Blog

Android is my mobileOS

Fishbishop — Thu, 05 Apr 2012 14:05:12 +0000

In my line of work I see a lot of smart phones. I also see a great number of people who probably don't really need such a complicated device to do what they want to do. When i see Android market share numbers go up as much as they recently did (cnet) it makes me worry a bit. (Please note, I'm not going to discuss Windows Mobile or Blackberry products. I just don't think they have market share to be competitive, and their numbers are on the decline. Also, I admit I don't know an awful lot about them.)

Many of the people I see at my help desk have no idea how to use their phone, or are aware of what their devices is even truly capable of. iPhones were the first big player around and haven't really changed all that much. In contrast, I'm waiting for Android 4 (Ice Cream Sandwich or ICS) to come to my Droid4 soon... it's a huge change in both design and features. If you don't believe me... here's the lowdown.

I don't think that apple would dare do this... after so long with iOS the way it is, changing it drastically is sure to cause a huge backlash of negativity. Even after 5 years, the letters on the iOS software keyboard STILL do not case-shift when you put the caps-lock on. Such a simple user feedback change, and yet the flaw is still there. Oh sure, the shift key changes color ever so slightly when toggled, but the rest of the keyboard stays all caps. Don't like the iOS keyboard? Well, that's tough luck. There's no way to replace it with another.

On Android, there's dozens of both free and pay software keyboards if you are unhappy with the one your device comes with. Oh -- and they all case shift. You can even set your newly downloaded app to completely replace your phone's stock keyboard. Don't like the built in browser? Download Dolphin HD and set it as the default. Sure, you can download Dolphin on iOS too, but click a hotlink in twitter or email and you are back in Safari. No choice about it.

In some sense this is good. Giving additional options to people who don't know how to use their phone in the first place is a recipe for trouble. For my Mom, having her iPhone launch safari (no matter what) whenever she clicks a web link is probably ideal. Android is definitely the nerdier option. It's your device, use it the way you want to, not the way Apple allows you to. And you know what? Don't like the apps on the Google Play store, you can just go and make your own. It may not be easy, but the option is there and you don't need permission from Apple to run the code on your own device.

-Fishbishop

Some seemed interested

Fishbishop — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 15:43:34 +0000

I posted links to my blog post about the poster to a few sites including reddit. First, thanks for all the positive feedback! It's really encouraging. Second, some folks seemed interested how the print turned out and how it looks. I had my lady take some photos of our computer room where we hung the finished poster.

Of course let me know if you have any other questions i did not address.

My babe gives it a "thumbs up!"Full view of her PC nook with the poster in the background

Cool Christmas Gift

Fishbishop — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 18:14:44 +0000

I made a pretty neat Song of Ice and Fire poster to give to my girl for Christmas this year. I'm pretty proud of it and thought I would share it. Now, I didn't exactly create all these images. The poster is a composite of many hi-res images i found on the internet. I'm not sure if any of them are copyrighted, but they were easy to find with a google image search.

The final poster is 24"x36", pretty typical poster size. I put everything together in photoshop in about 3 hours then had it printed on a wide-format printer here at work. I put the finished poster in a wooden frame (on sale at AC Moore for 50% off!) and it looks very good in our computer room.

Link to hi-res printable PDF (9MB)

Happy Christmas Internets!

-FB

Year of the Book

Fishbishop — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 20:12:35 +0000

This year I read. A lot. I guess i'm making up for lost time since once i finished college, I never really read for pleasure any more. This past year I've read about 30 books, many of them series. Here's a list in no real specific order, but mainly grouped by author:

Terry Goodkind
=============
Phantom
Confessor
Debt of Bones
Law of Nines
Omen Machine

J.K. Rowling
==========
Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince
Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows

Kurt Vonnegut
===========
The Sirens of Titan
Slaughterhouse Five

George R.R. Martin
===============
A Game of Thrones
A Clash of Kings
A Storm of Swords
A Feast for Crows
A Dance with Dragons
Tales of Dunk & Egg

Robert Jordan
===========
The Eye of the World - Robert Jordan
The Great Hunt - Robert Jordan

Mort - Terry Pratchett
The Great Gatsby - F. Scott Fitzgerald
The Hobbit - J.R.R. Tolken
The Demon Haunted World - Carl Sagan
The Grand Design - Stephen Hawking & Leonard Mlodinow
God, No! Signs You May Already Be An Atheist - Penn Jillette
Steve Jobs Biography - Walter Isaacson
Bossy Pants - Tina Fey

So as you can see, yea, I like fantasy. I also have a few hard science books in there, a biography and some silly stuff. I do most of my reading on either my Nook or my Macbook Pro screen. I hardly ever read a real physical book, and I don't particularly miss them. I love to be able to tap a word in what i'm reading and instantly have the dictonary definition.

