J.Yang has slummed it in the valley with the Wakefield twins; slumber partied with Huey, Dewey and Louie; joined Krakow in stalking Angela; and climbed every mountain with the Von Trapps.

Originally from San Diego, he's lived and traveled the world (okay, not all of it) in pursuit of that most elusive of targets -- inspiration.

He's authored and published a book, written for online and offline publications, and maintained a variety of popular blogs on subjects ranging from movies and technology to personal stories and amateur musings. He's just wrapped up his second book, a fiction novel for teens, and is hard at work on his third one.

You can reach him at digitaljon@SPAMgmail.com. He is BFF with his iPhone so he should answer promptly.

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Everyone Else and You  
Thursday, March 26, 2009 : 6:11 AM : 3 comments

I've been buzzing about this thing for about a week now. Touch Graph is an application for Facebook that shows you how your friends are connected and interconnected visually. I know, I know, another Facebook app, blah blah blah. But this one is seriously cool and kind of useful. At least for me.

Awhile back, Lilly and I had this idea to create a Friend Web that you could carry around with you. It shows who your friends are, how they're connected, and what friend grouping they're in. It cuts down a lot on the "wait, who are we talking about again?" It was also a great idea for parents to know exactly who their kids' friends were. Well, Facebook neatly solved this problem because if you have an Internet capable computer/friend, you could just show people online. But, even then, the missing ingredient was a visual depiction of your friends and how they were related. Hello Touch Graph! We've been waiting for you!

Here's how Touch Graph works. By leveraging the connections that are already embedded in your Facebook information, the program comes up with a giant relational web of your friends. Those who have lots of connections to you and other people in your web are closer to the center. Those with fewer connections are further. Simple right? Keep in mind this doesn't mean those closer to you are your "better" friends, it just shows connectivity.

When you make your friend graph, you can adjust the settings to show however many friends you want. I'd suggest cranking it as high as possible for the best view. I tried smaller sample sizes but it wasn't as interesting. So once you crank your selection pool to the max, all of your friends are ranked, generally in order of how many connections they have to your other friends. But higher ranks are given to friends who are connectors between different cliques. They call this "Betweenness Centrality," which is a metric to measure a person's importance within a social network. Here's a cool article and explanation about that here.

So what's a clique? Different colors are used to show clusters and cliques. All your friends in a particular color are probably friends with each other, but not connected to other people outside of that group. It's really accurate and works quite well. I mean, the colors definitely showed my various cliques of friends, people who were "one-offs (unconnected to anybody except me)," and revealed all sorts of interesting information. You can also choose to organize your friend web by location, thus finding out how many people are in San Diego or New York, for example.

When you switch to pyramid view, it shows you by semi-tiers who's the most important people in your social network. Like who's connected to the most people, or who's the gateway friend for your other friends. This is freaking fascinating isn't it? It's probably not anything you didn't already know about your own friends, but for someone else to look at your graph, it really gives them an idea of your social worlds.

I'm just happy I finally found a good personal use for Facebook. All this time I've been doing it because everyone else in the world does it, but all those hours wasted on it has been repaid by the wonder that is Touch Graph.

What I'd like to see is someone's graph with two or three large dominant cliques. I tend to want to mix as many of my friends together as possible and I really only have one big group of all muxed up friends. When I visit you next, I want to see your Friend Web, thanks. For my settings under "Advanced" I used: Min User Photo (1), Min Edge Photo (0), and Min Network User (5)

While I'm at it. This other Facebook app is interesting too. It's called Socialistics and digs up demographic dirt on your friends in graph format. It's still got a lot of work needed but I was able to find out, for example, that 42% of my (Facebook) friends are married, 14% are engaged, 20% in a relationship, and 21% single. Also, only 11% of my friends are my age, with 56% of my friends being 26-28 years old. Once this thing can tell me how many friends younger than me are married/engaged, then I'll really know how far behind I am. Can't wait!

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The Golden Apple  
Sunday, March 15, 2009 : 4:34 AM : 2 comments

If you dream it, it can happen. I dreamed of a new laptop and it arrived in a beautifully wrapped brown package the other day. Shiny, aluminum, expensive. Dreams cost money nowadays don't you know? In this case, dreams cost me close to a grand and a half and was probably fiscally irresponsible. The decision came down to: rent, laptop, travel money. The safe answer was rent. The responsible answer was travel money (2009 is shaping up to be a big wedding year). The only acceptable answer was laptop.

As Ameer pointed out to me, it's not like I'm one of those people who just lightly use their laptops. I'm on it all the time and I require speed, precision, and mouth watering goodies. The last laptop I purchased was five-ish years ago. Dinosaurs still ruled the Earth when my computer was cutting edge. I was tempted to go straight to the top of the line for maximum bang but really, I'm neither a professional graphic designer or video editor so that might have been overkill. I settled for a low end Macbook -- but juiced up the RAM and HDD -- and figured that anything faster than my driving would probably be a huge upgrade.

I also now have a video camera so we can totally hang out on Saturday nights video chatting or amusing ourselves with Photo Booth. And by "we" and "ourselves" I mean "me." Here's a short happy timeline of my computer use through the years.
Middle school - "Wow, that's an awesome green turtle, I can make it go right how?", Oregon Trail

High school - Word processing, lame AOL chat sessions with stupid made up names. King's Quest and Minotaur (amazing multi-player game)

College - Late nights in computer labs, the magic of email, building basic websites and image manipulation. Avoid Starcraft like the plague because I know it will be the death of me.

The year after college - I finally have my very own computer, I discover blogging and downloading music, I make plans to marry the Internet, I start saving for a ring. Install Starcraft and as predicted, it's the end of me.

2004 - My first laptop and my first Mac (twelve inch iBook), freedom rings and there is much rejoicing.

2006 - A new PC for me and the introduction of double (even triple) screens in my life. I'm like super productive. Super.

Now - New Macbook, to infinity and beyond.

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Pod Vader  
Wednesday, February 4, 2009 : 1:30 AM : 1 comments

A few months ago I started getting on the podcast wagon. Although I clearly knew about them (I did a whole chapter on podcasting in the RG book), I didn't have any podcasts in regular rotation. I finally got it in gear and now I can't live without them.

Generally speaking, the podcasts I listen to are sports related. One about the NBA, one about fantasy football, a few other ESPN podcasts, and then the mighty Bill Simmons podcast. I've found that this has changed my television consumption habits. I no longer have the patience to have ESPN on in the background, I just want the information I'm interested in fed to me immediately. No commercials, no teasing intros, no need to waste time passively sucking in peripheral news.

