Reckless Philosophers
The best blog you've never heard of.....
BLOG2.RECKLESSPHILOSOPHERS.COM
Zero Calvin Now Available on Kindle!
Good news everyone! My book, Zero Calvin, is now available in the Kindle Marketplace so those of you who are keen to save a tree, this is your chance. And the best part is: it's cheap - just $2.99! So now you can save some greenbacks as well.The Kindle is a great e-reader, but even if you don't have one, there are apps for the iPad, iPhone, iPod touch, PC, Mac, Blackberry, and Android-based devices.
Check it out here! << MORE >>
Reckless Philosophers Donate to Earthquake and Tsunami Relief
When we Westerners think of Japan, vague visions of quality car building, over-worked salary men, Godzilla, crazy game shows, and strange cartoons often come to mind. But Japan and its people are much more than that. They are caring, kind, organized, and work hard to help each other out in times of need.
Dissident and I have had the pleasure of visiting Tokyo twice so far and we look forward to visiting again. We found the bulk of the people we met to be infinitely patient with us two chuckle-heads from America. On the whole, they are truly lovely people and kind of adorable too.
In fact, many Japanese idolize and romanticize America and Europe, and Japan used them as role models during its time of industrialization. However undeservedly, we are sort of role models to them.
Right now, our cute little friends in Japan are experiencing some really bad times. As most of you know, the biggest quake to ever hit Japan happened yesterday off of their North-East shore. The Earthquake caused severe damage to the North-East region, and the resulting Tsunami pummeled the entire coast. The quakes caused several nuclear power plants into emergency shutdown, and two of them have since had cooling problems as a result (one of which as of the morning of March 12th is still in danger of meltdown.)
Fortunately, Japan is a very organized and prepared nation and they are certainly no strangers to earthquakes. Tokyo survived just fine thanks to strict building codes, prepared citizens, and from luckily being a ways away from the epicenter of the quake.
Further north the situation is different. So far over 1700 are missing or dead and the number just keeps going up. Whole cities were washed away by the resulting tsunami. They are in really bad shape and I'm sure they could use a hand.
The Reckless Philosophers has donated $50 to the American Red Cross to forward to their Japanese counter-parts to supply food, water, blood, and medical supplies to the area. It would mean a lot to us, and to our Japanese friends if you donated as well. Even the $10 minimum donation would be much appreciated. Here is the link to donate:
American Red Cross
Thanks again for your help!
<< MORE >>
Dissident and I have had the pleasure of visiting Tokyo twice so far and we look forward to visiting again. We found the bulk of the people we met to be infinitely patient with us two chuckle-heads from America. On the whole, they are truly lovely people and kind of adorable too.
In fact, many Japanese idolize and romanticize America and Europe, and Japan used them as role models during its time of industrialization. However undeservedly, we are sort of role models to them.
Right now, our cute little friends in Japan are experiencing some really bad times. As most of you know, the biggest quake to ever hit Japan happened yesterday off of their North-East shore. The Earthquake caused severe damage to the North-East region, and the resulting Tsunami pummeled the entire coast. The quakes caused several nuclear power plants into emergency shutdown, and two of them have since had cooling problems as a result (one of which as of the morning of March 12th is still in danger of meltdown.)
Fortunately, Japan is a very organized and prepared nation and they are certainly no strangers to earthquakes. Tokyo survived just fine thanks to strict building codes, prepared citizens, and from luckily being a ways away from the epicenter of the quake.
Further north the situation is different. So far over 1700 are missing or dead and the number just keeps going up. Whole cities were washed away by the resulting tsunami. They are in really bad shape and I'm sure they could use a hand.
The Reckless Philosophers has donated $50 to the American Red Cross to forward to their Japanese counter-parts to supply food, water, blood, and medical supplies to the area. It would mean a lot to us, and to our Japanese friends if you donated as well. Even the $10 minimum donation would be much appreciated. Here is the link to donate:
American Red Cross
Thanks again for your help!
<< MORE >>
My Favorite Apps- Wordfeud
I love words and clever writing. I'm not however a huge fan of board games with only one notable exception. I've always been a fan of the board game scrabble.
That's not to say I'm any good at it per se but I do enjoy it. However living alone has its drawbacks in that I have no one to play with.
<< MORE >>
DLNA vs Airplay.
Apple has recently come out with an extension to aitunes called airplay. Airtunes was an interesting but limited system of beaming music around the house.It utilized itunes and your ipod/iphone to "beam" music to things like the apple tv, airport hotspots, and your pc. Airplay expands on this with the addition of video and photos. Sounds hot and new and wow wish I had that functionality doesn't it?
Chances are you do and don't even know it. Since I am not an apple user at all, I don't know all the deep intricasies of either airtunes or airplay but I know this. Its primarily limited your apple eosystem and currently only apple gear. How do you have this miraculous technology already? Simple.
Its called DLNA. And its been around since 2003.
If you have a networked media player or even a blueray player chances are its dlna compliant. TV's that have an ethernet port are usually DLNA compliant. Your android phone can become dlan compliant with an app or two.
DLNA is more complex and more robust than airplay. Where airplay has servers and players DLNA has renderers, controllers and servers.
"Whoa! Three parts?? That sounds complicated!"
Settle down. Its really kinda simple.
Servers store your media. A server can be as simple as your netwok attatched hard drive or a piece of server software on your pc like twonky, tversity, or playon. Servers are where your media is stored.
A controller can be your pc, or pda or cell phone. A controller controls what plays the media.
A renderer is a device like your tv, xbox 360, playstation 3, netwoked media player like a WD TV Live, or Netgear EVA2000. Renderers play the media.
