Ever wonder what it's like to see the world from the cockpit of an Airbus A320?  Some of Avianca's pilots created an amazing video using GoPro's mounted from inside during flight around the likes of Rio de Janeiro, Bogotá and Sao Paulo.  They make it look way too easy...

Definitely recommend watching full screen in HD!

Here's something I'm really hoping I will get to see with my own eyes in my lifetime...  -  If you think about it, it's one of those final barriers which most people aren't going to be able to pass - you can travel the surface of the planet, you can fly through the sky, you can scuba dive a hundred feet under water, and you could even go cave exploring inside the earth - but who can say they have seen this view?

With the exponential rate at which technology is currently advancing- I think it's entirely possible in the next few dozen years people will be able to take a quick trip around earth for a (relatively) reasonable price... a price I'd gladly pay.  I know for $200,000 or so you can take a quick trip into space - but that's not quite the same yet...

As a somewhat related side note - any guesses how soon it will be before we develop faster than light drives?  I mean - if the neutrinos have truly been clocked at faster than light, than FTL travel must be possible right?

I can't even remember how exactly, but I ran into this app for iPhones that creates some pretty amazing 360 degree panoramas called... 360 Panorama...  It makes it really easy to take a panoramic photo - all you do is hit the shutter once, and the gyro sensors in the iPhone determine the positioning of the photos that are automatically taken and stitched together as you pan the camera around your scene.  The photos are of course then geotagged, and they can be uploaded to developer Occipital's website where they are shown on a map as a kind of panorama photo feed.

Check out the panorama I took from the rocks in Punta Mala, Esterillos Oeste, Costa Rica:

I wanted to take a couple seconds to share my new web project I'm working on.  It's a new resource site for small businesses so they can find useful tools and services online that can help them streamline and expand their business.  It could be considered a new generation of my internet fax to email guide but with more features and definitely more content.  I've called it the eBizToolkit - and so far it covers Business VoIP Phone, Electronic Signatures, Email Marketing (Newsletters), and of course, Internet Fax.  Check it out, I've spent lots of time on this one!

I use Vision Forecasting's Video Vision Plus 10 software to keep track of my movie rentals at Twilight Video Club and kept getting an error running the software under Windows XP whenever I tried to import movie information from an XML file (exported from Collectorz.com's Movie Collector).  Whenever I would open the import window, where you are asked for an XML file where your information is stored, I kept getting the following error Error: ActiveX component can't create object.

Because my support contract is expired - they wanted $250/year for email support - I was on my own to find the fix...  and after a few hours of research, have found the solution...  Install SQLXML, which apparently Windows XP doesn't seem to have, and Video Vision Plus doesn't install for you.  Simply install SQLXML 3.0 from this Microsoft page, reboot the computer, and it should start working!

Being that this is a standard ActiveX component, if you are getting an error similar to this Error: ActiveX component can't create object that I received, which also comes up often as Run-time error '429' ActiveX component can't create object in other programs, and it comes up when you are trying to load a dialog or window that involves importing / exporting data via XML files, than this might also fix the problem for you!  If you aren't trying to use XML in the program and you're getting that error, it's probably a missing ActiveX library, and you should hit up The Google for help on your specific program...  It's worth a shot anyways, since installing SQLXML should not cause you any grief at all if it's installed on your computer even if you don't use it.

I haven't even watched this video myself yet, just saw that they put it up finally, and as of writing this has had a whopping 23 views so far...  Check it out it's Pioneer's DJM-900nexus official introduction and unveiling video:

* Update: I have to say, this is why Pioneer can continue to officially call itself the *club standard* gear....  *gasp*!  The Pioneer DJM-900nexus is basically the final part that was missing between two CDJ-2000s - it's essentially a revamped DJM-800 with software controls and an integrated audio card, plus the ability to communicate directly with the CDJ-2000s and get information like the playing track's BPM so that when you play an effect it will stay in sync even if you change the tempo.  Wicked... wicked mixer...

Take a look at this video... More info is supposed to be hitting the press on February 17th...

