Category Archives: GeekStuff


GeekStuff

Lenovo vs IBM

6 Comments

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 order, so it dropped the price substantially. As is no new to anyone that’s been to the site before, I’ve had a T41 for over two years now and have been pretty pleased with IBM’s support over that span, but now Lenovo is calling the shots.

How do they stack up for service so far?
Continue reading Lenovo vs IBM →

GeekStuff

Mac mini 2.0

6 Comments

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 by getting a MacBook Pro on Monday.

Uwah, MacBook Pro? Why is this about a Mac mini then?
Continue reading Mac mini 2.0 →

GeekStuff

The State of Gaming: E3

15 Comments

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) and priced “cheaply”. The 360 is six months old and, well, they still packed a room with news and information…

What’s my take on it?
Continue reading The State of Gaming: E3 →

GeekStuff

Would You Like To Play A Game?

2 Comments

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 been distracted for some time while I wondered whether or not there was a difference between basking in a comfort zone and being lazy. And like I said before, there was a reason for it all the tourment and the little snippets that leaked to the blog.

Two years after accepting an SDET job with MSDN, I’m making a change: I’ll be working as an SDET for Microsoft Game Studios.
Continue reading Would You Like To Play A Game? →

GeekStuff

O2

Leave a comment

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 casinos during the late night; the theory is that it will make players more awake and keep them gambling longer. I’ve never known it to be proven or disproven, though. I do know that I never expected to see an Oxygen Bar with people willingly drinking breathing there…

Question I have is, has anyone tried it? Does it really keep you awake? Give ya a buzz? I didn’t try it, obviously…

$2 for water is bad enough – never mind spending cash for air like we live on planet Spaceball.

GeekStuff

Baseball On The 360

1 Comment

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 and PS2 editions came out in time for opening day, but still… the screen shots for the 360 were enough of a draw to get me in the store.

First impressions?
Continue reading Baseball On The 360 →

GeekStuff

Cutely Evil?

1 Comment

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 to check the latest weather forecast or traffic update, receive messages by phone, e-mail or SMS and play music. Nabaztag can even communicate with his favourite fellow rabbits. After establishing a connection with a friend’s bunny, moving your rabbits’ ears will provoke the same motion in its counterpart, no matter how many miles away.

Is it me or do they look sorta evil? Sorta like a cute girl cat with no mouth?

GeekStuff

Then and Now

2 Comments

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 computer games, the difference in graphics is quite amazing. Here’s an interesting comparison of 9 games from the 80’s with todays killer games

This has been circling the web for over a week now, true but I saw it through different eyes today… instead of “Then versus Now” this could have also been a case of “Game versus Box Art”. Old school gamers can attest to this first hand: the box art in the 80’s was always wow and the game was a square dot. Not that we cared because it was still fun, but now a days, you actually play the game that is shown in the box art.

Wild.

GeekStuff

Xbox 360: New Xbox Games Now Playable

Leave a comment

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 a lot of fun so far, even if it is a single player game (which mean I’d usually thing it was boring) and I bought Battlefront II the week before the 360 launched, knowing that I might only be able to play that on the original Xbox…

Very good indeed.

GeekStuff

My Xbox++

Leave a comment

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® in October 2005, Xbox.com became your second Xbox Live® place. You can now check your gamerscore, compare achievements with friends, and keep track of your forum posts, all right here on Xbox.com.

Sweet!

GeekStuff

Che cosa?!

5 Comments

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 latest from Kotaku. Fat chance in hell that I’m waiting that long to pick up this particular game.

Truth is that this supports my argument about “backwards compatibility” on the 360: my original Xbox didn’t blow up when I bought a 360. A lot of people kept going on and on about it, when the 360 shipped – I still say it’s no big deal. Because, how do you offer backwards compatibility on games that hadn’t shipped yet? And talk about staying power for the Xbox – how many people were making PS1 games after the PS2 shipped? I mean, I bought Battlefront II for the Xbox a couple of days before the 360 shipped. Bought Black last week. I’ll probably buy The Godfather tomorrow, particularly because I’m Italian. Er, I mean, because it won’t be available on the 360 for a number of months and waiting for games is not one of my virtues.

Ah, the pain of being a Geek these days…