One of the top free iPhone applications is one called "PhoneSaber". Allow me to transcribe the description:

Ever wished you could swing your iPhone around like a lightsaber? Well, now you can, with PhoneSaber.

As you swing your phone, a range of lightsaber sound effects will be emitted from your phone's speaker. Not only that, but you can also withdraw and put away your saber.

Last but not least, you can also change the color of your lightsaber for maximum effect.

This is the third most downloaded application on the new iTunes Apps store. Why am I not surprised?


By the way, my phone appears to be in the middle of transitioning from one carrier to another - my old SIM is no longer active but the new one's not roaming yet. So if you need to reach me in the meantime, pliz call me at home or email me :)

Ooo, I wonder how far my wireless reaches into town? :D


ETA2: BWAHAHAH! Oh, encycl_of_weird is awesome :D

Since I've been on a Mac at home (ok, a Mac desktop and Windows laptop) I've been using my work desktop as my Windows sandbox.

As I don't have nearly as many plugins on my Firefox here at work, but was having problems with saving ANY kind of data between sessions (seriously, it wouldn't even save my new BOOKMARKS), I went ahead and upgraded to Firefox 3. Ooooooh. It is SHINY. My main plugins here have had the chance to sort themselves out, so good old Web Developer is running a charm. And not only are my sessions saved, but they were saved from the last time I ran shitty!Ff to the first time I ran Ff 3 \o/

Following that readability thread I linked to on Slashdot last week, I installed the Windows XP ClearType Tuner It is rather shiny, though for some reason I had to go in and enable it again today. It does take some getting used to.

In hardware news, iPhone in Australia - now for the bad news. I suck at getting my head around the figures in financial contracts, but have been trying to lately over the iPhone as I want one and it's being sold by The Big Three. That blog post actually manages to articulate a lot of what was making me feel iffy about all the deals that were being offered, though. Dammit, when will Australia get reasonable broadband pricing? And reasonable gadget pricing, too? I'd like to pay US$200 for an iPhone rather than AUD$700+.

In non-geek news (though, okay, it's a WEBCAM), Ferretbaby is getting ginormous and more and more adorable each day. Ehn!

My external hard drive has arrived and is waiting for me at the post office. Streetwise is pretty damn cool. Their shipping is pretty much at-cost ($8.95 for shipping in Melb). I order on Monday, Tuesday I get the note that they've shipped it, Wednesday the package arrives. Now I just have to wait until Monday (my office-hours day off) to pick it up. I wish POs had more friendly hours.

Anyway, seeing as I have been in SPN fandom for the past few years - therefore during the latest generation of my gadgets - pretty much all my technology is named after SPN things. The iMac is iMpala. My USB stick is Colt. My iPod is Metallipod, digital camera is Bela. The old external HD was Lawrence until it carked it. (hah hah)

I am crap at giving things non-fannish names. So I'm pondering doing some re-naming when I get my new generation of stuff, starting with my HD purchases.

iMac is just begging to be turned into iMacClane. It's very shiny, beefy, and also very bald. In addition, everybody scoffs and scorns when I glee over how awesome it is, until I SHOW THEM just how awesome, by getting it to do something amazing (like dropping some C4 into an elevator shaft or blowing up a plane). It is rather functional and copes exceedingly well with just about anything I do to it.

My new LaCie is already not that far from being Lucy. It's a backup, pretty much a carbon copy of the old man the iMacClane, plus some more room to move and do its own thing with that extra space in there.

And, hmm. I am pondering getting a LaCie Rugged also. That would be extremely handy, not to mention rather portable and haul-aroundable. Handy in a pinch, not to mention cross-platform! Perchance F4RR3L would be a good name for that one (because seriously, the hacksploitation l33t of the movie is just TOO DAMN AWESOME to try and ignore).

Then again, my phone contract is expiring right about the time the iPhone is coming out here, and dear god do I need a new phone. Preferably that one. I hope it's available to purchase outright, or at least somewhere on a less-than-$30 per month plan.



...At times like this, when I think too hard about this stuff, my sister's voice comes into my head. Saying "Nerd alert!" in the Austin Powers tone, as she has done so many times. Clearly, my sister is way cooler than me.


In other news, I have one more scene left to write of my hard4brains ficathon fic!! Then to re-read/-write, then off to beta, then maybe finding someone to American-check, if it still needs it following my Canberran beta. omg fic! long (for me) fic!

I've just ordered a LaCie 500GB HD that comes with on/off switch, firewire, etc. With $50 off it was just over $200, and Streetwise shipping costs are always more than reasonable. Which was around what I was aiming to spend, so that's good!

There was a 1TB one with no discount for $400, but I figure that this is a good place to start - I can make sure it works and buy a second one if I need more space; that way it's a bit more security (if one crashes, the other will be ok) and the same GB for my buck. Plus, cost will only go down on these things in future, and haven't even used up all the GB on my internal hard drive, so I'm not going to fill up the extra this HD will give me in a very big hurry.

TBH, I was also tempted by this adorable thing, partly because I've defuncted a few external HDs in the past by, um, dropping them. It's affordable, but not as cheap as the WD Passport, but I think I'll see how the 500GB LaCie goes before I buy another of that brand, and besides, a portable HD isn't as urgent and that PLUS the 500GB one is too many big purchases for one pay cheque.

Anyway, rambling. Thank you everyone for your advice and experience, you are a billion times more helpful than all the forums etc I googled looking for the same kind of information. ♥

Would anyone like to share their experience/suggestions with external hard drives? I am planning on buying possibly two (a desktop and a portable), here are my initial thoughts:

1) A desktop HD of between 350-500GB. Primarily I need something to back up my iMac, which has a hard drive of 300GB. So I will probably need to format it for Mac so it works properly and I can use Time Machine. I'm thinking of getting more than 350GB so that I can either: a) take into account any expansion of my own machine in future, or b) partition it and have about 200GB of archive space for things like movies or TV shows I've already watched, raw vids, etc; and 300GB+ in another partition for the backup.

Currently I have a WD Elements 500GB that I bought in the UK. It doesn't seem to be working properly, though - I've had difficulty formatting, unmounting, even just getting the computer to recognise it. Time Machine won't work on it, and backing up manually invariably hangs after a while.

So I am considering:
* a LaCie 320 or 500GB; I've found some recommendations for LaCie from Mac users, though they are expensive
* a Maxtor 500GB - some mixed reviews, but more affordable


2) I am also after a portable drive of between 150-200GB. I am after something light and cross-platform that I can use to tote around files to and from other people. I am pretty settled on a WD Passport 160GB; it has excellent reviews around the place and is reasonably affordable.


So, considering the above, if you have opinions or knowledge on the following, drop me a comment:

* Firewire. I'm not quite sure what it is, though I think I might have it on this machine, as it is very new and fancy. Should I be looking for this in an external HD?

* What brands can you rec or anti-rec? For Mac, or cross-platform, or in general?

* Any specific products you can recommend from your experience or otherwise?

* Any other considerations I'm missing?


Thank you in advance, o geeky ones, if you have the time/inclination to help me out here :)