I don’t know why it took me so long to get onto Twitter. It seems right up my alley. We all know that I am not good for too much thought, but I can be pretty entertaining for a line or two! What caused me to finally make the jump? Time. For an early adopter of technology I am not an early adopter of social media and communication methods. It took me a long time to join Facebook, and I even quit that a couple of times. I never joined MySpace, but that is probably a good thing. Hell, I even took forever to start using BBM - and I have had a BlackBerry for the better part of my adult life. I do manage to keep people updated on the random crap that comes out of my brain on Facebook, so I figured Twitter was a natural extension for me. This is ideal for the types of things I want to say that don’t really need a full blog post. So, as you can probably guess, you can find me as Onebrownguy on Twitter. Go ahead and follow me!
In the last few months, I have enjoyed taking a trip down memory lane by pursuing things that used to entertain me. I installed emulation software on my computer just so I could run Hugo’s House of Horrors. I went to the Science Centre and grabbed some silly putty. I even made a special run to Toys R Us just so I could obtain a classic metal slinky. Today, I got to thinking about another item from my past. This was something I absolutely LOVED. It was the Casio Databank. Let me take you back to a time before cel phones, PDA’s and laptops. If you wanted to take someones phone number with you, you wrote it down on paper. Enter the Databank! This thing was more than just a digital watch - it was a personal contact list. You could store up to 50 phone numbers for your friends! The best part was seeing the scrolling text go across the screen, so modern. I was absolutely in love with this watch. Sadly, I owned two in my life and both bit the big one as a result of me…well…being a boy and breaking things. For some reason I thought of this great device while I was looking at my Blackberry this morning. Me thinks I know what my eBay purchase of the day will be
I recently installed a ceiling fan in the bedroom of my new place. The townhouse has the bedrooms at the top floor and with 4 million degree heat in Toronto, the air conditioner needs a little help to circulate the air. I realized that I am using old technology. Dyson, that brilliant dude that brought us the bag-less vacuum has something that is a game changer…
It isn’t a fan. It’s an air multiplier. This thing is tits! It doesn’t have blades that push the air towards you. Products from Dyson are crazy expensive. They are also crazy awesome. This company is becoming the Apple of household products. Check out the two videos below. One shows how this thing works. The other actually shows it working, they set up a course that shoots a balloon from one unit to the other. Really cool!
Holy crap it has been a whirlwind moving experience. I am FINALLY all setup in my new home. As anyone who has moved knows, the process never really ends. I still have a million little things to buy…IKEA to the rescue! I promise to get some pics or a video up as soon as possible. I still have my camera at the other house. Today is not about doing work though. This is Canada’s birthday. This is a day to chill out on the rooftop patio, drink some beers and spend some time with friends. That is a benefit of having a roommate, you always have a drinking buddy! I might even have some time to relax with some video games today. On that note, here is some interesting information about that famous video game character: Mario!
My Kobo finally arrived! I ordered the thing from Chapters a while ago, not realizing that the shipping date was supposed to be near the end of June. I was pleasantly surprised when I received an email indicating that my item shipped two days ago. Yesterday, it was at my door! I know it seems a little un-techy of me to be talking about anything short of an iPad, but this thing is a very specific device. Here are my first impressions:
I am thrilled at having chosen black as the colour. I debated about this for a while, because the white does look very nice. Over time I can see how that white would get pretty dirty with the oils from my fingers. This most likely wont be an issue.
The initial setup for this thing is a walk in the park. The instructions only involve a couple of steps and it doesn’t take more than 5 minutes to have the desktop application installed and an account setup with Kobo. A lot of people bitch about how the Kobo eReader doesn’t have a wireless connection to download books with like the Kindle. My opinion: who gives a flying fuck? This thing is half the price, I don’t expect to have all those bells and whistles. Quite frankly, I don’t see the need. I can sync this thing with hundreds of books when I am at my computer. How often am I going to need to do that? Am I likely to be away from an internet connection for this to be an issue? Probably not!
The screen on this thing really is cool. It feels so low tech but you really do appreciate it’s simplicity. It is easy to see how this thing will not be a strain on your eyes. For a guy who does his reading in bed at night, this is huge. The size and weight of the Kobo is also great. It is easy to hold this thing up while laying on your back…much easier than trying to do this with a hard cover novel!
The performance is pretty good, for what I expected. I was not buying an ereading device based on processing power. If it takes an extra .06 seconds to flip a virtual page then what the hell do I care. I felt that performance was good for powering up, loading a book and jumping chapters. I don’t really have a point of reference on this topic, having never used other ereaders before. I can see how you would be annoyed if your previous device was much faster. For me, I am good. Page turns happen faster than I can flip and old fashioned book!
