Posterous
James is using Posterous to post everything online. Shouldn't you?
N3101777_33384447_8881__1__thumb
James Aguilar
owns this site
17
subscribers
 

Out of James Aguilar

Apple TV is a viable, cost-effective alternative to cable television

I was thinking about cable television, the iTunes store, and a rumor I heard about Apple and the cable TV networks last week.

The rumor is that Apple is shopping a service around the major networks where customers could buy an unlimited subscription to their television show service for $40 per month. The really amazing thing is that this service would be advertisement free. I imagine current reception to this idea is fairly chilly, but a service like this is not far in the future. It is inevitable.

The second thing I've been thinking about is cable television (or satellite television). Speaking to a couple of friends and my parents, I've found that most people spend a lot of money on cable. Most of the people I've talked to spend at least seventy dollars a month including their DVRs.

I was also thinking about Hulu, in light of the Apple rumor, and wondering how much I'd be willing to pay to avoid any advertisements. The advertisements on hulu are limited and (compared to television) very tasteful. But still, I'd probably be willing to pay Hulu ten or twenty dollars a month to rid myself of them, provided Hulu's selection was dramatically expanded.

In light of my willingness to pay for Apple's or Hulu's service, I began wondering if I could get the service now, without doing anything illegal. As it turns out, Apple's iTunes store is a viable option even today if your consumption of video is not that huge.

Consider a cable user like me, paying $60 per month for television. Sie Deen and I only watch a few shows:

* Glee
* Dollhouse
* The Office
* Hell's Kitchen
* House (Sie Deen only)
* Lie to Me (Sie Deen only)

On iTunes, we could own these series permanently for $55 each in HD, or $30 each in SD, which would be less than a month of cable. On the downside, we have to pay to store them on our own media. You can either use DVDs, which are troublesome and can store about four episodes of Glee, a hard drive, or an external Blu-ray drive. An entire season of hour-long episodes in 720p video takes up about 35 GB, or 45 GB if you store the episodes in dual format like iTunes does. A 500 GB hard drive costs about $80 today, so a season-year of storage costs about $2 (assuming a three-year hard drive life) or $4 if you replicate. These costs are falling all the time.

The thing we don't have right now to manage this situation is software. I need backup software that does the following:

* Understands replication of data across more than one hard drive.
* Automatically checks file integrity so that failing hard drives can quickly be replaced to avoid the risk of data loss.

Despite these challenges, I think that for anyone who does not watch sports or like to "browse" television, buying video on iTunes is a compelling alternative to cable already, and is poised to become much more viable as time goes forward.

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted November 27, 2009
// 0 Comments

Fearsome

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   photos  
Posted November 26, 2009
// 0 Comments

I like this hiring poster

For those who haven't seen the movie, it's a reference to District 9.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   photos  
Posted November 24, 2009
// 0 Comments

Atlanta airport while trams are broken

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   photos  
Posted November 22, 2009
// 0 Comments

OMG! Does Apple make more money from their phones than Nokia!? Who cares?

Two guys arguing about an issue neither of them have a stake in. Who cares?

http://www.betanews.com/joewilcox/article/Apple-was-NOT-more-profitable-selling-cell-phones-than-Nokia-in-Q3/1258169110
http://daringfireball.net/2009/11/oh_joe_you_didnt

I can understand liking something a lot and wanting to talk about it. For me, Gruber's . . . enthusiasm . . . for Apple goes way over the line of normalcy. It's weird to "defend" the favored combatant like Gruber does. 

Imagine a bar fight, and one guy is a lot stronger and more skilled than the other guy. Like, Schwarzenegger versus a scrawny fifteen year old. That's like Apple and . . . well, whoever goes against Apple. Then the big guy's groupie-friend is there making sure to push away any other challengers, like he's worried the big guy is going to get hurt. That's Gruber.

Just a little weird is all I'm saying.

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted November 15, 2009
// 0 Comments

Owing Money

People worry a lot about the national debt and who holds it. Often (online) I see people saying, "They're going to buy us!" This I do not really understand.