Bill Simmons suggested that podcasts will replace radio soon, and it's quite possible. Ease of use, the low barrier to entry, and the continual segmentation of people's interests could result in an ideal landscape where you get what you want, when you want it, and from sources as professional or amateur as you'd like.

Some of the other podcasts I'm addicted to are about books (general reviews, a Twilight podcast), movies, a comics and general geeky things one, a podcast about Dungeons & Dragons, and stuff from Democracy Now!, NPR, and This American Life (also, an interesting article on Ira Glass). I'm always cruising around for new podcasts to listen to and it's entirely replaced my radio and Internet news sources.

My absolute favorite podcast is Slate's Culture Gabfest, hosted by Stephen Metcalf. It's only half an hour long and released every two weeks or so. Generally, Stephen (Slate's critic at large) is joined by Dana Stevens (Slate's movie critic) and Julia Turner (Slate's deputy editor) and they cover everything under the big umbrella of pop culture -- defined simply as anything that's popular and in the public conscience. Aside from always having interesting topics on the table, all three of them sound incredibly smart when they talk about things. They are eloquent, critical, revealing, and persuasive. Not a hint of pretentiousness or condescension.

Recent topics they've covered have included Leno and late night TV, the dire state of the publishing industry, the death of David Foster Wallace, Michelle Obama's role as First Lady and Mom-in-Chief, the mysterious relationship between Madonna and Alex Rodriguez, the NBA's Olympic Redeem Team, and the B.I.G. biopic Notorious. Awesomely eclectic right?

Each episode is typically structured around three items and then interspersed with books, articles, movies, or music they recommend. It's the type of discussion you imagine having with your smartest, most worldly, and intellectually curious friends. But realize you can't because if you knew people who could talk like this, you'd not be invited to participate anyway. Or maybe you'd be invited but as a water boy.

What's so great about this podcast is that it assumes pop culture has something significant and insightful to say. And not in a trivial, satirical, or flippant way. It's thinking and talking about entertainment in a way that justifies and validates the time suck that can happen as you sit in front of the TV or read trashy magazines. It makes me feel smarter just listening to it.

Needless to say, if you're going to explore the world of podcasts, download this one immediately.

In a coincidence, the most recent episode of the podcast revolved about a few things that we talked about this weekend in DC. First, Mike gave us the heads up about a New York Times article about female sexual desire and the Slate team opined on it last week. We also engaged in a discussion (that needs to be expanded on and continued sometime) about minorities versus whites and there's a piece in the Atlantic Monthly about the end of white demographic dominance. My real life and podcast life are coming together. Terrific!

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The Empire Strikes Back  
Monday, January 19, 2009 : 4:06 PM : 0 comments

Leave it to Ameer [High Entropy], my gadget guru, to once again show me the light. For the longest time the biggest impediment to proper iPhone moblogging has been its absolute inability to send more than one picture at a time. Aside from being annoying, it basically means you have to upload each individual picture, log into Blogger, mess around with copy pasting some code, and then re-jigger it all back together again to have it looking beautiful and presentable. The "mobile" in mobile-blogging was completely lost.

Dann [DLMOU] recently got a G1 phone and the thing I most envied about it -- not that I envied much, ahem -- was its ability to seamlessly send more than one photo at a time. His moblog could be truly mobile because he didn't have to sit down at a computer to mess around with combining multiple posts into one. I mean, he was moblogging from the slopes, he was moblogging from the bathroom, he was a moblogging machine. He stepped up the moblogging game like five notches (along with a little app that allows him to create captions and cartoons, dammit). I feared. Just a little.

But now Ameer has discovered the app that could change all that. Presenting "Multi-Photo," which allows you to send multiple pictures with just one email. So stupid that Apple doesn't do this already but whatever. For only $0.99, this was an instant buy and so far it's the only iPhone app I've paid for.

With this wonderful new tool, my moblog is coming back to reclaim the throne. Not that it had ever vacated the throne at any point actually...

My review of Multi-Photo: It's got a pretty interface, it works as advertised, and while I can forsee problems if you don't have good connectivity, it does everything admirably. Syncing up your email account is a breeze, picking out photos is easy, and overall the thing will probably change my life. Keep in mind I've only been playing with this program for like ten minutes. By this time tomorrow -- assuming I have something fun to go moblog about in the interim -- I might get down on one knee and propose. My only complaint so far is that the process could be streamlined but seeing as the app is new, updates could fix that soon.

One awesome thing about the app is that you can control the quality of the photos you're sending. Previously, you could only get 800x600 photos from iPhone to Blogger. Now it's possible to get full sized photos to your blog without syncing your iPhone. After setup, just go to General Settings and turn off the "Reduce Image Size" and crank up the "JPEG Image Quality." Voila, 1600x1200 pictures in all their glory.

I took the liberty of conducting some tests and it seems like the slider for the "JPEG Image Quality" thing is really more appropriately thought of as low, medium, high. Turning off the "JPEG Image Quality" option seems to be key because with it on you seem to be constrained to 800x600 regardless of the quality selected. While I don't want to blow people's eyes with 1600x1200 pics all the time, I do like being able to selectively put up bigger iPhone pics -- if only for Photoshopping afterwards.

By default, the images are set to be reduced in size and medium image quality. I left it on reduced but cranked up the image quality. I'd also highly recommend erasing the Default Subject and Default Body text, that stuff is just ugly. With this app and the right setup, there is no (technological) reason to not moblog anymore. I can renew my moblog evangelism straightaway.

I'm like all sorts of excited here. Can you tell?

Update: After further testing, I'm noticing that if you just send the picture through the iPhone's regular mail, it actually looks noticeably better than through Multi-Photo. Not in the detail but the color seems to wash out when it's sent through the app. A tad disappointing, but I can work around it. My settings were at full JPEG quality with reduce image size ON.

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Life is in the details  
Wednesday, January 14, 2009 : 1:09 AM : 0 comments

So there's this guy, Nicholas Felton, who's been releasing his yearly "Feltron Reports" since 2005. It details in exquisite, well, detail, what he's been doing all year. It's life documentation at a super high level. It seems like he tracks everything he does, no matter how minute (average pocketchange collected each day, proper house cleanings, drinks enjoyed with company, iTunes tracks played, you get the idea) and then generates this neat looking package filled with numbers and graphs. It's some serious stuff. While I could hardly imagine this sort of thing being useful or all that interesting to anyone else (unless you were famous I guess), it does take my idea of a life spreadsheet to a whole new level. Well, a whole new universe actually.

