Many months ago I purchased my first HDTV, and I wanted to take full advantage of its capabilities so I ended up purchasing both an Xbox 360 + HD DVD add-on and a Playstation 3. The format war didn't seem like it was coming to an end anytime soon, and I was impatient. It didn't some as much of a surprise when Toshiba officially announced the death of HD DVD, but what did come as a surprise is the email I received from Best Buy shorty thereafter.

The email basically said how they were sorry for my poor choice in techno-gadgetry, but that they were dedicated to my satisfaction (that's what she said) and would be sending me a gift card, no strings attached. This is really where I was surprised. I wouldn't have thought it particularly unusual had they only offered a trade-in, but to just offer a gift card for nothing in return is a really nice gesture. Today I received my $50 gift card from Best Buy along with a short letter - so I guess they weren't just kidding. Here are some choice excerpts from the FAQs on the back side of the letter:

Is my HD DVD player still useful?
Absolutely. It will continue to play HD DVD movies and continues to be an excellent player for your regular DVDs, improving the picture to near-HD quality.

I bought an HD DVD player as a gift. Can I still use the gift card? As the purchaser of the HD DVD player, you've received the gift card. You can choose to use the gift card yourself or pass it on to the gift recipient. But you'll be a total douche if you keep it for yourself.

Okay, so they didn't really say that last little bit. Image above the result of "HD DVD for teh win" on Google Image Search.

Last week I bought an Xbox 360. I've been thinking of getting an HDTV recently, and I was bored, so I figured i'd get the console and it would be even more fun when I do take a dip in the HD pool. My experience up until now has been positive. And by "up until now" I mean now I'm not so happy with it.

I was minding my own business, playing Forza Motorsport 2, when I suddenly realized that in horizontal orientation, the green player indicator light on the front of the Xbox was oriented differently than I'd remembered. Then I suddenly thought to myself... Ooo, I bet it re-orients itself when placed horizontally or vertically. So, making sure to pause my game so as not to lose my current race, I walked toward the console. The child inside of me beckoned, Make it vertical, you know you wanna... And so I did. KCCCHT EEEEK. WTFOMG!!1!!one! I feared the worst. And I was right. El disco scratcho fantastico.

So the rhetorical question of the day is... Who makes a re-orientable consumer electronics device that doesn't play nice when you re-orient it while it is on? Obviously, the answer is Microsoft.

A quick search on Google brought up plenty of results, showing me that I was not alone. Some might call me an idiot for moving my Xbox 360 while a drive was spinning. I'd like to point out that, while such claims may be valid, this is not a universal problem for any optical drive. I can shake my laptop around while a drive is spinning and not have a problem. I can lay my computer on its side while a drive is spinning and have no problem. So what genius decided to put a drive in the Xbox 360 that will etch such a horrible scratch into your disc that it can no longer be read, by simply moving it when it's on? And taking that question a step further, why does the pretty green ring on the front re-orient itself? That's why I moved the damn thing, because I saw that it had re-oriented and I wanted to see it in action. So yeah, that might make me an idiot, but that's why companies are supposed to idiot-proof their products, and not create pointless tantalizing features that queue such "idiotic" behavior.

So, that ended my night of gaming... Hopefully tomorrow Best Buy will replace the disc for me, but I really don't know what to expect from that. I didn't buy the replacement plan for the disc (I mean, who screws up a disc?), though I did buy it for the Xbox 360 in light of all the overheating issues etc. that have plagued it since launch.

For the curious, here's a link to a site I came across on google when searching "xbox 360 scratch disc" - they talk about how it happens and even show a video of it happening.

The image above the result of searching for "the child inside of me beckoned" on Google Image Search.

Bit of an upgrade from the Camaro. Me so happy. :)

Tonight I decided to try my hand at something that I've always wanted to do... take photos of water, you know, in drippy-drop form. When I feel like I'm a bit more experienced at it, I'll write up a thorough guide on how to take drippy-drop photos, but for now I'll just show you some of my experimental results thus far, and continue practicing. =)

I was checking my mail just as I normally do in Outlook, when I noticed this...



It's like a sign. I always knew I was different. No... special.

Today, an inbox. Tomorrow, the WORLD!

Its'a Niiiccceee...

I haven't really kept up with games for a while, simply because I don't have the time for them these days. Tonight I was doing a little random web browsing and stumbled upon a game called World in Conflict. Maybe you've already heard of it, but this isn't about you. Got it? =)

At first when I saw the trailer it looked exactly like BattleField 2. And then I realized I wasn't looking at rendered footage, this was actual gameplay. World in Conflict is an RTS with FPS-like graphics. Think Company of Heroes with a sprinkling of Hell Yes. If you haven't seen it already, check out the movies at GameTrailers. Now if only I had time to actually play it when it comes out in September...

