Haibane.info

Author: Otaku-kun

  • Kindle for the Web

    J complains that the Mac version of Kindle is not exactly stable:

    The Kindle for Mac application is crap. Not in the sense of “limited functionality and poor UI” (although those are true, too), but in a more serious “corrupts user identity every time it does its (weekly?) auto-update”. I had originally thought the problem was with the version available in the Mac App Store (which, thanks to Apple, is much, much older), but no, the direct download from Amazon does it as well.

    I’m guessing that Amazon is starting to wean itself from Apple given that there’s the issue of in-app purchasing hanging over their heads. I’m not really sure if there wll even BE a Kindle version in the App Store in two months, esp if Apple sticks to the June 30th deadline for in-app compliance.

    Even if Amazon and Apple divorce, iOS/OSX users will eventually be able to use the web-based version of Kindle though. I haven’t used it yet, it’s still in beta, but it should be available soon. At such point I would expect Amazon to dump a lot of dev resources into the web version as well to keep people from jumping ship to ibooks.

  • Conan

    Here’s the trailer at AICN. I think this one comment in the Trackback thread below summed up my impression perfectly:

    May 04, 2011 7:16:10 PM CDT
    CLASH OF THE 300 PRINCES OF PERSIA!!!
    by goldentribe

    in 3D, to boot. argh indeed.

    Frankly, the most amazing thing about the Arnold era of Conan was his raw size and speed. The man was a mountain that moved like a tornado. Momoa seems to be about 1/2 the bulk, but 1/2 the speed. Jumpinng around in the air or twirling the sword doesn’t mask the fact that he doesn’t (in the trailer, anyway) have the same ferocity and power. Conan needs to be giganticly muscled because he moves a 40-lb hand-and-a-half sword around like it’s a six-shooter.

    Plus, what’s with the rock and roll soundtrack? If they aren’t going to reuse Basil Poledouris’s astonishing score then they better aim at least in the same direction. The trailer gives little confidence that there will be reflective scenes like Theology that establish Conan’s worldview, or whether Conan even has a worldview beyond HULK SMASH. If the score is all rock and roll, we can assume the movie plays in the shallow end of the plot pool.

    Let’s see how he does in the film. But the inheritance of the modern era of comic-book derived action storyboarding, and the 3D baggage, doesn’t look promising.

    Are we in for EMO Conan? Or will we see him punch a camel?

  • a stupid question about Steam

    What’s the point of Steam, really? Suppose I were interested in picking up Portal 2. I have a choice, I can buy the retail version from Target or I could use Steam (which came pre-installed on DENT). Is the game full-featured in either case? Is there extra DRM in one and not the other? If I buy the retail disc, I can still install that on more than one PC, right? (I’m not going to game on anything other than PREFECT or DENT anyway).

  • May the 4th be with you: 3D Star Wars on blu-ray

    Today is Star Wars Day and I am continuing my ongoing boycott of the movies on any form of digital media. Recall that I declared victory over LucasFilm, but then the Empire struck back.

    Today, May 4th, is Star Wars Day and the Empire again promises revelations, bu I will not be fooled. The likely announcement is that the complete dual-trilogy is coming to Blu Ray, and most likely in 3D. StarWars.com has a big teaser for the URL maythe4th.starwars.com which isn’t live just yet, but I assume that sometime today the site will go live with the announcement that we can see the total suckiness of Greedo shooting first in dark, dim 3D now.

    Just to review, 3D is something I hate, and here’s why you should too. And here’s the case for why 3D will never work, case closed.

    Couple the sheer gimmickry of 3D for its own sake, the long-standing insult of plot revisionism, and the overall disappointment of the Prequel Trilogy, and you have what’s shaping up to be a giant Ball of Suck(TM).

    Count me out until I get what I want. the original trilogy, on regular DVD, no gimmicks, Han shot first. Until then, Star Wars is dead to me.

