28Apr

My Thoughts on Windows 8

Posted in Apple, Technology | Leave a comment

Surface rtI’ve been overseas for a while now, but luckily I’ve had the opportunity to go back home to Canada back in January. While back home I got the chance to play around with Windows 8 on my cousin’s PC and Windows RT on the Surface, Microsoft’s answer to the iPad and Android tablets.

Although I got to play around with Windows 8 in a pre-release form on PC last year this was the first time I got to play around with the finished product. I came away impressed with quite a few things, especially the design of Windows 8′s tile-based interface, previously known as Metro – for lack of a better this is the name I’ll use to refer to the tile-based interface of Windows 8. (more…)

26Mar

Wreck it Ralph

Posted in Review, Visual Media | Leave a comment

The times are changing over at Disney these days. Ever since Disney acquired Pixar in 2006 it looks more and more like it the Pixar way is the way to go moving forward for Disney’s animated movies.

Wreckitralph 01I recently got the chance to watch Disney’s latest hit animated film, Wreck It Ralph, which recently came out on DVD and Blu Ray, which is quite possibly the best Disney movie I’ve seen in years.

This film is a perfect example of a film that feels like it was created by Pixar – from the premise of video game characters coming alive like the toys in Toy Story right down to the animation style. You don’t have to go far to notice the subliminal message of this film – of change, hope and empowerment – that has been the hallmark of other Pixar films like Up or Wall E.

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24Feb

Ubuntu for Everything

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Ubuntu tablet 01Imagine my surprise when I saw the news that Ubuntu was moving into the tablet market with their own operating system. It wasn’t too long ago that Canonical, Ubuntu’s main financial arm, announced they were going to enter the crowded smartphone market to challenge iOS, Android, Windows Phone, Blackberry and other Linux-based smartphone operating systems (OS) on the horizon (Tizen, Firefox OS). (more…)

20Feb

Removing duplicates from Finder’s Open With menu

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Fixing that issue with Finder’s Open With command that lists duplicates

This is the problem: You want to open a file using something other than the default application. You right-click its icon in the Finder, choose Open With, and a submenu pops up with an absurd number of duplicate entries…. But if, like me, you’ve been living with this problem for a while and don’t want to ever have to go searching for the solution again, here’s a little something you can add to your .bashrc:

  • Open up the Terminal application (use Spotlight if you cannot find it)
  • Type: 

    # Quick way to rebuild the Launch Services database and get rid
    # of duplicates in the Open With submenu.
    alias fixopenwith=’/System/Library/Frameworks/CoreServices.framework/Frameworks/LaunchServices.framework/Support/lsregister -kill -r -domain local -domain system -domain user’

  • Press enter to save this alias and then enter: fixopenwith
  • Once fixopenwith has been run you’re done. You can go the extra step by entering killall Finder but it might not be necessary (at least on Mountain Lion). 
  • You can close the Terminal

I’ve noticed this issue for a while now and although it didn’t bug me enough to research a fix for it I am glad I came across a solution initially from TUAW and later at LeanCrew.COM via a post on Daring Fireball. The nice thing with this fix is that I now have an alias I can simply enter into Terminal to remove duplicates.

13May

Windows 8 – Four steps forward, two steps back

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I started to play around with Windows 8 this weekend and I came away liking what I saw, namely the Metro UI, Microsoft’s latest attempt at breathing new life into Windows.

The Metro UI is inspired by the tile-like interface that Microsoft introduced for Windows Phone 7 a few years ago. This interface is very fresh and unique approach to user interfaces that doesn’t simply ape what Microsoft’s competitors are doing.
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11May

Testing video games makes it so much harder to enjoy them

Posted in Gaming, PlayStation, X-Box 360 | Leave a comment

The views expressed in this blog entry reflect my own opinion and no one else’s.

So since last September I have been working as a video game tester, first focusing on Level Design , Gameplay and Multiplayer testing and later a combination of several areas with a focus on artificial intelligence.

The experience has proven invaluable and I’ve had enjoyed contributing and working with some amazingly talented people in the video game industry, but at the same time I feel like I can no longer enjoy games as I did before. Now whenever I do play games on console or handhelds (like the Vita) I will always notice some of those same issues I would come across in my work as a tester, but the funny thing is how often I will come across one specific bug, the dreaded LOD pop (or level of detail pop).

For those unfamiliar with the term LOD pop it refers to the level of detail on some textures of objects (in a game) appearing to change as you move towards and away from the object, giving the effect as though it is popping, thus the name. I’ve come across this issue in all sorts of games ranging from Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 on the X-Box 360 to Valkyria Chronciles on the PS3 to even its sequel Valkyria Chronicles 2 on the PSP.

It sort of gets annoying after a while since I can’t help noticing the issue and thinking to myself how could the developers have not fixed this, how could they ship a game with such bugs present? Then I remind myself that at the end of the day they at least got the important bugs fixed.

12Mar

Ubuntu HUD

Posted in Linux, Technology | Leave a comment

Ubuntu's HUD smart menu in action

With the latest version of Ubuntu Linux only a month away I figured it might be high time that I discuss one of the most exciting features in the upcoming release, the Head-Up Display (otherwise known as HUD).

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11Jan

Ubuntu TV – TV for Humans?

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It was just two days ago that Canonical announced at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show unveiled their latest attempt to extend Ubuntu beyond the server room and desktop.

Canonical’s ambitious projects is none other than Ubuntu TV, their first foray into the realm of providing software for media consumption on HDTVs.

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