Digital Raven's Blog

Windows Phone 7

2010-10-04T14:12:00.003-05:00

I am more an iPhone guy, but Windows Phone 7 is starting to look interesting. Click the Windows Phone 7 banner at the bottom to get more details about it!

~D.R.

First iPhone Developers reality show!

2009-12-07T15:12:00.001-06:00

So if you thought they could make a reality show about anything...think again. The guys at CommandGuru(http://www.commandguru.com/) are putting together an iPhone application from start to finish online. You can watch the guys working and get some discounts on some cool Mac development software. These are some cool guys. Rock on!

~D.R.

Just an FYI

2009-11-20T16:16:00.000-06:00

I haven't forgotten about you all! I do still post updates from Twitter. Follow me at @geek_scientist or check my sidebar for updates!

~D.R.

A Cool Little Blog

2009-09-04T12:03:00.003-05:00

My buddy started a new blog. Check it out! I will also throw it in my links section as well.

http://scomplexv.blogspot.com/

Google Chrome OS

2009-07-08T14:47:00.005-05:00

Read the link and weep.... All I have to say is let the games begin. I wonder though..will my computer be flooded by Adsense? I certainly hope not. Anyways new paradigms in computing interest me. It should be interesting to see how this develops.

Look Ma! No wires!

2009-07-08T12:57:00.004-05:00

So I am going through those iPhone Development courses through Stanford and Apple. I have all the courses downloaded onto my Mac but I would like to watch them on my bigger TV using the mac to follow through with slides and do the code examples while I go. I tried converting and burning to discs but no dice. I finally found a solution for serving up those videos from my Mac to my PS3 for free!

Check out PS3 Media server. It's a dandy little program that allows your PS3 to talk to your Mac and wirelessly for free. This uses a technology called DLNA. It turns your Mac, or PC(Windows or Linux) into a broadcasting,wireless,media server so you can see your media across your devices on your home LAN. Set up was a cinch!

If you have a Mac, just download the .dmg file, open it up, and copy the .app file to your applications directory. Double click it, and turn on your PS3. (You have to have the Media server option enabled on your PS3). This is a free thing on Windows PC's but, this now opens up coolness like on the fly transcoding. So those m4v files get transcoded automagically in real time so you can watch StrongBad Emails and Stanford Lessons on your PS3. I will probably be throwing up some tips along the way. Overall its a good app! Check it out!

Vote on my pic!

2009-06-26T13:13:00.002-05:00

This is truly a Chuck Norris street name Win.

moar funny pictures

Steve Jobs receives liver translplant

2009-06-24T10:04:00.014-05:00

Looks like Steve Jobs WAS sicker then we all thought. It was confirmed by the WSJ that Steve Jobs recieved a liver transplant. Check the difference in the images. The image on the top is Steve Jobs with release of the Mac Mini on the bottom was Steve Jobs just a year ago.

Source: ToolBox.info

Source: Huffington Post

I am glad he got some help and hope that he's having a good recovery. It's no fun when this kind of stuff happens to anyone but I am glad things went well for him. Hopefully those other folks on the list can get some help soon.

This is what happens when....

2009-06-19T15:52:00.006-05:00

This is what happens my friend when you let plastic surgery go too far.

Source:Lasnark

The Weakness of my iPhone...

2009-05-05T11:20:00.004-05:00

So I love my iPhone, I really do. Yeah, there are occasional slowdowns when its pulling down my email, or when I am switching pages on the Springboard. I do have something like 9 pages of programs on there though so its give and take really. The thing that gripes me most about the phone is not the phone but AT&T.

For a while I was getting a discount off my mobile minutes,texting and wireless web. Now they took off discounts for my mobile web and texting. Whats up with that? Seriously this makes me not want to stay with AT&T. If the iPhone moves to Verizon, I will seriously consider going to them.

Playstation 3 Blank Screen Issues

2009-05-04T12:57:00.003-05:00

While hanging out with my buddies over the weekend my PS3 decided that it didn't want to display on his TV. I did the whole thing with holding the power button until it beeped twice, let it go and then let it open up to the debug screen that will reset your system or wipe it. After some fiddling unsuccessfully I just decided quit trying to get it working.

I took it home and hooked it back up to my Samsung plasma set and went through the same thing. Hold the power button until it beeps twice, go to debug menu blah blah..Well This time I did the "Restore PS3" option. This essentially wiped my PS3's hard drive and started it out from scratch. All wasn't lost or sad. A little while previous I backed up everything on a 320 GB external hard drive. So, after I got the PS3 set up again, I went in and restored my PS3 from scratch. It brought back the PS3 to out of the box conditions and initial set up. I performed all the usual out the box setup (user names, time,date,etc.) . Then I went to the System settings and selected the Restore option, I let it run overnight (slow 5400 RPM hard drive), Woke up and voila! all there! The backup seems to save the following:

Game Saves
Purchased PSN games
Movies (Non-PSN movies)
Music (Unprotected DRM)
Some user settings.
PSN Premium themes
Pictures
PS3 Game Data(patch updates,etc.)

While this wasn't the most elegant solution it worked and I had a backup of my files to help me out. I am just out a little time for restoring. It sure took less time than trying to switch TV's and make it recognize the TV.

The problem seems to be that if you go from HD -> SD (or vice versa) the PS3 freaks out because its not sure what to do (SONY fix this!) . The screen goes blank because the display/audio settings are "wrong".

If you know you're going to someone's house with a different set, while your PS3 is working on your set, scale back down to RCA cables in the settings, save, then have the output default to low definition sets. When you get to your buddy's house it will output on his 60 inch projection screen box TV. If he/she has a plasma set you can just haul your HDMI cables and scale up. It saves the hassle of trying to get it working at your buddy's house during a party and everyone is staring at you waiting for Guitar Hero to work.

Fun Fun

2009-03-26T09:06:00.002-05:00

If you're up for it check out this site. Great little site for managing your digital life. HA! ( I figured in the link!) :) Check em out!

MYDL.ME

Life In Technicolor 2 update...

2009-01-16T12:58:00.001-06:00

Seems that the track is on iTunes...Whoops! :) but its not the same single...The LP will be available next month though for all you guys looking for some warm sounding LP sounds. ;-)

Life in Technicolor 2

2009-01-16T11:26:00.002-06:00

I have to start this off by saying that Coldplay is just awesome...They really are. That being said they are releasing their new single Life in Technicolor 2 or (LiiT ii as a I have seen it) It's coming out next month on Feb. 2. Get your credit cards ready and iTunes accounts primed!

Steve Jobs illness is worse than previous thought...

2009-01-14T22:30:00.001-06:00

Seems that Steve Jobs is going to be taking some time off of his busy life at Apple to heal up and recuperate. Seems his hormonal imbalance is a lot more worse than thought and will take some time. Get well soon Steve!

~Orlando

A Great Discussion of Racism, Passion, and Life-Long Learning

2008-09-22T11:48:00.003-05:00

In this world, the concept of being passionate about things that are deeper are looked at as something pointless and not useful. Some people do focus on the deep things of our lives, but oddly enough, they get lost in their own search. Ben Dunlup gives a riveting speech about the value of life-long learning,passionate exploration of the things that interest us, and ultimately using what we learn not only to reach out to just our inner-selves but to also other people.

Sorry!

2008-09-03T08:52:00.002-05:00

Lots has been going on, but I am back! I was gone and busy for a while. I went to GenCon for instance! I will be posting up some pics and stories from GenCon in the coming days and weeks. Anyways, I thought that discussing a new Web Browser would be in order.

Google has put out a new web browser called Chrome. This thing is AWESOME. They took the best of the WebKit Engine and the Firefox Engine to create one awesome browser. One thing that I REALLY love about this is the multi-threaded nature of this app. Multi-threaded basically means that instead of one behemoth application, it's split up into smaller components that report back to a controller application. The advantage of this is that if you're using a javascript-intensive website (like Meebo), if it crashes, just that one site/webapp crashes not your entire browser. I am liking this a little more that Firefox 3! Give it a shot!

New Heroes Characters!

2008-08-11T15:33:00.003-05:00

If Entertainment Weekly is to believed Comic Book geeks, Seth Green and Breckin Meyer are in talks with folks responsible for Heroes to have guest roles as characters for the show for various story arcs. If this is true it should make for some awesome fun! Next season is supposed to be mindblowing. After hearing a rundown of the first half of the 2 hour season premiere on the 10th Wonder Podcast (episode 57;enhanced and non-enhanced) I am sure that next season will rock. At least I have something to hold me over until Dr. Who starts back up in 2010.

Dark Knight Review

2008-07-20T17:07:00.004-05:00

So I saw the Dark Knight on Friday at the IMAX in Fitchburg,WI. Wow, INSANITY. The only complaint I had was that the theater was way too warm. Anyways, the visual quality and the audio were awesome. I literally felt the ground shaking with the heart-pumping 14,000 watts of uncompressed audio. First off, the film. In a word this film was insane. Action shot after action shot after action shot! The story was a great with plot that makes you question things and ask later. The story was really thought compelling. Christian Bale had a great performance as the billionaire, Bruce Wayne and of course Batman. His emotion and struggle really came through in this film. Gary Oldman's portrayal of Gordon was one of the really nice jewels in this film; his active role and emotion really came through. Aaron Eckhart's portrayal of Two-Face was phenomenal. Morgan Freeman's Luscious Fox was really nice. He actually had more of a stronger role in this film and was a delight to watch in his more expanded role in the film. Maggie Gyllenhaal's performance of Rachel Dawes didn't feel like a necessary plot point but a stronger role that was a welcome re-introduction in my opinion. You actually want her in the story. Of course Heath Ledger's, Joker was immaculate. If he doesn't get a nomination for his role I would be surprised honestly.

The film itself has definitely a darker tone. Really dark. There is more action in this film. There is an elevated amount of action and a somewhat more violent tone of some of the scenes in this film. Joker,for example, kills a man with a pencil. A lot isn't shown, but there is enough of the scene to get the point. There really isn't a lot of blood from what I remember, but just be aware of if there is smaller children, the images of Joker and Two-Face might be disturbing for little kids.

Batman Reviews

2008-07-17T16:12:00.003-05:00

It seems like some folks really,really like the Dark Knight or really, really hate it. I am going to reserve judgment myself. I think it could possibly be a good movie, but I don't want to jump the gun. I think though at least I will get some enjoyment out of it. I am not going to suggest it to anyone really. LOL. If you like it, you like it. If not, that's fine too. Oh well, tomorrow is upon us! I just hope that the substance in story is there like it was in Begins.

An Oldie But a Great One

2008-07-17T07:50:00.006-05:00

I believe that very few companies are doing innovative software. We are still stuck in our same paradigms. Our same boring ways of interacting with software. What if though we were to make things more 3-Dimensional and interesting in our computing experience? I am not talking about games, but how can we use some of the same techniques to innovate on our daily interactions? I think this is a great step in that direction. Check out Anand Agarawala and his "BumpTop" technology.

Dark Knight Documentaries This Week and Next Week!

2008-07-16T15:51:00.003-05:00

I am a documentary/history type of guy. I am the first to admit this. Now I likes me some Batman too. Now what happens when there is a documentary about Batman? Its what I would like to call a mixture of awesome the world hasn't seen. The History Channel is running these. So check your local listings. The first documentary is called Batman Unmasked: The Psychology of the Dark Knight. Note the following description

Delve into the world of Batman and the vigilante justice that he brought to the city of Gotham. Batman is a man who, after experiencing great tragedy, devotes his life to an ideal--but what happens when one man takes on the evil underworld alone? Examine why Batman is who he is--and explore how a boy scarred by tragedy becomes a symbol of hope to everyone else.

The schedule is as follows:

Wednesday, July 16, 8 pm
Thursday, July 17 ,12 am
Monday, July 21 , 9 pm
Tuesday, July 22, 1 am
Saturday, July 26 ,10 pm
Sunday, July 27 ,2 am

Now the other one is called, Batman Tech. Note the following description of this cool beans event!

Since his debut in DC Comics in 1939, Batman has dazzled readers with an amazing array of bat gadgets. Viewers will go deep inside the Batcave to examine these incredible tools--many of them inspired by amazing real-life military developments. Discover just how close they come to real-life technology.

That sounds like a fun one to watch. The times for this is at:

Monday, July 21,8 pm
Tuesday, July 22,12 am
Saturday, July 26 , 9 pm
Sunday, July 27 ,1 am

Set your DVR! ;-)

~Orlando

Playstation Network ID

2008-07-14T16:29:00.002-05:00

I am throwing up my Playstation Network ID so if folks wanna play against me go for it. Toodles!

New Dark Knight Trailer

2008-07-11T20:11:00.002-05:00

Hey All! Wizard World has brought us a new Dark Knight Trailer! W00t! Have fun and check it out!

A Group of Fun Things!

2008-07-10T09:11:00.005-05:00

Sony Releases an update to the 2.40 firmware

This week Sony released an update to its 2.40 firmware. Apparantly it was causing some PS3's to become bricked. That's a nasty update.Anyways this update adds as has been mentioned before Trophies and support for In-Game XMB. I updated to the 2.41 version(I am sure glad I did!) and everything seems to be fine. It seems clunky at times when you are dealing with games with lots of detail. But overall it's a pleasant experience.

