deh1974's Xanga

wow - the Apple Magic Mouse is horrible

Fri, 19 Mar 2010 22:27:07 GMT

I really like Apple products these days - I went to a Mac laptop in March of 2008 and haven't looked back. I've got an iPhone, AppleTV, a new MacBook Pro 13", 3-4 iPods and an Airport Extreme. I'm replacing the Airport extreme (I suspect mine is flaky - it drops connections a lot these days) but other than that, I'm really satisfied.

That is, until the new Magic Mouse. The touch surface is extraordinary, but the mouse is really missing the side buttons that graced the last Apple Mouse - the former Mighty Mouse. Its insane that Apple's mouse got worse in this generation - its an ergonomic nightmare as bad as the puck mouse from the old G3 iMacs. I really want to squeeze the sides, but I find it to be really uncomfortable.

Wow, i really wanted to like this mouseas I thought it would combine the functionality of a mouse for games, with the cool gestures of the trackpad. You also can't easily customize the gestures, but I figure Apple will fix that in the future w/ a software update. The ergonomics aren't so easy to fix. Sigh.

Shame, Apple, shame.

Roomba update!

Thu, 31 Jul 2008 07:48:02 GMT

I am still loving my new 560 Roomba. its much better than the old model. It is much easier to clear and the battery life is terrific - it can cover my entire 1050ish sq ft apt in once pass. It returns to the dock better than the past units. The one nit to pick is that the brushes need to be cleaned more often - or at least, the Roomba will stop and ask you to clean them. I think this partly due to more sophisticated sensors in the Roomba, but to me, this shows an area where the design could be improved.

Ail in all - I give the product a 5/5. Get one!

I've been traveling a lot lately - I'm in LA now, but back tomorrow. It looks like a fairly steady diet of traveling for the near future, but I'm hoping to take a vacation in October (stay tuned!!)

I love my (new) Roomba!

Sat, 05 Jul 2008 07:12:58 GMT

My old 4xx series Roomba was having battery issues, so instead of paying 1/3rd the purchase price to get a new battery, I decided to upgrade to the 560. And wow - I'm really happy I did. The new Roomba has it all over the old one:
* quieter
* way more battery life - the thing was running almost 2 hours or so. Old Roomba never got close
* Get tangled way less

All in all, 2 thumbs up. It keeps the place way tidier and I can set it up to run daily. Since i gets tangled less, I'm less worried about keeping it confined to only parts of the apartment.

Its been a while!

Sat, 17 May 2008 17:16:34 GMT

Wow! 3 months have passed since my last update! Well, settling into my new job at IGN.com! Of course, everyone should visit IGN daily (after browsing Xanga for a while, obviously! The weather is blazing hot in SF this weekend - well, 80ish, which is rather unseasonable for the Bay Area. Essentially, living in SF and Seattle for over 10 years has made me completely intolerant of anything outside the temperature range of 35-72 degrees F.

I'll be shuttling back and forth between SF, LA and a few trips to Denver over the next few months. I should be *quite* busy. I'll try to update more, but I think I've got a clear lead on Dan for blog entries in 2008.

GDC 2008

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 00:21:35 GMT

This week is GDC - the Game Developer's Conference here in SF. Thousands of game developers from all over the world San Francisco for a ton of conference sessions. Some interesting, some not. I'm hoping to go see Sid Meier speak this week - I'll refrain from giving him a wedgie for all the lost hours of work his games have caused! :)

Back fron Jolly ol' England

Wed, 13 Feb 2008 16:30:24 GMT

It was rather Jolly. Weather was fantastic, though slightly colder than SF. It rained only once! The football game was fantastic, picked up a few nice scotches that you don't see over here, saw three plays and had a couple crazy nights out. I'll get around to posting pictures soon!

London calling

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:34:36 GMT

I'll be in London in about a week! I'm excited - going to see a few shows and FC Fulham vs. Aston Villa. There will be some general tourist stuff too - stayed tuned!

Back!

Mon, 29 Oct 2007 22:10:37 GMT

Just got back. Will be posting pics shortly!

Less than a week until my vacation!

Mon, 08 Oct 2007 20:03:46 GMT

I am both overwhelmed with work and super excited to be getting out of here and heading to SE Asia next Sunday. Its going to be a long flight, but I think once I get on the plane, I'll decompress and really start to have fun. It'll be a long flight, but some booze and a movie or two should tide me over. The flight over goes through Tokyo, so I am actually really excited to set my feet back in Japan for even a few hours! I get to bust out my Japanese for a little bit!

SE Asia - go go go

Tue, 11 Sep 2007 22:12:15 GMT

Tickets purchased for an October visit! Feel free to post suggestions for Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. Defintitely going to Angkor Wat, but other than that, I don't know...

(thought I'd add something to the blog. Its been a while...)