Square Space

I’m sure that everybody, at one point or another, has wanted to have their own little corner of the Internet. Well, Square Space has made carving out that corner a very quick, simple task. Gone are the days when one had to fumble with archaic tools on Tripod, Freewebs, or heaven forbid, even Piczo. Square Space brings forward very powerful, yet simplistic, tools so that the average person can have their own website up and running within an evening.

There are four modes of editing on Square Space. The first is Content mode. Content mode allows people to control their blog posts and other written content. The posting tool (which I am currently typing in) is very clean and uncluttered. It has the usual formatting, bold, italic, underline, blockquoting, bullets, etc. You are able to add links, images, video, and code as usual. On the bottom of the window are the tag and category areas. Beside that are the Summary, References, and Options buttons.

The second mode is Structure mode. Structure mode allows you to drag and drop your various elements around. Say that you want your navigation on the right side instead of the left. You simply drag it there, and it will update as soon as you apply your changes. The same goes for creating new pages. Square Space has a preset list of page templates for you to choose from, along with an option for a blank HTML page. This is also where you add widgets. Apart from their default “Powered by Square Space” widget, you can add a Social Links widget, an RSS widget, along with many others.

Style mode allows you to, you’ve guessed it, edit your site’s style. There are several different templates, each with a number of themes included. If you don’t like being restricted to preset themes, there is a blank developer theme as well. This is also the mode where you get to edit your default fonts, sizes, etc. The last mode is Preview mode where you are able to preview your website as it will actually appear to the public without having to log out. All of the modes take place on the same page, and there is no loading of pages once the editor itself loads.

Check out the free fourteen day trial at SquareSpace.com

Desktop Customization

When anybody logs onto their computer, the first thing they see is their desktop.  Some people have their desktops cluttered with shortcuts, files, and folders, and others have a totally blank space.

I fall somewhere between the two, but I lean more toward the minimalistic style of desktop.  I dislike any icons on my desktop, I prefer stylized wallpapers, and I use a couple different programs to enhance my overall experience.

The first program is Rainmeter.  Rainmeter can be called many different things, but it would best fall into the System Monitoring category.  Rainmeter can monitor and display your CPU usage, RAM usage, HDD space usage among many other things.  The real power of Rainmeter comes from the widgets.  There are widgets ranging from Twitter, RSS feeds, Winamp controllers, and even GMail.

Another application I use is called Object Dock.  This program allows users to pin their favorite applications, folders, documents, shortcuts, etc. to a fully customizable dock.  The dock background and icons are both in the .PNG format, so you don’t have to worry about file extensions when creating your own skins.

Last but not least, the physical desktop!  This is my blogging space, and although it isn’t much, it does the trick.  Click on any of the photos to see the full sized image.

Entertainment Rating Systems

The following is a formal essay written by myself, Kodie Beckley.

The human species, like many other species on Earth, enjoy entertainment.  Unlike other species though, humans have evolved entertainment into a multi-billion dollar industry.  There are songs, movies, games, books, and television shows being produced every single day for the sole purpose of entertainment.  The only problem is regulating the content within our many different forms of entertainment.  There have been countless debates over this problem, but none have come to a conclusive, universal decision.

Right now there are separate ratings for all forms of media, which all vary from country to country.  Movies in Canada and the USA use the G, PG, PG-13, R, NC-17 rating system, while Belgium uses the A, B, C, D, X rating system.  The same is true for video games.  Canada and the USA use the ESRB (Electronic Software Ratings Board) to apply ratings to their games, which are EC, E, E10+, T, M, and AO, while most of Europe uses the PEGI ratings, which are 3, 7, 12, 16, and 18.  Although there are sturdy systems in place for both video games and movies, there is not yet a rating system for music, with a “Parental Advisory” sticker on some of the more explicit albums.

