I just recently purchased a brand new Asus Eee PC from NCIX. It is a sub-notebook which means it is a fully functional notebook but it is smaller and lighter. All sorts of people these days are buying notebooks and its really becoming a common sight around the University. Well, coming up soo, everyone carrying around an Asus Eee. I think it is a really great idea for school, although the display is only 7 inches, it is more than adequate for typing notes and browsing some webpages wirelessly.  I think a lot of notebooks these days are becoming more and more expensive as they are actually more of desktop replacements and thats note really what I’m looking for in class. Out of the box it comes packaged with Linux and that should provide the functionality for most people but of course you can install Windows if you desire. If you see me around school make sure to ask to see it since it really is something that should be seen. You can check out a comparision picture of an Asus Eee beside a Dell XPS M1330. If you would like to read some more, a great website for news and a cool wiki is the EeeUser webpage.
2007 Blog Year-in-Review
I thought I would look over all the stats of 2007 and present the facts for the last year. So here they are in all their statistical glory!
Unique Visitors: 1,006
Page Views: 2,397
Top Traffic Source: Google (489 visitors)
Top Keyword: Castlevania (103 visits)
Blog Entries: 80
Top Browser: Internet Explorer (55.78%)
Xbox LIVE Sub-Par Holiday Performance
Major Nelson posted a very interesting post on his site just recently. It can be summed up that Microsoft acknowledges that the Xbox LIVE service has been below satisfactory over the holidays and they are attempting to make it up to customers by offering a free Xbox Live Arcade download. I haven’t really had a problem with the service so this free offering seems very reasonable and is going to be well received. I wonder if they are going to limit it or how this whole offering will be given out. It says that details will be following in the next couple of weeks so I have some time to see which new Arcade games I want to try out.
Iron Chef America the Video Game
There have been recent rumours surrounding a possible Iron Chef America video game on Nintendo Wii and DS. I am a really big fan of the Iron Chef series so this game really interests me. The Wii and DS already have a creative and fun cooking game with Cooking Mama
1421: The Year China Discovered America
Gavin Menzies claims that a massive Chinese fleet of huge junks and support ships made a two-year circumnavigation of the globe, with extensive exploration of the Americas, nearly a century before Magellan and Columbus. I think its good to look at situations like this. A lot of people in the world are quick to dismiss this claim that the Chinese came before Columbus but its always good to think what if.
Microsoft Launches New Web Site for Beginner Developers
The Beginner Developer Learning Center (BDLC) is a free, one-stop shop for learning Windows and Web programing fundamentals. It includes a learning path which starts with the absolute basics like how a Web browser works and builds on that with videos, tutorials, and downloadable sample projects using CSS, JavaScript, HTML, ASP.NET, VB, and C#. I know that I might have more than enough skills and knowledge than would be required for the simple tasks, but I feel I really need to brush up on my programming skills. I will graduate with a Computer Science degree soon enough and having some coding practice will surely help me out. Coming up in my January semester, I will hopefully get to learn some programming hints for open source projects which should be a very interesting class.
Xbox Live Fall 2007 Update
Microsoft is set to debut its Fall 2007 update for the Xbox 360 tomorrow, December 4th. This will be a really big update and it shows that Microsoft is listening to its users. The big feature that I’m looking forward to getting is the DIVX and Xvid support. This will be a really big improvement over the existing WMV support. A lot of the other features are forgettable as they are just improvements made to existing features I don’t use. Such as more parental control. Another big thing coming out is the Xbox Originals where you can download select Xbox games to be played off the hard drive. This could be cool depending on how many games they offer and if its possible to delete and redownload these games for free as my hard drive would be full pretty quick. Another feature is the Xbox Live Arcade Hits where they are offering older Arcade titles at discounted prices. Right now I don’t see anything that I don’t already have or anything I want but that doesn’t mean they won’t add something new to the list. I am looking forward to that one in the future for sure. Lastly, a feature that I don’t really think is that important but they are hyping, the Friends of Friends feature. I don’t really know why I need to look at the friends of my friends or why I would want to be adding these people. Oh well, some may find this feature useful.
U of R Strike Over
All striking workers are back at work today as CUPE 1975 reached a tentative agreement with the Universities. Not all services have been returned to normal but it seems as though many services are returning to being operational. This comes just in time as many students are finishing their classes and beginning their final exams. The agreement was reached sometime Saturday and further issues are going to be sent to binding arbitration soon. It seems as though final exams will go ahead as normal and next semester won’t be canceled.
7 foods you may think are healthy, but aren’t
Pick a fruit, any fruit, and you know it’s good for you. It’s the same with vegetables and many whole grain foods. Everyone should put more fruits and vegetables into their diets. However, some foods have gotten the healthy nod, when they’re actually laden with fat, sugar or both. The link goes through 7 different foods that many people think of as healthy and explains why they aren’t and gives an example of what you can eat as a healthy alternative. The list includes, Granola Bars, Tea Drinks, Pretzels, Muffins, Rice Cakes, Fruit Flavored Snacks, and Frozen Yogurts. I thought it was interesting to see how almost any “healthy” fruit can be picked apart and the bad points brought forward.
Unlimited wireless data for $10/month with Virgin Mobile
Virgin Mobile Canada has recently added a new Tidal Wave plan to their lineup. With this new plan you can get *unlimited data* for $10/mo, when you use their new Samsung m510 EV-DO phone ($179 w/ no contract). After seeing this I have become really interested in this phone/plan. I don’t think I would really need to use the internet that often on the go but for $10 I can get unlimited amounts of it. As well, Virgin Mobile offers streaming television for $10 more on top of the Tidal Wave plan. This is something that could be neat to have but i doubt i would actually use it. So if I do buy a new phone soon I will definitely be looking at the Samsung m510 so I can get in on this unlimited data. It is about time we got some decent data plans in Canada.