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.

Digital video

A few years ago I took a digital video class in college. I really liked the idea of recording and editing video but ran across a few problems. First problem was a few years ago, computers didn't have the performance to edit video that easily. Well, they could if you bought a very high performance computer but for me, my gaming pc still didn't have the power to edit anything at the time. Needless to say, I lost interest in video and ventured further with photography.

Now a few years later, I brought out my video camera again for some video projects with my friend Jeremy and making a few bike videos. With the new hard ware and faster processors, editing videos is much easier than before. Now I'm interested again with video to use in addition to photography.

Writing a script

I had a few ideas for a short movie but really don't know how to put it down on paper. After a while of researching on the Internet I found a few good resources about filming and writing scripts. Not sure just how far I could take my movie idea but it's small enough where a few friends could complete it and can budget for all of the funding myself.

Good script writing info

Screenwriting FAQ from DVXUser.com

Final Draft script software

Standards for scripts

Of course, the script writing is only the beginning. There's a movie to be made as well.

Rob

Helicopters

There is a local rc flying field in my area that I used to visit years ago. I haven't been there in a long time but I was always interested in watching the helicopters fly around. Unlike a plane they move like dragonfly, up and down, every direction possible. While I wanted to fly one, they were very expensive and hard to fly without crashing.

Recently there has been a rush of flying simulators, basically they are like a flying video game but with more details. At many hobby shops they have a demo of this flying simulator running with a controller. It's a lot of fun to fly the plane without the worry of crashing. It really makes a great chance to gain skills in a virtual world.

While flying around the helicopter in the flying simulator I was interested just how different it was from flying a plane or driving a rc car. I started to check pricing for a rc helicopter but really didn't want to spend a lot of money, and didn't want something very hard to fly.

Based upon these requirement a dual rotor electronic helicopter would be the best choice. With a dual rotor, the helicopter is much easier to fly and stable, also with the small size you can fly this in doors. Hopefully with the lighter weight, it means less to break is you crash but not sure about this.

While I haven't bought one I'm considering the E-Flight Blade CX2 ready to fly kit.

Review of the E-Flight Blade CX2

BMX History

One of the most interesting BMX related web sites I've found is VintageBMX, a visual history of BMX bikes and images. It's a vast collection of BMX bikes from the begging to the present day. If you ever ridden BMX in the past, you could spend a few minutes just finding your favorite old rides.

My dream bike

Speaking of vintage BMX bikes. When I was younger I only had a handful of bikes, a Huffy "Stingray" style bike, then a hand me down Mongoose complete with Motomags, a Open Road that was surprising nice even with 4130 frame, then my last ridden bike, a S&M Challenger. While out of all of the bikes, I ridden the Open Road the most. I used to ride 30 miles a day or more, and this was on a little single speed bike.

Of course I always wanted a better bike and there was one bike that really caught my eye. It was the late 1980's Haro Master. This bike at the time was the high tech freestyle machine. Basically if you couldn't do a trick on this bike, it wasn't the bike's fault.



I really remember this exact bike in this green color because there was a guy down my street who owned one. Now this wasn't a big deal, I've ridden with people who had nice bikes before but this was different. Each time I would ride to my friends house I would pass the guy's house, with the garage open each time. And each time the Haro would be sitting there in the garage unused.

Now it's one thing if your a collector but if your young and just letting a top of the line bike sit and collect dust in your garage, it's another. Each time I rode by I kept thinking how I was riding my cheap bike so much more and how I would appreciate a nice bike like that. Also I kept wondering if the bike meant anything to the guy, if he didn't even like riding at all? Why buy something so expensive if you never actually ride it?

As time went one, I experienced this over and over, either with cars, motorcycles or anything else of high value. Some people just buy the most expensive item but really don't use it to the full value, or they just never had interest. While others make due with what they are given and use it to the full amount. It's something to consider when you think your car isn't nice enough or your house is so small. There are many others who love a car instead of walking or a place to sleep at night. Be thankful for what you have.

Haven't updated the blog in a while, I was working on my final projects for school and finally graduated. While relaxing I ended up breaking my collar bone while riding at a bmx park. Actually crashed on a small dirt jump but slammed into the next jump, causing the break.


My crash and an update

It looks painful but I was lucky and it was more of a shock than anything. The first week was tough, just sleeping was hard but now it's more annoying wearing the sling. Hopefully I get healed up quick and back to normal status.

BMX history

I've been a fan of BMX bikes for a while. They were my first bike and did lots of riding when I was younger. I stopped riding around 1996 when it was harder and harder to find places to ride. Also I didn't know anyone who rode then, just myself, everyone was doing the car thing or just not interested in bikes.

So recently I been riding my mountain bike and found a few friends who started a street ride. I got to ride around San Jose, like we used to do when I was younger with my friends. Nothing much but riding around and having fun. Here's a short video I made of the ride.





After this ride, we ended up going to Pleasanton BMX park for the next ride. This was a lot of fun but I did more filming than actual riding. Here's another video of Pleasanton.





RC cars

Since I need to get some rest I bought a remote control truck. It's a Team Losi LST2, a nitro gas powered truck. It's really big 1/8 scale and tough but I have some issues with the truck starting. With nitro engines it's very picky on the jetting of the gas and other issues. So after a few hours of wondering why it won't start I found out that from the factory it's set incorrectly.

Finally I got it started but now it won't hold an idle. Researching on the Internet this seems like a common problem with nitro cars and basic learning experience. Hopefully I can get the truck running this weekend.

RAD the movie

If you never seen RAD it's a classic bmx movie from the 80's. Nothing is really special about this film but it's the bmx version of Thrashin that was a film all amount skateboarding. Recently I found the full version on the Internet and it's fun to rewatch the movie.

So close

I'm getting very close to completing my degree at school. It's only three more weeks and I'll be done. Been going for a long time, and with work it's been hard to make extra time. After this I'm not sure what I'll do next but I do want to check out a 4 year university for further education. School is not my favorite place to be but I have learned a lot over the years and it has helped me succeeded at work.

Another problem

On Saturday I took my bike out for a short ride around town. While pulling out the garage I noticed some fluid on the front brake cable, which turned out to be brake fluid. It's not a serious leak but still important to fix. So today I visited my local Honda dealer and bought two washers for a CRF450 which are the same size as my bike. Now I am going to remove all of the fluid on the front brakes again, re-bleed, and hopfully they don't leak. It's a pain since the last time it took about 1 hour to get the brakes some what solid.

