mrchnd A place for geekery, complaints, & poorly written critiques.

1Sep/100

Ramblings regarding iTunes vs Doubletwist

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I tried Doubletwist in an effort to escape the clutches of iTunes when I got my Nexus One earlier this year. I wasn't a big fan of it; it seemed clunky, had no way to edit mp3 tags, no smart playlists, album art was consistently wrong or missing, and I still couldn't sync wirelessly. I found the best solution for me was to keep on using iTunes even though it was a bloated mess. I bought the Tunesync App from the Android Market which allowed me to wirelessly sync my phone. It worked wonderfully, I cannot stress how awesome it is. I see no reason to switch back to Doubletwist at this time unless it adds what seems to be a plethora of features.

  • MP3 tag support
  • native smart playlists
  • less buggy album art
  • wifi syncing.

Also, I wish they would cut it out with the "itunes for android" marketing. It's condescending considering most people switched to android partially to get away from itunes.

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Get Tunesync here

This post is a response to this Android Central post

Image From Todd Binger AttributionNo Derivative Works Some rights reserved

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9Jul/10Off

I need to put this here

OMG Double rainbow!
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Its amazing what autotune can accomplish.  Pop music should be embarrassed.
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Posted via email from Christopher's posterous

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26Jun/10Off

The new iphone is underwhelming

While  waiting for my car to be serviced, I walked to the at&t store. Being a geek like I am, I had to check out the iphone 4.
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The feel:
-really solid in your hand
-the glass felt smooth even without super clean fingers
-really, really, really squared off edge.  It was actually a bit sharp on the back (in a cool way)
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The look:
-the new"retina"display was okay.  It is clearly better than previous generations of the iphone.  Next to my nexus one it was only a little better. It was not nearly good enough for me to consider going back to the apple regime.
-the display is over rated...there, I said it.  Way better than old iphones, but only a little better than current high end smart phones
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The OS:
-it was nice.  I still prefer android because of all the customization you can do and various other political reasons.
-iOS is a very "clean" and polished operating system.
-nothing really stands out to me, its nice but...meh.  I don't know... I'm clearly an android fanboy though.
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My verdict:
If you love iphone and still have a 3g then get this immediately.  If you have a 3gs, wait until the frenzy dies down and grab it when you have a chance.
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If your curious about android:
-it's equally as good but with less restrictions.
-you owe it to yourself to check out verizon's android selection because the iphone 4 is not worth switching for.
-you can get an android phone now that's on par with the new iphone or wait 3 to 6 months and get an android phone with substantially better hardware.

-Chris

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14May/10Off

The Link to Delete Your Facebook Account – But Should You Follow it?

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Crikey,  Look here!  This is the elusive link to permanently delete your facebook account forever.  Wow, it sure is a fine specimen.  Remember, it takes 14 days before all your stuff is gone for good and I think logging in accidentally will reactivate your account. (like automatically on your iphone)

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https://ssl.facebook.com/help/contact.php?show_form=delete_account

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Best of luck if you choose to do it.  I decided to just wipe all personal information off my profile and sent nearly every setting to private/"only me".  Why did I do this?

