Archive for the 'Software' Category

Mario Kart Wii

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 29th April 2008
in Software and Video Games
. 2 Comments

When I got home today, not only did I find a fresh set of Yokohama tires for Chris’s car, but I also found a box from Amazon. That could only mean that I now have Mario Kart Wii! I have only been playing it for about 90 minutes, but it is loads of fun.

If you have the game, add me with friend code 2535-4100-9655. Post your friend code in the comments, and we’ll race online!

Have to Spaz out

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 25th March 2008
in Software
. 0 Comments

I know I’m late to the game yet again, but Hersch told me about a Twitter client called Spaz that is available for OS X, Windows and Linux. It uses the Adobe Integrated Runtime (AIR), and it is pretty slick. I’m going try it out for a few days. If it works as well as Hersch says it does, I’m going to say bye to Twitbin.

Twitter in Plain English video

Published
by
Mark
on Thursday 6th March 2008
in Software
. 0 Comments

A number of people have asked me about this Twitter thing that I do now. I try to explain that it is sort of like a mini-blog or a collection of away messages publicizing what I am doing at the time. Sometimes they get it, other times they don’t. Robert Scoble (a.k.a. Scobleizer) tweeted a link to this video: Twitter in Plain English. Check out the wonders of Twitter:

A few things

Published
by
Mark
on Thursday 28th February 2008
in Entertainment, General, Hardware, Software, TV, Technology and Work
. 8 Comments

Here are just a few things for tonight:

  • I have only been using twitter for a few weeks, but I am to the point where twitter is on the fritz again and I don’t know what to do. It’s the strangest feeling.
  • I ordered that Garmin StreetPilot c550 from Buy.com the other day, but they haven’t shipped it yet. I’m going to be leaving for Seattle next Friday, and I’m worried it might not get here in time. Update: According to FedEx, it should arrive on Tuesday.
  • Miro has been acting up a lot lately, unexpectedly skipping to the next video, only playing audio for some video, and doing similarly bothersome things. I’m starting to wonder if I should check iTunes for some of the video podcasts I subscribe to in Miro.
  • I really want a Drobo, but I can’t justify spending almost $700 for the storage robot and NAS accessory. Even with the $50 off with the “CALI” coupon code, it’s still too expensive for a system that does not come with any disks.
  • I haven’t watched tonight’s episode of Lost. My internet just got slow because Miro kicked in. I’ll have to try to watch that tomorrow before I see the other cast of Evita at HEHS. Update: I did watch Lost, and it was pretty good, but not my favorite. They are starting to tread in waters that may be too far off shore to get back.

That’s pretty much it for now. I’m going to try to get some sleep. I’ll be hitting the ICE conference in the morning, checking out what’s new on the educational technology front.

Delicious Library

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 26th February 2008
in Software
. 0 Comments

Delicious LibraryI wish I had a Mac. While I love the "Unix underpinnings," the reason I really want a Macright now is Delicious Library. This software is so unbelievably awesome at managing a personal library of books, movies, music and video games, and it’s only $40!

Using just about any webcam, scan the bar code from the item you want to add to your library. DL will search for your item and add it to your library once it is found. It will also include a lot of meta data about the item, such as cover art, publisher, release date, and retail price. DL uses the cover art to display a virtual shelf with your items.

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OpenID support enabled

Published
by
Mark
on Saturday 23rd February 2008
in Software
. 0 Comments

I have enabled OpenID support for the blog thanks to VerseLogic’s OpenID plugin. With OpenID you can authenticate to supporting sites using a URL you control. As long as you are authenticated to your OpenID provider, you can quickly authenticate with any other OpenID site. The first time you log into a site with OpenID, you can quickly create a profile by sharing information with your OpenID provider and the new website.

I did not opt to manage my own OpenID yet, but if I like phpMyID after taking a good look at it, I might just manage my OpenID with it. I am going to see about implementing OpenID on blogho.us, but that looks like it will require some extra effort. Perhaps it will be worth it, though, if I migrate over the other blogs hosted here. I have been wanting to do that for some time, since ask-mark.com was never really meant to be anything more than a place for me to vent. I think it would serve the other blogs better to be on their own domain. Maybe blogho.us isn’t it, though. I’ll have to figure that out later.

Right now, I’ve got to get ready for Cristina’s birthday party.

The return of Windows

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 29th January 2008
in Hardware, Software and Work
. 3 Comments

Thursday, January 3rd, I finally got around to re-installing Windows on my work laptop (yes, this post has taken a while to complete). I decided on Vista over XP, because I know that I will have at least one virtual machine running Windows XP with our "base" software configuration. If I still want to keep playing with Linux, I can also run it in a virtual machine, although I probably won’t be able to utilize fun stuff like compiz. Just like the last time, I had a pain in the ass trying to find the drivers for my laptop’s hardware. Specifically, I had trouble finding the Bluetooth drivers and the updated drivers for several devices. Read on to find out more about my continuing journey to setup my work laptop, starting with my trouble activating Vista.

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