Kevin's Musings

I just downloaded the developer preview of the Flock browser. It is a Firefox based browser that has integration for del.icio.us bookmarking and built in blogging integration.Seems kind of nice, no real opinions, yet. I am in fact writing this entry from within Flock. One thing it is missing (as of right now, anyway) is a Spell Checker — I use a Firefox plugin to get a spell checker when I normally post to my blog. Anway, we’ll see…

I have been playing with various Wiki implementations. I tried PHP Wiki, TikiWiki, but finally settled on DokuWiki. PHPWiki seemed too simple and documentation seemed really sparse. TikiWiki seemed almost too configurable — so many screens of options, etc. While DokuWiki could have more configuration options that are changable at runtime, it seems to be a nice mix of simplicity and features. My only real complaint is the Wiki text layout language is different with each Wiki so just when you knew one you have to learn the markup in the next. Oh well, settle on one and be happy.

If you aren’t familiar with the Wiki concept, it is essentially a way to have a website where the content can easily be easily co-authored without the need for special software on each persons machine, no need for ftp, no need to learn HTML, etc. (although you do have to learn the relatively simple Wiki markup). It also keeps all old revisions, so if you mess up on a page you can always go back and look at how the document appeared in the past.

Played some more FEAR last night, continues to be lots of fun. Hope to finish season two of The West Wing tonight. Start season three soon. We’re going to see Gilbert Gottfried this weekend, should be fun. Not a whole lot else going on.

Until next time…

I started playing the game FEAR, a new first person shooter by Sierra. Coming into every new FPS, I (naturally) compare them to the experience of Half-Life and Half-Life 2, my two favorite FPS games (heck, two of my favorite games ever). FEAR compares very favorably in pretty much every respect. The graphics are spectacular, the visual effects are spectacular, the in-game scripted events that move things along are wonderfully creepy, the sound is great, and the enemy AI… Wow, the enemy AI is really impressive. The day of the enemy seeing you and just standing still, popping their head out occasionally to shoot you until you inevitably kill them is gone — the enemies use the different routes through the map to move take another route to flank you. The AI adds a real complexity that I don’t think I have experienced in single player games before. They have done so much right with this game. Lots of fun.

Now, what did they do wrong? If I wasn’t such a big fan of the Splinter Cell games, I would probably say FEAR is just about perfect (at least based on where I am in the game now, which is maybe an hour or two in), but, now when I am going through a new game the first thing I want to do is shoot out the lights and turn on my night vision goggles. As far as I can tell, the shadows make little difference on how well the enemies see you in FEAR and you cannot shoot out the lights. Oh well.

If you are an FPS go out there and get FEAR.

Well, we finally got through the line to convert our e-tickets to passes — this took like 30 or 45 minutes. We took our passes to the entrance of the show and people right in front of us were handing in their e-tickets and getting right into the show (without waiting in the ridiculous line). This was was very frustrating. The pass taker just said “Oh, we just started doing that 20 minutes ago.” It would have been nice if somebody mentioned this to people in line. Very poor management.

Well, so, all that said we got into the show. The show is sort of a mini-CES without the audio gear, car audio, high end audio, 5 million flat screens, 3 million sub woofers, 2 million Asian booths. What did this leave? Mostly computer and gaming stuff. This isn’t all bad as this is the stuff that primarily interests me, personally. It took us a two or three hours to go through the entire show.

So, what was cool?

