Thursday, February 28, 2008
AKA "My dad's 70th level human warlock can beat up your dad's 70th level night elf rogue!"
Last week, my wife emailed me asking whether or not I was familiar with World of Warcraft. I had heard plenty about it, but never really gave it much thought due to the monthly subscription fee. Well, some of her coworkers were praising the game (as most WoWheads do), and it intrigued her enough to purchase the game on her way home from work. The rest was history.
Within a day we had it installed on 3 different machines for multiple playing options. I found myself digging around online for options to increase my mobile playing experience (keep posted for more on that one) because nobody wants to play on a system that has to be set at the lowest settings and STILL occasionally drops to 15 frames per second (though probably due to lag from hotel connection). Don't get me wrong, it runs quite well most of the time.
Okay, so why on earth would I be writing about a game that came out years ago? Simple, ever since it was released I have managed to withstand the pressure to play. So it's all new to me. And seeing as how this is my blog I'll do what I want. So get off my back already. Geeze. Uhhh...in any case. I did get caught up for a while in the Star Wars Galaxies phenomenon, but kept running into spans where I didn't have time to play thus wasting my money. Also, it puts a strain on the relationship when one is spending hours on end playing a game while the other stews in anger over the lack of "quality" time spent together.
As a HUGE fan of Oblivion (The Elder Scrolls IV), WoW was a no-brainer. It really feels like a less polished but far more versatile and never ending version of Oblivion (though leveling in WoW is much less complicated). It also has the added bonus of letting me play with my wife rather than around her (or worse...holed up in my dungeon office). Plus, since I'm not at home 3 nights a week, it gives us a mechanism through which to get together (and kill things). So instead of tearing a marriage apart, it's allowing us to get together and tear something else apart...if only virtually.
As aforementioned, I did play Star Wars Galaxies for a while (with the original rules and the revamp a year or so later). I must admit that WoW is far superior in performance and overall game playability. It's also nice that they don't start everyone out in the middle of the same gigantic spaceport surrounded by people shouting, fighting, and running around. However, I do wish I didn't have to wait till level 40 to get a horse. Honestly. That world is too damn big to have to run around like that.
My only turn off is the monthly fee. My work tends to be feast or famine, and there are times when I'd be lucky to find an hour a week to dedicate to gaming. I hope someday to see a pay plan that allows me to buy time instead of paying monthly. For example, if the average user spends 40 hours per month online, then 40 hours would cost $15. Then if it took me 6 months to burn through 40 hours that's my prerogative. If it took me 2 weeks then I need to consider switching back to a monthly plan. I think this would attract numerous gamers who have trouble finding time to play and thus can't justify the monthly fee.
If you think you're even mildly interested in the game, you should download the 10-day FREE trial and see if it is your cup of tea. The only thing you have to lose is several hours of download time (or the rest of your waking hours if you become addicted).
For anyone interested, here are the Windows Experience Index numbers for my laptop (Toshiba Tecra M3):
| Processor | Pentium M 2Ghz | 3.8 |
| Memory | 2GB | 4.4 |
| Graphics | NVIDIA GeForce GO 6600 | 3.4 |
| Gaming Graphics | 128MB Dedicated Memory | 3.4 |
| Hard Disk | 5400RPM | 4.4 |
Friday, February 22, 2008
I don't pretend to understand why Microsoft makes many of the decisions they make, but when I run across an error like this in a OS that is already many gigabytes in size I have to ask myself, "Why?"
I haven't had many issues with Vista. There are some quirks with DRM in media player hogging system resources. Other than that, I'm rather surprised at how well it runs on my rather outdated Toshiba Tecra M3 (company laptop).
I'll admit, Vista was a bit of a pain in the early days when drivers were sparse. Whether this was due to hardware manufactures being lazy and thinking Microsoft wouldn't hit their target date or Microsoft changing too much with too little notice is beyond me.
There are some applications that don't like to play with Vista, which is to be expected and has happened in almost every Windows release. User Access Control has been the major culprit of most issues. I can't say I enjoy getting 2 or 3 prompts to do a simple task. I'd like to see an option that unlocks for X minutes for when I do multiple tasks that upset UAC.
Still, this error tickled me in an uncomfortable way. As aforementioned, Vista is not a lightweight when it comes to disk space requirements. I really would like to know what significant change was made that caused the old WinHlp32.exe to become obsolete to the point that they just completely ditched it. In the end, there had better be a damn good reason for removing something this trivial.
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Wednesday, January 30, 2008
From an email my father sent me:
Can you cry under water?
How important does a person have to be before they are considered assassinated instead of just murdered?
