DanthemanLand

Twitting

2010-03-06T13:46:00.000-08:00

The other day it hit me. Ever since the "Twitter Revolution" many companies, people, musicians, bands and organizations have Twitter accounts. Almost EVERYTHING has a Twitter these days, and most are used simply as if it were an RSS feed of a news section of a website (some are linked just that way, in fact). I think this is great. I remember a couple of years ago trying to gather up all the RSS feeds I could, so that I could stay up to date on all the things I like, but a bunch of the sites I wished I could follow didn't have any feeds. Most people don't know or care what an RSS or ATOM feed is, but they surely know what a Twitter is and because of that I think it has become easier for the masses to embrace this idea of posting updates on the internet.

It's as if Twitter has forced the internet world to put all of their RSS feeds in one place, and any company/thing/person that thought they didn't need or want one, now realizes the power of having one. No need to wait for a dumb commercial on TV, or an ad in the magazine or on the radio. If it's happening right now, or any time close to right now, just search for it on Twitter and it will come up.

MAC VS PC

2010-02-06T11:02:00.000-08:00

This post is specifically directed toward laptops, not desktops. Who buys a desktop anymore these days anways? (actually I probably will again one day, but the reason for that is outside the scope of this post)

I remember back in the day when I loved to dog on Macs because they were so incredibly goofy looking. I collected images such as these:

These were the Macs before the internet really came to fruition. Back in this day, YouTube did not exist, USB thumb drives were still rare and the iPod was just coming out. The Mac computers still used the PowerPC platform and had not yet switched to Intel. Compatibility was difficult. No one had wireless networks. How did you get files from one computer to another? Burning a CD? Copying them on an Iomega 100MB ZIP drive? Umm, yeah. Even when you could transfer files between a Mac and PC, you couldn't open files on each side of the fence as easy as you can now. Back then, in my mind it just didn't make much sense to get Mac. However the next couple of years would change everything.

The next couple of years were the PINNACLE of Windows XP getting hit by all kinds of virus, spyware and trojan you could imagine. Anti-Virus companies cashed in during these years, and it became semi-mandatory to have some sort of protection on your PC. Later service packs even added built-in features to XP to combat this malware infestation. However, things have gotten much better these days. If you are a seasoned computer user (such as myself :P ) then you don't run into these problems much at all anymore. Good enough to only stay in the PC world? Nope, keep reading.

In 2006 Apple announce the switch to the Intel platform. The iPod was picking up speed. The products on both sides of the field were becoming much more compatible. It was around this time that I started giving Macs a second chance.

Fast forward to this day. If you are going to buy a Mac or PC (laptop in the case of the post), please let me clarify a few points with which many people stumble. I used to think there was no way I could switch to a Mac. The menus and layouts were so different, and I was so used to using my PC. I couldn't imagine that all my useful programs on the PC had equivalents in the Mac world. Eventually I realized that they, for the most part, do. It just requires somewhat of a learning curve.

Yes, Macs are more expensive. They cannot be upgraded very easily. There isn't much of a variety. However, I'm going to show you why none of that matters in the laptop world. (most ideas carry over to the desktop world, but again that is out of the scope of this post)

You don't need to upgrade a Mac laptop, in most all cases. It was designed and tested to perform at a more than acceptable level with its current hardware. PC's usually need upgrading because you bought the incredibly cheap version of the product, only to later realize how much the cheap version blows and that you need to upgrade it. Macs aren't just for cool hippies anymore. "Dude! I heard Macs are good for video editing!" Yes, perhaps they are, but being a cool hippie wanting to edit videos should not be the reason for getting a Mac. Same goes for the recent trend of "I'm a PC" contenders. It is not enough to say a PC is better just because you hate cool hippies and don't need to edit video.

