Archive for the 'Technology' CategoryPage 2 of 5

School should be illegal

Published
by
Austen
on September 4, 2007
in Life and Technology
. 0 Comments

Yep, these next 3 hours are going to be the best 3 hours that I’ll have for a long, long time. Because, in 3 hours at 12:00 noon I will be entering school for the first time in 2 months. Yes, it’s tragic and sad and dumb and depressing and stupid and boring and dumb.

But, now that I have a Mac it’s like I’ve unlocked a vault full of wonderful programs, one of them being Schoolhouse (thanks Greg for telling me) which is kind of like iTunes, but instead of managing music you’re managing homework. I figured, it’s harder to say “no” to something saying smack in your face: “DUE TOMMOROW” than it is to push it into the back of my mind.

Their tagline should be: “Who said homework couldn’t be pretty?” And it’s actually pretty cool because after you do you assignments you can also tell it what grade you got, and it can calculate your grade, and it can trace it over the course of the semester. Again, it’s harder to say “Oh, I’m doing fine” to a graph saying “No you’re not.”

New iPod predictions

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

Are these the new Nanos? 9 to 5 Mac thinks so. Engadget thinks not.

I think, real or not: UGLY! They’re like regular iPods, but somehow hideous. The color schemes are dull, and the beautiful thin look of the current iPod Nano is gone. If those are the new iPods, that’s fine. But please Apple: Don’t ruin the Nano line!

In my perfect world, Apple would keep the Nano’s generally as they are now, and release regular iPods with bigger screens, like these mock-ups I made:

Continue reading ‘New iPod predictions’

The Onion News Network podcast

Published
by
Austen
on August 16, 2007
in Humor and Technology
. 1 Comment

The Onion News Network is a hilarious video podcast done by the makers of the also hilarious newspaper. There’s a new episode, usually about a minute or two every 3 or so days that parodies the style and feel of news channels like CNN, and also politics in America.

It’s in a way very similar to The Onion Radio News which is less than a minute and released every day. I highly suggest watching/listening to a few episodes of both of these shows, and checking out theonion.com, AND picking up one of the (I think) monthly newspapers for free.

Check out one of the recent episodes of the Onion News Network:

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

Onion News Network Podcast (iTunes) | Onion Radio News (iTunes) | TheOnion.com

Make Elements Universal!!!!!!!!!

Published
by
Austen
on August 15, 2007
in Technology
. 1 Comment

I can’t stand it anymore. Adobe is messed up. They’re stupid, dumb, and idiotic. They’ve only come out with universal versions of their fancy shmancy “Pro” products. (The regular Photoshop, After Effects, etc.)

Oh yeah! That’s great - if you have $650 to spare! I’m not going to pay one third of the price of my computer for a piece of software. No way. But it looks like that’s what Adobe wants us to do, because a year and a half after Apple announced their switch to Intel, they still haven’t made Photoshop Elements universal, meaning it runs super-slow on and any Mac purchased in the last year.

Sure, it runs. But paying $100 for a program that only performs at half-speed, and then $100 again for when the Universal version comes out is stupid. I guess that you could say I’m suffering from Photoshop withdrawal.

And I probably will be for the next year also. So Adobe had better hurry up with their universal applications, because I am very, very angry. But I guess Gimpshop will just have to for now….. at least it’s able to open .psd files. Actually, it probably would be a good thing if I got used to Gimpshop. It shouldn’t be too hard, and then I wouldn’t have to deal with any of this hassle anymore, and it’d be completely free….

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.

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
. 5 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!

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!

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!

WordPress for non-blog websites (link)

Published
by
Austen
on July 1, 2007
in Technology and Websites
. 3 Comments

I found a very interesting article over at ifacethoughts.net:

A friend wants to develop a corporate web site and wanted to get my advice on what CMS he should use. The website he envisoned was one of the simple ones [where] he was not exposed to any web site management before or [...] raw HTML. I advised him to use WordPress for it. However, he knew that WordPress was a blogging engine and felt that I was trying to tackle him cheaply.

I have encountered a very similar situation, and got pretty much the same reaction. Everyone thinks that since Wordpress was meant to make blogs, that that’s all it can do. But it’s not. I think that this site alone is an example of how Wordpress can be turned into a regular website.

The article explains this in great detail, and it’s a very good read for those reluctant to build their websites with Wordpress. The main reasons, as outlined in the article, are:

  • Of course, the page function
  • A wide vareity of tweakable themes
  • Permalink functionality
  • Easy-to-use
  • Free and Open Source

And if you read the comments, lots of people seem to agree that Wordpress is probably the best way to make a basic website because it’s easy, free, and very easy to extend with plugins.

What do you think? Is Wordpress good enough to work as a website creation tool, or does it still lack the features that other services do? Tell me in the comments!

10 Reasons why I DO want an iPhone

Published
by
Austen
on June 12, 2007
in Technology
. 3 Comments

Yes, I’m a hypocrite. ;-)

  1. It’s made by Apple.
  2. It’s a cell phone.
  3. It’s an iPod.
  4. It’s a widescreen and touchscreen iPod.
  5. I can email with it.
  6. It’s a web browser.
  7. It’s a camera.
  8. It’s every other freakin’ thing in the world also.
  9. It looks really cool.
  10. It’s incredibly shiny.

Don’t forget why I don’t want one.

Safari 3.0 for Windows

Published
by
Austen
on June 12, 2007
in Technology
. 2 Comments

I’ve never thought much of Safari. To me it was always the one thing that Apple didn’t really try at. Well, today they have a new version, and for Windows. Yes, I’ve downloaded it. Here are my first thoughts…

  • It’s styled pretty much like the Windows iTunes with standard Windows buttons at top right, and an aqua interface.
  • Now, about it being 1.6 times faster than Firefox: Maybe it has something to do with my computer, but pages loaded really slowly in Safari.
  • On the other hand, the actual interface of the browser was lightning-fast. Onc you got a page, scrolling through it was a smooth as a Macbook Pro’s cover. (Hehe)
  • Still, I’ve downloaded the Firefox 3 Alpha 5 is much faster (seriously, like jet airplane fast.) Again, I think Safari’s slow page loading has something to do with me though.

Safari for Windows is a good browser, I’m glad that they did it. But for me it will never replace the power and functionality of Firefox. Anyway, in other Apple news:

10 Reasons why I don’t want an iPhone

Published
by
Austen
on June 11, 2007
in Technology
. 2 Comments

*GASP!* What did I say? HOW DARE I! You don’t want an iPhone? Surely I must be joking. But I’m not. Here’s why:

  1. I already have an iPod.
  2. I already have a cellphone.
  3. I already have a computer.
  4. I’d be too scared to take it outside or to school.
  5. If I did it would get stolen.
  6. I’d lose it anyway.
  7. The screen would get smudged with fingerprints within a day.
  8. I can’t get it. (I don’t have Cingular.)
  9. I can’t get it. (I’m not rich.)
  10. Because iPhone 2.0 will be much better.

Don’t forget why I do want one. Still, I wouldn’t mind an iPhone Shuffle…

No, I didn’t do that.