Tag Archives: Technology

Personal, Technology

Zero needs your help! Help me pick a new phone!

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The Zero Corporate Communicator is due for an upgrade… My AT&T Tilt has taken quite the beating from me. For 7 months of loyal service, being subject to my drunken rages every now and then, but also being hacked to fit my needs… I am amazed it has last me 7 months. I mean with respect to things… Check out my phone chronology! (Disclaimer: Times are approximate…)

10/2004 – 10/2005: Nokia 3120 (1 Year)
10/2005 – 1/2006: Motorola RAZR V3 (3 Months)
1/2006 – 3/2006: Motorola SLVR L6 (2 Months)
3/2006 – 5/2006: Motorola MPx 220 (2 Months)
5/2006 – 7/2006: Sony Ericsson T637 (2 Months)
7/2006 – 10/2006: Motorola SLVR L7 Unbranded without iTunes (3 Months)
10/2006 – 1/2007: HTC Wizard as a T-mobile USA MDA (3 Months)
1/2007 – 5/2007: Nokia E62 (4 Months)
5/2007 – 10/2007: Palm Treo 680 (4 Months)
10/2007 – 4/2008: DUAL PHONES – Sony Ericsson P990i AND Sony Ericsson w300i (6 Months)
4/2008 – Present [12/2/2008] – HTC Kaiser as an AT&T Tilt 8925 (7 months onward…)

Lately, my phone is going through issues… The slider mechanism is getting loose, unless I lock it in the angular position if I somewhat slack with the screen angle. I am going through a RAM leak issue that my phones go through… So something like the phone’s alarm or an event reminder will lock up or even crash my phone. I have to reboot the phone every other day now rather than every 4 days to keep the phone functional. The worst part… I have tried almost EVERY cooked and stock OEM HTC TyTN II ROM possible to flash into my phone in hopes of having a functional phone that was stable since the maladies happened… But alas… even a bare stripped out BASE ROM that is on the original HTC TyTN II without the garbage still has my phone crashing and locking up.

So yeah… I have been looking at new phones. At the moment, I am eligible through T-Mobile to enjoy the same deals as new users from being eligible for an upgrade as long as I do the 2 year hitch. However, should I choose to hop back to the Death Star and be subject to their funny taxes, rollover minutes and etc… I’d have to wait until around until June of 2009. Time is not of the essence, yet… Unless my phone just purely becomes dysfunctional that it is unstable. I do need a smartphone, as the ability to see my calendar of events and keep my contacts at ready access. Messaging is highly important to me as I do a lot of mobile contact when voice is not an option. Internet plans are being considered, as e-mail and instant messages are my alternative lifelines other than texting and voice calls.

Here’s the line-up… so far that is:

BlackBerry Bold (To be unlocked…)
BlackBerry Javelin (aka 8900 Curve) [Unfortunately no official link yet, link from Boy Genius Report]
Nokia XpressMusic 5800 (The wicked touch screen music phone)
Palm Centro (Unlocked from Palm)
HTC/T-Mobile G1 by Google

My common themes seem to be phones with physical keyboards that are exposed, the only exceptions being the G1 and the Nokia Xpress Music 5800. The G1 has a slider keyboard like my Tilt, while the Nokia has a soft keyboard and it does support written input via stylus.

The issue of billing is not too bad… cause at the moment, I pay $70 for my current plan after taxes and such. However should I go with any device with the optional net plan (for the G1, the net plan is MANDATORY), the price totals out at $80. So it’s about 1 take out meal a month less. Not a big deal, cause I don’t have much time for that anyways. The only pressing issue would really be the $35 activation fee and the device prices.

The BlackBerry devices may be fun, but the Bold, for example is only available in the US as a locked AT&T phone and I would have to spend a little extra coin to get it unlocked for use. The Javelin is not known if it’s coming to T-Mobile USA, but there is already an AT&T unit under testing. For either the Bold or Javelin, this is probably the most expensive route ranging from sniping one off of craiglist at $450+ before any unlocking services.

