The Column

Motto: THOUGHTS! OPINIONS! WORDS IN AN ORDER TO CONVEY MEANING! This post is literally only about my continued review on iOS vs Android. I thought of more stuff that I want to say since writing Column #356 . If that doesn't interest you, skip to the Top 5 then get outta here! First thought: In general - iOS and Android are basically the same at this point. They do the same stuff, just in very slightly different ways. The points made below are basically nit-picks. Ways iOS & the iPhone are better: It's super nice that basically everything is built to work with the iPhone. I just rented a car, and all it took was for me to plug my phone into the USB port of the car in order to interface with it. Audio just started working. I could access Siri by pushing a button on the steering wheel. That sort of thing never happened with my old Nexus phones. They would just freak out when plugged into a car's USB port. When I went to get a case for my XS, I was overwhelmed ...

Motto: BAAAAAAH This graphic took longer to make than it was worth - the dates are (obviously) approximations Some history (if you don't care about history and just want to read about Aaron & the iPhone, skip down to after the next photo in this post): My very first phone I got sometime around my junior year of high school. It was a flip phone with a VGA camera (in today's terminology, that's 0.3 megapixels). I thought it was so cool. If you took someone's photo with it, you could usually tell who it was! It had ringtones to pick from, you could call your friends on it, or you could text them using the T9 buttons (but who texts?). My first week with the phone it flew out the window of a moving vehicle onto a gravel road. It survived. Having this piece of technology of my very own was EXTREMELY exciting. I started reading about phones and other pieces of consumer technology using my parent's computer on Mozilla Firefox. After a year and a half, my pare...

Motto: Make Happy I write the first half of this Column from a position of privilege.  Actually I write  every  Column from that position, now that I think about it.  Regardless, this is all very personal and I can say up front that I know it's not this simple, this is all very easy for me to say, and what good does it do? Part of me thought about just deleting this, but heck I wrote it so here it is. I don't really understand smart people who aren't happy. If you're smart, you should be able to identify cause and effect relationships. You should be good at noticing patterns and trends. You should have a good idea about what toolsets are available to you and how to use them to create effective change.  Happiness, to me, seems like a key metric that most people are trying to maximize in their lives... and smart people are supposed to be good at tweaking dials to solve problems. Combining those two strongly-held beliefs, it doesn't seem like smart, unhapp...

Motto: WHOA IS ME! This Column will have some of the same old stuff I usually talk about presented in the same old ways. It will also have some different new stuff that I'll be saying about the same old stuff. Be prepared to hear about Google, GoPros, and Marvel - along with maybe some other stuff along the way. This first part is a bit of a downer - fair warning. Overall I'm not impressed with consumer tech any more. I'm not saying I think it's "for granted" that we carry around this amazing device in our pockets that is capable of doing more than the collective capabilities of a nerd from the early-90's entire electronics collection. I'm saying that we reached "peak phone" somewhere around 2014. The first time someone made a phone that had a screen that was bigger than 4.5 inches, with a decent camera. Ever since then each successive phone has been a minor iteration of the already amazing foundation laid by its predecessors. Th...

Motto: Rambling for Rambling's Sake Yesterday I bought a brand new 28" 4K Samsung computer monitor. Today I am writing this Column on it. Tomorrow I'll be returning it to the store.  I'm disappointed to have to do so... but it's necessary. If I were doing a single-monitor setup & the panel I bought was better quality & my graphics card were better, it would be make for a GREAT experience... however none of those things are true. For more information, check out the Top 5. For less  information... uh... I don't know. I don't think I can do that for you. You've already read it. That's sorta on you. Note: this Column was written over several days' time. The "day" references are all jacked up. Speaking of "jacked" - I was confronted the other day with a person who did not understand my usage of the word to convey excitement. "I'm jacked!" was met with "what do your muscles have to do with D...

Motto: I have half an hour to write this It's the beginning of the month. That means I'm transitioning between two 30 Day Challenges. Here's where I reflect on my previous month and set a new goal: Last month's challenge - Sweat 5 Days a Week Results - Glorious failure... sweat barely over 3 days/week in reality Reflection - Disappointment with self This month's goal: No screens after 10PM I am going to do this.  I have only really had 2 "good" months out of the first 10 months of 2015 in terms of successful challenge completion. That's terrible. Here's to turning it around. Having said that, this month's challenge might be particularly challenging because I GOT THE NEXUS 6P TODAY! It's gorgeous. It's wonderful. My Nexus 5 went from "meh" to "AGGGH GET IT AWAY FROM ME IT'S HIDEOUS" in 5 seconds. The screen quality alone is reason enough to switch. See the Top 5 for more. Here are some relevant pict...

