Krysss.com

Microsoft, why won't you help?

2011-06-11T14:41:00.002-04:00

Microsoft apparently want everything to eventually be Kinect enabled. How are those of us that are on the lower limit of the spousal approval rating, supposed to get our gaming in while pretending to watch a movie/TV show with their significant other, if you have to keep TALKING to the Kinect device?

Sony have the PSVita arriving that means you can get supposedly better games on the go, and Nintendo's Wii U allows for gaming on the controller portion of the device.

Picture the default scene...

You have (as usual) managed to be trapped into watching some movie you know is going to be painful for you. You also know that after what feels like hours you're going to look over and see them fast asleep. Normal rules apply. If you so much as move an inch towards turning off the TV they will wake, say that they still want to watch it and you have to keep winding the movie WAY back so they can get to the part they last remember.

With the Nintendo Wii U, or Sony PSVita, you can simply get it from the pre-movie storage spot you stuffed it into. So while some woman in the movie is crying over her brother being killed by an uncle after 20 years of not wanting to be married to the other guy who really wasn't a bad guy after all (all in the rain and slow motion) you can carry on that game of Mario or Wipeout you have. Remember, you must store it within arms reach or they will detect movement and make you suffer most of the movie again.

With Microsoft Kinect, you already have to switch the TV over (and spouses can detect the difference between movie colors and game colors on screen, even through their eyelids). So if you even make it that far, you still have to sort of whisper shout commands at the Kinect sensor, while it continues to tell you it doesn't understand or simply does nothing. You're not going to be getting your game on this way.

Microsoft, sort it out, or there are going to be older gamers with less Halo, and more Mario and Nathan Drake in their lives. Not to mention that if the movie you are having to endure is particularly awful, you can even start PSVita-ing or Wii U-ing in advance of the optimal time, as your significant other may be completely absorbed, but that's for advanced players only.

Nintendo Wii U - Good

Sony PSVita - Good

Kinect
Not helping

Uberstudent applications list

2011-05-25T13:21:00.000-04:00

I wanted to find the complete list of installed programs in Uberstudent, and as there didn't seem to be one, I figured simply listing what was in the Applications menu might be a start at least. So here it is in all its not-very-exciting glory.

To do this I opened a terminal, and moved to the desktop with
cd Desktop

Then to get a list of the applications directory written as a text file on the desktop I entered
ls -R1 /usr/share/applications >applist.txt

The file appeared on the desktop. You don't have to call it applist.txt. Then I just listed it here without the .desktop after each entry to try to make it easier to read. The raw output is listed again after this one. No matter what anyone thinks of Uberstudent, they might agree it has a LOT packed into it.

This is the list as of May 25th 2011

280-slides
AcetoneISO
acroread
agave
agm-config
agm
ailurus
alacarte
alltray
anki
anki-online
application-browser
apport-gtk-mime
arista
ATEST
at-properties
audacious2
audacious2-gtkui
audacious-ladspa
autokey-gtk
autokey-help
banshee-1-audiocd
banshee-1
banshee-1-media-player
baobab
beagle-search
bleachbit
bleachbit-root
bluetooth-properties
brand-yourself
brand-yourself-trial
brasero-copy-medium
brasero
brasero-nautilus
bubble-us
buddi
buddi .distrib
byobu
calibre
calibre-viewer
cameramonitor
cameramonitor-prefs
ccsm
checkbox-gtk
cheese
chegg
chmsee
color-converter
compiz
computer-janitor-gtk
convert-files
davmail
default-applications
defaults.list
deluge
desktop.en_US.utf8.cache
devede
display-properties
DJL
djvulibre-djview4
docfetcher
docky
dvdisaster
dvdrip
dvdrip-queue
easytag
ecampus
editra
efax-gtk
emacs23
emerald-theme-manager
emusic-remote
eog
evince
favicon-generator
file-roller
filezilla
firefox-cheatsheet
firefox
firestarter
flashcard-exchange
fluendo
foldit
fotoxx
frozen-bubble
fusion-icon
gbrainy
gcalctool
gcolor2
gconf-editor
gdebi
gdmsetup
gedit
get-amazonmp3
get-edu-software
get-emusic
get-enotes
get-enotes-subscription
get-visualthesaurus
get-wiimote
get-windows-device-driver
gimp
gimp-grokking
gimp-wikibook
gitso
gitso-help
gitso-live-help
gksu
glabels
gmenu-simple-editor
gmobilemedia
gnome-about
gnome-about-me
gnome-appearance-properties
gnome-app-install
gnome-cc
gnomecc
gnome-chess
gnome-dictionary
gnome-do
gnome-font-viewer
gnome-nettool
gnome-network-properties
gnome-panel
gnome-phone-manager
gnome-photo-printer
gnome-power-preferences
gnome-ppp
gnome-screensaver-lock
gnome-screensaver-preferences
gnome-screenshot
gnome-search-tool
gnome-session-logout
gnome-session-shutdown
gnome-settings-mouse
gnome-sound-recorder
gnome-specimen
gnome-sudoku
gnome-system-log
gnome-system-monitor
gnome-terminal
gnome-theme-installer
gnome-translate
gnome-user-share-properties
gnome-volume-control
gnome-wm
gnomine
gnotero
goldendict
goldendict-get
googe-pde
google-calendar
google-chrome
google-docs
googleearth
google-mail
google-reader
google-wave
gotfreefax
gpacalc
gparted
gpodder
gscan2pdf
gstreamer-properties
gtkam
gtk-recordmydesktop
gtodo
gtweakui-galeon
gtweakui-menus
gtweakui-nautilus
gtweakui-session
guake
guake-prefs
gucharmap
gutenbrowser
gwibber
gwibber-preferences
hacking-college
hacking-college-the-book
hamster-standalone
hardinfo
hplj1020
htop
ibus-setup
imagination
impressive
inkscape-basic-help
inkscape
install-tweetdeck
InvulgoTracker
jay-cut
jobspice
jockey-gtk
kde
keepassx
keepnote
keepnote-manual
keybinding
keyboard
knight-cite
kompozer
ktuberling
language-selector
lecturetools
linux-file-system-schematic
lyx
mahjongg
mail-notification
mail-notification-properties
manage-print-jobs
mediainfo-gui
mendeleydesktop
menueditor
metacity
mimeinfo.cache
mint
miro
moovida-install
mount-archive
music-folder
nact
nautilus-autorun-software
nautilus-browser
nautilus-computer
nautilus
nautilus-file-management-properties
nautilus-folder-handler
nautilus-home
ndisgtk
ndisgtk-kde
net2ftp
network-scheme
nm-connection-editor
nobel-games
notecase-pro
onboard
onboard-settings
open-clipart
openjdk-6-java
openjdk-6-javaws
openjdk-6-policytool
openoffice.org-base
openoffice.org-calc
openoffice.org-draw
openoffice.org-impress
openoffice.org-writer
orca
osmo
palimpsest
pdfedit
pdf-escape
pdfmod
pepsipinball
pessulus
pictures-folder
pidgin
pinta
pitivi
pixlr
PlayOnLinux
PosteRazor
prezi
prism-eyeos
prism-facebook
prism-rtm
profilemanager
pycrust
pyNeighborhood
pyNeighborhood-help
pyrenamer
pyshell
python2.6
python-whiteboard
qalculate-gtk
quadrapassel
rasterbator
realplay
remastersys-gui
remastersys-gui-kde
restricted-extras
root-nautilus-browser
RSSOwl
sabayon
sbackup
schedgen
screenlets-daemon
screenlets-manager
screensavers
screen-toaster
scribus
seahorse
session-properties
shares
shotwell
shotwell-viewer
simple-ccsm
simple-scan
skype-buy
skype
software-properties-gtk
sol
soshiku
sound-juicer
sparknotes
spideroak-gui
srestore
stopwatch
studentuniverse
suggest-webapp
sun-java6-controlpanel
sun-java6-java
sun-java6-javaws
sun-java6-policytool
synaptic
synaptic-kde
sysinfo
system-config-printer
tasque
tell-about-educational-games
test
tetris-prism
textbookx
thinking-rock
thinking-rock-help
thunderbird
time
topshelf
totem
trigger-panel-run-dialog
tsclient
tuxgames
twl
ubernote
uberstudent
uberstudent-about
ÜberStudent Donate
uberstudent-gethelp
uberstudent-help
uberstudent-homepage
uberstudent-moodle
uberstudent-partner
uberstudent-translate
ubiquity-gtkui
uget-gtk
unetbootin
update-manager
usb-creator-gtk
users
vboxgtk
video-folder
vinagre
vinagre-file
vino-preferences
virtualbox-ose
vlc
vmware-user
vue
vue-help
wammu
WebHTTrack
WebHTTrack-Websites
whyteboard
wiimost-whiteboard-howto
window-properties
wine-about
wine-browsedrive
wine
wine-notepad
winetricks
wine-uninstaller
wine-winecfg
wmgui
wordle
x11vnc
xgnokii
xine
xrced
x-tile
yelp
z
zotero-and-ooo
zotero-maximized
zotero-quick-start

Below is the original list as it came out

/usr/share/applications:
1
280-slides.desktop
AcetoneISO.desktop
acroread.desktop
agave.desktop
agm-config.desktop
agm.desktop
ailurus.desktop
alacarte.desktop
alltray.desktop
anki.desktop
anki-online.desktop
application-browser.desktop
apport-gtk-mime.desktop
arista.desktop
ATEST.desktop
at-properties.desktop
audacious2.desktop
audacious2-gtkui.desktop
audacious-ladspa.desktop
autokey-gtk.desktop
autokey-help.desktop
banshee-1-audiocd.desktop
banshee-1.desktop
banshee-1-media-player.desktop
baobab.desktop
beagle-search.desktop
bleachbit.desktop
bleachbit-root.desktop
bluetooth-properties.desktop
brand-yourself.desktop
brand-yourself-trial.desktop
brasero-copy-medium.desktop
brasero.desktop
brasero-nautilus.desktop
bubble-us.desktop
buddi.desktop
buddi.desktop.distrib
byobu.desktop
calibre.desktop
calibre-viewer.desktop
cameramonitor.desktop
cameramonitor-prefs.desktop
ccsm.desktop
checkbox-gtk.desktop
cheese.desktop
chegg.desktop
chmsee.desktop
color-converter.desktop
compiz.desktop
computer-janitor-gtk.desktop
convert-files.desktop
davmail.desktop
default-applications.desktop
defaults.list
deluge.desktop
desktop.en_US.utf8.cache
devede.desktop
display-properties.desktop
DJL.desktop
djvulibre-djview4.desktop
docfetcher.desktop
docky.desktop
dvdisaster.desktop
dvdrip.desktop
dvdrip-queue.desktop
easytag.desktop
ecampus.desktop
editra.desktop
efax-gtk.desktop
emacs23.desktop
emerald-theme-manager.desktop
emusic-remote.desktop
eog.desktop
evince.desktop
favicon-generator.desktop
file-roller.desktop
filezilla.desktop
firefox-cheatsheet.desktop
firefox.desktop
firestarter.desktop
flashcard-exchange.desktop
fluendo.desktop
foldit.desktop
fotoxx.desktop
frozen-bubble.desktop
fusion-icon.desktop
gbrainy.desktop
gcalctool.desktop
gcolor2.desktop
gconf-editor.desktop
gdebi.desktop
gdmsetup.desktop
gedit.desktop
get-amazonmp3.desktop
get-edu-software.desktop
get-emusic.desktop
get-enotes.desktop
get-enotes-subscription.desktop
get-visualthesaurus.desktop
get-wiimote.desktop
get-windows-device-driver.desktop
gimp.desktop
gimp-grokking.desktop
gimp-wikibook.desktop
gitso.desktop
gitso-help.desktop
gitso-live-help.desktop
gksu.desktop
glabels.desktop
gmenu-simple-editor.desktop
gmobilemedia.desktop
gnome-about.desktop
gnome-about-me.desktop
gnome-appearance-properties.desktop
gnome-app-install.desktop
gnome-cc.desktop
gnomecc.desktop
gnome-chess.desktop
gnome-dictionary.desktop
gnome-do.desktop
gnome-font-viewer.desktop
gnome-nettool.desktop
gnome-network-properties.desktop
gnome-panel.desktop
gnome-phone-manager.desktop
gnome-photo-printer.desktop
gnome-power-preferences.desktop
gnome-ppp.desktop
gnome-screensaver-lock.desktop
gnome-screensaver-preferences.desktop
gnome-screenshot.desktop
gnome-search-tool.desktop
gnome-session-logout.desktop
gnome-session-shutdown.desktop
gnome-settings-mouse.desktop
gnome-sound-recorder.desktop
gnome-specimen.desktop
gnome-sudoku.desktop
gnome-system-log.desktop
gnome-system-monitor.desktop
gnome-terminal.desktop
gnome-theme-installer.desktop
gnome-translate.desktop
gnome-user-share-properties.desktop
gnome-volume-control.desktop
gnome-wm.desktop
gnomine.desktop
gnotero.desktop
goldendict.desktop
goldendict-get.desktop
googe-pde.desktop
google-calendar.desktop
google-chrome.desktop
google-docs.desktop
googleearth.desktop
google-mail.desktop
google-reader.desktop
google-wave.desktop
gotfreefax.desktop
gpacalc.desktop
gparted.desktop
gpodder.desktop
gscan2pdf.desktop
gstreamer-properties.desktop
gtkam.desktop
gtk-recordmydesktop.desktop
gtodo.desktop
gtweakui-galeon.desktop
gtweakui-menus.desktop
gtweakui-nautilus.desktop
gtweakui-session.desktop
guake.desktop
guake-prefs.desktop
gucharmap.desktop
gutenbrowser.desktop
gwibber.desktop
gwibber-preferences.desktop
hacking-college.desktop
hacking-college-the-book.desktop
hamster-standalone.desktop
hardinfo.desktop
hplj1020.desktop
htop.desktop
ibus-setup.desktop
imagination.desktop
impressive.desktop
inkscape-basic-help.desktop
inkscape.desktop
install-tweetdeck.desktop
InvulgoTracker.desktop
jay-cut.desktop
jobspice.desktop
jockey-gtk.desktop
kde
keepassx.desktop
keepnote.desktop
keepnote-manual.desktop
keybinding.desktop
keyboard.desktop
knight-cite.desktop
kompozer.desktop
ktuberling.desktop
language-selector.desktop
lecturetools.desktop
linux-file-system-schematic.desktop
lyx.desktop
mahjongg.desktop
mail-notification.desktop
mail-notification-properties.desktop
manage-print-jobs.desktop
mediainfo-gui.desktop
mendeleydesktop.desktop
menueditor.desktop
metacity.desktop
mimeinfo.cache
mint.desktop
miro.desktop
moovida-install.desktop
mount-archive.desktop
music-folder.desktop
nact.desktop
nautilus-autorun-software.desktop
nautilus-browser.desktop
nautilus-computer.desktop
nautilus.desktop
nautilus-file-management-properties.desktop
nautilus-folder-handler.desktop
nautilus-home.desktop
ndisgtk.desktop
ndisgtk-kde.desktop
net2ftp.desktop
network-scheme.desktop
nm-connection-editor.desktop
nobel-games.desktop
notecase-pro.desktop
onboard.desktop
onboard-settings.desktop
open-clipart.desktop
openjdk-6-java.desktop
openjdk-6-javaws.desktop
openjdk-6-policytool.desktop
openoffice.org-base.desktop
openoffice.org-calc.desktop
openoffice.org-draw.desktop
openoffice.org-impress.desktop
openoffice.org-writer.desktop
orca.desktop
osmo.desktop
palimpsest.desktop
pdfedit.desktop
pdf-escape.desktop
pdfmod.desktop
pepsipinball.desktop
pessulus.desktop
pictures-folder.desktop
pidgin.desktop
pinta.desktop
pitivi.desktop
pixlr.desktop
PlayOnLinux.desktop
PosteRazor.desktop
prezi.desktop
prism-eyeos.desktop
prism-facebook.desktop
prism-rtm.desktop
profilemanager.desktop
pycrust.desktop
pyNeighborhood.desktop
pyNeighborhood-help.desktop
pyrenamer.desktop
pyshell.desktop
python2.6.desktop
python-whiteboard.desktop
qalculate-gtk.desktop
quadrapassel.desktop
rasterbator.desktop
realplay.desktop
remastersys-gui.desktop
remastersys-gui-kde.desktop
restricted-extras.desktop
root-nautilus-browser.desktop
RSSOwl.desktop
sabayon.desktop
sbackup.desktop
schedgen.desktop
screenlets-daemon.desktop
screenlets-manager.desktop
screensavers
screen-toaster.desktop
scribus.desktop
seahorse.desktop
session-properties.desktop
shares.desktop
shotwell.desktop
shotwell-viewer.desktop
simple-ccsm.desktop
simple-scan.desktop
skype-buy.desktop
skype.desktop
software-properties-gtk.desktop
sol.desktop
soshiku.desktop
sound-juicer.desktop
sparknotes.desktop
spideroak-gui.desktop
srestore.desktop
stopwatch.desktop
studentuniverse.desktop
suggest-webapp.desktop
sun-java6-controlpanel.desktop
sun-java6-java.desktop
sun-java6-javaws.desktop
sun-java6-policytool.desktop
synaptic.desktop
synaptic-kde.desktop
sysinfo.desktop
system-config-printer.desktop
tasque.desktop
tell-about-educational-games.desktop
test
tetris-prism.desktop
textbookx.desktop
thinking-rock.desktop
thinking-rock-help.desktop
thunderbird.desktop
time.desktop
topshelf.desktop
totem.desktop
trigger-panel-run-dialog.desktop
tsclient.desktop
tuxgames.desktop
twl.desktop
ubernote.desktop
uberstudent
uberstudent-about.desktop
ÜberStudent Donate.desktop
uberstudent-gethelp.desktop
uberstudent-help.desktop
uberstudent-homepage.desktop
uberstudent-moodle.desktop
uberstudent-partner.desktop
uberstudent-translate.desktop
ubiquity-gtkui.desktop
uget-gtk.desktop
unetbootin.desktop
update-manager.desktop
usb-creator-gtk.desktop
users.desktop
vboxgtk.desktop
video-folder.desktop
vinagre.desktop
vinagre-file.desktop
vino-preferences.desktop
virtualbox-ose.desktop
vlc.desktop
vmware-user.desktop
vue.desktop
vue-help.desktop
wammu.desktop
WebHTTrack.desktop
WebHTTrack-Websites.desktop
whyteboard.desktop
wiimost-whiteboard-howto.desktop
window-properties.desktop
wine-about.desktop
wine-browsedrive.desktop
wine.desktop
wine-notepad.desktop
winetricks.desktop
wine-uninstaller.desktop
wine-winecfg.desktop
wmgui.desktop
wordle.desktop
x11vnc.desktop
xgnokii.desktop
xine.desktop
xrced.desktop
x-tile.desktop
yelp.desktop
z
zotero-and-ooo.desktop
zotero-maximized.desktop
zotero-quick-start.desktop

