A Great Blog

Geek 1.5 or Geek 3.0?

2009-11-10T17:39:00.002-05:00

I came across this funny infographic over at theNextWeb.com about Geek 1.0 and Geek 2.0. Essentially Geek 1.0 is Moss from the IT crowd. Geek 2.0 is something like Roy from the IT crowd, or a Mac Genius (if you are familiar with Apple's retail stores).

Now, the big questions is what about Chuck? He seems to straddle the line between Geek 1.0 and Geek 2.0. Is he a 1.5 or is he a 3.0? Is it too geeky to even ask that question?

Τι λύκειο...τι μεταπτυχιακό;

2009-11-09T17:07:00.000-05:00

Άσχετη ιστορία που σε κάνει να ξανασκεφτείς...

Τις προάλλες ήμουν σε ένα από τα μαθήματα μου, γλωσσολογία για την ακρίβεια, και έκανα μια παρουσίαση για το θέμα του critical reading. Με λίγα λόγια να διαβάζεις ένα κείμενο και να κάνεις ερωτήσεις γιατί το κείμενο και η ιστορία είναι γραμμένη έτσι και όχι αλλιώς Η παρουσίαση ήταν ένα simulation αν ήμουν καθηγητής Αγγλικών πως θα δίδασκα μια συγκεκριμένη ιστορία, και για να προετοιμαστώ για την παρουσίαση έπρεπε να σκεφτώ το background των μαθητών, την ηλικία τους και άλλα.

Εγώ και ο συνεργάτης μου αποφασίσαμε πως το κοινό μας είναι ενήλικες, αλλά ποτέ δεν σκεφτήκαμε τι ηλικία είναι αυτοί οι ενήλικες Αρχικά σκεφτόμουν 3η λυκείου, ή αρχές πανεπιστημίου και αυτό απάντησα όταν μας ρώτησε η καθηγήτρια. Μάλλον δεν άκουσε την απάντηση μου και ο συνεργάτης μου απάντησε (πιο δυνατά) πως να είστε ο εαυτός σας - δηλαδή σε μεταπτυχιακή ηλικία.

Δεν μου έκανε ιδιαίτερη εντύπωση αυτό, ίσως ήταν το τρακ, ίσως ήταν κάτι άλλο. Τελικά το σκεφτόμουν το περασμένο σαββατοκύριακο και όντως υπάρχει μεγάλη διαφορά μεταξύ ενός ατόμου στο λύκειο και κάποιον τις ηλικίας μου - κάποιον που κοντεύει να τριανταρίσει. Ο καιρός περνάει και δεν το καταλαβαίνουμε εκτός αν σταματήσουμε να παρατηρήσουμε το περιβάλλον δίπλα μας...

More MacHeist goodness!

2009-11-06T17:10:00.001-05:00

Well, the season is almost upon us...not quite MacHeist season yet (they are usually available around christmas time), but the team over at MacHeist has suprised us yet again!

Head over to MacHeist.com to get your free copies of 6 apps for your Mac. I already got the Twitterrific code (an app that I use every single day!), and I installed WriteRoom and Mariner Write - looking forward to taking them for a Spin. The Hoard of Orcs looks interesting - definitely will be spending some time with the game this weekend (study plans derailed - yet again - lol)

Prince of Persia trailer

2009-11-05T17:27:00.002-05:00

I've been keeping an eye out for video-game to movie franchises and our good ol' prince has made it (or is making it) to the screen this coming summer.

The trailer looks kind of generic, if I do say so myself. Don't get me wrong, I am going to go see this movie, but I am only going to see it as someone who's played a number of the classic (DOS and Amiga) and newer (PSP) Prince of Persia games. This trailer doesn't really excite me as moviephile. What do you think? Yay or Nay on this movie?

Now I wonder when Splinter Cell or MGS will make it onto the big screen ;-)

Ooooo! New and shiny!

2009-11-04T17:06:00.000-05:00

OK, every now and again I come across a story in my RSS feed that sounds completely and utterly ridiculous. Here's one of them "Is twitter replacing RSS readers?" which is a response to Robert Scoble's "why I don't use Google Reader anymore".