In the past few years Apple has added many PRACTICAL and USEFUL features to their MacBooks that simply CANNOT be done on any PC laptop. Let me explain just a few:

Touchpad - I remember a couple of years ago when, if you had a PC laptop, I thought it was mandatory to have a mouse. Why? Because the touchpad on all PC laptops sucked so bad. If you've ever used a touchpad on a Macbook, you'll know why I've changed my stance on having a mouse. Double finger touch to scroll? This feature is so simple yet SO INCREDIBLY INTUITIVE that I don't know why the PC world has not tried to imitate it. (perhaps some have, been it really needs widespread adoption) Double finger scrolling is just the beginning of the multi-touch world on a Mac touchpad. Once again a very practical and useful feature. The PC laptop cannot do that.

Lighted Keyboard - This is a feature found in both the Mac and Pc world. I mention it because it such an underrated feature. I can't even begin to tell you how many times I wished my keyboard was lighted. If you have a PC laptop, I can almost guarantee you that at some point in time, you have turned up the brightness of your screen in an attempt to see the keyboard in a dark lit room. If you're going to get a PC laptop, please do yourself a favor and get one with a lighted keyboard. Also, it should be noted that the Mac OS has access to this hardware, and can therefore not only turn it off but can *dim* its brightness level to save battery. Once again a very practical and useful feature. The PC laptop cannot do that.

LCD Backlight - The LCD monitor brightness level can be controlled by Mac OS. If the user has become idle the OS can tell the monitor to dim its brightness level. This saves a great portion of the battery charge. PC's cannot do this. The OS also can dim the brightness level based upon brightness of the room you are in (probably using some kind of photocell). This way you're eyes aren't destroyed by a super bright screen in a low lit room. Once again a very practical and useful feature. The PC laptop cannot do that.

This post could go on quite awhile about stuff like this, but in the interest of yours and my own time I'm keeping it short. Don't get me wrong, I use both platforms. They both have advantages and disadvantages. If you are more comfortable with using one or the other, fine. However, you should at least take into consideration valid and merit-able points from each side.

Oh gosh, my abandoned blog

2010-01-26T19:19:00.000-08:00

The other day good old Adam Olsen mentioned on a group email strand how the blogging scene between friends has been collecting a lot of dust in the past year or so. This is my attempt at coming back.

I decided that since I don't update often enough, instead of having separate blogs for music,hacking, etc. I will now turn them back into one blog, this one. Hopefully that will increase my participation, and yours?

The main dtmland.info site has also but been updated to reflect this.

Updates Complete

2009-09-28T11:21:00.000-07:00

You may have noticed the site's awesome new layout. I moved some things around, cleaned some things up and added a few new little tidbits. I am still working on getting the "search" capability back in, hopefully within the week. If you have been subscribed to my feeds you may have seen some chaos in the past little while (like the previous post mentions) but all that should be over now.

In addition to the new goodies, I would also like to somewhat "restate the objective" of the blog. I found myself wanting to post many items on the blog that were simply "quotes" of someone else's content. I realized that essentially all I was doing was sharing items---and the overhead of having to create a unique blog post for each "shared item" was redundant. Granted, on occasion I like to create my own posts--which I still plan to do. So from now on, the blog posts themselves will all be only "my original creations" and all quotes or "shared items" will show up in their appropriate section. There is even a separate feed for these shared items if you wish to subscribe to them.

I hope this setup isn't too confusing. I believe it will allow me to more quickly get stuff up, and make the site more visually pleasing and easier to understand.

So there you have it. Welcome to DanTheManLand. Enjoy your stay.

Under Construction

2009-09-18T11:25:00.000-07:00

Sorry for any errors you may encounter with my sites/feeds in the next couple of days. I am upgrading some things under the hood, and eventually some things above the hood.

Thanks for your patience

Into the dark and dreary world

2009-08-16T11:35:00.000-07:00

The summer is coming to an end along with another chapter of my life. I've spent the past 5 years here in Provo getting my degree and, to be honest, have gotten used to the way things have been. All of that is about to change.

While I haven't yet found a full-time "dream job", I have secured a place of living for the next while. That should give me a little more time to find employment. It is a house here in Provo being rented by a friend (and two other guys) from the ward last year.

