Monthly Archive for July, 2007

MBP: Photo Booth

Published
by
Austen
on July 31, 2007
in Life and Technology
. 1 Comment

I know that I haven’t been posting a lot lately, and what I have posted has mostly just been links to blogs with my quick thoughts, but in case you hadn’t heard I recently got a totally awesome new computer. Speaking of which, I present the best of my Photo Booth collection.

In case you don’t know, and are too lazy to click on the above link, Photo Booth is a nice little application included with OS X which takes advantage of the built-in iSight webcam on all new macs (except the Mac Pro) which allows you to take pictures.

Photo Booth is probably what half of the people who visit Apple stores around the country end up using when trying out Macs. There are a ton of cool effects that everyone loves, but when it comes down to it, it’s just a little program that Apple threw in to better advertise the built-in iSight. Still, it’s cool, and here are some of my best snapshots…

Continue reading ‘MBP: Photo Booth’

Apple product evolution

Published
by
Austen
on July 30, 2007
in Technology
. 2 Comments

I found this awesome chart on TUAW, and I couldn’t not post it. It follows every major Apple product upgrade from 1976 until 2007.

A Narnia movie a year

Published
by
Austen
on July 29, 2007
in Movies
. 1 Comment

Wow. According to Cinematical, Disney announced at Comic-Con that they would be releasing a new Narnia film (there are 6 more to go) every year. That’s a pretty big goal to set. The Harry Potter films have come out every year and a half, which is in itself a very short amount of time for that type of movie.

Most films take 2 or 3 years to make, depending on the amount of special effects and money involved. So releasing a movie every year for the remaing 6 films (the next one comes out next summer) is a very ambitious plan.

I personally liked the first Narnia film, but I have to agree with Cinematical that at this speed they are probably going to be really rushed, and I worry about the quality of the upcoming movies. But if they do pull of all 7 films it will truly be amazing.

Harry Potter 7

Published
by
Austen
on July 25, 2007
in Books
. 1 Comment

Do not continue reading until you have finished reading the book.

Continue reading ‘Harry Potter 7′

10,000 comment spams!

Published
by
Austen
on July 24, 2007
in Netsua.com
. 3 Comments

As of today, Akismet has caught over 10,000 comment spams on this blog since I installed it late last October.

So now I wonder… is this a good thing or a bad thing? Good because it indicates traffic (?) and because Akismet caught them. But bad because, well, it’s spam. I really don’t know what I’d do without Akismet.

RSS reader preference

Published
by
Austen
on July 23, 2007
in Technology
. 2 Comments

There are many, many RSS readers out there and many of them are very good. So why don’t I use what is believed to be the best one: NetNewsWire? Because it costs $30! Sure, it’s a pretty interface, sure it has a tabbed built-in web browser, but when it comes down to it they’re making you pay $30 for prettier icons.

But then you would say that I should get NetNewsWire Lite, as it’s free. Sure, but it doesn’t have the wide column feature, the ability to the flag items, or even a search! It’s almost like a trial of NetNewsWire, a way to get you to like it, and then buy it. Enter RSSOwl.

RSSOwl may not be the prettiest program in the world, but it certainly isn’t ugly either. It’s cross-platform, which is exactly why I started using it a couple of months ago, knowing that one day I would need another feed reader to learn.

It has all of the features (or at least that I need) of NetNewsWire and (surprise!) it’s free. You can’t argue with those numbers. If you can get a feed reader for free, would you really want to add on $30 for prettier icons and a sligtly familiar *cough*iTunes* interface?

The Macbook Pro: My thoughts

Published
by
Austen
on July 21, 2007
in Life and Technology
. 3 Comments

Well, now that I’ve had it for a couple of days I think that I’ll be able to give a brief review of the Macbook Pro, OS X, and Mac software in general. I’ve mentioned how I came to buy it in previous posts, so now I’m going to get to the actual computer itself.

It’s awesome. When I first took the computer out of the box it was suprisingly bigger than I expected, but in a good way. Bigger like screen size, but super-thin otherwise. Opening it up and seeing the awesome keyboard, and then turning it on and seeing the awesome screen was…. well, awesome.

Continue reading ‘The Macbook Pro: My thoughts’

I got it!

Published
by
Austen
on July 20, 2007
in Life and Technology
. 4 Comments

Yay! I got it! I got the Macbook Pro!!!!!!!

To be more specific, I got the baseline 15-inch, 2.2 GHz, $1,999 Macbook Pro with a 120 GB hard drive, 2 GBs of RAM, and a 1440×900 resolution. Niiiiiice. Oh, and with Front Row, iLife ‘06, a backlit keyboard, a SuperDrive, a built-in microphone and a built-in iSight webcam. (Which took the photo above)

I got it last night 2 days early because I found out that there was a shortage on the model because of the new LED displays. The 5th avenue apple store was sold out, but the Soho one had “limited stock.” Limited stuff runs out quick, so my parents were nice enough to go down and buy one and eat dinner down in Soho at Arturos.

And, obviously, they weren’t sold out. But if they were it may have been another week until it got delivered after ordering it online or back in stock at one of the retail stores.

Anywho - I have it now! I’ve only used it for about 4 hours as of now, but the LED (non-glossy) screen is excellent, and the casing is awesome. And I’m already starting to get used to the Mac stuff like the apple key instead of control, ejecting hard drives, etc.

More later!

“Get Smart” trailer

Published
by
Austen
on July 12, 2007
in Movies and Videos
. 0 Comments

I saw this trailer in the previews for Harry Potter 5 yesterday. (Review coming soon)

You need to a flashplayer enabled browser to view this YouTube video

I’m so glad that Steve Carell is doing this. He’s the absolute best person to do this movie. It’s genius how he just pouts when the door doesn’t open.

