Adam Kantor's Blog

Codec and bit rates.

2009-11-12T09:02:00.002-05:00

Here is a transcript from my morning. While eating my bagel I was testing some video playback on my USB equipped Divx capable DVD player. I was trying to play back a movie but it would only play with the video freezing up every 20 seconds.

Me: This video won’t play on this DVD player.

3yr old: Why not Dad?

Me: Do you really want me to tell you the full reason it won’t play?

3yr old: Yeah.

Me: Ok, I am guessing that whoever encoded this video probably used too high a bit rate when they did it, hence the large file size. The DVD player can play it for a few seconds but then it probably becomes overwhelmed by the bit rate. I don’t think the problem is with the thumb drive though because the audio plays back just fine probably because it was just encoded using something simple like an MP3 codec or maybe even AC3.

3yr old: (after a slight pause) Daddy who are you talking to?

Perhaps I'll try this conversation again when the boy is a bit older.

ER: Not the Show

2009-10-28T08:23:00.001-04:00

I decided to go to UH’s Emerg yesterday to have myself checked out. I’ve been sick for a bit too long and my breathing was getting labored. I have a mild case of asthma and having any respiratory problems combined with the asthma makes for some real misery. I was well prepared for my stay figuring it would last a few hours. Hope filled me up when I walked through the sliding doors and saw only a handful of people scattered around the waiting area. Within minutes the triage nurse was taking my blood pressure, history and temperature. “It’ll be about an hour” he lied with a smile and I headed for a vacant seat.

Knowing my arsenal of time wasting gadgets were laying in wait my head rested back against the cool marble window sill and I closed my eyes and relaxed, pretending that I wasn’t paying attention to my surroundings. More people slowly came in, each a threat to my place in line. I eyed up each trying to ascertain their malady and compare it to my own. I stopped playing that game when I looked at a kid and strained to listen to his father describe his symptoms. “Great” I thought, a kid. “He’s sure to displace me...” This made me feel guilty.

After an hour and a half passed I removed my iPod and was initially excited to find a wifi signal called something like UHPUBLIC. The word public however was just a tease as this network will allow you to join, but not use the internet. It took minutes of watching a spinning progress icon to figure this out. I let out a small sigh and put my iPod back in my pocket since it is quite useless without wifi to steal.

Now, I know I am wrong here but before I left for emerg I checked the battery status of my PSP to ensure it would last long enough to keep me occupied. That being said the battery lasted 40 minutes and then shut itself off. All that was left at this point was going back to pretending to sleep while I secretly watched other people pretend to be sicker than I am.

One couple, who came in behind me, clearly got impatient and started to cough louder and more frequently. The wife approached the triage nurse and said her husband was having more difficulty breathing and the nurse agreed to look at him again to assess the situation. After a brief time he went back to his seat and 15 minutes later the coughing sound left the air. The wait was getting to me because I immediately assumed he got tired of faking.

Other highlights of my wait were the old man in the wheelchair demanding they change the channel because his favorite show “Let’s Make a Deal” was on channel 21. The older couple who spoke so slowly that each of their pregnant pauses would deliver quintuplets. The comical fellow with the green tinted elderly sized sunglasses and enormous walking stick who spoke to everyone within 10 feet and announced to the entire waiting room his arrival and departure to smoke “stogies”.

Three and a half hours after walking though those sliding doors, and approximately two hours after I silently started praying/pleading with God that my name would be called I heard “Adam Kantor” overtake the sounds of people coughing and the overly loud TV which was now showing The Price is Right. An hour an a half after that I walked out of the Hospital and back to my car to head home. It was a long walk through the waiting room trying not to make eye contact with those jealous that I had completed my quest and theirs was just beginning. By this point the room was full of people and I genuinely felt very sorry for those who were now arriving because if my stay was 5 hours long with an empty waiting room theirs was sure to last an eternity.

My Experience with Free Football

2009-10-19T09:17:00.001-04:00

This weekend I tried watching America’s Favorite game for free over the internet and had some mixed results. I went here at around 1pm on the advice of a co-worker who knows I don’t have cable but like football. After looking though all the games I found that very few were actually available to watch. I thought I’d give it some time and come back in half an hour. To my amazement the Browns and Steelers game was there and I clicked the button to start watching. The video quality was pretty terrible but how could I complain. I was able to read the text on the screen and the video played back smoothly. There was only one point at which the stream stuttered and I thought I had lost it but after two minutes of choppiness it came back and worked fine. Then, with eight minutes left in the game the stream dropped and that was that. I tried to reload the page, it did nothing. I tired shutting down my browser and loading everything back up and it also did nothing. Finally I just headed over to NFL.com and looked up the game to see that the Browns lost.