Felton is a graphic designer and according to his bio, "spends much of his time thinking about data, charts, and our daily routines." The site that he's a part of, Daytum.com gives users the tools to track all of the things he does, allowing us to turn an infinite number of narcissistic mirrors upon ourselves. Awesome right? Daytum is in beta right now and I found out about it too late to get an invite at the start of the new year but when I get in I'm going to start tracking my minutiae too because it's a totally pointless project and thus right up my alley.

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And Justice 4 All  
Monday, December 15, 2008 : 1:42 PM : 1 comments

Listening to: Betty Everett, "It's in His Kiss (The Shoop Shoop Song)." But only on Youtube as performed by Aretha.

A few weeks ago, there was a Yelp holiday party. You had to email a special address and ask to be invited. I'm not really a yelper (although I was onto it way early thanks to Ameer) but I thought I'd be a shoo-in. When the time came for George and Dann's excited "We got in!" announcements, I had to hang my head in shame because I was out. That's right, virtual rejection, a new and thrilling low.

At the time, Jon G thought he was rejected too but it turned out he hadn't emailed them so he was basically choosing not to attend out of his own free will. The party featured free alcohol and a night at The Exploratorium. While the non-rejectees said it was fun, I didn't feel like I missed out on too much.

Today's a different story. Go to the main page of Yelp.com right now. Look on the right side under Review of the Day. See someone familiar (click here if it's not Monday anymore)? Yes, it's true, Jon G now has officially more hits for something he's done online than I've ever had in my Internet life. He's an sensation! I seethe with jealousy but bask in his reflected glow. I know a Review of the Day Yelper now, which will be a fact I pull out at parties everywhere. Seriously, Yelp is like huge. So far his review has been rated 10 useful, 6 funny, and 8 cool.

The worst/great part of this is that I introduced him to Ramen Club, and I'm the one addicted to ramen while he's just so-so. I'm also the one who's frequented the place three times in one week and am slowly worming my way into the server's heart to get free green tea ice cream. My review is right there (under Jonelle Y. and a few days earlier) and George and I told all our friends to Yelp this place because we needed a good ramen place within walking distance of the Marina. Well, now Jon G has done it and with this one review, I bet he's single-handedly responsible for keeping Ramen Club in business. So thanks, and congrats, to Jon G.

Just last Friday, we had been talking about how Dann stole George's first to review thunder for some BBQ place. George told him about it, said there were no reviews, but then neglected to review it herself. Dann pounced on her misstep like an opportunistic tiger, got the first to review badge, and then George sent him a scathing email like "You reviewed it first! You stole it!" That made Dann feel so guilty he deleted his review and now it looks like someone else snuck in there and stole that little blue badge away from both of them. There's a moral to the story here: Don't succumb to friend-guilt.

I know, this is liking fighting for pennies when Jon G just won the lottery but still, it's important that little things in life give you motivation.

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Hi Eliza  
Monday, December 1, 2008 : 11:02 PM : 0 comments

I've been thinking about starting a podcast (topic: unknown) but I haven't decided if it's a good idea to have another frivolous online habit. My ideal podcast would just be me sticking a microphone in my friends' faces and asking them ten questions. It would be short in length but long in effort. So while I have that idea swimming in my head, I found out about Odiogo, which takes words and translates them into computerized speech. That allows them to be podcasted and listened to!

The idea is really cool and after listening to a few posts, the computer voice isn't terrible, but it's also debatable whether anyone actually needs a podcast of my blog. Then again, why not have the option to make your posts into MP3s when Odiogo makes it so easy to do? Here's my Odiogo page and you can scroll down to listen to sample audio posts. Neat hunh?

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Bo-po-mo-fo  
Tuesday, October 28, 2008 : 2:56 AM : 2 comments

More iPhone fun. Seriously, I can't understand why people don't just get an iPhone. It's not even that expensive anymore. It's the greatest device ever and totally life changing. People who hate on it just because it's Apple or for some other absurd reason should try one for a week and see if they change their tune.

Here's something totally amazing. You can write in Chinese (and other languages)! Our dear fake-FOB friend showed us what an amazing tool this could be. It's even funnier when you totally suck at Chinese like we do. Twelve straight years of Saturday morning classes and I can't get far beyond "Hello" and "Dog/Cat." What's super cool is that you can either spell it out pinyin style or just write it out. I can't wait to dig out my old Chinese school books and learn some useful phrases like "Your mom takes out the trash!" or "How much for that bun?"

Tragically, I think, you can only communicate in Mandarin with other people who have iPhones.

And if you wanna make your iPhone the hit of the town, color coordinate your apps. Ameer [High Entropy] introduced us all to this one and now we all do it. The first thing other people ask when they see it is, "Whoa, is that a setting?" Hell no, you gotta do it all yourself! Just arrange your apps by color and it will look oh so beautiful. Otherwise it's just one big jumbled mess. Sure it takes a bit of time but once you have it set up, everything will be easily kept in order. Did I mention it's amazing looking?

Ameer chose to go ROYGBIV with his but that didn't quite work out for me. I preferred to start with a blue page, and then a red/green, yellow, purple/silver, and finish up with a white and black page. Here's an idea of what that looks like. Tell me that's not amazing. I spent some time looking for the right colored apps regardless of their actual function. Just because I'm stupid like that. I mean, why wouldn't I need to know how much fuel my jet has? Or have a map of the Japanese subway system?

I download apps just for cool logos and if they fit the hues I need. It's an ongoing search but with dedication, anyone can do it. Hint: You can move your already docked items to one page and then use the now empty dock to transport other apps back and forth in fours, instead of dragging them across so many pages one by one. Thank me later.

I just love looking at people's iPhone setups. I'd like to believe it gives you insight into them as a person. What is more important to them? The text icon? The phone? Do they know how to take a screenshot? Are they a likely moblog candidate? What sorts of games do they have? Are they on Loopt? Should we be friends?

It's totally that deep.

In other iPhone news, I just bought a Bluetooth head thingy (Jawbone 2), mainly because I recently got a damn ticket for driving and talking with no headset. No warning, nothing. The ticket cost as much as the Bluetooth. And I was just checking voicemail. Or, um, something.