/usr/share/applications/kde:
kresources.desktop

/usr/share/applications/screensavers:
antspotlight.desktop
cosmos-slideshow.desktop
fiberlamp.desktop
footlogo-floaters.desktop
fuzzyflakes.desktop
glblur.desktop
glcells.desktop
glmatrix.desktop
glschool.desktop
glslideshow.desktop
gltext.desktop
hypertorus.desktop
personal-slideshow.desktop
uberstudent-logo_theme.desktop
ubertux_theme.desktop

/usr/share/applications/uberstudent:

That was the end of the original file. I don't often use Linux, so if there are things missing from this list, let me know and I can add them if they are in some other location that this file didn't cover.

2010-11-28T11:44:00.000-05:00

I didn't pick the music, and can you spot me in the red van? Gran Turismo 5 is great, and more fun than I thought it would be.

Upcoming gaming headset reviews at Tested.Com

2010-07-22T12:04:00.000-04:00

Tritton AX 720 5.1 Gaming Headphones working with an HDMI Xbox 360

2010-06-13T17:36:00.004-04:00

**UPDATE**

Just released is the new Xbox 360 console which includes an optical out (toslink) port on the back, and as soon as I can, I'll include some audio setup screenshots.

It took me WAY too long to get a set of Tritton AX 720 5.1 Surround Sound gaming headphones to work with my already hooked up with HDMI, Xbox 360.

The instructions say to plug the headphones into the optical out on the back of the Xbox 360, which I did. In my case however, I could not hear the sound from the headphones.

The answer was this.
Instead of plugging the amplifier box of the headphones into the back of the Xbox 360, I plugged them into the optical out on the back of the TV. Means you can leave your HDMI doing its thing with your 1080p crisp digital display, and not have to resort to endless wife-annoying cable swaps each time you want to do something different with your console.

This meant that I now get the sound from the headset, as well as from the 5.1 speakers, or TV if I switch those speakers off. So just turning off the speakers, and then turning down the TV, I get it only from the headset. So I could have saved the few bucks it cost to get the audio dongle for the Xbox 360. I couldn't find any reason why I should not have been hearing the audio from the headphones, as on the Xbox 360 settings only showed 5.1 or stereo output, not the actual port you want to output from (as the PS3 does). Perhaps I had a faulty audio dongle, we may never know.

In my particular case this is a little fiddly as I have a PC, PS3, and Xbox 360 all hooked up to the same screen, and to use the normal 5.1 speakers it takes the optical out from the TV (for the PC sound). So each time I want to use the headphones with the Xbox 360, I have to unplug the cable that runs to the 5.1 unit from the TV, and replace the cable with the one going to the Tritton AX 720 headphone amp. It's not too bad because there is enough space to walk behind the set so swapping a cable only takes a moment. Also I have to plug the headphone amp into which ever console I'm using anyway, so perhaps I am bitching a little too much here, but I do sympathize with those of you that (as most people do) have NO SPACE/LIGHT AT ALL behind their TV sets. I could get into some seriously tedious optical cable splitting, but I'd need one for the back of the TV, and one for the back of the headphone amp, it's not really worth me doing that.** (Update - I think I'm wrong on the splitter thing, as it makes TWO optical connections, but doesn't switch between inputs.)**

Does the Xbox 360 route audio through HDMI only, if it finds that connection first?

In my experience the PS3 works just as the manual says.Overall on both consoles, the effect is pretty stunning and I am surprised I really get a sense of surround sound from just a set of headphones, plus there's a lot of bass in there too.

Red Dead Redemption got a lot red deadier with these serious cans on my head.

Just to be clear, when I mention headphone amp above, I am referring to the little box that comes as part of the Tritton AX 720 headphones.

How to use headphones on your PS3 - For cheap

2010-05-29T16:55:00.003-04:00

A couple of things first off. This is about getting the game sound through headphones, NOT about using a headSET which is normally something that has a mic attached so you can voice chat with other players. This method is cheap, and does NOT facilitate voice chat in any way.

For anyone in a rush, I will get straight to the point and say you just need a PS3 component cable, and a 3.5mm male to two RCA female plugs adapter, and a set of headphones with a standard 3.5mm plug on the end (that's the standard little one, not the huge one your dad has on the end of his massive set of over the ear classical easy listening CD ones). Plug the component cable into your PS3, and then the adapter onto the two (of the five) ends, and your headphones into that. Done. So if you have a bit of spare time, or were just wondering... read on.

Recently I started to playing Darksiders on the PS3, and that game has the epic demonic vibe in full effect. Usual things like naughty hell-dwelling types telling you important curse related things, impressive guardians stomping around, and not forgetting a good amount of rock crashing around amidst heavy steel doors and chains clanking up and down. I think you get the idea so I'll not say how much I am enjoying the Zelda-with-blood style of gameplay, WHICH I TOTALLY AM!

Being a very busy person flitting from TV interview to movie premiere all over the world, I couldn't get to this game until very late at night. Many of you will know that most OTHER people don't like video games, and so waking up to see their alarm clock jiggling along a bed side shelf at 02:00 because of some STOOPID video game, blasting throughout the house, is not going to exactly earn you breakfast in bed. Yes you can turn it down, but if you have it connected to a surround sound unit, that bass speaker is still going to thunder unquietly through the house.

So headphones would be good eh? But it's trying to find somewhere to plug them in. Your surround sound unit may have a headphone socket. If so, congratulations you win, goodbye. Your TV may have a headphone socket, and you too are a winner, good day to you sir! Now if you have the cash, there are surround sound headphones, which really do apparently work. Other than that, I've found myself in the position of having not seen a headphone socket on a TV or surround sound unit in a long time, so.....

This solution is WAY cheaper. You basically set the audio of the PS3 to use the component cable, and plug your headphones directly into the audio outputs of that cable.

1. Start up your PS3 and navigate to SETTINGS and then, SOUND SETTINGS

2. Then to AUDIO OUTPUT SETTINGS

3. Select AUDIO INPUT CONNECTOR/SCART/AV MULTI

4. You is done, press X

You have to plug your component cable into the back of the PS3 (it can only go in one socket and will only fit one way around).

I was using a VERY old cable, which was originally for an Xbox 1 (that's the larger square connector in the lower left), and PS2. But it appears that any PS2 component cable you might have lying around will work with the PS3.

You also need an adapter like this. This one I found in my heap of random audio connecting cables.

Then plug the adapter into the white and red audio cables of the component cable coming from the back of the PS3. Your headphones will then plug into that socket.

I found that I didn't have an issue with the audio level, it was fine with a set of large over the ear headphones as well as a little in-ear iPod style set.

With my headphones plugged in I didn't wake up the large pile of recently satisfied supermodel babes that discovered my mansion hideaway in the countryside. You of course don't get a surround sound experience when using the headphones this way, but if you value a quiet night without the need to fend off knife attacks from anyone who might happen to be sleeping nearby because you jarred them into a semi-conscious state of "I HAVE WORK IN THE MORNING AND YOU SHOULD FIX THE LEAKY BATHROOM SINK INSTEAD OF WASTING YOUR LIFE PLAYING VIDEO GAMES!!", then this method could be useful.

You can still output to the TV using the HDMI port so you get the full 1080p resolution. This method just routes the sound differently, so the image isn't affected.

So it's really simple. PS3 to COMPONENT CABLE to ADAPTER to HEADPHONES. There is no need to alter your image settings at all. Good luck!

Surround sound headphones $130.
Component cable + adapter - Less than $10.
You decide.

MX Revolution 5500 Keyboard and Mouse middle button config

2010-03-31T19:42:00.006-04:00

Having replaced a very loved Logitech MX Revolution mouse, with the only version I could find available where the mouse has a second wheel, I ran into the same configuration issues regarding middle mouse button functionality.

Short version for those of you impatient to get things moving....
After you've installed the Setpoint software and the mouse and keyboard are working correctly, RIGHT CLICK on the Setpoint icon down near the clock and select EXIT. Then on your computer, go here;

C:\Users\YOURLOGGEDONUSERNAME\AppData\Roaming\Logitech\SetPoint\user.xml

You and I both know that in the line where it says YOURLOGGEDONUSERNAME, it's referring to the current user, which is usually your name, but I think I've explained that enough right now....

Find the line in the file that says this;
<Button Number="6" Name="4">

From there, down to where it reads
</Button>

Paste this;

            <Button Number="6" Name="4">
               <Trigger Class="ButtonPress">
                  <Param Button="6" FirstRepeatDelay="0" RepeatDelay="0" Silent="0" Type="0"/>
                  <TriggerState Name="ButtonDownUp" HandlerSet="MiddleMouseButton">
                     <Handler Class="MouseButton">
                        <Param ButtonName="MiddleButton"/>
                     </Handler>
                  </TriggerState>
               </Trigger>
               <Param IconLoc="" Type=""/>
            </Button>

SAVE the file, then run Setpoint again.
ALL PROGRAMS > LOGITECH > MOUSE AND KEYBOARD > MOUSE AND KEYBOARD SETTINGS

Ok geeks need not read any further, but for those of us who don't speak fluent Matrix, here's some detail.

For whatever reason, someone at Logitech didn't think that anyone would want to be able to use the little search button as a middle mouse click, so this is a way of forcing the software to do what you want it to, even though the levers and pulleys are not available to you on the outside. Sort of like making a bus driver drop you off right outside your house even though the route is nowhere near it and if you asked they would tell you there was no way you could buy a ticket to that exact destination. A lot of software works this way, and you can probably find lots of other incomprehensible text files all over your computer that set very specific things in very specific ways. If you must fiddle, do be a good chap and make a backup copy of any file BEFORE you do it. In this case I just RIGHT CLICKED the USER.XML file, selected COPY, then PASTE to put a copy right there with it. If you do screw up, you can just delete the (now useless) USER.XML file, and rename the USER - COPY.XML file to USER.XML and you are all good.

To edit that file you can use Notepad. Open Notepad first, and then drag this file in, or RIGHT CLICK on the file and select OPEN WITH, then from the list that appears select NOTEPAD. If that doesn't show up then you can select it from the option CHOOSE DEFAULT PROGRAM and any more than that is probably outside the scope of this particular post.

To insert the above text into the file, just copy the text above, then find the corresponding line in the USER.XML file and highlight that, then select PASTE. You should see it change. Then SAVE the file, and run the Setpoint software again (as it says above). Then go to a link on a web page, click the little button and OH MY GOODNESS, it opens in a new tab!

Oh and if you were wondering (which you probably weren't but what they heck) I use the second mouse wheel for volume up and down, and click it to mute/unmute.

My work here is done (except maybe some pictures to brighten up the entry..... soon)

P.S. This is obviously for a PC, and perhaps the Mac version lets you do this already. Do YOU know?
P.P.S Now I have two functioning middle mouse buttons right next to each other. So if someone ever brings out a Track and Field game that uses the middle mouse button, I AM GONNA WIN!

iPad Target

2010-01-31T16:35:00.002-05:00

Is the iPad aimed at people who rarely use a desktop or laptop, but really get a lot of use out of their iPhone/iPod Touch?
If you’ve gotten really used to doing your interwebs on that little slip-slidey screen, then at first glance, a larger area would seem an obvious plus.
Maybe the iPad is not so much a new device category, and more about creating a new market for those that only (want to) understand the iPhone OS.
Training a whole new group of Apple cult members. Brace yourselves, because as soon as the alarm sounds, they're going to pour over the horizon. They will not care what you think, because they understand the iPad.

"QUICK SHOW THEM YOUR NETBOOK!!!"
"THEY DON'T CARE THEY KEEP ON ABOUT APPS AND GAMI....AAAA AAAHH NOOOOO"
"FRANCIS GET OUT OF THERE!!!"
"IT'S TOO LATE I WANT TO SIGN UP FOR AN AT&T PLAN! OOOO LOOK A NEW FART APP!"

Halo ODST .... no

2010-01-15T22:58:00.002-05:00

In summary, Halo ODST was just more Halo.

I really liked Halo 1, 2, and 3. I like single player games. I like explosions. So that seems a sure bet for Halo ODST.

Wrong

Halo was groovy, and I spent a lot of time running, and leaping about, getting pummeled by many people on the PC as well as Xbox versions. It's great fun, frantic stuffs. However, in the last Halo game (Halo 3, not Halo Wars) I quickly reached a point where I was saying to myself,

"Why am I advancing into this alien outpost?"
and
"Why am I doing this, and which of the overly epically named space ships, on my side?"

It didn't really matter because the new settings and different layouts were enough to keep me plugging away. Often my plastic neon edged armor would give up and I would tumble to the floor, scattering my assortment of recently grabbed guns and grenades. But you get back up and try again. This time keeping an eye on that side where ten more little alien dudes will come spilling out chatting away in comic relief fashion.

Hang on, the fact none of this battle makes sense, and the story is terrible, is bothering me now. I need to do research. The research being the Halo novels.

Ok research done, I get it, good, back to work.

Ok done, thanks Halo 3, back in the box. And to myself, "Can't wait for another one."

