Game Consoles

Published
by
mr.flarp
on November 25, 2008
in games
. 1 Comment

So… I finally broke down and bought a Xbox 360 this past weekend… When this current generation of gaming consoles emerged in 2005-2006, I fully expected I would end up with a PlayStation 3 based on the brand’s 10+ year reign as my console of choice. The Xbox 360 wasn’t even in the realm of consideration.

The vast majority of the video games I play are RPGs, and since Sony first released the original PlayStation, they have basically owned that entire market. Given the overwhelming success of the PlayStation and PS2, I  expected Sony to remain at the top of the market. A superior hardware platform and a solid history of strong, exclusive titles all but promised the PS3 its continued position as *the* game console for RPG gamers.

But things did not turn out as expected.

Due to all the new technology (Cell CPU, Blu-Ray optical drive), the manufacturing cost of the PS3 skyrocketed, which caused the platform to hit the market at $500-600 USD (compared to the $300 initial price for the PlayStation and PS2). The new Cell processor also proved challenging to developers, resulting in longer development times and slower game releases. The sticker shock coupled with the lack of any interesting release titles put off the PS3 for me when the console finally hit the shelves in November 2006.

A year later, they dropped the price to $400-500, which was a little bit more palatable, but in the process, they crippled the single most important function of a game console - the ability to play games. Backwards compatibility with PS2 games was reduced and ultimately removed as the PS3 transitioned from its initial release version to its next generation. Software developers still weren’t getting many titles released, which resulted in a weak game selection for the most expensive of the generation’s game consoles. Since I wasn’t in any hurry and there weren’t any of my “must have” titles out yet, I decided to wait it out, hoping time would fix the PS3’s problems: game selection, cost, and function (namely backwards compatibility).

Another year has passed, and still little relief in the Sony corner. They’ve finally put out a couple of good, strong exclusives (Disgaea 3, Metal Gear Solid 4), but during the interim, lost a couple of their major mainstays (Final Fantasy is going dual-platform, and Star Ocean is now a Xbox exclusive). Hironobu Sakaguchi, creator of Final Fantasy, started a new company Mistwalkers, which has also gone Xbox exclusive.

So, finally, one of my “must have” games is just over the horizon, namely Star Ocean 4, and it happens to be a Xbox exclusive now. That, coupled with my interest in the two Mistwalker releases, a couple other dual-platform releases, and that the Xbox360 Pro is half the price of the PS3, finally pushed me over the edge to get the Xbox 360. I still expect to get a PS3 at some point, but for the time being, I’ve gone over to the dark side…

Mail-In Rebates

Published
by
mr.flarp
on November 14, 2008
in general
. 2 Comments

I don’t like mail-in rebates. I never have. Recently, I came across an article on [H]ardOCP regarding the financial collapse of one of the largest mail-in rebate (MIR) centers for computer products.

For anyone who hasn’t dealt with these before, it basically goes like this… First, you buy something and generally pay more for the product up-front. Then, you cut out the proof-of-purchase, photocopy the receipt, fill out a form, and mail it all to the manufacturer (or reseller, or 3rd party rebate center). If all goes well, in 8-12 weeks, you will receive a check in the mail to offset a percentage of the register price of the product. In the end, the total cost of the product typically comes out significantly cheaper than regular retail price (and usually a bit cheaper than traditional sale prices too).

On the surface, it sounds like a good deal. All you need is a little patience and to deal with a little hassle, and you can get stuff for much less than normal retail price. Unfortunately, it doesn’t always work out that way. Despite my dislike for them, I have dealt with MIRs several dozen times in past years for a variety of products. In the end, I’ve probably even come out ahead in regards to MIRs versus discounts at the register, even with the rebates that were rejected. So why the disdain?

The first and foremost reason has to do with the fundamental strategy that businesses exploit for the MIR model to even exist - the non-payment of rebates. The businesses are counting on consumers to either forget, discard, incorrectly complete the rebate form, or any number of other factors which saves them from having to pay out. For this model to succeed, some consumers must get screwed.

