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?
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!
‘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…
Wow. Been over a week since my last post. Am I bored of blogging? Nah. So busy that I haven’t had time to blog? Something like that. Busy with school work? Nah – BioShock, actually… which is kinda funny since I didn’t care much about it until I saw the demo. Then I figured “ah, lemme get it for kicks” – sooooo very much fun!
Lots of other little stuffs going on too, but that’ll come out over time. Suffice to say that my class is over – finally! – and I’ve been working on a spare liver the last few weeks. Aside from that, just beginning to feel the pressure of the games industry as the Holiday Season approaches… I some how didn’t feel it this strongly last year!
w00t.
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
I went to PAX today – went early in fact. Though I’d walk around downtown, get some lunch and come back before it opened at 2. At 11:40 the line hand at least 200 people in line, maybe 300.
I went to lunch – good to see that the gaming industry is alive and well, though.
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*
If you are paying $180 for cable and Internet access do you think it’s a good or bad idea to screw up your product offering enough that a customer has no alternative but to call for customer service, reminding them that they are in fact spending over $2,100 per year whether or not the service works in the first place?
Yes, Comcast has finally made my List of Hate… they can stay off the List of Great Hate but it’s going to be a tricky thing for them to pull off, given the hole they’ve dug for themselves.
Continue reading Hate With …Moderate Hate
Has anyone else noticed that Forrest Gump is consistenlty wearing blue in every scene in the movie? Well, except for the scenes that require an army uniform…
Every scene that he is dressed in his own clothes, it’s always a blue shirt.
MSNBC: Debate on lower drinking age bubbling up
Proponents say current restriction drives teen alcohol use underground. Over the strong objection of federal safety officials, a quiet movement to lower the legal drinking age to 18 is taking root as advocates argue that teenagers who are allowed to vote and fight for their country should also be able to enjoy a beer or two. […] Choose Responsibility proposes lowering the drinking age to 18, but only in conjunction with “drinking licenses,” similar to driver’s licenses, mandating alcohol education for those ages 18 to 21. “Education works,” McCardell said, but “it’s never been tried. Now it’s mandatory only after you’ve been convicted of DUI. That is not an act of genius.”
Took over almost five years to catch up, but it looks like someone finally did… after all I said it first.
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
Welcome new visitors to my blog.
Seems I’ve been made popular lately… I’m not asking why, but by all means: enjoy what you see!
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
omg!: Danica McKellar has a message for girls: Cute and smart is better than cute and dumb. McKellar, who played Winnie on the 1990s television show “The Wonder Years,” is coming out with a book, “Math Doesn’t Suck,” to encourage girls to get into math. “When girls see the antics of Paris Hilton and Lindsay Lohan, they think that being fun and glamorous also means being dumb and irresponsible,” the 32-year-old McKellar told Newsweek for editions to hit newsstands Monday.
Wonder if she’s going to send Paris, Nicole, and Lindsay a thank you card for creating the perfect environment for the release of a book like this? She should get more press out of them than any book junket could.
Still, dumb seems to sell better than smart – Danica has an uphill battle ahead of her.
I never thought I’d get to this level of frustration with an online company, but I getting extremely close to activating my “legal benefits” package at work and suing Expedia.com for the on going debacle that was my vacation.
Updated: Happy ending to my story in that the credit hit my account on Friday – yay!
Continue reading Legal Action: Avoided