freshbytes

As the apparent Australian release of the 3G iPhone draws near, I’d thought I’d take this opportunity to talk about it…and some other things

So as you all know, I’m sure – I’m a huge fan of Apple’s products. I love what they do, how they do it, and the general look and feel of all things Apple. There is no doubt in my mind that I’ll be getting a 3G iPhone when they land in Ostraya (that’s Australia, folks) and that I’ll probably be putting it on Telstra.

Hate them or love them, you can’t refute the fact that Telstra have the largest 3G network in Australia, with plans to increase coverage in the next couple of years. If I were in any other city than Tasmania, I’d be with Three (on pure coolness of name alone, if nothing else) or one of the other providers. But, I live in Tasmania, and for pure coverage, Telstra wins hands down. Add to that the fact that Telstra are going to have the fastest iPhone in the world (disputed – apparently the chip in the iPhone doesn’t support 42mbps) at 42mbps by Christmas 2008, and you have a winner. Besides, all my friends are on Telstra, and 1c text is great

Ah, it should be so awesome when it actually does come out in Australia. I’m salivating over it already…

Now for the message part of this post (oh yeah, you knew there was going to be one, didn’t you?!)…

Still iPhone related, but a couple of weeks ago I had a dream about the new 3G iPhone (sad, I know, but just goes to show how much getting one means to me – it’s like the holy grail of Apple products). Anyway, in this dream of mine, someone came up to me and said that they had a new iPhone. Obviously, I got really excited, walked into the room where the new iPhones were being handed out like candy to children, and proceeded to clamour around the immensely lucky people that had already managed to receive the holy grail. As I watched the expressions on their faces at the joy of new tech, I slowly realised that something was wrong. The iPhone was great, yeah, but the design – shocking! Think late 80’s hand-held games consoles – big, chunky, two-handed things that had tiny, black and white screens, and used semi-joystick things to play the games on them – one of which was basketball related, I’m sure. I didn’t realise that Apple would never have made such a hideous product – I was just blown away by the fact that it was an Apple product – the holy grail of Apple products.

I think that’s how a lot of people are going about their business these days. They’re so wrapped up in the product that they’re buying that it doesn’t occur to them that what they’re getting isn’t the real deal (aka it’s a fake), but it doesn’t matter because hey, it’s an Apple product! They blindly follow the crowd, thinking that just because everyone else has one, they need one, or two. Now, this make work in the favour of any successful business (not all businesses, though) but in the long term, all that happens is that people end up with an item they didn’t necessarily need. Don’t get me wrong, I think the iPhone is a great product – the pinnacle of digital convergence, if you like – but those that are buying iPhones for the hell of it, or to look cool – don’t. Put your money towards something more worthwhile, like a gift for your significant other, or a donation to charity. Say no to the man!

So I guess the message of the day is: If you don’t stand for something, you’ll fall for anything.

Benny, out. Comments below.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: 3g, dream, iphone, june, rumours, telstra

First up: I do apologise for the late blog post. In my defence, I blame Chris

We’ll be having two posts this weekend, the other one will come shortly when I have no other things to work on

Weekend roundup: Meh, the usual suspects:

• Radi8 consisted of a little hangout time (enjoyable), a quasi-Radi8tion/GamesMania (Black team takes out the Radi8tion cup, for the third or the fourth time), a small iTunes workshop (both informative and interesting), some interesting pancakes (ham, pineapple – they belong on pizza, NOT pancakes), some small group time (death and sex – and interesting combination) and then praise and worship.
• -=(NoSpoon)=- group gaming session – we’ve made a couple of changes to this. Times are still the same (from 8pm-12am), but we now also run TeamSpeak (email one of the admins for server details, etc), as well as a couple of new games; Urban Terror (a CS knockoff game, entertaining nonetheless) as well as Trackmania Nations Forever. Battlefield 1942 is also expected to get going, at least once Chris finds some disk space so he can actually install the thing… We haven’t given up entirely on CZ, though, but we’re working on getting a VPN going (via Hamachi) so we can share iTunes libraries and play games over a “local” network. Chris and I have been “experimenting” with this over the last couple of days, and we seem to have got it going, with a little less lag than internet servers. Again, talk to the admins if you want to know the details. I’ve also changed my clan tag to ((NS)) verbos3, because having -=(NoSpoon)=- gamertag isn’t the best look in any game… You guys should all follow!
• Work – work as usual. Relatively quiet, though, and that goes for the entire CBD. Maybe it’s just winter, but people just don’t seem to want to come out of the warmth of their beds – and funnily enough, I don’t blame them..

