Parrotheader.com

This post is going to tread into geek territory, sure to cut my readership further (Holly likes to kid me that her blog now gets more visits than mine.) But I don’t care. I’ve actually got a free minute and since Holly’s handling most of the family updates now I’m going to go ahead and wax geekily.

After about 6 months of ownership I finally got the first major firmware update for my Sprint Touch. Among the major features added was the activation of the phone’s gps chipset. Sweet! I can finally see what all the gps hype is all about.

Except there’s one main thing. I don’t actually travel all that much. Sure we’ll visit out of town family a few times a year or maybe take a trip to the beach. But I already know my way around most of those locations. And even when I am visiting a place I don’t know well I rarely need any assistance. My father’s side of the family has a well established genetic gift – an impeccable sense of direction and memory for location. You can pretty much take me back to any major place I’ve visited over the course of my lifetime and I can probably take you around as if I were just there yesterday.

So I’m probably not the ideal candidate for gps. Still, it’s electronic and it’s on my phone so that’s enough to get me tinkering with it. Since I have no need to actually use paid software, I instead opted to try the two major free players – Microsoft and Google.

Google is of course the golden child of most of the last decade, especially in the world of online maps. And their Google Maps certainly doesn’t disappoint. It loads fast and quickly gets a lock on the gps. It can even give you turn-by-turn directions (although without voice prompts, forcing you to look at the phone from time to time.) For the most part I’ve been fairly pleased with it.

However, this is one area where I was pleasantly surprised by Microsoft’s offering. Windows Live Search does all the things Google Maps does and more. It’s got a ton of built-in search features that are far easier to use for things like finding restaurants, gas stations, etc. And I personally find the maps more legible. I also really like the traffic overlay data. It’s startlingly accurate on my drive along I-65 and has become a staple on my evening commute. Google offers this feature as well, but seems to get its traffic data from another (slower, less accurate) provider . . . at least along my route.

I’ve also tried a couple other free 3rd party services with voice-prompted turn-by-turn just for fun (Amaze and Nav4All.) But for the most part, they definitely feel free and will likely rarely get used.

Either way its been fun to mess around with and has given my phone a chance to do something other than the usual chores of taking calls, answering emails . . . and streaming TV to my office.

*warning geek post*

One of the reasons I got the HTC Touch is because it takes Windows Mobile (which is an extremely customizable, if not overly attractive system) and makes the main components of it very finger friendly. My Touch has a stylus for whenever I'm dealing with a program or deeper system settings which require it. But for the most part, I can get around just fine with my fingers.

But there's still a ton of 3rd party customization options out there from individual applications to all-out shells of the main OS interface itself. I'm currently trying out the shell featured below and have been extremely pleased with it thus far. It's very finger-friendly, I love the speed-dial feature and it also scores well on the 'oooooh shiny' meter when you're using it.

I've opined on my sadness for the loss of our local CompUSA before, so I'll spare you any more unnecessary geekery. Suffice it to say, I'll hate to see it go even if it was only a shadow of its former self.

I was having lunch with my parents in Hoover today (the REAL Hoover, not the Nazi-like annex to Hoover off 280) so my dad and I decided to swing by one last time - tomorrow it closes for good. It was a really sorry scene. Cracked HDTVs, beat up laptops and junk accessories that were so worthless that even a geek like myself could find an excuse to buy them. Oh well. It was a great place to pick up relatively obscure parts once upon a time. RIP

After almost 3 years with my current Samsung phone, I've decided it's time to upgrade. The only problem is, I really want/need a smartphone this time around. I obviously keep phones for quite awhile so it only makes sense to get something which will accommodate my needs now, as well as a year or two down the road.

I was hoping to be able to stay with Verizon again. Just about everyone in my family (immediate and extended) is on Verizon so any calls I make to them have always been 'free.' And then of course Verizon's network coverage is just so good it's hard to imagine having to settle for anything less. Once you get outside the metro areas Alabama is still very much a rural state and there's a reason most people in these areas use Verizon. However, the fact that I don't use a lot of minutes ("in network" or otherwise) coupled with their expensive data plans finally caused me to look elsewhere.

At first I was honestly having a hard time finding anything more compelling from the competition (with money being a bigger factor now that we're living on one paycheck.) While Verizon's data plan was on the top end of the spectrum, the competition wasn't exactly bargain basement cheap. T-mobile's data plans and AT&T's Iphone plans are $20/month (on top of the voice plan) and only provide access to the slower EDGE network. Even AT&T's recent price drop to $30/month for unlimited high-speed data for Blackberries and smartphones was more than I'm willing to pay right now.

