Flickr

I created a Flickr account a few months ago but never uploaded anything. Recently I'm switching my Smugmug account to old host my really nice photos while I want something else for the personal pictures. While it's pretty easy to use I find that the linking of pictures is more difficult because Flickr requires you to link a web page instead of the images by themselves.

Robscomputer Flickr page

Also a few photos from the last Goodguys show in Pleasanton, CA. These are shot with my new camera. Looks pretty good, but I need to improve my Photoshop adjustment skills.

Elevator music

For years I would hear this older organ song used for the sound of elevator music but never knew where it was from. Then I happened to find the song on Youtube. It's Summer Samba by Walter Wanderley. The Internet is amazing!

Enjoy!

Great music find

I found this link from another forum board, the person is Ronald Jenkees and a really great keyboard player. This video I like with the guitar distortion and the nice key work.

Photography

I haven't been taking as much pictures as I would like to. Recently, I've been using mostly my small point and shoot camera instead of my big DSLR just because it's easier to work with. Also I haven't taken any true photography trips where I would need my big camera. So when I started to take out my camera again on a recent trip to San Francisco I really missed taking photographs.

My camera while it's old, it still works pretty decent. I'm tried out taking some night photos near Pier 39 and Fisherman's Wharf, which didn't come out as expected. Part of the problem seems to be the camera. When using it for day shots it's not a problem but at night the noise and older generation of the camera shows how old it is.

So after some considering a new camera before I think I'm going to purchase one sometime this Spring.

My current camera, a Canon 10D, I bought used in 2005. This was my first digital SLR camera and really impressed me with digital photography. It was still a huge jump from my first digital camera, a Kodak DC280, which didn't impress me with digital photography. Then after this I bought a Canon Powershot G3, a camera that still is impressive even today, and I used to make a majority of my favorite pictures.

While I don't need any super camera, I want something like my 10D but with less noise and better quality. After looking around I'm looking at the Canon 40D, which is the latest in the consumer digital D series. From reading about the camera and reviews, seems like it's a good match for me needs.

Just to know what my current camera looks like, here's a few pictures from SF.



Another version I made some changes with a HDR program and tweaked.

Microsoft's free programming tools

I'm interested in programming, and Microsoft has a lot of free tools on their web site.

Some of my favorites.

Microsoft Visual Express editions - I really like these editions, it's pretty much all you need and more for basic applications. From C# to SQL server, there's a free product to download and learn.

Microsoft's Popfly - This is different but still fun. You can create new web tools from a nice drag and drop interface. Also you can build more detailed projects with the Popfly connector to Express editions. Honestly, I can't make anything worth while in Popfly.

There's allot more tools on their website but I've think these are the best ones for learning.

What drives you

I am always amazed when I see someone who is a high archiver. Someone who has their masters degree before 25, or they are are successful with their own company at a young age. Even with someone who excels in sports, I'm interested what drives a person to work that much harder than the average person.

What interests me, is how they push them past the average and continue on. Most people in general will work as hard as needed, then stay at this level, it's what's natural and most comfortable. But for some, they are not happy living this life and want more. Do they want more money? Do they want more fame and glory? Do they want to make their parents happy?

What I'm guessing is it makes the person happy from the results of working hard. If you get a large increase in salary, the extra money will make you happy and allow you to buy larger items (house, car, boat). Also you get more exposure from your co-workers and more respect from your friends. It's easy to understand why people work hard.

It's harder to understand why people don't.

I noticed that some people instead of working harder, like to be a constant pace of work. They do not want to work any harder than they already are, even if everyone else around them works harder. I also notice that some people like to complain but not do anything about it, as if they might not want to change their daily routine.

When I hear this I keep thinking, why complain when you can do something about it? I think most of the people in this want the same work each day, little change between the days. What they started years ago, they want to keep the same today, sometimes this limits to what you can do in the future, especially if things change.

While this doesn't seem bad, when the company changes path to a new direction, it's these people who have the hardest time.

Music hosting

I have my own web site, but was looking for a easier method of sharing out my music mixes. I considered Youtube but the problem is you are limited to 10 mins of length. So looking around I found Musicv2 which is a hosting and social site for musicians, djs and fans. It's actually pretty nice, for $20 you get 10gb of space and handy sharing tools.