This is not a major problem but it's those little annoying problems with something used. Since I mostly do homework on the weekdays I spend my weekend working on the bike, which means less ride time for me. Hoping this is the last of the problems on the bike.

Holocaust

Just recently I watched the PBS series Auschwitz: Inside the Nazi State from Netflix on demand. It's a very well done series on the holocaust and just how did the Nazis kill so many people. While it was difficult to watch, I did learned more and had a few of my questions answered. Before I thought that the Nazis just started the anti-semitism just during the war but it was actually years before that the hate started in Germany. The series was also amazing to hear first hand experiences from prisoners and guards at Auschwitz. One of the most shocking scenes was an interview of the guard who expressed no remorse for what he did 60 years ago.


Ride to Mt. Hamilton



This past Thursday after work I met with a few friends for a ride to Mt. Hamilton. Of all the roads I have ridden, Mt. Hamilton is my least favorite. The road to the top is filled with very tight switch backs, gravel, and blind turns. Then factor in I crashed on this road before and got run off the road by another motorcyclist going the wrong way. Basically, it's a difficult road for me. On the way up I did pretty well, I only had two mistakes. First I target fixated on the side of the road after a turn and almost rode in the dirt, lucky for me it was only a second. Then while riding up a very steep switch back turn, I lost my balance for a second and put my foot down to catch myslef. Ironically, it was almost the same method how I crashed years earlier on the same road. Once I got to the top, it was a great feeling to once again complete this road. I'll continue to ride here as it gets easier each time.

I really really dislike cold weather

Since I'm starting to ride again I am finding out just how cold it is on a bike. Driving in a nice warm car is totally different from a motorcycle. Even with a leather jacket and a rain jacket, I was still very cold from a 1 hour ride. My fingers were numb, and the wind was blasting down the jacket. It's also hard to warm up again without a heater or something on a bike. It's a pain but it's a part of riding, you're in the weather and much closer to the elements than in a car.

What I might do is find a thicker riding jacket and use a tighter sweater under the jacket. I find that it's not so much the wind but actually the wind blowing into my jacket from the jacket not fitting perfect. Hopefully if I seal all of the air leaks it won't be as cold. They sell electric heated vests but I don't think I'll need something like that for now, the weather isn't that cold and summer is coming soon.

Did I buy the wrong bike?

After riding my motorcycle around more this week I'm starting to wonder if I bought the right bike. Ever since I sold my last motorcycle I was torn between buying another full street bike and something in between like a dual sport or motard style bike. Both bike styles have pros and cons but I'm finding out that on the freeway the motard is almost slow to the point it's unsafe. Just traveling down 880 I can just barley keep up with traffic and usually ride in the slow lane my whole trip at 70mph.

Now this doesn't sound too bad but considering the bike is almost at it's limit at 70mph, passing cars or just staying ahead of the slower traffic is a task. Even on my first bike, a Ninja 250 I never felt like I couldn't keep up with traffic. I was aware of this limit on these types of motorcycles but never realized just how much I ride on the freeway.

Just for fun I stopped at the local motorcycle shop after work today and just sat on a bunch of new bikes to get an idea of what would I buy if I sold this current bike. Not sure but I think I would get a super sport 600 or maybe another Ninja 250. I never had an in-line 4 motorcycle before and really interested in the high technology of the bike. At the same time, I enjoy the simple nature of the Ninja 250 and just how easy it was to ride.

Back to riding

I've been away from riding for over 2 years. Well to be more technical, I've not owned a motorcycle in over 2 years. I really never was away from riding.

When I first started riding street I rode a Ninja 250. It was so easy to ride, but after riding 6,000 miles in a few months I sold the bike and bought a SV650S (mostly based upon my friend’s recommendation). I’m not sure why but the SV650 didn’t feel as fun the 250. It was top heavy, big and didn’t have that easy to ride feeling, it was more like the bike was riding me. So after a year of riding just a few thousands miles, I sold the SV650 and didn’t buy another bike. The bike never felt fun like my 250, and after most of the friends faded from the interest of motorcycles, I followed the same path. As far as I knew I was done with riding.

While I didn’t own a motorcycle in those 2 years it was on my mind a lot. When people would ask where I took a photo, I would explain it was a seldom used road in the Woodside area I discovered on a motorcycle ride. If a motorcycle passed me on the freeway, I could tell which model it was and year. The conservation of how dangerous lane splitting was on a motorcycle I would explain a motorcyclist has more risk of getting rear ended than side swiped lane splitting. Even at a friend’s bbq I spoke with another motorcyclist and talked about some of my favorite roads near the coast.

After some time my interest in motorcycles was re-started. I began to read up on different types of motorcycles and decided to judge what would be fun to ride instead of what would be the fastest or best looking. What I wanted was something not too heavy, easy to ride and more suited for goat trails than high speed. The more research I did, the more and more I noted that a dual sport or supermotard style bike was closer to my needs. Since I had a slightly bad experience with my SV650S, I was very hesitant on buying another bike without a test ride, but didn’t know anyone who rode a supermotard bike.

While asking for comments on the DRZ, Andrew graciously allowed me to ride his DRZ supermotard to get an idea of how it felt. After a few minutes on the bike it felt so much easier to ride, just like a 250 but with big suspension. I began to look around for used DRZs and new DRZs, but the pricing was higher than expected, so I started the slow process of just saving up for a used bike. After saving for a while I saw a KTM for sale, it was the supermotard version and the price was in my range. Once I took the test ride, it felt just like Andrew’s DRZ but a bit more power. So, I took the plunge and bought the bike, once again returning to 2 wheels.

Coming back to riding feels strange, I have to re-think the roads more carefully and even what I can carry. The bike feels very easy to ride and light, like a jumbo 250 with more power and bigger tires. It’s such a difference between this bike and my previous SV in so many ways. I haven’t taken any back roads but on the streets it feels so solid and much more confidence inspiring. This bike is actually fun to ride, like my first bike, where I’m looking forward to coming home to ride it. After a few hundred miles I’ll post a ride review.

So, I’m back on 2 wheels but I really never left when I think about it, I was just looking for the right bike.

Warcraft

I've been playing less and less World of Warcraft, in fact I let my subscription expire this week. While I enjoy playing, my school is almost done and rather spend the time finishing homework instead of playing. After I'm done with school, which should be this next month I'll join my friends playing again.

Mortal Kombat

When I was younger I spent many hours at the arcade playing Mortal Kombat II. There was a pizza place near my home where I would play almost every day and even on the weekends. It's a fighting arcade game that was one of the first to use actual people instead of cartoons for character designs. Also it's known of the graphic Fatalities, which involve some method of killing the opponent at the end of fight.

