Tag Archives: tech

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You can test your streaming video speeds on YouTube now?!

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Since when did this get introduced?! Maybe it was part of the new video player that started showing up a month ago? I accidentally right-clicked the YouTube video [Gym Class Heroes – On My Own Time [great song, btw]] I was watching and one of the options was ‘Take speed test’. Who am I to refuse The Google? I took the test and was then directed to a page with some funky graphs and benchmarks of how my speed holds up against the average speed of my ISP, city, state, country and globally! Not sure how big the sample size is for the comparison data or anything, but nifty nonetheless.

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You can even click ‘Show Test Video’ and see your streaming information in real time. If that’s your thing, that is… /shrug

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Anyway, it was geeky and cool to see, and between this and the interactive Pac-Man Google logo, my love for Google continues to increase. Take the test and let me know what you get!

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Flash is not dead, nor will it die in the near future

Apple Didn’t Kill Flash, HTML5 Did

Yes, there are a million sites and articles that will explain this a lot better than me, but then there are idiots like Christina Warren at Mashable that say stupid things, and annoy the heck out of me, so to save me from responding to individual tweets, I might as well rant a little here.

It pretty much comes down to this…

  • Can designers/developers create experiences like they do in Flash? If you want a frakn HTML5 video site, fine, go for it. But how much more difficult is it for the average Flash designer/developer, currently, and in the near future, to create an experience with the ease and level of control that Flash gives them? I’m thinking it’s pretty fucking hard.
  • Again, from a user experience point of view, for all the demonstration sites that showcase the wonders of HTML5, it still sucks balls in its capability in comparison to Flash, and I really don’t think that’ll change anytime soon.
  • Flash is everywhere. I can’t be bothered finding the numbers, but it is everywhere. You are NOT offering the “best browsing experience”, Steve Jobs [you douchebag], if you do not support Flash on your devices. Nor can you expect everyone to magically convert their sites into HTML5 overnight. Don’t go preaching your “it’s the right thing to do” bullshit, think about the users IN THE TRANSITION PERIOD

I am not saying Flash will never die. It could. What about in the meantime though? HTML5’s capability is at best, limited, and until [if ever] it gets there, from an end user and designer/developer point of view, it’s just crazy to declare it dead, and not support it.

Don’t even get me started on Jobs’ stance on cross-platform development… *reaches for the nearest bottle of rum*

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    The Johnny Cash Project

    The Johnny Cash Project is a global collective art project, and we would love for you to participate. Through this website, we invite you to share your vision of Johnny Cash, as he lives on in your mind’s eye. Working with a single image as a template, and using a custom drawing tool, you’ll create a unique and personal portrait of Johnny. Your work will then be combined with art from participants around the world, and integrated into a collective whole: a music video for “Ain’t No Grave”, rising from a sea of one-of-a-kind portraits.

    Strung together and played in sequence over the song, the portraits will create a moving, ever evolving homage to this beloved musical icon.  What’s more, as new people discover and contribute to the project, this living portrait will continue to transform and grow, so it’s virtually never the same video twice.

    Jcp6

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    It’s hip not to whoresquare

    I recently enabled Foursquare email notifications for check-ins. You see, for once, the way Android handles notifications is inferior to the iPhone. For reasons posted by Joe Lapenna last year, Android cannot handle Foursquare push notifications like the iPhone, and after a few months of Foursquaring, I really did feel like I was missing out on half the point of Foursquare; knowing where your friends are. Of course, I could open the app each time and look at recent check-ins, but that’s a pretty substandard way to do things, so I thought, “What the hell, how many emails can I really get a day?”, checked the box, and boy was I surprised.

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    iPad: An amalgamation of detractors

    I’ve read more iPad reviews than I care to remember over the last couple of days, but luckily, not all of them have been gushy, fan boi reviews *looks over at Pogue, Mossberg and co.*

    i.e. crap like [no offence, @amandamli] this from LineHive:

    iPad reviews from 6 of the most popular publications: general agreement that it’s a new paradigm. http://linehive.com/show/207

    So, without further adieu, here are some real [by real, I mean anti-iPad reviews that bring a smile to kittens across the globe] reviews.

    Note that I’m probably bastardising these reviews by pulling out a paragraph or so from them, so please do go read them!

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    April Fools 2010: A tech roundup

    I think it’s safe to say that for me, April Fools day is purely about what tech sites / companies will do to try and entertain us geeks. I sure spent some time yesterday chuckling away at most people’s efforts, and in some cases being completely underwhelmed [but overhyped] , but god damn, it was a pleasant change from the other gazillion articles I saw yesterday; watered-down, I-want-to-have-iPad-babies reviews from Pogue, Mossberg and co.

    ANYWAY, back to matters at hand after that impromptu rant, below is a list of some of the stuff I saw yesterday that I thought was pretty cool.

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    I’m a Grooveshark VIP member now

    I’ve been raving about Grooveshark to anyone that cares to listen, and I finally took the plunge today to become a VIP member. At $3/month or $30 a year, it’s just dirt cheap, especially considering my penchant for blowing large amounts of money on seemingly useless things/causes, like destroying my liver!

    Oh, right, I should probably mention what Grooveshark is for the uneducated. Or just let Wikipedia do that for me.

    Grooveshark is an internationally-available online music search engine, music streaming service and music recommendation web software application, allowing users to search for, stream, and upload music free of charge that can be played immediately or added to a playlist.

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    TechCrunch and Foursquare co-founder fail

    Ah, TechCrunch. Always getting abuse from @leolaporte, but I still love it. Today, however, you have failed.

    MG Siegler’s post, titled Foursquare’s New Site Design Starts To Roll Live As Gossip Girl Pays Homage, had this doozy of a quote!

    Something else interesting from tonight: apparently the concept of “checking-in” made its onscreen debut on the popular TV show Gossip Girl. Co-founder Dennis Crowley noted the move and tweeted out a picture of it captured from the show. While there is no specific mention of Foursquare, it’s pretty obvious what they’re paying homage to.

    *cough* It may come as a surprise to MG and co-founder of Foursquare, Dennis Crowley, but actually, the concept of “checking-in” was not started by Foursquare. The reference was actually an sms by a private investigator to a character letting them know that someone had checked in to a hotel -_-

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    How do I know this? Yes, fine, I watch the show >.<

    UPDATE:

    Ugh, uber lame, MG updated his post with a couple of edits that cover his ass and make Crowley look like the one who’s making all the assumptions. He didn’t mention that he made said edits, of course. Meh.

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