November 2009 Archives
Nov10

I’ve Got Squirrels!

Posted at 10:43 PM • One Comment

Shortly after the famous picture of the squirrel that crashed into a photo of a couple in Banff National Park in Canada, it’s become a big hit on the Internet. Then you got iPhone apps. Eventually the two would meet. And they did. I’ve come across two apps that deal with this squirrel.

Original crashing squirrel photo

Original crashing squirrel photo

First, I found Squirrelizer from iavian.com. You can score it for $0.99 from the App Store. Squirrelizer is pretty plain looking, but don’t let that fool you. You can choose if you want to use a photo from your library or take a new photo with the camera. With which ever one you pick, you’re taken to a screen where you can move or resize the squirrel. It’s a little tricky to place and resize the squirrel, but once you get the hang of it, it’s easy. Once you have the squirrel where you like it, just click the Save button and the new photo is saved to your Camera Roll. You can also have the app send the photo to your Twitter account. The app tweets text that you enter and uploads the photo to TwitPic.

Squirrelizer

Squirrelizer

The one thing I don’t like about Squirrelizer is that it puts a black border at the bottom and top of the photo. Other than that, it’s a great app. I hope that the developer changes this.

Next we have Crasher Squirrel by United Playcos. It’s also in the App Store for $0.99. The design of the app is definitely fancier than Squirrelizer and the user interface is more like other iPhone apps. With Crasher Squirrel you can zoom and pan the image, move and resize the squirrel, erase parts of the squirrel, and unerase parts that you’ve erased. The app also sends photos to Twitter, again just like Squirrelizer.

Crasher Squirrel

Crasher Squirrel

Unlike the previous app, Crasher Squirrel does not add any kind of black border to the photo, which I really like. Also, Crasher Squirrel uses a different squirrel than the one from the original squirrel from the photo above. Where did this squirrel come from? Why did United Playcos use a different squirrel? Did you notice? Find a larger version of the original photo and check for yourself (HINT – use Google to do a image search).

Overall, both apps are very similar, besides a few minor differences. Both are $0.99 from the App Store. If you’re lucky, you might be able to score one or both of them for free. Both developers have put their apps on sale for free. The best place to check for when they go on sale is mentioned here in a previous post.

Final thoughts… I like the original squirrel from Squirrelizer better, even with the black border at the top & bottom of the photos. iavian, please change that. If you want to be a little bit more creative, check out Crasher Squirrel.

Nov5

Best & Worst Britons

Posted at 7:31 PM • One Comment

I stumbled upon these 2 lists today. They’re a few years old, but still interesting nonetheless.

100 Greatest Britons – 100 Worst Britons

union-jack

Nov3

Understanding Traffic Signs

Posted at 11:07 PM • 9 Comments

So, I’m driving home from work. Leaving the parking lot and I come to a stop sign so I stop. Across the intersection at this 4 way stop sign a pedestrian is starting to cross the road. A car comes to the intersection to my right and stops. The driver motions for me to go. I motion to him that there’s a pedestrian walking across my path and if he doesn’t want me to hit them, I’m going to wait for the pedestrian to cross. That other driver was a fucking moron!

Next intersection: I’m still in the parking lot of where I work. I come to a 1 way stop sign at a T-shaped intersection of the main road. The straight away I want to turn onto does not have a stop sign in either direction. Two cars are approaching from my right. Just before the intersection on the straight away, there is a speed bump with a sign that says “SPEED BUMP”. The first car stops and the driver motions for me to go. The sign says “SPEED BUMP” not “STOP”. I motion for the driver that HE has the right of way. He drives through, maybe thinking I’m an idiot. Second drives pulls up now, stops, and motions for me to go. WHAT THE FUCK PEOPLE? Are you fucking stupid??? YOU HAVE THE RIGHT OF WAY. Don’t you remember ANYTHING from Drivers’ Education in school???

sign-stop

Let me answer that here with… Probably not.

I can understanding that drivers are nice to other drivers most of the time, but there is still something called the “Right of Way” that are basic rules for drivers to follow. Ignoring those can cause accidents. And yes, stupid people cause accidents. YOU STUPID DRIVERS could have caused an accident from trying to be nice because you were too stupid to remember who has the right of way or to even read the traffic sign that said “SPEED BUMP” not “STOP”.

For some reason, this stupidity drives me up the fucking wall!

Don’t get me started on YIELD signs. It seems most American drivers believe that a Yield sign means “speed up and merge into traffic very fast”. According to Wikipedia a Yield sign “indicates that a vehicle driver must slow down and prepare to stop if necessary — usually while merging into traffic on another road — but needn’t stop if the way is clear.” Obviously, most American drivers do not know this. How many countless accidents do these fucking morons almost cause? Too many.

sign-yield

I think Americans should be forced to take a test every year or so on traffic laws of their state, which are mostly all of the same across the United States.

I HATE STUPID PEOPLE and I hate stupid drivers that don’t know the rules of the road. YOU SHOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO DRIVE!

Nov3

Chorus

Posted at 7:21 PM • 2 Comments

This is be a brief commentary on my first impressions of the app. Not much of a review. I still need to play with the app some more.

I’ve had some time to play with this new app for the iPhone and it seems pretty nice. It recommends apps to and from people you follow on Twitter and/or friends on Facebook. Instead of just one app doing it for itself, Chorus does it for every iPhone app out there. The app uses those two social media sites to find you apps and recommend apps to your friends. It’s great idea.

I found one thing lacking (as of now) in Chorus and that is it will only pull a picture/avatar from Facebook. Why the developer, envIO Networks, left the basic functionality to import a picture directly from the iPhone or be able to log into their web site and manage your profile I have no idea.

chorus

Why do I find this a missing feature? Because I keep Twitter and Facebook separate, besides a few friends that are on both sites. This basic functionality should have been present upon release of the app. I’ve been talking to their support (@ChorusSupport) and they have said “But I did just confirm that we’re working on an easier way to add photos as I write this.” And they agree with me that this should have been there. How did I spot this? I do QA at work on programs and applications all of the time. This is basic end-user functionality/design. Simple as that.

You may not see this as an issue, but I do and hope that this is corrected soon.

If you want to check this free app out, get it here at the App Store.

Nov3

Doctor Who: Dreamland

Posted at 6:37 PM • No Comments

Thanks to my friends at Sci-Fi Party Line for posting this on Twitter and bringing to my attention. It’s the first look at the new Doctor Who animated set of episodes called “Dreamland” with David Tennant playing The Doctor. He’s my favorite and I’ll be sad when he goes. Not sure if I’ll like Matt Smith as the 11th Doctor.

Nov1

Drunk Ewoks on Today Show

Posted at 5:04 PM • No Comments

This is bloody hysterical! Looks like Al Roker lost some weight there. This is from NBC’s Today Show from Friday, October 30, 2009.