What is the iPad? Well, it’s revolutionary! Ok ok, Steve, you can stop laughing from beyond the grave! I realize that I essentially panned the device as the techie I was (and still am).

What I, and many others, failed to realize, is that Mr. jobs was no mere man, he was a revolutioniser. When Mr. Jobs released a new line of product, it wasn’t to cash in on what people want.. He literally created products that alter the playing field, to create a whole new class of product people didn’t even know they wanted.

“Post PC” is a term that was thrown around a lot as the iPad began to set its roots into our cultural subconscious. Because that’s really what the revolution was.

At the time I had my mind set on the “what is” and was thinking in terms of what I wanted from a powerful Swiss army computing device… A sort of new age laptop, thinner and sleeker.. But that’s not what the iPad is. The iPad is a small part of a bigger picture, a picture Apple had already painted and set in motion. The notion of a “post pc world”

The iPad wasn’t for me.. I mean, it was for everyone. The world.. It was part of a grand plan to bring ACCESSIBLE computing a reality.. Bridge the gap between human desire and interaction with machine and technical prowess.

What I mean by that is the iPad did a few things so far.. First off it introduced simplified, fun, and useful mobile computing to the masses essentially making it a pleasure for those less technically inclined to “get online”. It did this by making human computer interaction something Anyone can do just with the touch, swipe, and tap of their fingers. it also did this by making the world of online browsing a little less scary by building a device and aoftware distribution system that effectively eliminates viruses and malware from its software. This system, the app store, is both fun and easy to use, both important keys to its success. Lastly the iPad brought the Internet to your sofa, and evolved the net in some very profound ways.

A couple things to note here.. The iPad has killed Flash, the long running rich media interactive platform that has reigned king for a decade at least.. Not an easy feat, and not something a Flash developer like myself wants to admit. Secondly, because of this, the iPad has paved an easier path to the mobile browser throne room for mighty HTML 5 to venture forth upon. I mean HTML 5 was always poised for this unalterable future. It’s the next logical iteration of our beloved world wide web in that it’s not proprietary, it’s more accessible, it’s available to everyone and anyone, and holds all sorts of rich media potential in all it’s cross platform glory. The iPad just usurped the greedy resource hogging Flash king from his seat faster than it would of been if Apple had yielded to Adobes I’ll fated Flash Mobile attempts.

So the iPad has already revolutionized on this front alone! Now the iPad, who defined the realm of tablets, never before seen to the significance it poses today, sits king of its own defined category, ushering in an army of copycats and mirror images, each trying to carve out their own significance to set themselves apart. Personally I still feel like the iPad is missing features and has much room for improvement, such as a more robust multitasking solution. Something that OTHER tablets have impressed me with, such as Blackberry’s Tablet “Playbook”. Many other tablets also offer more freedom as opposed to Apples heavily policed sandbox world. Android for an example features an open Marketplace, and open source access to most facets of its operating system. Many of these competitor tablets offer themselves at a fraction of the price from the iPad, but high cost is not a new concept to those familiar with apple, and those who truly want it will no doubt find their way.

So despite all this, iPad has done some pretty impressive things over its short time in market, it’s changed the direction of Internet tech, it’s firmly cemented mobile technology as the new focal point of Internet browsing, and it’s helped the world more rapidly adopt HTML 5 as the heir to this new accessible mobile world.

What’s next? Well the most recent development has been Apples introduction of iCloud which effectively unifies our digital worlds under one central banner. Again it’s this concept of making the internet and digital realm an accessible and simple thing to access and use. Finding newer and better ways to keep us connected with each other and ourselves. I originally thought apple was talking about the tech power of the iPad when they said revolution but now I truly understand what that really referred to.

So as many of you know, I am an avid gamer, and I tend to jump from game to game, sampling the latest and greatest our saturated industry has to offer. MMO’s are a particular favourite of mine, however, not so much from a hardcore perspective. To clarify, hardcore MMO gaming brings to mind imagery whereby I become obligated to spend all of my waking hours grinding, raiding, and organizing scores of virtual buddies into organized teams to go dungeon plundering until the birds chirp at sunrise. Why am I not hardcore? It’s been suggested I have a less than stellar attention span, and I enjoy my freedom to experience as many different games as I have time for. Furthermore, as much of a “geek” I am, I’m always sure to allow conference with the sun and REAL friends at least 60% of my free time. Anyway, I digress.. What was our topic again? Oh yes, my impressions on Star Wars the Old Republic.

Star Wars the Old Republic, for those of you who don’t already know, is a continuation of Bioware’s Knights of the Old Republic universe. A precursor to everything we know about Star Wars, as the game takes place 3000 years before the events of the movies. If you haven’t seen the cinematic yet, I strongly suggest you do, it’s truly everything a George Lucas prequel should of been. It’s shameful really, how much more exciting and thrilling they are compared to the movies. I can only hope that one day a team like Bioware can get the proper rights and licensing to make a full 2 hour feature of what I witnessed in all 3 of the cinematics.

