XenoChron

Lost vs Watchmen

2009-03-02T16:00:00.002-05:00

OK. The title was probably misleading. I was thinking about something the other day after reading Matty's blog post which mentioned the Twilight of the Superheroes proposal Alan Moore wrote. Something he mentioned in this proposal was worth repeating:

"As I mentioned in my introduction to Frank's Dark Knight, one of the things that prevents superhero stories from ever attaining the status of true modern myths or legends is that they are open ended. An essential quality of a legend is that the events in it are clearly defined in time; Robin Hood is driven to become an outlaw by the injustices of King John and his minions. That is his origin. He meets Little John, Friar Tuck and all the rest and forms the merry men. He wins the tournament in disguise, he falls in love with Maid Marian and thwarts the Sheriff of Nottingham. That is his career, including love interest, Major Villains and the formation of a superhero group that he is part of. He lives to see the return of Good King Richard and is finally killed by a woman, firing a last arrow to mark the place where he shall be buried. That is his resolution--you can apply the same paradigm to King Arthur, Davy Crockett or Sherlock Holmes with equal success. You cannot apply it to most comic book characters because, in order to meet the commercial demands of a continuing series, they can never have a resolution. Indeed, they find it difficult to embrace any of the changes in life that the passage of time brings about for these very same reasons, making them finally less than fully human as well as falling far short of true myth." - Alan Moore

It is something I think that a lot of modern television shows need to keep in mind however hard it might be to actually end something that is relatively successful.

How does this relate to Lost?? Well, I'm worried about Lost. It was and continues to be a great show. I'm worried all the recent twists and turns are going to be difficult for them to resolve properly while making sense. More importantly, I'm really worried they actually have no idea where they are going. Going from season to season without knowing where the conclusion will be or without answering all of the questions is going to make Lost fizzle out rather than go out with a bang. I could be wrong here but it is a concern.

Watchmen had a great ending. Had it NOT ended and been done like so many other comic books or television series, it would not have ended up that way. Legendary or mythological status is reserved only for those things that have a concrete conclusion. Hopefully Lindelof will figure that out before it is too late.

Where are the people when the cameras are off?

2008-09-30T12:41:00.006-04:00

I saw this quote today here (a decent read too):

Democracy requires of its citizens qualities that it cannot provide. Politicians can conjure an exalted vision of a prosperous, healthy, free society, but no government can supply the qualities of honesty, compassion, and personal responsibility that must underlie this vision.

Jürgen Habermas, German philosopher

It made me think about a recent episode of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition (don't worry I'll connect the dots) about a woman with 14 kids to take care of. I think it was the season premiere and I only saw part of the show. It was a heartbreaking situation this woman was in. Regardless of all the details, I think most would agree it was tough for the woman to raise 14 kids on her own. Add to the fact that she was trying to do it from three hotel rooms and it just gets tougher.

Watching the show, it became pretty apparent that a great deal of people new of this woman's plight. It seems quite a shame that a game show of all things has to step in to help out a family like this.

Where were all the volunteers and people that came on this show to help BEFORE they were chosen by Extreme Makeover? For some reason, it always seems to take a natural disaster of some magnitude to get neighbors to help each other.

I guess the reason the quote reminded me of this is we can't expect the government to take care of everyone. We can't expect for miracles like this game show to rescue people either. We can, I would hope, expect that a community would lend a hand where needed to help others who are struggling. Are we losing those qualities such as compassion?

Where are the strings Mr. Paulson?

2008-09-24T09:33:00.004-04:00

If you ever wanted to know why we're in this financial mess all you need to do is listen to Henry Paulson's testimony yesterday in front of the Senate Banking Committee. He flat out says, "we can't have too many strings attached to this money or the companies might not take the offer from the government."

Are you kidding me?

That isn't a direct quote since I can't seem to find a real transcript online. But he quite clearly isn't in favor of doing anything to fix this mess and only desires to throw more money at the problem. Are we really that stupid that we're going to hand over all this money with nothing in return? NOTHING! Come on.

The only strings I think Mr. Paulson is familiar with are the ones attached to him being pulled from afar by the organizations he's proposing giving all this money to. The executives of these firms must be salivating just listening to him speak.

We'll have to see if our legislature has any brains at all but if they give this money away, the state of our US Government is much sorrier than I could have ever imagined.

The Trillion Dollar Bill

2008-09-22T12:04:00.007-04:00

A few months ago, I did the most amazing thing. I printed out a green piece of paper with the numbers $1,000,000,000,000 stamped on it. (For those having trouble counting zeroes, that's One Trillion Dollars.) It looked just like a genuine trillion dollar bill.

In fact, it was so good, all the area banks agreed too that it was just like a genuine trillion dollar bill. I asked for a loan against it and all of the banks were more than happy to oblige. They were practically falling over each other to loan me money.

Of course, the interest payments were huge! To help make the payments, I loaned some of the money I got from the banks to others.

I had so much money I needed to loan that I just gave it out without a whole lot of thought. I hired a ton of people to help me loan the money out and didn't give them a whole lot of instruction except that I'd give bonuses to the people who loaned the most, I didn't care how. They gave it to people I didn't know very well. They even went so far as to talk people into taking a loan when they didn't even need it. Most of these people, just to make sure they were good for it, gave us some green slips of paper too so I could use it as collateral. The slips of paper looked OK and my loan agents said they were fine so I knew they were good. They were about the same as my trillion dollar bill with just a few less zeroes in it. It was all legit. I even compared their bills to mine and wow, the similarities were amazing. It was almost as if they got them the same way I did.

The whole thing was a win-win situation. I was making money, other people were making money, the banks were making money. The economy in the area was boosted significantly of course. A trillion dollars is a lot of dough. The influx of capital was doing wonderful things. Even the CEO's of the banks were getting rich. Most of them took some of the payments I was making and bought really nice homes and cars and other expensive baubles. It was a lot of fun!

Some of the people I loaned the money to decided to upgrade their houses. Wow, it was amazing. The houses were selling like crazy. There were so many people with so much extra money in the area (which I'd given them as loans), that the houses that were selling for $100K before were now selling for $400K and $500K. The economy was screaming. Real Estate values shot up into the stratosphere. People were coming from all over to get loans and buy houses.

Some of the people that bought houses early got more loans against the equity in their houses and bought more stuff and in some cases, another home. Spending was rampant. There was just so much money around it was insane.

Then something happened. Some of these people who bought these homes and took out loans ran out of money. Some of them couldn't make the payments on the loans they had. When those people couldn't make payments to me. I became really strapped for cash.

I had no choice but to take the green slips of paper with the numbers from the borrowers and cash them in. Some people took them and that helped. After a while though, those places stopped taking them and then others stopped. Pretty soon, no one would take them from me. Even the houses these people had weren't worth what the loans were for so I couldn't even use those. Now even I couldn't make my own interest payments to the banks.

I had no choice, I took my crispy trillion dollar bill to the banks and gave it to them. They tried to use it and some, for a short time, took it. Someone spread a rumor that it wasn't worth anything and so the banks stopped taking it. The other banks got nervous and wanted their money but all these banks had was the crispy bill I'd given them and the other banks wouldn't take them. They panicked and started contemplating closing their doors. The local economy was in a shambles. Everything started to come crashing down.

Thankfully, the government thought this economy was special. They couldn't allow a TRILLION dollar economy to just evaporate. There were thousands of jobs alone in this economy that did nothing but handle these crispy green slips of paper I got from all the other people that I loaned money to. What would these people do? Hundreds if not thousands of other jobs were there buying and selling all the real estate. There were even more people that worked to help keep track of my crispy trillion dollar bill. The jobs couldn't just go away. Imagine the ramifications?

So, to help things out, the CEO's of all the major banks got together and hand delivered the crispy trillion dollar bill I gave them. Amazingly, the government cashed it. They didn't think it was as crispy as it should be and the shade of green was a bit off but the risk to the economy was just too great so they cashed it. The government gave a trillion dollars to the banks in exchange for my loan, the loans I made, and all the loans on the houses. The funny thing is, no one can make the loan payments still.

The CEO's were initially concerned but the government didn't seem to bring up their extravagant lifestyles. They didn't even give them a course in detecting counterfeit bills. The government just asked them politely to not make the same mistake again. They said they'd check back in about 50 years to make sure they didn't have any more crispy trillion dollar bills.

I guess they didn't want to burden them with too many rules. It's a free market they said. It worked before, it works now, it should still work. Why mess with something that works they said? The healthcare system has done it for years and it seems to be fine so why mess with the banks?

Sadly, the crispy bill really isn't worth that much. The government kind of knew that though. They have lots of these types of bills. They've even made up a few of their own. With millions and millions of people in the country, its only a few extra dollars in taxes per person so it isn't a big deal.

So, while the CEO's sat around on the beaches of their private islands printing up some bills of their own and reminiscing about how they almost lost it all, the government posted the crispy trillion dollar bill on eBay.

Bidding starts at a dollar. Any takers?

Pangea, the iPhone, and Customer Service

2008-09-15T12:08:00.002-04:00

Evidently, Brian Greenstone of Pangea Software doesn't appreciate the value of word of mouth, goodwill, or anything else that might help promote their product. I asked a simple question regarding their new iPhone game called Billy Frontier and was basically given the finger. Whatever! A simple Yes or No would have been sufficient.

If he wants to treat potential customers as worthless crap then that is his prerogative just as much as it is mine to blog about it.

All I can say is, "Good luck Brian!"

Here is the very brief exchange:

Initial Message:

Can the blood/gore be turned off in this game? It looked interesting and the price was right but if it has the blood and gore, I won't be buying it.

Reply from Brian Greenstone:

You're joking, right?

My Reply:

Never mind. I was going to buy Enigmo and Billy Frontier for the iPhone and had contemplated purchasing Enigmo for the Mac but your snide remark fixed that.

Reply from Brian Greenstone:

You're joking, right?

I won't even get into the whole issue about blood and gore in video games except to say that this is basically a carnival shooting game. A switch to turn off the unnecessary blood and gore would have been nice. Of course, I'm assuming this game does have the blood and gore but only from the descriptions I've seen and a screenshot. It would be funny if it didn't even have it at all.

The only reason I wanted to turn it off is I have young ones in the house who like to pick up my iPhone and play it and I'd rather not have them have the blood and gore if they inadvertently make their way into this game. (yeah, I could lock the phone but I don't feel like hassling with it)

Are we really that stupid?

2008-09-11T09:10:00.010-04:00

Further proof that we're a bunch of dumb retards (probably a more appropriate word should go here).

Can we really not stand up to these companies? Are we really going to let them roll over us like this? We must be the laughing stock of the world. Look at how much we're paying for SMS messaging at AT&T. This isn't much different from the rest of the cell phone companies. It is insane.

On top of that, I get to pay for SMS Spam? I don't use SMS messaging if at all possible and neither does my wife. I've had a number of instances where SMS messages obviously not for either of us yet I get the pleasure of paying for it on our bill. Just the shear fact that we have to pay for incoming messages and incoming calls defies comprehension. Particularly with regards to the SMS messages is it so incomprehensible since the cost to the carrier is so low.

Now you might say I should block unauthorized numbers. Well, Verizon is kind enough to allow me to do that so I don't get charged $.20 a pop but only if I sign up for the control/security plan for $4.99/month. I'm being fleeced. Fortunately, I won't be with Verizon much longer on this phone.

Text messaging and cell phone costs are ridiculous. Internet access is expensive and starting to be limited. Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac go belly up and have to be bailed out. Most of our debt is owned by foreign countries. The list goes on and on.

And the best one of them all, we have the absolute worst election system in the whole world. (excluding fixed elections by "dictators" of course...) When will this whole process be fixed?

When will we take a stand?

Remembering 9/11

2008-09-11T08:53:00.003-04:00

I'm sure there will be tens of thousands if not millions of posts today about remembering 9/11. This is like a drop of water in the ocean I'm sure.

Either way, I truly hope everyone in the US will pay their respects to those that died that day in 2001.

Unfortunately, the sad state of affairs in rebuilding at Ground Zero is perhaps the biggest failure the US could have in respecting those that died. The Empire State Building was built decades ago in only a few years. Yet, seven years after 9/11, we can't even get a memorial built? How has it come to this.

The US needs to get its crap together and fast. The delays and squabbles and inability to act at Ground Zero is the manifestation of so many problems in the US and it makes me sad.

So I say lets get 'er done! Let's make those that died and their families proud by getting the US back on its feet again. The first step is right there on the tiny island of Manhattan where the world is watching...and waiting.

Bad luck strikes again at Microsoft

2008-09-08T13:06:00.003-04:00

First the Seinfeld advertisement and now a new snafu for Microsoft. Is it possible for them to stop stepping in poop?

In what is an incredible stroke of bad luck and a monumental fiasco with dire consequences, Microsoft has unwittingly unleashed a horror of horrors upon their potential customers. Recently, as stated here, Microsoft had intentions of mimicking the success of Apple's Genius support system throughout a number of Best Buy and Circuit City stores. Unfortunately, the memo and official agreements signed by Microsoft and the corresponding consumer electronics stores contained a terrible mistake.

While Microsoft intended to supply "Gurus" to all the stores to help sell and promote Vista on the PC platform, they instead ended up supplying "Grues" to all the stores. Most of the stores first discovered this terrible error when the last person out of the store turned out the lights and the poor soul was eaten. Most recently, a power outage at night in a Best Buy was the scene of a terrible massacre with all the shoppers and employees disappearing in a bloody feast for the grues.

Just when you thought Microsoft's public relations nightmare couldn't be any worse, Microsoft outdoes itself once again.

Thanks to Microsoft, shopping at Best Buy and Circuit City will never be the same again. The best advice is to keep the iPhone flashlight app ready at all times.

Rumor: Betty Crocker and Microsoft Teaming Up

2008-09-08T11:36:00.006-04:00

It appears the rumors are circling now that Microsoft is poised to make a major announcement next week. News on the street is Microsoft will be pairing up with Betty Crocker to produce a new version of a Vista PC that is "moist and chewy like cake so we can just eat them while we're working."

As messed up as the Seinfeld/Gates ad is, it would appear it is right on the mark. The new versions of Vista rumored for release later this week are:

Vista Carrot Cake Edition
Vista Devil's Food Cake Edition
Vista Vanilla Edition

Betty Crocker is expected to be catapulted into the top PC producer position as a result of this new product announcement. Other editions and flavors of Vista are being worked on and are expected before the end of the year.

The "Right" Microsoft Ad

2008-09-06T10:02:00.005-04:00

I think Microsoft shouldn't have beat around the bush with their latest ad with Seinfeld. If they really wanted to play to the previous generation, they should have just pulled out all the stops and done it right by making a much stronger reference to an era gone by.

Here's how it would go:

Sting Enters a Room Full of CD/DVD Duplication Machines

Sting: Hey, Richard.

Richmeister: [ looks up from desk, smiles ] Stiiiiing! Der Stingelhoffer! Making copies! The McStingster! Stingatola! Stiiiiiiing!! [ pause ] Sting-a-ling-a-ding-ding-ding-dong!

Sting: [ gesturing to the copiers and showing the disk in his hand] I'm just here to make some copies.

Richmeister: [nodding head] Alright, the Stingernator! Making some copies. The Stingolator making copies.

Sting: That Apple crap is selling way too well so I'm here to flood the market with bootlegs of Vista to bring up market share.

Richmeister: [using hands to make like an explosion] The Macinator, blowing Vista out of the water. Stingdupulator not a happy camper. Vistola being crushed. [crushes soda can on desk]

Sting: It's not being crushed. People just don't appreciate the finer points of configuring a PC for a truely cutting edge OS.

Richmeister: [nodding head] Vistipula needing to much RAM'o. Programmators at Micromeister writing the bloatware!

Sting: [waving hands like to stop] Your making a lot of nothing. RAM, CPU, Graphics Cards...they're all cheap commodity items now. Programmers don't need to be efficient any longer.

Richmeister: [in a voice like a pirates parrot] Aye Matey, so the Stingalita becomes a pirate. Stingo the Pirate'O! Sqwawk!

Sting: If you love something, you have to set it free!

Richmeister: Stingerator...making the references to his old songs...Stinger the Singer.

Sting: Stop turning every breath I take and every move I make against me.

Richmeister: Oooh, the Stingernator, recycling the old material. The Recyler recycling.

Sting: The bottom line is, we need more copies of Vista out there in order to have more fields of gold for Microsoft. No matter what it takes.

Richmeister: The Captain Stinger, running out of the time just like the Microsofty.

In comes Mike Myers as Wayne from Wayne's World

Wayne: I heard there were some most excellent bootlegs here. Party On!

The end...

Sorry you've reached your cap, please tune to cable Channel 13 and watch crap instead!

2008-09-02T15:02:00.005-04:00

If you think downloadable content is the future of home entertainment, read this first!

As long as there are hard caps on downloading content, no matter how high they are, the days of downloading your favorite movie or watching a show anytime you feel like are going to be short lived. All Comcast wants to do here is set a precedent and then they'll gradually lower the cap, little by little, just like my half-gallon of ice cream is now 3/4 of a 1/2 gallon.

People are going to miss the point if they let this slide through. 250GB per month, 2500GB/month, 25GB/month? It doesn't matter. Just the setting of a limit is enough. Once it starts, good luck stopping it. It'll be just like the cell phone industry and phone company. Every little feature will be charged for.

Oddly, just when the phone companies are figuring unlimited use is a good thing, the cable companies are going the other direction.

Hopefully Google, Apple, Netflix, and anyone else doing downloadable content will have a thing or two to say about this. FiOS might actually be a good deal by the time it rolls through my neighborhood. (that'll be in 2020 probably but who knows...)

Clearly AT&T has some work to do

2008-08-25T14:15:00.003-04:00

As reported here, it seems pretty obvious that AT&T has some work to do. While it is not a scientifically based survey of any sort, it is clear that AT&T's 3G network needs to be beefed up a bit in certain places. It is also apparent that Apple isn't going to have a magic bullet for the 3G complaints.

If there is one thing people do frequently, that is underestimate the popularity of an Apple device. It is also one of those "duh!" moments where the carrier has to realize that the iPhone is more than a phone! (now the DUH!) The iPhone is probably the first and only product that really stresses the 3G network because people can actually use the thing for more than just email and texting.

The sad part is that while AT&T deals with these issues on their 3G network here in the US, other phone vendors are going to benefit from the build out of these networks when they introduce their new products. When they come out with their product that uses 3G, they are going to be pointing at the iPhone and saying, "See how much better my performance is than when the iPhone 3G came out!"

Let's not forget this when the time comes!

Insanity - no mass delete

2008-08-21T10:21:00.003-04:00

I'm going to go crazy as I sit here and try to delete about 50 SMS messages on my iPhone, one blessed individual message a time. Where is the check box or mass delete? If I don't ever post again its because I've turned into a lunatic or broke my finger pressing the little minus and delete button one too many times on my iPhone.

