Friday, June 07, 2013

I Want A Larger iPhone

Ever since I read a theory about how Apple could use non-retina iPad screens to make a larger iPhone without a new pixel size, I have been sold on the larger iPhone idea. Tim Cook says it won't happen while the problems of larger phones exist, I assume that means they've solved (or are solving) the battery and performance issues. 

After playing with a few Samsung phones and a Nexus 7, I am convinced that my next phone purchase will have a larger screen. I hope it will be an iPhone. I know I'm not the only person with this requirement, I've come across them everywhere from my office to the Apple Store. 

But I hope it doesn't happen until 2014. I am trying to skip the 2013 iPhone if at all possible 

Friday, May 03, 2013

Things Have Changed Over The Last 8 Years

I started my current job in January 2005. Today is my last day. When looking at my old résumé (last updated in 2004), I realized that the world (and especially my field) has changed in massive ways over the last 8 years. There are so many things relevant, important, or necessary for my job that either didn't exist or didn't matter in 2004.

Just to list the things that I use/am exposed to on a regular basis. I'm sure if I did some research, this list would be longer. So I'll spare us the research.
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Instapaper
  • App.net
  • Tumblr
  • LinkedIn
  • iPhone
  • Android
  • iPad
  • Capacitive Touch Touchscreens
  • Motion-controlled video games (Kinect, Wii)
  • github
  • "Metro"
  • Google Chrome
  • jQuery
  • f12 browser dev tools
  • Full Frame DSLRs
  • Super Hero Movies with Colorful Costumes (other than Spider-Man and Superman)
  • Hope for a good new Star Wars movie
  • Usable LED light bulbs
  • GPS in Phones
  • "Good enough" camera phones.
  • Pandora
  • Amazon MP3 Store
  • Netflix
  • AppleTV
  • Xbox 360
  • Blu-ray
  • Video streaming to mobile phones
  • YouTube
  • A black president
  • Light Rail in Charlotte
  • HTML5
  • Silverlight
  • Adaptive Streaming / Smooth Streaming / HLS
  • Windows Azure
  • JSON
  • Most of my tattoos.
  • My marriage
  • Any of the currently running TV shows I watch
  • The Duke Energy Building in Charlotte
Nothing lifechanging seems possible until it happens. Nothing on this list would seem probable 10 years ago. Few things on this list would seem possible 20 years ago.  Here's to the future!

Wednesday, May 01, 2013

The Correct Way to Make HDR Photos

There is one rule you need to follow when making an HDR photo: If you can tell it is HDR, you failed.

Monday, April 29, 2013

So Why Now?

I started blogging around 2001, mostly just to test the code I was writing. I think everyone wrote their own blogging platform once or twice back then and I was no exception. My first was an exercise in XML, SQL, ASP, and Flash. My second was mostly the same but with a few more features.

By 2003/2004, I realized that writing another blogging platform was a waste of my time so I started using a few existing platforms for various blogs. I eventually settled on 2: One "professional" blog that contained tech/code-related content and one "personal" blog that had everything else. I was a freelance developer at the time and it seemed to work out as planned, more or less, until I took a fulltime job in 2005.

Once I started that job, I slowly started blogging only on the personal site. I was working on some very cool tech at the job (mobile video delivery in 2005 was a blast!) but didn't feel like I could or should write about those things outside of work. Around 2008, I consolidated both sites to one Wordpress blog. Around 2012, I pretty much stopped blogging at all thanks to that itch being scratched in other ways, mostly Facebook and Twitter.

This is my last week at the job I started in 2005, I start a new job next Monday. I feel like this is a new beginning, blah blah blah, but yeah, I do. A lot of things have changed since I started that job but my desire to write words on the web has not. Twitter is too short, Facebook is too... I don't know, something... so I've decided to crank up this site and see how it goes this time. It always seems like a good idea for the first week or so.

Friday, April 26, 2013

Why Blogger?

There are so many newer and arguably better blogging platforms now, so why use the one I picked out as my #2 ("B team") blog 8 years ago?
1. I don't want to host my own platform right now. 9 years of Wordpress drove me crazy.
2. I wanted to test out the mobile app. It is nice enough, so far. This will be the third post (of 3 total posts on site) that I have written on my phone. So far, so good.
3. Other platforms cost too much, are too limited (in ways that annoy me more than blogger's limitations), and/or are platforms I am already using for other things (which is why I am not using tumblr).
4. Using blogger makes me somewhat nostalgic.
5. Because if Google decides to kill blogger, it will give me a good excuse to do a sirshannon.com v6. Judging from the errors I get every time I go to edit this site on a desktop, Google could kill blogger at any time.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Ten Things About Antiviral (2012)

1. Crash (1996)
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
3. Videodrome
4. Gatica
5. Boxing Helena
6. TMZ
7. Resident Evil
8. Soylent Green
9. Hackers
10. The Man Who Fell To Earth

Brandon Cronenberg makes his father proud with this debut, a sick film that looks at the oh-so-near future while proudly nodded to its influences, including at least a few of David's films.
Probably the best futuristic movie about celebrity worship, piracy, and copyright ever made.

Sirshannon v5

Sirshannon.com v1 was a coming soon page featuring the Science Patrol logo from the classic Ultraman TV show. It was started around the turn of the century. That will sound more impressive in a few decades.
Sirshannon.com v2 and v3 were homegrown blogging platforms, first Flash-only and later including an HTML version. They ran from 2002 to 2004.
Sirshannon.com v4 launched as a hosted Wordpress blog and Coppermine gallery in late Summer 2004. It ran until my terrible host finally made it impossible to upgrade Wordpress in April 2013.
Sirshannon v5 lives on Blogspot because of reasons. I will be posting here more after I clean up the metadata (this site was used as a mobile photo site for a few years). Looking forward to blogging again.