Central

WP on Nook Tab Update

Bryan — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 03:09:05 +0000

The folks working on the Android WordPress app sent me a link earlier today, with their latest edition, with Nook Color/Tablet recognition!

In comparison, the real estate is utilized much better, and not only on the home screen (settings page fixes the width issue as well, which I did forget to mention in my earlier post). They’re just getting started with Nook development, so I’m going to give them all the time they want.
Of course, due to B&N wanting to own the device that I own, I had to re-root it. But I do hear tales of a coming bootloader/rom pwn’ing…

WordPress on Nook Tablet

Bryan — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:34:47 +0000

The folks at WordPress are awesome, but there are some things they need to work on. Like enabling WP for Android to work on the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet. If its a cost to get on the B&N Market, just say so guys! Sideloading ain’t easy now!

Rep. Lamar Smith (or how I learned to stop worrying and love SOPA)

Bryan — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 21:27:33 +0000

On the 18th of January, this site homepage will be host to the SOPA Blackout Protest. First page view will encounter the truth of how the SOPA and PIPA (Stop Online Piracy Act and Protect IP Act) will devastate the Internet as a whole.

The small time business owners, bloggers, and critics will be under the scrutiny of the corporate hounds, and be brought down by their hunters (lawyers), for anything they feel like. With SOPA, you are guilty until proven innocent.

This doesn’t mention all the message boards, mailing lists, personal bloggers, eBay’ers, Craigslist, hobby artists, Android /iOS developers… the list keeps going. If you get snooped out, you get brought down. There will be no more Internet.

WordPress, Android, and Cyanogen

Bryan — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 23:40:31 +0000

Writing from a smartphone device can be a tedious and difficult task for anyone. Text messaging has developed a language all its own, and most teenage users of said medium are fast at “whr r u” rather than “Where are you?”, which is more complete, but still needs more gramatical fulfilment.
Thankfully, for those of us who use blogs (re: my wife and I), WordPress has a utility for mobile devices, which allows us to manage, write, and approve comments. In the past, it was geared for WordPress.com writers, where the vast majority of individual, entrepenure wordsmiths make their living (or just rant about things they like).
In a combination of application updates to both mobile devices and Internet servers, the WordPress writing community can now view the site statistics, and access the Dashboard. While to the reader, this may not seem like much; to the folks who really dive into how the system functions, and monitor their SEO, that’s big news.
As some people know, my phone has been on the fritz, and today was my last straw. I have finaqlly updated to Cyanogen Mod 7.1.0. Previous attempts made my battery drain faster than ever. I believe I know why: A truck-load of applications, running services. This time, I did not restore every single app I had, but cherry-picked ones that I use on a fairly frequent basis.
Wordpress, being one of the chosen, seems to have been updated since I last used its main interface. The first set of images offers a very well designed control panel, but my the main reason for this post, is the New Post screen; specifically, the actual entry area.
As opposed to typing out paragraphs, or short messages in a box only millimeters tall, the newer edition of WordPress on the Android platform takes over the vast majority of the screen. With the new design, crafting entries, while retaining the ability to review previous passages on the road, has enabled writers to keep their grammar in check. The only part I could make a gripe about, is if there were no keypad on my phone, the on-screen keyboard would take too much realestate, and completely negate my positive review.
In the end, if you have a smartphone that has a full, physical keyboard, and a WordPress installation, I highly suggest the official WordPress application.

Redhurst Writings

Bryan — Tue, 03 Jan 2012 12:52:24 +0000

As it pleases you, I’ve posted two of my old Redhurst: Academy of Magic short stories on my deviantART account.

Redhurst – Relationships Part 1

Caught on the Blind Side

Please be gentle in commenting, as I wrote these many years ago.

Star Wars: The Old Republic – Things I’ve learned so far…

Bryan — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 17:45:40 +0000

Empire side initial Sith Inquisitor quest dialogues turned me off by level 2.
Smuggler class is neat.
To use Armstech crafting skill, you need Scavenging and Investigation. Even if Corso gets a bonus to Underworld Market, you won’t get Carbo-plas, a needed material for Armstech.
Don’t waste money and time to get Conductive Flux. It’s 10 credits at a crafting vendor, versus 295 credits to run the mission.
Disassembling parts that you craft can result in learning higher-powered versions of the item. I went from Skill Barrel 3 as a green item to a Skill Barrel 3 as a blue, then to an Advanced Skill Barrel 3 as a purple.
When focusing on crafting, just hang out in your local Cantina. No sense in trying to run missions while your companion is out taking care of your other business.

Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim = Oblivion+(Fallout+New Vegas-VATS-Guns)

Bryan — Thu, 22 Dec 2011 16:13:31 +0000

This is one sexy game. I am thoroughly impressed. The game does the standard Elder Scrolls opening scenario; you’re a prisoner, doomed to die, but something happens to make it so you’re not.

First character I made, got up to level 35, and then they updated the game to 1.2. Constant crash when moving more than 10 meters from where I last saved.

Second character, doing much better. I made it a point to level my Sneak to 100 (with about four hours of in-game time, no cheats here!). I followed that up with hunting down Krosis, and getting Throw Voice (Zul Mey Gut). Krosis and the Blood Dragon that’s on the Word Wall hurt together, but with a little time, patience, and a higher Archery skill, I took them down individually (don’t approach the Word Wall until the dragon is down!).

They’re going to eventually release a patch to allow us with 64-bit OS’s to use more than the 2gb memory limit, and at the beginning of the year, the Creation Kit will be released. My hope is that Dan the Geek will craft us a player housing that equals his current Fallout: New Vegas bunker.

EVE Online Apps & Tools

Bryan — Thu, 03 Nov 2011 01:33:24 +0000

Okay everyone, here’s the deal.
New players lack a head start. But there are some good tools to help you plan your way into high skill ships, check your planned fitting, give you heads up on your market orders, watch your mail, and all sorts of crazy stuff.
To help out those who don’t know where to look, let’s start listing some of the good tools we use. Remember rookies, you will need your API key to work with most of these tools!

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EVE Online Character API (Link) – Generate a custom access API key for the apps you use.
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EVEMon (Link) – Watches just about everything. Current skills, standings, market orders, industry (manufacturing) jobs, research jobs, your mail, and notifications. The big part of EVEMon is the skill planning. GO to the Plans menu, create new, and find the ship you want, and add it to the queue. It will guide you to reach the required skills, plus links up with BattleClinic so you can find the best loadouts, and train for those too. There are some other tools in there, so play around! Practically a one-stop-shop.

EVE Fitting Tool (Link) – Lets you bring up a ship, and toss fittings at it all day long. Good for determining capacitor stability, and what would happen if you had max skills for the ship and loadout you’re testing.

Aura (Link, Android Market, Free) – For on-the-go types, monitor your pilot skill queue with Aura, an Android OS based app. Easy to use, useful widget for the home screen, and has a notification option to let you know skills finish.

[Space Reserved for iOS App, please suggest!]

RF Freight (Link) – Collected a TON of Mexallon that you need moved to Jita? Look no further than Red Frog Freight. The most trustworthy, player operated shipping corp in all the galaxy. Moving from low-sec (<=0.4)? Black Frog is their branch arm that specializes in moving in and out of dangerous territories.

EVE-Markets (Link) – Want to know what the trend is for the fittings you are after? EVE-Markets is a website that aggregates data from EVE-Central, and makes it more graphical similar to the Market window in the game. Generally, this data comes directly from players, who utilize a client that picks up the Market data, and auto-uploads it to EVE-Central on game exit.

Mintchip (Link) – Reports on major EVE news and events, and some other stuff. She’s cute too, so that helps in delivering dry EVE news.

There are other tools out there, and I hope there will be other suggestions. Find a tool useful? Let me know!

I’m in Diaspora, and I’m ready! Now to convert the masses!

Bryan — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 15:47:59 +0000

I’m in Diaspora, and I’m ready! Now to convert the masses!

Surprise Ring of Fire Craft Beer Fest

Bryan — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 23:20:00 +0000

Surprise, Arizona, just had a event called the Ring of Fire, which coupled with a tennis tournament. The Ring of Fire event was a craft beer and food festival, where several micro breweries offered up their different brews. Here are the ones I tried, with pictures to accompany.

1: Kona Brewing, Pipeline Porter. Hawiian kona brew, nice and dark, goes down smooth. Definitely a kona coffee flavor on the finish.

2: Red Hood, ESB. A reddish hued beer, citrus notes, high in the front, takes time to dissipate

3: Sierra Nevada, Tumbler Autumn Brown Ale. Not as dark as a porter, darker than a red, a bit nutty.

4: Odell Brewing, 90 Shilling Ale. Good red color, slight citrus notes, but a clean finish.

5: Gordon Biersch, FestBeir. IPA, marked as a lager, it comes out light. Far too many things going on to pin down a particular flavor.

6: Widmer Brothers, Drop Top Amber Ale. Very smooth, wife says it almost has an apple scent.

7: Gordon Biersch, Märzen. A red lager, citrus note, crisp, and clean.

8: Kona Brewing, Longboard. IPA, smooth, but a bit too light in my taste. A bit bland, same as many other IPA brews. Committed alcohol abuse.

9: Odell Brewing, IPA. Great scent, good start, powerful finish. A little like a tea.