Will Spaetzel

→ Every empire crumbles

Fri, 18 Jan 2013 15:33:37 EST

Victor Keegan, writing for the Guardian, thinks all the cool has gone out of the iPhone and that smartphones from other vendors have already overtaken it

I don’t usually like to post “ra ra Apple” type stuff. But this is pretty funny.

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→ Google effect

Thu, 10 Jan 2013 11:38:20 EST

The Google effect is the tendency to forget information that can be easily found using internet search engines such as Google, instead of remembering it.

Most definitely a thing. I’m very guilty of not bothering to remember information I know that I’ll be able to look up again in the future. But I definitely think this is a good thing, I prefer to save my brain space for more complex thoughts that cannot be easily stored online or in other electronic resources.

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→ Fitbit Flex Wireless Activity & Sleep Wristband

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:43:02 EST

Hmm. Another fitness gadget. Been working harder on my diet lately, doesnt do anything different than the current Fitbits, but I like the look of the wristband. Wish the Geek Runner podcast wasn’t on hiatus. Going to have to talk about it in the next CastRoller podcast.

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Back to SecondCrack

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 21:31:57 EST

So i have been itching to get my block back up, and realized that what i had with SecondCrack was actually pretty good, so I’ve resurrected the Rackspace cloud sever image that SecondCack was on, and thhe blog is now back and working. Now what is very convenient is that I can blog from my iPad with just a text editor. Let’s see how much I can keep it up this time.

→ Lego Mindstorms EV3 arrives tailored for mobile, infrared and more hackability

Mon, 07 Jan 2013 14:43:25 EST

Its updated Mindstorms EV3 runs on new Linux firmware that’s ready for Android and iOS control out of the box, creates an overall more hackable platform and allows further programming on the core Intelligent Brick itself; accordingly, there’s an SD card slot for local storage. A built-in infrared sensor expands the possibilities for a more autonomous design, as well

I really enjoyed playing with Minddstorms in high school. The previous NXT set looked awesome, and this one looks even better. Still can’t convince myself to spend $350 on this toy though.

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→ Facebook changes everyone’s listed emails to ‘@facebook.com’ - chicagotribune.com

Mon, 25 Jun 2012 15:44:11 EDT

Without asking for permission, Facebook has changed users’ listed email address to one ending in “@facebook.com.”

The changed was discovered Saturday, and has resulted in either users having their @facebook.com address being listed or simply having all of their other addresses be hidden, as happened in my case.

I ordinarily don’t get riled up over Facebook changes. But this is pretty ridiculous. Facebook is now hiding the e-mail addresses that people chose to share with their friends, and replacing it with an @facebook.com address instead. This address just goes to the Facebook messages, it doesn’t send a real e-mail.

If I want to send an e-mail, I don’t want it to go to Facebook, I want it to go to your inbox. If someone chose to share their e-mail address, it should stay that way.

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→ You Suck At Retweeting

Wed, 23 May 2012 20:59:19 EDT

It’s easy to retweet poorly — even easier than sending a bad tweet, because it’s just a couple of clicks, limited thinking, and no typing.

I’ve been pretty aggresively turning of retweets for many of the people I follow. Retweet less and better and you’ll make your followers a lot happier.

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→ Why Did John Gruber’s Talk Show Leave 5by5?

Sat, 19 May 2012 13:56:24 EDT

So what happened? Both Gruber and Benjamin remain silent on Twitter. No live 5by5 broadcast was recording when this news hit the web, so no live comments from Dan. For now we have no facts as to what happened. But I have some ideas.

I haven’t listened to the Talk Show in a while, but I was a regular reader of Daring Fireball. I’m a huge fan of Dan Benjamin and 5by5 and am surprised to see this move. I think it’s a dick move to call it the same show without Dan, “Shame on You John Gruber”

I went to update the show on CastRoller, and saw that the Feedburner feed already had the new show in it, guess Gruber was running that one.

Unsubscribed.

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→ Farty Shoes (WWJCD?)

