tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-29015108292857622202023-11-15T05:12:59.502-08:00unemphatic orderbluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comBlogger56125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-91189462696711936752014-02-16T11:09:00.001-08:002014-02-16T11:18:10.015-08:0030 Day Cold Shower Challenge<h2>
Prologue</h2>
This started as a week challenge but has become a way of life. I've formed the experience into a 30 day challenge so it can be reproducible by others.<br />
<br />
I've logged 30+ days of the cold shower experience. I admit it can be interpreted as both good and/or bad. I created it for myself just to log the experience with no intention of sharing but feeling that I'm a better person because at the end of it so I figured I'd share. I recommend the cold shower experience to everyone for at least 7 days. By the seventh day, the cold water anxiety should be manageable.<br />
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<h2>
tl;dr Version</h2>
After 30 days of cold showers, I got sick for 2-3 days, killing my 2 year sick free streak. This could be attributable to many things (I live in Chicago and this January has seen the most sub zero days in my lifetime for January) so I will continue experimenting with cold showers though I did postpone them while sick. There was no improvement to the white mark on my face but there was also no worsening. My skin continues to feel rough so I’ll begin a 30 day log of natural moisturizer and lotion use which I'll post in mid March if I follow through with it.<br />
<br />
(This list grew as I continued the experiment)<br/>
Reasons: Time savings (average 7m showers), water savings (7m showers but the water only runs for 2-3m, rest is used lathering), increased tolerance for cold weather and water (I shiver when most people don't; I'm also under weight) and lowered exposure to minerals and metals make cold showers worth it (I'm at the beginning stages of ridding my life of all harsh chemicals, especially any petro based items).
<br />
<br />
Build up of pressure in the head is normal during a cold shower, increased perspiration after the shower also is. I experienced increased odor the first week so I purchased <a href="http://www.samsnatural.com/">Sam's Natural</a> <a href="http://www.samsnatural.com/collections/deodorant/products/deodorant">deodorant</a> which I use on and off. Body odor has been a new thing for me and the more I think about it, the more of a problem is seems to become. Body odor stopped after I used the deodorant a few times though during weekends I remained odor free even without use of deodorant.
<br />
<br />
Things I learned:<br />
<ul>
<li>
Hot showers are bad for your scalp and skin; </li>
<li>Excessively cold water produces pressure in your head--shower cap recommended after hair is cleaned;</li>
<li>Cold or warm showers have similar affects on skin;</li>
<li>Cold shower seemed as affective as a hot shower (read more effective than warm shower) though was not willing to continue for fears of prolonging cold;</li>
<li>Cold showers teach you how to take deep breaths--outside of cold water exposure, I've never been able to practice deep breathing with any sense of accomplishment. With that said, cold showers forces your body to react with a natural deep breath which leads me to believe cold showers would improve your overall breathing habits if taken daily which apparently can lead to numerous quality of life improvements.
</li>
</ul>
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<h2>Log</h2>
140109 - felt extremely cold for a few moments; bearable; dry back was not noticeable afterward; hands are a bit dry; no body odor<br />
<br />
140115 - felt fine; no dry back; no body odor; later odor-strong; dressed warm
140116 - luke warm water; felt good; mild dryness on shoulder blades; morning odor-strong; warm night, sweat (75F+ degrees)<br />
<br />
140119 - cold to very cold warer; felt lots of discomfort at initial rinse and scrub but second rinse felt great; odor returned upon warming up; skin feels dry but appears healthier than usual<br />
<br />
…<br />
—cold showers continued; no notes—<br />
…<br />
140130 - didn’t use completely cold water though still very cold. cold water is starting to become tolerable. able to shower continuously though shaky afterward. skin is still dry but not irritated. no change in face discoloration. get same refreshed feeling as warm/hot shower when congested (typical morning congestion at this point, not cold). supplemented body with natural brand deodorant; working though may be partly mental.<br />
<br />
140203 - cold seems to be causing temporary pressure in my head when doused and soaking in cold water. not sure if it is a good or bad thing. cold water doesn’t have the same affect on body when soaking. tolerance for cold seems to be increasing. an aside, had a major hangover that lasted about 16 hours. my temple artery is pulsing a bit and I’m a little worried it is not reversible and signs of the onset of a disease (bit paranoid, i know, but it still persists though not sure if it was always there).<br />
