Coals [2] Newcastle

How Internet Works | Vladstudio.com - free desktop wallpapers, widescreen, dual monitors, iPhone wallpapers, iPad wallpapers, backgrounds for mobile phones, wallpaper clocks, e-cards

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Fri, 03 Sep 2010 22:03:00 +0000

An AWESOME depiction of what your browser is doing when you're sitting there looking for cat videos or snarky IT commentary.

Posted via email from Nate's Random Walk

The Person Who Really "Gets" Twitter

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Wed, 25 Aug 2010 15:04:00 +0000

David Pogue (@Pogue) is in many ways a modern day Lewis Thomas. With a keen eye for the next big thing and an optimistic, excited attitude towards next big things, he brings things to the attention of many people who would otherwise miss out on the cool stuff going on in our world of IT and CS and other TLAs. (Note to pedants: "T" is a variable, which can be equal to "two" or "three" in this case. Now hush.)

One of the things that Mr. Pogue has done right is Twitter. With 1.3 million people "following" him, he has an amazingly broad base of knowledge, opinion, and talent at his disposal, and he makes use of it in amazing ways. Always respectful to his followers, he asks them for advice, opinions, insights, and gets richly rewarded. He's used Twitter to find people for a number of videos, to write a book, and to get instant and intelligent feedback on his blog. In all these cases he's careful to give credit where credit is due and let the world know that he's got the most awesome fan base out there. This is how social networking is done, people.

Granted, not everyone has 20+ years as the author of a famous series of books and a NYT weekly article to use as a springboard for their Twitter empire, but even of those people who are in a position to draw a large number of followers Mr. Pogue has done the best job I've ever seen of making it a good thing for everyone involved.

P.S. Those who follow me on both blogs (Hi Dad!) may remember that I poked fun at David Pogue's use of twitter on CANS some time ago.(And he gently poked back). I've never had any problem changing my tune.

Getting a new computer ready

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Thu, 05 Aug 2010 06:12:00 +0000

I'll finally be getting my mac mini tomorrow, and in anticipation I've been thinking about what I need to do to get it ready to be my main workhorse computer. Which led me to think about the software on OSX and Windows that I can't live without; which led me to think about how interchangeable the two OSes really are. To start with, let's look at my list of "must install" software on OSX:

So, a lot of it is straight up web design stuff. Now, let's see which of these has a Windows equivalent:

Launchbar - Not really. Launchy does some of what Launchbar does, but not everything.
1Password - Windows version is in beta, is pretty close. Yes-ish.
Dropbox - Cross platform, so yes.
Transmit - No. There are FTP programs on Windows, but Transmit blows them all out of the water.
Scrivener - No. PageFour is doing good things, but they aren't anywhere close to Scrivener yet.
Komodo - Cross Platform. Yes
MAMP - XAMPP is as good if not better. Might be better.
Coda - No. Dreamweaver doesn't count because I hate it.
TextMate - E text editor is trying, and is close. I'll give this one a "yes"
Typinator - Breevy is a perfect, feature-for-feature replacement. Yes
CSSEdit - No. There's nothing on any OS that gets anywhere close to this beautiful little gem of a program.
XCode - Visual Studio is far better than XCode.

So, of the 12 programs I consider "must haves" on the Mac, there are six (and a half) that have Windows replacements that are as good or better than their Mac counterparts. But what about going the other way? What Windows programs do I consider "must haves", and how do the Mac equivalents measure up?

When setting up a windows box I install:

Dropbox
1Password
Komodo
Visual Studio
Microsoft Office
OneNote
Torchlight
XAMPP
TortiseSVN
Notepad++
LINQPad

So, how do the Mac equivalents stack up?