The story follows the clashes and tension between the Galactic Republic who observe order and justice and all that is good in the universe, versus the evil Imperials who are mostly run by the Sith but also allow Bounty Hunters lowlifes to be part of their ranks. The game universe and lore is strong and well fleshed out. I’m willing to look beyond the weird fact that tech and culture hasn’t changed much in 3000 years as most of the technology, feel and artwork from the movies is somewhat mirrored in the Old Republic. The Old Republic time period is set apart, however, by clever art direction in which all of the ships, city environments, and clothing seem to have a sort of art deco antiquity to them that really makes them feel kind of old and ancient, as if you really are playing a different era of the same universe. Kind of like the difference between watching a movie set in modern time versus a movie set in the 1930′s, only, a 1930′s movie where everyone uses cellphones and MP3 players.

Now I must preface the rest of this post, by saying that Star Wars the Old Republic (SWTOR) is not available in stores at the time I am writing this article. That is to say that it is, to many a Star Wars Geeks dismay, still in Beta. However, a release is just around the corner (next week in fact), and I was allowed to sample the many delights of it’s virtual universe via two separate beta invites. These two invites allowed to play to my hearts content for a full 72 hours. The invites were issued to me as a part of their “Beta Testing Weekend” program, about a month apart. To keep myself sane, I obviously didn’t play a full 72 hours each session, but, I got enough play time in to sample most of what the game has to offer, and I will divulge my personal thoughts on the matter during the course of this blog article. I created a character of each class, and I took at least ONE of them to about level 20. I had a chance to try space combat, I got my first ship, I did at least 2 or 3 Flashpoints, and I visited several, if not all of the planets via my ship.

So my impressions? First off I found the game really buggy.. Slow loading textures, weird bugs such as characters mouths not moving as they talked, some textures wouldn’t load at all, falling through floors, etc. Oddly enough I never found the common “stuck” bug, where the player’s character would get stuck in walls or certain spots on the “floor”.  I even had some weird paradoxical bugs, such as one point in the game where I was on a Republic ship being attacked by a larger imperial ship, which you could view out of the windows of the ship’s bridge. The captain flipped the switch to light speed to escape the ship, but after coming out of the warp effect we could still view the imperial ship out the view port as the captain and crew celebrated escape. Kind of funny…

So lets give Bioware the benefit of the doubt. This is their first large scale MMO, my testing periods were set a month or two before release, there will be hundreds of updates and fixes patched after release, and so most of these issues will eventually be cleared up.. Maybe not before release, but certainly after. Lets get into the meat of the game..

STWOR’s killer feature is it’s attention to story. Bioware has put many many hours and poured megatons of cash into believable voice acting for almost every line of dialogue in the game. This is an incredible feat by any means if you consider the sheer amount of story based content in the game. There are thousands of NPCs in the game, and thousands of storylines that branch out as you move through the game taking quests and shaping their outcome via dialogue choices that can drastically alter the outcome of the story you’re engaged in. You can play them the “dark” evil way, or the “light” virtuous way depending on what kind of character you want to play. Although the game gives you clear cut “light” Republic characters and “dark” Imperial characters to choose from during character creation, you can still choose to play the opposite of what you chose if you’d like. For an example, a dark Jedi, or a Sith on the verge of turning back to the light side by being a super sweetheart of a dude, etc. So this story stuff is pretty powerful in the context of an MMO. Bioware is onto something, but, it will stand to see how many of their competitors will take to this new style of MMO storytelling as it is extremely resource consuming from a business standpoint. There are few studios with enough cash and resources to pull a feat like this off, at least at this point in time.

So how is the story? It’s pretty awesome actually. I found that the sheer amount of voice acting required in the game caused for moments where the writing and dialogue was strong and exciting and very very heavy in character and depth, and other times kind of shallow and less interesting. It’s incredible to see the main storyline unfold before your eyes with full conversations and exciting twists and turns, but when you start doing quests that are less significant, such as “Hi I need you to collect some animal hides so I can power my broken speeder and get home in time for dinner.” things get a little dry, and often I find myself wanting to just quickly skip through the dialogue to get back to the grind. The sheer amount of dialogue sprinkled cut scenes that occur every time you engage an NPC for a quest, or to complete a quest, causes for a game that is one part action and one part sitting back and enjoying story. Some people will like this, some people who are more action prone will despise this. Luckily a few taps of the spacebar will rush you through most dialogue sequences with ease, but you may miss out on some important story elements. So in short, this new style of storytelling is exciting and interesting, but we will have to wait and see how it catches on in the long run. Something tells me that it won’t be so awesome when people start re-rolling the same class a second time, as most of the key story has already been experienced.

