Saturday, February 25, 2006

Origami video: the real deal?

Kevin 2.0 » Blog Archive » Origami video: the real deal?

Look at the instructions in the link above to view the video for Origami. It's difficult to tell if it's a small tablet PC or a large PDA.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Back to good ol' Ubuntu...

Sunday, February 19, 2006

Top ten reasons Geeks make good fathers

This is avery well-written (and very true) list of reasons that geeks make good fathers.

read more | digg story

Saturday, February 18, 2006

New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusion | CNET News.com

New DVDs already sparking copy-protection confusion | CNET News.com

By what I've gathered about these next-generation DVD formats, I'll need to do the following to play them at full resolution:

To watch on TV:
- Buy a new TV, ensuring that it has all the proper inputs and outputs. Low-end HD TV's may not meet this criteria.
- Buy a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player that costs more than my laptop did. Oh, and I'll only be able to play 1 of the 2 formats.

To watch on a PC:
- Buy new monitor. None of the current ones are compatible.
- Buy new video card. Again, none of the current ones are compatible.
- Buy new operating system since only Windows Vista will be supported. Linux gets no love. I am assuming that Mac OS X will be supported eventually.

Personally, I'm not looking forward to the next generation of DVD formats. I already had enough problems getting the current generation to work the way I wanted. Besides, I don't even watch very many movies as it is. A ninja has better things to spend his money on, such as diamond-tipped shurikens and every new iPod that comes out.

Wednesday, February 15, 2006

RIAA Says Ripping CDs to Your iPod is NOT Fair Use

The RIAA argues in a DMCA rule-making filing that copying for personal use (to an iPod) is not fair-use.
Good luck with that, RIAA. I don't own a CD player. Many of my friends don't own CD players either. However, we all own an iPod or other MP3 player, and also enjoy listening to music on our computers. It sounds like the RIAA could benefit from a ninja visit.

read more | digg story

Don't listen to your iPod on a bike, but buy an iBikeMount?

Check out this link. In the second paragraph it says,
Following the death of an Australian woman, police in the country have warned that cyclists should never listen to an iPod while riding. “If you’re a cyclist and you want to stay alive, I wouldn’t wear an iPod under any circumstances,” Assistant Commissioner (Traffic) Noel Ashby said.
Isn't it just a little ironic that the previous story, directly below, is for a bike mount for the iPod Nano? I guess iLounge isn't taking any sides on this issue.

Tuesday, February 14, 2006

Which OS is Easiest to Learn?

Over the weekend I had a small debate with some fellow ninjas and computing science students regarding operating systems. It all started whene I said that I would buy an Intel Mac if dual booting to Windows worked.

I explained to them the advantages of doing non-administrative tasks as a non-privileged user. By the end of the debate I managed to convince some of them that if you are teaching a typical desktop user to browse the web, check email, and do some word processing, then all three OS' (Windows, Linux, and Mac OS) are equally easy to learn.

Having used Linux and Mac OS more than the typical person, I wondered if my point of view was biased. I asked my sister what she thought. She isn't nearly as technical or interested in computers as myself, but she is a heavy user of Windows and has used Linux and Mac OS on occasion. I asked her which she felt was easiest for a new user to learn. Her answer surprised me: "They're about the same."

What does everyone else think?

Tuesday, February 07, 2006

Google Talk - now with people actually online

Google is adding a new chat feature to Gmail, which is essentially a web-based version of Google Talk. While using Gmail people will (supposedly) optionally show up as being online. Any chatting done through this interface can also be searched in Gmail.

I'm interested in seeing how many people actually start using this. I have many friends who use Gmail but none of them use Google Talk.

read more | digg story

Update (Feb 14):
I've had this feature for almost a week now and I must say it is very slick. It is fast, efficient, and has not interfered with any of my regular Gmail usage. Having all my conversations archived in one place, regardless of which computer I used, is one of the most useful features I've ever seen in any IM application.