Happy iPad Eve everyone. Tomorrow the iPad 3 comes out. Wait that isn't right. Let me try again. Tomorrow the iPad HD comes out. That still doesn't feel right. Hang on, I'll get it. Tomorrow the new iPad comes out...yeah that sounds about right. Congratulations Apple, you actually managed to simplify things even more. Before I give my thoughts on the new iPad let me just share my thoughts on the name new iPad. This has to be roughly what Apple was thinking: When people go to the store they want to get in, get their iPad, and run for the hills. How many people want to spend the time remembering iPad 2 and iPad 3 and not just being able to say 'I want the new iPad'. Well now, thanks to us you can!
That being said, the iPad page over at the Apple website lists the new features and in all honest their really aren't many of them. The first one added in is the retina display which makes everything a bit sharper. This may be the best possible part of the upgrade in my opinion because now the iPad can play video in 1080p. The innards of the iPad have also been improved so that the device now has quad-core graphics. There is a 5MP iSight camera that can record 1080p video, 4G LTE, and the addition of dictation software.
Out of all of those updates to the iPad I can't say it makes it quite an enticing buy for me. I got the iPad 2 in the last couple of months and I have been very happy with it's performance, the picture is clear, it's great for watching video and for the tasks I do. That being said if you don't have an iPad already I think the third iteration of the iPad is a great jumping off point. If you have an iPad 2 that still works just fine, I'd hold off on the upgrade until it's really worth doing.
As far as the 4G LTE goes that only effects a small group of iPad users anyway. Think about it: the iPad is sold in a wifi only model as well as a model that contains cellular data. If you don't plan on getting an iPad with cellular data anyway (seeing as it does cost a hundred bucks more) then that doesn't even begin to be something that's going to drive someone to want to upgrade. As I've said before, if you have a perfectly good iPad 2 it's probably best to just stay put. If, however, you are still running the original iPad on a day to day basis, now would definetly be a good time to trade up.
What are your thoughts on the new iPad? Sound off below.
-Dan
As an extra for you all here is a video of what's on my iPad 2:
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Monday, March 12, 2012
AT&T Throttling "Unlimited" Users
It is with a heavy heart that I announce that after two years of great service and lots of great memories-- countless photos, endless videos, and hours of Pandora streaming while gaming-- I am trading in my iPhone 3GS on the AT&T network for an Android device on the Sprint network. Never fear though: my iPad isn't going anywhere and I will still keep my 3GS around for App running, testing and reviewing, although now I am expanding my horizons. Maybe I should explain why though:
Unless you have been living under a rock the last few months you probably heard AT&T was throttling users that had an unlimited data plan. Turns out doing something like that usually doesn't sit well with the customers who got grandfathered in to the unlimited data plans, like myself. One guy even went as far as to sue AT&T and he won! AT&T plans appeal the decision although I get this sinking feeling they won't be able to actually win said appeal. On March 1st, tech sites ran the news that AT&T set the official policy out for who will be throttled if you are a subscriber of the unlimited data plan.
Below is the exact text from the AT&T page on the matter and here is the link if you wish to read it yourself: click here.
Forgive me, but I do take an issue to this. I understand that a lot of you have the tiered data plans already so this doesn't effect you while others of you may just not use more than 3GB of data in a given billing cycle on your unlimited plan. Here's the thing: 3GB is the exact same amount of data that AT&T offers in their tiered data system and yet they also say that 3GB if you have an unlimited data plan is excessive. Let's take a look at the wording of the contract from 2007 that talks about data throttling.
"AT&T reserves the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network..."
The vibe I am getting from that is this: for AT&T to throttle your usage YOU need to be using EXCESSIVE data that slows the network for everyone. Just because AT&T has a network with more users than it can handle doesn't mean that throttling it's users is the way to handle the situation. Based on this GottaBeMobile article Verizon is a little less crazy in the way they choose to throttle their users, which makes more sense. If AT&T were to adopt this policy I would still be sticking around, and switching to Sprint in my own time when I have the money for a 32 GB iPhone 4s. With the new throttling policies though I am willing to take a hit and switch to an Android device, as Sprint knows how to treat their customers. I'll never understand how a company can call 3GB excessive and yet offer a plan on tiered data with 5GB.
Have you been effected by AT&T throttling? Do you plan to file a lawsuit? Do you know any good Sprint Android phones that aren't more than about 100 bucks with a 2 year agreement? Sound off in the comments below.
-Dan
Unless you have been living under a rock the last few months you probably heard AT&T was throttling users that had an unlimited data plan. Turns out doing something like that usually doesn't sit well with the customers who got grandfathered in to the unlimited data plans, like myself. One guy even went as far as to sue AT&T and he won! AT&T plans appeal the decision although I get this sinking feeling they won't be able to actually win said appeal. On March 1st, tech sites ran the news that AT&T set the official policy out for who will be throttled if you are a subscriber of the unlimited data plan.
Below is the exact text from the AT&T page on the matter and here is the link if you wish to read it yourself: click here.
If you have a smartphone that works on our 3G or 4G network and still have an unlimited data plan,
- You'll receive a text message when your usage approaches 3GB in one billing cycle.
- Each time you use 3GB or more in a billing cycle, your data speeds will be reduced for the rest of that billing cycle and then go back to normal.
- The next time you exceed that usage level, your speeds will be reduced without another text message reminder.
If you have a 4G LTE smartphone and still have an unlimited data plan,the same process applies at 5GB of data usage, instead of 3GB.You'll still be able to use as much data as you want. That won't change.Only your data throughput speed will change if you use 3GB or more in one billing cycle on a 3G or 4G smartphone or 5GB or more on a 4G LTE smartphone.
Forgive me, but I do take an issue to this. I understand that a lot of you have the tiered data plans already so this doesn't effect you while others of you may just not use more than 3GB of data in a given billing cycle on your unlimited plan. Here's the thing: 3GB is the exact same amount of data that AT&T offers in their tiered data system and yet they also say that 3GB if you have an unlimited data plan is excessive. Let's take a look at the wording of the contract from 2007 that talks about data throttling.
"AT&T reserves the right to (i) limit throughput or amount of data transferred, deny Service and/or terminate Service, without notice, to anyone it believes is using the Service in any manner prohibited above or whose usage adversely impacts its wireless network or service levels or hinders access to its wireless network..."
The vibe I am getting from that is this: for AT&T to throttle your usage YOU need to be using EXCESSIVE data that slows the network for everyone. Just because AT&T has a network with more users than it can handle doesn't mean that throttling it's users is the way to handle the situation. Based on this GottaBeMobile article Verizon is a little less crazy in the way they choose to throttle their users, which makes more sense. If AT&T were to adopt this policy I would still be sticking around, and switching to Sprint in my own time when I have the money for a 32 GB iPhone 4s. With the new throttling policies though I am willing to take a hit and switch to an Android device, as Sprint knows how to treat their customers. I'll never understand how a company can call 3GB excessive and yet offer a plan on tiered data with 5GB.
Have you been effected by AT&T throttling? Do you plan to file a lawsuit? Do you know any good Sprint Android phones that aren't more than about 100 bucks with a 2 year agreement? Sound off in the comments below.
-Dan
Thursday, March 8, 2012
Is Freemium Gaming the Way of the Future
Hello All,
I just want to start this off by saying I am sorry that there was no Wednesday post. It was my first day at a new job so that pretty much consumed my entire day and then Thursday was my lazy day. It's actually a good thing that I had work on Wednesday though, because I was having a chat with someone and they mentioned to me that they play a game on Facebook called "Marvel Avengers Alliance". I just want to get this out of the way now: I generally dislike Facebook as a gaming platform because most of the games involve askingharassing your friends to play the games so you gain items and experience and what not. I believe FarmVille is the tool of the devil used to help give people technology addictions (although to see what kind of a hypocrite I am, I play "Zombie Farm" and "Smurfs Village" on my iPad and iPhone on a regular basis although that's a story for another day).
Anyway, Wednesday night I decided to look into this particular game and give it a try. Turns out the game isn't half bad. When I did my research on the game it was described as a "freemium" game. This is a term that has been thrown around for quite a while. The most prominent example of freemium is games like FarmVille, as the game itself is free but there is premium content you can purchase to make the game move faster and gain upgrades. This got me thinking, could freemium gaming be the way of the future?
The short answer is maybe. You see, to me it seems freemium games seem to be mostly restricted to games like "FarmVille", "Zombie Farm", "Smurf Village", and the new EA title "The Simpson's: Tapped Out" which is currently out of the App Store due to insufferable server capabilities. Granted, not all freemium games are like that. One company in particular, Nexon, hit the nail on the head in my opinion. They offer games across a plethora of genres, from First Person Shooters (Combat Arms, Sudden Attack) to Action, RPG, or Strategy. While Nexon technically bills their games as free to play, they are included in my definition of freemium. You get the game for free and then have the option to purchase additional content.
In order for this to really be a part of the future of gaming though, we need to see a few major changes come quick. First and foremost, we need to see a major developer get behind this. EA counts, but I think we might even be able to get bigger than that if we try hard enough. Second, and most important, we need an actual effort from the company making the game. Do me a favor: go click on the link for Combat Arms, install the game, and play it. That's a hell of a multiplayer first person shooter that is costing you NOTHING to play. Just imagine if games for next gen consoles were made with the quality that pay games are at now, and then offered as a freemium model, instead of the current robbery model.
In short, I think freemium could be a way of the futures if more developers shy away from the current farm trend of freemium games. What are your thoughts on freemium? Do you think it is a good business model for the gaming industry or do you think it's a waste of time? What games would you like to see as freemium? Sound off in the comments below.
Until Next Time,
-Dan
I just want to start this off by saying I am sorry that there was no Wednesday post. It was my first day at a new job so that pretty much consumed my entire day and then Thursday was my lazy day. It's actually a good thing that I had work on Wednesday though, because I was having a chat with someone and they mentioned to me that they play a game on Facebook called "Marvel Avengers Alliance". I just want to get this out of the way now: I generally dislike Facebook as a gaming platform because most of the games involve asking
Anyway, Wednesday night I decided to look into this particular game and give it a try. Turns out the game isn't half bad. When I did my research on the game it was described as a "freemium" game. This is a term that has been thrown around for quite a while. The most prominent example of freemium is games like FarmVille, as the game itself is free but there is premium content you can purchase to make the game move faster and gain upgrades. This got me thinking, could freemium gaming be the way of the future?
The short answer is maybe. You see, to me it seems freemium games seem to be mostly restricted to games like "FarmVille", "Zombie Farm", "Smurf Village", and the new EA title "The Simpson's: Tapped Out" which is currently out of the App Store due to insufferable server capabilities. Granted, not all freemium games are like that. One company in particular, Nexon, hit the nail on the head in my opinion. They offer games across a plethora of genres, from First Person Shooters (Combat Arms, Sudden Attack) to Action, RPG, or Strategy. While Nexon technically bills their games as free to play, they are included in my definition of freemium. You get the game for free and then have the option to purchase additional content.
In order for this to really be a part of the future of gaming though, we need to see a few major changes come quick. First and foremost, we need to see a major developer get behind this. EA counts, but I think we might even be able to get bigger than that if we try hard enough. Second, and most important, we need an actual effort from the company making the game. Do me a favor: go click on the link for Combat Arms, install the game, and play it. That's a hell of a multiplayer first person shooter that is costing you NOTHING to play. Just imagine if games for next gen consoles were made with the quality that pay games are at now, and then offered as a freemium model, instead of the current robbery model.
In short, I think freemium could be a way of the futures if more developers shy away from the current farm trend of freemium games. What are your thoughts on freemium? Do you think it is a good business model for the gaming industry or do you think it's a waste of time? What games would you like to see as freemium? Sound off in the comments below.
Until Next Time,
-Dan
Monday, March 5, 2012
"The Walking Dead" Thoughts
Consider this sentence a spoiler alert. In this post I will be spoiling stuff so if you don't want the series ruined for you, read it after you watch the newest episode.
First off I just want to say that the newest episode of "The Walking Dead" entitled "Judge, Jury, and Executioner" is, to me, the biggest tear jerker I have seen thus far. Instead of just talking about the episode like every other site on the web though, I thought that I would use this opportunity to tell my story of how I came to see TWD in the first place and what my thoughts are on some of the current characters and survivors. I guess the best place to start is the beginning.
I've known about TWD for several years. I had seen collections of the comics in a local bookstore so I knew there was something involving zombies called "The Walking Dead". My knowledge on the subject didn't go past that. Then I was in the store one day and I saw a DVD of the first season for sale, which piqued my curiosity enough to get me to sniff around a bit about what the whole idea was. After doing some reading and talking around with friends I made the decision to watch the pilot episode of the series. If I liked it, I would press forward, and if I didn't then at least I could honestly say I saw the pilot and wasn't impressed. To give you an idea of my thoughts on the pilot let me put it like this: I watched it, and the proceeded to marathon the first season, as well as what has been done so far for season two so I could be caught up and follow the series like a normal fan.
The show itself, as a whole, has blow me away. When I saw that the show aired on AMC I wasn't expecting a lot from it, mainly because AMC is a channel I associate with films like "The Godfather" and classic horror films in October, so to me the concept of them airing a modern original series was astounding. The fact that it was good was what really knocked me off my feet though. The visual effects on the show were one of the first thing I noticed. From what I can tell the walkers are played by actual actors although there are times when they actually move as if they are digital. I'm the kinda person who wants to get into the film industry so I am bound to notice things like that. Looking past the zombies even the gore of the show is done in a way that makes everything seem a lot more realistic than it should ever be. The writing on the show is the next thing that captivated me, especially in regards to depth of the storylines and character development. The best part is that since it wasn't something I expected to be good, the fact that it was great was an added bonus.
The one thing I was wary of was the actors of the show. I hate to be that guy but the bulk of the tv shows that I watch are older ones I grew up in or star actors I really enjoy. This show is neither. Looking at the cast list I just kept saying "Who? Who?". I'd never heard a single name before but I am beyond glad that that didn't stop me from checking it out because these actors definitely earn their paycheck every episode. The funny thing is that the show differs from the comic sometimes as far as who lives and who dies because of the difference in medium. In a comic if you kill a character off it's no big deal. You go on without him. You create someone to replace him. It's easy. With a show like this it becomes tenfold more difficult because you aren't just writing out a character but actually taking away an actors job. That leaves a large need for deaths to be more thought out and well planned for. That being said, I am caught up with the series and intend to keep watching it as it airs (although I have heard a lot of people bash the second season I think the show is still going strong). I figure the best thing to do now is just run down my thoughts on certain characters and situations. The original plan was to do this for all characters but that would just run way to long. Make Sure to head over to my about.me profile and follow my twitter and tumblr pages, as I post a lot of musings about this stuff on there as well.
*Rick Grimes- Rick is the star of the show. He's the whole reason the show moves forward. He's the protagonist and I like him as a character. He's not my favorite by a longshoremen but to me he's the underdog and he deserves all the support he can get. He wakes up in the hospital in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Let's be honest for a second: how many of you would actually try and find your family in the desolate nightmare the world has become and how many of you would opt-out? That's what I thought.