My on campus employment in the Chemistry department will only last for two more weeks. So I'm sort of scrambling to find something for work soon. It's hard not to become discouraged with the economy the way it is (and the fact that I'll have to start paying back student loans pretty soon). Nevertheless, I am quite optimistic about the next couple of months and the things that can be accomplished. I'm a single, broke college grad with my entire life ahead of me. The current soundtrack for my life is summed up in the song "Just Wait" by my recent favorite, The Reign of Kindo. These lyrics especially:

One more day and it's all the same.
Time is a poison and it's coursing through my veins.
Got somewhere to be and I'll be darned if i know when.
The bank is broke and my well is dry.
There's something wrong here that refuses to be set right.
I keep pushing forward but the scenery won't change.

All the days that I live, the best is yet to come if I just wait for it.
But time will find a way to run your patience thin.
Praying for some promise that this life can't make,
with my youngest years at stake.

Orderville Canyon - Zion National Park

2009-06-01T22:08:00.000-07:00

This past weekened I headed down with old roommates and friends to Zion National Park. It was a great trip I must say. We hiked Orderville canyon. The hike itself was ~12 miles long. At the very end it meets up with the narrows. There were several fun obstacles we had to overcome, one of them required jumping into "above your head" water. Overall it was a good hike, though a little long. No one got hurt thankfully. See the following link for a detailed view of the hike:

http://www.dtmland.info/everytrail

Also enjoy this nice picasa album:

--
_Daniel R Nelson_
www.dtmland.info
--

TiVo no more

2009-05-15T23:00:00.000-07:00

I've finally decided to cancel my TiVo service. The price just didn't justify the product anymore. I paid about 13 dollars a month for it, and now that I have canceled, I can't think of why I didn't do this earlier.

I must admit I had a partial curiosity about how much functionality would be disabled. Turns out you can only:

-Pause/forward/rewind Live TV
-Watch previously recorded shows

AND THAT'S IT.

They disable any recording at all--Even manual recording. Douche. When I found this out, my opinion of them dropped dramatically. Basically, after three years of faithfully paying the TiVo company 13 dollars a month (do the math, it adds up) the only thing I'm left with is a brick that can't do jack crap.

Thanks a lot TiVo. You've not only lost a customer, but created an enemy. I will discourage anyone I know from purchasing any of your products from now on. I know that you are in the business to have people sign up for your subscriptions, but bricking peoples machines will always create customer disatissfaction in the end.

That is why today I give TiVo a big thumbs down:

--
_Daniel R Nelson_
www.dtmland.info
--

Juneau, Alaska

2009-05-10T22:00:00.000-07:00

The entirety of last week Reed, my roommate, trekked us (my roommates - Justin,Ricks,Mike,Eliot) around the wonderful landscapes of Alaska. We had many great adventures on our trip.

(make sure to click the links below to see amazing trail information along with pictures!)

We started out by doing a hike up to Peterson Lake. The hike up was pretty hard for me. There was still a fair amount of snow on the ground. We would not have been able to do the hike without the snow shoes that Reed supplied us with. There was bridge that had about four feet of snow piled on it. It had no handrails, and I almost fell in. Reed helped me by carrying my pack across the second time. We got a little detoured, and by the time we got to the lake I was dead tired. I couldn't move, Justin went to the cabin and came back for me pack. Nice! At the top the lake was frozen over for the most part, so we stayed inside the cabin most of the day anyways. The cabin did have a heater though! It was great! The hike down was not too bad. We spent Saturday and Sunday evening at Peterson Lake.

Monday afternoon went back to Reed's house, had lunch, and re-supplied for our next adventure, Camping Cove. We spent Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday night here. It was amazing! Some of us hiked in, while Reed and I rode the boat right up to the cabin. We saw sea lions, bald eagles, marmosets and even some whales at one point! We did a day hike to a lake and a separate beach. We even went crabbing with the boat, caught some crab, boiled them up and ate them! It was delicious! The cabin was nice and roomy, definitely a place I would like to return to. Thursday morning we packed up and hiked out. It was a relatively easy hike, mostly along the beach.