Why do you have to 'put your two cents in'.. But it's only a 'penny for your thoughts'? Where's that extra penny going to?
Why does a round pizza come in a square box?
What disease did cured ham actually have?
How is it that we put man on the moon before we figured out it would be a good idea to put wheels on luggage?
Why is it that people say they 'slept like a baby' when babies wake up like every two hours?
If a deaf person has to go to court, is it still called a hearing?
Why are you IN a movie, but you're ON TV?
Why do people pay to go up tall buildings and then put money in binoculars to look at things on the ground?
Why do doctors leave the room while you change? They're going to see you naked anyway.
Why is 'bra' singular and 'panties' plural?
Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a horrible crisp, which no decent human being would eat?
If corn oil is made from corn, and vegetable oil is made from vegetables, what is baby oil made from?
If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
Why do The Alphabet Song and Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star have the same tune?
Why did you just try singing the two songs above?
Why do they call it an asteroid when it's outside the hemisphere, but call it a hemorrhoid when it's in your butt?
Did you ever notice that when you blow in a dog's face, he gets mad at you, but when you take him for a car ride, he sticks his head out the window?
Why is it called a driveway when you park there and a parkway when you drive there?
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
As mentioned in my previous posting, I've recently added a Mac Mini to my home theater to use as a Vista Media Center PC. In an effort to provide a public service as well as store my lessons learned, I've compiled this guide of stuff I did to get it all working.
All of this took place on an Apple Mac Mini 1.83 with 1GB of RAM and upgraded to OSX Leopard. This is by no means a gaming system, as it's performance is similar to a laptop. The base configuration has been sufficient for Media Center purposes.
Installation / Drivers
Using Boot Camp, which Apple includes, I was able to install Vista with no issues. Boot Camp also takes care of getting those pesky drivers copied over as well.
Remote - The built-in IR receiver would not accept commands from my Media Center remote (it only works with the pathetic 6 button Apple remote). I recommend getting a Media Center remote or a Logitech diNovo Mini (when it's released in late Feb, 2008).
Tuner - I don’t have a tuner hooked up to it, since I already have TiVo handling all my DVR needs. So I can’t give any details on that. I assume any Media Center compatible USB tuner will work.
Network - I’m hardwired into my 100Mb network instead of Wi-Fi (both of which are built-in to the Mac Mini). So I can’t speak to how it would perform that way. Technically 802.11g should be able to handle the bandwidth of DVD video, but specs and actuality are two different things.
Keyboard/Mouse - I’m using a Gyration GO 2.4 Optical Air Mouse and Compact Keyboard Suite, which is okay. However, for aesthetics I'm more interested in the aforementioned Logitech diNovo Mini.
Storage - With only an 80GB hard drive, storage space of raw DVD videos will be an issue. I already had roughly 700GB set aside on my file server, so I didn't need to additional storage to the Mini. However, any external USB hard disk can fill this need. IOMEGA has a line of hard drives designed to integrate nicely with the Mac Mini.
Configuration
By default, the My DVDs feature of Media Center is disabled. This article explains how to enable it. This makes Media Center think you have a DVD changer hooked up, which technically you do only it’s not individual discs.
After enabling My DVDs, add the folder(s) to where the DVDs are ripped to the watch folders. Media Center will scan up to 3 folders deep (another registry hack to go deeper) looking for a VIDEO_TS folder. The DVD contents must go into the the VIDEO_TS folder.
The default DVD video decoder that comes with Vista is pretty lousy. On certain movies playback becomes nauseatingly choppy. I downloaded a trial of the NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder then used the Media Center Decoder Utility to set it as the video playback decoder. It works like a charm but there are a few things to note.
PureVideo Decoder is not and will not officially be supported in Vista. The problems lay in saving changed settings. Since my Mini is hooked up to my stereo receiver via SPDIF, I could not use the audio decoder built into PureVideo because it required the settings be changed. The good news is, the video decoder works fine out of the box. Since the audio decoder built into Vista works fine, I only needed to purchase the bronze ($20) version of PureVideo.
As for audio, my setup required me to enable the audio jack for SPDIF pass through. On Vista this is simply a matter of opening the Playback Devices control (right click speaker on task bar and select) and setting SPDIF Out as the default device.
Ripping DVDs
Rather than write an end-to-end walk through of what I do, I'm just going to note certain aspects of the software I use. Most of the software already has extensive communities built around them.
In order to eliminate the excess fluff from the DVD I use DVD Shrink to re-author the DVD so it contains just the movie and pertinent audio tracks (no menus, bonus features, additional languages or commentaries, etc). My average is just over 4GB per DVD. This method takes me a few minutes to select all the necessary options and trim opening and closing segments I don’t want, then about 15 minutes to rip the DVD.
