David's Blog

iTunes: Hello, I'm iTunes.

Zune: And I'm Zune.

iTunes: I think somebody stole my wallet!

Zune: How could that happen?

iTunes: Someone must have hacked my account.

Zune: You should call someone immediately!

iTunes: I wish! There is no support phone number for iTunes.

Zune: So what are you supposed to do?

iTunes: Email.

Zune: This is urgent! How quickly will they respond to email?

iTunes: Within 48 hours. You know how it is.

Zune: Actually, I don’t.

iTunes: Oh, you get a better response than an email back in 48 hours?

Zune: I can contact support via phone 7 days a week, from 6am until 10pm.

iTunes: Well you better contact them now!

Zune: I’ll be fine.

iTunes: Don’t be a hero, Zune! iTunes has been hacked!

Zune: iTunes…but not Zune.

Source: http://thenextweb.com/apple/2010/07/04/app-store-hacked/

Posted on July 4, 2010 5:06 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Like it does every year, ILM took out a two page ad thanking its employee’s in the July issue of Cinefex magazine.

To skip to the good stuff (my credit), go to the right page, 1st column, 25th down. For some reason, almost everybody in Research & Development has a middle initial listed…weird.

Left page…

Right page…

Posted on June 25, 2010 11:57 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Saw this in the Atlanta airport…

Here is the concept: You put garbage in a trash can. Then someone goes through the trash and sorts it into recycling and landfill.

• No confusion over what goes where…only one trash can.
• Everybody recycles…you can’t opt out.

Unfortunately, it does not do composting.

More info here.

Posted on June 13, 2010 9:10 PM | Permalink| Comments (1)

I picked up an HTC EVO 4G on Friday.

One year ago I bought a Palm Pre. I *love* the Palm Pre. My biggest issue with the Pre is a lack of new products (still no follow-on announced) and the lost developer momentum.

Android, on the other hand, is doing very well in those departments.

What I like:

• Voice search – just press and hold the search button on the bottom right, then say what you are looking for and the phone gives you the Google search results for what you just said. I’m shocked how accurate it is, especially considering there is no voice training involved. This is definitely easier/quicker than typing and it has already changed how I use a smart phone.
• Similarly, the on screen keyboard has an option to let you speak instead of type. I’ve used it for a few text messages and find it useful. I’m curious if I’ll use this more than the actual keyboard for txt messages…if it saves me keystrokes, then I will.
• Google Maps has Street View! Maps is a killer app for mobile phones…and having access to Street View makes it even more so. I really like how you can rotate your body in order to spin around in Street View.
• Google Scoreboard app: This app tracks your favorite teams, and tells you what time they are playing (in *your* time zone), where they are on TV/radio, and can notify you with score updates at start/end of game, or after every quarter, or score. It works great, it is free, and it has no ads.
• EVO uses the same Micro USB port that the Pre uses, so I don’t need new charging cables for home/work/car.
• Facebook app…written by Facebook. Automatically populates your phone’s contact list with information (email, phone numbers, address, etc) and profile pics.
• Twitter app…written by Twitter. Like the Facebook app, the Twitter app integrates with Android so that any contacts you have that don’t have pictures associated with them can get their profile pics from Twitter. App has fun cloud/bird animations that give it a unique look and feel.
• Foursquare app…written by Foursquare. Unlike the Pre version, this actually works well.
• Gmail. The Android version of Gmail is is more full featured than the Pre mail program (supports labels, collapsing conversations to a single message).
• Animated wallpaper.
• Shazam. Ever hear a song and wonder who sings it? Shazam can listen to just a few seconds of a song and tell you what it is. This *is* magical software.
• Phone kickstand. You can see a metal bar on the back on the phone in the image above. That metal bar extends so you can place your phone in landscape mode on a table for easy viewing. Useful when you use your phone as an alarm clock, watching movies, or a mini computer. Just add a wireless keyboard and you have a *very* portable computer, except the screen may be too small for heavy usage. Which brings me to…
• HDMI out. The phone can output to a TV via an HDMI cable (video/sound). If you want a much bigger display than the already ginormous 4.3 inch screen…just plug it into your TV!
• Mobile hotspot. You can use the EVO as a Wi-Fi access point for up to 8 devices! Finally…I can connect my laptop to the internet via my phone. My Pre could not do that (but my old Windows Mobile 6 Palm Treo could).
• Web browser. I found that more web pages load correctly on the EVO than they did on my Pre.
• I haven’t really thought about the performance of this phone, mostly because I haven’t had to wait for anything. I guess that means 1 GHz Snapdragon processor is fast.
• Android has a lot of momentum now, I only expect it to grow. It is nice to have a phone that developers are targeting instead of being an afterthought. There are a ton of apps to play with…much more than what is available for the Pre.
• Big 4.3” screen makes everything better: more details visible on maps, on screen keyboard has large buttons even in portrait mode, video more enjoyable to watch.
• HTC’s custom software is actually useful and not crap ware like I was expecting. I like the home screen big clock, weather, alarms, timer, and stopwatch. You can turn on a low light clock that stays on at all times if you want to use your phone as an alarm clock. The pinch to zoom for access to the 7 home screens is very fast/useful.
• Front facing camera for video chats. Not sure when I’ll use this, but it is nice to know I can.
• HD video recording at 720p.
• 8MP camera with 2 LED flashes.
• Supports 32 GB microSD card.
• Adobe Flash! It isn’t here on this Android release (2.1), but it should be when 2.2 come out…which won’t be long.

