sirf « WordPress.com Tag Feed

Sirf” itna usay bata dena ..

samgsms — Sat, 25 Apr 2009 07:14:17 +0000

Sirf” itna usay bata dena
“Mujy” ata nahi bhula dena.
un ki liya “Dost” ki batain to sirf baten hain,
“Yad” ayein kabi to muskura dena
I missing U in All Life

Sonic Periodic Table

ASSC Studios — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 03:30:55 +0000

Sonic Periodic Table

You know this has got to be one of the most awesome things you’ve ever seen if you’re a Sonic fan. Yes, I got really bored. What can I say? It’s a Sonic Character from all media (Archie, Fleetway, X, Underground, SatAm, AoStH, OVA, the games, etc.) 10 points to whoever can guess “No” is. Catch you all later. Remember to check out ASSC Studios in the mean time for our comics, movies, and Sonic Information.

-Jay

Static Navigation...

mdxscratch — Mon, 23 Mar 2009 19:10:46 +0000

…is an option to filter data jitter from the GPS signal, occuring when the receiver stands still. This has its advantages for navigation systems, but not for pedestrial applications. The filter will ignore data when a speed less than ~5 km/h (it varies) is detected. To switch this filter off I tried today the SiRFdemo application, which allows advanced settings for GPS receivers with the SiRF chip.
The bad thing was: to change these settings you have to change to the SiRF view, make your settings and then, switch back to NMEA view. It seems the blueNEXT receiver wont change back to the NMEA view (no reset works, bluetooth connection always breaks), and so each application which uses the NMEA can’t receive the receivers data… have to completly drain the battery for a reset…

Nye Parry sent me an interesting link of NAVIZON, a software which enables non-gps devices to use location based services through wifi and cell phone masts. Just installed the Navizon lite on the iPAQ to give it a try.
A very similar software comes from Skyhook, who distribute the XPS system. It’s a combination between GPS and wireless services to ameliorate accuracy and time-to-fix (iphone 3G). An API including an SDK for various platforms is available at their website.

Avellanas: Costa Rica Drive-By #8

Laura Reilly — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 16:57:09 +0000

This trip was kind of sort of fucking amazing yaddadamean? There washandles of vodka, some Black Label, loooots of cajeta, and some other goodies (that are obviously to explicit to advertise on this blog… kinda). Whenever I go to the beach, I can’t see how anyone can choose any other lifestyle. The worst thing is coming back on a Sunday like we did and being hurled back into all the hectic bullshit that is a part of your actual life, not just your pretend getaway one. Some day I’ll buy a big plot of land on the beach and some quads and just tear it up with some friends, caution to the wind like it should be. The only downside to e a beach like Avellanas/Tamarindo is that the locals give a bad name to their country. If any of you have ever been there, I promise that not everyone in this country is a fucking drug dealer trying to see up your skirt. At least there are interesting foreigners there to make up for the disappointment of the Ticos, like those two German guys I met whose names were both Simon and they both had mohawks which they gave to eachother. Awwwww.

GPS chip related

hermanrex — Thu, 12 Feb 2009 04:42:12 +0000

SiRF has been acquired by CSR. Hopefully this doesn’t mean all future chips will have integrated everything, causing Garmin GPS running watches to be more expensive…..From Gizmodo:

SAN JOSE, Calif. – February 9, 2009 – SiRF Technology Holdings, Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRF), a leading provider of GPS-enabled silicon and premium software location platforms, today announced a definitive agreement under which SiRF and CSR plc (LSE: CSR) will merge in a stock-for-stock transaction to create a global leader in connectivity and location platforms. The Boards of Directors of both companies have unanimously approved the transaction, which is expected to close in the second quarter of 2009.

CSR expands in GPS market with Sirf takeover

aikservices — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 11:10:11 +0000

Bluetooth chip specialist CSR has agreed to merge with Sirf, a maker of GPS semiconductors. The merg

SiRF's Buyout, Quasi-False Premium (SIRF)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Tue, 10 Feb 2009 14:25:43 +0000

SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRF) is soaring following a takeover. This is a huge premium deal on the surface, but there might be issues after you start peeling the onion.

