NXE: Part Deux

Posted on November 24, 2008 by Jonathan

So, yesterday.. I neglected to mention possibly the coolest part of NXE. It’s actually a feature that I haven’t at all looked at. It’s the new XNA Community interface. XNA is basically the set of tools that allow game developers to make games for the 360. the XNA Community Interface is basically the area where these developers release their games for others to try them out.

This is a pretty cool premise. You can find games you might like then download them to your machine. However, I am not sure if you have to pay for the games (maybe it’s like the Apple AppStore, some you buy, some you don’t have to), but this looks very promising. You’re guarenteed to get some kind of quality too, because in order to be part of the XNA developer community, you have to pay a subscription fee (and I believe for some developer software too).

I’m curious to see how this ends up. Will this turn out to be a dumping ground where lame games are put? Or will it be the proving ground where Microsoft can scout for future developers? *cue dramatic music* We’ll find out.. soon enough!

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NXE: New X-Box Experience

Posted on November 23, 2008 by Jonathan

So, NXE has been out a few days now.  For those that live under a rock, NXE stands for “New X-box Experience.”  It is a huge software update to the xbox, mainly focusing on the xbox-live interface. My favorite feature is definitely the NetFlix feature, because I like lying down when watching films, not sitting with a brik on my lap.. plus having a laptop open is a distraction, and I tend not to watch the film.

Netflix
Fricken sweet! Any (well, maybe not any) watch-instantly film can be streamed on your xbox, thus watchable on TV. I say maybe not every film because any film that is produced by sony is not available to be viewed on xbox 360. This is because Sony is a little whiney baby who wishes to control their license with netflix a little too overzealously. Jerks. One small caveat, in order to add films to to your instant queue is through your computer.  You can’t (yet) add stuff to your queue by navigating through the catalog via your xbox. Maybe soon.

Avatars
Hmm. This is a cool but unnescessary part of NXE. It’s kind of (well, completely) like the Wii’s Mii system. Basically you create a figure using a few preset figures, then you can modify the shape and features of this person through a set of sliders. It’s a lot more indepth than the Mii, you can barely modify your Mii besides a few features, and it’s not detailed at all. Your avatar also has clothing that you can modify. The point of this? Not really sure yet, besides it appears to your friends and in your gamerpicture.

Download Game to Console
This is a feature I haven’t really tried. But I will explain my understanding of it. Basically, this allows you to download your games that you have on disc to your harddrive. Whoa. I can rent a game, download it, then return it? That’s kind of.. odd that this is allowed. People like me (20 Gig harddrive) probably wouldn’t use this feature much, but I’m sure those with 120 GIGs could do this a lot. Though, Halo 3 gives you a funny message saying something like [paraphrase] “this game was written to be loaded from a disc, thus downoading to your console WILL cause problems, glitches, freezes, latent load times and other stuff. DONT DO IT!” Well, I guess that’s that.

Revamped Market Place
This feature is something that doesn’t affect me. I’m poor. I’m not going to spend my money fruitlessly buying “Microsoft Points” so I can get music videos and stuff. But apparently the entire system has been completely revamped. It also allows you to edit your download queue online. So let’s say you wanna download something but you’re at your friends house. You can queue it from a computer and the next time the machine is turned on, it’ll start the download. That’s pretty cool. Ohhhh… you have to download a plugin from Microsoft to do this? That’s not cool.

Party!
Basically, this allows you and your friends (and random people that you cross in games )to group up and go from game to game and match to match together. This makes sure you’re always playing together. It’s cool! In Halo 3, i meet some cool people that I wouldn’t mind playing with again. So instead of going to a new match, inviting all of them, etc, it just groups us together and the system finds a new match that can accomodate the size of my group. Nice.

That’s really all the notable features. I’m sure that microsoft has a few more surprises coming up, so I look forward to that.

So, I’m going back to watching NCIS on my xbox.



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Am I The Only One…

Posted on November 18, 2008 by Jonathan

That finds watching the task manager while closing firefox (after it’s been constantly running for a week) fun?

Yeah.. I guess I am a geek.

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Plantronics 222/Woot.com Update

Posted on October 30, 2008 by Jonathan

If you read my previous post, you’ll know that I received a defective bluetooth headset.

Just as an update to the story, Woot.com, my provider, has graciously refunded my money.

Yay, I’m like $14 richer.

Later, I’ll describe what Woot is and how great they are.

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World Series ’08 Champions

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Jonathan

Here’s to you, Phillies

Yeah… I don’t think Philadelphia or its surrounding areas are going to be getting much sleep tonight.

All I hear are horns honking. God bless Philadelphia!

Nice try Tampa Bay, you didn’t go down without a fight, and for that, I bow to you.

