Rejected Wii Games

I know some people who'd probably play a few of these

The Nokia iPhone

It'll probably be overpriced and buggy...... will it be available outside the U.S.?

Treehugger.com not green enough

A random thought came to me today while I was surfing treehugger.com. I remembered reading somewhere that using black on a website instead of white saves power. In fact, 'eco friendly' users of Google may wants to give Blackle.com a go. It depends on who you ask, but a white screen uses up to 25% more power than a black screen when viewed on a CRT. Well, lots of people still use CRTs, some even visit treehugger.com. Treehugger's site design uses lots of white and very little pure black. The Hooliosphere, on the other hand, has been mostly black since the beginning. It's minor, but perhaps the folks over at Treehugger should practice what they preach and choose a more 'eco-friendly' web design.

American Education

Wow.... that's all I have to say

Chic and Geek Hotel

A film I edited was in the YoungCuts Film Festival in Montreal, QC. My girlfriend and I decided to make a weekend out of it and stayed at a hotel that cost more than I care to mention. We checked in, the valet took my car and then we went up to our room. The television, lights, and radio were on . There was a little chocolate on our pillow. When I took a closer look at the TV I saw that it wasn't your average Hotel TV setup.



There was internet, video games, the option to order food and other hotel services, all at the click of a button. I was in geek heaven. Of course, My girlfriends stern stare warned me that we weren't here for nerdiness so I quickly put the remote down and we left to get some dinner. The next day as she lay asleep I got out of bed, grab the wireless keyboard that came with the TV and kicked it old school, playing Pac-man...... wirelessly...... from my hotel bed...... Sweet!



The hotel also had the greatest shower I've ever used in my life. If you are ever in Montreal I highly recommend the Opus Hotel.

You can see more photos on my Flickr account

Calling All Mashup Musicians

I have a song stuck in my head. This song exists.... sorta. I keep hearing the vocals from The Raconteurs track "Steady as she goes" mixed with the melody of another song. The two play in perfect harmony.... but it's only in my head. I've looked at trying to make a mashup of the two, but extracting the vocals from a song is a difficult process as I've come to discover.

I extend my hand to the blogosphere, asking for help from anyone with the chops. I need the vocals from "Steady a she goes". Let's collaborate. Email me at hooliosphere@gmail.com

A John Chow Contest

Disclaimer: I am making this blog post as part of a contest with John Chow dot Com. I could win a new 24" widescreen LCD monitor. I need this monitor because my old CRT is on the fritz and has always kinda sucked. The screen is too dark and can't be brighten without washing out the colour and I've noticed that lately it will spontaneously start pulsing and making strange buzzing sounds. Kinda like a Bee in heat. As a nice bonus, I could also win a signed copy of 'The 4-Hour Workweek'. If you feel so inclined you could enter too, but don't because I really, really need that monitor. The contest is being sponsered by The Million Dollar Wiki. If you use coupon code JohnChow, you can save $10 on a page.

If I don't end up winning you could always help me with my purchase of a new monitor by clicking the donate button over on the right-hand navigation

Happy surfing -- Peace, Love, and Tacos

My 2G iPod and I celebrate 5 years and counting...

I've been listening to music and podcasts off 'Old Clunky' for 5 years now. My 2nd generation iPod and I first met on my trip to New York City in August 2002. I went to the Soho Apple store, excited about the new mp3 player I was about to purchase. She was Mac only at the time and was able to amaze people when I told them that it could hold 10GB of storage in such a tiny unit. It's kinda funny when you consider today you can get a slightly smaller unit that holds 80GB and plays video.

What I like best about 'Old Clunky' is that she still works, quite well actually. I've heard the many stories of people's iPods dying on them. In fact, my sister's iPod mini's battery died ages ago. Given my limited funds, I don't consider the iPod to be a disposable product and so the thought of having to replace it every 2 to 3 years seems unbelievable to me.

So how did I get so lucky?

Well, part of it might be that Apple changed the type of battery used in the 1st & 2nd generation iPods and the generations that came next. 'Old Clunky' uses a Lithium polymer battery while 3rd generation and beyond iPods use a Lithium ion battery. What's the difference? Well, I'm too lazy to find out, but apparently the Lithium Polymer batteries are a newer technology. So why did Apple make the switch? Probably cost.

Another reason for my iPods resilience might have been the way in which I used it. I was a commuter for most of the past 5 years. My iPod was mostly used in my car, constantly charged with my Griffin PowerPod car charger. 'Old Clunky' was receiving a steady flow of power, at least 5 days a week, while playing my tunes (and later podcasts). So you might ask, 'What happens if you aren't plugged in'? Well, I moved to Toronto in February and have been using my iPod on the subway, unplugged, for the past couple months. My commute time is about 1.5 hours to work and back. I mostly listen to podcasts and since I don't like losing my spot, I leave 'Old Clunky' in a paused mode all day so I can quickly resume playback when I leave work. I can generally go a couple of days before I need to charge again.

