Nintendo DS Lite Mini

I picked up a DS Lite today at Target as part of their "early release". Here are some first impressions. So a little background first: I've been trying to figure out how to integrate gaming in to my ever busy schedule. Historically I've been a big PC gamer, but I've found that a lot of PC games tend to lend themselves to long gaming sessions. Just the amount of time it takes to start up my gaming pc, load a game, and actually get to playing (and having fun) is ridiculous. So I've been thinking about going back to console gaming (the last console I bought was the PS1), but I want to wait for either the Wii or the PS3. In the meantime I decided to try the DS. I'm hoping that the games will be easy to pickup when I have a few minutes, and I'm also hoping that they'll be new and interesting. Size: Small when it's closed. Easy to carry around. Not small enough to carry around in my pocket (anything bigger than an ipod is too bulky for me to pocket). Finish/Case: The outside finish definately reminds me of Apple, nice and shiney but quickly gets smuggy. The plastic on the inside (around the controlls and screens) is different than the outside, it's a flat white that feels cheap in comparison to the outside finish. Screens: Nice and bright. The bottom screen doesn't look too much worse than the top dispite the fact that it's a touch screen. You can't change the screen brightness without going back to the DS main menu, so you can't change the brightness mid-game. The touch screen seems accurate and fast to respond. Sound: Great! The dual speakers offer much better sound than my GB Advance SP. Controls: They feel a little bit cramped. I only noticed it when playing Mario Kart where you have to hold down a single button for long periods of time. Not any worse than other handhelds I've played (haven't tried the PSP though). Definately not as comfortable as your standard console controller. Battery Life: Not sure yet... still going after a few hours of playing. So far I think I give it an 8.5-9 out of 10. The only things I don't like so far is the cheapish feeling plastic on the inside, the crappy screen brightness control, and the slightly cramped feeling controls when playing certain games. I'm curious to see how the bottom screen holds up. I've seen some regular DS's that have touch screens that look like scratching posts. So far I'm really liking it though.

retarded trademark of the day

And the winner is O'Reilly! Seriously, wtf m8?

One sweet ride

corvette concept
Originally uploaded by boostism.

Stopped by the Scottsdale Pavillions a couple weekends ago, I hadn't gone in months because there was a little drama going on between the "imports" and "domestics". People were trying to get the ricer's kicked out, but trying to define ricer is like trying to define Web2.0. Anywho, it Pavillions was decent. There was as small showing of subies, but this beauty was my favorite. A Corvette concept car. Based on the styling of the 60s Corvette, but internals of a 2006. Total hotness.

Grid7 Blog

The Grid7 Blog is now live. The whole site received a revamp as well. Check it out.

acts_as_searchable

Looking at implementing full-text searching in your Rails app? Look no further than acts_as_searchable. Using Hyper Estraier, it allows you to easily implement full text searching. To setup acts_as_searchable, I basically followed the instructions over here. It was fairly self explainitory and easy to setup for Windows, but a couple of things caused me confusion:

• The yaml listed on the site doesn't work because of the spacing. The "host" and "node" elements should be children of the "estraier" element NOT "port".
• I couldn't get the plugin to install (I may not have svn installed correctly?), so I ended up installing the hyper estraier gem using "gem install acts_as_searchable"
  • Since I didn't get the plugin to install I had to add "require 'acts_as_searchable'" to my model.
• Once the hyper estraier server is running, you need to execute the re-index code.  Run ActiveRecord.reindex! where ActiveRecord is the name of your model. I ended up  creating a  controller method that I could hit and reindex everything to get started (not a good idea for production).
• A bunch of files and directories get created upon reindexing. The name of the directory reflect the name of the index that's being used. They are created in the current working directory.
• The server needs to be started from the same working directory each time. If you start the server from a different directory, you will not see any of the users or nodes that you created from previous sessions.

Hopefully this helps anyone trying to setup acts_as_searchable or looking for a full text search engine for their Rails app.

spore and robin williams

taskbar shuffle

If you're anything like me and have a million windows open at once (and you're running windows... yes, i know, how lame), check out the Taskbar Shuffle. It's a neat little mod that allows you to drag and reorder windows that are on your taskbar.

ipod maps

Yahoo created a sweet little app that lets you add directions to your ipod: http://www.ipod-directions.com/ It uses the photo ablum on the 5g ipod (and maybe earlier versions?) to display text directions followed by pics of map. It's pretty sweet, another great use for my ipod. Now if they'd only make a mic for the 5g ipod I'd be happy.