Category Archives: General

Imagine playing an online video game where you’re kicking some major tail, and then all of a sudden find yourself in a similar situation, in reality. Chang Hsi-ming experienced just that not too long ago. You know Chang, Evil Dragon, Hsi-ming. He loved playing his video games, and ended up being caught via 130 policemen and two armored vehicles, who tracked his location using the IP address he was using. He went down with a gun fight however, and is in the hospital expected to make a full recovery.

(this image was the first google image search result for “evil dragon”)

I’ve always wanted to go to New Zealand. The climate, the people, the scenery, and the fishing (yes, I like fishing) make the country an ideal place to hang out at for a while. The biggest problem is that umpteen hour flight to get there. Sure there’s a few poorly chosen in-flight movies, seven or eight in flight radio stations, and even an AC power socket so that I can plug in the trusty old laptop and type away. But a computer with no internet is like a flashlight with no batteries, a dance club with no music, a car with no stereo, a house with no maid!

Up until this point, I was just waiting out until Verizon or Boeing put broadband in flights, and that way I could easily spend 18 hrs connected and typing away with 4 minute lunch/dinner breaks at random times. Now there’s a twist on this not-yet-available service. The Feds want in, and they want total control. If they have their way they will track our mobile phone calls and online activity. This isn’t a concern of mine because I don’t plan on carrying out any terrorist attacks, I have a huge fear of heights. But I do fear that one friend of mine who will email me something along the lines of “hey, you’re on a flight right now? Dude, how are you going to detonate that bomb in your shoe? Haha.” Right after I get that email I can just see it: “sir, can you please come with us”.

My PIII 800 Mhz computer is just too slow for me, I never use it. If I don’t have multiple gigahertz in my metal box then that’s all it is to me, a metal box. That trusty old PIII still runs solid, and can perform 90% of my daily functions with no real issues (email, web browsing, chatting, MS office, etc.). Which is why these out dated machines are moving to a place where they aren’t out dated, Africa. Thousands of computers that would end up collecting dust in dark closets and garages are being sent to Africa for a new beginning. Schools and organizations that are too poor to purchase new computers have been given these facelifted computers. Could this be a corporate scheme to start outsourcing computer jobs to Africa?

Buying a cell phone sometimes involves considering a whole lot of disparate features. Do you need to check email messages, surf the web, make phone calls, IM, text message, play games? Can you use the phone as a modem or maybe a dessert topping?

For a variety of reasons, most notably Bluetooth so I can sync to my Powerbook, I have a Motorola V551.

I’m adding a new qualification to its list of uses — washability.

After realizing it was left behind in a side pocket to some shorts twirling in a washing machine, I had assumed the worst and began searching the web for my next phone. A couple of hours in front of a fan after rescue the screen came back. Gradually, over the past week, as various droplets of moisture evaporated from its innards, greater functionality returned.

Today, I believe everything is working and the whites have never looked so bright and fresh.

BitTorrent has revolutionized filesharing. If you don’t know what it is, check out www.bittorent.com, and then change out of your Brady Bunch trousers and into something a bit more up to date.

BitTorrent on your Windows Pocket PC is here. Why use your Pocket PC to download a 200 MB file when you can just leave a desktop PC at home to do this? Good question, and the answer will come to me shortly. But I see new things here, and with new things someone is bound to come up with a great idea for that new thing. I mean, I laughed at the first guy I met who had music on his computer. Now I’m still laughing, but for other reasons.

Email on the go is like having a pocket full of peanut M&M’s that never runs out. No, email on the go is better, because it will never melt in your hand, regardless of what that old M&M slogan was. Blackberry is the mobile email ruler as of late, but being king of the hill will only become tougher as time presses on.

Nokia, Samsung, PalmOne (or is it Palm now?), and Motorola are a few of the handset manufacturers out to “pick the Blackberry”. I hope that something happens soon because I’m in huge favor of more competition and competitive prices. Email on the go for *everyone.

*except my mom, that would only mean more mass forwarded messages and emails saying “look at our pictures” with no pictures attached.

Gizmodo thought it was a hoax, and so did I. The Optimus keyboard is just too good to be true. Granted keyboards have evolved just about as much as the horseshoe crab, this optimus just blows my mind. Remembering quick keys is a problem of the past. Switching programs couldn’t be easier. Farewell Alt+Tab.

I’d want to put icons of my friend’s faces on the keys, so when I feel like visiting their websites I can just punch their key. Get it, punch their key, a picture of their face, punch their face!

I walk the streets of San Francisco daily, and am always magnetically drawn to the glimmer of the white headphones. The iPod head phones. Usually I will simply see headphones attached to entertained ears running into a pocket or backpack of some sort. The question that pops into my mind each time I witness this is, I wonder what they’re listening to. Is that 15 year old girl holding a 512 shuffle or a 60BG iPhoto? On a rare occasion I will get to see the iPod, be it on a belt clip, or the person’s need to change songs. More times than not, the person whips out an iPod Mini. The popularity of the mini is much bigger than I’ve ever expected. The second observation I’ve made is that there are virtually no naked iPods. The first thing to do upon the purchase of an iPod, is to get a case for it. iPod is the new Barbie as far as I’m concerned, it’s got more accessories and do-hickeys than Barbie ever dreamed of.

We have been giving away one of those accessories for readers who left comments, Slappa’s Shockshell case. I personally haven’t had a chance to touch and feel the case, only read about it online. Gizmosforgeeks has a review of the Slappa Shockshell here. Looks like they enjoyed it, hopefully you will.

Faster is better. More choices is better. The roses can be recorded, downloaded, or streamed and smelled later when we have the time, say on the bus or in the bathroom. Who has time to stop and smell them right now? I tell ya who, Carl Honore does, and he says you do too. The TED (Technology, Entertainment, and Design) conference held in Oxford was where Carl gave his speech about slimming down our choices and slowing down our pace. I’m betting that from the beginning to the end of his speech, at least 50% of the audience had received an email, text message, phone call, or IM on their phone, laptop, pda, or other communication device. Come to think of it, I do not stop to smell the roses, because I don’t like to smell roses all that much. I’m going to change this cliché for my personal purposes and say, “you need to stop and smell the new car interior once in a while”. Hopefully that new car will have navigation, Sirius radio, iPod integration, and a 500watt stereo system with 11 speakers.

McAfee is telling us that Trojans are on the rise. I’m not talking about the USC football team here. Trojans, viruses, adaware, spam, spyware, they’re all the same to someone who just wants to check email and surf the web. Hackers are hacking and it seems to be hack season according to McAfee. They’ve claimed to have found a 63% increase in machines using backdoor techniques to control unsuspecting user’s computers in 2005 from 2004.

I may be skeptical, or hold a personal grudge against anti-virus companies, or both, but I wonder how their stocks and profits have been in 2005 from 2004. There’s always theat one question in the back of everyone’s mind, you know the question, I don’t have to explicitly write it out. Anti-virus’s are the computer talk taboo for some reason. If you actually say what you think, you just may end up with a virus!

Technology streamlines our lives, and makes the things we dislike go by faster, while prolonging the things that we do like. I’m assuming that confession is something that most people do not like. I am not catholic, so confession is confusion to me. however, people are now sending SMS text messages to their priests and hoping to be forgiven for their sins.

“The nation’s Catholic faithful have been told that when it comes to confession, sending a text message reciting your sins is no longer permissible in seeking absolution.”

I guess some people just don’t have time to tend to their sins in this fast paced world?