RandyRants: GeekStuff

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Mafia II (1)
Aug.19.10
	QJ.net: Italian American group slams Mafia II, Take-Two responds An Italian American organization is demanding Take-Two Interactive to hold back the release of Mafia II, which will be out next week. Calling the game "a pile of racist nonsense that...

OSX: How To Get PC Host Video Into Front Row (0)
May.30.10
	Almost a note to self, but other people may find this useful: how to get Front Row to see videos that are hosted on a PC. Use Aliases for SMB shares....

oO! Nerd Fight! (0)
Apr.09.10
	NeoWin: Flash developer to Apple: "Go screw yourself" Nothing like a solid nerd fight for pride and power... especially when you don't have any skin in the game. Well, almost no skin. I'll support whoever can get me Hulu on...

Windows Phone 7 Series (0)
Feb.15.10
	After having seen the videos today of the Windows phone 7 Series prototype device, it brings me back to a device that's already in my pocket: the Zune HD. Same layout, same font, same "I want to go here so...

Variations On A Theme - aka GodMode (2)
Jan.08.10
	There's been a bunch of press lately about the "discovered" GodMode that's in Windows 7. Basically, this is neither new or God-like. The GodMode name was used by the person that "reported this discovery" but the truth is that the...

Hardwarez! (2)
Jan.05.10
	As part of my vacation at the end of 2009, I decided to give a bunch of new hardware a try and see how things went... and then forgot to talk about it. The collection of goodies included: an iPhone...

nook - A Thought or Two (0)
Dec.11.09
	Jolene and I popped over to our local Barnes and Noble to see a demo nook the other night... Worth a long look, but I still didn't feel the urge to pull out a credit card....

Hardware Shift (0)
Nov.04.09
	Random notes of a hardware nature....

Windows 7: XP Mode (4)
Oct.22.09
	Now available for download, for Windows 7 Professional and Ultimate SKU's at Microsoft.com. That's it. Nothing else to report... just got tired of having to search for the link from multiple PC's....

Happy Windows 7 Day! (8)
Oct.22.09
	Finally! You'll get to start playing with what I've had installed for months and, well, to be honest it's an exciting time. For me. It's 7:42 AM, I'm on campus in Studios West's theater, watching a co-worker NOM on a...

*gaaaaaaaasp* (1)
Oct.19.09
	You didn't Hear that? No? I did. It's the sound of a big inhale before the chaos begins... it's the calm before the storm. Actually, that might not be entirely true... the first bit of the storm has already hit...

Props to the Windows Team (2)
Sep.30.09
	I'll go on record with this comment: Wow... that actually just worked. Retiring my last Vista box didn't go as smoothly as I thought it did. Windows 7 installed fine: every device I had in the thing was auto-supported... the...

Windows 7: Allowing Access to C$ (0)
Sep.29.09
	After recently installing Windows 7, I found that I was unable to access the "default admin shares" for my local drives, namely \\ME\C$. I was able to see the machine on my local network, so I know that the firewall...

WinToFlash (0)
Aug.28.09
	A few posts ago I jotted down how to properly prepare a thumb drive so that it could be used to install Windows 7 - looks like there's now an application in the works to ease the process (and it...

Xbox LIVE NXE Update (3)
Aug.11.09
	The update has been available to the world for the last six hours. I missed the actually releasing of the bits because I was home, dreaming in colored code. As most people know, I have been working on Avatar Marketplace...

Windows 7: How To Prepare A Thumb Drive (0)
Aug.03.09
	This is mostly for me, so that I don't have to keep looking up the long winded discussion about why this works - I just need to remember the steps. Prep a USB thumb drive for bootinglist disk - look...

Is iPhone 3.0 Software SIM Unlocked? (5)
Jun.22.09
	Before you answer “no” have you actually tried it on either an already activated phone or a non-activated iPhone with the 3.0 software (meaning 3GS, out of the box.) Jolene has a non-3G, non-iPhone SIM that is with AT&T that...

Atoms Aren't All Atoms (0)
Jun.22.09
	Joey deVilla: Fast Food Apple Pies and Why Netbooks Suck A very interesting read on netbooks and why having something in the middle of established form factors can suck. In fact, I've made some of these same arguments when talking...

And Now For Something Completely Different (0)
Jun.16.09
	As most people that have an Xbox knows, Xbox LIVE is currently down. While the scheduled maintenance is going on, my team (and group) are tasked with verifying that all things are right in the world of LIVE before LIVE...

E3 Update (5)
Jun.01.09
	Somewhere, someone in Nintendo's Wii division just said "Oh, fuck..." And somewhere else, a new kitt3h was born: Welcome Project Natal....

Xbox LIVE Update: The New Digs (2)
Apr.20.09
	I remember going to the Microsoft Millennium campus for first the first time, three years ago. At the time, I was working as an SDET for MSDN and they were just coming off a ship cycle for some online work...

Wii Fit: Mini-update (0)
Feb.14.09
	It seems that putting a fourth generation Japanese woman onto a Wii fit with a kawaii dressed-as-a-penguin Mii will cause her to burst out into what could easily be any average conversation from Akihabara... I think Nintendo has tapped into...

If Bedlam Means "Accidental" Sale, I'm All For It (0)
Jan.19.09
	c\|net: Bedlam breaks out at Circuit City After Best - Buy mega-stored Circuit City to oblivion, the hapless retailer has quickly gone to pieces. On Friday, Circuit City said it was liquidating all of its stores. Then, on Saturday, there...

Mission Accomplished (1)
Jan.07.09
	Ahhh... Yes, after ten years of looking at the back of coins in three different homes in two states, I have a complete of [moderately good conditioned] state-backed quarters, in a very Geeky paper coin holder thingy. I only need...

MacBook Update (0)
Jan.05.09
	Thought I'd do a quick recap of my week-long, multi-state travel experiment with a MacBook in place of a PC. Bottom line: I almost didn't notice a difference....

oO! A Fix! (2)
Dec.19.08
	Apple posted a new update for the Multi-Touch trackpad on Vista and I have to say: it's better. Much better. I'm using it right now in Windows 7 (the PDC build) and it's pretty solid. The main gripe I had...

Third Time Is The Charm? (2)
Dec.16.08
	I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker!The WBCOOP is an online Poker tournament open to all Bloggers.Registration code: 955613...

Till The Flood Do Us Part (2)
Dec.16.08
	MTV.ca: 'Halo' Wedding Planned By Two Video Game Fans; Master Chief Will Officiate 'I love 'Halo'; I love her,' the groom says of his bride's idea (seriously!) for the theme wedding. [...] They met playing "Halo" in 2004, and in...

T3h Fail: NXE vs PS3@Home (3)
Dec.11.08
	GameDaily: Home Sweet Home: Nine Reasons Home Beats NXE Or as I like to think of it: what happens when someone that's never played a game online thinks when s/he reads marketing materials... lets take it one page at a...

Zune Tips: Connections Afar and Away (0)
Dec.05.08
	In what started with the small task of adding a hard drive to my PC, I've been through a fairly lengthy media-managing saga. From this I have three Zune tips involving library management, sharing media with a 360, and syncing...

Xbox LIVE: New Xbox Experience (4)
Nov.19.08
	Culmination. It's a word. A fitting word. At least for the last 36 hours... over the last day and a half, I've been re-org'd, launched, re-launched, partied, liquored up, and chatted up. Not too bad, considering that today's Xbox 360...

A Moment With Gears of War 2 (0)
Nov.10.08
	Grandmother: "Oh... why is [my grandson] Billy on the floor again?" Mother: "Randy killed him again." Grandmother: "Again? Oh, oh." Billy: "OK, that's enough grandma!" Classic....

GoW2: LIVE, Part III (0)
Nov.07.08
	Welcome west coasters! Next stop: Asia. I'm going to bed for a bit - here's to the next 12 hours!...

GoW2: LIVE, Part II (0)
Nov.06.08
	Still at work and watching all you east coast gamers getting your pictures online... Logged over three hours in private matches - I might not suck as bad as I thought! Some other people just popped over to Call of...

GoW2: LIVE (2)
Nov.06.08
	Gears of War 2 just went live in the UK - thus begins a 24-hour session of watching GoW2's first users uploading screenshots from their Xbox over Xbox LIVE and to the web. Just another day at the office, more...

Yet Another NXE Neat Thing (0)
Oct.31.08
	And it's not even from the NXE, per se - look at how MyGamerCard has made use of the new look of Xbox....

It's All Child's Play (0)
Oct.09.08
	Had a team meeting the other day... was around some internal news around the New Xbox Experience but seeing as it's now October, we had an added bit of news around the annual Giving Campaign. I'm not sure how many...

Gag Order (2)
Oct.08.08
	I've been working with the New Xbox Experience for a while now... during my team's last re-org, we became a part Xbox LIVE and the push to get the NXE bits onto consoles has impacted every single bit of the...

Cookie Licker (2)
Sep.18.08
	... Don't look at me - I don't know either....

iPhone: Supported by T-Mobile (3)
Aug.13.08
	I've been a T-Mobile customer since 2000. Before that I was with VoiceStream, so basically I've been on a GSM based phone for almost a decade. A bunch of months ago, I bought a v1 iPhone from Apple and used...

Zune + XNA Game Studio 3.0 = Shuffle By Album (0)
Jul.18.08
	One of my ongoing gripes about the iPhone, the iPod touch, and Zune product lines are that they don't offer a small, yet useful, feature that the iPod (and iTunes) has offered since 2001: Shuffle By Album. Thanks to the...

Cool, Like The Other Side Of The Pillow (0)
Jul.14.08
	Joystiq: From E3: The new Xbox Experience Seen the new Dashboard? I've been playing with it for months now... and it's not even my primary job. Did I mention that we have positions for both Test and Dev?...

It's More Like "Fare Thee Well" (0)
Jun.27.08
	To BillG: so long, and thanks for all the bits....

Death From Above (0)
Jun.19.08
	Carnage from the hallway......

GTA IV (1)
Apr.29.08
	No reason for a review here - there's plenty floating out there already... what I will say is the following: + I got an advanced copy through pleading, so I'm already 6 hours into the game and have been enjoying...

Grifball (2)
Apr.07.08
	Couldn't stop myself from sharing this... yes, this is from a Grifball game this weekend, but even there it's really hard to amass 65 kills. With a K/D Spread of +38. And only 1 Betrayal. swoon...

Battlestar Galactica (2)
Mar.31.08
	A friend of mine turned me onto BSG just after Season 2 ended. I was aware of it running on the SciFi channel, but after four Star Trek series, ten Star Trek movies, six Episodes of Star Wars, and five...

The First Twenty-Four (5)
Mar.10.08
	Now that Super Smash Bros. Brawl has been out for over 24 hours, can someone tell me: how is it? Living up to the hype? A rehash of Super Smash Bros. Melee with new artworks? And if so, is that...

Grifball: A Weekend Adventure (0)
Mar.08.08
	Grif and company seem to have an on going impact on the Halo community. Speaking for myself, it was Red vs Blue that made me aware and an avid fan of Halo, long before I had even bought an Xbox....

