Ill communication

I just listened to Ill Communication on my way home from work tonight. I left at 9.00p. I realized that it would be a great title for a blog post, so…

I was at work for the second night in a row until 9p, so that’s ill. I have gone just over a month without posting, so that’s ill. If I went a calendar month without a post, that would be ill… therefore, here’s your fluff piece to put a stop to that.

Seriously though, I intimated in the last real post that I’d fill in blanks later, so I guess this is it. I think that blogging during the summer can be a bit tough when you don’t have some regular topic to shout about. I definitely have never had that, so it is here and there. Well, weekends are straight out because the last thing I want is to be in front of a keyboard on a weekend. Weeknights have also been straight out because I have been getting home late most nights and since those are due to work, I have had enough of the keyboard for a day. When not, I want to spend it on the couch in front of the 360 for a game or catch up on summer shows.

Now, I am not complaining about work in any shape or form. I am very much enj... Continue reading »

RRoD

+2

Another one bites the dust.

At first, I thought The Simpsons Game was just glitching when Lisa blew a Saxophone attack and Marge was coming back to health. Then, it froze again on another big, loud event a minute after I started playing again. That was an exploding car. The third time happened about 10 seconds after I fired it up. The fourth power on was greeted with the Red Ring of Death.

Apparently this animal is not in danger of extinction.

Now, the current system was *manufactured* on 2007-08-23, therefore it has the older 90nm Zephyr chipset. It was the replacement for my first Red-ringed 360 last Fall. I have no idea what will be sent back this time, so tomorrow, I am going out to buy a Xbox 360 Arcade system. No, I am not playing GTA IV, I am playing The Simpsons Game (the one that revolves around Marge’s quest against an Itchy and Scratchy game of the same genre ) and Army of Two (with Ed) at the moment, but I am not waiting 3-4 weeks for a replacement given I use mine as a Media Center Extender and unlike last time, there are new shows being recorded that need watching in the living room. (Nice run-on dude.) This is especially true g... Continue reading »

Blu-ray wins

So, did everyone that doesn’t own a HD DVD or Blu-ray player yawn like I did?

Toshiba blinked and conceded defeat in the HD optical disc format war today. This wasn’t that big a surprise I guess, although, it still shows that Sony has some weight left to throw around. That said, Sony just ended up on the winning side this time. After all, they lost on Betamax, DAT and MiniDisc. Wow, that’s three failed formats before producing another winner.

Okay, okay… they partnered with Phillips to produce the CD in there somewhere, but those same partners did lose out to Toshiba and others on the DVD front. I guess they turned the tables this time, but failed to avoid the format war that DVD did.

Yeah, shocking… I actually did a little wikipedia research for this one. I thought they were also the Laserdisc losers, but no, they didn’t invent that one either. Glad I checked my facts. I don’t want to be an interwebs fool.

Too late!

So, it is now done… and, I don’t care. If I have a Blu-ray player, it will because it is in a PS3, and even then, only because I couldn’t resist the need to play Metal G... Continue reading »

Red ringed

Well, it finally got me. I am now a victim of the so-called Red Ring of Death.

Of course, this has already happened to both Ed and Jason, so it is not exactly new, just new to me. Kind of funny that it would happen just after I posted about going over 10k with my gamerscore and so did my Xbox. Of course, one wonders how it continues to post blog entries.

Perhaps it is when I can get it to run for a about a minute before it freezes. You see, after getting the ring, it hasn’t happened again, but it will freeze almost exactly a minute after booting up. I have tried the suggestions on support page for both issues with no joy. I am going to have to finally contact Microsoft about this as my hopes that it will go away on its own don’t seem to be working out. I figured I’d wait a few days and keep trying it to be sure. I thought maybe it was just the heat we’ve had recently, but I don’t think so now.

Anyway, I figure this is just karma coming back on me. You see, it failed the same night I busted on Mookie for being, well… here just read it:

He has a commitment to playing more [kid] games on his 360 while leaving... Continue reading »

Three se7ens

Not sure why I feel compelled to post something today. I mean, it is cool that today is 07.07.07 and all, but does that mean I need to acknowledge that with a post?

This is a post, so I guess so, but how to acknowledge it exactly? I mean, I can’t just post this and be on my way, can I?

