Category: Promoted

Usually stuff I’ve written personally, stuff I think is pretty good.

  • Just Do It

    As it stands, I have two assignments due in just under a week. They’re both major assignments — one requires me to write a few thousand words on ubiquitous computing with references AND do a not-insubstantial iOS programming task that involves pigs (no, it isn’t an Angry Birds clone), and the other requires me to do a Java-based version of Minesweeper.

    I, of course, haven’t started either.

    It’s not that I find the content boring (okay, maybe the Java one isn’t all that appealing) — heck, just today we were making a super basic read-only version of Twitter (but without actual tweets). The spec called for a normal UIButton to be placed somewhere in the interface that would link to a map view of the “tweets” on a map (I think the idea was that we were playing around with CoreLocation and MapKit). After trying a few different things and deciding that looked like crap, I stuck a UIBarButtonItem in the UINavigationBar, which made it look much cooler. A tiny, ten-second version of going above and beyond, but my interest was definitely piqued.

    Like I said, it’s not that I find the content boring. Most of my Uni subjects have been interesting enough, but try as I might, I just can’t find the motivation to get things done (and by things, I mean super-huge-mega-assignments that always seem to get left to the last minute).

    It’s not that I’m lazy, either — at least, I don’t think it is. I’m definitely very un-lazy about some things, recent examples including staying up for Apple keynotes, and downloading and installing the Battlefield 3 beta so I can play — and later this month, I plan to go to the midnight launch of Battlefield 3 at my local games store. That’s not lazy, right?

    So what is it?

    This post part of Blogtober 2011, just a little thing of mine where I (attempt to) post something up on my blog every day in October 2011.

  • Breakfast, Lunch, and Dinner With Android

    There’s this little blog called My Dinner With Android that received some media attention a few months or so ago, and it attempts to detail one iOS user’s journey with the Nexus S. This post is where I will attempt to do the same, with a few exceptions: his previous smartphone is an iPhone 3GS, my previous smartphone is an iPhone 4. He is from the US, I am from Australia. Everything else is fairly similar. For the sake of your sanity and length, this will be yet another two-parter — the first part, this part, will focus more on Android as something to live with every day, with a few comparisons to iOS and WP7 along the way. The second, more ranty part, will probably be about how much I hate Android and all of its crazy user interaction methods — either that, or a few more details on things I’ve said here, as well as more critical look at Android as a smartphone platform and an Apple iOS competitor.

    Yes, I’ve done it again. Changed smartphone platforms, at least temporarily. After my experiments with WP7 I figured I had to give Android another go, a more serious one this time. Like I said, Android is my poison of choice this time around, and the Nexus S is the chalice from which I drink. I realised my previous attempt at Android was little more than a ranting tirade about everything that was wrong about the platform, so this time around I’m going to take a more objective view.

    First, the hardware. So, what is the Nexus S like? It’s alright. Not fantastic like the aluminium-and-glass of the iPhone 4, but still alright. Plastic feels somewhat cheap, but overall the whole kit is passable. The most defining feature of the Nexus S is that the front glass is curved – people have said that the inwardly-curved front glass fits better against the face when you’re on a call, and it does. Oh, and the screen is a little larger than what I’m normally used to, which, when combined with the hardware navigation keys (back, menu, home) means that apps have a little more breathing room.

    Continue Reading

  • Razer Onza Tournament Edition

    Short, mini-review: works well in Burnout: Paradise. Trigger design a little weird, sometimes a little uncomfortable. Hyper-response action buttons (X Y A B) have almost zero travel, but feel crisp. Backlit keys are cool. Cord is fantastically long. Can’t really tell the difference between the most and least resistant of the adjustable-resistance keys. Shoulder buttons are super-clicky, like clicky in the extreme. Haven’t tried the programmable buttons.

    Overall: it’s different. I think the next controller I buy might be the standard controller (the new one, with the ultra-cool transforming d-pad).

    Update! Apparently I’m an idiot who doesn’t know how to work technology, because I only figured that the clicking sounds the adjustable-resistance analog sticks were making were it actually, um, adjusting the resistance, and not breaking all the things. With the resistance now adjusted, I can definitely feel the difference between settings, and it definitely makes a difference in twitch-reaction games, or games were precision is necessary. Recommendation upgraded from “meh” to “actually not bad”.

  • What I don’t like about the Dell Venue Pro

    Selling off my HTC 7 Mozart and going back to my loaner Venue Pro (portrait WP7 slider) made me finally realise why I don’t like it: it has a curved screen.

    The curve on the Venue Pro is convex, meaning that it’s got a very slight bulge outwards; exactly the opposite of what you really want on a display. When the iPhone 4 came out, many tech pundits harped on about how the glass on top of the display was fused to the LCD underneath, and how that made the content appear that much closer to your finger whenever you touched it.

    The Venue Pro is the opposite; the horizontally-convex (that is, bulged outwards in the middle and less so at each side) display means that content feels further away from your fingertips, which makes for a weird touchscreen experience. On a display that already feels sub-par, it’s exactly what you do not want.

    Anyway.

    Heaps of posts upcoming. There’s something special coming up very, very, soon, and then there’s the big ol’ MicroServer write-up I might do, oh, and a HP TouchPad review-slash-webOS extravaganza somewhere in the middle. I wouldn’t expect the TouchPad review until early October, and the MicroServer sometime after that. Uni will get really busy really soon, and doubly so for me, procrastinator extraordinaire.

  • Your Highness (2011)

    Ooh, a movie review! Let’s get on with it, then…

    Truth be told, my experience of Natalie Portman in movies has been limited to just the Star Wars franchise. Hearing her spout lines like “Oh Anakin, you’re breaking my heart” doesn’t exactly do things for me, but Your Highness changed all of that.

    Look, I’m not a huge fan of stupid comedy. I prefer my stuff to be a little more subtle, a little more intelligent, and Your Highness was a perfect example of what I dislike about the genre. It’s trying a little too hard — a little too much sexual innuendo here, a little too much forced acting there. I like fantasy and the whole “sword/medieval/magic” genre, don’t get me wrong, but some of this stuff was just plain stupid, and not in the good way (if it tries to parody other stuff from the same sort of genre, it does a terrible job of it.

    The only saving grace of this movie is Natalie Portman. She’s a badass, and that’s about as apt a description as I can think of right now. It also means I’m off to acquire more of her earlier work. She’s not the lead character, but far and away, she carries the movie across various terrible sub-plots.

    Seriously, watch this movie, but only for Natalie Portman (or James Franco, if you’re a female).

    The movie is bad, but Portman is a badass. There’s a difference.

    Your Highness, 2011

  • Minecraft Boat Race

Benny Ling's Bling

Computers are like a bicycle for our minds.