Then I heard about Sprint SERO. $30/month for 500 minutes of talk-time, unlimited high-speed EVDO data and unlimited texting. I do have some major reservations about Sprint's coverage (and if I traveled regularly I wouldn't even consider anything other than Verizon and AT&T.) Sprint has slowly been merging its infrastructure with Nextel and has supposedly beefed up its coverage in the Birmingham area considerably in the last year by consolidating much of their assets/towers. I don't travel much so for $30/month for everything I could want I figured I'd give it a shot, especially since you get a trial period for evaluation.

The next question was which phone. I had originally planned on going for the amazingly cheap and well-regarded Palm Centro. A compact device that would easily fit in my pocket was my highest priority with a physical keyboard my original preference. But after using a Centro for about 15 minutes at the store I felt the screen and buttons on it were just too small for my tastes. It was only then that I started to consider the new HTC Touch.

I remembered when the original Touch first came out (right before the iPhone) it received generally tepid reviews. It was underpowered and its weak on-screen keyboards really interfered with its usability. However, after reading several glowing reviews for the newer HTC Touch for Sprint I learned it had been upgraded with twice the power/memory and a seemingly better selection of virtual keyboards. I decided to give it a shot.

For the first couple days I honestly wasn't too sure about the device. While I liked the functionality, the ability to get around without a stylus, and the customization options available with Windows Mobile, I was still very frustrated with the on-screen keyboards. I eventually downloaded several 3rd party keyboards - a couple were decent, but still barely tolerable. However, I eventually tracked down the extremely nice (if somewhat seemingly ungainly) SPB Full Screen Keyboard. Suddenly I found myself able to thumb-type at a very respectable rate. I'm never going to write out long posts like this on a phone, but relatively short emails and text messages were suddenly not a concern.

My only other gripe with the device has been its weak battery life. With a touchscreen phone, Exchange push email and EVDO almost always turned on I'm honestly not too surprised by the drain on the battery. It's a tradeoff I think I'm willing to live with though and something that can be partially remedied by eventually buying a more powerful 3rd-party battery.

I'm going to give it a few more days, but with my two main complaints addressed to my satisfaction it's looking like I might just stick with the Touch. I love everything else about the device. Its extremely compact size. The soft-touch rubber-esque coating. The speed of the device. The ability to customize it extensively. The wide array of 3rd party applications for Windows Mobile. The fact that I rarely need to use the stylus (but have one should I require it.) It's not a perfect phone by any means, but I think it will be well-suited to what I want for the foreseeable future.

Now to upgrade Holly's ancient phone (I think she's going to stay on Verizon.) It's so old that I was genuinely concerned when I heard about the recent shutdown of the old analog networks. Fortunately, it still seems to be working. So I guess it's not THAT old.

I was finally able to track down Guitar Hero for the Wii. I had to drive all the way to Fairfield, but since I was on a mission it was worth it. A Guitar Hero for the Wii sighting is almost as rare as an actual Wii sighting. You must act quickly or else it will instantly be gone and no one will ever believe you.

After playing for the last few hours though I've come to the not so shocking realization that I suck. Actually I'm not THAT bad. But it's definitely a different experience and will take some practice . . . practice that could probably be better spent practicing on a real guitar or keyboard. But that would actually be productive so no worries there.

Another problem is that I'm not sure if I should play it right-handed (the way I "play" a normal guitar) or if I should switch over to my natural lefty state. I play a regular guitar right-handed, but that's only because I play chords which requires minimal finger movement. My fingers on my right hand (which would be the fret hand if I was playing lefty) are actually far more nimble and might be better suited to the likes of Guitar Hero.

In the meantime I'll just have to practice (whenever I'm not playing Team Fortress 2 with Adam *hint hint bro*) Eventually I want to play this song (which is actually on the open source PC knockoff Frets on Fire, but I don't care since it's always the first song I think of when I think of the likes of Guitar Hero.) It's not as polished as Guitar Hero, but the beauty of Frets on Fire is you can theoretically set it up to play anything. ;)

I was sitting here working on my computer with Media Center running a TV show in the background when an iPhone commercial came on. Apple seems to have purchased the maximum ad inventory allowable on the Discovery Channel because I haven't seen a commercial break yet during the last 1.5 hours where there hasn't been an iPhone commercial.

By this point I've pretty much seen them all and wouldn't ordinarily pay attention, but it's amazing how your mind remembers certain images and something about this particular spot caught my attention out of the corner of my eye. I quickly shifted my gaze over to the commercial, but by this point the familiar image was already gone. I quickly rewound and discovered I was right. A site I had once worked extensively on (Kapalua resort in Maui) was one of the focal points for the commercial.