A company called CSR, a British chip maker, is buying SiRF Technology in an all-stock merger. SiRF shareholders will receive 0.741 CSR shares. The deal values SiRF at roughly $136 million, or about 91 million pounds.

Here is where this gets interesting. This is a 91% premium to SiRF’s closing price yesterday. But the transaction leaves no room for the stock to rise. It also is at a premium that is so far under what this company was believed to have been able to have received when GPS was hot. SiRF was a $20+ stock back in the peak.

CSR also posted a loss and said that demand will remain weak in 2009. But its shares are up 10% overseas. Essentially, this ties bluetooth chips and GPS chips.

It makes sense for the acquirer. It might not make as much sense to those SiRF holders who have been crushed. The problem is that SiRF is under very tight control from management and holders do not have the same power as they might have elsewhere.

Jon C. Ogg
February 10, 2009

Mobius vs Earth

ASSC Studios — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 21:23:12 +0000

So you want to make some sense of the Sonic games and set them up in some sort of timeline in an order that would make sense “chronologically.” Chronologically in quotes of course because games would be from the point of view of characters in Sonic Universe not ours. So you want to make this timeline to make sense of everything. You decide to start weeding through the gazillion and a half Sonic games to weed out anything “non-canon.” You take out the obvious ones like Wacky Worlds, Sega Superstars, all the cameos, most of the cell phone games, remakes, etc., etc., etc. But then what’s this? You come to Sonic Spinball and you think to yourself, “Well this can’t be canon because it’s set on ‘Mobius.’” We all know that the different comic continuities are different from that of the games’ and after Sonic Adventure the Western games no longer took place on said planet. (Though there’s not necessary much proof of most of the games before Sonic Adventure in the West technically taking place on Mobius either but that’s another issue up for debate at another time). So you continue on with your creating your timeline (and that’s exactly what is, your timeline as SEGA/Sonic Team have never released an official in-game chronology though Sonic Chronicles came close in some areas). You start putting the games in order Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic CD. Sonic CD? (Speaking of problems). That game came out between Sonic 2 and Sonic 3 but it’s to take place before it because of Tails and sprites and other issues. Well let’s check out the game manual to see if it gives any clues. So you open up the manual or read it online and what do you see? Well if you’re reading the English manual you’re going to see that Amy refers to the planet she is on as “Mobius.” Mobius? But that would mean Sonic CD isn’t “canon.” Now we begin to run in to what is known as the “Mobius Problem.” Now the real question is what to do about it?

If you’re really advent on creating a sensible timeline based on the “canon games” (Sonic Adventure and afterwards) this would be the easiest thing to do. If you ignore all the games that mention Mobius your timeline is now going to be that much smaller and easier to do. This would resolve any issues dealing with Sonic Spinball and Mean Bean Machine right away. Going through your timeline you now notice you’re going to have to take away Triple Trouble. Really not much a big loss there unless you’re a big Fang fan, also I’m assuming you’re just relying on English manuals and not using anything Japanese or relying on both to put everything together.

Really though taking out these games may be kind of silly? You may ask why because we all know Sonic’s world isn’t Mobius, it’s Earth, or at least called Earth. Listen if the “Mobius games” aren’t canon or official or whatever word you want to us for it then why does Sonic Central list them on their website? I know what you’re thinking that Sonic Central also has listed compilations and various arcade games (Spinner types of arcade games not Fighters types of arcade games I’m talking about) so granted that does not technically make these games “canon” as well but it’s got to mean something.

The Mobius vs Earth debate is probably one of the biggest arguments in the Sonic community. Archie Comics even eventually retconned its storyline and made Mobius Earth, our Earth, from the way distant future, like 1300 years or some ridiculous amount. Once again what applies in Archie does not apply to the games, though I think Ian Flynn really should make the plot or storyline for the next game because he’s been doing such a great job with the comics but that too is a different story for a different day. So getting back to Mobius vs Earth let’s think about it this way:

