I miss my roommates.

It's been a fun couple of days here in the mouth of the rat.

First off, I've been sick and under self imposed quarantine. I refuse to make others ill and simply can't stand when folks decide to go to restaurants and movies whilst sick. Seriously people, you've got the plague. Take some well deserved time off and spare the rest of us, will ya. Thanks.

And what's the deal with UCF Bowl Games and field goals? Guys. Really. Let's get it together. I won't even comment on our inability to accurately pass the ball.

All in all though, a great season. Absolutely my favorite on record. On campus stadium, fantastic seats thanks to my chums, national on air recognition from ESPN and Ellen (It's my 15 minutes and I'll take them how ever I can get 'em!), Sports Illustrated videos of the year (4th down) and my first credit in wikipedia. Thanks UCF, it was a blast!

I'm sorry that I won't be able to go out and throw down in true New Years fashion this year. While I'm beyond the spewing-bodily-fluids-about "contagious state" I'm just not feeling up to the party. I'll be hanging locally with my brother and his friends for dinner, which should be a nice affair.

I can't really remember the last time I was sick. Those that know me know my lack of immune system. It's not pretty. But lately, I've been great! I credit it completely to my former roommates, both of whom were active college students. There's some crazy shit floating around college campuses and it kept me immune for a while. That party's officially over. I miss my roommates.

Retail Technology!

Last week I was picking up some supplies at an Office Depot in Boca when I noticed an everyday retail icon had received a fresh techno makeover; the price tag!

That's right, the price tag was a digital screen which displayed the price, product identification information and a sale indicator if the item was on sale. I asked a sales person if it was RF-ID, yes, I know, super geeky question to ask a random sales person, but to my chagrin he nodded whilest pointing over his shoulder to a transmitter mounted to the ceiling. Apparently this Office Depot location was a test store for this system. This is pretty sensible given their proximity to the corporate office.


He mentioned how he thought the system was pretty slick the way it updated and stayed current with the ads all by itself. He also said that he was going to jump on the stock of the manufacturer, a company by the name of Pricer.

I think the implications of a system like this are pretty awesome. Already retail locations loose money every day by not having the most current prices on their products. Companies like Walmart routinely change the price of their products to remaim competitive as well as to maximize profit. Prices are different depending on the demographic and it's all electronically controlled...except for the price tag.

Even if Pricer isn't the one to do it, I bet this technology becomes mainstream very soon.

Update
So, it seems that Pricer has announced that they have a pilot program with Office Depot. I've checked the Pricer website and have been unable to find a press release, however Sven in the comments points this out and my blog has been receiving record traffic. I'll go ahead and assume he's correct. I'll clarify and answer some questions from the comments.

Their technology is NOT RF-ID. Rather, it's "diffuse IR" which appears to be a flavor of the regular old infrared technology we all know and love. The major difference is this version can bounce off of most anything which eliminates the need for the line of sight requirement. I've read the site and looked at their photos. The transceiver looks identical to what I saw that day in the store, of which there is a photo above.

The store appears to have 100% been converted from paper price tags to pricer wireless ones. From the software down to the pens at the cash wrap, it's all wireless Pricer tags. The staff at the store even seemed enthusiastic about having the new technology in their store.

Happiness

"Take a look at what makes other people happy and try it out. Notice who is looking like their life stinks, and stay away from the choices they've made."

-Penelope Trunk

Eye-Fi: Damn convenient

Not all that long ago, if you wanted a nice sized memory card for your camera, you'd spend close to $100 for that privilege. It looks like those days may be returning.

I've been using the Eye-FI wifi SD card now for about a month now. The card supports uploading to several online services as well as your network connected PC or Mac. The configuration couldn't be more simple.

The card plugs into any USB port via their adapter. It appears just like a drive on your computer which you explore into and execute the setup file. After the installation, configuration takes place in your web browser of choice. You identify your wireless network (there's a nice interface to explore for live networks), tell it about your favorite web based photo service (flickr in my case), point it to a folder on your PC or Mac to upload to and you're off and running. Simple as that.

There are a few helpful things I've figured out while using the card that are worth wile to pass along. First, the card uploads to their remote webservice first. From there they dole out the photos to Flickr (or any other service) and then back to your local computer. It's seems inefficient, but it ensures that no matter where you are, your photos will get where they need to be when they can be delivered. Next, make sure you add a "linksys" connection profile. Those damn things are everywhere. I assure you, if you travel around a lot with your camera, you'll be stunned to see some random photo got uploaded when you didn't expect it. If there's an open linksys, might as well take advantage! Lastly, if your Internet connection is busy, don't expect very much. The other night I couldn't get my Eye-Fi to upload pictures. Then I realized that I had a large torrent file downloading. When I killed it off, everything operated as expected.

Go buy one. Toss your camera docks, cables and driver disks in the trash. Never worry about transferring or uploading photos for your friends and family to see again. Eye-Fi takes the nonsense out of digital photography.