Published on February 2, 2010
So, Xmas is past but if you had any hard core geeks on your gift list last year I’m betting it was a royal chore finding something “suitable” for them. Tell me, honestly: where do you think that gizmo is now?
My friends, I’m here to make your next foray into geek giftdom an experience you can actually look forward to! It’s obvious that you, unschooled in the ways of geekdom, don’t read the right web comics, so I’m presenting the User Friendly flowchart that will make you a geek’s hero (click image for a larger version):
Now that you are suitably grateful to have this onerous task lifted from your shoulders, feel free to visit the font of geek wisdom at its source:
User Friendly, The Comic
Published on February 2, 2010
He helps expose the dark underbelly of what really goes on at some “club testing” events. Tell him Spinny sent you.
The Golf Digest Hot List is a Joke (And We’re Not Laughing) at Addicted2Golf
Published on January 28, 2010
First off, don’t get me wrong: I love my new Alienware laptop. It rocks in so many ways I haven’t found them all yet. Still, some things are just too damned fancy in my godlike opinion.
For instance?
Instead of clicky-button controls for things like volume control, CD ejection, media control (what? your laptop doesn’t have play, fast forward and rewind buttons?) and all that other stuff, mine has touch-sensitive capacitance controls. It’s the same idea as the ubiquitous touch pads, taken to another level of fancy-it-up-because-we-can. Well, today mine suddenly stopped working. About the same time, the tap-to-click function on the touch pad also went south–though at the time I didn’t realize the two events were related.
I got on the phone with Dell tech support (well, I’d been told my model Alienware machine had to go through Dell for such things, though in the end that turned out to be a load), and here’s a side rant: I had to run the gauntlet of no fewer than three obsequious functionaries, each one of whom asked me for the same damned information. Why don’t these people type in this stuff and pass it along to the next obstacle on the course?
Anyway, once I finally got to the Alienware guy with the tech-related flow chart to read from instead of the administrivia one, we went through a ritual of remove battery, unplug, hold down the power button, and so on. Reverse, rinse, and Glory Be: that fixed the problem.
Which was?
It seems this laptop, over time, can build up a “residual charge” in the frame. That translates to screw-with-capacitance in how-can-this-annoy-me parlance. By discharging everything, the balance was restored to The Force and all was again well.
So, tell me again why we can’t just have buttons?
Published on January 22, 2010
I can’t be the only person who gets annoyed by Microsoft’s insistence on re-booting my machine without asking first. Who the hell do they think they are? I gave permission to install updates autonomously, but why does that include a re-boot? The proper procedure is to install the updates, then provide notice that a re-boot is now needed, and LET ME DECIDE WHEN TO DO IT.
Sometimes I leave my machine in the state I want to find it in come morning, and I’m getting sick and tired of waking up to browser crash notices and windows I’ve left linked for convenience being gone.
Guess I need to revoke some au-tho-ri-teh.
Published on January 15, 2010
Why don’t, instead of working feverishly on competing standards, these web geek gurus get together and come up with a single one that offers the best of both? Can anyone say ego issues?
The graphics display features in HTML 5 are attractive to a graphics geek like moi, but I have to pause: will HTML 5 become such a pile of bloatware that it rivals a Microsoft product? Sure, it’d be nice to be able to post up animations that don’t require proprietary software and plug-ins (I’m talking to you, Flash people), but what part of such displays belong in the realm of content that shouldn’t be in the main standard? I’m not sure, but vastly expanding the markup language seems to me a one-way street leading to aforementioned bloat.
This doesn’t even address the usual bitch about having to worry about what’s becoming two very different markup languages. So web designers need to keep current in both, or does this become a Light Side/Dark Side decision? I personally favor XHTML, mainly because I’m also a coding geek in other languages and I like the alignment with the XML standard. Seems cleaner to me. See “bloat” again, above.
Know what I really think? I believe if there’s a clear winner between the two standards down the road it will be the one the porn industry embraces. Worked before.
