While I've been putting a heavy focus on work lately, I've definitely made an effort to diversify my week by scheduling "free" time around my busy schedule to simply be me. This. Is. Hard.
Work is a twelve hour affair for me, five days a week: I'm up no later than six in the morning, and I'm officially home no later than six in the evening. On top of this, I have to devote time to other areas of my life: girlfriend at least two days a week, for about three hours (minimum) a night, running my own errands at least once a week, dinner with my parents usually twice a week, and organizing my personal life (bills, cleaning, car maintenance, etc.). Fitting all this in during a Monday through Friday week leaves me with scary-small amounts of time free for me to just be me.
This is why my calendar is littered with events for what seems like the mundane: I schedule time every week to write creatively, study programming, and pay my bills. I keep track of my time on a daily basis in minutes: the difference of getting home at 6:00pm or 6:15pm means a lot to me. While an earlier, younger me would have blasted this type of time management, I'm finding that it's the best I can do right now. However, I'm the only person who believes in my schedule - for example, my family is rather unpredictable in how our plans will ever pan out (dinner, usually), so I tend to not always put them on my calendar.
What I'm ultimately looking for is an activity that is uniquely mine - in my own time, done my own way. Me time. This isn't something that I can find whenever I want it. It's something rare nowadays, and something that I've come to value more than anything else in my life right now.
I feel that real change is coming, and coming in many more ways that I have written about on Critically Correct yet.
B3 out.
Saturday, January 31, 2009
Wednesday, January 28, 2009
Storing Stuff Everywhere
I'm in the market for a new computer, and of course I'm building it myself. I built my current PC, dubbed "Dragonfly" in early 2004 with a budget of just $600, and I have done pretty well over the last five years. Built with an AMD Athlon 64 3000+ CPU, 512 MB of DDR memory, a Radeon x700 GPU, and a 160 GB SATA hard disk drive, I built a machine capable of playing one game: Half-Life 2. This game meant so much to me that the expense to build a new machine was nothing major.
I've made some minor tweaks over the years: upgraded the video card to a Radeon x1950 Pro (the x700's cooling fan failed), added a hard disk drive or three, bumped up to a gig of memory, and got a now-12 year old 17-inch CRT monitor that's ultra-crisp and perfect for gaming.
Now in 2009, I'm looking to upgrade my PC, although this time gaming isn't behind my move. Prices for components are aligning to be very desirable, component decent enough to build a mid-to-high end computer for about the same $600 that I spent five years ago. I intend to reuse parts where possible: my video card is still worthwhile, my hard disk drives still usable (if not a bit small), and my case/power supply adequate. With that said, I'm in need of a new heart: a new processor means a new motherboard means new memory.
While remaining a gaming machine primarily, I need a PC that's hardcore on multitasking and virtualization, as I intend to run Linux and experiment with other operating systems virtually, so a multicore processor and lots of memory is a must.
I'm also looking to store a lot of information. Media, files, ISOs, and tons more, then back it all up for safe keeping. While I have a combined total of 502 GB of drive space across four drives now, I really need something larger. I'm eyeing an HDD in the range of 750 GB to 1 TB (terabyte) to house my collection of MP3s and digital photos. The biggest reason for the size upgrade, however, comes in the form of video: I intend to begin backing up all my DVDs in digital form: one high-quality copy for general viewing, and one "portable," iPod-compatible copy as well (since I have the iPod touch and all now). Backing up all my DVDs would take a looooong time, but the effort would be worth it. I'm not jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon any time soon, so high definition isn't a high priority for me... buy keeping my current favorite movies intact is.
So for a new computer I'm looking to buy some of the best of the current gear that's on the verge of being replaced. In other words, Core 2 Quad instead of Intel i7. Along with a quad core processor from Intel, I'm looking at an all SATA-compatible motherboard and 4 GB of memory, although I'm still working out these details. I'm also eyeing a very nice $200 22-inch 1080p LCP monitor from Dell, which would serve multiple purposes: an excellent workspace for writing and programming, as well as a future display for an XBOX 360 (perhaps a summer purchase).
I'm planning to get all this buying underway by the end of this week, so stay tuned as I update my progress on this project.
B3 out.
