The Saint Cafe

Star Wars: The Old Republic

2011-12-21T09:09:00.000-08:00

I first went in with low expectations but excited to play a Star Ward based mmo. One thing I learned about mmo's is if you believe the hype, you are in for one big let down no matter what genre it is you love.

So when a new Star Wars mmo was announced, I was both excited and skeptical. There was after all Star Wars Galaxies, which started well in my opinion but went down a distorted path which didn't pan out.

Having played World of Warcraft, which was rich in lore, was easy to play and get used to, and at the time had great graphics, it was hard not to compare other mmo's to it. I tried out LOTRO, EQ2, Asheron's Call 2, SW Galaxies of course, D&D online, Lineage 2, Star Trek online, and most recently DC Universe. The only one different is DCU as it has the style of a console game as opposed to the traditional mmo gui and play style.

None of them, and I realize this is my opinion, had the same feel that WOW had/has: your character looks and feels like its a part of the world. What I mean is most of the time a character wasn't floating, or feel like it was in a bubble, giving an odd disconnectedness from the land, scenery. In WOW, you walked touching the ground with the feel of the ground, of being in the world.

Enter Star Wars: The Old Republic, or SWTOR. I set my expectations low but was still excited as it was a fresh start after the failure of Galaxies. The first brilliant move was to not base it in the time period if the movies. Where Galaxies was based between (originally) A New Hope and The Empire Strikes Back, SWTOR is based on the BioWare games Knights of the Old Republic, 3000 years before the movies! During that time, if you know the lore, there were many Jedi and even a Sith Empire. Brilliant!

Having been used to the ease of WOW and it's fluidity, I was pleasantly surprised SWTOR had the same basic feel of being in the world, not floating and feeling a disconnect with the ground, a feeling of separateness. The GUI is fine, traditional in the mmo sense but might still need some tweaking, maybe. I may just be used to the WOW GUI is all.

Now WOW is great in that there is a lot of lore and you feel you are playing in the whole storyline, so it's wonderful in that way which the other mmo's failed in imho. SWTOR takes it to a WHOLE new level! The npc's you talk to for missions, your character TALKS to them and they TALK back to you! And not a simple short go do this or that, but a conversation! That video I posted on Facebook is how it plays out everywhere you get missions! The voice work is excellent!

In WOW, I mentioned how you get involved in the story arcs and you feel like you accomplished something that affects the world, and it was great. In SWTOR, not only does it do that, it goes further! Your choices affect who you talk to, you get a reputation for how you treat npc's! And it grows as time passes! So when you decide as a Jedi you're not going to be the most forgiving and patient Jedi, the noc's will talk to you knowing that, as far as the programmers have allowed of course. This is probably the greatest idea an mmo has ever done! Talk about feeling as if you are in the story!

I can tell you how great the graphics and sound are in detail, but I won't as it'll take too long. Trust me when I say they are awesome! And the music! Oh man, it's like being in Star Wars!

All in all, you really get pulled into the game because you really feel as if you are a part of what's going on in the world as an individual. The game as a whole is excellent and I look forward to playing it when I get the chance! I haven't gone into a lot of detail of course, but I can tell you guys about it later! it is very well made and worth playing if you have the time and don't mind spending $15 a month. I don't mind the monthly fee as I don't have the money to go out every week, so it's a good compromise as far as entertainment value is concerned.

I'm glad I got it and know I will have lots of fun!

New iMac

2011-05-17T20:03:00.000-07:00

After months of having to use a Windows based PC for my home computing needs due to my broken G5 I finally pulled the trigger and bought a shiny new iMac.

I waited so long since I knew iMac's were due for a refresh based on the relatively new Sandy Bridge processors from Intel. Sure enough Apple updated them earlier this month and with the previously unreleased Intel Z68 chipset.

I ended up getting the base 21.5" model from Amazon for $1139 with free shipping since it seemed to offer the best bang-for-the-buck based on the latest MacWorld review. According to their testing it even outperformed the top of the line 27" model from last year.

The first application I installed was the Steam client and my initial results from Left 4 Dead 2 have been simply outstanding. Playing the game at the native 1920 x 1080 resolution with all the graphical goodies turned on runs at a super silky smooth frame rate. I can't believe how much better that game looks on my iMac than when running on my old Pentium 4 Dell with the Nvidia Geforce 6800 GPU. Portal is next on my download list and you can bet I will get Portal 2 during the next Steam sale even though I already have that game for my Xbox 360.

Although I've only used it for about an hour I can tell that I will need to replace the mouse with something more ergonomic than the Magic Mouse. I don't know what it is about mice that Apple can't seem to get right. It's a bit too flat for my large hands and the middle scroll gesture doesn't quite work as well as a real scroll wheel.

It's amazing the number of cables that are reduced with an all-in-one system. I ended up ditching the wireless in favor of a hard wired Ethernet cable since I still have a 802.11 G network and LfD2 was taking too long to download. Upgrading to a N wireless router is next on my shopping list.

Dave wanted some unboxing pics but since Rob still refuses to open a FaceBook account, I'll need to setup something on Flicker later on.

The 7th Guest for iOS

2010-12-19T08:43:00.000-08:00

I just recently found out that the The 7th Guest has been ported to the iOS platform last week. Of course I immediately downloaded it and found out it's mostly a faithful port of the 1993 classic game that was originally made for the PC.

There are some technical quirks that are explained in this review and it's missing three puzzles (including the infamous and incredibly difficult microscope puzzle) that were in the original game but its still fun to play. The animations play way too fast on my iPhone 4 so it appears Trilobyte didn't' account for the speed differences between the A4 and 486 processors but despite these flaws I'm throughly enjoying the game again.

During my research for this blog I found out that Graeme Devine (the co-creator of The 7th Guest and former id Software developer) has left Apple recently and went back to developing games again. I hope to see some good titles from him soon.

Riven: The Sequel to Myst for iOS

2010-12-16T06:46:00.000-08:00

I took me four months of commuting time but I recently finished Myst for the iPhone in late October. I did narrowly miss my goal of not looking up any hints as I was stuck and growing impatient near the end of the game.

Knowing that Riven would be the next logical release for Cyan, I would occasionally check gaming news sites for any updates only to find that they were "working on it". Well my wait is no longer as Cyan released Riven for iOS on the 15th of this month. I promptly purchased this after quickly reading the humorous "warning" in regards to the whopping 1GB file size:

Because of the large size it's HIGHLY RECOMMENDED that you download Riven on your computer using iTunes, and then sync with your iOS device. Downloading directly to your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch is theoretically possible via a wireless connection, but...uh...well...you really don't want to.

I've only played it for a few minutes but was able to enjoy some nice iOS enhancements like pinch to zoom and shake to reveal Hot Spot hints. Unlike the original release of Myst for the PC, I was never able to finish Riven for various reasons (difficulty of the puzzles being one of them), even after purchasing the official strategy guide, which I still own. I'm certain this game will take a lot longer than Myst to finish but I'll promise to be patient and savor the experience this time around.

You can learn more about the painstaking, pioneering work that went into the development of Riven (and all things Myst) at the excellent fansite, MYSTerium.

End of the Power Mac G5

2010-11-29T17:29:00.000-08:00

So my beloved Power Mac G5 stopped working right before the Thanksgiving holiday. There were a few warning signs a few days leading up to the failure. At first there was a noticeable slow down, followed by the fans getting louder than normal. Then on the last day it would go to sleep every few seconds. After powering it off it wouldn't turn back on with any video (the fans and the power light would turn on). I also noticed these red LED's inside the case which turned out to be diagnostics lights.

I ended up taking it to the Apple Store Genius Bar who after performing a few simple tests told me they could take it in but the service costs would be very expensive since the computer was considered "vintage". They recommended I take it to a local Apple Authorized Repair center who would charge less so I called a few around the area. One guy wanted $75 just to look at it and the other guy charged $150 per hour just for labor.

I ended up declining both options since I knew the value of the G5 was only worth about $200 on eBay. After googling the problem I came across this article which described the issues as being a result of the G5 liquid cooling leaking out. I ended up giving the internals a closer examination and sure enough there was evidence of corrosion below the CPU's and a tiny bit if coolant leaking out the back of the case.

It's been a good run considering I bought this computer the day it was released in June of 2004 which makes it over 6 years old. I always said I would keep using it until the tires fell off so apparently that day has come. The only thing I regret is that the failure wasn't due to the computer simply getting old but rather a failed cooling system that wasn't even designed by Apple but rather Delphi Corporation (the old GM spinoff). What makes me a sad is that I specifically bought this model G5 since it was the only Apple product at the time that used liquid cooling (I thought that was a geek bragging point). The irony is that if I stuck with a slower model that was air cooled most likely I would still be using it today.

So the wife and kids still needed a computer for running their educational software and paying bills and such so I first put the old iMac G3 back into use. Unfortunately its too slow (maxed out at 1GB of memory and can only run Tiger) to run just about anything so I had to resurrect my old Dell Dimension XPS that I planned on selling. It seems to work fine and with Rob's old Nvidia 7800 card it even runs Left For Dead 2 at a great frame rate. This will hold me over until after the holiday's when I plan on replacing it with a Mac Mini.

The only other question I have is what to do with my G5. It's such a beautiful computer, both inside and out, and I would hate to trash it. I suppose I could recycle the case since its made of a lot of aluminum, use the case as a mod for a PC or sell it online for parts.

Duke Nukem Forever...Again

2010-09-05T21:21:00.000-07:00

The Duke is back! Rob should be happy.

Are Blogs Dead?

2010-08-20T17:09:00.000-07:00

Dave made a comment today that blogs are so 2009. I have to admit it's much easier to post something on FaceBook. I came across this Wired article written back in Oct 2008 (that's about 10 years ago in Internet years) that comes to the same conclusion.

What do you guys think, are blogs dead? It is a struggle to write new stuff since I tend to spend a lot of time making sure the article is readable. I still haven't finished my MacWorld blog from earlier this year.

Is anybody even reading this?

