Rainmeter has returned!

After a rocky few weeks, I have finally managed to get a stable installation of Windows up and running. I was working on other things, but have finally managed to get Rainmeter installed and configured the way that I want. I'm going to give you some screenshots and a concise walkthrough on how and why everything is set up the way it is. I would like to note that this setup is not concrete and I am currently looking for a Recycle Bin replacement and I am open to anything new and exciting. Here is what my desktop did look like. Simple, clean, with the programs that I used the most pinned to the Taskbar and Start Menu.

I changed the desktop wallpaper to something a little more colorful than what I'm used to. I found it in Lifehacker's Wallpaper Wednesday.

I added my trusty corner clock which not only has the time, but the date and day of the week. It is easy to read and can be changed to be in any corner of your screen. I used one of MaximumPC's Small But Powerful: 30 Useful Apps Under 2MB ColorCop (which can be found on page 2) to match the CornerClock to the color of the straws on the wallpaper. I added a little transparency to make it a little more visually appealing.

I added my iPhone like icons, Flurry by David Lanham. I chose these because there is a large amount available, and they are available as .png files in various sizes. I used IcoFX to select the size I wanted and so I could easily preview them. I used Microsoft's Paint application to create the black vertical bar, which is just to give a little separation and a little more visual interest. I positioned them to the right above the clock, which opens a large amount of white space to work on the left side.

I Pinned the same programs to the start menu, and I ordered them the same way as on the desktop. My next step is to program the Macro keys on my Microsoft Sidewinder X4 keyboard. I need to figure out my 6 most used programs from this list so I can program them a little later.

[UPDATE]:I would like to make a quick update to my previous post "How-To: Media Organization". I was thinking about this while on my way home from work last night. One great reason to have a different folder to each movie is that we live in a digital age. We all have mobile devices that support. The single movie title per folder is great if you have multiple versions of the same movie. I personally have versions for my Zune, Desktop, and my DEVOUR. This just helps keep all the video files organized and easy to find.

How To: Media Organization

I would just like to welcome you to the first of my How To series. I have decided to start with something simple, yet at the same time can make all the difference in the world. I know that we all have videos, music, and photos all over our hard drive(s). Windows 7 does a pretty damn good job by default organizing all these different libraries that we accumulate throughout the years. Now, I will tell you something that you may not want to hear: not every computer is ideal for media storage/usage. Here is a cold fact about it: Media content takes up a lot of storage. This screenshot of the Windows File Manager tells us a lot of things that are important: The movie "No Strings Attached" takes up 1.25GB of space. It tells us to where and from where I am moving the file. For moving a large amount of files, the time remaining and progress bar will be more useful; but for me, when I see the 112 MB/second speed, that is all I need to know. That is the transfer speed from my 1TB drive to my 2TB drive. That is pretty fast for mechanical storage, on a SATA 3 Gb/s port. This next image to the left is just a quick screenshot of my entire desktop. This is what was filing my monitor and what I was seeing at the time. The window on the right is the My Computer window. This gives us access to all of my hard drives, libraries, and many other things. Naming your hard drives (if you have multiples) will help keep everything organized and easier to access at a glance. Let's break down my hard drive situation: I have my C:\Windows drive which is just for my Windows installation, and my programs. I also have my D:\Storage drive, which is just a mostly empty 1TB hard drive, which will soon house all my Steam games (Cause those take up a lot of space). Finally, I have my F:\Media drive, which is a 2TB drive that houses my media on this computer. Once I open my Media folder, you see the screen on the left. I have subfolders for Documents, Movies, Music, Photos, Television, Unsorted, and Video on Demand. Each contains what it is titled. The Unsorted is a temporary home folder to video files before I am able to sort and properly name the files. This keeps them in one place and easy to find and organize. In case you were wondering, I have unsorted video files due to the fact that I encode all my video files on this computer due to the speediness of my Core i5-760. It takes about 20 minutes for a movie, even less for a television show. Then I will upload them to the HTPC, which also has a 2TB hard drive waiting to be filed to the brim of breaking. Now let's explore the main folders that reside on my Media drive. First up: Movies.

Above is a screenshot of my Movies folder. Each movie gets its own sub-folder. This makes for a large amount of folders, but makes it easier to organize. This is especially important if you are using a media center program such as XBMC which allows for additional content. Media Managers such as Ember Media Manager "scrape" your movies and then match them up with detailed information from online databases; such as imdb.com. Then it will store information for each movie within its folder. This information can contain plot details, ratings, actors, production crew, summaries, genres, etc.. Windows 7 comes with Windows Media Center, which when set up correctly, can be a powerful Media Center program. Unfortunately, it does not support the files and information found during a scrape. So it all depends on your choice of media center program. I would recommend Windows Media Center to beginners due to the fact that on first run, it helps you set up the program. Also, it taps directly into your Libraries, so assuming you have them pointing to your media content, you will be set to go. If you do not have the Windows 7 incarnation of Windows Media Center, then XBMC is your best option. It is free, lightweight, and highly customizable. It is simple to use yet powerful. It supports all the information files, movie stills, and fanart. This is great if you like to be able to choose how the content is presented, and you can see a summary of the movie or television show. To the right is a screenshot of the inside of the Transformers movie folder. As you can see, it is empty except for the movie file itself, which is fine by me. I would rather have a large amount of folders within folders because I feel it is a lot cleaner and more organized. Next up is the television folder. Once again, opening this folder reveals more folders. Each sub0folder here contains a single television show. This helps separate video files so if you want to watch just a certain season of Show X, you can be sure that you are only getting those episodes.
And before you ask, yes there are separate folders for each season of the television show within their main folder. Now this is not as important to have, it is just something I like to do. This also holds much more weight when you are using XMBC and media scraper to add extra curricular information to your content. In all reality, you can have all the information and more than you would find on TV guide or the Guide program on DishNetwork or DirectTV. If you so happen to record television shows onto your computer, you might as well have all the information that you would be able to find from a guide program on your television. Now once again, this file system can differ from person to person. I am just showing you how I organize all my media content. The next screenshot shows the Season 3 folder of the show The Big Bang Theory. As you can see, I have a uniform naming scheme in this folder. Note: this is my old naming scheme. I am working on updating all the file names to be homogeneous throughout my media, especially the television folder. You can also see that in the list of episodes, there is a change in the icon about 2/3 of the way down. This is because I have two different file formats in this folder. I am working on converting all the videos to .m4v files. This is the iTunes, Zune, Windows Media Center, and Android friendly file format for visual media. The .mkv file format is an open source file format, but it is not supported by Windows Media Center, iTunes and Zune. This makes it kind of a strange fight: Open source software and formats are much better in theory, but I also want the formats that are widely supported. Once again, we fall back to the Law of Averages. The next screenshot shows how a final and more polished folder will look once finished. This season of The Big Bang Theory has my new naming scheme, all the files are homogeneous, and this makes for a better looking and more organized file system. I chose to use extra large thumbnails so that we can actually see the preview thumbnail. This makes it a little more visually interesting, in my opinion.