Dropbox - Cross platform
1Password - Mac Version is better
Komodo - Cross platform
Visual Studio - VS kicks XCode's behind.
Microsoft Office - I like iWork better, but Office is more full featured. Half score
OneNote - Nothing on earth is like unto OneNote. Definite no.
Torchlight - Cross platform
XAMPP - MAMP exists, but XAMPP is better. Half score.
TortiseSVN -Nothing this good works on OSX. I like Versions, but TortiseSVN is far more user-friendly.
Notepad++ - I'm counting TextMate as a Notepad++ replacement. Yes.
LINQPad - Well, not really applicable on OSX, but that wasn't the question, so no.

So, of the 11 Windows "must haves" there are 6 that have equal or better versions on OSX.

So what does this tell us? Not much. I could do a price comparison, but since Visual Studio would cost $12000 for a normal person to buy the version I get for free from school (and from work) it's just not fair or helpful.

The point is this: Each OS has things it does better, or things in which it specializes. I happen to like OSX better than Windows, but there's no denying that Win 7 is a good OS.

The deeper point is this: don't write posts like this at midnight and expect them to come to any sort of conclusion.

Thank you for your time. :)

Breevy - Short, sweet, and to the point

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:13:00 +0000

One class of programs that seems oddly abundant on the Mac is the snippet expander. TextExpander, Typinator, and others all vie for that place in the mac user's heart (and, more importantly, wallet and menu bar). During my current sojurn in PC world I haven't found one that I really like until fairly recently.

Breevy by 16 Software is exactly what I wanted. It stores your replacement strings in Dropbox, if you are so inclined, is compatible with TextExpander, and has the usual draft of replacement modes: immediate, on word-end, or only after a special key is typed (Ctrl, by default.) So I can have the string "NAte" replaced with "Nate" as soon as I stop typing, or after I type a space. But the long list of unicode characters I use to test text fields is stored as "uni1" with the requirement that you press Ctrl after typing it to fire off a full page of multi-lingual nonsense. For a more thourough review of text replacement programs in general, see David Pogue's excellent article on the subject, and a less serious version on my own Crazy Apple News Site

Breevy has the one crucial piece of UI that so many programs miss out on: it's completely invisible until you want it. Content to live in your System Tray, it monitors your typing and corrects mistakes (if you want it to.), expands your short snippets into long string, and does what it's supposed to do. Click on the icon and you can add new replacement strings or launchers. (or corrections. I just added the string "breeby" because I keep typing that instead of "Breevy".)

More complex substitutions are available as well: Multiple tab stops, control over how the replacement is capitalized (Match typed string [typing "Teh" gives you "The", while "teh" turns into "the"], case-insensitive[useful for names, so typing "bne" always turns into "Ben", no matter if you typed "bne" or "Bne" or "bNe"], or case sensitive["CR" turns into "Chromatic Room", "cr" turns into "created rhombus"] [those are really odd examples]) There are presets for inserting the current date in a multitude of formats, simulated key presses, the contents of the clipboard, and others. Finally, of course, it can place your cursor wherever you want in the replacement text when you're finished, although if you're like me you usually just want it at the end.

Breevy has one feature I haven't seen on other text replacement programs: multiple "abbreviations" for one replacement target. This is mostly useful for words you spell wrong frequently. so the replacement string "teh|hte" will replace either of the two most common mistakes people make with the actual English definitive article.

Breevy also has the another "invisible until you need it" feature: excellent support from the developer. When I updated my install from 3.03 to 3.04 suddenly my snippets and launchers all disappeared. Looking closer I discovered that Breevy itself had disappeared. I immediately emailed the developer, who responded quickly and courteously, without assuming (as it's easy to do) that I'm an idiot. We worked through a few things, and isolated the problem (My anti-virus program thinks Breevy 3.04 is a virus). He then let me know that he would work with my AV vendor to get Breevy back on the whitelist, and sent me a copy of 3.03 to get me back up and running until that happens.

I can't stress how pleased I am with this app. The development is sound and complete, the UI works exactly the way I would wish, and the developer is thoughtful, intelligent and courteous. This is a quality product.

Catalog Living

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 15:23:00 +0000

Ready for anything…

via catalogliving.tumblr.com

Leaving my basket of secondary shells under the table allows me to rotate in new shells at a moment’s notice!