Star Wars on Blu-ray

2010-08-14T20:13:00.000-07:00

George Lucas finally officially announced that the Blu-Ray version of all six Star Wars films will be released in fall of 2011. Unfortunately this will only include the 1997 Special Edition versions of Episodes 4-6 and not the original theatrical versions. When asked why Lucas offered this lame reply:

Mr. Lucas said that to release the original versions of these films on Blu-ray was “kind of an oxymoron because the quality of the original is not very good.”

It's apparent that Lucas has no desire to give the fans what they are asking for with the original releases and I don't like the fact it looks like I will be forced to buy episodes 1-3 but I'll probably end up getting this as long as the price is reasonable.

DOOM Resurrection Sale

2010-08-12T20:27:00.000-07:00

In case you don't already have it, DOOM Resurrection for the iOS platform is on sale during QUAKECON 2010 starting today and ending this Sunday. I'm in the process of downloading it now. I know its a rail shooter and it's a bit old but the $1.99 price is too good to pass up considering it normally sells for $9.99.

New Mac Pro anyone?

2010-07-27T21:37:00.001-07:00

If you have $21,000 laying around...

Paranormal Activity 2

2010-07-05T09:28:00.000-07:00

My initial excitement quickly turned to disappointment after watching the trailer for the upcoming Paranormal Activity 2 film on my iPhone. They used the same -Micah being thrown into the camera scene- that spoiled the first movie trailer as well as failing to capture any sense of dread that was present in the first film.

It was only after watching it on my iMac in larger resolution did I notice the subtle ghostly disturbances that somewhat changed my mind. I say somewhat because this Variety article doesn't give me much confidence it will be nearly as successful as the first. Oren Peli isn't directing this one and in fact Paramount only recently hired someone to direct for a film that will be released later this year.

In any case, let me know what kind of "paranormal activities" you caught in the trailer.

Apple iPhone 4 Movie

2010-06-30T09:54:00.000-07:00

Currently making news in the Mac and tech community is this short film titled Apple of My Eye which was filmed and edited entirely on an iPhone 4. It's an impressive demonstration of what is possible with a phone but what caught my eye was the Allied Model Trains store located in my old neighborhood of Culver City.

I would regularly drive past it to do my laundry down the street and it's also not too far off from the ever popular, Tito's Tacos.

Toy Story 3

2010-06-20T21:21:00.001-07:00

I took the kids to see Toy Story 3 on opening day. Most sequels pale in comparison to the first one and Toy Story 2 was the rare exception. Well Toy Story 3, dare I say it, is the best of the trilogy. It was by far the darkest in the series but also had some good laughs in it (the Ken doll steals every scene he is in, kudos to Michael Keaton).

Pixar has the uncanny ability to evoke strong emotions in their films (take the first 20 minutes of Up for example) and TS3 was no different. Without spoiling anything there was a scene close to the end where there wasn't a dry eye in the theater. That's what I like about this company, it's more than just technology to them.

Not to say the tech wasn't bad, in fact it was quite excellent. In keeping with the look of the previous films the characters really couldn't look much different than before (with the exception of the human ones) but Pixar was able to goose up the background scenes compared to the previous 2 films and those little details show.

An interesting tidbit is the fact the animators where unable to use the original 3D files from the previous films and apparently had to start from scratch. Perhaps Rob could explain to me how this could happen.

The 3D effects were at just the right levels. Just like with Avatar, nothing gimmicky that "pokes you in the eye" but provided a depth to match the stunning visuals.

My favorite Toy Story character is new to this film, Chuckles the Clown. The creepiest is Big Baby. Watch the film and tell me if you agree.

WWDC 2010

2010-06-08T22:52:00.000-07:00

I just finished watching the WWDC 2010 keynote. As I was following the real-time blogs I knew Steve Jobs experienced technical difficulties during the iPhone 4 demo. The cause ended up being all the active wifi devices being used in the Moscone Center but it didn't stop a heckler from shouting "use Verizon!".

Of course this was edited out during the official broadcast but you can still watch the banned clip here. Better catch it before its gone!

For the record, I so want the new iPhone! FaceTime anyone?

Left 4 Dead… Again!

2010-05-18T08:14:00.000-07:00

So in preparation of Marcos getting the first Left 4 Dead, I pulled it off the shelf to replay it which I haven't played since L4D2 came out. Now I remember why I liked this game so much!

If I compare the 2 games, L4D2 has improved graphics and is harder to play, and I do like the characters with their own quirky remarks. With larger mobs and more special infected, their version of bosses who randomly spawn, except for the witch level in the Hard Rain campaign, it is easy to say L4D2 is superior and more intense.

But after I popped in the original and the opening movie started playing, I got pumped for it like I did when I first bought the game! There's just something about it that makes it more enjoyable for me. The all too short opening movie is exceptional! One of the best I've ever seen and could easily be made into an animated movie with these graphics. The music and sound was superb, great visuals and intense atmosphere. I almost forgot how much it puts you in the mood to play the game!

After the new patch, update, to L4D2, the opening movie was much improved, adding more of a storyline than the original L4D2 intro which was scattered clips without a story. But even with the more movie-like video, it still pales in comparison to the original L4D movie intro. The original movie really gets you pumped to play, and when you do start, you get a real feel of being IN a movie!

It's been a lot of fun playing with Marcos, trying to survive the zombie apocalypse, and I'm glad he got the original! Co-op on these two titles is the best thing they could have done! I'm glad they did it!

I like L4D2 a lot. I love L4D!

Steam for Mac

2010-05-13T11:03:00.000-07:00

Mark, were you playing Portal? Krudd, it's been nearly a year!

Jones Computer Network

2010-05-08T20:49:00.000-07:00

Before TechTV and G4, there was the Jones Computer Network which debuted in 1994 as the "first 24-hour channel devoted to computers". There were a handful of interesting shows to watch such as Home Computing hosted by stand-up comedian Tim Testa but my favorite was Digital Gurus co-hosted by Photoshop expert Deke McClelland and the tech newbie, Lee Sherman.

Digital Gurus was the show where I saw Kai Krause demo KPT Bryce for the Mac and watched Apple showcase their QuickDraw 3D technology for the first time. I would give video links to these shows but JCN unfortunately no longer exists and I can't find archives anywhere on the net with the exception of a few Home Computing episodes.

I did find a nice archive video from a non JCN program called the Computer Chronicles hosted by Stewart Cheifet however. This particular episode features both a KPT Bryce demo as well as my beloved, but now defunct, Caligari trueSpace!

Apple Mail

2010-04-25T07:44:00.000-07:00

Yes I still use the simple and default OS X Mail app, Apple Mail. I'm too lazy to research better alternatives and it does the job for my basic mail needs. It works fine except for when I try to type a name in the To field when composing a new message. It tries to autocomplete a previously known address and with everybody changing email accounts, I can't remember which is the new default. The result is that I use the wrong account without knowing.

Rob and I were talking about this so I finally got around to googling the fix. Apple Mail has a Previous Recipients window which allows you to hunt down and kill these legacy addresses. If you still use Apple Mail like I do then its best to periodically check this for defunct addresses.

GoW 3

2010-04-19T18:22:00.000-07:00

One year! In the meantime, feast on this cool trailer! They are 3 for 3 when it comes to trailers.

http://www.gametrailers.com/video/ashes-to-gears-of-war/64419#comments_top

iMac Hard Drive Upgrade

2010-04-18T08:29:00.000-07:00

The stock 320GB HD on my 2007 iMac isn't cutting it anymore as I'm constantly deleting files in order to make room for newer things. I enjoy the simple all in one design of the iMac so I'm hesitant to just buy an external HD as an upgrade. So what about an internal drive?

I came across this video which demonstrates in detail how to upgrade the internal HD of a seemingly user unserviceable computer.

Am I crazy to consider this? Doing so seems akin to open heart surgery. The price difference isn't very much- around $100 for either an internal or external 1 TB drive but I would need to buy some special tools such as Torx screwdrivers and suction cups for an internal.

The Passing

2010-04-17T14:39:00.000-07:00

Valve just announced their downloadable add on for the ever popular Left for Dead 2 game, called The Passing, is finally being released next week.

I heard it's going to cost $7.50 in Microsoft Points for Xbox 360 owners while PC users will get it for free. Normally I would complain but since Kruddler and I are starving for a new campaign, I will gladly pay for it.

MacBook Pro Update

2010-04-13T19:42:00.000-07:00

There's three blogs I want to complete before Dave and Rob's upcoming trip. MacWorld 2010, my digital video camera and this more full featured one (I didn't say much about it in my first blog) about my "new" MacBook Pro. I only wrote "new" in quotes because today Apple released an updated version (Spring 2010) of the 13" MacBook Pro (Summer 2009) that my work paid for so I no longer have the latest and greatest.

This isn't a full review as you can find many great ones online, but rather is my initial impressions after putting it in its paces the past half year. In short it's the best portable computer I've ever used. The size is perfect for traveling and fits great on an airline coach seat tray table. It's very light compared to my Dell Latitude that it replaced and doesn't need any accessories other than a power adapter. The battery life is freaking awesome and blows away anything that the Dell did even after I added a big and heavy 9-cell extended life battery.

The MPB sports the highly touted Unibody enclosure made from a single piece of aluminum. It's rock solid and never flexes like my plastic Dell did. In fact my son has stepped on it a few times with never a mark to show for it.

As Apple normally does, it's the barely spoken features that make it unique. Specifically there is a thin bar of light that pulsates when the MacBook is in sleep mode. When completely powered off (or when powered on) the light disappears into the metal case. According to Apple they machined the part where the light shows super thin and perforated the area with tiny holes to allow the LED light to shine through. Amazing.

I remember the feature that impressed me the most when I saw Kruddler's MacBook wasn't the design or the screen size, but rather the innovative MagSafe power connector. I believe his was the first model to incorporate it. With my MBP, the feature that blew me away wasn't the unibody construction or the never ending battery life but the glass trackpad. So silky smooth it makes my Dell feel like sandpaper. In fact I got so used to it that I often mistakenly try to perform gestures when going back to the Dell.

