Breaking Windows

Off to San Francisco Today

2009-09-10T12:48:20Z

It has been a long time since I have updated this blog. This has to do with the fact that I am writing more on Blogcritics, plus running the Gaming section; blogging on BG Views; developing BG Views; and lastly I pretty much use Twitter as a blog mechanism these days. Today I fly to San Francisco to the EA Blogger Day event, which I went to last year as well. It should be fun, check my Twitter account for updates while I am there. I will have a write up on Blogcritics and talk about it on our radio show as well. I will likely write about it for The BG News, too.

Tiger Woods 10 Wii Course List

2009-06-14T17:18:07Z

Tiger Woods 10 on the Wii has 27 courses. The only thing I could really ask for in this list is Glen Abbey Golf Club and Spyglass Hill. Banff Springs Bay Hill Club Bethpage Black Course Cog Hill CC Doral Golf Resort Eastlake Golf Course Fancourt Golf Course Firestone CC Gary Player CC Harbor Town Golf Links Hazeltine Golf Club The K Club Kiawah Island Golf Oakmont Golf Club Pebble Beach Pinehurst No. 2 Riviera CC Sheshan GC St. Andrews Torrey Pines Golf Course TPC Boston TPC Sawgrass TPC Scottsdale Turnberry Ailsa Wentworth Golf Club Westchester Golf Course Wolf Creek Resort In contrast, the Xbox 360/PS3 versions have 16 courses.

My 1 vs. 100 Beta Experience

2009-05-24T06:35:12Z

I recently wrote about my impressions on Blogcritics. Check it out if you have not. Saturday night the show was at 7 PM EST instead of 9 PM EST, a much better time of day if you ask me. Again there was no lag to speak of, but Chris Cashman and Jade kept getting cut off mid-sentence for the first part of the show. I guess that cannot be helped. Jade is from Xbox Canada, and was on for a fair bit of the entire show. There was one person who won it all, beating all 100 Mob members. That was pretty cool to see. Of course in the beta no Microsoft Points are awarded, but winning $125 worth of MSP for a few minutes of trivia questions does not seem that difficult (until you are in the hot seat, of course). They got the woman on the phone to talk about getting through 15 questions and beating the Mob. The entire "live" experience is really a neat thing, on so many levels. I hope we see a beta soon in the States, and I really hope we hear that 1 vs. 100 goes live for real at E3 this year.

Hellz Yeah!! Little Mac is Back!

2009-05-19T05:40:35Z

I am so glad that "Hellz Yeah!!" is not on the box art. So, I did not get a pink hoodie, like others did. But you know what? I would likely never wear a pink hoodie. Ever.

(Click to Embiggen)

It says here I am not to spoil the game's "special, super secret" character in my review. I guess I have some playing to do to beat it and find out. Ah well, the game looks good and plays like Punch-Out!! so we are safe there. Have to recommend ditch the Nunchuck and use the Classic Control scheme for this one. I think this game is going to mean more for those among us who actually played it on the NES. Lots of fun, and nostalgia. I will be talking about this on our radio show tomorrow and will have a full review up on Blogcritics Gaming.

I have an Emo Xbox

2009-05-17T03:03:05Z

According to my 360 Voice Blog, I have the superbly saddening "Emo Xbox" badge. I object. I demand a "voice" with the people who run that site. Is it my fault that I have had to buy five Xbox 360 consoles in four years? No, no it is not. When my 360 was down I (mostly) remembered to put up the Vacation Notice. I will have to ask Ryan what the hell the Emo Xbox badge means.