Apple - pull up your shorts

2008-08-21T10:07:00.004-04:00

It's time for Apple to pull up its shorts and stop shying away from full disclosure on issues and what is and isn't being fixed when patches are released. The last iPhone update to 2.0.2 has "bug fixes" listed as the reason. Bug Fixes? Come on, what heck is it that is being fixed? (I know they've admitted now it is supposed to be a 3G fix perhaps but is that it, what happened in the 2.0.1 update as it said the same thing??) And it happens with iTunes and iPod updates all the time too .

Is Apple really that insecure?

My iPhone - observations and gripes

2008-08-12T11:08:00.004-04:00

I finally got my iPhone. I love it. There is no doubt this is the future of the phone. As I mentioned before though, when you have something that is so nearly perfect but is marred by what I perceive as easily addressed (or could have been addressed) issues, it tarnishes the product a bit. Whatever I say doesn't change my opinion of the phone though, it is far and away a fantastic phone and easily beats the competitors hands down.

First, and a lot has been written about this, is the battery. I know, you need to charge it every night. That I can live with. What I can't live with is having to make excuses for what is an otherwise spectacular product and having to recharge my phone part way through the day.

There is no single reason I can think of short of Job's insistence that this phone doesn't have a replaceable battery. I understand why it isn't bigger. I understand battery technology isn't where it should be for this computer in your pocket. But come on, I should be able to replace the battery. Somehow, some way, Apple should have figured this out and made it work.

The alternatives now are things like this Mophie Juice Pack. These are at best balky clumsy fixes.

The battery problem is now something that is impossible to fix without another phone design. That'll be at least a year away and if I know Jobs, he'll still be a pain in the rear and won't add a replaceable battery again.

The other feature issues are below. I hope Apple can address these with software updates:

Need a period on the alpha keyboard or some sort of punctuation. I really can't stand switching back and forth to end a sentence. Worse, you can't rotate the phone while typing an email and get a bigger better version of the keyboard with the punctuation. Please fix this, it is frustrating.
Application updates and deletes in iTunes and on the iPhone need to be handled a bit better. It should know that if I delete an app on the phone, I don't want it synced back over to the phone when I reattach to iTunes. To delete an App, you almost need to delete it in both places at once in a coordinated effort.
Why in the heck can't I change the sounds for anything other than ringing on my phone. I absolutely hate the new mail sound. Can't change it! This is really inexcusable. For that matter, not being able to turn any sound into a ringtone is ridiculous. I understand the economics behind it but it sucks.
Switching between multiple email accounts needs to be a whole lot easier. I should be able to toggle between multiple accounts from the inbox of each account.
Folders in email should be collapsible.
Recent call list should show which phone the call was made from if it matches in your contact list. When someone calls, I like to know was it their home, office, or cell. I have to click and look at the details for the name in the recent call list to see this now.
The mail icon on the home screen should have the option to have more than one number displayed for email. Perhaps four (one in each corner) and each would be a different color. I'd really like to know if the new mail I've got is for my work account or my home account without having to drill down into my email. Worse, because switching accounts is a bit of a pain, it is a more tedious process than necessary.

I'm done griping now. You might ask, what DO you like? Well, the list is too long. There are plenty of positive reviews out there and the good things are all spelled out in those. I just felt these points above needed reiterating.

Out of all the things, I'm mostly disappointed in the battery life. I knew this going into it I just wish I didn't have to make excuses for what is such a fantastic product. I feel like I did when I had the old Mac with the 9" screen and it was black and white. I was always telling people how great the Mac was but then making excuses for the stupidely small screen and the lack of color. If the battery were a real obscure problem it wouldn't be a big deal. But it isn't, it is a glaringly obvious problem and could have easily been addressed.

Russian Marketing Lesson for China

2008-08-12T10:13:00.002-04:00

The Chinese hopefully aren't paying attention to the Russians when it comes to their latest marketing lesson. China has poured Billions (capital B is appropriate here) into the Olympics as a way to garner the attention of the world. Can you imagine how pissed they must be that after spending all this money, for a few million in ammo and bombs, the Russians managed to steal the spotlight in Georgia?

Hopefully they aren't paying much attention to this because we certainly don't need two really large countries acting like retards in the world. (well, besides the stupid things we do of course...)

Unless of course the Chinese think they want to teach the Russians a lesson or two.

Where is MobileMe for iTunes?

2008-07-31T19:46:00.003-04:00

Is it just me or doesn't it seem like there should be a MobileMe for iTunes?

It seems ridiculous to have all these downloads in various places that come from iTunes and/or other places and not have them automatically backed up and available from anywhere. If a system is authorized, I should be able to play back my iTunes songs and other material from anywhere.

I thought of this today as I was monkeying with the new iTunes U and some podcasts on my laptop. I later was sitting at my desktop PC and I wanted to look at something and guess what, it isn't on my PC, it's on my laptop in iTunes. Now granted, it probably wouldn't have been backed up by now but I should have a mirror image of my iTunes data available from all my PC's.

The best part is that since iTunes already has a great deal of the data stored on their servers that you probably have in your personal iTunes database, it doesn't technically need to be backed up. It should just be there. Of course, they already have this ability but don't allow you to use it. If you download a DRM'd piece of music from iTunes and lose it, you can't download it again for free. This never made sense to me.

Here is how I think the MobileMe for iTunes should work:

Each PC, every day during the day has its iTunes data sync'd with a database on the Internet. This includes all files and all playlists. Since a lot a data exists on Apple's servers already in the same form it is on your PC (they already have a lot of the songs you have and so do other customers), it takes no time to do the backup.
When you select a file to playback, it'll check your system, if it isn't there, it verifies the account is authorized and then downloads the file in the background perhaps streaming it while playback begins.
This data is sync'd with your other devices too such as your Apply TV, iPhone, iPod Touch, etc. Perhaps you have the option to designate some playlists as priorities.

Of course, this wouldn't be free, it could be charged for or be an add-on to MobileMe.

Personally, I'm tired of having iTunes stuff spread all over. I don't have a centrally located shared disk that is on all the time right now. I want access to this stuff I've put into iTunes and/or bought through iTunes available everywhere I am even if I'm not home. I wan't the "internet cloud" to serve me.

I'm sure this is a pie-in-the-sky dream since the DRM issues and studios probably won't allow it. If that's the case, it is one more ding against the ridiculous copy protection that is DRM.

Hopefully, one day this dream of mine will become a reality.

Dell inflicted with ADHD, loses focus

2008-07-30T15:43:00.004-04:00

Is it just me or is Dell having trouble focusing? I mean isn't this crazy?

First they buy EqualLogic for an ungodly sum of money (great move for them I'm sure). So, after this big purchase, let's do the next logical thing, let's start trying to create a line of MP3 players? Uh, what? I suppose now if you buy two MP3 players and link them together they'll join together as a RAID 1 (or zero) stripped set of MP3 Players. Perhaps they'll sell a nice little multi-port dock to go with it.

Apple has iTunes to drive sales of the iPod and of course, it now is pervasive and involved in the entire line of products Apple makes. Dell has, well, they have, wait...I'm thinking...nothing! Yeah, nothing. Could they have picked a harder market to break into? I think if you are the brunt of a bunch of jokes about a product announcement, that's probably a good indication it is a bad idea. If this were April 1st, I'd have thought it was an April Fool's joke.

Owning stock in Dell has got to be the roller coaster ride of the decade. Good luck with that Michael!

Apple - A higher standard

2008-07-30T09:46:00.003-04:00

I'm not necessarily an Apple fanboy but I do appreciate what the company is doing and has done up to this point. The quality and attention to detail in most of their products is second to none. They screw up too. Every company does it at some point.

It continues to amaze me though how much the media and people in general just love to hate Apple. Apple is scrutinized to a level of detail that no other company ever has. Any product they release is just hammered when the smallest of flaws show or the one feature is missing. I've been guilty of it myself unfortunately too.

The reason why is that people love to hate what they can't achieve or what they can't have. It is a fact that has been proven over and over again in tests conducted all over. If you had a choice between:

a) getting $1,000,000 but to get it you had to give $10,000,000 to the other guy or
b) getting $750,000 and the other guy gets $750,000

Most people will take the $750K. They simply can't bare the thought of someone getting more. Of course, this is grossly oversimplified but this type of problem exhibits itself over and over again at work, in our government, and at home.

The criticism of Apple over the imperfections of the latest iPhone and the launch of the MobileMe service are just manifestations of this in a more complicated form. The iPhone, despite having 100's of things done right, is criticized for the one thing it does wrong. Usually, this criticism is by a Blackberry user who can't get an iPhone or finds out his company won't support it I'm sure. Of course, there are the multitudes of reviewers who need to sensationalize everything and bad Apple products get a lot of hits.

Same goes for MobileMe although this is a bit more complicated. The media just loves to jump all over Apple whenever it gets a chance. The amount of press Google or MSN (Live...yeah, crappy name), or Yahoo gets when something goes wrong is no where near what Apple sees. Apple should and could have done a better job with this, especially communicating with users. They are hardly the evil jokers that everyone has made them out to be however. Somewhere, something went wrong. They've got it fixed now. Let it go.

I know all this has been gone over before and rehashed ad naseum but I couldn't help myself. Some of the ridiculous complaints I hear just make me want to scream.

Sorry Blackberry users, I've used the Blackberry and now the iPhone. There are some functions out there that I can do on a Blackberry that I certainly don't have on the iPhone (yet) but anyone who uses both and thinks the interface on the Blackberry is superior has their head so far up their rears that their vision has to be tinted a dark shade of brown. The future is and will be the touchscreen interface as implemented by Apple. Anything else now is either a wannabe or is missing the boat entirely (see the new Blackberry competitor to the iPhone as an example of missing the boat).

So if you want what Apple has, go get it. If not, stop telling me what Apple is doing wrong and start telling me what your company/product/gadget is doing right.

Smell the armpit - 8-8-08

2008-07-29T09:41:00.002-04:00

Come on world, smell the armpit!

Are we all glad the Summer Olympics are being held in one of the finest places on earth this year? Beijing

I'm sure this is much better than Toronto or Paris.

And I always thought cans of air and the plot in Spaceballs was a joke. Someone stands to make a fortune on this idea now.

I think when you start handing out breathing masks to athletes and visitors, this is a clue that there is trouble ahead.

In keeping with the theme, the IOC is now planning to have the Winter Olympics in 2020 held on top of a heaping pile of bat dung in the middle of a garbage dump.

World likes Action Only - I hope they are wrong

2008-07-24T15:39:00.003-04:00

In an interview today on Talk of the Nation, A. O. Scott, the movie critic, says that big budget movies can only pander to the action movie goers. I hope they are wrong. He thinks deeper stories have no place in big budget movies because they can't make the money back worldwide. Most of his interview appears to be the result of an article he published in the NY Times about the Super Hero Genre being at the end of its rope.

I can only hope Tony Scott is wrong. Is the world wide movie going audience really that stupid? Are we really so much smarter than everyone else? Personally, I think it is insulting to think that other movie watchers in the rest of the world can't appreciate a good story. I think his opinion actually represents the type of thinking that has gotten us in so much hot water in the past with the rest of the world.

What do you think?

More of Game Developers NOT Getting It

2008-07-24T09:38:00.004-04:00

I know I'm beating a dead horse here but I just had to post something. I watched a video teaser from Sony's E3 announcements earlier and it is just so sad. I mean it has to be the most depressing video ever. Why is that?

Because it consisted of mostly rehashed material. It was loaded (probably 1/2 to 2/3's) with FPS shooters of some sort. A few ridiculous driving games were in there too and pathetically few games were of any interest whatsoever. I love games and video games in particular. I should be excited to see what is new and forthcoming and I'm not.

All I can say is thank goodness Nintendo is there with the Wii. If not for them, this would be the most depressing time in recent video game history. At least someone out there gets it.

Just to illustrate how the "others" aren't getting it, I downloaded a Wall-E demo for the PS3. Wall-E is a kids game. It is targeted towards kids. No self respecting teenager and probably no adult will ever play Wall-E the video game unless their younger sibling or their kids have it. They most definitely won't buy it for themselves.

However, every single button on the dang PS3 controller has some use or function. For crying out loud, it is a kids video game. How am I supposed to explain to a 5 or 6 year old how each and every button is supposed to work. This is a game that should have the joystick and one MAYBE two buttons used at most. Nothing more.

The game was so frustrating, my 8 year old said it was bad. He got stuck in 5 minutes of playing and it probably was just because he couldn't figure out the right combination of buttons to press.

I'm betting the Wii version is a lot simpler to play.

As mentioned on my friends blog, the Wii is successful for the same reasons the Atari 2600 was popular way back when. The control schemes are easy to understand and the games appeal to a wide audience. Until the other consoles figure this out, they are doomed to be runners up in this battle for video game dominance. I'm being polite when I say runner up too!

iPhone 3G email setup and rough edges

2008-07-24T08:58:00.003-04:00

I finally had a chance to play with an iPhone 3G. Unfortunately, it wasn't mine it was my managers. She's giving it a test run for our company since her Blackberry died which she hated anyway.

I won't tell anyone anything by saying it is fantastic. Blackberry has to be crapping their pants now if they weren't already. The ads that Blackberry has running are laughable at best. Can you imagine watching a video or browsing the web on the stupidly small screens they have even if they are the same resolution as the iPhone's?

Activesync setup for Exchange with this thing was a bust and an exercise in frustration. However, I think this is an Exchange 2003 issue and not the iPhone at all. I eventually had to back down and use the IMAP email function to retrieve email and forgo the automatic sync of calendar and contacts and use the iTunes sync to accomplish this. Unfortunately, this is where a glaring issue reared its ugly head.

Syncing your calendar and contacts with Outlook using iTunes simply doesn't work. Looking around on the forums at Apple, I'm not the only one. It appears the update to the 2.0 firmware and iTunes 7.7 broke something. The system, when you initiate a sync, literally sits there sync'ing for 20-30 minutes. When done, the best you get is the contacts and no calendar. On top of that, I had bookmarks set to sync and bookmarks weren't there either.

Depite the numerous posts I see no official response from Apple which is disappointing. Some acknowledgement of the problem and that it is being worked on would be nice. I could be wrong but there is a pattern of Apple not admitting to flaws. For instance, whenever I get asked to update iTunes, I can never seem to find a change log or release notes that describes precisely what is and isn't fixed or changed between the new version and the old.

Finally, I'll just add my two cents on how I setup SMTP sending for the iPhone since numerous articles don't seem to address this scenerio or are just frankly more complicate than necessary.

Scenerio:

You have an Exchange server behind a firewall. You don't allow SMTP communications from the outside to it directly. All SMTP traffic has to pass through a spam filter of some sort. The SPAM filter can't be used as an SMTP server for outside email when the from address equals your own domain name.

Problem:

You can't send SMTP to yourself or anyone else using your spam filter because all email addresses with your domain are INSIDE the network and so sending from the outside with an internal address is presumed to be spam.

Exchange SMTP services (windows SMTP actually) doesn't allow you to restrict traffic to an IP address and allow all other IP's only if authenticated. If you restrict by IP, you have to specify all IP's that can send through it (not possible for the random IP's assigned to the iPhone obviously). If you require authentication, all SMTP senders need to authenticate and most spam filters (at least mine anyway) cannot authenticate to send. It just opens a port and starts spitting out email.

Solution:

Keep the internal Exchange server restricted and available only to the spam filter like you have now.
Create a new SMTP server service on your exchange server and designate the port it uses as something other than port 25. Preferably something up high and it should be above port 1024.
Change the authentication settings for the SMTP service to allow only authenticated users to send email. You'll have to choose whether to require encryption or not.
Modify your firewall to allow sending to this new port on your exchange server.
On the iPhone, go into the email settings for the IMAP account and at the bottom there is a place to change the outgoing server settings.
Once selected, you'll see at least two accounts there (usually, there may be more). One is your SMTP account you setup and the other is AT&T's SMTP server. Normally, you could use AT&T's when on the EDGE network but the spam blocker prevents this. (incidentally, allowing multiple sending SMTP services is brilliant, it just doesn't work this time)
Modify you SMTP account settings to point to your exchange server but near the very bottom of the screen you do this, change the port settings from port 25 to the port you selected when you setup the new SMTP service on your server.
Try it and if all is well, it should work.

Hopefully this is helpful. Good luck!

It's good to be home again

2008-07-07T16:59:00.002-04:00

This weekend, I came home. Home to the Mac that I left years and years ago. I'm now the proud owner of a MacBook Pro. OK, well, technically, it is my wife's MacBook Pro but she lets me use it.

It is a technically superior product in many ways to my Lenovo Thinkpad which actually cost me more money at the time I purchased it. The trackpad on the Mac is probably the single best thing about the MacBook Pro. Apple really has perfected the device and it works better than any trackpad I've ever used. Did I mention I hate trackpads!! For me to rave about it is saying more than most will probably ever know. The two finger and three finger gestures are fantastic.

The funniest thing is that from the moment the unit was turned on, it was easier to access the files on a shared PC on my home network than it ever was on a Windows PC. How ironic! Windows could really learn a thing or two.

Now, the bad part is that I'm still not sure what will be best for actually working with it. My wife needs office compatibility and unfortunately needs to use Publisher (ick) for some work she does. Hopefully, with the exception of Publisher, Open Office will be sufficient.

The good news is that she likes the mail application that comes with it. Unfortunately, the first time she opened it up herself, it crashed (not sure why yet) which was a bit of a let down. No one ever said the Mac was crash proof I guess. It is a darn shame the mail app won't import a PST file from Outlook directly.

My only complaint is the wireless antennae built into the thing seems poor. Where my laptop and other devices pick up the wireless in my house just fine, the MacBook Pro has problems. I know it is the MacBook Pro design too because my father-in-law has the same issues with his MacBook Pro. Perhaps this problem will go away when I upgrade to 802.11n sometime in the near future.

It'll take a while to make the transition but hopefully this is the first of many Mac OS machines to reside in my household. While I'll never be able to banish Windows completely (not yet anyway), I don't intend to support Windows personally ever again.

It sure is good to be home.

WALL-E is unsure

2008-07-07T16:31:00.003-04:00

I was prepared to offer a stellar review of WALL-E after seeing it this past holiday weekend. Unfortunately for WALL-E, I can't do that. The problem with it is that it is forgettable.

I'm not going to spend a great deal of time on this because I think that most people who want to see it will and they can all judge it for themselves. But in a nutshell, it is a wonderfully well animated feature length film that does not appear to know what it wants to accomplish nor is it memorable. It is one of the first Pixar films that I've actually been disappointed in.