Halo ODST shuffles off the end of my mysterious GameFly Queue, flops through my mail slot, and dribbles into my Xbox 360.

Big screen, surround sound, expensively budgeted tried and tested video game franchise, in the middle of the lazy gamer generation, what could possibly go wrong?

Well not much to start with. Wandered around the VERY dark city, looking at stuff, with the usual drill of finding the things that are supposed to be just like the rest but you can usually see the graphical difference so you know something opens, or activates there. Got into a building, and now its REALLY dark. My display is sort of showing the outline of things, but very little detail. More wandering around inside the building, and I notice a helmet sticking out of a madly flashing screen. A little text at the bottom of the screen tells me to press a button, button pressed and I'm in one of the stories of apparently a little earlier in that same location.

So I'm in the story now hearing the same noises as previous games, of cheeky little aliens and gruff larger ones. Wreckage all over the place, and little pockets of resistance. Usual thing. I reach a large open area and apparently have to get across to rescue someone who's speaking to me on the radio. The other squad members are well trained in keeping out the way and not wasting ANY ammo, so it's up to me, the hero of the moment to get across that area and into the building beyond. AHA! One of those, "oh no we are just another door", doors that's obviously not like all the others. It's open and I'm in, trying to get behind enemy lines. Crap, it's dark in here, where's my new thingie button to show the outlines of things, ok got it, onward. Up the stairs, along the corridor, up some more, oo new gun, along... wait, it's a shot gun, hmmm that means close encounters are going to happen if I keep heading this way. I know, back down the stairs and I'll take an earlier exit.

I'm at the door, open, too bright for edge enhancement, so it's back to normal. I hear the familiar call of big and little aliens, and the strange alien bullet noises, it's back to the action. Lots of strafing left and right between concrete columns to try and figure out how many of my particular bullets it takes to kill these particular aliens (it usually takes a while to get the hang of that in any shooter). Still not got a good idea of where all the bad guys are, and still my computer controlled squad buddies are hanging back, waiting for me to clear a path to the next section. I leap around, still not quite familiar with the controls, as it has been quite a while since I bothered with Halo 3, and I keep pressing the 'button that shalt do nothing' instead of the grenade one, for now at least. So far it's all going as I thought it would except....

I give up trying to figure out where all the fire is coming from, take a couple of long shots and clear myself a nice little vacation spot on a bridge, in the middle of the fight, but with plenty of good cover. Sort of looked like a futuristic bus stop. Run like heck (well I think I'm running, as I can't remember if there is a run button for Halo ODST, or you just go this speed all the time), and make it to the bus shelter. Then a group of bigger aliens come out of where their scripted closet was keeping them until I crossed that particular line. They advance, I then go into a pre-death spasm, of jump-fire-move-fire-way-too-much-at-nothing, and then die.

It was a strange feeling but as soon as I saw that familiar out of body camera angle, and stuff strewn on the battle field (my 3 grenades exploding moments later, as in my final moments of controller typing convulsions I managed to hit THAT button a few times), my dead ragdoll self laying out there, the thought of doing the SAME thing over and over again, just like the previous games seemed pretty crappy. It wasn't until THAT VERY MOMENT that I wasn't enjoying it.

Went from "Yeah!" to "STOP!" in about a millisecond.

Watching my plastic clad dude, drop all his plastic guns on the ground, just brought it all back, and the reunion was not sweet. I'm glad I didn't buy the game, and I was genuinely looking forward to another Halo shooter, as that's usually my thing. This was just that little bit too much EXACTLY the same as before. Thinking I'd been a little harsh on it, I tried again a couple of times, but after it seemed to put me WAY back in the game, and I kept getting to that same point each time, I knew it was time to take it out into the yard and end its misery. So it went back to that GameFly warehouse in the sky, where it will hopefully be reborn as something on the PS3.

Halo ODST, sorry.

Resolution issue

2010-01-10T11:43:00.001-05:00

I decided this year that one of my resolutions would be to stop bothering with retro games so much. It's only 10 days in and I've already amassed a PS2 and an Xbox 1, both with a smattering of games. Is this a sign, or just focusing on it WAY too much?

For the record, I did't purchase them, they were just in the way of replacing other household thingies.

Anyone up for a game of something REALLY old and crappy?

I'm pretty sure this will finally be the year I do NOT purchase Lemmings again. And I'm going to pretend I don't know about the upcoming Xbox Live Game Room, that's full of arcade cabinets from days of old.

Your ebook needz moar powurz

2010-01-06T14:32:00.000-05:00

Just saw the first of the CES 2010 videos from Revision 3. It's about a combined ebook and tablet computer. Why is it that people seem to want to add the functionality of a laptop computer with an ebook?

Firstly I really think that if it was SO obvious to do this, then people would have been reading lots of ebooks on their laptops and there would be little need for the ebook readers themselves. Unless there is a massive happy underground all busily reading away on their laptops somewhere?

The two other major concerns are of course, power and weight.

You want to lug around a laptop all day (even a tablet) in your arms, taking in the pages of your latest novel, then get fit and be prepared to stand about three feet away from a power source. Not to mention the fragile nature of a laptop or tablet computer. Could this by why tablets never really made much of an impression originally?

(Don't even get me started on the whole thing about blocking the vents on a tablet while trying to hold it comfortably.)

Hopeful start to 2010

2010-01-05T12:14:00.002-05:00

Top podcasts listened to at Krysss.Com towers for 2009

2009-12-26T12:49:00.003-05:00

Woah, I listened to a LOT of podcasts over 2009, and according to my scrobblings, it was CNET that got the top spot. I suppose all those daily episodes of Buzz Out Loud did that.

1	cnet.com	200
2	Revision3	143
3	Giant Bomb	55
4	1UP Network Staff	49
5	The Daniel Pemberton TV Orchestra	48
6	Leo Laporte and the TWiTs	40
7	Eat-Sleep-Game.com Staff	35
8	Paul Thurrott with Leo Laporte	33
9	John C. Dvorak	21
10	commandN	19
11	Tech	15
12	Games	13
13	Geekbox.net	11
13	Criterion Games	11
15	1UP Staff	9
16	Kaiku (Mark Roberts)	8
17	You Look Nice Today	7
18	Major Nelson	6
18	DL.tv	6
20	Eric Nofsinger	5
21	Roger Chang and Tom Merritt	4

Podcasts. They're like radio but interesting. As always I will be promising myself I will start a podcast in the new year, and will more than likely carry on the tradition of not actually doing it.

Happy Holidays

2009-12-24T16:49:00.000-05:00

This week I are be mostly playin'

2009-05-10T16:43:00.004-04:00

It's been an Xbox 360 sort of week with Burnout Paradise, and Arkanoid.

I got Burnout Paradise again (already played it to death on the PS3) because I was challenged to some matches by a 360 owner. I was surprised to not hear ONE SINGLE person talking online with Burnout Paradise. The only difference between the two versions is that in just a few days, the Xbox 360 version has crashed a few times, where as that hasn't happened to me in a LONG time on the PSN. I purchased all the DLC for the PS3 version, so if I do get anything extra for the 360 version, it would probably just be Cops and Robbers, as that's the only payed download that really added something fun to the game.

Arkanoid was good, even though it had some strange Steps vibe. The music was odd.

This week I are be mostly playin'

2009-03-10T01:32:00.005-04:00

This week it's been Burnout Paradise (for PS3), because of the toys update, and trying to get some oddly missing trophies.

Fallout 3 on PS3.

Wipeout HD

Killzone 2, which is very intense, and haven't even gotten to playing multiplayer yet.

Super Mario World and Mario Kart on the SNES (Super Nintendo).

This weeks on-hold items are;
GTA IV on PS3 - Abandoned the save a while back to get trophies, and really enjoying it this go around.

Fable 2 - Sorry but I TRIED to like it, but it really isn't my thing. The game is set in what looks like where I used to live in England. Perhaps homesickness is what puts me off?

Overall I seem to be remembering that I just prefer the PS3 to the Xbox 360. Nothing specific, but I think it's got something to do with why I didn't bother with an original Xbox until very late in the game. Now the question of which system to buy a game for is not going to be such an issue as I just prefer the PS3 and the way it works. The creepy Xbox 360 avatar doesn't help.

Retro classic gaming tales part 3 of ..er.. we'll see

2009-02-01T14:10:00.003-05:00

Intellivision

I remember looking at the Intellivision over and over in the Littlewoods catalogue. In fact, the word 'Littlewoods' in Greek, means 'small payments, long time, big total'. The Intellivision had two fairly large controllers which were 8-way directional discs with buttons on the front. You got two plastic overlays with each game that you slid into the controllers for your basic selections. There were also two buttons on each side of the controller for more action packed goodness.

One I think I played a lot of was Auto Racing. Top down racer, with the tracks that were much larger than just one screen. Five different cars, from slow and turnable, to fast and drifting. In two player mode, it was simple, as you both played on the same screen, the first player to reach the leading edge of the screen won the point. So it was a good balance of, I'm in front but have less time to see the corners. The part about this I got into later was going off the track into the wilderness. Which was really just what ever the programmers had put in areas you were just never meant to look at. I get the feeling that you COULD go into these areas because they simply never even considered such a thing might happen. It was an exciting adventure that could last many minutes, navigating the bushes/trees/random squares of concrete. If you did this, you too would have discovered the drag strip. Once you knew the track layout, and put in a little time, it seemed that your car was always oriented for one turn ahead, and you could even perform 360's on the turns. But remember ONLY try this if you're a professional. Looking at it now, it does seem strange that the tracks were all set in what looked like residential areas, and not just raceways.

Also played a LOT of Soccer, because I think it's the one you got with the system. This was the first I remember of how you always could score a goal if you shot from the corner of the penalty box. A life skill which carried me through many soccer games for years to come.

Astro Smash was just a vertical asteroids of sorts. Left, right, shoot, avoid incoming death. Even had endless random teleporting. This resulted in anyone playing it the first time thought they were first to figure it being a way of being invincible, and got killed about 10 seconds into the teleport-button-spamming technique.

Space Hawk, now that was something. Adventuring through space coming across all sorts of weird aliens, and hopefully one day being able to tell my grand children, that I was one of the few that met, in person, the Space Hawk.

If you feel the need, you can get this as an Xbox Original, directly to your Xbox360. Gosh darn it, after all this, even though I have it on the PS2, I may just have to splurge the Microsoft Points myself!

Retro classic gaming tales part 2 of ..er.. we'll see

2009-01-25T20:08:00.000-05:00

Game and Watch Donkey Kong

Yeah I was going to be clever and mention that you can now get this in the US via Club Nintendo, for the DS. It includes three original 'Game and Watch' titles, of which, Donkey Kong was the one I had as a kid.

Register your DS or Wii games to get gold coins, then you can redeem them for weird Nintendo related shwag. The games come with a printed serial number. Remember to stop and look at all those health warning flyers that you normally throw straight away, and other useless little pieces you get, as the codes are on the back of one of them (somewhere).

Complete a survey, get coins. Do enough surveys, cash in your coins, get stuff.

I don't have enough coins for this particular trip down memory lane... yet.

Inaugural Address, President Barack H. Obama, 20th January 2009

2009-01-20T13:33:00.006-05:00

Inaugural Address, President Barack H. Obama, 20th January 2009,
originally uploaded by DigitalLyte.

Here is the full text of these historic words

One of my fave parts....

"We will build the roads and bridges, the electric grids and digital lines that feed our commerce and bind us together. We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost. We will harness the sun and the winds and the soil to fuel our cars and run our factories. And we will transform our schools and colleges and universities to meet the demands of a new age. All this we can do. And all this we will do."

The technology agenda

Retro classic gaming tales part 1 of ..er.. we'll see

2009-01-02T21:58:00.007-05:00

At the end of 2008 I heard more classic gaming stories, than in previous years.

So here's my journey...

The earliest game I can remember is a yellow LED battery powered game, Galaxy Invader 1000 that was something like Galaxians... only er... not quite. Played it to death, and I remember it being VERY hard!

I originally put the entire gaming history of Krysss.com towers in one post. However it became a long list of YouTube videos which while a lot of people would identify with, wouldn't really be that interesting. So I need to go away and try to remember some vaguely interesting stories to put around these games.

As for this little plastic game, I cannot remember much about it, but I am shocked I could track it down online.

Wipeout HD on the PS3

2008-09-28T20:51:00.001-04:00

KrysssCom Wipeout HD 9-28-08 (17),
originally uploaded by Krysss.

Super futuristic racing. Great design, great music, and weapons. You may notice me here, nearly being smooshed all over the track by some awesomely swooshy rocket thingies. This futuristic 1080p racer (a $20 download from the Playstation Network store) may make me get out the surround sound speakers again.

More dirty, dirty things

2008-07-06T19:02:00.004-04:00

In my recent run of crustily grungy computers, I had the misfortune to find one which doubled as a 'mystery box o' stench'. Within moments of pressing the power switch, an aroma of frown filled the room. I took a LONG time cleaning it, then myself, then the room, then the things I used to clean the room. Oh and if you were wondering, there appeared to be nothing else wrong with it. It was a case of 'well it worked fine when I tried it'. The below image doesn't show the grot that fell off just by moving it around, and removing the front of the case.

Hold your breath!

IBM 300PL desktop unable to boot

2008-06-25T13:20:00.008-04:00

I get asked to resurrect all kinds of ancient hardware, and this was no exception. An IBM 300PL desktop system with a strange error message on booting up.

The RF-ID Tag has changed
184 Asset control antenna not detected
System-Security Keyboard is locked.
System-Security Keyboard is unlocked.
176 The system has been tampered with.
Turn power to your system Off then On.
Your system is now locked.

Mysteriously 1984ish style boot message.

After lots of Google searches it appeared to come down to a couple of things. Changing the BIOS battery, resetting the BIOS, or malfunctioning capacitors on the motherboard.

Once you open up the case (and let all the ancient spirits similar to the Ark of the Covenant swirl around the room and dissipate) you may be lucky enough to find a sticker directing you to certain motherboard features.

This sticker was inside the lid of the case, which detaches completely, giving you an awesomely metallic one page book of instructional knowledge and power.

So according to this, the jumper is more or less in the center of the board. The sticker indicates the position to reset the BIOS. It's just a matter of moving the little plastic jumper so it connects the other two pins of the three, for a moment, and then putting it back again.

Here is the jumper on the board, yes, it's THAT exciting!

If after all that, it still just refuses to work, and all the cables appear to be connected (and you have removed the battery for a moment, or better still, replaced it entirely) then it could be the capacitors on the motherboard. I am so not into replacing these types of components, but if they are swollen or leaking they should be replaced.

The rest of the board appeared ok, but these looked jolly bulgy indeed to me. I have had other PC's die slow painful deaths from just this very issue.

And now a dirty and some might even venture, filthy, image for your delight...

If you know anything further, leave a comment.

People and Zombies - Somebody please make this.

2008-05-31T09:06:00.004-04:00

Ok since getting addicted to Burnout Paradise, and recently trying Wii Fit, I believe there is a great opportunity to combine the two.

"People and Zombies"

A massively multi-player game where a group of people have to survive against a horde of zombies. Make it to the safe point, and you are good. Get bitten by a zombie, you become one yourself.

As a person you have to make it to a specific location which is safe. Being that people would play over and over, the maps contain multiple safe areas, but only ONE is considered safe at a time. Also on the map are medical stations which dispense serum to allow a recently bitten person to fend off the otherwise inevitable transformation into an undead zombie.

As a zombie you have to stop at all costs (and as you are dead, those costs are pretty low to start with) the people from all reaching safety.

People can;
Walk fast.
Drive cars (perhaps vehicles that can carry other people)
Get healed at stations.
Use weapons
Voice chat people within a very limited range.
They cannot;
Have a radar.
Survive long falls, car accidents, or other physics related antics.

Zombies can;
See everyone on the map
Sit in cars, but not drive them.
Survive otherwise deadly drops/explosions/car accidents.
A strong enough to drag items to block roads or doorways.
They cannot;
Voice chat
Drive cars
Use healing stations
Survive very specific head shots.
Cars can be driven by people, and not zombies. However, zombies can sit in cars, forcing people to check out a car before entering.
Cars cannot drive into buildings.
Guns can be used by people, but when a zombie carries a gun, it shoots randomly in any direction. So there is a slight chance of hitting something.