Having failed to receive a number of my MIRs, I’ve had to deal with some rebate center folk before. The companies’ goal to not pay out the rebates was echoed clearly in the belligerence of their customer service representatives. Without going into all the gory details, on multiple instances, even having photocopies of all the materials submitted (original receipt, proof-of-purchase, correctly filled-out rebate form, etc.) failed to convince the rebate center phone operators that the mistake was on their side and that they should honor the rebate submitted. Although fairly infrequent (maybe 1 out of 10 times), the frustration of dealing with these incidents has more than negated the financial incentive of all my overall experience dealing with MIRs.

The other annoyance I have with the MIR process is the wait time. 8-12 weeks just seems excessive. I can speculate as to why they have that delay (investing the funds, earning interest/dividends, etc.), but as a consumer, I’d like to see the “savings” fall more in line with mail delivery expectations (since that is the transport medium of these checks). I’d be more than willing to forgive the long lag time if the companies and rebate centers demonstrate a good faith effort to make sure all rebates are paid out, but that just doesn’t seem to be the case.

I understand that the companies’ primary objective is to make money, and the MIR program must remain true to that goal for it to even exist. In fact, I want the companies to earn profit, so they can continue to develop and produce products that I consume. I just prefer if they do so through an honest approach, not one that fundamentally creates an antagonistic relationship between themselves and their customers.

My Work Commute

Published
by
mr.flarp
on November 6, 2008
in work
. 3 Comments

For the past few weeks, just out of curiosity, I have been tracking the time it take to drive the different segments of my morning commute. I was curious to see what the actual impact of rush hour traffic had on my commute. There are two different routes I take in the mornings depending on when I leave home.

Route #1 (leave after 8:45am)
Neighborhood roads / access road 1.3 mi
Highway (183 S) 5 mi
Highway (I-35 S) 4.5 mi
Access roads / local roads / campus 1.2 mi
.
Route #2 (leave before 8:45am)
Neighborhood roads / access road 1.3 mi
Highway (183 S) 4 mi
Local roads (Lamar/Guadalupe) 5 mi
Campus 0.5 mi

Under ideal conditions (i.e. little to no traffic and favorable stoplight timing), route 1 takes about 12 minutes total and route 2 takes about 20 minutes total. These are based off times I’ve had to drive into work in the middle of the night or during weekend maintenance windows (7AM Sundays), when there is almost nobody else on the road.

On a typical morning commute, my average travel times for the different legs of route 1 break out to 2, 11, 13, and 5 minutes respectively. For route 2, it breaks out to 2, 13, 18, and 2 minutes respectively. Attempting route 1 before 8:45am results in at least 50 minutes commuting, so I don’t even try that anymore. After getting to campus, it takes, on average, another 3 minutes circling the parking garage to find a spot (about 0.5 mi).

On a typical week, I’ll take route 1 three times and route 2 twice. Occasionally route 2 will get used more if people schedule me for earlier morning meetings. My return trip home almost always follows route 1. Because I tend to leave campus pretty late, I avoid afternoon rush hour (although I sometimes run into dinnertime traffic). Those trip tend to take only 15 minutes.

So, multiply all that out by 48 work weeks (52 weeks minus university holidays, vacation, etc.), and that comes out to about 2885 miles/142 hours for morning and 3000 miles/60 hours for evening commutes. That’s over five full-time work weeks over the course of the year just going to and from work.

Flip Happy Crepes

Published
by
mr.flarp
on October 26, 2008
in food
. 1 Comment

Several friends and I ate at Flip Happy Crepes to celebrate a friend’s birthday. Flip Happy Crepes was featured on the Food Network show Throwdown with Bobby Flay and boasts “The Best Crepes This Side of France“. So, does this little trailer live up to the hype?

