Vraxxisms Live!

Yeah... you gotta love reviews like this

2009-07-13T19:28:00.002-10:00

Hard to believe that Alien was created in 1979. A year after I was born and the movie still proves that space is a crazy, dangerous place where no one hears you scream, you can't trust AI and you better damn well bring weapons next time :P

http://gizmodo.com/5313654/alien-making-space-scary-since-1979

From the Full Article:

"Sure, they control the ship using outdated CRT monitors, but Ridley Scott was clearly influenced by Stanley Kubrick's realism in 2001. He just added pants-shitting terror to that realism."

Because it's just so true...

2008-09-22T22:04:00.001-10:00

From http://www.qdb.us/205783
chuckstud: C# is terrible
chuckstud: it's like visual basic raped c++ and c++ didn't get the abortion

You know it's funny because it's sorta true :P

Suckage thy name is "Stuck at the Airport"

2008-08-07T18:40:00.001-10:00

So here I am after working a full day and getting a lot of business done. Am I at home? No that would be too normal. I am stuck at the Lihue airport on Kauai... it's oh, 641PM and I'm camped out in the Hawaiian Air Lounge waiting for a 9PM flight out.

The flight itself takes all of 25 minutes. I will have spent the better half of 5 hours here. Sigh.

5-Minute Review GT5: Prologue (PS3)

2008-04-17T07:02:00.003-10:00

I will mince no words in saying I am a fan of the Gran Tourismo franchise. Played GT2, GT3 and 4 heavily and now comes the precursor to the full version, GT5: Prologue.

Let's look at things that are fun, easy to navigate menus, fairly quick load times (mostly owing to the game data being installed on the HDD versus run purely off BRD). Environments feel much more immersive and subtle touches like lighting/shadow and vehicle detail are are times nearly photorealistic. Car response in terms of steering and control feel a little bit easier to manage, particularly when trying to draft the AI cars. Some of this however is due to the longer throws of the analog sticks on the Sixaxis/DualShock 3.

The downside. Let's face it, as games go Prologue is a preview. Granted one that I'm paying for, but hey I'm a nut. I think it provides a good initial feel for the type of handling and graphics you'll find in the full release in 2009 (Painful I know) but many areas need to be optimized. Lag during online gameplay (though truth be told I had similar lag issues on Forza 2), occasional stutter with reflection rendering, lack of tuning and damage physics give you that slightly less than true GT feel and gives an edge to the likes of Forza.

Overall if you just want some slightly different tracks or, like myself am a GT fan, I think the $40 price tag isn't great, but not horrible. Visually stunning, fairly good handling and enjoyable track variation and environs bode well for this teaser release and hopefully results in a better final product in GT5.

Final Score 7.9/10

Epic Fail: Vraxx + Sick = Fail

2008-02-11T10:11:00.000-10:00

OK so I confess that at times I am a workaholic. Not because I love work, but I hate trying to scramble to fix things later. That and I don't find myself particularly efficient. So Friday was miserable, body aches, previous day had been 15 hours long, I was supposed to be on sick leave but I remembered that I promised a coworker we'd do some triage testing in the lab. So off I went figuring "Ha I'm tough enough"... Bad, bad, bad idea. The weekend was mostly OK, I did chores, I read, but I realized I was still feeling woozy and food was not my friend.

So here it is Monday, I no longer have a fever but I'm coughing up my spleen... and what do I do? I STILL try to do work. Logged into a system with documentation opened up to try to configure something. After a bit of of frustration I realize why it's not working. I just spent 2 minutes trying to click the buttons on a screenshot... with that ladies and gents, I am not going to be doing anymore work today...

Vraxxism of the Day: It feels so good to be bad...

2008-01-16T14:13:00.000-10:00

Addison: somehow i feel wrong and dirty loading an open source DB on a windows box
like the box is looking at me going "what? no MS SQL... for shame..."
then again the wrong and dirty part is probably why it feels so good :P

For reference, I was installing PostgreSQL on a Windows box for some testing since I didn't feel running with the MSDE. And I admit, it does feel good ^_^

And people wonder why US folks don't want these jobs

2007-12-25T16:18:00.001-10:00

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/25/india.outsourcing.ap/index.html

Now far be it for me to begrudge India for their outsourcing but I've got news for you. US laborers faced similar issues with health, work/life balance and everything else mentioned in TFA. I just find it amusing that they're only NOW realizing it's impact on their own workforce.

Let's face it support centers are one of the weirdest jobs out there, you're expected to know everything, solve a problem remotely and above all do so with a chipper attitude and in a completely professional manner. In the US the quality of these centers often went to pot simply because nobody wanted such a raw deal job. Now that the economy is worse we bitch about not having the option. Hopefully Indian call centers will be used as "part" of the support infrastructure and now the entire infrastructure.

I'll close by commenting, yes I have worked a support hotline as one of my first jobs in the IT industry and while it was a grueling start I think it also helped me develop into the analyst I am today.

Nice Example of How I See the World (Colorblindness)

2007-12-15T12:50:00.000-10:00

http://critiquewall.com/2007/12/10/blindness?printable

Found this while combing through Digg and thought it was a great example of how some of us colorblind folks actually perceive he world. My case isn't as severe as some of these examples show but I do sometimes have problems distinguishing when red/green are adjacent.

Hot Import Nights 2007 -- Or How Vraxx Is Bringing Sexy Back One Frame At A Time

2007-12-02T08:51:00.000-10:00

Gallery at:
http://vraxx.smugmug.com/gallery/3923139/

OK OK long ass title sorry. Dec 1, 2007 I went to capture footage at the Hot Import Nights 2007 car show/tuner event here in Hawaii. It's been more than 10 years since I really shot stuff at a car show and I admit, it brought about memories of being at the raceway park, being around pure gearhead action and the copious amounts of eye candy. Guests included Tera Patrick who served as an MC and guest DJ. Deal or No Deal model Ursula Mayes and several other HIN mainland models who flew down for the one night show. Where some of the dancers get there energy is a mystery to me but they need to bottle that and sell it at the show. Lot of the shots are soft on the focus since half the time I was just bursting like mad :P Enjoy and share with your friends. I need the hits ^_^

Some highlight shots:

A Word About Gamer Maturity

2007-11-06T20:33:00.000-10:00

Let's face it when it comes to the movers and shakers of the world, I don't know that gamers are viewed with much respect. Between nut jobs like Jack Thompson and equally inept gamers like this MENSA candidate
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/article2789073.ece the world of gaming probably strikes outsiders as completely helter skelter. Not only has the 'guy living in the basement' gotten more fiscal clout but he's no longer afraid to be adamant about ssatiating his addiction (Take the case of the boy who decked his own mother while playing Halo 3). I don't propose to tell you all that I'm any smarter, but it seems as though the more mainstream gaming has become the worse the overall community has become.

Part of me wonders what the root cause is. Is it the increasingly competitive nature of gaming? Is it the bragging rights that go along with things like Xbox (All rights reserved, Microsoft Corporation) Live's Achievements? Could it be the simple need for escapism which people are drawn to? As I've gotten older (much older it feels) I've realized that the fun of online gaming often doesn't match up the tangible fun I can have with my more 'analog' hobbies (photography, movies, anime, hiking). Sure a lot of my hobbies eventually cross paths with my digital age components but it's good to just get the heck away from the PC or my consoles and detach.

Part of me worries that as we've become more and more a digital community we're going to find the dregs of society creeping up the interaction ladder. Hopefully I missed that degree of addiction by a hairs breath, but who knows...

Where's the time go?!

2007-11-06T15:33:00.000-10:00

Seriously guys I'm alive, don't worry. On the other hand I have absolutely no idea where my free time has gone. It isn't like I'm a very active guy... I mean hell I mostly just lounge around but somehow between the lounging, photo stuff, general internet geekdom I seem to have little to no time to do anything all that interesting or creative.

As my work situation is slowly getting back to a steady pattern I'm hoping that I'll get to play more games now and then to unwind and expand my photography to more events and macro shooting. All in all time to get cracking on this whole time management thing... (uugh)

Thunderbirds are GO!

2007-09-16T06:55:00.000-10:00

Attended the Thunderbirds air show 9-15-07 over Waikiki. While the weather was anything but clear and nice I tried my best to capture a few nice angles and clear shots. This is one of the first times I've gotten to really make use of my zoom but realizing that I do need a little more reach for really extreme events. (cmon 400mm) I'm particularly fond of the high angle of attack shots like this one:

Full Gallery
http://vraxx.smugmug.com/gallery/3484347

Horrible way to go...

2007-08-19T12:37:00.000-10:00

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/08/19/world/main3181944.shtml

While I am certainly not making light of the situation, this is a horrible way to go.

The trouble with tribbles...

2007-07-12T15:45:00.000-10:00

I just found this photo too silly. Who knew we still had Tribbles!

Mini-Review: Canon 50mm f/1.8

2007-07-12T14:06:00.001-10:00

If you're just getting into the SLR world and are looking for a nice, low cost prime for your EOS camera definitely give the 50mm f/1.8 a look. Priced around $79 (USD). Particularly helpful for those low light environments or dimly lit indoor events, this light weight normal/zoom lens gives you an effective 80mm on a cropped x1.6 sensor. Though not as wide as I'd like, it works great for in tight shots or areas where you have a few feet of space to backup out of range.

Constructed almost entirely out of light plastic the lens is easy to carry with you. The one downside is that the lower construction values on this lens result in a sometimes loose feel in the focus ring. Below are a few cosplay (costume play) photographs taken with members of the local anime community here in Hawaii.

With a nice wide aperture the DOF can be kept very shallow and provides a great contrast. It also allows you to really up the shutter speed as the ambient light normally allows for sufficient illumination even down to ISO100. Though there are higher grade versions of the 50mm prime (a USM and an L) the bang for the buck of this lens is undeniable. If you're just starting, consider adding this as your starter prime besides your kit lenses.

IRC quotage goodness

2007-07-07T07:49:00.001-10:00

OK so sometimes I get bored and just do screenshots of oddball things. Here's one of those moments.

Beer icon exits are the best.

Worst drift... ever

2007-07-04T06:51:00.000-10:00

Listen, I know you've played PGR until you got every 1st place win there is. I know you rock Ridge Racer. You've got the pimpest ride in Forza 2 but for the love of god do NOT assume you can do the same shit in real life. Click below for the oh so fun description of the worst drift EVER.

