I produce a lot of content online. Most of it in the form of images. Whether they’re desktop wallpapers at MyBestDesktops.com or photos I post to my Flickr and JPG accounts, I like to think that the copyright information that accompanies them would deter folks from ripping them off to use for their own financial gains. Of course, that’s super naive of me, and TinEye.com reverse visual search is here to help track down the offenders.

Basically, what TinEye does is take any image you submit to it and try to find wherever it’s being used online. The easiest way to use the service is by installing the Firefox extension.

So, with that out of the way, let’s check out some of the thieves using my imagery without permission:

MintProperty.com used my Empire State Building desktop for a party flyer:

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My Dark Sky desktop wallpaper is getting used quite a lot. Here are a couple examples:

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After Again!

My High Voltage desktop from Hong Kong used for the Zap Stick 800,000 Volts Pink Stun Gun:

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And my Manhattan Bridge desktop used also for a party flyer (extra funny because I’m in the lower left of the image):

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These are just a few of the ways unscrupulous folks online have been ripping off some of my images. Not a ton that can be done about it, but at least with TinEye.com, I can stay up to date with some of the offenders.

I should remember to visit that site often…

When one door closes, another one opens. So with the RRoD sending my Xbox back to Microsoft for repairs, I decided to pick up a new PlayStation 3.

My expression so far is that it took longer than expected to setup and get into a game; it’s really weird playing without the promise of Achievement Points; the XMB doesn’t feel right; the graphics are about the same as the Xbox; and although it was tough to re-acclimate myself to the dualshock, it’s still a great controller… Oh and the SixAxis controls are difficult (at least in Heavenly Sword which is the only game I’ve played so far).

Additionally, somehow I couldn’t secure my usual obscure username.

Anyway, I should remember to give my other 2 games (Metal Geal Solid 4 and Ratchet and Clank Future) a try.

To be honest, I’m surprised it took this long to happen… But today the inevitable occurred during a match of Call of Duty 4: The dreaded RRoD!!

I need to rememeber to buy a PlayStation 3.

After years of thinking I would never get into running, I’ve joined the whole Nike+ movement. I don’t know what happened. I started running a little at first. Just a hit on vacation. Then, last year, during the Summer, I socially ran with my woman on occasion, but I never craved it… Now, I dunno… I get urges…

I just need to remember to actually get better as evidenced by my second Nike+ enabled run:

I had a lot of reasons for getting the new iPhone. The largest could have been that my iPod Nano had recently suffered an accident which left its screen destroyed or that I was still walking around with a 1st generation RAZR (which had cost me $500 at the time) whose battery barely held a charge. But the fact is, I wanted it. It just looked so great.

So, I restrained myself until the Monday after launch when I figured the lines would have died down. Then I went to the Soho Apple Store on my way in to work since I figured that the 5th avenue store was too close to all those morning shows. I walked right in, had 4 people in line before me, bought it, and walked out… Happy.

The best part is, though, that I’m still happy. I love this damn thing! Despite fears to the contrary, I can type quite quickly on the keyboard. The wifi is key, because AT&T’s Edge makes me feel like I’m on a 56k modem. The screen is gorgeous. And just top to bottom the device really delivers on all the hype.

OK, now to the single most annoying aspect of the new iPhone.

One of my many reasons for purchasing the thing was my dream of riding the train with big, cushy, over-ear, wireless, bluetooth headphones. My dreams of not snagging on other passengers was dashed when I learned that the iPhone didn’t support stereo bluetooth headphones. This really pissed me off. Oh well, at least I could still use my big old cans, right? Wrong. Apple did one of those things that just make you hate electronics companies (that’s you Sony!). They took a perfectly good standard connector and made it non-standard. They recessed the headphone jack effectively making the iPhone incompatible with every pair of headphones in the world. This is really unacceptable and I know they can’t fix it now, but they better help some third party vendors get some great headphones out there because I hate Apple headphones with a passion.

Of course, there are other things Apple should fix like custom ringtones, being able to edit what shows up on your home screen (I don’t need notes and stocks, damnit), having access to the landscape keyboard more often, IM, Flash support, games, and more… but I gotta remember that this is a 1st generation product that’s guaranteed to only get better! Get those software updates rolling, Apple!

From the time I spent in my youth with my nose buried in copies of Popular Mechanics ’til now, I’ve always wanted to ride a “super train.” You know, one of those trains that flies along on some mystical magnetic levitation at hundreds of miles per hour.

Well, I’m writing this as I hurtle along at around 250 mph and I gotta say, I’m not super impressed. Maybe if it hadn’t been for the dude who didn’t let me sit by the window, I might be mesmerized by the landscape as it flashes by, but I’m not. And no one else in the train is either. Most people have their window shades down and are dozing or reading their papers. Boooring.

I wanted super! I wanted excitement! What I got was a mundane commute with a bunch of salary workers.

I have to remember not to reserve seats next time (since the machine didn’t let me choose a window seat) and just wait in line on the platform to snag a window.

I don’t know what the makers of this game were thinking when they were coming up with this shooter/fighter/dodger thing, but for some reason, they decided the one thing that could act like icing on the cake of their masterpiece would be an announcer with a bizarre Mexican accent shouting “You win!” and a bunch of other sound bytes.

To play the game, you stand in front of the arcade box holding a gun like Time Crisis or House of the Dead, but instead of going through a story, you fight other cyborgs (though no real explanation is given) in more of a Tekken or Virtual Fighter (which everyone was playing in Japan) style… but with guns!!

Your opponent in the game stands across from you and you’re both supposed to use use cover to hide from bullets and then shoot back. This control is accomplished by left and right foot pedals. The whole thing was very awkward at the beginning, but quickly became bizarrely fun. I would imagine they could pretty easily port something like this to the Wii, especially since the graphics weren’t mind-blowing or anything.

I gotta remember to hit more arcades whenever I get the chance… and figure out why this game is named “Too Spicy!”

This guy had the brilliant idea to tweak his photo’s color settings using Photoshop CS and above’s Match Color tool. Fantastic!

I gotta remember to use this sometime.

Little Big Planet has got to be the most innovative thing I’ve seen in gaming in a long time. (Sorry Will, Spore looks cool, but not quite my thing.) The GDC presentation is a must watch!

I have to remember to check it out when it’s released and if necessary buy a PS3.

This is something I’ve been meaning to write about ever since I read the article (and more importantly the comments on the article) “Top 12 Guns for Geeks and Gadget Goons” over at Gizmodo that revealed just how much crossover there is with geek/gadget culture and gun culture.

The funny thing about living in New York is that no matter how many friends you have, you continually have to remind yourself that your circle of acquantances and people you run into on a day to day basis in no way represent the average population of the rest of the country. That means that none of your friends probably have guns. No one I know owns a gun, although at one time I did live with someone who was into guns, but then it was rifles for shooting on a range and not what the article was about: the best handgun for concealed carrying purposes.

I’m not going to get into the debate of gun control (although I hate guns), because the bigger question to me is whether people who run around the internet flaming each other, pwning each other’s grammar, calling the WAHHHHAMBULANCE for each other and generally being loud-mouthed and childish should be packin’ concealed heat. I hate to say it, but it somehow smacks of overcompensating for physical shortcomings.

I dunno… call me crazy, but I’ll now remember to think again next time I’m considering attending any tech conferences in this country. (Especially MacWorld since it seems like some geeks are out to kill them some Finder… I just wonder if they eat what they kill!)

(Image from Geeks with Guns activities surrounding SXSW)