Some-what Random Thoughts

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2005-11-01T11:01:00.000-06:00

Shownotes: -

Apple Launches iTunes Music Store in Japan

2005-08-03T21:34:00.000-05:00

Apple today launched its revolutionary iTunes Music Store in Japan, giving music fans the same innovativea features, breakthrough pricing, seamless integration with iPod and groundbreaking personal use rights that have made iTunes the number one online music service in the world. With one million songs priced at just ¥150 and ¥200 per song...

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The Truth About Violent Youth and Video Games

2005-07-25T09:22:00.000-05:00

There is no epidemic of youth violence in America. The whole concept is a lie manufactured, distributed and perpetuated by the media. Kids are not killing each other more frequently than they used to. In fact, it turns out the opposite is true.

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Episode 1

2005-07-17T22:47:00.000-05:00

Shownotes: -About the podcast -Review on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory -Review of Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince Download

Podcasting

2005-06-30T21:30:00.000-05:00

Well, I've been planing to do a Some-what Random Stuff podcast for a while now, but I have been procrastinating for a while. But now I'm finally commitment to it. So in the next week or so there should be the first Some-what Random Stuff podcast. Today though I'm going to name the podcasts I'm listening to. *This Week in Tech (TWiT) -Your first podcast of the week is the last word in tech. Join Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, and other tech luminaries in a roundtable discussion of the latest trends in digital technology. Released every Sunday at midnight Pacific. *Theforce.net -If you are a Star Wars fan you should listen to this podcast *Earthcore -The first podcast only novel *Slacker Astronomy -Two gen-x professional astronomers and a radio dude team up to tackle a weekly news event in the world of astronomy. They use plenty of dry humor and schtick but respect the intelligence of the audience. Think Dr. Who combined with Carl Sagan and Car Talk. Hosted by Pamela Gay and Travis Searle. *Daily Source Code -Adam Curry's audio blog

Favorite Firefox Extensions

2005-06-22T21:46:00.000-05:00

The dreaded favorite Firefox extension post. I think that every blog does this post once so I'll get it over with. (in no particular order) 1. Adblock- I think that the title says it all, it blocks ads and other pictures 2. Greasemonkey- Changes how webpages are seen 3. Bugmenot- Used to bypass the login of websites< 4. Sage- A simple RSS/Atom reader that is inside the sidebar 5. Spellbound- Use spellcheck to check your spelling in any form.

Firefox Wins PC World's Product of the Year Award

2005-06-02T12:00:00.000-05:00

Mozilla Firefox is definitely an award winning product. Firefox received c|Net's Editor's Choice Award. It also received PC Magazine's Editor's Choice Award.

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The Other Side of BitTorrent

2005-06-02T11:56:00.000-05:00

As Hollywood ramps up its fight against the film-swapping kingpin, some in the industry find a silver lining.

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Wide Screen Wallpapers

2005-05-30T15:27:00.000-05:00

If you have a widescreen monitor like me this site will help. A bunch of widescreen wallpapers since they are some-what hard to find.

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Systm

2005-05-23T21:40:00.000-05:00

The very first Systm episode is out. Go check it out. Just encase the site goes down again here are the torrent links: Large Format: Xvid Windows Media Theora h.264 quicktime 7 (Mac Only) Small Format: Xvid Windows Media Theora PSP h.264 quicktime 7 (Mac Only)

Star Wars: Episode III: ROTS

2005-05-19T18:50:00.000-05:00

Today I saw the latest Star Wars movie. And I just have to say it is AWESOME, *****, etc. But of course I am a huge SW fan so bring down that level a little bit and that is the true rating of the movie. First of all the dialog wasn't that good, but that was to be expected. GL just can't write a script. The visuals were amazing. When the crawl and the main theme came up a big smile came across my face. As the movie went of some of the humor felt out of place, but luckily that was gone by the end of the film. There were a few humorous lines from the book that would have felt well in the movie, but sadly those lines, like "Happy Empire Day", weren't in the movie. The Duel was...well you will have to see for yourself, but it was very cool. And the ending scenes were some of the best scenes of the entire saga in my opinion. This isn't the best SW movie, but it isn't the worst either. Overall I place ROTS in 3rd place, just below ANH. So, if you have seen some of the Star Wars movies you better go check it out. If you haven't, which I don't see how, still check it out, but check out the summaries of the other movies or you will have no idea what is going on.

