Where it came from, I don't know, but I've found myself listening to a lot of industrial music lately. It kinda started, I guess, with the last couple Skinny Puppy albums and the latest Nine Inch Nails album, all of which are very good. But I've been digging back to a lot of older stuff … [Read more…]
Okay, those were most certainly snow flakes I saw in the air today. I have to admit, I’m rather looking forward to winter this year. I’ve always been more of a cold weather person, what with growing up in Cleveland and all, but I seem to prefer it more and more as the years go … [Read more…]
The big news today is that Bungie Studios has broken away from Microsoft and returned to their indie roots. Microsoft will still own a minority share in the company, have right of first refusal to publish any future Bungie titles, and retain full ownership of the Halo franchise and all it's IP. It doesn't really … [Read more…]
It took longer than anticipated while they debated over how much vacation time I’d get and whether or not my job title would have the “senior” appelation added to it, but I finally got my official offer letter week before last. (Yeah, I’m way behind on this whole blogging thing. *laugh*) The salary was lower … [Read more…]
Whoa, Logic isn't dead after all. But it might as well be, it's still dead to me. From a quick glance through the manual for the just-announced Logic 8, it looks like you still can't record the output of a software instrument other than bouncing to disk, and you still have to go into the … [Read more…]
Talking with a co-worker yesterday, an interesting theory came about regarding apple's iPhone fubar. Pretend you're Apple. The iPhone comes out, and is the hottest thing on the market for a few weeks. Then, sales drop. Precipitously. You need to rescue the device's moribund sales. What do you do? You slash prices. Dramatically. You know … [Read more…]
Time Warner Cable is officially being kicked to the curb. I let them jerk me around for 6 weeks waiting for an HD cable box, now they’re trying to jerk me around on Cable Cards for my Tivo HD. So I called their competitor, Wide Open West, today. Pricing is about the same, I get … [Read more…]
“We have decided to offer every iPhone customer who purchased an iPhone from either Apple or AT&T, and who is not receiving a rebate or any other consideration, a $100 store credit towards the purchase of any product at an Apple Retail Store or the Apple Online Store.” Nice work guys. Still, it's disillusioning that … [Read more…]
I'm told I will be receiving an official offer letter from the company I'm contracting with tomorrow. I told them up front I'd only be willing to consider an offer if it was competitive with my current hourly rate, so here's hoping they don't low ball me. I went this route with this same company … [Read more…]
Dear Apple, Inc., I go into the purchase of a new product, particularly a brand new one, knowing full well that a price drop is an inescapable eventuality. I knew the iPhone I paid $600 would certainly be dropped in price, expectedly by the Christmas shopping season. I accept this, and live with the extra … [Read more…]
This appears to be the weekend where DRM gets egg on it's face. Turns out the DRM that's installed with the PC version of BioShock, the same DRM that's been causing no end of problems with installing said game, is installing rootkits on user's computers. The DRM in question is SecuROM, licensed to 2K games … [Read more…]
The word went out last week that the official launch trailer for BioShock would be aired last night on SpikeTV, along with a special “surprise announcement” immediately after. Cue the Tivo! The trailer itself was fairly underwhelming and not terrible compelling, but that special announcement? The demo for BioShock is available on the Xbox Live … [Read more…]
There was this girl I went to high school with. Beautiful. Popular. The world was her oyster. Shortly after graduation, she became a Playboy playmate of the month. Had it all going for her. Fast forward 20 years. She's a drunk junkie, living in a trailer park. Arrested twice this year. DUI. Drug Possession. Theft. … [Read more…]
I seem to have become mildly obsessed with playing Viva Pinata this weekend. I know, I know… it's kinda supposed to be a kid's game. But it's really fun, and really relaxing. As I'm getting older I'm finding myself more and more attracted to slower paced, open-ended games like this. Games where you can't die, … [Read more…]
Hrm, $60/mo. for unlimited data, 450 anytime minutes, 5000 night/weekend minutes, and 200 SMS messages for the iPhone… Thats actually not bad. Less than I had expected. Add up my current land line and cell phone and it comes to roughly $45/mo., and I get no data or SMS. So an iPhone would only be … [Read more…]