Why do storm warning always YELL?
While I’m on the subject, why do they keep writing storm warning like they are radio announcements? A different medium, warrants a different style.
Well, it looks like the Snowpocalypse, the Snowmageddon, the End of Snow Days, are coming to the East Coast. If I don’t update, it’s because I don’t have power.
This is from last week’s storm, but it’s still damn funny:
Stay warm.
For the last seven years, EA Games has used the most up-to-date statistics, and the latest version of the Madden video game to run a simulation of the Super Bowl.
After last night, the celebrated game franchise is 6 for 7. The only time the game was wrong was the unexpected smack-down that the Giants served the Patriots in 2008.
That being said, the Madden Super Bowl simulations don’t seem to get the score right.
Sill, it’s pretty good for video game AI right?
Web designers, developers, and really geeks of all types can’t stand Internet Explorer. It’s just a mess of a browser.
If you are looking to take out a some Internet Explorer aggression, try making an IE voodoo doll for yourself.
Image from ChiGarden
You can find a “how to” guide on ChiGarden.
I haven’t played it yet, but I’m hearing amazing things about the game Mass Effect 2.
I’m also hearing great things about the new hipster roleplaying game, Mass Affect (seriously, a lot of people have emailed this to me).
Image from Gamer Melodico
I recommend you take a look at it, it’s damn funny.
And while I’m on the subject of mocking hipsters, have a look at the Hipster Olympics.
Web Seer is a tool that allows you to type in two partial or full search queries. Then it outputs and compares Google’s suggested search terms (the ones that pop up as you’re typing). Those suggested terms are based on common search phrases that people are actually typing into Google.
I ran a few innocuous search terms such as “Xbox 360″ & “PS3,” then I ran some relationship based ones like, “How can I get my boyfriend” & “How can I get my girlfriend.” The results are interesting in both cases, however the boyfriend/ girlfriend ones made my soul vomit.
Click to zoom
Brace yourself for the next one…
Click to zoom
I did a number of different variations of this, and every single one made me sad.
One last though.
If you are one of those people who is looking to push your significant other into breaking up with you, grow the hell up and end things yourself.
Go and give the Web Seer a try. It’s a lot of fun until it makes you jaded.
Just testing out the new Android WordPress app. If you’re reading this, then the app works.
It allows me to moderate comments, write/edit posts, and even change fixed pages. This is everything I was hoping for in a WordPress app. If you have the old “WP To Go” app, delete it and get this free bit of mobile awesome.
Jeff Beck has been playing a beautiful instrumental cover of the Beatles’ A Day in the Life for a few years, but he finally recorded it a few months ago.
On Sunday, that horrid institution known as the Grammy’s decided to award him for his interpretation of the song. I guess they don’t get everything wrong.
Blabbering about the Grammy’s aside, here is a video from the 2007 Crossroads Guitar Festival of Jeff blowing minds with A Day in the Life.
Lifehacker has a great post up about the facts and many myths about browser cookies.
Here are the facts, and myths they cover:
The bottom line is that cookies aren’t really a problem, and blocking them will generally make your life more difficult.
I strongly recommend you give it a look – Fact and Fiction: The Truth About Browser Cookies
Syndicated by The Geek Whisperer
Well, they don’t actually make it smaller, but plasma rockets will make Space travel a whole lot shorter.
To and from Mars in 39 days shorter (It takes a year with conventional rockets to travel one way to Mars).
Check out this video for some serious innovation.
It may be very Cold War of me to say, but space travel still very important and needs proper funding.
NASA outright fucked up a lot in my lifetime.
They blew up two manned shuttles in avoidable disasters, spent years fixing a space telescope that didn’t work properly when they launched it, buried a probe in Mars because they mixed up units of measure, and now the cocaine scandal.
Not much of a resume.
As a consequence, I didn’t grow up enamored with NASA. I never experienced the days of astronauts as international icons.
However, I deeply believe in NASA’s mission. NASA is about what’s next, even if we don’t know what’s next. Their research has lead to tons of safety gear, consumer, and industrial products (Products Derived From Space Exploration). We know more about the Universe, and our place in it thanks to NASA.
A little over one hundred years ago, the concept of human flight was hardly conceivable. In a century, it went from inconceivable, to expensive and glamorous, and finally to everyday and tedious (Painful if you fly US Airways).