I've made some minor tweaks over the years: upgraded the video card to a Radeon x1950 Pro (the x700's cooling fan failed), added a hard disk drive or three, bumped up to a gig of memory, and got a now-12 year old 17-inch CRT monitor that's ultra-crisp and perfect for gaming.
Now in 2009, I'm looking to upgrade my PC, although this time gaming isn't behind my move. Prices for components are aligning to be very desirable, component decent enough to build a mid-to-high end computer for about the same $600 that I spent five years ago. I intend to reuse parts where possible: my video card is still worthwhile, my hard disk drives still usable (if not a bit small), and my case/power supply adequate. With that said, I'm in need of a new heart: a new processor means a new motherboard means new memory.
While remaining a gaming machine primarily, I need a PC that's hardcore on multitasking and virtualization, as I intend to run Linux and experiment with other operating systems virtually, so a multicore processor and lots of memory is a must.
I'm also looking to store a lot of information. Media, files, ISOs, and tons more, then back it all up for safe keeping. While I have a combined total of 502 GB of drive space across four drives now, I really need something larger. I'm eyeing an HDD in the range of 750 GB to 1 TB (terabyte) to house my collection of MP3s and digital photos. The biggest reason for the size upgrade, however, comes in the form of video: I intend to begin backing up all my DVDs in digital form: one high-quality copy for general viewing, and one "portable," iPod-compatible copy as well (since I have the iPod touch and all now). Backing up all my DVDs would take a looooong time, but the effort would be worth it. I'm not jumping on the Blu-ray bandwagon any time soon, so high definition isn't a high priority for me... buy keeping my current favorite movies intact is.
So for a new computer I'm looking to buy some of the best of the current gear that's on the verge of being replaced. In other words, Core 2 Quad instead of Intel i7. Along with a quad core processor from Intel, I'm looking at an all SATA-compatible motherboard and 4 GB of memory, although I'm still working out these details. I'm also eyeing a very nice $200 22-inch 1080p LCP monitor from Dell, which would serve multiple purposes: an excellent workspace for writing and programming, as well as a future display for an XBOX 360 (perhaps a summer purchase).
I'm planning to get all this buying underway by the end of this week, so stay tuned as I update my progress on this project.
B3 out.
Sunday, January 25, 2009
Keeping Pace
The last week and this coming week have been quite a contrast from previous months. Work has been boring like I could never imagine. With the long weekends of the holiday season over, I'm still trying to adapt to the full, busy work weeks.
Last week I also began a tight, scheduled nightly routine that kept me busy with writing (fiction mostly), studying (learning new technologies for work), and exercising (at the Community Center). Last week was a pretty poor example of how to adhere to a schedule, which isn't helped by other things coming up that interrupt me. This week I'm going to stick to plans a little better, so tomorrow will be a long day: work all day until five or 5:30, then a visit with Colleen for a bit, then home to do some much-needed creative writing... and when that's over, I have just enough time left to brush my teeth and go to bed for Tuesday. Rinse and repeat four days a week.
When I already work full time and drive for two hours a day, why do I fill up my remaining three or so hours of freedom with such a busy schedule? I definitely like time to myself, and I would love to come home every night and spend those three hours gaming. However, I find that so limiting quite often. When I'm busy from morning until bedtime, I feel far more accomplished and useful. Although last week was a bit choppy with regards to sticking to my schedule, I did get a lot done: Wrote better than half of a short story, learned two new HTML/CSS graphics techniques, and learned about some features of my home router that will prove very useful in troubleshooting my internet connection in the future. Nothing groundbreaking, I know, but these scheduled study, writing, and exercise times are meant to be stepping stone for incremental improvement for me, which is more than I could ever say about the five years of constant cramming material at BGSU. Going at my own pace, on my own time, is much better for me overall.
Now I just need to make sure I stick with it. Unfortunately work might interfere some days (even leaving a half-hour late puts me pretty far behind for the night), and my girlfriend doesn't seem real up on the idea of me taking so much time to myself. But these are minor hurdles that I can overcome... the time I'm putting in to these three things definitely feels worthwhile thus far.
Now for sleep. B3 out.
