Boom.
Monthly Archives: September 2007
T Minus 1 Hour
Halo 3.
Continue reading T Minus 1 Hour
Dramatic Observation
I realized something odd about The World According To Garp. In spite of it being such a dark movie, it somehow reminds me of another dramatic epic even thought it was released a full 12 years later.
Does anyone else see the movie as a broken and twisted verison of Forrest Gump. Or is it just me?
Phear the Undertoad.
Transfer Complete
Using XBL and a 512MB MU, I took some time to set up my new Xbox console.
Yes, it’s olive and orangy-chrome. Yes, I now have a shiny new Gamerpic and theme. Yes, it’s the Xbox 360 Halo 3 Special Edition console. I bought it over the weekend but since I wanted to use the new hard drive, I had to borrow an MU from a friend at work. Yes, I know that I can only play my XBLA games if I’m logged in now, but the truth is that I was in that boat anyway: as part of my job I’ve beta tested a lot of hardware and I only had two games that would run offline… ah well.
Now I have to send my original 360 off to my sister and brother-in-law – they have an original Xbox that needs some upgrading lub.
I touch No More
Back it goes. The last straw was the video playback. I made the mistake of looking at The Italian Job clip on a proper iPhone today and noticed two rouge/dead pixels while playing back video on my iPod touch.
Instead I have a very shiny black iPod nano sitting next to me… in fact, I’m prepared to call the iPod touch the loser of the current iPod line up.
Continue reading I touch No More
Missing Features: iPod touch
I spent the day playing with the iPod touch and I’m… disturbed by what I’ve discovered.
In the comments of the previous post I point out that I noticed that the iPod touch is not an iPhone with no phone functions – it’s an iPod with the UI of an iPhone. Subtile distinction to some, but the truth is that the iPhone is a PDA with a phone while the touch is, well, a proper iPod.
And that’s what is disturbing me: I bought an iPod. True, with a visual, touch-based UI, I should have expected that driving with the thing would be more difficult than the original design… change tracks required an unlock swipe and then a few taps. I’m OK with that, but the two things that are missing simply left me slack jawed… you can only Shuffle all of the songs of a collection or playlist: you cannot Shuffle by Album! This is a de-facto error. A sin. A huge feature is missing – it’s the reason why I use iTunes on my PC and what was a deal breaker on the Zune. The other thing is that there’s no option for cross-fading between songs… and that’s something Gen 2 or Gen 3 had…
Deal breaker? Not yet, but I expect to find more missing things rather than “surprisingly neat things” with this device – the original iPod has spoiled me.
Well that and I fully expect to get updates to the firmware over time – these are things that can and should be added with updates…
Update: while the UI is very, very shiny, I don’t think I like it for my PMP. The UI request visual attention – there’s no way to use it without looking at it. Case in point: I was driving down the road the other day – decided to change the track. Before I used to pick up the iPod [classic], and click the right edge of the wheel. Now, if I want to do the same thing, I have to pick up the touch, press the home button, slide the slider, and tap next. If I don’t have the screen auto-lock, the screen stays on! Talk about a battery killer… oh, and here’s the worst part: if you want to change the volume at any time… yep: it has to be unlocked. So if you stumble onto a track with uber loud volume, you’d better pull the head phones because you won’t be able to lower it fast enough… even if it’s locked the slider control is less accurate than the wheel… simply just not that impressed with it (and again, the iPhone has physical buttons for volume – I might end up with the iPhone for video playback after all.)
Update 2: TUAW points out a less than obvious feature… is this a deal saver?
Grrrrrr.
I’m officially boycotting the EU.
If I want to experience the UK, I’ll eat a crumpet and go to Australia. Need the green of Ireland? I live in the Evergreen State – I’ll play golf and have a mint shake from McDonald’s next March. If I want to experience Germany, I’ll go drink beer in Canada. If I want to experience Italy, I’ll swing by New York or [one of the three hotels in] Vegas. Spain? Go to Mexico. Portugal? Visit Brazil. France? I’ll act snooty and superior for half an hour and then kick my self in the nuts until I bleed out of my mouth.
Dumbest freakin’ thing ever. I demand to see OSX N, Linux N, and OS/2 Warp 4 N… if Windows can’t ship with a media player, neither should any other OS. I have WMP on my machine right now but I don’t use it. I have four different media players on my machines. How does having WMP installed prevent me from using another player? It doesn’t.