So far I only uploaded a practice mix, full of mistakes, but it's not too hard to link and share out. Below is the sample mix I made, it's mostly breakbeat and drifts off to some house stuff.

http://www.musicv2.com/listen.php?m=45865

Beatport, part 2

I spoke of Beatport before but after using it more often I find it's a pretty good amount of music. The only problem I find is if you don't know the name of the song it's hard to just browse around for new music. On iTunes this is pretty easy as you can spend hours listening to random songs and play lists but Beatport is harder.

Honestly it's a slight problem nothing serious. I think their pricing is fair and selection is good enough for my picky tastes. :)

I'll start to check out other sites to see how they compare.

My past motorcycles

I started riding street motorcycles around 2002, just a few I owned over the years with the last bike sold last year. So thinking about it I made a list of the bikes and a short pros/cons list of each.

2002 Kawasaki Ninja 250

This was my first street bike, really my first motorcycle I owned. This bike was allot of fun, rode it for about 7,500 miles in 4 months before I sold it. I knew three other people with 250's as well and we rode around the Bay Area. I ended up buying a new bike and shortly selling this bike to make room.

Pros -
Very cheap, not a bad thing as parts were easy to find and replace
Easy to work on, I did the oil changes, much easier than on a motard
Easy to ride, the 250 was like riding a scooter, just twist and go, also it's really light
Can carry stuff on the rear, believe it or not many motorcycles can't carry much, the 250 can carry a decent amount of gear with the built in hooks.

Cons -
Low power, this is really a pro and con. If you're a new rider it's a pro but after a few thousand miles or riding you want more power. Also it's tiring to constantly ride around 10,000rpm all of the time.
Lightweight, normally this isn't a problem but going across a high bridge or windy road will push the bike around.

2003 Suzuki SV650S

This was the first year of the second generation SV650. I really liked the power of this bike but it always felt top heavy, I'm not sure if it was due to the v-twin engine or tall gas tank. I think I put about 4,500 miles on this bike after owning it for almost two years. Also I never really liked the body position, as it was more than most sport bikes. After selling this bike I took a break away from motorcycles.

Pros -
Great low end power from the v-twin
Felt solid and well made
Easy to work on, no plastics on the bike made it easy to change oil

Cons -
Top heavy, I'm not sure but this bike never felt easy to ride slow
Race ergos, the bike had really low bars and high footpegs, great for dragging knee but it hurt my back after a few hours of riding
Harsh suspension, due to having lower quality suspension the bike was very hard on bumps. Combined with the race style position you're wrists and back took a beating

2002 KTM 640SM

I wanted to try something different from my last bike and was interested in supermotards. I almost bought a Suzuki DRZ-400SM but wanted something that would have enough power for the freeway. Found the KTM for sale on a local motorcycle forum and it was pretty nice. After riding it for about 1,000 miles I sold it. The bike while fun to ride was really really slow on the freeway, even slower than the 250. Also it vibrated like crazy, making your hands and fee numb.

Pros -
Lots of power, the big 640 single was fast if not faster than my SV650
Easy riding position, you sit up instead of leaning down, very easy to see all around you
Crashable, in a case of dropping or crashing the bike, there were few if any parts to damage. Great thing about motards

Cons -
Expensive parts, of course I didn't know this until I needed parts but Euro bikes are hard to get and are expensive
Vibration, this really bothered me. I couldn't believe how bad the bike vibrated, felt like I was holding a paint mixer. After a few miles of riding, I had to stop and let me hands and feet get back to normal
Shorter oil change period, riding a dirt motorcycle on the street makes for a harder life and the motard needed more oil changes

So after looking at this list of previous motorcycles I found that I wanted the following.

Able to go freeway speeds
Space to carry some bags or gear
Lightweight and easy to ride
Easy to work on and change oil
Japanese made for cheaper parts

After reading my want list, I think the new Kawasaki Ninja 250 would make a great next bike. The only problem is the high price but it would level out later this year. Right now the price dealers are asking is above MSRP but hopefully it will come down.

Beatport

This is new to me but Beatport has some great music, especially geared towards the dj. It's slightly expensive but I feel worth the added cost. Here's a play list to get an idea of what they offer.

Selling on eBay

I've been buying and selling items on eBay since 2001, but even today I still make mistakes on my auctions and bids. For selling I tried to make it simpler, here's some of my favorite tips.

1. Shipping scale - I can't tell you how many times I estimated the weight of a item to only get surprised when I brought it to the postal shop. What is really nice is have your package already weighted, then in the auction the person can choose their shipping and all you have to do is print the label. Which brings me to my second item.

2. Printer - With a scale and a printer, you can prep you package, then just drop it off at your local shipping station. This saves so much time waiting in line.

