I made a few small changes to BIOSLEVEL tonight. This is after trying to complete a new review or two this morning, but found myself unable to complete because my camera has decided to go haywire. More on the camera later. Let's look at what I've changed with BIOSLEVEL.

Changes to BIOSLEVEL

The changes aren't too numerous, nor are they complete yet. First off, I've altered how the <title></title> tags are done, so article names are now displayed rather than just "Article & Reviews". Hopefully this improves the site's overall SEO. The second part of the update comes in the form of some buttons for our article & review pages: Digg It, E-Mail Page, and Stumble Upon.

E-mail Page will either open a new window (smaller) or within the same window a page that allows them to e-mail the article's introduction, title, image, and link to someone's e-mail. I obviously won't track e-mail addresses, but should I keep track of how many times the feature is used per article? Obviously, I haven't implemented this feature just yet.

Digg It submits the story to digg. Obviously. Stumble Upon submits the story to Stumble Upon, but I haven't added the link for this just yet. I'd also like to add some icons for Reddit and a few similar services as well. Anything to build up more traffic.

Camera Woes

My aunt bought me a Cannon PowerShot S1 IS a few years ago for Christmas. At $400 at the time, the S1 IS was only a 3.2MP camera, which is really more than I need. I spent some time debating this morning while looking through cameras on NewEgg.com

I almost bought the latest version of my camera, which boasted a whopping 8.1MP and a 12x optical zoom, whereas my camera only has a 10x zoom. I ended up purchasing the Nikon D40, a DSLR camera. It'll be my first DSLR, and I'm really hoping that my older SLR lenses will still work with it.

There's more functionality in this camera than I'll probably ever use, but I'm also up for experimenting with it. The important part, however, is that I'll be able to take shots of products to complete my reviews.

Take a peek at BIOSLEVEL for the said updates, and watch for a new review in a day or so. Also expect another entry here in the near future.

I've had the same phone for almost 3 years now, I believe. I could be counting wrong, but I know it's been longer than 2.5 years. The old phone was the LG PM-325, or the first slider that Sprint had. It was a sweet phone at the time, and it had bluetooth (albeit crippled) support as well. It's stood up to getting dropped, scratched, and more with no real issues. Sure, I cracked the camera lens somehow, but it's given me no real troubles over the years, but I felt it was time to move on to a new phone. That, and the battery lasts like 1 day at a time now, whether I talk to anyone or not.

After I picked up an issue of the Linux Journal a few months ago, my interest in Trolltech's Green Phone was revived. It was meant to be a development platform for their own Linux firmware. At $600, I'd never buy it, but it did get me interested. On the other hand, the OpenMoko Project is trying to develop a Linux-based OS for cell phones as well. Right now, it's aimed at the FIC Neo, which is a sweet touch-screen phone. Unfortunately, dialing doesn't entirely work yet, and it's also just meant for developers.

I would love a open Linux phone. Something that is infinitely extendable (until you hit hardware constraints, anyways), and open enough that you're able to change the programs as you see fit. Unfortunately, we're not at this stage of the game yet. Maybe in a few more years. With the iPhone SDK coming out, the iPhone may achieve this same ideal. But I don't have Cingular, dammit!

So I went into the Sprint store yesterday morning and walked out with the new Palm Centro that was just released in the last week. I wanted a smart phone, or atleast a phone with a full QWERTY keyboard. The only offerings with these from Sprint are smartphones. I'd had a Windows CE-based PDA or two, and I wanted to stay away from a cell phone using the same OS. Blackberries often seem too proprietary, and sometimes seem limiting somehow. Without a Linux smartphone there, I went with a Palm. I've used Palm Pilots before, and the Centro isn't entirely different.

It's not as simple to use as my old phone, but it's definitely more useful. I can keep tabs on my to-do list, keep my schedule, and more all on this one device. Of course, the funny part comes in while I'm at school yesterday. I sat a lunch table with my iPod Touch using FlickIM to talk to Amanda. While I'm doing this, I have both cell phones out, copying my contacts person by person, since the sales rep wasn't able to use the machine to do so. Someone walked past and asked if my iPod was an iPhone. I told them yes just for the sheer amusement of seeing the person's look when they realized I was using 3 phones at once.