The sad part is I don't think this is Pixar's fault to some degree. I think it is just the fact that this film is caught in the evolution of the animated picture from strictly kid and family fair to a full blown medium for serious topics. Pixar just tried to straddle the line and in my opinion, they didn't succeed.

When I finished the movie, I tried to understand why I didn't like it. My kids seemed to enjoy it a great deal and that probably is all that should matter. Frankly, that is all that really matters to me too.

Had this been a work of pure science fiction and been in written form, it would have been ridiculous with all the antics in the middle of it. You can't take a subject matter like this and mix it up with slapstick comedy. At least, for me, it doesn't work. I'm sure there are many others who thought it all worked just fine and that's great. Just don't expect me to rate this high on my list too.

One final point, the mixing of live actors with the animation just struck me as the most horribly misguided thing Pixar could have ever tried. How do full blown actors go from their "live" existence to the caricatures of their future selves in ballooned up animated form? The progression just doesn't work. They should have stuck to the animated versions of people in every instance.

I think the real big problem with this show is what most people came away with that I spoke to. The animated short before WALL-E just blew people away. It upstaged the movie in almost every way possible and was hysterical. Having it at the beginning of the film was perhaps the worst decision Pixar could have ever made because WALL-E just could not live up to the bar that had been set right from the very start.

Netflix comes to its senses

2008-07-02T15:21:00.002-04:00

It looks like Netflix came to their senses and abandoned their plans to remove the profiles feature. It seems like they actually do care and listen to their customers. It is a shame that had to create such a blunder in the first place but at least they are willing to admit their mistake.

I thought it only fair to mention this since I chastised them to begin with.

Now if we could only have saved Studio 60 and Journeyman as easily.

More Doublespeak

2008-06-24T11:05:00.002-04:00

It looks like TicketMaster is now taking lessons in doublespeak from Netflix.

I guess the word "improvement" now means "piss off the customer" and "convenience" means "pain in the rear".

Amazing!

The Chronicles of My Computing

2008-06-23T15:50:00.007-04:00

My fellow blogger at Matty Reigns Supreme decided to document his computer journeys over the years and did a superb job. It is a fun read and worth the time to reminisce about the fun and simpler days gone by.

Since I enjoyed reading his account, I decided I'd do the same. Hopefully you'll enjoy it too.

The Early Years

My journey started way back around 1976 or thereabouts. My father was working at IBM in the test equipment group at their Federal Systems Division. He got to see a lot of really cool stuff (things young boys like such as Space Shuttles, fighter jets, and bombers) and consequently, so did I (well, at least I saw some of the computers that went into that stuff, which WAS cool). I was interested in computers from the moment I saw them. In particular, at an open house or maybe a "bring your kid to work" day, I got to lay my eyes on a Tektronix vector graphics terminal. I was in the 2nd grade then and it was mesmerizing. There were some really cool programs for it for drawing things and some neat programs people had written to put art on the screen.

The interesting thing about this display was that it was a persistent phosphor vector display that allowed something to be drawn on it but it wasn’t necessary for it to be refreshed constantly for it to stay on the display. Of course, this had its pluses and minuses. If you drew something you didn’t want, the display had to be cleared and redrawn from scratch but it was very cool watching it do just that. I recall being fascinated with a program that was written for it that would draw flowcharts automatically of code that was sucked into it (don’t ask me what kind of code, APL was big back then but so were a lot of other languages, it might have even been some pseudo machine code or assembler). It was one of two applications that throughout my younger computing days, I always wanted to write.

When the TRS-80 Model I was released in 1977, I picked up a copy of the manual which, at the time, read more like a programming guide than anything. I think it looked like this but I seem to recall the cover being a different color. Maybe it wasn't the manual and really was a programming guide, not sure. It was a long time ago. The one thing I recall was dreaming about owning one and I would write programs on notebook paper and then bring them to my dad to check them and see if they would work. I’m sure I drove my dad nuts with this.

Fortunately for me, my father had a friend and his friend had a son about my age. My friend's father tinkered (that is an understatement) with computers and designed them at work. He had their entire house's heating system controlled with motion sensors or IR sensors (not sure) using a huge rack full of equipment. They had a very large house (mansion size) and it was expensive to heat so I guess it was worth the trouble. His father seemed to collect these "toys" and it wasn't long before my friend got a CompuColor Computer. For some odd reason, I seem to remember the design of the CompuColor I but the II had a floppy disk drive and I remember that specific feature more than just about anything because, as some people may remember, floppy drives were not that common particularly at home. This thing had a HUGE display and it was color. What more could you ask for?

Of course, the best part of any computer, particularly a color one like this which amazingly had dot addressable graphics (also nearly unheard of), was the games. There were very good versions of Chess, Checkers, Star Trek, and Risk. The game I recall having the most fun with was I think called Swarm. Around this time, people were saying the killer bees were going to migrate from the south into the US and kill us all so this was a popular theme in some games and movies. I recall always getting to the point where the bees were out of control and you had to nuke the bees. (Yeah, nuke'em, you heard that right...Nuke's were all the rage then and could solve any problem.)

It is amazing how such memories can become engrained into your brain in a way that you can recall them like they were yesterday. I can recall the seat we sat in and the two of us taking turns at the keyboard. The beige boxes of floppy disks with the handwritten labels. On the right were racks of equipment (presumably more than just the heating controls but who knows, computers took up a lot of room back then) and circuit boards spread out all over the place. Soldering irons and collections of chips and empty breadboards for IC’s. How anything got done in that room is beyond me but I spent a lot of time in there. It was always frustrating how my friends younger brother could come in and run circles around the chess game on the PC while we were taking a break. He was several years younger and was frankly, a genius. When he was in elementary school, he made the high school chess team so I think that qualifies as smart.

Being at my friends place over the years was like being at a computer store sometimes. At different points they had some other S-100 based systems like the Altair (I don't recall the model) and his father bought an Apple I at an auction but we never got to play with it. (I wonder if he still has it...) I recall looking at BYTE magazines all the time and seeing all the stuff the S-100 based systems had and later, when I had my own computer, I always thought it would have been cool to have an S-100 system so that I could get all these cool gadgets. Of course, we know where the S-100 systems ended up now don’t we?

Just thinking of BYTE reminds me of all the cool magazines of the day and there were so many. Besides BYTE there was my favorite, Creative Computing. I always devoured this magazine as soon as I could get my hands on the next issue. I sort of regret not taking a rather large collection of these off the hands of an old friend. I was offered at one time to take his entire Creative Computing collection and I’m pretty sure he had almost every one (he was a lot older than I was so had more time and money to collect them) and was only missing a few issues. My mom didn’t think that was a good idea (hmm, wonder why) and so I had to pass. Looking through those now would really bring back some memories I bet. It was a sad day for me when I found out they were going to stop publication. I wonder if they would be worth anything now??

Eventually, my school got a TRS-80 Model I. For some odd reason, it ended up being in our middle school instead of the high school. I think this was because the middle school math teacher is the one that pushed for it. At that point, I ended up spending a lot of time after school plugging away at it and doing exactly what everyone that had a computer at that time did which was typing in programs to see what would do. Invariably, you’d spend more time figuring out where the typos were and debugging it than you did actually using the program you typed in. It didn’t stop us though. There would be marathon sessions of typing, sometimes playing tag team with it, to get the stuff into the system as fast as possible. Unfortunately, I had to compete with the high school kids to get time on the thing and as you know, middle school kids will always to the older (and bigger) kids.

Home Arcade

The Atari 2600 was released about this same time (1977) and changed video games forever. This made video game playing something everyone could do at home. We eventually ended up getting one but I remember being mildly disappointed I didn't get one of the Fairchild video game systems called the Channel F. If you'd ever played one, you'd have remembered the controller on this thing because it was pretty neat with a joystick control that could be pushed up and down and I think you could twist it too. Probably a good thing I didn’t though because I don’t think they lasted very long.

I recall the summer parties my parents would have at our house for friends and co-workers where a good deal of people would be hovered around the TV in the living room playing the Atari games Combat or Basketball. The room would be packed and everyone would be cheering each other on. If you were to go back and play the basketball game now, it is almost laughable how simplistic it was. However, it captured everyone’s attention then and a lot of people spent a lot of time playing it. With two people it just was plain fun but the computer sucked. Pitfall and Megamania were two of my favorites for the old Atari and who can forget River Raid too.

Of course, anything that would let you play games from the Arcade at your home was hot. There were a lot of games made for the for the various systems that tried to capture the same game play (or ripped it off) that you got in the arcade. Arcade’s were HOT then and I can’t even begin to imagine how much money I pumped into game systems during the times when the arcade’s were big. I was in the fortunate (or maybe unfortunate) place of having a small restaurant across the street from my parents and a bar down the road that had arcade games in it. Many times, it was the hang out when school was over. The restaurant was one of the first places around that I ever played an original Pong machine. Later it was Space Invaders, Pac-Man, Ms. Pac-Man, Gorf, Wizard of Wor, Defender, Centipede, and many other greats. At one time there was a competition on Pac-Man to get a high score and win a cheeseburger. I ate well for a few weeks while another kid and I battled it out to best each other’s scores. Eventually, the restaurant realized it wasn’t such a good idea any longer and we went hungry again. One of these days I’ll go visit a classic arcade place and take another trip down memory lane with my kids in tow.

My First Computer

I spent a great deal of time at this point at the only area computer store. They were about 40 minutes away so any time my mom had to go shopping at the mall, I'd have her drop me off so I could hang out and pester the guys that ran the place for 3-4 hours at a time. I have to give them a whole lot of credit as they never kicked me out. I suppose they were rewarded at some point as eventually I did get my very first computer from them. They were Apple resellers but also had the Atari series like the Atari 400 (with the crappy keyboard) and 800. I had my first exposure to the Atari series and Star Raiders there. I think I played it for 2 or 3 hours straight one day at the store. I have to hand it to Atari for their cartridge based system of expansion. This is the way it should have been done from the start and from there on should have remained that way. To add an option or any type of expansion, you just popped the lid and inserted the expansion. There was something to be learned from the simplicity of this scheme and what was used in the Atari 2600.

In what amounts to the geekiest of stories, I had my first crush that I can remember on the owner of the store’s daughter. She and I had worked on a BASIC program on the Atari 800 one day at the store together. It was very short lived as I was quite young and only could hope she’d be there when I went to the store which wasn’t nearly enough of course.

The thing I remember most about the place though is the walls lined with zip lock bags full of tapes with programs on them you could buy for the Apple. All the bags had a tape and typewritten instructions and a typewritten label. Everything was very homebrew back then. There were a lot of Scott Adams Adventures on tape including Adventureland. These were the original text only versions too. If you’ve ever played them or go back and check out an emulator, it’ll amaze you at how simplistic they seem now with their [verb] [noun] commands and just basic text. They were quite popular though and I certainly played my share.

I also remember spending a great deal of time horsing around with the brand new Apple Graphics Tablet they got that hooked up to the Apple. This thing was outrageously expensive ($1200 seems to pop into my head) but man it was cool.

The two guys that ran the place were great (as you can tell if they let some little kid run around the store all day) and they were truly into computers. The business was just a way to fund their hobby. It was a sad day when the one partner left for bigger and better things but I can’t say I blame him, he got a job at Apple and moved to Cupertino. What more could you ask for!!!

My very first computer was an Apple ][+ and I ran the thing into the ground. I was in the 6th grade and it was something I dreamed about and it finally became a reality. My very own computer. Of course, you couldn't do much with it and the few tapes that you got with it had to be loaded and reloaded several times in a trial-and-error process to get them to load properly. I spent a great deal of time playing Lemonade and Penny Arcade (by Bill Budge who was my programming hero) and just typing in AppleSoft BASIC code and seeing what happens. The first night we had the computer, my father and I stayed up all night (literally, we saw the sun rise) writing a silly little program that let you draw a line on the screen taking its direction from the paddle controls we had for the computer. Its a program you could whip off now in minutes probably but at the time, it was fantastic and for some reason a whole lot of fun. Eventually I got the Integer BASIC card so I could play the really cool stuff and a floppy disk drive but that didn't come until a bit later.

When I think about how much that system cost in terms of real dollars it blows my mind that we ever ended up with one. The thought of spending that much money on something like that and then putting it in the hands of a sixth grader seems crazy. Fortunately for me, my parents did and I'll forever thank them. (I think...sometimes I really hate computers now and perhaps should have been an astronomer or mathematician or something...) Eventually I would graduate to an Apple ][e system and do even more with it. It was a mainstay for a very long time and saw its share of programming and game playing over the years. Of course, my ultimate gaming experience on the Apple would have to be Ultima IV. I probably invested just as much time in Robot Wars (my dad and I were always trying to beat each other) and Flight Simulator (I spent a lot of time flying over that stupid grid) and Zork too (check out the bottom of that page link as it is the original artwork used for the TRS-80 and Apple versions). I even have an original parchment style map for Zork that I sent away to Infocom to get.

One cool thing was that at about the same time as I got the Apple system I ended up being part of a small group of kids that got to do a several week project at a local community college working on their computers. This was kind of neat because they were all TTY terminals (printers with greenbar paper and a keyboard) and were hooked to, if I recall correctly, a DEC PDP-11 but I could easily be wrong about this. I just remember being struck by how antiquated the interface seemed however after having spent time on the new home computers of the day.

One thing I relished about the Apple was how accessible everything was. Making modifications to the system or programming whatever you wanted was simple. I learned how to code in 6502 microcode and did a lot of coding directly with peeks and pokes. Eventually I think I managed to get a hold of an assembler for 6502. My father even went so far as to help me design an adapter card to hook an old tektronix terminal up to what amounted to a special serial interface we put together on a board with some wire and IC's. I had to write the code to interface to it in 6502 and we eventually got it to work and could "talk" to the Apple via the terminal and even use it as a replacement for the real keyboard and display sans any graphical ability. Oddly though, it was a bit anti-climactic as once we got it working, it was like, "Now what?"

Back before I even got my first Apple computer, I had the distinct pleasure of being a founding member of a local Apple’s User Group that got started. We’d meet once a month and swap stories and tips and we’d line up people and businesses to do demos for us. It was a fantastic time when sharing computer stories was as much a part of computing as using the computer. It was a solid group of people and it lasted years eventually having a Mac contingent which survives to this day!! (That means they’ve been around for 30 years now, wow!) I even managed to weasel my way into being the editor of the newsletter for a few years. I was probably a pretty annoying kid back then and I’m sure the adults probably wanted to shove me into a box to shut me up but fortunately they were all exceedingly gracious and allowed me to stay very involved. For me, going to these meetings was a big deal because I got to hang with the adults. Most meetings a small group would go hang out at a Denny’s until very very late and I appreciated my father letting me stick around and participate even though these late nights were school nights.

One of the fond memories I have of that time was a gentlemen who was involved in our club who was also a HAM Radio operator who had setup a method for doing Morse code via his Apple. It would both receive and transmit in Morse code and for someone who didn’t know the code, this was slick. There were even groups that setup times to transmit programs back and forth in a sort of poor man’s torrent system. They’d have designated times to start transmitting certain programs on certain frequencies and then they’d set their systems to receive them and turn them into applications they could save to disk. It was pretty fantastic stuff. I don’t recall what types of programs were being broadcast at the time but they were all small enough that they could send them in short spurts of 30 to 60 minutes I recall. A lot of this stuff was easy to do on the Apple ][ too because it was just so open and accessible. You could control anything in the guts of the system.

Speaking of guts, I got really good at taking floppy drives apart on these old Apple systems and “fixing” them so they could read good and bad disks and, dare I say it, copy protected disks. Most of the Apple floppy drives were belt driven and had to be adjusted periodically to get the spindle speed right so you could read and write to them reliably. If things go too far out of wack you could at best have disks you could only read in your drives and at the worst, write bad data that could never be read again. Fortunately, the drives had a pattern on the bottom of them that would stay still when held under a fluorescent light at 60Hz when properly adjusted with a screwdriver. You could adjust these to be slightly fast or slow to allow a drive to read sectors that would normally have been unreadable. I don’t remember the particulars but these adjustments were sometimes necessary to get program disks to copy properly. I even had a small contingent of people bring me unreadable disks to fix using a hex based sector editor for the Apple since it wasn’t uncommon to have the FAT table or directory on a disk get corrupted. With some handy work and a lot of hours, you could sometimes get the stuff back.

At one point in my programming career, I wrote a program that I tried to get published. I sent it to Broderbund, Electronic Arts, Sierra (I think they were On-Line Systems at the time), and one other I can’t recall. My hopes were slightly dashed when I got them back and was told they weren’t interested. Oh well, it was worth a shot. Now it wouldn’t even make it as a flash game but at the time, it seemed like something I could sell.

Game Time

At some point I did end up with a Commodore 64 and as Matty mentions on his blog it was a real magnet for media and games that were acquired via questionable means. I didn't do a whole lot of programming on this and mostly played games. I don't even recall when in my history I actually got my first one but it was a bit late into the 64’s life (It was replaced with a 128 eventually too). These things, in my opinion, had some great games but when it came to programming in BASIC, were a pain in the rear. Had I cut my teeth on it, I probably would have thought differently but I just could never get very far with writing applications on it. They were popular though and were inexpensive in comparison to other systems. It along with the VIC-20 did a lot to put computers in a lot of homes that otherwise wouldn't have had them.

Sort of related to the Commodore 64 but prior to my having one I ended up visiting a school system nearby that had landed a ton of Commodore Pet computers. Those things were funky and futuristic looking. Unfortunately, I never got to spend very much time on one. I remember though being a bit disappointed that they didn't have dot addressable graphics and instead used character based graphics for everything. I remember very fondly a few games for the C64 though that were so much fun. My quick list would have to be: Racing Destruction Set, Raid on Bungling Bay, Archon and Mail Order Monsters. Of course, there are a lot more.

Let’s Get Serious?

Somewhere in here, I don't recall exactly when, I ended up with an IBM PC XT (probably via the IBM employee purchase program).

I never did get an original IBM PC but a friend of mine did so we ended up going back and forth between his house and mine working between the Apple and the IBM. Our school got a grant from IBM and was donated 15 IBM PC computers not long after they were introduced. When we found out about it, that same friend and I biked the 7 miles one way many days over the summer so we could help set the systems up and hang out all day in the new computer lab in the high school. I was either going into 8th grade or 9th grade at the time. Little did I realize how big a part these computers would eventually play in my life and my time in high school.

An interesting tidbit is that via IBM’s employee purchase program a lot of people purchased these things and eventually they opened up access to the outside via a dial-up modem so that some people could actually work from home. This was really pretty amazing considering when this was all being done. I don’t recall precisely when they did this but the PC XT was out and used for 3270 terminal emulation. There were a handful of people I knew that could actually take advantage of this and being able to work from home was something not everyone could even think about during those days.

