Using a Laptop as a Personal Heater
Feeling cold and lazy?
Try firing up a browser tab or two with a heavy Flash application. That will get your laptop good and hot, then just hold it against yourself.* Now you don’t have to stand up to adjust the heat or grab a blanket!
My 2011 MacBook Air runs a little too efficiently for this trick. Kind of makes me miss my first gen Air… That old bastard was a furnace. It didn’t run well, but damn it, it was great on cold Winter nights.
*Don’t scorch yourself. You’ve been warned. I accept no responsibility for the stupidity of other’s.
Support Rock Vibe on Kickstarter!
Rock Vibe is basically Rock Band for the blind. A player attaches peripherals to her/his arms, and the devices vibrate when the player needs to strike a corresponding note. It’s a brilliant way to make a modern video game playable for the visually impaired.
The creators of Rock Vibe need money to get this project off the ground, as building hardware isn’t exactly a cheap endeavor. So far they’ve raised about $15,000 on Kickstarter (an incredibly cool crowd-funding site, if you haven’t seen it). Unfortunately they have not yet reached their goal of $32,000, and they only have three days left.
In the interest of full disclosure, I should mention that one of the creators of Rock Vibe is a woman named Rupinder Dhillon who is the sister of a good friend. That doesn’t take away from how cool her project is. Hardware/ software combinations like Rock Vibe will help blind gamers now, but I have no doubt that their concept has the potential to heighten the gaming experiences of sighted gamers in the future.
The Rules of Mobile App Design (Presentation Slides)
Last week I had the honor of presenting to the NJ Mobile Meetup group. NJ Mobile is a collection of about 300 mobile technology enthusiasts that I co-organize. While I’ve been one of the groups organizers for quite some time, this was the first time that I actually spoke at an event. Much to my delight the presentation, which was partially based on my blog post The Rules of Mobile App Design, was very well-received.
My goal was to record the presentation and slides and post a video, but I’ve been experiences some technical difficulties of the crashing variety whenever I try to record my screen and voice at the same time. So here are the slides, and I hope to add the full video presentation soon:
Rules_of_Mobile_App_Design (PDF)
Why You Shouldn’t Trade In Your Mobile Device
Mobile device retailers like Apple, Best Buy, Amazon & Verizon want you to recycle or trade-in your mobile devices. They even offer a good chunk of change to do so.
Bonus: Check out the terrible alien/ Michael Jackson-esque photoshopping of this woman! Good job Verizon.
It’s usually not a terrible deal, but there is one big reason why you should keep your retired mobile device:
Mobile devices break.
They are portable, small, handled often, and as a result are easy to drop.
The screens are prone to glitches and wear-out over the course of a year or two.
Replacement
When they die, you may have a warranty, and your retailer will get you a refurbished one, but it will take a few days to a few weeks.
During that time you will either have to pay for a loaner (which is usually a shitty Droid Eris or something equally crappy), or you can use your own old phone.
You will be much better off with your own phone, but you won’t have your old phone if you don’t keep it.
Power Outage Preparation Tip
If you live on the East Coast of the United States, you are no doubt bracing for hurricane Irene.
In addition to all of the precautions that your local news is broadcasting on a loop, you might want to think about your gadgets.
In the event of a power outage, I can live without pretty much everything, but I do want to keep my mobile functional so I can maintain communication with loved ones. My plan is to charge up the two batteries I have, which is obvious. My less obvious precaution is that I am charging up old laptops so I can plug my phone into them should I need additional power.
Know Your Digital Rights
Police are becoming digitally bold, and asking to search the phones of citizens during traffic stops. As with anything, it’s important to know your rights. The EFF put together a one page card detailing the rights of American citizens as they pertain to your digital devices.
EFF – Tips for Talking to the Police
OSX Lion – “Natural Scroll” is Anything but Natural
Dear Apple,
“Natural Scrolling?” That’s really what you’re calling this shit? Natural scrolling?
Natural scrolling is about as natural as a deep-fried twinkie on a styrofoam plate, and fuck you for even trying to spin this stupidity.
Natural scrolling should be called “inverted scrolling” on a laptop or desktop. Sure it may be natural on a touchscreen to pull content in the opposite direction, but in case you didn’t notice, none of the devices that run Lion have touchscreens (at the moment).
Defaulting such an obnoxious and useless feature really diminishes the magic of using my new MacBook Air. Sure it’s easy to turn off, but why bother hassling me with it at all.
Cordially,
David
PS – The new MacBook Air is quite nice.
