YAY!

so my friend Washington Man is finally home with his wife. It’ll take a while for them to return to 100%, but she was supposed to be in the hospital until December or January, so, it’s a huge blessing that they’re finally home.

Xbox HD? and PS3 Netflix

So…apparently, the Xbox 360 now has live streaming videos in “1080p”. But…the 360 doesn’t actually support TRUE HD anything. You have to remember that the system is still using DVDs, which are stuck with standard 420p. And, I believe, even the HD-DVD player thingy only supported 720p…and that was simulated. So…if you’re looking for true HD, you should try the PS3…

Which is about to get Netflix streaming next month. The best part is, if you have a Netflix subscription, you don’t have to pay anything extra for the service. So, pretty much, it will be the exact same service as the 360.

But, the 360 now has Facebook support…that’s nice…too bad you can’t do anything on it but update your status and read other status updates. That’s pretty much what you can do on PS3’s web browser.

So, in an attempt to compete, Playstation and Xbox are slowly becoming the same thing…it’s like the Chevy Camaro and Dodge Challenger (just look at the stats…the biggest difference is the Challenger’s extra 400lbs of weight….but the Challenger also has 475hp to the Camaro’s 400hp…which makes the power to weight ratio virtually the same between the two cars.)

 

I have found that when companies compete, one of two things end up happening: 1. they either become the same product, or 2. they become completely different products.

Futurama and Snow White?

so I heard that the Futurama Complete Collection is now available on DVD (all 18 discs including all 5 seasons and all 4 movies for $117!) and so I looked on amazon and apparently, 18% of the people who viewed it, ultimately bought Snow white and the Seven Dwarfs. Strange. Stranger, is all the other things that people bought after viewing it were Futurama related.

Alright, just had to comment on that piece of randomness

Polychromatic Review

Talk about Polychromatic, if you want your iPod (classic and touch), iPhone, MacBook, cellphone, PS3, PS3 Slim, Xbox, Wii, controllers or several other things custom colored, check out ColorWare. What’s great about this website is that, for most things, you not only have the option of either buying a new one, or sending yours in, but you can see how it will look before you buy it. And the number of parts you can customize is impressive. Example: for the PS3 Slim, you can choose different colors for the top, bottom, logo and up to four controllers (the three extra controllers cost extra.)

The prices for the new products are a little on the high side, probably because they actually have to buy the product themselves, but if your sending in your own, the cost would appear to simply cover shipping. The Macs are still a little high to send in, but they are $1500 computers.

That said, for $150, you can send in your PS3 with a single controller to get a one of a kind system. or for $125 you can send in your iPod Touch.

What’s great about this website, is that is fun to simply play around with the different colors, even if you aren’t looking to buy. Giving a good value and good entertainment at the same time is rare for websites.

I give ColorWare 4 out of 5 rating for now. Once I get a PS3 and the money, I actually do plan on getting it colored by ColorWare, and I will update my review then.

Goodbye MS Word, Hello Fierce Battle

Recently, Microsoft lost a lawsuit for violating a patent for creating custom xml documents. As a result, Microsoft was ordered to halt the sale of MS Word. This leaves OpenOffice Writer and Apple’s Pages as the last big name word processors. I’d suspect that OO will end up taking the top spot in “sales” but, it’s free, so…

Microsoft was also forced to pay the patent owner over $200 million. Finally someone sued a billion company for more than a couple million. Honestly, people, if you’re going to sue a company that makes nearly $100 BILLION dollars a year, ask for more than what they wipe their asses with.

In an even more interesting twist of fate for Microsoft, it would appear, according to rumors, that Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Elite might get a $100 knocked off the price by the end of the month, dropping the price to $299, only $50 more than the Wii, and yet, still cheaper.

However, there are also rumors afloat that say that Sony is about to release the PS3 Slim, a 120GB smaller version of the PS3. The Slim is supposedly going to sell for $299. A nearly $200-$300 price drop.

This would pit a 120GB Xbox 360 Elite directly against a 120GB, more reliable, PS3. And since both would be only $50 more than a Wii…the competition is about to enter a whole new level. And I would assume, by the end of the holiday season, we should see just who really is the top system.

Wii not so cheap

So, I just looked on GameStop’s website to see how much it would cost me to get my parents another controller for their new Wii they got from my sister. Well, the Wii might only cost $250, but if you’re looking to play with more than just yourself or take turns, plan to spend about as much as the other systems. Say what you want about the PS3 and 360, but the Wii has the most expensive controller. How much is it?

Well, for just the remote it’s $40, if you want the WiiMotion Plus (which you need to play games like Tiger Woods and Wii Sports Restort) it’s another $25, and if you want the nunchuck, that’s an extra $20.

So…

$40
$20
+$25
—-
$85

yes, that’s an eight and a five. for a complete controller for the Wii you have to fork out an extra $35 more than you would to buy a controller for the PS3 and if you have a 360..you might as well just buy two controllers and save yourself $5.

And since the Wii prides itself on being a social system, with most games supporting 4 controllers, I do believe to get the system, and for complete controllers with the nunchuck and Motion Plus, it actually makes the Wii the most expensive system.

(85 x 4) + $250 = $340 + $250 = $590!

That’s right, four complete controllers costs more than the system itself. That’s just scary.

So…if you really want to save money on a game system, buy a 360 and a single controller (since you’ll be doing most of your gaming online) or a PS3 and two controllers. You’ll probably save at least $100.

Ancient Sci-fi?

So, I’m sitting here, watching this special on History Channel about these guys who believe that aliens visited the Earth thousands of years ago. But, my main problem with that is, if they visited then, where are they now. But, I think, that, because the evidence is all art, I think that possibly, they could simply be ancient science fiction. I mean, if we write and create fictional art today, why couldn’t they have done it then.

I am also a firm believer that be don’t know just how technologically advanced people were before the flood and I also think that it’s rather stupid to think that our ancestors were stupid, mindless people who couldn’t figure out advanced things such as batteries. It really isn’t hard to make a battery, and it would seem that the first one could have been made completely by accident and someone was like, “hey I can use this to make things more or create heat and light.”

Anyways, I think that it’s rather silly to read too much into things we weren’t around to witness. I’m sure, years from now, there will be scientists saying the same thing about us as they read our sci-fi.

The new blog is here

This is formally the old Spirit Well Books blog. This will be the place to come to get updates on the world of me and the stories and novels that I write.

Enjoy.

P.S. I will add a blog roll soon.