Since we had a full computer lab now (before that it was a small contingent of Apple computers) and no one really knew what to do with them, I was able to make up my own classes and actually get credit for them. I even managed to get out of taking Latin and Spanish because I convinced the school that a computer "language" should count. So I spent some time learning Pascal and writing some programs for a project and was able to get credit for it.

The only other computer our school used in any fashion was the Apple /// which, if you know any computer history, was a complete disaster. The business/accounting classes had the unfortunate distinction of being the place the Apple /// was placed and I’m sure they regretted it the day they showed up. I have no idea what happened to them but hopefully someone put them out their misery. It is sort of a shame as the Apple /// did have more colors, an 80 column display, and better audio. Unfortunately, it was very unreliable and gained a bad reputation from the start. The only thing the school could have done that would have been worse was acquiring a bunch of the horrific IBM PCjr’s. A lot of IBM’ers ended up with these and it amazes me the school didn’t get them with the number of IBM’ers on the school board.

The Revolution

Eventually, I got into a Mac 128K system and graduated through to other stages of Mac development with the 512K and Mac Plus. The Mac Plus was when everything changed with the SCSI bus added to the back and with up to 4MB RAM available. I still remember cracking open the cases on these things (you needed a special tool or you'd gouge your case all up) and putting RAM upgrades in them for me and friends. I even at some point did some processor upgrades and RAM upgrades using these clip on kits that some companies produced. Talk about a royal pain in the rear. It was ugly.

Worth noting is that I actually had the opportunity to play on another friends Lisa computer. I wonder how much that thing is worth in working condition. The Lisa was a tremendous example of something that people just weren’t ready for and was just way too expensive. Fortunately, the Macintosh was a faster cheaper machine even though it wasn’t technically a cheaper Lisa. It seemed like it as they used similar conventions though.

As most already know, the Mac really did revolutionize the way people work on computers. From the mouse to the bitmapped fonts to the windows, it was just jaw dropping. However, the one thing that pushed it into the place no man had gone before was the LaserWriter. It was mind bogglingly expensive (@ $7K) but it put desktop publishing on the map. It along with PageMaker was what you needed if you wanted to produce and publish content from the comfort of your own office that actually was of a quality a print shop could produce. Up until this point, it was all cut and paste and many people still had to buy these stickers to lay out type and copy them or have a professional typesetter produce it.

It just so happened I'd found out about someone who lived near my high school that had a LaserWriter and he had it right from the very start of the LaserWriter's introduction. Of course, I immediately had to meet this guy because not only did he have a LaserWriter but he was a Mac guy too. It began a friendship that has lasted until this day.

For those that don’t recall, the big deal with the LaserWriter wasn’t the laser printing (HP was doing just fine with that) but the Adobe PostScript language that was part of the system. Every LaserWriter had a 68000 processor in it , a pretty large contingent of RAM, and PostScript. Postscript was a real honest to goodness programming language albeit based on FORTH. With PostScript, you could produce almost anything you could program and things like PageMaker and other applications like Ready, Set, Go! and eventually QuarkXPress much later. My friend with the LaserWriter used to do all kinds of crazy stuff with his marketing agency and he would call me up and say, “hey can you write something in PostScript that does X” and I’d pour over my Postscript books and come up with something. This seems ridiculously simple now but one of his favorite things was putting text on a curve and with Postscript it was a piece of cake. There simply was no other way to do it then.

Of course, back in those days, the limitations in software were pretty strict. I recall my friend calling me up to help him put together a 150 page document (about...it was more than 100 for sure) in Aldus' PageMaker (the app that basically helped make the Mac synonymous with desktop publishing) one day. We spent the entire weekend on it and that was with the text having been already done, we just had to cut and paste it into Pagemaker and lay it out. Back in those days PageMaker was pretty buggy and you could only do a maximum of 16 pages in one document. Worse, every time PageMaker crashed, it seemed to corrupt the original document. We had floppy disks all over the place with copies of the documents and it was a nightmare but we eventually got it done. When we went to our first MacWorld, I can recall my friend and I having a long conversation with Paul Brainerd about all the bugs PageMaker had in it. Going to MacWorld with my friend was a long tradition that unfortunately ended a few years before MacWorld stopped being held on the east coast.

I really got into the Mac guts too just like I did my old Apple. One of the things that was just absolutely amazing was the simplicity of developing for the Mac. I bought all the developers guides they had out from Apple at the time and bought a decent assembler for 68000 and started teaching myself how to program in assembler on it. It turned out though that writing in Pascal (which used to be the language of choice for the Mac) was far easier in most cases. I mostly played around with the interface and made some simple little programs. My sampling of what the Motorola 68000 processor could do and the simplicity of it forever ruined my taste for trying to learn anything on the Intel processors. The 8088 and 80286 processors were the a mess by comparison and to this day I wonder where we’d be and what would have happened if IBM had chosen the Motorola processors instead of Intel’s crap. I’m sure things would be much different.

An interesting anecdote: Remember the friend I referred to earlier who had the Compucolor? His father was instrumental in the design of the IBM CS-9000, that DID use a 68000 processor, and it was light years ahead of the PC. If only he had been in charge of the IBM PC. The only reason I remember this is my friend had moved to Danbury, CT and my father was offered a job to help work on this project and possibly move the family to Danbury. Oh how my life would have changed had that happened.

I fondly recall many hours spent with MacPaint and Dark Castle. For those that can recall, Dark Castle was one of the early examples of a game using mostly digitized sound effects. In fact, the Mac really excelled at digitized sound and there were a few applications that were absolutely amazing at playing back multi-channel digitized instruments not unlike the samplers of the day. I wish I could recall the name of the program I used to horse around with regularly. The Mac really started a love I had for MIDI and Music. It led me to do what was somewhat sacrilegious in Mac circles but I did it anyway, I bought an Atari 1040ST.

Deserter

I purchased an Atari 1040ST with an absolute ton of software cheap via a CompuServe forum. It was probably near the end of the Atari's life as a marketable product. I bought it for one reason and one reason only and that was so I could install Cubase on it. If I recall correctly, Cubase didn't work on anything else at the time and in my opinion it was one of the best music programs available so I had to get an Atari to run it. The best part was that the person I bought it from really just wanted to dump everything they had and it had so much software with it (real, not pirated) that I was able to sell most of it on Compuserve individually and made enough that the 1040ST was essentially free. If eBay had been around, I'd probably have done even better!

Of course, never one to forget my gaming addiction, I had to play Dungeon Master which, is to this day, one of my favorite gaming memories. There was really nothing like it at the time in terms of presentation, sound, and the interface. Sure, there were tons of RPG's but nothing in 3D and real time. And you just couldn't top the spell casting system either. If you can find an emulator to play this, it is worth checking out.

I kept my Mac and stayed with it for quite some time. I didn't stick it out through the hard times like some but not for the reasons that some might think. I had been involved in reselling PC's for a while and tried desperately to get an Apple Reseller Authorization. I was dealing mostly with schools and it just made sense to be able to sell Apple's. When that fell through, I nearly teamed up with another reseller in another town to become a satellite for them reselling Apple. That didn't work out either and so I had to invest my time in the things that made me money and so I let go of my old Mac (oddly, I don't even recall what happened to it...), my Apple ][e died, and I just became an IBM PC clone pusher. I tried out the Laser (if you can recall what that was) and Power Computing Mac Clone's didn't become available until I actually worked for a publishing/manufacturing company who ended up using them.

The good thing was that I was immersed in Mac's all day every day at that job and so I got my Apple fix while I was at work. I even had the opportunity to get involved with Avid non-linear editing systems for a short while and with direct to plate and press publishing via the Mac. It was a fun time. Ironically, I found out later, I’d actually gotten the job at this company primarily because I knew Mac stuff.

Of course, none of this ends with the Mac but it seems appropriate to stop here because of the rest of it would be boring PC stuff. The last really fun computer I owned was probably the Mac (although I did enjoy the Atari). To this day I still regret not having experienced the Amiga to the fullest when it was available. It was also a revolutionary product with some fantastic capabilities such as NTSC output and thousands of colors and real multitasking OS. Unfortunately, Commodore didn’t know how to properly market it and it eventually died a slow death. I did get to play around with one at length for a while as part of a Video Toaster system. The Toaster revolutionized the video industry and probably is the only thing that allowed the Amiga to last as long as it did.

The Next Generation

Hopefully you’ve enjoyed reading this as much as I have enjoyed writing it. Reliving the past is always fun (and for old farts like me, a too frequent habit). It’ll be interesting to see what I think of as revolutionary when I might write a piece like this again in perhaps another 25 or 30 years. I’m quite certain we’ll still be talking about the Mac and we’ll be remembering the revolution the iPhone started. Unfortunately, we’ll still remember the Newton too but not for the same reasons. (Don’t laugh, my friend who had the LaserWriter STILL has his!)

The NEW COKE of the internet

2008-06-20T10:12:00.003-04:00

My friends, witness a great marketing blunder of epic proportions here:

Netflix Profiles feature going away

Netflix has lost its head. I realize it probably isn't really as big a deal as the NEW COKE fiasco but I have to believe this is going to be a costly blunder. I've been a member of Netflix since October of 1999 (wow it'll be ten years next year) and I've never seen them do anything so moronic. Even their removal of email support (they allow phone support only) wasn't this stupid.

If you use Netflix, you may have used their profile feature which allows you to setup sub-accounts under a main account with its own separate queue for movie delivery and, just as important, its own separate rating history. I lot of people use these to divide their movie shipments into an adult category and a kids category so that kids always have a movie to watch and so do the adults. There are a lot of other uses of course such as a husband and wife queue or queues for roommates, etc.

Netflix has decided, because it is good for the user experience (not sure how), to remove this feature. This would be bad enough but they are also not preserving ANY information that was contained in the sub-account either. There is no export feature and no ability to merge info into the main account. Some people have spent a very long time building up their queues and rating history.

Fortunately for me, I don't use this feature but judging from the reactions on the Netflix community blog and on other sites, Netflix is getting nothing but very bad press and a lot of irate users. It'll be interesting to see if they really do remove this feature on September 1st or if they have to back down.

Either way, this is a perfect example of a major marketing blunder. If you take something away, you have to explain why and/or give something return. If they are doing this just to get additional revenue from extra accounts or purge their growing database, they should have made darn sure they candy coated this service change somehow.

At a time when the movie rental business is poised to change so dramatically, Netflix really can't afford any bad press. Its almost as if they WANT to hand this business over to Apple and Amazon.

TIVO Inc = Stupidity & Laziness

2008-06-16T12:06:00.003-04:00

I just recently purchased a new TV that has a built-in HD tuner. As a bonus, I received a new Tivo HD box for free with the TV purchase. At first, I was going to sell it. I don't receive HD channels and I don't pay for any. I have the basic lifeline service from Time Warner Cable which only provides about 7 or so channels for $5/month.

Imagine my surprise when I had the TV do an Auto Scan and I found out that I receive my local HD channels in the clear over my cable. As it turns out, this is normal and it is supposed to be that way. Of course, I got pretty excited as I didn't think I'd be getting ANY HD stations at all unless I messed with an antennae and where I live, it is doubtful an antennae would work. This was great or so I thought.

I immediately unboxed the Tivo I was planning on selling and hooked it all up. I did the channel scan and it found the HD channels. I'm home free, right? WRONG.

As it turns out, the tuner finds the HD channels on these subchannels such as 85-13 and 85-14, etc. The Tivo has no way of knowing what the channels are on Time Warners channel guide/list. Is it channel 100, 120, 240, what is it? No biggie I thought. It's been this way for a while so they probably just have a way to go into the channel listing and say 84-13 = X on the channel guide and it will download the channel info.

I guess I was asking too much. According to Tivo and forums online, I need a cablecard to plug into the TV so it can tell the Tivo what channel is what. It won't be doing anything else. It won't get me more channels, it won't decode encrypted channels, it will do nothing but take the 4 HD stations I get (yeah, that's right, there are only 4) and tell it what they are on the channel guide.

At the moment, I'm not even sure if TimeWarner will provide a cablecard to me at all. If they do, I get to spend $3-5/month to RENT the cablecard. So essentially, I'll double my cable bill so I can do nothing more than what the most simple of software development skills could take care of for me in a pinch. According to the Tivo propaganda the cable companies can change these frequencies at any time so the cablecard is the only reliable way to get the channel mapping info. Who cares? If it changes once every couple of months I can change it. I do have the mental capacity to handle this myself. Point of fact is that the channel mapping hasn't changed in over 2 years according to friends who have had HD over the lifeline service.

So is Tivo being paid off by the cable companies or do the fear their ire if they add this feature? How can such a simple thing be left undone after a year or more of this problem. It seems to underscore a trend in music and movies and entertainment in general. Screw the customer and refuse to listen to them. I can guarantee if Tivo didn't have a virtual monopoly on this market, this wouldn't be happening.

I'm still not sure what I'm doing with the Tivo. I can't decide if I should sell it or keep it. Frankly, I don't feel like paying $5 more per month just for the HD channel guide info when I'm already taking the Tivo hit. I had a ReplayTV before this that cost me $7/month (I still have it, it works) and the Tivo is going to be $12-$13/month or somewhere around there. If only Replay had stayed in the market, I'm sure they would have addressed this issue and made this simple and painless.

Tivo, if you are listening, you are a bunch of lazy blankety blanks. Looking at forums, customers have asked for this feature for over a year and you've not delivered. Did you forget who pays your bills????

ill advised

2008-06-12T16:35:00.005-04:00

Don't burp after drinking a big glass of grape juice.
Don't tie your shoe while walking.
Don't try removing your jacket while driving with your seat belt on. (or off for that matter)
Don't try pinching your nose with really strong magnets (Neodymium) if you have a mustache.
Don't open your mouth at high speed on a motorcycle.
Don't leave your car in reverse and get out while it is on.
Don't ask the guy driving the tanker full of gasoline for a light.

You can thank me later!

Tivo: More ways to piss off the customer

2008-06-10T14:16:00.002-04:00

I saw this the other day and couldn't believe what I saw. Is Tivo serious? Are they really trying that hard to piss off PAYING customers (remember, people PAY to use the Tivo) and drive them away? It is no wonder I chose to watch Lost on DVD. I couldn't imagine having to subject myself to something like an AD pausing my playback and making me watch it. It is pretty unbelievable.

The sad part is I just got a Tivo HD for free and I'm now contemplating selling it. I was kind of excited not for the HD part but the dual tuner feature but if this is what I've got to look forward to, you can count me out.

Wii Fit: Still going strong!

2008-06-03T20:03:00.002-04:00

After almost a week with the Wii Fit + Balance Board for the Wii, I'm happy to say that there has been no less enthusiasm for the game. It is incredibly addictive and there is a certain amount of satisfaction when you come in and see your son doing push ups because he thinks it is cool on the Wii.

On top of that, my wife has found it a whole lot of fun too and has been using it faithfully every morning before the kids get up for school. She's actually disappointed when she has to quit because a lot of the games and exercises have a "just once more" element to them as you try to better your score from the previous try.

If you happen to pick one of these up, I'm sure you'll enjoy it. Just don't be surprised if your calves hurt after a long bout with the balance games.

I'll be sure an update again on this in about a month. We'll see if it is still as compelling then as it is now.

Wii Fit: Will it last?

2008-05-28T12:33:00.004-04:00

I got the opportunity to try out the Wii Fit last night for the first time (and so did the rest of my family) and have to admit that it is intriguing so far. It'll be interesting as time goes on to see if the thing has staying power.

True to video game conventions, you have to wait to unlock a lot of the games and exercises until after you've built up your play time so I've only been able to play the short list of games that are unlocked to start with. I've not tried any of the "real" exercises yet so I can't comment on them but if I can't lose 50 pounds in 5 weeks, I'm taking it back! I mean, this thing does perform miracles right?

A lot of the games are appealing and fun if not a bit too short. One thing is for sure, your calves get a pretty good workout in many of the games. Hopefully, the other exercises that are out there work the other parts of the body just as hard.

One of the complaints about Wii Fit is that it has an odd way of judging your Wii Fit Age and it typically seems to be quite high. I can see peoples point after playing with it a bit. When you setup your profile for the first time, other than calculating BMI, it checks your balance and then based solely on those few things, it says you are fit or unfit. I really don't see the correlation much. I also don't know if it differentiates between male or female but my assumption is that they assume your Mii represents your gender correctly.

Stay tuned as I mess around with this thing a bit more over the next few weeks. Of course, that assumes I can get near it at all.

Lost: Better late than never

2008-05-27T09:02:00.004-04:00

As they say, "Better late than never."

Now who "they" might be I have no idea but hopefully the didn't live on some island in the Pacific.

"Better late" certainly holds true to the show LOST. I started watching this the past few months via Netflix after having avoided the show for a long time. I'm glad I decided to give it a try and I'm very glad I waited to watch it via DVD. Being able to watch 2 or 3 episodes in a row is a great way to see this show. I found the same to be true of 24.

What makes Lost so much better than 24 is the number of characters they have to work with and the length of time they can take to tell their stories. I only hope the writing stays as good as it has been. But then, some of you know how the writing turns out as I'm only on Season 3 right now.

That being said, I just had to write to say that Episode 55, "Flashes Before Your Eyes" was easily the best episode so far and an example of some spectacular writing and editing. I just watched it over the weekend and it was easily the best WOW moment I've had in quite some time with a TV show. The only thing that might have made this show better was if I had been watching it on a big screen TV instead of a temporary 22" replacement for my dead TV. However, it wasn't the videography or picture that made this so great but the amazing way they've managed to build up to this point in the story and to keep you guessing. All of this with a character (Desmond) that technically hasn't really been seen that much. It just shows how great the writing is when you can care about the outcome of a minor character like this. Of course, in Lost, you never know when the minor turns into the major which is what makes this show so fantastic.

I've not tracked the general commentary on the show or really cared about what was said too much other than some friends saying that it was good and worth watching. An observation I made last night (which I'm sure has been made before) while watching a favorite episode of The Twilight Zone was how much Lost is like that show in many ways. Now granted, Twilight Zone was a bunch of self-contained stories unlike Lost. But Lost has some Twilight Zone like moments with twists and turns and mysterious things that I think get to the heart of why people liked to watch Twilight Zone so much. The big difference is of course the budget and production values have been cranked up. None of that matters though without the writing. Twilight Zone has some horrible (by today's standards) lighting, editing and sets but no one cared and I doubt anyone even cares today.

The only thing that matters is the story. Unfortunately, a lot of movie makers and TV producers have forgotten this. Lost should be a wake call.

Macbook Air - Almost Great?

2008-05-26T10:44:00.003-04:00

Well, the MacBook Air I mentioned in an earlier post has gotten blessed off as being adequate to the task. The shameful part is it is barely being used as a Mac. Windows is loaded on it and it boots to Windows. I don't even think the person using this has even booted it once under OS X. She will eventually I'm sure and the pressures of work have made it impossible to experiment too much. I had it essentially ripped from my hands several days early so didn't get to play with it as long as I would have liked. Either way, it passed the test and is a keeper! That is great news for me.

