tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-84897302318311463802024-02-08T06:33:12.501-06:00What I Think About...Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.comBlogger11125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-29922981191964706352014-05-08T10:42:00.001-05:002014-05-08T10:44:43.024-05:00Net NeutralityIt's been a long time since my last post, life has been busy, school has been difficult financially, and the world keeps on turning as it always will :)<br />
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But that's neither here nor there of course, as that only affects my personal life and is pretty meaningless to your life.<br />
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But there is a new horror rising up around us all, one that does affect us all, primarily in the USA, but in other countries as well. The issue of net neutrality.<br />
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Imagine an internet where you, the consumer, pays for access to this network of websites, services, and entertainment. Your plan's contract says you get an open doorway with the only restriction being that what you do must be legal. This is great, no problem here.<br />
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Now imagine on the other side of that doorway thousands of others paying for that same privilege, unrestricted access to the contents within.<br />
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Except there's a catch, you can't see each other. In order for the person at the other end to see you, you have to pay another fee. And in order for you to be able to see the person at the other end, they have to pay to be seen as well.<br />
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This is the internet without net neutrality. Your ISP can choose who's allowed to be seen, and charge extra fees for the privilege of being seen.<br />
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Now, it won't start this way. No, it will start smaller. And it's already happening. Netflix for instance is already being forced to pay extra fees to ComCast for the privilege of sharing their content with you. That's right, they have to pay twice, once for the bandwidth, and a second time for the fast lane on that connection.<br />
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Fast lane... what does that really mean here? In this case, it means the highway is too small, so instead of making the lanes bigger, ComCast kicks everyone off of one lane and reserves it for NetFlix only, reducing the number of lanes available for the rest of the internet traffic.<br />
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So now you, the consumer, gets great access to NetFlix, but anything else you do is just a tiny bit slower. It's no longer the 20mbit you're paying for gives you 20mbit to anything you want. No, now that 20mbit gets you 20mbit to NetFlix, but maybe 18mbit everywhere else (for example).<br />
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This is the real problem with losing net neutrality and why it's so important to not lose it. If we lose net neutrality, then eventually the only things you'll get to see, are the ones who pay for a fast lane.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-22049421186153254722012-03-09T08:11:00.001-06:002012-03-09T08:11:23.958-06:00Windows 8 Consumer Preview – First Impressions<p>UGLY!</p> <p>UGLY!</p> <p>UGLY!</p> <p>From the “origami” goldfish, to the DOS-like sliders and toggles during the install, Windows 8 took everything good about Windows design and took a massive, fuming dump on it.</p> <p>After installing, it appears to run ok, although the ugly continues in its poorly executed Xbox style touch menu. Unlike the Xbox tile menu however, the Windows 8 version is cold and rigid, lacking personality.</p> <p>After flipping to Aero, there was no discernable way to return to the new tiled UI, and no Start Menu with which to find any apps or return to the UI for further testing. So I reboot the machine, at which point it breaks and goes into a screen (again with the ugly goldfish) “Attempting repairs”.</p> <p>This is from a clean install on a virtual machine with nothing else installed yet. That’s right, it broke itself straight out of the box. What are we Windows 98 again?</p> <p>At this point, the repair has taken significantly longer than the install, which clocked less than 15min (very nice). There’s no indication of what’s going on, just the ugly origami fish and the ugly bubbles spinner that has replaced the blue ring spinner.</p> <p>Eventually it dies and says it couldn’t fix the problem.</p> <p>Congrats Microsoft, you’ve successfully become Apple. WORTHLESS FLUFF.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-49298828474553680592011-04-28T17:29:00.001-05:002011-04-28T17:29:59.981-05:00Tablets Devices<p align="justify">Years ago, back in the early days of Windows XP, the PC and Notebook market attempted to introduce us to the concept of Tablet PCs. It was an idea that simply proved to be too early for the technology. It was simply too expensive to be practical.</p> <p align="justify">Today, with the advent of iOS and Android, Tablets have reappeared, bigger, better, faster and more well rounded than ever and—now that the technology has caught up—with reasonable prices.</p> <p align="justify">But a new problem has appeared. Where Tablet PCs in the past combined digitizer and touchscreen technology, this new age of the Tablet PC has done away with the digitizer.</p> <p align="justify">While touchscreen is great for basic navigation, typing, and finger painting blurry smears, it completely lacks the precision needed for writing and drawing. Now, the majority of people will probably never need a digitizer, but for the market where tablets become most useful the digitizer is a key element.</p> <p align="justify">Tablets are the ideal design for artists, but without the digitizer they’re useless. For non-artists, a tablets vs a notebook computer isn’t as large difference. There’s certainly improved portability with a tablet regardless of the user, but the very name tablet speaks of artists.</p> <p align="justify">I can only hope with the renewed vigor in the Tablet PC market that companies will bring back the digitizer. Until they do, I don’t see myself bothering with replacing my laptop.</p> Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-12907338359797117122011-01-08T17:20:00.001-06:002011-01-08T17:33:47.681-06:00...Kinect (XBox 360)<div style="border: solid 1px #b5c3d0; float: right; margin-left: 8px; padding: 4px; text-align: right; width: 142px;">
