Saturday, September 16, 2006
After a long week of work what better way to celebrate than to go celebrate with a little consumerism. In the last 24 hours I have managed to obtain both a 2nd generation iPod Nano as well as a new Core 2 Duo 24″ iMac.
I’m extremely happy with both (with a few minor exceptions) and find both to be pure engineering marvels. The Nano is small, sleek, and more responsive than it’s predecessor.
The iMac is simply stunning. The 64 bit Core 2 Duo chip keeps things brisk and the gorgeous 24″ 16:9 screen is easily replacing the ancient 27″ SDTV that I had in the bedroom. It’s a great media solution for the room, and provides the Mac desktop I’ve been missing so I can have an always on unix machine in the house for dev/network stuff.
I’m really impressed so far with every single feature of the new iMac save one: Frontrow has a fat ass and needs some work. It’s a great idea, and by far the best ipTV solution out there, but it’s sluggish, and forces you to import items into iTunes in order to properly browse or play them.
I’ll get some photos up of the iMac soon. For now here is some Nano Vs. Nano photo action!
Technorati Tags: Intel iMac, Intel iMac, iPod Nano, Mactel
Sunday, September 10, 2006
I sit here on the couch, drinking iced coffee, and listening to some Panoptica while catching up on the blogosphere. Yesterday I did blessedly little - aside from going to Costco and EB Games with Brien to pick up food and Enchanted Arms I did practically nothing. I sat on my couch, played Enchanted Arms, and spent some quality time with Skype.
Today has been slightly more active. I woke up early to get working on laundry and catch up on other things around the house. I am rather proud of all the work I got done before noon. I managed to get a presentation ready for tomorrow and go for a decent little walk with skype while my laundry ran. Now I get to spend the rest of the day lounging around on the couch drinking my coffee and playing more Enchanted Arms.
Enchanted Arms by the way is the first Japanese style RPG (aside from the MMORPG Final Fantasy Online) to come to the Xbox 360 and I have to say I’ve got some mixed feelings on it. The story gets good after a few hours, but the introduction is simply the gayest thing on the face of the planet. It starts off with three high-school boys learning magic who are gay, gay, GAY. I’m not sure but I would wager that the amount of gayness would manage to turn off all but the most hard-core gaymers. I mean I’m a gay man and I was offended - I can only imagine what the straight guys would say.
The other negative thing is the endless tutorials that the game seems to want me to jump through. There are an endless number of objects that you can interact with by pressing the A button. One might find this an intuitive interface, but they didn’t think so and are constantly interrupting gameplay to have another character guide you through the process of pressing A to interact with the container, swim, ride the elevator, pick up the flowerpot, etc.
Luckily after a few hours the gay and the gay tutorials tone down a bit and the rest of the characters get together and it becomes a really good game. It’s much more linear than the western style of RPG’s that I’ve been playing of late like Oblivion, but has a fantastic story to make up for it. The combat system is also really well evolved and plays very strategically. Every PC is put on a grid and you have to move them around and use very preset moves similar to chess.
Technorati Tags: Enchanted Arms, gay, Domestic
Thursday, September 7, 2006
Wow - I wrote this nearly a week ago on Sunday, but forgot to post it! Here is my (highly outdated) posting about Labor day weekend.
Yesterday was fun! I ended up going over to the eastside to pick up Scott shortly after noon, and we went to a sushi lunch. My 3rd generation iPod had finally died after several years of abuse, so I picked up a new one while I was over there near the Apple store. Sadly the video iPod (or perhaps the Zune) is yet to be out so I decided to get a cheap little nano to act as more of a stopgap measure. I just need something so I can get some podcasts and music into my car for now, and I’ll wait to spend a lot of money until I see a portable media player that really catches my fancy.
After the consumerist fun we headed back to my place to prepare for the Indiana Jones marathon. After the guests arrived we broke into the Indiana Jones DVD’s, the Spanish wine, and excitement that only a young dog can bring to a situation.
We didn’t watch them all, but managed to get both Raiders of the Lost Ark, and Temple of Doom. It’s really kind of sad that George Lucas has lost his touch when you look at his older films. He really knew how to tell a story, and use technology to bring that story to life. When I look at his more recent films I see the technical perfection he has been seeking, but his storytelling has gotten old.
After the movies we headed out for some dinner, then Scott and I retired back to my place to watch The Two Towers and continue the cinema experience. Nothing like 8 hours of movies in a single day!
Today is a much more relaxed and solitary kind of day for me. I’ve got a lot of Oblivion planned, and a few minor e-projects that I’ve been getting behind in that I need to show a little love.
Sunday, September 3, 2006
Check out Cory Doctorow’s interview with Rick Kleffel at the Singularity summit. It’s a great interview and goes into some of Cory’s thoughts on the future, and the economic and social impacts on our society as a result of the onslaught of technology.
Technorati Tags: Cory Doctorow, Interview, Podcast
Friday, September 1, 2006
Changing the Windows Live ID associated with your gamertag on Xbox Live seems to be a sad impossibility. The only solution seems to be the creation of a new gamertag, which means losing all your save games, and associated profile data. I had switched primary Windows Live accounts shortly after I got my 360, so I’ve been digging for a solution to no avail.
Unfortunately because I’m a prissy bitch I demanded to switch gamertags and now am having to deal with getting all my Oblivion achievements again. It’s a hard life when you simply have to play another 200 hours of Oblivion to save face 
Add me as a friend if you interested - my new gamertag is Sparktography. Check out my new gamer badge and (hopefully) watch my achievements grow again!