Rob Fahrni

XBox garage games

2008-07-23T10:35:00.001-07:00

Wired: "Microsoft said that hobbyist gamemakers would be able to price their creations between 200 and 800 Microsoft Points, from $2.50 to $10. Of that, Satchell said that the creators would receive "up to" 70 percent of the revenue." - I think this is a great idea, an idea that sounds familiar, but great none-the-less.

Yes

2008-07-23T08:08:00.001-07:00

Trailer for the new Jim Carrey movie, Yes Man.

I'll be there.

Something to appreciate

2008-07-23T07:44:00.001-07:00

Brent Simmons: "I hope it�s self-evident that apps with too much stuff are, in general, bad. And that there are some features whose time has come and gone, and there are features that don�t get used much." - This is something I've come to appreciate about my Mac experience. The applications I use on a daily basis have minimal user interface. Two such examples are NetNewsWire and MarsEdit, I love 'em and wouldn't give them up.

The Pickens Plan

2008-07-23T07:23:00.001-07:00

PickensPlan.com: "World oil production peaked in 2005. Despite growing demand and an unprecedented increase in prices, oil production has fallen over the last three years. Oil is getting more expensive to produce, harder to find and there just isn't enough of it to keep up with demand." - This is a bold plan and I'm hopeful that both of our Presidential candidates will take it seriously. Sure, we can drill for oil in the short term, 10-years or so, but we need to have something that takes us beyond that. At least someone familiar with the oil industry is thinking about it. It's a good thing.

That's the best you can do?

2008-07-22T18:24:00.001-07:00

Seattle PI: "Other finalists for the new team name included: the Men-Possessed, the Hijackers, the Bold-Faced Liars, and my personal favorite -- the OKC Corrupt Circumstances." - Bold-Faced Liars works for me, Thunder is weak, heck, the runner up would've been MUCH better; Outlaws, yeah, that works and it doesn't sound wussy.

Ladies and gentlemen, your Bold-Faced Liars.

The crowd goes crazy.

NFL: Gang bangers?

2008-07-22T07:20:00.001-07:00

ESPN: "An NFL official told the Los Angeles Times this week that the league was focusing its attention on players' hand gestures because of an overblown incident involving Paul Pierce during the NBA playoffs." - Here's the thing, I've seen gang bangers on the street. They stand out, and if they flash a sign with their hands, it is what it is. It's an indication they're with a gang. They also dress the part, it's so obvious. Gee, is that red hanky hanging out of your pocket because you have a horrible cold? No, it's there to tell you "I'm bad." Don't call it racial profiling; black, white, or green, it doesn't matter, does it? Let the league deal with it as they please, just shut up and play.

Yes, it's satire

2008-07-22T06:46:00.001-07:00

McClatchy: "Satire is tricky. It makes its point by exaggerating wildly with a straight face. In inflating a thing beyond all common sense or propriety, it seeks to render inconsistencies and hypocrisies glaringly apparent. Satire seeks truth in the ridiculous. For illustration, see any given episode of The Colbert Report." - Obama and his camp need to lighten up. Anyone with half a brain understands he's not what the magazine portrayed. I know, I know, there are actually people that believe he's some scary Muslim extremist "Manchurian Candidate", just waiting to gain office so he can destroy this great country of ours. Those are the same people that believe terrorists lurk around every corner, that the attacks of September 11, 2001, were orchestrated by the United States Government, the landing on the moon was mocked up in some Hollywood backlot, and well, you get the picture.

So, lighten up a bit. If you want to be President of the United States you're going to face much bigger challenges than someone poking fun at you.

Deathly Hallows

2008-07-21T12:42:00.001-07:00

One year ago today we Potter freaks were caught up in J.K. Rowling's final installment of the Harry Potter series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

It's hard to believe it's been a year.

Right

2008-07-20T09:56:00.001-07:00

James Robertson: "It's hard for free software to get there, because free projects usually progress right up to 'useful enough for me (the author), and no more'. Sure, there are exceptions - but they are rare. Usually, to get 'fit and finish', you have to pay." - I work with a bunch of bitheads that absolutely worship Linux. They love things like emacs and the BASH, which should tell you something. This OS is not built for real people. Open, Yes, easy to use, No. The community can't even decided on a unified look and feel, sure you can claim that's a benefit to open source, and it is a form of choice, but what about the average joe trying to get their job done?