Mini-Review: X300 (0)
Feb.27.08
	I met with some people with Lenovo yesterday - they're on campus to talk about some models that are currently shipping or planned for the future... of course, they had a bunch of existing models from the T and X...

Jump In: Part III version 2 (3)
Feb.25.08
	Lo! Behold a Ship-It montage! This collection of Ship-It's are a small sample of my shipped products as well as some of the people I work with... Want some of this? Keep reading: I've got two positions open on my...

XNA Game Studio 3.0 and Zune (0)
Feb.20.08
	Blog and XNA: The XNA Community Games Platform team has announced the first feature of the coming XNA Game Studio 3.0, the ability to build games for the Zune platform. While I'm not at liberty to speculate on a lot...

Valentine? (2)
Feb.14.08
	BusinessWeek: Building the Perfect Laptop x300, will you be my Valentine?...

How To: Guitar Hero II Tournaments (1)
Feb.07.08
	Admittedly this is somewhat dated, but I still found it to be worth a blog post. Say you work for a software team and GH2 comes out and you want to facilitate some musical smackdown? Within the group, you've got...

Cause and Mass Effect (1)
Jan.22.08
	Joystiq: Keighley takes on Fox News' seXbox seXposé This one is worth a look, honestly because I love the fact that they parade this woman out in front of the camera to talk about how a video game is making...

Controlling TiVo HD With A Harmony 880 (2)
Jan.02.08
	Warning: this post is as much for me as it is for you! I've spent a chunk of time setting up my Logitech Harmony 880 remote and wanted to note the settings in the strange event that I lost my...

Xbox LIVE Arcade Cards? (0)
Dec.24.07
	I had no idea we were doing this... I saw them at a Target in Connecticut. Neat stuff!...

Wait, It Doesn't Cost Extra? (0)
Dec.18.07
	As an impulse buy, I picked up the dock for my Zune 80. Imagine my surprise to find more than I expect to in the box....

Word of the Year [2007] (0)
Dec.12.07
	Yahoo! News: "w00t," a hybrid of letters and numbers used by gamers as an exclamation of happiness or triumph, topped all other terms in the Springfield-based dictionary publisher's online poll for the word that best sums up 2007. For more,...

Second Verse, Same As The First (4)
Dec.10.07
	I was having some issues with my Rock Band guitar. Some random strums were being dropped and the fret buttons weren't always accurate. I say that it was the guitar because I was having trouble five star'ing the first few...

I CAN HAS ZUNE? (0)
Nov.29.07
	I am now... a Zune owner....

Visual Studio 2008: Status Bar (21)
Nov.23.07
	I installed Visual Studio 2008 this week.* First thing I noticed? No status bar. Uwah??? Oh, it's probably off by default, like most of the toolbars. I bet if I right click on the toolbar I can show it. No?...

Rock Band: The First 5ive Minutes (1)
Nov.20.07
	If you work with me, please ignore this post because there is no way that I would take time out of my busy test casing schedule to play a video game. Obviously, this is a guest post, put here for...

Pwnage At The Workplace (0)
Nov.20.07
	I got mine on the 15th - did you want one early, too? We're hiring individual contributors as well as Leads, in both Development and Test. Go to http://www.microsoft.com/careers and look for one of these job codes: 207755 214534 214715...

Xbox LIVE is 5IVE (0)
Nov.15.07
	Five years ago, Xbox LIVE went live. And what a trip it's been! ...and there's still much fun ahead....

OSX v10.5 (0)
Oct.27.07
	Swung by the Bellevue Apple store last night, around 8pm. Yes, there was still a bit of a line. Yes, they had no T-Shirts left. Yes, I bought a copy of Leopard for my 1.66GHz Core Duo Mac mini. Ya...

The New iPods - Which One Do I Buy? (3)
Sep.05.07
	So the new iPods have hit the street. Er, hit the interwebs, since the stores won't have stock until the weekend. I haven't bought a new iPod in a while. A long while. Three years? Maybe. Generation 5. I was...

New Apple Keyboard (0)
Sep.02.07
	'Someone should kick Steve Jobs in the nuts.' "Whiner" 'Nah. It's because I'm standing outside of the [Bellevue] Apple Store with a new keyboard and I don't know how that happened.' "Ha." Real live transcript of a TXT message conversation...

PAX'07: Day 2 (2)
Aug.25.07
	I went back to PAX after lunch and found the line to be even longer than when I had left it before noon. Long story short: I bailed. So I went back today around 8:40, knowing that the expo hall...

**chirp chirp** (0)
Aug.24.07
	Ah, the fine sound of a cricket. Sorry for the lack of posts but between work, school, and play I've had very, very little time to blog. Besides, in spite of all the activity, I haven't had much to say...

Halo 3 Epsilon: The Fallout (8)
Aug.12.07
	On Friday morning, I booted my Xbox 360 and spent a little time online with it. An Xbox Live friend happened to look at my profile and promptly posted to the Bungie.net forums that I was playing "Halo 3 Epsilon"....

XSim : XInputSimulator (1)
Aug.08.07
	Track and Field was released to XBLA today - how did I get such a score the day of release? True, we did get copies internally for testing before it went live to the public, but I didn't practice....

Whoa... It's Sunday? (0)
Jul.29.07
	I just realized that it's Sunday night. I started working on a side-project early Saturday morning. Sure, I took some time to do some laundry, boost some coffee, and eat food (at least I'm assuming I did, since I'm not...

E3: Post Briefing (0)
Jul.11.07
	We had a pre-briefing on Monday before the E3 Briefing that happened last night... was I glued to the TV last night to watch it? Um, yeah. There were things discussed last night that even we didn't know about. Like...

Red vs Blue: The Final Episode (0)
Jun.28.07
	Rooster Teeth just released hit their 100th and final episode of RedVsBlue today. Pre-sales of the Season 5 DVD have already started, which is good... even though I've already seen all of the episodes online, I know I'll buy one....

Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip (0)
Jun.18.07
	I always loved these guys......

Safari on Windows: Spin Spin Spin (4)
Jun.11.07
	I gotta cry foul on this one......

Bounty (2)
Jun.08.07
	In what was supposed to be a "small" upgrade, I decided to bump up my home machine. It has been almost five years since my last upgrade. Been jones'n for some more oomph. Finally said "why not?" Steve said get...

WM6 Tip: How To Get Your Reminder Sound Back On Dash (45)
May.17.07
	I'm not sure if it was T-Mobile, HTC, or Microsoft, but someone missed something with profiles (and given the Home Screen reset, I'm saying T-Mobile). The problem is that if you have reminders set to play sound on your Normal...

November? I've Got Your November Right Here (0)
May.15.07
	MajorNelson: Halo 3 Coming September25th Nice to know I won't have to freeze for this release's midnight launch!...

Got Skillz? (0)
May.15.07
	Halo 3 Beta That's all. You already know my gamertag - Randy No Arms. Shoo!...

WM6 Tip: Voice Commander Via Bluetooth Headset! (47)
May.11.07
	Earlier this week I upgraded my Dash from Windows Mobile 5 to Windows Mobile 6. The flash went flawlessly and I didn't have to install as many apps to get going, but I did mourn the fact that while Voice...

What's In A Name? (4)
May.11.07
	I'm not sure what's gotten into the Microsoft product name generator, but first Silverlight and now [according to the interwebs the TID is being called] Chatpad? Maybe someone realized that short names that can be tied to the product are...

The Quest For Shiny (4)
May.06.07
	T-Mobile releases a software flash for my phone - the Dash - that would upgrade the thing to Windows Mobile 6. Have you seen WM6? It's very, very sharp looking. Enough to make me keep on checking the TMo web...

Definition Of An Interesting Weekend (0)
Apr.09.07
	This very well may be the best questions I've ever been asked from some one in IM: "did u go to the anime palooza yesterday??? is your hair blue???" True story, even if the answers are No and No....

Xbox 360: MLB2K7 (0)
Apr.08.07
	Wild stuff. I've been playing a few games of MLB2K7 [from TakeTwo] between Guitar Hero II sessions. Yeah, I know, but it's so much better to play than 2K6 - really, it is. Besides, I thought I had noticed some...

Sakura-Con: Saturday Afternoon (0)
Apr.07.07
	OK, now I'm po'. Not destitute but the freakin expo center put a huge dent in my fun fund. Although, I did end up working a booth for a while. Yeah, I know, it sounds odd to me too, but...

Sakura-Con: Saturday Morning (0)
Apr.07.07
	Talk about feeling under dressed... yeesh. and while I couldn't tell you what makes the diference there is such a difference between cosplay and dress-like-a-slut. Anyway the line for registration was at least 150 deep at 8:30am - I...

Cross Platform X-plorer Controller? Yeah, We Got That (22)
Apr.05.07
	Yes, that's a new Xbox 360 Guitar Hero II controller plugged in and very much alive on my Windows Vista PC. Now the question is how many awesome things will people put together with XNA Game Studio Express for...

Help Wanted (0)
Mar.28.07
	In the past I've talked about being an SDET, specifically for on of the teams in the Developer Tools division at Microsoft. Over the last year I've mentioned a few things about working for Microsoft Game Studio and more recently...

Xbox 360 Elite? (2)
Mar.27.07
	Xbox 360 Elite? News? Sure it is. New to me? Sorta - I've know about a lot of the pieces thanks to beta testing and other tidbits. I'm rather proud of myself for keeping a secret this well, especially since...

xna: More Than Visual Studio (0)
Mar.14.07
	Now that GDC has come and gone, life is slowly returning to normal. As part of that, one of things that I noticed at GDC was the response that people had when I handed them one of my business cards...

got junk? (2)
Mar.12.07
	JunkDepot.com: Junkdepot is a marketplace to find materials for your home wither personal or professional. Stumbled across this the other day... reminds me of eBay but without hell of last-second-suckout auction experiences. Since it hooks up to Google Base and...

Update From GDC (2)
Mar.08.07
	Just an updated short update and some numbers, since this is being posted from the Dash a PC, after the Women in Games party....

xna (0)
Mar.01.07
	About a week after I got a new title - and a new gamertag - I went ahead and ordered new business cards... I don't use them very often, but they are still a requirement for conferences and the like....

Crackdown (0)
Feb.20.07
	Can I talk about this one yet? It seems that CompUSA has been selling it early and Major Nelson is talking about it so I'll take some liberty since I also got my copy a couple of days early. And...

Xbox 360 HD-DVD Drive: A First Look (2)
Feb.18.07
	A first look? Months after the initial release? Fine. My first look. I held off buying one because I was on the fence over it - a special offer for MGS employees sucked me right in. I picked up the...

Whoo! Finally! (0)
Feb.13.07
	QJ.net: Halo-style Matchmaking for ALL 360 games recommended - If you ask Phil Spencer, Microsoft Game Studios' head of game development, he'll tell you that he wants every new Xbox 360 game to have Matchmaking. So 1UP asked him, and...