<br />
140210 - took a cold shower and hot bath. was a bit worried that I had hot water at my feet. doesn’t seem to have an adverse affect on health. one thing is clear though, the hot bath dried out my skin so I definitely need to follow it up with a cold shower and lotion. the hot bath felt good though. mark on face is stayed the same. starting to think I’ll have it forever like brooke burke.<br />
<br />
140213 - i am sick and i believe it was due to the cold shower while ankle deep in warm water. this must have had some ill affect though my house is all sick (wife and daughter, who is in daycare with 5+ kids). my wife believes the cold showers are the cause. it is hard to say. the cold does increase pressure in my head which i’ve read might be do to coagulation. i may buy myself a shower cap so that my head is only wetted when intended. overall, i feel it has done more good than harm though it is difficult to say with certainty. i do wonder if i am playing with fire. it is known that hot showers are bad but the same cannot be said for warm showers. and as for cold showers, many ills can be said and even those that have had to bear them cannot attest positively to them. i believe i’ll err on the side of caution and take warm showers for the remainder of my sickness. i’ll continue my cold showers afterward when i’ve regained my vigor.<br />
<br />
140216 - cut cold showering until i get better. luckily, it seems it’ll be better by tomorrow. the key is lots of water, some steam and warm compress on the sinuses. completely skipped the whole cough and sore throat aspect of my cold. during this time, i’ve been taking warm showers, as opposed to hot. years of habitual hot showers has me fighting the urge to the dial up on the heat. warm showers seem to be as conducive to skin health as cold showers. I also believe that it does a better job at cleansing the body but that could be due to the extended time of the shower (10-15m w/ continuous water flow). i’ll more than likely incorporate a warm shower day into my week as a thorough cleaning exercise. in the end, my skin, though more resilient to breakage or itchiness, feels rough to the touch regardless of cold or warm showers. as a result, I purchased both moisturizer and lotion from an online natural product vender, <a href="http://tropicaltraditions.com/">tropicaltraditions.com</a>, hoping to finally rid myself of dryness and possible the white spot on my face. from this point forward, I’ll be recording less frequently though I’ll be starting a log of continued moisturizer and lotion use.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-33725991968949114932012-03-19T13:44:00.002-07:002012-03-19T13:44:36.673-07:006 Days of Raw Green Smoothies6 days and 2 bags of spinach later, all I can really say is that I see an overall increase in my energy levels. Nails show no signs of smoothening and skin is still dry though not as bad. For example, I have a patch of scaly skin on my right hand. That hasn't changed much, but my left arm which was also pretty dry to the point of getting scaly has started to feel smooth. Light rubbing doesn't break the skin as it once did. Also, my back isn't nearly as itchy as usual.
One neat thing I've learned is that pineapple completely masks the spinach flavor. Thus far, I'm happy with this little experiment and look forward to the next 3 more weeks.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-56329681343819407202012-03-16T08:00:00.000-07:002012-03-16T08:01:36.936-07:00Raw Green Smoothies MorningsI've come to the realization that my skin isn't what it used to be and that if I don't do anything about it, I'll be as scaly as the fish I hate to eat. I don't like the idea of using lotion daily so for the past 3 days, I've started my days with raw green smoothies. The hype behind this is pretty huge: smoothen your nails and clear your patchy skin. There are other ridiculous claims, none of which I care to mention but I'm willing to give it a shot for a few months. I have dry skin, ripples on some of my nails and a bit slow to get started in the morning. I'll try and share the results as well as it's affects on my wallet.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-34483766869757600142011-11-20T00:57:00.001-08:002011-11-20T01:15:44.220-08:00Wasting money<div><p>I should clarify; in my eyes, I'm not wasting money but considering the economy some would definitely call it a waste: I'm investing cash on my home network.</p>
<p>It started off as a simple task; stream media from my computer to my laptop. Initially, I figured I'd go the cheap route and get a wireless N router: no thought, just run out and get wireless N.</p>
<p>What I ended up getting was a single band router with a 100Mb switch. Needless to say, the little improvements I found were quickly tainted by new problems. It was a situation described simply: I rushed into a purchase and didn't get what I needed.</p>