Last week I also began a tight, scheduled nightly routine that kept me busy with writing (fiction mostly), studying (learning new technologies for work), and exercising (at the Community Center). Last week was a pretty poor example of how to adhere to a schedule, which isn't helped by other things coming up that interrupt me. This week I'm going to stick to plans a little better, so tomorrow will be a long day: work all day until five or 5:30, then a visit with Colleen for a bit, then home to do some much-needed creative writing... and when that's over, I have just enough time left to brush my teeth and go to bed for Tuesday. Rinse and repeat four days a week.
When I already work full time and drive for two hours a day, why do I fill up my remaining three or so hours of freedom with such a busy schedule? I definitely like time to myself, and I would love to come home every night and spend those three hours gaming. However, I find that so limiting quite often. When I'm busy from morning until bedtime, I feel far more accomplished and useful. Although last week was a bit choppy with regards to sticking to my schedule, I did get a lot done: Wrote better than half of a short story, learned two new HTML/CSS graphics techniques, and learned about some features of my home router that will prove very useful in troubleshooting my internet connection in the future. Nothing groundbreaking, I know, but these scheduled study, writing, and exercise times are meant to be stepping stone for incremental improvement for me, which is more than I could ever say about the five years of constant cramming material at BGSU. Going at my own pace, on my own time, is much better for me overall.
Now I just need to make sure I stick with it. Unfortunately work might interfere some days (even leaving a half-hour late puts me pretty far behind for the night), and my girlfriend doesn't seem real up on the idea of me taking so much time to myself. But these are minor hurdles that I can overcome... the time I'm putting in to these three things definitely feels worthwhile thus far.
Now for sleep. B3 out.
Sunday, January 18, 2009
Touch Me, Touch Me
The saga of my iPod touch is finally over. I've had a rough time acquiring my precious new device, and I've been angry at just about every major entity between here and California in trying to resolve my problems.
This is the abbreviated version of my story: January 3rd, I order my iPod touch from MacMall. January 5th it ships, although the tracking number is wrong, so I can't track it. Thursday, January 9th I was supposed to receive my package, but nothing was in the mail, so I have it time. Friday came, no package. Saturday, nothing. After contacting MacMall multiple times and blaming them for my loss, I narrowed it down to the postal system misplacing my package, which saw one of my neighbors with my package for eight days. After plenty of bitching, my package was located and delivered late on a Saturday night - two full weeks after I ordered it. Whew.
But all is well now, and I'm now fully basked in the glow of Apple Magic. The iPod touch is quite the amazing device, managing to live up to all of its hype while faltering in very few places. It's hard to call the iPod touch an MP3 player. Unlike the digital audio players that made Apple into an empire, playing music is merely a fraction of what the touch is capable of doing. In my honest opinion, it is an understatement to label this device as an "iPod" - clearly it is a unique device all it's own, although the iPod name heritage is too powerful for Apple's marketing department to ignore, hence the final name.
My initial thoughts about the touch were positive: sleek, thin, and powerful. I was generally skeptical about how smooth and useful the touch interface was... after all, my fat, greasy fingers sometimes feel like they dwarf the screen. I was amazed, then, at how easy it was to do anything on the touch. Zooming, panning, tapping, dragging... any logical motion that could be used to accomplish a task is done well on the touch, and Apple has simply redefined the mobile interface forever (not to mentioned patented the hell out of it).
I will quickly run down my initial thoughts about the core functionality of the touch.
Music: Although not as revolutionary as the Track Wheel was on the original iPod, nagivating a large music library is still quick and accurate on the touch, with varying degrees of finger flicks and taps used to get where you need to go. It is very hard to operate the music controls (play/pause, next track, etc.) without looking at the touch directly, so changing songs while the touch is in your pocket is out. I haven't been able to do it yet.
Pictures / Video: The screen of the touch excels at showing off pictures and video, so no complaints here. I will say that the limitation of video format is frustrating. I'm spending a lot of time converting my perfectly good DivX files to H.264 iPod format, which is a pain.
Safari Web Browser: Browsing on the touch is wonderful, not only one of the biggest marketing points for Apple, but perfectly capable on such a tiny device, thanks - once again - to simple navigation and a fully-featured browser that doesn't compromise rendering. Every website I use throughout my day works flawlessly on the touch thus far.
