Today I lost faith in humanity.

So, I get home from work, and log in to Facebook. Shouldn't be to out of the ordinary, right? Just a typical day, right? Wrong. Anyway I'm browsing through my news feed, when I suddenly notice that Apple is announcing a new MacBook. Naturally, I just brush it off because Apple's hardware life cycle seems to be about the same as any decent Linux distribution (about 6 months). I had also heard about USB 3.1 type C and heard that Apple might be adopting it. Again initially the announcement didn't phase me that much.

I even saw a picture of it and it still didn't phase me that much. Just another Apple product that has had a few more inches shaved off its aluminum body with a lathe, which didn't phase me either (honestly, I could have done that myself in high-school shop class). Oh no, the worst was yet to come. Once I saw how all of one's devices would be connected to it, any convincing that Apple could have done to get me to join them went right out of the window when I saw this:

Yes, that's right. your eyes are not deceiving you. Apple has lost all common decency to make it easy for a person to connect devices to their computers. For a little history: in the old days, when a person bought a computer, IBM compatible machines (or "PCs") were empty boxes that you had to add components to. The advantage that Apple had over their competitors was that everything was right there and you could connect it in minutes, if not seconds, whereas a PC had to be gathered up and connected together either by plug shape (or by color if your computer was a Pentium 3 or newer). They even used to boast about it on their commercials [1].

Now, as I look at the above picture, and realize that Apple is taking a "1980" approach to desktop connectivity (buy PC now, add more later), it leaves me convinced that they have lost any conceivable advantage that might have been previously owned or within their reach.

For more information on what the crap I am referring to, please read this article: http://www.theverge.com/2015/3/9/8177087/macbook-port-adapter-accessory

Portable 3D??? The heck you say!

So, it has been a few weeks since I have acquired the Nintendo 3DS, and overall, my experience with it has been positive and flawless. I was even able to transfer most of my games from the Nintendo DSi, which is more than can be said for my Wii to Wii U upgrade (thanks, GameStop!). At first, having a handheld with bigger screens felt kind of awkward, because I was used to the original-sized Nintendo DSi. Over time, however, I was able to spend time with it and get a feel for how it works, and I have to admit, I am a fan.

The next thing I did was register my device and synchronize it with Club Nintendo in order to get my 160 reward points, and additional reward points for games I download afterward. This was especially crucial because I later found out that the program would be discontinued in a few months and I wanted to get and spend as many points as possible. At the end of the day, I was able to download four game rewards (one was actually the WiiWare version of Punch-Out!) as well as the new version of Flipnote Studio.

I have also tried features I have not been able to experience in the past. Since I acquired the 3DS before I was able to sell or trade the Nintendo DSi, I was finally able to try Pac Man Vs. for the Nintendo DS. This game, while still fun, does not have as much play appeal as its GameCube original, however, it is still a good game.

In addition, I had the opportunity to try the Augmented Realtiy feature that I have heard so much about. As much as I hate to admit it, this feature has probably been the most disappointing. At first glance, the 3D looks amazing, but over time, I realized that without perfect lighting, which entails me setting up a desk lamp on a card table, augmented reality does not work on the Nintendo 3DS because of the lack of a flash cue within the cameras themselves.

Now, that's not to say that the 3DS doesn't have any perks. For example, compared to its predecessor, the 3DS has a lot more to offer in terms of content. Besides the obvious "new release" titles, the one thing the 3DS has going for it that the DSi does not would be a virtual console library. I was able to pick up the first two Mario Land GameBoy games (also through Club Nintendo) and they are quite fun for being over two decades old. At some point I also plan to try one of Nintendo's 3D Classics releases and the one I was most excited about was Urban Champion. However, since that was one of the first Wii U downloads I purchased, I might have to rethink my strategy for this, and I will most likely choose the 3D version of Xevious instead.

All in all, the graphics are improved, although, the type of shading the 3DS uses when the 3D slider is turned up kind of gives me a headache, so I do not use it very often. It's still an excellent handheld console.   

Childhood Restored....Almost

So, Christmas has come and gone. One of the things that I received this year was a clone of the Sega Genesis. Its height, length, and width are equal to two of the cartridges that it can play. It only has single channel audio, but it comes with two wireless controllers and about 40 or so built-in games.

Now, you might look at me and say, "Geez, that sounds like every plug and play console that they release these days!" Well, I assure you, that there is a huge difference, because not only does it have games pre-loaded on to the console itself, but you can also play the games you still have laying around because Second Time Around wouldn't buy them unless they were in the original casing with the manual.