There are other features people made big deal about like the return of firewire, but to be honest I never used that port yet. The SD card slot is nice but since my iPhoto library is stored on my Power Mac G5 I found little use for it. It runs Snow Leopard like a champ as well as Windows 7 using Boot Camp (which I have to run for work purposes).

Any negatives? Very few but one is that the metal edge where your wrists naturally lean against is too sharp for my tastes. With my Dell the extended life battery had a built in wrist rest that was very comfortable. I suppose Apple went for form over function with this particular design.

The only other minor gripe I have is the screen resolution of 1280 x 800 is too small for certain tasks (don't even dream of using Modo or Final Cut Pro on it). I guess that's to be expected with a 13" widescreen display but I wasn't approved to order anything more expensive so I didn't have a choice. I connect it to a 20" LCD display at work so for the most part it doesn't bother me but when undocked I have to constantly scroll windows around. What's worse is that there are some Mac OS X Server admin tools that refuse to run with that small of resolution and will automatically close. I think that the 15" MBP is the best size compromise for screen size vs portability.

It's finally nice to have a portable computer that I want to take with me to trips, especially MacWorld earlier this year. I also like busting out with it on company business meetings where everybody else has a Wintel machine and they start asking me questions like why a Windows administrator owns a Mac.

iPhone OS 4

2010-04-08T14:54:00.000-07:00

First my once mighty Power Mac G5 became obsolete with the inability to run Snow Leopard and now my first generation iPod touch is going to go down the same path but not being able to run iPhone OS 4. Oh well its had a good run, and it still runs most apps just great (although its pokey with Plants vs Zombies when faced with a massive zombie attack).

Hopefull I can get a next gen iPhone that is optimized for the next OS 4.0 for work purposes. Someone has to test Exchange 2010 compatibility!

Xbox LIVE Problems

2010-04-05T19:42:00.001-07:00

It all started like a strange illness. The first symptom was that I could barely hear Kruddler talk using the Xbox 360 Headset. We both had to turn up the volume to the max level just to hear each other, especially over all the noise of zombie slaying.

The next symptom happened recently (sometime last week). We couldn't hear each other at all. Playing a game like Left 4 Dead 2 usually requires constant communication in order to successfully complete a level, especially an achievement like Guardin' Gnome. We tried to work around this issue by sending each other voice messages but this was awkward at best and fatal at worst since you had to remain idle as you composed a new message as well as listen to one. During that time a Charger could easily have pummeled you to death.

The final straw happened last night as I was getting constant lag. There were several occasions where my screen went crazy and I was stuck in the same view. After the lag was cleared up I found myself in a puddle of green goo, my health down to a measly +5. That's when I decided to put my troubleshooting skills to the test and research the issue on Google.

The official Xbox LIVE Status page stated all services were up and operational. I then tried to search for people with similar problems but that didn't go anywhere since they were fixated on a broken headset or controller.

Then it struck me. What about blocked ports? I ran the Xbox LIVE Connection Test and it came back with the following error message:

Your NAT type is Strict (or Moderate). People on networks with this NAT type may not be able to join certain games or hear other people while playing online.

This described our problem! I remember configuring my router for proper port forwarding when I first got my 360 but that was years ago. I checked again and sure enough, my firewall rules were set to port forward the Xbox LIVE ports to the wrong internal IP address. After correcting my error I ran the same Connection Test and it came back clean. Of course proof is in the pudding so I had to play a quick L4D2 match with some strangers on the internet and their voices came in loud and clear.

After finally fixing the issue I can't wait for Krudd and I to try to complete the "Sob Story" achievement this weekend. Krudd read that link for some hints we need!

Gadget: Invention, Travel, & Adventure

2010-04-05T08:17:00.001-07:00

After finishing the hit adventure game Myst (1993) in 1994, I started searching for my next adventure based, 3D pre-rendered, CD-ROM fix. Faced with a wave of "Myst clones" flooding the market, the first title I chose to purchase was Gadget (1993).

I read the reviews beforehand so I wasn't disappointed to discover that Gadget wasn't a true interactive game but more of an interactive movie with a very linear plot. What attracted me to this game was the industrial steampunk art direction, the intricately designed 3D models and the mysteriously creepy, isolated atmosphere. It was a game before its time as I noticed similar themes in Valve's Half-Life 2 which was released over a decade later. You can read a good review of Gadget at ACG.

Although it had a typical Japanese ambiguous ending, my only issue with the game was the unsightly dithering used for the 8-bit images. Most of the images I examined from screen captures only amounted to a measly 80 of a possible 256 colors. In contrast, Cyan wisely chose to use an adaptive pallet to closely mimic full color, 24-bit images for Myst.

A few years ago while watching the movie Barton Fink (1991) for the first time, I noticed some strangely familiar, visual similarities. I popped in my Gadget CD-ROM and sure enough I wasn't misremembering things. It looked like the developers of Gadget were a little "inspired" by the Coen brothers film! No credit was given on the CD-ROM however.

iPad Mania

2010-04-03T07:17:00.000-07:00

Today Steve Jobs hereby proclaims, is iPad Launch Day (well at least in the Americas). As with any new Apple product the vultures are already out in full force trying to make a fast buck on eBay. The four "high demand" iPad related domain names for $4999 cracks me up. IPAD3G4U.com??? Really?

You can also supposedly buy an actually iPad for way above the retail price in case you didn't pre-order and don't want to wait in any lines. It's nice they are making things so convenient for us!

Here's a video of people waiting very early this morning at the Los Angeles Grove. Kinda reminds me when I was waiting in line for Paranormal Activity (although I didn't exactly spend the night).

***EDIT*** - Had to replace the old picture with a more appropriate one that captures the mood!

Sad Day in City 17

2010-03-30T19:47:00.000-07:00

I know its late news but I just found out actor Robert Culp has passed away this week. I remember him from the TV shows, Everyone Loves Raymond and The Greatest American Hero (best 80's series ever) but didn't realize he was also the voice of Dr. Breen, the antagonist of the Half Life 2 series. I should have known as his voice was very distinctive.

Pixar '1984' Ray Tracing Image

2010-03-28T09:38:00.000-07:00

After reading Mark's GeForce GTX 400 post I started reviewing the technology behind OptiX, Nvidia's real time raytracing engine. I noticed that one of the examples on their sample page was inspired by 1984, a computer generated image of motion blurred pool balls first published in a 1984 Siggraph paper.

According to coauthor Robert Cook, this landmark image in photorealism was created by Thomas Porter while they were working in the Computer Graphics division of Lucasfilm. An interesting note is that none other than John Lasseter of Pixar fame illustrated the environment map for the balls.

I still remember first seeing this image in a book at the local library and being blown away by the realism of the motion blur, reflections and soft shadows.

Last year, fxguide posted a nice article about the image's 25-year anniversary and had invited 3D artists to replicate the shot using modern 3D software and hardware. I thought it was quite interesting to see the differences and read about the methods they used for their recreations.

GeForce GTX 400

2010-03-27T08:44:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, NVIDIA officially paper launched their new GeForce GTX 400 series GPUs (GF100 was just the code name). It turns out that twitter announcement they made last month was just to say they were going to introduce the GF100 at the PAX East trade show. An announcement about an announcement? Lame!

Apparently this slight of hand misdirection upset a lot of people in the gaming community so they had to make a tweeter apology:

Apologies for the confusion around our most recent GF100 update. To clarify, launch date for GeForce GTX 480 and GTX 470 is March 26, 2010.

After reading some reviews it appears this card has regained the GPU speed crown (I was unaware that ATI has had the fastest cards for quite some time and that the GF100 was painfully late), however NVIDIA seems to have done it at the expense of running the cards hot and loud. Not that I'm into PC gaming anymore, but if I was going to build another system, it would be designed to run cool and quiet.

The demos look sweet but you need one of these new GTX 400's to run them which won't be shipping for a few weeks. I was curious to see how the ray tracing demo looked in real time. Rob was right though, they are using some sort of hybrid technique to display the image, rather than a full real-time ray tracing engine.

Bryce Terrain Modeling

2010-03-24T10:02:00.000-07:00

As shown here, Bryce was famous for creating realistic (or surreal) landscapes. But from a previous post, Mark realized that the hard models used for the MetaTools Bryce 2 box art, namely the Japanese tori, were created entirely in Bryce using primitives and grayscale to height extrusions. Chris Casady was the artist responsible and he shows more examples of how it works here.

It's a rather unorthodox and time consuming way of modeling objects, but if you wanted to build your own content without having to use DXF models or purchase a separate 3D modeler, this was the only way to do it.

In addition to Chris's work, here are some other 100% generated, Bryce samples from Robert Bailey and Jackson Ting which I pulled from my original Bryce 2 CD. These images show that given enough patience and time, pretty much anything (at least non-organic) was possible.

Gnome Chompski

2010-03-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Remember the ceramic gnome from Half Life 2: Episode 2? Well he's back in L4D2 and is part of the achievement called Guardin' Gnome. The objective is to win him in a Carnival mini game and carry him to the helicopter at the end of the level. Sounds easy but if you ever played Carnival you know this is going to be real hard.

In order to get him you have to play a mini game at the beginning of the level and your teammates can help carry him throughout. Someone posted pictures of him completing this achievement but I have to warn you he uses a lot of blue language. The pics are rather funny though.

Krud, we need to try this during our next gaming night!

Jonathan is Still Alive

2010-03-22T19:35:00.000-07:00

Now its probably not a big shock but it's finally official that Jonathan Coulton is going to create music for the upcoming game, Portal 2.

He made a funny comment that sequels are hard to live up to, except for rare examples like The Empire Strikes Back. A lot of people say that, but put me in the minority camp that actually liked the original Star Wars the best.

HP Reborn

2010-03-21T13:56:00.000-07:00

My sister Angie asked me if I could fix her computer (Rob's old HP Workstation). It was infected with some spyware that I couldn't completely get rid of when I briefly looked at a few months ago, so I took it home to perform a clean install (which is really the only sure fire way to get rid of malware).

