"Okay. For this assignment, I will need you to turn in your cell phones".

I know what you're thinking. From the title, I started off another post by taking an un-cited quote out of context. Not to worry, though. I'm getting to the point. My post for today is about a new, amazing TV series called 'Girl Meets World'.

Now, normally, I would provide a brief synopsis of the series, but since the emphasis of this blog is "Technology" and not "Pop Culture", (although, don't get me wrong, the two generally work hand in hand when it comes to adoption), I'm going to forgo a full inclusion of said synopsis, and provide a link to one instead:

Girl Meets World Synopsis

Anyway, the episode focuses on, like most do, the classroom that Cory teaches in. One of his students, Riley (whom, is also his daughter), can't seem to verbalize her thoughts aloud (I can kind of relate to this). Maya, who we find out later doesn't have a smart phone, doesn't have a problem with this at all, apparently, as she is trying to get Riley to interact with her crush, Lucas via face-to-face communication. 

So the next thing we know, the bell rings, and they all enter Cory's classroom. The first thing Cory does, is he starts ranting about how nobody can communicate with each other anymore. By this point, another student shows up to his class late, explaining that "her goldfish died", with a completely straight face, showing no outward emotion whatsoever. Cory then uses this opportunity to further drive his point home and by this point he throws out the term "mindless, emotionless zombies", during which quote, the camera switches over to Riley and Maya gently nibbling at each other's ears and making growling noises. So, what Cory (or "Mr. Matthews") does to remedy this severe disappointment is he tells the class that they are going to the library to do an assignment on communication and he starts to pair people off and Maya and Farkle get paired up, and, much to Cory's dismay, Riley gets paired up with Lucas. Another curve ball that he throws out is that everyone has to turn in their cell phones, as stated in the quote that I used for the title of this post.

Now I've watched this episode a few times, per its Disney channel reruns, and one thing that I've learned from this episode (although I could be wrong) is that Riley is a complete introvert. They portray this fact in a few scenes: First at the beginning when Riley is texting Lucas in the hallway, and also during the library scene. 

I will admit that I can relate to this, especially because I have an easier time writing down my thoughts as opposed to verbalizing them. Anyway, before we get to the library scene, after school, Riley is sitting down at dinner with her family and everyone seems to be socializing except her, which, of course, everyone notices. Cory, Topanga, and Auggie, then try to get her to socialize by having everyone talk about their day, and then she lists everything that she thinks has gone wrong, like when her phone was taken away, and also that her dad was teaching her History class.

Anway, back to the library scene: So, they get to the library, and they're looking through shelves and shelves of books, and, of course, there's the stereotypical "old lady" librarian standing behind the circulation desk, whom Farkle immediately tries to flirt with, and who "shushes" them every time the group tries to interact with each other. Finally the librarian admits that the real reason she had been "shush-ing" the group is because she had been observing Riley and Lucas and found that they had been completely ignoring each other, which really bothered her (the librarian). Lucas decides to go with Maya to go pick a book out for reading, and the first book he pulls happens to be called "Tales of Human Interaction", to which Maya responds "Good job, Quick Draw", implying that he picked the right book for their assignment. So time passes, and Maya is paired off with Farkle and Riley is paired off with Lucas, and for a while, nothing happens. So Maya is reading their book aloud with Farkle and she comes to a particular quote: "Not until we put down our cell phones and look into each other's eyes do we truly know each other (or get to know each other)". 

Now somewhere around during this episode, Maya admits that the assignment wasn't that much of a sacrifice and shows Farkle a pencil sketch of a moon landscape, which he keeps. Anyway, the due date of the report arrives, and everyone is back in Cory's classroom. Maya and Farkle are the first to report, and Farkle admits that he thought that technology made life better in all aspects, but then he realizes and admits he was wrong and shows the class the pencil sketch that Maya gave him earlier in the episode, which I felt was truly amazing. 