The Palm is a rather nice and pint sized little smartphone and at roughly $300 unlocked from Palm is a great deal. The sad selection of white only is a little sobering… Though the final issue is compatibility with the T-Mobile mobile web… I am highly considering mobile web, so it puts the Centro on a very thin edge. The Nokia XpressMusic 5800 ($500+) is also on that same thin edge with the mobile web compatibility… Though the XpressMusic is more media centric rather than a corporate looking communicator.

The T-Mobile G1 is probably the underdog of them all… Priced at $180 with a 2 year renewal, fully Linux and open source, and quickly becoming versatile. It’s made by HTC, so I am not too afraid of build issues. Sure, it looks a little caddish and far from corporate professional… But to know that it can basically give me near remote control over my own site is damn near staggering, especially when there are times I’d kill to blog something but only to find that I have to pay for a wireless LAN at Starbucks for an hour I may not use entirely.

I digress…

If anyone has an opinion, feel free to comment and let me know! If you have a recommendation, tell me your reasoning why! Any reasonable insight is welcome and encouraged!

Technology

An Open Letter to The Linux Using Students of Texas A&M Commerce

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Dear fellow students,

Some of you have chosen the past of most difficulty. Some of you have chosen to be free of Microsoft’s tyranny and to open your heart to the power of open source. To you, I commend you! However, I am willing to bet some in our ranks have been unable to enjoy such sweet splendor without much strife. I am referring more to the school network. Some of you may have had to compile the Cisco Network Manager and maybe failed in vain from incomplete dependencies…. Some of you who decided to be like me and run an Ubuntu variant to try importing one of their profiles in order to connect but you were met with the message of “VPN Secrets incomplete”.

I say to you… Fear not! I have managed to secure myself the information on the configuration from the Center of Technology and Information Services center from the McDowell administration building. If you are a student in need of getting connected online, I have done you a favor by compounding the complete configurations as a Cisco Network Profile. If you do, in-fact, need this file… Please send me an e-mail to info@zeroxr.com and I’ll be glad to pass it over! If you want me to help out… Please feel free to inquire and I’ll be glad to stop by!

Power to the people, free as beer! Those are the things to live by!

Regards,

Personal, Technology

Waking the Demon, Walking in Shadows

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So let me say that when computers break… it can be aggravating to me. I am a nice guy with machines… until they anger me. Windows XP has been that thorn in my side that I had to do something…

Click for a link to the bigger image!
Hmm... Eye Sea Wut Joo Did Thar!

I did it… I thought I never could return to Linux but somehow… I did. So with toiling and help from by GREAT friend Maczimus… I am back. To my Ubuntu buddies out in the DFW Area, I am back home again. Home to one of the kindest operating systems ever to have graced its presence to me. I just have to test and make sure if my VPN settings play nice with my school. They’d better, damn it!

Personal, Technology

Ugh… Winter Blues~!

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So I am sick… augh!!! It blows… but to compound more bullcrap… Early this morning, Windows decided that my mouse was not to move away from the bottom corner. On trying to fight and beat the OS to the power of my will… well… let’s just keep it at the fact that things got worse. So once again… my laptop is well… toast with Windows. However… in usual fashion, Linux is like the cute geeky girlfriend who’s like the supportive best friend that saves my bacon again.

Which brings me to a comparison that I talked about with a good friend of mine…

Windows is like the crazy girl who can do all the freaky sexual crap. Stuff that would interest all the wrong sorts of people. At the same time, when you make the threaten to leave… it does crazy dramatic bullshit with empty promises of steak and fellatio.

Linux is like the one cute girl that either you’ve known forever or she’s the one lotus in a myriad of flowers. She’s the one who’s smart, can go to the bars with you, and even play a multi-player role playing game online while being a dork. She’s the one that you’d like to be with, but the real world somehow nags you to go back to the crazy whore called Windows.

