Author Archive for fish

Kinect for Xbox 360

Published on August 6, 2010 in Media. 0 Comments Tags: , , , .

So when taking her to the mall to get to work, Tricia and I found ourselves there considerably early after overcompensating for anticipated traffic (it is a Friday afternoon in Atlanta, after all). We decided we would walk around the mall and windowshop for a bit, when we ran across Macy’s in Lenox Square Mall.

Now, the mall is fairly upscale and drives in a LOT of traffic from out-of-towners, tourists, whatnot, so the mall is a fairly common place to find special kiosks set up to promote virtually anything. A few years ago I spotted The Nintendo DS Spa, wherein you could opt for a free massage while you play one of their DS games onhand. More recently, Nintendo again set up a huge display with the Wii Sports Resort, with about a half dozen to a dozen televisions each with a specific Wii Sports Resort game playing, not to mention “scenery” like the fake palm trees you see there, and staff handing out leis. Finally, Microsoft is getting into this, but the last time I saw them in the mall, they were advertising Windows Phone… too bad one of their guys was doing an excel spreadsheet for them on a MacBook. Irony at its best.

Anyway, I found this one notable enough to make a thread considering at the time these mentioned demo kiosks were set up, the product was available for purchase. Today, though, in Macy’s we ran across a Kinect – obviously NOT for sale yet.

The game the Kinect was demoing at the time was Kinect Adventures, as you can see across the screen of the demo TV. The only one Trish and I tried though, for sake of time, was the first thing it offered us: a slalom-like river rafting experience, where the object was to direct the raft by sidestepping left or right, and jumping to get extra points off ramps and such.

Needless to say, the game requires a TON of communication with your teammate, but although we struggled here and there a bit we still pulled something like 107 points for a Silver Medal by the end of it. Very fun, and surprisingly accurate avatar representation of motions, given the infamous “you can see the bottom of your avatar’s shoe” thing E3′s ago – they’ve obviously improved it. Tricia’s hands were on her hips, and so were her avatar’s.

One thing that did concern me, though, was when the game had finished, it presented to us a series of snapshots taken from the Kinect device of Trish and I jumping around during gameplay. I don’t like that it took those without telling me, but I imagine the device has settings for that when it’s released in November.

Altogether, though, very fun. Probably still won’t get it though unless I have THAT much disposable income. Anyone else played a Kinect yet, or seen one in a Macy’s or their mall?

Atlanta Drivers and Atlanta Roads

Published on July 10, 2010 in Rants. 9 Comments Tags: , , , , , , , , .

And here’s the second of the two rants I promised: driving in Atlanta.

Holy. Crap. I hate driving in this city. Literally every time I place myself behind the wheel of my car it becomes a battle to remain alive long enough to remove myself from behind the wheel again. The mentality of those driving in Atlanta varies so wildly I can honestly call it a melting pot of every variety of stupid. Here is a semi-comprehensive list of the 7 top gripes I have with drivers in Atlanta. Note that it is not a complete list, as there is always something entirely incoherently stupid that someone will manage to pull off, and I couldn’t possibly account for all of these daily occurrences.

First gripe: What the HELL is so hard about staying inside the lines/lane? This is the first basic thing anyone does when learning to drive, aside from pressing the pedal to GO (and still some people fuck that up, more on that in a bit). You think this would be within the best interests of not only everyone around you, but moreover yourself – if you actually care about the vehicle you drive or the time you’ll spend in an accident – but Atlanta drivers do tend to err against logical decisions. Even the dickfreckle in the Lamborghini Murciélago on Spring St. the other day felt that maintaining his lane was apparently below his immortal status. Fucker. Just try that shit near me and my ’89 Buick Park Ave would rip your joyride in two. Most of the time when people start bending the limits of which lane they’re in, I’m left guessing if they just suck at signaling while merging, which brings me on to my second gripe.