Barcelona FTW!
I went to Summerfest last week Thursday and saw this great band called Barcelona! You should definitely give these guys a listen. I didn't even listen to their entire set without hesitating to buy their album, Absolutes. They are great live as a band and fun to watch. "Absolutes" has some beautiful soundscapes and violins. The last track "Don't Go Away" is a beautiful track of love and sacrifice. Give these guys a listen! Tell 'em Orlando sent you. ;-)

Dark Knight Fun
So Stuart Baimel of the Stanford Daily basically says that Dark Knight will be "the most important film of the year, at the very least. " Well, next week Friday we will see. I can't wait for this movie to come out! It will be great at the very least!

~D.R.

Dark Knight Tickets Selling Out!

2008-07-03T12:25:00.003-05:00

So if you kids want to see Dark Knight on Friday July,18th you may find yourself out on the streets. If Cinema Blend.com and Movie Tickets.com are an indicator. Out of the over 4000 theaters showing, 100 theaters are sold out of their shows for Dark Knight. (I got mine!) Go out and get your tickets early if you want to see it! I am probably guessing that its the midnight showings that are sold out. Anyways, check out MovieTickets.com and get your tickets pre-ordered.

In-Game XMB!

2008-06-30T23:42:00.002-05:00

So it looks like after months of complaining and begging, Sony has decided to feed us the In-Game XMB. Wired reports that they have seen that in version 2.40 of the firmware set to release this week (July 2nd) that it features the following:

The ability to access the XMB in game, and browse your music collection and video collection. While Sony will not force developers to have in-game XMB I am hoping that they encourage.
Instead of Microsoft's Acheivement system, there will be a Trophy system that is raised like an RPG level where there are bronze,silver,gold, and platinum level trophies that can be earned that contribute to your overall gamer score.

If you would like to see more about version 2.40 go here and here.

~D.R.

PS3 Gaining Ground

2008-06-21T17:56:00.003-05:00

Who would have thunk you would see that? It's true though. If the latest data from PSXtreme is to be believed, the PS3 is gaining ground over the Xbox360. As for the Wii, well, look at it this way. If you were an engineer in a speeding train on an open desert and you can just go fast and faster would a mosquito make you go any slower. In the relative since, not at all. The Wii is going up,up, up as usual the Xbox360 is tapering off it seems, and the PS3 is making a comeback. After a year of struggles for the Playstation 3 maker, Sony will finally be able to see some benefit to their money-bleeding PS3. Don't get me wrong, I like the PS3 as much as the next guy, but for several quarters, Sony was bleeding cash. No...Hemorrhaging. That sounds better. At least now, Sony can put some alchohol on the wounds, patch up and keep running for what will most likely be one of the most interesting generations of gaming hardware, software and services.

~Orlando

Sonic is Back!

2008-06-18T23:40:00.001-05:00

It looks like Sonic is coming back after a not so well received first try on Next-Gen systems,including PS3. Check out the vid! It looks like it's going to be a great addition and a nice refresh to the old school 90's Sonic. I think this is going to be great! Hopefully the game plays intuitively.

Lots O' Downloads!

2008-06-18T08:28:00.005-05:00

It looks like the Mozilla Foundation is getting a lot of action. Lots and lots of downloading. Last time I checked They were at 6,742,311 downloads. This is great! It is a great improvement over the last versions. I have been using Firefox since the Firebird days. The little browser that could has come a loooooong way. I think out of all the features, the fact that they fixed those pesky memory leaks was the big draw for me. It runs so quick and nimbly. My system doesn't feel like an elephant pulling the Empire State Building. Memory utilization is still a little high, but nothing like yesterday even. I checked in the running processes (I have HP/Compaq nc6220, 1.73 Ghz Centrino, with 1 GB Ram...Stupid work computer... Good thing I have my Macbook for everything else other than work) and I was up to over 444 MB of memory usage from Firefox alone! Memory leak heaven! Anyways,I highly suggest this browser for its great web compliance,customizability, and nice UI.

Wanna help set a world record?

2008-06-17T11:14:00.003-05:00

The Mozilla Foundation is set to release the new version of Firefox which promises performance gains as one of its key features. (Goodness I hope this is true). Firefox overall is a pretty good browser. I love its support for proper web standards. I usually hop between Firefox and Safari. Give it a download! Become part of history!
The downloading commences at 12:00PM PDT. Check your local time!

WWDC Keynote

2008-06-09T08:14:00.002-05:00

YAY! So the day of the Steve-Note is upon us! I will be twittering the happenings...(Basically I will be checking and refreshing various sites and putting it on my twitter) Check the corner of the blog for Keynote updates! Hopefully we will get our 3G iPhone goodness with some surprises! ;-)

~Orlando

3G iPhone FTW!

2008-06-06T23:23:00.004-05:00

Engadget is reporting that they have confirmation of a 3G iPhone. We will see Monday. While Engadget usually has good sources for this kind of stuff, I am usually skeptical still of rumors. With that in mind, if this stuff is true, I will be really,really happy and the coding will begin!We We will see what happens Monday! Here is what Engadget has "confirmed":

A-GPS
Quad-Band GSM
Tri-Band UMTS/HSDPA

Music!

2008-06-05T16:11:00.003-05:00

So I have been getting more into my music. I am almost done with my song. I will probably find some place to post a clip of it. In the meantime I have been really into M83 lately. Additionally, I have always been a Coldplay fan. Their new Album, Viva La Vida was produced by Brian Eno. Awesome. I am loving the song, Viva La Vida. Awesome stuff. The sweeping strings and the voices are awesome. Take a listen.

Coldplay – Viva La Vida

Ringo Closing Down?

2008-06-02T09:13:00.003-05:00

So when I logged onto Ringo this morning I got this dandy message saying that they are closing down. On the upside the majority of my friends were on Ringo and this was sad. I met some cool people through Ringo and was able to keep up with them. I will be migrating back to Flickr though! That was a great site and I look forward to start posting there. Oh well, :-)

Dark Knight Got Milk Ad

2008-05-29T16:04:00.005-05:00

So shots like these make me wish I were really Batman. Aside from all the sociopathic behavior he's actually a pretty cool, interesting and human character. One of my favorite heroes. Oh well, go ga-ga for Batman! I can't even really drink milk at all, but this is a really cool ad.

Source: Coming Soon and Body By Milk

Someone Figure Out What They Want Already!

2008-05-19T07:57:00.003-05:00

Goodness man, Yahoosoft! or Microyoo! or whatever. First Microsoft is like we want to buy Yahoo! THEN, Yahoo! is like Uh Uh! NO NO NO! Then Microsoft is like Yahoo! your stock sucks and you should take our deal and Yahoo! goes NU UH! You are the 5ux0rs! COME ONE! NOW! Microsoft is saying they are looking into "alternatives" (which is a nice way of saying *cough* buyout *cough*). Microsoft just can't handle it can they! And on top of that the traders of Yahoo!'s stock showed their unhappiness by slamming the stock a day or after Yahoo! refused the first time. I bet Yahoo!'s stock shoot sky high now! Even though Microsoft says its not a buyout, we all know boys and girls what's probably going to happen. Ah well, note Microsoft's kindly words:

In light of developments since the withdrawal of the Microsoft proposal to acquire Yahoo! Inc., Microsoft announced that it is continuing to explore and pursue its alternatives to improve and expand its online services and advertising business.

Source: Microsoft

Oh well, maybe something will give.

~Orlando

Hitchhikers FTW!

2008-05-16T09:21:00.004-05:00

So I discovered this a while ago. Apparently this guy's uncle picked up a hitchhiker along a road and the hitchhiker left the video in his uncle's truck. This is an oldie, but a goodie. Question is what made him pick up the hitchhiker in the first place?! Well, think about this same principal online. We have our Facebooks,Myspaces,Ringos, Twitters,etc. When we add those folks in, they are getting a small glimpse of our lives and we have no idea really what these folks are like. In which case it really makes you think when you click the "add" button.

As humans we are social creatures and enjoy interaction with other humans. The internet allows for uncanny amounts of interaction and sharing on a grand scale. So next time you click that add button, think about who you're sharing that sliver, that instance of your life with that you show the world. You never know what hitchhikers you are letting in.

Source: The Official DreamHost Blog

~Orlando

Are life-sized Ken dolls destroying your life?

2008-05-08T13:59:00.007-05:00

Are life-sized Ken dolls destroying your life?
I had a random thought about life-sized Ken dolls as a joke to play on someone and well.. came up short. I think it would be a nice gag to do for someone if they actually existed. But what if you are the person being tricked? What happens if you walk into your safe, semi-clean, non-smelling-like-dogs, home and you see a giant Ken doll in a sailor suit grinning at you like the Burger King guy? What will you do? Google and Yahoo have the answer for you! An astute life-sized Ken doll hunter known only has Kelly G has the answer! Note her vigorously powerful answer:

you'll need 5 trash bags, duck tape, a shovel, and rope.
1) at 12:00, put the duck tape over his mouth and eyes
2) now, with the rope, tie his arms and legs 2gether
3) tie the rope as tight as u can around his neck
4) shuve him into the large trash bags
5 (fun part) sneek out side, dig a hole, and SHUVE HIM IN THERE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
6) bury him and RUN, FAR AWAY AND NEVER RETURN!!!!!

Source: Yahoo Answers

There you go folks! You have your answer! So the next time you are troubled by a mysterious life-sized Ken doll follow these 6 easy steps!

Batmobile for Sale!

2008-05-06T08:08:00.007-05:00

Well it looks like The Dark Knight won't be out until July, but even you can buy an old school batmobile to go to the likely midnight showings in style! I am finding that I prefer the new style batmobile from Batman Begins and the upcoming Dark Knight movies. Below are some images from the eBay posting. And some random Dark Knight images. All pictures are property of their respective owners( Warner Bros. etc,etc) Take your pick. Which do you prefer? :-D The first 2 are the Nu Skool and the last 3 are the old skool hotnesses. Thanks Jake G. for finding this ebay posting!
~Orlando

So hostile takeovers from billion dollar companies aren't always welcome?

2008-05-04T12:46:00.005-05:00

So it seems that Yahoo! doesn't want the takeover from big-brother Microsoft after all huh? I didn't see this working out in the first place. It was almost laughable to see Microsoft try to buy their way up to take on Google instead of good ol' fashioned innovation.

Seems to me Microsoft needs work on making more interesting desktop software. Vista of course is not doing them so well at this point. I use a Macbook and that thing is light years more stable and compatible than anything Microsoft has out there right now. The closest competitor is Windows XP. Oh well. Maybe they will hire some creative engineers that aren't just concerned with money. Seems to me that the type of folks at Google (and Apple for that matter) are the folks that really care about their work and research. It seems to me over the years Microsoft has lost touch with its customers and is just pushing SKUs and product lines year after year, and force-feeding the corporations of the world with their stuff. While the majority of companies will dump their money into Microsoft, I know of at least one Fortune 100 company that feels that Vista isn't worth the upgrade.

Yahoo!'s Jerry Yang makes a good point here:

"With the distraction of Microsoft’s unsolicited proposal now behind us, we will be able to focus all of our energies on executing the most important transition in our history so that we can maximize our potential to the benefit of our shareholders, employees, partners and users.” Source: Business Wire

Well-said. Behind Google and their services Yahoo is the second most interesting company in my opinion. They have done their share of buyouts as have Google, but like Google their ability to integrate these technologies into their platform is great. On top of that, Yahoo has some great services such as Flickr. I hope that Yahoo! continues to innovate like they have since the beginning.

Hopefully if Microsoft stays in this search game (which I am sure they will) they will get some talented,and creative folks behind them. I am no Microsoft fan at all, but I do believe that a company can organically improve itself rather than numerically improve itself by absorbing seemingly smaller companies or competition. For the time being I am going to enjoy the stability of Mac OSX and the accurate search results of Google for my everyday work; I don't see that changing for a LONG time. Ah well.

iPhone GPS?

2008-05-02T13:12:00.004-05:00

I have been going through documents on Apple's Developer site and found an interesting tidbit thats talked about in version 2.0 of the iPhone firmware. I wanted to use some location based information for my app. It looks like Apple has the implementations in place for denoting the physical location of an iPhone it seems. The class is called "CLLocation". You can do things like denote altitude and longitude and all those kinds of things. Now the method of course hidden and is Apple's proprietary implementation. It makes you wonder though if they are just using cell tower triangulation and WiFi access points to find coordinates? Maybe there is GPS, maybe there isn't but it seems like it's built into the tools to allow you to do so in the newest sdk version so far. I look forward to playing with this soon. Later!

~D.R.

New Design!

2008-05-01T13:44:00.005-05:00

So I got sick of the old design and decided to freshen it up a little bit more. I will be posting more often on here now. I just wanted to get things up and running. Anyways, I think over the next few days I will be learning some more Cocoa programming for the iPhone program I would like to do. The program so far is going to be a basic one, but it will be a nice stepping stone into something else I would like to do. Baby steps people! Also, you will notice that there are some missing pictures here. Well the reason with that is that the university I used to go to deleted all my space and blogs from the face of the planet so I had to start over and move this over to blogspot's page. Anyways, just excuse that. There are tons of this images and frankly it would be a lot of work to go in and mod all of my existing archived pages. Ah well. Not totally perfect.

