JasonTag.com

Lately I’ve been playing a lot with various GPS apps for the iPhone. My favorite so far is the offering from MotionX called MotionX GPS. It’s a feature rich app filled with everything you might want in a GPS app for a smartphone. You can view the GPS data several ways. The way I like to view it is in the form of the GPS coordinates, altitude, and compass heading. I also like that it has the ability to create waypoints on the fly, maps, and a tracking map. This has come in quite handy when I’ve been out hiking and being able to keep a track on where I’ve been and how I got there.

Another app I like using a lot is Traveling Companion.  TC is a very lite GPS app giving you basic GPS information. Coordinates, GPS compass, nearest address, and altitude. it’s a very simple app and just fun to use if you don’t need all the bells and whistles of more elaborate apps.

and the latest entry into my GPS app collection is an app by instamapper.com called GPS Tracker. This app is quite a bare bones app but it’s designed not to diplay the GPS data so much as it is designed to share it in real time on a website. They offer API access which allows you to then access the data and put a map on your website like the one below.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

I’m totally geeking out with the GPS capabilites of the iPhone… now all I have to do is go outside and start tracking!

As I wrote earlier about Google Voice, I stated that it would translate the voicemails into text!  Well now I’m totally ready to play and have some fun with this feature!

Here’s how to play along:

1.) Call my google voicemail box at (209) 253-8244
2.) Leave the strangest, weirdest, wackiest message you can think of.  Participants should start their message with the word “wacky message” so I know that your call should be counted towards this!
3.) Hang up!

I’ll check the box each day and publish the text only from the best ones for the day!  that’s it!  I don’t want your name or your phone number or any other info besides the wackiest message you can send me.

My goal in this is to see how Google’s sytem translates the text and of course just to have some really strange fun!…  So get calling!

So after a few days using Google voice, I have to say that I find it interesting and extremely useful!.  If you haven’t yet heard about Google Voice visit their site here.

At first glance it seems interesting because you can have one phone number ring all of your phones.  That is if you’re like me and have a home phone plus a cell phone plus a work phone… trying to give these numbers to all of my friends and keeping track of who has which numbers is just ridiculously hard to manage.  With Google Voice I can give out one number and I get to decide who can reach on which of my other phone numbers and even when they can reach me directly and when they just get routed to voicemail.  If I only want my friends to reach me on the weekends then I can set that up or even sending all cals to my work phone when I know I’ll be at my desk.

So as you can see this new offering from Google seems quite useful.  However one of My favorite features is transcripts of voicemails!  I can read my voicemail or listen to them if I choose.  I can even download them.  this seems perfect if you just want to setup a voicemail box say if you’re a podcaster or in radio and want to be able to play recorded messages on your show!

Above is a screencap of one of my voicemails from a telemarketer… yes I was stoked even to get a call from a telemarketer.  It appears that the number was in someone’s database.  It happens.  But the good news is that you can block numbers like this one easily.  My point for sharing that above image is to show you that the voice to text is still not perfect but still quite useful if you just want to scan messages quickly.  THe grey text is where the software wasn’t sure if it got the word right or not.  I could so have some reall fun with this!  and I’m tempted to give out my phone number to everyone and ask for strange and creative messages… but I think i’m gonna think about that one for a bit…

Anyway… this isn’t a full review of the Google Voice service but I thought I just give a heads up on my experience of using it… Peace!

A few days ago I applied for an invitation to GoogleVoice.

Let me say that when I signed up for it I had no idea what it was or what it did. I was mainly trying to get the jump on a friend of mine for the service… he ended up getting in before me but that’s ok because the service is quite interesting.

The main gist of the service is having a phone number that’s tied to you and not to any particular location like a land line phone in your home or your cel phone.  Instead you input all your phone numbers and your GoogleVoice number rings all the phones you’ve added. This way you can constantly change numbers on your land line, cell phone or work numbers and still retain one single number so people can always reach you.

At the moment my only gripe is that they didn’t have any phone numbers available in my local calling area.  so I chose a number with a 213 area code.  I chose 213 because I have some friends there and it seemed logical to have an L.A. number.  Selecting the initial number was free and I know that if you change your number there is a $10 fee.

So for me this just seemed like a geeky thing to be a part of but the more I look at it the more I’m seeing other possiblities for it’s use in my life.  I will keep using it and report back later…

JTag

update: Found some interesting articles when doing a search for GoogleVoice… enjoy!

Apple Rejects Google Voice iPhone App - PC World
Google Voice - Wikipedia
Google Voice: 5 Reasons to Use It, 5 Reasons to Think Twice - PC World
PC World’s review of Google Voice
Google Voice: A push to rewire your phone service - CNN

Well it’s now day 34 of using My e-cigarette and the same number of days since I’ve had a traditional tobacco cigarette.  I am proud to say that this product has helped me to quit smoking tobacco. However the powers that be, mainly the FDA, wants to take the product that helped me and many others quit tobacco, away from us.