There is so very, very much to love about this little site. The formula is simple: take over-decorated pictures and put awesome text beneath them. Check them out. Because you deserve it!

Posted via email from Nate's Random Walk

The "Best" Programming Language

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Wed, 12 May 2010 15:52:00 +0000

I was recently asked the following question:

" I want to start learning a computer programing language. I'm currently enrolled in an IT Degree program online and want to really focus on mastering a language (C#, perl, java, etc). What's the best one? I would like to develop office apps and possibly some iphone and android apps. "

-P. Deatherace

So, here's my best stab at an answer:

There's not a "best" language for all programming jobs any more than there's a "best" tool for a carpenter to use. At one time or another in my (relatively short) career I've used Flex/Flash, Java, C#, perl, PHP, Python, Ruby, and a number of others. And this isn't uncommon. For example: if you're going to write iPhone apps you have to use Objective-C and Cocoa; if you want to write an Android app you have to use Java. C# is excellent for Windows programming, while PHP is great for web stuff. And then there's Ruby. I love Ruby for data wrangling (i.e. converting reports from one system into something another system can understand.)

So, which is the "best" language to learn? I'm sorry: there isn't one. The best THING to learn is how to think like a programmer. Andy Hunt says that we shouldn't write "in" a language, we should write "into" a language. What that means (to me) is that there are certain ways of thinking that are part of programming in general. How things are done in each language vary, but as you gain the basic skills you will be able to adapt to those differences quickly.

So, what language should you learn? If you are writing office apps C# is your best friend. Furthermore, once you get good at C# you'll be able to write useful Windows utilites quickly and easily. It won't work for Android or iPhone/iPad, but crossing over to Java/Obj-C is easier once you have your feet wet, and C# is easier to learn than the other two. If you're learning C#, get to know LinqPad. Being able to test just a couple of lines of code without writing a whole new solution or class is invaluable and will speed you up immensely.

There is no book as broad as the internet. Grow to love StackOverflow.com. You will find answers to just about any question already listed there. If it's not already there, ask the question and you'll probably have an answer within an hour. If you're using C#, get used to MSDN and get comfortable with their layout and navigation. You'll be glad you did.

Finally, the Internet is never as deep as a book. If you start to get deeply invested in a language, buy a book. O'Reilly, PragProg, Wrox, and others put out excellent books, many of which you can get at good prices used on Amazon, or get inexpensive e-book copies direct from the publishers.

Why I don't hate Roger Ebert (Even if I don't agree with him ever)

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Wed, 12 May 2010 06:09:00 +0000

My last post was irresponsible and stupid. And I got called on that and that's only right. To Mr. Ebert I can only apologize for posting thoughtless personal attacks when I should have taken the time to intelligently disagree. To everyone else I can only thank you for taking the time to either call me names or eloquently prove me wrong. Both are good.

I still don't agree with most of what Mr. Ebert writes, but that's no excuse for poor, sloppy writing. My only excuse was that I thought nobody would read my comments because nobody ever does. But even that is no excuse. Saying "I didn't think anyone was listening" doesn't justify saying ignorant things.

If anyone is still interested in this little tech blog in the future, I promise that I will spend more time and effort on the things I write. Mr. Ebert has spent a lifetime building up his credibility and a reputation, in a field I don't understand at all. My little attack on him was like an ant attacking Everest: there is no way I could harm him. But it was still very wrong and I am sorry.

While everyone is of course free to do whatever they want, I would ask that you not link to this article. This isn't a ploy to get page views; I don't want page views for movie stuff because I don't care about movies. This is just an apology, and an acknowledgement that I was wrong and foolish. Do with it what you will.

Why I Hate Roger Ebert (And You Should Too)

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Tue, 11 May 2010 18:15:00 +0000

Hi there, Roger Ebert fans!

