Jeff Hoy, American » Technology

“Yeah, but when I do it, it’s different…”

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 11 Jun 2010 18:27:50 +0000

A writer on a for profit blog full of advertising complaining about a for profit web site being … full of advertising…

On top of that, Office Web Apps’ landing page usually sticks an ugly ad in the lower-right corner, one you’re probably used to seeing on the sites of newspapers that have lost touch with their advertisers, blogs hungry for monetization, and other hey-whatever ad sections. It’s less than appealing, especially when the design seems to blend into the beige-ish focus of Live.com’s design. (Note that you can change your Live.com theme, but the ad doesn’t ever go away).

You could read the rest of the article if you want… but there’s nothing really to see there, kinda lame.

Dear Amazon

Jeff Hoy — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 02:18:35 +0000

[Update: Nevermind, I don't want your crap, I'd rather have a Nook. Why don't you do the truly ballsy thing and cut off all sales to Colorado to protest having to collect sales tax instead of just cutting off your affiliates like a stupid bully? ]

*Ahem*, just thought I’d tell ya that I’ve been a Prime member since March 2007 and I’ve spent nearly $20,000 at your fine establishment since late 2006, not counting orders from third-party sellers. Also, have I told you that I love you and how great you look in orange and black?

Love,

Jeff Hoy

p.s. GIMME A FREE KINDLE! Please?

For EE wannabes and PC gaming nerds out there…

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 05:54:12 +0000

[H]ard|OCP has a great editorial on NVIDIA’s newest graphics chipset, the GF100, also known as Fermi. This new design is a major departure from and rethinking of the way graphics are rendered on computer video cards. I’ll bet Valve Software’s Gabe Newell is rolling over in his corpulent body. You see, cause he hates new computer hardware that is different. Ha ha… zing! I’m snarky.

But seriously, go check out H’s article. It’s very interesting.

Zune track sorting failure

Jeff Hoy — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 02:39:57 +0000

The Zune software allows you to assign disc numbers to your individual tracks. This is useful if a particular track came from a multi-disc release. In these examples I’m using Dethklok’s “The Dethalbum” Deluxe Edition which came on two discs. You can see this feature in these first two screen shots. Click them to embiggify for the illustrations.

In this next screen shot you can see that in the software’s track list it uses this info to properly group tracks by their disc number, and then each group is sorted by the track’s number.

On this screen shot of my Zune 80GB, you can see that the track list is only sorted by track number. So each track one from each disc is paired together. This problem is made worse by the more discs an album contains. Some of my albums have as many as four discs, so my track list will have four track ones right at the start, then four track twos, and four track threes, and so on.

I was hoping this would be fixed in the newest firmware update, just released with the new version of the Zune software and Zune HD hardware, but it has been overlooked. Of course, there are work-arounds for this issue, but it would be nice if the software and hardware worked in the same way. I really wonder why they would work to create the feature in the software to begin with, only to leave it out in the hardware. And considering how rare firmware updates for the Zune are, it’s probably going to be a long time before this changes, if it changes at all.

Credit when due…

Jeff Hoy — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 06:01:00 +0000

I’ve been using Go Daddy hosting for about four years. In that time they have added new features, increased disk storage, and upped the bandwidth limit on my account. All of that free of charge, there have been no fee increases. I haven’t had any downtime and no loss of data. Go Daddy runs a very tight ship seemingly.

If you’ve been wanting to get your own blog, or move to an independent blogging platform, then I highly recommend Go Daddy. And what’s better for you is that they are now having a .COM domain sale. Go now to get your own .com domain for only $7.49.

More iPhone/RC hybridization…

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 06:01:00 +0000

Previously some crazy foreigners controlled their r/c trucks with a WiiMote and iPhone. Now some crazy American decided to control his r/c helicopter with his iPhone. Seems to be an effective method for basic controls. I’d hate to try and do some crazy 3D stuff with that though.

Check the video:

h/t: Zero RC

Test your gamer cred.

Jeff Hoy — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 06:01:00 +0000

From 1983’s Vacation, name that game system!

And for bonus points, name that computer! Answers after the break.

Answers:

The game system: The Bally Professional Arcade (aka the Astrocade). Originally released in 1978. It, along with the Atari 2600, is primarily responsible for my current obsession with video games. I was playing on this system when I was four years old.

The computer: the Apple II. I used these quite a bit during my early education. But then the Macs came about and the Apple IIs were put out to pasture.

Anybody else see the irony…

Jeff Hoy — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 07:01:00 +0000

…in somebody who calls himself “copyrighthater” making a viral advertisement for Hollywood’s biggest award show? Despite that, it’s still a pretty cool use of YouTube.

Via Gizmodo

Stop it…

Jeff Hoy — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 19:01:00 +0000

MSNBC Tech & Sci has a great article on terrible tech habits that should be gone. My personal favorite is #6.

Forwarding scary warnings without doing your research

Based on some of the emails I’ve received from some friends-who-shall-remain-nameless, I had better watch out for rapists trying to knock me unconscious with drug-laced business cards, pet-killing cleaning products from Swiffer, and diseased madmen infecting innocent movie goers with AIDS-infected needles. In fact, I had better not step outside my house because, according to an email I was recently forwarded, the sky is going to fall any minute now.

Here’s the thing: When someone sends you a terrifying warning email – whether it be about man-eating serial killers or computer-exploding viruses – and then asks you to “forward it to everyone you know,” there’s a 98.72 percent chance that email is nothing but an urban legend.

There’s no better place to check the veracity of that email than www.Snopes.com. The folks at Snopes do a fabulous job debunking the many yarns, hoaxes and scams making the rounds on the Internet. Please help make the world a sane place by doing a bit of your own research before you click the forward button.

Check them all out, and if you have any of the habits, then for the good of all humanity, please stop it.

The waiting game…

Jeff Hoy — Thu, 08 Jan 2009 18:01:00 +0000

I’m waiting for my Pro-2 to get here.

I’m waiting for the parts to rebuild my JRx-Pro.

I’m waiting for parts to repair my Axe CPv3.

I’m waiting for a new heatsink and a couple wireless cards for my computers.

Waiting is the hardest part.

So, I’m playing more games. I’m about 50% complete on GTA IV. I’m about 75% through my eighth or ninth play through of Metal Gear Solid, I need a refresher on it before I play through the rest of the series. And of course, I’m playing Burnout Paradise during the times I don’t feel like playing the other two. LittleBigPlanet’s novelty has worn off until they decide to implement collaborative design over the PSN. SOCOM may make an appearance after they release the 1.30 patch.

Video games has definitely become a secondary hobby to r/c. All things being equal, I’d rather take my cars out and bash them around for a while than sit in front of my TV playing video games.

And for the record, I’m angry that Nick at Nite changed their schedule. George Lopez is not as funny as The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air. I’m a creature of habit. Starting at 10:00 pm, Local news > Jay Leno > Conan O’Brien > King of the Hill > Frasier > Last half of Red Eye > Fresh Prince > Fresh Prince > Rosanne > Rosanne > first hour of Fox and Friends > Sleep. Nick at Nite have disrupted my routine and they must pay… me… five million dollars.