Something New
Well we know that I am an Apple fan; And I did just get a Black Macbook ,but I do find a technolust for a certain OQO UMPC. That thing is hot. OQO was started by a bunch of ex-Apple employees and came out with these hot devices. I know the 01 and the 01+ were nothing to rave about, but the form factor, design and all that seems to really catch my eye. AND the fact that you can shoehorn Linux on that makes it even more attractive. I would probably do a dual boot set-up if I can get my hands on one! Those things are cool Anyways, check out some shots as to why I dig em!
All images are from OQO.com

2008-04-30T14:57:00.002-05:00

Busy Busy Busy!

Man I have been super busy guys! I have not had time to post! Let's do a quick rundown of what's been going on:

I graduated college (finally) and got my degree in Computer Science
Found out my blog and all that was deleted off the University server (w00t!) .
Moved out the house and I have an apartment.
Bought a Macbook.(Thats a hot machine)
Learning spanish now

I am hoping to start work on an iPhone application soon as soon as I get all moved in and all that. I will hopefully be coming out with my own site on my own domain as well in the next few months so this may move again. I am sorry if the blog moved and you all were confused. :-) When I get time I will refresh the design of the CSS here and all that. Maybe I will keep this page as my permanent blog. I like that idea. I may do that. :-) Anyways, I will be blogging more. :-) For now the iPhone application's functionality is secret, because well I don't know all the features yet. :-) Hope to have more soon!

~Orlando

2007-01-16T23:09:00.000-06:00

So that's why...

I was craving some concrete data as to why when someone is dating automatically everybody that thought you were ugly all of a sudden finds you interesting. This link from NewScientist.com explains why.

Apparently there is some sort defaulting system whereby if there aren't enough partners to
pair with, women go after whom other women go after. I don't believe in all that Darwinism stuff, but I do think that there is something to be said about this research. If anything, its an interesting read.

2007-01-09T23:18:00.000-06:00

Smartphone?

Can someone please tell me why people think that the iPhone can't sync with Outlook? Its a FACT that you use iTunes to sync your iPods with contacts If I am not mistaken, but didn't Jobs say that you use iTunes to manage this thing? I mean PEOPLE PAY ATTENTION TO THE PRESENTATION. Of course you can sync your Outlook contacts with this thing. And as for that whole email thing, that is something yet to be explained, but can't you do email forwarding with most business-class email systems? I mean come on! Who's there to say there won't be plugins or apps that allow this. The thing has IMAP support for Exchange what else do you want? The only problem I see is Lotus Notes integration. But this could be fixed with a plugin as Notes is already ported over FULLY to OS X, and is already working in Windows. I wish people would just wait until the thing is out with supporting apps before they start slamming. Ah well that's my rant.

2007-01-09T16:29:00.000-06:00

Photos of some of the new devices

Apple TV:

iPhone:

Sources:
Apple
Engadget

2007-01-09T15:43:00.000-06:00

iPhone,iPhone,iPhone!

Looks like Apple went ahead and did it! They released the iPhone! That thing looks so cool! Why don't I do a run down of what it can do!

From Apple's iPhone Site:

Technical Specifications

Screen size :
3.5 inches

Screen resolution :
320 by 480 at 160 ppi

Input method :
Multi-touch

Operating system :
OS X

Storage :
4GB or 8GB

GSM :
Quad-band (MHz: 850, 900, 1800, 1900)

Wireless data :
Wi-Fi (802.11b/g) + EDGE + Bluetooth 2.0

Camera :
2.0 megapixels

Battery :

* Up to 5 hours Talk / Video / Browsing
* Up to 16 hours Audio playback

Dimensions :
4.5 x 2.4 x 0.46 inches / 115 x 61 x 11.6mm

Weight :
4.8 ounces / 135 grams

My Comments:
After watching the various blog sites and looking at this thing, I am BLOWN away. This is huge. I was looking at various smartphones especially those distributed by Cingular and Verizon(I am currently with Verizon) and specifically Blackberries. After seeing what this thing can do I am blown away. I can sync my photos some music, and my contacts to boot! AND it works with my Mac AND PC. I mean for business users this SHOULD be huge if you are already using Microsoft Outlook. Since you can set up iTunes to sync contacts with Outlook with your iPod. If you're a Mac user, this is PERFECT. You can have Address Book set up to sync with your iPhone. Perfect fit! My only gripe is the price points and the carrier:

4 GB: $499
6 GB: $599
Exclusively with Cingular

Cingular better have some decent data plans or I might have to reconsider the purchase. I mean they're still charging by the megabyte while Verizon has reasonable UNLIMITED data plans. I can deal with the somewhat slower data rate for convenience sake, and Verizon's constant dropping of calls. I can barely talk to my girlfriend without the service dropping calls left and right, and thats while I am at home and after upgrades to towers have been done! So maybe the switch to Cingular will be a good one.

Looks like my other predictions were mysteriously gone. The iPhone at least came. I was expecting something to be said about Leopard. I would have been ready to plop down cash for that! or iLife '07? or iWork '07? All of those mysteriously gone. Maybe we will get some sort of update on the site.

The Apple TV:
I have to say I wasn't looking so forward to this as I do not have an HDTV. But the specs are quite impressive for a 1st Gen entertainment device. I think over time more cool features will be added.

Processor and storage:

* Intel processor
* 40GB hard drive2 for storing content locally
* Up to 50 hours of movies and TV shows
* Up to 9,000 songs
* Up to 25,000 pictures

System requirements:

* Mac or PC
* iTunes 7.1
* Mac: Mac OS X v10.3.9 or later
* PC: Windows XP Home/Professional (SP2)
* AirPort Extreme, Wi-Fi 802.11b, 802.11g, or 802.11n wireless network6 (wireless video streaming requires 802.11g or 802.11n), or 10/100BASE-T Ethernet network

Ports and interfaces:

* HDMI (video and audio)
* Component video
* Optical audio
* Analog RCA stereo audio
* 10/100BASE-T Ethernet
* USB 2.0 (for service and diagnostics)
* 802.11n wireless networking6
* Built-in IR receiver (works with included Apple Remote)

Environmental requirements:

* Operating temperature: 32° to 104° F (0° to 40° C)
* Storage temperature: -40° to 185° F
(-40° to 85° C)
* Relative humidity: 5% to 95% noncondensing
* Maximum operating altitude: 10,000 feet (3,000 m)

Video:

* Video formats supported: H.264 and protected H.264 (from iTunes Store): 640 by 480, 30 fps, LC version of Baseline Profile; 320 by 240, 30 fps, Baseline profile up to Level 1.3; 1280 by 720, 24 fps, Progressive Main Profile. MPEG-4: 640 by 480, 30 fps, Simple Profile

Audio:

* Audio formats supported: AAC (16 to 320 Kbps); protected AAC (from iTunes Store); MP3 (16 to 320 Kbps); MP3 VBR; Apple Lossless; AIFF; WAV

Photos:

* Photo formats supported: JPEG, BMP, GIF, TIFF, PNG

TV compatibility:

* Enhanced-definition or high-definition widescreen TVs capable of 1080i 60/50Hz, 720p 60/50Hz, 576p 50Hz (PAL format), or 480p 60Hz

Apple's Name:
I wasn't expecting this one! But I think it's a fitting name seeing as Apple is spreading into various devices now. The "Computer" part in their name would be limiting to them and wouldn't be a proper descriptor of what they do and who they are.

Airport:
This thing was quietly updated! 802.11n to support higher speeds! No doubt to support the already shipping 802.11n chipsets in the Mac Pro,iMacs, and Macbooks (pro and non-pro). $159 is not bad a price for it. Still high though.

Anyways thats my rant! I will get some photos up soon when Blogger stops being irritating. :-)

2007-01-08T15:10:00.000-06:00

What will Apple bring us at the 2007 MacWorld San Francisco tomorrow?!

The various rumor sites and blogs are all abuzz as to what Apple will feed the commoners tomorrow morning(depending on your time zone). I decided perhaps I could give my predictions of what will happen at MacWorld, and then I will do a post-show blog. In years past I have done the whole real-time blogging thing and refresh; this year I will just post what new goodies we get. It starts at 9 AM PST/11 AM CST/Noon EST tomorrow for those of you that wanted to know. Here are my predictions:

Predictions most likely to occur:

OS X Leopard

Release Date (U.S. most likely)
Features not shown yet to the public
Pricing

Release date
Pricing
Features not shown yet to the public
iPod-style Games being playable on the device.
Wireless integration(i.e. 802.11 a/b/g/n)
iLife integration
Specs(Hard drive size,etc.)

iWork '07

Numbers or Sheets spreadsheet program added to the suite.
A database program added to the suite (BIG MAYBE)
New features to Pages.
New Keynote templates

iLife '07

iDVD

New Templates
More HD integration

iWeb

New Templates
More Blogging features
Updated .mac services to interwork with iWeb(updated iWeb services as well)

iTunes/iTunes Store

Higher quality movies in preparation for iTV
Visual enhancements and search enhancements perhaps to iTunes.
Integration with iTV explained in detail
Sales Figures of the past year with iTunes Store.
Maybe some exclusive distribution deal with some artist.

iMovie

New Templates
New Transitions
New Effects
Integration with iTV explained in detail

MacBook/MacBook Pro

Refreshed Specs
Blu-Ray Drives (MAYBE- Not too likely since blue diodes are hard to come by.)

iMac

Refreshed Specs.
Blu-Ray Drives (MAYBE- Not too likely since blue diodes are hard to come by.)

Mac Pro

New Enclosure
Dual Quad-Core Processors(AMD had their big announcements with HP and Microsoft at CES, therefore I see Intel doing big announcements with Apple.)
Blu-Ray Drives (MAYBE- Not too likely since blue diodes are hard to come by.)

iPods

iPod 6G(Whatever that entails-maybe touchscreen,wireless(bluetooth and/or wifi),etc.)
Sales figures with iPods in the past year.
80 GB and 100 GB upgrades as well.

New Monitors

iSight built-in.

Less Likely Things to happen at MacWorld, but possible:

Steve Jobs (!)

Retires (!!!!)

iPhone

4 GB and 8 GB flavors across multiple carriers
Smartphone like features
CDMA and GSM styles.
Pricing announced.
Specs announced.
iCal/Address Book/ iSync integration

It morphs into some weird game console with high-end 3d Graphics to take on Sony and Microsoft (!)

Some sort of Apple branded television with integration built-in for iLife.
Woz and Leo Laporte come and do a song and dance for us on stage with Steve.

Things that will happen for sure:

We will all have a great time anticipating what Apple shoots out at us.

iPod History, Discovery Channel

2007-01-04T12:58:00.001-06:00


This is a cool iPod documentary. If you have any interest in iPods, Apple, or otherwise check this out!

2006-12-28T15:26:00.000-06:00

Internet Coolness!
I was looking at PCWorld's most innovative products of the year. Some of them I agreed with like the Core 2 Duo, the PS3 in its proper spot below the Wii, and Parallel's for the Mac. Some of them I don't agree with like Office 2007 making number 1. I mean come on! All they did was clean up the GUI and add XML for saving files. Anyways, I just found this one today off of PCWorld's list. This thing is called YouOS . It's so cool! It's still in Alpha, but what is YouOS?

An Operating System for the Web

YouOS is described as an Operating System for the internet. It's actually really neat. You get an account at the website and than you sign in. Once you sign in, you are greeted to a "desktop" of sorts. Basically this houses all the small apps that you are going to use. You can write yourself quick notes, check blogs with the included reader, or even use command line! It's so neat! I will be experimenting with this over the next few days more. So far the only bug that I have found is that in the RSS feeder, it errors out when you try to add a feed to the list. So you are pretty stuck with whatever feeds are given to you. I don't see these guys taking down OS X or Linux, but I see it as a really cool way to think about the web. I am all for new thinking about technology!

Playstation 3 Hatin
Ok, so I am just as poor as the next guy, but this PS3 hating game has been going on for a WHILE. Everyone from Time to PCWorld is giving the PS3 some "hatorade". Now granted the thing is expensive, and the current state of its games are slim, that does not mean it does not have the potential to do some good. Let's look at the specs of the machine,what it has the capability to do,and ultimately what it can do to get itself out of the dunce's chair and hat, and get into the game. again.

System Architecture:

So this thing is powerful, and when I say powerful, I mean powerful. A 3.2 Ghz processor with 7 SPE's (Synergistic Processing Elements). Each of these SPE's can serve as mini-processors as it were. So a game designer can designate one SPE to do nothing but physics, and another SPE to do nothing but image compression/decompression, and another SPE to do nothing but gameplay rules, etc,etc. The list goes on and on with what a game designer can do. But the question is WILL the designer do it. Overall system capacity for floating-point operations (that is the amount of floating point ops for the CPU and GPU) is equally as impressive yielding 2 TeraFlops(2 trillion operations) a second! So this is no baby console. There is a lot of technology crammed into this thing. This post isn't about how I think Blue-Ray will beat HD-DVD, I will just look at the amount of space that can be used. The Blue-Ray Disc itself can house up to 50 GB of space. That is a lot of space for uncompressed audio,video, and textures for games. So with these stats in mind let's get down to what matters.