People can run faster than zombies, using the stepping board. Everything else is steered using the controller.

Zombies are stronger than people, and can survive certain things that people cannot. However this would be accumulative and the zombie would become slower with each incident.

To turn a person into a zombie, they have to be bitten, or splashed with blood. So if a person is standing around, and a car takes out a zombie, it would turn that person into a zombie through infection. The healing stations will delay the inevitable, but not cancel it out. So you have to dose up every now and again to be able to make it all the way to the final goal.

Voice chat is only available very locally, otherwise either side could organize themselves super fast and then it would become a case of who could get to something first and keep it, rather than any mystery as to what was hiding around which corner. Perhaps have the option to speak as a zombie, but it comes out all garbled, messing up short range communications with people nearby.

The safe point for the people could perhaps be one randomly chosen point on the map, out of a set. Zombies cannot enter safe points, but they can enter any safe point which is not active for that particular game. So a person can enter the safe point, still to find zombies inside. This could encourage lots of bluffing by zombies hanging around outside a safe point, to imply that it is the final goal. The safe point could be a randomly dropped thing like a truck or some other supposed portable medical facility. Safe points would be made so that the doors couldn't be blocked by zombies dragging large items in front of the door.

More to come....

Who doesn't like anything with zombies in it?

Quickie - Computer Wipes Battle

2008-04-15T18:39:00.005-04:00

Occasionally on one of my many trips through the hallowed halls of Best Buy, I pick up a container of Falcon monitor wipes. They deal with the unmentionable mystery grunge that builds up on, and inside the computers that I deal with. Even the migratory blorg that ends up on the table after venturing inside to check dark and dusty innards, can be contained. They do much more than just monitors it seems.

Falcon wipes are actually wet, and useful. But on this occasion they were out, and Office Depot nearby had a similar product. It's only wipes, what could be the problem there? The Office Depot brand are very dry and not very useful. You cannot really clean anything with them, just brush things around. I suppose if you were super paranoid about damaging a surface these would do, but the material is not even very soft, so you could end up scratching what ever it was anyway.

Both sets are usually around $7 a pack. I never buy them when they come with the compressed air container, as I don't want to blow pieces off the motherboard by accident. I prefer the close the eyes, blow hard, and try to convince yourself you have not inhaled all manner of someone-else's-prehistoric-household-airborne-crapola induced lung death method.

Brought to you in association with "This didn't seem like it would take very long when I first thought of posting such a small thing" department of Work Avoidance.

HDTV over the air antenna horror story "The TV24746 Chronicles"

2008-04-07T11:38:00.007-04:00

Bought a GE Branded, Futura TV24746 internal HDTV antenna, along with an external Futura TV24769 (there was no information regarding this model anywhere that I could find) to power some of my HDTV screens. Getting rid of standard definition DirecTV Tivo means I can have full HD programs for free, rather than pay a fee (extra for local) for TV which I am not currently watching anyway. But that's another story.

To get to the point. The GE Branded Futura TV24746 antenna is terrible. I tested on three different TV sets, in three different locations, three times. Every single time it was worse than the old $12 RCA ANT121 that I had a few of lying around.

Not much more to say really, except I am not even going to bother unboxing the Futura TV24769 because it is nearly the same exact model, but it's supposed to go outside. I don't want to kill myself while trying to hang this thing outside somewhere, just to get crappy TV non-reception at my own funeral. Sorry GE, these are poopy.

The test I did was as follows. Attach the antenna, do a scan of the channels, try watching the channels. Repeat three times. Then place the other antenna in exactly the same place and do it again. Every time the old antenna performed better. I even tried to give the TV24746 a break, by scanning using the ANT121, then swapping them over, so there were potentially more channels for it to try to receive. No good. To make things worse, a lot of the channels the TV24746 did 'find' when it was used for the scan, were simply blank when I tried to watch them. Like it knew there was something there, but wasn't able to make it out. With digital being pretty much an all-or-nothing way of viewing, I was surprised to see a large percentage of even the channels that the TV24746 did claim to find, freezing and messing up. No ghosting and fuzzy image, just large green squares and partially updating images (as is normal with poor HD reception). Reminded me of a crashed arcade machine.

Another thing to note, is that the ANT121 wasn't made for HDTV reception. It's not magical, as any antenna will get you SOME HD signals, but it just goes to show how terrible the made-for-HD TV24746 antenna really is in comparison. The quality of the analog channels was completely useless too. When it (quite often) failed to find the digital version of a local station, it left you with a totally unwatchable fuzzy mess. Every analog station I found using the TV24746 was not watchable at all. Now I know that like wireless internet reception, TV reception is very dependent on your environment, but this antenna just has no redeeming qualities. So before you rush out to buy that latest and greatest antenna, go get that old set of rabbit ears and give them a try, you may be surprised.

The TV24746 failed even against the ANT121, which costs a fraction of the price.

Futura TV24746 connectors. Even powered, and being able to connect a higher grade cable, it still just fails.

Little Gaming Consoles

2008-03-29T18:43:00.006-04:00

How about a PS3 for $2.99, or a Wii, or an Xbox360, maybe even a PS2? Now you can thanks to the jolly chaps at Gamestop.com.

They are supposed to be gift card boxes. You can put gift cards inside, and they are transported in a safe black felt enclosure, surrounded by globs of geeky gaming nerdiness.

You can see how tiny they are with the real PSP at the back.

Sorry to break the magic, but they are just boxes to put gift cards in.

The rear even shows details like network, and power sockets.

These dudes really did the business with the PS2, and included the little logos on the edge. And yes, I forgot to clean the crud from the edges.

They cost just $2.99 a piece, made of thin metal, and really have a lot more detail that you are seeing here. Any real gamer would love to get one of these, and you could confirm their gamingness by learning that perhaps in six months time they still didn't know there was anything inside them, but they would be in pristine condition still.

Nintendo Free Stuff

2008-03-20T16:02:00.003-04:00

While reading through the stuff at mynintendo.com I noticed that in a similar way that most PC games require a serial code to install the game, Nintendo have serial numbers included with your games (and consoles) to register them. No big deal until I saw that just by registering you can extend your Wii warranty by 90 days.

Also by registering the DS Zelda - Phantom Hourglass game, they send you a free feather stylus*. So from now on I will be taking note of all that paper that usually is covered in FCC regulations, and epilepsy warnings, to see if there is a registration code in there somewhere. It just turns up in the mail, but sadly doesn't make the treasure discovery sound just like the game, when you open the package**.

As far as I know, it's only Nintendo games that come with the codes in the box. So for now, registering the DS games, and PSP system has produced booty. The PSP one was a demo UMD disk of Killzone which arrived in the mail.

*Ok I know, it's not complicated but it IS very Zelda.

** But you never know, yours just might.

Wii

2008-03-09T10:43:00.008-04:00

Ever since the Wii was supposed to be in the stores here in America, I have been asking at my local Best Buy if they have any in stock. It finally paid off during my last visit, when one of the staff there who remembered I kept asking, remarked that they currently had three in stock. Of course I thought they were joking, because this was the VERY FIRST time I had NOT asked about it. But sure enough, there were three on the shelf. As negotiation* over accessories began, the others were snapped up by passing families.

Buying extra controllers and chargers (and of course a couple of games) brought the price up from the standard $250, to unmentionable levels. You do get one set of controllers with the console, but right now $60 gets you another set of controllers. Being the console that supposedly brings non-gamers into gaming, only having one set in the box, means you have to add that $60 to the $250 before you even start to think of all those 'must have' accessories for it. Ker-ching!

I plonked down the bucks for a 4 Wiimote recharge station, that comes with 4 rechargeable battery packs. So you don't have to keep buying two AA batteries for each one, or even worse, buying expensive rechargeables and charger**. If you do buy this one (which the Best Buy dude tells me I need because the Wiimotes eat through batteries at fearsome rates) you can't leave the included rubber jackets on because they obscure the charging contacts on the back. Instead of a battery pack, you get 4 replacement battery doors, with the rechargeable packs molded into them. So when you want to charge your Wiimote, you just put it in the charging base. When seated they are quite wobbly, but the normally blue light on each slot turns red until the charge is complete. It is totally worth it for the overall blue neon lit round base.***

Next morning the game disk slot was pulsing and flashing blue. I suspected it to be speaking to the recharging base about something to do with nanobotic** legs. This wasn't true. I had connected the Wii to my wireless network so it could get updates etc, and it had been gathering messages from the Nintendo mother ship. This blue flashing was to tell me there were unread messages, and there were a LOT. Nothing of note, but all to do with the strange Wii 'channels' I had looked at. One was a voting channel, where they asked you simple questions like "If you won the lottery would you still work?" or "Do you turn your PC off at night?". You could answer them, and then predict what you considered to be the most popular answer. Remember kids, popular rarely equals right. Not to give too much away, but more people said they WOULD continue to work if they won the lottery! So the blue flashing was letting me know there were more questions to answer, and poll results from others were in. One handy feature for anyone who needs to make sure younger household players are not spending too much time with the Wii, is the daily calendar of what, who, and how long the different members of the household have been playing.

One REALLY smart move, was to charge for the internet browser. The Wii has no user log in as such. You can create a personal character, called a Mii, which you can model on yourself, and it actually appears in the games you play. So when you start a game you say, I want to use my Mii. The score and records for that Mii change accordingly. So if your kid plays a lot one day, it shows up in the daily messages. Also the mere fact of charing 500 points**** for the web browser, means this is one less piece of network connected equipment you have to worry about your children using (so much). There are parental controls but to use them, you have to point at the code on screen***** and that's going to last about three seconds when the kid finally persuades you to let them get online for something.

Most of the Wii games were great fun, just flinging your arms about in some vaguely realistic manner depending on what activity you are doing (cow riding still to be confirmed), is all great fun. So far nothing broken although not for lack of trying on a nearby table top, chair, and a stunt breakaway lamp. Shall I save grandma's ashes, or get that backhand in properly?

If you can find one, it's a must buy. If you can't find one, pretend.

All the Wii hardware so far reminds me of medical supplies from the future.
*Not actually any negotiation. Just the heart stopping realization of the cash total at the checkout, which you feebly try to cover up. Of course, everyone ELSE in line knows exactly how much their pile o' booty is going to come to, and will scoff at your inability to add up. Even though they too are locked in the Sauron like gaze of consumerism.

**Which you instantly lose all the batteries after leaving them unattended for more than 2 hours. Rechargeable batteries share the same hyperspace as balls of string, retractable measuring tapes, rolls of sticky tape, and little headphones. I think they make them from special nanobotic plastics, which grow little legs in the dark, and just go home.

***If you are 8.

****1 point, 1 cent. Did you hear that Microsoft? PS3 owners are even better off because they just get the price marked on screen. Microsoft Points (with which to purchase Xbox content) have a algorithm known only to people long dead, as to how many points is one dollar.

*****Something Microsoft DID do right, by making the pass code, be a sequence of buttons you press on the Xbox360 controller. With the Wii you have to enter on your 8 feet wide TV screen, with exactly those people you don't want to know it, er... knowing it.

Amazon Kindle

2007-11-21T21:04:00.000-05:00

I am not someone that reads a lot of books. I go through phases, and recently got back into reading completely not-in-any-way-ever-contributing-to-the-quality-of-my-life books. A long time ago I was reading using a Dell Axim X5 PDA. I really enjoyed it, and to have something that automagically downloads books directly to the device, like the Kindle, would be great.

I have found a few times I have settled down to read a book and then discovered I was closer to the end that I thought. Usually at that point I would have to haul my saggy, pale, sorry backside out of what ever I had draped it over, and go back to Amazon and find either the next one in the series, or worse still, try and find a book that is similar.

WAIT!

I am not moving from where I am to browse Amazon.com for similar books and then play the 'Do I want to pay for super-speedy shipping that never actually delivers it in super-speedy times which would have been a $3 saving by just ordering standard delivery?'. So being able to find it from the book (meaning the device I already have in my pudgy fingers) I am already looking at is kewl. To have the Kindle deliver content over the cell network works for me. No computer needed, no expertise of any sort at all. Just (say this in your best drooling idiot voice now) "WANT BOOK, PRESS BUTTON, HAVE BOOK NOW". Then you can get back to reading. Some bright spark decided that SD Cards can be added for extra storage, plus adding a USB cable to the included stuff in the box means you can put what ever you like on the thing.

I would definitely purchase one of these readers if it wasn't so expensive, maybe $200 and I would have purchased it on pre-order, but $400 means I will have to wait for my workplace to be convinced (by yours truly) to purchase one for every student, in a way to save on books, and administration. Shipping and then tracking all those dead trees really gets tedious after a while.

I don't tend to care too often about the look of a thing, because most of my life is spent within secret hidden fortresses of solitude/secrecy/lots-o-expensive-stuff, and so nobody else ever sees the equipment. For me to shudder uncontrollably about the look of the Kindle means it could actually be pretty hideous. It comes with a cover, designed to be left on while you're reading it, or carrying it around, and maybe that's enough to be able to quickly flap shut before the whole room shows you using something that isn't an IPhone. Certainly enough to be able to quickly stuff it in a bag without fear of keys or pens ruining the screen. You KNOW you want to stuff it in a bag with broken glass, shards of metal, miniature versions of that friend of yours that likes to tell you how your gadgets should be set up and break it faster for you without telling you, on a plane with the flight attendant using the smush technique for getting obviously too-large items into the overhead storage compartment, and then sit on the bag. Not sure if the cover would actually protect against all that, but normal hauling should be ok.

The batteries last for days, you don't need a computer, and you can use it in ordinary lighting. I am sure any geeks reading get tired of informing people that putting a PDA, laptop, or phone, under a desk lamp will NOT enable you to see the screen better (in fact the darker the room the better for those). It looks like a book, acts like a book, just doesn't weigh the same as a book. It even has huge flaps on each side for you to turn pages. You can make notes on the pages, as well as bookmark sections etc. I think it's great, but I am nobody.

For those that don't know what this piece of $400 equipment is. It's a small screen which displays the text of complete books (but you CAN make the text huge if you don't want to bother with your glasses), page by page, allowing you to flip through it just as you would a real book. It keeps your place automatically, and weighs much less than a small paper back book, but can hold the equivalent of 200 (even more if you put an SD memory card in the thing) without you having to really carry all those books. No computer needed (or smug know-all friend that insists that they didn't break it, honest) because it works completely by itself. Once you work out which thing to press, there is nothing more to worry about, except maybe which books you want to read on it.

Isn't this one of those weird things that Android could be used for?

Someone, please buy me one :)

The same Itunes library on multiple computers in your network

2007-10-26T23:36:00.000-04:00

If like me, you are often at multiple computers you may want to have your Itunes library available to you where you are. This method works for me, as I never use ITunes to purchase songs, but I do use it for keeping track of podcasts.

I found that I could simply move the ITunes folder from the one PC I was using to sync up to the Ipod, onto something shared on the network. I used a 1TB World Book NAS which is always on, but I imagine you could use any shared folder on any computer on your network. Of course this folder has to be accessible to you when you are at the other machines. Now the weird part was I didn't have to move the photos and games (ok so I purchased TWO games for the Ipod) from that computer, because it just happens to be the place I sync up my Ipod if I need to. I could have, but I forgot to do it at first, and found it just worked anyway so I never bothered.

I went down into my MY MUSIC folder on that PC, and found the ITunes folder. Now it seems the file that does the work is the Itunes Library.itl file. So one drag and drop onto the shared network accessible folder, and part one is done.