Seriously? I think Scoble, in this post at least, is taking on the persona of cranky old man waving a cane at the young'ins.

One of the crazy things mentioned is that you get your news faster on Twitter than using Reader. Well, perhaps, but reader is more like a newspaper, you can have access to it whenever you want, whereas twitter is like the silly CNN live news feed that you have to keep watching...but unlike CNN, the news does not repeat, so you have to be constantly jacked in to be paying attention to the news.

Don't get me wrong, twitter does have a place in my daily communication, but I don't want to be interrupted every two minutes when a news item comes in. Reader lets me consolidate my reading, and process things that I want to read later (star it and read it later - which is what I did with these articles). What does Twitter allow you to do?

I just don't understand the new and shiny syndrome...

Xpreria X10 hands-on

2009-11-03T08:28:00.002-05:00

Engadget has some first hands-on videos of the Xperia X10 Android handset from SonyEricsson.

I have to say that post P800 SE just seemed like a "m'eh" type of company, but with innovations coming through using Android and S60, I have to say that I am interested again! Now if only the really supported american 3G bands...

Head over to Engadget for the full review.

Salem 2009 halloween wrap up

2009-11-02T17:58:00.000-05:00

I've been waiting to write this post until I had a few YouTube videos of my outing on Saturday but it seems that my iPhone won't upload them over 3G. So commentary now, videos later.

This year I actually went out to see all the costumes and festivities at Halloween. When the darned holiday falls on a weekday I don't wantto go out after work and I don't want to stay up late. Anyway, the excursion was quite satisfying.

The low lights (aka thumbs down):
There were many women dressed in cop stripper clothing. M'eh! Unimaginative! While you did get my attention it was for the wrong reasons. Costume grade; D-

The best single costume:
There were two women that looked like friends going through Salem. One dressed as Dot matrix from spaceballs, and the other as Rosie te riveter. Both costumes: A+! (for originality and for quality)

Group appearances:
There were several notable groups. My personal favorite was the street fighter II groupade up of Guile, Ruy, Honda, Blanka and Bison. Too bad there was no Dhalsim. Would have loves see that!
Other groups: captain planet and the planeteers, the whole wondering group from the wizard of oz, and a group dressed like super Mario characters (Mario and Luigi seemed like popular outfits this year)

Costumes I would have love to see, buy I didn't:
Klingons
Star trek the next generation characters
Stargate characters (specifically: Teal'c)
Hellsing (manga) characters
Sgt Frog characters (keroro guso manga)
Farscape and andromeda characters

Well, I guess you can tell I am a scifi fan.

Next year Halloween falls on a Sunday so I will probably be on the lookout again

More videos and photos to follow...

What iDon't, Droid Does

2009-11-01T03:16:00.003-05:00

This past week we've had many, many sites do exposes on Motorola's Droid.

The ad campaign that Verizon is using is kind of weird in that it reminds me of the Sega campaigns "Genesis does what nintendon't"

The other thing that is weird about this ad campaign is that it's not geared toward the average joe. What does the average joe know (or want to know) about open development? or widgets? or running simultaneous apps? The average joe just wants things to work, and he does not care what it's called or if it's available. What he cares about is not crashing and being able to run. The iPhone is geared toward getting people acclimated to smartphones that in the past have used RZRZ...whereas Android is for the geeks among us (at least for now).

Other than that...well I guess I like Droid and Android 2.0. It's just that I would never buy one since it's on Verizon CDMA.

I really loved this engadget demo - too bad there isn't a GSM version for at&t or t-mobile available :-)

Classical music - mobile phone style

2009-10-31T09:44:00.001-04:00

I came across this ad a few weeks back but it was lingering in my starred items folder.

I have to say that if this is actually a true undertaking, it's pretty amazing!

According to Engadget, Vodafone NZ's Symphonia features 1000 cellphones syncing 53 different ringtone alerts from 2000 sent messages to reconstruct Tchaikovsky's 1812 overture

Δύο χάλια ταινίες!