Games and Gamer Community Mindshare (GCM)
So, Sony basically has gotten a lot of the so-called "hardcore" gamers off of its side. Most of this stems from the following:

Cost: A gaming system costing $500 and $600 is not a way to appeal to gamers. We are a poor lot. No Sony, seriously, despite what your marketing people tell you, we do not have sprawls and sprawls of cash. I know our good ol' friend Ken Kutaragi believes we should all work harder for the PS3, but this doesn't mean it should be so out of reach for people. Anyways, as time goes on, the cost of components should drive down. The biggest cost seems to be Blu-Ray. Sony is determined to stick with Blu-Ray until the very end even if it crashes and burns. The only way that Blu-Ray really helps gamers is space per disc. 25-50 GB is nothing to look down on.

Games(or lack thereof): As it stands, Sony's content so far isn't the most interesting. It's mostly rehashes of PS2, and Xbox360. Some of the new properties, like Motorstorm, is essentially a really beautiful offroading game. Sony really needs to offer compelling content. Hopefully, they will have some new,creative titles coming out. flOw seems to be the most interesting game thus far in my book. In addition to compelling titles, Sony really needs to stop losing exclusivity of titles. If this keeps up, this will not be good.

Not like Sony would actually care or read my blog; just my $0.02 on what they could do. Anyways talk to you all later!

~D.R.

2006-12-27T12:52:00.000-06:00

Where has Orlando been?

Hey everyone! This is what happens when you have a semester of Algorithms and Data Structures. No posts for months on end! YAY! But the semester is over. And fortunately this coming spring is my LAST semester. W00T! So much more time. So much more time to blog! Anyways, other than dreaming up algorithms and trying to finish college what has Orlando been doing? Well, I am officially dating. I suppose I had a hard time figuring out that any girl could genuinely like a geek. But in retrospect I guess its true. LOL! :-D Check out me and her together at a wedding I went to. (Congrats Justin and Dani btw). Anyways, unlike the rumor, I am NOT engaged yet. Seems that someone got a few words mixed up. ;-)

Geekery
So I suppose you all are wondering what forms of geekery I have been involved in. Well, in the summer I finished up some preliminary research on GUI system that I would like to design in the near future. As I do more in this I will let you all know; It looks like an after-college pet project. Essentially it would sit atop XGL. At this point I have a few mock-ups and some basic rationale for why certain objects interact with one another. As time goes by, I will release some of the fruits of this research as well.
During the semester I worked on a UNIX simulator in my Data Structures and Algorithms class. Essentially, this meant a few late nights of coding and cramming.( I really do hope I passed that class.) It was a long and hard class. But I do think I took some stuff out of it. Very interesting material nonetheless. The first implementation of this UNIX simulator used Vectors of pointers in C++ to represent files and folders. As you can imagine run times were incredibly high. But it was interesting to get working. The second reincarnation of this used a map structure in C++. It ran faster and was easier to code overall. The project turned out ok, but this implementation needed many more late nights, and weekends. Another project I worked on was an Address Book program implemented in Java. Check out the screen shots. The prof had all these forms going everywhere, so I decided to simplify the GUI a bit for the submission and stuck with 2 forms, where the main form did an autofill that allowed you to save and edit entries. I was pretty proud of it. It was mostly implemented with Java Swing. It features:

Auto fill of data for entries in the address book.
When an entry is edited that is not in the address book, a new one is added automatically.
Simplified GUI
Saves in a standard CSV file so it can be imported and edited in spreadsheet programs like Excel or OpenOffice.org

Main Screen:

Edit Screen:

I was pretty happy the way it turned out. If I were to release it to the world, I would have to work on it a little more, but I think its a cool little app.

Technology Rants
Ok so I am sure people are wondering what I am thinking about the Next Generation of gaming. I chose to put out my judgments after having played all systems. Why don't we get to it shall we?

Playstation 3(a.k.a. "PS3", "Pay B3yond" or "EXPENSIVE" : MAN SONY! How rich do you think people are. $500 and $600 gaming hardware?! I just had to get it out of my system. Anyways, after having played Motorstorm and NBA 2007(and successfully getting the PS3 to crash the demo) I am convinced Sony needs to rethink their game plan for games. The games albeit look awesome, and Motorstorm at least from the demo felt like a mature piece of software, this rehashing of stuff on the PS2 and Xbox 360 leaves much to be desired. I really do hope games with fun gameplay come out on this box. Its a processing monster. It has so much potential, I don't want the monolith to be absorbed into the gaming history books as the gaming system that could, but didn't just because. Everyone in the blogsphere has been smacking the PS3 around like the fat kid on the playground. The press has not been so nice to the PS3 either. I think the PS3 has a ways to go, between losing exclusives and not having the most compelling launch(Not to say no other gaming system hasn't had a compelling launch either) it has a rough road ahead, but if Sony's 10 year plan says anything about their dedication to the platform than this is just the beginning, and maybe PS3 can revive itself from the ashes and gain the respect of gamers again.

Xbox 360: Microsoft's foray into gaming with original Xbox was a battle cry to Sony and Nintendo that they aren't the only kids on the block. The fat monolith known as Xbox got slimmer and sexier in more ways than one with its second incarnation. It has been over a year since its release, (I know I am anti-Microsoft) and Microsoft has built up quite the reputation among gamers in the U.S. Sales of Microsoft's Xbox 360 continues to lag in the Southeast Asian countries, but continues to gain ground in the U.S. and the U.K. With games like Halo 3 on the horizon, and Gears of War gaining much favor(not my personal favorites mind you), the 360 with its balanced hardware, excellent development support, and a solid online strategy to boot has much in its favor. The 360 has a good chance of spanking up Sony pretty good if Sony doesn't watch themselves. If I were going to get a 360, I would probably buy one used, as I don't want to give M$ any more money. LOL! :-D But Mass Effect looks like it will be an interesting game. ( I just hope it doesn't get an "M" rating- Hey I have a personal rule about buying and playing "M"-rated games LOL!)

Nintendo Wii(All body-function related jokes can stop right about..... Now): So I couldn't stop laughing at the name of the system. I mean come on! Wii! (pronounced: wee); Anyways, after playing Zelda:Twilight Princess on it, I am sold. That thing is FUN! This system has something that the PS3 and Xbox 360 lack: gameplay. While the Wii-mote may seem gimmicky, that thing is FUN! Nintendo was not lying! The graphics aren't all that impressive, especially when the insides are souped up Gamecube parts, still though, its fun! Graphics isn't everything people! I will probably end up getting a Wii in the upcoming weeks. $250! Come on! Affordable, powerful enough to deliver fun games. Nintendo is definitely the underdog in this generation, but they have a good chance with a fun gameplay in their corner.

2006-07-07T15:42:00.000-05:00

The places where Orlando has spread his geekism!
Here are all the places I have spread my geekiness! Go here
to see if Orlando geekiness was spread to your state! If you want to make your own go here.

2006-07-07T12:45:00.000-05:00

2007:A Life Odyssey
Artificially Created Life?
I came across a company named Genpets that sells an organic,living automaton of sorts called a Genpet™. What's interesting about this is that it is a living,breathing,defecating,emotionally-charged entity. What is so significant about this? Well, the implications of selling,and putting a warranty on life is highly interesting. When you buy the Genpet™, you get one that matches your personality. As spoken about on their site, you can have a Genpet™ with the following attributes and colors:

* Genpet Red™ - Athletic and energetic
* Genpet Orange™ - Adventurous, confident and curious
* Genpet Yellow™ - Playful and fun
* Genpet Green™ - Helpful, harmonious and peaceful
* Genpet Blue™ - Communicative and serene
* Genpet Violet™ - Imaginative and spiritual

How a Genpet™ can be 'spiritual' is beyond me. Some people don't even have an interest themselves in being spiritual. The fact of the matter is, our technology is allowing us to create life and that in itself can be dangerous. If you read some of the marketing materials, one of the goals of a Genpet™ is to get young people used to Bioengineering. While I am usually excited and open to new technology, a Genpet™, could have many negative implications. What kinds of rights would a Genpet™ have? What kind of possible diseases could a Genpet™ have? What ethical issues come into play with creating life such as this? What kind of health precautions,mental and physical, would need to be taken by users and for the benefit of a GenpetÂ? What sorts of abuses can happen with this creation? Will people really attach themselves to something that can only live for 1 year or up to 3 years? Only time will tell if this is a "good" idea. I am interested to see what technologies get snapped up by other private or government sectors.

The Atomic Bomb all over again?
When the Atomic bomb was created, there were some men who generally thought it was positive thing, but there were also men who feared the implications of their creation, and with good reason.What prevents a Genpet™ from further tampering by perhaps terrorists, or other types of people to do some truely devious things? I suppose the same questions can be asked about a dog, or cat. The difference though is the culture. In most cultures there is a view of animals and their place in a particular society. A Genpet™is supposed to be an entity created by humans for money by a big company. The marketing materials suggest this holding the same place as a Gameboy. How could this hold the same place of a Gameboy? This is a living,eating,breathing animal. Technology like this is very exciting and sobering at the same time. Hopefully possible abuses of the creatures, and proper precautions are taken. If they aren't this could turn in to Philip K. Dick story-minus the happy ending.

Update: I found out this thing is a hoax of some sort. But basically, the thoughts here on artificially created-life still hold. What are the implications when something like this really happens?

2006-06-27T13:26:00.000-05:00

So hopefully nobody decided that I was dead. I don't think I am dead.... Anyways, yeah, there are too many news worthy things to talk about that I haven't discussed from Playstation 3's astronmical prices to Apple shaking off Shake support.

Sony
I think I will pick on Sony for their PS3. I saw the highlights for E3. My goodness, I officially think Sony has lost their mind. What kind of idoltrous people do they think we are? $500 and $600 is too much cash for a GAME console. As much as Sony likes to hide the fact that they have one, they do in fact have one. PS3 is going to replace my computer, please. PS3 does do some of the functions of computers, but first and foremost it is a games console.Additionally, my iMac G5 still rocks so much. ;-) How does Sony expect to make all those billions back that they lose from selling that 800 lbs gorilla of gaming consoles? Developers, and licensing fees. These fees continue to go up on Sony's end. But the devs do it because Sony will sell millions of them. I am not a Sony-hater, I am just speaking common sense. I will probably end up getting a PS3. But believe me, I will not be lining up to get one in November when Sony let's the cat out of the bag. Sure the thing is powerful, sure it has decent industrial design, but bottom line is, I am in college, which equates to being poor. LOL! :-) So, I will be waiting for a while to jump on the Sony bandwagon. They are going to have to show me some good GAMES to drop down my cash for. I have enough DVDs to watch. I don't know that i feel like going out to re-buy all my favorite movies as BD-ROMs; that just doesn't appeal to me. Anyways, now that the rants are over, the PS3 truely is an amazing machine. I think it's neat that Sony is sticking with their PSP-style GUI for the thing. That is quite neat. I hope they beefed up the web browser as well. I find the browser in PSP to be quite slow-responding at times. I really do hope that Sony doesn't put all the emphasis on Blu-Ray. That seems to be all the rage with the kids these days. Sony, ease up off the Blu-Ray train and get back into actual GAMES.

Apple

So good ol' Steve Jobs is going to be doing the WWDC keynote. One of these days I am going to make it there. :-D Those seem kind of cool. I was looking at some video of Windows Vista at OS Vids. I just started getting irritated. Windows Vista is such a rip-off of OS X. I have to use both environments, but by far, OS X spanks Windows in many aspects. I hope Leopard has some of the cool things in there like virtualization, and the bit-torrented software updates,downloads,etc. Anyways, I will be in New York in August. I will be making it a point to visit the Soho Apple store and the new Fifth Avenue stores.One of these stores will be one of the places I buy my first iPod! Talk about being poor! I have watched iteration after iteration of iPod, knowing more about the iPod than most owners and not being able to own one! Finally I will have one! LOL! :-D Perhaps I will get a photo op shot with the guy who rings me up and throw up the pic here for all to see. ;-)

Camping Trips and Grad parites and stuff
In addition to finishing up my reseaarch for college, (thank goodness) I have gone outside. LOL :-D It's possible! Geeks do go outside! :-D. I went camping with Kelly and her family; additionally I went to her's and her cousin's, Barak, gradutation party. I am guessing I should post a few of those up. Perhaps there wil be proof that I do go outside. ;-) I would also like to thank the Kolenda's for their fine hospitality ;-).

Camping pics

On the way up....

To camping....

I got....

Really......

Really Bored.... There was an accident and I was in traffic for an hour without moving.

Here is the camp ground. Way up in the boonies I might add.

The Best part about camping... The food.

The little lake near the camp ground. Really pretty.

My chariot of thunder on which I rode over 80 miles on.

This is Matt before he hit the trails. Afterwards was another story. ;-)

The following images are just scenery from the area(Note: The gray images are untouched except for some recropping. It was really gray out the first day.) :

There's Kelly!

Notice the dirt all over my face. Exquisite.

Hannah was obsessed with dirt. ;-)

Graduation Party
Congrats Kelly and Barak! :-)

One happy Barak...

I can look pretty in pink!

Delightful cakes by their grandma.

Proof that I can find good gifts!

Jason in pink!

