Month: October 2006

Computer commercials through the ages…

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

http://blogs.pcworld.com/techlog/archives/002950.html

It’s been said that the average American will see two million TV commercials by the time he or she turns 65. Doing some quick math in my head, I believe that means that I’ve seen…well, a terrifyingly large number of commercials for PCs and related products over the past 26 years or so. You too, maybe.

One of the many perversely fascinating things about YouTube is that its users have uploaded a remarkable percentage of those ads to the site, including both famous and obscure examples. Watch enough of them, in the right order, and what you have is a history of the PC in American life.

I’ve been doing that watching this weekend–and thanks to the magic of embedded YouTube, you can join me if you so choose.

This is worth viewing, if only just to see some of the old 80’s commercials with people like William Shatner and Bill Cosby. Some of the real old-school stuff is there, including the Coleco ADAM (I was the only person I knew who had one). Heh.

Out with Vista, and in with XP…

D'Arque Bishop

Okay, I suppose I should make some kind of post on here… heh.

Anyway, I went ahead and took Windows Vista off of my main PC a few days ago, and reinstalled Windows XP Professional. As much as I liked Windows Vista’s UI over XP’s, the lack of functionality I was encountering was beginning to bug the hell out of me. When Release Candidate 2 came out, I had hoped that at least one or two of the issues I encountered would be fixed. Instead, things got WORSE. The main issue I came across involved networking; whenever I tried to copy data to my network share, the machine’s networking capabilities would completely fail, and the only way I could fix it was via a reboot. I found that out the hard way when I was trying to copy a 2 GB folder over, and networking crashed within the first few seconds of the copy. The only way I could save the folder onto my server was to use WinSCP.

So, a few days ago, I wiped the system and put Windows XP on in its place. I had forgotten how long it takes to format a 640 GB filesystem… heh. I’ve pretty much gotten the system to back how I like it, complete with Logitech SetPoint software, WindowBlinds software to change the theme, and all of my games reinstalled. Fortunately reinstalling everything was relatively painless, and I was back up and running within a couple of days. The best example I could find for how well the system works now is the fact that Defcon actually plays properly, as opposed to being almost like on a Pentium 1 machine while in Vista.

So, for now, I think I’m going to have to stick with XP until such time as Microsoft, Logitech, and ATI get their collective act together and make it where I have a fully-functional machine in Vista. As much as I like a good-looking interface, I prefer function over form, and Vista wasn’t cutting it for me.

And now, my one bit of political commentary for the day…

D'Arque Bishop

This came up in an IM conversation between myself and Lhadatt last night…

(Note to you non-Texans: this is during last night’s gubernatorial debate. “Kinky” refers to Kinky Friedman, one of two independents running for governor of Texas.)

Lhadatt: the difference between kinky and the other 3 candidates is amusing.
DArqBishop: ?
Lhadatt: half-watching the debate.
Lhadatt: someone asked kinky about his “racist” comments.
Lhadatt: kinky: keep getting offended and you’ll never get anything accomplished
Lhadatt: other 3: offensive language has no place in politics
DArqBishop: I dunno.
DArqBishop: I consider “warrantless wiretapping”, “retroactive immunity for war crimes”, and “legal torture” to be offensive language yet they seem to have no problem with it in politics.
Lhadatt: hahaha

A change and a passing at Mortal Kombat Online…

D'Arque Bishop

All right, so, for those who might not have been keeping up with current events over at Mortal Kombat Online, Scott Howell, one of the two co-founders and the site webmaster, resigned yesterday. While it’s going to be sad to see him go, it’s something that had been brewing for a while, and we had prepared for this moment. So, while he’s not going to be working for the site any longer, we will still keep going, as strongly as we have been.

Of course, now this means I’m taking his place as webmaster. Eeeeep.

On one hand, I’ve been ready for this moment for a while, and have been doing a lot of hard work for the site. On the other hand, having more of the responsibility for the site on my shoulder is a hellishly daunting task. I just hope I can live up to what Scott brought to the site for so long.

Here’s hoping, anyway.

And now, a contribution to society’s observations…

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

Clarke’s First Law

Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.

Bishop’s Corollary to Clarke’s First Law

Any sufficiently advanced explanation is indistinguishable from bullshit.

Bishop’s Law of Houston Restaurants

If you eat at a sit-down Houston restaurant and the waiter tells you about the day’s specials, one of them will involve mahi-mahi.

… where is your god now?

