For those of you that haven’t heard of the Chumby (and I’m guessing that is the majority of people out there ~ other than the “nerd” set), it’s basically an “internet viewer” in a bean bag. Doesn’t sound interesting yet, does it? Wait, it gets better…

Basically, the Chumby is whatever you want it to be. It can be an alarm clock. It can be a digital picture frame. It can notify you when you get new email or even Twitter messages. Here’s all of the info about the device. It connects to the Internet through wifi and is able to display custom developed widgets that can be developed by anyone (that has some programing skills under their belt). It also is completely open-source and the company promotes the hacking of the device (hardware, software and even the leather case).

Anyways, I got an email from Chumby the other day that gave me a password to order one since I was a registered insider. There’s something in my blood about being an early adopter and tinkering around with the unknown so after thinking about it for a day or so, I couldn’t resist and ordered the Latte Chumby.

The above is actually displaying a series of widgets that I set up (and will display once the actual Chumby lands at our house) an example of what is on My Chumby. You don’t have to have one to play around with the widgets. Fun stuff! :)

A couple of days ago, MarsEdit updated their software to V2 and I’ve been hearing lots of praise for the newest version.

The big question is “Why am I typing this blog post?”

The answer? To test out MarsEdit 2.

So far, uhhh… I don’t know yet.

Oh, and one last thing. I don’t want to hear it from you all saying stuff like “Why bother looking at Blogging Clients when you don’t even post anymore?”…

Maybe this would encourage some more activity around here! (wishful thinking, perhaps?) :)

Joostâ„¢ is a new way of watching TV on the internet, which uses new and established technologies to provide the best of both the internet and TV worlds. We’re in the process of making it as TV-like as we can, with programmes, channels and adverts. You can also see some things that we think will enhance the TV experience: searching for programmes and channels, for example, as well as social features like chat. There are many more new features to come!

So far, things look great and seems like it will be even cooler as more channels/programming is added. I could go and on, but to be honest, I need to get back to watching my Joost! :)

Special thanks to Jeff “Zemote” O’Hara for hooking me up with a beta account. The day I get some tokens to pass out I’ll let you all know.

Yesterday, I had the pleasure of spending 12 hours in a hotel conference room learning all about Ruby and Rails at the Softies on Rails Workshop. I know you’re immediately saying to yourself, “who would send you to a training class on a Saturday?” The answer would be “me”.

I have always been interested in Ruby on Rails and have gone through all of the typical demos, screencasts, etc that you find online. While that was all and good and gave me a (very) basic overview, there’s nothing like actually talking to people who really use it (for “real”!) and have them show you the ropes. The workshop, which was put on by the folks at Softies on Rails, was aimed at Microsoft developers, but at least 25% of the attendees (including Brian who led the Rails portion) were running Mac. Mac and Rails just work well together, what can you say…

Anyways, I walked away from the workshop with a much greater understanding of the technologies and am really anxious to play around with things a bit more and see what I can do with them. Brian and Jeff did a fantastic job presenting and the whole event was well worth the price of admission. If they do this workshop again, I would almost be inclined to attend again just because there is so much more to learn (and it never hurts to see/do things again).

Besides the workshop being such a great event, I got to meet some really cool people who were also attending. As always, I wish Apple could sponsor me as I pretty much sold every person talking to me that they should be running on a Mac. It seems that everyone is somewhat interested in the machines, but once they see things running (including how well Windows runs under Parallels ~ if you gotta use it), they’re sold. It went as far as another Mike, who after sitting next to me the whole day, was going to swing by the store on the way home to pick up his brand new MacBook! I thought that was cool… :)

Anyways, I can’t say enough good things about the Softies on Rails event. Learned lots of really interesting things and met a bunch of very cool people. I highly recommend attending the next time they do this…

I’m really looking forward to this event and getting a hands-on/better feel for all things Ruby on Rails. I’ve loved every minute that I have ever spent playing around with Rails. Hopefully after attending this workshop, I can move my exposure up to the next level…

I’m really looking forward to this event as I haven’t been disappointed yet. I’m not familiar with Amira, but hopefully it’s a little larger (space-wise) to accommodate the throngs of cocktailer’s that have been showing up…

Being that crowded is a good thing and a bad thing. The good thing is that there are tons of people to talk to and meet. The bad thing is that it’s so crowded that it’s hard to maneuver and you pretty much stay put the whole night (at least lazy people who don’t want to fight through the crowds like me).. :)

Nice seeing some of the regulars and also meeting some new people. (sorry, too lazy for links right now)

I recorded a little podcast on the way home but I need to re-listen to it first. I was in a goofy mood on the way home and I think it may be reflected in the recording. We’ll see what becomes of it…

If you’re planning on going, let me know so I can keep my eyes open for you…

Anyways, just a couple of things I wanted to point out that have caught my interest/are on my mind while time keeps flying by…

- Go switch your settings to use OpenDNS. This is to all of my nerd/non-nerd readers out there. If you have a high speed connection at home (DSL, cable, etc), you should be interested in this. It has without a doubt sped up my browsing at home. It’s a really simple tweak that you can do either on your computer or your router at home. PC or Mac. Wired or wireless. It doesn’t matter. It’s not spyware and doesn’t do anything evil and is absolutely free. Lots of people have been using OpenDNS lately and have had dramatic results in the speed of their internet connections.

- I’ve been hooked on the aspecialthing podcast. Interviews with comedians that matter. A great way to blow an hour(+) at a time. Maybe that’s where my time has been going?

- I’ve switched from my archaic webmail client for marusin.com to using Gmail. My email address hasn’t changed, just where the messages are being delivered to. So far, so good.

- I have given up on FeedLounge for the time being. I switched to them after there was a marusin.com record for the most comments ever to a post all in praise of FeedLounge. I have to say, I agree with most of them (when the service is working correctly). The interface is great. The response to support problems is great. Unfortunately, though, it is buggy as hell and it seems there’s a new issue I encounter on a daily basis. Between not being able to subscribe to certain weblogs to bugs with tagging to feeds not being updated enough to me being unable to access my feeds for a couple of days has made me go back to Bloglines. Without a doubt, I want to like FeedLounge but I feel burned and have a bad taste in my mouth right now. I have a year subscription and may revisit in a couple months when I feel better about things. Until then I’m back to my old standby.

- I’m hoping to record a podcast tonight to do a brain dump on my BarCamp Chicago experience. I have gotten a lot of personal emails regarding my post about my BarCamp Chicago experience. Just wanted to clear the air and it would probably much easier to talk through than type out. Hopefully, me writing this here reminds motivates me to record tonight. :)

There definitely was a share of very smart people there, but it seemed to be missing the energy of the other events I’ve attended in recent weeks. Maybe I’ve been spoiled by those events… Who’s to say? Part of my “un-sureness” also stems from the fact that it was hotter than hell where they had the event (it was well into the 90′s today in Chicago) and the “space” didn’t have much for air conditioning. Weather like that usually puts a damper on my attitude and I’m willing to admit that it may have skewed my attitude.

Also, I was there towards the beginning, so things were still getting organized and everyone was trying to get into their groove. I do know that while I was there, more people were worried about getting the keg tapped and getting more ice then the (I just accidently typed, “teh”) nerd side of things. Don’t get me wrong, I’m all for booze. :)

I’m just grumpy today… sorry. I’m interested to hear more from other people that were there. I’ll be keeping my eye on Technorati. In the mean time, I’m happy hanging with my nerd buddies out by me.