Category: All Posts

iPadvantage

tastewar let me play with — excuse me, I mean evaluate — his iPad today. (As you can see, my LG clamshell cellphone doesn’t take great pictures.)

  • iPad touchscreen is very shiny. Makes a good mirror when it’s powered off.
  • 802.11g wifi reception is very good, although there are reports of some people having trouble. Maybe they’re trying to connect to 802.11n?
  • Portrait mode is easier to hold in your lap than landscape position.
  • As expected, there’s no Adobe Flash playback, but Safari browser supports HTML5 video, which comes up automatically on YouTube.

  • Netflix Watch Instantly plays smoothly, but on the 1024×768 screen the aspect ratio for 16:9 video is wrong. This isn’t a problem in Windows on my 1024×600 netbook or my 1280×1024 desktop monitor. How did they miss this?

  • The Marvel Comics app has caused something of a stir in fandom. (Where’s the concept of collecting if there’s nothing physical to hold?) I’m mostly not interested in new stuff, but it would be great if the Silver Age reprints in Marvel’s Omnibus series were available on the iPad.

  • Screen doesn’t clear when you hold it upside down and shake. Needs an Etch-a-Sketch app! 😉

Obama drives by

At work today, looking out from the fifth floor, traffic was backing up, coming off the Massachusetts Turnpike. Then, an ambulance started up the ramp, followed by state police cars, and what looked like a hearse, followed by more state police with lights flashing. As the motorcade headed towards the toll plaza, I realized the hearse was actually a very long limo. Later, on the drive home, I heard who was in the limo.

http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/breaking/x1838122022/Obama-makes-unannounced-stop-in-Framingham-for-flooding-briefing

Bwah hah ha!

Blog looks the same? You think it does, but it’s nowhere near where it was. Welcome to Utah! By doing everything by hand, I finally moved WordPress and its database from Boston and got it working in Salt Lake City. Need to check some more stuff, but I think it’s going to be OK.

‘Bye for now

It is with great regret that I must announce the semi-cessation of DogRat.com. This is due to my Web hosting service revising its policy, and no longer allowing the posting of audio or video files.

I will be deleting ALL audio and video from the site, but I will leave WordPress running for the time being. Over a year ago I prepared to move to another Web hosting service, but it will take time to do that — assuming I want to do that.

The fact is that I’ve done everything with the blog that I set out to do in September, 2006. I’m not selling anything, nor am I promoting myself in an effort to find work, etc. The blog has existed solely for its own sake.

So that’s it. In the short term, embedded multimedia will be gone. After that, I don’t know. This may be the end, or it may be just the end for now.

This name, this curse

Oh, wait! Before I go, I wanted to post these panels from Sunday’s comic strip, ‘Cul De Sac’, by Richard Thompson, who points out one of the negative connotations for my surname.


Perhaps my ancestors were encouraged to leave England by way taunting…?

BTW, Richard Thompson was diagnosed last year with Parkinson’s Disease. From what I know of the illness, he has many good years ahead of him.