April 20, 2009

You cant help but wonder what some people are thinking

Thank god I am a Mac user. Why? Read.

So I was given a computer to fix by a friend of a friend of a friend of a friend of a zoo keeper’s personal bee keeper’s gardener, or something like that. Anyway, the reasons cited for needing repair included running slow, and possibly a virus had worked its way into the users well-secured system.

So I got the system, fired it up, and instantly noticed there was no AV software running. Secure? Ha. Heck, there was no anti-spyware software either, a defrag had never been done and updates hadn’t been installed since Service Pack 3. It was still using IE6, and when I fired IE 6 up, I was in for a surprise.

toolbars

Feel free to take a peek at the larger image. Their IE was a toolbar heaven. It almost seems like the user just googled the word Toolbar and click every hit that came up. I mean come on, how am I supposed to work with someone like this? To top it off, they said they LIKED the toolbars. What did I do? I gave them the system back and said “I usually just fix Mac’s, try the Geek Squad.” Seriously, I cannot bother trying to ‘fix’ a system that has never had AV software on it, doesn’t have updates installed, and has more tools than the Digg offices… er… toolbars.

It is situations like this that make me thank myself more and more for switching to Mac. So many PC users are just dumb like this. Mac has ‘them’ too, but far less.

April 12, 2009

Everything is amazing, nobody is happy

This is quite possibly one of the best YouTube video’s I have seen in a long time. Its so true, and I do the exact same thing.

April 7, 2009

XBox Live NEEDS an Age Filter

xbox_live_kids.jpg

I refuse to use a microphone when playing on XBox Live unless I can confirm that the people in-game with me are above (or at least sound like they are above) the age of 18. Why? Because hearing the shrill voice of a 14 year old while trying to immerse myself in a game like Call of Duty: World at War is nearly impossible. I sit down after a long day of classes and work hoping to hop into a game and take out a few people, but instead I have to deal with hearing children yack their high-pitched, unintelligent mumbo-jumbo into the microphone making me want to quit.

More after the jump.

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March 21, 2009

Mac vs. PC – My Take

mac_vs_windows

This is a never ending debate. Which is better, Mac or PC? Which is better, OS X or Windows? The answer is: both. It all boils down to personal experiences. Care to guess what side of the fence I am on? I will give you a hint: Mac/OS X. I will give you an outline of why I have decided this to help paint a picture of where I am today.

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Another look at the iPhone

iphone_cropped A while back I wrote a review of the iPhone 2G (EDGE/Original) shortly after I decided to sell it. The timing of my review fell shortly after the App Store was released, even though I had it jailbroken and had many apps on it before the APP Store. My main reasons for selling it included its buggy App install, cumbersome text input via the touch screen, and no backgrounding. And I was happy with my MotoQ (Windows Mobile) device for a while, but grew out of it.

So, around christmas time I decided to get yet another iPhone. This time I got the 3G phone. The major draws of this was first the 3G speeds (even though where I attend college they only have EDGE, but will be getting 3G soon), GPS integration, and expansion of the App store. Am I happy now? Yeah, I am happier than I was with my original phone but still not 100% happy. What will make me love this phone completely? 3.0, however I will touch on that later.

Bigger App Store = Better App Store
The app store now has more applications than it did when I got rid of my 2G iPhone. The growth of the store was a major deciding factor in the purchase of a 3G iPhone. The social applications are by far my favorite, including Facebook, tweetie (twitter), Twitxr, Palringo (Instant Messaging), Colloquy (IRC), WordPress, etc. I feel that is really where the iPhone shines, as it makes it very easy to connect with other people no matter where you are.

Plus, there is a seemingly endless supply of games, and other time killers available for free or a low cost, something that is not matched on any other device.

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August 18, 2008

No Longer a member of the elite iPhone club

Yes, since March 2008 I had been a member of the elite “I own an iPhone” club. That is until I sold my iPhone this August, for $350, only losing $50 after owning it for just over 5 months. What phone do I own now? A Motorola Q9h (AT&T), and yes it is in fact a Windows Mobile Smartphone. This is quite a reversal of phones. Going from an Apple iPhone to a Windows smartphone. I will explain why I made the switch, and give you some insight if you too are deciding between similar phones.

First off I will tell you that I have a Macbook Pro, and a desktop that runs Windows XP and Ubuntu. So, I am neither a Apple, Linux, or Microsoft loyalist. I love my MBP, and OS X. I have no problem with Apple products. I also don’t mind Microsoft and Windows XP, as it does what I need it to do (Call of Duty 4). Thus, I have no bias. I use both Apple and Microsoft products, and enjoy both to some extent.

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March 26, 2008

Spammers have a time machine!!

Not only do I get a lot of spam during the day, I have now started to get spam from the future! Damn spammers.

future_spam1.png

March 20, 2008

Bypass Torrent File Network Filters

Many Universities, workplaces, etc are starting to take action against the use of torrent files. You can always change ports so port blocking is a worthless use of network time. However, places have started to restrict the ability to download files ending in the .torrent extension. This complicates things immensely.

Take for example a situation I encountered. On the Ubuntu 7.10 release date it was nearly impossible to find a server to download the ISO from as they were all getting hammered with requests. The solution many servers displayed was ‘download via a torrent’. When I tried that on my university network, I encountered the problem, I couldn’t download the .torrent file. This was annoying, as the University states that using the network to download and seed legal torrents is allowed. How did I get passed this? Using a simple php script I coded up, that can be found at http://steve.blogme.us/bypass.php

The script simply takes the URL to the .torrent file, saves it on the local server as a text file, and allows you to then download it, then all you need to do is change the extension to .torrent and load it up in the torrent client. It is that simple, and it works! Enjoy.

December 30, 2007

The iPod Touch really is amazing

I got the 8GB iPod Touch for Christmas, and started playing around with it. As it is out-of-the-box, there are some fun things to do but overall it isn’t that exciting. Luckily the iPod can be ‘jailbroken’ to make it more exciting. Here are some screens of my iPod touch:

ipod2.pngipod3.jpg

ipod4.jpgipod5.jpg

ipod6.jpgipod7.jpg

ipod8.jpg

So whats so good about jailbreaking an iPod Touch?
By following a few steps (that take around 20 minutes) you can install an application on your iPod that allows you to browse various software sources and install applications, completely free of charge. I have installed some apps like Mail, Google Maps, SSH, Terminal, Apollo Instant Messenger (AIM, etc), and a few more that allow you to customize the UI.

If you want to do this to your iPod, follow the very simple directions at this site.

November 24, 2007

Gas Station BSOD – Windows: 0, Other OS: 1

When at the gas station earlier today, this is what I saw on the gas station TV-screen at a near-by pump (sorry for the blurry picture, I wasn’t very close to the pump and my camera on my phone is a little dirty):

gas_station.png

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