J. CORGAN

DSi, Pros and Cons and Apps I’d Like to See

April 4th, 2009

About a year ago, I purchased a Nintendo DSlite and it has, since, become my number one gaming platform. My library for the device has become so extensive, it is the largest I own next to the SNES. (Although I will admit, even then, it is modest.)

Considering that, and the fact that I own no television, I take the DS platform very seriously. When the DSi was announced I was excited: it has the benefits of the prior model(s) plus added functionality and horsepower.

Particularly, I found myself fond of the concept of the game and application store, which (aside from the ease and fun factors) has the potential to launch the DS and Nintendo into the direction of family/specialized computing about which I wrote a couple years back. As has been seen by devices like the iPhone, pocket computing has a market.

There have been stories about The Big N putting its weight behind application development for the DSi, and of this I am glad to hear. However, I’m also a bit concerned.

While Nintendo, in the past month, has impressed me with the amount of work they’re doing to advertise, update, and maintain their hardware (something I hope they continue), I have become worried that limitations in the design of the consoles will also limit their future growth.

For example: during their presentation at last month’s Game Developer’s Conference, Nintendo pushed out Wii System Update 4.0. Among other things, this update solved the problem of the lack of Wii in-system storage, by allowing users to save games and channels onto SD cards.

While this is a great update, playing games off of the SD card requires users to temporarily dump the game to the Wii’s internal memory from where it can be run. For games, I hardly see this as a problem.

However for application development, I imagine this could be murder. Not only is one limited to the size of the system’s Internal memory but also to the download speeds capped on the system. This could potentially make the deployment of simple, but large applications, difficult.

Then again, to be fair, we have seen Wii games read off of SD cards, so it could be that the core of an application can be dumped into internal memory, and it can harvest data saved to the card itself.

I hope this is the case, because the DSi has a save system I assume to be very akin to the Wii’s, and there is a wide array of applications I’d like to see developed for the portable. I want to see the DSi thrive as a game system and beyond–something Nintendo can apply to all subsequent generations.

Below I have a list of apps I would love to see make it to the DSi (and for which I would gladly pay). They are listed with no order and with their influences and references, if applicable.

Amazon Kindle (Inspired by Amazon Kindle for iPhone (and soon for other devices))
PDF Reader (General, No Reference)
Full Version of Wikipedia (Inspired by Patrick Collision)
Email Client (General, No Reference)
Feed Reader (General, No Reference)
Jabber/XMPP Client (General, No Reference)
Full Dictionary (Inspired by Collegiate for iPhone)
Downloadable Maps (General, No Reference)

Good luck developers, and Nintendo.

Corgan

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Gwyn Migration, Start Center Additions

January 27th, 2009

While I take my time time working on posts for the site, I’d like to note a few things I’ve been working on (besides school):

1.) Start Center has been updated with a handful of new sites, including a lot more OpenID enabled ones (with more on the way). I really encourage everyone to explore these sites, by going to Start Center and clicking on the boldened, orange site names.

For information on how to get (or how you may unknowingly already have!) an OpenID, and even more places it can be used, click here.

2.) Gwyn was a project I started sometime last year, during my hiatus of posts. The site focused on what I considered to be cool or neat Linux/FLOSS/etc. news. At this point, maintaining both this weblog and that is pointless. As a result, I’ve scrapped Gwyn, and moved all nine posts to this site beneath the category Gwyn.

For the sake of preservation, I finish this post with my final message on Gwyn, which succinctly states what will happen and gives thanks to someone who took a chance on me.

Corgan

Cancelling this Project
2009.01.10 - 13:11

Short story:

Gwyn started as GwynGamer, which was a site about Linux gaming. I felt that maybe that was too niche, so I broadened the site to become Gwyn. Gwyn aimed to be a site about, as the tag says, “Linux Things. And other stuff, too.” Stuff I cared about.

But I have a blog to do that already. This is over saturation.

