Personal

3 Hours

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So my personal life is eroding my sleep again. I hit the hay ’round 3am and well… I couldn’t sleep around 6am. Something very serious and important to me happened which has almost drained the life force out of me. I don’t think I am in the healthiest state of mind to be humanly functioning. I try not to share too much of my personal matters save for my health and training here, as I don’t think people would care much…

Some of you who read regularly, you may already know what’s going on…

For those who wish to help, drop me a line and maybe I can muster the strength to talk.

All I can say is that I am putting up a plea of help here. Everything is turning into a blur with my personal life and I just can’t put a hand on it. I could use encouraging words, advice, or even just a kind and listening ear right now. Be it a phone call, text message, e-mail, instant message… I could just use something to try to help me power through my day today.

I try not to ask for so much from my friends, because I fear that I am a bother… For once, I could really use some help, strength, and support. I just don’t think that I can rationally function at all currently and I am willing to take whatever help anyone is willing to provide.

Site News, Technology

Idea: Bluetooth Headset Shoot-Out AND A Contest!

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So I am debating on shooting out 2 of the most popular noise canceling headsets on the market that are aimed at fashion and function aficionados. I have one headset, I just need to pick up the other. For this review, I do need someone who’s willing to volunteer some time to take images of the headset and it being worn. Optionally, a “model” for the headset would be best as I don’t think it’d be attractive to be taking snaps of me. If you would like to volunteer your efforts, let me know, I will compensate you for your time, be you a photographer or a “model”.

If you’re in the Dallas, Texas area and do not mind volunteering your efforts for possibly food and drink for either being a model or a photographer for my review… Drop me a line here at info@zeroxr.com and let me know!

There’s more to this all though…

I will keep one of the headsets from the shoot-out and as for the other one… I will be GIVING IT AWAY! Yes, that’s right..! I will be giving one of these high end Bluetooth headsets after the review. The offer is for both people local to Dallas and outside of Dallas. However if you are not local to Dallas, we’ll have to talk about shipping arrangements. I have not decided what the contest will be about, but I will work on drafting up the details tonight and hopefully have it posted up by the time the review goes live. If you’d like to help me with rules and errata, drop me a line on my messengers, IRC, or at my info@zeroxr.com mailbox.

Personal, Rant, Technology

CompUSA Somehow Got a Resurrection and They are Cool, Somewhat.

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So… boredom struck me and ever since I have been addicted to Voice Command on my HTC Kaiser, I have found it somewhat interesting to have it read out my text messages while driving. Just my Bluetooth headset was good, but it didn’t quite match up to my Kaiser. I decided to check out the “NEW” CompUSA, as it seemed like they had been given new life by a managing corporation…

On walking in… I was surprised they were trying to come off more like a Best Buy, albeit smaller and more controlled. I was more interested in scoping out the Bluetooth headsets and I was a bit shocked to see unlocked GSM phones for sale. Brand new phones, completely unlocked, and unbranded. No pushy sales reps trying to cram a contract down your throat either.

It was interesting seeing the shop in a new light as their prices are far more reasonable than before. It was bad when they tried to be the guys at the top and fall, but personally, if they can keep to the new principles… they may just succeed.

Fitness, Personal

Sleep is for the Strong Seeking Strength

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With depriving my sleep, my gains from last week barely made any impact on my gains. The worst part of depriving my sleep was it effectively messed up everything about my progress. My mind was nowhere near as fresh, my frustration tolerances were much lower, and the biggest impacting factor… I was not eating properly to fuel muscle tissue repair. Over this past weekend I tried my best to kick myself back into proper sleep and eating, but it wouldn’t be until today that I would finally get enough sleep to get my body back into track.

With finally giving my body the nourishing sleep it deserves, I feel the tissue healing and much less soreness. I am glad to have gotten more sleep today rather than hit the gym and half-ass my progress or produce additional soreness. I just need to get back into high gear and then I’ll be seeing my gains again.