If you are here to rip me a new one, feel free (NOTE: Comments have been closed. The spammers have found this post and I'm rejecting tons of spam every hour). If you have the time, please read the comments already posted, and take a look at my ~~two~~ ~~three~~ five comments, and then you can call me whatever names you like. Because you are right; this is poorly written ad hominem attack on a well-respected and professional film critic. With whom I happen to disagree 90% of the time.
And now, Mr. Ebert's quote:

3-D is ... unsuitable for grown-up films of any seriousness. It limits the freedom of directors to make films as they choose. For moviegoers in the PG-13 and R ranges, it only rarely provides an experience worth paying a premium for.

(From Roger Ebert's "Why I hate 3-D (and You Should Too) )

Don't get me wrong, I have no love for 3-D. At all. I think it's painful at worst and kinda neat at best. But Roger Ebert has totally forgotten what it means to be a human being who goes to movies. He's as much a fixture in the movie industry as the popcorn machines, and has had nearly as many original thoughts as a popcorn machine. He has forgotten that film is an art form second, and "something to do when I'm kinda bored" first, foremost, and always. Basically, whenever someone starts talking about "films of any seriousness" it's time to put them out to pasture. Frank Oz (in the excellent documentary on the making of "The Dark Crystal") said (more or less, I'm paraphrasing) "We pour our hearts and souls into creating this whole new world, and for two hours, you're in it with us. Then the lights come on and you say 'well, that was fun, what's for dinner?'" That's what movies are all about.

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

Crazy Apple News Site Tells Gizmodo what they think about the whole iPhone thing:

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Wed, 21 Apr 2010 13:59:00 +0000

Every now and again we answer really, really inFrequently Asked Questions to help those of you with no moral compasses deal with the zephyr-like and ephemeral changes in Basic Decency.

Q: So, I found this guy, and he found this thing, right? And it’s kinda not a thing that people are supposed to see yet, okay?

A: Give it back to the rightful owner.

Q: But, well, you see, I feel like I have a duty to the faceless crowds of people who visit my site on a daily basis. I mean, they deserve to know what’s coming, right?

A: Do you get paid per click?

Q: Well, kinda per pageview.

A: Give it back to the rightful owner, and give them all the money you made off of exploiting their trade secrets.

via crazyapplenews.com

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

Andy Ihnatko on Gizmodo's hot iPhone 4G

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 19:57:00 +0000

Plus, I’d be gravely concerned about how I’d come into possession of this phone. Gizmodo’s story is very, very fishy and they need to be far more open about the provenance of the device.

Right now, they’re sticking to the story that

Step One: This phone was lost in a Redwood City bar;

Step Two: (nervous cough);

Step Three: They got it last week.

via ihnatko.com

Thank you, Andy.

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

infographiclarge_v2.png (1983×1402)

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Mon, 19 Apr 2010 15:50:00 +0000

via julianhansen.com

Yes yes yes yes yes yes. So much fun.

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

Uplink Semi Cheat

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Wed, 14 Apr 2010 21:18:00 +0000

I know Uplink is an old game, but it's still awesome and you should still play it, especially if you have any interest in going into information security or software testing.Buy it on steam for just under half price, or direct from the publisher for full price.

If you do play it, the ol' "Million Credit Hack" isn't cheating, but it does kinda ruin the game. So you shouldn't do it. But if you do, you should do it right.

A lot of people will tell you how to do a million credit hack, and most of them do it wrong. At least, they do it in such a way that you are doing a lot of extra work. Here' s how I do it:

Find someone who has more than 1M credits. You will no doubt find these people as part of your regular missions. When you find this person (hereinafter "the Mark"), write down their account number and address for the Mark's bank (herinafter "TMB").
Set up an account with TMB. Write down your account number.
Make sure you have a good log deleter and a good trace monitor. Don't try this too early.
Sign into TMB as the Mark.
Transfer as many credits as you want from the Mark's bank account to your new account at TMB. Sign out.

(note: this is where most people add work for themselves. They transfer fromTMB to their default account in a different bank. This method requires you to hack two banks' logs. Why go to the bother?)

Sign back in to TMB as Admin and erase all logs of the transfer.
Sign into interNIC and erase all logs ever ever ever just to be safe.