It's actually been a couple years since I've had anything to do with the site (although from the commercial I noticed that some of the copy I'd once worked with seems largely unchanged . . . probably because it works ;) ) but I still remember it well. It was my first in a series of well over a dozen Hawaii-based clients.

What's even more ironic is that I'd just used the site earlier this week as a case study in a pitch to a prospective client. It was the first time I'd actually thought about that particular project in many months and now it's bubbled to the surface twice in one week - the latter instance in obviously a very unexpected way.

This still isn't going to make me switch to AT&T just so I can have an iPhone. ;) But I thought it was cool nevertheless.

I tried to get a little bit of Christmas shopping done today. We're actually mostly through with our Christmas purchases already, but I just wanted an excuse to get outside to enjoy the day. Jessica tagged along with me being nice and cooperative the whole time - it's not like she could object anyway. ;)

One store I explicitly wanted to visit was CompUSA. After a rough several years and increasingly stiff competition from Circuit City, Best Buy and even office supply stores like Staples, CompUSA is finally closing up shop. I know a lot of people will probably say good riddance. The store in our area was showing its age and the service was far from excellent. We even had our car broken into in their parking lot a couple of years ago. So I should have a particularly negative perspective on the place.

But I'm still going to miss it. The big box electronic stores have a decent selection of mainstream computer equipment, but if I ever needed anything more specific (as I often do) I was usually able to track it down at CompUSA. Sure, I could go online to a site like Newegg and get whatever I need for cheaper and shipped reasonably fast. But there's times where you'd just prefer to have it in hand immediately. And when it came to niche things like cables, networking equipment, power supplies, etc. CompUSA couldn't be beat for its in-store selection, at least around here (oh how I wish we had a Fry's.)

Another former geek store apparently on life support is Radio Shack. There used to be a day that whenever you needed a cable or adapter of any kind (no matter how bizarre) you could head on day to your nearest Radio Shack and they'd be sure to have it - with a moderately informed sales person to boot. If the Radio Shack stores I've visited recently are any indication that's most definitely not the case anymore. I was looking for an adapter the other day and shocked by the lack of selection. Walmart (we've got a little bit of everything but not a lot of anything) probably has a better selection these days.

Oh well. You can get anything online these days. And competition is a good thing I suppose. But when your only choices are two stores that are virtual mirrors of one another what's the point? I'll miss these larger, niche geek stores.

I live a sort of unique life as a Windows user. While Windows is still by far the dominant operating system of choice, I live in a world dominated by Macs. Out of a department of 10 people, I'm the only person using a Windows-based system (I'm not counting you Doug; you AT&T half-breed.) Out of an ad agency of 120+ people, maybe 50% use Windows-based systems. Out of the hundreds of websites and news-oriented blogs I frequent, the vast majority of those are written or managed by Mac users. My brothers uses a Mac. My cousin uses a Mac. Several of my friends use Macs. So why am I not on a Mac?

It's hard to pin down to any one thing really. While I like to joke about the cult-like following Apple products often seem to engender, I honestly have nothing against the systems themselves. Apple seems to make very high quality products in most of the markets they enter. I often recommend Macs to people whenever they ask me questions about buying a new computer. I probably could have even received a Macbook Pro during the last round of system upgrades at our office had I really pushed for it. But I just couldn't see the need. I'm not a developer and don't have any software needs that are Mac-specific like most of my co-workers. My Thinkpad suits my needs just fine and has never given me any major problems. Plus I'm not sure if I could give up the Thinkpad's keyboard and trackpoint now; if you're a touch-typist like I am these features are the embodiment of perfection.

At home I've been using Windows-based systems ever since the 386 days. However up until recently, the last store-bought system I purchased was during my sophomore year of college. Ever since then I've built my own systems, all of them running various flavors of Windows (with the occasional jaunt into Linux.) For the most part, Windows has never given me any major problems. With the exception of ME, I've run every flavor of the OS and think they really turned a major corner with Windows 2000 (still probably my favorite version to-date; it was light, fast and stable.) With XP automatic updates improved security dramatically. You rarely hear about widespread virus outbreaks these days like you did 5-6 years ago. The biggest threats now come via sophisticated spyware and social engineering (the latter of which is platform agnostic.)

I've obviously had numerous opportunities to use a Mac over the years. But when it came to paying for one out of my own pocket when I knew I could build my own reasonably-powerful system for dirt cheap it always just seemed so hard to justify the price. Now that the price gap has narrowed it's growing a bit easier to justify. In fact, I recently bought my first desktop system for the first time in over a decade. But it wasn't a Mac, it was an HP. To get a comparably-equipped iMac would've cost me over $1,000. I was able to pick up the HP for $470 (yes, it was on sale - it was usually $650.) Since I'm used to building systems for even less than that, that was a big enough transition for me.

