My 2011 Goals
After 2010 these are the 5 things I want to accomplish in 2011.
1. Get better at writing – This can only happen with practice. I have to learn to move past the thinking of my writing may not be good enough and just hit publish. The only way to get good at anything is to practice at it and I have not been practicing my writing in the way I should.
2. Practice my photography – I like photography as a hobby. It’s nice and relaxing, plus for a geek like me it’s outdoor time. I would like to get more time out with my camera and try to get some different shots. I would also like to try to do some astrophotography as well this year.
3. Clean things up – I need to work on creating and fostering a file system that works for me. Right now my desk is mess and I use a different place for my computer. sometimes it takes me a couple of weeks to file my paperwork. I need to learn to sit down and just figure out what I need and what is junk, then throw the junk out. It’s time to get things under control.
4. Whip my digital files into shape – This is everything from mp3s to photos. I want to get everything tagged, sorted, and placed in the best way possible. I am slowly working on this and it is a large task. Correcting the large collection of MP3s and other things is going to take a while. I anticipate that I will not get my mp3s completed this year.
5. Upgrade my PC – It’s just over 2 years since I put my PC together. It’s time for some upgrades. I plan on adding in an SSD drive, 4GB more of RAM, and wireless headphones. My computer is plenty fast but I feel it’s time to get some upgrades like this done before I want to upgrade and then I have to purchase a whole new PC. The RAM and the SSD will give me added performance in regards to programs. It’ll be like a whole new PC.I would like Wireless headphones because I am tired of getting tangled up with my corded headset. plus when I get up I don’t have to worry about a cord trying kill me.
Kindle love
Image by jandrosantana
It has been over three months since I got my Kindle. I’ve read one book and plenty of samples on it. I love my Kindle. I take it with me everywhere I go and enjoy reading on it. After I got the Kindle I spent all of September reading “The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo” by Steig Larson in trade paperback. Reading a paper book after spending some time with the kindle is a whole different subject.
I can say that reading on a kindle is a different experience than reading a book. The ability to look up words or make highlights is a very nice feature to keep things going. Reading a book like “The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo” and being able to highlight and write notes can make the experience more enjoyable. Alas I did not read the book on my Kindle so I was not able to take advantage of those features.
I am currently reading “It’s Ok to Manage Your Boss” By Bruce Tulgan. In this book I’ve used highlighting and note taking to full advantage. After I started using the features I can see how much I can use them on a regular basis for a book like Dragon Tattoo.
I do love my Kindle and am very happy with my choice.
Of eReaders and iPads
Since the recent eReader price drop between the Nook and Kindle I figured they have hit the sweet spot in price range for me to look into one of them. I played around with a few co-workers Kindles, then I stopped by my local Barnes and Noble to test out their Nook. I found using a Kindle to be easier to navigate. I just felt that the Nook was slow and just difficult to use. The touch screen seems like a nice idea, but I found it to be slow. I decided that I was going to purchase a Kindle after July, that was until yesterday.
The deal a day website Woot! was offering Kindles at a very attractive price I jumped on one. I am excited to purchase an eReader and I purchased the best one available. While some on you may disagree that’s fine. I will be posting a review of my Kindle once I get time to play around with it.
Now before buying the Kindle I was torn between the e-ink readers and an iPad. Now the reason I was heavily considering the iPad is because of it’s support for full color PDF support. To me due to the price of the iPad it is a luxury, for what I want.
Now you must be saying why do you, Joseph, need to have full color pdf support? The answer is simple. Over the last few years I’ve been investing in PDF’s of rule books for a pencil and paper game called BattleTech. I also by the “dead tree” books also since they are portable and can be searched through. The iPad represents the ability to bring those books into the digital age and allow for better portability.
With electronic documents I can bring my whole library of gaming books with me and be able to search through them with keywords. I can make bookmarks to certain sections. This does come back to the iPad “saving” the print media, but it is another outlet to store our larger color electronic media. For me the extra features of the iPad aren’t why I would buy an iPad. After I read up on the keynote the first thing I thought of was that would be so awesome for gaming PDFs.
While it does look like the e-ink readers and the iPad are fighting for the same market share they are two different products. I would actually say they are complementary products to each other. While yes there are apps for the iPad to read your Nook/Kindle books on it that doesn’t mean it is the best option to do so. I like gadgets that help make my life “easier” for my hobbies, and tabletop gaming is a big hobby for me.
Wii like movies – Netflix on the Wii Review
When Netflix was announced for the Wii I signed up for a disc. My Disc arrived the weekend I went to Boston for PAX and has been sitting idly by until this past weekend. I have been looking for a good excuse to try this disc out. Everyone at my day job has been telling me good things about “King of Kong,” what better way to test out the streaming for the service than with a documentary on the high score of Donkey Kong. That is sweet gaming irony right there 
.
Anyway, putting the disc in and launching into Netflix is easy. It’s just like playing a regular Wii game. Once Netflix loads which takes about a minute or two, depending on your connection, to the main screen. You can then browse your instant queue, movie genres, TV shows or a slew of other categories. You are only really limited by the content in each category. So lets say you are browsing the Television category, you will see only a 100 different TV Shows. Which is limiting if you are looking for a particular one. As far as I can tell you can’t sort the results in each category item, so you will have to look through all the items to see if what you want is listed. Which depending on what you are looking for maybe a short look through or might take some time. I do wish Netflix would have included a search feature instead of browsing through categories. Just makes loading up movies for streaming not an easy task. Just means I’ll be using my instant queue list more and adding things while surfing from my PC.
