GameLife Show Episode 3

I really hate to knock other gamer's efforts at producing media, because at least they are giving it a go. With that being said, sometimes people need their cameras and mics stolen and destroyed. I am referring to the following video which I hesitate to link to since I don't really want anyone else to suffer through it like I did.

I am going to refrain from tarnishing my clean reputation by saying anything more. Watch this and formulate your own opinion. Be sure not to miss the Ultimate Spider-Man review by Mr. Black Suit Spidey who is no doubt filming this in his grandmother’s bedroom.

Source: Google Video

2009 Chevy Camaro

I just have one thing to say and that is AWESOME!

Pics and specs here.

Vonage Cancelled

You can read about the issues that I have with Vonage here. After waiting to ensure I wasn’t going to get charged a ton for cancelling on my stupid anniversary date I cancelled my account. Melissa, the lady that took my call was very nice and processed it quickly. The only downside is that it took 20 minutes for my call to get answered. Oh well.

eBay Express

I have often thought that the eBay site suffered from horrible layout and was a nuisance to work with. It seems that I was not the only one. They have a preview of the new eBay Express up and online.

Source: The Inquirer

1st Round Playoffs

So last night was game 1 of the Spurs/Kings series. For as much talk as Ron Artest runs, he sure didn’t show up last night. I missed most of the game, but from what I hear the Northern Sacramento HS players probably would have done better than the Kings did.

Spurs 1
Kings 0

My prediction? A sweep is inevitable.

Google Calendar Beta

Google launched the beta of their web based Calendar software today. So far, I am quite impressed for a free web based program. Good job Google.

Source: Ars

No Aero Glass for dirty pirates

With the release of Vista, Microsoft is pulling out a new tool from its antipiracy toolbox. Aero, the new whiz-bang UI for Vista, will only be available to registered users of Windows. That's right--no matter how fast your CPU and graphics card are, if Microsoft determines you are running a pirated version of Vista then it's the toned-down interface for you.

 I can’t fault Microsoft wanting to slow the pirates down. I don’t think this will do much more than slow them down, but I think it is a quite interesting way to encourage people to purchase Vista legally. It will be interesting to see just how this security feature of Vista works. If it is completely local it will get cracked in a few days.

Source: Ars

Firefox Bookmarklets

I recently looked into the wonderful world of Bookmarklets for Firefox. Basically they are bookmarks with javascript functionality. Since I make use of the same sites over and over I figured making a few bookmarklets would be a smart idea. Here are a few of mine:

• Microsoft KB Article
• EB Product ID
• EB Games Product Search
• Gamestop Search
• Whois (via Whois.sc)

You can install these by dragging them to your bookmark toolbar folder or copying the link and pasting it into the Location box for a new bookmark. In these Bookmarklets they will prompt you for input or they will utilize whatever you currently have selected in the browser. On occasion this can bite you in the butt. Enjoy them.

Hooray for Home Depot (Bandera and 1604)

Finding good customer service is becoming a rarity. I work for a company that was founded on the idea of Fanatical customer service and support so it is increasingly frustrating dealing with people that could care less about providing a satisfying customer experience.

That being said I feel inclined to let everyone know when I have a good experience. Yesterday I went to Home Depot to get some 3” bolts to mount a ceiling fan. The guy in lighting dropped what he was doing to walk over to hardware with me and help me find what I needed.

Yeah it was something minor, but I left there feeling like I was helped out when someone could have easily said “I don’t know” and sent me away. You can bet that is where I will be going if I need something in the future.

How to Stop the Dreaded FireFox Memory Leak

Having looked into this issue and done far too much reading on it, there is finally a real workaround that trims down your memory usage.

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2920

How To Stop The FireFox Memory Leak
1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

As of this writing my Firefox is at 189MB.
I just minimized and it dropped down to 8MB.
After maximizing it memory usage jumped up to 40MB.