I suppose I could, but I did have one little idea. I thought, maybe since there are three sevens, I’d do three lists of seven. And, since it is Summer, maybe have one list be of things I have enjoyed so far, another of things I have not and finally, the third of things I am looking forward to over the rest of the Summer.

Yeah, that works and it gives me a chance to fill in some blanks since I haven’t posted much lately. Of course, it hasn’t been officially Summer for but three weeks, but we all know we started thinking it was way earlier than what the solstice tells us, right?

Anyway, here goes nothing:

Seven up

1. Transformers Yup, just saw it today and I’m leading off with it. Even if you are not a fan, of them or Michael Bay, it is just a good old fashioned Summer popcorn flick. Go see it.
2. Beckett and Matsuzaka Seeing these two... Continue reading »

Ignoring it is bliss

Oh little blog, how I have ignored you these past couple weeks… and boy has it been great. Not feeling pressured to write a damn thing to bore the masses with endless drivel, just like this post.

Are you bored yet?

Don’t worry, you’ll get there. I already am, but reflect on the fact that blogging is now 10 years old. Consider how many boring blog posts have been posted over that time! See my latest aside for more.

Of course, there are numerous reasons I haven’t blogged lately, the first being the continued drama of being a fantasy baseball league commissioner, especially when said league includes a Mookie. I have spent many a late night over the past week tending to my little baseball league that barely can. However, light is at the end of the tunnel now, so time is freed up to blog a bit.

So, continuing to riff on the baseball, and real quick mind you as many of you care less, I just want to point out a couple things. One, no matter how old men get, they are still big babies and will gather up their toys and go home when things don’t go their way. Two, men define fairness for what backs up their point slash opinion and eve... Continue reading »

Xbox 360 in 1080p

Paul Thurrott has an item on WinInfo about Microsoft releasing the HD DVD add-on for the Xbox 360 for only $170 this Fall. What is more interesting to me is that a 360 firmware update will boost the max resolution of the 360 from 1080i to 1080p. This is news, and as Paul says, the last big differentiator between PS3 and the 360.

Is Sony further doomed? Not in the least. The Sony zealots will still shell out gobs of cake for a PS3, but Microsoft just made their argument even more compelling. I’m just a little happier in that this will help justify buying a 1080p HD set when I get a big one soonish. Even though television programming won’t be broadcast at that level for years to come, at least there could be some earlier benefit in the greater cost over the 720p sets. As it stands now, it’s about an $800 difference for the size set I am looking at. I bet the earliest we see a 1080p game is late 2007 though.

Wii 4 Mii 2

After reading an e-mail from Ed last week on his decision to trade in his 360 and purchase Nintendo’s forthcoming Wii — pronounced “We” — system, I wanted to liken it to trading in your manhood for another kick at boyhood.

Which is actually not a bad first impression. When you think about it, what’s wrong with that? Who doesn’t want to relive portions of their childhood in some way or fashion these days as we push ever closer to 40 (it’s the new 30 don’t you know)?

I then gave it further thought (about 10 seconds) and decided I definitely had no issue with the decision. He made a careful, well thought out case in the e-mail and has posted something similar over on The Ed Zone. Of course, I may be willing to cut him more slack for this than I would, say… Mookie. I mean, if Mook concocted this same plan first, I would instead be questioning his manhood.

Don’t you worry though, that day is surely coming now that he has likely realized by now that his shiny new 360 has one single game — Kameo: Elements of Power — that targets his gaming tastes and that there are likely few games l... Continue reading »

Tampa Blu-rays

Sometimes I get carried away with leaving a comment somewhere and it turns into a short blog post. Since I now have my own bloggy blog, I can blog it and let a pingback handle the comment for me. This way I can also add a clever title. Actually, I just think I am clever. Maybe you don’t know that Tampa is always a bottom feeder because they don’t draft pitching. Sony is going to become a bottom feeder because they are bundling. Perhaps I should get to the point…

Ed posted a quick Aside about the PS3 and I started going off with a comment. In fact, this is the second time today because I already did so in an e-mail exchange with him earlier today. Anyway, I understand companies need to make their money and they need a marquee product to spotlight their company. I don’t know that it has ever been more evident what this can do for a company than with the case of the iPod saving Apple’s bacon. Sure, the iMac saved it from the brink of destruction over a handful of years ago, but the iPod made it a relevant company brand again.

Since Sony’s previously profitable Walkman business was wiped out by the iPod, they are in search of their next front-lin... Continue reading »