A Great Blog

Θες, δεν θες, Facebook πρέπει να έχεις...

2012-05-14T21:52:00.001-04:00

Σήμερα διάβαζα κάτι νέα όταν ήμουν έν διαδρομή για την δουλεια. Ένας απο τους τύπους που δημιούργησε το Facebook, ο Eduardo Séverin, αποφάσισε να εγκαταλείψει την αμερικανική του υπηκοότητα για να πληρώσει λιγότερα σε φόρους, τώρα που το Facebook θα εχει μετοχές. Το καταλαβαίνω πως κάποιος δικηγόρος ή και κάποιος λογιστής του έδωσε τέτοια συμβουλή, και ίσως είναι γενικός καλύτερα για αυτόν τον ίδιο, αλλα είναι πολυ καφρίλα να κανείς τέτοιο πράγμα, ειδικά, αν όπως ο Εντουάρντο, έφυγε απο το κράτος του (Βραζιλία) επειδή κινδύνευε η οικογένεια του, και ήρθε στην Αμερική, είχε ευκαιρίες, και τώρα που θα μπορει να συνεισφέρει στο κοινό καλό, μας λέει so long and thank you for all the fish.

Τέλος πάντων, το κάρτα θα τον φάει. Με αυτο στο μυαλό λοιπόν είπα πως ήταν καιρος να κλείσω των λογαριασμό του τμήματος στο Facebook γιατι κανένας δεν τον αξιοποίουσε για μάρκετινγκ και επηκοινωνιες. Ήταν, πραγματικά, ένας λογαριασμός φάντασμα. Πάνω που πάω να τον σβήσουν βλέπω πως μερικά πράγματα, που χρησιμοποιούμε στο τμήμα, χρειάζονται το Facebook API για login...τι να κανείς; τι να κανείς; Τελικά τον λογαριασμό του τμήματος δεν τον έκλεισα. Καθάρισα λίγο την σελίδα, την εκανε "page" αντι για "profile" για να μην έχω συνέχεια αιτήματα φιλίας και άρχισα να σκέφτομαι διάφορα σχέδια για marketing communications. Απο την μια είχα την ευκαιρία να το παίξω γραφίστας σήμερα, κάτι που μου άρεσε και έχω να κάνω πολυ καιρο...αλλα απο την άλλη θα ήθελα να βρω λίγη άκρη με αλλα θέματα όπως κανονισμούς του τμήματος, μαθητικά εγχειρίδια, και αλλα διοικητικά θέματα.

Αυτά μάλλον το καλοκαίρι ;-)

Blue Busters

2012-05-11T21:28:00.001-04:00

This internal advertisement, a spoof of Ghostbusters, came out the other day. Pretty funny! :-)

Halo 3: ODST | Done!

2012-05-01T05:30:00.000-04:00

Once I completed Halo: Reach I decided to play through Halo 3: OSDT, just to keep the story in that Universe going (plus I was really engrossed in the mythology of Halo). The game was rated for 4 hours of play, which means that I must really stink because it took me several days of playing this game in order to complete it ;-)

Initially I was a little put off that the game only took place in New Mombassa, but the game was actually quite impressive, especially with the use of its story telling techniques! ODST kept me engaged in the game - even though I really, really hated seeing certain old familiar enemies who are particularly a pain to beat.

Spoiler: I was actually wondering if my main character would die in the end, like Noble 6 (and the entirety of Noble Team) did at the end of Reach. I was really happy that no one from the team perished at the end of this game. Since this game took place right before Halo 3, I am wondering if this team of ODSTs will be seen again in some other game.

As far as achievements go, I managed to grab 20 out of 47 achievements (not bad). There are a number of 5-point achievements for killing enemies with specific weapons in specific stages in specific ways. M'eh. If I had time and meraki (at the Greek say), I would bother with these (I could probably get 5-6 more achievements), but considering that I have more unfinished games to play, better focus on plot than 'chivies.