3. Boxes and envelopes - If you ship with one carrier you can order various boxes from the carrier for free. If you ship with various carries it might be easier to buy common boxes and envelopes from shipping suppliers on eBay or on-line. Buying from local stores I find it's very expensive and better to just save boxes you have at home.

Just a reminder, don't ship the wrong box for the wrong shipment method. For example, if I'm shipping USPS Priority, don't use a USPS Express box. The package will get sent back to the shipper. This also goes for using a USPS box with UPS or Fed Ex.

4. Bubble wrap and popcorn - One of the worst things about getting a package is when the shipper does not use enough bubble wrap or popcorn to keep the item safe. The stuff is pretty cheap and I recommend that you use more to keep everything safe during shipping.

5. High quality tape - I personally use the more expensive tape by 3M because it's easy to peel off and stick on the boxes. If you use cheap tape, it's more frustrating to even get the tape off without it falling apart. Spend a few dollars for a tape roller as well.

6. Digital camera - Selling a item sight unseen is difficult on the Internet but without any pictures it's even harder. You don't need any expensive digital camera, just a basic camera will work. This makes a huge difference for selling as people will usually choose a auction with a picture than without.

Hopefully, these will help sell more auctions.

Sampling in music

I'm a big fan of electronic and hip hop music. Both types of music use heavy amounts of sampling from previous generations of songs. While some samples are easy to pick up, some are much harder to find.

Here's a good example of one. Daft Punk's One More Time uses a very very short sample for the main loop.

A person on YouTube posted what he found when slightly changing the pitch and speed of a sample.



Another from Daft Punk and their samples. This one is a big more songs included.



Then a short one from hip hop. The Juice Crew with the Symphony.



Then the sample they used.



It's pretty interesting to find the samples they used, and how sometimes it's almost left along and in other cases chopped up.

Dusting off the turntables

After a long time in storage and out of use, I brought out my turntables for some fun again. I dug in my record crate and found a few drum and bass songs, then a misplaced hip hop song. Found they worked well together so I mashed them up but the vocals didn't sound right on.

I imported both tracks into my computer and then edited the vocals a bit. It's still off but I spent about 30 minutes on the total project. Still sounds pretty cool to me.

It's Jungle Brothers mixed with Spy.

Some new updates

For fun I added a forum to the site. I'm not even sure how helpful this will be but think it might work out to have some information posted there.

http://robscomputer.com/forum/

Leaving Warcraft

The other day, I decided to leave World of Warcraft for good. I sharded and sent all of my items to a friend, then deleted my main characters. The only one I have is the first character I made in December 2005, a level 13 night elf rouge, and the most recent character, a level 43 blood elf paladin that I was leveling with my girlfriend. I might delete the paladin but for now, leaving it if she wants to play.

When I deleted my main, a level 70 warlock, I had 27 days played. That's days of in game played, which equals out to about 650 hours. Then on my other characters, about 3~5 days more, or 72~120 hours. While I didn't play very seriously, I still spent a surprising amount of time in the game, and I really didn't even see but a few instances.

After thinking about the time spent in the game, I wanted to focus on other things but didn't want to have it be a distraction. So if I deleted the characters to the point where I would need to start from the beginning, it would be harder to jump back in. I don't think of the game as something bad, I had fun playing on and off for 2 years but after getting to 70 once, there wasn't much to solo, and I didn't like to spend time in a long instance for end game.

One thing I didn't want to do was just throw away all of the items. I ended up sending everything to a friend and he could use them so it was at least helping him out. Even if I was leaving the game, I still didn't like to just waste something if another person could use it.

In the end, if Blizzard came out with another MMO, I would play again but for now I want to spend more serious time learning to play the guitar, and studying for school. While I'm leaving I might come back to play again, it's a fun game, but just takes a long time to complete the higher level stuff.

Learning to play the guitar

I've been learning to play for the last two years with little success. I get interested and then I loose interest, or other things become more important, like gaming. So on the advice of my friend, I tried out a guitar learning series called Metal Method by Doug Marks. It's a dvd series how to play the guitar from a more rock style instead of a traditional style.

So far I'm just on session one but it's actually pretty nice. For starters, the first lesson goes over the guitar, good basics such as how to hold the guitar, then begins the first lesson. Here's where it's different from regular lessons, instead of having your play a chord, you play single notes on the first string. There's also a PDF included with the dvd lesson and a visual guide of the guitar tabs.