While checking out some videos on Youtube, I found a Mortal Kombat II video of combos. I was able to complete a few combos my self but nothing like these ones.

Mortal Kombat II Combo video

Outlands and beyond

Finally made level 60 on my main World of Warcraft character this weekend. As soon as I got my new skills I ran out to the Outlands to check out the new content. So far the quests are reqarding with great items and just from a few hours of playing, replaced 4 items. The area is much different from the old areas, lots of new designs and even new mobs to fight. I'll post some pictures of the area.

Rob

Leveling to 60

My World of Warcraft character is at 57, well technically 57 1/4. So far it feels like the quests are easier and I'm finishing about 4~5 a night, depending upon their location. Before at 40~50, the questing felt so slow, it took me almost a week or two to level, now it's about a week or shorter. At this rate I should be level 60 by mid March. I'm much slower than other players but I like to keep the playing time down to just a few hours a week. My rule is to only play during the week nights in rested XP, once I exceed this I stop playing. This works great since I'm making double the amount of regular XP and also it limits my playing time.

Blizzard's beta The Armory

Blizzard released a beta web site called The Armory which pulls information in real time from the World of Warcraft game servers. It's not a new idea, Everquest2 and other popular MMO games have been doing this for years. Also there has been un-offical utilities to do this as well, complete with web sites showing the new game items.

My favorite part of the new web site is the character page. Many times I tried to explain my character or copied the talent page link and send this to a friend. Now I can just copy my profile character page and send the link. This shows my character's stats, skills and any other important information.

Here's my main character, Joanda which I'm playing the most. I'm at 13 days played, and compared to other people am still not as fast for leveling. Some people can get to level 60 in 8 days played following a guide but I did a lot of exploring on this character.

Clapton Stratocaster

My friend brought in his 1980's Fender Eric Clapton Stratocaster. It's very similar to my green Stratocaster but feels nicer. The strings are lower to the frets and makes it easier to press the strings down, using less force. Also his guitar from years of playing, has a very smooth neck, almost glass like. I personally liked the shape of the neck, it's a "V" style which is different from the standard "C" shape but really perfer a stain paint finish over the glossy.

The pricing of this guitar is higher than the standard American Stratocaster, I think partly due to the Clapton name but it is a nice guitar. Personally, if I had a choice I would rather have this Ash Stratocaster instead, I really like the Cherry Sunburst color with rosewood fretboard the color looks amazing in person.

Rob

Playing the bass guitar

I've been shopping around for a nice electric bass guitar for the past few months. Just searching Craigslist and visiting local music stores to get an idea of what feels nice. A month ago I found a really nice Ibanez bass at my local music shop. It was on sale and went back twice to test the bass out, just to make sure it was the one I wanted. After playing the bass more on the second trip really found it wasn’t as great as I thought. The strings buzz slightly and for the money I could find something better.

A few weeks later I was visiting another local music shop and asked the owner for any cheap basses. He showed me a few, first was a no name brand Fender P-bass copy in sunburst for $99. The bass played really nice, felt very solid and had pretty good weight to it. The only slight downside to the bass was the sharp frets on the neck, but I think a simple setup could have fixed this issue.

The second bass I played was a used Ibanez Roadstar II from 1985 and was selling for $100. It was in used condition but still felt nice and broken in. The frets were smooth and only had slight wear to the bass, also it was made in Japan, something rare these days. So instead of the new bass for $99 I choose the used bass for $100.

After taking it home I felt the strings were too soft sounding. They were flatwounds and when playing don’t have the loud sound but a more soft jazzy sound. After a new set of strings the bass sounded great. Unfortunately I only had to listen to the bass through my headphones on a guitar amp.

Last week I finally bought a real bass amp, a small 75 watt Line 6 Studio 110. It’s actually very loud and for my needs is great. Also sounds much better in the headphones than my guitar amp did.

So after getting everything I needed I started to search around for bass instructions on the web. Here’s some that I found.

Fender Players Club bass lessons (decent amount of lessons for beginners to advanced players).
http://www.fenderplayersclub.com/woodshed/bass/bass.htm

Active Bass (Lots of lessons and information about playing bass).
http://www.activebass.com/

Guitar Noise Bass for Beginners Lessons (Good basic lessons on bass).
http://www.guitarnoise.com/bass.php

Rob

Gateway 24" widescreen monitor

Recently I've been looking for a monitor with a larger desktop than my current 19" LCD monitor. When I upgraded to an LCD monitor I was used to running high resolutions, typically 1600x1200 on a 19" CRT. On my notebook I also have a slightly higher resolution at 1400x1050, which is great for a 15" screen. The problem I ran into was the standard 19" LCDs where all in a low resolution of 1280x1024. Now this size is great for general use but found in applications with many windows or menus bars, it made the desktop very cluttered.

After the prices started to come down on 19" LCDs I bought a second monitor to run with the first one on my computer. Soon I was able to run an application in full screen while keeping another screen open for web browsing or typing notes. One problem with this configuration is gaming, for some reason most games had a problem running in Windowed mode, and the ones that did run had a much larger performance hit than running on one desktop.

So I switched back to one monitor and decided to wait until the 20" or 22" widescreen monitors dropped in price. In the past few months I saw the price of the of Dell 2407WFP 24" and the Gateway FPD2485W 24" monitors slowly lower to $680. Still too high but saw a web only pricing for the Gateway at a local electronics dealer and thought it was a good price. So hours later I was testing out the monitoring at home.

Just as soon as I got the monitor hooked up I installed the drivers and downloaded a few updated files for World of Warcraft. Running late for a dungeon run I didn't change the default settings on the monitor. After about 2 hours of playing, I was glad to say the monitor was actually very easy to change. I saw little if any decreased video performance jumping from the previous 1280x1024 to the higher 1920x1200. When taking a screenshot I did not a lag longer than before but after I checked the file sizes, each screen shot increased from 2.5mb to 5mb in size.

While it might not seem like a huge differnce in width from 1280 to 1920, it's an amazing amount of added view. Below is a screenshot from the dungeon, if you have played WoW before you know just how cluttered the gaming view can get, you need all of the extra desktop you can get.

One of the biggest selling points for me on this monitor is the ability to use HDTV, component, and composite inputs. Now I can remove my old tube tv and save some space as well as get a better picture. :) Tonight I'll test the monitor with my Playstation 2 using the component cables to see the quality difference on this monitor from my CRT television. I don't own any new game consoles or HD-DVD players so for now the PS2 will have to do.

