dfjdejulio

Rock Band 2

Mon, 30 Jun 2008 18:58:55 GMT

So, "Rock Band 2" has been announced. The XBox 360 version will come out in September, with versions for other consoles following later.

Normally, this would piss me off. But, the news came with a few tidbits that instead make me excited.

The biggie?

All downloadable content for "Rock Band" will also work with "Rock Band 2".

And, actually, that's an understatement. All downloadable content for RB2 will also work with RB. They're not thinking of it as a distinct platform, and they spent time working with Microsoft and Sony to come up with a way to be the first game to offer cross-title downloadable content.

So, if you never buy RB2, you will still get a continuous stream of content that'll work with RB1. And if you do buy RB2, for enhanced online and party modes for example, your song library will go along with you as you upgrade.

Wii Fit

Wed, 28 May 2008 15:29:43 GMT

It didn't kill me.

It told me my weight with great precision (10th of a pound). Better than I feared, worse than I hoped.

Weighed myself yesterday, and did once balance exercise yesterday. Weighed myself today, and did one balance exercise and one aerobic exercise. My cardiovascular system could tell I'd done something. And it hasn't killed me.

Let's see how things progress from here.

My "Wii" code.

Thu, 17 Apr 2008 19:05:22 GMT

Long story short: I finally have a Wii.

The code for my console: 4510 2467 7394 0120

If you want to be on my buddy list, follow up to this with your code, and If I know you I'll add you. (Remember, you have to add mine too -- it has to be mutual in order to work.) You can also send me your code privately if you don't want it on the internet. (I'm not worried about that since it has to be mutual anyway.)

Also follow up with any "must-have" games. So far I'm tempted by "Nights: Journey of Dreams" and "Endless Ocean". (I'm looking for stuff that has unique aspects on the Wii. For generic this-generation game titles, I'll probably stick to XB360.)

NEED MORE COWBELL!

Tue, 01 Apr 2008 15:00:30 GMT

My world is upside down.

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 18:12:29 GMT

What is it with Microsoft not being evil more lately?

Some folks made a mod for a shooter on the PS3, so you can play Halo's "Master Chief" inside it.

Microsoft's reaction is basically: "Hey, some fans who like Halo are doing some Halo-themed stuff in other platforms! Cool! We're just glad that they like Halo enough to do this!"

WTF?

Forgive me.

Tue, 25 Mar 2008 17:34:11 GMT

I rarely find these funny, but...

XB360 diagnosis help please.

Thu, 28 Feb 2008 18:17:51 GMT

If you have any experience at diagnosing problems with an XB360 unit, please look here:

http://web.mac.com/dd26/XB360_Trouble/XB360_Trouble.html

(This isn't my XBox, it's the one at the office.)

Nerd girl in Sinfest.

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:34:19 GMT

I'm entertained.

I'm making a note here...

Thu, 21 Feb 2008 22:18:53 GMT

HUGE SUCCESS!

Ding!

Tue, 19 Feb 2008 14:27:51 GMT

So, I'm supposed to get a mount now, or something?

A seasonal thought.

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:54:34 GMT

You know, I've been married for over 12 years now, and I am still excited that I got the day off tomorrow so I can spend all of Valentine's Day day with Nora.

I... but... it...

Thu, 14 Feb 2008 02:53:10 GMT

http://www.news.com/8301-13772_3-9871891-52.html

...

You know, if it runs on the XB360 (or Nintendo Wii or DS)... I may actually try it.

I may have created a monster. Or several.

Fri, 08 Feb 2008 20:23:45 GMT

So. You know how some businesses have cheesy team-building exercises? Like, you go into the woods and build a rope bridge, catch each other while falling down, and hug and sing koom-ba-ya? And then everybody resents the hell out of the wasted time, and gets embarassed, and would rather forget the whole thing, right?

Well, where I work, our bosses are not idiots. Our "team-building exercise" is, we have game systems in the lunchtime conference room. We had to have a giant plasma screen in there anyway for video conferencing, so we spent a little extra and have games too. The thinking is, if you're blowing up aliens or capturing fortresses or jamming out together, you're all more comfortable interacting and stuff.

So, I've been getting people hooked on Rock Band. It's been great because it gets all sorts of people who don't otherwise like games involved. We even have a guy who, as a hobby, runs his own recording studio, and he likes to come by and make fun of us ("that's nothing like real guitar") -- but at least he comes by and interacts!

Anyhow. Today I did two new things: brought in my drum kit, and made a video recording.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mak6xneXMF8

(I'm the elbow that shows up on the left edge sometimes.)

