Shayo’s 2010 Bewildering Christmas Wishlist

Since we supposedly live in a global financial crisis I’ve decided that there would be no better way of contributing than to making a big list of expensive and cheap items that I would like to have and have full knowledge that there’s no way I’ll ever acquire them. Either out of financial reasons or because they’re just impractical to have in reality.

So without further ado, let’s roll the list out! I’ve also linked the item’s titles with their respective place on Amazon.

Newton’s Cradle

I’ve always been fascinated with this thing and the small yet awesome set of tricks you can do with it. Ultimately I’d like to use it when I’d tell some serious matters to someone in order to make them nervous or just to show that shit just got real, yo.

DualShock 3 – Deep Red

I don’t know why, but I’m somewhat attracted to the overly plasticky look of the controller. Plus, it would definitely spice the monotone black theme that I’m currently rocking in my home entertainment area.

MacBook Pro – Something Something Model

I consider myself as someone who can appreciate what Apple does in terms of producing overly priced hardware products and software – yet they’re trademarked and valued as premium you won’t find anywhere in our tech world. Which is true in a way and which is why I want a fancy and expensive Apple product. It would be my Ferrari of technology.

Dragon Ball Z Entire Remastered Edition Collection

I really like Dragon Ball Z and probably won’t ever stop liking it. That’s all I have to say.

Sony PlayStation Plus One Year Subscription

This one is just purely for scientific reasons. I really want to just experience this premium experience Sony has to offer in terms of how they handle the free bonus content and what that content exactly is. We’re already lucky that PSN is free in contradiction to Microsoft’s Gold Live model.

American Snacks I Probably Won’t Ever Taste

I was lucky a few days ago to find a few bottles of 7 Up and box of Oreos the other day. And by lucky I mean I was literally in another country searching for other goodies that don’t exist from where I come from. But somehow I doubt I’ll ever find something like Mountain Dew, Cheetos and Twinkies. Also, it’s kind of weird that Amazons actually sells these things online. Apparently they really do have everything.

Moose Mountain 100 Balls In A Mesh Bag

When I was a kid I was not allowed to jump into the ball pits found in various malls, since my parents warned me that the pits were actually some kind of pits of doom and were filled with filth and bacteria from other kids. So now, after 18-something years I say I’ll just fill up my bedroom with these things and roll in my own filth.

Crazy Neon Lights

I’ve always been fascinated with neon lights. Which explains why I enjoyed playing the old Need For Speed games with street racing emphasized aside from the racing part. I don’t actually know how these things work or where exactly I would place them but I know that they would make my pad tight!

Vibram Five Fingers Shoes

Also known as “Those Monkey Feet” by those people who would throw trash at me out of disgust for wearing them. There’s just something  intriguing to the idea of actually wearing these shoes and experiencing some kind of true barefoot experience when walking around in them.

Big Fat Expensive Sound System I Know Nothing About

It’s true, I know nothing about sound system setup, but I’m tired of these new kids on the block constantly comparing the size of their speakers and subwoofers like they’re talking about their dicks. I personally have had enough of it and the only reasonable thing to do is to actually acquire a large and expensive sound system myself so I can brag about it too. Also, why are there like nine speakers? We have one set of ears, I thought everybody was cool with stereo?

Well this wraps up my extravagant Christmas wishlist. I suggest you write one yourself as well, since it can be quite refreshing to dream about absurd items you’ll most likely never poses. And not actually having these things makes them that more attractive to have.

The Other Side – Part One

The recent release of Ubuntu’s new operation system, titled “Lucid Lynx” or more professionally titled Ubuntu 10.04, caused enough uproar and hype, that I just couldn’t ignore it any more. The important social features implemented in the operational system just made me curious enough to test the thing out and give it a test drive. I’ve been a Windows user most of my life and I most likely will remain one, since that’s the operational system I’ve grown myself accustomed to. I gave Linux a try a couple of years ago, but I didn’t really enjoy the transition, so when more and more people started talking that the newest versions of Ubuntu are user-friendly in terms of installation I said what the heck. It can’t possibly destroy my computer, right?

That’s why I decided to take on Ubuntu 10.04 like I was a complete amateur in the world of computing and didn’t have the slightest clue about the difference between Firefox and Chrome for instance. This kind of almost childish approach would me the most valid one. To compare my upcoming experience to something, I decided to use Windows 7′s installation process and adjustment, since I more or less have it memorized and know what the deal is. I placed a ground rule of no outside help from others that do use Linux, since that would diminish the OS’s initial credibility. You can install Windows 7 and OS X with just a few simple clicks so if Ubuntu’s developers want to play with the major leaguers then you should expect a few simple clicks here as well.