Music is the final folder I want to discuss. But I am not going to provide a detailed structure here due to the fact that which ever program you use to rip your audio CDs will make the structure for you. A basic structure goes like this: Artist>Albums>Songs. Everyone names their files differently. You don't need to have the artist and album in the song file name due to its tagging and metadata. These will provide all the information needed to properly organize the music in their respective programs. One thing I would suggest to anyone is to use a Lossless codec when ripping their audio. The files will take up more space, but will have a higher audio quality. This is if you have the space to do so, like an external hard drive, or a separate drive in your computer just for music. If not, then the standard MP3 format will do just fine. I say this because you probably do not have a high end sound system or pair of headphones that you use with your computer. Not many do. Music files are also heading the way of the Dodo due to new programs and services such as Pandora and Spotify. Google Music is also a great way to offload your music collection so you can free up some hard drive space. The options are endless, and now is the time to buy in and try everything.

Well, I hope that you enjoyed my little tour/How To. This is a test run, so this may continue, and it may not. It all depends upon you, the reader. Let me know what you are interested in seeing in the comments.

How-To: Blog.

I have a day off. It feels great knowing that I don't have any other obligations today except the usual, which is taking Jayme to work. It didn't help that I dodn't sleep worth shit last night, and I apparently I had a conversation that I don't really remember. But apparently it was a good one...And I woke up to find all my text messages deleted from my phone. So there is some voodoo magic at work here in our house. Either that or I am pretty damn coordinated while asleep. Either way.

One of my friends recently was dumped by her boyfriend (now ex-boyfriend). It had been a while since we had really talked, and it is nice getting the chance to have conversations like our old ones. It is difficult because I am trying to help her get over the bastard, but at the same trying not to make it seem like I am just hitting on her cause I know that she is single. I am trying to find a middle ground, and it is diffcult. I will admit it, I asked her out on a date. But I was doing in this manner: I don't mean for it to be a romantic date. I meant it more as a friend date, and a way for her to be able to say "Yes, I went out on a date with someone other than bastard". But maybe I am going about it the wrong way. Or maybe I'm just fucking insane. Who knows. I am what I am. I have issues, yes. I don't care if you know it or not, and the 3 people who might read this already know of those issues. I am not backing down from that.

I still don't understand females. I was having this discussion with a friend, and she said that she didn't know what to wear out to a bar because she didn't know if there would be hot guys there. I just had this reaction: What the fuck? Who cares what you wear. Why is there so much emphasis on what girls wear? And why do they always have to go out and spend sooo much money on clothes to look "hot"? I don't know if this holds true to other guys, but I have this straight attitude about it: just be comfortable. I was hanging out with a friend, and she asked me what she should wear. I told her to be comfortable, and then she replied "I think I'm going to dress up for you". Why? I don't want you to. I told her that. There is not reason to spend so much time and effort to try and look "hot". If I like you, then I don't give a fuck what you wear. I'm not going to lie; there are some styles that I like a lot more than others. But I will NEVER tell a girl how to dress. I don't see the point of being with a girl if you want to try to change her. Maybe I'm strange or whatever, but it is how I am.

I had something bad happen to my beloved desktop. My hard drive containing my windows install died on me. I took this as a sign that it was time to upgrade my baby. I decided on an SSD, which is a hard drive that is made up of flash memory modules, much like the storage of an iPod, iPad, iPhone, ZuneHD, flash drives, and Android phones. It offers a shit load of performance over the traditional 7,200 RPM hard drives. I love it. In other technology news, my phone is being fucking stupid again. I used to enjoy being able to see everyone's pretty face with their contact name due to it using their facebook photos for their contact photos. But sometime it decided to stop doing so. So I'm not so sure how I am going to remedy this, or if I ever want to try to spend all the time to try to fix it. It is whatever. I would like to fix it, if it will be easy because I like my phone actually doing what it is billed to do. But maybe I am just wanting too much from the piece of technology. I will try to fix it later and see what happens.

Expect an update later on tonight. I'm thinking of doing a small screenshot tour of my desktop and how I use it daily. I'm also thinking of doing some How-To's, but that all depends on if my readers would like me to try that. Leave me a comment and let me know what you think and if you want me to, what would you like me to cover? If I know how to do what you request, I will post. If not, then expect some reseach so then I can pass on the info to you.

My SSD is faster than your HDD

I would like to start off by apologizing for the absence. I have been busy with work and other things that seem to be occupying my life lately. This morning I had a bad morning...I had a complete hard drive failure of my trusty Samsung 500GB Windows drive. So I ponied up and replaced it with a 240GB OCZ Vertex 2 SSD. And I just have to say... Holy Shit. This is stupid fast. I cried during the first boot. It boots on average in 15 seconds. Yeah. I know you are jealous. I decided the lesser amount of space is worth the stupid fast performance. Yes, I just used Stupid Fast for a second, and more recently, a third time. On a related technology note, I was invited to Google+ by Kristen Magers, a long time friend of mine. I also was given the opportunity to get Spotify. And this is a great product and service. I think it will be wortth the premium price if they decide to limit the amount of music you can listen to in a month. Included in the premium is offline access, and access on my cell phone. Which isn't a big deal for me because my battery barely lasts through a day on standby. But anyway. Also, there has a been a big cry out against Netflix due to their raising prices starting September. I don't see why this is such a big deal. Netflix is a business who is looking to evolve their content delivery methods. They want to move to an entirly streaming service, which they cannot do unless they pony up to pay the money to get the content. I would be fine with a streaming only plan, except for the fact that a lot of the shows I like are only on DVD currently. Which needs to change for me to get a streaming only plan.

I am taking the advice of MaximumPC [once again] and using a new program to rip my audio tracks...again. I'm using Exact Audio Copy which matches the data to make sure that you get every bit of audio data that you are entitled to. The options a little confusing at first, but I worked through it and hopefully I get better quality audio. But the current issue that I am running into is that it is not ripping so that the Zune software will see it. {UPDATE} I just figured that part out. I was sending the audio tracks to the wrong location. My Bad. But I figured it all out and hopefully I can snyc it to my Zune this weekend and everything will be all good.

I started using Google+. And I must say, this is what I have been expecting from social networking. It forces you to sort and manage your friends, family, followers, and such. It is a clean interface, and it lets you choose who you share your shit with everytime you update your status, etc. I like it. And I also like how it is integrated with Google. Say what you want. But Google knows how to integrate new products with their existing products, which makes it easier to connect with everything. I will be using it more and getting deeper into the features and will give some feedback.

