iPod Video

Apple and Steve Jobs announced the latest improvements being made to select Apple products today at his "One More Thing" conference. Included in this is an upgrade of the iPod that basically made buying the iPod nano a waste of money. The next generation of iPod now have the ability to play videos, assuming the Quicktime format only for now. On top of that they know come in black just like the nano. There are two models, the 30gb ($300) and the 60gb ($400). At that price, there is no point in getting a nano in my opinion. Pay $50 extra an not only get about 26 gigs more space, but a bigger screen and the ability to play videos.

In addition to the iPod video, Jobs announced a new iMac that is slimmer with new equipment such as the iSight videocam and an apple remote. The best part about the remote, other then controlling the Apple stuff from away is can use it on the iPod "Universal docking station". Of course this requires paying about $30 for the remote and $40 for the docking station so its meh to me. The extra cost isn't worth the reward, but if bundled together for around $50 I might reconsider.

Finally, iTunes in the space of a month, went from 5.0 to 6.0. The version change is the result of offering video's for download for $2 bucks a pop. Currently the site offers about 2000 videos, mostly music video but a sprinkling of individual episodes of ABC programs such as "Lost."

I was hyper about a nano, actually bought one last week but didn't open it as heard about new products being released. Glad I waited as going to return that nano and get the iPod video instead. Also, I recommend ordering it online, not only is it free shipping currently on the apple website, but free engraving to. Since its a new iPod, unless very lucky, you are going to have wait anyway, might as well get a free goody out of it.

PSP Price Cut?

Speculation is beginning that the PSP is going to take a price cut to better compete against the Nintendo DS that is kicking its hiney in sales. Apparently they assumed that cutting the price will fill the gap. I am betting the price will be 199.99 US in time for the holiday. Hopefully after that move fails to boost sales, Sony will realize they need good games to compete. Porting games isn't enough. It needs to be fun games with the whole "portable" concept in mind. Right now they still are treating the PSP likes its a Playstation.

Wi-Fi for DS

Japan has finally revealed some details for the wireless capability for the Nintendo DS. The core plan is like the PSP, if have a wireless setup or access to a wireless signal, you can play against others all over the world. However, Nintendo also realizes not everyone has wireless access. For that they have two solutions. One is to create Nintendo sponsered hotspots across the country, locations unknown at this time. The other is a nifty little dongle that connects via the USB port on your computer. The dongle uses the existing network access on the computer to allow the DS to connect wireless. Currently release date for the first DS Wi-Fi enabled game is DS Mario Kart on November 14th with more coming later.

RIAA Wars continue

RIAA continues it bloody war on online music trading. No side is safe as the RIAA has made it clear that everyone, wether a customer or not is fair game if it will add bills to the coffers. Recently it claimed a few casulties with WinMX shutting down and eDonkey calling it quits today. In addition they have recently launched another salvo against consumers, filing 757 more suits bringing the total to 14,8000. In addition they have attempted to use print ads, teenagers, and other means to disseminate misleading and incorrect information about this war.

Now though, the consumers and musicians are fighting back. One victim is suing the RIAA for violating the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. The RIAA outfit called MediaSentry is the vendor that collects the data that the RIAA then uses to decide who to sue. The victim is claiming that this company, with known permission of the RIAA, basically hacked her computer to get the music files she has.

The RIAA also suffered a set back when forced to withdraw their case against a mother whose daughter was downloading the music. Since the computer belonged to the girl, the mother was not liable. Of course, now the music industry is considering suing the 13 year old girl.

Finally, even musicians are fighting back. Apparently more then annoyed with copy protection attempts on new CDs that prevents using for ripping them to iTunes and then only mp3 devices, many musicians are showing their fans how to get around the protection. Its makes you wonder why even bother buying a CD anymore.

I know war seems to be an exaggeration but thats what it is. The RIAA is attacking anyone and everything. They even have a propaganda campaign. They try to use overwhelming force of lawyers rather then soldiers to reach their goal. The RIAA goal is simple, return control of the music industry ie the pricing back to the music cartel. Before, they could price music at whatever they felt like, produce crap and tell us to like it. Now that music has been forced on the digital form they are being forced down a new business path they not only don't understand but they cannot control as they did in the past.

