We went to London for a week and Paris for a week. For the first week in London, my mom tagged along with us. It really nice, since visiting London was on her bucket list. We all three had cameras of course. Suzette and I both brought our Macbook Pros and I brought the handy iPad. The problem was that mom’s camera had a mini-USB connector on it. We didn’t have the cable for that. What her camera also had though was an SD card for memory. All I had to do was stick the SD card in the camera connection for the iPad and then sync the iPad with my MBP. All of the sudden, mom could post all the pics she had taken on Facebook with no problem.

Of course that’s not all I found useful about having the iPad with me in Europe. I used he MLB at Bat app to keep up with the Braves games. This app is excellent and well worth it on the iPad if you’re a baseball fan. Using the Universalis app meant not going over the 50 pound weight limit on my luggage by packing my LOTH books. I also watched some TV on the plane with it. It was also a serious conversation starter. Keep in mind that the international release of the iPad was while we were in Paris, so few people over there had so much as seen one before. On the train ride from London to Paris, I made a new friend from Australia who wanted to know all about.

So here I am now typing in this new blog post much later than I wanted to, but finally getting it done. Aside from the MLB app, there are a few I don’t my iPad would be complete without. I’m using the Blogpress app right now. This will be the first post I’ve done with it, so the verdict is still out. I love the Netflix app. There’s nothing like being able to sit on the couch and watch a movie on Netflix. You don’t have to put a disc in the PS3 and you can plug in the headphones if someone is being disturbed by your entertainment. The Twitterific app for the iPad is hands down the best Twitter client around. I love being able to view twitpics in a popout. If you get one for these devices, be sure to check out The Weather Channel MAX+ app too. I just checked it myself to see if it’s going to rain on Saturday, since I’m playing in a golf tournament.

All in all, I am very happy with the device. I’m glad I got it. You know, I wasn’t going to get one at first. I was pretty determined to wait for the second generation iPad. But, I had an intervention. A friend of mine bought one while visiting here in the US. He’s from Canada and it was not yet released there. More on that later. Anyway, he is not what you would call an “Apple enthusiast”. But he picked one up in the Apple and could not put it down. After hearing him rave about it, I have to see one. Since there’s a Sephora at the same mall as the Apple Store here in Nashville, I never have no trouble talking Suzette into going there. I have to admit that I could not put it down either. Unfortunately, I had to. They were sold out and it was closing time. The next day I ordered mine from the website.

Now I said I’d mention some more about my friend. He had a little trouble with his. It wasn’t so much a technical difficulty as a silly difficulty. Since the iPad hadn’t been released in Canada, he couldn’t buy apps for it on iTunes. He also couldn’t buy the camera connection kit online. In the first paragraph of this post, you might have seen what at first looks a typo. I mentioned “camera kits”, plural. I ordered two of them and sent one up to him as a gift. I’m such a rebel.

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
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Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
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So one of the cool features of this little gadget is the ability to add custom ringtones to your contacts. The ringtones can be song clips and they can be different for each contact. So I set a ringtone for calls from my wife Suzette to be “Lovesong”, by The Cure. I tweeted about it later and got at least one response from Tupelo Rob with what he had set as his ringtone for his wife Kristen. That got me to thinking that this might be an interesting topic for discussion. So I put it out to you all, what would your custom ringtone be for your spouse or significant other?

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
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Well, as with any computing device, it turns out the Palm Foleo will only be as good as its software. And the more we hear about the software available or the Foleo, the more we warm up to this little device. First of all, the Foleo runs Linux, which means you might be able to slap some custom software on there in addition to the default applications.

And it turns out you can also use the Foleo to access and control your home or work PC on the go. LogMeIn is showing off a software client for the Palm Foleo at this week’s LinuxWorld conference in San Francisco.

LogMeIn is a “remote control” software for a computer. What it does basically is allow you open a “window” on one computer that will actually be the screen on another computer. For instance, you have a laptop and a desktop. When you travel with the laptop, you would be able to open a window on your laptop that would allow you to see and do almost everything on your desktop back home. It of course requires an internet connection on both ends. Otherwise it’s pretty simple.

If people find more inventive ways such as this to use this little machine, it might have a future. HM…Maybe it wasn’t a yawn after all.

Technorati Tags: computers, geek, Palm, Windows, software, remote

Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
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Is it just me, or does this casting write up on Sci-Fi wire for the up coming Watchmen movie have a major spoiler in it?

I don’t think it’s just me.

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Original content Copyright 2007 Marc Smith
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UPDATE:It looks like my fifteen minutes have been extended a good five ten minutes. Appletell has posted pretty much the same story as TUAW.com.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

There’s even more after the jump…..Major spoilers ahead for that though.

