Official Nintendo Specs?

IGN is reporting that is has the info on the full specs for the Nintendo Revolution coming probably September of 2006. The specs basically says its 2x as powerful as the Gamecube but only half the power of the PS3 and X-Box 360.

Some stats:
- CPU clocked at 729MHz, versus 485MHz for GameCube, 733MHz for XBox, and 3.2GHz for XBox 360. Note different architectures for each, so not 100% compariable, but it does illustrate that CPU power, ie processing power, the Revolution is pretty average.
- Graphics card speed for Revolution is 243MHz, GameCube is 162MHz, XBox is 233MHz, and no info on the XBox 360. Basically the graphics are a step up over the GameCube but probably fall way short of the abilities of the PS3 and 360.
- Memory for the Revolution is 88MBs of RAM, Gamecube is 40MBs, XBox 64MBs, and PS3 is 512MBs. Uh once again the Revolution is falling short. Less memory, means more frequent loads, means less detailed graphics, means just less in general. However, the Revolution will allow external memory to be added via ports so the numbers can be boosted. How that impacts performance? On a computer, it means good things, but a dedicated gaming device? I doubt not so much.

Clearly Nintendo has no intention to go head to head with Sony and Microsoft in hardware. This indicates that Nintendo is planning to conquer the market with price point, its unparalleled ability to make fun creative games, and its extensive access to games for the Virtual Library. Suffice it to say, Nintendo is throwing out saying its not the hardware but the software that makes the system. It worked for the DS over the PSP.

Bush's Chief of Staff resigns

Bush's chief of staff of 5 and a 1/2 years, Andrew Card resigned today. His replacement is Josh Bolten who was the Policy Directory of the Bush-Cheney transitition and director of OMB. What does this mean for the country? Not a thing, its basically tradinng one yes-man for another yes-man. For republicans, its a trading of the gatekeeper to the President. This will give them the illusion that their concerns may be heard and action taken. The reality, of course, is that nothing will change. Personally I just hope that Card is feeling a bit resentful and decides to lash out in public ways.

Nintendo Revolution or Nintendo Go?

Nintendo President Satoru Iwata gave his keynote today at the Game Developer Conference. I am sure much was discussed about this and that for the industry but the news of interest is a leak of what could be the finalized name of the console, calling it Go. Remember the name "Revolution" was just the project codename but it has never been the official name. Personally its sounds like a bunch of hogwash based on guesses.

In more concrete news, Nintendo has added Sega Genesis and TurboGrafx games to the Virtual Console in a "best of" manner. The games nor cost was announced. With this additional though that means that players can get hold of the entire 8-bit and 16-bit video game highlights. If they could toss in 80s - 90 arcade games and Atari, they could have all of pre-playstation history available on one machine.

Additionally, a new Zelda games was revealed for the DS called The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass. The game sounds like it will make much use of the DS touchpad and stylus and the graphics are in the flavor of the Wind Waker.

Bill O'Reilly: Special Victims Unit

The New Yorker's Nicholas Lemann did an excellent writeup of Bill O'Reilly's rise to cable power and the impact he has had. It also discusses how the show has moved away from politics and more into victim discussions, most notably what a poor victim O'Reilly is from the people that dare to bash him (nevermind they do it with those annoying things called facts and his own words). The overall point is that O'Reilly is the forefront that spearheaded cable news' move from information to sensationalism. If looking for facts, go elsewhere, if want opinions and talking points, go to cable news. Gee thanks Bill.

Final Fantasy parody video

A video worth watching for any fan of the Final Fantasy series. The creators did a good job of nailing down the fighting system with the grunts and jerks and how the characters move from environment to environment. Effective use of editing.

See it here.

60GB iPod Video "at risk"

Apple lists the black and white versions of the 60gig iPod video "at risk" for retailers this week. There are many reason for this such as low supplies, problem with manufacturing, shipping delays...or plans to release a updated version.

There have been rumors for a while of an iPod video 2.0 but would Apple really release that version not even 6 months after the current version? On one hand I hope so because the new version is theorized to be touch based with bluetooth headphones. On the other hand I already dropped $400 for the thing and don't want to feel like I am missing out on the latest and greatest again since such a leap in tech would make an upgrade worth considering (despite knowing its stupid to do it).

