Written By: Gary on December 18, 2012
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When I first saw the Doctor Who EncyclopediaI was super excited, it was by Gary Russell and published by Random House and the BBC but it was a little pricey at $6.99 and it only included the eleventh Doctor Who (Matt Smith). The ninth and tenth doctors were an additional $6.99 each(!) [...]
Written By: Gary on November 21, 2012
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Many Electronic Arts games are way on sale today. Their annual Thanksgiving sale seems to be the best year round, it may last throughout the weekend; no promises for how long it will last, so get them before it runs out.
I listed some of the most popular ones [...]
Written By: Gary on September 8, 2012
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I’ve said before, Daleks are one of my least favorite Doctor Who villains, but “Asylum of the Daleks” is probably one of my favorite episodes and I can’t stop thinking (remembering?) a specific part. Last week, when The Doctor thought he was going to die, he told Amy to “make them remember you”. Why?
The [...]
Written By: Gary on August 21, 2012
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What’s the cost difference between purchasing an iPhone and an iPad? Not just the cost but what are you missing between one product and another. We’re going to talk about price first, but you need to remember an iPhone is not $199, it’s $649 for an unlocked world phone. A subsidized iPhone [...]
Written By: Gary on August 17, 2012
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One of the photo groups went out to a park at sunset to do some silhouettes. I’d never done this before so I made sure to attend.
There were twenty of us, so we were always asking the two models to move. We pretty much needed them between us and the sun.
A few [...]
Written By: Gary on June 6, 2012
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WIth today’s (alleged) password breach of LinkedIn, it made me think to change some passwords. Why? Because I had a few accounts that use the same passwords. Yes, I know that’s bad. But they were “unimportant” to me at the time I was checking them out, but later they because more [...]
Written By: Gary on May 9, 2012
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Selling on-line through eBay is easy and (at the same time) challenging. It’s slightly addicting and euphoric when people bid and you make a sale. I was at a comic convention and some stuff I had I couldn’t sell (my target audience is right there) no matter how low I made the price, [...]
Written By: Gary on March 31, 2012
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Use Dropbox for free backup of your files to the cloud! Get 5GB total free space (it’s normally 2GB).
Written By: Gary on March 13, 2012
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This is why I canceled my new Verizon iPad 4G LTE order…
It’s really not as drastic as it seems, I still have my order in for an AT&T iPad 3, I only canceled my Verizon order. When they were first announced I wasn’t sure which one would be better to get to use globally [...]
Written By: Gary on January 3, 2012
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I’ve got too much stuff. So I’m cleaning, trashing and selling 500 pounds of “stuff”. I hope to do this in a month, but we’ll see how that goes.
I’m also reading (as one of many changes) in an [...]
Written By: Gary on November 4, 2011
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I have a confession to make. My favorite iPhone app is made by… (wait for it!) Microsoft! Yes, I said the “M” word! This program is awesome and easy for creating 360° panoramas, it’s called Photosynth. Actually, it’s more than 360°, it’s right/left [...]
Written By: Gary on November 2, 2011
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Having a phone that works internationally is great in case of an emergency. The problem is that when you’re in another country calls are $2.29 to and from the United States, even if you don’t answer the phone, you’re billed for as long as it rings. I found this out a few trips [...]
Written By: Gary on November 1, 2011
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Two things for today: a photo thing and a numbers thing.
Today is 11/1/11 or if you live over seas it’s 1/11/11. I like fun number things, in 10 days we’ll have another date number thing.
And in a few days my car milage will be 123456! So hopefully I don’t miss [...]
Written By: Gary on October 21, 2011
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I had a list of the things that I wanted on the new iPhone 5. Yes, I said iPhone 5, this is the 5th iPhone no matter what you want to call it. I take a lot of photos and it’s not so important that I use my phone, but the phone is [...]
Written By: Gary on October 18, 2011
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It’s really more of a history of entertainment and communications technology and how it grew (or shrunk) into the iPhone. The iPhone part is pretty small overall (it’s not just an Apple video).
CNET UK Presents: History of the iPhone from Drew Stearne on Vimeo.
I thought it was a good introduction to [...]
Written By: Gary on August 31, 2011
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AT&T customers can get 1,000 FREE rollover minutes by texting YES to 11113020. It’s that simple!