I have no idea what happened with the stream but it did solidify in my mind the necessity for big companies running the show. I hate Rogers, StarChoice, and Bell as much as everyone else but the one thing they have going for them is accountability. If the game cut out on Rogers I could pick up the phone, complain, and they would probably give me some sort of credit towards my next bill. Even if they didn’t I would have the satisfaction of engaging in some sort of action that would make me feel better. Even if all I got was a simple “sorry” I would feel better. From this I have no recourse at all. I don’t know who was streaming the game and even if I did I certainly wouldn’t complain about it. Whoever was doing it was doing it for free. Free. Meaning that this person decided to take the game from live TV and stream it to the internet for no other reason than they wanted to. So in short I would like to say thank you mystery streamer from Pennsylvania for putting most of the game online, but ask that next time, even when the Steelers are winning that you at least give me (a Brown’s fan) those last eight minutes to offer prayers to the football gods for a miracle.

Here’s why I probably can’t attend your event

2009-10-18T13:30:00.001-04:00

I was originally going to write this post in pseudocode but sadly my coding skills are so poor that I would have had to do some actual research to make sure I didn’t screw it up. I can think of at least one person who might read this that would then correct my implementation and then I would have to either say I don’t care, or revise it. To avoid the hassle, I am just going to write this out.

I get invites on occasion to attend some really cool functions and it kills me that I can’t go. The side effect of not going to these functions is that eventually people stop asking. This happened to me during university because in my 2nd year at Laurentian I became intensely anti-social. My first year of university was awash with socialization and alcohol and my grades certainly reflected it. I was under the mistaken assumption that if I tried harder and didn’t party and get drunk I would actually do better. All it really did was put me in a position of becoming a hermit. I often suffered the ridicule of my peers for not joining in the festivities. Then they stopped asking and I alone with my school work that I still didn’t do. It was an unpleasant situation and one that I didn’t wish to repeat.

Here I am 10 years later I find the same thing happening but for different reasons. This time however it’s not do to a lack of want, it’s do to a lack of opportunity. Let me elaborate with by showing you my daily schedule.

2:30am - 4:30am - go in and sleep with my oldest son when he wakes up calling for me in the night

4:45am - 5:30am - wake up and go to the basement to sleep on the couch while my oldest watches TV

6:30am - 7:00am - get ready for work

8:00am - leave for work, the first time of the day where on my 30 minute drive to work I can listen to podcasts or just enjoy the quiet

8:30am - 4:30pm work

5:10pm - get home

5:30pm - feed the kids

6:00pm - give the youngest his bath and get the oldest ready for bed

6:45pm - play with the kids

7:00pm - take my oldest up to bed

7:45pm - start my youngest’s bedtime routine

8:20pm - take my youngest up to his crib

9:10pm - my mom leaves after we finish watching Burn Notice

9:10pm - 10:20pm my time to do anything I want to do

10:20pm - My wife gets home from work

10:20pm - 11:00pm - the time my wife and I get to talk about the day and get ready for bed

11:10pm - sleep (hopefully)

Starting to get the idea? This is every week day save Wednesday when my wife usually has the day off. The only real difference on Wednesday is that my Mom doesn’t come over and my wife and I watch TV while we put out youngest to bed.

So four week nights a week I literally can’t go anywhere and the other night of the week I don’t want to since I actually get to talk to my wife for more than 20 minutes without interruption. The weekends aren’t much better time wise because I feel that my wife needs a break as she is home alone with the kids five days a week. The most I have managed on the weekends by myself is a trip out for a geek meet or two.

So all this being said if I don’t show up when you invite me it isn’t because I don’t want to. Please keep the invites coming and don’t take it personally if I don’t show up. This schedule can’t last forever and eventually I’ll have more time, but for now I’ll use my hour to myself a day to check my news feeds, play some PS3, catch up on my TV shows, and feel bad that I am not clicking that “Attending” button on Facebook.

My Dream

2009-10-13T07:40:00.002-04:00

So I had this great dream last night but it wasn’t without it’s issues. The plot was very convoluted and most of the time I didn’t know what I was supposed to be doing but the action was decent.

My first issue was the camera. I had constant trouble seeing where the enemies were coming from and it resulted in some cheap hit combos. Luckily I didn’t understand the health system so I don’t think it mattered that I took damage. There was a large fight section in my dream that offered a large selection of weapons that were all very easy to use. Once again the camera kept randomly switching between first and third person which was quite disorienting.

The controls were quite intuitive and they literally seemed second nature to me.

The graphics were amazing! Very lifelike and vivid. There was a part where I opened up a portal to travel into the dungeons and it was incredible.