The Itunes folder on a network drive showing the all important Itunes Library.itl file

Now to get the other computers to use the same ITunes library. This is hard so you may want to print this next part out and stare at it for hours. Hold SHIFT and double click (or single click if that's how you are set up) the ITunes icon. When ITunes goes to start up it will ask you for the location of the ITunes library you want to use. Just browse to your network folder that contains your freshly moved ITunes library and more importantly the Itunes Library.itl file because thats the one that it's actually looking for. Then when ITunes starts up you will see it exactly as you left it last time on the previous computer. I tried opening it at the same time on two different machines, and I was told that the Itunes Library.itl file was locked/in use and couldn't be used until it unlocked/not in use. So as long as you only run it on one machine at a time it's no problem. Even if you do by mistake, it won't overwrite or mess anything up because it stops before it does anything at all.

You can even sync your podcasts using ITunes from ANY of your computers, as it saves them all into the same folder on your network.

The reason I did this was because of the crappy library sharing feature in ITunes. Some videos were ok but way too many just refused to play on the 'other' machine. Also doing a shared library meant that if I had watched or listened to one on the main computer the library was stored on, when I got to the other computer, because it was a shared library it assumed I was someone else and played everything from the start. Endless fast forwarding to find the right spot each time. Upon return to the main computer, some podcasts which I HAD listened to remotely, of course were listed as unlistened to. This became an issue over time as the list of podcasts became more inaccurate. Which ones had I listened to, and of the ones I had, which ones had I listened to all or merely parts of.

Sharing the library this way, means that going from one computer to another dispenses with wondering which shows were new and which were already listened to. Also the video just works because it's all coming from the same folder.

So drag your ITunes library folder to a network available folder, hold shift when you run ITunes, and select the new library location. You are done. And you can add as many computers as you like, so even visitors can peruse your collection of what ever it is you collect in there.

Something else I found useful and possibly life saving for the Ipod (or any other portable music player). If you have purchased a new computer and gotten some of those excruciatingly awful speaker sets with them, now you can use them. Any speakers that are not powered (meaning they do not need an external power supply and only have the speaker attachment wire coming out of them) are great for your Ipod. Don't go spending $50 on some 'Ipod Compatible' travel speakers, just use these. In fact it's hard to find them available anywhere outside of the purchase of a new computer, and even that is becoming less popular these days. Now back to the life saving part. What these speakers allow you to do, is to listen to your Ipod when you are in the shower, in the garden, or just somewhere where it's not convenient (or safe, or you can be bothered) to put a computer. They are plenty loud enough (unless you have already spent years with personal audio ruining your ear drums at mega-decibels) and this means you don't have to go around with headphones on, which I personally never could get used to, because of not being able to hear other normal sounds around me, as well as constantly yanking them out because I moved in a certain way. Don't forget that they will work with any music player which has the correct sized headphone socket on them. Now you can leave music and podcasts in places that typically you wouldn't want to, for fear of breaking them or even death by electrocution. But you really have to look hard for these types of speakers, because they only seem to sell the ones with power supplies, which would be louder but deadly! I did track one set down at a dollar store, and will get more if I find them.

Xbox360 red ring of death

2007-10-09T21:07:00.000-04:00

Back in August I succumbed to the Red Ring of Death on the Xbox360. Three red lights showing around the power button. The ones that usually turn green, indicating which controllers are active. So I got online, filled in a form, received a box, put the Xbox360 in it (after removing the hard drive), waited, got it back again.

They send you a small box. That box contains a plastic bag, two pieces of foam, a strip of sticking tape, and a UPS label. You remove the hard drive from your Xbox360 just by pressing the button and lifting it off, put the unit in the bag, then in the foam padding shapes, seal the box with the tape, slap the UPS label on the outside (over the one that got it shipped to you), and then just leave it at any UPS place. You can monitor it online, where I could follow every step, from them processing my request, to letting me know the unit had been shipped back to me.

They swapped mine out for a new one it seems. I assume it's new because one of the little mysterious receiver windows on the front of the unit still had that clear plastic you are supposed to peel off if you are not anal about scratching things. And the fact they said it was a different unit. I put the hard drive back on, and powered up. All groovy, although since I sent it off, I purchased an Xbox360 Elite, so I had migrated my live account to that one a while back. So when I tried to access that account on this unit, it said the account was invalid. I don't think I will bother going back to that unit anyway.

They put a months free Xbox Live service in the form of a scratch off card, in the box. Also included was a notice telling me how to reconnect the wireless controllers by holding the connect buttons. I always wondered how to do that anyway. Sometimes I press the button in the center of the controller to power the unit up, but it just continues to flash and not do anything else. So if you hold the connect button on the unit, and then press the one on the controller they can see eachother again.

So for me, the whole process from reporting the fault, to getting a new unit back in the mail was approx six weeks. I say approx because I was on vacation when it came back. But now I DO know that you can get an Xbox360 through the x-ray machines at the airport, and they survive. No I didn't put it in a suitcase, I had it in a bag with a ton of wires and crap which I was sure they were going to make me pull out and account for every single strand. They didn't, and it still worked, smiley.

Halo 3

2007-10-09T20:28:00.000-04:00

I managed to snag a copy of Halo 3 a short while ago during a vacation. It seems the reviewers are right for the most part (at least the ones I've read anyway) that the game is ok, but nothing significant over the others. The graphics look great on the Xbox360 but it's just not as involving as Half Life 2 for instance. Gears of War, and Half Life 2, both had easy get-in-able plots, which for the most part let you get on with enjoying the action.

Halo 3 on the other hand had a lot of chatter between levels, but were they talking about a name of a star ship, a place, a race, or a process, and were they talking about the bad guys or the good guys? It didn't detract from the action but you sometimes found yourself wondering why you were storming a tower, or shooting something.

I haven't done much multi-player up to now but with the new weapons it should be fun. As long as I can keep it together during the ritual burning of my useless carcass by hordes of unsupervised kids online, with nothing in their lives but to roast anything that moves on Xbox Live. I was given quite a show by someone who had obviously mastered multi player, and how to show past battles by replaying them. You don't see a recording of the match, but a replay of the data. This means you can see it from any angle, or player viewpoint. All this lays to rest any outrageous claims of manliness by anyone, as you can now ask them to prove it instantly.

All in all, its a nice game, not enough WOW moments, and certainly not something that should have taken this long to get out. Plenty of value in the multi player though, now if I can only find someone who is worse than me? If you either are not that bothered by these types of games, or are a little strapped for cash right now, I have the feeling that there will be a few more traded in Halo 3's laying in game stores than you might imagine, soon enough.

Grand Central personal phone service

2007-07-01T19:03:00.000-04:00

Just trying Grand Central out. Apparently its a way of consolidating your phone numbers. I am not a big phone user, but since using voice in Second Life, it's become more of a temptation to up my wireless service levels. So click the CALL ME button over on the right, and you will be prompted for your phone number, then automatically connected to me. Neither of us will know the real phone number if you remember to keep the little PRIVATE box checked when you fill it in.

USB Headset

2007-04-25T08:58:00.000-04:00

I recently picked up a Logitech USB 350 headset to enjoy the voice filled beta of Second Life. I had a couple of ordinary headsets, with the microphone and speaker connectors, and they had always worked well. However on one machine they were simply not loud enough. Other programs such as Skype and Yahoo messenger seemed to work well, but for Second Life, people told me I was way too low.

Apparently (so I am informed) some sound connectors are just not so hot at actually connecting, hence the lower sound volume. If anyone knows different please let me know.

The headset was the first thing in a long time which didn't have an installation CD in the box. Just plug and play. It's nice to have a fairly decent set of headphones too, to listen to music, without having to switch. I suppose it is helping pick out different voices in a crowd within the Second Life voice beta, which incidentally is extremely addictive. Voices get louder as they approach, as well as tracking to the left or right depending on where that other speaker is. So far so very groovy indeed.

Accepting the inevitable

2007-03-26T18:42:00.000-04:00

I usually have access to so much hardware, I never THOUGHT I could get too attached to any particular piece. But recently, a fairly rock solid PC was giving me serious issues. Unexpected rebooting, failing to detect the graphics card, BIOS beeping giving different messages, unexplained blank screens. By now I would be trying to get someone to get a new PC, but I installed a new power supply, different hard drives, and just kept limping along. Removed most of the components, and STILL had issues, where it was unusable and unstable at best.

While working on it, I was finding out what the different BIOS beep codes (the mysterious morse code like beeps a computer makes if it cannot display anything or start booting up) were telling me.

I came across this post at Via Arena, which told me that at the moment, my computer was convinced there was no graphics card installed. It also mentioned further down to check for leaking capacitors. It wasn't until a little while ago, I was delving in yet again, to remove even more, and tried to brush away what I mistakenly took for dust. It was hard, and looked just like an old battery which has split and is leaking its innards.

I had to sit myself down, and break the news to myself, that it was indeed time to let it go and pass on quietly.

**UPDATE** From Draele in the comments, a perfect ending.

You can see examples of normal, and leaking, capacitors here.

I got all Vista'd up

2007-02-02T22:23:00.000-05:00

I went ahead and plunged into Windows Vista. A lot of people are saying, 'Well, I'll wait, blah di blah..."

It's going to happen eventually, so why not now.

More soon.

Gears of War down for now

2006-12-28T01:23:00.000-05:00

Seems that the Xbox Live servers are offline for a while. I was wondering why I couldn't get into Gears of War, unless I was signed out. I mistakenly deleted my save game data as I thought it may have become corrupted. I will have to play all over again. Is that a pain or a blessing, as the game is just so good?

Happy Not-supposed-to-say-it-mas

2006-12-24T17:54:00.000-05:00

It appears that Text America are going pay, as of the end of this month. So I will no longer be using their service to host my images, as $99 is a little steep when Flickr does it oh so much better.

I can see you laughing

My Christmas Present

2006-12-24T02:20:00.000-05:00

Ok get me one of these please, thankyou.

Me after I have read the instruction booklet

Xbox Live Vision Camera

2006-12-17T16:27:00.000-05:00

I got me an Xbox Live vision camera, to go with the Xbox 360, but more interestingly to use it as a PC web cam. So far it's been great, apart from one big issue.

Initially I plugged it into the PC, and tried it with Skype, and MSN Messenger. Worked perfectly, no troubles at all. Then I tried it in the Xbox360, where it also worked flawlessly.

However, upon returning it to the PC, it decided not to work. Plug in, hear the 'something has just been inserted into the USB port' noise, but nothing more than that. When trying to use the camera for other programs, it now doesn't report as installed at all. The only place I can find any mention of it, is in the Device Manager, under USB Device Controllers, as "Microsoft Xbox 360 Live Vision Camera".

Yes, I have tried rebooting.
Yes, I have tried plugging it into the same USB port as before, and then other ones.
Yes, I have uninstalled the device from the Device Manager.
Yes, I have uninstalled the camera from the Device Manager, and rebooted, and tried again.

The only sign of life is after an uninstall from the Device Manager, and plugging it back in, the little balloon pops up and tells me it has detected the correct camera.

The very first time I installed it, it did not call it a camera, it called it something with the word SECURITY in it. But it DID work. I don't know if that is an issue or not, as I assumed it was because as soon as you do plug it into the computer you need an update from Microsoft.

I am open to suggestion at this time, and anyone that gets it right, wins a total and utter crushing victory on Uno against yours truly. Not saying that

Right click MY COMPUTER
Select the HARDWARE tab
click DEVICE MANAGER
and look under USB Controllers

James Kim found deceased

2006-12-06T17:10:00.000-05:00

Sadly, James Kim was found deceased.

Such a sad loss.

James Kim

And if you don't know who he was, this was his last video appearance.

Christmas list, but by magic

2006-11-22T18:42:00.000-05:00

Apparently, I always wanted all this for Christmas.

You can try it too, and maybe post your list in the comments. Similar lists, strangely way out stuff, or maybe things you already have?

The Wi-Fi Bunny, I really DO want, as it's probably the most tech-but-useless thing I know of. However, the cutlery, er.. not so much.

Oh no, it's that time again soon!
To post your list, just copy the address (URL) of your completed list.

Broken screen

2006-11-15T23:46:00.000-05:00

Not a pretty sight, and no it's not mine, but this is what you get without the magsafe power supply. A probably slow motion, drama filled nanosecond of disbelief. You can't help just staring as your HED* crashes down onto the ground (after hitting six other things along the way). Keyboard keys zooming out like little escape pods from a space ship, and the whole thing coming to rest in a room filled with awkward silence, moments away from figuring out just if you can be annoyed or not.

Sorry about the quality of the picture, but it had to be gotten fast, so it could be remembered for ever.

A moment of silence please

*Highly Electronic Device

Vongo and HP, one annoying combination

2006-11-15T22:51:00.000-05:00

Thanks goes out to the dingleberry that made the Vongo installer that HP have decided to put on their new laptops. Not only have you made a usually flawless sort out of junk, (uninstalling all the useless crap that people who don't know how to use a computer would be even more frustrated with) a real pain. The endless looping and failing of the installer makes the computer unusable until it's removed! WAY TO GO! WOOHOO!

This is your brain on Vongo installers

PS3 tryout at Target

2006-11-12T23:38:00.000-05:00

Managed to get a go on a PS3 today, at a Target store. There was a demo disk in, with a few games on. I tried the off road racing game, MotorStorm, which you may have seen in the promotional footage for the PS3.

The front end of the PS3 was simple black, with the same menu style as a PSP. I moved the D-PAD around to get to the demo on the machine, and pressed X. The load times seemed a little long, but perhaps it was because there was simply nothing to see on the screen during loading.

The game itself looked great. Everything seemed a little slow, but not in the sense of lacking frame rate. Just an overall sense of slow. The cars bounced around, along what seemed to be a clifftop course, and zinged off into the sky over ramps.

The controller looked just like a standard PS2 one, with an extra shiny button in the center. It did feel a LOT more substantial than previous controllers.

The game was good, although I didn't see anything as yet, which stood out from my Xbox 360 experiences. Sony will have to go some to convince me to get one of their machines too, and I am someone that needs very little persuation on such matters.

My crappy camera phone image of the PS3, all alone in the case

Wired Magazine

2006-10-18T17:41:00.000-04:00

I made it onto page 191, of the October 2006 edition of Wired magazine. I am kewl now, it's official. Me me me me me.

Xbox 360

2006-09-24T16:40:00.000-04:00

I got one, it rocks. You should get one too. As soon as I figure out the whole online thing, I have to go around finding people to 'community' with, or something. You can do oodles of stuff with this thing straight out of the box. You can even get online and start loosing badly to lots of other people.

Within nanoseconds (the plastic bags in the package hadn't even finished fluttering to the floor) you are downloading demos, and being thrashed by other people all over the world. Astounding. I can't tell you the game I purchased with it, as it's so totally uncool and shallow.

It comes with a free month of the full online service. You don't have to do anything, it just says "Oo you qualify, wanna try it?". The one that comes with it, does most things except the actual online gaming side. I used my already established hotmail address to sign up and my Xbox 360 already knew lots about me.

I don't know if putting your gamer tag up online is a good thing to do, but if it's no hassle then I am all over that one. It even comes with a headset to do your trash talkin' thang if you are so inclined. I just left it off while being left in the dust, figuring out what to press.

What to get next is the thing. You are presented with LOTS of chances to buy online points (some sort of currency) for different games or graphical aspects to the front end navigation wotsit. It was odd that I was there for quite a time before I even had to think about popping in the game I had purchased with it, as there was so much to tinker with.

As for the gameplay side of it. Luvverly.

Scrummy

AOL blocking links to Open Office?

2006-09-02T13:26:00.000-04:00

Got an email today from someone with an AOL email address, asking where they could a cheap version of Microsoft Office, and a program to create PDF files.

Well currently Microsoft Office Student and Teacher edition is $150, and Adobe Acrobat (PDF making software) is $299 for the Mere Mortal Edition.

Open Office, is completely free, downloadable, and does both of these things.

No problem. Just reply with these details and links to Best Buy, Adobe.com and Open Office.

Yes problem. According to the great AOL machine, there are issues with the email first time around.

* 554 HVU:B1
http://postmaster.info.aol.com/errors/554hvub1.html

EXPLANATION:

There is at least one URL in your email that is generating substantial complaints from AOL members.