<p>Fast forward a year and a half and now I'm ready to tackle the problem again. Unfortunately, I didn't internalize much of my last experience: all I remembered was that it didn't work like I had hoped.</p>
<p>So now, I figured I wanted something that was top of the line. I was looking at the sleek Asus routers but the limited speed on the 5Ghz frequency bugged me. That and the fact that reports said their new router was on the way that corrected these issues. </p>
<p>A visit to Fry's helped me realize the Netgear N900 accomplished everything I was looking for. Again though, I didn't assess my present network so I wouldn't be able to take advantage of the speeds at all.</p>
<p>Playing around with the router, I found out that my cables didn't even support 1Gb transfer speeds. That bothered me mainly because I had recently purchased a bunch of ethernet cables. Turns out I had bought Cat5 cables. On top of that, my laptop's wireless card didn't even support the 5Ghz frequency so technically I had nothing that would even be running on the wireless N band which I had found out the year before with the other router but had forgotten. Anyway, I ended up spending 60 on new. Cat6e cables, 40 on a wireless card for the laptop and eventually I'll be needing a 1Gb switch as well which will run in the 100s. So, excluding time, I'm already at 300 spent with nothing notably awesome.</p>
<p>I will say though that it was cool installing the card into the laptop. I had to install an antenna myself. I've already clocked double the speed on the laptop, maxing out at 100Mb, the maximum transfer  speed my computer can manage with Cat5. Also, I would have never realized I was using older cables had I not had the N900.</p>
<p>Though the ultimate goal had been to be able to stream movies from my computer to a wireless laptop without jitters, it's now evolved into having a topnotch network so if I need to transfer anything, it'll be blazing fast. Lol, now that I think about it, the N900 probably doesn't have USB3 so there's one lingering bottleneck I hadn't considered. Either way this thing goes, it's been a great learning experience. </p>
</div>bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-77956492329642729892011-09-27T01:39:00.001-07:002019-08-25T08:31:31.454-07:00Abandonment issues<div>
Everyone eventually feels the sting of being abandoned by someone they love for the first time. Mine came at the hand of my own dad during his futile pursuit for "happiness". Suffice it to say he got more than he bargained for. <br />
One thing is certain, until I was directly confronted with this, I never once imagined the level of selfishness needed for someone to do such a thing let alone their affects. You could imagine my surprise when someone nonchalantly summed up the feeling of resentment whom I believe hasn't gone through what I have. I thought either the person has gone through some sort of abandonment or is very in tune with the emotions of others.<br />
The first thought is what interests me. Could a person experience such hatred for selfishness simply through relationships? The answer should jump out at you as a yes: any emotional arousal is still a valid experience no matter how trivial their affects would seem to an outsider. This wasn't an obvious conclusion for me. My personal bias kept me from recognizing it as what the sentence was; a brief intimate moment into their life. I have to remember to keep this in mind more often. There's nothing worse than opening up to someone and having them take your emotions lightly.</div>
bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-30105446860210420832011-03-11T22:38:00.001-08:002011-03-11T22:39:28.287-08:0060h Banana Fast<div><p>So far so good. I've got too much energy for my own good. It must have been all the exercise I had done a few days ago. Either way, I'm shocked at how well I feel although I only ate a few bananas and drank little water. I do feel like eating but not because I'm hungry. The idea of eating is appealing but to be clear, I've eaten a total of 6 bananas in 2 days and have yet to hear a stomach grumble. Makes me wonder...</p>
</div>bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-22225445517659401282011-03-10T16:15:00.000-08:002011-03-10T16:38:38.616-08:0032h Banana Fast :PSo, the second my girlfriend came in, I got the feeling that she wouldn't be very supportive so I decided to switch to the banada fast.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-90455251168449888592011-03-10T12:16:00.000-08:002011-03-10T12:23:46.994-08:00After Activity - 25hI walked to the Pete's Market today and came back with two bags of groceries and a gallon of milk. I'm not getting that shaking feeling I normally get, though, I feel a lingering remnant of it. I hope that I gain some energy back.