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Plantronics 222 Bluetooth Headset: DOA

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Jonathan

So, awhile ago, my bluetooth earpiece from motorolla broke. it worked as far as communications, but pressing the buttons (volume, and the main button) did nothing. so I couldn’t pick up/end phone calls without using the phone. Which kind of defeated the purpose of it.

So, on Woot, a deal a day type of website, I picked up a Plantronics 22 bluetooth headset. It just came in today. Too bad it is DOA. See, I plug it in and the status indicator is supposed to stay a steady red. Mine flickers a bit and turns off.  Here’s a video:

Oh well.

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360 Problems Already

Posted on October 29, 2008 by Jonathan

So about a week now I’ve had my xbox 360. It’s all well in good. But I’ve had a few issues.

In the The Force Unleashed, there have been a few probably-game related glitches. The first one involved me getting stuck, probably shoddy collision detection coding. Also, every now and then invisible walls keep popping up to the point where I can’t walk. This isn’t be design. This is happening most annoyingly on one of the final parts, the part where you need to pull down the star destroyer. I’m running back and forth on the platform, I go to run back and my character just runs in place. It’s very annoying. Also, I finally get very close to the star destroy being destroyed. Guess what happens. Yup, the system locked up. The 360 doesn’t respond to any in-game calls (start menu button) or system calls (holding down the center button). Great.

Now a more severe issue. It’s not detecting my headset, anymore. It was until tonight. All night my controller kept turning off (one of the batteries might be bad), and then all of a sudden now it doesnt detect the headset all. No one hears me, I hear no one (except through my TV). This is a used controller but a brand new headset. Ugh.

I’ll try again tomorrow and look at my diagnostic options.

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I Got My 360

Posted on October 22, 2008 by Jonathan

So, yesterday my 360 came. It’s awesome.

First off, Microsoft really took care of me. I’m surprised. They were only legally obligated to fix the three red-ring-of-death issue and that is it. Well, they fixed the controller port flaps (they were extremely loose and just hanging there, basically worthless) and they fixed the rattling in the machine (it sounded like a loose pebble or something.). And, they gave me a month subscription to xbox live to compliment my year subscription.

So I went to turn it on, I put in the hard drive I got from an eBay seller. WHAT!? It’s red rings and gives me an error code relevant to a screwed up hard drive. I email the company and go out and buy a new (used) one. I come back and they have replied with an offer to exchange it. I tell them that I’d like a refund. So I’m working on that.

So, while I picked up the harddrive from the store, I also got Assassin’s Creed. Fun game. Kind of confusing as sometimes stuff you need to do isn’t laid out for you. Also, I have a copy of Burnout Paradise. Well.. I did. Last night I was playing it, but because I have a standard-def TINY television, I couldn’t read the instructions. I moved closed and knocked the 360 over. The disc is done.. the laser chewed it up pretty bad. Uh.. oops.

Last night i spent some time playing some demos. Bioshock, Iron Man, Force Unleashed and TOB: HL Episode 2. I know they are demos but they are insanely short. TOB didn’t even finish the level, you just walk around for about 5 minutes and it’s done. Oh well I guess. I also downloaded the Bourne Conspiracy, but I haven’t had a chance to play it yet. It’s nice to finally be able to play the 360 though.

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I Love Office Politics

Posted on October 18, 2008 by Jonathan

So, that black mold issue I had? It’s now fixed.

It involved one of my coworkers going to the highest ranking manager of the department. He had a little looksie and found my original work order dated July 1st and my coworker’s followup work order dated September 16. So how come the high school level manager decided to let the work orders that concern toxic material sit around for months? Curious. Oh probably because he’s incompetent.

This reminds me of how about two months ago my direct supervisor and another supervisor sent several requests for a key to be made for my door. His response to me when I followed up with him about it was to the effect ‘When I get around to it.’ You know how we fixed it? The second supervisor (who I see more than my supervisor) went to the same guy who fixed the black mold problem.

So I wonder.. what does this high school level manager actually do?

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Things I Learned Today

Posted on October 15, 2008 by Jonathan
  • OSHA does not render assistance to employees in a public school.
  • You’re supposed to ask your union
  • If you’re not in an union, good luck trying to get safety & health concerns addressed.
  • When you’re tired of waiting.. after months of waiting.. for a work request to be handled, it probably means your employer does not care about your health.
  • Even though black mold is linked to respiratory damage and headaches, getting daily (only during the work week) headaches and having upper chest discomfort doesn’t matter.
  • When you ask the maintenance lead directly to help (of course after you already made the original work request months prior), and replies asking “WHAT SCHOOL ARE YOU IN.”, it’s not so he can dispatch someone to your building, it’s so he can bitch to the right building principal about you wasting his time.

UPDATE: Problem has been fixed. See this entry.

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