The Linux Bithead: Oh, yes, of course you can do that, just start bash and type 'ps aux | cat | grep | more | lex | yacc | stuff', that will do exactly what you want.
The Average Joe: Huh? Where do I click?

Ultimate power for the developer, no doubt, I will NEVER that that away from Linux. But for the Average Joe, it can be daunting.

Apple has, without doubt, proven you can take the power of Unix (Mach + BSD) and make it something the average user can use. To top it off you can get to all that raw developer horse power if you so choose. The best of both worlds. Heck they even have a great IDE in XCode.

P.S. - Yes, I'm perfectly aware that 'command' I typed is complete and utter crap, but it's only for illustrative purposes, and it makes my point.

Red Sweater on iPhone

2008-07-20T09:05:00.001-07:00

Red Sweater Blog: "Since Apple opened the floodgates to the AppStore for iPhone and iPod touch, the amount of anticipatory feedback I am getting from customers has exploded. Not a day goes by without messages from hopeful customers asking if and when my applications will be available for the iPhone. In particular, Black Ink and MarsEdit." - I'm a big fan of Red Sweater Software, I'm using MarsEdit to publish this welbog. iPhone and iTouch apps are a natural for the two applications he's decided to offer. I think Black Ink in particular could be big for Red Sweater. It would seem games are a big win in general for mobile devices.

Not surprising

2008-07-20T08:47:00.001-07:00

The New York Sun: "GENEVA � An Iranian official says his country will refuse requests to freeze its uranium enrichment program in exchange for a pledge of no new U.N. Security Council sanctions."

Yes, I'm a bit insane

2008-07-18T13:06:00.001-07:00

Tom Distler: "My friend Rob (whom I share an office at work with) made the mistake of sending me the following picture, which I couldn�t resist turning into a motivational poster." - Remember, when you send a goofy photo to your friend, it will most likely wind up on the internet. My personal favorite is "Reality: This guy could be your office mate!"

Exeter Starbucks closing

2008-07-18T11:31:00.001-07:00

Well I can't say it's a surprise. Exeter is a funny little town. There are Starbucks in a couple of towns close by, their locations are on the highway, which I'm sure helps quite a bit. The Exeter Starbucks is on a heavily traveled road for Exeterites but that's about it. It didn't turn into the hangout for the kids like I see at a lot of local Starbucks. Exeter has a few mom-and-pop type coffee shops and we tend to support our own as a town, which is a good thing.

There's also a closure happening in Visalia, which sports eight locations. The Caldwell and Mooney Starbucks is closing, which is kind of strange because that's a super busy intersection.

Here's the complete list (pdf), see if your favorite site fell victim.

Movie line of the week answer

2008-07-18T09:10:00.001-07:00

Good morning movie liners!

We got an answer, a single answer, a single correct answer mind you, from Mr. Tommy Williams. Congratulations Tommy.

The correct answer was...

An American Werewolf in London

Missing the point

2008-07-18T09:02:00.001-07:00

Free Software Foundation: "Unfortunately, we are not. The extreme here is represented by Jobs and Apple. The iPhone is an attack on very old and fundamental values -- the value of people having control over their stuff rather than their stuff having control over them, the right to freely communicate and share with others, and the importance of privacy." - Wow. The first item in their five reasons to avoid iPhone 3G says "iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can't be on everyone's phones." Tax? It's strange someone at the FSF would speak of taxes, the GPL is a tax. Sure, I can get my free software and compile it on my box, but where's the integration? My Mac in combination with my iPod is a complete, beautifully integrated, solution. It's the same with the iPhone. It works with desktops and laptops and Apple TV. I can create free applications and Apple will handle the distribution for me. Hey, that's kinda nice. Open source has its place and if you want it to become the dominant force in the software world here's a tip, write better software. Write it for folks like my grandmother, not for me. That means paying attention to all the little things, just like Apple does. Remember guys, the user interface IS the application to the end user, they could care less about the cool algorithm you implemented under the hood. Seriously.

Oh me, oh my

2008-07-17T23:47:00.001-07:00

The Watchmen trailer is up at Apple, add to the must see list.

Official Watchmen Movie Site.

53

2008-07-17T08:08:00.001-07:00

Mousekingdom Blog: "Today, 53 years ago, Walt Disney opened his first park �Disneyland�, leaving his heritage to a world of dreamers, fans, and guests from all ages." - Happy Birthday Disneyland!

Movie line of the week

2008-07-17T07:53:00.001-07:00

Good morning movie liners! Today's line comes courtesy of Mr. Steven J. Vore, our friendly neighborhood Georgian, and fellow geekster.

