This is just a quick post to let you all know that I’m going to be phasing LuminousNerd out of existence. I haven’t been posting a lot lately anyway, so I suspect not too many people will be upset by this. However, you can still get your fix of writings from the LuminousNerd at my new blog, located at my new portfolio site, Why Wait Webs.

The Why Wait Webs Blog for Designers and Business Owners will have a more professional undertone than LuminousNerd has historically, and a narrower focus. It will focus on two distinct audiences: Designers and Business owners. It will offer Design and code tips for fellow web developers, and tips on getting your website out there and good computer practices for business owners. I started it in hopes of providing another great service to my clients and at the same time

I am retaining the LuminousNerd.com domain in case I ever decide to do something here again. Right now I am considering turning it into a political blog. As many of you know I have firm stances in politics, and it has shown through in many of my posts here. However, I’m still making up my mind on this, and it’s not going to happen for a while as I really have my hands full with Why Wait Webs right now.

That said, I will probably post here from time to time, just for the sake of having a place to organize my thoughts. Rest assured I have plenty of plans for the future. I have a number of web projects I’d love to get rolling, and I’ll be sure to update you guys whenever a new one takes off! I’d love to do a few more blogs, as well as some cool online games and some web-based tools for professionals.

Since I graduated high school and got into web design full time, I have learned a lot. Another thing I’ve learned is that while the hourly rates that many designers charge may seem like a fairly high price, I never realized how much non-billable work goes into being a freelancer! Especially when you’re just starting up, a huge amount of my time is consumed by writing documents, workflows, designing for my own company, brainstorming, researching, improving my skill, and other various things that make me and my business better. Up to now I’ve been ignoring many of these things that can help my business grow, but it’s definitely time for that to stop.

I have also reached a realization that I have a very long way to go in many areas! And I am excited for the journey that has just begun.

With that I bid you farewell, for the time being, but who knows what the future may bring? Keep an eye on my new Why Wait Webs Blog for Designers and Business Owners, and I’ll update this one with new projects that I start up. So long for now!

I was very pleasantly greeted this morning by iPhone 2.1, an update that, knowing Apple, I did not expect until this evening. But despite my doubts, here it is, on time and bearing an uncharacteristically long list of release notes. Instead of the usual “bug fixes”, Apple has chosen to fill us in on the juicy details:

• Decrease in call set-up failures and dropped calls
• Significantly better battery life for most users
• Dramatically reduced time to backup to iTunes
• Improved email reliability, notably fetching email from POP and Exchange accounts
• Faster installation of 3rd party applications
• Fixed bugs causing hangs and crashes for users with lots of third party applications
• Improved performance in text messaging
• Faster loading and searching of contacts
• Improved accuracy of the 3G signal strength display
• Repeat alert up to two additional times for incoming text messages
• Option to wipe data after ten failed passcode attempts
• Genius playlist creation

Now, this is obviously a big update, and as I mentioned before, I had very high hopes and expectations for this one. I was very excited for the update, and trusted that it would fix the major issues: app crashing, instability that increased with your number of apps, and rather frequent dropped calls. However, even going in with these high expectations, after downloading it I can honestly say that I couldn’t be happier could only be happier had they also implemented copy & paste.

Although I haven’t had enough time with it to confirm everything on Apple’s list, I can say that it is looking very promising. Here’s a rundown of the improvements I have found so far:

For starters, in my basement where I spend most of my time, I am accustomed to getting 2 or 3 bars of EDGE, maybe a bar or two of 3G if I’m lucky. Since the update, however, I have consistently had 4-5 bars of 3G! This is clearly a huge, immediate improvement.

When I synced my iPhone to the computer in the past, I always skipped the backup stage. I’m the first person to evangelize having some form of backup for EVERYTHING, but the iPhone backups used to take 4-6 hours to complete! You read that right! I’m sorry, I just can’t have my phone tethered to my computer for that long (and unusable as a phone during the process, I might add). But I figured I’d give it a chance after this update, and it is an INCREDIBLE improvement. The entire backup gook less than 2 minutes! Another clear improvement.

I also wanted to test the installation of apps. While not a huge deal, in the past it has taken just seconds to download most apps, but anywhere from 2-10 minutes before they’re installed and usable. Well, I downloaded an app, and to my amazement, after the download was complete it was completely installed in a matter of seconds! With this update, the App Store is approaching instantaneous delivery!