I am taking this chance of a clean Windows install to take a different route when it comes to software. I am trying a new approach to certain programs that I used to not be able to live without. I am trying the SMPlayer instead of my trusty KMPlayer. I am still going to install the KMPlayer as a backup, in case I dislike SMPlayer. It isn't too bad...but not what I am used to. I am thinking of reverting back to The KMPlayer just due to its familiarity and I like the interface and full keyboard control is a great touch, as you know how much I like my keyboard short cuts. I love them. It pains me that I can't use them all when I am at work while working on the depressing Pentium III machines running Windows 2000 Professional. Yeah. Pre Windows XP. Pre Windows ME. It is that old. I am glad that they didn't make the tragic mistake of upgrading the OS with such old and dated and underpowered hardware. This would have made the computers too slow to even use, even for the Access Databases for location look up. I was told by Morgan that we are getting new computers at work within the next week, or at least sometime new. And while I am typing this, I am realizing that I have not looked at the keyboard during this entire paragraph. I have made many typos, but I am good at correcting my spelling and grammer mistakes. It just reminds me how much I love this keyboard. I think I will take the time to set up at least one bank of Macros to streamline my computing experience.

Great Interwebz.

I finshed my first week at my new job. It is a pretty sweet place to work. The guys are great, and they are willing to help me out whenever I have a question or need to learn something new. Morgan is a awesome guy and he knows his shit. I work all next week, and I have Tuesday off. I will be spending that day with the lovely Miranda Nash. We're gonna go check out the final installment of the Harry Potter series. I am hoping that the second part is just as captivating as the first part. I am also thinking of going back through and re-reading all the HP books, or at least all the ones that we own, which I think is the first 6.

I'm also continuing work on a new design for my website. I did start out with a template in Dreamweaver, but I was unhappy with using the template. So I have been working on starting from scratch and coding it all, one piece at a time. I also exported all the styling to an external style sheet, which the correct way of doing this so I can just link the .css file and then editing the content. I also am changing the image preview style. On the current website, the image previews are small scale versions of the entire photo. This is fine so people can see the image before they view the entire photo. I am changing it to squares ones that show parts of the photo, but not the whole photo. This is to (hopefully) make the visitor more curious and invite them to click on the photo to view it in the full image. I may also change the full views to be larger so you get a higher quality photo. But the issue with this is that it may fuck with the load times and take a lot longer for those with a slower internet connection. This is just something that I will have to test out and let you help me.

I will try to get a better post tomorrow. I haven't been thinking about things too much lately. I just have been busy with work and I hopefully can get my brain together and expand on a single coherent thought.

Chicago Cubs Headgear: Pro Style!

I started my new job today. It is a pretty laid back place and I think I am going to enjoy working there. I am hoping that the next couple days go by quickly and I'm looking forward to this next week. I am nearing the finishing of the Mac Pro case. I have one more main structural part to spray with color. I have most of the plastic pieces to paint still, but those only require the color...no real prep work. Then I can start the reassembly of the computer. I will be sure to take a lot of photos once all the color is there and maybe some video. Hopefully the assembly goes smoothly. I kept everything and let's just hope I remember how everything goes back togather. I am hoping that is goes a little easier than the tear down. I will need to purchase some double sided tape or some super glue to hold a couple pieces back in their place, but it may be unnecessary. I am hoping to shoot the color tomorrow morning, and it will be dry by the time I get ready to leave for work. And I just remembered that I need to mask off and shoot the blue on the exterior of the side panel and inner shell. Oh well. That will be done tomorrow. I am thinking of painting all the plastic pieces tomorrow morning and let it dry for the day. Then I will be painting the reverse sides when it dries enough. I think that maybe sunday I will be able to assemble it all together and get it up and running. But anyway, here is a photo of my new hat! It is hard to find a Cubs hat in Columbus. But until next time!

BETA Testing and Design

Today I was relaxing at Caribou when I decided to work on something. I haven't done something like this for a while, and I think that it might be time to work on perfecting. Here is a fact: I am never happy with my website. I feel that it can always be improved, and I am working on how to improve it. I am sticking with the same basic colors, and I think that this is an improvement over the current design. This is more minimalistic, and removes many of the distractions that the current site contains. So, here is a preview of what I've been working on, and I will share the link to my BETA design page and will be asking the few of you here for some feedback.

I can already see a few tweaks that I need to make, such as making the scroll bar disappear. This should scale to your browser window. Here is the link for the BETA Design Page.

Trekkin' with the Ladies

It's Sunday. I didn't really sleep last night. Yesterday was a long day at work. Underdstaffed, a busy Saturday, and a different manager. It's like we're playing a game show and every week we have a different manager closing and coming to help us out. Usually on a Saturday night at closing, we set the sale ad signs for the next week's sale. Kelly, the manager stepping in, informed us that at her store, they tear down all the old ad signs, and then they set the new ads on Monday morning, when everyone is fresh and not tired as hell from a day of running around and dealing with bitchy customers. So Home Accents was completely set, along with Scrapbooking and part of Floral. Then Kelly made the decision that we are going to tear down all the old signs, and then we were heading home. Nothing we were going to argue. But here is what pissed me off about yesterday: When I arrived at work, I was informed that I needed to make sure I did a good job cleaning the restrooms because they haven't been cleaned in a few days. I don't mind cleaning the restrooms. I get upset when someone doesn't do their job correctly and then I have to cover their ass. And to make it worse, we didn't have all supplies needed. I understand that there are only two people that do the closing duties of the stock room. But the "solution" is to have him come in at 8 AM and "clean" the restrooms and get the trash, etc. But he doesn't. There is no possible way that he can with the amount of trash in the trash cans, and how many rolls of toilet paper I needed to replace. If there is only to be two people that clean the restrooms, and I'm only doing so once a week, then why is the schedule set so no one cleans them for a few days? Doesn't make any sense to me.