2006-04-25T23:09:00.000-05:00

SO! I haven't been on in a bit. I haven't forgotten about you guys out there! I have been busy with college. Coding,sleeping,coding,trying to make Eclipse compile "working" code, sleep,eat, and combinations of all the above. LOL. Anyways, I haven't forgotten about Boot Camp. The following video has been popping up all over the web:

It's quite cool. Boot Camp is allowing for some pretty interesting things. My take on it, is that for some people it is useful. For me, I use a Mac so I can get away from Windows. I don't know why I would spend all that hard earned cash on a Mac, to run Windows bloatware. But hey that's me. There are uses for it. There are programs that I need to run in Windows, but I have a windows PC for that,that I have no problems hopping on to use. Especially since most of those programs are security tools I use for my work, and other little tidbits I need. But anyways, for those people out there who appreciate Boot Camp, all the more power to them. I think it's great that people have a reason to look at the Mac now. Have fun all you Boot Campers. ;-)If you want, feel free to let me know what you think about it. I would be glad to hear your experience!

~D.R.

2006-04-11T00:06:00.000-05:00

Guess who got DSL?!
So in this small town where I live, I FINALLY get DSL. Man, this has been long over due. I have been doing dial up for so long, too long. It's about time these phone companies get their act together. Now onto some news items.

Apple releases Boot Camp
Apple Computers released Boot Camp a few days ago. This program is basically Apple saying we will give you all the necessary tools to dual-boot your machines into Windows XP. Not only is Windows XP being done, but unofficially, Windows Vista, and Linux have been shoehorned into the Mac. My take on it is that there are people out there who obviously need this; For me personally, I don't have a true need for Windows,except for a handful of security programs that I use for work and a research tool that is only on Windows, I can do without. I use Windows everyday, but I also use OS X at home or at school every day sprinkled in with some Linux/UNIX for development purposes, so I suppose in terms of computer use I am pretty much all over the board. I try not to Microsoft bash much, but sometimes its just so hard not to! With Macs being my favorite, I have a hard time defiling a Mac with Windows, but there are people that need that set up, so no shame to their game. It just goes to show how versatile a mac is, and how constricted PC's really are. Ah well, thats all for now.
SEE YA.

~D.R.

2006-03-15T16:08:00.000-06:00

Playstation 3:Part Dos(That's 2 for you non-Spanish speakers)

So to all of our delights Sony has actually stated something interesting about Playstation 3. Let's hit the bullet points from 1UP.com:

Playstation 3's release date has been officially pushed back to November 2006. (And no, you can't preorder at Gamestop yet either; I have tried.)
There will be a simultaneous release worldwide between Japan,North America, and Europe.
The hard drive will be 60 GB(upgradable obviously), and will come pre-loaded with Linux.
The implication of the hard drive being included seems to be that Sony will have some packages avalible a la XBOX360.
PS3 is "100%" backwards compatible with the full Playstation library.(I am going to wait to see this one)
Final PS3 controllers and dev kits will be released to developers by May. (About time.)
Sony will have a "free" online service called the "Playstation Network Platform" that is supposed to be the end-all,kill-all of XBOX Live(Whatever happened to 'HUB'; I am going to wait for this one to see if it works as Sony says it will.)
'Playstation Network Platform, or as I like to call it PNP, will support voice/video chat,matchmaking(ewww...) ,game downloads, and in-game shopping.

And Now for the PSP...

The PSP will support some sort of game download service where you will be able to download PS1 games.(Get ready to buy that 1 GB Mem Stick DUO, unless Sony has some sort of magic compression algorithm or they plan on selling 4 GB DUOs at $500. ewww)
The PSP will be able to play PS1 games via download and emulation.(That might be intriguing)
The PSP will have a price drop at the end of March going for $199. (I already bought mine at $199 anyways, so no biggie for me.)
A new GPS unit and camera unit will also be released for the PSP.
VOIP and Video Chat will be included with the various add-on devices as well.

Well that's all. Let's see if Sony really does accomplish this stuff. I really doubt they will be able to make some sort of meaningful "worldwide" release as they say it. Read this article for my reasons. Ah well. Have fun and get your credit cards out!

~D.R.

2006-03-14T11:19:00.000-06:00

Super Happy Fun news! (^_^)

So it looks like Sony is going to be releasing some info on PS3 at 6:00 AM GMT(3:oo PM local time in Japan, and Midnight here CST.) Whoppity-doo. It's about time! Maybe we will find out that PS3 slices,dices, and pixelates reality like Kutaragi says it will. I don't know how many of you are willing to stay up late and converge upon the web and see what will be said. Perhaps I will stay up and wait like hungry vultureto see what the various news outlets have to say. I am hoping that thing isn't as expensive as the PSX. That thing was insanely expensive. As cool of a device as it is, I hope Sony has learned their lesson. Kutaragi isn't known for his bland statements though. He is a motivated and passionate induvidual.So don't count on this thing being boring.

In other news...

Steve Jobs was paid $1 by Apple. That is insanely cool. The guy got $10 million in Apple shares though. Talk about a guy being confident in his company. Then there's that whole stake he has in Disney, and Pixar that could help pay the bills. Make no mistake this guy is smart. Maybe some day I can create something cool and live off of it the rest of my life. On second thought, I doubt that will happen. Anyways, have fun with the news today. T00dles!

~D.R.

2006-03-11T13:45:00.000-06:00

Greetings All!

So yeah, I bet you guys been wondering where I have been. It's insane! Between classes,homework,and life, I barely have time to eat(Yes, it happened, I didn't have time to eat for a day.) I will be glad when college is over. There are guys out there who love the life; I will be glad to be done. LOL!

Research
So I am doing research now for an independent study. I am researching user interfaces. I have named this project,Epiphany. That will be the name of my proof of concept program. What it will aim to do is try to predict user programs that people may want to use. That's about all I am going to say now, but it's part of an overall thesis and perhaps project if things go right. I may post it to the web and see what you all think about it. I may post up the paper as well for all of you to see as well for your own info.

Playstation 3: When will it be released?
So for weeks now the net has been hectic over when Playstation 3 will be released. Everyone expected it to make an appearance at the Playstation conference in Miami,FL, but alas nothing. Come on Sony! Say something! According to Engadget Sony will have a super secret meeting where they will release fun details about the phantom machine. At this point we know more about the suspicious Phantom game box than Sony's coveted Playstation 3. Now we know for sure that Sony will be talking at GDC about their latest endeavors with PS3. Sony has to say something soon. People in the industry are starting to talk and it doesn't look good for them. The fact that Microsoft can't make enough 360's to keep up with demand can be helpful to Sony in the short term, but in the long term if this keeps up, the touted cheaper Revolution or the much praised XBOX360 may start taking the attention way from the 800 lb. gorilla. Until then, we will have to wait to hear about Sony's secret meeting on the Ides of March(a.k.a. March 15)and/or the GDC. Until then, Playstation 3 is one of the biggest question marks in the gaming industry now.At least that boomerang/pippen controller will keep us enteratained for a while. I wonder if you throw it, if it will come back. hmmmmmm...

2006-01-16T14:48:00.000-06:00

Today I was checking my email and was sending out a couple, and ran across this jacked up ad. Can someone tell me what a FREE Playstation 3 has to do with this chick? This ad is so DUMB. I wonder if there is some QA that Yahoo has to determine if an ad is just beyond stupidity. What does a blond,wanna-be Uma Thurman in an evening gown have to do with Playstation 3. I wish advertisers would think. I am guessing this was the conversation when they were designing this ad:

Advertiser Designer 1: HEY! We have to do ANOTHER Playstation 3 Ad! Oh What fun!

Advertiser Designer 2: OH YES! BOOYAH! Advertiser Designer 1, do you think we should do something really radical!?

Advertiser Designer 1: I don't know Advertiser Designer 2. What did you have in mind?

Advertiser Designer 2: Well Advertiser Designer 1, I was thinking about putting this HOT woman in an elegant evening gown! We would make the Playstation 3 Scam appeal to all kinds of gamers everywhere! We would rok! The automotive industry has done it for years! In college I read about how sexuality in ads can motivate guys to do anything! It motivated me to buy beer in college! What do you think Advertiser Designer 1?

Advertiser Designer 2: YOU ARE GENIOUS! Next time we should put a Playstation 3 in a Mercedes Benz WITH a hot lady in an evening gown! We can attract that upper 10% of the U.S. poplulation! Advertiser Designer 1 we are so genious!

Advertiser Designer 1: Yes we are! We rok! Let's go ask for a raise!

I just don't get. I really don't. Ah well..

~D.R.

2006-01-10T11:57:00.000-06:00

New Major Releases Rundown so far at Macworld Keynote speech:
All updates are from Macrumors.

Note:I have not included updates to software,iTunes,etc. Just major software and hardware releases:

iWeb:Allows you to update web pages in a simple beautiful environment.You can blog,upload music,etc. It includes themes to get you started. Ajax technology is used in the slideshow.
Looks like we are getting a new Intel-based iMac today! Specs to come soon! It has all the same specs and design as the G5 iMac(iSight,Front-Row,etc.) but 2-3x faster than the stock iMac G5! It uses the Intel Core Duo Chip! Dual-Cores on an iMac!
iLife '06 and iWork'06 are universal binaries, and 10.4.4 is native to the Intel chips. (correction: All apps are native and universal in the new Intel environment)
By March all Pro Apps will be universal binaries. You can send $49 and your original disc for a cd that has the new universal binaries on them.
The iMac is shipping TODAY.
We have a new powerbook, called the "Macbook Pro". That thing is housing dual processors now! It's 4-5x faster than the G4's!
15.4 inches and slightly thinner than the 17 inch powerbook.
iSight Camera,IR sensor and Apple Remote.
It weighs in at 5.6 lbs,1.67 Intel Core Duo,667 DDR, and x1600, all for $1999.
1.83 Ghz, $2499
Ships in February.
Taking orders today.
Apple's website is now updated.

Thanks for reading guys! Have fun! T00dles!
~D.R.

2006-01-09T17:59:00.000-06:00

Will Apple Release the iPlasma?
Macworld San Fran is upon us in about a day. Tomorrow will be an exciting and even more groundbreaking day than in recent years. There are rumors here and here that point to an "iPlasma" of sorts. That is one whacked up name. Maybe I should do something more fun like iScreen, or iMac Extreme. Anyways, with rumored sizes of 42" and 50", and built-in Intel Viiv,it begs to wonder what will be released, if it will be released at all. If that thing is released, can you imagine the response by the industry? This kind of wide-screen computing goodness has been romanticized in movies and commercials for a LONG time.Hopefully we get some Apple coolness released.

What About 'Normal' Macworld releases?
The 'normal' stuff (if you can call it normal) that are rumored to be talked about are updated iBooks,Powerbooks,and Mac Minis with dual-core Yonah chips running at 2 GHz. In the realm of universal possibilities all of these could be true. I am going to throw my own in there; I am going to venture to guess that Stevie J will talk about Leopard and that we will get a release period for it.(Notice I didn't say date) In addition to all of these other things,are rumors concerning the infamous iWeb and updates to iLife. I think this is more probable since iWeb showed up on Apple's own website. Talk about viral marketing.My question is though, what happened to Asteroid? That thing was on the radar for a while, than it died down. Maybe we will get some Asteroid action as well. That would be neat.In my opinion, I think Apple should release some sort of Firewire/USB 2 Midi keyboard controller a la M-Audio's Ozonic. I would be all over it like a lawyer on his Blackberry.
I will not be at Macworld, but I will report on what's new there for all of you that don't feel like fighting over Macrumors' server.Apparantly they have a new system up. It sounds like its quite good, so it should be an improvement over the past few Macworlds. Take care, have fun, and don't forget to smell the coffee;coffee is good hot.

~Orlando

2005-12-22T18:16:00.000-06:00

So you noticed that I changed the design of my blog. ;-) I got sick of the old layout. Blogger wasn't helping me, and the dumb thing wouldn't display right. Hopefully this looks better, I did a little changing around and editing,etc. Hope you all like it!

~D.R.

2005-12-20T11:51:00.000-06:00

Man I am glad the semester is over. I suppose people have been wondering where I have been, or if I fell of the side of the Earth. Well, in Comp Sci, its easy to fall off the side of the Earth. You get so busy. Ah well, at least I am free for a few weeks before the cycle starts over again. My mom graduated college. She got her Master's in Adult Education at UW-Platteville. The graduation was in Platteville,WI.
Congrats Mom. Here is some photos from that day.

Other stuffs I found
So we as human creatures are interested in looking for things and finding things. Now, the web makes this easier. It also makes it easier to put up crazy things and have a worldwide audience to crazy things you do or say. Now, I find this interesting. Basically it's this Korean couple dancing salsa style dressed as Ryu and Chun Li from Street Fighter. That is some funny stuff. It tickled me. I suppose one of these days I should put up my crazy video. One of these days. Google video rocks though. Oh, before I forget, I took a new pic of my dog. I think its the best one yet.

2005-10-31T16:04:00.000-06:00

So my best buddy Travis, and his wife decided to make them some kids. Well, it seems that instead of making one, that man went ahead and made 2! So, as of Saturday morning around 10, his wife gave birth to two (count em!) beautiful babies! :-D I feel an old Abrahamic fruitage of your loins bit coming through! I probably shouldn't though. Congrats guys! Welcome to the world Nathan and Caleb! I think they have a big job for the next 18 years...

~D.R.
(For all of you looking for ALL the pictures, I didn't put them all up so Laura wouldn't attack and paralyze me.)

2005-09-16T00:27:00.000-05:00

What's Going On?
Can someone explain to me why everyone around me is dating,engaged or getting married? There must be something in this crazy life I am not comprehending. Maybe I am just that nuts. I don't get it. Maybe I am not fitting into this thing called life like I am supposed to be. Whatever. I am a geek. That's what I am stuck as.

