Rob Stevens' Personal Blog - Fortress of Solitude

Help Rob Get to Costa Rica!

2009-06-02T15:40:00.000-07:00

Update 2: I need to raise $390 by June 15th to cover airfare and expenses. Your $10 donation will make a serious difference!

Ron and Tammy McLaughlin, the missionaries we are travelling to help, are very excited that we're coming down there. I'm still petrified about the trip, but I've already come too far to bail out now.

Update: I'm just past the halfway point now. With fundraisers, donations, and my personal contributions, I'm at about $860 raised towards the trip, and I also bought the Kodak Zi6 video camera and ordered my passport.

Won't you help out with a $10 donation, and get a DVD of the work and adventures in Costa Rica?

The past year has been a great one for me. Normally, I'd be afraid of change (and I am), but accepting that change was going to happen whether I wanted it to or not has helped me get over that fear and move on with my life. My friends have been a tremendous source of support for me, where I normally wouldn't trust people enough to put my well-being in someone else's hands.

So for my New Year's Resolution this year, I decided to try to get over some of my other fears. Most of them are completely irrational (fear of heights, flying, strange places, etc.) and I'm way too old now to still be worrying about stupid things like that. I've never been anywhere outside the country (except for Canada), or anywhere that I don't speak the native language (except for Los Angeles). My fears have kept me from going places I'd really like to go.

The opportunity arose to go on a mission trip to Costa Rica with my church (Canyon Creek Church in Mill Creek, WA) and while it wasn't on my list of places I'd ever have wanted to go, I thought it would be a great opportunity to get over some of those fears. There is a church in Puerto Viejo that needs some work done (we'll be building a Sunday School and a basketball court), and the missionaries that work for the church desperately need a roof over their home.

I prayed about it, and heard God tell me to go, so I started making plans. I've never had a passport, so I filled out an application. I requested the time off from work. I started telling people I was going, so if I chickened-out, I'd be accountable to people.

Rachel and I were going to make the trip together, which was comforting. However, since she just got a new job at World Vision (a passion of hers), she can't get the time off to go. She feels like she was called to that job more than the Costa Rica trip, and while that's wonderful for her, it's scary for me. I prayed about it more, and felt I was being tested. Would I still make this leap of faith without the comfort of having my loving girlfriend there with me?

The answer is, terrifyingly ... yes. I'm going to go. And that's where you get to help.

One of my fears is not knowing how I'm going to pay for the trip. The cost is $1600, plus the passport fees (since I've never had one) and a small web-ready video camera (the Kodak Zi6, which is relatively inexpensive) would bring the cost closer to $2000. While I could probably come up with half of that if I stretched myself, I'm taking a leap of faith and relying on God and my friends and family to make up the difference.

I've got about 200 friends on Facebook, and countless more on the internets. If just those two hundred donated $5, the cost of one latte at Starbucks, that would make up the rest of the money I need to go. I'm going to put my trust and faith in all of you to make this happen.

As a thank you for your generosity, everyone that donates at least $10 and includes their address will get a DVD copy of the video that I'll be documenting while I'm there. I'm going to try to capture everything I can, and the least I can do is share it with everyone who helped send me there. Also, please note that your donations are tax deductible as long as you include the information I need to have the church send you a receipt, and any overage will be donated to the church to send others on the mission.

I'm going way outside of my comfort zone for this one. I'm not going to have my cell phone, or a laptop, so I can focus on doing God's work while I'm away. (Admittedly, the camera will be a bit of a technology security blanket.) I'm hoping that you will also go a bit outside of your comfort zone and help bless me with the money I need to go.

Should Windows 7 Be Free?

2008-12-03T13:13:00.001-08:00

Despite being what I would consider to be a reasonably strong OS*, the market has soundly rejected Windows Vista, and Microsoft is desperate to get those sales (and market share, which just dipped below 90%) back up. They've launched PR campaigns, including "The Mojave Experiment," an attempt to prove that most people didn't really have any information about Vista to base those feelings on.

The Mojave Experiement basically showed people Microsoft's next operating system, which was later revealed to them (after recording their favorable reactions) to be Windows Vista.

While an impending Service Pack update for Windows Vista is slated for April '09, Microsoft is still planning to release Windows 7 in July. That's only half a year away, and Vista has pretty much no shot of gaining any traction right now, especially with a very wide beta of Windows 7 planned for January, which I expect will be in even wider circulation than Microsoft plans.

I purchased Windows Vista Ultimate on release. It was supposed to be the "ultimate" version of Windows (natch), and everyone knows what a huge debacle that turned into. The promised "Ultimate Extras" were incredibly weak, making the OS overpriced as a result, and the promised "unique publications" and "innovative services" never materialized. What did we get? Animated wallpaper, a handful of games, and some sound packs ... plus a bunch of languages that shouldn't have been "extra" to begin with.