An added feature of using DVD Shrink to re-author the DVD is that flipper DVDs or multi-disc movies can be joined back into one continuous DVD as far as Media Center is concerned.
When re-authoring with DVD Shrink, it is important to NOT compress the movie. It should always be set to 100%. DVD Shrink will complain that it won’t fit on a single DVD, but who cares? Changing the preferred DVD size in the options to 8.4GB will all but eliminate the error.
Some DVDs contain copy protection that will cause DVD Shrink to die (sometimes with the grace of an ogre on ice skates). In the past I've used DVD Decrypter, but it is no longer available, supported, or upgraded to handle modern copy protection. An excellent alternative is SlySoft AnyDVD. It is a utility that cleans up such added "features" giving Vista a clean DVD to read.
The last step is to go to DVDXML and download a DVDID file and drop it in the folder directly above the VIDEO_TS folder. It’s a simple xml file that lets Media Center know what details to pull from its online catalog. This gets you cover art and some basic movie details. For movies that don't have an XML file, dropping a jpeg of the cover art names folder.jpg into the same folder will at least get you the cover art. I also use this for some movies where the cover art pulled by Media Center is inaccurate.
Remaining Issues
My only remaining issue that Media Center will only remember where it left off with the current DVD. So when if I stop a movie to watch another then come back to the first movie I have to re-find where I left off. I’ve been using DVD players with multi-disc resume features for several years now, so the loss of such a feature is a bit of a nuisance to me. Luckily, DVD Shrink keeps the chapter information intact, so getting back to where I left off is a little easier. Rumor has it this feature will be included in a future version of Media Center. The question is, which version.
Quick List of Referenced Stuff
Apple Mac Mini
Logitech diNovo Mini
Gyration GO 2.4 Optical Air Mouse and Compact Keyboard Suite
How to enable the DVD Library in Windows Media Center on a Windows Vista-based computer
NVIDIA PureVideo Decoder
Media Center Decoder Utility
DVD Shrink
SlySoft AnyDVD
DVDXML
Monday, December 17, 2007
The story began well over a year ago. I purchased several HDDs in order to convert an old 5-drive SCSI enclosure into a SATA enclosure. The end product was a roughly 900GB, RAID-5, MultiLane eSATA addition to my file server (sad how cheap a 1TB external drive runs nowadays).
One of my primary desires for so much storage was to give me a place to rip all my DVDs. My dream was to stream them to my living room using my XBOX 360 as an extender. And that's when the problems began:
- I could never get an encoding process down that would work to my satisfaction. Despite having a rather strong gaming rig, it still took far too many steps and too much time to encode a DVD as a WMV (to maintain the 5.1 audio).
- Media Center Extenders don't seem to play nice with domains. Extenders login with a local account that flat out refuses to see the network shares from my file server, regardless of security permissions I set.
- The 360 would periodically decide it didn't want to talk to my Media Center PC anymore inciting a long process of getting them to be friends again. Couple that with the 360 sounding like an aircraft carrier deck, and the idea of boxing up all my DVDs slowly faded away.
This year, I reevaluated my options and decided to pick up an Apple Mac Mini and slap Vista Ultimate on it. The small (and quiet) Mini could be tucked away in my living room giving me full Media Center functionality with very little impact to my living room feng shui (or lack thereof).
Next, I had to tackle my encoding problem. I've gotten rather tired of encoding DVDs every time a new and better CODEC comes along. Rather than deal with it, I decided to just store the raw DVD as is and enable to DVD Library functionality in Media Center. IMHO, external hard drives have become cheap enough that I can tack on several more TB for roughly what I paid last year for 1TB.
The end result is a nice fit. I rip my DVDs with DVD Decrypter* direct to the file server, grab the dvdid.xml file from DVDxml.com, and BINGO, they show up in Media Center. The XML file lets Media Center know what the DVD ID is so it can download additional movie details and cover art. So provided I get enough storage space I can officially box up my DVDs and hide them in some obscure closet (I do not condone illegally ripping DVDs, so I own every movie I rip).
[*] officially discontinued but easily found with a quick Google search.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
Apple finally did it, they lured me back to the dark side. About a year ago, I picked up a Zune. I suspect I never mentioned it on this site because I was A) too busy at the time, or B) the jury was still out. After a year, there have been little to no updates to the Zune software or firmware, and the updates that were released didn't update much. I expected more and fear it shows Microsoft's total lack of interest in the Zune at all.