For the price of $15 per dvd, I think it's a good investment. Not too hard and the instructions of Doug Marks is very clear, he's easy to listen to, all steps are simple to follow. I'll be sure to post my on going sessions and how they follow up.

Dundracon gaming convention

The past weekend, Carol and I were at Dundracon in San Ramon. It's a gaming convention that covers all forms of gaming, except video games. At first I was a little hesitant to go, I never really played much except video games and some pen & paper RPGs. After I was at the convention I was really amazed at the amount of games available. There were miniatures, RPGs, board games, LARPs, etc.

On the night we arrived, I jumped into a World of Warcraft board game. Honestly, I can say the board game is too close to the actual game play of the on-line game. You spend a few hours choosing a monster to kill, turn in the quest, get loot/xp then repeat. It was very similar to the computer game, and after a few turns I started to wonder if there's something more to the game? Ironically, it felt too similar and didn't really show any major difference, which could be good and bad. Still it would be fun to play this with friends at a cabin trip.

The next day I attended a couple of seminars about Creating a Dungeons and Dragons character, to World of Warcraft vs Real Life. Then in the afternoon I joined a RPG game playing Ars Magica, a game based upon magic in early 1300 Europe. The gm was really great at balancing the game and the role playing part, actually was a really fun game experience. Especially having the other people in the game with everyone role playing made the game really work, and we ended exactly on time, solving the puzzle of the story as well. Even I'm normally not into role playing but really got into the story of this game.

Mixing pen & paper RPGs with computers

After playing a more role playing RPG I was thinking how could you bring such depth to a video game. Is it even possible? Something that is common is to play a pen & paper RPG but across the Internet. There's tool available for people to share maps, dice rolls, and other

RPTools has many tools available for the role playing game.

Dice Tool - A dice roller
Map Tool - Creates maps and sharing for other players

Another tool is from Fantasy Grounds, this is a paid version but allows similar controls.

Finally, you can use RPGGateway's play by post forum to find other players. This is a slower version as each action needs to be posted, then replied to but offers more time to think and write a response.

If I can get enough friends interested I could like to start a play by post game. Most of my friends we don't see each other so often and it would be great to keep in touch with them in a game.

The Rogue LX406 Pro 6 string bass

Last posting I mentioned I ordered this bass. Well it came in over last week and got a chance to play it a few times. I have to say that for $200, it's a really nice bass. My other bass is a old 1985 Ibanez 4 string, I wanted to try out something with more strings, settled on the 6 string version instead of the 5 because it's more similar to the guitar. After playing with dozens of bass guitars at my local Guitar Center I still think for the money the Rogue feels better, especially considering the price is cheaper than any P-Bass, even Squire.

I really like the matte finish neck, while it's wide for the 6 strings I can still reach the 6th string without much trouble. The body also feels nice, it's more square than I normally like but works and is balanced. The bass is also using active pickups, gives more power to the sound but you can turn it off as well. There are some negatives, I noticed on the fretboard, some chipping from light string slapping, and rough edges where the neck is bolted to the body. But considering the price, I can overlook these mistakes.

How to party with yourself in World of Warcraft (Dual boxing)

I've been playing World of Warcraft for a few years now, on and off because of school or work. It's a fun game, my friends play and I currently have a level 70 undead warlock and a level 43 blood elf paladin. After I got tired of my warlock I started my paladin with my girlfriend, she choose a blood elf priest. Once we started to run through the old areas, I had my friend run us through a few harder instances with his level 70 mage.

After playing like this I really wanted to solo a instance using my higher level warlock but also play my paladin to level. I started thinking about how this would work and found a web site about Dual Boxing. Basically dual boxing is using two or more gaming accounts, either on the same computer or more to play at the same time. It sounds funny, but what you get is a very powerful combo of 2 or more players that you can control as one.

With a simple software like Keyclone you can control the characters pretty simple. Here's my testing done with two mages from the same computer.



It's not great, I am only level 2 but shows how the software passes from one screen to the next. Now it's not as easy as playing one character. A major problem I found is that questing items have to be picked up by both parties, so you need to keep switching screens back and forth.

So far, I really haven't had time to figure it out much but I think it's harder than I expected. A problem I'm having is keeping the two characters together, they keep running away from each other after a few minutes. Also many items in WoW need interaction such as right clicking gathering items and quest items.

It's fun but because of school and limited time. I'm going to hold off on any more testing until this summer.

Here's someone who's gotten the multibox idea down much better. It's in the battlegrounds and you can see just how powerful 5 people working as one becomes.