If there’s anything I’ve missed (I’m not perfect, far from it) please tell me and I’ll endeavour to add it as soon as I get around to it

Oh – happy holidays, you private-school students. You deserve them!

Otherwise, it’s comments as usual. By now, surely you know where to put em

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: games, hamachi, NoSpoon, radi8, vpn

So there’s been a few changes around here…

For all those who don’t register for the blog, you can do so here. Why register? Well, apart from giving us people something new to look at, you also won’t have to type in your details everytime you go to submit a comment on a post. Besides, we like to know how many people actually read this stuff!

Secondly, if for whatever reason you don’t want to sign up (which is totally understandable), and you haven an OpenID, I”m proud to announce that you can now sign into freshbytes using your OpenID. As I’m sure, the introduction of OpenID will suit all you geeks out there. If you don’t have an OpenID, or don’t know what an OpenID even is, for that matter – to start you off, here’s the wikipedia link.

Here at freshbytes, we don’t like to leave you in the dark in regards to information (after all, it is free!), so here’s the official website, as well as the page on where/how to get an OpenID. I personally recommend VeriSign if you’re going to sign up for a new OpenID account, as VeriSign are pretty reputable round the interwebs for being trusted within the larger security community!

You’ll now be able to sign in using your OpenID to sing in to any sites with the “OpenID Enabled” text next to a text field, including this one.

Lastly – we need recruits! If you are the kind of person who would appreciate somewhere to put some thoughts, maybe have some D&M’s with the wider community, then we’d love to hear from you! In short – if you want to write for freshbytes (we don’t really care about what topic, you can choose), please, PLEASE contact us! School is usually the best option, but you can always see the contact page for alternate ways of contacting us…

That’s it!

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: Freshbytes, housekeeping, openid, write-for-freshbytes

There’s this joke among geeks…

It goes along the lines of a [proud] geek wearing a t-shirt that says something along the lines of “Keep out of direct sunlight“, or “The sun is trying to kill me!” – with the latter being modeled by Jawapro/Headless Moron at a recent 18th – congrats Martin.

Obviously, the joke plays on the fact that geeks are usually people that stay indoors for long periods of time, don’t have a varied social life, and all that kind of stuff.

The thing is – geeks are people too! Just like that little old lady walking across the street, like those bogans who are very clearly stoned and walking in the middle of the road of a busy highway, and exactly like those people who serve you at the Coles checkout, they all deserve your respect like any other people you might come across in the street. Oh, well maybe not the bogans…

The point is, you can’t go around abusing people just because they look different to you, smell different, taste different, talk different, or can’t sing as well as you can. What you’ve got to realise is that you’re unique, but the problem is that everyone else is as well… Until you accept the fact that people are different to you, you won’t be able to stop judging them over the most petty things you can possibly think of – how they talk, how they walk, how they look everyday at school, the list goes on…

The fact that you’re reading this post right now is testament to the ingenuity of the human race, regardless of colour, race, religion, monetary status, or any other method that we size each other up by, and yet strive so hard to achieve.

The fact of the matter is – we’re all different, so you better get used to it. The sooner, the better!

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: difference, geeks, respect

Well, it’s been a slow weekend. Sure, there were a couple of 18th – cheers to Joel and Ian – as well as The Ultimate Gift at Radi8, but other than that, it’s been pretty quiet.

Maybe I’m not looking hard enough for things to do. Oh wait – it’s the fact that I don’t have an Xbox 360 or a PS3 to keep me entertained with GTA IV…

Anyways, Trackmania Nations is awesome, as well as being free. If you don’t have this game, but have Steam, get it now!

For those that aren’t into racing games – or games at all, for that matter – here’s Ash at Christian Perspectives Camp 2008, doing his infamous “Council Talkback”. I thought I’d put this here, just for old times’ sake – also so I can find it later on…

YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED!

For those of you that haven’t died from shock, here’s Chris Jacques also at Christian Perspectives 2008, headbanging to Rammstein’s Du Hast.

written by Benny Ling \\ tags: ash page, chris jacques, council talkback, du hast, trackmania