Derelict Techies

Xbox360 game review - Lost Odyssey

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Tue, 20 May 2008 05:49:00 +0000

Lost Odyssey. Can you say "Booooorrrrring"?

I bought this game from the microsoft employee store with my MVP credits - and I have to say I am sooo glad I didn't pay actuall money for it.

True, it has amazing graphics (unreal engine!). True, it has 4 DVDs crammed into a single DVD case. True, it is an RPG (which I usualy get addicted to fast). But it is just boring! I can't bring myself to continue playing with it, after I reached the credits!.

The game puts you in the shoes of some warrior that for some reason survives a meteor crash that killed everyone else on the battle field. It turns out someone put an immortality spell on you, so you can't die (but that doesnt stop you dying in the game) and now the council wants you to check on a magical facility that has dropped off the radar. This is as far as I got before chucking my controller on the table and switching to Worms.

What is so bad? first, the dialogs - aweful. I wish more people would learn from blizzard and bioware. Heck, I'd settle for just having subtitles rather than those uncomfortable speeches that have nothing to do with how people actually talk. not to mention the strage silances in between lines, or the lack of coordination between how the character looks and how it sounds.

Want more? try the battle. This is the wierdest battle method ever. I actually like turn based battles - if you do them sensibly. Try KOTOR for nice pause-attack battle. Try Heroes of might and magic for a turn based attack model that is nice (PC game). But in this game? the game pauses, lets you choose an action, target an enemy (so far so good) and (ready for this?) shows you a video of you rushing at the enemy with your sword and hitting it. Then each of the enemies does the same. with a video. again, and again and again. arrrrggg! no wonder it takes people ages to finish the game - just the battles must take months to finish!

Now, I am not sure how the game is after you get to the first city, but getting to the first city is pretty damn linear. Reminded me of dungeon siege II (which isnt good) - you just walk in a straight line, with very tight borders around you.

So all in all, I will give it 3.5 our of 10, just because of the graphics. If I ever get bored again, I may go back to play it and maybe discover why so many people gave it such good reviews.

I bought Wii Fit

noreply@blogger.com (Steve) — Tue, 20 May 2008 00:59:00 +0000

In my quest to obtain the perfect body, I recently (2 days ago) bought myself the Wii Fit.

Apart from it having an attitude problem (it said I was clumsy and I probably tripped a lot, I can’t argue with that) it seems like a fun little toy.

It really tries hard to engage with you in a chatty matey sort of way, it will not, however be my friend 24 hours a day no matter what it says.

After a brief set up period to add your weight and age it tries to establish your balance. This is my first gripe.. Although the balance process works very well it does take a little while to get used to, so its first test it uses to establish your Wii age is frustrating as you only get about 2 practices before it gets locked in and it calculates your ‘physical age’. It is that reason alone I am blaming for my 50+ age....not the wine, food and lack of exercise.

After this is works out your BMI (Im not discussing this at all, suffice to say its demoralizing) it uses this BMI to try to work out a goal for you to aim for, x weight lost in y weeks/months (I think .2 Kgs over 2 months is a worthy goal). It uses this goal to encourage you to keep on using the system.

Wii Fit does try to inform and engage with you, it explains the advantages of having good balance and posture, and gives you guidance in setting your goals. All good ways of trying to create a relationship with the system I guess. But it is still a computer game and I can still turn it off or drop it into a bath if it irritates me.
The exercises seem well thought out and fun and there is a wide variety of them. They are broken up into 4 areas Yoga, Strength, Endurance and Balance.

The balance part is fun and makes very good use of the weight sensing functions of the board. Games like skiing and hoola-hoop are a riot.

The strength was good as well using the board to sense your twisting action as well as being able to do push ups by using the board to place you hands on. It uses this to give some pretty accurate feedback (the only reason I stopped my push ups is that I had an itchy nose) and it lets you know what you are doing wrong.

The endurance has a jogging component which you use the Wii remote in your pocket or hand and jog on the spot or run like a moron around the room. The feedback also seems accurate to sense if you are running to fast or slow.

I did not try the Yoga. I can’t even touch my toes (must be due to my outlandish BMI), but I will pluck up the courage soon to do it.

All in all it seems well thought out, Wii fit wants to help you attain health nirvana. The exercises are not overly long and there is a wide variety to get a complete work over and to provide some variety. And I can see the value in the exercises and I know they would help if I were more committed.

My only gripes are I don’t need a computer to tell me how fat or clumsy I am.. I know that. But that is just a personal judgment; I know its little heart is in the right place and its only trying to look after me.

