Caught In The Whirlwind
Posts tagged technology
Week Of Technology Fail
Aug 26th 2009
Well, I’m now detecting a theme for this week…
I went to charge my cell phone last night and I noticed that the screen was all screwed up. I reset it and it went back to a usable state…but now there’s about a quarter inch greyish (some other random colors thrown in) bar of ugly display corruption on the left and bottom sides of the display.
It’s still usable, but it’s annoying. Hopefully it’s something I can deal with via a waranty claim…I might check that possibility out on friday.
I wonder what device is going to crap out next?
Stupid iPod
Apr 28th 2009
I was at work yesterday going to listen to some music on my iPod while I did some boring type stuff and, come to find out, it looks like the headphone jack is busted now 
I only get sound out of the left speaker of whatever I plug into it. The right speaker works if I push the jack it a certain way, but it doesn't keep working after I stop pushing. I don't recall dropping it recently so I'm not entirely sure what happened to it. This one's lasted me about 3 years which is 2 years longer than my previous iPods. So that works out pretty well
Needless to say, this is some pretty bad timing since my hours are getting cut next week. Thankfully May is also a 3 paycheck month, so I have that little bit of extra money floating around.
After doing some calculating, I'm thinking about picking up a refurbished 16GB iPod Nano just to toss my essential songs on it, along with a smaller random playlist so I can listen at work/at the gym/in bed to drown out the next door neighbor's subwoofer. Music is pretty important to me, so I'm willing to toss some other stuff to work this into the budget.
It's probably going to be my one big leisure expense coming up and I'll put the rest of the extra cash into savings to try to offset any unforseen varriations while I'm dealing with my reduced income.
QotD: My Ring Sounds Like…
Nov 19th 2007
Ringtones: What's yours and how often do you change it?
Submitted by enrico.
It's the standard telephone ringing sound that came with my Blackberry. I'm not big on custom ringtones since I find them really hard to hear when other things are going on that are making noise. It's easier to hear a piercing phone ring than it is to hear a song while you're in a car (in this case it would be in somebody else's car) when there's music playing.
Additionally, I never really got the whole "spending $3 for 30 seconds of a song" thing. It just seems excessive to me. Maybe I'm slightly too old to get it. "Slightly" because I'm not really "old" exactly, just old enough where the generation of people 2-4 years younger than me confuses me greatly sometimes.
QotD: On The iPhone…
Oct 28th 2007
Over a million iPhones have been sold. Have you: bought one, considered it, or decided it's not for you?
I was considering buying one. I really like the interface but at the time I was phone shopping (right after it came out) it's $500-600 price tag was very hard to swallow considering it was lacking several features which are present in other less expensive phones. I'm willing to shell out cash for a cool interface, but…not that much cash.
Perhaps next time around when they release the next revision and the price goes down a little bit. Also, at the time, the lack of third party applications was really a sticking point for me. I tried to ignore it as hard as I can, but in the end, it sealed it's fate.
Instead, I bought myself a Blackberry Curve which I fell in love with. This thing is just so useful that I often wonder how I ever survived with my Treo 650. With the Treo, everything felt kinda hacked together. Like tacking the phone onto an already ancient operating system. The curve feels much more integrated. I also love the little touches, like automatically going into standby mode when in the belt holster I have and dimming the screen in dark areas. The camera is fairly decent too, as far as cell phone cameras go. As long as it's not too dark out and the thing you're taking a picture of isn't moving very fast.
I think I'm definitely a blackberry convert now. As much as I like Apple, they're going to have to do something seriously cool to win me back from the Blackberry camp now.
QotD: On Podcasts
Oct 20th 2006
Do you listen to podcasts? Are there any you’d recommend?
Inspired by Alex.
Weird, I was just posting on another forum about what podcasts I listen to.
Yep, I do listen to podcasts. Have for about a year now ever since I discovered This Week In Tech. I have a hookup in my car so I can listen to my iPod though my stereo, so I usually listen to these while driving to work/class. Most of my podcasts are tech oriented, so I’ll start with them. All of these are available on iTunes
The one I look forward to most of all is CNET’s Buzz Out Loud, the CNET Podcast of Interterminate Length. It’s a daily news podcast, but they put an entertaining spin on it. They’re very interactive with the listeners too, taking calls, mp3 questions and e-mails which they select some and play them at the end of the show.
Another tech news podcast I listen to is What’s New Now? from ZD-Net and PC Magazine. This one’s more for the Patrick Norton factor rather than anything else interesting about it. They do come up with some good views usually, but it’s not one I look forward to showing up in iTunes.
There’s the podcasts connected to the TWiT network. Of those I regularly listen to This Week In Tech (General Tech discussion), Inside the Net (web 2.0 stuff), Windows Weekly (Windows news), MacBreak Weekly (Mac/Apple news) and FLOSS Weekly (Interviews with the people in the open source community).
I have two other podcasts devoted to Apple/Mac stuff, which are the MacCast and the Unofficial Apple Weblog Podcast. I generally get all my Apple news from there.
Bordering on the tech stuff is video games. For that I turn to the PC Gamer Podcast from, as you might expect, the people over at PC Gamer.
The last two Podcasts are the Barenaked Ladies Podcast when they actually decide to release one. Those guys are always funny. I also listen to the Onion Radio News which is a daily, short 30-60 second podcast reading off a funny satire news story from The Onion.
Ok, Video podcasts! Now that I’ve got a video iPod, I’m getting more into these. Of course, you need to have Ask a Ninja. If you haven’t seen that one…GO! CHECK IT OUT NOW! Then there’s the Strong Bad Emails one which takes the SBEmail’s from homestarrunner.com and turns them into video so you can watch them on the go. Finally, CommandN, which is a tech news centered video podcast, but with a Web 2.0/apple slant.
Simply Amazing
Sep 14th 2006
I try not to blog about current events or just copy things from news stories for content, but this is just too cool.
This man has a bionic arm. Lots of people have prostetics though, so what’s the big deal? He controls it with his thoughts. Some of the technical details are located in the article, but the short version is he’s able to move it by just thinking using nerve grafts. A computer picks up on the impulses and changes them into movement.
I had no idea we were even anywhere near having that kind of technology. It’s amazing what we’re able to do now, and just think…this kind of technology is just getting started. It’s still limited, but it’s more than what he was able to before the implant. It’ll interesting to see where this goes in the future.
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