By now, everybody knows about Apple's new line of iPods. The new nano is horribly ugly ("fatty Mc. Fat Nano" as one prominent Mac Addict put it). I don't know why Apple thinks someone wants to watch a video on such a small screen, but to each his own I suppose. I suspect many are caught up in the novelty of an option they never use.
When Apple released the iPhone, I knew I wanted nothing to do with it. However, I was intrigued by the interface, and I knew it wouldn't take long for Apple for adopt the interface into the popular iPod line. Introducing the iTouch.
First Impressions
I don't think anyone can argue that the iTouch isn't pretty. If there's one thing Apple really does well, it's device design (excluding fatty nano). Naturally, this device picks up every fingerprint and smudge it can find. It comes with a cleaning cloth, but I would've preferred a sleeve like the GEN1 nano, since there are no cases for the iTouch yet and iPhone cases are too big. They also went back to the chrome backing, which gets scratched just looking at it funny. The face, however, is quite resilient and hasn't picked up any scratches.
Interface
The interface is almost flawless, easy to use, and very responsive. My only beef on the interface is the absence of a virtual scroll wheel. Track position is indicated with a thin line that is impossible to accurately tap with a finger (usually when jumping ahead in a pod/vidcast). Since this is software, I'll keep my fingers crossed that they'll come up with something a little more precise for managing track position.
Web/Wi-Fi
Web is a nice add-on, but more a novelty. Facebook comes up with the iPhone interface, which is handy. The downside is that it's Wi-Fi only. There aren't an abundance of free WiFi spots in the areas I frequent, so I'm limited to using it in hotels and at home. Bluetooth would have been a nice feature to use the web connection of my phone. Oh, well. Like I said, the web to me is a novelty. The Wi-Fi is also used to connect to the iTunes Store. This is handy if you're the type that has to buy an album RIGHT NOW, but for the rest of us it's a throw away.
Sound
This is another area where the iPod falls flat. On my Shure SE210's, there is a distinctive crackling noise. I couldn't hear it on my $30 headphones, so this definitely a shortcoming of the device with higher quality headphones. Compared to the quality that comes when playing back through my Creative Audigy 2 ZS, the iPod falls really flat. They've left the standard equalizer settings, but really could use some more advanced signal processing. This could be fixed with software, but I suspect it'll require better hardware to fix.
Battery Life
So far I've not been away from power long enough to drain the battery. My longest adventures put me about 4-5 hours shuffling through airport cattle lines, and I have yet to run out of juice. Granted, video playback sucks the power like no other. Couple that with the Wi-Fi and you're asking for only a few hours of usage. I turn off the Wi-Fi when it's not needed and don't watch a significant amount of videos (yet). For music playback, 5 hours barely puts a dent in the battery meter.
Capacity
Okay, there are two options here, 8GB or 16GB. I went with the 16GB, since I'm away from home (and synching music) for a week at a time. I'm sure this isn't enough for many, especially when music is stored in higher quality or lossless. Most of my music is 224VBR. I set aside 10GB for music, which gives me over 100 hours. I have no doubt they'll be releasing a hard drive based iTouch for those people who really need 160GB, but don't expect it to be the same slim little beauty.
Software
Let's face it, iTunes has gotten so bloated it's a joke. It's still the most convenient for people using an iPod, but it really has issues. It sucks up processing for trivial tasks, crashes far too often, and takes entirely too long to sync. I can only hope Apple will sort out the issues or I need to find some alternative software that does the basic tasks: library and podcast management.
Overall
After a month or so of daily use, I'm pretty content with my iTouch; outside of some issues that could be solved with software updates. If you're looking to upgrade your 4GB flash-based player with something with significant geek appeal (and you've got some money to blow on aesthetics over performance), then this device is for you. If you're lean toward the audiophile camp, it might be better to wait for a drive-based player to handle your lossless files.
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Saturday, August 18, 2007
After over a year of taunting us with the insanely priced TiVo HD the price has finally dropped to $300, which is well within an average tech geek's budget. I've been avoiding getting Comcast's HD DVR because I knew TiVo would find a way to get the price down and I've heard nothing but bad things about the Comcast HD DVR.
So after working with the my new TiVo for a couple of weeks, here's my assessment:
The Good
CableCARD support, good. Dual CableCARD support, AWESOME. TiVo managed to keep the dual tuner in the lower priced HD unit. In a way, this replaces two of my old TiVos. I already had a CableCARD in my TV, so I moved it to the TiVo with no issues. I had to get a Comcast technical out to my house to install the second card (I have no idea why), so it's nice they put the ports on the front of the device.
