Ranting Kenya

The day the iPhone was released, things changed for cell phones. Smartphone awareness skyrocketed. I have seen more new blackberry users since the iPhone was released than any other phone. Perhaps all old Razr users…

Since then, in the consumer’s eyes, no other phone touches it. The G1 was released with google’s Android OS, and the Blackberry storm was heavily hyped, but neither can hold a candle to the popularity of Apple’s shiniest product.

So why would anybody think the Palm Pre has a chance? Well in my opinion, it has the best features of the iPhone, G1, and a typical Blackberry all rolled into one.

A wicked looking/performing OS

Though the iPhone is physically a nice phone, the real gem of the device is the OS. It looks nice, it’s easy to use (it is an Apple product), and has lots of great features. Install the apps you want, jailbreak it if necessary, bring google maps to the masses etc.
Palm will up the ante in the OS space. Evidently a much lighter OS, it is capable of running many processes in the background. To many this doesn’t seem necessary, but it will make a huge different to users, and developers. The Web OS is also designed for a touchscreen device, not just patched in like some other phone’s OS.

A truly open SDK for the app store

Hopefully we won’t be seeing any more Tweets from Trent Reznor chastizing corporations regarding their contradictory policies regarding app/music ratings. The Web OS SDK promises to be open, and that Palm’s role won’t be to screen applications, only to make sure security issues are plugged.

Haptic feedback done right

What’s the best way to implement haptic feedback in a touchscreen device? Not a clickable touchscreen (talk about a half baked solution, I can’t feel the buttons before I press them), not a vibration function, but an actual physical keyboard.

So to review, the Palm Pre should be an excellent device since it combines the best features of the iPhone’s (touchscreen and a well built OS), the openness of the G1 (open marketplace for apps with little to no interference from Palm), and the single best feature of the Blackberry (an actual keyboard).

Sounds like a winner to me.

I’m really looking forward to this game. It’s kinda making me think I should re-visit the original on my other Xbox and have a couple different saves to play off of.

Here’s the latest video:

And here’s the initial teaser:

I am so excited. I’m still playing COD4 probably 6-10 hours a week. Can barely wait for November 10, 2009.

Chris Coyier of css-tricks.com posted a nice screencast of how to use SimplePie. SimplePie allows you to pull in pretty much any RSS feed from another website and post that info on your site in regular HTML.

I’ve been playing around with the options and abilities this last weekend and I feel it’s the easiest way to get some RSS content onto a website. I know SimpleXML is supposed to be really simple, and perhaps my limited understanding of PHP classes has held me back, but I’ve never gotten SimpleXML to work for me in under 5 minutes. SimplePie literally works about as fast as you can type 20 short lines of code. It’s practically fool proof.

I certainly recommend checking SimplePie out.

I had this bizarre issue for the last month or so. One day, I could no longer stream anything to either of my two Xbox 360s from Windows Media Center. All that would happen is instead of the actual playback, I would just get a black screen for any live or recorded tv.

I googled the net quite a bit, searched through various user forums, re-installed the extender a number of times, called Xbox technical support (pointless and frustrating), and nearly re-installed Vista.

Before I did that however, I did post in a couple forums my problem. And what do you know, I got response that worked.

Here’s the thread: http://www.digitalhome.ca/forum/showthread.php?p=887638#post887638

Here’s the fix: http://support.microsoft.com/kb/811259/en-us

Turns out the solution was simple. Just reset the Winsock. Even though the auto-check showed no problems, and I could see all ten of the entries listed, I did the manual reset anyway. It worked.

Thanks to BadLag of the Digital Home Forums for the help.

So I finally got the speakers I’ve been drooling over for a couple years now. Nice black finish, top notch in every respect. All the positive reviews I’ve read about these speakers have been totally accurate. These things are pure quality.

The only thing I’d add to the comments and reviews that I don’t recall reading is that at low volume levels, you probably won’t notice a vast difference between these and some other relatively good computer speakers. But if you like to turn up the music a bit, these clearly stand apart from the others.

I recently upgraded my computer’s main hard drive. I didn’t want to just add more storage on a separate drive since much of my storage is taken up by Vista Media Center recordings. My music and videos are on a separate drive already. I just wanted a huge main drive.

So in the end, I’ve moved from a 250GB drive to a 1TB drive. Now cloning everything over wasn’t as easy as I had hoped, but it wasn’t too bad either. I thought I’d post a little bit about what I did and, which products I used to hopefully streamline someone else’s experience.