What I don’t like/miss:

• Keyboard. I still prefer the confidence of typing with actual keys.
• Notifications. They are handled *perfectly* on the Pre. Android needs some work. Android email notification only says you have a new message. Pre tells you who sent it and the message subject. Notifications on the Pre could be selectively deleted. So far, I’ve only been able to delete all notifications at once with Android.
• Task management. Pre has this done right, too. On the Pre, you press the “home” button and you instantly see small “cards” representing all the running applications. You swipe an app up to send it off the screen and kill it. You can rearrange the order of running apps. You can use the swipe left/right gesture to quickly move between running apps without going to a home screen/task switcher dialog (like pressing/releasing Alt-tab). With Android, I don’t see a way to kill an app (Android is supposed to manage this for you). Android appears to only support switching between 6 apps via a dialog that comes up when you press and hold the “home” button. It’s not terrible…but not as slick as the Pre.
• The Pre uses a universal swipe to the left or right to delete an item (like a mail message or a notification). Once you learn this, you expect you can do it anywhere…which is true on the Pre. Android doesn’t support the swipe to delete gesture…but I wish it did.
• The Pre has the touchstone charger that lets you charge your phone by simply laying it on a “puck”…wireless charging. If you get a call, you lift the phone off the puck and the call is automatically answered, just like the way a traditional phone works. Also if you start a speaker phone conversation while on the the puck, lifting the phone off the puck will switch speaker phone off. EVO just plugs into a micro USB cable. :(
• The battery life is about the same as what I was getting with the Pre…I have to charge a minimum of once a day, or more if I really use the phone. I keep it plugged in overnight and have a charger at work as well. It’s not a step back from the Pre, but I’d like to get back to the days when a cell phone only needed charging once a week.
• On the Pre, you can slide your launch icons where ever you want. If an icon is already in the location, it will slide out of the way to a new location allowing for easy insertions. Android, on the other hand, won’t let you do this. You must first make an empty space before you can drag an icon to a location. Not a big deal…but not as slick as the Pre.

After using the EVO for a weekend and getting used to Android…I’m hooked. The EVO isn’t perfect and I do miss some of some of Pre’s niceties. Overall, the good almost makes you forget the bad.

I would recommend the EVO and Android to anyone.