And because I double bag my phone (plastic case and also a pouch), I just got this Golla Camo thing. I'm very particular about my gadgets, or more importantly, how they're protected so I'm hoping this works out. I lost my previous pouch and my iPhone has been in danger ever since. When in doubt, double bag everything.

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You live, you learn  
Wednesday, October 15, 2008 : 3:41 AM : 0 comments

It's true, I just spent a good five or six hours doing a re-design for this site that incorporated the (sort of) new Blogger widgets and ding dongs. I wanted to take the blog in another direction and was so excited for it all to happen. The trouble was, my coding skills are pretty rudimentary -- if copy and pasting can be called "skills" -- so everything took much longer than expected. When I finally got a working copy ready to show the world, I realized that you can't use the new Blogger features if you're not hosted on blogspot. Hum, might have wanted to check on that before I did the project.

So yeah, hours of my life down the drain. The good news is that I'm capable of sitting still for long stretches without moving. Or eating, or going to the bathroom, and possibly not even blinking. The bad news is that even when I'm trying to be productive I end up with nothing to show for it. Now the day is done...

While I'm here, I've been Netflixing like crazy and am hoping to shoot through the following series:
  • Mad Men
  • Dexter
  • Gossip Girl
  • Twin Peaks
  • Band of Brothers
  • Justice League Unlimited

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    State & Main  
    Tuesday, September 30, 2008 : 7:05 PM : 0 comments

    "Blogging continues to splinter into many different categories, providing an incredibly rich ecosystem of self expression tools and compelling content for readers. The prototypical personal blog, where a single writer simply writes their daily thoughts on their life and/or topics that interest them, will always be hugely popular. But multi-author blogs will continue to thrive as well. And a huge percentage of blogs focus on single topics of interest, from tech news to wine to knitting. Whatever it is you are interested in, it's likely to have a community of people who share that interest.

    But perhaps the most interesting development is the steady evolution in the definition of a blog itself. Today photo and video blogs are already common. Microblogging platforms like Twitter and Friendfeed are the fast food equivalent of the blogging world, and continue to gain popularity because they let people update multiple times per day with 140 characters or less on what they are doing, how they're feeling, etc. Not only is microblogging a terrific method of self expression, the value of the raw data that's created is enormously important. The Twitter messages I read during the two presidential conventions gave me a good idea on how people reacted to the various speeches. It's not statistically relevant, but pollsters will be watching that data more and more closely over time.

    Whatever happens next with blogging, it's here to stay. And I can't wait to see what comes next."
    -State of the Blogosphere 2008-

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    Where in the World Is...  
    Wednesday, September 17, 2008 : 8:04 AM : 3 comments

    We're all (Internet) stalkers, admit it. Why else would Facebook suck up so much of everyone's time? Well, let's kick it all up a notch and start tracking our friends' movements. I've been trying out this new iPhone app, Loopt, which basically allows you to update your physical location and when your friends do the same, you'll be able to see where everyone is on the map. You can add a little text update, a picture, or just simply ping/pong your friends to request an update.

    Loopt is a "Location Based Service (LBS)" that basically combines social networking, microblogging, and GPS capability. Whrrl is another competitor but I just found out about it today and don't have the heart to ditch Loopt yet. Plus, the few friends I have on Loopt are already addicted to it and one doesn't seem all that much better than the other. Actually, there's rumors that Facebook will be adding their own similarly styled service and that might just kill Loopt, Whrrrl, or anything else. For now though, I'm on Loopt, which only works for iPhones and Blackberrys currently.

    So if you get an invite to Loopt from me, don't assume it's spam. I just want to know where you're at twenty four seven.

    Now, why in the world would you want to reveal your location to anyone, even your friends? Well, for one, what are you hiding? Afraid of someone noticing that you're not really at home when you said you were? Well, Loopt doesn't automatically geo-locate you; you have to turn it on and make an entry for it to display your current location. I could care less if people knew where I was but I can see how some folks might be sensitive to that.

    The positives of having social mapping far outweigh the negatives I think. Imagine walking around and being able to see where your friends are on a Friday night. No need to call and ask "Where are you?" Just Loopt them and go meet up. Or run into a friend on purpose. No more "I can't believe you were next door, I was just around the corner!" Of course, you could also use Loopt to avoid people. "Oh man, he's there? I'm so not going."

    Some people will always be uncomfortable with the idea of having omniscient (and not necessarily benevolent) eyes watching them so they'll never join but soon you won't have a choice. Everyone will be geo-tagged within the next ten years right? Why not just do it voluntarily!

    I wish I lived in an urban city where I could see friends updating from all over the place. Actually, maybe I just wish I had friends.

    The few problems I've had with Loopt so far is that it's not truly location based. I'd like an option where it literally broadcasts your location at all times. Plus, it'll be cool if you could see past locations drawn out like a line, just for kicks. You could see your friend's path while walking around downtown for example. Also, for now, Loopt is updating and sending information via text messages, which could get annoying and expensive very quickly. The reason Ameer had previously refused to use Loopt was because the young founder wore two polo shirts during his presentation. The Internet flamed him for being an uber-douche. Which is probably true but hey, I won't let a few too many collars get in the way of using a fun application.

    Loopt me!

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    Tweet Tweet  
    Tuesday, September 16, 2008 : 4:24 AM : 0 comments

    "For many people -- particularly anyone over the age of 30 -- the idea of describing your blow-by-blow activities in such detail is absurd. Why would you subject your friends to your daily minutiae? And conversely, how much of their trivia can you absorb? The growth of ambient intimacy can seem like modern narcissism taken to a new, supermetabolic extreme -- the ultimate expression of a generation of celebrity-addled youths who believe their every utterance is fascinating and ought to be shared with the world.

    ...

    This is the paradox of ambient awareness. Each little update -- each individual bit of social information -- is insignificant on its own, even supremely mundane. But taken together, over time, the little snippets coalesce into a surprisingly sophisticated portrait of your friends' and family members' lives, like thousands of dots making a pointillist painting. This was never before possible, because in the real world, no friend would bother to call you up and detail the sandwiches she was eating. The ambient information becomes like 'a type of E.S.P.,' as Haley described it to me, an invisible dimension floating over everyday life."
    -Brave New World of Digital Intimacy-

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    Mr. Job's Wonder Emporium  
    Monday, July 28, 2008 : 4:35 AM : 1 comments

    After the iPocalypse when the new iPhone came out, I was wary of upgrading until I was sure everything was tip top. I realized that Apple wouldn't be fixing the bugs anytime soon and at a few friends' urgings, I had to just suck it up and upgrade.

