Tech-nol-o-gy

So, just recently I purchased an HTC Dream phone (T-mobile G1) which is the original Android phone that started the recent wave of Android based mobile devices as of late. Although the G1 has been on the market for about a year now, and is ancient by cell phone standards...I am still very impressed by it's capabilities, even compared to the newest line of Android based phones...but enough about the G1, I will have more on that later, you came to see the apps.

for the next few posts I will be reviewing some of my favorite Android apps that I have found so far. Some of these Applications have been out since the inception of the market, and some are fairly new. I will try to encompasses games, navigation, tools, UI enhancements, people finders, and place finders...mostly free, but a few paid apps.

Let's get to it! :

Beautiful Widgets (.99e ~ 1.34us)

Beautiful Widgets is exactly what it says it is, a collection of handy, handsome, widgets to embellish your home screens with added functionality and eye-candy.

Here are the included widgets:

on/off toggles for,

• WiFi
  
• Bluetooth
  
• Plane mode
  
• GPS
  
• Silent mode
  
• Vibrate mode

I continue my Google product reviews with the amazing Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a free tool for webmasters and site admins to keep track of site traffic and trending. I have personally used this tool with this blog for about 2 years and continue to be amazed. This service is free to use and is as easy to install as copying and pasting a few lines of code into your blog template, or website code. After installation, it begins working its magic almost immediately. You can monitor as many websites as you like. The user interface for the results dashboard is great.

This is the main dashboard page when first entering:There are several categories for viewing your traffic:

As you can see, there are tons of options to keep track of on your site. There is even a map overlay which shows who in the world has been viewing your site. If your new to site tracking tools, this one is easy to set up, and will let you get your feet wet for free.

Just thought id give it a shot. I'm sure someone has beat me to it, but what the heck.

See Picture!

I have now tried about 5 different distro's and can finally say that I have settled on Ubuntu!

Recently I have been exploring alternative OS options to see if I can find something with the wide scale compatibility, and dare I say it, usability of the Windows operating system. I am not a windows fan boy by any means, I just know that my PC will work with pretty much every piece of hardware on the market as long as manufacturers have made decent windows drivers for the product. As far as software is concerned, you can find anything your heart desires for windows. The interface may not be as "pretty" or intuitive as that of say Mac OS, but it does work...usually. The reason for my switch is that I am growing tired of the constant barrage of updates, crash reports, and odd sluggish moments.

I have had Ubuntu installed on my system for the past year or so. The installation was easy, and most of my hardware worked straight off the bat. The only thing it seemed to lack was eye candy. In the age of vista and OS X, I have grown accustomed to my transparencies, docks, gadgets and fun task switching animations. So in my effort to spruce up the OS I did alot of Google searches and found a so-so dock application, and attempted to install compiz fusion. Compiz fusion is a visual appearance plug-in type application that enhances UI look and feel with animations, transparencies, and several other neat effects that seemed to fit my eye candy requirement. Unfortunately....the installation was a failure....and I sunk back into the windows abyss.

Last month I found a new distribution called gOS (good OS). GOS is based on Ubuntu, and includes compiz fusion, plus a few other fun visual items that I wanted. There are a few versions of this OS, and I decided to go with "Space" (it looked the most flashy).

Here is a screen shot from my gOS desktop:

(note the os X like dock interface)

Without hesitation I immediately replaced my ubuntu installation after I ran the live CD. Sadly I was disappointed with reliability and some driver issues. As far as reliability goes, I have had to restart the system from freezes about 5 times this week. Two of the three involved Wine (windows API emulator) and the rest were just from surfing the web. What kept me from going straight back to windows was the eye candy...it was literally so awesome I just had to reboot just to see wobbly windows and play with the cube desktop switcher! I know, your probobly thinking..."wow this guy is a noob and knows nothing about OS's"...ive experienced windows 3.1 to Vista and mac os 6 through 10.5 leopard. Leopard is still my OS of choice....but alas I dont have a mac at home, only at work......anyway, I digress. My point is that this is the kind of face lift Linux needs to become a mainstream option for the newest generation of computer users.

I have also tried gOS's newest release "gOS 3", and am already scared for its future. gOS 3 is still in its beta stage, but its missing many key features of spaces:

1. Dock no longer supports applet stacks
2. What happened to compiz fussion??
3. Seems slower than spaces

As I said, this is still in the beta stage. As far as the compiz support goes, it seems that it is still an option through the desktop effects preferences, but there is an error when it is attempted to be enabled. gOS 3 is also based on ubuntu 8.05, which is a plus since 7.10 based 'space' was not upgradeable, yet I hope by final it will be based on the soon to come 8.10 release.

Overall, I am very excited about the project this company has been working on, and I hope to see the linux community continue to grow toward this direction.

I've been preoccupied with school, work, and just life in general. Here are some of the flash labs I have done recently.....

