A perfect example of just why I don’t care is his latest post, an insane rambling about how difficult it was to open the Office 2007 packaging. Come on, Joel. You really couldn’t figure it out? Of course Chris Pirillo jumps in with his two cents, basically rehashing what Joel says, and also point out how bad it is for one of the “world’s leading software developers states this” information. Gimme a break.

When I bought Office 2007 a month ago to install for a friend, opening the box was easy peezy. You just follow the little sticker’s instructions and you’re off. The instructions consist of basically peeling off a sticker and then pivoting open the box. Maybe Joel didn’t get a package with the sticker. I don’t know. But even the most basic student of engineering would figure out that it “pivots open” after one removes the sticker.

While I’m at it, I should point out this genius as well, who claims it took 30 minutes to open the box and took the time to document it on Flickr (no doubt that’s where the 30 minutes came from?) This seal, which they’re implying can only be opened with scissors or a sharp knife, easily tore for me when I pivoted open the box. It was already slightly perforated. Come on, guys. You’re telling me you’ve never encountered computer software packaging with TAPE or PLASTIC?

He also goes on to recommend that people get XP on newer computers, and suggests that Vista should not be used as someone’s primary operating system, due to compatibility headaches. Huh? Care you cite some examples? I can understand a company hesitating to upgrade, since they might need to test some custom software, etc. before doing the push.. but your typical family user(s) are not going to run into troubles. I have no problems recommending Vista to users purchasing a new Dell, Gateway, etc. today.

If you want something to rant about packaging-wise.. why not complain about the way CDs and DVDs are packaged, with the super-tight plastic wrap on the outside, and the one to three stickers found underneath that plastic wrap, which always seems to be stuck on with glue that is not meant for peeling, leaving a yucky substance all over your brand new cover? That’s really lame. If you’re a thief, you’re probably just using a EZ-CD opener or something to quickly rip the cover off and take the disc out.

I’m going to write up a full review of 300 soon enough, but in the meantime, here’s an awesome mockery of one of the film’s early scenes:

Can’t wait for this to come out! I had my misgivings about Heath Ledger playing The Joker, but looks like he’s pulling it off well. And of course Christian Bale fits perfectly as Batman.

These packs were leaked in beta a few weeks ago, but today Microsoft released the full final versions. You can find more information (and download it) at Microsoft’s website, under KB 938979 and KB 938194.

The fixes? Check it out:

• You experience a long delay when you try to exit the Photos screen saver.
• A memory leak occurs when you use the Windows Energy screen saver.
• If User Account Control is disabled on the computer, you cannot install a network printer successfully. This problem occurs if the network printer is hosted by a Windows XP-based or a Windows Server 2003-based computer.
• When you write data to an AVI file by using the AVIStreamWrite function, the file header of the AVI file is corrupted.
• When you copy or move a large file, the "estimated time remaining" takes a long time to be calculated and displayed.
• After you resume the computer from hibernation, it takes a long time to display the logon screen.
• When you synchronize an offline file to a server, the offline file is corrupted.
• If you edit an image file that uses the RAW image format, data loss occurs in the image file. This problem occurs if the RAW image is from any of the following digital SLR camera models:
• Canon EOS 1D
• Canon EOS 1DS
For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
932988 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932988/) Files from a Canon EOD 1D or 1DS camera may be corrupted after you use Windows Photo Gallery, Windows Live Photo Gallery, or Windows Explorer to edit the file metadata in Windows Vista or in Windows XP Service Pack 2
• After you resume the computer from hibernation, the computer loses its default gateway address.
• Poor memory management performance occurs.

