Steven's Blog

I personally grew up with Harry Potter. I have read every book like 20 times each, I own them all. I even own the last book signed by Mary GrandPre (The Illustrator). I always loved to intrigue myself and close myself in my room and read Harry Potter. I am going too go see the new Harry Potter movie, hopefully at the midnight showing. I know it is going to be awesome, since the last two books were the best.

I recently found out that the last movie, Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows, will not be be ONE movie, but two. It is split up into two 2-3 hour movies. Both of the movies have began filming already. I really like this idea, mostly because the last book is so important and has so much information that there is no way that one movie could fit it all in, without ending up like the tragedy of the Eragon movie. This leaves room for more information to be shown and a much slower paced movie. Brilliant idea! There will only be a 6-12 month interval between the two, unlike the year or two intervaals between the previous movies. The actors are in their twenties and are filming as characters of 18 years old. Haha! Whatever, as long they do a good job.

Small Update: I just recieved my new laptop. This is my first post from the new laptop. It is a Toshiba Satellite A505! I love this thing, it is a beast. For the people interested, here are the quick specs:

• 4GB of RAM (Upgradeable to 8 GB, which it will be upgrade to soon)
• 320GB Hard Drive
• 16 Inch HD TrueBrite Widescreen
• SuperMulti DVD-RW/CD-RW Drive with Label Flash (Amazing Labels!)
• An Amzing Black Onyx Finish with a sonic pattern.
• Eco-Mode Option (Awesome!)
• Full 140 Key Keyboard (Includes the numeric pad to the right of the keyboard)
• Webcam and Mic setup (Awesome for Skype)

iPhones are essentially phones and iPod combined into one nice sleek gadget. They do so much more than that though. `iPhones have cool internal capabilities like video, web surfing, video games and it has a camera. But the iPhone is being updated all the time to work with other gadgets and cameras and video game systems to work as a handheld remote type of gadget, this is called “Externalizing” a gadget. The iPhone has a nice line-up of Extrnal Capabilities and some are being planned.

iPhones can be used a a remote for DSLR cameras like Nikon and Canon cameras. A program called onOne allows your camera’s display to appear on you iPhone and you can adjust the zoom, focus and trigger. This is very cool for photographers and even people who like to take family portraits, because you don’t have to set the timer then run over the fireplace and smile. Haha! For more Info: onOne

iPhone users can also use remote access. Lets say you have a file at home and you need it, but your at work…. the iPhone has two apps that can help you. If your a Mac, then you would use Telekinesis, if your a PC (I’m a PC) then you would use Tight VNC. These apps allow you to access your home computer’s files and view it on your iPhone, if you have your USB cord, then you can also send the files to your laptop or work computer. It works pretty well. For more Info: TightVNC or  Telekenesis

iPhones are also used as regular remotes. They have apps for making the iPhone into an iTunes remote, a remote for your Mac, a remote for your Apple TV and more. I have seen many modders that will take iPhones and control their inventions with them. Some of them have controlled cars, radio planes, lights, machines, stoves, etc.

The iPhone can pretty much be made to do anything as long as an app can be made for it.

My desk is a mess! Everyone that knows me well will tell you, many of my readers know too. Haha! Everything on my desk has its very own little place and if its not in its place… I DON’T KNOW WHERE IT IS!!!! My grandmother (and sometimes my mom when she comes to visit) has the tendency to move things around and try to “clean” my desk….. then I can’t find anything. I am planning to arrange my room and my desk with some space saving ideas and products and I am going to share these ideas and products.

1- Magnetic Keyboard and Mouse
By installing magnets in your keyboard and mouse and by installing magnets in your wall, you can just “hang” your keyboard and mouse on your wall or you can even do it to the side of you desk or something. I may install some magnets to stuff in my room or on my desk.
For more Info: Gizmo Projects

2- Drawer Organizers
Drawer Organizers help organize all the papers and even the small parts on the your desk. I used to use it for papers, pens, computer parts, cords and chargers. They work well and get the clutter off of your desk. Wal-Mart has them for cheap, like $10.

3- Desk
Depending on how your desk is shaped you may have more space than others. Some desks, like my old desk, has a hutch and this gives you a lot of room. Some desks curve in a long L shape and give you LOTS of space. If you need a lot of space and/or a flat open surface, then L shaped desks are good. File Cabinets are good too.