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-78466808829070599042011-03-10T09:09:00.001-08:002011-03-10T09:17:32.627-08:00Fast 18hIt was hard to get to sleep. I didn't feel hungry but I couldn't sleep. As of right now, I'm pretty hungry but I don't have much a desire to eat. Hope I don't become irritable. <br /><br />Urine: Yellow<br />Breath: Worse than usualbluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-23331614949272838552011-03-09T20:41:00.001-08:002011-03-09T20:46:19.252-08:00Water Fast - 6h InSo, I've decided to go on a fast. I'm not sure whether I will go ahead with the full water fast or go with the banana fast but what I do know is that 6 hours into it is already proving to suck. I can't imagine how it'd feel to be actually starving... I don't know anyone who has.<br /><br />If I decide to bail on the water fast and do a banana fast, than my banana fast started yesterday at 11p, or 1d. We'll see how this goes.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-73505791512946061202010-10-29T12:51:00.001-07:002013-01-27T22:50:18.165-08:00Tidying up a rug<p dir="ltr">So a good friend of mine gave/lent me a rug. I should mention I've never owned a rug and my parents never owned a rugged (well late into the divorce, anyway). Keeping a rug clean without the help of a vacuum made me wonder how I'd go about doing it. What's most worrisome is that I'm the type of person that learns from their mistakes which applied to my leather couch meant allowing it to fall into ruin.</p>
<p dir="ltr">Anyway, I initially avoided using my broom to clean the rug since it's tips were shredded; I imagined it would be abrasive and give it a fuzzy look. Although, I still think this may be the case, the rug eventually needed to be tidied up so I grabbed the broom anyway. </p>
<p dir="ltr">Without thought, I started at the edges but soon realized I had to work double this way. So I stopped, applied common sense, and decided to start from the middle and work to the edges. After a few seconds, I realized that 3 sweeps for roughly each square foot was enough to get the majority of crap off the surface. </p>
<p dir="ltr">After this systemic approach, I finished in no time and the rug looked great. I plan on taking it out in the spring and beating the crap out of it with a tennis racket. I'll post an update if the rug starts looking like crap.</p>
<p dir="ltr">UPDATE: 1-27-13<br>
Though the broom did a decent job, I ended up buying a small vacuum to take on the job. All I know is that a broom could take off so much dust. The vacuum did a much better job though the edges of the rug are starting to look a bit frayed.</p>
bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-78215625556333487252010-10-29T12:50:00.002-07:002010-10-29T12:51:09.347-07:00SquareUp dongle arrived!Initial testing was promising. Now to test ppl's reactions to it.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-16973564830704911862010-10-20T12:34:00.000-07:002010-10-20T12:39:12.094-07:00New CuriositySo Apple had a keynote today. Unlike their last keynote, this one wasn't a direct response to competition. They took this opportunity to show the world how they are evolving their flagship OS to survive the rise of their mobile products. It was great to see and experience. I'm glad I watched it as I believe it will motivate the programming world and challenge them to built a newer, better programs with usability in mind.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-65100357638547868572010-08-05T09:51:00.000-07:002010-08-05T09:52:31.086-07:00FigsTold the old man I was interested in trying figs and he found me some. They're actually pretty good. This just stands as a little reminder that "The best time for Figs is November through January". Because I know I'll forget.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-16253738770692835732010-07-30T10:00:00.000-07:002010-07-30T10:03:24.175-07:00eBooksI've been open to giving them a shot for a while but now that I've dipped my toes into the Amazon Kindle market place I've realized how nice it is. Gone is the daunting page numbers; replaced with percentages. It's much nicer, more modern.<br /><br />The one thing I do miss is the feeling of a chapter and being able to flip back and forth as I wish. That hasn't been easy to replicate in my experience with eBooks. Maybe I should start using bookmarks more often when I feel lost or confused.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-67338597293085304672010-07-21T14:30:00.000-07:002010-07-21T14:31:43.155-07:00WilbyQWilbyQ is going to take off soon. I'm going to begin advertising in the Northwest suburbs. Here goes nothing!bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-37987535344004571092010-06-22T15:34:00.001-07:002010-06-22T15:35:00.165-07:00Google CL still lacks some featuresStill, I think it's pretty cool. (via terminal)bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-16170580823317560862010-04-30T14:00:00.001-07:002010-04-30T14:09:37.101-07:00Game GripperWhen I first saw Game Gripper, I knew I'd like it but I didn't think I'd love it! It arrived this morning and at first glance it wasn't what I thought it'd be. You see, it's made out of rubber. I had this expectation that it'd be an attachment that would click on; it'd be made of some kind of hard plastic. But rubber holds in place well so it works.