As I was cleaning the inside I noticed that the original restore CD was literally flopping around inside the case. I have no idea how it got there. I remember cleaning the system out when I picked it up from Rob's apartment but I don't think it fell in. Perhaps Melody stuck it inside the case in-between the false bezel thinking that is was where the discs go.

Anyways I'm still impressed on how well built the HP is. No tools needed to open the case and there is plenty of room to work inside. The DVD burner no longer ejects so I need to replace that but I should be able to find a fairly cheap one online or from work.

Angie loves the large widescreen LCD as its perfect for watching movies in bed. I thought Rob would be happy to know his old 3D work horse is still performing strong.

MacWorld Boston 2007

2010-03-18T23:36:00.000-07:00

I was watching old MacWorld YouTube video's the other day and came across the one where Steve Jobs announced the partnership with Microsoft. I never heard an Apple focused audience boo so loud when Steve mentioned Internet Explorer would be the default browser on all new Macs but give credit to the master presenter as he instantly turns it around with a simple one liner, "and because we believe in choice...".

Part of the deal was that Microsoft was going to purchase 150 million dollars worth of non-voting Apple stock. Now the Microsoft press release (nor the Apple one) never mentioned exactly how many shares that was, but looking at the price of Apple stock back in Jan 1997, I estimated it cost around $5.4375 per share. Divide that by 150 million and you get 27,586,206 shares.

Also part of the same deal was that Microsoft couldn't sell these shares for at least 3 years. Now I don't know when (or if) they ever sold these shares after the vestment period but if they happened to have held them until now the total value would be worth $6,199,999,798.50 (at today's price of $224.75) a share. Now subtract the initial 150 million dollar investment it would still leave them with a tidy profit of $6,172,413,592.50. Yes, that's slightly over 6 billion with a "B". How's that for a killer deal!

Broadband2Go

2010-03-17T17:01:00.000-07:00

In preparation for our upcoming pilgrimage to California, I've been looking into this Broadband2Go device. Since AT&T is dragging their feet on allowing users to tether the iPhone (unless you jailbreak) this seems like a viable alternative. Staying with my Mom there is no internet connectivity and is dry of "open" hotspots in the neighborhood.

I found it cheaper at Walmart of all places and $20 for 250MB of bandwidth seems pretty reasonable. I could see myself using this device more often when I want the mobile connection with the MacBook Pro or I could just wear out my welcome at Marcos' house just for the Wifi!!

Rated M

2010-03-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

I can handle M ratings in games I still have control over, volume control. As much as I like L4D 1&2, COD MW 1&2, GOW 1&2 etc., I'm not a real big fan of the profanity. But of course sometimes there is a filter though they don't always work as you'd like them to. But all in all I still have control of the volume control and can ultimately mute or set a very low volume and not hear it.

Which brings me to God of War. I always wanted to try that game, but never did. I also missed the sequel. Now God of War 3 is out and I saw a preview and thought I should try and get this game because I do like the visuals. But of course there was the M rating which I didn't really think much about until I went on gametrailers.com. The trailer had the description of nudity in it. This is a game I can't get even though I have other M rated games. I can't control the nudity like I can the volume, which is really annoying because this game always gets such good reviews as far as gameplay graphics and sound go.

I understand wanting to be more like a movie, L4D does a great job in that. But do they really need to go so far as to have nudity? Here's a game I want to play but can't because they took it too far for me and so I'll never get to try it. No they won't miss any money by me not getting it, but it's still a shame to ruin it for people like me.

Earthquake

2010-03-16T08:17:00.000-07:00

Ok, 4.4 is actually small and thus morning didn't last very long. However, living near the epicenter makes it feel much larger than it was. First I heard it, a rumble, which is what woke me as I'm a light sleeper. Then it started shaking till it felt stron but tappered off a bit, but as it did, wham!, it hit nice and hard in the second half of the tremor with a nice jolt, which then died off.

Now even though I didn't get out of bed or throw of my covers, I did prop myself up to listen if I could hear cracking wood and such which would help me determine if I should get under my desk. As I heard no such sounds other than the quake sound, I opted to stay in bed. I heard others in the main part of the house wake up but decided I'd try to sleep 15 more minutes as it was almost time to get up anyway.

I got up 10 min later and wanted coffee.

Game Night

2010-03-15T20:10:00.000-07:00

So it seems that Saturday has become our unofficial game night. Marcos and I seem to be playing the past few Sat nights almost as if it were a normal event like the way the 4 of us used to have Friday nights for Warcraft 3. Those were fun gaming nights!

But now recently the 2 of us have been making a habit of Saturday nights doing what I (dare I say we yet, Mark? :-) ) love best in a video game at this time… zombie hunting! Left4Dead 2 is our habit and we seem to be fine with our habit/addiction night. Nothing better than accidently shooting a team mate as the coach and hearing him say, "Excuse me?! Excuse me?!?"

Now if somehow we could get David and Rob to sink to out depths and get a 360, Live and L4D2!!! Come on boys! It's zombie killin' time!

They Live - Half-Life 2 Comparisons

2010-03-15T08:30:00.000-07:00

The "bubble gum" reference in John Carpenter's They Live to the PC game Duke Nukem 3D was clear but it wasn't until Mark pointed out, and I watched They Live again, that I saw the connection to Half-Life 2. Nice catch!

A truly underrated movie. As Mark mentioned, the online comments are hilarious.

"It is more truth behind this movie than people can imagine."

"Totally awesome movie, I advise anyone to watch. Replace the culprits with bankers and you have our world of today."

Home Theater Geeks

2010-03-14T21:36:00.000-07:00

During my search for new podcasts in the TWIT network, I decided to try Home Theater Geeks with Scott Wilkinson. Even though I don't have a home theater or any immediate plans to get one, I still found HTG immensely informative and entertaining. Scott is a top notch host who can articulate and explain home theater technology to the common consumer rather well. His guests are also well chosen, including people from Pioneer, the HDMI consortium and Sony Pictures. It's definitely worth a listen.

Final Fantasy XIII

2010-03-14T21:14:00.000-07:00

Someone did a comparison of the latest Final Fantasy game on the PlayStation 3 and the Xbox 360. Can you see a difference?

Xbox Media Center

2010-03-13T16:15:00.000-08:00

After looking at my original Xbox sitting unused in my office the past few years, I decided to turn it into a XBMC media center for my girls bedroom. I found a nice tutorial on the internet to softmod my Xbox using the original Splinter Cell (which I already happen to own).

After I complete this and get it all working, my next project will be to figure out how to make the darn thing more quiet.

Time Machine

2010-03-12T22:08:00.000-08:00

Why break our new tradition of posting at least a blog a day? Let's keep this streak going!

I've been meaning to tell you that after upgrading to Leopard, I decided to take advantage of one of the main features, Time Machine. I purchased a $50 bare bones 500 GB SATA drive from Amazon and popped it in my Power Mac G5.

Installation was dirt simple due to the wonderful internal design. Just open the lid, slide in the drive in the second slot and use the cables and set screws already in the case provided by Apple. Once the drive was installed I fired the system up, formatted it as HFS+ and designated it as a Time Machine drive. Now I can sleep well at night knowing my years of photos and home videos are finally being backed up on a daily basis.

Samsung LN52B750

2010-03-11T18:11:00.003-08:00

I'm getting close to taking the plunge and feel this HDTV is the right fit. It's the Samsung LN52B750. Thanks to Marcos' link on CNET to get me started, I did some research and keep coming back to this.

Any comments or other suggestions?

Windows 98

2010-03-11T17:29:00.001-08:00

So it all started when I needed a copy of my résumé. Unfortunately for me the only copy I had was on a floppy disk. (Shows you how long I needed to use it!). I scoured all the PC's in my work area and to my surprise I found one machine that still had a floppy disk drive. I was able to recover and was a happy camper. In my search for my résumé I found a bunch of 3 ½ discs as well as old Zip and Jaz discs that got me thinking....what is still on these puppies! I have been without a working PC for quite some time and needed a way to hook up a SCSI card and my old Zip drive.

A co-worker of mine overheard my woes and asked if I wanted her old PC. Sure...why not! She came the next day to work with all the original "cow boxes" with a monitor, external speakers, and all the original software. Of course it was a Gateway and had no idea what kind of specs this thing had. I brought it home and started to unpack this thing. To my surprise this thing was in original "pristine" condition. I mean no crusty old keyboard, fingerprints or dust bunnies in the case. Fired it up and it was good ol' Windows 98! (I laughed...haven't seen this thing in a long time!) So I've been in my basement off and on getting data off these old drives. Found some old gems including MacDrive for Windows98. Installed that and now going through some old Mac OS stuff. So Friday is my "free night"..no kids :)...and I can't wait to install The Seventh Guest and freak myself out in the basement listening to the haunting FatMan tracks! Feeling lonely???

Fake Intel

2010-03-10T19:24:00.000-08:00

Did you guys see this story about the fake Intel Core i7 processors being sold on NewEgg? Pretty interesting considering all the effort to make the packaging look legit.

They Live

2010-03-09T19:17:00.000-08:00

On my way back from Indianapolis last week I caught up on some old NetFlix movies I've been meaning to watch, one being the highly underrated cult film, They Live. How can you not like a film about aliens with skull faces and features one of the greatest fight scenes ever?

In case you haven't seen it, it stars "Rowdy" Roddy Piper from WWF fame and Keith David (famous actor but also voice of the Arbiter in the Halo series) who's part was written specifically for him by director John Carpenter after being impressed with his superb performance in The Thing. They Live is based on a short story called "Eight O'Clock in the Morning" written by Ray Nelson way back in 1963. It's a brief but very entertaining story that I recommend reading.

While watching the movie I couldn't help but think it inspired certain elements of Half Life 2 as well as Duke Nukem 3D. Back in 2008 the film was rumored to have been considered for a remake, but apparently that never happened.