I would also like a free practice area where I don’t have to sign on as a ‘user’ I just want to play some of the games (And my daughter want to play them as well) without being assessed or judged(I haven’t really looked this hard for one to be honest).

My thoughts and more to come...

Israeli researchers make electricity by photosynthesis

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:29:00 +0000

check it out!

Israeli researchers make electricity by photosynthesis

So funny it is sad. Bad bad science

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:23:00 +0000

Here is another scammer saying he has a free energy machine. Read him - funny as hell.

WTF of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Tue, 06 May 2008 05:05:00 +0000

I sent these to www.thedailyWTF.com but Alex never published them. So here you are!

The following is a very novel way for a date control - just put all possible dates of a year in a drop down!

TomTom know that ActiveX may be spooky to some users. That is why they tell you they are going to run an ActiveX, in a very helpful dialog - with so many options!

Can anyone tell me where spybot want me to go from here? The link in the "available documents" section is the link I just opened!

WTF of the day

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:55:00 +0000

Google toolbar spelling - it seems that most people need to be told to wait twice:

How I hate people who write lousy surveys. And Gigabyte take the crown with these uncomprehensible questions, and the fact that if you submit without filling all the questions, the form resets and you have to fill the answers all over again. (click on the picture to be able to read the text. It is so sad it is hilarious)

I especially liked "Please rate your level of completeness functions currently available"

HTPC update

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:29:00 +0000

Ok - here is an update.
I returned the CF cards to the store that sold it to me, got some of the money back for them and installed Vista to get rid of linux which annoyed me - I just couldnt find my way around.

In vista I installed all the drivers for my case, and I am proud to say that the remote now works as it should - and i configured it to use VLC (the best video player in the market).

Sadly I still didnt find a good library tool - does anyone know anything?

Oh - about the HDMI not working. it turns out that my motherboard is not compatible with my TV. Samsung are saying they dont support connecting computers, only consumer electronics, while gigabyte claim the motherboard supports the highest level of HDMI standards that other consumer electronic do. end result - I am screwed.

Sansa Clip

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 23:29:00 +0000

When I returned the CF cards to the store that sold it to me (Cheap Chips, and I must say I enjoyed the customer service! Even though they couldn't give me back 100% of the money since they have to sell it as second hand they did give me back most of it) I picked up a 2GB sandisk sansa clip for 90$ (10$ discount).

Why? because I cycle to and from work every day, and I need a small, sporty MP3 player, that has FM radio, and great battery life (I hate it when my music stops half way up hill).

The Clip is a clip (it clips on to your clothes) and has internal 2GB RAM (sadly does not support additional memory cards - hey sandisk, don't you want us buying your super small memory cards?), has FM radio, a recorder, and an internal battery with 15 hours of work in it. It charges of USB, so when I get to work I can just plug it to my computer, and never worry about running out of music in mid cycle.
I spent a lot of yesterday loading it up with songs. Another great thing about the sandisk sansa line is that they support MP3 and WMA and Audible (books), and you don't have to install any kind of heavy, bloated and unnecessary software on your PC to put music on it (unlike some MP3 players that dominate the market).

My biggest problem with it is that the clip is almost worthless. It doesnt hold in place and slips off when I pull the headphones just a bit.

My experience with sandisk so far has been excellent. this is the third Sansa I bought (the first I forgot in Israel when I came to Australia, and the second one my girlfriend borrowed to take to Antarctica, so I found my self in need of a third) and they are all reliable, high quality and have great sound. My recommendation - if you are after a mobile music (or video) player, go sansa!

Oh, one thing I don't like about the sansa - their web site. flash only? I hate it when web designers assume that the entire world has flash (what about mobile phones?) and they don't bother with a text version.

Update:
After cycling with the "clip", I can tell you this:

Clip doesn't fall easily - but I still keep it on my shirt, facing up just to be certain.

The volume control is annoying - first, unlike the old sansa I have it is not a scroll, but rather a bar (aa button with up and down) - which makes it harder to control. Hey - when volume control is the issue I am an analog guy

The volume control is also too close to the earphone cable socket. Whenever I need to turn the volume up, I need to be careful not to unplug the earphones. and with clumsy big fingers like mine - not nice

Shuffle turns itself off when you turn off the device. I wonder how can I set it to shuffel by default?

Earphones that came with it suck. I am anxiously waiting for my girlfriend to come back and give me back my creative earphones that I like (which I got with my laptop).

Come to think of it - would it kill sandisk to add bluetooth stereo support? When I used my mobile phone (nokia n80) as a player, I could use my bluetooth steroe headset. The quality of sound sucked, but no wires was bliss.

