Just beneath the Surface

Not long ago, I had the opportunity to take a Microsoft Surface tablet for a spin for a good solid week. Now normally I would never take anyone's word on only a week review of a decent tablet, but just to give you an idea of how much I used it, I ran the battery out completely several times, and charged it allot. It has battery life equivalent of a decent android tablet, so this is no mean feet.

I go through tablets like some people go through shoes. I get to play with lots of them, and I usually end up rooting, and re-ROMing most android tablets several times over. My iPad 4 flips through my gigantic PDF files as if i'm reading a magazine. So the Surface has some stiff competition for a power user such as myself.

With that asside here we go....

Cons:

• Not as much battery life as the iPad.

I can really crank out some use of the iPad 4 and the Surface just isn't quite up to that 10 hour mark. I mostly blame this on the fact it does push notifications while in standby where the iPad is better at just not caring until I bring it out of standby mode. I have this same problem with Android tablets (such as the ASUS Transformer Prime, and the Nexus 7).

• RT has a tiny little app store that really wants to....but doesn't.

There are some really neat apps in the Windows version of the App Store. Sadly the important ones just aren't there. In Microsoft's defense, most of the social media sites you can just pull up the full versions of on IE for Surface. That's not good enough. Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ need to have official apps on the Surface at launch. At the least for G+ have the google search app working on RT. Microsoft should have pushed to have these apps on their store (make deals, pay out the butt, the return would be worth it). People feel better when they have the app as an app and don't have to make a boring little IE shortcut with no push notifications, etc...We get that the store is going to be lean at the start, but if you don't come out swinging with those apps, you might as well have not stepped into the ring.

• Why do you exist?!

So the ARM architecture would require some pretty narly emulation or something like that to run x86 applications. From a technical stand point I understand this, but most consumers aren't that technical and don't give two cents. Why not just wait and release a version that has that built into "ONE" operating system (....to rule them all.....sorry...couldn't help myself). Seriously, this just feels like a strange form of separation for tablets. This feels like the days when NT was a different OS than say Win 95 or Win 98. Microsoft eventually came to their senses and merged the OS versions. (I know technically there are 7 different versions of Windows Vista and Windows 7 but its more like shopping for the Bells and Whistles of what you need and doesn't effect application compatibility.) I know i'm not alone in the opinion that this simply should not have been.

Pros:

• My fingers really like to touch this.

I know Windows 8 gets hell for the new start menu. On a touch interface though, its such a nice experience. Once you learn to group your icons, scrolling through your start screen is a breeze, and the apps you are looking for stick out nicely (except IE shortcuts which all look like IE icons BOOOOOO).

• My birds, they love me!

I really hate relaunching angry birds because I had to close it for 5 seconds to look at a text, facebook notification, or watch youtube (some levels vex me. You know you do it to. Don't judge me!). On the surface, unless you swipe the app from the top down (this closes it), the app stays running in the background. This does nothing to help the battery life, but does great things for my sanity. I can go back to an app right where I left off.

• You can't hide from me little app

On that note, its also really easy to see what apps are running in the background. A quick swipe from the upper left corner on any screen, and wallah! Switch between actively running apps. Long press and close or open and swipe down the close. Done and done...

• I can search for anything. Just ask your mom. 

The "Charm" bar (giggle) is accessible on any screen. The search feature works really well. You can select an app to search in (which it defaults to if you are bringing up search while within that app..how handy?!) or just do a general search of existing apps. Simple and to the point. On my desktop mouse clicky thing i'm still getting used to doing this (dual monitors make the charm bar a little tricky), but on a nice tablet interface..its wizard.

caffiene withdrawl

so I started out a few days ago just eliminating soda from my diet. at some point I realized I want to cut out caffiene too. last time I tried this I got a killer migraine from hell. I was also on allot of medication that was making things worse. Today I'm completely sober, off meds, and its not nearly as bad. We'll see how I fair in a few more days.

i bring out the...

so a friend just told me that I bring out the weird in me. Awesome!

the fix @ club madrid

practicing on their new stage.

Last nights little shindig at the Bunkhouse was fun. Lots of great people there. The opening band wasn't my kind of music (and in fact made me question my sexuality). But the drummer for that band was awesome! Then Fowler went up with Sweet Chaos. They were awesome...sadly they were 45 minutes late of awesome. haha. They didn't get to play their full set because the singer was ridiculously late. (We love you Sunshine..but...late is late..and that was really late.) This morning its off to Club Madrid for The_Fix @ 11am.

Collectors Edition Starcraft 2 details

So the new Collectors Edition for Starcraft II is $99 bucks! Ouchie. But see whats in it! OMG /drool.