*Lori Grimes- When Lori Was first introduced into the s dries I hated and despised her. Let me explain why: the first time you really get to know the character you see her kissing Shane. Shane was her husbands partner and best friend and the fact that the two of them could do what they did sickened me, especially knowing Rick was looking for his family and wanted nothing more than to find them again. That being said, after Rick found her and Carl' she showed remorse for her actions, she's admitted she made a mistake, and she has earned my forgiveness for her past sins, partly because she seems to be sincere, and partly because it would tear up Rick to lose his wife again.
*Carl Grimes- With Carl things are reversed, I liked him when he first came into the series, I really did. I admit that a kid in a zombie apocalypse is kinda pointless, but the character wasn't a total waste. Then he got shot by Otis. Then he learned to shoot. In the most recent episode I see shades of Shane developing in his character. I have no idea if it's because he's spent so much time with Shane or if it's just because that's what happens when you I've in the new world. Either way I don't like it.
*Shane Walsh- This guy is fun. The first time I saw him I hated him for what he did with Lori but afterwards I decided to give him a second chance. Sadly that chance only lasted five minutes until he screwed up again. Every single time he screws up I want to forgive him but he always manages to get me to hate him again. I thought he was bad at first but I knew it for fact after he sacrificed Otis. Since then he's managed to lie to Lori and piss people off at various times. His shining moment of stupidity, though, was when he broke open Herschel's barn and unleashed a mob of zombies to be killed one by one. Since then I've wanted nothing more than to see him become an all-you-can-eat zombie buffet.
*Dale Horvath- Unfortunately, last nights episode saw the end of Dale, but he was quite possibly my favorite survivor of the group. In all fairness, Dale wasn't the most violent member of the group but he was the most human. He was the voice of reason and logic and he one who really wanted to try and salvage the new world with civilization. His death last night marks the end of that in my opinion. Without him who will guide the moral compasses of everyone in the group? I also wonder how this will impact the pending execution of Randall, but more on that in a minute.
*Glenn- Glenn is the last member of the group I have a strong feeling towards. When he first shows up in the series he risks his ass to save Rick despite not knowing him. To me that's a ballsy move and earned Glenn my respect. Further more, Glenn is the second most compassionate in the group, second only to the late Dale. On Herschel's farm he starts a relationship of sorts with Herschel's one daughter, Maggie. Herschel eventually excepts Glenn and gives him a pocket watch that has been in his family for generations. The new world is rough and brutal, but Glenn still managed to find someone to fall in love with. As much as I hate to say it, if the survivors move on, I hope either Glenn stays behind or Maggie joins them, as it will kill me to see Glenn get his heart broken.
As for my thoughts on last nights episode and the remainder of season2? I'm undecided when it comes to Randall. On one hand I do understand that he is a bit of a threat, especially with a connection to a gang of thirty. I also believe that when faced with death a person will say anything possible to get out of the situation. On the other, Dale made valid points. He is a member of the living and he doesn't deserve death by association. I look at it a little bit like this: he tried to kill Rick. Rick saved his life. He is now endebted to Rick. Hopefully someone on the show will point that out.
As for the last few episodes of the season I'd really like to see Merle turn up again and I'd also like to see Morgan make another appearance. How do you feel about TWD up to this point And what would you like to see happen? Sound off below in the comments.
Until next time,
-Dan
First off I just want to say that the newest episode of "The Walking Dead" entitled "Judge, Jury, and Executioner" is, to me, the biggest tear jerker I have seen thus far. Instead of just talking about the episode like every other site on the web though, I thought that I would use this opportunity to tell my story of how I came to see TWD in the first place and what my thoughts are on some of the current characters and survivors. I guess the best place to start is the beginning.
I've known about TWD for several years. I had seen collections of the comics in a local bookstore so I knew there was something involving zombies called "The Walking Dead". My knowledge on the subject didn't go past that. Then I was in the store one day and I saw a DVD of the first season for sale, which piqued my curiosity enough to get me to sniff around a bit about what the whole idea was. After doing some reading and talking around with friends I made the decision to watch the pilot episode of the series. If I liked it, I would press forward, and if I didn't then at least I could honestly say I saw the pilot and wasn't impressed. To give you an idea of my thoughts on the pilot let me put it like this: I watched it, and the proceeded to marathon the first season, as well as what has been done so far for season two so I could be caught up and follow the series like a normal fan.
The show itself, as a whole, has blow me away. When I saw that the show aired on AMC I wasn't expecting a lot from it, mainly because AMC is a channel I associate with films like "The Godfather" and classic horror films in October, so to me the concept of them airing a modern original series was astounding. The fact that it was good was what really knocked me off my feet though. The visual effects on the show were one of the first thing I noticed. From what I can tell the walkers are played by actual actors although there are times when they actually move as if they are digital. I'm the kinda person who wants to get into the film industry so I am bound to notice things like that. Looking past the zombies even the gore of the show is done in a way that makes everything seem a lot more realistic than it should ever be. The writing on the show is the next thing that captivated me, especially in regards to depth of the storylines and character development. The best part is that since it wasn't something I expected to be good, the fact that it was great was an added bonus.
The one thing I was wary of was the actors of the show. I hate to be that guy but the bulk of the tv shows that I watch are older ones I grew up in or star actors I really enjoy. This show is neither. Looking at the cast list I just kept saying "Who? Who?". I'd never heard a single name before but I am beyond glad that that didn't stop me from checking it out because these actors definitely earn their paycheck every episode. The funny thing is that the show differs from the comic sometimes as far as who lives and who dies because of the difference in medium. In a comic if you kill a character off it's no big deal. You go on without him. You create someone to replace him. It's easy. With a show like this it becomes tenfold more difficult because you aren't just writing out a character but actually taking away an actors job. That leaves a large need for deaths to be more thought out and well planned for. That being said, I am caught up with the series and intend to keep watching it as it airs (although I have heard a lot of people bash the second season I think the show is still going strong). I figure the best thing to do now is just run down my thoughts on certain characters and situations. The original plan was to do this for all characters but that would just run way to long. Make Sure to head over to my about.me profile and follow my twitter and tumblr pages, as I post a lot of musings about this stuff on there as well.
*Rick Grimes- Rick is the star of the show. He's the whole reason the show moves forward. He's the protagonist and I like him as a character. He's not my favorite by a longshoremen but to me he's the underdog and he deserves all the support he can get. He wakes up in the hospital in the middle of a zombie apocalypse. Let's be honest for a second: how many of you would actually try and find your family in the desolate nightmare the world has become and how many of you would opt-out? That's what I thought.
*Lori Grimes- When Lori Was first introduced into the s dries I hated and despised her. Let me explain why: the first time you really get to know the character you see her kissing Shane. Shane was her husbands partner and best friend and the fact that the two of them could do what they did sickened me, especially knowing Rick was looking for his family and wanted nothing more than to find them again. That being said, after Rick found her and Carl' she showed remorse for her actions, she's admitted she made a mistake, and she has earned my forgiveness for her past sins, partly because she seems to be sincere, and partly because it would tear up Rick to lose his wife again.
*Carl Grimes- With Carl things are reversed, I liked him when he first came into the series, I really did. I admit that a kid in a zombie apocalypse is kinda pointless, but the character wasn't a total waste. Then he got shot by Otis. Then he learned to shoot. In the most recent episode I see shades of Shane developing in his character. I have no idea if it's because he's spent so much time with Shane or if it's just because that's what happens when you I've in the new world. Either way I don't like it.
*Shane Walsh- This guy is fun. The first time I saw him I hated him for what he did with Lori but afterwards I decided to give him a second chance. Sadly that chance only lasted five minutes until he screwed up again. Every single time he screws up I want to forgive him but he always manages to get me to hate him again. I thought he was bad at first but I knew it for fact after he sacrificed Otis. Since then he's managed to lie to Lori and piss people off at various times. His shining moment of stupidity, though, was when he broke open Herschel's barn and unleashed a mob of zombies to be killed one by one. Since then I've wanted nothing more than to see him become an all-you-can-eat zombie buffet.
*Dale Horvath- Unfortunately, last nights episode saw the end of Dale, but he was quite possibly my favorite survivor of the group. In all fairness, Dale wasn't the most violent member of the group but he was the most human. He was the voice of reason and logic and he one who really wanted to try and salvage the new world with civilization. His death last night marks the end of that in my opinion. Without him who will guide the moral compasses of everyone in the group? I also wonder how this will impact the pending execution of Randall, but more on that in a minute.
*Glenn- Glenn is the last member of the group I have a strong feeling towards. When he first shows up in the series he risks his ass to save Rick despite not knowing him. To me that's a ballsy move and earned Glenn my respect. Further more, Glenn is the second most compassionate in the group, second only to the late Dale. On Herschel's farm he starts a relationship of sorts with Herschel's one daughter, Maggie. Herschel eventually excepts Glenn and gives him a pocket watch that has been in his family for generations. The new world is rough and brutal, but Glenn still managed to find someone to fall in love with. As much as I hate to say it, if the survivors move on, I hope either Glenn stays behind or Maggie joins them, as it will kill me to see Glenn get his heart broken.
As for my thoughts on last nights episode and the remainder of season2? I'm undecided when it comes to Randall. On one hand I do understand that he is a bit of a threat, especially with a connection to a gang of thirty. I also believe that when faced with death a person will say anything possible to get out of the situation. On the other, Dale made valid points. He is a member of the living and he doesn't deserve death by association. I look at it a little bit like this: he tried to kill Rick. Rick saved his life. He is now endebted to Rick. Hopefully someone on the show will point that out.
As for the last few episodes of the season I'd really like to see Merle turn up again and I'd also like to see Morgan make another appearance. How do you feel about TWD up to this point And what would you like to see happen? Sound off below in the comments.
Until next time,
-Dan
Friday, March 2, 2012
Be Who You Are
Last Friday I put up a blog post entitled "It Gets Better" that discussed bullying, cyber bullying, and my own experiences with those mediums. I planned to start a new feature either this week or next week where I write and post a fan fiction each Friday, though I am now debating doing that exclusively on Tumblr. Today would have been the first post but like the best laid plans, things change. I was on Facebook today looking at status updates from friends and "friends". One of my "Friends" put up a status that basically said they was walking through a local college cafeteria at a school I attended for the better part of a semester and that as they was walking they saw people playing Yu-Gi-Oh!, Marvel vs. (I wanna assume Capcom), and reading comics on their laptops. After that, they stated they closed their eyes because they didn't want to see anymore. My first instinct was to comment on the status itself, but I decided to back off because I didn't want anything I said to be taken as racist (people in my area can be twisted). Instead I decided to use today and this blog as a forum to speak on this topic a bit.
First and foremost, I've shared my thoughts with people on this topic a few times but I feel this will be the most in-depth. Second, I ask you read with an open mind as my comments on this can get a bit out there, but I mean nothing offensive by it, racially or otherwise.
To start this off I want to touch on bullying again for a second. One of the biggest factors that motivated my bullies in school was that I was an easy target. I grew up with very diverse interests and I'd like to share some of them now. I like science fiction, fantasy, anime, movies, books, theater, video games, technology, and a billion other things. I'd say none of that makes me a bad person or shows the content of my character, just how I like to amuse myself.
Getting that out of the way, statuses like The one my "friend" put up always irritates me. I was picked on for what I like after many told me to just be myself. Many others have experienced that as well. Picking on someone for what they enjoy is sick and wrong, and it really creates bad stereotypes for groups. This is where I start getting a tad edgy. I realize that I am white and after the last 400 years or so what I am about to do is taboo, but I need to start with the ghetto community. Understand I didn't say black. I'm not here to give a hard time to the African American community. I'm here to deal with the group that walks around wearing padlock chains as necklaces or their pants so low you can see their ankles above their belt loops. If this is generally how you act and your vocabulary contains words like "dawg" or "whazzup" you are most likely a ghetto individual that enjoys listening to rap music. Despite all the torment we geeks receive from that group you don't see us jumping down their throats about how they are wrong or less of a person for choosing to enjoy that style of life.
The same thing goes to metal heads, I actually have a few friends who are metal heads and they are very nice individuals with hearts and souls, but then there is the group of metal heads that say f**k you all. If you don't walk around wearing black, chains, ripped jeans, vests, have long hair and a load of tattoos then you can't listen to our music, again this is something I see as wrong, I'm a geek and a nerd by nature, I listen to rap, I listen to show tunes, but I also listen to rock, hard rock, rock and roll, heavy metal, and thrash metal. I don't walk around looking like what you expect a metal head to look like and I don't mosh, but that in no way reduces my value as a fan to the artist. I'd really like to think the community of fans could think the same way. To those that agree from any fan from any group for anything, I applaud you. For those that don't it's sad that you need to have such a narrow minded view of things.
My point is you shouldn't be ashamed of what you like or afraid to be who you are. No one has the right to tell you that you are wrong for what you like, so embrace who you are and don't be afraid to be yourself and express yourself.
Sound off with your thoughts below.
-Dan
First and foremost, I've shared my thoughts with people on this topic a few times but I feel this will be the most in-depth. Second, I ask you read with an open mind as my comments on this can get a bit out there, but I mean nothing offensive by it, racially or otherwise.
To start this off I want to touch on bullying again for a second. One of the biggest factors that motivated my bullies in school was that I was an easy target. I grew up with very diverse interests and I'd like to share some of them now. I like science fiction, fantasy, anime, movies, books, theater, video games, technology, and a billion other things. I'd say none of that makes me a bad person or shows the content of my character, just how I like to amuse myself.
Getting that out of the way, statuses like The one my "friend" put up always irritates me. I was picked on for what I like after many told me to just be myself. Many others have experienced that as well. Picking on someone for what they enjoy is sick and wrong, and it really creates bad stereotypes for groups. This is where I start getting a tad edgy. I realize that I am white and after the last 400 years or so what I am about to do is taboo, but I need to start with the ghetto community. Understand I didn't say black. I'm not here to give a hard time to the African American community. I'm here to deal with the group that walks around wearing padlock chains as necklaces or their pants so low you can see their ankles above their belt loops. If this is generally how you act and your vocabulary contains words like "dawg" or "whazzup" you are most likely a ghetto individual that enjoys listening to rap music. Despite all the torment we geeks receive from that group you don't see us jumping down their throats about how they are wrong or less of a person for choosing to enjoy that style of life.
The same thing goes to metal heads, I actually have a few friends who are metal heads and they are very nice individuals with hearts and souls, but then there is the group of metal heads that say f**k you all. If you don't walk around wearing black, chains, ripped jeans, vests, have long hair and a load of tattoos then you can't listen to our music, again this is something I see as wrong, I'm a geek and a nerd by nature, I listen to rap, I listen to show tunes, but I also listen to rock, hard rock, rock and roll, heavy metal, and thrash metal. I don't walk around looking like what you expect a metal head to look like and I don't mosh, but that in no way reduces my value as a fan to the artist. I'd really like to think the community of fans could think the same way. To those that agree from any fan from any group for anything, I applaud you. For those that don't it's sad that you need to have such a narrow minded view of things.
My point is you shouldn't be ashamed of what you like or afraid to be who you are. No one has the right to tell you that you are wrong for what you like, so embrace who you are and don't be afraid to be yourself and express yourself.
Sound off with your thoughts below.