Anyhow… My brain is exhausted… damn installations… DAMN IT ALL!!!

Personal, Reviews, Site News, Technology

Week’s Agenda… I think?

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This week will probably be rather crunchy… or fall to mush… I have not a clue. I know my brain has been crunching chemistry to exhaustion. I think I am going to have to submit to my weak mortal whims to procure food. Damn mortality… well, sometimes anyhow. Chemistry will battle wits with me in nearly 17 hours so I have to crunch hard and make sure I completely absorb the materials like it is infused in the blood.

Depending on how finances look… I may or may not be getting World of WarCraft: Wrath of the Lich King. I have been through some pretty rough financial times, but I should be no stranger to them anyhow. I would love to get it mainly so I can evaluate it and post a review right away! Although, Miss Wyno said it may not be any good to me anyways as I won’t be able to utilize most of the content in Northrend until I have a character at Level 80. So maybe it is for the best..?

In good news..! I may have found a niche as a male fashion blogger! Alfred from Barney’s New York out in Northpark Center is sending me some sample goods which I should be recieving sometime this week! Many thanks goes to him and I definitely look forward to writing another enthusiastic review over everything I recieve. Hopefully I can get some pictures and provide another good review for any guys who want another perspective on male grooming and care.

I hope to get another good piece written this week… maybe I can get the long overdue “Day in the Life of Zero” post up and online? LOL! 😀 We’ll see as that’s semi dependent on how my mind can take a mental beating of savage proportions with chemistry. Ough…

Ugh… my stomach is now uncontrollably asking me to feed it. I think that’s my cue to vamoose and feed me before the low glucose levels make me cranky as hell. Keep watching here! It should get especially fun especially ’round Thanksgiving holiday!

PS – Ivy had a bit of a hard transition happen as well as the fact that she sorta hurt her knee! Please wish her well and hopefully she’ll get an article on there soon!

Much love,

Games, Reviews, Technology

Every Hero has their Excalibur – [Tech Review]

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If some of you have have come to know me, you know that computer games do play a role in my life. They are my outlet away from my daily grind at my office. I know some friends refer to the old saying of “All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy” which that’s how I feel when I have been put to the grindstone and whittled away from a sanity point of view. The one joy I do get from gaming like any other human is that victory is like a savored drink of sacred wine from a chalice. It’s gratifying and almost a wild blessing to know you have bested that opponent in a friendly game of Unreal Tournament, helped a few friends down an elite boss in World of WarCraft, or even beating a Hard Mode mission with bonus in Guild Wars.

I had been playing computer games for a good portion of my life on standard fare gear. Your regular keyboards, your regular mice, and etc. It was an ignorant bliss… I didn’t know better cause most of my life was spent recreationally gaming with personal friends. I, Zero, was rather xenophobic of gaming with people from the “intarwebs” and tried not to stray into that vector from a souring experience in Diablo II. A cheater had used a “Town Kill” trainer to kill me in a town and then happened to loot my corpse for all the elite gear that I slaved my hard hours for…

I digress…

Recently, gamer equipment has been more and more common place in electronic shops… Names like Fata1ity by Creative and Logitech are probably the more “commercial” of the bunch. However… These commercial solutions were just that: “commercial”. They felt rather generic to me and hell… They were a bit overpriced for what they were. On my search back in August for a gaming mouse to replace my gimped wireless one that had bit the dust… CompUSA had made a campaign in-store to advertise that they were “The Computer Store for Hardcore Gamers”. Naturally, I wanted to check their claims out for myself with needing a new mouse. Their mouse section had more than just your blown over commercial gaming mice, they had some great gems from Razer. I had heard only whispers about the reputation of Razer products, so I was more than intrigued to touch and feel mice that would otherwise be offered typically online. The ergonomics of their mice were superb, but with a limited budget… I had to limit my options. I would choose the Razer Death Adder mouse and pair it with an eXact Mat & eXact Rest pair which to my luck were all on sale for cheaper than online!

