Writing by Jose on Wednesday, 19 of March , 2008 at 12:47 pm
This week has been kind of a bummer and will continue to be that way until Monday. My home computer is still down and I just got my confirmation from UPS and my motherboard should be here Monday. So I really haven’t had a whole lot of time to research some “crap” to write about. So I’m pretty much pulling this right out of thin air.
Today’s Random Crap is the “Apple Newton”
Ok… I’m pretty sure I might catch a lot of flack on this one but I’m just putting it out there.
Pulled from Newlaunches.com
Released much ahead of its time in 1993, the Newton (official name was MessagePad) was touted as the future of computing. It would be the first in a new line of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs). The Messagepad was the first pen based system running on the Newton Intelligence OS. It was powered by a ARM 610 processor at 20 MHz and 640k RAM / 4 MB ROM. It sported a reflective black and white touchscreen with a resolution of 336 x 240, PCMCIA card slot for expansion and Infrared port for communication between MP’s. The main capabilities of the device was its communications and organizational features. It could fax messages, send e-mail, had applications to organize names, dates, phone numbers, etc, printing, wireless paging and perhaps the most important of all it could supposedly read and recognize handwritten words on the screen. The Newton’s astronomical $ 1000 price tag, poor handwriting recognition, large size (did not fit any pocket) and the “Doonesbury” comic strips by Gary Trudeau pushed it towards failure, however the Apple Newton was produced for six years.
Hmmm… sounds kind of familiar doesn’t it. The iPhone is basically a Newton without written word recognition and it has a phone. It really is amazing how time has an affect on how well a product will work in society. Being that the Newton didn’t have the processing power that handhelds do today and it didn’t work as well as it was supposed to, it just died out. Especially at $1000. That would be like $5000 or more today… lol. Got comments or have you ever used a Newton and would like to share, please leave a comment on this post.
Category: Uncategorized
Writing by Jose on Saturday, 15 of March , 2008 at 8:30 am
Here are some of the pictures I took on Sat. I know they are not super duper high res. greatness but the lighting was really crappy in there and the iPhone’s camera doesn’t use a flash so when you take pictures, it tends to blur them in little to low light.
Here’s a good one of Phillip, notice the ten pins still on the lane… lol.
It’s all good though because he won a paint set for bowling the gutter. You can’t beat that.
And last but not least. The Storm Troopers from Star Wars had a team that morning. Considering how much costume they have to wear, they didn’t do to bad. The little girl and her dad just couldn’t stop staring… lol.
Ok ok ok… they weren’t really there. I just didn’t really have to many interesting photos so I added them in there. I still like to think they were there though 
Well, I guess that’s it. If you liked this post I really would appreciate a comment on it. If you liked the Storm Trooper photo or want to know how I got them in the photo, LEAVE A COMMENT. (That’s subliminal messaging in its weakest form)
Original Post
Goodmornin,
Sorry I haven’t posted in a few days. My computer at home went down, so now I’m waiting on a replacement motheboars to come in. Good news though, I got my iphone!
I’m actually at the Galaxy bowling lanes right now waiting for the the “one on one bowling for the kids” fund raiser to start. Yea, maybe I got here a little to early, but at least I get to play around with my phone for a little bit.
So far, using the typing keyboard on the iPhone is fantastic. It is almost better than typing on a regular keyboard, because you can see all the keys at once but not out of your periphrial vision like with a hardware keyboard. If you are a good typer, you will love this phone.
Another thing I like about it is the contacts list. I never really cared about making a contacts list for my phone or email for that matter. But creating a contact list with this phone is just fun. You can even take a picture of the contact and assign it to the information right then and there. Where you conect to your computer via iTunes, the contacts list on your phone symce to your computer. How frigin awsome is that.
I also really like the maps feature on this phone. You should never have to look in a phone book ever again. When you search for a location on the map, first of all it tell you where it is ans maps its location. Secondly, when you click on its map pin, it lists the phone number, which you can call right away by simply clicking on it! If that location has a website it will also list it on its pin page. Truely amazing.
Well, I have typed this entire post with just my phone. Unfortunatly I can’t write html in this because it would talk to much time. It can though. So when done here today, and i have taken some nice photos with this phone, I will rework this post and add the images.
Category: Uncategorized
Writing by Jose on Wednesday, 12 of March , 2008 at 3:11 pm
It’s the middle of the week and Saturday still seems to be to far away to grasp. I have noticed that on Wednesdays, hardly anyone comes to visit me, even though I don’t really have a ton of readers right now anyway… lol. So I was going to use this day to try something routine. And I think I found what I was looking for. Random crap that people quickly seem to forget about. So congratulations on being the first to see this spectacular 8th wonder of the world.
For my very first post, I give you… the Virtual Boy.
“Pulled from Wikipedia”
Nintendo’s Virtual Boy (バーチャルボーイ, Bācharu Bōi?) (also known as the VR-32 during development) was the first portable game console capable of displaying “true 3D graphics.” Most video games are forced to use monocular cues to achieve the illusion of three dimensions on a two-dimensional screen, but the Virtual Boy was able to create a more accurate illusion of depth through an effect known as parallax. In a manner similar to using a head-mounted display, the user looks into an eyepiece made of neoprene on the front of the machine, and then an eyeglass-style projector allows viewing of the monochromatic (in this case, red) image. It was released on July 21, 1995 in Japan and August 14, 1995 in North America and at a price of around US$180. It met with a lukewarm reception that was unaffected by continued price drops. Nintendo discontinued it the following year.
My personal feelings about this piece of gaming history are sad. It’s a shame that this particular console didn’t do as well as others. I have personally played on one of these and I thought it was pretty cool. The games didn’t really suck but the awkward design of the console was a little more than most people could swallow. It was also pretty painful to sit for long periods with your face crammed into the visor. Maybe a lighter unit with a head strap would have gone over better but, you live and learn. If you take a look at the controller, it kind of resembles the gamecube controller doesn’t it
Category: Uncategorized
Writing by Jose on Tuesday, 11 of March , 2008 at 10:40 pm
I decided that I would provide the viewers with a deeper look into COD4 from Activision. Considering that it is currently the most played game online right next to Halo 3, I think it deserves a little well deserved attention. I basically stayed up last night recording (what I feel to be the best level in the whole game) the level “All Ghillied Up”. This mission puts you in the shoes of an elite sniper unit. You have to make your way to an abandoned hotel to set up for an assassination attempt on a man who is smuggling money for weapons.
I give this game so much praise because it really is well worth the money. The single player is great and the multiplayer is just unsurpassed fun. If you already have this game, then you know exactly where I’m coming from. If you don’t, check out this video of me completing almost the entire mission. If you want to get a game for your teenage son or daughter, this is definitely a winner.
Category: Uncategorized
