Shaken Earth

What I Hate About Web Apps

admin — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 00:02:37 +0000

Web apps are an awesome thing. They save time and are much more efficient. But there are many downsides to them from my point of view. They take away an app’s individuality. Back when the desktop dominated the application market every app had it’s own “personality” to it that added a feeling of individuality to it. What I mean by this is that each app built its own little “kingdom” up. But today a lot of apps don’t stray too much farther away from a much bigger platform. These platforms are these giant kingdoms and the apps are the people who live in the kingdom. It’s not like when apps were their own kingdoms and their wasn’t these huge platforms that reigned above all. Sure apps may get more attention when their all in one environment. In the apposphere today everything is integrated into one environment. This environment is the web. People look at apps differently these days. People just think it’s all part of one giant app. They’ve all become woven into this quilt. The quilt of the web. The quilt of one environment.

But there are good things about this one environment. First of all apps get more users. For example, Facebook is a huge platform. Developers can create an app and get instant users. Apps being integrated is also good for the user. You don’t have to download apps and fill up your hard drive. It’s also sooooo much more convenient. The user doesn’t have to open up each app individuality. But you can update your Twitter and Facebook statuses simultaneously.

In conclusion, I don’t think many apps that are on the web belong on the web. But there are some apps that must be on the web like Twitter and Facebook. They’re lightweight apps that are meant to be integrated with many apps. I also think that the internet should be integrated in apps. But the apps shouldn’t be integrated in the internet.

Rants About School

admin — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 23:43:32 +0000

So recently my school got a “Mac Lab”. In a nutshell this is basically a room with iMacs in it. They’re all set up and ready to go but guess what? We’re not allowed to use them. Actually we’re allowed to use them, but only for ONE CLASS! That class is Graphic Design. At the moment I’m not taking it but I have a feeling I might which is another story. They bought Adobe CS4 and the Macs for probably around $40,000. So why the hell would they use it for only one freaking class!? I have no clue. It’s absolutely ridiculous! Plus in “Computer Club”(I’ll go on to the school’s “Computer Club” later on) we’re not allowed to use them. Macs are SOOOO much more capable than JUST graphic design. Why not use them for a Programming Club too? Now let’s talk about Computer Club.

The Computer Club in my school SUCKS! Here’s five reasons:

The computers are SO SLOW!
The firewall blocks almost all the sites teens usually go on.
All the kids do who go to Computer Club are complete idiots who just want to play flash games for an hour and a half.
There’s no motivation whatsoever.
There’s no point in the club either.

1. The computers are SO SLOW! So the first time I went to Computer Club I thought it was going to be spectacular. Wrong. My first time trying the computers they were super slow. All the other times I went after that they were slow too.

2. The firewall blocks almost all the sites teens usually go on. After finding out the computers were super slow I figured I could just go on Facebook and RuneScape(My favorite game at the time) to pass the time. Wrong again. They’re BOTH blocked. So I tried to go on to other websites I usually go on. Most of them are blocked too.

3. All the kids do who go to Computer Club are complete idiots who just want to play flash games for an hour and a half. I’m not even joking. After this huge killjoy I walked around the room to see what everyone else was doing. Maybe they would be doing something sorta fun. Wrong yet again. Anyone who has a computer, a connection to the Internet, and a modern web browser can play these games at home. So why waste your time staying at school, where most sites are blocked , to play games you could play at your house?

4 & 5. There’s no motivation whatsoever and there’s no point to the club. When I look back on all the times I went to Computer Club there’s something I take note of. Motivation is the core of any club or organization and it is completely missing from Computer Club. No motivation leads to no point of the club either. Without a point to it or motivation to do something besides play flash games this club is just a room where kids show up to play flash games the whole time. Why not some motivation to tinker with the computer? Why not get a computer teacher(right now all there is is a supervisor) in there who actually will do something?

The last thing I’d like to talk about how their is absolutely no clubs in my school that don’t have to do with either art, music, or sports. There is a whole world of talent in the 75% of us who don’t like art, music, or sports(or at least the ones who don’t make the team). Why not have clubs for engineering, photography, or any other kind of stuff? Maybe we could all have some kind of extracurricular activity we like to do than just going home and being bored. The school is pretty much saying ‘If you don’t have a talent in the art, music, or sports we couldn’t care less about your talents’.