Rare Comment (0)
Feb.12.07
	Yahoo! Messenger: Built from the ground up specifically for Microsoft Windows Vista, this all-new version combines the reliable and easy-to-use features you've always loved from Yahoo! Messenger with the cutting-edge experience of this new operating system. Holy crap - it...

got bits? (4)
Jan.30.07
	Well that didn't take long....

ZOMG! Stop Thief! (9)
Jan.25.07
	From http://psp.connect.com: See the car? Looks familiar, some how... in fact, I remembered this: Project Gotham 3 Screen shot via http://www.bizarrecreations.com/ for the Xbox 360. Sony... Sony... you're t3h suck. Shame on you for passing off someone else's game for...

MacWorld Rehash (1)
Jan.09.07
	In a nutshell... iTV is right around the corner as Apple TV - is to iTunes what the 360 is to Media Center with 10GB more on the HDD. In fact, I don't think it can download from iTunes directly...

ZOMG! (0)
Jan.09.07
	Thanks to a couple of those high powered energy drinks I've had 6000% of recommended daily amount of Vitamin B12 over 12 hours. Not only am I very awake for class tonight but I think I'm glowing. WHoO!!1!eleventhousand!!1...

Neat, Yet Useless (2)
Jan.07.07
	Make: "I bought one of the Sony eBook readers and wanted a way to read my blogs and other documents offline. So I wrote a tool using a variety of Perl modules to transform RSS feeds into LaTeX and a...

Non-Apple Mac Tablet (1)
Jan.04.07
	Axiotron: First Tablet Mac Solution to be Unveiled at Macworld by Axiotron and OWC [...] The ModBook is a high-end slate-style notebook computer solution, which was designed in California by Axiotron’s team of German and American engineers and will be...

T9 With A Keyboard? (5)
Dec.29.06
	Do you really need T9 - or in the case of the T-Mobile Dash xT9 - when you have a phone/PDA that sports a full thumb-keyboard? I say "no". Problem is that on my Dash, xT9 was already turned on....

Red Vs Blue: PSA "Let's All Go To The Movies" (0)
Dec.18.06
	RedVsBlue: PSA "Let's All Go To The Movies" If you go before 4pm tickets are only $75 for seniors I'll be honest: it's not their best PSA but the picked four annoying movie behaviors that I've Ranted about before which...

Game Console Round Up (0)
Dec.01.06
	Lotta churn in Randy's house lately - thought I'd recap the problems and solutions that I've been through over the last couple of weeks......

Bose: Happy Dance Of Joy (0)
Nov.21.06
	Talked to Bose today about my probably issues with my speaker system... The one that is out of warranty and will have to be shipped to Framingham, MA for service. It's big and it weighs about 35 pounds. Ugh. The...

Emergence (1)
Nov.07.06
	r0xx0rz!...

Wii: First Impressions (1)
Nov.04.06
	Yeah, that's right: I played with one. Jealous? Ha! The EBGames at Redmond Town Center had a kiosk set up already, so anyone can....

Silence? (2)
Oct.31.06
	Whoa, no posts for over three days??? Yeah well I've been busy with stuff. In fact, I'm in a cafeteria near the 30's - guess who else is here having lunch?...

Dash: How Good Is It? (2)
Oct.26.06
	My last post was type in on a thumb keyboard. Wait, didn't I say I'd never bother with one of those? Yeah, I did, but that wasn't because there was a keyboard involved - it was because all of the...

Whoo! I'!! Mobile (0)
Oct.26.06
	Dash

The New Hotness (3)
Oct.24.06
	Apple.com: The new Mac Book Pro. The specs are impressive, especially on the 15" - keeps the size and weight manageable but can be pimped out to almost match the 17" specs - it looks like the only things exclusive...

Star Wars: I II III IV V VI (7)
Oct.22.06
	Looks like Cinemax is running all six episodes of Star Wars from end to end, starting on November 10th. Not so much that they running it, but what I thought it's neat how they're advertising it: they did a really...

Job Satisfaction Rating (0)
Oct.19.06
	How do you define a good job? To me, there's a few different levels of questions that need to be answered....

MP3 Nightmares (7)
Sep.24.06
	Since I'm a beta tester on a new device, I thought it would be a good time to clean up my collection of MP3 files... What. A. Nightmare....

Zune Beta (4)
Sep.20.06
	This is a Zune Beta: :\| This is a Zune Beta user: :) This is a Zune Beta user, when a bunch of my cubemates are not: :D Any questions?...

They'll Have To Wait (0)
Sep.19.06
	Oops. Guess I need more free time. A while back I buckled to peer pressure and bought Deadrising. Great purchase. In fact it was the first game that was able to pull Call of Duty 2 out of my 360...

Beta Testing Research (2)
Sep.12.06
	Don't mind me - this is a post to help gather information for Windows Live Writer......

!!! (2)
Sep.04.06
	Talk about Guitar Hero has been swirling around me lately. It's what happens when you work with gamers. Someone had a copy - I call it DDR for your fingers. I tried it out. I suck at it. And got...

Am I A Gamer? (2)
Aug.26.06
	A report from PAX 2006, one that has forced me to ask a very simple question: Am I a Gamer?...

Gamefest '06: You In? (0)
Aug.11.06
	Anyone out there going to Gamefest next week? I can't tell you what my team's T-shirts look like - they won't be in until this afternoon - but I'm nearly 100% certain that our logo will be on the back:...

Punt A Tarutaru (1)
Jul.28.06
	Petition: Add Tarutaru punting to the next Final Fantasy XI expansion pack. [...] Please included a Tarutaru punting mini-game in the next expansion pack to Final Fantasy XI. Everyone was disappointed to learn they could not punt a Tarutaru, they...

Windows Live QnA Beta Invites Available (11)
Jul.27.06
	I've got 10 invitations to Windows Live QnA... first people to post a "I want one!" in the comments will get one!...

Dvorak on CSS (6)
Jul.19.06
	PCMag: Why CSS Bugs Me - As we move into the age of Vista, multimedia's domination on the desktop, and Web sites controlled by cascading style sheets running under improved browsers, when will someone wake up and figure out that...

Where's My Royalty Check? (11)
Jul.11.06
	ZDNet: Last week I decided to install a new operating system on one computer in my lab. Not a big deal, really. I install, uninstall, and reinstall various Windows versions all the time. But this particular installation was just a...

Manglish (0)
Jul.10.06
	JeanSnow: Manga lovers rejoice! A never-seen-before approach to manga made its debut on the Mainichi Daily News on Monday, July 3, 2006. Manglish takes some of Japan’s hottest young manga talents — showcased in the Mainichi’s MangaTown site — and...

Faith Is A Funny Thing (0)
Jul.05.06
	TUAW: Daniel Jalkut has discovered that the Mac OS X 10.4.7 update released last week is causing his computer to phone home to Apple. Every eight hours, a process called "dashboardadvisoryd" is contacting two different servers hosted by Apple, ostensibly...

HO SHVIT! (0)
Jun.30.06
	[insert Snoopy dance of joy] My Mini has been built and is sitting in Oxford, England, awaiting transport! I wonder if it misses me....

Bloom County, USA (0)
Jun.28.06
	Make: Banana Jr 6000 file server Out-fuckin'-standing. Update: for those of you that have no idea as to why this is beautiful, here's some background. Classic stuff. Really!...

Bar Is Open! (0)
Jun.27.06
	We're having an open house at work tonight. You heard me, an open house. At work. As in Tools and Technologies within Microsoft Game Studios. Yeah, you read it correctly: that means game previews and demos. I don't even know...

Crossovers? (2)
Jun.19.06
	What in the hell is going on at Hasbro? I saw a blurb the other day that a Toys'R'Us in Canada had a Transformer version of the Millennium Falcon. I said "uwaaaah?" A quick search on the domestic Amazon site...

Shall We Play a Game? (2)
Jun.16.06
	...or would you rather help people build them? My team is hiring and we're looking for some excellent SDET to join us - can you code? Do you like C++? Are you proud to find bugs in code? Are you...

Homage To Piro (0)
Jun.10.06
	I brought my Jetta in for servicetoday... should be the last trip before I my lease ends and I turn it in, so that was all whoo hoo and stuffs. I also realized that I'm going to have to renew...

Want. One. (0)
Jun.08.06
	YouTube: Jeremy Clarkson on the Top Gear Ariel Atom Custom built, under 30K pounds, 0-60 in under 3 seconds, over 600hp, and goes over 120mph. Uses a Honda Civic Type-R engine, so millage should be OK, not that you'd care....

Testing Native C++ in Visual Studio Team System (6)
Jun.06.06
	Whoa, Randy has a technology post about technology, coding and testing? Yep, I do. And if you're neither tester nor developer, don't bother reading the rest of this - you'll just get pissed at me for wasting your time with...

PokerStars (again) (4)
May.25.06
	I have registered to play in the PokerStars World Blogger Championship of Online Poker! This Online Poker Tournament is a No Limit Texas Holdem event exclusive to Bloggers.Registration code: 7330476 For registration purposes; please ignore!...

Lenovo vs IBM (6)
May.25.06
	Yeah, so I finally buckled and ordered a new ThinkPad. What can I say? Lenovo sucker punched me with an uber-discount that they threw at Microsoft employees. And they dropped it some more by the time I decided to finally...

Roll Back (4)
May.22.06
	Forgot to mention this a couple of weeks ago... I've put down the Gillette Fusion Power and returned to the Mach3 Power thingy....

Frazzled! (3)
May.15.06
	Totally frazzled tonight after the first day on the new job....

Mac mini 2.0 (6)
May.12.06
	It's been a strange week for me. I'm wrapping up my job of 23 months and getting ready to start a new gig on Monday (from MSDN to Microsoft Game Studio) true, but I went ahead and complicated matters further...

The State of Gaming: E3 (15)
May.09.06
	By now, if you're a gamer, you've heard about the latest and greatest from E3: the PS3 has been officially announced with ship dates (November 17, US) and pricing (499/599). The Wii has been officially announced with a date (Q4)...

Hardware Update (0)
May.03.06
	Who won? The ThinkPad or the MacBook Pro? Neither....

Would You Like To Play A Game? (2)
May.01.06
	Nearly two years ago, I decided to shake the snow globe that was my world for the sake of change. The last couple of months I've had my mind mangled by having too many choices available to me and I've...

Conflicted (17)
Apr.26.06
	MacBook Pro (15" 2.0GHz) versus ThinkPad T60p (14.1" 2.16GHz) I'm so freakin' conflicted....

O2 (0)
Apr.24.06
	I was in Vegas over the last week's end and was pretty amused to see Oxygen Bars in a number of different casinos and hotel malls. I know it's been a long term theory that casino operators pumped oxygen into...

Baseball On The 360 (1)
Apr.12.06
	Picked up "Major League Baseball 2K6" [for the 360] from Take 2 yesterday. I think I'm the only person in the area that cares about it: I haven't heard a word about it from anyone else yet. True, the Xbox...

Cutely Evil? (1)
Apr.10.06
	Conran Shop Online: Nabaztag, the Wi-Fi bunny, keeps you in touch with the world through a wiggle of his ears and by the changing colour of his body. Through wireless technology, Nabaztag is permanently connected to the Internet, allowing you...