I would begin a 2 month trial to see if the “hype” that gaming mice are significantly better than your ordinary computer mice. Before I begin about my trial… Let me iterate some the differences of Razer mice versus some of your ordinary tools…

Razer’s mice address the following flaws with gaming peripherals… Response time, ghosting, and versatility. Razer had noticed with most commercial mice on the market… some go into a “sleep mode” when there’s idle activity. This sleep mode can mean the difference of a headshot or even an escape from a nefarious enemy. With wireless mouse, this sleep is somewhat required to save batteries. Razer produces only wired mice that are “always-on” so there’s never a chance of you running to the predicament of missing that epic kill… Ghosting is one issue most common gamers probably don’t think too much about, but it can be a definite buzz kill. Razer makes their mice with “HyperResponse” buttons at a polling rate of 1,000Hz. That’s really amazing as the clicks almost keep up with some of the most frightening saber dances or bullet ballets in some of the games I have played. Versatility is another hallmark of Razer as these gaming mice allow gamers to do change DPI settings or even flip between different gaming profiles. The profile changing is all thanks to Razers “Synapse Memory” chip giving players up to 5 different profiles to play with.

The eXact Mat is an aluminum mat with 2 sides on it… One is called the XControl side and has a rougher fractal texture while the other is called the XSpeed side. The XControl side is more fine tuned to allow precise movements for activities like playing sniper in a game of CounterStrike: Source for example or a weapon of precision. The XSpeed side is more for being able to make quick movements that would save you fate that would have you dead in a Battleground event for WoW. Combined with the eXact Rest, the wrist is in optimal mousing position and fatigue is minimized.

I had to do “scientific” testing to see if there was consistency with the end results… I would load up a game of Combat Arms for “Headshot” testing and I would use World of Warcraft for any Battlegrounds survival related testing. Here are the “control” benchmarks… The games average about 20 minutes a session.

Mouse: Microsoft Wirelss Notebook Laser Mouse 6000 (1000 DPI)
Mousing Surface: Pressboard wood design desk
Average Headshots per Kill: 4 out of 15
Average Survival in Battlegrounds: 9 deaths

I would do another battery of trials instead with the Death Adder but without the use of my eXactmat and eXactrest…

Mouse: Razer Death Adder (1800 DPI)
Mousing Surface: Pressboard wood design desk
Average Headshots per Kill: 6 out of 15
Average Survival in Battlegrounds: 8 deaths

The final set of tests would add in the eXactmat using the speed or control sides to their appropriate games… that would prove a minor improvement on top of the mouse, no surprise there. With the eXact rest, it would put my wrist at ideal height for mouse movements as well as lessen my gaming fatigue with maintaining correct hand posture.

Mouse: Razer Death Adder (1800 DPI)
Mousing Surface: Razer eXactmat Control and Speed with eXact rest
Average Headshots per Kill: 8 out of 15
Average Survival in Battlegrounds: 7 deaths

To go from 4 headshots and 9 deaths to 8 & 7 is a pretty good reduction! Granted that the battlegrounds instances have some partial factors that are due to keyboard response… The headshots should be shining proof that a good gamer can be handicapped by how good their gear is. With how signifigant my improvements were with the Death Adder, it does have me wonder what will happen should I get Razer’s haloed Lachesis mouse with 4,000 DPI…

Thanks to Razer for producing a great mouse as well as having the passion to show gamers that you can be held back by how good your weapons are.

Site News, Technology

;-) I got my hands on something really pretty…

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It’s been a long while since I have done a tech review… I managed to stumble into a friend who must remain anonymous who happens to have the 3 killer Blackberry phones and helped me play around with some development kits to play with the phone’s software. Unfortunately, I can’t take pictures of his phones but I can give you my thoughts on the Blackberry Storm (9500), Blackberry Bold (9000), and Blackberry Pearl Flip (8220). I have been a bit too enamored in the Blackberry Storm as it’s multi-touch is seriously spiffy! Once I can sit down and throughly review the Bold and Pearl Flip, expect me to throughly put my thoughts here.