Which brings me to Vista. The HP was the first experience I'd had with Vista. By now we've all heard about it. "Vista sucks" has been repeated so often it's now considered conventional wisdom. And I can understand the cause for alarm. It is different - easily the most significant change in the underpinnings since Windows 2000 (and undoubtedly the biggest user interface change since Windows 95.) And just like every previous release of a new version of Windows, there have been a lot of driver and compatibility issues during the first year. Much of the time, these problems are actually the fault of software and hardware developers. But since Windows is the face for the user's interaction, it's only natural for it to garner the majority of the blame. In fact, one of the reasons I chose to go with an HP instead of building my own system was my desire to avoid any driver issues. Even a longtime Windows user like myself was wary.

But once I had a chance to tinker with Vista, it really started to grow on me. There were a lot of little touches built into the system which left me pleasantly surprised. It wasn't a resource hog like I'd been conditioned to expect (the HP only had 1GB of RAM so I was worried about that.) It wasn't slow. The user account control feature wasn't annoying. It didn't have any compatibility issues with the wide range of programs I installed. In short, it worked. It even got to the point where I actually didn't like going back toXP due to some missing features I'd grown accustomed to in Vista.

This led me to my second experience with Vista. While the HP is supposed to be "Holly's computer" the other desktop in the house is most definitely all mine. Residing in my basement "man room" it serves as my gaming machine/file server for the rest of the house. This is my primary testbed for tinkering so I figured it was time to give Vista a try on my main frankencomputer. Having recently installed XP and Ubuntu Linux on a different system I was expecting an install involving a number of reboots and hours of downloading updates. But instead it was the smoothest install I've ever experienced. I was shocked. I had several non-standard components in this system (two different type TV tuner cards, a USB remote, an old webcam ) so I expected some headaches. Instead the system installed in about 20 minutes, automatically downloaded a few small updates, rebooted once and was ready to roll. My software works, my hardware works and my gaming is stable and fast (a major concern given how graphics drivers are usually the root cause of many many MANY problems.) It wasn't supposed to be like this was it?

Granted, I'm not the average user. Different people have different needs. And for the vast majority of people out there, they don't react well to change. So it'll be interesting to see how Vista fares as the natural upgrade cycle eventually forces the issue. Despite some pretty dramatic changes, the core familiarity should still be there for most people. My mother is now using it on her new laptop and seems to be getting around reasonably well (although I did have to uninstall some bloatware from her machine - most notably Google Desktop.) But unlike 6 years ago when Windows XP launched there are now a number of viable alternatives for mainstream users. Macs are of course the most obvious alternative choice, but even some of the various Linux flavors are becoming surprisingly user-friendly (so long as you just want to stick to basics like web surfing, email, office apps, etc.) Quite honestly, I don't see a whole lot of differentiation between the main systems \these days from an average user's perspective. In the grand scheme of things, the operating system market has evolved so much that the distinguishing factors have been relegated to small, individual features - which in turn are ironically trumpeted as major advancements since they're really the only way to market what are essentially just slightly different platforms.

Still, the perception of a greater difference is there. And I guess for the foreseeable future I'll most likely continue to be in the ironic position of a Windows user in a world full of Macs. So just like the affable PC guy in the commercials, I just wanted to say peace out to all my Mac homies.

After only a couple years of great service, our Canon S2 already seems to be on death's door. It's been a fantastic camera; as good as point-and-shoots get. And with two children born in the last few years we've definitely crammed about 10 years worth of normal photo taking into that short time frame. However, I'm still surprised to see it wanting to check out so soon.

Unfortunately, I was noticing more and more noise coming from the zoom mechanism in recent weeks and last week we finally started getting the dreaded E18 error. I've tinkered with a few of the more basic fixes on the many sites discussing this problem. But nothing seems to have helped yet. We like this camera so much I'm considering taking it apart to take a stab at some of the more advanced proposed fixes. But before I likely finish the thing off by performing its autopsy we wanted to make sure no photos would be missed in the present.

In theory, I'd love to have two cameras: an SLR with all the lenses and accessories we could possibly want (along with the patience and knowledge to take good photos . . . as well as a tiny band of cherpas to cart around all the equipment.) I'd also like a nice, tiny point-and-shoot that's easy to throw in your pocket. Unfortunately with Holly staying home for (at least) one year I just can't justify going out and plunking down the money for an SLR right now. But we've grown spoiled to the long zoom lens and great photos from our S2, so I can't just settle on a standard point-and-shoot either. A camera like we had was the ideal compromise.

