Thursday, December 28, 2006

Strategy Gaming on a PC

There are some things that are best left untouched. And one of them is having the PC as platform of choice for Strategy Gaming. Age of Empires III, Civilization IV, and World of Warcraft are some fine examples. These games require a level of precision not offered by consoles, even the next-gen ones with HD. PC gaming is not on life support, as many console fans would like to think. And the Strategy Gaming experience on the PC will keep it that way.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Microsoft Expression Web

Microsoft has launched a limited release of their Microsoft Expression Web this month. The final version is now available through Amazon.com (however Canadian residents are out of luck). Microsoft's web site says that the software will be available online in the second quarter of 2007. It sort of makes me wonder why they can't offer the online version now, since apparently the software is complete. Anyways, Expression Web is supposed to be a good Professsional tool for the Web Designer/Developer crowd. I have been testing the beta version for a couple months now, and look forward to getting my hands on a final copy when it is released to Canada in 2007.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

Death of a Desktop OS

For many, the impending release of Vista is a time for contemplation on where the world of OS's are heading. Given that Microsoft, one of the world's largest companies in terms of market cap took more than 5 years to develop their next generation operating system, one would expect things to be more than a little stirred up. (Anyone remember Windows 95?). Instead, there will be no lineups, no anticipation, and perhaps only a handful of pre-orders. I speak from experience. I have been a Vista beta tester since it was first released to the uber-tech community. Vista is not groundbreaking, nor innovative - but the face of a dying giant. So should we be saddened by this? In a way, yes. Microsoft Windows helped launch the PC into the homes and workplaces of many. It's early years were an exciting time. Things seemed so energized. Windows was king. And then one day the US D.O.J. came knocking on Microsoft's door. From that moment on, things were never the same. The life was slowly sucked out of the company. People left the company. No one wanted to work for Microsoft. And today, not much has changed. With the imminent death of Microsoft as a viable, profitable public company, there must be a ray of light for those of us in the tech community. And that ray of light is open source OS's. Linux/Unix fans unite, for that light at the end of the tunnel is bright, very bright.

Thursday, December 07, 2006

Remembering James Kim

A member of the tech community is no longer with us today. James Kim, senior editor at CNET was found dead yesterday near Grants Pass, Oregon. I have been following this story on digg.com every since it broke over a week ago. It is a harrowing tale of a family's will for survival. James will be missed by the tech community.

Wednesday, November 22, 2006

Wii Update

Wow! What a difference 3 days can make. On Sunday I reported that the Wii's were selling for $550 CDN on ebay.ca . Well, checking the prices tonight they appear to have dropped $150 to an average of $400 CDN. And more Wii's have arrived in North America, with retailer's putting them on sale in the latter part of this week. How long before the eBay street price matches retail? Not very.

Sunday, November 19, 2006

PS3 and Wii Launches

With the PS3 and Wii launches now behind us, we can begin to regain some normalcy in the world again. No more shootings, robberies, and riots to worry about. It appears that both launches were well attended by their respective fans, with most people in lines admitting that they were going to flip their console on eBay. Checking eBay.ca recently it appears that the PS3's have been going for about $1400 CDN and the Wii's for about $550 CDN. These numbers are only from the respective day after launch, and we can expect that they will decrease in the coming weeks as supply lines are strengthened. Let the next generation console wars begin.

Wednesday, November 15, 2006

PS3

Well, with the North American launch of the PS3 just days away, it is appropriate to reflect a bit on this new next generation gaming platform. First off, I think the price will drive a lot of users away. Last I checked the PS3 was around $650 CDN at Future Shop. That is a far cry from the Xbox 360 at $500 CDN and the Wii about $300 CDN. Second, reports are that the Cell processor that is the core of the PS3 has a lot of processing power, but most of it in the wrong places (integer calculations). The architecture of the Xbox 360 with its three Power PC chips and ATI graphics engine, is far superior to the PS3, and much more finely tuned. Plus, with initial reports of Call of Duty 3 and Gears of War looking absolutely incredible on the Xbox 360, why would anyone want to pay the premium for the PS3. So the PS3 is not going to win the console wars anytime soon. For those hoping to get their hands on a Wii, the price is right, but apparently the graphics suck. So for now, in my humble opinion the Xbox 360 is king.

Friday, October 27, 2006

.Mac mail updated

Today, the new version of .Mac mail was released. This new version sports drag and drop functionality and a look and feel familiar to mail.app users. Although not as snappy as it's desktop brethren, the new web mail breathes fresh air into the .Mac subscription service. I look forward to seeing more Apple .mac enhancements in the near future.

Wednesday, September 27, 2006

Quad Core Xeons are here - almost.