Of course there are some problems with any item, this monitor not excluding. I found that while the colors were very bright and clear, there was a slight ghosting with very fast gaming movements. Only noticed this when I was actually looking for it, didn't bother me during actual gaming. Also with the overall size of the 24" monitor, the stand to hold it is larger than regular sized monitors. On my small home styled desk space is always an issue and lost some space with the larger stand but it's not a major issue.

Overall for the money, this is a nice monitor. For a multimedia system this monitor would make a nice mix with Media Center version of Windows, or any system with high resolution display. For a business solution, again this is good monitor since you can view two full pages side by side. Just personally but I perfer one larger monitor as to two smaller monitors. For the average pc gamer I think this is a good monitor but some of the faster games might not look as great. It's a trade off for the lower pricing, which I'm willing to accept.

Personal rating 4.5/5

Rob

Grind to 60, or is it 70?

For the past year I've been on and off playing World of Warcraft, the popular MMORPG game. My main character is a undead female warlock with various lower level characters. Since starting this character last year I have taken time away from the game for school and work. Also while playing the game I like to explore the game world myself and not rely on game maps or web sites for hints.

After a few nights of wondering where that special animal or quest location is at I started to get very frustrated with this game (as you can tell I'm not good with maps). Not to mention I was moving so slowly up the levels it felt like I was taking forever.

After realizing just how slow this process is for leveling I decided to change my playing style using more help from guide books and leveling walk throughs. In the past few weeks I've been making a not so slow pace from 36 to my current level 49. I spend about 2~3 hours a few nights a week and at this pace I should be at 60 in a few weeks.

While 70 is the level cap, many friends say that at 60 you get to explore the new content which is more interesting to me than actually just getting max level. I would have really liked to see more new areas for mid level people like myself, such as a new dungeon or questing in a new land. Currently at level 49 the grind has become easier, I'm making a decent amount of gold each day but it's still hard to get to the top. Guess that's way they call it a grind. :)

Just for the people new to World of Warcraft here's some helpful web sites I've used in the past.

General Help (Information about World of Warcraft).
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/
http://www.worldofwarcraft.com/burningcrusade/

Questing Help (Both sites have quest information and item locations with maps for each).
http://wow.allakhazam.com/
http://www.thottbot.com/

Quest leveling walkthrough (If you want to level the fastest to 70).
http://www.wow-pro.com

World of Warcraft UI's (custom UI's for making the game easier such as maps, buttons).
http://ui.worldofwar.net/
http://wow.curse-gaming.com/en/files/addons/
http://www.cosmosui.org/
http://www.ctmod.net/

Learning to play the bass.

I've been playing the guitar and learning basic chords, got a few down but I still need a lot of practice. Recently in the past few months I've been very interested in learning to play the bass guitar. It's hard to describe but the bass guitar is very different from the guitar in more ways that just tone or sound. The bass feels like you are playing a percussion instrument, like a drum set, where the guitar feels like you are singing or in a lead position of the music.

In the few months of playing I enjoy the guitar but it didn't feel right for some reason. Then I tried out a few bass guitars at the music shop and really liked the feeling of keeping a beat and deep low end sound. Just personally, I like drums and funk sounding beats from the late 70's like Sly and the Family Stone type stuff. It's different from a regular guitar, the strings are very thick, the bass guitar feels huge to a regular guitar and you usually play with your fingers than a pick but it's still a fun instrument to play.

Rob

Rodney Mullen

Since I remember skating as a young child I was amazed by Rodney Mullen. Today he's still skating and is even more impressive than before. Many skaters have suggested that Rodney and Mark Gonzales have created the modern street skating with their mix of technical skills.

Short video of Rodney Mullen

Second Life

Recently I was reading a discussion about MMORPG's on-line games and found this game web site. Second Life is basically like a huge on-line game but where it's different from other games is there are no objectives, instead you just build and explore the world. I tried this game out and was impressed with the amount of game space you can travel.

Like with most on-line games, there is a monthly fee but you can create an account for free and explore the world. The only down side is you can not buy anything (in game money is bought with real world money) and you can not own any land (houses can be built in the game). It's still free and fun.

Second Life web site

Rob

School

I've been going to school on and off since high school and in recent years kept going to finish a degree. Just recently the last class I needed to finish was only available during the day, which I could not take due to my work. After checking again I found that there is a web class as well which I could take to complete my degree. I was pretty excited and glad that I was down to the last class.

Rob

Does money equal skill?

This weekend while taking some photos in SF my friend and I discussed this question. Does better equipment equal better photographs? There are some people who say it’s all of the photographer’s skill, I tend to think it’s a mixture of the equipment and the ability of the photographer.

Let’s take this scenario for example. Two photographers, same skill level, both take pictures of a flower garden. Photographer A is using an entry level digital SLR with the kit lens and a 1gb memory card. Photographer B is using a pro level digital SLR with a wide variety of lenses, also has many gb’s of memory cards. With the two photographers taking the pictures of the same objects, who will have the better result? I would say Photographer B would have clearer images and with the greater amount of images taken, better chance to find a nice image of the bunch.

It seems like photography is one area that skill can be made up with better equipment more so that other skills. For example if a low skilled guitar player would have played a $2,500 Les Paul or a $99 Squire, I doubt there would be much if any difference in his/her skill since there is no way to “fake” play. But if poor photographer used pro level equipment and had the ability to take thousands of photos they would have much better chance to get a good shot but just taking as many pictures as possible.

I wonder if other hobbies also follow this pattern as well?

Rob

MySpace

I'm not a big MySpace fan, I have a profile but it's checked rarely and don't keep in touch with friend's profiles either. Recently I was browsing on MySpace for high school class mates, and by chance started searching for other people. I found some interesting profiles.

The Gorillaz music group

World of Warcraft video game

Dr. Octagon, hip hop artist

Relevant Christian music magazine

DJ Q-Bert

The Simpsons

Family Guy

These are just a few I found, and I'm sure there are thousands more. It's pretty funny to see the profiles for cartoon characters as well.

Obsession

I just found this link for a movie called Obsession. It's about radical Islam's war aganist the West. Not sure what to expect but does sound interesting to see.

MMORPG

I've been playing on and off World of Warcraft for the past year. The game is a MMORPG, where you play on-line with other people in a virtual gaming world. It's fun but after playing to level 34 (with 60 being the highest) it's becoming less fun. The game is still fun but seems like I'm doing the same thing but with higher level people to fight.

