28th
August
2009
Another test post, this one. I just downloaded the wordpress app onto my iPhone, which is cool. Now I can write or edit blog posts, check comments and much more from anywhere, even my bedroom where I am now. The photo below is of my bedside table – posting it only for the reason of testing this app… Hope it works… If you can see this I guess it means it does 
Spent the first part of the evening playing with Apple GarageBand – such a fun and easy piece of software. The new version makes recording guitars so much better as it gives visual representation and control over virtual amps and stomp box effects. I also added in some nice clarinet and organ sounds. It took 2 clicks to send it to iTunes and now I have the fruits of my labour on my iPhone. Very cool. I could easily waste a lot of time on this program…
Anyway typing on an iPhone is a little slow and I have stuff to do so I’ll end this now.. hope it works
Tags : Apple, blog, garageband, iphone
Categories : Housekeeping, iPhone, music |
28th
August
2009
As part of my renewed blogging vigour over the last few weeks I’ve been updating my blogroll – getting rid of some dead links and adding a few fresh ones.
Let me just draw your attention to a few of the ones that I read on a regular basis
- Scot McKnight – this guy is a theology professor in the US who was written some good books and blogs about a heap of interesting religious topics. The problem with his blog is he makes so many book recommendations that I just can’t resist so my amazon.com account, and subsequently my credit cards and bookshelves, become overloaded.
- Hello Internet – Ben has his own video show, and also posts a lot of stuff about movies, music, books, and comics so if you’re into those sort of things (and most of us are into at least one of them) then check it out.
- Slacktivist – another Christian blog and one of my favourites. This guy has a prophetic voice that I tend to agree with most of the time. In a well reasoned, often humorous and occasionally scathing way, he examines some of the excesses and inconsistencies of the Christian Right/fundamentalists (mostly in the US but still somewhat relevant to the rest of us). Recent examples include those crazy anti-rock & roll Christians who think U2 is satanic, the misguided creationist Ken Ham (who I’m sad to admit is from Australia..), the kooks claiming universal health care will lead to mass euthanasia, and of course his ongoing brilliant step-by-step demolition of the Left Behind series. Check it out if you think you will resonate with that.. otherwise maybe best you don’t.. but he does post on a lot of other interesting stuff as well.
- Guitar for Worship – my mention of U2 in the last section inevitably leads me to Karl’s blog which is based on guitar and worship (nothing like a nice obvious blog title) – not only does he love The Edge but he also writes humorous yet insightful posts on guitar, tone, worship, and gear. Biggest problem with this page is it fuels my gear and gadget habit. Every time I read his page I have to fight the urge to immediately go on eBay and hunt for pedals (often unsuccessfully). But I just can’t stay away (from both ebay and his blog)…
Was going to write some more but I can smell a nice curry cooking and wanted to get in some GarageBand time before dinner, but with those 4 blogs you’ll have hours and hours (or longer) of material to keep you busy… enjoy!
Tags : Blogs, christian, Links
Categories : Blogs |
28th
August
2009
Interesting piece on Slate here about ebooks and the Amazon kindle, a devide we are yet to see here in Australia but which has started to take the US reading market by storm. For the first time, after several unsuccussful forays by companies like Sony, ebooks are starting to get some mass traction.
I can see the advantages of eBooks, especially from the point of view of not having to carry books around, copying and pasting notes, purchasing books instantaneously etc. Especially for students the benefits are potentially huge.
However I’m still sold on the idea of “one-device-to-rule-them-all” – phone, book reader, media player, computer, camera, video recorder etc If only we had such a device so we don’t have to carry all these other things around… the iPhone is the closest we have (although it’s camera/video functions remain grossly inadequate) and there are some good ebook readers available for it. The best I have tried is Stanza, which links to a lot of free and commercial online catalogs to download books. You can also sync with your computer for books you’ve downloaded elsewhere. I’ve found it to be quite usable for novels – quite easy to read and navigate. At present I have the Stainless Steel Rat on there which I am slowly reading when I get a spare moment, plus I’ve downloaded a load of classic literature as well. The biggest downfall of the iPhone for book reading is that it’s small screen makes it unusable for textbooks…
Perhaps the rumoured upcoming Apple Tablet computer will be the ideal device for book reading – smaller and easier to carry around than a laptop, but with full computer functionality (in contrast to the Kindle and other ebook readers) and with a touch screen please! I digress but imagine if they make it so you can use your nifty iPhone apps on the Mac tablet as well, thus bringing the coolness, utility, and diversity of the App store from the smartphone world to the computer world! Now that would be cool. And I’m only guessing but it probably wouldn’t be too tough on the programmers as the iPhone and OSX are built on the same basic core anyway (or so I’ve been led to believe…) If you haven’t already thought of that Steve Jobs and crew, you can thank me for the idea… (I’m sure Steve’s a big reader of this blog so he’s sure to take notice…)
[take a look at this concept picture.. how awesome does that look. I want that!]
Anyway back to eBooks… there’s still a big big reason why I’m not sold on the whole idea – I love books. And not just the content of books. I love the physical cardboard and paper things which sit in my library and cause me the constant challenge of shuffling them around to make room for new books. I love just sitting in that room surrounded by them looking at all the cool ones I’ve read and have yet to read. I love having a book on my lap, with a led pencil handy to underline useful or witty insights or quotes (still haven’t come up with an effective solution to remember my underlinings though…) I like collecting and hoarding books that I think one day I might find interesting, or fancy well bound ones from the Folio Society. I love big books with hard covers. I love all my leather bound bibles. If I had more time and money (mostly time) I’d be one of those people who likes looking in secondhand bookshops trying to finding classic antique books. If I had more money I’d be buying classic guitars, but that’s another story.
SO the gist – ebooks are a good idea; still need the right device to be released (c’mon Steve!); but will never replace the charm of actual, physical books for me..
Tags : amazon, books, ebooks, folio society, kindle, steve jobs
Categories : Apple, Gadgets, books |
