My PC: What I'm about to order

This is what I plan to order later today from All American Computers.

E6700 (2667 C2)
INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6700 2.66GHZ 4MB CACHE

MB 975XBX
INTEL D975XBX 1066FSB CF CORE 2 MB

2x DIMM 2GB 800MHZ
GEIL 800MHZ DDR2 2X1024MB VALUE DIMMS

CASE LL V1000B
LIAN LI PC-V1000 B BLACK ALUMINUM CASE

CLEAR SIDE PANEL

2x FAN 120MM RED
120MM RED LED CASE FAN

PWR ATX LIB620
620 WATT ENERMAX LIBERTY POWER SUPPLY

VID 512 X19XT
ATI 512MB X1900 XT PCI-E CARD

HD 320 SEA SATA
SEAGATE 320 GIG 7200 RPM SERIAL ATA HD

DVDR 3500AGBP
NEC ND-3550AGBP DVD+/-RW DUAL LAYER BK

SOFT MS WINXP H
MICROSOFT WINDOWS XP HOME EDITION

SETUP & CFG
SYSTEM / 1 YEAR PART-3 YEAR LABOR WARR.

The soundcard isn't listed here because I'm not sure what I'm getting - Audigy SE (5.1, EAX, all hardware, but no extra features) or something juicier.

I also want a 2nd hard drive for RAID 0, but I'm not sure I can afford it, which also affects the soundcard.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

Britney Spears - White Trash

What a wonderful example this girl puts on for the youthful daughters of America.

And her boyfriend, who is no mental giant himself, displays how much smarter he thinks he is than her in his voice. He must think he's real big to be able to talk down to an unarmed opponent who happens to be a celebrity.

Jose Francisco's Fear Response

Jose Francisco is my 15 month-old baby boy. [pictures]

Jose Francisco climbed up into the rocking chair, which was padded on the seat and back, and proceeded to rock it. Maria, my wife, heard the noise and turned just in time to see him roll the chair over backwards and BANG! the whole house heard the crack on the kitchen floor. Jose, who was now on his hands and knees on the back of the chair, immediately exclaimed "Oh!" and then growled at the chair, gripping it with his little hands and shaking it.

He was mad at it, probably for scaring him.

Curious, I tried a game. Jose Francisco came up to me whilst I was sitting on the couch and I watched him and suddenly shouted "AARH!" and reached as if to grab him painfully. He startled and then laughed at me.

My baby girls, when they were his age, would have cried instantly.

I did it again. He startled, and laughed. Before I could do it again, Jose Francisco said "ah!" at me and motioned his little hands at me. I pretended to be scared, and he laughed some more. This went on for 5 minutes until dad had gotten tired of the game.

A week later I was taking my daughters to bed, tucked them in and turned out the light. Jose Francisco stood at the doorway, the hallway lit only by the television in his mother's room (and mine). I lurked back inside slowly and moaned like a zombie. Jose Francisco followed and tried to see me.

I lunged at him and growled and Jose Francisco squealed in scared delight, turn and ran. We repeated this - each time I would descend deeper into the room and lure him farther, and if I could catch up to him I would tickle the small of his back with my fingernails, and he thought this was wonderful. Three times he fell and bonked his head on something, twice the bed, once the wall. He never cried, he'd just get back up and scramble out of the room, like that was the only thing he had time to worry about.

Then I'd creep back into the room, and moan, and he'd come in again. I'd moan longer, make him come in farther into the black room, and repeat the whole process.

I must admit, having grown up in an abusive household where I got to know the local Alachua County Sheriff Deputies who'd come to visit, I find myself fascinated with my son's fear response, and have a strong desire to let him explore his natural strengths in a controlled environment before he grows 4 (at which point, psychologically, our core personalities are set).

Well the other day I went to the bathroom and didn't bother to turn on the light. Jose Francisco loves to follow me into the bathroom because he wants to watch the toilet and have me help him wash his hands and brush his teeth. If I miss the hand washing he'll complain ("uhn uhhhn!") and try to close the door until I remember. With a Mexican mother and a father grown up on a ranch, he doesn't get his own way when it's bad, but when he's right - he's right.

Well this day he came into the pitch black unlit bathroom and had no idea I was there. He went straight for the counter and started trying to reach for something to grab. I got up and "AAARHH!" shouted at him.