Without a universal rating system, it is very easy to not be able to find a parallel between two systems of rating.  Also, without having an international standard, it is a much more complicated process for a video game, movie, or television show to be released than it would be with one worldwide system.  This form of system was discussed by United States congress, saying, “U.S. regulators will consider a single ratings system that would warn parents of programming on television, video games, and wireless telephones that could be inappropriate for children…” (Shields, ¶ 1) The current divides between each system and the enforcement of these systems can lead to inappropriate viewing by persons not yet mature enough to comprehend what exactly it is they are viewing.  These decade old systems also do not have a way of applying a rating to web based content such as blogs, streaming video, and other forms of Internet entertainment.

A very practical solution to this problem would be to eliminate all old systems, and create one rating system for all forms of media used in every nation in the world, or at least a system endorsed and enforced by a vast international body like the UN.  This system would apply to films, television shows, web based content, video games, music, and to some extent, periodicals.  This system would have a five step numerical rating system with one being the lowest rating and five being the most regulated rating.  The hope would be that a simple universal system would make rating systems much easier for people who are unfamiliar to the many different systems used worldwide.

The film industry has long used the MPAA ratings in North America.  This rating system would transfer to the proposed system with minimal changes. A rating of “1” would equal “G”, “2” would equal “PG”, “3” would equal “PG-13”, “4” would equal “R”, and “5” would equal “NC-17”.  For video games, the ratings would translate as such: a “1” rating for games with little or no violence, with a moral lesson, and a general aim towards children.  A rating of “2” would be applied to video games with some violence, or fearful elements, and mild language.  Video games with harsh language,  violence, and some blood and gore would be given a rating of “3”, while video games that include realistic blood and gore, intense violence, sexual content, and drug usage would be given a rating of “4”.  Games that have extremely graphic violence or pornographic content would have a rating of “5” applied to them.

The music industry currently has no form of rating scale, which can lead to young children listening to very inappropriate music.  This would be solved by giving music meant for children a “1”, music with mild lyrics or situations a “2”, music with harsh, suggestive, and racy lyrics would be given a “3”, music with extreme lyrics, and situations would be given a “4”.  Any music, which contains a vast amount of racist, sexual, or harsh lyrics, and extreme situations, would be assigned a rating of “5”.

The confusion over rating systems would cease to exist if a simple, universal system is implemented.  This would also allow for content producers to not worry about changing their content for certain countries or regions, and allow them to focus instead on producing quality content.  “The media rating systems that we have today are by no means perfect. After all, they rely on the subjectivity of other people who bring their own beliefs and morals to the table,” (Jessen) and in order to change that we would have to implement this proposed system as international law, with ratings issued by random people, selected from different countries using this system.

Works Cited

Jessen, Mark. “What’s It Rated? Understanding the Media Rating Systems.” GoogoBits. 8 July 2005. 22 Oct. 2009 <http://www.googobits.com/articles/p0-1386-whats-it-rated-understanding-the-media-rating-systems.html>.

Shields, Todd. “U.S. Will Consider Single Rating System for TV, Phones, Games.” Bloomberg.com. 26 Aug. 2009. 22 Oct. 2009 <http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aP9DO.D35St0>.

Champions Online – First Impressions

Champions Online is a bold new entry in a field polluted with Orcs, Elves, and fantasy settings in general.  Developed by Cryptic Studios and published by Atari, Champions Online is a action oriented, superhero MMORPG.

You are a hero in a world of heroes.  The character creation is completely indepth with literally hundreds of costume choices and millions of total characters you can create.  Champions character creation system provides you with eighteen preset frameworks (which are to follow) and the ability to create your own custom framework.  Choosing the custom framework allows you to pick your first two starting powers, and your primary stat.

The preset frameworks in the game are:

• Archery
• Darkness
• Electricity
• Fire
• Force
• Gadgeteering
• Ice
• Martial Artist: Dual Blades
• Martial Artist: Fighting Claws
• Martial Artist: Single Blades
• Martial Artist: Unarmed
• Might
• Munitions
• Power Armor
• Sorcery
• Supernatural
• Telekinesis
• Telepathy

After choosing a framework, you are asked to pick the face of your character.  After selecting your Champion’s face, you are asked to choose a body type.  Both body and face have preset styles and an option for a custom face/body.  No Champion is complete without some tight spandex!  The fun part of the character creation is the costume creator.  The possibilities of the costumes are nearly endless, each piece of your costume has a menu for material, style, pattern, and details.  Every piece of the costume also has independent color selection so that if your base color scheme doesn’t look quite right on your helmet, you can edit the color until it is fit for a Champion.

