Something I won’t be eating while here in Shanghai

August 18, 2010 by Simon Goudie

Pickles are great and all, I’m sure, but still…

All part of the fun of traveling.

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I hate elections

July 28, 2010 by Simon Goudie

Using The Age/SMH‘s cringeworthy Vote-A-Matic quiz…

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Gillard, iOS4, Retina and Civ V

June 24, 2010 by Simon Goudie

Busy times! Australia’s got a new Prime Minister, but is out of the World Cup. Since Julia Gillard took over, I’ve been tallying up the tweets to work out if people are more preoccupied with her sex or her hair colour – both seem to be taking precedent over her ability to do the job. Personally, I don’t think it really matters one iota who’s in that job, but I’ve got no problem with Gillard having a go at it. It does seem like a fairly unceremonious way to bundle out Kevin Rudd though, particularly after the fanfare that was made when he was elected.

iOS4 is out and I’ve updated my 3GS. Seems pretty good, but my initial impression is that it’s slowed things down a bit. Obviously the multitasking and wallpapers take a bit more RAM to keep running, but I wasn’t expecting the hit to be as noticeable. Folders are great – I’ve gone from having too many apps to fit on all the screens down to two not-yet-full screens of organised folders. Likewise, the multitasking/quick-switching is pretty handy. Backgrounds to the menus are just plain distracting for the most part; however, I did find a great one on the Macrumors forums that is based on a desktop wallpaper found on Zixpk and looks great with the iPhone icons which is where most wallpapers struggle. Click on the thumbnail here to get to the full-sized iPhone version. This is about the only one I’ve tried that I like though.

iPhone 4 is very tempting. The new display is what I like the look of the most, to the point where I’ve gone off the idea of getting an iPad until it is updated to the same Retina Display. The difference that the increased resolution will make to printed material, I think, will be phenomenal. Just need to work out how I can upgrade my phone without paying Optus a ridiculous amount of money.

Eve Online is still sucking away hours of time and I’m moving between hi-sec and the null-sec home my corp has setup, although the bits of news about Civilization V that are coming out promise to suck me in pretty swiftly. This preview and video on Joystiq are interesting. I do like the new look of the interface and I hope that they have taken some lessons from Civ Rev and will be able to mix them with the complexity of Civ IV.