It's official

2010-03-08T14:05:00.000-08:00

Oh what to do what to do?! I have no money to start getting things on Steam! But I like the news!

http://www.macrumors.com/2010/03/08/valve-officially-announces-steam-and-game-library-coming-to-mac-in-april/

MacHeist nanoBundle 2

2010-03-07T19:58:00.000-08:00

Although I've always been intrigued, I never purchased any MacHeist bundle until today. What made me pull the trigger was the RipIt application, something I was planning on buying since it makes backup copies of my 300+ DVD collection so simple. Since the MacHeist nano Bundle 2 was the same $19.95 price I would have paid for just RipIt, this was a no brainer.

I can also see myself using the FTP/SFTP application Flow, especially since I never got around to purchasing Transmit. I'll have to play around with the other bundled apps to see if they are something I could use in my daily workflow, but at this point even if I don't they are essentially free. There's just 3 days left in case anybody wants to purchase this great deal.

Portal 2

2010-03-07T09:28:00.000-08:00

Valve announced the other day that the sequel to my all time favorite game is finally being released this holiday season. More details on the upcoming title can be found on Gameinformer's website.

If you look at the Valve press release you will notice that some of the letters are underlined. Put all the letters together will give you "drattmanh0nee". But what does that mean? Well after a quick Google search I found out that this was an Easter Egg suggesting that Portal 2 is going to have co-op mode. How cool is that?

Also, apparently the original Portal game has been updated to give the fans something to do during the meantime (a la Slusho style).

Aliens versus Predator (1999)

2010-03-06T05:15:00.000-08:00

After reading a few days ago that Aliens vs. Predator was released for the PC and consoles, my initial reaction was that somebody decided to remake it? A little further research showed that the same developer, Rebellion, is responsible for this latest release, subtly renaming it "vs." I have fond memories of the "versus" CD-ROM version for the PC/Mac where a gamer had the choice of playing as a Marine, Alien or Predator.

The Aliens/Predator universe is a perfect match for the FPS genre and it was an entertaining title to play- but it had one flaw that bugged the heck out of me. No matter how many aliens I killed, they continuously spawned from an unseen point with no definite end. The way I like to play FPS is to "clean house" and move on to the next level but this game was designed to never let a player do that. I suppose the developers attempted to mimic the mood of the films by feeling overwhelmed and having you run for your life, but I just felt frustrated. Unfortunately this was one of the few titles that I never finished playing.

I did notice that this game has been rereleased on Steam so I might consider giving it another go sometime in the future.

As a comparison here's a screen of the 2010 version. What a difference a decade makes! Have fun playing it Krudd!

Aliens vs. Predator

2010-03-05T12:53:00.000-08:00

Well, I got Aliens vs. Predator. Why? I wanted to see more than just the videos on YouTube and GameTrailers. They looked cool and I did read good stuff about it, so figuired why not.

I just finished the human campaign and have to say wow! I know it's just another fps, but it was still fun! Very nice graphics sound etc., but I also enjoyed the story! I think for me it achieved the desired result in feeling you were in the movie. The familiar sounds and weapons and music were all there and creepy darkness where are they coming from I see them on my motion tracker but still can't tell where they are sensations are there also and well done!

I had fun and will start the Alien campaign next. I'm saving the Predator one for last because hey, he's the coolest!

Steam coming to the Mac?

2010-03-03T19:41:00.000-08:00

I love it! This would be one less reason for me to use Bootcamp.

More 3D Photorealism

2010-03-03T08:46:00.000-08:00

What prompted me to write about the 2003 iSpec film was this incredible 2009 film by Alex Roman that I discovered today. It's quite amazing to say the least. It was also created using 3ds Max but coupled with the $1000, V-Ray renderer. While watching it, I had a hard time believing it was (almost) completely computer generated. There were some filmed elements such as the skies, photographer and birds, but everything else was rendered in pure 3D.

It runs 12½ minutes long but it's worth a watch, in particular, in full screen.

3D Photorealism

2010-03-03T07:37:00.000-08:00

I've been meaning to blog about Joseph Kosinski's short film, iSpec, after I first saw it online in 2004. This was an early example of animation that personally blew me away in terms of photorealism. By today's standards it's more obvious that it's computer generated, but one can still appreciate the love that went into faithfully recreating the Colorado Lounge from Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Using 3ds Max and Mental Ray, the renders reportedly took over three hours per frame in order to achieve the realism that Kosinski required.

You can check out the director's other projects on his main page including the GOW Mad World trailer and his upcoming feature film directorial debut, Tron Legacy.

GeForce GF100

2010-02-20T08:02:00.000-08:00

Ever since I ditched my PC and went to console gaming, I haven't really paid much attention to the latest graphics technology. Apparently Nvidia is going to introduce their next generation GPU, the GF100 this coming Monday.

They already have some information about it on their website so I'm not sure what more they will tell us, perhaps pricing and worldwide availability?

Don't forget to check out their video demo, showcasing what it can do. Personally I'm curious about the real time ray tracing feature. This brings back memories of Rob letting his POV-Ray models render overnight on our 486DX computer.

MacWorld Bloopers

2010-02-17T06:35:00.000-08:00

As I was doing research for my upcoming MacWorld blog, I found this old video of MacWorld bloopers. I've seen this before but watching it again still made me chuckle. Warning - The parts where then current Sony President Kunitake Ando stumbles is a bit painful to watch. Why was he there in the first place?

PVZ

2010-02-16T19:34:00.001-08:00

Well it took long enough but my favorite Mac game Plants vs Zombies has been finally ported to the iPhone/iPod touch. At $2.99 it's a must have, especially if you have a few hours to kill.

Audible

2010-02-14T06:53:00.000-08:00

Because I have so much commuting time working in Japan, I quickly suck up the three podcasts that I subscribe to before the week is over (this WEEK in TECH, MacBreak Weekly and Luxology's modcast). So after hearing Leo Laporte advertise it on every show, I decided to give Audible a try last year with TWIT's two-credit promotional trial membership. My two book choices were Under the Dome by Stephen King and The Road by Cormac McCarthy.

It took me two months, but I just finished Under the Dome which is a whopping 34½ hours long (unabridged). Maximum value for the credit! I highly recommend this if you like the Lost/Twilight Zone type of science fiction. I would love to see a movie or miniseries about this.

I'm going to start listening to The Road this week which is a much more digestable 6½ hours in length. I picked that book simply because I'm a fan of the film, No Country for Old Men which was based on McCarthy's earlier novel. The Road did win a Pulitzer prize for Fiction which is nothing to sneeze at also. ;)

I did cancel my Platinum membership before the trial ended but it was mainly because I thought Under the Dome would take me all year to finish and I didn't want my credits to start piling up. I might try a Gold plan at a later time though.

BioShock 2

2010-02-10T08:04:00.000-08:00

In case you missed it (was it me or did it seem like there wasn't much hype?) BioShock 2 was released yesterday. Ars does a great spoiler free review here. So far the game is getting great scores from other websites.

I'm going to get it, but only after the price drops. I still can't justify $60 games and after buying Gears of War 2 for $27 just recently I can wait. Krudd and I can fill the time with countless hours of zombie killing.

Macworld 2010

2010-02-06T05:57:00.000-08:00

With Apple's decision to stop attending Macworld, I haven't given the expo itself much thought. Now that Mark is going though, I would like to see how it does and if it can still survive.

If I were able to go, I would check out Macworld Live! with Leo Laporte hosting. One of his guests is comedian Heather Gold. Although the video is dated and not as relevant today, I found her Microsoft/Apple comparison report hillarious. I guess I have a soft spot for deadpan humor.

Electronic musician BT is another guest I would check out as I have quite a few of his albums. As a side note, he was in the Apple Powerbook G4 promotional video found here.

Facebook

2010-01-30T19:25:00.000-08:00

Being employed in the tech industry, you would think I would have embraced the latest fads in social networking, but up until recently I've resisted joining any of them. I just didn't see the appeal, nor did I really want to go through the hassle of signing up to a service that could potentially spam my mailbox or have access to my personal information.

My sister Angie gave me the the push to join Facebook so that we could qualify to get free tickets to a horror movie. I joined thinking I would drop it after a month, but I ended up keeping my account. I got in touch with some old high school friends as well as a cousin on my dad's side that I haven't talked to in years.

Dave recently joined, and Kruddler has been a member for a while so that only leaves Rob. For those with privacy concerns I found this security article from Ars Technica which goes over the settings needed to keep your information as secure as possible.

If you're a fan of The Office like I am, you should enjoy this video clip about "Book Face".

MacWorld or Bust

2010-01-29T14:15:00.000-08:00

Yep, if you can believe it, I'm going to MacWorld 2010 next month! I know what you might be thinking, Apple isn't going to be there and they already announced the iPad so what's the point. Well I'm actually going for Apple training for work purposes.

It's actually a good deal, instead of paying for $1500 per class I get to choose between all these sessions in the MacIT Conference track for around $750 using the Leo Laporte discount.

To be honest I really wasn't planning on going (on what could be the very last one) but I kept hearing it being promoted on MacBreak Weekly and thought it would fun to see Leo and the gang. There's going to be a TWiT gathering at the Marriott that I might consider attending as well.

The only bummer is that this trip is going to remind me of brother Rob and the fun times we had at MacWorld 2007 when the iPhone was introduced.

iDevice Rumors

2010-01-15T08:49:00.001-08:00

Well, even though the age of MacWorld is over, as far as Apple is concerned, the big announcements are still bigger than ever and with that so are the rumors!

Things are really heating up! There is a rumored Apple announcement for later this month, but is that all it is, a rumor? And what of the rumored announcement itself? Well of course it's about the tablet! Will it be a new OS also? A more robust version of the iPhone OS? Mac OS? And what of the rumor it may also have a stylus?! Stevo can't really include that one, but who knows? Maybe his dislike of stylus' has diminished?

In any case, we'll see soon enough if the rumored announcement is true or just a rumor and if the rumored tablet is the object of the announcement! What else could it be?!