-Dan
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
iOS Wishlist
Think about the technology you own in your life. Now take a minute to think about what piece of technology is closest to you at this very moment. Aside from the computer you are reading this on (if you even have it opened on a computer), the most likely answer is probably your smart phone or your cell phone. I break those into two separate answers because I believe that there really is a difference between an iPhone or an HTC modeled Android device and the flip phone with a camera that your aunt has had for the last five years. Keep in mind, when portable telephones came out originally, that's exactly what they were: portable phones with gigantic batteries that made having your phone with you more of a work out than a convenience. Being born in late '92 I was able to avoid these types of phones and my first phone was actually a Motorola flip with a camera. Eventually I may need to do a post on the development of texting just so I can share the story of the 700 dollar phone bill and why unlimited texting plans are always a lot smarter to get for a teen. Anyway, back to the point: a cell phone and a smart phone are two totally different animals entirely. One makes phone calls, sends texts, and possibly takes pictures while having incredibly scaled back capabilities with the web and media, while the other pretty much does everything except scratch your back, although I believe in the future there we be an app for that too.
Over the years there have been many smart phones to hit the market in various forms. RIM has always been known for the BlackBerry line of devices, BBM, and things like that. T-Mobile had a line of SideKicks that I believe are an early form of the smart phone. Google does the Android platform that can now be found on a viriety of phones, and Apple, the computer giant of the world, does the iPhone, which in my personal opinion revolutionized the smart phone platform. Before you say anything, yes I know most of what the iPhone can do was originally on the Android platform, but try to understand I've invested quite a few years in iOS so I do consider that my home, and I am damn sure gonna defend my home. The other reason I need to defend iOS is because of the point of this post, my personal iOS 5 wishlist. I realize this is a topic I have touched on before in various forums, but I think this is the type of topic that needs to be touched at least once a year because iOS 5 is always developing. As new features are introduced, a new item comes to the list. So here is what I am hoping to see in later integrations of iOS 5 and of course iOS 6 when it finally comes out.
*Increased Customization- To me, this is a big one. IOS has always enabled you to set a lock screen picture as well as a background home screen. With the introduction of iOS 5 you could finally install custom text message and alert tones, something that has ALWAYS been needed in the OS since day one. That being said, I think it's time Apple steals a move from the Android platform....again. The first area I want to be able to customize is in the messages app. As nice as the Gray/Green/Blue scheme is for text message bubbles, let's mix it up a bit. Maybe I want my iMessage bubbles to be red, my received texts to be a deep purple, and my own texts to be golden. Also, maybe I would like to be able to change the background of the text messaging app to make my texts pop a little more. Granted, I don't want to be able to put a picture in there because that becomes distracting, but you get the idea.
After that I would like to be able to put my app icons where I want to put them. I have always hated the main app layout, mainly because it just allows you to move apps around, but not give them the exact placement you want. Maybe I want the middle of my wallpaper open so that I can see it, as opposed to having an app over my girlfriends face.
The introduction of alert tones, at least custom ones, is also something I speak highly of, but let's take that above and beyond. Instead of limiting me to changing the tones for certain apps, let me change it for all of them. Maybe I want my Facebook app to make a ìStar Trek: The Original Seriesî communicator sound when I get an alert from that or maybe I want a dragon to roar every time AIM sends me an alert. It's the little things that make a difference.
*Widgets- I know that I am going to get a lot of heat from iOS and Android users a like, but I think it is time for Apple to bake the concept of widgets into iOS as a standard feature. I had a chance to play with both of my moms android devices (and by play I mean figure them out so I could teach her how to operate them) and I noticed that widgets work quite well in Android, be it the messaging widget that lets you see your texts or a Facebook widget that lets you see your friend's status updates. The point is, one platform was able to integrate it so maybe it's time the other does.
*Facebook Integration- There have actually been rumors about this one floating around in the iOS 5.1 beta, but I feel it bares inclusion as it hasn't been officially implemented on all devices yet. In iOS 5 Apple included integration with Twitter that allows you to tweet out a photo or a web page from the photos app or Safari respectively. Now that that is in effect, lets get something going for Facebook to make Photo, Video, and Web Page sharing a tad easier for those of us that still use Facebook. If I want to share something with my Facebook friends, I shouldn't have to jump through the hoops of the official Facebook app, that at times is great, and at other times sucks.
*Albums in Photos- This one has already been implemented but the way it was done makes it USELESS! Here's how the app currently functions. I go to three separate events on the same day and take photos at each. I make an album for each of the photos of each event. These photos are now in an album AND in my camera roll. What's better is that I can't delete said photos from the camera roll or they are also removed from the album. To top it off, there is no way to copy an album from the iPhone to a computer as a folder for easy placement in my pictures library. I don't know about you, but I really don't care to have to organize my photos twice: once on my phone and then again on my computer, just to sync the folders from my computer to my iPhone in the end anyway.
*Game Center Sync- This is another one that was implemented, but was mostly implemented horribly. To me, the idea of cloud computing, or iCloud as Apple is calling their attempt at it, should be simple. I only have a few games that this applies to, but if I ever get a new phone or iPad I could see this becoming something I could really need. If I am playing a game on my iPad and I connect to wifi at some point, I want Apple to upload all of my data to the cloud, so that I can then go on my iPhone and click a sync button, and download my progress so I don't feel like I am balancing two games on two devices. Maybe this is something that already widely exists and I missed something, or maybe the whole ìOpt inî to Game Center thing that was laid on the developers was what messed it up. Either way it needs fixing.
These are just a few of the things I hope to see implemented in upcoming versions of iOS, how ever I will do another post later this year, after Apple announces a new load of features. Also don't think this is everything I feel needs to be done. I feel there is definitely more they could do, from allowing syncing with the Google Chrome browser to overhauling the appearance of the YouTube app, but we don't have all day for a mile long list.
What features would you like to see implemented in upcoming versions of iOS? What smart phone platform do you use? If its something other than iOS what are your favorite features of your platform of choice and what features would you like to see added or improved? Sound off below in the comments.
Until next time,
-Dan
Over the years there have been many smart phones to hit the market in various forms. RIM has always been known for the BlackBerry line of devices, BBM, and things like that. T-Mobile had a line of SideKicks that I believe are an early form of the smart phone. Google does the Android platform that can now be found on a viriety of phones, and Apple, the computer giant of the world, does the iPhone, which in my personal opinion revolutionized the smart phone platform. Before you say anything, yes I know most of what the iPhone can do was originally on the Android platform, but try to understand I've invested quite a few years in iOS so I do consider that my home, and I am damn sure gonna defend my home. The other reason I need to defend iOS is because of the point of this post, my personal iOS 5 wishlist. I realize this is a topic I have touched on before in various forums, but I think this is the type of topic that needs to be touched at least once a year because iOS 5 is always developing. As new features are introduced, a new item comes to the list. So here is what I am hoping to see in later integrations of iOS 5 and of course iOS 6 when it finally comes out.
*Increased Customization- To me, this is a big one. IOS has always enabled you to set a lock screen picture as well as a background home screen. With the introduction of iOS 5 you could finally install custom text message and alert tones, something that has ALWAYS been needed in the OS since day one. That being said, I think it's time Apple steals a move from the Android platform....again. The first area I want to be able to customize is in the messages app. As nice as the Gray/Green/Blue scheme is for text message bubbles, let's mix it up a bit. Maybe I want my iMessage bubbles to be red, my received texts to be a deep purple, and my own texts to be golden. Also, maybe I would like to be able to change the background of the text messaging app to make my texts pop a little more. Granted, I don't want to be able to put a picture in there because that becomes distracting, but you get the idea.
After that I would like to be able to put my app icons where I want to put them. I have always hated the main app layout, mainly because it just allows you to move apps around, but not give them the exact placement you want. Maybe I want the middle of my wallpaper open so that I can see it, as opposed to having an app over my girlfriends face.
The introduction of alert tones, at least custom ones, is also something I speak highly of, but let's take that above and beyond. Instead of limiting me to changing the tones for certain apps, let me change it for all of them. Maybe I want my Facebook app to make a ìStar Trek: The Original Seriesî communicator sound when I get an alert from that or maybe I want a dragon to roar every time AIM sends me an alert. It's the little things that make a difference.
*Widgets- I know that I am going to get a lot of heat from iOS and Android users a like, but I think it is time for Apple to bake the concept of widgets into iOS as a standard feature. I had a chance to play with both of my moms android devices (and by play I mean figure them out so I could teach her how to operate them) and I noticed that widgets work quite well in Android, be it the messaging widget that lets you see your texts or a Facebook widget that lets you see your friend's status updates. The point is, one platform was able to integrate it so maybe it's time the other does.
*Facebook Integration- There have actually been rumors about this one floating around in the iOS 5.1 beta, but I feel it bares inclusion as it hasn't been officially implemented on all devices yet. In iOS 5 Apple included integration with Twitter that allows you to tweet out a photo or a web page from the photos app or Safari respectively. Now that that is in effect, lets get something going for Facebook to make Photo, Video, and Web Page sharing a tad easier for those of us that still use Facebook. If I want to share something with my Facebook friends, I shouldn't have to jump through the hoops of the official Facebook app, that at times is great, and at other times sucks.
*Albums in Photos- This one has already been implemented but the way it was done makes it USELESS! Here's how the app currently functions. I go to three separate events on the same day and take photos at each. I make an album for each of the photos of each event. These photos are now in an album AND in my camera roll. What's better is that I can't delete said photos from the camera roll or they are also removed from the album. To top it off, there is no way to copy an album from the iPhone to a computer as a folder for easy placement in my pictures library. I don't know about you, but I really don't care to have to organize my photos twice: once on my phone and then again on my computer, just to sync the folders from my computer to my iPhone in the end anyway.
*Game Center Sync- This is another one that was implemented, but was mostly implemented horribly. To me, the idea of cloud computing, or iCloud as Apple is calling their attempt at it, should be simple. I only have a few games that this applies to, but if I ever get a new phone or iPad I could see this becoming something I could really need. If I am playing a game on my iPad and I connect to wifi at some point, I want Apple to upload all of my data to the cloud, so that I can then go on my iPhone and click a sync button, and download my progress so I don't feel like I am balancing two games on two devices. Maybe this is something that already widely exists and I missed something, or maybe the whole ìOpt inî to Game Center thing that was laid on the developers was what messed it up. Either way it needs fixing.
These are just a few of the things I hope to see implemented in upcoming versions of iOS, how ever I will do another post later this year, after Apple announces a new load of features. Also don't think this is everything I feel needs to be done. I feel there is definitely more they could do, from allowing syncing with the Google Chrome browser to overhauling the appearance of the YouTube app, but we don't have all day for a mile long list.
What features would you like to see implemented in upcoming versions of iOS? What smart phone platform do you use? If its something other than iOS what are your favorite features of your platform of choice and what features would you like to see added or improved? Sound off below in the comments.
Until next time,
-Dan
Monday, February 27, 2012
I Believe In Sherlock
It's time, everyone. I am finally getting around to writing my “Sherlock” thoughts, impressions, and review. Two things to keep in mind while reading this though:
1. I am writing this as a “Sherlock” n00b who has finally had the chance to watch series one and series two of the show. I am not a long standing member of the fandom, but more someone who has just made a great discovery.
2. This is the important one: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW FOR THE END OF SERIES 2! THERE IS A CHUNK WHERE I DISCUSS THE END OF THE EPISODE! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FINALE OF SEASON 2, OR WANT TO AVOID HAVING ANYTHING FROM ANY EPISODES SPOILED, TURN BACK NOW! CLICK THE CLOSE BUTTON AND GO WATCH THE EPISODES!
Now that my personal madatory spoiler alert is finished, let's get on with this. I guess the best place to start is the beginning, or my intorduction to the world of "Sherlock". Despite the fact that the series has been on since 2010, I didn't actually hear about the show until a couple of weeks ago. Both my girlfriend and her sister have, at different points, asked me if I had seen "Sherlock" or even heard of it. I had said no and they both told me to watch it. I concider myself a film buff and a TV buff and really enjoy getting into shows either after they end or when they hit a hiatus. I went onto Google and decided to make a quick search of "Sherlock" just to see what it was. As it turns out, the BBC decided to take a TV stab at a modern day retelling of the adventures of classic sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Prior to this, I didn't have much experience with the great Sherlock Holmes, outside of having to read "The Hound of the Baskervilles" back in the eighth grade, and that was pure hell for me at the time. I had no interest in the book whatsoever, I bombed every test, and I feel I came out a better person at the end for it.
I admit I don't exactly read a lot and it takes quite a bit for a book to really draw me in. Stephen King has been able to do it more than any other author. As I age a bit I find myself opening up a tad bit more to older literature, something my girlfriend thrives on. So that being said, I have never really bothered to read the classic Sherlock Holmes books and due to my middle school experiences I never even bothered to try and watch the Robert Downey Jr. version of Sherlock Holmes, and I can't even tell you what the film is about. At some point I may venture down the road of that film and try to watch it anyway, if only to see how it compares to "Sherlock".
As a modern day retelling, quite a bit has been changed. The biggest change to the entire universe, aside from the time, is the age of Sherlock. In the books, Sherlock Holmes is a 60 some year old detective, while in the series, he can't be more than his eary to mid thirities, as at the time of this writing, Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor who portays Sherlock Holmes, is only 35 years old. Some elemeents of the old tales are carried over however. Sherlock Holmes is still incredibly brilliant, John Watson has still served over in Afganistan, Sherlock still lives on Baker St. and he still wears that incredibly goofy hat, although in the series that is unintentional.
As far as the quality of the show itself goes, I was blown away from the first moments of "A Case in Pink". The show itself is supposed to be a BBC drama but I found pleanty of laughing moments from the character of Sherlock, and I credit a lot of that to the actors. The length of the show is also astounding compared to an American show. Here in America our weekly dramas run about 40-45 minutes with about 15 minutes of commercials. Because I watched these episodes of Sherlock online I can't tell exactly what the exact broadcast time is or how many commercials there are, but I do know that the content of the episodes is between 1 hour 27 minutes, and an even hour and a half. That's all in one sitting if you weren't following. The entire story plays out in one week, and that is a format I feel really works. Each "series", or "season" in America, is only 3 episodes long, but the length and the quality of the episodes quickly makes up for it.
I don't really want to get into a greatly indepth review of every episode or series but on a last note for this part I want to say that I love how series one and series two each ended on a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger of series one, involving Sherlock, Watson, Moriarty, and some random hidden gunmen was something that made me really want to see how the second series began, but the end of series two is just a cruel sick joke from the creators of the series. (Here's where the spoilers kick in).
In the last 10 or 20 minutes of the series, Sherlock is on the roof with Moriarty, who admits he has defeated Sherlock Holmes, and that unless Sherlock jumps from the roof, all of his friends will be shot and killed. Sherlock tells Moriarty that he knows he can get him to call of the gunmen and Moriarty admits he is right, and that as long as he is alive there is a failsafe, so he takes a gun out of his pocket, sticks the gun barrel in his mouth, and pulls the trigger. Sherlock, then realizing he is deafeated, gets on the ledge of the roof. Calls Watson, who is standing below and delievers his note. He admits everything Moriarty says is true, that he is a fake, that he arranged every crime he solved, that he researched John Watson before their first meeting so that he could impress him, and that the call was his note. He tells John to watch him, and not take his eyes off of him. He throws his phone behind him, flings his arms out, and then plunges to the ground below. As he lands, Watson runs over, and is hit by a biker, hitting his head. His vision blurred het gets to the body, along with a crowd of people, and he sees his friend has died. In the next scene, he is at Sherlock's grave with their landlady. She gives him a moment alone, and he gives a heartfelt speech that would move anyone to tears. He tells Sherlock's grave that he still believes in him, and that no one can convince him he was a fake. He then asks Sherlock for one last miracle, to still be alive. As he leaves the grave, the camera pans to reveal Sherlock watching John Watson at "his" grave.