4- Shelves
Shelves make awesome save savers, you can put all of your junk and books and papers up on shelves and have them out of the way. They are pretty cheap. I you don’t want to buy shelves, just do it yourself, get a 2 by4 and some supports and make your own shelves.
Do It Yourself Shelves Tutorial

Popular Science makes occasional experiments. Their latest experiment involved freezing Mercury with Liquid Nitrogen. Theo Grey poured Liquid Mercury into cookie plates and poured Liquid Nitrogen around the plates. the mercury solidified and made sculptures. They then just left the sculptures to melt. It was pretty awesome. Watch the video and WATCH IT only, messing with Mercury looks fun but it is a highly toxic and dangerous. Do not try to replicate what Theo Grey is doing. please…I would feel horrible since I showed you guys the video. I would then be forced to unleash fruit bats in your underpants…. Who said that? That’s crazy! Haha!

Popular Science Mercury Experiment Page

I have been a gamer all of my life. I used to be a die-hard hardcore gamer a couple of years ago, but I’ve died down a bit. A fellow passionate gamer has created the Game Gun. The Game Gun is a plastic gun with the WASD keys on the barrel and an LCD screen built into it. You can play games like Halo: Combat evolved, Counter Strike, Etc. The screen moves as you look around as if the screen were your scope. That awesome, especially since I love playing Halo and a Gun would be amazing to play with. If this guy doesn’t sell these to the public, Microsoft or someone else will surely take interest and buy his product. The gamer has made several different types of Game guns, his newest version is wireless and he is talking about making one with a projector on it. This sounds awesome and I will surely buy one.

Game Gun Website

Some of you may remember the post I wrote last week about NASA’s interest in the moon. I spoke about a project that will send a lunar probe to the moon, take pictures and video and will then crash into the moon to find out if the moon has any water. Well, what I hadn’t realized was that this happened already, Haha! The Lunar Probe crash landed last night in one of the moon’s craters. The Japan Space Agency, which was in with NASA on the project and for some odd reason is abbreviated JAXA, released pictures and and amazing HD video of the Kaguya Lunar Probe. I decided that this would be a nice follow-up to my other post and that I should share this with you.

Here is the picture gallery: Popular Science

Apparently, the Sahara gets SO much sun, that if 0.3% of it’s area had solar panels on it, it could power all of Europe. That is a lot of power and a ot of sun. 20 German companies are looking into putting several Solar Arrays in Northern Africa in stable countries. Hopefully all of these Solar Arrays will produce so much power that it may power many different cities in Europe. This project will take many years to complete and $555 Billion to make. Thats a LOT of money, but it may be worth it.

NASA has beeen showing a great deal of interest on the Moon lately. Just recently, the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter was launched from Cape Canaveral, FL on a mission of measuring and mapping the Moon. NASA also said that they are on a mission to have men on the moon by 2020. They will be mapping the moon to see where is the best place to land.

NASA also, just recently, released that they will actually send a bomb to the Moon and explode it, this will send a 2 to 6 mile-high debris field in the space, which we may or may not be able to see. This will open a big portion of the core of the Moon and will, according to NASA, show if the moon has any water. If there is water on the Moon, it will facilitate the population of the Moon. The Orion spacecraft is being prepared for flights to the ISS and the Moon. It looks like NASA really wants to get a piece of the Moon, eh?

NASA Website

Over the years, many Operating Systems (OS) have popped out of nowhere. Of course, the most popular are Microsoft’s Windows line and Apple’s Macintosh (Mac). There are several other OS’s like Linux, Ubuntu and the ever famous: DOS. There are hundreds of OS (Wikipedia List of OS). I personally have tried a couple: Windows 98, XP, Vista, Mac OS, Ubuntu, Linux and Hopefully Windows 7 soon. Haha!

Many of the different OS give different advantages. Windows runs pretty much any program and is highly customizable. Mac only runs specialized programs made for macs, but it is a wonderful OS. You can download anything on Linux. because there are no known viruses or bugs for the OS as of right now. Etc. Etc. Etc.

I want to know the opinion of my readers about which OS is better to them. Write your answer in the comments.

A Hong Kong based company called Edushi create a realistic 3D map of Hong Kong. The map looks so realistic, the buildings are all there and it even shows cars on the road. This (pardon my 1337 speak) Epically PWNS Google Maps. Google should make their maps like this, it would make life so much easier! Google Earth doesn’t even match this. I hope this company continues to make these maps and possible makes an English website.

Here’s the Map Link: http://hongkong.edushi.com/?L=en