Lockerz.com invites

I just found this site, Lockerz.com and when I first saw it, I thought it was too good to be true. But it's not, even if only for the fact that in order to get points, you only have to invest time, not money. I have heard of sites that give you points for signing up for "offers" that you have to pay for. This is similar with the whole points thing, except you don't have to pay for anything, and you get points for logging in, referring people, answering the daily question, and from the looks of it, more features are coming soon.
My goal is to save up for a big screen Samsung TV. It's 3000 points, and I have 64 already, which is why I am so eager to get points. It's not one of those sites where you can spend a fucking century trying to earn enough points for anything good. The numbers are actually obtainable! I know the prices are going to go up, which is why I am trying to blitz people into being referred by me. So, here is where readers come in. Please sign up for me! It doesn't matter if you even ever go back to the site ever again, I still get points from the referral. So please, visit HERE and gimme your email address so I can send you an invite! :)

my notemachine

So, I bought myself a netbook. I have been watching other people in class, and I was thinking about how much my hand hurt, and how much faster I am at typing than I am at writing. I want to bring my big laptop to class, but there's the fact that the desks are the size of a piece of paper, and can never fit a binder. This netbook is almost exactly the same size as the desks. Not to mention that the lecture halls are generally super crowded, so this will take significantly less space. Not to mention the fact that my other laptop has other unnecessary programs it loads up at startup, which I don't need if I am just taking notes. I am amazed at how quickly and comfortably I can type on this thing. It's great.

The netbook is an Acer Aspire One. It's got a 160GB hard drive (which is very impressive for such a little thing), but only has 1GB of RAM. It's got a 1.2GHz Intel Atom processor. It's a 10 inch screen, and the keyboard isn't full sized, but I have no problem using it. It's running Windows XP, because Vista is such a behemoth that you need minimum 3GB of RAM to run it. So, XP it is. It also comes with 3 USB ports, a VGA port, an SD card reader, a webcam and built in mic. The battery, when I unplugged it from the power, the timer said it was going to last for 3.5 hours, which is perfect, since next semester I might end up having 3 hour classes. I can charge it on lunch break. It's super duper convenient, and it will be a new friend for me. Along with my Blackberry, it can come with me to school and keep me company.

Hrmm...

I haven't updated for a while. I have been busy with life. Plus, not very much advancement in computer software and such. I've basically been sticking to the same old. I have enjoyed downloading and burning movies lately, although it can be difficult considering I don't have unlimited bandwidth (fuck Rogers). I will be starting school soon, so I will likely have even less time unfortunately. Plus apartment hunting.

I bought a cooling dock for my laptop today. It's a Belkin, and it does a pretty good job. It lowered the internal temperature by 10 degrees (Celcius). I really have to find the right spot to place my laptop on it because it doesn't have any way of affixing to the laptop, it just has rubber pads where you're expected to place it. It works better when the laptop is sitting on a desk, though, which is annoying since I am fond of sitting on a couch with my laptop. Oh well, it does the job. It lowered the temperature from 70C to 60C, according to my sensors. It felt freakishly hot to the touch, which is what inspired the purchase in the first place.

Roxio piece of shit

The software that comes with Blackberries to add media to the device is a piece of shit! It freezes everytime I try and add songs. I also tried adding songs through Windows Explorer to bypass having to use this shitty software, and I went to use the songs, and they aren't appearing right in FlipSide on my device. This is bullshit. I erased everything in hopes of refreshing everything on there, but it erased. I am fucking baffled and pissed, especially since it erased all of my ringtones! Fucking garbage!

Test post

This is a test entry for my blog thingers. I am posting from my new Blackberry which is very fun.

Blackberry!!