Watch, there will be an announcement and Steveo will introduce the new desktop Macs… finally!

The Witch

2010-01-08T00:19:00.000-08:00

I ended up buying Left 4 Dead 2 during BestBuy's Black Friday sale, however I didn't actually play it until the other week when Krudd and I did a late night Christmas vacation session.

The game came with a 48-hour trial of Xbox Live so I took advantage of that. It ended up being so fun that I finally sprung for the full 12-month version on Amazon. It was on sale for $35 plus I had a $30 gift card which brought my total to a whopping 5 bucks (with free shipping!). The only bummer is that it's currently sold out and won't ship until Jan 11th.

The game itself is a blast and is even more fun playing with the Kruddler. My favorite character by far is a zombie simply called "the witch". You don't actually see her at first but rather hear a creepy woman crying. Eventually you encounter her covering her eyes with her long demon like fingers and the goal is to get by her without disturbing her. If you do end up getting her attention then all hell breaks lose and she runs after you trying to kill you and she often does.

The other day I was playing the game by myself when she was spawned (she appears randomly in the game) right in a stairwell that we had no choice but to walk right next to her in order to progress in the level. Well unless you play co-op you have to play with AI characters "helping" you and one of the characters did something dumb and walked right into her. Of course the witch did some major damage and I just stood there laughing.

Anyways I'll be sure to give Krudd a call when I get my Live Gold card next week. I can't wait to play again.

HDTV 2010

2010-01-04T20:22:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since I posted my HDTV SuperBlog and there have been several new technologies introduced on consumer sets since I purchased mine, primarily the use of LED backlights and higher refresh rates.

Since Dave's about ready to make his first purchase I was about to do some heavy research when I remembered that CNET had some excellent information during the last round. I checked again and sure enough, they didn't disappoint.

LED TV's: 10 things you need to know

240Hz LCD TVs: What you need to know

Six things you need to know about 120Hz LCDs

720p vs. 1080p HDTVs: 2009 Update

It seems like the consensus is that these "newer" features are nice but don't pay a premium for them. Use the savings to get a Blu-ray player or HDMI receiver for crystal clear surround sound. For what it's worth my set is using the "older" CCFL backlight and a 60Hz refresh rate and I think it's perfectly fine.

Annoying

2010-01-04T09:31:00.000-08:00

I love the ability to blog from my iPhone, but it's annoying not being able to post pictures/photos from it.

So I downloaded Blogpress, which I couldn't get to work, then Blogwriter, which I couldn't get to work. But after a time I figuired it out and lo and behold they both work! But what's annoying is that I still can't post pics&photos. Not because they can't, but because I'm bound to MY blogger page! That's right, I can only post pics there and not here! More accurately, I can't even blog using those apps here.

So here I am again writing this blog from the actual blogger site (which is still cool, just no pics). I'm glad I can, but it's still annoying to me.

Paranormal Activity Alternate Ending

2009-12-24T21:48:00.000-08:00

Mark, Angie and I had discussed Paranormal Activity after I watched a DVD screener in October with the original Screamfest ending. Mark mentioned a rumored third, alternate version that was different from the screener version that I saw and the theatrical version that he saw.

Last week I noticed a version on the intertubes that was labeled "unrated alternate cut" so I had to see what that was about. It turned out in fact, to be the "mythical" third version that was supposedly only screened once in Texas. As you can see from the screens, both versions start out with Katie walking upstairs to the bedroom holding a knife and wearing a blood stained shirt.

The DVD screener version has Katie immediately sit down on the floor and hypnotically rock back and forth for several hours before the police enter the house. The alternate version has Katie close the door and look into the camera before slitting her own throat.

After seeing all three versions I still prefer the original DVD screener ending. According to this interview with the director Oren Peli, multiple endings were filmed and I assumed that all versions would be provided on DVD/Blu-Ray. But according to this article, only the theatrical and uncut alternate ending will be featured and not the original screener version that I first saw. I guess Mark can verify this once he pics up a copy after December 29th.

Not our normal theme

2009-12-14T08:23:00.000-08:00

Ok, this is not along our usual themes of subjects, and also it's been a while since I posted. It's kinda sorta also why I haven't posted much this whole second half of the year.

As we all know, this year has been, shall I say, financially challenging. I see across the board prices of goods go up ever so slightly, but the last time I looked, I didn't get a hike in pay. Hmmm, not exactly evened out there.

So that being said, I admit to being somewhat down trying to get by check to check week by week. And in the midst of all this, yes I recently had to buy a car as my protege was ill. And now I'm also looking for a part time job after work, hoping actually that I might find a driving spot at Best Buy! I'm actually kinda excited about that! We'll see soon enough, I'll get back to you on that.

On another note, I did get (thru specials and dicounts) Left 4 Dead 2! And CoD: MW2! Those were the 2 must haves this year and fortunately some friends who work at a certain store helped me with deals! Reviews you ask? I'll try later. I will offer this: best games ever!

Speaking of which, Marcos, what's the word on L4D2 Live? Group playable yet for you? Stay with the group if you want to live!

Anyway, Christmas is just about on us and I love this time of year no matter what! Hoping to see you all soon if possible!

Let's play!

Black Friday 2009

2009-11-26T06:32:00.000-08:00

What's Thanksgiving without my traditional Black Friday blog? To be honest this year caught me off guard, many retailers have started their discounts today rather than wait for the typical Friday after turkey day. As a former retail salesman, I feel a little bad for the employees that have to work.

Enjoy the sales and have a great Thanksgiving everybody.

Left 4 Dead 2 at BestBuy for $35? Yes please!

Indianapolis

2009-10-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

So I've been in Indianapolis (this site used to be the RCA headquarters) all week for a work conference. We had Dell, Intel and Microsoft come over to talk about their latest products and all of them looked at my MacBook Pro a little bit funny although Intel did give the nod of approval. I haven't had a chance to see much of the city until tonight where we went to the Slippery Noodle Inn to hear some Blues and we drove by the magnificent Soldiers' and Sailors' Monument. Very impressive.

I never really did get used to the east coast time as I couldn't stay awake long enough to see the end of the season opener Lakers game. I honestly don't know how Dave can stay up to watch the west coast games.

I'm going home tomorrow morning and I'm looking forward to see my family again. Traveling just isn't the same without them.

Windows 7 Ultimate Edition

2009-10-23T07:01:00.000-07:00

I'm sure everybody knows already that Windows 7 was officially released to the general public yesterday, although enterprise customers have had it for a few months already. I've been using it since the RC days and have to admit its been a solid release, truly much better than the often maligned Vista product.

What's sad is that Microsoft seems to be giving the shaft to Vista Ultimate users. Apparently upgrading from Vista Ultimate to Windows 7 Ultimate will result in all those Ultimate Extras being quietly removed. Wasn't it bad enough Microsoft didn't exactly roll out the red carpet with new features after pushing UE as one of the main reasons for spending $400 dollars on an operating system?

I installed Windows 7 Enterprise Edition on my MacBook Pro using the Boot Camp version that comes with Snow Leopard and I don't seem to have any issues, other than the battery life seems to drain faster and I have no official support from Apple yet. Still though, part of me still feels a little wrong about installing any version of Windows on a Mac but there are a few apps I need to support that are Windows only.

Anyways if you didn't get your free copy of 7 by attending a Microsoft seminar or by applying for the Party Pack, the least expensive way to get a copy is by buying the OEM version.

Roz Ho is back!

2009-10-18T08:38:00.000-07:00

I noticed that Roz Ho was back in the news after reading about the Microsoft/Danger Sidekick fiasco. Previously the GM of Microsoft's Macintosh Business unit, she is currently the Corporate VP of Premium Mobile Experiences- the team with the monumental task of competing with the iPhone in the smartphone market. Daniel Dilger of Roughly Drafted reports that none other than Roz is responsible for the data loss that occurred with Sidekick users.

There's a good 2008 interview with her on Microsoft's Channel 9 site. You can view the iPhone/touch MP4 version here without having to install and view the Silverlight version. I haven't watched the entire video yet but she seems like a real sweet, bright woman. A sweet, bright woman who just made a boneheaded mistake (if true). But haven't we all made mistakes at some point in our careers? ;)

Batteries

2009-10-15T20:41:00.000-07:00

Put this down as one of my "boringest" (OK I know that's not a real word, but Apple can say "funnest") blogs, but was something I never paid attention to until I got my MacBook Pro.

They have a great article on how to squeeze the most battery life out of your portable devices, something that's very important especially on laptop that doesn't have a removable battery.

Essentially you have to calibrate it (preferably the first time you use it) and depending on how often you use it, keep it calibrated periodically thereafter. They have an informative batteries website that explains everything you would want to know about the lithium-ion batteries Apple uses and even provides an iCal reminder of when you need to calibrate your iPod/iPhone/MacBook devices that you can download.

House Party

2009-10-10T05:18:00.000-07:00

After listening to another recent MacBreak Weekly episode, Leo and the gang talk about hosting a Microsoft House Party for Windows 7. If you haven't already seen the party video, it's a must have look at would could be the most cheesy presentation to come out of Redmond thus far.

Personally I love it since it plays right into my love for all things informercial. In fact this Canadian website agrees and lists many of the classic informational commercials from the past, complete with a "Informercial Hell" clip show that showcases all the exaggerated problems that Rob likes.

Paranormal Review

2009-09-25T12:49:00.000-07:00

Don't worry, no spoilers here so I'll be brief. It's a truly scary movie, just don't be expecting any expensive CGI shots or exotic locations. Watch it at night in a movie theater with a good sound system and don't read any reviews or comments. Go in as cold as you can and you will enjoy it. It's the type of horror movie Rob and I have always wanted to make.

The only flaw of the film was the last 10 seconds which I'm pretty sure is the alternative ending that was hinted at before. It's unfortunate because the supposed original ending seems 100x better (I was going to link to this but decided not to for fear of spoiling the movie for those who have not seen it). Hopefully Paramount will include it in the DVD release. According to this LA Times article we can thank Steven Speilberg for the new "Hollywood" ending.