Second gripe: If you’re merging, USE A SIGNAL IT’S THE DAMN LAW. Am I the only one in Atlanta that can manage to push a plastic stick up and down to turn some fancy lights on/off in my car? Everyone else, protip: it means I’m changing lanes so you don’t fuck my ride up (anymore than it already is). Also, it means stay the fuck clear. Likewise, if you’re merging and not signaling, I don’t know that! So stop driving like a maniac to merge over six lanes acting like everyone else is a twat simply because you can’t use the car like it’s supposed to be used. Consideration for others when merging is important, and also absent on the roads of Atlanta. I have found myself cut off more times than I can count, and God forbid I use my signal around certain idiotic drivers, who see it as a challenge to close the gap I intend to occupy before I can actually merge into it. Quit viewing it as a personal insult if my car is in front of yours, asshole. It’s not a race, and it never will be, so cool off and let me get where I am going in one piece.

Third gripe: Why doesn’t anyone think ahead? At all? This is how it works: plan out what you want to do, then take appropriate measures to make that as easy as possible for both you and everyone else around you. The. End. It’s seriously not that difficult – if you KNOW you need to merge off the highway in one mile, as the large green sign may indicate, then you miiiight want to get the heck out of the HOV Lane on the far left, because it’s approximately 5 whole lanes from where you want to be. If you want to get to Lenox Mall, stop milling around in the wrong lane and cutting me off at the last minute in your giant empty Eddie Bauer edition SUV – it’s rude and dangerous, and your fucking shopping spree isn’t worth nearly as much as my time and safety. Likewise, if you’re from out of town, get directions and stop trying to turn the wrong way down Piedmont Ave. Incoming traffic (myself included, scooter guy) doesn’t like that. Of course, if you have a scooter I doubt you’re from out of town, which means that aside from being stupid, you’re not…

Fourth gripe: Concentrating. Concentration. Also known as PAYING ATTENTION TO THE ROAD. I cannot fathom what compels these retarded twatwaffles to get behind the wheel of a several ton behemoth vehicle traveling upwards of 90mph, and proceed to completely check out of this reality because fucking TEXT MESSAGES are that goddamn important. You don’t need a point on your license and a $150 fine, as the new Georgian law says – you just need your license and your car’s title thrown in a shredder. In fact, anything relating to a cellphone at all while driving should be the same as a rear-ending accident; it’s always the fault of the rear-ender. Then, if a cellphone user gets in an accident, it’s ALWAYS HIS FAULT. Maybe then people would stop using them. I have a bumper sticker that reads “HANG UP AND DRIVE”, and I damn well stick to it.

Fifth gripe: There’s a posted speed limit for a reason, guys. If everyone goes over it, sure. If everyone goes under it, understandable, there’s probably a reason. So why is it a complete mix of the two? Aside from baffling, it’s unsafe. If I’m going 35-40mph on a city street, that’s reasonably fast. Others keep pace, but there’s NO NEED to tailgate me because you want to do 60mph. You’re not a badass. You’re not in that much of a hurry. Slow down, get off my rear. On the other hand, if I’m cruising down the highway at 65mph, I don’t want to come across some fat Iowa girls going 40mph. You cause accidents doing that – keep up with the pace. Speaking of the Iowa girls…

Sixth gripe: Speed regulation is important. If I pass you, you’re going slow. That does not mean pass me and slow down AGAIN. If I’m on a highway, I maintain my speed – most of the time using cruise control. YOU’RE the wild variable here (that’s not a compliment, it means you’re a couple fries short of a Happy Meal). Likewise, if a SEMI does it to you, don’t do it back, THEY CAN’T SLOW DOWN AS FAST AS YOUR SHITTY RED CIVIC CAN. Talking to you, Iowa girls – I almost witnessed an unintentional genocide as that professional driver could hardly handle your midwestern brand of idiocy.

Seventh gripe: Spacial awareness. I understand this should, in theory, be covered by following the other guidelines I’ve griped about earlier, but this one still needs saying. There’s a particularly fun intersection on North Avenue EB just past Piedmont Ave where drivers, if they so desire, can enter and exit a parking lot for Walgreens, Publix, and an apartment complex. This intersection is awful.


