We recently joined the eco chic and bought a Toyota Prius (a loaded "package 6" in black). I thought we were buying a new car, but the Prius is really just a big gadget on wheels. We've had loads of fun messing with the Bluetooth phone stuff, backing camera, and the display that shows how the power is flowing around between the engine, brakes, and batteries.

The GPS mapping system has a really nice, sharp display -- much nicer than anything I've seen in a German or American car. The routing seems pretty solid and the performance is good.

We've also messed around with the voice recognition system, but they give long instructions after you push the button for each command ("After the beep, please say the command you might maybe want me to try and process even though you talk like a drunken two year old with a lisp") so it's not really very usable.

I love the keyless entry and starter. We can open the door and drive off without taking the key out of my pocket or Michelle's purse. I thought it was kind of a gimmick, but I love it. I wish I bought this option on my other car.

I know these features aren't really unique to the Prius, but this is the first car we've that had all the gadgets. Besides, the car just feels like a high-tech golf cart.

However, the best feature is the eco-smug feeling you get when you drive past an SUV.

OMG, I can't wait. Two of my favorite video game franchises in one. Read the whole article here.

Thanks to JFM for the link.

(Update: Here's the original article from 1up.com)

(Update 2: I guess you really can't believe everything you read on the internet. I missed the fact the original article posted on April 1st. It would still be cool. Really. I'm going to go sulk now.)

I can't stop playing with my new Zune 8. It's lovely to look at and hold, the UI is great, and the sound is super. I had no complaints with my iRiver Clix, but since Urge, the subscription music service I was using, merged with Rhapsody, I had to find a new music player (I would like to avoid give Real any money ever.) Contrary to what Steve Jobs asserted, some people (including me) really prefer all-you-can eat subscription music over purchasing songs $.99 at a time.

The only real complaints I have are around accessories. I couldn't find any cases or armbands for the Zune, which I need before I can use it running (I dropped by Clix several times, so I know I need some kind of protection for the Zune). Also, my car has an iPod adapter; as far as I know, there isn't a Zune-to-iPod convertor, so I may be out of luck there. I'm sure at least the case/armband issue will resolve itself in a few weeks, but I'm a bit stuck on the car thing.

I'm a pretty tough critic of the work we do at Microsoft; as cool as some of our stuff is, we can definitely do better. However, once in a while, we do something very slick. The new Zune is one of those times.

I just picked up a new 2008 Audi A4 Avant 2.0T . This is my first Audi. I'm impressed with the thoughtful design details in the car so far. For instance, you can fold up the cargo cover in the back like a tent to divide the space to hold grocery bags and such. Another nice detail is how the radio will show your presets next to the buttons with the RDS info as labels.

They did a nice job with the ski sack (a pass-through from the trunk into the back seat with a bag on the end to keep the skis separated from the passenger compartment); the bag drains out of the car, so if there's snow, etc. it won't collect in the bag). I'm also having a surprising amount of fun playing with the paddle shifters/tiptronic transmission. The user guide leaves something to be desired (the words are all in English, but the sentences are hard to parse), but if that's the biggest problem I have with the car I'll be doing well.

The car is "dolphin grey" (the same charcoal grey color as the image above), and the interior is black leather. I added the cold weather package (need those seat warmers and the ski sack), premium package (leather seats...), the "convenience package" (stuff like an electronic compass, folding outside mirrors, HomeLink, and xenon headlights -- I didn't really need this or even want it, but they were in the car that was available. Besides more toys are more fun), and the iPod kit (also, not something I needed or wanted, but it'll be fun to mess with).

I opted against the performance/sport stuff or bigger engine that I would have bought in the past. While I think the car looks better with bigger wheels, etc. they don't help snow driving or the ride quality; I've also just come to grips with the fact I'm not a sport driver. This is my daddy mobile with a six mile daily commute over side streets. No hard cornering, fast acceleration, or autobahn driving in my daily life.

I've always been a BMW fan; the first car I owned in college was a 1972 BMW 2002, and I've almost always had a BMW since then with the most recent being a 528iT (station wagon) I've had for the last eight years. The 5 was a great car; I still really liked it, but maintenance was starting to become expensive relative to the value of the car, plus I wanted something with all wheel drive for the wet and snow. I looked at the X5 and X3, but I realized I'm not an SUV guy. I didn't look at the other new BMWs because I think they look like ass. I don't care for BMW's new design direction at all, especially in the new 5 series. Also, I don't know that the BMWs are worth the premium over other European cars (let alone Japanese or American cars).

So, Audi won my vote this time. I'm looking forward to getting to know the car better...