I would like to give my condolences to those people affected by Hurricane Katrina. It's very sad to lose so much all at once. I hope you guys have a quick recovery especially my fellow Jehovah's Witness brothers and sisters. Stick in there everybody. It's going to be a rough road ahead but you guys can do it.

Has anyone seen the new Revolution controller? The thing looks like a high-tech remote control. It looks like something that you have to use in order to see its benefits. I suppose we have to give that thing a chance. Well, talk to you guys later!

~D.R.

2005-08-17T10:25:00.000-05:00

(image from Times Dispatch.com

What's the deal with the iBooks?
Did anyone happen to catch the result of the iBook sale for Henrico County,VA? Man I am glad my friend said no to me! That was absoloutley nuts! I am an Apple fan as much as the next person, but man that is nuts! The Richmond Times Dispatch reports that 17 people were treated for injuries. I tend to think that number was higher. If you look at the footage you will see what I mean. It was like life and death for those people. I suppose people will do ANYTHING for a $50 iBook. You know the funny part though? In the news footage they offered help to anyone who needed help using them! LOL! Now wait for a second. An estimated 5500 people were in line for a computer they MAY NOT be able to use. That's special. As StrongBad would say, "I blame the pudding pops..." . I am just going to wait for the floodgates of eBay to open and unleash its spoils to the public.

2005-08-03T11:07:00.000-05:00

MAN! It has been WAY too long since I have last posted! Man I am nuts.... Maybe I should just make one big conglomorate of a post and see what happens.

Podcasting News
In terms of news, iTunes 4.9 has been the best upgrade to the software! I have been grabbing Podcasts left and right! The podcazt from digg.com featuring former TechTV/G4 TV Kevin Rose and his buddy Alex Albrecht have been one of the more entertaining Podcasts. I highly suggest listening to them. Additionally, while we're on this TechTV/G4 Tv flavor, TWIT(This Week in Tech) is also hosted by some of my top favorite,former TechTv hosts like Leo Leoporte and Patrick Norton. These guys definently make being a geek fun! :-) In terms of Macintosh news, The Mac Observer and Inside Mac Radio are very good as well. Give all these guys a listen!

Apple News
Apple released their new mouse coined the Mighty Mouse. When I get a chance to play around with it I will. I have been reading some good things about this mouse, so give it a shot if you get a chance to play with it.

Apple's move to Intel was a surprising one. I am interested in seeing how this gets ironed out in the end and what kind of hardware/software we get. I expect cheaper prices for hardware, but I won't count on it until I see it. Apple hardware is EXPENSIVE. It took me a little over 5 years to be able to afford one! LOL I am happy to have my iMac, but man their hardware is expensive. I will be interested to see how their laptops come out. MacRumors.com is reporting that Apple is looking for ex and current VAIO engineers. This should be interesting if it proves to be true as well. Sony does do well with constraints and design. Look at their PDAs. They had the best Palm-based PDAs(in my opinion of course). In terms of PC's and laptops, I always admired what they were able to do given the constraints of Windows,x86,etc. I don't see Intel hardware is totally a bad thing(although I would have preferred AMD), it just really depends on what Apple does with this.

Other crazy things
First of all I would like you to look at this picture for a while and see what kinds of happy images it conjures up:

I see walking around Walmart with this thing on shaking everybody's hands asking them if they have seen any ghosts. Man I want one of those hats! That thing is going for $46! If you want one of those crazy things go here. If you happen to buy one take a picture of yourself walking around in public and send it on over! I so want to see it! N

Orlando Happy things
Well I figured I should post pictures from my trips. LOL I have been to South Dakota for unassigned territory, and Chicago,Ill for work. I took a bunch of pictues and they shall be posted! For your gawking pleasure here they are!

The sights of Chicago

Now you will notice that guy up there in the pink. It was very interesting if not creepy. He definently provided some artistic value. Human behavior and the expression of subtle emotions are very interesting. In this case it was very creepy but quite amusing. NOW onto the pictures of South Dakota. Lots and LOTS of open space...

South Dakota

2005-06-28T10:19:00.000-05:00

Greetings All!

Nice to be back! I had a lot of good things going on the past few weeks! I had the district convention in Green Bay, and then did unassigned territory right after that in the Sioux Falls area. The convenion was so cool! The new release is really awesome too! I won't tell what it is because I know some of you want it to be a surprise yet. :-) If people want to know I will email them with info about it. LOL Anyways, unassigned territory was very cool! Some Bible studies were started and people were reached. It was very fruitful if I must say so myself. I would like to think the Denny and Rebecca for their hospitality. If you ever get a chance to meet Rebecca, tell her to make that cake of hers. It was exquisite! I will be posting pictures this week sometime from both events. In the meantime, on to some geek news. Seems that Apple got rid of the iPod Photo and did color across the line with the exception of the iPod Shuffle and Mini. Also it seems the sizes and prices have been adjusted accordingly. The iPods now support Podcasts. Also, iTunes 4.9 has been released. Check Apple's website for details!

2005-06-06T12:41:00.000-05:00

WOW. The day of reckoning has occured! Apple is going to Intel Hardware! Steve has annouced this just a few moments ago! This is just wow! It should be very interesting. Now Apple will be in DIRECT compeitition with Microsoft,Dell, and the like! It also looks like that I have some collector's item stuff! :-o YEAH! :-o HOT! :-) As more interesting things come out I will let you all know! :-)

~D.R.

2005-05-27T11:29:00.000-05:00

Ken Kutaragi has done it again! HA HA! Notice this comment he made in an interview,

“The PlayStation is not a game machine,” Kutaragi states, “We’ve never once called it a game machine.”

WOW. What a statement to make. He also continues on to say,

“The PS3 is the product we have been aiming for since the establishment of SCEI. We haven’t been creating our PlayStations for the sake of games. Our belief, and the motivation behind running our company, has been to applying the power of computers to entertainment and enjoyment. We equipped the original PlayStation with a 3D graphics chip, and we equipped the PS2 with the Emotion engine.

Quite an interesting twist on gaming systems. Ken has always been an interesting guy. Quite the visionary in my opinion, but with comments like these it has to make you wonder what he really is intending for the Playstation brand. Furthermore, it makes you wonder what direction he wants to take it in. I am guessing time will tell this story.Check out LockerGnome.com for the full interview.

Finally, in response to the controversial article posted by a supposed Microsoft engineer, another supposed person made a comment on his blog which may prove to be for some interesting reading. Personally, I like the PS3. Just my opinion, I know there's about a 1/3 of you out there that disagree, but to each his own. Whatever you like to game on, do it. Everyone has something they look for in a game system whether it be specs, industrial design, options,etc. Ultimately, it comes down to the games, and whom makes the games YOU want to play. For the past couple days I have been checking out the forums on various sites,and I have noticed that people keep system bashing eachother. I choose not to get involved in the system bashing. There is always someone to disagree with you on any point you make; my point is, when it comes to game systems, game on the platform that provides entertainment value for you.

L8er,

~D.R.

2005-05-24T14:41:00.000-05:00

Greetings All,

Just thought I would post today. I came across this really JACKED up site of old swedish band pictures. I don't know what kind of music these guys have, for all I know they could just be bad pictures of them, and they have good music. Nonetheless, their pictures are HILARIOUS.I only have a few pics here for you guys to get an idea of how funny these pictures truely are. If you want to see more, click here. Enjoy!

The fat guy reminds me of a guy I know crossed with an oompa loompa.

NOTE: Do you notice the slope on the guy's heads? They all have that quasi-Beatles,quasi-70's hippie look. Rok!

Well tis all for now guys.

~D.R.

2005-05-17T09:24:00.000-05:00

Looks like some more more stuff is leaking out!

Check out this pic of the supposed Nintendo Revolution that popped up in USA Today. Very interesting. It stands to the talk that the Revolution will be the size of 3 DVD cases stacked up. It's a pretty small and sleek device. Today is going to be Nintendo's Press Conference so we shall hopefully see some more details. Who knows, USA today could be wrong! ;-) Below is the pic. Check it out!

Update 1 (10:01 am CST):
More pics of the Revolution is at IGN
Awesome pics! I like that its a purely simple,wireless,device. Really cool.
-D.R.

TTFN

D.R.

2005-05-16T18:58:00.000-05:00

WHO is ready for some HOT PS3 action?

I know I am! :-) Fresh from the presses of Engadget comes the coveted PS3! :-)
Check out the images below!

The Specs are as follows:
Specs (updated 5/17/05)
Specs details from Sony's News release

System:
-Blu-Ray disk drive with backwards compatibility with DVD±R/W, CD-R/RW, and Playstation 1/2 support.
-PowerPC Core Processor @ 3.2 GHz
-7 x SPE @3.2GHz
-7 x 128b 128 SIMD GPRs
-7 x 256KB SRAM for SPE
-2 TeraFlops of performance
-256 MB system Ram at 3.2 GHz

I/O:
-6 USB ports
-Memory Stick Duo slot
-CF card slot
-Support for up to 7 Bluetooth controllers
-Detachable 2.5” HDD slot x 1(laptop style hard drive bay)
-10BASE-T, 100BASE-TX, 1000BASE-T x 3
-PSP can be used as a controller over Bluetooth.

Graphics
-RSX (Reality Synthisizer) @ 550 MHz
-256 MB GDDR VRAM at 700 MHz
-1080p support
-Multi-way programmable parallel floating point shader pipelines(Something provided from Nvidia with their Cg shader programming language perhaps.)

Information from Engadget's Sony Press Conference update page

UPDATE 1 (7:35 PM CST)
More pics of the PS3 in its full glory(Pics from Gamespot)

UPDATE 2 (8:10 PM CST)
New controller pic from IGN! Kind a looks like the old Apple game console controller.
Source: IGN

TTFN
D.R.

2005-05-11T12:45:00.000-05:00

Greetings All,

I felt the need to post today. Well that, and I have more than 5 minutes of my life to do something other than work on school stuff. I have been at UW-Milwaukee for some time now. Something that I have found really interesting is the computer labs. As I look around in this particular lab, there are roughly 40 PC's and 6 Macs. Interesting split up right there. This pattern is all over the campus. There are proportionately more PC's (well to be specific, Dells) than Macs. Now this is what I find interesting, most people do not use the Macs. As they are not forced to learn how they work, they don't bother. Now for some people this is fine. But what happens when there is a line of about 5-10 people, waiting for a PC, and there are 6 open Macs? Well, if I am in the line, I ask if anyone is going to use the Mac, (usually the answer is no; Only one person from my experience has genuinely missed the Mac) and then like Moses and the splitting of the Red Sea, the line splits, I skip ahead and go on the Mac. I can get my work done, and be out.

In terms of overall usefulness, those who use Macs are on the computers shorter and faster, whereas those on PC's are on there longer. Just an obvious observation if you walk around the UW-Milwaukee computer labs and watch for any period of time. The chances that a Mac will open up is much faster than if you waited solely to use one of the Dells. Interestingly, the staff I have noticed do not know much about Macs. While I have come across staff that know how to use them, in general with most of the support population here, many people do not know how to support or work with Macs. I have found myself in the support position to some of the students. This is cool for me. I don't mind helping people, as is with most of those who own a Mac, use them on a regular basis, or any number of other reasons. I get the chance to show the person next to me, " you don't have to worry about your computing experience, you don't have to know the 3-finger salute(CTRL-ALT-DEL) , you don't have to worry about crashes, you can just use the computer and be done".

As another obvious observation, the way the computers are set up here in the labs are interesting as well. For a typical Dell to log-on to the network, it takes roughly over a minute. Why? Windows XP needs a reboot. How long does it take the Macs? That depends on which Mac you happen to be using, but the times range between roughly 15 seconds - 40 seconds. No reboot necessary. Now this is not bashing PC's here. I am just stating facts and observations, apparent to anyone who walks around campus labs. Maybe next time you are at a UW-Milwaukee lab and you see an open Mac, be an example for those standing in line. Show them that they don't have to wait in line, but can use the Mac and get their work done. Thats all, just my rant. I am OUT.

t00dles,

D.R

2005-04-18T13:25:00.000-05:00

Greetings all!

It's been a while since I have posted anything. I figure I would open up withthis.
What is that link you may ask? You can rent Pedro's house from Napoleon Dynamite! I am so like up for renting that place for a week and throwing a Napoleon Dynamite party! I don't even live in the area! :-) It roks so much! :-) heh heh heh. I wanted to do a little review of the PSP. Even though I don't own one yet, I had the opportunity on many occasions to get familiar with it.

How does it look?
Well, it looks like this:

What are some specs for this bad boy?