Then and Now (2)
Mar.30.06
	fosfor gadgets: If someone would have presented a XBOX 360 for me and my friends 20 years ago, I’m pretty sure we probably would have fainted. When you compare similar games from the mid-eighties with today’s top notch video and...

Xbox 360: New Xbox Games Now Playable (0)
Mar.29.06
	Major Nelson: A new backward compatibility update is now available for the Xbox 360. You can see the complete updated list here. This is rocking: Black and Star Wars Battlefront II are now supported on the 360. Black has been...

My Xbox++ (0)
Mar.28.06
	Xbox.com: Friends Management Comes to My Xbox. Accept or decline requests.Xbox.com has always been the place to find out about new games and hardware, learn about your fellow gamers, and check out upcoming events. With the launch of My Xbox®...

Che cosa?! (5)
Mar.20.06
	The Godfather comes out for the Xbox, PS2, and PC tomorrow. No 360 version though - at least not yet. What makes me go "WTF?!" is that the 360 version might not be available until Christmas. At least that's the...

Wow! (2)
Mar.16.06
	I just spent the last ten minutes playing around with the Technical Refreshed release of Beta 1 of Office 2007... most specifically, I was poking around PowerPoint, of all things. I know... it's not the typical application for a Test/Dev...

Feed Issues (4)
Mar.16.06
	I've had enough of supporting multiple feed types, so I've said "screw it". I mean I had 0.91 as index.xml, 1.0 as index.rdf, 2.0 as index2.rdf, and ATOM as... I don't know what ATOM is because I haven't publicized it....

Paul Dini? Who's Paul Dini? (0)
Mar.06.06
	Who's Paul Dini? He's a writer that has given us a bunch of excellent story lines over the years... check out his "resume" of sorts at IMDB - I had no idea the same guy was behind so many different...

Another Round: Windows Live Messenger Invites (13)
Mar.02.06
	You know the drill - I've got six four twenty-four invites this time... leave me a comment below!...

Xbox Live Gadget (5)
Feb.23.06
	Furrygoat.com: Now that the February CTP for Vista is public and Windows Sidebar has been unleashed to the masses, I thought it might be fun to walk through creating a simple gadget. And since I recently joined the cult of...

SDA Tweak (4)
Feb.22.06
	A while ago I compiled a CAB file for my MPx200 that removed all of the cheesy AT&T Wireless images that appeared on all of the confirmation dialogs with the original "standard" Smartphone images. All of the original images were...

Praised Be The Phone Gods! (5)
Feb.16.06
	In spite of a previous post I have a new T-Mobile branded SDA sitting in front of me. I knew the local TMo store had them in stock, but they were mean to me when I walked in to check...

When Knowing Isn't Half The Battle (0)
Feb.13.06
	The new SDA is available at the local T-Mobile. Yet, as I told Anna, I'm trying to convince myself that I don't need it, and I told Steve, I'm doing everything in my power to keep my fat ass in...

Halo 2 for the PC (1)
Feb.09.06
	Xbox: Master Chief Dual-Wields His Way to Windows Vista "Halo 2," the award-winning sequel to the instant classic "Halo: Combat Evolved" to make its PC debut on the Windows Vista platform "Halo 2," the game that redefined first-person combat and...

Random Geekness (11)
Feb.01.06
	Just a couple of notes - if only to myself - that have a high rate of Geekiness to them... cool stuff, actually....

Gillette Fusion (4)
Jan.31.06
	GeekStuff for a razor? Yeah, it's got a battery, so pftftft. Well, it can have a battery, as they have two models this go around, much like there's a Mach 3T and a Mach 3Power... Since I've been using the...

Strangeness with Comcast (0)
Jan.27.06
	I finally broke down and decided to record some shows that I should have been watching for forever but always forgot about and I noticed that the Comcast DVR was acting weird. Oh it was working just fine, but the...

Xbox Update: New Gamer Tag (16)
Jan.20.06
	Donut 04 D0nut o1 is no more! Thanks to a new option in the 360 dashboard, I'm now D0NUT O1 Randy No Arms! Well, d0nut o1 for those that are l33t-ly challenged: Put your gamertag here too. It's neat actually......

Wow. Just Wow. (0)
Jan.20.06
	Jensen Harris: The good news for fans of usability worldwide is that an historical moment is upon us. As of Tuesday [17-Jan-06], we have officially flipped the switch to turn off Personalized Menus by default for all apps in all...

FeedDemon 2.0 Beta 1 (0)
Jan.17.06
	Bradbury Software: FeedDemon 2.0 Beta 1 is now available. Looks good. Looks very good, in fact - but with any beta there are a few hiccups......

Upgrade News (5)
Jan.16.06
	Some upgrade news on two fronts... one is that of OS. The other is that of home audio: a new receiver. More after the jump - this is working out to be a much longer post than I planned -...

Jumping on a Bandwagon (0)
Jan.10.06
	The rule of thumb, when jumping on a bandwagon, is to always look forward before your feet leave the ground. Over the last 24 hours I've spent, um, 18 hours or so working on getting some anime content down to...

Troubleshooting iTunes: Roll-up (176)
Jan.02.06
	Over the years I've written a few posts about the iPod, XPlay, and iTunes for Windows. Over the years, I've amassed a number of comments on these threads, with people looking for help - sometimes from other readers and other...

Harmonic Upgrades (0)
Dec.31.05
	For over a year I've been using a Harmony 688 universal remote and been rather happy with it. Well, now technically it's a Logitech Harmony 688 universal remote, since they bought out Harmony a while ago. It's been a great...

Call of Duty 2 (0)
Dec.15.05
	This game is worthy of its own post....

Xbox 360: Mountain Out Of A Grain Of Sand (18)
Dec.09.05
	boingboing via Gizmodo: Xbox 360 DRM makes your rip your CDs again --- Microsoft's new Xbox 360 has a dumbass DRM countermeasure: it won't let you store MP3s on its hard-drive unless you rip your CDs again using your Xbox....

FurryGoat's Law: +1 Proof (0)
Dec.08.05
	FurryGoat's Law just got another case study for validity. The Adventures of Teapot the Cat: rsstroom reader - toilet paper printer! A crazy new product out of Taiwan seems to be aimed at the feed dependent of us out there....

TypePad Strangeness (0)
Nov.30.05
	Not sure what is going on, exactly, but it would seem that my category pages are completely hosed. I have them set to "last 25" which used to show the last 25 posts for each category. It still seems to...

Xbox 360: Type Much? (1)
Nov.24.05
	The Xbox 360 has USB ports, right? Anyone try hooking up a USB keyboard to it? Ya know for typing in text messages? Saw this article on Gamespot: We also asked Chris Satchell, the General Manager of XNA at Microsoft...

Xbox Live: Due! (0)
Nov.24.05
	Saw an interesting article somewhere in the wild about not being able to view your Live account information from your old Xbox, after you've transfered your information to the Xbox 360. The article went on to say that you wouldn't...

That's Just Sick! (3)
Nov.24.05
	Yet another Xbox 360 Update. Sorry about this, but well... the 360 is going to be the major source of new news in my life for the next few days... and what's wrong with that, anyway? I've also recently noticed...

Update on the 360 (0)
Nov.22.05
	Well, I think I've spent more time playing Halo 2 on it than anything else, but that's changing as I now have five 360 games. What's neat?...

Cold! (2)
Nov.22.05
	Went to ebGames at 9:10. Got a few fists full of swag! XBox team stopped by, too. In ebGames by 12:01. Out by 12:08. Setup in 1080i, switch my Live account to the 360, and streaming music from my PC...

Just A Few More Hours (2)
Nov.21.05
	Just a couple more hours and the 360 hits the shelves on the east coast; a few more hours after that, it hits the west coast. Which means in about three hours I'll go line up with a bunch of...

Can't We All Get Along? (2)
Nov.14.05
	There's been a lot of news lately on two fronts: portable video - in the form of the Gen5 iPod and PSP - and the Xbox 360. This has caused a lot of whining inside my head......

iTandy? (0)
Nov.08.05
	Reuters: Electronics retailer RadioShack Corp. on Tuesday said that it has agreed to sell Apple Computer Inc.'s iPods, adding the popular music player to its shelves. I've got nothing against this - seeing as my local Radio Shack is a...

Oh My! (0)
Nov.08.05
	Someone parked a latte cart a mere fifteen feet from my office door... Phear my l33t coding skills today!...

iProgress? (5)
Nov.07.05
	With a new iPod in hand I have to ask: was this a good upgrade or not?...

A Fine Rory Moment (0)
Nov.02.05
	Neopoleon.com: I'm a shoe flusher. That's all you're getting from me for a teaser - click through for the story....

Windows N++? (2)
Oct.31.05
	Bloomberg: Microsoft Corp., the world's largest software maker, threatened to pull its Windows operating system from South Korea if antitrust regulators order the company to remove programming for instant message and movie player services. I have nothing to do with...

My Xbox (0)
Oct.28.05
	Put your gamertag here too. Sweet! My Xbox is now live... no pun intended!...

Are. Tea. Emm. (2)
Oct.27.05
	RTM. Three letters that have taken over two years to put on a label, and sixteen months of my own time, but it's been printed. It's been posted. It's available to MSDN Subscribers. It'll be on store shelves in November....

Vintage Trixie (0)
Oct.26.05
	Trixie: Ahhh Austin - I arrived at last. The high and low-lights thus far... No, no I'm laughing with her, as she's had quite a trip already. Either way the post made me snort....

XBox 360 Sighting (3)
Oct.23.05
	Fred Meyer in Redmond, WA. Not the normal kiosk: they got a 360 in the case with a wired controller and a wide-screen LCD up in the air. In fact, it's a really interesting "design" since you can't play with...

Windows Vista (5)
Oct.14.05
	I think I might have mentioned it before, but I'm opting to do it again: what are people calling this on the outside? Windows XP has been XP and WinXP in my travels. If Windows Vista follows suit is it...

PSP 2.5 (1)
Oct.13.05
	Looks like another new version of PSP firmware is available - not 2.01, but 2.5 this time. 2.01 was released to close another homebrew exploit hole; 2.5 has that plus a bunch of features... and of course the typical "don't...

Apple Tree (0)
Oct.12.05
	Ya had to see a Geek post coming, what with all the Apple activity today. New iPod, new iMac, new Front Row thingy... new iTunes 6. I think Apple is slipping....

More Madden Issues (0)
Oct.07.05
	http://www.maddenrecall.us/: We want it recalled and fixed. I'm on board....

Well Said - Microsoft vs Google (0)
Oct.06.05
	NetCrucible: This is a really bad article. The article asserts two falsehoods: one, that Microsoft is afraid of Google; and two, that Microsoft will win by being a relentless tortoise and copying features. Let's talk about the "copying" theory first....

Too Much Video (3)
Oct.05.05
	I use MSN.com for my home page on a couple of computers and keep it bookmark'd at work, where my home page is an internal news site. I've done this for years, since there's usually a nice smattering of news...