So what can I say about the installation process? I broke my first and only rule of no help with a two-hour conversation on Skype with someone who is an official Linux user. It’s not as bad as it seems. There was only an issue when choosing the partition on which Ubuntu would be installed. If you’d be installing it on a brand new computer, you wouldn’t have any issues. But if you already have existing partitions, then you’re screwed more or less, since the guidance that I got was one that there was no way you’d think that crap up by your self. It included making two partitions through a supposedly “advanced” installation wizard instead of the regular one but I won’t go into detail. That was the only unpleasant part of the installation and the part where the installation wizard declared that I live in Croatia. Oh, and perhaps this small thing where the installation process ejected my disk tray and greeted me with a DOS-like screen.

After finally exiting the installation wizard I was greeted with pretty much an identical screen that was featured in the Live CD part. Somehow I was urged to download an update patch for drivers. A 104KB large patch after almost a week after its release. I didn’t like that part to be honest. But let’s not nitpick and go on with the more amusing parts. There’s actually a software manager from the Internet and downloading it manually, I was pleased with such a feature. It works similarly like iTunes, there are categories of software and then you search your applications within the application instead of searching with Google. It’s an interesting take on software distribution and one that I’d like to see expanded later on in the future and featured on Microsoft’s and Apple’s operational systems. I mean, if Steam works for games and iTunes works for songs, then why not for overall software? It’s all about direct digital distribution, so I was glad to see such a feature.

Speaking of amusing features, I’ll talk more about the ones that were most hyped for this release. The integration of your IM accounts and other social accounts into the operational system itself, more accurately into the taskbar. No extra applications or anything, it’s all integrated into the OS. Well, that’s a lie. After you insert the main data that you are required applications like Empathy (IM) and Evolution (e-mail) open up. But you can post Tweets and Facebook statuses directly through the taskbar, which is kind of cool, but really primitive. The overall execution with hidden applications in the back and the applications themselves look really poor and kind of unpolished.

This goes for the overall look of the operational system itself. Whilst I was incredibly impressed by the depth of the customization you can do, ranging from custom colors, icons, taskbar customization and overall look of the interface, it still retains that typical open source feeling of unpolished designed. I do believe that with enough effort you can make the overall GUI look more than impressive, hell I’ve seen desktop screenshots that influenced me to customize out my old Windows XP, but the basic setup is simply odd-looking. You’ve got to remind yourself of the fact that these distributions are for free, thus lowering your overall expectation. But that shouldn’t really apply this time, since you have giants like Google that offer their services like Gmail and Picassa for free as well and hit the nail on the head when dealing with the overall look of the graphical interface. Open Office on the other hand looks completely atrocious and horrifying.

These are more or less my initial thoughts on Ubunu that I’ve experienced so far. On a personal note I don’t necessarily feel comfortable on it and the operational system is now in the same position as the overall capabilities of the iPad. If you’re more or less just a consumer of the Internet’s latest features, like social networking (E-mail, Twitter, Facebook, Flick’r, Youtube), then you’re set with something like Ubuntu. It provides you with the basics. But anything more advanced and polished is out of it’s way. Of course there are applications that mimic certain other more official productive applications that can found in the Windows and Mac world. I’ll test Ubuntu out for another week or two and fully optimize it on my own, without any external help and then give my final verdict on how it compares to something from Apple or Microsoft.

Lastly, here’s some amusing trivia that I learned during this initial experience. There is no delete in the world of Linux, only kill and destroy. For instance, when I decided to close the Terminal (command prompt for you Windows fanboys out there) I was prompted with this message: “Closing the terminal will kill it.”. After reading that I was like, fuck yeah let’s kill it! The same positive emotion couldn’t be emoted when the warning message that the installation wizard would destroy an existing partition appeared. And when creating partitions the numbers “725″ mean a lot somehow. If you want to create a 30GB large drive, it has to be exactly 30725 MB in size. Finally, here’s an amusing video of me experiencing the advanced capabilities of Ubuntu’s desktop graphical interface. It’s not for the sea-sick, I warn ye!