So let me list the stuff I used:

• SATA Source Drive (250GB Seagate Barracuda)
• SATA Destination Drive (1TB Western Digital Black)
• Windows Disk Management
• GParted
• Easeus Disk Copy
• InfraRecorder

Here’s the order of what I did:

1. Added new drive physically in computer, changed nothing on original. With SATA drive you don’t even have to configure a jumper or anything. Just find an empty bay and plug in the power and data cables.
2. Booted computer (Vista Home Premium in my case, though all of this would be the same on XP), and opened up the disk management tool.
3. Activated the new hard drive.
4. Downloaded both Easeus Disk Copy and GParted iso files, and burned them to CDs with InfraRecorder.
5. Booted from the Easeus Disk Copy disk I just created. Copied the whole drive sector by sector to the new disk, existing paritions and all.
6. Once Easeus is done copies, you have identical partitions on your new hard drive. There will also be the remainder of the free space on the new larger drive unallocated.
7. Rebooted the computer with the GParted disk is the drive. Once GParted is up and ready to go, I select the main parition on the new drive and choose the “grow” option. I drag that partition to fill the rest of that “unallocated space”.
8. Once that was done, I shut down the computer, disconnected the old drive, I swapped the data cables (not sure if this is necessary or not), and rebooted again.
9. When windows is starting back up, it’ll want to run some disk checks. I let them finish, and the computer rebooted normally.

And that’s it. Doesn’t sound like it takes very long, but the copying, formating, and growing of partitions each took over an hour on my machine, which is pretty powerful.

All in all, I’m pretty happy since I don’t have to hunt down all that software all over again and re-do all my personal settings.

Finally. Coming to Calgary soon I believe!

http://www.digitalhome.ca/content/view/3406/280/

Don’t let the title fool you, this isn’t a list. I’m just going to tell the story of my latest Telus internet experience. I post this not to speak poorly of one provider or another, but merely to report my most recent experience. I would also like to say that Telus has provided me the product I originally ordered without fail for nearly 3 years now. Also, writing this will help me remember all the events for when I call Telus to cancel my connection.

My debacle started back on January 19. I noticed on the Telus website that I was paying the price for their top speed DSL connection (6Mbps down, 1Mbps up), but receiving a connecting so inferior they didn’t even offer it any more (1.5Mpbs down, 256Kpbs up). So I called Telus to ask for their top service. I was fine paying what I was paying, I just wanted more speed. Nice of them to just upgrade my service for me. The CSR on the line was very helpful, everything was going great. They asked me if I wanted one of their new gateways to replace my modem and router. I asked if it was needed for the need speeds, he said no, so I said I’d keep what I have since it works exactly the way I want. At any rate, expect my service to be up to full speed in 24 hours.

Later that evening my internet connection went down completely. All the lights on my modem were still on (as in functioning correctly), so I assumed that they were flipping the switch. I was pretty happy with how things started to move so quickly, and I went to bed excited to try the new speed the next day.

I wake the next morning to no internet. That’s ok I suppose, the guy on the phone did in fact say 24 hours. So I went to work, and then I came home to no internet. Now I’ve decided to call tech support. As I’m dialing, I decided to do what I do for everybody when troubleshooting net connection, I power cycled the whole deal. Modem, router, and computer. Before I can get to an agent to troubleshoot, my whole system is back up as it was before to no net connection.

So I start working with the tech support guy. I hear all the usual stuff repeatedly. “Unplug the modem for a few seconds”, “Now unplug the router”, “Plug the computer directly into the modem.” Of course I do all of these things with no avail. Now I get put on hold while he contacts some other support someone. He comes back, we do all the same things again, plus add renew the IP on the computer etc. No internet. I get put on hold again. This time however, the agent spoke to someone who did something, now I have internet. Excellent.

So I do a speed test at speedtest.net. I’m on their 3Mpbs down service, not the full 6. I mention this to the tech, he’s says he doesn’t see their top service on my account, so I should call the CSRs again to re-order. Ok fine. So I do that. Everything should be ok. Later that night, my internet goes down again.

Now repeat the story with tech support again the next day, which is now Wednesday. This time however, I don’t have to re-order the high speed, they’re going to send a technician out to me on Friday. What time? They don’t set times, it’s an “all-day appointment”. How convenient. Then I remember since I’m in a townhouse that they generally do work at some common box for the whole set of units, so they probably won’t even need access to my house.

Anyway, I take the appointment and the day off. The guy comes by, and the internet it back. Not at the speed I ordered. He says to me he say that I ordered it and it should be in on monday. So I wait. By tuesday, still not the speed I ordered. So I call again, they say they didn’t see the top service on my account, so I re-order again. And again that evening the internet goes down.

So, a couple more phone calls to tech support, same issues, and in the end they want to send a tech guy to my house again. So I hold out for 3 or 4 days with no internet for the tech guy. I explained when I made this appointment that an “all-day” appointment is unacceptable. They agree to send the guy to me after 4pm. So I race home, get there at 4 to find a note on my door saying that he’s did something but was unable to get into the house to check the modem so upload may not work properly. I also says he was there at 2:50pm in the afternoon.

