For quite some time, this was my professional blog and online portfolio. Well, with all this whacky new social media, a personal website isn't really as important as it once was.

Now go to dascontentmedia.com.

Thanks!

Doug

What Are The Differences Between In-ground Hot Tubs and Portable Hot Tubs?

When considering the benefits of owning a hot tub, many homeowners start by deciding whether to choose an in-ground spa or a portable hot tub. While both types of hot tubs offer wellness benefits, premium portable hot tubs may prove to be a better choice when evaluating placement, massage and energy use.

What are the design benefits of in-ground hot tubs and portable hot tubs?

Portable hot tubs can fit in a variety of settings in your yard. If you live in colder weather, a portable hot tub can be placed very close to your house. Portable hot tubs can be built into a deck or above ground, and portable hot tub equipment is built into the hot tub exterior. Portability is an advantage -- you can, with some effort, take your hot tub with you when you move.

In-ground hot tubs can be designed in different shapes and sizes, and are often attached to a pool or part of a pool setup. In-ground hot tubs can also be worked into a yard or landscape. Equipment is not built-in and is usually in a separate location and can be bulky and noisy.

Do portable hot tubs or In-ground hot tubs have better massage options?

Portable hot tubs offer many more jets and configurations, and the jets are differently sized depending on location and hydro-massage options, and adjustable. Portable hot tubs offer multiple types of ergonomic seating options, as well as varied seating sizes to fit bodies of all sizes and types.

In-ground jets are usually one size with bench seating that is not as conducive to hydro-massage. Sometimes, it can be a challenge to align your body to a jet to hit just that right spot on your back, and forget about a neck massage –that requires submerging your head below the waterline!

Are in-ground hot tubs and portable hot tubs energy efficient?

Portable hot tub filters and water care options are very advanced making water care easy, and owners can often care for their own tubs. Portable hot tubs are energy efficient and designed to run all the time. So, there’s no heat up period. They work with covers and cover lifters so can maintain temperatures and stay cleaner. Many portable hot tubs are made of acrylic, which is easier to clean and not as abrasive as materials used in in-ground hot tubs like concrete, textured surfaces, tile, and fiberglass. In-ground hot tub surfaces can also be rough on the skin and on swimsuits. Perhaps most important to consider is that in-ground hot tubs have to be heated prior to use, and don’t run all the time so are not as energy efficient, and cost more to run overall.  

See more at: http://www.calderaspas.com/health-wellness/20-minute-renewal/what-are-differences-between-ground-hot-tubs-and-portable-hot-tubs#sthash.SWntk610.dpuf

Meditate In Your Own Headspace

A post for Caldera Spas' 20 Minute Renewal blog...

With the Caldera 20-Minute renewal blog, we help inspire people to realize the value of taking 20 minutes to renew, re-connect, relax and de-stress.  How do we do this? By providing resources and tips on the small things you can do each day to improve self-care, such as meditation.

Why is meditation good for us?

Meditation can help manage stress and reduce blood pressure, improve your focus, help with sleep, and help you learn to live more in the moment.  According to prominent wellness expert and blogger Dr. Andrew Weil, “meditation for healing is about establishing a different relationship with your thoughts, just for a little while. Instead of attention being drawn off by whatever thought happens to present itself, in meditation, you watch your thoughts from a different, more stabilized perspective.”

Is there an app to help you meditate?  Many of us are more connected than ever in terms of technology and social media. For the hyper-connected crowd, there’s actually now an app to help you meditate so you don’t have to unplug.  It’s calledHeadspace and here’s how it works:…

What is the Headspace meditation app?

• Headspace is a meditation app, designed to be a “gym membership for your mind.” You can sign up for free, and use the “take 10 program” to learn the basics of meditation in just 10 minutes a day.
• If you don’t have 10 minutes a day to spare, you can also work with shorter sessions, depending on your schedule.
• With your mobile device you can listen to sessions and meditate anywhere, and even download sessions if you’re going to be offline.
• With a subscription, you can gain access to guided meditation tied into topics like addiction, relationships, creativity and more, based on your moods and lifestyle.
• Your Headspace profile can map your journey, show and track progress, you can get rewards, and work with friends using the app so you can motivate each other along the way.
• Headspace has other great resources as well. A good starting point is learning about the science of meditation, where you can learn about how meditation techniques can help with stress, creativity, focus, anxiety, and relationships with cool and fun little animations and videos.
• The Orange Dot is Headspace’s blog offering a myriad selection of posts on topics including meditation, mind, body, relationships, skillful living, and birth and death.
• Radio Headspace offers podcasts from experts discussing meditation and Headspace related topics. 

