The even awesome-er package that I discussed in my previous post just came, and it is indeed even awesome-er. More information to come in a bit, but for now here’s a teaser:
A Series of Tubes
An archive of old posts.
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Package #1
Package #1 of 2 arrived today (Package #2 should be here within an hour), containing a 1-up Beanie and a Ninja Universal Remote. The hat is awesome, I love it very much. I intend to wear it to school tomorrow and forever and ever.
The remote is awesome too, but it can take a while to register with a TV the first time. After the first registration, it works almost as fast as a normal remote, up to about 10 feet away, from my testing. I can foresee it coming in handy during future visits to UNO’s or Chili’s…
I’ll post about package 2, which is even awesome-er, when it gets here.
(Yes, that is a chalkboard wall behind me. I’ve had mine for 7 years now, HA!)
Wiiview 2
Well, my friend Cutter just (as in, yesterday) got a Wii, so I got to play it for real. For real meaning no pressure from surrounding con crowd, and correctly set-up sensor bar. The experience was much better.
It could be that I was playing a different game each time, Wii Sports at the con and Warioware at Cutter’s house, but I had way more fun with Warioware. For those of you who haven’t experienced the…(how shall I put this)…unique experience that is Warioware, the game consists of extremely quick minigames (really quick, you have 5-10 seconds to finish each one). The games are very strange, everything from using the wiimote as a fly swatter to squish flies on the screen to a pump handle you have to move up and down to pop a balloon, to a finger you have to use to pick a virtual nose. It’s a very odd-sounding game, but trust me, you have to play it to understand.
There are different “forms” you are taught throughout the game, starting with the remote control form (which is just like holding a TV remote), then gaining umbrella form (holding the wiimote vertically, like an umbrella handle), to many more, such as handlebars, janitor (a broomstick), and the most outlandish being mohawk (where you hold it flat on your head, like a mohawk hairdo). As you learn these forms, more and more minigames involving these forms are unlocked, such as the hula hoop game (where you hold the wiimote at your side in ‘big cheese’ form, and pretend to hula hoop. This cannot be done correctly with any other form, or the guy on-screen doesn’t move. You have to be willing to embarrass yourself to play) or the balloon pumping game (which only works in ‘handlebar’ form, where you hold it like bike handlebars).
All in all, the game is extremely fun, whether you’re playing it yourself or watching others play (since you can laugh at them, despite the fact that you’ll be doing the exact same thing in a few minutes). The wiimote can be a bit unresponsive at times, but its usually just because we don’t have it pointing enough at the sensor bar. Cutter said he’ll figure out the best positioning for the bar, but I think some of it is just an inherent weakness in the Wii, since you’ll always be compelled to point it directly at the TV, or swing it away from the TV all together.
I can easily see the Wii becoming the king of the current generation of consoles.
Painting
I assisted in painting a wall with chalkboard paint yesterday, and I had the idea to film it and speed it up afterwards. You can check out the fruits of my efforts here:
Clicky!
I Hate Midyear Exams
One word is enough to make many kids at my school quake with fear. Just one word, that’s all that is needed.
Midyears.
The midyear exams are this week at my school, 3 days of tests in everything we’ve learned so far this year. At least the scheduling allows me to leave school at 10:00 on Thursday, and not have to get to school until 10:00 on Friday, but 4 hours of tests each day is pretty extreme I think.
iPhone Followup
Well, it’s been a while since I posted anything. Last time I talked about the iPhone, and how awesome it is. Well, now I’m going to do a (sadly) negative post about the same phone. It has to be done.
So, the downsides of the iPhone. First of all, the keyboard. All the people (very few, but still some people) who used the iPhone said that the on-screen keyboard was tricky to use, and a bit unresponsive. I think Apple would have been better off putting a slide-out keyboard on it, because despite the fact that you cannot change the functions of hardware-based buttons, you can pretty much assume things that need a keyboard will be ok using that keyboard.
