What does Vraxx do in his spare time?

This question comes up occasionally and while some people think I just sit around absorbing information like some weird undersea sponge the truth is I am usually reading, gaming, or otherwise goofing off.

While my work schedule keeps me on a pretty tight leash, I try to break out and enjoy things like photography and hikes. Unfortunately it's nearing our rainy season here in Hawaii so most of my fun is had indoors.

In a silly attempt to reach some sort of geek nirvana and to make maximum use of my VMWare 5 install, I have been installing various Linux/BSD distributions. These include:
Fedora Core 4
OpenBSD
Ubuntu
Red Hat Enterprise Linux 4WS
Windows 2003 Server Standard Edition

So far I've actually really enjoyed working with Ubuntu. It's a more desktop friendly distribution than I had expected and lets me ease my way back into Debian. RHEL 4WS is all too familiar for me and really I loaded it for convenience. Fedora had its quirks, especially when a Kernel update caused a panic querying the IDE controller. OpenBSD was a bit of a kludge to install since I was too lazy (and didn't have any cdrs) to burn stuff and wound up installing over FTP. Windows 2003 didn't really like being in a VM :| This was not a surprise given the limited amount of RAM I could allocate for it on my laptop.

Besides that I'm looking forward to hopefully being able to afford a new lens for my camera and doing more action shots as the weather improves a few months from now. Well that about rounds out what I've been up to. Carry on.

Initial DS: Mario Kart DS Review

There's racing, there's drifting, then there's Mario Kart. Sometimes simplicity wins out over complexity and Mario Kart proves that case. I was pretty skeptical about how well the game would play after the somewhat disappointing showing of Mario Kart: Double Dash, but my fears were quickly dismissed as I entered the first corner in a nice power slide.

Visually Kart is about the same as the N64 release, though the inclusion of tracks from the various earlier titles and the GBA version are a welcome addition. The games use of the split screen DS is actualy done fairly well. A map view on the lower and the action on the main display. Unfortunately there are only two map displays, but overall they do the job.

As the first WiFi enabled title for the DS Mario Kart has a lot of freshman problems. The Nintendo WFC service appears to still have a few hiccups as of this writing and connecting to specific friends has proven problematic for me at least (granted I'm over in Hawaii)

While Kart is an enjoyable, care free racing game where crazy full speed drifts are the norm don't expect it to take things too seriously. GT4 fans can probably pass this title if they're thinking its about quot;racing"

Today's Vraxxism -- Temp Files...

Why in gods name does a single plain text Word file, have to create temp file diarrhea on my disk? there's like 12 .tmps!

Now I know why it builds the temp files, but you'd think a single temp file would be sufficient to work on just plaintext. It's not like I was embedding graphics or anything. Now I'm sure the logical answer is, the temp files are state-snapshots that allow you to do the undo option or something to that affect, or auto-save sessions.

Either way, its a good lesson as to why you edit stuff in My Documents and not My Desktop >_<

Ho Ho Holy Crap It's An Expensive X-Mas

So even though I'm technically 'old' I still thought up what I wanted for X-mas. It was then that I realized, this X-mas is going to be a whopper in terms of the "Must have" items.

Between portable units like the Sony PSP and Nintendo DS, the vaunted Xbox 360 and the usual mix of tech goodies (dcams, ipods, cell phones). Those of us who are in the tech-friendly side are going to find gift giving a pretty heavy endeavor.

Whatever happened to the days when the 'hit' items didn't need batteries or chips or enough accessories to choke an ox (iPods). Either way, I feel for parents this season. For any family with a game-hungry child I can't imagine the pressures to fill those wishlists.

Oh and just what does Vraxx want for X-mas? A telephoto lens for his camera.

To you and yours, a very Merry X-mas (way in advance).

Addiction thy name is Nintendo

Now there are times where I feel like saying "I told you so" and this is one of them. So Volcom over at Random-Review.com at first claimed to have left gaming. Yet here he is now, happily playing with a WiFi enabled Nintendo DS with Mario Kart.

Let's face it, gaming is a hard drug to put down and the Nintendo DS proves why. If you build a product that's easy to use, has a good core of games and is competitively priced you will garner an audience. Perhaps the one downside for those of us in the older gamer crowd though is that the DS does feel like it's built for the Pokemon generation.

So while Vol plays Mario Kart, I will be playing Advanced Wars DS and hopefully SOCOM for the PSP. I'll also be attending the Gamers Anonymous meeting on Saturday, feel free to join... bring pie.

Volcom Has Quit Gaming... The Quitter

So after a swift kick in the ass, my friend Volcom over at Random-Review.com posted a new article. And what's the topic? His departure from gaming.

Now I'll be the first to admit, I have tried quitting cold turkey too and you know what? It doesn't work. There's many reasons why it doesn't work for me, but let us consider the pros and cons. On the up side, retiring from gaming is certainly a financially liberating choice. You don't have to buy the newest computing hardware or the hottest console on the market. You free up your time to do things, like um well Vol... he uh.. sits on his ass and writes about how he's given up gaming.

On the downside though, gaming in a way keeps you young. I mean look at me, I'm actually 45, but I look like I'm 27. I owe it all to a healthy regimen of fragging, pwnage and yes, smack talking.

Either way you cut it, quitting gaming has a few net benefits, but really there's always the biggest con of them. Vol... don't be a pussy. =P

Surfers are always handy as a photo subject, now to just improve my gear to get those tight shots 

Nothing like the power of the ocean waves hitting the breakers 

A clear reminder that I need a new telephoto zoom lens. 

Something about water splashes that I've always liked 

I don't know why there was just something about the symetry that made me want to snap a frame 

Security Vraxxism of the Day

In light of the Lupper Worm focusing on Linux systems, and the latest Microsoft security exploit I thought I'd post this Vraxxism.

<Vraxx> hehe Microsoft update page "3 steps to insure your PC is protected"
<Vraxx> here I am thinking "1) uninstall windows, 2) disconnect network cable, 3) power off"

OS X --- What'll it take

No idea how this conversation got started...

Vraxx: how does me running OS X correlate to you getting money
Mike: I dunno
Mike: I think it goes like this
Mike: 1 osx
Mike: 2 ???
Mike: 3 profit for mike!
Vraxx: ah
Vraxx: you went to the underpants gnome school of business eh?
Mike: nope, underwater basketweaving

Vista -- What'll It Take

Today's Vraxxism -- What will it take to run Vista

Chuck: 5 jiggawatts of ram!!!
Chuck: true
Vraxx: well that's just crazy talk chuck
Vraxx: it's only 4 jiggabytes
Vraxx: with like a 400 wtfabyte drive
Chuck: lol

A short word on VM's and VMWare

Blog posting by George Ou of ZDNet
Saw this article and thought 'how timely'. While my job has me doing more development work these days I began to look at VMWare, which I haven't touched since college.

While I agree with some of Mr. Ou's points, I don't necessarily think it's a MS Killer. If nothing else it compliments the OS fairly well and could provide yet another valuable tool for IT administrators looking to create thin-like client PCs. On this level I concur with Ou.

My own usage of VMWare is geared towards prototype testing. Installing multiple copies of Windows 2003 Server and examining impacts of things like Service Packs, security hotfixes, configuration changes. The system isn't meant for "production" so performance is less a concern.

For the average desktop user being able to clone on the fly and then jump into that clone would be a great idea. Though I am skeptical that the average user would really know when/how/why to do so.

If you're an up and coming system admin, or perhaps a programmer, I'd give a serious look at both VMWare and Microsoft's Virtual PC. The benefits of having flexible testing environments shouldn't be overlooked.