the things we think but do not say

After the recent demise of cable TV in our flat, the rise of the xbox 360 as our entertainment centre has gone unabated. One of the compelling features of the 360 that I was relunctant to commit to recently came into fruition and its this experience that I want to tell ya’ll about.

xbox live is an online gaming service that encompasses a range of features that make it very hard to ever stop playing games, talking games, thinking about games and buying games. Imagine bringing together Voice over IP, instant message buddy lists, next generation graphics, the latest video games, a worldwide leaderboards for gaming acheivements and downloadable free demos.

Getting access to this communal gaming experience involves the 360 hardware of course but in addition, a yearly $50 ‘Gold level’ membership. Stategically, Microsoft allows everyone with a 360 to have an automatic ‘Silver level’ membership for free. Silver membership gives you access to just enough of the xbox live experience that it’s only a matter time before you collapse under the pressure. You see, while Silver level membership lets you keep track of your achievements, download and play demos, have fun with xbox live arcade games, the most critical part of the online gaming experience is missing. Namely, talking shit to complete strangers while you virtually smash their face in.

So the other day I finally caved in after almost four months of xbox 360 ownership. And the game that made it all happen? Rockstar Table Tennis. It’s ping pong dude. Straight up ping pong. No end of level bosses, no special moves, no hidden ‘hot coffee’ easter eggs. Just pure, beautiful, subtle table tennis.

But the other night I played with two people and after a great couple of rounds of table tennis we’re now ‘friends’. xbox live BFFs if you will. Real friends that exist in the flesh obviously take a back seat here. The best part of all this is that one of my BFFs is 13 and called Billy. For real. The other one is under house arrest for 90 days. After the kicking my newly incarated friend’s ass on table tennis, I realised that 90 days of uninteruppted gaming will only improve his skills at Table Tennis.

The victims of crime can come in many forms.

My laptop eats ultra portable laptops for lunch

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.

A pretty significant change at work just happened and it’s one that I never thought I’d see. I’ve finally migrated to a laptop. After years and years of consistent dual processor desktop use (rocking good ol’ Pentium Pros back in ‘98, for reals yo) I’ve given in to using a laptop.
But the Dell M90 though is no regular laptop. In fact, I’d be impressed to find a lap, strong enough to rest it on top of. So rather than a laptop, or even a “mobile pc” I’m just going to start calling it a ‘transportable personal computer”.
But why the change from a desktop to a “TPC”? Two concurrent technology trends have finally converged on me. One is the rapid increase in pure processing power available to portables. The recent splash made by Intel Core Duo dual-core processors every laptop (and MacBook Pros) have let me get better performance than my previously beefy Dell dual Xeon 3 Ghz desktop.
Obviously if I had a dual processor, dual core desktop I’d be even faster still. But this brings me to the other contributing factor. The basic premise of ‘you can never have enough processing power’ is still true. While I’d love to have a dual core, dual processor desktop AND a dual core, single processor laptop, I went with the laptop and got my processor thrills some where else. Respower and other ‘remote rendering’ services allow me to leverage the power of completely web browser controlled render farms to render my images. This way, I can but the burden onto their network and not try to kill myself slogging away on my own.
Plus the usual benefits that I’ve heard for years about being a ‘road warrior’ are all true: I can move from project space to project space; I can leave work at a reasonable time and still be productive at my own schedule; I can look like a twat carrying this boxy bag everywhere.
The downsides though with having a laptop of this kind are plenty:
It kinda feels like GM’s Hummer division decided to make a laptop.
It weighs as much as an obsese toddler. Carrying it each day is inducing some sort of scoliosis that I have to correct for by carrying it on the other shoulder every other day.
It needs a laptop bag that’s almost becoming luggage. I found it really hard to find a decent bag that would fit a 17″ screen, but I eventually found the Brenthave Duo. It’s great but it’s huge.
The battery life is just 2 hours. Which is undertandable since it’s pumping out a 1920x1200 pixels display onto a 17″ of screen real estate

The freaking power supply is bigger and heavier than usual too.
The main thing is that it works, its faster than its replacment and I can (with some effort) take it places.
For the nerds in the room, the full specs are below:
Intel Core Duo 2.16 GHz
4Gb RAM (holy shit 4gigs in a laptop!)
Nvidia Quadro FX 2500M with 512mb (oh snap, 512mb graphics card!)
17″, WXGA+ resolution (1920 x 1200)
80 Gb HD
8XDVD+/-RW

I can stop at any time

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.

I’ve been playing “hold ‘em poker” with my friends for a few years now and it’s still great fun.

If I’ve not played a few weeks though, I start to get an itch that can only be scratched by either a home games with my mates, or at worst a visit to Gary, Indiana to play on the river boats, which are the nearest tables to Chicago.

Playing at the small sampling of seedy casinos I’ve visited so far there’s a ever present feeling that this is a slightly sad, pathetic activity. The sense that there are a lot of people here that have been welding all day, cashed in their welfare checks and are now squandering it all away at the tables is hard to erase. But after an hour or two of playing with a few of these guys and gals, you realise that everyone is the same underneath.

The latest place I played in, was called Artichoke Joes, right by the San Bruno station on the Caltrain, on the way north from Palo Alto to San Francisco.

Now I understand that each casino has it’s own house rules and customs, but this is the only place where players ‘tip’ each other after a bad beat. It seemed to be a custom that everyone understood, and it happened bad beat after bad beat. What nice bunch of degenerate gamblers!

If you’re interested in starting a new addicition then here are some handy tips for beginners.

Remember, recognising that there is a problem is the first step in dealing with it.

PSPx2

Originally uploaded by georgeaye.

I have played with my wonderful new toy for almost two months now and I would have to say that I’m slightly obsessed with it. It’s beautiful, heavy, black and does all the things that it was meant to do: be cool.

Jerry (my mate pictured with me) convinced three others in the studio to get one, so we can now have potentially four way hot, psp on psp action. So far, I’ve only played Tiger Woods ‘heads up’ and it is a fantastically silly experience. Imagine two fairly grown men, bitching each other out with all the venom of twelve year olds in a playground. For example;

“Man you suck. You need to practice more.”
“Yeah… well I would if your mum would stop calling me every night.”

Fantastic. I can’t wait to for Colin McRae Rally to come out.