So I went to the game shop

And spent some good ol’ time with the PS3. Thought I’d share my experiences.

Now, of course, I did spend some time with the PS3 first. It’s supposedly “the best console”.

Well, not yet, it ain’t.

The PS3 there had no games availible for play. It did have a movie loaded up in it, and some videos of games. I watched a bit of it all, and in the end, I wasn’t impressed one bit with the PS3’s graphics. They only look stellar if you have 1080p HDTV, which isn’t cheap. Other than that, I noticed quite a bit of motion artifacts in the demos/movie.

The interface blows. It feels really clunky, unorganized, and just outright horrendous. It may have worked on the PSP, but not on the PS3.

The console itself, I’m torn between liking it for the smooth black color, and hating it for looking badly designed. The Sixaxis (Dualshock-2 replacement) I don’t like very much. I like the fact that it’s small, and it’s wireless, but it doesn’t have enough weight to it. And it feels quite empty with the rumble missing. Some reviews say the PS3 is VERY quiet. Crock of crap, that is. The one I demoed sounded like a windtunnel.

Unfortunately, I’m convinced that the PS3 is banking on people who think graphics make the game. Yeah, graphics are nice, but we saw that graphics don’t make good games with Final Fantasy X-2. Game sucked, but graphics ruled.

EDIT: Here’s a picture:

What is it with these IT Morons?

http://www.macuser.com/huh/macs_declared_not_appropriate.php?lsrc=murss

Sigh. Here we go again.

Seriously, what is it with these Microsoft-whores? Do they not realise they are buying themselves into a locked system?

People are so intent on replacing Macs, even though it is proven that Macs outlast PCs. And many argue that Macs don’t stack up to PCs in “Corporate America”.

Well, I’d say “Well, I don’t want to fucking work for no american corporation”, but this ain’t me we are talking about.

Let’s take a look at both platforms here.

Macs: Rarely freeze up (Providing you use Mac OS X), are safe from viruses, have the support of professional applications such as Photoshop, Office, etc.

PC’s: Also have support from Pro apps, freeze up quite frequently if not properly maintained, requires daily maintenence, very vulnerable to viruses.

Now, I happen to know from experience that Schools + PCs are a bad bad thing. Even if you put stuff to block students from accessing things in place, they find a way around it. My school, hell, they started discovering proxies. As such, Viruses invade once students are able to download stuff. Hell, the Windows side of my MacBook reported a few viruses tried to invade (Actually, AVG did).

With Macs, this wouldn’t happen. There are no viruses for Macs (26 for Macs if you have Excel/Word, and those are Macro viruses).

Also, why are the IT staff so bent on keeping only one platform in use? Can’t we have Macs/PC’s side by side? Obviously not. Mainly because the IT staff are lazy and won’t make an effort to use, nor learn a Mac. They ain’t hard to learn either. And multiplatform experience helps students in the long run, as well. What sucks is the district doesn’t look at TCO (Total cost of ownership). Why do you think PC’s have a shorter lifespan than Macs do? Because the TCO on PCs are higher than that of Macs. So Macs = Cheaper in the long run.

And getting even worse, we have the biased IT staff, you know, the ones who believe Microsoft is god and Apple is the devil. I happen to know one. One, in fact, who tried to convince me into a Dell over a MacBook (Feh!). Microsoft, Simply put, locks you into their ecosystem. Want to play WMV or WMA’s with 1st party software? Need windows. Want to use a Zune? Need Windoze. This is cemented by the fact, that to use HTML forms made in Microsoft Frontpage/Publisher, you need Microsoft’s “Frontpage server extensions” on the server it’s being hosted on. I mean, WTF? Aren’t HTML forms a standard thing?

I guess Microsoft makes HTML forms only their broken software can understand.

It gets worse.

It does.

So my favorite forum became quite bad.

Between moderation foul-ups, bias, and trouble with the other staff, I just pulled the plug on my e-persona there.

Why?

Too much friggin stress doing that job. Too much bullshit. Too much time down the drain. My moderation policies didn’t jive with theirs.

Simply put, I left for good. And a few days later, I get an email from a person there, who had trouble with the same. exact. staff. member. I had a problem with. Says something about them, doesn’t it?

Anyway, more on the moderation policies thing. I believe that exclusivity is a bad thing. Basically, this forum had it all in the case of mods. We had a hidden mod board, and hell, even a global mod board. Personally, to me, that ain’t cool. I believe mods getting fired and stuff should have community opinion. They disagreed, and it got to the point that I just left.

