Jedi's Blog

Our XBOX360 is getting a Workout - Fable2 and Rockband2

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-11-01T14:54:06-04:00

My Wife and I have been busy with our XBOX360 lately. It’s kinda funny because we barely touched the thing in over 6 months then suddenly it’s getting a full-on workout. The last set of games we played on it were Mass Effect, and Force Unleashed (me) and Guitar Hero 3 (Her). I really didn’t get too much into Mass Effect even though it was typically my kind of game. Force Unleashed was good, but way short and even replaying it twice didn’t take more than a week. Burnout Paradise was ok as well, but that started getting stale. Like I said though, the console had been gathering dust... until last weekend. That’s when we got Rockband 2 and Fable 2. The Rockband 2 Special Edition was a much awaited birthday present for my wife while Fable 2 was from a “deal I couldn’t refuse.”

This is my wife’s character in Rockband 2. She’s been killing on the drums lately but has delved into the mic on occasion. Right now (at this moment) she’s getting used to the guitar. There are definite differences in feel between Guitar Hero 3 and Rockband 2’s guitar (or so she tells me... I’m totally lacking skill in rhythm games).

And... this is my current character in Fable 2. Yes, she’s female. And yes, those are “interesting” clothes she’s wearing. Fable 2 is definitely going to be a replayable game for me, and since I had a guy as my character last time around in Fable 1, I thought I’d go with a female character this time. My plan: Female - Good Hero, then next round a Male - Evil Hero, then I’d change things again and swap out the alignments if I was still playing the game at that point. Note: with the adult humor, sex, violence, and sex AGAIN in this game, it definitely earns its M for Mature rating. A few nitpicks: I wish there was more offline/interaction with the web akin to the way Halo3 works with Bungie.net. Yes, you can continue to earn (at a reduced rate) money from rent and shops you own while not playing the game and you can get some stuff by playing the online flash game & puppetshow, but I’d also like to be able to view character stats, take in-game screenshots/videos (I used my EyeTV to capture the ones here on my MacbookAir) and compare achievements and trophies with my friends. I guess Halo3 spoiled me with the interactive web stuff.

One thing is for sure, we’ve probably used our XBOX360 more in the last week than we have all year. Its at the point where we actually take shifts playing so we both get our groove on (so to speak). Anyone else out there getting as addicted to these two great games as we are?

Trailer: Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-10-27T10:37:39-04:00

Behold, I bring you the BRAND NEW trailer to Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince:

Selling MORE stuff on eBay

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-10-14T09:35:43-04:00

I’m selling some more stuff on eBay. This time I thought I’d try a 3 Day auction:

Canon Rebel XTi / 400D Black SLR Body and Battery Grip
Gefen 4:1 HDTV HDMI/DVI Digital Video / Audio switch

I need to look around the apartment and see if there’s anything else I need to sell. I’m sure I’ll find something.

Selling some stuff on eBay

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-09-27T14:52:31-04:00

I’m selling the following items on eBay if anyone is interested. This is the first time I’m trying to sell stuff, so I don’t have a very high Feedback rating. I’ve only previously bought items on eBay and even then, it was a long time ago.

2x 1st Generation iPhones - Unlocked and Jailbroken 2.1 Firmware (get them here and here)- these were the ones my wife and I got on the original iPhone launch day when we stood in line in front of the AT&T store on Rt 3 near Clifton. They are fully Jailbroken and Unlocked using the latest Pwnage Tool and have the mostly bug free 2.1 Firmware. Auction Ends just after 7pm Wednesday October 1st.

Epson P-5000 (get it here)- this is a multimedia viewer that’s ideal for the Pro Photographers out there. It takes SD/SDHC as well as CF cards and stores/views photos in JPEG or RAW with its 80GB HD. I don’t really need it anymore since I use my Macbook Air to transfer photos as needed for long trips. Auction ends just after 7:30pm Wednesday October 1st.

X-Plane 9 on the iPhone

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-09-13T06:49:54-04:00

In all the hoopla regarding the latest 2.1 firmware upgrade to the iPhone (fixes many of the lingering issues I still had since previous posts on the subject), one piece of iPhone news may have been overlooked. Laminar Research, the developers of the popular and highly accurate Flight Simulator for the Mac, PC, and Linux, have released a version of X-Plane 9 for the iPhone. Their Flight Simulators on the bigger platforms are so accurate and well liked by the Aviation community that the FAA even allows its use for logging flight time towards certification.

I downloaded and tried the simulator out. Although limited in many aspects regarding terrain range and instrument simulation (relying instead on a HUD), the simulation itself is fairly solid for a mobile App. The graphics are quite nice for the iPhone, especially the external flyby views. Controls utilize the Accelerometer and some on-screen sliders and buttons for Throttle, Flaps, Landing Gear and Brakes. You also have your choice of various planes and high level of control over the weather and time of day.

Per Austin Meyer, the creator of X-Plane:
The iPhone is not QUITE as powerful as a Quad-Core desktop, so I had to really scale it down to a perfect little ’slice’ of X-Plane.

You can choose from the Cirrus Jet, Columbia-400, Cessna 182, and Piaggo Avanti, with flight physics that are about 95% as accurate as X-Plane for desktop, so the flight modeling is really just amazing for a little device of this size.. really just stunning.

I’m surprised that the launch of this Flight Simulator on the iPhone hasn’t garnered more attention. I didn’t see it on the Apps, Games, or Entertainment pages of the iTunes Store yet, so it may still be below the RADAR (so to speak), but you can find it by following this link to get it from the App store. It goes for $9.99.

3G Data Problems in NYC... Voice is fine though...

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-08-24T06:56:43-04:00

I was in Manhattan, NYC yesterday because my wife had to work. She’s Assistant Director of Student Rights and Responsibilities at The New School and Saturday the university had Parent Sessions prior to the beginning of the school year. Code of conduct, etc. blah blah.... I’m really here to talk about the 3G reception problems NYC has been having recently.

As I mentioned in my previous entry, my 3G reception (voice and data) has been fine after my full restore with the 2.02 firmware and no backup, at least in New Jersey. Even with a smidgen of a single bar, I’ve been able to transfer data over 3G faster than Edge and Voice has been crystal clear. The same holds true for Voice in NYC. I actually had at least four bars outside with 3G and Voice was crystal clear. Inside, only a single dot, but voice communications were fine. Data is where everything fell apart though. I could not transfer anything in any internet capable App (Safari, Mail, Google Maps, Twitterific, etc.). Data transmission wasn’t just slow, it was non-existant! Switching to Edge restored data functionality at a somewhat good clip. WiFi of course was the way to go for wherever I had a connection.

In further research on the Apple Forums and on other forums online, I found that this was a shared experience across NYC for the past week. Many have said that they had fine data transmission until about August 18 or maybe a little earlier. At that point it was spotty, non-existant, or only seemed fine late in the evening. Much has been said about 3G dense areas and corresponding saturation of 3G data causing outtages in many cities. I experienced this first hand yesterday in NYC. A few blamed this on the iPhone and Apple, but my experience (and that of many other people) show that 3G data is fine outside the confines of population centers. Some forum entries have AT&T customer service responses showing this to be a problem on their network specific to these population centers and that they are building out the Hardware in the areas affected. Let’s hope they get the situation fixed soon. Whatever the case, this is DEFINITELY not just an iPhone 3G software problem. AT&T must get their 3G network up to snuff in one of the largest markets in the world before the iPhone gets further bad (and undeserved) press.

UPDATE: Follow the link for more proof that the iPhone 3G data problems are Network related and not Hardware related at AppleInsider.

iPhone 3G and Problems Solved

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-08-23T01:55:29-04:00

My wife and I picked up the iPhone 3G (she went black and I went white). There was a long line to get it at 8AM at the mall on a Saturday, a full month after the launch, with about 60 people ahead of us. However, like many people out there, we’ve encountered some problems.

