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Podcast Extravaganza: Feb 2010 Edition

// February 4th, 2010 // View Comments // Entertainment, News, Technology

So back in 2008 the first true entry I ever made on the site was a breakdown of all the podcasts I was listening to at the time. My commute is fairly short so I only have about a half hour each day to listen, so I don’t both with audiobooks or lengthier podcasts.  Included with each blurb is a link to their iTunes subscription page and/or RSS feed.  Homepages can be found by clicking the images.  It’s been two years since then so I decided I’d revisit the subject.  Here’s what I’m currently listening to:

Returning from ‘08 is one of my favorites, You Look Nice Today: A Journal of Emotional Hygiene.  A hilarious and absurd bit of comedy from the brilliant minds of Merlin Mann, Scott Simpson, and Adam Lisagor, YLNT is an ever evolving hodgepodge of weirdness.  In one episode they’ll be developing a brand new dance move, and reminiscing about the poor fashion choices of their youth.  Well worth listening to. iTunes / RSS

Another one that’s withstood the test of time is This American Life, a creation of WBEZ Chicago, TAL has host Ira Glass and his team of producers, reporters, and creative people telling stories that make America great.  They run the gamut from funny and sincere, to poignant and thought-provoking, to heartbreakingly tragic or just plain outrageous.  Best of all, it’s entirely true. iTunes / RSS

TWIG a.k.a. This Week In Google is part of Leo Laporte’s “network” of webcasts and podcasts that discuss various aspects of tech in society.  Specifically hosts Leo Laporte, Jeff Jarvis, and Gina Trapani spend time digging up rumors, interviews, and insight into cloud technologies and news about the Big G.  A new add. iTunes / Site

Jordan, Jesse, Go! is a more subdued cousin to You Look Nice Today.  Hosted by Jordan “Boy Detective” Morris and Jesse “America’s Radio Sweetheart” Thorn, JJG! is a spiritual successor to their old college version of the very successful Sound of Young America.  Guests become entangled with Jordan and Jesse’s bizarre improvisations and their strong Internet community leads to call-ins describing ‘momentous occasions’ such as witnessing roller-blading goth kids, as well as special listener activities and projects. iTunes / RSS

I hope you’ve enjoyed, and I highly recommend giving each of these a chance, they’re well worth the time.  You may laugh or learn something new, and who couldn’t use more of both?

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PROJECT: BetterMe

// February 3rd, 2010 // View Comments // Health, Rants, Thoughts

  There’s a saying, that if you don’t use it, you lose it.  More and more I fear this is becoming true for myself.  My job isn’t particularly satisfying mentally; most of it is computer gruntwork, and there is definitely no room for creativity in it.  To prevent my creativity glands from completely shriveling and falling off (in a suitably cartoonish fashion) I’ve been working on my own personal project to write things, create things, and publish them to my little cubbyholes on the internet.

As some have noticed (hi Adam) I’ve been writing on dancatchpole.com every day the last few days.  My goal is to write *something* every day, at least four hundred words. That’s 2.78 tweets a day [it has come to my attention that I’m retarded and words =/= characters] I think it’s a modest but achievable goal, and we’ll see how that goes before upping the required wordcount.  In addition, on smarthero.tumblr.com I’m planning to post one photo that I’ve taken, be it on my camera or my phone, and posting one interesting link to a person or place, every day, and hell, why not, one interesting video. In addition, I’ve begun a new fitness program to start feeling a bit better about the state of my body.

Modest goals, yes, but my glands, they are underdeveloped, let me ease into it.  Lately I’ve just had the feeling that I’m not doing *enough,* not contributing anything and slowly becoming this amorphous, uninteresting grey blob of a person.  So yes I’m kind of cheating for today’s entry by using it to explain what this is and why I’m doing it, but so what, it’s my damn space and I’ll do with it what I please. 

  To my tiny troupe of readers, I may need a little help.  Encouragement is nice.  So is a bit of scolding, too, if necessary.  If you don’t see anything here worth reading, we’re both wasting our time.  Criticize, comment, and cajole me.  Kick me in my metaphorical butt if you don’t see anything posted by ten o’clock eastern time each evening.  Keep me honest.  It’s a work in progress so it may evolve or change over time, we’ll have to see.  I apologize for rambling but I wanted to get all of this down while it was fresh in my mind.  I promise it will get better, at least, in theory.  I’ve already got a good idea for tomorrow’s entry already and this one is just about wrapped up.

Word Count: 403

iPad

// February 2nd, 2010 // View Comments // Uncategorized

Since last week everyone with a keyboard has thrown in their two cents about Apple’s newest device, the (poorly named in my opinion) Apple iPad. A tablet computer built to be ‘better than an iPhone and better than a laptop.’

Many have called it a ‘jumbo iPod Touch’ and they’re not far off. Built on the iPhone OS, the iPad really does have some impressive features and what it represents is far more important than it’s current form.