D'Arque Bishop

http://www.gamespot.com/news/6159158.html

Last month, McDonald’s introduced a line of Happy Meal toys featuring Nintendo mascots like Mario and Donkey Kong. As part of the company’s image-reworking emphasis on fitness, each of the toys had a physical activity focus.

Today, McDonald’s rival Burger King officially announced a campaign that takes a different tack to a gaming tie-in. Instead of offering toys that evoke games and promote activity, the fast-food chain is going to offer three Xbox and Xbox 360 games of its own this holiday season, each of them slathered with Burger King branding like so much mayonnaise on a Double Whopper with cheese.

Burger King’s plans to get into gaming were originally leaked in April by a company doing market research for the fast-food chain.

Pocketbike Racer will feature a number of Burger King mascots, including the King, the Subservient Chicken, the Whopper Jr., and former host of E!’s Wild On series, Brooke Burke. Five levels will be included, as will multiplayer races for four people on the same Xbox or Xbox 360, or eight people online over Xbox Live.

Big Bumpin’ also takes a lineup of BK mascots and pits them against one another in vehicular competition, but this game isn’t a race so much as a bumper-car ride. The game features a number of theme-park settings and on-track hazards like saws and bottomless pits, as well as bump-pumping power-ups. Big Bumpin’ will also have four-player action and online multiplayer support.

Finally, Sneak King takes the stealth action genre and puts it to a friendlier use than usual. Instead of tiptoeing behind enemy guards to silently snap their necks, players will sneak up on hungry people to surprise them with offerings of Burger King food. Gamers will have to sneak up on people in a logging yard, a construction site, downtown, and the suburbs, and they will be graded on their performance “based on how elaborate the delivery is executed.”

…

The three games will be playable on either the Xbox or Xbox 360. They will be available from November 19 through December 24 at participating Burger King locations for $3.99 with the purchase of a value meal. All of the games are rated E for Everybody.

[UPDATE] It appears that the fast-food promotional tie-in isn’t the only first that can be attributed to these games. “These are not backward-compatible original Xbox games, but truly designed and developed for each platform separately,” the Burger King representative said. “There are two versions on each disc, specifically made for each platform. This has never been done before for a title.”

…. er, right. I’ll have to pick up a copy of one of these next time I’m going through the drive-thru at the BK by my office, just out of sheer morbid curiosity…

The horror of the irony could not be any more obvious.

D'Arque Bishop1 Comment

http://www.hcnonline.com/news.cfm…rfi=6

A Caney Creek High School dad is fired up because the Conroe Independent School District uses the book “Fahrenheit 451” as classroom reading material.

Alton Verm, of Conroe, objects to the language and content in the book. His 15-year-old daughter Diana, a CCHS sophomore, came to him Sept. 21 with her reservations about reading the book because of its language.
“The book had a bunch of very bad language in it,” Diana Verm said. “It shouldn’t be in there because it’s offending people. … If they can’t find a book that uses clean words, they shouldn’t have a book at all.”
Alton Verm filed a “Request for Reconsideration of Instructional Materials” Thursday with the district regarding “Fahrenheit 451,” written by Ray Bradbury and published in 1953. He wants the district to remove the book from the curriculum.
“It’s just all kinds of filth,” said Alton Verm, adding that he had not read “Fahrenheit 451.” “The words don’t need to be brought out in class. I want to get the book taken out of the class.”
He looked through the book and found the following things wrong with the book: discussion of being drunk, smoking cigarettes, violence, “dirty talk,” references to the Bible and using God’s name in vain. He said the book’s material goes against their religions beliefs. The Verms go to Grand Parkway Church in Porter.
“We went them to go after God,” said Glen Jalowy Jr., Grand Parkway Church youth minister. “We encourage them that what you put in your mind and heart is what comes out.”

…

Alton Verm’s request to ban “Fahrenheit 451” came during the 25th annual Banned Books Week. He and Hines said the request to ban “Fahrenheit 451,” a book about book burning, during Banned Books Weeks is a coincidence.
“Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read” is observed during the last week of September each year, according to the American Library Association Web site, www.ala.org. The week celebrates the freedom to choose or express one’s opinion, even if it might be considered unorthodox or unpopular and stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of those unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints to all who wish to read them, according to the Web site.
Jerilynn Williams, Montgomery County Memorial Library System director, said Banned Books Week keeps the public aware that it is imperative to have access to information in a democratic society. Banning books causes libraries to limit access to information by withholding a person’s right to explore a wide variety of opinions to form their own opinions, Williams said.