Wouldn't the ultimate extra be getting the next version for free? If Windows 7 is everything Microsoft is claiming it will be, it would go a long way towards repairing the reputation of the company by offering this as a free upgrade to at least Windows Vista Ultimate users.

But I think they should take it a step further. I think they should offer it to anyone that has a license for Windows Vista, and even more, start marketing Windows Vista as including the free upgrade to Windows 7. First, it would surely boost Vista sales now, not to mention get people used to an OS that visually, isn't going to change all that much going into Windows 7. Second, if Microsoft's Mojave Experiment is to be believed, most people would think Vista really is Windows 7 anyway, since it won't be that much of a visual departure.

In short, Windows 7 should be rolled out over Windows Update if at all possible. And they should really get rid of all this multiple editions, nonsense. Release ONE version of the OS, and make downloadable configuration files available if businesses or home users want to restrict or remove features. Either that, or just allow them to select the features they want the same way they already do if you don't use a product key during installation. Take the confusion out of the marketplace, and make sure that no matter what a user thinks they want (or think they want to pay for), they get what they actually need.

But most importantly, they should support the people that bought Vista and complained about it, bitterly and loudly, by giving them the operating system they thought they were getting in the first place. At a bear minimum, the people that purchased the premium SKU should get the new OS as their mea culpa for failing to deliver on the promise of the Ultimate Extras.

*Unlike many reports from other users, I have had no problems that I couldn't trace back to immature drivers, which isn't Microsoft's fault.

The REAL NyQuil is Back!

2008-11-14T14:45:00.001-08:00

There are a lot of people out there that have read and/or responded to my blog post about the change in the trusty NyQuil formula to something far less trusty.

I'm pleased to say that the original NyQuil formula is back, under the name NyQuil D. Yes, since it contains pseudoephedrine, you'll have to get it behind the counter. But for those of you (like my sweet girlfriend) currently suffering from a case of the flu, I'm sure this news can't come soon enough.

Only took about three years ... I wonder what the impact of selling a product that didn't work was to their bottom line? Sorry DayQuil people ... no change to a working decongestant for you.

Thoughts on the morning after ...

2008-11-05T07:25:00.000-08:00

Waking up on a chilly Wednesday morning following the most historic election that I've ever had the privilege to be part of, I know that we are simply one step closer to fixing the problems in our country. As a Republican, I understood early on that this election had to be about more than ideology, more than race, and more than age. It had to be about getting Americans to stop thinking about themselves, and to begin working towards the common goal of making this country better.

The economic collapse wasn't about President Bush. It wasn't about Republicans. And it wasn't about a Democratic Congress. It wasn't about bad loans, or a war overseas, or foreign oil.

It was about greed. It was about people looking out only for themselves. It was about people forgetting to "be subject to one another." And so I voted for Barack Obama. I voted for a man with little political experience, with no executive experience, and with an ideology very different than my own.

Because what our country needed most right now was a "community organizer."

We need someone with the experience of getting people to work together towards a vision. The President wasn't going to fix the country's ills on his own. No President could. Real change only comes from the people that work towards it, united towards a common goal. Mixed in with the media-savvy phrases of hope and change was the most important message, the one that truly resonated with Obama's supporters.

We.

The next four years has to be about more than race. It has to be about more than political ideology. And it has to be about more than who won and who lost on November 4th, 2008. It has to be about all of us rallying behind not a man, but our country, to make it better. It has to be about us becoming a community, being subject to one another, and working for what we believe in.

It starts now.

A bit of a personal one ...

2007-12-15T08:37:00.000-08:00

It's been a while.

I've avoided getting too personal on my blog for a variety of reasons. Part of it was to protect the privacy of my friends and family, partly to keep from boring those reading, and partly because I didn't want anyone that Googled me to come across anything overly personal. I'm tearing those walls down now, because I've learned that while walls can protect you, they also keep people from getting to you when you need them, and until recently, I didn't realize how much I needed other people in my life.

Anyone that has read this blog in the past has probably noticed that my post rate has plummeted in recent months. A bit of this was due to work and school pressures, but mostly, it was because of some major "life changes", which is the PC way of saying that I was going through a divorce. Andrea and I were high school sweethearts; we started dating my senior year of high school and got married in August of 2000.