Technology And Me – The Daily Routine

I love technology. I really do. I was born with a keyboard in my hands, grew up along simple, yet memorable PC games, watching them on a black and white CRT screen, almost lost my hearing from the god-awful dial-up noise when the Internet first started catching up and witnessed the painful transition from floppy discs to USB sticks. The reason I’m remembering my tech history is the fact that a few days ago I tried to explain to someone my daily routine and noticed the amount of technological/magical devices and its software that I use on a daily basis and could probably not imagine a life without. So I’ve decided to write down my daily technological routine and the essential tools that make my life so much easier in newly information-driven world.

Early Morning – Home

The first tech item that I pick up after I wake up is my always trusty iPod Touch. Well, that’s not entirely true. The real first device that I touch is my alarm clock, and I don’t necessarily touch it as I actually slam it to shut the fuck up. Yes, I’m really grumpy in the morning. Anyway, there are four major applications that I run right off the bat. My RSS reader, e-mail app, Twitter app (TweetDeck) and my main notepad app (Evernote) that I use for To-Do lists. After I gain all the important information I need, I am a fresh man, eager to go on and do business. After I tidy myself up I snatch my laptop bag, place my Touch in my pocket and listen to some fine podcasts while on my way to campus.

Morning/Noon/Afternoon – College

This is where my laptop gets its share of attention and where most of my work gets done, either for college or my personal matters. After re-syncing with the world again with the help of the Mozilla’s family line of programs – Firefox, Thunderbird and Sunbird, I re-cheek new tweets on the desktop version of TweetDeck and yet again check my obligations in Evernote. After any work is produced, any significant piece of data is automatically processed by my all favorite application that is Dropbox. If you haven’t heard of it, Dropbox is basically a simple program that acts as synchronizer of all your important files and also stores them on a web cloud. For instance, I create a new image/word file and place it in my Dropbox Folder. The file is then uploaded to the Dropbox cloud servers and when I turn on my desktop PC, the file is automatically downloaded to the Dropbox folder on the PC and voila! Instant synchronization. Dropbox has proved itself extremely useful to someone like me, since I use a large array of devices and I even have a version of it on my iPod Touch.

Speaking of synchronization and magical applications, there’s the previously mentioned Evernote. It works on the same concept as Dropbox, but everything occurs inside the application itself. As suggested in the title, it’s all about notes. I’ve grown very fond of Evernote, since I can create simple To-Do lists that I can view on my Touch later on or simply write down notes when I’m at class or studying and then even further organize them with tags or even e-mail them to others within the application itself. Madness! Later on I’m going to experiment with audio and video notes. Truly, this must be the future people spoke of in the 1960s.

Lastly, there’s my iPod’s synchronization with iTunes that I have installed on my laptop. The only bad thing that iTunes does is make me wish I had a Macbook. I don’t use it for music playing though, that spot will always be reserved for Winamp. Classic theme for life!

Late Afternoon/Evening – Home

After returning to my shrine at home, I usually turn on my desktop PC. My PC synchronizes with everything and so do I. I primarily use my PC for the heavy lifting, meaning I edit videos on it (Sony Vegas) and tinker with my photography and graphical work (Photoshop). My PC is also the place where I keep all of my media, like ripped movies, which I stream to my PS3 and much more. Also it’s a gaming machine, since I treat my laptop really nicely and have an almost monk-like rule of no gaming on my laptop to increase its overall performance and lifetime. There are no significant applications on my PC that I haven’t already mentioned. Perhaps Steam is the most important one on the PC, globally and personally. I mean, digital distribution is another thing of the advanced future that is featured in the year 2010, right? Finally, if there’s some serious work to be done I usually use my laptop instead of my PC. For instance,  I’m writing this on it as we speak.

Night/Really Early Morning – Home

If it’s not Friday or Saturday, which equal as party days, then I’m more or less likely to be finishing up on some notes in Evernote or generally doing work for college, which is primarily programing in Eclipse, a really chubby programing editor, that covers a lot of things that needs to be handled if coding in Java. Sometimes I tend to use Notepad++, just for the heck of it. When it’s actually bed time, I tend to dust off my PSP and play whatever needs to be played until I become really sleepy or feel that I accomplished what I intended to do. I’ve been mostly playing GTA: Chinatown Wars, since the missions are short and I can progress through it slowly every night before I fall asleep.

Lately I’ve been thinking of acquiring a Kindle, but those snob bastards at Amazon have yet to recognized my country as a worthy consumer of their magical e-ink device. Until that happens, I guess it’s only RSS feeds for me, since I don’t really like the physical form of books or librarians.