Harry is a Horcrux!

Published
by
Austen
on July 9, 2007
in Books
. 4 Comments

With the 7th and final Harry Potter book coming out July 21st, I’ve decided to re-read Half-Blood Prince (#6) and I’ve just realized something: Harry is a horcrux! I know, I know. Just let me explain:

  • Harry’s scar. Why does it burn when Voldemort experiences extreme emotions? And even more, in the 5th book he experienced dreams from Voldemort’s point of view…. hm…. maybe Harry has a piece of Voldemort’s soul stuck inside him?
  • Harry being almost put in Slytherin and being a Parsetongue.
  • Finally, I didn’t make this one up on my own - I got it from here. But they think that Harry is a decendant of Gryffindor himself because of the sword thing in the 2nd book. Therefore, he would be the missing Gryffindor horcrux. And as we’ve seen from Nagini (Voldemort’s snake) Horcruxes aren’t just limited to inanimate objects.

It’s sort of a weird idea, but once you think about it you realize it just has to be true! Duboink! Also, some more theories:

  • Harry shouldn’t die. Ron should. Not that I want him to, but him being killed by a Voldemort or a death eater early on in the book would really make Harry mad, make Hermione completely sad, and destabilize the viewer’s faith in if anyone will survive.
  • And relating to the theory above, Harry may have to end up killing himself to ensure that Voldemort can never come back. That might be okay, but I would really prefer that Harry didn’t die!

Macbook Pro (!!!!!!!!!!!)

Published
by
Austen
on July 8, 2007
in Technology
. 3 Comments

Guess what’s Making Austen Crazy Because it’s Overly Owsome and Kool AND Possibly Really Owsome. Well… I just spelled it out for you: MACBOOK PRO.

Yuhuh. That’s right. MACBOOK PRO. No, not just Macbook. But MACBOOK PRO. In case you’ve forgotten, the previous plan was to get a Macbook late July. Well, my parents have now decided that I can get a Macbook Pro!!! It’s MUCH shinier, has a backlit keyboard, larger screen, it’s thinner, has more RAM and hard drive space, faster processors, and it has dedicated video memory!

And because I have all the good luck in the world, the Macbook Pro was updated shortly after the Macbook, and now it’s the only Apple product on the Macrumor’s Buyer’s Guide that says in big green bold letters “Buy Now! Product just updated.” Talk about good luck.

Unfortunately, my parents aren’t disclosing any dates to me yet. Just “the end of July.” I need an exact date to count down to, day by day!!! The suspense is killing me!

John Hiatt - Master of Disaster (music)

Published
by
Austen
on July 7, 2007
in Music
. 0 Comments

We get Paste magazine, which is mostly about independent music and movies. Every issue they have an awesome “Sampler” CD of full-length tracks from new albums. Most of the music isn’t great, but there are a couple of good ones on each CD. “Master of Disaster” by John Hiatt is one of them…

[audio:masterofdisaster.mp3]

It’s a very, very sad song. I love the saxophone solo and the sound of his voice throughout the song. Oh, and thanks to 1 Pixel Out for the audio player plugin.

Movie Review: The Prestige

Published
by
Austen
on July 6, 2007
in Movies and Reviews
. 0 Comments

It’s not often that a movie really makes you think. Not something like Crash - that made you think about the issue being presented, but it didn’t make you actually think. The Prestige did that for me.

The Prestige stars Christian Bale and Hugh Jackman as two rival magicians who keep trying to out-do each other. Every time that one does a new magic trick, the other attempts to find out how it was done and duplicate it. They each become so obsessed with out-doing the other that they start going to crazy lengths, eventually dealing with more than just typical magician trickery.

Continue reading ‘Movie Review: The Prestige’

Definition of “Netsua”

Published
by
Austen
on July 5, 2007
in Humor and Netsua.com
. 0 Comments

Just in case you were wondering…. (even though I know you weren’t)

Are Tumblelogs a fad?

Published
by
Austen
on July 4, 2007
in Technology and Websites
. 1 Comment

Tumblelogs are basically mini-blogs. They’re the direct content of a blog, minus the commentary. Most blogs out there are really just portals to other content, usually adding their on commentary. Tumblelogs simplify that, providing only the link. It can be a link, a photo, a video, a quote, etc.

While in theory, I think that Tumblelogs are a good idea I think that it doesn’t leave any room for someone to be themselves. In the end, all it is is a collection of links. When you commentate on these links in a blog you really make it unique.

Above is the Tumblr (a popular tumblelog creator) admin interface

A popular feature of Tumblr is the ability to aggregate feeds into your Tumblelog. This basically means that you’re combining lots of different content from other places on the internet into one place. Examples of feeds to aggregate include Flickr photos, Twitter statuses, Last.fm music, etc. And ironically, even blog posts. So a alot of Tumblelogs kind of turn into dumping grounds for all of your information online. Sort of a one-stop place. Unfortunately, I already have a one-stop place: Netsua.

But I went on and created one anyway. Tumblr is cool. It’s like Wordpress, yet much simpler. It’s fun and easy to use, but not very powerful. And here’s my tumblelog, entitled Mr. Squarepants’s Tumblelog. It’s not much. As I said, it’s just a dumping ground for all of my other things. I was inspired by Aaron’s, of course which he put a bit more work into.

So what do you think of Tumblelogs? I think that they’re a fad, but that’s what people were saying about blogging a few years ago, and now it’s seems to be here to stay. So are Tumblelogs a fad, or a newer generation of (mini) blogging?

On an unrelated note, happy birthday to my Mom!