Hello?

Is anyone out there?

1 cup par boiled rice to two cups water
a bit of butter, like a two teaspoons
a tablespoon and some of paprika
something like a teaspoon worth of cumin
two teaspoons of cayenne (or more, this shit is hot, you've been warned)
get some tobasco sauce in there
a bit of garlic or onion flavored salt

put all this shit into your pot or rice cooker and cook it.

enjoy

bonus: use a nonstick pot or rice cooker, and let the rice cook long enough so that it starts to form a crispy outer layer

double bonus: use a table spoon or two of olive oil instead of butter. It'll be greasier, and taste better, and despite using more oil than butter, healthier. I just don't have any olive oil so I used a bit of butter.

This OS is actually pretty nice.

#1) It's very responsive
#2) I didn't have to disable UAC to not be annoyed
#3) To my surprise, I was able to install my video drivers without restarting
#4) SPDIF out on my Audiophile 2496 doesn't work

Vista really was the ME of the 21st century. 7 can easily replace XP...

So after 24 hours of owning an iPhone, I have complaints and praise.

Essentially, the iPhone makes up for all the lacking features of the Nokia N95 (arguably the best alternative to the iPhone).

But... the iPhone also LACKS features that my Nokia N95 has.

Now, before reading this, keep in mind that an all in one device has its virtues. You might think that this is all too much for a phone, but if you have to carry a phone, a camera, and a music player on you, then it seems to make sense to aim for an all-in-one mobile device.

The run down?

1) Nokia has two fully working cameras. One int he back, one in the front. The front one is used for video conferencing and also acts as a good mirror. The iPhone camera is only 2 megapixels while the N95 camera is 5. The N95 camera, at least, the main back one, has features comparable to a half decent digital camera, including color filtering and exposure. It can also record video. The iPhone camera has none of these features (At least, out of the box, there are apps you can get for the iPhone that allow you to record video).

Camera: Winner is the Nokia N95

2) The iPhone can switch automatically between 3G and Wifi. The Nokia N95 can't. Granted, there appears to be some applications for the N95 that mimic this feature, but it's a serious downside that the N95 doesn't do this out of the box.

Network Capability: Winner is the iPhone

3) GPS capabilities are, to me, superior on the iPhone. Using Google Maps, the Nokia N95 could only resolve my location within 700 meters. The iPhone can resolve my location within 10 or 20 meters. Now, GPS isn't really necessary for everyone, but I do intend to travel more and in which case, GPS functionality is a plus. 700 meters radius is completely fucking useless, and I never managed to get the N95 to have better resolution.

GPS Capability: Winner is the iPhone

4) The Nokia N95 obeys standards for the most part. You may not realize it right away, but standards are quite beneficial. The USB cable for the Nokia N95 is a perfectly standard USB-Mini to USB cable. A cable you can buy at any computer store. The N95 is also very flexible with computers. Any operating system, any computer with USB, and the Nokia N95 will JUST WORK. The iPhone uses proprietary cables and proprietary sockets. Plug it in, most operating system will see it, but they will only see the photos on the iPhone. You're completely stuck with using Apple's iTunes program to access the iPhone where the Nokia N95 does not actually REQUIRE nokia's software to get information such as contacts or mp3s onto the N95 phone. You may not realize it initially, but proprietary technologies can be a huge pain in the ass. Nokia's standards compliance gives you a huge degree of flexibility over the N95. iPhone's proprietary hardware and proprietary software makes it far less flexible.

Device Flexibility: Winner is, by a long shot, the N95

5) Email access is kind of strange. On one side, the iPhone's user interface for email is far superior from the Nokia's email application (the latest email application, not the integrated SMS/Email application). There is more control over what is displayed on your screen, and the Nokia email application does not support unsigned SSL certificates, so if you have your own email server, but didn't spend hundreds of dollars to get a signed SSL certificate, you can't use SSL on your POP3/IMAP servers with your N95. This really pissed me off, as I do have my own email servers, and they are all encrypted. I had to go fuck around with the email servers to ENABLE unencrypted access.

HOWEVER, despite the N95 in failing in the SSL arena, Nokia is running a PUSH EMAIL service FOR FREE. What this means is that your phone maintains an active connection to your email server so when new email arrives, you receive instantly. "So What?" you ask? Well, in this setup, you SAVE on bandwidth usage, and you SAVE on battery life. It's an over all better system for retrieving email. Think about it this way, the phone has to either PULL data from somewhere, or get data PUSHED on it, which one do you think takes more effort? Apple supports PUSH email out of the box for only three services. One: Yahoo Email which is free. Two: Microsoft Exchange, generally used with corporate email accounts, also free. Three: MobileMe, which supposedly works with all your email accounts and costs $100/year!.

So when it comes to email, I'm really torn here. The iPhone and the N95 effectively compliment each other with features. Where one fails, the other makes up for it. So uhm...