The project is done. I’ll delete the blog on the 30th of January.

I’d like to extend a big thanks to my contact over at Hothead Games‘ PR firm, for taking a chance on a student who wanted to focus on Linux material. I appreciate it big time.

Some stuff like this can be found on my main blog, http://jeff.corgan.org/

Thanks.

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I Dream of GiiNii - A Best of CES Special

January 13th, 2009

January 8-11 marked the dates of the Consumer Electronics Association’s 2009 Consumer Electronics Show–a conference in which vendors unveil the year’s upcoming gadgets to the press and their public.

I’ve always followed CES from a distance and with great interest. The show has been said to be a hectic, exhausting, and sometimes disappointing experience. Thankfully, since the advent of blogs and netcasts such as Engadget, Gizmodo, and TWiT, coverage has become rich and varied. This allows simple gadget enthusiasts (like myself) to parse the information from home.

I preface my choice of Best of CES with this because I want to make it clear that I wasn’t at the show. I’m only offering my pick based on the information I have harvested from a variety of news sites. It could be that my pick is a totally crummy piece of hardware, from a totally crummy company and I wouldn’t know.

That said, amongst the news of bigger TVs, slimmer TVs, net books, and “not netbooks,” only one item (besides the promise of a comeback from Palm, Inc. [best wishes guys!]) stood out to me: the GiiNii Movit Mini.

giiniimovitmini

GiiNii is a consumer electronics company which is apparently known for (or trying to be known for) their digital picture frames. According to their site and videos on YouTube, GiiNii has created digital frames capable of playing a variety of multimedia formats. This includes video.

The digital picture frame form-factor is not unlike an internet tablet. Given the existing horsepower needed for these frames to run video content, I suppose GiiNii investigated the possibility of the devices running even more. Whatever their thinking, by introducing a mobile device OS (Google’s Android) to this form-factor, GiiNii gave birth to the Internet tablets the Movit Maxx (which looks very much like one of GiiNii’s digital frames) and it’s younger sibling, the above pictured Movit Mini.

The Movit Mini made its appearance at CES, and captures my heart for two reasons. First and foremost, the Movit Mini appears to deliver the portable communication experience I’ve been lusting for. It is decidedly not a cell phone, but rather enables its users to chat (including Skype audio and video), browse the Internet, check mail, and take part in any other feature enabled by the Google Android experience. While it has its shortcomings (there is no real keyboard, it has a low resolution [480x272] resistive touch screen, and I have some questions about Android), it more than makes up for these in both the promise of what Android can become, and it’s aimed MSRP: 150USD.

The device also gets my love because it’s an active example of a company growing and making a name for itself in the consumer electronics space. I find this kind of growth and change exciting, and look forward to seeing more from GiiNii after the Movit Mini hits the market during its planned Q3 2009 release.

Links to articles covering the Movit Mini, including those with videos and photos, are below.

Corgan

LINKS

GiiNii’s Movit Mini WiFi Android tablet hands-on [Engadget]
Hands On Giinii Movit Mini: The Android Tablet [Gizmodo]
CES 2009: The GiiNii MovIt Android Tablet Video [GottaBeMobile.com]
CES 2009: Stay Connected with GiiNii Mini Movit [YouTube]
CES 2009: GiiNii MoveIt Mini [YouTube]

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United State of Pop 2008 (Viva La Pop)

December 31st, 2008

A year in review.

DJ Earworm - United State of Pop 2008 (Viva La Pop)
Hosted on Youtube.com - Normal | HQ
Credit: DJ Earworm - Website | YouTube | MySpace

The MP3 and list of included artists are available from DJ Earworm’s site.

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Say hello to iMac.

December 29th, 2008

imacg3

A year or two ago, I offered to purchase an iMac G3 from a friend of mine, long after his family replaced it with a Dell. The details aren’t important, but the main point of that story is that the trade fell through.

