Brianjbaby era

For 2011, I decided to go in a new direction.




One of my major moves of last year was working. True, in some ways moving from self employed to regular employment is viewed as taking some steps backwards, (it was funny as after I started, the rest of my crew have made the transition from self employment to civilian jobs as we used to say)

Now to bring things forward, the name change, and the "J" which refers to my middle name, I felt things should be more personal, so here we are.

For 2011 I think its time to move forward, one of the bigger challenges is how to do it with a civilian job.

S2ML: Nas - Stillmatic intro - Stillmatic

"I crawled up out of that grave, wipin' the dirt, cleanin' my shirt...
They thought I'd make another illmatic
But it's always forward, I'm movin'..."


So soulful, even the intro saying blood of a slave, heart of a king. At that time I was going through a lot, I was taking and recovering against some heavy losses, and I needed some music to fill the void, but this is a great song to start your day with [good or bad]

- Posted from my iPad

Soundtrack 2 My Life

I've also decided to post my 500 songs for my 30 for 30, and my top 100 albums. Some reviews will be deep, some will be short, it's interesting but I've decided on it, oh until my 30 for 30 NOTHING IS IN ANY ORDER


- Posted from my iPad

30 for 30

I've decided to do my own 30 for 30. For you who don't know, ESPN. They did their top 30 stories, and I've decided to do my own from ages 18-30, along with my top 100 people.


- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Ipad Vs The World: The war on the front of medium media devices

Internet Tablet * Internet appliance * Mobile Internet device * Tablet computer * Tablet Personal Computer - Whatever you call it, its the new battle frontier. Actually, like the smart phone battlefield, was once cornered by someone who didn't take it seriously, and due to one issue [customer service] Apple may run in, with a below-super standards device, but still win because of their customer service.


I first bought a Nokia tablet (N800) in 2006 because I found the ebook version of all my books in college, and I needed something smaller and cheaper than a laptop to read it on. Sadly enough, this $145 device was cheaper than the $350 a semester books I had.



But before we look at the state of the runners, let me give you a small history:

The purpose of these devices:

Larger than a cellphone - but smaller than a laptop
Internet radio, Mobile Skype, Web cam
Allows for ebooks to be written or read [2006 beyond]
Slider design: Touch screen, with a slider keyboard.

This was standard for my 2006 Nokia Tablet, now in 2010, once again there is a "king" that will be de-throned due to Apple's custom service - Archos. Now to give a brief history of Archos:

French company (lol no offense but its neither U.S. or Asia)
Been around since late 80's/ Early 90's.
They specialize in all devices of this range, [Personal, Netbooks, Laptops, internet tablet]

Lets talk about the standards: (Which was started by Acrchos)

Large [20gb or more] storage [biggest is 320gb for Archos]
TV tuner, [allows internet viewing, and regular-recording]
FM Radio
Bluetooth


Oh, if you were wondering the flaws of Archos, they have weak non-exchangeable batteries. They will burn out, and then you'll be shipping to France. Even though its free under warranty, it's still about 6-8 weeks on average, but I've read some horror triple-ship stories. That's what kept me away as I'm a warranty shopper.

(Don't label me as a fan boy, I just feel that if you had those abilities since 2006, and the Ipad can't meet over half of those standard devices, you earned the King title.)

But the ultimate purpose is to allow you to do the most productive things with the smallest space, because carrying a laptop is cumbersome, and also the battery life is always weak until the recent years.

The major flaws of these devices is battery life. Even I, a iphone owner, carry a pocket charger and I have now accepted a second battery or portable charger as mandatory for any and all portable devices I carry.

Now to bring it closer, there was a netbook boom a couple of years ago, which caused a threat to the smaller devices, till they bumped their prices up to about $50 cheaper than a laptop.

The Ipad, which rivals most mid to high priced laptops, has a few things going for it.
Besides being a "large" ipod,
Better resolution of movies
there are the apps [which pricing is a heavy issue.]

The most attractive (well to me) feature, which also allows you to make money with the device, is the ability to wirelessly sync to DSLR Cameras. Now, how does that help? Well as a photographer, its annoying to go take photos and not have a large screen to preview it on when you leave home. You can now do a photo shoot, and show your client your shots on the Ipad right after each shot in a less painful way vs a laptop.


Now, like every company that has a mega powerhouse, they have 0 customer service. Almost everyone will agree, the ability to go to a store and get a new device after yours malfunctions is almost a win/win cause its painless. But yet, no one invests in this idea except Apple.

Rim, HTC and a few others are looking to rush into this frontier, to stop apple from cornering the market. If they take a hint from Archos, allow for exchangeable batteries, and better customer service they'll do fine, if not then nothing will stop the apple machine.

What Red Dead Redemption Says About Rockstar

Rockstars' latest offering to the sandbox genre, Red Dead Redemption was a huge hit, and more importantly it reinforced their status as number 1. After 23 hours I'm still nowhere near finishing the game but here are a couple of strong points they you can see even prior to finishing the game:


1) John Marston - the first "killer with a conscience." From Claude to Niko Bellic, Rockstar has centered their games around characters who are forced to break the law, although the player can do so with consequence. The two most loved GTA leading characters, are Carl "CJ" Johnson & Niko Belic. But, John Marston, is a retired outlaw, during the most lawless time in American history, wanting to limit the bloodshed, and do little to nothing beyond whatever the current mission. [Niko was a close second to him]

2) They can create a living world, despite whatever limits of size there are - The no.2 complaint of any GTA title is how small the world is, and how each area looks the same save if a faction is hostile towards you. In Redemption, the distances between cities are massive with surprises in between. Also the wildlife varies in number and aggression levels giving each area a unique feel.



The fact that they took so much time and effort is nothing short of amazing and I can't wait to see how this ends.




--From the Iphone

My goal for 2010

Yes! My goal for 2010 is a photo college. A deep one as well but let me get rid of those who'll try to get smart off hand.

First off, I know I can simply go to a photo program or grab a camera, and honestly I feel he had a good oppertunity to make a college of every stage of his career in one sitting but he decided to do it his way..and thus I digress.

But the pic is more of a promise to myself to be able to have a collection of photos that draw emotion when I reflect back on 2010. I want them to be solo unless it's really powerful....so here goes...

On a random note. The title means something..more on that later

--From the Iphone