Note: I also had never been to GameTrailers.com before... it's nice that they don't make you register to watch stuff like on GameSpot and the other big gaming sites. You have to watch an ad (only once per day it seems?), but if I don't have to register or pay, that's cool with me. I'm easily excited, huh?

So, this really has nothing to do with TheTechLounge, but such is the beauty of a blog, no? Since their first album, LP has always been one of my favorite bands (of which I have few), so it follows that I've eagerly awaited a new album from them since Meteora came out. Today it finally hit the stores so I swung by and picked it up.

I reserve any judgements until I have listened to the album at least a few times over and had time to let it sit. But, my first impressions follow:

This latest album is a big leap from anything LP has ever done before. They are quite clearly evolving, as artists. I haven't decided for myself yet whether this change is for the better or not. Either way, though, I appreciate the creative process and I know that as an artist you must continue to challenge yourself and step outside of your comfort zone. Otherwise you will quickly bore yourself and your audience.

So far I have listened to the album once over and am just beginning to listen to it again as I write this. My overall impression at this point is one of mixed feelings. On the one hand, I am sort of mourning the death of LP as I knew it (yeah yeah, pour on the cheese). On the other hand, I truly am appreciative of their evolution as a band and I do think I would have been disappointed if the new album was just more of the same, especially after such a long wait.

I'm leanings towards a thumbs-up for their new direction; some of the songs are immediately catchy, while I think others will grow on me.

I'll post in a couple of weeks with my updated thoughts after I've had time to listen to it more.

I recently signed TheTechLounge up for ReviewMe, a site which allows companies to pay publishers a small fee to have their product or service reviewed. The fee is pretty insignificant, so I can't say I'm really doing it for the money. I just figured it would be an interesting new way of finding new (read: random) things to write about. This will be my first ReviewMe review, but you can expect more to be posted on my blog in the future.

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If you're anything like me, you probably spend hours researching products before you actually make a purchase. And much of that time is spent looking at all the various prices, sales, discounts, and rebates available for that product. When you do a little research, sometimes it really pays off, as it did with my Canon 24-70 2.8L purchase with huge discounts from Dell. I ended up selling that lens for a profit a couple of months later. You gotta love a good deal.

FuseDeals.com is a website which basically consolidates deals from all the major deal websites such as SlickDeals.net, FatWallet.com, TechBargains.com and more... There are 12 total feeds. The site is updated automatically throughout the day, so you don't have to worry about any lack of updates. This is a really great idea for the frequent deal hunter, and I can see myself using it in the future. With that said, the site isn't perfect, and I have a couple suggestions for improvement.

1) It would be nice if there was some sort of categorization of the deals, like there is on FatWallet, for example. I realize this may not be possible to do automatically, however, so it may not be doable.
2) A more realistic feature which I think should be implemented is a search function. It should be possible to parse all of the feeds in order to search for something specific, such as "Dell" or "iPod Nano." This alone would make the site much more useful.

Check it out here: Daily Deals

I can imagine people going to the gaming store, picking up a copy of Super Paper Mario, and putting it back down in disgust. Many people are tired of Nintendo rehashing the same characters and concepts across their incremental system upgrades, and there is certainly an argument to be made there; with most Nintendo releases, you know what you're going to get before you open the shrink wrap.

A couple of months ago I decided to buy a Wii. Rumors were flying around the intarweb about availability one day so I figured what the heck, give it a shot. I certainly wasn't interested in an Xbox 360 or PS3, though they have a lot more muscle, I don't really care to play a shooter with a controller and most of the other games on those consoles don't interest me in the slightest. I wanted to play some games that were just plain fun, and I thought the Wii would be a nice change of pace.

The first game I got for the Wii was Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. I was pretty pleased with this game, though I found the wolf thing to be a stupid addition which just didn't feel right, and didn't add any element of fun. Ocarina of Time was better, I think.

