I just read on engadget.com about the new iPod touch. New iPod Touch is essentially an iPhone minus the phone part, but it adds in WiFi so you can connect to 802.11b/g networks. It includes Safari and a special icon for YouTube specifically. Battery life is claimed to be 22 hours for audio and 5 hours for video.
iPod Touch can also buy songs directly through WiFi without the need to be hooked into a computer but it will sync songs back to iTunes when the two are connected.
Here is a tip for anyone who may read this. When you send an email, it should always have a subject. Always. It’s just common net etiquette. An email without a subject is like a book without a title and a book without a title is not something you would want to read because it apparently has no point. If you’re writing an email and you can’t come up with a subject, then you need to rethink whether or not your email has any purpose in the first place and if not, then don’t send the email.
Subjects provide the potential reader with a starting point of what your message is probably about. It sets the tone, makes it so the message is easy to find again later and sets it apart from all of the others. A subject allows the reader to sort messages, follow a conversation, group related messages and most importantly it tells the reader that your message has some sort of purpose.
So please, the next time you’re about to click that send button, take a moment to check your subject field. If it’s empty, fill it in. If it’s not then kudos to you my friend.
I recently started doing some freelance web work. The company I’m working with right now demands that sites be coded to XHTML strict standard and that testing be done on all major browsers on the major platforms. Macintosh is one of those major platforms that I don’t have yet have always secretly wanted to get one. Doing freelance work is the perfect excuse to pick up a Mac Mini so that’s just what I did today and I’m expecting it to arrive sometime next week.
I’m not sure if owning a Mac Mini will convince me to make a full switch or not. It’s hard to say at this point because I’m so used to the Windows world but others have tried to make the switch for themselves and lived to tell about it. And with the new Mac’s being based on Intel processors and the availability of VMware Fusion or Parallels it’s possible to run Windows along side OS X anyway.
Recently on digg.com there was a list of UNIX/Linux commands every person should know. A few people were a bit miffed that the list included nano rather than VIM. VIM is easily my favorite text editor so I wanted to share some of the most useful commands that VIM provides. No doubt there are people out there that have their own set of commands they use most so I encourage them to comment about it.
Read on to learn more about VIM.
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So I have a little something to admit. I’ve never played a console game over the internet. No really, I never have. Way back in the day when 56k was the next best thing I played a Star Wars game online with a buddy but that’s pretty much the extent of what I’m done.
My Wii has now been back for a week and all is good. Although the shipping took forever the entire process went very well. It was refreshing to deal with a company that didn’t try to walk you through some idiotic script of did you try this and did you do that. I guess when you depend on your product to generate future sales you can afford to actually please the customer.
We (my brother-in-law and I) were able put a number of hours on it, along with the projector, playing a number of games including Resident Evil 4 and Super Swing Golf. My short review is, RE4 is a keeper, Super Swing Golf is hardly a renter. I usually stick to the first party Nintendo games so RE4 is a bit of a departure for me. Although I wasn’t able to put a lot of time into it, it was fun.
I stopped by our local Best Buy to pick up a classic controller. The place was filled with people and yet they had a number of Wii’s on hand and nobody swarming them. There are Wii’s on ebay selling for *less* than $250 (plus the outrageous shipping of course). Has demand slowed or production increased?
A while back I wrote about my luck when it comes to items I purchase and the service we get. Well it just seems to continue for me.
I just sent my Wii off for repair. It would begin to buzz loudly after playing for a while as the system reached operating temp. The “nice” thing about working with Nintendo is I got someone on the phone right away, they didn’t speak with any kind of accent and they didn’t try to walk me through some automated script that had nothing to do with my problem. They even told me my warranty would be extended another year from the date it was sent back to me. That’s good service.
Now tonight, as I write this, I’m on my laptop, plugged directly into my network because my wireless router, which is less than a year old, has seemingly gone haywire. I’m within 10 feet of the thing and I’m connected at 1Mbps. If I get connected at all, it isn’t for long and it’s very slow.
Poor me.
Today I was approached by someone in need of some help. They had purchased a VCR and DVD recorder combo and didn’t know how to use it. They asked if I knew how to use such a device. Having never had the desire to transfer video from tape to DVD (garbage in/garbage out anyone?) my was answer was no. They then asked if maybe I would read the book for them and then show them how to use the device to which my response was, sure, at my rate of $25 per hour.
To this the person, who works with kids, presumably a teacher at some level, responded with something along the lines of why do you get paid so much and the kicker, “my job is more important that yours.” This took be by surprise because for one it’s a little rude to throw around who’s job is more important and two because it makes me assume they think I should do the work for free. I mean seriously, here is a person asking me to do something they aren’t willing to do and balking at the idea that someone might actually want to get paid for it. Do they say the same thing any other trained service technicians working on their car, plumbing or what have you? Have they ever considered what they’re paying them in that case?
Besides that if they’re a teacher then why not…you know…teach yourself how to use an item you purchased?