Pala-isip

Tell me if this is you. 1. You heard a tune that you really like but you just can't figure out what the title of the song is. 2. You know a part of the lyrics of the song, but you can't remember what the title is or how the song goes. 3. You can hum the tune, but don't know the lyrics or the name of the song. If that is you, good news! There's a new site that helps you exactly find that tune! The site is called Midomi . You can hum, sing or type a part of the song and it will search its 2 million database of songs and match what you're looking for. If you're an aspiring American Idol or Pinoy Idol star. They also have a place for you to register and record your own songs. Your performance might even be the top result! Check out the site at htpt://www.midomi.com .

Ever wondered how the home game consoles evolved over time? I found a website that shows the history of game consoles from 1970 to the present. Remember this? The Atari PONG released in 1975 How about this? The Atari 2600 released in 1977. I still remember owning this. Man, those joyticks really break easily. My favorite was this Intellivision released in 1980. Too bad I didn't have a lot of games available at that time. But the graphics was great and putting in different cards on the keypad to have different controls was great. The the biggest hit that really revolutionized the game console was this Nintendo Entertainment System released in 1985. With Super Mario Bros., the game truly changed the landscape of home consoles and paved the way for the Playstation and Xbox of today. And now of course, we have the Wii. For the full list, visit this website .

I'm always amazed at how imaginative people can be. I'm especially impressed by industrial designers who are able to take ordinary objects, inject a new twist in design and make them more usable and attractive. Just like the iPod and how it redesigned an MP3 player where the design focuses on ease of use, simplicity and clean lines. Here is another product that engages the user to have a more experience in eating breakfast. A new design of the ordinary toaster. You just slip the bread on the ceramic loop and the bread rolls out to the catch completely toasted. It's an innovative design of an ordinary household item that one usually relegates to the kitchen corner. This would make a nice piece in any kitchen. Here are more photos on how it works. Here's the link to the designer's website.

We've been having crazy weather in Vancouver these past few months. In my 9 years in Canada, I've never experienced weather like this. Windstorm, snowstorm, negative temperatures. I do live in Canada and cold weather is expected, but not it's not usually this cold in Vancouver. In December, we've had two snowstorms within a week of each other. The first one dropped like 4 inches of snow and the second one more than 6 inches. It may not be surprising to those who live anywhere else in Canada, but in Vancouver, that's unusual weather. We normally get less than 3 inches of snow a year if ever. In December again we had a windstorm with winds of over 80km/h. This knocked out our power for almost 24 hours. I'm sure for people in the Philippines, this is nothing and yes, I was in the Philippines when Cory was the President and it was normal to have blackouts every day. But for a city with a power company who's power supply reliability is over 95%, even a short powe

It's finally here, the much anticipated new products from Apple. At MacWorld Exp0 2007, Steve Jobs who normally presents several products did something unexpected. He only presented two products. The first product was the Apple TV or what he called the iTV last year. The Apple TV is a media hub for your digital life, it connects to your TV via HDMI or Component Video and can stream photos, movies and songs from your Mac or PC. It includes a 40Gb HD so you can store content on it as well. It syncs with iTunes so you can view your TV shows, movies and music and play it on your big screen TV. It has a 10/100Base-T ethernet port for wired connectivity as well as a 802.11 wireless capability. By the way, did I mention it's an 802.11n? Here's a photo of the device. Here's the link from Apple. Of course, what would MacWorld be without a new and exciting product. What else would be more exciting than the much anticipated iPhone? Steve Jobs doesn't disappoint! Let's see

Three year old boy Timothy Addo, crawled out of a window when his sitter briefly took her eyes off him. He was dangling for dear life on the fire escape when two men heard screams for help from the building for help as the boy was losing his grip. The two men, Julio Gonzalez and Pedro Nevarez positioned themselves under the fire escape to catch the boy. The boy fell and hit Navarez in the chest so hard that he knocked him off balanced, but bounced into Gonzalez' arms. Timothy was treated at the hospital for a cut on his forehead. His mother, Katrina Cosme was working at the time of the accident said "He's fine, he's happy and he's smiling." The rescue came two days after a Wesley Autrey ( see previous blog ) saves a teenager who fell on a subway track and a day after, three police officers delivered baby on a Brooklyn subway platform. "This is the week of heroes in New York," Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said. Click here for the full story.

I read an amazing article on Reuters today. Wesley Autrey jumped onto an oncoming NYC subway train to cover a teenager, Cameron Hollopeter, who suffered a seizure and fell on the tracks. He covered the teenager and the train was passing just a few centimers over them. Wesley, a construction worker went to work as normal after the incident. His boss didn't believe his excuse for being late for work until he saw on the Internet what he had done. "You see somebody in distress, you help out", Autrey said with his knitted cap brushed with grease and dirt from the train passing overhead. For his heroics, he was awarded a Bronze Medallion -- for exceptional citizenship and outstanding achievement by Mayor Michael Bloomberg. Donald Trump also awarded him with $10,000 and he also got two other cheques from undisclosed donors. The Walt Disney Co. gave him and his family a one-week fully paid trip to Disney World and tickets to the Broadway musical "The Lion King". The New

First of all, a Happy New Year to all! Now get back to work! :) Well, we are all back from a well deserved holiday break and I must say that 2006 has been a good year. Meeting new friends, spending time with families and friends and lots and lots of cool new toys. I think 2007 will be even better. So did I do in the New Year? Well, on New Year's eve, we spent the night at a friends house for dinner. Surprisingly, he got the new Nintendo Wii the night before. I must say, I am amazed by that game console. I've never had that much fun with a game console since the Family Computer came out. Sure, I've tried the PS3 and the Xbox 360 in the stores. The graphics is amazing in those machines, which is not the case in the Nintendo Wii. We have PS2 and Xbox at home too and the graphics there is comparable or beats the Nintendo Wii. But what the Wii has that those other consoles don't have is the Wiimote and nunchuck. These innovative controllers lets you move your whole body natu