just waiting for an excuse...

have played with Ubuntu 8.04 and have been pretty impressed so far.

That being said, I'm still happy between my XP desktop and OS X laptop (and Vista work laptop, but there's no choice in that so it's kind of moot...).

Wishing for either (both?) MS or Apple to do something stupid that will make me say, "fuck this proprietary OS shit!"

As it is though...doing fine in both regards on both platforms, and as such, despite all the goodness/progress made by Ubuntu (and other Linux desktop distros), I don't feel any real reason to switch over yet.

That being said, I'm still pretty sure that I'd never pay full retail for MS Vista. (although, if I could get it for free or next to free, yeah, I'd have to consider it....)

I'm flippant and indecisive.

awkwardly chilling

it's friday and things are mostly well. at home, having a few drinks, watching battlestar galactica with the wife (who, as it turns out, really got into that show).

can't complain too much.

Feel like there should be something more to this, to everything.

But despite my unease/discomfort, nothing is springing to mind.

So I'll have some water & enjoy.

I like this quote

"Give a man fire, and you warm him for the night. Set a man on fire, and you warm him for the rest of his life." - Terry Pratchett

working with cat

While working late at home sometimes is not always desirable (especially if you'd rather be doing something else), one thing that usually makes it better is when one of your cats is willing to share your lap with the laptop.

Venezuela - baywatch for the children!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7338131.stm

So, apparently Venezeula feels that "the Simpsons" is inappropriate as a morning cartoon for children.

(I can understand this).

So they have pulled the show from the airwaves and replaced it with "Baywatch".

That seems really funny to me. But on some reflection - are we to think that children couldn't handle the simplistic storylines or bouncing boobs (and David Hasselhoff)???

From a certain point of view, Baywatch might be better for children than the simpsons. At least the women are empowered to go kick ass and save lives, just as much as the men on the show are.

I have heard that Venezuela is home to many beaches; and I'd imagine that any child going to the beach is probably going to see an eyeful of skin anyway...and for that matter, I doubt that Venezuelans are as uptight about seeing skin on TV as some folk are in the US.

(but on the other hand, the simpsons does make a lot of literary and cultural references that may inspire kids to look them up and read further in order to get the jokes..actually, on further thought, some of those references are probably lost in translation; from my experience having watched Simpsons episodes in Spanish while in Mexico & occasionally on DVD)

For further thought, I guess that baywatch was something frequently on TV when I was growing up & visiting friends...and I've turned out fine...right?

And if you didn't know Baywatch, then this wouldn't be nearly as funny:

ubuntu 8.04

As of right now, 16 days to go until the next version of Ubuntu linux is released.

I downloaded the beta this weekend and tried it out as a live cd for a little bit - seems very solid so far. Was responsive and good looking on my system.

Did not do a full-on install of it yet on my home PC, mainly since it is still running XP quite acceptably. Would be neat to dedicate an entire physical machine to it; but haven't really had a need to yet; my late 2005-vintage iBook is still running fine (although the battery is only good for ~30-40 minutes if wi-fi is on...

Regardless, pretty impressed with it.

If I only needed a PC for web, email, documents, pictures, & listening to mp3s, and watching movies/files that I had donwnloaded, or I needed to outfit a lot of people with PCs and I was on a budget, then I'd be pretty confident in choosing Ubuntu.

Not sure if it's ready for prime-time yet if you do a lot of PC gaming and like having the newest games to play, or if you're using your computer to make/record music, or if you are dependent on some proprietary application that only works on Windows.

The thought of "letting go" of being tied to proprietary software is pretty attractive, though a bit misleading. It's not as if by adopting an open-source only approach to things that somehow one's tech life will be free of complication or hassle. One still needs to do backups.

Regardless, I think more people being aware of the option and using it is a very good thing.

eee pc

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/30/windows-xp-powered-eee-pc-laptop-400-april-9th/

Seems pretty cool - have gotten a chance to play with one at work (one of my colleagues won it).

Not sure what I'd really do with it or why I'd need one at the moment - not to mention that it's also pretty well known that a bigger-screen version is on the way soon.

(On another note, I do find it amusing that Windows XP has had its lifespan extended (again) for the eee PC since Vista is a bit too bloated to work well on a low-spec system like the eee)

Rancid makes me feel better

Had been feeling down (was in a bit of a rut) well after last thursday's post...the weekend was mostly better, but Monday was unsatisfying.

