Category Archives: Technology

July 16, 2012 · 5:13 pm

On the Go

I’m writing this blog while waiting for the bus. I have, after many years, finally joined Legion and purchased a smartphone.

On the bus now.

Having this much information at my fingertips now is paralyzing. Do I watch a movie? Do I tweet a picture of the meal I’m eating at a fancy restaurant? Do I use the GPS to find a quicker way home?

I have the entire goddamn internet wherever I go now. There’s so much power a simple smartphone.

And I’m a little sad, because I know it’s only a matter of time before it becomes commonplace.

At the very least, I hope I can always appreciate the fact that I’ll never be lost again. Which happens more often than I care to admit.

Anyway, I’m going to do my best to treat this technology with the reverence it deserves while I  an still appreciate it.

Time to play some Angry Birds.

-D-

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March 22, 2012 · 6:47 pm

App Review: Angry Birds Space

I used to play a lot of Angry Birds, just like every other human being on the planet. After a while, though, it got tiring. There’s only so many times you can hurl a bird into a pig and remain satisfied. They tried to mix things up with themed levels (birthday parties and Halloween, frinstance) and the (very) occasional new bird (orange bird), but nothing that really added much to the core fundamentals of the game.

But Rovio is back with a brand spanking new sequel called Angry Birds Space that manages to bring some new things to the table and breathes some more life into the franchise. By adding gravity that varies wildly across the map (or completely taking the gravity away), they’ve added a new dimension to the strategy. It’s no longer a straight shot from point A to Point B. Now it’s: Fire the red bird just past the small planetoid so it curves his trajectory enough the he enters into a decaying orbit around planetoid B, eventually slamming into the pig.

There is one new bird and a modified version of the Yellow Bird, called the Lazer Bird. The new bird is best used in conjunction with the Blue Birds. He can ice up a part of the pig’s base and allow the Blue Birds to tear through previously difficult to destroy materials. The Lazer Bird is kind of a combination of the Boomerang Bird and the Yellow Bird, in that you use the Lazer Bird in both capacities. After launching the Lazer Bird,  you tap the screen to send it in any direction, giving you a much more versatile bird.

They’ve also added actual bosses. Now the King Pig is an actual menace that can’t be killed by a direct hit from a bird, rather than just another pig on the map. Now the last levels play a little differently from the rest of the game, though I don’t know if everyone is going to be a huge fan of that.

The game also feels less smooth than the previous incarnations. There have been a number of times where my aim has jittered after I’ve released the bird, sending him higher or lower than I aimed. There were also a fair number of game crashing bugs during the two hours I played. And there are only two hours of gameplay. I beat the first set of levels with mostly three stars in less than an hour and then rushed through the second set. The difficulty curve seems lower than in the previous games, perhaps to ease people into the new mechanics.

There is another set of levels available at time of launch, but you’ll need to plunk down another 99 cents for those. They’re supposed to be more difficult, but I haven’t tackled them yet.

Angry Birds Space is worth the 99 cents and with the new physics rules, it’s definitely fun, but there was also less content than I expected there to be. I’m assuming they’ll be releasing more content over the next few months, but even for an iPod app, it was a short affair.

I give this game Two Beers and a Pot Roast.

Dylan Charles

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March 3, 2012 · 10:32 am

Zombies, Run!: Conclusion

This will be the last Zombies, Run! entry for a long, long while. Promise.

After completing the first three missions and starting the third, I think I’m ready to bring in my final verdict on Zombies, Run!

There are a couple of things that I wish they’d add:

-I’d really like to know how much I’ve run in terms of miles, rather than in the vague and ambiguous steps. Some of us aren’t blessed with iPhones or iPods equipped with a GPS.

-In line with the previous, I’d really like to be pursued by zombie mobs at some point. I dunno if that’s really possible with the accelerometer and I’m not going to stop using the program because it’s not there. I’ll just be bummed.

-Something explaining why I want to level up all these buildings. What’s the difference between having a level 1 armory and a level 2 armory? I know that higher level buildings will give access to more missions, but I don’t know which buildings to level up to unlock, say, Mission Four.

Aside from these issues, Zombies, Run! is a great app. It’s gotten me running again and I actually look forward to running. If it keeps me running for, say, a month, that’ll make it more awesome than my own, not-so-great willpower. The second and third missions don’t have the lengthy opening narration either, so feel free to run right out the gate without worrying about extended helicopter sequences ruining the illusion that you’re running from zombies. A small aside, I’m glad that they’re not avoiding using the word zombies. It’s kind of refreshing for someone to break that rule, for once (Don’t say the Zed word!).