Phear El Gato (0)
Oct.04.05
	Trixie: You guys heard Peter Jackson's going to exec produce the Halo movie right? Here's a suggestion for the merchandising campaign... Halo Kitty. I'm not going to sleep tonight, now....

The One With The Free Disc (0)
Oct.03.05
	HarveyDanger.com: We are offering the entirety of our third album, Little by Little..., as a free download (if you're curious why we're doing this, you can read our reasons here). I'm saddened to say that I didn't know about their...

PokerStars Online Poker Blogger Championship (0)
Sep.30.05
	Please excuse the blurb below, but PokerStars is running a Texas Hold'em tournament for bloggers and need to see the mini-ad to verify that I'm who I think I am. I have registered to play in theOnline Poker Blogger Championship!...

Oops: EA Edition (0)
Sep.29.05
	Kotaku: Madden 06 is totally on the fritz. The game doesn’t only emasculate linemen by making them tiny, it also randomly shuts off your PSP in franchise mode. I gotta admit that the seven inch linebacker was a pisser, but...

Five Pounds of EA In a .62 Pound Package? (0)
Sep.27.05
	While I was working in the Mobile Space, I got into a number of arguments with a number of former VP's about how to design a mobile application. They always argued over the overall design, how to get to the...

How'd They Get Away With That? (0)
Sep.27.05
	Saw today on the news - via morning TV news so no blog to link to; how analog! - that Google was offering prime time video streams via the web. I hadn't seen mention of it anywhere else though, so...

Whoa... Mobile Style (0)
Sep.17.05
	Furrygoat: What is Portable CE? Put simply, Portable CE is a 'launcher' for the Windows CE Emulation environment that can run an emulator-based Windows CE image from a USB keychain. What's new in Version 2.0? Here's the killer part: Version...

iPod nano (2)
Sep.16.05
	w00t w00t w00t ... w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t w00t...

Meanwhile, Back In Tokyo (0)
Sep.16.05
	Mainichi: Photo Special > Tokyo Game Show 2005. I knew I shoulda went into games development... interesting product placement, too, I might add....

Microsoft Codename Max (0)
Sep.13.05
	Want to get your hands on some technology that is a pretty good "looking glass" into what's to come from Microsoft? Check out Microsoft Codename Max. Yes, it's beta. Yes, it requires an installation of a beta copy of WinFX....

PDC Update (0)
Sep.13.05
	FurryGoat: Now that it's been revealed in the PDC Keynote, I can finally start to talk about one of the projects that our team has been working on. Yes, it's the infamous Windows Sidebar. Innovcation, Escalation, Competition... call it what...

QuickTime 7 for Windows (2)
Sep.12.05
	Has anyone else tried to install QuickTime 7 for Windows without installing iTunes 5.0? It no work... Kinda important to me, too - I installed QT with iTunes on my home machine (since I use it there) but on my...

Lost Day (1)
Sep.08.05
	Jeez - ya take one day off and leave the computer at home and Apple unloaded a bunch of new stuffs on ya....

Software Tip of the Day: Office 2003 (1)
Aug.31.05
	Love this one, honestly: in an Office 2003 document - i.e. Word, Excel, PowerPoint - hold down the Alt key and click a word. This will lookup that word in the Research pane, which includes a Dictionary and Thesaurus. The...

More Info on MSN-IM 7.5 (2)
Aug.26.05
	I'm Just the Messenger: Leah has a whole bunch of information on the feature set that's included with MSN Messenger 7.5... she's also got some information on a patching option, if you don't want to download the entire install. I...

Look Ma! One Hand! (3)
Aug.25.05
	Gizmodo: I’m not sure why you can’t just cut up a bottle or something, but the P-Mate is the latest in feminine empowerment aids. It’s a foldable pee pee that you can pee through and then throw away. Why would...

PSP 2.0 Firmware Released! (0)
Aug.23.05
	Attention PSP owners: put in a memory stick with 16MB free and go to Network Update on your PSP... the new firmware is live via the PSP, even though the Sony web site is showing 1.52 still. Downloading now... Forgive...

"Wow! Why Aren't You in Windows Mobile?" (1)
Aug.19.05
	"Wow! Why aren't you in Windows Mobile?" This is a question that I've been asked every couple of weeks over the last year, as more and more people pop into my office for phone advice. It's a short answer, really,...

Health Break (0)
Aug.17.05
	Khaleej Times: Scientists in Australia’s tropical north are collecting blood from crocodiles in the hope of developing a powerful antibiotic for humans, after tests showed that the reptile’s immune system kills the HIV virus. [...] “The crocodile has an immune...

Review: Namco Museum Battle Collection, Japanese Edition - Rules! (3)
Aug.12.05
	I got my Japanese edition of the Namco Museum Battle Collection for the PSP. Fuckin'. Rules....

J-Walk Blog Link Experiment (0)
Aug.12.05
	This post was brought to you by the letters Alpha and Omega, the number Pi, and by this blog. ["It's a science experiment!" - E. L. B.]...

Phear: Aging? (0)
Aug.09.05
	For the first time, in a long time, my two work machines are faster than my home PC....

Coming Soon To My PSP (0)
Aug.04.05
	I remember hearing reports about a bunch of new games coming for the PSP... and I also remember bitching about the lack of Texas Hold'em games for the PSP. Looks like I'll be a busy mobile gamer over the fall!...

My Desktop (17)
Aug.03.05
	I used my notebook to demo something the other day and I got a resounding round of snorts and snickers when my desktop popped up on the main screen. Were people mocking my Hello Kitty wallpaper? Nah. I don't run...

Weighing in on Hot Coffee (6)
Jul.27.05
	It should be old news by now... a couple of mini-games have been uncovered in GTA5, PC and PS2 editions. Of course the politicians are now circling like vultures. And the ESRB has opted to bump up the rating from...

Trixie Rants a Bit (3)
Jul.26.05
	Trixie: Worst Bachelor Party Ever! [...] Listen lameasses, you don't take the groom golfing, and as much as I love it, you don't set up a game of Halo 2. And you don't make the guy wear a frickin' Spider-Man...

Justice League Unlimited: Epilogue (14)
Jul.24.05
	Yeah, well, so I'd say at least half of my DVR entries are cartoons at this point, the majority of which air on the Cartoon Network. This is a direct results of a lack of Yankees games being televised -...

Beta: August 3, 2005 (0)
Jul.22.05
	"So there's no more Longhorn - we're now officially Windows Vista." Read about [and watch] it here....

Pocket SharpMT Podcast (0)
Jul.21.05
	What's this? Randy doing a podcast? Um, no... I'm still pretty sure that my voice is not ready to be offered for public consumption, so I'll stick to my written text, thanks. Pocket SharpMT, however, has made an appearance in...

A Company Man? (2)
Jul.19.05
	Money and I have had a rocky relationship for years, but there might be some hope for a happy co-existance after all... go figure....

Microsoft Moment: Early Morning (0)
Jul.14.05
	On my drive into work every morning I pass our athletic fields. I usually give them a glance, to see if there's any activity on them: games, practices, tents, parties, etc... Most mornings - since it's before most of the...

Craps Advice (0)
Jul.11.05
	Oddjack: How To Not Crap Yourself About Craps Over the years, a lot of people have asked me about craps. There's always a lot of yelling around the tables - sometimes happy and sometimes weeping - and for some reason...

Uwah! (2)
Jul.11.05
	YYZ via BobbysBrane.com Not altogether often that a home made CGI movie and knocked me off my feet, but this one has... of course it could just be the soundtrack, but still - pretty damned impressive all the same....

Texas Held Up? (1)
Jun.20.05
	Simply put, where the hell is Texas Hold'm for the PSP?! I mean, UMD movies? Yay, I guess - I'm sorta hard pressed to buy a movie that I can't play on my regular TV. And before Sony can build...

Post IBM ThinkPad Experience (3)
Jun.16.05
	As is now ancient news - in digital terms - IBM sold off the ThinkPad line to Lenovo. I've been pretty much thrilled with both my ThinkPad T41 and IBM's support. Easy to upgrade, pain free process to get parts,...

The Geek Shall Inherit The Earth? (0)
Jun.13.05
	Neopoleon.com: Then I noticed a problem. "So..." I began, "when the car was new, I recall the bumper lining up properly with the hood. Why isn't it doing that now?" The Car Person smiled and, after inspecting the damage, explained...

Hah! J-List Edition (3)
Jun.06.05
	A couple of years ago I bought a T-Shirt from J-List that looked like this hoodie and I've worn it all over the place. I sorta dig the shirt for three reasons... one is that anyone that isn't Japanese will...

Too Good To Last? (1)
Jun.05.05
	I've been on a Comcast cable modem for just about a year now; I spent the previous three years on SBC DSL. I should have expected a problem by now, given my past experience with DSL and other people's stories...

Whoa! (0)
Jun.04.05
	c\|net: Apple to ditch IBM, switch to Intel chips This has been kicking around the rumor mill for months now and was put to rest as "just a rumor" a couple of weeks ago... then c\|net puts this out there...

Er... Video Game Strike? (2)
May.25.05
	Kotaku: Video Game Strike Vote Coming - ...a strike is on the table for video game actors. [...] The industry says the main disagreement is about the details of residuals, that’s the money actors receive which is based on game...

Episode III (5)
May.19.05
	No worries about spoilers... I mean we all know how this movie ends, right? Anyway, I had a low expectation for this particular movie, given Episodes I and II - I was pretty much happy with how it played out....

Rockstar Games on Crack? (1)
May.18.05
	It's either a stroke of brilliance or a sign that the coders of Rockstar Games have been living the crack scenes of Grand Theft Auto... I present to you, The Warriors - the video game. I saw this movie on...

Grump Grump Grump - Weekend Edition (0)
May.08.05
	Yeah, well, so I finally got around to playing a bit more with the Mac mini today. Not much, though, because there's a new collection of outlets in WA now, and much like the outlets in CT (same owners, ironically)...

An Unlikely Proclimation (4)
May.05.05
	I don't really like the term Killer App, but I feel I have to use it this one time, cuz I want an application that could make the PSP a very nifty gadget... and it's not that I don't want...

PSP Accessories-o-rama! (0)
Apr.18.05
	Brando has done it again: http://shop.brando.com.hk/sonypsp.php. His shop has put together a bunch of PSP accessories, including neato keen things like replacement analog sticks and other types of cases or protection thingies. Neat stuff....

The Prelude-to-a-Shot Heard Round the World (0)
Apr.18.05
	Visual Studio 2005, Beta 2 has been released. Express is available to the public; MSDN Subscribers have access to all of the bits. The problem I faced is "what to download"? Here's a post about what the versions mean [via...

PSP: Follow Up (0)
Apr.14.05
	I'll have to admit it I guess: I've played with Twisted Metal on the PSP over the last three days more than I have with Halo 2. Could be because of the move or because it's new to me -...

Blogging Milestone (0)
Apr.13.05
	Matt: (Housemate) Ben, please use your own toothbrush. Thanks. (Mine is the one with the blue handle). That's gotta be the first time a Blog has been used for inner-bathroom communication... or perhaps not....