Once you have created your Champion, you are dropped into Millennium City during an alien attack.  It is up to you to stop them!  While completing your first few missions, you are taught the basics of gameplay, and how to use your powers.

After completing the tutorial, you are given a choice to either go to Canada to deal with a ice demon crisis, or to the American Desert to fight off irradiates.  Both zones are fairly small in contrast to what people are used to seeing in the more popular MMOs, but allow for low level characters to get a firm grip on the controls while slowly making their climb to the level cap of 40.

If you would like to know more about Champions Online stay tuned.  In the meantime, you can check out my first three characters.

Kanata, the teleporting Canadian samurai!

Fedora, the grapple-hook swinging man with an itchy trigger finger!

Kenjishi, the flying gundam from Japan!

Air Mouse – iPod/iPhone App

When I think of hooking up a TV to a PC I think about two things:  my keyboard and my mouse.  How am I able to get a wireless keyboard and mouse for relatively cheap?  The answer is Air Mouse.

Air Mouse currently (read: at time of posting) costs $2.99 and is fully functional mouse/trackpad.  There are two modes in which Air Mouse can be used.  The first mode is an accelerometer based mouse, meaning that you hold your iPod/iPhone horizontal and move it around and click just like you would on a normal mouse.  The second mode is the trackpad mode.  Air Mouse has hotkeys for your web browser, your media player, and even function keys and hotkeys for launching applications, which can all be seen in the screenshots at the bottom of this post.

To use Air Mouse you need to download and install the Air Mouse Server from MobileAirMouse.com.  After you have the Server program installed, you can run Air Mouse and select what computer you are connecting to (all computers must be connected to the same network as your iPod/iPhone is) and take complete control of the computer.

Air Mouse is available in the iTunes App Store for $2.99 and can be used with Windows XP and up, and Mac OS X 10.4 and up.

Pegboard PC

I’m sure that almost everybody who reads this blog is familiar with pegboard.  It’s that stuff that Dad used to have in his garage, and he hung all his tools on it.  I say, why not build a pegboard PC?

A pegboard PC would eliminate the need for both a case, and any noisy fans you would need to cool it.  Also, worrying about airflow would be inane, as there would be unlimited flow due to every part being exposed directly to the open air.  This will reduce cost and may very well increase the overall performance of your PC.

The only things that would be essential to build a pegboard PC would be the pegboard and a liberal supply of tie straps.  After buying all the necessary components, start to build the PC on top of the pegboard (whilst laying horizontal on the floor).  After you have all the cables and components assembled neatly on top of the pegboard, start feeding tie straps through the pegboard and overtop of the components, fastening them on the underside of the pegboard.  Your computer will eventually be completely fastened to the pegboard, and then you can mount it on your wall.  You could either frame your PC, or just mount the pegboard straight onto the wall.

I hope to build this kind of computer very soon, over a short period of time.  If I do end up building it, I will be sure to keep you posted on it, and supply you with plenty of photos and specs.

Fast. Deadly. Accurate. The Peregrine.

Underneath a Christian bookstore, in a small cramped office sit half a dozen or so gamers all huddled over their monitors.  Spells fly, swords fall, bodies drop.  Mouses click, sweat drips, and the keyboards are silent.  By the end of the night, the number of keystrokes amounts to zero.  How come?  It’s a little device called The Peregrine.

