Teknolohiyawards 2005
The other day, my best friend gave me a suggestion. He'd just been to a website that did a "best of 2005" article, and wondered if I was doing one. Right away I thought it was a good idea, but there were two problems. First, I didn't cover 2005 in its entirety here at Teknolohiya (my blog started out as something totally different last year), which means that I'll only have a scope limited to five months starting with August, and second, I really wasn't sure I could wade through 300 posts selecting the best of the best. What would be my criteria anyway, and am I really in the position to be giving myself awards?
After some consideration though, I thought screw it, I'm just going to choose one post from each category which I feel people really liked, or was the most interesting/useful among its peers. I think it's fitting that I end Teknolohiya's first year with a bang, even if it really is just a recap episode. It'll also benefit everyone involved, since it lets me take stock of how things have turned out the past five months, and it also lets new readers see the best things I've posted about, and introduce them to other categories of the blog that don't really get a lot of attention.
So without further ado, I know present the winners of the first ever Teknolohiyawards!
Best in Entertainment
Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children Leaked
Advent Children was causing a lot of fuss across the Internet at the time, since it was appealing to a lot of people on many different levels. There were the avid Final Fantasy fans who just couldn't get enough of Square-Enix's flagship brand, there were the fanboys/girls who wanted to see their favorite characters prettified (literally), and there were the movie critics who wanted to see if S-E could recover from its Spirits Within debacle. No matter who or what the reason, pandemonium ensued when a DVD rip of the movie found its way online and onto the hard drives of people the world over a few days before its actual release date in Japan. This entry wins the Entertainment award just because of the sheer popularity a copy of the movie brought on a person, and there was much burning and teaching people how to use subtitle files for months after I got mine.
Best in Gadgets
Apple iPod nano
I can see my friends now, wondering what I'm doing choosing an iPod as the top performer in this category - I am, after all, not exactly a huge fan of the product. I cannot, however, deny the fact that the nano is, in my opinion, the best iPod ever. The 5th generation one can play video, sure, but at the cost of abyssmal battery performance. And seriously, I can't even go through 512MB worth of songs in one day, let alone 30GB, or 60GB even. The nano undeniably scores big on a number of fronts: it looks damn cool, it's portable as heck, it stores a perfectly suitable amount of tunes, and the price point is just right for such an excellent gadget. Even as an iPod skeptic I can't ignore what it's done for the Apple and iPod brand, and the fact that it got everything right as an MP3 player. Pity the mini (it's actually my favorite simply due to the fact that it can take a beating) being kicked off the roster, but I think its successor is worthy in every respect.
Best in Gaming
Quake IV Impressions
I remember being so excited for Quake IV, even if I hadn't really been playing Quake III Arena as much as I'd liked (I got really sour over people just doing rail battles on The Longest Yard - I mean where's the skill in sniping all day?). This post wins the Gaming category simply because my excitement got the better of me and made me write a post that was longer than expected, and done before I knew it. Even if the release of the game was underwhelming for me, at least all the excitement got me and my friends playing Q3A again. Even if it's going to take a while before Q4 is as mainstream and as easy to play, and even if tournaments never show their ugly hide to me, that initial excitement got us playing and having fun again, and that's the most important thing to me.
Best in Gear
Final Fantasy Potion
It was a concept that seemed so brilliantly obvious. You have a brand name and product that's recognized by gamers the world over, why not turn virtual to reality and create the thing in real life? And so Square-Enix has, creating Final Fantasy Potion and making everyone who recognizes the product grin and wonder if it really does give +50 HP. Also, knowing the fans of the series (like myself), if they make an entire line of the product, from Potions to Phoenix Downs to Holy War six-packs - man, those products would sell themselves.
Best in Hardware
Apex DL71 Sonoma Laptop
This product was a veritable diamond in the rough, and had I enough money to actually buy it, I'd be all over it like peanut butter on jam. 60 grand for a Sonoma platform, 1.73Ghz, 1GB of RAM, 100GB of storage, built-in wi-fi and a card reader, with a bunch of great deals like zero interest for six months to pay? When I first saw the specs, I thought it was a joke - specs like these belong on a laptop three times its price, and branded. While Apex isn't a brand name by any means, just like anything, the power of a gadget is in its wielder. Know what you're doing, and you'll have a partner for the next five years or so. Don't, and you'll probably break it in two weeks. I still can't believe a laptop this powerful is availble this cheap, and I wouldn't hesitate to recommend it to anyone looking for a new mobile computer (in fact, I just did last week).
