Peter Rojas seems to lament this break with tradition:
It sounds like your worst Gen Y marketing nightmare: rather than wait until E3 to launch the Xbox 2/Xbox 360, Microsoft is going to break with game industry tradition (at least as much as the industry even has a tradition) and take the wraps off their next-gen console via a half-hour MTV special airing on May 12th that’ll be hosted by Elijah Woods and feature a performance by the Killers as well as plenty of cameos by the usual round of athletes and celebs. Hardcore gamers might not like it (no one likes to feel like they’re falling trap to some lame teen marketing machine), but Microsoft obviously believes that this next console is too big to be launched at a trade show event—they want to start building buzz on a global level from day one.
[ Microsoft unveiling the Xbox 360 on May 12th…on MTV - Gaming - gaming.engadget.com. ]
I think Sony and Nintendo should take note. Microsoft clearly sees that the consumer, and not the industry, is king, and will make the difference in which console rules the next generation release. And I tend to agree.
Of course Microsoft better bring more games, I still haven't had the need to pick one up (though Jade Empire may change that...)
"What did he do to deserve that?" - Henri after being informed that it was indeed Eisenhower on the dime:
Dwight David "Ike" Eisenhower (October 14, 1890 – March 28, 1969), American soldier and politician, was the 34th President of the United States (1953–1961) and supreme commander of the Allied forces in Europe during World War II, with the rank of General of the Army.
[ Dwight D. Eisenhower - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
Odd that keepting the Nazis from taking over the world just isn't enough, in Henri's eyes...
 Finally the Tablet PC is becoming what I envisioned. I have no need for a keyboard that I have to lug around. If I want a keyboard, I should just plug in a USB one, or use a standard bluetooth keyboard. I can have one on my docking station, and if I need one elsewhere, get a compact keyboard or something and lug it. I want my tablet to be as close to a pad of paper as possible, it's just more natural for me that way.
The next generation Tablet PC from HP, the HP Compaq Tablet PC tc1100, is loaded with new features for mobile professionals who are always on the run! Whether you're working in the office or on-site with a customer, the new tablet offers significant enhanced features.
[ HP Compaq Tablet PC tc1100 Product Details ]
Throw a copy of Denim on there, and think of the productivity levels during brain storming sessions...
Props to Dari for remembering Denim...
As the market grows, it provides room for more "winners":
Nintendo has updated their net profit figures. ‘Net income was about 82 billion yen ($760 million) for the year ended March 31, compared with 33.2 billion yen’ last year. Their original forcast [sic] for this year was 70 billion yen, so it looks like they did even better than they were expecting.
[ 4 color rebellion Nintendo Doomed! ]
When people ask me how much longer Nintendo will be able to compete, I am stumped. No one asks how much longer RC Cola will be around, or Burger King. Isn't there room for 3 consoles? And if not, lets get rid of that crappy Sony console, The only thing that anyone seems to like about it is the controllers, and they have stolen technology in them...
Props to G$ for pointing out this clever website:
Musipedia uses the "Melodyhound" melody search engine. You can find and identify a tune even if the melody is all you know. You can whistle or sing it to the computer or directly use the Parsons code. To "name that tune", you don't need to know the key signature, exact rhythm, or intervals.
[ Musipedia: The Open Music Encyclopedia ]
Apparently another idea that struck him at some point, only to find out that people had built it already. If only I had a mic on my work PC to check out the WoSII (whistle or sing it interface).
So your friend sent you a story that you just can't believe, but wait it's 4/1/2005, a quick check of Wikipedia:
April 1, 2005
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[ April 1, 2005 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
And you discover it is in fact not a hoax at all! Or it is, depending, oh just go to the site...
PR about Googles new offering:
Think a DNA scanner embedded in the lip of your bottle reading all 3 gigabytes of your base pair genetic data in a fraction of a second, fine-tuning your individual hormonal cocktail in real time using our patented Auto-Drink™ technology, and slamming a truckload of electrolytic neurotransmitter smart-drug stimulants past the blood-brain barrier to achieve maximum optimization of your soon-to-be-grateful cerebral cortex.
[ Google Gulp ]
If you need a used cap, let me know I've got 3 more left.
Isn't it ironic? Don't you think?
Update on the famous sex.com case hit Yahoo! News via USA Today today:
The case has served as a cautionary tale. Cohen, 57, who built a cyberporn empire in the late 1990s based on the Sex.com name, vows to clear his name. Kremen, 41, a boy wonder of e-commerce in the early 1990s, has bankrolled a phalanx of lawyers and private detectives in the hope of hunting down Cohen and collecting his judgment.
[ Yahoo! News - Appeals court upholds Sex.com ruling ]
Interesting that the story focuses more on the personalities than the legal precedent that this sets, but I had to chuckle when I get to the bottom of the story and see the "context sensitive" advertisement:
Oh peoplefinders.com, usa-people-search.com, and findpeopletoday.com; if it were only that easy...