And then this staff guy that I had problems, messaged me saying “You motherfucker, put my posts back or else” when I deleted his posts due to a breach of one of the rules (The posts were just quotes from another person, no input of his own). Is that any way to talk to any one of your fellow staff? Would you do that in real life? No, and no. And it esclated from there into the issue about “sharing info with third parties”.

You know what? Screw off. I discussed something about another mod in chat with this dude, and he and I discussed it openly, in the presence of TWO OTHER NON-MODS FROM THE SAME BOARD.

Hypocrite. Fucking hypocrite.

So, that’s why I left. And to add insult to injury, I get a notice that I’d been IPbanned from the forum as well. Nice way to say goodbye, people.

What a bad bad week

This week just sucks.

First, Monday. (Yesterday). I get called into the office at school. Turns out I have a police report against me for truancies. Why these crazy ass people are trying to bring up charges against me for taking sick days off because my Type I Diabetes gets out of control occasionally, I don’t know. Before that, I got in an argument with my Tech teacher, Mr. Moore, over Macs vs. PCs, and why FrontPage sucks (I’ll post the details on my projects blog, link pending).

Then today rolls around, Mr. Moore secretly tells everyone NOT to listen to me, for I am wrong, IE is teh greatest, Microsoft rules, and blah. Thankfully, I have a close friend in the class (Who believes the same thing I do), and he told me about it. I confronted Mr. Moore, and got in a heated debate.

Then the last period. I thought I saw the last of Mr. Moore for the day (I needed to cool off.). The animation teacher wanted me to take the progress reports to the office. I’m walking out the door with them, when Mr. Moore begins yelling at me, and yanks the envelope out of my hand, and accosts the teacher.

I had fucking had it at this point, so I went up to Mr. Moore, and unloaded on him. He pointed out that students are not supposed to take progress reports to the office.

Well shit, Einstein, you expect me to know THAT? How about giving me some warning, and maybe telling me what the hell you are doing before you walk up to me and yank papers from my hands?

After that, I got a lecture on what work I needed to do, and how I’m basically going to be forced into working with Windoze Server 2003.

Ugh.

Don’t expect any more updates the entire week, except maybe for the project blog, which is here:
http://anticitizen.sitesled.com/Site/Project%20Blog/Project%20Blog.html

New nano

As you all might know, I acquired a nano from a friend for christmas. And it’s my favorite color too!

It seems to be signifigantly different from the 1GB nano I already own, so I’ll review it.

Form Factor

First off, Apple claims the 2nd Gen nano is even thinner than the 1st generation nano. Well, it is, but not by much.

Now, the color. Apple switched back to the anodized aluminum, so they were able to colorize the nano, much like the mini. As a result, the Nano is much more durable. There’s no chrome backing, so it won’t scratch as easily as some 1st gen nanos did. Also, the screen does not scratch anywhere near as easily, as I actually used it for a few days in my pocket, and no scratches. Not bad.

The body of the nano feels great to hold. I like the rounded sides much better than the square edges on the older nano. Feels more comfortable.

I don’t know what the click wheel is made out of (Probably some kind of plastic), but it is an improvement from the 1st nano. Since the 1st Gen nano had a glossy click wheel, my fingers would sometimes stick to it. Not so with the new nano, as it’s a matte white, and my fingers don’t stick as much.

The only thing I dislike about this new form factor? The hold switch takes more pressure to move it. A little too much, in my opinion.

The screen

I’ll get this irk out right now. I really dislike the fact that the fifth-gen iPods get a brightness control and the nanos do not. I don’t view photos on my nano, and would like it at minimal brightness, just enough to see the screen in the dark, so I can change songs. That is all.

With that out of the way, the screen definitely is more brighter than that of the 1st gen nano. And more clearer, as well. It felt more comfortable looking at the second gen nano, than the first (Or maybe the blue is more appealing).

The Battery

Apple claims 24-hour battery life. Seriously, I wasn’t impressed with the 1st-gen Nano’s battery. My shuffle outlasted the poor thing.

But I do believe Apple got it right this time. I fell asleep with my iPod on at about 3 AM, and woke up at 12 AM. Battery was hardly fazed. Pretty neat. If I could somehow hack the brightness controls onto the iPod, I could get much more from it.

I’m impressed with the battery overall. It’s an improvement to my older nano and fifth-gen iPod (With brightness craned all the way down)

Conclusion

Very nice, very decent little product. Apple seems to have learned from the first nano that case durability can make or break a product. I like the new nano, even better than my fifth-generation iPod. Very nice piece of work, I must say.

New toy

I just got my third iPod today.

a 2nd-gen Nano, 4GB blue. Very nice. I’ll have stuff on it later.