Here is copy pasta from my other blog regarding this matter:

"I have also gotten a Blackberry! You have no idea how long I have wanted one of these things, as much as I tried to squash the urge, it's always been there. I decided I was going to do it in August, which is the year after starting my contract. To wait until then, and get the two year price on the phone itself, I would have to extend my contract. Upon thinking about it, I could also buy the phone outright, and not extend my contract, and in the long run pay less. So, I decided to do that since I had just received a hefty tax return, and I did it, and love the damn thing. I know, most people think I am lame for liking it so much, and some even are ballsy enough to say I should have gotten an iPhone (HAHA!), but I don't care. :-P"

It is super fun, and a lot cooler than I even imagined, considering there's tons of free apps I can download, most of them free :) Some of them are kind of poorly written and don't work really well, but some of them are amazing, including one called Poynt, which is a search tool for local movie listings, theatres, and other entertainment shit. It also has a business 411 thing in it, and the most wonderful thing about it is that it uses the phones GPS to automatically detect stuff within locality of your phone. It is sweet. There are also things like multiplayer games (I downloaded multiplayer Blackjack) which is really damn cool considering it's on a phone. There are Google applications, like maps, news etc. and I downloaded a pretty accurate 411 application. It's really damn cool!

My current objective for the day is to find a conversion tool for my Blackberry that converts between common (and maybe some not-so-common) units, such as weight, speed, distance, volume etc... the one's I found on the Blackberry App World all cost money, and that's not acceptable :-P

My two major complaints about the Blackberry Curve 8330 are battery life and the GPS, both individually, and hand in hand. The battery life really sucks. The past couple days I have had a fully charged phone in the afternoon, around 11-noon, and by 7 or 8pm, it's giving me a low battery indication. This is terrible in comparison to my old phone, which would last me a weekend, even with moderate use. I looked online, and my only guess is that I have some apps going in the background that are draining the battery somehow. I know using the GPS drains the battery very quickly, but yesterday I didn't use the GPS, and it drained basically just as quick. Something is fucked up. There is also the fact that the GPS doesn't always work, and if there's a tiny little thing layer of cloud it won't get a signal. And forget getting anything indoors...that's not possible at all. But I have a suspicion that it is just this particular app I am using, InstaMapper, which plots my location. It seems Poynt and Google Maps work just fine with the GPS. I wish I could find another app for GPS that works.

Anyway, I will keep things updated about my sexy new gadget. It's name is Galileo the Brain, because it's my brain, and I have a tradition of naming my handheld devices after astronomers.

Mmmm, software...

I am on a downloading spree. Usually it's movies and/or music, but this time it's software. So far I have gotten Microsoft Office 2007, Microsoft Auto Collage, and I am currently working on Vista Ultimate (which is harder than it sounds). It is amazing how retarded Microsoft is, and even if my software was genuine, I would be running into the same problems. It won't allow me to upgrade over Service Pack 1, which is absolutely ridiculous. So, I removed SP1 and it still won't work. If I were to install Vista Ultimate the way that is available, it would wipe my drive/partition/whatever and I would lose my data. Which is bullshit. All it has to do is update, and it can't do that without going through a complex procedure that is so far unknown to me, and that is not as simple as removing SP1. No wonder retarded people can't upgrade their operating system without requiring technical support...but my solution is to find a version of the Vista upgrade that is newer than the one I tried. The one I tried was from 2005 I believe, which is really old in computer years. The one I am downloading now is from 2008 I think, and assuming it's an upgrade version and not a full version, it should work a lot better.

My new shop!

I got bored today and decided to create a Cafe Press shop. It will have a geeky theme, and feature clothing that has designs of internet memes and online piracy. It's crap I want to buy, and I just might too. I have no idea if other people are interested in this stuff, but since it's free and has absolutely no obligation or risk for me, it's definitely worth it. They basically print things on demand, so they don't have to produce anything until it gets paid for. Apparently you can also make CDs and books on Cafe Press too, so maybe I will somehow do that. The only problem is with a free account, you can only do one of every type of product once. So I can only do one design on a plain tshirt, and one design on a plain hoodie. People don't really buy much else, so we will see. If no one will buy anything, it's not worth it to buy a premium account anyway. It's fun though, if anything. Besides, my idea isn't original or anything, I am pretty sure I saw lots of stores featuring memes and geekery.