In either case, the word will probably come down around April 1 since for the last few years Apple has announced something around that time. Ah Apple quit teasing. It hurts us. Or at least if tease make it something truly delicious like native support for a Windows boot.

Star Trek: Starfleet Academy?

According to Ain't It Cool news, apparently a script was commisioned pre-Star Trek V that would have explored the Enterprise gang's Academy years. Nothing came of it, so now its apart of the scrap heap of movie history but for those that like to know these things read about it here.

Toon News

FoxNews.com is suggesting that maybe Isaac Hayes did not quit South Park. Instead some other did it for him. Who the other is unknown but its assumed its Scientology related with the backing of Tom Cruise. The evidence for this? Apparently on 1/17/06 Hayes has a minor stroke. Minor being it didn't kill him or paralize. A stroke is a stroke that that means a lenghty recovery time. One assumes that if recovering from a stroke the last thing on your mind is what some cartoon makers are up to or did 6 months ago. Further evidence in the article is a reference to a interview by the AV Club over at theonion.com. In it they asked Hayes about the Scientolgy bashing episode of South Park that is assumed to be the catelyst for Hayes quitting.

AV Club: They did just do an episode that made fun of your religion, Scientology. Did that bother you?

Hayes: Well, I talked to Matt [Stone] and Trey [Parker] about that. They didn't let me know until it was done. I said, 'Guys, you have it all wrong. We're not like that. I know that's your thing, but get your information correct, because somebody might believe that [expletive], you know?' But I understand what they're doing. I told them to take a couple of Scientology courses and understand what we do. [Laughs.]

Hmm so he doesn't speak out when informed about the episode, doesn't speak out when it aired, doesn't speak out after it aired, says nothing while Cruise fights the airing in England, and just before the eve of the repeat, he quits? Once you toss in the stroke (if true) this whole story is starting to stink to high hell.

----------
In Fox Sunday cartoons news, King of the Hill got a new season order, necessitating the rehiring of pretty much everyone since they closed shop last year on the assumption they where canceled. While doing that, Fox execs also ordered seasons 18 and 19 of the Simpsons, so get your Homer fix through 2008 at least.

Finally Billy West of Futurama gave fans collective glee by reporting on his forums that 26 new eps of the show where ordered. For 24 hours much happiness and joy was felt. Then he dashes them "I'm sorry I gave inaccurate info on the cartoon. I was told on one end that the TV show was a go but DXC enlightened me (with a hammer) that this was not the case." DXC is David X Cohen, the grand pubah of the show. On bright side the direct to DVD movies are still a go.

PS3 to come with 60 gig harddrive

Apparently by some means, its been officially confirmed that the PS3 will come with a 60 gig harddrive. Cool but this does mean the price is more and more likely to be $500 when it does come out. Read what few details here.

$9 Trillion Deficit approved

Today, Congress along party lines of Republicans for and Democrats against, approved a bill that will allow the deficit to be increased to $9 Trillion dollars. That is $9,000,000,000,000. Lots of zeros. It represents about $30,000 for every man, woman and child in the United States. This increase is to avoid a election damaging (and rich angering) tax increase that will allow more money for Iraq (building countries on our dime is expensive) and Medicare (cause of a fiasco of the pharmacy program).

In other news of fiscal irresponsibility or at least an odd sense of prorities, Republicans shot down a measure to increase funding to Veterans medical services by $1.5 billion. Unlike the above where its just borrowed, this would have been paid for by closing loopholes in the corporate tax law. Loopholes are defined as an ambiguity that makes it possible to evade a difficulty or obligation. Basically the law would have forced corporations to pay the taxes they owed anyway and would have used the money to help our Veterans. You know the whole "Support the Troops!" thing the republicans are always using as a defense for Iraq criticism.

Apparently we can borrow money to add $91 billion to rebuild Iraq, but Congress can't be bothered to close some tax code that would have paid for additional Veteran benefits. Am I the only one that finds that idea completely nuts?

XP on Mac offical

A contest, started by Colin Nederkoorm, offered up some money to have whoever could boot Windows XP on an Intel MAc, have windows coexist with OS X and not interfere with operation of either, and at bootup gives the user the option to choose which OS to boot. The money started at $100 but through donations ballooned up to $13000.