I was absolutely devoted to her, but marriage is incredibly hard ... it never seemed like we were able to get our lives completely on track. Life was constantly throwing challenges in our way. I was laid off the same day we were supposed to close on our house back in 2002, and the marriage never fully recovered from that setback. In 2003, we made the decision together that I should go back to school and get my degree, and while it was the right decision at the time, the cost was far too high. I really wanted to have some sembalance of a real college experience, and that required making a lot of choices that took even more time away from my wife. Group projects, extra-curricular activities ... I did very well in school, as I felt I had to, but the sacrifices were more than I ever should have asked Andrea to make. We didn't get to spend nearly enough time together, and despite what others might say, absence does not make the heart grow fonder.

We grew apart in a lot of ways, and finally she decided that despite being nearly finished with my degree, we would never really get the marriage back on track. We separated in April of 2007, filed for divorce in August (just after our anniversary), and the divorce was finalized this week.

I blame myself in a lot of ways. I've never been very good at maintaining releationships with my friends and family, and while I know that I was put into an impossible position of trying to keep a marriage together on my schedule, I just let the marriage coast ... thinking that Andrea could keep us together on her own. She's a lot tougher than she'll ever admit to, but she underestimates herself, and in this case, she just didn't think she was going to be able to keep it together the additional few weeks until I graduated. I can't fault her for anything other than not realizing the light at the end of the tunnel was closer than she thought. Regardless, by the time I realized we were in trouble, it was far too late.

That brings us to today. I've realized that living my life for one person, while admirable in a lot of ways, was just unhealthy. Luckily, I met a lot of great friends at the UW, and they've been incredibly supportive during this tumultuous few months of my life. I can't believe it took me this long to allow others to get this close to me, but I'm glad that I finally did. I can honestly say that I wouldn't have made it this far if not for them. They're every bit an extended family to me, and I thank God every day that they're part of my life.

On December 3rd, I went to Slave to the Needle and got a tattoo on my back. I've never really identified with the Native American part of my heritage, but it's always been in there somewhere, and I knew I'd get one at some point once I figured out how to tell my story. I started planning my design a few months ago, something to not only reflect not only my identity, but serve as a reminder of where I'd been, where I was now, and where I am headed. The Superman shield is from "The Death and Life of Superman" novel by Roger Stern, and symbolizes the transition from my old life to my new one. The Kryptonian word at the top I'm keeping to myself, but is just a reminder to me that I'm never really alone. There's a lot more to this design than that, even the placement had meaning, but I'm very happy with how it turned out.

I had a little celebration last night, part birthday party and part rebirth. By the time all was said and done, I was dumbfounded by how many people came to hang out and offer their support. This is a major turning point in my life, and I'm determined to not make the same mistakes I've made in the past. These people have graciously allowed me to be a part of their life, and the absolute least I can do is offer mine in return.

So there it is. I get to have a second chance of sorts, starting over with the benefit of a great deal of experience to rely on. I don't know if I'm going to maintain this blog, I've actually got a social life that I never made time for in the past, but if I do, it's going to be far more than the ridiculous minutae and random crap I stumble across on the internet. I don't know if it will be worth reading, but it's going to be something.

Heroes is Back!

2007-09-25T09:12:00.000-07:00

The second season premiere of Heroes aired last night, and it's great to have the show back. Flanked by Chuck and Journeyman, it was a great night of TV. And of course, there's a ton of speculation about what the new season has to offer.

One thing I noticed last night that seemed to stand out is that the symbol (the half-helix, or what Ando called "godsend") took a certain prevalence during the opening episode. But what bothered me is that it seemed different. When positioned vertically, the symbol normally has one line coming out of the top, and two on the bottom. Yet, several times last night, the symbol is shown inverted. Particularly coming from Molly's dreams about the man that can see her.

It reminded me of a typical convention of comic books, one that was the focus of the movie Unbreakable. Every hero has an opposite, a villian. It makes me wonder if the inverted symbol is a foreshadowing of sorts, preparing us for the introduction of anti-Heroes. In the first season, Sylar as Peter Petrelli's opposite was a primary focus, but I don't remember if the symbol was ever shown in conjunction with Sylar.

It's worth noting that on the pictures of Kaito Nakamura and Angela Petrelli, the symbol was in it's normal form ... perhaps Angela isn't as evil as Nathan wants to believe.

Journeyman

2007-09-11T22:05:00.000-07:00

Journeyman is another one of those shows in NBC's Fall lineup that could have been awful if not executed perfectly, but again, NBC has another potential smash hit on their hands, and Monday nights are going to be hard for the other networks to beat.

The premise is similar to the old show Quantum Leap, but without the futuristic aspect to it, but it feels even more human, as they show the strain that the time travel takes on Dan and his family and friends. That makes the show even more engrossing that Quantum Leap ever was, and it's only the first episode.