Anyway, the moment you've been waiting for, here it is; MY SHOP

Blackberry....?

I keep having these recurring dreams where I have a Blackberry, and it's really annoying because I wish to have one. I am a technophile, so I cannot help it. Of course there's the fact that I keep seeing people with them, and I get jealous. I would have gotten one when I got my current cell phone if Virgin offered Blackberry plans when I signed up. But it was literally a week after I got my phone that they started offering Blackberries, I was so pissed. My phone is okay, but it doesn't have email, a browser, instant messaging, or any other fun crap. Not to mention Blackberries are good for organization, which would be an asset for school. Yes, I am trying to justify getting one, but I do believe it's a genuine reason. I called Virgin to see if I could add a Blackberry on to my plan, and they said in August maybe, which is the anniversary of my plan. They said I might be able to renew my plan and add a Blackberry, plus a data plan, on to my existing plan, so I can keep my current number and everything. We will see what develops before then though. Hopefully this terribly wanting a Blackberry thing passes.

DVD burning and wave to MP3

I have a new hobby. My new hobby is downloading and burning movies. Up until I got my new computer, I wasn't able to do this. Now that I can do it, I am super happy and have burnt like 50 movies so far, and it is growing. It took me a while to figure out how to do this because I hadn't done it before. I was quickly overwhelmed by all the crap online about it. But a program called DVD Flick came to my rescue. DVD Flick is so easy to use that even my kittens could use it. Despite being easy, it still does everything that needs to be done, like automatically converting the AVI files I download to a file format suited for burning directly onto a DVD. I even figured out to add basic menus to the DVD so I can put multiple movies on one disc (roughly 2 movies per disc, depending on their size). It works wonderfully, and the only problems I have ever had with any of my burnt movies are extremely minor glitching, and a little loss of quality (but who knows if that's just the original video file, I didn't look before burning). The loss of quality is extremely minor and doesn't prevent recognition of what's on the screen.

Randomly today I decided to listen to some 3 Inches of Blood, which are super fucking awesome by the way. I noticed that the copy of the album I had was in wave format. I couldn't edit the tags and make it say the song information properly in the meta tags. This is a severe annoyance for me, and I hate improper tagging, mainly because I use Last.fm, but I like neatness on my computer anyway. I decided that using online conversion tools was taking too fucking long. So I looked around and found a wonderful thing called ABC Amber Audio (can be found here). So, if anyone is looking to convert wave to MP3, or MP3 to wave, use this tool. It's really fast too. Now, to go tag my album properly.

Scrobbling iPod touch way more complicated than it needs to be

So, ever since I learned about the possibility of scrobbling my iPod, I have wanted to do it. Even when I had a nano. And ever since then there have been obstacles in the way of me scrobbling my iPod. Most of the ones I've come across in the past have been overcome, but it's taken a lot more effort than it should have. How hard is it to write a program that sends two lines of text to Last.fm from the iPod (the song name and title)? Apparently it's very difficult, if my past experience is any judge. I won't get into all of the problems I've had because that would take far too long.

For the iPod touch, when I first got it, it had firmware version 1.1.1 on it, which allowed me to jailbreak it and install MobileScrobbler which is a wonderful application that allowed me to scrobble my iPod with out any problem whatsoever. In fact, it even submitted tracks through wifi, so I didn't have to do anything! But somewhere between now and then, someone, either Last.fm or Apple, decided that allowing this to happen was unacceptable (for some fucking stupid reason) and decided to remove support for this. It was probably Apple since they're the ones who have pissed me off since the iPod was brought out, and they're the ones who keep updating the firmware (and trying to charge $10 for it). Instead of purchasing this firmware upgrade (to 2.1.1 or whatever it is now) I got a free version online (more proof those at Apple are a bunch of tards). I was under the impression that when I "purchased" this firmware upgrade that the world of simplicity would open up for me. I was certainly wrong. I was aware that there was a Last.fm app and I was under the impression, logically, that this application would scrobble the tracks you listen to on your iPod, just like MobileScrobbler, maybe even better. Once again, I was wrong. Apparently it only scrobbles internet radio. Why?? Why the hell can't it scrobble the songs I listen to on my iPod? What the fuck is the point in that?