And yes, I asked my co-workers for permisison before uploading that to YouTube.

And that's how I created a monster. You see...

Some of the other "musicians" are asking for more face time! And one guy who doesn't normally actually play wants to help us with video production! We may be setting up multiple cameras at differnent angles and capturing the video-out of the XBox, and doing mixing and so on of the video afterwards!

Rock online this week.

Tue, 05 Feb 2008 20:06:01 GMT

http://xbox360.ign.com/articles/849/849645p1.html

They're having a bunch of online "Rock Band" contests this week. It'll apparently culminate with a networked "Rock Band" rig set up at the actual Grammy Awards, and a bunch of musicians have confirmed that they'll be jumping on to jam with fans.

Rez HD

Thu, 31 Jan 2008 03:14:20 GMT

OMG OMG, Rez HD, OMG.

More later.

Coincidence, or conspiracy?

Thu, 24 Jan 2008 05:35:52 GMT

So, all sorts of people are doing the whole social networking thing. I've reestablished contact with a bunch of folks I haven't seen in years via FaceBook.

But, even though I look from time to time, I have only ever found one other member of my own family on FaceBook... and that was a cousin of mine who shares my birthday.

So, coincidence? Or... could it be the case that the only members of the extended DeJulio clan allowed on facebook are those born on that one specific day?

(You have to admit, the evidence for that theory is much stronger than the evidence for "Intelligent Design", ghosts, or UFOs right now.)

Digital movie rentals.

Wed, 16 Jan 2008 19:43:31 GMT

So, with the news that iTunes is going to be doing digital movie rentals now, I thought I'd dig into this whole thing a bit more.

With iTunes, SD movies will cost $3, or $4 for new releases, and HD will cost $4, or $5 for new releases. The content expires either 30 days from when you downloaded it or 24 hours from when you hit "play", whichever comes first. It can be paused and moved in between devices while it is paused, so you can load it on to an iPod.

(But you can only load it on to a current iPod -- my 5th generation iPod with video is not a candidate. This honestly suprised me -- the one time Apple has been good about patching older iPods with newer features has been when those features had revenue streams attached to them. Even the very first iPod was patched so that it could play downloads from the iTunes Music Store. But my 5th generation iPod with video, people are still making new games that run on it, but I cannot watch rented videos on it. Lame.)

So, let's compare to video rentals from the XBox Live Marketplace. I rented "Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix" last night. Price was $4 for SD and $6 for HD -- it seems that their pricing is the same as Apple's for SD movies, but Apple is $1 cheaper for HD movies. The rental terms were, the content expires 14 days after download or 24 hours after hitting "play", whichever comes first. So, slight edge to Apple on this one, but honestly, the difference between 14 days and 30 days is not going to be a big deal here.

The download was so slow, though, that I had to let it run overnight. Maybe my broadband is worse than is typical, but it's just not practical for me to consider this for spur-of-the-moment video watching.

Now let's compare to PPV with DirecTiVo. I do not have high definition service. SD movies have varying prices. I don't have some exact examples at my fingertips right now. They download to the TiVo's hard drive in real time, naturally. Once downloaded, they're like any other TiVo content, and have no expiration date. This is great. But, in addition to the very small selection of movies at any given moment... they tend to all be pan-and-scan, not letterboxed. Eeew.

Next I'd compare to Amazon Unbox, but I can't. I can't watch it. My computers are Macintosh or Linux, and my TiVo is the DirecTV-branded unit with slightly different software. Neither one can talk to Amazon Unbox. (Well, unless I reboot the Macintosh into Windows, but I reallly do not like to do that very often.)

Next I'd compare Netflix's download service, but again, I can't. Windows with Internet Explorer seems to be the only option.

From what I can see, it's looking like Apple has an edge, but it's a slight edge, and none of 'em are compelling enough to become a regular thing for me. I don't think Netflix's mail-based system is in any danger quite yet. If I had a better broadband connection and a newer iPod, then Apple's service would tempt me a good bit more than it does right now. (Heck, if I had much better broadband, the XBox one would also tempt me more -- but not as much as the Apple one, the iPod thing would be a big deal for me. I rip DVDs to my iPod as it is today.)

Female cover bands.

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 02:33:56 GMT

So, I knew about "The Iron Maidens", the all-female Iron Maiden cover band.

http://www.theironmaidens.com/

And I knew about "Zepparella", the all-female Led Zeppelin cover band with a Barbarella fetish. I've even seen them live, and they were really good.

http://www.zepparella.com/

But some how, "The Little Dolls" just push me over the edge. All-female Ozzy Ozbourne cover band.

http://www.thelittledolls.com/

Observation

Sat, 29 Dec 2007 02:05:15 GMT

Observation: children carry disease.