I’m a geek. I know computers pretty well. I’ve fiddled with multiple operating systems, learned to dig through Explorer windows, folders, and libraries to find files, jumped through hoops and at times inflicted upon myself headaches unparalleled trying just make things work *and* look nice.

The iPad is not a tinkerer’s machine (unless [until] you can jailbreak it, then it’s another story.) It’s meant to be a easy, no nonsense way to write emails, check out videos, listen to your music, and browse the web for the Average Joe, who know nothing of command lines or even Start buttons (yes, they’re out there, I work with them.) Computer users who don’t know a program exists on their PC unless there’s a shortcut right on the desktop. There are big, clearly labeled buttons to explain what things do on the iPad, and when you open them, they open full-screen! No managing windows or minimizing or searching the taskbar, no setup required. I think there’s definitely a place for such a device in people’s lives. I think the iPad is going to be a huge hit with baby boomers. No more haranguing their children and grandchildren into teaching them to use a computer; it’ll just come naturally.

Recently I watched a clip on youtube where someone had cut up the keynote last week into just the adjectives. Simple. Easy. Beautiful. That’s what Apple envisions as the future of personal computing. I can’t say I disagree, so long as there’s still something around to tinker with, be it a PC, or an Android device. I’m looking forward very intently to the next iteration of the iPad, or a tablet device running Chrome OS or Android. Apple has made a bold move heading down this path, hopefully others will follow.

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HACKINTOSH

// February 1st, 2010 // View Comments // Technology

I’ve had my Dell Mini 9 netbook for about a year now, and I’m happy to say I’m still using it off and on, though less so due to a certain magical phone.  As of late it’s been a sort of test machine for trying out different operating systems and tinkering.  Jolicloud was my primarly OS on my Mini 9 for a long time, as it was free and well supported. Recently, however, I wanted to try something different, something I don’t have much experience with:  OSX.  Until this weekend the most experience I had with Apple’s operating system was either with the iPhone 3GS or my battered old iPod Video.  Being the curious sort, I wanted to fiddle with it, and as Gizmodo discovered, the Dell Mini 9 is a near-perfect match for OSX, creating a small, lightweight ‘hackintosh’ netbook.

After checking out a few guides and how-tos, I enlisted the help of Phil.  Here’s what I needed to get the job done:

• A computer already running OSX: easier than handling any weirdness or needing an external DVD drive, enterprising techs cobbled together a very helpful program to copy the install DVD to a flash drive
• A Dell Mini 9 (or 10v) you can score the Mini 9 on Dell’s Outlet site refurbished for >$300, look around for one that suits your needs.  The Mini 10v is a slightly larger model with a few more bells and whistles and a crisper screen.

  

• flash drive (~8GB): needs to have a decent capacity to handle all the data being moved over to it

  

• A retail copy of OSX: It’s only $30 and you might as well support Apple, it will at least ease some of the guilt for breaking/bending the EULA

  

• Optional (but recommended): 2GB of RAM for the Mini 9, a 8-cell battery, as well as at least a 16GB HD, though bigger is better.  I’ve got a 64GB SSD installed in mine and it set me back ~$200. They’re even cheaper these days.

The install was fairly painless.  The Netbook BootMaker app made the process as easy as clicking and dragging the disk image to the app, pointing it to the flash drive, and waiting. Twenty minutes later the flash drive had OSX on it, ready to pop into my Mini 9.  After a reformat and partition-creation process the install took about an hour or so; thankfully I remembered to bring my power cord, as the stock battery on the Mini 9 isn’t working so hot these days. Boot time is about the same as Jolicloud or Windows XP, around a minute, which isn’t terrible, and I can run multiple apps simultaneously without any slowdown.
After a few more steps I had OSX installed on my Mini 9.  It’s been an interesting experience so far.  I really, really like the unified aesthetic of both the system apps as well as the third-party programs I’ve installed.  If I had one gripe it would be about the keyboard of the Mini 9.

The keyboard, to put it bluntly, is only for dainty-fingered folk such as myself, with a lilliputian layout and some odd descions as to where to put the quotation key, as well as a tiny Alt key, and miniature Shift keys.  As such using some keyboard shortcuts like CMD+C and CMD+V take some getting used to.

Alt-Tabbing doesn’t work the same as Windows, which takes some getting used to.  If an app is taking up the full screen and you Alt-Tab to another, it won’t necessarily bring it’s windows into focus.  I suppose it makes sense from one perspective, perhaps if you needed to pull information or content from the first app into the second, but it’s still a bit odd.  The Exposé corners helps to alleviate this, though.  Each corner of the screen acts as a hotspot for different Exposé actions, like displaying all open windows, hiding all and displaying the desktop as well as a few other features.
So, for under the same price as an iPad you get a fully functional version of OSX Snow Leopard in a solid, portable device.  Who says netbooks aren’t good at anything?

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