As part of their annual regimen of April Fool’s jokes, Google has put together a video announcing Google Maps support for a “long-neglected” platform – the Nintendo Entertainment System. They have done an excellent job of taking their extensive library of maps data and displaying it in an 8-bit, pixelated style that flawlessly mimics the aesthetics of 3rd person NES games such as “Legend of Zelda.”

Despite the fact that this is obviously not a real product, Google has gone so far as to implement it on the browser-based Google Maps site. Instead of selecting “Street” or “Satellite,” click on “Quest” to view your neighborhood through the eyes of Link.

Read on to see the video…

As you may know, Paul has announced his resignation from HaiTeq. This leaves me, Jake Johnson, as the official leader and sole writer for HaiTeq.

As you have seen, our post count has been waaaaay down over the last few months. The reason for this has been an incredibly hard semester for me. Fortunately, there are only five weeks left, so that will not be an issue for long.

In light of all of these facts, I am going to be ceasing to post for at least those five weeks. During that time, (when I am not sitting in a fetal position, sobbing over homework,) I will be working on restructuring my vision of what I want HaiTeq to be. We have always had a bit of an issue finding our niche, and I would like to spend some time reworking our mission statement and developing a real sense of focus for this blog.

Once I get the blog going again, I will likely end up looking for some new writers to help me fulfill the new vision and focus. Stay tuned for more information…

Oh – there is one more thing. I am going to be working on transferring the website from Paul’s server to one that I own. As a result, this site may look funny for a little while.

Thank you for all of your support and for keeping up with us throughout our bumpy lifespan. Check back in May to see what I have come up with.

One of the features of Facebook that I find extremely obnoxious is the ticker. It was intended to further connect Facebook users with the activity of their friends. However, I tend to find that it tends to show more information that is more irrelevant than useful.

Fortunately, it is now possible to turn it off. There are two ways to do this, depending on how your Facebook page is set up:

If your chat sidebar is shown: Click on the bar that separates the chat list from the ticker, and drag it upward until the ticker is no longer visible.

If your chat sidebar is hidden: On the top-right side of the ticker – across from the word “Ticker” in its titlebar – is a little upward-facing arrow with a bracket above it (See the picture above.) Click on it to make the ticker disappear.

These changes will usually remain after you close the browser; however, you will have to perform both of these actions to completely remove the ticker.

Since then, Gavin has left, two other writers have come and gone, and we’ve gained Jake Johnson. We’ve published almost 300 unique posts, had thousands of views, and even gotten coverage on other huge sites (thanks to Jake!), and even made a few dollars from advertising. It’s been one heck of a ride.

But life is a heck of a ride, too. Right now, that ride is taking me away from the tech world. I’m finishing up high school this year and soon after I’m leaving to travel and adventure. That probably sounds ambiguous because it is–I don’t really have a plan, and that’s the way I want it. But I do know this: my infatuation with technology has waned. My focuses and aspirations are changing, as most peoples’ do. That having been said, it wouldn’t be right for me to keep ownership and leadership of HaiTeq. Though it’s one of my proudest accomplishments, I’d rather keep it going with someone who’s just as passionate as I once was about tech.

So, after a lot of thinking, I’ve decided to give over leadership to Jake. He’s got the passion and the writing ability to keep bringing readers awesome articles. Hopefully he’ll get some more passionate writers on board, too!

This isn’t to say I’ll never write an article for HaiTeq ever again. Maybe I’ll poke back in one day. But for now, my path is taking me far away from here. Before I go, I’d like to say this. It has been an absolute pleasure to write every single one of the articles I’ve written. It was always just a dream for me as a kid to be able to Google my name and have a full-fledged website come up under the results. Some of the coolest memories of my high school career involve this site. Waking up to a text saying that we were featured on TUAW was nothing short of amazing. Every late coffee-fueled night covering breaking news or reviewing an app was well worth it. Getting to build a site and have real people from all over the world read what we’ve written is a phenomenon I’m blessed to have experienced.

If you’ve read even just one article on HaiTeq, thank you. I think some things we’ve written on this site have actually helped people in one way or another, which means we’ve accomplished something at least a little bit meaningful. I’m proud of that. I’ve enjoyed my time with HaiTeq immensely and I’ll miss it a ton. Thank you from the bottom of my heart to all of our readers and everybody who has supported me. This was an experience I’ll always keep with me.

