It’s just a ride….
I’ve decided to actually update my gallery with some new pics. I’ve neglected it for quite some time but now I’ve moved it over to gallery2 and posted a ton of pics. Check it out!
As I take more pics, I’ll add more but for now that’s the best I have to offer.
Yes, I’ve purchased some new “geek stuff” lately that I’m rather happy with.
First off, I got a new router. Mind you, I didn’t NEED a new router, but I wanted one. I was using an older Netgear WGR-614 for my home network, which did the job fairly well. I had a few issues with it here and there where I would have to reboot it after some heavy bittorrenting and the port forwarding functions completely stopped working until I reset it to factory defaults and set it up again but other than that, it worked fairly well. However, I figured it was about time to upgrade despite not really having a NEED to do so.
This time, instead of going with previous-generation wireless I decided to go ahead and jump into the next-gen stuff. I opted for the D-Link DIR-655, which is a Draft-n router. Admittedly, I don’t have any draft-n equipment yet but I figured it’ll be nice to have when I do decide to get the card for my laptop and the home wireless media extender to go with it. In any case, the router is pretty fucking pimp. It supports Draft-N, which has a theoretical max speed of 300mbps (though closer to 100mbps in practice), has 4 gigabit ethernet ports (most only support 100mbps) and supports “Intelligent QOS” which allows latency-sensitive packets (gaming & VOIP) to be passed through first-priority over other things such as FTP downloads and bittorrent. In practice it seems to work, as I was uploading around 45kB/sec on bittorrent from my desktop pc and not causing undue lag for my friend playing counterstrike. The router has quite possibly the most configuration options I’ve seen on a router so far, even allowing you to manually specify packet priority in the options for the intelligent QOS. It does support automatically updating dynamic DNS services, automatic firmware update notification, along with WEP, WPA and WPA2 encryption. It has 3 external antennae which should in theory boost signal strength but with my internal Centrino wireless it doesn’t appear to have made much difference so far. I mean, maybe a little bit but signal has already been so good in my apartment that any improvement in signal strength wouldn’t net any sort of performance improvements. In any case, I’d like to get the wireless media extender to hook up to my TV in the near future. Then I could just download movies to my PC and watch them on my TV, thanks to Windows Media Connect. I’d also like to snag the 2-bay Network Storage Enclosure and stick a couple of SATA hard drives in it (two of the new 1TB drives from Hitachi, perhaps).
Also, I decided it was time for a digital camera. I found a great deal on a Panasonic Lumix TZ-1 camera for $199. It’s a 5MP camera with a 10x optical zoom, which is pretty much unheard-of in such a small camera. All the reviews I’ve read of it have given it high marks and I thought having a 10x zoom and anti-shake technology would make taking nice pics even easier. I haven’t gotten to test it out yet since my SD card hasn’t arrived yet. However, I’ll be sure to report my findings once I get the card. So far from toying around with it, it appears it’ll be a sweet camera. More to come on this one later. 
…. and not a PS3… and here’s why.
1) The Xbox 360 has more good games out, period. Gears of War, anyone? Forza 2 is coming up. Project Gotham 3 looks simply badass. I could go on and on.
2) It’s $399, ready to go. Admittedly, buying an extra controller, wifi adapter, etc. will run your total cost close to quadrupe digits, but it’s worth every penny.
3)Xbox Live. It kicks ass, period. Voice chat with fellow players, game downloads, exclusive content for games, movies, tv shows, movie trailers… all kinds of cool stuff. Worth the money if you ask me. It’s infinitely better than what Sony has to offer online. Hell, Sony doesn’t even have a unified buddy list system such that you can only see who’s online playing the same game as you. Fucking idiotic!
4) IPTV is coming. Streaming TV to your xbox… pimp shit, I’m sold!
5) HD-DVD is optional, not mandatory. I don’t have to pay the extra money for the drive if I don’t need it just yet. Granted, I’ll end up buying it at some point… just not right off the bat.
Having said all that, the Xbox isn’t without its flaws. Yes, it’s loud as piss and runs so hot you could cook eggs on the CPU. I frankly don’t care. I have a home theater system that would have no trouble drowning out any noise it makes. It doesn’t support HDMI, but Microsoft has already said that it would be possible to do in the not-too-distant future. It doesn’t support 1080p; fine by me, I don’t have a TV that can display 1080p. The PS3’s piano black finish is infinitely sexier and it has triple the hard drive space. I can live with that… MS has even hinted at a new revision of the 360 that will include HDMI and a 120GB drive. I hate to say it but MS really seems to have an answer for everything Sony has tried. We’ll see how this all pans out but I really think the PS3 isn’t going to dominiate the market like the PS2 did.
Ok, to be truthful, Comcast DOES have HD channels, just not enough.. That’s my issue. I don’t have HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, etc. so I miss out on a few more HD channels that I normally would have. Being that as it is, I get maybe 12-15 HD channels…. totally not enough for my tastes. What sucks is that now that I have HD, I really don’t like watching standard def TV anymore. The picture quality is really lackluster in comparison. Watching football in HD on ESPNHD is freaking amazing. Even Discovery HD Theater is fucking awesome. I’d really like to see more than ESPN and ESPN2, INHD, Discovery HD Theater, MHD (Music Hi Definition, a combo of VH1, MTV, CMT) and my locals in Hi-Def. I really wonder whether the issue is Comcast not offering the channels or the networks not broadcasting in HD. Hopefully once the digital mandate goes through and networks stop broadcasting in analog, it’ll free up some bandwidth to broadcast more in HD. Obviously in a perfect world, every channel would have its HD equivalent and thus all my channels would be in HD. I mean, I could understand leaving off the inspirational/religious channels and maybe all the home shopping channels. They could stand to be in standard def since nobody really gives a shit about them anyway. Other than that, give me all my channels in HD, please. Hell, I paid $750 for a TV plus $25 for a stupid HDMI cable and I’m paying extra monthly fees for the HD/DVR box. Give me my money’s worth, Comcast! Hell, Dish Network offers 30 HD channels. Surely they don’t have exclusive rights on ALL those channels. Unfortunately I live in an apartment complex and my southern view is blocked by a HUGE tree, so no Satellite for me. Honestly I may look into it when we move, but I’m not sure just yet. I just want more HD, damnit.
