Regular readers of either this or my FusionAce "Life" blog will realize that I'm not big on editorials - in fact I've probably written only one so far... the rest have been mostly drivel about every-day life. But tonight - I'm inspired (thanks, biker).
Is technology ruining our sense of interpersonal relationships? Funny this would come up today because I was just reading the latest issue of Legion of Super-Heroes. Old-school fans will recall that the Legionaires inhabit the distant future version of the DC-Universe - several millenia removed from the world of Superman and the Justice League. The premise? What if you lived in a boring world where "patterned behaviour" was the choice lifestyle? What if the most popular choice was to just sit at home and browse the Net instead of actually going out to see people? What if you could do something about it? What if you and your buddies had unusual "powers..." As the tag-line for book reads: "We're so sick of it, we could scream."
In fact this very issue (#4 for those keeping track) starts off with Sun Boy and some fellow Legionaires visiting his folks...
Dad: "Tell them how we met, Dear."
Mom: "In person."
But is all hope for humanity lost? I doubt it. I lean towards to the tech-optomist perspective. Always figured that if we couldn't do it ourselves, technology would help us do it. (But not necessarily do it for us - that's a different story altogether - go see the trailer for Stealth now).
Geeks of a feather:
In the span of 24 hours I met up with a bunch of guys I rarely talk to... true, they mostly came over to my office to get a look at the PSP. But look at it the other way: it's making connections. One of these days I'll be carrying it around in public and some total stranger will hit my wi-fi connection for an impromptu game.
Babou was telling me about a weird World of Warcraft encounter he had last night. A fellow player positioned his character in front of his last night while Babou was in the middle of something (reading a manual, I think he said). The stranger broke out in a fit of virtual laughter. Unsure what to make of the jolly creature in front of him, Babou opened a chat window with the stranger and joked: "Do I know you? Maybe I'd recognize you better naked." 'Lo and behold, the other player used some kind of preset macro to strip all the clothing off his character...
They decided to sit their characters down at the local bar and start chatting together. While this was going on, another character - this time a female version of the same creature walked over and danced for them a little. Babou made his character applaud.
All this made him realize something: even without the actual gameplay of going out into the virtual wilderness to slay virtual beasts and whatnot, the game had become its own entity. It was a platform on which he was just having a good time communicating with folks just like him around the world. Sometimes the best part of that was just knowing that there are indeed real people just like you out there.
Call me wishy-washy. But geeking out brought Starfish, Babou (his wife included), and myself closer together...
Thursday, March 31, 2005
Wednesday, March 30, 2005
PSP Video 9 - the next essential conversion tool?
If you read my other blog you may notice FusionAce had a pretty heavy day today... lots to folks to speak to and catching up on work and such. What I didn't mention over in the F-A office-blog is that the PSP was a huge hit for all my visitors. Starfish was suitably impressed (you'd think that an avid gamer like him would've been up-to-speed with the latest gadgets... he's not). Even U.D.G. took one look at it and said, "hey - I approve ...make a lot more sense than that DVD player you wanted to put in your car!" ^o^;
Came home eagerly to try something new: PSPvideo9
This is a tiny little freeware app used for converting typical AVI files into the appropriate format recognized by the PSP's video hardware. The result? Download the usual DiVx file of whatever, watch it on the go.
The downside to all this: well, the files are going to be media files regardless of conversion. That is, you'll be buying a rather large Memory Stick Duo at some point in the near future. The standard 32mb card that comes bundled with the PSP is just enough for... oh about 5 minutes of video give or take.
The app itself is pretty straight-forward and is about as user-friendly as possible. With a little bit of tweaking during setup, it'll even copy your files over to your PSP when the encoding is done.
That said, it does have its own shortcomings. The first I encountered was that the interface did not allow me to tweak the final resolution of the video. Presets are great for 4:3 sizes and 16:9 but true widescreen was nowhere to be found. With the help of previous forum-users, I pieced together how to edit FFMPEG custom flags in the XML file (the explanations on the forum don't seem to apply to the current version of PSPVideo9).
