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

An arbitrarily numbered amount of things you (probably) didn’t know about me

“Because all the cool kids are doing it” is a good a reason as any, right? In no particular order…

  1. I listen to terribly varied music, and I can’t understand people who hate on other people for the music they listen to.
  2. I think that some things are better kept private. If you don’t tell anyone, no one will know! Besides, there are probably people that don’t care anyway.
  3. Once upon a time I used to know what I wanted to do “when I grew up”, but these days I’m not so sure anymore. I’ve begun to ask myself: “does it all really matter anyway?” I mean, as long as you’re doing whatever makes you happy, but even then, you can always do whatever makes you happy in your spare time…
  4. I have a not-so-secret love for waffles. I’m not sure where it came from, but damn, I love waffles.
  5. I enjoy a good argument. I see them for the intellectual battle they are, and if you think you’re smarter than I am, well… prove it.
  6. I enjoy writing, again, for the intellectual challenge it presents, as well as the opportunity to make someone else feel an emotion, or be educated by my writings.
  7. I used to shy away from my background; “fitting in” was one of the most important things to me all through high school. These days I don’t really care anymore. A sign of maturity, perhaps?
  8. I am starting to give more credit to people, starting to realise that people are probably smarter than I think they are — somehow this also relates to how intelligent I see myself compared to those around me.
  9. Conversely, I’m starting to realise that I’m fairly ignorant on a wide range of subjects, so it’s more than reasonable for other people to be so as well when it comes to things I’m really good at.
  10. I’ve really only wanted to be in a serious relationship with one other person before, but to this day I’m unsure whether it was really love or just lust — or even a combination of both, perhaps. Either way, I had/still have a serious infatuation with that girl.
  11. Up until a couple of months ago I couldn’t even tell you the name of the last book I read, it’s been that long. I have an excellent book collection of what some would call “crappy” fiction, but I really need to spend less time on the internet and read more.
  12. I think society is over-sexualised these days, but being of very average looks myself that may or may not have something to do with it. Other people don’t know just how good they have it.
  13. I played the piano a long time ago, and I was pretty damn good at it, too. This allows me to appreciate the highs and lows of a beautifully composed melody, or the dark sombre tones of a more macabre piece. Perhaps one day I’ll take it up again.
  14. When I do have a good gaming session, I then see myself as having to “catch up” on all my other “internet responsibilities”, like reading my feeds or catching up on threads.
  15. I have bought many a game and only reached 85% completion. Either because I can’t be bothered to finish it, or just haven’t had the time to do those last couple of hours.
  16. I try to do things to the best of my ability if I’m tasked with something to do. If it’s something I really care about, then you can guarantee I’ll put 110% into it. I have excellent attention to detail, but at the same time, I can be spectacularly lazy. Just call me Mr Balanced.
  17. If nothing else, Uni has taught me that while I think coding is awesome and you can do seriously amazing things with it (ooh, bubble sort!), I totally suck at it. Either that or I just haven’t actually tried ‘cos it just isn’t that interesting, man.
  18. In fact, I’m kinda ambivalent about all Uni. While I love the Uni lifestyle the apparent de-valuing of the common bachelor’s degree has me scared for my future job prospects.
  19. My self-confidence is fairly easily broken, but it takes a little while to get it back up again.
  20. It scares me that at any time, anyone can see what game I’m playing via Steam.
  21. I enjoy gaming in any form but these days have less and less time to do it.
  22. I work better independently, but I can also work well in a team provided everyone isn’t a complete douche.
  23. I enjoy being just a little bit quirky.
  24. I’m an excellent listener. Probably because I don’t talk much, but hey, whatever works.
  25. I’d love to own a cat, by my epic hatred of (cat) hair all over my stuff would drive me insane.
  26. I’m a pretty casual guy.
  27. I don’t think I have many friends, but a lot of close acquaintances.
  28. I enjoy being alone, but I don’t want to be lonely. There’s a difference.
  29. I like cheese. (I think that people need to learn to take things a little less seriously. Lighten up, people.)
  30. If I could be described in a single comic, it would be this one. Or perhaps even this one.

The HTC Desire Experience

I’m not saying iOS doesn’t have it’s downfalls, it does, and I’ll happily admit that there are things I’m not happy about – but to say that Android doesn’t as well is just blind, IMHO.

My only “problems” are preferences – maybe I don’t like that the user interfaces are inconsistent across applications.