• The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
932539 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/932539/) The screen may go blank when you try to upgrade the video driver on a Windows Vista-based computer
• The computer stops responding, and you receive a "Display driver stopped responding and has recovered" error message. You can restart the computer only by pressing the computer's power button.
• The computer stops responding or restarts unexpectedly when you play video games or perform desktop operations.
• The Diagnostic Policy Service (DPS) stops responding when the computer is under heavy load or when very little memory is available. This problem prevents diagnostics from working.
• The screen goes blank after an external display device that is connected to the computer is turned off. For example, this problem may occur when a projector is turned off during a presentation.
• A computer that has NVIDIA G80 series graphic drivers installed stops responding.
• Visual appearance issues occur when you play graphics-intensive games.
• You experience poor playback quality when you play HD DVD disks or Blu-ray disks on a large monitor.
• Applications that load the Netcfgx.dll component exit unexpectedly.
• Windows Calendar exits unexpectedly after you create a new appointment, create a new task, and then restart the computer.
• Internet Connection Sharing stops responding after you upgrade a computer that is running Microsoft Windows XP to Windows Vista and then restart the computer.
• The Printer Spooler service stops unexpectedly.
• You receive a "Stop 0x0000009F" error when you put the computer to sleep while a Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) connection is active. For more information, click the following article number to view the article in the Microsoft Knowledge Base:
931671 (http://support.microsoft.com/kb/931671/) Error message when you put a Windows Vista-based computer to sleep while a PPP connection is active: "STOP 0x0000009F"

I’d suggest running out and installing them ASAP. I was mainly having the “slow wake from hibernation” problem, and I believe everyone was having the estimated time remaining problem… but updated performance and reliability can only be a good thing!

Just about sums up how I feel right now.

If so, you need to throw it out immediately, as well as any contact lenses or cases that came in contact with it. The solution has been recalled because the C.D.C. has found that the solution does not protect you against a infectious microbe called acanthamoeba, which can lead to permanent damage to your eye, usually requiring corneal transplants.

Ugh.

I didn’t even know about this, and apparently most of the world didn’t either. This recall started in May! And supposedly all product is supposed to be pulled from shelves, etc.. but the other day I found it on my K-Mart shelf.

I dunno what I’m going to do, as the other contact lens solutions make my eyes burn like heck. And just last year, Bausch & Lomb’s “ReNu” solution was found to cause/allow fungal eye infections. Joy!

So, in conclusion, if you wear contact lenses, you’re going to die. That’s all there is to it. You’re doomed. Just put on some specs, will ya?

I usually think this sort of stuff is a bit over the top, but this brake-light conversion/mod is great. I’d totally get it on my Altima, and use the “cylon scanning” mode all the way home…

Enjoy! I didn’t like it at first, but it’s growing on me. I guess I was just expecting something a little more “large budget”. But some shots stand out, such as the hands grabbing her underwater, and the very large dress at the end. Yay Eisley!

[Queue 2001: A Space Odyssey Music]

It’s allliiiive! All the parts arrived and were assembled. The most nerve-racking part of the build was actually putting the CPU cooler on. The instructions are mostly what some would call “English”, but the diagrams leave something to be desired. There are arrows on top of four posts that go into the motherboard to secure the cooler, and you’d think they’d be pointing the direction you’re supposed to twist to secure the cooler. You’d be wrong. They’re actually indictating how to remove the cooler. Go figure.

Anyway, I’m very happy with the results, the machine screams. The only real bummer thing I just discovered is that this motherboard only supports up to 800MHz memory. I have 1066 MHz memory. That’s 266MHz the board can’t use, and paid more for. Oh well, I guess. Maybe MSI, the motherboard manufacturer, will come out with a BIOS update to increase the speed? Really doubtful. I wonder if it’s a BIOS limitation or an actual hardware limitation? Hrm.

This has had me stuck for the past hour. Give me a break. I really hope this is just a bug in the “beta” of Safari.. because it’s extremely dumb.

This Javascript method takes a passed in SELECT element (via ID) and the value you want selected, and will loop through all of the SELECTs options, and select the one whose value matches:

function selectOptionListValue(psElementId, psValue) {
    var OptionList = document.getElementById(psElementId).options;
    
    for (var i = 0; i < OptionList.length; i++) {    
        if (OptionList[i].value.toLowerCase().trim() == psValue.toLowerCase().trim()) {
            OptionList[i].selected = true;
            break;
        }
    }    

                        
    return;
}

Looks simple, right? It kinda is. Works great in Opera, IE, FireFox, etc… but in Safari, nothing happens. Your SELECT gets nothing selected. It turns out, you need to specify the SELECT’s selectedIndex in order to get it to work properly— adding this line before the “return;” fixes it on Safari:

OptionList.selectedIndex = i;

Talk about retarded. Any “Safari developers” out there want to throw in their two cents?

