by Matt | Mar 22, 2005 | Web
I’ve decided to play around with a few WordPress plugins lately. One of these is a Gravatar plugin. A Gravatar is a Globally Recognized Avatar (G.R.Avatar). It’s main purpose is to put in a use icon/avatar as easily as humanly possible. All I have to do is add 1 line of code to my comments page. All YOU have to do is upload a gravatar to their site. It’s simple. You upload an image, it can be anything, but it’ll be 80×80 pixels in the end, so keep it small. The site generates a keyhash based on your email address. Since you use your email address in the comment field of this (and other) web pages and journals, any site operator can use gravatars. When you put in your email address, it automatically looks up your avatar and adds it to the comment page. I don’t have to do any work, YOU don’t have to do anywork (outside of uploading an initial image that is). It’s really a piece of cake. So, if you guys want to, this is completely optional, you can upload a picture and every time you make a comment here it’ll get used. Cool huh?
Check out the site here: gravatar.com
by Matt | Mar 22, 2005 | Friends and Family
A quick little shout to my buddy Nagle. I caught him on IM for about 15 minutes yesterday. Life in Savannah seems to be going well for him. He’s even gotten a nifty little website up, complete with journal. So, make sure you check out Penquins and Polar Bears and say hi.
On the subject of SCAD friends, it’s been far to long since I’ve talked to any of them. I really miss those guys. It was college and it wouldn’t have been the same without a roommate who sleeps 18 hours a day or without someone’s couch to hang out on. Last week when we were at Dave and Busters I kept wondering if Nagle wanted to play that virtual boxing again.
Anyway, enjoy the linkage, he’s been added to the BlogRoll as well. And Nagle, I hope that house works out for you.
by Matt | Mar 21, 2005 | Culture
You know that phone I said I was getting… well, it turns out that it sucks monkey balls. Yeah, I know, I thought it was going to rock too. Apparently T-Mobile decided not to make a data plan available for that phone. That means that you have to pay for each and every text message, email and web browsing minute. The design of the phone was cool, it felt solid, but when you can’t check email on it, it defeats the purpose of having a keyboard doesn’t it?
So, whats the solution? A SideKick II of course!
I’ve wanted one of these things for about as long as they’ve existed and now I’m going to get one. It’s already been ordered, it should be here Friday. My choice of replacement phone was between 3 similar but different items. The Palm Treo 600, the BlackBerry 7730 and the SideKick II. I’ve had 3 different people tell me the Treos are nice but flimsy and that they didn’t last more than 6 months. Lauren’s old boss went through 3 of them in 2 months. The BlackBerry I know to be solid and of good design. The main problem with that is those things are 99% email oriented. Voice, web and everything else is secondary. I like to check my email, but it’s not going to be the top priority of my phone. I briefly considered staying with the A630 anyway just because it’s a cool phone and had the features I wanted. Then I reconsidered what I really wanted. My list is pretty short:
-email and easy text messaging FOR FREE
-camera
-bluetooth
-keyboard
-mp3 ringtones
The Sidekick has all these features except bluetooth and the mp3 ringtones. I can live without mp3 ringtones but I was really looking forward to a little bluejacking and the wireless headset capabilities. I had to choose between bluetooth and free text basically. I chose the service. I want to be able to look up movie times, write emails and text msg and I valued that over being without a 2 foot piece of wire.
The A630 is a nice phone, just not the phone for me. It lacked the one reason I was getting it in the first place. My new Sidekick will be here Friday. I can’t wait. They’re really solid and I like them a lot. It should be a good phone.
I also went a little crazy and wrote up a whole diatribe about cell phones, stupid people and the dumbing of America. If you’d like to read it you can click “more” at the bottom. It was originally going to go in the main post, but it’s about as off topic as you can get. The summation here is that I’m getting a different new phone than I planned. Oh, and stupid people piss me off… but that’s not really a new thing is it?
(more…)
by Matt | Mar 19, 2005 | Games
Last night Lauren, Robin, Humara, Chrisy, myself and a few random other people went out to Dave & Busters for Robin’s birthday. My groomsman probably remember D&B as the place we went out to for our bachelor party. For those unfamiliar, Dave and Busters is a big arcade, bar and resturant. You can eat, play pool, drink, play arcade games, etc. Anyway, being the complete geek I am, when I was asked to play BattleMech with 6 other people I jumped right in. I don’t know if anyone’s played that game before but it’s basically a big simulator sized version of Mechwarrior for the PC. Only, at an arcade, you get to sit in little pod with a joystick and throttle and speakers thumping in your chair.