That leaves the question, how did Sherlock fake his death? Look online. There are pleanty of theories ranging from Sherlock landing in the truck that pulls away while Molly plants a corpse, to Sherlock sending Moriarty's corpse over the edge, to even more astounding stuff. I myself believe the truck theory is the most logical, although the writer/creator of the series has admitted that eagle eyed viewers can spot how Sherlock faked his death. I myself am working on a theory but I find it far from ready. How is that a cruel sick joke from the creators? Series 3 of "Sherlock" won't be airing on the BBC until the end of this year or the beginning of next, which seems more likely.
So how do you think Sherlock faked his suicide? Are you a fan of Sherlock? How did you discover it? Do you believe in Sherlock. Leave your thoughts below in the comments.
I believe in Sherlock.
-Dan
1. I am writing this as a “Sherlock” n00b who has finally had the chance to watch series one and series two of the show. I am not a long standing member of the fandom, but more someone who has just made a great discovery.
2. This is the important one: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS IN THIS REVIEW FOR THE END OF SERIES 2! THERE IS A CHUNK WHERE I DISCUSS THE END OF THE EPISODE! IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THE FINALE OF SEASON 2, OR WANT TO AVOID HAVING ANYTHING FROM ANY EPISODES SPOILED, TURN BACK NOW! CLICK THE CLOSE BUTTON AND GO WATCH THE EPISODES!
Now that my personal madatory spoiler alert is finished, let's get on with this. I guess the best place to start is the beginning, or my intorduction to the world of "Sherlock". Despite the fact that the series has been on since 2010, I didn't actually hear about the show until a couple of weeks ago. Both my girlfriend and her sister have, at different points, asked me if I had seen "Sherlock" or even heard of it. I had said no and they both told me to watch it. I concider myself a film buff and a TV buff and really enjoy getting into shows either after they end or when they hit a hiatus. I went onto Google and decided to make a quick search of "Sherlock" just to see what it was. As it turns out, the BBC decided to take a TV stab at a modern day retelling of the adventures of classic sleuth Sherlock Holmes. Prior to this, I didn't have much experience with the great Sherlock Holmes, outside of having to read "The Hound of the Baskervilles" back in the eighth grade, and that was pure hell for me at the time. I had no interest in the book whatsoever, I bombed every test, and I feel I came out a better person at the end for it.
I admit I don't exactly read a lot and it takes quite a bit for a book to really draw me in. Stephen King has been able to do it more than any other author. As I age a bit I find myself opening up a tad bit more to older literature, something my girlfriend thrives on. So that being said, I have never really bothered to read the classic Sherlock Holmes books and due to my middle school experiences I never even bothered to try and watch the Robert Downey Jr. version of Sherlock Holmes, and I can't even tell you what the film is about. At some point I may venture down the road of that film and try to watch it anyway, if only to see how it compares to "Sherlock".
As a modern day retelling, quite a bit has been changed. The biggest change to the entire universe, aside from the time, is the age of Sherlock. In the books, Sherlock Holmes is a 60 some year old detective, while in the series, he can't be more than his eary to mid thirities, as at the time of this writing, Benedict Cumberbatch, the actor who portays Sherlock Holmes, is only 35 years old. Some elemeents of the old tales are carried over however. Sherlock Holmes is still incredibly brilliant, John Watson has still served over in Afganistan, Sherlock still lives on Baker St. and he still wears that incredibly goofy hat, although in the series that is unintentional.
As far as the quality of the show itself goes, I was blown away from the first moments of "A Case in Pink". The show itself is supposed to be a BBC drama but I found pleanty of laughing moments from the character of Sherlock, and I credit a lot of that to the actors. The length of the show is also astounding compared to an American show. Here in America our weekly dramas run about 40-45 minutes with about 15 minutes of commercials. Because I watched these episodes of Sherlock online I can't tell exactly what the exact broadcast time is or how many commercials there are, but I do know that the content of the episodes is between 1 hour 27 minutes, and an even hour and a half. That's all in one sitting if you weren't following. The entire story plays out in one week, and that is a format I feel really works. Each "series", or "season" in America, is only 3 episodes long, but the length and the quality of the episodes quickly makes up for it.
I don't really want to get into a greatly indepth review of every episode or series but on a last note for this part I want to say that I love how series one and series two each ended on a cliffhanger. The cliffhanger of series one, involving Sherlock, Watson, Moriarty, and some random hidden gunmen was something that made me really want to see how the second series began, but the end of series two is just a cruel sick joke from the creators of the series. (Here's where the spoilers kick in).
In the last 10 or 20 minutes of the series, Sherlock is on the roof with Moriarty, who admits he has defeated Sherlock Holmes, and that unless Sherlock jumps from the roof, all of his friends will be shot and killed. Sherlock tells Moriarty that he knows he can get him to call of the gunmen and Moriarty admits he is right, and that as long as he is alive there is a failsafe, so he takes a gun out of his pocket, sticks the gun barrel in his mouth, and pulls the trigger. Sherlock, then realizing he is deafeated, gets on the ledge of the roof. Calls Watson, who is standing below and delievers his note. He admits everything Moriarty says is true, that he is a fake, that he arranged every crime he solved, that he researched John Watson before their first meeting so that he could impress him, and that the call was his note. He tells John to watch him, and not take his eyes off of him. He throws his phone behind him, flings his arms out, and then plunges to the ground below. As he lands, Watson runs over, and is hit by a biker, hitting his head. His vision blurred het gets to the body, along with a crowd of people, and he sees his friend has died. In the next scene, he is at Sherlock's grave with their landlady. She gives him a moment alone, and he gives a heartfelt speech that would move anyone to tears. He tells Sherlock's grave that he still believes in him, and that no one can convince him he was a fake. He then asks Sherlock for one last miracle, to still be alive. As he leaves the grave, the camera pans to reveal Sherlock watching John Watson at "his" grave.
That leaves the question, how did Sherlock fake his death? Look online. There are pleanty of theories ranging from Sherlock landing in the truck that pulls away while Molly plants a corpse, to Sherlock sending Moriarty's corpse over the edge, to even more astounding stuff. I myself believe the truck theory is the most logical, although the writer/creator of the series has admitted that eagle eyed viewers can spot how Sherlock faked his death. I myself am working on a theory but I find it far from ready. How is that a cruel sick joke from the creators? Series 3 of "Sherlock" won't be airing on the BBC until the end of this year or the beginning of next, which seems more likely.
So how do you think Sherlock faked his suicide? Are you a fan of Sherlock? How did you discover it? Do you believe in Sherlock. Leave your thoughts below in the comments.
I believe in Sherlock.
-Dan
Friday, February 24, 2012
It Gets Better
It seems to me that within the last year or so things have really changed in our world. Let's be honest: since the terrorist attacks of 9/11 we, as a nation, have had more ups and downs then we care to count. We also have had an astounding amount of technological development in the last 11 years or so. These advances are great as they have enabled us new ways to network, socialize, work, learn, play, and all of that jazz, but unfortunately, despite all the great advantages to being a connected world there's one large drawback. As human beings, especially in our formative years, theres always the person, or people, that somehow manages to get off on bullying another individual, be it at school shoving them into a locker or making fake social networking profiles. The behavior is the same, although the methods have changed significantly. With in the last year or so there's been several suicides committed by young men and women who had been "cyber-bullied"as it has been dubbed. I know this is jumping on the band wagon but believe me when I say it gets better. Eventually everyone matures and gets over themselves.
I wish it was that simple. The existence of the WBC or the KKK should be proof enough that some bullies never get over it. I want to talk to all of you recipients of bullying for a moment though. Trust me when I say i know how it feels to be bullied.. I think for the first time in my life I want to speak out on the subject.
In school, at least from first grade onward, I had to deal with the cold hard truth, not everyone in the world is not nice. I moved to my current now from a another, slightly smaller town a bit north of here, just after kindergarten. That was the one time I was truly happy: kindergarten. We had a class of twenty some kids and there was one bad seed in that group, and even he was just merely mischievous and not hateful. On the last day of kindergarten my family was swept down here and that's when the rose colored glasses came off. I'll never forget my first day of school: I walked in, found the desk with my name on it and sat down. There was a kid in the desk next to me who attempted to explain to me that I couldn't sit there because he didn't like me. In second grade I needed to get glasses as I wasn't blessed with great vision and that just opened a whole new can of worms. If I had a nickel for every time I was called "four eyes" I could retire now at age 19.
Third grade brought on my next joyous encounter in the form of a bully who would torment me for years to come with the classic exploits of stabbing me in the arm with a pen and hitting me in the head with a book.. There were others kids, the ones who thought they ruled, who even went as far as telling the vice principals I had made various threats in middle school to try and get me detentions I didn't deserve. The saying goes "high school are the best four years of your life". Please understand that isn't true.. Before I get to that though, I'd like to share a story from middle school about the time I got stoned, and I ain't referring to smoking pot. It was a recess after lunch in a big open courtyard with a pond and a dirt area. On this day in particular there was a short staff of teachers so a group of kids thought it would be funny to corner me at a wire fence and hurl stones at me. I realize that they were damn near pebbles and did little to no damage but it's the principal, and what it signifies.
So on to high school. I think freshmen year was pretty much the only year I didn't want to put a bullet in my brain at some point. Sophomore year became something else. I made friends with a former bully of mine, I got myself a girlfriend, life was going good. If you know me, you know what happens next. If you don't, I see no reason to bring the whole story up in a public forum, at least in respect to the ex girlfriend, as we are able to be peaceful with each other if we ever see each other in public, or talk in any capacity. As for the friend, once a bully always a bully. Case closed. Junior year was just as awful as the dust hadn't cleared from the year prior and then senior year I learned what trust really is. I learned not to take sympathy on someone as there are people sick and twisted enough in this world to fake being in need to take advantage of the generous. The only highlight of that year was that I was able to get myself a second girlfriend who's managed to stay with me for the last year. In a moment I'll explain why that's a shock, though first I want to say I know what it's like to be cyber bullied. There's a profile on MySpace of me that I had no part in the creation of. It's about me and it's hurtful. To this day when I see the page to show someone I ball my eyes out in tears from the memories that seeing it brings back. Don't be afraid to be who you are.
The reason I'm in shock that my better half has stuck around the last year though is because bullying has an affect on people. If you are a bully, short term it seems great: torment the kid who vomits at the sight of mayonnaise to get a quick laugh. What most bully's don't realize is that the victims are forever effected. Things like trust are non existent. It's those exact reasons that I chose to speak out tonight on bullying. My paranoia kicked in and I just wanted to reach out because I know that theres others out there going through a lot worse than I am. What I'm trying to say is this: if you are being bullied and are depressed or suicidal, reach out and get help. As a friend once put it "if you kill yourself, they win". Don't give them the satisfaction. Likewise, if you are a bully, back off. You aren't damaging your victim for a day or a week, your hurting them for life. With time, eventually, even these wounds heal. Don't give up hope though. I'll open the comments to discussion but if it turns hurtful I will need it. If anyone needs to reach out I'm opening an email address to this: send any messages or questions to me through my about.me profile. You can find that at http://about.me/hollywoodlights1992 and I'll try to respond through that. With my next post this blog will return to my normal format but this needed to be said.
It gets better.
-Dan
I wish it was that simple. The existence of the WBC or the KKK should be proof enough that some bullies never get over it. I want to talk to all of you recipients of bullying for a moment though. Trust me when I say i know how it feels to be bullied.. I think for the first time in my life I want to speak out on the subject.
In school, at least from first grade onward, I had to deal with the cold hard truth, not everyone in the world is not nice. I moved to my current now from a another, slightly smaller town a bit north of here, just after kindergarten. That was the one time I was truly happy: kindergarten. We had a class of twenty some kids and there was one bad seed in that group, and even he was just merely mischievous and not hateful. On the last day of kindergarten my family was swept down here and that's when the rose colored glasses came off. I'll never forget my first day of school: I walked in, found the desk with my name on it and sat down. There was a kid in the desk next to me who attempted to explain to me that I couldn't sit there because he didn't like me. In second grade I needed to get glasses as I wasn't blessed with great vision and that just opened a whole new can of worms. If I had a nickel for every time I was called "four eyes" I could retire now at age 19.
Third grade brought on my next joyous encounter in the form of a bully who would torment me for years to come with the classic exploits of stabbing me in the arm with a pen and hitting me in the head with a book.. There were others kids, the ones who thought they ruled, who even went as far as telling the vice principals I had made various threats in middle school to try and get me detentions I didn't deserve. The saying goes "high school are the best four years of your life". Please understand that isn't true.. Before I get to that though, I'd like to share a story from middle school about the time I got stoned, and I ain't referring to smoking pot. It was a recess after lunch in a big open courtyard with a pond and a dirt area. On this day in particular there was a short staff of teachers so a group of kids thought it would be funny to corner me at a wire fence and hurl stones at me. I realize that they were damn near pebbles and did little to no damage but it's the principal, and what it signifies.
So on to high school. I think freshmen year was pretty much the only year I didn't want to put a bullet in my brain at some point. Sophomore year became something else. I made friends with a former bully of mine, I got myself a girlfriend, life was going good. If you know me, you know what happens next. If you don't, I see no reason to bring the whole story up in a public forum, at least in respect to the ex girlfriend, as we are able to be peaceful with each other if we ever see each other in public, or talk in any capacity. As for the friend, once a bully always a bully. Case closed. Junior year was just as awful as the dust hadn't cleared from the year prior and then senior year I learned what trust really is. I learned not to take sympathy on someone as there are people sick and twisted enough in this world to fake being in need to take advantage of the generous. The only highlight of that year was that I was able to get myself a second girlfriend who's managed to stay with me for the last year. In a moment I'll explain why that's a shock, though first I want to say I know what it's like to be cyber bullied. There's a profile on MySpace of me that I had no part in the creation of. It's about me and it's hurtful. To this day when I see the page to show someone I ball my eyes out in tears from the memories that seeing it brings back. Don't be afraid to be who you are.
The reason I'm in shock that my better half has stuck around the last year though is because bullying has an affect on people. If you are a bully, short term it seems great: torment the kid who vomits at the sight of mayonnaise to get a quick laugh. What most bully's don't realize is that the victims are forever effected. Things like trust are non existent. It's those exact reasons that I chose to speak out tonight on bullying. My paranoia kicked in and I just wanted to reach out because I know that theres others out there going through a lot worse than I am. What I'm trying to say is this: if you are being bullied and are depressed or suicidal, reach out and get help. As a friend once put it "if you kill yourself, they win". Don't give them the satisfaction. Likewise, if you are a bully, back off. You aren't damaging your victim for a day or a week, your hurting them for life. With time, eventually, even these wounds heal. Don't give up hope though. I'll open the comments to discussion but if it turns hurtful I will need it. If anyone needs to reach out I'm opening an email address to this: send any messages or questions to me through my about.me profile. You can find that at http://about.me/hollywoodlights1992 and I'll try to respond through that. With my next post this blog will return to my normal format but this needed to be said.
It gets better.
-Dan
Thursday, December 1, 2011
The Holidays Have Begun...
Hey all.