    The new app store is ridiculous. I mean, there's a ton of junk in there but there are so many cool things that are already out there that I'm sad I got on the wagon so late. I have decided to not purchase the new iPhone due to battery concerns but having 3G would certainly make some of the new apps incredibly useful.

    The app I was most excited about was Pandora on iPhone. Having Pandora on the go has been a longtime dream of mine and it's sort of realized, even if using the EDGE network really compromises its usefulness. Ameer put me onto Apple Remote, which allows you to control your iTunes from far far away. It's incredibly amazing how you can scroll through your entire library (more than 120 gigs for me) worth of music from your phone. At first I was confused about how it worked since it seemed so seamless and automatic and I wondered if you could use it miles away or something. Instead it's simply WiFi accessible, which is still mad cool. I'm going to be jacking people's iTunes whenever I'm around their computer.

    Actually all the fun apps for me centered around music. Shazam was a serious revelation. You hold your iPhone up to any music source and after a few seconds it identifies the song for you. The incredible thing is how deep it goes. I tried it on obvious songs, obscure songs, and in locations with lots of ambient noise. It pretty much worked like a charm everywhere. No more wondering "Hey, what song is that?" I can't wait to try this out when I go out. I'll never have to ask the DJ again what they're playing. Not that I do something like that anyway.

    Midomi has a similar function to Shazam but its awesomeness is that it allows you to sing or hum a song into the mic and it'll recognize it. Well, depending on how you sing. I tried it out with my paltry singing skills and was psyched that it felt sort of like acapella karaoke. I've been pointing it at people and demanding, "Sing something."

    And for the inner geek in everyone, an app that makes Super Mario jumping sounds when you move and a portable light saber.

    With this new 2.0 release, the iPhone just became that much more important in my life. Subway maps, music recognition, mobile social networking, and games. I'm just incredibly sad that the camera is now super slow and there seem to be bugs and slow response times everywhere. Apple needs to step up and fix everything. In the meantime, I'll be singing to myself and figuring out what that great song blasting from the speakers is.

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    K.I.T.  
    Sunday, July 6, 2008 : 3:41 AM : 0 comments

    Do you want to improve your immune system functions? Decrease your levels of stress? Cope better with trauma and past emotional experiences? Increase your attention span and memory capacity? How about having longer lasting relationships? All this and more can be had by simply writing in a journal for as little as fifteen minutes a day.

    That's how Penzu.com breaks down the health benefits of keeping a journal. Strangely, the last bullet pointed benefit is "Finding a new job quickly if unemployed." I'd think that those fifteen minutes might be more valuable submitting an extra resume or two but we all know submitting resumes is a risky propsition anyway. Jobs come from people you know and people they know. Qualifications and past experience? All a wash if you have an in. That's the working world I've seen anyway.

    I'll stop digressing.

    Penzu.com is a novel journaling site because the interface is basically just a plain piece of college ruled paper. It feels so familiar and is much less intimidating than staring at a blank field. Penzu seems to focus more on keeping your journal private (as it should be) than integrating any of the features we'd come to expect in this blogging world. No cluttered sidebars, a slightly inefficient navigation system, and that's about it. Faced with a 8.5' x 11' it's everything you can do to NOT want to write something down.

    Of course, if you need a little help getting started on topic ideas, Penzu's got a few suggestions too.

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    Don't I Know You?  
    Tuesday, June 10, 2008 : 9:51 AM : 0 comments

    "[The People You Might Know feature] messes with the whole evolution of your social networking identity. There's a period at the very beginning of your Facebook life, after you first sign up, when you're madly friend-ing everyone in your address book. It's the needy phase: You're trying to establish and legitimize yourself as a user. Then you mature to a more placid state -- you stop accepting application requests. Maybe you even stop playing Scrabulous. It's a relaxing time.

    But this new feature makes you feel needy all over again. Its infernal machine logic taunts you with people who could, theoretically, be your friends -- but aren't. Your page once served to document the extent of your social support network. Now it advertises the people you never connected to -- the friends you don't have."
    -Facebook Gets Frisky...-

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    That's What Friends Are For  
    Friday, May 9, 2008 : 6:07 PM : 0 comments

    For a long time we've talked about this concept of friend's "stocks." Something happens and we make a head nod and say, "Yup, her stock is definitely at an all time high." Or "he's such a loser, I can't believe he did that. Stock way down." I know you do the same thing with your friends. Just admit it. It's similar to the concept of Whuffie from Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom I was talking about a few weeks ago.

    The other day, fueled by my recent foray into the real stock market, I was messenging Ameer and trying to figure out the best three letter stock ticker symbols for people we know. Some are obvious: AMR, JON, JMZ, LLY, RYN, DES. Just take out the vowels. Then there's a tough one, like Georgette, what do you do with that? GRG looks like Greg. GGT looks stupid. After some deliberation, George settled on GTE. Try this with your friends, it's super fun! No, I promise.

    Anyway, the next night I decide to look around for a custom stock market application. Lo and behold, I found Friend O'Nomics. It's "a completely superficial, multiplayer, stock market based game, which allows players to trade shares of their friends, just as they would trade shares of a publicly traded corporation. The main goals of the game would be to have your personal stock achieve the highest value, as well as building a portfolio of friends with the highest value."

    Um, yeah, that's exactly what I was looking for! Somebody had already created the perfect application for us and it was just launched last month. How incredible is that? The site is awesome because it's clean and easy to use and it's absolutely free. You create an account, make up your stock ticker symbol, and then you're free to create or join markets. Currently me and a few others are beta-testing the site but I'm going to figure out the best way to use this thing for sustainable fun and then launch a full scale assault on everyone I know.

    For example, what if we used Friend O'Nomics to buy or sell someone's "romance" stock? "BET is looking awesome because she just went on a hot date. Buy buy buy!" See the many applications available here? I emailed the creators of the site and they have new features in the works so I'm excited to see what they are. Maybe an integration with Twitter feeds? They already have a RSS feed for the updates.

    Seriously, check it out. Here's a screenshot of my JON stock.

    For aesthetics, I think it's way cooler when the stock ticker names are in caps and three to four letters. I don't want nicknames, I want real names! The other thing is that I think there shouldn't be insider trading; you shouldn't be able to buy and sell your own stock. Anyway, to be discussed.