Next, the screen. That thing’s going to get scratched.
The back. It’s part white, part black, all wierd-looking.
The camera: 2 megapixels. This isn’t horrible, but it’s not very good for a smartphone camera.
And of course, the price. $499 or $599 for the phone, but if you add on the voice and data plans you’ve spent over $1000 in the first year. While this is average for a smartphone, and this phone is (despite its faults above) much better than an average smartphone, it’s still extremely pricey.
Oh well, I wasn’t planning on getting one anyway.
The iPhone Released
Well, new iPod/gadget from Apple Inc. (no longer Apple Computer Inc.) is here (or actually, it’s been announced. It’ll be here in June), and it’s called the iPhone. The name is a bit deceiving, since it’s really a lot more than just a phone, it even tops most of the smartphones out there (think Blackberry, Treo, etc.).
So, the features. It is a phone, yes. It lets you make calls at the touch of a button (a virtual button, the thing is like one giant touchscreen), and access your “visual voicemail”- a list of the missed calls with voicemail messages attached. That way you don’t have to listen to all the previous saved messages to get the one you want, just scroll until you find it. It also lets you access your e-mail (via any IMAP or POP3 e-mail service), send SMS text messages, and all that jazz that phones do. It also has a 2 megapixel (better than the built-in iSight and most other webcams, also currently the highest megapixel count in a cameraphone) camera in the back.
Aside from the standard phone features, the iPhone acts as a full-screen iPod as well. It allows you to scroll through the menus of artists, albums, songs, etc. by “flicking” the screen up, as if you were dragging it. One tap, and the song starts playing, with standard iPod UI. It shows the album art, as well as all the other album art you have, and lets you flip through the art like in iTunes 7. If you turn it on its side, the picture on the screen rotates to landscape view. Video? It does that. It shows video in landscape mode by default, on its 3.5″ 340×480 screen.
The iPhone does internet, too. It comes with both WiFi and EDGE (so you can connect to the internet anywhere you get phone coverage, basically), as well as Bluetooth compatibility for the new wireless headphones (mad ugly, in my opinion) that come with it. The iPhone has its own version of Safari built into it, and supports syncing of your bookmarks from a Mac or PC.
It comes in both 4gb (at the standard inflated Mac price of $499) and 8gb (again, $599) models, and should be released this June.
Welcome!
Welcome, everyone, to the new home of A Series of Tubes. I’d like to explain in greater detail the reasons for my move here, if I may. And of course I may, you’re a captive audience. Hooray!
I feel that I’ve outgrown what the hosted WordPress service has to offer. The fact that you cannot use plugins (especially Captcha!) or themes (other than the 30 or so they provide) annoyed me when I first started using WP, and the fact that you cannot even modify the themes they provide to suit your needs was even more annoying.
So, I moved here. Yay.
6666 Views
My blog as it exists here has (as of just a moment ago) gotten a total of 6,666 unique views. How awesome!
How True
I came across this quote on Uru Obsession, and the original poster found it on eBay, I think. The first few lines are so true:
I used to think of myself as immune to addiction. I’ve never been ensnared by alcohol or drugs, never run up huge credit-card balances with compulsive shopping, never smoked — I don’t even gamble. Watching various friends battle their own habits, I’ve occasionally envied them the drama of it all, but mostly I’ve felt a little (well, maybe more than a little) superior.
That was before I found Myst…
I’ve recently realized just how obsessed I am with the Myst series. I really am obsessed. I spend most of my free time on Uru Obsession, I have a massive collection of Myst games and collectible items, I even have two original concept sketches from Myst.
In a discussion I was having with a friend of mine two days ago, I mentioned how much more obsessed with the series I was than him (however, we met on UO, so we both must be pretty obsessed) and he said “yeah, I’m not as obsessed as you are. I get bored the third time through the games”. This made me stop and realize the extent of my obsession.
Am I sorry? Do I wish I wasn’t obsessed/addicted?
Hell no.
