Why I Will Never Buy An iPhone

Because I already own one.

In fact this one works better than your's ever will.

Its got a screen bigger than my face. A 5 megapixel camera. A calendar. A massive amount of memory for music. It can transfer data at a 1gbps. It works with Sprint. It allows 3rd party software. It is completely modular and can shrink to the size of a mint box. What kind of devilry am I talking about? I mean I've had it for a while now. I already own everything it already does.

My laptop does webpages. My phone calls people. My camera takes pictures. My PDA tells me when I need to go. What else is left? (Well there is that ordeal about the DS, if only I wanted a PS3 would have found it by now.)

Lets talk in metaphors and similes. The iPhone is like a sledgehammer. It is very useful. You can use it to hang pictures or you can use it to demolish a house. The problem falls in that a sledgehammer is too large for tapping little nails into plaster and too small and slow for breaking down houses. What works well for hanging pictures is a little hammer and what works for busting up houses is bulldozers. When I surf the internet. I generally use my laptop. If I'm going somewhere that I want to surf the internet I will bring it. If I don't want to surf the internet I don't. I have a cell phone. It goes with me where ever I go for two reasons: one for safety's sake and two in case someone needs to get a hold of me. I like the fact that when my phone rings all I have to do is flip open the lid to say hello. See my point? Big project small project.

Truth is I am very much one of those people who likes their devises to do one thing and do it well. My phone has a calendar on it, games too. Do I use them? No. Why? Because my Palm does a better job at keeping my information. Thats why I bought it. I didn't get the one with WiFi or a phone built in because all I want is for it to keep my information and sync up to my laptop. I could have bought one that would be more powerful and could play games, but I prefer to play games on my computer. Why? Because why would you play on a stamp size phone screen or a low quality palm with a slow ARM processor when you could enjoy a high quality screen and a modern processor? Could I have combined the features of a games, and webpages, and calendar and phone in one? Yes, its called a Treo. But why do that to myself?

Now there are some features of the iPhone that are seemingly impressive. Safari and maps. I've been away from home for weeks before with no internet. Did I live? Probably. When would I use it? During a boring meeting? No that's rude. I'd rather use my laptop and make it plain how lame I am then to be outed. On the ride to work. Erm there are enough people out there that can't drive. There just isn't anytime that I need to surf the internet when I can't get a computer. And when I do know I need to access the internet I will just pack my laptop. Yes, its heavier, but I'm not going to read webpages by zooming and un zooming or using a magnifying glass. And I'm not going to talk about a GPS-less map program.

Not only that say I drop my phone in a lake. Yeah, I've done it before. My boss did it too. Boom I'm out my contacts and since it wouldn't sync to Outlook I'm out my contacts. My music. My portable music player. My 2 Mega pixel camera. Gone. If I drop my phone its a trip to radio shack. Sometimes they even work after they've dried out.

I just don't have any any any reason to buy one. And I don't think I ever will.

On the same topic. Hey Justin, remember how you hate it when I touch the screen on your DS with my fingers. The iPhone will not use a stylus. Could you imagine how greasy thats going to get after the first day.

Still can't find that stupid DS.

Antics -Love Mark

Venom in Spider-Man 3

So Venom has finally been revealed for the Spider-Man 3 movie, in action figure form, at least. First off, I think the new design for the black spider-man costume is alright, but this is horrible, in my opinion. I really like the original black costume and it's my favorite of all the Spider-Man costumes. In my feelings, they messed up with a new design. I thought Venom might stay the same as the comic version, but he has been changed completely to fit the new Spider-Man design. They kept the claws and mouth though...but this isn't as menacing or just awesome as looking as the original Venom I know and love. Do you like the new design? Maybe I am just hating change here.

Falling Sand!

There is this game on the internet (you need java by the way) called Falling Sand and there's lot's of variations of it on there. It's very simple and extremely fun too. You can make land, sand, water, plants, wax, etc. Nitroglycerin, fire and other things bring ruination and you can build and destroy without any mess! But the best part is you can summon zombies for your creation. Yes, zombies!

"Falling Sand Game", also "Hell of Sand", is a Java applet first found on the Dofi Blog, later enlarged and rehosted by Chirag Mehta and then again by Falling Sand Game. The game has been popular on community link sites and forums like Falling Sand Game, Digg and Delicious and involves four main falling particles: sand, water, salt, and oil. Each of these particles have special properties that can be manipulated; among these include burning, desiccating, growing, eroding, and more. Along with these four, main particles are auxiliary environmental manipulators: Wall, Fire, Plant, Spout, Cera (or wax), ???, and Erase. By putting these together, one can thoroughly enjoy the modeling and the construction of very complex structures and systems. There is an additional special feature that can be turned on, off, or told to remain in place. This is called the namekuji which means slug, and reacts naturally for the properties of a slug when salt is poured onto it.

Several different versions exist, varying from applets with zombies, or human bodies, that have their own unique properties to applets where auxiliary environmental manipulators have additional properties.

Selling Car Speakers

I'm selling some Pioneer TS-A168OR car speakers. Interested? I don't mind a shameless plug. Check out my EBay page for all the details. If you are in Moberly, no need for shipping and maybe we can settle on a price and forget about EBay.

Apple's Newest Gadget

Apple reveiled the new iPHONE today at MACworld.