Since Intel just dropped the price of their Q6600 Core 2 Quad processor, I decided it was time for me to upgrade my main computer at home.

This weekend, NewEgg’s prices for the Q6600 dropped to $299.99 — a huge discount from the $500 or so it used to be. But now if you look at their product details page, they’re out of stock and have increased the price to $345. Guess I got lucky

Anyhow, my current rig is a XPS 400 with a Pentium D 3.2 processor. It’s fast, but less power efficient and slower than the newer Core 2 Duo processors out there. I’m selling it to a friend of mine, so that takes care of that.

As for the new system, I picked out almost the same components list as Scott Hanselman and Jeff Atwood did for Scott’s new “Ultimate Developer Rig”. Jeff’s been posting excellent “how to build a PC” type articles on his blog about those components, and I’ve been following along. Here’s what I chose from NewEgg:

• $119.95 – Antec Sonata III Black 0.8mm cold rolled steel ATX Mid Tower Computer Case 500W Power Supply - Retail
• $149.99 – MSI P6N SLI Platinum LGA 775 NVIDIA nForce 650i SLI ATX Intel Motherboard - Retail
• $99.99 – Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB 10,000 RPM Serial ATA150 Hard Drive - OEM
• $299.99 – Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 Kentsfield 2.4GHz LGA 775 Processor Model BX80562Q6600 - Retail
• $32.99 – Scythe SCMN-1100 100mm Sleeve CPU Cooler - Retail
• $92.99 – mushkin 2GB (2 x 1GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel Kit Desktop Memory Model 996529 - Retail
• $11.49 – Rosewill RCR-103 USB 2.0 Card Reader - Retail

Grand total: $807.39 — not too shabby, methinks.

I’m really looking forward to getting the parts this week and throwing it all together. I’ll make another post as soon as that happens, probably with assembly pictures, notes on anything I run into, etc.

I might overclock, too, similiar to what Jeff/Scott are doing, but maybe not to the “edge”. We’ll see, as I’ve never overclocked before. Should be interesting!

Words fail me.

1,500 plus CPDRC inmates of the Cebu Provincial Detention and Rehabilitation Center, Cebu, Philippines at practice! This is not the final routine, and definitely not a punishment! just a teaser.

I found out the other day that Cox business internet would run me about $120 a month, only $10 or so more than my current internet provider, Speakeasy. But Cox’s internet would give me 8 IPs instead of 4, and also give me twice the speed (12.5 mbit down and 1.5 mbit up.) Unfortunately when I moved into my condo I committed to another year of DSL service with Speakeasy, and even after pleading with the sales rep, he said there’s nothing he can do, due to Covad’s requirement of a year long contract from Speakeasy. Isn’t passing the blame nice and convenient?

Oh well I guess. I’ll be able to switch next year around March. Maybe by then fiber will be more prevalent? Hrm.

DO NOT READ THIS UNLESS YOU WANT TO BE COMPLETELY RUINED. GOT IT?

With that said, here goes. Highlight below to see the spoilers:

• Dumbledore is very much alive.
• Burbage dies.
• Hedwig dies.
• Mad-Eye Moody dies.
• Scrimgeour dies.
• Wormtail dies.
• Dobby dies.
• Snape dies, killed by Voldemort, after turning “emo over Lilly Potter’s death”
• Fred Weasley dies.
• Harry gets really really hurt by Voldemort.
• Harry sacrificies himself, ala what Lilly Potter did, but because he is a horcrux (contains part of Voldemort’s soul), he is able to kill Voldemort without killing himself.
• Harry brings himself back to life (see above.)
• Tonks, Lupin and Colin all die.
• The epilogue states that 19 years later: Ron and Hermoine are married with two kids named Rose and Hugo, Harry and Ginny are married with three kids named Lily, James and Albus. Draco had a son named Scorpius.
• The epilogue has Harry, Ron, Ginny and Hermoine seeing their children off to Hogwarts on the train.
• The final line of the book is “The scar had not pained Harry for nineteen years. All was well.”