Worst drift ever!

Guess somebody's been watching to much Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift. Don't worry though the guy is alive... somehow.

Is THIS the taste of Hawaii O_o.... I'll pass

2007-07-02T18:54:00.000-10:00

While walking around Waikiki playing tourist with Selene I happened to see the following candy. I really hope that tourist aren't thinking Hawaii tastes like Collon... wtg marketing dept.

LOLCATS: im in ur blog, hacking ur page rank

2007-06-19T21:26:00.000-10:00

LOLCATS In the news

This scan of a newspaper article says it all. The phenom that is LOLCATS is just something utterly silly but enjoyable. Even I have gotten sucked into it. Originally a forum posting trend, the images themselves have become more important than the threads which spawned them. What is it about them though? Is it the spelling, the poses, the blend? I think part of it is that the computer subculture has always had an affinity to cats and the fact that they, like many a geek, are insanely curious. That and the fact that cat behavior seems about as alien to us as we are to normal folks.

Personally I'm partial to this guy: Sadly, don't have any cats myself (darn building rules) but if I did I'd be gunning to take a LOLCATS photo.

Do we watch the news or does the news just watch us?

2007-06-13T22:00:00.000-10:00

As I plod though Digg.com, /. and other news sites (not to mention the local newspapers and stations) I realize that it doesn't really seem like we watch the news in so much as the news is watching us to gauge what will grab the most ratings. It's not about the events, the critical things going on, the little guys story who needs to just be shown to the world.

Consider the infamy that is the kidnapped white female syndrome. Why does it seem like any time a Caucasian woman is abducted there is instantly a firestorm of press. Kidnappings happen considerably more frequently, often in poorer neighborhoods than most people would care to know. So why then are only the suburbia victims paraded on the 6 o'clock news? Is it because it pulls at the hearstrings of middle America? Is it more newsworthy to put up the face of someone 'nice' looking?

Equally annoying to me at least are the droves of camera guys, helos and 'guest commentators' for high speed chases and shooting incidents. We as a people have become obsessed with wanting to see the worst things unfold, not the good things. Perhaps our culture is just based on the negative press idea but I for one wouldn't mind seeing some lighter news.

Carsplay Photography!

2007-06-03T22:00:00.000-10:00

OK OK bad joke but true none the less. This go around my photographic subjects were not cosplayers but cars. In particular cars on display for the Build the Track Car Show/event to raise awareness for the need for a replacement for the demolished Hawaii Raceway Park.

Picasa Web Gallery Rough Cuts

A more polished version is posted here on Vraxx.com

I actually avoided photographing some of the eye-candy because well honestly? I'm not working for a magazine or anything that gets a lot of rotation, so I figure I'll focus on the subjects that don't care how long it takes me to setup the shot :)

Why sometimes it doesn't help that Vraxx can be quoted...

2007-05-29T16:55:00.000-10:00

http://ryusen.livejournal.com/620419.html

This one comes from a conversation I had with my fellow photographer Zarli. The topic was how much debt we can accrue and not being able to get the $$ to expand our hobby. As you can see... I was pretty out of it :P

Moving towards more mainstream photography?

2007-05-20T19:55:00.000-10:00

As some folks know me, I'm an amateur photographer who has lent my time to work with cosplayers here in Hawaii. I find the work fulfilling since I get to practice portrait work and meet fellow anime fans.

Lately however I'll admit, I've had a hankering to work on things other than cosplay photography, it's just a bit harder. Hiking is sort of out of the question for now since I'm horribly out of shape (unless you count round as a shape). Studio work is out since I'm not taking classes or workshops and don't have any space. Floral is getting harder to do w/o hiking (grr) and special events can sometimes be more trouble than their worth (especially if people think you're the professional photographer they hired for footage).

So that leaves me in the odd position of trying to figure out something to shoot =\ A rekindled go at Macro photography has me peaked since I can do some of that indoors and focus on lighting and such (though I'll need one more big macro lens). Scenery photography is another idea, mountains, waterfalls etc, though again hiking...

I'll pose it to the online community, ideas? Suggestions?

We kick it Old School (Virtually)

2007-05-18T00:46:00.001-10:00

OK I admit that's got to be the lamest title I've read all week too.
As part of ongoing support for a few legacy systems I undertook the none too unusual task of virtualizing a Novell 4.11 install. Now I'll be the first to admit I remember about as much about my Novell installation/early administration as I do how to program Centipede for my Commodore C64.

The first hurdle to overcome was an apparent lack of usable install base :( Let's face it, Novell 4.11 was originally designed to run on top of a DOS partition with say a DOS 6.22 or Windows 95 base OS (at least if I'm remembering the install process). So here I am combing through my archive of files praying to god I still have a Win95 install disk and a license string.

Failing that I find the next best option, a Win98 disk! I install, attempt to load Novell... no dice system has some problems reading the Large disk formated partition. Sigh... ok so hunt s'more and we find a boot disk image for Win95A. Tadda! Novell finally see's the partition and starts copying stuff over. Keeps going, keeps going... *donk* net drivers IDE drivers bomb... sigh... (I should note I'm no idiot, I snapshot the base image JUST prior to Novell being installed).

Finally after much trial and error eureka it boots! Now the catch 22, time to install another client to use. Here's where things get MESSY. Use the Windows 98 build I had done in prior test and attempt to load the Client32. Bomb... Setup.exe crashes... great... rollback to snapshot over an over and try it again and again. Finally I have the audacity to just say, screw it, if part of the setup.exe fails i'll try to force close the offending subprocess... I try that, reboot and tadda! Novell client login.

So... after half a day of fighting it I have a fully ready to test NDS structure, a client pc with Novell Client login and a basic file server... whew... Now to get down to the network tracing :)

5-Min Review Panasonic DMC-TZ1

2007-04-22T17:34:00.000-10:00

It isn't often that I am pleasantly surprised by a Point and Shoot camera. The Panasonic Lumix DMC-TZ1 however was quite a surprise in terms of its flexibility and usability for beginners. I originally purchased this camera to test and sample photographs for the photography panel I'm involved involved with for this years Kawaii Kon.

Here's the basic rundown. Built around a Leica lens and 5MP sensor the TZ1 is a small, relatively easy to grip P&S. The controls are very simple though I found the buttons at the rear of the camera somewhat small for most hands.

The optical zoom is a surprising 10x with an additional 4x digital. Realistically however I would recommend only using the 10x optical. Magnifying as far in as an effective 40x gives rise to a pixelated image which I really wouldn't use as a webpost. The TZ1 lists this option as their EZ Zoom.

Another quirk, at least to me is the fact that the TZ1 uses a lens cap. I'm no stranger to caps in SLR's but for a consumer camera I'll admit I found the lens cap offputting . Convenience wise it isn't the greatest, nor does Panasonic include a laniard strap for it. The battery compartment and SD storage slot are neatly kept in the grip, though the battery release is again rather small.

Shot accuracy is surprisingly good for a camera which has no viewfinder, aided in part by the Image Stabilization (anti-shake) mode. In particular the camera did a good job in its Macro shot mode, particularly compared against my Canon SD400. White balance controls could use some work, but the two pre-set Scene modes were a nice touch for novices. One mode I found particularly amusing is the Food Mode. Yes, you heard right, a preset intended to shoot in a macro-style mode with white balance adjustments for Flourescent. My mother will get a kick out of it.

At a retail cost under $200, the TZ1 is a very nice starter camera. Giving you better range in zoom than some 6-7MP cameras, a simple to use interface and image stabilization (not digital stabilization I should note) the camera packs a great set of features in a cost-effective device. If you're looking for a camera for a relative or a novice just getting into being a shutter bug, this should be on your list of purchase candidates.

Example of 3rds Grid Mode, very handy for beginners

Simple dial controls with Normal and Simple shot modes and SCN (Scene) programable modes

Pardon the dust... we're testing

2007-04-20T22:55:00.000-10:00

Fine line between responsible disclosure and...

2007-04-18T23:15:00.000-10:00

Now I don't often come to the aide of Microsoft as a policy but even I have to speak up when people begin to bash MS for something they are trying to do in good faith. Recently some critics have been harping on MS's disclosure of unpatched flaws by arguing that they are in fact enabling hackers by giving hints.

Granted there are issues when such a wide number of PCs can be vulnerable and the vendor has very little to offer the end user in terms of workarounds. However I don't think the critics will ever be completely happy given the closed source nature of Windows. Let's face it whether its in a MS security bulletin, Bugtraq or some script kiddie news board. A flaw can go from unexploited to serious threat in a very short cycle. I don't blame MS for trying to disclose what it feels it can w/o directly pointing to a bug. Previously the stance was to disclose next to nothing and Microsoft was faulted for that policy as well. As with all things there's a delicate balance between being a responsible software vendor and disclosing issues to your customer base and giving breadcrumbs to wood be hackers.

Heart Felt Condolences to the Families of Students killed in VA Tech Shootings

2007-04-16T18:15:00.000-10:00

I don't normally post about sad things, but I do wish to extend my condolences to all the families of students who were killed during the shootings at Virginia Tech. No one deserves to be taken from their families in such a way and I can only hope that if there is indeed a beyond, the shooter is answering for his crimes.

There is one plea I have to the media however which is please do not bombard America with an endless stream of this. While awareness is key, healing takes time and the sooner we are able to move past the shock of the initial tragedy the better.

Be well, be smart, and be safe folks.
--Addison Caluya

Prius fails Georgia Emissions Test... though not how you think

2007-04-16T18:09:00.000-10:00

http://www.dailytech.com/article.aspx?newsid=6931

I found the above article fairly amusing. The Prius didn't fail the test because its emissions level is high. It actually failed because the test methodology doesn't work w/the way the drive train is designed. The short version is this, the Georgia emissions testing measures the exhaust at idle. The catch here is the Prius' internal combustion engine disengages at idle and cuts over to the electric powerplant. The result is that there isn't a steady amount of exhaust pressure and so the sensor treats it as a failed read.

So... the question becomes how do you evaluate that? Do you measure it at a rev state? or give them all a "passing" grade regardless. Hopefully Hawaii doesn't get stupid.