Congratulations! You now have a shiny pile of credits! If you want, you can transfer these credits to your original bank account and that transfer is completely legal. But why? The new account is yours and you can set all your expenses to come from the new account.

Some caveats:

This will bump you up quite a way in the rankings and you'll suddenly be doing much harder missions. This means you will miss a lot of the fun missions and possibly screw the "main" storyline up as well.
No matter how much you say you won't, you will instantly buy all the best equipment possible (why else would you want all those credits?) and be pretty bored by any mission that isn't insanely difficult.
Uplink is A GAME. This isn't real life. Cracking in a game is fun (and is actually pretty good training if you ever get into QA/Testing as a career. I should know. I'm a certified tester), cracking in the real world is a crime. Check your hat regularly for signs of turning black, and avoid such a color change at all costs. It's just not worth it.

One More Page

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 03:42:00 +0000

For the past two years I have participated in NaNoWriMo, and for the past two years I have used Scrivener for just about everything under the sun. Scrivener is the first program I have discovered that lets me write prose the way I think: non-sequentially, but with structure. There is a ton of meta data that you can attach to each piece of text--or not--which lets you understand what you're thinking about what you're thinking about. (that sentence is fine. Leave it alone.)

But recently, for reasons of their own, my employers assigned me a Dell laptop, and I, for reasons of my own, sold my personal MacBookPro. The season, for reasons of it's own, turned to spring, and suddenly I'm gripped with my annual urge to write the next big thing, but without a portable version of Scrivener on which to write it. In two weeks this will cease to be a problem. Well, specifically, on April 3rd I will have a new toy that figured highly into my reason for selling the MacBookPro, and in six months I'll have my new Mac office set up. Until then I'm stuck with a Dell running Windows 7, and my beloved Scrivener is as inaccessible as the far side of the moon. (sure, I could kick the kids off of our family iMac, but that does not a peaceful environment make.)

Now, this article is not meant to be an attack on Dell, who made a fine computer in this Latitude laptop, or on Windows 7, which is the first version of Windows I've felt was done right since 98. (It's tarted up like a Vegas drag queen, but that's another story). The problem is that (at first glance at least) there doesn't seem to be any good writing software for windows.

On OSX creative writing programs lie thick on the ground, and good ones too. Scrivener (love love), Ulysses (hate hate), Storyist (meh), StoryMill (bleh), Circus Ponies Notebook (pretty good, but not for novels) and others vie for the attention of Mac-using novelists, offering things like auto-save, integrated file management, outlining, character templates and other features to make the process of putting words on a page easier and more palatable. On Windows...what? Anything? Am I doomed to using Word?

Well, no. Even from Microsoft there's the surprisingly wonderful OneNote, which does just about everything you could want, and is so intuitive and fluid, so user-friendly that I've never entirely believed that it was a Microsoft Product. That program got me through my bachelor's degree, and now that I'm on a Windows machine again at work and at school for my Master's degree I rely on it as much as ever. But it's not designed for writing as much as, well, note-taking. Being able to put some text (or a table, or an outline, picture, audio clip, video clip, etc. etc) next to your main line of text is great, but not what I'm looking for in my novel-writing software. Besides which, it's missing some important things, like structure. Again, not bashing OneNote; I love OneNote, but it's not the right tool for this particular job.

So again, the field looks barren. Until my iPod Touch XL shows up on April 3rd I don't have a way to capture those fleeting thoughts when I'm away from my iMac (writing things down by hand is out of the question. My handwriting has been accused of moving under its own power more than once). So I was doomed to waste away in the wilderness of Windows all alone.

Or so I thought.

Looking on the Literature and Latte website (makers of Scrivener. Have I mentioned Scrivener yet? Great software) they had a list of programs you might be interested in if you weren't interested in Scrivener. They had six programs listed for Windows users, and, not expecting much, I checked them out.

