History Bytes

So, as many of you probably know, I bought an iPod Classic back in December as a Christmas present. Having 80 GB of storage was really sweet. I could throw anything I wanted on to it and still have gobs of storage space left over. But in comparison to the iTouch, it really didn’t stand up. The iTouch had a superior screen, built in WiFi and on-the-fly music downloads, not to mention a forthcoming SDK for really cool applications. So although I loved my classic, I yearned for a Touch. So, for my graduation present/birthday present, I bought myself an 8 GB iTouch. It didn’t have the gobs of storage space that my Classic had, but it had several advantages. First, the 3.5” Widescreen is amazing. Compared to the 2.5” on my classic, the Touch wins hands down. Video’s looks amazing, and beat out the classic  On a related point, the Touch’s screen is made of optical quality glass, which is much tougher and scratch resistant then the plastic on the Classic. The WiFi is amazing. I’ve been wanting to get away from my main desktop for a long time and the iTouch provided an excellent way to do just that. With the built in Wi-Fi and the January Software upgrade, iTouch offers Full HTML/CSS web browsing, a Mail client with support for IMAP/POP3 as well as Google Maps.  Safari renders webpages very well, albeit without Flash support and the accelerometer built into the iTouch is excellent for both Portrait and Landscape viewing modes.  The Mail Client is decent, allowing you to receive and forward messages as well as delete messages right off the server and file messages into folders. There is support for Yahoo, Gmail, AOL Mail and any other POP3, IMAP or Exchange server based system. The Interface on the touch is easy to use and innovative. Clicking the “Home” button twice brings up a set of music controls that allow you to change the volume or skip to the next song anywhere in the Touch, even if the hold switch is on. The iTunes WiFi Music store is quite good. Downloads are fast, and the interface is simple enough. A minor pain is you musc synce your iTunes account information before you can use the store, you can’t sign in from the Touch.

So what are the pitfalls? There are a few, to say the least. First is the virtual keyboard. After using it for a few days, it’s easy enough to type on, enought to pound emails. However, for some stupid reason, the Widecreen mode is only support in Safari, leaving you to use it in Portrait Mode for most applications, like Email, Notes and others. Secondly, software, in area’s seem a little buggy. Some applications (like Safari) will crash for no reason, and go to the Home screen, even when in the middle of reading something. Sometimes, going to a particular section of the iTouch will cause to freeze momentarily, before proceeding. I’ve only experienced this on a few occasions however.  DVD chaptering seams a tad buggy. I tried to movies and, when I selected scene, it would just restart the current chapter. After 2 or 3 times, it would work, but that should work right from the get go. Flash support is needed, especially for people who watch non Youtube sites, like Veoh, SurftheChannel and others. As well, some sites don’t work well or at all, if they are entirely based on Flash. Some websites (like Revision3) have created they’re own iPhone based site and transcoded video’s into H.264 for viewing, but this really isn’t pratical and Apple should just bite the bullet and allow Flash on the iPhone. My Final gripe in syncing. Apple, for some arcane reason, only let’s you import calendars, contacts and bookmarks from Microsoft programs like Outlook and IE. No .csv file, no VCARD file, not HTML file. So I had to export my Firefox bookmarks to IE and then sync them to my iTouch. And my contacts? I had to manually input them after they wouldn’t import correctly into Outlook from Gmail. It’s stupid, it really is.

Despite it’s pitfalls, the Touch is an excellent device. I’ve been looking at a device like this for a few months now and I’ve very satisfied. While I wouldn’t say that the iTouch is better then something like an N810 or comparative smartphone, for someone looking for an all-in-one solution for your on the good needs, I would highly recommend the iTouch.

So after a really loong lull in posting (I really haven't posted seriously for about a year.) I've decided to rework the blog. Up until this point, I've been focusing on technology exclusively. Now, however, I've decided to include my second passion: History. I am, one of the biggest history geeks you'll find. I just love the stuff. Most people find it really boring, and while it may seem that way, I find it really intriguing the way that people have lived in the past. Ironic, since I also love to see what is comming in the future. So, you can expect more history related content in the near future as scavange around the web for history related news to suplement the tech tips and tricks. My first post in the next few days or so will be on Vista, as I've been running it for about 2 months now.
 I hope this change is for the better and look forward to once again becoming more involved in the Vox community.  

I had one of those banging-my-head-against-the-wall type of moments. It went something like this:
Little Brother: uh, Nathaniel, I accidentally deleted everything on the Wii.
Me: You......What? Why did you do that?!?!?!?!?
Little Brother: I thought it would make it go faster.
Now, you must understand something. We've had this Wii for almost a year now. We've had like 5 games that each of us have been working on since Christmas. I was just getting into the Zora Temple in Zelda and my sister was 20 stars away from beating Super Mario Galaxy. So you can imagine how pissed I was when I heard this. I was especially pissed. It's probably going to take me another 6 months to get back to where I was in both Legend of Zelda: Twlight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy. It's pretty annoying, but, hey, if life gives you lemons, make Lemonade. 