I also like how the game has started to introduce other elements. At one point, your character picks up a newspaper clipping, which has a reference to a twitter account. And, lo and behold, you can follow the account. Considering that the game is an alternate reality game, it’s nice to see that they’re not just limiting it to the running itself. I’m interested to see just how much further they’ll take it.

So, buy the app if you’re interested in making running fun. Don’t buy it for the iPod if you want the random zombie encounters. And the length of the missions depends on the length of the songs you play while you run.

To see the first two parts of my review go here:

Zombies, Run!: First Impressions

Zombies, Run!: First Mission Review

Dylan Charles

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February 29, 2012 · 9:40 am

Zombies, Run!: First Mission Review

I used to run occasionally, but that was a year ago and the most I’ve done since then is to stare at my running shoes before quickly throwing a towel over them to hide my secret shame.

So keep that in mind as I review the first mission of Zombies, Run!.

As I mentioned before, the beginning of the mission has a three minute introduction in which there is no running. If you’re anything like me and you want to stay grounded in the game’s universe, I recommend using this as a warm-up period. Do some stretching.

This is especially important if you’re like me and you can’t run more than ten minutes without fainting. I wasn’t able to run long enough to make it to he second checkpoint, which meant I had to sit through the introduction again the next day.

I also recommend holding onto any items you find until after you complete the first mission. The game gives you information for all the buildings in Abel at that point giving you a better idea of where you should put everything. At this point, I don’t see how the base plays a part in the game. It just seems like a neat graphic for your runner to come home to.

My initial problems with the accelerometer are not as bad as I thought. It does settle down after a while and stops counting off paces when I stood stock still. The main problem with the accelerometer is the that the zombie chases are disabled. This seemed like the funnest portion of the game when I first heard about it, but it’s only available if you have an iPhone.

There’s also no way to input how long one step is. So while you know if you’ve gone 1000 steps, you won’t know how long that really is in miles or kilometers unless you’re willing to crunch the numbers yourself.

Aside from the nitpicks, Zombies, Run is a great app. It got me out of my chair for the first time in over a year and I actually look forward to running the next day, if only to find out what happens with Sam and Runner Seven and the doctor lady whose name I can’t remember. The voice acting is serviceable at its worst and considering this is an independently funded and designed game, the voice acting is, for the most part, pretty good.

They’re going to implement for free content over the next few monhs, including repeatable supply missions. I want to see how the storyline develops over the next couple of missions and I want to see how the supply missions will be handled.

The story drew me in and gave me a reason to keep running, even when I was flagging. For whatever its flaws, it does what it’s supposed to do: make running fun.

Dylan Charles

 

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February 27, 2012 · 2:09 pm

Zombies, Run!: First Impression

If you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you might remember that at one point, I was doing some running. You might also remember that I stopped talking about it. A lot of that has to do with the fact that running bores the absolute dogs out of me. I can’t keep doing it every day or every other day without some kind of constant impetus and my own good health is not enough of one.

So I got excited when I heard about Zombies, Run!. It’s an app for the iPod and the iPhone (scheduled for Android for a Spring release date).  It’s the zombiepocalypse and you’re Runner 5. You go out and scavenge supplies for the tiny community of Abel. The difference between this and any other zombie game is that you actually run to get the supplies. As you run, your device uses GPS or the accelerometer to keep track of how much you’ve run. You pick up supplies, dodge zombies and try and complete the mission before you’re eaten.

I started playing it today using my iPod and I had a few issues.

Since an iPod obviously can’t link up to a satellite, I have to use the accelerometer, but it looks like either the software or the accelerometer is way too sensitive. I’d be standing still and notice that I was continuing to run in game. I ignored that and just kept going. Since at this point, it’s not tracking stats yet, it doesn’t really bother me if it’s not completely accurate.

The second issue is the storyline. The first couple bits of plot don’t really feature a lot of running, so I was running while my character was in a helicopter. It was only after I’d gone a few blocks that the radio operator told me to get as far away from the zombies as I could. This is a bit of nitpick, but it kind of took me out of the story a bit. I wish I’d known so I could just have sat on my ass and made helicopter noises for the first part.

I’m going to run through the first two missions before I write up a full review of Zombies, Run!, but I’m tentatively enjoying it. It got me to run a mile for the first time in almost a year, so that’s good.

More later.

