Virtual Reality- still not fully baked

Apparently this is the year of VR or virtual reality. The Oculus Rift can now actually be purchased by normal (non-developer) user. The Valve/HTC Vive is available as well, and Sony’s ‘Morpheus’ PlayStation VR product is supposedly coming very soon.

 

This isn’t a review of any of these products, but rather my opinion regarding the current state and potential of VR…

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Replacing the shift key on a Macbook 2015

Apple has done some amazing work in recent years refining the definition of ‘small’ and ‘thin’ computers. The Macbook 2015, which I previously reviewed/compared to my Macbook Pro , is definitely the poster child for minimalist full-capability computing.

Unfortunately, I broke one of the keys on my Macbook when I accidentally dropped the laptop on our hardwood floor. My attempt to repair this demonstrated the dark side of all that miniaturization- the Macbook 2015 is very hard to fix.

The first recommendation I found was to replace the entire top of the Macbook: keyboard, touchpad, and case assembly. In addition to this being rather costly (several hundred dollars), it just didn’t seem right. The other keys were fine, and as far as I could tell the electronic ‘bubble’ key mechanism was still working. Just the hinge and the key were broken.

In the end, I was proven right- it is possible to fix a single key without replacing the entire keyboard. Here is my experience of that process.

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Brexit has happened- but why?

The United Kingdom has voted to leave the European Union. This was a surprise to many, but every report I read before the vote implied that it was going to be very close.

Why did this happen? What prompted rejection of a free trade union that had seemingly benefited every member country economically and socially? And what happens next?

I don’t have answers, but I have opinions just as others do: and since this is my blog, I get to share those opinions with you.

Continue reading Brexit has happened- but why?

Domain name search registration scam

I registered a new domain name yesterday: geekonaharley.org. My current vague plan is to move my motorcycle-related posts from here to the new blog in an effort to make the ‘eclectic’ nature of my posts slightly less so. I.e.: people interested in my motorbike related posts won’t get any cat or politics related posts mixed in.

But that isn’t what this post is about. Instead it is about the scam email that arrived in my email inbox today, the day after registering my new domain.

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Fallout 4

Title Fallout 4
Developer Bethesda
Type RPG
Platform(s) XBox One, PS4, PC (reviewed on XBox)
Kelly Score ™

95 / 100

 

Fallout 4 has been out for over eight months now. Even for a procrastinator like myself, that is more than enough time to formulate an opinion. So now I’ll endeavour to document my thoughts on Bethesda’s latest open-world post apocalyptic role playing game

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Cecil the Lion: hunting is not a ‘sport’

There has been a great deal of coverage lately regarding the killing of a single particular lion in Zimbabwe by an American trophy hunter.  I’m angry, and wish no good will upon the pathetic excuse for a human being who ‘hunted’ this lion- but that isn’t what I want to talk about here.

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2015 Motorcycle road trip: An Unexpected Journey

Life is full of surprises: some good, some not so good.  I don’t deal well with surprises, but to counter that I’ve adopted a ‘seize control’ mentality that sometimes kicks in and gets me past the unexpected.  My motorcycle road trip for 2015 is essentially a case history of that adaptation of mine, and I’m not sure whether to be proud or a bit sheepish.  Either way, here is my accounting of the Journey of Unexpected Turns.  Wherein I was supposed to be going to Reno, Nevada, but ended up going somewhere else entirely…

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A bit about Pippin

It all started in August of 2014.  Irene thought her Mother really wanted a companion cat, and so she went out and found what she thought to be exactly the kitten her mother desired:  a Siamese – Balinese cross kitten, to be exact.  The kitten was to spend a day or two in isolation at our house before making the trip over to the island to live.

It didn’t work out that way…

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2014 motorcycle road trip: Yellowstone

I set out in June of 2014 (June 28, to be precise) to meet up with my brother Colin for the second of our ‘annual’ motorcycle road trips.  The plan was simple: go to Yellowstone Park, and see what is to be seen.  A very rough map of the sites we visited (if not the route we followed… more details below) looks something like this:
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And now on to the details…

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Technology, computer games, MMOGs, science…and other nerdy stuff