Posted on June 7, 2010 1:36 AM | Permalink| Comments (2)

Check out ManBabies.com…my brother and nephew are featured!

We need more votes! Click on the “VOTE!” on the bottom right.

Posted on May 3, 2010 6:26 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

The past weekend I stayed at Vegas’ latest super casino: CityCenter. The hotel we stayed at in CityCenter is called “Aria.”

CityCenter is made up of 5 towers and a mall called “Crystals.” The 5 towers are:

1. Aria: hotel and casino
2. Vdara: hotel and condo
3. Mandarin Oriental: hotel and condo
4. Harmon: hotel
5. Veer: condo

Aria’s rooms are the best Vegas rooms I have ever been in. First of all, the key card to open the door works by being close to the door…no need to insert it in a slot. That means you can just leave the card in your wallet and wave your wallet in front of the door to open it.

When you walk in for the first time, the room is completely dark with the curtains drawn. The lights thoughout the room slowly ramp up to full brightness as the curtains automatically pull back to reveal an amazing view. Then the HDTV turns on with your name written on the screen. There are two remotes: a standard remote and a touch screen that stays by your bed. Both remotes use RF instead of IF, so you don’t have to aim them. The remotes lets you control:

• TV
• Music
• All the lights
• The curtains
• Alarm clock
• Temperature
• Privacy indicator outside your door

It is very slick.

The room has audio/video inputs so you can easily hook your laptop/mp3 player to the TV. Two powered USB ports allows you to charge your devices without using an AC adapter…nice!

Here are some pics of our room on 54th floor…

View outside our room…

The sports betting area of Aria is amazing. It has the best/biggest HDTV I have seen (actually, two) if you take the one at Cowboy Stadium out of consideration. First drink is on the house here! I would *definitely* come back just to watch a basketball/football game here. Here is some video to give you an idea how big (and bright!) the screens are.

The next smaller TV’s are ~60”…and they look great, too.

Overall, I’m impressed with Aria. It is very different from typical Vegas casinos…but I enjoyed the change. The food was great, but our service at The Buffet and Cafe Vettro were sub-par. For example, I finished my meal and left The Buffet and never got the Diet Coke that I requested *twice* (the first request was before I went to get my first plate of food).

I still enjoyed my stay and would go again. It is an amazing structure and worth checking out.

Some photos from around Aria…

Mandarin Hotel @ CityCenter…

Crystals Mall at CityCenter…

Posted on April 4, 2010 11:53 PM | Permalink| Comments (2)

I really like the new taskbar in Windows 7.

One of the byproducts of the new taskbar: tabbed browsing is obsolete.

Tabbed browsing was great when your window manager was overwhelmed with large numbers of internet browser windows. However, the Windows 7 taskbar works great with large numbers of open windows.

Tabbed browsing is actually worse than Windows 7’s taskbar application management. Why?

1. With each browser window in a separate application, you can quickly ALT-TAB between the last two important apps. With tabbed browsing, you cannot use ALT-TAB to move between web browser sessions because all the tabs happen in a single app.
2. Similarly, holding down ALT-TAB shows you thumbnails of all the open applications so you can quickly go to the application you want via a mouse click. This doesn’t work with tabbed browsing for the reason above.
3. Tabbed browsing takes up extra screen space for the tab row. You can disable tab browsing and see more content.
4. Windows 7 makes it easy to see applications side-by-side via Aero Snap. This works great if you disable tabbed browsing, doesn’t work at all with tabbed browsing.
5. With tabbed browsing disabled, you can adjust the window size per browser session. Only use the screen space you need! Also, using different sizes for different session makes finding a session easier via Aero Peek.
6. If you change Windows 7’s default taskbar setting to “Combine when taskbar is full”, you can glance down at your taskbar and select the browser session you want by the title text, just like you can with tabbed browsing. To change this taskbar setting (which I recommend changing): right click start button->properties->taskbar->taskbar buttons: [Combine when taskbar is full]
7. For developers: You get Aero Peek for free if you do not use tabbed browsing. If you do use tabbed browsing, you must write a Windows 7 plug-in to make Aero Peek work for all the open tabs (IE had to do this, all web browsers that support tabbed browsing *should* do this if they want to function correctly in Windows 7).
8. To quickly open another web browser session, just middle mouse click on any browser button in the taskbar. This option is available even when you are not currently working in a web browser (i.e. no need to switch to web browser and find the “open new tab” button).
9. To quickly kill browser sessions, just hover on a browser button in the taskbar, then middle click on any thumbnail. As a visual queue, you get thumbnails of all the open browser sessions. Once you mouse over the session you want to kill, you see the web page in its entirety before making a decision to kill it.
10. Tabbed browsing is partially duplicating what the taskbar already does…why learn two different ways of doing essentially the same thing?