My reception has been fine, but my wife’s iPhone had weak 3G reception in NY where she works. We’ve also encountered various issues with App updates via iTunes after upgrading to 7.7.1. Clearing out the iTunes App Section and re-downloaded the apps we had helped with that issue. We were both on 2.01 firmware, so when 2.02 came out, we eagerly updated. That firmware upgrade actually helped with the 3G reception issues for my wife in the City, but we started encountering issues with Syncing Apps purchased on the iPhone back to iTunes and downloading updates to our apps from the iPhone AppStore. I encountered errors that said that downloads/updates have failed and that they would be available the next time I synced my phone with iTunes. Checking for Purchases from iTunes allowed us to download the updates and sync them back to the iPhone, but not being able to update via the iPhone and not being able to transfer Apps purchased on the iPhone back into iTunes (the transfers look like they start, but then they fail without an error) was becoming a major pain.

After searching the web and various forums for days, I found the solution. The problem seemed to be that we restored from a backup made on our old iPhones to the new iPhone 3Gs we upgraded to. The Solution? I had to fully restore my iPhone to Factory level without utilizing a backup and build off a fresh version of the 2.02 (latest) Firmware. The process was painfully long: first restoring the iPhone to scratch, then building it up slowly with my Apps, Settings, Photos, Music/Videos, Podcasts, Movies, TV Shows, MobileMe Settings, Ringtone settings, Settings for each App that took forever to move over, re-downloading my eReader books, etc... and on...and on...

But when I was done, and all my Apps were back in their proper places... TADA!!! My phone was fixed!!!

I was now able to:

Sync iPhone AppStore purchases back to iTunes
Download updates from the iPhone AppStore successfully
have GPS come up MUCH quicker than before (satellite acquisition was much faster)
have no 3G issues (so far)
have no lag for Contacts screen loading from MobileMe
have no lag for onscreen keyboard anymore

I thought I would have to wait for another Firmware or iTunes update, but now everything is pretty much perfect. The process was tedious but well worth it!

UPDATED: The iPhone 2.0 Firmware and Appstore!

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-07-15T13:35:22-04:00

UPDATED with new Apps and notes:

So I’ve updated my first gen iPhone using the “not-quite-officially-released” iPhone Firmware 2.0 and have downloaded my first batch of apps. Here’s my list so far:

Apple Remote - iTunes and AppleTV Remote
AIM - AOL Instant Messenger
NetNewsWire - My preferred syncing RSS Reading system
Tipulator - Easy to use Tip Calculator (with Rounding and Splitting functions)
Urbanspoon - Random Restaurant finder based on location (Magic 8 Ball style shaking)
Twitterific - My preferred Twitter app
midomi - Music Recognition App (whistle, hum, sing, or type music and it will tell you name, artist, iTunes link, YouTube link, and other info)
Bloomberg - Basically a mini free Bloomberg Terminal on the iPhone (We at CNBC haven’t made an iPhone app, YET)
Mobile News - Associated Press News App
WeatherBug - Weather Alerts, Radar, Camera’s based on 3 set locations.
SmugShot - Take Location Tagged photos and upload to SmugMug
Facebook - Facebook on the go (don’t really know what this has over Mobile Facebook)
eReader - Buy and read eReader and FictionWise books

Games:

SuperMonkeyBall - Game - just what the title says ;)
Enigmo - Game - Nice little liquid based puzzler
Aurora Feint - Role Playing meets Puzzle Gaming (FREE!!!)
MotionX Poker - Accelerator enhanced 3D Dice & Poker game
Tap Tap Revenge - Think Guitar Hero with a little Dance Dance Rev thrown in.
AquaForest - Physics based accelerator casual game/toy.
PhoneSaber - Lightsaber sounds and accelerator motion detection... nuff said.

My first thoughts on these and the iPhone 2.0 firmware:

I needed to do a little tweaking/setup to get the MobileMe syncing over-the-air on my iPhone. Not hard, but not automatic either.
I did the update from my Macbook Air since I wasn’t home. Usually I sync my phone with my MacPro. Even though I did a pre-update sync, it didn’t ask me to backup my data so I (temporarily) lost all my photos, wallpapers, ringtones, music, and videos. When I get home and resync it with my desktop, all should be well, but for now I have a pretty “bare” iPhone. Update - Syncing with the MacPro went without a hitch...everything’s back!
New Contact Icon from home screen. I don’t have to dig into the Phone App to get to my contacts anymore.
Twitterific supports photos, location tagging, and some other nice features, but as far as I can tell you can’t set it to view only people you follow (unlike the Mac version). Update - after reloading my apps from iTunes on my MacPro I can view just who I follow now. Weird it didn’t work like that before (I was getting both followed and Public timelines all at once before).
Can’t tell if Bloomberg has Real-Time-Quotes. Will have to wait until market opens tomorrow to test that out.
NetNewsWire looks “ok” but seems slower to update than the iPhone Web version. The web version seems to also have a few features that the App doesn’t. Hope they update this soon.
I “thought/heard” that the Associated Press MobileNews App would allow citizen reporters to send in photos and reports from “on-the-scene.” I can’t find that feature anywhere in the actual app, it’s just an offline reader/aggregator. So either I imagined it (most likely case) or this is a “future feature.” Update- There IS a way to have “citizen reporting” in MobileNews. When you read a story, you can comment and send in Photos from the field associated with the story. With the photo you give your info so that they can attribute the photo to you if they use it for future updates to their stories. This is a KILLER FEATURE!!!
Aurora Feint is the BEST free game so far on the Appstore.
MotionX Poker has great reviews, haven’t really played much yet but it seems really polished.

Lots of functionality and cool stuff out there already... I wonder what the App store will look like in a month, or 6 months???

Pluto demoted again, no comment from Mickey

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-06-12T14:14:14-04:00

The former planet Pluto which was demoted to “Dwarf Planet” status just two years ago has received a new moniker. Pluto and similar round cosmic objects that aren’t up to snuff in the Planetary scale are now deemed “Plutoids”. Mickey Mouse was not available for comment, but the poor pup has always been the “forgotten” Disney mainstay. I mean if Goofy was given the ability to talk and walk upright, why not Pluto? Now he’s classified with a name that rhymes with Hemoroids.

Info from: Space.com

iPhone3G - What doesn't it have?

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-06-09T15:56:08-04:00

Now that the announcement is over and you can read all about what the new iPhone3G has at tons of sites (like Gizmodo, Engadget, MacRumors or ArsTechnica), the specs of what it DOESN’T have is what sticks in my mind.

No second forward facing camera
No native Video Conferencing over iChat or 3G phone-to-phone
No A2DP Stereo Bluetooth Support (at least not yet)
No Copy and Paste (at least not yet)
No MMS (at least not yet)
No iChat (at least not yet)
No tethering to Laptops or other devices (use like a broadband modem)
No upgrade pricing/deals from AT&T (at least not yet) for us iPhone early adopters

We’ll see how this pans out, especially the last bulleted item, when it becomes available on July 11.

UPDATE: Prices for upgrading to the new 3G iPhone? $199 for 8GB and $299 for 16GB with reset 2Yr contract. Yes, that’s the SAME price as it is for new iPhone buyers. I was hoping it would be the same as some European providors who are offering free/cheap upgrades, but I guess AT&T isn’t going that route. *sigh*
Info comes from CrunchGear.

Is this the iPhone 2?

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-06-07T01:47:47-04:00

Is this the new iPhone 2? The photos look like they portray iPhones in Black and (RED) for the fight against AIDS. It also shows Video iChat over WiFi & video-chat phone2phone over 3G (and the pre-requisite forward facing camera), Macbook Air style nods, and stereo speakers in the rear. No word on any Cease and Desist Takedown notices yet, but if notices do go out, it’s just as good as Steve coming out and saying they’re real.

Photos were sent to MacRumors, CrunchGear, and AppleInsider (haven’t seen it posted there yet).

UPDATE: Engadget is already calling these fake.... we’ll see. If I remember correctly people were calling the “phatty” ipod Nano fake too, until it actually came out.
UPDATE 2: FAKE FAKE FAKE... now we know.

More photos after the break.

Twitter twitter where fore art thou?