So that's why it failed

2007-04-02T22:04:00.000-10:00

The failure of Star Trek Enterprise the series

<Vraxx> ok i can totally see why Star Trek Enterprise failed
<Vraxx> there is a gelled up, horny, Jolene Blalock roaming the ship asking for sex
<Vraxx> no takers
<Vraxx> whatever happened to "To boldly go"

It's official... Size Matters

2007-03-16T22:24:00.000-10:00

Well now before you say "But Vraxx, you're HUGE!" I'm talking about memory capacity. With a little help from the Rebate-fairy I opted to pickup a nice 8GB CF card for my EOS 30D (this also means I can retire one of my 4GB Micros to my 10D). The main reason I made the switch however was to shoot more in RAW. I've been itching to really do the majority of my work shooting RAW+JPG but on freeform and action shoots it's just too cumbersome to remember to swap out your cards. Granted, nothing like the days of shooting 35mm with a frigging bandoleer of the things across your chest. Trust me there were days I felt pretty much like a Western cliche with those things, "Press badges?! We don need no stinken badges!"

The 8GB SanDisk Extreme III will get its first formal test during tomorrows (3/17) lab shoot for the Kawaii Kon 2007 Photography Panel. I have to thank Zarli and Ken for coordinating w/the cosplayers and setting up time/place. Lord knows I haven't had time to do much planning this month. In RAW only shot configuration my EOS 30 estimates around 800 frames at ISO 400. In RAW+JPG I'm looking at most likely 500 frames. This go around since I don't expect to be doing a lot of burst, I'll probably shoot RAW+JPG to make extraction quicker and so that I can post a general web-gallery (before the Kon) while using the RAWs for actual post-processing and blow-ups.

I'll be updating this particular blog posting once the shoot is concluded.
UPDATE: I'm grateful the shoot went well and my 8GB CF card did not disappoint. Shooting in RAW+JPG the card was about half full and managed to take 430 shots (ok technically 860 files). Now of course there's the not-always fun task of parsing through all of them and picking the good ones...

MySpace truths

2007-03-08T17:51:00.000-10:00

Now let me be frank. I'd normally be posting on my MySpace blog, but well, in a twist of irony, the blog system is throwing those oh-so descriptive "A System error has occurred" messages... Soooo here I am on Blogspot (ahhh) giving you some basic truths about MySpace.

98% of the friend requests you receive will be porn. Or at the very least, porn-esque. Your bulletin page will have all but 1 useful bulletin. Your photo gallery will invariably become an opportunity for folks to critique EVERYTHING about the photo (whew lord knows I'm guilty)

Now I'm not trying to say MySpace is bad... no, wait actually yes yes I am. MySpace confounds me however in that despite the fact that it has about the worst base layout, horrible customized layouts (I mean really what good is a layout if it means I can't read word-1 of your page), is about as stable as a two legged high chair, and frankly is as secure as a top-down convertible at night in Oakland, yet somehow is the poster child for social networking. People let me tell you, if MySpace is any indication of how fucked up society is, we are seriously in for a rocky future.

And now for something completely different

2007-03-01T21:03:00.000-10:00

OK now I admit I do not advocate zealots or the desire to see Bill Gates on a pike, but this was mildly amusing.

Humor!

Vista/Exchange/Office Oh My!

2007-03-01T20:22:00.000-10:00

OK I don't often say a lot of positive things about Microsoft, but that isn't to say I can't. Attended the local Launch Across America event hosted by MS to demonstrate their offerings with Exchange 2007, Office 2007 and Vista.

Now thankfully I had coworkers with me and we got to also enjoy some good team building and stuff, but really for me it was just a chance to see how MS could spin things for me and what type of direction they're heading and what they espouse to admins out there. Let's face it, knowing what your client base is being told by the vendor is important.

Vista and Office 2007 were as they were in the betas. Promising, a few quirks, and of course some annoyances (urgh still not sold on the UAC model). More interesting to me at least were the inclusions of PowerShell (formerly Monad) and the simplification in Exchange 2007. The improvements in deployment options and the increase of rights to user is also a positive step in my view. As an added bonus, Free copy of Office 2007 :) Now of course I'm not all about taking the plunge all the way for my home systems (just yet) so this will be used for testing within my VMWare lab. So, good presentation, good idea of direction of MS and where they see business going. Now to see how that plays out here in Hawaii.

ESR Leaves Fedora for Ubuntu, MP3 scare and Vraxx sleeps

2007-02-22T14:23:00.000-10:00

On the OSS front, long time RedHat fan Eric S Raymond announced over the Fedora distribution list that he was leaving the Fedora community and RH in favor of Ubuntu.

http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/07/02/22/207231.shtml

I can certainly understand his frustrations but at the same time I do feel some of his arguments towards a desktop Linux architecture aren't always on the mark. Case in point his issue with MP3 support.

Consider that MS itself just lost in their case against Alcatel-Lucent in a patent ruling to the tune of $1.5B, yep that's a B folks.

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-6161480.html

Considering how messy the patent system is in the US I don't really blame a company like RedHat or Novell for wanting to avoid directly going into the support for these formats. With pockets that aren't as deep as MS and in an attempt to not

Now I too have been a fan of RedHat for a fairly long while, but I've also never had to deploy Linux for an enterprise so admittedly I'm more a general user. It works for what I do, that's not always going to be the case for other users. That's just the way software is. Granted the differences in package management systems and support process are going to vary from distribution to distribution but in the end no one is pointing a gun to your head saying you must stay with vendor A, B or C.

While its unfortunate that RH/Fedora has lost a proponent I don't think it necessarily means a death sentence. I agree however that RH needs to become more responsive and hopefully allow the community to make more of a meaningful and bidirectional contribution to the Fedora code base. We'll just have to see if this extra attention gets RH to move a little.

Oh and yeah sleep :) My fever is finally coming down.

Snort flaw identified by IBM security researcher

2007-02-22T09:04:00.000-10:00

http://www.iss.net/threats/257.html

IBM's ISS (Internet Security Systems) Team release the details for a remote exploit in the popular open source intrusion detection system. While the implications are significant it should be noted that patches are being released very quickly.

I don't find these type of announcements all that new or earth shattering these days. Let's face it, the fact of the matter is software is flawed. The question isn't really if there will be an exploit its when and how quickly can a fix be applied.

It's definitely high risk when you consider the whole point of running snort is to identify incoming attack vectors, making it fairly ironic that Snort itself can be considered one.

So if you're out there and running snort to monitor your LAN/WAN be sure to check the Sourcefire updates to snort.

5-Min Review: Blackberry Pearl

2007-02-09T07:30:00.000-10:00

Now if you've read my past rants you'll know that I'm not big on convergence devices for my personal use. Work however sometimes demands you make hard choices and for me in 2007, that choice was to either use a NeXtel BB or my own. I opted to buy my own and in the end that was Pearl. I've used the Pearl as my work phone for about a month now and though there's some aspects to the design that I think need work, for what I use it for it's been okay.

Let's face it the BB Pearl tries to shrink the form factor of previous models to that of a candybar phone and while the size is about right (easier to hold in my hand for long periods than my Samsung t509) it does bring with it several draw backs. The most obvious is that the screen is reduced, making reading long emails a bit of a chore. The reduced keyboard also makes thumbing a little more challenging. On the upside though I don't use my Pearl for outbound. It's about 80% inbound with the replies being often one or two lines tops. Detailed emails of a technical nature still require me to crack open my laptop.

Battery life has been OK, but in truth I've gotten most of my client base to realize that technical questions really should be going through my email since it gives me a good history of when the issues were reported and I can trace the conversation for details. Call quality is moderate though sometimes I think the normal headset volume falters. The speaker phone though is quite loud and very handy for conference calls.

Overall I think the Pearl can be helpful for folks who need notifications and integration with corporate network (Calendar, contacts etc) however for Joe Average the Pearl is just a glorified geek-badge :P

5-Min Review: The Blackhole that is MMO (The Burning Crusade)

2007-01-22T21:51:00.000-10:00

So of course I'm still a semi-social geek right? Is that even a valid term? In any case, The Burning Crusade, the much vaunted expansion pack for the wildly popular World of Warcraft is out and about. That doesn't mean people are getting a whole lot of chances to play it unscathed of course.

TBC brings something back to the fold that WoW was starting to diverge from. The idea of small group content. With the influx of EQ and Raid centric developers to the WoW team it seemed like the entire point of the game was not to have fun with your friends but to amass 40 lemmings and have them Zerg an NPC boss monster and then bitch and moan over who got the rights to the loot.

While I'm glad to see some of the changes, parts of me are still left with a half-crooked neck wondering "why blizzard, why". Server stability as expected of a large launch is less than stellar. With frequent lag spikes and the seemingly unrelenting need for partial rollbacks the entire gaming experience to me is marred by the technical backbone of the game just not meeting demand.

Layer on top of that some of the oddest map designs I've seen and the game isn't always as smooth as I think it could have been. Let's face it when you feel like a Weeble trying not to wobble just going from area to area that's no fun.

I'll hold off from saying TBC is a wash, but I think there's still a good volume of work to be done in patches or future XP's. Huh maybe that's why it's TBC, To Be Continued... *dramatic music*

iPhone... iDunCare

2007-01-09T19:02:00.000-10:00

Normally I'm all about the new technology and the things on the horizon, but in a lot of cases I'm also very cautious. Enter the iPhone. Rumors about it have been around for a great long while, but honestly is this 3-way convergence device really going to be the next best thing or just a quirky product? A little of both would be my guess.

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20070109-8583.html

ArsTechica had a fairly good review of the device. For me however I view the attempts at creating a sexy-new-media-savvy phone a little mixed. My view has often been that convergence devices fall into two categories, consumer and business models. The iPhone looks like a great blend of features for the upper level consumer but in many ways I can see the limited input options as being a hindrance to its adoption in the business side of the house. While some press coverage such as ZDNet's has touted the iPhone as a death knell for companies like MS and RIM, I think that view is exaggerated. Until Apple forges stronger alliances and provides business users the ability to really connect to the home office the product will likely not appeal to the larger corporations out there who are very tied to their MS Exchange/RIM connectivity.

Keep in mind I think there's a lot of good that could come of the iPhone. For younger business users this will be the penetration product of '07. As younger tech-savvy users embrace the iPhone, the expectation will be for their corporate side to follow suit. While the change won't happen overnight, it definitely gives Apple an inroad to big-business that it probably lacked.

I'll hold my real judgment until the 2nd generation of iPhone is released and people have had a chance to do more "Rugged" testing. Let's face it if the face of the pretty iPhone gets scratched up.. is it really still cool to have?

