David Pollitt

Lincoln Memorial At Dusk

// February 26th, 2009 // View Comments // Photography

Lincoln Memorial At Dusk, originally uploaded by dpollitt.

I was fortunate enough to get a weekend trip to D.C. so I took the tourist route and hit just about every spot I could, I ended the day with some dusk shots of the memorials. You’ll notice a star at the top center of the image, it was a pretty neat site at this time of night.

These were the steps that Dr. Martin Luther King gave his greatest speech in 1963.

-DPollitt

Blackberry Storm 9530 OS 4.7.0.109 Leak Is Sweet!

// February 25th, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry

I gave the newest beta release a try, and was pleasantly surprised. I really noticed quite the improvement in overall speed. The lag that used to be common while typing is virtually gone. The entire OS is also faster with faster transitions, loading of programs, and flipping through items.
This is just a quick update of the leak, I’ll try to say more later, but while you’re waiting I’d recommend you give it a try.
Link to beta at Crackberry.com – Here

-DPollitt

Safari Web Browser 4 Beta

// February 24th, 2009 // View Comments // Software

Apple dropped the newest beta version of its Safari browser yesterday to the public. Developers have been able to test it for quite a few months now, so its nice to see it find its way into our hands. I’ll start with some obvious stuff, and maybe share some less than obvious aspects I’ve stumbled on so far.

Issues:
No wheel click to close a tab.

Bonus:
Top Sites is fantastic.
Coverflow + History is amazing
Tab Feature – Try dragging the corner of a tab out into its own window – the feature is great(just like google chrome, and also a Firefox extension), but the animation that it has is sweet.

Most pointless ‘feature’ when you click on a Top Site to open a new tab, it first shows you a greyed out cached version of the page. Pretty pointless, dont show me anything till the new content is up please.

The Acid 3 test gave me a 96/100, which is pretty awesome. There was a slight hickup about halfway – but it flew past the rest of it.

I haven’t seen any CSS issues yet. Gmail seemed to load well, and all the other sites I’ve visited were presented as I expected.  I have to say that it tops the current version of firefox for displaying Wordpress.  I won’t get into all the technical specs of why they support different things, but lets just say – Safari 4 is better for Wordpress then Firefox 3.

It is a bit counterintuative for us PC users to see the tabs up top on the title bar. I’ve got lost a few times looking for my tabs. But in the end I think this is a welcomed addition. It saves on screen real-estate and looks pretty good at it.

After using it for a few hours – it took up around 200MB of my memory, even after I dropped all but 1 tab.  Pretty much inline with Firefox, which I also have running, and is sitting at a bit over 250MB.  Both are hogs, but I’ll take the hit for the nice experience.

Overall I think it is great to see a third big player in the browser market. They all have done a good job improving on recent standards, and at least all attempting to conform. I also like seeing this new breed push for better javascript performance, something the web was in dire need of.

I’d say give it a try if you are into beta software. Its stable, nice to use, and pretty slick.

-DPollitt

Federal Reserve – 1936

// February 22nd, 2009 // View Comments // Photography

Federal Reserve – 1936, originally uploaded by dpollitt.

I took a day trip recently to Washington D.C., I tried to hit quite a few spots and capture what I could for photos. This was one of my favorite buildings. I also liked how there wasn’t a big draw outside of it with lines out the front door.

-DPollitt

New Blackberry Storm Software

// February 22nd, 2009 // View Comments // Blackberry

Over the past week Blackberry Storm users have seen some exciting new software appear.
-The first major release has been the software needed to create themes.  With this we have seen tons of new themes appear, some of which are pretty nice already. Link
-We also saw a new browser hit the market – Bolt Browser.  It has some new innovative features, and promises to be fast at it. Link
-Finally it isnt a new piece of software, but rather a much awaited feature.  Google Maps for Mobile has added GPS support to the newest version 3.0.2 – only for the Blackberry Storm.  I find it interesting that Verizon is allowing you to use third party software with the onboard GPS, considering that they try to charge you $10/month for their own similar software. Link

Anyways, a bit of excitement in the Blackberry Storm world, even if you aren’t looking to try out Beta OS software.

-DPollitt

Auditorium

// February 17th, 2009 // View Comments // Fun, Guest Blog, Music

Auditorium is a unique Flash based game that is both visually and aurally stimulating.  The purpose of Auditorium is to guide the flow of colored audio particles  into the appropriate audio containers that are sporadically placed in a vast, empty environment.  Upon filling these containers, the colored audio particles transform into sound.  Each container corresponds with a different instrument, and with enough light, the containers will play in a symphony.  Through the use of directional arrows, attracts, repels, deflects, and rabbits, the audio particles can be routed around or through obstacles that include color spheres, divides, portals, and black holes.

Confused?  The game is surprisingly easy to learn.

Officially in full release, Auditorium is available for $10.99.  For this, one will receive 70 levels that are spread across 15 different acts.  However, the trial version available on the website was quite extensive while the game was still in beta.

If you find yourself needing help to complete a certain level, youTube has an extensive collection of videos to help you here.  And if you do not have the appropriate version of Flash, the latest is available here.

A. Greeman