Welcome to my latest blog post and the first of what I consider to officially be the official start of the Christmas season and for those of you that don't celebrate Christmas: the holiday season. Either way today begins what I consider to be the most magical time of the year, and also one of my favorites. I don't know what it is I love more: the Christmas music, the tv specials, or the way my town looks when we get hit with a lot of snow. There's something almost magical about going to bed and having the world look totally normal and then waking up to see everything blanketed in several feet of undisturbed fresh fallen snow. I know this may sound nuts but one of my favorite things to do after it snows is to ride into Atlantic City because after the plows run through the city and push all the snow to the side the city really gets a special look to it.
There's other things I love about the holidays too, like the tree in our living room. Every year we set up a fake tree— yes I know that cheating —because my father is paranoid about a really tree being set on fire due to lights. It's not like we use candles to light it, just indoor/outdoor lights. When I finally get my own places I am doing a real tree every year because nothing can beat that kind of smell, in all honesty. So anyway, we set up a fake tree in the living room every year complete with several hundred mini, multi-colored lights, balls, and an angel on top. One of my favorite things to do is to set that tree up while listening to the sounds of the season on my iPad, iPhone, or laptop. This year we set the tree up the day before Thanksgiving because we were going out of town. My dad got homes that night and told us we were nuts putting the tree up that early, but hey, it's the holidays.
That brings me to the ranting portion of this blog though: the holidays start too damn early nowadays. Yes, I am going to be THAT guy. When I was little I remember that Halloween was Halloween, Thanksgiving was acknowledged, and Christmas started around this time of the year. Look in any store now and around Halloween you will find the Christmas trees set up in stores ready for sale and Christmas carols blasting. Forgive me but I like to deal with one holiday at a time, and it's impossible to do that now because you have to keep up with the times. Try and buy a pilgrim for Thanksgiving after July and it isn't gonna happen because we are already set for about Christmas or so it amazes me that we have to rush all of the holidays and we can't stop to enjoy them for five minutes without being on track for the next.
I'm sorry but I had to get that one off of my chest or I was gonna go bonkers. Anyway, now that we are in the holiday season here's what to expect from me:
1. Blog and video on the best Christmas specials and movies.
2. Blog and video on the best Christmas music.
3. Possibly some Christmas cover songs butchered by me, a Capella.
4. iHelp when we get into the new year.
My last little update is that I joined the Cracked writers room over on the Cracked.com forums. They take anyone so please don't be surprised if you see my name wind up on an article on the site at some point in the coming months.
To find all of my online profiles check out http://about.me/hollywoodlights1992 to follow me on twitter see http://twitter.com/danstransky and of course pleased share this blog, comment, tweet, +1 it, and most of all, enjoy.
Happy holidays,
Dan
Welcome to my latest blog post and the first of what I consider to officially be the official start of the Christmas season and for those of you that don't celebrate Christmas: the holiday season. Either way today begins what I consider to be the most magical time of the year, and also one of my favorites. I don't know what it is I love more: the Christmas music, the tv specials, or the way my town looks when we get hit with a lot of snow. There's something almost magical about going to bed and having the world look totally normal and then waking up to see everything blanketed in several feet of undisturbed fresh fallen snow. I know this may sound nuts but one of my favorite things to do after it snows is to ride into Atlantic City because after the plows run through the city and push all the snow to the side the city really gets a special look to it.
There's other things I love about the holidays too, like the tree in our living room. Every year we set up a fake tree— yes I know that cheating —because my father is paranoid about a really tree being set on fire due to lights. It's not like we use candles to light it, just indoor/outdoor lights. When I finally get my own places I am doing a real tree every year because nothing can beat that kind of smell, in all honesty. So anyway, we set up a fake tree in the living room every year complete with several hundred mini, multi-colored lights, balls, and an angel on top. One of my favorite things to do is to set that tree up while listening to the sounds of the season on my iPad, iPhone, or laptop. This year we set the tree up the day before Thanksgiving because we were going out of town. My dad got homes that night and told us we were nuts putting the tree up that early, but hey, it's the holidays.
That brings me to the ranting portion of this blog though: the holidays start too damn early nowadays. Yes, I am going to be THAT guy. When I was little I remember that Halloween was Halloween, Thanksgiving was acknowledged, and Christmas started around this time of the year. Look in any store now and around Halloween you will find the Christmas trees set up in stores ready for sale and Christmas carols blasting. Forgive me but I like to deal with one holiday at a time, and it's impossible to do that now because you have to keep up with the times. Try and buy a pilgrim for Thanksgiving after July and it isn't gonna happen because we are already set for about Christmas or so it amazes me that we have to rush all of the holidays and we can't stop to enjoy them for five minutes without being on track for the next.
I'm sorry but I had to get that one off of my chest or I was gonna go bonkers. Anyway, now that we are in the holiday season here's what to expect from me:
1. Blog and video on the best Christmas specials and movies.
2. Blog and video on the best Christmas music.
3. Possibly some Christmas cover songs butchered by me, a Capella.
4. iHelp when we get into the new year.
My last little update is that I joined the Cracked writers room over on the Cracked.com forums. They take anyone so please don't be surprised if you see my name wind up on an article on the site at some point in the coming months.
To find all of my online profiles check out http://about.me/hollywoodlights1992 to follow me on twitter see http://twitter.com/danstransky and of course pleased share this blog, comment, tweet, +1 it, and most of all, enjoy.
Happy holidays,
Dan
Saturday, November 26, 2011
Updates and Changes
Remember those YouTube videos where I said I was waiting for a Dell Streak 7? A few things have happened and there has been a slight change in plans: I went out and got myself a 32 GB iPad 2 WiFi model so I decided to let my mom have the Android tablet as her own personal tablet instead. Obviously with that change there comes others, mainly that I will not be doing an unblocking of said tablet. I should have done one for my new iPad but I was just too excited to play with it and get it loaded up to bother with an unboxing video. Seeing as I now own an iPad and iPhone, though, this means that I will be returning to an original idea and doing a video series called "iHelp" which will focus on iOS and iTunes.
In other news I recently joined up the writers forum on http://www.cracked.com which means that in the future it is possible you will be seeing articles on the site written by me, if I can come up with some ideas that are good enough to get published on there; PLUS it pays $50 an article for your first 5 and then $150 an article after. I'm sorry but for that kinda money I will be more than happy to write a list article filled with dick jokes. Honestly though, I have always been a fan of cracked so it will be nice to be able to contribute to that community a bit. Also it means I will be a colleague of comedy writer Gladstone which more than makes my day.
My last thing I wish to share is that I finally got myself a set of wheels. A nice set of wheels. 😃Here's the details in as quick a blurb as possible: green 2000 pontiac grand am se. Sports car. Moon roof. Mine.
I don't have anything else to say with this post, so until next time this is Dan signing off.
By the way everyone be sure to keep an eye out for all of my upcoming Christmas videos where I will go over everything from Christmas music to movies to tree decorating. I even have a few Christmas pictures from my life to share.
Happy Holidays!
In other news I recently joined up the writers forum on http://www.cracked.com which means that in the future it is possible you will be seeing articles on the site written by me, if I can come up with some ideas that are good enough to get published on there; PLUS it pays $50 an article for your first 5 and then $150 an article after. I'm sorry but for that kinda money I will be more than happy to write a list article filled with dick jokes. Honestly though, I have always been a fan of cracked so it will be nice to be able to contribute to that community a bit. Also it means I will be a colleague of comedy writer Gladstone which more than makes my day.
My last thing I wish to share is that I finally got myself a set of wheels. A nice set of wheels. 😃Here's the details in as quick a blurb as possible: green 2000 pontiac grand am se. Sports car. Moon roof. Mine.
I don't have anything else to say with this post, so until next time this is Dan signing off.
By the way everyone be sure to keep an eye out for all of my upcoming Christmas videos where I will go over everything from Christmas music to movies to tree decorating. I even have a few Christmas pictures from my life to share.
Happy Holidays!
Saturday, November 19, 2011
PETA HATES MARIO!
Okay so last night I was having trouble sleeping. I have a lot going on in my life so sometimes sleep is a bit of an issue. To kill the insomnia I take a quick trip onto my iPhone, surf the net a bit, catch up on YouTube subscriptions and then I eventually drift off. Last night one of the videos that showed up in my feed was one by YouTube Vlogger and Certified Lunatic OutBackZack about how P.E.T.A. (that's People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals) is now running a campaign about how Mario Kills Tanooki. Please understand that by sharing this link I am not promoting their campaign but instead pointing out a bad PR move on their part that can go up in the ranks with Unhappy Meals. Please try to understand that I don't condone cruel treatment of animals and I don't condone the skinning of real life Tanooki, however I think that the point needs to be made a bit subtler. Maybe P.E.T.A. should take a tip from the ASPCA for ways to better convey animal rights.
Anyway, go ahead, click on the Mario Kills Tanooki link. In case you don't, heres a break down of what awaits you: First you get to see this darling logo
Anyway, go ahead, click on the Mario Kills Tanooki link. In case you don't, heres a break down of what awaits you: First you get to see this darling logo
 |
| This logo is of course aimed at children. |
and then you are given a chunk of text that reads
"When on a mission to rescue the princess, Mario has been known to use any means necessary to defeat his enemy—even wearing the skin of a raccoon dog to give him special powers.
Tanooki may be just a "suit" in Mario games, but in real life, tanuki are raccoon dogs who are skinned alive for their fur. By wearing Tanooki, Mario is sending the message that it's OK to wear fur. Play Super Tanooki Skin 2D and help Tanooki reclaim his fur!"
Past that is an Adobe Flash game called "Super Tanooki Skin 2D" where you play as a skinned Tanooki trying to catch Mario who is flying with bloodied Tanooki skin so that you can regain your fur. Now looking past the fact that this looks like a nightmare version of Mario, it's possible for the Tanooki to die in this game, which to me actually defeats the purpose of P.E.T.A. Ah, well, it was probably a programming oversight.
I understand that the skinning of real life Tanuki is a serious issue, but again, is this the way to go about protesting? What's gonna happen next week? Mario Hates Turtles? Remember, all a Koopa is supposed to be is a demon turtle. Is D.A.R.E. going to jump on Mario now about drug use, I mean after all, using Mushrooms to fly has to have some sort of bulls eye on it's head for a "Help Mario Stomp Out Drugs Campaign".
What disturbs me more than anything though, is that now P.E.T.A. is picking on the events of a video game! At least when they were handing out Unhappy Meals to kids they were actually protesting something, in this case cruel treatment of chickens. In the coming weeks will we see other bits of fiction that P.E.T.A. has a gripe with? Will Warner Bros. and Looney Tunes come under fire for the antics of Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote? Will Tom & Jerry be subjected to the fate of having P.E.T.A. publicly condemn them? And what about The Simpsons with all of their Itchy & Scratchy bits. It has to be cartoons like that that give P.E.T.A. members nightmares.
I'm all for being nice to animals and not treating them cruelly. I'm all for equal rights and I am all for the 1st amendment. Everyone has a right to protest what they want but it seems to me that as every day goes by we stray further and further from the peaceful protests of men like Martin Luther King Jr. and Ghandi and more in the way of "All equal rights groups are the Westboro Baptist Church.
If you don't know the WBC please educate yourself. These guys are the cream of the crop when you look at scummy human beings. This is a hate group so extreme that the KKK refuses to affiliate with them and Hell's Angels have been used to coral these guys. Unfortunately it seems like they are slowly infecting other "rights groups" with their extreme methods and really contaminating the cause. Let's see more ASPCA style groups looking for animal rights and less groups obsessed with what happens in a fictitious video game.
I know that this is a very touchy topic but please, share your thoughts on this below and try not to flame when you do. Some people are going to be against this move like me while others are going to support it. I won't say you're right if you do but I won't condemn you for your beliefs as I expect no one to condemn me to mine.
*To see the video for this post please see my YouTube Channel
Sunday, September 11, 2011
An Open Letter to Apple
Dear Apple and Hello to all of my readers,
The purpose of this open letter is to point out all of the resounding flaws with your company. I myself only have experience with one and that is the n00b programming of your iTunes client for Windows. I would think that a company as big as you, would be smart enought to PUT IN A FREAKIN' FAIL SAFE FOR EXTERNAL HDD's. We live in a big world where sometimes your computers hard drive just doesn't cut it. To remmedy that, a lot of people now store their music on external drives yet somehow you haven't caught up with this and instead will allow the software to FAIL if it doesn't want to read said external. I was the victim of this several weeks back and scoured the internet for a way to locate a solution. Unfortunatly, since the software wouldn't consolidate, my only option was to reimport 10,000 songs. Let me say that again "My only option was to REIMPORT 10,000 songs"! Okay, that I can live with. I can do that. What I can't live with, is that THEN iTunes said "I'll read the hard drive" so now I HAVE 20,000 SONGS IN MY LIBRARY! 20,000! Now maybe I'm the n00b but I would think that you guys would put in, i don't know, a way to AUTOMATICALLY REMOVE DUPLICATES! Not only that, but it decided to make all copies in on the same day so I can't sort by date to remove them, I lost every play list and ALL OF MY PLAY COUNTS! For the last two weeks I have been unable to sync my iPod Classic (6G) or my iPhone. At this point my only option short of manually deleteing all of these excess files is to REBUILD MY LIBRARY! Yes, I am happy for iCloud and that I can reget my apps at the push of a button and re download all of those free singles of the week. My issues with the other 9750 songs that I either need to copy somehow from my ipod (another feature you guys don't have) or re aquire and import EVERYTHING! I know there is nothing you guys can do, and you won't fix the software for a few more years seeing as you just invented multitasking last year, but I thought you should know this is one Apple Product User you have enraged and possibly lost. Yes I have my iPhone and iPod and will keep it, but I need to give serious thought as to if I will EVER buy a new Apple product again.
Sincerely,
Dan
PS
I bet if I had an Apple computer you guys would have a way to fix this in a heartbeat.
PPS
To all of my readers, if Apple has EVER screwed you over in any way, shape, or form, please respond below in the form of a comment.
The purpose of this open letter is to point out all of the resounding flaws with your company. I myself only have experience with one and that is the n00b programming of your iTunes client for Windows. I would think that a company as big as you, would be smart enought to PUT IN A FREAKIN' FAIL SAFE FOR EXTERNAL HDD's. We live in a big world where sometimes your computers hard drive just doesn't cut it. To remmedy that, a lot of people now store their music on external drives yet somehow you haven't caught up with this and instead will allow the software to FAIL if it doesn't want to read said external. I was the victim of this several weeks back and scoured the internet for a way to locate a solution. Unfortunatly, since the software wouldn't consolidate, my only option was to reimport 10,000 songs. Let me say that again "My only option was to REIMPORT 10,000 songs"! Okay, that I can live with. I can do that. What I can't live with, is that THEN iTunes said "I'll read the hard drive" so now I HAVE 20,000 SONGS IN MY LIBRARY! 20,000! Now maybe I'm the n00b but I would think that you guys would put in, i don't know, a way to AUTOMATICALLY REMOVE DUPLICATES! Not only that, but it decided to make all copies in on the same day so I can't sort by date to remove them, I lost every play list and ALL OF MY PLAY COUNTS! For the last two weeks I have been unable to sync my iPod Classic (6G) or my iPhone. At this point my only option short of manually deleteing all of these excess files is to REBUILD MY LIBRARY! Yes, I am happy for iCloud and that I can reget my apps at the push of a button and re download all of those free singles of the week. My issues with the other 9750 songs that I either need to copy somehow from my ipod (another feature you guys don't have) or re aquire and import EVERYTHING! I know there is nothing you guys can do, and you won't fix the software for a few more years seeing as you just invented multitasking last year, but I thought you should know this is one Apple Product User you have enraged and possibly lost. Yes I have my iPhone and iPod and will keep it, but I need to give serious thought as to if I will EVER buy a new Apple product again.
