Grizblog

I’ve owned an iPhone since the day they came out. The world seems divided into two groups, those who roll their eyes at the previous statement, and those who are right there with me. This post is meant for the latter.

With the release of the iPhone3G and iPhone 2.0 software, the iPhone expanded it’s horizons immensely with the addition of the App Store. Less than a year later, there are over 15,000 applications available for the iPhone. Why? Because it is easy to code for and very versatile. There are some great games for the iPhone but for now I will just talk about those apps that I find extremely useful:

• Evernote(free)- Whether it is a simple grocery list, word document, picture, web page, whatever, evernote is tha app to store and organize them with. There is an iPhone app, a desktop app (for Windows and Mac) as well as a browser plugin and a web-based version. It means you can literally access your notes from any device or anywhere with an internet connection. Another bonus is that it recognizes the text ini anything you submit and makes it searchable. Especially helpful if you are scanning old documents or receipts.
• Yahoo OneConnect(free) – Will likely overlooked as just an instant messenger application, OneConnect actually ties all of the social networks together so you can post and look at updates all in one consolidated view. I use it to post to Twitter, Myspace, Facebook and Friendster simultaneously. It is not meant to be a fully-featured client but it does link to the mobile websites of all the major social networks. If you do a lot with any of these networks, you should also seek out a more full-featured program.
• Weatherbug (free) – The iPhone buit-in weather app is decent, but weatherbug gets you weather in your neighborhood as well as direct links to radar, cameras, etc.
• WunderRadio (5.99) – Almost every radio statiion now has a way to listen online and with WunderRadio you can now access almost every single ronventional radio and weather radio station in the US. It’s especially good if you’re a traveller wanting to listen to your home stations or you just like adding some variety to your daily listening.
• Weightbot (1.99) – There are a ton of weight loss and exercise related applications. I find it quite hard to track calories (unless you eat TV dinners every meal) and track exercise (unless you live and work on a running track) so all I wanted to do was track weight. Weightbot does just one thing and does it well, track weight, so that is why I picked it. Put in your height and goal weight and then it’s a snap to post updates. Open the app, scroll to enter your weight (it defaults to your last measurement) and close the app. That’s it. Turning the app sidewya gives you multiple graphs showing your recorded weight over time, progress towards your goal, and estimates when you’ll reach that goal.
• WinAdmin (11.99) – If you have a need to remote control Windows systems, whether it be for work, or just want to connect to your home computer, then this is the best app to do it with. It’s a bit pricey, but many IT nerds can justify it.
• Byline (4.99) – There are a plethora of RSS readers out there, but if you use Google Reader on your desktop, you’ll want Byline on the iPhone because it is fully integrated with Google Reader and also offers offline use.
• Myspace/Facebook/LinkedIn (free) – All three have free iPhone apps which offer a decent experience. Of the three, the facebook is probably one of the best designed.
• Shazam (free) – One of the neatest ever mobile applications, Shazam can listen to the music around you, whether it be on the radio or in an elevator, and then tell you the artist, title and even gives links to buy the song, read the lyrics and watch a video.
• Box.net (free) – Lets you store PDF files, pictures, documents, etc. on the internet from any PC and access them from your iPhone. Good place to store commonly used spreadsheets, password lists, etc.
• Slacker/Pandora (free) – Both are internet radio apps allowinig for you to listen to station you customize (Pandora) or one of thousands of existing internet-only stations that cater to every taste(Slacker.)
• Google Docs – While not an app per se, Google has a great web-based document and spreadsheet tool that can be accessed from the phone or any other browser. Pretty good if you’re not a fan of Evernote.
• Nuevasync – Also not a real app exactly, website www.nuevasync.com allows you to synchronize your google contacts and google calendar directly with your iPhone automatically over the air. If you’re a google-head, you may need to visit this site.

Okay, so I’m fmiliar with “Journey to the Center of the Earth” and am willing to go along with the idea of a large subterranean area with dinosaurs. Strangely I have more trouble believing Brendan Fraser as an adventurer. Because of that I didn’t watch the 2008 incarnation of this title. Luckily (or unluckily) for me, there are actually 3 versions of this movie released in 2008. One for the big screen, one for TV and one went straight to video. Since I’m camping on the couch with a stomach bug, it seemed like a good time for bad TV and the Sci-Fi channel didn’t dissapoint with not the movie version, not the TV version, but the straight-to-video version of “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” I even had trouble finding it on IMDB (you can find it’s glorious 2.7 rating here.) Some of the highlights of the film include:

• A “Military Detail” just happens to be all women.
• That same detail makes a point that they need “‘full combat attire” which means tank tops.
• While creating a transporter may be a multi-million dollar project, all of their communication equipment has the quality if old AM radio.
• The secret code that saves the day is 867-5309.
• Any scenes of animation are a few frames long, on repeat, so you pass the same things over & over.
• They are able to drill 600km down, but never address what happens to the material they drill.
• They build a drilling rig meant for going 600km through the earth, but don’t design it for subsurface voids(air pockets.)
• 600km below the surface, they have sunlight.
• Major plot points (what happened to the drilling rig, where did the laser come from, what is that machine falling from the sky, how does typing Jenny’s phone number make oxygen) are never mentioned in the dialogue.

So yeah, it’s a true bad sci-fi. Since I’m sick I apparently don’t have the brain power for good sci-fi considering I somehow managed to mess up microwaving soup.

Apparently there was an internet meme I missed out on.. then later it was mentioned on an episode of Big Bang Theory that I also missed (great show by the way, pay close attention to the production credits.) Not until it his a t-shirt at thinkgeek did I find out about it. It’s called “Rock Paper Scissors Lizard Spock” and is designed to keep people from consistently getting in a tie as seen in lesser forms of “Rock Paper Scissors.” The rules are:

Scissors cut paper.
Paper covers rock.
Rock crushes lizard.
Lizard poisons Spock.
Spock smashes scissors.
Scissors decapitate lizard.
Lizard eats paper.
Paper disproves Spock.
Spock vaporizes rock.
Rock crushes scissors.

Check out the video I linked above for the clip from the show and if you want to try your hand, here is a Javascript version. If you think it’s too complicated, there is always this.

P.S. Ripped the arm on my leather jacket today. Bah I say. Bah.

How many Louie commercial do we need to explain that.. well.. if you snare you truck in power lines, DON’T CLIMB ON TOP OF YOUR TRUCK TO TRY AND FIX IT!

This person sadly learned the hard way

Also, just got a new assignment at work. My feelings are reflected in the picture above.