One problem with this extreme focus on dialogue and story is that the animations and character models take a back seat. It’s clear that Bioware needed to create a system whereby character models and animations could quickly and easily be assembled in a generic fashion to match any type of dialogue they could throw at the player. As a result the uncanny valley is very uncanny. Animations are repetitive and stiff during dialogue, there are awkward pauses as the game server tries to catch up and synchronize all of the players and action, the models themselves all look the same and honestly look a lot like marionettes. Even the human looking races in the game all look very similar.. Just the same bodies and faces painted with different colours, tentacles added here and there, and voila a new NPC! It sometimes breaks the immersion, but for the most part the voice acting has enough character and personality in it to distract you from the uncanny er.. uncanniness of it all.

On the other hand, the rest of the game is just gorgeous to say the least. The starter worlds will wow you as they are extremely attractive and colourful environments, but the secondary and third worlds will floor you. I thought that Tython and Hutta were beautiful and well fleshed out worlds, but once I got to Coruscant, Taris, and Dromund Kaas my jaw dropped. The art teams really put a lot of effort into making these worlds a sight to behold. Coruscant with it’s bustling airborne highways, Taris with it’s post apocalyptic crumbling towers of a civilization lost, and Dromund Kaas with it’s sinister and breathtaking imperial capital city of dark glittering skyscrapers and lightening slashed skies, dark purple, and brooding. Even Korriban, as a starter world, was breathtaking to me with it’s orange red sand scorched rock valleys, it’s sinister creepy crawly wildlife, and the awesome finishing touches, such as an imperial capital ship orbiting off in the distant sky. The use of contrast and rich colour is something I noticed early on, and a boon to the visual experience.

I also love the music choice. It sounded very Star Wars, but different enough to set the universe apart from the films. The sound effects and ability effects are likewise awesome. The glow and hum of the light sabers are just right, the alien lifeforms are animated and modeled as marvelous as you’d expect them to look, the skills such as force lightening cackle and spark like you’d hope, and the blasters all have that Star Wars blasting sound to them. Bioware has really carved out a gorgeous and realized universe to play in. The game maps and environments make sense too, they lead you from one area to the next via quest chains, and progressively get more difficult and more interesting as you move forward. No complaints!

If we set the story and presentation aside, that leaves what? Well that leaves the game of course! Well the game itself is, well, an MMO. It handles and plays like mostly every other MMO you’ve ever played. There are a few minor differences here and there that set it apart. For an example in STWOR I found that most of the mobs I fought were clustered in packs of 3 or 4, so that when you fight them you’re not so much doing a “one on one” you’re literally juggling around 3 or 4 weaker opponents at a time. This adds some more interesting complexity to combat as you need to sort of think on your feet and use all your skills to the fullest, especially crowd control, to bring them all down without problem. There is no auto-attack in STWOR so you’re never sitting back in your seat, you’re always making quick decisions and informed decisions about which skills to use next and when. So combat is not bad..

Companions are a huge part of the game which you get later on around level 7 or 8 I think.. They’re basically like any other Bioware companion you’ve had.. They follow you around loyally, they drop humorous and character driven, and often opinionated, dialogue while you adventure, and they act as a sort of makeshift sidekick during combat.

Qyzen Fess the First Jedi Consular Companion

At times where it’s difficult to find other human characters to group up with, it’s very very nice to have an NPC companion who can hold their own. And that they do! I played mostly Jedi Consular, and my companion, a melee heavy trandoshan named Qyzen Fess, was a perfect complement to my wizard-like skillset, often mowing down my problematic mobs with ease as I tossed debris from afar. So they’re definitely a welcome feature, they add to the story, and make you feel a little less “alone” in the universe, so to speak. They also provide some extra functionality to your player such as going away on missions for you that can score extra rewards such as crafting materials or items. They can also run off for a short time and sell your grey items for you.. Something that most MMO players will simply love about this game.

Alone is not really the best word to describe my feelings in an MMO, since even in beta, the servers were well populated. However I felt like the UI in particular needed some extra attention, especially in the most important feature of FINDING OTHER PEOPLE TO PLAY WITH.  I put emphasis because, although I was able to quickly join up with people by running into them by chance, or spamming the general chat window, the “looking for group” panel that should of been prominent seemed sorely lacking and missing. It was also strange to me that the Flashpoint dungeon runs had no “summoning” feature to quickly bring players together. This seemed like a no-brainer to me and is something that mostly all modern MMOs have. Often we’d have to sit and wait for player X to travel 10 minutes to the entrance of the Flashpoint. I also found the tool tips super annoying as they kept popping up and I couldn’t find an efficient way to get rid of all of them. Many of the tips were not even that helpful. Tips such as “move forward to go forward” would irk me as I adventured. Now that wasn’t a real tip from the game tutorial, I made that up, but often I felt like that’s how trivial some of them were.