If you were waiting for your Quad-Core Mac Pros to come out soon, look no further than Q1 of 2007. In all probability Apple will announce something along those lines at MacWorld 2007 in San Fransisco. The question is not how fast they will be (screamers), but when OS X developers will start developing apps that make use of all these hordes of CPUs. These new Quad-Core Mac Pros will mesh perfectly with Adobe's release of CS3. I know I'll be in line, how about you?

Friday, September 22, 2006

The MacCast hosting fiasco

One of my favourite podcasts, The MacCast was taken offline recently by GoDaddy.com for allegedly using too much processor bandwidth. This was a big blow to Adam Christiansen, who runs the podcast, as he received no warning from GoDaddy that his site would be taken offline. Anyways, the site is back up but Adam and the supporters of The Maccast are going to have to think seriously about how to prevent this again.

Saturday, September 09, 2006

New iMacs

To the surprise of many Apple quietly announced the addition of new iMacs this week. The Core 2 Duo (Merom) chip is now present in all models, replacing the Core Duos. A huge 24" iMac was announced too, for those we would term 'prosumers'. Thankfully, on most models 1GB of DDR2 RAM is now standard. It was about time. The iMac remains a solid desktop solution for those wanting a slew of features for a reasonable price.

Friday, July 14, 2006

Windows Vista Beta 2

I am one of the Beta testers for Windows Vista.  I have found the OS to be a lot better than I expected.  The Aero interface is just fantastic and the new 'Start' menu is so easy to operate.  I also intalled Office 2007 beta and have had a chance to play with Outlook.  Again, it is a really well done piece of software that functions well.  There are still some bugs in Vista as a whole, but if they push the release date back to January or February, 2007, they should be OK.

Sunday, June 25, 2006

Half-Life 2

Nearly a year after it's release I finally got around to playing Half-Life 2 (PC).  This is just a great game, especially for those who are sci-fi first person shooter fans.   The graphics on this game are just amazing.  Even with this high graphics load my Radeon X850 never even studdered.  The game is scripted so it is not like Battlefield 2 where you can go anywhere at will, but there are still lots of options (especially if you use the cheat codes).  The aliens in this game make me sick, so it really gets you to hate the other side.  The game really makes you feel that you are saving civilization.  There is an online version of the game called Counter-Strike: Source which I have not trialed yet, but from what I hear there is a pretty large community of players.  Anyways, for anyone who hasn't played this game yet, go out and buy it.  It is fully worth the $50.

Thursday, May 25, 2006

Live Anywhere

Microsoft's decision to launch it's Live Anywhere service looks quite promising. It allows users of the XBOX 360, PC's, and cellphones to all connect (and play each other) on the same network. As well, Microsoft has decided to emphasize it's PC Gaming division. This can only be a good thing for gaming on the PC in general. PC gaming has long been neglected in favor of consoles. Anyways, Microsoft seems to be moving in the right direction on the games front.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Rise of Nations: Rise of Legends

Microsoft's latest offering for the PC, Rise of Legends, is a truly unique RTS game. The artwork in it is just beautiful, and offers a breath of fresh air from the traditional rock, paper, scissors RTS. The software itself is rock solid, and I could not find any bugs after about 4 hours of play. I recommend this to anyone who is interested in RTS games. This is a true gem.

Wednesday, April 26, 2006

17-inch MacBook Pro

Apple announced its flagship 17-inch MacBook Pro at the NAB conference this past Monday. Some of the features it sports is a 2.16GHZ Intel Core Duo processor. As well, the Firewire 800 port is back, for those diehard Powerbook fans. Like the 15-inch model, the 17-inch model comes loaded with the 'Front Row' media experience. This unit is smoking hot, but be prepared to pay the piper as the standard model comes in at a cool $3000 USD. The wise will wait until the prices of the Intel Core Duos come down at the start of the 3rd quarter 2006.

Wednesday, April 19, 2006

Xbox 360 Report

Well, I have had my Xbox360 since December, 2005 (when I bought it off of eBay) and I am happy to report that things are functioning perfectly. A number of really good games have come out since launch. Notable are Elder Scrolls IV, Burnout Revenge, and Topspin 2. All these games look just excellent in HD. It seems like Microsoft has really taken the lead in the deployment of the Xbox 360. Nintendo though, seems ready to release their Revolution this year, and Sony...well they are behind the 8 ball.

Wednesday, March 22, 2006

Microsoft delays Vista

This comes as a bit of a surprise to me.  You would think that they would want to have it ready for the holiday buying season.  But I guess it is better that they wait and make it better than release it too early.

Wednesday, March 01, 2006

A big letdown

Yesterday's unveiling of the new Intel Mac mini and the iPod boombox was less than stunning. It baffles me that they would hold such a large media event for these two small announcements. Maybe if they thru in a new Intel MacBook, it would have been worth it, but as it stood, it was a bit of a joke. Predictions that the 'real' video iPod would emerge were premature. Maybe we will have to wait until the holiday season 2006. We shall see.