-1-333 Mhz processor (Sony is rumored to have limited it to 222 Mhz)
-32 MB system RAM
-4 MB embedded DRAM
-Screen Attributes:
4.3 inch, 16:9 Wide screen TFT LCD

480 x 272 pixel, 16.77 million colors

Maximum luminance 180 / 130 / 80cd/m2 (when using battery pack)

Maximum luminance 200 / 180 / 130 / 80cd/m2 (when using AC adaptor)

-Connections/input:

Memory Stick Duo Slot

USB connector

DC IN 5V connector

Headset connector

-Supported codecs:

[Video]: "UMD": H.264/MPEG-4 AVC Main Profile Level3

[Video]: "Memory Stick": MPEG-4 SP,AAC

[Music]: "UMD": linear PCM,ATRAC3plus

[Music]: "Memory Stick": ATRAC3plus,MP3(MPEG1/2 Layer3)

Directional buttons (Up/Down/Right/Left)

-Featured buttons

Analog Stick

Enter keys (Triangle, Circle, Cross, Square)

Left, Right shoulder buttons x 1

START button, SELECT button, HOME button x 1

POWER/HOLD switch x 1

Display button, Sound button, Volume +/- buttons x 1

Wireless LAN switch (ON/OFF) x 1

OPEN latch (UMD) x 1

How does it feel to hold?
Holding the PSP is quite different. You would expect it to be very heavy, given all that it has capability-wise, but SCEI and Sony's industrial design department has done a phenomenal job in making something lightweight,attractive physically and mostly useful in form.

Ok, I don't want a super expert discussion on games, but what are games like?
Games are comparable to what you would get on a PS2. Sony seems to be working on making libraries (collections of functions that can be used in games or other functions) and support better. In the early PS2 days there were cries of mercy because of Sony's difficult-to-learn architecture, and the support tools that weren't there for developers. While it is probably still an issue, it's not so much to the point where developers are having a mass outcry.Creativity-wise, Sony and the 3rd parties still have a ways to go. It feels like I am just playing on a small PS2, which is not so bad, as PS2 was an excellent system with a nice library of games. There should be some nice games coming later on this year, and with E3 right around the corner, I am sure Sony is pulling all the stops in terms of announcements. I am personally looking for some sort of SSX-PSP or something along those lines. I really liked that series a lot.

Will it replace my iPod?
I felt this was relevant as the PSP is a really nice media device. Not only does it play games, but it plays music, and movies as well. It comes with a standard 32 MB Memory Stick. 32 MB isn't really a lot. If you have an average of 5 MB per song, you will get roughly 6 songs, and probably not that as the file system itself takes a considerable chunk for indexes,allocation tables,etc. Most people are opting for a 1 gig memory stick. The going price on Froogle for a memory stick duo is around $200. So add that in addition to the price of the device which is going for $250 MSRP, and you have $450. While as a music device it is not economically sound when you can have an iPod for way less than that, when memory stick prices come down, we can discuss again.

Closing comments
The PSP is an awesome device. If I had to rate it from 1-5, I would give it a 4.5 It is very powerful and functional as a games,music, and movies device. While its strength lies in the gaming of course. I think Sony needs to strengthen and leverage the capabilities of the PSP if it is to get more recognition as a device of the 21st Century. Things like syncing photos,music, and movies. Overall a very powerful system. Sorry for the delay of the review! All information was from Sony's PSP page. TTFN!

~D.R.

2005-03-31T22:49:00.000-06:00

Hey all! I thought I would do a little FAQ here. LOL :-)

-Where has Orlando Been?

I have been highly busy and thinking about a lot of things. That CS program definently keeps you busy. I also went up north. I went up to Land 'O Lakes (Thanks Mike for letting me stay at your house) and saw a brother who endured the Concentration camp during WWII. It was a very moving and motivating talk Here is a pic of me with him.

We also had our memorial. Here is a pic of me and my sister. I don't know how many people were at ours. I still haven't heard the number. It seems like there were a good amount there though.

What has been on Orlando's mind?
Well lets talk about college. It gets discouraging sometimes. You see how everyone else is able to excel and you have to struggle your way through. That gets frustrating and discouraging. But such is life. You have to endure stuff to get what you want.
I have also been doing some thinking about how I think people view me. I have been trying to change myself somewhat. It's interesting how people will tell you to be yourself, but people get irritated when you are yourself. That is irritating. I don't think it really matters sometimes. Everybody just seems to want you to fall into some status quo and fit in line with everyone else. That is irritating. On top of that when you come to the realization that everyone expects you to be something and they have this tunnel-vision view of you as one way, that can be discouraging. Basically, you are there because you serve a purpose to whomever that particular person is. Some people are genuine. That I will admit. I seem to find more people who are the other way. I guess I just felt the need to rant. Ah well..

That's all for today kids. I will post a PSP review tomorrow probably. TTFN.

~Orlando

2005-02-27T22:35:00.000-06:00

Greetings All,

Tomorrow is the first midterm of the semester. These things are interesting. Exams that is. Supposedly it is supposed to test your knowledge of the subject. Personally, its all subjective to me in my opinion. I have been in classes where students perform well exam-wise, but than after the class, if you ask about those same people about the class, in some cases they don't even remember nothing about the class. I guess it shows who is passionate about the subject and who really could care less. I guess such is life. Journeys for the meek and genuine are harder than those who could care less.

[Edit:I removed the rest of this post as I felt that I didn't feel like sharing thoughts that deep or personal so they have been removed. Sorry all!
~Orlando]

~Orlando

2005-02-08T14:53:00.000-06:00

Greetings,

Life has been interesting the past few days. I have been doing lots of reflection. Lots of thinking about things. Mostly what's been running through my head is what human nature is really representative of. The phrase, 'we are the sum of our experiences' comes to mind. I have come to really believe that this is true. I apply this to myself in comparison to others. More specifically, those in Computer Science with me. I know I am definently not the best, but the desire is there for me to keep doing it. Very few people exude this attitude I have noticed. Many are just smart and it really doesn't matter to them what they do. For myself I know the sum of my experiences have made me. I could have just been another person with interests, and a life, but through my own experiences I have my own unique life pattern.

Moving on... I discovered this cool group, well, it's one guy, but the artist's name is M83. I really dig his sound. Its reminds me of Crystal Method, and the Chemical Brothers like put in one guy. There is a beautiful layer of melodies with varying styles. There are the rock riffs in there, mixed in with some ambient style electronic music underneath. I think its on my list of 'have-to-buy' CD's. Check him out here. Ah well, TTFN.
~Orlando

2005-02-07T10:12:00.000-06:00

Heyloo,

I just thought I would rant about the Superbowl. It was an entertaining game, although I WAS rooting for the Eagles, but alas they lost. Nonetheless, a really good game. The Eagles were crammed full of turnovers, and blocked passes. Just really lame offense for the game. The defense of the Eagles is what made the game a game, and kept the Eagles in the game. So a little work on the offensive side is needed while the defensive side was doing their job. Paul McCartney doing the half-time show. Ehhh. I am into the old school Beatles, even though I don't know all their songs, so it was quite good. (Not that I am sure they were Beatle's songs) I think though, there should have been less focus on fireworks, and explosions and more emphaisis on actual music. I remember a lot of pretty lights and explosions and Paul trying to sing over all the excess noise. Brilliant job Ameriquest and Fox, brilliant job. LOL. Anyways, it was good, clean, and enjoyable game. Hopefully the injuries on both sides of the team have a fast recovery. That's all, I am out.

~Orlando

2005-01-18T09:56:00.000-06:00

Greetings All,

I thought I would share some good news. I got a new car last night. I got a 2004 Mazda3 S with the Sport Package and a few other tidbits. The S model comes with the 160 HP motor. So far so good. Nice smooth ride and quick pickup.
I haven't mentioned anything about the tsunamis. I thought I would tell the story of a sweedish woman that I heard on the radio that especially touched me. She was with her 2 kids. One was younger and one was older. Both of these children under 10 years old. When the tsunamis came, she was trying and trying to hold on to both children in hopes of saving them, but alas, she couldn't hold on to the children. With a leap of faith, and hope, she let the older child go in hopes that the child would be able to swim and make it on its own. In the end, both children made it and survived and they were reunitied after the ordeal. It's a sad thing to see when these tragedies strike people. As humans, its these things that draws us together. In our own humanity, and in the recognition of our own mortality we make all kinds of decisions and hope. Hope for those whom survived and for this family I just talked about has special meaning for them. As they rebuild their lives it is their hopes,drive, and love of neighbor that will help them. When we can learn to put our petty differences aside and help one another can we really see an expression of this love and concern. Unfortunantly, it's only through tragedies that we help eachother. In the future things will be different. I have a hope that things will get better through God's hand. Until then, my faith and hope takes on special meaning in my life as well.

Finally, I have to comment on Apple's release of the iPod Shuffle, Mac Mini, iWork '05, and iLife '05. These are all things that again are new, and simpler ways of self-expression. The iLife suite upgrade has to be my favorite. The gadget geeks seem to have taken over the net! :-) There has been much talk and discussion on the hardware devices, but not much on the software. The upgrade in the new suite I am looking forward to the most is the upgrade to Garageband. With more software instruments,and more abilities for tracks, it will let me get more done in Garageband. If you want to see my latest creations go to www.icompositions.com. I am in there as Digital1. :-) Hopefully you guys enjoy my tunes that I write. Until then, enjoy the pics of the car, and I will talk to you guys later.

~Orlando

2005-01-14T19:03:00.000-06:00

Well I suppose I shall have to post some pics. Its been a full week since Andrea and Lucas' wedding, and I haven't posted anything. I will probably have some more meaningful posts in the next few days. In fact I have to have a more meaningful post. There has been too much going in the world. To go off on a little tangent right here, I would like to send out my condolences to the victims of the tsunami in Asia and Africa. I will continue to keep my prayers with you guys down there. Give where possible people! ;-) .... Well, on the pics!

Here is Annie and Lucas! Congrats guys.

That is one creepy looking Bill Nye right there... ;)

I think Matt is having fun... its a mystery....

Aww look at Nikki and Kates! Doing STUFF!

I am totally digging Nikki's bow tie ;)

...However far awaaaayyyyy.....

...I will always love youuuuuuu.......

Ok ok... They didn't dance to that song...

The dance of the wedding party, south of the GRIZZLE... ;)

Joel being a Bum as usual... Thanks for letting me crash at your place... ;)

~Orlando

2004-12-29T14:17:00.000-06:00

Greetings all!

My buddy Taco(Josh), has opened up his new site where he will be talking about things that are ROK! I put a link on the right, but if you are just wanting a quick link go here. I am sure he will appreciate having some fans. ;) Ah well, ttfn..

~Orlando

2004-12-29T12:40:00.000-06:00

Greetings all, As promised the wedding and baptism pics. I am thinking tomorrow I will report on things in the world. Talk about whats going on in technology, throw up some Apple rumors that are going on. Oh yeah, I wrote a little utility for OS X that is a little launcher for my apps. Its my first tread into Mac-based development. I wrote it up in about an hour or so. If anyone out there cares to want it, I will modify it and throw it up on the site for download. I guess if I don't get any requests for it, that shows who really wants it or not. ;) Any ways, on to the pics!

Daves Wedding(Decemeber 11,2004) and wedding practice(December 10,2004)

Abby in full 3D! (GRAB THE 3D GLASSES NOW!)

Abz and Sheena together forever!

The male bums trying to be normal, but it just doesn't work when more than two of us are together!

Aww... Dave and Charise indulging in cake sort of! :-)

Luke being the MAN he know is!

Joel and Chris... hugging eachother...

Look at the love! It's such a happy day!

I think Dave has to go to the bathroom...

Dustin doesn't have a camera! Can someone buy him one!? :-(

Shane,Me,and Keith:We some clean BROTHAZ

I think Mike smelled a flatulance that came from me....

Me and Ti are cleaning up man..... ;)

Whats the difference between this, and.....

this?

Vin Diesels stunt double made an appearance! :-D

There are no words.... Zech.

Hot Tounge action!

Wayne likes sharing with his sons!

Like Father, Like Son

I think Dave is satisfied. ;)

Chrystal has been begging for months to get on this site! Now she's here!

The Baptism of Ti! (December 25,2004)

Tiang after the baptism with Kiara! She got baptized as well!
Congrats guys!

The Bum Squad, in probably the only formal picture that will ever get taken... LOL

Jamin and Abz sharing the love

Thats it!

~Orlando

2004-12-23T16:49:00.000-06:00

Greetings all,

It has been a very stressful week, and semester. Things are just insane. I am just glad that the semester is now over! I can finally relax some. I will be throwing pics from Dave and Charise's wedding soon. Sorry people for not throwing it up! As you may have noticed, I have put up the little spalsh screen to my website. That is some awesome stuff right there. Taco is my friend. He works for Homeland Security. Hopefully, I don't get hunt down by the Federal Government and make him lose his job for that pic. Anyways, look forward to hearing from me more! I will talk to you guys soon!

~Orlando

2004-12-01T12:38:00.000-06:00

Greetings all,

I have been super busy. From coding to being pulled in 20 different directions, things have been pretty hard. I suppose today will be my abstract post. I have been thinking about things lately. I guess with the climate of people around me it seems like the big thing now is relationships. How all these people around me seem to be getting married all at once is beyond me. It's interesting though the speed and kinds of relationships these people get into that gets me. I guess for me I am convinced since I am so different than the majority of people my age in the first place, serious relationships aren't something that's part of my actual makeup. People usually cling to these relationships as if by gravity like it's supposed to be. Whereas I tend to float around and not go into a relationship because I tend to believe in a graceful transition, not an immediate cling. But I guess for me I tend to believe that gravity in terms of a relationship tends to change for different people. Some of us like to float and observe and make calculated landings, whereas others want to bounce around until they slam into the right target. Chances are, is those of us that are floaters tend not to be in many relationships, and are very under-appreciated,overlooked, viewed as strange,and are outgunned in terms of chances. Well, I am strange I suppose. ;) Just my personality. For those of us that are more calculated, and are not so gravitationally drawn to the ground of human relationships, we tend to see more scenery, and take more in. We learn a lot. I have pretty much determined that throughout my life, in probably all manners of life, I will be underappreciated, overlooked, and outgunned. Doesn't really count me out of things, just makes life a bigger math equation than what it is already. Ahh well, there is my rant for the day.

