Peon's Place

So one of the large topics of this week is the new Apple iPad. Sure, it looks neat, it’s reasonably priced (compared to other Apple products when introduced), and very useful.. however in the innovation department, there’s nothing. Take the Kindle or Sony Reader. Add in the functionality of the iPod Touch or iPhone (minus the phone part) and what do you get? Yes, the iPad.

It has no USB port. It’s still going to require your PC/Mac/Laptop to sync, transfer your current application profiles from your other devices, etc. It surfs the web, but cannot replace any computer. $500 for 16gb up to $700 for 64gb is great, but I’d rather save my cash to drop $700 on a half-decent 500gb laptop. I mean, it’s not as if I’m going to shove the iPad into my pocket and take it wherever I go, right? It’s going to go wherever my laptop (or Kindle / Sony Reader) would go. It’s a nice .5″ 1.5lb product that is only as mobile as a sheet of wood. Except more fragile.

The best use of this thing would be for a private school to invest in them, so kids no longer need to carry around 50-65lb backpacks — all course textbooks, etc, would be on this device. Reports would be sent in via e-mail.

Overall: neat idea, great product, but I already have 4 of the same product laying around.

I however, did find a slightly more useful product, for $15, at Fry’s yesterday.

Folding keyboard! It’s more or less pure rubber so you can roll it up and throw it in your laptop bag. It’s completely safe to spill drinks on since it’s essentially just a rubber mat, with raised keys (buttons) on it. Completely light, thin, and typing on it was surprisingly not so bad when I was playing with it in the store.

Now THIS is a useful product! I hate typing on the small laptop keyboards, and this thing even has the standard 10-key on the right side.

Okay, a little dorky. But you know you want one too!

I read an article online through the SF Chronicle: High-speed rail in California getting $2 billion. Hooray. It’s about time.  Sort of. Construction won’t really begin for another year an d a half… but at least you can look forward to a future 5 years from now where a train ride (220 mph) to Los Angeles will be amazingly faster than driving down.

I recall voting on this during the last major election; it’s nice to know the future US will be as advanced as a large portion of Europe. Quite honestly, our railway and public transit systems pale in reflection to that of our UK allies.

I’ve been reading a lot of The Oatmeal lately.. Notably hunorous is the How to Suck at Facebook page. Good stuff, and I can sadly relate to a few of the entries. ;)

Also, I’ve incorporated a new theme and have the Lyric section to the right the way that I want it. I can much more easily add new lyrics there and have it display properly, without distorting the layout on any browser (IE included, damn you Microsoft!)

I’ve been learning quite a bit of PHP during the past few days, as going into this blogathon I knew absolutely none. I had a firm grasp on HTML and a small bit of Javascript (since it’s so much like C++) but had no familiarity with PHP/CSS. I can look at code and understand how it’s supposed to work, however replicating it for myself is a different story. I am now learning how to do as such, and the random lyrics upon each page load is a resembling of that. I may look to start my own template (as opposed to installing a pre-created one) sometime in the future, and let things start taking off from there.

Where has January gone to?

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/misspelling

The shirt design is in!

My gloves however, are not. Damn you, Nike.

We have our first game on Sunday at 3pm, on turf! No super mudbowl for us, and playing in the rain while be fantastical!

Nike reimbursed me for the gloves after only three weeks of sending wrong pairs and receiving disgruntled phone calls from yours truly. I think I’m keeping the other two (wrong color) ones. One pair used once, the other still new in the packaging — I figure I can pawn the $45 gloves off for $20 and feel better about myself for it. You know. For having to deal with their crappy warehouse and mediocre customer service.

I’ve scoured the interweb (eBay, Amazon, Footlocker, Sports Authority, etc) and cannot find them in large for less than $45. Due to the fact they cost me just over $20 from Nike.com I am highly unwilling to pay more than double that. Plus the gloves from last year are still superb.