    A key feature right now is creating a dividend for a particular stock. Basically, you can nominate somebody to be exposed to a market wide vote for something they did that week. For example, if AMR bought a new car this week, you could create a dividend that says "AMR just bought a grey car, now he owns two. Awesome?" People can vote Yes/No and each vote counts at +/-$1 to his stock at the end of the week. It's similar to the "Who had the best week ever" emails I used to send out.

    If you wanna play, sign up!

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    Bitchin'  
    Monday, April 21, 2008 : 3:03 AM : 0 comments

    I just finished reading Down and Out in the Magic Kingdom, by Cory Doctorow, editor of BoingBoing and also a well known scifi writer (pioneering giving his work away for free in every format imaginable). There's lots of fun things going on in this book's near future but two of the main ones are the obsolescence of death and the replacement of money as the most important currency.

    People don't die anymore because they can, at any point, be restored from a mental backup and a physical clone. Some people die weekly, some people only die a few times; everybody lives forever. The only caveat is that if you forget to back up, you could lose the time between your last backup and your restoration. Sometimes, that's a great thing. For example, if you have had a terrible six month relationship you'd rather forget about, you can just revert to a backup copy from before that period.

    The other thing is that since you can live forever, boredom is a huge issue. For those people, you can go into sleep mode, "deadhead," for a few decades or hundreds of years and then be resurrected when life might be more interesting.

    The other innovation, Whuffie, replaces money by measuring how much respect you receive from people around you. The computer implant in your head -- you're always connected to the net -- automatically gives your stamp of approval to the people around you for good (or bad) actions. You think so-and-so is awesome? Their Whuffie goes up. With high esteem and a good rep, you get perks like better seats at a concert or a restaurant. It more or less functions like money but is centered around good deeds. It's a way to identify and tag assholes basically.

    Looking around at most of the social networking sites, this constant measuring of personal reputation is exactly what is happening. Amazon, eBay, Xanga, MySpace, all of these things are promoting getting rep from your friends and fans and then using your rep as currency. Actually, that's pretty much how Google works. Your site gets ranked higher when people link to you and the more influential their site is, the more heavily weighted their vote toward your awesomeness counter is. Whuffie is probably right around the corner.

    Doctorow is known for riding the technology curve out to a technological singularity, which is when, as explained in this review, "...sophisticated technologies like nanotech, biotech, life-extension, and human-level machine intelligence would transform life completely."

    I, for one, can't wait. Given a chance, I'd deadhead right past this decade and into the next one.

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    Monsters, Inc.  
    Thursday, January 24, 2008 : 1:41 AM : 0 comments

    Is your computer screen looking pretty boring and staid? Sure it is. I like to switch my backgrounds almost daily, since variety is good for the eyes. Plus, there are just so many great images out there that just one isn't nearly enough is it? If you have two (or more) screens, there's this great piece of software out there, Ultramon, that lets you put different wallpapers on each screen -- or one giant wallpaper across. Look it up, it's sick.

    The next step to decorating your computer is doing up the folder icons. During our Leopard Party (Mac owners will know), I spent nearly all my time making my icons look awesome. My entire iBook dock is now filled up with pixelated video game icons. Plus I've color coordinated my various programs and important folders with some other sets. I'm partial to these icons called Creatures -- there's three sets so far.

    Here's two sites for quality, and free, icons for your computer: Pixel Girl Presents and Icon Factory. Check'em out.

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    The Oneders  
    Sunday, December 30, 2007 : 5:52 PM : 0 comments

    Over Christmas break (I still refer to this period as break although I'm many years out of school), I've finally fallen prey do the addiction that has been sweeping the country. Yes, I'm a wannabe Guitar Hero. I thought it would never happen since the game looked semi-lame and I was more of a Bustagroove dancing rhythm kind of guy. But after being exposed to Guitar Hero for more than ten minutes, I got hooked. Big time.

    Everything they say about the game is true; you really do feel like you're playing the guitar. We played co-op mode for hours on end and after each successful song, I would scream, high-five, or pump my arms in celebration. It was a rush.

    Apparently I'm a real jittery type of player and I have to stand up and bop around to play. I can't just sit there on the couch since real rock stars would never do that. It's funny to see other people's "styles." George sits there still as night and Star Powers in super slow motion. James and Victor are cool, calm and collected. Des has the whole rock starlet stance down.

    As a truly cross-gender game, Guitar Hero (and Garage Band) is the perfect party game. Heck, my mom started playing it and is addicted as well. Sure, she can only do a few songs on Easy but she loves it. She had to take a day off from playing because the movements were causing her bad shoulder to get too sore. Still, with the help of some Salonpas, she soldiered on.

    Tragically, my skills may have already peaked. I've also been pigeon-holed as a bass player. In my learning stages, I played too many songs as bass so now I'm only good at that. I'm an Excellent bass player but only a Hard guitar player. It's a real shame because I feel like I have so much more to give to the world. I'm not just a bass dammit!

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    El amor en los tiempos del internet
    (or)
    Cien anos de soledad          
    Sunday, August 12, 2007 : 3:43 AM : 0 comments

    With my copious amounts of spare time, I've got a few projects in the works. "In the works" is synonymous with "probably won't ever happen." The first of these must-make projects will be a dating site for Asians. It's totally racist, I know, but it's potentially very lucrative. In fact, I'm afraid to look around for competitors because I'm sure they already exist. Asians like to date Asians. Like attracts like. With the semi-recent collapse of MTV World, it may be time to try K-Date, C-Date, and I-Date. Perhaps Nintendo can pick up the slack with a Wii-Date.

    And if Asians don't want to be segregated from the rest of the dating community, then at least there'll be an online space for Caucasian males to gather and poach. Can you think of a better idea? Probably not. And trust me, after dating a few sexy Orientals, these guys will lose that exotic sense of mystery real fast. (Most) Asian women have serious issues, you knew that right?

    The other target demographic for this site would be Asian parents. Imagine how happy they'll be to find a site where they can easily recommend each other's children. It'll give that whole "Kid Test, Mother Approve" slogan a new spin. No more discreetly but clumsily introducing your son to her daughter. Just push the "Your Mommy Thinks We Should Date" button and voila, instant communication and connection -- forever, with lots of grandchildren in the near future or your money back. It's a real shame the Internet is too much to handle for most Asian parents, otherwise I'd focus exclusively on parents' desperate needs to marry off their children. It's a burgeoning market.

    Speaking of recommendations, my other big innovation for the online dating scene is user generated reviews. Think about a Match.com combined with a Yelp, with a bit of Friendster thrown in. What do you really need to know about a person in order to date them? Their favorite books, movies, hobbies? Please. Stop right there. Wouldn't it be much easier if you could just read how their past dates went?

