srsly » Comics

my life is full of hard decisions

jared — Fri, 17 Nov 2006 23:46:19 +0000

so i got a big fat bonus this month because my week carrying the pager was absolute hell. there are a few things i’ve been wanting to do but i can only do one of them. the choices are as follows

try for a nintendo wii on sunday
buy a commercial light fixture to replace the DIY one on my aquarium
save it

having a wii would be really fun. nintendo is great for games you play with other people. and it just so happens that tessa likes to play games too. fun for the whole family. on the other hand, getting a commercial light fixture for my aquarium has a couple upsides. the first is that i won’t have this ugly red light hanging on chains from the ceiling; this will also please the lady. the second is that the fixture i want has a higher light output and wider coverage; which will be very beneficial to all of my reef critters. also, i can sell my DIY fixture for about half the cost of the new fixture just because it’s a popular and impossible to find wattage of light for nano-reefers. the third option, which is probably the smartest, is also the least fun.

i think what i’m going to do is go try to get a wii sunday and if i can’t, see if i can get a discount on the light because my friend wants an identical one; maybe get a bulk discount. if i end up getting the light, i’ll be spending less money, so i can kind of do the third option as well. but then i wouldn’t get to flail around at my tv with my girlfriend. i’m not sure how i get by having to make these kind of decisions. i srsly lose sleep over stuff like this.

the Revolution will be just that

jared — Tue, 01 Nov 2005 17:12:34 +0000

arsTechnica has a really decent article on the three next-gen consoles coming out, focusing a lot on Nintendo’s Revolution. the article covers all three consoles rather well, but mainly points out that the bottom line is that sony and microsoft aren’t really bringing anything new to the table. the only thing those two are bringing is something that has been trying to be formed for the last few years, and that is an entertainment console. all your digital media on your tv will be funneled through their entertainment box. which is all well and good, but i already have a solution for streaming music to my entertainment center. and i’ll probably have one for video pretty soon too. when i want a box to play games on i want just that, nothing more. mostly because it gets in the way of the gaming part. and as far as gaming goes, microsoft and sony aren’t bringing anything but more polygons.
nintendo on the other hand is going off in a wildly different direction. it could be horrible, it could be great. point is they’re trying to make us do something different. instead of relying on the last decade of gaming and churning out more of the same crap with more polygons, they’re giving us a new opportunity to interact with our games. i appreciate this, because the last couple years of console gaming have been rather stagnant. i have a funny feeling that the Revolution won’t do well as far as raw sales go. but i think in the end it will be victorious for bringing a much needed change to the console gaming world. i’m almost definately buying one. chances are i’ll probably get a ps3 as well. there are some things i like about the last 10 years of gaming, and there isn’t anything inherently wrong about making those games look better. i just don’t think that we play games to have them look like reality. i kind of thougth the point was to have fun in a world that was distinctly not reality.
the results remain to be seen as most of the technical details of the Revolution are still under wraps, but it is apparent that the graphical horsepower will be less than the other two. i don’t see this as a bad thing, because it’s relative to current technology. and current GPU technology is nothing short of astounding, so it’s not like the Revolution games are going to look terrible. showdown starts early 2006 though. i know i can’t wait.

not there yet

jared — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 21:26:47 +0000

i’m all about device convergence when it comes to cell phones and music players. motorola’s ROKR is nice, but it’s not quite there storage wise. the MM-9000 and the Samsung MM-A940 are ugly as shit, and also limited by storage. not only that, but according to this article, Sprint seems to think people that own these poorly designed phones will subscribe to extra services, and then pay $2.50 a pop for songs to listen to on said ugly devices.
apple’s system on the other hand, is nice and cheap; granted the device costs just as much as a cell phone but with no phone ability. unfortunately the service only allows downloads in apple’s proprietary format; which essentailly locks you into their hardware. which isn’t any worse than any other music download service; they all lock you to a device in that the music will only play on a device that has the DRM software on it. other services have the upper hand by having a wide variety of hardware/devices to play your music on. that choice isn’t very comforting though seeing as how well designed the ipod is and how much you get for your money. yes they are expensive, though i think it’s worth it. and you’re certainly getting more bang for your buck now that they play video.
i guess the point is, nobody has this downloadable media thing quite right. it all seems to be shackled to some kind of proprietary thing, FairPlay/AAC for apple, probably Microsoft DRM for most other devices. Neither is compatible, and neither company wants to play nice. throw in the record companies and their NEED for DRM, which i think is perfectly reasonable and an entirely different topic, and we’re at an impasse.
nobody has quite figured out how to please all three parties, and i think it may be a while until someone does. for now i think apple is doing a fine job, though with the one caveat of distributing their product in a format supported by a very limited amount of hardware. they’ve been on top of competetive pricing, and constantly updating their hardware with new features. what it boils down to is they have the market cornered, and they aren’t abusing their customers. a couple things need to happen for this to be the perfect product: first, apple needs to start distributing things in mp3, second, people need to get their heads out of their asses and come up with a standard for DRM so those files distributed in a widely readable format will be granted the ability to be played on numerous devices. but those things won’t happen because the first one will require cooperation between a number of companies that want nothing to do with each other in this space, and the second would level the playing field as far as apple is concerned and they really don’t want that.

sour rabbit stew

jared — Tue, 13 Sep 2005 14:33:11 +0000

so i started playing an orc warrior named Hossenfeffer on Silvermoon. yes i’m aware i spelled hasenfeffer wrong. but now people are gonna call me Hoss, and that’s cool.

OMGOMGOMG

jared — Thu, 18 Aug 2005 12:50:05 +0000

Beatmania for PS2!!!!!!!oneeleven!!

i will have this. they better have the mixer controllers for this too. or i’ll be pissed.

let’s get something clear

jared — Tue, 16 Aug 2005 02:48:38 +0000

it’s so little

jared — Mon, 18 Jul 2005 17:31:17 +0000

i got a PSTwo over the weekend so i could play Katamari Damacy and Xenosaga. not just to play those two games, but mostly. the new slim ps2 really is tiny, i’m kind of surprised. i really wish i could afford a hd tv because it’s already kick ass enough having big ass speakers to play video games with. oh well, car first.

not much went on this weekend. just hung out with girlfriend’s family, got fed for free most of the weekend, so i was pretty stoked. also went to a really decent restaurant on friday. note to self: aztec fire good, get some booze and make it. so i’m trying to decide if just want to take all of next week off. i probably won’t, but one of kat’s cousins is getting married and i’m already taking off a couple days, so i’m thinking a whole week might just be fun. what would i do? probably clean up my apartment then a whole lot of nothing. because this last weekend was the first weekend in a long time where i just sat around and did nothing and felt ok about it. usually i sit around and put off chores but since we cleaned earlier in the week things were ok. maybe we should just get in the habit of cleaning during the week so we can laze about on the weekends.

HAHAHHAAHAHA.

i likes

jared — Wed, 13 Jul 2005 03:09:27 +0000

i needs.

the perfect accessory for a new car.