When Spring Break came recently, I decided to spend a few days with my little brother, just hanging out and playing video games. So I went to the store and bought some multiplayer games for the Wii which I thought we might enjoy (there weren't many to choose from). I ended up purchasing Excite Truck and Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam. Boy did I ever regret that... Excite Truck seemed like a decent enough game, if I wasn't forced to use the Wii remote to control the vehicle; clumsy doesn't even begin to describe it. Downhill Jam was really one of the crappiest thrown-together games I have ever played. It was blatantly obvious that the game was created to take advantage of the Wii remote, and the end result is that you are controlling your skater in a way that feels totally unnatural - that is, you're steering your board down a hill as if it was controlled by a steering wheel a la Excite Truck. Utter dissapointment. Tony Hawk games have always been about a relatively free-roaming level where you can do tricks on pipes, rails, ramps, trash cans, garbage trucks, whatever... Being forced to go downhill the entire time made it feel like I was playing a crappy arcade game from the 90's with a horrible control system. Tony Hawk could have been cool (maybe) if it was a game with a free-roaming world and if the controls made use of the Wii Remote and the Nunchuck. Did I mention I was disappointed?

Finally comes Super Paper Mario. Ah, a Mario game, just what I've been waiting for ever since I bought the Wii. It isn't Mario Galaxy, but it'll have to do for now, I thought. I hurriedly removed the disc from its packaging, turned on the Wii and got going. For about the first 10-15 minutes I was just reading a bunch of dialogue, hmm... Doubt begins creeping into my mind; surely this game has to be good, right? Then the action really starts. And then more dialogue a few minutes later. After playing for a couple of hours I got a few chapters in and my experience was much the same. The flipping to 3D and back is a cool idea, and it works well enough, but the problem is that it gets very tedious. I had to constantly be flipping back and forth to make sure I didn't miss hidden things that could only be seen in 3D. It didn't make the puzzles challenging, it made them annoying. And then there are the Pixls, the little fairy things that help you out along your way. Sometimes things would be hidden, like doors, which you can only see if you point the Wii remote at the screen. Holding the Wii remote sideways and then shifting it in my hands to point it at the screen constantly really started to grate on my nerves after a while. Actually, it annoyed me from the get-go if I'm being honest.

So yeah, in conclusion, I am selling my Wii along with 2 Wii Remotes, 2 Nunchucks, 2 Classic Controllers, Wii Sports, Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, Super Paper Mario, and even a couple of virtual console games (Super Mario 64 and Mario Kart 64) for about $500.. I really love it and I'm going to miss it and all the wonderful games I've got for it. Really.

You may have noticed things were pretty slow around here this past week, and contrary to popular belief, it is not because we were all killed by highly skilled ninja assassins. In fact, Brian and I are both full-time college students 'on the side' as we like to say, and we both really needed some downtime. Now that the wonderful week of schoolless bliss that is Spring Break has come to a tragic end, you can expect us to kick things back into gear.

P.S. Thanks for trying to pick up the slack, Max. =)

Because my memory stick was quite large (in dimensions, not in storage capacity) I had to create a 6x3 Lego brick. I chopped a 4x2 and a 2x2 brick in half using a pen knife and another brick as a guide, the pliers on the same penknife were then used to remove the inner bits of the bricks and then the knife was used once again to remove the sides. Another 4x2 and a 2x2 brick were then used to create the case. The four parts were stuck together using super glue and a steady hand.

While at CES a couple of months ago, we picked up quite a few USB drives from various companies containing their press releases. One of the USB drives I picked up wasn't constructed very well and started to fall apart after we got back. A few days later, I was bored and had some time to kill, so I decided to get a little creative with the USB drive and modify it to make it usable once again, and to give it a new look.

Electrical tape was just within my reach, so I decided to make a casing out of it. I didn't get any photos at the time, but basically I just wrapped a bunch of electrical tape around it in various directions. Then I printed out the capacity of the drive on a piece of paper and affixed it using more electrical tape. When I was done with that I decided to modify the cap as well and created a nice little flanged edge by cutting lots of skinny piece of electrical tape and wrapping it around the edges of the cap. As a finishing touch, I added a little extra tape around the body of it so that when I pick it up the contours feel nice in my hand.



When I saw the Lego USB Drive mod today, it got me thinking about other ways to modify USB drives, so I think Brian and I are going to see what we can come up with, and we may try to come up with an improved version of that Lego USB drive mod. If you've got a spare USB drive lying around, we encourage you to get crafty and make yourself a unique portable storage device and share it with us on our forums.

Anyone who has ever registered a website is probably all too familiar with cybersquatting. You've got this great idea for a domain name that's so clever you're positive nobody else has registered it. So you go to your registrar of choice and you plug in the URL as you grab your credit card, and you see a message on your screen saying that domain is unavailable. So then you try something similar, and it's taken as well. Upon visiting these taken URLs, you see a generic page that looks like nothing but fluff, and in fact it is nothing but PPC (pay per click) ads. This is the traditional form of cybersquatting we've all come to know and hate with such fiery passion.

