Auri's Space

Well, I’m a COLTS fan! What better way to celebrate our second trip to the Superbowl than a stadium shaped Bundt cake? But I’m also a geek, so why not also make a synth of said Bundt cake?

Here’s the Bundt cake (more photos here):

Here’s the links to the synths (I created two, just playing around with synth): (updated Feb 8 to fix some broken links, whoops)

First try: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=ac179592-570f-46c3-9089-750672ccb65c

Second try: http://photosynth.net/view.aspx?cid=39192387-1271-4ccd-851e-617d92e394db

In case you don’t know what PhotoSynth is… It’s a sweet free tool from Microsoft where you can take photos of an environment or object from many different angles, zooms, and perspectives and it will combine them all into a 3D environment you can navigate. That 3D environment also uses Microsoft’s “Deep Zoom” technology to enable instant loading of the synth at any resolution – loading only the part you need to view, but at the detail you need.

Try it out and let me know what you think. Or, create your own Synth today!

Bundt Cake Tech Specs:

• Mould was stadium shaped
• Blue sugar and white vanilla chocolate chips are in the cake
• Gummy bear spectators (hey, the Bears couldn’t make it to the ‘Bowl this year)
• Cream cheese frosting spires
• Aluminum foil Goodyear blimp (thanks to Steve for the idea)
• Green M&Ms for the turf
• Blue and White M&Ms for the Colts on the field, black and gold for the Saints
• Blue (Blueberry) and White (Coconut) Jelly Bellies for the Colts team on the sideline, Black (Blackberry) and Gold (Banana) Jelly Bellies for the Saints
• Vanilla icing for the sideline
• Some candy sticks for the field goals
• Plastic Colts emblem in the end zone

Well, I’m a big fan of “Whoops” pages, and Microsoft PhotoSynth’s site has a pretty cool one…

If you build Web sites, you should try to have a Whoops page in case anything goes wrong. It helps the user feel better about the site not working – much more so than a cryptic server error page or 404 “page not found” error.

I’ve updated the Help Haiti Windows Mobile app to support both Red Cross and Clinton Bush funds. It’s a free download and you can help the Haitian people today!

How it works:

• The app texts the word QUAKE to 20222 (Clinton Bush fund) or HAITI to 90999 (Red Cross fund) and tells you the progress of your donation, automatically replying YES when asked for confirmation. No donation is made unless you confirm you actually want to donate, so just running the app will not donate. (never fear!)
• The app also provides access to the People Finder tool, and additional information about Haiti from Wikipedia.

Now, what are you waiting for? Go do a good thing!

Download link: http://aurigroup.com/HelpHaiti

Best,

-Auri

You’d have to be a cave dweller not yet have heard of the Clinton Bush Haiti Fund. Simply text the word QUAKE to 20222 on your US phone and $10 will be donated to the fund. However, I have met a lot of people who are not comfortable with texting, and they ask me to do it for them. Well, how hard could it be?

To make it simple, I wrote Help Haiti, a Windows Mobile app with a Donate button to quickly donate $10 from your phone. It also shows you a progress bar! How simple is that!?!

In addition to the good feeling you get after donating, you can also learn more about Haiti and find information numbers and Web sites, right inside the app.

Download it for free today at http://aurigroup.com/helphaiti.

I’ve also submitted it to the Windows Mobile Marketplace, and hopefully it will be available there soon :)

Here are some screen shots of the application in action:

Attention Windows Live Team! You guys are GREAT!!! I love Live Writer, and it’s a bummer there aren’t commercials all over TV saying how awesome all the free software you provide is…

Now that I’ve buttered you up :)

Please Add CAPTCHA to Blog Comments on Live Spaces. Seriously. The amount of spam we users get because of automated bots adding comments to our posts… Just insert that Telerik CAPTCHA control or something… quick and easy… just something that prevents our blogs from becoming advertising platforms for Chinese battery manufacturers and the like :)

Again, you guys rock. Like my complement sandwich?

Best,

-Auri