Just recently based upon a suggestion from a co-worker I downloaded a trial version of Everquest2, called Trial of the Isle. It's a free version of the game that allows you to explore and get an idea of the game before buying a copy. So far I've only played a hour but it seems fun and different from Warcraft. Not sure if I'll keep playing after the trial period but it does look good.

Here's what the game looks like.




Logic in programming

From my last posting I've been working on learning C# programming. This isn't my first time learning how to program but wanted to take this further than simple text book application and make something I could use for work. While the actual coding is hard, what is most challenging is using logic with programming. Since the computer is really not smart and only does what is told, your program must be carefully designed to work without any issues.

I found this also applies to other applications as well. In Flash I was making a small interactive music game for kids as part of my class work. I came across a problem in my design where I wanted something to stop then start when the user clicked a button. At first I was worried that I would have to redesign the whole project but then I thought about working around this problem.

Using an example from my text book, I added a script function and fixed the issue using a short command to stop the movie, then start to play only one loop when clicked. It sounds easy but took me a while to figure it out. :)

Rob

Beginning programming

At work I've been trying to make a simple script to pull information from various servers. The problem I'm encountering is the limited ability to run the script, you have to run this from a command prompt and most users are not familar with this.

Instead of buying another tool, I got the idea about building a application from the bare bones. A few months ago I attended a Microsoft show that handed out Microsoft Visual Studio, a software application for programming Windows applications. Now I always thought that building applications of something useful was really hard. I've written programs at school that did things like play a game or added students to a simple database. Here I wanted to do a bit more.

So now I'm trying to learn what I can and re-learn what I forgot (it's been a few years since my last class).

Here's a few useful links for those who are intersted in prgramming as well.

Microsoft's Coding 4 Fun web site, lots of interesting projects.
Microsoft's C# Learning Resources videos, a bunch of free beginner videos on C#.
Learn Visual Studio web site, lots of videos but you need to subscribe.

Writing a letter

Today I sent out a package to my friend in Chicago. I included a hand written letter since she sent me one with a lanyard the previous week. While I was writing the letter I really noticed just how long it's been since I've actually wrote someone. It's interesting to read someone's letter. At times you can almost feel what they are feeling from the way they write and it has some much more meaning than a e-mail or phone call.

Rob

Freakonomics

Just recently I found this book at the local book store titled Freakonomics . The book is a very interesting list of reasons from a economist's point of view why certian things happen. One very interesting topic was the reason for crime to lower in the late 90's. In the early 90's, many crime experts said the crime would rise 50%, while it actually dropped 50%, the reasons why were puzzling to the experts. Here the economist Steven Levitt explains that while many people considered gun laws and further police training to make the biggest impact they overlooked the most important piece of the puzzle.

In the 70's a major law was found and won on the courts was Roe vs. Wade, the abortion rights across the nation. Here Levitt explains that since many poorer parents would not want their children they would be more likely to have them aborted. These same children who should have grown up to become criminals 20 years later, now were never born and this would be the reason for the crime drop 20 years later.

It's a very interesting idea and I agree that it does make more sense that any gun law or police traning program.


Gun Control

Does gun control really stop crime? I'm not sure but I think it's a simple fix to a bigger problem. The view of the public might see guns in the news and think that by stopping the sale of certian firearms this would stop the criminals on the street but it's really not the exact truth.

Many crime experts say that it's still very easy to find guns on the street to buy. Also the people who are doing the most crime can not legally purchase a gun so the added gun laws do not stop him or her. It's a very debated subject and I do see both view points but would rather see more push for added laws stopping repeat criminals rather than more gun control laws.

Here's the Wiki on Gun Control that has pros and cons on the subject.

Gun Control Wiki

Rob

SRV

While I have liked the guitar for a long time what really got me interested in playing was hearing Stevie Ray Vaughan's Pride and Joy. It's still one of my favorite songs and I have really liked his style of playing. It's so simple at times but then can become super complex.

To get an better idea of his playing, here's a video showing the close up of his playing style. This is an old video but it's really shows just how fast he plays.

SRV playing Rude Mood

Sadly, as with many bright stars, SRV died in a helicopter accident in 1990 and in a special concert his brother with many other famed guitarists had a very special show.

SRV Shuffle video

Speaking of guitars, here's the battle scene from Crossroads. BTW that's actually Steve Vai playing aganist him self. :)

Crossroads guitar battle

Rob

Will the real estate market crash?

When the topic of the real estate comes up there is a big line draw between the people who say a crash is near, and the people who say a crash will never happen. As history has taugh us, things go through a cycle and usually we can find how the market will be affected by looking at how it was decades ago.

Here's a short article from the Wall Street Journal about this topic.

RealEstateJournal Housing Market May Land Harder Than Economists Expect

What is really interesting is the graph they show for the market from the 80's to today.



There seems to be a very similar peak in the 1980's and 2006, with a similar expecting drop. Does this show the future? I'm not sure but I am saving my money just in case.

Rob

Getting back on two wheels

After almost two years of not riding (sold my last bike in Jan 2004) I've been really wanting to get another bike. Something I really missed about not having a bike was how it makes any trip more fun and interesting. Taking a ride to the coast is a lot more fun on a motorcycle and it's much easier to stop and take pictures. :)

My last bike was nice but I just didn't like how it rode. Hard to explain but it felt really heavy and never got used to the bike. Now after I had a lot of time to think about another bike I want something easy to ride and cheap to insure. So I'm thinking of two different bikes that I might buy. A Kawasaki Ninja 250 or a Suzuki DRZ-400SM, both pretty small and light weight, also easy to ride.

Both bikes are really nice, and just recently gotten a chance to test ride a DRZ-400 from a local rider. The bike rode very nice but it was not as comfortable as the Ninja 250 for longer rides. The DRZ is really a dirt bike based street bike and it's hard seat with a small gas tank makes longer trips not as easy.

While summer is ending I might be able to get a better deal on the motorcycle since people don't usually ride much in the fall and winter time. Hoping to have a new bike soon, maybe next month.

Rob

Range trip

This weekend my friend and I spent some time at the range. Really nice day and not very hot, spent a few hours there shooting targets. It was pretty fun, had Jeff, Kevin and Frank there with their guns. I brought two pistols and a 22 rifle.

Here's the view from my rifle at 25 yards.



While shooting we wanted to see how accurate the rifle was, so we put up this quarter at 25 yards. Here's the quarter after a 22LR supersonic bullet.



More pictures are located here.

Range Trip pictures

Rob

Hey there!

Long time since my last posting, I made a few changes and moved the gallery to another page. Wanted to bring my blog on the front page again.