Finally, the episode ends with the lead characters in the Matthews' apartment, and Riley explains how she learned that she doesn't always need her phone to communicate and Topanga realizes what has happened. So she tells Cory that he taught their daughter how to feel. Well, naturally, since Cory has adopted the persona of "over-protective dad", he questions this analysis, and asks Topanga how many "feelings" he gave Riley, and she tells him he gave her "all of them", which sends Cory into further denial with the admission of "I didn't mean to do that!"

Having not grown up in the "always on" era, I can truly appreciate the lesson they were trying to teach. I too, find that sometimes the existence of technology can be overwhelming, therefore, I try to choose carefully when I adopt a new product (but that's another post for another day).

And another picture of the main cast, just for good measure.

Now, for those of you who read this, and think "Wow. That sounds awesome. I want to see that", well, you are in luck. At the end of this article, there will be a link to the episode so that you can watch it at your leisure.

Initially the link was for a YouTube video, but Disney, being the greedy corporate bigwigs that they are (everyone wants to cripple free TV) forced Google to take it down, so the new link will send you to Amazon.com, where you can buy it for $2 or in HD for $1 more here.

Holy crap! Was that a penguin?!

So, a few weeks back, I decided to dust off my 10-year-old Pentium 4 2.8Ghz desktop (the one with the Intel motherboard) and see if it still worked. Those reading this might read this and think "WHY?!", so here's my explanation. At another point in this PC's life, I downloaded Android x86 (A mobile Linux distro that is retro-fitted for Intel-compatible processors) and tried to install it because I had never had any luck installing Linux on the above machine before because both the GNOME and Unity interfaces in mainstream Ubuntu have what I would feel are the same requirements as Windows Vista or higher.

But anyway, that's beside the point. In retrospect, I thought that what would happen when I installed it would be that it would boot directly into the Android GUI that we're all familiar with on our phones and tablets. Needless to say, it did not. In fact, the only time I have ever had that luck is when I tried to install it at Sinclair whilst using a virtual machine, and even that gathered mixed results, because, while I would be able to boot said virtual machine, whenever I would go to enable my keyboard and mouse input, what would happen is it would cause the host operating system (Windows 7) to crash. Anyway, what really happened with the home PC is all I would get was a command line interface. 

At some point, I had also attempted to get DOS and/or Windows XP re-installed on it without any luck. Some months back, I had misplaced my orange recovery DVD that came with the computer and so I tried other workarounds, such as a eMachines DVD (for either DOS or XP Home, which, is the OS the desktop is licensed for), and I even tried FreeDOS (an open source DOS alternative that is supposed to be compatible with MS DOS-It doesn't run Windows 3.1, by the way).

So, a few months go by, and by now, my spare PC has been sitting in the basement for a while. Then my brother gives me a spare laptop with an SD card reader (Thanks, Matt!). and my interest in reviving the spare PC is renewed. So, once I finally get the laptop restored and set up how I like it, I take an Ubuntu image with the LXDE interface and "burn" it to a 2GB SD card. Once I get that done, I put it in my spare PC and boot it up, and the Lubuntu boots up without any hiccups whatsoever (SCORE!).

So, I figure that since the machine will not boot without a new OS, I go ahead and install the OS within the GUI itself (again, no problems; so this is good news). The only hiccup I get is unlike Ubuntu with Unity, Lubuntu will not automatically recognize my USB wireless NIC without any extra software. This leads me to believe that the only option I have is stringing some network cable(s) through the house. Well, today I did just and in the process I also installed some software to go with it. Maybe one of these days, I'll string some more Ethernet cable down to the basement or buy another wireless NIC so I can use this PC online permanently.

So, that pretty much sums up this experience. I even have some screenshots for you readers to enjoy as you peruse this article at your leisure. Enjoy!  

.....AND STEP ON IT!!!!

You might see this title and think: "Well wow, that came out of nowhere", and yes, you're right, it did. So, I will just cut to the chase. today's lesson is on the Nintendo Fit Meter. 