I got the Mustang back, and the bumper looks really nice. They replaced my rear bumper, painted it, and it looks better than the rest of the car now. The guy even took the time to fill in some of the scratches I’ve accumulated over the past three years. Thanks to the combined efforts of Fortes Autobody Shop, Farmer’s Insurance, and their customer who rear-ended me at a stop light.

Civin is supposed to give me a banner to link to his sites — the least I can do since he’s providing me the hosting services. This is assuming his lazy ass can ever make one, and then send it to me. =P

PCWorld has a little write-up on the new iPhone 4G. Not a whole lot different, to be honest, although it will sport a 5MP camera and possibly a removable battery.

There’s also talks of the iPhone 4.0 software being released soon, to combat the releases of the Droid, Palm Pre and Nexus One phones. The most exciting part is that it, again, might support multi-tasking applications. Might. Maybe. If we all wish upon a star and think really really hard, with magical fairy/pixie dust.

Also, with Apple releasing Tablet PC screens, I believe the 4.0 software update is supposed to be more current and run with those. Who knows.

I am not going to mention Haiti (damnit, there I go..) but I will instead mention the founder of, in my opinion, the greast food chain of all time. Rest in Peace, Glen Bell. Thank you for such nummy food.

The founder of Taco Bell back in 1962 passed away yesterday.

I just installed a plugin for my page that enabled iPhone / iPod Touch users to view my page in a different (more screen friendly) version. ;)

So I am ditching, or rather attempting to ditch, Comcast from my home. They decided to jack up my HD TV rates $20 without notifying me ahead of time that my “special promotion” rate was ending; after making a customer service guy feel bad about his employment decisions the other day, they’re going to credit my account for the difference. I figure I will pay one final check then cancel the service, and let them figure it out.

Alternatively, I signed up for the Dish, which leaves me still needing a home internet service for my PC and iPhone, since 3G coverage is horrible in my living room; I need WiFi to survive with it. AT&T U-Verse is waaaay pricey, which leaves me with satellite internet (unreliable, expensive) or DSL — which I am okay with since I don’t do online gaming as much as I did a decade ago. However, a 3mbps DSL connection is going to run $40 / month since I don’t have a home phone line, and I pay $46-something for the cable internet, making me wonder if I should just keep the Comcastic internet connection. FML.

Speaking of yelling at customer service reps, I’ve laid into employees at Nike.com twice now. Part of my order the other week was 2 sets of football gloves, the same color/style; Large for me and Medium for Joe. However, mine came in grey, not white. Bastards.

End result: the new pair will be here Monday and I get a $20 gift card to boot. Great gear, but somewhat shotty on replacing screwed up orders, so hope you’re not one of the unfortunate ones. =)

So this is a little preview of the logo that will be on our uniforms for this football season. IT’s getting cropped, obviously, and will be in orange on a blue shirt. Snazzy?

We have our first (scrimmage) set of games on Sunday. Domination: begin! While we won’t have our full uniforms and we have two or three teammates out of town, it will be our first opportunity to show how much kicked ass we plan on dispensing to the other teams.

Technology section created!

Keyboard for your iPhone? You got it. There are also smaller versions available. You know you love it. Now we can quit complaining about the shitty touch screen typing..sort of.

There’s also a nifty comparison of iPhone vs Droid vs Nexus One to take a look at, see how new technology stacks up with old technology.~

Google, Inc. Founded (1998)
Google, the world’s leading internet search engine, was created by two Stanford students in the 1990s. It was based on the hypothesis that a search engine that analyzes the relationships between websites will produce better results. Thus, sites with the most links to them from other relevant web pages appear higher on a search results list. Google use is so prevalent that the verb “google” was recently added to the Oxford English Dictionary. What is the “Googleplex?” More…

Talking search engine… wtf?

Anyhow, gimme a call at work tomorrow Abs (925-598-7718), you signed off as I walked in the door, and your cell has been off all night.~

I’m going to bed before 11? What’s wrong with me?.. so tired.~

Buttercup: We’ll never survive.
Westley: Nonsense. You’re only saying that because no one ever has.