Update: Oh boy! White spots discovered in throat! Woot!

Guitar Villain

Tue, 18 Dec 2007 22:13:38 GMT

My latest rant on the whole Guitar situation can be found here.

If you are interested in why I'm boycotting Activision/Blizzard and why my copy of "Guitar Hero 3" is in cold storage for now, go ahead and read. If you think I'm being a hystrionic drama queen... go ahead and read anyway, it'll give you more ammunition to shoot me down with.

EDIT: The forum posts have been migrated to the new site, and the link above has been updated.

Sigh, time to boycott Guitar Hero...

Wed, 12 Dec 2007 22:03:25 GMT

http://community.rockband.com/vbforum/showthread.php?p=190194

Summary: on the PS3, where peripheral compatibility/openness is not mandated by Sony, the GH3 guitars do not work with Rock Band. Harmonix has a patch written and tested that fixes this, and delivered it to Sony. Activision, the (current) makers of Guitar Hero, is forbidding Sony from releasing this, because they do not want their guitars to work with Rock Band.

This doesn't directly impact me, as I'm on an XBox 360 where Microsoft makes mandates about the interoperability of certified controllers. My GH3 controller works just fine with Rock Band. But Activision's stance annoys the bejezis out of me.

"Flawless Groove"

Tue, 11 Dec 2007 16:50:12 GMT

So, there's this achievement in "Rock Band" called "Flawless Groove".

To get it, you have to play bass for a song on expert difficulty, and nail every single note absolutely perfectly, using only up-strums.

It ain't all that hard to get. You get to pick the song. The song "Maps" is so simple, even on expert, that anyone who cares enough to try ought to be able to get it pretty quickly.

Ah, well. Back to attempting lead guitar on "Green Grass and High Tides" on expert...

There's some odd stuff out there.

Thu, 06 Dec 2007 19:46:03 GMT

I can't quite make out what to think of this.

Pretty sure I like this, though.

gPhone, iPhone

Mon, 12 Nov 2007 19:36:54 GMT

So, the details on the Google Android (aka. "gPhone") software stack are out.

http://code.google.com/android/what-is-android.html

What's really interesting there?

1) They're using WebKit as their rendering engine. That's right, it uses mobile Safari as the built-in web browser, exactly like the iPhone. Do you want to web development for handhelds? Do you want everyone with an iPhone or with any handset that's part of the Open Handset Alliance to be able to use your stuff? Then you'd better test against mobile Safari or some other WebKit-based browser.

2) Development is in Java, with Eclipse as the perferred IDE.

So... a gPhone app is basically a Java app that uses their fancy-schmancy APIs instead of the regular JavaSE or JavaME APIs. But those APIs are built on open-source libraries on top of an OS with Unix system calls (Linux)

Now. What is due to happen around Feburary-ish next year? The iPhone SDK is supposed to come out. We'll finally be able to (without a "jailbreak") compile code for it's OS with Unix system calls (Darwin)...

There are open-source JVMs out there. I was already betting that one would get ported to the iPhone shortly after the SDK comes out. It really might not take very much to get an Android-compatible runtime running on the iPhone once the SDK lands.

And that would mean that, if you developed for the gPhone, you'd get an iPhone app as a side effect.

That's nifty, that is...

Gaming Options

Thu, 25 Oct 2007 19:00:19 GMT

So. I'm considering poking my nose back into World of Warcraft again. Maybe. And not as seriously as before.

They're doing a lot of good things in patch 2.3. There's a lot of single-player content coming that I haven't experienced yet. Some of the older single-player content that I hadn't experienced before quitting is being made more palatable as well. The experience of being a solo player is being made less painfull overall. Likewise, the experience of being a disorganized small-team player. Likewise, the organizational overhead of being in a guild is going down (they're finally starting to add in-game guild-management tools).

So, I'm thinking... on a month when there aren't any PS2/XBox/Nintendo games I want to play, maybe on those months I blow the $15 on a game card and poke at WoW a bit. I don't make any effort to seriously raid, not even 10-man. I don't try to PvP. I don't in fact pre-schedule any gaming time at all. I just meander through the soloable portions of the content, or maybe some of the small group portions if I happen to fall into a group without working at doing so.

Then when the month is up, my account expires, and I forget about WoW until the next time there's no other games to play and I feel an itch to scratch.

So. Anyhow, I'm thinking that over.

Anyone want to talk me out of it? Or into it?