The contest finally has a winner. Confired by Colin, the solution is now wild on the net for whoever wants to try it. Be wary though, its a new solution, its probably hasn't been fully vetted so be sure to back up all your data just incase a hard drive/reinstall of OS X is needed.

Go here to the .zip that has the bootloader CD image and how-to info. Apparently will work on MacBook Pro, iMac and Mac mini. Sweetness.

PS3 Offcially coming November 2006

Sony has finally annoucned a date for the PS3. Its coming "early" November 2006. Ok, not a firm date but its more then gotten in the past about the release. They intend to release it worldwide so none of that Japan first for 6 months, then the US then Europe 3 months after nonsense. Of course you know what that means! Shortages!!! Ebay sellers unite! I actually predicted this release date (but got the price wrong).

Also announced is that the price is going to be $425 or up. I am guessing it will land at $499. The iPod showed that people are willing to pay more if it seems worth it. Since a shortage will happen no matter what, they can always drop the price later. No final specs have been released.

For those on the fence about a PSP, the price is dropping to $199. That is $50 off the current price. I have a PSP, the games as a whole are still designed as if for a PS2 rather then a portable system so I recommend waiting before buying. Go get a DS. The games are top notched nearly across the board. I actually predicted this price drop, just got the time wrong by three months.

Finally, Griffin the makers of mostly iPod accessories has entered the PSP accessory market. They have annouced the release of a iFM radio adapater ($50), transmitter ($50), and headphone ($50). Seems similar to the stuff for the iPod just designed to work with the PSP. Considering a rumored re-design coming of the PSP, I would wait on buying these.

World's largest video game collection?

Click here for a site that has pics of what seems to be an insane amount of video games. Its just shelves and shelves and more shelves of video games. Its a truly insane collection. Makes me wonder if the guy actually played them all and if so how many did he beat.

Boston Legal diatribe against Bush

Crooksandliars.com has a video grab from the 3/14/06 episode of Boston Legal that takes America to task for its continued dis-interest in all the things Bush has done in these last 4 years. Wehter agree with the view or not, it will get your dander up which is always good TV.

Shore: At a presidential rally, parade or appearance. If you have on a supportive t-shirt you can be there. If you're wearing or carrying something in protest, you can be removed, This in the United States of America.- This in the United States of America! Is Melissa Hughes the only one embarrassed?

Click here to get to the video.

iTunes adds

For those basketball fantics out there, Apple and CBS will start providing college games on iTunes for $1.99. Seems cheap but once take out all the commercials and other misc timeout and breaks, the games would be just the regulation hour long so makes it a good deal all around if able to stay away from spoilers. Personally this does nothing for me because not much in sports but I can see the benefits of it. Hopefully this will spread to other sports.

iTunes also seems to be lurching towards providing movie content. Assuming you can call it providing since its actually a link that then takes you some Disney controlled site that attempts to rip you off severily for a direct to video movie for $9.99 called High School Musical. If this is the proposed method and price of providing movies, hopefully this method will die a quick and vicious death.

As for the price, whatever Apple and/or Disney exec thought of that needs a solid boot in the rear. The only reason someone should even consider paying $9.99 for a so-so quality download of a movie is if its released on iTunes the same day its released in theatres. That way those that refuse to pay to see the movie at a theatre can still see it in crappy download quality on their computer that may then encourage them to buy the DVD later. Realistically though, even for that the price should be $4.99 at the most.

Little info for the South Dakota abortion debate

A little bit of information that sadly supports an interesting tidbit I find about the abortion debate is that the baby is a conservative problem while in the mom but becomes a liberal problem outside of the mom.

- 5 out of the top 10 poorest counties in America are in South Dakota
- 4 out of the top 5 poorest counties in America are in South Dakata
- 2 out of the top 10 poorest counties in America are in Texas

Playstation 3 Presentation

Released is a nearly 2 hour long video of Sony's E3 presentation of the PS3 from last year I think. Its interesting to see and shows what Sony was thinking they wanted to do. Basically take the most power home PC computer on the market today, and it might, just might be as good as a PS3. It would also cost around $3000 versus the probably $500 of the PS3. If what they say it can do versus what the final product will actually have, there really is very little reason to get a PC for gaming purposes.