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It always blocks up a ton of drivers in either direction, in or out, and is generally a pain for one problem: when exiting, (bad) drivers pull out way too far to see ahead, and the front of their car obstructs oncoming traffic. If drivers were more aware of their cars, this wouldn’t be such an issue, but on multiple occasions I’ve found myself SCREECHING to a halt because some idiot woman on a cellphone is craning her ugly neck to see my yelling at her to just go already, she’s done enough damage.

A proper solution to these gripes, which will never happen but I’d like it, is a system wherein people’s ability to drive dictates the type/brand/price of car they’re allowed to own and drive. It boils my blood that someone can afford a Lamborghini Murciélago and drive it like a shithead while I’m stuck in my falling apart 1989 Buick Park Ave with a broken trunk and an oxidizing paint job, yet I know I’m a damn better driver than that middle aged crisis.

Going back, my seventh gripe wouldn’t be such an issue if anyone had bothered to hire competent city planners and civil engineers for the City of Atlanta. This entire city is a clusterfuck of a mess. Several highways become one and branch off again. There’s no such thing as a city block in Atlanta – everything just does whatever the hell it wants. Major intersections were an afterthought, where roads curve however they want:


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Or they decide to change from being two-way to one:


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And don’t even get me started on highways:


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And every inner city road is a pothole magnet.

It’s crap like Atlanta drivers and Atlanta roads that make me strongly desire public transportation, but surprise surprise – MARTA doesn’t make getting around the city any easier. A city this size needs a competent rail system, and the excuse we get looks like this:

Don’t let its looks fool you; this serves little to no purpose if you don’t live on the rail line. There’s nothing south of Five Points that’s worth the trip, except for the Airport stop. There’s nothing west of CNN, aside from gun crimes. And that’s that. If anyone wants to get anywhere worthwhile off the rail system, you need a car, or you need a MARTA bus, which is a colossal waste of time compared to car ownership. And that’s why our roads in Atlanta are so congested with really, really bad drivers. The incompetent layout of the city and the lack of a decent public transportation option make travel in this city a headache, the #4 worst headache in the nation, according to Forbes.

In short, I think we should resurrect General Sherman, let him do his Atlanta thing, and try again.

It has the three gees. And the wifis.

Published on July 7, 2010 in Rants. 11 Comments Tags: , , , , , , .

Ok, I have two rants that I need to accomplish. I think I’ll save the second for another post, but this one revolves primarily around fanaticism in the form of (and I hate subscribing to the use of this word, but it fits the bill) fanboyism.

But first, a more pleasant preface. I got my iPhone 4, and I’m pretty happy with it.

I placed my order for an iPhone 4 as soon as I could. On June 15th, the preordering system opened on both Apple’s and AT&T’s websites at 4AM EST (yes, I was still up but for unrelated reasons). Before retiring for the evening, I decided to check out Apple’s page, and lo and behold the system was up. Figuring I’d have an edge at ordering before everyone else, I began the process.

The way Apple’s website appeared to work from my perspective is that, in order to verify the proper price for the iPhone 4, Apple’s servers had to dial out to AT&T and verify that you were indeed up for a contract renewal, and thus the subsidized $199/$299 prices. If you weren’t eligible, the prices skyrocketed to $599/$699 because you would then be purchasing the iPhone 4 outside of contract, and thus no subsidization. Well, to verify your account, obviously Apple needed some information of your account – namely the phone number, billing zip code, and the last four of your social security.

Oh crap. I’m on a family plan – that’s MOM’S social. I don’t know that! And it’s 4AM. Crap.

Well, I tried mine. No luck. While trying, though, Apple’s website crashed hard. Turns out I wasn’t the only preorderer at the hour, and under the strain of dialing out, Apple took a large impact. After some struggling, I decided to test my luck with AT&T’s website. I got right in.

Turns out we have a Premier account with AT&T, and that was working just fine. I placed my preorder, got a confirmation email, and I was on my merry way.

