Dewbert's thoughts on... » Nerditity

Ice Cream Sandwich

John — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 08:05:04 +0000

One of my favorite things about the Android platform is its openness. Google gives its users the freedom to tinker, which results in an incredibly active and engaged developer community. Yesterday, Google released the source code for the latest version of Android Ice Cream Sandwich for the GSM version of the Nexus S. I have the CDMA/WiMax version of the Nexus S, which would have meant that I would be stuck running the old Gingerbread (Android 2.3.7) software until an official release… but tonight, a fully compiled, almost 100% functional version is available for my phone, thanks to a dedicated bunch on the XDA-Developers forum.

I’ve always thought that the Android OS lagged behind Apple’s iOS and Microsoft’s Windows Phone in terms of aesthetics, but not anymore. Ice Cream Sandwich features a totally overhauled User Interface on par with the other mobile OSes on the market.

The one bit of functionality that’s missing from this build of ICS is Google Wallet and Near-Field Communications. Community developers have managed to get Wallet working on the “officially unsupported” Galaxy Nexus, so I’m sure it will only be a matter of time before they get it up and running on the Nexus S. If not, I’ll gladly trade Wallet functionality for early access to the otherwise flawless build of this fantastic operating system.

A Capella Earworm

John — Mon, 15 Nov 2010 22:39:38 +0000

Anyone who has ever shuffled through my iPod or ridden with me in my car could probably tell that I’m a pretty big fan of a capella music. Katy Perry? Not so much. Even I’m still surprised at how much I like the various a capella versions of Teenage Dream.

It all started with Mike Tompkins’ a capella mashup of Teenage Dream with Bruno Mars’ Just The Way You Are. I showed it to a coworker, and now it’s on daily rotation in our office.

Last week’s Glee just fed my addiction, and the dance remix by DJ MichaelAngelo went really well with my morning coffee. Check those out after the jump.

(via Towleroad)

Changing Hosts

John — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 22:43:02 +0000

Due to the seemingly constant barrage of worm attacks on WordPress blogs recently, I’ve decided to move my blogging to WordPress.com’s hosting. I don’t have time to keep up with the patching, maintenance and upgrades of a self-hosted WordPress blog, and I definitely don’t have time to clean up after a worm attack.

Switching to WordPress.com doesn’t make me immune to attack, but these guys get paid to keep the upgrades coming so there’s certainly less of a chance that it will happen. It will also be a significant cost savings for me, since I will no longer have to pay Bluehost for gigabytes of space that I never use.

I’ve already switched Facebook to import from the new site; hopefully this won’t mean that followers on there end up with double-posts, but I’ll keep an eye on it.