Dylan Charles

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July 10, 2011 · 10:31 pm

Google Nonplussed

I’ve been using Google Plus for the last few days. For people who aren’t aware, Google Plus is Google’s attempt to unseat Facebook with their own social networking system. It’s still in Beta testing, but it’s not too hard to get an invitation nowadays. You should have at least one friend who’s sitting on a couple of invites.

So far my experiences with Google Plus have been positive. For a beta, it’s very polished and I haven’t bumped into any bugs. It is missing one or two feautures that I’d like to see in the finished product. I would like to be able to condense the people who have multiple email addresses into one contact. Right now, I have circles with one person being represented by three separate emails. But I love the Circles and I love just dragging and dropping people to different places.

I haven’t played with the Spark feature much (plug in a keyword and Google will find you a wide variety of videos and articles about that item to peruse) and I probably won’t use it that much.

I also really dig the transparency behind the privacy options on Google Plus. While I’m still not 100% how private my data is on Facebook, I know exactly how private each aspect of my Google Plus profile is. And that kind of reassurance is great to have.

The one thing I like the most, though, is how simplified it is. It doesn’t have all of the bullshit that currently clutters up Facebook. There are no farms or vampire wars or mobsters. There aren’t hugs and pokes and wall graffitis. It’s very spare and I hope to God it stays that way. Facebook is so overburdened with third party apps that it looks like a three-year-old vomited partially digested skittles all over my news feed.

The main problem I forsee is that not all of my friends will migrate to Plus and I don’t blame them. I spent years and years building up my network on Facebook and, honestly, Google Plus hasn’t offered enough for me to ditch all of that quite yet. At the very least, I’ll keep a foot in both worlds when Plus does go live.

Dylan Charles

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July 3, 2011 · 10:11 pm

Ten Percent

Last week, my computer was out of commission for about four days. It wasn’t a very long time and I was able to access everything I needed using either Emily’s computer (Thanks El!) or my iPod. So there was no real first world hardship involved and I was able to do pretty much everything that I was able to do before my computer decided to lose its marbles.

That didn’t change the fact that I felt a lot better after I had gotten my computer back. It’s a mix of a wide variety of different emotions. Partly it’s just a comfort thing. I like to write in the same spot, on the same surface, using the same interface. It’s just a matter of comfort and familiarity.

There’s also the matter that my computer is, in subtle and overt ways, thoroughly integrated into my life. Computer’s aren’t like, say, televisions or iPods or other pieces of technology. We talk to our friends through them. We bank through them. We buy through them. We look up facts through them. We maintain a large part of our lives through this one piece of tech. And when mine went haywire I felt…diminished.

It’s not the easiest feeling to explain, but I felt like I do before I have my morning coffee or when I don’t get enough sleep and all the cylinders aren’t firing. It was only a feeling I noticed after I got my computer back and I was relieved and happy and felt back in control of things again.

Which is a disturbing idea to me, that I could become so dependent on something that could be eradicated by a spilled sweet iced tea. I wish I didn’t need it for so much (writing, publishing, banking), just so I could rely on it less. And now, more than ever, I’m starting to rely on it more. It’s actually earned me money (hey, you should buy my book). And at some point, I’d like to completely earn a living off of it.

So, for better or for worse, I’m tied to this extremely fragile, not so durable, time wasting box.

Dylan Charles

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April 28, 2011 · 9:02 pm

The Cutting Edge

I’ve always loved gadgets. I like to read about the newest advances in gizmos and watch videos detailing their functionalities and doodads. When the Kindle was first announced, I pored over the specs, watching every available video. I followed the iPad and, to a greater degree, the Courier, Microsoft’s now cancelled tablet PC.

But I never bought any of it. I was always behind the curve, technologically speaking. I have an eleven dollar cellphone and I’m happy with it. Why would I want it to do anything else? Sure, I think the iPhone looks nifty, but I need my phone to make phone calls and not charge me crazy amounts for it.

That’s slowly started to change. After three years, I finally bought the Kindle. I got as cutting edge as you can possibly get with a book. And now, I’ve taken another, terrible step. I got an iPod Touch. I’m listening to it as we speak. It gives me information, almost whenever I want it. I’m now more in contact with the people around me than I used to be.

I’m slowly, steadily plugging in. And I’m terrified. I’m turning a corner where soon I’ll be one of THOSE people; wearing a blue tooth headset and talking to people no-one else can see. I’ll snap pictures of my pets and my lunch and then tweet them. I’ll be so busy emailing someone while playing Angry Birds that I won’t realize that the apartment is on fire

So, in conclusion, have a picture of my guinea pig:

Dylan Charles

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