Robotic Tom

The first is ecommr. I’ve always been a design nerd and I am also very involved in e-commerce/retail web development. ecommr is a way to share interesting designs that I find when I am visiting other e-commerce stores. I hope it serves as some form of inspiration for other designers, developers, and information architects out there.

The second site is more personal in nature, but it is my wedding site. Christine and I will be married in just about seven months and the website will serve as a way to share information about our big day.

Hope everyone is gearing up for the holidays!

Shortly after 11:00PM eastern last night, when Barack Obama was declared to have won the Presidential election, I went around the web and took screen grabs of some of the major news sites. I wanted to see the headline, over and over again, and I wanted to remember this moment.

All of these screen grabs are from approximately 11:05PM eastern, 11/4/2008:

Happy Election Day, everyone. I voted this morning and got my free coffee at Starbucks.

Here’s my electorial college prediction: 364 Obama, 174 McCain:

With the recent price cuts on the XBOX 360, I decided to take the plunge and last night I picked up a console. My initial thoughts are positive: setup was very easy, the graphics look great, and I was online and playing Call of Duty 4 within minutes. Currently have it hooked up a 19″ wide screen LCD and I am amazed at how good it looks. I will save for a new TV, but for the time being, I am already hooked. I feel like a 13 year old kid again.

My gamertag is the same as my domain, “robotic tom”, FYI.

As long as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated by the science behind tropical cyclones. My first memory of a hurricane was Gloria in 1985 when my family and I were evacuated to a shelter due to flooding concerns here in New Jersey. After that, I found myself tracking hurricanes on paper maps while watching the Weather Channel at 48 after every hour. Through advances in technology, it has been amazing to track hurricanes over the past few years. There’s now real time access to storm reports, forecasts, buoy information, and live photos and videos.

Here are some of the resources that I am using to monitor the storm from New Jersey:

• First is obviously the National Hurricane Center and the wealth of information they provide.
• The National Data Buoy Center is really interesting to look at. Their buoy data provides real time wave heights, water temperatures, wind speed, and air pressure. It is very interesting to watch the data as the storm progresses through the gulf.
• There are a lot of Google Earth overlays available from Google Earth Blog and Tropic Atlantic. The overlay that I finding the coolest is the near-real time tracking of the Hurricane Hunter aircraft and the data they send back to the NHC.
• Folks have set up a Gustav Information Center group at ning.com. This will compile Gustav information that is being posted on a variety of social networking sites. Also, don’t forget Twitter.
• Radio Reference is providing streaming feeds of emergency communications in New Orleans and San Antonio. Fascinating to listen to the evacuation communications from so far away. Their wiki also is also updated with information regarding amateur radio and emergency communications related to Hurricane Gustav.

My thoughts are with the people of the Gulf Coast and I hope that things with this storm go as smoothly as possible over the next few days.

I pulled up to my local Bank of America location, last night, to use the ATM. Parking lot is empty and it is dark. Being the semi-street wise person I am, I like to take note of my surroundings whenever I’m in a poorly lit place and about to take out money. Imagine my surprise when I round the corner and come eye to eye with a life size cut out of a person in the lobby of the bank. Except it took a second for me to realize it was a cardboard cutout and not a person. Scared the hell out of me.

Perhaps this isn’t the smartest piece of marketing material to put in a bank lobby:

The New York Jets have aquired Brett Favre. This is so unreal. I have always been a huge fan of Chad Pennington and was very excited about Kellen Clemens, but to have a hall of fame quarterback on the team is an opportunity every fan has to be excited about. Really have to get out to Hofstra, to the Jets training camp, to see this team up close.

Favre jerseys are already on sale at the Jets online store, but the server seems to be overloaded and crashed. I’ll pick one up soon!

Just got the new wordpress app for the iPod. Very excited to play with it. This is the app I have been most looking forward to.

So far, this has a nice, clean interface and is easy to use. Writing on the iPod or iPhone may be a pain, but this will be great for mobile blogging.

Nice work, wordpress!

Office Morning, originally uploaded by tom sullivan.

I love the early mornings in the office. The sun reflects off the buildings across the street and the light starts to pour through these huge windows at the front of our office.

After the day of delays, I was finally able to download the 2.0 firmware for my iPod touch last night. One thing I noticed, today, is that the passcode lock on my iPod was reset. I’d like to remind everyone that this is a very important feature and everyone should take this opportunity to ensure their iPhones and iPods are set up with a passcode.

The passcode lock feature is simple - it’s been on cell phones and mobile devices for years. Before the device can be accessed, a four digit code must be typed in. With mobile devices getting smaller and holding more personal information, this feature is more important. I don’t see enough people using it.

On the iPod and iPhone, the passcode lock feature is found under Settings -> General. There is a Passcode Lock area which allows you to set the four digit passcode and the timing associated with it. You can set how long the auto-lock feature will take to activiate (mine will auto-lock after five minutes of inactivity) and set a time for how long you can access the iPhone/iPod, after the auto-lock, without a passcode (I also have this set to five minutes so that I can change tracks quickly).

A few months ago, I freaked out after I thought that I had left my iPod and cell phone at a Friday’s I ate at. Several hours after I got home, I couldn’t find either device. I called the restaurant and they couldn’t find the iPod. It was a terifying ordeal - to think that someone could have picked up my iPod and now had access to my e-mails, web history, calendar entries and an addresbook full of many high profile business contacts my co-workers cell phone numbers’. In a blur, I changed all of the passwords for e-mail accounts, Twitter, and even my online banking(I had a shortcut for my online banking on my home screen - I know the password wasn’t saved, but I changed it just in case).

It was entirely more information about me that I wanted a person to have access to.

The loss of the iPod wouldn’t have been an issue if I had my passcode set - No one would be able to easily access the information on the iPod. Just a few days before this incident, I had removed the passcode lock because it was a pain in the ass to change tracks while I was out on a bike ride (this was prior to me figuring out the auto-lock timing, above). I sacrificed security for a momentary inconvenience and now I was paying for it.

Of course, I am a huge idiot and fund the iPod and cell phone, misplaced, the next day. They weren’t lost - I’m just a moron. In this case, I was lucky enough to get a second chance and make sure that this doesn’t happen again. Next time, the passcode lock will be set and, while I will face a financial loss, at least my information is safe.

Mobile devices are continuing to shrink but hold even more personal information. Whether it be an iPhone, iPod, Blackberry, cell phone, or whatever - make sure your data is safe on your easily misplaced mobile device. With millions of iPhones and iPod Touches getting the new firmware, and millions more iPhone 3Gs being sold, use this as an opportunity to make sure your passcode lock is set and your data is secure.