Today I did something that I don't normally do: I went to the mall. Namely, I needed to go shopping for a pair fo Steel Toe work boots and I needed to get some black shirts. I ended up finding both at Sears and JCPenny, respectively. After finding what I needed, I eneded up buying a Cubs hat and getting a hair cut. But I noticed something while I was talking around. It seemed that all at girls that were younger (by younger I mean either there with a parent, dropped off, or just old enough to drive) girls were wearing the same type of outfits: All were wearing either spaghetti strap tanks or strap-less tops with short, tight jean shorts. And it seems that each one was wearing a push up bra to try and show off their boobs. Now a few things came into my mind: A-How are parents letting their daughters leave the house like this? and B-What started this fashion trend? And it was just the under-18 crowd. The "older" females were wearing bermuda shorts, jeans, skirts, and a nice top with it. And moms dress like moms. One thing that might be causing this is that this is the time of a young person's life were it is becoming increasingly more and more popular to have a boyfriend. And yes, statistically, teen pregnancy is on the decline. But it seems that girls are trying really hard to be "sexy" at a young age. When I was that age, all the girls I knew wore jeans, or longer shorts when outside of school. Granted, I went to a Catholic School where we, as students, could actually get in trouble and punished by the school administration if we were to wear inappropriate clothing outside of school, but at a school related event. But in the 5 years since my high school graduation, it appears that fashion for girls that age has taken a drastic turn, which in my opinion, is a turn for the worse. I think about it this way: kids these days are discoving their sexuality earlier and earlier in life. I know that high school children having sex is nothing new. There were kids having sex when I went to high school. I wasn't one of the them. I lost my virginity when I was 20. I'm not ashamed to say that. I'm not ashamed to say that I've only had sex with 2 people. I'm not ashamed of anything in my past when it comes to girls and sex. Like anyone else, I do have a regret or two. And those people involved know what they are. While I do regret one of them more than others, I did what no one else thought I would do: I kept my word and my promise that I made to her at the very beginning. Some may call me stupid. At times, I do feel like I made the wrong decision. But at the same time, I know that she is better off. I need to move on from that. I've been trying. But some convention wisdom suggests that we can not be completely over a former love until we begin a relationship with a new person. I know that I've covered the tradgey that is my dating history. I'm still looking for that girl. The one who can fix me and remove me from my past. I have told every ex girlfriend (that I still have communication with) that I am happy for them when they find themselves someone who makes them happy. I told the same thing to a girl who I was talking to and then just changed her mind about me and started dating another guy. I told her that I'm glad that she is happy and that is what matters to me. She seemed...shocked. But I meant it. I'm happy when my friends are happy. I'm happy when girls I like are happy, whether it involves me or not. I will never tell a girl to choose me. I will tell her to choose what makes her happy. This may be a bad thing, considering I may have lost a couple potentional girlfriends to this. I will be the first to admit that it is my fault for my current relationship situation. But I think that I take a different approach with girls than most guys. When I ask a girl out, there are a few factors/facts that I feel are worth noting:

1: I won't ask a girl out unless I am sure that I like her and that she may like me.

2: I'm not asking for a full on relationship when I ask a girl out; I'm just asking for a chance.

3: I'm old fashioned when it comes to dating. I like to pick up the girl, and drive her and pay for everything.

4: I will do the best in my ability to treat you like a queen.

I feel like the way that many guys approach dating and girls that it is something that most girls don't think about with me. I'm not going to try and get you in bed. I WILL call/text/talk to you the next day. If I can tell that you had a good time and are willing, I will ask you out again. If not, I will continue to talk to you and let you cut your losses and move on. I can't be mad at a girl if she gives me a chance and we find out that we just won't work out. I can't be upset about that. I can and will be upset when I get stood up and/or forgotten. I've had that happen to me before. The worst if when "something came up" and she is forced to cancel on me. I know that you just don't wanna go with me. If you didn't want to in the first place, why not just tell me? I had a girl in high school lead me on for the second half of my senior year and the following summer. It was a constant hell because she was like hot and cold, but one of her best friends was trying to help me out and she would give me some advice. And when I would take her advice and apply it, the girl was cold. When I was about to give up on her, she was hot again. It was like trying to sleep when you're sick; you get cold so you cover up, then you get hot and start sweating so you kick off the covers. Imagine that, except it is your emotions getting the shit end of it all. I can take a lot of bullshit, and I have taken a lot of bullshit for girls while in relationships. That is nothing new for me. I'm working on building back up my self esteem. I am working on recognizing said bullshit and trying to remove it from my life. I don't need any other distractions in my life. I have enough without someone trying to destroy me from the inside-out. I am hoping to stumble across the right girl for me that will not feed me any bullshit and help keep me on the path that I am currently on. Maybe she can help me forget my past and help me look towards the future. I am hoping that this is someone that I come across soon. I feel like I am at about 95% ready for a girlfriend. Almost there.

In unrelated news, I start my new job tomorrow. I go in for orientation at 1. I'm excited but nervous. From what I was told, the first few weeks will be training, safety video watching, and certification. I really can't wait.

I'm getting the Mac painted a little more each day. I'm also working on ripping the CD collection onto the HTPC so we can enjoy some music while playing games or working in the kitchen. The CD collection is a decent size, then I will be adding to it any and all downloaded audio that we have saved up on my desktop and Jayme's iMac. This will give us a wide variety and hopefully set up streaming to a laptop in the garage while playing cards or having a drink and cigar. I'm really excited to finish this project as it is one that I can mark off my list. Tomorrow I will be stopping by Home Depot to pick up some more paint. I need at least two cans of blue, and one can of clear, maybe two just to feel safe. I also need to pick up a couple 1/4" metal screw on pipe clamps. I will be using these while converting my night stand into a charging station. I will be mounting the surge protector to the inside of the cabinet. A hole will be drilled to allow the plug to reach outside to the wall. My cell phone charger will be plugged in, with a hole just large enough for the plug to pass through near the top of the cabinet, near the top. THe pipe clamp will be installed to help ensure that the cable stays in place for when I go to charge it at night. I think that using a couple of my zip tie anchors to keep the cable organized inside the cabinet. This is a simple project that will help keep cables organized and keep wires off the ground and out of the reach of the cute puppies.

Star Trek is awesome. I started watching The Original Series. Sci-Fi is all it's 1966 glory. This is obviously a remastered HD version, but still sandboxed in the 4:3 aspect ratio. It is still a pretty damn good show and I'm glad that I am given the opportunity to experience this classic piece of Sci-Fi television.

Firday: Tech Blog

7:50 AM: Phone's alarm clock wakes me up with my ringtone "Waste" by Staind. After turning off alarm, I am alerted to 3 emails, which I immediately check and delete to keep my "Zero Inbox" going.

10:00 AM: Arrive at Caribou Coffee in Heath, OH. Working on my laptop to kill time. I'm searching through the Android Market to find an effective note/document app that will help me with this venture. I have a couple contenders, but I'm not sure if they will help fulfill my need. I think I found the one. I'm gonna try out Jota Text Editor for Android. Hopefully this will become a part of my regular blogging routine. I'm just wasting time before I need to leave for my dr's appointment and I am trying a new extension from Chrome that adds Facebook events to my Google Calender. This could be interesting.

10:30 AM: I don't think people really think of an ATM as a computer, but it is one of the most widely used computers in the United States. This dated piece of technology is widely considered to be the leader of the upcoming robot rebellion.

10:55 AM: I am sitting here in the doctor's office getting the preliminary tests/questions from the hot nurse. While she is taking my blood pressure, I see the Windows Software Update dialogue box pop up in the middle of the screen. It baffles me as to why medical professionals are still using paper, pen and Windows XP. There is a strong need for the medical community to embrace the available technolgy to improve the way that medical records and patient privacy is kept. I have to hand it to Apple. When they released the iPad, they made an group of apps aimed at medical professionals. These apps would be able to keep records, and to let the doctors show the patients and families charts, x-rays, proceedures, and more. And yet hospitals don't make the move to embrace this tehcnology. Our largest busniesses are stuck in the dark ages. Any computer (Or for better results, iMacs)with bluetooth enabled, you can transmit the files for srchiving and safe keeping. I understand that smaller family doctors might not be able to afford the technology, but with the paper saved, it will pay for itself in no time.

