Category Archives: Technology

When Tech Breaks – How My iPad Randomly Broke

Posted on by
Reply

Over the weekend one of the strangest things happened to me. I found it so strange because not only have I never experienced this before but I’ve never heard of anyone else experiencing it either. Even after searching online I couldn’t even find anyone that had experienced this same problem.

Over the weekend my iPad randomly turned off and wouldn’t turn back on.

I did the perfunctory reset trick, where you hold the power button and the home button at the same time for 10 seconds. Nada.

I tried plugging it into a power charger. Nada.

I tried plugging it into my computer. Nada.

From every possible angle it appeared my iPad was dead. It didn’t respond to any outside input and the screen remained as black as the night.

There was no water damage, it wasn’t dropped, and it was used with only Apple chargers.

So what happened?

I have no idea, and that’s what’s driving me mildly nuts. I can have an insatiable curiosity at times and this has become one of those cases.

After I took the iPad to the local Apple store I was fortunate to find I had 13 days left of my warranty, so I got a replacement without any grief. I asked the Genius if he’d ever seen anything like this before and he said no, only in iPhones.

I asked him if he knew what caused this and he said he had no clue, it was impossible for him to open the iPad as it is sealed shut.

So my curiosity remains irked, searching for some sort of closure to this weird aberration of Apple product quality. If you have any idea why and how this happened please leave a comment and let me know.

Personally I’m going to hold onto the belief that it was the drive to PA that caused the iPad to become borked. We crossed into PA for a wedding and the magnetic poles zapped my iPad dead.

Of course that can’t be true but it’s the only semblance of closure I’ll get at this point.

So no matter how well I took care of my iPad it still managed to succumb to Murphy’s all powerful law that when something can go wrong it will go wrong.

I just thank the stars that I still had my warranty.

I still have 13 days left to get an extended warranty but I don’t think I will. There was no reason this should have happened and if it happens again in the future I’ll be forced to sell the iPad for parts.

But man, that was the weirdest thing. When does an iPad just up and off itself? Strange things man, strange things.

Understanding Python’s yield keyword, decorators, and metaclasses

Posted on by
Reply

I’m slowly but surely learning how to code like a proper Pythonista. However there are a few subjects that still cause my eyes to glaze over.

Fortunately a wonderful individual over at StackOverflow has written out some amazing answers to some advanced Python topics.

The Python yield keyword explained

Understanding Python decorators

What is a metaclass in Python?

I found the Python decorator article to be quite illuminating. Coming from JavaScript where functions are also first-class citizens I found it surprising to find the same was true in Python. I think Python’s white space confused me, it made all the function definitions look too neat and pretty to be equated with JavaScript function’s curly braces.

The Ideal Home Entertainment Setup

Posted on by
Reply

I love TV and movies. I love watching new shows and I love kicking back to old favorites. I think it would be fair to call myself an entertainment junkie.

To supplement this large diet of TV and movies I’ve taken it upon myself to create a home entertainment setup that I would be proud to call my own. At long last I have found the winning combination of hardware and software that now make up my setup.

I thought it would be helpful to the internet at large if I shared what I’ve learned along the way. I’ve gone through a few rounds of trial and error before arriving at my current setup, and hopefully you’ll be able to benefit from my mistakes.

Continue reading →

Mashable Tours GetGlue Offices and Takes My Picture

Posted on by
Reply

About two weeks ago Christina Warren from Mashable visited GetGlue’s office. While there she took a few photos. I happened to be wearing my GetGlue shirt that day and in a delightful turn of events had a sudden yawn attack which she managed to capture on her phone.

Head over to Mashable to read the article and catch some fun pictures of the GetGlue office and of me. I’m so excited! I feel famous! :D

Review: iA Writer for the Mac and for the iPhone and for the iPad

Posted on by
Reply

They say the clothes don’t make the man. I’m inclined to disagree.

At least in this case.

I just purchased, downloaded, and installed iA Writer from the Mac App store. It’s what I’m writing this blog post on.

If I had to put into one word my reaction to this program it would be: awesome.

Well, I feel that kind of undersells how much I’m loving this application right now.

