Saturday, November 29, 2008

A Rant

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What year is it folks? Last time I checked it was almost banging on a new decade. Not to seem mean but if you have a computer that you bought in say 2002 (especially a laptop), yeah go a head and throw it away. Treat yourself to a new and shineyer netbook or just save some money and pick up a very nice macbook. You probably do not know it but that old, slow, molasses running clunker is doing two really bad things to your life.


1) It is sucking a lot of energy and unlike the laptops and desktops of today it does not care how much it sucks, it just keeps on going and going and so does your electric bill.

2) It decreases productivity by slowing down what you do during the day. It also breaks frequently and requires you to pay someone who charges 100+ dollars an hour to fix it.

What I am trying to get across to you folks is, pack it up, sell it or simply be a good citizen and recycle your old and bogged down computer. You, of course could throw a version of Linux on the slow juice drinker like puppy Linux or my favorite being OpenGeu. If you do not want to use the Linux desktop then by all means go out and buy yourself a new computer. Quit hanging on to stuff you know slows your life down, aight? Peace. Sorry for the rant all but it is getting rediculous.

Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Wisteria Wednesday

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For everyone who does not know what "wisteria" is it is a pale violet color that is reminiscent of the plant (and its color) it is named after. In addition, the hex code for this is supposedly #C9A0DC and was introduced into the Crayola coloring box in 1993.

We all dislike getting up around 5 a.m on Black Friday so that is why you are definitely here and looking for some solid deals today. Starting out HP is offering huge deals on all of their laptops either through deals on ram and solid state drives or through percentages off the entire systems. Tiger Direct has great deals on some Acer laptops (almost 100 dollars off from the Aspire One). Perhaps you are looking for a Desktop, an external hard drive or a great Samsung monitor then stop off at Buy.com and look at their plethora of deals. All of these deals usually last until around Friday where, Apple is supposed to release some mean Black Friday deals on their website as well as in Best Buy stores.


Perhaps the best deal out there is the inception of a new, and potentially awesome Nintendo DS. It appears that Friday will mark the appearance of two new DS packs. One will be sky blue with a custom carrying case and brain age, the second will be an amazing Mario Red with the M stamp in the shell (along with the new mario game). By far the Mario DS is going to go like hotcakes and will definitely be on my travel wish list for the Christmas season. Hope some of these deals help cull people from sitting out in the bitter cold and waiting to punch a coked out soccer mom in the boobs for that last Mario DS (unfortunatly you get to since these are only available in store). Good luck all, ciao.

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Let's Light Some Stuff Up!

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First off, please raise your hand if you afforded and kept your original Amazon Kindle. The Kindle was Amazon's start into the whole paperless book business and was far from a complete fail (except for the price, 400, WTF mate). There had been a lot of rumors and wants tailored toward the Kindle 2 which was rumored to come out for the Christmas season, then not again. The first rumor was propogated with some photos of the new player which apparently ARE the photos of the real Kindle 2 (pic in this post is on of those said "photos"). I know this all seems a bit confusing but, there seems to be some love at the end of the tunnel.

The Kindle 2.0 will be released in 2009 and it will look like the picture to the right. Apparently, there will also be a student version with a bigger screen and lighter price tag. I say bring it on Amazon, make it able to share bookmarks, underlining, and notes with other Kindles and you have sold me...oh and maybe a smaller price tag.

Monday, November 24, 2008

A Slew Of Newness

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Well it has been quite a while...aka several days since this blog has seen a relatively odd post fly by. But in its lack a lot of news has come about and I am about to throw it all on to your laps. If you have been around this blogs blocks for long you know that I have fallen quite in love with the new round of netbooks. Especially that of the HP Mini 1000 which is definitely one of the best ones (and will be through the winter giving festivities) on the market today. What with itss 10.2 inch screen, its 92% real sized keyboard and now its offering of 3g like speeds. Apparently and also secretly, HP released a little refresh of the netbook with a 3g sim slot near the diminuative battery. Hint, hint all this is definitely on my wish list for the christmas season so if any of you were thinking....yep. Now that was easy wasn't it.