This may sound like a negative, but I'll explain. This cheaper TiVo has less storage space, in the realm of 20 hours of HD content, 180 hours of SD content. However, TiVo conveniently added an eSATA port to the back. This means I can easily add on more storage if the 20 hours is not enough for me. While the TiVo doc labels the port for "future use", it turns out it can be easily activated with current systems. Read more.
The CableCARD support really sums it all up. Everything else is pretty much the same (see below for a bad difference). I can now tune all my digital channels without a separate cable box and I finally get to watch my favorite shows the way they were meant to be seen when I am unavailable to watch them when they air.
The Bad
There is a short coming to the dual tuner. When I schedule shows to start early and run late (usually a 1 or 2 minute buffer) the TiVo will bounce between the tuners if it is recording back to back shows. This is desired if the shows are on separate channels, however not if both shows are on the same channel. It ends up interrupting me if I'm watching something else at the time. My only option is not to record the showing. I would like to also have an option to force it to record and clip on the other tuner.
My understanding is there's a legal debate going on with the CableCARD people. As a result, video transfer capability has been disabled on all Series 3 units. I can still access most of my Galleon features, but I cannot transfer shows between my TiVos. I can understand CableCARD's desire to protect content, but I would like to at least be able to transfer shows from my other two legacy TiVos to the new one. Keep outgoing transfers disabled but give me incoming transfers!
UPDATE: 11/7/2007
This option has finally been enabled! I can now move my recordings (standard def at least) between TiVos. Also, for $25 I can upgrade my TiVo Desktop to a version that will transcode the videos for use on portable devices. I haven't decided if I need this upgrade yet.
The Ugly
Well, none really. Like I said, this device is pretty much the same as my Series 2 boxes with dual-tuner and HD support added on. Performance-wise, it is no different. I suspect video transfers will not be disabled forever, so I'll patiently wait.
Tuesday, July 31, 2007
After a tragic lapse in testing, I finally managed to finish off my MCSD.NET certification today. I, like so many before me, got bit by the 70-300 bug. My first attempt at the test back in February sent me home with tears and a grade just not good enough to call me certified. I rolled onto a project shortly thereafter, and the steam went out of the study engine.
After some soul searching and recommendations from colleagues, I picked up the Exam Cram book from Que. I was a bit forlorn when I picked up the book last Friday. Every tech person in Denver knows about SoftPro Books. It's THE place to go for tech books when you don't have time to wait. I slap the book on the counter and the attendant gives me a half hearted, "finishing up that old certification, huh?" How rude! I knew I was running a little behind, but OLD!!!??? To pour salt on the wounds, I discovered SoftPro even removed the book from their website when I tried to link to it above. Tears of unfathomable sadness. In any case, the book along with the Transcender exams helped flesh out (and in many cases degrade) my knowledge so that I could pass the exam.
So while this is a happy day that I can kick the dust of the old certs off my boots and look ahead to the new (or I should say newer) stuff, I still can't help but feel like it was all for naught. I like to think I walked away with some knowledge gained, but in the end I feel like I just crammed for each test just enough so I could pass it. Well, on to the MCPD upgrade exams! Hopefully I'll complete them before someone calls me grandpa.
Wednesday, May 30, 2007
This is a wee bit old news, but it became an interesting lunchtime discussion point for me a few days ago. For those of you not in the know, Galleon was an open source project that provided additional functionality for TiVo such as music, weather, traffic, etc.
Last year, the developer of Galleon, Leon Nicholls, decided to stop development of it and move on to something new. This is another in a long line of open source applications I've used that have faded away into obscurity, and it is my biggest pet peeve with open source in general. One guy walks away and the project is dead.
For an open source application to survive beyond its original developer it has to be ridiculously popular. Galleon has quite a large user base, many of which are accomplished developers. Why is no one stepping forward to continue development? Because most people don't like doing something for nothing.
I still use Galleon and was upset when I heard it was shelved. Galleon, while functional, is far from finished. It is an excellent proof of concept but lacks the polish of a commercial application. If Leon was making money off of it, he'd certainly have a much different outlook. Sure, he won an award and that motivated him for awhile, but when the project got to the final 10% (where 90% of the work is done) he walked away. Why? Because every developer knows that the final 10% of any application is dreadfully boring work.
So I agree with Leon's decision to cut and run. He lost interest in the project and there was nothing more to gain (learn) from it. He's moved on to other technologies that will help him increase his skill set thus making him more marketable. What would be his motivation to finish Galleon? To make a bunch of people he doesn't know happy about their TiVo? Hard to pay rent with that.
I ran across a series of spoof Mac ads on YouTube and wanted to share them with the world (aka my friends) through my rarely hit personal blog. See them all here.
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