Sincerely,
Dan
PS
I bet if I had an Apple computer you guys would have a way to fix this in a heartbeat.
PPS
To all of my readers, if Apple has EVER screwed you over in any way, shape, or form, please respond below in the form of a comment.
Saturday, September 10, 2011
SPOILERS - Alice Cooper - "Welcome 2 My Nightmare" Review
On Tuesday September 13th the 13th studio album by legendary rocker Alice Cooper hits stores and I was fortunate enough to get my hands on an early copy. Sitting down listening to it I decided to sit down and do an honest review of it as I am listening to it. The best place to start is the very beginning with:
1. I am Made of You- The starting point for this album is actually a weak one. As soon as Alice opens his mouth to speak the first thing that gets to you is he used AUTO TUNE! Alice fucking Cooper used auto tune on one of his songs. Yes, he is Alice Cooper. Yes, he has earned the right to do WHATEVER he damn well pleases, but he's ALICE COOPER! He doesn't need to auto tune. I've heard this album in other early reviews that this album sounds like a piece from The Rolling Stones. I just want to say right now: MICK JAGGER DOESN'T AUTOTUNE! Let's see where this goes from here.
2. Caffeine- As we get into the second song on the album we are hit with a song about....well caffeine. It's actually a pretty up beat song that almost sounds like it should have been done by a younger band. The lyrics themselves are pretty OK but he treats caffeine as way too much of an addictive and lethal drug. Seeing as this is a concept album and a sequel to "Welcome to My Nightmare" I am willing to overlook any personal gripes with the song as I see where it fits in story wise as a way to keep the nightmares from returning.
3. The Nightmare Returns- Finally the album is starting to get creepy. Everything on this song works, from the creepy piano music in the background to the way that Alice Cooper sings it. The piano runs the entire song and is eventually joined by a classic Cooper sounding metal piece that I assume is the transition to the nightmare. I actually could feel the hairs on my arms going up a tad so I can see this album is heading in the right direction yet.
4. A Runaway Train- Here we have another fast upbeat song. This one almost sounds like a mix between metal and country a little bit. Are there such things as heavy metal banjos cause it sure sounds like there's one in this. I'm getting an image in my head for this song and I will share it. I see Alice Cooper in a nightmare land running down a set of railroad tracks being chased by a giant train that resembles the one from the cover of Motorhead's album "Orgasmatron". (Anywhere I find to put what I see in my mind and help share my interpetation of the story I will). The song ends with the sounds of a train crashing...errie.
5. Last Man on Earth- OK this one starts with a style that almost sounds like "People Are Strange" by The Doors. It's a creepy sounding song though with a creepy, almost carnaval-like, feel to it. I'm starting to think if anything this album would make a great musical film, possibly a mix of live action and animation, because this song would look way to creepy as a live action piece. My favorite lie in this song is "I'm the last man on earth,
So tell me what it's worth.
Am I a beggar or a king?"
Oddly, this one ends with canned appluase. Is it meant to have been performed for those of the other world?
6. The Congregation- This one starts out a little slower which is a good thing. I'd say the pace on this one overall is definetly a bit slower than the others, though not by much. It really sounds like classic Alice Cooper though when you get down to it. So far the album has had it's ups and downs and while it's not 100% classic Alice Cooper it's about 90% classic Cooper.
7. I'll Bite Your Face Off- Here's one that sounds as close to classic Cooper as I've heard yet. This album is slowly falling into it's place and do think that my final rating on this one will be more favorable than my review I did on Twitter last night where I listened to 3 or 4 tracks and then ripped this piece a new one. The lyrics on this one are nicely dark, as the title would suggest and are delivered with a style that feels to me like "I'm Eighteen".
8. Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever- Gothic disco, that's all I'm gonna say. That and I think I really like this one haha. Nice dark sounding vocalists in the back, 70's feel, dark lyrics, and Alice Cooper does it perfectly.
9. Ghouls Gone Wild- This one sounds like a slowed version of "Blitkrieg Bop" a bit. It's another one I'm liking though. The album is starting to pick up an overall older feel which is what I'd expect for this.
10. Something to Remember Me By- Here we go, nice slow mostly acoustic song, almost ballad like. This is another personal favorite for me. Alice Cooper is bringing the story together quite nicely and the songs are sounding more classic as they go.
11. When Hell Comes Home- This one is yet another classic yet powerful sounding piece. Dark and eerie and of course scary.
12. What Baby Wants- At this point it's hard to nitpick these songs because they have finally gotten the pace and feel they need that's why my reviews of them are short and sweet.
13. I Gotta Get out of Here- This one starts with chiming bells and then picks up a nice end of story style feel completely like Alice Cooper's older work. The lyrics are great and the beat is nice.
14. The Underture- Normally I HATE instrumental rock music but this works great. Alice Cooper told his story and ends it with an almost orchestral sounding (yet completely rock) underture to rap it up.
Overall this actually turned out to be a pretty good album. I give it a four out of five and do want to see the live concert that goes with it if Mr. Cooper decides to go on a concert tour to support it. Post what you thought below. :D
1. I am Made of You- The starting point for this album is actually a weak one. As soon as Alice opens his mouth to speak the first thing that gets to you is he used AUTO TUNE! Alice fucking Cooper used auto tune on one of his songs. Yes, he is Alice Cooper. Yes, he has earned the right to do WHATEVER he damn well pleases, but he's ALICE COOPER! He doesn't need to auto tune. I've heard this album in other early reviews that this album sounds like a piece from The Rolling Stones. I just want to say right now: MICK JAGGER DOESN'T AUTOTUNE! Let's see where this goes from here.
2. Caffeine- As we get into the second song on the album we are hit with a song about....well caffeine. It's actually a pretty up beat song that almost sounds like it should have been done by a younger band. The lyrics themselves are pretty OK but he treats caffeine as way too much of an addictive and lethal drug. Seeing as this is a concept album and a sequel to "Welcome to My Nightmare" I am willing to overlook any personal gripes with the song as I see where it fits in story wise as a way to keep the nightmares from returning.
3. The Nightmare Returns- Finally the album is starting to get creepy. Everything on this song works, from the creepy piano music in the background to the way that Alice Cooper sings it. The piano runs the entire song and is eventually joined by a classic Cooper sounding metal piece that I assume is the transition to the nightmare. I actually could feel the hairs on my arms going up a tad so I can see this album is heading in the right direction yet.
4. A Runaway Train- Here we have another fast upbeat song. This one almost sounds like a mix between metal and country a little bit. Are there such things as heavy metal banjos cause it sure sounds like there's one in this. I'm getting an image in my head for this song and I will share it. I see Alice Cooper in a nightmare land running down a set of railroad tracks being chased by a giant train that resembles the one from the cover of Motorhead's album "Orgasmatron". (Anywhere I find to put what I see in my mind and help share my interpetation of the story I will). The song ends with the sounds of a train crashing...errie.
5. Last Man on Earth- OK this one starts with a style that almost sounds like "People Are Strange" by The Doors. It's a creepy sounding song though with a creepy, almost carnaval-like, feel to it. I'm starting to think if anything this album would make a great musical film, possibly a mix of live action and animation, because this song would look way to creepy as a live action piece. My favorite lie in this song is "I'm the last man on earth,
So tell me what it's worth.
Am I a beggar or a king?"
Oddly, this one ends with canned appluase. Is it meant to have been performed for those of the other world?
6. The Congregation- This one starts out a little slower which is a good thing. I'd say the pace on this one overall is definetly a bit slower than the others, though not by much. It really sounds like classic Alice Cooper though when you get down to it. So far the album has had it's ups and downs and while it's not 100% classic Alice Cooper it's about 90% classic Cooper.
7. I'll Bite Your Face Off- Here's one that sounds as close to classic Cooper as I've heard yet. This album is slowly falling into it's place and do think that my final rating on this one will be more favorable than my review I did on Twitter last night where I listened to 3 or 4 tracks and then ripped this piece a new one. The lyrics on this one are nicely dark, as the title would suggest and are delivered with a style that feels to me like "I'm Eighteen".
8. Disco Bloodbath Boogie Fever- Gothic disco, that's all I'm gonna say. That and I think I really like this one haha. Nice dark sounding vocalists in the back, 70's feel, dark lyrics, and Alice Cooper does it perfectly.
9. Ghouls Gone Wild- This one sounds like a slowed version of "Blitkrieg Bop" a bit. It's another one I'm liking though. The album is starting to pick up an overall older feel which is what I'd expect for this.
10. Something to Remember Me By- Here we go, nice slow mostly acoustic song, almost ballad like. This is another personal favorite for me. Alice Cooper is bringing the story together quite nicely and the songs are sounding more classic as they go.
11. When Hell Comes Home- This one is yet another classic yet powerful sounding piece. Dark and eerie and of course scary.
12. What Baby Wants- At this point it's hard to nitpick these songs because they have finally gotten the pace and feel they need that's why my reviews of them are short and sweet.
13. I Gotta Get out of Here- This one starts with chiming bells and then picks up a nice end of story style feel completely like Alice Cooper's older work. The lyrics are great and the beat is nice.
14. The Underture- Normally I HATE instrumental rock music but this works great. Alice Cooper told his story and ends it with an almost orchestral sounding (yet completely rock) underture to rap it up.
Overall this actually turned out to be a pretty good album. I give it a four out of five and do want to see the live concert that goes with it if Mr. Cooper decides to go on a concert tour to support it. Post what you thought below. :D
Thursday, September 1, 2011
Technology - Are We Addicted
Hey all,
Dan here with a new blog post. This is part one of three of a series of blog posts I am doing about technology. This one is on if we are addicted to tech or not. The next two will be the Pros and Cons of Tech and then a History of tech over the last 19 years just to show how it has changed.*
Do we, as a people, suffer from an addiction to technology. The answer is yes. It isn't as simple as an alcohol or drug addiction though. These things are easily identifiable and the proper course of action can be taken. With a tech addict though, it isn't that simple. For one, there are many different types of tech you can be addicted too. For some, it is a general over all addiction (see Chris Pirillo of LockerGnome). Then there are your smartphone addicts. Just to clairfy, a smartphone addict isn't someone who texts their friends 24/7, a smartphone addict is someone who uses their phone everywhere from their communte, to their break, to the bathroom, and even when they should be sleeping. I will admit to being guilty of the later. When I should be asleep I am often kept up with thoughts and stress and that in turn leads to me going to my phone and visiting Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WrestleFuse (which recently overhauled and added in an iOS version of their site available at http://ios.wrestlefuse.com ), TMZ, Digg, Mashable, and a billion other sites and apps. Sometimes I get the feeling that charging my phone right next to my bed is not the best idea, but so be it, I am a happy smartphone addict. Then you have your video game addicts. These are the (usually) guys, who spend more hours killing people on "Black Ops" than they do at work, eating, bathing, and with their friends and family combined. After that you have the biggest category: computer addicts, which is a sub genre of General Tech Addiction (read: Geeks). These are everything from your dedicated hackers to your programers and beyond. I'd like to think I am a little of all of these, not that I should be proud of that.
*My 19th birthday is on 11/5 so it will actually be an 18 and a half year look at tech :D
Dan here with a new blog post. This is part one of three of a series of blog posts I am doing about technology. This one is on if we are addicted to tech or not. The next two will be the Pros and Cons of Tech and then a History of tech over the last 19 years just to show how it has changed.*
Do we, as a people, suffer from an addiction to technology. The answer is yes. It isn't as simple as an alcohol or drug addiction though. These things are easily identifiable and the proper course of action can be taken. With a tech addict though, it isn't that simple. For one, there are many different types of tech you can be addicted too. For some, it is a general over all addiction (see Chris Pirillo of LockerGnome). Then there are your smartphone addicts. Just to clairfy, a smartphone addict isn't someone who texts their friends 24/7, a smartphone addict is someone who uses their phone everywhere from their communte, to their break, to the bathroom, and even when they should be sleeping. I will admit to being guilty of the later. When I should be asleep I am often kept up with thoughts and stress and that in turn leads to me going to my phone and visiting Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, WrestleFuse (which recently overhauled and added in an iOS version of their site available at http://ios.wrestlefuse.com ), TMZ, Digg, Mashable, and a billion other sites and apps. Sometimes I get the feeling that charging my phone right next to my bed is not the best idea, but so be it, I am a happy smartphone addict. Then you have your video game addicts. These are the (usually) guys, who spend more hours killing people on "Black Ops" than they do at work, eating, bathing, and with their friends and family combined. After that you have the biggest category: computer addicts, which is a sub genre of General Tech Addiction (read: Geeks). These are everything from your dedicated hackers to your programers and beyond. I'd like to think I am a little of all of these, not that I should be proud of that.
*My 19th birthday is on 11/5 so it will actually be an 18 and a half year look at tech :D
Sunday, July 24, 2011
Are Traditional Books Dead?
Hey all, welcome back to From the Mind of Dan. Today I want to take an oppurtunity to start a look at something that fascinates me: technology. And I don't mean how technology has changed since it was invented but how much it's changed just since the year of my birth, 1992. A lot of people think if you want to see how much technology has changed for something you have to look back to the record players of the 50's or the industrial machines of the industrial revolution up to today. In reality you can see a nice grasp on how technology has changed by just looking at 18 years or so. Before I get to the main point of todays post I want to start by discussing music.
When I was a kid there are a few distinct ways I remember listening to music. The first was on the car radio. That's a way of listening to music thats still around though it is slowly being replaced by services like Last.FM, Pandora, Spotify, and various satilite radio services. The second way is casettes. I admit that somewhere in my room I still have a casette player that (I think) still works and a handful or so of casettes that a kid would listen to when they're four, five, or six. I remeber also being able to take casettes and listen to them on the old car radio but then came a new invention, the CD.
When the year was about....2000 or so I remeber getting my first cd player. I was 8 or 10 so I don't really remeber hearing about the hype of an ipod and what not, at the time we had just gotten a computer. Anyway a good part of my childhood was spent listening to music on CD's, though I admit I don't have a large collection of these either due to storage space needs. In 2005 or 2006 I got my first MP3 Player (I've since gotten an iPod) and that opened up a whole new world to me: digital music and being able to rip a CD and put it on this little device, take it on the go, and listen to it. There was a lot of talk that started to brew up after that point where people were starting to say that the CD format would be replaced by formats like FLAC and MP3. I think that's both true and false at the same time. On one hand you can still get CD's new at stores of modern releases, although there isn't a massive ammount of dedicated music stores around now. Most of the ones you find sell used records, CD's, and cassettes for hardcore collectors or for those who either can't or refuse to take part in the technical revolution. In short: the MP3 player is killing the cd format. It's giving good blows left and right to it and eventually you'll see even fewer CD's in stores than you do now. That brings me to my point of this blog:
I live in a town called EHT in Southern New Jersey. If I want a book I basically have two local options: Atlantic Books in Somer's Point or Borders in Mays Landing, there isn't really a dedicated bookstore in EHT. True I can get books at Shop Rite or Ollies or Sams or Wal-Mart or K-Mart or Target but that isn't the same as getting a book at a BOOKSTORE. A place dedicated to selling books, maybe with a few comfy chairs and the like. Now that I am out of high school I am finding myself doing a bit more reading because I am not being pushed to do so. At first I was splitting my reading between a Sharper Image Literati and actual books I would buy at Borders. I have a nice stack of unread real books I will pull through in time, but from here on out I am going digital with all of my new reading because of a double hitter. Borders decided to close it's doors for one reason or another so they are having their liquidation sales. That's ok, I can live with Atlantic Books in Somer's Point. But wait a second! Yesterday I was at Atlantic Books and they were even deeper into their liquidation sales. That means the only two local dedicated bookstores are gone! The closest one I currently know of is the two Atlantic Books located in Ocean City on the Boardwalk. Soon I want to head over and see if they are also closing their doors. If they are then it backs up my thoughts: the ereader and ebooks have KILLED the tradition book.