Since the ArcLight is so close to the Technicolor USA headquarters, I went to work there for the day and periodically walked over to the theater to see if a line was forming. Starting at 4:00 pm a group of 6 people were sitting down in line so I called Angie to start driving, went back to work, gathered my laptop and went back to wait in line. When I got back there 3 more people were in line. By the time Angie, Mando and Boo Boo came the line got a bit deeper, but still seemed reasonable. It wasn't until around 8:00 pm that the line started to get long. By 10:00 pm it wrapped around the block (see if you can spot us in the picture). We also saw Chinese actress Bai Ling walk in the theater for her movie A Beautiful Life that was also screening in the ArcLight.

It turns out that over 4,500 people showed up. When they finally let us in, they ushered us to a theater with most of the seats blocked off for what appeared to be Paramount employees, guests and other VIP's so we had to sit near the front. I commented to Angie that I didn't know how the hundreds of people behind us would get a seat but it turns out Paramount added more screens to accommodate them.

It's Coming!

2009-09-15T21:22:00.000-07:00

Back in January 2008, Rob blogged about a well reviewed independent horror movie, called Paranormal Activity. What wasn't known at the time, but later told to me by Rob was that Dreamworks quickly bought the rights to the film with a plan to remake it using a bigger budget. I was quickly against this as I felt it would lose the indy vibe and thus the scare factor that is sadly so missing in today's Hollywood.

Well it appears the studio changed course and decided to release the original movie, although rumored with a different ending (I really hope this isn't true). Nonetheless my sister Angie quickly alerted me to the press release which states that a midnight screening is going to take place at the ArcLight Hollywood on Sept 24th, 2009. I joined Facebook today just so I could RSVP but I've been meaning to join anyways.

Krudd, let me know if you want to join us for what should be a truly horrific film. I promise it has to be better than The Final Destination I took you to!

Plants vs Zombies

2009-09-12T20:45:00.000-07:00

Kruddler and I were talking about recent MacBreak Weekly episodes where Leo and the gang can't stop talking about the tower defense game Plants vs Zombies.

Intrigued, I ordered it from Amazon and received the game today. I've only touched the surface but it's as good as they say and a blast to play. I can't figure out why they haven't ported this to the iPhone/iPod touch. The interface and controls would work perfectly.

For only 20 bucks it's a must buy, plus it's a Mac/PC disc and I like to support companies that don't discriminate against the Mac (ie. Blizzard) with same day releases. The only negative is that it's Intel only so I can't play on my G5. Come on, it's not like the graphics are Crysis quality!

Finally!

2009-09-09T20:55:00.000-07:00

After enough ribbing from my own family, I finally upgraded my iPod touch to the latest 3.1.1 Software Update. To be honest what finally pushed me over was the price drop from $9.99 to a more reasonable $4.95. At five bucks its much more of an impulse buy, sort of like the 99 cent song.

Of course lowering the price of anything creates some angry Apple users who are never satisfied. Note the numerous complaints and negative comments on MacRumors.

Now with my G5 at the very latest operating system that it can support (Leopard 10.5) I'm finally up to date with all my Mac hardware/software.

Shake

2009-09-09T10:45:00.000-07:00

Mark's recent posting about Apple discontinuing their high-end digital compositor Shake, had me thinking of the same question of "why?"

Original developer Nothing Real sold a SGI or Windows 95/NT license for a cool $9,900. After announcing a port to Mac OS X during Macworld Expo 2001, Nothing Real was acquired by Apple in February 2002. Apple's statement at the time was that "Apple plans to use Nothing Real's technology in future versions of its products."

Later that year, Apple released the first version of Shake (version 2.5) for Mac OS X while dramatically slashing the price to $4,950. With the version 4 announcement in 2005, Apple cut the price to $2,999. With the 4.1 update in 2006, they yet again dropped the price to a bargin basement $499.

So what does the future hold for Shake's technology? Some of it has been incorporated into Motion. As far as a rumored next generation high-end compositor? Ron Brinkmann, who was a founder of Nothing Real and former Apple employee doesn't think that will happen.

If I had had ANY indication that Apple was interested in creating a new piece of software that addressed a market even SOMEWHAT close to Shake’s, I probably wouldn’t have quit 2+ years ago. Obviously I don’t know anything for certain, but I’d be extraordinarily surprised if anything more than updated versions of Motion come out of Apple in the compositing space, at least for the foreseeable future.

RIP Shake. RIP trueSpace!

Rocking the Snow Leopard

2009-08-31T19:32:00.001-07:00

My copy of Snow Leopard came in the mail today. It was minimally packaged in a small envelope with the DVD and the instruction pamphlet separate, even without the small box that comes in the retail version.

Hopefully by tonight I can raise my arms in celebration.

Joy of Tech

2009-08-30T22:20:00.000-07:00

I took the kids to the mall today to escape the almost 100 degree heat so of course I had to stop by the Apple Store. Snow Leopard was fully stocked on the software shelf as well as pre-installed on all the Macs.

I have to say, I had a hard time seeing what was different between Snow Leopard and the old Leopard as the two looked exactly the same. If I had read this Joy of Tech ahead of time I would have known the menu bar now displays the day of the week!

Snow in Southern California

2009-08-29T08:20:00.000-07:00

No snow yet (although Kruddler may already have a copy). It turns out although I pre-ordered Snow Leopard using Apple's Up-To-Date program, they didn't ship it until yesterday (the first day of general availability) and then only using snail mail. According to the Order Status website I won't get it until Wednesday, Sept 2nd.

This is in contrast to people who pre-ordered the regular upgrade DVD in which Apple sent it FedEx next day so it arrived at their home exactly on August 28th.

I'm not terribly too concerned about how soon I get SL because I'm still getting used to 10.5 and need to document various features for work (binding to Active Directory, connecting to 802.1x corporate WLAN using PEAP, ect...) however this is a good reminder for future purchases that its probably best to wait until Apple ships a new software product before you buy new hardware.

On a related note, I loved using Leopard so much (Stacks!) that I ended up ordering the Mac Box Set for my G5. I bet someone in Apple is wondering who the heck is this guy, ordering a new MacBook Pro and a long in tooth operating system days before 10.6 is released. :-)

Not so good apps

2009-08-28T09:55:00.000-07:00

Well, I have a couple of useless apps now.

First a game many people give rave reviews about: pocket god. B-O-R-I-N-G. That's all I have to say about that.

Very disapointing app: blogpress. I read reviews, saw the snapshots and it seemed like the perfect iPhone app if you like blogging, especially if you wanted to add photos, which I can't on a straight iPhone blog in the browser. Doesn't even accept my user id. I can't get started as it won't let me in! Waste of money and I was looking so forward to using it.

Posted from my iPhone.

Logitech Speakers

2009-08-26T21:20:00.001-07:00

The next few weeks I'm going to try to catch up on some old blogs I've been meaning to write, hope you don't mind...

Back in 2004 I upgraded my cheap Dell computer speakers with the Logitech Z-5500 Digital Speaker System. It being a true 5.1 system this was intended to be my ultimate surround sound system for gaming on the PC. It served its purpose but I was always miffed I couldn't use the pure digital connections for lack of an optical port on my Sound Blaster Audigy 2 SE (I found out later I could have purchased an external Digital I/O Module that would have allowed me to use the digital output).

After a while I decided to connect it to my Power Mac G5 which featured a native optical out port using a TOSLINK cable. Oh what a difference that made! Now listening to music was crystal clear and playing movies had thunderous bass. The weird thing was that I lost the ability to control the volume using the OS X volume applet but according to Apple this is normal.

This was the first time buying anything from Logitech but now I'm sold, they make awesome equipment. The only negative was the extremely large subwoofer it came with. I have it tucked away under my desk but it still takes up a lot of floor space. If I had to buy again I would probably stick with a smaller 2.1 system as I really don't use the surround speakers as I don't have a good place to position them.

More MacBreak Fun

2009-08-26T07:02:00.000-07:00

Stealing a page from Rob's blog, here's proof that Leo Laporte is not a true gamer...

MacBreak Weekly 154: Graceful Degradation
1:35:44

Leo Laporte: "They also have GlaDOS from, uhh... from the, uhh..."

Andy Ihnatko: "Ha ha ha!"

Leo Laporte: "Oh yeah Andy knows what I'm talking about! From that... what is that... what is the name of that game? I can't remember... what is it?"

Andy Ihnatko: "Portal."

Leo Laporte: "Portal!"

Microsoft Kills trueSpace

2009-08-24T18:44:00.000-07:00

This report is over three months old (I've been off the grid!) but Microsoft has killed off all support and development of trueSpace after acquiring the company just 15 months earlier. You can read a May 2009 letter from the founder of trueSpace, Roman Ormandy, here.

Microsoft really doesn't seem to have any sort of plan of what they want their company to be. Who are the tech visionaries there, Ballmer?

Got it!

2009-08-21T15:59:00.000-07:00

I'm writing this on my brand new 13" MacBook Pro! It came in today as promised but unfortunately "only" with Leopard. I was kind of hoping Apple would have slipped in Snow Leopard but I guess I have to wait until next week like everybody else. What was interesting was that it came shipped with 10.5.7 although 10.5.8 has been out for a few weeks already.

So one of the benefits of the new computer is that I finally have a webcam and can now participate in a video chat with the rest of you. How about we test this out this weekend? Let me know what day and time and I'll host.

Snow Leopard

2009-08-20T18:47:00.000-07:00

According to FedEx, my new MacBook Pro is scheduled to arrive tomorrow. If the rumors are true and Snow Leopard is released on August 28th, that means I would have exactly 7 days to get acquainted with my "new" operating system before having to learn another. Good thing that it's supposed to be mostly under-the-hood changes!