After watching these three shows, Journeyman, Chuck, and Bionic Woman, I find myself incredibly thankful that these shows are on NBC and not Fox. Fox would have probably found a way to cancel them after just an episode or two, and the world would miss out on great drama (and in Chuck's case, comedy, too).

One funny thing I noticed ... when Dan jumps through time, his items go with him, including his Apple iPhone. It signals several times when he jumps because you can see that there's no digital cell signal back in the past. However, in once scene in particular, you can see that he's holding the phone upside down, but the text is right side up.

NBC Fall Season Rocks!

2007-09-11T21:35:00.000-07:00

While I'm not a big fan of Comcast, when there's something on their On Demand service, I'm certainly grateful I have it. Sadly, the only network shows Comcast has had in HD for a while has been reruns of CSI.

I wanted to kill a little time today while something else was recording, and decided to check to see if the next CSI episode was ready yet, and there was a new listing for NBC. Imagine my surprise when the pilots of NBC's big fall season were there waiting for me. And from the looks of it, it's going to be a GREAT season.

Bionic Woman is a fresh take on the old series, and if it feels familiar, it should. It has the same tone as the remake of Battlestar Galactica, and even features a couple of those familiar faces as well. The last few minutes felt a little cheesy, and I don't want to spoil it for you, but when you see it, you'll know exactly the scene I'm talking about. That brief Velveeta moment aside, the show was really entertaining, and I can't wait to see where they go with it.

When I first saw the previews for Chuck, I thought that the show would either be really good, or really, atrociously bad. Lucky for us, it's great. To crib the phrase from his Steveness of Jobs, it's insanely great. Again, don't want to ruin the plot, but this show is going to pluck the strings of every geek out there as hard as Heroes did. So it's no surprise that it'll be airing right before Heroes in the lineup. That's going to be a hard one-two punch.

I still have to watch Journeyman and Life, so look for those impressions soon!

Oh, one small complaint ... Comcast didn't make the 5.1 soundtrack available on the HD feed, only the ProLogic sound. That's ok, it's just be even more reason to watch the shows again!

Problems with Heroes Disc 2 on HD-DVD? Read This!

2007-09-07T16:36:00.000-07:00

If you've bought Season 1 of Heroes on HD-DVD recently, you might be running into probably getting the second disc to load. What's the solution?

Sadly, just patience.

The second disc is web-enabled, and when you first load the disc, it will attempt to download the web content to the hard drive built into your HD-DVD drive. Of course, this is a popular web series and the servers seem to be getting overloaded. This means that it might take up to an hour to download the content.

The disc should give you the option to cancel if it appears that it's going to take a prolonged amount of time. All I can recommend is that you load the disc before you want to watch it and let it download while you make dinner or something.

Just a reminder, Season 2 starts on September 25th!

The Best of Tina Fey, SNL Weekend Update

2007-08-15T16:05:00.000-07:00

Super Mario Strikers Review

2007-08-09T10:12:00.000-07:00

Rent It.

Universal Exceeds Expectation with HD DVD

2007-08-08T18:28:00.001-07:00

HD DVD is having a rough time of it in the media, but a problem some consumers have run into is discs that just won't play. It seems to be mostly HD DVD/DVD combo discs, and appears to be a slight film that doesn't come off the disc in manufacturing.

A copy of Smokin' Aces that I bought recently had this problem, so I contacted Universal to get a replacement. They offered to send me a postage-paid envelope to send back the disc ... just the disc ... and they'd mail a replacement.

In six to eight weeks. How annoying.

In a couple of days, I had my envelope and mailed off the bad disc. In just two weeks, I had a replacement in a brand new case! Now I have an extra case should I ever need it, and they beat their shipping estimates.

This is how you delight your customers ... by handling problems promptly and by exceeding expectations. It would have been great to have the disc work right the first time, but this was the next best thing. Universal is clearly embracing the format.

As for the movie ... Buy It.

Comcast Can Bite Me ... If They Ever Show Up

2007-08-08T18:15:00.000-07:00

I just moved into a new apartment over the weekend. I made sure to call well in advance (last Tuesday) to make sure they'd be able to install on the Saturday that I moved in. After getting a confirmation number, pricing, and a time and date, I showed up Saturday ready to get the new service up and running.

And I waited. And waited. Finally, I called Comcast to find out what was up. They scheduled me for Saturday the 11th, not the 4th. No where in the call record did it show that I needed it on the 4th, and the support rep was completely unsympathetic with the fact that I would be both TV and Internet-less for an entire week.

I'm super-pissed about it, which probably led to my getting a cold, which only made it worse when I'm stuck home Tuesday. Luckily, I have a fairly sizable DVD library, although I mostly ignored them while I slept off the cold.

