Tech is Complicated
As some of you may know, the classic arcade game cabinet that I built about a year ago died a while back. Couldn’t even get to the BIOS. I asked around on Freecycle for anyone local willing to get rid of an older computer. Unfortunately, the replies I received were from people trying to get rid of ancient computers, like 386s. That wasn’t quite sufficient. Finally, on Wednesday, I broke down and bought a $200 desktop EeePC. […]
Four Months of Gaming in Google Wave
I received my invitation to Google Wave in late October, and after puttering around for a bit, quickly became involved in the role-playing scene on Wave. I joined a few games and started a few games, and I now run one of the longest-running games on Wave. I’m on Wave just about every day. Wave is a nearly ideal online role-playing platform. Its design allows for easy discussion that’s quick to read (no huge signature blocks or author stats), […]
Kindle 1 vs. Kindle 2 vs. Sony eReader
About a week ago, I received an email asking me my opinion on the Kindle versus the Sony eReader for a particular situation. I offered some advice, and was asked to post the conversation on my blog here, for the world’s benefit. So, here you go: My girlfriend wants to buy me a Kindle. I’m […]
Who will buy the iPad?
Naturally, I’ve been thinking about Apple’s iPad a lot lately. It’s a lovely device with several limitations. I can see four major markets for it, and each gives me pause. Geeks have a chicken-and-egg problem. They have two options: Use it as a light laptop. Problem is, geeks need disk space for all their cool […]
Me and the iPad
Thanks very much to FOX5 for inviting me to talk about Apple’s iPad on their morning show today. It was a thoroughly professional environment with friendly people. I hope I can come back soon! Here’s the video:
Latest YouTube Videos
I think this warrants a blog post: Two days ago, I released a WordPress plugin. It’s called Latest YouTube Videos, and it displays the most recent 1 to 10 videos from a given YouTube account in the sidebar of a WordPress blog. Requires no extra plugins or frameworks; just install and use (it uses HTML […]
FriendFeed Is Doomed, But It Always Was
I read with interest and some amusement the news items today about Facebook buying FriendFeed. Robert Scoble is convinced this is great news, and he got the impact absolutely right, though I think he’s still blind to one important point. What did he get right? Scoble wrote: 1. This is Facebook firing a shot at […]
Skype
A few weeks ago, my role-playing group tried to add a virtual player. Wait. Back up. One of our regular players went off to college. Worse, she’s one of the best role-players in the group. I pined for her. For those of you unfamiliar with tabletop role-playing: A bunch of friends sit around a table. One of them lays out a situation, while the others pretend to be people in that situation, and narrate their reactions to the situation. So, […]
Tracking web traffic with Google Analytics
So, let’s say you have a website. That means you’re broadcasting information to the world, and presumably other people consume that information. How do you know what people like about your content? How do you know what’s popular? Some web hosting companies will provide a few pages of hit tracking. Setting up your own hit tracker and integrating it onto your site […]
Why You Should Use Vimeo Instead Of YouTube
YouTube is the grand-daddy of online video sites. But it’s not the only online video site. Vimeo is one of the sites aiming to take on YouTube. They’re doing it by focusing on a slightly different audience: Vimeo actively pushes its users to upload only personal videos. This isn’t a place to post TV clips […]