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-06-07T00:59:57-04:00

What is up with Twitter lately? It’s had more outtages than Con-Ed on a hot NYC summer day and now the Twitter Flash Badge has gone totally wacko. I had to remove it from my site because it stopped updating, threw up weird multi-color triangles, and blanked out the user thumbnails. I just switched my menu link to my actual Twitter page instead. It should make it easier for people to follow me on Twitter anyway, so no real harm done.

One thing’s for sure though... Twitter needs a huge overhaul.

New Ricky and Lucy Frolic Video

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-05-30T06:56:11-04:00

New Ricky and Lucy at Play video uploaded to my YouTube Feed:

Amazing Music Video via OSX Leopard

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-05-13T23:36:49-04:00

Amazing music video created for The Bird and The Bee song Again & Again.

I liked it much better than the original music video (check the preview on iTunes here).

UPDATE: There's an interview with the director/film-maker/AdProducer responsible for this viral video, Dennis Liu. Also for those that were wondering, the Actress in the music video is Larkin Clark.

CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-05-05T17:53:01-04:00

Another year and another Challenge. We've been hard at work on the latest CNBC.com Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. This year the prizes are more diverse. Even the weekly prizes vary now. Last year the contest consisted of a Fantasy Stock Trading Game. This year we've incorporated Fantasy Currencies Trading to the Fantasy Stock Trading and also gave the game application a lot more polish. Hopefully people with have fun with this year's edition.

Check it out at CNBC's Million Dollar Portfolio Challenge. You can register now, but the game doesn't actually start until May 12th.

Oh, and to my wife... no we're not eligible to play... sorry... ;)

I jumped on the Band Wagon

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-05-03T11:53:20-04:00

So I jumped on the Twitter Bandwagon. You can follow me at http://twitter.com/jedimstr or check out the Jedi's Lair Twitter page on the left Nav Menu.

A great Explanation video about Twitter from Common Craft:

Twitter doesn't just let you track your friends, people you know or want to know; through it's Public timeline (the msg threads are called timelines) Twitter will allow you to know what's happening on the web, and essentially around the world. Big event happening in Europe or in Asia, you may just see Tweets about it real-time. From Breaking News to what your friend just had for Breakfast, Twitter taps into the digital conversation.

I'll be using Twitter through my site (Flash Twitter Page), Twitterific on my Macbook Air, and PocketTweets on my iPhone. UPDATE: Switching to Hahlo for the iPhone. It's seems better than PocketTweets and much more "feature rich."

The first group of people I started following on Twitter reads like a "Who's Who" of the Web 2.0 Revolution (or like a TechTV Reunion). From This Week in Tech, Tiki Bar, DiggNation and GeekBrief.TV regulars, to Henry Rollins, MC Hammer, and Snoop Dogg. I'll add real people I know as soon as I find any on Twitter ;)

It Lives!

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-04-25T20:48:38-04:00

So my Macbook Air is back and it's as good as new! In fact, it's with a new LogicBoard (and corresponding new Serial Number) and a reinstalled OSX, they might as well have given a full swap. Not that I'm complaining mind you; Apple service at the Garden State Plaza store was superb as always. My only complaint was that I wasn't contacted when the Air was ready for pickup. I found out through the Apple website Repair Tracking and by the Voicemail system they have. One day turnaround is pretty damn good though. Well, actually 3 days if you include: 1st for the initial appointment, 2nd to drop the Air off once they had the part, and the 3rd for pickup. Some other computer makers take weeks to do warranty repairs, especially ones as dramatic as a full LogicBoard replacement.

Once I got the Air back, I tested it out a bit in the parking deck of the mall to make sure it wasn't kernel panicking anymore. It was definitely solid! After I got home, I immediately started the relatively long process of restoring from the Airdisk's Time Machine Backup. This time I used the latest backup (the one taken during the panics) in hopes that it was actually a good backup. Worst case scenario I could have restored again from the next oldest backup afterwards. But that's something I didn't have to do. The last backup is working perfectly and I've had no panics or crashes since! One thing I did have to restore from a separate stored copy was my VMWare Virtual Machine XP File. I just used the one from my Mac Pro as the source.

Don't Panic and Don't Forget Your Towel

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-04-22T21:57:47-04:00

Everything was going swimmingly with the new Macbook Air until this past weekend when things took a turn for the worst. I started getting Kernel Panics randomly. Empty the trash... Panic. Run Disk Utility's Repair Permissions.... Panic. Startup a WinXP VMWare session... Panic. Reboot... immediate Panic. Definitely something wrong.

At first I thought maybe my SSD drive got corrupted, so I tried a full wipe and Restore from Time Machine... Panic. Booting from Remote Disc OS Install was an exercise in frustration when previously it worked very well and quite often. I finally got one boot and Restore from Time Machine working (picked an earlier Time Machine slice to be sure there wasn't any corrupted files) and it still Kernel Panic'd like crazy. Now the Air didn't want to stay solid for more than a few minutes. Just trying to right click (actually dual-finger click) and it started to Panic.

So I finally broke down and travelled to the Apple Store yesterday after work. Unfortunately it was half an hour before closing and they couldn't take a look, so I made an appointment for this morning. I arrived early before the Mall was even fully open, knocked on the glass Apple Store doors, and talked to the Genius at the G-Bar. After a little diagnosis, he concurred it was a hardware issue and from the Panic logs, it seemed to point to bad memory. Unfortunately the memory for Macbook Airs is soldered to the Mother/Logic Board so after checking with his supervisor, authorized a Warranty Repair. The new Logic Board is on order but don't know yet if it is going to be back-ordered or if there will be any available tomorrow. I get to keep my non-functioning Air until the part comes in; small consolation. At least it is a free Warranty Repair, but it would have been better if it was a straight swap.

Another Consolation, I have a new bag for my currently non-functioning Macbook Air: The Waterfield HardCase. It's a magnificent bag, exhibiting both sleeve-like and messenger bag-like features in its sleek lines. I'll have a full review at some point after the whole Kernel Panic situation is fixed.

The Air Arrives, plus a Recovered Pro

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-03-28T18:35:00-04:00

Well I finally got a Macbook Air. It arrived yesterday and I've pretty much set it all up. I also have my Mac Pro back online. It was down for a few days due to a dead ATI X1900 XT card. I was able to replace it with the ATI 2600 XT that comes standard with the newer Mac Pros. Slower in games than my older card, but at least there aren't rainbow lines showing up all over the screen as it slowly dies. More details for both soon... for now sleep ZZZZZZZZZ

UPDATED - More info after the break...

What's most important?

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-03-18T00:00:32-04:00

Work's been really busy lately so haven't been able to do much outside of CNBC. I have a large stack of Photos that I still have to edit in Aperture 2 and upload to my Photo site. I've also been busy crunching numbers for the Photo Biz in preparation for this year's taxes.

I haven't gotten the Macbook Air (yet) even though it would make an ideal (ok, almost ideal except for HD space) traveling notebook for me. These days I rely on my iPhone for my email and web access on the run so it's not so bad running around without a laptop. There are times though that I could develop in XCode, design some web stuff, or even work on some Photoshop/Aperture stuff on the road. The iPhone just doesn't cut it in those cases. When I do get the Macbook Air, it will be the 1.8Ghz/64GB SSD model. I've even bookmarked a few sites that tell you how to save even more space on the Air by re-installing the OS minus some unnecessary stuff (like iDVD, iMovie, Garageband, some Language Support, etc.). I figure I could mostly get by with Aperture/iPhoto, iWork, XCode with iPhone SDK, Webkit Nightlies, Photoshop, Dreamweaver, Flash, Flex, RapidWeaver and few utilities.

The reason I haven't picked one up yet is that we're saving up for a House and I need to really clear up my credit/debt ratio. My wife's credit rating is much higher than mine, but I'm starting to catch up. Just a few more months of following my own Personal Finance Tips and we should be well on our way to our next House-Search chapter: looking for a Mortgage. We really want to get Pre-Approval (not just Pre-Qualified) for a good amount so that we can look REAL attractive to Sellers/Realtors. Of course now that the Realty Market is tanking and with the local cap for Jumbo Loans being higher due to the newly passed Stimulus Law, we should be able to find a nice house within our budget.

