Month: December 2007

  • December 28, 2007

    2007 in Review

    My year-in-review post comes a few days early this year because tomorrow I leave for DC to meet up with some college friends for a weekend long New Year’s Eve celebration. It seems every year in this post I say how it’s been a benchmark year, and it’s usually not the case. Yes, I picked up some new skills here and there, but in retrospect, that seems to be business as usual. This year, however, was quite different.

    • I graduated college: In May, I graduated with a Bachelor’s of Science degree in Media and Information Technology. That is still a crazy thought for me.
    • I started Grad School: I am now attending my alma mater to attain my Master’s Degree in Software Engineering. This past semester was pretty difficult but I learned a lot that I will now be able to apply to my projects as a freelancer.
    • My Business Grew: In a huge way. Not only did a get a big number of clients and some great connections, I became more confident as a business owner and web developer. I also launched a new project, Into the Open, which I will really push after New Years. Finally, I am re branding my business entity with a new name, logo, and scope as far as what the business offers. If things go well, I might be an LLC before 2008 is out.
    • I lost 50 pounds: I made my annual resolution of losing weight/going to the gym and actually followed through. While that has slowed in the last few weeks, I will be getting back into it now that I am not quite as busy.

    I’d say since the time I started this blog, 2007 has been the most substantial in my personal and professional life. I’ve gained some great insight, a whole new skill set and grew a lot as a person, forming some very strong bonds with people and learning a lot about myself through them. So, good bye 2007 and here’s to 2008!

  • December 25, 2007

    Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare

    Call of Duty 4

    It’s actually pretty surprising I haven’t written about this game sooner considering I got it over Thanksgiving break and have been completely obsessed with it. However, I have been busy with school and the business, and a new project I recently launched. But now that I do have some time (thank God for the holidays), I’d like to take a moment and talk about just how great this game really is.

    It’s no secret that Call of Duty 2 was a work of art that I played every since Xbox 360 came out. Call of Duty 3 was made by a different company and was an utter disappointment. Call of Duty 4 (COD4) however, was made once again by Infinity Ward, making it an excellent game. COD4 takes place in modern day (a few years from now actually), in two countries- Russian and some unnamed Middle Eastern country. You play as the British Special Air Service (SAS) and the US Marine Corp (USMC). Your objective is to stop a Russian militant group working with a terrorist group in the Middle East. I don’t want to give away too much, but it’s a very encapsulating story that makes the game seem all the more real. After I beat the game I told people it was the best movie I’ve ever played.

    The game play is what really does it for this game. The controls and physics really make you feel like you are in the battle. During one level ( a flashback to the Chernobyl incident), you are a sniper that has to take out this target from a very far distance. You have to take into account that distance, wind speed and the Coriolis Effect. It’s actually a pretty draining level. As far as other features go, You can shoot through thin materials to kill your target, you can throw grenades back at the enemy, and there is a new feature called last stand, which lets you shoot people with your pistol (the same way enemies did in COD2) until you die. You are not just ground infantry either. You provide air support for a couple of levels, and that is a lot of fun. The fact that the graphics are incredible doesn’t hurt the realism of the game either.

    Multiplayer is a pretty different experience for COD4. There are multiple classes with different attributes, strengths and weaknesses to choose from. You can also create your own classes. The more experience you have the higher your rank and the more classes, guns and extras there are for you. So of course to get the cooler stuff, you need to log a lot of time. I actually think this is a neat feature. Since I beat the game pretty quickly, I didn’t think there was much more for me to do. However, as I do enjoy playing over Xbox Live (note to self- renew that soon), I now have some work to do to experience the game at it’s fullest.

    I know some consider this blasphemy, but I honestly think COD4 is better than Halo 3. The campaign mode, definitely. Better storyline, better game play, more strategic. Multiplayer is arguable, but I like it better for more team oriented stuff or if I don’t feel like getting tea-bagged with I get killed. Looks like I’ll be playing COD4 until the next Xbox 360 installment comes out.