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Kinect - XBox 360</div>
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Quality: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Usability: <img alt="4 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating4of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Overall: <img alt="4 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating4of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Buy Now from Amazon.com<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kinect-Sensor-Adventures-Xbox-360/dp/B002BSA298?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Kinect Sensor (no console)</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002BSA298" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-4GB-Console-Kinect/dp/B003O6EE4U?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">XBox 360 4GB w/ Kinect</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003O6EE4U" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Xbox-360-250GB-Console-Kinect/dp/B003O6JLZ2?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">XBox 360 250GB w/ Kinect</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003O6JLZ2" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />
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This was honestly a hard product to review.</div>
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The Kinect is of course Microsoft's attempt to compete with the Wii and Playstation Move systems. And If one were to limit it to that kind of thinking, it could almost be considered a failure. With no buttons to click, your actions are limited solely to what your body can do.</div>
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So, it's a good thing we're not going to do that. The Kinect has advantages in gameplay that the Wii and Playstation Move just can't accomplish in their current states.</div>
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<b><i>We'll start with a few of the cons.</i></b></div>
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Menu navigation is a bit awkward at first, but gets easier with practice. Repeated use of the Kinect ID feature under different lighting conditions and with different clothing on helps considerably.</div>
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Which brings up another con. The Kinect doesn't track well initially, it needs to be trained for each person several times using Kinect ID. Once it's been trained enough, however, it's able to track with pretty decent precision.</div>
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The Kinect uses quite a bit of floor space. It says it can work with just 6ft of space, but it had trouble in our living room with this much space. I had to move things around until I had about 8ft just to get it working. I would recommend having about 10ft, especially if you want to use any of the fitness games. The problem is, it needs to be able to see your entire face and your feet in-frame at all times to work properly.</div>
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<b><i>And on to the pros!</i></b></div>
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With the Kinect, I've found that I'm actually interested in my exercise routines now. I get good, immediate feedback on both my current activity as well as my overall progress. I don't have to find and drive to a gym or pay the high monthly fees just for cardio and toning. I still recommend a gym and professional trainer for strength training, because the equipment needed for that takes up considerably more space and is quite a bit more expensive as well.<br />
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While the menu systems aren't always very intuitive, game play itself is very natural in most cases. If you want to jump, you jump. If you want to lean, you lean. And so on.<br />
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The Kinect Adventures that comes with the Kinect is mediocre, but most of the other mini game packs are fun, especially with friends or family. EA Sports Active 2 and Your Shape are both well made, although each has its own quirks, but they keep things interesting and are designed by people who know fitness.<br />
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Surprisingly, considering it's a Microsoft hardware product, the Kinect (and the new XBox 360s [s is for slim I assume, but it's not really slimmer, just smaller]) are extremely well built. They're sturdy and have a solid feel, the Kinect moves smoothly and silently, and the new XBox 360 has a much improved disc drive and cooling system.<br />
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All told, I definitely think the Kinect is a worthwhile purchase. It seems a bit gimmicky at first glance, but it works, and that's what really matters.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-90275452177339566452010-12-02T10:57:00.003-06:002010-12-02T11:10:42.555-06:00...Barnes & Noble Nook<div style="border: solid 1px #b5c3d0; float: right; margin-left: 8px; padding: 4px; text-align: right; width: 142px;">
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B&N Nook</div>
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Quality: <img alt="4 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating4of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Usability: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Features: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Battery: <img alt="3 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating3of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Overall: <img alt="4 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating4of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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<a target="_blank" href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/nook/">Compare models on BN.com</a>
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Buy Now from Amazon.com<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">WiFi + 3G</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-eBook-Reader-Black/dp/1400532620?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">WiFi only</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400532620" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />
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I read a fair number of books, so when the eBook readers started coming out some years back, I started watching them. They were all rather expensive at first, and most of them used black and white or greyscale LCD/LED displays which at the time resulted in extremely short battery lives. On top of these hardware limitation, was a lack of content. EBooks were common, but they weren't easy to purchase or move around and required various methods to utilize their DRM that made them difficult to use on eReaders. They just weren't a practical solution yet.</div>
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Then along came eInk. This new display technology is a bit like a digital Etch-a-Sketch, it moves pigment on and off a visible surface, only in this case each pixel is self contained rather than being a big box of metallic dust. The first few eReaders to use eInk were of course black and white, or limited greyscale, and there was still no solid source of reading material to put on them yet.</div>
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Then came the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />.</div>
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<a href="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon.com</a> started off as a book source, so they already had a huge library of books to work with, and by creating their own eReader they were able to get past the limitations of other readers and combine their resources with the eReader technology. Unfortunately, they were still expensive, and worse yet, the first few <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> versions either couldn't handle public formats like PDF, or required conversion that often broke the formatting, jumbling the content.</div>
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But, the Kindle was a good device, and it became enough of a hit to cause a stir.</div>
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A few years and a few <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> versions later, after seeing the success and potential in the market, a competitor steps forward. <a href="http://www.bn.com/">Barnes and Noble</a> launches their <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, an eReader utilizing their already massive library of books on top of Google's open platform, Android.</div>
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The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> solved the remaining problems still suffered by the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />. Native PDF support, as well as support of various other open formats, without conversion, and without destroying the layout. The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> features the same wifi and AT&T cellular capabilities as the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, but also added a wifi-only web-browser and the ability to share books with friends. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon.com</a> has recently added a 3G enabled web-browser to the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> as well. <a href="http://www.bn.com/">B&N's</a> service also includes the ability to read books free of charge, provided you're connected to a <a href="http://www.bn.com/">B&N</a> hotspot inside their stores, something <a href="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon.com</a> is unable to offer currently. With a little work, you can even load custom Android builds into the Nook to add even more features (although doing so voids your warranty).</div>
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Unlike the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> features a second display that grants it touchscreen capability, although I find their utilization of it to be minimal and not a significant gain over the Kindle's keyboard. One feature of the touchscreen I do like, however, is the ability to swipe my finger across the blacked out touchscreen to flip pages similar to a paper book.</div>
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The <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook's</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> eInk display is nearly identical to the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, with similar performance and battery life, although the touchscreen LCD does cause the overall battery life to suffer slightly by comparison. Setting a shorter screen timeout helps this.</div>
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<a href="http://www.bn.com/">B&N's</a> book library has been fairly good for the material I read, although older books in certain genres (Fantasy for instance) are difficult if not impossible to find.</div>
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The PDF support is reasonably solid, allowing you to use the original PDF layout, or switch to an unformatted layout using larger, more readable, font sizes. I would like to see a true page zoom feature though, as currently the only way to "zoom" is to increase the font size, which turns off the original formatted layout and switches to the unformatted layout. <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> has since improved its PDF support as well, although I have no first-hand experience with its functionality.</div>
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<a href="http://www.bn.com/">B&N</a> has been really good about updating the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, and it's already on its fifth software revision. Each revision has improved performance, stability, and has fixed bugs and added additional features and support.</div>
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The cellular connection works fairly well, although I've run into many places, even inside larger cities, where AT&T's coverage is lacking and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> is unable to connect as a result. The wifi is handy in these instances.</div>
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<br />
Also unlike the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />, the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> has a removable back cover with a user replaceable battery and a MicroSD slot for expanding its storage.<br />
<br />
Aside from the slightly short battery life, the page turning buttons on the side of the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> feel slightly flimsy and sometime have an audible snap sound as they catch the edge of the backing. The device is also prone to appearing to lock up when the battery is too low to operate; fully charging it before powering it back on resolves this issue however.<br />
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All told, both the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Barnes-Noble-NOOK-reader-3G/dp/1400599997?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Nook</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=1400599997" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> and the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Kindle-Wireless-Reader-3G-Wifi-Graphite/dp/B002FQJT3Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Kindle</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002FQJT3Q" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> are very solid eReaders, and I would recommend either one to avid readers.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-36286869536154496302010-11-19T13:35:00.000-06:002010-11-19T13:40:23.582-06:00...Kodak "Fair Priced Ink" Printers (ESP series printers)<div style="border: solid 1px #b5c3d0; float: right; margin-left: 8px; padding: 4px; text-align: right; width: 142px;">
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<img border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Product%20Thumbs/KodakESP7250_sm.jpg" /></div>
<div style="background-color: #b5c3d0; font-weight: bold; margin: -4px; margin-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; text-align: left;">
Kodak ESP Printers</div>
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Quality: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Value: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Features: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Overall: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
<div style="font-size: 80%; text-align: center;">
Buy Now from Amazon.com<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-ESP-5250-All-in-One-Printer/dp/B002MAPRZE?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">ESP 5250</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002MAPRZE" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-ESP-7250-All-in-One-Printer/dp/B0032UYFCY?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">ESP 7250</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0032UYFCY" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Black-Cartridge-10XL-8237216/dp/B0035JJJ9G?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Black Ink 10XL</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0035JJJ9G" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Kodak-Color-Ink-Cartridge-8946501/dp/B0035JJJ9Q?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">Color Ink 10c</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B0035JJJ9Q" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />
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Anyone who owns an inkjet knows how terrible ink costs can get. <a href="http://www.kodak.com/">Kodak</a> attempts to solve this issue with their "fair priced ink" printers, the ESP series of printers. The problem is, often times with cheap ink, you get cheap results, and noone wants to spend a hundred dollars or more on a printer to find out the print quality is trash.</div>
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I purchased a <a href="http://store.kodak.com/store/ekconsus/en_US/pd/productID.169935600">Kodak ESP 7250</a> at the beginning of the year for school, hoping it performed at least as well as my <a href="http://www.usa.canon.com/">Canon</a> and <a href="http://www.epson.com/">Epson</a> printers previously.</div>
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I was very surprised, because it not only met, but exceeded my expectations of a photo printer. One of the common problems with printers that include the print head directly on the ink cartridge (as HP printers) is that the print quality for every printer in the series is identical, and often times lower than the quality of printers that the print head is part of the printer itself (Canon, Epson) but the Kodak ESP printers do a really excellent job with the print head on their ink cartridges. The advantage to this, is that you get a new, clean print head with every ink cartridge, helping prevent long term issues like clogging.</div>
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This particular model also features a built in scanner and wifi connectivity, as well as a color display and several memory slots. The printer handles the memory slots very well, and has nice direct printing options if you own a camera but not a computer (rare as that is these days).</div>
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It has two paper trays, one for small photo sheets, and a full size tray for regular or photo paper. It also sports a built in duplexer for double-sided printing, very handy for reducing paper. Another neat feature is the printer's ability to detect specially coded Kodak papers and adjust the ink flow, drying time, and color correction to get the best results. This works with any Kodak papers that have the grey or yellow bars on the back.</div>
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The print quality on draft is as good as I've seen on normal with all of my previous printers. The printer comes with economy cartridges which didn't last very long, but for replacement ink cartridges I recommend buying the large size instead of the economy size, they'll last a good deal longer and are quite affordable, in the $10-$20 range for each black and color cartridges.</div>
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The wifi was fairly easy to set up, although putting in a wifi key takes a bit of time, and both the printer and scanner work well over wifi or USB. The only downside I found was that the scanner over wifi requires using Kodak's utility, while over USB any scanning software works fine.</div>
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All in all, I'm very happy with these new printers. While the ink isn't lasting quite as long as the pricier inks, they're much more affordable even after considering the couple extra cartridges a year you may need.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-56017264857123959262010-11-18T17:23:00.002-06:002011-01-08T17:24:32.220-06:00...Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)<div style="border: solid 1px #b5c3d0; float: right; margin-left: 8px; padding: 4px; text-align: right; width: 142px;">
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<img border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Game%20Thumbs/NFSHotPursuit2010_sm.jpg" /></div>
<div style="background-color: #b5c3d0; font-weight: bold; margin: -4px; margin-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; text-align: left;">
Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)</div>
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Visual: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Custom: <img alt="2 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating2of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
<div style="margin-top: 2px; font-size: 90%;">
Realism: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Controls: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Overall: <img alt="4 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating4of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
<div style="font-size: 80%; text-align: center;">
Buy Now from Amazon.com<br />
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Need-Speed-Hot-Pursuit-Xbox-360/dp/B003R783IY?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">XBox 360</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003R783IY" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> |
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Need-Speed-Hot-Pursuit-Playstation-3/dp/B003R7H5TC?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">PS3</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003R7H5TC" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> |
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Need-Speed-Hot-Pursuit-Pc/dp/B003R79HFW?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">PC</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003R79HFW" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" /> |
<a href="http://www.amazon.com/Need-Speed-Hot-Pursuit-Nintendo-Wii/dp/B003R79H7U?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969" target="_blank">Wii</a><img alt="" border="0" height="1" src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003R79H7U" style="border: none !important; margin: 0px !important; padding: 0px !important;" width="1" />
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Received my pre-order of <a href="http://hotpursuit.needforspeed.com/">Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit (2010)</a> today, and spent the entire morning and afternoon playing. This game lives up to the Need for Speed name and then some.</div>
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Although this is another game review, you'll notice that I'm using a different rating system. This is because I believe people look for different things in different game types.</div>
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I've been playing the Need for Speed games for a couple generations now, and this is definitely a rival for the most visually stunning, realistic and fastest I've played. The cars and terrain are rendered beautifully in photo-realistic detail with excellent visual effects and physics that match up well to everything that's going on.</div>
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The game truly feels fast, and while the ability to play as either the racers or the cops is inherent to the entire Hot Pursuit line, it really shines in this continuation of the series.</div>
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My only real complaint is the lack of vehicle customization. I understand it on the cops side, although I believe that could be done as well by allowing various styles to the paint jobs and various undercoats such as the Viper's dark green haze, but even the racers get almost no customization at all, a huge departure from other Need for Speed games. Basically, as a racer each vehicle has a set of factory colors to choose from and that's it. A few of the cars, like the Evo, are even missing a factory color or two.</div>
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The gamepad controls are solid, following the configuration of most other racer games and works well. The cars each handle uniquely and that translates into the gamepad feel as well. I really wish I could track down the official XBox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel since I play so many racers, but it seems Microsoft has discontinues it. Other 3rd party wheels have also been discontinued and are extremely difficult to hunt down, but I'd really like the official wheel due to various bugs reported in the 3rd party wheels.</div>
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The online Autolog feature is really nice for comparing stats and achievements with friends, as well as challenging them when you don't necessarily have time to be online at the same time. I didn't get to try the live multiplayer racing, so I'll end it here until I can find some more racers to join.</div>
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Overall, this game is a winner for racing fans. Both sides, cops and racers, have interesting and fun challenges.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-73172535336641659202010-11-17T12:41:00.010-06:002011-01-08T17:24:32.221-06:00...Vanquish (Xbox 360, Demo)<div style="border: solid 1px #b5c3d0; float: right; margin-left: 8px; padding: 4px; text-align: right; width: 142px;">
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<img border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Game%20Thumbs/Vanquish_sm.jpg" /></div>
<div style="background-color: #b5c3d0; font-weight: bold; margin: -4px; margin-bottom: 2px; padding-left: 4px; padding-right: 4px; text-align: left;">
Vanquish - Demo</div>
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Visual: <img alt="5 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating5of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Story: <img alt="3 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating3of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
<div style="margin-top: 2px; font-size: 90%;">
Controls: <img alt="2 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating2of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
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Overall: <img alt="3 of 5" border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Rating3of5.png" style="vertical-align: text-top;" /></div>
<div style="font-size: 80%; text-align: center;">
Buy Now from Amazon.com<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Vanquish-Xbox-360/dp/B003PHLTDC?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">XBox 360</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003PHLTDC" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> | <a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Vanquish-Playstation-3/dp/B003PHLT8W?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">PS3</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B003PHLT8W" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />
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Alright, my first real game review, yay.</div>
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So, I downloaded the Demo of the XBox 360 title <a href="http://www.blogger.com/www.sega.com/vanquish/" target="_blank">Vanquish</a> and played through the tutorial and a bit of the game. In many ways the game is impressive, and in others it fell short pretty bad.</div>
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The game is visually beautiful, the model and textures look great and flow well together. The effects and sounds also work really well for the game, and the voice acting is reasonable, if a bit cheesy, considering it's just a game. The story starts off in a training room learning about your armor and weapons, which makes for a pretty nice tutorial that lets you get used to things without overwhelming you, and you're free to skip the tutorials and go straight to the game, which is always a plus.<br />
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The story itself is well put together, although there's complaints from the pre-release game reviewers that the game is very short; about 4hrs give or take. Personally, I don't mind short games as long as they're re-playability is high or they have good multiplayer. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to test either of these with the demo.</div>
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The game has a feature that lets you slow down time with a burst of adrenaline. It's kind of corny, and worse, you practically have to rely on it to hit targets at the normal distances the game has enemies at. I'm not sure it would even work during multiplayer because it slows down everything in the game to give you time to aim and make minute adjustments.</div>
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The controls for this game are extremely difficult to get used to. They're very non-standard, and the positioning of the buttons doesn't match up well with what you're doing. There's many places where I was struggling to crouch, move, aim and shoot at the same time (a necessity in this game) because of the odd controls. Hopefully the full version of the game will have options for customizing this, or have customization patched in quickly to fix the issue.</div>
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Overall, the game is pretty interesting, and if you can get past the bad control scheme and aiming difficulty, it's actually pretty fun. But you'd be just as well served with more popular titles like the Call of Duty or the Halo series.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-90964156858031294592010-11-15T11:42:00.005-06:002011-01-08T17:24:32.222-06:00...Brink<div style="border: solid 1px #b5c3d0; float: right; margin-left: 8px; padding: 4px; text-align: right; width: 142px;">
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<img border="0" src="http://i914.photobucket.com/albums/ac343/ShadowDrakken/WITA%20Images/Game%20Thumbs/BRINK_sm.jpg" /></div>
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BRINK - Preview</div>
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Buy Now from Amazon.com<br />
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Brink-Xbox-360/dp/B002DC8GKE?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">XBox 360</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002DC8GKE" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Brink-Playstation-3/dp/B002DC8GKO?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">PS3</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002DC8GKO" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" /> |
<a target="_blank" href="http://www.amazon.com/Brink-Pc/dp/B002GDRPYI?ie=UTF8&tag=w0f0-20&link_code=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969">PC</a><img src="http://www.assoc-amazon.com/e/ir?t=w0f0-20&l=btl&camp=213689&creative=392969&o=1&a=B002GDRPYI" width="1" height="1" border="0" alt="" style="border:none !important; margin:0px !important; padding: 0px !important" />
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Back in the day, I used to play a lot of FPS games. We're talking back when the original Doom was top of the line. I played pretty much every game <a href="http://www.idsoftware.com/">id Software</a> produced at the time.</div>
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But something happened starting with Quake 2, and the FPS games just stopped being fun for me. I think this was around the same time that the everyday non-geeks started really getting heavy into gaming. They stuck mainly with the FPS games and didn't spread out into the other styles, and they were good at it. It set new levels of gameplay that I had a hard time keeping up with at the time. But it was more than that, something about the games just weren't fun anymore even playing single player.</div>
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So, I spent a decade, give or take, playing other games and while I occasionally touched FPS, they still weren't really there for me yet.</div>
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Then came the Tactical FPS. A new style of FPS that focused more on thinking and strategy rather than just running in guns blazing. Battlefield, Call of Duty, Halo (especially Halo 3, ODST and Reach); games that mixed real tactics with a deeper story and helped you feel like you were really involved.</div>
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I was slow to join in these, but I did join, and they were fun. They were new and different and I really felt like I was getting better as the tutorials an even the levels themselves taught me new tactics I could use to best the AI and possibly other players.</div>
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A lot of this had to do with technological advances in the hardware the games were running on, allowing the game AIs to make more decisions, and allowing the game to support more tactical features without slowing it down.</div>
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But lately there's been a bit of a plateau, the games have stopped advancing. They try new things, sure; <a href="http://www.sega.com/vanquish">Vanquish </a>for example is so overloaded with things that, along with it's poor aiming, it's just a monstrosity to even attempt to play. A case of too much, piled on with things that just don't help gameplay and don't make it interesting. The game is beautiful, it has a lot of interesting things, and even a decent storyline, but the controls are just too cumbersome.</div>
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In comes <a href="http://www.brinkthegame.com/">Brink</a>, created by the development group <a href="http://www.splashdamage.com/">Splash Damage</a>.</div>
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Being released for PC, XBox 360, and PS3, this game promises to be a complete change from everything FPS has been so far. The game helps relieve a lot of the controls by making choices for you based on how you're moving and where. It will jump over things, climb walls, slide under things all automatically just by you looking at them while you move and press a single action button (at least that's how their videos make it sound). This frees up the rest of the controls for moving, aiming, and primary and secondary weapons, a very modest set used in many other successful titles.</div>
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The technology behind it all is called Smooth Movement Across Random Terrain or "SMART", most likely a backronym but fitting if it does everything they claim. SMART is the decision engine behind determining what to do based on your speed, location and obstacles. Impressive technology from everything <a href="http://www.splashdamage.com/">Splash Damage</a> is claiming.</div>
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But it's not the only tech joining Brink. Detailed motion capture is being used to help the game feels more real, along with a whole slew of weapon and other sound bites specially recorded just to give the game authenticity. Even their visual style is new, combining photorealism with exaggerated proportions that make it easy to make out fine details during fast paced action, while at the same time being almost lifelike.</div>
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One of the other new tech pieces is the blending of singleplayer and multiplayer allowing players to progress their character offline as well as online. This is combined with a mission system that changes and takes different directions for every character, allowing a truly unique experience for everyone that plays.</div>
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Since the game isn't out yet (due Q1 2011) I don't know if it will be everything they claim, but what I've seen so far is pretty impressive, and I certainly look forward to receiving my copy.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-55283335570187819632010-11-12T16:48:00.021-06:002010-11-17T13:56:35.232-06:00...Smart Phones<div style="text-align: justify;">
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Being a gadet freak, I go through a lot of phones, and they're pretty much always smart phones. I've owned three different SideKicks, several Windows Mobile and several Android OS phones now. I've also researched various RIM, Symbian, iOS and PalmOS devices over the years.</div>
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So why smart phones?</div>
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Honestly, I rarely use my phone, I need it for business and emergencies, but I just don't like talking to people if I can text instead. I like the smart phones because of everything else they can do. They're better at texting than standard phones, and there's a huge selection of applications for accomplishing other tasks as well.</div>
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I used to own a Palm TX that I used for taking notes, tracking my car mileage, and managing my bank account. It was also handy for carrying documents around in digital form. At the time, there weren't many smart phone choices yet, but I eventually ended up with my first Sidekick.</div>
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SickKick's OS is pretty slick for light users, people that just want the social network and mini-games will enjoy this phone, but it's not real strong at anything else. It's just not designed for adult tasks.</div>
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Eventually I graduated up to Windows Mobile 6, where I was finally able to start using more business apps and was able to replace all of my Palm TX apps (except my universal remote control, darn them for not equipping smart phones with IR ;).</div>
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Windows Mobile was an excellent business platform, and did texting pretty nice as well. But, along with being a tech head, I'm also quite a bit of a gamer. I enjoy more than just mini-games, and honestly Windows Mobile couldn't even do them very well due to it's low end hardware and lack of graphics power.</div>
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Symbian and RIM were way too business oriented, and while both are quite strong at business, they weren't "fun" phones to own. RIM was especially prevalent with all the different BlackBerrys coming out on every telephone company imaginable, but Windows Mobile was keeping pace.</div>
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After a few Windows Mobile 6 phones, Apple had come out with iOS. And at first, this was great. Apple set a new bar, but unfortunately they made several major mistakes. No MMS, no copy/paste, and stuck on AT&T, who at the time thought a $750 deposit on top of the price of the phone and first month's bill, was a fair price. Needless to say, I passed on iOS because it really didn't offer enough above Windows Mobile to justify the cost.</div>
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Then comes the 3G networks, and with them, Android OS.Android OS was, and continues to be everything iOS wants to be but has yet to achieve. Android OS was fun, Android OS was business, and Android OS was social. But most importantly, Android OS is an open platform.Right off the bat, Android OS had everything iOS had and then some, it could even copy/paste, MMS, and was scheduled to launch on several major telecomm networks. Unfortunately, they still lacked enterprise support.</div>
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Of course, Apple had to respond, they fixed the missing features in iOS in an attempt to catch up to Android OS. But Android OS's open nature means it continued to evolve and grow, receiving speed, stability, and feature updates including enterprise support all faster than Apple has been able to keep up.</div>
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Here we are in the present day, and Apple is still playing the catch up game, as Android OS takes over more and more of the market. Apple releases its pseudo-tablet iPad and finally catches up to the 3G revolution; Android comes out with multiple pseudo-tablet chocies, an eBook reader, dozens of new 3G and 4G phones, and even dedicated GPS devices.</div>
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Then all of a sudden, FUMBLE! Apple pushes an embarrassingly broken phone to market. The iPhone 4G and it's broken antenna, video chat that only works on wifi, and nothing new from previous models. But, the raving Apple fans continue to buy it all up, refusing to admit that Apple's broken offering is anything less than perfection.</div>
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Honestly, I think the different OSes have their place. For open development, a fun phone with loads of power and customizability, go with Android OS. For business, especially enterprise, go with RIM (BlackBerry). For younger socialites, go with SideKick. And if you just have tons of money to blow on a brand name so you can look cool and don't care about the problems and draconian practices, go iOS.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-8489730231831146380.post-11906597943355215562010-11-11T22:58:00.004-06:002010-11-17T21:57:07.791-06:00...This Blog<div style="text-align: justify;">
No really, I figure a great way to introduce myself, as well as to introduce what this blog is about, is to just jump in and talk about the blog itself.</div>
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I've never really been a big blog person; it feels a bit too much like writing a diary to me. But I always enjoy playing with gadgets, games, and basically anything tech related and then telling all my friends what I thought of them. I don't get very emotional or enthusiastic about many things, but technology has always been an exception. I'm just wired for tech I guess.</div>
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So it occurred to me, "Why not blogs too? They're tech, right?" and I could use the blog as an outlet to gush, fume, and spam people who actually want to know, instead of just annoying my friends and family.</div>
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Congrats, if you stick around, I get to annoy you with my gripes and praises instead *cackles maniacally*</div>
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*cough* Ahem, where was I? Oh right, blogs as technology...</div>
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So yeah, when you really think about it, blogs are technology. It's amazing how quickly they're grown and changed. Used to be, before they were actually named blogs, people would manually update their little homebrew website every day/week/month by adding in new pages, manually linking them to the main page, etc.</div>
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Eventually this led into more formal web applications, and then into social networks. That's right, <a href="http://www.myspace.com/">MySpace</a>, <a href="http://www.facebook.com/">Facebook</a>, and etc are really just blogs, albeit overloaded with non-bloggy features.</div>
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What's really interesting, is this trend has sort of gone backwards a bit too. <a href="http://www.twitter.com/">Twitter</a>, along with services like <a href="http://www.blogger.com/">Blogger</a> and <a href="http://www.weebly.com/">Weebly</a> go and take all the fluff back out, stripping the blog back down to its bare essentials.</div>
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So we've come full circle, personal websites became web logs, became blogs, became social networks, and then back to micro-blogs. Now on top of that we have video logs or vlogs, which merged with video sharing websites like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/">YouTube</a> and created the "YouTuber", people who run whole shows out of their bedroom, many successfully making a living out of merely sharing their thoughts with you, the viewer.</div>
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Props out to these personalities, inspirations like <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/RayWilliamJohnson">Ray William Johnson</a>, <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/MysteryGuitarMan">MysteryGuitarMan</a>, and even that annoying <a href="http://www.youtube.com/user/Fred">Fred</a> guy (Lucas Cruikshank actually, and much as I hate the character, one cannot deny <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fred:_The_Movie">his success</a>). Just by being themselves they've become successes, all with the help of blogs.</div>Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15465559505853422146noreply@blogger.com0