The consumers now are in control. With this new domain the entire CD of crap is worthless. If people want the prize jewel, thats all they get and dump the rest. No more spending 15 bucks for one song, now its just 1 buck. No more quick cheap hits like Britany Spears and her clan. In the new music digital age, their shelf life is brief unless they truly have the talent to back it up. The result is a return to quality. The problem with quality though is its expensive and time consuming. It can also cut into profit margins in an age where the quick buck is king.

The websites are also in control. Right now iTunes controls most of the downloading market but others are entering. There are three ingredients that will decide who stays on top 1) the music library 2) price 3) ease of use of the site and the music bought. Right now Apple not only rules in these critical categories with a massive music library, the price point is fabulous, but the site is easy to navigate and the music once bought is yours. The rules are few and not a limiting factor.

This, however, goes against the control the RIAA wants. They too are developing sites to compete with iTunes such as Rhapsody. However, they don't even bother to compete. Not only is the library usually limited, the price more expensive, but the rules and ease of use is non-existant. There are often many rules governing use of the music the consumer purchased and downloaded. However, rather then try to compete properly and competitivily, the RIAA is trying to cheat the field. They are attempting to force Apple to increase the cost of each song, claiming they don't get any money from it, even though its documented they get 70% of the sales of each song. They are also trying to force competing P2P sites to shut down. If they could legally find a way I am sure its just a matter of time before the try to shut down iTunes.

As of right now, RIAA has no control over pricing nor distribution. A situation that has never occured in its history. Its clearly frightened and lashing out like a spoiled brat at anyone they can. The problem is that in the digital age, lashing out rather then embracing simple creates problems. As the fall of Napster showed, taking out one P2P doesn't eliminate the problem, its just creates more problems. For every WinMX they take down, 5 will replace them...only they will be replaced overseas outside of the RIAA's and Supreme Court's jurisdiction. As iTunes has shown, give people a competitive reasonable method to get what they want, they will follow. Everytime industry has fought technology they have lost, but the moment they embrace it and harness it, new avenues of profit has opened up. Its time that the RIAA woke up and smelled the silicon. They may have won some battles but they lost the war.

The Bill of Players' Right

Read the article from Gamesutra.com called "The Bill of Player's Rights". In this article they basically list out features that they feel all games should have or address.

The Right to Play
Basically less cut-scenes, more play time. I can agree, I love cut scenes as much as the next person, the grand pupbah and inventor being the Final Fantasy series, but the problem know is they seem to have them just to have them rather then for pushing forward a story.

The Right To Win
The game should be winable. Basically, the game shouldn't make it so hard that winning is impossible or done only by a select few. Once again, a solid suggestion. I do get sick of games that basically create this point where nothing less then perfect skills and timing will allow advancement. Thats not fun its just irritating.

The Right to Instructions
Make sure there are clear instructions on what the buttons and menus do. That seems a no brainer to me yet many games do forget that fact. They seem to like to just toss people in the middle of the game, hoping that they suddenly have memorized what every button does. The better games not only have a written instruction book, but in game book and use the first few levels to build up the skills.

The Right to Feedback
This doesn't refer to feedback to the maker but feedback from the game. Basically some way of informing the player whether their approach is wrong or not. If you don't know your making mistakes you can't adjust your strategy.

The Right to Motivation
This is saying give people the "why" for doing what they do in a game. Its an emphasis not only the end goal but the journey. Makes perfect sense to me. The journey is a whole point of a game and often makers just throw in levels and obstacles to make the end important rather then getting to the end.

The Right to Make Decisions
A good game should require the player to decide things. It could be as simple as weapon choice, to which path to take, but at least require the player to engage their brain beyond thumping buttons at a rapid pace.