"AH!" he exclaimed and then immediately yelled back at me "ARRH!" and his little body lunged forward with his arms up - obviously still terrified in the instant but his response lacked any thought to it.

I turned on the light and he saw me and gave me this look, like I had just betrayed him in some small way - the look he gives me when I pick him up because he asks, and then I realize he wants me to take me with him in the van and I can't, so I hand him off to his mother, whom he can't break free of as he can with his sisters. I apologized and held him for a bit. Then it was off to play.

"If you're going to make yourself available dad, I have something else I'd like to do."

I understood him, completely.

The last line of the Bushido Creed reads:
"I have no sword; I make No Mind my Sword."

I think of Jose Francisco's reaction and marvel at him. With proper training (I plan on introducing him to Jujitsu at 5) he'll have all the confidence he needs in life. He is 15 months old and he already growls at me if I admonish his sisters in front of him, or any other thing he feels protective about.

I wonder, what will he do when he's 18.

Jones'ing

I want my E6700 Conroe 2.66GHz with 2GB RAM and an ATI X1900 XT custom built and loved by All American Computers / AAC Direct so badly.

It will have a clear side panel with lighted fans and, depending on how much cash I can save, maybe two hard drives running RAID 0 (striped).

My 21" Hitachi Perfect-Flat CRT has two VGA ports, and a button for each input on the front. When I want the Web, I will press a button on my monitor, juggle a keyboard and mouse (that's the only hard part) and I shall be satiated.

My gaming rig, while able to see what my wife's future PC (Clara, my 4 year-old gaming rig) has downloaded for her, will not have any shares of her own. Nay, other than authentic Microsoft Windows updates, she may not even know the sinful pleasures of a Web Browser (though, I'll still install Firefox).

Oblivion is already mine. Victor let me play it, and F.E.A.R., on his PC last Sunday. FEAR was cool, because the AI really try to flank you - run for cover, duck, shoot, and use teamwork. Victor said "You did all right" but to me, playing this AI was great. It was like Day of Defeat without all of the online assholes. These assholes had only one purpose in life: to work together and either die or force me to reload. Unfortunately, FEAR is linear, so the only thing there is to do is skulk about looking for where the next ambush area is. If you are careful enough, you get to be the ambusher.

I also have Rise of Legends as of today, which I may install on my aging PC.

Oblivion? What can I say about it? It's Oblivion. That's like saying - it's sex. What more can be said about sex? Other than at some level, we all want it. And Oblivion is like a happy marriage - you know it won't end, and it's there for you every single night, and you can't stop loving that. Kind of like - well okay! Enough about me.

I want my computer.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

More on my conversation with Kyle with AAC Direct

This is part two of a blog post. See part one.

I quote Kyle, owner of AAC Direct, as best I can from memory. I am not Plato, and I do not have photographic/eidetic memory.

Summary:
The purpose of this text is to show Kyle's enthusiasm for gaming PC's, his strategies and generally, why I liked what I was hearing.

PureXS versus LiquidXS:
The LiquidXS is what put them on the map on the Internet, near as I can tell. Each clear "see through" case is custom-built (not pre-fabricated) and laser-etched. Everything is water-cooled, and as Kyle said "No expense is spared (depending on the budget of the customer - Dave)." He went on to say "But while the LiquidXS makes a statement... the PureXS is about packing the best hardware we can into a case and giving our customers a PC that just works. We're interested in performance measurement per dollar. A system like the one you're ordering should be around 10,000 points on 3dMark2006. 2006! (his emphasis - Dave)"

Now I know that number is impressive, because I've read about a guy building a Quad SLI system using two power supplies, two Nvidia 7950 GX2's, everything watercooled, just to get that score.

Related to the 3dMark score, we got into a big discussion about Conroe technology, why he was packing an E6700 CPU instead of two X1900 XT's in my system (for true Crossfire, rather than Crossfire ready), and it boiled down to the fact that the CPU was more important than doubling up the videocards. "Without that CPU, you'll never realize the potential of Crossfire." Well, I'd see a difference, but he was right. Most people get that wrong.