So I check my connection, I’m not getting my full down speed (just over half actually), and now I have the worst upload ever in my life (roughly 100 Kbps). So then I called Shaw to get cable internet.

So the cable guy was supposed to come to my house between 1 and 3pm. He was there early. He had everything he needed. We didn’t power cycle everything a million times. He brought the modem, signal amplifier, cables, splitter, everything and did all the work in probably 30 mins. Now I’m receiving service that faster than anything Telus even provides, and I’m pretty much hitting the advertised marks (they advertise 10 down 1 up and I’m getting like 98% of those numbers). He also informs me that in a couple months Shaw will be moving to Docsis 3 and I’ll be in for a nice surprise.

I would also like to note that he didn’t try to give me some stupid gateway, he just plugged the modem into my router. I’ve put DD-WRT on my router, and it has all sorts of crazy setting so that 2 XBox 360s, 5 computers all work correctly for streaming and Windows Media Center. He never even said the word router, he just plugged everything in. That’s exactly what he should do. Get a working connection to my house, let me handle what I do with it afterwards.

I haven’t cancelled Telus yet, I’ll be doing that later today. Perhaps that will be a seperate post.

On the single player side of things, do the same. It was a perfect length, you did unique things in unique places, it had very unexpected storylines, had an awesome intro, great set-pieces and was just a blast to rip through. If Infinity Ward can keep me on the edge of my seat again, then that would be perfect.

As somebody who has played a lot of COD4 multiplayer, here are my ideas for the second interation.

Overall, don’t change it. It’s intense, fast, gripping and satisfying. I’ve played this game to the complete detriment of many of high quality titles. It’s very very good, and it’s very not Halo (and other like titles). Keep it that way.

That being said, there are some things I’ve noticed with COD4 that could be tweaked for the sequel.

1. Don’t take away any of the current weapons. I am very familiar with almost all the weapons in COD4. I know what they are, how to use them correctly, and I have my preferences. Rather than tweak the current weapons or remove them all together, just make sure any new weapons fit in the current selection.
2. Allow another perk and/or split some apart to allow a fourth. I understand that splitting the perks into their groups allows for balance (for instance, stopping power and juggernaught being the same perk class, which I agree with). But I fail to understand why putting a grip on a RPD takes away Perk level 1 that has Grenade x3. Or why Matrydom removes the possibility of Deep Impact. I’d like to have a fouth perk option so that players are more customizable. Most people play with a small group of perks.
3. Slower knifing when being shot. This is something that drives me nuts. You pop around a corner and you start shooting somebody. You’re already hitting them. Then they knife you like you aren’t even there. They should still be able to knife, but the action has to be slower. You have to give the advantage to the person who deals damage first. I can’t imagine it would be easy to pull out a knife after taking your hand off your gun then actually knifing someone when you’re being hit with bullets.
4. Include the old mp levels. Please take the Rockband 2 model. You paid for the variety pack, you have the original disc, let us keep playing those maps. I’m happy with COD4, but I want more maps. If you’re going to make me buy another $60 game, let me keep those levels and ease the learning curve for the new game.
5. Add some options for beginners. It is very hard for beginners to get the feel for the game when they’re getting sniped by a level 55 that they didn’t even know was there. If there was a beginner playlist, or “similar skill only” playlist, this would allow beginners to learn the maps and have a chance against the other players. It’s pretty much common for new players to score 1 kill and 15 deaths for their first 100 games. More people will play it if they can learn it at a reasonable pace.
6. Spawn position tweaking. The spawning in COD4 was good, but it could be exploited by a knowledgable team. Probably everyone’s played a game on Downpour where your team was either annihilated, or was annihilating. With little cover on the lower side of the map from helicopters, if the killing team keeps their distance just enough, it’s like shooting fish in a barrel. The other team really has no chance. Also, sometimes when you’re killed, you get spawned so far on the other side of the map it takes to forever just to get back to the action, only to be sniped just as you get there to start the process over again. And occasionally, you’ll spawn right behind the person that killed you for an easy kill.
7. Seemingly strange hit detection at times. Sometimes, and I’m not the only person who’s noticed this, your bullets seem to be doing nothing. I’ve had many times where I’m playing well, leading the team in kills, then all of a sudden in the next game I can’t kill anyone. I’m shooting them, the “x” that appears when you’re making contact is there, but you’re dying everytime. It really feels like you’re shooting blanks. I suppose it could be a connection issue, but it’s like night and day from one game to the next. I’ve certainly played the game enough to know when I’m playing well, and to know how things react, and when this happens it feels like you had no chance at all.

Hopefully, Modern Warfare 2 will address these concerns/ideas plus improve in other areas that I had not considered, and then I can play that game everyday instead.