One thing I really enjoy is the display when you power down the Kobo. It looks a book cover image for the title you are reading and keeps that on the screen…as if you just closed your book! It’s a very nice touch. This is another benefit of the e-ink technology: power is only used when a screen is rendered. It uses no power just keeping the image on screen. Much different from standard, back-lit displays.
I know that people are going to be online bitching about how the Kobo doesn’t have wireless, doesn’t surf the net, doesn’t play games or music and it doesn’t kiss them good night. These are the same people that bitch about not getting a steak and lobster for $5. You want the world, but want it out of a device that was just not built for that. Break open the piggy bank and get your cheap ass an iPad! I bet these people bitch about buying a novel at a book store and not having that novel go online and play video files! The Kobo eReader is great for what it was built for - reading books! Keep that in mind and you wont be disappointed!
Holy crap, this was one insanely busy long weekend. Let me start by saying that my work project that would normally keep me busy on Friday night and Saturday afternoon was cancelled! I am anxious to get that project completed, but I wasn’t going to argue with getting a full long weekend away from work. It all began with some drinks with coworkers. Our goal was the enjoy the really nice weather, unfortunately the weather turned a little bit shortly after we got to a patio. No matter, we took the party inside. We then went to a friends house and continued to drink and play random old school music videos on YouTube. What was my first pick? I will let you see for yourself…
Awesome! I passed out there, and managed to head home at a reasonable hour on Saturday morning. Drinking that night wasn’t completely ideal as I had already promised my buddy Mark that I would go out with him Saturday night. Things worked out well as he was feeling lazy too. So, I just booted up to his farm (yeah, he lives on a farm) and we proceeded to barbecue and drink beers until we couldn’t see straight. We also popped in our favourite movie: Team America - World Police. Here is my favourite scene that we watched about 12 times…
Bahahahaha!!! This is amazing. It goes from funny to kinda dragging on and then back to being funny. Such a rare feat. Anyways, we polished off about 30 beers between us and passed out fairly early. I was up at 8am the next morning, enjoying a nice morning on the farm. No real time to rest. Sunday was my golfing day! I made my way home later in the morning and hit the driving range. It was pretty much as I expected - I was spraying my shots all over the place. My performance on the golf course wasn’t much better. I shot a 109, which is my highest score in a couple years. I was helped by three 8’s I put up on some par 4’s….playing in the bunker is not where you want to spend your first round of the year! It wasn’t all bad on the course. The beer cart girl complimented my eyes and told me I was very good looking. That was just the boost I needed to get me through a bad round. Thank you random beer cart girl! I was so caught off guard by her continued compliments that I really didn’t know how to react. I just said “Thanks…ummm…can I get a Coors Light please?” Someone much cooler would have been able to say something charming and witty. I got beer. Hmmmmm. Yeah, I think it still worked out for me. After my monstrous score, I headed home to eat some food with the intention of regrouping for a night out. It wasn’t happening. My 32 year old body was done. I passed out really early after rediscovering the love of my own bed. Falling asleep early means waking up early. So I was bored and looking for something to do at 8am on the holiday Monday morning. Thankfully my buddy Gar is usually up at a reasonable time. We decided to go do some roller blading down by the lakeshore in Toronto. It was very busy as everyone was out enjoying the amazing weather. That would normally have been the end of my adventures. Today, it was only the start. At the last minute I got the opportunity to go to the Ontario Science Centre to see the Harry Potter Exhibit! Oh yeah, I had to be a part of that. The exhibit was pretty good actually! When it comes to special exhibits, I always enjoy the show the Science Centre puts on. I have also gone there to see Body Worlds and Titanic. The actual general admission content is not so good. So much of it seems like it was there back when I was in elementary school…and that was 2 decades ago!!! C’mon guys, it’s time to modernize the joint! Most people there had more technology in their pockets than that place had in all it’s displays. My friend Naomi was not a big fan of Harry Potter, but she was nice enough to suggest we see this today. We did get into a Science vs Magic competition. Magic won 8-5. Don’t ask me to rationalize the judging on that…you had to be there. Just trust me on the final score. We couldn’t resist capping off the afternoon with a beer on a patio. The day was far too amazing to not enjoy a little bit more sunshine.
With all of that done, I finally got home and had time to write this post. I now need 3 days off to recover from my 3 days off. I think 4 days of work will actually feel like a nice little break for me. That will last right up until next week. What happens then? A Southampton adventure! As I always, I will keep you posted.
