Here’s a poll for your Thursday:
If you could pick any technology of the future to adopt right now (assuming, of course, such a thing was possible), what would you choose?
For me, I’ve always loved the notion of neural implants, particularly the neural nanonics in Peter F. Hamilton’s Emberverse series. The idea of having a computer embedded right into my brain so that I could do everything I love to do so much more quickly and easily just makes me giddy with delight.
What would you choose?
Tags: science-fiction, Technology, the future
My tumblelog is officially up and in working condition. I’m using the T1 theme, which is built on the wonderful Sandbox, much to my great joy. I did modify the theme somewhat, though, removing the default T1 image in the header and restoring the bloginfo(‘name’) and bloginfo(‘description’) fields to their proper places. I also brought the theme up to 2.3 compatibility with tags and added my webring navigation links to the navbar.
What I like about T1 is the custom styling for each category, giving each type of entry its own special look. I intend to take full advantage of this as this tumblelog will give me a good place to share any all neat videos, photos, links, etc. that I run across in the course of the typical day. Comments are open and welcome – just mouseover any entry for the comment link to appear on the right-hand side. Also feel free to subscribe to my feed, particularly if randomness is your cuppajoe.
Tags: sandbox, software, t1, Technology, themes, tumblelog, WordPress, wordpress-2.3
Well, my 360 died this past Sunday. No red ring, just a disc drive that stopped working. Basically, it would play a video or game for about 15-20 minutes, then the whole console would reboot, and the disc drive would no longer open or read discs, unless you turned it off for a couple of hours and then fired it back up. At least then, you could retrieve the disc trapped inside before the drive decided to die again.
This is a story of how much I love shopping with Best Buy. Rather than wait to have a box shipped to me from Microsoft, just so I could then wait another handful of weeks for them to ship me a repaired or new one back, I just took out my 2-year service warranty and took my console back to Best Buy. After chatting with a member of their Geek Squad for a moment and verifying that, yes, I could upgrade from a 360 to an Elite, I walked back and grabbed myself one of the black boxes. And then, after paying the difference between the 360 and the Elite, I walked out of the store the proud owner of a brand spanking new Xbox 360 Elite!
My wife even liked the color. Me, I’m just thrilled to have the 120GB HDD.
Tags: microsoft, Technology, video-games, xbox-360, xbox-360-elite
The fellas over at Gizmodo posted up some news about some changes in Apple’s iPod lineup that, quite frankly, had me a little nervous. You see, I’ve had my eye on one of the black, 80GB iPod Videos for awhile now, and I’ve always really liked the way they look. I currently have a first-generation iPod Nano, courtesy of Jean, and I much prefer the ‘square’ design of the first-gens to the rounded design of the current models. So when Gizmodo shared the news and a screenshot of the new iPod Classic, I was nervous. I saw a sleeker, more rounded iPod instead of the sharp-edged look I’ve grown attached to. I expect to be getting my new iPod sometime in the next couple of months, but I was somewhat afraid that the new iPod Classic would completely replace out its predecessor before I could acquire one.
I took a look at the Apple Store, though, since none of the stores around here seem to have the new iPods in stock yet, in order to get a better look at the new models. From the front, it almost looks like the iPod Classic is just a larger version of the 3rd-generation iPod Nano – rounded sides, just with a larger hard drive. But the profile view revealed that it was still pretty boxy looking and just the face had slightly rounded edges, which made me much happier.
It was then that I noticed something very exciting, at least for a geek like myself. All of Apple’s iPods now have double the space for the same price as the previous generation. So now, instead of getting an 80GB iPod Video for $350, I can get a 160GB iPod Classic for the same price! Very exciting stuff.
I’m also very pleased with Apple’s new iPod Nano with its video capability. I’ve always thought the Nano would benefit from being able to play video, so it was very cool to see them chop the legs of the iPod and call it the next generation Nano.
I was fairly intrigued by the iPod Touch, with its WiFi ability and widescreen video, but the storage space isn’t quite right for me yet. If you can’t tell, I’m all about the big hard drive, and 16GB just isn’t enough space for what I want. Given time, though, I’m sure the size will grow as the price comes down.
I should probably stop drooling now. My keyboard’s liable to short out any minute.