Finally, the story was decent enough and kept me guessing but I’m not sure of the developers choice to create a dungeon crawling brawling shopping simulator. I really enjoyed the part where I managed to fight off 20 guys with nothing more than the large end of a baseball bat but the part where I went video game shopping (?) was too drawn out. Ultimately the dream never seemed to have a resolution or an ending or even a point, but I can see the potential here for future adventures. Work out some of the bugs and I see a real winner here.

Graphics: 10
Gameplay: 8 (some major camera issues)
Story: 5 (Disjointed and confusing)

The IMDB Sales Pitch

2009-10-12T22:50:00.003-04:00

So I was checking out the IMDB tonight and clicking through pics of a film when this popped up:

Request Limit Reached

IMDb aims to be fair to all users. There have been an unusually high number of pages requested by you (or from your organization's web proxy). If you've just been heavily browsing, please take a break for a few minutes before continuing.

If there's a whole team of you browsing heavily and you are all behind a proxy, then please consider utilizing our professional service: IMDbPro.com, the ultimate business resource for entertainment industry professionals... Get a free trial now.

We apologize for the inconvenience.

If you are persistently getting this page, and you really feel that you are not a heavy user, then please cut-and-paste the following (do not alter)

I think at most I was about 10 pictures in... that's considered "an unusually high number of pages requested?" Seriously? Or is this perhaps the most important message they are trying to get across: "then please consider utilizing our professional service: IMDbPro.com, the ultimate business resource for entertainment industry professionals... Get a free trial now." I guess giving them money will make everything ok.

The street value of butter tarts

2009-10-12T14:47:00.000-04:00

What follows is a sample bizarro conversation my wife and I frequently have.

Me: I wanna get high right now.

Wife: There’s butter tarts.

Me: ?.... Ok, since we don’t have any percocet I’ll have a butter tart.

Wife: ?.... (laughing) I thought you said you wanted some pie!

My Sunday.

2009-09-27T22:53:00.002-04:00

Shortly after I woke up I took a nap on the couch while my son watched TV.

After breakfast it was nap time while my other son napped.

After lunch it was Formula One time.

After Dinner it was time to take out the garbage.

After some play, and baths, it was time for bed, but not for me.

After that it was time for someone else to go to bed, but not me.

After Heroes, someone else went to bed, but not me.

Now I am going to bed.

Goodnight.

The Xbox 360 and the Boiler in the Basement

2009-09-10T07:00:00.003-04:00

Years ago I used to live in an apartment with my now wife. It was a nice enough place until things started going downhill and we had to get out. The final straw was the decision to replace the hot water heaters with a boiler. You take hot water pretty much for granted until there isn’t any. Trust me, hot water is not something you ever want to have to worry about. Our unit had a water heater and we always had an ample supply of hot water. The new owners were worried that the heaters were going to blow so they ripped them all out and retro fit a boiler in the basement. If you weren’t up at 3am there wasn’t a chance in hell that you were going to have hot water for a shower. It was around that time we started looking for a house and eventually moved out and started paying money toward owning a home instead renting a declining apartment in a crap neighborhood.

I mention this because it largely mirrors my move away from Microsoft. It started with my rough go with the Xbox 360. I got one a few months after launch and like many of those units it red ringed. I sent it back and got back one with a broken DVD drive. I sent that back and the one I got back also red ringed. It was at this point that I sold any game device I had with a Microsoft logo on it. I got a PS3 and it’s been rock solid since the day I got it. I use it for everything and overall it’s a much better experience. Funny thing is that I was actually anti-Sony for a long time and it was Microsoft’s low quality piece of shit console that got me to give Sony another chance.

Likewise, I have been a PC user for years and I know XP pretty much inside out. When it was time to get another laptop I was depressed to know that anything I got would have Vista on it. I bought and returned a few laptops and none of them impressed me. This isn’t solely Microsoft’s fault because it seems that hardware makers also care very little about their Windows machines. Every laptop I got was underwhelming in appearance, presentation and performance. Annoyed by this I took the plunge and bought a mac. Something I wouldn’t have considered until Microsoft released Vista.

One last mention must be made to Microsoft’s Internet Explorer and the glory of Firefox. I think that the only reason IE has any users is because people like my Mom don’t even know that other browsers exist. IE comes with Windows so why try anything else?

So, whereas I used to use Windows, Office, and play my 360 I am now typing this on my Mac, in Pages (the Apple Word Processor), listening to iTunes and watching my son’s video stream wirelessly to my PS3. I am looking at switching my “server” in the basement to linux and I have already installed Linux Mint on my wife’s old laptop to learn my way around. I know my wife will fight to the death to keep Windows on her machine so I won’t touch that one (but I am hoping to eventually get a nice 20” imac on her desk instead).