2009-10-30T08:17:00.002-04:00

Το περασμένο σαββατοκύριακο πήγα στην βιβλιοθήκη και δανείστηκα μερικές ταινίες, και συγκεκριμένα έκατσα και είδα δύο από αυτές. Η πρώτη ήταν μια ταινία με τον Στήβεν Σεγκάλ, που ήξερα πως θα ήταν μούφα αλλά είπα να γελάσω λίγο. Το όνομα ήταν against the dark, και υποτίθεται πως ήταν ταινία τρόμου, οπού ο πληθυσμός της γης είχε αρπάξει μια ίοση που τους έκανε ζόμπι και μερικοί προσπαθούσαν να επιβιώσουν της επιθέσεις των ζόμπι, και η ομάδα του Σεγκάλ σκότωνε τα ζόμπι και τους αρρώστους. Μαλακία! Τον Σεγκάλ ζήτημα ήταν να τον είδαμε δέκα λεπτά σε όλη την ταινία, οπότε δεν γελάσαμε και πολύ.

Η δεύτερη ταινία ήταν το Immortal. Ήταν στα Αγγλικά αλλά ήταν Γαλλικής παραγωγής. Το έτος είναι 2098, στην Νέα Υόρκη, και μια πυραμίδα έχει εμφανιστεί να πετάει πάνω από τον ουρανό της πόλης. Η ταινία είναι μια μίξη μεταξύ κανονικών ηθοποιών και CG. Έλεγα πως θα ήταν καλή η ταινία αφού είναι βασισμένη σε manga, αλλά τελικά ήταν απογοήτευση. Πραγματικά δεν καταλάβαινες γιατί γινόταν το τι γινόταν. Και τελικά όταν τελείωσε η ταινία, και βλέπεις που καταλήγει η ταινία, παραμένεις να σκέπτεσαι «ε και; χέστηκε η φοράδα στ' αλώνι». Η ιστορία καλή φαινόταν αλλά ποτέ δεν την ανέπτυξαν Η ιστορία ήταν πως ο Αιγύπτιος Θεός Ώρος είχε μόνο 7 μέρες ζωής και έπρεπε να βρει έναν άνθρωπο που να μην έχει κάνει πλαστική χειρουργική για να χρησιμοποιήσει το σώμα του και να αφήσει έγκυο κάποια μπλε εξωγήινη

Μπράβο...αλλά γιατί πέθαινε; Που βρέθηκε αυτή η εξωγήινη; και τι γίνετε με την πλαστική χειρουργική σε αυτό το μέλλον; Τελικά πολλά μας άφησαν άλυτα... ευχαριστούμε! (LOL)

Voicemail - the google way!

2009-10-29T08:53:00.002-04:00

I have to say that I love google voice!

Even though there was a spat between Apple, ATT an Google over the use of it on the iPhone and the FCC is trying to make heads and tails of the situation, I think that it is a great service (even though I need to jailbreak my phone to get a client for it - BOOOO at apple!)

Anyway, this week Google announced that you can use Google Voice with your pre-existing number, or you can get a new number.

If you sign up for Google Voice with your existing number, you'll get:

Online, searchable voicemail

Free automated voicemail transcription

Custom voicemail greetings for different callers

Email and SMS notifications

Low-priced international calling

If you decide to also get a new Google number, you'll get all of the above PLUS:

One number that reaches you on all your phones

SMS via email

Call screening

Listen In

Call recording

Conference calling

Call blocking

I seriously hope that Apple and Google get together to make a google voice app for the iphone because if they don't they are REALLY missing out!

Google History - in 2 minutes

2009-10-28T08:31:00.001-04:00

I came across this video of the 11 years of Google's existence.

I have to say that I really like the production value of this video! It's really nicely executed!

Office Space - BYOGR....

2009-10-27T08:08:00.001-04:00

I think the funny story of the week goes to the Computer Smash. For once whole dollar you can get 30 seconds of computer smashing pleasure.

Got a PCLOAD LETTER error that's frustrating you? Is the copier insisting that there is a paperjam where there is clearly no paperjam? Then perhaps this is the event for you!

