Why has no one made a bluetooth headset in the style of Uhura's earpiece on Star Trek? Seems like a no-brainer to me. The thing has a bit of a retro look that could appeal to people beyond the normal Star Trek fans.

Comments: 1 Posted by david on 31 July 2007 at 8:28 PM

So it looks like the Wii is beginning to take off. The demand for the system^*, obviously, isn't really news, but we're finally coming into a period with plenty of new, desirable titles coming at us. I've added the release dates for Mario Strikers Charged (July 30), Metroid Prime 3: Corruption (August 27), MySims (September 18), Jack and Wiki: Quest for Barbaros' Treasure (October 12), Guitar Hero III (October 19), Geometry Wars: Galaxies (November 6), Soul Caliber Legends (November 6), Super Mario Galaxy (November 12), Resident Evil: Umbrella Chronicles (November 13), and Super Smash Bros. Brawl (December 3). Obviously, I'll need to wait for actual reviews of all of these titles before I commit to purchasing them. Especially since were talking about $500 worth of games here. But its nice to get into a phase with the Wii where it looks like game development momentum is building even as the console sales take off.^** Hopefully Nintendo is able to keep this going beyond the Christmas shopping season.

On the topic of Wii games, I recommend that you pick up Resident Evil 4: Wii Edition. Yes, it's a GameCube port. But it's only $30 and the Wii controls are flawless. I've been playing the game rather obsessively since Andy brought his copy over for me to try to Monday. And it is great. Since the Wii launched, the best games I've played have been Zelda, Excite Truck, and Super Paper Mario. I now add Resident Evil 4 to the list. And this comes from someone who didn't like Resident Evil 4 on the GameCube at all. I found the controls awkward and hard to use and quickly gave up on the game. But the Wii edition is awesome, so check it out.

^* It is somewhat amazing that the Wii launch was one of the best times to get a Wii. There were large quantities of Wiis available and people knew when and where to go to get them. Since then, you pretty much have to just be lucky and chance across a system to get one.

^** The Wii is less than half a million units, in global sales, behind Microsoft's Xbox 360. This is pretty impressive for a console that launched a year after its rival. However, keep in mind that this is at least partially due to the 360's extremely poor performance in Japan. But the interesting thing about this is that once you settle at the top of the heap, developers will push lots of games onto the system, which will then spur further console sales, which will cause more titles to come to the system. It's a cycle that could repeat over and over and make it very tough for the competitors to the top system to seriously compete.

Comments: 4 Posted by david on 27 July 2007 at 8:54 AM

In the 90s my grandparents had the habit of muting the television any time President Clinton appeared on it. I've developed a similar habit with President Bush. I don't mute him on TV, but I find that I can no longer stomach reading news articles about his policies. For example, Slate published an article about President Bush's new torture executive order. I made it through the first two paragraphs before I had to give up on it. It has become too depressing to face the reality of Bush, so I've decided to operate as if he hasn't actively acted to curb civil liberties and make America a worse place than it was when he took over in 2000. The Kübler-Ross model describes five stages of grief that people go through when dealing with tragedy. I feel like I'm in the fourth stage. I've already been through denial ("he isn't really doing that"), anger ("we must stop him"), and bargaining (bipartisanship). I'm now in the depression stage of the game, unwilling to deal with this crisis. I hope I don't ever end up in stage five: acceptance.

Comments: 2 Posted by david on 24 July 2007 at 11:45 AM

Angry Gamer has a great defense of Nintendo's so-called "anti-hardcore gamer" strategy. If I pulled every awesome bit out to quote here, I'd end up stealing the whole article, but this seems to sum up the point fairly well:

Hardcore gamers think that Nintendo exists to serve them with the large feasts they've grown accustomed to. They don't understand that Nintendo exists to make things that are fun, and if that means forever transforming video games as we know them, they'll take that chance. They've done it before, with directional pads, shoulder triggers, analog sticks, the Game Boy, the Nintendo DS, and then the Wii Remote. Sometimes they fail, as with the Power Pad, and sometimes they fail hard, as with the Virtual Boy. Other times, Nintendo takes no chances at all, as with the GameCube, and that's when they really look bad. Nintendo's risks, however, usually pay off, and their success influences all that follows.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 July 2007 at 11:03 AM

TiVo finally got their act together and put out a cheaper HD-compatible unit than their ridiculously priced Series 3. The new model, dubbed the TiVo HD, is missing a bit of the Series 3's flash and about 1/3 or its HDD space, but it also clocks in at $300 -- half the price of the Series 3. And the feature sets are pretty much identical. Sounds like a winner to me. I may have to hook myself up with one of these when I move into my new apartment.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 24 July 2007 at 9:30 AM

In contrast to Book Six, I found "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" to be one of the better Harry Potter books. While it moved slowly at times in the beginning, it made up for that in its satisfying conclusion. And a useful epilogue gives us details on where the main characters go in the future.

But this is a very dark story, and I would not be comfortable recommending it to younger readers. As was well publicized before the book's release, JK Rowling gave us no easy victory. A surprisingly large number of people paid with their lives to help Harry defeat Voldemort.

More to come on this once I've given people a chance to read the book.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 July 2007 at 11:39 AM

Gail Pennington was pushing "Mad Men," a new show on AMC featuring 1960s-era advertising guys, last week. She called it, I believe, "spot on." That is probably pretty close to the truth. The pilot episode, which aired last week, introduced a number of interesting characters and, perhaps more importantly, introduced us to life in a post-war office. I don't know how much of it was accurate, but I suspect it is mostly true to the times. All of which, while it makes for very intriguing television, makes me very glad to be in a bit more enlightened society. But it's good T, and I recommend you check it out. New episodes air on Thursday on the AMC channel.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 23 July 2007 at 11:37 AM

I'm not sure how Scott Adams does it, but Dilbert is often hits a bit too close to home for me to enjoy it as much as I did before I joined the ranks of professional engineers. From my perspective, yesterday's comic was about four days late. Nonetheless, its timing was a bit eerie.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 21 July 2007 at 8:51 AM

The above is an image of the newly refurbished White House Briefing Room that I saw on the NY Times website. Apparently the Dyson vacuum has official White House approval.

Comments: 0 Posted by david on 11 July 2007 at 1:02 PM