Happy 3rd Birthday, MacBook Pro!
Three years ago today, my computer left China. That’s 90 in computer-years.
AT&T Hates Me
Well, maybe not. I’ve had a great experience with my iPhone 3GS on their network while here in Worcester. In fact, I get a full 5 bars of 3G coverage here in my dorm room.
However, I can’t quite say the same about my experience while home in Maine. From my room, I’ll be lucky to get 2 bars…of EDGE. The painfully slow download speeds elicit memories of dial-up. So you can imagine how excited I was to hear that my city was getting a 3G upgrade in the near future. This would solve that problem, right?
Wrong.
I recently took a look at their 3G coverage map. Here is what I saw…
Very clearly, you can see that their new 3G coverage makes a perfect radius around my house. Thank you, AT&T. Thank you so very much.
One Million Hits!
At around 3:24 AM on Sunday, October 4, 2009, this website finally had it’s 1,000,000th hit! Special thanks to Rocio and Gera, who helped out the cause by reloading the page!
Here’s the screenshot of my visitor tracker, right as it passed the mark…
A Not-So-Rare Nerd Moment at WPI
It was around 10 AM, and I was just heading back to my room after a physics lecture and a stop at Dunkin’ Donuts when I see an odd contraption being set up in the middle of campus.
Nothing unusual, right? They’re always working on weird projects here. But upon closer inspection, I realize what this is.
See those Google stickers? And the 360-degree camera mounted on the top of the tricycle? This isn’t any ordinary contraption. This is a photography session for Google Street View.
Along with many other way-too-excited WPI students who appreciate this occurrence, we follow like stalkers. I’m fairly certain we got our photos in many of the shots as they went around the fountain.
It also ended up being the first time I took photos at WPI; I can’t think of a better occasion. Here are a few more up-close photos that I took while they weren’t looking:
Neil’s Official Macworld 2009 Predictions
Hardware:
- New 17″ MacBook Pro with the same unibody design as the 15″ model.
- New Mac mini with an aluminum enclosure and tapered edges, nothing special.
- Small upgrades for some of the other Macs, perhaps left unmentioned.
Software:
- iLife ’09 & iWork ’09 include tighter integration with Mobile Me.
- iMovie is updated with a timeline and other features lost from iMovie ’06.
- Snow Leopard is demonstrated for speed and will be available in late February.
2000+ Hits!
When I created an easy version of the world’s hardest game, I never thought I was making a page that would get over 2000 hits in a single day. That is exactly what happened today when I passed that mark for the first time. Here is the graph…
What’s even more interesting than how rapidly the number of hits has increased is how the number of hits significantly drops over weekends, only to rebound during the following week. To see the page that has led to these stats, click on “The World’s Easiest Game” on the side or type in “world’s easiest game” into Google. It’s the #1 result!
Apple Store = FREE SHIRT!
When I found out that Maine would be getting its first ever Apple Store at the Maine Mall in Portland, I knew I couldn’t miss the opportunity to get a free shirt. I mean, really. A free shirt.
I was actually surprised by how many other people had the same idea. There was literally a line of people wrapping around a whole wing of the mall. It was the longest line I have seen since waiting for hours in the Macworld 2008 keynote line.
Prior to opening the doors, there were employees in various colored shirts running around and getting the crowd excited (for a shirt?), while others took official pictures and video of the event.
Once inside, I headed right to the Genius Bar, and I was unofficially the very first Genius Bar customer. After all, the only legitimate reason for going to the store was to have my MacBook Pro’s screen problem diagnosed. They told me it was a likely a pinched cable, which they estimated as a $300 repair (out of warranty).
I recently ordered the cable itself for $30. For $270, I’ll do it myself.
The World’s Hardest Game…Made Easy
If you’ve ever played “The World’s Hardest Game,” you’ve probably been frustrated by the obvious difficulty of avoiding those little blue dots as you attempt to complete the game with the fewest deaths possible. For some people, simply completing the game at all is a tremendous feat. Well, I got frustrated with the original game (which you can play here), so I decompiled the game and made it a little easier.
See for yourselves here: http://www.mabuhaynet.com/games/easiest-game.php
Where did the videos go?
You might have noticed that the videos linked to in the previous post are no longer available. The school had some issue with me posting a video of myself, and they forced me to take it down. Sorry about that.
UPDATE: I have reposted the video with the necessary editing to ease the school’s privacy concerns.
See Me in the Variety Show
I was recently in the ELHS Variety Show 2008, and you can see video of me performing an original piece, entitled “Just Another Infomercial.” Video of other performers will also be available soon, but only on a password-protected site because of privacy reasons. You can see (or email) me personally to get the site and password, but I can’t post it here publicly. Anyway, here are the videos of my performance…
Night 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=81A1-G-NZJI