A couple weeks ago, Costa Rica was in the news after Gordon Ramsey, the TV host for Hell's Kitchen, was held at gunpoint and doused in gas as a warning to stop sticking his nose into the shark fining issue in Puntarenas.  A few days later, a local Tico environmentalist received the same treatment and both events were covered in The Tico Times.

The mini documentary Gordon was filming has since been released (and subsecuentely of course landed on YouTube), titled Gordon Ramsey's Shark Bait.  Although there is no footage of him and his crew being attacked in Puntarenas, the documentary does provide a decent rundown of what shark fining is and how inhumane and irresponsible it is - and does include lots of footage of the shark fining situation in Costa Rica.

If you are interested in knowing more, watch the movie Sharkwater - an excellent 2005 documentary which uncovered a whole lot about shark fining in Costa Rican waters and the Galapagos, and you can read Capt. Paul Watson's recent commentary on Sharks, Drugs, Lies, and Corruption in Costa Rica.

That said - here's the show in four parts (make sure you click read more if you are reading this from the front page!). Please post this to Facebook or share the link with your friends to spread the information!

And the Sharkwater Trailer (watch in HD / full screen):

Flattr

I'd seen and quickly forgotten about this about a year ago when it was pretty much ignored by most, but the other day I was reading a donation page for a site and ran into this little icon which I had no idea what it meant.  I figured it was just another digg-type link sharing clone, but I was curious so I clicked anyways.  From there I was taken to the Flattr.com page, and signed up for an account... so here's the lowdown of what it is...

Flattr is the solution to that guilty feeling some of us get from using free resources (say, like Exact Audio Copy) and not giving anything back.  A lot of sites have a PayPal donation box, or you can click on their banners (and hope they don't get cheated by their ad provider), but never has there been a way to easily throw them a little tip every now and then.  PayPal works if you want to donate, say, $5 or $10... but it's just not worth most people's time and effort to donate a quarter, especially when you consider you'll be paying more in fees than the donation value itself (in North America last I checked it was 2.95% + $0.30, and in other places it can be higher).

Flattr greatly simplifies the "tip giving" down to literally one click.  All you need to do is sign up for an account and deposit some money into your "means" - your available balance to give with.  You can deposit the cash using PayPal, and since it's a european site the balance is displayed in € Euro (not that location matters anymore on the internet, right?).  Next you set a total monthly € amount that you want to share between all those things (things = websites, freeware sites, videos, etc - anything that has a Flattr button on it, even real world stuff - there's a phone app for that!).  You can choose anything between €2 up to €100.  Once you've set your monthly Flattr amount, you are ready to go out on the web and start clicking the Flattr button on anything you think is worthy to get a share of your allocated monthly total you set to share.  The actual giving is done at the end of the month, so you have all month to click on those Flattr buttons around the web and at the end of the month the amount you set before is split evenly among every thing you Flattr'ed.

Example, if you have set a €5 amount to give per month, and clicked on 20 Flattr buttons, each person who owns the Flattr buttons would get €0.25 from you that month.

One thing to be aware of is that one click only counts for that specific month.  If you want to give the same thing a share next month, you will need to go back and click on it again.  However, once you click on a Flattr button, the button will change to a Subscribe button.  Clicking that will pop up a window asking if you want to auto-Flattr things for 3, 6, or 12 months automatically for you - which is an easy way to keep giving without having to remember to return to the site and click the button each month.

Personally, I love the idea.  It's a great way to say "thanks" and contribute a little back to the author/creator.  I like to think of it as tipping a hot (and/or skilled ) bartender or waitress for a drink.  The only downside is that there's currently no easy way to differentiate the value of each "thing" you Flattr - so the dumb video you Flattr'ed is going to receive the same "tip" as the software author who has spent thousands of hours slaving out code for free on the program you use everyday.

Be sure to give it a try and check it out - you can test the system by Flattr'ing this blog with the button above .  If you have anything you created online - or, like I said even offline, check the site for more info on the printable Flattr "buttons" - add it to Flattr and hopefully you'll start getting Flattr'ed!

Check out their about page and their blog for more info...