The Wandering Geek

iPhone New York

I've been enjoying watching this for a few days now and I thought I'd share it here.
A cool unofficial 60 second ad for iPhone.

On a (minor) Blogger Design Flaw

I just noticed that if you have a single image (and no words) as a blog post (think post-secret), showing the "original post" in the comment form has no real value. You will just get a text that says "[photo]". What's that?

I think it will give more value to the readers if Blogger uses the alt attribute of the image posted instead of just sticking the word [photo] (which gives almost zero information). That way, bloggers who do this kind of blog posts will be encouraged to make use of the alternate text attribute to give more information for the readers. :)

In the end, commenting readers will be happier (saving a click on the back button to take a peak at the post again).

Until that's fixed, i would suggest the use of the pop-up version of the comment form.

A Very Sweet Solution

As some of you probably know by now, iPhone will not be having support for native 3rd party iphone apps. This has bothered a lot of geeks and developers as well as key apple watchers because Apple is (again) leaving developers in the dust. Hopefully things will change later down the road, but it's still hard to ignore the discontent of the developers. Though for some would-be-iPhone-users this is a non-issue. For some, the lack of capability to load potentially kick-ass iPhone apps from great Mac developers is a glaring limitation of the iPhone.

As if things are not bad enough for the developers, Steve Jobs during his WWDC 2007 keynote struck a lot of developer nerves (to an extent that some say as an insult) when he announced "third party applications" for the iPhone:

We've come up with a very sweet solution.…We've got an innovative new way to create applications for mobile devices. Really innovative.…

I've yet to find a reaction that will top Michael Tsai's. It's the best hit so far. :D

Blogger Draft

Ey kids. Want to upload a video to your blogspot blog? Then go try Blogger in draft, featuring a direct video upload.

WWDC 2007

I'm doing a google post for a writing stint that I got from helping hannah out and at the same time keep going back to this page Where Macrumors is going to be live blogging the event. T-10 minutes and counting. awwww. I'm gonna need a bottle of red bull to keep me up tomorrow. Adios amigos. To my fellow mac fans, good times! (my phone just buzzed with Google Calendar's reminder of the event).

I'm waiting, Stevie boy. Fire away.

Out.

Weirdness

Since Cherry nicely tagged me with this meme, i'm politely complying. :)

Each player of this game starts with 6 weird things about you. People who get tagged need to write a blog of their own 6 weird things as well as state the rule clearly. In the end, you need to choose 6 people to be tagged and list their names. Don’t forget to leave a comment that says you are tagged in their comments and tell them to read your blog.

I used to have second thoughts about going to heaven because i doubted if there are shiny things up there. Just so we're clear, i don't care anymore (if there are none) :p
What's weird? We sometimes play Chinese garter at the office. What's weirder? It's my idea. I' m probably the most child-like i know at 26.
I think i have a distorted image of my body. No i don't think i have a hot body, but somehow I feel good about it That's good, right? right? (the sound of 3 browsers closing) :p
I ~~like~~ love to travel at night and during the wee hours of the morning. I observe the people who are traveling with me and wonder what's their excuse for traveling that late.
I wanted so much to feel what it is to live on the streets. (i think this is an ofshoot of no. 4). I was so envious of Paulo Bediones when he did that in Extra Challenge.
...
I have a thing with number 6.

okay, the last 1 was a joke, but it was too good to pass up. (i hope i didn't ruin the meme by doing that). Just to complete it: I love to have a glass of cold water with hot pandesal for my breakfast. (though i seldom get the chance to do that...)

Ohkay, now i'm taggin 6 weird people i know...Hannah, Thea, Nocturne (yes, you), Alekos, Nikki, Kei

Jobs and Gates on D5

who's your daddy?

Decisions

Sometimes I wish decisions can be made based solely on what we want to do or where we want to go. No complications.

On the other hand, having constraints is also a good thing. It defines your problem more, and it's an oppurtunity to creatively work around them.

Microsoft Surface Computing

Remember that multi-touch demo i blogged about before? At the end of this year Microsoft will be delivering its own "surface computing platform" to actual customers, making them initially available to restaurants, hotels, retail locations and casino resorts. Popular mechanics has the details on Microsoft's new technology but if you just want to quickly see what it's about, Surface.com is a good place to go.

Quickie Post

Welcome back Frank! Here's to a healthier frank "junior" (i know, that got shot down too) and mommy Ria. God Bless to the Guevarra family.
We're that close to losing internet access in the office. Ugh the agony...
Miss Japan looks hot. (but that's judging on some crappy photos that we could access from the office, since the miss universe site is blocked. tf!)
Facebook just pulled the most brilliant play i've seen to date in the social web. At last, one of the next big things is (somehow) beginning to shape up. Social Web Operating System? Hmm...
Microsoft is touting that they will reach 1M zune sales by the end of this month. This is not what it seems to be. More on this later...
Tip: Using Firefox on Linux but hates the way the web controls look (they're fugly)? Your suffering ends here. Slicker firefox web controls saves the day.

Google Analytics Fun

Sometimes its fun to go sniffing through the tidbits of information that Analytics gives out. Without going too much into the technical (and business) side of things, It's nice to see for example that on some days i have reader(s) using firefox on linux that's using a computer with its (wide) display resolution set to 1280 x 800. Yup, it matters.

Tapuymoments

It's not my business to interfere, but tapuymoments (the blogspot URL, not the actual blog) just got taken over by some pinkgirl1234. That sucks. :(

Foxkeh

Where the Japanse people get their talent for creating uber-cute mascots beats the hell out of me. But I think i just found my own "hello-kitty", open-source geek edition. Meet foxkeh, Mozilla Japan's mascot for promoting Firefox to new users. First saw it in Asa Dotzler's post where he pointed to undoubtedly the cutest firefox banners/chicklets i've ever seen, calling that they be ported to english. It didn't last long, and now Foxkeh is localized in EN. I just subscribed foxkeh's blog feed.

The downloads section also boasts some really delightful surprises, topping them is the history of the Firefox (know your roots!), they come in 3 flavors: the jap, en and a special foxkeh edition.

Wallpapers. I think i have the (pa)cutest desktop wallpaper in the office right now.

And of course, other foxkeh images. :)

I'm just waiting for the english versions of the banners then they'll soon grace the sidebar of this green emire, color coordination be damned :) . (or I will worry about that part later)

Email this Post

At long last the Reader team has upgraded Google Reader's Email this feature - my pet peeve. What used to be a non-formatted stream of words (without even line breaks to separate the title from the content) is now sent as an html-formatted email message. So the post you are emailing will appear (almost) exactly the same to how you see it in Google Reader.

The other cool feature is that the email feature is now tightly integrated to the Reader application. No more pop-ups when emailing a post. The email form is now integrated to the post itself, just like in Gmail. Nice... And of course, the "tightly-integrated" feel will not be complete without the address auto-complete. (pun fun. weeeee!)

The Wandering Geek

Belated...