Before I forget, it is worth mentioning that multitouch is absolutely amazing. I realize the MacBook Pro's have some of this capability but the super size touch pad with multitouch is the best thing ever. I HATE touchpads but I came to like the Air's which is saying a lot. Also, the screen on this thing is fantastic. Perhaps the new MacBook Pro 15" screens are the same but this is hands down the best screen on a laptop I've ever used.

The only gripes about the platform are pretty nit picky but are worth mentioning and most focus on using it with Windows which may not be fair:

Lack of a DVD drive - Of course, it would have added weight. On top of that, if you see this thing, there is absolutely no way they could have put one in the system without making it thicker. It would be a lot like complaining the iPod doesn't play LP's or some non-sense like that. The medium is totally outmoded at this size. Now, for $1799, including one WITH the system would have been really nice.
Trackpad - No adjustments for it within Windows. Why not? In particular the two finger scroll is WAY WAY too fast and can't be adjusted.
Unforgivable lack of tap click - This is too bizarre to comprehend. You can't tap to click. I have no idea what is so difficult with making this work but it seems it has been lacking for quite some time on most of the laptop line.
Too light - OK, this isn't really serious BUT it is almost too light. It tends to move and shift around almost too easily as if there is nothing to hold it in place. It is even a bigger pain trying to plug and unplug stuff from the door that has the one USB port on it. The door tends to close when you don't want it too either which is when you are trying to plug something into it.
Power - The magnetic power cord is very cool but wants to fall off a bit too easily. I wish there was a lock in case you don't want the easy on/easy off function of the magnetic plug.
Windows drivers - If Apple is going to advertise the boot camp feature they really need to spend more time developing basic driver functionality. A lot of the power management and other tuning features that are available on other Windows laptops are not available in Windows on the Air. It is probably the biggest weakness since it really spoils the experience a bit. To be fair, this wasn't meant to be a Windows laptop and running Windows in Fusion or Parallels is probably the best way to go but I seriously doubt it would take much to go just a bit further with the driver functions under native Windows.
No PC Card slot - Again, form is probably too small but it is a pain when you can't plug in the Wireless Cell card everyone is using. To use a USB type really spoils the portability too.

With all that said, the MacBook Air is a brilliant if not pricey laptop. I'd say it was worth the money however if you want portability. Having seen it and used it, I think they probably made the right choices with the possible exception of a non-replaceable (or should I say user replaceable) battery. Seeing and hearing what these things are like to take apart, the experience of trying to replace it might be too much for most people and too expensive if outside warranty. Plus, I'm sure there are a fair number of people out there that might need it while on the road.

Hopefully the Mac at work is the start of a trend. Only time will tell.

Netflix - Who comes up with this stuff??

2008-05-20T15:47:00.003-04:00

I just saw this regarding Netflix and their new movie streaming box. For me, this is wonderful news because I can get a way to stream movies down to my TV now which is frustratingly tedious using a laptop. This box is a no brainer for me since I already have a subscription to Netflix.

However, it amazes me what some people try to get away with. Read this:

"The key breakthroughs of the Netflix Player are simplicity and cost," said Netflix chief executive Reed Hastings. "[It] allows consumers to use the full power of the Netflix Web site to choose movies for their instant Queue, and then automatically displays only those choices on the TV screen. That's a major improvement versus the clutter of trying to choose from 10,000 films on the TV."

Is this a joke?? I mean, how can selecting a show to watch using your TV HARDER than selecting a show on your PC and then looking for it on your TV in your list. I understand the economics of this. They don't need a full blown pointing device and don't need a real interface to browse titles. But please don't try and spin it. Just be honest. You'll gain a lot more respect from me than trying to make the limitations of the box sound like pluses.

For the record, now having 802.11n is a big mistake but since I can wire myself to my network where my TV is located, I'm not concerned. Doing streaming video over 802.11g is frustrating. I've tried it.

Now if only Netflix can secure more current material, we'll be all set! I'll still probably want an Apple TV though.

Dell - At least they are predictable

2008-05-20T11:52:00.003-04:00

When Dell bought EqualLogic, they swore they wouldn't cannibalize sales in the channel and wouldn't compete with EqualLogic resellers. Of course, everyone knew that was a lie and a great deal of resellers stopped selling EqualLogic because of it. Well, now there is more proof they are doing exactly what everyone said they would and went back on their word. I just received a letter from my Dell rep and guess what, they want to sell us EqualLogic and want to do it directly with me. So much for going through the channel and respecting their resellers territory. I already work with a reseller who sells EqualLogic so I guess Dell doesn't give a rip about that. At least Dell is predictable. (below is the letter I received)

I'm pleased to announce that I now have the ability to request an onsite visit from one of our Dell account executive that specialize in storage and disaster recovery. The onsite visit is free and consists of a consultation regarding your companies storage pain points, implementation within your network, and disaster recovery plan. They also have the ability to setup and Demo any of our Equallogic units. This is not limited to just Equallogic but spans our whole line of storage from our Power Vault line - including tape machines, autoloaders, and tape libraries. We also carry all of EMC's storage line along with Equallogic.

As some of you may or may not know Dell Inc. acquired Equallogic back in November. Previously till now there was no way to send a Dell account executive onsite, now that we can do this, give me a call if you would like to setup a demo or onsite consultation. Equallogic works especially well if you have or plan on running VMware on your network. To setup or inquire about an onsite visit contact my inside storage specialist (name removed) at 123-456-7890, you can also contact myself as well at the number listed below.

Boom Blox is Good!

2008-05-08T14:32:00.002-04:00

I picked up Boom Blox yesterday. I had some gift cards so it seemed like a worthwhile purchase. I'll agree with most of the reviews that are out and say that it is a worth while purchase for the Wii. The limited time I played it last night, I thoroughly enjoyed it. My daughter absolutely loves it.

If you like the quick to pick up and play type of game, this is it. You can't get much simpler and it would seem there are a lot of levels to get through. I don't like the "must complete tutorial" approach to setting up user profiles but at least there are 6 slots available to save for users since there are 6 of us in my family.

I personally think the multiplayer on this is probably where most of the longevity and fun of the game will be. If you want a good two and up multiplayer game, this seems like a good way to go and will be a whole lot of fun if you have a bunch of people over. I can't say I'm a big fan of the target shooting parts of the game though.

I won't repeat what all the reviews say but I think the ones at 1up.com and ign.com summed it up pretty good. For a good list of the reviews, go here. I'll also agree with one of the reviews in that the limits of the Wii processing power do tend to rear their ugly head here perhaps lending a little credence that some games, particular ones with realistic physics engines under the hood, could benefit from some extra muscle. I'd love to see this game on a multicore PC with a high end graphics card.

Bottom line, if you have a Wii, this is a game you probably need to own no matter who you are. Every age will enjoy this immensely.

Game Publishers are their own worst enemy

2008-05-07T15:21:00.003-04:00

I'm sure some of you have seen this or some form of it in the news media. Apparently Mass Effect and Spore for the PC (two biggies I've been waiting for) with help from EA have gone a ruined my enthusiasm for the two products. It appears EA, in their infinite stupidity, have decided to use a version of SecuROM copy protection that REQUIRES an internet connection to play the single player parts of the game. It not only requires it for activation but it wants to "phone home" every 5-10 days to make sure you have a legit copy of a program.

Four things bug me a great deal:

What happens in 10 years when I want to play this game again? Will the company still be around to "activate" my game and allow me to play it. Maybe the company will be around but they'll care less.
What if someone steals or cracks the CD key and invalidates my key? Do they de-authorize my game which I've purchase? Trust me, this is going to happen.
Why should I need internet access to play a game? Sometimes I play a game on my laptop and if I do, I may not have internet access in a hotel room or somewhere else. Plus, I might not have played it for 15-30 days or longer. Under this system, I won't be able to play it.
This game will be cracked!! Trust me. It'll be cracked and posted as a torrent somewhere. The only people this thwarts and screws is the legit buyer of the program.

Why can't every company be like Stardock and use Brad Wardell's philosophy about copy protection. Even Chris Taylor from Gas Powered Games agrees with them. It works for them. I don't see why it can't work for everyone. Incidentally, if you haven't played Galactic Civilizations 2 or Sins of a Solar Empire, do so and support Stardock. They deserve our dollars and these two games are absolutely fantastic.

Until this copy protection scheme is removed from Mass Effect and Spore, I won't be touching them. Too bad.

When available today isn't

2008-05-07T09:00:00.002-04:00

I'm a bit pissed about the fact that, while GTA IV and Halo 3, and any number of other "hits" can be available the day they are released, Boom Blox which was "Available May 6" just wasn't. I went to a couple of places to pick it up yesterday and no one had it. So what gives? The game was available supposedly yesterday but no one had it. At least not around where I live that is. Do they mean, "Available to UPS trucks everywhere on May 6th"?

Maybe that is what they meant.

MacBook Air - Don't let me down

2008-05-06T10:27:00.003-04:00

Believe it or not, I have my manager talked into buying a MacBook Air. She's found that she really really wants an ultraportable notebook PC and the MacBook Air looks to be just right for her. I'm still terribly disappointed there is no replaceable battery or built-in CD-ROM but I guess we can deal with that. My big concern is that the reviews have all mentioned that it gets terribly hot. Hopefully this won't be a problem.

We're getting the MacBook Air on a 30 day evaluation so I've got 30 days to prove to her that this thing does what she wants. I'm hoping we can pop Fusion on the thing and do everything she needs Windows-wise while giving her a tasteof the Mac OS that she's never had. It'll do a lot to champion my argument for a MacBook Pro at the end of the year. Fortunately, we have people we can send our rather new Thinkpads down to in the company that need replacements this year but timing is everything.

My big concern is that somehow this thing isn't going to work the way I want it to or she's going to have some issue to deal with that gets her frustrated and wanting to return the thing. If the MacBook Air blows this opportunity, I'll probably have to write off the Mac forever here at the company. Worse yet (I guess this is worse), it'll blow our chances to get iPhones here instead of Blackberry phones too. I realize they are two different beasts but some people tend to lump all these things together. She does like her iPod so that helps.

Any suggestions from those out in the field? I've not used Mac's in a very long time and normally I'd have a Mac first since I'm the one that usually noodles through all the experimental or trial stuff. I'll have no reference point. The plan is to load up Fusion and Windows XP under OS X, load Office/Outlook, VPN client, Citrix/Terminal Services client, and run with it. The killer for me will be the VPN client, if it doesn't work for some reason under Fusion, I'm dead meat.

Wish me luck!

Boom-Blox out today! Please be good...

2008-05-06T10:19:00.002-04:00

I'm hoping Boom-Blox for the Wii lives up to some of the hype. It looks like it could be very addicting. It is available for purchase today and I'm seriously toying with the idea of picking it up. Typically, I'd wait for a price reduction since I still think $49.95 for a game is ridiculous however exceptions can be made just like I may need to temporarily cancel my boycott of theaters to see Iron Man.

With that said, why can't developers realize that $29.95 is much easier for mom & pop to digest the $49.95. For some reason, for me, I can psychologically deal with sub-$30 prices much easier than anything higher than that. I suppose the way the market works it is better for them to sell half as many at $50 than $30 but I can still hope for reduced pricing in the future. Thank goodness I don't have to deal with the ridiculous $59.95 pricing of the PS3 and 360.

No price cuts for Wii? No duh!

2008-04-28T14:33:00.002-04:00

Can someone please explain to the guys publishing articles about why there is no Wii price cut how supply and demand works? Same goes for the people and their whining about DS prices.

Here is a quick lesson:

More buyers than product = Price gets higher or stays the same
Less buyers than product = Price gets lower

Fortunately, Nintendo isn't raising prices although I'm betting they could and still sell a lot of product.

Until there is more Wii and DS product than there are buyers, there won't be a price cut and Nintendo will reap whatever rewards there are in the way of reduced manufacturing costs. Looking at their recent profits, I think they are being rewarded well. As a Wii owner, that's fine by me. I want companies making games for this thing for a long time from now.

Speaking of supply and demand, this Calvin and Hobbes comic is great. It has nothing really to do with this but I needed to link to it somewhere and this seemed a good place!

iPhone = Mac/Lisa --- BlackBerry = DOS

2008-04-28T13:16:00.003-04:00

Does anyone find the comparison of the iPhone to the BlackBerry a lot like what the Lisa/Mac was to the old DOS PC's of days gone by?

To quote an old friend who's gone now:

"Keyboard. How quaint." - Scotty, Star Trek IV (James Doohan)

New Requirement for Holding Office "Minor Inconvenience"

2008-03-19T23:25:00.004-04:00

Recently, all three candidates for the Presidency have expressed concerns over their lack of qualifications for holding the office. It would seem, even after they've been around Washington for years, they were unaware that they've been seemingly holding an elected office without having met all the necessary requirements.

Clinton, Obama, and McCain were eagerly awaiting the opportunity to fulfill this last requirement despite some objections from their spouses.

Clinton stated, "If an extra-marital affair is what Americans want in their candidates, then I'm more than happy to oblige. Being a Senator from New York and with my experience as First Lady, I feel I have a special understanding into how important this requirement really is to the people."

Shortly afterwards, Senator Clinton could be barely heard muttering under her breath, "Now it's my turn."

Rev. Otis Moss III, Obama's new pastor, when asked to comment, consistently returned answers that had nothing to do with the topic so we are unable to publish a response. McCain's office couldn't be reached for comment however health officials have expressed concern over his age and whether his heart could take the stress.

On Merging

2008-02-29T15:15:00.002-05:00

It's time for my "grumpy old man moment" this week.

Do they not teach people any longer how to merge into traffic on a highway or any roadway for that matter?

Unfortunately, I have to drive every day to and from work through two particular areas that, at first glance to some, might appear problematic when merging into traffic. One, admittedly, can require a stop. But more often than not, instead of people stepping on the gas pedal to merge into the traffic, they instead slam onto the breaks. I've seen plenty of people get hit in the rear end of the car because they decide last minute to apply the brakes instead of the gas.

Lesson people: You must match the velocity of the traffic you are merging into for them to let you in. It can't be done any other way. They aren't going to stop for you.

Galaxy is finished

2008-02-20T22:36:00.003-05:00

We finally finishes Super Mario Galaxy!

I must say that it was a fine road that was traveled to reach this destination. I must also admit that it wasn't really I that reached the end first, but my son who is seven. Now I'll grant you that there were a few places he needed help but I think it is a testament to the designers that there is a game out that can appeal to, and be fun for, both an adult and young kids. Both my sons (5 & 7) enjoy it a great deal. Never did I think my seven year old would finish it before me though.

Now for the spoilers!! (You've been warned!)

(drag across the text below to see the spoiler text)

The ending boss battle was a bit lame. With all the incredible environments and the amazing battles that were faced throughout the journey to the end, couldn't they have thought of something better than a minor variation of the previous THREE (or four maybe) battles that were faced previously? It was mildly tough in parts but come on, there were some amazing things that were faced off against in various galaxies through SMG and this just seemed to pale in comparison.

Now for the good! I'm absolutely grateful that they didn't just end the game there. When you return to the game, you find out that you can get 50-60 more stars to get to a special place. What a tease! I know my son is going to try for it but I fear there is a very long road ahead.

For those that have finished, Congrats! For those that haven't, the journey is worth it and a whole lot of fun. This has to be one of the more enjoyable games (on a casual level) that I've played in many many years. I can't wait for the sequel.

Paying the IRS to file?? Huh?

2008-02-20T13:32:00.003-05:00

Well, I finished my income taxes last night and sent them in the mail today via standard postal delivery. I was going to file electronically but had a fundamental problem with paying someone to file my taxes electronically.

Does anyone else find it extremely odd and just a bit unjust that we should have to pay to file our taxes electronically?? Particularly when it happens to be more efficient and cost effective for our government to process our taxes electronically.

I happen to be getting a refund, which is great, but now I have to wait an extra 4 weeks or so (approximately) because I don't feeling like handing over $38 to help the government be more efficient. This despite the fact that they owe me the money.

Can someone please explain the logic of this to me?? (I know, it's the government, there is no logic.)

Advertising in online video - Get a clue please!!

2008-02-17T22:51:00.002-05:00

Alright, I've just about had it with advertising in the online videos of most of the major networks and many of the other sites that have "free" content supported by advertising interspersed in the videos they give for "free".

I have the free in quotes because, frankly, a bit of my mind and patience is sucked away with every last one of the commercials I have to watch. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not some crazy person who thinks everything should be free. I realize that these sponsors help pay for the content I'm watching for "free". But who the heck thinks I want to watch the same gosh darn advertisement SIX bleepin' times in the span of 30-40 minutes! Let's get just a bit creative can we please???

I rarely rarely ever watch any of the catch up episodes of shows on the networks and, after my last experience, I'll probably watch them even less. A week or so ago, I had to catch up on a couple of CHUCK episodes. I ended up watching the same 60 second (or was it 30 and seemed like 60) commercial perhaps 6 or 7 times. It was unbelievable. I mean, come on, get a clue would you networks please? Why would I ever want to see the same thing 6 times. I get the idea the first one or two times. Really! I remember it. It wasn't that long ago.

Point of fact, I probably am now less likely to support that sponsor than ever before. I just don't like getting hit over the head with a hammer repeatedly. It hurts!

I just experienced the same thing on GameSpot, and GameTap. Both sites play the same darn commercial EVERY SINGLE TIME. Ok, GameTap does mix it up a small bit but they rotate between maybe three different videos. Thank goodness they are short.

So, come on internet web sites out there, let's get with the program and play the commercial ONCE! And I do mean ONCE!! Not once per view. Not once per hour. Not once per game. No, just once is enough. If you want to do it again, at least wait one day. I'll give you that much slack but no more. And do give me that excuse about having some commercials play more than once in a sitting on TV. No, that won't work. I've got a DVR that gets me right by those. Nope, that just doesn't fly.

Oh, and for the record, I'm boycotting everything I have to watch more than once a day.

All you websites out there have been warned!! You have no excuse now!

Elevators - Out BEFORE In

2008-01-24T23:12:00.000-05:00

Nothing earth shattering here. I spent several trips on an elevator today and just for the sake of my sanity, would someone please start teaching people that you let people get OFF the elevator first, and then you can get ON.

Why is it so hard to understand this?

An Honest Actor!

2008-01-16T15:42:00.000-05:00

I think I'm going to go see or rewatch all of John Rhys-Davies movies just because of him being so honest and not full of crap like so many other actors and actresses.

Check out this article at 1up.com.

Just a smidgen of a quote from 1up.com about the Dungeon Siege movie and why he's in it:

"I'll be honest with you. The builders have not finished my house and I was going mad and I thought, this could be fun," the actor said. "'Who else is in it? Burt's in it? Oh, I'm on."