Games, Personal, Site News, Technology

What’s to Come and Fun Times with GPS

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I have been spending some of my downtime lately with my coffee break game of choice: Final Fantasy VII – Crisis Core and sadly… I am already close to beating it, but here’s the caveat. I got to the end game part within 13 hours with Zack at L30. The combat phases are getting hard, but it has forced me to take up some of the “Missions” from the internal menu to seek leveling up. My equipment has been sparse but then again, I have been relying on in-game story drops rather than the premium mission drops. When I finish Crisis Core (probably soon) expect me to write it up. All I can say about Crisis Core is… If you haven’t played Final Fantasy VII on Playstation or PC AND watched Advent Children, Crisis Core may not have as big an impact on you. It brings one of the greatest Final Fantasy stories to a complete close. Luckily, Dirge of Cerberus for PS2 is not required “material” to play to understand Crisis Core.

Yesterday, I finally got to try out my GPS on the road but without a car mount, it was more being navigated by audio. When I got a chance to glance at my GPS, it was rather accurate. My speed was exact to my speedometer and all the road information was rather detailed. I don’t know why I didn’t get on the GPS deal sooner, ’cause it’s rather useful in pinch situations. Just I have one new problem to solve… Getting a car windshield mount, external GPS antenna, and car charger to enhance my use and benefit of GPS. Guess I’ll be saving my pennies for all that after my 8GB microSD card. 😉

Personal

A Year Older, A Year Somewhat Out of Debt

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So here I am sitting at the office of ZeroXR 13mg just pondering and reflecting on what happened all in the past year. It has been quite a year of battle, blood, and suffering to attain somewhat of a bitter-sweet victory. I am somewhat out of debt with debt collectors but under the charity of my family which they have now turned into my loan officers. I have been fortunate for their blessing and I have been able to curb my spending much better to try expediting payment back to them.

Developmentally, things are getting better. I basically took another semester at The School of Hard Knocks and I have been learning to break more of my nativity away in hopes of understanding life better. I am much more able now than I was years ago, which has saved my sorry tail from being kicked around. I have been trying to break my cynicism into a more manageable state, as cynicism has cost me a number of things. I have also learned to embrace optimism because I know I can break through.

I know that this year is important and I need to embrace it to really merit the benefits of it. I will push forward and hopefully I can break serious ground with regard to my dreams.

Happy birthday to me… I hope this year will bring much more joy than 2007 had.

Reviews, Technology

Aviary Online (Beta) – Phoenix Tool Thoughts

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A while ago Adobe launched Photoshop Express as an online Flash based tool for artists and photographers to try out so that they can edit images online. It poses an interesting role as I remember seeing an article pop up on Slashdot saying that the next version of Photoshop CS4 will not be universal, it will only be made for Windows 64-bit systems. Obviously, this has the remaining community of 32-bit Windows users and even the majority of the artistically inclined Mac users pretty pissed off. A Flash based version of Photoshop would be quite a lucrative market as it makes the platform universal. There’s no need to have people translate the Windows coding to be compatible for Mac or Linux, just use a web browser and you’re in. So far, Adobe has made Photoshop Express a free and open beta… but don’t be surprised if they decide to throw around the idea of a subscription fee once it goes “Live” and final.

However, a challenger appears. Worth1000 made a little start-up called Aviary. The idea is a set-up of online productivity suites that allow you the ability to do things from your web browser and not be constrained to locally having a copy of the program on your computer. Why? Because it allows collaboration with your peers. True, you can collaborate with (for example) Adobe Creative Suite CS3… but there’s a caveat to that. If everyone is to get a legitimate copy… well, that’s a cool $2,000 (price from Amazon.com) that’s gotta be shelled out by everyone. But apply that principle for programs like Microsoft Office 2007 et al… That’s a ton of cash. Unfortunately, most folks choose the illegal way via torrents which the coders and everyone involved don’t get a dime, but there’s always that counter argument of “They get enough money from the corporate buyers, why should we care?” I won’t get into that… But when you consider Aviary being a collaboration tool that could be available as free or with a nominally small subscription fee, it’s a pretty brilliant idea.

I used to use Photoshop CS2 or Paint Shop Pro, so I figured Aviary’s Phoenix tool would be somewhat close. On loading it, you’re greeted with a rather friendly splash screen asking if you’re making a new file or if you want to upload and edit an image of your own. The tool set is sparse, but it is still beta, so I do understand. The speed is pretty quick, there aren’t many hick-ups when I was editing the screenshots from my HTC Kaiser, but I haven’t had a chance to really play with images about 1024 x 768 to really see. My assumption is that speeds will be mainly affected by your internet connection.

