Obituary: My Xbox 360

Yup, my 360 bit the Three-Red-Rings-Of-Death this week. And this is my second RROD in 3 years to boot too. To top this off, the 300$ PS3 slim came out not too long ago too. So will I hang up my old and worn white 360 controller for a shiny new Dualshock 3 controller?

It's tempting, but no.

I've said this to my friends; right now, just looking at value for money, the PS3 beats out the 360. It's hard to say no to a $300 Blu-ray player/game console with a solid library of games. But just like how it's hard to say goodbye to our first car, I have too many memories invested in the stubborn white brick that's broken down on me three times.

From nights rocking out to Weezer in Rockband, to early mornings spent headshotting n00bs in CoD 4, I have a lot besides money invested in this console. I have distant friends made while playing on Xbox Live, I have roommates who are always down for that infamous 'just one more game' at 3 in the morning, and more importantly, I have many more memories waiting ahead of me on the 360.

So I'm sticking with the 360, even though right now I feel like punching Bill Gates in the face. But since he's picking up my tab for repairing my console (for the third time), I'll stick with just being angry at him. Can't turn down a free repair.

Marketing 101: A Lesson In Tastefulness

OMG GIRLZ PLAY GAMUZ TOO! AND THEY ALL LIKE PINK AND PURPLE! AND THEY ALL SAY 'LIKE, ZOMG!'. ALSO, CAPS.

Was that enough caps for ya? No? Then the folks at whatever dumbass firm Sony has hired for marketing are calling. They want to hire you.

Sony's done enough stupid marketing for the PS3 and PSP, so I wasn't going to post about it till I actually saw this ad in person at the Americana shopping center in Glendale. I'm pretty sure the girls who DO play games would be offended by this ad, and the girl demographic that this ad is targeting could care less about gaming.

GG, Sony. May you forever have half-assed marketing so we can all laugh at your stupidity.

To Tweet or Not To Tweet

I went out with a couple of my friends the other night, and to my surprise they were talking about how stupid Twitter is. As revolutionary and mass-based Twitter is, they did a have a point. Nobody cares about what you had for lunch, or about how boring your PSYCH 112 lecture was.

At least, nobody but your stalker does.

That's a bit harsh. I guess friends and family would find your twitter interesting, but even so I'm hard pressed to care about stuff like what people post as their Facebook status. It takes a certain kind of person (namely someone who's probably 17 and loves Twilight) to have friends who demand to know every moment of your waking life. Like the person who tweeted her own pregnancy. Live. As it was happening.

I'm sorry, but what the heck was the doctor thinking? "Breathe slowly, in and out, in and out. Oh, and go ahead and tweet on your iPhone while you're doing this. It's A-OK."

On the flip side, there's interesting Twitters like Shaq's or the various Pokemon ones. So while people can have dumb tweets, there's still some very interesting ones out there. And if you want to tweet yourself? Keep it tasteful and interesting. Trust me, tweeting about how many pounds you can bench won't impress anyone.

It's Not Just Pretty And Shiny, It's Actually Useful

Gizmodo finally released a review of Windows 7, about two months before it hits shelves. Feel free to look through the review if you want, but I'll tell you that the bottom line is you have to get it if you have Vista. Don't let the illusion of choice fool you; Windows 7 is almost a mandatory upgrade since companies and software will eventually stop supporting the infamous Vista OS.

Man, it feels so wrong to type the word mandatory.

To be fair, Windows 7 is an awesome OS that has been proven in the public beta. Hell, I'm thinking about upgrading from XP to Windows 7. And I love XP. Some of the features in Windows 7 are awesome, like the Windows key actually being useful for shortcuts, and the pretty and useful Aero Peek UI for the desktop. Not to mention the fact that it's light-years faster than Vista in performance.

TL;DR, Windows 7 is worth the money. Even if you feel compelled to buy it since you have Vista, there's plenty in there that will surprise you.

On Internet Connections and Master Chief

I've been struggling with my home internet connection for the past couple weeks, which has probably single-handedly ruined my enjoyment of doing nothing over the summer. Trying to troubleshoot network problems is like trying to wrestle a angry shark while trying to weave a basket underwater while being dressed like a giant steak. You just don't know what you're doing, and you want to give up 30 seconds into doing it because it's just ridiculous.

Also, speaking of ridiculous, there's the Halo anime. I can't say that it will suck (the Halo game has spawned a number of best-selling spin-off novels), but I can't say it's going to be good either. Master Chief is hardly a compelling character, but since five of the biggest Anime production houses (Bones, Casio Entertainment, Production I.G, Studio4 C, and Toei Animation) are supposedly handling the animation, at least it'll look good. Hopefully.