I guess in essence this post is a thank you to Microsoft for forcing me to explore other options.

PS. I would also like to thank TerraCorp for buying up the towers at 880 Kipps Lane and installing a boiler.

Street Fighter IV

2009-08-23T22:23:00.004-04:00

I no longer play games to beat them for the satisfaction of completing a game. I now play games so that I can beat them so I can get to EB to trade them in and get more games. As soon as a game is done, it’s in the work bag waiting to se assessed for current market value of which I get maybe $5 towards another game that will depreciate 90% once it leaves the hallowed ground of EB.

But enough about that.

I picked up Street Fighter IV yesterday, and so far I love it. I’ve played the Street Fighter series for a while now but beyond button mashing I’ve never really given it any time. I would load it up, lose, and then play something else. But this time it’s very different. This time I am actually wanting to improve and the main reason is online play.

When I first put in the disc it asked if I wanted to allow myself to be invited to online matches. I said yes and went about playing. Then half way through my match the game informed me that a new competitor has entered the game. I was taken away from my match, and put back at the character selection screen. It was as if someone had just popped a quarter into my PS3 and decided to play against me. I was nervous as I entered the match because I was going to be playing against a real person for the first time since I played the game at the arcade years and years ago. Of course I lost, but I lost spectacularly! I went back to single player but within a half an hour, there I was getting my ass kicked again by someone who initiated an online game.

For now I’ve turned off that feature because I need to improve my skills but if it weren’t for that feature I probably would have played the game for an hour or so and then shelved it like I always do.

The game is gorgeous and plays really well. I do find after a few matches my thumb hurts like crazy from the D-pad. I would like to look at some fighting sticks... but that may bring with it some serious ridicule from my wife who loves video game peripherals almost as much as she likes my Spawn toy collection. I may have to wait with that one.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a (easy) fight and you want to pad your online stats adamkantor on PSN ready for ya. Well not really, but I will be someday!

This is How Cool My Dad is...

2009-08-11T21:38:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow is my Dad’s birthday. He is exceedingly difficult to buy for because, he, like myself buys whatever he needs, when he needs it. What he wants is stuff like happiness and health, to win the lottery, publish his next book, etc which don’t really have a MSRP. So I basically don’t buy him anything, and quite frankly, he’s fine with that (at least that’s what I sell myself).

What my parents started doing about two years ago however is to buy my kids stuff on their birthdays. Not on my kids birthdays, but on their birthdays. So keeping with tradition, my Dad was in TSC today and saw a sale on farm toys and bought a tractor, a trailer, and a mini tractor/book. Three toys, two boys, no problem right? Not so much.

My oldest immediately commandeered both tractor and trailer and my youngest then became unconsolable. He screamed and cried and it was ugly. After a while, in the interest of sharing we told my oldest that he HAD to give up the tractor and trailer so that my youngest could at least see them. Then my oldest became unconsolable. He was thrashing around, screaming and it was painful (mainly because he slammed his head into mine).

Well, my father would have none of this. And by that I mean he hopped right in the car and drove back to TSC to buy another tractor and trailer. How cool is that? Now both boys have the identical tractor and trailer and they played together like I’ve never seen for close to two hours.

This was an important lesson for us for the many Christmas’ to come. Looks like we have to buy two of everything.

Oh, and if you think my boys are spoiled... you’re right.

PS. Happy Birthday Dad.

I seriously have NO luck: Diablo 2 Edition

2009-08-11T08:00:00.002-04:00

I started playing Diablo 2 a long time ago and have never finished it. I owned it before I got married and that was 6 years ago. Now that I have this new mac, and have come to the realization that games simply do not exist for the mac, I’ve decided to start playing Diablo 2 again.

I own a copy of Diablo 2 but it’s for the PC and I wasn’t quite sure how I was going to go about getting it for the mac. After much exploring both legal and otherwise I found a direct digital download version from Blizzard. $20 isn’t bad (well it is considering I already own the game, but...) so I entered my info and started the download. After I got it installed I attempted to add the Lord of Destruction expansion pack from my PC/Mac compatible CD, that’s where things went downhill. See, Diablo 2 is so old that it doesn’t actually support OSX. I was made aware of this when I put in the CD and it told me that the environment was not supported. After some searching I found something called the Diablo 2 native installer. It will allow you to install Diablo 2 and Lord of Destruction on OSX. Here’s the rub. I have a digital download copy and you need the original Diablo 2 CDs to complete the Lord of Destruction install... yay.

So now I am faced with the cost of purchasing Lord of Destruction (again) unless my email to Blizzard pulls a few heart strings and I can get access to a digital download copy of that too. Why does it matter? My old character (Draven), who has been patiently waiting for my return for three years is a Lord of Destruction character, and they aren’t compatible with just Diablo 2.