Lights as Artwork:
I'm also getting a window side-panel and lighted fans. Kyle asked me what color I wanted, and I told him "I'm an artist. I like almost every color. And as an artist, I'm not going to tell another artist what to draw - you put together what looks good to you." He didn't get it at first, and I explained further "Artists are used to looking at things other people want to draw and finding the value in it. So when I get the computer, I'll think 'This is what AAC feels looks good for the parts they had to work with.' and I'll be happy. Why tell you what I think should be in it? (as far as lights & layout) I don't make computer art every day, you do."

He got it, and apparently it impressed him. He got all enthused about having the freedom to put the case together because he started talking about how a lot of customers demand this or that and - they have to put it in, but it's not a good idea in his mind. So I knew what he was getting at.

Cheaper Shops:
"Places like CyberPower will sell you a cheaper system, but they don't put in quality parts like we do (and they don't test their systems - Dave). In our LiquidXS systems, I use $20 solid steel switches - two of them. That's $40 - for switches. So that just goes to show what we put into a LiquidXS."

Horror Story:
He went on with a horror story, "I hate to tell you this before you place an order, but we had one client that wanted Quad SLI, and that is very hard to configure, works on only a few games and we really don't recommend it. But if the customer wants it... so anyway, we were using the (Nvidia 7800 series if memory serves - Dave) and they had a lot of problems. We built his system and tested it with our burn-in and it died. So we kept replacing parts. Eventually we got the system working, but it had graphical gliches in one of the games we tried. So we went through 5 sets of videocards - 10 cards, before we got it right. It took us much longer than anticipated, but when we shipped him the system, it ran every game we put on it without problems."

"Now, we could have just shipped him the PC as soon as it got working. Maybe he'd never play those games." But Kyle and his team apparently couldn't bring themselves to do that.

AAC Direct's Modus Operandi:
And that, in a nutshell, is Kyle's modus operandi. He talked to me about his business strategy a bit, namely "I think there is a place between the Falcon Northwest computers and the cheap gaming rigs of CyberPower. I want the PureXS to be that alternative to an overly costly system and a system that's (a roll of the dice)."

He understood the cost of materials, how much the silver, gold, and metals cost. The lead-free system compliancy.

The most important point I found was that Kyle believed if he provided a great product that showed a personal touch "I never want (my company) to get as big as Falcon Northwest", that word of mouth and reviews would sell systems and they would always have business. Without saying it, the inverse was implied - selling systems that weren't fully tested would kill his Internet "street cred." He knows that.

To AAC Direct, getting it right isn't a percentage value because they are small and intend to stay small. Getting it right is the reason their customers come to them.

That's Kosher Computing.

If you like, take an inside look at their operation.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

AACDirect / All American Computers

AAC Direct, or All American Computers, custom builds each PC separately, with results that show up in Tom's Hardware as The Best: Beats Alienware, Falcon Northwest and CyberPower. Coupled with great (if comparatively few) reviews on ResellerRatings.com, I realized they might be a good alternative to a Dell XPS, given Dell's recent pricing changes and lack of a cohesive plan to move to Conroe. AAC already has a plan, given they've been beta-building Conroe ATI Crossfire rigs already.

So I e-mailed them and asked for a quote for a computer costing no more than $2,800 with shipping & tax, that can run Oblivion fluidly. I specified no parts other than "I want a Conroe Crossfire capable setup."

AAC shot back:

• CPU: INTEL CORE 2 DUO E6700 2.66GHZ 4MB CACHE
• MOTHERBOARD: 975XBX (handles Crossfire)
• RAM: DIMM 2GB 800MHZ - GEIL 800MHZ DDR2 2X1024MB VALUE DIMMS (or something)
• PSU: 620 WATT ENERMAX LIBERTY POWER SUPPLY (or whatever)
• CASE: LIAN LI PC-V1000 ALUMINUM CASE
• VIDEOCARD: ATI 512MB X1900 XT PCI-E CARD
• HD: SEAGATE 320 GIG 7200 RPM SERIAL ATA HD (double up for RAID 0)
• DVD/CD: NEC ND-3550AGBP DVD+/-RW DUAL LAYER BK
• SOUNDCARD: (built-in)

Damage? 2,599.00! Much less than the limit I specified.

But before I ordered from them, I had to know "what is their support like?" I had read that the owner, Kyle Felstien, will sometimes answer the phone and talk as long as is necessary (indeed, he gave me the above quote), but I had to call them for myself.

