Mmm… news-licious!
Posted on Thursday, March 30, 2006 at 9:58 pm
NEWSFLASH!!!
So we finally got around to buying real, actual furniture the other day. A very nice cushy couch and loveseat, plus some tables and lamps. Yay for interest-free financing and a giant sale at Rooms To Go. Apparently, when an XY enters an XX domain, futons and stacked milk crates are no longer acceptable as functional furniture. Who would have known?
NEWSFLASH!!!
Groupee announced today that UBB.threads 7.0 – now apparently the full name of the next-gen product – would be released in Beta on June 15. If this actually happens, it’s good news. Well, kind of. I mean, it’s good that I’ll finally get a new program to play with, that should be a lot better than the current version of Threads. But it’s bad cuz now I gotta scrape together $129 for my members area renewal. Anyone who has ever considered buying one of the Se7enet/Scourge shirts… um… yeah…
NEWSFLASH!!!
I also have been, yet again, playing with a new layout for the site. I really like the current one, though, and I spent a damn lot of work on it. So I probably won’t debut the new layout for a good long while – most likely I’ll start really digging into it about the time I get my hands on the new Threads version, so we can have a nice, lovely simultaneous launch of the new theme and the new forums all at once. If this were an actual company, I can only imagine the kind of tech support nightmare I’d be creating.
NEWSFLASH!!!
Um, yeah, I’m out of newsflashes. Sorry. I thought I could at least make it through four, but no such luck. So, um, you go away now.
2 Comments
Something about this doesn’t add up at all!
Posted on Saturday, March 25, 2006 at 9:13 pm
Yay for Amazon.com!!!
Now that just ain’t right.
7 Comments
The end is nigh!
Posted on Thursday, March 23, 2006 at 9:18 am
Good lord. What is with big business these days? First we had Apple announcing the use of Intel CPUs in their boxes. Crazy, yes, but not necessarily horrible outright. Then came the news that Adobe bought Macromedia. Crazy, truly, and possibly bad because Macromedia was, for all intents and purposes, Adobe’s only major competition for most of their stuff. Somehow this ended up being alright, though, as even without any legitimate competition, Photoshop’s retail price actually went down.
And what happens now, dear children? Why, nothing less then Dell buying Alienware. The one company where build quality ranks somewhere below who’s restocking the fridge with Red Bulls, and where competitive pricing reigns supreme, is buying the one company where the two situations are exactly opposite. According to El Reg, “Dell plans to let Alienware operate as a wholly-owned subsidiary with its own marketing, sales and support staff. The Alienware brand will continue under this arrangement.” So this marginally lightens the news for now, given that hopefully nothing will change with the one pre-built computer maker I actually respect. But how long can it last?
In my opinion, Dell is a company who only cares about the bottom line. Build quality is crap – even in their supposedly top-of-the-line gaming systems. I’ve got an XPS 600 at work – with friggin’ DUAL GeFORCE 7800GTXs!!!!! And it couldn’t even make it through one round of 3dmark06 without the entire box locking up. How sad is that? I’ve got a damn 2.8ghz Pentium D, SLI’d GF7800GTXs, and 2gb of DDR2 memory. This system SHOULD be able to eat 3dmark06 for breakfast. Instead, it gets halfway through the test and just locks up with a bunch of red streaks all over my monitor. And their customer support is pretty much worthless unless you or someone you know happens to speak Hindi. Given that, even though they say they’re pretty much leaving Alienware to keep track of its own pants, how long do you think it’ll be before they start getting pressured to make cutbacks?