TTFN,

~Orlando

2004-11-07T20:20:00.000-06:00

Well

How is everyone out there? Things have been really busy. We had a special visitor in our congregation and I was busy with activities with him. Also, I got my new iMac G5. Its pretty sweet so far. I did an opening ceremony with my mac. I tried looking up Opening Ceremony on Google and I had to flutter around a few google pages to get to what I want; maybe this page will prove to be useful. I ordered my iMac October 19, and it came in November 4th. I sense my site will come crashing down; so please be gentle with the pics. LOL I also have posted some of my activities over the past couple weeks. Jesse Z. got baptized. (Congrats bro!) So I threw up a few pics from that. Well without further or due. Enjoy!

Van Gogh makes an apperance

congrats Jesse! :-)

Bo looks pretty zoned out in the hotel room...

Some of the Bum Squad representing at Chris's going-away party.

Jay is pretty zoned out right now...

Jesse and his family. Ti makes an appearance... ;)

===========================================================

Now onto the opening ceremony...

Here is a shot of the box...

Yet another shot of the box...

Top shot of the box opened up

There is a shot of what came in the box. System CDs, keyboard,mouse,
manuals,etc...

There is a shot of the iMac in the box...

The fully extracted iMac

The Mac in action...

Well thats all I decided to throw up. I had a few more, but I wanted to pick the pics that showed the most and was the most informative. I hope you guys enjoyed it ;) TTFN

~Orlando

2004-10-27T13:36:00.000-05:00

Greetings all:

In the wake of all the excitement of my new Mac, I got really busy with college work! WHOOPY.... Anyways, I have been pretty lazy with posting on here. I am thinking about doing a monthly review of Mac things at the local Mac store here. In my case that would be the Mayfair Mall, Wauwatosa,WI location. I will see what happens. I tend to wander in their anyways. I will let you guys know for sure if I do. Also, it seems that I have new people visiting my blog! ;) Hey guys! It's nice to have some new visitors wander into my little corner. I have also failed to throw up some pics. I have some other pics coming soon from a party I went to a few weeks ago. I just have to be un-lazy for a while and actually post them. ;) Anyways, I have a few pics of the Abz and some of her friends. At this moment in time, I stayed up until about almost midnight coding, and my head hurts, so I am forgetting her friends names! Don't hate me! LOL Enjoy the pics, have fun, and eat all your vegetables.

~Orlando

The flowing streams of Jamin(the front streamer). Its beauteous power!

I am too fat for people to do this for me... :-( Abz on the other hand is lighter than air sort of.

Why doesn' t this look safe?

2004-10-19T15:17:00.000-05:00

Greetings all:

Today is a happy day. I finally have bought a Macintosh! :-D After about 5 years of waiting for a Mac, my day has come! Well almost. I have to wait about 3 weeks to get it. I bought the new iMac G5. I bought the 17in., 1.6Ghz G5 model with 512 MB ram. I will be using it for my geekiness and my music writing. I will have an opening ceremony of it as well, and I will be posting the pics and things up here for all to see. Until then drool over this G5 goodness.

(I am not affiliated with Apple, or its affiliates; the iMac is the property of Apple)

~Orlando

2004-09-24T13:34:00.000-05:00

Greetings WORLD...

Man it has been a long time since I posted. Almost a full month! Since then things have been interesting. College started back up. Got another dog (Yes you read right; got another dog), been to a few functions. I dunno. I am just having one of those weeks where everything seems wrong, but there really isn't much of anything wrong. I am having sort of a bad programming day. I am hoping I can turn that around. Just in general I am feeling just OK. Perhaps the day will change. In the meanwhile, I will post some pics of stuff that's happened, and just stuff in general.

Aww. The niece of Tamz! :-)

Look! I can do ballet!

COUSIN! He is a COP! :-D

Jen being the crazy chica she know she is!

Annie's secret is out! Final Fantasy 8 lover!

Isn't that cute! Jesse is being country! :-)

Josh is having too much fun with my camera. ;)

Cousin is trying to arrest Ti! :-o

Paul likes beer, root beer.

I scared Annie! :-0

Tamz likes her turkey. ;)

Look! My majestic skin!

Here's the new addition to our family! Van Gogh! :-) Say
hi to everyone!

More Van Gogh action...

This guy just scared me...

P.S. I would like to thank the Zalesky family for their hospitality this past weekend. Also, I would like to thank Annie,Katie, and Meghan for letting me hang out at their party.

Well that's all for now gang. TTFN.

~Orlando

2004-08-27T09:57:00.000-05:00

Greetings all,

I have some sad news. After having a short life of 8 years, my dog, Chulla, died. I was just going to use this post to tell the world about her. She was an awesome dog.

When we first got her, my mom didn't know. It was pretty funny, me,my sister, and dad just comes home with this dog. We named her Chulla because she was so cute, and she had a brother named Chullo that died. She was pretty wild. I remember trying to potty train her. At one point, in the basement where we had her, the whole thing was full of newspaper cause she pooed so much! It was awesome. She was bummy from early on! I loved it. Eventually she learned that outside is where she should take her poos at. She had tremendous amounts of energy. I remember trying to chase her to keep up with her, she just kept going and going. I suppose that is charecteristic of her breed (American Eskimo). I remember when she was a pup she would go out in the streets of our neighborhood and like chase cars. At first it was just curiousity, but then I think she enjoyed it a little too much. :-) She eventually grew out of it after I kept telling her it was bad to chase cars. I think my most cherished memory was when she was a puppy. I would go down there at night and would hold her in my arms and rock her. She would just look up at me and lick my arms. I loved that. Later on in life she was a mischevious one. She was not one for new visitors in the house. She even nipped once. But to the family she was like part of us. Especially to my dad who is going through some things right now. She was his close companion. She will be dearly missed and she was asset to our family for many years. I don't think any dog could replace her. Someday though, I think we will have a pet that will be there though. Here's to you babe, Chulla. Love ya peanuts.

R.I.P. Chulla

1996-2004
(August 25,2004; 7:30 p.m.)

2004-08-23T17:34:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was awesome! :-)

I hung out with my pretty awesome friend, Chris, a.k.a. "Cousin". You will notice in this particular blog, my language will go from pretty normal, to pretty sweedish sounding. Do not be alarmed. Just sit back and have some fun ;). I would like to thanks Chris, and his family for letting me be present in their home and share many good times together ;). COUSIN! OHOOOOHOHOohoohohohOHO! The Oconto Falls congregation was NEAT! People were very nice, welcoming, and pretty much all around awesome.Keith and Shane were awesome. We went up to a cottage their family owned. I will post pictures of them at a later date. BUT NOW ON TO ZE PICTAZ! :-D

OOHOHOHohhohoHOHOHOhoHOHOHOhOHOHOhohOHoh

Cousin Chris left unt smelly OOOooOOOOOOOOOOooooooooooooOOOO

Cousin made a smelly! :-)

2004-08-10T12:44:00.000-05:00

Greetings all,
It has been busy,busy around here. I thought it was necessary to blog. It has been a while. While flipping through some news I came across this article. Essentially what is happening here is that HP is saying that their Linux laptops will outsell Apple's and that Apple will be unseated. That is an interesting statement to make. Hopefully, HP's laptops will work a lot better on Linux than they do on windows. I have used these things,repaired, and worked on them for years. I have seen tons of problems with them. I find it hard to see where Linux would overtake Apple's lead, at least right away that is. In my mind it's gonna take HP more than throwing on an Open-Source OS, licensing the iPod, and calling it awesome to overtake Apple. I suppose time will tell. We just have to see. TTFN.

~Orlando

2004-08-03T17:04:00.000-05:00

Hey all.

Man its been a while hasn't it? I know, I know, I should be blogging more, but hey, college interferes with a lot of stuff, including blogging. ;) Anyways, the past few days have been pretty hard. A friend of mine's wife died. She was so nice and wrote awesome poetry. She died after a hard,and short fight with cancer. She will definently be missed. :-( In other news, there is yet again an exam rainstorm. I take one tomorrow, and Friday, in addition to a quiz I had Monday. That has made this week pretty dang weird. I spent several hours today studying up for this exam, or shall I say, intullectual slaughter. LOL LOL LOL That was funny. I am thinking my brain won't melt just yet. Unless like I get mummified, I don't think that will be happening anytime soon. Also, since I have lacked some technology commentary, I will commentate.

This article is basically talking about open-standards that are to be shared among interactive gaming and the like. Frankly, I love the idea.For once companies are starting to grow up and realize that in order for them to make money, there has to be something that brings them together. We have some of this behavior among audio companies such as propellerhead and Native Instruments who allow interoperability between their programs and software synths. Hopefully, this trend continues, and the stuff like Apple going after Real(As much as I like Apple, I think there is nothing wrong with sharing a standard.) kind of dying down. Anyways, I am going to try to get back into doing some music this week. If I feel a song I have done in Reason is good enough, I will throw it up. Ah well.. TTFN.

~Orlando

2004-07-27T15:52:00.000-05:00

Today has been pretty much standard geek.
Nothing too interesting or out of the ordinary. It seems that I have inspired a friend of mine to blog! ;) His name is Abram. If you want to visit his blog and can read Portuguese, go here. I will also be posting a link on my links so that you all can see access it there. Well, anyways, TTFN. ;)

~Orlando

2004-07-26T08:08:00.000-05:00

Wow its been a while hasn't it. This is what college does to you. But ah well. Just because it takes up the majority of my time doesn't mean I cannot find time! :-), Anyways, I found this little article at Macrumors.com

Apparantly,Apple was ignoring Real Networks' attempts to license the Fairplay technology that Apple uses for its iPod music player. Interesteingly, Real Networks just reverse-engineered the technology and set of policies to make it work with the iPod. That is some funny stuff. A company that wants so badly to have things work with another company's technology, they reverse-engineer the stuff. That is just plain funny. That's a little arrogance on Apple's side in my opinion, but hey, that's just me. It does show again how far-reaching Apple's influence is in the technology industry. Now people are jumping on the bandwangon trying to be compatible. This is the worse case of irony in the world, but yet it is so funny. Hopefully Apple in the future will play nicely with people and let them license there nice technology on things of this nature. Ah well, one can hope. Until then, ttfn.

~Orlando

2004-07-19T19:11:00.000-05:00

What does it mean to be driven? Why are we as humans driven to a purpose? an ultimate goal? I deal with these feelings quite often.Wanting to reach goals, against all odds of my intullectual and other strengths. Why are we driven towards these things? What is seemingly easier for us, most of us choose that as such as a way to a goal. Although, there are those of us, like me, who are always striving to reach goals that perhaps we cannot reach, but for some odd reason, we don't give up. For some people this same goal may be and in some situations are easier for them to accomplish, but for people like me, those who want it more than those that can do it, it becomes not only an intullectual and emotional struggle, but it trickles its way to our physical limits. Often times I have thought it would be easier to not have any ambition, not care about where I am to go, but to just float. In this way, I wouldn't be responsible for my wants,desires, and dreams. Now I feel that because I have dared to dream, I am ultimately responsible for a reality I may not reach. Why? Why is this? Perhaps, as a part of the human experience we are always striving for things we cannot acheive, or things that are beyond our own capabilities. Perhaps, by going down this path of unseemingly endless difficulties, we become more aware of our own humanities, our own desires, our dreams, and our ability to concieve imagination, conceieve faith, concieve life. That's all I got for now.

~Orlando

2004-07-12T17:46:00.000-05:00

Bloggin time. ;)

Over the past few days I have been contemplating lots of things and reflecting. I have thought heavily about certain things that I know of, of other people and other things that are of my own concern. One of these things that briefly came to my mind was that of art. What really is art? I was watching a show on the TechTV/G4 TV conglomerate called Pulse. In this show various people in the games industry talked about whether video games are pieces of art. Personally, I get irritated by the fact that people fail to see those in technology, like I mean REALLY in technology for the love of it and to create something cool, aren't looked at as artists, but as disposable workers that can be expendable, and cheap intelligence. Frankly, in my opinion if you can consider Paris Hilton an actress, singer, and as a result an artist, why isn't Super Mario art? Why isn't a motherboard layout, or computer code considered pieces of art. If you REALLY think hard about it, they are just canvases on which humans can express their creativity. It takes an open mind to really understand that technology, the practice, and the implementation of data is an art-form. Hopefully one day, I as an artist can develop my abilities more. For those of you whom are artists, we share a common cause to bring technology to other people, and allow them to see beyond the norm, but to see into our imaginations, our realities our very existence. Ah well, TTFN. Off to class.

~Orlando

2004-07-07T08:20:00.000-05:00

YAY! Blog time...

We shall see how today ends up. I have a quiz in calc. I was working on that for the past few days actually, studying and such. Hopefully, I don't do too bad. I don't happen to have any of the cool links I wanted to share with you all today, but, tomorrow, I will have them, and we can share the fun that is Digital Raven's blog. ;) Until then, be good, eat all your vegetables, and look both ways!

~Orlando