I'm on my way to the Palm WebOS dev conference. I'm a little excited and a little nervous. I'm nervous because I've been reading about and playing with webOS since last spring, but I don't have anything to show for it. I'm a C/C++ and Ruby developer by trade so I haven't fully grasped the framework and Javascript. I know Javascript isn't a hard language to learn and work with, but it's different. Event handling isn't something I'm used to working with. My natural application space is not web apps, so this is all new to me. It doesn't help also that I'm in grad school either.
I'm hoping going to this conference will help me put it all together so that I can get my mobile/web dev game going. It's something I've wanted to do for some time now, My goals for the conference are to meet 10 people, and learn enough so that I can put something together in the following two weeks, so that I complete my goal of putting something our before the end of November. I really enjoy webOS and I hope that I can help contribute to it's success and this conference is a good motivation point to start and grow from.
Thursday, November 18, 2010
Monday, November 15, 2010
ESPN3 and my Xbox Experience
I tried. For almost 2 months I had cable. It wasn't worth it. Verizon FIOS is pretty cool, but for someone like me who doesn't watch a lot of TV it wasn't the best deal. I mainly wanted to watch the soccer channels (Goal TV and Fox Soccer Channel) which used to be part of the basic package. Not any more.
Lucky for me the Monday after I canceled my cable, Xbox released their fall update. This added ESPN3 to the Xbox Live experience. This channel alone makes Xbox Live worth it. ESPN3 just about satisfies my sports viewing wishes. I don't get NFL football, but I can get it over the air. I do get most college football, English Primer League, La Liga, and Serie A football matches which just gives me the warm fuzzies. The viewing experience is awesome. I really like it and I look forward to what will be coming with it in the future.
I'm sure one day most if not all of ESPN's programming will be available through ESPN3, right now I get more than enough. Every day since the update, I've come home to watch something. The MLS playoffs, the Manchester and Milan derbys, NBA basketball. It's simply great.
When the Xbox 360 was first released, Microsoft had hopes for it to be the ultimate home media center. For me with ESPN3 it's become just that.
Lucky for me the Monday after I canceled my cable, Xbox released their fall update. This added ESPN3 to the Xbox Live experience. This channel alone makes Xbox Live worth it. ESPN3 just about satisfies my sports viewing wishes. I don't get NFL football, but I can get it over the air. I do get most college football, English Primer League, La Liga, and Serie A football matches which just gives me the warm fuzzies. The viewing experience is awesome. I really like it and I look forward to what will be coming with it in the future.
I'm sure one day most if not all of ESPN's programming will be available through ESPN3, right now I get more than enough. Every day since the update, I've come home to watch something. The MLS playoffs, the Manchester and Milan derbys, NBA basketball. It's simply great.
When the Xbox 360 was first released, Microsoft had hopes for it to be the ultimate home media center. For me with ESPN3 it's become just that.
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
My No Cable Experiement
When I got my own place, I vowed myself to never get cable. I noticed I was much more productive without it. I did a lot more reading and surfing the internet. I was outside exercising more and discovering new things. I spent way more time practicing my hobbies like photography and soccer. I even did a very little bit of coding on the side. Not having television forced me to spend my time more actively I no longer had a reason to sit down and just veg out. It also saved me some money.
As I spent more time surfing the web, I discovered that I could watch most of my favorite television shows online. Thanks to sites like Hulu, Youtube, CBS, and ABC I had access to my favorite shows. Hulu, when it first came out, was the greatest thing since sliced bread to me. Not only could I watch my shows whenever I wanted to, with limited commercials, but I could go back and watch previous seasons. More recently Hulu has begun to offer just about every show I watch plus some sports highlights. It's great.
Once I discovered I could watch stuff online, I looked for ways to stream this to my television. I purchased a Slingmedia SlingCatcher, and when I finally became available, 25mbps FIOS connection. The SlingCatcher streams pretty much all flash based web video to your tv. It works pretty well, I don't have too many complaints about it. For my movie watching I use Orb to stream stuff to my Xbox360 and finally to my television.
For sports I discovered Espn360.com, soon to be Espn3.com. Espn360 gives you access to a lot of the sports Espn shows. In addition to NBA, MLB, and a few college sports, Espn360 gives you access to European soccer leagues. This was a big bonus to me, since if I had cable I would purchase the extra soccer channels. Espn360 is the closest thing I found to being able to watch live sports on the internet for free.