Time moves quickly. What was new becomes old at an ever increasing rate. That’s why NASA needs funding. Funding that will allow it to continue to do research that doesn’t necessarily have a practical intent. Great and unexpected things can emerge from such research.
Besides, NASA hasn’t gotten it all wrong. They launched the Mars Rover, and it was supposed to work for 90 days. It lasted five years. Religions festivals happen yearly to honor events that are far less miraculous and impressive.
I truly hope that the Obama Administration doesn’t stifle NASA by gutting its budget.
It’s both funny and a little scary how accurate this video is:
TV news really is a pile of poo.
Picking a computer used to be easy.
These were the rules:
OK, that last one was my rules, but I still stand behind it.
Sorry, you're getting a Dell
The point is that if you bought a more powerful computer, you would see a direct result in the performance of of everyday tasks. Everything from Solitaire, to MS Word, to Counterstrike would work better on a more powerful machine.
Over the last few years, the rules have changed. Fairly basic and low-end models will accomplish your tasks without a hitch.
There are also a ton of different types of computing experiences that you can buy into. You can get a lightweight, inexpensive computers, or a lightweight expensive computer. You can buy a cheap run of the mill desktop machine, or monstrously powerful box that could run NORAD (For the record, NORAD’s website is a little too friendly for a missile defense organization). Finally, you can’t exclude tablets and smart phones from the mix.
So here’s the deal. You need to determine how and where you use your computer.
On the train, on a plane, in a house, with a mouse et cetera.
Do you need mobility? If you don’t a desktop will work.
The overwhelming majority of people I have encountered over the years use their computer for five basic functions:
If this sounds like you, you don’t need a powerful computer. I wouldn’t recommend spending more than $1,000.
If you play high-end games, do 3D graphics work, edit movies, process massive quantities of data, then you will need to contemplate a pricey machine.
Do you prefer sitting at a desk with a mouse, lounging on a couch, or sitting in a coffee shop with an overpriced latte?
The whole point of this discussion is that form is just as important as function.
I can’t give you an outright recommendation here because there are too many combination of tasks, locations, and I don’t know your individual needs. What I can do is describe my usage, and hopefully it will help you identify your own needs.
I use a combination of technology to meet my needs.
I have a powerful desktop at home. At one point I used this beast for data processing, but those days are long behind me. Basically it holds my vast music collection, it has an alarm clock on it that wakes me up in the morning, and I browse the Internet with it. Over the last few years basically everything I do has moved from desktop software, to browser based software. The bottom-line is that I am completely underusing this machine, but I don’t think I will have to replace it for a long time. If I had to replace it today, I would get something much less expensive.
I do all of my gaming on consoles so that I don’t have to worry about the power of my computer. Any PC gamer knows the rat-race keeping up with the current software. I just don’t have time for that crap.
I have a lightweight laptop that I carry damn near everywhere. I travel a lot, and I don’t want to lug around a heavy computer. Since I do almost everything online, I don’t need a lot of power. This is why I am planning on getting an iPad. I’m confident I can meet all of my needs with that tablet.
Since getting a Droid, I have managed most of my email on my phone. This has greatly increased my mobility, and freed me from carrying the laptop everywhere.
Between the iPad and Droid, I think I will finally be able to go laptopless.
I use a lot of technology to meet my wide variety of needs. You probably have fewer, more, or different needs that I have. My advice is to stop and think about your technology interactions. You will learn a bit about yourself, it might help you save money, and hopefully you can streamline your life a bit.
Feel free to write me if you want guidance on a specific purchase, but please include answers to the questions I posed above so that I have the proper context to advise you.
Regardless of the technology you are using, please make sure that the software is up-to-date, and you are taking the proper precautions to prevent viruses.
Practice safe computing.
Yesterday, Apple finally announced the hotly anticipated, Apple tablet computer. After years of rumors, the device dubbed the iPad, had a lot of expectations to live up to.
Like any Apple product release, it met a lot of expectations, and fell short on a few as well. Here’s my comprehensive rundown of the iPad.
I’m going to cheat a bit here so I can focus on the analysis. Watch Apple’s eight minute introductory video to the product. In addition to explaining the iPad, it really is an exemplary piece of marketing material.
The pricing is surprisingly reasonable for an Apple computer.
Essentially, this thing is Apple’s answer to the netbook.
