So, I was surfing around the Web today when I found a very interesting video on the TED.com homepage. “How to Live to be 100“. Basically, we have a speaker that’s explored several ‘blue zones’, and noticed patterns for longevity in healthy human living.

Dan Buettner (born 1960 in St. Paul, Minnesota) is an American explorer, educator, author, public speaker and co-producer of an Emmy Award-winning documentary who also holds three world records for endurance bicycling.^[1][2][3] He is the founder of the online Quest Network, Inc., which provides opportunities for students to interactively engage with explorers on expedition.^[3] In February 2007, an expedition led by Buettner to Nicoya, Costa Rica uncovered the longest-lived people known in the Western Hemisphere

Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dan_Buettner

There are a couple of ideas that jumped out at me:

A vegetable-based diet.

One of my best friends is a vegetarian, so I notice the differences in diet — and I can’t imagine myself going through it! Giving up chicken, and beef (I’ve generally given up pork) seems to be a huge step. With that said, if there were progress made in vegetarian substitutes for traditional food, and if this progress were widely available and convenient, then I might consider trying it. “Easy vegetarianism.” For now, this is my train of thought.

A close group of friends.

The Japanese woman that Buettner mentions has a ring of five women that she’s known for 97 years. That’s a long time — with bonds so tight, it’s like an amplified family — when one gets rich, the bounty is shared, and when one gets poor, the poor is helped out. I really like this idea, but I find it hard to imagine, especially in the modern world. Not to say I don’t have close friends, but to the extent where we share our fortunes and misfortunes? Can this even be applied to the developed world?

A reason to wake up.

The most prominent characteristic of these golden-aged people was the reason to wake up in the mornings. I don’t think I have one yet. But I think that it’s important for me to find one, real soon. This is, in many ways, similar to a ‘purpose of life’, which I believe to be very important to a human being.

Check the video out, if you haven’t already. 20 minutes well spent.

http://www.ted.com/talks/dan_buettner_how_to_live_to_be_100.html

Image: Soylentgreen23

Tired of the same old interface? Jealous every time you see someone whip out their iPod Touch? It’s quite alright – I was too, at first. Then I decided “Hey, I’m better than that. It’s just superficial tech-lust anyway.” I had finally seen the light. But I wanted to do something to get back at them, to make them see that my iPod (named Glassy for its glass-y features, haha) was just as good as their iPod (I’ll call them Touchy or something).

Just yesterday, I found a hack for the iPod Video 5g/5.5g. I discovered that this hack had been out there for a couple of months already and regretted not being connected deeper into the iPod hacking community, but hey – what can I do? I’ve been bombarded with stuff as of late. I found the steps on the iPod Wizard forums and DrivenDesign to be a bit lacking in substance, so I’ll offer you a guide with pictures and all, although it really isn’t as hard as I’m making it sound. In fact, you can do it in two easy steps!

1. Downloading the iPodWizard Client and Touch Firmware

The iPodWizard is used for a variety of things, mainly editing themes on the iPod, and updating firmware in our case. The iPodWizard program can be found at http://www.getipodwizard.com. Don’t be intimidated, the Wizard is very user-friendly and will work their magic for you.

Next, you’ll need the actual firmware files of the iPod Touch. Scroll to the bottom of http://drivendesign.us/touch.html and download the respective firmware file for your iPod Video. You’ve got a 5g iPod Video if your iPod’s the thicker 30GB version or if you have the 60GB variant. You’ve got a 5.5g iPod Video if your iPod’s the thinner 30GB version (nice choice) or the abundantly-equipped 80GB branch in the iPod family tree. Remember, this hack is not applicable to iPod Classics!

2. Mount the Touch Firmware on your iPod via iPodWizard

Now that you’ve got both the firmware and the mounter, the obvious next step is mounting it. Connect the iPod to your computer via USB. Open up iPodWizard; if you’re running Windows Vista like myself, you’re going to have to right-click it and select Run as Administrator (darn Vista, haha).

Change the Edit Mode to Firmware File and select Open Firmware.

Then, browse to wherever it is you extracted your Touch Firmware and select TouchHack 2.0.bin. Finally, select the Mount button.

Be careful – do unplug the iPod until it’s been restarted into the Touch GUI.

You’re done! Hopefully your iPod Video is still intact, and even better – livened up with the Touch GUI. There are a few bugs and kinks to be ironed out, but we’re just going to have to wait for TouchHack 3.0.bin, I guess.

A quick Word

I might’ve let on more to my personal life than I wanted to – so here are the answers to the questions you’ve been dying to ask.

• Is Herbert addicted to World of Warcraft? Does he play and eat nachos all day?
  • No, I play for recreational purposes. I’m just curious as to how this game works and why it’s so addictive. For those who do play, I am still a Level 12 Draenei Paladin – whoa, did that sound as nerdy as I thought it did? Anyway, I play an average of probably a good half hour to an hour with my friends (high-level 50s).
• Does Herbert not talk to people on Windows Live Messenger?
  • One word – YODM3D.

Back on topic – I hope the TouchHack firmware works well for you. I’m willing to suggest why this is a great alternative to Rockbox, in case there are some of you out there wondering. In fact, I think I’ll write a nice lengthy post about it.