A disclaimer: I’m a sucker for things that look cool. If I’m picking up soap for the bathroom, my first instinct is to go for the dispenser that looks the best, not the cheapest or the best smelling or the one  most likely to slay bacteria. Time for a new coffee maker? Which one’s the slickest? Nowhere is this more true than software, which is why I find myself in my current profession. If an application or website isn’t visually engaging, if things aren’t fading in and sliding around, I’ll probably look elsewhere. This is probably why I’m currently so enamored with CoolIris.

CoolIris is a browser plugin that plays well with flickr, Facebook, YouTube, and a number of other sites (including mine now!), allowing you to browse pictures in a much snazzier fashion. You can pan, zoom, and search a 3D wall of images and it features all the requisite whizz-bang animations and gradients you’d expect from a current-gen web application. Google image searches have never been more spirited, that’s for sure.

I guess the only nagging question is once the novelty of soaring around a collection of nicely-reflected images begins to fade, does CoolIris really bring much to the table?

The conventional wisdom may be that one needs a DeLorean and a flux capacitor to travel back in time. I’m pretty sure all it takes is a song.

How is it that music can fling us back into the past with such startling clarity? What sort of synapses are firing such that blink-182 can drop me back on an Ocean City boardwalk and Matt Nathanson yanks me back to a State College splashed with the colors of fall? The familiar verses conjur up emotions otherwise lost to time, sights and stories long forgotten come rushing back as if somehow encapsulated in the song itself.

I certainly can’t answer these questions but it’s neat knowing that time travel is as easy as opening iTunes.

I’m not a big fan of Facebook apps, particularly those that are thinly veiled advertisements. However, I think I’m willing to make an exception for Whopper Sacrifice . If you haven’t yet heard of it, this app poses a profound and heart-wrenching question: What are my friends worth? If you give the axe to 10 of your somewhat…marginal….friends on FB, you’ll be rewarded with a coupon for a free Whopper. The fate of your less fortunate friends is even displayed on your news feed. Nothing like a flame-broiled burger with a side of guilt.

Kudos to BK for using social platforms in a slightly more creative manner.

Today is a monumental day. It’s the day in which I dive fearlessly into the 21st century, embracing technological advance of staggering proportions. It signals the dawn of new era marked by untold convenience and faster commutes.

Today I become an EZ-Pass user.

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