That night we stayed at Reeds house, woke up the next morning and hiked the Mendenhall Glacier. It was absolutely amazing! We were able to get right up on the glacier itself. We explored a small ice cave and even drank some glacier water! So refreshing! It was a short hike, so we returned to Reeds house for lunch, showered, and headed downtown.

We rode the Juneau tram (thanks to Reed's dad) and caught some amazing views. We walked through some shops, and later drove by Sarah Palin's mansion. Unfortunately we didn't get to see the governor herself. We ended the day by stopping to purchase smoked salmon. And later went out with Reed's parents to Bullwinkle's pizza parlor.

I had a great time, and am thankful that Reed gave us this great opportunity. He and his family made a wonderful trip for us. Reed's mom makes great snicker doodles, if you're ever in Juneau make sure to request those!

--
_Daniel R Nelson_
www.dtmland.info
--

a blustery day

2009-04-19T08:51:00.000-07:00

Thursday April 16th started out very early in the morning. For some reason the weather decided to start snowing a lot. I wasn't tired, so I took a stroll around campus. It was a heavy and sticky snow, and many trees were being weighed down (as can be seen in some of the pictures). I even saw a deer and attempted to track him in the snow.

Later in the day I went to lunch with friends from work and ate some sushi.

CSR Lunch

The day ended at at brick oven with my roommates, and sister and her husband. I got this cool balloon hat:

Out of order

2009-03-27T10:36:00.000-07:00

Yup, that's right, no more than a day ago I pressed the power button on my laptop and it didn't turn on. A little surprised, I thought, "No, can't be broken. I'll figure this out."
About ten minutes later I was completely convinced that my laptop was dead. No coming back. It's up in computer heaven now.
For some reason it didn't surprise me that this has happened though. A few months ago the ethernet randomly broke, which isn't common at all and is a sign of worse things to come. Now the worst has come. Not really completely sure what happened, but I think the power supply died. The point is, it's gone and it's not coming back.
I rented a laptop from the office of OIT on campus, it's going to have to do for the remainder of the school year.
I'd like to be in the market for a new laptop, but right now I'm a broke college student, and the little money I do have has to go to other things of higher priority first. Once I look into getting a new one, I'll post some details on it.

dtm is BACK, also.

2009-03-22T22:58:00.000-07:00

So I just happened to notice my friend mike posted on his blog saying how it has been awhile since he last posted. Well, that's pretty much what I'm about to post on as well, kind of ironic. I guess bright minds think alike.

Anyways, down to the nitty gritty. I've spent the last couple of months working a website aptly named, www.dtmland.info

I created this site with a few intentions. First off, I will be graduating soon and I wanted to make a sort of online resume, or presence, if you will. Even with the economy the way it is, I hope to get a job sometime soon related to this degree I've spent so much time and money on the past few years.

Second, during the time I created my initial blog, danthemanland, I kept coming up with ideas for other stuff I wanted to put online. However, many of these things just didn't fit into the scope of the blog itself. You will notice two new blogs, one for music and the other for hacking. I've already posted quite a bit on them so go check them out. Everything else on the website is simply a collaboration of all the interactive online social and media services available. This website puts all my stuff in one place.

The main dtmland blog will now focus on most things related to travel, rambling, and journaling of my life. I'll try to keep it as exciting as possible. I apoligize that my last few previous posts were just photo uploads from my phone. I got really excited when I found out I could do that, and I will probably do it again sometime.