Sat, 19 May 2012 13:52:43 EDT

Suddenly the moment was transformed from one of extreme embarrassment to one of merriment. I put on my best Cleese straight-man face and continued walking, all the while pretending I had no idea the flatulent feet were attached to me.

That’s the attitude to have. To heck with what others think and enjoy yourself.

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→ Star Wars: Machete Order

Tue, 08 May 2012 09:12:50 EDT

I’d like to modify this into what I’ve named Machete Order on the off chance that this catches on because I’m a vain asshole.

Next time you want to introduce someone to Star Wars for the first time, watch the films with them in this order: IV, V, II, III, VI

Notice something? Yeah, Episode I is gone.

Episodes II and III aren’t exactly Shakespeare, but standing next to the complete and utter trainwreck that is Episode I, they sure look like it. At least, III does anyway.

Episode I is a failure on every possible level. The acting, writing, directing, and special effects are all atrocious, and the movie is just plain boring. Luckily, George Lucas has done everyone a favor by making the content of Episode I completely irrelevant to the rest of the series. Seriously, think about it for a minute. Name as many things as you can that happen in Episode I and actually help flesh out the story in any subsequent episode. I can only think of one thing, which I’ll mention later.

Every character established in Episode I is either killed or removed before it ends (Darth Maul, Qui-Gon, Chancellor Valorum), unimportant (Nute Gunray, Watto), or established better in a later episode (Mace Windu, Darth Sidious). Does it ever matter that Palpatine had an apprentice before Count Dooku? Nope, Darth Maul is killed by the end of Episode I and never referenced again. You may as well just start with the assumption that Dooku was the only apprentice. Does it ever matter that Obi-Wan was being trained by Qui-Gon? Nope, Obi-Wan is well into training Anakin at the start of Episode II, Qui-Gon is completely irrelevant.

A very thoughtful look into the best order to watch the Star Wars films. Seems to make a lot of sense. I’m very tempted to go rewatch them in this order, I haven’t watched them in some time, and this sure makes a good excuse.

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→ Cherry - The carwash that comes to you!

Mon, 07 May 2012 13:51:20 EDT

Cherry is the carwash that comes to you. Park anywhere, check in online, and we’ll wash your car right where you left it. Only $29.99 per wash, which includes exterior, interior, vacuum, tires, rims, and an air freshener of your choice.

Now that’s an idea. Park your car anywhere, fire up a web browser, pay $30 and your car will be washed wherever you parked it.

Magic.

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→ Google+ Hangouts On Air: broadcast your conversation to the world | Official Google Blog

Mon, 07 May 2012 11:39:53 EDT

Today we’re excited to launch Hangouts On Air to Google+ users worldwide. So if you have something to say—as an aspiring artist, a global celebrity, or a concerned citizen—you can now go live in front of a global audience.

Will make broadcasting the CastRoller podcast and Geek Runner podcast much easier, and it gives us a video straight to YouTube. Convenient!

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→ The frequent fliers who flew too much

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:06:27 EDT

Passes in hand, Rothstein and Vroom flew for business. They flew for pleasure. They flew just because they liked being on planes. They bypassed long lines, booked backup itineraries in case the weather turned, and never worried about cancellation fees. Flight crews memorized their names and favorite meals.

Each had paid American more than $350,000 for an unlimited AAirpass and a companion ticket that allowed them to take someone along on their adventures. Both agree it was the best purchase they ever made, one that completely redefined their lives.

I had no idea that passes like this ever existed. The idea of taking a First Class flight anywhere whenever you feel like it is crazy. Too bad they aren’t available any more (and cost more than my house).

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→ Instacast 2.0: The Best Gets Better

Mon, 07 May 2012 10:03:23 EDT

Available today, Instacast 2.0 bring a myriad of new features (and better management tools) to the best podcast application out there for iOS.

The app is now $0.99, with a $1.99 in-app purchase that adds features like podcast-specific settings, smart playlists and push notifications for new episodes.