<br /><br />The design is pretty good too. When you place it over the phone, you'll notice that it's flush on the top and bottom. The sides stick out a bit and don't hug the Droid's body perfectly but it's a necessary evil: how else would you attach it?<br /><br />The first game I tried out was my absolute favorite game on the Genesis: The original X-Men. In about 10 minutes, I was already in Mojo's level with Nightcrawler, of course. The controls are perfect although the pad did slip from time to time. Either way, it doesn't matter, it's still a great experience.<br /><br />But as with everything in life, I did find one flaw and that's with the button scheme. I don't understand why he choose to add 4 buttons in the middle. At no point while playing X-Men did I feel the urge to go hunting for them. But what saddens me the most is that Street Fighter will not be playable with these controls. SNK games will be great if Neo-Geo Pocket is ever released but Capcom fans are in for a disappointment. I really wish the designer would have would have looked more into the traditional Sega button scheme. On the bright side, there are tons of other games you can play to relive those childhood memories so don't this oversight keep you from buying one.<br /><br />Grade: A+<br /><br />Note to Droid Users: This is a must have!bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-73953706085765239162010-04-05T09:02:00.000-07:002010-04-05T09:28:14.248-07:00OSX - Substituted Fonts IssueSo a few days ago, some of my fonts were substituted for another font. I probably wouldn't have noticed the problem if it hadn't been for the fact that the font was hideous and properly called "ugly font". I should mention that researching the problem online didn't guide me to a reasonable solution. Maybe it was my inability to articulate the problem since I didn't know what was actually wrong but every guide I was finding tried to sell me or have me download some font app. <br /><br />Anyway, I was able to figure out the font's name by looking through my fonts. I placed the font folder on the Dock and quickly scanned the fonts using the grid view. I've found this easy to find the font I'm looking for doing this rather than use the Font Book application. Equipped with the fonts name, I opened Font Book and searched for "Ugly Font". I quickly found the font along with a warning message. It prompted me to use the "Resolve Duplicates" tool to correct duplication issues my font system is facing. Using help, it directed me to the option; Edit > Resolve Duplicates. I quickly realized that "Select duplicated fonts" was only selecting one font at a time and resolving these fonts would take forever. So a quick solution I found was to choose "All Fonts" from Collection, then literally selected all fonts using Apple key + a, then again click edit and choose "Select duplicated fonts". This time around, it will narrow your selection to all the fonts that need to be resolved. Finally, click "Resolve Duplicates" and your system should now be fixed.<br /><br />To see the fix, simply restart the application you're using or just restart the computer.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-71716424138389641942010-03-04T20:35:00.001-08:002010-03-05T08:24:35.538-08:00Water FastingSo, I recently began reading "The Fasting Cure" by Upton Sinclair, a enlightened Bernarr MacFadden disciple, filled with stories that appeal to the desperately ill. It's about water fasting and for some reason, it convinced me. <br /><br />Water fasting is the act of drinking nothing but water. No food is to be ingested. The fast, once gone for more than 3 days, begins to cleanse the organs and purge the body of disease and infection. Once the body switches to this "survival" is when true fasting begins. <br /><br />I believe in the notion of a "survival" mode is triggered in the absence of food. It's intriguing and and simply mind blowing to think that the body can adjust so quickly. Unfortunately, I work so my aim isn't as far reaching as water fasting practitioners would set for themselves but this is my first time so I think I can slide.<br /><br />The recover period should take only 2 days of a low cal diet after which I'll switch to a high nutrient milk diet, although, I'm betting I'll be switching to juice if the milk upsets me as it usually does.<br /><br /><strike>Anyway, today I've jumped from wanting to fast to actually fasting. I'll start on midnight and hope for the best.</strike><br /><br />*Edit* I decided that I was rushing into the fast without properly preparing for it nor the diet that would follow. I'm falling back on my April plan and will continue to post more information on fasting in this post.