Suppose you owe someone money. But you have bigger guns than they do, and on top of that you make more money per week with less effort than they can. And you live 7,000 miles away from each other.

Obviously it would be bad for the relationship to go south, because you want to borrow money and the other person wants to lend it. But who really has the power in this situation? The lender, not the borrower, is the one taking the greater risk.

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted October 30, 2009
// 0 Comments

Going Away

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   photos  
Posted October 29, 2009
// 0 Comments

CWI: Coding While Intoxicated

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   photos  
Posted October 29, 2009
// 1 Comment

Dead Space

I just finished Dead Space last night, and I want to say a few words about it. This review contains spoilers, so stop reading now unless you'd like to know the ending. I am really glad that I entered with low expectations especially regarding the game's level of innovation, horror, and cinematic quality. These were lacking, but entering the game with eyes open on that topic made it easier to enjoy.


What the game did have going for it was a huge level of badassness. Isaac Clarke does what every victim of a horror movie should do: he gets armed with a variety of ad hoc but extremely deadly weaponry and protective armor, then proceeds with the task of murdering zombies. All of the weapons felt powerful, and the weapon upgrade mechanic was good. 

One of the key game features, enemy dismemberment, was entertaining throughout, though not perhaps as novel as the game's authors might believe. It wasn't always "new" to see a zombie's limb shatter as a blasted it with a line of plasma. But the challenge of aiming and getting that job done while being assaulted on all sides never got dull.

Thematically, Dead Space was all over the place. You start the game looking at the back of Isaac's head as he and one other crew member are briefed on the status of the Ishimura, a damaged ship orbiting a planet that was being "cracked" for mining. Get ready, because you're going to see a lot of Isaac's back before your ten hour odyssey is over. However, before you can see his face, he dons his engineer's mask, which he wears throughout the game until the end.

Isaac is a mere engineer with no combat training but a familiarity with tools that put to uncommon use can be quite deadly. That said I question the authors' decision-making in interpreting him as a human. By wearing a mask for the entire game and exhibiting no emotional reaction to anything that happens, I began to feel that Isaac was my limb extending into the game world. He doesn't need emotional reactions: I am experiencing whatever feelings he might feel for him. 

Over the course of the game it becomes apparent very quickly to everyone except Isaac's game-internal humanness that his wife is either dead or aiding and abetting the aliens. Which makes it faintly ridiculous when after this is revealed explicitly in the final moments of the game, he puts his hand to his mask like he's sad. Worse was the decision to have him take off his mask in relief after he escapes the planet. I've gone the whole game without seeing this guy's poorly-rendered face. There was no need to change that at the end.

All in all, an enjoyable game with very questionable storytelling. 3.5/5

Playing the Game

While I'm on the topic, a couple of pieces of advice on how to play the game.
  • You only need two guns: the plasma cutter and the line gun.
  • In the same vein, you ought to only buy the guns you want to use. The game has a nice mechanic where it only drops ammunition for guns you own. Buying ammunition is very expensive compared to drops, so stock up.
  • The number of situations in the game (at least on medium settings) where your original health bar is not enough are few. Don't upgrade your suit health until everything else is done.
  • Stasis is your friend. Upgrade your stasis energy early and often, and use it to slow down enemies. When enemies are slow, it's easier to shoot their limbs off, which will in turn help you save ammunition, which in turn pays for the cost of using stasis. Do this especially near locations with free stasis recharging.
  • Likewise, if a suit upgrade becomes available you should make that your first priority. The extra 5% damage reduction from each new armor level are the most valuable bonuses in the game, followed by the expansion to your inventory slots, which armor upgrades also provide. Let me repeat: the two most valuable bonuses in the game are both delivered through armor upgrades, so make sure to do them immediately when new armor is available.
  • Sell extra ammunition and health packs to buy power nodes and upgrade the damage output of your weapons. This will enable you to use less ammunition, and therefore have more extra to sell and buy even more power nodes with.

Loading mentions Retweet
Filed under  //   games   reviews  
Posted October 15, 2009
// 0 Comments

Distracted Sunset

Loading mentions Retweet
Posted October 8, 2009
// 0 Comments