I did some simple tests on movie loading from inside of Netflix. It seems to take about 15 seconds from the time you press watch now to the video starting to play. I did not find that to be anything too long. I watched “King of Kong” completely through this service and I had no issues. The picture was very good and it looked like I was watching a DVD. I couldn’t have asked for a better quality video. There wasn’t any skipping or needing to buffer the video while it was playing. My Wii is a good 50 ft away from the wireless router and has several walls between the two. Results may vary based on your setup and internet connection.
Next I decide to try “Babylon 5: The Lost Tales” since I already watched that streaming on my PC so it would be a good test. I only had a few minor issues with the compression of this but overall it was another very good quality video. My issues really came up when Sheridan and Galen in the dream sequence after showing New York City in the future. The dark purple background was pixelating and artifacting in a way I didn’t notice when I saw on my PC. I also decided to check out a few other titles on the Instant Streaming. I noticed that it depends on the movie or video you are streaming through the service as each seem to use different compression technologies.
In conclusion, I would recommend the Netflix Streaming Disc if you have a Wii and a Netflix account. I should point out that the TV I used to watch the Netflix streaming is a 20” LCD that maxes out at 480p in resolution, your experience on a larger screen may differ. I do plan to use this service more as it’s a perfect way to really get in and right into a movie with in 5 minutes with really not setup at all. I have also heard several people say you can’t rate movies through this service. I’ve rated a few movies I watched with no problem and they show up on my Netflix account.
To The Stars – Broken Dreams of NASA
I’ve been debating writing this post for well over a month, but I feel like I should. I’m not a scientist, I’m just a geek who has has romantic dreams about space and feels like the US is rudderless with space exploration. I was raised on a good diet of Sci-Fi shows, novels, and movies about space. I feel like the current administration hasn’t given us any defined goals, just no more moon missions and here is a bunch of extra money to do Low Earth Orbit things. NASA itself is conflicted on what to day. Ask a variety of scientist or people on what we should do in space and you’ll get as many answers as people you ask.
The current administration doesn’t feel like we should return to the moon. Why? If we plan to go to Mars at some point the Moon is a perfect training ground. It would allow us to try to set up a base and give us some prep on how a Mars mission may unfold. With the discovery of water on the Moon we can learn to harvest it in preparation for Mars. This would be invaluable knowledge that will serve a purpose. In addition the knowledge of how to build architecture on a foreign bodies surface with in three days range would be easier than one that is 6 months or more away.
I feel as though NASA’s goals are not clearly defined. It feels like no really knows what direction to send the space program in. President Obama has selected a flexable option for NASA which cancels the Constellation program. It looks like Congress is going to fight that cancelation only to look good for their home districts. Yes NASA does some amazing things and will continue to do amazing things with their budget, but I wonder what they could achieve if we set some vary daring goals for the agency. Going to asteroids and the like is all good, but that can be accomplished with missions to the Moon. If we can land on the Moon we can land on an asteroid.
My other issue with the lack of vision for NASA is it’s been over 30 years since we last touched down on the Moon. We have not had anything to excite the population. Someone needs to say NASA this is your next target whether it’s the Moon or Mars. Excite the population and we can do amazing things dare I say impossible things. I feel as though we are not doing enough to show the youth of today the wonders of exploration and science. Some days I could be day dreaming about when I will see a man on the Moon again. I know at the pace NASA is taking I will never live to see a man walk on Mars. That is something I hope will happen and I hope to be proven wrong about.
While doing some cleaning through some of my parents things I found two large format TIME Magazines about the moon landings. After thumbing threw them I knew that if that same excitement was around when I was younger I would have a very different career than I do now. Science can help fuel our imaginations about what’s next or about the amazing things we can accomplish if we work together.
I know that all the Science Fiction tv shows and novels are not the future. But it’s fun to imagine and wonder what if, right? They do serve a purpose, to make us wonder when we will break free of being happy with circling the this blue marble. Out there is space, a very interesting place that will show us things that we have yet to dream about. Who knows what we will encounter when we take the first major steps out of our cradle towards a larger destiny. I love science almost as much as I love technology, in fact without science technology wouldn’t exist.
Science is very important to us all, without it we would not have the everyday items in our lives. From the cell phones we use everyday to the microwave in our offices that heat our lunches to the computer you are reading this on it is all based on science. I can only imagine what we will create and what new items will be in everyday use in the future.
Sometimes I look up at the night sky and wonder what would it be like to actually see the Orion Nebula or the Pleiades Cluster from a spaceship. To go places where few have traveled and to encourage others to push forward into that frontier. I wonder how much more beautiful the Butterfly Nebula would look in person then through Hubble images. I then stretch my hand forward toward the skies and To The Stars . . . . . only for that to come crashing back down to Earth. Maybe, just maybe, someone will dream big again and let their imagination inspire us to achieve the impossible. If we don’t use our imagination that’s a shame. It’s what allows us to bring our dreams into reality.
Dr. Phil Plait also has an excellent write up about this very same lack of vision which you can check out here: 40 years later, failure is still no longer an option
I’ll leave you with one video that inspired a generation back in the 60’s to reach out for dreams of the impossible, maybe one day we will have a speech that will inspire us to do even greater things.
It’s Still Rock And Roll To Me – PAX East Recap
It’s been over a week since the end of Penny Arcade Expo East (PAX East)
and I finally caught up on my sleep. Typically me and my friends usually hit up at least one convention a year. Our typically convention we usually visit was ICON and we started to lose interest in going. SO When I heard PAX was going to be at Boston this year I was like Hey lets go and try something new out. PAX East pretty much lived up to my hype 
. We are already planning for next years convention.