I'd considered simply getting the newest version in the S-series, the S5. But as I was looking at that one and comparing it with others I started to find myself drawn to the new Canon SX100 IS. This is Canon's first attempt at a 'compact' superzoom and I have to say the size was indeed the big draw for me (that it was $100 cheaper was just pure gravy.) One of my only complaints about the S2 was its size - which was also a strength since it felt very solid and steady in the hand. But you definitely couldn't throw it in your pocket and head out the door (and even if you could it would surely rip your pants off as it weighed several pounds.) While the SX100 isn't exactly tiny, it's still MUCH smaller than the S2/S5. I was able to easily carry it around with us in my shorts pocket this weekend. Likewise, we were able to easily tuck it into a small pocket in the little backpack Holly uses whenever she and the girls head out of the house.

The SX100 also fixes the single most annoying trait of all the S1-S5 cameras - no more dangly lens caps flailing about. How Canon hasn't come up with a better lens cap solution after 5 generations of the same body style is beyond me.

The SX100 is not a perfect camera by any means. The video mode (while nowhere near as bad as what I expected based on some of the early reviews) can't match the class-leading video functionality you get from the S1-S5. And with kids, we do use the video feature a lot for small clips so it'll be interesting to see how much we really lose there. The LCD also isn't as high-res as some of its competitors. But since that doesn't affect the quality of the photos I'm willing to live with that for now.

I still hope to somehow perform a miracle and get our S2 back on its feet. And if I do I'll almost certainly be returning our newest toy so we can use the money elsewhere. But assuming our S2 ends up as jumbled pile of wires and screws I think its successor will be a suitable replacement for the near future.

This week in rambling camera talk was brought to you by Visa - Go ahead. We know you're good for it.

Granted, this is regarding something related to Pac10 football (and Cal-Berkeley at that) where the atmosphere is certainly quite a bit different than what we're accustomed to in my neck of the woods. But perhaps that less zealous following allows for them to experiment with things you'd likely never see at a halftime show here in the Deep South.

Anyway, I was reading through Gizmodo when I came across this post talking about Cal's recent halftime show. If you're an old-school video game junkie you'll appreciate this.

I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw the following two articles juxtaposed on Techmeme just a few minutes ago (each in a separate thread.)

The Web 2.0 World is Skunk Drunk on Its Own Kool-Aid

Even though I enjoy many of these developments as a user, I'm increasingly agreeing with that sentiment from a business perspective. And as if to validate this point I then see this little gem just below it . . .

Cookie tracking: How Facebook could be worth $100 billion?

Wow! Cookie tracking. Brilliant! I can't believe this hasn't been thought of before! As an advertiser I'd actually welcome with open arms a robust platform with strong support outside the walls of Facebook. But let's not concern ourselves with details like total online ad spending is only expected to be a little over $20 billion this year with roughly 40% of that (and growing) already going to Google. And nevermind that Facebook (for all its traffic and hype) still only has ad revenue in the very low hundred millions versus many billions for companies like Google and Yahoo. It's the web 2.0 winter wonderland baby!

I'll be curious to see how this whole Hulu venture pans out. The media companies are throwing a whole lot of different business models at the wall right now to see what sticks. This one sounds like it might actually have potential if they play their cards right.

Hulu is NBC and Fox's supposed "YouTube" killer - even though it doesn't actually include user-generated content (if anything it might eventually be more directly in competition with other premium content providers like Itunes rather than YouTube.) A lot of articles I've read today have slighted Hulu on the omission of user-generated video. But I think that's entirely the point. User-generated content has its place and is definitely here to stay. But long-form, quality content from studios and media companies isn't going anywhere either and still has broader appeal. They can choose to try to fight it out on YouTube side-by-side with people hand-farting the Flintstones themesong. Or they can take their content (and ad revenue) and try to setup their own shop. If content is king, they may be making the correct choice.

The Hulu site itself is still in beta and will likely remain that way for awhile. But its content is already starting to pop-up on partner sites like Yahoo, AOL, MySpace, etc. Pretty much all the usual suspects except Google/YouTube.

I'm still hoping we'll eventually get to the point where we can get ad-supported content for download to portable devices. But nobody seems quite ready to make that jump yet. I'm also eager to see if they can develop a Media Center plugin for this content. It would seem an ideal match.

Geek post alert.

I stayed up WAY too late last night (even by my standards) trying to polish off a couple of games I thought I was close to completing. I did finally manage to complete Half-Life2 Episode 2. I was taking my time with the game since there was no need to rush (a new version's not coming out anytime soon.) It definitely lived up to the franchise's top-notch legacy and had a nice twist at the end which definitely whets your appetite for the next installment.