11:15 AM: I'm sitting here at Brown's Transmission. I am using Jota Text Editor. It is a pretty solid app that doesn't have any frills. It lets me input text. This is better than any note taking app because I can write out a full post or keep an extensive tech log for a post. And it is not limited by character count (well, 1 million).

12:30 PM: There was nothing much to watch on DishNetwork. So using a 15-pin D-Sub cable in conjunction with an auxilary audio cable, I was able to connect my laptop with the 46" Samsung HDTV. We attempted to watch Wilfred, but the wireless here is so slow that it woulnd't buffer enough to watch the 25 minutes of video, including the commercials.

11:00 PM: The rest of the day has been relatively tech-free, despite the light usage of my DEVOUR for text messaging. My phone is connected to my laptop right now, but that is just to charge it. For some reason, Windows doesn't want to mount the sdcard so I can pull the .txt file from Jota off of it. So I'm thinking that I may need to just copy the txt file word for word... And that might take a while since I took some extensive notes in it.

All in all, today was a relatively technology free day. The morning was pretty decent day, but it has been a slow day nonetheless. I was occupied for most the day due to spending some time with Miranda. I will try this experiment again some time. When I am able to purchase a tablet, I will try a week without my desktop and laptop and live only in the tablet/smartphone realm. This may prove a little difficult, but I will try to make it work. I will have to have people help me set out a few ground rules; like is it cheating if I use my tablet to take control of my desktop or HTPC to watch a movie or tc show. But this is a challenge I will cross when the proper time comes.

Technology in a Day.

Today I'm going to be documenting my usage of technology throughout the day. I'm just giving a little insight to my readers how I use it through a typical day of mine.

The Facts of Mike.

Alright. I’m going to get right into this. Let’s do it.

1. This is the first post I’m writing out using Microsoft Word.

2. I usually write my posts in Sublime Text before posting them.

3. I am slightly addicted to Grape Kool-Aide and Grape Gatoraide.

4. I like all six Star Wars movies.

5. Popular to contrary belief, I am not AntiMac.

6. I know that the PC is the best gaming platform.

7. I can’t help but think about the layout of my dream home.

8. I want a new Android phone that gets updates.

9. I haven’t had the battery in my laptop for about two weeks.

10. I use 4 pillows at night when I sleep: Two for my head, one for my knees, and one to cuddle with.

11. I feel that Google is becoming a more integral part of my digital life.

12. Despite my best efforts, I do not have the digital media collection I desire.

13. My room is a mess because of all the computer parts that litter my room.

14. I will be turning my night table into a charging station.

15. I have dumped Digsby in favor of Trillian.

16. I watch wrestling shows every week.

17. I am moving to a brand loyalty to Thermaltake.

18. I use my phone as my alarm clock, despite my alarm clock being louder and next to my bed again.

19. I am writing this naked.

20. I am addicted to Caramel Coolers from Caribou.

21. I think more than I do.

22. I don’t understand people who get engaged and married to someone in a short period of time.

23. I would like to make more friends outside of work.

24. Hayley helped me in ways that she does not know.

25. I don’t know what to wear on a daily basis.

26. I have never had a girl tell me what looks good on me and what doesn’t.

27. I have been watching Star Trek: The Original Series and I love it.

28. There is only one person who talks to me on a daily basis that I do not live with.

29. I watch porn on a daily basis.

30. I want to buy a tablet to use as a remote for my HTPC.

31. I have a milk crate in my room.

32. I have tried and failed with online dating.

33. I love Windows 7.

34. I loved Windows Vista.

35. I will never return to Windows XP.

36. My computer, Mouse and Keyboard are all black with red lighting.

37. I feel like I’m needed with I drive my sister to work.

38. Despite wanting a girlfriend, I don’t feel like I am currently ready.

39. No matter what people think, I am always happy when my friends find someone who cares for them.

40. I can handle rejection better than most people.

41. My eyes adjust to darkness faster and better than most people I know.

42. I often wonder if I made the right choices in my past.

43. If I could, I would go back and redo high school.

44. I want to go back to school.

45. I have a hard time sleeping anywhere but my own bed.

46. I prefer to sleep in the cold.

47. One of my favorite games for my Wii is Harvest Moon.

48. I have had sex with two people.

49. I have kissed more boys than some of my female friends.

50. I always have reminders of my baby girl with me at all times.

51. I am willingly to accept the faults of people.

52. I often keep my opinions to myself about friends’ boyfriend of girlfriend.

53. I will tell a friend that I think a girl is cute; but I won’t act on it.

54. I have been less angry since I started this blog.

55. I have considered becoming a teacher.

56. If I am uneducated in a certain area, I will attempt to learn it.

57. I am interested in video work.

58. I am a little sad that smartphone cameras have a higher MP count than my Digital Rebel.

59. I feel sad for the rabid fanboys in our world.

60. I get frustrated when working on someone else’s computer when they don’t have it set up like mine.

61. When I stand up, my knees, hips, and ankles all crack and pop.

62. I have a weakness for girls with piercings and tattoos.

63. When I have the money, I will be getting a tattoo.

64. I miss having my lip ring.

65. I often wonder if people talk to me because they feel bad if they don’t.

66. I usually lay in bed for hours before I actually fall asleep.

67. There are qualities from each of my ex girlfriend that I miss.

68. I avoid the sun simply because I don’t want to deal with the sunburn.

69. I laughed when I saw what number this one is.

70. I prefer the 24 hour clock over the 12 hour clock.

71. I know that people lie when they say that they don’t masturbate.

72. I am trying to post in this blog every day.

73. I hang out at Caribou in hopes of seeing Katlin.

74. I write most of my posts while at Caribou.

75. I don’t dismiss the theory of a higher being; I dismiss organized religion.

76. Cake Batter ice cream from Cold Stone is amazing.

77. I feel that some places hire young attractive girls so men will come to their place of business.

78. Sex does sell.

79. Widget has become my little buddy over the past couple weeks.

80. I hope I can be there for when Jayme and Kate get married.

81. I like short girls.

82. I would rather be informed and dislike something rather than being hating something for no reason.

83. I read. A lot. More than most people would think that I do.

84. I am very self-conscious.

85. I do not tell people when it is my birthday.

86. I enjoy unloading the merchandise truck at work.

87. I will never give up my Netflix.

88. I have some tv shows that I desperately need to catch up on.

89. I want to build a home server.

90. When I buy a house, I will rip out all the drywall and rewire the house.

91. My feet have become soft since I stopped running barefoot.

92. I am good at beer pong.

93. When I’m angry or depressed, I sleep.

94. I can live on only a few hours of sleep a night.

95. I can’t sleep without some noise in the room.

96. I wish I was a better nerd.

97. Despite my hatred of iTunes, I use it daily.

98. I have a Zune HD and I love it.

99. I wish I had a friend to drive with me to Iowa for Jayme and Kate’s wedding.

100. There are 1,172 words in this list.

So there is my list. I would appreciate some feedback. I am also starting a new page on this blog that features screenshots from funny text messages on my phone. Check it out, and let me know what you think. I’m going to write a post that details how I use technology on a daily basis.