Now before you go on a tirade and say that books will never be dead, I just want to claify that traditional books are dead. Ebooks are alive and pleantiful and will be for a long time in the future. Authors will continue to crank out books. Stephen King isn't going to cease to turn out tales of Macbre. AJ Jacobs won't give up on turning himself into a human guinea pig and most importantly celebrities (both those we love like Dick Van Dyke and Betty White and those we hate like J WOWW and Snookie) will continue to turn out life stories and tell alls. Never fear those won't cease. What will cease is the mass production of physical copies that waste trees and other resources to be made. Book production will always exist and writers will always make a buck but the means in which they do it are now digital. It's time to love and embrace devices like the Kindle, the Nook, the Literati, and the Sony Reader. What it will be interesting to see is if a company comes out with a very affordable ereader that appeals to the every day individual. The main thing that keeps people from ereaders right now is the fact that they have to pay for books and shell out 100-200 dollars for a device. What we need is an eink reader that can be made cheaply be durable and be sold for 30 or 40 dollars so that people can adapt to the modern trend much like they did when music went digital. Look at MP3 players for a moment. Some only cost 20 or 30 dollars while others are a few hundred.
Anyway what are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to read a traditional book or an ebook? Do you believe that all of the bookstore closings are a sign that traditional books are going the way of cd's? What is your ereader of choice? Sound off to these questions and leave your thoughts below and be sure to keep an eye out for an upcoming post on the advantages and disadvantages of ereading.
Until Next Time,
-Dan
When I was a kid there are a few distinct ways I remember listening to music. The first was on the car radio. That's a way of listening to music thats still around though it is slowly being replaced by services like Last.FM, Pandora, Spotify, and various satilite radio services. The second way is casettes. I admit that somewhere in my room I still have a casette player that (I think) still works and a handful or so of casettes that a kid would listen to when they're four, five, or six. I remeber also being able to take casettes and listen to them on the old car radio but then came a new invention, the CD.
When the year was about....2000 or so I remeber getting my first cd player. I was 8 or 10 so I don't really remeber hearing about the hype of an ipod and what not, at the time we had just gotten a computer. Anyway a good part of my childhood was spent listening to music on CD's, though I admit I don't have a large collection of these either due to storage space needs. In 2005 or 2006 I got my first MP3 Player (I've since gotten an iPod) and that opened up a whole new world to me: digital music and being able to rip a CD and put it on this little device, take it on the go, and listen to it. There was a lot of talk that started to brew up after that point where people were starting to say that the CD format would be replaced by formats like FLAC and MP3. I think that's both true and false at the same time. On one hand you can still get CD's new at stores of modern releases, although there isn't a massive ammount of dedicated music stores around now. Most of the ones you find sell used records, CD's, and cassettes for hardcore collectors or for those who either can't or refuse to take part in the technical revolution. In short: the MP3 player is killing the cd format. It's giving good blows left and right to it and eventually you'll see even fewer CD's in stores than you do now. That brings me to my point of this blog:
I live in a town called EHT in Southern New Jersey. If I want a book I basically have two local options: Atlantic Books in Somer's Point or Borders in Mays Landing, there isn't really a dedicated bookstore in EHT. True I can get books at Shop Rite or Ollies or Sams or Wal-Mart or K-Mart or Target but that isn't the same as getting a book at a BOOKSTORE. A place dedicated to selling books, maybe with a few comfy chairs and the like. Now that I am out of high school I am finding myself doing a bit more reading because I am not being pushed to do so. At first I was splitting my reading between a Sharper Image Literati and actual books I would buy at Borders. I have a nice stack of unread real books I will pull through in time, but from here on out I am going digital with all of my new reading because of a double hitter. Borders decided to close it's doors for one reason or another so they are having their liquidation sales. That's ok, I can live with Atlantic Books in Somer's Point. But wait a second! Yesterday I was at Atlantic Books and they were even deeper into their liquidation sales. That means the only two local dedicated bookstores are gone! The closest one I currently know of is the two Atlantic Books located in Ocean City on the Boardwalk. Soon I want to head over and see if they are also closing their doors. If they are then it backs up my thoughts: the ereader and ebooks have KILLED the tradition book.
Now before you go on a tirade and say that books will never be dead, I just want to claify that traditional books are dead. Ebooks are alive and pleantiful and will be for a long time in the future. Authors will continue to crank out books. Stephen King isn't going to cease to turn out tales of Macbre. AJ Jacobs won't give up on turning himself into a human guinea pig and most importantly celebrities (both those we love like Dick Van Dyke and Betty White and those we hate like J WOWW and Snookie) will continue to turn out life stories and tell alls. Never fear those won't cease. What will cease is the mass production of physical copies that waste trees and other resources to be made. Book production will always exist and writers will always make a buck but the means in which they do it are now digital. It's time to love and embrace devices like the Kindle, the Nook, the Literati, and the Sony Reader. What it will be interesting to see is if a company comes out with a very affordable ereader that appeals to the every day individual. The main thing that keeps people from ereaders right now is the fact that they have to pay for books and shell out 100-200 dollars for a device. What we need is an eink reader that can be made cheaply be durable and be sold for 30 or 40 dollars so that people can adapt to the modern trend much like they did when music went digital. Look at MP3 players for a moment. Some only cost 20 or 30 dollars while others are a few hundred.
Anyway what are your thoughts on this? Do you prefer to read a traditional book or an ebook? Do you believe that all of the bookstore closings are a sign that traditional books are going the way of cd's? What is your ereader of choice? Sound off to these questions and leave your thoughts below and be sure to keep an eye out for an upcoming post on the advantages and disadvantages of ereading.
Until Next Time,
-Dan
Sunday, July 17, 2011
The Internet is a Basic Human Right? Then Treat it as Such!
I was sitting around today doing some recreational reading on my iPhone when I stumbled upon an interesting article, well really a blog, from CNN that discussed the recent uprisings in various countries and the way that the various nations that were involved had leaders that limited or cut the countries internet access which led to the UN making an interesting ruling: the internet is now a basic human right. Now don't think that this post is going to be me bashing that decision because I support it. I believe that in our society now, in 2011, the internet is indeed a basic human right. When the internet was first released in the early 90's it was merely a novelty and a business tool that was afforded only by the highest class of people pulling the biggest paychecks. Over time that was reduced to households with dial up and broadband and jump a head a little further and the internet became a crucial tool for students and employees in various jobs alike. Now fast forward to 2011 and it has been upgraded to basic human right. If the internet is indeed a basic himan right, why is it not treated as such.
Here in America we have our basic human rights: electricity (that not everyone has), clean running water (that not everyone has), the internet (which not everyone has). In all honesty the water and electricity deal has a lot to do with not being able to afford bills due to the horrible job market but as long as the debt is reasonable then the companies will work with you in order to make sure you maintain that much. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) however do not work with people to make sure that they can afford their bill and in all honesty they don't act like they want to. Internet is pricey. I haven't looked at the prices in a while but I know good internet can run you at least $60-100 a month. That's a lot for a basic human right when you pile it on electricity, car insuarances, cell phones, and cable TV or home Phone if applicable. Most people can barely afford to pay what they do now, let
alone pile in an internet bill that high. Based on the way it looks though, I am a third world citizen in a first world country.
I have electricity and running water. No cable but I have an iPhone (that I am lucky we can afford) which can NEVER serve as a replacement computer unless the internet makes major changes, but it won't. As far as an internet connection on my laptop goes though, I am forced to either head down to the local library (and work around their business hours, give up good web access on sundays, and fight for a table near the only free laptop outlet) or scrounge around at the windows of my house, standing like an animal, trying to catch an unlocked signal. Naturally a mooched signal like that isn't going to be strong enough to view high quality videos on YouTube, upload videos anywhere, get decent speed downloads, etc. A lot of these are things that are needed for being a student (which I am, getting ready to start college) or a worker. Is that right, having to scrounge like a third world scavenger for a basic human right in the middle of America?
I'm sure I am not alone when I say this: if the UN is going to declare that the internet is a basic human right, then it is important for it to be treated as such. If you wake up and you don't have clean running water or working electricity you would have a fit and demand that someone do something. It's time the same gets done for our internet right. If it is a basic human right it is time that the United States government take the power to control it for themselves and out of the hands of the big companies like Comcast that run it now. It's time America does this for the people so that the citizens of this country have the appropriate access to the resources and services they are entitled to.
Time for me to post this from a scavengers hole,
-Dan
Here in America we have our basic human rights: electricity (that not everyone has), clean running water (that not everyone has), the internet (which not everyone has). In all honesty the water and electricity deal has a lot to do with not being able to afford bills due to the horrible job market but as long as the debt is reasonable then the companies will work with you in order to make sure you maintain that much. ISPs (Internet Service Providers) however do not work with people to make sure that they can afford their bill and in all honesty they don't act like they want to. Internet is pricey. I haven't looked at the prices in a while but I know good internet can run you at least $60-100 a month. That's a lot for a basic human right when you pile it on electricity, car insuarances, cell phones, and cable TV or home Phone if applicable. Most people can barely afford to pay what they do now, let
alone pile in an internet bill that high. Based on the way it looks though, I am a third world citizen in a first world country.
I have electricity and running water. No cable but I have an iPhone (that I am lucky we can afford) which can NEVER serve as a replacement computer unless the internet makes major changes, but it won't. As far as an internet connection on my laptop goes though, I am forced to either head down to the local library (and work around their business hours, give up good web access on sundays, and fight for a table near the only free laptop outlet) or scrounge around at the windows of my house, standing like an animal, trying to catch an unlocked signal. Naturally a mooched signal like that isn't going to be strong enough to view high quality videos on YouTube, upload videos anywhere, get decent speed downloads, etc. A lot of these are things that are needed for being a student (which I am, getting ready to start college) or a worker. Is that right, having to scrounge like a third world scavenger for a basic human right in the middle of America?
I'm sure I am not alone when I say this: if the UN is going to declare that the internet is a basic human right, then it is important for it to be treated as such. If you wake up and you don't have clean running water or working electricity you would have a fit and demand that someone do something. It's time the same gets done for our internet right. If it is a basic human right it is time that the United States government take the power to control it for themselves and out of the hands of the big companies like Comcast that run it now. It's time America does this for the people so that the citizens of this country have the appropriate access to the resources and services they are entitled to.
Time for me to post this from a scavengers hole,
-Dan
Friday, July 15, 2011
Goodbye Harry Potter
*Spoiler Alert* The "Harry Potter" series has come to an end so I am here to review "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2" and talk about the series as a whole, but I'll be honest: I'm not holding back. There will be spoilers. I'm not concerned with who knows that. With that, if you don't want spoilers on the eighth film in the series either close your browser at this time and return when you've seen the film or close your eyes and click the back button and then read another post. Anyway, onto the regularly scheduled post.
I've lost a brother. Not a brother who was born to my mother and lived with me in my house, but a brother with a scar, born to a woman by the name of J.K. Rowling. My brother, along with many others in the world, was "The Boy Who Lived" Harry Potter. Harry got his start back in the 1990's when J.K. Rowling published a novel entitled "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Eventually the book came to America where it was known as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". The book was a success and was followed by "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". Each of the books saw a film adaptation with "Deathly Hallows" being a two part film. What followed with those films was a cultural phenomenon similar to "Lord of the Rings" brought to the screen by Peter Jackson and "Star Wars" created by George Lucas. Harry got everything: action figures, costumes, props, film soundtracks, games, candy, and video games; not to mention there's an extensive line of Harry Potter lego's along with games based on that. All that's missing is a Harry Potter MMO where you create a character that starts at 11 years old in Hogwarts going through the classes and 7 year scheduel to then go off and get a job in the wizarding world. Actually that sounds like a good Free to Play MMO game idea. If anyone from Warner Bros. Interactive is reading this I would ask you to consider that.
To bring Harry to the big screen the perfect cast had to be chosen and throughout the run of the series amazing actors helped achieve that. Daniel Radcliffe played the title role of Harry Potter with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson playing his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermionie Granger respectivly. Dame Maggie Smith signed on to play Professor Minerva McGonagall, the professor of Trasfiguration along with being a future Headmistress of the school, while Richard Harris, known for being the vocalist behind the song "MacArthur Park" played Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts at the start of the series. Sadly, Richard Harris passed away after completion of the film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" so he was replaced with Sir Michael Gambon who did a phenomenal job as Albus, but in my eyes Richard Harris will always be the true Dumbledore. Alan Rickman, known for doing many films including more recently "Sweeney Todd" with Johnny Depp, brought life to one of the most contriversal characters in the series: Severus Snape, the potions master at Hogwarts. His loyalties are brought up as a key plot point throughout the series with book 7 finally showing where his heart really lied. Rounding out just a few of the amazing cast members was a personal favorite of mine: Gary Oldman (Gordon in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" films, the lead terrorist in "Air Force One" and about a billion other roles) as Harry's godfather Sirius Black who gets killed by his own cousin, Bellatrix LeStrange (Helena Bonham Carter, anoter great). Many other big stars brought life to characters but these were the ones that really touched me. To round out the notes on casting though, the series main villian Voldemort was played by the great Ralph Finnes.
Onto the 'review' of "Deathly Hallows Part 2". The film itself is very dark, both physically and in content/theme. Most of the films in the series opened on a somewhat bright note with the playing of "Hedwig's Theme" which really is the theme of the series. This one instead starts with a darker piece of music that's somber as brief flashes of the end of "Deathly Hallows Part 1" play before going to the cottage by the sea. Harry takes this time to talk to both Griphook, who turns out to be a lying little demon, and Mr. Olivander who is played by John Hurt, who originally played the role in "Sorceror's Stone". I was actually a tad surprised at how old he looks, although I doubt I should be seeing as he was in the original "Alien" movie that was made in the 1970's and he wasn't all that young then. From there Harry and friends go on their quest to locate the remaining Horcruxes that need to be destroyed in order for them to be able to ruin Lord Voldemort. The scene in the caverns under Gringott's, the Wizard Bank were well done and the dragon looked beautiful in 3D. The remainder of the film is, for the most part, the Battle of Hogwarts. Yes, they dedicate essentially an hour and a half or so to what happens in the battle at the schoool, but that's a good thing. It's a busy battle with Harry's adventure mixed in which worked as a plot style. There are moments that will definitely get to you but there are funny moments too. As in all the films Neville Longbottom is used more for laughs then anything, but he shows a brave side to him we all knew was coming. Both Mrs. Weasly and
Minerva McGonagall have lines that gained a huge laugh from the audience and a few of the deaths in the film gained applause. Overall the film was incredibly well done, the effects were stunning, the make up was great, and the sets were breath taking. Overall definitely worth seeing, and seeing in 3D if you can swing the few extra dollars.