Apps: The touch comes loaded some many useful apps: Google Maps (genius!), YouTube (again, love it), Contacts, Mail (GMail integration is great), among several others. I like the extensibility of the touch so far, and the App Store is overwhelming at this point... there's literally an app for every possible thing I could want to do on a device this size, including iXpenseIt, a budget manager, that I handily paid $4.99 to help me keep spending in track. Games? Labyrinth is a Wii-style casual game that my mom and I both enjoy equally.
The big downside to the touch thus far is inherit to what the device is: it's not an iPhone. The iPhone and its software were designed with continuous data access in mind - the Internet anywhere - and the iPod touch uses Wi-Fi as it's door to the world. I am typically bathed in Wi-Fi access almost everywhere I go - home, work, Colleen's, downtown BG, downtown Findlay - so being near an access point isn't a problem. The battery drain is a problem, unfortunately. I haven't conducted a full Wi-Fi battery drain, but it doesn't look like it'll see more than five or six hours of constant Wi-Fi use. This creates the dilema of how to use connected applications. Many apps sold in the App Store work with a data connection to the Internet, and without this connection, the iPod touch feels limited in its cooler features. Google Maps, Safari, Facebook, etc. are some of the best uses for my touch, but all require a connection that I won't always have access to, nor may have the battery power for. It's a little depressing, but I'm bitching about a small quibble that I shouldn't be. Everything about the iPod touch is utterly awesome thus far.
Hmm... Blogger for the iPod touch? I hope so...
B3 out.
This is the abbreviated version of my story: January 3rd, I order my iPod touch from MacMall. January 5th it ships, although the tracking number is wrong, so I can't track it. Thursday, January 9th I was supposed to receive my package, but nothing was in the mail, so I have it time. Friday came, no package. Saturday, nothing. After contacting MacMall multiple times and blaming them for my loss, I narrowed it down to the postal system misplacing my package, which saw one of my neighbors with my package for eight days. After plenty of bitching, my package was located and delivered late on a Saturday night - two full weeks after I ordered it. Whew.
But all is well now, and I'm now fully basked in the glow of Apple Magic. The iPod touch is quite the amazing device, managing to live up to all of its hype while faltering in very few places. It's hard to call the iPod touch an MP3 player. Unlike the digital audio players that made Apple into an empire, playing music is merely a fraction of what the touch is capable of doing. In my honest opinion, it is an understatement to label this device as an "iPod" - clearly it is a unique device all it's own, although the iPod name heritage is too powerful for Apple's marketing department to ignore, hence the final name.
My initial thoughts about the touch were positive: sleek, thin, and powerful. I was generally skeptical about how smooth and useful the touch interface was... after all, my fat, greasy fingers sometimes feel like they dwarf the screen. I was amazed, then, at how easy it was to do anything on the touch. Zooming, panning, tapping, dragging... any logical motion that could be used to accomplish a task is done well on the touch, and Apple has simply redefined the mobile interface forever (not to mentioned patented the hell out of it).
I will quickly run down my initial thoughts about the core functionality of the touch.
Music: Although not as revolutionary as the Track Wheel was on the original iPod, nagivating a large music library is still quick and accurate on the touch, with varying degrees of finger flicks and taps used to get where you need to go. It is very hard to operate the music controls (play/pause, next track, etc.) without looking at the touch directly, so changing songs while the touch is in your pocket is out. I haven't been able to do it yet.
Pictures / Video: The screen of the touch excels at showing off pictures and video, so no complaints here. I will say that the limitation of video format is frustrating. I'm spending a lot of time converting my perfectly good DivX files to H.264 iPod format, which is a pain.
Safari Web Browser: Browsing on the touch is wonderful, not only one of the biggest marketing points for Apple, but perfectly capable on such a tiny device, thanks - once again - to simple navigation and a fully-featured browser that doesn't compromise rendering. Every website I use throughout my day works flawlessly on the touch thus far.
Apps: The touch comes loaded some many useful apps: Google Maps (genius!), YouTube (again, love it), Contacts, Mail (GMail integration is great), among several others. I like the extensibility of the touch so far, and the App Store is overwhelming at this point... there's literally an app for every possible thing I could want to do on a device this size, including iXpenseIt, a budget manager, that I handily paid $4.99 to help me keep spending in track. Games? Labyrinth is a Wii-style casual game that my mom and I both enjoy equally.