The Right to a Swift Death
Yes, I so agree with this one. Games that don't let me die when I want are frustrating. Sometimes you know you made a mistake and need to die and try again yet the game will not let you. If forces your to either restart the machine or go on for awhile before can attempt it again. If a game section requires passing it successfully to move further in the game, the game should give the option of death and try again rather then wasting much time only to find out that success was essential.

The Right to Control Cut-Scenes
Yes, another solid one. This is total control like a movie, with pause, skip and replay. Replaying is always a nice feature and is usually lacking in most games. Sometimes a good cut scene just needs to be seen more then once. Sometimes, due to death, repeat playthrough, etc maybe we just don't want to see the cut-scene again. Let us see it or skip it as we see fit.

The Right to Quit, Pause, Save and Resume the Game
Again can't agree more. The player should be able to save the game and start back where left off anytime the mood strikes. If can be in mid swing against the boss, or halfway through a dungeon. We shouldn't get punished because real-world events prevents playing the game or level all the way through. Also, this right extends to being able to create as many save slots as want. Most games seem to leave at three, but let the player decide if they want three or thirty. Its their game and memory, let em use it how they see fit. Mostly though, preventing saves until reach a certain point or goal is a cheap way of making a game hard.

The Right to Choose Not to Save the Game
This doesn't seem to make sense as a seperate right to me. It fits more with the above. If the person has the right to save anytime they want, they should therefore automatically have the right to refuse to save.

The Right to Reconfigure the Input Device
Again a no-brainer to me. This is saying let us set up our controllers, keyboards, etc however the player sees fit. Everyone has their own preference, let them do it how they want. In addition, make sure that configuration is savable.

The Right Not To Be Insulted
Uh not sure what this one is about. I think its reference to some games that "punish" you for dying, losing, etc with insults, noises etc. I do think doing that is silly and waste of time but it shouldn't be a gamers right.

So what do you think? Need more rights? Take away more? Either way I do like alot of the ideas presented. Some of the best games unknowingly follow the above rights so something could be said about them being helpful in designing the better game.

DeLay Indicted

Well I be shocked. Some of DeLay's behavior has finally caught up with him. Today a grand jury indicted the man for criminial conspiracy (whatever that is) in regards to his campaign donations. As a result of this DeLay is no longer the House Majority Leader. Sure the house re-wrote the rules to protect him last year but their isn't a whole lot they can do in this scenario except find a replayment, who will be Eric Cantor (VA) and David Dreir (CA).

Of course nothing will come of this and something like "criminial conspiracy" sounds likes it would be a bitch to prove even if the person wasn't one of the most powerful in the country. This will go away quietly and silently much like Karl Rove's part in the Plume case has. For whatever reason, the Republicans get a free ride in stuff like this rather then -Gate names that democrats get on a regular basis.

WinMX Dead?

Apparently over the weekend the RIAA struck trying to shut down 7 peer to peer networks sites including WinMX and eDonkey, which if go to doesn't bring up anything even up. This move is a result of a Supreme Court ruling in favor of the music industry and their fight to protect the bottom line. However, this rules only apply to the United States which means that P2P sites home-based outside of the US are techinically safe from prosecution. I say techinically because we are talking about the law and nothing is stable in that arena. Its possible that the US government, with monetary encouragement of the RIAA could decide to touch base with other government offcials and enforce the law elsewhere. So far that hasn't happened fortunatly. Besides, you all know, kill one network, 10 will rise in its place.

An example of this is WinMX. P2PZone has posted instructions on how to connect your WinMX browser back to the P2P network by updating your hosts file on your PC. The solution is technically correct, after all the hosts file is a nifty tool. For example you could add this entry to the hosts file: 64.236.24.4 www.foxnews.com, 64.236.24.4 is the IP address of www.cnn.com. Now as a result of this entry, anytime someone on that computer tries to go to foxnews.com, Windows checks the hosts file, sees that entry and automatically redirects to that IP address...the result is always going to cnn.com. Much fun can be had on the computer illiterate with that.

Anycase, just be aware that updating your hosts files will redirect winmx to connect to unknown and possibly malicious servers. Use at your own risk and maybe be careful on the folders you are sharing until get an idea on things. As always, never share your personal information.