See more at: http://www.calderaspas.com/health-wellness/20-minute-renewal/meditate-your-own-headspace#sthash.U1zKLEQV.dpuf

Comic-Con 2014 Wrap Up

Well, another San Diego Comic Con has come and gone, and many geeks are still recovering. There are other cons in the season, but no one would argue that the San Diego Comic Con is the king of the cons! This year had its share of overcrowding complaints, long lines, surprise guests, revelations and controversies.

Let’s take a look at what stood out this year.

Read full post: http://www2.geeks.com/comic-con-2014-wrap-up/

Image courtesy of Getty Images

Copyright Schmopyright—Copyright in the Digital Music Era

Copyright was designed to protect original works. It of course started with books, and then evolved from there as creative works evolved. With modern technology, copyright had to evolve as well to include digital assets like software and the like. In the late 90’s, the Digital Millennium Copyright Act was passed to protect digital properties, and to try and help regulate Internet copyright issues and violations.

Radiohead’s Thom Yorke, image courtesy of NME.com

Now, everything entertainment is digital—books, movies, music, and more. As these items have become available online, ways were found to pirate and distribute them. If it’s digital, it can and will be pirated.

We can stream movies and TV shows and music. We can read books online. You can also see pirated movies and listen to pirated albums and songs on YouTube. You can download albums and songs for free if you look in the right spots. You can find pirated books online, if you know where to look.

Read full post: http://www2.geeks.com/copyright-schmopyright-copyright-in-the-digital-music-era/

Digital Health is the Future of Your Health

Like so many other things in our lives, our health is now going digital. The term digital healthencompasses a convergence of health and technology that promises to make health information more accessible, more accurate, more affordable, more personalized, and perhaps most importantly, more actionable.

In his book “The Creative Destruction of Medicine” Dr. Eric Topol “enumerates how these digital technologies, social networking, mobile connectivity and bandwidth, increasing computing power and the data universe will converge with wireless sensors, genomics, imaging, and health information systems to creatively destroy medicine as we know it. He refers to this as digital medicine, or the digitization of human beings,” according to the article“What Digital Health Is (and Isn’t).”

Read full post: http://www2.geeks.com/digital-health-is-the-future-of-your-health/

Oculus VR is the Future of Reality

You know the evolution of gaming–pong to blocky figures on Atari consoles. Cartoony graphics on Nintendo consoles to higher quality graphics on PlayStation. High definition gaming on Xboxes connected to the Internet. The lure of virtual reality fully interactive games.

Perhaps you’ve seen “Avatar” where humans get in pods with virtual reality headsets and enter new worlds. Maybe you’ve read the bestselling sci-fi book “Ready Player One, ” set in the year 2044, in a world in turmoil and depleted of resources. All human activity takes place within a huge virtual universe called the OASIS. Humans “log on” with their virtual reality headsets to virtually go to school, work, and live their real lives virtually.

Image courtesy of https://www.oculusvr.com

When I went to the QuakeCon video game conference 3 years ago, John Carmack was talking about virtual reality immersion and how it was the future of video games and entertainment.

By the way, Oculus doesn’t officially have a product yet–only prototypes and promises. But the promises are big, and…promising."

Carmack is a legend in the video game industry, responsible for basically inventing and perfecting the first person shooter videogame with titles like Castle Wolfenstein, Doom andQuake. Carmack previewed his clunky duct taped headset to a chosen few and also said ID Software was slow in their development, and it was frustrating. Then along came Rift, the virtual reality headset from a company called Oculus VR. Carmack left ID Software and joinedOculus VR.

Like so many tech legends and realities, the Oculus legend started with a smart kid in a garage. Palmer Luckey started working on his VR headset prototype in his parent’s garage at the age of 18 in 2011. Carmack brought his duct-taped headset to the E3 videogame show in 2012. The next year, Oculus blew E3 away with its early Rift headset. Oculus brought a more advanced version to CES 2014, and still another version to the Game Developers Convention in March 2014. Soon after, Facebook purchased Oculus for nearly $2 billion in cash and stock.

By the way, Oculus doesn’t officially have a product yet–only prototypes and promises. But the promises are big, and…promising. With the rekindling of interest in virtual reality, and virtual reality becoming reality, other companies are rushing to develop their own headsets. Developers are developing software for the future of Oculus Rift. Video games, apps, even movies are in development for the Oculus Rift.

Full article at http://www2.geeks.com/oculus-vr-is-the-future-of-reality/