Internet Barf

Some of my favorites from Taiwan last week

Welcome to Taiwan

Dim Sum for breakfast every morning

Outside the National Palace Museum

Panoramic at Longshan Temple

Tribute to my brother :)

So many scooters in Taiwan

Lunch with the Taiwan IT guys

Our waiter had awesome glasses

From the Guang Hua Digital Market

 Char Siu Bau ...finally

View from my desk in the hotel room

Panoramic from my hotel room

Panoramic from the 36th floor of the Far Eastern Hotel

Panoramic from the top of Taipei 101

Me on the 91st floor of Taipei 101

Taipei Metro

Shilin Night Market

Oyster Omlette

Shaved ice with fruit, jam, condensed milk

Chodofu ...nuff said

Panoramic at Taipei airport waiting to board a very full plane

Landing at LAX

I love the sounds on this game: Ultimate Video Poker for #iPhone free today on iTunes

Price Drop: Ultimate Video Poker (games)

Ultimate Video Poker 1.0.10

Category: Games
Price: $0.99 -> Free (iTunes)

Description:

Ultimate Video Poker in collaboration with www.FreeAppaDay.com will be free today and today only.

20 video poker games in one, including 4 triple and 3 ten play games!

Play a realistic simulation of 20 of the most common or popular casino video poker games.

Large easy to read cards and smooth 3D animations.

Fast game play with tap to stop win animations.

Optional auto hold picks cards to optimal game strategy.

High quality sound effects and real Casino background sounds.

Bankroll is editable to allow entry of custom amounts of money to play (Money played in the game is a simulation).

Easy to use UI.

All single play games have optional double up mode to double your winnings.

This is the ultimate video poker collection to perfect your casino video poker strategy.

Features:

* 20 games in one:

** Tens or Better

** Jacks or Better

** Aces & Eights

** Aces & Faces

** Joker Poker

** Double Joker Poker

** Deuces Wild

** Deuces & Joker Poker

** Bonus Poker

** Double Bonus Poker

** Double Double Bonus Poker

** Triple Double Bonus Poker

** Bonus Deuces Wild

** Triple play Jacks or Better

** Triple play Deuces Wild

** Triple play Bonus Poker

** Triple play Joker Poker

** Ten play Jacks or Better

** Ten play Deuces Wild

** Ten play Joker Poker

* Play video poker with real world paytables.

* Each game has full statistics to analyze and perfect your video poker strategy.

* Each game has auto save and restore so you can take a break and save your progress.

* Each game has auto hold to hold according to best game strategy.

* Each game has individual reset of stats and bankroll.

* Real Casino ambient sound background track.

* High quality sound effects.

* Fast game play with tap to stop win animations.

* Easy to use interface.

* Sounds on/off.

What's New

Fixed bug where in the multi hand games, a discard could show up in one of the other hands.
Ultimate Video Poker

Hearts Net for #iPhone free this week on iTunes

Price Drop: Hearts Net (games)

Hearts Net 2.0.0

Category: Games
Price: $1.99 -> Free (iTunes)

Description:

The classic card game Hearts. You can play solo against three robot players or against one or more of your friends on a WiFi network. This game does not allow you to play against others on the worldwide internet, only with other people in the same building.

This game is now free for awhile, in order to help get the word out.

Many of my Hearts Solo players told me it's too easy to shoot the moon, so I upgraded my robots to be far more paranoid about that. Try it and see if they are better at defense than they used to be.

Card movements are animated. Works in portrait and landscape modes. Hearts rules enforced are exhaustive and complete. Scores are displayed hand-by-hand, showing progress over time. Very configurable. Saves your game between runs of the program. Robot players are pretty good.

For more details, see my website.
Hearts Net

More local cuisine in Taiwan tonight at a restaurant called Mah Kah Ro Nee Goo Rill

Taiwan Day One

I just arrived in Taiwan. I'll be here for the week on business.

My day started at 6:30am to make it to the airport early. Security was a breeze and I was able to switch my seat to an exit row.

We got to LAX with no issue and made our way to the next gate which was in a different terminal so we had to go through security again. What's up with that? Probably because it was an international flight.

Got to the gate where there was a bunch of people loading for a different flight to Singapore and then we made our way onto our plane.

I flew China Airlines on a 747-400. Every time I fly, I start my watch just when the pilot really lays on the juice to take off. In the small jets that I fly domestically, they can usually take off in about 28-34 seconds. This big plane took 54 seconds to take off and it seemed like the nose was up forever before the rear left the ground. I think it's amazing that those things can fly at all.

I got an aisle seat 37C on a row of 3 with another guy next to the window and an empty seat between us.

It's just under 15 hours to Taipei from Los Angeles. They served dinner (pork and rice).

I spent most of the flight watching movies on the entertainment system I watched:

The Informer

9

Surrogates

Inglorious Basterds (again)

Gamer

I also won a bunch of money playing video poker and got a high score on space invaders and took a panoramic picture from the back of the plane on my phone.

Then they served breakfast.

Overall, not a bad flight but still long.

As we exited the plane and I did my boy scout duty and helped 2 ladies with their luggage down from the storage compartment. These 2 little Asian ladies weren't even tall enough to reach the bin.

As we walked toward customs there was a sign to remove your hat and a TV camera thermal sensor that showed everyone's temperature as you walked through. I guess if you have a fever you have to go to quarantine. I don't even want to know what that means.