I am looking forward to getting Halo: CE and Halo 2 (I wish there were a remastered version of this one as well) and Halo 4. :-)

Awake

2012-04-27T17:09:00.000-04:00

I started watching a new NBC show last week (and caught up with all 8 current episodes) called Awake. The basic premise of the show is that a family has a car accident. The father (a police detective) wakes up in a reality where his son is dead. In that reality he goes to sleep and wakes up in a reality where the wife is dead, but the son is alive.

In essence, this guy is getting no sleep, since in one place he lives one life with his wife, and in another he lives a life with his son. In these two universes he's got a different therapist, as well as different police partners. Each week he solves crimes by using what he learns in one reality to solve the crimes in the other, and we don't know which "reality" is the "real" one. There are some hints that something fishy is happening (his police captain is acting a bit weird), and the Son and Wife each have established plot lines when he isn't around.

This seems like an interesting concept, and I will keep watching. Personally I think that in the end we'll find out that he is in a comma and they are both dead. I'm sorry, but Lost really ruined me. That crappy ending has made me cynical ;-)

Halo: Reach | done

2012-04-26T17:02:00.000-04:00

This past weekend I spent some time wrapping up Halo: Reach. This was a game that came with my Xbox last Thanksgiving (Black Friday deal). To be honest, I don't know how high on my list game would have been had it not come with my console, but I am sure glad it did! I had a great time with it.

When I first started playing it (around Christmas break), I was sort of into it. I was following along the plot, but my play was intermittent, so it was like watching a TV series every now and again; you end up missing plot points and forgetting things. This past weekend I had enough time to just blast through it and the game was much more enjoyable.

What I didn't realize was that this was a prequel to Halo: Combat Evolved. By playing Reach, I've actually gotten curious to Play Halo: CE and Halo 2 before I pick up Halo 4 later on this year. I think I've gotten invested in the Halo universe plot line :-)

In terms of achievements, not that great. I finished the game with only 16/69 achievements. If I play it again on a harder mode, and if I get enough points, I can get a few more achievements. M'eh - maybe sometime in the future when I don't have a backlog of games to play :-). Once the game was completed, I started it again from scratch (I had just a few more points to get to make it to Sergeant) and it hit me. The storytelling in this game is great! I had completely forgotten how the game started. If you play the game to completion and then start a new campaign from scratch you'll notice that the game, at the beginning, foreshadows the end. It's kind of a bummer for knowing what happened, but there are some great storytelling mechanics in the game.

I really enjoyed it!

5th avenue frogger

2012-04-21T18:24:00.001-04:00

Frogger, with real time traffic data. Now this is pretty cool (reminds me a bit of George in Seinfeld :-). )

5th Ave Frogger from Tyler DeAngelo on Vimeo.

Back to Resident Evil

2012-04-19T17:30:00.000-04:00

I never owned a Playstation 1, but I did have a friend who did back then. Back then I was also more into platform games like Super Mario, or beat-em-ups like Street Fighter, not so much into the survival horror game genre. I did own Alone in the Dark for my Mac, which I now realize was a survival horror game ;-)

In any case, having played the demo of Resident Evil 5 on my xbox, and having listened to the Retronauts podcast during their movie month where they were comparing the Resident Evil movie (which I liked) with the game (apparently very few things were the same), I decided to get the Original Resident Evil (director's cut) as a PS1 classic download on my PSP. What-the-heck, I thought to myself, might as well try it out.

Having not played any games of that era on an actual playstation, the change of graphics quality required a little getting used to, but in the end it wasn't that bad. The controls were something that had a learning curve as well (having played newer games on the PSP and the XBox and having a certain set of expectations did not help). Once I realized that Resident Evil was more like Alone in the Dark in terms of game play, I fared much better - but the game is hard. I was able to take care of some slow moving zombies, but I've come to a corridor where those red mutant dogs attack you...and it's not ending well :-)

I wonder if I'll get sick of this game and give up, or if I will slog through the end. Time will tell.

Out with the old, in with the new!