Am I happy with the result? Sure... will I keep using this app? Probably. Would I recommend the app? Yup. Do you have a PSP for yourself? you should... ^_^
Came home eagerly to try something new: PSPvideo9
This is a tiny little freeware app used for converting typical AVI files into the appropriate format recognized by the PSP's video hardware. The result? Download the usual DiVx file of whatever, watch it on the go.
The downside to all this: well, the files are going to be media files regardless of conversion. That is, you'll be buying a rather large Memory Stick Duo at some point in the near future. The standard 32mb card that comes bundled with the PSP is just enough for... oh about 5 minutes of video give or take.
The app itself is pretty straight-forward and is about as user-friendly as possible. With a little bit of tweaking during setup, it'll even copy your files over to your PSP when the encoding is done.
That said, it does have its own shortcomings. The first I encountered was that the interface did not allow me to tweak the final resolution of the video. Presets are great for 4:3 sizes and 16:9 but true widescreen was nowhere to be found. With the help of previous forum-users, I pieced together how to edit FFMPEG custom flags in the XML file (the explanations on the forum don't seem to apply to the current version of PSPVideo9).
Am I happy with the result? Sure... will I keep using this app? Probably. Would I recommend the app? Yup. Do you have a PSP for yourself? you should... ^_^
Monday, March 28, 2005
Bleah ...am I out of it
Labels:
life
Feeling out of sorts now that it's Monday and I'm still not at work. Still got 2 days off that I can blow - and not sure what to do with them. And this morning I couldn't even post comments right on other bloggers' pages.
Got word from the Babous that thay cancelled their anniversary trip yet again. *sigh* I feel for them as they are the one couple who can never get a break. I was just saying to them the other day that I should probably visit more often and play with the kids a bit more - y'know, just to give the little ones someone other that themselves to socialize with.
Maybe next weekend...
Played a game of WH40K last night. Damn it - I really need to read the rulebook more often just to get the games going a little faster. After only 3 turns I decided to call it quits (it was midnight: we started around 9pm). Sheesh. It didn't help that I was still running on lack of sleep from the previous night.
Anywho... sounds like my brother just got up (not sure if up means "alive" or just "not asleep." Gonna go bug him for a while...
Got word from the Babous that thay cancelled their anniversary trip yet again. *sigh* I feel for them as they are the one couple who can never get a break. I was just saying to them the other day that I should probably visit more often and play with the kids a bit more - y'know, just to give the little ones someone other that themselves to socialize with.
Maybe next weekend...
Played a game of WH40K last night. Damn it - I really need to read the rulebook more often just to get the games going a little faster. After only 3 turns I decided to call it quits (it was midnight: we started around 9pm). Sheesh. It didn't help that I was still running on lack of sleep from the previous night.
Anywho... sounds like my brother just got up (not sure if up means "alive" or just "not asleep." Gonna go bug him for a while...
Sunday, March 27, 2005
My feel-good morning
Happy Easter folks. Got up at 9:30am this morning - which is (somewhat unbelieveably) the latest I've slept in for quite some time.
So after going out for local cuisine (ie: greasy-spoon) ^_^;
...ran out at got that PSP I wanted. Sweetness. And timing worked out great. I was able to get a hold of an old college buddy who still lives in the area. So I left the new gadget charging and headed out to spend the evening with them. When I got home later (about half past midnight) I was told there had been a power blackout... so my brother had the opportunity to watch a movie on my new gadget. Yay.
As for myself - the evening was very nice. Didn't catch up on as many details as I wanted (what do you expect - hadn't seen them in like 2 years). But what the hell, I had a good time.
This morning - just bummed around. My parents and I watched a few movies ...typical. What else to do on a day off... I guess my folks are just glad to be off their feet for 24 hours.