The Phone Call:
Well I got Dave, who got Kyle because he said Kyle would know my order, and Kyle and I talked for 1 hour and 45 minutes. First we went over each item in the PC build - does the onboard sound work well or load the CPU? Okay, Audigy SE "Suck Edition" takes the load off of the CPU and doesn't have any fandangled features, but does do 5.1. Great. What's the difference between X1900 XT and X1900 XTX? $100 and 3-4%? Okay. Thank you for not making a "ka-ching" sound and quoting me the XTX. What's a LIAN LI case? Oh it's that good? Okay. I want that.

Then we talked about Gainesville, Florida, because Kyle used to live here. He even knew Burrito Brothers, the famous burrito shop where my dad used to work. I told him the rat story. He kind of chuckled and didn't say anything, like he was wondering "Was I eating there, then?"

Then we talked about the state of technology today, and two things became obviously clear: much of my two weeks of hardcore research had proved me right on many points (from Crossfire Express 3200 - 16x to the old 8x standard and what that means) and Kyle knew of tons of topics I just didn't know about - such as why ATI's roadmap for the future is better than Nvidia's and a distributor's nightmares in dealing with Nvidia (though he offered me an Nvidia rig 5 times just as a manner of speaking), why Conroes are so freaking hot (he knows about the architecture), and why ATI cards made now will, to a degree, support the DX10 standard of using GPU's as CPU's.

Warranty? How about Custom Burn-In of Every PC to go with that?
Oh, and did I mention that every system shipped goes through a complete burn-in? Comes with a 3 year parts warranty (1 year labor) and phone support for the life of the system?

Well, obviously, I found out about their phone support, and though they are a small shop that isn't there 24/7, they sold me.

As Kyle said "We put our major costs into building the computers and making sure they work, rather than technical support down the road." He has the latter, but as he said "We've only got so many people, so you can only reach us at business hours." However, they seemed helpful and glad to discuss any questions about the computers they sell you.

Kyle talked about build quality - about CyberPower's cheap computers that aren't even tested to Falcon Northwest and Alienware's costly systems. He builds custom "show cases" to more gamer oriented PureXS systems (LiquidXS systems are for rich folks at around $4,000).

Lights!
Kyle and I spoke about art and laying out beautiful computer cases, cabling and cooling, airflow; more about why Conroes are badass, lighting, why fan lights are better than lighting tubes (basically the tubes are so bright many people get annoyed after several months, while fan lights are more subtle)...

Summary:
It was an incredible phone conversation and I was riveted the entire time. I never told him that dinner (I was already going to eat alone because my mother had taken my wife & kids out shopping) was ready at 6:30pm. We didn't get off the phone until 7:50 (I'd called just after 6pm EST, when their store closes). Kyle is also an expert at Mexican goodbyes - where Mexicans say goodbye to each other, and in doing so think of something else fun to talk about, and go back at it. I'm great at it because I live with a Mexican girl, but Kyle can hold his own!

I have not had a more exciting conversation about computers since I worked for Rusty Butler in 1998. Only conversations with Jock and Billy come close, but since we're not industry developers like Rusty and Kyle, there's only so far we can go.

Money spent with AAC, I'm sure, will be well-spent.

Update:
The Fate of AAC Direct / All American Computers

E3 Dead

It's true. "The ESA will today seek to salvage some good from the wreckage of E3; but the spectacle that has held the industry in thrall for 12 years is at an end."

"...all major exhibitors have effectively pulled their support from the show, prompting the majority of game publishers to also cancel plans for high-cost booths." "The days of an industry event attended by all the major publishers, spending big money, are gone."

"The decision by big manufacturers and publishers to walk away has left ESA in damage-control mode. As we reported yesterday, E3, in its present form, is dead."

AMD CPU Price Drops

Make with the clickies.

Can't Keep Terecita

Dulce, Alejandra and I have all gotten sick because of Terecita. I made sure to leave the kitten with the girls last night so that Dulce would wake up sick and realize what needed to be done without us just landing the bad news in her lap. It worked. The poor dear got so sick she had trouble breathing, woke up, put the kitten in the guest/girl's bathroom by herself, and went back to sleep.