The back-side of the Nintendo Fit Meter, where the clip is shown.

Nintendo Fit Meter packing, depicting the front of the device.

I bought this device on Saturday, May 31st, so I've had it for about two weeks, and already I've seen results. Thus far, my best day has been Thursday, June 5th, in which I walked 5,679 steps, and burned close to 1,000 calories (988, to be exact). It's definitely been a worthwhile investment, especially considering I only paid $20, and downloaded the game initially as a free trial. 

It's also an impressive device, especially if you consider what it evolved from, which would be a device called the "Pok'e Walker" (also developed by Nintendo), which allows you to take a Pokemon from Heart Gold or Soul Silver and transfer it to said device, and take it with you wherever you go. 

Pok'eWalker Device, as shown above. This is strictly for comparison.

But anyway, that's beside the point. The way this thing works is pretty impressive. Not only will it take into account for how many steps you take in a day, but it will also account for the number of calories burned, as well as altitude, and I know what you're thinking, but what's even cooler than that, is there is even a feature called "Fit Meter Challenge" that will allow you to transfer all of your data into a measurable amount of data for the distance of several famous landmarks, such as the Statue of Liberty, and the Eiffel Tower in the Altitude Challenge as well as several well known cities or regions, such as Tokyo, Japan or Sydney, Australia. 

The Walking Challenge screen allows you to virtually "travel" through various well-known cities throughout the world using the data from your Fit meter.

An example of this would be walking through New York City, which, is the current course that I am using my credits on.

This represents the altitude challenge. Since I am doing the New York Walking Challenge, my credits are automatically applied to the Statue Of Liberty.

This is the Altitude version of the Walking Challenge Map. See the caption of the previous picture for more information.

Along with the obvious Fit Meter features, there are other new features in Wii Fit U, such as the Gym Community, as well as newer exercises. The Balance Test feature has also been updated to work with the Wii U Game Pad, and even has tests that utilize its controller, like the "Dual Balance Test", where not only you have to align yourself in the correct position, but you also have to rotate the Wii U Game Pad accordingly, which, quite frankly, is easier said than done. It also claims that one of the two tests that it gives you is "for your mind", and sometimes that is true. For example, there's a test where it will show a couple of items for a few seconds and then ask you what the last one was, and if you get the answer wrong, it will draw a cut-off line, which will increase with each inclusive incorrect answer until you run out, kind of like the card game Guillotine.

Another new feature to Wii Fit U is "Multiplayer Mode, which, will allow you to play all of the Balance Games with multiple people in a "turn-based" fashion, a'la "Super Monkey Ball". This is kind of nice if you have friends over and you want to issue a friendly "challenge" to mix things up at a party in case the fun turns south.

Wii Fit U user selection screen. 

User menu, with Fit Meter Data and Fit Meter Challenge shown.

(6/12/2014-Update) Another thing: I read somewhere that you can shake the Fit Meter to trick it into thinking you've logged more steps than you actually have. Well, on June 12, 2014, I forgot to take it with me, so when I realized this, I tried to use the activity log (it's non-existent in this version*) and to compensate for my lost steps, I decided to try the experiment. Well, as it turns out, this experiment has merit, as I tried it after I got home today, and it worked. It'll definitely come in handy from time to time.

*(6/13/2014-Update) Turns out, that the activity log IS available in Wii Fit U and I was looking in the wrong spot. Needless to say, I added an extra 7 hours of credit time to today's Fit Credits-I know that's cheating, but I don't care) and I won't worry about yesterday anymore.

Anyway, just like the Wii U itself, my bottom line is "Don't knock it until you've tried it". $20 is not that much of a gamble for something that can make fitness fun, and overall, it's a vast improvement over it's 7th-generation predecessor (although I can't speak from experience about Wii Fit Plus). 

Measuring....Measuring....