Are you ready? Here goes...

Stay on the road. Keep clear of the moors.

Ok, quick, what movie! Send your guesses here.

It's time for some campaignin!

2008-07-16T20:58:00.001-07:00

iPhone 2.0 is a monster

2008-07-16T20:49:00.001-07:00

Gizmodo: "It looks like not everyone in AT&T land loves the iPhone. When reader Dennis' mom went to the AT&T stand in the Moorestown Mall in New Jersey to ask about iPhone insurance, they laughed in her face. They then handed her a bunch of articles written arguing for the BlackBerry over the iPhone, printed from places like Crackberry.com and Pocket PC Magazine. At the end, there was the name and number of an AT&T regional manager." - My brother tells a similar story. He called AT&T and the customer service lady was frustrated with answering iPhone questions. He said she sighed when he said he wanted to talk about iPhone pricing and plans. I guess it's succeeding, everybody hates 'em.

Then again...

2008-07-16T20:46:00.001-07:00

XBox.com: "Los Angeles�An exciting new home theater experience is coming to living rooms this holiday season. At E3, Microsoft and Netflix, the world's largest online movie rental service, today unveiled an exclusive partnership to offer the ability to instantly stream movies and TV episodes from Netflix to your television via Xbox 360�." - This deal is a win for Microsoft. I'd been considering an Apple TV box, but now, well let's just say we'll put that idea on hold and see how the 360/Netflix deal works out.

Apple #3

2008-07-16T20:40:00.001-07:00

AppleInsider: "Macs garnered an 8.5 percent share of the U.S. PC market during the second quarter of the year, pushing Apple past Acer in the national rankings and into third place overall, according to preliminary data released Wednesday by market research firm Gartner." - Apple has nowhere to go but up, amazing.

I had a feeling

2008-07-16T20:23:00.001-07:00

IT PRO [via NerdyNews]: "All the components are in place � Windows Mobile as the underlying OS, the Zune user interface for the front-end, tweaked and extended using the team and technology at Danger (the company behind the front-end ssoftware for the Sidekick smartphone, which is based on Windows CE)." - I had a feeling something like this would happen. I have a friend there that said he was working on a "really cool" bit of mobile technology he couldn't talk about, but when I said If you're working on a device that plays music, you have a big hill to climb, and I hope you do a lot better than the Zune things got real quiet. That and the iPhone and iPod are a huge success.

Well, like I said, good luck with that Microsoft. There are a bunch of iPhone wannabes showing up now and I'm sure they're not fairing very well. In a way Microsoft has become the underdog even though they still own a gigantor share of the PC market. Apple recovered, but Jobs had to come back to do it. Jobs brought focus back to the company. Microsoft is just doing too much. They need to focus on something and get their mojo back.

I'm not sure a new smartphone platform is it.

No, no, no, no, no!

2008-07-15T19:58:00.001-07:00

Veriterisum: "Also, new scans from Movie Magic magazine reveal that, since Bill was cut from the sixth movie, the werewolf Fenrir Greyback 'attacks Harry, but Harry or (someone unseen) petrifies him in time. But Ron's Dad is not so lucky -- Fenrir mauls his face and nearly kills him.'" - I'm going to drop to the floor and kick and scream now. Why make a change like that? So now Mr. Weasley will be mangled in the seventh movie, instead of Bill? Is Shell Cottage even going to appear in part one, or part two, of The Deathly Hallows movie? Are these guys going to completely jack up the story line? I'm sorry, but this stuff really does put my knickers in twist. I don't mind if things are subtle but these kinds of changes lead to other changes so they can keep continuity in the story. J.K. Rowling drops interesting clues in each and every book, things you think didn't matter, but then she ties it together nicely in the next book, or the one after that. This one isn't too egregious, but it is a change that doesn't seem necessary.

Let it go Rob, let it go, it's just a stoopid book and movie, ohmmmmm, ohmmmmm, ohmmmmm....

Arsy in Rio

2008-07-15T09:21:00.001-07:00

Richard Caetano: "The first day I arrived, in true Portugese style, we had a feast. About 20 people showed up. After the meal the living room turned into a music studio with instruments galore. We played all kinds of crazy stuff, bossa novas, sambas, american rock? Later in the night my cousin Terza took me out for drinks." - In general the rest of the world really knows how to live. Here in America we're consumed with our jobs and don't really take time to enjoy life.