SOLUTION:

If you own all the domains linked to in your e-mail, please contact us to discuss more effective management of your complaint levels. You can start by setting up a free complaint loop through this form. This will allow you to receive AOL member complaints against your domain.

If you do not own the domain, please have the owner of that domain contact us.

Hmm, so I remove all reference to actual costs, and links to Adobe and Best Buy. Instantly the email is returned with the same error. Upon removal of the Open Office link, no worries, it zooms through. I tried resending the older messages but only removing the Open Office links, and it seemed to be accepted.

So let me be clear.
BLOCKED
Email 1, containing links to Best Buy pages, Adobe.com pages, and Open Office.
BLOCKED
Email 2, containing ONE link to the front page of OpenOffice.org.
ACCEPTED
Email 3, containing no links to anything at all.
ACCEPTED
Email 4, with all the links of email 1, but not to OpenOffice.org.

Make of this what you will, but it seems a little nuts NOT to be able to send these types of links to AOL users, who for the most part are just at the start of their online education.

The AOL brainiacs at work once more. Way to go guys!

Immigration

2006-08-09T14:02:00.000-04:00

As of August this year, I am a permenant member of America. After all that paperwork, it's finally over. Not hard, just fiddly. The dudes at immigration have always been good to me. In my experience there was nothing to complain about, and in fact they have actually helped me out on occasion.

I think I am going to get the worlds largest chocolate cake, and cases of beer, for my own personal excuse for celebration. Anyone wishing to join me is more than welcome.

Me blogging

Naughty Words

2006-07-28T23:32:00.000-04:00

Do things and take responsibility!

2006-07-18T18:12:00.000-04:00

I totally agree with this woman and how she dealt with someone.

No I won't do it, really I won't.

2006-07-01T13:04:00.000-04:00

In the real world with one of my ThinkGeek t-shirts. I could see that people were reading it, but a couple of people seemed to be very put out that I would NOT fix their computer. Very wierd. I can't begin to imagine what is going on in their head that if randomly informed by a sign that they will not have assistance, they think that anyone cares how dissapointed they are by it.

Mug shot (har har) from ThinkGeek.com

Google browser sync, for Firefox

2006-06-13T12:58:00.000-04:00

Google, have a rather groovy tool that lets you use Firefox at multiple computers, with all your history and sessions intact.

So what this means is you can use Firefox on your desktop, and when you use your laptop, or just any other computer anywhere else, it will pick up from where you last left off.

You need Firefox, and a Google account. Once the extension is installed, you sign into your Google account then set up what it is you want to carry over to other computers. The first time on each machine takes a few moments to get the data to Googles servers. Then each time you start Firefox, you get the option of continuing on from your last page or pages, with tabs, and even seperate instances of Firefox running, if thats how you left it.

One thing I found, was that while I was sitting at two machines I had set up, one of them told me I had been logged on elsewhere. Which if you're concerned with privacy issues is a good warning that someone else may be accessing your individual computer account, while they think you are not around!

For me this extension is perfect, as often I am looking up information for other hardware, or people. I don't have to remember where I got it, and go through it all again. So now I can research it once, and when I get to the point where I need the data, simply go through my history, or bookmarks, where ever I am. When I am not at mission control I am usually hurtling through my day, so digging around badly designed support sections of websites, or trying to remember was it a x200i or an x200ip, is hopefully over. Also if I can instantly bring up driver pages for hardware I know I only have 20 minutes at. This makes finding the RIGHT one much less hassle.

Oh and if you are wondering what extensions for Firefox are, look at this.

Thanks Google, I like it.

Vista Installation Diaries

2006-06-11T10:49:00.000-04:00

I am sure there are a LOT of people out there documenting the joy and/or pain of a Vista installation, and I am such a sheep I will join in. For anyone wondering what all this talk of, and what exactly Windows Vista is, its the latest version of Windows from Microsoft. Just like Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Millenium (cough cough), Windows 2000, Windows XP, Windows Vista. See? The fuss up to now has been about the graphical effects you can have on your desktop, as well as security enhancements. From what I have seen of the security side, it's been mainly to stop users doing anything bad, rather than specifics on outside attacks. But as I want to focus on plain old home usefulness I can leave the super-duper script kiddie evaluations to others. I just want to let you know if (for now) there is anything helpful for the typical home user.

So everyone is saying how slow the download for Windows Vista is, right now. Well perhaps I got lucky, because I just hit the download link and it started chugging away at a fairly respectable speed.
**In the end, it took 2 hours and 40 mins to get the 3.2GB .ISO file from Microsoft**

While that was happening, I went to the Windows Vista Upgrade Advisor to see if my machine could do all the things Vista is supposed to be able to. It is (well apart from watching TV because I don't have the TV tuner in there at the moment) so once the download is complete the next part can begin.

Update to follow.... Current Frustration factor N/A. Current Elation factor N/A.

Well after all that, it was nothing at all. A clean hard drive, and a downloaded .ISO file, burned to a DVD, was all I needed. After removing the original hard drive, replacing it with a 120GB one, and popping the DVD in the drive, it all just happened as it should. I think that's my first and only ever simple Windows anything, as there is usually some reason or other the usually well documented things just don't work.

Here is how it went, and hopefully how it will go for you too.

0 Mins: DVD boot
Select Keyboard, language
Click INSTALL NOW button
Input key

Disk format options
120 GB HD with multiple partitions, deleted them all, and formated max capacity, then clicked NEXT. I had been messing around with some Linux things, but the wizard let me delete all partitions, and format the full space as one drive. I got no option for a quick, or standard format (unless I missed something) and the format took a few seconds.

5 Mins: "Installing Windows" - Copying Files.
16 Mins: "Expanding Files"
28 Mins: "Installing Features" and "Installing Updates"
29 Mins: RESTART

Booting ok
Grey 'Windows Prepares to Start"

31 Mins: Completing Installation
33 Mins: DOS cursor
35 Mins: More black screen, with mouse pointer and Vista Beta 2 Build 5384 in the corner
Reboot
36 Mins: Weird colors at bottom of screen during boot, nothing else. Looked like a graphics driver error type of thing. It went, but I see it each time Vista boots.
37 Mins: Flicked into higher resolution 1280*1024 on my 17 inch LCD.
Weird heavenly booting screen, animated wavyness, like pool wall underwater.
38 Mins: SET UP WINDOWS
Country
Keyboard
User name
Password
Icon image
computer name
Reccomended settings in HELP PROTECT WINDOWS AUTOMATICALLY
Time Zone
"You're ready to start"
41 Mins: Hit start button on box on screen
42 Mins: Blankness
User log on
Same starting Windows music as XP.
fade out and into SETTING UP SETTINGS?
Warned of no virus protection, and had already connected to the network for intarweb access.
Finally at 45 mins in, there were no issues, everything was up and running. Now just to look at all the new stuff that is going to make everyones life so much easier.

All through the install I had to hardly touch the machine. Inputting the key and my user name and password, was about as tough as it got. Every other setting was already correct except for the time zone.

Fancy shmancy window thingies, fading and glassy, (after some brain faliure) I found the keys TAB + WINDOWS KEY for the flipping through the open applications thing. Like ALT + TAB but much sexier.

Downloaded and installed Firefox and CA virus protection (because they say they give you a year for free. My usual standby of AVG is not currently compatible with Vista.

Also went to Nvidia to get some proper Vista drivers. Vista itself has this thing in the control panel which tells you what is affecting your performance.

Plugged in a digital camera, it fired up, transferred the images, and allowed me to tag, and edit them.

Of late I have been trying to break the habit of not using sleep mode, or hibernation, on my PC's. I still remember when a lot of them would never come out of it, so it's something I tend to just not bother with. So when I went to switch off the Vista machine I clicked a power icon, which instantly put the PC to sleep. Ok no problem, I put it back on and it was less than 5 seconds to be back at the log in screen.

Day 1 and vista is groovy for me, with all its fading windows, and shiny new graphics. Hope the Vista-Lurve continues....

Nothing yet has been a real problem.

**Update**
Next day I noticed that both the DVD drives were simply not there in Vista. Not sure if they were never there, or mysteriously vanished since the install. And yes, the install was done from a DVD so if I find the answer I will update again.
**Update Part II**
So the solution turned out to be, power off, disconnect both DVD drives. Power on, then shutdown again. Then while off, reconnect one of the drives. I had two drives, a Sony DVD burner, and a generic DVD ROM drive. The non-Sony one was beginning to show signs of age by occasionally having to be 'helped' to eject. So I left that disconnected. Upon reboot, it found the drive and is currently installing the Office 2007 trial. Very slowly though. The computer informed me that I had interrupted the installation of the Sony DVD burner, but it was ready for use. Unless I am not reading the messages appearing properly, someone at Microsoft needs to look at what they are telling the users.

Vista, it's new so it has to be better right?

RIAA New coporate slogan?

2006-05-18T16:42:00.000-04:00

Nice

The dog died

2006-05-12T23:02:00.000-04:00

Misty, passed very peacefully. She was laying only inches where she had been born. No struggle, no lingering, just quietly drifted away. She had not been ill until today. Had a couple of strange topples on the spot. Got very quiet, had to be carried downstairs. I sat with her most of the day, instead of her normally sitting with me while I worked. It's nice she didn't have to be sick for very long, as she even went for her usual walk today as normal. She was excited, and made sure we kept to the route, as that was the proper way to do it of course. She was my friend.

One of the family

Crazy laptop gamble

2006-05-04T09:57:00.000-04:00

Toshiba is offering to refund 66% of the cost of specific laptops, if England win the 2006 Fifa world cup. Come on chaps, buy one and try it.

Term 12 of the conditions states that it's UK residents only. So I can't do it, but let me know if you decide to try it.

Wii (Weeeeee)

2006-04-29T08:59:00.000-04:00

Bootcamp, you know, it might be worth it?

2006-04-10T14:50:00.000-04:00

Bootcamp from Apple, allows you to run Windows XP on your Mac laptop. So now the question of cost is a little more appealing.

Previously a $2500 laptop is just too much to swallow, just to get my feet wet in the whole Apple cult thing. But now it seems to make a little bit more sense.

So ok, a brand new XP Install disk is going to set me back $200. But thats the point. I get both systems, on one laptop. So I can get me some new hardware, and new OS for a more reasonable price.

Although I suppose thats like saying if I dual boot my XP machine with Linux, I have a Linux computer for $500 or so.... hmmmm.

If the chaps at Apple would just lower the initial price anyway, I would have gotten one a LONG while ago. Well Apple, keep going, it may make sense for me at some point in the future.

And it seems you can get some good protection too!

Lots of thinky here... I will get back to you on this

Web 2.0 is what again?

2006-04-09T13:47:00.000-04:00

I have been amazingly busy signing up for, and testing a lot of these new Web2.0 services. If you were not aware that there was a new Web, then you are not alone. As far as I can gather, the definition of Web2.0, is that it's a two way thing. You can instantly update the site, use it in much more interactive ways, than just browsing texts or clicking links.

Problem is that there is SO much out there, all doing similar things, you have a hard time choosing which service you want and sticking with it. So without any further messing about I present some groovy links to some shockingly good website, which do more than tell you about stuff. This list will grow as I remember more of them, but I wanted to post here before the door to my blog became too hard to open after such a long gap in posting.

Writely.com
Create and share documents online. Its free and happens all in your browser. One of the most useful things to ever come out on the web. It works and works well. Even allowing for two or more people to be editing the same document at the same time, in remote locations. For instance, meeting notes or agenda, which can be updated as the meeting happens, so people around the table, as well as those not in attendance can see things unfold.

Irows.com
Same as writely but for all you bean counters out there. Online spreadsheets... come on, I know SOMEONE is salivating over this.

30boxes.com
Simple and no nonsense online calendar. Go there, sign up, organize your life.

RemembertheMilk.com
A todo list of lovelyness. Works well and allows for multiple lists of things, with oodles of reminder option. I am trying to stick with it, and not get pulled away by other services offering similar.

Eyeos.info
A complete online operating system. Sort of weird, but it has programs you sort of run on a desktop. All happening inside your browser. Word processing, contacts, little games and other programs too.

Goowy.com
Same as Eyeos really, but take a look at both and see what you like.

Thinkfree.com
Word Processor, Spreadsheet, and a Presentation app, all available anytime, anywhere, with personal storage of documents.

Ajaxwrite.com
Not even having to sign up for this one MUST make you at least want to try it. Go on, you KNOW you want to.

All of these websites act the same as programs you might run on your computer. They load in a few moments when you visit the site. You can do real work on these, and if you need to be at more than just your computer at home, it becomes painless to access your stuff where ever you are. In fact, even if you only use one computer, it means super duper security for you because the files are not on your computer. So even if someone stole your PC, your stuff is still available to you. Weird. There are lots more of these to come...

Tom Cruise at Yahoo?

2006-03-22T15:35:00.000-05:00

Apparently someone thought it was groovy to have his royal lost-it-ness at Yahoo.

Others not so much.

Ooookaaay

ACLU Sues West Virginia Police Chief Who Blocked Life-Saving Measures for Gay Heart Attack Victim Assumed to Be HIV Positive

2006-03-06T20:16:00.000-05:00

A police chief physically stopped someone from giving first aid to a heart attack victim? This must be one of those sensationalist headlines right?

Sadly no.... read on if you feel you can...

A terrible, terrible waste of a life

I have been busy

2006-02-15T21:34:00.000-05:00

I wish it were me playing

Gaming for kiddies, good or bad?

2005-12-21T18:12:00.000-05:00

This young fellow is getting rather miffed during his game play session. I don't in any way think that it's video games making him so. It seems to be in his particular nature to treat this kind of situation in this way.

He has three options...
1. Stop playing.
2. Go away, practice his brains out, and bring some training back to the game.
3. Have a heart attack in his mid-twenties.

If your kid is doing this, why the hell aren't you doing something about it? He obviously has a lot more issues than ANY video game could bring into his life. I just hope one day, far into the future he actually wins one single round.

By the way, there is an occasional naughty word in this video.

This is an image of a blood clot, in his brain, exploding when he's 19

TV Shows at I-Tunes, carrying a little TOO much info?

2005-12-18T10:53:00.000-05:00

Take a look at the ITunes music store and find the new TV Shows for sale there. Be sure to check the length of them, as a few are $2 for 5 minutes which seems a little bit low on the whole "Oo let's watch that again shall we?" scale. I only use ITunes as a way of collecting podcasts and am one of those that watches more online shows, than normal TV. I spend zero dollars at ITunes at the moment, and as yet nothing has made me want to increase that amount. Anyway, click the information icon beside some of the episodes and it gives in some cases, a complete account of the show. What's with that?

I know you don't have to read them, but still not sure WHY they put all that information there in the first place? If you were not sure about downloading a series, maybe just reading the entire plot will be enough and you can save $2 an episode.

Some of the prices seem comparable to DVD sales, and I can watch the DVD anywhere yada yada yada, DRM, blah blah blah.... However, this is the first step towards freeing content from your television. If the different online services keep up the pioneering work, we (hopefully) soon forget how it was to be tethered to the living room.

TV is changing, and maybe, with some online competition, it may one day have something to offer me again. But for now I don't appear to care.

Quickie - Congratulations

2005-12-17T21:03:00.000-05:00

Congrats K, on your twins.

Congrats S, on your baby boy.

Congrats M, on your engagement, your degree, and your new job, I suppose I should say WOW.

Quickie - Online Console Games

2005-12-17T12:55:00.000-05:00

If you know anything about games, go here, and be amazed. TONS of older home video games to play in your browser, with nothing to install, or know anything about... Stop reading this, go play it, NOW!

This is all that's left of you when you discover the games on that website

PSP Review - Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play

2005-12-15T15:02:00.000-05:00

Being old and crumbly, I like games from the days when you used to have to pay for EVERY SINGLE time you played it. Sort of like the way the RIAA would like you to listen to music, but that's beside the point.