Yes, that's the reaction of the Wii Balance Board when you start your balance test on Wii Fit. I bought this about five years ago when it was new, and with theoriginal Wii Fit game, it cost me about $90 (before taxes). Initially I was reluctant to try the game, as I intentionally bought the balance board for a different reason altogether (see "This Console Comes With a Tablet?!") but it's not a completely horrible device.

Now, granted, the last time I used this thing, I still had the 480p Wii and I was doing an in-home physical exam for an insurance provider, but that's beside the point. In all honesty, I actually have a love-hate relationship with the device. This will probably change when I get a Wii U Fit Meter (another post for another time), but in all honesty, it's really annoying how it monitors your progress and chastises a perfectly healthy person just because they're a pound overweight and throwing off their goal of "maintaining" the weight number that they had when they made the goal.

Also, the thing eats through 4 "AA" batteries at a time, and ordinarily this wouldn't be a problem, but "AA" seems to be the most commonly used household battery type in America, so my strong recommendation is to buy one of those special rechargeable battery packs that comes with a USB-based charging cable. For the original Wii, you will just be able to plug it into the console thanks to WiiConnect24's standby mode. However, if you are using the Wii U, I would strongly advise either a wall surge protector with USB ports (generally made by American Power Company or "APC") or dedicating a USB port on your PC for the task (especially if you have a TV tuner set up with your computer already).

Now, the original Wii Fit has two main options when you start the game and log in: "Body Test" and "Training". The first one is pretty straight forward. It will check your weight and Body Mass Index (or BMI) and then chastise or compliment you accordingly based on what your ideal goal and timeline are. If you choose to go on from there, you will be presented with two balance games (always chosen at random) and then it will tell you how fit you are by doing an age comparison with your current age. The second option is more complex, and this is because there are more options. There are different types of excercises, such as Yoga and Strength Training, and there are also other activities, called "Balance Games".

So, you might look at this and say, "Gee, that's all fine and dandy, but why would a pay around $100+ for a device that only works with one game (or series of games)?" --Well, that's because it DOES work with other games, and my favorite one (and the reason I bought it in the first place) is Rayman Raving Rabbids: TV Party (see "This Console Comes With a Tablet?!" for a brief synopsis of the game). If you get a chance, go out and buy it and read the manual, and you will see what I mean. Plus, since the device is manufactured by Nintendo, it's pretty sturdy, and can take a beating. I've actually dropped it once or twice by accident and the thing still works as long as it has batteries to power it.

Bottom line: Don't knock it until you've tried it. The device as a whole is very solid and durable and if you use it enough, worth every penny spent on it. One of these days, I'll go out and buy a Fit Meter, but that's another review entirely.

Side view of the Balance Board, with battery compartment and power button.

Top view of Balance board. My hand is covering the power button in this shot.

Rechargeable battery pack. This one is made by Memorex, but there are several manufacturers that have these available. This one is also USB powered, as shown by the cable next to it. 

Look! There's a picture inside that picture!

Now, I know what you're thinking, and no, this post is NOT about the well-known feature of digital cable boxes and satellite receivers. I am instead talking about a "virtual machine".

Now, you may ask what the crap this is, and quite frankly, I can't say that I blame you, and therefore, that is why this post exists. 

A virtual machine is a piece of software that emulates a computer or other piece of hardware, much like the a fore-mentioned feature. It has a host it relies on for hardware, so keep that in mind, should you ever decide to venture into this amazing world. Usually if you are doing this, the host machine would have at least two gigabytes of memory, because the host machine needs enough power and other resources to run both operating systems. Trust me, I have tried to do this with less, and unless all you plan to do is play DOS games all day, you are not going to advance very far with your efforts.

Naturally, to get this ball rolling, the first step would be to download software that allows you to set up and run a virtual machine. There are quite a few to choose from, and the top 3 are VMWare (which has several variations), VirtualBox, (made by either Sun or Oracle, depending on the version obtained), and Microsoft/Windows Virtual PC, which, to be honest, is only good for running other versions of Windows, so, it's just best to stay away from it.

