Friday, August 18, 2006

Dilemma

Ah the dilemma: Gaming has been part of my entertainment since I first saw a computer in the early 80's. Perhaps i'm too old for video games, but are they worse than the junk on TV? I watch NO TV, Games are my entertainment. But i'm an OSX user, so how does that fit? A few games (like World Of Warcraft) run great on OSX, but most generally arent made for it. So I have a number of options:

1) Dual Boot -- thanks to the intel macs and decent graphics support, this is now an option, but still Laptops arent going to keep up with the technology needed for the latest games

2) Console -- XBOX360/PS3 are appealing, but i've been using Keyboard/Mouse for more than a decade and some game types like the MMORPGs arent supported. The ability to sell back games once you're done is nice and some game types arent available or as good on the PC (arcade racing etc)

3) Windows XP/Vista game machine -- this is what I have now. Its in the basement which is cold, but when used solely as a game machine its been ok. The HW is a couple years old now (Athlon 64, 6800GT card, 1GB memory) so it could use a refresh. It also needs to come upstairs, its just too cold down there. But then you have to do the normal windows system admin stuff that is just a pain. On OSX you spend maybe 5% of your time doing admin stuff, on Windows its more like 50% in my experience (i'm a tweaker so that doesnt help, but in OSX there's just no need).

So which way do I go? For now i'll keep the Windows thing limping along (perhaps with some hand-me-down upgrades) and we'll see what the ps3 looks like in the fall. The consoles are now in the PC price range and you can do a very nice upgrade to a PC for the cost of either leading console...


Thursday, August 17, 2006

VZ Navigator

Ok, finally the apps are catching up with the technology. Verizon has
an App I just latched onto called VZ Navigator, works on my RazR V3c.
Its a handheld GPS. Fully featured, voice directions, maps, lookup
points of interest etc. And its always on you and in your pocket. Why
pay $2,000 to the car vendors for the option when this exists? It
works, the maps are good, the response is good. Its only a matter of
time before they give it more accuracy with cell phone tower
triangulation etc. Forget the privacy concerns, i'm no longer LOST!