So much for waiting. This afternoon I stopped by the Apple Mini Store at Southcenter and picked up a copy of Mac OS X 10.4 “Tiger” which was released last night at 6 PM. To be honest, I did read the Tiger features over at Macworld before installing things just to be safe.
Archive for April, 2005
Anyone who keeps up to date with the latest and greatest hacks already knows that people have been able to use the PSP as a web browser via the built-in browser in Wipeout Pure. Sure, the viewing experience isn’t super exciting (not much better than a cell phone, really) and typing text is a pain using the PSP’s text entry system, but it is still pretty neat using a gaming handheld to browse the web. I finally gave it a shot today. What else am I going to do when I’m staying home from work today trying to get better (bad stomach thing)?
This morning I signed up for a free account at PSP Web Browser (tip from PSP World), so that I could have a central portal to start from and a (hopefully) stable DNS that I can use. The neat thing about PSP Web Browser’s service is that it’s a handy location to store bookmarks or “channels” as the site likes to call them. They have a bunch of pre-defined channels that you can pick from, and you can add your own.
When you login to the service on your PSP, you’re greeted with a list of available channels. In addition to any custom channels you add, PSP Web Browser offers some PIM channels. There’s an address book, a calendar, and a memo section. While it is nice that they offer the free service, I honestly don’t see how useful something like this will be on a PSP, but, what the hey. It can’t hurt to have this info available.
Although you can enter data on your PSP, it’s much faster and easier to do it on their website. It’s pretty bare bones as far as PIM data goes, but it works. There are no import options at this time, so you have to brute force it.
Of course, what I really wanted to do with the service is use it as a regular web browser. I added a couple of bookmarks to my sites and loaded them up. For the most part, things looked pretty good. The text didn’t get any of the fancy formatting options that I specified in my CSS, but at least the general layout worked out pretty well.
My blog didn’t fare so well, since it is so dependent on CSS. The good thing about the layout is that the blog posts are listed before the sidebar elements, so you can get to the content with less scrolling. And, it just happens that the main content column fits perfectly on the PSP’s screen.
As cool as it is to browse the web on my PSP, I don’t think I’ll do it much. The browsing experience isn’t quite as nice and fluid as I would like it to be (how cool would it be to use the analog stick to slide across pages like you can in the photo viewer?). I have to be near a wi-fi hotspot that doesn’t require web authentication, so I can’t use it at Borders or Starbucks. And, it just isn’t very fast nor flexible (no Quicktime or Flash support).
However, it is still pretty neat. According to new reports, Sony will be shipping the Korean version of the PSP with online connectivity ready to use out of the box. I’m curious to see if/how Sony will tap into this for the American market. It could be a really neat way to manage online game and account information and possibly offer additional services. It’s working pretty well with Xbox Live. Maybe a PSP Live type of thing is in order.
| Last week, I hit 296,014 points in Lumines, just shy of the 300k mark. As of today, that 300k goal is non-existent. In fact, so is the 400k mark. My new super high score for Lumines is now 410,638 points.
I have no idea how long I actually played (definitely over an hour). I don’t remember how many bricks I cleared, although I do know that I had many single color bonuses for 1000 points a pop, a couple of clear-all bonuses worth 10,000 points each, and several large combos. I don’t know what level I finished at, but I do know that it was over 100 and that I cycled back to the original levels.
I think I can stop playing Lumines for a while now. Time to switch back to Wipeout Pure and Jade Empire.
| lumines |
As I was channel surfing tonight, I happened upon an episode of Bill Nye the Science Guy’s new show The Eyes of Nye. The new series is a slightly more grown-up and sophisticated version of his popular science show from way back when. Instead of just talking about elementary school science such as physics, biology, and chemistry, Bill Nye tackles tough topics like race, sex, addiction, cloning, and other issues that affect modern society. The show still has Nye’s wacky sense of humor but is definitely not meant for young kids.
Tonight’s episode was about race. Nye talked with a variety of scientists and experts about DNA, environmental effects on the population, and societal and cultural perceptions about race. As with his original show, all of the scientific content is grounded in real-world research and is quite educational.
What’s new is subtle and not-so-subtle jabs at some societal problems today. For example, there was a parody of the MasterCard “Priceless” commercials that poked fun at white supremacists. The voice-over went something like this:
Long distance call to a fellow white supremacist inviting him over to chat: $2.
Buying snacks for a white supremacist party: $10.
Having a scientist explain to him that at a genetic level, all humans are the same no matter what the skin color: Priceless.
Seeing the expression on his face after showing him proof: Really really great.
That was probably a pretty horrid butchering of the actual skit, but it was incredibly funny. It wasn’t beautifully shot and edited like a MasterCard commercial. It looks just like a home video, and that made all that more entertaining.
Another great moment was Nye offering some commentary on how skin color is such a big deal around the world. To paraphrase (i.e. butcher):
So, why is skin color so important to humans? At a genetic level, all mammals have the same genes that determine skin color, but humans are the only ones who seem to care what someone’s skin color is. Look at these cows [insert video of cows on a farm]. There’s a brown one, a white one, a black one, and a black and white one. They’re all different colors, yet they’re still hanging out and chilling. Their skin color doesn’t change the fact that they’re all cows and doesn’t affect them being cows. They don’t care! Why should we?
The show was filled with moments like these. Many of the clips on the official website demonstrate a small sample of Nye’s fun approach to science and some of his quirky humor. If I had TiVo, this would be on my list of shows to record. Guess I’ll just have to settle with actually catching the show when it’s on. Thank goodness KCTS airs repeats of this show all week.
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