Update:
Found out the above suggested method didn't work for me with WinMX but then Slyck News found this site that did work. So try this if other doesn't work but again at your own risk but so far all seems good but then I don't really care that much.

Also Slyck has an article called Top 10 WinMX Alternatives that may be worth noting along with news that eDonkey is also still up and running...at least for now.

Jon Stewart who?

I find it hard to believe that many haven't heard of Jon Stewart the host of The Daily Show on comedy central. Especially in Washington, but apparently many have not.

If you don't watch this show, do it. Its own Monday through Thursday at 11pm eastern time. Its a hilarious and very informative showcasing of the news. Its does what the news use to, show inconstiancies, factuals missteps and other silliness of our nations leaders.

JetBlue Passengers Viewing Own Near Crash

I am sure many have seen the near crash (QT or WMP) of the JetBlue airplane after the front landing gear was discovered broken after takeoff. The landing was just amazing with the streak of fire and burst of flame. It was amazing footage and an amazing landing. If not the for the fire it was probably a textbook landing. The pilot deservers more then a handshake, he deserves a raise and an metal.

It must have been both frightening and bizarre for the passengers though. The JetBlue plane has DirectTV for each seat and as a result each passenger was able to view their own possible crash both from the perspective of potential victim and viewer. I don't know how I would handle that duality. It must have just been odd, scary, and strangly informative combines with cable TVs usually "we are going to die" drama they like to insert into everything. I honestly can't imagine.

Extra kudos should go to JetBlue, not only for apparently hiring great pilots, techs etc that got that plan down, but also for the decision to allow the passengers of not only that plane but others to see the unfolding drama. I am not sure most companies would have risked that kind of potential PR nightmare in their shoes. So hats off to all and its wonderful after so long to see a good ending on TV for once.

Clinton on Bush's Tax Policy

Clinton basically calls Bush out on his tax policy on George Stephanopoulos' show this weekend. "I don't think it makes any sense. I think its wrong." Despite the cost of Iraq, Katrina, and the general war on terror, Bush is still pushing to do tax cuts. Once again these tax cuts are aimed at the upper class. Republicans deny this but the facts bear it out. If it was an across the board cut...why not just make it that way? 5% for everyone, not the convoluted "trust us" math that is currently used.

Anyway, it just seems weird that Bush is talking about how we need to do this and that to eliminate our reliance on oil while at the same time creating this gigantic deficit that is reliant on foriegn money. Of course one of those is Saudia Arabia who the Bush family is in tight with so there is personal motivation involved.

For me, there should be "The 1st Law of US Tax Policy", its very simple:
Spend more, tax more; spend less, tax less.

The nice thing about this law it is a great motivator. All politicans like to cut taxes, they love to use it as a tool to boost numbers or get re-elected. Thats fine, they just have to be responsible about it. They want that boost, cut spending. That pork bill about to pass, sorry got to go. Oh that tax cut for oil, no can do unless can work arrangement with x to cut the spending on y.

Bush's policy though, no good can come of it. None, zilch, nada, there is nothing under the sun that can make me think that debt is a good thing, wether its on a credit card or for the federal government. Giving away money on the interest owed is always always bad business and it should be bad policy. But what the rich wants and can sell to the idiots, the rich get.

Nintendo Revolution Controller Revealed

Click here for the 411 on the Nintendo Revolution Controller being released next year. The controller, oddly enough, looks just like an old fashioned television remote mixed with the clean look of an iPod. Just based on the visual I thought "what the hell?" and then thought it was a hoax as there have already been many. Based on the description though and after the Gameboy DS, this just like Nintendo. Graphics, characters, story, difficulty can be important but if has to be balanced with the unquntifable thing called fun and Nintendo has always excelled at that. The PSP has shown that its an area that Sony still doesn't understand. Any case read up and be both confused and a little amazed.

Bandwagon Line Forming

Bush admitted a mistake yesterday, now its LA Governor Blano's turn. I wonder if the mayor is next? I don't think he is politically savy enough to see the smarts behind this but might be suprised.