Anime Quick Look: K-ON!

I was hoping that K-ON! would be Beck v2.0, or at least Beck Lite. K-ON!'s premise of four girls forming a band in high school had great potential of unfolding into something very interesting. But unfortunately, it's nowhere near the epic musical journey that Beck (the anime, not the artist mind you) was. You see the screen shot above? I wish it was more like that, and less like this:


I may sound a little harsh on the anime series that came out this past winter season (really, it isn't too bad), but it's only because I came in with a certain expectation that the anime would be about music. Instead, I found out that K-ON! is simply a wannabe Ichigo Mashimaro/Lucky Star mash-up with guitars thrown in occasionally. Heck, the main characters spend over half the show drinking tea and eating snacks.

If this was The Mild Adventures of Four Girls During Teatime, it would make sense. But I wouldn't watch it either.

Unfortunately, all of the good stuff in K-ON! is crowded out by all the moe-moe (translation: cutsy) stuff that were thrown in. Plus it doesn't help that 99% of the characters are about as two-dimensional as the art. What little plot or tension there is comes across as rather forced, or just absurd, which cements K-ON!'s status as Yet Another Generic Anime.

If there's one thing to see from K-ON!, it's the ED song and animation. K-ON! provides some safe fun and tons of moe for those who like it, but don't expect anything more.

[EDIT 1/8/10] - Ok, I was smoking something when I wrote this. Disregard most of what I said here. If you come in without any expectations, K-ON!'s a fun slice-of-life show that's really charming.

This makes me proud that I go to UCSD. Sorta.

The scientific geniuses at UCSD have been in the news a lot lately, from Wired to Engadget, with all of their inventions/crazy projects. But this one takes the cake. The researchers at UCSD have created a robot that can make facial expressions, but going beyond the Japanese robots, this one learns from the facial expressions that it makes, teaching itself how to make new facial expressions.

Yea. Creepy. UCSD is at the forefront of technological innovation. Too bad I'm not an engineering major. My tuition is just going to pay for tired old Political Science professors with horrible foreign accents. Now if you excuse me, I think I'm going to go into that corner and cry for a little bit...

Source: Engadget

Yet another Japanese video

SOUR / 日々の音色 (Hibi no Neiro) MV from Magico Nakamura on Vimeo.
But this one is tons better. The Japanese Rock/Pop/Jazz hybrid is awesome by itself (even if you don't know Japanese), but the video collage made up of various international fans via web cam is even more awesome. Enjoy :)

Google OS FINALLY Becomes Official

Google's desire to make their own computer operating system is old, old news. But they finally officially acknowledged its existence, and the details that they have released about it so far are very interesting. Their new OS, set for release in late 2010, will strictly be for netbooks, and it will be free. Yea, that's right. Free.

Wrap your minds around that for a bit. It's like those fridge magnets that you get from real estate agents in the mail, except for your computer and infinitely more useful. Bad analogy, I know, but in our present world of expensive-ass software, it's hard to believe a whole operating system can be free. Plus, being for netbooks, Google has an opportunity to expand in a market that Microsoft has ignored for the most part.

A free OS means cheaper netbooks, which is going to be ridiculous. And knowing Google, their OS is going to challenge our pre-conceptions of what an OS should be like. I don't know about you, but I'm freaking stoked about this OS. Hey Google, want to make an OS for desktops?

Source: Wired

Another Example of How Crazy the Japanese Are

The Vocaloid voice synthesizer program has been around for a long time, but this is the first one that I've really paid any attention to. Ignore the nauseatingly-sweet J-pop, and listen to the video for a few seconds. While it's still easy to tell that this is a voice program, and not an actual person singing, the latest Vocaloid program is still pretty darn close to the voice of the singer Megumi Nakajima (anime nerdgasm: she was Ranka's VA in Macross Frontier).

Yea, the program was based upon her voice samples, but for a program that allows you almost infinite freedom in making music, it's impressively close to actual human voice. So will these robotic voice synthesizers take over the J-pop industry in 5 years or so?

I would say no, but then again I wouldn't have predicted that the Japanese would make a 18 meter tall Gundam complete with lights and moving parts. If there's anything we can learn from this, the Japanese sure love their robots. You heard it here first folks; A Jpop-belching, maid-uniformed, 18 foot robot girl will be built in Tokyo in 2012. Believe it.