For this I’m assuming that a majority of the people coming to this website is from English speaking nations or knows how to speak English. In English we refer to the planet we are living on as “Earth.” But at the same time in English we can also refer to the planet we’re on as “World” (a term less used thanks to science fiction). Another term applied to this planet in English is “Mother Earth.” Now let’s look at beyond English. In Roman mythology the goddess of the plant was Tellus whose Greek equivalent was Gaia (no not that Gaia). In Romanian Pamint, in German Erde, Dutch Aarde, Swedish Jorden, Norwegian Jorda, Finnish Maa, Albanian Toka, Japanese Chikyuu, Spanish Tierra, French Terre, Latin we’re on Terra (also called Terra Firma), and in Klingon tera’. So who’s to say any of these peoples are wrong when calling the planet we’re on now what they do. All right maybe we shouldn’t listen to the Klingons because they’re from Qo’nos and hey look we call it Kronos.

What I’m trying to point out here is that though we live on Earth in England across the Channel we’re now on Terre, we head east and we’re in Erde, and then north were in Jorden. There are many different names for the planet. Assumedly Sonic’s “Earth” is the same size as our Earth meaning it’s quite possible that there are different languages and dialects meaning that it is quite possible for the planet Sonic is on is going to be called Earth in some areas and Mobius in others. So if in the next game they change the name of the planet to Halukomako or something stupid like that it’s still Earth and at the same time it’s still Mobius. Earth is just what a majority of the citizens of that planet call it just like on our Earth it’s…Terra (or some similar variant of).

Don’t like what I said or have something to add? Drop me a line at jay@asscvx.net Just to warn you in advance though if I find your email to be mean or spiteful or whatever I’m going to ignore it (or post it on the front page where I will humiliate you). So please be calm and respectful when you email me, if you’re not going to be then I really don’t care what you have to say.

Sonic Chronicles Second Impressions

ASSC Studios — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 19:50:16 +0000

All right I have only one chapter left in Sonic Chronicles. When I finish the game I will give my third impression. I know it’s been out for awhile now and I should probably be finished with it right now but in this game you really need to remember to level up, a fact I always forget to do. Like most RPGs it takes forever to level up. But that’s an RPG thing not a Sonic thing so I’m not going to hold that against Sonic Team or Bioware or this game. The story is solid. Anyone who says otherwise needs to have their head examined. Bioware did an excellent job with creating this storyline it’s easy to follow, very exciting, and makes you want to keep playing. It’s like crack. Bioware also did a good job with including elements from past games and to go out of their way to make sure these elements make sense and don’t contradict each other. There’s references to Sonic 1, Sonic 2, Sonic 3, Sonic & Knuckles, Sonic Adventure, Sonic Adventure 2, Sonic Heroes, Shadow the Hedgehog, Sonic Battle, Sonic Advance 3, and probably some other games and they smoothed and connected all of these other games out perfectly and connected them to this game even more perfectly. There’s only one major flaw in this game, only one which is pretty good for a Sonic game if you look back to all the non-handheld games that have come out since Sonic Adventure 2. This flaw is that it is evident that the Bioware staff do not understand basic math. Usually when you subtract something and add what you subtracted to something else that number stays the same or it can be less. For example you have 200 of something, let’s say apples. You take 20 of these apples away and you can drop anywhere from 0 to 20 of these apples in another apple bushel. Well in Sonic Chronicles for some reason when you or an enemy take away 20 HP via an HP draining ability that character can be recovered by anywhere from 0% to 100%. In other words if a character has 200hp and 20 hp is drained from that character the character that drained the hp shouldn’t gain any more than 20 hp if we apply the rules of basic math. Apparently no one ever told the Bioware staff this as for some reason when a character drains 20 hp they can be restored by 200 hp. It’s great when it happens to one of your characters but it’s annoying as hell when you’ve been at a battle for five rounds and can’t KO an opponent because they’re down to 10 hp, drain 20 hp from your character, and are then fully healed by magically turning 20 into 300. And I had such high hopes for Canadians too *sigh* oh well. All and all this is a good game. Generally the newer handheld games have yet to disappoint and Chronicles defiantly keeps this up. I would have to say that this is now my second favorite Sonic game, the first of course being Sonic 2. Nothing could ever top Sonic 2 unless of course they reinvent the series and make a 3D version of the Death Egg Saga (Sonic2-Knuckles) and kept it EXACTLY as the Genesis games were. But that would never happen.