My friend/ex-coworker Mike has started a business of his own named Hire A Helper. At first I wasn’t totally sold on the idea, but now that the site is up and fully running, I get it. His website offers a quick and easy way to find people in your area that are available for hire on various jobs, such as lawnwork, moving, and cleaning.

I know when I moved recently that I definitely could’ve had extra help with moving. And now that I’m a homeowner, I could stand to get some cleaning help every so often. Luckily since I’m in a condo, I don’t have to maintain a lawn, but I know others who do.

On the flip side, if you run a company that provides those services, you can sign up and get started, getting targeted business headed your way. Or heck, even if you’re just a college student trying to make extra money, you can sign up too.

If you’re looking for any of that sort of thing, or are just curious, be sure to head over to Hire a Helper.com and check it out.

Check out my photos:

http://www.flickr.com/gp/33771723@N00/1732wc

Heather was originally supposed to go, but got very sick today, please keep her in your prayers. Instead, Michael went with me and we had a great time.

It was so awesome being able to go whereever we wanted, hang out backstage, etc.. but I’m kinda bummed that we watched Eisley from the side of the stage. I wanted to hang out/talk with them a bit, but didn’t really get a chance to.

Gomez was alright, but not really my cup of tea. The Fray was amazing, I definitely need to pick up their CD. Lots of energy and emotion going into the music.

I’m trying to upload a video of The Fray performing Shakira’s “Hips Don’t Lie”, but having some trouble with YouTube. I’ll try to post it later. Why can’t it just take the AVI off of my camera? Hrm. Anyhow. Wait, it worked! Check it out here.

With all that said, a few rants about concerts in general:

• People, your cell phone is not going to take a nice photo of the band from hundreds of feet away. Your cell phone camera’s zoom is DIGITAL, not a real zoom. What could you possibly want a blurry overexposed photo for? To send to your friends to show you’re there?
• STOP SMOKING MARIJUANA. I don’t care what you do in your personal time, but smoking pot out at a concert is just lame. And blowing it directly behind someone (namely me) makes me enjoy the show a bit less.
• Hey, guy? Yeah, you, the one who sells water in bottles for the venue up and down the aisles? No one wants water bad enough to have you ruin the concert with your flashing red-LED headband and lit–up water bottle in the pitch-dark of night. It’s a bit distracting.
• People usually come to see the band perform. They usually don’t want you and your (drunk/high/dumb) friends shouting the lyrics at the top of their lungs. Just a thought. Oh yeah, your random phrases and shout-outs during the silence between songs is really “cool” too. SAN DIMAS HIGHSCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!
• If you don’t have tickets to be in that section, then why are you trying to climb over/push through people to get to that section? This applies mainly to the “pit” but can also work for the people in the standard assigned seats. Why are there 10 of you crammed into a space that has 4 seats?

Oh yeah, by the way, I saw a large “Zune” sea-train with lots of flat screens and Zune units/headphones for people to check out, and there were also little Zune teams wandering around the crowd (in-between acts) to demo the Zune. I thought that was kinda cool. Anything to get it out there, you know? I still prefer it 2 to 1 over my iPod any day.

Watch Kanye West ruin the song about halfway through. Ugh. Should’ve left the guest lineup as just John Mayer.

I can’t stand Kanye. Look man, you’re not Jesus. And you’re not Akira or Daft Punk. And GEORGE BUSH DOESN’T CARE ABOUT BLACK PEOPLE!

It’s awesome. I can’t wait to hear what the rest of the album, named “Combinations”, is like. You can tell they’ve spent a lot of time and crafted their sound, just based on this one single. And I can tell too, that the production value is a lot higher. On their first album, they had a number of producers doing different tracks, and it kind of showed. Some of the tracks were even engineered poorly (in my opinion.) For this album, they got Richard Gibbs, who was in the amazing band Oingo Boingo, and like his former bandmate Danny Elfman, currently writes scores/music for television shows (Battlestar Galactica!) and movies. Richard’s experience shows in this single.

It’s called “Invasion”, and from what I’ve heard, is based on the movie/book “Invasion of the Body Snatchers”, which seems to be a cool concept to write about, something you can really read into (or hey, aliens taking over other peoples bodies if you want to stay literal.)