RSS Ads? (2)
Apr.11.05
	Oh for fuck's sake... I was going through my normal round of RSS reading this morning and noticed that a number of them suddenly started shoving ads in my face. One is from a family of blogs, so they've added...

...um, it HAD to be the Robitussin (4)
Apr.10.05
	I'm now the proud, and very impressed, owner of a PSP. Can someone tell me what in the hell I'm supposed to do with it now? [yes, there's more to this entry]...

And the Hits Keep Coming (1)
Apr.08.05
	The releases just keep on coming this week, with this round coming from the web (and for free). MSN Messenger 7.0 has been released - so has MSN Spaces - both of which have been pretty stable through out their...

w00t! 64-bit Excitment! (0)
Apr.07.05
	Maybe it's just because it's my first "official" big release that I've been around campus for, but I couldn't help myself!...

64-bit-o-Rama (0)
Mar.31.05
	<geekInformation> Windows Server 2003 Service Pack 1 has been released! As of this moment, you get pick up SP1 from Windows Update; MSDN Subscribers can also download the full version of the OS with SP1 built in... in addition to...

Halo 2 Update: New Maps in June! (2)
Mar.25.05
	News is up on Xbox's web site - looks like $20 add on with nine new maps for Multi-player use and some other stuff. Nothing like a new venue to even the odds between players! Of course this means I'll...

TechEd 2005 is A-Comin' (0)
Mar.17.05
	Yes, Geek folk, you should want to go to this. Need a reason beyond good tech content? I'll give you two, in the form of video, thanks to Rory and Scott: One. Two....

Baka! (0)
Mar.13.05
	Confession: a new [to me] manga series sucked me in over the past seven couple of weeks and has eaten up a bunch of lunch hours... Usually, when I bump into a new manga collection that can keep my interest,...

Time For Change? (5)
Feb.24.05
	Ya know this really pissed me off. I've had the same email address for just about ten years now. No, really: ten years - it's easy to do when you own the domain... anyway, as Spam has gotten worse over...

Mini Sighting (0)
Feb.14.05
	Was out for coffee this weekend and snapped this shot while waiting in line at Victor's. Surprised to see a Mac mini sitting in a box at a coffee shop, I asked the woman sitting there if she had gotten...

Second Look: Comcast DVR (17)
Feb.03.05
	RandyRants.com: "I just noticed that I COULD NOT Fast Forward, Rewind, etc. through "24" or "American Idol" when watching them via MyDVR last night. My neighbor reports the same thing... anyone got news on WHY Comcast is disabling this?! Thast's...

New MSN Search (0)
Feb.01.05
	MSN Search has been relauched and looks to be pretty freakin' good. The MSN.com home page has been revamped and personally, I like the new layout - a bit cleaner and easier on the eyes. Why the plugs? As of...

Dragonball (121)
Jan.30.05
	So the last episode of Dragonball GT finally aired on the Cartoon Network last night. What an ending!...

Halo 2: My Stats (23)
Jan.25.05
	If you're reading this via RSS, click this link - http://www.randyrants.com/2005/01/halo_2_my_stats.html - to see the Flash window Hah... pretty neat, what you can do with Flash - from Halo Impulse via Major Nelson....

Apple's Latest Releases (2)
Jan.15.05
	I just realized that for all of the comments and emails and IM's that I've had about the Mac mini and the iPod shuffle, I never got around to posting a blurb about it here. And in spite of all...

First Look: Comcast DVR (51)
Jan.12.05
	I've used TiVo for over two years now. I was wasn't an "early adopter" for TiVo - in all honesty I was skeptical of the recording purposed and didn't think I'd need to ever freeze live TiVo. Live and learn:...

Halo 2 Tip: Stop Dropping Out of Games (2)
Jan.12.05
	Here's a typical game of Halo 2, if you blindly get matched into a "Big Team Battle": You start to play a round. One of the two teams loses that first round. The "cry-baby" gamers from the losing team drop...

Wireless Power? (5)
Dec.27.04
	I have to charge a few things every night. Well, "have to". I opt to charge things every night so that I never run out of power; most of my things can go days at a time without a fresh...

Don't Look at This (2)
Dec.18.04
	Ever pass an accident that's on the side of the road and felt obligated to look? That you just have to take in an entire eye full of something gruesome, before you can turn away? You know you aren't supposed...

MSN Toolbar (1)
Dec.15.04
	I'm not sure when it became a must have killer app, but it seems that the press thinks it is - so do software companies, seeing as everyone is working on a searching product lately. As such, there is a...

Xbox Live Tip + Motorola HS820 Bluetooth Headset Review (15)
Dec.14.04
	Did you know that Xbox Live uses a 2.5mm headphone jack? The same jack that many cell phones use? I didn't until recently, but it's true. I even found a pretty good one to use -one that doesn't have the...

Outages Are Coming... (4)
Nov.18.04
	"Ah, my droogs... Appy-polly-loggies. I had something of a pain in my gulliver so I had to sleep. I was not awakened when I gave orders for awakening." I think it's time to change blog engines... No more MovableType? Sort...

Rest in Pieces (0)
Nov.13.04
	For the last twenty years or so, Comdex has been held during the third week of November. Ordinarily I'd be pining for a reason or scrambling for a ticket to get to the conference. It is, after all, Comdex! That's...

Halo 2: Noon Madness (0)
Nov.09.04
	I picked up the game about thirteen hours ago, but the fall out is still in full swing. Redmond police were called in for crowd control at the Company Store and I'm currently sitting in a cafeteria surrounded by 250+...

GTA5: San Andreas (8)
Oct.26.04
	Ya know, it wasn't until tonight that I realized that I never finished GTA4 (Vice City). I know I forgot about it for almost eight months at one point (the saved game had a time stamp) after I discovered Halo...

Bleh, Says the Phone Shopper (3)
Oct.16.04
	Bleh. I'll say it again: Bleh! I spent the majority of the morning shuffling between Best Buy and AT&T Wireless stores, checking out the latest models of Windows Mobile based phone and I came home empty handed. How could that...

Update: How To Disable Windows Messenger (1)
Oct.09.04
	A while ago I posted a few registry hacks that would prevent Windows Messenger from running. I opt to run MSN IM since it has more consumer related features, and other people don't want to run it at all, yet...

New Blog Feature (5)
Oct.04.04
	Alerts. And to MSN Instant Messenger no less - in fact, thanks to MSN, you can even send them to your mobile phone. MoDaCo has had this for a bit - it's supplied by MessageCast and is free to Blogs...

Rory Sighting! (1)
Sep.15.04
	In another chapter from "How Small is the World, Really?", Rory stopped by my office this afternoon! After a quick mini-tour of my building, and stopping into see some other blogging type peoples, he went off in search of more...

Harmony H688 (3)
Sep.09.04
	I've had a Sony System Commander (AV-2000 - an older model) for years, but I hardly ever use it. I got it to be a replacement for all of my other remotes, and while it was quite versatile, I never...

Rare Programming Rant: Cross Thread Access in Whidbey (2)
Aug.19.04
	It's not very often that I have something to Rant about that's also Geek-related, but we've got a winner, and it's all about Whidbey and the .NET Framework 2.0. It's probably a good thing for application security, but from a...

It's Beginning To Look Like Christmas? (4)
Aug.10.04
	Doom 3. Halo 2. Grand Theft Auto 5. w00t!...

Microsoft Watch: Rory Edition (0)
Jul.28.04
	MSDN has a new weapon at its disposal: Rory. Guess he had to, after stealing all that bling-flair from Chris Sells :)...

Reloading... MT, an iPod, and Me (1)
Jul.26.04
	I've re-installed MT on this server... I was hoping to see some speed improvements, but I'm not very hopeful. I've also nabbed one of those the new iPod, even though my old one was only half a year old, and...

Just When I Least Expect It (2)
Jul.06.04
	I've been diddling with technology for over two decades now... I've seen the span of 4.77MHz to 4GHz in CPU speed. Hell, I can recall when I was shocked that Promise put a 286 chip on their caching IDE controller...

The Last Blog Post (3)
Jul.05.04
	No, not the last one ever - truth be told, this is the first "live" post that I've done in a while. The last few entries have been lounging around in the My Drafts folder and it's been easier to...

Only @ Microsoft (3)
Jun.30.04
	I've been playing foosball for a long while now. I picked it up while I was working for Symantec; since then, whenever I join a new company, I always lobby to have a table brought in for "in house" entertainment...

Innovating For the Lazy iPod'r (2)
Jun.26.04
	iPoding: LoadPod, the service that rips your CD collection into your iPod so that you don't have to, has added local service in several new areas......

Happiness Is... (3)
Jun.18.04
	Happiness Is: feeling a surge of joy at seeing your main/home computer for the first time in ten days. OK, so it's considered Happiness for a Geek, anyway. Extreme Happiness Is: the joy of having delivers arrive at your workplace...

Yeah, What He Said... (0)
Jun.10.04
	Steve offers a commentary of being an SDE/T at Microsoft (and makes some points that I myself have made recently)......

Caller ID, a Painful Thing? (7)
May.25.04
	I called my sister the other night because I had to ask her something that was too long to type through email, and I accidentally dialed the wrong number. My cordless phone has a numeric display on the handset, so...

Spam to Email Ratio (2)
May.13.04
	Mark this one in your record books, folks: I've gotten two emails, from family and friends today (and yesterday for that matter), for every one piece of Spam that I've received. Of course, I have a Spam filter through Outlook...

Star Trek Moment (1)
May.06.04
	Nemesis has finally hit cable - consequently it has been on at least four times a day - so it has been on my TV a few times over the last month, and I noticed something that caused me to...

Finally, Radio Shack Comes Through With Something Useful! (45)
Apr.29.04
	Got a surround sound system? Got wires running to the rear speakers that are a) running across the room and over a coffee table, b) running along floor boards, or c) taped to the side of a wall? Someone finally...

Oh: Technology Update (2)
Apr.25.04
	Xbox, Special Edition. An all green see-through model, with a copy of Halo (supposed to have some Halo 2 movies on it) and a controller branded for Halo. The graphics are better than the PC version, which completely boggles my...

Now that I'm an MCAD... (17)
Apr.23.04
	What do I do with it? Well, aside from updating my resume, of course. I guess I could make my email signatures read MCAD.NET, MCSD, MCP but I really hate that crap... so much so that I don't even have...

Coding Notation Changes?! (3)
Apr.17.04
	Actually, this is a Rant. For years I've gotten used to seeing things like objThis and m_strThat and knowing exactly what variable or object I would dealing with... I've used an approximation of what is known as "Hungarian Notation" among...

Who Said .NET Was Slower? (15)
Apr.15.04
	I was working on a project the other day in MFC/C++ 6 and had to put 180,000 items into a ComboBox. Every Windows programmer that reads this Blog just collectively groaned, but there was a reason for it - honest....

MTClient (7)
Mar.31.04
	I know I probably freak people out when I talk about titles that are in "competition" to my own software, but I've always been more about the technology than I am about pissing contest for a bigger marketshare of freeware....

