TEN JACK TEN

The Xbox has been dead for a while, but it was really brought home to me today. Looking at GameFly’s Coming Soon page shows only five games for the original Xbox:

Fuel
Major League Baseball 2K7
Drive to Survive
Ultimate Pro Pinball
Lawnmower Racing Mania 2007

Of these four games, only Fuel and MLB 2k7 have a definite release dates. The list on EBGames is even more bleak, showing no future releases. In contrast, the PS2 has 41 games in the Coming Soon section, including five from Electonic Arts. If EA, masters of the multi-platform release, have dropped Xbox support, then the platform is definitely dead.

As far as I can tell, this is what Microsoft wanted. MS, never a strong first-party publisher, released its last game for the Xbox (Conker: Live and Reloaded) in June 2005, five months before the Xbox 360 launch. And I’m sure that was due to Rare’s inability to produce a game within deadline (it was originally slated to be a December 2004 release), rather than reflecting MS’s desire to support its outgoing system.

The Xbox hardware was overengineered and expensive, an example of MS’s brute-force approach to a market they didn’t really understand. In part because they relied heavily on parts from outside suppliers, they lost money on every console sold, from the first to the last unit. As a result, the system’s life cycle was truncated. The system never reached the $100 price point generally considered to be the mass-market sweet spot (after dropping to $150, the last batch to go through the retail channel sold for $180 with a bundled copy of Forza Motorsport). The Xbox was an enthusiast’s machine, not an everyconsole.

But while it lasted, it was the best of its generation. For multi-platform titles, it was the system of choice thanks to faster load times, smoother gameplay, and sharper graphics. It’s still the only last-gen console to hold its own on an HDTV. So long Xbox, you cost MS a lot of money.

Everything’s breaking lately.

Microsoft is taking its own sweet time sending me a replacement for the defective Xbox 360 they charged me $105 for (no refund yet, Mr. Gates!). The Tivo in the bedroom loses all its program information. The spring that helps the garage door lift up breaks. Not only that, I’m not even doing that great, I’ve had a nasty cold all week long.

And now, the transmission goes out on the Xterra last night. And by out, I mean “where’d the reverse gear go, how is it that I’m driving forward in neutral” out. I suppose 150k miles is pretty good for a transmission, but really, is there any more expensive piece of a car to go bad? Oh well, beats buying a new one for now.

I’ve got a sagging backyard fence to replace.

It’s not a question of whether a hard drive will die, it’s when.

If art can have a positive or inspiring effect on people, then logically it can also cause negative effects.

After-church diners leave crappy tips and let their kids run around in restaurants, or at least they did 20 years ago. I’d be willing to bet that hasn’t changed.

Video game soundtracks have introduced me to more new bands in the last five years than radio.

Computers have wasted more paper than they’ve saved.

Sleeping is one of the best ways to recover from a cold.

The highest priority for a publicly traded corporation is to pay lots of money to the people who run it. The next-highest is to make money.

It’s easier to pay someone to come in and vaccuum, clean the toilets, and change the sheets than it is to fight with your spouse over who has to do it.

There is less news occurring in the world than there is news coverage to report it.

Listening to what someone says is usually far less informative than observing what they do.

I suspect I’m squarely in their target market, but Sony has utterly failed to show me a damn good reason to buy their new console and hook it up to my HDTV. In fact, all I’ve got are reasons not to buy one:

(1) They screwed up the HD rendering. As far as I can tell, some games support 720p, some support 1080i, and some support 1080p. But, if you can’t run at the native resolution, the PS3 will significantly reduce the resolution sent to your set, rendering it less than HD. In contrast, all 360 games support either 720p or 1080i displays without requiring manual reconfiguration. It should “just work.”

(2) They screwed up the movie playback. Sony considers its Blu-ray movie support to be a selling point, but the PS3 lacks the ability to properly scale movies to resolutions less than 1080. Nor will the PS3 upscale DVDs, despite the wide availability of $100 players than can do it.  Oh, and the remote control is Bluetooth-only, so you can’t use that expensive learning multi-remote with your PS3.

(3) They started a format war they didn’t need to start. Nobody wants to get stuck with the next Betamax. Or for that matter, the next Mini-Disc, the next DAT, the next ATRAC, or the next UMD. DVDs are widely supported and aren’t going anywhere. The picture quality difference between an HD-DVD or Blu-ray disc and standard DVD is not as dramatic a leap as DVD was from VHS. So, naturally, Sony minimizes the incremental benefit of higher resolution by refusing to agree on a format.  They can’t afford to alienate early adopters, yet they plunged ahead with their quest for the Next Big Format They Can Own.