Alejandra felt so guilty that she tried to hide her symptoms.

I just don't know why I was able to keep Midnight for two weeks and not get ill, as I recall, and this kitten had my allergies going after the first night. We've bathed her and she's quite clean. We keep the litterbox in her bathroom.

Alejandrita showed me a purse this morning with a lab puppy on it that looks reminiscent of Bella. She said "I don't want Bella here because she try to bite Gose (jose)." I talked with her and made her feel better. I realized instantly that she was preparing herself for losing Terecita - she saw that her sister, Dulce, was sick, and her mother.

That poor child. She is so good with animals. I ordered Maria to take the kitten to bed with her for the purpose I stated earlier, and Maria said that the kitten kept leaving her and going to sleep with Dulce and Alejandrita. I knew why - Alejandra has played with the kitten, petted her and let her sleep in her lap ever since I found her.

This morning, the kitten meowed softly, then sadly, then angrily, then despondantly, wanting someone to let her out. She's become so attached to people - she's the cat I've dreamt of having, but alas - I can never keep cats. Alay can't use Dr. Chance's remedy while breast-feeding.

Perhaps my friend, Brandon, can help keep her until he finds a home for her.

A cat like Terecita is good enough to make me wish I had no allergies, that is for sure. She's just so - odd - for a cat. She likes to be around people and is content being in someone's lap much of the day. I taught the girls to let her go when she'd leave, so she wouldn't feel constrained, and it worked. The kitten just chooses to be in a lap and tries to nurse my daughters' long dresses. She doesn't want to sleep alone at night, though she'll nap in her cat bed you bought for her. Sad. I'll have to find a friend to take her - no way this kitten goes to a stranger.

Teresita the Kitten rescued from the street

I was driving to work this morning along the urban-green streets of Gainesville, avoiding the main roads, when I saw a college student walking along the side of the road with a kitten hopping through the grass trying to follow him. Periodically he'd stop and try to wave her off with his hands or feet. The kitten would duck, but continue following him.

A cat that tries to follow a stranger? I did the math quickly and stopped at the STOP sign, turned right, stopped immediately (this confused the red land-yacht behind me, who eventually passed me), turned the minivan around, and drove back up to the walking student, kitten still in tow.

I asked him "Mister, could you grab that kitten for me?"

"Sure," he said, "she's going to get hit by a car." He picked her up; the kitten ducked but did not protest.

"My girls will love her." I said, taking her into my arms.

I held her in my left arm and drove with my right on the ride home; she pressed against me and purred. Every moment I was stopped or slowing down, I'd pet her, and she purred. I showed up at home and got out of the 1986 Plymouth Voyager minivan, Rafael. My daughters, perplexed at my return, opened the front door and saw the kitten. The picture above was actually staged; I had already come inside and given them instructions and was then leaving.

All I said was that her name was Teresita and we were keeping her and to keep Dulce Maria (my 6-year-old) from getting too close because I didn't want her asthma or my allergies (which seem to be fine around a clean one-cat house, but kill me around male cats or dirty houses) to stop us from keeping her.

Lunch Time
When I came home for lunch, she was lapping up her milk. I stepped into the girl's bathroom with her (the crate is in there with some of the colored wrapping paper you gave us outside the crate and a towel inside the crate) and my daughters quickly followed. I brought her out and put her on the kitchen table.

Teresita saw the spaghetti and steak Alejandra had made (though it was cut super-thin, Alay didn't realize until she got home) and stepped over to it and tried to find something to nibble on, so I cut up a piece of steak into tiny bits and fed her one noodle and lots of bits of steak. So she sat on the table and ate with us, and she seemed to think this was perfectly normal. She'd look up at us once in a while and go back to picking at her food. Sometimes she'd come over to my plate, especially if she had finished what I had given her (so naturally I'd give her more).

Once she was done with that we put her back in the bathroom and kept eating. She hopped out immediately and went under the table and startled Maria de Guadalupe (and vice-versa). I picked her up and held her in my lap and proceeded to pet her and scratch her softly. The girls joined in. Then Teresita surprised me by suddenly splaying out her side and lying prone, so we continued to softly scratch and pet her.