Cheap guitars and basses

In my previous post I spoke about cheaper guitars, actually a classical guitar specifically. I found another site which has a bunch of cheaper guitars, Rondo Music, which sells a majority of guitars for under $200. Their selection isn't bad, a good amount of guitars, basses, even a few 6 strings.

While I haven't ordered from them, I'm interested in their basses. For a total cost of about $200, I could order a nice 6 string bass. Normally to play a bass like this you need to spend much more money but for a non-professional like myself I rather spend $200 for something I wasn't sure about.

After checking out this site and then Musician's Friend. I ordered a cheap 6 string bass from Musician's Friend. It's a Rogue LX406 Pro, has decent reviews from the site and other review sites.

I have a older Ibanez 4 string bass and wanted to try out a 6 string bass. Since starting my guitar class I am learning to not use the pick (ironically just after I got used to it) and wanted to see how different it is to playing a 6 string bass. At the local Guitar Center I had fun playing the 6 strings there but after seeing the price tags near $2000 I decided it was beyond my price range.

Dundracon

Next week, my girlfriend and I are attending Dundracon in San Ramon. I have never been to a gaming event before but it sounds like fun. She already told me it's a big event with hardcore gamers, so expect the worst. Basically it's a large event with various types of gaming, from pen and paper like Dungeons and Dragons to miniatures to board games.

I'm more of a video gamer so playing non-video games is a different experience. Every other weekend I play D&D with friends but I'm still confused with the details of how the game works. Our experienced DM knows the rules pretty well so it works out. :)

What makes a guitar worth 10 times more?

Recently I started playing the guitar again, actually taking a class at my local community college. It's a classical guitar class, and traditional guitars are similar but use steel strings to the nylon of a classical guitar. So I went to Musician's Friend and ordered a cheap classical guitar for $100. Hasn't been delivered yet but for $100 doesn't look bad, decent reviews and for me and my skill will be perfect to use over the class into summer.

After looking at this guitar for $100, I saw some others twice as much and more. Now I'm wondering, just how much more can those guitars really be worth? Say, is the guitar for a $1000, 10 times better playing? Here's an example.

The Squier Affinity Series Telecaster sells for $160

The Fender Vintage Hot Rod Telecaster sells for $1600

Now the two guitars here look very similar but they are different in the details. One is made in the USA while the other is made in a foreign country. Also the other details such as craftsmanship, electronics, etc.

The main question would you pay 10 times the amount of the cheaper guitar for the better quality guitar? Will it sound 10 times better?

For me I think I wouldn't spend that kind of money but for a professional player I could see where he or she would need the better instrument. Just starting out minor defects with a guitar honestly are not noticed but for someone who plays hours per day, I'm sure they would stand out.

As I read on a forum about guitars, if you can tell the difference, then why waste your money buying the more expensive version?

It's cold!

I'm not sure if the weather is getting colder but am I getting less warm, but it's cold. I took a trip to the East Coast last month and it doesn't feel that much colder there than here, even in February.

Two failures in a row

Recently my home computer, which I just built from scratch two years ago had a problem. I couldn't turn the computer back on after a attempted upgrade of Vista. So I checked the computer and everything was ok, guessed it was the powersupply. Went to the store and bought a new powersupply, computer still doesn't turn on.

Now, I'm not sure what else is wrong and figured it's the motherboard. Well, it's an Asus which I've have great luck with before but there's a chance it would fail. I decided since I'm making a order for some major components, might as well order a new processor and video card to give the computer a full upgrade.

Ended up with a 6400+ AMD processor, Asus M2N32 motherboard, 4GB of PC6400 memory, and a ATi 3850 video card. Also threw in a new hard drive and powersupply for good measure. After all of these items, I neatly installed them and set up the computer. Got ready to power on and nothing again.

Now I was really stumped, I replaced everything from my old computer except two hard drives and the DVD writer. So I removed everything (including my neat zip wrap job) to test the motherboard alone. Since I have my old powersupply I tested the motherboard and it powered up! So I switched to my old powersupply, and nothing. So the new powersupply I bought was DOA. Then to make sure, I checked my old motherboard, nothing with either powersupplies, so the mother board was confirmed failed.

So I ended up first having a failed motherboard, then buying a failed powersupply. Rare chance but it does happen!

Nintendo Wii

The other day I walked into my local Game Stop to trade in Gears of War for the Xbox. I know it's a highly rate game for the Xbox but I couldn't get into it. While waiting at the counter I saw the lady in front of me carrying away a Nintendo Wii. When I got to the counter I asked if they had any in stock and the sales person said they had a lot. I thought about it, really don't like to impulse buy but figured I could either keep it, or sell it for a higher price.