2012-04-18T17:30:00.000-04:00

A while back (well, last September when I got my iPad), I tried out Instapaper's competitor, Read It Later. I have to admit that what drew me to Read It Later was the entry price: free. Instapaper did have a free version but they axed it. For my use free was good enough. There were a few features that I now use, that I didn't back then, that were on the Pro version, but I didn't care. Then, a few weeks later Read It Later had a sale, and BAM - I decided to get the paid version (for $1.99 I think) - not bad for all of the additional functionality, at least considering that Instapaper was $6.99.

In any case, I enjoyed ReadItLater and now it's gone...or rather metamorphosed into Pocket! For what it's worth, I prefer the old bookmark-based icon compared to "pocket" - Then again, change isn't always easy ;-)

I think that the new interface looks much crisper both on the web version and on the iPad version (haven't messed with the iPhone version yet). The nice thing about this version is that (it appears) to be doing video for offline use as well. A while back I was testing out another app, called Spool, that was supposed to do video well. While Spool worked well, I almost never used it because I liked ReadItLater enough to not want to have two apps for "reading later."

Pocket (aka Readitlater 2.0) is now free. I wonder if we, the paid customers, will get a Pro version in the future.

Read it later - on iPad

Pocket - on iPad

The Straits

2012-04-15T17:57:00.016-04:00

Another interesting Australian series has come our way, this time it's not a cop show, but (I guess?) the Australian version of The Sopranos - I say "I guess" because I've never watched the sopranos.

The basic plot revolves around the drama around this family - the adopted kids, the oldest son as the stereotypical person to take over the family business, the middle son who's not respected, the youngest who is the screw up, and the daughter who's got the most brains, but is not given the respect she deserves (not that she seems to want to be in the family business anyway).

In watching a season of this I was surprised that the family business is only peripherally referred to. It seems to be a combination of shipping exotic animals and drug running, but these guys (almost) never seem to get their hards dirty with the business. Their front businesses seem to be doing well, so my main question was why stick with the illegal stuff, which on top of being illegal makes then risk life and limb.

All things considered, this wasn't a bad show. I am looking forward to a second series (soon!)...and while you're at it, bring back the Hollowmen ;-)

Marvel Ultimate Alliance | Done

2012-04-13T05:56:00.001-04:00

This past weekend, after what seemed to be a long long time (but actually wasn't all that long), I finally beat Marvel: Ultimate Alliance. You know, it wasn't a bad game. I got it used for $7, and I didn't know what to make of it. I always try to avoid dungeon crawlers, despite the fact that I end up liking them in the end. The same was true this time around - I bought the game because of the Marvel Caché, and ended up liking the game play.

The story was a bit weird, putting together X-Men, Spider Man, the Fantastic Four and a few other separate comic book universes into one. As a fan of the X-Men, I enjoyed the game, opting to level up wolverine as much as I could. I did end up with Iron Man and Thor in my party for all of the game, while changing out Captain America for Ghost Rider, Blade, Storm and The Thing throughout the game. So many character to choose, which (I guess) makes the game replayable (a lot!)

As far as achievements go, I only got 26 out of 58 total. I suppose if I go back and unlock a few more characters, and do some more clobbering of on-screen enemies I can unlock some more. Well, as nice as this game was, perhaps I will take a break before I come back to this. I am actually seriously considering playing Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2. It would be nice if I could keep my characters and XP from this one if I did :-)

Ladies love TouchWiz

2012-04-02T11:35:00.000-04:00

I don't think I've ever laughed so hard during a technology show :-)

The numbers behind copyright Math

2012-04-01T21:47:00.000-04:00

This was a pretty interesting TED talk that I listened to while on the way to work last week

Google 8-bit maps

2012-04-01T08:00:00.000-04:00

This years' Google April Fool's joke is epic: 8-bit mas, NES style!

Το τέλος του chuck

2012-03-30T21:41:00.000-04:00

Να το λοιπόν και το τελευταιο επεισόδιο του Τσάκ.