Personally, I was rather impressed with Phoenix as even though it is Flash based, it never crashed my browser in Ubuntu Linux. I typically have issues of running Flash animations and browsing as they cause my browser to crash, but fortunately, that wasn’t the case with Phoenix. The only thing I do see is a disadvantage is that if you’re without the internet or cursed with a slow connection, working with Phoenix could be a hellish nightmare. I will play with it more and see how it is, but I am looking forward to the application’s development!

Reviews, Technology

The AT&T Tilt… No, HTC Kaiser 8925 done up by ZeroXR

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(Correction: The 8900 designation was for the AT&T Tilt that lacked the 3.1 Megapixel camera)

So I finally sold my P990i off to get a device that is a little more future proof via firmware updates and also compatible with digital pharmacology books for my schooling needs. Got a slick deal on a used AT&T Tilt with a 2GB microSD card, however it had one slight issue… the phone was locked down. Not really too much issue with that, cause I had plans to break the phone open myself.

Sure, it’s not a “true” HTC TyTN II with the 3G video conferencing cam, but not a big issue for me. My first task was to repeat the same steps involved in liberating my assistant manager’s phone. I would have to get JumpSPL do a few flashes and then get the unlocking code. After that was when the real fun of choosing a hacked firmware began. I wanted to play with some of the spiffy things like the HTC Cube, TouchFLO and a few other things so I gravitated toward the last Windows Mobile 6 release of Alex’s HTC Cube rom pack. That would only be the beginning… I’d get the free student edition of Epocrates for medical and drug reference information on there just in case I ever need technical data when I am in the office or out of the office.

Once I got most of the phone configured, I had to get to playing with some of the fun stuff like TouchFLO and the HTC Cube as ’cause in America those features are only available in the Sprint HTC Touch, but not on any of the other HTC Windows Mobile phones in America. It’s a rather trick looking but it does have some “productivity” to it. Personally I like it as I can quickly access functions quickly without the need to flip through menus and prompts just to do something as easy as say… turn on my wi-fi or jump to my photo albums.

My seller also had included the full version of Tomtom Navigator 6 with my phone, so I would get the pleasure of having GPS but however… The software came on an SD card, so I would have to finagle with it to copy to my microSD card. After I get on my microSD, it would be a matter of letting my Kaiser to sync up with the GPS satellites. Inside my home, I was able to get a lock on 3-5 satellites with the internal antenna… Pretty good, I would think. However, on going outside and loading it up for use in my car, I was able get a lock on 7-9 satellites. The navigation and narration are clear visually and audible.

It’s no wonder a bunch of the American TV news stations were raving about this phone last year when it dropped as a truly great phone. I remember being a previous HTC Wizard owner (from my T-Mobile MDA) that the Windows Mobile Phones were ill equipped with enough RAM for their functionality and lacked the processing power. The HTC Kaiser/TyTN II/AT&T Tilt seems to have fixed both issues in one shot. The phone doesn’t lag and the best part is it just zips along.

I would like to thank the folks over at XDA Developers for scouring and experimenting to give users the ability to unlocked their restricted devices for use on other networks. For those who want to unlock their AT&T Tilt devices and seriously do them up just like mine… Check out the XDA Developer’s HTC Kaiser Wiki here! Enclosed below are pictures of my phone and screens. The screen shots are edited by Aviary’s Phoenix online based photo-editor, which I’ll be reviewing pretty soon. Enjoy the visual porn, I am going to enjoy the rest of my weekend with a gut buster set, some almonds, whey protein and some straight razor shaving. Expect the obligatory birthday post tomorrow.






















































Fitness, Personal, Site News, Technology

Death Phone Acquired – Write-up will commence soon!

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I bid farewell to my P990i for an AT&T Tilt and it is well worth it! It was however a suicidal mistake to be up since 4am doing all the hacks and tweaks to get it all running.

I have been coping with some personal problems, so I know I haven’t been documenting my workout’s as of late, but most of them have been gut-buster sets on intermittent days. I’ll probably do a super set tonight before my super write-up.

Site News

Update on spoiler function

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I do have my RSS feed streaming into Facebook as a means of propping my site for more viewers… so apparently it does show a “preview” in the mini-newsfeed. I am also assuming that on reading my post via my mini-feed that it will reveal everything. I highly endorse those who wish to read my game reviews to read them via ZeroXR.com to avoid reading about my thoughts on plot, puzzles, etc.

Life, Games, Logic, and Tech