Now This is a Chai!

Having decided to come to Albuquerque this weekend to spend some time shopping and hanging out with my brother, I have successfully visited the first four locations on my weekend jaunt out of town. First up was CompUSA, due to its close location to the interstate and clean restrooms. I even got to try out a 17" iMac powered by the Intel Core Duo! It was smooth, but not nearly as sweet as the 2.5 GHz G5 Quad that I tried with the stunning 30" Cinema Display. I gave Aperature a trial run for a good 10 minutes while I was on the phone with Kristen, and I must say that program is sweet! One day when I decide to approach digital photography more professionally (when I can afford it, that is), I know it will be a useful tool in my arsenal. Next up were the gift shops down on Central. I found a few small little trinkets for the kids and a gift for Kristen. After that, I walked a block down to where I am now, the Flying Star Cafe that I have mentioned and posted from a few times in the past. Upon walking in, I was instanly hungry and settled for a huge slice of New York strawberry cheesecake and the largest chai I could buy. Couple that with the free wireless internet, and you've got an establishment that I never want to leave! On tomorrow's agenda: sushi and tea with Jared. Stay tuned for the riveting second-part of my Albuquerque travels!

God Bless Russia

It's been a long time since I've seen this image. A sight for sore eyes, so to speak, as the March 20 release date of Tetris DS seems a long way off right now. I have no doubt in my mind that the gameplay will be solid enough to take a good two hours away from my Animal Crossing time. If you are like me, pacify your need to move colored blocks with the following: - Tetris-themed shelves @ Inhabitat - Tetris in real life @ Mega64.com

Digg'em!

You may or may not have noticed (most likely not), but I have incorporated links to stories submitted to Digg.com on the right-hand side of the site. Those of you who are not familiar with Digg, it's a "social news bookmarking website" where users can submit news found around the web, and you show your interest by "digging" them. Here on Scottdot, you can see the 10 most recently dugg stories by me. So, when regular updates here get slow, always check out the Digg section on the right. It's the best way to see what I've been reading about and what is interesting to me. You can also view all of my dugg stories on my Digg.com user profile!

A Dash of Pointlessness

I'm writing this while sipping on a bottle of Bundaberg Ginger Beer, something sweet and non-alcoholic to wet my pallet, and it's surprisingly good! Apparently, Ginger Beer has some sort of tie to the Harry Potter series, but since I am not a fan, I don't understand the connection. Nothing further to report at this time.

Reflections on Macworld S.F. '06

I know it's been close to a week after Apple's big announcements this past Tuesday, but with Scottdot's unexpected downtime and server switch, I did not get a chance to post my opinions on the big Mac news. So here goes! Once again, Apple has updated its iLife suite of applications, with its most appealing update being new iPhoto features and a new iWeb application. iWeb looks elegant, but like iMovie, it's something I really don't need. Podcasting support in GarageBand is a nice addition, but iPhoto's "photocasting" features remain to be the most appealing reason to upgrade. Photocasting works with a simple RSS feed and allows people to subscribe to one of your published photo albums using iPhoto. Steve Jobs describes this simple action as "magic," and could prove to be quite useful as an alternative to emailing photos. Nicely done! The only major downside is the rising prices of these upgrades. As a loyal .Mac member from the very beginning, I still stand firmly in believing that Apple needs to cut members like myself a break by giving us this software for free, as I'm beginning to think that an email account and a 1 GB iDisk are not worth my 99 dollars every year. The big news this year was Apple's first Macs sporting Intel's new chip, dubbed the Core Duo (at least it's not a Pentium). The most lust-worthy of these new offerings is the iMac. Steve also introduced us to a new era of Mac portables: the MacBook Pro. It's disappointing to see them stray from the PowerBook name, as it was easily the best product in Apple's line, but we all should have seen it coming. MacBook Pro sports an IR port and remote for Front Row media capabilities and a luscious built-in iciest camera. Both of these new Macs sport a lot of changes under the hood and Apple claims they are 2-4 times as fast as their PowerPC-based ancestors. I believe that the really exciting announcements from Apple are yet to come, as everyone wants a Mac mini "TiVo killer" in their living rooms that outputs in hi-def. Meanwhile, my heart is still set on Mac OS X "Leopard" and other new software that has yet to be seen or conceptualized. My thoughts on other new non-Apple products from Macworld '06 are coming soon!

Finally!

Many thanks to David at Site5 for fixing Scottdot's "zone files" and restoring peace and harmony to my quaint little website. I apologize for the longer-than-expected downtime, but it appears that I am now back and better than ever! More to come later this evening. I'm on a Mario Kart DS binge at the moment!