It's not perfect yet but I will continue to make improvments and add new sections. So, I guess you could call this danthemanland v1.5 Go check it out now!!!!

www.dtmland.info

Stay tuned for some good posts

2009-01-11T17:16:00.001-08:00

The Prophet

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2008-12-29T12:06:00.000-08:00

Chillin at six flags

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2008-11-16T18:26:00.001-08:00

Devotional

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technical difficulties

2008-11-07T08:40:00.000-08:00

So I've been messing around with my site a lot, trying to get some things to work, and have broken a few things in the process. If you were subscribed to the site feed you may have not gotten the last couple of posts, I apologize for this irresponsible hacking. But don't worry, I'll have some good stuff soon.

dtm

copeland

2008-11-03T20:49:00.001-08:00

copeland

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kirby got yanked

2008-09-20T21:17:00.000-07:00

So I was up in Sandy earlier tonight and on my way back I noticed that the DearElder.com billboard had changed. That billboard has been the same ever since I can remember, so the change must have been very recent. Anyways, instead of seeing Kirby Heybornes mug dressed up in the missionary suit, it was a dotted outline person. The new advertisement was asking us to go to the website and pick a new face for DearElder. Here are the old and the new versions:

So I sat and thought to myself, I'll bet they did that because of the fact that a couple of months back or so Kirby appeared in a Miller Light Beer commercial. He has gotten a lot of criticism ever since he did it. It seems as though everyone is abandoning him. While I can understand arguments on both sides of the fence about the whole thing, my point here isn't to argue that. I just wanted to point out this little change in freeway scenery that us Wasatch Frontens' have to look at every time we drive up and down the valley.

The Beer Commercial on YouTube:

Maybe now they'll put up the other guy from the Best Two Years. Or maybe one of those sisters from saved by angels or whatever that other billboard is in spanish fork.

Speaking of mormon actors, I've seen the investigator dude from the Best Two Years buying grocery's at the Macy's in Provo, my old roomates roomate was the blond haired jock dude from Napoleon Dynamite and a few weeks back the main character from Saints and Soldiers sang a song in the sacrament meeting i was at.

skullcandy

2008-09-10T18:46:00.000-07:00

So my ipod headphones died on me about a month or so back and I've been meaning to buy some new ones-but just hadn't gotten to it, until this past weekend. While at the local BestBuy I decided to try out a pair of skullcandy headphones.

They are the in-ear type of headphones, with the little jelly plastic things on the end. Priced at a mere $20 dollars, i got my monies worth. They actually work quite well. I had been wearing them here and there during the weekend....but the real test came on monday when I went to study in the Clyde building lounge. They passed the test with flying colors. If you've ever been in the clyde lounge you know there are usually always a lot of people studying there. Well I had just sat down to start studying and was putting my headphones on when some super loud douche sat down next to me because his buddies were one table over from mine. I was pretty upset because I like my peace and quiet when studying. However, my anger left when I put my new headphones on and pressed the play button on the ipod. All the blabbing was instantly and greatly muffled by my music. Not just any music though, but a very peaceful quiet like orchestra soundtrack song, even this masked the loud annoyance of the dude sitting next to me. (so you can imagine how well "regular" "loud" music would block noise out)

While I'm sure the brand doesn't matter to much, as long as you get a pair of in-ear headphones I guarantee you'll be satisfied, I sure am. Downsides are sometimes while walking they can come loose from the ear, and also they work so well sometimes you can't hear most anything around you, so be careful wearing them. Although, if your goal is to avoid anyone trying to say hi to you, then these are the way to go.

sharing your life

2008-09-07T11:49:00.000-07:00

School started this past week here at BYU, and just as Justin's post mentions, summer has officially ended. Looking back at the last four months has made me think a lot about life. More specifically, I have lately been comparing in my mind this summer with the summer of 2007.

If you didn't know, I spent last summer attending the BYU Hawaii campus and enjoying the greatness of paradise that Hawaii has to offer. I was there 3 months to be exact. I meet up with an old highschool buddy (Kevin) about half way through (mid june) and had a blast the remaining time there. I was, however, living by myself before that point. Sure, i made some friends and all via classes and church when I first arrived, but for the most part I was still by myself, alone in paradise.

