ass without ripping a gaping hole for a great view of your pink boxers? They're specifically designed for kicking people in the face as Chuck demonstrates here all for less than 20 buckaroos! Now if kicking that high is a problem for you, these pants won't solve them, you may just need to get your arse to the gym and do some yoga. If you get them dirty, that's okay, too, just hop into the nearest pool and do a couple of roundhouse kicks while you're in it. You'll be sure to make waves.

OPPORTUNITY CALLS: Diddy Drops a Ball

Looking for your dream job? This just may be it, if the title of "Diddy's Assistant" floats your boat. Diddy is looking for a new assistant and what better way to do it than on one of the world's largest internet video communities? Yeap, you guessed it, on YouTube. Don't mind getting an earful, sleepless nights, and a lot of work? This is definitely not a job for the faint of heart if you've ever tuned in to watch "Making the Band." If your looking for your ticket into the music and entertainment industry, what better way is there than networking through an entertainment mogul? I'm gonna let Diddy do the rest of the talking on for this post. Check it (hit play on the video to the left) and leave a comment let us know what you think.




Cream of the Crop:

Eat Out Your Pockets

"10 Things your restaurant won't tell you"

The full article in detail about everything below can be found at MSN by clicking here.

1. "It's more about the sizzle than the steak."

2. "Eating here could make you sick."

3. "Our markups are ridiculous"

4. "Big brother is watching you...eat."

5. "There's something fishy about our seafood."

6. "Reservation? What reservation?"

7. "Our specials are anything but."

8. "There's no such thing as too much butter."

9. "Nice tip -- too bad your waiter won't get it."

10. "Never go out to eat on a Monday."

Never Too Late for the Paper Chase

Human beings are living longer than they ever have. I've recently read a book called "The 4-Hour Workweek" by Timothy Ferriss and in it he speaks about a different outlook for the way one leads his or her life. He discusses the idea of working your entire life. It's really not as bad as it sounds, but he talks about living wherever he wants and taking trips every couple of months. He leads a life no other person I know does. He runs his own business and used to work around the clock to keep it afloat. What he brings into the picture is the idea of "outsourcing" aspects of your life. He has someone who manages all his monthly bills, ensuring there are no errors to hiring people to find a life-partner (wife or girlfriend). If you find this interesting, you may want to pick up his book at a local bookstore or check some pages out on Amazon.

What I want to introduce to you in this post are two individuals who run two websites you may be pretty familiar with, but had no idea who was behind them:

1. PerezHilton.com

His name is Mario Lavandeira (born March 23, 1978). He studied acting in college and wanted to get into acting. That brought him to Los Angeles, California. Fortunately or unfortunately for him, that never panned out. The natural thing for him to do was become a publicist and that easily turned into journalism. He began blogging soon after "because it seemed easy". When he first started his website it was located at pagesixsixsix.com. His notoriety came fast as he updated his blog with hot celebrity gossip. It wasn't long after its first couple of months before The Insider named the site "Hollywood's Most Hated Website." After The New York Post sued him, he changed the name to PerezHilton.com and now writes under this alter-ego. He also claims that it helps him sleep at night, too. You may not think celebrity gossip is serious, but it has become serious biz for him. A reason for the blog's popularity is that his material is seen by him firsthand or that it comes from extremely reliable sources. What separates him from other celebrity gossip bloggers is that he actually attends some of the events, travels the world, and pours his life into the site. It may not seem like it writing a couple lines and throwing up a picture, but good material is hard to find. While we can understand why he gets so much criticism. There's no such thing as bad press right? That's about certainly right, when your website is getting about 4.5 MILLION hits a day and you're able to charge 9 grand a week for a small ad spot on the site in addition to other advertising streams of revenue.

2. HYPEBEAST.com

The skinny (from HypeBeast.com): Kevin Ma was born in 1982 and was raised in Vancouver, Canada. While attending university, he created Hypebeast.com on January 15th, 2005. Little did he know that Hypebeast.com would grow into a global phenomena. Other than that, Kevin is just a dude with a computer whose interest lies in sneakers and fashion.

Hypebeast is almost synonymous with BAPE at Niketalk.com in terms of popularity, a forum centered around sneaker-philes who collect Jordans, Dunks, Air Force Ones, and other exclusive sneakers and clothing brands. When he first began blogging he simply used it as a catalog for things that interested him, like your friends who updated their Xangas with the products they last purchased from the last place they've been. The name "hypebeast" came across him in the Niketalk forums and he liked it as it sounded funny, too. He checked whether the domain name was taken and it wasn't so he bought it and never looked back. The site went viral pretty fast which could possibly accounted for by the large community base at Niketalk, but Kevin really doesn't know how it spread so fast and so widely. Nike took notice to Ma's influence and asks him to post items (probably receiving exclusive materials of his own). His site gets about 60,000 hits a day and the advertising revenue and small-fame has allowed him to mingle with people like Hiroshi Fujiwara and Stash, who are plastered in magazines. Blogging ain't easy for Ma. Hypebeast is based out in Hong Kong and he wakes up at 1pm and doesn't sleep until 5am, trying to find the hottest new items for posting on a daily basis before the blog readers and visitors in NYC wake up. Like any other normal person Kevin used to work a 9-5 bank job. His site has received offers from many other companies, but Kevin says, "You don't just sell your baby, do you?"

-- This posting was inspired by pg. 72 of Complex Magazine (June/July 2007)