Shareware: Dead or Alive? (3)
Mar.20.04
	The other day Wesner asked: "Shareware Profitable?" He goes on to talk a bit about shareware and how it's changed over the years. I posted a comment or two on this topic on his site, but it's been percolating in...

Letterbox (3)
Mar.19.04
	Remember the fuss about Letterbox format and how people went on and on, saying that they'd never get used to it? Ask anyone that's under the age of forty if they even notice anymore, now that it's been around for...

Blogging the World Over (0)
Mar.17.04
	While a lot of companies are censoring their employees about company matters and warning them to keep their mouths closed - or at least ordering them not to Blog about things - Microsoft has swung in the other direction. They've...

Will Code For Food? (5)
Mar.11.04
	I read an article the other day about how a company up in Massachusetts is trying to prevent programming jobs from being outsourced to India. Obviously, this made me read the entire article, as it impacts me directly. Or well...

E-Stamp? (2)
Mar.07.04
	There has been a lot of talk lately in tech publications about the possibility of selling electronic "stamps" to be used for sending email. To that I say, "Are you fuckin' high?" At a penny an email, that would mean...

AV: Why Norton's Irked Me (7)
Mar.03.04
	Have you installed Norton's AntiVirus 2004? I have. Can someone explain to me why six different processes need to be running to "protect" me from attacks? I mean, it used to just be just one simple process and that was...

DevDays 2004: Hartford (1)
Mar.02.04
	Hometown conference for .NET related technologies? How can you pass that up, even if it is $75 out of my own pocket; I didn't even know companies out here were actively using .NET - they've usually heard about it, but...

Literary Quandary (0)
Feb.26.04
	Here it is, in a nutshell: I'm having trouble selecting a textbook for my class and I'm looking for some Geek-feedback. The class is an Introduction to C#, for graduate-level CS students. I'm using it as an "overview" of the...

The Apprentice: Season 2 (5)
Feb.24.04
	There's something sorta surreal about watching your own goatee bounce while you talk on your own TV, babbling through a video resume, while you dub a Mini-DV tape to a VHS tape because that's what the interview process requires. Am...

Ghost 2003, a ThinkPad T41, and Me (15)
Feb.21.04
	IBM recently released a firmware upgrade for one of the hard drives that is used in their ThinkPad, this time out it's for a 60GB drive that runs at 7200rpm. I have a similar drive - both are TravelStar drives,...

IBM ThinkPad T40/T41: Annoying Beep Fix (78)
Feb.16.04
	This one came from one of the users on the ThinkPad Mailing List and it's a very welcomed fix! There are a number of key combinations that cause a ThinkPad to beep at seemingly random times. For example, if you...

Pre-Compiling a Bad Thing? (0)
Feb.13.04
	And from the Oops department: I've gotten a couple emails that point to a couple of articles that say that NGEN and pre-compiling is not a good idea for everyone. It could run into problems with newer versions and other...

Microsoft... The Good Guys? (4)
Feb.10.04
	Had to share this as Microsoft rarely gets press as being the "good guys" of an industry - the fact that I agree with them doesn't hurt any either. Read about it: RE: Microsoft is good, Nokia is evil -...

iPod, the Second Life (0)
Feb.09.04
	I've had gift cards collecting on my kitchen counter for the over a year now. I love the little buggers - hard plastic works out so much better than the old fashioned paper gift certificates (which are easily destroyed). I...

IE Scrolling Bug: Fixed! (0)
Feb.02.04
	That very, very annoying scrolling bug that was introduced with a IE Service Pack from November has finally been fixed with the "Cumulative Security Update for Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1 (KB832894)" that showed up on Windows Update today!...

Blog Change: New Category (0)
Jan.29.04
	Over 500 downloads in 24 hours? Yes, SharpKeys has been getting that much notice. Who knew? Anyway, seeing as it's taken off as an "official" project, it now gets it's own category: SharpKeys....

Scoble on Dean and iPods (0)
Jan.27.04
	For the casual Blog reader, you might not have heard of Robert Scoble. Simply put he's a very well known Blog writer in the tech community and he also happens to work for Microsoft. His Blog, however, has nothing to...

Bad Geek Karma: Revisited (4)
Jan.22.04
	A while ago, I talked about something that I called Bad Geek Karma and mused as to whether or not it was a real thing. It is. I've spent the last five days living in it. And man does it...

Outing the Competition: BlogJet (5)
Jan.20.04
	I don't believe in blood thirsty competition when it comes to free software. Don't get me wrong: I put a lot of work into making software and I get an enormous amount of pride in watching my projects work, especially...

How To Know You've Played Too Much (1)
Jan.13.04
	How do you know you've played too much Halo? When you look at this picture (from BWG's vaction to Guilin, China) and think, "Wait, did I just hear a banshee go by?" Makes me wonder if some of the Halo...

RSS Aggregator: In Use (4)
Jan.13.04
	I was talking to a guy at work the other day about how RSS Aggregators are a great idea, yet often suck. The clients aren't the problem; the publishing is! Of the blogs on my Links page that do support...

iTunes Plug-in (1)
Jan.12.04
	Since Outlook marked it as Spam, I almost missed this: it seems that Bill Zeller (of Zempt fame) has created an iTunes Plug-In that works like the "Now Playing" plug-ins that he's made for WinAmp 2 and 3. Neat thing...

We Hates Software (0)
Jan.09.04
	Incessant Ramblings has we hates software because inside everyone is a little software tester trying to get out. Boy does this hit close to the heart these days... the XML makes me angry alone is reason alone to add a...

Removing Windows Messenger from Outlook Express (40)
Dec.30.03
	I noticed tonight that even though I don't have Windows Messenger active that msmsgr.exe was showing up in my Task Manager when I ran Outlook Express. I checked the OE settings: "log into messenger automatically" was not selected. I uninstalled...

Maiko "Home" Movie (1)
Dec.29.03
	Every now and again I have to pause and marvel at how the Internet has changed the subtleties of life. I'm no stranger to see an "online community" (having grown up on modem connections) yet I sometimes find myself in...

Neat Stuff (0)
Dec.29.03
	Couple of things for us kids to play with: a Favorite checker from FurryGoat.com and an RSS reader for SmartPhone 2003 devices....

Virtual Spring Cleaning? (6)
Dec.18.03
	I've officially switched over to the IBM ThinkPad T41 and will get around to selling my Sony Z1A on eBay once the holidays are over. I know that might sound odd but I don't want to get into a "I...

Whoops! + Done! (1)
Dec.12.03
	Seems that my hosting company is looking to make a number of significant upgrades to their platform which means that my server is going for a little ride. The problems are numerous but the tech staff at the ISP have...

R.I.P. Pocket PC (4)
Dec.12.03
	Writing is on the wall for a beloved device former known as the Pocket PC (now Windows Mobile 2003 device). I hate to say it, but I feel I have to. After a seven year love affair with Windows CE...

And Who Says Snow Isn't Helpful? (0)
Dec.06.03
	With the most recent bout of snow, it's brought a site "enhancement". I've noticed that the comments part of this site have gotten slower and since I can't control the power of the hosting server, I can help prevent duplicate...

w00t: Flash the MPx200 (77)
Dec.04.03
	I love it when the UberGeeks get involved with consumer electronics: it makes things so much easier for everyone else. Seems that the folks over in MPx200.org's forums have a sticky post about flashing the Motorola MPx200 to use a...

Buffy Lives in Port Charles? (2)
Nov.23.03
	So I had to get my Jeep repaired the other day, and they had a TV playing in the waiting room. No cable of course, which means that only a local ABC station comes in on it - Dr. Phil...

Is 20MB For a Framework Too Big? (6)
Nov.20.03
	I was talking to Steve about this the other day and it caused a bit of Geek soul searching within me. Ever since I started writing SharpMT I get about one email a week complaining about the .NET Framework being...

Offline Blog Writers: a Review (2)
Nov.18.03
	Here's something for ya: Greg over at the Epicenter has compiled a matrix of features for four of the "best known" offline Blog writers. Gave me a B+ which is better grades than I used to get in high school,...

What the Hell? Internet Explorer Patch Edition (24)
Nov.12.03
	What the hell is going on with IE? I thought this was just me or my notebook's mouse, but I've seen this on another machine that is running with a Trackball Explorer (which is dead on accurate with it's clicks)...

New Saga Begins (2)
Nov.11.03
	And a new saga begins. Actually, it sorta continues. Segues, maybe? I start a new gig today as a contractor, something that I haven't done in about ten years. It's also my first day of work at a new company...

Review: Matrix Revolutions (7)
Nov.05.03
	Hm. [WARNING: Spoilers are now in the comments!]...

Microsoft: PDC Coverage (0)
Oct.29.03
	A run of Geek stuff these days, but no, I'm not at the PDC. I'm watching the fallout from it while stuck at home, actually, and have been amused for the most part. One thing that I feel compelled to...

RantsTab: Fall Down and go Boom (0)
Oct.28.03
	Seems that Microsoft has hidden their tabs information with MSN Messenger, version 6.1. This means that it can't be edited by the RantsTab application which thereby means that this project is on hold for the time being. I have seen...

Motorola's MPx200 on AT&T (5)
Oct.27.03
	Went shopping today after seeing the special CompUSA is running on the new Motorola phone that's running Microsoft's SmartPhone software. They're offering it for $299, with a $50 rebate, plus another $50 rebate if you turn in an old phone,...

Sick of Slow Adobe Reader Startup Times? (13)
Oct.21.03
	This came from FurryGoat who got it from Sanjay's Coding Tips who found it at Darrell Norton's blog. It's a short list of things to do to speed up the launching of Adobe's Reader - I'm posting them here to...

iTunes for Windows (120)
Oct.17.03
	As anyone that knows me can tell you, I'm a huge fan of the iPod. I've had one since its first release (when it was Mac only) and have been using XPlay to sync my music to and from my...

AppleCare Rebate! (0)
Oct.14.03
	Way back when, I opted to get rid of my 12" PowerBook and Switch-Back to a Windows based notebook in the form of a Sony Z1A. Having gone through CompUSA, they stood by their products in getting me the Z1A,...

What's on My Mind Lately? (0)
Sep.23.03
	All types of stuff really. What's been going on you ask? Stuff... and plenty of it!...

Must Have in the US! (2)
Sep.21.03
	Not often that I have appliance envy, but I do. This is something that is a year or two old in Japan already and pretty freakin' neat. Basically it's a washer/dryer that works like a dishwasher would: first washes and...

Test Drive: D-Link's USB Products (They suck!) (137)
Aug.30.03
	This Rant has been over a month in the "waiting" because I believe in giving people the benefit of the doubt. Pretty stupid of me, I know, but when dealing with a hardware vendor I do have an inexplicable large...

Public Wi-Fi in a Death Spiral (0)
Aug.17.03
	From the FurryGoat: I do agree with the basic fact that I'm not going to go to McDonald's specify to find a hotspot, but don't try to sell me that GRPS will beat it out - it's just to damn...