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Facebook is just making me a bit uneasy as of late.  They recently trotted out a feature called "instant personalization".  Before you can really understand it, you need to know the very basic premise of Facebook.  The point of Facebook is to make money, and that is totally fine, it's the point of every business.  I don't know if I like how FB is making its money.  Everything you do on FB is recorded and analyzed.  Your "likes", "interests", "fan pages" and "apps" all collect data about you.  Any app you install has access to your profile and in some cases your information that you have set as private.  When you add up all the stuff you do on facebook you end up with a pretty good impression of who you are as a person, your personality.  That "stuff" (the collected data) is invaluable to advertisers and marketers and they pay wholeheartedly for it.  That's Facebook's business model, they sell very directed advertising that is based off your personality.  That's pretty straightforward but what about apps?
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Why are some apps shady?  For example, remember how popular quizzes on FB were a while ago?  The ones where you had to install an "app" to take it?  Odds are, the app was developed by a 3rd party, as in a company not affiliated with FB.  The information you gave them in the form of answers to their silly questions is theirs now.  Theirs to sell for a profit if they so choose.  Okay.....what if I don't install any apps.  I'm safe right?  No.  No you're not.  Say my brother (who isn't on FB) installs a 3rd party application to his account.  Maybe I have some sensitive information on my account that I explicitly only allow him to see (maybe a note or something).  No one else on FB has any permissions to see my secret note as far as I know.  Guess what?  The shady app that my brother installed inherited any access to information (pics, notes, etc) that I gave him.  That's a big deal.  I made no agreement with the app but now I have to think about it.  Not everyone is an enormous boring nerd like I am.  Most normal people install applications & games to their FB accounts because they a lot of fun.  Most normal people don't read the fine print when installing stuff.  If any of my friends (who I grant access to my information/profile) installs an untrustworthy application, that application has access to the things my friends have access to. Like it or not, it's out of my hands.
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Back to the "instant personalization" that I mentioned earlier.  FB is now going to take what they know about you a step further.  Right now there are 3 websites that Facebook partnered with.  Yelp, Pandora, and Docs.com.  These are all pretty good services on their own.  Facebook is going to do us the favor of taking all the data that they have collected and let these sites have access to it.  Fundamentally, it seems like a pretty cool idea.  Pandora can build a station of songs you like based on your profile on Facebook.  Pandora can then share what you're listening to back to FB.  The thing is, I want to be asked if it is okay with me.  Maybe I secretly like Lady Ga Ga and have a Pandora station of just her stuff.  I don't want FB knowing my most shameful music tastes.  What if it accidentally publishes to my wall?  Everyone would unfriend me immediately, I cant bear the shame of losing the staggering number of 80 friends.  But seriously, don't assume the privacy of your stuff on Facebook anymore....hence the sterilization of my profile.
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Instant personalization is turned on by default for everyone. Facebook needs to implement a policy of private by default, but they wont.  They'll trick you into over-sharing unless you pay close attention to your privacy settings.  Privacy settings that are obfuscated and confusing on purpose so you can't figure them out.  Look how long my ridiculous, paranoid, ranting post is just to explain a few things.
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I don't trust Facebook, they are trying to trick everyone and I don't like to be tricked.
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- Chris

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24Apr/10Off

Setup Easy Shortcuts for Internet Radio Streams on Android

Photo by Chocolate Geek
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A simple how-to on listening to Internet Radio on Android and how to make a shortcut on your home screen that links to a specific channel.
Click "Continue Reading" For The Rest ------>
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24Apr/10Off

Took a Screenshot on Android

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I guess freedom really isn't always free...
No rooting necessary.
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Posted via email from Christopher's posterous

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21Apr/10Off

Foursquare – I’m at Trackside Pizza…

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I decided to start using foursquare, the "check in" service/game that has slowly become more and more popular.  The thing is, I don't really go anywhere the majority of the time.  Most of my time is spent at home or at work and I don't want those gps coordinates broadcast over the net (especially now that some weirdo Chinese website keeps hitting my site a dozen time a day).  I have a feeling that foursquare is just going to make me feel terrible about my lack going out, but we'll see.  Anyway, I used foursquare to check in at Trackside Pizza here in Wallingford.  In the process, I needed to add Trackside Pizza as a location on foursquare which was surprisingly easy (so thats nice).  Guess what?  I received 11 some odd points in the process.  I don't know what the hell to do with the points, foursquare's site says I can donate them.  Seriously? Donate points?  Sounds silly.
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Maybe I can pay for pizza with foursquare points.  Probably not though.  Nonetheless, Trackside has quite good pizza though and I'd recommend it to anyone.  It's in a neat location right next to the train tracks.  The building is actually a converted little red caboose.  I remember it used to be a breakfast diner when I grew up.  They cook tasty, thin brick oven pizza with a nice chewy and crispy crust.  I've also been lucky enough to partake in their antipasto and that's very good as well.  When getting pizza in Wallingford you have to be careful.  There are a handful of Greek pizza places that cook their pizzas in a pan.  Personally, I really don't like it.  Greek pizza is usually soggier and greasier than pizza cooked in brick oven.  But don't worry, this isn't the case at Trackside and that's why it's one of our go-to pizza places.

Posted via email from Christopher's posterous

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