So after going out for local cuisine (ie: greasy-spoon) ^_^;
...ran out at got that PSP I wanted. Sweetness. And timing worked out great. I was able to get a hold of an old college buddy who still lives in the area. So I left the new gadget charging and headed out to spend the evening with them. When I got home later (about half past midnight) I was told there had been a power blackout... so my brother had the opportunity to watch a movie on my new gadget. Yay.
As for myself - the evening was very nice. Didn't catch up on as many details as I wanted (what do you expect - hadn't seen them in like 2 years). But what the hell, I had a good time.
This morning - just bummed around. My parents and I watched a few movies ...typical. What else to do on a day off... I guess my folks are just glad to be off their feet for 24 hours.
Saturday, March 26, 2005
Hmm... car blocked in - lonely Saturday morning
Must be my 9-5 existence intruding on my weekend life. As usual I'm the first one up when I come home to visit my folks. Naturally, if I figure to go gas up (avoiding daytime traffic of the sleepy small-town environment), I can't. Can't even wash my car.
Hmm... I wonder - maybe that should be on my to-do list. Y'know - just water down the dirt and salt that's accumulated during the winter. Doesn't even need soap.
Which reminds me - I bought a carwash ticket at the station near my office the other day. It's March now - and the ticket indicates an expiry date for June! WTF? Whatever, I aim to use it next week anyway.
Heh - with a cheque for a few hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket I've taken to day-dreaming about all the cool sh*t I could waste it on. The curse of the tax refund - knowing that the money was yours all along and that the government is just returning it to you. And knowing that means: "it's as good as spent."
My brother was showing off his new digicam last night. Pretty slick little Kodak. I want one now.
It's either that or perhaps that neat PSP I've heard so much about. Saw it on a store shelf just yesterday. Oooh.... sweetness. Now that the "real-world" reviews are in (don't really trust those big-name professional reviews), I'm pretty much sold. Especially since they've got that limited edition bundle available that comes with the Gretzky-endorsed hockey game.
Oh yeah - did I mention? That silly Canadian Tire -edition MasterCard arrived in the mail this week. I believe you get 1% CT Money on purchases not made at a CT store. So I figure slapping a $300 goody like a PSP on it means I'm entitled to a free bottle wind-shield washer fluid. And you know - you can never have too much washer fluid. ^o^
Should check the weather but I think it's a balmy 2 degrees plus at the moment... just good enough that I won't turn the car into an ice-cube if I water it down... ^_^
Hmm... I wonder - maybe that should be on my to-do list. Y'know - just water down the dirt and salt that's accumulated during the winter. Doesn't even need soap.
Which reminds me - I bought a carwash ticket at the station near my office the other day. It's March now - and the ticket indicates an expiry date for June! WTF? Whatever, I aim to use it next week anyway.
Heh - with a cheque for a few hundred bucks burning a hole in my pocket I've taken to day-dreaming about all the cool sh*t I could waste it on. The curse of the tax refund - knowing that the money was yours all along and that the government is just returning it to you. And knowing that means: "it's as good as spent."
My brother was showing off his new digicam last night. Pretty slick little Kodak. I want one now.
It's either that or perhaps that neat PSP I've heard so much about. Saw it on a store shelf just yesterday. Oooh.... sweetness. Now that the "real-world" reviews are in (don't really trust those big-name professional reviews), I'm pretty much sold. Especially since they've got that limited edition bundle available that comes with the Gretzky-endorsed hockey game.
Oh yeah - did I mention? That silly Canadian Tire -edition MasterCard arrived in the mail this week. I believe you get 1% CT Money on purchases not made at a CT store. So I figure slapping a $300 goody like a PSP on it means I'm entitled to a free bottle wind-shield washer fluid. And you know - you can never have too much washer fluid. ^o^
Should check the weather but I think it's a balmy 2 degrees plus at the moment... just good enough that I won't turn the car into an ice-cube if I water it down... ^_^
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