Open Source in 07 and other tech thoughts

2007-01-02T23:21:00.000-10:00

So of course with various OSS news being tossed about I thought it a good time to editorialize some of my thoughts on the subject. First up, Red Hat and its future. While i don't think the recent actions by CentOS or Oracle are going to immediately impact the US leader in commercial distributions I do believe they will shape how Red Hat spins their services and how their distro develops.

GPL v3 concerns is next on my list. As the OSS community grows larger I realize that it's harder and harder to get everyone to agree on anything. the GPL changes proposed by Stallman et al are a textbook example of this. While I agree in the intension of the GPL license I am also slightly reserved about early adoption of the v3 GPL license. While the restrictions are meant to protect the coder and in theory keep it firmly away from IP violations, I do wonder if the restrictions are going to turn off some fledgling programmers.

Ongoing security debate. This one galls me often, simply because I don't subscribe to the notion that any computer system is necessarily more secure because it simply "is". Every OS can have flaws, if only because of the fact that both are created by humans and invariably will have defects. No amount of code auditing in the world is going to create 'perfect' code, in the end it depends on how the vendor/system administrator is able to deal with the issue.

So in a nutshell, potential movement in the OSS world, slow growth, and let's get off the security-bashing trend.

Happy Holiday Wishes from Vraxx

2006-12-25T08:18:00.000-10:00

Here's to anybody that happens upon this blog, or even the occasional repeat reader of my blog, like... all 5 of you. :)

Very Merry Christmas or general Happy Holidays. Be good, be safe and be happy.

Red Hat Profits, MS gets Linux Support Customers

2006-12-22T23:47:00.000-10:00

Recent articles in ZDNet and other trade publications have made note of three large companies now seeking support contracts under the partnership between Novell and MS. This should definitely prove interesting as thus far the immediate impact of this new business alliance has not been felt at Red Hat.

With Red Hat shares gaining considerably in year to year growth it looks like the support model they are offering is working, so far at least. Though I have been a Red Hat user for a very long time, even i agree that RHEL is less accessible to the average user. (Don't get me wrong CentOS does a good job). For me having at least one "commercial" flavor of Linux is a job requirement. I do however feel that the up and coming Linux admins of the world will be influence by their "first taste" of a distro. I still know admins today that will never leave the worlds of Slackware or FreeBSD because that's where they cut their teeth.

Do I think the new competitors to RH in the support market will make an impact? Yes, will it be as strong as they hope? We'll have to see. One thing that sets the 'support' model differences is the caliber of folks. It's easy to lump a bunch of low-paid IT folks into a room w/phones and call it a support center, but to actually keep and retain those highly skilled workers who are willing to do technical support? that's another issue entirely.

IBM's Mainframe Monopoly?

2006-12-07T17:44:00.000-10:00

So a few posts in the ZDNet forum commented that IBM is to Mainframes as MS is to Operating Systems. I dunno that I completely agree with the assessment. I say this mainly because it wasn't always Big Blue with 90% in the mainframe market. Unisys, Hitachi, even to a lesser extent HP were all in the game, but when the hard times came, the smaller companies took their marbles and went to the smaller playground. IBM toughed it out and while it certainly lost units, it retained a good % of the mainframe market. Since the Mainframe market is one part of a larger IT infrastructure (which could and has invariably moved away from Mainframes into mostly Server and Server Clusters) I think it's harder to call their percentages monopolistic. If you take it to a broader server/mainframe view IBM is probably at a loss due to mediocre penetration in the SMB category and pressure from vendors like Dell and HP.

IBM's recent suit against PSI is specifically a patent infringement case and licensing issues. Now whether or not this is just a tactic to keep PSI tied up for years in court is conjecture. I am curious to see just how another manufacturer could break into the market. Most of the big-giants are all but cold. Truth be known I think other than NEC and Cray I don't think there's anybody else that comes to mind for mainframes.

ODSL Layoffs -- Change in the air or airing out...

2006-12-04T22:52:00.000-10:00

The ODSL (Open Source Development Lab) which admittedly doesn't focus necessarily on raw development let go 9 full time employees and has changed their organization efforts in order to better address legal issues and drumming up more viability for Linux as a front runner OS.

I find the fact that an organization has to be setup exclusively for the legal repercussions of the FOSS model a little scary, but I understand why it must be there. Linux fans will problem claims this is part of the pressure by MS. MS fans will claim this is proof that the Linux/FOSS model of business doesn't work. I'll just hold my judgement until either a) more people leave or are dismissed from the ODSL or b) the organization folds due to the tensions caused by Novell (one of the key partners)

I so did not see that coming... (sarcasm)

2006-12-04T20:33:00.000-10:00

OK so Novell has made it known they wish to fork Open Office (see article )with one version supporting Microsoft's proposed option to the ODF. Now this wasn't that far fetched, but I wonder how licensing for the fork will work out. With the existing code base being GPL'ed and there likely being snippets of proprietary code in the fork, just how is that going to be kosher?

Novell's moves are bold, but I think at the same time they aren't totally taking into account the zealot culture that's formed around Linux and FOSS. I'm more a moderate than anything when it comes to my support of open source, so while I get where Novell is going I think a lot of it is leaving a bad taste in the mouths of many of the developer community.

We'll have to wait and see how the forking of Open Office affects the potential cohesiveness of the project and its ability to really go head to head if at all with MS Office in the future.

UPDATE: OK so a few folks viewed my view of the situation as FUD. According to posts, the OpenOffice code will not fork but the plugins to support the Microsoft Open XML format. The licensing is to be done under a BSD and LGPL so hopefully there's little concern that MS will will use any patents which contribute to the modules against other projects that utilize the source code contributed to OOo.

Security: Oh the exploits they are a coming

2006-11-29T22:52:00.000-10:00

Let's face it nothing is secure but somehow pundits want to argue that option A is always better than option B. George Ou of TechRepublic is one of the most vocal bloggers on the ZDNet boards and his views, though not entirely without points, don't always seem to fit as many situations as I think he'd like.

In one of his more recent posts he notes again his support of Vista's newer granular security and the idea that you don't need AV. While I agree with him in that AV software is a severe performance drain and that the improvements to Vista's security layers should help, I also realize there are circumstances where you can't use the security model that George advocates.

Case in point: The mobile worker/field worker. I myself spend about half my day on other customers' LAN's more than my own employer. Relying on restricted local permissions isn't going to cut it, by the nature of my work, I have to do a lot of my work as an Administrator or Power User. The fact that I am also relatively "naked" from myself to the wire means I can't rely on gateway AV. In a Utopian world everybody else would implement the same level of security and be equally protected, but that just doesn't happen.

The idea that an "end user" can get along fine with restricted permissions is something that I've had to tackle for a long while as a support person. Let's say for instance you've got a remote customer and you're trying to assist them with something using a remote access tool like LiveMeeting for WebEx. Oops they aren't an admin user, they can't even install ActiveX applets. Well hey great... Even if code signing applied here, most system admins would limit the installation of anything out side of corporate standard.

Now am I saying the various *nix flavors fix this to a T? No, not really. Unix's standard permissions system is definitely long in the tooth, but it is still one of the easiest to get a grasp on initially as an admin (at least I thought so). The problem with high granularity security is that you can find yourself trying to heard cats. You have so many security policies defined, so many exceptions defined that you can't trace back what happened in your AD without having a well structured change log/management system. Now while that works if you're a large organization try to picture it from the perspective of the smaller business or the small IT shop.

In the end there's no one all answer, I feel there's definitely room for layered security but it has to be applied appropriately and with scrutiny and care.

Testing of new photogear

2006-11-27T07:32:00.000-10:00

Well had a few items on my wishlist that I finally got just prior to a photoshoot with members from 808cosplay and Kawaii-Kon forum goers. Among the hardware I got to try out, a San Disk 4GB Ultra III card. Helped during the burst sequences. A flash diffuser/filter (hehe cheapo simple plastic that it is) and a replacement Domke photographers vest.

Now I admit the vest, well makes me looking f'in' dorky. But I enjoy it since I can keep spare batteries, my cleaning gear, filters, you name it. Doesn't hurt that the vest also saves my shirts from getting ruined if I have to go prone for a low angle shot.

The new CF card was also great, replacing my 4GB Microdrive as my RAW/high cap memory option, the card was barely half full by the end of the day (mostly cause I shot JPG this time around). Burst write speed was very good and in the earlier part of the shoot came in very handy.

Unfortunately since I don't have any flash photography w/o the filter on I really didn't have a good comparison but I did see the impact in terms of reducing excessive bounce back and flare so I'm happy with the purchase. Click here for the cosplay webgallery

Photo by Zarli Win

Black Friday... Why?

2006-11-26T18:53:00.000-10:00

Now I'll be honest and say that Black Friday is one of those days that has perplexed me to no end. Any which way you look at it, it's an excuse for people to convince themselves that staying up all night after a turkey dinner and camping the local electronics store or chain store. For what though? Saving a on some electronics?

I'm all for saving money, god knows with the way the economy is we could use the extra dollars, but there's a finite limit. The one time I actually shopped on Black Friday was in SF and it wasn't pretty. Having stuff pulled from my hand while shopping in a Macy's and seeing folks at a Target have stuff swiped from their shopping carts was just nuts.

What happened to the idea that the holidays are for spending time with your family? Enjoying the season? No instead we have, "ZOMG microwaves take an extra 30% off!!" Is this what parents are teaching their kids these days? That the all mighty sale is the rally cry for the family unit in America? If that's the case, let me tell you I'd just as rather pay the normal price.

Is anybody secure? I don't think so

2006-11-20T19:59:00.000-10:00

Today must be Vraxx bashes on ZDnet articles day or something. ZDNet UK article discussing the notion was former US security adviser Howard Schmidt to the House of Lords. His talktrack focused on the idea that small businesses just "don't get security". Now far be it for me to contend that small businesses don't get it, the tone of the article however almost suggests that big businesses DO get it. The truth of the matter is, in most cases security, though important takes a fundamental back seat to deadlines and business objectives.

I've seen some great security schema and system administrators in businesses ranging from the mom and pop shop to the large corporate site. The House of Lords seems to forget that there's two aspects to every security issue. Large scale sites are often hard pressed to be able to lock down _everything_ w/o testing and evaluation. Smaller businesses can move more quickly to plug up security issues. Granted a smaller business may not always have the manpower but hell, neither does big business when you look at track records. Human behavior, human limitations will always play a role, no matter which size business you're talking about. In the end it doesn't matter how large the company is, it matters how well structured security is for it.