Well, the crepes were delicious. I had a roasted chicken followed by a Nutella and bananas crepe. Both were very tasty and came in generous portions at a reasonable price. Not having a very broad basis for comparison, I don’t know how it really compares to other places that serve crepes, but I thought the food was very good. Compared to the two other places I remember (one in Las Vegas and one in Japan), I must say that the crepes at Flip Happy Crepes were superior.

The only downside I can think of has to do with their logistics. It seems they are a victim of their own success. Located on a small lot amidst several other restaurants and commercial establishments, parking and seating proved challenging. Ordering and food preparation also took a very long time. We arrived at little after noon, ordered by about 12:45pm, and didn’t start getting our food until almost 2:00pm. I’ll admit it was worth the wait, but two hours on an empty stomach was difficult to endure.

So, if you’ve got a couple of hours to spare and want some very tasty crepes, I’d recommend checking this place out.

Austin Asian American Film Festival

Published
by
mr.flarp
on October 15, 2008
in movies
. 0 Comments

From October 9-12, I attended the Austin Asian American Film Festival. I was recruited in early August to help them migrate their web site from one server to another and ended up staying on to help develop and maintain the site. Not being a web guy by any stretch of the definition, there were some learning curves I had to overcome. The entire site (and 3rd party application suites we used) was all in PHP with almost all formatting handled via CSS. The last time I’ve really tried to “design” a web site was in my undergraduate days using sloppily coded HTML that the W3C validator would probably look at and return an embedded audio clip of hysterical laughter. While I’m still far from being a web guy, I can at least say I’ve helped run a modern web site.

About the festival itself… The majority of the films were hosted at the Alamo Village theater with parties and receptions at various other sites around town. I watched a couple dozen films (including the shorts) in all, but I must say that my favorite film from the festival was the documentary Hollywood Chinese by Arthur Dong, which opened the festival at the Alamo Ritz. Being more of a fan of mindless action and special effects when it comes to entertainment on the big screen, I had some reservations about sitting through a 90 minute documentary exploring the portrayal of Asians in films from the early 1900’s through the present. Instead, I was pleasantly surprised by it.

Hollywood Chinese consists mostly of film segments tied with interviews of actors, actresses, and directors. There is also some amusing footage from a film festival where Roger Ebert calls a guy out after he (the other guy, not Ebert) made an ignorant remark. Some of the film segments are pretty surprising as well, like, seeing Christopher Lee (of recent Star Wars and Lord of the Rings fame) play Fu Manchu. The film follows the evolution of the portrayal of Asians in early films with non-Asian actors using “yellow face” make-up through contemporary films with Asians directing or cast in lead roles. It is pretty interesting to see both how much things have changed and how certain stereotypes continue to perpetuate.

Overall, I thought the festival went very well. The number of online pre-order sales seemed kind of low, but actual turnout pretty much filled the theater for all the feature screenings. For anyone who’s in Austin next year around this time, Asian or not, this is worth checking out. For more information, visit www.aaaff.org.

Kill-A-Watt

Published
by
mr.flarp
on October 5, 2008
in gadgets
. 0 Comments

A little while back, there was an online retailer selling the P3 Kill-A-Watt power meter for about $15. I recall seeing various articles before that reference using this device for measuring power consumption for various electronics and had wondered how my electricity usage profile would measure. So, as an impulse buy, I ordered one of these.

With the exception of the major appliances (HVAC, fridge) and my computer, most things in my house stay powered off or in standby the vast majority of the time. So, I thought I might start there to see how much power I consume when everything is “off”. There were actually a couple of surprises here.

The three things that consume the most power when “off” are my cable box, Wii, and Popcorn Hour. They measure 22W, 9W, and 7W respectively when inactive. Surprisingly, the cable box also consumes 22W when it is powered on, so turning “off” the cable box really doesn’t do anything (other than slightly dim the front display and stop video/audio output). All other devices that are part of my entertainment center setup (TV, receiver, DVD player, PlayStation 2, and subwoofer) consume a combined 4W in standby.

