Category: tech

PIP

I’ve noticed a clear difference lately between shows that were made for HiDef and shows made in HiDef. Shows made for HiDef are incredibly detailed and every aspect is a delight to the eyes. The visual creation is overwhelming. It becomes obvious rather quickly the content is as important as the detail.

Now shows made in HiDef are regulars movies transcoded into the HiDef format. The detail is there however, it becomes apparent very quickly it wasn’t made for HiDef. I was watching my favorite movie last night Underworld:Evolution and the detail was so good I could see some of the fake parts. The makeup was more pronounced and the digital layovers were noticeable. Not enough to ruin the movie mind you but a little distracting the first time. Don’t get me wrong the detail was amazing and the color and richness of it added to the content. But sitting their watching it, I realized there is a clear difference between a show made for HiDef and a show made in HiDef.

I guess directors will have to take that into consideration now. Every detail, every minutia has to be realistic. Otherwise, the believability of it gets lost. Of course, this just means they’ll jack up the price of tickets and rentals. (Oh wait, they do that already) Anyway, I’m rambling so more later.

Karma

The committee chair for the BCC is learning just how technical the management of their domain is. He is trying to manage the domain like he does everything else, crisis control. In the latest debacle, he has attempted to transfer the domain 3 times now. Of course, the first two times failed.1 And he is still under the delusion that all of the emails setup under the domain will magically transfer with it. In the words of my deceased father, “It don’t work like that son.”

After his 2nd failure, he finally swallowed his pride and checked w/me. Just in time too. I discovered he was about to totally fuck the domain up completely. I hate to sound like I’m gloating but I did tell him.2 His attitude and lack of concern are now coming full circle to bite him in the ass. He was trying to use a 3rd party host to transfer between two other hosts. Anyone knowing enough about the net backbone can tell you what a nightmare that would have been. Meanwhile, the domain would have been down the whole time.

And, I just know, he’d rather eat a pot full of razors than admit he was wrong. I don’t expect to hear from him about the emails. I was kind enough to send him a snapshot of all the emails in use. This way I get to gloat (just a little) and my karma stays in tact.

1 The domain was locked

2 Ok, I am gloating a little.

HiDef? OH Yeah Baby!

So the cable guy showed up on Sunday. Two and half hours later, we figured out how to make it work. The cable card installation went off w/o a hitch. However, he was as clueless as I was as to why the cable box wasn’t functioning. Basically, if you get the HD box w/o their DVR1 the top row of output jacks are worthless. A heads up for anyone upgrading to HiDef anytime soon. We finally figured it out. One cable to the cable card in the back of the TV and one cable to the cable box, composite video from the cable box to the TV, and coaxial cable from the cable box to the back of the Tivo.

*

My delay into the world of online gaming was shortlived. Scott from The Magic Geek found me online and we played Uno2 and then Gears of War for a few hours. Scott and his gang made me feel welcome. Some of his group wasn’t much better than me at GOW so it was fun. He also introduced me to gaymer.org. Its a online forum for gay gamers.

1You are much better off with Tivo or any other 3rd party DVR. Comcast puts too many restrictive flags on their broadcasts.

2 The fact that I was playing Uno on brand new HiDef TV was not lost on me. Oh yeah Moby, way to get your moneys worth.

Gamer

*geek post ahead*

It has been a long time since I’ve been considered a ‘noob’ or newbie (new comer or novice player) at anything. However, I feel like a total noob w/my foray into the Xbox 360. Microsoft does gets points for making the website very centric and tightly intergrated into the console itself. Logging on via the console or the internet yields the same results albeit different formats.


My cheesy gamertag.

So far my game list consists of Doom 3, Halo 2, and Gears of War. The latter being the only one released specifically for the new 360 console. Doom was a favorite PC game back in the day when it first hit the scene. V3 has definitely come a long way since then. Halo 2 was a benchmark in graphics when it was released for the original Xbox. Gears of War blows’em all way w/so much detail, it is like controlling an animated movie.

My only beef w/GOW is aiming. Aiming on a standard game controller is a bit dodgy and makes gameplay very slow until you finally get fragged so many times you improve from sheer repetition. You can see from my tag list, I haven’t gotten very far yet. I’m still jumping around the level trying to explore (and getting fragged in the process).

And even though I’m all signed up for online game play, I’ll probably hold off for awhile until I no longer feel like a noob. I like that Microsoft is playing hard ball w/gamers who resort to cheating to get an upper advantage. I’m sure it won’t go away but it makes it more enjoyable for the average gamer like myself. I game for enjoyment not competition. If some no-life lackey cheats and constantly beats everyone, it ruins the experience (and Microsofts bottom line).

For now, I’m very happy w/the the console and have enough games to keep me busy for at least a few months.

Techno Hell

*Full geek post ahead. You have been warned.*

You’d think being the tech geek I am, I’d have absolutely no problem setting up all the new devices w/the new HDTV. You’d be wrong. My woes started when the Tivo wasn’t getting audio from the new HD cable box. I checked, rechecked, and checked my wires yet again BEFORE calling tech. support.1.

I was at work so I just ran thru the checklist of things w/the Tivo guy and asked if he’d encountered similar problems w/other subscribers. To his credit, he did know and recommended a fix. However, after getting home and trying it, no luck. I was fast becoming agitated.

Fast forward to today.

This time I called Comcast. While I’ve had very little trouble w/them over the years, I know better than to remotely hope for a knowledgable rep. My lack of faith was justified right up until the very end of the conversation. She let it slip that the HD cable box doesn’t do more than one output source at a time. Exsqueeze me? Why the hell do you offer multiple out ports then? Needless to say, she was less than amused w/my 10 minute BF2.