Also in the news this Monday is the Bailout of the Citigroup. This means that all the people out there that might have bought a couple of faltering shares last week now look to make a fairly handsome profit. Props to you all, just let me stop beating my head off from my desk in order to make you your celabratory cake.

And for a coup de gras, it looks like several sites out there are hinting that the iTunes croud might be going completely DRM free. Sony, Universal and Warner seem to be allowing the music giant to sell their music without all the suthorization issues. This would pull a lot of smart people away from the Amazon music store (which has always been DRM free) and back to iTunes. It would be great to be able to hear some music on last.fm on your iPhone and pop over to iTunes and buy tracks and albums you hear and love with no restrictions. After all, have we not been doing that with CD's for years? Alright all, my Monday update is FIN and I am back off to work. Before you leave though a question: do you know what DRM is? If so do you just live with it or do you break it? Comment up ya lurkers, ciao!

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Dell Mini 9/12 Wuv

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Well folks seems like Dell has released some great case designs by Tristan Easton for their new netbook crowd. I looked at the Mini 9 on T.Kubed a couple of weeks ago and absolutely fell in love with it immediately (besides the weird bar that dell threw into Ubuntu). Linux based netbooks (and you CAN do the Windows with the Mini 9 and the 12) are not really for the consumer, "I want my computer to work when I want it to" crowd but they run really well, they manage the solid state hard drives better then windows, and have a lot of different flavors you can pick through. The designs on the laptops do cost an extra 50 bones and there are only 5 of them for now but they are super cool and will hold you out in the crowd. I have been personally waiting off on the whole netbook thing but this little buddy is definitely on my wish list for the Christmas season. You don't like it, tell me why folks. Caio.

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Spotlight Da Blog

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Alright guys and gals, I have definitely been fiddling around with this for the entirety of today and am very please to scream "Cha-Ching." All of this great news should be floated right (CSS joke for all you web junkinots) and you will see a weird looking black bar along with an arrow. This is the blog search and damned if it did not take a better part of a day of playing around with jquery code and CSS to get it to function like it is supposed to. So all is good everyone, search away and see what you come up with. Peace.

The Tkubed Branding

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Hello all, I have been talking to some of the avid readers and trolls about the confusion of the blog title. Tkubed is actually pronounced (tee.cubed) much like you pronounce what holds up a golf ball along with multiplying one number by itself three times. This stands for a Trapped Techno Tnerd and originates actually from someone's nick name. The original nick name was 10 foot Tall Techno Todd and was given to a man who really did seem like he was 10 feet tall (and he really loved techno as well). The name actually refers to someone who could be considered normal or even awesome and who works within the realm of technology. Feel free to go a head and use it in any conversation and change it at will. However, this blog will always cater to the people who are awesome and still love something that makes you oh so not awesome like technology. So keep it real out there folks and keep on reading.

Redesigns, Microsoft and Dominoes

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Well all, it has happened. This blog has gone through quite a few little changes over the past 4 months. Many have been good and some have been downright awful but, this is a definite when it comes to the new look and feel. It is very simple yet allows you all (not really sure who you all really are) to easily see past content as well as comment and subscribe via rss. All these features are key and I am uber glad to be able to bring them to you tonight, very late tonight.

Speaking of other changes to design, tomorrow marks the largest change to the Xbox 360 content section. Microsoft is getting rid of the old "blade" concept in favor of something a little more colorful, spaced out and avatar-rific. Now some folks who have their hands on the update are giving mixed reviews about the avatar system (think nintendo mii's). The avatar should be a great improvement over the simple gamertag and should allow people who have multiple player accounts to easily manage them instead of the old log out and in fashion. Unfortunatly, as the previous Wow post signifies I am a little strapped for cash these days (saving for the big day) and am actually going to build myself a nice and long cat 5 cable to run from our upstairs router since the wireless adapter is quite expensive. In addition, if you run over here you can see that Microsoft is starting up their engines by reducing their flash Zune team's price tags (I loved my flash Zune and they are definitely a great device if you run Windows only...but who reading this REALLY does that anymore). The Zune is a great piece of hardware but MSFT needs to get off their rears and simply opening the device up instead of requiring software.