Thankfully, with all of my recent runs of bad luck and catch 22s I can safely say that this doesn’t surprise me in the least. So wait patiently my dear Draven, Blizzard will soon respond via email to let me know that I have to open my wallet yet again to resurrect you.

The Long Road to Mac

2009-08-10T07:59:00.002-04:00

Thanks to my annual salary increase my wife convinced me to get a new laptop (at least that’s the way I remember it). I haven’t purchased a laptop in a few years and I forgot just how much trouble it can be to get something decent in a market that is so over saturated with products that are so similar.

In certain price ranges the differences are so minimal that basically the only thing that gets changed is the name on the lid. Seems that all laptops these days are dual core, over 2ghz, have at least a 15” screen, have a 250gb hard drive, and have some crap integrated graphics chip.

Admittedly I did have totally unrealistic expectations. My current Acer laptop is a 1.6ghz AMD with ATI graphics, a 250gb drive and a 15” screen. To update that I wanted something with a bigger screen, faster chip, better graphics and more ram, all for under a thousand dollars. Yeah, that wasn’t gonna happen. Turns out the laptop I wanted was either an Alienware or a Asus gaming machine, clocking in at well over $2000.

Since I already have a PS3, a Wii, a PSP, a DS and various other legacy consoles I figured spending over two grand on a new laptop, just to play games wasn’t practical. Which got my thinking, what features don’t I have? This, and a discussion with a friend prompted me to go buy an HP tablet. Drawing on screen was really cool and I found that I did use the tablet feature quite a bit, until it died. I was leery of getting an HP and sure enough I was right. I took the tablet back after 8 days and walked the store for an hour looking for something else to purchase. I left the store empty handed.

Then I went over to Best Buy and had the same thing happen to me. I wandered around looked at all the very similar machines with all their very similar prices and wondered why I even needed a new computer. I found two machines I liked but neither was stellar. One Acer was a slight upgrade from my current one, and the other was actually a downgrade, but it was more of a netbook/laptop hybrid. It was a tough choice because there were fundamentally different ways of thinking. The small one only had a 1.3ghz ultra low voltage chip with fast memory and 8 hours of battery life. The other was actually quite big. It was slightly faster than my laptop in every way. Both were the same price. Since I had ample credit (unfortunately), I bought both to see which one would be better for me.

After three days I was back in the store wandering the isles looking at all the very similar machines thinking that my laptop was good enough and that I should just take my very small salary increase an just pay off some debt. Then I got to thinking, what’s the only other thing I can get that I already don’t have? Then I realized that it was a mac.

I have been wanting a mac for a while now but cost was the sticking point. Also the fact that I didn’t have any mac software. I spoke to a few mac users and they persuaded me with the argument that the mac is a machine that is ready to go out of the box. It comes with just everything you need to work. Further, the mac was an investment. This really stuck with me because the main reason I returned the small Acer (even though I really liked it) was that I just couldn’t see it lasting for more that a year. At that point I would probably start looking for something new again. Everyone I spoke to said that they have been using their macs for years now and that I should consider that into the cost.

It took me two days of deliberation before I decided to take the plunge but I did it. I got a 15” macbook pro, and I love it.

Coming soon: Buying My First Mac: DOA

How I learned to stop worrying and love social interaction

2009-06-22T12:22:00.003-04:00

I’m a very social person, as long as there’s a keyboard and net connection involved. Ever since I had kids I just haven’t had the time to get together with people to hang out. Problem with not having time to spend with people is that they keep asking, you keep saying no, they eventually stop asking. Next thing you know, you don’t have any real friends left.

That’s the great thing about Twitter. It allows you to meet new people and interact with them with little to no expectations. This weekend that all changed with a simple invite to coffee and comic shopping. My first, default reaction was to say that I was busy but after checking with my wife I realized that my Saturday morning was totally clear. There was no reason to not go, so I went.

After parking, and bumping into 5 people I knew from work I got my coffee and looked conspicuous. Problem was that I didn’t actually know what any of the people I was going to meet looked like. After a short time I met up with Jim Dandy who recognized me from my profile pic and we grabbed a table and started talking, not like strangers, but like two like minded geek dads. Then Alpha Geek and Vulcan Ninja showed up followed soon after by Crazylegs. It was really refreshing to talk about geek topics without that feeling that the person you are talking to wants to run away. For example I usually I don’t even mention that I play video games to people because I find it makes them uncomfortable. Not so with this group… I felt like for the first time, in a long time, I could be myself. Mind you I did feel somewhat awkward when I mentioned that my PSP battery was the upgraded 2200mAh for longer life.