To disable tabbed browsing in IE: Tools->Internet Options->General->Tabs->Settings->[ ] Enable Tabbed Browsing (requires restarting Internet Explorer)

For Firefox, use: Tools->Options…->Tabs->[ ] Open new windows in a new tab instead

Posted on March 13, 2010 12:55 PM | Permalink| Comments (7)

This week, Microsoft announced the latest update to their smart phone OS called Windows Phone 7 Series.

What I like:

• Beautiful, unique user interface
• A task-based interface instead of application-based
• For example, a contact will contain standard contact information, plus that person’s facebook status updates
• Integration with social networks
• Unlimited music access via Zune Pass
• Xbox Live integration (can get achievement points via games on your phone)
• Strict hardware requirements
• Resolution
• 3 hardware buttons (back, start, search)
• GPS
• Capacitance Multi-touch screen

I’ll be watching this phone closely…I like what I see so far.

Check out this video to see Windows Phone 7 Series in action.

Posted on February 17, 2010 7:48 AM | Permalink| Comments (0)

I kept track of all the changes I made after I did a clean install of Windows 7.

1. Install Microsoft Security Essentials
• Virus software works without getting in the way
2. Move the recycle bin to taskbar.
• Gives you a completely clean desktop
• The recycle bin is always visible and can be used to drag and drop files you don’t want
3. Pin Sticky Notes to the taskbar
4. Pin Snipping Tool to taskbar
5. Change “Shutdown” button to “Restart”: Right-click Start->properties->Start Menu->Power button action: [Restart]
6. Switch taskbar to “combine when full”: Right-click Start->properties->Taskbar->Taskbar buttons: [Combine when taskbar is full]
• More obvious if an application is active or not (big == active)
• Active applications include text description
• Active applications are 3 times larger than non-active: easier hit target
• Progress bars (shown in taskbar when downloading files or installing software, for example) have more space and are more meaningful
7. Install Windows Live Essentials: Live Writer (updating blogs), Photo Gallery, and Movie Maker
8. Install Zune Software
9. Set power option to high performance (for my desktop): Start->Control Panel->Hardware and Sound->Power Options->High Performance
10. Install Adobe Flash
11. Set up black screen saver: Start->Control Panel->Appearance and Personalization->Personalization: Change screen saver->
• [Blank]
• Wait [10] minutes
• [X] On resume, display logon screen
12. Setup daily backup: Start->Control Panel->System and Security: Back up your computer
• Every day at 2 a.m.
• Only backup my home directory
13. Turn on check boxes for selection: Explorer->Organize->Folder and search options->View->[X] Use check boxes to select items
• You can select multiple files using the mouse-only (without this, you must hold down the shift or ctrl keys)
14. Turn on Zune toolbar: Right-click Start->Properties->Toolbars->[X] Zune
• When Zune is minimized, it shows as a mini-player in the taskbar
15. Change pictures folder to:
• Detail view: right click file area->View->Details
• Set columns to Name, Size, Date, Date Modified: right click column heading to modify
16. Install Visual Studio C# 2008 Express Edition and Visual Studio C++ 2008 Express Edition
17. Install Windows 7 SDK
• Contains *lots* of helpful sample code
18. Change account picture to match Facebook profile picture: Start->Control Panel->User Accounts and Family Safety->User Accounts->Change your picture
19. Install Maya 8 Unlimited
• 3D modeling, animation, rendering, and visual effects software
20. Install Adobe Creative Suite 3 (CS3) Production Premium
• Contains…
• Photoshop (image editing)
• Illustrator (vector editing)
• Premier Pro (video editing)
• Soundbooth (sound editing)
• After Effects (video compositing)
21. Install Quicken Deluxe 2009
• Finance software
22. Closing Internet Explorer closes all open tabs: IE->Tools->Internet Options->General->Tabs->Settings->[ ] Warn me when closing multiple tabs