I can say that RiM is looking to really make smart phones accessible to the masses… The 9500 Storm series is positive step forward! However… the GSM version will not be making it to American shores yet. At this moment, Vodafone does in the European and Asian markets, while Verizon holds the market for the CDMA version.

Keep your eyes hear for my thoughts on these smartphones!

Personal, Technology

Rage, Advanced.

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Some of you, I have recanted my saga be it in person, over IM, or text message about my horrid plight… Well, yesterday, I learned that I have some insane levels of rage to be able to take things apart. Maczimus had told me I may have a chance to salvage the data by ripping my 160GB external drive apart and then trying to plug the drive into a desktop machine in a salvage attempt to rip my data off. So I had to dust off my knuckles and try to figure a way to the assembly screws and clasps. Rather than using a flat-head screwdriver and a hammer, I found that brute force and pulling at plastic trims does wonders! I managed to rip the drive and then free it from its prison of metal and plastic.

I am glad that it’s free… but I just I now only have a 20% chance to get my data back. I don’t ask the denizens of electricity much, but being a “student” of alchemy… I would like their blessing. Keep those prayers coming everyone..!

Technology

Back to College Tips for Saving Some Coin.

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On perusing my Lifehacker RSS stream, I found two great little things that could save returning students some cash…

With the cost of books rising, there’s no denying that students have to buy them as they are the lifeblood of their studies. Lifehacker linked a great article by Smart Money with their 4 tips to save money on books as well as a mention that Congress is stepping in to intervene with the skyrocketing cost of texts. The eBooks that some publishers are offering is pretty new as eReader devices such as Sony’s eInk book or Amazon’s Kindle have been wildly popular lately or even just reading via PDF on laptops. Caveat emptor, some of these publishers do have DRM (digital rights management) on their eBooks which may prove difficult should you have a mishap with your computer involving your digital copy. Price shopping and textbook rentals are still stable techniques that are “old world” but still work for today’s masses, while effective, it does rely on the live market especially with regard to used texts. Their last tip was rather interesting… Subsidized or open source textbooks.  Freeload Press offers their texts at free or low cost while allowing authors to advertise their works on their site as ad banners or ads on the footer/header of the eBook pages in addition to allowing users to buy printed editions at a very low price. I will say that their mention of Project Gutenberg was a very worthy one as I know in my early years I easily spend $100+ in extra texts I had to buy from Barnes & Noble, Half Price Books, et al before the project became what it is now. If you’re still on the fence about buying your books, check the article out.

Lastly… I remember about this time last year that my buddy Tyler had said that he was in a business computer class and that they made it a “requirement” to have Microsoft Office 2007 which had him in a bit of a rut as he was hard up for cash. Lucky for him though, he had a friend who did work for Microsoft and got him hooked up with a copy for free. Most students, however, are not quite this lucky. Some schools, like Texas A&M Commerce will deny any rendering of aid should your machine be found with any counterfeit/pirated software so “keeping legal” is terribly vital for some students. Microsoft has devised a solution to keep students within the legal standing of the law rather than to be an agent of software piracy with their deal called “The Ultimate Steal“. Right now, Microsoft only has Office Professional 2007 for about $60 which is “91% off ERP” for a digital download with the option to also by a physical disc. They do have some other deals that will be coming around September, like their upgrade copy of Windows Vista Ultimate for $65 (which can be used as a full install disc) for those that do need a legit copy of an operating system. I typically would say use Linux or Open Office, but sometimes when a school imposes on your freedoms with little recourse, it’s a tad frustrating to pay the price…