Its nice to see our leaders grow up a little. To bad I think this new found honesty has less to do with a new understanding of the perils of leadership and more of a political move.

As I live and breath...

George Bush takes responsibility for something bad. He admits error. He acts presidential. I am simply amazed.

"Here's What Gets Me"

If only I could write like this. This blog post called "Here's What Gets Me" did what I couldn't and thats explain in words how President Bush keeps failing us. All the frustrations, rage, irriation, exasperation, and hurt that I feel towards that useless man but just cannot seem to express or explain in a coherent manner is explained there. I think for many that don't understand, its brings clarity, and for those that do, it brings a little release.

Anderson Cooper Piece

"Unanchored"- Good read describing the impact Hurricane Katrina has had on CNN's Anderson Cooper. I was one of those that thought Anderson was full of it out there on the bridges, in the weather and so on right at the beginning of the hurricane. I didn't think it was brave, just silly and stupid. The aftermath, the way he handled it, the way he brought it home, it finally reminded us of the press corps we use to have, use to love, and use to love to hate. I missed them and its nice to see Anderson leading the charge to their return. I just hope none of them decide to give up the fight halfway through.

"News You Can Lose" - Article by Jack Shafer describing many of the problems and bad habits that plague cable journalism such as muscial montages (i like them personally), lack of maps and illustrations (no kidding, Newsweek explained the hurricane better with a few graphics then all the hours of TV did), the dishonesty (could go pages on that) and opportunism (one word: Geraldo).

Another prediction down

Damn it feels good to be wrong. Another prediction bites the dust as FEMA director Mike Brown resigns. Now the door is still open as Bush could still reward failure with a medal but still I will err on the side of happy and go with totally wrong prediction. So that is 0/10, hopefully the streak will continue.

Pre-mature baby dies

A followup to a post in August about Susan Torres. At the time I wrote of it as a contrast to the Terri Schiavo disaster.

Sadly, Susan Torres was kept on life support for three months so her baby could live. The baby was born on August 2nd as Susan Anne Catherine Torres and her mother was allowed to die. Sadly the struggle for life ended today when the poor child died during emergency surgery to repair a perforated intestine.

Full story here.

The World Remembers 9/11

While the United States remembered the 4th Anniversary of 9/11 in New York, the Pentagon and Pennsylvania, so did many others around the world including:
Russia
Italy
Great Britain
Australia
Middle East
The Vatican
Afganistan

Also the politics of the time was discussed by many, rather then the tragedy, one a warning of more:
Al Quida
Scoops
PEJ.prg
Al Jazeera
MichNews.com

Katrina Death Toll Less Than 10k

Unlike most prognosticators, I don't mind being wrong. I am a cyncial SOB so my "predictions" are cyncial so being wrong can only mean good things for others. In this case I predicted a death toll of 35k, instead it looks like less than 10k. Still a high number and incredibly tragic (compare 9/11 with 3k) but still considering how bad the situation was alot of less then most expecting.

Katrina and Race

I was watching Bill Mohar or however spell it on HBO yesterday and once again they played the race card. Saying its unconscious racism and all this other garbage. They also said was a classism which is debateable but doubtful. On top of that, they just absolutely refused the believe the mayor could have played a part in it. I am sorry but you can't blame Bush and not blame the mayor. You have to blame both. If truly want answers and solutions, you must blame both.

Anyway, I am just sick of the racist and class angle and here is why: there is no proof. Seeing a bunch of poor black people is not proof of anything other then that a bunch of poor black people where effected.

What is never mentioned and what there is ton of circumstantial proof is this: incompetence. There is tons of proof of that. Why does this and everything have to about race just because it involves black people? Why does it have to be about class just because it involves poor? Why can't it just be about a lack of leadership? Or a lack of experience, lack of knowledge, lack of ability, lack of prepreperation? Other then discussions on this board I have yet to hear that anywhere else, they all just climb ontop of the race bandwagon because I guess its the politically safe wagon. But really sometimes, I know its hard to believe, but not everything is about race.