Best in Links
Meebo AJAX Instant Messenger
It's been a year of buzzwords, and one of the biggest was AJAX, otherwise known as Asynchronous JavaScript And XML. It's basically a way of dynamically fetching content from a website's backend without having to keep refreshing the page. There's been a lot of creative implementations of it, but this by far, in my opinion, is the most invaluable one. Say you're on a computer that isn't your own, and for some reason or another you can't install any software, or certain programs are blocked from connecting to the 'net. You do, however, want to get some IM-ing in, so what's a poor guy to do? Simple: go to Meebo.com, log on to your client of choice, and get your messaging on with your buddies with your instant messenger running right out of your browser. Quick, easy, nothing to install, and gets the job done. Brilliant.
Best in Peripherals
Razer eXactMat Mousing Surface Review
Browsing through the Peripherals section, I guess it goes without saying that I love good mice. Ever since I discovered what a pleasure they are to use in extreme gaming situations over regular cheap-ass mice, I've been hooked and will probably be on top of new mousing technologies more than I really should. One big secret I realized, however, is that the mouse is just half of the equation - without a good surface to glide on, then you really are just wasting performance. The eXactMat, in my opinion is the best surface money can buy at the moment, and though it's expensive, most definitely worth it. Well-made, a large surface so you don't run out of room, an option for surface texture, and absolutely divine when paired with a quality mouse - this is it for me. I'm never going back to regular surfaces if I want to be at my best during hardcore gaming sessions.
Best in Reviews
Opera v8.5 Review
I had a lot of fun using Opera. So much fun, in fact, that I extensively tested, compared, and contrasted it with Firefox for a whole week to be able to provide a comprehensive review. I chose this review as my awardee because of that reason - this is simply one of those things where I felt that I went the extra mile in doing a complete review, not missing a single detail, and really working my ass off to write the whole thing, even if I didn't really get much attention from it. So this is just me patting myself on the back. Ahem. Moving on.
Best in Science
First Giant Squid On Camera
Japan Invaded by Giant Jellyfish
We have a tie! I have this group of readers who look for nothing more than weird creatures here on my blog, and my Science category has been swinging that way ever since, though I try to post interesting space links now and then. Here we have two of the heavyweights of this category, and I still can't decide which one freaks me out the most. Giant squid with 26-foot tentacles that's the stuff of sailors' (and my) nightmares? Or brobdingnagian jellyfish that can crush people under its 450 pounds before electrocuting them to death? You decide!
Best in Software
µTorrent
I often tell people that my favorite things in the world are those that require little or no intervention to be able to do their job, and do them well. The same rule definitely applies to software, and this program is an epitome of the concept. It's my BitTorrent client of choice, and the one I recommend to everyone simply because of all the features it packs into a single .exe file. Fully-featured (clean and simple interface, DHT, built-in torrent search, bandwidth limiting, etc.), no need to install, unbelievably small program and memory footprint - man, all programs should be like this.
Best in Technology
Sony's DRM Debacle
Shame on you, Sony. Shame on you for trying to trick us and pretending like nothing was wrong. Shame on you for shifting the blame and making excuses. Shame on you for thinking that you're better than all the hackers out there. Shame on you for being so paranoid and arrogant that you're willing to compromise your customers' computers and trust just to get a point across. Shame on you, because you've lost a customer in thousands of geeks across the Internet who watched your mistake be found and the events thereafter unfold. Tsk tsk, I say, tsk tsk.
Best in Tutorials
Window-only Screenshots
I know the service disabling tutorial is the most popular tute I have, but this is one that I use all the time these days, and it's so simple that I literally slapped my forehead when I learned how to do it. Gone are all the times that I've had to waste precious minutes just to get a perfect crop of an application window for a screenshot or post. Alt-PrintScrn. Unbelievable. So simple it's ridiculous.
I hope you all enjoyed this year in technology as much as I have. Here's to a new year and to more interesting things we find online. Remember: it's not what you have, it's what you know. Next year is going to be awesome, and I hope you all continue to join me as we discover the very latest and best in computers and technology. This is The Show, signing off for 2005.