Rant, Technology

Google May Have Android eDrama – Editorial

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A few days ago, I stumbled upon [H]ardOCP talking about a “front page” article saying that Google may have inadvertently pushed some Android developers to the iPhone SDK… This is rather an ironic tale of karmic shock as about a year ago, there were some whispers in the grapevine that Google was proposing to OpenMoko prospective programmers with a rather gutsy move to say “Come to our project, cause we are Google after all! We have tons of capital and our project is more financially stable.” So naturally, most programmers do want a buck for their efforts and most basically said “bye” to the OpenMoko Project and hopped on the Google Android bandwagon. In the midst of all the hub-bub of Google vs. OpenMoko, the Apple iPhone crowd was rather disappointed that their shiny $500+ toy had no clean API layer to play with like Windows Mobile or PalmOS. They managed to juryrig their own method of installing applications onto “jailbroken” iPhones by apps like iPwn or WinPwn to free the phone’s certification of applications in a means of giving the device a gray zone to play in. Of course, the problem with that was Apple’s coders releasing new firmware builds for the iPhone would render these “jailbroken” iPhones into paperweights unless the unofficial teams such as the “iPhone Dev Team” found ways to circumvent Apple’s check-sums. That somewhat changed with the iPhone 2.0 software release and the offical push of the iPhone Software Development Kit (or SDK for short).

Let’s delve into the background of the 2 “major” projects…

The Android project (in my observation) almost is a deceptive concept of “open source” as depending on how you rank with Google, you get certain layers of access with Android. What do I mean? Like if you’re an amateur coder who wants to make an application for fun, you would have basic access to the API. Now… let’s say you did something like won the “Google Summer of Code” competition or you are dumping millions of dollars to Google’s Android venture, naturally, you get premium access to the newest SDK builds and even API access to even control device functions. That could get some users who have slaved hours on Google’s Android project pissed! This is really the pressing concern from the article highlighted by AppleInsider, actually. Imagine that you and a few friends of yours make a killer app that just requires you to know the exact pressure sensitivity readings of the touch screen for an Android phone, but the caveat is none of your “staff” are big name commercial people or Summer of Code winners… This could be the one failing crux to your masterpiece to ever find completion. However, someone who won the Summer of Code competition may have an all access pass to all functions of the phone and could create a killer app that could rival yours. End result: Your team loses out on a chance to monetize on your killer app, yet your competitor gets a chance to dominate the market. Could you imagine the frustration to know your competitor’s app would be up for sale in Google’s Android App Shop for $2.99 a download while you’re going “If only Google let us access code on touch screen sensitivity…” with your friends?

Apple’s iPhone SDK is much in the same spirit like Google, an illusion of open source, but I feel they have mitigated drama by allowing all users certain levels of access. There’s the “Free” SDK which is just basic tools to build and test apps for personal use. But to get your name out there… Apple wants you to pony up $99 for a Basic Developer license which gives you the right to distribute your app to other iPhones via WiFi and also sell/give your app away at the iTunes App store. Should you sell your app, you do get 70% of the revenue. Then there’s the “Enterprise” license for $299 which allows you the power to make in-house corporate apps for the iPhone, like a trippy app that monitors and plays with your custom ECU for a tuner shop or other endless things your corporation wants to use the iPhone for. This license in particular is recommended for firms employing 500 people or more.

In my opinion, Apple’s rules are a little more concrete than the undefined access rules that Google has imposed on it’s users… We’ll have to sit and see how things brew down. The fact that Google’s been dawdling with producing a real and hard phone is making their time slip, while Apple and even OpenMoko have live phones to play with! Sure, Google has a deal with HTC to have a phone created as well as make it so that users with HTC phones can do a firmware update to have Android operational on their phones… Add to this that they are trying to fight between T-Mobile USA and Sprint|Nextel as official providers… You have a concept that may simply have trouble breaking the market in a solid fashion. I guess in a sense I am saying… Google better give everyone an “eHug” and get their crap straight or come up with a better strategy quickly unless they want to let Apple take more limelight from them..