It was the epilouge at the end that served as both the saddest point in the film, and in my opinion, the worst done point in the film. Unless I missed something, which I doubt I did, seeing as I went to the very first showing, it seems like the epilouge was trimmed down a bit, focusing on Harry and his son Albus Severus Potter, elimating many moments. References to Lilly and James, Harry and Ginny's two other children, merely showing them, but not naming them; no mention of the names of Ron & Hermionie's, Draco Malfoy and his Wife, or any other kids for that matter. The part where Lupin and Tonk's child is caught making out with Bill and Fleur's was cut and any mention of anyone's fates is cut as well. I rather enjoyed knowing Neville became a professor and that Hagrid was still on the grounds. I guess you can't have everything though. I know they reshot the epilogue so maybe on the Blu Ray release they will have the original take which, hopefully, contains those important lines. Really they aren't crucial so I can see why they were chopped but I liked them being there. If I am the only one I will shut up though.
When that epilouge rolled though, I was crying and not little tears, but crocodile tears. I was 11 when the first film came out. I feel like I made my journey with Harry and like he was a part of the family. Seeing his series come to an end makes me more than a little upset. I won't have to deal with it long as on July 31st, 2011 as soon as midnight hits I'm attempting to be one of the first million to join Pottermore. I believe that night it's open to the first million on a first come first serve basis for a beta version and then in october the site goes live to all. Pottermore will be a new way to re-experience the entire series of books, which will be nice. Harry can continue to grow with us a bit in new ways.
Instead of siging off with my usual line and name, I would like to close today with a line by J.K. Rowling, that I think is for all of us who grew with Harry.
"Whether by book or by film, hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home." -JK Rowling
I've lost a brother. Not a brother who was born to my mother and lived with me in my house, but a brother with a scar, born to a woman by the name of J.K. Rowling. My brother, along with many others in the world, was "The Boy Who Lived" Harry Potter. Harry got his start back in the 1990's when J.K. Rowling published a novel entitled "Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Eventually the book came to America where it was known as "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone". The book was a success and was followed by "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets", "Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban", "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire". "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix", "Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince", and "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows". Each of the books saw a film adaptation with "Deathly Hallows" being a two part film. What followed with those films was a cultural phenomenon similar to "Lord of the Rings" brought to the screen by Peter Jackson and "Star Wars" created by George Lucas. Harry got everything: action figures, costumes, props, film soundtracks, games, candy, and video games; not to mention there's an extensive line of Harry Potter lego's along with games based on that. All that's missing is a Harry Potter MMO where you create a character that starts at 11 years old in Hogwarts going through the classes and 7 year scheduel to then go off and get a job in the wizarding world. Actually that sounds like a good Free to Play MMO game idea. If anyone from Warner Bros. Interactive is reading this I would ask you to consider that.
To bring Harry to the big screen the perfect cast had to be chosen and throughout the run of the series amazing actors helped achieve that. Daniel Radcliffe played the title role of Harry Potter with Rupert Grint and Emma Watson playing his best friends Ron Weasley and Hermionie Granger respectivly. Dame Maggie Smith signed on to play Professor Minerva McGonagall, the professor of Trasfiguration along with being a future Headmistress of the school, while Richard Harris, known for being the vocalist behind the song "MacArthur Park" played Professor Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts at the start of the series. Sadly, Richard Harris passed away after completion of the film "Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets" so he was replaced with Sir Michael Gambon who did a phenomenal job as Albus, but in my eyes Richard Harris will always be the true Dumbledore. Alan Rickman, known for doing many films including more recently "Sweeney Todd" with Johnny Depp, brought life to one of the most contriversal characters in the series: Severus Snape, the potions master at Hogwarts. His loyalties are brought up as a key plot point throughout the series with book 7 finally showing where his heart really lied. Rounding out just a few of the amazing cast members was a personal favorite of mine: Gary Oldman (Gordon in Christopher Nolan's "Dark Knight" films, the lead terrorist in "Air Force One" and about a billion other roles) as Harry's godfather Sirius Black who gets killed by his own cousin, Bellatrix LeStrange (Helena Bonham Carter, anoter great). Many other big stars brought life to characters but these were the ones that really touched me. To round out the notes on casting though, the series main villian Voldemort was played by the great Ralph Finnes.
Onto the 'review' of "Deathly Hallows Part 2". The film itself is very dark, both physically and in content/theme. Most of the films in the series opened on a somewhat bright note with the playing of "Hedwig's Theme" which really is the theme of the series. This one instead starts with a darker piece of music that's somber as brief flashes of the end of "Deathly Hallows Part 1" play before going to the cottage by the sea. Harry takes this time to talk to both Griphook, who turns out to be a lying little demon, and Mr. Olivander who is played by John Hurt, who originally played the role in "Sorceror's Stone". I was actually a tad surprised at how old he looks, although I doubt I should be seeing as he was in the original "Alien" movie that was made in the 1970's and he wasn't all that young then. From there Harry and friends go on their quest to locate the remaining Horcruxes that need to be destroyed in order for them to be able to ruin Lord Voldemort. The scene in the caverns under Gringott's, the Wizard Bank were well done and the dragon looked beautiful in 3D. The remainder of the film is, for the most part, the Battle of Hogwarts. Yes, they dedicate essentially an hour and a half or so to what happens in the battle at the schoool, but that's a good thing. It's a busy battle with Harry's adventure mixed in which worked as a plot style. There are moments that will definitely get to you but there are funny moments too. As in all the films Neville Longbottom is used more for laughs then anything, but he shows a brave side to him we all knew was coming. Both Mrs. Weasly and
Minerva McGonagall have lines that gained a huge laugh from the audience and a few of the deaths in the film gained applause. Overall the film was incredibly well done, the effects were stunning, the make up was great, and the sets were breath taking. Overall definitely worth seeing, and seeing in 3D if you can swing the few extra dollars.
It was the epilouge at the end that served as both the saddest point in the film, and in my opinion, the worst done point in the film. Unless I missed something, which I doubt I did, seeing as I went to the very first showing, it seems like the epilouge was trimmed down a bit, focusing on Harry and his son Albus Severus Potter, elimating many moments. References to Lilly and James, Harry and Ginny's two other children, merely showing them, but not naming them; no mention of the names of Ron & Hermionie's, Draco Malfoy and his Wife, or any other kids for that matter. The part where Lupin and Tonk's child is caught making out with Bill and Fleur's was cut and any mention of anyone's fates is cut as well. I rather enjoyed knowing Neville became a professor and that Hagrid was still on the grounds. I guess you can't have everything though. I know they reshot the epilogue so maybe on the Blu Ray release they will have the original take which, hopefully, contains those important lines. Really they aren't crucial so I can see why they were chopped but I liked them being there. If I am the only one I will shut up though.
When that epilouge rolled though, I was crying and not little tears, but crocodile tears. I was 11 when the first film came out. I feel like I made my journey with Harry and like he was a part of the family. Seeing his series come to an end makes me more than a little upset. I won't have to deal with it long as on July 31st, 2011 as soon as midnight hits I'm attempting to be one of the first million to join Pottermore. I believe that night it's open to the first million on a first come first serve basis for a beta version and then in october the site goes live to all. Pottermore will be a new way to re-experience the entire series of books, which will be nice. Harry can continue to grow with us a bit in new ways.
Instead of siging off with my usual line and name, I would like to close today with a line by J.K. Rowling, that I think is for all of us who grew with Harry.
"Whether by book or by film, hogwarts will always be there to welcome you home." -JK Rowling
Saturday, July 9, 2011
Is Jailbreaking Dead?
Notorious iOS Hacker Comex has released the 3.0 version of his unteathered and mobile Safari-based iOS jailbreak (http://www.jailbreakme.com) which makes jailbreaking your iPhone, iPod Touch or iPad literally as easy as installing an app from the App Store. When the jailbreak went live I made sure to get on and run it on my iPhone. It was nice having my iPhone free from Apple's controling ways again, but as I went through Cydia, the jailbreak app store, I just couldn't find anything that appealed to me. Not because I am an Apple fan boy or anything, but simply because Apple is fixing the issues with it's mobile OS.
The first time I ever jailbroke a device was back when I had my iPod Touch (first generation) running one of the 3.x.x firmwares. I jailbroke the little thing mainly because I wanted to be able to do the following: add a background to my home screen, make folders to organize things, and really just make a few minor cosmetic changes like fonts and stuff (but those I could easily live without). Eventually my iPod touch died and I was stuck with just my 160 GB Classic for music and an old Virgin Mobile phone. One day my dad decided that it would be fun to get me an iPhone, so I wound up with a 3GS, which despite having fewer cameras and a lower resolution than the 4 is still a very nice phone. Somewhere in the land of iOS 4.x.x I decided to jailbreak again, when JailbreakMe 2.0 was out, I even advocated it in a short lived iPhone produced show called Dan's Realm. The jailbreak was nice because I was able to tether for a little while (though I gave up when I saw the amount of data it was consuming). Nothing else in the Cydia store really appealed to me though, seeing as Apple gave me home screen backgrounds and folders. I restored my phone and tried to jailbreak one more time on iOS 4.3.2 but that was an awful experience so I gave up on jailbreaking.
Then JailbreakMe 3.0 came out and I just had to try it one last time. The only apps I found really worth installing were BiteSMS (which I couldn't even get to run on the latest firmware) and LockInfo. Neither of these really hit close to home either though, as the notification center is on it's way in iOS 5. If Steve Jobs could just turn around now and let us install custom made text messaging tones I think that jailbreaking the iPhone would truly be dead.
I don't know about you, but personally I believe that the iOS jailbreak is nearing a point where it will be useless seeing as Apple is finally hearing our pleas. As they see what the jailbreak community is doing to modify the OS it appears that they are following suit by putting a team of Apple Geniuses together to work on assembling the new features to launch. I'm an iPhone user and I plan to be as long as I can afford to, but I know longer see the need to jailbreak a device.
What are your thoughts on this? Is jailbreaking dead? Do you think that jailbreaking is still a technological process that is needed for an iPhone? Sound off in the comments below.
Until next time,
-Dan
The first time I ever jailbroke a device was back when I had my iPod Touch (first generation) running one of the 3.x.x firmwares. I jailbroke the little thing mainly because I wanted to be able to do the following: add a background to my home screen, make folders to organize things, and really just make a few minor cosmetic changes like fonts and stuff (but those I could easily live without). Eventually my iPod touch died and I was stuck with just my 160 GB Classic for music and an old Virgin Mobile phone. One day my dad decided that it would be fun to get me an iPhone, so I wound up with a 3GS, which despite having fewer cameras and a lower resolution than the 4 is still a very nice phone. Somewhere in the land of iOS 4.x.x I decided to jailbreak again, when JailbreakMe 2.0 was out, I even advocated it in a short lived iPhone produced show called Dan's Realm. The jailbreak was nice because I was able to tether for a little while (though I gave up when I saw the amount of data it was consuming). Nothing else in the Cydia store really appealed to me though, seeing as Apple gave me home screen backgrounds and folders. I restored my phone and tried to jailbreak one more time on iOS 4.3.2 but that was an awful experience so I gave up on jailbreaking.
Then JailbreakMe 3.0 came out and I just had to try it one last time. The only apps I found really worth installing were BiteSMS (which I couldn't even get to run on the latest firmware) and LockInfo. Neither of these really hit close to home either though, as the notification center is on it's way in iOS 5. If Steve Jobs could just turn around now and let us install custom made text messaging tones I think that jailbreaking the iPhone would truly be dead.
I don't know about you, but personally I believe that the iOS jailbreak is nearing a point where it will be useless seeing as Apple is finally hearing our pleas. As they see what the jailbreak community is doing to modify the OS it appears that they are following suit by putting a team of Apple Geniuses together to work on assembling the new features to launch. I'm an iPhone user and I plan to be as long as I can afford to, but I know longer see the need to jailbreak a device.
What are your thoughts on this? Is jailbreaking dead? Do you think that jailbreaking is still a technological process that is needed for an iPhone? Sound off in the comments below.
Until next time,
-Dan
Sunday, July 3, 2011
RIP Jim Morrison
No major post for today or the next few days as my 4th of July festivities begin tomorrow. Just wanted to take a moment and say Happy 4th of July to everyone here in America and RiP Jim Morrison, he's been gone for about 40 years yet he still is able to impact artists and individuals. We miss you.
-Dan
-Dan
Saturday, July 2, 2011
"My Two Dads" are "Two and a Half Men"
Last week while I was out picking up some new DVDs to watch for the week my mom stumbled upon two DVDs for $1.99 each at Target. One was "ThirtySomething" which was a drama in the eighties or nineties. It's never been a show that appealed to me, but I decided to borrow the other DVD and give it a watch through which is "My Two Dads", a TV sitcom that aired in 1987 and stars Paul Reiser (of "Mad About You" and "Aliens" fame) along with Greg Evigan as two former friends who had a falling out in college over a girl who had slept with (and loved) both of them. The woman passes away and the show begins with the reading of her will, where she leaves each men fifty percent of her estate. Her estate, as it turns out, is her twelve year old daughter, Nicole. At first the two men, Michael and Joey, are reluctant to raise the young girl, but in the end decide to put their differences aside, move in together, and decide to raise the child. To add a little comedy to the situation, the judge in charge of the child's case is also the landlord of the building where the men live with their daughter. Other stars of the show include Staci Keanan as Nicole and Florence Stanley as the Judge, along with football great Dick Butkus.
The series itself works. Being released in the 80's despite running for only three seasons it can be looked at as one of the sitcom greats, though it was beat out by a bigger monster "Full House". The show was able to catch the eye of some audiences...or at least enough to warrent DVD releases. It was a name in the credits though that really caught my eye. Chuck Lorre. I'm pretty sure that name is clicking with a lot of you right now. Chuck Lorre is the creative force behind "Two and a Half Men" which up until the upcoming season starred Charlie Sheen. Twenty years prior to creating "Two and a Half Men" Lorre worked as a story writer on at least 12 episodes of "My Two Dads" which almost shows up with the premise of "Men". Think about it, two guys live together raising a child. One is a rule abiding good guy and one is a partying womanizer. Sure nobody had to die to move the plot of "Men" but you still can't deny the similiarities.
What do you think of these two shows? Sound off below.
-Dan
The series itself works. Being released in the 80's despite running for only three seasons it can be looked at as one of the sitcom greats, though it was beat out by a bigger monster "Full House". The show was able to catch the eye of some audiences...or at least enough to warrent DVD releases. It was a name in the credits though that really caught my eye. Chuck Lorre. I'm pretty sure that name is clicking with a lot of you right now. Chuck Lorre is the creative force behind "Two and a Half Men" which up until the upcoming season starred Charlie Sheen. Twenty years prior to creating "Two and a Half Men" Lorre worked as a story writer on at least 12 episodes of "My Two Dads" which almost shows up with the premise of "Men". Think about it, two guys live together raising a child. One is a rule abiding good guy and one is a partying womanizer. Sure nobody had to die to move the plot of "Men" but you still can't deny the similiarities.
What do you think of these two shows? Sound off below.
-Dan
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