Rob

My portfolio

Just recently I got my photography portfolio completed for my class project. Came out better than expected and shows my favorite images. You can find the link here.

Robert Freiberger's portfolio

Just a sample picture from my portfolio as well.



I tried to make the galleries a good mix of my different styles and keep them with high quality images. It actually was very difficult checking all of my 10,000 images and finding the best ones of the bunch. Honestly, I think I got the best ones and still had less than 50 images. I'm not a professional photographer but feel it's not a bad ratio.

Playing the guitar

Last year I took a live recording and sound reinforcement class at my local school. After going to this class and recording live bands, mostly jazz and classic concerts, I started to become interested in learning an instrument. I decided a piano was too big, brass horns too loud, and drums just way too loud. So I was down to either a guitar or a harmonica, I picked the guitar.

So for Christmas my parents gave me a nice Fender acoustic guitar beginner package. I played this on and off up until last month. It was a bit hard to really understand the basics at first. The few books I bought started right into playing but didn't show you how to tune the guitar or where to place your fingers. Also while playing I would get a constant "buzzzz" from the string, not sure but it was very annoying and even after pressing down hard still had this problem.

After a while I stopped playing and the guitar began to collect dust. Well one day at work, I mentioned I was trying to learn the guitar to a co-worker and how the strings keep buzzing. He said to take it over to a well known guitar shop and have the guitar correctly set up. That weekend I dropped the guitar off at Aantone's Music in Newark. For a very good price for $45, Aantone set up the guitar which included filing down the bridge, changed the strings to a lighter type, added a second strap peg, oiled the rosewood board, and adjusted the neck.

The guitar now plays much better and now I have no one to blame for buzzing except my self. :)

I'm also trying out my friend's Fender Stratocaster electric guitar which I really like. The guitar is actually made in Japan instead of the current models being made in Mexico. Right now I am using his small amp which is pretty nice but I want to play with distortion and may buy a new amp soon.

Dual monitors

Just recently I upgraded to a second monitor for my home desktop. While it might sound excessive just for home use, the second monitor is simple great for Photoshop or other applications where you need more deskspace. The problem I ran into before with using a single 19" LCD is the limited desktop resolution. At 1280x1024 you have to keep main window very small and it's not easy to multitasking across different windows. Now I can have one monitor just for Photoshop and the other just for viewing my files.

Here's an example of how the desktop looks with two monitors.



Rob

Happy New Year

Wishing everyone a great new year!

San Jose's Christmas in the Park

This year I visited Christmas in the Park with my friend and we took some pictures. It's a nice even San Jose throws every year in the down town area. The pictures really don't show the animated puppets and little trains which was really nice.

Here's a short Photostory I made of the photos.

Christmas in the Park video 10MB

Also here's the pictures, including the new San Jose City Hall.

Gallery of Christmas in the Park and City Hall

Home buying

I'm in the process of saving money for a home but in the mean time read about the market and topics in the news. This article from the Wall Stree Journal's free site caught my attention.

Watch Your Step, Novice Home Buyers...

Basically, they said that while the rates are down it's not a good idea to get over your head with a loan that is more than you can afford. Sounds like common sence but it's hard to settle for something small when you can get something bigger for a few hundred more a month.

F.E.A.R.

A few monthes ago, the video game publisher Sierra released the game F.E.A.R for the PC. This game was created by the company Monolith, they also created the great game series called No One Lives Forever. This game featured a woman as the main character and was set in a very Austin Powers type world completed with funny cut scenes.

Well my local Fry's had the game on sale for $37 so I figured I try the game out and see how it plays. It's actually one of the highest rated game of this year so I figure it must be good. After paying the game for an hour I really was disappointed with the graphics. I don't think it's a performance issue but even with the highest settings they still look sub-par compared with Half Life 2 or Battlefield 2.

The overall game play feels slightly dated as well. I really liked the thinking game that Half Life 2 was, you couldn't just run out and blast everything, some levels required thinking. For F.E.A.R. I felt that it was lacking the depth of a good game, and the feature of the "bullet time" slo-mo was not very interesting. I'll try playing the game again but so far it could have been done better. I do have to say that the creepyness of the game is done well. Plenty of gorey areas, nice effects with the lighting and interesting story line.

Learning to play

For Christmas I received an Fender acoustic guitar kit. It's pretty nice, comes with the tuner, learning dvd, bag and some picks. So far I bought an book to learn from, just going over the basics on how to hold each fret and correct placement of the fingers. It's hard to come from playing music as a dj then to creating music as a musician. I'm so used to hearing something, and being able to change the tempo or tone that understanding how the music is created was something I lacked.

I actually got interested in playing a guitar when I was out helping record a jazz band. Once I saw how the band works and they each play a part of the music I was more interested in playing. Another time I helped record a short session of a 4 piece band. While the band members were discussing the song they kept reffering to names such as "B5" or "E7", then they could tell just what key the song was sung in. These are areas which I never learned from playing records. I'll follow up once I have more experience on the guitar but my goal is to play Message in the Bottle and Everlong.

Rob

Christmas

What I love about Christmas is the lights on the trees and the excitment of gift giving. What I don't like is trying to figure out what to buy my friends. Every year I have this great idea about some gift but before I know it, it's December 19th and I only have a few days to drop off the gifts. Typically I end up getting them some gift certificates at a local music store with a small card. This year is not much different but I think I can twist it up a bit.

Photography

Just looking around some popular sites I have found some great tips about digital photography. Here at Microsoft's Digital Photography site they have a bunch of good resources, including a page about Photoshop CS2 RAW tips written by Scott Kelby.

If you never taken photos in RAW instead of JPG it's a great help when you need to "pull" that extra amount of detail from the photo. There are lots of pros and cons about using RAW but personally I think it's worth it, also it saved a few "lost" photos for me.

Half Life 2 and C++?

While I have a interest in computer programming, I don't have a great grasp on the technology used. I've taken classes in Visual Basic .NET and Java but still never made more than a small data base application. While playing Half Life 2, a computer game, I started to wonder about making my own Half Life level. After some research I found a great site with lots of info about modding (customizing a level) Half Life 2. This site from Valve's Developer Community is great and shows a very detailed basic beginner steps for creating you first mod.

Doing a quick search on Google, I found another page about modding Half Life 2 from Microsoft's Coding4Fun Half-Life 2 Mod Spot page. In this page they list a bunch of other sites for developers and mention that the free version of their C++ editor will not work with Half Life 2. In an updated Microsoft page I found that they now can use the Visual C++ 2005 Express Version, which is free to download. You can create you own games from all of these free tools! Except you still need to buy the game Half Life 2, which costs about $40. lol

Here's the site for all Microsoft Visual Studio Express items. It's free for a limited time.

