Why Isn't "Blog" in the Blogger Dictionary?

While blogging earlier today I found that "blog" isn't in the Blogger spell-checker. What's up with that?

Great Commercial For Blaupunkt Speakers

This has been floating around for a while now, but for the 2 people who read my blog, here's one of the best commercials I've seen in quite some time.

Link

Podcasting: What's Up With That?

I've never really gotten into podcasting. Maybe cause the name does such a bad job of describing what it really is. That or people use the term to describe so many things that aren't really podcasts that it has lost any real meaning. The term comes from a combination of "broadcasting" and "iPod" -- because it is supposed to be a way of broadcasting MP3s to portable listening devices. But can you really broadcast to an iPod ... or most other MP3 players? It's not like most of them have Bluetooth or wi-fi. And does an automated system like RSS that pulls MP3s down to your computer to be synch'd with your MP3 player really count as broadcasting? Half the time I hear people talk about podcasts they are simply talking about the last MP3 they downloaded and listened to on their desktop or laptop ... what the hell is "podcasting" about that? Someone sent me a "podcast" the other day to listen to. It was an IM with a link to a MP3 that I listened to with iTunes. None of that has anything to do with "broadcasting" or "iPods".

My Initial Thoughts On Star Wars: Episode III

Everyone at work has been asking me what I think of the new Star Wars. So here’s my thoughts for anyone who cares. I’ll try to keep any spoilers to a minimum (if you don’t know that Anakin becomes Darth Vader that’s your problem).

The Good:
This is easily the best of the prequel trilogy – maybe the 3rd best in the entire series after Empire and A New Hope (original Star Wars for the non-nerds). The action is amazing. The opening space battle kicks total ass – it’ the largest, coolest, most chaotic space battle of any of the films with thousand of ships dog fighting and massive cruisers blasting the shit out of each other like pirate ships strafing each other with cannon fire.

Haden Christenson is far better in Sith than he was in Episode II, and while there are still a few poorly delivered lines he at least nails most of the key scenes in which he makes his turn to the dark side. There’s no doubt about it: mangry conflicted Anakin is much better than whiny, love-struck Anakin. Also, the scenes between him and Padme are kept to a minimum and only 50% of them suck (more on that in “The Bad” section).

The lightsaber fights are long and often epic, though none of them recaptures the emotion of the Empire stand off between Luke and Vader or the sheer coolness of the Darth Maul fight in Episode I.

Jar-Jar is in about two scenes and never says a word. Awesome.

The Bad:
Natalie Portman sucks in this movie. She wasn’t great in the other two, but she downright sucks in this one. Disappointing, because she is good in almost every other film she’s been in.

Some of the references to and introduction of characters from the original trilogy seem forced and unnecessary.

Ian McDirmid, as the Emperor, is downright weird in some scenes. His maniacal cackle from Return of the Jedi seems to have transformed into a lot of unnecessary, strange vocalization in this film.

C3PO still sucks. He was annoying in the original trilogy, but it was still funny. Now he’s just annoying.

In the first 20 minutes of the movie there is entirely too much talking from the Trade Federation battle droids. They walk around having conversations like people … stupid people. Why do they even need to talk at all? Shut up and get cut in half by a lightsaber.

Perhaps worst of all, Darth Vader does a spot-on Frankenstein impersonation. Watch for it ... then try to pretend the coolest villian in the history of film ever did anything so lame.

Star Wars Last Supper

This is the coolest desktop image I've seen in ages. I'd complain about some of the choices as to which Star Wars character replaces which apostle (is Han Solo Judas or Peter? And how perfect would it be to have Lando or young Anakin as Judas?) and the fact that some of the character's poses match DaVinci's and others are simply standing there. But seeing as it's hand-painted and extremely well done I'll keep my bones to myself.

Link

XBOX360 And PS3 Unveiled

Last week Microsoft unveiled the new xbox360. In the last round of console wars I chose Microsoft and I think I made the right decision. Its simply a better piece of hardware and the online capabilities blow the PS2 completely out of the water -- no contest. And the console is finally getting developer support to the point that I think their game libraries are comparable (see Halo and Halo2). The point is, I'm a bit biased. However, from the details that have been released so far it looks like Sony is in really trouble. Just from the looks the xbox360 looks fucking awesome. Microsoft really seems to have addressed all the issues gamers had with the first gen hardware. The box is smaller, sleeker and looks like something I'd want to show off as opposed to shove into the darkest corner of my entertainment center.