<br /><br />------------------------------------------------------------bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-720395512326384972010-02-16T07:31:00.000-08:002010-02-16T10:57:32.682-08:00Re: Top 10 Reasons Why Mac SucksOver at <a href="http://collegetimes.us">collegetimes.us</a>, they had a post on the <a href="http://collegetimes.us/top-10-reasons-why-mac-sucks/">Top 10 Reasons Why Mac Sucks</a>. Below the are the original statements from collegetimes.us in bold followed by my response. If you were thinking of buying a Mac or PC, these answer might help you weed out some of the bullshit "facts" there are out there on the Mac. And for the record, the concept of Windows on a computer started at Xerox.<br /><br />1. <b>The one and only business model for Apple is narcissism.</b> Narcissism, maybe true, but if this were the case the Mac would have less features out of the box but that's not true. Out of the box, you have real compilers and a full blown development environment without even having to go on the internet.<br /><br />2. <b>Macs are ridiculously overpriced.</b> Macs also have high resale value.<br /><br />3. <b>Macs regularly ignore mainstream industry trends.</b> Apple has been renown for it's proprietary nature just like Sony. The only difference is that recently, Apple as began licensing it's proprietary I/O.<br /><br />4. <b>Mac OS X is merely a locked down version of open-source Linux.</b> If you consider a locked down interface "locked down" than you're right but considering you can do just about anything without an interface this point is moot. But even then, Apple support macros, something Windows hasn't.<br /><br />5. <b>There is no right-f*cking-click!</b> There is a right click noob.<br /><br />6. <b>The Dock, and general screen layout, is retarded. (Followed by 8 bulletpoints)</b> All weak points:<br /><br /> ⁃ Look at the Calendar icon<br /> ⁃ If you married the Dock and (Program) Expose you'd have the Win7 taskbar. Minimize isn't necessary because of Expose and you can visual see what's minimized on the right. <br /> ⁃ X closes the window, not the application. Command + Q is you want to (q)it. This coming from the user that presses alt + F4…<br /> ⁃ It's Command + Tab and Command + tilde on OSX.<br /> ⁃ Maximize is a little weird, it only maximizes as much as is required. I suppose this is because it's trying to stay true to the windows concept but it does help for multitasking as does Growl.<br /> ⁃ You can hit space bar to preview them easier and at least OSX can open 100 windows without crashing.<br /> ⁃ This is probably why Macs come with high resolutions and don't allow you to fully maximize windows easily.<br /> ⁃ etc? Again, weak points.<br /><br />7. <b>“It just… doesn’t work.”</b> Macs do freeze, they're not perfect, but it's usually due to poorly written code (Firefox) or processor intensive apps (Virtual machines). I have yet to encounter a virus.<br /><br />8. <b>Software and hardware options for Mac are lame, or slim at best.</b> Mail does the job and does it well; iPhoto, meh, I use Picasa; rather use VLC than Quicktime. Dictionary rocks, notes is cool, iCal is great with Google Caldendar, iTunes… nvm, Xcode is cool, Terminal is great, TextEdit is sweet, iChat does the job, and lastly, I prefer Google Contacts over Address Book. As for 3rd party apps, I feel that the desktop era of 100+ apps is coming to an end. I only use simple apps for most of my tasks and while I do many of them on the PC, that's only because I don't want to relearn how to do it on Mac. But I do use Coda for web dev and Xcode for some programming tasks. But lately I've been using Vi so go figure :P<br /><br />9. <b>Gaming, and graphics in general, suck on Macs.</b> Gaming on non-consoles is dying in general. All you damn PC pirates are destroying the industry.<br /><br />10. <b>Macs are not flexible or customizable.</b> Macros and special functions exist that allow minor customizations. The Mac interface is pretty efficient once you learn how to use it and beautiful right from the beginning. I'm sure that's the reason no apps for customizing the Dock exist.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-31800425138923301782010-01-27T10:01:00.000-08:002010-01-27T10:26:15.070-08:00LibXML, LibXSLT and WindowsIf you're working on any other OS and used to things just working, you'll be rudely reminded why you're not using Windows when you try and install modules using CPAN. I had no luck doing anything on the first try.<br /><br />When I tried using CPAN, I realized I needed to install a C compiler. <br />perl -MCPAN -e shell<br /><br />Fine, done. Then I tried using CPAN to install Mechanize. Worked, great! Next, LibXML. <br />*screech!<br /><br />Lots of errors with this module. A few google searches later I found out about PPM, the Perl Package Manager. It's CPAN with a GUI! No luck using it at first. Googled some more and found I had to add a few repositories:<br />ppm repo add http://www.bribes.org/perl/ppm<br />ppm repo add http://trouchelle.com/ppm10/<br />ppm repo add http://cpan.uwinnipeg.ca/PPMPackages/10xx/<br /><br />Probably more than I needed but whatever. I used the GUI to find what I needed and...<br />done. <br /><br />Hope this was helpful.