*Now* I am ready to go!

Posted on January 10, 2010 6:33 PM | Permalink| Comments (2)

There are multiple ways to do 3D in movie theaters. My favorite is RealD because of the image quality and the potential of getting normal sunglasses that work in a theater. I saw Avatar in both RealD and Dolby 3D and could not tell a difference…both looked great.

Here’s a table to help keep it straight:

Company

IMAX 3D uses either linear polarization (which means you *cannot* tilt your head), or LCD shutter glasses, depending on theater.

My biggest issues are…

1. Letting you tilt your head during a movie
2. Headaches from LCD shutter glasses

For now, I’m avoiding XpandD and IMAX 3D for 3D movies.

Much of this info is from this article.

Posted on December 31, 2009 1:22 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Just got out of a screening of “Up in the Air.”

My take: Hits close to home. Thoroughly enjoyable. Must-see.

Posted on December 3, 2009 10:16 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Another amazing video/great song by OK Go. This one is called “WTF”…check it out:

Posted on December 1, 2009 11:39 PM | Permalink| Comments (1)

Just got out of a screening of Paranormal Activity.

*This* is the movie to see to get your scary movie fix for Halloween. This movie really got me…and the main reason is that it all seems so real.

Highly recommended!

Posted on October 20, 2009 10:04 PM | Permalink| Comments (2)

Windows/DOS has had a *bad* command shell for a long time…but that is about to change with the October 22nd release of Windows 7.

Windows 7 ships with PowerShell 2.0…and it is *really* good.

PowerShell 2.0 features:

• Unlimited output buffer (command prompt had 300 lines by default, and a max of 9999)
• Easy text selection (command prompt could only do “screen space” selection, which made selecting multi-line text virtually impossible…no more!)
• Aliases for standard Unix shell commands (pwd, cp, man, rm, rmdir, mv, ls, cat, grep, ps, kill, tee, clear)
• Aliases for standard cmd.exe commands (cd, cls, copy, help, del, rmdir, rename, dir, type, find, findstr, tlist)
• Support for paths with either forward or backward slashes
• Support for network resources *without* mapping a drive (i.e. can do this: cd \\share\mypics)
• All commands follow a consistent verb-noun naming convention (get-childitem, write-output, etc.) which makes the commands self descriptive and easy to learn
• Can use standard file system commands (cd, dir, rm, cp, etc.) on…
• The Registry
• Environment Variables
• Variables
• Aliases
• User supplied custom data
• Command and parameter tab completion
• Really good documentation, with examples via get-help (or help/man)
• Script debugger with support for breakpoints, stepping, call stack, and hover over variables to see values
• Commands are chained together via *objects* instead of text. Nice example of this powerful feature here.
• Can output your results in rich text format to out-gridview. I *love* this feature. Read about it here.
• Supported on Linux/Mac via Pash

Here is a nice table that compares all the different shells and their features. PowerShell comes out as the most advanced shell.

Windows 7 marks the first time Windows has had a better default shell than Linux or Mac.