Short Intermission

Alright. Here is the deal for tonight. I am going to doing a new post tonight, and this is the format: I will be doing 100 facts about myself. Stay Tuned.

Blue!

BLUE! After three coats. It is metallic, which can't be seen here.

Teaser Photos. [Update]

The first color has hit the Mac. I am liking the orange that I chose. It isn't too bright, but it isn't too dark at the same time. I feel that with the proper interior lighting, it will be a great looking case. Which is why I am rethinking the interior lighting. I am considering changing to a grouping of these Antec fans that are currently on sale. They have no LEDs in them. They are clear, tri-speed fans. The downside to the fans is that the 3 speed switch is located on the fans themselves. Which sucks. But I am also thinking of just keeping the stock Mac fans in the copmuter due to the fact that they are connected to the Logic Board which helps control the fans and the fan speed. Another reason for this is because there is little room in the case to run a clean wiring system. But another reason to go with the Antec fans is that they will offer better cooling. I can set a couple of the fans on the low setting, and the ones that blow the cold air over the CPU cooler to keep the CPUs cool on a medium and a high setting. I am also thinking of using the case's design to change the cooling patterns. The case provides three seperate chambers. I can use the seperate chambers to change the airflow in the lower or main compartment that houses the CPU. I can bring the cool air from the back of the case and direct it through the front of the case. But the fans that in the upper chambers I can change the air flow from front to back to bring the cool air over the GPU and HDDs. I think that this may be my plan of action.

As for the lighting, I am considering 4" Blue Cold Cathode Lights. I can use them to light up the interior. Maybe use some 12" lights if I can find a place to secure them. The advantage of the Blue LEDs is that they are bright and will light up the case better than the UV colored fans I was thinking of using. Also, I'm thinking about my costs to implement this plan. I am thinking of painting the fans to match the rest of the plastic pieces in the case. The plastic pieces will be painted Black with a special black plastic paint. This fits in better than the cold grey of the original color. Tomorrow will mark the beginning of the blue paint. I have decided to paint the outer shell with the metallic blue, inside and out. The part of the outer shell that resides on the inside of the case is covered with the Logic Board and and everything else inside. So this saves me the time and effort needed to find the areas that I need to mask off and paint orange vs. the areas that need to painted blue. But I'm looking forward to the blue and how it will contrast against the orange. I'm deciding if I should paint a few of the interior pieces blue as an accent color.

So for the very few readers out there, please leave me a comment and let me know what you think would be the better way to go.

Teaser Photos.

Skype! With a side of Thermaltake.

I am now connected to peoplr via webcam. I purchased a webcam from Micro Center for $20.. And it is pretty decent. Miranda tells me that it is on the higher end of the cams of her friends. So I will take that as a win for a pretty cheap camera. It was on sale for 50% off and it is a damn steal. It came with 3 different types of mounts, and the cam connects to these mounts via a magnet. I downloaded Skype and I am currently talking to Miranda via video chat. I am always looking for more people to add to Skype and I am up for video chatting with anyone!.

Also upon the new technology slate is my new Thermaltake eSports BLACK mouse. It is simple, yet elegent. It is a black mouse with red lighting, which matches my keyboard. It has a few more buttons that I will have to get used to. It has two buttons to change the sensor DPI between 400/800/2000/4000, which each has a very noticable difference. It also has a hardware button on the side which easily pressed with the thumb. This button it a back button for your browser. I'm not sure if it works with any other program, but I will test it out and let you all know. First impression about this mouse is that it is large. It fits my hand perfectly. I love it. It is not made of hard plastic like the trusty old Logitech. It is a little grippier, as it is coated in rubber. It does include (5) 4.5 gram weights. I have them all in the mouse (as it is out of the box) and it is a pretty heavy mouse. Heavier than the Logitech. It is noticibly lighter with the weights taken out. I personally prefer the heavier mouse. I set the DPI to 4000 and barely moving the mouse half an inch causes the curser to jump across the screen. It is hefty, well built mouse that (hopefully) stand up to hours of gaming joy.

Here is something completely different that I want to talk about. I am unhappy with the way that some businesses operate. I don't feel that a person should be given a full time position and department head within a company solely because they are the only ones assigned to work in that department. I feel that everyone should be given a fair chance. And if someone who works a lot harder than another person should be rewarded. A store/company will fail if they are staffed with workers who don't drive themself as much as another person. I understand that some people have more knowledge than others in that respective departments. But I also feel that training the right worker will be more productive than having a wrong worker. Cutting the hours of a few good workers will not help things out. You have the people who do everything that is asked of then, and how do they get rewarded? They are given a lot of time to search for a new job. It doesn't make sense to me. And I don't like how some people who know someone in the company and are almost promised a full time job when everyone is supposed to on equal grounds. I believe that hard work will be rewarded, not knowing people. But that belief has been shaken lately.

I'm working on this project of getting my DVDs onto my HTPC. The HTPC is waiting for its 2TB drive to be fed with media content. It is hungry. And I am here to fill that hunger. I will give you a peak at the list of movies and television shows that I have ripped to the hard drive.

Content Missing

Sorry there is nothing here for the day. Been pretty busy today. Working on encoding The L Word into single episodes. I fucked up by not sorting it immediately as they finished the transcode. I won't make that mistake. After each disc is finished, transcode, ship to the HTPC. Tomorrow is another day.

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The HTPC Content Pipeline

I have a strong stand on a certain topic of contension between consumers and media companies. I feel that purchasing a copy of a DVD or Audio CD gives us [the consumer] the right to make archival, backup, and digital copies of that physical media. I have a project that I have been working on, although been a bit lazy about it lately. My project: to make digital copies of all the DVDs that we own in our household. This is a monumental task seeing as there are a couple hundred DVDs in the collection. The digitizing of the content isn't difficult. It is just a tedious and time consuming task. Handbrake and DVD Fab HD Decrypter are the two tools needed in this process. We currently have a 2TB hard drive installed in the HTPC. This makes them accessible to anyone who wishes to watch a movie on the HDTV. We have equipped the HTPC with a mini keyboard that has a track pad integrated on the board. I also purchased a Windows Media Center remote that allows us to control Windows Media Center, which has become the central media hub. This house is predominantly Windows. It is just a fact. Windows 7's Homegroup makes dropping and retreiving the video files easy. The wireless is a little slow at times when transferring the files, but I think that doing so overnight will help with the transfer speeds when I'm not downloading new Steam games. A Wireless-N Router is the next upgrade for the home network. This will bring about (hopefully) faster transfer speeds. Then a wireless printer bridge will allow the hook up of my faithful Samsung laserjet printer and allow for us to hide it but be accessible to everyone who needs it.