The items that surprised me most were the toaster oven and space heater. The toaster oven under “toast” and “bake” settings (at 450 degrees F) drew about 1150W. The “broil” setting at that same temperature consumed the least power, coming in at about 770W. The microwave, which I thought would be the worst, only used 780W on its highest setting. The space heater drew anywhere from 1000W at the lowest setting up to 1150W at the highest setting. The most power-hungry device, which wasn’t a surprise, was the vacuum cleaner, which measured in at 1260W.

The most useful application I found was measuring load on a single circuit to make sure the appliances didn’t exceed the breaker capacity, which can be very useful for home entertainment or home office setups. As for saving power, it could help you identify less power-efficient devices, which could in turn lead to a decision to replace the appliances. The best way to conserve electricity, however, is to simply power the device off (unplug it from the outlet).

Goggles

Published
by
mr.flarp
on September 25, 2008
in sports
. 0 Comments

A good pair of goggles is hard to find. Everyone’s head, face, and eye socket is shaped a little differently, so finding one that that’s comfortable, doesn’t leak, and stays on your face when you swim and dive is really a personal preference. After four years and about a dozen pairs of goggles, I think I’ve finally found the one for me… The Speedo Speed Socket.

Foam-gasket goggles, while comfortable, invariably disintegrate, resulting in leaky lenses with occasional bits of crumbly neoprene in your eye. The soft rubber/silicon gasket models last about twice as long as their foam counterparts, but they too eventually come apart at the seams. The gasket-less goggles (”Swedes” and variants of) were surprisingly comfortable and refused to leak. Unfortunately, they didn’t fit in my eye sockets well, so diving or even a good kick off the wall would push them down to my chin.

Then I came across the Speed Socket, which really only caught my attention because of its price tag…  It appeared to have a solid rubber gasket molded with the lens itself, so it seemed less likely to deteriorate. The strap also appeared to be a bit tougher than other goggles, so they seemed like they might survive the combination of pool chemicals and sunlight a bit better. The only downside was the price. As far as regular swimming goggles go (excluding diving masks, prescription lenses, etc.), the Speed Sockets were the most expensive goggles on the shelves, ringing up at almost $30.

I decided to try them anyways, figuring they’d last me about a year, so the up-front cost wasn’t a big deal. They surpassed my expectations, lasting almost 18 months before I retired them. The rubber gasket started to break down, leaving a sticky tar-like residue behind after use, but they still didn’t leak and never fell off my face. This time around, I got the mirrored lenses and bought them online (SwimOutlet.com), which actually came out cheaper than the retail price for the non-mirrored version. I finally got these in and just did my first swim with them today. These are some seriously shiny goggles, and as with their predecessor, these do not disappoint.

Start of a New School Year

Published
by
mr.flarp
on August 28, 2008
in movies, school and work
. 2 Comments

On Wednesday, 50,000 students and 20,000 staff once again converged on campus, signifying the start of the new school year. Keeping the network running for them is the reason I have a job (and hence a paycheck), but I must admit, I’ll miss the relative silence of the summer. In the two days since the University resumed “normal” operations, my average morning commute time has increased by almost 20 minutes, and an idiot woman has already backed into my car (more on that later). I’m currently signed up for one class (swimming), but have been considering taking up another language (Chinese). Given my past experience with the Japanese classes, though, I may not have the time to keep up with that coursework.

So… about the accident. It happened in the parking garage when I came in this morning. I was driving behind a woman circling the garage looking for a space. At one point, she drove past an empty spot but didn’t stop. I continued to follow (the spot was on the opposite side of the garage from where I exit, so I didn’t want it). All of a sudden, about a car length past the spot, she hits her brakes, puts the car in reverse, and starts backing up. I stopped about a car length before the spot and started sounding my horn. A line was already building behind me, so I couldn’t back up myself. She gave no indication she had any intention of stopping, so basically all I could do was sit there and watch as this moron backed into my car. If that wasn’t enough, when I got out to confront her, she started yelling at me about how she was pissed off that the truck in the spot next her was parked crooked and over the line. Fortunately, there was no noticeable damage to my car (she was backing up pretty slowly). After a brief exchange of words, we parted ways.