Most of them were terrible. Hands down. One was out of development, one looked like a second semester project from a "learning .Net Development" class taught at an agricultural community college, two others were just plain bad and inexplicably expensive.

And then there was PageFour. PageFour is good. It does what you expect, it doesn't get in your way, it intelligently saves your work without being asked, provides non-destructive formatting for sending your manuscript off to publishers, gives you lots of intuitive tools to make your workflow more intelligent and more elegant. Its "Smart Edit" feature is both useful and fun. Suddenly I wasn't as alone as I thought. What's more, if your writing needs are modest, you can use PageFour for free forever, in true shareware style. You're limited to three "Folders" with 20 "Pages" each, but since a page can be any length you make it that's really only a limitation on how much you break up your text, not on word count or usage. If you decide to buy a license and remove this limitation the price is reasonable; should I come up against that limit I fully expect to pay the devs, and happily.

Is it as good as Scrivener? No. Scrivener is polished, intuitive, and makes me happy when I use it, even now, two years after I purchased my license. Scrivener's cork board, outliner, full-screen mode, and other key features are sadly missing. (Note: The creators of Page Four admit to their plans to borrow heavily from Scrivener in the next version. Which is okay, because the creators of Scrivener admit to borrowing from PageFour.)
But if you aren't planning on going Mac anytime soon and still want to write the great [insert your nationality here] novel, PageFour is the program for you.

Note: Neither the creators of PageFour or Scrivener paid me or gave me free licenses to write this. But if either of them want to...

Cleanliness IS next to godliness: new research shows clean smells unconsciously promote moral behavior

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Tue, 02 Mar 2010 17:46:00 +0000

via news.byu.edu

This leads to some interesting questions regarding what human intelligence and decision making abilities actually are. How much of our behavior is pre-programmed and how much is up to us?

Naturally, we can act selfishly in a clean environment, but apparently there is impetus to do the opposite, which we must overcome to carry out the selfish act. Is the opposite true in a dirty environment? could we sentence people to clean their house three or more times a week and reduce the number of people in prison? Lots of fun questions to play with here.

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

Ten rules for writing fiction

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Mon, 01 Mar 2010 15:51:00 +0000

This should be required reading for anyone planning on participating in NaNoWriMo this year. Every rule has a reason, and most of them (in Elmore Leonard's set) also have excuses, usually of the "if you're as good as so and so you can do this" variety.

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

Review: R10Cipher

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 15:23:00 +0000

I'm always interested in cryptography, protecting passwords with other passwords, and other such geekery. I've tried 'em all, from the excellent 1Password on the Mac to the almost useful KeePass ("the password protector with the terrible name"). From the somewhat nerve-wracking LastPass web service to the bottomlessly paranoid trueCrypt. So when I heard about r10Cipher I had to check it out. In less time than it would take you to say "free evaluation copy" I had downloaded the program and was trying it out.

Which brings us to the first high point: the developer is friendly and responsive. He worked with me to get through some initial setup bugs on my Windows 7 laptop, with responses coming less than two hours from most of my emails. The odds of most people having similar problems are low, as my test environment is "unique" to say the least, and many programs (Ruby, MySQL, and sqlite3 to name a few. I should probably just wipe it and start over. But that's neither here nor there.) have run into trouble on that machine. When I installed on a less-unique laptop the setup was quick and painless.

R10Cipher (by the way, the developer's company name is Arten Science, and he tells us that "R10" is a play on "Arten", which I think is a play on "Art and", making this the first software program with a DOUBLE PUN in the name. +2 cool points just for that.) runs from a single directory, making it easily stored on and used from a flash drive: no registry changes, no install directories, everything is in one place and pleasantly un-cluttered and un-annoying.

Which is also true of the interface. Clean, simple, and intuitive, it provides you with a number of easy to use and easy to love options for encrypting text files, address book entries, even emails. With the pleasantly modest cost of the software it's easy to picture this application taking its place in a law firm, medical office, or any other place that needs to be able to email sensitive information without worrying that it's being read en route. The software is true cross-platform (Mac/Win/Lin) so you can send files to anybody that needs them and be sure they will be able to open them.