Fortunately, it looks like Verizon is tearing the roads apart in Kenmore to roll out their FIOS fiber-optic service. I'm not sure when it'll be available, but it'll be nice to be able to play the two companies off of each other. Competition is almost always great for the consumer.

Official Xbox Magazine going to Xbox Live

2007-07-26T07:33:00.000-07:00

I must be psychic or something, or at least, know a good idea when I come up with it. According to Kotaku (by way of the Xbox.com forums), the Official Xbox Magazine (OXM) is going to be made available through Xbox Live.

Of course, I was just lamenting what a great distribution medium Xbox Live would be for the mag after playing Eternal Sonata, and less than a week later, there you go.

Kotaku seems to think that this somehow equates to charging for demos, since it'll cost $2.50 to get the mag this way. They wouldn't be charging any more for demos than they are now, they'll actually be charging less than you'd pay buying at the newsstand. How do I figure? It cost me $6.00 to get the Eternal Sonata demo ... yes, like many others, I paid for the demo, not the magazine. If there is a demo exclusive to the magazine, this is a far more economical and convenient way to get it.

That said, what publisher in their right mind would bother with an exclusive demo now, unless there's some payoff from OXM?

GameFly Free Trial for One Month

2007-07-24T07:39:00.000-07:00

GameFly normally only gives you a 10-day trial of their service before you have to start paying, but they just sent me a link that will give you an entire month for free. If you've been on the fence, you owe it to yourself to give GameFly a try. It's a better value than Netflix when you consider how expensive it can be to buy new games.

The offer expires on 7/31/2007, so get in while the getting is good!

Hallows of a Deathly Variety

2007-07-23T10:25:00.000-07:00

I bought two copies of the final Harry Potter book early Saturday morning. I had waited in line for the previous two books, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it this time. I wasn't in a hurry to end my adventures with Harry. The second copy of the book went to my friend Sarah as a birthday present. She texted me Sunday to brag that she was over 400 pages into the book.

I'm on page 2. Seriously, a Harry Potter book hasn't started this excruciatingly slow since the first one. I hear the second chapter really takes off. Still, I haven't been able to start down the road to the end of the series. I'm probably projecting ... well, there's really no probably about it. I know exactly why I'm putting it off. Once I finish that book, a new chapter in my own life is starting in a lot of ways, and I'm not eager to head down that path either.

Yes, that's incredibly vague, but that's also how I'm feeling, so somehow, it's fitting.

Further Adventures in High Definition

2007-07-21T12:48:00.001-07:00

Life with the new HDTV is going swimmingly, but not without a few hiccups along the way. I've got the old PC hooked up to the TV through the DVI connection, but found out the hard way that Creative still hasn't got their act together when it comes to drivers on Windows Vista. As such, the digital out port still doesn't work, and I'm limited to stereo sound on the PC side. It's really quite annoying.

After getting a new amplified antenna, I tried to give some HDTV action a go through Windows Media Center. Unfortunately, the system couldn't seem to give me anything but stuttering and pixelation, no matter how strong the signal was. I'd just about given up after reading all the problems other people were having when someone mentioned that for some reason, they had no stuttering problems when using the Xbox 360 as a Media Center Extender. Sure enough, HDTV is a wonderful experience and stutter-free through the Xbox 360. At this point, I'd call the Xbox 360 a perfect device if it weren't for the fact that it's so freakin' loud, particularly when trying to watch an HD DVD with it.

I'm moving to a new place in a couple weeks, and I'll probably be back with Comcast since I don't think I can get a DirecTV satellite dish installed where I'll be going. But, that'll give me a chance to see how Comcast's HDTV DVR works compared to my trusty TiVo. I have very low expectations at this point, but I'm hoping that what I've heard about a TiVo software for Comcast's hardware is true and that they'll roll out soon. Either that, or I have a friend at Moxi that might be able to hook me up.

Next up ... Intec has sent me an HDMI/Component switch that I'll hook up and run through it's paces. Fair Disclosure: I didn't pay for this switch, but I'll do my best not to let that color my perceptions.

Etnernal Sonata, and Xbox Live

2007-07-21T12:33:00.000-07:00

When I first heard of the story behind the forthcoming Xbox 360 RPG Eternal Sonata, I figured it was going to be one of those strange, childish RPGs that would hold absolutely no interest from me. As it is, while I enjoy some of the RPG heavy hitters like a Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, they just take up too much time for me these days.

A little while ago, I downloaded a video of Eternal Sonata through Xbox Live, and I was blown away by the graphic fidelity and art style. The game looks like an anime comic brought to life, but it's even more detailed than that. I really can't explain it except to say that it seems like they got the cel-shaded style and lighting exactly right. Still, the story seemed a bit silly ... an imaginary world dreamt of by Frederick Chopin while he lay sick on on the verge of death. Silly, and a bit dreary. And yet, the world he dreams of is vibrant and full of life.