Highlights:

PS3 Specs:
Core:
- PowerPC Core 3.2GHz
- 512 KB L2 cache

Graphics (7x more powerful then the PS2):
- NVidia RSX at 550MHz
- Multi-way parallel FP shader pipeline
- 60fps
- 128 bit floating point pixel precision (current consoles are 32bit)
- 2k x 1k resolution for high-def televisions
- 136 shader operations per cycle
- over 300m transisters (about 5x over current consoles)

Memory:
- 256 MB XDR RAM at 3.2GHz
- 256 MB GDDR3 VRAM @700MHz
- Detachable 2.5'' HDD slot (ie, a laptop hardrive that is easy to upgrade)

Input/Output:
- 6 USB 2.0 ports (4 front, 2 back)
- 1 Memory Stick, SD card slot
- 1 CompactFlash slot
- 1 AV Multi output

Communication:
- Gigabit Ethernet slots
- Built-in Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
- Bluetooth for up to 7 controllers

Disc Media:
- Backwards compatible to PS1 and PS2
- CD-DA, CD-ROM, CD-R, CD-RW, SACD, DualDisc
- DVD-video, DVD-ROM, DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD+RW
- Blu-ray, BD-ROM, BD-R, BD-RE (ie if PS3 is hot, Sony when the next gen DVD format wars by default.)

Digital Media (formats not specified but assume same as PSP):
- Plays audio
- Plays video
- shows pics

Network:
- Allows online play (that was a gimme) with some internet access (probably Sony only places).
- Allows peer 2 peer connections to transfer data (since Sony has TV, music etc properties, how they limit the exchange of data should be of interest).

Of course its too early to tell as often what the device is theorized to be able to do versus what is done with it are two different things. Also, the older the console gets, the more tricks the developers learn and the more they can get out of it. Finally keep in mind that what the say the product will have as features versus what the final product will have can be two different things. However, if they deliver what they promise, the PS3 is going to be the console to beat. Now if only Sony would learn how to make great fun software with the same skill Nintendo has.

Apple Windfall if only...

According to some new study of dubious results, if Apple or Microsoft would overcome BIOS differences and allow duel boot on a Mac, Apple could see at least a 22% growth. Personally I think you don't need studies for such a no brainer. Due to the iPod, iTunes, and just the good word of mouth that Apple has, I think alot more then 22% would switch.

Apple is making the assumptions that the curious are willing to drop at least $700 for the cheapest Apple comp, the Mac mini, just to try Apple. Well, they are wrong. Few people are will drop that kind of money for a product they know nothing about and not sure they can use or learn. However, if suddenly they can have Windows installed on it too, its not a gamble. If the like the Apple OS, cool beans the buyer and Apple wins. If they don't like the Apple OS and prefer to go back to Windows...the user wins and so does Apple as they had a convert they didn't have before. The reason is simple, that person will go "I didn't like the Apple OS but man that comp is sweet. Runs fast and looks good."

No matter what, the word of mouth would be good. Most companies would pay good money to have that kind of "problem" but Apple in their misplaced pride refuses to take advantage of what their excellent hardware design could be used to drive sales. It can only be a good thing if along the way millions more tried the Apple OS. The more that try it the more that may convert. Few people however are going to gamble hundred of dollars on a maybe which is what Apple is currently expecting and has been for years now.

Bill O'Reilly losing it

In further proof that Bill O'Reilly is slowly becoming unhinged, he apparently began sicking Fox Security on callers that said stuff he doesn't like. Considering the sheer volume of things he doesn't like and his inability to handle any criticism whatsoever, they probably had to hire a call center to "investigate" his complaints. Nevermind that he is complaining against people that called his call-in show. Click here for a video of Keith Olbermann summurizing and having fun with the latest in O'Reillyland.

AT&T ripping off soldiers

According to a blog from someone that used to be a CEO for a telecom, apparently AT&T is overcharging the soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan to make long distance charges to home. Apparently the cost is $.21/per minute but the real world cost at most is $.01/ per minute. Apparently AT&T can do this because they have the monopoly on phone service to the Armed Services. Not sure if true or not but is a bit of interesting info. Gives you the warm and fuzzies about the Bellsouth & AT&T merger doesn't it?