Now if you want a real office space scene re-enactment, you have to bring your own gangster rap and baseball bat ;-)

The future of the Amiga

2009-10-26T08:52:00.003-04:00

I can't believe that it's 2009, more than 15 years since the end of Commodore and the beginning of Amiga's limbo, and we are talking about the future of the Amiga.

I was reading an article on OSNews the other day on the AmigaOS roadmap. It's pretty cool that Amiga has persevered all this time and alternative/compatible Operating Systems like MorphOS have come out, but I can't help but wonder what sort of a future this platform has if it's not running on Intel (or intel compatible) chip sets.

I know that MorphOS was recently ported over to run on old school Mac Minis, but those machines are few and far between, or they will become hard to find anyway as parts start to fail. Computer hardware has evolved by leaps and bounds since the time of the original amiga. Why not invest in some kick-butt emulation research to emulate those older environments on core 2 duo architectures and use off-the-shelf hardware like the new Mac Minis, or a Dell computer (gasp!), so that the platform can actually have a fighting chance?

Running on niche hardware these days isn't really an option if you actually want to become a success, or if success isn't your think, how about not biting the dust?

Pirate Ikariam

2009-10-25T09:39:00.004-04:00

I've been playing with Ikariam (for free) for the past few months and it's a nice freemium game.

Recently one of my colleagues showed me this image, probably photoshopped, of Pirate Ikariam.

I am close to completing all of my research, I've been expanding my towns, and I'm close to a point where I will be asking "well, what's next?" Perhaps this would make a nice little expansion to the game :-)

As a side thought - I do wonder how long it took this person to photoshop the pirate theme onto his city...

Only in Amer...Japan?!?!

2009-10-24T11:51:00.002-04:00

OK, this is pretty gross!

I was reading the register and I saw that Burger King in Japan has made a special burger for the launch of Windows 7.

According the register, this burger comes with 7 beef patties (I guess 7 for Windows 7).

So the big questions that I have for this cross promotion:

1. Can you actually eat this without utensils?

2. Can you actually finish it?

3. It is meant to give you sustenance while waiting for Windows 7 to install?

4. Does it comes with a side order of Blue Screen of Heart Attack? :-)

Rapid learning...

2009-10-23T06:11:00.001-04:00

I saw this on the Usable Learning blog the other day.

I love the tag line - sometimes it only takes one time ;-)

Wouldn't it be nice if all learning were like that :-)

It's time for a house party!

2009-10-22T07:38:00.001-04:00

Happy Windows 7 Day!!!!

Will you *bleeeeeep* ? :-)

Ακαδημαϊκώς, είμαι το παράδειγμα προς εξομοίωση

2009-10-21T08:33:00.001-04:00

Αυτή την εβδομάδα διάβαζα ένα δημοσίευμα από την «θεία Σοφία» στο digital era με τον τίτλο Ακαδημαϊκώς είμαι το παράδειγμα προς αποφυγή. Βασικά το βρήκα αρκετά αστείο γιατί, όπως έγραψα και στα σχόλια, και εγώ στην ίδια κατάσταση βρίσκομαι.

Όταν ήμουν στο λύκειο μου άρεσαν δύο πράγματα - η πληροφορική, και η ανατομία (βιολογία και χημεία). Έλεγα να πάω για πτυχίο πληροφορικής πρώτα (που το έκανα) και μετά να πάω να γίνω γιατρός. Τελικά μετά από δύο χρόνια πληροφορικής δεν ήθελα να είμαι φοιτητής «για πάντα» και έτσι αποφάσισα να μην ακολουθήσω την ιατρική. Τι έκανα όμως; Πρώτα τελείωσα ΜΒΑ, μετά MS σε information systems, και τώρα κοντεύω να τελειώσω ένα μάστερ σε γλωσσολογία και ένα στην διαπαιδαγώγηση Τόσα χρόνια στα μάστερ θα είχα τελειώσει ιατρική ;-)

