Blog

The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

Geekery

Me and My Pebble

Categories Geekery, Technology

My pebble watch on my wristI've wanted a Pebble smartwatch for a while, but the price (US$150+) had always put me off. They recently dropped the price to only US$99, which was right in my ballpark, so yay!

I think it's the perfect device for me. Although I like the idea of a fuller featured smartwatch, like the various Android Wear devices now being sold, I definitely do not like the prices (at well over US$200), or the fact that you need to charge them almost every day. I have enough trouble remembering to charge my phone!

The Pebble platform and development community has matured … Read more →

Surface Pro 3

Categories Geekery, Technology

Microsoft Surface Pro 3Our portable computer, the laptop known as Viktor, has been getting on a bit this year. At four-and-a-half years old, it's definitely into the senile years of its technological usefulness.

I started looking into getting a replacement earlier this year, initially looking at ultrabooks, but after Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 3, it seemed perfect for what we wanted.

We got the i5 256GB model (of course with a Type Cover), and after using it for a couple of weeks, I believe that it is the almost perfect compromise between a tablet and a laptop.

But that's the thing: … Read more →

Lego Cleaning and Science

Categories Geekery, Lego

Washing LegoToday was the third time I've put a bunch of grubby Lego in the washing machine to get it clean.

Yes, the washing machine.

Thanks to the internet, I learned that this was the most effective and painless way of cleaning a large amount of Lego at once. Just chuck the separated pieces into a laundry bag (usually used for bras etc.), add a little detergent, and set the machine on a delicate or hand-wash cycle.

The results are surprisingly good; just be careful of putting in large and/or transparent pieces because they might get a bit scratched.

One of … Read more →

Lego New and Old

Categories Geekery, Lego, Life

My completed old LegoI posted last year about my rekindled love of Lego, and since then it has gone slightly nuts. My desk at work is now covered in minifigures and small Star Wars sets, and I recently completed The Simpsons series of minifigures. After seeing The Lego Movie (which is my favourite movie of the year so far), I couldn't help myself but get Benny's Spaceship from Amazon (super excite), and am now waiting for the Super Secret Police Dropship to be released here in Australia.

A few weeks ago I retrieved most of my childhood Lego from my … Read more →

Trying Out Online Backups

Categories Geekery, Internet, Technology

Crashplan logoI first published my backup rant almost 7 years ago, and my catch-cry for anyone who owns a computer and cares about some data (i.e. everyone), is that there are no excuses when it comes to backing up important data.

To quote a wise man from the end of that post:

If your digital belongings are really that important to you, you should guarantee that only the most inconceivable of disasters should be able to rob you of them; anything less is negligence.

Since that post, only the medium and frequency of my backup regime had changed: weekly backups … Read more →

10 Years of Blogging!

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life, Rants

10 Years BloggingWow. Today marks 10 years since I started this blog. I must have missed the 10 year mark of the website itself (which was on 13 July 2013), but it was with the launch of this blog 10 years ago that things really started to get interesting (at least for me 😛 ).

If I was honest, 10 years ago I don't think I would have bet that this would still be going a decade later. At the five year mark I was seriously considering giving it up, but over the years I've come to the realisation that this … Read more →

Tweets for 2013

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life

Tweets for 2013These are my tweets for 2013 (minus replies and retweets). All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the API doesn't spit out the original URL text.

  • Time machine back to year 10, 1998! http://t.co/FDjrAzCA #DrWorm was my favourite Jan 02, 2013
  • Gold! 'Old Cops Discover The Internet': http://t.co/47ITSJrW Jan 05, 2013
  • Darn. Oh well, it was worth a shot http://t.co/BuoySrn4 #DeathStar Jan 12, 2013
  • lots of profanity, but loads of hilarity "Darth Vader Voiced By Schwarzenegger": http://t.co/2SY7sm7z Jan 14, 2013
  • What a joke that Brave won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film! Does Pixar get the awards
… Read more →

Ender’s Game (the movie): Impressed

Categories Geekery, Movies

Ender's GameLast night we saw Ender's Game. Some spoilers may be ahead.

I had read the book earlier in the year, so I was quite eager to see how they would portray a book that I thought was not suited for a transition to the big screen.

I have to say that I was pretty impressed. I think they did quite a good job at compressing the story, themes, and relationships into a very watchable two-hour movie. Knowing the story of the book beforehand, it did feel very rushed, but while a lot of depth and other sub-plots were understandably minimised … Read more →

A Retrospective of the Now-Previous Gaming Generation

Categories Gaming, Geekery

GamingSo now that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been released, what was the 'current' console generation is now the 'previous' generation. I had two consoles of the previous generation (Wii & PS3), which was a new experience considering I didn't have any from the one before that. It was a pretty long generation, spanning 2005 to 2013, and I think a lot of gamers were grateful at that.

It was also a generation in which gaming matured a whole lot. Not only maturing technically into things like high-definition, proper online connectivity, and social capabilities, but also maturing in terms … Read more →

Symphony of Legends

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Life

Symphony Of LegendsTonight we had the immense pleasure of going to the Symphony of Legends, which was the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (and an accompanying choir) performing a collection of video game scores.

In my tweet tonight I mentioned that it was an interesting mix of high-class symphony regulars dressed in suits and gowns, as well as geeks, some dressed in shorts.

There were some really great pieces, but for me the highlight was the Journey score. It was fantastic to hear it performed by a live orchestra, not to mention being conducted by its own composer, Austin Wintory.

Other honourable mentions … Read more →