The surprise gem in the Orange Box though (and the one that had me the most challenged last night) was Portal. Despite the glowing reviews, I thought this game was mostly going to be a small proof of concept to show off a brilliant new idea with gaming physics. But it turns out it was a full-fledged game with a storyline that's clearly going to converge with Half-Life's in the next installment of the franchise.

I don't know how to describe Portal's entirely unique approach to in-game physics, so I'll just defer to the video below. I will say that it's much more of a problem solving oriented approach versus Half-Life's more cinematic, action-oriented approach. The ambiance is also surprisingly immersive with a 2001 the movie style setting complete with an eccentric, HAL-like computer host.

Sorry if I've been posting a lot about games lately, but the original Half-Life and Team Fortress were my favorite single-player and multi-player games of all time. I've been waiting a LONG time for the latter so I'm obviously excited that they're finally here. The fact that Portal was fantastic was a surprising bonus.

You don't have to be a teenager to have fun at video games. But when it comes to skill level, it sure seems to help.

I love jumping online and playing a few rounds of Team Fortress 2 late in the evening. It's great, light-hearted fun. But I'm quickly coming to the realization that I'm never going to be a top flight player. I'll dive head first into a busy melee with all the confidence in the world . . . only to be quickly dispatched by players FAR more skilled than myself. Fortunately I never have to wait long before heading off on my next suicide run. If you're killed, you only have to wait about 10-20 seconds before you get a second chance. Such is life in this instant gratification world full of non-stop action.

As I become aware of my limitations, I'm re-learning the virtue of playing a supporting role. I've usually gravitated towards these roles in the past as I actually seem to make a decisive difference whenever I accept these positions. If you ever stumble across my character online, you'll likely find me playing as an engineer working with others to build up defenses, or as a medic healing others pushing ahead on the offensive. It's kind of odd to accept a supporting position in an online world where you can assume any wild persona you'd like. But the end result is actually quite gratifying as a single supporting player can often help propel an entire team forward. I could try to draw parallels to the real world, but then that would be pushing the edge of the cheesy envelope. :)

Not that I've uploaded a lot of YouTube videos or anything. Most of my videos were intended for embedding purposes for sharing with family and friends, so I knew they weren't going to get a lot of views. But I was curious to see what sort of content I could upload that would get a decent amount of attention.

The subject I chose to test with was one that I noticed appealed to a lot of people for nostalgia purposes. As a parent with a young child I've now logged many an hour in the living room while Sesame Street is on the television. While I don't usually watch whole episodes, the show always intercuts older segments which sometimes catch my attention as they'll often go back as far as my own childhood years. Occasionally I'd see a segment that would jog my memory and make me jump on YouTube just to see if it was there. Anybody else remember this extremely funky tune?

I was floored by the volume of Sesame Street videos on YouTube (currently 10,000+.) Obviously there was a lot more demand than I expected. The problem suddenly became finding something that wasn't already on YouTube. As Laney was watching an episode one day, a segment featuring an older song (clearly from the Frank Oz years) came on and buried itself into my subconscious. Much to my chagrin, I was still singing it in my head the next morning (the chorus was so catchy in a broadway sort of way.) I figured I'd see if it was anywhere else on the web. Amazingly, it wasn't (at least not a decent copy.) So I decided to record the episode on my computer the next time it came on.

I uploaded the segment a couple months ago. It already has over 6,000 views. I realize that's small potatoes compared to a ton of other videos. But considering it's just a relatively obscure segment (and I'm not an established YouTube'r with a large following) I thought that was fairly decent since the people viewing it most likely had to be seeking out this specific video via a search at YouTube or Google. This also reinforces the notion that a huge chunk of YouTube's most popular content is copyrighted material (although in this case PBS obviously doesn't mind given how many of their videos are on YouTube.)

And for the record, here's the video. It's a segment featuring the song "Bert's Blanket."

I have to admit I've been guarded (sometimes downright skeptical) of a lot of the newer 'social' platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc. I personally love technology so I'm not usually that skeptical of this sort of thing. But since it's also my job to keep on top of all the latest developments in this field, I also get exposed to a steady flood of all these Web 2.0-ish companies every day. A few of them have potential and might actually succeed, but (from a business perspective anyway) so many of them are getting hyped to the N-th degree while lacking in any sustainable business model. So I find it hard to get too excited about their potential sometimes.

I can see the allure of Facebook even if I don't really use it all that much for myself. But like any portal-like interface, it tries to be good at a lot of things - which of course means it's not great at any one thing (and that's not always a bad thing.) I understand the apps, the extensibility, etc. But at the end of the day it's still really just a revamped version of MySpace for the time being.