Still, when our finances are set for our Home Purchasing needs.... I'll be getting that Macbook Air!

I've posted some YouTube Videos of Ricky and Lucy. Check them out after the break.

Steve, why do you tempt me so....

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2008-01-16T08:14:38-05:00

Why do you do this to me Steve.... my wallet hurts already from two iPhones and more Macs in my home than on my floor at Work.
More after the break...

Halo

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-10-16T08:00:05-04:00

Haven't had much time for my blog lately.. it's been all Halo, Oblivion, or work lately. I have huge backlog of photos I have to edit as well.

Day of Reckoning

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-08-30T08:00:14-04:00

Today I'm expecting delivery of a few small trinkets that I'll have to setup tonight...

I already transferred my Xbox Live Account into an Xbox Gold membership with 5000 points, made room in my home theater setup by moving the Wii, and changed out my power strips to allow for the extra outlets needed. I already had an XCM multi-game unit component switch so the connections are already setup. I even programmed my Harmony 880 remote control to have a setting for the Xbox 360 (mind you, I still don't have any of the above in my hands).

As usual, I ordered everything through Amazon.com.

UPDATE 9/1/07 7:25AM: Everything worked with the Xbox 360 setup the other day except for the HD DVDs. The drive was definitely a bad apple since it kept on "Reading" the discs, even the King Kong HD DVD it came with. A few times, I left the discs in there for up to an hour with it still "Reading." Long load times for HD DVDs I've heard of, but this was ridiculous. Yesterday I picked up another HD DVD drive at Best Buy (along with another wireless headset for the wife and another game, Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion). Of course that one worked right away! It prompted for a software update, like it should, and all was well. Even the 300 HD DVD combo disc worked, which my research on the web indicated might be a problem disc.

Meet Lucy

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-08-28T01:16:21-04:00

I haven't been updating my blog as much as I'd like to, but the real world has been quite busy these last few months.

We have a new addition to the family, Lucy! She's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi and is one of the most acrobatic and frisky puppies we've ever seen. She currently lives with my wife's parents but will be coming to live with us whenever we end up getting a house. For now she gets frequent visits from us and Ricky as often as we can make time. We've noticed a dramatic change in Ricky's behavior since we got Lucy. Ricky's seems much more mature, more subdued, and generally better behaved now that Lucy is the terror of the household. He gets annoyed by her antics often, but most of the time we see them walking everywhere together. He kinda has no choice since she always follows him wherever he goes.

Oh well, hopefully she'll calm down eventually as they grow up together.
You can see more photos of Lucy at my Photo Site.

We're Back!

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-07-08T22:11:32-04:00

Well, we're back from our vacation on Aruba. It was very relaxing and I would definitely like to go back.

While there I was able to test out the international roaming and wifi features of our new iPhones. After a few international calls to AT&T on the first day in Aruba, I was able to clear up some Roaming Activation issues. Call quality was still good over international calls and they were about a dollar cheaper per minute vs. the hotel phone. Wifi was pretty ubiquitous in Aruba with various pay and free hotspots available. The only Wifi snag was thick walls in our hotel room that didn't allow the hotel's open area wifi signal in. The rooms did have built-in ethernet ports, but that hardly did me any good with the iPhone. The only other problem we had was the odd necessity of resetting both our Voicemail systems when we got back to the USA (probably had something to do to the changeover to unlimited SMS Text msging plans while we were in Aruba). SMS Texting worked flawlessly even on the beach under a palapa (thatched umbrellas with small wood tables). I was even able to txt family members while under the caribbean moon lounging on the sand with my wife. She was checking mail on her iPhone at the time. Yes, we're nerds.

I have over 1,800+ images I have to weed through and edit from our trip. I'll hopefully be able to upload them to my photo site by the end of the week.

We've got iPhone... actually, we've got 2!

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-06-30T09:02:16-04:00

After a day of shopping for our Aruba trip and seeing the iPhone lines at the Apple Store in the mall (oddly enough we didn't see a line at all at the AT&T store in the mall even though there were two security guards waiting there for one), we headed over to the local AT&T store for a few hours of line-sitting. I took a few shots to commemorate the frenzy. Contacts at other lines text-messaged me throughout and told me that it sold out at the locations they were at. Some jumped to multiple locations to find available iPhones. It amazed me that so many locations had short supplies (some under 40 units) while ours seemed fully stocked and ready to meet demand. In fact our location's manager announced that the only limitation was the closing time of 10pm, but that there would be plenty more available of both SKU's (8GB and 4GB) tomorrow morning. Luckily we were in first 40 in line and had about 80 behind us. Unlike some AT&T stores that let in 5 at a time, our store took groups of 20. So now Gene and I are proud owners of two 8GB iPhones. Adding to our luck was the fact that it didn't rain during our time in line.

There are scattered reports of problems activating via iTunes, but both Gene and I were able to transfer our old numbers into a Family Plan fairly quickly. We even activated via 2 macs so that our individual iTunes libraries would sync correctly. All-in-All it was a good experience moving to AT&T's service and activating the iPhone for us. The two things missing that I wish it had: GPS linked to the Google Maps app and iChat/AIM functionality. The first could possibly be added as an accessory later, but could prove bulky. The second could easily be added via a Software Update. Many bemoan the fact that this is a 2.5G phone on the EDGE network rather than the much speedier HSPDA 3G network. I've been surfing on my HTC based WinMobile smartphone over EDGE for a long time and can attest to its slowness at times, but the iPhone is definitely smoother and more tolerable on EDGE than any other EDGE phone I've tried. The seemless WiFi switchover also makes this less of an issue for me as long as there is a nearby hotspot (and there are many around the metro-NY/NJ area).

We still have to set them up to connect to both our car's built-in Bluetooth Handsfree and respective audio connections, but hopefully those will go smoothly as well.

Professional Photographer

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-06-13T06:13:30-04:00

So in the move from Semi-Pro to Pro Photographer, I've joined the Professional Photographers of America (PPA). They are one of the oldest and largest international (yes, I know it says America in the name, but it is an International Organization) photography industry groups, having been established in 1880. Primary reason to join: membership includes Malpractice Trust (similar to Malpractice Insurance without rising premiums but the addition of advice/legal representation.) and discounted "All Risk" Equipment Insurance and Business Liability Insurance. They are also one of the primary resources used by professional photographers whether they specialize in Fine Art, Commercial, Stock, Portrait, or Wedding, etc.

CNBC.com / CNBC Team Photos - Launch Forward

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-05-13T07:33:38-04:00

In the continuing theme of releasing long delayed photo galleries, I've finally put up my CNBC.com Team photos. This will be an ongoing and growing gallery filled with photos from just before the new CNBC.com launch at the end of 2006 until the present day. Check out the Photos here.

CNBC Digital Bowling Trip 2007

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-05-06T17:58:38-04:00

I've finally been able to edit my photos from the CNBC Digital Bowling Trip 2007. We went to the Palisades mall a few months ago for a little R&R and Team Building.
Check out the photo gallery here.

Again, busy busy busy - Updated Photo Galleries

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-04-30T02:03:16-04:00

Summary only available when permalinks are enabled.I've finally found some time to finish editing my photographs from last year's trip to South East Asia. You can get to the new Photo Galleries by clicking here. The photos were all edited in Apple Aperture and uploaded to my SmugMug site.

Quick Update

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2007-01-04T21:23:00-05:00

Still haven't had a lot of time for this site, though I should be getting more free time soon now that my recent hectic projects are done.

I'm still going to review my MacPro when I have a chance, so keep a lookout for that.

I've also posted some updates to my Photo-site so be sure to check that out. I'll be updating it further, including the much-delayed Asia trip photos over the next week.

If you have been curious about what has been keeping me so busy lately, check out the newly resurrected CNBC.com and the brand-new CNBCPlus.

CNBC.com is pretty self explanatory... it's the home of NBC Universal's financial channel on the web. For the last few years it was relegated to a small obscure area of MSN Money's website. Some of you may (or may not) know that I was involved in the original CNBC.com launch back in the 90's before the MSN deal. This winter, we've brought CNBC.com back from the dead.