- Height: 9.56 inches (242.8 mm)
- Width: 7.47 inches (189.7 mm)
- Depth: 0.5 inch (13.4 mm)
- Weight: 1.5 pounds (.68 kg) Wi-Fi model or 1.6 pounds (.73 kg) Wi-Fi + 3G model
Is it Sturdy?
The hands on testing the I have read, suggests that the thing is sturdy, but that screen is rather big. The larger the surface area of a screen, the more breakable it becomes. I know the iPhone can take a fall. I’ve seen iPhones live through a ride in the washing machine, or a quick flight at 60 MPH off of the roof of a car, but iPhones are small.
Can the iPad survive a fall? Only time will tell.
No Flash
Like the iPhone, the iPad will not enable viewing or interacting with Adobe Flash; a common element in web design. A lot of geeks are going crazy about this, and it all fairness, the lack of Flash was a criticism I had about the iPhone. However, my opinion has changed on the matter.
Flash design elements are heavy and tend to get mighty clunky. It slows up everything. Flash isn’t bad, but it’s frequently overused. It should be used with a very specific purpose, and for things that can only be done in Flash. The list of things that you *need* Flash to accomplish is becoming shorter every year. HTML5 & jQuery are making Flash far less relevant in web design.
Not including Flash in the iPhone was probably a case of Apple arrogance, but looking towards the horizon, I don’t think they were wrong. If anything, I hope that this encourages companies to pull away from unnecessary use of Flash (also known as Flashturbation).
No Camera
A lot of geeks wanted cameras on the the front for video chat. I wanted a camera on the back for the purposes of viewing augmented reality (a topic of great interest to me that I have yet to take the time and write about).
Well, there’s no camera on either side, which kind of sucks. I bet that the iPad v 2.0 will have one.
The Name
It took about 10 seconds before Internet memes comparing the iPad to feminine hygiene products popped up. I agree that the name is kind of weak, but the comparison seems unnecessary.
Not that it matters at all, but I was partial to”iSlate.”
Hard drive capacity
The $499 model is only 16 GB. That is questionably small, especially on a device that encourages you to download movies and music. This is a bit more problematic because it doesn’t allow you to use USB drives. I’m sure that you can sync, add, and remove media items from your primary computer, but that’s a hassle.
Depending on how you use your media, the capacity could be be ugly.
AT&T Data Plans 
It’s great that they aren’t caging you in with a data plan, and you can happily use the iPad without paying a monthly fee. However, if you are one of the people who would benefit from a data plan, you’re stuck with AT&T’s dogpoo network.
At least you can cancel your data plan subscription whenever you want.
No Multi-Tasking
This is the most disappointing part from my perspective. The inability to operate multiple applications at one time is a serious deficiency, especially since this is supposed to be a substitute for a netbook. That being said, you can do so much in a tabbed web browser, that the browser realistically makes multi-tasking possible. You can have email, chat, word processing, and a music player open in different browser tabs. So, there is a way around it.
That being said, it’s a shame that you can’t multi-task with the native software. Apple went out of it’s way to design sweet software for this thing, and a lot of it might go unused in place of browser solutions.
The price isn’t bad at all. The features are pretty solid. It’s not perfect, but it looks pretty damn cool.
You should really evaluate what your actual needs are as a user (my topic for tomorrow’s post) before purchasing the iPad. If it will meet your needs, it will probably do it in a big way. If it doesn’t you will find it seriously lacking.
For what it’s worth, I plan to buy a 32 GB Wi-Fi iPad when it becomes available in two months.
For more specs, pictures, and details, check out the product page.
Syndicated by The Geek Whisperer
I’m looking at the iPad news stories, and I’m really excited about it. However, so many of the treads seem filled with assholes and lunatics.
I’ll be writing plenty about the iPad tonight.
This isn’t breaking news at this point, I’m just a little bit behind on my news feeds.
Last week I mentioned that my favorite nihilistic villain might make his return in Guardians of the Galaxy.
The Mad Titan Returns
It turned out that Marvel confirmed that rumor when they released their April 2010 Solicitations.
With his return, all of the mainstream comic characters that I hold dear are back from the grave. Hopefully they stay alive, and more importantly, remain in the hands of capable writers for a long while.
On a similar note, through my travels over the last few days I’ve found that no one seems to associate New Jersey with the Sopranos anymore, now it’s the Jersey Shore.
I think I preferred the mobsters.
Recent Posts