After solving the world’s problems and drinking some damn fine coffee we hit some comic shops and then went our separate ways. All in all I had a good time but it did leave me with one question… when can we do it again?

Kids are Not Good for my Health

2009-06-17T10:50:00.001-04:00

While I love my boys very much the toll that they are taking on my health and well being is starting to add up. At first it was just a matter of sleep deprivation. That’s something I can handle as many years of video games experience have kept me up nights and forced me to operate on little sleep. Then there are the bruises and such that comes with roughhousing. I’m a big guy and can easily handle a three year old as long as I’m ready for it.

What no one can prepare you for however is the other stuff. The stuff you can’t see coming. In the last little while I have been to the chiropractor a few times, my GP once, the optometrist once, my dentist, the Ivey Eye institute twice and a TMJ specialist. All that is in conjunction with taking Celebrex daily along with Tylenol.

So what happened you ask? First while I was harmlessly playing with my 10 month old he reached for a toy and when he pulled his hand back ran his fingertip horizontally across my eye. I grabbed my eye, and fell over in pain. My vision was messed up but thanks to the internet it said that it could take a few weeks to heal. After three weeks I went to the optometrist, who immediately referred me to emerg where after two more visits I was told that he had scratched my eye down to what’s called the Bowman membrane. That’s bad by the way. It’s three layers deep in the eye and usually causes scarring. Which is where I am at right now. My vision which was 20/20 in that eye is now 20/40 and I have some double vision. The specialist said it would improve but it would take up to 6 months and even after that, with a stronger prescription by eyesight would only improve to 20/25. Great.

Second, while playing with my older son I got a head butt to the chin. This didn’t bother me at first but after a few days my jaw was sore. After a few more days I couldn’t bite down or eat solid food. After a few Chiropractic visits things got better till I was eating a sandwich and heard a loud crack. Lot’s of pain after that one. So off I went to a TMJ specialist who said that I should be wearing a nighttime mouth splint. Cost … $1500. Super.

Finally, my boys aged 3 and 11 months, weigh in at 50lbs and 30lbs respectively. Each “daddy can I have a stand up hug?” takes a year off the life of my lower back which aches like a bastard every morning now. Which is why I take the Celebrex and Tylenol.

Even though I am only 33 I feel like I’m 55. Hopefully as my boys get older things will improve but right now I’m a mess. Anyone else have any good stories of child related injuries?

Flickr Pro is no longer free with Rogers

2009-05-14T15:45:00.003-04:00

Just got an email that Flickr Pro is no longer being offered by Rogers for free. I'm getting a little tired of Rogers taking things away but still charging the same amount for their services. In light of that I erased my Flickr account and will start using Picasa instead.

Dear Rogers Yahoo! customer,

We are writing to inform you that on July 1, 2009, your Flickr Pro account included with your Rogers Hi-Speed Internet service will change to a free Flickr account. The free Flickr service has many of the same features as Pro, but is subject to some limits.

Your existing photos or videos will not be deleted as a result of this change. If you have more than 200 photos in the free Flickr account, only the most recent 200 are displayed. Other changes include:

• 100MB monthly upload limit (10MB per photo)
• 2 video uploads each month (max. 90 seconds and 150MB per video)
• Only smaller (resized) images accessible (though the originals are saved in case you upgrade later)

If you enjoy the full flexibility and storage capacity of your current Flickr Pro account, you can maintain your Pro account by subscribing directly to the service for $24.95 (USD) a year. Subscribe before September 1, 2009 and get two months free. Click the link below to subscribe:

http://flickr.com/upgrade

For additional information or questions, please visit:

http://help.yahoo.com/l/ca/rogers/flickr/index.html

We want to thank you for being a Rogers Yahoo! customer. It is our pleasure to provide you with an enjoyable online photo experience.

Sincerely,

Rogers Yahoo! Hi-Speed Internet Customer Service

I guess Microsoft doesn't want to hear what I have to say

2009-05-11T11:33:00.003-04:00

Today I tried to send an email to XBOX support to express my concerns over the quality of the XBOX 360's hardware. I filled in the form but when I tried to submit it the form was rejected because the description field had "Invalid characters found in description."

Here is the body of the text:

"I am writing to express my dismay over the lack of quality of the XBOX 360 console. I originally purchased my first XBOX 360 in Feb of 2006. When reports started surfacing about the RROD I purchased an extended warranty to ensure that I would be covered in the event the console failed. Sure enough, that first console did suffer the RROD and I sent it back and promptly received a replacement. The unit I got back was louder than the first, covered in black finger prints, and had a faulty DVD-Rom drive tray. I lived with it for a while and then the drive tray totally failed and wouldn’t open. So I contacted support again and went through the process of getting my third XBOX 360. This past weekend, that XBOX also suffered a RROD and when I contacted support again I was told that my XBOX was no longer covered under warranty and that it would cost 150 CDN to get it replaced. At this point I have totally lost faith in this product and can’t ever see myself owning another MS product."

