Stephen Fry: Actor, Writer, Apple Enthusiast

Mr. Stephen Fry, actor, writer, friend of Douglas Adams, and Apple Enthusiast, has written a non-review review of the new Apple iPad for Time magazine.

In short, he fancies it quite a bit. That is not at all shocking.
What is, however, is the amount of space he dedicates to the memory of Douglas Adams.

Early in the article, he recounts the joy in owning his first Mac (in fact, the second Mac sold in the UK. The first sold? Why, to Douglas Adams, of course), and how that user experience changed his relationship with computers. It made computers fun again, their use akin to playing with a shiny new toy.

He says about as much for the iPad – in many more words, perfectly and artistically ordered, of course. As an aside, I must admit a certain level of admiration for Fry’s writing style. Truth be told, the four page article can be boiled down to a preference for Apple products because they are fun to use, and that fun makes it easier to focus on the task at hand, rather than dwell on the fact that one is, in fact working.

It is his closing paragraph, however, that caught my attention the most- and solidified my own feelings on the nebulous device I’ve never laid hands on:

[For] me, my iPad is like a gun lobbyist’s rifle: the only way you will take it from me is to prise it from my cold, dead hands. One melancholy thought occurs as my fingers glide and flow over the surface of this astonishing object: Douglas Adams is not alive to see the closest thing to his Hitchhiker’s Guide that humankind has yet devised.

Indeed, this is what I’ve wanted to hear since day one. Yes, I’ve compared the iPad to the PADD, but at the back of my mind I’ve also thought of it as The Guide, as in The Hitchhiker’s Guide To The Galaxy. Not the book, but the plot device from which the books name derives.

The same can be said for both my iPhone, and my iPod Touch. And, of course, the iPod Video before that, or my Macbook, or my iMac. All of them designed to be inviting and warm, to exude a sense of calmness at the user, and – in general – be functional without requiring one to think too much about what it is one is trying to do.

I’ve promised myself that I’m not going to buy one of these things until I’ve had a chance to use it, to evaluate it, so make sure it’s what I think it is – and it can do what I need/want it to do.

But, I’m fairly certain that once those niggling doubts are satisfied, it shall become as ubiquitous as my towel: Always at my side, should I need it in a pinch to fulfill one of it’s many uses.

One of them caught my eye, and just made me realized what a total geek I am:

My Geeky Bookshelf

A full break down – after the jump.

My Geeky Breakdown (Click for Big)

Mind you, this is just a very small portion of my collection of stuff – the entire living room (and, well, the rest of the apartment) is filled with samples of geek culture.

I’ll post more as I finish the cleanup.

Fairly neat, I think. It’s got some pretty pictures at least.

Genetic Programming: Evolution of Mona Lisa « Roger Alsing Weblog.

It gives me a lot of science – and science related – blogs. That’s fine, I like science and geeky stuff. Sure, I don’t even come close to understanding some of the more high end stuff (the numbers and terms make my brain go all wonky), but it’s still a nice read once in a while.

There’s the odd assortment of random webcomics – although the majority of them are somewhat crap. I’m sorry, but it’s true: 97% of webcomics are crap, including my own aborted monster. of the remaining 3%, a full nine-tenths is Penny-Arcade, leaving a very small market for actual good, non-PA comics. I’ve found a couple, and have enjoyed them.

The remaining stuff Google throws at me? Personal blogs of small Mormon families in Las Vegas.

No, really – I’ve had four of them tossed my way recently. They are all pretty much the same, too: Pictures of small children, pictures of family events, and general family stuff that is not at all interesting to anyone who isn’t them. Many posts talking about the kids, or the husband, or how boring it is being a housewife, or what it’s like to be a Mormon in Vegas, or that potato salad recipe your mother in law loves… That kind of thing.

I’ve got no idea what part of my normal reading habits would lead Google Reader to the conclusion that I would enjoy such a glimpse into the nuclear family, but I don’t. Oh, sure, I flip through a few posts to make sure that this is, indeed, what it is- but then I click the “No Thanks” button and move on down the list.

Has Google decided that I should live my life vicariously through these seemingly happy families? Has it decided that I’m a voyeur of of some sort, who craves a peek at others inner lives? Or maybe it’s just some weird fluke?

All I know for sure is that those kids are kind of ugly, your husband is a bit of a fatty, and your self-dyed hair looks trashy. You should be ashamed of yourself and your friends, and you should stay off my damn reader!

Is this game worth your $15?

Last week, the game Braid was released on the XBox Live service for about $15. The price point started off a mild rant storm on portions of the internets that are very geeky, somewhat cheap and populated by people who spend more time bitching about the price of games than they do bathing or actually spending time with other human beings.

Okay, I’m being a bit harsh, but debating the cost of a game before actually playing it is a tad naif… Which is why I decided to stay out of that “debate” until I’d actually purchased the damn game and given in a full go.

That time has come and gone, and I can safely say that this is a game that strives for greatness with its call backs to the very roots of platform gaming, the stunning soundtrack, the imaginative graphics and the quirky new gameplay mechanics. But is that enough?

Braid has one major claim to fame, and it is the new gimmick it adds to the genre: Time manipulation. Many games before this have attempted to add some sort of temporal mechanic to the mix, and have been met with varying levels of success. The full integration of time into game play is one thing that Braid does absolutlely flawlessly. Be it the player controlled “rewind” or other stage specific time-shenanigans, it just works. There are areas, for example, where time only flows as you move – if you are going forward, so is time. If you stop, it stops. If you go backwards, it does too. It just works, and it’s just damn cool.

Sadly, the rest of the game just doesn’t feel quite as fleshed out. The time thing is there, and it’s great, but the puzzles are etiher “really easy” or “god damn frustratingly hard”, no real space in between. It can, and occasionally does, detract from the fun of just playing the game.

