Author Archives: zonabi

use your phone as a game controller for computer

geek for the win! found a nice app that turns your iPhone into a bluetooth game controller for your computer. came in useful when we were trying out the game castle crashers on steam. you download the free app, install its counterpart on the computer, and sync them up. you can pick and program various controllers like SNES, Genesis, and N64.

check it out: http://getjoypad.com/legacy/

itunes spelled backwards

have you ever wanted to simply pull a song from your iphone onto your computer, but had the rude awakening that you cannot do such a simply task? yea, thanks apple for locking your devices down so hard we can’t even grab our own songs off our own phone to put on our own computers. well, fret no more–senuti (itunes spelled backwards, lol) is a program that lets you snag songs right off your iDevices with no questions asked. it comes with a free 30-day trial, well worth the money, and damn skippy slick. for example, had our neighbors over this evening, he showed me some awesome “50 years of Reggae” album he just got on his phone, which he wanted to share with me. he said he’d bring the CD over later (which he had rented from our public library), but better than waiting, we just plugged in his iphone to my laptop and via senuti we pulled the entire album (and then some) within 5 minutes. take that, apple!

http://www.fadingred.com/senuti/ (opens in new window)

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cinematographers to check out

not sure where this list came from, found it in some old notes in EverNote:

1. Christopher Doyle

2. Roger Deakins
3. Darius Khondji
4. Emmanuel Lubezki
5. Robert Richardson
6. Robby Muller
7. Michael Ballhaus
8. Robert Yeoman
9. Wally Pfister
10. Tak Fujimoto
Honorable Mention: Slawomir Idziak; Chris Menges; Andrij Prekh

how we got our iPhone 5s the next day

one does not simply…buy an iPhone5

as people may be aware, it’s been somewhat hard to simply walk in to an Apple store and purchase the new iPhone5. the demand has been crazy and they are having a hard time keeping up stock. you may get lucky, but most people are turned down. well, here’s the way we bought our phones and got them the next day.

every night, the online apple store enables iPhone 5 purchases at exactly 10pm. before that you are redirected to a reservation page and orders ship in 3-4 weeks. if you cannot wait that long, here’s the trick.

right at 10pm, on the dot, log into apple.com/retail/iphone. at 10 a new “buy now” button will appear on the page, click it and place your order quick. now, on the checkout page, instead of having them ship in in 3-4 weeks, click “in-store pickup.” a pop-up with overlay and you punch in your zip code, and it will show the apple stores nearby. they will probably say “out of stock.” that’s ok, it happened to us too. you just close that zip-code overlay and try again: click in-store pickup and put in zip code again. it will likely stay out of stock until a few minutes have passed and their new iPhone5 inventory has been updated. finally, a store should pop in green and say “available” – click it quick and complete your order! be sure to double check everything, but also keep in mind they are going fast like hot cakes and may not stay available for more than 5-10 minutes.

crazy, yes, but it can be done. hopefully the short supply won’t be a problem much longer, but if not, this may help some of you snag up that sweet phone.

cheers,
z

dream about our departed friend russell

we had a friend, russell, from high school who toured in the army and had started a family. unfortunately, he ended up taking his own life during a depression or PTSD. a few weeks later, he visited one of my dreams, and these are the notes:

had a dream about/with russell. we were in some house that was having some kind of garage sale with all kinds of items. they also had some items that russell had made, pieces of art, drawings, sculptures, etc. i picked up some items he had made: a small brown kneeling horse with his name etched on the bottom, a curved shape drinking glass (clear with teal/turquoise lines), a small sketchpad, and also a small baby onesie clothing. upon check out amelia said suggested not getting the onesie cuz it was kind of sad. afterward i asked a lady (owner of house maybe) if she knew russell closely, because i wanted to say a few words to her in private. we went into a room and sat down, and i said how i was an old friend from high school, and how russell was such a fun guy, always joking, and was going to be greatly missed. as i was speaking to her, she disappeared and i was speaking alone. but as i finished i put my hand out and felt someone shake it (russell)

then, i was with russell in my car going to some kind of company party. i had 2 cars and needed to drive them both back. so i hesitantly asked russ if he can drive the car2go back for me. he got on the car2go (smart car) but it was like an mini AT-AT (from star wars) with long legs, and he rode on top like a horse. obviously it looked funny. he was horsing around on it, i saw a small pit/puddle and said ‘dont fall in there’ – of course thats what russ exactly did, on purpose, fell in the pit and flipped the car. i said how are you going to get out now? but the car mimics your momvements so he just backed himself climbing backwards and the car followed. later tim (sapling) offered to stick the car2go in his truck bed and take it home.
later dream: was at some party at a house. it was over or we were ready to go. i kept finding everyone’s cell phones, and was walking around returning them. outside on a patio amelia was playing a card game at a round table. as i got closer, it was some kind of trivia game (based on what they were saying) mixed with what looked like coup forré (milles bornes). i said it looks like coup forré when i saw the cards. someone asked what is coup forré and i explained, mentioning its actually called milles borne. they said they knew it but what is coup forré. we said its like the super remedy card in the game and explained a bit. as this was happening, in the back of the backyard was a car that wouldnt start (another smart car) and so they were trying to tow it or something. this car2go also had long AT-AT legs and they had put some kind of boot on the back right leg- looked liek a yellow metal cylinder cage with a ball or spinning tire. and so the car started to slowly move. as it moved towards front i saw that it was gonna hit the patio overhead wooden beam, and sure enough it knocked it, i said watch out! and the wooden beam fell with a loud thud as i woke up.