The firewire flap might have broken off (the 2G iPods had a regular firewire port), the screen might be a little scuffed, and my crappy, white iPod earbuds stopped working ages ago, but 'Old Clunky' and I are still rockin' out.

She's even still able to amaze people with her design...... they can't believe the iPod used to look like that. I don't mind though. I intend on using her until the battery finally gives out or Apple releases a touch screen iPod (fingers crossed).

Here's some photos

My reaction to Apple's Aug 7 Event

iMacs

Apple really seemed to be putting the emphasis on the fact that these new iMacs use recyclable materials such as aluminum and glass. Although the iMac doesn't meet my computing needs it is a beautiful machine. The glossy screen shouldn't be a problem for those who complain about glare with their laptops, since the iMacs aren't mobile you should be able to set them up in a place where glare won't be an issue.

I'm not entirely sold on this new keyboard. It's great that they added the dashboard and exposé buttons as well as the new buttons for iTunes, but it looks like a laptop keyboard..... I hate laptop keyboards. I like my big chunky keys. I like how they sound. I like how they feel. However, I'll reserve final judgement until I can get down to an Apple store and try it out.

iLife '08

I wasn't entirely impressed with the updates for iLife.

I'm still waiting for them to improve the performance of iPhoto, although the ability to 'hide' photos might help if it means they aren't being loaded in when you launch the app.

As a video editor I thought the iMovie revision was interesting, but you can increase your productivity in FCP by learning shortcuts, but it's not an app geared toward someone like me.

I don't use iWeb because I don't want my site locked into a proprietary system. If you need an easy way to build a site that can grow with you or is just flexable enough to handle stuff like php and javascript, try Rapidweaver.

iDVD didn't really get much of a revision, but it's still a good app for making a decent DVD quickly. Details are a little vague on what they mean by 'professional encoding', but I'll assume they are giving you the option to encode at a higher bitrate.

Garageband has an interesting new feature called Magic Garageband which lets you 'audition' different instruments in a loop before sending the output to the timeline where it can then be edited.

.Mac

Once again, .Mac doesn't really offer much for the $100 USD price tag. The new web gallery is great, but you can just download a free Flickr plugin for iPhoto and quickly send you photos to the web. It's been awhile since I used iMovie, but I think there was an option to compress your video for the web. Take that video and upload it to YouTube. Sure it's an extra step, but a free one.

I'm not a .Mac subscriber. I just don't see the point unless you have mutliple Macs and need to sync them.

iWork '08

There is actually an exciting new app for iWork that might actually make it a worthwhile purchase. Numbers is a new spreadsheet app that makes using a spreadsheet easy and very 'Mac-like'. I don't use excel for anything heavy duty. In fact, I've been thinking about moving my spreadsheets needs over to something like Google Spreadsheet. However, Numbers just looked like using it would be *gasp* fun.

After the keynote

If you were watching the keynote it seemed to end with Steve about to say something else. Well he must have because the Mac Mini got a speed bump.

Also, the Airport Extreme now supports Gigabit Ethernet. I've been interested in switching to Gigabit Ethernet once I get my new Mac Pro. Any thoughts on Gigabit Ethernet, let me know.

Speaking of Mac Pros, they now have an option for a RAID card for $999 USD. It wasn't the Mac Pro update I was hoping for, but maybe in October when Leopard comes out (fingers crossed).

Checkout the Apple site for a more detailed description of all the updates

Tables turned on NBC reporter... the irony

Canadians to pay Record Labels a $75 "iPod" fee?

This morning I was standing in the Spadina station in Toronto, waiting for the streetcar and reading the "Metro". A small article caught my eye. Apparently, the geniuses at the Copyright Board of Canada have given the "OK" to charge a $75 fee on all mp3 players and give the funds to Canadian composers, recording artists, and record labels.

How much of those funds are the artists actually going to get?

Either way, It's absolutely ludicrous. We already pay a fee on blank media in this country, because it is assumed that anyone purchasing blank CDs and DVDs are going to use them for stealing music and movies.

When I was in University, part of our tuition included a fee that went to towards the replacement of cafeteria dishes. It was assumed that students would steal dishes for use at home. Guess what happened, students stole dishes. The most common excuse being that if we are already paying for it, might as well.

I suspect that the same will happen to music in Canada. For those who find that stealing music leaves them with a bad feeling in their gut... all guilt is about to be erased. It's not stealing if we are already paying for it.

When that sweet touchscreen iPod hits the shelves, I'll be loading $75 worth of music, guilt free. Thanks Copyright Board of Canada.