When I heard that there was a demo in the new issue of the Official Xbox Magazine, I grabbed it (while out getting the final installment in the Harry Potter series). Before delving into The Deathly Hallows, I fired up the 360 and popped in the demo disc, and was absolutely blown away. Eternal Sonota is an incredibly accessible RPG, adds a few new gameplay twists (different special attacks depending on whether you're in the light or the dark), and some absolutely beautiful music. In fact, I think the music (which had to be good, if the game is about Chopin) is what really puts the game over the top.

Hard to say until a final copy is in my hands in September, but I think it's going to be easy to give the game a Buy It review. Until then, go grab the magazine and play it!

On a side note, Microsoft is really onto something with Xbox Live. Being able to download demos, trailers, movies and other content helps open gamers' horizons to new experiences. For example, I really disliked the Blue Dragon demo for some reason (probably the aforementioned dislike of overly childish RPGs), but quite unexpectedly played the demo of EA's The BIGS repeatedly.

I'd really like to see OXM delivered electronically through Xbox Live, but I don't know that the publishing industry is ready to make a jump like that. Given that the content in OXM was dreadfully old by the time I read it, electronic delivery seems like it would make a lot more sense in terms of timeliness and convenience.

Creating a Community is Hard

2007-07-19T13:16:00.000-07:00

AMD is really tying to reach out to the enthusiast community with their news AMD Unprocessed website and forum, but so far, the going is pretty slow. It's always that way, because building a community takes time. The conversations are kind of forced at first, and no one knows quite what they can get away with, and when the community is somewhat exclusive (Unprocessed is primarily for tech bloggers) it takes even longer.

That said, the joint appears to be run by AMD and notable Windows blogger Robert McLaws. It looks like the idea is similar to what Microsoft is doing with The Hive (of which I am also a member), but focused on AMD products primarily.

I've got a bit of advice for AMD, and we'll see where it goes from here. First, they need to get more involved. Right now, a few of us are trying to get the ball rolling, but there has been very little involvement from AMD directly in the conversations. While it might not be Scott Carroll (who took over for Chris Aarons), some AMD people need to be there talking and assuring us the place is open for business. The only way bloggers will make a point to come there is if they have a direct conduit to information ... it's all about access. Otherwise, they can probably get better information from other third-party sources.

Second, with all due respect to Scott, get your welcome message off the home page. The idea of AMD "Unprocessed" flies against the idea of a PR guy providing us with information, so you may want to consider hiring an experienced Community Manager. Either that, or you've got to "open the kimono" right away and give bloggers access to information they couldn't get otherwise. Building trust takes time, but if you want to jump start a community, sometimes a grand gesture is required.

Lastly, if it's going to be a community, give people more places to talk about off-topic stuff, and maybe even about your competitors. Communities don't always stay on-topic, and sometimes it's the off-topic stuff that keeps people going in that difficult genesis period.

Anyway, it's an interesting experiment, and I hope it works. AMD has an opportunity to grab a little more mindshare from their competitors, and it's critical at a time where AMD is falling behind in the performance area, both in processors and graphics. Hopefully this will be great impetus for them.

Two Word Review: Bomberman LIVE

2007-07-19T09:34:00.001-07:00

Buy It.

Game Reviews ... How Do You Review Art?

2007-07-18T09:12:00.001-07:00

The Escapist (easily the single best game industry "magazine" on the planet) is running a piece on the seedy underbelly of game reviews. I can't help but agree with a lot of the points in the article. Reviewing games (or movies, or any other sort of art) is always going to be controversial. They never seem to do a product justice, they're totally arbitrary and loaded with bias (or worse, favoritism), and really don't seem to affect how a game sells at all.

There are aspects of game reviewing that the article never quite gets to. Reviewers are unconsciously pressured into not only skewing a review score because of the pressures mentioned in the story, but even the language can be crafted to try to get a review onto the box or into an ad campaign as promotion for the publication.

The "games as art" thing is a oft-debated issue, and despite the fact that every game "journalist" (as if there was such a thing, don't get me started) has broached the topic at one point or another, I decided to wade into it for a research paper at the University of Washington. I took it in what I feel is a different direction, keeping it personal as all artisitc experiences should be. You can download a PDF copy of my "Video Games as Art" paper, or you can e-mail me for a file. One thing that I came across is that some of the games that were most like art (to me) didn't sell very well.