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Another plot twist we Lost fans were presented with recently was the admission by Naomi that flight 815 had been found on the bottom of the ocean. Everyone was dead. Well, some fans put together a little video of news clips reporting this “discovery”. Keep in mind that this is not “canon”, that means it is not really a part of the fiction if that makes any sense. It’s just something some fans did for fun.

Click here to view the embedded video.

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Click here to view the embedded video.

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First we have Safari browser for Windows. This has got to be the biggest “what were they thinking?” moment for me since Palm announced the Foleo. I mean really. I’m a die hard Mac user and I don’t use Safari. What makes anyone at Apple think that Windows users will convert in droves to Safari? Most of the people who would even have a clue what they doing by installing Safari on their PC would probably already be hooked on Firefox, or maybe Opera.

The other biggie was that there would be a way for third party developers to develop apps for the iPhone. They would have hooks that would allow access to functions on the phone. So basically the answer is that you can develop apps for that sub-par browser I just mentioned and that’s your way to put your own apps on the iPhone. My first thought was that it was a real cop out. My second thought was that anyone who develops…..at all…..would realize this already. I’m not sure why it was even a topic for discussion at this. It was jsut very disappointing.

A few other things of note were of course the previews for Leopard and some gaming news. The Leopard previews were really cool. I’m really looking forward to it. It doesn’t come out until October though. Apple recently announced that it was delayed due to having to shift some resources from Mac OS development to iPhone development. It makes me wonder where the resources to port Safari to Windows came from. The gaming news was that two major gaming players (sorry, couldn’t resist), EA and ID would start producing Mac versions of their games. This is a good thing. Even with the new version of Parallels that allows for 3DFX support for Windows VMs, I would still much rather play games in the native OS.

Overall though, I considered this Stevenote to be rather lame. To think, I could have spent that time getting a cavity drilled or something along those lines instead of sitting at my desk waiting for MacRumorsLive to refresh. All the Twitter conversation was fun though.

Technorati Tags: Apple, computers, development, macintosh, macosx, software, web

Here’s the first few of the over 800 lines from this prologue:

Whan that Aprill, with his shoures soote
The droghte of March hath perced to the roote
And bathed every veyne in swich licour,
Of which vertu engendred is the flour;
Whan Zephirus eek with his sweete breeth
Inspired hath in every holt and heeth
The tendre croppes, and the yonge sonne
Hath in the Ram his halfe cours yronne,
And smale foweles maken melodye,
That slepen al the nyght with open eye-
(So priketh hem Nature in hir corages);
Thanne longen folk to goon on pilgrimages
And palmeres for to seken straunge strondes
To ferne halwes, kowthe in sondry londes;
And specially from every shires ende
Of Engelond, to Caunterbury they wende,
The hooly blisful martir for to seke
That hem hath holpen, whan that they were seeke.

I don’t remember how much of this Mr. Raney had us recite. What I’ve put above is all I remember. I’m trying to decide if it is unfortunate or exciting that remember that even.

My wife and I saw Mr. Raney a couple of years ago. He had retired and was working on his “second career”. He seemed happy enough, but it also seemed that he might be missing being up in front of a class preparing them for what awaits after graduation. It unfortunate that he’ not teaching anymore as he was a great teacher.

As for the Canterbury Tales, don’t expect to hear me talking about it on iTunes anytime soon. But I suspect my voice may be coming down in a feed near you soon!

Technorati Tags: Chaucer, highschool, poetry, english, schools

The producers have said that each powered individual on the show only has one inherent power. That is to say for instance Sylar has the ability to graft on to his brain the powers of others. Those powers he steals are not inherent to him though. At the same time, Peter’s empathic powers allow him to take on other’s abilities when he comes into contact with them. The point is though that both of them only have one inherent power. It also seem obvious that the specific powers everyone take on are influenced by who they are. For instance Peter’s empathy is something that is a part of his personality and the way he leads his life. Sylar’s ability to figure out how things work in another powered person’s brain seems to be influenced by his chosen profession as a watchmaker. Hiro’s power could well be influenced by his love for SciFi and comic books.

Now here’s the thing, Jessica and Niki are two individuals. They were twin sisters and since the powers on the show are genetic, isn’t not only possible but probable that they both had (have) powers? Hear me out… It seems that Niki’s power is some sort of super strength/endurance. I say it’s Niki’s because we know the powers are “in the brain” since Sylar “looks” at the brain to “figure out how it works”. We also know that Jessica’s body is buried, along with her brain. Niki’s power could’ve developed as a defense mechanism to her father’s abuse. I can see that. But what if Jessica also developed a power in response to her father’s abuse? What if her power was some sort of projection, something that would allow her to leave her body when she was being abused? Eventually she might have been able to enter someone else’s body. The first time she entered her sister’s body to protet her while their father was abusing Niki, she was probably surprised at how strong she was. She could have used that strength to fight off their father to protect Niki. The problem is that this made their father focus his abuse on Jessica, since he was probably now afraid of Niki and what he knew she could do to him. So what do you think would happen if Jessica was “projected” into Niki on that day she died? It’s something to think about.