Motto:  Hey/Okay Siri/Alexa/Cortana/Google, are you hearing me? Technology is cool . I think we are on the cusp of a cool, new, and exciting future in the world of consumer tech. #BoldPrediction It used to be that geeks thought "some day soon, everyone will have a PC".  Then it was "some day soon, everyone will be on the internet".  Then it was "some day soon, everyone will have a smartphone".  Now I think some day soon, everyone will have a smart home.  More than that, a smart everything .  I expect most people already have at LEAST 3 of the following items: computer smartphone tablet smart TV &/or streaming box &/or gaming console smart wearable device (smart watch, fitness tracker, etc) internet-connected car internet-connected speakers any number of smart "home automation" devices (smart thermostat, smart lights, surveillance  camera, etc) Amazon's "Echo", which is really a new category of device ...

Motto: ACTION Big things are brewing. I am watching Captain America: The First Avenger. I have made a playlist on my Plex server of all of the Marvel Cinematic Universe in the order in which they took place within their universe. This is the first of them. Age of Ultron comes out on bluray in a week. I am going to rewatch the entire MCU, ending with Age of Ultron after I get that. Captain America: Civil War premiers in 222 days. There's 4500 minutes worth of Marvel Content out right now. That's only one minute of Marvel content every 1 1/4 hours. Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. season 3, Agent Carter season 2, and at least one new Netflix series will take place between now and then. I'M GOING TO WATCH IT ALL. I didn't actually want to write about the Life Tracker - but when I realized I was writing about tech stuff and Marvel stuff, I thought adding this paragraph would be funny: I was forced to rewrite a portion of the Life Tracker when my weather API provider decide...

Motto: Cross another off the movie bucket list I want a tablet, but... Tablets are the most fun pieces of computing tech out there - even if they may be the least useful.  Their use IS "fun". They are THE BEST general browsing experience you can find. If you have tons of time to kill and nothing to do, nothing beats a tablet. They provide a more compelling user experience than phones. They aren't as cumbersome as laptops. They are portable in ways that televisions and videogame consoles can't be. They are the perfect form factor. ... but they suck  for input-intensive applications (which is a basic requirement for most "productive" uses of technology). They aren't portable enough to replace a phone. They usually aren't capable enough to replace your computer. Tablets are perfect in theory... In reality, though, their usage case sits in a narrow window. I will say, though, tablets are PERFECT for kids. Long-ish battery life. More games...

Motto: I've got so much to tell you! I have a lot to talk about. First I'm going to say - if you noticed the new favicon, I'm impressed. If you don't see it, you will eventually. If you don't know what that is - it's the little icon next to the website name up there.  ↑ It's really small - but it's this: Not meant to look good any bigger than this. I'd like to make a better version of that sometime... but that's good for the foreseeable future. Also at the top of this page - a couple of sections: Projects & Videos. Those are a little more full. I plan on putting some more work on the Projects section soon. August's 30 Day Challenge was an ambitious one. My goal was to, each day: Run a mile 100 pushups 15 pullups Drink only water & coffee Eat in, eat up Bed at 10 Wake at 6 ...and my stretch goal: Stretching (for 15 minutes) The results: I maybe did more running, pushups, pullups, and eating in tha...

Motto: Writing for Me, by Me Melissa is going back to grad school, she's taking her Mac Air & iPad with her & utilizing Microsoft OneNote. While she was setting up her notetaking environment, I started thinking about how I would architect my "idealized system for handling graduate school". Fair warning, this is a bit of an epic. A system for succeeding in higher education is defined in several broad categories: What would I physically bring with me to class? How would I take notes that are relevant immediately and in the future? How do I manage time & tasks? Answering these questions is the purpose of this Column. I'm going to do so both "in general" and given my specific (more interesting to me, but less interesting in general) case. 1. What would I physically bring with me to class? Obviously I would bring with me a bag. I'd probably just keep my current messenger bag for simplicity sake. Anything could work. In all...