So a few minutes later, I'm walking out the store with a Nintendo Wii, used copy of Rainbox Six Las Vegas for the Xbox and a copy of Game Informer magazine. I am still not sure if I want to play it or keep it, but the games look really interesting. A few like Resident Evil Chronicals uses the remote to aim like a gun against zombies. While other titles make use of the remote to either control objects or interact. It's a interesting idea and would be a nice change from the typical game consoles.

Even if I really don't like it, I'm sure it will sell on eBay. :)

Gaming History

I'm not a serious gamer, I play consoles and PC gaming but mostly only the more popular games. Recently on a forum the question was brought up to your past games you played and enjoyed. So I wrote this list with the most popular games from my history. Enjoy.

I'm not a serious gamer, so it's been on and off for years.

Early arcade:
Space Invaders - I remember this game was one of my favorites because it was easy to play when I was younger.
Frogger - I liked this game alot, another easy game.
Pole Position - My first driving game that I remember.
Zaxxon - I remember this was the first "3D" style game. Just amazing.

Late arcade:
Vitual Fighter - Played this game so many times at Golf Land.
Mortal Kombat II - Played this game alot, my friend's brother was really good. First game I was seriously into.
Daytona USA - Great driving game but I found out you could drift. Was great fun to slide around the track.

Early Console:
Turbo on Coleco - Had the game with the wheel, lots of fun but I soon found out the game never ended, you just drove and drove and drove. I must have played that game for hours.
Donkey Kong on Coleco - One of my first games that drove me crazy. I just hated that you would get hit when on the final ladder to the princess.
Donkey Kong Jr. on Coleco - I really liked this version alot more, it was one of the best games on the Coleco.

8Bit consoles:
Super Mario on NES - My parents didn't buy me a NES but got to play this game at friend's houses. I was never good at the whole side scroller game and usually died fast.
Contra on NES - My cousin had this and we played it co-op with some help from a famous cheat code.

16bit consoles:
Street Fighter II on SNES - My mom bought me the SNES and SF2, played this alot and with friends. My favorite was Ryu.
Zombies ate my neighbors! on SNES - This was one of the earlier games that wasn't a side scroller. Really liked the cool weapons and graphics.
Sci-fi vector graphic game on SNES that I can't remember - Can't remember the name but it's a side scrolling game where you get ported to a new planet and have to get around traps like a "Prince of Persia" style play. Really fun and liked the puzzle aspect.
Mortal Kombat II on SNES - I loved this game and played it alot. Tried all of the combos I knew and loved the graphics.

64 bit consoles:
Super Mario 64 on Nintendo 64 - My first intro to 3D. A very fun game.
WCW/NWO Revenge on Nintendo 64 - This was one of my favorite multiplayer games ever. Spent so many hours with friends playing this. So many laughs and so many tears.
Goldeneye on Nintendo 64 - This was another great multiplayer game. I used to laugh at the idea of death match on one screen but found out how much fun it was.

Playstation 1:
Resident Evil 2 on Playstation 1 - Still by far a favorite on the RE series. Stayed up late playing this scaring myself.

Modern consoles:
Metal Gear games on Playstation 2 - Really liked these games and they still are fun to spin up even today.
Resident Evil Code Vernoica on Dreamcast - Great graphics and lots of fun. Liked it so much bought the PS2 version as well.
Tony Hawk Pro Skater series on Playstation 2 - My favorite action/arcade game. The skating is much better to emulate in a game than BMX.
SOCOM on Playstation 2 - I tried the Rainbow series on PC years ago, didn't like it but this mix of arcade/tactical worked great.

Modern Consoles:
Bioshock on Xbox 360 - I loved the story line and the details of the game. Very well done.

