Desultoriness

Shuffle-tastic!

devusb — Sat, 12 Nov 2005 05:16:09 +0000

I dunno what I did…but my shuffle’s volume down button is funtioning normally again. I reset the firmware, nothing. Plugged it in to charge and load songs, pull it off, bam! Normal! Maybe it’s true what they say…this really is the indestructable iPod. It withstands washing machines, or so I hear. Anyway, I’m still going to purchase the extended AppleCare for my 4G 20Gb, but I think I’ll be using this little gem a bit more now. If I decide to pick up a 5G iPod, I might even start looking for FM transmitters for the shuffle.

Edit: Or…not so much. Picked it up to use for a bit this morning, but I found the button being unresponsive again. Augh! I’ll try putting it on the charger overnight…but I’m really out of ideas. I suppose I can just send it to Apple. These problems with my iPods are really getting old. Really fast.

Edit 2: Or…yes. A semi-intentional drop and a bit a foot pain later, it’s working again. I wonder how long it will keep. Only time will tell. I’ll probably pick up an AppleCare ripof…er…extension early next year, if only to satisfy my obsessiveness. I seem to be made of money these days.

He’s Dead, Jim

devusb — Fri, 11 Nov 2005 17:55:13 +0000

Yeah, I know, a Star Trek euphamism, sue me.

Fox cancelled Arrested Development! Why God, Why?! So they preempt it for baseball for a month, air two eps, think “ooh, I wonder why the ratings are bad?” and give it the axe. Aside from House (which isn’t a half bad show, btw), I really have no reason to watch that crappy network anymore. Oh well. There’s always DVD, I guess. I have some solace in the fact that 7th Heaven is getting whacked too, though.

Projecting

devusb — Tue, 08 Nov 2005 06:01:24 +0000

My latest (and most wonderful) attempt at building something on the web is this wonderful site. I used a template (not sure from where, but it costed money), and I did the editing in Frontpage. Apparently I’m
getting paid for this wonderful work of WYSIWYG genius, so that’s eternally helpful. Actually, that’s a nice segue into my next topic! Wheee!

My iPod’s (4G, 20gb) complimentary AppleCare is just about to perish due to lack of money tossed at Apple, so I’m considering purchasing an extension. It’s only $47 with the education discount, and considering the problems I had with the first two, I think that this is probably a good investment. Even if I have no more problems, at least I’m guaranteed a battery replacement, extending my little friend’s life for another few years. Still thinking about that shuffle, however. I’m still hoping that I’ll make it to an Apple store between now and it’s end of warranty, but I may break down and pay the $35 Screw-Me-Please fee to have it fixed. It’s still functional, but my obsessive-compulsive self won’t let that slide.

Piddled with the new Google Local for Mobile a bit on my phone this morning. The interface isn’t bad, the search does work quite well, too. I was able to find all of the pizza places around here, requiring only
the word “pizza” and my zip code. Then I was able to get directions, the phone number, even satellite photos, effortlessly. I thought it’d be a little slow, but it actually seems to be a little snappier than just
using Google Local in my WAP browser. I still can’t figure out how to place a call from inside the app, though.

Apparently, I have a WordPress invite now! Yay! Still no Blogger import, though. Boo!

I tried posting this with Flock, but I ended up with two bum posts, it just wouldn’t end up on the front page. I could see it in the archive pages, though. Can’t figure that one out. So I won’t be using Flock’s built in blog poster for awhile, because I just can’t handle the re-copying and pasting. Not to mention the mental anguish. Can’t forget the ol’ anguish.

Various and Sundry Cutlery

devusb — Wed, 02 Nov 2005 04:57:06 +0000

I was digging around some of my shelves for an old GeForce 3 that I had some years ago, when I stumbled upon a fully boxed and sealed, completely functional, USB memory pocket knife. As I stood there, I was completely in awe of the fact that this has apparently been sitting on the shelf for about eight months, and I had never known that it was there. Then I remembered that some months ago, my Dad ordered some memory from Swissbit, but I think that they buggered his order, and I suppose this is his we’re-so-sorry-please-buy-again gift. Anyway, It’s pretty cool. The little LED light is rather useful, as is the screwdriver. The flash drive seems to be pretty quick, too.

Picked up Battlefront II this afternoon. It feels like everything that the original Battlefront should have been. Space battles, a _very_ nice campaign, more places to visit, and playable Jedi. I can’t tell much of a graphical difference, but that could be due to my less-than-stellar graphics card. Overall, I really like it. I can definitely see it dominating quite a chunk of my spare time in the coming month or so.

And, what the crap is this?

Operating System Shuffle

devusb — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 04:12:08 +0000

I read a few minutes ago that at one point this week, WP.com did have blogger import. Gee! And now it doesn’t. Golly. But it should again soon. Yippie!

This week, I removed OS X and installed Ubuntu Breezy on my laptop. I decided that I wanted wireless (not to mention native speed Flock) more than I wanted OS X. And, wouldn’t you know it, they released something of an update just as I stopped using it. Figures. It was interesting though, using Mac OS X on my Dell laptop. With the Rosetta layer, some PPC apps ran at nearly native speed (notably iTunes), while others (such as Flock) performed in a rather lackluster fashion.

Speaking of Flock, after spending another week with it, I have more of an opinion about the way it functions. On Windows, it seems to work pretty smoothly, if not with the occasional glitch. On the Linux side, I find it to be just a mite ornery. Sometimes it will be sluggish, freeze, or hang completely. But I _love_ the del.icio.us integration. Having my bookmarks synced between both my desktop and laptop effortlessly…it’s great. Worth putting up with any irregularities for now, after all, it’s still pre-beta.

I did get Angel on Saturday, watched two episodes….and I have the title theme stuck in my head. Like, buying the soundtrack album, stuck in my head. The show is good too.

WordPress!

devusb — Tue, 25 Oct 2005 03:52:11 +0000

I realized that I could get a WordPress invite by using Flock, so I figured that I’d give WP a shot. After a bit of reading, I found that the WP.com people are going to add a blogger importer to the service in the coming weeks, so instead of using the copy-and-paste method, I’ll probably just wait until then to import. I’m thinking that maybe Flock will like posting to this better, it doesn’t tend to digest my blogger blog very well.

Tonight on Surface, they had one of those “OMG so that’s what it’s all about” episodes, where they flesh out the storyline a bit, kill off some characters, and raise the anticipation for the next episode. I keep hoping that Miles will finally meet up with the other two main characters, maybe soon!

I recently started watching Buffy, and I have to say, I can definitely see alot of the things that I like about Firefly on Buffy. I definitely laugh out loud at least once or twice in every episode, the writing is just superb. Angel is coming from Netflix soon, too!