There is a newer form of domain thievery, however, of which you may not be aware. It's not even really new, but I just found out about it a few months ago. My experience with domain tasting (also called domain kiting) came when Brian and I were starting up a new ad network and trying to decide on a name. Once we compiled a list of names, we headed over to Doster to see which were available. Luckily, one of our favorites, JustRelevant.com, was available. But we're perfectionists and we wanted to see if we could come up with something even better, so we didn't register just yet.

A couple of days later we came up with some more names and checked the status of those, but we still liked JustRelevant.com better... We decided to try and come up with some sort of logo that we liked for it before deciding for sure. The next day we had something drawn up which was nice (albeit simple) and so we decided to register the domain finally. But alas, the domain was no longer available! Who could have possibly thought of the same exact URL as us? It wasn't exactly an obvious domain to register, so we had a sneaking suspicion that somebody was spying on us. I was sure that my computer was secure, so it couldn't be that...

In another strange turn, our domain was available to register a few days later again. Weird, we thought. Perhaps it was some glitch in Dotster's system or something. So we registered the domain and got a site up and forgot about the odd domain disappearing act, until recently that is. A week or so ago I saw an article on the front page of Digg about domain tasting (which I hadn't heard of before) and it sounded interesting so I checked it out. What I learned was that registrars are keeping tabs on what people try to register, and they will sometimes snatch up a domain for themselves to test it out and see if it makes them money for a few days -- if it does they keep it, and if not they get a refund. They are also selling this registration data to big-time cybersquatters.

Now, one could argue for or against the practice of domain tasting; it's a topic that's bound to stir up controversy. Those who don't domain taste will be against it, and those who do will say it's just business in the 21st century. But I'm not here to argue on whether domain tasting is right or wrong. I just want you to know that this is one of the realities we face if we want to buy a domain name. The best thing you can do if you want to snatch up a domain name is purchase all the ones you're thinking of immediately if you see they are available. Then you can get a refund in a few days when you decide on which to keep. Otherwise you're putting your precious domain ideas in the grab bag for these domain hoarding nancies tasters.

Here's a little extra reading if you're interested.

[rant]

Normally I like to post interesting news in the morning before I head off to class in the afternoon, but today I had to work on a VB project. The funny thing is, I knew exactly what needed to be done from the onset and how I wanted to go about doing it, but while I've coded (to some extent) with HTML, PHP, Java, and C++, I've never used Visual Basic until this semester. Ironically, the interface is very user-friendly, but the code is a little different than what I'm used to. Subsequently, and because our professors tend to just throw us in the water before teaching us the basics, I ended up spending the majority of the time on this project trying to figure out how to do simple things like create a variable or change the size of the overall form on a specific event.

What I finally found was that you have to type "Dim VARIABLENAME As DATATYPE". Simple enough, but it took me a while to find that little tidbit of info on Google... Then I found out later that to change the size of the overall form, you have to do a little work-around where you make an object (in my case a GroupBox) visible or not visible and set the form property AutoSize to True and AutoSizeMode to GrowAndShrink.

As a side note... wouldn't it be nice if we could take liberties on these coding projects? When you hit the Calculate button on my calculator, it would make sense to automatically clear the input fields and return focus to the first input field, rather than having a clear button. Furthermore, it would make even more sense to have just 1 input field, as well as a series of number and symbol buttons if the users wants to use their mouse to input data. Though that would be more work for me, so I won't argue there!



In cases anyone noticed, yes I made that icon for the program. I was bored...

[/rant]

What's the best deal you've ever gotten? You probably remember it well, and you're probably proud of yourself for finding such a great deal.

I don't think it is any secret that you can get some of the best deals on computers and displays from Dell, particularly when you use our Hot Deals; in fact, I just purchased a new Inspiron E1405 notebook from Dell Home in conjunction with our Hot Deals and I couldn't be happier with it. But did you know you can get some really kick ass deals on other electronics and accessories, and even high-end lenses?

Some of you have probably noticed that I'm a bit of a photography nut by now, and I've got a nice collection of gear so far. As far as just the camera and lenses go, I currently have a Canon 5D, 16-35 2.8L and a 70-200 4.0L. Notice the large gap in focal length coverage between those lenses. So I've been on the lookout for a good deal on a 24-70 2.8L, and I was ready to bite when I found out about a special BHPhotoVideo.com promotion with reduced the price from $1,149.95 to $1,074.95. I decided to mull it over for a few days before dropping all that money on a hunk of glass, and I'm glad I did.