PC gaming:
Double Dragon - This was the first game I remember on the PC. I just remember the graphics were nice but the controllers at that time were bad.
Castle Wolfenstien - Ironically I was introduced to this game in the high school computer lab. Started my habit of FPS games.
Doom/Doom II - I spent many many hours of deathmatching with friends. Also did my first co-op with another friend over modems.
Unreal Tournament - Still install this game time to time. The graphics are great and it's a fun game. Who can forget such sayings as "head shot" and "killing spree!"
Half Life - I was really draw into HL. The game just felt new and different. Even death matching felt fun with satchel packs and mines.
Quake series - Wasn't too much into Quake but I did play Quake 3 alot. Still is my standard for a quick death match which runs on older pc's.
NOX - This was my first interest in action/rpg games for the PC. I played Diablo and really preferred NOX because the game felt better.
Metal of Honor - Great game with a great death match. Loved to play the beach level and storm the bunkers.
Roller Coaster Tycoon - I was never into RTS games before this one.
Half Life 2 - I followed the release info about this game and at the time had a older laptop. By next year I spent the money for a new computer because I just wanted to play this. Just an amazing game, gravgun is one of my favorite weapons.
World of Warcraft - My first MMORPG that I really liked. The graphics were nice, game felt polished and friends played it as well.
Battlefield series - I left the twitch shooters for more tactical style games. Really love BF2 especially playing with good players over voice chat.

There's more games which I did not list but these are the ones that really stand out. I am not a big gamer and very few games I actually finish before I just get annoyed or bored of the game play. Out of the games listed here I have to say that Half Life, Metal Gear, World of Warcraft are the stand outs. I played the most on World of Warcraft but recently I'm looking towards single player RPG games.

Leaving video for photo

Recently after having my video camera for a few months I sold it on eBay. It's not that I didn't like the camera or didn't want it, but rather I was happy with video over photography. I tried out video before, years ago in college with a basic intro to video editing class. I went out and bought a decent video camera, which I still have, and tried my hand at recording.

What I found out was that video recording is very different from photography. In video the main feature is that you can record moving objects. To get moving objects you need either people or something that is moving. Now if you go out by yourself, as I liked to go out when photographing, it's hard to find something to video. I did make a few bike videos but without friends to record I ended up using the video camera to record city life, such as streets late at night. What I found is that it's not as fun as photography where you capture the moment of a scene, but you capture the entire scene. This is good and bad, but harder and more time required than photography.

I started to remember this was a reason why I never ventured on video and enjoyed photography much more.

Hoping that after Christmas I can upgrade my digital camera which is a few years old to a new model. My only complaint of my photography gear.

Updates and a few

It's been a while since updating my blog. I just update it with random information, nothing important.

Console gaming with the Xbox 360

Recently I bought a Microsoft Xbox 360 gaming console. I waited until there was some more used games and the prices came down a bit before buying one. I was not sure what to expect from the Xbox 360. Most of my gaming is done on the PC with playing mmorpg's like World of Warcraft and Guild Wars, then some first person shooters like Half Life 2. My last console that I bought was the Sony Playstation 2, and that was almost 6 years ago.

When I first received the Xbox 360 I plugged the system into my monitor and saw that the graphics were really sharp just like in the stores. I purchased a VGA adapter that hooks up to my computer monitor and looks great. First I set up Xbox Live, the gaming portal for the Xbox that allows on-line playing and access to game downloads and media. It's a pay subscription but it's not too much. The interface to use Xbox Live is really simple and easy.

From here I downloaded a few demo games, and they downloaded and installed without any problems. Impressive to actually download a demo and play it so fast, nice change from the PC. After this I stopped by the store and bought Bioshock for the Xbox 360, a game that I bought for the PC but ran very slow on my current PC hardware. It almost unplayable even at a low resolution setting.

Not sure what to expect, I started up Bioshock and was surprised. The game played just fine at 1080p or 1920x1200 without any slowdown or stuttering. All of the nice effects were there, including the very nicely done water graphics. Even the controls felt great going from the keyboard. Honestly I can say it was a nice change to play a game without having the issues of a PC where my hardware is not fast enough.

After playing Bioshock I was impressed by the Xbox 360 and the overall quality of the game. From here I played a few other games such as Halo 3 and others, they felt nice and playing in a higher resolution makes the game play more interesting.

So after playing with the Xbox 360 for a bit what do I think about it?

Honestly I think it's a different experience from the PC and not something to take over it's place. After years of having to guess if my computer could play a game, I can now have a console where I'm pretty sure any game designed for it will play good. This combined with the factor that I don't need to upgrade the hardware of the Xbox 360 is a nice plus over the PC. The Xbox Live feature is helpful, the Xbox 360 plays HD movies and you can watch trailers, download game demos, even full games from Xbox Live Arcade. This feature makes more use of the Xbox 360 and turns it into a entertainment device rather than a gaming console.

Another feature I like about the Xbox 360 is something common with consoles is the more simple playing. With the PC I felt like it was sometimes a task to get a game running, where on the console it's simply insert the game and play. Also you can connect your Xbox 360 to a Windows computer running XP or Media Center to play movies or music across your network.