• The Xbox 360 had a presence, but, I was hoping for a larger appearance. I did see the King Kong running on both the Xbox and Xbox 360 and the Xbox 360 version did look considerably cleaner. There were a bunch of Xbox’s running various games, but, I didn’t see many 360’s. Maybe I just missed them, oh well. I got my Xbox 360 T-Shirt, so that’s nice.
• The Creative Zen Vision, a portable video player — I would really consider getting one of these, but, to load media onto it you need to run custom Creative software, which I find annoying (it should just act like a hard drive).
• Headbanger ear buds. They have a built in subwoofer and sound really nice. They provide some amount of audio isolation and are pretty affordable compared to other headphones that offer sound isolation. I have a pair on order from Amazon, we’ll see how I like them in action.
• The Divx folks pointed me to the Philips PET1000 Divx capable portable DVD player with a 10.2″ screen. Too bad they didn’t have one. It isn’t cheap ($360) sounds cool.
• The Pepper Pad. This is a nifty Linux tablet device, good for surfing, email, etc. Not really a full blown computer. It looks cool, but, is 802.11b only (not 802.11g, wtf?). The video playback support is very limited. They need to do a lot more with it. Oh well.

Well, those were the highlights for me.

Earlier this week we pre-purchased tickets for the DigitalLife.com show – I am guessing it is sort of like CES in New York. We printed out e-ticket expecting a quick entrance to the show. The show opened this morning at 11, but, we didn’t get here until 1. Surprisingly, we found a huge line and it turns out if you didn’t pre-purchase tickets you could pay your money and pretty much walk in (or so it appears), but, e-ticket holders are required to wait in a very long line. How frustrating. Oh well, the world is mismanaged all over.

I got a demo disc for the PS2 version of SSX On Tour about a week ago, complements of EA. It played really solidly, lots of fun. The only real issue is that I have is that classically I have played the SSX games on the Xbox, so I am not used to using the PS2 controller (although I hear the game is better suited to the PS2 controller than to the Xbox controller).

I think I have played all the SSX games on the Xbox, (except for the original, SSX, which is a PS2-only title) so I decided to get the latest installment for the Xbox instead of the PS2 (control differences aside). The load times on the Xbox are better (probably thanks to the hard drive) and I would guess the graphics are crisper and there are probably fewer in game lags on the Xbox (in general the Xbox is a considerably more powerful machine). After playing about an hour, I can say SSX On Tour is a very solid addition to the series. It is a big open mountain type of game, much like SSX3 was. This has its plusses and minuses. In general it is a big benefit, but, SSX Tricky had some really fantastic levels which were really wild, the kind of thing you just wouldn’t model on a “realistic” mountainside. For sheer craziness, I think Tricky is probably my favorite, for sheer smoothness, tight controls, etc. On Tour is probably the best. You really can’t go wrong with any of them (except I think there are some minor and major control advantages that are introduced into each new game).

Much to the surprise of almost everyone I know, we haven’t been watching The West Wing for the last, umm, like six years (it is in its seventh season).

Well, we went to the local library and borrowed season one DVDs. We have gone through well over two thirds of the first season and it is a pretty spectacular show. If you aren’t watching it, you should consider renting it and giving it a try.

This brings me to a related topic — the underutilized public library. Classically, I haven’t utilized the library to any great extent, but, over the last few months I have started increasing my visitations and found it to be quite a resource. If you haven’t visited your public library recently, I would urge you to check it out.

Oh, we didn’t make it into the museum… if you didn’t guess, we stayed home and watched The West Wing all day (quite literally). We decided to do the museum some evening this week. Sure, we’re lazy, but, in some cultures that has to be a positive trait, right?

Nothing much is going on… working on fixing other peoples bugs or things that become broken over time this week – always challenging to sort through other peoples code to determine what the problems are. Going pretty well.

Steve talked about the shows he is watching in his blog so I guess I can update with what shows we are watching, which is (as always) way to long a list.

Arrested Development continues to be my favorite new comedy. Always very entertaining.

Criminal Minds is another show along the lines of CSI. It is new (only two episodes so far) but quite promising. Some neat effects and good stories, we’ll definitely keep trying this one.

Surface has been interesting but not quite as gripping as I had hoped. We’ll keep watching to see where it is going.

Lost — I think I mentioned we did a huge catch up watching Lost last weekend. This continues to be my current favorite of the serial drama (sci-fi?). Very interesting story that continues to be very interesting.