  • December 20, 2007

    Google + Other Services

    RTM on GMail

    As you might have guessed, I am a huge fan of all things Google. In the last week or so I have come across some great things that make Google easily integrate with other services I use, making it so much better.

    Remember the Milk in GMail
    I’ve written about Remember the Milk before, and how I thought it was a great product. Recently they created a Firefox extension that makes it so much better by integrating it directly into the new version of GMail. It’s extremely robust and easy to use. They have a great write up about it over on the RTM blog. This will definitely get me using RTM again.
    DocSyncer
    DocSyncer is a web/desktop app that automatically synchronizes your Google Docs with the MS Office documents on your PC. This is a fantastic tool with great timing as I was recently trying to figure out a good way to do just this. The product is still in beta, but proves to be very useful.
    Google Sync for Blackberry
    With Google’s latest mobile update, it made GMail faster, Google Maps faster, and included Picasa in the mix. However, the best thing that came out of this update was Google Sync, which provides automatic synchronization of your Blackberry and Google calendars. This is very nice as now I don’t have to worry about making sure Plaxo syncs with both Google and MS Outlook so it then syncs with my Blackberry.

    These changes will make my life infinitely easier and infinitely more attached to Google. But hey, I gotta organize my online life somehow, right?

  • December 15, 2007

    Rubik’s Cube

    rubiks cube

    Towards the beginning of the semester (thank God it’s over), my friend Jenn was showing me how to solve the Rubik’s Cube- something I never was and still am not able to do. Last night another friend of mine got me one for Christmas and I have more or less been thinking about it non-stop. I know there are countless resources that will tell you the solution, but I’d like to understand how it works instead of just memorizing an algorithm or two. My brother was showing me today how to solve it, but when I asked why we’d do it that was he’d say, “It’s how the algorithm is.” Jenn did tell me what I was trying to accomplish, but now that we are on Winter Break, it looks like I’m on my own.

  • December 9, 2007

    Hot Tech Items this Christmas (2007)

    Nintendo Wii

    With just about two weeks until Christmas, I am getting some questions about what fun tech toys would make good Christmas gifts. So here are a few things I feel will be a hit this holiday season.

    Nintendo Wii
    Over a year after it’s release, Wii is still selling very well and is almost impossible to find. It’s a fun system to play and there are games for everyone. And with new and upcoming releases like Mario Galaxy, Mario Striker Charged and Super Smash Brothers Brawl, who could pass it up?
    iPod Touch
    While I am not a fan of the iPod or Apple in general, the iPod Touch will be a hot item this year. It’s an iPod with internet capalbilities so you can download music right to your iPod. Or check your email. Or sports scores. Or the weather. You get the picture. As for me, I have my sights set on a new Zune.
    HD Player
    As prices drop for both HD DVD and Blu-Ray players, these should be a pretty hot item this year. I personally am a fan of HD DVD because of it’s backwards compatibility with DVDs and the fact that it’s supported by Xbox with the HD DVD Player drive. I though I guess it comes down to the movies and tv shows HD DVD and Blu-Ray have to offer.

  • December 5, 2007

    AIM in GMail Chat

    AIM in GMail Chat

    Yesterday while changing my status on GMail Chat I noticed something that I can only describe as ‘awesome’. Below my “busy” status messages I saw the AOL Instant Messenger icon accompanied by the text, “Sign into AIM.” Beginning yesterday, according to the Official GMail Blog, Firefox users and English IE7 users have the ability to sign into AIM using the Chat function in GMail. It organizes your buddies alphabetically by status, and any AIM buddies have the AIM icon to the right of their name. The different order is something to get used to, but I can live without the groups if it means GTalk functionality for my AIM screen name.

    As someone who accesses a multitude of different computers daily, I’ve got to say this is really convenient. Now my entire buddy list is mobile so if I do need to contact someone, I don’t need to worry about the computer having an AIM client or having to use portable apps. With this I can basically live my life out of a browser.

    Of course, I do have one simple request (incidentally, in programming simple requests aren’t usually simple): AIM support in the GTalk desktop application. If that happens, there is a good chance I won’t be using the AIM desktop client anymore. None the less, yet again Google has wowed me.