Then she suddenly jutted out her neck and chin, offering us her most tender spot without fear or doubt, and I scratched her ever so gently, at which point she fell asleep. After it was time for me to go, I carefully lifted her and put her in Lupe's lap, who was on the couch, and she fell back to sleep. Her head stirred when she heard the garage door, but when I called home at 2:48 PM, Teresita was still asleep in Lupe's lap. I left at 2:20. Talk about a patient 9-year-old!

So, that is what we know about little Teresita so far.

Dell Laptop Bursts Into Flames In Japan

http://cellphones.engadget.com/...Dell-on-fire/

And this article that made me Google it...
http://www.reghardware.co.uk/...fiery_laptop/

Thanks be praised to Google Images search.

GP2X RTS (real-time strategy) game idea

See this post and the one immediately after it.

Based on what Tobriand said:



Can you tell who is flanking who with fighter/bombers? Can you tell which side has the bigger guns, but less corvettes/frigates?

Simplistic symbology, if done right, can tell a lot. After that, it's all gameplay. As you can see here, I assume the ships can rotate their facing, which can be used later for more complicated 2d or even 3d polygons, assuming the game was GPL and someone else came along afterwards.

It's all based on positioning...


Here's how this game works.

1. You have four attack unit types: Capital Ships, Cruisers, Frigates and Fighters selected by pressing SELECT than A,X,B,Y.
2. You have four support unit types: Mothership (makes more, and repairs), Repairship, Minelayers (every RTS needs something for turtles) and Turrets (mothership makes them and sends them to the square you designate) selected by pressing START than A,X,B,Y.

You can't control who your ships shoot at, you can only control their movement.

Selecting and Movement works in this way...

• Press THUMBPAD down and you activate the "select grid", which makes the grid show up in the background with the button labels.
• Press that button and your cursor appears there, 4x as big as usual (takes up the whole Y grid, for example). Press a diagonal to narrow your cursor down (you don't have to). Up assumes diagonal left, left assumes downleft, etcetera, for those accidental presses.
• To grab grids that don't have a button, just move the grid-cursor with the thumbpad.
• Press THUMBSTICK again, and whatever ships you have selected will go there.

To move something, you either select ALL of a unit type (SELECT, A would grab your Capitol Ships, wherever they are), or you select units in a grid (of any of the four types you currently are working on, based on whether you pressed SELECT or START last, either attack or support units). For example if we grabbed B we would net either the Mothership or the Frigates, but not both.

• L, when the thumbstick hasn't been pressed, releases all selected units.
• If you enter Thumbstick Grid-Select mode with units already selected, it assumes you want to move them. If nothing is selected, is assumes you want to select something, and then move it.

Rock, Paper, Scissors
Fighters go after other Fighters first, then Capitol Ships and Cruisers. Fighters are owned by Frigates. Frigates go after Fighters first, then other Frigates, and suck against Capital Ships. Capital Ships go after Cruisers then Frigates, and suck against Fighters. Cruisers are decent against Capitol Ships, Frigates, and Fighters, but don't own or be owned by anyone.

I think the Rock, Paper, Scissors needs to be change to 4 not 3. I think the grid system needs work - that center area is just too hard to select and you can't macro-select it with a 4x square. Perhaps "Volume -" would select the left two unlabeled squares, "Volume +" would select the right two, and THUMBSTICK down would select the middle two, which it would do every time until you press A,X,B or Y to macro-select another grid area.

Just stuff I come up with quickly.

HD: The Format that Nobody Demanded

• 10 Reasons Why High Definition DVD Formats Have Already Failed

Fun read.

Great Sunday

Dungeons and Dragons
My friend Dove proved again his ability to run a D&D game. He's not much on the creative side - he leaves an author's descriptions at the door, but he plays his NPCs accurately and well, complete with voices. Where he really shines is continuity and organization. His world always seems real because it is completely consistent. He has a perfect image of what's going on (even if he doesn't try to mimmick some Dickens and describe it all) and it shows when we play. He manages combat better than any DM I've played with, even Stan Lowman.

Stan's theory of combat was "when it gets so big I can't fit it all in my brain, I'll gloss over it." He'd use homebrew rules to "approximate" what happens when 40 enemies, en mass, do something. It'd be in keeping with the rules so we all went with it, besides which Stan was not a DM you questioned needlessly. He'd listen, but he was always in charge.