Negative Press -- Linux in the hotseat

2006-11-20T19:35:00.000-10:00

Well several articles are out regarding the reversal of several high profile Linux conversions. Case in point the Birmingham City Council recently halting the continuation of a project to convert stations and public access systems to Linux. Novell's recent strategic alliance and the general slow-down of the FOSS/Linux hype engine.

I'm one of those people that believes that Linux has a good deal of potential, but I've never really been one to advocate a desktop conversion. I still feel that Linux is at its best in the server role. My development stations and network monitoring/system administration systems. Will Linux become a desktop powerhouse? I hope so, but I don't know that that time is now. I'm still hedging my bets that truly significant inroads aren't going to be in place until around 2009 or so. (Don't quote me on this, I'm just doing a rough projection based on how user friendly Linux has been since 1995)

So much to watch, so little time

2006-11-18T18:15:00.000-10:00

One of my biggest issues is time management. Between duties at work, duties with family and girlfriend, and well general sanity maintenance (read chores and the like) there never seems to be enough time to just relax and enjoy mindless fun. My usual anime/movie watching time is sadly 8-11. Just enough time to eek in something but half the time i wind up asleep at the 930 mark :|

Thank god there are no late fees with Netflix. Otherwise I'd be in the dog house. So what do you all do to manage your fun time with your flub time?

Linux: Feature Creep In Linux/BSD

2006-11-15T20:41:00.000-10:00

Now normally I don't quibble about the types of applications loaded onto a Linux/BSD box, but steadily the average size of a either *nix is growing. Now part of that is to be expected, a larger kernel, more libraries, yet personally I find it interesting that Linux/BSD is just as guilty of feature creep as the Windows world.

Let's face it, with most distributions slapping support for KDE and GNOME, adding multiple desktop managers and several variations of text editors as part of "default" install sets, it's looking a might like the Windows influence. I'll grant you that the basic footprint is still smaller in most cases than a well loaded Windows system but the size delta is shrinking.

Overtime of course I don't doubt that both operating systems will increase in size, unless better, more efficient coding takes place, but it's a little sad to see the general 'minimum' size for Linux/BSD grow. As a tinkerer and SysAd I enjoy being able to fire up a VMWare session and enjoy a distribution or two, but these days the HDD overhead is just getting crazy.

So I tip my hat to the folks like DSL (Damn Small Linux) and other 'live' distributions on a disk. Keep striving to keep it simple, and small.

New Blogger Interface

2006-11-14T20:42:00.000-10:00

Well I'm trying out the new blogger beta. So far it isn't that radically different and the front end view for anyone who browses here doesn't really change. We'll see if the modifications in the beta wind up being useful or just a case of feature creep.

Vista, Novell and Microsoft, Red Hat and schtuffs

2006-11-10T18:57:00.000-10:00

So of course being a supporter of FOSS, I was keenly watching the news and I have to admit the articles as of late have been interesting. The fact that Vista is on its way to manufacturers and that Novell and MS are forging a business partnership is a bold though not entirely unexpected move.

Red Hat's reaction to all this is about what I expected, but still with recent moves by Oracle to encroach into Red Hat's main line of business and the Novell/MS thing it will be interesting to see how RH adjusts itself to compete with these newer threats.

Personally I think the end user is going to benefit in the long run. I hold quite a few doubts that Oracle will really make too much of a dent in the services arena until at least a year or later. Novell and MS's moves however may have a greater immediate impact. With financial backing and a fairly strong product NMS has more commercial clout to say mainstream IT managers. On the flip side, RH now remains the only truly independent player with sizable market share. While RH critics are in no short supply I think as long as they stay close to the FOSS paradigms they'll keep a good sized user base unless price pressure and lack of business growth keep them down.

We'll have to see how the market shifts now but I for one will watch with interest and hopefully be able to see the benefits of competition for both parties.

Vraxxism: It goes where?!

2006-11-05T20:40:00.000-10:00

SC: hey, what's a toilette spray?
SC: do chicks spray that on their butt after they go to the bathroom?
Vraxx: as in eu de toilette?
Vraxx: eau de toilette rather sorry
Vraxx: http://ask.yahoo.com/20030226.html
SC: i was a little off
SC: thanks :D
Vraxx: yes especially considering what end...

*Comment: I did actually have to think about that one. I thought SC meant like FDS or something.

Clarrification on the 5-minute review

2006-11-05T20:21:00.000-10:00

OK so I've actually received a few nasty-emails (particularly for my rather low scoring of FFXII. I'd like to clarify the 5-minute review system I use does NOT mean I only played for 5 minutes. It's a review which should be written in roughly 5-minutes.

Now more in depth reviews will be posted to Vraxx.com of course, in which I sometimes revise my score, or go into more detail over the elements behind my review. Until then, sorry these abbreviated reviews will have to suffice.

5 Minute Review: NWN2

2006-11-05T20:15:00.000-10:00

Now I admit, I enjoyed the first NWN considerably, due in no small part to the fact that the toolset offered a lot of replay ability once you got past the UI quirks. With Obsidian at the helm, NWN2 looked to be a very ambitious project and it turned out very well in my opinion.

The UI has been in many ways simplified and while at first can be confusing, I found myself adapting to it fairly quickly. The graphics are also significantly improved, however they tax my limited hardware =\ You may want to watch just how many visual features you turn on.

Storyline however is the area that this new iteration of NWN shines. The dialogue, subplots and quests that string you through are varied and interesting. The different paths your character can take are certainly still there (lawful/good, neutral, evil) and some of the jabs and jokes during character interaction are downright hilarious.

If you enjoyed the first NWN and are willing to open yourself to the new UI I think you'll find NWN2 to be a very enjoyable experience. Visually you may need to accept that your hardware might not be up to snuff (sadly as my own gear is) but I think most user will overlook that once they see how fun the gameplay is. I'm rating NWN2 an 8.5/10 at initial glance.

5 Minute Review: Final Fantasy XII

2006-10-31T19:30:00.000-10:00

Now there's few franchises out there that I follow for more than say 2 sequels. Final Fantasy however is one of those exceptions. The latest entrant into the family is FFXII. Set in the world of Ivalice the blend of fantasy and machina in this new release reminds me a bit of Star Wars and back drops like Naboo.

Visually the game is still as polished as ever (at least as ever it can be on the PS2). Cut scenes are still very cinematic and F/X are still very entertaining. Audio however doesn't seem to be quite as up to par this go around to me. Dubbing was especially bad with audio quality seemingly fluctuating (almost seems like echo control wasn't handled well in the recording booth).

The combat system however is the biggest departure. Rather than implement a pure turn based combat system FFXII adopts something of a hybrid between real time and turn. Enemy encounters are handled in semi-real time and you are allowed to select attacks which pause the action. On the upside things get moved along a lot faster, on the downside, your ability to really be tactical is more or less taken out of the loop. As many others have mentioned, the game sort of plays itself now. I haven't done much more than the first hour of gameplay but as role playing games go, it isn't bad. Unfortunately it also isn't great. While the skills progression system is sufficiently interesting and the storyline seems good, the game just doesn't seem to jump out as something extraordinarily unique. That however could be part of its charm as well.

All in all, the game looks to be an enjoyable ride but nothing to write home about. First impression, I would rate this newest FF title at a 7/10. Might not win over converts, may actually turn away hard core FF fans but casual players may be okay.

UPDATE: After a bit more gameplay (and actually being awake) I realize the game isn't that bad. I still find UI quirks and the license/gambit system somewhat combersome but the fact that the game threads you along pretty well and isn't quite as plodding as some of the previous iterations is nice. A revised 8.2/10 score is warranted here.

The quest for quasi-infinite storage

2006-10-26T07:25:00.000-10:00

OK now I was cleaning house this morning because I'm doing online course work and learning several new software solution products that I need to deploy for work. It was then that I realized just how much "stuff" I have on my hard drive. My photography hobby of course is a big influence in this. Just half of my 2006 library runs me 8GBs =\ Where the hell do I store all this. The cheap solution of course is to segment and burn to DVDs but ugh, I hate maintaining data file catalogs. I had thought about tape but blerg. Then of course there's all these spiffy new 1TB NAS devices :)

We don't normally think much about pictures these days since we no longer need to store 35mm negatives. But good god it's rough in a whole other level now with the massive file sizes. So what's your solution? Let me know oh mighty blogsphere.

Open Source News and Thoughts

2006-10-25T14:12:00.000-10:00

So of course with the release of Firefox 2, IE7, Fedora Core 6 and recent announcements by Oracle, the OSS movement is once again in the limelight. Most of the news is really more evolution than revolution if you ask me.

First up Firefox 2.0. Improvements to footprint, a few polishes to the UI and better RSS support are the major highlights. To the average user I doubt you'll notice any stark differences. I haven't had much time to explore newer plugins for FF2 but thus far for my daily browsing activities this latest build of Firefox has not shown any issues.

Fedora Core 6 is a nice improvement to FC5 and overall I found the installation process to be smoother and considerably faster to load. A somewhat customized install took me roughtly 35 minutes to install. This included multiple desktop support, Web server, SQL servers and Samba as base packages. Stability seems fine though UI response in my VMWare session felt a little laggy.

Oracle offers support and indemnification to RedHat Linux users. This one really doesn't surprise me, as Oracle has tried to find a way to garner a larger user base. Their open feuding with RedHat has been the topic of much conjecture. I find it mildly amusing that Oracle chose to take the CentOS route and use the RHL source as the basis for their own flavor of RH Linux. Only time will tell how significantly this affects the RedHat business model of providing services.

Photoshoot: Orchids

2006-10-23T19:56:00.000-10:00

So besides Cosplayers, I also shoot floral fairly often. Mostly because flowers are very patient =P The Honolulu Orchid show ran three days, though I only got out for the Sunday showing. Enjoy the photos.

http://www.vraxx.com/image/webgallery_orchids_10_22_06

Costoberfest Photoshoot and recap

2006-10-22T01:50:00.000-10:00

http://www.vraxx.com/image/webgallery_cosplay_10_21_06

After a bit of almost getting lost I found my way to the photoshoot site. Mark (Vengeance) coordinated the event and a good selection it was. Not quite as open as the previous shoot, the site of the costoberfest shoot was definitely more people friendly. Cool winds and some good canopy cover from the trees kept fatigue to a minimum.