When I first noticed this particular feature, a couple of things went through my mind. The first was, "Okay, that's not so bad.", and the second was "Hmm. I should find a Sega 32X because I've never owned one before."

All in all, it has been pretty good. Some of the games are more playable than others, such as Sonic the Hedgehog vs. Jewel Master (both of which I own in cartridge form, ironically), and the wireless controllers are nice, as well, because I am not constrained by a cord that could get damaged.

Now, that isn't to say that the console does not have its downsides. When I first tried it out, I tested all of my existing Genesis cartridges to see if they would function and only a fraction of them do. Also, for some reason, it will not recognize when Sonic 3 and Sonic & Knuckles are locked together (even though Sonic & Knuckles is oone of the preloaded games).

All in all though, I would probably give the device a 75% "Yes I would recommend this."

Front of the console, with Sonic 3 inserted.

Back of the console, revealing an A\C adapter port and mono A\V jacks.

One of the two controllers that was included with the console. It is wireless and takes two (2) Triple A (AAA) batteries.

Interface of the Sega Genesis Firecore with a sample picture of Sonic 2.

Oh, The Humanities!

Just from this post alone, you might think that I'm crazy. Well, that's never been proven and it's beside the point. What I am really saying is that I just finished a class at Sinclair called "Humanity and the Challenge of Technology."

This type of class is kind of hard to describe. The best way I've been able to explain it in public is that it is a "think outside the box" type of class. The textbook had themes that ranged from Global Warming to Robot Ethics, as well as other controversial topics such as Surveillance v. Privacy and Genetic Engineering that leads to human perfection.

Overall, though, it was quite interesting, as well as a little bit scary, but in the sense of "oh my goodness, is this real or possible?!" and to be quite honest, I was almost expecting that.

The big downside of the class was the complexity of the textbook. I did not use it for most of the semester, but instead I supplemented my learning with various online articles and I feel that was a great boost towards progressing my GPA. The research papers were probably the most fun, however, because I was able to look up websites that further engaged me in the theme I chose for my paper.

One of the assignments we had to do was a "Book Review." Initially for this assignment I chose the book "Final Jeopardy" by Stephen Baker, which was about the Jeopardy-IBM tournament with Ken Jennings and Brad Rutter. Initially the book was quite interesting, and it even allowed me to skip a chapter in my textbook because the article was an excerpt from the first chapter.

Over time, however, this book proved to be quite difficult to read because of the writing style, and also it was a library book, so I could not keep it forever. I was then offered a suggestion by my brother and his wife (thanks, guys!) of emailing my instructor and choosing a different book instead. Well, naturally, I was smart enough to go for it, and the book I finally ended up with was called 'Console Wars' by Blake Harris.

This book's format was a lot easier to comprehend and quite frankly, It was more interesting overall. Not that Stephen Baker's novel wasn't bad, but let's face it: I had already watched the tournament with my own eyes, and therefore didn't necessarily need a full turn-by-turn recap.

Anyway, Console Wars surprised me a lot. The format was amazing (it read just like a perfectly polished English Paper), It had a lot of detail, but it also had dialogue that moistened the plot and kept my interest. That isn't to say that I just flew right through it (although if I hadn't taken notes for my report, I probably would have!), but it made me feel like I was part of the story, and that I had experienced the events first hand.

Now, that's not to say that this book was an exception to the rule of "there's a downside to everything." The big downers in this book for me were the two chapters about AIDS research in the 1990's. However, by the time I finished the book, I had an itching to go to Walmart and do some holiday shopping, so there was a positive outcome.

In the end, I was able to get an "A" on the assignment, which means that the next person who takes the class will be able to appreciate this masterpiece just as much as I did.

Finally, my two favorite assignments were the Extra Credit papers. For the first one, I had to research a Dayton Inventor/Invention. The first thought that came to my mind was the Pop Tab, because I remember seeing a statue Downtown near River Scape that was in the shape of an early model, plus, most people in America use it every day. The other research assignment was about "personal reflections on technology." This was easier than the Inventor paper because I was able to pull from my experiences in electronically archiving paperwork without giving away any legal secrets.

In short, if you are a Sinclair student, and have to take an "Arts/Humanities" class, then this one is high on my recommendation list. If I can't convince you, however, then perhaps this picture of the textbook cover can:

"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).