I tend to think that I have a better understanding of the British, or at least the differences between us (Americans) and the British, than your average American. However there were a few surprises for me on this list:
American English has further changed due to the influx of non-English speakers whose words sometimes enter American vernacular. Many words have entered American English from Spanish, Native American languages, and so on.
[ American English - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia ]
that neck of the woods comes from a Native American tounge? Brits call squashes marrows? Savvy comes from Spanish? American English has borrowed from Tagalog?
We invented some words? Sure gerrrymander I knew, but belittle? Applesauce? Teenager? What on earth do Brits call applesauce and teenagers?
And surely, growning up in the midatlantic/north east I have a good grasp of vocabulary borrowed from Yiddish (which are always fun to say), but I didn't realize that maven and drek came from Yiddish, and I thought that skosh did (yet it came from Japanese).
This happened a week or two ago:
What do you call it when rain falls while the sun is shining?
a. sunshower (34.29%)
b. the wolf is giving birth (0.04%)
c. the devil is beating his wife (6.43%)
d. monkey's wedding (0.16%)
e. fox's wedding (0.15%)
f. pineapple rain (0.03%)
g. liquid sun (0.74%)
h. I have no term or expression for this (55.15%)
i. other (3.02%) (10691 respondents)
[ Dialect Survey Results ]
Thanks to this survey I now call it something like "The monkey and devil got married and gave birth to the wolf", since I can never remember anything on this list...
My phone's camera leaves a bit to be desired, as you can tell from this super-crisp photo I took at the market:
Mocha Coffee Jelly? It says something about putting it on creme cheese on crackers or something. Seems they will put anything in Jelly these days. I wonder how much caffeine it has.
Those who read me regularly are likely aware that I GameFly. I find it is a great way to try out crap games without ever having to buy them. You know the titles, curious looking, you know they probably suck, but want to confirm it.
 Today we confirm one real stinker, and another that just doesn't suit my taste. The first is Retro Atari Classics: 10 or so old Atari games that I don't remember liking much the first time around. They've had some "artists" spruce up the graphics, since computers are a bit better than they were back in the day. Centipede comes out psychedelic, but rather unplayable due to the odd stylus system where you don't touch where your guy goes, but close to where he goes. Missile command's new look is nice, but the touch screen is too sensitive so you run out of missiles rather quickly, leaving your cities defenseless. Gravitar, Sprint, and Lunar Lander always sucked, so who cares... Breakout and Pong get old so quickly, and Asteroids has never been my favorite (plus it's already on my sidekick). Warlords is OK, but it's just 4 player Pong mixed with Breakout, which still gets old quickly. And Tempest just looks and plays crappy on the DS.
 The second is Zookeeper, a fancied up version of Bejeweled. I found it much more enjoyable than Bejeweled, but I find Bejeweled barely more fun than popping bubble plastic. (Though that is a mini-game in Warioware Touched, which I did love). If you like Bejeweled you will love Zookeeper, as it is a bit more challenging, and there are some nifty new rules to it. Perhaps there are super cool unlockables as well, I'm not patient enough to find them.
What I'm really looking forward to is the 3rd game sent my way, which somehow didn't make it with the other two, God of War. It looks to be a contender for PS2 Game of the Year, perhaps even Game of the Year, even if Resident Evil 4 should be a shoe in for that one.
It's addictive. Ever since playing Katamari Damacy I have been listening to tons of Japanese Pop Music, mostly the likes of:
Though among those I really appreciate the Bosa Nova influence in FPM, it's downright viral. And I think influenced the soundtrack to Feel the Magic XY/XX so much you could say it was stolen.
It's tax time. Taxes confuse me. I think my taxes should be very very simple, but the software (TaxCut this year) always asks me so many friggin' questions. Though planning for next year, I noted this:
Hobby Expenses
Enter the amount of any expenses you incurred in 2004 in the course of your not-for-profit activities, but only to the extent you reported income from those activities.
In counting "total expenses" for this purpose, you must include items such as interest that would be deductible in any event.
If you have expenses in excess of income from an activity, your tax benefit would be greater if you could deduct them. To deduct expenses in excess of income, you must prove that you had a profit motive in engaging in the activity.
You will be presumed to have the needed profit motive if the activity actually showed a profit in 3 of the past 5 years (including 2004). (If the activity consists of breeding, training, showing or racing of horses, the reference is 2 of the last 7 years.)
If you can show the needed profit motive, either using this presumption or otherwise, you should report all of your income and expenses for that activity on Schedule C, not here.
So I simply need to win a few video gaming events, enough to profit for 3 years, and then keep it up to an average of 3 out of each 5 years, and all video game purchases could be deductible?!?!?! Sounds good to me. (If near impossible with my schedule.) Though I expect anyone who blogs, and pulls in enough ad revenue to cover expenses with a bit left over, has some healthy deductions here.
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