Further, I love how no European judge considered that market share dropped off because of the dip in a certain media player’s quality… there was a point there when the installer crashed for feck’s sake.
Meh.
Cloud Fraking Nine
I had trouble sleeping last night… my face was sore from smiling all night. While my soul was at peace, my mind was racing with visions of broken Red Sox fans as they watched a glorious rally in the 8th inning of last nights game. It was simply magical.
Oh, and how can you tell a ball player is spending their first year in Boston? They quoted by the media making the following statement: “We’re still up by 4.5, not down by 4.5,” Coco Crisp said, “so it’s hardly time to panic.” Poor bastard doesn’t know what he’s in for, playing on this ball club. The defeatest mentality of the Boston Fan already has them out of the playoffs and turning to football. It’s just their nature.
As for me, this one game made my season – the rest of it is just an epiloge.
Falling Off The Wagon
This is what falling off the wagon looks like:
“Damn It, That’s A Big Fat Ass!”
I got a new leather sectional less than a year ago. Ordered it on September 3 but it took a couple of months for it to get here from Italy. Was a simple set up really: seats six people if you put someone on the corner piece and is covered in the typical “unmarried black” leather. I didn’t want to custom order it, but I couldn’t find a black section anywhere. They had sectionals but not in black or leather; they black leather sets that weren’t sections. And I checked everywhere before going custom.
Three weeks ago I sat on the corner section and it sunk down a bit low. Felt like the cushion slide off the frame and sunk down into the base. I would have pulled it up and out of the frame, but all of the leather is one piece so I couldn’t. I called the store for service: “the repair center will call you back.” A week later, I called back: “it’ll take about two weeks for the service to call you.” Uhhhh, OK. I know the set has a 10 year warranty but will it take 10 years to get warranty service? Two weeks after my first call, I got a call and set up an appointment for this week… the guy came by yesterday. The frame is simply broken. He’s suggesting they replace the whole furniture set, which makes me happy but also concerned… I mean, was I just unlucky or can I expect this every year? Guess time will tell…
Doesn’t change the fact that the whole episode makes me think I need to spend more time at the gym.
ok. Ok. Ok. OK. OK! OK!!! OKOKOKOKOKOK!!!1!11!
I’m not wearing denim shorts anymore. Except on laundry day and even then, those will be cargo styled.
Meh.
Continue reading ok. Ok. Ok. OK. OK! OK!!! OKOKOKOKOKOK!!!1!11!
Told You I Couldn’t Tell You
A little while ago, I had a long drawn-out post about something I couldn’t talk about. Was all stuff that had to be said. Some even left in the comments “that’s a lot of talk for not saying anything”. Had to be done.
Today, I was reading on the interwebs about a group of gamers got their hands on a less-than-legal copy of the same title… not only were their Xbox Live accounts banned from XBL but their consoles were banned as well. Until the beginning of the year 10000. Not too bad since the game ships in 18 days… A recap of the saga is on Xbox 360 Fanboy but I also have to point out that after they were banned, the nimrods went to the Xbox forums for technical support. Classic!
This is why the other post was so long and why I’m still not saying anything about it: as an employee they’d have the right to leave my dripping severed hear hanging on a pike in front of our office building…
And quite rightfully so.
What I Did On My Summer Vacation – A Slide Show
I went to our company meeting yesterday. Someone at Windows Live must have worried about us finding our way to Safeco Field – I noticed this by the home plate entrance:
Today, I returned to my office…
Continue reading What I Did On My Summer Vacation – A Slide Show
The New iPods – Which One Do I Buy?
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 given an iPod nano for a gift two years ago – I think that was the last “new” iPod I’ve brought into the house… that means I’m due for an upgrade.
Which model am I going to buy?
Right now, I have to say… none of them.
Continue reading The New iPods – Which One Do I Buy?
A Return To Saint’s Row: Games Ahoy!
I finished BioShock. The other game that has been stealing my gaming time has ended has been paused until the September 25. All of which means that it’s time that I get back to finished off the games that I’ve been slacking on for a while…
And it’s quite a list, starting with Saint’s Row.
Continue reading A Return To Saint’s Row: Games Ahoy!