And the online services that I use? Well, besides Twitter I also enjoy using Flickr (losing battle), Twitpic, Instapaper (simple, yet amazing!!), Facebook and YouTube. And everything from Google. Those bastards really know how to hook you in onto their products. Must be some voodoo-shaman crap!

The Conclusion

There isn’t really one. If I spend a lot of time pondering on how technology has rapidly progressed through the course of my existence or our overall existence, I’d be a fool, since in that period of pondering, Steve Jobs or anyone else would whoop out a new and innovative product that would push technology even further. That’s why I only take a brief second, think of all the glorious tech products I’ve experienced, enjoy the ones I have now and look forward to the ones that are coming in the near future. It’s a never ending cycle, really. A cycle that I’ll be part of for the rest of my life most likely, unless I experience some hardcore spiritual conversion that bans all technological products and makes me go live in a cave on a mountain or something.

Also, perhaps you’ve noticed I didn’t mention my phone at all. That’s because I use my phone as a fucking phone. And not as a professional camera, gaming device, mp3 player, microwave, vibrator and much more, like most people do.

Testing Reality

The Tester is a reality show made by Sony Computer Entertainment America, exclusively for the folks out there who play video games, more specifically, games that are on the PS3 platform. The series will feature numerous challenges for a group of gamers with one prize in mind – becoming an official Sony PlayStation tester. Basically, one of low tier and most difficult jobs that anyone can get in the video game industry. I personally wouldn’t mind getting a nice money prize and a free copy of a game. When I first heard of this show, I immediately knew that I was destined to watch the shit. At least the first episode, just to see what kind of idiotic reality nonsense they’re going to subjugate to a group of gamers.

The Tester starts off, and I mean literally, like five seconds after pushing the Play button, with a built in commercial for the popular beverage Red Bull. Even though the commercial slightly amuses me, it still pisses me of, since people watch videos and shows on the internet to escape such commercial manoeuvres. Then the real show starts, thankfully. After informing the viewers that thousands have applied for this prestige dream job, we are introduced to a few of the applicants that made it into the show and the show’s host. Supposedly the lady that hosts the show has talent and has done this before, yet I wonder myself, who the hell is she. The contesters then start exploring the abandoned warehouse the show takes in and are amazed by the presence of a PS3 console, a PS2 console and even a PS1 console as if there had to be some serious financial support to bring these three consoles in one space. A contestant also discovers a copy of Uncharted 2 and proudly holds it in the air, as if he discovered the holy grail. This is where I start doubting that these people ever picked up a game controller in their lives.

There’s a dude all dressed up in serious business clothes (hardcore gamer attire) that doesn’t want to interact with others whilst they’re socializing and chatting. He supposedly has a dastardly evil plan to get to know these people by simply observing them and then stabbing them in the back and claiming the final prize. They also discover that there’s an actual professional gamer among them, which supposedly poses a threat. I also start asking myself why the hell would someone who makes actual money by attending gaming tournaments sign up for this reality show. Finally their first challenge appears and they are introduced to the judges. Where’s David Jaffee? I was promised David Jaffee goddamnit, even if he wouldn’t be swearing and being drunk. The first challenge that these people have to go through is some sort of a weird ocular exam. It’s one of those challenges, where you’re presented with two supposedly equal pictures with slight differences in one of them. Somehow this is gaming related. The suited up dude was sucking at the challenge and that’s all I remember from it.

After a short break, the lady host informed the contestants that it’s elimination time! People started hugging themselves and slowly departed to the next abandoned warehouse/studio where this elimination thing would take place.  The judges start a speech where in the world of testers, being serious is the key and scold a dude for joking during his test round. They also scold the suit dude and in defence he states the exact digit number and placement of a parrot. The judges are weirded out by his exclamation yet intrigued for his seriousness. They eventually eliminate the suit dude and in his final interview he has a speech where he states that he is glad that he’ll be reunited with his family (after being separated for a few hours?) and leaves a message in tears that he hopes his two young daughters would be proud of him when they grow up and see this footage of him trying to win this contest. I honestly thought the dude was going to kill himself or something after the interview.

The end of the show informs the viewers that in the next episode they’re going to place the contestants in huge balls, blindfolded and that communication is going to be the key in succeeding in an obstacle course. This is where I discover that I’m going to have to watch this shit till the end, just to see what kind of idiotic series of “gaming tests” they’re going to place these poor senseless souls in. I also departed from the video with one new thing I never knew and that’s the fact that the video game industry is obviously serious shit.