The next step would be to allocate system resources to the virtual machine. I know what you're thinking: "I should just be able to load an operating system on to this new machine I made and install Windows, right?" Well, if that's the case. Stop reading now, because you are not ready for this kind of a daunting experience. No, just like any computer, a virtual machine needs hardware and software that it can use. In this "case", we need to allocate resources from the host machine (the hardware that you are doing this project on) to the virtual machine. In order to do this, you will right-click on the virtual machine you created and look for an option to modify its settings. From here, you will be able to adjust the memory, hard disk size, and what types of drives the virtual machine is able to use. Be careful, though, because you need to leave enough resources for the host machine, and your virtualization software will warn you of this.

After all is said and done, you should have a nice empty virtual machine that has no operating system. This is the point in a hardware build where you would power the machine up and see if it will boot to your BIOS Setup Utility. If everything checks out, you should be in the clear to install an operating system. Now would actually be the perfect time to hunt down a CD image (usually with an extension of .ISO) of your favorite operating system or dig through the closet for that old CD/DVD or set of floppy diskettes. 

Once you find your media, set your boot order accordingly, insert the first CD or diskette, and lastly, exit the BIOS and reboot the VM (NOT YOUR HOST PC!) Now the fun should begin....

After the VM reboots, which, shouldn't take more than a few seconds, you should be well on your way to installing an operating system. Whether it be Linux, Windows, or something else, follow your installer's instructions accordingly and you should be on your way to a nice, new desktop while still leaving the existing one intact. If you used an actual disk to install your software, make sure that you tell your virtualization software to "release" your CD drive before you close it, or I'm sure all Hades will break loose somewhere down the road. 

Now that we have all of the instructions out of the way, let's explore some practical uses for a virtual machine. The most obvious would be for transitional purposes. When Windows 7 was released, (which is the OS that I used to type this post), users of the Professional Edition or higher were able to use a feature known as "Windows XP Mode". This allowed the user a fully licensed copy of Windows XP Professional Service Pack 3 (along with all of the included features) at no extra cost. Ironically, when I first started classes at Sinclair about 4 years ago, they were TEACHING Windows XP, and the computers we used had this exact setup only instead of Microsoft's Virtual PC branded software, they used VMWare Workstation, but the concept is the same.

Another practical use would be to try a new operating system without doing any *reasonably* irreversible damage. I actually recently did this on the computer I use in class and I was able to"successfully" load Android KitKat to its desktop. I use air quotes because although it booted without any issues, when I tried to activate the keyboard and mouse, it pretty much locked up the host machine. But anyway, to those reading, I hope this enlightens you, and if it ain't broke, then you are doing something wrong (or right, if you're a wimp, like me!).  

Happy Virtualizing! :)

This is an example of how a virtual machine looks when it is "powered on". Once your operating system is installed, it will show the desktop of your chosen platform, instead of an install screen.

A groundbreaking game returns to the consumer spotlight (Oh, and the Wii U has photo sharing!):

Now, you're wondering, since this could technically be considered a "flashback" post, why I'm not choosing a classic game like "Super Mario Bros", (and don't get me wrong, that's a great example for this post, except that it does not fit the genre I will be referring to). This genre is a little hard to sum up without proper nouns, so I will just use the prime example that the screen shot will refer to, and that is "Wario Ware".

This game made its debut on the Wii U about 3 days ago, and yesterday, I decided that the urge to replay it just didn't warrant an emulator (plus the Wii U controller is just like a GameBoy Advance). As you can see, I've already completed 7 out of 10 mandatory stages and unlocked 6 bonuses as of this writing, and I've only been playing it for 1-2 days! Talk about addictive!

Anyway, the way this franchise works, is you pick a character/category, and the screen goes through a small cut-scene, and suddenly you are thrown into a challenge with only one command (both shown above). Your controls are the A button, directional pad, and the start button if you want to pause/quit the game like a wimp--oh, and you only have three seconds to complete each "Micro Game" in order to progress to the next game, and eventually, level. All of the levels that are represented by a folder are mandatory, and some of them will earn you bonus games with no time limit, as shown in the above screen shot.