For Lease, By Owner: Coder (2)
Aug.08.03
	It's official: I've been laid off by my daytime employer. Ironically, this is some pretty freakin' good news... I know that might sound weird but, honestly, this isn't necessarily a bad thing....

Why Steve Sucks (13)
Aug.06.03
	Rare for me to attack a fellow online blogger, much less some that's been a great friend for almost ten years, but Steve really sucks. He always seems to start these side projects that end up costing me money, time...

Outages (0)
Aug.02.03
	Lately there's been some news stories being published lately about a ring of hackers that have been attacking web servers with Denial of Service attacks and it's been wreaking havoc all over the 'net - if this site is up...

RantsTab (1.2) - A Mini-Hack That's Cool (3)
Jul.30.03
	I guess I'm biased to the "cool" part, but this is a mini-hack that's got some very kick-ass potential. As outed by NeoWin back in May, it seems that the released version of MSN's new Instant Message client (MSN-IM) has...

A Case of Bad Geek-karma (67)
Jul.24.03
	A little while ago I wondered if there was such a thing as bad Geek-karma and given certain experiences, I truly believe that it exists. Shortly after writing that bit, Kasia noted that her servers know when she's on vacation;...

Oops, I Geeked It Again (2)
Jul.11.03
	I've often wondered if there was such a thing as bad Geek-karma and I'm nearly 100% certain that there is. I mean all Geeks have had the days where we've attempted to upgrade a PC and there's just one problem...

FeedDemon, RSS Reader (2)
Jul.02.03
	To those of you that are RSS/Blog fanatics, this will interest you. I've known about RSS feed readers for a long while, but I usually don't use them. There's been a few different RSS readers that I've seen and up...

Rant: The Indirect Whiner (0)
Jul.02.03
	Here's an oddity: a Rant about Geeks. More specifically about some of my would-be users. Let me preface this by saying two things: first, the majority of my users have been not only great sources of new features for my...

iTrip (36)
Jun.23.03
	I've been meaning to write about this for a while, but I initially had some issues with it to work out with it first - I didn't want to slam a product without giving it a fair chance, particularly when...

Follow up to the Sony Z1A (2)
Apr.27.03
	It's been a pretty busy week and a half for me! As is plain to see via my site, I've rediscovered my ability to program and get an application out the door. In fact, I figure it took a total...

Review: Sony Z1A Notebook (7)
Apr.05.03
	And now for the good stuff: the Sony Z1A. Granted that I've only had this notebook for just about two days, but I've already dubbed this machine as the Best Notebook that I've ever owned. As much as I liked...

CompUSA + Sony = Apple No Longer (6)
Apr.04.03
	OK. Before the I-Told-You-So pundits get on my case, let me reaffirm right now, that everything I've said over the last few months about the Mac and OS-X have been and still are true. Now that I've said that, let...

Mac Update: Episode IV? (0)
Mar.27.03
	Continuing the PowerBook Saga from last week, I am currently without a PowerBook and working off my old Sony 505VE. I have, however, made a good deal of progress over the last nine days, so let me bring all of...

Mac Update: The Saga Continues (0)
Mar.18.03
	So much for Apple offering the "Perfect End-User Experience". I just got off of a 40 minute call with two different CSR's at AppleCare. The reason for my call was because my PowerBook was now listed as "Case Closed, Returning...

T-Mobile 2.0: Now with Coverage! (0)
Mar.12.03
	To the unfortunate souls that have been following this site from the very beginning, hold onto your asses because this is going to shock your bottom clean off you: I'm currently happy with T-Mobile's service! To those of you that...

Kung-Log + MT = Happy Ranting Randy (0)
Mar.04.03
	For a while now I've been using a product called Kung-Log to write up my Rants remotely. See, MovableType (MT) - the software that I've been using to manage this site for a bit now - has been great for...

LinkSys 802.11g (0)
Mar.03.03
	So a little while ago, I accidentally fried one of the ports on my LinkSys 4-port router. I've had enough static electricity in my house that I could save a but of money on my electric bill by hooking up...

And so it Continues... (0)
Feb.14.03
	And so my little portable heater is still warming up my life, a day at a time. Yes, thats, right I'm still a Mac user a full two weeks into my trial Switch. Don't get me wrong, though - I'm...

And Now for Something Completely Different (0)
Feb.06.03
	Well, there's been yet another change to RandyRants.com. Since I'm now using a PowerBook as my full time notebook, CityDesk was becoming less and less an option for writing my blogs. I could have typed up the Rants in TextEdit...

Cha-Cha-Cha-Changes (0)
Feb.02.03
	Changes abound. First, and probably most noticeable, is that the site is up and running without any gaping downtime. In fact, I'm not sure if there's been any downtime, since I switched to a new hosting company. See, this web...

S105: Unlocked! (0)
Jan.31.03
	One of the longest on going issues that people seem to e-mail me about is my experiences with the Samsung S105. Samsung, like most cellular handset manufacturers, offer most of their individual phone models in a number of different "flavors"...

Made by a Mac ...sorta (0)
Jan.27.03
	Had a bit of a change of plans over the weekend: I talked to CompUSA and Apple a number of times on Saturday and guess what? I now have a new 12" PowerBook! Was not without it's issues of course...

Windows 0 --- Apple -1 (0)
Jan.24.03
	I thought I should finally get around to sharing my impressions of the new 12.1" PowerBook that I bought from Apple. Well, I sorta can't do that yet - the freakin' thing hasn't shipped yet! Let met tell you this:...

New PocketPC: HP 1910 (0)
Jan.15.03
	New device alert! I've opted to sell my Toshiba e740 Pocket PC. No complaints with the device, but I had begun to feel like I'm trying to hit a fly with a building rather than a swatter. It's got all...

My Balance Gave Out! (0)
Jan.08.03
	Oops. More or less, anyway. I can't think of any better way to say it, but I seem to have bought a new PowerBook. Yeah, you heard me. Even after yesterday's revelations about how I wouldn't be able to Switch...

Update: Mac Stuff (0)
Jan.07.03
	It's been a while since I've mentioned my Apple on this site... that's mostly because my G4 has been sitting mostly unused for a while. As you may remember, a few months ago I threw about $800 into a G4/450MHz...

Update on the S105 (0)
Dec.16.02
	I've had the S105 for a couple of months now and one of things that it has not been able to do is download MIDLets. MIDLets are phone based applications, written in Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), that are downloaded...

The Morning Paper... (0)
Nov.22.02
	People sometimes ask me "How do you keep up with new technology?" and seem surprised when I reply "I read web sites." How can they be surprised? I mean web sites are easy to publish and most of the ones...

A Geek in Review (0)
Nov.19.02
	There's been a couple of changes in my digital toy box, so I thought I'd do an "update" of sorts: Samsung S105, Pentium 4 2.53GHz, Toshiba e740, Y'z Dock, Sony DCR-TRV25....

Y'z Dock (0)
Nov.13.02
	Anyway, one of the neatest things about the new OS X interface is the dock. The dock is Apple's answer to the omni-present task bar that is sitting on your desktop at the moment; it's used to show the currently...

MSN 8 (0)
Nov.06.02
	'bout freakin' time they got around to it - upgrading MSN Chat I mean. How do I figure that? Well, MSN, version 8, shipped last week. Wait, isn't MSN Chat just a web site? Sure, but MSN is going through...

Samsung S105 and T-Mobile USA (0)
Oct.30.02
	If you recall, I've been using an Ericsson t68 with coverage from VoiceStream since April. Times have changed. VoiceStream is now T-Mobile USA. Having been bought a number of months ago by Deutsche Telecom, they decided that their USA subsidiary...

Shadow Puppets, by Y'z (0)
Oct.03.02
	It's on the extremely rare occasion to find an application that live up to my expectations with a great piece of coding, but it's happened just last week: Y'z Shadow is a small application that sits in the SysTray (next...

Professional Therapy, in Progress (0)
Sep.24.02
	Therapy. I think that's the best part of this web site for me - it provides me a way to get out my personal Rants and pass on Geeky knowledge; in some cases, I even get to declare certain outrageous...

Resistance: DENIED - Say Hello to iRandy (0)
Sep.03.02
	Didn't I say, just last week, that someone had to prevent me from dipping into the Mac universe? Well someone fumbled. My used G4 tower is already on it's way to CT, along with a set of G4 System discs...

OS X: A Cry for Help! (0)
Aug.25.02
	Someone needs to stop me from moving to a Mac. I've looked at the applications I use lately, and with the exception of MSN Chat (which I'm told is being Mac-ified soon), my compilers (Visual Studio 6.0 and .NET), and...

iPod version 1.2 + Calendar (0)
Aug.09.02
	Got iPod 1.2? If you don't you can upgrade either with a Mac or a PC. The first release from Apple was the 1.2 OS X based Upgrader. This is in a new format exclusively for Mac's OS version 10,...

StyleXP (0)
Jul.31.02
	I've been trying out this particular product for a while now, waiting for it to screw up - it's rare that I get pleasantly surprised by an application. First, what is StyleXP? Simply put, it allows you to apply a...

Sending Contacts to iPod (0)
Jul.18.02
	PC-based iPod owners, here's a tip for you. As I'm sure you know, 1.1 of the iPod software can store contacts as part of it's storage. They show up in the menu as a storage item; depending on your software,...

RAVE: AIM+ (0)
Jun.17.02
	Chat rooms have been around for a long, long time. How long? From the days of the Apple //e and the Commodore 64 so at least the early 80's. Before the earliest chat rooms, there was still one to one...

Mozilla 1.0 released! (0)
Jun.06.02
	Mozilla 1.0 is finally done! It's available for download now on a few different platforms... it's all set to go. For those of you that may not know, Mozilla is an open-source initiative that was orchestrated to offer the world...

Find in Files Fix in XP (0)
May.14.02
	It took me some time to find the problem with the "Find in Files" option of the Windows Explorer that's included with Windows XP. In Windows 2000, I was able to say find "Bubba" and it would go and search...

Network Monitor on XP (0)
Apr.29.02
	If you've already made the move from Windows 2000 Server to Windows XP Pro, you may have noticed a number of new applications to use on your desktop. Of the applications, that was noticeably missing (at least my skewed point...

J2ME in a Nutshell (0)
Apr.12.02
	Tis a rare thing, a technical Rant, for something that is such a popular topic, but what in the hell is wrong with J2ME? Java, version 2, Micro Edition, has become the little darling of the wireless industry. The press...

RAVE: Ericsson's t68 (0)
Apr.01.02
	Tech review time, and it's actually a Rave. I'm a phone-addict. I can admit this - it's also part of what I do for a living, so it gets an addiction that gets feed well. Over the last year I've...

PS2: Grand Theft Auto 3 (0)
Mar.20.02
	This won't be the first time this happens, but I need to share a Geek moment with the "world". Also, and please don't be shocked, but this is a Rave and not a Rant. It could easily be turn into...

TiVo (0)
Mar.20.02
	Yay TiVo! A friend of mine turned me onto this lil gadget a while ago and I shunned it for a long while because I figured "Got a VCR, why bother". That comment alone could get me stoned by the...

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