The big downside to the touch thus far is inherit to what the device is: it's not an iPhone. The iPhone and its software were designed with continuous data access in mind - the Internet anywhere - and the iPod touch uses Wi-Fi as it's door to the world. I am typically bathed in Wi-Fi access almost everywhere I go - home, work, Colleen's, downtown BG, downtown Findlay - so being near an access point isn't a problem. The battery drain is a problem, unfortunately. I haven't conducted a full Wi-Fi battery drain, but it doesn't look like it'll see more than five or six hours of constant Wi-Fi use. This creates the dilema of how to use connected applications. Many apps sold in the App Store work with a data connection to the Internet, and without this connection, the iPod touch feels limited in its cooler features. Google Maps, Safari, Facebook, etc. are some of the best uses for my touch, but all require a connection that I won't always have access to, nor may have the battery power for. It's a little depressing, but I'm bitching about a small quibble that I shouldn't be. Everything about the iPod touch is utterly awesome thus far.
Hmm... Blogger for the iPod touch? I hope so...
B3 out.
Friday, January 16, 2009
A Quick Warning
It sucks to lose trust in something that's always been reliable for me, but today that has happened.
The United States Postal Service was to deliver a package to my house about two weeks ago, valued as several hundred dollars. I didn't have control over shipping options, other than a "2-3 Business Day" shipping. The package set off on a Tuesday, "arrived" on Friday. Thing is, I was home for mail delivery that day, so I rushed to the mailbox for my "present" -- and it wasn't there.
But something else was, and it wasn't mine. Our carrier had mis-delivered our mail, with a package addressed to another house in our mailbox. Thus, it seems that the carrier scanned my package for delivery, then mixed it up with another, similar package and gave me the wrong one.
After making phone calls for the last few days, it has been resolved to this: my package is lost, and the post office can do nothing about it. With the tracking information showing "delivered," USPS is off the hook, meaning it can be narrowed to our delivery carrier screwing up... and I'm out several hundred dollars. Very disappointing.
UPS / FedEx for me from now on.
B3 out.
The United States Postal Service was to deliver a package to my house about two weeks ago, valued as several hundred dollars. I didn't have control over shipping options, other than a "2-3 Business Day" shipping. The package set off on a Tuesday, "arrived" on Friday. Thing is, I was home for mail delivery that day, so I rushed to the mailbox for my "present" -- and it wasn't there.
But something else was, and it wasn't mine. Our carrier had mis-delivered our mail, with a package addressed to another house in our mailbox. Thus, it seems that the carrier scanned my package for delivery, then mixed it up with another, similar package and gave me the wrong one.
After making phone calls for the last few days, it has been resolved to this: my package is lost, and the post office can do nothing about it. With the tracking information showing "delivered," USPS is off the hook, meaning it can be narrowed to our delivery carrier screwing up... and I'm out several hundred dollars. Very disappointing.
UPS / FedEx for me from now on.
B3 out.
Wednesday, January 07, 2009
A Minor Apple Convert?
So while I wait for my iPod Touch to arrive, I've been trying to get into the whole iTunes groove lately. Recently, I've been on the hunt for a new desktop media player. While I praise iTunes' interface on many levels, the lack of customization and overall bloat of the program is a turn-off for me.
But still, I've noticed a few things about iTunes lately that has me very interested:
Out.
But still, I've noticed a few things about iTunes lately that has me very interested:
- First with MacWorld '09 here, Apple has finally done away with DRM on their audio tracks, which means iTunes is a very viable place for me to finally buy music. I simply will not buy digital music that is bound with DRM. While Amazon is still my first stop for quick, easy, cheap MP3 downloads, the lack of DRM on iTunes music means whatever I can't find on Amazon I can turn to Apple for.
- The Genius playlist option in iTunes has turned out to be really awesome for me. The feature generally states that it will "find songs in your library that go great together." I'm not sure what metrics Apple uses to build these playlists, but so far I have seen terrific mixes of my favorite music come together with it, and I'm already addicted to this great new feature.
- HD content on iTunes is (variably) watchable on my PC, and I'm going to take some of this content for a spin next week to see how it looks, and if all is well, I might consider getting into TV and movie purchases or rentals via iTunes.
Out.