But more importantly, the controller kicks ass. It looks like Microsoft took the basic shape of the popular S-Controller from the current xbox and added a few touches from the PS2 controllers -- mainly a second shoulder button to go along with the right and left triggers. Awesome. I hate it when companies refuse to use ideas their competitors use simply because the other guy had it first. So Microsoft kept the kickass triggers (which the PS2 is severely lacking) and added the PS2-like shoulder buttons to create a best-of-both world controller. The extra shoulder buttons also means they could get rid of the black and white buttons so your thumb only has 4 buttons to deal with instead of 6. Much more efficient -- I can't wait to get my hands on it.

The PS3 on the other hand looks like a weird Spiderman co-branded console. The Playstation 3 text across the front is totally the same font Sony uses for the Spiderman movies. What, are they cutting cost company wide by sharing fonts across multiple assets? Weird.

And speaking of superheros, that controller looks like something Batman would pull out and wing at the Joker. Please tell me that thing snaps into some kind of steering wheel mount for racing games ... it's the only practical purpose I can think of for those humongo fins shooting off what looks like an otherwise OK controller.



The specs for the xbox360 look sweet and everything I've seen about the next gen of Live is amazing. I haven't heard much about the PS3 specs other than some rumors from developers that the dev systems they've been given are more powerful than the xbox360. We'll see. They said the current xbox could render as many polys as the first Jurassic Park but we never saw anything nearly that impressive -- so if the PS3 is that much more powerful, will anybody come close to tapping it out?

Anyway, I'm picking up a xbox360 ... if you couldn't already tell.

xbox360 link

PS3 link

PSP Video Conversion Review

So I finally tracked down a 512 Memory Stick for my PSP (1Gig on order) and started the process of converting DVDs to MPEG4 to watch during my commute.

After reading a lot of articles and reviews I decided to throw down $35 and buy Mobile Media Maker (MMM). This app does everything from ripping the DVD to converting it to MPEG4 -- most other options require a separate piece of software for each step. That combined with the fact that the software has been around for a while to accommodate the mobile phone and other mobile video devices made me think the small amount of cash was worth it. It worked fine for a while as I started converting my Simpsons library, but after a few days it would crash on both my home system and at work. This forced me to look into some other options.

This weekend I tried the combination of DVD Decrypter and PSP Video 9. DVD Decrypter works like a charm and takes less than half the time to rip the DVD that MMM does. PSP Video 9 is also impressive for a piece of freeware offering more options for video and audio compression than MMM. Also, with MMM you have no option to name the title of your file. Small detail, but its much cooler when your thumbnail of The Empire Strikes Back actually says "The Empire Strikes Back" next to it.

So in this case, cheaper is better. Here's a good walkthrough from Mobile Deviant.
Link

My PSP and Me (and My Wife) Go To Maui

I went to Maui about a month ago. Work has been kicking my ass so I haven't had time to write about it. My wife and I had an amazing time doing nothing -- a friend of ours owns a condo on Wailea beach so we spent most of the time lying around on the lanai, reading and eating.

I took my PSP with me, first big trip to try it out. It rocked on the plane providing great entertainment between reading. They showed Napolean Dinomite but the audio sucked amazingly so I watched Spiderman 2 on the PSP. It both looked and sounded better than the airline movie (no big surprise). When we got back I threw the photos we took on it to show everyone at work -- I've used the photo feature way more than I thought I would. Its become my portable photo album. The pics in this post are pulled from my PSP -- both views from the lanai.

Revenge of the Sith Reviews from TheForce.net

TheForce.net has a couple reviews up of Sith. Supports all the other buzz I've heard that it does indeed rock. Clerks director Kevin Smith reviewed it a week or so ago and had the same opinion (Link). Also, one of my coworkers is dating a guy who supervised effects on Sith so she got to see a screening of it this past Saturday. She said it was "great".

On a side note, my coworker also got to tour the new facility Lucas is building in the Presidio (former San Francisco military base that is now a National Park). She sent some pictures and it looks pretty sweet (plenty of Yoda statues and fountains). I just think its cool that Lucas is trying to rebuild the S.F. film scene.

Link