The Column

Motto: Rubber ducky, you're the one.. This is my 47th column since its rebirth. I should emphasize again that this is not the 47th column I've ever written - it's likely closer to the 300th (I had a lot of free time in high school). All those columns are gone now - lost to the grandeur of the greater internet. I'm archiving these posts however, so that won't ever happen again. So this is the 47(+/-300)th column. The number 47 has a greater significance in my life. First off, it was my favorite number for a long time (the number 42 surpassed it after I read the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but that's another story - one I told 5 columns ago). The reason it was my favorite number is because of its relevance to one of my favorite video games series of all time: Hitman. Videogames are for children. Videogames are not for adults with problems to deal with and responsibilities to attend to. But, as I have often said, I'm only as mature as I have to be i...

Motto: “That which goes up, must also come down” is a wildly inaccurate statement. About the motto: first off, “up” and “down” are dependent upon your frame of reference, but even if that wasn’t the case; there are jillions of examples of things that go up without coming down. Deep space probes. All the various equipment we left on the Moon. The Moon itself was likely part of the earth at one time, it went up. Pixar made the movie “Up”. I don’t see them making the movie “Down” at any point in time. Most buildings and satellites that are currently “up” won’t be coming down at any point in our lifetime. A more accurate saying would be “That which goes up, is quite likely to come down”. Perhaps, to keep the meaning of the saying, it should be “If you are happy or in power or in any other way emotionally lifted you should probably enjoy it, because it’s not happening for forever.” Keep the tradition of that which goes up, must also come down: Microsoft. I read a looong article last night a...

Motto: Using segways to make random topics seem related… To get started, here’s a few brief update bullets about my life: 1. Thanksgiving happened. This means I had my first day of paid vacation. I’m got paid to not come in to work. I’M GETTING PAID TO NOT COME INTO WORK. This is huge. Consequences will never be the same. 2. This past weekend I spent at Melissa’s place in Topeka. They taught me spades. Spades is basically “hearts”, but with partners and some of the rules are different. Spades and Hearts are related about as much as Football and Rugby…. I assume. I don’t know anything about Rugby. Either way, the group had a really good time. Melissa and I are the undefeated/undefeatable lightweight Spades champions of the world. 3. I’m glad I got to see my family. Jon is coming up here now and I get some more face time with the rest of them on Sunday . Speaking of “face time”, I got to use Google’s version of Apple’s “Facetime” in a new way last night. A bit of background: Skype is...

Motto: Pick your poison... and by poison I mean most interesting and useful thing in the modern world.. This is my master tech comparison review. If you don't like reading about this stuff... just pretend like update 44 doesn't exist… except the Top 5 and the Quote. Those are still good. Just a fair warning - this is a super-long post. It's a grand master summary of my feelings about Apple, Google, and Microsoft. There are three major players behind the scenes and/or at the forefront of the consumer tech industry today: Apple, Google, and Microsoft. This column will compare all three on the following fronts: 1. Flagship phone offerings 2. Flagship tablet offerings 3. Flagship computer offerings 4. Final considerations 5. A very brief wrap up 1. Flagship phone offerings Apple: iPhone 5 The iPhone, since its original debut over 5 years ago, has been held the golden standard of smartphone prowess. The competition was, at first, anemic...

Motto: Nobody’s perfect… I guess this extends to corporations, too. Google launched their new Nexus lineup on Tuesday. They went on sale 25 minutes before they were supposed to… and by the time they were ACTAULLY supposed to be on sale, they were literally SOLD OUT of the Nexus 4. I took an extra early lunch to make sure I’d be able to order one. I got there 10 minutes before they were supposed to start selling. It was already too late. I didn’t get one. Their Play Store was decimated by thousands and thousands of people trying to get their order in. My attempts were all futile. I’m just trying to give you my money, Google, why must you make it so difficult! TAKE IT! Not all was a loss, though. I was able to order a new Nexus 7 to replace my current Nexus 7. Why do that? I have hookups for a great rate on my phone bill. The Nexus 7 I have coming in the mail will be able to hook into that plan, whereas the one I have right now doesn’t offer that capability. I won’t have two tab...

Motto: Don't Panic. BSOD My current computer is crashing on a multiple-times-per-day basis now. It's a little over 4 years old and has been needing to be put to rest for a while. Given that I know technology and what-not, I've decided I am going to build my next computer myself. Seems obvious now, I don't know why I didn't think of it before. It's going to be built specifically to suit my needs. This essentially means I'm going to build a computer specifically for video editing. There will be more on this at a later date... I have a couple of Nexus devices I want to get before the computer time ever comes. Having a job and money is so much better than college was it's not even funny. Whoever said "college is the best time in your life" must have not went through an engineering program. Don't get me wrong, college as great... but would I rather be doing that than what I'm doing now? No fricken way. Most negative words seem to st...

Motto: Sub Sandwiches are so named because they are the same basic shape as a submarine. The motto was something completely obvious that I didn’t’ realize until just earlier today. That blew my mind with its obviousness. It has been brought to my attention that I don’t speak much of world events or general news outside of my realm of immediate interests. So, I’m going to try a brief Fourier into the broader news: Obama won the election. Alright, now that that’s over I can go back to talking about what I had planned. I hate forum snobs. I don’t like the word “hate” and try to use it as little as possible, so as to maintain its strong meaning, but it’s warranted in this situation. When I Google a problem I’m having, and I find a post where someone has the same problem as me on some obscure forum, there is a 50% chance my search will end with a forum snob than a real answer. Let me define Forum Snob to give you a better idea what I mean: Forum Snob – Noun – Person who cares more about t...

Motto: It's all good (except the bad stuff). Today I learned that Android was born on the 5th of November . That means exactly five years ago today, someone small with big ambitions set out to overthrow those currently in power. Not unlike another story that's been told somewhere in history... On an unrelated note: I do not like Autotune. Whoever created autotune should be slapped for contributing so effectively to the end of music. Allowing talentless people to pass themselves off as "artists". It's weak. You know, they say "where there's a will, there's a way", and that's true. "The way" used to be "practice for hours and days and weeks and months and years and then you might get good". Now, "the way" is just to put your crappy voice into a special metal box that poops it out on the other side sounding like this garbage , then feel good about yourself. We've lowered the bar far enough that anyone ca...

Motto: The word "Sasquatch" is somewhere in this sentence, see if you can find it! I have written a lot about consumer technology lately. This isn't a blog about consumer technology. If you haven't surmised this yet, this isn't a blog about anything at all, really. I just write what I've thought about. To be fair, there is a disproportionate amount of consumer tech running around my thoughts in general. Even right now, as I write this, I have three different reviews for the Nexus 4 open in other tabs. The reviews are generally pretty positive, but contradict each other at places (battery life is bad/good, screen is excellent/just okay). Regardless, I'm getting one as soon as physically possible. I can't wait to make my own photo spheres. One last thing about Android before I move on: I had one of those mind-blowing moments the other day. Briefly overwhelmed by the sheer awesomeness of the technology that I was seeing. I plugged my USB adapter i...