The car service came and picked us up and we headed to the hotel.

So I left on Saturday 01/23 and got to Taiwan at night. When I wake up it will be Monday morning. What happened to Sunday? Weird huh?

Now it's 4am and I cant sleep. I'm excited for the sun to come up so I can check out the view from my room on the 19th floor.

Now departing SLC to LAX DL1735 27C B757-200 WiFi confirmed @SeatGuru

How to record video with your iPhone 3G

I have always thought it was dumb that the iPhone 2G/3G didn't come with video recording. The last phone I had before the iPhone was a Samsung Blackjack II running Windows Mobile and even that phone had video.

Jailbreaking your phone gives you access to applications like Cycorder and VideoRecorder but not everyone wants to be on the jailbreak bandwagon.

I recently came across 2 apps from the app store that allow video recording on a 3G phone without jaibreaking. While neither of these apps would replace a good video camcorder, they are great to have on hand for times when you don't have (or need) the good camcorder with you. The next time you are walking down Sunset Boulevard and Zsa Zsa Gabor winds up to slap a cop, you'll be ready.

iVideoRecorder $0.99 on iTunes

I found this app after I downloaded iTimeLapse, it's made by the same guys. This app has simple interface and has the ability to upload to most of the big social networks (YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Flickr, Vimeo, TwelveSeconds, and basic email). The app has its own library and you have the option to export to the native iPhone Camera Roll where you can save them to your PC just like pictures but you can't share them via MMS. I was impressed that after exporting to the Camera Roll I was able to trim the beginning or the end of the video directly from the player. I thought this was only available to the 3GS model. This app also has an option to save via FTP or via wireless connection while on the same network.

The good: Easy to use, simple interface, lots of sharing options. At 10fps this is not too bad for the 3G apps that I have seen. Most have between 3-7fps

The bad: High quality mode only allows a few seconds of recording at 320x426 (based upon available memory). Low quality mode allows unlimited recording but reduces the size to 160x213. Although the framerate on low quality setting is better than most (10fps), this is definately not a replacement for the 640x480 @ 30fps available on the 3GS.

Summary: A great app for recording video on a 3G iPhone with quick and easy sharing to the big social networks.

Qik Video Camera $0.99 on iTunes

This app is made by the same company who provides the Qik live video streaming service. You can use this app to record video to record unlimited video at 352x288 @ 7fps. The app has its own library where you can watch your videos or export them to the native iPhone Camera roll for editing.

The good: The larger video size is nice and the compression ratio is also good resulting in smaller file sizes.

The bad: While the video is larger, there are no built in options for sharing to social networks. I also think it's weird that the functionality of this app is not built into the Qik streaming app which is free on iTunes. The Qik streaming app has sharing options for your live video to all of the social networks from the iPhone app and their website. Qik says that this ability is coming soon but as of this time it doesn't.

Summary: A nice app for recording large size videos at small file size but no sharing options.

test2

(download)

(download)

new laptop ritual

I set up my new laptop for work over the holiday break. I think everyone has their own "ritual" to perform every time they get a new laptop or get a new job. After snagging all of the stuff from my old laptop and dumping it into this one I made a sandwich, made myself comfortable and began:

    * set up wireless connection
    * set mouse speed slider to maximum
          * I wonder who ever uses "show pointer location when I press CTRL"
    * use IE to download Firefox ...never use IE again
    * make Firefox default browser
    * use Firefox to download Chrome
    * use Chrome to download Safari
    * set download location for Firefox and chrome = Desktop
    * download/update Flash http://get.adobe.com/flashplayer/
    * download Reader http://get.adobe.com/reader/
    * download and install 33 Windows updates
    * download and install 14 driver updates
    * Desktop settings:
          * set wallpaper = none
          * set desktop color = black
          * set screen saver = never
          * set power options to never turn anything off ...ever
          * set when I shut laptop = do nothing
          * delete all icons from the desktop leaving only the recycle bin
                * I love the smell of a clean desktop (that won’t last long)
          * double size the taskbar
                + lock the taskbah
          * start bar properties: small icons, recent programs= 20
          * download Microsoft Zune theme http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkID=75078
    * Firefox settings:
          * install del.ico.us toolbar for Firefox https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/3615
          * small icons
          * remove bookmarks toolbar
          * move address bar to top
          * move to top: back, forward, refresh buttons
          * remove navigation toolbar
          * configure del.ico.us tag bundles
          * remove default Internet and e-mail shortcuts
          * download Firefox theme https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/7618
          * download WASP http://webanalyticssolutionprofiler.com/try.htm
          * download FireBug https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1843
          * download IE tab https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/1419
    * download Dropbox https://www.dropbox.com/
    * download iTunes http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/
    * download Cooliris http://www.cooliris.com/
    * download VLC http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
    * download DiskAid http://www.digidna.net/diskaid/
    * download Picasa http://picasa.google.com/

My favorite scene from 'Casino' via @MovieClips

Just testing Movie Clips embed functionality.

Seems like their site is really beta right now. Poor navigation and the videos don't always play. At least they allow embeds and sharing. This is a great idea if they can get it together. I saw a service like this a few months ago that was a total fail. I don't remember the name of that one.

This is one of my favorite scenes from one of my favorite movies 'Casino'