For the life of me I can't figure out which character is invalid. I guess Microsoft just doesn't want to hear about it.

My brand new Microsoft branded paper weight

2009-05-10T20:56:00.001-04:00

This morning after my son finished up with some Mario Kart I thought I'd play a little Forza 2 with my often neglected 360 racing wheel. After loading up the 360 and getting Forza running, and then selecting my car and track I was on my way. Or so I thought because right after my car was racing down the track at high speed the frame froze and my controller stopped working and the TV fell silent. No big deal, the 360 has locked up on me before. After a reboot, same thing, frozen. After another reboot, nothing at all, just a black screen. On the next reboot I got the RROD.

Sadly I am not new to this. I picked up my first 360 a few months after launch and was pretty lucky for a while. I had heard of the trouble with the red rings so I even bought an extended service contract to cover my ass. Sure enough, my first 360 earned its wings after about a year and a half and I sent it in and got another one with very little hassle. The 360 they sent me back though was covered in black smudges and had a broken DVD-Rom drive. I lived with it for a while but then the drive tray just refused to open. So I sent that one back and got this one that just died. So today I called XBOX support and was told that my warranty was over, and I was no longer covered by the three year RROD defect warranty because they go by the original purchase date. So to get this XBOX fixed it would cost me $150 CDN.

Because of all this I am done with Microsoft and the 360. I mean seriously… 3 XBOXes since launch? I am so pissed at Microsoft for having such a lousy machine. Today I took all my 360 games to EB and traded them. Later I plan to post all my other misc. hardware on kijiji. To anyone considering buying a 360… take a look at the PS3 instead, it's better machine/deal right out of the box.

FOX "news": when you're at the bottom you can say whatever you want

2009-03-23T10:33:00.006-04:00

This video is insulting to the Canadian military and to Canadians in general. Overall I'd say we are pretty good at taking a joke at our expense, when it's funny. The song Blame Canada comes to mind from the South Park Movie. But the attempt at humor in this video did nothing more than piss me off.

I'm a firm believer that pretty much anything is fair game when it comes to comedy but this crosses the line. FOX news is already the laughing stock of the news world and this video just further solidifies it's position at the bottom of the pile.

You can watch the video here.

This cuts a little too close to the bone...

2009-03-18T09:24:00.001-04:00

Resisting Temptation

2009-03-17T09:46:00.002-04:00

I keep thinking that I want an Apple laptop. I occasionally pop by the campus computer store for a quick peek to tease myself but then I come back to reality. I am not the type of person who should own anything made by Apple.

I have an iPod shuffle that my wife got as a Christmas present from work. I was excited to open it up and get some music on there for her. She used it for a brief time when she had to ride the bus to get to work before we had a car and then she shelved it because she just didn’t need it. I occasionally try to use it, but as an MP3 player it’s only good if you want to listen to music in random order. Plus there’s the issue with iTunes. I hate iTunes with a passion because in my mind it totally defies logic. When I have tried to use it in the past it usually ends with swearing and tears. Luckily Winamp can put music on the shuffle.

So I don’t like the Shuffle and I hate iTunes, that’s not enough to mean I shouldn’t get a Mac is it? Well, there was this time I stopped by the Campus Computer Store and logged into the wireless network with my credentials to browse the net on the MacBookPro. When I tried to log off it wouldn’t let me so I rebooted. When it rebooted I was still connected. Then I disabled the wireless card and then re-enabled it and, I was still on the network. Then a technician came over and for an hour tried to get me logged off and he couldn’t. I finally left, worried that anyone who used that laptop would be using at as me. I called ITS and they said that basically once you log in you’re in, the only way to get off is to let it time out. While that seems like a great feature for anyone because of its simplicity, for me it was an hour of frustration.

Then there was this other time I had to edit a video together and all I had available was a G5 workstation. Having never used iMovie before I was worried that I might not get the video done in time. I figured it out pretty quickly but then it crashed on me. I couldn’t figure out how to even reboot the machine. Technician came over and unplugged it. I thought that was a tad harsh. Then it crashed again, and again, and then once more. I thought Macs weren’t supposed to crash at all.

Why are macs so expensive? The hardware in a Mac is nothing special. If you removed the pretty case and OSX you’d be left with a computer that could XP or Vista that would cost, at most $800. What am I paying $1500 for?