    We need accountability in online dating. Ebay has buyer feedback, why can't TrueDating.com? Catchy name isn't it? Too bad that URL is already being squatted. Anyway, the idea is solid gold. Allow people to comment on profiles of the dates they've recently been on.
    Sample comments might be:
    "The picture tells a thousand lies."
    "Didn't offer to pay for the meal, yet went in for the good night kiss."
    "Not right for me, but maybe perfect for you (if you're desperate)!"
    "His mansion in the hills belongs to his parents; they still live there."
    "She didn't mention the baby (and baby daddy) at home."
    There will be a list of easy drop-down comments for those daters who don't have much time to dedicate to responding. We could even work in a pro membership that allows you to see the comments. Pay to see comments or take your chances with an unrated and uncommented version of the site. Mix in premium comments from ex-boyfriends and ex-girlfriends, plus advice from an in-house psychologist about their issues (or yours), and everybody will choose to go pro.

    What would make you reach for your wallet faster than knowing that for only $49.99 a month you could use the power of peers to pre-screen your dates? Isn't this the greatest idea ever? Dating 2.0? Somebody fund me already.

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    iLust  
    Monday, July 2, 2007 : 5:11 PM : 0 comments

    Here's what's going on right now. I have an iPhone. Well, I have an unopened box with an iPhone in it. I have an iPhone charged to my credit card. I haven't opened it because I'm not sure I'm fully committed to the wonder that is the iPhone. I thought I wouldn't have to worry about this since iPhone's would be in short supply and I'd have a 3-month window of waiting to decide.

    But no, Jobs and Co. insured that there would be plenty of iPhones on-hand and my technology Moses easily purchased one at the mall on Saturday. So being the sheep that I am, I bought one at the mall on Saturday too. However, I need a week to think this out. The iPhone comes with a fourteen day return policy -- if it's unopened. Thus, I'm not opening it. Turns out I'm an indecisive, conservative gadgeteer despite touting the benefits of the iPhone for months.

    I hate T-Mobile right now (no reception at my house); yet I love my Sidekick. If I could only keep the Sidekick but be able to make phone calls on it. It's a digital era Elizabethan tragedy. I have loved and lost and I'm about to dump my steady companion of many years. Here are the most important thing to me in a smart phone:
    1. Ability to type fast
    2. AIM
    3. Easy and efficient email client
    4. Ability to moblog easily
    Guess what the iPhone doesn't do well? All the above. I'll get faster on the keyboard but there's no AIM on the iPhone. On top of that, the email client isn't easy to use and moblogging would require sending an email of each picture. That's retarded.

    What do I like about the iPhone? Well, just about everything else. I mean, sure it's not that fast Internet-ing -- unless you're near Wi-Fi -- sure it's still got some weird little kinks in it, but there's no doubting it's an amazing piece of technology. $650 worth of amazing technology? Well, that's tough to say.

    I've been researching other options, and I'm narrowing it down to the iPhone or Helio's Ocean. It's stupid to even doubt Apple but the things I need a smartphone for, the iPhone doesn't provide. Also, the reception on Cingular isn't that much better at my house than on T-Mobile.

    This may not sound like a love letter, but it is. It's like I'm deciding between the hot girlfriend that makes no sense or the boring girlfriend that makes perfect sense. The thing is: Aren't I a senseless guy? Hasn't this been proven over and over? Should I even bother fighting myself?

    I hope I have the mental fortitude to resist tearing open the box without considering every angle. God grant me the strength to resist technological temptation. Amen.

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    Cast Off  
    Tuesday, April 3, 2007 : 2:19 AM : 0 comments


    Planning some summer getaways? Not sure when to purchase those tickets? Well, here's something that might help. Farecast uses a secret algorithm (or really smart people, whichever) that looks at trends in airplane tickets. Based upon the results of that research, the site will advise you when to purchase a ticket and where to purchase it from. I myself am headed to quite a few places in the upcoming few months so this could be useful information.

    I'm not sure if this site is totally accurate but it sure makes me feel good to have super secret technology on my side. I'd feel much better committing to my impulsive travel plans once I'm assured by a computer that I'm getting a great deal. Wouldn't you? Always trust computers; never humans.

    Now if only there was Datecast so you can figure out when to approach a chick you'd like to get to know. "Wait, Go, No, In Your Dreams, Run." I guess the first thing to do would be to stop referring to women as "chicks" right?

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    All Aboard!  
    Sunday, March 25, 2007 : 4:10 PM : 0 comments

    This is one of the cooler services I've seen in awhile. Grandcentral.com allows you to have "one number...for life." Grandcentral gives you a designated number that other people will call to ring all your numbers -- home, mobile, business, etc. That's the most basic part, call forwarding.

    But here's where it gets fun. Grandcentral will store your voicemails indefinitely in an online voicemail box. Looks like email, works like email. You can forward the voicemail, save the voicemail, etc. You can also set up different voice mail greetings for friends, acquantainces, or businesses. Want to sound silly to your friends but professional to your co-workers? Grandcentral can do it. It also lets you upload MP3s to replace the *ring*ring* sound.

    You can spam block numbers to your phone. You can also listen in to a voicemail as it's being recorded. You can switch from one phone to the other, seamlessly. So if you're walking in the door, you can switch from your cell to your home phone with no "Lemme switch phones, I'll call you right back."

    Here's the kicker: you can record any phone conversation you're having by simply hitting a button. Yeah. Think about that. No more "he said, she said," it's all about "you said." Sure it's scary but it's also downright cool.

    This service is also free. Yeah, free (up to two lines). If you want to say, set up a phone number that all your friends can call to ring your entire social network, you can. Call 212-123-4567 and hit up all your friends at once? Hello best drunk dialing ever.

    Try it out. Get some Grandcentral numbers now and tell me how you like it.

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    Do You Yelp?  
    Wednesday, March 7, 2007 : 5:19 PM : 0 comments

    Do you remember the first time you used Google? Me neither. I used to be a Netscape devotee but somewhere along the way, I just started using Google constantly. Soon, everyone was using Google. A bit after soon, Google became an empire.

    The same sort of thing happens with Amazon, Craigslist, Friendster, YouTube, Digg, whatever. I'm sure M.Gladwell would say something here about the tipping point but really, I'm sure there's a very well orchestrated way websites like this enter our lives. Somehow, they solve the chicken and the egg problem of "we'll be great when everyone uses us, but how do we get big?" and are now market dominators.