Midway Arcade Treasures Extended Play for the PSP, is a rather groovy collection of arcade games, but more importantly brings some hand held fighting action to the PSP, which up to now has been scarce (what I really mean is that my big head didn't know about it). The games are;

720?™ - 1 player
Arch Rivals™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Championship Sprint™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Cyberball 2072™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Defender® - 1 player
Gauntlet™ - up to 4 player wireless
Joust™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Klax™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Marble Madness™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Mortal Kombat® - 1 or 2 player wireless
Mortal Kombat® II - 1 or 2 player wireless
Mortal Kombat® 3 - 1 or 2 player wireless
Paperboy™ - 1 player
Rampage™ - up to 3 player wireless
Rampart™ - up to 3 player wireless
Sinistar™ - 1 player
Spy Hunter™ - 1 player
Toobin'™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Wizard of Wor™ - 1 or 2 player wireless
Xenophobe® - up to 3 player wireless
Xybots™ - 1 or 2 player wireless

Anybody that used to play arcade games might spot something they remember in this line up. Now it says wireless, but in my experience it is nigh on impossible to find a local area network of gaming for your PSP. You have to be near other people for this to happen, and so far, nothing. The few people I DO know are all much to grown up to care about such things but it would be nice to be able to take someone on in one of the Mortal Kombat games.

So is it any good? Yes. The games work from a quick select menu, load in and off you go. As for loading times, most of the games load in one go, with no waiting after that. Mortal Kombat was a little different, but the time spent waiting was minimal. Load times were small, and only between the character select screen, and the start or end of completed matches.

Once within a game, you obviously cannot insert a coin so pressing START er..starts. When you want out and back to the game select screen, you can press start again. It's not a very fussy title, but the good thing is that it works REALLY WELL, for what it is. Game selection is silent, except for a blip to indicate you have scrolled to the next choice in the list of games. This was something that bugged me with the NAMCO MUSEUM BATTLE collection, as each time you quit out of a game and returned to the main menu, it was blasting out seemingly much louder than the game you were just playing. It was a mash-up of old arcade themes all lovingly crafted into a screeching dirge of paint peelingly squeaky notes.

The PSP controls work very well on each title in the Midway Arcade Treasures collection, with no odd placments or lack of response. Some people might argue in fact this is TOO good because arcades NEVER had such sprightly hardware, and therefore detracting from the experience. The PS2, GameCube, and Xbox versions of this title (now in their third incarnation) didn't have the combination of games I wanted to spend real money on. The PSP version has Defender, and Mortal Kombat, so anything more was a bonus as far as I was concerned.

It's difficult to say much more about the overall package as it all works so solidly. The only part I have yet to experience is the wireless, so if that happens I can post more here, but I am not holding out much hope for that.

Old? Get this next time you are shopping for denture ointment

Quickie Illusionist on Japanese TV proves that Solid can indeed pass through Solid

2005-12-11T12:50:00.000-05:00

Quickie - Watch this and be amazed! Probably good for keeping children agog for a few minutes too.

read more | digg story

Quickie - Cooling cooling cooling

2005-12-04T15:36:00.000-05:00

Quickie.

I was checking Digg.com as I do every five seconds, and this gem came out.

If you ever wanted to know WHY cooling your PC properly was important, watch this video for unbelievable heat related consequences!

Linux within Windows

2005-12-04T13:41:00.000-05:00

Was looking around the other day, through the mysterious Linux sites. Came to Damn Small Linux again, after being lured there by the promise of booting it from a USB drive. This is by no means new, and you're supposed to be able to stick it in any computer, boot it up, and it runs from the USB drive, rather than the installed hard drive. Knoppix and other Live CD's will do this, but of course, not retain any work done because they are CD's. Yes I KNOW you can save the config onto floppy disks. Been there, done that, and for some reason I just can't be bothered with it. As for booting from USB, most of the times I would NEED USB booting it would NOT be possible because of old hardware, and no USB ports. That's where my Live CD's would be ok.

So instead of coming out with a bootable USB drive, which would retain all the changes during each session, just like your normal computer does, I sort of cheated. If you get this version of DSL, you can put it in a folder on your computer, and just run it from there. It works, thats it! Changes are retained, nothing to mess with, fiddle with, or experiment with, at all.

I thought, ok, how can I make this useful. I just copied the folder I had been running DSL on, from my PC to a 128MB USB drive. It worked! All the changes I had made were there, it was easy. So in theory, I could just work on it on the PC (as it's much quicker accessing it from the hard drive, than the USB drive) and when I wanted to take that same thing out on the road, copy the folder to the USB drive. All current, nothing to update. Upon return, copy it back again.

To use it, just stick your USB drive into the computer (or go to the folder you downloaded it to), and access it as you would normally. Then within the folder, double click the dsl-windows.bat file and it boots up. You got yourself some Linux man! It runs in a window on your desktop... how spooky is that? Probably makes a great way for someone who really wants to see what this Linux malarky is all about, but doesn't have the inclination or equipment to burn CD's or mess with dual booting their computer. The folder is self contained, so if you don't want it, just delete it, simple. There is nothing to uninstall, or fiddly process to go through, to rid yourself of it.

This does of course require you are running Windows in the first place, but then hey, I am only going to be mending Windows computers anyway. Anyone even close to experiencing Linux would be quite capable of keeping their own Windows computers running well, I'm sure. I like it because I can quickly try something out without having to go to another machine, or boot up a Live CD. Most times it's just a command or program I want to see if I can use somehow, and the only reason I seem to get stuck in any Linux is because these days I find myself keeping all the things I need to work with, online. Except for files, or major applications, I can get by with a Live CD, or USB drive.

Linux, really handy if you just want the job done

Dissapointment :(

2005-12-04T13:21:00.000-05:00

I was initially excited about a full arcade style cabinet, with classic games, being sold at Target. However, once I saw it, I realised it was not up to the job at all. Buttons and joysticks were flimsy, and it was even questionable if the games themselves were actual arcade emulations. The screen was so bad it was difficult to make out even the colors.

I think I have to bite the bullet and get serious with MAME and some home built equipment. Or for now, just a dual arcade stick.

You tease!

The biggest holiday season approaches

2005-12-03T21:08:00.000-05:00

Quickly, lets get a song stuck in your head for the holidays. Tracks 3 and 5 for full ear-wormability.

I am sure you have not heard THESE songs before, or have you.... listen and it will have you scratching your head, not the darned vinyl.

Woah, and make sure you don't spell vinyl wrong online!

All this tech, is good right?

2005-11-10T09:14:00.000-05:00

I was doing my daily rounds of the technology websites, via Googles customizable homepage, and found an old chestnutty piece at Wired.
It was asking if all this technology merely kept people trapped in things they never had before, and now believe they cannot live without. Is being able to do so much work (as technology facilitates) a good thing (even with more money coming your way) while ignoring social interactions, and even personal well being?

Maybe one reason for the huge acceptance of technology such as computers and all the internet malarky, is that maybe a lot of people never were really any good at the social thing? Getting a computer or some other device to do your bidding, is a hell of a lot easier than getting someone else to cooperate. Look at it this way, would you rather ask your teenage kids to clean the kitchen, or ask Robby the robot to do it? Exactly!

I don't think it's any great secret that people will always do what is easier for them, even if it means ignoring obvious future consequences. I quite like the illusion that if it wasn't for those pesky computerized gadgets, we would all be living an amazingly rich and rewarding social existance. Nice fantasy. Anyway, I reckon all those people that are capable of it, are living it.

The other piece I saw at Wired, was about a new service which tagged all your photos so you didn't have to. I am really not into the whole photo thing, and I think it's a way of companies pulling people into technology, but with all the non-technological principles. You don't need 'photo' printers, hell, you don't even need to print the things. Someone let me know what the idea is behind that. Anyway, the company says that it can use it's software to identify people in photos, as well as supply appropriate tags to each one. Tags are keywords you can use to search for more specific items (pictures, files, anything) in a whole heap of similar things. Search your tags for BIRTHDAY, and you will see all the images from birthdays, but none from vacations. The problem they are supposed to be solving is that tagging EVERY SINGLE IMAGE you take, is a pain and a drudge. So if you didn't tag your vacation photos with a word you can remember (er... like vaction), you would not see them in a search for VACATION. You can have a whole mess of images, in one huge pile, and at your command, only the ones you want will shuffle to the surface for your viewing enjoyment.

WARNING: If you have not bothered to take the time to tag, or name the image files you've taken because it wasn't important enough that you make time to sort through the oh so precious memories you just HAD to keep, then I don't want to see them. Why not just send your camera on vacation somewhere, and let it take pictures every 30 seconds, no matter where it is. Then let it automatically upload those images to an auto tagging service, which stores it all online for you. Then that service will automatically email selected chums (based on their email keywords, and surfing habits) to show them pictures that the online service has worked out they would be interested in. To which THEIR email would automatically reply that they would/wouldn't have enjoyed them, based on it's own assessment of their email keywords, and surfing habits. Then noting in their automatic journal how much they enjoyed those pictures and would make a note of which images in the future their automated camera should take, so YOUR automated system would rate it highly also. And to did I mention, all of this could take place automatically?

Because that's what you want right? To do everything at hyper speed. To save time, so you can do even MORE things with the spare time you got from all the other sped up things you did quicker before? By now we should have been able to do so much in such a short space of time our heads should have sploded!

Why are you reading this (both of you)? Why not sign up for a blog reading service which scans through posts, extracting keywords you are interested in and telling you how relevant it is? Hang on, why sign up? Get something to only sign you up if based on your preferences, you would have wanted to sign up for it. Then you can save time by not having to subscribe to things that were of no interest to you at all. Why not just save a LOT of time, by telling a service your basic personal details such as age, location, etc. Then it can sign up, subscribe, purchase, rate, surf, email everything you so desperately need, without you having to take the time to do it. That would save a lot of time yes? Maybe even give you time to take the dog for a walk, chat with your chums in the street, see a movie, sit in the park feeding the ducks. While your tamagotchi style internet pet, does it's online thing all by itself.

Of all the people you know, how many of them REALLY know what they really want? I am sure people would love such automation, if it meant saving time... for er... what again? Legend has it that in the beginning there was darkness, and in that darkness a single piece of content was created. Then Google meta-tagged it, and the internet was born. Perhaps nobody will ever know who the mysterious 'Content Creator' was, or maybe not even care. I know I don't, as I have so much information flowing to me now that I could not possibly sort through it or even use it in any meaningful way. My purpose in life is to manage streams of data so they can flow freely, and continue the cycle of er... something.

Hey look, it's the internet of the future!
Remember just to feed it demographic details every couple of days.

Ever needed to express yourself?

2005-11-08T13:59:00.000-05:00

If you don't have the luxury to work in a place that bans miserableness, then check out the Cuss Container. It may just change your life.

This image is nothing to do with the Cuss Container.

Company makes whining against the rules

2005-11-06T17:00:00.000-05:00

Krysss.com towers has it's fingers crossed that this will sweep the globe, and put all those whiney moaning bastards where they belong. Out of everyone else's way!

Nutzwerk made it compulsory that employees do the big happy smiley every morning. If not they are to remain away from the office until they cheer up. Or more accurately, they can figure out that nobody is interested in their attention hoaring antics, and grow up.

Well done chaps. Need to hint at someone you work with? Show this to them and say what a wonderful world it would be if everywhere subscribed to this way of looking at things.

Full story can be found here at The Register.

No picture, but click here to cheer up.

Finally, cue the angelic chorus and bright lights from heaven...

2005-10-27T14:54:00.000-04:00

I grew up thinking that having your own arcade machine IN YOUR HOUSE, would be the best thing ever. But of course, that's just silly, it's impossible right? Not any more...
Looks like Target are going to be selling a $500 arcade cabinet with 12 games on board. Looking up some of the competition, this seems to be the better deal out there. Although the comments on the Target product page make for scary reading.

For some really weird reason, life has always been very good to me, and given me what ever I have wanted. I still remember my first taste of Defender, tucked away in the corner of a dusty seaside arcade, in England. I was useless, but what a rush... since then it's been lurve. I hope to get to see one of these things running, so I get the authentic "never-cleaned"(®Krysss.com) technology product. I may be able to purchase additional cigarette burns, as well as a goldfish bowl screen. Such quality you can see every scan line, and your own internal organs as it x-rays you.

The games are...
Joust, Defender I and II, Robotron, Rampage, Splat, Satan's Hollow, Root Beer Tapper, Bubbles, Wizard of War, Timber and Sinistar.

So if not this, then maybe this for the PSP. I know what you're thinking, MAME, right? But yeah it's groovy and all, however for a quick pick up and play MAME doesn't really do it. It will give you an exact 80's arcade experience with minimal setup. Though it's not really convenient when waiting in line, for what ever it is that person has been talking to the cashier about for the last 20 minutes.

Get me a box of tissues, and CLOSE THE DOOR BEHIND YOU DAMMIT!

Xbox 360 - Hands on

2005-10-25T19:27:00.000-04:00

Did my usual patrol into Best Buy today, and was stopped in my tracks by a rather sneaky and cheeky installation of an Xbox 360. This is what I saw.

It had two wired controllers and a demo disk inside the machine. Someone was already playing Call of Duty 2 on it. He didn't actually seem to have any previous experience at playing anything like that before. Repeated attempts by his computer controlled buddies, to get him to take cover and stop inhaling bullets, only resulted in a closeup of someones bottom, which he tried to shoot. Needless to say he perished within moments of meeting the enemy. Not entirely sure if he was indeed shot by the other chaps, or his commanding officer, sort of had an accident his way? On his second attempt, something more sinister happened. The game froze, and most of it went blue. Major crash. A quick prod of the reset button and it was back to the demo selection screen.

It seemed to be running with all the features that you can expect to get with a take home Xbox 360, but I was pressed for time, and of course wanted to see the games a runnin'.

Trouble was, apart from Call of Duty 2, and Kameo (which looks like the twisted ramblings of a spoilt 7 year old child), all other games on show were merely video. And I don't mean the good kind that shows you real footage. It was all the flashy and expensive, trailer style of video. Got controller, play game, dur!
So I strolled into Call of Duty 2, which starts off with quite a long set piece you have to wait for, until you can get into hot man on man, blasting action. I got my head sploded. The controller was fine, as it is very similar to an Xbox one, but my PC heritage still yearns for a good ol keyboard and mouse set up for my first person shooters. Kameo....zzz.... this thing has been coming out for ever, and it just seemed so contrived and over designed to me. Snore central on the level they gave you to play.

All in all, the graphics were good, but nothing so far that I couldn't see on a high end PC. I was crushed, dismayed, saddened to see they only had stupid video of Need for Speed Most Wanted. I had seen and heard great things of it, and being more shallow than a puddle in the desert, it would have cheered me no end to get to play with shiny things like that.

Summary, so far, I ain't seen nothing a computer can do. I am really more excited about the PS3 than the Xbox 360. Actually from what I hear all round, I have the PS3 first, then the Nintendo Revolution, after which is the Xbox 360.

Don't forget kids, current Xbox games are going to be amazingly cheap once this thing launches. Some amazing deals to be had soon.

Xbox 360, I still don't know if it's any good or not, help me!

Doom - The Movie

2005-10-22T22:41:00.000-04:00

Doom the movie, has been coming out for what seems for ever. And the reviews are saying it's not so good, BUT (there's always a but) it captures the game Doom perfectly. I have not seen any other movie, which captured the essence of a game as completely as this one.

Great cast, and none of the clichés which would have so easily slipped in between the massive amounts of action. Not even the part in an action movie where they all hold up somewhere, pull out blue prints, and explain the 'plot so far' for all the stupids. Then decide which doors they are going to weld shut, with us seeing the last soldier reporting the door is closed, saying "And nothing is going to get in or out". Camera panning down, as he walks away, to trail of slime which we return to a couple of scenes later. Watching him scrabble at that very same two foot thick steel door, while being chomped by the monster of the moment.

If you wanted to give someone an idea of what it's like to play Doom, or any other first person shooter. Show them this movie, it captures it all so well. And as for the bad reviews, this movie never promised to be anything else other than a real good time.

I watched it on the IMAX screen. The bonus was that because of all the crappy reviews, I could get in to see it on a Saturday night, and sit where ever I wanted. Oh yeah

Email junk from family and friends?

