Okay computers, this is getting ridiculous

Wow, it's been a long time since I've posted. Have to get better at this.

I'm a little late on this latest bit of technology but it's still amazing. To set the stage, I've started doing Sudoku puzzles. I held off for several years while Dad, Carly, and Deb all exclaimed how fun it was. In fact, I was a little worried that Dad was on a personal mission to convert everyone to be a Sudoku Jedi Master.

I'm not really into puzzles or brain teasers much so I ignored them as best I could. What finally converted me was I downloaded a Sudoku App for the iPad and tried it. It took a few runs but now I'm hooked. Deb and I now play a game or two on the iPad before turning out the lights every night.

The App itself is pretty amazing. It has different levels and actually has teaching modes to help you learn different techniques to solve the tougher puzzles. While in the puzzle, if you get stuck, you can ask it for hints. It will start by saying something like "Ponder the digit 8". This will usually be enough to help you move on since you can focus on all the 8's and see a move you hadn't noticed before. If that doesn't help though, you can ask for more and it will give more and more specific hints, to the point where it will just fill in the square for you. I have the sound off but I think it makes a little noise like "Jeeeezus!" when it has to hold your hand that much.

So that's cool but not really the reason for this post. I'd heard about Google Goggles which is an app for the phone that let's you do Google searches but in a couple of interesting ways. You can type in your search words like normal of course but you can also just speak your search. You press the microphone icon, say "Nuclear Power", and it will pull up search results just as if you'd typed it in. Amazing, but oh so five minutes ago.

No, to really be cool, you just take a picture of what you want information about. So, take a picture of say, a book or DVD, and Google will bring up information about that item. In the bookstore, take a picture of the barcode, Google will identify it and tell you what the price is on Amazon so you can order it right then.

(Which really sucks for the bookstore of course. Reminds me of a funny picture I just saw. It was the front window of a Borders Bookstore with signs listing all the liquidation sales. There was also a sign that said "No bathrooms. Check Amazon" Ouch!)

Which gets us back to Sudoku. We do the puzzle in the paper on Saturday and Sunday so today I tried a trick I'd heard about. In Google Goggles, I pointed the camera at the puzzle in the paper and took the picture. Google identified it as a Sudoku puzzle!

Then it asked me if I wanted it to solve it.

Two seconds later, it was done. 

Hello Sky-Net...