Pork Rinds
Alcohol
Beef Jerky
Sour Cream
Coconut
Chocolate Bars
1. Vista
2. Clarity
3. November 2006
4. True
5. Aero
6. All the above
7. All the above
8. 256 MB
You are Bullet Bill.Make It RainI myself don't have any photos, but I found some from the show on the splendiferous site, Flickr. Here are a couple photos: the first one is about how it looked from where I was sitting. I still had a great time, and the acoustics were great in the auditorium even though It looked like I was a mile away from Tom Waits his presence made me feel closer.
Hoist That Rag
Shore Leave
God's Away On Business
All The World Is Green
Falling Down
Tango Till They're Sore
Tom Traubert's Blues
Eyeball Kid
Down In The Hole
Don't Go Into That Barn
Shake It
Trampled Rose
What's He Building In There
Who's Been Talking / Till The Money Runs Out
Murder in the Red Barn
Lie To Me Baby
Get Behind The Mule
Day After Tomorrow
Singapore
Whistlin' Past The Graveyard
Time
Well, gang in about an hour or so I'll be trekking up to Chicago to see the man, the myth, the voice, the Tom Waits. He'll be on stage at the Auditorium Theater around 8 PM and i'll be filling my pants come 8:15 PM. More posts tomorrow, or possibly tonight once I get home. That is if I can walk.
Are you still one of those pathetic souls that don't own a USB flash drive? Awwww... that's sad. Well, buck up, amigo because over at TigerDirect you can pick up a Samsung 2 GB USB Flash Drive for only $20. You heard me only $20. Now you can be geek chic while whipping out your $20 Samsung 2 GB USB Flash Drive. Store party photos, viral videos, top-secret documents, fresh beats, hail a cab, or just raise the roof with your new $20 Samsung 2 GB USB Flash Drive.
Pandering to Savages has posted about The Big Lebwoski (The F***ing Short Version). It's a 2 minute and 14 second video clip that captures all the "fuck's" in The Big Lebowski.
"I'm saying when you're ready you won't have to." 
Next Generation has posted a list of the top 100 games of the 21st century. They provide extensive details about the titles, and then go on to chime in their reason for placing it where they did. Not much thought went into collaborating this list because all seems to be based on estimated sales and not innovation or influence on the industry. It was an interesting read. I suppose it comes as no surprise that GTA: Vice City got #1 with an estimated 7 million units sold, beating out Halo with 4.2 million units. It's just a shame to see a great game like God of War, placed at 50, be outsold by Crash Bandicoot: The Wrath of Cortex (22).
Says-It.com has a plethora of fun time-wasters, but how about this one for the music lover in your life, Concert Ticket Generator. That's right. Make your own stubs, baby!
I guess I've been bored lately, but I've been nursing this blog like I plan on eating it for Thanksgiving.
3kalb: have you seen the new Pirates yet?
yellownbluepumas: nope
yellownbluepumas: you?
3kalb: ...yeah. It's awful
yellownbluepumas: awwwwwwwwwwwwww
yellownbluepumas: no
yellownbluepumas: I really want to see it
3kalb: yep
3kalb: you can see it, or you can watch star wars and replace all the sci-fi characters with pirate characters
yellownbluepumas: oh
yellownbluepumas: that's unfortunate
3kalb: i agree
3kalb: they took a good (great, actually) commercial film like Pirates of the Carribean and turned into a played-out, 2D saga just to sell plastic to people that don't need any.
yellownbluepumas: people don't need plastic?
yellownbluepumas: plastic is one of my favorite words
yellownbluepumas: I like the way it looks written out and also the way it sounds when you say it
3kalb: this is true. plastic is fun, but you know what I mean when I say "plastic". I mean disney is setting up a franchise to flood the market with pirate merchandise that consumers really have no use for, much like most consumer goods.
yellownbluepumas: yes
3kalb: good!
3kalb: so, let's do the list... are you ready?
yellownbluepumas: but I still like the word plastic
yellownbluepumas: yes
3kalb: i'll agree with you, "plastic" is a fun word, and I do love cheap plastic things. I like attaching emotional value to them and keeping them close to me.
3kalb: ok. the list!
3kalb: Jack Sparrow ~ Obiwan Kenobi
Orlando Bloom ~ Luke Skywalker
Kira Knightley ~ Princess Leia
Davy Jones ~ Darth Vader
The guy who was going to marry Kira in the beginning of the first film. I forgot his name ~ Boba Fett
Beckett ~ Emperor Palpatine
3kalb: I think that's it
3kalb: I think I'm missing one or two. They through in a soothsayer ala Matrix.
yellownbluepumas: lol
3kalb: All the characters are very 2D, and not as rounded out as the first one. Plus they don't seem to have any motivtion for their actions, other than to keep the plot moving. I.E. "I don't like you, but if I acted on it there wouldn't be a movie anymore so I'll just go along with you instead."
3kalb: It's horrible. I dressed up like a pirate and everything for that movie; newspaper hat, eyepatch, and cardboard sword.
yellownbluepumas: but isn't it setting up for the third movie?
yellownbluepumas: I heard it was all action, no plot
yellownbluepumas: I'm unexcited about it due to the lack of good reviews
3kalb: yeah. there's a lot of action, but it's not great action. the best part of the film, was when three of them were fighting in the water-wheel, and the camera rolled along with the wheel and the background moved around. That was fun, but only lasted a few seconds.