“I remember working in my run-down little apartment, toiling in obscurity, making prototypes out of Nike golf gloves, trying to perfect this crazy idea. There were many days spent wondering if it would become what I envisioned, but as I look at what The PEREGRINE has become today I hope that gamers everywhere will experience the same magic I felt years ago when I made my first prototype, holding my breath as I tapped my fingers and watched things happen at the slightest touch. It was empowering, and I dreamed that someday people everywhere would be able to “Touch for the Win.” I hope you like it. ” – Brent Baier

The Peregrine is the brainchild of Brent Baier, founder and CEO of Iron Will Technologies.  It is the ultimate controller for gamers interested in RTS, MMO, or Sim gaming.  The Peregrine has a total of eighteen touch points and three activator pads, amounting to over thirty possible commands.  The thing that sets it apart from any other interface is that all the commands are mapped to your hand.

Think it’s crazy?  Well close your eyes.  Tap your fingers to your thumb, or the meet of your thumb, or the palm of your hand.  Now press your thumb against the knuckles of your fingers.  Did you hit every spot?  Of course!  People know their hands, even with their eyes closed.  The Peregrine takes all the complicated controls in video games, like DotA, HoN, ARMA II, and any other game that requires a multitude of buttons to be pushed, and maps them to your hand, to something that is literally a part of you.

With the Peregrine, all of your actions are triggered by pressing one of the eighteen touchpoints to one of the three activator pads, which can be seen above.  These touchpoints are fully customizable, with proprietary software included with the glove that makes remapping keys easy (trust me, I’ve used it).  The magnetic “pod” (the thing on the back of the glove) has onboard memory which can hold up to four custom profiles.  This is extremely useful if you have a profile for a favorite character, hero, etc. mapped out, and then want to go to a LAN party, or a friend’s house and play.  The pod also has adjustable lighting modes, including breathing and a “pew-pew” laser mode which makes the pod light up every time you activate a touchpoint.

The glove is made of a highly breathable, stretchable, comfortable material, and it fits well on your hand (it will be coming in three sizes).  In high sweat areas of the hand, a super breathable mesh is used to cut down on the amount of perspiration, as can be seen in the image above.  It’s magnetic pod allows for you to take off the pod, go grab something from the fridge, go to the bathroom, and even prevents from cord tearing when air punching.  The glove is completely spill proof (meaning you can spill your Bawls on it and keep playing), and is washable.  The touchpoints are made of microwound steel spring, which, by the way, is also military strength.  This glove will be able to withstand anything you throw at it.  Except maybe flaming shurikens.  Maybe.

If you would like to find out more about The Peregrine, I invite you to visit them at ThePeregrine.com

Check out these videos to see the glove in action:

PC World

Cyrus (Pro gamer) Playing with The Peregrine

Using The Peregrine in DotA (Evil Geniuses)

Wireless Router | Classics – iPod/iPhone App

I bought a wireless router today, and I am using it right now to write this post from my iPod. It’s an Asus router, and it serves my needs well. I have already used it to have one computer running a game while the other has a strategy guide open, to sync comics between computers, sync comics onto my iPod, and network my iTunes libraries.

I have included screenshots from an app called Classics. This app allows you to read many different titles, with new ones added in future updates. This is the best eReader app I have seen for the iPod/iPhone platform since it is aesthetically pleasing (quality illustrations, covers, and backgrounds, also there is a page turn effect), and has very useful features such as reorganizable books, bookmarks in the shelf view to show you what titles are in progress, and the title bar the the top, while reading, has a slight overlay color to it which acts as a progress bar. Thought you guys/gals should know about it, because I am in love with it.

The included titles are Through the Looking-Glass, The Odyssey, The Art of War, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, The Illiad, The Count of Monte Cristo, Frankenstein, Dracula, Treasure Island, Pride & Prejudice, A Christmas Carol, Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland, Gulliver’s Travels, The Time Machine, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Call of the Wild, Flatland, 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea, Robinson Crusor, The Jungle Book, The Metamorphosis, Paradise Lost, and Hound of the Baskervilles.

Classics is available in the iTunes App Store for $2.99 and has a library of 23 books at the time of writing.  For more informations and a demo video of Classics, go to ClassicsApp.com