typeface.js: 替代 sIFR

Ross Wan — Tue, 28 Oct 2008 06:21:30 +0000

定义 Web 页上的文本字体，但可能因客户端浏览器并没有安装相应的字体，而达不到相应的效果，这时，可以使用图片文本来替换，而更流行的做法是使用 sIFR 技术。sIFR 基于 Flash，将字体事先嵌入 SWF 文件，并可配合 Javascript、CSS 渲染网页的文本字体。因为 Flash 的缘故，如果一个页面有太多的 Flash 时，不可避免令页面有迟缓的感觉。而且，有一部分用户是将 Flash 作为广告来屏蔽掉的。如何不使用 Flash 而想要达到同样的效果呢？typeface.js 是一个不错的替代！

typeface.js 是一个还在开发中的开源项目。类似于 sIFR，意在网页上显示图形文本，但不使用 Flash！typeface.js 是使用浏览支持的矢量图形来绘画文本的，如 Firefox、Safari、Opera 上的 SVG，IE 上的 VML。typeface.js 是跨平台的，它适用于 Firefox 1.5+、Safari 2+、Internet Explorer 6+ 等浏览器。而且显示的图形文本可被搜索引擎搜索到。在支持 <canvas> 的浏览器上，图形文本还可以被用户选择、复制。

用法流程

下载 typeface.js 文件

http://typeface.neocracy.org/download.html

转换 typeface.js 字体

http://typeface.neocracy.org/fonts.html

在上面的页面可以将系统的指定字体转换为 typeface.js 字体。但需要注意的是，转换前会对字体的版权信息进行判别，只有授版的字体才能进行转换！

成功转换的话，会生成一个 fontname.typeface.js 的文件。

示例代码

<html>
  <head>

<!-- load any external stylesheets first -->

    <link rel="stylesheet" type="text/css" ref="/style.css">


<!-- then load the typeface.js library and typeface.js fonts -->

    <script type="text/javascript" src="typeface-0.10.js"></script>
    <script type="text/javascript" src="helvetiker_regular.typeface.js"></script>
  </head>

  <body>

<!-- go ahead and specify typeface.js fonts with CSS -->

    <div class="myclass typeface-js" style="font-family: Helvetiker">
      Text here in Helvetiker font...
    </div>
  </body>
</html>

只要引入 typeface.js 以及相应的 typeface.js 字体（如上面的 helvetiker_regular.typeface.js）,并为文本的 style 添加 typeface-js class。一切就是这样简单 :)

注意

如果要引入外部的 CSS 样式文件，必须在加载 typeface.js 之前。否则 Firefox3 可能在 typeface.js 绘画文本时不会应用那个样式。
fonts-stretch 属性只能在 inline CSS 才有效。
在 IE7 上，可能会出现类似 sIRF 的闪烁问题。解决方法是在 </body> 标签前调用 _typeface_js.renderDocument() 。

参考资料

typeface.js 主页

示例

geognerd geospatial stock portfolio report - October 10, 2008

geognerd — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 01:18:22 +0000

The portfolio has endured its eighth straight week of losses, with its index closing lower by 133.43 points at 824.92. None of the 30 stocks posted gains this week. In fact, 23 of the 30 had a double-digit percentage loss in value.

Biggest losers – Stewart Information Services (-35.87%), Pitney Bowes (-26.41%), Northrup Grumman (-26.34%)

News

Broadcom (-10.64%) - Will integrate Skyhook’s WiFi positioning technology with its GPS technologies.

GeoEye (-5.07%) and ITT (-11.16%) – Released first image from GeoEye-1.

Google (-14.19%) – Google Maps showing ads now.

SiRF (-6.87%) – SiRFlinkIII combines GPS and Bluetooth. Signed a non-assertion agreement with Qualcomm regarding patents.

TimeWarner (-24.17%) – MapQuest to show sports info and reviews from Yelp.

Trimble (-9.65%) – Formed a joint venture with Caterpillar to develop fleet management software.

Other – Firefox to support W3C geolocation specification.