As you can see I’ve already gotten my response. This is the same number they used for a similar promo earlier this year, I did it then and those minutes did show up in my account. [...]
Written By: Gary on August 10, 2011
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I liked Christopher Echelson, he was cocky but also caring at the same time. He was more of a fighter then the Doctor’s since and he tried not to take any crap. But part of why I liked him was that while he was tough he also had a soft side.
My
Written By: Gary on August 9, 2011
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Doctor Who has been around for almost fifty years, I never got into it, I knew he was a SciFi icon but it wasn’t my thing at all, which is strange in that it’s about a time traveler and I love time travel. In 2005 they reintroduced the series after being off the air [...]
Written By: Gary on August 4, 2011
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I love the camera on the iPhone, while it’s not the best digital camera I’ve owned, it’s always with me and it’s lots better than others that I’ve owned*. I’ve taken well over 400 photos in the last two months (actually it’s got an okay flash, a digital zoom, tap to focus, HDR (High Dynamic [...]
Written By: Gary on June 22, 2011
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So when driving during rush hours, I listen to WWJ 950 AM for traffic reports on the 8′s. But the don’t get a chance to report every problem every report and sometimes I miss the last report as I’m walking out the door. So I also subscribe (for free) to
Written By: Gary on May 29, 2011
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Lots of little things to do.
I’ve gotten two 8+ hours of sleep this weekend! Usually I get 11-14 on Friday and then nothing good on Saturday. If I can do this again, I’ll be up early for the sunny day tomorrow and maybe be on track for the rest of the week!
Go out [...]
Written By: Gary on May 24, 2011
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Am I silly for wanting this? It’s Seagate’s new GoFlex Satellite mobile wireless storage. It lets me have 500 GB of storage for my iPhone!!!
The 500 GB portable hard drive wirelessly connects to any Wi-Fi enabled mobile device, and can be used to store music, movies, pictures and documents of various types.
iOS users [...]
Written By: Gary on May 20, 2011
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So I recently downloaded Onavo for my iPhone. It cuts down on your data usage by compressing cellular data on the fly. I guess it zips up the text and lowers the quality of images (I usually don’t notice, but sometimes I do) SprintPCS used to do this [...]
Written By: Gary on May 18, 2011
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I saw the Hasbro my3D at the store yesterday and just had to have it. It makes for an interesting interactive 3D experience. You need an iPhone or iPod Touch to use it and I think it works better with the newer ones that have the gyroscope built-in. But [...]
Written By: Gary on May 11, 2011
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So I’ve been needing a new bicycle rack for the last few years; ever since the bicycle accident where a tire rolled off a car and while I managed to swerve, out of the way, it still managed to ruin my bicycle and my bike rack (both of which I really really liked). [...]
Written By: Gary on April 16, 2011
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So this kid Trevor plays songs on the computers at Apple stores and records videos of himself dancing to them and posts them to YouTube. They’re entertaining and he’s certainly not shy! I actually heard about him because someone else was complaining about the girls in the background making fun of [...]
Written By: Gary on March 18, 2011
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So as part of the Red Nose Day fundraiser The Doctor had a short appearance on the show Comic Relief.
The big bonus is he left two short 3-minute episodes behind! One called “Space” and one called “Time
They’re incorrectly both labeled “time”.
It also tells up that the next [...]
Written By: Gary on December 21, 2010
4 Comments
Totally worth going outside for! The eclipse was very cool looking. I’d had a long day so I’d taken a nap and set the alarm to make sure the sky cleared up enough, it did, so I got my gear together and went outside for a while.
It looked much much redder than [...]
Written By: Gary on December 14, 2010
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Poor customer service has always been a annoyance to me. Be nice and be courteous and try to deliver it with a smile. Especially in this economy, how can you afford not to be nice and courteous?
That said, the folks at the Wash Haus (in Dearborn, Michigan) have always been extra-nice and ultra-courteous. [...]
Written By: Gary on November 5, 2010
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So I guess I shouldn’t complain about life too much. Things could certainly be worse.
Although, that’s not really true, one of the things I learned from volunteering at the shelter (and/or the crisis hotline) is that if you’ve got problems, it doesn’t matter if someone else has it worse, they’re still [...]