Not willing to admit defeat just yet, I treked off to Radioshack for some help . . . a wasted trip.
Continue reading Techno Hell

Party’s Over

I’ve sorta been revelling in my new found free time lately. So much so I think I’m making myself sick. I woke up today w/a low grade fever and a sore throat1. I’ve been on the go all weekend. Sorta like the energizer bunny….going, going, and going. Well, this bunny is worn down. I know, my activities are lame compared to some peoples standards but I’m not into all that.

So today, I’m just taking it easy. I do have to get laundry and errands dones so just a low-key slow paced day to recover. I haven’t been eating very good lately either. While I love fast-food, I limit myself to one or two trips a week. Lately, it’s been my mainstay. Time to get back on track. I can’t very well expect results at the gym if I’m only cramming regular unleaded into my system. Nope, It’s Premium only for this body2.

In sort of related news, I joined Zip car today. My roommate uses them all the time so I figured I’d give it a try. If you aren’t familiar with it, basically, they have mini “stations” of cars all over the city3. You log on, reserve one, and then just go pick it up. They cover the gas, insurance, everything. Starting at $8.00 bucks an hour, it’s hard to beat. Especially, when you just need it for errands and don’t need a traditional 24 hour rental. In a city as dense as SF, it goes over well. I’m surprised it took me this long to try it. I’ll let you know how it goes. Today is my first rental for groceries.

The dating bug is biting at me again. I’m not sure why I’m so keenly aware of this part of my life right now. If you read w/any regularity, you know my feelings on dating. You also know my history at such attempts. I’m still puzzeling over this one so I’ll have to get back to you. I do know I’m not feeling the old “whats wrong w/me” pangs. I think I’ve finally grown beyond that. It’s hard to explain w/o having you inside my head. Anyway, once I puzzle it out, I’ll share it.

1 Nothing so glamorous as all night drinking benges or drugs. As if. Have you forgotten where I work?

2Ok, it was a cheesey reference. Shoot me already.

3 They have 3, count’em 3, within just a few blocks of my apartment. I may never order online for Safeway again. hehehehe

Quick, Fast, & In a Hurry!

I made it in and out of the dmv today in less than 30 minutes! And, that’s including the time I spent running outside to take the plate off the bike. Confused? Don’t be. I bought a personalized plate for the bike and it finally arrived1. I didn’t like the one I had on the scooter so I switched.

What do you think? Does it suit me?

Speaking of, did I mention I sold the scooter back to the dealer? They gave me a fair price for it so no complaints there.

I also got the replacement phone/pda today too. Thanks be! I was going freakin’ nuts w/o it. I really am dependent on my gadgets. While waiting for the new one, I was given a clear idea of how much I depend on technology2. I can’t help it. However, isn’t that the point? To make ones life better? That’s a big affirmative in my book. hehehe.

I also made it to the gym again today. Three times in three days. I may actually gain back all my lost muscle before Christmas. That would be nice. I discovered my buddy, Woof Brandon, has passed me in size as well as strength now. Before I had him beat on strength. *sigh*

1 I ordered it over a month ago. They say 2-4 weeks. My ass. Try almost 2 frakin months!

2 Don’t laugh, I can check my email, surf the web, make calls, listen to music, manage my workouts, watch video, even record video on the damn thing. Hell, if I wanted to I could even use it as a garage remote.

Fiddlin’ III

Ok, I can’t stop fiddlin w/the blog. Besides the “recent comments” update, I also added a nifty little feature that tracks my comments pretty much anywhere on the web. I like it as it ties all of my online activity together on my blog.

I personally think this is a very useful plugin. Part of the blogging experience is getting to know the writer behind the blog. What better way than seeing comments elsewhere on the net. Don’t ya think?

I was a little put off by the code to install it at first. However, they have a firefox extension that works seamlessly w/the browser. They also have a predefined plugin for Wordress too. All I had to do was install both and viola! Any comment anywhere can be linked back to my blog. How frakin’ neat is that?

OH No It Dinn’t!

My pda phone died today. My baby! I was busy texting a bud from work when suddenly kaput!

No worries, Tmobile promptly scheduled my replacement to arrive by Saturday. Yes, it’s still under warranty. I haven’t a clue what happened to it. It just, like, died. *sigh*

Extreme Tech

So if you didn’t think I was a techophile you will after this post. I mentioned some time ago my wish to “cut the cords” so to speak when it comes to tech. I’m getting there. I needed a new printer and I wanted it to be wifi or bluetooth enabled. That way, I’m not stuck w/it cluttering up my desk and trying to hide a mess of wires. Mission accomplished. I went one step further though and bought a paper-to-pdf scanner.

new toy

This little baby scan feeds a page thru in about 10 seconds and instantly outputs the scan to a pdf file. No more saving receipts, warranties, etc in a giant paper pile. I detest holding onto all that crap and I am happy to shift it all digital. Naturally, I spent two solid hours last night scanning a whole mess of paperwork. The downer is I bought the wrong adapter for the pc to hookup the printer. I grabbed the wifi one instead of the bluetooth one…silly faggot. lol I’m off to Best Buy in a little bit to get the right one.

My master plan is to go one step further and do away w/my home pc all together. kristaki and I are going in together on a NAS (network attached storage) a little later this year. Basically, all of my data will reside on the NAS and I’ll have a docking station for the new laptop sitting on the desk. So I’ll be down to two cords instead of 12. I calculated it up and even if I transferred everything I own, I’d only fill up about 400gigs worth of data. Considering drives are already pushing beyond 500gigs I’d still have at least 100 more gigs left to play with. Pretty sweet huh? But it gets better. W/the NAS connected, I can access my data anywhere I can pick up an net connection. And with a terabyte of alloted transfer volume a month, now we’re talking! I only need invest in chip speed and design instead of worrying about storage.

Still think I’m not a geek?