Macgasm

Sometimes you need to punch a robot in the mouth. Technology can be a pain, so anytime someone gives me an avenue for beating up on technology I jump in head first. Spreadsheets not working? Monitor flickering weird? Take it out on a robot.

smackBOTS lets you do just that. It’s that old sock’em up game that was around when I was a kid, you know, the one where you’re boxing and trying to knock each others heads off. Well we can now do it on the iPhone. The game isn’t very deep, and it epitomizes the term “casual game”, but it’s fun for ten minutes.

Tap the screen as fast as you can, and hope to knock your opponents head off. You have the ability to customize your robot, upgrade, and fight with other people online. Only problem… there doesn’t seem to ever be anyone online.

Image Credit: PantlessCrab

As the Macintosh market share grows, more and more Windows users will have to interact with a Mac at some point. Stepping back from my bias towards Macs, this is fairly great for the computer-using society on the whole. When most everyone can use most every operating system without batting an eye, we’re in for some platform agnostic innovation right around the corner.

The reason why familiarizing people will help innovation is that fewer people will feel locked in. To this day, a portion of the population still think of Windows as the only real option as far as operating systems go. When we introduce other people to different operating systems, they’ll know that there are viable alternatives other than Windows. If we ever get to the point where there is no real de facto operating system, Microsoft will be forced to provide a better experience in order to survive. That goes for Apple as well. The OS developers will be forced to put some elbow grease into their products instead of resting on their laurels. That is good for consumers.

I am slowly introducing the Mac platform to someone who has only ever used Windows machines. I will continue this series of posts with my observations and this person’s experiences.

Photo Credit: Mr.Thomas

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In this episode, we talk about the issue of THIRD HAND smoke and computer repair.

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People constantly say that the Mac makes a great computer for home users, and I can’t disagree with that, but it’s the flipside that really gets me going. When people tell me that the Mac has no place in a professional environment, the first thing that comes to my mind is scared IT professionals who were brought up on Windows certification courses.

Anyway, today Apple released a case study on their website about a Radiology lab that utilizes Apple technologies to ensure that their patients are getting the best care possible. It’s one thing for a technologist to say that Macs are cheaper to support in the long run, but it’s another thing altogether when a professional in another field reiterates the same sentiments.

“I spent $40,000 and I have a PACS ( picture archiving and communication system) that people spend $400,000 for,” says Bakker. “And it’s better. But the really nice thing is, I can help small hospitals to get into PACS with minimal cost. A little hospital that can’t afford a PACS can access images through an iMac, download OsiriX Pro, and look at images. The iMac can route those studies to me. My own hardware costs were so reasonable that I can offer to store their images at no cost.”

This is a prime example of how the world is changing, and more importantly how modern technology, that’s available to everyone, is starting to lower the cost of saving lives. It’s a great read, and I’d recommend checking out the full article.

With the holidays coming up I thought I would give everybody some more ideas for holiday gifts for the Apple users in their lives. This series of articles will help you find some ideas for anybody who happens to be an Apple user, no matter if your budget is under $25 or over $2500. In this article we’ll try and find some gift ideas for those that have a budget between $250 and $500.

Apple users can be particular about their gifts and the way their gadgets work, however in the price range of $250 to $500 there are a myriad of options available.

If you know that your Apple user does not backup on a regular basis, The Apple Time Capsule may not be a bad idea. It can sync wirelessly and without any user interaction. It comes in two storage sizes, 1 Terabyte for $279.95 and the 2 Terabyte for $469.95.

If your Apple user loves to have a bunch of hard drives, and who doesn’t, you can always get them the G-tech G-Raid3 2TB which includes 1 Firewire 800 port, USB, and Firewire 400 port all for only $309 on Amazon.

Some Apple users need a ton of space, for those you can always pick up the original Drobo which will allow four hard drives for only $349.95 from Amazon.

Alternatively, if your Apple user doesn’t have an iPod Touch you can always get them one of the 64 GB models for $358 on Amazon.

A slim set of the Apple geek universe loves to run their own server, for those Apple users you could always get Snow Leopard Server for $397.00 from Amazon.

Some Apple geeks end up having to support non-Apple users. If that’s the case, and your Apple user has to have a copy of Windows installed, either in Bootcamp or in a virtual machine at least get them the latest version with the most bells and whistles, Windows 7 Ultimate for $291.49 from Amazon.

As always there is the two standards, the iTunes Store gift card, or an Apple Store gift card. Also remember these are just some ideas for Holiday gifts. There are thousands of others great ideas out there.

The news came forth yesterday that Apple was purchasing streaming audio site Lala. Lala, for those who may not know, is a music streaming website that allow users to create playlists of their favorite artists and songs, and even purchase mp3 versions of the songs that they really wish to keep. Why would Apple decide to purchase Lala?

There is one key feature that I believe is the reason why Apple would decide to purchase Lala–the data. Yes, the listening habits of all of the users of a streaming music service can do wonders for Apple’s Genius playlist feature. Yes, the listening habits of the iTunes users

while their at home is quite useful; just think of the additional data that Apple can receive from the users who use Lala for listening to their music while they’re at work.

Along with Genius playlist knowledge, the agreements that Lala has with the recording industry is probably a very lucrative item that Apple would like to acquire in order to give them more leverage to allow full streaming of every song through the iTunes interface.

The final reason Apple would possibly want to purchase Lala is to begin its foray into streaming music in order to keep them relative in the field with other streaming applications like Pandora or Last.fm.

Maybe it’s just me, but it seems as though Apple is making a good move by purchasing a streaming audio company instead of building their own. Not that Apple couldn’t do it, but sometimes it’s just easier and quicker to purchase the technology than to build it by your own.

One of the things I love about the iPhone (and Macs in general) is that it seems to push people to be creative: from an iPhone photography book to a cover for The New Yorker there’s some incredible stuff being done with iPhones.

This is a version of Weezer’s Pork and Beans music video in which the whole song is played entirely with iPhone instruments. Not only that but also the iPhone is a big part of the video itself. Check it out:

If you like this video you should check out GuizDP‘s other videos. His version of Twist and Shout is one of my favorites.

I hate keeping things in my head. There’s plenty of room for stuff, but I like to keep it vacant for important stuff. There is a lot to be said about using ToDos, and Mind Maps to keep thoughts organized so that you can free up some of that biological computing power in your brain. There’s a lot of great applications out there that let you do mind maps, and they’re full featured, but that’s not what I want to show you guys today.

Today is keeping things simple day.

I stumbled across an application yesterday called MindNode. It essentially lets you map out relational information in a way that’s easy to understand, and even quicker to setup.

Click a “node”, label it, then create sub-nodes, label them, and away you go.

This thing can be used for a host of scenarios, take for instance this map of Macgasm.net where I listed out the different sections of the website, and a couple of new additions we’re working on (Sorry, they’re blurred out), as an example. Heck you could use this for a rudimentary network mapping tool, or even an organizational personnel map.

MindNode has a basic free version, as well as a paid for version that offers a bunch of more options. If you’re really looking for something more professional with a deep feature set, you might also wont to check out OmniGraffle. If OmniGraffle is a little too pricy for you, you could always enter our holiday giveaway, and start praying that you win. Just a suggestion.