Maybe I don’t like the fact that certain applications (eg, Skype) are limited to a certain carrier in the US. Yep. You cannot download Skype unless you’re on Verizon, and this recently happened with the NFL app as well.

Maybe I don’t like the fact that even though the Android Market is available in 46 countries around the world, only 13 of those countries can actually purchase apps, and only 9 countries can actually sell applications.

Maybe I don’t like the fact that a particular Android handset doesn’t let me use my camera provided my battery is above a certain percentage.

Maybe I don’t like the fact that on our version of the Desire that you can’t get turn-by-turn navigation by default (but on the Nexus one you can).

Maybe I don’t like the fact that HTC decided to remove the voice-to-text capabilities included as standard on Android. Oh, and they added voice search as a way of making up for that GPS bug a while back? You mean, they added a feature that was supposed to be in there as standard anyway?

Sure, workarounds exist for these things. Sure, you can mod away to your heart’s content, putting those things back in that HTC removed in the first place? The hell it’s open, manufacturers choose to do as they please. Oh, and how are those useless Telstra bookrmarks doing for you? How they double up on included Google applications? And Froyo? Which has already been released in Euro markets, but not for Telstra handsets because they have to mod their crapware back onto it?

Oh great, so you can see the source code of Android. Last time I checked though, HTC Sense wasn’t open source. Why the hell does this matter anyway? Open source doesn’t mean they’re not trying to make a buck, open source doesn’t mean they’re not evil. And that matters why? I’m damn sure you use at least one program that you can’t see the source code of.

Which other Android device, pray tell? The Nexus One isn’t bad, but that too is with it’s shortfalls. The Galaxy S doesn’t let me use the camera if my battery percentage is below 15%.

Had Apple released the Desire, I would have bought it in a heartbeat. Why? Because Apple’s user interface is consistent, and their user experience unparalleled. You yourself witnessed an issue with Android where it would not associate itself with a wireless network.

Sure, you can wipe that stuff fairly easily – by voiding your warranty. Uhuh.

Sure, don’t get it via Telstra – and thus, not have it work on UMTS 850 – you’ll get Froyo, but you won’t have reception outside of the major CBDs! Enjoy!

They’re inconsistent. Maybe you don’t notice it, but applications don’t work the same. Sometimes the back button will prompt you to exit the app, sometimes the back button will just put you back to a previous screen.

Not, not every single app looks like a 3 year old designed it, but a lot do. Compare the quality of apps on the iPhone to ones on Android and you’ll know what I mean. Case in point: Epic Castle.

Oh – and please, tell me you enjoy the pinkish tint on your screen. Visit HTC.com on your Android handset, and then visit on your desktop. Compare and contrast, as was the high school essay question of the time.

Dell SP2309W — 2048×1152 what now?

I spose the iphone4 would be a good subjective test of screen tech like this – Cramming relatively big res into tiny screens.

Er, no, no it wouldn’t.

Back story: there’s a pretty nice screen on that Dell makes. It’s the SP2309W, and for $279 you get a 23″ TFT Dell monitor that does 2048×1152, higher than high definition (but still at a ratio of 16:9).

I pointed out this monitor to a couple of my friends, and one made the comment you see above (along with something about a weird resolution for a computer monitor).

Before I continue I’d like to point out that most of this is a re-hash (albeit a pretty poor one) of Dustin Curtis’ thoughts on the issue — I’d suggest you go read his blog first, and then come back here when you’re done.

And that’s exactly where he’s wrong. It’s not like the iPhone 4, because while the iPhone 4 crams a relatively big res into a smallish screen, it does so in a way that doesn’t affect the size of on-screen elements.

Traditionally, what happens is that as pixel density gets higher, user interface elements get smaller. It’s got something to do with how large any specific UI element actually is, and how text has been traditionally rendered.

Over at his blog, Dustin explains:

This means that if you draw the letter “a” in 12pt Helvetica on any screen, it will take up exactly 8×9 pixels (almost all the time). As you increase the number of pixels on the whole display, the number of pixels that it takes to draw the letter “a” in 12pt Helvetica stays the same, the letter just becomes smaller.

More pixels crammed into a smaller space (that is, a higher pixel density), results in things becoming smaller. If you think about it, it makes sense — say you’ve got an image that’s 512×512, the size of an typical Mac OSX application icon. If your screen displays that at, say, 100ppi, it’ll appear to have certain dimensions on the screen if you chose to measure it with a ruler. Measure that same icon on a 130ppi screen, and it’ll appear smaller. Not because it’s lost any pixels, but because those same pixels have been jammed into a smaller space.