I am an avid reader. Although I am often too busy to actually get the time to sit back with a book, it is one of my favorite ways of passing time. I have been watching the eReader market for a while and have been seriously debating getting in on the action. For those of you who don’t know, these are tablet like devices designed for reading electronic versions of books. Sony has a few different models, but none of them really interested me. I seriously debated getting the Amazon Kindle. That thing has a built in wireless connection (that is free) so you can download new ebooks directly from Amazon on the go! Pretty cool, but I really wasn’t a fan of the price. Enter Kobo! Kobo is actually an open service that is not device specific. They make ereader apps for PC, Mac, Blackberry and iPhone (iPad app is on it’s way). You can purchase books online through their store or find free ebooks online and download them to your device. Kobo recently released their own ereader device called the Kobo eReader. This is a relatively simple device compared to what is out on the market. The best part of this thing is the price, only $149 Canadian! I plan to use this thing just for reading books. So, I definitely don’t need the extra bells and whistles that come with the premium price tag of other devices on the market. I got to play with one of these things at a Chapters store near my house and I was very impressed. It is small and light and should make reading in bed a lot more comfortable. The e-ink technology is pretty cool. The display looks just like ink on paper. The power consumption is very low on these things because it only takes juice to render a new page. I also find the display is easy on the eyes because their is no lighting on the device. I know some people complain about not having a backlit display but I was happy about this. I looks at a computer screen all day, the last thing I want to do before bed is blast my eyes with another backlit device. I debated whether to go with the white or black for a while today. I finally decided on the black because I think that it won’t stain as quickly as the white. Here are some shots of the Kobo eReader. I will let you know how it goes once it is delivered.
Thank you Gizmodo! Usually I give credit near the end of my post. This time, I would like to give the credit right up front - everything you see here, including pics, comes from Gizmodo. This story is hilariously awesome. Apple is really good about keeping a secret. Everyone usually knows when they are releasing new hardware, it’s just damn near impossible to get so much as a spy pic of the product before release. This time, somebody F’ed up! Some Apple employee, who was high enough up the ranks to actually get their hands on this device, lost what will be the next generation iPhone. The best part: it was lost at a bar. Apple guy walks into the pub with his pre-release, ultra-secret, ninja-disguised iPhone. Dude has too many beers. Dude stumbles out trying to remember where he lives. Ooops…he left his iPhone at the bar for the cleaning staff to find. Somebody who was obviously tech savvy recognized that something was off with this device and started playing with it. Sure enough, it had the new OS before it was officially released. A short time later, the device is remotely wiped. Hmmmmmm. Gizmodo pays somewhere around 5 grand for the thing and they dissect the thing like their office is Area 51. All the cool details about the phone are in THIS POST at Gizmodo. They give a million reasons why they really believe this is the next iPhone due out later this year. Below are some shots for you to enjoy. Oh, in case you doubt this story - Apple confirmed they lost a phone and sent a letter to Gizmodo asking for it back.
I have been a bad blogger! I went the week without really giving you much to see. I wish I could say my life has been crazy interesting, but it really hasn’t. I have been very busy with work and…well…that’s about it. Between that and hanging out with friends I really don’t do too much. I guess I do have one thing that I am really excited about: working from home. Now, back in my previous career (before going back to school) I was able to work from home fairly often. I knew my job well and found myself more productive as a result of not having to commute. Now, I am a guy who likes to have a presence at the office. Spending 3 hours a day in my car has kind of made me hit my limit. I finally worked from home one day this week and it was everything I dreamed it would be. No commute. Eating lunch on my couch. Sending emails without pants on. Working from home took a bit of planning though. I have a desktop computer at the office and I sure as hell wasn’t going to bring that thing home with me. Remember how I geeked out one night and installed Windows 7 on a partition of my hard drive via BootCamp? Well, there was a purpose to that. I installed Shrew Soft VPN client so I could tunnel into the office network. After that it was just a matter of hooking myself up with VisionApp so I could connect to all my servers via RDP and I was good to go! One thing was missing though - dual monitors! Apple charges an ass-hammering $34 for a display adapter that will let me hook my laptop up to the DVI port of a monitor. I call bullshit! Enter my favourite website for cables and adapters - Monoprice.com! The same damn thing is on sale for about $8. Even with shipping I only spent $11. Massive savings! Even more impressive, as a friend and I recently discovered, are the savings if you need a wall mount for your flat screen TV. Check it out, you will shit yourself with glee! So that takes me right up to the weekend. I have a couple of Bday parties and a charity hockey game so my schedule is nice and full. Since I do try to always add some value for your visit, here is a comic that has nothing to do with anything.