Αν και η σειρα εχει εδω και ένα μήνα που εχει τελειώσει δεν είχα δει τα δυο τελευταία επεισόδια μέχρι τώρα. Η αλήθεια ήταν πως αρχικά η σειρα μου άρεσε ως concept, αυτη η επιστροφή στο geeky με παλιά βίντεο παιχνίδια απο υπολογιστές και κονσόλες (π.χ. Η σειρα παιχνιδιών Zork που ήταν σε υπολογιστές και δεν υπήρχαν γραφικά οπότε όλο το dungeon crawler ήταν text based)

Στη αρχή επεισης είχαν αρκετα geeky τηλέφωνα, όπως το Ν95 της Νοκια το οποίο δεν το είχαν πολλοί στην Αμερική.

Η σειρα χαλασε καπου στην πρωτη σεζον, για μενα τουλαχιστον, και πηγε απο το κακο στο χειροτερο. Ενταξει, αυτη η ιστορία με τον Τσάκκαι την Σαρα μάλλον αναποφεκτη ήταν αλλα στο τέλος παραέγινε το μελοδράμα. Το άλλο που μου έσπαγε τα νεύρα, αντί να είναι η σειρά geeky, έγινε τελείως product placement, με τα αυτοκίνητα, τα σάντουιτς (subway) τα iPhone κτλ.

Στο τέλος κατάντησε να παρακολουθώ της σειρα για το Κεισιμ και τους Τζεφ και Λεστερ, και λίγο για τον Μοργκαν. Γενικά ο Τσάκ είχε καταντήσει λίγο σπαστικός. Πιστεύω πως το τελευταιο επεισόδιο όμως έσωσε λίγο την σειρα έτσι όπως εξελίχθηκε και μου άρεσε αρκετά. Πιστεύω πως η σειρα θα μπορούσε συνολικά να έπαιρνε Α, αλλα με τις βλακείες που κάνανε με το μελοδράμα και το product placement ο βαθμός που του δεινω είναι Β.

Τα πράγματα αλλάζουν...

2012-03-29T21:39:00.000-04:00

Εντάξει, ξέρω πως τα πράγματα όσο περνά ο καιρος αλλάζουν τίποτα δεν μένει το ίδιο. Όταν τα πράγματα αλλάζουν και είσαι εκεί για να δεις τις μικρές αλλαγές που συμβαίνουν κατά καιρούς οι αλλαγές δεν σου φαίνονται και τεράστιες. Όταν όμως βγαίνεις απο το περιβάλλον και επιστρεφεις μετα απο πολυ καιρό οι μικρές αλλαγές έχουν ένα τροπο, ή ένα φαινόμενο, μαζικής αλλαγής.

έτσι λοιπόν, αυτη την εβδομάδα είναι στην περιοχή Copley τις Βοστόνης. Στο Λύκειο ερχομουν εδω κάθε Σαββατοκύριακο για Ταεκβοντο, και να να πάω στη βιβλιοθήκη που είχε Ίντερνετ, αφού τότε δεν το είχα σπίτι. Κάθε καλοκαίρι ήμουν εδω καθημερινά αφού ο πατέρας μου δεν με άφηνε να κοιτάμε αργά, οπότε ερχομουν για Ταεκβοντο κάθε μέρα, και για βιβλιοθήκη, και φυσικά κινηματογράφο.

Οταν αρχισα πανεπιστήμιο δεν είχα και τόσο χρόνο για σινεμά, και για Ταεκβοντο, και Ίντερνετ είχα στο σχολείο και στο σπίτι, οπότε σιγά σιγά σταμάτησα να ερχομαι. Με μια παλιά κοπελιά είχα έρθει μερικές φορές εδω για σινεμά, αλλα και αυτο λίγες φορές. Έτσι λοιπόν, αυτη την εβδομάδα που ήρθα στη. Ίδια περιοχή, βλέπω πως αρκετα μαγαζιά έχουν αλλάξει και το σινεμά δεν υπάρχει πια. Στη θέση του ένα εστιατόριο. Αντίο λοιπον παλιο σινεμά, αρκετές καλές αναμνήσεις αλλα καιρος για νέους ορίζοντες.

Still Sharing Items in Google Reader - Here's how

2012-03-23T05:20:00.027-04:00

I was debating whether to write this in English or in Greek, considering that the original idea came to me in Greek after having listened to WeekendGeeks, but maybe in English more people will have a useful application for it.

