Dylan Greene dot com

Hitachi has announced the development of a new robot vacuum similar to the Roomba. This one is special in that not only does it have a base station that it returns to when it needs to recharge, but the base station will also empty the dust and dirt container there when full. In the "silly but why not" department, it includes a camera and net access so that you can watch it vacuum while you are at work. (If you are at work and you are watching a robot do vacuuming you might need entertainment at your job.)

Oops, I didn't post that I'm back and some people thought I was still gone. The 300+ photos I took will be filtered down to a viewable hundred or so and will be online in a day or so.

Listening to a song you like but you don't know or can't remember who sings it? Well a company in England has created a service that you call on your cell phone, let it listen to 15 seconds of the song, and then it text messages you the name of the song back to you in the next 2-5 minutes. It's not free, but they say soon enough you'll be able to just hum the song and it will tell you what it is. More about it.

I've posted over 100 photos from my first Preakness Experience. It was a good time but it was damn cold. Check out out increadably muddy the Preakness infield got. I've also posted some photos from a Matrix-inspired BBQ at Tom and Jackie's place.

Here are some awesome Half-Life 2 videos taken from E3.

Old Half-Life 2 Videos:

• A brief Half Life 2 teaser (11 MB MOV)
• Tech demo of some of the Source Engine's light and physics capabilities (48 MB MOV)
• Talking with an almost real looking Alyx and Doctor (24 MB MOV)
• Gameplay inside an abandond hospital (23 MB MOV)
• Gameplay outside in a European city (29 MB MOV)
• Gameplay of using swarms of Starship Trooper-like aliens to help attack enemies (37 MB MOV)
• Gameplay of the incredible 4-story tall Striders walking around and attacking in a European city (my favorite) (34 MB MOV)
• Gameplay using the magnet gun (25 MB MPG)

These videos are from the PC version but the game will also be available for XBOX. It is expected to be in stores this Fall.

UPDATE (May 19): New 25 Minutes of Half-Life 2 (64 MB WMV). Better quality than the Quicktime videos above, but you might need to increase the contrast in Windows Media Player a little. This includes all previously circulated QuickTime videos and more, such as driving.

UPDATE (May 29): All of the video links are now dead. You should be able to find the videos elsewhere. Sorry, the bandwith from you guys downloading them was a lot more than expected.

"STRIDER!!!"

Are you into Legos? The unofficial annual Lego conference BrickFest 2003 is returning soon to Arligton, Virigina (just outside of Washington, DC and about a mile from where I live) August 8th-10th.

Here's some of the things planned for this year:

• Animation Festival
• LEGO Direct Q & A
• LEGO Sculpture Displays Example Example Example
• Roundtable Discussions
• Technic/Mindstorms Challenges
• Train Layouts and Workshops
• Workshops

Tonight some friends and I are going to an early sneak preview of the The Matrix: Reloaded. We're going to a new theater in Georgetown that promises exciting new snack foods like popcorn shrimp in addition to stadium seating and digital sound. I'm glad for that popcorn shrimp, because everywhere I look, I see bad reviews for this movie. Even somebody that I never trust because he loved both Star Wars prequels didn't like this one. Yikes.

Update: I saw The Matrix: Reloaded and.... I liked it. I didn't love it, but then again I didn't love the first one either the first time I saw it. I expect this movie to be better received once we get to see the third one. Also, there are characters that don't do much in the movie but are main characters in the video game Enter the Matrix. If you stay until after the credits there is a nice trailer for The Matrix: Revolutions, which comes out in November. Oh, disclaimer: I drank a lot of Bacardi 151 before and during this movie. It may have affected my opinion on it. I also fell asleep during the Oracle scene. She seemed to just go on and on...

If you have already seen the Matrix: Reloaded, this spoiler-filled guide might help you with some of the confusing parts.

The party pictures are here. If you are easily offended by scenes of random drunkenness, I recommend avoiding these photos.

I haven't had a chance to add any captions so you should (by clicking on the photos).

Here's an idea I had about a year ago when TiVo and ReplyTV started becoming popular: A TiVo-like device for recording radio stations and playing them back at my own convenience.

There's nothing good on the radio when I drive to work. I don't like Howard Stern (my opinion is that he's only still "popular" because there's nothing else to listen to early in the morning) and I can't stand over-peppy too-much coffee morning DJ's. I go home kinda late, so I miss most of the good evening shows, like The Don and Mike Show, Ron and Fez, or All Things Considered. On weekends I would like to listen to Car Talk and Says You!, but I'm rarely in the car driving when they are on.

The Radio Recorder, as I called it, would record the shows I like and let me listen to them in my car at my own convenience. As an added bonus, I would be able to fast-forward through commercials, which thanks to Clear Channel's much unpublicized doing, have no maximum length, so half my 30 minute drive can be nothing but commercials.

Well, I might be smart but I'm also slow. A company has built this device! It's from an unknown (to me) company called Pogo Products! which makes many different MP3/WMA players and the device is called Radio YourWay. And they solved the one problem I had - how to record shows when the car is off, and possibly parked somewhere where there's no radio reception, such as an underground parking lot. They made it a portable device, which is even better, because I can bring it to the gym. And of course - it also plays MP3's and WMA's.

Pogo! Products web site was going really slow when I posted this, probably because of people like me sharing this information. Here's an article about the Radio YourWay. I haven't seen any reviews yet, but if you know of reviews please post a comment here.

The list price is $149 which includes ear buds, car adapter, USB cable, external FM antenna, removable MMC memory (not sure how much is included). FirstLook Products has the Pogo Radio YourWay for $149, but you may want to look around because I've never heard of this site.

By comparison, the much larger (both in size and amount of storage space) Apple iPod cost up to $500. It doesn't let you listen to or record FM radio but it does have a nicer screen and much more space. The Creative Nomad Zen has the same amount of space as the largest iPod, but cost $100 less. The MP3 player I use right now is the now defunct Intel Pocket Concert.