Thursday, October 04, 2007

Halo 3 Annihilates All

The following quote is taken from Halo 3 : Biggest Day in U.S. Entertainment History.

Microsoft today announced that Halo® 3 has officially become the biggest entertainment launch in history, garnering an estimated $170 million in sales in the United States alone in the first 24 hours. The Xbox 360™ title beat previous records set by blockbuster theatrical releases like Spider-Man 3 and novels such as Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

Impressive for a video game. I picked up my copy at the company store on opening day at 9am. Halo 3 is a decent game for some mindless shoot-em-up fun, and the campaign is decent, though nothing spectacular. Overall, I think it's a worthwhile purchase for anyone who wants varied online gaming of the FPS sort.

Thursday, September 13, 2007

TechShop

This deserves a mention: check out TechShop, a fully equipped shop were you can go and use equipment in the same way you might use fitness equipment at your local gym. Very nifty idea. I'd love to see one of these pop up near me.

Tuesday, September 11, 2007

Xbox 360 Elite

Finally picked up an Xbox 360. I have to say, the 360 is hands down the best Microsoft product I've ever used. It's such a tightly integrated experience. Consoles have come a long way, and I'm impressed. Xbox Live and the ability to easily find friends, see what they are playing, and hop into matches is great.

Here's a photo of the 360 Elite:



Here's the Xbox dash running in HD through an HDMI cable on my 42" 1080p LCD (click photo for larger image):


The only con for me is the fan noise, but it's only noticeable with the volume down.

Wednesday, August 29, 2007

Must Play Games for the Next Year

Saw some demos for these games in this year's Penny Arcade Expo, and I'm taking note. Here's what I'm looking forward to:

Here's a list of some games that are already released and might be worth checking out:

Sunday, April 29, 2007

Longhorn Beta 3 Available for Download

The beta for the next Windows Server release, codenamed Longhorn, is now available for download. Link to the Longhorn Beta 3 Download.

This is what I've been slaving over for the past four months. I'm not kidding when I say this is a product made of hard work and long hours, and this is only the beta. Now begins the long road to RC1 and RTM.

Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Office Prank

Henry and his coworkers take the credit for this one. They did this to their lead's office before he came back from vacation.










As part of the prank, they pretended to double him up with a new hire. You can see her desk in the last picture. The boa and pink purse were suppose to be her items. The tin foiling was a misdirection and because of it he actually believed he was doubled up. Best part? His reaction was caught on a hidden web cam.

Sunday, February 11, 2007

My Office Mini-Fridge


What else would I have in my mini-fridge?

Snow


Took this photo back on January 11. Click it for the higher res version.

Saturday, February 10, 2007

Windows Vista Hands-On Pictorial

Windows Vista Hands-On Pictorial - Featured at GameSpot

This is actually a pretty decent and quick overview with screenshots of some of the new Vista features. Keep in mind this barely scratches the surface (most people have no clue about what's really new in Vista), but it's at least nice to see a couple good shots.

Friday, February 02, 2007

Handcrafted Vista




Pics of the special edition of Vista given to employees on launch week. I haven't actually opened it yet. Maybe I'll post pics of what's inside later (like anyone really cares).

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Windows Vista

Released to consumers today. Official web page.

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

Great Example of Northwest Snow Failure

Want to see how people in the Northwest really fail when it comes to snow? Watch this video of car after car sliding into each other. You won't believe this. Cars slide all the way down roads, hitting every parked car along the way. Piles form at the bottom of hills.

Taken in Portland, Oregon:

The second video starts the same, but at the end shows the aftermath of cars hitting a fire truck.

To be fair, the roads were iced over and probably on a minor slope. That's the only way a car could slide sideways that slow for that long (as seen in the vid). However, that does not excuse the terrible performance of the drivers, hitting the brakes and gas at all the wrong times.

Also, Portland should have had the forsight to at least salt and sand the roads. Sadly, they probably don't even have such equipment and supplies, and even if they did, I doubt they'd know what to do with it. Putting salt and sand on the roads is a concept barely understood by natives of the Northwest.

Keep in mind, this isn't all that far from Seattle, and roughly the same kind of thing happens here when it snows.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

Witness Seattle and Washington Failure


It's snowing in the Seattle metro area, and you know what that means - society ceases to function, cars get abandoned on the highway, 10 minute commutes take 3 hours, all business and schools close, and failure spreads with every snow flake. In general, the state just breaks itself from the inside out. All of this because of a couple inches (yes inches) of snow.

We all know what happened in the last "state of emergency," power took a week to fully restore and idiots killed themselves by running generators inside their homes, producing "what was 'quite possibly' the worst storm-related carbon-monoxide poisoning disaster in the United States, according to an official at one Seattle hospital" (MSNBC). In all seriousness, condolences to those families, but please people don't be that stupid, read these safety tips.

Washington, please don't fail in another snow or wind storm. It's starting to drive me crazy.

Hundred Greatest Theorems

This is pretty nifty. A list of the 100 greatest theorems ever.