When Is A Pikachu Not A Pokémon?
Posted by Rey
My son started speaking at one and in his Borg-like ability to acquire language skills I found myself constantly surprised by what words he knew. I was constantly on the defense, answering questions. But then the day that every father dreads dawned, when his very vocal boy looks up at him, points between his legs and asks “what is this called?”
Links N’ Junk 12: Old vs. New Version
Posted by Rey
I’ve been swamped with a self-imposed crash course on CSS consisting of countless reading hours, lots of sweating and bitter tears. But I still managed to stumble across some interesting links.
- Lifesaver. You were excited by the new version. You upgraded. It stank and your computer just keeps crashing. Old Version comes to the rescue giving you the old stable installer, before the spyware and before the crashes.
- iLife. Apple (sort of) admits that iTunes 7 has problems by bumping some core issues to their hot topics page. What they really need to do is patch iTunes 7. In the meanwhile: check Old Version.
- Toys. New Version of Tickle Me Elmo has s eizures.
- Tek. Laptop up and explodes and the pix are put online.
- Privacy. Surf the internet anonymously. People like MCF can now be honest-to-goodness mysteriously creepy freaks.
- Bots. Geeks everywhere announce the end of science after the discovery of synthetic skin for robots.
- ThatsGood2Know. It’s old and true— pagan family fun. I’m not attacking them but I did catch a giggle-fit from the arts and crafts.
- CSS Design. There’s those designers you envy then there’s the ones that are so good that keep you up at night, trying to learn css. :: Bows to Haus Hoyer::
Links N’ Junk 11
Posted by Rey
- Fuzzy Theology. I believe in the second coming but I don’t think this Paul Rodriguez look a like fits the bill as he calls himself Jesus Christ and spouts completely anti-Biblical things like “there is no such thing as sin”.
- Web. 25Gigs of free online storage by AMD. ::raises glass:: Now all they need to do is come up with something that can top the new Intel Chips.
- CSS. Yeah two of those nice CSS sites that makes you want to go nuts: CSS Elite and the Inspiration King.
- iLife. iTunes still hasn’t addressed the issue of not playing through a 5.1 audio setup. Ridiculous. I would link to their support page but they have ignored any reference to there being a problem even though the message board has plenty of ticked off users. And yes, I tried and none of their solutions worked. I would have tried on the mac but it doesn’t seem to have enough slots for my 5.1 system. ::sigh::
- TekWars. I tried out Urge for a day and although the concept is strong the interface is bland and there’s way too many bugs to make it worthwhile at this point. Plus the fact that it only works on the PC is pretty limiting. Try again guys. In that same vein, The Walmart Empire might be striking Apple back with its own download store: that would be scary.
- CMS Awards. Vote for Joomla because they are a kick-rear Content Management System.
- ReDesign. MCF is furiously working on his blogger template.
- Good2Know. My Weird and Scary Sect of Christianity got mentioned on LonelyGirl15’s forum. You know, if it’s different, it’s gotta be evil.
Standard Response Wednesday 2
Posted by Rey
Continuing the tradition of not having anything to write…it’s time now for a standard response of a fellow blogger. You know, those little sentences that make that blogger unique among other bloggers. Here’s the standard response:
Having said that, I should also say that I have never understood the common practice normally practiced by most married people. I don’t disapprove, but no one has ever explained to me the reasons for having these practices. People I respect have practiced this so I think there must be something to it; I just don’t know what. Still, it occurs to me that there may be some merit in periodically practicing with my wife what I practiced with her eight years ago.
It also occurs to me that if I perform this practice in private, I don’t need to concern myself with tradition.
You won’t see that on his site (and I was sorely tempted to add a pregnant ellipses at the end there), but it definitely sounds like the one and only Curt ::Raises Glass::
Apple Keynote: Taking Over Your iLife
Posted by Rey
- iPod: 60% brigher screen. Increased battery life (which it desperately needed). New headphones. Gapless playback on digital music (matching their (old) iTunes feature of crossfade slightly). Instant searching for music. You can play games on the iPod now (albeit sucky ones when you consider what PSP has but their point is to ad a perk to the iPod not give you portable gaming). Price is down to $249 for 30gb.
- iPod Nano: comes in thinner, aluminum and colored. Battery life increased considerably. 40% brighter display. New headphones. Double the storage for same price ($249 for 8gb). New iPod charger.
- iPod shuffle: even smaller. Instead of losing a packet of gum you can now lose something a fraction of that size. Aluminum case with a built in clip so you can wear it—basically as big as half your thumb. Comes with a USB 2.0 dock, 1gb storage and earbuds and it’s being sold for $79 bucks.