I also found that some of the crafting panels, and crafting station NPCs, and overall explanation and introduction to some of the secondary game activities such as crafting or companion quests, seemed kind of lacking. I felt like I hadn’t been properly introduced to some of these features and was kind of figuring it out as I went. Something I had sort of “stumbled upon”.. These features were really neat and fun, but I didn’t make much use of them as I both didn’t have the time (due to my short testing period) and didn’t have the patience to focus in and learn about exactly how they worked. I did send my companion on some diplomatic missions and such, and they were kind of neat. Like mini missions you don’t really need to do anything for. You just get some quest text and click and off the companion goes to “handle” the situation for you. The downside is you lose your companion for a short time, upside is they come back with riches! Give and take.

So there are some other things I tried briefly but didn’t spend a lot of time on. I’ll briefly touch upon these now. Space combat is one of them, accessed through your ship. Your ship, by the way, is something you get around level 15 I believe.. The ships are awesome, and give you a feeling of freedom as they act as a central hub between all of the planets and game worlds you can travel to. They’re a place where you can sit back and relax and chat with your companion NPCs. Space combat is accessed from the cockpit section of your ship, and it’s pretty cool I suppose. It seemed a little shallow, like something “tacked on” as an afterthought. But in a Star Wars universe, any kind of space combat is welcome I guess, mini-game or not. It’s basically like Star Fox in the Star Wars Universe. You’re lead through a linear part of space shooting enemies like moving targets. It’s simple, but mostly fun. The visuals are nice.. I have no real complaints about it.. It was cool beans.

Lastly I tried some PVP. PVP was actually very fun. I never play a lot of PVP in MMOs so I tried this mostly just out of curiosity. And there is something to be said about watching Jedi and Sith players clash sabers in an all out epic battle. It really brings out the Star Wars geek in you, and helps flesh out some of the drama between Jedi and Sith. I found that players really take their character’s roles seriously as well. When I played a flashpoint as a Jedi my Jedi player companions were very righteous and virtuous, opting to save lives and make a difference. However when I played a Sith flashpoint as a Bounty Hunter and decided to spare the life of pathetic imperial captain I was bombarded with complaints from my fellow Sith layers. “We got a pacifist over here!” one of them said. “Pussy!” I was called by another. Similarly I was on a quest as my Jedi Consular character with someone playing as a Smuggler. We got to a dialogue point together in which the NPC asked if we would like a reward. As a Jedi Consular I felt like I had done justice and that was enough of a reward for a Jedi and so I politely declined, however my smuggler buddy wasn’t so keen on that. “WHAT? Damn Jedi!” he protested. Situations like this make me feel like Bioware has already succeeded in their mission to bring story and real characters to the MMO realm. It’s something you simply don’t experience in any other MMO.

I could go on forever about the differences between classes. This is really the only thing I haven’t talked about in length. What I will say is that each of the classes hold their own, each of them have their niche, and each of them seem to have a counterpart in the opposing faction that effectively matches the function of that character and his/her skills while still being different enough to have their own unique story and feel. For an example, the Sith warrior has a very similar feel to the Jedi knight, but they are both very different from a story standpoint, and they both have skills and abilities that are foreign to each other but also hold a kind of resemblance. Some of my favourite things so far from each class: Firing missiles and using a flamethrower as a Bounty Hunter, leaping 20 feet across a room in epic lightsaber rage as a Sith warrior, force lightening the shit out of everything as a Sith Inquisitor, running and gunning and diving for cover as a Smuggler, tossing debris with sophisticated class as a Jedi Consular, and being a James Bondesque sniping badass as the Imperial Agent.. As you can see each class had an impression on me, and each class had it’s own excitement and interesting twist and turns as part of their main quest line.

Honestly I haven’t even scratched the surface with most of them. The only real progress I made was with the Jedi Consular, and one thing I can say is that the game doesn’t truly get exciting and addictive until you fully come into your own around level 20 complete with companions, a ship, your lightsaber (if you’re a force user), and main quest line in full swing. If you spend most of your time just grinding at the low levels you will probably not enjoy this game as much until you truly get past the boring stuff.

Would I recommend this game? Yes, absolutely. It has it’s flaws, and it’s bugs, but I believe these exist because of the truly daunting mission that Bioware set itself on. To create a dialogue, voice acting heavy MMO in itself is an accomplishment in this day and age. To make it interesting and fun is another. To create a balanced game with exciting classes, choices, and environments is, again, thrice, a whole other. They’ve mostly succeeded on these fronts. I expect the bugs to be taken care of in time, the UI will likely be added to and refined. So in short the game is great and will only get better with age. Even the already gorgeous visuals (besides the dead looking character models) have gotten better during beta with new lighting effects and other nice polish added over the final days. During my playtime I spent most of my time rushing around trying to pack as much fun into 3 days as possible, I truly look forward to having the luxury of time with this one, where I can really take in the full experience without feeling like I’m rushed, and without worry of losing my character due to beta wipes. I’ll be playing this one day one! See you all in game!