(4) The games aren’t there. The PS3 has yet to offer me something I can’t already get on the Xbox 360 or easily live without. Ports of EA Sports games and Tony Hawk? Another damn Ridge Racer or Full Auto? An alternate-history WWII first-person shooter? Blah.

(5) They screwed up backwards compatibility. It’s been well documented that on non-progressive-scan PS2 games, the PS3 actually looks worse than a PS2. The pictures are washed-out and unnecessarily blocky. They removed rumble in a fit of corporate pique to spite Immersion, who hammered them in a patent lawuit that Microsoft was smart enough to settle. And, you have to pay extra for a gadget to transfer your PS1 and PS2 saves onto the PS3, and PS2 controllers and accessories won’t work with it. So much for the idea of a system replacement for the PS2.

UPDATE: It looks like firmware update 1.5 fixes the display issues with PS2 games.  The other complaints have not been fixed by Sony, but I’ve heard rumors of a PS2 to USB adapter from third parties.

(6) They screwed up the retail packaging by splitting the systems. You can buy a version with a 20gig hard drive, or a version with a 60gig hard drive and extras like memory card readers (but not PS1/PS2 memory cards) and WiFi. Sony hasn’t made it clear whether the version with the smaller hard drive and no WiFi can easily communicate with the PSP. Why waste shelf space on two systems?  Why take the risk of buying the inferior system?

(7) They overpriced it. $600 for a non-gimped PS3 is a significant hit I won’t take without a damn good reason. I’m still waiting for the damn good reasons to start flowing from Sony. Until then, me and my money will do other things on other consoles.

It’s not possible to watch an NFL playoff game in real-time without being exposed to disgusting ads for horror movies like Saw III. Which is apparently even more gory and brutal for its DVD release.  Yay.

After a touchdown or during a time out, we’re treated to flashing images of cruelty, including restrained and screaming torture victims and surgical instruments held up to fingers. I can only conclude that the NFL has let their lust for money overcome their prior well-known desire not to cheapen their product by associating it with prurient products.

No matter where I sit on the plane, the guy in the seat in front of me will lean his seat back into my face as soon as possible.

Even the hallways reek on floors where hotels have the smoking rooms. Better stay clear if you’re sentsitive to that sort of thing.

January is not the best month for a vist to Albuquerque.

Next to an adult bookstore, airport news stands appear to have the widest selection of skin mags. Dallas’ Love Field is particularly well-stocked.

Hotels jumped on the environmentally concerned bandwagon with regard to not changing sheets and towels in your room right around the same time they realized they could save money at the same time as appearing to be environmentally sensitive.

HBO is usually showing something that sucks or you’ve already seen.

Albuquerque’s downtown is near train tracks. These train tracks are used all night by trains sounding their horns.

I dislike being bored. I may actually be afraid of it.

Figuring out the character of a city can be as easy as reading the signs for pedestrians. In Albuquerque, there are signs warning you to look both ways, signs built into the crosswalks reminding you to “look,” and timers on the crosswalk lights counting down how many seconds you have before the lights change. In contrast, Dallas seems pretty indifferent to the possibility of your demise due to poor pedestrian choices.

You’re not any less of a man if you take a cab rather than drag your stuff half a mile through the cold.

My warranty replacement Xbox 360 lasted nine days before it had a fatal seizure or stroke or whatever 360’s have when they die. Coffin number two on the way.

I’ve requested a non-refurb system this time around. I have no real expectation that this request will be honored. MS will have to spend a lot of time and effort before their Xbox 360 hardware operation gets up to a level where it can be credibly described as “half-assed.”

I’ve spent (or “wasted” as some might say) a good bit of my life watching, reading, or thinking about the Star Wars movies/books/comics, not to mention playing with the toys and games.  So, this guy’s analysis and conjectures about the discovered meanings in the original film are irresistible:

As Star Wars opens, R2 is rushing the Death Star plans to the Rebellion. R2, not Leia. The plans are always in R2. What Leia puts into him in the early scene is only her own holographic message to Kenobi. Leia’s own mission, as she says in the holographic message, is to pick up Obi-Wan and take him to Alderaan - or so she thinks. Actually, her father just wants her to meet Kenobi, which up to this point she never has. There’s a reason for that.

Obi-Wan has spent the last 20 years in the Tattoine desert, keeping watch over Luke Skywalker and trying to decide on one of the three available options:
A) If Luke shows no significant access to the Force, then leave him alone in obscurity
B) If Luke shows real Force ability, then consider recruiting him as a Jedi. The rebellion needs Jedi. Now.
But, if Luke shows any signs of turning out like his father, then C) sneak into his house one fine night and chop his head off. With great regret but it’ll save a lot of trouble later on.