3kalb: here's the problem with the franchise, it's just like The Matrix. The first Matrix was a great film. It had solid, rounded-out characters, a comples and involving plot, and it ended everything up quite nicely with just the right amount of allusion to keep everyone interested in watching it over and over again. However, then the WaCOCKsi bros went and added (should I say "added", I mean "tacked on") two more movies to make a trilogy. The second one was supposed to be plot-heavy/thought-provoking, while the third one was balls-to-the-wall action with as little plot as possible. The Pirates movies are the same way. The first one was good and it ended in a nice little package that made you feel good. Then they went and tacked on two more movies just to have a franchise and keep the spirit of Pirates fresh in the consumer's mind. Notice I say consumer, and not movie-goer because let's face it. The last two movies in the Pirates trilogy, just like the Matrix trilogy, are all about getting to the consuming masses.
3kalb: I was really hurt by it. I was expecting more commercial film goodness and instead I got a flimsy saga story with pirates. ARRRRRRRR!
yellownbluepumas: lol
3kalb: if you see it, i want to know your thoughts ok?
yellownbluepumas: mmk
3kalb: Sorry about that rant there, but I needed to get it out.
3kalb: In fact, I may very well take that very rant and post it on the Error 204 blog.
According to a report at MaxConsole, the Nintendo Wii specs are in.The Wii HardwareI am uber-excited about this console. It will be changing the way we play games forever, and will undoubtedly put Sony out of business, or at least send them to a crawl until reseonably priced technology can support their PS3. I, however, won't be able to afford one upon launch due to some changes occuring soon in my life (new job, new residence), but my rooommate will be picking one up. I, and hopefully him as well, will be reporting about it.
- Nintendo Wii’s ‘Broadway’ CPU operates at 729MHZ with a maximum bandwith of 1.9gbyte/sec.
- Nintendo Wii’s ‘HollyWood’ GPU is clocked at 243MHZ, the internal memory of it includes 3mb of embedded graphics memory and 24megabytes of high speed main memory.
- 64megabytes of GDDR3 (MEM2) as the external main memory. Just like the internal memory, it can be accessed from the CPU and GPU with a maximum bandwidth of 4gbytes/sec and can also store programs in the MEM2.
- The GPU of the Wii is identical to the GC’s but it is on average 1.5X faster.
Wii's Optical Disc Drive
- Opitcal Disc Drive (ODD) supports single and dual layer Wii disks, discs eject with software or button and the maximum read speed is the equivalent of DVDx6.
- Two main disc types supported the single sided 12cm single sided 4.7gb and the double sided 8.51 GB. Nintendo GC discs also supported. Some of the capacity of the discs are used by the system and games can not use full disc space.
- Inserting a disc will start the Wii console, even if it was already in an off state. Pressing the eject button will change the console to an on state to take out the disc also.
General Overview
- An optional wired LAN adapter that connects to a USB port is in the pipeline for users who do not possess a wireless LAN set-up currently.
- Internal non-removable 512MB flash memory used to storage game save data and downloadable content thus eliminating the Need for a memory card.
- Both Wii discs and Gamecube discs can be played via an intelligent mode swap. When running in GC mode, the Wii’s CPU and GPU will lower to the respective speeds of the GC and some of the MEM2 functions as ARAM.
- Software development environment is an upgrade to the ‘Dolphin SDK’ used with the GC; the same libraries are used so developers can get up to scratch easily as well as the possibility of ports being easier.
- The following interfaces are included with the Wii; SD card slot, Wireless controller, two USB 2.0 ports, wireless LAN, 4x GC controller ports, 2x GC memory card slots and an AV multi output jack (only an analog jack).
- Supports Wii disks (one sided 12cm) and GC discs (one sided 8cm) and console auto switches depends on what disk is inserted
- More than just the Nunchaku is planned as an extension. GC peripherals such as DK bongos can be used in both Wii and GC modes.
- Three power status, on, off and unplugged. To prevent mistaken turn offs, the power button must be held for about a second.
The Wii Control System
- The Wii controller features; Direct Pointing Device, Three axis accelerometer, Wii power button (remotely turn console on/off), buttons, wireless connectivity, indicator LED’s, rumble, battery powered (two AA alkaline batteries) and ability to connect extension unit.
- The Wii controller supports three types of operations; by itself, with a nunchuk extension or with a classic controller. Classic controllers will ship to developers during August 2006.
- The SYNCHRO button on the Wii controller exchanges wireless ID numbers when pressed at the same time as SYNCRHO on the Wii console. Wireless communications are only possible with consoles which have been authenticated.
- The rumble motor can be turned on and off and the intensity can be changed.
- The Wii remote has a pointer for fine movements as well as a motion sensor +/- 3.4G suitable for larger body movements, the nunchuk attachment has a sensor of +/- 2G
- The sensor bar must be placed above or below a TV set, the pointer measures coordinates between the ends of the bar which are about 20cm apart.
- The Wii remote has four status, disconnected, communicating, establishing connection and pairing wait status.
- The pointer can measure co-ordinates within bounds of rectangle centered upon the sensor bar, thus it can also measure points beyond the screen. It also responds to strong light sources, windows, fluorescent lamps, fireplaces, mirrors etc.
- Due to players hands shaking while holding the controller, a ring buffer allows a precise direction to be created to hold and average accelerator samples.