2005-10-19T13:25:00.000-04:00

Getting lots of emails from people you know, who JUST got a computer? They have only recently gained the ability to type without keep asking where every single letter on the keybaord is. Unfortunately if you are, I don't need to explain it as you're already receiving countless images, jokes, chain letters, and e-cards. If not then you're probably who I am talking about.

Show them this Microsoft Video, it should do all the hinting you could ever need.

Just like teenagers, they believe nobody has seen these things before, and EVERYONE will find it sooo toootally hilarious! So go ahead, send all this junk to people's work email addresses, and see how many responses you get. After all, what are people supposed to say? "Thanks for sending me that video which could quite possibly get me into trouble at work for language/graphical content"? Or maybe, "Thanks for sending me that email so that the e-card company can sell my address on for more spam"?

And eventually it all turns to tears.

"Hey, did you get my email the other day?"

Oh no, I have been deleting them all since I got the third chain letter with 67 people listed in the TO field. I NEVER read any of their emails. "Er.. no, did you send me one?"

"Yeah, it was of this kid falling off a bike, it was so funny!"

Hmmm I saw that one, it was an 8MB file which came into my inbox while on dial-up in a hotel, at a conference for work. I just deleted it from my webmail without looking at it, otherwise it would have taken all night to get it. I saw it four years ago anyway.

"Stop sending me all this tired crap ok? What do I look like, a five year old?"**

And it goes on

** Not actually the end of the conversation, but it is probably what really was wanted (and needed) to be said.

Ipod Video

2005-10-15T16:41:00.000-04:00

Now I have to get in on this one. Apple brings out something and they act like it's new? I'm already getting the puke bag for when we have to hear endless droning on about how revolutionary the Ipod Video is. The world according to Apple is that they invented computers, MP3 players, and now had the ground breaking forsight to let people watch video on the go. Of course, Karma prevents me from chuckling to myself, when the Apple sheep who jog (and only took it up because Apple invented it), run out into traffic, or hit a tree. This being as their ears and eyes were filled with some band's music video they just HAVE to take with them.

SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP

And anyway, what the hell is so important about listening to music? In a Twitcast the other day, someone asked a question about bringing music files into work, and it being a secure building which did not allow USB devices. Dvorak(he gets no spam) replied (and I completely agree), "How about NOT listening to music and getting on with your work you're being paid to be there to do?".

If you can't have it, then er... don't maybe an option? I just don't get the whole music thing? I like music and appreciate the art. But when did it become mandatory? Take those plugs out of your ears and talk to someone... sorry if that was a little harsh. Might mean some er... brace yourselves.... effort? Oh dear, how can I say such foul things?

Ipod Video

Slingbox is nice

2005-10-14T22:17:00.000-04:00

I remember the release of the Slingbox. So when faced with the object in person, I just had to give it a whirl.

This thing is stupidly simple to set up. The idea is that you can plug the Slingbox between your TV and the source of your TV viewing. ANYTHING with a video output, and I mean ANYTHING. Most will plug their Tivo's, or cable boxes into it. You can plug game consoles, video cameras, or as in my case a DirecTivo. They put all the cables you can think of in the box, and yes, the Slingbox has ports IN and OUT. So unlike most other televisual electronics, it actually can plug in, straight out of the box. That includes stereo audio of course. Then just plug the included network cable into your home network. I used a wireless bridge, as I was not going to lay on eight million miles of CAT5 cable through the house just to reach my new ~~toy~~ research product.

The software comes with it, but I just went online and got the latest version of the Slingplayer. Upon installation you tell it what sort of video device you have plugged it into, and it even gives you remote control of your video. By way of an IR Blaster, which is a little emmitter which acts like the light that normally comes from your remote control in your hand. As you set up the device for the first time, you can tell it which model of electronics you have and it will make sure it acts like the remote control, so you don't have to run up/down the whole house to pause or stop the movie etc.

At the end of the setup you are watching your normal television on your computer monitor. You can size the picture as tiny or as large as you like, up to full screen. The magic happens when you go out of your house and watch it in another place over the internet. So the idea is you can watch (and control) your home tv from anywhere in the world.

It guides you through opening your firewall, which you need to do if you want to be able to watch it on the go. If you don't you can still use it within your own network of course.

As soon as I get on the road, I will report back, but so far the thing is amazing.

Of course, the idea is that when you DO go on the road, you will be probably watching on a laptop. So when the software setup starts, it asks you if you have already set up the hardware. If you have, it skips everything and gives you a completed customized setup for your chosen Slinbox. When on the road you can connect via IP or using your ID code of your Slinbox so you can 'find' it from where ever you are.

Groovy. So far the only weirdness that I can find with it (although I haven't taken it on the road yet) is that sometimes the audio seems to slow down ever so slightly. I assume the image does too, but it's harder to see it perhaps.

Click this to see the quality

North American PSP 2.0 Update finally arrives

2005-08-24T02:50:00.000-04:00

So here is the process to get your PSP, over to the new 2.0 software version. After doing a normal network update check, this is what follows. Sorry for the crappy quality, I don't happen to have a PSP dev kit lying around in all my piles of gold, and $100 bills I use to light my cigars.

OK here we go...

User Agreement (Phew! Must have been 15 seconds or so since I read one of those)

Yes, of course

Click here for the details of the next 6 screen shots

Battery Warning. Don't play with batteries kids!

One percent... two percent... zzz

Hurrah! Time to play with the new toys...

New browser entry on the menu

Theme, or from what I saw, color selection of background.

Browser in action, before we unleash full screen...

BEHOLD THE MIGHT OF FULL SCREEN!
The mouse pointer you see here as a pen, uses the little analog stick on the PSP to move, VERY nice. There are options for bookmarks and a home page also. Cookie management too, how jolly exciting.

An applied wallpaper, but stupid me used an image that exactly would not look any good at all. The black areas are just where there is no image, nothing more.

Not had much time to mess with it as yet, just wanted to get these images up quickly. So far so good. The crappy looking images are due to a digital camera taking shots of the screen, which has a screen protector on it. The shots where then straigtened out in Photoshop, hence the not very straight looking edges.

Kids and another tale of pandering

2005-08-18T16:38:00.000-04:00

Slashdot had an article today about children being given video games as homework. But one particular comment seemed to stand out.

"How will you make the hamburger-flipping jobs they get after graduation not feel like hamburger-flipping?"

As far as I see it, that is the whole point of children going to school. To help prepare them for the world once they have to make their own decisions. I am sure each generation, feels the next one is never going to survive, but they seem to. However, making children feel as if they must be entertained at every possible moment of their waking lives, or it's ok to just turn their noses up and walk away? I am not sure how this trend is in any way self sustaining? It takes quite a patient person to be able to give, over and over, to others who do not resepct that effort in any way. So who will continue this weird tradition further down the line? As with most things it may just swing back the other way.

I see a lot of gadgets in my job, and the stuff they have for kids is staggering. I am not referring to toys, but endless amounts of stuff designed to not give them a moments peace at any time in their life! I think children miss out on just being able to be quiet for a moment or two and be left with themselves. Listening to music and playing video games is one thing, but they are constantly bombarded with entertainment options for every part of their lives, they never get to experience that peace.

Otherwise when they get older they have to be explained this sort of shit!

Mad rush for $50 computers

2005-08-16T13:25:00.000-04:00

Astounding! Watch the video of how a county sale of $50 Ibooks, went bananas. I am sure there will be people blaming those concerned with organising the event, but nobody will call to task those who acted so insanely over a laptop, trampling people in the rush!

I agree with the comment posted on Digg... Ebay next time.

Sad

read more | digg story

Lord of the Rings

2005-08-15T23:12:00.000-04:00

I know a lot of people really like the Lord of the Rings series of books. So being the geek, I thought I should really read it. Can't be a nerd when you haven't. I have NEVER done the whole Dungeons and Dragons thing, you know, with 20 sided dice, no women, dark aged worlds of festering monks, smashed barrels, and large cellar dwelling rats etc. Was never my scene. First off did "The Hobbit", (my only previous exposure to it through an ancient text adventure) and then onto the "Lord of the Rings, the Fellowship of the Ring". It was a strange read indeed. There were endless descriptions of endless miles and miles of countryside. That seemed about it! Any actual story, was always supposedly a story of something that ALWAYS happened before memory recalls (but seems able to recall the long trudging detail of even what color the kings hat was etc). Which they told to eachother with annoying regularity. I always imagined (after seeing the movies) this was an action thing. Twanging arrows, squelching sword play, and rocks squishing foes. Not at all. One part an entire battle (of jaw dropping vastness) was described as "...they came over the hills and they had a battle. Next morning....." Maybe not an exact quote, but you get the idea.

The books came across to me like a Middle Earth, Benny Hill show. They were chased up the hill, and down the hill. Into the forest, around the forest, and out of the forest. Even had Aragorn slapping little Frodo on the head for no reason. (Ok I made that bit up, but he should have done). And even that is making it sound more exciting that it was. Endless trudging over hilltops and fanatically detailed scenes, of woodlands, forests, escarpments (I knew there was a reason for teaching geography in schools), and surprisingly shimmery sunsets, blah blah blah... Nothing EVER happened to the people in the story, they just wandered about all over the place.

Who ever actually oversaw the adaptations for the movies, deserves a medal, as they used all the RIGHT parts of the books.

I will read the rest of them, but not until I have cleansed my palette with a novel taken from the screenplay of the apparent stinker, Fantastic 4. After that, I should be ready for the next Benny Hi...er.. I mean Lord of the Rings installment.

Click here for my audio review of these books.

Slappity slap slap

Know someone in a bad mood?

2005-08-14T16:01:00.000-04:00

Ask them to watch this...

Priceless
I dare you to only watch it once

Official: drinking improves thinking

2005-08-04T18:42:00.000-04:00

Research by the Australian National University in Canberra suggests drinking in moderation boost your brainpower. But none at all, or too much, can make you a dullard.

read more | digg story

Shizzles and fizzles...er.. my home fries...er.. dudes

2005-08-01T12:44:00.000-04:00

Radmila decided to urbanificate a tiny portion of her readers... Can you spot me in this lot?
I cheated and used an online graffiti generator, and you know what? It still makes less sense than it did before, and being completely color blind, I was totally sick of this by the end of it... Guess I won't be dizzling my bling-tastic rub-a-dubs any time soon?

Anyway, we've been er.. yeah...er.. like in the er.. studio er.. yeah, writing some like totally important songs...er.. yeah...and er.. here is like the er.. yeah...er.. first one off the ever so important album...er... yeah (hey do the kids still call them albums?)...like we cannot be put into any catagory...er... yeah.. as we are so totally er... uhm yeah.

What does all this mean?
Use them if you can figure out how

Second Life Log-a-thon

2005-08-01T11:41:00.000-04:00

Second Life had a contest yesterday to see if they could handle a large load of 5,000 people in world, at the same time. As far as I know, there are around 40,000 names in Second Life (but of course, people can have more than one identity), so you would imagine 5,000 would be no problem. It seemed even with a first prize of a completely free account, with a 4096 sq meter plot (also rent free), people would go for it. Most people I talked to, said they were, and the others simply didn't know about it. But after a swift explanation, they were in too.

I had made plans to log out in a deserted area, because of past problems, when the system is busy it can take a while to get in, and you had to be in Second Life for a total of 30 minutes, from 7 - 9pm PST, July 31, 2005, to be entered into the draw. So logging OUT there, would mean I had a chance to get in with minimal fuss. It turned out to be just normal. No strain that I could tell of, even in the worst place I could think of (the Welcome Area, pictured below) everything was normal for me.

The final totals I have come across seem to be around 3,839. Which while not being the 5,000 hoped for, was nearly 50% more than ever seen logged into the grid at the same time, according to his royal highness Philip Linden. In the pictures below you can see a counter for all those in world. The red thing has been there for a while now and is NOT a bong.

People from Europe were understandably miffed. 7pm PST, turns out to be 3 am GMT! So those who valued their jobs could not attend. You only had to be in the world to be entered into the contest, and I can't help wondering if a Saturday night would have been better all round?

For this Second Lifer, there was no difference to any other time in world. I am sure there were plenty of people who were completely unaware of the whole thing. I do hope that someone with little or no land wins the contest. Personally I could do with 936 prims for construction of my empire!

Top image was the start, the bottom was the end of what was christened before hand, the "Lag-a-thon" probably as people expected the worst.

Shopping

2005-07-30T23:46:00.000-04:00

This reminds me of my local store.

doo dee doo doo doo dee dooo

One for the ladies...

2005-07-26T22:03:00.000-04:00

Am I hot or not?
I don't actually want comments, as I know the answer already (sincere wink, point, and strange clicking noise), but are you brave enough to post YOURS here. Click the link you will know what I am talking about.

Ow!

Google does something useful yet again

2005-07-25T23:16:00.000-04:00

If you go to http://www.google.com/ig you can personalize the page to show things like headlines, weather, Gmail messages etc. Today they added more functionality to the page letting you put ANY RSS feed in as well as some more predefined ones of their own. So now you can have what ever you want, even when you don't want it. With no ads to get in the way, it's just as information is supposed to be er.... full of information, not endless flash animated ads showing men in ties doing incomprehenisble things with a 150,000 strong work force 'at the touch of a button' with IBM, or something like that.

Google, keep on doing stuff like this.

Virtual Street Reality

2005-07-25T22:28:00.000-04:00

These are 2d images that are drawn on the street by an artist, which when viewed at the right angle take on a 3d view. Great stuff!

read more | digg story

Batman Begins & War of the Worlds

2005-07-24T22:23:00.000-04:00

Saw Batman Begins the other day, and War of the Worlds today. Both great movies. Of the two I would say Batman Begins is the better movie, as it gives you more to run through your brain than War of the Worlds.

Michael Keaton was my batman since he squeaked into the latex the first time, but now Christian Bale is THE caped crudsader in Batman Begins. Amazing job all round, and a case of M&M's to all concerned. The movie didn't even need the usual over the top effects, it was THAT good. Great acting, and lots of it. Go see it now, and then go see it again. I don't think I am spoiling it by saying that Batman is a Ninja, oh my goodness, how kewl is that!?!??!

War of the Worlds reminded me of long past evenings spent cringing in horror at the Daleks in Dr.Who. This movie didn't mess about, it got on with things early, and did not let up for a moment. If you are like me, and like stuff that blows up, then you will definately like this. It seemed like five disaster movies all packed into one. It flew by, as did most of the body parts, and houses, and cars, and boats, and puppies, and horses, and blood, and just about everything else you can imagine. These aliens were not very pleasant visitors to our stinky planet. Go see it, but make sure you strap yourself in for the ride, it is great. Definately a 'see it at a theatre' movie, unless you have the screen and sound equipment to be able to do this masterpiece justice, you will just have to put up the cash for the tickets.

These movies really were great fun. Groovy in the extreme.

Both good romps, but in my opinion, only Batman Begins is worth more than one viewing.

More Trek

2005-07-23T18:25:00.000-04:00

With the recent departure of Scotty, I thought I should post these images from There, and Second Life, to show you that he will not be forgotten..... or it could be an excuse just to nerd out.

And yes there ARE all the Trek noises in Second Life.

Slingbox

2005-07-22T19:59:00.000-04:00

The Slingbox is a device which sits between your video entertainment, and your television, and then sends it out over the internet for you to watch anywhere you like, on your PC.

You can also remotely control your Tivo with it, if you want. So now your TV can FINALLY come with you like they promised with cell phones, and sci-fi movies.

Yes it streams it over the web, and you need an existing home network to insert this bad boy into. I will keep an eye out now for the first Linux based rip-offs, hopefully saving myself $250 in the process.

Slingbox me now!

Scotty Dies

2005-07-20T12:59:00.000-04:00

James Doohan died at 5:30 a.m. He was 85.
The character will never leave us, even if his creator has in fact been beamed up.

CNN says it better than me.

Cheerio

Slashdot(ted)

2005-07-06T11:49:00.000-04:00

Slashdot, out?

Er.. for about 5 minutes

Seen here winking out of existance!