Monthly Archive for October, 2006

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A Couple of Interesting Links

Published on October 21, 2006 in Internet and Links. 1 Comment

An LED display has been constructed in the windows of Simmons Hall, a dorm at MIT that is noteworthy for its interesting design. I had the privelege of staying there for six weeks between my 11th and 12th grade years in high school, and its a pretty crazy place. All of the rooms are different shapes, sizes, have different numbers of windows (mine had 18). There were singles that were twice as big as my double and singles that were barely large enough to fit in. The only way I can describe the dorm is that it is like Hogwarts – the staircases seem to move so that they’re not in the same place day to day. Anyway, check out the display, those MIT kids are always up to crazy things.

World of Warcraft ruins lives. I have always been skeptical of a game that requires a monthly fee to play and that doesn’t have any way to win, but I’ve never actually read anything by players who have quit because they have lost all semblance of real lives. Judging by the number of comments on this post, its not an isolated occurrence, either. From the article:

“I know of children and spouses being forced to play and grind for their parents, threats of divorce, rampant neglect, failing grades in school, and thousands of dollars spent on “outsourcing” foreign help. For what, you ask? Honor. The desire to be the best for at least one week. To get the best loot in the game. What do these “heroes” receive? Why, cheers and accolades of course as they parade along in their new shiny gear… which is obsolete the first time they step into one of the premier instances. The accomplishment and sacrifice itself are meaningless a few days later. Then it’s usually off to the races again.”

Hosting and Related Particulars

Published on October 20, 2006 in Internet and Life Events. 1 Comment

asmallorange logoToday I purchased webhosting from A Small Orange. When I started this website a month or so ago, I told myself that I would host it on my own laptop for a while until I convinced myself that it wasn’t just a pet project that would get abandoned after a few weeks. But I’ve decided that I really enjoy blogging; the process of writing a good mini-essay and seeing my words actually in print is very cathartic for me. I also enjoy learning all of the little things that go into making one’s own website. (Side note: I’m not really happy with the theme I’m using, yet. I hate the green color, and I’m still not sure I know what the picture in the header is. I’m working on it). I realize the limits of my upload bandwith on a University campus (download, however, is quite unlimited!) and I really don’t like the fact that I can’t take my laptop out of my room unless I want my website to be down. So…hosting it is.

I had one criteria for a webhost – cheap. I found one that is extremely cheap – you can read all about their well-priced plans. In addition, they came well recommended from many forums. I had searched for cheap hosting before, but hadn’t managed to find anything that looked less confusing than this. The difference was in Googling for “cheap hosting mac” rather than “cheap hosting.” Mac users have good taste.

Here’s the back story (this is the “related particulars” section): I was all set to buy hosting from ExtendMac, a software company run by a young guy named Brian that I happened to come across one day. Being a student myself, I like to support things run by other students, and Brian’s prices were the cheapest I’ve seen (remember the only criteria). I went back to the site yesterday, credit-card in hand, only to find out that he had actually stopped offering hosting that day! He has discontinued his hosting services in order to concentrate on developing Edge, an app that he bills as “set to take on Transmit, MarsEdit, and even Ecto–in one, beautifully integrated application.” For those of you who aren’t up on Mac software, that means that Edge is basically going to be a combined FTP client/weblog editor/site builder application. I’m pretty excited to see it, and possibly use it now that I have a need for FTP. So far Brian is keeping mum on a release date, though.

One last thing – I sent Brian a note to let him know how close I was to buying his hosting, and also how much I agree with his reasons not to offer hosting anymore. He says on his website “there’s a limited amount of time in this great big world of ours, and we’ve got to spend it wisely,” something that I can definitely agree with after taking a 23-credit course load. I have wanted for a while to write some kind of training log program. It is an app that I would like to use, because there isn’t a good program of its kind (for the Mac) that I’ve seen, and I’m sure other people might get some use out of it as well. I also have dreams of running a web business eventually. No time right now, but maybe it will become more of a priority than it is currently, and then, watch out. The final point of this long, rambling story, is that, to my delight, my email was blogged. Even more awesome is the fact that I was referred to as “Mister Tyler” in the post! When Edge comes out I’ll be sure to write about it here…

Tangerine

Published on October 19, 2006 in Apple and Software. 0 Comments

If you are a Mac user, check out Tangerine, a beta app from the Potion Factory (sounds like something out of Harry Potter, right?). By going through your iTunes music library and analyzing all of the songs to determine their BPM (beats per minute) and beat intensity, Tangerine hopes to simplify the creation of playlists for all your different moods. This is something that I am notoriously bad at. And even if you have meticulously organized playlists, you’ve gotta love the orange theme that this app is built around.

Tangerine Screenshot