Fallout 3 Game Corruption Problem

2009-05-17T02:42:59Z

I have a problem but it is not straightforward by any means. I just got a brand new 360, Arcade, as my last one's DVD drive died. I had an issue that my Gamer Profile got corrupt when trying to use my hard drive on a different 360 until I could afford to purchase a new one of my own. So as of yesterday, I am back on Live, with a brand new 360, and my existing Elite HDD. Seeing as I have been off of Live for over 3 months I had not downloaded any of the Fallout 3 DLC yet. So, just bought and downloaded all 3 packs yesterday. Today I fire up the game and it says "Loading DLC" and so I go to Load my game, and about 80% of my game save files say Corrupt File. The only ones that do NOT say Corrupt File are from my secondary character, I had started an assassin chick, maybe 10 hours into that campaign. My main character has about 100 hours, and has completed the game. I was hoping to open the auto save before the end of the game, so I could start playing the DLC. So I go back to the Dashboard. In Memory it shows ALL my Fallout 3 saves (I have a lot, I like to save out to different Save files often). None have the yellow warning icon on them when a file is corrupted in the Dashboard, they all have the Fallout 3 face icon on them. It does not matter if my Gamer Profile resides on the HDD or my MU that I bought to put my Profiles on recently. Here is where things get complicated, and by that I mean there are too many variables here for me to really know what is going on. I am sorry to have to do this, but I need to give you some background of the situation. Shortly after I published that, I got a phone call from Microsoft. I guess an exec. saw that and had a Senior Support Specialist contact me about the Gamertag corruption problem. Now, none of my game saves or any other data on the drive was showing or is showing (now) the yellow warning icon in the Dashboard. But as soon as I stuck my 120 GB drive on another Xbox 360, I had corrupt Gamer Profiles. I recovered them yesterday to my MU just fine. So I do not know if the Fallout 3 Game Saves were corrupt before I downloaded the 3 DLC packs or not. I don't know if the game saves were corrupted because of my Gamer Profile corruption, or if the DLC has messed up my game saves. Also don't know if the game's Title Update messed things up. All I know is every single one of my game saves from my primary character says Corrupt File inside of Fallow 3's Load screen but seem fine in the Dashboard. Now, I loaded a few more games up. GTA IV save is intact, and Rock Band 2 save is intact. All games I load up again seem to work. So this has something to do with Fallout 3 and only Fallout 3. I have tried to troubleshoot this problem as best I could, I hope that someone at Bethesday may have an answer for me. Because honestly, as much as I want to play the DLC, I might not have downloaded it *right now* had I known this would happen. Because it looks like I am going to have to play the game over again, save for about 10 hrs. from the beginning of the game. Just to make sure this doesn't run in the family, I popped in Oblivion. I own all the DLC packs for that (no, not the horse armor) and I had no problem loading my main character, who is in the middle of Shivering Isles. So that game is fine, too. Also, when I started, well every game I have mentioned above, there was an auto update to them. This is because as part of the troubleshooting for my bad DVD drive, the tech. had me clear the HDD cache. That did not fix the DVD drive problem (of course, I knew it would not), it only means that every game I load is going to have a Title Update. I have emailed Pete Hines at Bethesda to see if they can give me any insight into the situation. I also posted this to the Official Bethesda forums. Fun stuff, isn't it?

All Small and Mighty

2009-05-08T03:52:11Z

Sometimes we get oddball stuff from PR. We recently worked with a firm on a promotion for The Apprentice. One of our other writers wrote the article, I think it was Josh, so I was surprised to get a package in the mail. It had a "You're Fired" baseball cap and a coupon for $6.50 off All Small and Mighty. I will have to take a photo of the ball cap.

My Nintendo DSi Review, Fox "News" DSi Review

2009-04-07T02:27:34Z

Do you smell that, its the smell of bull crap. Here, read the lede:

The new Nintendo DSi handheld gaming console, which arrived in stores April 5 for $170, is a quantum leap forward from the similar-looking DS Lite. It adds another layer of applications and functions to the core DS system to become the first Nintendo handheld that's plenty of fun even without the games.

Fox headlines the review as "A Quantum Leap Forward." I could literally pick this apart line by line, but I won't. However this one does stand out:

The single new feature promised in the DSi — as in "eye," or "individualization" — sounded like a throwaway gimmick.

Really? Only one new feature promised? I guess DSiWare doesn't count. Look, I am not saying my review is the best one you will read, but at least it is "fair and balanced," which cannot be said about FOX News. OK sorry I can't stop at just one.

The previously existing Pictochat and Download Play functions are applications as well, but it's two of the new apps — called just "Camera" and "Sound" — that really sell the DSi.

This entire review reminds me of complaining that Time Crisis 4 doesn't have on screen reticles. You can go buy a PMP (that is Personal Media Player for those not paying attention) and get better "Camera" and "Sound" capabilities for under $100. You will get a much higher resolution camera, and OMFG even MP3 support. Oh and video, too. Little Jonny (or Big Jonny for that matter) may cream his pants over being able to play with his photos or music, but that is not going to keep him entertained very long. This is a portable gaming console, what sells this specific one is the new distribution channel, that being DSiWare. Also "Wario Ware Slapped!" (it's called Wario Ware Snapped - get it, like snapping a photo) only recognizes the silhouette of your face and hands. Or did you not see Nintendo demo it at GDC this year. There is nothing worse than misinforming the user in a brand new product review.