Then you hit the iPhone 4. It’s not quite resolution independence*, but what Apple have done works pretty well. Instead of using the same graphics resources as the iPhone 2G/3G/3GS, developers are encouraged to develop “retina-optimised” graphics — that is, graphics at double the resolution of their previous-generation iPhone counterparts. Why? Because such graphics will increase interface definition.

If you take that same icon that we had in above example, and instead of just scaling it up or down to suit different resolutions, what you can actually do is create a whole new version of that icon so that it displays at the same physical size — regardless of which screen you display it on. Obviously the icon will look vastly improved on a higher resolution display compared to the lower resolution one, but that’s only because we’re increasing image density alongside pixel density.

Dustin, again, sums it up best:

This means that when iOS scales the elements in physical size to fit the 3.5-inch iPhone 4 screen, they take up the same amount of space as the elements drawn on the iPhone 3GS but they use four times the number of pixels.

Four times the number of pixels, represented in the same physical space = incredible user interface definition.

If that’s not mind-blowingly awesome, I’m not sure what is.

The whole “retina display” mentality of the iPhone is not about representing more things in the same space —  it’s about showing the same stuff, just at a better quality. Contrast this to the display above — because whatever you use on that display (Windows, or Mac) isn’t resolution independent (Mac OSX is to a degree), things will appear smaller, and that’s just how the cookie crumbles.

* okay, it’s not resolution independence at all. Without getting too technical, Apple are actually using two sets of graphics resources for everything — apparently they found that ahead-of-time resolution independence offered the greatest performance/resource benefit. More reading available here on the matter (thanks, Bjango!).

What you YOU missing out on?

calvin and hobbes

via Calvin and Hobbes Comic Strip, September 06, 2010 on GoComics.com.

And that, ladies and gentlemen, is the thing.

Welcome one, welcome all, to another one of those “reflective” posts.

Now, without sounding like I’m blowing my own trumpet, I’m pretty good at this computer thing. Certainly there are areas of my computing knowledge that are lacking, but I think I do a pretty good job. I could tell you how to win a round of game of Bad Company 2, for example, and yet I don’t know anything about programming in Python.

In the above comic Calvin is wondering aloud about the awesome TV shows they’re potentially missing due to watching a nice sunset — and that’s the crux of it, really. Where do you draw the line between doing something you enjoy and just getting out there and experiencing new things? Things that perhaps are outside of your comfort zone, things that you wouldn’t necessarily enjoy?

I know all about forum etiquette, but to date I’m still pretty baffled by pointers in C. I could create a heightmap in Photoshop to form the basis of terrain in Unity, but deriving mathematical formulae is still something I can’t do well.

Sometimes it takes an act of faith to realise what you’ve been missing out on all this time. An excellent example of this is socialising. I’m can be pretty alright when it comes to talking to other people, but I can also be pretty anti-social if I want to be. I’ve never been out clubbing late at night because (I think) that’s not my thing, but without having actually been clubbing, how would I know? Perhaps clubbing is actually the awesomest thing ever and I’ll meet the love of my life while out clubbing? The thing is, because I’ve never been out clubbing, I’ll never know (although I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t find the coolest girl ever in a bar, but weirder things have happened).

I could tell you how to forwards ports on a number of different routers, and make it so that you could access your home computers when you’re out and about, but I’ve never passed out from excess alcohol consumption (some would say that’s a good thing). I find talking to girls pretty difficult (or should that be pretty girls difficult?), but I could tell you how to edit the ID3 tags of any MP3.

The point is — how many experiences am I missing out on because I’m too busy marvelling at the wonders of the internet? One could certainly argue that the Internet would be able to tell me all about those experiences, but there’s nothing like experiencing things first hand.

Sometimes all it takes is a leap of faith. And hey, I might enjoy loud crappy music, spending hard-earned money on pointless alcoholic drinks, and getting hit on by women whose fathers would be shocked and appalled if they could see exactly what their little princesses were up to.

Yeah, sure.

New Wallet!

I’ve been looking for a local distributor for Dynomighty Design wallets for a while now, and I’m glad to report I’ve finally found one.

Roughly four years ago, a couple of friends and discovered ThinkGeek. We were probably a little late on that particular bandwagon, but that’s okay. At the time getting items shipped from the US seemed like a particularly daunting task, so we decided to go in on a group buy – one of us would place the order and get the items shipped to that person’s house, and then the rest of us would pay that person back in cash. It kinda made sense as we’d save on shipping.

