Monthly Archives: November 2010

The MacBook Air is Full of Win

  • November 28, 2010 – 8:41 pm
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I ordered a new MacBook Air soon after it was released, and have been using it exclusively since it arrived, on the first of November. I took the plunge because it was, with a couple of upgrades, identical in spec to my previous laptop, one of the first unibody MacBook Pros. As far as RAM, screen resolution, CPU speed, and internal storage went, the MacBook Air was on par. It did away with ports I never used and an optical drive I rarely used, but added solid-state internal storage and legendary battery life.

Using it for nearly a month has largely confirmed for me: this is the best laptop I’ve ever owned, and laptops like this are where the portable computer market should go if it wants to succeed.

This is what I really like about the Air:

  • As I mentioned, the legendary battery life. This wasn’t something I thought I’d ever care about, but working in coffee shops, where the nearest outlet might be in use or just too far away, really made me appreciate it. I mean, now, I can go an entire session at a coffee shop (usually, something like two to four hours, depending) and never have to plug in.

  • It doesn’t get all that hot. My old laptop would, just in normal use, get very hot and it would be uncomfortable to work with on my lap. I almost didn’t notice this change, but there I am, reclined back and working and not even paying attention to the device I’ve got in my lap.

  • It’s very light. This feeds doubly into the benefits of the previous point.

  • It’s, well, intimate. The screen is significantly smaller than the one on the Pro, but has the same resolution. The result is that I can see everything I used to see, but it’s more compact. I think this smaller, more detailed screen makes the most sense when the screen is arm’s length away. Also, when I look at the screen on my Pro, it surprises me how comically large everything looks. Having an iPhone 4 hasn’t helped in this regard, since I more than ever don’t want to perceive a pixel ever again.

Overall this computer has surpassed my expectations, simply because of these tiny improvements that I didn’t know would be important when I ordered it. I doubt I’m measurably more productive when I’m using it, but honestly, with this I can work and start to not pay attention to the tools I’m using. This is significant.

  • November 25, 2010 – 5:31 pm
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Relaxing dog is relaxing.

  • November 25, 2010 – 6:09 am
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Squat Cycle

  • November 24, 2010 – 1:20 am
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Link: Squat Cycle

modaldomains:

My latest app, Squat Cycle, has just been approved by Apple. It should be available soon.

This is a pretty nerdy, powerlifter app. Even more so than WOD is. I wrote this because I wanted exactly this app for myself, and because I hated adding things by hand to iCal. I am, of course, looking for feedback about the app, and how to improve it. I just implemented the core stuff I wanted for the initial version, but I’d love to hear from anyone who has suggestions about how to improve it and make it more useful.

A gentle question about the Twitter iPad client.

  • November 20, 2010 – 9:00 pm
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I couldn’t help but remix this into a fake album cover.

  • November 20, 2010 – 8:51 pm
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aluxuryproblem:

Clifford Hoyt, age 31, suffered serious injuries in an automobile accident in 1999. After he regained consciousness, he told a terrified nurse that he had died and visited Hell. He expounded on the tortures and anguish he experienced in frightening detail. He refused psychological treatment and was released.

Several weeks later, Hoyt’s neighbors complained to their landlord that strange music was playing in his apartment at all hours of the night. Upon investigating, the building’s owner found Clifford in this condition. Mr. Hoyt was still quite lucid and protested when the landlord attempted to call the police. Concerned for the damage done to his property, he took photographs of the apartment, of which the image above is an example. He left and contacted Mr. Hoyt’s family, who contacted authorities.

Clifford claimed that demons from Hell were still trying to capture him. He explained that his body would burn incessantly unless he played music to scare the demons away. He would only leave the house for short periods of time to get minimal supplies, including large blocks of ice to soothe the burning he felt as he tried to sleep.

Doctors attribute Clifford’s actions to brain damage suffered in the accident. He currently resides in a mental rehabilitation facility in Maryland.”

Is this not the most badass thing on the planet? This photograph needs to be the album cover for a bunch of howling, horrific anti-demon music.

  • November 17, 2010 – 12:04 am
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Ecco the Dolphin (video is an entire play-through).

One of my absolute favorite video games that I played when I was younger was Ecco the Dolphin.

It was a side-scrolling adventure game, where you play the titular dolphin, on a quest to find what happened to your pod, on that one day where a strange storm caused your entire pod and everything else in the surrounding sea to vanish. You go on a quest to track down a blue whale who holds the key to finding your pod again, and go on to meet a strange, ancient sea-dwelling entity, travel millions of years back in time, and finally fight space aliens.

The absolute best thing about this game was the feelings of adventure, exploration, terror, and joy that it brought out in my adolescent self. It wasn’t just a side-scrolling game: you could go in all four directions, and the game worlds were huge and richly detailed. Exploring each world was so wonderful, it was on par with the huge worlds games like The Legend of Zelda and A Link to the Past had, but here it seemed natural and real. One thing that would seriously irk me when I was younger (and, probably, it still does) was looking into a large aquarium. The combination of the refraction, the haziness that increased with distance, like fog, those alien looking fish and sea creatures, and the mere thought of that huge volume of water on the other side — it all really freaked me out. The levels of Ecco could achieve the same effect, something that no other video game has ever done to me: capture a real fear I had and present it back to me.

You were a dolphin, so you couldn’t hold your breath underwater forever, and would drown if you couldn’t find a pocket of air or make your way back to the surface. There were enemies and obstacles that could drain your health and kill you, but the biggest terror in the game was the feeling of helplessness as your air depleted and you frantically searched for an air pocket to breathe from. If you died because a shark bit you or you ran into a sharp piece of coral, it was just frustrating; drowning was terrifying.

And one of the best things? Being a dolphin. Being able to swim fast, jump out of the water, and spin through the air. Hyper-fast-paced games like Sonic the Hedgehog were awesome, too, but somehow flipping a realistic dolphin through the air was more satisfying than making a cartoon hedgehog go blindingly fast.

…suddenly great winds of water…

  • November 16, 2010 – 10:13 pm
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OK, so this guy’s entire side of the conversation consists of “right,” “exactly,” “no it’s true.” It is irritating me to no end.

  • November 15, 2010 – 9:23 pm
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I’m waiting for the day when the Xcode download is larger than most internal storage devices.