technology

blogging / technology — 3 Comments
6
Jul 10

I Have My Life Back

I have my life back… in the digital sense, that is.

For almost 3/4 of a year, I’ve been without a computer of my own. As mentioned in a previous post, I lost my MacBook in a public library and I’ve borrowed a couple of computers since then. As much as those computers saved my life at times, it wasn’t quite the same. I couldn’t truly use them for photos, for music, or even looking at porn. Well, I really don’t use porn (even if one of the owners wouldn’t have minded), and whether you believe me or not on this issue is up to you. Given that, it is nice to have a personal computer where I can do a lot of private things, unfortunately some of them pretty banal things such as paying bills or looking at bank statements.

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blogging / career / technology / The Recession — No Comments
22
Feb 10

Lessons in Impermanence, Part 1


David Bowie singing his signature anthem of impermanence, “Changes.”

If there’s anything to learn from this recession is that nothing is permanent. Way before our economy tanked to where it is now, corporations adopted the layoff as a quick road to profits during the Clinton years. Downsizing, reducing redundancies, etc – it became the popular way for companies to slim down their expensive American workforce and seek cheaper labor abroad. Even when times appeared to be prosperous, such as the late Clinton years or the middle Bush years, the stable job was not as easily obtainable as it once was.

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blogging / Internet / News / technology — 4 Comments
11
Aug 09

Drip, Drip, Drip

Photo 171

This morning, I found this lovely newsbit on Twitter: Some coffeehouses in NYC are pulling the plug on laptop users. Then, I had some Twitter conversation with Brian and Kyle* on the issue and then some more reactions on Facebook, as I posted the article link to my “wall.” For the past few years, I have made decisions about which coffee houses I go to based on if they offer WIFI. In fact, I am writing this post from Starbucks, from which I get all the WIFI I want while I’m here. Which brings me to another subject.

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blogging / Internet / technology — 2 Comments
27
Apr 09

Rest in Peace, GeoCities

geocities

I have to admit, I forgot about GeoCities until I saw the news a few days ago. Before Blogger/Blogspot, WordPress, MySpace,  Facebook, and Twitter, GeoCities provided a valuable public service – free web presence in the early days. Websites for the masses, which weren’t always the most attractive, even by 1990′s standards. They were fairly easy to create, no HTML required. One could even upload their own HTML files to their account. Whatever the quality of the personal websites (and the information contained within), GeoCities was democratic as it gave many a means for self-expression. They’ve managed to continue after Yahoo acquired them a decade ago, but now they have gone the way of the dinosaur. Yahoo has decided to close down the once ubiquitous web hosting service.

My very first website was on GeoCities. I used the templates at first, but then graduated to uploading my own files created on Pagemill and early Dreamweaver. Once I created a fairly attractive website, the disadvantages were the limited memory space (2 MB in the late 90′s), ads, and the complicated URL. Plus, having a GeoCities address was cheesy, so I eventually moved on. I would later relive some of my mixed feelings about GeoCities when I started my blog on Blogger/Blogspot and created a MySpace profile.

I’m sure I’m not the only user who sought to flee GeoCities the first chance they got. However, I feel some sadness for their closure as it signals the end of an era. No, the era’s long past and now they’re going. Rest in peace, GeoCities.

gadgets / technology — 5 Comments
13
Mar 09

Small Talk is Cheap

3350076131_44a96ba0bc_oNever have I been so disappointed in an Apple product and I haven’t even had the chance to see it in person. For close to a decade, I have been using Macs and related products, and I’ve been very enthusiastic about them. I have owned a G4 tower and Blueberry monitor (beautiful display, but too heavy), an iBook, a MacBook, two iPods, a first generation Shuffle, a second generation Nano, and an iPhone. This latest version of the Shuffle, however, fails to impress me.

The Shuffle and overall surprise of (the lack of) features was a hot topic of discussion on Twitter, which led to some very funny jokes. My blog friend ThePete ripped the latest incarnation of the Shuffle apart in a post, and he’s also self-styled “Mac Head.” Then MacWorld delivered blow with their review, where they comment on the Apple’s war on buttons. It doesn’t bode well for Apple when a product isn’t well received by their core market. If we’re not into it, then how else can they expect the rest of the buying product to be on board?

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blogging / communication styles / friends / teaching / technology — 4 Comments
14
Jan 09

You Only Tell Me You Love Me When You’re Drunk

img_00011
I’ve been writing about paper forms of communication in several of my recent posts, but technological forms of communication are still an urgent issue. One of the most commonly used technology is the telephone in its various incarnations over the past one and half centuries. It’s also among the most commonly abused.

Disclaimer: The numbers displayed in the image above do not belong to any of my friends. 1/14/08, 11:00am.