New Site: DoBlu.com

2009-03-28T02:19:16Z

I promised it's been coming for a while and it's happened. My new Blu-ray site is up and running, and if anyone wants to chip in and design a new logo, that's be great. So, uh, yeah. It's there and you should read it and stuff. God I suck at PR.

More Verizon Wireless Opting Out Nessesary

2009-03-08T00:56:29Z

You may recall me telling you to called Verizon Wireless to have them block "Premium Text Messaging." Well now you should login to your Verizon Wireless account to opt out of them mining your personal data. For me, I was already opted in without even knowing it. @brianking posted this link on RRW which references this blog post, which points you to this link to turning off Customer Proprietary Network Information Settings. Unless of course you want Verizon to sell your personal information to anyone, which is what will happen if you do not opt out. Pretty shady, isn't it?

Charles Schneer Passes

2009-01-29T15:26:58Z

Many won't know the name, but Charles Schneer has died at age 88. He's best known for his role as producer on nearly all of Ray Harryhausen's classic films - excluding the Beast from 20,000 Fathoms - including some of the greatest stop motion creature features ever created. Having grown up with Harryhausen films, this is one of the biggest losses in the industry personally short of Harryhausen himself passing away. After the jump is the note from IMDB (can't link unfortunately): Producer Charles Schneer, best known for his collaborations with legendary special-effects wiz Ray Harryhausen, died on January 21 in Boca Raton, Fl at age 88, his daughter said Sunday. His films with Harryhausen included It Came from Beneath the Sea (1955), Earth vs. the Flying Saucers (1956), 20 Million Miles to Earth (1957),The 7th Voyage of Sinbad (1958), The 3 Worlds of Gulliver (1960), Sinbad and the Eye of the Tiger (1977), and Clash of the Titans (1981). Among his 25 films, he also produced Hellcats of the Navy in 1957, featuring Ronald Reagan and the then Nancy Davis, his future wife, in their only screen appearances together.

Live Streaming Video of the Swearing-in of Barack Obama

2009-01-20T16:54:46Z

Watch it online.You do need Silverlight.

The Problem with Blogcritics

2009-01-14T06:37:03Z

I’m not sure what happened with Blogcritics. Once, it was the only site I would write for. I could write what I wanted, when I wanted, and it was fun. Review material was plentiful, and I had some satisfaction from it. All of that has changed recently. Part of this has to do with finally finding some solid, long standing writing work that pays. Obviously, my time in front of this laptop is spent making money as opposed to not making money. However, I did still enjoy writing for Blogcritics, but honestly, I feel the need to take a time out to rant about the review material policy and why even that has changed. The gist is this: Anyone can claim anything the minute it’s posted as being available. Obviously, high profile items go quickly, so if you’re not hitting F5 all day, there’s no point in really even trying, and that’s the problem. The one that pissed me off to no end was the Blu-ray for the ’05 edition of King Kong. The person who got it has reviewed two Blu-rays to date. I’m not going to criticize the person who actually got it, or their ability to review the disc. For all I know, they’ll do a better job than I would. The problem is that no one cares who gets it in the first place. Think of it this way. I reviewed 172 Blu-rays for BC. Many of those were done with my own money, via rentals or purchases (at least 125 of them, minimum). I had Disney sending me EVERY Blu-ray they produced purely because they appreciated my turnaround time, and still handed that over to BC for “proper” procedure. No one would have noticed if I didn’t mention it, but was honest. No one cares. Further history: I have reviewed the '05 movie, both editions of the ’05 Kong on DVD, the HD DVD, the Kong Production Diaries box set, ’76 Kong DVD, ’76 Kong HD DVD French import, King Kong Lives on DVD, King Kong vs. Godzilla on DVD, King Kong Escapes on DVD, ’33 Kong box set on DVD, the colorized ’33 Kong on laserdisc, Kong Animated Series, and Son of Kong on DVD. ALL of those were purchased by me, and that import was NOT cheap. (Sorry if a link was missed. I can't even read it in that mass of HTML in MT at this point) Now, who could possibly be qualified to review that Blu-ray? Maybe someone who could compare to the HD DVD and DVD release? No one gives a shit though because it’s first come, first served. Think of the time and dedication it took to do all of that, and for free. I don’t want fake comments like “it’s great that you’re here Matt!” I want that fucking Blu-ray which would save me $20, and I personally believe I have a reason to be seriously pissed off, even more so since I was watching a movie to review for the site when it went live. That review won’t be happening. On the other side, the site has little to no care as to how this stuff it being reviewed. Is the reviewers TV calibrated properly? Is it 1080p? Do they have a receiver capable of handling the new audio codecs? None of that matters. Anyone can still get that disc, even if they’re watching it on a 20’ LCD with the audio coming from the speakers. The hi-def community is rabid about accuracy. Don’t believe me? Look at this comparison for Band of Brothers. Look at how small the difference is between the HD DVD and Blu-ray (and yes, it’s a difference). When you miss stuff like that, it kills credibility. At this point, when you have critics on BC stating shit like “it sounds good” when they critique the audio (and that’s all they say; read it myself), all credibility is tossed out the window, and that reflects back on all writers. I’m not sending this to anyone on BC. I’m not blaming anyone. I’ve made my voice heard a few times over the review material and how it’s handled, which as I’ve already stated, is utter shit. No one cares. You don’t get anything by writing for the site, no matter how much you do, and after this, review material obviously isn’t a benefit anymore either. There's no excuse for not having a better system in place after five years (or is it longer now?). Oh sure, I get “traffic to my home blog.” Seriously? I don’t even have a freakin’ home blog. I leech off Ken and occasionally post some long-winded, spur of the moment rant when I need to vent… ironically something like this. Traffic is meaningless to me. Since I’m on the topic, let me throw something out there about tags. When Technorati purchased BC (and none of the money has found a way into the writers hands despite the rumored number being in the millions), e-mails were repeatedly sent pleading writers to submit these things. I never did a single one. Letting us post what we want if we feel like it is one thing. TELLING us to do something is another. It takes a lot of balls to do that. Am I done with BC? More than likely. It’s not just this one Blu-ray, but a variety of factors and this little incident firmly dropped me down a few notches. I may peek my head in from time to time with an occasional review I can't post elsewhere, and I’m sure Ken will bust his ass to get free games (MLB 09 The Show PS3 is mine!) getting little out of it in the process for himself sadly. But hey, it's BC and no one seems to care what you do (or how you do it), and that’s the heart of the problem.