And there's the root of the problem. For as much as games (and movies) are an art form, they're also a consumer product, and anytime someone is exchanging money for something, they want to know what they're going to get in advance and whether or not it will be worth it. The product has to make a value proposition, and the end result needs to meet or exceed that proposition. Valve is a company that gets this on a deep, fundamentatal level. Gamers know that if they buy Half-Life, they'll get a great game. But they'll also get enough free content and other game experiences with it that they could play that game for YEARS. The reviews just don't matter, because the value proposition is blown out of the water.

So I've finally reached a level where I feel I can put my metaphorical foot down and say, I'm not going to review games anymore. Everyone's experience will be different with a game, so all I can really tell you is whether or not you should Buy It, Rent It, or Skip It. Anything else is just background and opinion, but those two words are enough to tell you whether or not a game meets or exceeds its value proposition. I could talk at excruciating length about how gorgeous a game's graphics are, or how the controls work, or how it sounds, but in the end, none of that matters unless you play the game (or don't).

Thus, I'm getting rid of all the fluff, and Two Word Reviews is born. The great part about this is that it simply doesn't matter how long I play a game, or finish it, or anything about me. It becomes all about whether or not a game is worth the price they're charging, or the price to get it into your hands temporarily. (On that note, I should specify that when I say "Rent It", I'm talking about a service like GameFly, so we're talking roughly $20/mo. or just under half the price of the game.) Pretty much all opinion is taken out of the equation, because by and large, the value proposition of most people is the same.

It'll be an interesting experiment. I'll probably never get my review on a box, most game websites wouldn't want to run these reviews (or pay for two words), but I know I'll feel a lot better about it.

iPhone or iFlop?

2007-06-29T11:40:00.000-07:00

Today marks the launch of the ridiculously hyped iPhone, and while it's certainly the sexiest consumer electronics product to launch in quite some time, it also marks the triumph of form over function that Apple started with the Mac Cube some years ago.

Apple fans always tout the ease of use as the hallmark of an Apple product, and the multi-touch screen of the iPhone was the ultimate culmination of that philosophy. It certainly looks easy to use in those commercials, and initial reviews seem to be fairly positive. But then there was it's first major failure, televised for all to see, no less. Meridith Viera, pretty much exactly the type of person Apple would like to appeal to with the iPhone, was completely unable to get this easy-to-use phone to work in a live demonstration on TODAY. Worse yet, she couldn't get the single function to work that is most important ... she couldn't answer a call. Intuitive or not, the lack of tactile feedback that you get with a hard button has kept other touch devices from reaching a mass-market. Apple has that, plus a limited partner and high price to contend with. Past that, if the phone just isn't as easy to use as they make it look, there could be a significant problem. I mean, why else would Apple start posting tutorial videos on their website showing people how to perform very basic functions.

Add to the problem that even the tech savvy are going to notice pretty quick that this $500-600 phone is a full generation behind other phones in basic phone functionality. Walt Mossberg and others complained of slow internet speeds (admittedly before AT&T turned on their "Fine Edge" speed upgrade), and that's before thousands of people with the new device are flooding the network with Google Maps data. People don't like to hear that they cutting-edge gadget they just bought was obsolete the minute they bought it, and for the iPhone, it's a no-brainer that a more advanced version that uses 3G and possibly has GPS will be coming in a year or two.

Once that reality sinks in, people will realize that they've paid six bills (and all those service charges) for smoke and mirrors. iPhone is NOT revolutionary. It is lipstick on a pig, and sure, that's some gorgeous shade of lipstick. But all the iPhone does is make incredibly basic functions of a phone a lot prettier to look at. Even the more advanced stuff, like how you can earch in Google Maps and make a call from from that result, is sure to come to other devices like Windows Mobile sooner than later, and for no other reason than that Windows Mobile is an open platform. And that's the real rub ... unless you're going to make a basic web application, you can't write programs for the iPhone. The ability to get Java and other sorts of apps on just about any other phone platform means that people may start wondering why they're getting nickeled and dimed for things after having already missed a mortgage payment to buy their phone.

Yes, today the iBacklash is sure to begin.

37" Westinghouse LCD 1080p - First Impressions

2007-06-21T11:52:00.000-07:00

Well, my graduation present (the Westinghouse LVM-37w3se) arrived yesterday morning, and I only got a chance to unpack it and make sure it worked before heading out to work, but once I got home, it was time to experience the HD revolution.

The first thing I did was hook up the TiVo, since it's one of those things I just can't live without. Sadly, being on the cutting edge means making a few sacrifices, and the TiVo's low-res display looked terrible once it was deinterlaced and upscaled to the 1080p of the screen. Of course, I knew this going in, but was a bit surprised at just how bad it really looked. It didn't help that I was literally kneeling in front of the screen while I set everything up, either. Of course, the PS2 and Wii fared about as well. Only capable of 480p, both consoles looked just terrible blown up, even over component connections.