CNBCPlus is a premium subscriber service that allows you to peruse CNBC's vast video library of CEO interviews, market updates, and other snippets. The biggest feature for CNBCPlus however are the live-feeds of CNBC, CNBC Europe, and CNBC Asia for direct-to-the-desktop TV (if you're into Financial or Economic news that is).

In other news, my brother got my wife and me a Nintendo Wii for Christmas! I've been playing it nonstop, usually a mix between Legend of Zelda and Wii Sports. My wife's been playing lots of Rayman Raving Rabbids. The Wii is the only game console I've seen that has been embraced by everyone in my extended family and retinue of friends. Even my Dad and Mom play Wii Sports (Bowling specifically). I'll probably put up some mini-reviews of Wii and it's games when I get a chance.

Busy... Work

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-10-28T10:10:29-04:00

Sorry, I've been lax about the site lately. Work has been monopolizing most of my time lately. I should be able to return to regular blogging over the next few weeks.
Some of the things I'll have to update the the site with:

I did end up getting a Mac Pro and had a few (mis)adventures with it. Expect a full review with the gory and glorious details soon. Here are a few specs to tide you over: Mac Pro 3Ghz Quad, 4GB FBDIMM memory, ATI 1900XT graphics card, 30" Cinema Display, 3x 500GB HD in a 1.4Terabyte Stripped RAID-0 set, external Mercury Elite RAID Aluminum 1Terabyte HD for Maintenance Boot and Backups, and lots of other goodies. My Powerbook is now in my Wife's hands. And Ricky retains the Mini (used for the RickyCam).

I've been editing my long overdue photos from my South East Asia trip in the newly updated Aperture 1.5. I'm about 80% done. I'll have an update for my SmugMug galleries and some technical notes on my latest Aperture experiences soon as well.

I upgraded my primary camera body to the Canon Digital Rebel XTi (400D). I'll probably have a technical review of this camera body and it's differences with my old Rebel XT (350D) and how it works with my L lenses sometime in late December. One caveat, Aperture/OSX still doesn't support the 400D/XTi version of RAW. It's the same CR2 file wrapper as the 350D but new contents. I'm hoping for an OS update to support this and the rest of the newly released cameras (Nikon D80, Sigma SD14, Sony Alpha 100) RAW formats sometime before the end of the year (crossing fingers). Two of the best reasons to get the XTi/400D instead of "upgrading" to the 30D or 5D include: The new Anti-Dust features (image sensor filter shakes dust off on startup and shutdown...and manually if you want) and all my current accessories including the Battery Grip and the batteries themselves from the old XT/350D will work with the new camera. The 10.1 MPixel upgrade is only slightly noticable from the old 8MP but is still more than the 30D.

In Memorandum: Steve Irwin the Crocodile Hunter

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-09-04T09:22:32-04:00

Steve Irwin was killed in his native Australia off the coast in the Great Barrier Reef. He was killed by a stingray's barb which jabbed straight into his heart and was pronounced dead on his research vessel "Croc 1." Only one other person in Australia's history is known to have died from a stingray attack way back in 1945. Steve was only 44.

Irwin was filming a documentary and diving in Australia's famous Great Barrier Reef when he swam over the stingray. Usually stingrays are very docile but this one considered Irwin a threat and defended itself out of fear.

Known for both his wacky stunts and exuberant TV personality as The Crocodile Hunter, he brought the world's attention to animal conservation issues especially in his native Australia. Ricky our Chihuahua often watched him on Animal Planet TV.

Steve leaves behind his American wife Terri (who co-hosted most of his shows and has been called the "Crocodile Huntress") and two young children.

Introducing the Mac Pro... boy is my wallet itchy

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-08-07T16:17:48-04:00

My... wallet... itchy....

My... credit.... card... hurts....

Financial Solvency or Mac Pro.... oh well, there goes that idea...sigh.

All models built to order with 3 levels of QUAD processing (dual dual-core cpus) up to 3Ghz

All based on Intel WoodCrest based Xeon 5100 series 64bit CPUs

Fully Buffered memory up to 16GB

4 Harddrives with tool-less install (each 3Gbps SATA)

Dual optical drive capable (SuperDrives available only right now, but I bet Blue-Ray would be a nice thing to add yourself)

Multiple GPU options including capability to fit 4 video cards including one double-width card without losing slots

Priced less than comparably configured Dell systems (are there any dual dual-core Xeon's in Dell's repertoires?)

My Aperture sucking, Final Cut hanging PowerBook dreams it had this amount of power. Unfortunately they did not announce updated MacBook Pros as well with new Merom chips at today's World Wide Developer's Conference Keynote. That would have made a purchasing decision easier since I value my mobile computing capability....double sigh. Still, if I can configure correctly and use the proper discounts (Edu or Corp)....hmmmm....we'll see.

Long delayed movie news...

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-08-01T23:21:07-04:00

Ok, so I've been a little lax lately in my updates. Sorry about that, but real life does tend to intrude on my virtual pursuits.

Here are a few of the things I've missed:

Peter Cullen is reprising his role as Optimus Prime in the new live action Transformers Movie. As you can imagine, there was much rejoicing in geeky 80's nostalgia land. If the Michael Bay involvement, weak teaser trailer, or the leaked horrid transformers photos haven't scared you away yet, at least this bit of news gives you something to look forward to in this movie. I for one can't wait for the original Optimus voice to say, "Transform and Roll Out!" next summer.

Yes, Heath Ledger has accepted the role of The Joker in the Batman Begins sequel The Dark Knight. Oscar award winner for Brokeback Mountain, Ledger has also starred in films like A Knight's Tale and The Brothers Grimm. Is this a good thing or bad thing... we'll find out when The Dark Knight hits theaters. Production starts early 2007. UPDATE: so he didn't get an Oscar for Brokeback Mountain. He was an Oscar nominee though. As you can tell, I didn't quite catch the Academy Awards this year.... if I wanted a sleep aid I woulda taken an Ambien.

Michael Knight, A Lone Crusader in a dangerous world...

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-07-11T08:10:22-04:00

It looks like David Hasselhoff was kicked out of Wimbledon for being a belligerent stinking drunk:

First, the 53-year-old actor had a blazing row outside Centre Court. Guards would not let him in because he did not have a valid ticket. Then he was banned from press and players’ bars as he tried to get another drink. Hasselhoff, who has fought a long battle with booze, yelled at staff: “You should let me in. Do you know who I am? I’m The Hoff.” Hasselhoff then downed beer after beer and was later seen staggering... Security chiefs ordered Hoff out. One guard said: “He was steaming drunk.”

Yes... "The Hoff".. he must be hooked on a feeling or something... hooga hooga chakka....

More laughs and info at TheSuperficial.

UPDATE: The Hoff keeps getting into more drunken hijinks. I've been saying it for years, The Hoff is the Anti-Christ.

Saving Lives, one computer at a time...

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-07-10T19:04:34-04:00

With the recent shakeups at SETI@home, and apparent reduction of probability for useful science coming out of that project, I've reallocated some of my BOINC resources towards another project. BOINC or Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing allows you to use your spare computer cycles for different scientific projects using the same core application platform; making it easier to contribute to multiple projects and allowing you to move resource allocation from one to another.

80% of my Distributed Computing resources are now allocated towards Rosetta@home. This project from the University of Washington uses your computer power through the BOINC system to help determine 3-dimensional shapes of proteins. Determining such shapes through protein folding with the "lowest energy state" is the scientific "Holy Grail" of Biomedical science. The University of Washington's focus is to design new proteins that will help fight HIV, Malaria, Anthrax, Cancer, and Alzheimer's (more info here). This research can be applicable to a multitude of other diseases once the protein simulations are effective and proven in clinical trials. The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation contributes to this project as part of their anti-Malaria contribution. Unlike SETI@home though, Rosetta's code is not opensource and has not been released to the wild. As such, there are no optimized workers like Crunch3r's Seti workers for SSE-SSE3. In addition, the way it calculates points is also different. According to Dr David Baker regarding the difference between this project and the older Folding@home project at Stanford: "The Rosetta@home project goals are very different from those of Folding@home. The goal of Folding@home, I believe, is to determine how long proteins take to fold, given the sequence of the protein and knowledge of its three dimensional structure. The goal of Rosetta@home is to predict the three dimensional structure from the amino acid sequence."