AAAFF

In other news, I’ve been helping out with the Austin Asian American Film Festival. My role has primarily been helping to get the backend server stuff taken care of for their web site, mailing list, and storefront. One of my friends is their marketing director this year and recruited me to help with getting their site up. I am most definitely not a web guy (just check out the spectacular content at www.mrflarp.com), but I do have some experience running servers and services. I did get to learn a couple of new things as part of this experience though. I got to set up Google Apps for hosting mail, documents, calendars, etc. for a domain, and I learned a bit of PHP while customizing and coding around some of the storefront software. The new site is still not online (as of this writing), but it should be up before September 1st.

Bulk Update 1

Published
by
mr.flarp
on August 16, 2008
in movies, sports and travel
. 1 Comment

It’s been a while since the last post. So what all has happened between then and now?

I went and saw The Dark Knight on IMAX on its opening week, and it was awesome. We ended up sitting a bit closer than ideal for an IMAX-sized screen, but aside from a little crick in the neck by the end of the movie, it was a thoroughly enjoyable experience. I haven’t decided how it compares yet with Batman Begins, which is one of my favorite movies, but it definitely did not disappoint, as many sequals typically do.

At the end of July, my family and I took a trip to the north-east. Among our several stops included New York City, Washington D.C., and Niagara Falls. We could have easily spent the entire week just in NYC, as there was still much left to see and do (and eat). We hit up many of the big tourist spots like Times Square, the Statue of Liberty, Empire State Building, and ground zero. Washington D.C was interesting as well. There are a lot of things to see there (monuments, memorials, museums). The most spectacular stop on this trip, though, was Niagara Falls. From the white-water rapids of the Niagara River to the falls themselves to thunderous churn in the water at the base, it was a truly incredible sight. We went on the Maid of the Mist boat ride to the bottom of the Horseshoe Fall, on which we got drenched from head to toe (even while wearing full-length ponchos) just from the splash of the falls. Our week there ended much too quickly. At some point, I’d like to go back and take things at a slower pace.

Of course, the Summer Olympics have also started up recently, and I’ve been following that as well. The opening ceremony was incredible, even if it wasn’t all “real”. The only events I have really been following are the swimming races. There is, of course, Michael Phelps and his almost-completed quest to make history by winning eight gold medals at a single Olympic games. Also, having been tought by a couple of other members of the U.S. men’s team, I’ve been following their events as well (Aaron Peirsol and Brendan Hansen have both taught the swimming classes I’ve been taking at the University). Tonight, Peirsol, Hansen, Phelps, and Lezak race for gold in the 4×100m medley relay, which should prove most exciting.

That’s about it for the last month or so… Hopefully, I’ll update here more frequently. If not, there may be a “Bulk Update 2″ coming up next…

I Got Audited!

Published
by
mr.flarp
on July 17, 2008
in work
. 0 Comments

The good folks down at the IRS office did an audit of my return decided they wanted more of my meager earnings. Their reasoning? That the amount I claimed for federal income tax already withheld on the 1040 form (line 64) was not accounted for in the documentation provided. I guess they missed the W-2 form stapled to the first page of the return that had a box labeled “Federal Income Tax Withheld” (box 2). It’s my understanding that employers also report the exact same information to the IRS already, which implies they should already have that information.

While it’s no big deal, I now have to go out of my way to print out another copy of my W-2 and mail that back to them. I wonder if they’d take offense if I asked them to reimburse me the 42 cents for postage, since technically I’m having to pay to correct the mistakes of people that I’m already paying to take my money…