 So I've been meaning to get a new CPU for quite a while now. Like, since I got the computer. I've upgraded pretty much everything else since I got it over a year and a half ago. Pretty much everything except the motherboard has been replaced, but the last thing that I need to change was the CPU. I worked a little over March break and went out and bought an AMD X2 4200+. It's not all that much much faster then my old 3200+, but it is Dual Core, which should speed things up like "backing up" DVD's *wink, wink* and things of that nature. I also fried a stick of RAM a little over a month ago, so I have to replace that, but it's only going to be about $15. After that, I might upgrade the RAM after that, but that's it for this box. After that, it's not really worth it in my mind to upgrade to either Intel Core 2 or AMD Phenom. That would involve getting a new motherboard and processor and possibly new memory, which I might as well go and get a new computer. No, I think go for a Mac for my next computer. Probably a Macbook, get a nice 20" display and be done with it. I'll keep the PC around, but I really don't think that it's worth it for the amount of effort and money  that's required to play games and such. I've never really been that kind of a user anyway, I always prefered to work with Digital Media such as music and video's.

  

So, I've been looking around for the obligitory "I hate Valentine's Day!" posts on Vox and haven't come up with any (mind you, I haven't been looking very hard.), but I'm here to say two things A) I'm okay with Valentine's Day and B) No the reason isn't because I have a girlfriend. It's for a completely different reason and Here's why:
    Ever since I can remember, my mom has put on this event called the Red Dinner. Basically, it's real good meal that she put's on for the family with food that is red (clever, no?) For example, one year, we had Cabbage Salad with red onions, Spaghetti with Red Sauce, Red Jello/Fruit Cocktail and a Red Chocolate Cheesecake. It's become a family tradition and we really don't have any type of commeristic type of activity on Valentine's Day. We just sit down as a family and have a nice meal. Moral of the story: Valentine's Day is not all about commerism or romantic love. It can be about family and motherly type love.

So, I've been thinking about getting a second Hard Drive for backup and other stuff, so I scanned the ads in Kijiji (being the bang-for-buck person that I am) I found a 200 GB drive for about $50. Went down last night and got it. Got home. Put in the case. Plugged everything in- no POST (For you non geeks that Power on Self Test, an indication that everything is working correctly.) So, I thought I had not plugged in a cable or something. Tried that. No dice. Called up my cousin, he suggested a cycle my Power Supply (Turn Off, wait, Turn On). Again, I tried that. So I called a friend who does IT work for the Health Authority. He suggested I pull the drive. Did that. Nothing. Frustrated (it's now about 11:30 at night) I went to bed. Woke up the next morning and I looked at the stuff I posted on some forums the night before. Someone suggested swapping RAM, Hard Drive etc. Pulled a stick of my RAM. Bingo. That's it. I'm down to 1 GB of RAM, but RAM is uber cheap ($30.50 for a stick of 1 GB taxes in) So when I got home this afternoon, I put the new drive and started to back up my stuff. Everything is back to normal Moral of the story: If you're afraid of technology, talk to your neibourhood Geek and get him to do it for you (make sure he knows what he's doing first.)  

 So the word on the street is that the writers strike may be nearing an end. Apperently, the studio's a

nd the studio's have reached an agreement on royalties for both new media and DVD's, which is pretty close to what the WGA wanted for it's members. They held meeting with writers in New York and LA yesterday and, if everything goes according to plan, work could resume as soon as Monday. That's good, considering that  the latest day that the studio's said they could resume work for the current TV season is Friday.
    I don't know about you, but although I support the writers, I really think this thing needs to be over and done with and we need to get back to work. I'm not saying I suppport the studio's, I just don't think that it should drag on. Both the studio's and the writers are hurting from strike, not to mention the thousands of other workers having been laid off because no filming in cities, both in the US and here in Canada. Come on guys, get going.

Hallalujah! As some of you probably know, my main source of music these days is iTunes. I've downloaded hundreds of tracks from the service and I'm pretty happy with the deal I'm getting. However, I'm all for competion and was excited when Amazon announced that they where going to opening a DRM-free store. However, as with most things it was only availible in the US, starting in September. I applaud Amazon for jumping on the DRM-free bandwagon. But the fact that it's probably going to take 6 months to a year to get the store here in Canada. We've had iTunes in Canada over 4 years now. And we just got TV shows back in November. Bands, that I would be happy buying are not on the iTunes store in Canada probably due to "licencing issues". I can only hope that Amazon is much better at this. I really hope it's not a half-assed attempt at robbing me of my .99 cents. Please Amazon, please, bring it here soon.

Today is a good day for music lovers such as myself. Sony BMG, one of the "Big 4" music labels. It's also the last of the 4 labels to announce a DRM free music partnership. Although I don't have listen to a lot of music on Sony BMG, a lot of the indepedents I listen to are distributed through S-BMG, so I really wish they would go DRM free as well. Although there is no formal partnership as of yet, being the only "big" label to not be using DRM is not a good business tactic, especially with CD sales on the down-low. Good going Sony, for once in my life, I'm proud of you.

Well, this is the first post in a few weeks. I suppose I could coin a new term here, Blogger's Block. The fact is, I haven't had a whole lot to say in the past in the past few months. I suppose it's like anything, you go

through, it comes in waves (up, down, up down etc.) but some exciting things are coming my way in '08. I'm graduating, my family is buidling our new house, I'm heading off to Germany and possibly elswhere in the summer and I have NO SWEET CLUE where I'm heading in the fall. But that's besides the point. I just wanted to wish all my good friends on Vox a Merry Christmas and  Happy Holidays. Here's to an awesome 2008.