The shots were at times tricky due to the shadows being cast by branches overhead, but it also provided some really nice lighting elements and made spotting good light sources a lot easier. Interestingly enough while the last photoshoot had way more food than we needed I think we actually overdid the drinks. Closest thing to food if I recall correctly was Roz' item of bread and cheese :) Turn out was very good, not sure if a final head count was ever taken.

In total I snapped around 2.3GBs of JPG data and of the 530ish or so frames I think 100 or so were postable w/o edits. A lot of the extra shots were actually bursts so they do tend to throw off the numbers. Glad I got to speak with more folks and hopefully will remember everyone's name come the next GT/photoshoot. Definitely a good time to practice my hobby and snag shots of some very well made costumes. Thanks to all who attended and hope to see you at future shoots.

Photoshoot Checklist and the Countdown

2006-10-21T07:00:00.000-10:00

OK being overly dramatic but last night I went through all my photo gear in preparation for the 808cosplay photoshoot today. The shoot is still several hours away but I've got a lot to prep still. Grabbing some drinks, ice for the cooler, clearing out my car to actually make room for all this stuff. Making sure I don't get lost.

While I doubt I'll need them, I'm bringing both bodies (10D and 30D) roughly 5 lenses (unlikely to be field-swapped due to dirt). Mounted are 10D w/Sigma 35-80mm, 30D w/Canon 28-200mm. The 28-200mm is probably the best bet I have for the conditions, it's the lens I used at the last shoot. I may actually buy a 2nd one because of it's high usage and flexibility.

Welp, I'm also trying to cram in a load of laundry, cause well, gotta look good at these things even if you aren't cospaying right :)

Busy busy

2006-10-18T20:13:00.000-10:00

Work's been pretty hectic as of late with paperwork, increasing sales and of course inversely more stuff for me to work on. As a result my reviewing time has certainly been reduced. So here's some quick overviews of random anime I've watched.

Mahoromatic: One cute, though sometimes a little overly ecchi anime about a robotic combat maid to who comes to the aid of a seemingly innocent young man. The story has a lot of sci-fi elements and a few elements borrowed from series such as Hand Maid May and Chobits. It's the classic artificial lifeform with human soul sort of story.

Grenadier: Fan service to the X-treme! Breasts, bullets and blades. It doesn't get more cliche then this. Still though despite the obvious fan service there are a few good messages to be had, mostly regarding non-violence and aiming to be a better person.

So far I'm just running through random anime so don't expect too many new series to show up. Hopefully I'll have a review posted for Disk 2 of the Tenchi Muyo OAV 3 soon.

Shake, rattle, roll -- Quake Afterthoughts

2006-10-16T08:22:00.000-10:00

Well a magnitude 6.6 earthquake is nothing trivial, but I am glad to report that very little damage occurred here on Oahu. Kona was hit pretty bad and I'm hoping that some of my friends are AOK. Going through a natural disaster, if even only for a few hours (thankfully) is unnerving. For me the most unsettling thing was just how reliant we are on power from a single power grid (Hawaiian Electric). Utilities are definitely something we all take for granted. From power for your gadgets, running water to drink and for sanitation.

Given how the islands are isolated, I was a little concerned that if the quake was serious riots and looting would begin. Thankfully however the impact to our island was minimal and other than a few pissed off residents and tourists, there were no signs of out and out violence. Reminder to anyone living in a quake zone, or other disaster, get your survival gear in place and have a plan. Best wishes, be safe.

Vraxxism: Optimism... I think

2006-10-10T11:15:00.000-10:00

Vraxx: I'm one of those, the cup is half full of cyanide sorts. Don't mind me.

The Sony Bad Press Machine

2006-10-06T20:47:00.000-10:00

Let's face it, Sony has as of late been in people's crosshairs for good reason. A PS3 which is horribly priced, and looks to have cooling issues. Batteries that darn outright assplode and a tendancy to name things and create propriatary standards that nobody likes.

I understand where Sony is going, everybody out there is trying to do things cheaper, faster, with lower turn around to market. The problem is the 2% margin you gain in one area just doesn't make up for the loss in market share when you bend your customer over and do'em dry. (MS are you listening to this?)

While I really do look forward to the Sony PS3, I realize I'm anxious not for the hardware per say, but for hopefully a good body of titles that'll be written for it. Sure there's the Wii, there's the 360 but for the type of games I enjoy the PS3 seems to be the better front runner. Sony needs to get on the ball and realize that consumers will, can and have backlashed. Oh well, even I am in the minority of PS3 owners I'll still hold out a bit of hope.

Seeming lack of reviews... Vraxx appologizes

2006-10-01T09:33:00.000-10:00

With work being what it is for me atm and the fact that really few newer releases have caught my eye I've mostly been watching a back-catalogue of titles. So here's the ultra-fast and totally non-helpful review of some of the random anime I've watched over the last few weeks.

Angelic Layer -- 6/10 Fairly good voice acting doesn't spare us from the fact the series is geared towards younger children. Some of the themes border on more adult fair but all in all it's a basic 'battle' story much like Pokemon, but this time centering round a female protagonist and her journey to reunite with her mother.

Comic Party (TV) -- 6.5/10 I wasn't expecting much and that was probably a good thing. The premise is good and for novices to manga the series provides a lot of nice snippets at the world of doujinshi. A little fan servicey at times the title is enjoyable but the conclusion of the TV series and the path changes that occur with the spin/sequel Comic Party Revolution don't mesh very well.

Gravion/Gravion Zwei -- 7/10 It doesn't get more fan servicey than this. However Gravion is done in such over the top theatrics that you can't help but laugh. From the gravity defying breasts, the socially awkward protagonist, a host of busty maids and a leader so charismatic that you can't help but think Liberache is back, the Gravion series is a fun ride. Voiced by a stand up cast from ADV Films (Chris Patton, Luci Christian, Kira Vincent Davies, Greg Ayres just to name a few) and drawn with great attention to detail the series is a great distraction.

Shadow Skill Vol 1 -- 5.5/10 Normally I can't wait to hear Luci Christian in a role, but this series just felt a little oddly paced (at least in this volume). While I totally see Ms. Christians voice being well suited to the often yelling lead Elle Ragu, somehow the scenes just felt awkward. Even with the help of a strong support cast which includes Greg Ayres in the role of Gau her 'like a brother' side kick throughout her misadventures.

Signs of Geekdom

2006-09-14T08:51:00.000-10:00

OK I blurted this one out and realized in retrospect how horribly geeky it was.

Vraxx: and now... breakfast
Vraxx: oooh or i can install debian!

Yes... I... well OK there's no explaining that shit away

Photography... or...

2006-09-14T08:30:00.000-10:00

So today's Vraxxism is actually from late last night. In a chat about keeping up with the technology of the day we got around to how much it costs to be on the edge with PC technology, consoles etc. I then brought up how hard it is being interested in photography.

Vraxx: Well you make a choice and you're like "photographer or crack addict" and you pick photographer. Then you get into it and realize, shit shoulda picked crack addict.

YAV -- Yet Another Vraxxism

2006-09-12T15:12:00.000-10:00

In honor of MS and re-re-patching IE, here's our Vraxxism of the day

Vraxx: patch Tuesday is like a hernia exam for Windows. It's required (realistically), but really uncomfortable.

ME WANT BLOG YOU!

2006-09-09T19:30:00.000-10:00

Well today was a pretty interesting day overall, but this bit takes the cake. Blatant spam is just funny sometimes, so here's today's Vraxxism.

Vraxx: you gotta love the blatant spam
Vraxx: Subject: I WANT F*CK YOU!
Vraxx: i'm tempted to reply: "Sucky fucky, me ban you LONG time" or something

Review: Negima (vol 1)

2006-09-03T09:06:00.000-10:00

OK for once in my life I'm not going to duplicate content, so this review is a stand alone and a completely different review is going to be posted to Vraxx.com soon as I find the time and shake this head cold.

Take one part Onegai Teacher, a little Harry Potter, a good helping of Love Hina and you've got Negima. I have to admit the story didn't interest me so much as the voice acting list. With Luci Christian, Greg Ayres and Monica Rial [all of whom are slated to attend 2007 Kawaii Kon :D] in the cast I felt compelled to at least check out one volume to see how their characters sounded.

I won't go into much plot detail since vol 1 looks to be just a character setup anyway. The storyline centers around young wizard prodigy Negi Springfield (voiced by Greg Ayres), a 10 year old who is given the task of serving as home room/English teacher at an all girls school in Japan. His first encounters with one of his students does not run so well however as he draws the ire of the female lead Asuna Kagurazaka (voiced by Luci Christian). Being a wizard however is not without its problems, as Negi is required to NOT reveal his magical background. Well of course as you can imagine, the cat is out of the bag and revealed to none other than Asuna. That more or less sets up volume one of this series.

As the male lead, I think Greg Ayres' voice is a good youthful fit, though for me hearing a British accent can sometimes be a little unusual. Ayres plays the characters timid side well and his profuse appologies work well with his high energy performance style. Luci Christian, who voices the female lead seems right at home. Asuna comes off to me at least, as a more brash, younger take on her vocal work as Kaname Chidori (Full Metal Panic). Equally high energy, Christian has a few moments where we see her transition from the yelling, wise cracking heroine to a more mature Asuna. Calm and cool in comparison however is Monica Rial's character of Konoka, the daughter of the Dean of the school and Asuna's closest friend and roommate.

While this volume of Negima is bubbly and full of fanservice I think it holds up fairly well as a comedic title. Based on reading, it does seem like the story will take on both ecchi and dramatic plot twists but the first few volumes look to be focusing on character development and getting to understand Negi's relationship with his all-girl class. Overall I give this title an 8/10 thus far for volume 1. The story is a little weak at present but the vocal work by the large cast is quite enjoyable. I'm hoping to get a chance to meet the cast at the 2007 Kawaii Kon.

Online Identity and Vanity

2006-08-28T22:18:00.000-10:00

Now I'll admit when you consider just how vast the Internet is, I think a lot of people (yours truly included) love the idea that with a single net-presence you can become known by a dizzying array of people.

While the idea is great if you're the attention seeking type, it does lead to some pretty unusual behavior. MySpace is perhaps the most widely known example of how the blog craze has brought some of humanity's less than admirable traits to the forefront. MySpace.com isn't a bad thing in and of itself, very few things ever are if you ask me, but what happens when you put a friends counter onto a blog? Suddenly everything is about how many friends you have. When did friendship become the Pokemon of the blogsphere? Are we so obsessed with quantity that it doesn't matter how well you know someone in so long as they can be counted as +1 to your list?