Download the MP3 for “Invasions” here, and check out the lyrics:

the colorless words are burning our heels as the bright lights
of the city fade
taking the chase to curb our fear as the bloodless moon
cast's it's face

oh something's not right, i can feel it inside

you would take the breath from my throat
and you would take the cherished people that i hold

all in time you will be one of us painless, us blameless
go to sleep, this wont hurt a bit
shifting your shape to our shells

and they will try to make us forget ourselves
one by one one by one
call me crazy but they are after us
one by one one by one
you don't have to know the truth
if you believe it, i believe it too

oh something's not right, i can feel it inside

you would take the breath from my throat
and you would take the cherished people that i hold

P.S.: Visit Nicole’s excellent Eisley pix site if you want to see more pictures of the band, etc.

Of course Microsoft does this, right after I sell my XBox 360 on eBay. Well, the bidder hasn’t paid me yet, and might not. So maybe I haven’t officially sold it yet.

But yeah, a few weeks ago I got the dreaded three red rings of death on my XBox 360, while watching an HD-DVD with Heather. If you know me, you know I hardly touch my XBox 360, except to watch DVDs or play arcade games. And I keep it flat (not standing), and not locked inside some entertainment center. For all intents and purposes, the game console should’ve lasted me years. The fact that it just failed watching a movie was unacceptable, but there wasn’t much I could do.

Before calling Microsoft’s support line, I found a forum post online from someone who had fixed the problem by just blowing out the dust with a can of air. I took it outside and did that, and quite a bit of dust was released from the box. Brought it back in and turned it on, and I was up and running again. Heather and I watched half of King Kong, and then shut it off. Looks like the problem was fixed for now. Well, it’s not my problem anymore technically, since it’s sold on eBay, but yeah.

Before today, if I had kept my XBox 360, the next time the red rings came up, I would’ve had to shell out like $150 to get my console fixed. But now, Microsoft’s extended the warranty to the consoles from the past three years. There’s even an “apology” letter of sorts from Peter Moore.

But in my opinion, it’s far overdue. When the console launched, I didn’t want to listen to all the people having problems. I just assumed they were being dumb, and using the console without ventilation, etc… but then I started to hear about friends having the problem, and then myself… it’s obvious there is a core hardware problem with the XBox 360 itself, either involving cooling or the placement of components inside. It’d be great if Microsoft went the extra mile and gave full disclosure about their findings. It’s ridiculous that retailers and the public were both complaining about the return rate of the console, and Microsoft kept saying that the returns/etc. were well under the industry standard. Riiight.

Okay, if you were even remotely a fan of Transformers growing up, you need to see this movie. Michael Bay did a great job. Yes, lots of stuff blows up. Lots of giant robots fight all over. Yes, they talk. They got Peter Cullen (who did the Optimus Prime voice on the original cartoons) to do this film. Just awesome all around.

Of course, if you’re a “realistic” film type of guy/gal, you’ll think this movie sucks. In that case, stay away. And give me back my action figure!

Shia LeBeouf did an outstanding job of acting in a role that could’ve easily stooped to cheap humor and bland acting. I got hooked watching Even Stevens (yes, I admit it) because of him.

And dude, Agent Smith aka V aka Elrond does the voice of Megatron! Hah!

In closing, as my friends put it.. my favorite part of the film was when they TRANSFORMED.

Man I’m a geek.

P.S. – Pacific Theatres, you really need to work on your:

• Sticky floors
• Broken seats
• Terrible sound system

If you could do that, that’d just be super-duper. K thx bye.

Just awesome. Combining my favorite movie of all time with Pirates of the Caribbean.. genius!

Visit the website, GooniesVSPirates.com to read up on the editor (he works for G4.) I’m loving it.

He e-mailed me again with two fake e-mails. These are awesome! First, he sent me a fake letter from eBay, saying that his account has been “approved”, and that I need to ship the item ASAP:

And secondly, he asks “WHAT IS GOING ON??????”:

This guy/gal is great. Maybe I should play along, say I shipped it? Hah.

Woohoo! Adsense, gimme free monies. A whopping $113 is mine!

*dances a jig*