Great sound!

Building a Linux HTPC

noreply@blogger.com (Ishai Sagi [SharePoint MVP]) — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 05:37:00 +0000

Oh dear. If anyone ever tells me that Linux is ready to take over from windows as a home operating system I will smack them on the head and then advise them to get a job in a Linux home support hot line.
Honestly - I don't know what these people are thinking.

This last weekend, three of the authors of this blog joined me in my humble home to try and build a HTPC. I don't ask for much - just view media that I have in a myriad of hard drives on the network - in many shapes codecs and colors, record TV shows and get EPG data (Australian).

Lets start with hardware. I bought a Gigabyte motherboard (GA-MA69G-S3H) because it had HDMI and it was only 129$ (AUD). On that I added 2GB RAM (Corsair 6400, DDRII800) for 99$. Add a AMD 5200+ for 130$ and you come to 358$. To avoid having all of these just lying around on my living room floor I bought a high end case - silverstone crown 2 (cw02) which is a big monster of a case - making it practically impossible for me to buy a TV table. The upside is that I can fit in 6 hard drives in there. A mini problem is that to fully implement silverstone's cooling solution I will need to buy 2 x 92mm fans, which don't come in the box, and are unavailable from any computer store I visited, including the Canberra computer markets. No matter, the computer for now is quite quiet (I love writing those words together) and I will look into buying the fans in the future.
To power all of that I bought an expensive power supply from a company I never heard of, and that I don't recall the name for - but I assure you I will update this post when I get home. or not...who cares about the power supply?

Anyhow - I also bought what I though to be a very smart solution for heat management - 2 SATA to CF adapters from this guy who was very responsive and a cool guy, and I also bought two 8gb CF cards (sandisk of course - anyone who buys another brand) - extreme IV - 40mb\s. Fast.

Unfortunately, when I attached the sata2cf adapters with the cf card, the BIOS took a long long time to load - something like three minutes before it finished loading, and when I tried to ignore that Linux refused to install on it. So I put in a spare hard drive that I had (120GB) and Linux got further, but still froze. Vista installed perfectly, but I didn't want vista!. That is when I called our BBQ Ninja (Bill) and invited the entire forum for a BBQ - meat on me, computer repairs on them.

After a very big lunch (I still have a ton of meat in the fridge as left overs), and with Bill relaxed with a couple of beers and a couple of wine glasses, we eased into installing Linux on the hard drive. Immediately we ran into problems, as mythbuntu refused to install (same thing that happened to me). Bill suggested we try to install Ubuntu, and then add myth - and that worked! Bill dove into command line to mount my remote file shares (I have no idea what or how) and then changed a file to make sure it is mounted every time (all the while assuring me that this is possible to do in the GUI) and we verified that we can watch video over the network.
We then tried to watch TV, but my TV reception was very very choppy. Bill ignored that and started setting up the EPG ("Shepard") - which was a huge problem because the TV adapter refused to see the signals. After much swearing and cursing at my motherboard (which we decided was the culprit mostly based on the fact that HDMI doesn't work - weird on a new motherboard! maybe I should pay more than 129$ on a motherboard next time) we somehow got it to work (again - no idea why).

After a couple of hours of tinkering with it Bill decided that its a driver problem and asked me to update all the drivers from the Internet. This kind of answer is the electronic equivalent of "take an aspirin and call me in the morning" - it buys the "doctor" time to think, and who knows- the symptoms may well go away.

I have yet to check if the picture is better, but after bill left me and Mundeep rebooted the machine, this time booting from the hard drive and not from the CD as Bill was doing (I think) - which brought up a screen that we haven't seen before - practically empty, with a single icon that allowed us to see the file system - nothing else. We tried all key combinations that we could think of to try to get to the Linux "I am not a start menu", but to no avail. Finally we gave up, and played some Ghost Recon on the XBOX360, and mundeep left - while I tried to puzzle this Linux thing. I finally found out that right clicking on the desktop will give me the menus that are supposed to be at the top. Right...very intuitive.

So to summarize - unless you have friends that know linux command lines and commands, don't install it at home kids. Wait for ubuntu to get some good advice on usability and implement it. and that is before I say anything about MythTV - a great application, but for the life of me I cant think of a worst UI example.

Next week I am going to the markets to ask for my motherboard to be replaced or the money back, and then I am going to go through all of this again trying to install on the CF cards. if that doesn't work - do you know anyone who wants to buy a couple of high speed 8gb cf cards?