Happy Thanksgiving!

Whatever that means to you in whatever part of the world you may live in.

Today after the main meal, I'll be focusing on losing extra weight that beer has helped me put on. I plan to be in full tennis match shape by the time the spring rolls around. Its a bit agressive but necessary.

My incredibly brilliant weight loss plan?

Take in less calories than I expend. Simple. Works.

Exercise will also be a part of the regiment.

In my twenties and into my thirties I was capable of doing a thousand push-ups and a thousand sit-ups. There is no reason to believe that I cannot reach that goal in a reasonable amount of time.

Here's to a losing winter. 🙂

New Zagg Keyboard for the iPad

ZaggKeys ProPlus

 

Just got the new ZaggKeys Pro Plus keyboard/case for my iPad 3rd generation today.

The first test of any new keyboard is for me to write a new blog post about it.

This is a new type of case. The iPad is held in place when closed by magnets and their is no real “case” per se. The iPad and the keyboard together are the case. What this means is that I'll have to buy a Gelaskin for the iPad and possibly something for the back of the keyboard piece.

The backlit keys are a plus.

Typing feels really good as well. I'm liking it.

 

Mike’s List of Absolutes

Your hair and your nails are comprised of your DEAD cells. Therefore, neither one can be considered “Healthy” by any measure.

Birthdays are a way to measure LIFE and not DEATH. That being said, you do not have birthdays after you die. You may have an anniversary of your death but you cease having birthdays upon death.

That's all I have so far. This list may change at any point.

That is all.

Bad Piggies – A Review

Bad Piggies by Rovio

 

Rovio has just introduced Bad Piggies into the wild. This game has been expected for some time even though we really didn't know what kind of Angry Birds spin there would be on it.

As it turns out, there is very little resemblance to the original block buster iOS game.

What made Angry Birds so popular has been completely abandoned by Rovio in this new game. AB was a joy to play because you just fling birds at pigs. Pretty simple. A great diversion and time killer that didn't require any more thinking than “how far do I pull back on the slingshot?”

Very similar to “Amazing Alex” (another Rovio game), Bad Piggies requires that you build things and well…think. I'm sure that a few folks will enjoy that type of thing. I don't.

I have a few games on my iPad but the ones I tend to like the most are not the ones where a tremendous amount of thinking is involved. Little Generals is a great game. You simply blow stuff up. Yatzee is very simple. The iPad game does most of the thinking for you.

Sounds like Mike doesn't like thinking…doesn't it?

Well, I write stories, programs, movies, etc. When I turn to my iPad for a quick diversion, I like simple.

Bad Piggies is not simple.

A complete turn from Angry Birds and a complete miss for Rovio as far as I'm concerned.

(Update: 10.3.2012 – Additional thoughts. What I think this game should be is a building of structures that end with the birds being thrown against them. How many pigs you have left should determine how well you do. )

Out of Touch

For anyone who has tried to reach me either by phone or email, sorry.

I am ridiculously busy right now. As you can see, I'm not even posting very much on my own website.

That will change.

Boy, do I got sh*t to write about!

Laterz.

Mountain Lion Usability Update

 

Hot off the presses!

It's still not usable. At least, not on my mid-2011 iMac 27″ Quad Core 3.4 GHz i7 with 16 Gigs of RAM, a 240 Gig SSD, among other things.

When I play video, after 5, 10, or longer the video slows down and I lose audio altogether. This seems to happen more frequently in fullscreen mode.

I thought maybe if I downloaded the 10.8.1 full version that it might solve the problem. It did not.

Back to the safety of Lion (10.7.4) for now.

Update (9/25/12) – Mountain Lion Update 10.8.2 has been released. It still does not address the serious audio/video problem. According to folks in the Apple forums, Apple seems to be ignoring the issue. My guess is that they know about it and may not know how to fix it. Since this problem is among certain Mac models I would guess that its a driver issue. Perhaps, if we start replacing audio/video drivers with those from Lion it would fix the problem? Oh well, crossing fingers again.