Other Linux advantages that are no more with Windows 7:

• Windows 7 has support for symbolic links (actually added in Vista).
• Excellent free C++ compiler via Visual C++ Express

Posted on October 11, 2009 11:58 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

This is impressive. C3 Technologies creates 3D cities. To do Stockholm took less than 3 days!

Check out the intro video on the home page.

Here is a demo of Las Vegas.

Posted on October 11, 2009 10:19 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

Coming to a Disney theme park near you in 2011, the sequel to Star Tours.

Video is here.

Posted on September 13, 2009 9:23 AM | Permalink| Comments (2)

Microsoft released their first Windows 7 ad a couple of days ago. It features super cute kid Kylie, previously seen here.

This put a smile on my face. Well done Microsoft!

Meanwhile, in the Matrix…

“Mac’s don’t crash”

“You can’t get a virus on a Mac”

What exactly is Apple advertising here? Have they actually used their own products?

Time to take the red pill, Apple.

Posted on September 11, 2009 9:42 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

I like to use SIGGRAPH as a gauge for how business is in the 3D industry.

The conclusion: things aren’t good.

There were approximately 12,000 attendees…less than half of last year in LA and the smallest turnout since 1980 in Seattle.

My first SIGGRAPH was in ‘97, which was also the best attended at nearly 50,000.

Jon Peddie Research has a nice chart with the attendance numbers…

Full article is here.

Posted on September 7, 2009 4:53 PM | Permalink| Comments (1)

Creating a new folder is easier in Win7 with a new keyboard shortcut: Ctrl-Shift-N.

I use this one all the time…and it makes me mad when I go back to Vista and can’t use it.

Posted on September 7, 2009 1:16 PM | Permalink| Comments (0)

I bought a new super remote: the Nevo Q50.

What I like:

• Don’t have to aim remote (uses RF to talk to Nevo Connect, which is connected to my devices via IR Emitters)
• Can use remote in any room
• No number pad (those keys are wasted on me)
• Almost everything can be done via 31 hard buttons
• Four hard buttons that use the remote’s screen for labeling
• One-handed operation
• Voltage sensor for devices that do not have discreet on/off codes (like the PS3)
• Completely customizable color, 320x240 touch screen
• NevoStudio Pro 2.0 - really good/easy software for programming
• You can get the screens to look *exactly* like you want. For example, I just took an image from the manual for my PS3 controller and made that a screen. Then I placed hotspots on the buttons that mapped to the actual IR remote output for a PS3 (via IR2BT).

What I don’t like:

• Has to be charged approximately every three days
• Software only runs on 32 bit Vista (not 64 bit Windows 7, which is what I normally run)
• You get obsessed wanting to customize the screens to look perfect…and you are never finished
• Resistive screen doesn’t work well with fingers (fingernails work better)

I bought the Nevo Q50 Remote, Nevo Connect, and NevoStudio Pro 2.0 software for about $550 on eBay from a merchant called “jdm-cafe.” Normally, you buy this remote from a home theater installer that will do all the programming for you…but what fun is that? I think this remote is more than a $1000 if you buy it from an installer.

I bought a voltage sensor (for my PS3) and 6 IR emitters from Remote Shoppe for about $140.

To figure out when my PS3 is powered on, I connected the voltage sensor to the power lines on a USB cable I plugged into the PS3. I learned about this technique for detecting the power state of a PS3 here.

I’m really happy with how slick this setup works. *NOW*, everything just works. Press the “PS3” button and…

• TV turns on
• TV switches to HDMI for PS3
• Receiver turns on
• Receiver switches to PS3 digital audio
• PS3 powers on (if it isn’t already on)
• Remote switches to PS3 control, with volume keys controlling the receiver

And when I’m done, I press “Power Down System”…

• TV turns off
• Receiver turns off
• PS3 is sent a macro for turning off (if it is currently on)

Mmmmmmm…home theater nirvana! This makes me *really* happy. :)

Posted on September 1, 2009 1:53 AM | Permalink| Comments (0)