So basically, my only option was to use the Last.fm plugin on my computer to scrobble the tracks on my iPod. Even that is harder than it should be. I would have thought that the plugin could simply parse the iTunesDB file on the iPod (or whatever the iPod touch equivalent is). That is what it does, but not without it's own difficulties. First of all, I absolutely HAVE to open iTunes first, and then the Last.fm plugin. Secondly, the library HAS to be available on the hard drive in order for the songs to scrobble (which is a fucking bitch since my music collection is on an external hard drive which isn't always on). Third of all, when I add new songs to the iPod, I have do disconnect it and then reconnect it for the songs I added to scrobble the next time I listen to them. And even then that method doesn't work. I added a couple songs last time I connected my iPod to the computer, disconnected, and reconnected, and this time the songs still didn't scrobble. It wasn't a huge deal since it was only two songs I added, but if I add a few albums worth of music, that can be a huge problem.

I guess my main point of contention would be with the iPod. The fact that the iPod is tethered to the shitty piece of software called iTunes. I fucking hate iTunes with a passion. The only use I have for it is internet radio and it organizing my music collection. And there are other pieces of software for that. Why does the fucking iPod have to be connected to iTunes? Why can't it just allow for drag and drop compatibility? It would make my life a whole lot simpler. I lost a lot of respect for Apple when they designed this piece of shit iTunes. Not to mention the difficulty I had making an iTunes Store account without a credit card. That pissed me off to no end. Fucking money whores. All they need is a little fucking application that scrobbles my iPod tracks like MobileScrobbler... is it so much to ask?

Deliberate difficulty?

I am trying to uninstall this Microsoft Office shit from my computer (which isn't even the full version, it's only a 60 day trial). I downloaded OpenOffice instead for obvious reasons (one of them being it's like $300 cheaper). Apparently uninstalling Office is going to take an hour, plus it's going to freeze my computer every once in a while and make it stutter. Microsoft products are the only ones that do that (since I am cleaning some crap off the computer). My CPU load isn't even, on average, past 75% on either core. Is this a deliberate ploy to magnify the frustration and irritation that Microsoft products cause users? Is it a lame attempt at preventing people from uninstalling their cheap, rip off of a program? Some might call me paranoid, but I don't think it's that entirely outlandish.

New laptop!

So I finally got a new laptop. It is not the one I was originally supposed to get though. I finally gave up on Dell's stupidity and decided I would just buy one here. And yes it has Windows. Although I discovered, while looking around, that getting hardware with Ubuntu on it does not guarantee I will not have the same hardware problems I have with my desktop. So, I opted for Windows. It is also due to the fact that it will be a lot easier collaborating next year with people in school if we're all on the same system. Plus now I can watch Flash videos and such without worrying about which programs I have open. Hopefully someday the Ubuntu developers will fix that fucking Flash problem. Not to mention Bluetooth and of course the wireless problems I had.

The laptop I got is a 16" HP. It's got a 250GB hard drive, Intel Pentium Dual Core processor, 3GB of RAM, plus Bluetooth and I believe wireless N. It comes with Windows Vista Basic. So far it has been completely smooth, and I took a couple hours in the past few days and downloaded/installed most of what I need (such as a Torrent downloader, mIRC, BOINC, etc). I shall keep updating.

Dell...