Here's the downer. I think I watch more TV now than when I did have access to cable. On Hulu alone I went from watching 3 Shows Regularly (House, 24, Grey's Anatomy) to watching 10 Shows. With that said there are shows like Glee or Modern Family that weren't on when I first started using Hulu. So now instead of browsing the television for interesting things to watch, I browse the internet and Hulu. I watch old episodes and search for new things of random interest. It feels different, but I'm doing the same thing as I was doing with cable.
In essence the internet only moved this problem to a new medium. I am saving money by not having cable though, so that could be a plus.
As I spent more time surfing the web, I discovered that I could watch most of my favorite television shows online. Thanks to sites like Hulu, Youtube, CBS, and ABC I had access to my favorite shows. Hulu, when it first came out, was the greatest thing since sliced bread to me. Not only could I watch my shows whenever I wanted to, with limited commercials, but I could go back and watch previous seasons. More recently Hulu has begun to offer just about every show I watch plus some sports highlights. It's great.
Once I discovered I could watch stuff online, I looked for ways to stream this to my television. I purchased a Slingmedia SlingCatcher, and when I finally became available, 25mbps FIOS connection. The SlingCatcher streams pretty much all flash based web video to your tv. It works pretty well, I don't have too many complaints about it. For my movie watching I use Orb to stream stuff to my Xbox360 and finally to my television.
For sports I discovered Espn360.com, soon to be Espn3.com. Espn360 gives you access to a lot of the sports Espn shows. In addition to NBA, MLB, and a few college sports, Espn360 gives you access to European soccer leagues. This was a big bonus to me, since if I had cable I would purchase the extra soccer channels. Espn360 is the closest thing I found to being able to watch live sports on the internet for free.
Here's the downer. I think I watch more TV now than when I did have access to cable. On Hulu alone I went from watching 3 Shows Regularly (House, 24, Grey's Anatomy) to watching 10 Shows. With that said there are shows like Glee or Modern Family that weren't on when I first started using Hulu. So now instead of browsing the television for interesting things to watch, I browse the internet and Hulu. I watch old episodes and search for new things of random interest. It feels different, but I'm doing the same thing as I was doing with cable.
In essence the internet only moved this problem to a new medium. I am saving money by not having cable though, so that could be a plus.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Cockpit-Like Focus
Yesterday I went out to get some new games for my 360 since I haven't gotten anything new in quite a while now. I picked up Need for Speed Shift, Gears of War 2, and Afro Samurai. Yes none of these games are really new, but they are new to me.
Trying out NFS:Shift a thought came to me. In the game you start off racing in the cockpit view. My older brother always preferred this view. I tend to rotate between it and one of the over the top views. The cockpit view is a little constraining and with all the gauges and dials it can be distracting.
The thing is when my brother talks about it, it allows him to focus. In the cockpit view you focus on what's in front of you and not what's behind or next to you. You pay more attention to your race and how you are racing and not everyone else. After giving it a try this morning for a couple races, I found this to be true. I occasionally glance over to the side or rear view mirror to check out what's going on, but for the most part I'm focused straight ahead.
This got me thinking. How could I apply this concept to my life? How do I restrict my focus to my goals and tasks ahead of me and not those behind and next to me.
I don't know the answer to this right now, but I'm going to actively try to find one for it.
Trying out NFS:Shift a thought came to me. In the game you start off racing in the cockpit view. My older brother always preferred this view. I tend to rotate between it and one of the over the top views. The cockpit view is a little constraining and with all the gauges and dials it can be distracting.
Photo from NFS Website
The thing is when my brother talks about it, it allows him to focus. In the cockpit view you focus on what's in front of you and not what's behind or next to you. You pay more attention to your race and how you are racing and not everyone else. After giving it a try this morning for a couple races, I found this to be true. I occasionally glance over to the side or rear view mirror to check out what's going on, but for the most part I'm focused straight ahead.
This got me thinking. How could I apply this concept to my life? How do I restrict my focus to my goals and tasks ahead of me and not those behind and next to me.
I don't know the answer to this right now, but I'm going to actively try to find one for it.
Wednesday, February 17, 2010
Windows 7 on a Netbook
I enjoy my netbook. I have an Acer Aspire One D150 model. It is very convinient for me to use. It comes in handy on plane rides, trips to class, and any other small computing task that I may have for it.
Recently, Lifehacker had a poll on the top 5 netbook operation systems(see here). So far I've used Windows XP and Windows 7rc. I plan on giving Ubuntu's Netbook Remix a try next. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Windows 7.