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The end is in sight for ABC’s acclaimed island mystery Lost, but fans will have to wait until 2010 for all the answers.

I actually kind of like this idea. I think it works for a show like Lost because it will give the producers a solid timeframe for building out the rest of and finishing the story. They have said from the beginning that Lost is not like shows like Desperate Housewives or ER in that they are here to tell a story. From the beginning, they knew this story had a start and finish. Once you reach that finish line, you are truly at the end.

It reminds me somewhat of Babylon 5. When JMS started Babylon 5, he had 5 seasons worth of story to tell. Keep in mind what I just said, I said “story”, not “stories”. He knew the basics of the story, including the end when he started. It had to develop overtime, but it still followed the same outline. The same seems to be true with Lost. I think setting a target end date give the writers and the producers the opportunity to the story on their own terms. It allows them to create their peaks and valleys in the plot as needed to tell the story right.

To be honest, I’m even more excited now than I was before hearing this.

Technorati Tags: lost, news, scifi, tv

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

Maybe Brittney at Nashville is talking can help…

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So what’s it going to be? Will Jobs and EMI both put their money where their mouths are and go DRM free? Or it is the long awaited addition of the Beatles to the iTunes collection? Only time will tell and unfortunately I’ll be on a plane when it happens, if it happens. Let’s not forget that yesterday was April Fools Day.

UPDATE: DRM free music from EMI. get the scoop here.

Technorati Tags: Apple, geek, iPod, itunes, music, pop, tech

SCI FI Channel has increased its episode order for the fourth season of Battlestar Galactica to 22 from the original 13

But what’s my opinion? Well, I think Saul Tigh says it best when he says:

CRAAAAAAPPPPP!!!!!

I was actually pleased with the idea of only having 13 episodes. I really feel this show’s at it’s best when it’s going for quality, not quantity. There have been some pretty bad “filler” episodes this season. I personally would rather not have to deal with those and just get on with the story. I guess it’s pretty obvious that the whole 13/22 episode episode has just been a bargaining ploy…..

UPDATE:

2008????

You mean we gotta wait 10+ months to not find out what’s going on????

CRAAAPPPP!!!!!!!!

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Fox confirmed with us that this is true and the date is correct, meaning a The Day the Earth Stood Still remake is definitely underway for summer 2008!

What are these people thinking? It looks like yet another SciFi masterpiece is going to get turned inside, chewed up and swallowed and puked out on movies screens across the country. I just don’t get it. Leave the classics alone and think up something new. How hard is that.

In my job, I have to write documentation for the projects I work on. If I just took the same documentation from past projects, changed the name and somehow decreased the value of them, I would get fired. How is it that these Hollywood producers that do the same thing with these great old movies and TV shows keep their jobs????

Technorati Tags: geek, movies, rant, scifi

SCI FI Channel announced that it has renewed its Peabody-winning original series Battlestar Galactica, ordering 13 new episodes. Production will resume this summer in Vancouver, Canada, with an eye toward a January 2008 premiere.

I know some will be disappointed with the number “13″, but I’m not. Personally I could do without the filler episodes we’re getting nowadays that do nothing to advance the story.

It looks like we’re getting another one this week that may well end up being just a rehash of an episode from the original series. While it was just a subplot of the episode, there were people trapped on the wrong side of a bulkhead after a Cylon attack in “Fire in Space”. I’ll reserve actual judgement on it until I see the episode tonight. Even if it’s not a retread though, I still have a feeling it will be less than my favorite episode. We’ll see.

Technorati Tags: battlestar, galactica, geek, pop, scifi, tv

Someone just smart and got rid of all of them. What they have is a website where you can enter up to eight of the club membership numbers. Press a button and you can print out your new single card. I’m planning on having mine laminated. Here’s the directions from the site….

# Choose 8 or less of your favorite clubs cards.
# Find the barcode on each club card (usually on the back)
# Locate the numbers right under the barcode and type them into the barcode number box.(Make sure to include any numbers to the right or left of the bar code itself, even if they don’t line up with the main row of numbers.)
# Choose a store from one of the choices in the “Store” dropdown. If you don’t see the store you need check the FAQ first, then email me to add it.
# When you have finished filling out the boxes, click the “Create your card” button.
# Print out the generated card and follow the instructions to create a new card containing all of your favorite club cards.

Is that genius or what? Go make your own combo card.

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Somehow though, I do believe Google maps has an issue in at least one part of the state. I say that because this is way too much. In some places just one U-Turn is illegal.

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