World of Warcraft

I've been playing World of Warcraft on-line recently. It's a great game that is more interesting to me that typical on-line games. It's classed as a MMORPG, massivley multiplayer on-line role playing game, where people are playing in virtual worlds together. I have only been playing for three days but so far the worlds are really nice, lots of things to do and interact with other players.

Here's a picture of my character.

Then this is what a typical gaming area looks like.

Cold weather

This morning I was driving to church and the sky was clear, with that super chilly weather. For me I'm not great about winter time. Personally I don't mind rain, hot weather, but cold Chilly Willy weather is not my cup of tea. Guess I'm a bit cold blooded, maybe I should walk around with a electric blanket and a long extenstion cord.

The Fisheye camera

When taking pictures I tend to lean toward the wide side. In fact I usually have to rethink my photo ideas since my current lens does not deliver the wide angle I really want. So far I bought another lens to help but in the future I'll go with something a bit more sharper.



In the mean time I found this very interesting plastic camera. Basically, it's a cheap plastic camera, Holga style, with a super wide (fisheye) lens. This is really cool for those Beastie Boy-esque shots.

Freestyle photo has the camera for $50.


Cell phones

I just saw this ad for Comp USA in today's paper. It's a Nokia cell phone for GSM service that is unlocked. Unlocked is a phone that can be used for most all GSM cell phone companies, like T-Mobile, Cingular, and others. What is nice about this is you do not have to purchase any further contract and there is no extra cost with the phone. Great idea if you have a old phone and just want a replacement or you want something different.

Nokia 6170 at Comp USA


Rob

My new computer

After using my notebook for my primary computer for a year I found that it had some limitations. Just saving my images was taking up too much room on my hard drive, even after I upgraded to a 60GB. Then I started moving all of my cd's to my computer, this also limited my drive space.

This past weekend I spent building my new tower system, mostly from parts I bought at New Egg and my local Central Computer. I was aiming for a performance computer with parts that are the most performance per dollar.

Since I do some computer gaming I opted for a nice video card, but also installed a dual core AMD processor for help with Photoshop and 3D tools. Two drives will help keep my images available and store them as a short time back up. Overall I'm really happy with the performance compared to my old tower and notebook. While I was adding a new computer I also bought a new LCD monitor. My 8 year old 19" CRT is out of focus and I felt it was worth paying $200 more for a LCD than another CRT.

After I got the OS up and running I installed Half Life 2, a game I've wanted to play since it came out last year. The first Half Life was a personal favorite with me, I just enjoy the story line, solving puzzles and shooting bad guys. The second is even better with great graphics and more things to do.

Here's a screenshot from my computer.

I'm trying to make a collection of screenshots but so far only have Half Life 2. These are all taken at 1280x1024 with full details. Very surprising to me the game actually runs pretty fast, but does stutter when loading new levels. I would love to see how this games looks on a 24" wide screen monitor!

Rob

My first computer build

Back in 1999 I bought my first computer. My Dad had computers of various sorts in the house but I wanted something I could play with and not worry about breaking anything of his. So without much experience, besides how to plug in the components, I bought a copy of the PC Gamer "Ultimate Hardware Bible" and from here made my first computer. The computer was pretty decent for 1999 specs and cost me about $1,500 not including a monitor.

Here's the actual list of parts and their pricing from 1999.

• Intel PIII-450 $250


• Supermicro full tower w/300 watt $150


• Asus 3BF $130


• 128MB PC100 $130


• Diamond Viper V770 Ultra $220


• Creative Labs Sound Blaster $100


• Generic CD-ROM 40X $50


• Western Digital 6GB IDE 7200RPM $150


• Windows 98 second edition OEM $150

It doesn't sound like much but I could play Half Life with decent frame rates. :)

Ironically, I'm building a new computer and just from the parts total I'm almost exactly at $1,500. I think you get more for your money but the prime performace to dollar is still around $1,500 for a gaming/performance computer. The last time I spent $500 on a 19" CRT monitor and now I'm spending $400 on a 19" LCD.

Rob

Very interesting blog!

I was just looking at other blogs and found this one, Camera Toss, which has photographs taken when tossing a camera. Excellent idea!

Another idea is to write with any bright LED or flashlight. You get some pretty cool shots from doing this.



This was taken with a digital camera on a tripod, and then using a bright bicycle tail light I wrote my name. Actually wrote it backwards, since I was standing in front of the camera.

Rob

I'm writing this blog from work, sitting here at my desk in the dark (the automatic lights shut off at 9pm). It's strange just how peaceful the workplace becomes when there is no one around. I can hear the soft musak playing in the background, can't make out the tune but it's jazzy. The slight hum of the air condition unit in the other room, and the cleaning crew making their rounds in the other offices.

During times like these I wish I worked grave yard, I could get a bunch more things done without having people talking or making noises. I'm easily distracted, like a cat to string. lol

Rob

Small computer

I've been looking for a new desktop computer. My last desktop is about 5 years old and just doesn't have the power any more. In fact my notebook is actually faster, been using this most of the time.

Since I'm used to something smaller, I was deciding upon the smaller SFF computers. SFF stands for "small form factor", they are the size of a small filing box or big shoe box. Really nice to have a computer on your desk but still save space. Here's one I'm reading about.



The Shuttle SN26P is really nice, complete with SLI for two graphic cards and support for X2 AMD processors. It's a tad expensive at $600 (barebones) but it is small and that's what you pay for. lol

***
Faith

Recently on a local motorcycle forum I say a message with the title, "do you have a god or gods?". Normally I that a careful stance on questions about faith. It's not that I don't like discussing these questions but I find that many times it's becomes far from a normal discussion. Well after reading the comments I was surprised to see how many people did not believe in a God or even had faith in different religions. Maybe those with faith didn't post their comments? After reading the entire posting, about 100 comments from various people with a 70/30 split, the majority aganist religions, I started thinking deeping into the question.

Maybe for the lower amount of people who have a belief or faith could be related to motorcycle riding? Sometimes I think of the motorcycle as more risky and in a slightly related idea, if you live without thinking about the afterworld, you might also take a chance on what happends when you die as well. I'll do some more reading into it but seems like an interesting topic.