Can you be more honest?

(ok, so maybe I won't watch them all, dang he's made a lot of movies...)

Thou shalt not bear false witness

2008-01-12T13:09:00.000-05:00

I'm going to talk about politics but only in a round about way. I usually avoid it since I pretty much hate politics and I've never been a very good debater either. Recognizing ones limitations and not venturing beyond them is a good thing usually. In this case, I'll make an exception.

I'm constantly getting bombarded by acquaintances with emails related to the election stating how one candidate or the other is the devil and can't be trusted. Probably they all can't be trusted but when there is so much accurate and available information about the candidates that can easily condemn them on one position or another, why do people think it is necessary to spread the WRONG information or out and out lies about people to make their point.

The latest one I received is one regarding Obama and how he can't be trusted and is going to ruin the US if elected BECAUSE (and this is important) he is a radical muslim hiding in christian clothing and he won't say the pledge of allegiance and, in so many words, he's a terrorist in disguise. What the heck? Almost any reasonable search for information regarding Obama will tell you a great deal of what is stated in the email is false. The worst part is that typically, I receive these emails from my fellow Christian brother or sister and this one was no exception. Thus the title of this entry in my blog.

Of course, I "reply all" with only one link with information refuting the statements and I'm instantly an Obama lover and an atheist and I'm out to ruin the country. It really doesn't matter that the original email was mostly false and contributing to some sort of mass hysteria and paranoia about muslims. Never is there, "Oh sorry, I didn't realize that was wrong."

I'm not sure who I'm voting for yet and since the election isn't today, I don't care to make up my mind just yet. I happen to think Obama is a bit middle of the road and wants to be liked by everyone (who doesn't) just a bit too much. I wasn't taking a stand for or against Obama, just defending the truth. Had it been a "Don't drink Coke because it's Draino disguised as a soft drink" I would have replied just the same if the information was not true. I really can't stand the forwarding of these emails without fact checking first. That is all. Nothing more to it.

My rant here and my replies to these emails will surely not stop the delivery of these untruths in the future but what would blogs be if we didn't have them to vent our frustrations. I'm only human and I'm certainly not perfect but if we thought for a moment and really did pay attention to those simple commandments God gave us of which the title is one of them, we'd all be a lot better off. At the very least, the atheists of the world would at least not be able to constantly refer to us Christians as the hypocrites we so often are.

So come on people, stop the lies. And if you can't, please don't send them to me!

Richard Pryor was a Genius

2008-01-07T20:49:00.001-05:00

OK, it wasn't exactly Richard Pryor but the character he played in Superman 3 that was a genius.

For those of us that had the displeasure of actually watching Superman 3, you may recall Pryor's character makes a boat load of cash shaving a penny off from millions through, if I recall, rounding errors or something. Who would have guessed he'd predict the future of banking, cell phones, gasoline prices, electricity, and any number of other industries.

The banking and credit card industry is the best obviously, just look at all the fees they have and penalties you pay. Oh, and don't let a bill be late by a day or they'll wack you $30 or $40 bucks despite the fact that you actually mailed it in time or worse, paid it online before the due date but they choose not to debit it for 3 days.

Look at what happens when you cash or deposit an out of town check. The banks get to hold on to YOUR money for 5 days in many cases! That was understandable when your check had to be sent by plane from one place to the other to get the funds. That is ancient history now. When you deposit a check, it should be in your account immediately if not at least by the very next day.

I've decided that I'm going to open a chain of hotels and charge $19.99/day for the best rooms. Of course, I'll charge $5 per flush of the toilet, $50 to get a key, $25 to turn on the TV, and every flick of the light switch will be $10. Mixed in with all those extra taxes and fees they already charge, no one will ever notice.

I wish I'd paid more attention to Superman 3 when I first saw it. I'd have realized the wave of the future was charging pennies to millions instead of dollars to few. The one thing I couldn't have foreseen is that no one would have been able to do anything about it.

24 hours just isn't enough

2007-12-24T11:15:00.001-05:00

I know this is ridiculously obvious but I feel this way more than ever the last few days and weeks.

24 Hours in one day just isn't enough!

I mean, it isn't enough to get the non-essential, goofing off type of stuff accomplished let alone the real things that probably should matter.

I come home and eat and then help kids with homework or read with them and before I know it, it is time for them to go to bed. I don't mean I want them to go to bed but that it is best for their health and well being that they actually do get some sleep.

The funny thing is, the kids think we're "punishing" them when we make them go to bed on time and that somehow we just don't understand. Well, I'd like nothing better than to keep them up another hour or two and play some board games with them. Thank goodness my younger ones can't play RTS games online with me yet or we'd have serious issues. (well, they could but it wouldn't really be fair now would it...)

Or what about that neat National Geographic or NOVA special (of which there are dozens on my Replay saved) that we haven't watched yet. When will we ever find the time?

That's why I'm blessed to have time at the end of the year (usually) to take some time with the kids while they are off and do nothing but play board games all day. Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are always a blast and important but the real fun is the day after. Nothing to do but play games. The same goes for New Year's Eve or New Year's Day. Hopefully we'll have the same amount of time then to break out the latest box of fun.

So I say to all of you:

Happy Day After Christmas!

More Galaxy

2007-12-14T15:06:00.000-05:00

While my friends discuss loftier topics, I'll continue to do the really important stuff of talking about, what else, games.

I've continued nibbling away at Super Mario Galaxy little by little and I'm struck by just how truly wonderful this game is. It is such a casual and entertaining bit of simple gaming that I can't really say enough good things about it. It really reminds me of the simple pleasures of games of the past.

With that said, I did actually find a bug when doing battle at the Reactor stage. The boss (Bowser in this case) tries to jump and stomp Mario and actually jumped off the planet and presumably into infinity. It was very weird. I just ran around the planet for about 3 or 4 minutes waiting to see if anything would happen and had no choice but to exit the stage and return to the observatory. And of course, I had a nearly perfect run through that level that time. I can't say I've found too many bugs in console games before.

One thing that is absolutely fantastic about the game is the way they mix up the early stages so that they have some replay value. Many of the stages have variations that pop-up due to a comet flying around and when the comet is around a particular planet/galaxy it modifies the game play by speeding it up, having it timed, becoming a race, etc. I only wish the Cosmic Mario race wasn't so difficult. I've only run against him once and it seems to require a near perfect execution of all the moves to even keep up.

The other thing I'll briefly mention is that, at first glance, the controls seem so amazingly simple. And to the player, they are simple. But what people I'm sure don't realize is how the designers managed to subtly adjust the controls for each situation so that you don't actually have to think about what way to move the controller to get Mario to run in the right direction. If you push forward and happen to pass around the edge of a platform and end up upside down, technically, the push forward should force Mario in the opposite direction. The designers had the good sense to let Mario keep running in the same direction. If you stop and then push forward again, guess what, he runs exactly the way you'd expect him to but in precisely the opposite direction that the same action had him going just a second prior to that. It's truly amazing and it is apparent how much the designers thought about the controls to make sure the 3D environment and strange angles of the camera don't screw the player up. Everything is very intuitive.

Anyone who owns a Wii should absolutely have this game.

They'll be missing a great time if they don't.

Tip of the Day

2007-12-12T11:56:00.000-05:00

Keep the top of your head pointed in the opposite direction as the force of gravity on whatever large object you happen to have your feet planted on. (or did have feet planted on as the case may be)

Mario can take it

2007-11-20T15:06:00.000-05:00

I was just thinking the other day that a lot of my posts are negative and I was going to vow to not be so lopsided in my posts. However, since there are so many positive reviews of Super Mario Galaxy, I felt it was my duty to take good ol' Mario down a notch. Don't worry though, Mario is tough and he can take it.

I have two gripes:

My kids now fight over the Wii because only one person can really play at a time. They even fight over whether someone should assist as a second player. I say this only half jokingly.

You can't save anywhere you want and anytime you want. Normally I wouldn't think much of this but it is exceedingly frustrating to try and get the kids off the system (or myself for that matter) at a moments notice when you can't save just anywhere you want. You either have to exit out of the galaxy you are in forfeiting progress or hang in there a bit longer and hope you can finish the level out. I understand the technical reasons you can't do this. Without a hard drive, saving the state of the system is difficult. It is the one thing (and I do mean one thing) that right now keeps Galaxy from being perfect.

If only other games had it so good.

I'll take Galaxy for $25

2007-11-19T13:40:00.000-05:00

Well, sort of...

I discovered at the last minute that Toys 'R Us had a special running to get a $25 Gift Card when purchasing a copy of Super Mario Galaxy. Of course, I had to go get it which was great since I really didn't want to wait until Black Friday.

For a really good review, check out GameSpot's site.

The quick answer to whether to buy it is YES, go buy it. It is a great game. I've not played too far into it but it really is a stellar achievement. It's a qualified BUY because if you have no interest in platform games, then this probably won't appeal to you.

It is a masterpiece of presentation. It is also quite a piece of programming. I have to hand it to the developers for figuring out how to make such incredibly complex worlds that Mario can walk and run and jump on. All this is done while still keeping the controls simple and intuitive.

The other thing that they did which I really appreciate is that they added the ability for a second person to participate in a cooperative fashion and really feel like they are contributing. At first, when I read how it was handled, I thought it would be lame but it is actually quite fun.

It is most certainly a game that is worth purchasing if you have a Wii. Nearly anyone will find it enjoyable unless you really only like first person shooters or racing games. This game really sets the bar very high for others that are coming out with Wii games. Everything from here on out will be compared with it and I feel sorry for the other developers. They are all going to have their work cut out for them.

Wii Shortage or Wii Ambush?

2007-11-13T23:24:00.001-05:00

This probably isn't at all close to what is really going on but wouldn't it be really cool if Nintendo, on Black Friday, opened the floodgates on all the Wii's they've been stashing the last few months and just let loose with an ambush that no one saw coming?

It would be pretty funny and would have Microsoft (and Sony but are they really a player?) scrambling to figure out what to do. It is sad when Microsoft and Sony are banking on a Wii shortage to boost sales of their consoles. I don't happen to hate the XBOX 360 but I wouldn't mind if Microsoft had the smug little grin wiped off their faces this holiday season.

My Apple Dilemma

2007-11-13T12:01:00.000-05:00

I know I'm beating a dead horse here and you must forgive me. I still can't help myself so I'll say it.

Apple must be totally oblivious to the market and truly not care how they've priced their systems because now they are incredibly out of tune with the rest of the world.

My wife and I desperately would like to get a Mac laptop. She likes the Mac, I like the Mac, both of us think it would be fun to have and be a bit easier to use down the road. We're both willing to suffer through the transition to OSX given we have no Mac software and for a while, we'll probably run Parallels or Fusion so we can run some Windows apps.

While that sounds fine, in practice it is going to pretty hard to justify the price premium now on the MacBook Pro (the preference since the MacBook has a substandard video card). Apple set their prices quite a while back and when the MacBook Pro premiered, it was on parity with the rest of the laptop world. This isn't true any longer. Not by a long shot.

I configured two Dell Inspiron laptops today that are comparable to the "low end" of the 15" and 17" MacBook Pro. Imagine my shock when, after configuring nearly identical systems, the 15" was $1000 cheaper and the 17" was $1300 cheaper. That doesn't even include the $200 Gift Card Dell is throwing in now with that same purchase so depending on how you view it, you could knock another $200 off those Dell prices.

To be fair, these prices used a $500 off coupon that Dell has out right now. You could exclude that but it would still be a far cry from the Apple prices. The problem is, Dell ALWAYS has these kinds of coupons so I figure you have to factor that in.

Is OSX really worth the price premium being charged? That is basically what you are paying for plus, I'll argue, a more elegant looking design. The MacBook is simply a more attractive notebook PC.

We've hashed out he merits of the price difference before (see here) of which there are arguments the used market helps eliminate the price gap and the features and benefits of OSX add to the value and Apple doesn't care to sell a whole lot of notebooks. I'll agree but $1000 and $1300 difference??? You are talking, in both cases, nearly double the price. In the case of the $1000 Dell vs $2000 Mac, we could hypothetically figure that I'll get $200 for the Dell used in 3 years and $1000 used for the Mac (optimistic I think) and that still puts the Dell at a better deal.

So where is the Apple Holiday Special? Do we have to wait until Black Friday to hear about it. Is there even going to be one?

My mind and soul want to say Apple but my wallet wants to say Dell (or some other cheaper alternative). I sure wish Apple would make this easier.

Beware the Exception

2007-11-12T14:23:00.001-05:00

At least in the case of Circuit City you need to beware!

Circuit City has a price protection plan called their Unbeatable Price Guarantee. To quote it:

Q: Will Circuit City match its own prices?
A: Yes, if you purchase an item from us (in-store or on circuitcity.com) and we advertise the same item at a lower price within thirty days of your purchase, we will refund you 100% of the price difference. Bring the advertisement and your original sales receipt to your local Circuit City for the refund.

Of course, you need to beware the EXCEPTION:

Circuit City's Unbeatable Price Guarantee does not apply to services, nor does it apply to special offers or promotions, including rebates, mail-in offers, free-with-purchase offers, limited quantity offers, bundled promotions and special financing. Circuit City's Unbeatable Price Guarantee does not apply to products and services offered by third parties operating in Circuit City's stores.

Under what circumstances would there ever be an advertised special that isn't a "Special Offer or Promotion" is my question? Isn't that the point? When would Circuit City or anyone else for that matter advertise a price anywhere unless it was a "Special Offer or Promotion"? Sounds like a wonderful escape clause if you ask me.

Buyer Beware as usual.

Why does this matter? Well, I wanted to buy Super Mario Galaxy for the Wii tomorrow even though I happen to know that there is a special being offered on Black Friday and the Saturday following for $15 off. You would think I'd be able to use their Unbeatable Price Guarantee (say that with a little reverb in a deep voice for the best effect) and get my money back. Guess not! I wonder how many other consumers will be out of luck because of this?

Personally, I'd like to say the heck with Circuit City but I'll probably end up waiting until Thanksgiving anyway. My Wii Remote will just have to wait a little longer I guess. $15 is just too much to part with willingly. Either way, CC is probably losing money on that as a loss leader so it'll be my way of sticking it to them!

People are going to think I'm obsessed with video games and I'm not really. I just like to blog about them. Honest....it's true...

Simple and Incredibly Fun Game

2007-11-09T15:32:00.001-05:00

Desktop Tower Defense is easily one of the best Flash based games I've played in a while that isn't a simple derivative of every other puzzle game out there. It has some elements of strategy and puzzle solving, an online scoreboard, and you get to blow stuff up. What more could you ask for?

Well, how about Multiplayer Desktop Tower Defense for starters. It is in the works and due to be released soon. Try it out. You too can drop into the vortex of lost time.

WiiCade = Cheap Fun

2007-11-08T12:43:00.000-05:00

If you have a Wii and want to enjoy some cheap thrills, browse using the Wii Web Browser ($5) to www.wiicade.com and check out some of the Flash 7 games that have been uploaded, sorted, rated, and made available for Wii users to play. They all still work on your PC too but most of them are a lot more fun with the Wii Remote.

My personal favorites are:

Dice Wars (Risk)
Interactive Buddy (who knew hand grenades could be so much fun)
Dice Mogul (Monopoly)

Check it out!

Game Developer meet Game Player

2007-11-08T09:38:00.001-05:00

Why is it I can play a game and instantly within an hour or so see problems with it?

I really don't understand how a game can be in development for any reasonable length of time, play tested by players, previewed by critics, and then have noticeable flaws instantly out of the gate or within the first few hours of game play. It defies comprehension and seems to me to say to the game player that the developers really couldn't care less.

My best example at the moment is with the new Wii game "Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games". It looks like it actually will be a really fun game over time. The problem is, they really screwed up some simple things.

First, they only have FOUR (yes, four) save game/data slots for tracking stats and progress in the game. For some, this may be fine, but listen, I've got 2GB of SD storage on a plug in card and more internally on this Wii of mine and I can't use it! Why do these companies, particularly with Nintendo based games, put such severe limits on save space? Why do they need this artificial limit? I've got six people in our family and sometimes a friend comes over too (yes, it is known to happen) and I've got to now figure out who gets to use the save game slots. What a let down.

Second, they don't save stats in multi-player games. What??? I thought the whole point of the Wii and to a large extent, this game, was to foster togetherness and group play. Well, guess what, if you decide to do that, you can't unlock anything and you can't save any of your records. Yeah, that's encouraging us all to play together. Way to go Sega! The best example I can give is that my wife absolutely blew away the Olympic Record in the Javelin, she got excited, wanted to see her score on the leaderboard (yes this game actually does use the online element...but more on that later), and guess what, it isn't there. It isn't saved anywhere. She crushed this event and has nothing to show for it. All they had to do is let you tie a character or Mii to a save game area so it always shows your scores and tracks them. If they couldn't do that, they could have at least just asked where to save the data each time. This is a big disappointment.

Third, why do companies insist on forcing me to watch all the cute stuff all the time. Some of the replays and medal ceremonies are cute the first couple of times but frankly, I just want to play. After the umpteenth time watching the stupid ceremony and the medal crap, I want to scream. You can click past it sort of but everything just takes too long. I want to get into event, play, and then retry, and I want to do it as fast as possible. There should be an option that says "Cute - ON/OFF" or something.

Fourth, is it too much to ask for real instructions? The number of Olympic games represented are vast in this and each game for the most part uses the controllers in a very different way except for the running events. Was it really that technically difficult to show real video examples of how the dang control scheme works? The animations and icons are about the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. Also, apparently, the developers don't know the difference between horizontal and vertical either.

Finally, the whole leaderboard scheme, while welcome, is badly managed. Don't get me wrong, I'm so very thankful for a game that finally actually uses the internet connection. Even the vaunted and greatly anticipated Super Mario Galaxy that is soon to be released doesn't use it (I think...) so it is nice that the internet connection isn't totally wasted. But why can't I scroll the whole list? Does it really take that much memory? Why can't it auto-update? They also blew it with how they track the scores here. I can't post anything if I'm playing a multi-player game and it would be nice to know just a little bit more about the scores such as when they were posted and from where. Why can't I see the online records while actually playing an event either? Was that so difficult? Oh, and did I mention you can only have FOUR names tied to the Wii in this game?? Oh yeah, I did didn't I. It was also disappointing that you can't play a friend online either.

With that said, I still like the game. I just can't understand why they didn't perfect it. I've only played for a few hours and if I can pry the controllers away from my kids, I'll actually try it again soon. I think it'll offer a lot of game play value. It's the first game so far that made me think that I didn't make a mistake buying the Wii. Hopefully Galaxies, releasing next week, will further convince me of the same.

