Archive for November, 2007
a LolCat Particularly close to my heart
November 29, 2007iPhone/iPod: the new PDA?
November 24, 2007As an early (and entirely awesome) Christmas present Heather got me a brand new iPod Touch with 16 gigs of space. To liberally quote her, “they’re worth the investment every time,” and this device is no slouch in that department. After I trimmed my library of unnecessary songs that I had never listened too I was able to cram all my music and some podcasts on the bad boy. It’s proudly charging besides my laptop at this very moment. There is however a reason I said it was the new PDA. When Steve Jobs stood proudly on stage to announce the iPhone he said he was announcing three devices; an iPod, a phone, and an internet device. He didn’t mention that what he did was making the Newton sexy again.
Makes a very good point
November 24, 2007Bookishness: “How the Kindle is ugly and feels wrong, let aside the subjectivity of beauty or taste.”
Thibaut Sailly does a great job explaining how the design of the Kindle pails in comparison with practically every other product, ever.
(Via Daring Fireball.)
A dirge for the Kindle
November 22, 2007Game type for Crysis
November 13, 2007Andrew will be quite pleased with Crysis, albeit in a few years when his computer can actually run it. From what little that’s been published about the multiplayer there isn’t much in the way of tweaking that game play. However, if it does become possible I have a game type for your consideration:
Comparisons to the original Predator movie are accurate, graphically speaking, and so should the climax of that film. Two players pitted against one another in the jungle. The catch? One of the players doesn’t have access to his suit powers. There are many more nuances that I cannot wait to discuss with others.
Feel free to add your ideas, or email me at chris@chrisleiker.net.
Sony’s Reader: A follow-up
November 13, 2007If you’re looking for a reason to blow 300 dollars on a nifty piece of tech look no further than Sony’s Reader. While the screen isn’t as high contrast as books, it will eventually. Color systems are being developed by more companies as well. If you don’t like Sony, then there’s going to be options soon. Not that I’m writing to tout Sony’s abilities (frankly I think they miss way more than they hit). Instead here are some things noticed while using the Sony Reader.
1. You read odd(er) things.
When you can carry around 100 or more books without a heavy burden you will. One night while at work I blew through The Island of Dr. Moreau. It wasn’t a long title but I wouldn’t have read it during a school holiday. The ability to at random read any story is reminiscent to the ever popular iPod [A point made by Dylan Jones' book iPod Therefore I am.] It may change the way you read books.
2. The ADD in us can still enjoy stories.
Then of course there’s those of us who can’t read a solid block without experiencing either “oh hey shiny object”-syndrom or getting completely sucked into the fictional world. Thankfully E-book systems allow you to continue where you left off, regardless of how many other books you’ve decided to read in the interim.
If these devices reach ubiquity, or some successor, there’s going to be a major change in the way people read. It’s going to be quite interesting. Glad I’m along for the ride.
For sale (soon): The Weighted Companion Cube
November 12, 2007Not exactly the hard hitting (literally) cubical goodie I was hoping for, Valves soon to be released Plush weighted companion cube will make an excellent friend for either you, your significant other or your hyperactive pets.
Sibling rivalry part 2: the tubes
November 12, 2007The internet isn’t a safe place these days. With bot herds spewing spam across our beleaguered wires and a deluge of virii it’s hard to imagine a time when you could connect your computer directly to the internet without any sort of protection.
free loving hippies.
While the times have changed, can we say the same about or operating systems?
(more…)
Hazards of Leopard Firewall
November 8, 2007A quick heads up for anyone who wants to run World of Warcraft on Leopard.
If you activate the firewall and specify the wow.app it WILL ALTER THE APPLICATION.
normally this isn’t a problem, the additions are miniscule and beneficial, except Blizzard does a checksum on the application before logging into the servers.
A checksum is where they run the application through an equation and get a certain number, the checksum. This way they know that the program has not been altered. Since Leopard does alter the application, you could end up without the ability to actually run the game.
There’s no malice towards either Apple, Blizzard because of this event. But man it sucks I can’t access my Time Machine backup at work. If it weren’t Apple’s “fault” I’d gladly say this is the first time that Time Machine has made itself useful.
From a school email
November 5, 2007Sufficing what was essentially an ad for a college event was this rather disconcerting paragraph.
“
This message is intended for the above named person(s) only and is
CONFIDENTIAL AND PROPRIETARY. Thank you.
“
It’s confidential, except everyone was sent it (in cleartext).
it’s proprietary, even though it’s a message.
will some one please explain?