It seems like I am not the only one that really dislikes Google's change in Google Reader. Sure, it's old news by now, but that still doesn't mean that we have to like it. I used to use Google Reader on my desktop every day, that way I could keep up with my RSS feeds and share interesting things throughout the day. Now, with Google's +1 and lack of "share item", not so much. The reason I don't like +1 is that I often don't go to Google+ to see what my acquaintances are sharing, and it would require some rework of my website. Currently I take the RSS feed of my shared items list and I republish it on my website - this would require some work to take my old shared items, make them +1s and then share that feed...kind of a pain.

Well, there is a way around it. Using a Google Reader client on my iPhone and iPad, like ByLine (pictured below), I am able to share items, and share items with notes. This stuff goes to my Google Shared RSS list (yes! it still works!) which I can then republish. If people shared this way I would also be able to see their shared items in the "Following" folder that Google has in Google Reader (well, at least it shows up in byline). So, there is a way to share items, and see what your friends have shared - the caveat is that you can only follow people you were following BEFORE Google made the switch.

J-Pop american funtime NOW (part II)

2012-03-22T05:14:00.003-04:00

A second installment of Saturday Night Live's J-Pop America Funtime Now :-)

Pretty funny!

Adieu, Posterous

2012-03-21T07:55:00.006-04:00

I guess this is the official end of Posterous. I got the following in my inbox the other day and it confirmed what the twittersphere and blogosphere had been going on about in the last few weeks.

The irony is that I had Posterous and used it as a twitter backup (using ping.fm to cross post). With over 11,000 tweets, I wonder how I can access my old stuff when companies keep folding or getting bought ;-)

Hi Apostolos,
I’m thrilled to announce that Posterous has been acquired by Twitter!
The opportunities in front of Twitter are exciting, and we couldn’t be happier to bring our technology and expertise to hundreds of millions of users around the globe. Plus, the people at Twitter are genuinely nice folks who share our vision for making sharing simpler.
Posterous Spaces will remain up and running without disruption. We’ll give users ample notice if we make any changes to the service. For users who would like to back up their content or move to another service, we’ll share clear instructions for doing so in the coming weeks.
You can find more information answers to other questions you may have here.
Finally, I’d like to offer thanks to everyone, especially those who have been with Posterous since day one. The last four years have been an amazing journey. Your encouragement, praise and criticism have made Posterous better, and I really appreciate everything you’ve done.
Thanks again and I look forward to building great things for you at Twitter.
- Sachin

AT&T Nasty gram

2012-03-20T17:11:00.004-04:00

Well, silly me for thinking that I was still in the "no strings attached unlimited internet" that I thought I was grandfathered in. I got this nice little text message from AT&T the other day telling me that I would be throttled...OK, so I did use Waze GPS navigation extensively during the week of NERCOMP...and I did use Pandora and iTunes streaming...heck, I also streamed an episode of Star Trek: Enterprise on Netflix over 3G (and the quality wasn't bad!)...If this is what it takes to break 3G...it's not a lot ;-)

Rugby with Tasers...

2012-03-10T08:51:00.000-05:00

A friend of mine sent me this video and suggested we create a team (I suppose he was joking?)

It looks like indoor rugby with a giant ball and tasers...

Adieu Knol and Ovi Share

2012-03-09T05:57:00.011-05:00

Well, two more have bitten the dust! Google's Wikipedia competitor, Knol, is shutting its doors, and Ovi Share (I guess the successor to MOSH?) is doing the same. Ovi Share came out when I had my iPhone, so I really ended up not using it that much. For what it's worth, I think that Nokia should have partnered up with Flickr and YouTube for people to do their sharing, but anyway - adieu Ovi Share, I can't say I will miss you.

Knol on the other hand is a bit sad. When Knol was announced I signed up, and I was really looking for a good wikipedia competitor (two encyclopedias are better than one). The main problem with Knol was that Knol results NEVER came up in my google searches. Whenever I was looking for something, Wikipedia would be what came up, not Knol. If this isn't a major #fail, I don't know what is. When I look for information, I don't tend to go to silos of information UNLESS I know already that there is something there. Wikipedia isn't a destination for me, but rather something that comes up in google results! Poor SEO on Knol's part, and poor integration with Google Search.