Sonic Chronicles First Impressions

ASSC Studios — Thu, 02 Oct 2008 03:42:35 +0000

Shh, don’t tell Dan, Kyle, and Dave I’m here. I’m still not ready to officially come back to the website but I just got Sonic Chronicles today and figured I’d give you all my first impressions. So far the game seems good but it seems as though that Bioware has fallen into the same thing with this Sonic game that previous titles have. No I’m talking about bottomless pits as they’re kind of hard to have in an RPG (but I haven’t beaten the first chapter yet so only time will tell). I am talking about how right away there is some impossibly hard boss (ala Shadow the Hedgehog anyone?) Seriously, I had to reset my game because I spent a frigging hour on that damned Swatbot (awesome inclusion btw Bioware but aren’t you afraid some rabid game only fanboy is going to flame you for it) and it just kept kicking my ass thrice times over. So I went back and decided to boost Sonic and Amy up to like level 5 before I fight it again (just as a heads up for others who have just started I read on a forum somewhere of enemies called something like Swatbots MK II or something to that effect and they totally just roflolpw3n level 7 characters and I guess they’re in Metropolis when you visit it in Chapter 1). So yeah way to go Bioware for releasing yet another impossibly hard Sonic game (because Zero Gravity for the Wii and Secret Rings weren’t bad enough). Sonic’s gotta be cursed or something. It’s Bioware. They’re supposed to make good games! Though I’m not saying it’s bad just impossible there’s a difference. So Green Hill Zone is amazing and that’s all I can really say. After I finished playing for the night I decided to surf the interwebs to confirm some of my thoughts I’ve had reading while I was following Chronicles before its release as well as some questions I started asking myself while playing the little bit I did. I guess I know Sonic games too well as all my suspicions were correct. I’m not going to mention these in this post as they are major spoilers. However when I eventually come back to the website after I post why I was gone I’ll tell you the spoilers as most people will have it beat by then, me not being one of those people. What I will tell you from what I read is be nice to Amy and it apparently doesn’t matter if you’re a jerk to anyone else. My impressions so far is that it’s a good game probably the best game I’ve played since Sonic Advance 3, though Rush isn’t too it’s just filled with way too many bottomless pits for me! All right before I leave again let me just leave you with one last thing I’ve read which I’m sure many of you all ready know and if you didn’t know this I think you can still read as I don’t believe it’s much of a spoiler (especially if you visit Sonic Stadium on a regular basis). I guess the ending is a cliffhanger and ends with “To be continued” Bioware is all ready writing the script for the sequel and just need the green light from Sega and from what I’ve read the way they leave the game it totally voids the “continuity” that Bioware tried so hard to put in and explain. Oh well only time what will happen. Personally I don’t think it matters as this game is supposed to take place after every other game, did you not pay attention to the opening sequence? If I ever beat it I’ll give a full review as I progress I will give more reviews but the next one will not be until I officially come back to the site. Until then my friends.

-Jay

Day Trader Alert: SiRF Technology (SIRF)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Wed, 24 Sep 2008 12:11:05 +0000

SiRF Technology Holdings Inc. (NASDAQ: SIRF) has just made a mid-day mystery move on essentially no news. It seems that traders are tying it to the G1 phone launch from Google based upon an old press release. Unfortunately, even under the best case scenario this is already known. It was our understanding that the phone is being built by HTC with a Qualcomm baseband. This stock is frequently passed around in trader chat rooms, and that may be the biggest thing going for it today. Unfortunately, some of these low market cap stocks make mystery stock moves and sometimes on exaggerated or even old information. So far, that’s all this appears to be. When you add in that this was a former high-flier that crashed and burned, it doesn’t take much money to move the stock around. Even after a 10% rise today to $1.92, its 52-week trading range is $1.51 to $30.61. Shares briefly traded north of $2.00 on the sudden spike, and we haven’t been able to find anything new from the company itself to account for the move. As of 1:07 PM this has already traded 20% more than its full average daily trading volume.

Jon C. Ogg
September 24, 2008

geognerd geospatial stock index - September 19, 2008

geognerd — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 22:02:06 +0000

The GGSI had its fifth losing week in a row, but just barely. The index closed lower by 1.17 points, at 1126.44. There were 14 gaining stocks and 16 losing stocks.