If I had to describe my time with Windows 7 on my netbook in one word it would be SMOOTH. I installed Windows 7 on my netbook to give it a test drive as an OS, not just for the netbook experience. It surprised me with how good it was. I expected it to be good, but slow on the netbook. I never had an issues with speed or memory usage. Granted, I did mostly web browsing and writing, but I never got the feeling that the OS was bogged down by underpowered hardware. Even when waking up from sleep, it always seemed snappy.
Once the OS was installed, everything worked, with the exception of multitouch. I had to go to the Acer website to get drivers for it, but once installed I had no problems. Connecting to wireless networks or printers was a snap. I always got over 5 hours battery life, which is perfect for cross country flights. Windows 7 has a lot of new features that I didn't really take advantage of because I didn't do much heavy lifting on the Netbook. I'm sure they can be useful, but most of my time was spent in the browser.
The main programs I used with it were Chrome, Darkroom, Firefox, Notepad++, Putty and Skype. I've never tried to do any coding on it, but I'd rather code in a Linux environment anyway. None of these programs really stressed the computer, but my intentions were never to do that.
Sometimes I'd notice programs would crash after coming back up from sleep mode. Also sometimes the ATI driver would fail, causing me to lost my custom colored theme, but those were both minor issues.
Windows 7 as a netbook operating system is a great choice. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a netbook and doesn't want to use Linux or XP. I'm giving Ubuntu's Netbook Remix a try once my RC begins its decline on March 1, and it will be my first crack at a "Netbook Oriented OS", but that will be a post for a later time.
Recently, Lifehacker had a poll on the top 5 netbook operation systems(see here). So far I've used Windows XP and Windows 7rc. I plan on giving Ubuntu's Netbook Remix a try next. I have thoroughly enjoyed my experience with Windows 7.
If I had to describe my time with Windows 7 on my netbook in one word it would be SMOOTH. I installed Windows 7 on my netbook to give it a test drive as an OS, not just for the netbook experience. It surprised me with how good it was. I expected it to be good, but slow on the netbook. I never had an issues with speed or memory usage. Granted, I did mostly web browsing and writing, but I never got the feeling that the OS was bogged down by underpowered hardware. Even when waking up from sleep, it always seemed snappy.
Once the OS was installed, everything worked, with the exception of multitouch. I had to go to the Acer website to get drivers for it, but once installed I had no problems. Connecting to wireless networks or printers was a snap. I always got over 5 hours battery life, which is perfect for cross country flights. Windows 7 has a lot of new features that I didn't really take advantage of because I didn't do much heavy lifting on the Netbook. I'm sure they can be useful, but most of my time was spent in the browser.
The main programs I used with it were Chrome, Darkroom, Firefox, Notepad++, Putty and Skype. I've never tried to do any coding on it, but I'd rather code in a Linux environment anyway. None of these programs really stressed the computer, but my intentions were never to do that.
Sometimes I'd notice programs would crash after coming back up from sleep mode. Also sometimes the ATI driver would fail, causing me to lost my custom colored theme, but those were both minor issues.
Windows 7 as a netbook operating system is a great choice. I'd recommend it to anyone who has a netbook and doesn't want to use Linux or XP. I'm giving Ubuntu's Netbook Remix a try once my RC begins its decline on March 1, and it will be my first crack at a "Netbook Oriented OS", but that will be a post for a later time.
Tuesday, November 3, 2009
Stuck
I hate searching for motivation to do something. I hate not being able to sit down and focus solely on one given task. Right now that task is coding. In the morning that task will be getting up to run. Lately I've been struggling to be productive or to get anything done. I've been telling myself I need to get up and run to keep in shape for soccer. I need to start on my homework earlier so I'm not up at the last minute working on it. These are things I need to do to get better at things I like to do.
I love playing soccer. I love programming. Why can't I get myself to practice them? I know that practicing is the only way to get better at anything. I know it's the only way to get to the level I want to be at. Why is it so hard for me to do then? Why am I so easily distracted? I know I need the practice and every day that goes by is another one lost to me.
I waste time. I waste a lot of time. I don't consider this blog post a waste of time, because I need something to get my juices flowing and this is helping me. Getting started is the hardest part of any task. Whether it's getting up in the morning and putting my running shoes on, or typing the first lines of my next program. Getting started is always the hardest part.
