I'm Her Daddy !!!!!!

LOL

Writely

Okay guys, I just got done writing one of my Summer reading papers, and I composed the whole thing on Writely just so I could check it out and write a review here on my blog. So, I'm sure you guys are aware of the concept of replacing programs like Microsoft Office with web based applications. Google is probably the number one company that is trying to accomplish this, though I believe that Microsoft themselves have said that they're moving in that direction.

If you're unfamiliar with the concept, what it is, is instead of having Microsoft Office or OpenOffice on your computer, you'd have web based email, calendar (both Outlook), spreadsheet (Excel), word processing (Word), and presentation (PowerPoint) software. All of the files that you're working on would be held on Google or whoever's servers, and you'd manipulate them with web based interfaces. This makes a lot of sense and allows for increased functionality. First of all, you'l never have to worry about carrying files around on a thumb drive or accidentally leaving your file on your computer at home when you need it somewhere else. Because it is web based, your stuff is accessible from wherever you're at. Second, because things are web based, you can have collabarative documents, where multiple people can work on one file at the same time, from wherever they are. Third, you can integrate other web based technologies, such as RSS to give you updates on changes to documents if they're collabrative or having a dynamic list of all of the things that you're currently working on, kinda like how Netflix has RSS feeds so you can see your queue dynamically on something like Protopage (that's how I do it).

So, Google, as of right now, has email (GMail), caldendar (Google Calendars), spreadsheets (Google Spreadsheets) and word processing (Writely, who Google recently acquired). As you guys know, I am a HUGE fan of GMail and most of you use it as well. Google Calendars is fantastic as well, with the ability to share calendars with other people, and spreadsheets, well, lets just say I haven't used Google Spreadsheets very much, but, I'm sure it's cool! :-)

The subject at hand, is, of course, Writely. I had actually played around with Writely about 8 months ago, right after it first came out. It was pretty nifty but I hadn't had a chance to use it seriously until now.

The whole process feels very much like a traditional word processor. Menus are logical, though there really isn't that much there. One thing that that is a minus on Writely is that there isn't a whole lot of room for formatting. There are only 18 fonts, and font size is limited to 8, 10, 12, 14, 18, 24, and 36. Line spacing will function for the entire PAGE, not just paragraphs. However, if you need to do a block quote, it has that functionality built right in, making it a bit easier to do block quotes (which won't be double spaced, obviously). There isn't any way to do margins, really, so that's another minus.

It might seem like I'm focusing on the minuses right now, and, well, I am. Writely is definitely limited when it comes to formatting. But there are some great plusses and factors that mitigate the minuses. As of right now, the way to look at Writely is as a rough draft builder. It is suited for this for several reasons. It is FAST. Blazingly fast. I don't have OpenOffice preloaded in my system memory, because in general I don't like when programs I'm not using are using system resources, and so when I try to open OpenOffice it takes about thirty seconds to load everything. Writely will be up in an instant, making it more convenient. Another reason that Writely is more convenient is the simple fact that it is web based. There are the obvious features like having your documents avaialable everywhere in the world, but then there are not so obvious features like being able to have your word processor open in a tab right next to another tab that has a page that you are working from. That right there is a super convenient feature; I don't have to switch between programs to get my work done.

So, my recommendation, and what I did, was to get your work done on Writely, then save the document as a .doc or .odt file (Oh, did I neglect to mention? YOU CAN SAVE AS HTML, RTF, WORD, OPENOFFICE, OR PDF!) and bring it over into OpenOffice or Word for finishing work like adjusting page formatting and font size as per your teacher's specifications. Obviously this isn't an ideal solution if you're looking to totally replace your traditional word processor, but the fact that Writely is so convenient to use makes it worth that tiny little lack of functionality, in my mind. If you're working on something over multiple days, it makes more sense to do the bulk of the work on Writely and then bring it into OpenOffice just once, in order to print it. I'm sure that in the future, Google and the Writely team will add even more functionality, so that one day, we'll be able to do everything within Writely itself!

Be sure to check it out, I really like it and will be writing my papers on it from now on. I just won't count on it to format things to Mr. Boyd's exacting standards! :-)

ROLL FOR INITIATIVE

Yeah dawgs, you know what I'm talking about! Tycho roles TWENTIES!

Domain Registration

Well, I just registered my first domain name yesterday. I am now the proud owner of www.segcast.net which is for, you guessed it, SegCast.