This next year I hope to continue working on Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time Series. If I had to choose favorites, A Song of Ice and Fire series is amazing. I can't wait for the rest of the books to be finished!

-FB

XBox Live account hacked, Microsoft Salts the Wounds

Fishbishop — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 14:56:01 +0000

Last week my XBox Live account was hacked. I'm not going to say it wasn't partially my fault. I had an old password on the account that I've used in many places, and it's a weak password to boot. Yea, that was stupid, but as a paying customer, shouldn't Microsoft take some responsibility to protect me? Not only that, but the more research i do, the more widespread this hack seems to be. Why isn't anyone reporting this?

knew something was wrong immediately when i received email receipts for about $150 of MS points. I was at work, and nobody was at my home. These were fraudulent charges, i knew immediately. I went to the XBox web site and changed my password right away, then called XBox support. The lady on the phone was fairly nice. She explained the process, said that i should hear from an investigator and all should be resolved in 72 hours. They keyed my problem as an "accidental purchase" explaining that since i changed my password before the points were spent, this would be the quickest way to get my money back. If only that were the case... here's what happened next.

Confessions of a Digg Defector

Fishbishop — Tue, 10 May 2011 13:52:18 +0000

Recently I've been a redditor. I used to be a loyal digg fan, but someting over there has changed and i'm not talking about the design. It's the community really, or lack of community to get more to the point. Also, because of a combination of it's large community and the site's design, reddit's "front page" moves much faster than digg. The comments are much more abundant as well, even if they tend to mostly agree with each other. As I see it there are three things that give reddit a distinct edge: the community, the community's size, and the reddit karma system.

Music, computers, and freedom

Fishbishop — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 15:24:48 +0000

I have a ton on my mind right now. At least mother nature is cooperating by letting up on the snow a bit and giving way to a little spring. It's certainly one less thing to worry about. My driveway is still a glacier, but I rent so that's kind of amusing to me. There's new radiohead coming out this weekend, compuers on Jeopardy!, oh and by the way -- I'm somewhat free of my WoW bonds.

Sword of Truth Series

Fishbishop — Thu, 03 Feb 2011 15:21:52 +0000

The other night I finished the last book in Terry Goodkind's The Sword of Truth series, Confessor. My fiancée turned me onto the eleven book collection this past spring -- it's one of her all-time favorites. I don't normally read the fantasy genre, but knowing how important they were to someone I love, I pushed my tendencies aside and gave them a fair chance. After completing the first novel, Wizards First Rule, I was totally hooked. These books really spoke to me and I would like to share some of my thoughts on them. There are spoilers here, so you've now been warned.

Addicted... again.

Fishbishop — Tue, 04 Jan 2011 19:13:13 +0000

So, it has begun again. A terrible addiction that is set loose upon me every 2 years or so. Blizzard has released another World Of Warcraft expansion. For the next several months my free time and spare brain-cycles are to be consumed by leveling tradeskills, dungeon grinding, and routing the saps on the auction house. The revisions and additions to the game make nearly every aspect better than it has ever been, but I don't think Cataclysm will hold my attention for nearly as long as previous WoW iterations have.

New PC Build

Fishbishop — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 16:19:33 +0000

Last week I built a new PC for my fiancé and now that we've had a weekend with it I'm ready to discuss. Overall I think we're both quite happy with how it turned out, even though the only copy of Windows 7 i could get my hands on was a 32 bit version... but that's not a problem with the computer, just crappy planning on my part. Folks are always asking me what type of computer they should buy or hardware to choose, so if you're one of those then study up.

We made the purchase from New Egg, and here's what I chose: