This has RPG and tech components, so I’m putting it in both. Most of it has to do with e-readers and the iPad at large. I also talk about how gaming might be able to take advantage of the iPad.
Hoo boy. The Internet has worked itself up into a fine frenzy now, on account of Apple’s latest device, the iPad. For my part, I’m already sick of hearing people pontificate about it. The extent to which people believed baseless Internet hype isn’t terribly surprising. What I did find surprising is that people’re pissed that Apple’s device didn’t live up to the mythical device people had built up in their heads.
Oh, sure, if we’re talking about the actual device, I’m intrigued.
I decided a little less than a year ago that I had no interest in a netbook. The small form factor and low price were attractive. The keyboards were cramped; I didn’t want Yet Another Windows XP machine; and ultimately, I saw the lackluster performance firsthand. I could’ve gone for Linux, I suppose. My girlfriend’s netbook, originally an XP machine, now has a bunch of Linux Problems.
By contrast, I could see myself buying an iPad, either this generation or next. I own an iPod Touch and a Nexus One (disclosure: I work for the big G, meaning I received the latter as a Christmas gift). I frequently make use of one of my miniature devices, and while I enjoy the browsing experience, it could easily be improved.
Beyond that, I have some other thoughts.
I try to keep my browser windows segregated by task, but sometimes tabs can proliferate to the point where you want to split them off into a new window.
Trouble is, sometimes I don’t stick with that, and I want to move all those tabs to a new window. Most browsers have drag & drop functionality, but that can be tricky to use. Pulling a tab off of a maximized window to make a new window means that when you try to drag another one onto the new window, the maximized window takes up focus.
In Windows, you can effectively tile your windows by selecting a window, holding down the Windows key, and pressing a direction. So I might Ctrl-N to create a new window, Win + Right to move it to the right, Alt-Tab back to the main window, Win + Left to move it to the left, and then start the drag-and-drop procedure.
All right, no more procrastinating.
Tags: win7
All right, so let me get this out of the way: I am a sucker for new and shiny things.
That might lead you to peg me as a Mac guy. You’d be half right. I like anything that’s new and shiny. Here’s what I am excited about right now.
It’s an absolutely fascinating time in the PC industry right now.
First of all, a little known company released a little known operating system. [Perhaps you've heard of it?][win7] It’s kind of a big deal! Vista was a black eye, for a variety of reasons, and Windows 7 is very much an attempt to recover from the loss of reputation and generate interest in their operating systems once again.
In light of Windows 7′s release, you can find a whole heck of a lot of analysis about Vista, Windows 7, and (of course) Apple. Read the rest of this entry »
A had one of those moments that makes me glad I have some basic competence with the various GNU tools.
I’m giving Markdown a shot. I got sick of HTML. It’s cumbersome and not pleasant to read, and wyswig editors that operate with HTML under the hood have their own set of problems. Given the choice, I prefer a Wiki-like syntax. Markdown’s a lot like this; it’s human-readable but powerful in terms of the formatting it allows you.
Once I found a WordPress plugin and a Vim syntax file, I was all set.
What’s more, Ubuntu has a package called python-markdown. I’m not sure whether or not I’ll use Markdown for anything other than blog posting, but on the other hand, it’s awfully tempting to take advantage of this kind of intuitive, powerful formatting.
Yes, I’ve taken a step down a dark path: I’m writing blog posts in Vim, in Linux. Although I use it for coding as often as possible, I’ve thus far avoided it for anything like actual writing.