Holy Crap, TiVo Series 3!

I am convinced that TiVo engineers are victims of their own creation. You see, the Series 2 TiVo was introduced in 2001 (I think), and saw only one cosmetic facelift in its nearly five-year lifespan. It has taken the company more than four years to finally release the Series 3 TiVo, which at long last supports HD. I guess they spent most of their time watching The Ellen DeGeneres Show on Oxygen, skipping the commercials of course. However, as a satellite TV convert, it looks as though I will never own one of these new boxes, as they only support antenna, analog, and digital cable. You can check out more of what Series 3 TiVo has to offer by checking out an excellent comprehensive report at TiVoLovers.com.

Scottdot's New Host

The saddest part is I could foresee this coming a few months ago. Greg shut down the server that was hosting Scottdot. Once this was confirmed, I was scrambling to find the most affordable and feature-rich host for Scottdot, and I think I found that with Site5. Before I go on, I want to sincerely thank Greg for allowing me to park my site on his server for the past two years. You can show your appreciation by checking out one of his many sites:

• GregB.com
• TheMarketingSchool.com
• DomainUnit.com

The bad part is the downtime suffered. However, the good news is that the new server will accomidate PHP and MySQL! This means that I can further modernize this site into something, well...um, neat(er)! In the coming months, I plan on familiarizing myself with the PHP language, and I hope to have the whole site completely rewritten by the first day of Spring!

Setup Showoff

Yesterday I showed you a screenshot from my PowerBook. Today, I invite you to check out my entire desk. I just re-arranged everything and brought my external display out of storage, so you could say I am quite proud of the way things are set up now. What a joy to have all of my toys consolidated in one corner! Now that I've gotten that out of the way...back to Animal Crossing!

Fanboy Desktop

Inspired by my new Nintendo DS, which reaffirmed my love for all things Nintendo, I wanted to share my desktop redecorating with everyone today. People think I'm crazy for utilizing the super-big icons in OS X, but I think it makes them more fun to look at! Also visible are some of my GarageBand projects, which may or may not get posted to the site. See anything you like?

This Week's Movie Roundup, Yeehaw!

Saddle up there, pardners...it's time to read a brief thought about the movies I've watched in the past four days. And quit spittin' on mah floor! First up is The 40 Year Old Virgin. I give this movie 3 twinkies out of 6. I was jealous of all the cool stuff that Andy has in the movie, like action figures and an electronic drumset, but the movie seemed too long! Chest hair removal had me uncomfortable yet pleasantly intrigued! Hmm... Next, we have Serenity, a movie that I wanted to see while it was in theaters and grossed a measly 10 mil. While it was entertaining, I thought the characters were a bit undeveloped, though some of them were down right awesome! Movie producers, take note: any movie is a bit cooler by simply adding a character wielding a samurai sword. Serenity earns 3 and a half cotton swabs out of 7. Last night was my second viewing of Sin City. Just like I told Kristen as the opening credits were rolling, watching this movie makes me feel really cool. Bonus points for the special edition DVD's special features, like behind the scenes with Robert Rodriquez and seeing the entire movie condensed for time in green screen only! Sin City earns a strong 4 out of 5 bullet wounds to the chest! BOOYAH! And in saving the best for last, tonight I finally had the chance to watch Benny & Joon. Out of all four movies, this one was by far the best. The quirky characters were hilarious and made me want to buy a snorkel and make grilled cheese sandwiches on an ironing board. 5 out of 5 pancakes! This concludes the first of many Many Mini Movie Reviews. Stay tuned, folks!

2006: First Post!

A truly dedicated blogger would have made a first of the year post on January 1. I, however, thought that waiting three days would have a bigger impact on the blogosphere. First, I would like to thank everyone who visited Scottdot last December. It was the month of big changes for the site and I saw a huge jump in my numbers. For example, in November of 2005, Scottdot received 4900 total hits even. In December of '05, that number rose sharply to 9353! I was utterly shocked by this, and mostly flattered that people give my musings the time of day. What's in store for a new year? I plan on furthering my knowledge of Flash and I would like to release a short cartoon at some point later in the year. I am making no promises, however, as this is the year I will begin a heavier focus on finding a career in Graphic Design. Also, look forward to monthly photography and desktop picture morsels. On the music end of things, I will be releasing some of my early demos, which are just fun romps on the keyboard, Apple loops, and drum machine shenanigans. As always, I encourage you all to give me feedback of what you would like to see. So far, I've only had requests for more blog entries, which is just as shocking as the rise in site traffic! I will try my best to make my posts meaningful and interesting for you all. I wish you all the best in 2006. See ya on the net!