Biggest winners – Stewart Information Services (24.84%), Kodak (12.57%), Garmin (10.07%)

Biggest losers – Intermap (-16.96%), Oce (-11.50%), Microsoft (-8.91%)

News

Broadcom (-3.43%) – Downgraded by UBS.

GeoEye (-3.60%) – Resolved NASDAQ compliance issue.

Google (2.63%) – BMW Assist will have Google search and Google Maps capability.

Oracle (2.35%) – Oracle’s fiscal first-quarter profit is up 28 percent.

Pitney Bowes (-3.06%) – MapInfo introduces MapXtreme 2008 .net platform.

SiRF (-7.07%) – Downgraded by UBS.

Nawigacja Pentagramu

ziom2123 — Sun, 21 Sep 2008 20:47:23 +0000

W ofercie firmy Pentagram pojawiło się urządzenie do nawigacji Nomad P 5210. Nowoczesny styl, płaska

geognerd geospatial stock index - September 5, 2008

geognerd — Tue, 09 Sep 2008 03:56:24 +0000

A late edition. I was busy all weekend at Chicagoland Speedway. Last week was a big-time losing week for the GGSI. There were 10 gaining stocks and 20 losing stocks last week. The index closed lower by 33.59 points at 1143.08.

Biggest winners – SiRF (42.70%), GeoEye (18.14%), Pitney Bowes (3.87%)

Biggest losers – Deere (-8.25%), Trimble (-7.98%), Telvent (-7.46%)

News

Garmin (-5.29%) – Settles with Nuvio regarding the nuvifone name. My opinion: I don’t think much of Nuvio. No one with half a brain would think a nuvifone was from Nuvio, and if there was someone that stupid, the nuvifone would only make Nuvio look good. I bet this whole nuvifone dispute got Nuvio more attention than they ever had before.

GeoEye (18.14%) – GeoEye-1 satellite launched successfully.

Kodak (-5.31%) – Citi Investment Research initiates coverage at Sell.

SiRF (42.70%), Broadcom (-5.44%) – Broadcom settlement rumor.

Other – DeLorme releases new version of XMap.

Unleashed & Chronicles Anitcipations

ASSC Studios — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 22:50:38 +0000

Figuring it’s September and the start of quarter 4 ’08 I’ll give you all my thoughts of the two Sonic games expected this quarter. I’m going to start with Chronicles first as it comes out at the end of this month. Chronicles I am genuinely 110% excited for. In the mid to late ’90s I had gotten tired of the first set of crappy Sonic games that were coming out Sonic 3D Blast, Sonic Blast and the million and one compilations that started to come out as well Jam, S & K Collection, and so on. So I decided to quit Sega and go with it’s long time rival Nintendo where I was introduced to the world of Pokemon via the first video game console I ever purchased with my own money, the GameBoy Pocket. Pokemon was a lot of introductions for me. Not only did me introduce me to Nintnedo (and well the world of Pokemon obviously) but it also introduced me to the RPG genre. Later that year I got a PlayStation for Christmas and so I decided to check out Final Fantasy VII and from then on I was hooked on RPGs though once and awhile I would still dust off my Genesis or dig it out of the garage or tool shed to play an old fashioned platform game. Over the years most of the other platforming games I had for Genesis were lost except for my Sonic games which is essentially all I have left. Throughout my years of RPG addiction I always thought that Sonic would be great/better if they made a Sonic RPG. Needless to say when they announced Chronicles it was a nerdgasm and a half. Everything I’ve seen and heard about Chronicles has been good. So I can’t wait for this game to come out. Chances are once it does no one will see me until I complete it as it’s the best of both worlds for me. Now Unleashed is another story. Responses were critical at best when Sega first announced this title. Then E3 came out and everyone was all “Yay Sonic Unleashed is one BA game.” Well now E3 is long over so we no longer have to put up with the Sega PR reps whose job is to MAKE their games seem good. I think that’s all E3 did for Unleashed. The PR reps made Unleashed look good so we all got excited, probably over excited, so no we’re going to be disappointed once it’s released as we have been since pretty much Sonic Heroes. The critical reviews are starting to surface again and thinking back to E3 the PR rep himself had a problem in playing the game because of the stupid bottomless pits Sonic Team has to put every where in their games. Seriously Sega before you address your crappy stories, voice acting (in some cases but not all), complex controls, camera issues, and minor technical glitches you should address the fact that your programmers and level designers are freaking lazy. One example is Sonic Rush. It’s a great game. The story is great, the voice acting isn’t that bad, the controls are simple, there’s no camera issues (because the background is 2D), and the controls are simple. However if you deviate even slightly off the main path you fall into a bottomless pit. The old platform games rarely had bottomless pits and if they did they were generally filled with spikes or lava or something that would kill you anyway but at least the programmers and level designers were doing something, now they’re just lazy. In Sonic 3 if you fall off the main path you end up on another path or if you go above the main path there’s another path. In Sonic and Secret Rings if you go off the main path you fall into a bottomless pit or are crushed by some obscure obstacle like a Triceratops. If you go above the main path you defiantly fall into a bottomless pit. Unleashed looks like it’s going to be the same issue. Don’t get me wrong the scenery looks beautiful as it has in all 3D Sonic games but I hate the fact that if there’s a city below me I fall into an endless pit of nothingness, which is the reason why I hate those stupid grind rails that are all over the place now. You know you’re pretty much screwed when you’re on a grind rail if you move your controller the wrong way it’s been that way since Sonic Adventure 2 when grinding was first introduced. If I want to go off the main path I should be allowed not punished, which is another reason why RPGs are great you can go off all the main paths you want and still end up where you want to. The camera issue also doesn’t look like it’s going to be a problem with Unleashed so hopefully we will actually see now when and why we’re falling to the bottomless pits. The voice acting, well the only character’s voice that I have a problem with that’s been announced for Unleashed is Shadow so that’s not too much of an issue for me this time around. Well I’ve totally killed my train of though so in conclusion Chronicles=yay Unleashed=eh.