I’d say that this is definitely going to help until the Firefox Devs can track down all the core memory leaks.

Desktopography

Someone at work sent me this link to a small collection of photos that have digital artwork laid over the top of them. It is called Desktopography. Some of these are pretty sweet.

Robot Dance

Man, this kid has mad skills.

 

Paesanos

Yesterday was my 3rd Anniversary so the wife and I went over to Paesanos for dinner. I’ve never been there before but I was urged to try the Shrimp Paesano and boy was it good. It was basically partially breaded shrimp sauteed in a creamy lemon butter sauce. Very rich sauce, but oh so wonderful. PRG (Paesanos Restaurant Group) owns Rio Rio Cantina down on the Riverwalk as well which is probably one of the best Mexican Restaurants in town. I highly recommend trying Paesanos. As a warning, it is a tad bit expensive.

The truth about Vonage

Despite my desire to be, I don’t consider myself cutting edge when it comes to technology. However, last year (April 5, 2005 to be exact) I became a Vonage customer. Vonage is the big player in the VoIP market. With exactly a year of service with Vonage I had nothing but a perfect track record.

This past week I moved into a new house and Time Warner offered me a heck of a deal on a cable, broadband, digital phone (their VoIP product) package. I was happy with Vonage so I inquired about a package without digital phone. Needless to say the price went up so digital phone it is. After all, there is no point in paying for Vonage if I get digital phone essentially for free.

The number port was actually very painless as opposed to the teeth pulling I experienced in porting it from SBC/AT&T to Vonage. The only caveat? When you port a number from Vonage they apparently are not notified and don’t get a cancellation request. This is a far cry different from when they port a number for you.

I called today to cancel my service and ironically today is my 1 year anniversary with them which means it is also a billing day. So I start out with a $16 charge for service I am not going to use.

I called the main service number and after 10 minutes was told that there is a special number for account cancellation. For the record that number is 1–800–860–5491. So I call and go through the whole process of cancelling and asking how I get the charge reversed of which I apparently can’t. This is also how I found out that Vonage isn’t notified of ports or service cancellations. Apparently the onus is on the customer to know to call and cancel after the port completes.

To make matters worse they have some sort of policy by where you can’t cancel on your anniversary date or there is a $41 cancellation fee. So I wasted 35 minutes on the phone only to find out that I have to call back tomorrow.

So after being such a proponent of Vonage I am not so sure I am in fact happy with them. Their service is great, but I don’t want to get hit with all sorts of fees when I try to make changes to my account. I never needed to call their support line so I don’t know how that is, but this is just crap.

I gave some serious though about switching back to Vonage after my promotional period is up with Time Warner for digital phone. I am not so sure that is going to happen anymore.

Apple announces Boot Camp beta

Apple Computer said Wednesday it has released a public beta version of Boot Camp, software that lets Microsoft Windows XP run natively on Intel-based Macs.

This comes on the heels of someone making this work on their own. I for one am all for a unified hardware platform that lets you choose which OS you want to run. I know that if I could throw OS X on a cheap white box for home I would do it in a heartbeat.

Source: ZDNet

Loose Change

About a week or two ago my brother jumped on AIM and told me about a video called Loose Change. Loose Change is a documentary that paints a very troubling picture surrounding the events of 9–11. The long and short of it is that the US Govt. was involved on some level with the events for reasons that can only be speculated.

Before I get slammed for being Un-American I want to say that I don’t necessarily believe all the claims in the movie. I merely want to help spread the word so people can make their own informed decisions. I find it very hard to stomach that our Govt. would be involved in something so horrible. I suppose stranger things have happened.

The movie itself did spawn a few other questions that were probably not intended.

What if Osama Bin Laden was in fact a puppet of the US Govt? What if they used him to leverage policies in the US and worldwise? What if they used him and his actions to leverage control over the Muslim world?

I suggest you check it out and make up your own opinion.

You can see the movie on Google Video here. The official website is www.loosechange911.com