That's why I do have to give a few overdue kudos to Twitter. I like to kid a few of my co-workers who use it regularly. But whereas Facebook is a jack of all trades and master of none, Twitter's extreme simplicity make it a wonderfully effective platform for its single purpose - short format posting and updates. Today for example I'm using it to follow the labor and delivery of my co-worker Matt and his wife Allyson.

Other people like to use Twitter to update their friends on what they're currently doing or thinking. A lot of the time I honestly don't see the purpose in a lot of these updates. But then again, one could say the same thing about this blog. ;)

My biggest beef with Twitter at this point is its lack of good servers. Yahoo or Google needs to just buy them out already (that's pretty much the real business model of all Web 2.0 companies it seems) so they can at least get better enterprise support. Like Facebook, I don't see myself ever using it much. But I can at least respect a good tool for what it is.

Are you kidding me? I knew Halo was extremely popular, but I had no idea the game would generate that kind of sales. Even at ~$60 a copy that's still almost 3 million copies sold in just one day. And the holiday shopping season hasn't even started to warm up yet.

Since that jaw-dropping number was announced I've seen a lot of reports trying to diminish the magnitude of this event. But if we're to go by that logic then we also have to say that every video game launch ever has been wholly unimpressive. Hardly. If you enjoy games, you should be thrilled as this gives the industry that much more mainstream attention and credibility.

As someone who's predominantly played games on his PC, I've never personally understood the allure of Halo. In my opinion, there are numerous PC games of a similar style that have been better than any of the Halo installments. But I still respect the franchise for helping to push gaming (and especially online gaming) into a more mainstream world. And for a geek like myself that's a wonderful thing. There was a time when it could be embarrassing for an adult to mention in casual conversation that you enjoy playing video games. Increasingly, it's not just acceptable, it's a great conversation piece likely to find a reciprocating party on par with the entertainment news, sports, etc.

. . . then it will be due to my staying up all night to play Team Fortress 2. :)

The game doesn't officially launch until 10/10 on Steam and 10/12 in stores for the PC/Xbox/PS3. But for Steam users who preorder the game (which I had been considering since I was obviously going to buy it anyway) you can begin playing the Team Fortress 2 beta starting Monday 9/17. :)

I've been trying to finish up Half-Life 2 Epsiode 1 (once Jessica goes to bed of course) for the past couple weeks so I could follow the storyline of the next episode. My graphics card had been acting a little flaky, but I finally got that all sorted out. I even took the plunge and finally installed Vista on my gaming system (more on that in another post.) So I'm ready to roll.

Adam, we'll see if we can build you a frankenPC from all my spare parts capable of handling the game.

I don't use a lot of minutes off our calling plan. But I do use my old phone quite a bit . . . . if that makes any sense at all. Most of my friends and family are on the Verizon network so those calls don't count against our plan's minutes. In fact, Holly and I have the lowest tier family plan and we rarely come close to touching our allotted monthly amount.

In addition to my phone, I also have a little Sandisk Sansa mp3 player that I use for listening to music/podcasts on my commute or while working in the yard. Both of these devices are small and very good at their core competency. But I'd like to consolidate their functionality into a single device, so I don't have to carry around two things.

What a revolutionary idea you might say. And amazingly, it seems I'm not the first to have had this epiphany. Looking around there's quite a few 'music phones' floating around these days. T-mobile has some particularly slick devices right now. And apparently there's some new device out now that you might have heard of called the "iPhone." I think I saw just a few minor mentions of it across my numerous tech news feeds over the past 8 months. And it looks like they even had a few dollars in their marketing budget for a modest ad campaign judging by the commercials I saw during every single commercial break on the Discovery channel this past weekend. The only problems with the iPhone are:

A) It costs considerably more than a lot of other smartphones.
B) I don't use Itunes.
C) It's not on Verizon.

I might actually be willing to get past the first two traits as it really is a nice device. But nothing short of a fully-functioning Star Trek tricorder with built-in light saber and beer tap is going to get me to leave Verizon right now. As I said before, most of my friends/family are on it and (in the spirit of the commercials) the reliability of the network just can't be beat, especially in the more rural regions where some of my family lives.

So my options are limited to Verizon's offerings. Unfortunately, Verizon is notoriously behind the curve when it comes to releasing contemporary, fully-featured phones. And due to a recent legal spat with chipset manufacturer Broadcom they're even further behind schedule this year. Fortunately that's about to change with as many as 15 new phones scheduled for release between now and the end of the year. The new Motorola Q9M will be the first shot in this barrage going on sale later this week.