I actually view myself as being a fair unsociable person but when I do choose to add someone as a friend, and allow that list to be viewed I'd like to think that there's at least _something_ good about the person. While certainly I think it's great that so many people are beginning to 'connect' this way I'm still a little more pragmatic, I don't care if I have 1 friend or 1 billion friends, to me its how well I know that friend and the kind of person I know/feel them to be.

OK promise funnier stuff soon... REAL soon. I think.

Review: Chevy HHR

2006-08-18T23:23:00.000-10:00

So Thursday I got to fly out to Maui to get a few installations in. Interestingly enough I found the TSA staff and checkpoints to be about the same as they normally have been.

The only downside though was my short experience having to drive around a brown Chevy HHR. The car itself is sort of a cross between a sedan, a mini-SUV and a hatchback. The closest parallel is the same basic shape of the Dodge Charger. However, the HHR suffers from a little bit of an identity crisis. With a relatively weak engine (140ish HP), a fairly small trunk (unless you drop the rear seats) and fairly loose feeling steering the HHR isn't really a performance vehicle or a great people mover. I found the engine response lacking and steering felt muddy. Feedback from the car wasn't what I was expecting and I often couldn't get a good feel for just how much sway and turning ability I was actually getting out of the car.

In the end the HHR is aptly named because "hhrrrr" is the noise you'll be making as you approach hills. Driving the HHR made me realize how much easier the Malibu Max and Chevy Cobalt were to drive. If you're an HHR owner I hope you don't take offense, but since the renta-car companies usually stock the bargain basement models, my experience with the HHR wasn't the most pleasant.

Ubuntu or Red Hat, who takes it?!

2006-08-02T22:43:00.000-10:00

Who's distro will reign supreme. Well there's a lot of leeway there. Ubuntu is certainly the front runner in terms of popular opinion, but if you look at things from the perspective of the business owner I think you'll see that Red Hat, though having lost street cred is still a more appealing platform choice overall than Ubuntu.

While both distributions are pretty user friendly, even I can acknowledge that RH has lost a lot ground. While my RHEL 4WS install is definately stable, there's elements to it that have made porting in older apps more tricky and it hasn't been so great to conform with lib standards. However, does any of this matter as you make the change from SMB to Enterprise? Here's where I'm thinking Ubuntu doesn't always match up. Kernel changes, patches etc all require careful maintenance. With most distributions you're able to take things to the bleeding edge. That isn't always the best course when you're dealing with high availability systems. In this regard some of the additional tweaks/QA etc that RH supposedly provides with its products is a good "warm fuzzy" for IT management.

Personally I've gotten to the point that I no longer really care which OS I use, so long as I can ramp up on my needed skills for it and be off. I've run Debian, Ubuntu, FreeBSD, OpenBSD, Fedora, Red Hat Linux and truthfully other than the file structure differences and variations on package management, and libraries learning the fundamentals of a distribution helps more than memorizing. While I can see where the press is going, calling Ubuntu the next replacement to RH, I tend to wonder if the realization of going back to their roots will set in and we dont' see RH changing their stance on standards and compliance in the future (not near but hey maybe by RHEL 6)

Humor: I'm Tim, I Drive an Aries...

2006-07-27T18:03:00.000-10:00

Click Here to DL WMV file

I just found this too funny not to post. It's an old video but still hillarious. Enjoy. Hopefully more Video links and humor on the way. Great video clip/parody which I believe was done to sell a used car :) Unfortunately I don't believe the original authors information is valid anymore.

Anime Review (Quick): Speed Grapher

2006-07-26T18:50:00.000-10:00

Take one part Area 88, slap some Gantz and you've got Speed Grapher. Well ok that's the really really bad version of a review, but thankfully Speed Grapher is actually a very interesting storyline with some good dubbing and great artwork.

Centered around the strange, almost occult world of underground Japan, a hapless photog Tatsumi Saiga (voiced by Christopher R. Sabat) in the course of an investigation finds himself pitted against a secret society of amazing power. Central to this is Kagura Tennouzu (voiced by Monica Rial) who awakens powers within Saiga, enabling him to destroy things when he photographs them.

The plot might take a bit of a leap to get into, but the dynamic between the leads is pretty good, and the mysterious elements of the seedier characters has you wanting to learn more. The innocent and seemingly misused Kagura has a definite double nature that makes you question if she's really who you think she is. Both leads do a good job and thus far the supporting cast has been pretty good as well. Mind you there's a lot of dismemberment and some racey adult themes (sex, violence, kink). Definitely NOT for children, Speed Grapher will fit right in with fans who enjoyed Gantz or Elfen Lied.

On a completely unrelated note, if my camera ever allows me to kick that much ass... well all i can say is HELL YEAH.

Vraxxism: Speaking Your Mind

2006-07-24T21:27:00.000-10:00

***HANDY WAVING***
The following blog entry is very brusque and may initially seem sexist. I am however refering to sucking your thumb like a baby... no really.. hey don't judge me man!

<Vraxx>See, I see it this way: You got two lips and a brain, so either suck something or say something.

Now normally I'm not this blunt but really there's just times you need to speak your mind. People were given minds and mouths so they could talk, but some people view others speaking their mind and all they can opt for is to judge without even a hint of consideration. Or more often then not, ridicule or mock you without actually conversing. I've never been an advocate of such snap judgements and find narrow minded people very off-putting. So say what you need, but don't be a jerk. Otherwise option one on that quote applies to you.

Adobe Lightroom? Or dim bulb

2006-07-20T23:15:00.000-10:00

It's often the case that a public beta is released for two key reasons. 1) To broaden the scope of feature testing to determine if elements are missing or combersome for end uers and 2) to draw interest to the product from their most likely target audience.

Adobe's recent release of the beta 3 of their Lightroom application is something of a mixed bag in my view. While the application organizes most of the filters that photographer would use to handle touch-ups, this early code appears to be lacking heavily in performance. Testing both the Mac version and the PC version I noticed that neither of my systems was really chugging along at a speed that I found comfortable. My underpowered Mac PowerBook 1.6Ghz Mac OS 10.3 box would take a considerable amount of time just applying a sepia tone. The same photograph showed little/no improvement on my PC (AMD 3500+, 2GB of RAM) Given that my PC system actually meets the requirements you'd think I'd be doing a little better than an underpowered PowerBook.

The layout is easy to use, and folks familiar with Aperture or PhotoShop will have very little problems finding the basics. Now granted the installation packages were VERY small, which means there probably isn't a lot of optimized code and they kept the beta limited to just what they really needed to for test purposes.

A cursory glance at the Adobe site doesn't lend much information as to the actual price point however. I find that a little disappointing. If the product is very affordable I cann imagine that even with its slow process power, the utility could provide a good low-end option for folks with specific photoediting needs. Then again if the application is priced for "pros" I don't know how well received it will be. Here's to keeping my fingers crossed for a low-end product.

2006-07-17T18:49:00.000-10:00

So here's a slightly more visual look at Office 2007 for everyone. The first thing you'll notice is the menu bar layout has changed a bit, replaced by a Quick Icon bar and smart panels. The panels though organized by function can sometimes be obtrusive. I found that since they replace the old file menus it can result in a rather confusing state for the layman user.

2006-07-17T18:48:00.000-10:00

Though the smart panels can be reduced to a more file menu layout, the headers themselves don't really match up to what most users are used to. As such for novice users who have been trained in a near Pavlovian fashion to drill specific menus, I can imagine this will be very confusing.

2006-07-17T18:46:00.000-10:00

Here we see the context sensitive system. The Format panel appearing as we highlight an embedded image. While this should be familiar to some people, I'm pretty sure it's going to cause headaches. Users dislike when that much UI suddenly "changes" and they don't always understand why.

Afterthoughts: Cosplay Photoshoot 7-15-06

2006-07-17T15:47:00.000-10:00

Whew so it's been two days and I can truthfully say that the shoot was a blast. Though it did remind me of two key things.

1) Man I am SO out of shape (Round is a shape...) Thighs, knees and shoulders feel like hell

2) Sunscreen needs to be reapplied in rainy weather and when sweating

Sunday came around and I realized just how much of a slight burn I had. Safety first people, we may live on an island but that doesn't mean solar radiation doesn't hit paradise.

I didn't really get a chance to compliment the cosplayers, but everyone looked great. It's always more fun to photograph folks when they're doing something they are really enthusiastic about and this was no exception. Since I'm a relative newcomer to Kawaii-kon as a whole, I think next time I'm bringing a name tag (hm will work well with my vest, yeah for press-pass pockets). If anyone is interested in trying dSLR at the next shoot, give me a hollor. I keep a 10D on standby in case something goes wrong with my main.

Cosplay Photoshoot: Part... can't think too sleepy

2006-07-16T01:00:00.000-10:00

Well this about rounds out the shots I was ok with, without any post-production. My thanks to everyone, it was a blast.

Cosplay Photoshoot: Part 4

2006-07-16T00:55:00.000-10:00

Have cardboard, will travel... well at least try to

Cosplay Photoshoot, Episode III

2006-07-16T00:53:00.000-10:00

Yet more raws! This time more props to the male cosplayers :)

Cosplay Photoshoot Part Deux

2006-07-15T17:27:00.000-10:00

Going from light to dark, here are are some additional shots from today's GT.

Cosplay Photoshoot

2006-07-15T17:26:00.000-10:00

Just a few shots from the get together today. As this was my first time meeting folks from the Kawaii-kon forums I do appologies for being rather shy. Everyone looked great and hopefully I'll have more chances to attend GT's in the future.

Introducing a new concept pwnography!

2006-07-13T18:01:00.000-10:00

DISCLAIMER: The following binary may not be suitable for some viewers.

Not really sure if this is due to the crazy work hours, the fact my plane ride back from Maui was bumpy and I may have hit my head, or perhaps that the idea needed time to simmer but I present to you: "Pwnography!" The next wave in hacker pr0n. Nothing like seeing hawt servers with their ports WIDE open! Behold this classic example of pwnography.

So here's to the newly formed pwnography movement, let's see how long it takes before censors are on my doorstep. In the next installment of of Vraxx goes a little crazy, "Processes Gone Wild!"

Lexicon Additions: No-taku!