Knowing this to be the case, Bail Organa (perhaps at the insistence of his wife) has found excuses not to send Leia to Ben for assessment of Jedi potential, largely for fear of option C.

To be fair to all concerned, Leia has shown no overt signs of a link to the Force. Luke on the other hand has. In his home-built hotrod aircraft, with no formal fighter pilot training and no decent instrumentation, Luke can regularly score centre-hits on 2-metre targets in complicated zero-altitude maneouvres. Until he attends the briefing on Yavin, Luke has no way of knowing that hardened combat pilots would consider that nearly impossible. To him it’s easy. Obi-Wan, who saw Anakin’s performance in the Pod Race, is nervous.

Much of Obi-Wan’s behaviour in this film, and Yoda’s in the next, can best be understood if they are frankly scared to death of what Luke might become. (Ben is also scared that he himself will make all the same mistakes he made with Anakin.)

Much, much more if you follow the LINK

You’re not doing your child any favors by making up a name for it.

The only difference between Democrats and Republicans when it comes to government spending is what they want to spend it on. They both think they can buy the love of the electorate by spending money that isn’t theirs. And it works some of the time.

You’re never as sneaky as you think you are. Getting away with things usually means others don’t bother to call you on your actions.

The last set of Pirelli tires I bought will be the last set of Pirelli tires I buy.

Anyone who doesn’t think humanity isn’t essentially worthless should spend a few hours playing randomly-matched online games with voice chat.

Legos are overpriced, but they sure sold the hell out of them last Christmas.

I’m less inclined to buy a product if I know it takes an odd number of batteries.

Changing unsecured debt into secured debt is usually a bad idea, especially if you’re in the position of needing to change the nature of your debts.

Fry’s rarely has decent sales in November and December.

If you’re building a house, have every room wired for phone, cable, and CAT5.

How early did I get into the office today?

So early there wasn’t anyone smoking on the sidewalk in front of the building.  That’s early, folks. 

Pizza Hut’s website doesn’t want my business. I’m not sure what to think about that.

I’ve ordered online before, which I like because it lets me take my time picking the pizzas out and accepts Amex. But this time, the site tells me that they won’t deliver to my address, that I’m restricted to carryout orders only.

What the hell did I do to get on the crap customer list? I’m not aware of anything that would scare Pizza Hut’s delivery fleet away from my neighborhood, and Pizza Hut’s not going to explain itself. The internet enables big corporations to flip the electronic bird to their customers far more efficiently than an outsourced call center could.

I went with a local pizzeria, which is what I should have done in the first place.

Now Reading:  I Shouldn’t Even Be Doing This! - Bob Newhart

In the PS2: Bully

In the CD player: Hot Fuss - The Killers

Just bought: more books on website design

From BBC News’s Magazine Monitor blog, 100 Things We Didn’t Know Last Year. A bit UK-centric.

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John Kerry’s pompous and bossy Christmas card (scroll to Have Yourself a Kerry Little Christmas)

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Charles Krauthammer on how the Saddam Hussein execution was mismanaged by the Iraqi government.

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The South Park Studios Show FAQ (more of a Q and A, really).

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Those springs that help your garage door move up can break.

Bob Stoops can’t win a bowl game.

Hewlett-Packard is trashing its good name by selling underpowered computers so overleaded with crapware that they can barely function. Does the money they save by only including 512m of RAM really make up for the crappy Windows XP performance?

Never underestimate a child’s ability to lose something so thoroughly you’ll never find it again.

Thinking is easy, writing is hard.

Cindy Sheehan is a terrible spokesperson for her cause because her voice and delivery make her discussion of life-and-death issues sound like someone ordering a taco at a drive-through.

UPS delivers to residential areas as late as possible in the day, unless you really want what’s being delivered, in which case they come by when you aren’t at home and leave a sticky.

Linux doesn’t deal well with writing to NTFS partitions, even though it can read from them just fine.

Windows XP refuses to format a drive in FAT32.

Time is just as much a commodity as money.

The Federal Trade Commission went after several sellers of harmless but not demonstrably effective weight loss pills. These companies usually have a huge ad blitz and fade away quickly after making their money. I think the FTC fines are budgeted as just another business expense.

But then we have a presumably reputable pharmaceutical company who also got swept up in the smackdown:

Bayer spokeswoman Tricia McKernan said the company never marketed WeightSmart as a weight-loss product . . .

Because everyone knows that you should take WeightSmart for those occasional bouts of skin rashes and explosive diarrhea. Weight loss? Where did you get that?

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