Genius Playlists, a feature new to OS X iPhone as well as the new iTunes 8, allow you to instantly create playlists of related music from any song in your library. I have no idea how it works, and Apple is as usual very vague about the details, but I can say that it works very well, at least for the songs I chose to test it on. I was excited about the feature in iTunes 8, but having it at my fingertips on the iPhone is even more useful.

And on top of all these great improvements, I’ve found one more surprise bug fix: improved keyboard performance. I suppose this falls under “Improved performance in text messaging”, but I wasn’t expecting it. The keyboard used to have a very noticeable lag, which was always there but got really bad at times. Since the update, the keyboard responds instantaneously, exactly like I would expect it to!

Update: There are also new icons for EDGE and 3G. They look much nicer, and are more legible. The top is the colorful version you’ll see in most apps; the bottom is the black version you see on your iPhone’s homescreen. You normally wouldn’t see both icons next to each other as in the picture above, but in the interest of space I edited them together.

I have been told by so many people lately that I am putting too much faith in a company. And while I’m most certainly not saying Apple is infallible, the reason I continue to trust them is because every single time I do, they come at me with something like this! They don’t always release perfect products, but given time, they almost always remedy any mistakes that they make.

Apple, this is a big, big win!

I doubt anyone actually believed me, but just in case, yesterday’s post was a joke. Spielberg has no idea who I am, and the blog’s not shutting down. Sorry to disappoint on both counts.

I’ve decided to shut down the site, as I just don’t have any time for it any more. Steven Spielberg has asked me to be the cinematographer for his next blockbuster, though I can’t share too many details right now. That’s going to be taking up all of my time for the next several months.

Perhaps one day I will return. It’s been fun! Thanks to everyone who supported this blog.

I will be writing again soon. For the time being, LONG LIVE COCAINE!!!

I should start this by saying Command and Conquer 3 is a very fun game. The campaign has an enjoyable storyline, and the graphics are definitely not the best, but definitely not the worst either. I’m pretty happy with the graphics

With that out of the way, it’s time for my gripe session.

Note first that I am enjoying this game on a very nice Mac Pro, Quad 2GHz Xeon processors, 7300GT graphics card, and 2 gigs of RAM running OS X 10.5 Leopard.

1 - The load times are excruciatingly long. I don’t know if this is because their programmers suck, and don’t know how to properly port the game to Mac (or better yet, code it in a cross-compatible way to begin with) or because their programmers suck and don’t know how to optimize their code. I’m talking about 2-5 minutes here, just to load one map. With my processor it should be doing it in nothing flat, and if not then at least under 20 seconds.

2 - For the mediocre graphics on this game, it is very demanding of your system. My Mac Pro ought to be able to handle the high settings on here, but I guess their artists like lots and lots and lots of unnecessary particles and polygons or something, because I can only run it on close to the lowest settings. I don’t know anyone who has a system who could handle this game at its full potential. And I know some hardcore gamers, whose computers rival what NASA’s got.

Okay, so sorry about all that negativity, but I had to get it out somehow

Update: I looked into it a bit, and it seems these issues are results of the fact that EA believes Mac users are not really human, and therefore it’s okay to scam them with a total piece of shit for 60 damn dollars. The PC version is cheaper, and sucks less. When I have money, I will go after companies like this. EA, just wait. You have about a year, and I’m going to bring your whole worthless company down. Just wait.

For those of you who aren’t aware, Brawndo is the energy drink of the future, chock full of electrolytes. Seen in the movie “Idiocracy”, Cocaine-maker Redux Beverages will be creating this beverage so you can enjoy a bit of the future…TODAY! Well, not exactly…you’ll have to wait until December 15. The official site is very well-designed in my opinion, but lacks any significant content. I would love to see some more hype, as I am very excited about this drink!

Wow. I actually had a weird scare not too long ago about Google being down, but it was isolated as one computer in the house could access Google (even though two couldn’t). But this time it appears to be none other than Google being down. Take a gander.

So I’m pretty sure hell has frozen over, and I think that might be a flying pig up there.

Leopard is nearly here. So exciting!

Just over two days from now, Leopard will be. I hear it’s leaked already. No surprise there. Legitimate software tends to work better, though. I will see you Friday, my sweet!