Yeah, I’ll admit there hasn’t been much activity here for some time. In fact, it’s been too long since I posted something, so I’ll start by saying “happy 2008!”, and I hope 2008 will be a good one. But for those curious to know why I’ve been missing in action, the answer is fairly short I’ll sum it up by saying: being sick on and off for several months while being busy are not a good combination.
So that’s the answer in a nutshell. In fact I’m STILL trying to catch up on mail missed, so if you sent me a message in the past 6 months and haven’t yet received a response… don’t take it personally and think I’m ignoring you. Unless it was life or death or work related, I probably read it and the response is sitting in my drafts folder which has been seriously neglected. But fear not, I’m slowly working through it.
In fact, catching up on my email is listed as part of my personal New Years resolution. Along with pushing more content to this site, and getting some secret projects finished while trying not to kill myself in the process. In the meantime, go check out the update I gave to Unattended.org back in early December while I get my shit sorted out.
More soon, I promise.
Category : entertainment + hardware + music + review
I decided it was about that time for a new audio toy since my iRiver IMP350 I had purchased years ago was getting old, not as portable as I’d like it to be, and generally bugging out… I decided to find a nice replacement. Originally, the plan was just to go out and snag a little iPod Nano and be done with it, but I knew there had to be something better. And there is.
First and foremost I wasn’t entirely comfortable with the idea of owning a musical roach motel, along with being forced to use extra and unnecessary software to “manage” and “move” around my music collection. In fact, my music is organized in such a way that I didn’t want anything screwing it up and I didn’t want any extra software for a device beyond a necessary driver. Yeah… I’m a picky bastard like that. But since I didn’t know what all my options were beyond an iPod or Zune, I started searching for “iPod alternatives” for answers and “iPod killer” for giggles.
To make a long story short, I landed upon several good reviews and suggestions for the Sandisk Sansa e200 series “media player”. After comparing the specs vs other players in it’s size and weight class, the Sansa stood out above the rest and then some when you throw in the micro SD card expansion. The only real question I have to ask is: Why the hell isn’t this player getting more press?
But if you don’t believe me, I drew up a quick list of pros and cons:
The Pros:
The Cons:
Fuzzy Areas:
Final Verdict:
I’m not sure how many generations the e200 series has been through, but I’ll wager a guess and say: not many. It’s design and construction is pretty solid and I hope future versions will only see improvements for the better without changing how it works overall as a mass storage device plus media player. While the LCD and lighting on it are superb to a point where it can illuminate a small dark room or hallway, the video and photo options are really quite pointless in my opinion, but I wouldn’t consider or hinge my purchase on those options in the first place.
In the end, if you’re still considering a iPod in the “Nano class” of mp3 devices after this comparison and settle for an actual nano… Then all I can say for you is: Enjoy your lock-in, sucker.
Category : ajax + games + internet
Earlier today, Alex informed me that he and Bert are now taking things to the next level. And by that he means they’re now looking for more players to get their war on within their “little” game project. If a turn-based strategy game like Risk mixed with Tactics set in a graphical style similar to Advance Wars is your thing, then WeeWar wants you!
No plug-ins or extras are required to play, just a good JavaScript enabled browser is all you need.
Since signing up back in March, I’ve been having fun in my spare time challenging and accepting challenges from the WeeWar developers and members of the community. While the gameplay is currently solid, it’s always getting tweaks and additions keeping updates to the game totally seamless. The community is currently growing and looking for more players to fill the ranks so you’ll always find an opponent. So if you think you’re a good commander, I offer you to challenge me and other players from the comforts of your office or cubicle when the boss isn’t looking.
Category : internet + silly + updates
Now April gets one.
I’ve recently been on and off and finally catching up with everything due to my oh so wonderful AT&T “broadband” connection (but more on that another time) and just got around to actually reading most of my email. And while I’ve attempted to avoid yet another social site Gavin mailed me an invite to FaceBook out of the blue. Now since my name was already in the system I had no choice but to accept said invitation. OK, Gav… You win. This is kind of a neat site after all.
So if you can spell my first and last name, then you can buddy me on FaceBook now.
In other interesting news: Over the last week Project Honey Pot wrapped up a few exciting announcements and unveiled “a bigger and smarter arsenal to combat spam”. Spam and Honey Pot tools aside, I believe the biggest of all the announcement made was the one made on Thursday with the $1B+ Lawsuit Against Spammers. Two words that will hurt the most as a result of this lawsuit: “Public Records”. Add “Spam” and I think it’s a recipe for nastiness waiting to happen.