Oh one last thing. Don't let anyone fool you into thinking the Wii is cheap. Sure, the console is only $250 but don't forget, you need to buy at least one more Wii Remote and Nunchuck for $50. On top of that, if you really want to play four players at a time, plunk down another $100 for two more Remotes and Nunchuks. If you don't have a GameCube, you'll need a Classic Controller for $20 too. Grand Total for Wii = $420!! You haven't even bought a game yet.

Sure, you can spend that on the other systems too and more for controllers but guess what, I can play online with them too and make the person I'm playing with buy their own dang controller. I sure hope they work out some way to make online play really click with the Wii and soon. How else am I suppose to crush my friends and family from far away?

Wii, the Chicken, and the Egg

2007-10-29T18:45:00.000-04:00

The Wii seems to have a bit of a Chicken and Egg problem.

This interview with Jonathan Smith, producer of Lego Star Wars, really steams me. In it he states:

The game will feature co-op online play for both the PlayStation 3 and the 360 but not for the Wii. Smith explained the decision by saying, "Our reservation is not many people play the Wii online. Let's see what happens in the future."

Uh, what??

How many games can you really have a great online playing experience on the Wii with? If I recall properly, there aren't a whole lot. The only way online play on the Wii is going to be popular is if someone like him, the game developer, actually puts online play into the game. I don't recall being able to magically add online play to any game I desire.

So come on game developers, let's get with it and start putting real online play into Wii games.

Pretty please...

Wii games worth waiting for

2007-10-17T23:56:00.000-04:00

I finally saw video of the two games that I think are going to have a strong influence on what people are going to want to buy for the holidays when it comes to game consoles. I say want because, by Nintendo's own admission, there won't be enough Wii systems to go around for Christmas.

Either way, you owe it to yourself to take a look at Super Mario Galaxy and Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games. They are two very different games but I think they'll have universal appeal for a lot of reasons.

First, Super Mario Galaxy looks to be one of the most original platform games I've seen in a long time. It appears to utilize the Wii controllers in new and interesting ways too. The best part is that it lets people play in a cooperative mode that makes for a very good time. Nothing is worse than watching someone else play a game.

Second, Mario & Sonic at the Olympic Games looks like the game that the Wii was invented for. Everything about this game says, "Play Me." Believe me, I do. I know my kids will. With 24 events covering a lot of Summer Games territory, something is bound to appeal to everyone. The best part is that it looks like they've tweaked the game to allow someone to jump in and play with no experience but gave subtlety to the controls so you can finesse yourself to higher scores. I really can't wait to get my hands on this one.

One big question mark is the game Link's Crossbow Training. This looks like it could be a lot of fun but I'm not sure how long the fun will last. It appears to be a family version of some of the bloodier and more violent shooters that are popular in the arcades such as Ghost Squad. I hope it works and they don't botch it but I'm not holding my breath.

I'm actually excited about some Wii games finally!

Now if they could only get more Wii's in the hands of more people.

Stay down window! Stay DOWN!

2007-10-16T12:53:00.000-04:00

I swear if I have another pop-up window from an application force itself to the front and continue to insist it stay in the front, I'm going to hunt the developer down personally!

Please stay down! I mean it!

Universal Music has a screw loose

2007-10-15T16:10:00.000-04:00

It is absolutely amazing how blatantly idiotic the higher ups of a company can be when they let their emotions drive them instead of basic business sense or perhaps even just common sense.

Reading this article on Business Week's web site demonstrates this perfectly.

Just to quickly summarize the stupidity of Universal Music:

UM doesn't want to renew with Apple on iTunes.
UM thinks Apple getting 29 cents for every 99 cents is too much. (That's 30% markup.)
UM doesn't like making a "paltry" 70 cents (yes, 70%) on every single sold on iTunes.
UM thinks making yet another music store is necessary for some reason.
UM thinks no one really wants to own their own music and that subscriptions are best for us.
UM believes that the makers of MP3 players will pay $5/month in royalties to give free music to all of us.

What is with these people?

Let's take this one by one shall we:

UM doesn't want to renew with Apple on iTunes

Why not? Because they are pissed that Steve Jobs really pulled the online music sales thing off and in a big way and UM didn't do it themselves. Emotions are driving this. The best part is that they are doing this not to better serve the customers but because Apple wouldn't let them charge MORE for the very same product they are currently selling.

You'll notice that they are still selling their stuff on iTunes. That's because they reacted emotionally and had no plan. If they had a plan, they would have yanked their stuff immediately and had another option in play at that very moment.

UM thinks Apple getting 29 cents for every 99 cents is too much. (That's 30% markup.)

Since when did a 30% markup become highway robbery? I've got news for them, clothes and jewelry resellers make a lot more than 30%. So do a lot of other businesses. Not so much if you sell electronics goods but Apple is managing the entire front end of this business and probably deserves 30% cut. I don't think 30% is asking too much.

UM doesn't like making a "paltry" 70 cents (yes, 70%) on every single sold on iTunes.

70%! What is so bad about that? Granted, they have to divide this up with the artists but other than that, there isn't a lot of other costs here besides the ones they incur themselves on marketing. There are a lot of other businesses that would love this kind of profit.

UM thinks making yet another music store is necessary for some reason.

Yeah, this makes sense. We need another source for electronic music when there already is a good one out there. Worse yet, since when does selling through one method preclude selling in another? I fail to see why it has to be an all or nothing solution. It isn't like any brick and mortar store has an exclusive. (usually...) Either way, I highly doubt UM has the resources or talent to make something better than what is already out there.

One thing you have to wonder and after looking at Amazon's MP3 Store, is what happened to all the higher priced music that UM wanted? There is a lot of their stuff at 89 and 99 cents still. How is that any different than what Apple wanted in the first place? What they are doing is pushing the Amazon store to dig into iTunes market share and then guess what, they'll pull a fast one and up the prices if they can do any measurable damage. Let us not forget that they want to do this on a trial basis too. I think they originally said they'd test DRM free music until the end of the year or early next year.

UM thinks no one really wants to own their own music and that subscriptions are best for us.

What makes them think I want to pay forever for music? I tend to like certain things and like to keep them around. Plus, if I ever dislike the service I'm on, I want to make sure I can at least still use the music. You could argue this point with iTunes I suppose but I can burn those tracks to CD and I'll have them to use forever.

UM believes that the makers of MP3 players will pay $5/month in royalties to give free music to all of us.

I'm betting the MP3 vendors are just laughing hysterically at this one. These MP3 units cost next to nothing now and then the vendor is going to just chew through revenue on the back end?? It'll never happen. No sane executive of an MP3 manufacturer is going to give away money like this. Even if they did, do you think this will encourage them to make a long lasting durable product? Oops, my MP3 player died after a year, surprise surprise. I'll need to buy another. This idea is by far the stupidest thing I've ever heard of from a business standpoint. Can you think of a way this would actually work? I can't.

Am I wrong here?

Someone needs to drill some sense into the head of Universal Music and soon. I didn't even mention the artists in this but the article says UM has the support their support? Right. Sure they do.

Pizza really IS the best food!

2007-10-09T21:52:00.000-04:00

Yep. It is! It's the best!

I have hard facts to back it up and if I ever get my "Pizza is THE Best Food" book published, you can read it and learn all about it. Actually, you don't even need to read it, just buy it. If you buy it, I'll be happy. Whether you read it or not is up to you.

(OK, I'll let it slip just a bit..careful scientific measurements on availability, calories per bite, and cost per bite prove it.)

Disclaimer: I only have a high school diploma and have never left the country but with an audience of approximately 1-2 people it probably doesn't matter.

Wii are disappointed (sort of...)

2007-10-05T14:48:00.001-04:00

Well, I finally made the jump and bought a Wii.

It was funny how it all happened, I was walking by the phone in my house and accidentally dialed the number for Gamestop.

They answered, "Hello. Yes we have Wii's in stock!"

I said, "How did you know I even wanted one?"

Gamestop dude said, "Because everyone wants a Wii!"
(He did that each time when speaking and it had the exclamation point too, very strange.)

Needless to say, I was forced out of the house by the kids and into the car. We drove for miles and miles and miles to the nearest Gamestop and 15 minutes later were walking in the store where we saw one of the most terrible sights. There, before us, was a customer with a Wii at the register!!

Panic of course set in immediately and I had to think and think fast. What was I going to do? We hurried ourselves to the end of the line and made like we didn't notice the Wii or the other customer. He complained a bit when I squished him up against the front of the counter and so I backed off having finally acknowledges his existence.

The we waited...

and waited...

Was anyone else coming in...no...thank goodness...

Whew, the guy in front of us finally left. It was our turn.

I asked, "Do you have any Wii's in stock?"

"No."

Gulp! What now.

Gamestop dude then said, "Unless you called earlier, did you call earlier?"

"Of course I did," as if anyone was going to answer that question any other way.

Well, we walked out with a Wii that day and took a few detours to pick up a copy of Wii Play with the extra remote. It was finally done. The console to end all consoles. The most wonderful thing ever devised by human hands. And it was ours!!! YES!

The sad part is that it was more exciting thinking about what the Wii might be than what, in reality, it actually is. Don't get me wrong, it really is very cool and the control scheme is revolutionary. However, they did everyone a major disservice including what I consider a substandard game and then botching the Wii Play product.

Of course, this is MY OWN opinion. My kids would tell you that it is a blast and so much fun. They can't stop thinking about it. That probably is all I should judge it on. The problem is, I know better.

Oddly, all my opinions of the product were based on what other people said and most of those people had Wii Sports and Wii Play. Some grandparents I heard were even addicted to the thing. Who knows, my own mother-in-law might be hooked like a drug to it at this very moment. I might even have to pry the controller out of her hands tonight. That said, I'm still not impressed and for reasons that will probably seem a bit too critical.

First, they have a built-in wireless interface on this thing and don't use it. Why don't any of the included games take advantage of this. For the first time in ages, we have a game bundled with a console. This is rarely done any more. Every Wii out there should be online and playing Wii Sports against the rest of the world. Millions of potential players would have been available on day one.

Even if I can forgive them for this, then they go and release Wii Play. A bunch of games that remind me a great deal of the Monkey Ball mini-games. None of them are spectacular but there are 10 games (I think) and they are fun to play in two player mode. Once again however, NO ONLINE PLAY!! What??? Why not? Surely by this time they had figured this thing out.

Sadly, if you look for multi-player online games there are almost none for the Wii. Maybe that'll change this Christmas Season but I doubt it. One can only hope.

Second, the Wii Play and Wii Sports could have done so much more. There were tons of opportunities to put in dozens of options to modify how these games could be played to spice things up and they did none of them. I really don't understand. Were they that lazy?

Third, if you look at the games that are available (I guess I should have done this first), the ratings for Wii games aren't really that great. Of course, you can never really tell what a game is like until you play it. The thing is, looking at the list of games, there aren't many out there that really work the controller scheme fully or even need it. Probably the closest thing a game taking advantage of the Wii control scheme is Metroid and I'm not much of a Metroid fan. Hopefully, Super Monkey Ball: Banana Blitz will prove me wrong on this point. I don't have it yet but with a Wii control scheme virtually designed for this type of game and with 50 mini-games, it can't be all that bad.

I'm crossing my fingers all this will change and either Super Mario Galaxy, Super Smash Brothers Brawl, or the iFit will prove me wrong. The iFit really has the potential to take things up a notch and I like what I see in SMG. Only time will tell.

One thing, in Nintendo's defense, is that it took Microsoft about two years to get XBox Live games where the needed to be on the 360. Just look at what the developers are going to do with Need for Speed ProStreet. I'm sure it'll take about that long for the Wii to show its true potential. I'm just disappointed that they are wasting their super powers (wireless connection) on things like Weather and News and of course, the online poll which has a question a week (why is this?) and that's it.

Am I missing something here? Please tell me Nintendo is really going to pull out all the stops and soon. Tell me I didn't make a mistake. Tell me I just bought about 2 months too soon. (I actually would have waited but who knows if I could have actually gotten a Wii once the holiday season starts in earnest.)

Retail Laziness

2007-09-28T19:33:00.000-04:00

A few days ago I succumbed to the undeniable appeal of the Wii and bought one. Well, scratch that, I tried to buy one. I went to Sam's Club one night for nothing more than an Icee (yes, I'm that cheap) and what, to my amazement, do my kids see? A whole bunch of tickets ready to be pulled and taken to the register to purchase the nearly impossible to find Wii!

Now admittedly, I haven't been looking for one. I did think to myself that if I ever did come across one, I might actually get it, but I wasn't in full search mode. After pondering the decision for a few moments, I thought, what the heck, it looks cool and sounds like a load of fun. For $249.00, how could I go wrong? (plus controller, SD card, batteries...)

Here's how it all goes wrong. How about right after you call your wife, ask her for the pre-requisite permission (I'm older and wiser now) and then inadvertently get my boys all excited (the girls were with me), I take it to the register and try to actually buy the dang thing. Imagine my surprise when I find out they don't have any. Yeah, it was wishful thinking and too good to be true to have nearly 10 untouched Wii's at the end of the day but who knew when they put the tickets out there. Well, I'll tell you when! Try weeks ago. They hadn't had Wii's in over two weeks.

How can they be so lazy? How can they tantalize their customers like this? How can they dash the hopes of hundreds, perhaps thousands, of young ones and their fathers with tickets that imply they actually have them in stock? Uh, they are lazy.

When I inquire why these tickets are out there still, I'm told it is too much trouble to keep track of them. Oh, I'm so sorry. I forgot that work involved, well, work!

So thanks Sam's Club for then sending me on a wild goose chase all over town to actually try and find a Wii. I mean, I just told the boys I was bringing one home. What kind of damage would this cause? What would they think?

Well, it turns out I have more understanding kids than maybe I give them credit for. Maybe, just maybe, it was more disappointing to me than them. It is a slim chance but a chance nevertheless. It was no big deal to kids.

Whew! I'm off the hook at least until next weekend. (oh...that's tomorrow isn't it? Yikes!)

What happened to the market taking care of itself?

2007-09-19T21:45:00.000-04:00

I feel for all those out there facing foreclosures and potentially having their homes taken away. I really do! The loans they were able to obtain in the wild real estate market of the past few years got them into a lot of hot water. But wait, didn't they get a written contract spelling out the arrangements?

If the government bails people out either through straight out legislation or via some scheme concocted for the FHA to do it, what are people going to think? Is there no risk to anything anymore? Are there no consequences to stupid actions?

One complaint made was that if it wasn't for these loans that people wouldn't have been able to get loans in the high priced real estate markets of places like San Francisco? Uh, Hello...anyone home? Isn't that how the market is supposed to work? Since when did what the seller wants dictate what the market should pay? If no one had been able to get loans for these outrageously priced pieces of property they wouldn't have sold for these crazy prices in the first place.

Did you pay too much for your house? Guess who's to blame. All these people who purchased houses they couldn't afford in the first place. Sure, the rising prices of real estate benefited those who owned but guess what, if you sell your place, you still need to buy another and you'll be paying the same insane prices again. If it is a second home for you, congratulations! You've just screwed the people who can't afford a second home.

I've heard a lot of complaints that contractors can't sell homes they've already built. Well, let's correct that a bit. How about, you can't sell the house at the price YOU want. And that's the problem, the real estate market was letting the seller set the price instead of the buyer. People could get money like turning the water on in your sink. Unless your wealthy, buying a home is difficult and takes some planning. Getting a home shouldn't be like buying at stereo system at your favorite electronics store.

Maybe a bailout won't change what happened but it sends a clear message that this kind of thing is OK. If the FHA plan works then perhaps it won't be so bad as my understanding is the obligations of others won't be written off. The problem is, the FHA is going to probably take on a lot more bad debt than they would have otherwise and then they're going to need bailing out later.

I surely hope this doesn't become another bottomless pit for tax payer dollars.

The damage of yesterday's real estate market has been done but let's not make it worse.

I think Steve actually screwed up

2007-09-14T17:32:00.001-04:00

Yes, it can happen to the best of us. Steve screwed up.

Not allowing the Apple credit for the iPhones to be used in iTunes for music is just plain stupid. I realize they make nothing on the music and that is probably why it isn't allowed but what are people supposed to do with $100 besides buy a Shuffle perhaps.

How can he do a whole video with his eyes closed?

2007-09-06T16:33:00.001-04:00

Why is this man's eyes closed?

How can he do this entire video without seeing?

Of course, you have to love what he's talking about!!

Way to go Steve!

2007-09-06T15:51:00.000-04:00

All I can say is, "My Hats off to ya Steve!"

The open letter from Steve Jobs outlining the promise to give a $100 store credit to early iPhone purchasers is absolutely amazing. I can think of no other company executive from a major firm that personally responds like this to its customers. If there is one thing that Apple and Steve Jobs know, it is that happy customers are good for business. Taking care of the early adopters like he is doing is especially important.

Personally, I'm not so sure if I'd been head of the company if even I would have done that. I mean, we're talking about breakthrough technology that is way ahead of anything from the competition. If you buy something technology related, whether it be an LCD TV, Computer, Cell Phone, or whatever, what do you expect? Did you think the prices were going to increase?!?!

I personally just bought an older style (well it is older now) iPod Nano 4GB unit and I thought I got an amazing deal on a refurb one at $129 from the Apple Store. Well, guess what, I'm a little disappointed I'm not getting the new one (a little bit, I'm not sure I like the squat design) but that's the way this business works. You buy and then regret when the price drops. Personally, I'd be very upset if I was still paying the same price for a 512MB flash card or USB drive that I was 3 years ago.

This new price can only me one thing: more iPhone users than ever!

If that's a bad thing, then I'm not sure what's good anymore.

They could sell millions of these!!

2007-08-17T13:23:00.000-04:00

This thing is very cute. If people can sell pet rocks and Tickle Me Elmo then this thing would just fly off the shelves. Too bad they aren't making them...yet.

So true...so true!

2007-08-16T08:50:00.000-04:00

If Tyranny and Oppression come to this land, it will be in the guise of fighting a foreign enemy.
- James Madison

The means of defense against foreign danger historically have become the instruments of tyranny at home.
          - James Madison

The truth is that all men having power ought to be mistrusted.
          - James Madison

We are right to take alarm at the first experiment upon our liberties.
          - James Madison

Wherever there is interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done
          - James Madison

I believe there are more instances of the abridgment of freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments by those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations.
          - James Madison

He said these things almost 200 years ago. How short our memories have become!

Boycott Universal Music

2007-08-10T13:28:00.000-04:00

Stop buying their music, please!

I'm not a big fan of DRM'd music especially after being burned by Microsoft's pathetic PlaysForSure scheme. (Yeah I deserved it, I know.) However, I'm a big fan of iTunes even with the DRM. They seem to have the fairest method of managing the DRM'd music. Now, the way I see it, the newest ploy by Universal to remove DRM but not let iTunes sell it is just plain stupid at best and at worst a sad way to try an exact some sort of revenge on Jobs and Apple.

