Wouldn’t It Be Nice
One of the coolest things about my job is showing people the awesome things their computers can do. One of the cool things of the computers are all the awesome things they can do.
I saw a person at work watching a video on facebook that was on its side. Whoever took it held the camera on its side. the kid watching it actually was standing with his head tilted so he could watch it. I watched him for a moment, and wondered if facebook had the ability to rotate video atuomatically, or if the camera could tell which way it was being held and auto rotate.
As I thought about this all day, I wondered how much more people could accomplish if the small stuff was taken care of automatically. What if a writer could focus on his words rather than formatting, or a filmmaker could focus on the composition rather than the image? If all the little things were taken care of, how much more could people do?
I know most of the work I do some of the small stuff is taken care of, and the small amount that is not I usually end up scripting. I know small devices are not getting smarter with accelerometers, and auto rotate and the like, but I can’t wait to see what can happen as those become commonplace, and more automation begins to develop.
Connecting the Dots
“You can’t connect the dots looking forward; you can only connect them looking backwards.“
I often find how some random information I heard about some random fact can pay off later. Sometimes it takes a few days, or sometimes it takes a while.
Its even more unusual when that information plays into something at work. Especially when its about some ancient Hindu History, or the speed at which ants in the amazon travel when moving their entire nest, or some other completely computer unrelated fact.
Also amazing how many of those random life events you have play into current events, and how often those dots finally get to connect. Life experiences, school experiences, everything that can be done plays into events that haven’t even happened yet.
Thats the most exciting thing. I’ve got a lot of dots to draw from, and a lot of dots yet to make.
“Stay Hungry. Stay Foolish.”
Stanley Cup Finals
Last night I was in Pittsburgh for some wedding stuff I had to do, and it just happened to coinside with Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Finals.
I spent the evening with Maggie’s family, and we watched every second of the game. I took some crazy video, to be posted later, but I did get a still I want to share.
After they won, we went to Dicks sporting goods at midnight to get some Penguins stuff, but they were closed, and decided instead to go to the airport to meet the players and cup as it landed in PA.
We waited on a grassy hillside for 3 hours before they landed. They were supposed to run past us on the road as they left, but a last minute change of plans made us only able to see them from a distance. When they left the plane, they did hold up the cup for everyone to see, and I caught a glimpse of it, they they all stood around and took pictures with it, where is where this comes in. From a distance of 500 feet, its not bad.
Better than a shot of Bigfoot
We got back home at about 4 am, and even with the lack of sleep, it was totally worth it.
In a related note, I woke up at 1 in the afternoon today.
Some Initial Impressions
I realize this post is going to come across as mean, or a rant, or even hypocritical, so I’m going to put that out there first.
When talking about a new gadget or product or something that has had a lot of airtime, I really want a review that has been well thought out, and has a lot of details on why the review went the way it did. This type of review takes time, planning, and an idea of what has to be documented.
I’m going to focus on the first. I’m going to use the Pre as an example, not because its at fault, but because its something happening now. The phone has a lot of expectations, a lot of hype. I’m sure it deserves most of it, and maybe it actually deserves all of it, but the problem is, it has been out for hours. Not days, or months, just hours. Not even a full day has passed yet. No one has any idea how this thing is going to work in everyday life yet. Don’t call it the greatest phone ever, don’t say it has filled your every desire, and you cannot say it is better/worse than ‘examplephone.’ You can’t. You have to let the product work, you have to let it digest in your life for a while to see what it really does and doesn’t do. Gimme a week and then give me your review. Use it at home, at work, and on the bus, and then tell me what it can do.
I know I’m easily excited about that new shiny gadget, and I love to break it down and talk about it, but I still at least try to not talk up a product that I just bought until after I have had a moment to play with it. I don’t even want to talk about how pissed I am at The Sims 3 for being a complete waste of time and money on the crashing half complete piece of shit it is. I was excited about it at first, but I didn’t go around saying how awesome it was before I was able to spend 45 minutes on an install and immediate update.
That boing said, I would love to hear your initial impressions. Tell me about the battery, the range, the weight and size, you have touched it and turned it on, so you can give me that. Initial impressions are great, I love to see when a blog gets their hands on something and spends 10 minutes with the product.
I hope the Pre does well, and I’m excited to see what it can do, but excited to hear about it in a week, not 3 hours after its been turned on.
Memories
A friend who passed away signed onto AIM for a few moments. It was a very weird feeling to see him online, even if he did sign off within moments.
RIP Tyler. So Long, and Thanks For All The Fish.
Week One.
I’ve been done with school for a few days, now and I still find myself doing the same processes that I needed to for school.
I find myself running through my head, what homework I have to do, and what I need to get ready for my classes. Budgeting all my time out for homework, and how much time I need to get things ready.
Its a weird thing to be able to not have to think about. I played video games for about 5 hours straight last night, and for the first hour or so, I had to keep reminding myself that I don’t need to stop to do homework. Infamous is still awesome by the way.
My cat once peed on my homework. I brought it to class as proof.
I think the hardest thing to get my head around if all this free time. I can come home from work and not have to do anything. Work stays at work, or at least as much as I can let it, but I don’t have assignments to do at home. That becomes me time. Speaking of, I think its time for some more video games.
Team Fortress 2
I’ve never played TF2. I hear about it all the time, and I am told by many people that I would enjoy it, and that I should really play it, but I never got around to it. With school, and a few million other things to deal with, it wasn’t very high on my list of stuff to do.
I am extremely organized.
Now that I am done, and with the latest updates to the sniper and spy class, I am about to give it a run through. I have it on my list of things that I need to do now that I have time to do what I want to. I have been looking over blogs and game sites to try to get up to speed on everything that I have missed in the long delay. I even checked out the Wikipedia page about it to get as much info as I could.
So I need some more reviews, and I need some tips from people who have actually played and love the game. I don’t want to go into this the same way I went into Halo 3 multiplayer.
Ouch.
Currently though, I am playing through inFamous, which I absolutely love. It is for sure a great reason besides Blu-ray for owning a PS3. Its the first game that I was excited about for the PS3, and also wanted to Pre-Order.