I've been shooting my venerable Canon 10D for 4.5 years now; it's been a great camera and honestly, it's still better than I am. In most ways, my photography is not limited by the camera. However, I'm a gear junkie as much as a photographer; it's been hard to resist all the exciting new cameras that have come out these past few years, so I finally gave in and bought the new 40D.

I haven't had a chance to really put it through its paces yet, but so far, I love it. One of the limitations I did run into with the 10D was the frame rate; when I'm shooting the kids or an event like a sailboat race, I often missed the "decisive moment" because the 10D was a just a little slow at 3.3 frames-per-second. The 40D's 6.5 fps feels like a machine gun by comparison. Perhaps more frustrating on the 10D was the relatively small buffer size. I'd be blazing away and all-of-a-sudden the camera would stop taking photos once the internal buffer filled up; I'd be sitting there fuming and waiting to get another shot just as the naked supermodels appeared with an honest politician, Bigfoot, and Osama Bin Laden dancing with them. By the time I was ready to shoot again, they'd all be gone. The 40D has a much bigger buffer, so with any luck, I'll be able to get a snap of the elusive Bin Laden...

I'm looking forward to really messing with it some more. Watch for more photos soon...

Our sad Xbox came back today, happy again. Again, I think Microsoft did a good job here with a bad situation (even throwing in a one month free Xbox Live Gold card).

So, our lonely copy of Halo 3 finally met it's mate today. Andrew (10) happened to be home sick today (he really is sick -- swollen lymph nodes and a positive strep test are hard to fake), so he was pretty happy to kill Grunts, Brutes, and Hunters all afternoon. Even on our analog TV, it looks great.

Last weekend, I took the boys to Robothon, a robot festival at the Seattle Center run by the Seattle Robotics Society. In addition to battle bots (you could pay $5 to pilot a battle bot!) and other cool exhibits, you could buy a robot kit for $40 and someone would help you build it.

The kit was a "Herbie the Mousebot" from Solarbotics. Herbie has two light sensitive eyes and will chase the brightest light around. His whiskers and tail are touch sensitive; if they hit anything, he'll turn around. The two little motors drive Herbie along pretty damn fast. Herbie also has a taillight, so multiple Herbies can chase each other around. I have another kit (and a newly purchased soldering iron) to build before I can test this out. (I guess technically we have a Horatio, the black mouse, and Harriet, the white mouse.)

I took about two hours to build the thing. I've somehow managed to avoid learning to solder until this point, but I've always wanted to learn, so I figured this was the time. The boys were pretty interested at first; Andrew helped me solder and assemble the kit, but they quickly moved to watch the robot sumo battles that a school group was having the corner (I wanted to see it too.) The moment of truth arrived when I put the nine volt battery it. It worked! The motors ran and the speeds varied with the light. Actually, one of the motors was stuck at first, but it was because the tires were on a little tight. Fortunately, I didn't have to do any real debugging. I noticed some of the other builders had to reflow some solder joints - non-trivial once the kit is together.

We tested Herbie in our dark living room. The robot scurried around the room, bumping into stuff, backing up and jetting off in other directions. We could get it to follow a flashlight beam pretty easily. When we weren't paying attention with the flashlight, Herbie ran into the kitchen since the light was on. Scared the hell out of Michelle. Michael (7) thought that was really great...

More important, I passed the "dad test". These are terrifying moments where you have to prove you're a competent dad to your kids. I know they'll soon realize I'm just another loser, but I'd like to delay that as long as possible.

Anyway, Herbie is really very cool. There are a lot of other cool robot things going on for kids in Seattle including First Lego League and Junior First Lego League that I may need to check out for the boys.

GPSActionReplay is a cool Java applet that lets you plot multiple GPS tracks over a map or image. It animates the tracks so you can see how each track formed. The obvious application of this is to replay races. The app has a bunch of extra features for sail racing like wind charts, etc. The UI is a bit confusing, but it's a fun way to watch and actually pretty educational (well, to sailors at least).

Here's the replay from a few boats in the race I did this week (our track isn't in there yet).

I realize some might be surprised that a Microsoft guy likes Google stuff (or would say it publicly anyway), but I love Google Mobile. You can use SMS to get info like phone numbers, stock prices, or currency rates. Totally sweet and very quick.

Andrew (9): "Could I have an iPod? Maybe an iPod Nano?"

Us (two Microsoft employees): "Well, maybe for your birthday we can get you a Zune."

Andrew [confused]: "An iPod Zune?"

Um, I think we still have a long way to go on Zune awareness...