The Advantage:

The whole philosophy behind FiveFingers come from the notion that the modern running shoe has set back millions of years of podiatric(foot) evolution. Leonardo Di Vinci has been quoted as saying “The human foot is a masterpiece of engineering and a work of art.” and for the most part this is quite true. Vibram notes on their website that our feet have as many as 26 bones, 20 muscles, 33 joints, as well as a multitude of sensory receptors, tendons and ligaments that the modern shoe just doesn’t make use of. As a result, many of our feet, since childhood, have been set in a sad state of atrophy. When we walk in our modern day shoes we feel very little, move our feet very little, and have been conditioned, for the most part, to step heel toe.

The modern shoe has been developed over the years to encourage this type of “heel toe” step. However, in recent years studies have been conducted to discern whether or not this type of running and walking is ideal for our feet. Further studies are obviously needed, and I’m no scientist, but as I understand it, findings have been showing that landing on your heel puts a lot of high impact stress on your legs and joints which can result in problems and injury later down the figurative road.

Barefoot running has been said to improve all kinds of natural aspects of your foot such as the range of motion in your feet’s joints (toes, ankles, etc.), muscle strength in your calves, feet, and lower legs, balance, agility, proprioception, body awareness, and posture among other things. So, in short, barefoot running seems pretty darn swell.

My KSOs:

Many of you who know me personally, know that I’ve been an avid martial artist for several years now, of which involves training in bare feet. In high school I spent a lot of time in track and field training, and although I never became an Olympic runner or professional athlete, running and jogging has always been an important part of my daily regimen. I also find the notion of “natural remedies” and “natural” products to be intriguing. So, suffice it to say, all this talk about the Vibram barefoot advantage, has piqued my interest in the last few months.

I noticed FiveFingers were out of stock, via the official website, for several months. Only one store in Toronto (MEC on King st.) currently sells them, and they’re consistently out of stock as well. One can only assume Vibrams have become a hot commodity so I jumped at the chance a few weeks ago to order a pair when I noticed they were finally in stock.

Choosing your Vibram model can be a daunting task. Vibrams come in all types and flavours and I opted for the popular KSO line. KSO is short for “keep stuff out” since the shoe has a top covering lacking in the other models that.. well.. keeps stuff out! KSO’s are also marketed to be useful in all types of terrain and activity due to their, tougher than average, design.

I naturally chose black because it was the least ugly of all the colours and styles. I had been warned to be prepared to get funny looks from people, as FiveFingers do not look in any way like your average footwear. My coworker had even told me they looked creepy upon viewing the website photos. I don’t know if I’d go as far as calling them creepy, but they certainly look odd I suppose.

How They Feel:

My KSOs finally arrived on a sunny Wednesday afternoon. After opening the modest shoebox, I immediately proceeded to try them on. My initial concerns were that the shoe might not fit me. Lack of store demos had prevented me from actually TRYING before buying, and I found the Vibram sizing chart to be slightly confusing. The chart uses it’s own sizing system based on the actual length of your longest foot in inches. I went for a size slightly larger than my foot (by maybe 1/4 of an inch) just to be safe.

At first when I tried on the shoe/slipper/glove it felt a little loose on my foot, but my toes DID reach well into the foot sockets and for the most part the KSOs hugged my foot comfortably. Comfortable is a great word to describe these things, because they feel fantastic. The fabric breathes and allows air to flow through, and it’s very snug around your foot. The slippers were a bit stiff at first but after working them in a little I found they bend and flex quite naturally with the contours of my foot. I have no complaints about how they feel, they feel great!

My first jog in my Vibrams was an interesting one. You literally feel EVERYTHING in these things. When you hit a twig, you KNOW you just stepped on a twig. When you hit a significantly sized rock, the FiveFinger rubber sole bends over the rock and you can feel it’s shape pressing into your foot. It’s a really neat experience for those who are used to heavily padded running/walking shoes. You kind of get a sense of natural freedom. Due to the mesh fabric and thin lining, air flows freely over your feet and you can feel hot and cold instantly… exhilarating!

During my test-drive I took the vibrams over all types of terrain, grass, dirt, pavement, pebbles, large rocks, etc. The result was pleasing. I found I had much more control since the human foot seems to do a great job gripping, bending, and moulding to any form of earth. It is said that actual jogging and running in Vibrams can be difficult at first if you are conditioned to use running shoes since you use very different muscle groups. I made conscious effort to strike the ground with the palm of my foot and let my heel down last. This way, my foot palm acts as a sort of shock absorber, letting my heel down easy, versus the more destructive rolling heel impact I was warned about online.