Now there’s a new iPod shuffle that apparently needs a special chip in the headphones to control the thing. Meaning that Apple can control who makes their products. That’s fine and all but when I looked for more info Mac people likened it to the time that Apple updated the iPod so that it wasn’t compatible with the older docking stations meaning that people had to buy something new so that it would work.

All of this stuff bothers me quite a bit. I don’t like a company that tells users what they can and can’t do. Isn’t it supposed to be the other way around? I think I know the type of person who is well suited for the Apple culture. It’s the person who loves buying new gadgets. Apple basically facilitates their need to get this stuff. “Ah crap, my new iPod isn’t compatible with this… hon! I have to buy a new docking station, be right back!”

I am not that kind of person. I don’t even own a cell phone let alone have any desire to repurchase working gear just because something new came out. I’m also a cheapskate, looking for deals everywhere. Macs aren’t cheap and they never seem to go on sale.

Here’s one more story to illustrate my point. I spoke to a friend about his brother’s Mac. He said that he updated it and half of his apps stopped working because of a new kernel. The only option was to upgrade to the next full OS version. That would have been fine if he could have bought it anywhere. He couldn’t find it for sale so he just bought the latest version that was out. When he got home and started the installer it told him that his Mac was too old to run it so it couldn’t be installed! So essentially, his options were limited. Get a new Mac or spend more money to try and find the exact version of OSX he needed.

It’s stories like that that make me realize that Macs are not the bastion of perfection they are made out to be. They are just computers, made by computer people who want to make money. They attract a certain kind of user and I’m afraid I’m not that guy. So, do I want a Mac? You bet I do! Will I be happy with it? Probably not.

All is well here in bell

2009-02-15T06:31:00.002-05:00

I love it when a plan comes together.

I removed my previous gripes about Primus because they kinda did come through for us in the end. After I sent the letter about how our service, for lack of a better term, sucked I did hear back from a very nice customer service person named Natalie. She agreed to immediately cancel our service and not charge us the $60 early termination fee. We signed up with Bell right away and in less than a week we were switched.

Clearly there is something wonky about Primus' setup though. My wife phoned me at work to let me know we had switched but she didn't need to say a thing. I could already hear that all the noise and echo on the line was gone. I don't know what Primus is up to but my guess would be that they are massively compressing things way beyond their breaking point, it's just that most people either don't notice or don't care.

Bell is more expensive but at least we are getting what we pay for. Oh, and the best part is that because Primus screwed up our billing it's looking like we are coming out of this with them owing us money.

Whattar You Gonna Do With Your Life!! I wanna rock!!!

2009-01-03T06:58:00.004-05:00

Filtering one's life through their employment history is something best left for job hunting. Despite this I've been tagged to journey down this path. Let's start at the beginning.

Buffalo

- Church custodian at St John's Church. My Dad was the minister and I was 10... it was my first job.

Delhi/Tillsonburg/Simcoe

- Guitarist for the band Nothing Sacred in high school. We played one paying gig. I think we made $50. But it rocked!

- Book store cashier at one of those places that only opens for the Holidays and sells coffee table books about famous wrestlers from the 80's. I was actually told that I wasn't allowed to read on the job. So I brought in my guitar and played it, I was asked to stop that as well.

- Various tobacco farm related jobs: boat driver, primer, puller, planter, and grader. I did it all and still managed to avoid learning how to drive a tractor! I worked in tobacco for seven summers. It paid really well but the work was dirty, hot and tiring.

San Antonio - I lived there for about 6 months but all I could ever get were temp jobs. I went to become a country western singer or a cowboy... neither worked out.

- Shipping and receiving clerk at HP.
- Envelope stuffer.
- Computer technician for some cheque printing company.

Sudbury

- Bouncer at the Towne House Taveren for one night, it was terrifying.

London

- Various design related jobs: Video, Web, Multimedia, PowerPoint etc. I did this freelance for 4 years after I graduated but it just barely payed the bills.

- I currently work at UWO in the Classroom Management Group. We look after all the technology in the classrooms on campus. I've been doing this for 5 years now and I'd gladly work at UWO for another 30 if they'll have me. It's an awesome place to work.

I thank tobacco work and student loans for shielding me from many of the crappy jobs that a lot of my friends had to do. Of course, I'll be paying my student loans well into retirement... so I guess there's that.

Oh, and Ren? I'll pass this onto you now. Cheers!

Nathan Giggles

2008-12-30T08:44:00.003-05:00

I created this video as a test. I shot it on my Canon Powershot Pro 1 and edited it in Premiere and then output it to QT Sorenson video 3.

Fairytale of New York is the best Christmas song EVER!

2008-12-07T07:56:00.001-05:00