Five years ago, Xbox LIVE went live.
And what a trip it’s been! …and there’s still much fun ahead.
Continue reading Xbox LIVE is 5IVE
Category Archives: GeekStuff
OSX v10.5
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 know… if you have the cash to support it, OSX is surprisingly usable.
Continue reading OSX v10.5
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?
New Apple Keyboard
‘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 between me and the ‘goat. I typically use a natural curved keyboard… but then I realized that I type on a straight keyboard on my notebook all the freakin’ time. I’ve found the Microsoft Wireless 7000 to be really cool – especially at home because it’s Bluetooth and can be turned off; since I don’t sit at my desk much, this helps me save battery life. But even that keyboard, while slightly curved, is not split like my usual keyboard yet it’s also comfortable. After playing with the new Apple keyboard for a lil while I said “huh. not bad. shiny! mine!” – 3 minutes later, I had a bag over my shoulder and my Dash in my hand, lamenting the purchase.
Ah well – if I get out of this year with only one purchase caused by standing in the Jobs Distortion Field, I figure that I’ve gotten away cheap…
PAX’07: Day 2
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 opened at 10.
One early observation: seeing someone that you know leaving the convention center from the day before as you’re showing up before the place opens… well, that’s just priceless.
Continue reading PAX’07: Day 2
*chirp* *chirp*
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 – I think it’s because when you’re that busy, things tend to just brick off your forehead before they can get blogged.
Beyond all of that, I’m off to PAX today and tomorrow – maybe even on Sunday, depending on how crowded it is – so I’m sure there will be something to write about by Monday morning *g*
Halo 3 Epsilon: The Fallout
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”. What followed was a number of posts about “What is Halo 3 Epsilon?” and “Who is this Randy No Arms?”
I will not discuss what the title is or what I’m doing with it or how I got it – that also means that I won’t tell you what it is, how it is, or how you can get a copy. Suffice to say that while my Xbox Live profile is open for public viewing, there may be titles that appear there that I simply cannot talk about in any way, shape, or form. It happened before with Viva Piñata and Halo 2 for Vista – this is one of those times. While I am amazed at the following that Halo 3 has – and the passion that the fans have for The Trilogy – I have a responsibility to Microsoft and I intend to live up to it. In fact, I didn’t even want to post this without getting a nod from the powers that be, which is why this is a few days behind the storm… And if I’m not talking about the game, what am I talking about?
The fallout of being outed as an XNA employee.
Continue reading Halo 3 Epsilon: The Fallout
XSim : XInputSimulator
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. I didn’t even use a controller. I used my PC.
Yes, this is one of the technologies I’ve been working on for XNA: XInputSimulator, more commonly known as XSIM. It shipped in this month’s Xbox Development Kit and it – as you probably have already guessed – simulates controller input without having to have a human touch a controller. Very useful for developers. Very useful for testers.
Another couple of Pwnage screen shots after the jump along with the “you can’t use it on retail games” disclaimer…
Continue reading XSim : XInputSimulator
Whoa… It’s Sunday?
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 hungry) but for the most part, I spent the majority of the weekend heads down in front of a compiler. Upset? Ha – I had forgotten how satisfying coding can be… especially in the managed world, where a lot of the Win32 grunt work is done for you… that’s probably why I worked on this project rather than my assigned homework. *g*
And of course the question is “what project?” Something work related? Something SharpMT related? Something game related? Something that unlocks an iPhone?
I’m not saying – at least not right this moment, but I hope to show it off at GameFest in August: that should be a big enough clue right there.
E3: Post Briefing
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 Disney content being added to the Xbox Live Marketplace. Or Resident Evil 5. Or Virtua Fighter 5. Gears of War on the PC? Oops, wait, I knew about that one *g* but I didn’t know about the new content in the game. Besides, I don’t think I’ll ever get used to seeing people that I see in my cafeteria on a regular basis on TV… if anything I’m jealous that some people got to play Rock Band already… grr.
One thing that does amuse me is the “uproar” that Microsoft didn’t announce a price cut on the 360 console. I don’t get that. The Elite is still cheaper than the cheapest PS3 – and it has twice as much memory. I mean, it’s spiff for PS3 fans that they can save some cash, but I still think the 360 is a better bargain… especially with all of the titles that we announced last night. Nice, too, that all of the footage shown as in-game footage and not “demo” footage. So was the rock band playing Halo music live to open the briefing – that was really sweet.
And a special thanks to G4tv for buzz cutting the Halo 3 reel… jeez.
Red vs Blue: The Final Episode
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. I’ve already got the other four seasons – in fact, I got Season 4 signed at PAX last year – and it’s interesting to watch the episodes flow into each other, when you don’t have to wait two weeks for the next installment.
I’m sorry to see it end, but after… five years? Six? I didn’t think about it before, but RvB is why I found out about Halo in the first place. I remember watching the first episode and thinking “what a riot – this is just like being caught in a game of Tribes! I wonder what they’re using for animation… what game is that?” A little while after that, Halo for the PC came out and I bought a copy. Then an Xbox Halo Special Edition. Then the launch night of Halo 2. Then I joined the MGS group, and later the XNA group, and worked with the people that made Halo 2 for Vista. Then there was the Halo 3 Beta… hell I’ve even talked with some people from Bungie about some tech as part of my job, as random tasks take you random places…
It’s not often that you can identify The Butterfly that started a butterfly effect in your life – thanks to all the people at RoosterTeeth for a great show (and for helping to seed my wardrobe with all the different t-shirts over the last few years!)
Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip Yip
I always loved these guys…
Safari on Windows: Spin Spin Spin
I gotta cry foul on this one…
Continue reading Safari on Windows: Spin Spin Spin
Bounty
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 a Mac. I said “when they have a relatively cheap PC with some power and no monitor, I’d consider it.” Right now, you can’t turn off the monitor of an iMac and still use it remotely: that’s a deal breaker. Also, I don’t know that I want to drop $1500 on a machine that isn’t meant to run the OS I plan to run. The Power Mac would be good, but that’s way over priced at $2500.
I wanted Core 2 Duo, 2GB, decent video card, under $500 – the image over there is the “before” picture.
Continue reading Bounty
WM6 Tip: How To Get Your Reminder Sound Back On Dash
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 profile and then switch to the Vibrate or Silent profiles, you’d lose your reminder sounds on all profiles. It would still vibrate for you, but no volume. Which I’m sure the majority of my cube-mates have loved since it’s been quieter in the workplace. But even so: it’s a bug.
The bug is a part of the Normal profile file: where Vibrate and Silent turn off the sound, Normal simply never turns it back on. I’ve tried mucking with the Normal.def.prof.xml that is in the \Windows directory, but that seemed to make the phone unhappy… but I found another workaround.
Read on for more – update: it’s been looking like Vista has been persisting the System attribute flag for this file where as XP and 2003 have been losing it. I’ve added two more steps to this list that should help out.
Continue reading WM6 Tip: How To Get Your Reminder Sound Back On Dash