Paul Gustavsen

The problem with being a computer geek is the fact that we do not have a specific “uniform” by which we can be identified. Doctors have their white coats, mechanics have their greasy button up shirts, and chefs have their aprons. But despite the fact that we more or less control the world through technology, computer experts are hard to identify on sight.

As a result of this lack of unique identification, many geeks choose to select accessories that specifically promote their technological tendencies. Some will wear shirts that say things like “There’s no place like 127.0.0.1.” Others will purposefully throw words like “Binary” and “Anti-aliasing” into their everyday vocabulary.

It turns out, I am no different. For the last couple years, I have been carrying around my car keys on the disembodied L2 cache chip from an Gateway PC that was as old as me. As you can see in the picture above, it has little holes on the top corners that I can loop my keyring through. I have yet to find a keychain that I like better.

What sorts of things do you do to show off your nerdy tendencies?

As a result of holding two web design jobs, I do a lot of HTML and CSS-based design. My personal design style involves a lot of rounded corners, drop shadows, and gradients. Drop shadows and rounded corners are easy, but creating cross-platform, uniform gradients in CSS has always been a hassle.

A year ago, I probably would have created all of my gradients in GIMP or Photoshop rather than messing with the CSS. Now, however, I use one special tool that makes generating CSS gradients easier than I ever thought possible.

The tool is creatively named Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator, and it was created by the geniuses at ColorZilla. It uses a Photoshop-style interface written in JavaScript to dynamically generate a CSS gradient that works in browsers powered by Webkit, Gecko, and even the framework that runs the old versions of Internet Explorer. All you have to do is copy the generated code into your website’s CSS, and it will work on any browser your site is viewed with.

I use this tool all the time, and I highly recommend it to anyone who does a lot of work with web gradients.

+ | Ultimate CSS Gradient Generator

Over the last few weeks, some of my fellow college students and myself have spent some time working on revitalizing the computer lab at a local community center. Our primary focus has been physically cleaning and reinstalling Windows XP on all of the PCs. The systems are older, but they still work just fine for what the center needs.

One of the issues we have run into is with systems whose BIOS settings are locked with a password. If the BIOS is locked and CD booting is disabled, then we cannot reinstall Windows XP. This is quite a problem.

Fortunately, there is an easy solution. In most cases, the BIOS and CMOS data is stored in volatile memory, which is sustained by the power supply. If the power supply is disconnected, then their data is maintained through the use of a backup battery on the motherboard.

With this information, it can be assumed that both disconnecting the power supply and removing the battery from the motherboard would erase the contents of the system memory. I have found that nine times out of ten, this works quite well. I recommend that you leave the power unplugged for at least ten minutes before putting it back together, to ensure that all of the residual power is drained from the CMOS and BIOS chips.

Social media is the cornerstone of many of our lives. We update our statuses, check in places we go, upload photos of the sights we see.

But sometimes we use social media the wrong way. Sometimes we spend so much time proving that we’re somewhere, doing something or seeing something through social media that we hardly get the experience at all.

Here’s what I mean. I used to check in almost everywhere I went on Foursquare. That would then post to my Twitter and my Facebook. Usually a friend or two would tweet me or leave a comment about the check-in. Since I have a smartphone, I’d immediately be notified and I’d reply. Hell, by the time I was done with checking in, having small conversations on my social network and maybe even uploading a photo or two I was already done with the experience. Everybody else who connected with me on my social networks got the impression that I had experienced something, but I was hardly there myself.

Over-documenting experiences through social media often leads to superficiality. I encourage you instead to be present. To take every moment you can from every situation instead of updating a status about it. Internalization is vastly more important than externalization. Pictures, statuses and check-ins can only capture a small fraction of a real experience. Knowing that, minimize time spent on documenting and maximize your time experiencing moments fully.

Are there times when social media can be used well? Absolutely. Undeniably. As long as I own a smartphone I will check in at Chili’s every time I go. Free chips are too good to pass up. There are a lot of experiences, too, that find greater meaning in being shared. We’re social creatures. We like to share our experiences. But when we share, it’s vital to make it meaningful and personal. Not just a check-in or a picture to anybody and everybody to prove that we did something. Experience first, share later.