I registered through GoDaddy and it was really painless. I even used the coupon code "DIGG" which is a promotion going on through the podcast Diggnation where you can get 10% off.

GoDaddy even called me this morning to make sure that I knew how to set everything up properly and see if I had any questions. That was really cool that they did that. I don't know if it was random or if they do that with everyone but it was nice to see that they're doing that.

The only thing that I don't really like about GoDaddy is the site. It's really cluttered and is basically information overload. They have a great service and great customer service but their site is confusing. I think that the issue is that they just have a ton of functionality and it's really hard to make things look pretty when you need 100 links for different functions.

So, basically, if you guys are ever looking to register domain names, go through GoDaddy. I wholly endorse them. The price is right too, I'm paying $17.99 or something like that for two year increments of registration. If you want to go by year it's like $8.99 a year. Definitely won't break the bank!

Go register with GoDaddy!

LEEEEEROY!!!

This here is the LEROY JENKINS card from the new World of Warcraft TCG.


This is not a photoshop, this is real.


This is an officially licensed Blizzard product.


Dudes, I am such a sucker for TCGs. You have no idea. Please don't let me play this because, right now, just seeing this one card kinda has me itching to play a TCG.

Please, please, please don't let me.


But it sounds so cool to throw LEEEEEEEEERROYYYYY JENNNNNNNKINSS down on the table!

Okami E3 2006 Trailer

Woah. Woah. Check out how the painting system in this game works. It's beautiful!

Some cool video on YouTube

I found this awesome video on YouTube! Check it out!

In which a Plan comes together

Wondermark by David Malki ! - 220: In which a Plan comes together

Eureka!

Eureka


Ladies and Gentlemen, I have found a new science fiction television program that I enjoy.


This time, instead of being named after an insect, it's named after Archimede's famous exclamation.

Eureka is a new show on the Sci Fi channel that is about a small town called Eureka, an idyllic, but totally top secret, community founded by Einstein with funding from the US government, after convincing President Truman that the world's future lies in the hands of scientists, not soldiers. Eureka would be home to the world's top minds, as well as a research facility allowing these geniuses to develop their ideas.

Of course, with these geniuses and their projects, things sometimes go awry. That's where the show comes in; it's all about how they solve their "little" problems such as a temporal vortices.

A couple of things have really impressed me about this show. First of all, the heroes in Eureka are smart people. I'm sure that you guys agree that anything that values people who actually matter (i.e. smart people) over people who don't (i.e. Paris Hilton and ilk) is a good thing for our culture.

The second thing that impressed me was the prolific Segway use shown throughout the show. Most movies or TV that include the Segway show them as sight gags or to show that someone is "rich". In Eureka, people use them to get around the town and the research facilities. They do add on a goofy little sound effect whenever you see a Segway (it's like a little electronic whir), but that's probably because they're too quiet for the "effect" that they wanted them to have, haha!

The third thing that impressed me was how, in the pilot, the referred to the fact that when something travels through time, it doesn't travel through space. The example in the show is a piece of an RV that is caught in a temporal vortex; the piece reappears some distance away because of the rotation of the earth underneath it. They mention this directly. The reason this impressed me was because that is the most often overlooked facet of time travel; in most stories featuring time travel, it is completely disregarded. I'm a geek, and this bothers me; I like my fiction to be somewhat feasible :-).


The pilot is available on the linked page, at the bottom, where it says "Full Episode: Pilot". Check it out. I'm going to have the TiVo start recording this!

Bling Bling Homies! or, how I found a super rare game

I bring the BLING BLING!

Walked into the EB Games right by my house for the first time looking for some GameCube controller extension cables.

I didn't find any cables, but what I did find made me jump in excitement.

Lo and behold, on the bottom shelf of the used PlayStation 2 game shelf was the holy grail, a game I have been looking for for literally five years. A brand new but sold as used copy of Rez, a stylistic on-rails shooter that is a fusion of light, sound, and gameplay.

It was sold as used because, according to the guy behind the counter, it was found in a warehouse recently and the stores computers won't let them sell it as new due to the fact that it hasn't been made since 2001. Thus, it is a perfectly pristine copy for only $35.99 after my membership discount card.

I think I can die happy, my PS2 collection has finally been filled out. Actually, I still need to get Shadows of the Collussus....