geognerd geospatial stock index - August 29, 2008

geognerd — Mon, 01 Sep 2008 18:35:23 +0000

The GGSI experienced a losing week, dropping 13.18 points to close at 1176.67. There were 12 gaining stocks, 17 losing stocks, and one unchanged.

Biggest winners – GeoEye (5.95%), Deere (4.91%), Stewart Information Services (4.47%)

Biggest losers – Broadcom (-10.92%), SiRF (-7.96%), Google (-4.69%)

News

Broadcom (-10.92%) – Downgraded by Oppenheimer.

Garmin (-2.88%) – Purchases Portuguese distributor. Introduces nuMaps Guarantee program for nuvi and zumo receivers. New nuvi 2×5 series receivers to have handsfree calling and lifetime traffic data capability. nuvi 7×5 series has Lane Assist and lifetime traffic.\

GeoEye (5.95%) – GeoEye-1 scheduled to launch September 4. Subject to delisting from NASDAQ.

Google (-4.69%) – Google to be the sole mapping site to use imagery from GeoEye-1. Imagery from Google Earth used to do research about cows.

Microsoft (-1.16%) – u-Blox 5 to be used in a USB GPS receiver bundled with MapPoint. Imagery from UltraCam, used on Virtual Earth, will be for sale for offline usage.

SiRF (-7.96%) – Judge recommends banning the importation of some SiRF products due to the recent Broadcom patent decision. SiRF appealing findings.

TimeWarner (3.02%) – MapQuest site updates.

August in Review

ASSC Studios — Sun, 31 Aug 2008 01:23:02 +0000

Tomorrow is the last day of August so I’d figure I’d give the past month a review at ASSC Studios. Unfortunately Blue Apple never got around to filming any new Early Early Late Shows. To tell you the truth if none get filmed by election day the series will be cancelled. As for the music videos I promised well we started to film “That 70′s Ripoff” again but because we didn’t film until night the footage is crap and there are only 2 takes thus far. The character battle is going strong though it could be stronger. Also I really enjoyed doing VX Kingdom again however due to school starting Tuesday I have decided that from here on out that comic will be only updated on days I have off from school, and well if I’m really ambitious I’ll make several on days I’m off from school so it won’t be totally stale and random when it comes back. As for SIRF it started off strong now not so much. Chances are if the SSA start up any time soon more attention will be paid attention to SIRF. Now on to September!