Back to the HTPC. Here are the specs of my custom brewed HTPC:

CPU: Intel Core i3-2100 3.1 GHz Dual-Core

Motherboard: ASUS P8H61-M Micro-ATX

RAM: 2x2GB Kingston HyperX 1600

HDD: Seagate 2TB 5900 RPM

ODD: Multi-function DVD Writer Combo Drive

Case: Antec NSK2480 DT

PSU: Antec EarthWatts 380 Watts

The case was custom painted with White and Key Lime Green accents. The Power Supply has been (mostly) custom sleeved with UV Green and Black 1/8" sleeving. Each wire is indiviually sleeved in alternating Green and Black. The case sits in the home theater center and the front is about the size of an A/V Receiver. When I next return home, I will be bringing back a set of 2.1 Harmon/Kardon speakers, the only surviving pieces of the old Dell computer. They work great still and will add some much needed boost to movies and tv shows. Eventually we will be investing a monstrous surround sound system to make everything sound as great as it looks. At that point, a Blu-Ray drive will be added.

We no longer have cable here. We instead spend our money in a better way: Netflix and Hulu Plus. For under $20 a month we gain access to all the HD content we desire. We are not limited to show times. Hulu Plus streams in 720P HD, which is perfect with a 32" HDTV (although I think I scored a 1080P one). While our Media Center is not perfect, it is better than what some people are using. While my parents have a Blu-Ray player and pretty good home theater system (although aging), they are limited to DishNetwork television. Yes, they get sports channels, but my dad is interested in the prospect of an HTPC and smaller monthly bill for their tv content. The thing is, I don't think his home network can handle a good HD stream from Netflix or Hulu Plus. The wireless router from their ISP is located in the basement, and I don't think that father is too keen on running cables, although it would be the best option.

Here is a list of HTPC upgrades/tweaks I wish to make in the future:

1. Hulu Desktop Plug-In for Windows Media Center

2. Blu-Ray Optical Drive

3. Kick Ass Speakers

4. Logitech diNOVO Edge Keyboard

5. Second 2TB drive

I had this idea of what my HTPC would be like. I have acheived that look. Now I am working on internals and accessories to go with the HTPC. I would recommend an HTPC to anyone. It costs more up front, but in the long run it saves you money. Basic digital cable/satelite packages are getting expensive. Less than $20 a month gives you access to a multitude of content. Add to that the ability to buy/rent content from Apple, Amazon, and other sources makes it an attractive option. Season Passes from these sources often give you a discount, maybe 10% off each episode. Amazon doesn't charge you for your purchase all up front. It charges you each time an episode is released, which makes it easier on the wallet to have it spread out to $3 a week instead of $50 up front. Don't forget the options of having DVDs mailed to you by Netflix. This is an interesting and powerful content delivery combination.

Android vs. iOS

Today I feel like discussing something that has been talked about lately with someone. I am going to try to be completely objective with this, but that might not be possible, due to the fact that I own an android phone. But I will still try to do this.

1: Physical Handsets.

Let's look at the handsets available for each platform. For iOS, you have 4 available handsets to you: iPhone, iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS, iPhone4. Most people will be buying the iPhone4 because it is the best iPhone available out there. It has set the standard for every other handset since 2007. This is not to say that Android based phones are slouches. By far. Android has an immense variety to the available features that can be great, but can also be overwhelming for consumers. It seems that every month we have a "best new Android phone" that once you buy the "It" phone, it falls from grace a few weeks later. For Android phones, the Droid has been the model to follow. It was and still is a favorite in the fact that it is still getting updates, and a lot of the rooting begins there. Android phones have features that you can not find in the iPhones. Physical keyboards are a big selling point for some people, and with the iPhone you are limited to the software keyboard. It is a great keyboard, but some people just like the physical buttons a lot more. The physical dimensions of the phones can vary widely. The iPhone's 3.5 inch screen is beginning to look tiny compared the trend on monstrous 4 inch+ screens arriving daily. Android phones tend to be a bit thicker than the iPhone, but this just goes along the different engineering philosophies. Apple engineers the phone for everything to fit together like a tiny 3D puzzle and it works out great. Makers of Android based sets do the same, but they allow for some components to be accessed. This just goes to show the differences in how they view their phones during the design and engineering processes.

Winner: Android

2: Battery

The iPhone battery is excellent. There is no denying that. They built the battery into the phone and it takes up a good chunk of the internal space. It is a lower capacity of many Android phones, but the way that Apple has integrated battery management into iOS which makes it last a lot longer than most batteries. But one thing about Android handsets: You can remove the battery. Now this may not seem like a big deal; but for those of us who use our phones constantly and we use it for a lot of things, the ability to have a second battery or even an extended battery. It may seem like a hassle to have a second battery to keep track of, but the ability to have that secondary battery is a great feature for some people. But there are also battery extenders for the iPhone4. So you still can extend the battery while have a case for the phone.

Winner: Tie

3: Network

The iPhone recently came to Verizon, after almost 4 years of waiting and rumors. This gives customers the choice of AT&T or Verizon for their iPhone needs. Android phones populate Verizon, T-Mobile, AT&T, Sprint, Boost, and the pre-paid/month-to-month options for each of the main networks. So you have most flexibilty with Android phones. Some of them that are being released on the CDMA networks are even including spaces for a SIM card so it can be used globally. AT&T is the faster 3G network, while Verizon has the largest 3G network. Sprint lies in the middle of the two. But Sprint was the first to release a 4G phone and have a 4G network. AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile are all working on their 4G networks. Verizon's 4G LTE is by far the fastest, and is being released in more and more cities. It is also a personal preference based on loyalty and the coverage where they live and work.

Winner: Android

4: Apps.

There are almost 500,000 apps for the iPhone. All the apps available all comply to strict guidelines put forth by Apple. This ensures that there is a standard to follow with all the app developers. This also makes sure that they are all compatible with the latest updates to iOS. With Android, there is less control over what standards that developers need to follow to have their apps released in the Market. This is a good thing and a bad thing. Good because the developers have the freedom to make what they want. Bad because out of the 200,000+ "Official" apps, there are roughly 20,000 useful apps. This makes sifting through the apps a little more difficult to find a reliable app you want. Luckily, there are site like Lifehacker and MaximumPC that do this for you and give you reviews and their top apps. While both have valueable apps, they both have a crap load of useless lighter apps.

Winner: iOS

5: Display.