That very first order was pretty epic, to say the least; I’m not 100% on what I picked that first time around, but the total order amount came to over $400 AUD for the four of us. One of my items that very first order was a Dynomighty Design Dot Matrix wallet, as it greatly appealed to my inner-geek at the time. It was cool as was pretty much indestructible, and it had the number pi printed out in the ultra-cool dot matrix style.

It’s been a good four years. Many people have commented on how slim it is, even loaded up with receipts and cash/cards, and it’s pretty unique, too.

It was about time for a replacement though, and for a while I wasn’t even sure if I could get them in Australia without paying the exorbitant shipping rates from the Dynomighty website, or without going via ThinkGeek again. Looking into the matter a little more revealed that there were Australian distributors, but they charged quite a lot for the actual wallet, plus I then had to pay shipping.

To be honest I had completely forgotten about the issue until about two weeks ago, when one of the people I follow on Twitter tweeted about a cool little store in Elizabeth street, a cool little store called Syzygy. I went to Syzygy, and to my delight, their window display had a Dynomighty wallet on display! Well, that settled it – I just had to have one. Sadly they weren’t open that day, but I vowed to return.

And return I did. I was back the very next day before Uni, and picked up the wallet with the NYC subway map. It’s like having a wallet without actually having a wallet. It’s (somewhat) unique. It’s only a single-fold, but that’s okay, I’ll get used to it.

I like it – I’m still tossing up whether I should give that extra bit of personalisation with an Apple sticker (as seen below), as doing so would mean that some of the map is covered up. We’ll see.

On the iPhone 4’s antenna…

“Does it have that antenna issue?”, to which I reply no* – “Is that because of the case you have?”, which elicited another terse no from me.

from Wherefore art thou iPhone, part ii.

Someone pointed out to me that I hadn’t actually gone on to clarify the antenna thing (I’m hesitant to use the word “issue”), so here’s clarification.

Bottom line: antenna issue or not, it doesn’t affect my day-to-day usage of the iPhone 4.

I’m not saying there’s no antenna issue – yes, you can drop bars (and perhaps bras if you’re dyslexic, but that’s a whole other story), and perhaps if you were using the iPhone 4 on a substandard carrier (*cough*Optus*cough*), you’d be able to drop calls. Maybe.

The fact is, all phones can drop bars when you attenuate the signal; the only “issue” here is that because the iPhone 4’s antennas are on the outside, the effect is more readily apparent than it would be on your Nokia, for example.

In my mind, and from what I’ve read on the interwebs, Apple knew about this antenna issue long before the iPhone went into production. Apple knew about it, and did nothing. Why? Because they likely figured the trade-off between vastly improved signal in more areas was worth the moderate signal loss in a very specific use case (i.e. holding the phone in a “death grip” or such a position like you’re going to punch yourself with the phone in the palm of your left hand).

At the end of the day, yes, I can get the phone to drop bars. No, it doesn’t affect my day-to-day usage of the device. Maybe it’s because I don’t actually call anyone, maybe it’s because I don’t hold the phone in such a way as to bridge the gap between the antennae, maybe it’s because I have a case that prevents me from being in contact with the antennae.

The vast majority of people I’ve been in contact with, or read opinions from, that have an iPhone 4 don’t experience these issues either.

Calling someone a “fail” because they bought a device with a very specific issue is just plain ignorance on your part – since when have we ragged on people just because they have to replace the batteries in their wireless mice, for example? To gain freedom from oppressive cables, they’ve had to reach some sort of compromise in other areas – namely, having to replace batteries every now and again.

It’s the same with the iPhone 4; for Apple to provide vastly improved signal in more areas, they had to devise a solution which meant that a small percentage of users had a specific use case in which they would experience call drop-outs and a reduced signal.

Okay, so say Apple knew about the issue and did nothing. Say their engineers haven’t been thinking of a solution. I’ve read that some sort of protective coating could have been applied to the stainless steel antennas to prevent any attenuation, but certain properties of stainless steel prevented that from being a cost-effective solution. Perhaps Apple knew that there was an issue with the antennae and hence came up with the Bumper as a solution to this problem.

Whichever way you cut it – the fact that the antennae are on the outside of the phone doesn’t have any impact in how I use the device. At the end of the day it’s a vast improvement on any previous iPhone model, and yes, I’m including the antenna design in that statement.

Required further reading: Daring Fireball’s Antennagate Bottom Line, and the subsequent Antennagate Addendum.