Written By: Gary on August 8, 2010
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Wow, I just saw this list today for the first time, and it’s got some amazing tidbits from the past. I was suprised I’ve read most of them, in their original form or in reprints.
Today is the last day to vote, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t look at [...]
Written By: Gary on April 1, 2010
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Many Electronic Arts games appear to be on sale today. It’s looking like an Easter sale, up to 80% off, so it may be throughout the weekend; no promises though…
Written By: Gary on March 6, 2010
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So people used to say something like “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”, for most of my life I think the closest I could come to that was “Where was I during the attempted Reagan assignation?”, it’s not the same thing, but it’s a President being shot so it’s what came to [...]
Written By: Gary on March 3, 2010
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This is a time lapse of the roll out from the VAB (Vertical Assembly Building) to the launch page, I’d guess it’s about an hour of moving per minute. I’ll admit it’s not the most exciting time lapse video but it’s a lot faster than the live video was last night (it was about [...]
Written By: Gary on January 22, 2010
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While I’ll sorely miss David Tennant, it’s time for the newest Doctor to take over the show. Matt Smith will star as The Doctor on Doctor Who this spring (April or May?) and I’m ready to see where they take the show.
While at first glance it appears that it’ll be a younger doctor than [...]
Written By: Gary on January 9, 2010
2 Comments
Here are some of my easy tips for reducing spending. I don’t go in to as many items as Kim (from the Friday Question) does but these can add up quick so I’ll share a few of my easiest ones. Actually I think most of these add up faster than shopping [...]
Written By: Gary on December 18, 2009
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Only seven more days until the Christmas Doctor Who special The End of Time. This is the first of a two-part episode which would be the last episodes starring David Tennant. I’m assuming since that part two will be on New Year’s day (they keep saying he’ll be The Doctor until 2010). [...]
Written By: Gary on December 4, 2009
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The iPhone eats battery power. The more you use it the more it eats. As a result, the more you use it the unhappier you get when it dies.
So I picked up this 1900mAh external battery and it was a great investment.
I keep it in my bag and [...]
Written By: Gary on November 27, 2009
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So I tried out CoPilot Live North America GPS turn-by-turn software. First off let me point out it’s on sale for $24.99 through December (and then it goes back to $34.99) and it appears to include free quarterly updates (with no time limits listed as of today). Secondly please note that [...]
Written By: Gary on November 6, 2009
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So this week’s Friday Question (#87) is
“If rain could fall in any scent, what scent would you want it to be?”
I had several answers come to mind: I like the smell of rain, the ocean, or I think I’d get bored of the same smell. But the I [...]
Written By: Gary on October 24, 2009
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I shot, edited (titles and transitions) and uploaded this video from my iPhone. I used ReelDirector for the editing. This is my first attempt but it was way easy to use. The video was shot on the iPhone, edited on the iPhone and e-mailed to YouTube for uploading. It’s [...]
Written By: Gary on October 14, 2009
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I really liked Michael Lewis’s book Moneyball: The Art of Winning an Unfair Game. It’s the story of how Billy Beane turned the Oakland A’s Baseball team around by picking players with statistics.
The story of Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane successful attempt to put together a baseball club on a [...]
Written By: Gary on October 5, 2009
3 Comments
Neil Gaiman was speaking in Toledo tonight and I was able to go. Another cool birthday present that can be considered to be priceless, the cost of the item has nothing to do with the value of it.
He was part of an author series put on by the Toledo-Lucas County Public Library and the [...]
Written By: Gary on September 21, 2009
4 Comments
Replace my laptop? Not a chance! But the more I use it…
Previously I took my laptop everywhere. The iPhone has easily cut out 20%-25% of my dragging around a laptop; my rule is generally don’t leave home without it.
With my iPhone, I’m still connected to the world. I can read, I can forward [...]
Written By: Gary on September 21, 2009
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The OpenInternet.gov site is kind of boring so far, but the here’s the intro video (the first 60 seconds of the below intro probably says all you need).
Here’s the direct link.
The speech given this morning is different (video not available yet) and has some actual content [...]
Written By: Gary on September 20, 2009
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This new free add-on to AT&T Cell phones that starts today for sign-up. You’ll get to choose 5 numbers with unlimited to and from calling for individual plans $59.99 a month or higher. Family plans $89.99 a month or higher get to choose 10 numbers (shared between all users). It looks like [...]