Yet, rocking out to songs by Rancid helped me feel much better.

One of my all-time favorite bands - I have a lot of love for them and have been enjoying their music nearly half of my life.

This is just a convenient video from a google/Youtube search with pretty clean audio.

what's up with boring city development?

Lease is coming to an end, and so we're thinking about what to do next.

Living now in a part of the greater Seattle area that is very pedestrian-friendly, in that there are not only lots of crosswalks, but there are also businesses & things to do within walking distance. I can't honestly call it vibrant, but one will see people nearly anytime...maybe it's better described as an "active" area?

We like that. Unfortunately, home prices where we live now are on the high side. Annoyed that most of the places we can afford (further out) are in neighborhoods where there's nothing around...just a lot of houses - that seems really boring to us.

Alternatively, I guess we could try living in Seattle proper, but the areas we can afford aren't super compelling either, and are also going to require a longer drive for both of us.

Maybe just keep renting for the time being?

unease?

Not sure exactly what has been bothering me - but feeling a little aimless/restless right now.

Work is fine. Life at home is okay.

Just not really sure what I want to do 'next', if that makes any sense. Not a lot of clear goals right now - I guess I need to figure those out.

Perhaps finding something more fulfillling for my hours outside of work would be a good idea.

(Had some moments where I was playing games this weekend and I realized/hoped that there is more to life than just consuming digital entertainment...)

question to ponder

Which is the more evil organization to work for - Clearchannel or an Oil company?

Had this debate with a friend a while ago who had options to work for either in an international context.

While I guess it's possible that US oil interests have instigated more human misery to the world than Clearchannel, and have done more in the past to block sustainable fuels (which has caused the earth greater damage than clearchannel's moves to kill music artistry), I just don't like Clearchannel at all.

Although they have near monopoly status in many markets, what they control is a dying industry. Can't find a lot of redeeming value in what they've done.

For all of their evil, at least some oil companies try and push for semi-sustainable and responsible drilling and collection where they work.

Also, I'm probably also biased in that of the people I've met who work in the oil industry, most of them have been pretty alright people. I haven't met anyone who works for Clearchannel, and as such I can't associate the concept of their company with anything more than their logo on a billboard.

down day?

Just felt kind of down today. Not exactly sure why.

But perhaps I didn't get enough sleep? Really...trying to figure this out.

But, seeing this bit of news made me happy.

Though, I get the feeling that I need to finish reading Quicksilver and the rest of the series. Just 2600-some pages to go. But apparently the series picks up in the next 2000 pages. We'll see.

Decided to attempt a little experiment - I have a bunch of books at home that I've bought over the years and never read; have games that I've bought but haven't finished - I guess we'll give that a shot & see how long I last.

what is the point of .mac again?

Just thinking - really, what is the big deal about .mac (apple's service that costs between $75-100 per year for web hosting and ~10 gb of storage)?

While I am impressed with what it is supposed to do and how-easy it is supposed to make things, and giving that I tried it for one year, I feel that it is more like a glorified version of aol.com; in that it's taking something that is pretty freely available and then charging people a premium for a crippled version.

Although I was happy with what I did with iWeb & .mac, I think that blogspot is a more sustainable and perhaps better long-term play.

okay weekend

Went to a bacon-themed potluck/party on saturday. Not bad - especially if you like bacon....

Sunday has been okay.

Slept in; then played some games (Half-life 2: episode one and super smash brothers), played with our cats, then installed an iphone-interface hack on my phone, then went to the gym, then did some shopping, then came home & had dinner, played with our cats, watched the L-word and then south park. Then finished our box of Franzia Sangria, and I played Team Fortress 2.

I guess not productive at all, but I feel pretty relaxed now and should be in a good frame of mind for real work tomorrow.

motorola is really hurting and hearing about why makes me sad for the USA

After reading some news postings about this, I was really sad, in a way - I mean, Motorola was a great company and it is too bad that their CEO was technically incompetent. Consider that the RAZR was a very cool, hot phone in 2004 but they are still trying to milk it even now in 2008.

Letter from concerned insider is here:

http://www.engadget.com/2008/03/26/motorola-insider-tells-all-about-the-fall-of-a-technology-icon/

Discussion is here:

http://mobile.slashdot.org/mobile/08/03/26/2051259.shtml

Seriously, what is wrong with most US-based CEO's that get caught up in pandering to Wall Street?????