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-76117654828743931712009-12-18T09:03:00.000-08:002009-12-18T09:25:53.724-08:00Netflix PS3 Custom Cover ArtOver the next couple of days, I'll be posting cover art for the Netflix disc on the PS3 for the internet to judge. I'm open to suggestions and templates. In fact, that's why I'm posting this to begin with; I'm hoping people stumbling on this post will add comments and suggestions, get the ball rolling if you will. <br /><br />At the moment, I don't have an internet connection at home but it'll be up by Saturday. I've already started on this so if you're reading this, please bookmark this page and check back next week for a preview.<br /><br />Here's a great example:<br />From <a href="http://www.thecoverproject.ne">www.thecoverproject.ne</a><br /><a target="_new" href="http://www.thecoverproject.net/view.php?cover_id=10288"><img src="http://img81.imageshack.us/img81/8177/ps3netflixthumb.jpg" alt="Image Hosted by ImageShack.us"/></a><br /><br />Too bad the creator was sloppy with the little details.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-72092814147031213692009-11-09T11:06:00.000-08:002009-11-09T11:21:22.613-08:00Dropping MyBrute.comA few old <a href='www.facebook.com'>Facebook</a> friends turned me onto <a href='www.mybrute.com'>MyBrute</a>, a goofy, totally random fighting game that last only a few seconds long and is totally random. The main problem I had with it was that it took way to long to gain levels. <br /><br />Anyway, I tried it again after dropping it for a month or two and I noticed that you can't rewatch matches anymore! I had always enjoyed rewatching them, some matches came down to the wire. I'm not totally sure if this was a fluke or a new trend but either way, I'm done with MyBrute. Goodbye MyBrute! I'd like to say it was fun but it was more annoying than anything else.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2901510829285762220.post-15450970643777305412009-11-08T16:16:00.000-08:002009-11-09T11:55:30.374-08:00Review - The Motorola Droid w/ Android 2.0First, some specs:<br /><div style='font-size:.7em;line-height:1.1em'><br />- Carrier: Verizon<br />- Available: October 30th 2009<br />- Networks: CDMA dual band (800/1900 MHz); CDMA2000 1xRTT/1xEV-DO rev.0/1xEV-DO rev.A<br />- Display: 3.7-inch screen with 854×480 (16:9 widescreen) capacitive touchscreen<br />- Camera: 5 megapixel camera with autofocus and LED flash and video recording<br />- Operating system: Google Android 2.0 OS<br />- Input: QWERTY keyboard, touchscreen<br />- CPU: 600 MHz ARM Cortex A8 Processor<br />- Memory: 256 MB RAM / 512 MB ROM<br />- Memory card: microSD/microSDHC<br />- Connectivity: GPS, Wi-Fi, 3.5mm HeadPhone Jack<br />- Misc: AMR-NB/WB, MP3, PCM / WAV, AAC, AAC +, eAAC +, WMA<br />- Media: MPEG-4, H263, H264, WMV<br />- Form factor:<br />- Battery: 1400mAh Li-ion<br />- Talk Time: 420 minutes<br />- Standby Time: 450 hours<br />- Dimensions: 60.00 x 115.80 x 13.70 mm<br />- Weight: 169g<br /></div><br /><a href='http://www.new-cell-phones.org/motorola-droid-specs.html'>citation</a><br /><br />A lot of hype and a few questionable commercials later, the Motorola Droid for the Verizon network has been released. To my dismay, I do not receive a strong reception in the rear half of my apartment. Both Sprint and my former carrier, T-Mobile, have great reception here. So right away, that was a downer. But, aside from that, the new features Android 2.0 brings are great. The Droid's headliners are Google Navigation and it's overall speed. <br /><br />Google Maps had been, for quite a while, not considered a true competitor to standalone GPS units. With Google Navigation, this all changes. Turn-by-turn direction has been dead on so far and it's beautiful. Although, I've yet to test it exhaustively, my first glimpse of it in action showed a lot of promise. <br /><br />Also, many have touted the Android OS as a multitasking beast but the G1 proved to be slow. That said, it was by no means perfect but it was good enough handset to gain a strong following of users and developers. The second generation Android phone, the Droid, on the other hand, handles anything you through at it with ease. Although, not considered the successor to the G1, it's related to the G1. These loose ties between new phone models and successors makes me if Apple might be regretting being the sole manufacturer and distributor of the iPhone. <br /><br />With all the Android phones out there, it's up to the consumer to decide which one is best for them. With Apple, the consumer needs to decide if now is good time to buy or, if another newer version is around the corner, wait. This tends to create mixed emotions when people buy Apple's latest and greatest only to find out the following morning that what's they've bought has already been made obsolete.<br /><br />In closing, the Droid has definitely won my approval, hands down. I'm just waiting to get my hands on some accessories now so I can complete the Droid experience.bluSCALE4http://www.blogger.com/profile/18185612754950229837noreply@blogger.com