Dove, on the other hand, can handle 40 enemies in split groups coming at us from different angles, and keeps track of every single creature's stats & hitpoints - in part thanks to DM Genie (google that), a difficult program to use at first.

So Sunday was good.

GP2X
A GGB fan and Guild Wars fan-forum moderator, LordFu, found me on the GP2X forums I frequent. At the D&D game, my GP2X proved an able MP3 player, if not portable (no way to easily carry it while moving about), and two D&D players fell in love with it. Decker liked Neo Geo (Metal Slug) while Jakob liked the Genesis emulation.

On this handheld, there's something for everyone.

Oh, neat post I found: Visual Comparison of the GP2X and it's predacessor, the GP32.

ROMZ

I now have 575 Genesis ROMs and 144 SNES ROMs including 47 translated SNES ROMs on my GP2X. That enough? No, no, you're right - that's a pitiful number of SNES ROMs, but SNES emulation isn't perfect on the GP2X, whereas Genesis emulation is.

MAME and NEO GEO refuse to cooperate.

PSP: Crippled by DRM

Two good friends of mine have a knack for taking observations and data and compressing it into semi-precious stones. One I have sex with nightly, and the other I don't.

(One is my wife, the other is my male friend, Dove)

I told Dove that my GP2X was EVIL, because it nearly converted Ian, an IT guy and PSP owner, in 5 minutes flat. What got him? When he saw DivX video playing on it and found out it could use 4GB SD cards.

DRM Kills
The PSP is crippled by DRM, Dove pointed out, because everything you would want to do with it requires that you buy something. Not just videogames, but movies - nothing will play that isn't UMD, so if you want to have a movie on it, you have to pay DVD prices to get it, even if you already own a DVD of that movie. To make matters worse, the Memory Stick Pro Duo requirement is hard-wired into the PSP, so that either 3rd party sticks won't work, or at the very least, if you buy a 1GB stick, the PSP will only "see" the first 256 megs.

So when the PSP first came out, having a CD or two of music with you sounded cool (mind you, this is if you bought the most expensive Sony Memory Stick Pro Duo), but people have rapidly moved past this mindset and into the 20GB iPod market where they think "I can take my whole music library with me."

Even a GP2X can't handle more than an SD card can carry (unless you use a Break-Out-Box / USB Host to power an external hard-drive, which isn't portable), but...

• A GP2X allows you to view DivX, Mov, Avi movies without worrying about UMD DRM.
• A GP2X lets you use any kind of SD card you want (certain el-cheapo brands won't work).
• A GP2X lets you play all kinds of games (I have over 700 Genesis games on mine, that I can save at any time) and pausing, saving and restarting these things is easy.

Most of Dove's friends who enjoy their PSP's think of it as a replacement of their GameBoy - and talk about the games they have where they can play for 5 minutes and save - be it their golf game or a racing game.

The GP2X, depending on the emulator used, allows you to save the state of the game you are in wherever you are - mid-jump during a boss fight? No problem! Homebrew games typically don't allow for such, and just have a pause feature - but that's one more reason to load up an emulator while in a line.

At any rate, well said. I had to write it down.

GP2X: What is it?

Some friends of mine were confused! First, head here and look over this review!

GP2X Arrives - Videos!

That's Paul playing Vektar on the GP2X.

• View the Complete GP2X Playlist.

The "I Just Got My GP2X!!!" stickied thread:

Time to get my contribution buried in here for posterity and tradition's sake:

1. GP2X
2. TV-Out Cable (no extra cables to actually use that S-cable yet)
3. 128mb SD card (4gig on the way)
4. Carrying Case
5. 8x2500mah AA's, charger (Energizer)

The screen has a great viewing angle, and I have a Mark 2/Mk2... check my videos!

Overclocks stabily to 280MHz, speedtests to 300MHz (as my sig suggests). THANKS TO EVILDRAGON FOR THIS UNIT!
I enjoy playing:

• Quake 280MHz using every single key (look up/down is volume +/-, strafe is L & R)
• Beats of Rage - When I finally got it running, I was amazed by the fluid animation of the game, the beautiful backgrounds, and the music! Techo from Mortal Kombat? Boss music from Streets of Rage? Awesome!
• Streets of Rage 1 & 2 (3 has sucky music) for Genesis
• Sonic - 'cause I missed that growing up

I can tell I'll need a lot more Beats of Rage mods (around 50 megs a pop) because that's just too much fun. I really enjoy Quake.