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

2005-05-17T15:10:00.000-05:00

From gearcritec.com
A New Legend is Born.

When an evil shadow stretches from the heart of Hyrule to its peaceful borderlands, a young farm boy named Link must awaken the hero within and stand tall in defense of his village. Lead Link and his beloved steed into battle against hordes of foul creatures with an incredible horseback combat system, then take on massive bosses that have to be seen to be believed. The last ray of hope for a dying realm, Link finds himself on an epic journey that will challenge him endlessly and transform him in ways unimaginable.

Yet another new twist on the Zelda series, it seems that our favorite green hat wearing hero is now a WEREWOLF! This game is the Zelda game all the casual “i like adult games” gamers have been waiting for.

Not only are the graphics on par with what has been show for the next generation but the music is phenominal. ENJOY!

I can't wait enough for this game. The last sentence is great though. This game is for the GCN and the graphics are on par with next gen games. I wonder what the Revolution being 2-3x as powerful will have in store? I'm also glad Nintendo is somewhat going away from the "kiddie" feel the people have been trashing them for. If they keep this up, they might make some headway in the console race.

First pic of Nintendo Revolution revealed!

2005-05-17T12:44:00.000-05:00

I can't wait til it comes out.

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Real ID Passes Senate

2005-05-11T10:58:00.000-05:00

Privacy advocates' efforts to stop legislation that would create a federally-approved electronic ID card failed today. A military spending bill which contained the so-called Real ID Act driver's license reform passed unanimously in the U.S. Senate.
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RSOD (Red Screen of Death)?

2005-05-10T21:30:00.000-05:00

The good ole blue screen of death appears to have gone red. I guess it is more fitting of a death screen, but I will miss the BSOD.

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Hitchhiker's Guide Review Spoilers

2005-04-29T09:39:00.000-05:00

First of all let us take 42 (insert unit of time) to remember Douglas Noël Adams who couldn't be here to see his movie completed. *SPOILER WARNING! SPOILER WARNING!* This is your first and final warning. This post contains spoilers. If you don't want to read spoilers please disregard this post, if not read on. Lets talk about the bad stuff first. This will be kind of short because there wasn't anything really wrong. There were only two things that I didn't like. The shower scene with Arthur and Trillian. I think that this scene was just unnecessary and could of been done completely different. The other thing is that the mice don't explain really well why they need Arthur's brain. A couple of added lines could help with that. Everything else about the movie was really great though. There were multiple jokes that that people who have seen the TV mini-series or read the books would get. Such jokes were Zaphod calling Ford "Ix", and the appearance of Marvin from the TV mini-series. I loved the intro to the movie, makes me wish for Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy musical. The movies had more Guide entries than I thought it would. I wish they would of put in the non-existence of God entry, but I understand why they took it out. The Vogons were great and acted even more rule-oriented than I originally thought. The ending was like the book's, but what really made the end great was DNA's face and "For Douglas".

MEO>LOTRO

2005-04-25T13:31:00.000-05:00

Quote from PC Gamer: AS OUR GUEST, you're ushered behind the scenes at Turbine. The first thing you'll notice is the new name of it's spotlight title. Turbine bought the LOTR license from former publisher Vivendi and renamed Middle-Earth Online to reflect a whole new approach. "Vivendi wanted a game where you live and breathe in Middle-earth," says lead content designer Matthew Imregi. "We decided that would be too dull, so our new slogan is 'Forging a Legacy.'" LOTR Online focuses heavily on the idea of family history, which you'll determine when you create your character, playing a big part in the game. VITAL FACT: To encourage teamwork, the game will boast a powerful linked-combo attack system.