The grande finale of this post is going to be something that will make us twice as lazy and therefore twice as fat as we already are. It appears that some folks stumbled upon a new widget built into our favorite drool box recorder the TiVo. It appears that you know will be able to actually record television and order Domino's pizza at the same time. I am definitely on the line between cool and extremely useless with this one but as an upside I do not actually own a TiVo. What do you guys (and gals) think about the idea of ordering your favorite italian or maybe even asian food over your set top box? Also feel free to hate on or love on the new design. Ciao.

Monday, November 17, 2008

Sketchy

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If anyone has ever had some kind of interest in Architecture or interior design then you probably have looked at Google Sketchup. Sketchup has always been a free for both Windows and Mac (no idea why they have been lagging on the linux version for so long) and has given aspiring 3d artists or just folks who like to a play, a good opertunity to. Monday marks a great day for you people who have been waiting for Google to update their Sketchup platform. Sketchup 7 looks very familiar to its younger brother but probably has quite a few little easter eggs in it. One obvious improvement is its speed which, on a mid 2008 Macbook Pro used to lag like a three legged dog. 7 seems to start up fine and keep on plugging away without any seemingly obvious memory leaks.


Hopefully soon I will be able to play with it and write up a propper review however, for now it will be let lose upon an Architect firm to see how t
hey like it. Hopeful opinions will be here shortly.

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Records Set, People Tooted

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This is definitely some kind of record for this blog blown completely out of the water with four posts in one day. It is definitely going to be much more of a quickie then the other short posts (weird downtime at the office throughout the day). As we all know from the declining markets, except for their late Thursday rally that the folks at GM are in some serious amount of hurt. They however allowed Jeremy Clarkson to hoon around in a new Vette while Chrysler, the noobs forced Hammond to pony up and buy a Challenger instead of borrowing it for Top Gear's trip from San Fransisco to the Bonneville salt flats. Anyhoo, you can buy your very own Save GM shirt, created by the folks at Jalopnik at their cafe press shop. I personally am giving a strong thought at the one to the right. What do you all think? Oh right, you SHOULD by one because if you do you are saving the economy.

40 Bones!

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Anyone who is...well anyone knows why today is so much more exciting then 2 days ago. Sure we should recognize all the veterans out there but how can we do that when the WoW expansion: Wrath of the Lich King is in a store near you? Yes, yes today marks a day when any geek, alcoholic, nerd, or casual gamer has taken the day off to explore the world of Northrend in all it's graphical gorgeousness. This game is a religion, a God, and a lifestyle to millions of people out there which is actually quite a scary topic. People have lost wives, jobs, countless hours of sleep, and a ton of money to play WoW. Blizzard has truly made a market that is filled with drooling lore giblets, afixed to glowing computer screens waiting for their next fix.

So if for some reason you have a lot of missing employees today then take the time out of your cushy exec job and give them a call on their cells. They will have no idea who is calling so they will probably pick up the phone thinking it is a guild member or some friend talking about cool new loot. Little will he know his excited voice will automattically negate the idea that he is sick. Give it a whirl folks, ciao. Oh and btw, if you do not remember I peaced out on Azeroth last month due to downsizing on hours at one of my jobs. If this had not happened I guarentee I would be right there along these folks and calling this day as vacation.

Storm's A Commin'

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The blackberry storm has been on the mind of smart phone folks ever since we were titillated with the idea of a touch screen phone (ala iPhone) that actually gave tactile feedback like a traditional QWERTY keyboard. Well the phone is finally here and it will be sold through Verizon (Nov 21) with their very sexy 3g network for 159.99 with a two year contract. Verizon may have one of the best 3g networks out there (in the US) and has some fairly competative overall service. With a price that is 50 bones off that of an 8gig iPhone and a screen that actually might work, this might be a serious contender.