Just bought DownCast yesterday as I was tired of Instacast crashing while playing back an episode. Will stick with DownCast for a bit, but will load up Instacast 2.0 (it is a free upgrade) to check it out, may pay for InstaCast Pro via IAP to check it out in the future.

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→ QAMA Calculator: The calculator that make syou think

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 09:08:42 EDT

The revolutionary calculator that shows the answer only when you also enter a suitable mental estimate.

A crazy idea, that I think would have been really helpful when I was in high school. Forcing the student to estimate the answer first would really help to encourage understanding.

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→ Light Table - a new IDE concept

Tue, 17 Apr 2012 03:54:56 EDT

Light table is based on a few guiding principles:

You should never have to look for documentation Files are not the best representation of code, just a convenient serialization. Editors can be anywhere and show you anything - not just text. Trying is encouraged - changes produce instaneous results We can shine some light on related bits of code

This really looks amazing. I look forward to seeing a real product and playing with it. I love the idea of being able to drag functions around on a table and seeing how the variables pass though them.

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→ Try right clicking GitHub’s logo

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 15:40:33 EDT

Try right clicking GitHub’s logo

Pops up a dialog allowing you to download hi-rez versions of the logos. Potentially very useful. I’m often frustrated getting logos for websites, even sites I’ve worked on myself such as CastRoller and Maplesoft.com have logos that are hard to get to. CastRoller’s logo is hidden in the CSS, so right clicking on it, gets you nothing. Maplesoft’s has styling in it that only works when it is in its original context.

This would make it a lot easier for people to use the logos in their other media, but breaking the right click is pretty annoying. I think in this case the tradeoff is worth it.

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Welcome to the new Blog

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 12:37:04 EDT

I’ve been mostly absent from personal blogging since 2010, and haven’t done it seriously for even longer. I’ve been itching to get back to blogging for a while, and was intrigued by Marco Arment’s new blogging platform, Second Crack when he announced it on Build & Analyze.

I read the installation instructions, and decided it was too much work to get going. Fortunately, a friend Nick Wynja created a great script for setting up Second Crack on a Rackspace Cloud server. I already use Rackspace for CastRoller so it wasn’t a problem for me to get started there. It wasn’t a simple setup, but once Nick fixed the script from feedback from myself and other users, it has become a pretty easy process, so now I’ve got a brand new blog up and running on Second Crack.

The old blog has all of the posts in Markdown files set up for Github pages, and I should be able to migrate them over, the syntax for the metadata is a bit different, so I do need to create a script that will loop through them all and update them for Second Crack, until then, they’ll all still there in the archive on Spaetzel.com.

I am a big fan of the Daring Fireball style of blogging with quotes and quick links back to the original source, Marco does the same thing, and Second Crack is perfect for this. It even comes with a handy bookmarklet that lets you select text and start a post from it. Hopefull this system will be easy enough for me to use and will keep me blogging.

I plan to post about anything in my areas of interest: Tech, Gadgets, Programming, Podcasting and Running. Most posts will be link posts, but I may share some original content from time to time.

The layout of the blog still needs work, but that will improve quickly over time.

Welcome!

→ Das Keyboard Pro for Mac by Garrett Murray

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 11:47:43 EDT

I’ll tell you this, friends: It’s hideous and it’s loud and it’s heavy and it’s huge… but I love typing on it. I love the feeling of rattling off a long paragraph of text uninterrupted while the air is filled with insanely loud clacking and I love the way the keys feel as I strike them.

Something about this keyboard is very tempting. I’ve been looking at the Das Keyboards for a while, and now that there is a Mac specific version one coming out, I’d like one even more. A coworker at Maplesoft has the Windows one at his desk, may be worth taking another look at it.

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→ Meteor

Thu, 12 Apr 2012 10:34:50 EDT

Meteor is a set of new technologies for building top-quality web apps in a fraction of the time, whether you’re an expert developer or just getting started.

If you work with node.js or JavaScript in any way, you have to watch this video. This looks incredibly useful. The documentation needs some love, I can’t see how to use it with data sources other than MongoDB, but when some more examples roll around, I may see if I can use this.

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