- iTunes: Funny, he kept reemphasizing “legally distributed music”. Itunes is one of the top 5 sellers of music: the top 4 are physical cd sellers (1: Walmart, 2: Best Buy; 3: Target; 4: Amazon).Cleaned up the menus and libraries. Added new views that (1) lets you see the album art and (2) Cover flow view of every playlist (which seems redundant to me. It’s basically just giving you a shot of the cover with a cool interface) then if you have an iTunes account and you don’t have album art they give you a free download—no mention of doing the same for the cover art. Videos are now being delivered at 640×480 for better quality. Updater in iTunes instead of having to do that (slightly annoying) synchronizing bit. What’s cool is that they have a feature that lets you do the 10 most recent unwatched shows to synch into your ipod so you don’t have to manually do it. Gapless playback which has zero gap between songs. Finds the songs that were meant to be played gapless so that this works (like Dark Side of the Moon). Movies are going to be available on iTunes the same day they’re released on DVD and priced at 12.99 for new releases then they go up to 14.99. Library titles will be 9.99 everyday. I think its a tad expensive for “near-dvd quality”.
- iTV: lets you enjoy your media on your tv. It’s not the real name yet. Takes the movies you have on your computer via a wireless broadcast and sends it to your tv. USB2. Ethernet. HDMI connector. Component Video. Optical Audio. Let’s you see movie previews, podcasts, your photos, music from the internet, your computer, the apple store on your tv.
Links N’ Junk 10
Posted by Rey
Virii ConsumerReports tests anti-virus software by creating new virus strands. McAfee properly asks “ What? Are you insane?” (paraphrased)
ConsumerReports also does some wackiness with anti-spyware that doesn’t reflect a real world scenario: they use only one spammer.
Windows Is your PC Vista-Ready? And do I really want it—I hated how duplo Macs got with OSuX
iLife When iPhone hits Apple will be Rich(er)
Today. This day in history.
Makes You Think. I don’t know how accurate miniature earth is (although they’ve supplied us with a link to the originator) but considering all the stuff in this post, it is all the more humbling. (I am not recommending you donate through their site—if you wish to donate to anything contact your local government agency and get a listing of registered organizations.)
So Hot: My Celeb Look-Alikes
Posted by Rey
I decided to try some alternate shots to see what I get:
Two Conclusions, the first is news to me and the second is unsurprising. I apparently look like Tom Clancy (Or parts of me do anyway). Second is that my wife is Hot in profile or head on: I didn’t need a test to tell me that.
School Daze, School Days
Posted by Rey
My memory is odd. I can remember complex theological frameworks, the wonders of the quantum world, plot points from various books but fuzz on faces and many of my life experiences. I don’t remember my first day of kindergarten….just remember tears. I don’t remember my first day of any school year really—they just form a texture of fear, apprehension and extreme sorrow since it always pounded a nail in summer’s coffin. What I do remember is the first day of college where I thought I made a huge mistake: I became an artist.
I remember listening to the professor’s speech (which bored me) about the beauty of abstract art (which I vehemently disagreed with) before being mandated to Begin (which boggled me).
With ink-loaded paint brush I tentatively attacked my paper; splatters, sprinkles and ink-squirts abounded. When I was done me and these two guys next to me stepped back from our smeared papers and looked at each other. The sorrow in their eyes was no doubt a reflection of what was in my own. I had thrown away computer programming to smear ink. Fine art indeed.
One of those two eventually switched to a communications major, was laughed to scorn by me and the rest of our art group, subsequently got hired by Nickelodeon and has been inking their work over there: he showed us. The other stuck to fine art, eventually took his masters and now is featured at gallery shows while being a professor at my Alma Mata.
Me, I held out hope to get into the comic book industry for the next year—realizing that there were people way better than me and knowing that I was pretty much a rip-off artist: I had no personal style. I eventually switched to a Graphic Design major (and laughed to scorn by the rest of our art group), eventually got hired by a small design firm and have been working (thank God) ever since.
I’ve since learned several lessons. I’ve learned that because you’re in communications doesn’t mean you’re not broadcasting art’s message. I’ve learned that because you’re a Fine Artist doesn’t mean you don’t teach art’s message. I’ve learned just because I’m a graphic designer doesn’t mean that I don’t touch the brush and disappear in art’s message. All different aspects of the heading Artist.
–Check out some of the others on Janet’s site–
Standard Response Wednesday
Posted by Rey
I figured: I have nothing to write…so why not put up a standard response of a fellow blogger. You know, those little sentences that make that blogger unique among other bloggers. Here’s the standard response:I remember the 2-part Return of Optimus Prime at the end of season 3 that had some odd conversations by the likes of Wreck-Gar. Wreck-Gar was a Junkion, a race of motorcycle robots from the planet of junk who learned English by watching television and his (their) dialogue consisted almost entirely of jingles, taglines, and sitcom quotes, (et. al) which I imagine could prove challenging to the writers as often as it proved fun. Good times.
You won’t see that on his site, but it definitely sounds like the one and only MCF. ::Raises Glass::
Crocodile Hunter Steve Irwin dead
Posted by Rey
Did anyone not see this coming? The guy wrestled with crocodiles, played with venemous snakes and put his head near all types of scary critters.Irwin’s death was caused by a Stingray while filming “The Oceans Deadliest”. The dude survived everything above land but the ocean was where he met his end. It’s sad because he was valiant and the stuff he exposed us to was interesting.
Update: He pulled the stingrays barb out of his own chest. The dude was no joke.
