How To Lose An Argument: 120GB Xbox 360 Edition

Want to argue with me? Come with proper facts and some logic to argue your case or I’ll make you cry and send you home a loser.

Oof. Look at all the would be job applicants that just retracted their resumes – I’m not talking about a work argument… believe it or not I’m far more willing to compromise and accepting of different points of view at work. This is about some all-too-typical fanboy crap.

For example, consider the 120GB Xbox 360 Hard Drive upgrade and it’s suggested retail price…
Continue reading How To Lose An Argument: 120GB Xbox 360 Edition

Help Wanted

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 working for XNA Game Platform Extensions. Interested in what I’ve done? Want to know what I know? Or better yet, want to know about upcoming things like the Elite before most mammals do?

I’ve got a job opening for an SDET on my team and I’m looking to fill it with someone that’s passionate about gaming, passionate about testing, and knowledgeable in native C++ and any combination of C# or managed C++. Yes, there’s a ton of coding involved in this type of position along with a ton of test casing and the ability to drive products to their completion – either in a green 360 game case on a store shelf or in the Xbox SDK that enables other people to produce titles.

Interested? Continue reading for the full job description and information about how to submit your resume…
Continue reading Help Wanted

Xbox 360 Elite?

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 it doesn’t hit the street until April-29.

Will I buy one? Probably. Even at $479. Why? It’s got a bunch of stuff in there: the black console with HDMI (and an HDMI cable). Black controller w/ black headset. Plus the 120GB HDD and a month of Xbox Live Gold? That’s a lot of stuff for $80, considering the current prices… Will it cause me to buy a new TV with HDMI? Probably not, but if I got a receiver that switched HDMI I might do some HDMI-DVI stuff to it.

After all, I’ve already got a black HD-DVD Drive that was a special edition for employees – this would compliment it so very well…

Bloody Money

Just noticed it’s been almost a week since I posted something… I’ve been somewhat busy with work related items – which will get rolled into a future post, of course – but one thing that caught my eye has been the ongoing scare caused by tainted dog food. People that don’t “get” what having a pet means, just rolled their eyes. Fine. Be that way. But the truth is that pet food is supposed to be held to the same standards as regular food, according to the FDA, so no matter what your feelings on animals, there should be some concern here.

Long and short of it either this plant has screwed the pooch with the quality control or someone has purposely tainted a whole lotta pet food.

While this blog rarely advocates lawsuits – in fact, I often point out the ridiculous nature of most newsworthy cases – this time, I’m all for it. In fact, effected pet owners should have a whole cache of lawyers out for blood.

It’s the least the offernders can do.

Unacceptable!

MSNBC: A passenger in first class woke up to a shock when he found himself sitting near a corpse on a British Airways flight, British newspapers reported on Monday. Paul Trinder, 54, said cabin crew moved the body of the elderly woman from the economy section where she had died after take-off, the Mirror and Sun tabloids said.

How wrong is that? Obviously she should have been dumped into the cargo hold or left in steerage coach like

everyone else… since when does death qualify you for a first class upgrade? Especially on an international flight!

Better a corpse than a screaming kid in first class, though – the guy should feel lucky that the person next to him was so quiet.

What Would You Do For A Headline?

Rory: What a f***ing mess

Rory weighs in on Scoble’s recent comments about Microsoft… you know, the company that helped grow his ego blog image and further fund his current endevour by paying his salary for years…

Thanks to Rory, I have nothing else to say on the matter.

oO, Part II caused by the comments of the comments… bout bloody time someone said it, too.

xna: More Than Visual Studio

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 that had XNA on it… the first and most popular response was “Oh! What part of VS did you work on?” The other often heard comment was “Oh! You guys are in that bar upstairs, right?” because XNA sponsored the bar in the lobby of Moscone North. Consequently, I made it a point to talk to people about what XNA was to both Microsoft and to the gaming community…

What is this XNA thing anyway? A product? A technology? A group?

Yes.
Continue reading xna: More Than Visual Studio

got junk?

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 EdgeIO, it should have pretty far reaching buying power – it just launched last week, but I expect it to fill up quick.

Of course now I’ll have to justify buying an older vending machine…

Sick

Ugh. I’m sick. And yes, as a guy, if I admit that I’m sick, then that means it’s rather real and moderately serious. Got a Venti tea at Starbucks today, instead of coffee. Been craving ice cream and milk – that only happens when I’m ill. Wearing a sweatshirt even thought it’s 70 in here and I felt cold from any draft, while out for breakfast (it’s like 50+ out there.) Can’t focus on coding. No desire for gaming. Can’t even focus on this blog post… slept 10 hours last night. Went to bed with a 99.4 fever – 0.4 points higher than my normal.

Not only that, but while at GDC I completely disconnected from my personal email and at work I only replied to critical issues that made it to my Inbox. Had over 500 messages waiting at home; deleted a least 500 “fluff” messages per day at work. Now it’s time for clean up but I can’t even get my mind on that…

I think I’ll go take a nap.

Pftftft: Mangiare Edition

I ask you this: how can San Francisco had good [New York styled] Italian food while most of Washington (or Oregon for that matter) doesn’t? They have some semblance of Italian and some items are good, but navigating a menu is like being in a limbo contest. Walked into a place here and ordered without a worry. And it was good. Not good, but good.

It’s just not fair.

Not fair!