The bad though folks: It is only got 1gig of built in memory (it has an sd expension slot but who wants to deal with cards anyway) and it is on the verizon network (verizon loves to software cripple their phones and has been doing it wildly for years) only for now. Also. blackberry is notorious for building very cheaply built handsets that love to break into piece when instantly hitting a solid object or burning up when entering any little puddle. Lets all hope that RIM has got their act together and fixed all their niggling issues. Well any competition is good competition and lets hope RIM can pull it off. Koodoes, ciao

Wednesday, November 12, 2008

Prego Drunks

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Yep, this sure is not the first place to say it but I definitely want it here saying that it IS OK to consume alcohol at a sane amount during pregnancy. A study out of the UK (the pro drinkers out there) proved that women who have several drinks a week are much more stable and able to interact with their children when they are born better then those who abstain or binge drink. This is definitely a genius survey and it should even lighten the emotional load that occurs when women are flooded with loads of hormones through pregnancy. Does this mean they will refrain from being vehemently distraught towards everyone around them? Probably not, but they will probably be much more relaxed, be able to make much more thought out decisions. And it seems that women seem to be able to handle child birth and child rearing in much more orderly form after a pregnancy where consumption was taken at a minimum. Thumbs up? Maybe gals, but one survey is one survey and I would take the drinking easy while you have a bun in the oven. Be safe, be seen.

Friday, November 7, 2008

Back on Track

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Getting away from he forced amount of blogging per month has completely refreshed my mind and will allow me to focus more on information for the scant amount of readers who thumb through this blog. During the short amount of down time a ton of blogging researched was read and previewed and a whole lot of ridiculousness ensued. Apparently most "pro bloggers" (actually I still can not comprehend this idea, guess it makes me not up for the position) actually take a span of 3 hours to complete 1 blog post.

This is completely nuts since it seems like most of the posts on many people's blogs are often times merely several lines long. If it takes most people 3 hours to write something that can be regurgitated in 45 seconds then there might not be too much hope for us. However, looking back at many posts on this blog, many of them take as much as 1 1/2 hours and as little as 5 minutes. These statistics, again seem to ramify my likelihood of NOT being a pro blogger. But no matter, each post will be tailored to a specific crowd...like the illiterate.

Well being a lover of all things fruit, it appears that Apple and At$t are up for allowing the iPhone folks to tether. You can tether the phone to small animals, cars, even laptops if you so fancy. Anyway, tethering usually allows you to share an internet connection (in this case 3g) with a laptop or desktop. This is handy when you are in an airport and do not want to pay for wireless or out in the middle of no where and you need some computer access. Many At@t smart phones already allow this option but with a higher monthly price. Bring on the tethering and bring on free tethering and bring it on soon. Thanks all.

Thursday, November 6, 2008

i-Pawnage

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Everyone was definitely on the iPhone 2.1 software update like jackals on other smaller jackals. However, it seemed to have delivered, with my phone at least, a whole heap of Apple app crashy crashy. As rumors build of version 2.2 we are finally starting to see some interesting stuff that Apple is cramming into the little amaz-o-phone. For example, it appears through these pictures that we are going to be able to download podcasts on the fly over the 3g and wireless networks. This is a phenominal step towards a complete multimedia experience and should excite a lot of you people. I do fall into the folks that listen to music on my iPhone but most of the time I listen to podcasts or netcasts only. With this update, none of us have to be away from a great podcast again. Wired caught a little of the story here.

Wednesday, November 5, 2008

Cruz

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As you all probably do not know because you never take the time to check out newer and cooler things, the Mac has a new WebKIT browser.  Well when I say new, I mean more like a couple weeks old.  Having used Cruz since the day it came out, I am prepared to say that it easily bests the likes of Safari (Safari is also built on WebKIT).  Having never really been a fan of Safari, besting it is a relatively simple task.  What I will say is that it is FAST, not as noticeably fast as Firefox 3.1 beta but it is right up there.  It also has a very nice black theme to break up the brushed aluminum look of Leopard, as well as the ability to have three different sessions running in the same window.


When I say sessions I mean you can surf three different sites in the same "box" without having to rely on tabs (which it also does include).  This is a GREAT ability since I can run my gmail in one box, surf in another, and still do LogMeIn sessions in another.  Along with that, you get a thumbnail plugin that allows you to see a coverflow view of, say Digg news articles.  The thumbnail plugin is not as useful but it is still a great idea and will give other folks a launch platform for other plugins (As of now plugins are not used in Safari).  As a side note, Cruz also allows the user to make tiny url's right in the browser which is super cool to me but may be useless to most.  All in all, Cruz is fairly light and sexy, two things that a web browser definitely needs (it even has a kickin icon).  Go and try it here everyone.  

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