Luckily once the rock starts moving it gains momentum. So I need to continue to remind myself of my goals and ambitions so that I can get my momentum going. Practice is the only way to get good, and reading blogs can only help me so much...
I love playing soccer. I love programming. Why can't I get myself to practice them? I know that practicing is the only way to get better at anything. I know it's the only way to get to the level I want to be at. Why is it so hard for me to do then? Why am I so easily distracted? I know I need the practice and every day that goes by is another one lost to me.
I waste time. I waste a lot of time. I don't consider this blog post a waste of time, because I need something to get my juices flowing and this is helping me. Getting started is the hardest part of any task. Whether it's getting up in the morning and putting my running shoes on, or typing the first lines of my next program. Getting started is always the hardest part.
Luckily once the rock starts moving it gains momentum. So I need to continue to remind myself of my goals and ambitions so that I can get my momentum going. Practice is the only way to get good, and reading blogs can only help me so much...
Thursday, September 17, 2009
The great Netbook - MacBook Debate
So this may not seem like much of a debate to most, but this one plagued me for a couple months. Why would anyone put a netbook and a Macbook Pro in the same debate, let alone the same sentence, yet I did. Each machine has it's strengths and weaknesses.
So I got both. Pretty sad I know. It didn't happen the way I would've liked it to go down, and I didn't get exactly what I wanted either but in one form or another I was able to get them both. Now I need to figure out how to use them both effectively and together.
So far the netbook has been great for traveling. I took it on a flight home with me, and on the airplane ride I was able to watch two whole movies and still have about 30 minutes of battery life left. Mind you the flight was 5 hours long, so I was pretty excited. Also the netbook is the size of a James Patterson book, which isn't that big ( < 11 inches). I was able to get the netbook running the evaluation version of Windows 7, which is pretty cool. I haven't done too much with the operating system other than test out the media center streaming to my Xbox 360. Sadly it didn't work as well as I hoped it would, but it's a netbook not a full scale laptop so I didn't have high hoped. For the most part on the netbook I open a text editor and a web browser.
On the other had I got a 2007 edition (I don't know the generation) 13 inch white Macbook. I was able to get it for $350 and it's running a fresh copy of Snow Leopard. I've been mainly using it to take notes in class and soon to be writing code on. Mac OS X is a lot different than windows, and I've been learning a lot of quirks that it has. It soon will be my default OS for most things but for right now I'm still working my way into it, slowly. So far it's pretty cool though. I'm actually writing this on it right now.
I've discovered a few apps to keep things working between the now current 3 laptops I have. I've discovered Dropbox to keep my school notes in sync between each laptop. I'm searching for an editor I like and a way so share music between the three. I've heard of Airfoil and look forward to giving it a try eventually, but so far I'm taking it easy. I'm slowly defining roles for each one, and hope to use them to their fullest potential.
So I got both. Pretty sad I know. It didn't happen the way I would've liked it to go down, and I didn't get exactly what I wanted either but in one form or another I was able to get them both. Now I need to figure out how to use them both effectively and together.
So far the netbook has been great for traveling. I took it on a flight home with me, and on the airplane ride I was able to watch two whole movies and still have about 30 minutes of battery life left. Mind you the flight was 5 hours long, so I was pretty excited. Also the netbook is the size of a James Patterson book, which isn't that big ( < 11 inches). I was able to get the netbook running the evaluation version of Windows 7, which is pretty cool. I haven't done too much with the operating system other than test out the media center streaming to my Xbox 360. Sadly it didn't work as well as I hoped it would, but it's a netbook not a full scale laptop so I didn't have high hoped. For the most part on the netbook I open a text editor and a web browser.
On the other had I got a 2007 edition (I don't know the generation) 13 inch white Macbook. I was able to get it for $350 and it's running a fresh copy of Snow Leopard. I've been mainly using it to take notes in class and soon to be writing code on. Mac OS X is a lot different than windows, and I've been learning a lot of quirks that it has. It soon will be my default OS for most things but for right now I'm still working my way into it, slowly. So far it's pretty cool though. I'm actually writing this on it right now.
I've discovered a few apps to keep things working between the now current 3 laptops I have. I've discovered Dropbox to keep my school notes in sync between each laptop. I'm searching for an editor I like and a way so share music between the three. I've heard of Airfoil and look forward to giving it a try eventually, but so far I'm taking it easy. I'm slowly defining roles for each one, and hope to use them to their fullest potential.
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