Drunk phone calls are always fun to get. Actually, they’re not. One of the most dangerous things about mobile phones, especially in the hands of the inebriated, is the ease of getting a hold of people and having no qualms about harassing them. Even better yet is when they leave those messages on the voicemail system that they’ll have no memory of, yet are all too painful for the recipients.

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blogging / Internet / technology — No Comments
25
Nov 08

Did My Dream Come True?

Just when I felt hot to post today, my Macbook goes on the fritz. I had a dream a few days ago that I dropped my laptop and the monitor was shattered. Might have been an omen, though things have not happened as literally as I dreamed it. For one thing, the MacBook in the dream was one of those new aluminium kind, while the real life version is encased in white plastic. Also, my computer simply isn’t booting up.

I have the iPhone and the WordPress app, so I’m not completely lost. Still, I am not a fan of the iPhone keyboard and I can’t copy and paste. A real keyboard is much more comfortable to type with.

I get to take my MacBook in to see a Genius tomorrow at the University Towne Center Apple Store in La Jolla. It’s much sooner than if I tried to get an appointmet at the Fashion Valley location, which would have been on Friday.

I am frustrated I couldn’t see a Genius today. I miss the early days of the Apple Store Concierge where one could sign in to see one in a few hours, but now it’s a couple of days. I should be happy I’m seeing one tomorrow. But, these problems never happen on a timetable. That would be too convenient.

Here’s to hacking it out on the iPhone,

creative writing / photography / technology — No Comments
22
Oct 08

Photo Lab for iPhone

Yesterday, I mentioned the CameraBag application for iPhone. I downloaded Photo Lab, which has some artistic filters one can apply to the photos on your iPhone. The options range from simply adjusting the color to rendering the image as a line drawing. For $2.99, there are 20 filters and it’s easy to use.

To show some of the effects, I used a picture I took of my friend Jaylen. First, here’s the original photo taken with iPhone’s default camera app next to one with the Auto Correction filter applied:
Jaylen (original) Jaylen Auto Correction
Left: Original. Right: Auto Correct

Jaylen Posterized Jaylen Saturated
Left: Posterized. Right: Saturated.

Jaylen Line Art Jaylen Line Art with Color
Left: Line Drawing. Right: Line Drawing with Color.

Jaylen Stencil Jaylen Sculpture
Left: Stencil. Right: Sculpture.

UPDATE: While I enjoy using Photo Lab on my iPhone and tweaking the photos with it, the app has crashed on me a lot today. Please, developers of this fun product, please work things out so that there are less crashes. I will less likely bitch and moan and scream ‘FAIL!’ if you do.

photography / technology — No Comments
21
Oct 08

CameraBag for iPhone

You can’t always say you get what you pay for with iPhone apps. Some of the best ones are free while some of the paid apps are utter FAIL (such as allRadio). Given that, I paid $2.99 for the CameraBag, and I wasn’t disappointed at all.

The iPhone’s default camera application is simply point and click. There isn’t much one can do with the “camera” besides have a steady hand and shoot. With CameraBag, that part is still true, but there are several options to manipulate the image for a “vintage” effect.

Here are some examples of the effects offered by CameraBag:

Jaylen in cardigan
Jaylen in “Lolo.”

Amber and Julie infrared
Amber and Julie in “infrared.”

Amber in vintage photo
Amber in “1974″

Sharon and Brian B&W
Sharon and Brian in “1962″

Casey
Casey in “Helga”

blogging / San Diego / technology — 2 Comments
27
Sep 08

SDTwineup

If you wonder what an SDTwineup is, it is essentially a smaller Tweetup (a meeting for Twitterers) with a healthy dose of wine and cheese. Organized and hosted by @DowntownRob, the soft opening of the Twineup was held in Rob’s West Downtown apartment, which has a very beautiful view of the Marina District and even the new Electra Tower. Among the Twitterers represented were your truly, @NREK, and @Nomatophobia.

The benefit of the Twineup is that there is more of opportunity to meet and get to know fellow Twitterers, which is present at the Tweetup, but there are fewer people with a less hectic party pace. And, there is nothing like some wine and cheese to help the conversations get going, very good ones indeed.

The Twineup eventually migrated to Altitude, which had an excellent view of Petco Park’s baseball diamond. We eventually met up with @MyMelodie, who was with her friend @jenniferaron. At one point, several of us couldn’t resist doing a runway walk, which was only a small part of the crazy fun post-wine.

A special thanks to Rob for his hospitality and for creating the event. As I’ve mentioned before, Rob is a big part of the San Diego online community, helping to organize the Blogger Meetups and recently co-sponsoring last week’s SDTweetup. His internet server business, Webwizards.Net, has a special 60 day trial plan available to Twitterers. Check it out and make your grand presence known beyond Twitterville.

The next SDTwineup is on October 24, 7pm.

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