Category Archives: Technology

May 19 2006
1 Comment
Technology

That time of year again

When a young man’s fancy turns to thoughts of. . . Building a new machine.

I have no idea what I would do with it. I started out thinking about just upgrading the motherboard, processor and video card.

But then I thought, “Well, then I’d have this perfectly good motherboard, processor and video card not doing anything.”

Then I priced a case. Then I remembered I had a gigabyte of spare RAM laying around. And a hard drive. So I priced a DVD-Rom drive, because they’re really cheap nowadays.

At some psychological root level, I just want to build one.

I enjoy building machines because it is something physical, something tangible. I have spent over two decades shifting bits, tiny ones and zeros. Insignificant and yet immeasurably significant to our daily lives.

I have seen it come full circle in terms of transferring information. I used to bring plastic magnetized disks to a friend’s house. After that, it was dialing up to an electronic bulletin board. Suddenly it was over wires to a server. Then the wires were gone.

Now, I carry it around on a disk no bigger than a stick of gum that I bring over to my friend’s house.

On off on off. It’s so silly and incomprehensible and magical at the same time.

I do not even pretend to understand how it all works—I merely believe.

Which is why I enjoy building new machines. It is a time to ground myself and put all the parts together. It’s a time to set master slave, to connect a power source, to firmly seat RAM, to connect wires, to screw a motherboard into a case with brass fittings (although not necessarily in that order) and finally end up with a computer that boots up and passes POST.

At the end of every workday I produce no tangible “product.” For me, producing a physical manifestation of my trade is very satisfying.

That, and it can serve as a home theater PC.

That would be totally awesome.

May 09 2006
3 Comments
Games, Technology

You really do need two jobs to afford one.

Hey, it’s the PS3 pricing announcement. There are two models of PS3, $499 and $599. Let’s look at the differences between the two, based on the press release.

The $500 version is missing more than just hard drive space. Additionally, here’s what you don’t get:

  1. No WiFi
  2. No Memory Card Reader
  3. No HDMI

The WiFi thing is odd to me because implementing WiFi is pretty cheap. At $250, the PSP has WiFi. Hell, at $130 the DS Lite has WiFi. But I guess you could get a USB wireless adapter. Currently this is how the Xbox 360 handles WiFi. Not a big deal here.

No memory card reader, also not a big deal. In theory, you can plug in a USB reader to the PS3 and have it read your media. Unless, they do something to their hardware to make it proprietary. Which would be completely out of character for SONY. All I ask here is that you can use them to save your games. Is that too much?

The no HDMI is going to make some people angry when they try to play a next generation DVD but can’t, because only HDMI supports the crazy ass DRM that the movie houses demanded be on blu-ray. Of course, this is a non issue since most televisions right now don’t even have HDMI connections.

So, if you don’t care about any of these things, sure. I guess it’s worth half a grand. On the other hand, an extra hundred dollars gets you the additional functionality. I’m thinking that all of these bells and whistles are a tad excessive for something that is supposed to be playing games.

And to be honest, I haven’t seen anything that makes me want to spend half a grand on the system just yet. We’ll see how things shake down in the next couple of days of E3.

But I’m not holding my breath.

Now I have to wait for the MicroSoft and Nintendo announcements.

May 02 2006
Games, Technology, writing

Shameless self promotion

I’ve got an article up over at videolamer about whether or not you should buy the xbox 360. I go through a few questions you should ask yourself, but as I read it now, I realize I completely forgot to talk about whether or not you have broadband. Ah well. That’s my editor’s fault.

Another thing to consider is, are you ready to be an early adopter? This is the first revision of the hardware. There will be others. As they work out tiny little kinks like overheating, the next model number of the Xbox 360 should be sturdier, cooler, more stable and less likely to consume you in green fire.

Just a couple of common sense questions. Questions that people don’t seem to be asking themselves when they consider the PS3.

Apr 21 2006
2 Comments
Technology

It's so easy!

I recall one time, I listening to a friend trying to explain UNIX permissions to another friend of mine. They were not getting the concept. After about ten minutes of explanation, I interjected and the following dialogue occurred.

“Well, you see, it’s a series of three bits, you add up the numbers and then you end up with a three digit number that represents your permissions.”
“I’m not sure I get it.”
“IT’S FOUR PLUS TWO PLUS ONE IS SEVEN! IT’S NOT ROCKET SCIENCE!”

This is why I’m not in the training department.

Apr 20 2006
Technology

Ah, music

So I’m playing my morning Sudoku and I’ve got about fourteen squares to go. I get an sms on my phone, so I pause my game. They’re from google telling me that a couple of people have accepted my invitations for Friday and Sunday outings. I decide to pop on iTunes and listen to the 80s channel. I unpause Sudoku as the stream starts to buffer and focus on the last fourteen squares.

I’m stuck on a troublesome square. Then, the buffer fills.

It’s “Eye of the Tiger.”

I knocked out those last squares well before the song ended.

I did refrain from raising my arms up in triumph.

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