Written By: Gary on September 10, 2009
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So if you have any older iPod or iPhone accessories or chargers many of they don’t charge properly. I’m not sure what they changed but it’s a pain when it’s a nice speaker dock or your car stereo won’t charge our battery (and instead drains the battery).
Enter the Scosche Charging Adapter for [...]
Written By: Gary on August 20, 2009
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The Lens Day Challenge for this week is Traffic.
People in Costa Rica barely look at the stop signs. Do they really think someone is going to read this one? This is a pretty busy sign, no matter where you are. And just in case you aren’t sure: Alto [...]
Written By: Gary on June 26, 2009
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Last Saturday night I went downtown to see the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Project Bandaloop. Here’s the description (from the web site):
A late-night outdoor concert held on the lawn adjacent to The Ellington parking structure, across from Orchestra Hall. San Francisco’s extraordinary aerial dance troupe, Project Bandaloop, will [...]
Written By: Gary on June 21, 2009
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I’ve had a few people just happy that the iPhone phone dropped to $99 (for 8GB) and are tempted to get that instead of the $199 model with more features (and 16 GB). They want to know if it’s really worth the $100 more.
Here’s why it’s worth it (and I’m not even going [...]
Written By: Gary on June 16, 2009
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So in my attempt to start using Twitter more I installed TweetDeck today. Coincidentally, later on today they also released a free iPhone/Touch version of TweetDeck today which will sync with your columns (you need to download the new desktop version for the syncing). Syncs with multiple desktop [...]
Written By: Gary on June 9, 2009
2 Comments
Most of the iPhone OS 3.0 features aren’t anything new, they were announced months ago. So much of yesterday’s keynote dealing with the iPhone was not a surprise. What was a surprise was how stupid that AT&T looked when they weren’t ready for tethering or MMS!
I think 29 countries are ready [...]
Written By: Gary on June 3, 2009
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So as I’ve mentioned before, I’m really counting on a new iPhone announcement next week. Actually, I’m counting on a new release…
Here’s a sign that’s been hung at the WWDC (World-Wide Developer’s Conference) for next week.
Another big bonus would be Steve Jobs showing up at the end of the keynote for “just one more [...]
Written By: Gary on May 30, 2009
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This has happened to me several times at Kohl’s Department Stores. I’ll return something after paying my bill and while I might buy something there I’ve still got a credit with them (i.e. they still owe me money). So they send me a refund check.
This time it was only for [...]
Written By: Gary on May 17, 2009
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I’ve mentioned it a few times before but in less than 3 weeks (June 6-7, 2009) it’s time for WordCamp Chicago. It’s only $31 and it’s getting full (only 50 spots left) so sign up now. You can get more information at the
Written By: Gary on May 12, 2009
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I got way overwhelmed with my RSS feeds, I’ve got gobs of them (almost 300). Many of those feeds don’t get updated more that once a month (if ever) so they really don’t impact the list, but a dozen or so update 2-4 times a day. Plus, I recently added everyone coming to [...]
Written By: Gary on May 6, 2009
One Comment
Testing the WordPress Client for the Touch and iPhone.
A few extra features with editing categories and pages, but I can’t figure how to use a current category. You can publish or keep local drafts too. Looks like it will post more than one photo (unlike iBlogger).
Sample screen below…
I like this, it’s [...]
Written By: Gary on April 22, 2009
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It just started to rain out. It’s really been looking like it’s wanted to for a few hours now, the waves have been pretty rough all day (I didn’t go into the ocean, even though I planned to) and there’s been cloud cover and extra humidity all day. I dashed into the Pizza Parlor in [...]
Written By: Gary on April 13, 2009
349 Comments
So I get an e-mail from iTunes today stating that an episode for my new season pass for “Sophie” has arrived. The first thing I thought was that I accidentally clicked “buy season” when I downloaded the free pilot last week. But when I check the receipt I see six other items (in [...]
Written By: Gary on March 27, 2009
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So for one hour on March 28, 2009 at 8.30pm the WWF and Earth Hour US wants you to turn off your lights for one hour starting at 8:30 pm, it doesn’t appear to matter what time zone you’re in, just 8:30 your time.