It's been almost two months now, and the laptop my dad ordered for me for Christmas is still not here. I am quite livid towards Dell now, considering I know a couple of people who have ordered laptops about two weeks ago, and one has gotten theirs, and the other will be getting theirs tomorrow or Tuesday. Since the order is in my dad's name, he told me he will handle it, although I wish I could be the one to bitch them out. My dad will probably be a little more diplomatic than I will though. It is at the point where I would expect some form of compensation because of their slacking off. The worst part is that they don't even update the order tracking site, which makes it even more fucking annoying. It would also be nice if the website had a little more detail, instead of just "in production". Maybe they could give me an idea of what is taking them so goddamn long. But even after my dad emailed them the first time, they still didn't update the order tracking site with the date they said in the email (which was a complete lie anyway, but still). The only thing different between my laptop and the laptops that other people I know is the operating system. I got mine loaded with Ubuntu, and they got Windows Vista. You would think, if anything, mine would take less time since the operating system is free and doesn't require any form of licensing and whatnot. The paranoid side of me wants to say that it's a ploy from Microsoft, and that they pay Dell to get their products out before anything else. But that's craziness, right?

Sound in Flash fix!

I am extremely happy. I finally figured out how to get my sound for Flash in Firefox! I have been having this problem since I started using Ubuntu, and it's pissed me off severely not being able to watch YouTube videos people link me to. But I fixed it! The simple fix? Downgrade my Flash plugin to version 7 (as opposed to the newer version 10). I can now watch YouTube! The only problem is, I've noticed, is that some sites prompt me to update my Flash before I can view certain content. I am not at the point of caring yet though. I would rather be able to watch YouTube videos (as well as other videos). I will update my Flash plugin the day there is an update that fixes the initial problem. Until then, I am not touching it. Although this causes me to wonder what the fuck they did to it to screw it up in the first place. Shouldn't updates fix problems and not cause them? It doesn't seem right that an older version of something works better than the newer version.

Post-Christmas and end of year

So, since I last posted, I have managed to acquire a little bit of technology as a result of Christmas. First of all, I got a new digital camera that actually works! It's a Canon Powershot, and it's 10 megapixels. It's nice and compact, and has a nice three inch LCD on the back. It's lovely. Especially since it runs on battery pack, which means no more fucking around with batteries! One of the reasons why my old camera was virtually unusable is because it would drain a set of batteries in a matter of (literally) five minutes of taking pictures. I have no idea why, but it was ridiculous. I have also posted several hundred pictures to Facebook (okay I am exaggerating a little bit) and they're lovely. I took a picture of the piece of bread stuck in the front grill of my car (don't ask, I have no idea) and I could make out the little flecks of missing paint on the grill that I didn't even really notice were there.

Another piece of technology I got was a Wii! The lovely, wonderful coveted Wii, heh. Also with the Wii I got Wii Fit, which also is a very coveted thing. I've had lots of fun with the Wii so far. I definitely need more games to go with it, since sports and exercise can only be so fun, but I downloaded some games from the Wii shop. I got Super Mario 3, Bomberman Blast, and Earthworm Jim. I was so excited to play Earthworm Jim again, I loved that game as a kid. It was awkward though, I need to get the classic controller. It will make old school games so much easier. I haven't tried Bomberman Blast yet, but I've always wanted to own a Bomberman game. I played one once and it was really fun. By the way my console's Wii number is: 0922 9397 6441 6181

The biggest piece of technology I got for Christmas, however, was a new laptop. Oh yea, it's going to be awesome. It comes loaded with Ubuntu, which I always told myself was absolutely mandatory for my next computer. I wish I had it already. It's a Dell Inspiron, and Dell is taking their sweet ass time manufacturing my laptop. The website says "In Production" but the ship date was supposed to be Christmas... it's been in production since then. I don't get why they would say Christmas if it was going to be like a month late. I would have rather had them give me a date much later than the actual ship date. At least I won't get pissed off that way. And if you're going to have a shipping tracking website, why not update it? The shipping page for my laptop has been the same since a week before Christmas. I've never been impressed with Dell's shipping. My family has ordered many things from Dell, and it's always the same shit over and over. You can never rely on any dates they give you. No matter when we order stuff, it never comes on time for the occasion in which it is being gifted for. It's actually really goddamn annoying.

Anyway, there is my brief update on my Christmas acquisitions. Let's hope my laptop arrives soon! Oh did I mention that it is going to my dad's house? So even when it is shipped, I still won't yet have it.