2006-07-06T22:20:00.000-10:00

OK this isn't really an addition to the lexicon, but it's sort of a generic term that I started using when describing my state as an anime fan. By and large otaku are thought to be that substrate of anime-geek culture that obsess over the depth and breadth of their knowledge all things pertaining to anime. In Japan itself the term is something of a double edged sword. Many otaku are thought of as the Japanese equivalent of DnD nerds of the US 80's. They may be intelligent, articulate, even wealthy, but they're still 'odd'.

But that got me to thinking, well there's a lot of us who are fans of the genre but aren't really at the otaku level. So what do we call them? For someone like myself who doesn't really speak/read Japanese at all, trying to use an actual Japanese term to identify me would be rather silly, thus I started referring to myself as the no-taku, one who isn't really an otaku.

While some people are zealous in their belief that all anime should be viewed in the original Japanese, with subs, I'm more flexible. I actually watch both, sometimes dub then sub, other times the reverse. There's several reasons for this though. When I listen to a VA, be they the original or the dubbed, I try to key into what the actor is thinking and the type of characteristics they're using in their voice and inflection. Maybe it has to do with my time as a speech and debate person. While I have heard some truly horrible dubs, I've also seen some great work (Full Metal Panic, Hand Maid May, Samurai 7 to name a few). Everyone adds an interpretation to the mix, whether or not you feel that interpretation works for you, is your business.

Can a no-taku become an otaku? Sure, and I think to a degree anyone who's made a substantial investment into anime as a hobby or interest probably has the potential to cross into otaku-dom. For myself though I'm satisfied with being a fan with a voracious appetite. I may not try to immerse myself in everything but like a restaurant patron at a buffet, I certainly don't mind sampling.

Gaming: Out of Ideas

2006-07-02T08:16:00.000-10:00

Let's face it, the game industry has been churning out a lot of different titles. Some have been good, some great, a considerable portion however have of course been easily forgettable.

As I played a few demos (Titan Quest, Darkstar One) I realized, aren't we just playing the same fundamental games over and over again? FPS games in general have more or less followed two basic icons, Quake and Half-Life. The all-action, low plot, and the intermingled storyline driven shooter. The only real delta these days is how much technology and how well threaded the stories are.

Flight sims and other high-complexity games always repeat the same basic game physics and principles, while strategy games have more or less remained beholden to the basic ideas of resource, units and abilities.

With a few standouts that come to mind (Katamari Damacy, Brain Age, The Sims franchise) there really aren't that many games lately that have broken the mold. Most are just different takes on established genres.

Then you've got the most over-abused genre of them all, the MMO. Let's face it, if you were a PnP D&D'er you've probably got the basic formula of avatar, stuff, attribs down. I'm not a power player when it comes to MMO's but even I have to admit the voracious appetite of MMO'ers is mind bobbling, especially when you consider all the titles are fundamentally the same.

I'm not saying we need games that are totally new, in fact I realize the reason we repeat the same patterns is that human nature is centered around comfort zones. But at the same time aren't you guys getting bored with the same gameplay day in day out?

Office 2007 -- A 5 Minute Review

2006-06-27T21:48:00.000-10:00

OK so I'll admit my work has gotten pretty heavy lately which slowed my testing of Office 2007. While I will hopefully use it for a few more tests through out the month, there's quite a few things that you can immediately see in the first few minutes of the installation.

The obvious changes are to the UI itself. Now keep in mind, in order to keep my review totally unbiased I don't read any prior articles or the company line about what they like to call stuff :P So take everything in here with a grain of salt. In fact take it with a full bottle of salt.

The old UI schema which centered around basic toolbars and a fairly static menu has been replaced by a series of smart panels. These panels are more like discrete groupings of commands/options grouped by function. I find this fairly useful though the amount of interface real estate that it occupies might seem a bit heavy.

The menu bar is replaced by context areas. Hitting alt for instance will not bring up a "legacy" mode menubar, but rather shows you the alpha-char shortcuts for the new context menus. I'll be looking at ways to reshape this UI to a more "legacy" mode but for now that has been an oddity to me.

Stability wise the beta preview has been good. Very few issues opening, closing and transitioning. The functional smart panels are also intuitive for the tech savvy, but I tend to wonder how less experienced users are going to make the transition.

Much like with Vista, I see some things moving in a good direction but there's the question of, is this product going to provide a good transition or is it really meant to be a users "first" experience? Hopefully I'll have more to say as I get to test Office 2007 more.

Are Theaters Dead?

2006-06-25T08:31:00.000-10:00

Let's face it, who wants to go to a theater where there are the ever present cliches of the screaming baby, the talker, the kicker and the spill guy. Amid increasing costs, lack luster movie released and the overall disdain for uncomfortable chairs and unhealthy snacks, the mystique of the theater is steadily waining.

With the technology of home theaters becoming more affordable, is the brick and mortar theater doomed to a population of teens looking to cop a feel and Pee-wee Herman inspired autoerotics? The thought itself is scary but also logical in a weird, science fictiony sort of way.

Technology to me is the greatest double-edged sword around. On the one hand it has enabled us to stay in touch with people across the globe. In the same instant though it's bred a culture devoid of real desire to interact with one another directly (I'm not even going to mention sex here). Will we some day become a species which only talks to one another and interacts solely on a virtual plane? I for one will be very scared when all we do with our lives is play a great big game of World of Worldcraft.

Vista -- A Short Look

2006-06-10T22:16:00.000-10:00

So like a lot of other folks I also downloaded Vista Beta 2 (granted had I subscribed to MSDN earlier this year I would have been able to eval Beta 1, but I digress).

Initially my view was not so great, during the first day of availability I found the ISO I had attempted to download wouldn't load :\ into my VMWare session. Once I had a clean ISO though I reinstalled and all was well for the most part.

Due to the nature of VMWare the installation was somewhat troublesome as it ran at 800x600 resolution since Vista couldn't match up the display adapter. Once installed however a quick load of the VMWare Tools resolved the issues with the Video and LAN drivers. Audio drivers still appear to be at a loss but I'm sure I can find a workaround.

One of the things about the revised interface of Vista which I think may be off-putting to new users is that familiar reference menus such as the proverbial File, Edit and so forth are not typically on by default. Most of the internal Windows tools use a very spartan interface. While I can understand the reason for this, I found that some of the placement of menus and icons to be rather unproductive. From a support standpoint I can imagine this to be a nightmare.

Smaller quirks also exist. If you look at the Windows button (or what normally is the Start button) you'll notice the menus are again streamlined. However rather oddly to me, the lower right field consists of a 3-item cluster which I'll refer to as the Suspend/Lock/Shutdown trio. The catch here is that the two prominent buttons are the Suspend and Lock, the Shutdown panel is actually a very small Right-arrow subpanel. Thus far I haven't seen any option using the Vista theme and desktop appearance to change that.

Sometimes the user protection system which requires you to manually verify changes gets a little too annoying. As an example creating folders under the Programs folder to organize your apps requires 2-verifications with default User permissions.

Visually I was unable to test Aero due to limitations stemming from testing in a VMWare session, but overall the interface changes aren't so bad that a good IT admin won't be able to adapt, but I worry for newer users or folks who are just now becoming familiar with the WinXP theme style.

In some ways I can understand the attempts to streamlining the UI but in some ways I find it a good way for confusion to form for end-users. Context menus don't always seem to be pop up when I expect and every once in a while a context help bubble will seem to give TOO much information, to the point that the panel is occluding a good portion of the UI itself.

All in all I'd imagine users familiar with Windows will not have a hard time of the change but menu navigation may take some adjustments early on.

A word about value (HL2:Epi 1)

2006-06-05T17:03:00.000-10:00

So take an engine that should have been released earlier. Update it, add content to an already enjoyable storyline and what do you have? You get the first of three episodes being released for HL2.

Now I will preface, I've been busy so I haven't had a chance to tear through the game and finish in the requisite 4 hours, but I can give you my first impressions. The game is polished to be sure, improvements that we've already seen in Lost Coast, CSS and other mods such as the HDR options are used to good affect in E1. Having a side kick along, though sometimes feeling stiffling adds a nice dimension for what was mostly a pure single-player title. Puzzles are interesting, enemies moderate, but most of all the whole package, while not mindblowing is fun.

A lot of folks have taken exception to relatively short play-time offered by this first episode. While I can understand their frustration I tend to look at it more as a question of did you get your moneys worth. In all fairness there have been games at launch that charged $50 for 20 hours of gameplay, but the catch is, if that 20 hours of is boring, ploding and fairly unimaginative really are you getting your money's worth?

I for one am happy with what I've gotten out of HL2:E1, a tightly created title which extends an already very enjoyable Single Player experience.

2006-05-28T19:34:00.001-10:00

It's Wild Kingdom over here!

2006-05-28T19:34:00.000-10:00

Ah the wide open vistas of Koolina beach resort

Camera returns from the land of Canon

2006-05-25T13:13:00.000-10:00

So I'm happy to report that my EOS 30D is back and nice and fixed. The viewfinder issues were corrected, the system was restored to factory spec and I'm hopefully going to get a chance to shoot more in the upcoming summer months.

Good thing too, because I'm packing on some weight and getting out of the house more would do me some good. While the repair was done free of charge I do wish that it had been slightly quicker. You'd think considering they only repaired maybe 3-4 parts near the viewfinder that the turn around time would be slightly faster but hey 7 business days is still pretty darn quick.

Linux: The State of the Kernel -- Buggier?

2006-05-17T21:25:00.000-10:00

I've been using Open Source software for quite a while, and I'll admit I enjoy the challenges. I also enjoy how quickly the community of programmers and system administrators can tackle problems. One thing I can't stand though are the zealots in the community.

Recently several high profile OSS personalities have made light of the fact that bugs are being introduced into the 2.6.x kernel at a much higher rate than previous. I don't find this at all surprising. When you consider that there aren't that many gatekeepers to the final kernel and that most of them do this in additional to other work duties, I'm almost amazed the rate of bugs isn't a lot higher than it once was.

Zealots in the community would decry this as heresy, but really this is the result of the rapid changes that have taken place in the Linux world and just how much larger the community has gotten. Like anything which involves growth however, there's manageable limits. I think Andrew Morton and Linus Torvalds are on the right track. A bug-fix cycle is probably right. Knowing when to put the breaks on something to fix things NOW rather than later is not an easy choice to make but it sure as hell makes it easier to correct the problem before it gets worse.