I spent the summer of 2008 here in Provo working on campus. Similar to last summer, I've spent the past few months going on many adventures and far away places. Although, one main difference is that I spent much of this time with friends and family, and I must admit it has been a great summer, one of the best.

It was my life long dream to go to the jungles of Hawaii, but I found that even something so great as this wasn't that great without people to share it with. The summer of 2008 has taught me that life is best shared, with friends and family.

Just some of the adventures I had this summer:

So much for blog jokes

2008-08-29T10:48:00.000-07:00

Anyways my previous post was supposed to be a joke, making fun of Adam and Becky's blog and how when they were in New York they posted a million posts about every restaurant they went to. Apparently no one picked up on it, i guess dtm isn't as funny as he thinks.

This was the post:

http://adamandbecky.blogspot.com/2008/06/serendipity.html

This was of course done with no harmful intentions in mind, I think Adam and Becky's blog is great. I'll just go ahead and not try to be funny from now on. (even though I still laugh at it)

A little fishy

2008-07-27T18:55:00.000-07:00

If you've got a salt tooth and $5+ bucks to spare, and you're in New York, then you best head on over to the Pier 17 Mall

The restaurant was charming and their fish and chips were excellent. And that is coming from a guy who doesn't like cheap dirty fast food fish at all. In fact, I normally avoid the whole salt water animal thing and get a hamburger or hotdog with ketchup. But I really liked their Forbidden Pirate Delight. (Thanks Turner!)

As for the french fries, I'm not sure. It didn't do too much for either of us. If we go again I'm trying what Justin had. It looked way good!

Three Amigos no more

2008-07-05T16:17:00.000-07:00

Well yesterday morning at 7:30 Mike woke Justin and I up so we could say goodbye one last time, and that was it, Mike, gone forever. He got in that car and drove out of our lives.

I can't help but remember all the times I've spent with the Mikester, the good and the bad. I remember staying up all night working on a project in the clyde building. I remember trying to make him laugh while he was giving the lesson in priesthood. I remember when he first got his new camera I always thought it was funny to take pictures of him taking pictures.

Mike was a great roomate, hopefully our paths will cross again one day. (hint hint - job - mike?)

Some good things just can't last forever. But this little slideshow should help it last a little longer. Just a few little gems I found when going through photo albums:

the price of being a man

2008-06-03T11:10:00.000-07:00

My two roommates and I recently started growing mustaches in preparation for a horseback trip in New Mexico at the end of June. While this is the second time for myself, they happen to be mustache virgins. Their constant remindings of how people "give them the look" without saying anything are merely reminiscent of my manly undertaking about two years ago at the square. Nevertheless, with this renewing endeavor I couldn't help but become aware (with agreement from them) of the following downsides:

1) Unless you are over thirty years old, growing a mustache now-a-days not only isn't in style, but most people will consider your decision socially unacceptable.

2) It puts like 5 years on you.

3) If you already have a girlfriend/wife you can usually grow a mustache. If you already have a mustache you can't get a girlfriend let alone get married.

4) There a two kinds of people, those that look at it and comment, and those that look at it, don't comment, and probably think you're some crazy guy. (bums usually have mustaches)

5) Chicks are instinctively attracted to mustaches, requiring you to have to fight them off literally.

In conclusion, despite bearing the cross of the one week mustache, the end result after about a month is something beautiful---and having a mustache is probably the manliest thing a man can do, and it totally rocks. Just think of all the great guys that had them:

tribute to a roomate-in-law

2008-05-15T19:46:00.000-07:00

Disclaimer: This post is simply a dedication to the original Blogger among us, Adam, whom we all love and cherish.

After months of following up on Adam and Becky's blog, I noticed something that seemed kind of funny to me. Adam seems to have this habit of bulging his eyes when he takes pictures. The ones that fall under this category seem to mostly be hand held shots, and it seems like the closer the camera gets to his face the wider his eyes get. Hehe. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Normal Adam Facial Pose:

Wide-Eye Adam Facial Pose: