After my disappointing experience with the iMac and the cult of Steve, I decided to return to somewhat familiar territory in buying my next computer. I finally ended up ordering a Dell Dimension 9200 online, and although it was my first time buying a Dell, I have to say I was pretty impressed with both the price and the speed of shipping. The CPU case in particular is elegant and well-designed and has probably the easiest access for adding PCI cards I’ve ever seen, plus the machine runs ultra-quiet… which is a pleasant change from the vacuum cleaner sound that emitted from my previous AMD Athlon system.
The one catch with this purchase was that it came with Windows Vista pre-installed, and I had been hoping to hold off a bit on Vista until a lot of the software and driver compatibility issues had been worked out (although I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t at least a little bit curious). As it turns out, I didn’t run into any major problems, with the exception of the on-board audio driver, which for some reason did not have a Stereo Mix option to record sounds that are currently playing on your PC (something I need for our podcast recording). It seems ludicrous that the hardware wouldn’t support it, but there is speculation that the RIAA is somehow pressuring sound card manufacturers into disabling this functionality. I certainly wouldn’t put it past them. In the end i just bought a new sound card… problem solved. Adobe Audition 2.0 is also not fully compatible with Vista but after running some tests it seems like it should get the job done for the time being.
For the most part, Vista is not much different from XP, it just looks a lot flashier. It’s full of unnecessary transparency effects and graphical enhancements that will drain your system resources, but with a dual-core machine and 2 GB of RAM, it’s pretty negligible. The Gadgets Sidebar and the Window Switching option were both ripped straight from Mac OS X, but I will admit that they’re nice additions to have. I’m still looking into whether or not there are any truly useful new features; some of the so-called “security enhancements” may be valuable, but they’re also an additional hassle for users who actually know their way around a computer.
Last week Alicia and I finished booking hotels and planning our itinerary for next month’s 9-day trip to England. Our destinations will be London, Bath, York and Edinburgh. If anyone has any recommendations of sights to see in those general areas, don’t hold out on us! I’m pretty psyched, although I’m slightly disappointed we won’t get a chance to see any of Ireland. As usual, I will probably post a travel log and some photos afterward. Believe it or not, we’re also going skydiving next weekend… yikes, I have no idea how I got roped into this, it’s all happening so quickly!
If you’re a DVD addict like me and you’ve been using DVD Profiler to catalog your collection, you may have noticed not too long ago that the original creator of DVD Profiler started his own company and released version 3.0. Since the database format changed, it’s basically a forced upgrade, but the new version comes with a lot of the features locked unless you register (or unless you have less than 50 DVDs). I thought I would take my free business over to MediaMan instead (the Delicious Library knock-off for Windows) but unfortunately the free version is only a 30 day trial. So while I debated actually paying to register one of these programs, I stumbled across something even better: an online service called DVD Spot. Not only does it make more sense from a Web 2.0 perspective to have something like this online, I was really impressed with their interface, the ease of importing my collection from a .csv file, and the size of their catalogue, not to mention some of the cool features like stat tracking, lists of what you’ve watched recently and a friend network. I think I’m officially a convert. The only thing they don’t have yet is an XML feed for sharing what you’ve bought and/or watched recently, but this guy came up with a solution on his own.
I downloaded the first episode of the new Masters of Science Fiction series that debuted on ABC last weekend, and I have to say that it’s a pretty cool little show for sci-fi purists, although I don’t know if it will appeal to many mainstream viewers. The episodes are based on short stories from famous authors, and they certainly feel like it; the first episode “A Clean Escape”, was mostly just a conversation between two people, with a few flashbacks to flesh it out. Still, there’s so much great source material to draw from. If they can do 13 episodes per season for Masters of Horror, why only 6 episodes for sci-fi? One thing that struck me as a little weird is the fact that it’s “hosted” by Stephen Hawking, and really all that means is that a synthesized computer voice does the narration. Hey Lost fans, Terry O’Quinn stars in tomorrow’s ep!
It’s been an extremely slow summer for video games, and with all the major delays being announced, it looks like the fall may also be a bit less crowded than expected. The one thing I’m looking forward to later this month is Metroid Prime 3: Corruption on the Wii. As a big Metroid fan, I am hoping this will give me a reason to turn on the Wii for more than a couple minutes at a time. Even Zelda hasn’t really been able to hold my attention for very long. As great as the Metroid Prime games are though, I gotta say, I still miss the 2D Metroid games. Ever since the Metroid DS game was released as a 3D shooter, I worry that we may have finally seen the last of the old school style. (As a backup, John Woo’s Stranglehold seems to hold some promise as well… the Xbox Live demo is pretty damn fun.)
Some researchers at the University of St. Andrews have supposedly come up with a potential breakthrough for levitation and hovering technology. Using something known as the Casimir Effect, they’ve managed to get objects to repel each other in a frictionless environment. It all sounds pretty exciting, but I refuse to get my hopes up. I remember back when Dean Kamen unveiled the Segway, there were rumours in the days leading up to it that he had invented some sort of crazy hovering vehicle. Man, what a letdown that was.
Is Resident Evil 5 racist? There seem to be a lot of people speaking out about the fact that the newest trailer for the game shows a white guy gunning down hordes of zombie-like African villagers. Is it just another example of repackaging the white man’s fear of black culture, just like, as Michael Moore argued in Bowling For Columbine, the TV show COPS has been doing for years? Didn’t this same debate come about with the Klingons in Star Trek being black? Personally I just thought it looked like an interesting new setting to bring to the survival horror genre, but I guess I can see why some people might find it a little risque.
How cool is this? Someone developed an online emulator for the old Texas Instruments toy Speak & Spell! I used to love this thing when I was a kid. If not for this toy, I would never have become the anal retentive speller than I am today! Unfortunately, this online version doesn’t seem to play any of the extra mystery word guessing games. Boo.
A New Zealand couple have one-upped Nicolas Cage and decided to name their baby Superman. Don’t feel sorry for the kid though… it’s a lot better than what they would have named him, if it hadn’t been rejected by the government registry: “4Real”. For real, yo, I couldn’t make this stuff up.
Oh, and by the way, Keith Richards really did snort his father’s ashes after all.