Rob

Writing this from my lunch break at work. :)

***

There are some fun games on the Internet that are free or almost free. Rune Scape is a popular Java based game. The graphics are not great but it's much more better looking than the old school MUDs. The game is free to play but if you want more access to different worlds and skills then it's $6 a month. Not bad compared to Ever Quest or Xbox live. While playing this game I was cutting down some trees and broke my axe. I spent so much time just walking around trying to see who would fix it I gave up for a few months. lol

Speaking of old school games, here's a client for Windows that allows playing of old MUDs. These are text based games on the Internet, they mostly came out in the early 90's. It's called Zugg's MUD Client and for $30 offers a bunch of extras. Looks pretty cool. Also has access to all MUDs making it easy to find a new game.

***



Incase there is ever a zombie break out, this book will be at the top of the list to buy. The Zombie Survival Guide is pretty funny to read, lots of information about which weapon to use and why the biggest car isn't the best idea to drive (*hint the roads would be blocked and attracts zombies).

***



While on the topic of zombies, Kevan Davis has created a very interesting graphical example of a zombie breakout. Zombie Infection Simulation v2 simulates zombies infecting people. While Zombie Infection Simulation v2.3, Davis gave the humans a choice to either fight or run, leaving a 50 percent change they will still be infected. Amazing just how fast the v2 people get infected since they don't fight at all.

Rob

After taking some audio classes at school I'm inspired to learn how to play an instrument. I think the guitar will be fun to learn and play, alway wanted to learn how to make music.

Now if I had the extra money for a great electric guitar I would get one of these.

Gibson Les Paul Classic

Or this

Fender American Strat

They are both expensive but sound really nice!

Rob

I used to be a huge music cd fan, that was up until Napster. Now I tend to purcahse my music on-line from iTunes, eMusic and in the used section of Rasputin. I still like to purchase my music in cd format, you have the highest quality sound and free to choose your encoding format for your music player.

Right now I am looking at Your Music, a service that for $5.99 a month will send you one cd. Every other cd after that is only $5.99 including shipping and tax. It's interesting, I spend more on magazines but still sounds too similar to the old "10 cd's for 1 penny" things.

Overall it's great for the new cd's that come out, averaging $15~17 after tax but I still find tons of great music in the $5 bins.

Rob

I uploaded a few pictures from last night's service at Jubilee. Came out pretty good considering how far I was. Shooting with my Canon 10D, 70-200mm f/2.8L IS, 1.4x tc, between 400ISO and 800ISO.

http://robscomputer.smugmug.com/gallery/952876

I just finished watching Land of the Dead, a zombie movie by George Romero. If you don't know who George Romero is, basically he started the entire zombie theme with his first movie, Night of the Living Dead.



While I'm not going to spoil the ending of Land of the Dead, it was a bit easy to tell how the ending was going to turn out. It seems like every zombie movie ends with the same last scene. I started thinking about this and wonder just how to make a new zombie film without the stereotypical heros and zombies. It would be more interesting to follow further on the story of Dawn of the Dead. Instead of worring about the zombies the people started to have problems just dealing with the fact they might be the only people alive. Very intersting and reasons why it's still my favorite zombie themed horror movie. :)



BTW the remake of Dawn of the Dead dealt slighty with the same subject as the first movie but not as in much detail.

Rob

I recently bought a Canon SD550 compact digital camera. Well the camera isn't as great as my 10D DSLR but it does have the feature to digital zoom. Just an example of how much zoom it can do.  

Jay's Evo 8. Very nice Volk wheels and a bunch more.  

Haven't posted on this blog for a while. Just to keep the page up I'm redirecting my domain to this page instead of the blank page that was displayed before.

Anything new? Not much but it has been getting really cold in the area. Winter is finally here when it's no longer sweater weather.

Rob

A picture from work, looking towards the small water fountain.  

Ok, so the bird isn't real, but it is sharp and taken with a 50mm lens. Now to Photoshop the strings out.  

I really nice this picture, it was taken using a 300mm lens and the birds are so tiny I walked right past them.  

Pictures from Don Edwards reserve, geese if I'm not mistaken? 

As you might have noticed I haven't posted much about motorcycles. I actually sold my bike back in Jan. Mostly reasons that I wanted something a little bit less racey and better for longer rides. 

Java Ranch is a great site to learn more about the Java programming. 

It's cold

It's been very cold here, especially in California. Last night the news reported the temps dropped to 30 degrees Fahrenheit in some places, below freezing! Even in Fremont the temp was as low as 35. I really don't like the weather when it's that cold. I much rather have rain or overcast days but when it's just cold I'm always freezing.

Even worse is riding a motorcycle in this weather. Your hands feel like popsicles and even you’re your nose is numb from the cold. It’s hard to stay warm but it is possible. I found these few links about keeping warm.

Ride in the Winter

Ride my own's Winter tips

AMA's cold weather riding tips

Most of the time when I ride in the winter time I use my textile jacket but this season I think I’ll try a different approach. Wearing my leather suit I’ll also add my rain gear to block out the cold wind. I have a pair of Aerostich three digit glove covers which should block out the wind to my hands as well. Ideally you would have electric gear such as a heating vest running from your motorcycle’s battery. Many people say this is the best way to keep warm but it is more expensive.

I want to ride my motorcycle more often but with the weather being so cold and just not having much free time makes it hard. Also ever try Christmas shopping on a motorcycle? ;)

Disappointed with film?

Last Friday I went to take photos of Treasure Island and Pier 39 in San Francisco. I decided to take my film camera instead of my digital camera to use up some film I had left in the fridge. Now my film camera is a nice, a Canon EOS 3 with a power drive with some lens. Using Kodak 100 Ultra Color at late afternoon/night I was really disappointed in the quality of pictures that came out. I was really unimpressed with the night pictures that appear soft or unfocused correctly. Here’s an example.



Here’s a larger 800 x 600 version for viewing as well.

800 x 600

Compared to my digital camera the image just doesn’t look as sharp. But it could be for many reasons, the tripod might have been shaken or even vibration from my releasing the shutter.

One thing my film camera does very well is depth of field stuff. I love how this looks when using a fast lens like the 50mm f/1.4 lens. Here’s a picture of my Grandma’s kitchen table.



Of course I did have some better photos, I like this one of the Blue Mermaid restaurant.




After developing and film cost I spent about $15 per roll of 36 exposure film. Now that comes out to about $0.42 per picture. It’s much more expensive than I guessed before, even using a cheap photo store like Costco. For now I’m going to stick with my digital camera but next year I’ll purchase a new digital SLR and reuse my lens for the new camera. The primary cost is high, about $1500 for just the body but I think if you start figuring the total cost it’s not too far from taking pictures with a film SLR.

Rob