Of course, there are downsides to the Xbox 360 as well.

The on-line playing is not free but is connected to Xbox Live, a paid subscription. It's not a big deal but again, with the Sony Playstation 3 using free on-line play, this is a added cost. The Xbox 360 hardware has faced many problems from the hardware failing to scratching game discs, only the three red lights, a critical failure will be covered by Microsoft for now. Microsoft will also cover the scratched discs but only their games and only change you a small amount for the replacement.

I recently bought the Halo 3 limited edition, and both of the discs were scratched. They played fine but since the replacement offer was free, sent them in just to be sure. It's not a huge problem but things like these make the overall system look bad against the Sony Playstation 3. Another important point is the factor that you are stuck on the same hardware for years and without any upgrades on the Xbox 360. This is a problem especially as the hardware nears end of life, which should be 2011 or earlier. It's something to consider with any technology item but with a gaming console, it's a big investment of games that will also be outdated.

Overall, if you want to just play games and have the simplest access, I would recommend the Xbox 360, especially if you want to game in front of a big television on the couch. If you want a more personal experience, being able to install game modifications and upgrade your hardware as needed, go with the PC.

Again, it's a personal choice, neither is better or worse, and I enjoy both playforms. Just for my self, I usually like shooters and mmorpgs on the PC, driving games and rpg's on the console.

Banksy stencil graffiti



This weekend I found a book of graffiti art by Banksy of London. His graffiti art is really more stencils than free hand painting but very interesting to view. Most of it is done using large stencils and placing them in spots to interact with the surroundings. Such as mice playing ball with a sign above stating "No ball playing". his stencils are sometimes crude but they get the message across and his style is unmistakable.

While it's hard to choose just one, this is possibly my favorite Banksy painting.

Getting better

It's been a few weeks since my accident and my arm feels much better. Two weeks ago my doctor said my collar bone is healing fine and I can stop wearing the arm sling. It was the best news I heard in a while. :) It's still sore and I can't lift anything heavy, I'll need to take it easy for a while until I'm back at 100%.

Rechargeable batteries from eBay

Recently I bought a new video camera, and since the camera only comes with one battery, I bought a second as a backup. The batteries are very expensive, $150 each for the factory version. So I checked around and found on eBay they had the generic batteries available for $25 each. Normally I'm used to buying a generic battery that is maybe 1/2 or 1/4 the price of the oem, not 6 times cheaper. Basically this deal sounded too good.

Taking a chance, I bought two batteries from a 99.8% positive seller. The batteries arrived very shortly but they had some problems. First, the batteries were shipped without any padding in a regular shipping envelope. One of the batteries was broken inside, then the other had a cracked case. Inside the cracked case battery I found a no-name battery cells and a large piece of Styrofoam.

Now I haven't opened the oem battery yet but I am pretty sure it's built a bit better on the inside than this battery. If I could find a old oem battery for sale I wouldn't mind to take it apart and find out just how much they are built differently.

World of Warcraft after 70

After a long long time of playing my character in World of Warcraft, I finally achieved the final level of 70. While I didn't race through or play from 1-70 non-stop, it was still a large task getting there. My total played time was 20 days, which equals to 480 hours, or if I played 8 hours a day, 60 days. While it sounds like a long time, this is over almost 2 years.

Once at 70, you now can work on quests but instead of items or gold and experience points, you just receive items of gold. There are also other level 70 quests to complete but I haven't finished the rest of the normal quests yet. Honestly, I'm a bit tired of this character and interested to start playing more time on a priest class, maybe even on another server.

My bike rides so nice!

I've been riding around my bicycles, a 2004 Specialized Hardrock Pro in 17". I bought this bike a few years ago to start riding again and never owned a geared bike before. After riding it around I actually spent more time on the street than the dirt. On the street the bike rides nice but with the wide tires and big knobbies, it doesn't ride very smooth.

So the past weekend my bike was riding a bit rough, I think the gears felt like they needed adjustments, I brought the bike in for a free tune up. While getting the tune up I saw some new street tires and had them install the tires as well. They cost about $35 each, but they have built in armor against thorns which I really hate. Once I got the bike back, it rode so differently from before. With the new tires I could coast and roll much easier than before. Also the tires hold about 70~80psi, so they are easier to pedal than with my low pressure knobbier tires.

During the winter I want to buy a road bike but for now, I think my converted mountain bike will be a lot of fun.