Published on January 14, 2010
Like many people in this country whose mindset isn’t somewhere to the right of Adolph Hitler (Godwin alert!), when FAUX Noise comes to my attention I greet it with a mixture of exasperation and sadness (for the dupes who believe their shtick). Words usually don’t fail me, but I’ve never really had the inspiration to summarize the plague that they are in any coherent form.
Well, my good friend John (who also happens to be a virtuoso guitarist and arranger) put the muse (perfectly IMNSDHO) to words this morning:
“Fox gets good ratings telling ultra right wing people what they want to hear, keeping them angry, afraid and divisive.”
Bravo, John; bravo.
Obligatory disclaimer: I don’t like any of the major “news” outlets, don’t get me wrong. I’m an independent in many ways, including how I try to obtain actual news instead of spin and hype. It just seems to me that FOX is worse than the rest in generating those two brands of misinformation, and the people who eat it up seem louder than is the norm. The bottom line is all the “news” networks suck.
Published on January 12, 2010
So, one of my favorite time-wasters (especially when golf is out of season) is making “digital art.” I work in 3D and 2D, and use a boat load of different applications to get the effects I want. You might have seen my gallery of past work linked on the left, there, but I really haven’t updated that pile in ages. (Editor’s note: the site has since had a complete make-over and the left hand nav buttons are history. Read further for a current link.)
I have been doing new stuff, however; it’s just over on a page of its own because frankly I’m kind of tired of my existing web site design. The site doesn’t really have any place for showing off Flash animations, for example, and the gallery slideshow format is getting old. I don’t know what I want the new design to look like, and I’m not going to revamp things until I have a plan in place, so for now my new work gets a quickie page. Curious where it is? I thought you’d never ask. Here:
Spinny’s recent artwork
Be advised that for a couple of pieces your browser needs to be able to support Flash animations. How cool is that?
I’ve got some fun new stuff in the works that’ll get posted when ready. At the moment I’m on hold due to my aged graphics computer being on death’s door. It overheats a lot now, and that makes it run slowly when it runs at all–but even when it was in good form its tech is over six years old. Yeah, I know, does it even have a color screen? Heh. Some of the software I’m using now just slays it. Time was, a dual hyperthreading CPU and 128MB of video memory was hot…now it’s so not.
The good news is I have a new rig on the way, arriving this Thursday. Alienware M17x laptop, baby, with quad cores and maxed-out RAM. No more 36-hour render times for a nice cloudscape! I shall have The Ultimate Power! (insert evil laugh here)
Okay, so that’s about all the news outta Spinland for now. Later!
Published on January 7, 2010
The whole Tiger debacle has been what it is. Some people are upset, some pretend they knew it all along, some don’t give a rat’s ass, and some decide to make a funny. That’s what the fine folks over at My Dog Ate My Blog did when they posted Wood’s Wood Warrants 8 New Campaigns! Might as well go check it out and get a chuckle or two.
Published on December 2, 2009
This for all the media dingbats who, given all the really important shit going on in the world right now, seem to have nothing better to spend their time on than idle gossip and private domestic issues.
Step right up!
Published on December 1, 2009
No, not a way to chase away the gloom of the weekend ending by engaging in some hot net sex. Far more interesting: on-line vendors try to have their own version of Black Friday by offering special deals.
So, is it any good?
Mostly, I’d say no. Yeah, I saw some sweet prices on a few items, but a lot of places (I’m thinking) already have prices pared down to the bone as a result of ruthless internet competition, so how low can they really go? Some places offered to toss in an extra or two, but apart from a couple of notable %50 off sales my personal perception was “weak sauce.”
Did I just not shop the right places? Entirely possible. As is my wont when I’m “shopping,” I went out looking for pretty specific items–not interested in having my focus distracted by flashy ads. Impulse-buying on the internet is a recipe for trouble in my godlike opinion.
All the above being said, I did score a few things. I pointed out the notable sale prices, and since they were for things I was already going to get, I jumped. My weakness? Books. That, and instructional videos on things like golfing and 3D modeling. Oh, and new graphics software; that, too. So okay, yeah, I got stuff, and all my cynical snobbery about Cyber Monday is a load of hooey.
What’d you get?
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