4/2/2007 #
Surprise!
I just had a thought about the Xbox 360 and its accouterments (not common!), especially pertaining to its functionality-to-price profile versus standalone products. I used this to derive an estimate of the actual value of the gaming portion of the 360 to someone who is using all the corollary features of the 360.
$399.99 Xbox 360
$99.99 Xbox 360 Wireless Adapter
$199.99 Xbox 360 HD-DVD Player
= $699.97
The Xbox 360 is a media center extender (the only one not currently in e-retail “View Other Buying Options” purgatory, in fact).
$150.00 Media Center Extender (eBay estimate)
$399.99 Toshiba HD-DVD Player
= $549.99
So, gaming is worth about $150 of consumer value, if you exercise all those implied options like HD-DVD, and actually using the MCE functionality.
Too bad the gaming on a 360 isn’t worth $0.07 to me.
3/30/2007 #
Hacks
I never got the chance to express fully my interest in being involved with Meta’s dream game project. Especially if there’s embedded scripting, database backend, or a big XML parsing job somewhere in there. But, pretty much anything but graphics. I did enough BitBlt(...) swinging back in my anti-heyday.
I’m sure now even the mention of BitBlt would evoke mocking laughter from the modern era of DirectX and various goodies. But, it was a good way to do the job from VB 4.0 32-bit (…I know…) with pretty much only one function.
Many people may not know that VB, when sweet-talked, will expose the entire W32API for your masochistic enjoyment, using something on the order of:
Declare Function EPS48_Receive Lib "bkeps48.dll" (ByVal RecvData As String, ByVal MaxLength As Integer) As Integer
In the .NET era, I’m sure this is the ultimate of “unmanaged” code.
3/29/2007 #
The Day
It’s a rainy, somewhat sleepy, day today. I’m not all too busy, so I have spent some time implementing nearly every feature of my pet CMS (Content Management System) programming project except the core FTP client functionality, which is about like me anyway as far as hobby projects are concerned.
I daydreamed of Sigma today ever so briefly while tromping through campus road puddles, but there is not yet enough sweetness in the dreaming to recommence. Anyway, this CMS deal is more important.
I’m still a bit shaken from the loss of my cross ring, which I suppose one must chalk up to “One of Those Things.” Coming from someone with probably dangerously high levels of self-accountability, it sometimes feels like we’re all given a parachute pack with two rip cords, one labeled “Yourself” and the other labeled “The Kindness of Strangers.” When the first one fails, you are humbled to realize you’ve only the second to try. When the second appears to fail, you can only blame the first for assuming it had a backup.
3/29/2007 #
I've Seen All Good People
What is it with these concert people who always cheer when an artist cusses in a song?
3/28/2007 #
Ahh
Chicago VII is such a great album.
3/27/2007 #
Wii
Add Super Paper Mario to the list of candidates.
3/26/2007 #
Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut
I’m not a big aficionado of sports videos on YouTube, but this one is worth it.
3/26/2007 #
HDTV Thoughts
Getting my tiptoes wet in the market for a small HDTV, I realize (despite my need to get completely tired enough to go to sleep) that this whole 480p, 720p, 1080i/p situation has completely detached itself from reality and become a big, steaming mess of junk.
I find myself wondering, “Will there be a 1080p 27 inch LCD display in the near future?” Well, from my reading it looks like this question is only answered by trade show fodder, in which Sony is debuting an OLED (that’s “O” for organic in this crazy reality) that can pull off this feat.
I realize that BluRay, HD-DVD, and friends are a’coming, and I will no doubt at some point in time be dragged unconscious up to a cash register with some cheap model of a 1080p-blasting device, and some nice employee will carry it out to my spaceship towed by faerie dust and dreams.
I also envision that said device will, when I come to, be capable of performing a downscaling operation to bring its resolution down to the mesosphere (which a Wikipedia check reveals is actually above the stratosphere, which in turn breaks my allusion to the idiom, so please s/stratosphere/exosphere for the regex folks out there) of 720p, where I will gladly sit, warming my soft green couch with tan accent pillows with my soft rosy-red, split-cushioned, fully-attached butt.
In sum, I don’t need 1080p, especially at 27”. Because 27” at 720p is going to look quite a bit like a computer monitor with HDMI inputs by the time 1080p is stealing everybody’s lunch money.
1080i bugs me like anything you double and then take half of. Or anything you halve and take double of. Depending on the case. Like the super-strength dish soap that comes in the tiny little bottle. 1080i is, from my perspective, a big number followed by an embarrassing letter.
I don’t know. It shouldn’t take this much effort to shop for something you shouldn’t care nearly as much about as people tend to do.