UP
Pixar has always made excellent movies. From the first Toy Story to Ratatouille (I haven’t had a chance to see Wall-E yet) the stories and characters have been very memorable.
This teaser for their next movie UP continues that fine tradition in an approx. 45 second video. Enjoy
Cheers
Not So Cuil
I read about Cuil (pronounced as Cool) this morning and decided to see what it can do. It was created by former Google employees with the hopes of upstaging Google with it’s search prowess. However, a few simple search in Cuil yielded no useful results at all.
Cuil - A new search engine to rival Google
I searched for the string “linux usb hardy” in relation to an issue I was having with VirtuaBox on my Hardy based Linux machine and got back 2 completely useless results in Cuil while a plethora of useful results were hurled at me by Google.
I think Cuil has a way to go before declaring themselves “the world’s biggest search engine”.
Cheers
Death of HD DVD
The battle of the next-gen format between HD-DVD and Blu-Ray might be finally coming to an end. My XBOX 360 has the optional HD-DVD accessory and I chose not to get it for the fact that I don’t own that many movies and it sure would be a shame to buy either system until the format for the future was chosen for certain.
All the recent buzz and a article on eWeek seem to declare the demise of HD-DVD and Blu-Ray the chosen format. I wonder what this means to the XBOX 360.
I guess in this case early adopters of HD-DVD are the ones that will pay dearly to not only abandon their current HD-DVD players but potentially pick up a Blu-Ray player or PS3? 
Updated 02/23/08
Turns out that Toshiba decided to waive the white flag on HD DVD officially. All early Blu-Ray adopters now get to walk around with their nose held high and tongue sticking out at anyone who’d question their Next-gen HD choice. I guess Sony’s choice to bundle the Playstation 3 with Blu-Ray players was a smart idea after all.
Cheers
Very Cool Technology
If you haven’t seen this very cool demo of this technology called Photosynth and Seadragon software, you really should spend the 10 minutes it takes to check it out.
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Microsoft Extends XBOX 360 Warranty
Microsoft has announced that they’re going to extend the warranty of all XBOX 360’s to three years from the date of purchase. This includes issues of the 3-rings and any other faults. They will handle the repair free of charge, including the shipping.
I wonder how the people who’ve already paid for the shipping and repair feel about this and what Microsoft is doing for them. Also, on a more personal note, my XBOX 360 is a used one that I got in July of 2006. I have no clue how long the previous owner had the console before I acquired it, so I wonder how I would make myself avail of this service should the need arise.
In relation to this particular announcement, Microsoft also indicated that the potential repair would run them close to $1 Billion. It’s good to see that the company is spending the money to keep their current customers happy which will only garner them future customers.
Cheers
Google Maps Re-Routes
I’d been using Mapquest for all of my mapping needs until Google decided to unleash Google Maps on us. I never bothered looking to Mapquest again for anything. However, one feature that I wish I could do was to have Google Maps re-route if I choose to go a different route than what it had figured out.
That is, if it said RT 90 was the best way of getting there and I wanted to avoid the tolls, I was hoping for a way to direct the tool to draw me a route using RT 2 instead. Well Google Maps now provide this feature and it’s very cool!
Check out the animation below for me re-directing Google.
Cheers
iPhone Whiners Unite
Did you hear? The Apple iPhone went on this sale this past Friday, June 29th. All of the tech Blogs endlessly gave a minute-by-minute update on long lines formed by the early adopters across the US.
The weekend elapsed and now we have a plethora of those early adopters complaining about everything from the ring tones to the unsuccessful phone activation. I just find this sort of bouncing attitude very amusing. Before buying their beloved iPhones, these people were certain that Apple could do no wrong. Forget the fact that you’re being asked to pay $499 or $599 for the 4GB and 8GB variety of the iPhone AND a2-year contract with AT&T (the exclusive carrier) that you have to sign to even use this sucker.
There aren’t any numbers that I’ve seen tracking the number of people who bought the iPhone for their own use as opposed to trying to make a quick buck selling it to other fans who were not willing to sit in line for days. But, I can imagine that a large number of iPhones were sold and now imagine that many people all sitting at home on the weekend trying to activate their respective phones. Is it really that much of a surprise that the AT&T servers were overwhelmed? But I guess to some, it truly is surprising as they’re whining about not being able to use their shiny new iPhone.
As much as the features of the iPhone are intriguing, AT&T’s prior history of lackluster service and Cingular’s spotty network hasn’t convinced me to switch over from my very reliable Verizon service. I might someday consider the iPhone, when Verizon starts to offer it and the price as dropped to about $49.99 for the 8GB variety and I can get it as a free upgrade.
Early adopters be damned. You guys can figure out all the quirks and issues, I’ll wait for everything to be ironed out and the 2nd generation phones to hit the market before I even think about getting the iPhone.
Cheers
The Most Useless Spam. Ever.
You might say that “any spam equals useless” and I would have to agree. But as you can see from this prized piece of spam pictured, it has reached a depth of uselessness that other spam just can’t reach.
The majority of spam is easily recognizable by the usual prepossession to buy pharmacetucal drugs by the names of “Vi.AGra” or “A.van.dia” or whatever happens to be the one most talked about in the news of late.
The other usual give away are the plethora of long links that will most definitely lead you down a path to get your computer totally infected by all sort of malfeasances.
However, this sort of utterly useless spam with no name, no subject and no text in the body is truly a waste unlike any other. This is akin to that phone call from the anonymous or blocked caller during dinner time and the subsequent hang-up when you actually choose to answer the phone.
Why even bother?
Cheers
XBOX 360 Spring Update
Microsoft has an announcement of the upcoming Spring update to the XBOX 360. Amongst the plethora of new features, some of the interesting ones are Windows Live Instant Messaging support. You’re probably thinking how you’re going to type out those IMs with the keypad or if you’ll have to create a new shorter-than-SMS style of text’ing?
Fear not, Microsoft is coming with a textpad add-on to the existing controller. This does fall short of the web browser, that shouldn’t be included IMO, that people want.
The other cool feature is listing the achievement name and GS points with the little pop-up, and that’s very cool. Read the rest of this entry »
XBOX 360 Elite
After quite a lot of speculation and rumor mongering, the XBOX 360 Elite has been announced by Microsoft.
The basic summary of changes include a console in black, a HDMI port, 120 GB hard drive, but still no official word on the small 65nm processor which supposedly runs cooler. The only “upgrade” here that I would even remotely consider is replacing my stock 20 GB hard drive with the larger 120 GB variety.
I currently use the component cables to connect my X360 to my TV and optical audio cables to get the games surround sound. With an HDMI option I would just need to run a single cable to get everything. However, since I already have 2 HDMI devices plugged into my receiver I would need to invest in some sort of an HDMI switch to get this 3rd device going. In my book, that’s just not worth the extra money, not to mention that the XBOX 360 Elite already costs about $479 to start with.
Perusing a few of the gaming forums seem so to indicate that I’m actually in the minority of existing X360 owners who has no intentions to trade in their existing X360 at a loss and fork over lots more money to get the Elite version. Many of these people also don’t have a TV that have HDMI inputs, so this must be the true definition of a fanboy.
Cheers
