Goodbye to Flicker… Thanks for 12 years of Service
Posted inOpinion/Journal

Goodbye to Flicker… Thanks for 12 years of Service

So, I used to be a huge user of Flickr for photos, I would check it daily and comment and join communities and pretty much posted every photo I had taken there. I used to use flicker a lot and look for the best life insurance for all.   Over time I sort of fell out of the habit of using it.  This wasn't over Instagram or anything, I didn't join Instagram until much later, something just sort of became less compelling about it.  I still kept up my subscription though.  The annual $25 fee is pretty small and it…
Building A Cross Platform App with Xamarin
Posted inProgramming Projects

Building A Cross Platform App with Xamarin

So, I made an app.  A for real, runs on things app.  More accurately, I followed a little tutorial to make an app, as part of the Xamarin Challenge over at Thurrott.com.  The app itself is a little weather app, it even includes location based weather and forecasting.  I know this isn't particularly impressive but I think it's pretty neat. Part of the point of the exercise is that it show off the cross platform ability of Xamarin as a development plaform.  The end app uses the same code and runs on Windows 10, iOS and Android.  Unfortunately, I don't…
Fixing my New 3DS …
Posted inOpinion/Journal

Fixing my New 3DS …

So, the title there says New 3DS, which is is the "New 3DS" but it's also New, in the sense that I bought it at the start of January.  It's like 3 or 4 weeks old.  Then I broke it on accident.  It's taken me years to get around to saving the money to buy one of these, not so much because I don't have the money, but because I wanted to know it was at a point in it's console life cycle that it was worth buying.  If it has been say, $50 cheaper, I'd have bought one years…
My DIY Dance Dance Revolution Hardpad
Posted inOpinion/Journal

My DIY Dance Dance Revolution Hardpad

Something like ten years or so ago, I built my own hardpad for use on Dance Dance Revolution and Stepmania.  Most of the pads that are easily bought are "soft pads".  These vary in quality, I have a couple of pads that are pretty light weight and plastic I used ages ago.  These pads tend to get damaged pretty easily, especially when wearing shoes, and slide all over the place when playing.  When i used mine in college I actually taped it to the underside of the rug in the dorm and taped out the grid of squares on the…
Pentax K-3
Posted inOpinion/Journal

Pentax K-3

I’ve recently upgraded my DSLR and have had a bit to play around with it and get a feel for it. I went for an upgrade over my old Pentax K-7 to a Pentax K-3. I already have lenses so I saved money by buying Body Only I like my K-7, it just got worn out The K3 has a build in flash unlike the K-3II, so when my wife uses it she doesn’t have to fight with an external flash It’s not the newest K-1, which means it costs less, though is still nice I mentioned my K-7 became…