Knol Announcement:

As part of Google’s prioritization of product efforts, we will be retiring Knol. From now through April 30th, 2012, Knol will work as usual, but we’ve made it easy for you to download your knols to file and/or export them to Wordpress.com. From May 1, 2012 through October 1, 2012, knols will no longer be viewable, but can be downloaded and exported. After that time, knol content will no longer be accessible. We hope that this timeline provides you ample time to transition your content. For more information, please visit our FAQ: https://knol-redirects.appspot.com/faq.html

Thank you,
The Knol team

Ovi share Annoucement

Dear Ovi Share user –

You are receiving this email because you have previously used the Ovi Share service. Ovi Share is an online service that enables Nokia users to upload and share files, typically photos and videos.
As of 30 May 2012, we will be discontinuing the Ovi Share service. If you have files stored using Ovi Share, please click here for detailed download instructions. If you already have another copy of your files existing on your computer or another sharing service, you do not need to do anything.
You will continue to have access to Ovi Share until 30 May 2012; however you will not be able to upload new files after 13 March 2012.
Why are we making this change?The Ovi Share shutdown is part of Nokia's revised services mission to focus on mobile and location based services. As a result, the Ovi Share service will be closing. However, you will still be able to use your Ovi Share username and password to access other Nokia services. We encourage you to use one of the many online photo-sharing services as a way to store and share your photos and videos moving forward.
What does this mean for you as an Ovi Share user?If you do not have a copy of your files any other place other than Ovi Share, you will need to download those files before 30 May 2012. To download your files to your computer, please click here for detailed instructions. After 30 May 2012, your files will not be accessible from the Ovi Share service and will be deleted. If you already have another copy of your files existing on your computer or another sharing service, you do not need to do anything.
If you have any further questions about this service change or need help downloading your files, please contact Nokia Care by going to http://nokia.com/support and then selecting “Contact Support.”
Nokia apologizes for this inconvenience, and we thank you for using Ovi Share.
Sincerely,
Nokia

Would you like a Latte with your Occupy?

2012-03-08T05:49:00.020-05:00

Free Lodging?

Perhaps voting Republican on Super Tuesday has rubbed off on me giving me a "get off my lawn" attitude, or perhaps it's the ineffectiveness of Occupy UMass Boston that's just getting to me. Don't get me wrong, I support affordable education for everyone, especially at State Schools like UMass Boston, and I support affordable textbooks and an equal opportunity for everyone - but it seems to me that the Occupy UMass Boston Movement has become less of a protest and more of a free lodging venue.

I was walking out of the cafeteria the other day, where the Occupy tents are setup (4 of them) and I noticed chairs, coffee makers, people playing chess, or going out for a cigarette and hacky sack. It seems to me that the Occupy Movement has become LESS about protesting the insane increases in our public higher education system and more about free amenities: free wifi, free sofas, free heating, free water, bathroom facilities cleaned up by other people. At least the Occupy Boston movement froze their butts off, they protested and they were a thorn on other people's sides - the message got out. What OUMB has become is a place for free lodging. In the original picture bellow you at least saw an information table (and no living room furniture or coffee makers). All I can say is #fail.

Original Occupy (Jan 2012)

Assassin's Creed Revelations | done

2012-03-07T05:15:00.000-05:00

This past weekend I finished Assassin's Creed Revalations (with 69% synchronization), and as was expected, it ended in a cliffhanger... #facepalm. I know that the series is episodic, and I really didn't expect to see Desmond really do something much in today's world...and yes the game revealed a lot about Altaïr and Ezio, and the Assassins...and Desmond's past; but I am left wanting more of this story (despite the fact that it's getting a bit weird with the "first people") I suppose this is a good thing - I could be playing a game like Alone in the Dark where I am happy that it's just done ;-)

A few other stats about the game:

100% reconstruction of constantinople (but no badge for this!)
40 (or so) data fragments picked up (should I go find the other 60??? there is an achievement for that)
30 out of 60-something achievements received (I really hate the multiplayer ones since I don't really like playing the multiplayer that much)
67% sync (you know, I've never gotten 100% sync in any Assassin's Creed Game, despite the achievement badge you get)

Now I guess it's time to download the Lost Archive DLC and see what Subject 16 is up to...