So now MEO is now going to be called LOTRO (or something like that). The name change bothers me because they are trying to appeal to all of the people who have only seen the movies. I can live with that though. What I can't live with is the quote by Matthew Imregi. How can Middle-Earth be too dull. There are tons of things to see and do and after five years I still I don't think I would be bored with it. Also now we are supposed to 'Forge a Legacy.' I don't care about leaving a legacy I just want to explore Arda (Middle-Earth). Ah well I'll still play the game, and still call it MEO just to annoy the newbies.

Why I hate M$ Windows

2005-03-16T14:53:00.000-06:00

A couple of weeks ago I had an interesting conversation with a friend (you should know who you are) about different OS's(Operating Systems). Well anyway I decided to post the reasons I hate M$ and why I can't wait to switch to Linux or Mac. 1. IE integrated deeply into Windows To most computer illiterate people that sounds like a good thing that they will always have an internet browser at their fingertips. But in reality it opens Windows up for security holes that are very hard to plug. 2. Not customizable What I mean by this is that I don't have the ability to add or subtract components in Windows. This reason ties in with Reason #1. On most OS's, that I know of, you have the ability to pick and choose exactly which items you want to be installed or not installed. Windows though gives you thing that you might not need, but you can't get rid of. An example would be WMP. I don't use it at all anymore(I use Winamp and iTunes now) and I cannot uninstall it. It shall probably always remain on my computer. 3. Security It is a proven fact that Windows isn't the most secure OS there is. Their bugs holes get patches months and months after that are seen, if they get patches at all. 4. Delays M$ takes forever to put something out, and even then it isn't that good of a product. Longhorn, M$'s new OS, was supposed to have been released in 2004, but now 2006 is really hopeful. I know that they are a big company and have to take that long to get something out is unacceptible. I do know one thing if Duke Nukem Forever comes out before Longhorn I leaving M$ right then and never looking back.

Anatomy of a movie trailer

2005-03-01T22:26:00.000-06:00

The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy movie site has posted a new online exclusive trailer. The entire trailer is the Guide's definition to a movie trailer. Check it out, it is really funny.

Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door

2005-02-24T21:39:00.000-06:00

Yesterday (23/2/05) I got Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door (GCN) for my Birthday. I started playing it that night and most of this morning. I have to say I really, really like this game. The first thing that caught my attention was that the entire game acts like a book. There are prologues, chapters, no voice action, just like a book. Another good thing about this game is the comedy. There are jokes everywhere, but the best joke is the paralell quest Luigi is on which is somewhat simelar to Mario's quest. There is even curses that help up (reminds me of Zelda: Link's Awakening [GB]). The only downside I have noticed is that the combat system could be better. For some attack is so easy to do the most powerful version of the attack. If you want a good RPG for the GameCube give this one a go. I give it an A. ---------------------------------------------------------- On a totally unrelated note, Firefox reached 1.0.1. I recommend anyone with Firefox to upgrade to this release.

/pizza

2005-02-20T09:59:00.000-06:00

Gaming has hit a new low. In EverQuest II a player can type in /pizza and go to an order page for Pizza Hut so they can get a pizza while still sitting at their computers. Have people become so lazy that they can't pick up a phone and call Pizza Hut to order a pizza. PS. Here is the offical page for /pizza

iPod Shuffle

2005-02-15T19:44:00.000-06:00

I just got a 512mb iPod shuffle (iPs), and really I like it. I mean there are a few problems with it, but what I use it for out ways the problems. Setting up the iPod was easy with iTunes. The thing that took the longest was deciding what the name should be. I finally decided on call i-Wing. The name came to me from an A-wing SWTCG card. At first I was going to get the 1Gb iPs, but due to money I went for the 512mb. I'm glad I did, because I never use all of the 1Gb unless I went on a trip. I give the iPs an A- because although it is very good there are still a few things that need to be added (like multiple playlists).

Happy New Year!

2005-01-01T02:01:00.000-06:00

Happy New Years everybody. Hope you have a nice 2005. Oh yea, I was last years person of the year. No seriously.

Start of Something New

2004-12-29T22:30:00.000-06:00

I just decided one day to start up this blog. I'll try to remember to update it reguarly. But knowing me that won't happen.