Tags: apple, ipod, ipod-classic, ipod-nano, ipod-touch, ipod-video, Technology
I’ve been offline since Sunday evening, due to another fried DSL modem, courtesy of a local lightning strike. So, I just quickly scanned through nearly 600 new items in Google Reader. Anything longer than 3 lines didn’t even get more than a glimpse, and almost everything shorter then 3 lines simply got marked as read and shuffled on. Basically, I was looking for headlines from specific blogs of interest.
So. Did I miss anything of import the last couple of days?
Tags: blogs, dsl, news, Technology, weather
I can’t wait until iPhone releases later today. And then, I can’t wait for a couple of weeks to go by. Frankly, I’m getting tired of hearing about the thing. I mean, I like Apple products well enough and all, and the iPhone does look really cool, but it does seem a bit ridiculous to me just how orgasmic everyone seems to be over something that hasn’t even been released yet and that, very likely, will have a number of bugs and glitches that need to be worked out of the system.
Tags: apple, iphone, Technology
Just got word that my new DSL modem has arrived at home. Guess what I’m gonna do tonight…
Tags: dsl, Technology
My Xbox 360 continues to lie – I actually played several times over the weekend, albeit offline due to a critical failure of my DSL modem at the hands of an errant lightning bolt. I actually tackled G.R.A.W. again and got further this time than ever before. Sadly, however, I’ll be starting it all over again once I can get my DSL set up again (where is that new modem?!) and recover my gamertag on the new box.
And just how is my 360 blogging when it doesn’t have any more access to the Web than I do?!
Tags: g.r.a.w., Technology, xbox-360
So, very early this past Friday morning, a major thunderstorm rolls through my area. A very loud SNAP wakes me just in time to notice the power die throughout the house for about 5 seconds. Now, since we have horses, whenever one of these thunder-busters rolls through, I like to check the weather report from Weather Underground and see what we’re facing. Only – no Internet. Turns out, that snap that woke me up was a lightning strike, either on my house or close enough nearby to fry my DSL modem. So from there, I end up going back to bed to listen to the storm for the next two hours until I have to get up to run my morning horse feed.
Fortunately, my ISP (TDS) was willing and able to ship me off a new DSL modem immediately – it’s supposed to arrive this afternoon, and I should be back in business in short order. But then, Friday evening, I go to fire up my 360 to play a little bit offline – and nothin’. No power going to my console whatsoever, despite the fact that the power brick is lit up light it ought to be. Now, why didn’t I have my equipment surge protected, you might ask? Well, I did. My best theory is that the electric surge actually came down through the phone line, hit the DSL modem, bounced through the network cable, and smacked my 360. No problem, though – I still have my 360 under a 2-year product replacement plan from Best Buy. So, I ran it back there on Saturday, one of their Geek Squad guys plugged it in, verified the no-power issues, and told me to grab another. Piece of cake. (BTW – Best Buy won’t let you upgrade from a 360 to an elite on a product replacement. I asked about that.)
I get the 360 home, set it up, turn it on to verify that it works (since I can’t actually set up until my new DSL modem arrives) – and get terrible video. The image is very faded, very blurry. I’m thinking maybe I got a bad 360. So I run it upstairs to test it on my other (and far older) TV. Thing of it is, neither of my TVs have component inputs – I have to use an RF modulator to hook everything up. When I tested it on my second TV, the screen was even worse, confirming my fears that the 360 was bad. I was on the phone with a friend at the time, though, and he suggested bypassing the RF modulator by running the component cable through my VCR. This I tried – and got the clearest picture I think I’ve ever had with my 360. Turns out, my RF modulator had already been going bad, and the power spike finished the job. In the process of testing everything, though, I also noticed that the bottom 3 inches of my TV screen are slightly discolored and distorted. So the spike also managed to do some slight damage to the tubes in my TV.
Fortunately, the modem, 360, and RF modulator have all been replaced at no cost to me, and the TV is still functional enough for use. So, I’m hoping that as of this evening when my modem arrives, I’ll be back in business. I was bummed that I had to miss out on my regularly scheduled Halo night on Friday, but I’m at least pleased that this cost me nothing but a minor inconvenience to replace everything.
And that’s my interesting weekend.
Tags: Technology, weather, xbox-360
This iPhone Commercial Spoof demonstrates a fair point. I’d thought of that quite a while back when I first heard about it. Heck, just my ear leaves smudges on the little glass display on my wireless phone at home. I think I’d find having an entire display covered in smudges all the time would drive me batty. I like the idea of the iPhone, but I have a feeling that if I ever owned one, I’d be endlessly cleaning the silly display.
Tags: gadgets, iphone, Technology