Next was the Xbox 360. I just couldn't take another disappointment, so I hooked it up to the VGA port of the TV, went into the system settings and set it to 1080p widescreen. It was absolutely gorgeous. No more "dot crawl" like I had on my old Sony, fonts were smooth and clear in the Dashboard, and the whole thing just looked, for lack of a better word, spacious. Seriously, it felt like you had room to move around in that thing.

I couldn't let it rest there. I hooked up the Xbox 360 HD-DVD drive and threw in a copy of Mission: Impossible III to see if there was really that much of a difference. I remember being blown away by the quality of DVD when it first came out, and HD-DVD is a similar leap forward. It was really impressive just how good it looked. The "In-Movie Experience", or IME, was nifty too, adding video overlays of commentary or other features while you're watching.

Was it really that much better than DVD, though? I'm not sure yet. My next test will be to run my DVD and HD-DVD copies of Mission: Impossible (the original) at the same time and flip between them to see how different they look, controlling for the fact that the DVD would likely be upscaled by the TV rather poorly.

Speaking of which, I heard that the last Dashboard update for the Xbox 360 added the ability to upscale DVDs to 1080p over the VGA connection. So I tossed in the first Harry Potter movie to see how it worked, prepared to be disappointed after M:I III looked so great. Despite the very dark opening scene lacking detail, it actually looked pretty amazing, and didn't look like it was upscaled. It certainly wasn't as razor-sharp as M:I III (you could see every pore in Lawrence Fishburn's face), but it was more than adequate.

I pulled out Star Wars: Episode I and ran the THX Optimizer, a special video tuning program on the DVD. After adjusting the settings in a dark room, I flipped back over to the TiVo and noticed two things. One, properly adjusted, the standard definition upscaling doesn't look too bad. Don't get me wrong, it's still awful, but it's at least watchable now. Second, viewing distance matters a lot. From right in front, it was all a mess, but 8-ft. back was a slightly different story. Macroblocking (giant pixels) was less evident, and it just felt a bit smoother.

For my last hurrah for the night, I turned the Xbox 360 back on and threw in Gears of War. I'd played this on a 1024x768 projector on a giant screen at MindCamp, but WOW. I was absolutely blown away by the graphical fidelity. I don't know if it's rendering a 1080p frame buffer, or just 720p upscaled, but it just looked amazing. The best way to describe it is like playing a war movie set in the future. I expect to really impress some of my friends when they see just how good it looks at 1080p.

So that's it for now. I have more stuff to try, but it'll take a few more days to get everything together and whatnot. Next up: Windows Vista Media Center and HDTV!

Keeping up with the High-Definition Joneses

2007-06-11T15:03:00.000-07:00

I graduated from the University of Washington yesterday, and it was a bit of a melancholy affair. The four-year grind has culminated in my Bachelor's degree, but it's also come at a fairly high price (not just tuition-wise, but relationship-wise as well). People keep telling me that they couldn't have done it, but at the same time I wonder if knowing what I know now if I'd have made the choice. I guess I'll never know.

Regardless, it's done now, and to celebrate, I ordered myself the 37" Westinghouse 1080p LCD TV (LVM-37w3) that I've been lusting after for a few years. Costco has the TV (monitor, really, since there is no tuner in the set) on sale for $799, and I just couldn't turn that down. Even after tax and shipping, it was $100 cheaper than I could find it anywhere else, and Costco's return policy is fantastic.

Of course, that means I'll be rewiring my entertainment center (one of my favorite hobbies), and probably moving my computer into a smaller media center-like case to take advantage of my HD card. I might upgrade my DirecTV receivers to HD, but since I may be moving shortly as well, I'm probably going to hold off, especially since Verizon has FIOS rolled out on Washington's "Eastside".

I'm also pretty excited to see how the Xbox 360 looks after the 1080p upgrade, since they rolled out a software release turning on 1080p upscaling a while back. The PS3 is still way out of my price range, but maybe after a year or two I'd be able to afford it.

New TV should be here in a couple of weeks!

Crazy Business Idea ...

2007-06-08T12:55:00.000-07:00

Game shops like EB Games and GameStop largely traffic in used game. Even new releases tend to come back within a week as a used copy, which the company then resells, making close to a 100% margin or more on some games. They have massive inventories of these games and easily a national distribution network already in place by virtue of their retail locations.

So why hasn't one of these players (pun somewhat intended) gotten into renting games. They're used already, right? Copy the GameFly/Netflix model right down to a T, but build your inventory from games that people turn in, rather than buying new copies.

Seems like a no-brainer. What am I missing?