Sunday, January 04, 2009
The Week Ahead
I have a mildly interesting week ahead of me, so I thought it would be worth sharing a preview of what I'll probably be blogging about this coming week.
- I should be busier at work this week than I was last week. Last week saw me cleaning up a bunch of little tasks that actually bored me quite a bit. I'm diving into this week with one goal on my mind: challenge. I'm hoping to pick up some more tasks that really give me a challenge, particularly website-type stuff, so I should have a full, consistent week of work. Hell, even a little overtime in Findlay might be nice.
- I finally jumped ship this week and did something rather odd for me. For years I have been a silent "Apple fanboy" without actually owning any Apple products (I have to pay how much?). But this week I will change that: I ordered an iPod Touch (2nd gen) yesterday, and am ecstatic to have it arrive this Wednesday or Thursday. I have a huge list of things I want to do with it (email, Facebook, Chandler, etc.). I will, of course, be posting a short review (most likely next weekend), so stay tuned for that.
- I'm working on a full study schedule that will allow me to have dedicated time to work on computer science-related tasks, particularly furthering what I've learned at BGSU and thus far at CRI. I'm hoping to take advantage of this time to produce small software projects, and I have one in mind that I might announce later this week, depending on how my first two study sessions go.
Saturday, January 03, 2009
The HDR Gene Pool
High-dynamic range (HDR) is a technique of rendering an image that dates back more than 100 years old, yet it wasn't until it took hold in gaming that I came to understand and care about it.
In gaming, high-dynamic range is a method of altering the lighting of a 3D environment in such a way that the final image you see on your screen more closely mimics the way your eyes interpret light. The easy way to make sense of my mumbo-jumbo is this: when you are in a dark room (say, a movie theater) for some period of time, your eyes eventually adjust to the low-contrast of the dark room. Suddenly walking out of this theater and into daylight will flood your eyes with light, causing everything to seem over-saturated with light and color for a few moments until your eyes adjust to the new brightness. HDR in gaming simulates this. The effect is subtle in most games, but noticeable enough to make a difference in realism.
The original form of HDR, however, was used in still images - photographs.
By taking photographs of the same scene multiple times with different exposures of contrast, then smashing them together (and by following certain parameters), pictures could display all levels of contrasts that is available via the visible light spectrum, but not available to humans, as our eyes are designed to adjust to a level of contrast that is most comfortable and easiest for our brains to interpret. While a little odd-looking at first, photographs produced via HDR can typically look stunning, either crystal-clear beyond the resolution of traditional photographs or psychodelic and trippy against a spectrum of color, depending on a lot of variables in the creation process.
But alas, I bring you through all this techno-babble because there is an excellent group on Flickr dedicated to displaying HDR images, and I highly recommend you check it out. There are years worth of images and a wide-range of HDR techniques on display, so head over there now. I posted the link on my QuickLinks page page, so the link will always be available there too.
In gaming, high-dynamic range is a method of altering the lighting of a 3D environment in such a way that the final image you see on your screen more closely mimics the way your eyes interpret light. The easy way to make sense of my mumbo-jumbo is this: when you are in a dark room (say, a movie theater) for some period of time, your eyes eventually adjust to the low-contrast of the dark room. Suddenly walking out of this theater and into daylight will flood your eyes with light, causing everything to seem over-saturated with light and color for a few moments until your eyes adjust to the new brightness. HDR in gaming simulates this. The effect is subtle in most games, but noticeable enough to make a difference in realism.
The original form of HDR, however, was used in still images - photographs.
By taking photographs of the same scene multiple times with different exposures of contrast, then smashing them together (and by following certain parameters), pictures could display all levels of contrasts that is available via the visible light spectrum, but not available to humans, as our eyes are designed to adjust to a level of contrast that is most comfortable and easiest for our brains to interpret. While a little odd-looking at first, photographs produced via HDR can typically look stunning, either crystal-clear beyond the resolution of traditional photographs or psychodelic and trippy against a spectrum of color, depending on a lot of variables in the creation process.
But alas, I bring you through all this techno-babble because there is an excellent group on Flickr dedicated to displaying HDR images, and I highly recommend you check it out. There are years worth of images and a wide-range of HDR techniques on display, so head over there now. I posted the link on my QuickLinks page page, so the link will always be available there too.
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