20% will still be allocated towards SETI@home (I still want to find E.T., or at least some long lost Alien Civilization's last message). Either project can act as each other's backup for CPU cycles if the other project's servers are down. All the points I earn will still be part of Team MacNN under BOINC, Seti, & Rosetta stats.

South Park anti-Scientology Episode up for Emmy!

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-07-06T15:50:38-04:00

The South Park episode titled "Trapped in the Closet" which depicts Tom Cruise as being gay and generally lampooning the "religion" of Scientology throughout the show, is up for an Emmy this year! This episode is also the reason that Isaac Hayes (Chef), also a devout Scientologist, quit the show. "Trapped in the Closet" was one of my FAVORITE episodes of South Park, with the Mormon episode running a close second. Tom Cruise is said to have blocked a repeat of this episode by having his "people" call Comedy Central. More info here.

Praise Xenu!

(Too Much) Northern Exposure

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-07-06T12:37:08-04:00

Some choice quotes from Senator Ted Stevens, R- Alaska as he tried (and succeeded in) shooting down Net Neutrality (a proposed bill addition that would prevent Telecom providers from throttling or blocking content on the 'net, i.e, blocking p2p software, or preventing google video from working if they had a deal with youtube or their own video service unless they get payed [again]).

He's also the leading proponent for the Broadcast Flag which will require all recording and playback equipment to be retrofitted with a chip that will prevent any content marked as "Protected" by the major Studios and Content Providers from being recorded (Macrovision on Steroids) and essentially leaving DVRs, Tivos, the VCR, and most other time shifting devices "dead in the water".

Regarding the Internet:
"They want to deliver vast amounts of information over the internet. And again, the internet is not something you just dump something on. It's not a truck.
It's a series of tubes"

Complaining about slow email:
"I just the other day got, an internet was sent by my staff at 10 o'clock in the morning on Friday and I just got it yesterday. Why?

Because it got tangled up with all these things going on the internet commercially."

Talking about video over the 'net:
"There's one company now you can sign up and you can get a movie delivered to your house daily by delivery service. Okay. And currently it comes to your house, it gets put in the mail box when you get home and you change your order but you pay for that, right.

But this service is now going to go through the internet* and what you do is you just go to a place on the internet and you order your movie and guess what you can order ten of them delivered to you and the delivery charge is free.

Ten of them streaming across that internet and what happens to your own personal internet?

I don't have to have the type of speed their introducing, but the people who are streaming through 10-12 movies at a time or a WHOLE BOOK AT A TIME, for consumers use, those are not you and me, they're not the consumers, those are providers."

The full impact of this nonsense can't be fully appreciated until you hear the audio, available as an MP3 at the end of the linked article on Wired.

I'm so glad I don't live in Alaska... then again I wouldn't be surprised if the majority of our Senators (Republican and Democrat alike) are as clueless as Stevens. He sounds like he just got over those "new fangled" horseless buggies and a little something called "lectricity" or some such mumbo-jumbo.

The New "Who" Companion

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-07-05T13:52:15-04:00

The new Doctor Who companion was revealed today on the BBC. As Billie Piper (Rose Tyler) leaves the cast during the 28th Season Finale (2nd Series per BBC new nomenclature), the Doctor will have a new companion Freema Agyeman (Martha Jones) for the 29th Season (3rd Series). She won't be introduced during this season's Christmas episode, but will instead jump into the companion-seat at the start of the next season (filming begins in Cardiff this summer). Freema also played a bit part in the 28th Season (2nd Series) as Adeola who was struck down by the Cybermen. It's unknown if the two characters played by Freema are at all related.

Billie Piper's character Rose, who has built up quite a following in the "Who" community is rumored to die in the current season Finale. The 28th Season (2nd Series) is currently airing in the UK and will most likely air in the US on the SciFi channel later this year.

Superman Returns in 3D

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-07-02T09:01:49-04:00

We saw Superman Returns in its six story tall 3D version yesterday at the IMAX theater in Palisades Center Mall, West Nyack, NY. It was definitely worth it to see the movie in full IMAX 3D glory. The lines actually started up an hour before the mall even fully opened and long before IMAX personnel showed up. I bet that was one of only a handful of times that IMAX in Palisades had such a deluge of customers. Of course only 20 minutes of the movie was actually in 3D so we had numerous instances of putting on and removing the glasses whenever the appropriate icon appeared on screen. Whether this is a limitation of the current technology, lack of time to convert the entire movie to 3D format, or just a way to give the viewers eyes/brains a rest (the 3D action got dizzying at times) is anyone's guess. I do suggest that if you have a 3D capable IMAX theater near you that is showing Superman Returns and you planned to see the movie anyway, you should definitely make it a point to go catch it in this format.

As for the movie itself, I thoroughly enjoyed it. I was a big fan of the first 2 Donner films and was among those that bemoaned what became of the series with Superman III and IV. I don't know what it is about superhero films and their propensity to "jump the shark" after the first sequel. Batman, Superman, Blade, and X-men have all fallen trap to this curse. Spider-Man's 3rd incarnation is coming soon and from what the trailer shows, it may or may not join the others. But recently superhero movie series have been saved by talented "reboots." Batman Begins and Superman Returns both successfully resurrect the carcasses left by previous campy scripts. Unlike Batman Begins which is a true "reboot" in every sense of the word, Superman Returns actually is a sequel to Superman I and Superman II retaining the good movies in the series while relegating Superman III with Richard Pryor and Superman IV: The Search for Peace (gag) to the dustbin (where many would agree, they really belong). The latest movie in the series includes dozens of references to the first two films, some rehashes of the old in-movie jokes, and many hints at events that occurred previously. It does all this without losing itself in an endless repetitive loop by adding fresh plot-lines and exciting action sequences that add to the story rather than exist for action sake. The visuals during these action sequences are so well done with the mix of CGI and Real now that you can't tell which is which anymore. Many bemoan the fact that Bryan Singer left the X-men series to do this film, and X-men 3: The Last Stand was the unfortunate result of that; but, I for one am glad he decided to do Superman Returns. He definitely went above and beyond to make this one of the best Superhero movies of all time while retaining the essence of Donner's Superman I and II.

Brandon Routh is a capable, though a bit more broodish, successor to the big red and yellow S. He not only apes Christopher Reeve's incarnation of Superman to a T, but adds a bit more gravitas to the role with a deeper sense of loss and emotive vulnerability than Reeve. Though he doesn't look like Reeve IMHO, his every intonation and movement, every nuance and vocal utterance is uncannily like Christopher Reeve in both the Superman and Clark Kent guise, almost as if donning the cape made Routh posessed by the spirit of Reeve. The rest of the cast excels as well. Kate Bosworth is a passable Lois Lane, though I always thought anyone would be better in the role than friggin Margot "Wacko" Kidder. James Marsden continues his modus operandi for playing a second fiddle love interest he established in X-men as Cyclops, here as Lois' new beau Richard White. But the best actor in the movie is definitely Kevin Spacey as Lex Luthor. Not only does he capably fill Gene Hackman's shoes as Luthor, he convincingly ups the ante by showing Luthor's more callous and ruthless traits.

If you haven't seen this movie yet, go see it. Better yet, see it at an IMAX 3D theater. Even if you hate the other Superman films or other superhero films, it's probably going to still be a fun ride.

From the lovely city of Newark, NJ

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-06-26T12:03:30-04:00

So my wife went to pick up her car today at the Newark Tow Yard. As I thought, it was stripped and damaged to the point of being undriveable. The steering wheel was damaged and airbag missing (they are apparently the hottest item on the car for thieves), the side skirts were ripped off, the rims were gone and replaced with spare tires/doughnuts, the front license plate damaged, the ignition ripped out with wiring exposed, shift and emergency brake knobs missing. No telling what damage was done under the hood, since I haven't gone home to check yet. The insurance appraiser should be checking it out today. Oddly enough the cat-back Tanabe exhaust was still there (probably too old and dented for the thieves to do anything with it). BTW- Again, I'm not using a real photo of the car here, just one I found to illustrate the point since I haven't seen the real car yet.