One day I got a postcard-style letter from Dell which thanked me for purchasing a notebook from them, and I didn't really give it a second thought until I went through all my mail later in the day. That's when I remembered that Dell usually includes a special coupon on these letters and Dell also sells a limited selection of cameras and lenses. So I gave it another look and the offer was for 10% EXTRA discount off select electronics and accessories, on top of other valid promotions.

Immediately, I checked Dell's website to see if they carried the lens I wanted; they did, for $1,113.95. I then turned to our Hot Deals page to see if there were any coupons for electronics and accessories; there were not. Not giving up, I turned to Ebay, searching for "dell coupon" and found a 10% Dell Home coupon for electronics and accessories. Within minutes after placing my bid, I received the coupon and logged in to confirm that the coupon was valid for this lens. It was valid, and the price was now down to $1,002.55. Then I plugged in my special one-time-use coupon for 10% EXTRA discount, and it worked too! Price is now down to $902.29.

Unfortunately for me, I live in Texas, which means I have to pay sales tax, amounting to about $80, essentially negating one of my 10% discounts... Determined not to be charged for tax, I started plugging in various zip codes to see which states are not taxed (oddly, I couldn't find this information on Google when I looked). Luckily, I found out that Oregon is not taxed, and I know somebody in Oregon! So no tax for me, the price is still at $902.99.

But that's not all. When I checked out, I chose to pay by credit card. On the screen that follows, there is an offer for an extra 3% off if you pay with your DPA (Dell Preferred Account). Whether you have to open a new account or you already have one, you should see this offer if you follow those steps. Just don't immediately offer to pay with your DPA, go through the 'pay with credit card' screen first, that's the trick. So with that extra 3% discount (and a free shipping promotion), my total purchase price is just $875.22.

Finally, don't forget about Canon's double rebate promotion currently running! With double rebates (I recently purchased a 5D and a 580EX flash as well), I can get $100 back from Canon! That brings the overall final price to just $775.22! That's a hell of a deal, in my book. You can't buy this lens USED for that much. Craziness.

Have you gotten any amazing deals through Dell, or anywhere else?

Prince's acclaimed performance included a guitar solo during the "Purple Rain" segment of his medley in which his shadow was projected onto a large, flowing beige sheet. As the 48-year-old rock star let rip, the silhouette cast by his figure and his guitar (shaped like the singer's symbol) had phallic connotations for some.

A number of bloggers have decried "Malfunction!" – including Sam Anderson at New York magazine's Daily Intelligencer. Daily News television critic David Bianculli called it "a rude-looking shadow show" that "looked embarrassingly rude, crude and unfortunately placed."

Okay, come on people, are you truly offended by the shadow of Prince playing a guitar? Has America really become so granola that we're offended by the slightest hint of something that could potentially be misconstrued? Here's another question for you... Does the shadow of Prince's guitar really even look remotely like, in the words of Billy Bob Thornton, a f***stick?

Oh golly, hope I didn't just offend someone.

Everyone is entitled to an opinion, but one thing's for certain; I can think of more offensive things to do with shadows.

Late last year there were a bunch of documents made public in an ongoing Microsoft suit, some of which were emails. Here's a fun little tidbit I found while randomly perusing some of those documents, as I tend to do late each night:

We can and MUST turn this around. If you're going to kill someone just pull the trigger. - Jim Allchin

Okay, fine... I took that out of context, and I feel guity for it. Integrity, blah blah blah...

Novell uses every opportunity that we "lose it" to say something bad against us. "See they really hate us and won't work with us." "We work with everyone. Microsoft works with no one." (Then we get defensive and hit back - exactly the wrong thing to do in my view.)

Sentiment is against us. We can and MUST turn this around. As we become more aggressive against Novell product and marketing-wise, we must get our mouth in order. The press, etc. is very sketical of us so one slip up and we get set back quite a ways.

If you're going to kill someone there isn't much reason to get all worked up about it and angry - you just pull the trigger. Angry discussions beforehand are a waste of time. We need to smile at Novell while we pull the trigger. - Jim Allchin

Allchin made a post on the Vista Team Blog to clarify another of his embarrassing quotes which is floating around saying he'd buy a Mac if he didn't work for Microsoft. Interestingly, J-dizzle retired the day Vista launched.

BTW, "sketical" is Allchin's typo, not mine. Meesa niet maken un mistaken.