  • Alienware M14x unboxing

    Introducing DENT. As in, Arthur Dent.

  • my next phone: the Blackberry Bold Touch 9930 aka Montana

    Blackberry Bold Touch 9930 (Montana)
    RIM just made it official – the 9900/9930 will be released this summer. It’s a Blackberry Bold with a touch screen, so we get the best blackberry keyboard, the latest blackberry OS, and touch goodness in one package. Assuming it comes to Sprint, I will be grabbing this as soon as my current contract expires in June. And if it skips Sprint and goes to Verizon, I will follow. This is the King of Bberry, with a quad-band radio so I can continue to use it abroad. There’s no other device for worldwide travel that comes even close. My recent trips to India were with unlimited data and otehr friends picked up local BIS SIM cards to get unlimited voice. Meanwhile, my poor friends with iPhones were paying rapacious fees to AT&T for roaming on the megabyte. This alone is reason enough that I’ll never go iPhone, and that’s before you put the crack addiction of BBM into play.

    In related news, RIM also announced video chat and a true Facebook app for their PlayBook tablet. The IPad still doesn’t have a native Facebook app, I should note. I think that a Playbook+Montana combo is a real synergy winner here.

    Here’s the promo video of the 9900/9930 from RIM:

    and a hands-on video via Crackberry.com –

  • metaBLOG has relocated… here

    A while back, I started Yet Another Blog called metaBLOG. To be honest, it was a mistake. As a result, I’ve imported all the posts from there to here, and given them their own category, also named metaBLOG (because, you see, I am a very original thinker).

    Probably the only post of consequence there was this one, which is now here, and if I do everything correctly will eventually do a proper 301 redirect. In fact, I welcome suggestions on how to do that exactly, not just for that post but for all the posts as well. I’ve got both sites verified under Google’s webmaster tools, as a start, but could use some guidance.

  • Battlestar Galactica: Blood and Chrome – pilot episode SPOILERS

    Now that Caprica has left television, the BSG universe churns on, with a new series set during the first Colonials-Cylon war. Moviehole.net was sent an advance script and posted a spoileriffic summary of the first part of the two-part pilot episode.

    What interested me the most was the direct connection to Caprica. And of course, the series is has the word Galactica in the title, so you can draw an inference from that. But since it’s a spoiler, specifics are below the fold:

    (more…)

  • Filco Majestouch mechanical keyboards for sale at Amazon

    Filco is a legendary manufacturer of mechanical keyboards, which for some reason stopped making them. So, finding Filcos for sale (especially new ones) is an opportunity indeed. Looks like a UK-based outfit called The Keyboard Company has a stash of various models that they are selling via Amazon. I’ll list the models available here, but note that availability on all of these is pretty limited so there’s no guarantee they will be in stock.

    (Reminder – here’s my earlier Cherry MX primer on the differences between each type of switch in terms of linear vs tactile response)

    Here’s the manufacturer page – Filco Majestouch keyboards on Amazon.com

    And here’s the current stock. All of these support full N-key rollover. Prices range from $140 to $180.

    Full-size 104 keys:

    Filco Majestouch – Blue MX, 104 keys

    Filco Majestouch – MX Red, 104 keys

    Filco Majestouch – MX Brown, 104 keys

    Tenkeyless:

    Filco Majestouch – MX Brown, tenkeyless

    Filco Majestouch – MX Blue, tenkeyless

    Filco Majestouch – MX Black, tenkeyless

    Filco Majestouch – MX Red, tenkeyless

  • comment policies

    Question for whoevere it is that still reads the blog on any semi-regular basis: is it too hard to comment here? I’m debating switching to a system like IntenseDebate and my goal is to really make it very easy to leave a comment without making you jump through any hoops, while still preserving me from an onslaught of spam.

    I’d like to solicit your opinions – especially if you usually don’t comment but read regularly.

    FYI here’s the features that using IntenseDebate would bring. I just want to remove obstacles to discussion, basically.