I remember a time when it was THE thing to have a dress from Chanel or Versace or Wang. Those lovely flowing frocks of silk and satins, full of imported laces and crystal beading. Times have changed and new designers are stepping forward. Let me introduce you to the newest au couture: Philips Electronics. Yep, you don’t have to reread it, I said PHILIPS ELECTRONICS.

What the hell right?

They have designed a dress for the “future woman”. It is a “biometric” dress. What’s that you ask? Some new fancy fabric that’s being produced? The latest style genre? Get this. A biometric dress is made up of two layers. The inner layer has these little sensors (called biometrics … duh) and the outer layer is a textile that has different patterns and is your standard run of the mill electronic store purchased fabric.

This is the dealio though. Scientists have long ago discovered that our bodies show emotions and arousal via our body temperature and our sweat. We get hot our bodies heat up. We are unaroused, our bodies stay cold (you guys are more familiar with that one, right?). With this new dress, the biometrics will be able to decipher your mood and illuminate the fabric and patterns onto said fabric to show which mood you are currently in.

Again, what the hell?

Recently, I picked up the Moxie Girls’ (Joelle and Kathy) book tailored towards current and future bloggers- The IT Girl’s Guide to Blogging with Moxie. From the very first page, this self-guided book explains - soup to nuts - everything you could possibly want to know about blogging - from concepts to design to implementation.

Joelle and Kathy have put together a very non-technical and easy-to-understand tutorial that will have a new blogger up and blogging in the worldwide blogosphere by the time they complete the book. Interspersed throughout are great little bonuses, treats and rewards as various steps have been achieved.

While this guide was laid out step-by-step, the more savvy technies can jump around to specific target areas of interest. Even if you think you know everything there is to know about blogging, you’ll still want to read this and keep it on hand for reference (and entertainment). More than likely, you’ll pick up something new that you didn’t know before.

“Blogging with Moxie” is entertaining, enlightening, and empowering to those who don’t think they have the moxie to get out there and join the ranks of other bloggers. Don’t miss out on that chance. Pick up this book, put your fears behind you and journey into a new realm of social networks, personal (and business) blogs, and leave your own personal footprint on the web - with a twist of moxie.

Cheers!

(This review can also be found over at Amazon.)

I’ve just re-opened the chatroom to the public at the SpeakEasy. It’s a pretty robust chat application that can open in a pop-up so you can continue to surf, or engage in other computer activity(ies). Go check it out - there’s also a link in the menu above - SpeakEasy. It requires a 1-time 2 click registration, but after that, you just log in and join in conversations. (I had to disable the guest login capabilities, sorry.)

Would you like to see regularly scheduled chats set up? To see if there’s enough interest, kindly pick a choice below. Results will determine interest and timing. Regardless of the results, please feel free to drop by anytime and strike up a conversation - even invite others to participate. There are no limitations (that I’m aware of anyway) to the number of participants. As well, you have the ability to create your own private chat room and send private messages, too.

[poll=3]


Thanks! Can’t wait to hear from y’all.

After having had three months to play with my new toy, I am finding it has become a heavily relied-upon and invaluable tool.

So what is this new toy? My HTC TyTN/Hermes/8525 PDA phone/Pocket PC (quite possibly the picture to the right gave it away). I could include all of the technical aspects and full specifications here but, since there are numerous websites/reviews that have already done so, I’d rather discuss the user functionality of the 8525.

The 8525 is more than just a global quad-band GSM phone. It’s a mini laptop with a large 2.8″ touchscreen and slide-out lighted, QWERTY keyboard that has, among other things - bluetooth and wifi capabilities. And, multimedia with an mp3 player and a 2mp macro switchable camera/video recorder.

The 8525 comes pre-installed with either Windows Mobile 5 or 6, depending on when you purchased it. It boasts 128MB storage (internal and expanded ROM) and 64MB RAM. Not bad, although once you start installing applications, both the storage and RAM quickly get eaten up, so be sure to make use of the external microSD storage capabilities (currently supports up to approximately 4-gigabytes). Keep only the core applications necessary to run the 8525 on the internal storage, and everything else on the external.

Battery life averages about 30 hours, depending on the amount of use. Certain applications will drain resources faster than others, so it pays to do your research before you settle on them.

Base applications include: Windows Mobile Office with Outlook (and push mail capability), Windows Media Player, Internet Explorer, and the default Calendar and Contacts. Third-party applications are plentiful depending on the the intended usage.