They can't even commit to not using DRM on music. They're giving us the gift of non-DRM music for a "limited" time until December 31, 2007. Oh thank you so much Universal. What would I have done without you.

It is obvious from the list of companies they are allowing to sell the music without DRM (Amazon.com, Google, Wal-Mart, Best Buy, Rhapsody, Transworld, PassAlong and Puretracks) that they have something against iTunes. In fact, according to the article, they didn't even renew their contract with Apple at all. So what now, all the Universal music drops off iTunes when the contract expires? How in the heck does that serve the consumer in any way? Of course, their trial period will show DRM sales as being poor (no iTunes remember) and they'll use that as an excuse to re-enact their DRM.

Interestingly, never does a music label ever consider what the consumer wants. They honestly couldn't care less. You know why, because people keep buying their stuff. What is their incentive to please the consumer. The consumer has power and it isn't being used. For some reason, no one is using this power.

Really, how hard is this?

What evidence?

2007-08-08T14:30:00.000-04:00

Am I the only one who has noticed the proliferation of supposed "experts" in their fields who rely purely on anecdotal evidence to support their theories? In particular, I'm pretty tired of the people who run blogs or websites espousing the incredible amount of "evidence" they get from others who give them feedback via whatever electronic vehicle they choose to use as a platform.

Come on people!

Don't these people realize the vehicle they use to procure all this information is in itself slanted and biased towards whatever message they are sending? From now on, they should refer to themselves as advocates of whatever material or viewpoint or subject they represent. The choice of words is critical here and, as is the case in the media and society in general, the words are not chosen as carefully as they should be.

Please tell me the population at large isn't fooled by this?

Donut Origins

2007-08-01T16:52:00.000-04:00

This morning I was eating a donut and it dawned on me that I don't even know what the word is supposed to mean or where it came from. Well, of course, curiosity finally got the best of me so I had to find out what I could. As usual, we (us in the USA) mangled the word and it was originally spelled doughnut. Of course, that makes sense. Donuts are made of DOUGH but where did the NUT come from. It turns out someone just had the bright idea to add walnuts to the thing. Eventually, they decided to punch a hole in it too much to my dismay. One donut with no hole would be quite enough but now I need to eat two to really feel satisfied.

As usual, all this information could be a lie and I didn't vet the source for accuracy. If you want to be amused by more donut history, check this article out on answers.com. Trust me, there is more there than you ever wanted to know. (This is required reading in some law enforcement schools.)

Wii will be Fit!

2007-07-19T16:21:00.000-04:00

For those that have not seen the E3 videos of the Wii Fit demonstration, you owe it you yourself to check it out. It will be another slam dunk from Nintendo. Unfortunately, it will only serve to drive demand up for a console that is already in high demand and for most, unavailable.

For those that don't know what it is, it is a miniature version of a dance pad (it looks like a scale to weigh yourself) but much more sophisticated. It really is a piece of elegant engineering.

I may have missed it somewhere but I did not see any demonstrations of the Wii Fit being used in combination with the other Nintendo controllers. I have to believe that this is possible and will make for endless possibilities. I can't wait to see the creative ways this new addition will be put to use.

Frankly, I can't remember anything new or innovative from Sony or Microsoft. Did I miss something or are they just going to let Nintendo steamroll over the top of them?

There is a whole lot more new stuff for the Wii to see over at GameSpot.

Hats off to Apple!

2007-07-02T15:22:00.000-04:00

The iPhone is out and it sounds like Apple pulled it off. I could write something more elaborate but I won't. Enough has been written and I think Matty says everything I could possibly say and more. I'm thankful that a light is at the end of the crappy phone interface tunnel. Other vendors will now have no choice but to compare themselves (and weep) to what is the pinnacle of phone OS's, the iPhone!

Please put pricing on your web site

2007-06-28T10:26:00.000-04:00

I'm sick and tired of companies that make products, have a web site, sell you and market you on the web, and then don't put any pricing on their web site. What do these companies have to hide?

Now I'm not talking about people who sell their services or do contract work. I'm talking about companies who sell product A and charge X for it. How simple can that be?

Three companies that come to mind (mainly because I'm frustrated this very minute with them) is SWSoft, Iron Mountain, and Compellent. I really hate wasting my time and if I'm checking out a product and trying to see if it is a fit for the company I work for, then I want to find out if it is within our price range first. If it is, then I'll pursue it.

SWSoft sells virtualization products. How hard can it be to provide a list price? I need X servers licensed and it will cost me X. If you want to know more then contact a reseller for better pricing. Easy enough.

Iron Mountain sells off site storage and backup. It should be $X/GB to backup. So tell me already and stop playing games! This isn't a thriller or suspense story.

Finally, Compellent sells a SAN solution for storage. Their site should have a configuration utility where you drop in drives and controllers and figure all that out and it gives you a quote. It shouldn't be more complicated than that. If you want better pricing then contact a reseller.

Server manufactures have been doing this for years and they seem to have no problem at all. There are tons of components and options too and they seem to be able to handle this. Why can't others? Don't tell me the product is too complicated or we need to consult on the solution. We're not stupid and your product is not that complicated. If I have trouble, I'll call. Trust me.

So, would everyone out there who sells something please stop wasting my time and give me what I, the customer, want!! Thank you.

Two kinds of people in the world

2007-06-27T14:24:00.001-04:00

There are two kinds of people in this world: (a) Those that read my blog and (b) those that do not. Unfortunately, the former is very small compared to the latter. I'm here to tell you that you can change all that. In fact, if you are reading this, you just did. (Unless of course you've been here before and then it doesn't count.)

So what are you? Are you Group A or Group B? The simple answer is A unless of course you have magical powers of which I know nothing about. Aren't you glad you are part of Group A! Whoopie!

I've had it with iPhone "experts"

2007-06-20T15:33:00.001-04:00

I've had it with the iPhone "experts" out there. Network World just put out an article stating how the Gartner group is telling "IT executives to not support it." Whoopie ding dong!

Who the heck is Gartner group to be telling anyone anything about the iPhone at this point. Correct me if I'm wrong but no one outside of Apple and AT&T even have access to one of these things. Even if I am wrong on that point, it really matters little. Since when did Apple start promoting the iPhone to the enterprise customer?

First, let me just say, I won't be buying one. I'll let the others out there run it through its paces first. I'm still in the middle of a two year contract with Verizon ayway and I also don't have $500 to plunk down on a cell phone (although I did get mine run over by a car today...ouch.)

If a user had one in our office and wanted to forward their email to it, fine with me. We'll handle it the EXACT SAME WAY as we handle the Blackberry. Oh yeah, didn't you know, you need to drop a load a cash on software to integrate the Blackberry with Exchange. Sure, you can sync it on your desktop but who the heck cares. If you are a large enterprise, I'm sure you can afford the software but I'm sure those in the $150,000,000 and under sales category (small potatoes, I know) aren't dropping a load of cash on Blackberry software for their servers, assuming they even use Exchange or Notes.

Ok, I'm getting off topic a bit, but my point is that Apple knows who their customer is, they know what people want, and they are going to give it to them. Will it be perfect out of the box? No way, nothing is. It will be nearly perfect and future iterations most likely via software upgrades will close the gap with perfect eventually. Nothing Gartner or any other analyst out there can say is going to change that.

Interestingly, what I find most telling about this and of no great surprise is that people, particularly analysts, like to bring other products down. They produce nothing so therefore they have to come up with crap to feed people and hopefully others will buy it. The more shocking, the better it sells. Since the iPhone is one of the biggest things this year, why not pick on it. Besides, for IT guy who can't stand that he can't have an iPhone, this is the perfect excuse to prevent others in his company from getting. Trust me, once he gets approval for one of his or her own, they'll be iPhones all over the place in that company.

Hello! Message to Gartner! Jobs doesn't give a rip about you or your approval and last I checked, he didn't need your blessing to blow the doors off the cell market which is exactly what is about to happen in 9 days!

Why Wii is (are) successful!

2007-06-15T11:55:00.000-04:00

This is for all the Wii fans out there. This would be funny if it weren't so true.

Penny Arcade - From The Makers of "Beam Kings"

Next Gen consoles too complex!

2007-06-12T19:16:00.000-04:00

I thought this article was worth mentioning here as I'm willing to bet it represents a large part of the console development community. How many other companies out there would say the same thing if given the opportunity? I'll bet a lot of them.

Personally, I couldn't care less about the games but to have what, in Japan anyway, is a major force in the gaming community basically write off the 360 and PS3 is big news. This is a very big endorsement for the Wii and DS platforms.

Safari on Windows

2007-06-11T19:05:00.000-04:00

This is going to seem anti-climactic to my Mac friends but the WWDC announcement that Windows will finally get a decent web browser made by an innovative company is absolutely fantastic. For those that haven't heard, Apple announced Safari 3 is going to be released for Windows. The beta is posted and everyone should jump in and get their feet wet.

Don't get me wrong, I've got nothing against Firefox, but I want something designed by an innovator. Something like Firefox that is groupthink designed just doesn't strike me as a product that will ever push the envelope much. Opera is very nice but you have to pay for it.

I guess time will tell if this latest strategy by Apple works but I applaud them for giving this a go.

Incidentally, I've spent about 5 minutes with Safari on the PC and it is lightning fast and has great looking, easy to read text. Personally though, Apple made a big mistake by not letting us grab the edges of the window and resize it. Apple's been hammered about this before even in OS X so it strikes me as odd they wouldn't have this feature in a Windows version of Safari where it fits in naturally. Thank goodness it is still a beta and they have time to fix this.

Happy 30th Birthday Apple ][

2007-06-06T15:34:00.000-04:00

I just had to say Happy Birthday to my old friend the Apple ][ computer. I cut my teeth on this or technically the Apple ][+ (although my first love was a Compucolor a friend of mine had - those dot addressable COLOR graphics via peeks and pokes were so much fun - Jay if you are out there somewhere, please say HI). I still remember going to Radio Shack and picking up this big black tape cassette player/recorder so I could hook it up to my Apple with an audio cable to read in the tapes. Games like Lemonade Stand and Penny Arcade are fondly remembered (I really hated that little bolt of lightning signifying a rainy day and low lemonade prices) and Planet Miners from Avalon Hill.

I used to visit the Computer Tree and spend hours and hours and hours looking at and tinkering with everything they had in the store. The first graphics tablet I ever played with was there and was a blast but was around $700 (or was it $1100, I can't recall) and certainly out of the reach of most people.

After my Apple ][+, I added an Integer Basic card and Floppy Disk Drive, then it was on to the Apple ][e. Eventually I graduated into the a Mac 128 (yeah - but can you say "disk swap") but that is a whole other story. (I also had the fortune or misfortune of using an Apple ///, Apple IIgs, and a Lisa - Lisa fun, Apple /// not so fun, gs...well what can I say, it was there.)

Those were the good ol' days!

The aweful internal combustion engine

2007-06-05T13:44:00.001-04:00

It is now time for me to rant about the unbelievably crappy internal combustion engine that powers most of our vehicles. I've got problems with my vehicle and it is in the shop now which made me think how aweful the automobile is in terms of design and engineering. Sure, it gets us from Point A to Point B but I have to guess that if nothing was around today and you started from scratch, the design we have today would be the last thing anyone would think of or want.

Personally, I'm sick of how complicated these things are. I have THREE fuse boxes on the vehicle that died and there has to be 100 fuses in this thing. How many systems does it take to make me go forward (and back if necessary)!?! These vehicles should be simple and elegant in design. Maybe Apple needs to make a car for the rest of us too.

At one point I had high hopes for the Rosen brothers (Ben Rosen started Compaq) but their marvel of engineering elegance failed. I tried to see if I could buy stock in this company once and I guess it is a good thing stock wasn't available. It would be nice to see a new car company break into the market with something new and radical that the masses could afford. (The Tesla doesn't count, it is too expensive.)

It seems unfortunate that with so much innovation and amazing technology, the basic design of the car is fundamentally unchanged from the car of 100 years ago.

Jobs, why couldn't you be a car buff!!

Coincidence or is there a glitch in the Matrix?

2007-06-01T21:33:00.000-04:00

I had a very odd thing happen today.

I went to work and followed a truck most of the way there on my motorcycle. Normally I don't follow anybody if you get my meanin' but for some reason I was stuck there and the confusing logo caught my eye. Was it SLH, STH, SZH, or what? Let's just say it was S(x)H Transport (replace the x with whatever you want) and go with that.

Anyway, I noticed the license plate too and it was from Quebec and had an odd combination of letters and numbers. Again, normally I wouldn't think of these things but all the oddness stuck in my brain.

On a normal day, I'd never think of this truck ever again but this was no normal day. Would you believe I went home and ended up behind the exact same truck! That just doesn't happen does it?

Very weird!

iPhone Killer

2007-05-25T12:58:00.001-04:00

Well, Apple had what appeared to be a great product in the iPhone but now Nokia is preparing to one up them with their latest and greatest new development. Fortunately for me, I'm prepared to take advantage of this product in a way that will put a smile on Al Gore's face and put the carbon credit market into a tailspin.

Once Nokia's new product hits the market, every Nokia owner on the planet is going to want to ditch their old phones. When they do, I'll be there to take them off their hands and put them to good use. I'm betting if I strap enough of these old phones to a very long pole and engineer the proper circuits, capacitors, and stand far enough away, I'll be able to harness the tremendous power of mother nature. My new invention will generate so much electricity by attracting all those wayword watts that fly through the air that we may just be able get rid of coal, natural gas, wood, and propane powered unicycles. The utility companies will actually be paying me for power.

How great is that!?!

NOTE: Misleading topic at no extra charge.

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Game developers that actually listen

2007-05-23T23:49:00.000-04:00

I have to give a big fat thank you to the guys at Gas Powered Games for being so dedicated to their art. Chris Taylor must be doing something right. The company produced a fantastic game called Supreme Commander and it really is the rightful heir to one of my all time favorites, Total Annihilation.

First, they seem to listen to the community and are actively improving an already released game. Do they have to do this, certainly not, but boy am I glad they did. If you play Supreme Commander, the latest patch that was released includes a feature that should have been in every RTS game ever released. The feature actually seems so obvious that it is amazing it hasn't been done before.

What I'm speaking about is the new ability to create a control group (basically, you assign a number to a group of units for easy recall) and include a factory in that control group. Doing this now causes every unit produced to automatically be assigned to this control group from there on. What a beautiful thing this is. Imagine, if you will, assigning a factory to produce bombers and making it part of control group 5 and never having to go seek out these new bombers ever again. Just press 5 on your keyboard and those new bombers are ready to fulfill your every command. Kudos to the SupCom development team!

Second, I commend Chris Taylor for actually giving the developers of his company a real life outside of game development. His philosophy is counter to all other game developers and many other companies in general. He actually wants his people to leave on time from work and spend time with their families! What a concept!

Oh, if you want to try another game from a company that listens better than any I've ever come across before, check out the guys at StarDock and the Galactic Civilizations line of games. If you've never played Galactic Civilizations II, you owe it to yourself to play it. Anyone who likes the Civilization style game or fondly remembers Master of Orion, just go buy it. You won't be disappointed. The best part is that patches and enhancements happen with regularity and they always listen to the comments of their customers. In fact, it isn't uncommon for them to have real conversations with those in the community. There are very few companies out there that do this anymore.

Oh, and the best part is they don't believe in copy protection either. GalCiv2 is not copy protected and neither is the expansion for it. Even without copy protection, when GalCiv2 was released it was on the best seller list at WalMart for quite some time. It just proves that if you give the public what they want, you'll be rewarded for it.

Transformers Movie Trailer

2007-05-23T23:46:00.000-04:00

The new exclusive Transformers Movie Trailer on Yahoo! is very cool. If you have the time, make sure you download and watch the 1080P Exclusive version.

Too bad I'm boycotting the movie theaters otherwise this would definitely be one worth watching on the big screen.

Bummer!

C&C3 Comic

2007-05-21T10:50:00.000-04:00

Having recently played C&C3 (Command & Conquer 3 for the noobies out there) I couldn't help but chuckle at this Penny Arcade comic I ran across. Funny, I'm always running out of Tiberium too.

Best Visual Illusions

2007-05-17T12:41:00.000-04:00

Everyone must check this web site out:

Best Visual Illusions of the Year

The first place winner is absolutely unbelievable!

Apple TV Thoughts

2007-05-17T12:01:00.000-04:00

I was looking at something about Apple TV and had to comment. (I know this is old news and it's been out for a while but I still had to say something.)

What was Apple thinking? Why did they hamper what could have been a spectacular box by doing the following:

40GB Hard Drive (even some iPod's have larger HD's)
Component Video or above only - some people don't have HD sets
No built-in iTunes - I'm sure this has the horsepower. Why couldn't they have put in an interface to iTunes in this box

For a company that is so innovative, what happened?

Honestly, they should also have an interface to NetFlix in this thing. Partnering with them and allowing streaming of video rentals through this box would have been a major win.

On a funnier note, I was watching this video from Keith Shaw and in the very beginning he says its got a huge hard drive. That was that hilarious!

MacBook Video Still Subpar

2007-05-15T14:19:00.000-04:00

What happened? Apple released the new MacBook today and while the changes look great there is NO NEW VIDEO CHIPSET! What gives?

How can they do this to us? The Intel GMA chipset is one of the worst out there besides the S3 crap that is out on the market. Why must I spend another $1000 for a laptop with a decent video card. Give us something? Even a GForce Go7300 or a low end Radeon would be better than this garbage. Others seem to agree too.

You can check out the specs here and believe me, the video card is still crap.

I want so bad to get a MacBook but I'll never buy one until the fix they video card in it. A MacBook Pro is more than I need, larger than I need, and frankly more money than I want to spend. Please Apple, fix this and fix it soon!

Movie Theater Advertising

2007-05-15T08:52:00.000-04:00

I'm sick of paying almost $9 per person (I'm sure it is more elsewhere) for the privilege to sit down in a theater and be bombarded with advertising. I'm personally boycotting the movie theater until they stop this incredibly annoying practice. It is bad enough that I have to skip ads on television and I'm paying for the cable system to bring it into my home.

I'm sure the theaters will argue that it offsets their cost and keeps the ticket prices down but please, I'm not stupid. Ticket prices have risen steadily for the past 20 years and I don't see it coming down anytime soon because of advertising.

I know Comcast is trying to get the rights to show movies in the home at the same time they are released in the theaters and at $30-$50 per pop, it seems expensive but if I can get several people together for a movie night, the cost per person is far less and I'm sure I'll enjoy it just as much. Of course, Comcast will screw that up too and put advertising that can't be skipped into the movie stream. How much do you want to bet?

I can't be the only one who finds these ads annoying? If you do, send a message to the movie studios and theaters by simply refusing to pay for advertising and let's force them to stop this practice.