The iPhone4's display is just awesome. It packs a lot of pixels into a small space that makes everything pop. It is bright, and glorious to look at. Android phone display are not slouches either. They are getting better and better. But they all vary from phone to phone due to the different manufacturers. But as display technology improves, Android phones will continue to have increasingly better displays. The next iPhone display will be better than the previous gen phones, and will most likely set the bar high again. Don't expect Apple to keep the same display.

Winner: iOS

6: Interface.

The iOS interface is simple and easy to use. There is no customization that you can really do without the possibility of damaging the iPhone. Here is the beauty of Android: There is a base Android code and system. Each phone maker then applies its own interface over the basic GUI. This makes it easy to identify the phone maker, and makes it consitent within each line of phones from a single manufacturer. To the left is a screenshot of my phone's home screen. This is not the default GUI for my phone. I rooted it and added ADWLauncher for my phone version. I do not have an iPhone4 screenshot to share with you, but we all know the usual interface. Nice, rounded corner icons laid out in a nice grid pattern. It is simplistic and easy to use and recognize. There is no real "Home" screen, as all the apps are laid out for you. Android usually ships with 5 or more Home screens. On these screens you can add Widgets and App shortcuts. On my 5 Home screens, I have 1 Widget. It is a Power Widget that lets me control my Wifi, Bluetooth, GPS, Background Data, and screen Brightness. In addition to adding widget and shortcuts to the home screens, you have your App Drawer. This is where you access all your apps in Android. Most are a scroll type, where all you Apps are in large grid that you scroll through. I have mine set up to mimic the iOS grid. Except my icons are not as pretty as iOS icons are. They're nice to look at, but I like the uniformity of the iOS icons. In the end, it all boils down to what you prefer. If you want everything ready at a moment's notice, then the iOS interface is for you. If you like the use Widgets for some information at a glance, then Android is your platform of choice. Play around. Figure out what you like.

Winner: Tie.

7. Notifications.

Note: I am talking about CURRENT features. Future features will be mentioned, but not the basis of discussion. On that note, iOS and Android handle them differently. iOS handles them with a little pop up that shows up in the middle of the screen, no matter which app you are using. This is good and bad. Good: You are made well aware of any text message or score update you subscribe to. Bad: It pops up over any application. This is bad because you can be playing a game and then BAM! Notification! You die (in your game). Android has a much more elegant way of handling the notifications that you receive. All of the notifications appear in the Notifications Bar, which is at the top of the screen. This bar also displays the time, Battery meter, Signal, and vibrate. Text messages pop up with a little mail envelope in the bar. Also when you initially receive the text message, it displays the sender's name and the message. To view the message and to open the message, you pull down the bar and it displays the notification. Any other notification is also displayed here, including downloads, updates, installations, and emails. It is an elegant way to show the user what you receive and it keeps it handy for when you get to it. Coming this Fall is iOS5, which handles the notifications like Android. It also adds widget support in its new notifications bar. But for now, the non-intrusive method wins out.

Winner: Android.

8. Productivity.

Each platform has the chops and capabilities to be a productivity work horse. Android works best when tightly integrated into Google Gmail. This is the basis of the platform. All your contacts and imported through Gmail. iOS is more integrated through your Apple ID. This allows access to the iTunes store, Mail, iCal, and allows them all to be synced together. Since iOS is not only on the iPhone, but also on the iPad and iPod, it makes it a better choice when collaborating with others. Yes, Google has GoogleDocs, but iOS has iWork for iOS and for the OS X. So it is integrated with each other very well. And with the recent introduction of iCloud, it makes it even easier to be productive while on the road and while at home. Google needs to implement a way of creating and syncing documents that is as easy to use as iWork and iCloud. Until then, iOS is the better business phone choice.

Winner: iOS.

9. Updates.

Updates. We all love to have the latest updates. Not only do they give us new features, but they also plug any recently discovered security holes. Android has come a long way in its short history. This is a great thing, but it also causes some issues with the OS as a whole. Fragmentation is the biggest issue with Android. Proof with the screenshot on the left, my phone is stuck with Android 1.6, code name Donut. This is one of the earlier versions of Android. It works well, but it lacks the features and security of 2.2 and 2.3. The cause of this is the variety of handsets available to the public. Each OEM needs to test Android with the phone and makes sure all the features are working correctly before they can be delivered to the consumer. This is the advantage that Apple has. There is only one model of iPhone4 (just different amount of flash storage), so Apple knows that each update will work with every iPhone that it is delivered to. This also helps the developers know that their application will not be limited to certain versions and handsets. Google has slowed down the update schedule to help decrease the amount of fragmentation of Android, which will help make it a stronger platform in the long run.

Winner: iOS.

10. Computer Software.

iOS uses iTunes as its interactions with the computer. iTunes is a slow, bloated piece of shit. I have never met a person who like iTunes. People use it because it is necessary with iOS. While it is a piece of shit software, it does give iOS a strong piece of software that connects the phone and computer. Android really doesn't have that. Android can use Windows Media Player, but it is not a complete portal. iTunes lets you access the iTunes Store which lets your buy music, movies, apps, podcasts, iBooks, and many other things. iTunes can be used with Android through Double Twist. This gives you a place to sync your music, photos and videos, which is a plus. It also adds Wireless syncing, with a paid app on your Android phone. This is a good alternative, but it requires multiple pieces of software. And it still requires iTunes. Google needs to consider a strong desktop client that allows us a portal to sync everything with our phones.

Winner: iOS.

So for the conclusion of this comparison, iOS wins. It walks away with 5 wins vs. Android's 3 wins. There are two ties, which are thrown out the window. Android just needs to be a little more polished to become the better mobile operating system. It offers great variety of handsets, but this leads to its fragmentation which helps make iOS look even better. While you are more controlled and locked in with iOS, it provides a pretty damn good user experience and updates coming this Fall will make it even stronger. But don't count Android out yet. With its slowed update schedule, and more powerful phones coming down the pipe, Android is poised to become the dominant OS of choice. It is an exciting time to be a consumer in the mobile market today.

Headphones and Netflix

I am narrowing down the selection of the headphones I want to buy. I am still leaning towards the Thermaltake Shock One. They have all the features that I am looking for: USB connection, Mic, inline controls, and large curcumaural ear pieces. Yes, there are less expensive headsets out there, but I want something that will last me for a while. I don't feel like $100 is too expensive for a quality headset. But on to something that has a more immediate impact. Netflix has added to its instant streaming. Something that has caught my eye: Star Trek. But it is missing season 1 of the original series. I can start with season 2, but I would rather start with season 1. It has added many other television shows to its catalogue. It makes me happy cause I am interested in watching a lot of these old shows. Before I didn't really have a means to get a realible way of watching these shows without dropping a shit load of money for DVDs, either buying or renting them. But that it all for tonight. I'm tired, and I'm ready to go to sleep soon.