And people wonder why Louie said he wanted to get the hell out of Conroe as quickly as he could… *shaking head and walking away*

Fun with Windows Vista…

D'Arque Bishop

Well, I’ve been running Windows Vista for a couple of weeks now. All in all, I think I’m getting used to it. It certainly looks nicer than Windows XP did (I was using WindowBlinds to make my desktop look nicer), and some of the design decisions are rather nice.

Still, it’s definitely not without its drawbacks. So far I’ve encountered five different issues that royally annoy the hell out of me. Granted, only three of them are Microsoft’s fault, but it still irks me to no end. I definitely hope they’re fixed sooner rather than later.

  • ATI’s beta video drivers for Vista have really poor OpenGL support. I wouldn’t be quite annoyed by this yet if it wasn’t for the fact that Defcon apparently uses OpenGL for rendering, and the game runs slowly as a result. (By contrast, Counter-Strike: Source runs about the same as it did under XP.)
  • User Account Control is a pain in the ass. Not only is it very intrusive (stopping EVERYTHING while it waits for your prompt), it has a bug where if (My) Documents is on a network share, it can’t read the network drive and as a result a number of programs fail to install.
  • The built-in support for Windows Mobile devices (takes the place of ActiveSync) is buggy. Installing programs for the device doesn’t work as the program doesn’t recognize ActiveSync as being installed, and transferring files to/from the device never works (it copies maybe 40k and then crashes, severing the link between the PC and the device).
  • Logitech has yet to release SetPoint software (for the keyboard and mouse) that will work properly with Vista.
  • Winamp is my preferred media player. However, no matter what I do, Vista INSISTS that Windows Media Player be the default player for most media files. Granted, I might need to check WMP itself, but it’s annoying that I can’t just tell Winamp to be default and it’s automatically recognized. (Even if I go into the “default programs” place to change that on the Start menu, it won’t let me change media settings.)

Otherwise, Vista’s been working fine for me, and I’d rather keep it. Still, it makes my life difficult dealing with some of these issues. (I got around one, UAC, by completely disabling it.) Hopefully MS, ATI, and Logitech will fix the issues sooner rather than later. Ah, well.

EDIT – 7:57 PM – Well, this thread on the Winamp Forums explains what the problem with Winamp and Windows Media Player is: apparently there’s an extra step or two Winamp needs to add to the registry so that normal programs can alter the file associations without requiring administrative access. Ah, well, I suppose we’ll see that before the official Vista release.

Here’s hoping today ends up being better than yesterday.

D'Arque Bishop

Well, I had an interesting day yesterday. Note that I didn’t say fun-filled. I had planned for some fun and meeting with Louie yesterday, but it didn’t QUITE turn out that way. The original plan was to meet Louie at his apartment at 11 AM so that I could talk to him about making his old Gateway PC a file/printer server. Then, in the evening, we’d go somewhere for dinner and drinks.

Instead, I got a call at about 7:30 AM waking me up. Apparently something had happened to the network at the company datacenter, and I needed to go down there and figure out what was up. The datacenter is less than a mile from Louie’s apartment, so I asked if I could go a TAD later. Unfortunately, with it being the end of the month, the answer was no, so off I went. I finally got everything fixed and was out of there by 9:15 AM. With an hour and forty-five minutes to kill, I drove to a nearby IHOP, and had breakfast consisting of a “Vive le French Toast” and three cups of coffee. I was done by 10 AM, so with another hour to kill, I went to the Starbucks at the intersection by his apartment complex and ordered a venti coffee while browsing the net on my phone. At 10:45 I made my way over to Louie’s.

If you’ve been paying close attention, you can probably guess what the horrendous mistake I made was.

Shortly after lunch, my heart started feeling tingly. It came and went, and I figured I could just ignore it… until we had gotten finished and Louie’s and were heading to my place. As I drove down Louetta, it started feeling worse, to the point where I realized I really needed to have it looked at. So, as soon as I got home, Dad drove me over to the hospital emergency room (with a stop at the emergency clinic that turned out to be closed).

It turned out that my guess was right: the equivalent of five to six cups of coffee in less than two hours had lead to an overdose, making me think I was having heart issues. They did an EKG on me, hooked me up to monitoring equipment, and did blood work on me; the end result was that my heart was fine. After that, Louie headed home and Dad took me back home.

So, I’ve learned my lesson: moderate my damn caffeine intake!

Ah, well… today will be spent catching up on my recorded TV viewing, as well as finally sitting down and watching The Chronicles of Riddick. Then, tonight, I’ll meet Louie for dinner and drinks (seeing as I didn’t get to do so yesterday). A nice quiet day is just what I need after yesterday… heh.