Just thought I'd share another screen shot from WoW. I took this a few months ago in Zangarmarsh. These Horde (2 lvl 70's a lvl 1 (thats the one kindly teabaging me) and a mid 60's) camped me hardcore, complete with a barbeque on my body.

Touching isn't it...

(click to enlarge)

Here is my frankenmac:

This is an imac DV 400mhz that I squished. The monitor was starting to go out, so i decided to take it out and dremel down the case. Turns out converting the video was not that simple, and took many hours of google searching and wire switching to achieve successful external video.




It's alive and working great! The Hard drive has been upgraded to 80gigs, and Mac OS updated to 10.3.

Today I heard and stumbled upon a few informational websites I thought you all would like to know about. Click on their logos to visit.

The first is called "Change this"

This site's aim is to create a new type of media using current media. Much of the content is text based, including essays on many different topics, including tech.

The next site is "Big Think"


This site is like YouTube for nerds. The audience (you) are to come up with questions and ideas, and the site's job is to make sure they are talked about, or answered by professionals in that field. There are many great interviews from the tech industry so anyone interested should check it out.

And finally "Free Tech Books"


This site has FREE tech books (okay you probably figured that out if you can read)...anyway they have books on topics ranging from gamer theory to algorithmic dynamics and everything in between.



The first two sites I heard about on one of Leo Laporte's podcasts (check it out). As for the last site I stumbled on it. If you havn't checked out Stumble Upon you should check that out as well at http://www.stumbleupon.com. Thanks for hanging in there and basically reading a link list...wait isn't this what a blog is for.......? Hope you enjoy!

I come across Terokkarantula.......

Yup that's my 63 hunter in front of the biggest spider ever...too bad it can't be tamed : (

As this is my first WoW topic post, let me tell you a bit about my life in The World of Warcraft:

I have been playing since just about the beginning of the game. I have 3 active characters right now. I guess you could call my night elf warrior, Vircaecus, my main even though he's only 68, but he is my original character. Fwokenheimer, the toon I play most at the moment, is shown above. And I also have a 34 gnome mage who goes by the name Virage. All of these characters are on the Sargeras realm. I also have a 34 Undead warlock, Mordathe, on the Lothar Realm. So if you see me around make sure to say hello!

Here is my list for the top ten coolest USB Flash Drives:

#10 Lego Custom case drives

Last, but certainly not least, my favorite of the DIY custom flash drive case scene. Available to anyone with some legos, a dremel tool, and some spare USB key guts.

#9 Thumbs Up, Autobot and Decepticon Transformers USB Key's

Need I say more.....These are only available in 1gb (Autobot) and 2gb (Decepticon) Versions, and come complete with a neck lanyard to show it off. Site

#8 Solid Alliance, Thumb Drive

Pictures speak a thousand words.


#7 Solid Alliance, Electric Guitar drive

This one is dedicated to my cousin Wesley. This drive comes complete with strings, and a velvet lined case. Site

#6 Sandisk Extreme USB Drive Ducati Edition

The case of this drive is modeled to resemble a Ducati motorcycle. This limited edition drive is only available in 4gb, and retails at a pricey $124.99. site


#5 Kingmax Super Stick L series

The worlds smallest flash drive weighing in at 3grams, and measuring 34mm x 14.5mm x 2.2mm. Comes with a lifetime warranty. Price varies vendor to vendor. Site

#4 MixA tape form factor drive

You can customize this retro drive on their website......need i say more? 1gig, $19.99

#3 Ritek, EZusb

With this drive you can have your storage and at an extra USB port at the same time. With dual status LED's on each hub stem, you can know whats active on each of the ports. Available in 128, 256, 512mb, and 1, 2, 4, or 8 gig models. The 1gig model is anywhere from $14-$20 depending on the vendor. Makers site

#2 Rehobotech Irikon Flash Drive

The Irikon is the worlds first USB key featuring Iris recognition technology. This baby can store up to 20 iris templates with 256-bit encryption. Available in 1, 2, and 4gb storage sizes. Rehobotech

#1 IRONKEY

This is the IronKey. The manufacturer touts that this is the safest USB key in the world. And after seeing their Demo, I believe it! The key has a password vault, an ultra secure portable version of Mozilla Firefox, and an internet backup feature. Available for as low as 79.99 (for the 1gb version) the price includes "1 year of internet protection".

Now that classes have begun, I haven't had much time to work on this blog. I am taking an introductory course involving Flash and Dreamweaver. And also an intro computer graphics class. I should be able to post more often.


Just for fun, here is my first flash animation!




By the way, this animation was only done with keyframes, no motion tweens, etc.... we were not allowed to use them on this first assignment, thats why it is so choppy.

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I hope everyone enjoyed their Christmahanakwanzakah traditions and days off from work (hopefully at least one). I got to see my girlfriends AND my family both this Christmas which was fun. Not too much going on lately, I should have another how-to post up soon...probably some filler in between, check regularly!