John Tokash

Entries from July 2006

Nintendo DS Browser (Opera)

July 26, 2006 · 3 Comments

My browser order from Play-Asia arrived today.

The video reviews from Joshua Zimmerman are accurate.  I don’t have much to add, so watch his videos for a more complete look.  Here are my thoughts:

Pros:

  • The browser renders as well as you would expect if you have done any browsing on a modern PDA or really modern phone.

Non-Issues:

  • The page loading speed issue he mentions is pretty bad, but those of us who browse from our phones or PDAs already know that we have to pick and choose which sites we visit to avoid frustration.

Cons:

  • Cookies, HTTP Authentication credentials and History are all forgotten when you turn off the DS.
  • Users cannot move around on the page while the browser is loading images.
  • The interface text is in Japanese, so some options are not readable.
  • You have to carry around the DS Browser card (as with any DS game) AND the memory expansion cartridge for the GBA slot.

Categories: Browsers · Games · Nintendo

links for 2006-07-16

July 15, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Categories: Links

Zazzle: impressions after two custom t-shirt purchases

July 11, 2006 · 4 Comments

Zazzle is:

At Zazzle, you can share and celebrate your interests and passions with unique one-of-a-kind products from apparel to greeting cards! Whether those interests are pets, family, collecting, art, cars, or sports, you’ve found the place to express your creativity and share what is uniquely you! It’s easy, fun, and affordable. And thanks to our start-of-the-art reproduction techniques and unparalleled customer support, you’re sure to be delighted by the results. Now…prepare to be Zazzled!

I ordered two shirts from Zazzle. The first was a tribute to Avenue Q. It said “Say NO to SchadenfreudE” on the front and “Avenue Q” on the back. The t-shirt was men’s large black, with orange text. The font I chose (from a wide selection) was very Battlestar Gallactica.

That shirt turned out great and I like to wear it, but it was only a very basic test of what Zazzle can do.

The second shirt I bought was a green medium kids t-shirt with the ID symbol for Dalek Sec of the Cult of Skaro from Doctor Who: Doomsday. I ordered the shirt on Sunday and it was delivered on Tuesday. The graphic I used was a 100×50 png image I drew based on the show.

I guess the outer edge on my original had some translucency which created an excellent effect on the final product. The lines on the inside of the symbol are very clean against the green of the shirt, but the outside sort of fades nicely into the green. If I wanted clean edges, I could have edited the image to remove that translucency, but I took a risk leaving it in and it really payed off.

Anyway, great job Zazzle!!!

Update: Glen F sent me corrected spellings for the Daleks from the Cult of Skaro: “The cult is made up of Dalek CAAN, Dalek RABE, Dalek SEC & Dalek THAY”. Thanks Glen!

Categories: Random

links for 2006-07-11

July 10, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Categories: Links

links for 2006-07-10

July 9, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Categories: Links

Dalek ID Tags in seasons 27 and 28 of Doctor Who (the ‘new’ series)

July 9, 2006 · 7 Comments

EDIT: The Cult of Skaro Daleks are named Sec, Thay, Caan and Jast on screen. In print, they are named Sec, Thay, Caan and Rabe. Sorry for the confusion. Relevant Wikipedia reference here.

I went through and documented the id tags of the various Daleks in the Christopher Eccleston and David Tennant episodes. Note that there were several shots in Parting of the Ways that seem to have been flipped (as in a mirror), so I’m not sure that these are the correct orientations. Also, note that the spellings of the names of the units in the Cult of Skaro in the Doomsday episode are guesses.

Update: I created some simple png icons loosely based on the Dalek ID tags.

Update: Better shot of the emperor’s id:

Update: ID Tag from Rosco, a home-built Dalek by Mike Bull (from the project dalek forum) :

Update: Glen F sent me corrected spellings for the Daleks from the Cult of Skaro: “The cult is made up of Dalek CAAN, Dalek RABE, Dalek SEC & Dalek THAY”. Thanks Glen!

Categories: Doctor Who

Doctor Who: Doomsday

July 8, 2006 · 1 Comment

The finale of the second season of the new series was excellent.

At first I didn’t like the humor of the Cult of Skaro Daleks, but I’m with it now.  I don’t think I’ll ever get used to the new-this-season Cybermen battle cry of “DELETE”, though.

Here are some thoughts that are nagging me (beware spoilers):

  • The Cybermen created in ‘this’ universe may still be around because they may not have void dust on them.  However, it is possible that the metal and augmentations used to create them could be from the alternate universe, so I’ll take it either way.
  • If there is a Torchwood in the alternate universe, then there must be a Doctor in the other universe.  Torchwood is created as a result of his involvment, right?  Would be interesting to see a spinoff episode or two where the alternate-universe-meddling-timelord meets up with Rose.
  • Is the new series Torchwood in this universe?  I hope the Doctor visits.
  • With this effects budget, when are we going to get a tour of the TARDIS?
  • The icon/badge/designation that the Daleks wear under their eyestalks: they are new with the Christopher Eccleston season, right?  In Doomsday I noticed that two of them differed.  Also, the casings of the Cult of Skaro Daleks were not uniform.  Really cool.

Categories: Doctor Who

links for 2006-07-09

July 8, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Categories: Links

Vis, my favorite internal tool

July 7, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Years ago, I downloaded Microsoft’s BootVis program to visualize my computer’s bootup timeline. When I later wrote a simple profiling tool for SiteBuilder, I named it vis, as a tribute to that cool tool. For more general purpose profiling, I recommend Numega’s line.

Here’s a screenshot of an early version of vis, comparing 4 runs of SiteBuilder:

vis

By the way, this image is hosted at Thomas Hawk’s company, Zooomr.

Categories: Coding

links for 2006-07-07

July 6, 2006 · Leave a Comment

Categories: Links