My current contract ran out a couple months ago so my 'new every two' credit towards a new phone means I should be able to get a nice phone for a very reasonable price - which will be important with Holly staying home this year. The only problem now is which one? I'll go from minimal choices to many decent choices in the span of only a couple months. Right now I'm waffling between one of the following two routes:

1. Less expensive, music-oriented phone w/1 yr contract. The new LG Chocolate is actually pretty nice and seems to be notably improved from the original. And the two flavors of the Motorola Z6 look to be decent potential candidates as well (although I'd have to sacrifice quite a bit of storage space if they really do cap out at only 2GB.)
   
   
2. More expensive, smartphone w/2yr contract. I think I'd actually be happier with this solution longterm. The problem is, I'm too cheap to pay for the data plans, at least for the upcoming year when we're trying to cut back. The new Q9M does support wifi via the SD slot (although at the expense of memory) and should be reasonably inexpensive with the discounts I'll have available. And while the Samsung SCH-i760 is kind of funky looking, it looks reasonably compact and extremely functional.
   

Any other year than this one and I'd easily go with the second option. But right now I'm leaning toward the first route.

Only my brother and cousin will likely have any remote interest in this post, but that's ok. (Edit: Or maybe not as a couple former players have now commented.)

As I was going through some of the drawers around my computer desk I stumbled across the original install CDs of one of my favorite old games of all time, Outlaws. It brought back a flood of fond, personal memories from the very early years of the online era.

It was a time when the World Wide Web was still in its infancy. Companies like CompuServe, AOL, Yahoo, Infoseek and Lycos ruled the Internet. High-speed connections were a luxury only major universities and corporations had. Dial-up ruled supreme. In fact, one of my central memories surrounding Outlaws was constantly playing tag with my university's SLIP server trying to get just the right dial-up connection. For normal web browsing, just about any connection would do. But if I wanted to play Outlaws, there were only two connections that seemed to provide stable play - 26,400bps or 42,600bps. That's worthless information I know, but it's funny how those numbers are still ingrained in my head years after the fact. ;)

As for Outlaws itself . . . Outlaws was a western-based, first-person-shooter style game released in 1997. While I've never been an avid fan of westerns (although I do love the Sergio Leone trilogy) this game just caught my eye back when I was looking for something to play on my new computer.

As a single player game, Outlaws was enjoyable, but nothing remarkable. Actually I take that back. There was one aspect to the game which was absolutely amazing - the musical score (listening to it as I type this actually.) The soundtrack was original, but instantly recognizable for its inspiration from Ennio Morricone's great spaghetti western scores. The music won several awards and helped create a much more immersive atmosphere for a game was otherwise fairly standard fare with a graphics engine that was already quite dated at the time of its release.

Where Outlaws made its most lasting impression on me personally was in the realm of online multiplayer. I had already played online games before (Quake was all the rage and Quake II was released shortly after Outlaws) but those ventures into the online world had been excursions into chaos. Unless you were in the inner-circle of a clan or a regular on a specific server, nobody knew anybody. As a result, the personal interactions were less than stellar examples of a civilized world. The Outlaws online community was the anti-thesis of Quake II due to its much smaller community size. Just like a small town, everybody seemed to know one another. Most players usually congregated in the MSN Gaming Zone where they would spend nearly as much time chatting as they would playing.

I never rose above a mid-tier player, but was still a regular on the Zone for many years. During that time I formed a fairly large circle of 'online friends' - people I'd never met but knew casually through regular interactions over the course of many months/years. Online friends are a common occurrence these days (the whole Web 2.0 bubble is built on them), but it was still a novelty back then so that's why the impression was so potent at the time.

Still, the foundation of our interaction was based on Outlaws. And over time that foundation started to erode as fewer and fewer people played the game. For myself, married life and the 'real world' quickly ate into the free time I once had in abundance back in college. Like most players, I gradually stopped playing. Something would occasionally remind me of Outlaws and I mighty quickly visit one of the old news sites or do a quick search on some of my old Zone friends.

LJP_Blackthorn (or CSB_El_Nino and later WAC_Blackyolero)
Lil_Senorita (later Lil_Senorita_DR)
LJP_Picante (or just plain old _Picante)
GA_Reaper
OGB_Hooter
OGB_Hoss
WAW_Beignet
Outlaw_DR
many others that I can't specifically remember off the top of my head

And that's part of the reason I'm writing this post. I'm hoping that if some of the people listed above ever start reminiscing like I did that they might stumble across this post and maybe just shoot me a quick comment or email to let me know how they're doing. If this were a reunion, my name tag would say "Hi, I'm Pirate_forty."