Yesterday the FDA made a statement that indicated that E-cigarettes or electronic cigarettes were just as bad for you as traditional tobacco cigarettes.  and the media ran with the story as the FDA told it to them.  This upsets me because if the media had taken the time to read the report that the FDA made this statement based on, they would have seen that the study indicates just the opposite.  That e-cigs are not as dangerous as tobacco because the study indicates that they found only 1 carcinogen in the e-cig liquid when tobacco contains more than 40 known carcinogens!  I offer the release and the study below so you cna make up your own mind

FDA and Public Health Experts Warn About Electronic Cigarettes
Sumary on FDA Anaylsis
Final report on FDA analysis

P.S.   Just because it’s the government doesn’t mean that they’re looking out for your best interests…

Well so far so good! At the time of writing this it has been 63 hours since My last cigarette! In case you missed my last post, I’m using an electronic cigarette (personal vaporizer) as a way for me to quit smoking tobacco products.

The E-Cigarette still provides me with nicotine, but it’s much cleaner than traditional cigarettes. I’m still unsure whether I’ll be quitting nicotine since I still like how it makes me feel. For now I will continue to use my E-Cigarette and enjoy….

So after much reading and research, I’ve decided to quit smoking tobacco. This is a huge step for me since I’ve been smoking now for almost 20 years! Yikes! I’ve tried the gum and it didn’t work for me. I thought about the patch but decided that what I wanted was to either quit cold turkey or something else. Well last week I discovered an alternative to smoking tobacco.

It’s the E-cigarette! A mini electronic device that vaporizes a nicotine liquid and is inhaled similar to how you might for a cigarette. The neat thing about it is that since there is no tobacco, there is no open heat source and hence no smoke. The device creates a vapor comprised mainly of Propylene Glycol, nicotine and flavoring. As I’ve reading more about it, I’ve been thinking if it’s the right thing for me. And after much thought, I ordered mine today. I’m hoping to get it in the mail by the end of the week and see whether or not it might help me to get away from the harmful effects of smoking tobacco.

I purchased my e-cig from MyVaporstore.com And I read a ton of stuff about the e-cig at e-cigarette-forum.com before purchasing one. Also Wikipedia has an excellent page about them if your interested in more information

I will update as soon I get my e-cig in the mail….

Ok ok!  I seriously need to blog more often here!

Bowling Balls

So now to the real reason why I’m writing… Bowling!  Last night I hung out with a good group of people.  I knew a couple of the people there but decided that I would hang out anyways despite my now knowing the majority of people there.

It turned out to be a very cool evening. The evening started with dinner at Old Spaghetti Factory and ended up with bowling!  Many who were there were photographers.  All night you could see the flashes going and hear the clicks of many shutters.  It was almost surreal just how many cameras were around.  Even I got in on the action and came away with a few good frames, and some great pics too!

Moral of the story:  Blending two great sports, photography and bowling can be a great thing!

Bowling with photographers on Flickr

I haven’t updated this site as much as I’d like…  maybe that will be my new, new years resolution…. update my personal blog a little more often.  And take lots of pictures!  Ok now that we got that out of the way…

What have I been up to? Way too much.  My day job and theatre have really been taking up a lot of my time lately.  as well as photography.  I’ve been spending my weekends hiking, exploring, and of course taking as many photographs as possible.  I’m really just exploring photography and learning hot really take great photos.  As far writing goes Ive been doing a lot of writing for my other blog… jasontagphoto.com.  and at the begining of this month I conducted a series of interviews with models over at DeviantArt.com.  That was very cool and a lot of fun to see how each model answered.  Last night I got the privilege of doing sound for my friends band.. The Hotclub of Hulaville.  They are a lot of fun and such good musicians as well.  If you get the chance definetly check them out!

Things coming up… I have a photo shoot this weekend with a good friend and a great model.  And I’m planning a hike to a really cool place. But I don’t want to tip my hat just yet.  Tuesdays with Morrie at Manoa Valley Theatre will start ramping up in the next three weeks but other than not.. not much… yet!

So I haven’t posted here in a while.  So what’s been going on?  A lot…way too much but then again I’m not bored so that’s a good thing.

I recently just started uploading photos to my flickr account.  You can check that out at flickr.com/photos/jasontag/.  Also I’ve been quite busy with my deviantart.com page and my account on RedBubble.  I’ve also been playing bass little.  Not nearly as much as I’d like.  And of course gearing up for the holidays.  That’s been all that was occupying my time over the past few weeks.  Hopefully things get les crazy after the holidays…