“Maps” by the Yeah Yeah Yeahs featuring “Garden State” (via julioangelortiz)
This was a video I put together a couple of years ago featuring Yeah Yeah Yeah’s “Maps” with footage from Garden State.
My First Two BlackBerry Themes
About 10 years ago I used to dabble in programming for Windows CE / Pocket PC devices, under the company name Mobilecubed. It was fun, and I made a little bit of money on the side selling some apps, most notably the HTML editor H-Bomb (yeah, I thought it was witty back then). But after Microsoft did away with the Embedded Visual Basic toolkit and made it necessary to own Visual Studio in order to develop for Windows Mobile, they made it difficult for hobbyists like myself to be a part of the ecosystem, and my interest faded.
Fast forward to now, where I am a BlackBerry user, and the themes / interfaces for the BlackBerry devices run the gamut of plain to pretty creative. After purchasing a few themes, I found them always lacking in some feature that I wanted. Eventually, I decided to try my hand at RIM’s BlackBerry Theme Studio (which they smartly made available for free). This lead to me developing an interest in making themes for BlackBerry devices.
My first theme was BerrySense, a take off on the HTC Sense interface.
I tried including functionality I like, such as being able to view your messages and calendar information right on the screen, Weather slot along with 2 other apps, and a sliding 6-icon dock (slides down out of view). It also has keyboard shortcuts for SMS / MMS (the $ key), QuickLaunch (spacebar), and SearchIt (ALT+S or ALT+P), along with BlackBerry OS 5.0 transitions, a lock screen with the weather icon, and a few more things.
Here is the CrackBerry.com thread, which includes links to the source code.
My second theme is bCard, a Cover Flow-like theme.
bCard has the same keyboard shortcuts and 5.0 transitions as BerrySense, as well as a Weather slot. It has a dock that slides out from the left, dedicated Facebook and Twitter app (definable via an application slot) buttons. The main “card” interface features icons such as Search, Messages, Calendar, Contacts, Browser, Music, Pictures, Videos, and more. The Search, Browser, and Twitter buttons are all definable via application slots.
You can read more about it at this CrackBerry.com thread.
Both themes were made for the BlackBerry Bold 9700, but will apparently work on the Curve 8900 and Tour 9630. They are both free, so feel free to give them a try. Feedback is always welcome.
Shiny Shelf has published my review of John @Scalzi’s novella The God Engines. Hit up the link and share your thoughts.
I’d almost think that this was some sort of farce… but then again, there are some really stupid people out there…
Shiny Shelf has published my review of Star Wars: Death Troopers, the recent horror novel (yes, horror!) that takes place in that galaxy far, far away. Hit up the link and let me know what you think!
R.E.M. - Radio Free Europe 10-06-83 (1st TV performance) (via REMchout)
Such a great song and wow, they looked so young…
