BlackBerry Applications
In the months of owning my BlackBerry Bold 9000, I’ve discovered a major weakness with the phone: Applications. After using many iPod Touches and iPhones owned by friends, it’s extremely visible how different the selections and the pricing is between the two platforms. Due to the pricing restrictions put up by RIM, I’ve been very selective when it comes to buying apps for my phone.
Being Disconnected
The best spot for internet!
Being a very connected guy, sometimes letting go to the conveniences of always on, fifteen megabit internet with a speedy desktop computer and a roomy monitor is a little weird.
You get so accustomed to these things that instead of knowing if something exists, the definition of a word or how exactly how to use a semicolon, you just do a web search. It just takes somewhere, like the cottage with the only internet connection being at the top of a mountain, even then I'm on my phone with only an EDGE connection hovering around 2 bars. Not to mention the horse flies also hovering around.
Not having an active internet connection is sort of nice... It allows me to get some stuff done, like listening to more than a gigabyte of podcasts that I have been neglecting to listen to... Man it's nice hearing the antics of Leo and Dick on the Daily Giz Wiz again!
Weekend Project: Internal Bluetooth Adapter
Now that I have a data plan for my BlackBerry Bold 9000, I bought PdaNet. This useful program can turn my phone into a 3G modem, which I can then use to get internet access on my laptop anywhere there is Robbers Rogers service.This is extremely useful when the school's WIFI craps out, when travelling, at the cottage or when Eastlink cuts the wrong cable somewhere. The problem is that I would have to carry around a USB cable with me everywhere or have my $2 bluetooth adapter with me all the time. The problem with the bluetooth adapter is that it sticks out of the laptop, has an annoying LED and well, it's always taking up a USB port. I did some DIY and in two hours, I had the adapter mounted internally.
Time Lapse
Another Map Update
I've added a few things since the last update, I haven't had a ton of time to work on things due to school.
Linux on an iMac G3
I have recently been trying to get some form of Ubuntu onto my iMac G3, which is a tricky project for some reason. It’s old hardware that’s been available for a long time for a great price. The iMac G3 is a good form factor, has a great screen and set of speakers all built in, on top of not looking incredibly ugly. Linux support for this machine is available, though not easy as a PC of similar age. For example, the processor is an IBM PowerPC chip rather than an X86 compatible. Other hardware isn’t really Apple specific, which should make it easier. Right?
Why does my header change?
Why is my header changing colour each time you refresh? Because a clever bit of PHP code is taking the most used colour in an image taken from a webcam pointing out my window and setting it. I know that's a bit of a mouthful. See the Projects page for details.
UPDATE: Well the webcam server was getting a little tedious to maintain, probably since I had the web server and webcam server on different machines. I also had the webcam sever on wifi, so that didn't help with stability... I've just taken it all down for now.
Half Life 2: DM Coop Map
After a few weeks/months of not pulling out the not-so-trusty Hammer editor, I decided to make my own coop-style map for HL2:DM, something I’ve wanted to do for a while though kept putting it off. I’m trying to implement a puzzle aspect outside of the normal “Lets kill hundreds upon hundreds of alien NPCs for an hour”, which isn’t as interesting to make. Length may be an issue if I want to come up with my own ideas, though it won’t hurt to use existing ideas and improve on them, hell if it makes people happy knowing that they can reuse concepts that they’ve mastered, I guess it can’t be that bad. Pictures after the break...
H1N1 Insanity
The swine flu is causing panic... For what reason?
Many more people get killed each year from the regular flu, while this swine flu has just been widespread and slowing most people down. Though this doesn't stop the many people who are lined up at our local community center waiting for the still-new vaccine.
WordPress BlackBerry Application
After moving my website over to Fivebean, I noticed an upgrade for WordPress sitting in the dashboard... This was a great thing for me because I wasn't able to use the WordPress application on my BlackBerry until the next update due to some error.
The screenshots and even a video are posted up around the internet showing the lovely interface which strangly resembles an IPhone application.
One of the things that I'm noticing as I type this is that the BlackBerry's built in spell check isn't working inside the application, which is a problem when I'm using a keyboard of this size.
Well my thumbs hurt from typing this post, so I should quit while I'm ahead.