But they appear [...]
Written By: Gary on March 24, 2009
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Admiral Grace hopper lived from December 9, 1907 to January 1, 1992 and had a lot more to do with computing than most names you know today.
“A ship in port is safe, but that’s not what ships are built for. ”
She graduated from Vassar in Mathematics and Physics and got her Ph.D. [...]
Written By: Gary on March 3, 2009
One Comment
We don’t get another Square Root Day for another 7 years, so be sure to celebrate wisely.
Today is 3/3/09 and 3 x 3 = 9 or more accurately (for today) the square root of 9 is 3. And the beauty of it is that it’s 3/3/09 no matter if [...]
Written By: Gary on February 22, 2009
One Comment
Don’t forget to register for WordCamp Chicago! It’s only $30.99 for a weekend of WordPress fun. They want to pick a venue based on how many people register by March 1st so sign up now. As far as I know you can register later, but if you register now if [...]
Written By: Gary on January 29, 2009
3 Comments
Apple’s iPhoto 2009 has two great new features, Faces and Places. One lets you identify people, the other where photos were taken. It appears to merge with FaceBook and Flickr too but I haven’t tried that yet.
Faces: Wow, the face recognition stuff is pretty cool. Add a name to a person [...]
Written By: Gary on January 26, 2009
2 Comments
So they are considering delaying the digital TV transition to June 12th, 2009 (the Senate already passed it). What a pain in the butt, I was so happy this was going to get wrapped up in less than a month!
Senate Commerce Chairman John Rockefeller said delaying the TV switch [...]
Written By: Gary on January 22, 2009
One Comment
I used to have a list of blogs that I read on the side of my page. It’s that actual list that I used to use to visit these sites. I did it through blogrolling and it generally marked them in bold when they had fresh data (but lots of sites didn’t seem [...]
Written By: Gary on January 21, 2009
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Here’s a list of sites (feeds) that I often read (and when I say often it’s generally daily). This is straght from my Google Reader, the trick is that I need to remember to add them to a shared category tag to have them display here.
Some of these sites [...]
Written By: Gary on January 19, 2009
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So the CTIA (Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association) has asked people to only text during the inauguration and not overwhelm the cell services with photo images even though they are spending millions temporarily upgrading D.C. I’m not sure how they asked them, but that’s what the NY Times says.
Here’s the fun part! [...]
Written By: Gary on January 14, 2009
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Registration for WordCamp Chicago is open! I don’t know how full it’s going to get so you better sign up quick. It’s a mere $30.99 for a weekend of WordPress goodness.
They haven’t picked a venue yet, I think it’ll depend on the number of people that sign up but [...]
Written By: Gary on January 11, 2009
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As a followup to my post on saving money for the holidays (over at WeLikeMoney.com) I’m going to talk about managing your utility bills, specifically your gas and electric bills.
Your electricity and natural gas bills fluctuate throughout the year: Air conditioning in the summer, heat in the winter, filters for the [...]
Written By: Gary on January 6, 2009
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So YouTube has three different qualities that I see quite often: Normal Quality, High Quality and High Definition (HD). Every video seems to be available in Normal Quality. Also, High Quality appears to generally be the same size as Normal and those can ben standard format (TV shaped) or wide screen formatted. [...]
Written By: Gary on January 6, 2009
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So it looks like some nice stuff:
iPhoto and iMovie with some nice updates.
The geo-tagging in iPhoto looks cool. Will someone please figure out a way to sync my GPS with my photos for the location they were taken!!!!
iWork on-line looks great and that it’ll give GoogleDocs a run for their money.
And [...]
Written By: Gary on January 3, 2009
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So Matt Smith is the new Doctor Who but we won’t see him until 2010. At 26 he’s the youngest Doctor Who although I’m guessing he’ll be a year older in 2010, but he is a time-lord so you never know…
The funny thing is that The Doctor generally uses “John Smith” when [...]
Written By: Gary on January 3, 2009
One Comment
I can’t believe I’m still doing this with 2,000 posts all over the last 5 years! Never would have thought it grow on me so much!
I was trying to come up with something monumental to blog about for this post, but that didn’t happen so I’ll give you a quick update on some [...]