"iPhone combines three products — a revolutionary mobile phone, a widescreen iPod with touch controls, and a breakthrough Internet communications device with desktop-class email, web browsing, maps, and searching — into one small and lightweight handheld device. iPhone also introduces an entirely new user interface based on a large multi-touch display and pioneering new software, letting you control everything with just your fingers. So it ushers in an era of software power and sophistication never before seen in a mobile device, completely redefining what you can do on a mobile phone. "

This looks like Apples' try to get into the handheld pc market that MS dominates. Thoughts?

(thanks buzzgrinder)

Zombies on Acid.

So
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No the webpage didn't explode through. Copy and paste that into the address bar and watch the blog get trippy.

In other news I still can't find a DS could have bought 2 or 3 PS3s by now but I don't have that much to spend.

I'm looking for a project to write in Python. I'm thinking about writing something to keep track of my students and programs. Any ideas?

Microsoft Gaming News

Guitar Hero II is coming out for the Xbox 360 in March. I'm pretty psyched about that. Well news is out now that 10 more songs will be added to the already large list of songs on the PS2 versions. Besides these additions, there will be online score and leaderboards, additional songs to be downloaded, and other nickle and dime content. Guitar hero is one of my favorite games out there, so I'm saving my EB Games credits for this one and it's slick wireless guitar.

Microsoft also announced that the Zune will be a gaming machine by 2008. Now does this mean it will be their foray into the handheld console market? I don't know but there have been rumors of a portable gaming machine by Microsoft for a while now. I'm thinking it will be more like the new iPODS that play bejewled and tetris, but you never know. Has anyone used a Zune? Music sharing seems pretty cool. Now, if I had a use for a porable MP3 player I might look into it a bit more. I noticed that cd players are losing shelf space to digital players and all the new boomboxes and such are just speakers with docking stations for iPODS. Pretty cool, yet I only found one such device for the PSP. They are pricy at around $100 at Wal-Mart.

Oh ya, I bought a couch. Come play some Xbox 360 with me.

Book of the Week

First and Second Kings (Living Word Commentary on the Old Testament, Vol 7).

Now I just got this book in the mail yesterday. I attend Bible College, so as it just so happens, I have classes based on books of the Bible. I started reading last night into the introductory matters and I'll continue digging as I have to read it all for the upcoming semester. Already a funny moment for myself, Miller (the author) goes on to list many people's theories about discrepencies between Kings and Chronicles for pages and pages, but ends listing his opinion, taking up no room at all. Religious liberals make me read so much more material then I should have to.

I also bought many books yesterday at the school book store. They are having 25% - 75% off sales so I bought some of Warren Weirsbe's small books that start with "Be..." for $5 a piece and other commentaries. A teacher recommended to me "The Call" by Os Guiness, so I purchased that too.

I am also reading Building Dynamic Faith each day with my new wife. My father-in-law bought it for me for Christimas and it's a 30 day devotional. Jerry Falwell is the author and Baptist, but we'll see how good it is.

Umm... FM transmitters for cars from PSPs suck. I bought one like this and there is plenty of static at all times. What a complete waste of money. I can't believe EBGames would even sell this piece of junk. STAY AWAY.

New X-Men Omnibus

I read this monstrosity of a comic collection, coming in at 1096 pages and I have to say that this is an excellent collection. Spanning 42 issues, Grant Morrison has written one of the best runs on comics I have ever read. The writing is superb and anyone can pick this up and read it, you don't have to have been a fan at all. It includes all the regular issues, an annual, Grant Morrison's initial proposal, and other artwork. In hardcover form and coming in at $62 on Amazon, this is a steal. I have one complaint to file though. Sometimes the art is atrocious. Frank Quietly is alright and is fine most of the time, but the inking is plain bad in many issues. There are many artists throughout this run of 3 1/2 years and I wonder why Marvel didn't put a good artist on for the long run. X-Men is Marvel's bread and butter, their most popular franchise today. In a visual medium, I thought much better could have been done. I don't buy the explanation of the first vilain so much, but hey, it's good stuff. Everything is leading up to something and even when I thought there were side stories, it all was brought back to add up in the end. I have to say that this is a MUST HAVE for anyone. This makes me want to read more of Grant Morrison's work.

New Years Predictions

Happy New Years everyone! In good taste here is my list of predictions for the most important occurrences in 2007.


1. Scalpers breathe a sigh of relief when a serial killer who went around killing anyone who bought a PS3 to sell it on ebay is finally caught.

2. Blizzard is the target of a class action lawsuit from wives whose husbands are addicted to WoW.

3. Windows Vista looks as beautiful as promised. In fact it looks so good that no one even cares when 95% of users are hacked in the first week.

4. AMD, in order to turn up the heat on Intel, creates an 18 socket motherboard. Intel replies with higher clocked CPU's and larger heat sinks.

5. Duke Nukem Forever will be given a release date for late 2008. Gamers' exuberance wains when the trailer is a flip book drawn on a stack of post-it notes.

6. The Phantom is found out to be a scam for investors' money. You knew it was only a matter of time.

7. Due to a wrist strap failure the first case of Wii remote impalement will be reported.

8. Nintendo will redesign the DS. Not only will it be sleeker, have longer batter life, and a larger screen, it can also be used as a Wii-remote.

9. Apple will get into the video game business with their own console. It will cost more than any other console with less power, but it will be totally stable and shiny white.

10. Sony wins the next-DVD format war when they actually become competitive in price.

11. The value of WoW's currency is greater than that of the dollar. The IRS responds by adding an IRS agent at the end of every dungeon.

12. A new fad begins on Second Life: people begin to log on to virtual computers to play Third Life.

--Much Love Mark