The type face is clear. The background is comforting. And the cursor icon, that beautiful little blue bar makes me just want to type, type, type!

The more I type the more I push the blue bar forward. And it’s dizzying just watching it jump across my screen. It makes me forget that I’m writing a blog post, letting my ideas flow, and preventing me from worrying if I’m making sense.

Stop. I am making sense right?

Yes? Moving on then.

I first installed iA Writer on my iPad. It shortly became my default writing app. It opened quickly which is always a top priority for me. When I want to write, I want to write. (omigod – aside: the auto-markdown feature on the mac is awesome. Just used it for the first time.) If it takes more than 3 seconds, hell, 1 second for the app to open then I’m annoyed. I can feel the thoughts slipping out of my head while I stare at a stalled screen. iA Writer nailed that out of the park from day 1.

When I’m writing I want to focus on my words. I want to focus on my words and the sentences they construct. Sometimes I want to focus on the paragraphs that my sentences have created but that should only be done when I revise. I need to be stricter about that, but ah well. iA Writer let’s me focus on my words. It blurs its edges, and the surrounding sentences, letting all my attention bleed into the line I’m currently writing. From my mind, through my fingertips, to iA Writer. It’s beautiful.

Yesterday I was getting near fed up with my writing app of choice on my iPhone. I was preparing myself to look through the App Store to find a suitable alternative. Wouldn’t you know it…yesterday iA writer released an update to their iPad app, making it Universal. Universally awesome is more like it.

Now I have iA Writer on my iPhone and my iPad. And it uses iCloud.

Last night I played around with the iCloud feature of iA Writer. It was delightful. I’d edit a line on my iPad and stare at my iPhone. Soon enough the changes just appeared there. No effort, no buttons pressed, just pure syncing joy.

It was at that point that I knew I needed to enjoy the benefits of iCloud on my Mac. And hence my purchase of iA Writer for the Mac today.

It’s on sale right now as well. Only $8.99 instead of its usual $18.99. If you like to write at all I strongly encourage you to pick up this app.

It’s also on sale for the iPhone and iPad (universal app, remember?). It’s only a measly $0.99 instead of its usual $4.99 for the iPad and $0.99 for the iPhone? That’s what it says on iA Writer’s website. I’m not really sure what that means. Long story short: it’s cheap.

I give iA Writer the Harry Wolff 5 stars out of 5. And I don’t usually give out 5 stars willy nilly. In fact, this is the first time I’ve given anything any stars.

iA Writer. It’s that good.

The iPad 3 is Coming

Link

Reply

The iPad 3 is coming. Hopefully along with Apple TV 3. And a new iPad cover. I hope the iPad cover is backwards compatible with my iPad 2. There’s only so much money I can spend on Apple products in a year.

And we haven’t even begun rumoring about the iPhone 5. This year is going to be exciting.

Amazing Lytro Camera Now Available

Posted on by
Reply

Lytro is one of those amazing companies that has created a new piece of technology that is wildly like nothing else. Lytro’s cameras are able to take a picture that can later be refocused to any point in the image.

What does that mean? If you took a picture of someone and found out later their smile was out of focus you would be able to refocus the image so that their smile would be focused and crystal clear. No other camera can do that.

If it didn’t start at $400 I’d probably snatch one up, but as it stands it looks to be more of a niche purchase. Although…

There have been whispers that Apple is interested in lytro’s technology. Imagine lytro’s technology in your next iPhone. How wicked would that be?

Americans Elect 2012 – Taking Politics Online

Link

Reply

Have you heard of Americans Elect 2012? It’s a very cool idea to take some of the oldest elements of our political system and move them into the digital age. American Elect 2012 describes their goal and it is a wondrous if not lofty one:

THE GOAL OF AMERICANS ELECT is to nominate a presidential ticket that answers directly to voters—not the political system.

American voters are tired of politics as usual. They want leaders that will put their country before their party, and American interests before special interests. Leaders who will work together to develop fresh solutions to the serious challenges facing our country. We believe a secure, online nominating process will prove that America is ready for a competitive, nonpartisan ticket.