    Well now, the new up and comer website is Yelp. I think I'm even slow on the Yelp bandwagon. Until we moved to Fremont, I didn't really need to search online for restaurant reviews. Not being familiar with a new area, we were constantly Googling different types of food. A strange little site would always pop up: Yelp. I paid little attention to it. User generated food reviews? Yawn.

    But then Ameer started selling me on Yelp. And he committed to Yelping. See, he's been collecting business cards and creating his own handy food database for awhile now. But he needed some way to take it online. Yelp was the perfect thing.

    I decided that my views on local food were important information for people to know. So I started yelping (my page here). Sure, I've only yelped two places but that's because I haven't come up with my gimmick yet. If you're going to review something as a consumer, you need to stand out. Jon G has his "drawbacks?" at the end as his signature. I'm still trying to figure out what my thing will be -- not to mention waiting for a good way to install a personal rating system. I want my one, three, or five stars to mean something.

    In the meantime, if you're already a Yelper, let's be friends! If you're not Yelping, get on it!

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    Games Even Your Mom Could Love  
    Wednesday, February 28, 2007 : 6:03 PM : 0 comments

    Maybe you begged mommy for a Game Boy when you were twelve (or twenty) and got one for your birthday. Isn't it time to give her something back?

    Start off by buying one of those newfangled Nintendo Dual Screens (DS) in grey, black, pink, blue, or oh so heavenly white. Avoid action adventure games that will make her sweat and squirm. Avoid games that take hours to complete. Pick something that she can enjoy for fifteen minutes at a time while waiting in line at the grocery store, the doctor's office, or curbside ready to give you a ride home -- yes, she's still taking care of your errands and carting you around while waiting for you to "grow up."

    We present five DS games that are sure to make mom appreciate and treasure video games -- and you by extension. All these titles are kid tested and mother appproved. Now all your phone calls from home will involve "So, I'm on Level Three, what do I do next?" It's a win-win all around.

    1) Brain Age
    Simple arithmetic, reading comprehension, and memorization mini-games are fun? Sure is, when the goal is to get better and faster at each of the education based mini-games. It's a game that's not a game -- those of you familiar with Kumon will groan but this is actually fun!

    The idea behind the game is that by giving your brain daily exercise and repeatedly doing simple tasks, you'll make yourself healthy, wealthy, and wise. Mom won't burn out on the game since it limits itself to only a few minutes of play a day. Brain Age has taken the world by storm and there are now dozens of spin-offs but nothing beats the original.

    2) Animal Crossing: Wild World
    In Animal Crossing, an entire self-contained universe sprawls out before you as a young human who moves into a town filled with cutesy, and industrious, creatures. You are tasked with exploring the town and finding a way to make money to pay back your animal benefactor. You can do this by running errands for people, digging for gold, harvesting vegetables, and randomly dropping by to visit your kid at college. Just kidding about that last one.

    Best of all, every task can vary depending on the time of day, the changing of the seasons, and the timing of major holidays. For example, shops close promptly at 11pm, fish are more plentiful in the early mornings, and there's a New Year's celebration on the real December 31st, Earth-time. Additional money you acquire can be used to buy a house, spruce up the place, and invest in rare decorations and knick-knacky treasures.

    Sanrio plus the Sims equals a game any mother will love. Give them a world to over-invest in; one that's not yours.

    3) Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney
    It's "Murder, She Wrote" for the DS. The titular character, Phoenix Wright, is a lawyer fresh off passing the bar and is thrust into a series of capital murder cases. While it may seem grim and oh-so CSI (Crime Scene Investigation), the unique concept and anime-inspired graphics make the game a joy to play.

    The goal is to find contradictions between the court submitted evidence and the testimonies of witnesses in order to uncover the truth. Searching for logic gaps and putting two and two together will remind your mom of the good old days when she caught you "studying at Melissa's house." The game even allows you to yell "Objection" into the microphone during heated moments in court. Every mom is a detective and lawyer at heart, she'll love this game.

    And if she loves it and can't wait to do it again, there's the sequel, Phoenix Wright 2: Justice for All.

    4) Bust-A-Move DS
    When your mom kept stealing your Game Boy to play Tetris and ended up setting the household record for it, you were embarassed right? Admit it. Now here's a similarly addictive game for her to try out. It's a classic and beloved by gamers everywhere but your mom may not be hooked yet.

    It's Bub and Bob -- rosy cheeked roly poly dragons who first co-starred in Bubble Bobble (flash version here) -- hard at work using a two-dragon slingshot to bust similarly colored bubbles. It's simple and quick to play and your mom will be addicited within five minutes. You can also challenge her to a multi-player match by sharing a single cartridge of the game; but you need to bring your own DS to the party.

    5) Pokemon
    By now, everyone in the world knows about the phenomenon that is Pokemon, even your totally unhip mom. She may not be clear about exactly what a Pokemon is but any of the games in the series will educate her immediately.

    All the core Pokemon games are role playing games-lite and involve running around capturing Pokemon for your collection and for battle with other Poke-masters. "Pokemon" is a Japanese contraction for the words "pocket" and "monster". We recommend getting the as yet unreleased Diamond and Pearl versions (April 2007), which will have a brand new story and an all-new collection of critters to capture.

    For your mom, the hardest part of this game may be overcoming the misconception that this is a "game for children." If your mom is feeling uneasy about being seen playing a "kid's game", tell her to tell detractors that she's "using the game to bond with my grand-children." Then quickly give her a kiss and hug before she can ask you how that's possible when you're single, not dating, live at home, and are no closer to having grandchildren than she is to collecting each of the the hundreds of Pokemon available. It'll be a bonding experience, trust me.

    BONUS) Trauma Center: Under the Knife
    Went to school to become a doctor but came out with a sociology degree and a career in administration? Parents don't understand that your C+ in Orgo wasn't good enough to get you into a leading medical school? Tell them that it's not as easy as it looks and present them with Trauma Center.

    You may never become a real surgeon, or live up to their expectations, but you can still save (virtual) lives together. Trama Center lets players wield the scalpel and repair all the (financial) damage that your six years of undergraduate study and three major changes have caused. The game might be a bit tough for all ages alike but as you now know, being a doctor ain't easy.

    This concludes our look at six of the best DS games to get your mom involved in the digital age. This list also doubles as "Games A Wife (or Girlfriend) Will Love" if you're in a gift giving pinch. Got some other suggestions?

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