Yesterday however, said friend and I met up, and he was kind enough to give me the machine free-of-charge. As such, I am now a proud owner of a Pinstripe ~~Blueberry~~ ~~Bondi Blue~~ (geeze) Blueberry iMac G3.

Wait…what?

Yes, yes. This iMac is about 10 years old and is probably one of the most distant things from the iMac’s current incarnation. And while the hardware is sub-par by today’s standards, I’d argue that it is still as usable as some netbooks. As long as she’s willing to run Linux, we have a future together.

That said, she hasn’t been cooperating.

It could just be that it is too old to use with modern applications in mind–even if I keep said applications few and far between. But the appeal of this machine extends well beyond this goal. Regardless of the outcome of my attempts, the Pinstripe’s death due to hardware failure may be close at hand. Its shell, on the other hand, will live on…and that’s why I’m posting.

So I ask any of those who may stumble upon this: what would you do with an old iMac G3?

Paint, dremmels, LCDs, water, old consoles: I’m willing to consider all of the tools and innards possible to revamp this machine into something totally different than its maker anticipated (and lighter, too). I’d appreciate any and all ideas if anyone is willing to share. Comment the post, or send me an email.

Corgan

UPDATE 2008.12.30|03:51 - Xubuntu 6.06.1 (LTS) seems to be working well enough on these machines (according to Ubuntu Forums posts), but I’m going to desperately need to upgrade RAM. 32MB is not enough. I’m going to see if I can afford a stick or two to get it somewhere in the realm of 256-512.

UPDATE 2008.12.30|04:20 - I’ve purchased a second stick of ram, 256MB, from the folks over at Omni Technologies (via ramseeker via Low End Mac). Combined with the existing 32, this shall give us 288.

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Site moves back to Drupal, full blog format…

December 27th, 2008

Today, I’ve decided to reinstall Drupal, harvest stories from the old database, and begin anew, directly on jeff.corgan.org.

Please excuse the mess while I move in.

UPDATE - Nope. Wordpress.

UPDATE - 2008.12.28 07:39 - The database has been manually copied from Drupal to Wordpress. Some minor edits may be needed to point links to their correct references. In addition: to push forward on my belief in OpenID, I have mandated its use in posting comments on this site.

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Today’s GetDeb Software Updates

October 9th, 2008

LyX - Version 1.6.0rc3
Editra - Version 0.3.80
ArgoUML - Version 0.26
GWho - Version 0.1
OGMRip - Version 0.12.2
Fotoxx - Version 5.3.1
GNOME MPlayer - Version 0.8.0
GPicView - Version 0.1.10
LiVES - Version 0.9.9.3
Gimp - Version 2.6.0
Flock - Version 2.0~beta3
Kino - Version 1.3.2
Lifrea - Version 1.4.20
FileZilla - Version 3.1.3.1
Tomboy - Version 0.12.0
Ejecter - Version 0.0.9

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Penny Arcade Adventures Episode Two achieves GM, Price Announced

October 9th, 2008

I regret being behind and posting this information 8 days ofter it was issued.

Our contact on behalf of Hothead Games was kind enough to forward us another press release regarding the current Penny Arcade Adventures series, despite the site changing its location and content. The second episode of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness has reached Gold Master status for its Windows, MacOS, and (of course) Linux versions.

After the jump is the full price-and-synopsis-toting press release, a link to a trailer, and some extras in the form of papercraft.

(more…)

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Gimmie gives way to Mayanna

October 9th, 2008

Although I haven’t been following the project for a long time (and therefore am unsure as to when this became official) an email response from my GNOME Bug Tracking System account in regards to the Gnome dock-turned-panel-applet Gimmie made it clear the project was no longer being maintained.

Instead, users are being directed to the Google Groups page of Mayanna, a fork of the Gimmie project that seems enhanced - especially with Google integration. I last used Gimmie when it was actively maintained, so I cannot give any opinion about the fork. That said, I definitely think it is worth a try.

The email offered more information at the links below.