See simple.
Here's the neat thing about DLNA. Each part can be multiple parts of the system. A pc can be both server and controller and renderer. Your android phone can be a server and a controller even a renderer.
Lets run through a few scenarios.
Scenario 1.
Friendly Photog.
Your friend has a smartphone and wants to show you his photos on your tv which has a wdtv live player attached. Now you might think you will have to connect the phone to your pc and move then to a usb stick and then plug it into the wdtv. Now technically you can do that but its going the really long way around.
The DLNA way. Install twonky media server on his phone. Install andromote if its an android phone. Connect to the wifi network and Run andromote. Select the local twonky server as the source and the the WDTv as the renderer. select your photos and hit play.
If you have a smartphone too you can do this silly nifty thing. Run andromote on your phone, select his phone as a server and the WDTV as the renderer. You will be streaming his photos to your phone and then to the tv.
Scenario 2.
You have network attached hard drive and want to watch them on your tv. Now in this case you can simply plug the HD directly into your WDTV and browse the files via usb.
The DLNA way #1
Your network attatched HD is also DLNA server. You can simply browse the server with the wdtv live remote and play the film. Or browse it with your DLNA TV and bammo its done.
The DLNA way #2 with style.
You can use your phone,ipod or pda as a controller. Connect to the server and set the rendered to the WDTV or DLNA TV. Now your phone acts as a really spiffy remote with a better interface.
Scenario 3.
You've downloaded a really nifty video to your laptop and want to watch it on your TV. The standard solution would be plug your laptop into your tv and play it that way. But thats cumbersome and requires you to be next to your
My Favorite Apps - SoundHound and Mp3 Music Searcher
Listening to music on a cellphone used to be chore. Connect the cable, find your music and transfer each file manually. Then with the advent of sync software it became easier. Work with your library and sync at your convenience or stick your memory card into your laptop and move the files that way.
These methods were all well and good for your existing collection but you were kinda hosed when it came to getting music on the go. Amazon mp3 app to the rescue. Works great and allows you to buy tracks one at a time and download via 3g network. And the songs only cost a buck. Great!
<< MORE >>
The Rise of Phones and the Inevitable Rise of Tablets.
Phone Evolution through my experience.
Cellphones have undergone a radical evolution in my life. I had an old Motorola Microtac wedge shaped phone as my first phone. I was amazed that this thing could connect me to anyone and sat on my hip. I progressed through a few other Motorola's and even had pagers before becoming a Nokia fan.
I had a Nokia 5190 first then a 6185. These phones were notable for being small, good performing, and had interchangeable face plates ...
My favorite Apps. TuneIn Radio
I've missed a few things from home in NJ since I've been here in Houston. I'm adapting to texas but somethings just don't compare. I haven't taken the time to bother listening to the radio here since I don't currently have a antenna attached to my receiver but I do have a few old favorites from back in good old Monmouth/Ocean county NJ. Stations like the Rat, B98.5, G106.3, 88.9 to name a few. I figured I'd lost it forever unless visiting.
I was wrong.
<< MORE >>
B's Easy Peasy Japanese Pronunciation Guide
Foreign words can often be intimidating since we English speakers have no frame of reference when it comes to pronunciation. This guide is intended to alleviate the intimidation when it comes to Japanese words. After reading this guide, you will no longer feel self-conscience when ordering at a Japanese restaurant, pronouncing a Japanese person's name, or talking about your favorite anime.
Japanese pronunciations are actually a lot easier to deal with than English ones. Japanese sounds are far fewer and more pure than in English. English has some 8000+ sounds, in part because of all the glides from one sound to another. Japanese, on the other hand is much more strict about its language. The total number of discrete sounds in Japanese is.....110. Yep, just 110. Have you ever heard a Japanese song that had some English sprinkled in it and noticed that the Japanese part sounded nice but the English part sounded like it was from a deaf person? Well, now you know why. That's the sound of English getting reduced to 110 discrete sounds. This is both good and bad news for us. The good news is it's a tiny, tiny number of sounds to get right. The bad news is that your natural language instincts are going to want to throw in all sorts of extra sounds that just don't belong... << MORE >>
Japanese pronunciations are actually a lot easier to deal with than English ones. Japanese sounds are far fewer and more pure than in English. English has some 8000+ sounds, in part because of all the glides from one sound to another. Japanese, on the other hand is much more strict about its language. The total number of discrete sounds in Japanese is.....110. Yep, just 110. Have you ever heard a Japanese song that had some English sprinkled in it and noticed that the Japanese part sounded nice but the English part sounded like it was from a deaf person? Well, now you know why. That's the sound of English getting reduced to 110 discrete sounds. This is both good and bad news for us. The good news is it's a tiny, tiny number of sounds to get right. The bad news is that your natural language instincts are going to want to throw in all sorts of extra sounds that just don't belong... << MORE >>
My favorite apps. Chrome to phone.
Too often I find myself reading a site and thinking it would be great to be able to read on my phone or find myself reading something online and having to run out the door. Since a lot of my travel lately is by bus I find myself thinking as I run out the door I'll have to check that site on the bus but inevitably I don't remember by the time I'm on the bus or simply can't remember the address. Either way the potential to read that site has fallen to zero.
Movie Mini reviews - Buried, Dead Snow, Let the Right One In, Bicentennial Man, Run Bitch Run
Lately i have seen a bunch of interesting movies and though all are interesting I don't think I can bear to give them all good long reviews.Instead I'll do a bunch of mini reviews. This may be a weekly feature as long as I see interesting things. If I dont post one each week that simply shows the quality of what I've been watching.
<< MORE >>