Thanks for reading, hope you enjoyed the rants =P.

Thoughts on Wave

admin — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 21:48:14 +0000

So I’ve been using the Google Wave preview for about a week now. Here’s my initial thoughts:

It has a very clean, email like interface.
Waves are so much more efficient and easier to use than email.
Gadgets are going to take Waves to a whole new level.
Waves will revolutionize communication and collaboration.
Waves can get messy to look at. (i.e. Blips in between blips and adding extensions in blips.)
It’s pretty slow (it’s probably because it’s only in the preview version right now)

Artificial Intelligence

admin — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 01:51:09 +0000

I love AI. It’s an amazing thing. In case you’re not aware of it AI means Artificial Intelligence. Whether it’s in the form of a robot, software, or a game it’s just cool how a computer can make it’s own decisions. We may not quite be there with robots yet, but we do have software AIs. The reason we’re farther along with software AIs is because they’re simpler to make. With robotic AIs they’re much more expensive to make because they need actual parts such as cameras, microphones, etc. and they need to be programmed on a much higher level. Some of these higher level things are the ability to not walk into a wall when they’re moving, the ability to take in data through their cameras and microphones. Everyday we get closer and closer to true robotic AI. Once the day comes when we have true robotic AI will be amazing. Think of the possibilities! Leave your thoughts on AI and what we’ll be able to do with it down below!

Almost done…

admin — Sun, 02 Aug 2009 14:38:54 +0000

The Phrasebot Logo

So I’m trying to finish up Phrasebot. There’s around two more bugs to squash. So I’m thinking Phrasebot will be done within the next week or so, if the bugs don’t multiply when I squash one that is…

Camp

admin — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 17:50:55 +0000

So tomorrow I will be going to overnight camp for a week. You might be asking yourself “What does this have to do with me?”. Well that means I can’t finish up Phrasebot and I won’t be able to post on Shaken Earth or on The Teen Geek. I’ll be getting back Saturday afternoon. Within a couple of days after that Phrasebot will be done and available for download! Have you ever been to a sleep-away camp? If so tell us about it, if not tell us what you think it would be like. Are you hyped about Phrasebot?

The Teen Geek

admin — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 21:49:56 +0000

So the other day I stumbled upon a blog called The Teen Geek. It’s basically a tech blog that teens run and right posts for. So I will be writing for that blog and this blog as well. So go and check it out! http://theteengeek.com

Dreams of the future for Phrasebot…

admin — Sat, 11 Jul 2009 14:01:23 +0000

Phrasebot is almost finished and I’ve been thinking of the things to do in the future on it. Wouldn’t it be cool to have a feature where if you couldn’t think of a word Phrasebot would put a word in for you with the click of a button? Or a whole network of everyone using Phrasebot and you could share your phrases up in the cloud and people could rate them on funnyness? Well these are coming! And the wait won’t be long!

Until Next Time,
this is Thomas signing off

P.S I’m dropping the whole chat client gig and replacing it with the PBN (Phrasebot Network) which is coming in a later version.

Chat Client embedded in Phrasebot

admin — Wed, 17 Jun 2009 22:23:42 +0000

So wouldn’t it be cool to have a chat client embedded in Phrasebot? Well I think it would! Think about it. So you’re sitting on your computer with Phrasebot open. You love the Phrases it’s generating from the words you entered but you wish you had someone to share them with! So you set Phrasebot to send a message containing the newest Phrase to the Phrasebot chat client so you can share your Phrases. Other then that you’ll be able to chat with other people using the built-in client! Leave your thoughts down below!

New Phrasebot Design

admin — Tue, 12 May 2009 20:18:44 +0000

So how would you like Phrasebot to go from that old clunky, annoying, and useless interface to this?

The new and improved layout =)

Well I know I do! With this new interface I’ll be able to add tons of new features and make it much more user-friendly. So what do you think of it? Leave a comment! =)