Also, to paraphrase one of the comments in the Slashdot discussion..."If this is what Six Sigma can do for Motorola, think of what it can do for your company!"

reflection on differences in life abroad

Had a discussion with an old friend who is still living in China this morning, and I came upon the following conclusion, which hadn't seemed quite so clear to me before:

Socially, when living abroad in China, life in the ex-pat community demands that one is welcoming and inclusive to strangers/newcomers, since nearly everyone is only a semi-permanent resident, friends come and go literally every month, and as such it is clearly to one's benefit to keep one's social circles pretty open.

Whereas, when living long-time in one's own community, the need to include outsiders is certainly lessened. Not to say there is no benefit to being inclusive, but when people get caught up in career, family, existing social obligations + the commitment of a mortgage to a given area, it seems that the amount of time and room to meet new people is lessened.

At least that's how it feels now in Seattle. It's not that the locals are mean or anything, but it seems like most people that I do meet are already well involved in their own social circles and there's little desire or reason to get newcomers involved...seems to just take time.

Seattle is growing fairly quickly, however, and there are a lot of newcomers anyway.

Sins of a Solar Empire

This game has been getting a lot of hype for the volume it has sold and for its unique style of gameplay.

Indeed, the game is very unique; it's something like a cross between Starcraft and Civilization.

Ultimately, it is a bit more of an RTS than turn-based strategy game.

I'm doing terribly in it so far; mostly because (I think) that it has its own style of play that one needs to learn...and the learning curve is a bit steep.

Might be more trouble than it's worth to really bother getting good at...I dislike games that feel more like work to play than actually just "playing".

On the other hand, I might get somewhere in this game if I actually spent the 3-4 hours straight playing it that seems to be required in order to complete a single game. Unfortunately, it's pretty hard for me to do that...even on slow weekends like this one, giving 3-4 hours straight to a game is diffficult.

This is probably one of those cases where I've fallen more for the idea & hype of the game rather than the game itself...but we'll see.

It also still looks & plays very responsively on my old PC system. Will probably still try in the future.

Call of Duty 4

So, despite 2007 being the year of Portal, Bioshock, and Team Fortress 2, Call of Duty 4 came out and was widely hailed as one of the best action games of the year.

I'm usually not into straight military games, and I had never really paid attention to the Call of Duty series before.

But, after hearing all the hype, recommendations from co-workers, and finally seeing a deal to snag a copy for just over $30, I checked it out.

Glad that I did.

The game is beautifully done (looks great on my older hardware), very action-packed, and manages to tie together a bunch of fairly different mission styles with a coherent, mostly plausible story.

I think I completed the game over the course of 3 weekends, which was a little on the short side, but still acceptable.

The multiplayer is reputed to be very good, but I haven't given it much time yet - still will at some point.

Anyway, pretty pleased with that one overall.

The witcher

The Witcher was part 2 of the Christmas gift I gave myself, and my progress on it is considerably less exciting than that on Bioshock.

It seemed like a really cool RPG in concept, and as I've tried it so far it seems pretty good.

Drawbacks? Well, it's really, really pushing the limits of what my "possibly good in 2004" PC can do, and as such it's laggy & slow. Not entirely unplayable, but a lot of time is wasted in loading scenes.

Apparently there's going to be a big update/revision in content coming for the game in May, so I'll hold off on really getting into it until then.

Bioshock - my mini review

I hadn't thought that my PC could handle the requirements for Bioshock; but I was pleasantly surprised to find that the demo ran fine...so for a Christmas gift to myself I picked up a copy of the game via gogamer.com.

Anyway, it ran pretty well and I played through the game (mostly on weekends) for most of January and February.

The game's story & setting about a dystopian objectivist underwater city-state built in the late 40's/50's is pretty interesting & well thought out, and there's enough hidden enemies to keep things surprising.

Your character can get some special powers that are pretty cool, and you have to deal with some "moral" choices - you kill all the bad guys regardless, but you can choose not to kill some little girl mutants. An interesting twist, but not exactly earth-shattering.

The game kept my interest, the plot moved along pretty well, with some fun twists & turns. Some complain that the game is on the short side of things; and I guess that it is - but it was really a perfect length for me as a casual gamer...kept me busy on the mornings of quite a few weekends.

I picked up wired Xbox 360 controller to use with my PC on this game, and that was fun too - a little more comfortable for the setup in my house as I could sit on the couch & play.

Anyway, if you like well-told shooting games, this is certainly worth a look if you haven't tried it already.