by Matt | Aug 15, 2002 | Imported Entry
Well, as luck would have it, my family is going away this weekend. Thursday through Sunday. Apparently they haven’t gotten enough baseball yet and are looking more more. There’s some tournament down on the Cape that they’ve been selected to be in. I say “good for them, great for me.” That means I get another three days of peace and quiet. My cold/allergies/sickeness has gotten better so I may actually be able to enjoy the weekend without being drugged up on Nyquil.
As for today, I might wonder over to EB and see what they have for a release date of UT2003. Every website that mentions it has a completely different date. Some say “next week” while some say Jan/Feb 2003. In the latest interview with the head designer he said we should have it “before it gets cold” which I take to mean September-ish.
Oh, and I almost forgot, last night I ordered a GearGrip Pro from Thinkgeek. I made sure I ordered the “large size” which it says will hold a full tower. We’ll see. That should ease my travels back and forth to Saturday’s game night.
by Matt | Aug 14, 2002 | Imported Entry
As my 3 year old cell-phone continues to cough and sputter its last ounces of battery life, I find myself vaguely in the market for a new one. Sure, I could probably make do with it for another year or so, or even buy an expensive battery replacement. But why spend $100+ on a new battery (the actual cost since my phone is discontinued) when I can spend $200 on a completely new phone that not only handles phone calls and voice mail, but email, web surfing, digital pictures, and games. I actually have new distinct directions I can go in. First, and I have PA to thank for this, I could get a HipTop from Danger Inc. It’s slick, it’s cool, it looks like a blackberry with more features AND I could even update my website with it. That would be cool. The service providers have yet to be determined however which makes me a little leary.
My other option is Sprints new service PCS Vision, a service which is almost exactly the same thing as the HipTop. The upside of the sprint deal would be that since I already have a sprint service agreement, I’d only need to upgrade the phone. I think the service charge difference is approx $4.99 and their customer service department is usually good about deals. I called to add minutes to my plan last year and they moved me up to the next service bracket for less than the service should have costed, all to “keep me as a valued customer” since my contract was going to expire.
At any rate, we may finally be getting cell phones as cool as our overseas counterparts. The phone markets in places like the UK and Japan are years ahead of the US and have been since we so geniusly deregulated the whole cellphone/digital infastructure. Sure, it creates competition, but companies are more worried about getting subscribers than giving us the newest technology to play with. Take the UK for example. I think they have 2 (maybe) service providers. So, it’s becomes a question of “which company has the coolest features and phones” instead of “will my service work here” or “whats this companies rate structure.” Then again, I’m probably the only one that want to play pac-man on his phone anyways.
Later.
by Matt | Aug 13, 2002 | Imported Entry
As if we needed any more proof that the DMCA was bull-shit and that the record industry is just out to cement their strangle hold on consumers rights…
“LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – Video may have killed the radio star, but Forrester Research has said Internet piracy was not to blame — as record labels have claimed — for the 15 percent drop in music sales in the past two years. ”
Full Story: Internet piracy not guilty for flagging music sales
Just another happy thought to toss around in your head while you’re heading off to sleep. G’night my little digital deviants.
by Matt | Aug 13, 2002 | Imported Entry
For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. In this case, copyright protection software has given way to anti-copyright software. I’m talking mainly about protected CDs and they’re weak and pitiful anti-piracy techniques. Thanks to hard working people who don’t give a flying fuck about this crap we have programs such as Clony, BetaBlocker, BlindWrite or Insektor, all of which circumvent multitudes of different protection systems. Insektor for example allows you to play backups of SafeDisc and Securom protected CDs. Betablocker allows for proper copying of SafeDisk 2 cds using CloneCD. All of these programs can be found very easily around the web. A quick search on Google turned up all of them for me. I love technology.
Links:
Clony XXL homepage
CloneCD.Net
CloneCD BetaBlocker Page
BetaBlocker site (???) in german.
BlindWrite
CloneCD Insektor Page
Speaking of technology, my favorite place for random tech-ish news is back online. NeoWin is reopen for buisness after a short downtime to figure out some backend stuff. Check’em out.
As for me, I still feel like crap. Durring the day it’s not that bad but at night I feel like my throat is going to explode in some Aliens-ish “theres something growing in my throat” sort of way. I’ve been coughing up very pleasent wads of something green-ish in hopes that the more I cough-up, the less remains for me to cough up later. At least that was the plan. I’ve also been reading my new book: Stupid White Men and Other Sorry Excuses for the State of the Nation. It’s a fantastic book. It basically points the finger at the rich and powerful (aka: republicans) for the sudden downturn in everything from the economy to the music industry. It’s quite an interesting read.
That is all.
by Matt | Aug 12, 2002 | Personal
I hate being sick. Especially when I’m not really “sick” just “feeling like ass.” While Lauren was here she developed a bit of a cough and now I think I’m coming down with it as well. My throat has been hurting for a few days now and I’ve started to get a little bit of a cough. Nothing major mind you and nothing thats so debilitating that I need to stay in bed for a week, but it’s enough to have me sucking on cough drops and drinking lots of OJ.
I don’t really have much going on at the moment so it’s not like I’m staying home for work or anything. Adecco hasn’t called in 2 weeks so I’ve pretty much given up on them. When I feel up to it I’ll go back to helping my Dad as a carpenter. For the moment though, I’m content to sit here and work on designs for webpages. Sites such as BlogProject.com for instance. I’ve taken a new direction with the design at the moment. Before I was working under the “it’s going to be fantastic” ideal where as now I’ve switched to the “wouldn’t it be nice to have something done before christmas” approach. I’ve simplified things I bit and will be going with a simple “top and both sides” design. It’ll look nice, but it’ll be simple for the moment until creative vision strikes me and I redesign it. Once I’m finished I’ll pass it along to either Chip or Chris who will add whatever content system we’ll be using. Most likely Moveable Type since thats what we’ve all been using lately.
That is all.
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