Internally, R10Cipher uses Blowfish encryption, which is comforting. One of my main concerns in testing out new encryption options is the worry that they're using some proprietary encryption method that turns out to be roughly as secure as Pig Latin. (Note: don't translate the word "Password" into Pig Latin in front of your mother.)

The one shortcoming isn't really a shortcoming: Lack of easy browser integration. 1Password is still my password safe of choice. But R10Cipher wasn't meant to be a password management utility, so comparing it to 1Password et al is comparing apples to oranges.

Overall, If I were to create a star ranking system R10Cipher would get a solid 4.5 of five stars. The half-star being taken off for the somewhat awkward name. ;) If you have a need for simple but robust security, you need to give R10Cipher a look.

Why We Make Home Videos - Pogue's Posts Blog

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 16:31:00 +0000

...I discovered [it] has nothing to do with technology, and everything to do with emotion, family and memory.

As someone who recently purchased a Flip HD, this is nice justification.

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

The iPad: Wait and See

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Fri, 05 Feb 2010 14:35:00 +0000

Just like the rest of the world, my first impression while watching the SteveCast was "Oh look, a giant iPod Touch". And yes, that is probably all the 1st Gen model is going to be. But think back a bit to the first iPhone, or for that matter, the first iPod. Not impressive devices. Now they define the market segments in which they exist.

Does this mean that the iPad will soon be defining the market segment of flat touch-screen quasi-computer thingies? Clearly, it's a market segment that could use some definition. When Steve Jobs was showing it, I kept having images of Star Trek PADD's flash in my mind. (What, you're surprised that I'm a nerd?) Little thingies that Star Fleet uses to get access to whatever information they need from the central computer at any time. Maybe that's the future of Apple's iPad. Maybe it's destined to be the next Newton. The difference of course is that the Steve wasn't working for Apple when the Newton came out. Now, his Reality Distortion Field is turned on full power, and anything could happen, regardless of the quality of the product.

So I'm not going to say it's the next big thing or the next big joke. Like the title says: Wait and see. It'll save you some embarrassment later.

The Best Flag in the world

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 20:28:00 +0000

via kottkegae.appspot.com

http://kottke.org/09/10/the-best-flag-in-the-world#

Forget all that "truth, courage, beauty" stuff. We want a flag that explains exactly what our country's all about.

Whackin' off heads.

You got a problem with that, Mr. Liberal? Looks like it's time for some old fashioned patriotism! Say bye-bye to your head!

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Further Proof That People Who Make Great Software Don't Really Understand Hardware

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 14:53:00 +0000

via macworld.com

Gaaaaah! My eyes! My poor, poor eyes! What is that...that THING? And who in their right mind would put it in their entertainment center? When does the hurting stop?

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

Why doesn't this ethernet cable work?

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 15:57:00 +0000

See and download the full gallery on posterous

As near as we can tell, it started having problems more than a month after the staple was put through it.

Posted via email from Nate's Random Walk

The nerdiest thing I have ever typed

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 15:23:00 +0000

"there needs to be a good reference online for the etymologies of idioms."

No, seriously, I really want one. I don't care if it means I'm a total geek.

Posted via email from Nate's Random Walk

Hey, they weren't supposed to show my new iPhone on the web?

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:57:00 +0000

via macworld.com

Oh, don't I wish.

Wait, no, actually I don't. That thing is hideous. Expensive, but still hideous.

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk

NaNoWriMo 2009: I won!

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Sun, 29 Nov 2009 01:39:00 +0000

With two days to spare, This picture gave me the good news. NaNoWriMo: It's a rush.

Posted via email from Nate's Random Walk

ThinkGeek :: Optimus Maximus Keyboard

noreply@blogger.com (Nate) — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 18:57:00 +0000

via thinkgeek.com

Oh man, everyone on earth needs this keyboard. IT'S MADE OF TINY SCREENS, YOU GUYS!

Posted via web from Nate's Random Walk