It’s also pretty darn short, which is a bummer. And it’s those too things, the shortness and the complete unevenness of the game that makes me think $15 is $5 too much for this game. If I thought there would be hours of replayability to it, then I would mind so much. But, for me, it’s so frustrating that it’s all I can do to play through it the first time – Once I get a puzzle, I’m not going to go back and attempt it again – there’s no point. And I know that $5 isn’t all that much in the grand scheme of things, but it IS half the price of another game, another game. So, realistically Braid should be the equivalent of two games, which it is not.

However, this is just my opinion – you should play the demo and make up your own mind. You probably won’t regret it.

Hey, all the cool kids are liveblogging.

11:30
Finished backing up/formatting/restoring the PS3. Preparing to “Install Other OS”.

11:56
After a couple of false starts, am finally in the installer. Turns out this defaults to some really shittastic video mode when installing. Was able to find a mode that doesn’t suck.

11:58
Dread Cthulhu, this installer is SLOW. Click button, walk away, make sammich. Some serious DMC4 install times here people. At the time Zone select – hate how I have to choose “Los Angeles” and not “Las Vegas.”

12:05
Still staring at the damn partitioner. What could be taking so long?
So far I’m thinking YDL was a better install process than this. Much faster, much less painless. Honestly, this is not making a fan of Ubuntu out of me.

12:10
Turns out there is a bug in the partitioner after all. Restarting the process *again*.
This, my friends, is why I’m going to get a damn Mac mini for the living room.
Stupid fucking Ubuntu.

12:15
Why am I even doing this? The damn installer still isn’t up yet, and even when it does come up it’ll be really slow and hinky. I have the feeling that I’m not going to be able to figure out how to manually configure the partition anyway – the documentation on it is virtually nonexistent!

12:24
Huh, after checking the PSUbuntu forums, it turns out the partitioner isn’t borked so much in this version of Ubuntu (7.10), as it was gagging on my external drive. With it removed, the thing is actually moving along at a… Slow pace, but a pace all the same.

Why am I doing this again? Do I actually think I’ll get flash working on this beast? Is YouTube in the living room worth this horror?

12:50
Still partitioning. Do you know the history of the Wilhelm Scream? I do now, thanks to the interwebs.

13:00
Still going.
Wow, long install.
This is how I spend my days off… Watching linux install, and writing a diary entry about it.
Well, I have been cleaning my apartment too, and listening to some good music. Mostly No More Kings. Just totally hooked on their stuff.

The partitioner is at 75%.
Scary thing? This is only step 4 of 7.
Oy.

13:10
93%
Shit this is taking a long time.

13:15
OMG! STEP FIVE!

13:16
No, wait, false alarm. Looks like the partitioner did finish, but it’s not letting me move on to step five just yet.
Damn.

13:30
Still stuck.
Should I just reboot and retry later? I’m thinking I should.

13:36
Spook just let me know, via IM, that this very post has inspired him to liveblog his upcoming PC Build.
Wow, I wrote something that inspired others.

I guess I’ll give this damn install one more shot.
Gonna reboot and try the manual partition.

Pray for me.

13:42
When rebooting and starting the installer, make sure the correct video type is selected – or else you end up with a b/w screen. I think I should restart before my TV explode.

Oh, wait… It went normal. Just the splash screen was fucked.

Did I mention yet that I don’t like Ubuntu?

13:50
Partitioning seems to be done. I hope that 735MB is enough for the swap.

13:52
Well, damn.
That was just the configuration wizard. NOW the damn installation is actually going to commence!

13:55
A brief list of things I’ve managed to accomplish while doing this damn install:

1. Clean the living room
2. Clean the dinning room
3. Learn the history of the Wilhelm Scream
4. Brush the cat
5. Tend to my wounds
6. Send numerous text messages
7. Take out the garbage
8. Brush the cat some more (she has a lot of hair, and lots of tangles)
9. Tend my new wounds (she also has very sharp claws)
10. Inspire someone else to liveblog odd events
11. Shave my beard into a more manageable, less hermit-ish, goatee
12. Learn that the Wii can handle the YouTube chores

14:00
This installation has taken a good two and a half hours of my life. I have to now start wondering why I’m doing this.

I really don’t see a need for a linux computer in the living room – The majority of my movies are divix, and the PS3 can handle them pretty well. My music is all iTunes protected, so I’ll have to either get that damn AppleTV or a Mac mini to really get use out of them in the living room. Sure, I could just hook my iPod up to the stereo, but where’s the fun in that? I want to use the TV as a fullscreen display for that neat music visualizer.

The longer this installation runs, the more I’m seeing it as a solution to a problem that I don’t have.

Realistically, this is just the call of boredom making me do something insanely geeky and overly difficult just so I can say that I did it.

I think that’s it, right there. I’m not doing this because I enjoy linux, or because I want to play NES games on my PS3, or because I figure I can really find that work-around that will allow me to get WoW running on this beast… No, I’m doing it for some perverse sense of bragging rights and self satisfaction.

Nothing like a slow install to bring on the introspection.

14:17
The file copy is at 75%

My interest in getting this working? About 10% now. I’m only going forward out of sheer bloody minded determination.

I wonder how hard it’ll be getting flash installed? I should probably start looking into it.
The whole thing will be moot if the damn sound won’t work.

14:32
As soon as this is done, I’m going to watch The Dark Crystal.

14:37
Installation complete!
Starting the os now.

14:49

Success!

I am posting this from Firefox on the PS3.
The sound seems to be working, and I’ll get around to finding some sort of flash-like thing later.

Right now, though, I’m going to take a well earned bath and nap, and then have me a snack and some pizza.

Huzzah! I won!