It all goes without saying, of course, that in all reality this probably doesn’t affect me that much. I haven’t bought an off-the-shelf (or even configured online) PC since I was in high school. (And you’ll note that I said “PC,” so my little iBook doesn’t count.) I can’t imagine buying one now, be it from Dell or Alienware or any other company. If I’m in the market for a new laptop, and for some reason I decide that I don’t want to get a MacBookPro, Alienware is probably my next choice. But I’m not in the market for a new laptop, and won’t be for some time, as a new desktop comes first. So it’s true that I’m more mad because of the principle of the thing than because I’ll actually be negatively impacted by this. It all comes down to the fact that Alienware has always been the king of the pre-built gaming systems. If you’ve got enough money, you buy an Alienware for, if nothing else, the simple “yeah, it’s an Alienware” factor. For the same reason, you’d buy a Corvette over a Cavalier if you had the available funds. Both will get you from Point A to Point B, but the Vette will sure look a helluva lot better doing it.
It’s a sad day for gaming.
1 Comment
Things I’d like to see.
Posted on Monday, March 20, 2006 at 6:40 pm
One.
An organized crime ring in World of Warcraft. Not that I currently play the game anymore. I just can’t justify shelling out $16/mo given that I’ve only got maybe 2 or 3 hours a month to spare with which to play. But anyway, how cool would a virtual mafia be? Like, you know, get some clvl 60 toughs to “shake down” the newbs for “protection money.” And probably have some wing of the group dedicated to illegal arms (read: duped items). And of course massive prostitution from a group of guys who set up hot female Night Elf characters. The aforementioned toughs could act as ‘pimp’ and break the digital legs of any john who doesn’t pay up. Alcohol smuggling would also be good, but I’m not sure how it would work since you can buy alcohol at most shops anyway. I think it’s high time we petitioned Blizzard to change their Terms of Service to allow for this amazing new feature.
Two.
Jessica Alba in a trenchcoat. And nothing else.
Three.
Actually, you know what? 86 the trenchcoat too.
Four.
Any episode of CSI: Miami where any given David Caruso line can’t be mentally followed by “you son of a bitch” with no resulting loss of coherence.
Five.
Groupee’s next-gen downloadable product.
Six.
The return of the talking chihuahua to Taco Bell’s commercials.
Seven.
Me having enough time and willpower to make more than one new blog post every two friggin’ weeks.
1 Comment
American Idol is ruining my marriage.
Posted on Tuesday, March 7, 2006 at 9:00 pm
I love my wife. I’d do a lot of things to make her happy. Like go shopping at Old Navy and JC Penny for slacks and Polos because she seems to think I look sexy in uncomfortable sell-out-to-the-Man clothes. And every once in awhile, you know, I’ll sit down on ye olde futon (since we have yet to buy any real furniture) and watch some shitty show on HGTV that I have no interest in whatsoever, or that show about the models with Tyra Banks, or the show about the fashion people with Heidi Klum. Ok, so, maybe those last two were bad examples, because even if the shows are boring tripe, at least they’ve got some hotties on them. Plus, I make her watch, like, four episodes of CSI daily, plus whatever other cop drama CBS is playing on any given night, when she may or may not like them quite so much as I do. So I figure it’s only fair that I let her have a little tube time as well.
But there is one show that I flat out refuse to watch, because I find it morally and philosophically reprehensible. Plus none of the chicks ever get nekkid, which is always at least a possibility on the model show. What show, dear Jamin, could this possibly be, you’re probably asking yourself. That show, of course, is American Idol.
While it’s on, I go off into my office and entertain myself by reading BoingBoing or playing Quake 4 or watching any of CBS’ myriad cop dramas on my tiny-ass little TV. The problem is, Fox has been playing the goddamn thing like seventeen times a week for this season. So I come home from a long day’s work, hoping to have a good time with my loving wife, maybe get some action or something, you know? But NOOOOO!!! That fucking show is on, like, constantly! I can’t get away from it!
Now, of course, it would be an easy thing to just suck it up and watch the show with her. But it’s on during NCIS and Criminal Minds, which is two great big strikes against it right there. And even if there was absolutely nothing else to watch during it’s timeslot, it still doesn’t excuse the fact that it’s quite possibly the most horrible thing to happen to music since Yoko Ono.
Ok, that’s my rant. I’m shutting up now. Go make yourself a dang quesadilla.
