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On Writing

December 7, 2007 - 1am

As a bit of an aside from the two stories I’ve posted here recently–I want to make something clear.

First off, I have no illusions about the quality of my writing. I know it’s nothing special, and I’m fine with that. What I’ve posted here are the equivalents of an artist’s doodle, minor things scrawled in margins.

I know I’m not a great writer, and I don’t aspire to be. I’m not looking to be the next Faulkner, or Hemingway, or (god forbid) Shakespeare. Nothing I write will ever be studied in a literature class or change anyone’s life.

If I can be a one-off Stephen King or Chuck Palahniuk, I would be thrilled. If I can publish a single novel–the sort of thing you read in two lazy vacation days, then never think about again–I’ll be very satisfied.

That’s not really so much to hope for, is it?

DS Browser

June 15, 2007 - 1am

I’m typing this (slowly) on my DS. I bought the DS Browser today, and I have to say that it’s not bad.

There are problems; small screen, difficult text entry, slow rendering… all things you’d expect from a device that wasn’t designed with a browser in mind. The wifi transfer speeds seem unusually slow as well.

With image downloads disabled, download and render times dwindle into the acceptable range. With the daily-increasing number of text-only sites designed for wireless devices, this shouldn’t pose a serious problem. However, if you think you’re going to do any serious browsing, forget it. Digg, Engadget, or Fark would take forever to load. And, of course, there’s no tabbed browsing. You get one window and that’s it.

The browser offers two modes. Overview renders the entire page in miniature on the top screen and allows you to scroll around a zoomed-in version using the stylus. SSR (small screen rendering) mode renders the web page in a single column of text and images. I’ve found that reading BBC news and The Onion in SSR mode works quite well.

I’d say the DS Browser was worth the $30. It’s a decent system that allows me to essentially use my DS as a very tiny, very limited laptop. Overall, I’d say it’s a few steps up from trying to browse the web on a cell phone, and a few steps down from a dedicated device like a Blackberry.^*

*I’m guessing on the Blackberry statement. I’ve never actually laid hands on one.

Banners

April 13, 2007 - 10am

You probably haven’t noticed, but there’s a small “About” section at the bottom of the screen. I like to change it on a regular basis, sometimes more frequently than I actually post. Since I find it unlikely that anyone has been paying very close attention to my babbling, here are the banners I’ve used recently:

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is run by a heartless multinational conglomerate bent on the subjugation of all mankind. We own you.

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would probably share its Snickers© brand candy-stick with you, if you’d ask nicely and stop being so grabby all the time.

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Intarnets like Mom used to bake… before the accident.

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So I said, “Shut the fuck up, or I’ll hit you again, Grandma!”

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Where fun comes to die.

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It seemed like a good idea at the time.

I kind of like the one that I have at the moment, so there’s a halfway decent chance it will stay that way for a while.

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