Prison Break – Very interesting. It is hard to imagine they will carry more than about a season of this, but, the first 6 or 7 shows have been very good. Good characters, nice development.

CSI (and Miami and New York) continues to be well written and interesting.

Ultimate Fighter season two is more of season one, but, if you are into the fighting stuff it is a lot of fun.

My Name is Earl has been funny although not of the caliber of Arrested Development. I question whether than can get more than about a season of it, but, fun so far.

Numb3rs and Bones has been pretty much another CSI. Not bad, but, they doesn’t really stand out yet. They are interesting for what they are, but, there are so many shows like this already. We’ll see.

House, M.D. very witty, well written. We like house a lot. Requires a pretty dark sense of humor.

Ultimately, we watch a lot of TV. If you were going to pick up one or two I would recommend Lost and Prison Break.

Not a ton planned for the weekend. Probably on Sunday we will go into the city to the Museum – an Egyptian Medicine thing I think. It is supposed to be rainy all weekend, which is nice. Maybe fall is really here.

Reading Stiff by Mary Roach. Very compelling. About 2/3 through it, highly recommend it if you have the stomach to read a book about the history of cadavers.

Until next time…

We had a uber-lazy weekend, although it was REALLY nice. We got caught up on a ton of TV shows: Lost, Prison Break, My Name is Earl, CSI, CSI:Miami, CSI:NY, Nip Tuck, Arrested Development, Cold Case, Firefly (again), probably others. If we hadn’t ventured out to see Serenity (which was really good, four thumbs up from us) we wouldn’t have left the apartment. If your aren’t watching Lost and Prison Break you should start (but start from the beginning, if possible). So nice to sleep in, be lazy. I have been battling a cold or something and am finally feeling like I am on the mend so lots of relaxation and fluids (and TV) were just what the doctor would have ordered, I am sure. The XBMC continues to be really great.

I don’t know if I have mentioned or not but we have been eating much better for the last three months. I am down just over 23 pounds, which is great. Been using a great piece of software to help track the progress and to help keep me on task. I hope to loose about another 23 by new years and I really think it is possible. I do walk more now that I work in NYC, but, almost all of my loss can be attributed to my vastly improved diet.

Until next time…

Had a busy week at work, trying to get data migrated from an old version of our applications so it will work in a newer version… no small feat. I think it is coming along OK. Lots of work. Gotta love schema changes 🙂

I spent this weekend tweaking XBMC, setting up a second Xbox, etc. I am so amazingly happy with this application — this is the added functionality the Xbox should be included with. The Xbox 360 is close on the horizon and I have asked around at the local stores. The gaming stores will take pre-orders but will no longer guarantee you will get in on the first shipment. I think it is likely if you stop by Best Buy or the like the morning it is released you can get one, but, who knows. I haven’t pre-ordered because I am not 100% sure I really need one that weekend. It is possible those who don’t pre-order won’t have one by Christmas, but, I just doubt that. If Microsoft is smart they will be plentiful. It cuts their own throats to be sold out everywhere, in my opinion. The funny thing is the EB Games guy told me that if I wanted the stripped down “Core Version” I could probably get one on the day of release, but, I just don’t get the idea of the “Core Version”… who wants it without a hard drive, video cables, wireless controller, etc? The hard drive is on of the cool things about the Xbox. Oh well, we’ll see.

Been catching up on some movies. Saw Flightplan, which was really quite good. Also saw Oldboy (cool Korean film), Stealth (pretty mediocre, but, not horrible), and Survival Style 5+ (VERY bizarre).

On Friday I went to the San Gennaro street fair down in Little Italy (in NYC). Pretty much a huge street fair taking up lots of blockage down there. Games of questionable-chance, goods for sale (CDs, T-Shirts), lots of fried food. It was interesting and somewhat claustrophobic.

Until next time…