I should have left it at that, but I like to stress, obviously. And reading on MacRumors forums about all the other people having problems, I began to stress more and more that my order wouldn’t work out. Tracking numbers this, backordering that… Long story short, I lucked out. My iPhone 4 shipped on the 23rd, and arrived almost exactly right on time on the 24th, just as expected. And it’s gorgeous, let me tell you.

Now into the crux of this post – as I introduced earlier: fanboyism.

I hate having to defend myself and my purchase decision. I simply don’t see the big deal here – why the hell are others so concerned about what I do with my money? Particularly with electronics, like my iPhone 4 purchase. I don’t see the same thing with other items – nobody gets ridiculed or accused for buying clothes or a car or other brand names in the same way that those who buy electronics of a particular brand do.

This post doesn’t exist to defend my iPhone 4 purchase, yet it inevitably will turn into that. If I don’t preempt it, at least somewhat, there lies no doubt within my mind that someone will attempt to use that against me and state that I made a blind fanboy purchase without thinking about it. That’s what gets me. What kind of person do you think I am – an idiot? That I purchase something willy-nilly because it has a shiny Apple logo on it? Before I even have a chance to enjoy my new toy, I have to defend it because some zealot has an unexplained grudge against a company, and somehow by extension me – suddenly I’m a spokesperson and a PR rep because I bought a goddamn phone. That’s sound logic right there.

So here: Why I bought an iPhone 4. A: I like it. I owned an iPhone 3G, and I became accustomed to the UI and frankly, I enjoyed the interface and it was a pleasure to use, as opposed to a hinderance like my old Motorola and LG. B: I already invested in apps from the App Store, so giving those up for another smartphone seems irresponsible and foolhardy. C: Pickings are slim for another quality phone on AT&T, and for the time being I am stuck on AT&T, whether I like it or not. Mom’s family plan, Mom’s decision. D: Purchasing an iPhone 4 allows me to grandfather down my 3G to my fianceé, who has been using a broken phone for a long while now. Given all these, the jump from an iPhone 3G to an iPhone 4 makes perfect sense. The extra benefits from improved hardware certainly sweeten the deal.

Inevitably, however, someone will bring up the antennae issue. Hell, the first day I even owned my iPhone 4 people were already making comments and attempting to reproduce it on my iPhone. Sometimes the signal does attenuate. Most times I’ve tried it, the signal doesn’t budge. Personally, it’s a non-issue for me, as I haven’t experienced any ill-effects of it. No proximity sensor errors here. Again, I’m happy with my purchase, so, getting back to my rant about fanboyism: what, praytell, are you trying to accomplish by making me feel anything different? Is this your lot in life, your goal, to make others feel like shit for buying something they were looking forward to owning? Where does that get you? It certainly doesn’t earn you respect – no sane person will turn around and say “well I’ll be damned, you were right, and this was a shitty purchase; looks like I’m listening to everything you have to say from now on”. If you’re lucky, they won’t openly resent you.

So again, I ask, where does it get you, attacking someone for their purchase simply because you don’t like it? Nobody needs or wants your approval, hell, nobody fucking cares. I sure don’t. Nobody likes a fanboy. I researched a phone, I bought it, I’m happy. The sheer fact that you think you need to change that makes me think your unhappy with whatever you own, and you need misery to share in your company. And that is called post purchase rationalization. Before anyone attempts to call that on this post, think about it, because saying I’m trying to rationalize my purchase implies that I’m unhappy with it. Re-read: I’m quite happy. So cut your fucking fanboy act out, and just leave me be.

I guess the point of this post is to vent a bit, because I’m damned tired of having someone spot my iPhone 4 in use and, instead of keeping to themselves like a sane, normal person would, barking out loudly about some kind of Verizon Android device like they’ve found Jesus in it, or it has a USB port specifically for their techno-penis. Save it, I don’t care. All you’re trying to do is hurt others around you, and I couldn’t give two shits.

… Tune in next time for my rant on Atlanta transportation/drivers. In the meantime, let’s see how long it takes for some comments to appear about how much better their abc is than xyz for fanboy bullshit reason #23. If any comments appear at all, that is – who even reads this tired old thing, anyway? :P