Did I mention I hate car thieves?

Jewel in the Rough

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-06-23T17:28:21-04:00

Well it looks like they found my wife's car (they being the Newark City Police Dept). The car is currently in an impound lot in Newark and unfortunately their business hours have forced us to wait until Monday before we can find out how much is left of the car. It could be whole or stripped clean for parts, we just don't know (the photo to the right is from the 'net and not my wife's car... it does look just like that though... or it "did"). I'd also like to know the circumstances surrounding the discovery. Was it in a ditch, just parked abandoned on the side of the road, or in a chop shop they just busted? Hopefully it will all be clear on Monday.

Grand Theft Civic

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-06-22T10:19:09-04:00

My wife's car was stolen yesterday. In her words, "Now I really do live in Jersey." It was a 1997 Red Honda Civic DX coupe 2dr with a nice set of rims, AEM intake and a Tanabe cat-back exhaust. No tint, no stickers (other than old Rutgers parking stickers), and no lowered suspension so it wasn't too ricey. She fondly called it "Mr. Lazer" (my Prius is "Mr. Car"). Just in case anyone in the NY/NJ/PA/Con area sees it, the NJ license plate # was JKC38J. Not holding out much hope though since it was stolen just a stone's throw from Newark, NJ... land of Chop Shops. Newark is just under Jersey City as one of the Car Theft Capitals of the world and the Honda Civic is one of the most stolen cars in the world. It was a good solid car too...very few problems, and my wife fully paid for it long ago.

She says that we shouldn't get another car for her because we can't afford it right now and we're trying to get out of debt/save for a house... we'll see. There are always good deals out there. In the meantime, we already filed a police report (called the Bloomfield "Boys in Blue" to the scene of the crime yesterday), filed a claim with our car insurance company, and cancelled the EZ-pass tag for that car. For now I'll be shuttling my wife to and from the train station for work.

Thieves are the dregs of humanity. Car Thieves don't even deserve to be called human. Sigh.

Rehash

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-06-17T05:15:29-04:00

I've copied some of my old Personal Finance Tips and Tech Reviews from my old site to the new one. I'll be able to continue writing more reviews and tips now! You'll find them on the side navigation bar or at the links above.

Goodbye Rose

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-06-16T00:33:05-04:00

Rose Tyler is set to have her last adventure with the Doctor during the Second Season finale of the new Doctor Who series. Billie Piper (Rose Tyler in the show) will end her current tenure as the latest companion to the Doctor when the Second Season (28th Season if you include the original series ends --currently airing in the UK on the BBC, and will air probably later this year or early next on SciFi in the US). Doctor Who will tape Season Three (29th Season) starting this summer with plans for a Christmas Special and then 13 more episodes to tape next year for Season Four (30th Season). No telling who the next companion(s) for the Doctor will be, but he was rarely without at least one going back to the original long running series and specials (which this latest series is a direct continuation of).

Huzzah

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-06-15T16:50:30-04:00

Bill Gates is transitioning out of his Daily role at Microsoft and will devote more time to his philanthropy. In an after market press announcement, Bill Gates stated that he will be leaving Microsoft on 7/08 (2 years). Even though he's leaving, he's staying in "name" since he's retaining his Chairman position. Good on him for spending all that money to help the global problems in health and education. Unfortunately, Monkey Boy (Steve Ballmer) is still at the actual helm at Microsoft.

Home Safe

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-06-11T07:16:11-04:00

We safely made it back home to the US late Friday Evening. I have tons of photos to go through and edit in Aperture/Photoshop. You'll be able to see them hopefully later this week on my Photo site (link on the left).

During our trip, I was able to stop by the CNBC offices, made a few new contacts, and spent time with some old colleagues. We did quite a bit of window shopping in Singapore, but found little that could beat the prices online back home (surprised the hell outta me, I thought Electronics would be cheaper there). Even the "negotiated" prices for most electronics and Photo gear were more expensive than the usual US online prices.

Most of our time was spent in the Philippines, and I'll definitely relate more about my experiences there over the next few days.

Of course we immediately picked up Ricky Saturday morning and re-activated the RickyCam later that afternoon. Needless to say he was ecstatic to see us. His kennel/Puppy Hotel even gave us a report card of his behavior during his 2 1/2 week stay. He became quick friends with the staff there (after some initial trepidation/sadness from our departure) and only caused them trouble when they tried to trim his nails. This wasn't a surprise because that's his most hated activity back home (far worse than going to the vet for him). Whenever we have to trim his nails, we have to use a muzzle and I have to keep a tight hold on him so he won't scratch my wife or me. They were able to do a few nails, but gave up after struggling with him. We'll finish the job later today. He was able to get 2 playtimes/cuddle times and walks during his stay, as well as a daily snack. His suite even had two rooms with a doggy door between, so that he could "eliminate" on the patio and sleep/play in his more secluded bedroom. He probably had a better time than we did in some of our Hotel Rooms during the trip! The Puppy Hotel actually had various webcams throughout their facility including two in the play areas, but we were never able to catch Ricky when he was in front of the cameras (and we of course constantly checked online while abroad).

Speaking of online, during this trip I was able to stay connected via either a Hotel broadband/wireless connection or by way of my GSM Cell Phone (usually a GPRS connection, though I could occasionally get EDGE) as a bluetooth modem for my PowerBook. Even deep in the rainforests of Eastern Samar along the Pacific Coast, I got a fairly good GSM connection going.

Off to the other side of the world...

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-05-24T10:48:50-04:00

My wife and I are traveling with her parents to the Philippines and Singapore for a few weeks. Ricky had to stay, so he's going to be making new friends at a Puppy Hotel/Resort. Needless to say he wasn't exactly a happy camper yesterday (and neither were we), but we'll all be home again in no time.

I'll definitely be taking lots of photos while I'm there, so look for them on the Photo site. I'll also be checking out the Electronic Gadget's scene in Singapore. I wonder what goodies I can find that I can't find in the US. I'm also going to be stopping by the CNBC offices in Asia to visit some old coworkers and check the studios out.

A drop in the ratings...

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-05-12T03:36:26-04:00

I've been setting my Seti@Home boxen lately to grab the Seti Enhanced workunits (5.12 and now 5.13)... and now that Crunch3r has optimized versions for Linux and Windows, I've been regaining a few (but not all) the credits/day that I used to have in the previous version of Seti. Unfortunately Alex and Rick from the Team MacNN forums haven't compiled an optimized Seti Enhanced worker for the Mac yet and that has resulted in my heaviest hitter (a quad G5 PowerMac) dropping quickly from the Top Computers list on Seti@Home's website. At its height with the last client before the transition, I was #2 out of countless thousands of computers out there and approaching #1. Unfortunately the lack of an optimized version of Seti Enhanced that supports Altivec has seriously crippled it's credit/day performance. Oh well... I'll have to just wait until the optimized versions are ready. Of course regular users of BOINC and Seti@Home won't have to worry about this since the transition from 4.18 (or 4.02 in the case of Linux) to 5.13 will be automatic. It's only when you use an optimized version of the worker files with an associated app_info.xml (this file allows you to force use of a third-party worker or one you compiled yourself) that you have to manually upgrade the Seti Workers.

Along those same lines, UC Berkeley has released the latest Boinc client 5.4.9 with a lot of improvements (some geared towards interaction with 5.12 and 5.13 Seti Enhanced). So I've also started transitioning systems over to the official 5.4.9 from TruXoft's calibrating client 5.2.13tx37. This may result in lowered claimed credits for any remaining old Seti units, but soon that won't be a problem as there will only be a few weeks left before those units will no longer be offered. Boinc upgrades are of course manual for all Seti users (unlike "regular" seti worker updates).

Just like the previous post, if you have no clue what I'm talking about, check it out here.