Well, it was ugly. I neglected to tell any of the people I played against that I happen to play video games on occasion. I think my final score was 20 kills, 4 deaths and about 12,000 points. I think 2nd place had about 3 kills. They got schooled. I almost felt bad as I ran over a few of them. They all picked the “cool looking” mechs with the fancy designs and lasers and shit. I picked the heaviest mf’er with missle racks AND lasers. It probably didn’t help that the kid they had running it recommended the “smaller, faster mechs” for people who hadn’t played before. That was nice of him. TCC was representing at D&B last night.
Of course, after a night like that, where else can you go but IHOP. We got home around 3am and crashed. Hearing my alarm this morning did not feel good, neither did my “omg, I’ve been to IHOP” stomach ache. Oh well, it was fun.
by Matt | Mar 16, 2005 | Culture
My boss let me know today that we’ll be upgrading phones as a company. Everyone will be getting a shiny new toy but because I’ve “been working my butt off” as he put it, I get a super nifty phone… the Motorola A630.
The feature list is huge. Bluetooth, 1.5mpx camera, full data plan, qwerty keyboard in a clam-shell design AND it’s smaller and lighter than my current phone. I’ve wanted one of those SideKicks for quite some time and this is a blend of a SideKick and an actual useable phone. The main drawback with the SideKick was that it was the size of the average guys wallet (about 3×4 and 2″ thick). This Motorola is tiny. It’s solid feeling though, so it doesn’t feel cheap.
We’re still ironing out the plan details, but by sometime next week you should start to see my first few phone pictures ๐
Update: I found a feature list on a cell phone review site. All T-mobile will mention on their website is how cool it is and then they mention the keyboard about 12 times. When you clicked on “specs” you get things like “cool full color camera”. That, ladies and gentlemen, is not a “spec” by any stretch of the imagination. So, I had to find some…
Highlights
* Innovative Fold-in-half Form With Hidden QWERTY Keyboard
* Bluetooth Wireless Technology
* High-Speed GPRS Data Downloads
* Downloadable Java Applications
* Integrated VGA Camera With 4x Digital Zoom
* Large Vivid Color Display In Landscape
* Excellent Battery Life Over 4 Hours
Specifications
* Digital Camera – 4x Zoom, Self-Timer, VGA
* Bluetooth Wireless Technology – Yes
* Two-handed Gaming Experience – Yes
* Wireless Multi-player Gaming – Yes
* Video Capture – Up To 1 Minute Long
* QWERTY Keyboard – Yes
* Data Capable / Use This Phone As A Modem – Yes
* PC Synchronization – Yes
* Mobile Web Browsing – WAP 2.0
* Multimedia Messaging – EMS 5.0 and MMS
* Text Messaging (SMS) – 2-Way
* Email Client – SMTP, POP3, IMAP4
* Instant Messaging – AOL Instant Messenger Built-In
* Polyphonic Ringtones – Yes, 24 Chords
* Ringer Profiles – Yes
* MP3 Ringtones – Yes
* Picture Caller ID – Yes, And Picture Phonebook
* Multiple Languages – 4 Supported
* Games – Downloadable Titles
* Customizable Graphics – Yes
* Customizable Themes – Yes
* Customizable Animated Wallpapers – Yes
* Internal Color Display – 220×176 Pixel TFT, 65,000 Colors
* External Display – 96×48 Pixel, W/ Blue Backlight
* Speakerphone – Automatic Full-Duplex
* Hands-Free Dialing – 20 Entries
* To-Do List – Yes
* Voice Memo – Yes
* Alarm – Yes
* Calculator – Yes
* Currency Converter – Yes
* Calendar – Yes
* Vibrate – Yes
* Phonebook Capacity – 1000 Entries
* Multiple Numbers Per Name – 6 Entries Per Contact
* Battery Type – LiIon 820 mAh
* Talk Time – Up To 260 Minutes
* Standby Time – Up To 200 Hours (8.33 Days)
* Application Platform – Java MIDP 2.0
* High-Speed Data – GPRS
* Network Compatibility – GSM 900, 1800, 1900
* Predictive Text Entry – iTAP
* Built-In Memory – 5MB, Flash Shared Memory
* SyncML Supported – Yes
* Dimensions – 1.91รขโฌย x 3.74 in x 0.93 in
* Weight – 4.34 oz
* Device Supports Voice Plans – Yes
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