With the almost giveaway price of $29, I assume everybody is upgrading? The only bummer is for Tiger users since they must purchase the Mac Box Set if they want the latest operating system, essentially forcing them to purchase iLife and iWork even though they may already own it. But as the MacBreak Weekly crew said, who is still using Tiger? :-)

Ibusuki Firefly

2009-08-19T19:05:00.001-07:00

One of the biggest differences I've noticed between Japan and Southern California are the various types of "wildlife" roaming outside. I've seen lizards crawling on the outside windows, crabs scuttling along the sidewalk, beetles of all shapes, sizes and colors, dragonflies, butterflies and as of last night, a firefly.

As I was locking my school's door, I noticed a green streak of light floating past me. I first thought there was a fire and some glowing embers were being caught in the wind. The firefly landed in front of me so I immediately picked it up and took it upstairs to show Rika. I was really amazed how bright and florescent green they are in real life- nature's version of an LED light. I took pictures of it and released it afterwards, but now I wish I would've kept it as a pet. I wonder if it's possible to have a tank full of these and have my own mini version of the Pirates of the Caribbean bayou scene.

I took a video of it in action which you can see on my Flickr site here.

MacBreak Weekly 153: The Case Against Apple

2009-08-18T08:59:00.000-07:00

Just a little friendly ribbing at Mark's expense. I kid!

MacBreak Weekly 153: The Case Against Apple
1:02:30

Andy Ihnatko: "Do you really know anybody who is still running 10.4? Apple is very, very successful in getting people to upgrade at some point."

Alex Lindsay: "Well, when you see somebody running 10.4, you are like, 'What is wrong with you?' "

Andy Ihnatko: "Yeah."

Leo Laporte: "Yeah, yeah. What is 10.4? Is that Panther?"

Alex Lindsay: "Oh, I don't know."

Andy Ihnatko: "Panther."

Alex Lindsay: "Oh, I think it was something..."

Leo Laporte: "Tiger?"

Texas Hold'em

2009-08-13T20:03:00.000-07:00

Rob promised to write a blog about my favorite iPod game, Texas Hold'em, but after waiting forever I figure it's time for me to step in considering I mentioned it in yesterday's post.

It turns out that it does feature multiplayer gaming but using the standard Wi-Fi that's available on any generation iPhone/iPod touch, rather than BlueTooth which was a feature only introduced with the second gen models.

What's cool is this game comes with multiplayer support for up to 8 people so it looks like I don't have to upgrade to iPhone Software 3.0 just yet. Who's up for a poker party during our next gathering?

The game itself is superb showing off Cover Flow as well as other iPhone/touch features. What instantly grabbed me was the high quality live action video clips of the dealer and your opponents. It reminded me a bit of Tad and company from The 7th Guest.

In case Rob is keeping score, so far I've played it 185 times, winning 10% of the time in 1st place, 5% in second and 2% in third and I've gotten as far as the Roppongi level. I usually play aggressive since its all fake money anyway.

***********************************************************************************
Edit: Turns out BlueTooth wasn't on 1st gen iPhones either, so I revised the blog to reflect this.
***********************************************************************************

Peer to Peer Gaming

2009-08-12T18:14:00.000-07:00

Back in June, I blogged that I was still on the fence about upgrading my iPod touch to the new iPhone 3.0 Software Update.

Rob made a comment that I should upgrade so that we could play Texas Hold'em together using Peer to Peer Gaming. According to Apple this feature is only available on the 2nd generation touch, since it requires Bluetooth technology that doesn't exist on my 1st generation model (also stated on the iPod touch Software Update webpage).

What's strange is that some people claim it works when using Wifi. So what's the deal, does anybody know?

For the record, I still haven't upgraded to 3.0 yet and it looks like I'm not the only one.

Why Tiger?

2009-08-05T20:38:00.000-07:00

I figured since Apple released it's latest Mac OS X 10.5.8 update to Leopard today, I'll take the time to explain why I'm still using Tiger.

Since its beta days I've been a staunch supporter of Mac OS X, purchasing every new iteration usually the same day it became available. I usually bought the software using my educational discount up until Leopard was released in October 2007. For some reason Apple didn't give as big of a student discount on this version so I held on upgrading until I was able to secure more funds for the purchase. Well a few days became a few weeks, which then turned into a few months and then eventually years later I was still was using Tiger.

It wasn't that I didn't want Leopard (I wanted to use Time Machine and Spaces) but Tiger seemed to be good enough. All my apps ran fine on it and I liked the fact I could still use Classic with it on my G5. There were also minor issues like my Canon scanner not working with Leopard but that could have been resolved by using VueScan (or by buying a new scanner).

I was about to pull the trigger when Apple released the Mac Box Set. With the Amazon discount it was almost like getting iLife and iWork for free but again my iLife '08 software suite was doing the job.

Another thing causing me to procrastinate was the fact Snow Leopard was just around the corner. Why buy now when I can skip a generation and go straight to 10.6? Well Apple ruined those plans when it was confirmed that Snow Leopard would be an Intel only product. Yes I knew from last year that the developer editions had this limitation but I was hoping PowerPC support would be in the final shipping version (wishful thinking on my part).

Now here we are in August 2009 and I'm still not sure what I'm going to do. Upgrade my G5 which is getting long in tooth to an operating system that may not even be on the shelf next month or stay firm and go down with the ship? During the interim I'll have to continue to endure the ribbing from my Mac friends who still wonder in amazement that I'm still using Tiger. Perhaps I'll cough up the cash after I put Leopard through its paces whenever I finally get a MacBook Pro. Time will tell.

Apple Store Visit

2009-07-31T21:13:00.000-07:00

So I took Rob's advice and compared the MacBook Pro 13" vs 15" at my local Apple Store yesterday. It appears Apple really improved the screen to match the 15" model. If there was a difference, I sure couldn't tell. Gizmodo (who did a good screenshot review of the last generation) seems to agree with me as well.

For some reason I can't explain, the 15" looks absolutely huge compared to it's smaller sibling. I almost questioned why would someone want something so big when it's supposed to be a portable device. That was until I opened up Final Cut Express on both systems and I instantly saw how cramped the 13" display was. If you are going to work with any sort of video editing package in a remote location, you absolutely have to get the larger model (even the 17" wouldn't be out of the question). For myself I only plan to edit at home connected to my 20" Cinema Display so I'm still going with the 13", once I get final work approval.

I noticed an employee putting new price tags on the 1GB Time Capsules. There were no 500GB boxes on the shelf, but I suspect they removed them earlier that day to make room for the 2GB model (which I saw no stock of).

I also saw one copy of the recently discontinued Shake 4.1. I checked the box out and it had some cool pics of what it could do. I have to admit I'm not very knowledgeable about this product but I would be interested to know why it was dropped from Apple's Pro software lineup, especially after they took the time and money to aquire the company that created it. From what I understand Apple even gave it big price drop during it's last update. If anybody knows the real story please give a shout out.

One of my favorite things to do in the "Store" is to secretly listen to all the side conversations going on. One lady was getting a Personal Training Session on what appeared to be Microsoft Word 2008 (it could have been Pages but I didn't stare long enough). I chuckled as one the Apple staff was asked by another customer what QuickTime was. The employee didn't give a great answer as he said it had something to do with Apple movies, but the customer finally nodded her head with understanding when he explained it was the big blue "Q" icon. Stuff like that is pure gold!

Alternative Twilight Ending

2009-07-30T18:46:00.001-07:00

Another pic I found funny. Now this would be a Blade movie I would enjoy watching!

Comic Con

2009-07-23T06:49:00.000-07:00

Well, I'll be heading to comiccon in a little while and will post on YouTube when o get the chance. Stay tuned!

Total Solar Eclipse of 2009

2009-07-21T07:37:00.000-07:00

Later this morning, many parts of Asia will experience a total solar eclipse lasting as long as six and a half minutes. I'm fortunate to be currently living in the southern part of Japan where totality should reach around 97 percent (Wednesday, 10:57 JST).

I've read reports of earthquakes and other doomsday scenarios but I'm quite sure everything will be fine over here. I'll try to take a photo and post it to Flickr whenever I get the chance.

Xbox Live

2009-07-19T21:11:00.000-07:00

I recently signed up for the Xbox Live Gold membership. I actually was considering getting the 13-month deal Amazon had but kept debating the $45 dollar price. Microsoft must have heard my complaints and offered a special $1 rate for 1 month. I was eager to try the relatively new Netflix streaming service and therefore jumped at the chance.

After less than one month of usage, I watched a few Netflix movies and the quality wasn't all that great (worse than DVD and with only 2 channels of audio). To be fair, the quality is dependent on how fast your internet connection is and although I have FIOS, I'm getting internet access to my Xbox via Powerline connections, which isn't the greatest. So the the streaming service is convenient yes, but it would never replace the Blu-ray/DVD's I rent from NetFlix so I ended up canceling the service today.

I expected a big fight but it really wasn't that bad as some people have posted on the internet (although it stinks you can't cancel online but have to call Microsoft). I was put on hold but only for a few minutes and the operator tried to counter some of my arguments for canceling but I held firm and she gave me a verification code and stated the cancellation was complete. Still it seemed to be easier than canceling an AOL account!

If I upgrade to Gold again, it will definitely be with the prepaid card that doesn't require me to call Microsoft if I don't want to autorenew. Most likely when Valve releases Left 4 Dead 2 so I can multiplay with the Kruddster.

iVideo

2009-07-18T16:20:00.000-07:00

No, not some application but the iPhone video on the new 3GS.

I love it! I'm not sure I'll be wanting to post vlogs, but I most definitely like posting on YouTube for sheer ease and convenience! BTW, while in YouTube, just type in kruddster in the search bar and you'll see what I've posted.

Though I agree with some reviews about the editing needing more sophistication, I am happy that I can trim something out. Yes, too bad it's good for trimming the beginning or end and nothing in between, but it's better than nothing imho.

The most surprising thing is that it actually looks very good. Sure in some lighting areas it has somewhat of a hard time, but all in all they did a great job with the quality finished vids you shoot. The 3mp camera is so much better than the old camera. I didn't think it would make that much of a difference, but as usual, Apple delivers! Why am I surprised after all this time?