Cost of video games

2012-03-06T05:30:00.000-05:00

Last week seemed to be the week of the PS Vita as it was discussed on pretty much every single podcast I listen to (and some I don't listen to!) The main thing that the tech people discussed was not the capability of the device (because it seems to be quite capable) but rather the relevancy of the device. In a world were iPhones, iPads and Android devices (and now Microsoft with Windows Phone 7 and its tie-into the xbox live world), do stand-alone devices like the PS Vita make sense?

One of the things discussed in the various panels on these podcasts was the cost of games, and the fact that short-form games (like tetris and , as well as the PS Minis) can be easily played on phones and media players which people carry with them all the time. As far as the cost goes, this got me thinking. I tend to not buy any new games on any console because they are prohibitively expensive. Even titles like Assassin's Creed that I am a big fan of I can't get myself to send $60. I'd much rather wait and spend $60 getting 3,4 or 5 used video games which will entertain me just as much (this is in reference to the xbox 360). This also got me thinking about my game buying behavior on the PSP.

Now, I don't really take my PSP with me, even though it is portable. I tend to use it as an xbox replacement when the TV is occupied, so I still play long-form games on it, at home or away. If I were on vacation for example I would probably bring it with me. At the same time, I don't spend more than $12 per game for this device, which means I buy my games used. Even if I want to indulge my feelings for instant gratification AND not have to worry about UMDs by buying through the PS Store on my device, I still can't see myself spending more than $12. I'd much rather spend $7 or $8 buying Assassin's Creed: Bloodlines used on Amazon and waiting a few days to get it, and having to deal with a UMD, rather than spend $20 and have it in 30 minutes.

At the end of the day for me, the loan factor (being able to loan my games to friends, and vice versa) seems to not be a big factor in my disc-or-download decision; it's the price factor. If games for these consoles were more along the lines of iPad games ($7-12 for PSP/portable devices and $13-25 for television consoles), I'd probably go for the digital download more often.

Welcome to iOS5

2012-03-05T05:30:00.000-05:00

Well, since MobileMe is inching closer and closer to its inevitable death, I decided today to update my iPhone 3GS to iOS5, and move my data to iCloud. I attempted at jailbreaking my iPhone, but since it was jailbroken the update process eluded me in the short time frame that I had to update, so I decided to just go with stock iOS. My iPad hasn't been jailbroken, and iOS5 is not bad on it, so I decided to give it a try. The one bad thing is that I didn't back up my device, so I had to reinstall every app...it's OK, live and learn. I just need to re-login to every single thing and then try to figure out how to import my momento 1.0 export XML file to the momento 2.0 app...

In any case, there are some things that I already miss from my jailbroken phone:

LockInfo: This was a pretty freakin' awesome modification to the iOS, which allows people to show information on their lock screen such as upcoming events, to-do things from 2Do and any incoming emails. I know that the new notification center does a lot of this stuff, but the lockscreen does need some info on it to make it useful
ByteSMS: iMessage may have its benefits, but nothing really beat ByteSMS's capability of just sending a text message from anywhere you were - this feature will be sorely missed.
Ringtones and SMS tones: OTAKON!!!! I had a metal gear solid communicator sound for the incoming SMS sound...now I am back to stock...
Multifl0w: This is the second jailbreak app that I paid for (the first being lockinfo) and for good reason - it's a much more useful (and much more visually pleasing) way to switch apps. You can have it use the WebOS card metaphor, or (my favorite) the MacOS X exposé metaphor.

I really hope that iOS6 (which probably won't run on my 3GS) brings SMS tones, Message-anywhere, a lockscreen info pane and a better app switcher...