The 52-Week Low Club 8/19/2008 (JCG)(CCJ)(FNM)(SIRF)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Tue, 19 Aug 2008 14:59:24 +0000

J Crew Group (JCG) Analyst downgrade. Drops to $24.86 from 52-week high of $52.44.

Cameco Corporation (CCJ) Bad profits. Down to $27.56 from 52-week high of $52.33

Fannie Mae (FNM) Ongoing concerns about shareholders being wiped out. Plunges to $5.75 from 52-week high of $70.57.

Sirf Technology (SIRF) Losing case against Broadcom will not get ITC review. Falls to $1.96 from 52-week high of $30.16.

Douglas A. McIntyre

geognerd geospatial stock index - August 15, 2008

geognerd — Mon, 18 Aug 2008 02:28:13 +0000

The GGSI posted a second week of gains in a row for the first time since May. The index closed at 1221.62, up 11.77. There were 13 losing stocks and 17 gaining stocks.

Biggest winners – Cobra (12.11%), Stewart Information Services (10.17%), Autodesk (8.82%)

Biggest losers – SiRF (-29.60%), Nokia (-5.91%), Oce (-5.78%)

News

Autodesk (8.82%) – Upgraded by Needham.

Boeing (-5.03%) – Awarded a Navy contract to develop High Integrity GPS concepts.

Broadcom (5.57%), SiRF (-29.60%) – Patent ruling against SiRF will not be reviewed.

Garmin (0.32%) – Supplying Garmin Mobile XT for Seamless Internet device.

General Dynamics (0.65%) – Downgraded by JP Morgan.

GeoEye (3.53%) – GeoEye-1 satellite to be launched September 4. Coverage initiated by Collins Stewart.

Intermap (7.93%) – Second quarter earnings reported.

ITT (-1.44%) – Downgraded by JP Morgan.

Lockheed Martin (4.11%) – Awarded a $32M contract from the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency for geospatial training.

SiRF (-29.60%) – Review of SiRF’s troubles this year.

Yahoo (2.71%) – Flickr using OpenSteetMap data for Beijing to aid geotagging of photos.

The 52-Week Low Club 8/11/2008 (SIRF)(CDE)(AU)(BWTR)

Douglas A. McIntyre — Mon, 11 Aug 2008 14:47:56 +0000

Coeur d’Alene Mines (CDE) Faces bad earnings and falling metals prices. Drops to $1.69 from 52-week high of $5.18.

Anglogold Ashanti (AU) Metals stocks down. Slips to $25.68 against 52-week high of $51.35.

Basin Water (BWTR) Delays results and audit committee begins investigation. Falls to $1.29 from 52-week high of $13.42.

SiRF Technology (SIRF) Loses patent ruling against Broadcom (BRCM) Drops to $2.15 from 52-week high of $30.61.

Douglas A. McIntyre

geognerd geospatial stock index - August 8, 2008

geognerd — Sun, 10 Aug 2008 22:17:33 +0000

The GGSI posted its largest gain since April, rising 52.20 points to close at 1209.85. There were 26 gaining stocks and four losing stocks.

Biggest winners – Kodak (15.93%), Oce (12.23%), Pitney Bowes (10.94%)

Biggest losers – SiRF (-3.89%), Intermap (-2.50%), John Deere (-1.65%)

News

Broadcom (8.42%), SiRF (-3.89%) – SiRF violated six Broadcom patents. SiRF seeks reexamination of four Broadcom patents in another dispute. Broadcom coverage initiated by DA Davidson.

Garmin (6.00%) – Road Tech zumo introduced for Harley-Davidson.

ITT (1.24%) – Announced ENVI 4.5 and integration with ArcGIS.

Microsoft (10.57%) – Info about how an aerial photography company captures imagery for Microsoft.

Sirf Aik Bar Dil Say Mustafa- Farhan Ali Qadri

allblogmy — Thu, 07 Aug 2008 01:03:00 +0000

Beautiful naat by Farhan Ali Qadri. Urs Chura Shareef 2007.