By this time, iOS 5 is old news. It feels like it was released forever ago. All of the new features it introduced have become so ingrained into the workflow of its users that they no longer seem new or advanced.

Despite this fact, there are many of these features that are really quite exceptional. One that I use all the time is the Reader feature in Mobile Safari. Basically, Reader goes through a web article, pulls out the main content, and displays only that. You can read an article such as this one without having to worry about all of the ads and sidebars that distract from the primary content.

As I have used my recently-purchased Android Phone, I have been wishing that this feature were available on Google-powered devices. Thanks to the developers of Dolphin Browser, this wish of mine has become a reality.

Inspired by Apple’s Reader concept, the developers of Dolphin Browser – the notable replacement browser for Android devices – have created a plugin that emulates its functionality. All you have to do is install the plugin. Then, when you want to view a page in reading mode, simply swipe toward the left and tap the book icon on the toolbar that appears. Then you can read all you want without having to constantly zoom.

I have used the Dolphin Reader plugin a pretty good amount, and I am quite impressed. While it does not have the polish of Apple’s offering, it still does quite well. I really recommend that you give it a try.

Dolphin Browser is free in the Android Market. Click here or scan the QR code below to download it.

You will also need the Dolphin Reader plugin. Click here or scan the QR code below to download it.

One thing I’ve noticed over my years of being a geek is the overall love/hate relationship that my tech-savvy peers have with Best Buy. They always go there to buy new computer systems (because it is the only computer store around, no doubt,) but they rarely have a good word for the employees who work there. It’s like they like the store’s merchandise, but hate its employees.

I personally feel that my geek counterparts are being much too hard on the employees of the big, blue chain store. Unlike many other people I have heard from, I have always had really good experiences with them. Even their phone support is simple, fast, and based in America instead of India. Due to a modern tendency to complain when one has bad experiences and remain silent about the good ones, it is easy for them to get a bad reputation among intelligent people. As a result of this, I want to offer some praise for Best Buy by relating two very good experiences I have had with them.

Good Experience #1

A year ago, I wasn’t using my current black MacBook. Instead, I was using a blue Acer Aspire that I bought the day that Windows 7 was released. One day, I made the mistake of leaving the Acer sitting on a chair, with the cord draped across the floor to an outlet. Not surprisingly, I tripped over the cord. This ended up ripping the plug receptacle pin off of the motherboard. I took the laptop to Best Buy, seeing how much it would be to fix it without a warranty. The Geek Squad guy took one look at it, and told me to find a place somewhere else in Evansville that would solder the pin back on.

This gesture on the part of the Best Buy employee really impressed me. Rather than try to pressure me into paying $400 for a new motherboard, he actually recommended that I go to another store and give them my business. The Geek Squad agent put the customer first, which guaranteed a loss on the part of the company at large. Very impressive, in my opinion.

(Note: For those of you wondering what happened, I ended up soldering the pin back on by myself, and it worked wonderfully. My brother bought the laptop from me, and it still works beautifully.)

Good Experience #2

The second experience actually occurred this afternoon. As you would know if you read my last post, I purchased an LG Optimus V from Best Buy for 50% off last week. Two days ago, I decided to try to root it to put on a ROM that didn’t suck as much battery life. Of course, I didn’t flash it right, and I ended up bricking my phone. I later found out that it messed up the recovery console, which meant that there was nothing I could do to fix it.

For some reason or another, I ended up bringing the phone with me to work. On the way home, I was passing Best Buy. I decided to go in and talk to their customer service to find out if there was anything I could do about the bricked phone. By another stroke of good fortune, I had the receipt in my coat pocket. It was crumpled into a little ball, and half of it was missing, but it was legible enough to get the order number off of it. Without asking any questions, the lady started the process of replacing the phone for me. It took awhile because their software was bogged down because of the Christmas traffic, but they were able to switch my phone with one that worked. Now that is service. They replaced my phone, even though the issue was one that should have voided any warranty. Once again, I was impressed.

So, as you can see, Best Buy is not pure evil. They are not out to get you 100% of the time. Hopefully by telling you about some of the good things they have done, I will help start giving them some good press instead of bad.