OMG Click me! (arstechnica)

• The Art of StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty, a 176-page book featuring artwork from the game
• An exclusive 2GB USB flash drive replica of Jim Raynor's dog tag, which comes preloaded with the original StarCraft and the StarCraft: Brood War(R) expansion set
• A behind-the-scenes DVD containing over an hour of developer interviews, cinematics with director's commentary, and more
• The official StarCraft II: Wings of Liberty soundtrack CD, containing 14 epic tracks from the game along with exclusive bonus tracks
• StarCraft comic book issue #0, a prequel to the comic series
• A World of Warcraft(R) mini Thor in-game pet that can be applied to all World of Warcraft characters on a single Battle.net account
• Exclusive Battle.net downloadable content, including special portraits for your Battle.net profile, decals to customize your units in-game, and a visually unique version of the terran Thor unit

Net neutrality, the FCC, Comcast, and Glenn Beck

Every wonder what net neutrality is? Well you may not have to care much longer. Its dying. With it will come the ability for providers (ie: Comcast) to regulate your bandwidth based off what websites you goto and what you download. Wanna play warcraft? You may have to pay your provider to let you. Wanna talk on skype? How about use itunes? There's probably gonna be a package for that. 

Today the FCC lost. This is quite possibly one of the best articles i've read on net neutrality. Enjoy.
Click Here to read the full article

Happy Zombie Jesus Day

Zombie Jesus Happy Day!
Make my trouble go away.
You cam back from the grave,
and my brains you do save.
For a delicious desert.

Zombie Jesus, we love you.

Health Care Sunday

So this Sunday the Democrats finally passed the Reform Bill for Health Care. What I find appalling is the surge of media and viral information going against this bill. I can understand hesitation, but please please please...look up facts first.

1. Are the accusations being made accurate, or just rumor? (We have absolutely NO copy of that health bill publicly available in its entirety..so if a website claims to have a copy of the bill, they are lying. Yes people, the interwebz can lie.)

2. Is the accuser part of a special interest group? Find out "why" they don't want the bill to pass.


3. Have you ever had your insurance company deny you coverage on something? If you have an ongoing illness (athesma, migraines, even cancer) then you know what i'm talking about. This bill specifically is designed to prevent them from dropping coverage.


The Government is not making its own healthcare. Its policing some rules to lower health costs, increase coverage, and try to protect me and you from increasing health care costs. Its okay to have an opinion to oppose the bill, but please have an intelligent reason why, and not just hearsay, and rumor. I say, lets see where this goes. Either way we are along for the ride.

Dad's invincible!

So my dad had an angiogram recently. Thats where they shove a tube and camera inside you thigh, and follow that up to your heart.

While in his heart they found one of the feeder veins had 80% blockage (imagine a bar straw having only a hair follicle of gap left in it). So they did an angioplasty, put in 2 stints, and cleaned him up.

He recovered really quickly. He's gonna be great now. Turns out though that had he not done this, he would have croaked within a year. That vein is called the "widow maker" because if it causes a heart attack, you dont live through it.

So im blessed and thankful for havening my dad still with us. Wooo!! (Mmmm...havening....)

Fado

There is an awesome pub called Fado here in Vegas. Why is it awesome? Because when I showed up today, I got to sit with 3 incredibly beautiful women. For at least a good 20 minutes I felt like ..awesome. Then more people showed up....and it was still lots of fun. I haven't really gotten to hang out with Michelle since high school. Even then it was more of acquaintance. But tonight was fun! It was her birthday, and her friends are very good. So many different people from various walks of life. Everyone just kinda focused on "lets have fun and celebrate".

I hope she had a great time. I know I did and am completely blessed that she invited me. Thank you Michelle.

Old Republic Commando

So over at Massively.com one of the article writers got to play the current build of the Old Republic, and write a review of it. Its very nice.

GDC10: Hands-on with Star Wars: The Old Republic

I could easily spend this article telling you about the amazing LucasArts Presidio compound, its history and the incredible relics of the Star Wars universe adorning the walls and hallways. But I won't. I could also easily go on and on about how George Lucas and Star Wars inspired my childhood, and how even setting foot in the presence of such greatness was a bit overwhelming. But I won't.


Click the link for more.

Sinus infection of stupidity

So Tuesday I started feeling sick. No biggie...I could tough it out. Wednesday I took some dayquil sinus and IBprofen and it seemed to do the trick. Then this morning I woke up. It had spread into my ears, my throat and chest over night. Holy crap!

Went to the doc. They have me on Augmentin and Tylenol 3. Hopefully this nips it in the butt fast. Cuz from what I was told, even with a doctor's orders to not go back to work, i'll get days counted against me seperately anyway. That's kinda jacked up.

The Secret World Details - PC Preview at IGN

The Secret World Details - PC Preview at IGN

Really good interview. If you like World of Darkness...then you'll like this MMO. I think of it as a precursor, and hope that White-Wolf CCP's MMO will blow it out of the water.

Coming to a P2P network near you: your medical records

Coming to a P2P network near you: your medical records

Obviously Canadians don't believe in advised network admins before doing online projects that are specifically designed to "check for security violations".

Physicists look for the arrow of time, biologists find it

Physicists look for the arrow of time, biologists find it

Pretty much this article is about how our universe will eventually give birth to smaller child universes. Those universes will move at a different flow of time than ours...time could literally move backwards for them..but it would be forward to how they evolve. (imagine backwards evolution where a species starts off advanced and eventually becomes microbial over billions of years)

Neat stuff.

Clear!

So i've been working for Clear for a few months now. I've gotten to see some of their more backhanded processes and frustrating technical issues.

This company is actually really good. I've seen sooo much worse. Every company has its technical issues, but the way they treat their customers and employees is so much better than any company i've ever seen.