The Verdict:

I found it fairly easy to adapt to barefoot activity, but I did notice my muscles get tired and sore fast so I’ve been taking it easy. I think that being an active Capoerista has significantly strengthened my muscles involved in barefoot exercise enough to make it a relatively painless and simple transition for me. I have to say that martial arts is incredible in Vibrams. While, usually, it is best for a Capoerista to ACTUALLY go barefoot so that their feet become tough to withstand outdoor Capoeira, I found that the KSOs do give me a much stronger grip and keep my feet clean from dirt and other nasty things that may be lurking outdoors.

Taking the shoes out for a walk to the drug store was equally comfortable. I noticed my right foot was cramping up which was a little painful, but I’m not sure I’d blame this on the shoe, probably more so my feet getting used to barefoot walking. Feeling all the cracks and bumps in the concrete is really cool and definitely makes walking more interesting.

Closing Thoughts:

In conclusion I highly recommend Vibrams. Although I was initially concerned about their fit, they ended up fitting like a glove (pun intended) in all aspects of my active life (so far). I enjoy the new tactile sensations of feeling the ground and wind over my feet like never before. My feet feel stronger, flexible, and more dexterous, and I feel that my KSOs have helped improve my Capoeira training in this way. I haven’t had a lot of issues with pain, and long term effects have yet to be observed but I’m optimistic.

A lot of people have been naturally curious about my strange foot gloves, some have poked fun, others have asked where to buy them, and strangers sometimes stare, but for the most part people don’t really notice unless you bring attention to them. I’ll definately be getting a lot of use out of these things and I’ll keep you guys updated on future developments. I urge you all to give them a try!

Now don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying there’s no place for the iPad, and I’m not saying it’s horrible. As far as the iTouch line-up goes, it’s DEFINATELY an improvement on the iTouch/iPhone family. The screen is larger and gorgeous (from what I can see), the OS is much more responsive (judging by Engadget hands-on video), and browsing the internet looks like a fantastic and joyful experience. The larger screen size and boost in computing power means viewing websites and digital media will be much easier and faster then ever before. The device is also just as purty as I would expect from an Apple product. It looks sleek, glossy, minimal, clean, and sexy. All things I’d want from a new, must-have gadget. The fact that iWork is now available for this device, as well as many improvements to the built-in apps, are definitely welcome.

Personally I was hoping they would present a device closer to an iTouchified MacBook. I was hoping for something with open hard-drive storage and finder, something that can multi-task, something with MMS built-in, something that can handle video-conferencing on the fly, something that can integrate with my other media devices around the house, a chat program that runs on the sidelines, something that can finally handle flash like OSX browsers, something that can project holographic data in 3D space, signal the alien motherships… You know the basics… It almost feels like Apple overestimated their iTouch/iPhone success and decided that people simply would clamor for more of that on a larger scale. Apple appears to be shooting to fully realize their online store model (read:$$$$) by creating a locked down device where people can buy their hearts out. They’ve introduced a more powerful mobile iTunes store, App store, and now an E-Book store to boot. It may be revolutionary to Apple’s big wig pocket books, but to the average consumer, it just sounds silly to call this a revolution. Several years ago, going from a dinky Motorola that just makes calls and sends txts, to a gorgeous and robust multi-touch digital media center, PDA, communication and office station in the palm of your hand; now THAT was a revolution!

At this point I think it’s worth briefly noting that I believe the iPad DOES have the potential of bridging the gap between smartphones and desktops, forcing corporations and organizations to tailor their websites and digital media to be more accessible to a wider audience. Safari on the iPad probably already rivals Safari on a MacBook, but being a mobile device, bandwidth limitations will need to be seriously considered, as well as issues of Flash accessibility if the iPad catches on as widespread phenomenon (not only just as an Apple product, but competitor imitations as well). I know on my iPhone there are plenty websites that consistently display poorly, buggy, or not at all by using Flash as a platform, or crashing my iPhone Safari.

I for one, look for more than just a media platform in which I can buy and view digital media and content. I want a productivity tool, something I can install Firefox and something powerful and robust enough to run software like Photoshop, Dreamweaver and Flash. This device does none of those things, although, I should give it credit for integrating iWork in the mix. That’s definately a step forward, but with no hard-drive it seems it would be difficult to use this thing as you would a laptop, transferring files and folders from system to system. I also don’t understand how you can have a tablet with no hand-writing software. Even if hand-writing is becoming more and more obsolete as a way of inscribing official documents, they still could of added it as a side-thought at least (or maybe they have and I haven’t noticed?).