Email Capabilities: tie, both are great in their own ways

6) The applications and the app store are genius. The applications for the iPhone are pretty impressive. From jiggling boobs to old school arcade games to full featured physics-enhanced games. Because of the integrated app store, there is a strong financial incentive to produce applications for the iPhone, resulting in quality programs. HOWEVER, the N95 has a greater degree of flexibility when it comes to creating applications. Applications for the iPhone can only be installed through the app store(unless you jailbreak it, which can void warranties, and Apple considers it a violation of law in the US), so Apple can maintain a form of censorship over iPhone programs. The N95 is not hindered by this. Also, the N95 is capable of running programs made in a variety of programming languages. But, without a standardized app store, it is harder to create a financial incentive to make programs for the N95. The result is that the iPhone has superior applications, despite the N95 having a superior platform for applications. Hmm...

3rd Party Applications: iPhone is the winner. The iPhone has better 3rd party applications for it, period. The N95 may have a better platform, but the PS3 has a better platform than the xbox 360, and the xbox 360 won.

7) iTunes, the program required to use to get videos and mp3s onto your iPhone, can not convert XViD, the most popular video format/encoder on the internet into H.264, the standard mobile device video format. So you need a third party application to convert your XViD videos to H.264 format, resulting in two copies of the same video on your harddrive, in order to get it on your iPhone. There are apps for the N95 that can play XViD, and you don't need Nokia's software to get those XViD's onto your N95, HOWEVER, Nokia's software CAN convert XViD's to H.264 on the fly. It's just easier this way. The iPhone however, has a bigger screen, and better graphical controls for the video player.

Video Capability: iPhone for having a better out of the box video player than the N95 (which uses RealPlayer out of the box).

8) A bigger touch screen means a bigger keyboard than a phone-style keypad. You'd think this would mean easier typing, but in a way, it doesn't. The N95 may have only a keypad, but the predictive typing (where it guesses what word you were trying to spell) was very good. The iPhone has a bit of a predictive typing system, but it sucks. Having big fingers, I often type the wrong character. However, the typing on the iPhone has a more natural, keyboard feel. I may type in the wrong characters often, but the backspace key is easy to use.

Typing Capability: tie, both have their virtues, I feel I can type as fast with both devices, but mainly because the back space key works very well on the iPhone.

---

If each tie counts as one point:

The unbiased result would be 4 points for the N95, 6 points for the iPhone.

However, the biased result (as in, what I really want out of my mobile device), a tie. The reason for this is that, I appreciate the application on the iPhone considerably, but I also prefer the push email of the N95 far more than I prefer the 3rd party applications.

My end result conclusion: I just can't win with a mobile device.
4 points for the N95, 6 points for the iPhone unbia

...that Heroes has started up again?

No, neither did I. I have not seen it yet, but my friend says he was embarrassed to admit he watched it.

Heroes has got to be the biggest tragedy of TV. A show that, in its first season, quickly developed a huge fan base, only to deflate into poo as quickly as it turned into gold. I fail to understand how this show lost its way so quickly. It's one thing to slowly degrade over time, second law of thermal dynamics implies that slow degradation of anything will eventually happen, but it's quite another to snap your fingers and watch as your omnipotence turns into impotence in an infinitesimally small period of time, only matched by the speed of light itself.

Bah...

Last year I did Chicago, NYC, Manchester and to a lesser extent Ottawa and St. Sauveur.

Now I've caught that infamous "travel bug" and want to go somewhere, and soon. Since it's soon, it can't be TOO expensive.

There are $1 bus rides to Toronto. Quebec City, New York City are good bus options too. Chicago is cheaper than NYC in terms of spending money, and only $300 return for a plane ticket after taxes. I was hoping to go SOMEWHERE in mid march at the very least for one weekend.

Anyone interested?

http://www.psikon.com/~v0idnull/wip/v0idnull_-_drums_for_war_take4.mp3

No, I didn't sample the BSG soundtrack, merely tried to imitate it. Not bad for only a few hours of work.

It's about 90% loop free. The arabic style drumming are loops, the rest I programmed myself using a wide variety of drums, including Japanese, Native American, and Cuban.

One measure involved 13 different samples. In that picture, each individual note represents a different drum. The gray notes are from another pattern (there are two patterns, one consisting of japanese taiko, one consisting of native american drums). The bars at the bottom represent velocity (how hard the drum is hit). Each note consists of several different samples, each sample being the same drum hit at different strengths (velocity).

This little machine has been modified to include a signal matrix (route signals through each other in various different ways using cables, like the yellow thing on the left) as well as six switches on the side to distort and mess with the sound even more.

It's also been fitted with 1/4" outputs and MIDI input!

I've managed to get this little guy to produce sound so evil I had to perform incantations to remove the devil spirits that spawned out of my speakers.

( Its added to the allure of my 'studio'Collapse )

I really hate this idea of getting rid of the word Christmas. All these immigrants who think that Christmas is somehow steeped in religion hasn't lived in North America long enough. The religious aspect of christmas is quite small compared to the commercial aspect, the social aspect (gift giving, being nice, the time of winter where the snow is all fluffy and it's not freezing cold yet), and of course, the eggnog. None of these things are in any way related to your personal beliefs. Unless your personal beliefs revolve around being selfish, an asshole, regard the cold as a sign of Satan and have some profound disgust over eggnog.

And while I'm at it, we're not even at Halloween yet, so why is this issue ALREADY COMING UP? It won't be long now before we start talking about Christmas in earnest, right after Christmas.