Updates and Little Green Men

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-05-06T12:45:36-04:00

Sorry, I know it's been awhile since I've updated the site (a month actually). Things have been really hectic at work with some major projects coming to fruition. I'm finally able to merge some of my Multimedia, Flash, Video, Broadcast and Broadband tech skills and knowledge at my job, but it has taken a large portion of my free-time these days. Of course I'd rather have a lot of work to do than no work.

Seti@Home Enhanced
In the meantime I've been following the release of SetiEnhanced lately and reading the message boards. Crunch3r's new Enhanced Optimized clients are out as of yesterday and I've tried them on two of my main crunchers. I've had to actually remove the app_info.xml file because that threw up some problems (no new app file was included in Crunch3r's package this time). Oddly enough, the existing Crunch3r Optimized version of the old boinc seti client still worked ( I'd expect it to download the non-optimized client like it used to, but that didn't happen this time). We'll see how this shakes out in the transition from Boinc Seti I to Boinc Seti Enhanced. BTW- I'm using the Truxoft Boinc Calibrating client 5.3.12.tx37 on most of my crunchers. The Seti Enhanced work units should ignore any of the calibration settings due to the credit algorithm change, so no need to change my current Boinc settings. Right now I'm riding high as #6 on my team (TeamMacNN) and one of my boxes is #2 in the Top Computers list at SETI@Home's site.

And for those of you who don't know what the hell I'm talking about.... explanation here.

Work Related:
For now, I've gotta get some sleep... I just came off an over 27 work hour shift trying to get our latest project ready for Monday's internal beta launch... *YaWN*.... my developer and qa colleagues were very VERY tired when I left, and our primary developer looked ready to collapse, but she kept on coding away, not wanting to see this project fail. I work with some pretty dedicated people... I just hope we're all rewarded for the time/blood/sweat spent.

Major Surgery

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-04-05T23:15:35-04:00

My PowerBook's right fan has been making loud noises, skipping on occasion, and choking on dust bunnies half the time it's on. I run Seti@Home, so the fans run quite often. Since I already had experience opening up my PowerBook thanks to iFixit's helpful guides to replace my hard-drive (details in previous blog entry in March), I decided to do something about the loud fan before my notebook died for good.

I ordered both left and right fans (you can never be too sure) from iFixit. Today they arrived, so after backing up my hard-drive (while we ate dinner), setting up a workspace (Ricky free due to the puppy fence we have setup in the computer/Ricky room), and making sure all my tools were in easy reach, I began my deepest surgery yet into my PowerBook. You can see the gory details from the example iFixit pics above and can read the process from iFixit's guide here. As you can see, I had to actually remove practically everything inside the PowerBook including the logicboard. There are about 17 different ribbon/thin cables to disconnect and tons of screws. Luckily, just like the last PowerBook surgery, I used iFixit's excellent screw organization system with some tape to prevent any mixups. One of the things I had to do when putting it all back together was scrape old heat transfer material from the CPU and heatsink...and also from the ATI graphics array/heatsink. After cleaning with isopropyl Alcohol and letting it dry, I re-applied new thermal paste from a little Heatsink tub I had from my Overclocking PC days. It's actually the best Heatsink material available according to old [H]ardOCP tests, so I figured it's probably much better than what Apple used in the manufacturing process.

Once everything was back together, I booted up and tested everything I could. Everything from the keyboard/trackpad, to all the ports and the Airport/Bluetooth worked perfectly. Not only that, but everything seemed to be running smoother/quicker. Even bootup was much quicker. The CPU Temp was actually running about 5 degrees cooler even with Seti@Home on; and, I could not hear the fans (though I knew they were running). So far it looks like it was a successful transplant and should tide me over until it's next replacement (probably not until next Winter with a 2nd rev MacBook Pro).

And just so it doesn't look like I'm TOTALLY out of sync with what's going on out there in Apple land... yes I know about BootCamp. It is pretty cool (though those who used the previous hack to do pretty much the same thing have to do a full reinstall). I still think that true Virtualization using the kernel optimized Qemu would be a better solution to run necessary windows apps on top of OSX. Then again, it is a good idea for when you want to play the occasional PC only game.

UPDATE:
I guess I spoke to soon... Parallels Workstation was announced today. It's a new piece of software that provides full Virtualization support under OSX. This means you can run at "near native" speeds multiple OS's like Linux and Windows XP on top of OSX on a MacIntel and be significantly faster than Emulators like Qemu and MS Virtual PC (which is still PPC only). Though this would make a great way to test out Windows Browsers while developing on top of OSX... and use Corporate mandated PC software, it is probably not an ideal environment for running the more demanding PC games. When I eventually get a MacIntel (probably not until next winter) I would mostly stay in OSX, run Parallels Workstation for the occasional Windows/Linux test or NBC Remote Access, then use BootCamp to play any Windows only heavy games. Of course, it would be better if those games were available for OSX (like Star Wars Empire at War, but at least there will be a way (or multiple ways) to play them on the same box now.

Taxes = SuX0rz

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-03-31T15:46:21-05:00

/* Rant Begin */

Uncle Sam really has it in for us this year... I feel like my bank account got sucked into a blackhole called I-R-S.

Why couldn't we list puppies as a dependent or a deduction?

/* End of Rant */

Missing the boat...

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-03-22T12:33:50-05:00

I've been missing the boat on a lot of recent stories for this blog... the price I pay for having a day job.

Notable Notables and associated Thoughts:

South Park vs. Scientology: Recent blow-ups between Isaac Hayes aka Chef, Matt and Trey Stone (creators of South Park), Comedy Central, The Church of Scientology and the denizens of Tom Cruiseland, have made lots of news. Follow the link for more info on all of the above. Definitely the best quote in all this hubub comes from the South Park boys themselves: "So, Scientology, you may have won THIS battle, but the million-year war for earth has just begun! Temporarily anozinizing our episode will NOT stop us from keeping Thetans forever trapped in your pitiful man-bodies. Curses and drat! You have obstructed us for now, but your feeble bid to save humanity will fail! Hail Xenu!!!"

XP on MacIntels contest won but other options out there: Also making it's way through the blogosphere... Two guys from Cali have made a custom EFI bootloader and associated process for making a MacIntel dual-boot capable on a single hard drive. Many drivers including Video drivers still need to be worked out, but there are many people working on those and we're only a few days away from fully functional MacIntel XP systems. Photoshop on XP/MacIntel has already been shown to beat any current Core Duo system out there that's made for XP based on scripted benchmarks [Gearlog link]. This is pretty cool stuff, but I would hate to reboot everytime I wanted to use the few Windows apps/games I would need. Personally I'd much prefer the Virtualization/Emulation approach using Q (freeware open source "Virtualization/Emulation" software akin to Virtual PC). The Q on MacIntel people are currently working on a Kernel Xtention (kext) that would access the Core Duo's virtualization capability rather than using a processor emulation scheme similar to Virtual PC or Rosetta (what Q currently uses). The result of that would be Windows XP (or Vista or any x86 virtualized OS) running on top of OSX at near native speeds. Imagine running XP games/apps in a window next to OSX windows without slowdown on your brand new MacBook Pro. Now THAT would be my cross-platform solution of choice. The current implementation of Q unfortunately is still stuck in Emulation land and suffers accordingly.

Ricky on Apple

jedimstr_@mac.com — 2006-03-11T08:51:09-05:00

I submitted my RickyCam widget to Apple yesterday, and it's been accepted!
Here's a link. I wonder how many Chihuhua fans will find it through the Apple Widget archive.

In other Ricky news, he has some new roomates for the next week. My brother's going away on business and asked my wife and I to take care of his hamsters Winnie and Mandy. Ricky has taken a quick liking to them, but perhaps not in a "good way." The way he looks at them when I hold him up to the aquarium is similar to how we look at the Lobster Aquarium at the local Red Lobster, "I'll have that one... or maybe that one." He even licks his chops while pawing the glass. It's to the point that Ricky likes taking "peeks" at them while eating his own food. My wife even calls them "Snack 1" and "Snack 2" when talking to Ricky. No to worry though, the Aquarium (or should I call it a terrarium) is situated out of reach above our file cabinet. Well within view for little Ricky, but out of reach.