Η αλήθεια είναι πως, όπως η Σοφία, μου είναι λίγο περίεργο να πάω να κάνω διδακτορικό σε άλλο πανεπιστήμιο Το πανεπιστήμιο στο οποίο είμαι τώρα, ακαδημαϊκώς τουλάχιστον, είναι σαν οικογένεια. Το κακό με την οικογένεια είναι πως είτε πρέπει να κάνεις την δουλειά της οικογενείας είτε πρέπει να πας κάπου αλλού. Η αλήθεια είναι πως οι διδακτορικές δουλειές της οικογενείας δεν μου γυαλίζουν ιδιαίτερα το μάτι, οπότε πρέπει αναγκαστικά να κοιτάω αλλού. Οπότε τώρα κοιτάμε για κάπου που να προσφέρουν διδακτορικό σε κάτι που να με ενδιαφέρει (π.χ.: information technology, γλωσσολογία, αρχαίες γλώσσες) και κάπου που να μπορώ να δουλέψω - γιατί φυσικά έχουμε και έξοδα που πρέπει να πληρώσουμε. :-)

Windows Phone ad - stupid!

2009-10-20T08:48:00.002-04:00

A while back I had starred this ad so that I could go back and see it.

Well...I did, and boy is it stupid! The icons with legs - uber-creepy! Yeah, I know I can take microsoft word, excel and powerpoint documents with me, as well as have outlook and twitter on a windows mobile phone, but you couldn't come up with a better way of letting us know that? Apple's "there's an app for that" campaign is highly successful. How about "we've had that app for ages" campaign? Or how about a "business and playtime - two sides of the same coin" ad...

Φοβερά (Awesome) Mods!: Mac Pro Ultra Mini

2009-10-19T03:06:00.002-04:00

Can you make a MacBook look like a Mac Pro?

Of course you can! Read all about it here

I have to say, this is one sleek mod!

Last Chance to See - the Kakapo

2009-10-18T13:01:00.002-04:00

The BBC has a great series called Last Chance to See, in which a zoologists and Stephen Fry go around the globe to see species on the brink of extinction, to take some good photos, and to hopefully raise awareness so that we don't lose them.

In a recent episode the New Zealand Kakapo (a flightless parrot) was featured and the zoologist...well let's say that the parrot fancied him ;-)

The smell of money

2009-10-17T11:27:00.002-04:00

Last weekend I was smelling a few dollar bills in my wallet - I don't know why - but I noticed that they had a bizarre smell. I have not smelled money since I was 12 or something like that. As a kid I was also a big fan of DuckTales...so it was quite funny when this SNL skit came on

Moral of the story?

Careful of dirty money ;-)

Πάει και το GV mobile!

2009-10-17T09:44:00.000-04:00

Εδώ και καιρό χρησιμοποιώ το πρόγραμμα gv mobile στο iPhone για να έχω πρόσβαση στο google voice. Όπως είναι γνωστό η apple έβγαλε όλες τις εφαρμογές από το AppStore που έχουν να κάνουν με αυτή την υπηρεσία, ευτυχώς που είχα κατεβάσει την εφαρμογή πριν γίνει αυτό.

Χτες λοιπόν πάω να χρησιμοποιήσω το gv mobile και μου βγαίνει σφάλμα με τα login credentials. Κερατά! Το παλεύω από εδώ, το παλεύω από εκεί. Τίποτα!

Τι έγινε; Η google άλλαξε την μέθοδο που κάνουν authenticate τα login και αφού δεν υπαρχουν αναβαθμήσεις στο AppStore για την εφαρμογή, δεν δουλεύει!

Τώρα αν θέλω την εφαρμογή πρέπει να κάνω jailbreak...

-- Post From My iPhone

Poking fun at online education

2009-10-15T06:55:00.002-04:00

Don't get me wrong, there are institutions out there that are credible (and accredited) institutions of learning that have online branches for students who are far away, or have jobs and can't drop everything to pursue their education. But there are cases of diploma mills that grant MBAs to dogs how is it not easy to poke fun at online institutions? :-)

This video is from last week's Saturday Night Live - quite humorous if you ask me :-)