There's also another feature called the "Game Grid", (featured above) in which all of the micro games from the main levels are featured individually with their own high score. To earn the final bonus game, you have to earn all of the "Clear" scores on the game grid for each level. The third button is "options", which honestly isn't that interesting, so I will not include a screen shot for it. The game can be played without the TV running, which is nice, especially if you are used to playing it on a hand-held device, so it feels just like the original GameBoy Advance, except that the smooth edges of the Wii U GamePad are contoured to fit a person's hands.

Now, if you're wondering where the side thought in the post title came from, the Wii U allows you to pause your game in mid-play and do other things, like search for games and browse the internet, which, apparently includes posting photos to facebook (or another photo sharing site), which, I consider to be a plus, especially if you are stuck in the middle of a game and need to look up cheat codes.

Bottom line is, at a cost of only $7.00 (before tax) this game is worth every penny spent, and you will definitely get hours of enjoyment out of it (unless a 3-second adrenaline rush isn't your thing).

Careful--It might become "self-aware"

So, last year my mom gets a letter in the mail from Time Warner saying that they are planning to "upgrade their signal to "digital" (right, I've heard that before), and as a result, that means that they are going to cut channels from our existing lineup if we do not order these extra boxes. Now, granted, they sent us this letter MONTHS before the deadline came, but apparently it takes me that long to study up on a product before I decide to order it.

Needless to say, the day of said deadline came and went, and the most important channel that we lost was 'The Weather Channel'. Well, at this point, neither of us are exactly "pleased" at this point, but those are the breaks.

Flash forward to November 12th of last year: so, Mom and I decide to go ahead and order these "digital adapters" that are mentioned in the above letter. We go online (and fortunately I have the website bookmarked--thank you Google Chrome!) and order them, and finally we print our confirmation. Now the waiting begins.

Finally, about 3 days later (not too bad, since most shipping estimates are two weeks are more--one of the FEW advantages of living in Dayton, Ohio) our adapters come. I open the box they are shipped in, and in the box are two adapters, two remotes, two pairs of batteries, two HDMI cables, two coax TV cables, two a/c adapters, instructions for both remotes, and a single set of directions on how to set up our equipment. Fine. I unpack the boxes, (hence, the content description), hook everything up, and call the toll-free number listed in the instruction booklet, and everything is set up perfectly!

Now, I know what you're thinking, but no, my story doesn't end there. As it turns out, there's a reason that they have you call that number. Unlike a cable modem, you cannot change TVs on a digital adapter whenever you please. I found this out the hard way, which I will get to later. Anyway, on November 30th, which happened to be the day of "The Game" (OSU v. TTUN), our cable went out, and we had to have a technician come out and have our signal reconnected. I had JUST got Windows 7 at the time, and it was having issues recognizing my TV tuner anyway, but that seemed to be beside the point. At the time we had resulted to listening to in on 1410 AM, but then the cable got fixed, so we tuned in to ABC and watched the rest of it there.

Anyway, back to how this thing works: apparently, once you connect the box and call the number, the box has to stay on that TV. For me, I think that stinks, because I've grown quite accustomed to the "plug and play" nature of hardware like the Wii U and Roku. I've already had to send out one of their technicians ONCE because of a signal outage (see previous paragraph), so I was not about to call them again because of something I did. So, now we're stuck with only 1 TV with a "working" signal, and my box is just sitting there connected to an anolog TV giving me the "terminator" look with it's red blinking light. Oh well. At least we have one TV with a working signal in the house.

So, on that note: did any of my readers hear about the Time Warner-Comcast merger? Sounds like a winner in my book:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1023_3-57618841-93/comcast-time-warner-cable-to-unite-in-$45.2b-merger/