So, in conclusion, when my iPhone finally gives out, or when I feel like I have money to waste on something fun, this thing could be useful (I guess it wouldn’t really replace my iPhone without phone functionality, would it?). There will be a lot of die hard fan boys and average Joe office workers who will clamour for this, I’m sure. I can definately see myself enjoying this thing on my couch, or when I’m out of town without my desktop. It’s a toy with potential to be more. If some really powerful apps (Photoshop/Flash iPad) are developed for it, perhaps I will consider purchasing one, but for now, sitting at a $499 USD (low-end model) – $829 USD price tag (high-end model) it seems like the MacBook Air is still the closest thing to a Tablet MacBook any of us are going to get.

So basically this movie is about a near future world populated by mostly humans turned vampires. These vampires are just as intelligent as they were in their human forms, and retain most of their human emotions and personalities, etc, so they’re basically just superhuman humans who thirst for blood. Their weakness hold true to traditional vampire lore (death by sun, wooden stakes, etc.) and the civilized world sort of keeps on spinning despite the vampire’s shortcomings.

So as you’d expect, unturned humans become quite the commodity, since most of the world has already become vampires, there are few humans left, and they sort of become hunted as cattle. Corporations take advantage of the situation, and vampires who don’t get enough blood become ravenous monsters, yadda yadda, that’s about all you need to know.

The success of this movie doesn’t come with an intellegent storyline. Most of the movie strains to be serious, but inevitably reeks of cheese, however this shortcoming is also the success of the film in my eyes, because it’s an awesome variety of cheese. Just as blue cheese stinks, but tastes great (to some), this movie was hilarious and entertaining and I definately recommend it to anyone who wants some cheap thrills and good old fashioned laughs.

Daybreakers kind of reminded me of an old horror B-Movie of yore, blended with the ultra slick and cool styling of modern cinema, much like Blade or the Matrix. The cheap thrill of something jumping out at you, or exploding into a mess of gore was relentlessly consistent throughout the movie, but I think perhaps the best part of the movie was two actors, Willem Dafoe and Sam Neill. Niell being the heartless corporate villian, and Dafoe cast as a sort of badass comic relief I suppose. Ethan Hawke was kind of cheesier than the others, but appropriate in his role as the sort of aloof melodramatic hero of the movie, and all other characters were sort of secondary filler for the story.

Anyway, I recommend this movie for sure. It was not so great from a believable, realistic, or intellegent story, but it definately was entertaining and a unique take on the vampire genre I thought. It was a pretty cool concept, executed well enough. I really enjoyed the art and cinematography styling of the movie as well; reminded me much of the Matrix and Blade with more thrills and less action, basically.

4/5 stars from me! Go see it if you’re bored!

I just recently finished a new layout for a website I’ve been working on, www.thespicelady.ca. Check it out, it’s actually a very useful website full of handcrafted gourmet recipes, tips, suggestions, etc.

Also, check out my recently accepted Submission to Dinosaurs F’n Robots.com

Warning: Kind of NSFW.. (read cartoons engaging in coitus.)

http://dinosaursfuckingrobots.com/post/94554671/illustrated-by-chad-elston

Artist of the moment: I figured I should probably honour the continuity of my previous artist micro-blurbs to hold consistency to my rantings (or lack thereof). This time I would like to mention my most favorite DJ duo of recent time, Crookers! (Or, in proper Italian accent, crew-cairs!). Crookers (the Crookers?), are 2 dudes, Bot and Phra, and they’re signed, of course, to my favorite DJ‘s record label, Mad Decent Records. I love these guys cuz their sets are a non stop flurry of bass pounding, energy charged, Fidget House. Fidget House is of course an unofficial term coined to describe this frantic, cut-up, House music style. I still like the term Electro Crunk, because the music sounds pretty Electro and Crunky to me. I guess Crookers sort of traverse a range of styles in their mixes and sets. If you want a good primer on Crookers, I’d start with their Radio 1 Essential Mix if you can get a hold of that. It’s basically anything and everything they’d done up to that date with some other stuff thrown in. Incredible!

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So, I’ve been pulling my hair out, yet again, due to the uncalled for complexity presented by CSS coding techniques. I mean CSS is actually a very simple language, and very easy to pick up and learn. The difficult part is learning how to use it PROPERLY.  I love the many facets of design and putting my creative juices to the test, but when it comes to stylizing webpages and lining up it’s rigid skeletal grid to hold all of the content precisely where I want it, I’m completely stumped. Don’t get me wrong, I know this isn’t an easy task, learning such a muddled and conflicted language such as Cascading Style Sheets. It’s had such a torrential history, I suppose, being used in different ways by different browsers for sometimes different purposes.