My oldest daughter doesn't have a favorite game yet. She asked me to look up Genesis strategy games. Herzog Zwei comes to mind...

The Miscellaneous Post:

I just bought this:
A-DATA Turbo 4GB Secure Digital (SD) Flash Media Model Turbo SD 150X 4G - Retail

It's listed on the Wiki
http://wiki.gp2x.org/wiki/SD_card_compatibility

Edit: Why did I suddenly spend $100 on an SD card?
Because my GP2X arrived yesterday and once I played around with it, I was able to judge whether it was best to buy 1gig, 2gig, or 4gig SD card. Basically, I had to own the system and try it out with my eldest daughter's 128mb SD card to see just how good it was and just how much I'd be using it. Well after staying up until 12:30AM playing Quake1 and trying (unsuccessfully) to get OpenBor working, and loading up a ton of Genesis ROMs, I had my answer.

The GP2X is literally better than I had hoped for with regards to how much I enjoy it.

What I think about my GP2X:
I love it. It plays music, movies, shows my pictures (of family, kids, whatever) and plays a whole heap-load of games which, so far, haven't cost me a penny other than the 4gig SD card I bought to hold them. It is still en route and should arrive today. It is not fickle about what made the JPEG or (usually) video, nor where ROMs came from, with the exception of MAME ROMs, many of which need to be put through a conversion utility. Whoopdiedoo.

This thing runs:

• Neo Geo
• Sega Genesis
• Super Nintendo
• Sega Master System
• Amiga
• Atari variants
• Arcade systems (<1996~1998)
• Nintendo Entertainment System
• Homebrew games
• Linux ported games (that won't kill its dual 200MHz processors)
  

My only regret is that I don't have 2 because I can see I'm hyper-protective of it and my 9yo daughter wants to keep it with her during the day so she can use it when she has baby-sitting duty. Also having 2 would be cool because maybe I could get my dad interested in developing for it - but alas, there are better things to spend money on.

Nacho Libre was Fucking Stupid

Nacho Libre was fucking stupid. It's enough to make me curse, and y'all know I don't curse much.

First of all is that the movie attempted to portray horrible execution as camp movie-making, and it doesn't work. It throws in ancient ditties (songs) poorly recorded and has the whole racist angle that I've read Napoleon Dynamite had — in that the only Mexican that is portrayed as good, intelligent, or even non-disgusting to look at is the nun, and she's essentially a 13 year-old's sex object. The level of thinking of the movie, as reviewers said, really is 12-13 year-old boys, and even they won't like this unless peer-pressure sets in.

• Now, I could get over how Mexicans were treated because — everyone in the film was playing a Mexican. It was the flavor more than a deliberate racist remark.
• I could get over the campiness.

What really burns me is that, when you remove this, you find that Nacho Libre really is just bad film-making. It has a few funny parts but the story can't decided whether its dragging on nor what it's making fun of. One moment, Nacho is in the wilderness, and the next he's singing a love song for the nun making fun of how black women sing love songs. It just has no point and, unfortunately, takes too long to get to each funny segment.

Dumb and Dumber I enjoyed, which is why I really couldn't pin down why I don't like Nacho Libre after wanting to like it so much — I think that's the key. Dumb & Dumber never stood too long in one spot. Nacho Libre does — interminably, through the whole damn movie.

By the end of the movie, I was literally wishing it would hurry up and finish to A) put me out of my misery and B) before they have something even more stupid happen that would ruin what I was trying to salvage of the movie.

Doh! I was disappointed.

As for nit-picking, I've got this one: when Nacho, the Catholic Monk turned Luchador (still a great concept for a comedy, no?), said "Maybe in the next life." And this just illustrated the lack of research as to what they were trying to make fun of — Latin Catholics don't have much of a concept of reincarnation, so that didn't seem like a joke, it sounded stupid.

The concept was great. The execution was pitiful.

MySpace is Stupid

Well at Brandon's behest, I started up a MySpace account just so he can add me as a friend. I'm not sure if he'll want to, now. [see blog post]