Set Default Email Account in Entourage with AppleScript

2009-01-12T05:41:35Z

You would think that by 2008 Entourage would allow you to chose the default email account in, oh I don't know, the preferences screen. No, that is too much to ask. Here is the solution, an AppleScript:

tell application "Microsoft Entourage"
	
	set homeAccount to IMAP account named "Meancode"
	
	set default mail account to homeAccount
	
end tell

Using IfArchiveType to display keywords on Entry pages

2009-01-12T00:48:00Z

Some times it is easy to find useful code snippets for Movable Type, sometimes not. I had always wondered how you would intelligently include META information (specifically keywords), and after a few tries, and looking through the tag reference on MT.org, I found IfArchiveType. Starting the mt:if statement off with IfArchiveType is important because IfArchiveType itself is a block tag. I also am using BlogID and some global and local template modules. Hit the jump for the code an a short description

<mt:IfArchiveType type="individual">
	<meta name="keywords" content="<$mt:EntryKeywords$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="author" content="<$mt:EntryAuthorDisplayName$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="email" content="<$mt:EntryAuthorEmail$>" />
<mt:ElseIf tag="BlogID" eq="9">
	<meta name="keywords" content="<$mt:Include module="META Keywords"$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="author" content="<$mt:Include module="META Author"$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="email" content="<$mt:Include module="META Email"$>" />
<mt:ElseIf tag="BlogID" eq="27">
	<meta name="keywords" content="<$mt:Include module="META Keywords"$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="author" content="<$mt:Include module="META Author"$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="email" content="<$mt:Include module="META Email"$>" />
<mt:Else>
	<meta name="keywords" content="<$mt:Include module="BGV Keywords"$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="author" content="<$mt:Include module="BGV Author"$>" />
	<meta http-equiv="email" content="<$mt:Include module="BGV Email"$>" />
</mt:IfArchiveType>

This is what I am doing for the BG Views project for Student Publications. The "BGV" template modules are global. In every blog in the site, I have a set of "META" template modules. The statement knows which one to use because BlogID puts them in context. Keeping them the same also makes scaling the if statement dead-on simple. Now your Entry pages will have keywords, author, and email coming from the entry in question, other pages in the blog will have relevant META tags, and everything else that is not specified uses the global template modules.