Internet Explorer, as usual, is the worst culprit at present time, refusing to conform to the same standards as everyone else. They seem to love to take existing great things and attempt to make them better in their own special way *cough* Silverlight *cough*. (To be fair, I do know that the latest versions of Internet Explorer are a little easier to work with and more conforming than previous versions like IE6). It makes learning CSS that much more difficult for a hobbyist web designer like me. I’ve tried several different books, but the problem with these books is that they teach the basics of the language itself. There are few books that teach the hacks and the work-arounds necessary to side-step the accessibility, the incompatibilities, and the inconsistencies between browsers. The ones that DO teach these hacks are difficult to use as reference since there are many ways to work around different issues. I suppose it’s almost as if to effectively and creatively use CSS tableless design to it’s fullest you need to learn the ins and outs of CSS and how each browser handles each property and rule, as well as how to avoid problems in each case. It’s a heck of a lot of junk to cram into your brain, especially if you’re not a CSS designer by profession. It just seems like CSS could be much simpler to use. I hope some day we’ll see that happen.

At the present moment, I’m feeling the pinch of these frustrations mostly because I’ve gotten knee deep into WordPress Theme modification and design. I started toying with the idea of using WordPress as a CMS for my own sites, as well as client websites. It’s a great and robust CMS, if somewhat simplistic, that allows a certain level of ease in posting new content and editing existing content.  The trick is learning how to use it best, and which plugins offer the extra features you would need to mimic a fully functional (usually small-business) website. I think my problem is that I will start with a simple CSS framework and then I’ll find something that breaks in a different browser, so I’ll scour the net until I find a plausible fix, and then I’ll plug that fix into my file, but then I’ll find a problem where the answer isn’t clearly stated anywhere on the net, so I will start trial and error edits until I find a fix. Then my file will become monstrously large with so many edits and hacks and additions that I will forget what does what, where things need to be. I will forget which parts of the file should be strictly for structure, and which for design, etc.

So far it seems that the best way to learn work-arounds is to find someone who already has proven themselves to be at an expert level of CSS design technique. This way, unlike a book, you have the ability to pose a specific question and get a specific tailored answer to your issues. I find this a bit of an issue for me since I only know of one person who may or may not know the answers to my questions. Online forums are alright but expressing your complex and various CSS frustrations is a bit of a chore and a tricky one at that.  If anyone knows of anything/anyone that may be of help let me know in comments.

In closing, I have to say,  that upon viewing the CSS and PHP files created by other designers, I’m more often than not, bewildered by all the little scripts, functions, and CSS hacks they’ve put in motion to generate their attractive bullet-proof designs. Figuring out WHY someone does something in a certain way in any given CSS file of any given theme is a hefty task. I suppose I’ll just need to find someone who can help me navigate these murky waters…

I noticed that this game has pushed me so far as sneaking in some televised hockey viewings every now and then since I’ve started learning the names of players and familiarity of the teams.

I suppose my ‘NHL 09-capades’ date back to a few months ago, when the guys at my office bought an Xbox and some games for the team to release stress and frustration with after long days at the office. As one would expect our competative natures took hold and subsequently we began to wage more and more hockey challenges upon each other as the weeks rolled by.

These cascading causal events led to the historic formation of the EAHL (E-Axis Hockey League), in which more organized battles were drafted in the form of a tournament (hockey season). We had several teams at our disposal, but I, of course, opted for a more vintage relic “The Winnipeg Jets” (Pheonix Coyotes in disguise).

The official EAHL logo.

I can’t help but be patriotic to my long lost home team, which the powers that be often leave me glimmers of hopeful anticipation in the idea of their triumphant return. For now they only exist, in-game, as Pheonix dressed in vintage jerseys. Unfourtunately, although they bear the Jet’s colours and iconic logo in the game, they are still only the current Pheonix roster dressed as the Jets, but that’s enough for me.

I seemed to do alright in our first Season, although just as I was making my way up the ranks towards a spot in our office version of the “Play-Offs”, I suffered a spirit crushing defeat (6-1 ….terrible..  I KNOW!) to an opponent who I was previously prone to defeating with ease  in our previous games. Never-the-less it was a gripping and thrilling season where many tears were wept and much metaphorical blood was shed. In the aftermath, our best office player, Fiz, won the little mini trophy cup that our creative Creative Director threw together for the prize. It now sits on his desk, glimmering at me and taunting me with it’s $5 pewter shine and taped on “EAHL” paper cut-out. I would of relished that bragging right, but for now I can settle as being the underdog surprise until our next season where I will thoroughly crush my opposition! *Evil crackling laugh*

Hopefully I’ll find a good picture of the markham robot visors to show off later. They are equally hilaious. I’ll explain more about this later, but in the meantime feel free to check out more Markham hilarity in my photo album at http://www.flickr.com/photos/cmax.

Btw this was posted from my worpress iPhone app while I was on the bus, how cool is that?