Mark Schmidt's Abode

This is just too funny. Some people have way too much time on their hands.

http://uncyclopedia.org/wiki/Ipod_Nano_200gb_Instructions/Page_1

Here's the result:

For the programming savy, head on over to my MSDN blog to see if you can solve this interview question I created: http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2005/09/22/473015.aspx

For more information, check out my MSDN blog post here: http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2005/09/14/466209.aspx

Well, Verizon realizes how big the gaming industry is and it has jumped in. Surprisingly, I think it'll make quite the splash. They just launched their Games-On-Demand service and for $14.95/mo you can play full version PC games. I was thinking they'd list old games that never made it far (and there are some of those) but there are actually some really nice games on the list. I've found quite a few that I've played or have always wanted to play.

Check it out here: http://verizon.exent.com/gamesondemand

I just posted a somewhat lengthy article on my MSDN blog covering Avalon and 3D graphics. I got a little bored yesterday and this is what happens. In a nutshell, I created a mesh exporter for MilkShape that will output the mesh in XAML format that you can then load using Avalon.

http://blogs.msdn.com/markhsch/archive/2005/08/24/455791.aspx

This is so cool and hopefully we'll see more games doing this more and more (although it's hard to beat bungie.net's halo 2 stat machine).

Just go to http://bf2s.com and either do a player search for your name or just use the url: http://bf2s.com/player/insertyournamehere.

Here's mine: http://bf2s.com/player/codepunk and yes, I'm a bit rusty.

 

I'm surprised I haven't seen someone with a geekswithblogs account mention this. It appears that Scotty from Star Trek has passed away. I'm actually not a Star Trek fan at all although I did see some of the first movies and occasionally would watch an episode here and there. What really surprised me was that “Scotty” lives right next to me. I live in Sammamish and work in Redmond and he lives in Redmond. Small world.

http://www.gamespot.com/news/2005/07/20/news_6129473.html

What are you doing reading this. Head on over to ebay and purchase a fully functional (somewhat) mech! No joke!

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&category=1468&item=5596708699&rd=1&ssPageName=WDVW

Nividia does not support any of there laptop chipsets with their Forceware drivers. I have a Toshiba Portege M200 Tablet PC and the driver is dated November 2004. What is a guy to do?

Well, being the geek that I am, I wanted to circumvent that. I basically opened up the nv4_disp.inf file, added a new string based on the device ID of my particular chipset (GeForce go FX5200) and then added another line. I just followed what they had in there for a regular FX5200 but subsituted my device ID and chipset name in the INF file. Well, it worked. I'm now running Forceware 77.72 on my tablet and so far haven't seen any side effects. Now to install Battlefield 2 to see how well it runs.

Tip: In most cases, the early termination fee is applied for each phone in your account, not just for the account itself. I went into Cingular to cancel my account and move to Verizon (just because I am disgusted with Cingular's service). I was told by the representative that it was going to be $175. Well, now my bill says $525 and a call to the customer service department confirmed that it was in fact $175 per phone and not $175 for the entire account.

Bastards.

I envision a Orwellian Society in the near future where everyone will change their name to Julie and every cubicle will become a Taco Bell.

Discuss...

Just a tiny little rant here. If you've been following my blog (all 1 of you probably) you probably gathered that I'm one of those hard core gamer types (one of my sons friends even said it to me which is something coming from the 12-13 year old crowd). Anyway, I'm following this years E3 (as I do every year). Simply put, the next gen consoles will just rock. I can't wait to play an XBox 360 game in 1080i and PS3 games at 1080p. Anyway, excitement aside, this is what's really getting to me. When they show games for these systems, I really wish they would say “This is actual realtime footage of the game”. They don't (except for Square Enix's president who showed a renderer demo for the XBox 360 which was frightengly one of the best looking demo's I've seen...yeah, it was that good). So I'm reading over at www.gamespot.com on Vision Gran Turismo (or whatever it's called) and the reporter is saying how the cars looks so realistic. So the question...is that a pre-rendered scene ala Madden NFL '06 or is realtime on the PS3 hardware? In short, all I want to know is which footage is real, and which is Memorex.

Talk about serious Star Wars fans. A group made a fan-film of unbelievable proportions. It's 40 minutes long for being an independent film has some surprising special effects. Check it out:

http://www.panicstruckpro.com/revelations/

Saw someone else do it, so I did it too. Honestly, I know I'm a nerd (I prefer the term 'geek' however) but didn't know it was going to be that high. I always tell people that I'm a geek in disguise since I don't really look like a geek...no...honestly...I don't.  Anyway, here's mine.

Awhile ago I posted that I sensed the demise of the Nintendo LameBoy monopoly. Well, I may be exagerrating since I do believe Nintendo has staying power and may be able to step up to the plate. The Sony PSP however is one serious gaming machine. Here's my PSP story:

The day before the PSP was to be released, I had to run into Fred Meyer (for those that don't know, it's one of those time sucking stores that has everything you need...time sucking in the sense that you walk in and leave in 5 minutes but it's really been 5 hours). As I always do when I go into Fred Meyer, I visit the electronics section just to see what they have. Honestly, I already know what they have since I follow tech news 24/7 but I need to fill the gas tank up occasionally with blinking lights, rows of console and PC games, and the occasional console game they have on display. I noticed a sign that said that they will be receiving 30 PSP's and will start selling them at 7:00 the next day. I made a mental note to try this place first.

The next day, I dropped my kid off at school at 7:30. Normally I head to the gym at this time, but today I had to floor it and drive to the Fred Meyer in Redmond, WA which was about 20 minutes away (uggh, traffic). I head into Fred Meyer and see 1 customer at the counter buying a PSP. It's my turn so I ask if they have anymore and the guy said they had plenty left. It was then I just wanted to laugh at all the poor suckers standing in long lines at places like Best Buy or EBGames or GameStop. My total wait time was less than a minute.

So I got my PSP and 2 games, Metal Gear Acid and Twisted Metal Head-On. I go to work, put in the SpiderMan 2 movie that came in the PSP box, turned it on and my jaw hit the ground. Oh my freakin word, this thing is a beautiful (a co-worker of mine called it a work of art when he saw me demo it to him). The picture on this thing is nothing less than amazing. Some people complain that $250 is too much. Well, those same people have no problem plunking down way more than that for an iPod that just plays music. The PSP plays music, plays movies, plays games and has a built in WiFi connection. $250 too much? Heck no!

So, here I am almost a week later. I am still glued to the PSP. In my opinion, it's a big leap in mobile gaming technology (way more so than the mediocre DS). A couple of days after buying my PSP, I also purchased a new game called Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade (I'm an RPG nut). So, what do I think of the games. Here's my quick synopsis:

1. Metal Gear Acid: What a fantastic game. It will turn some people off if they go into it thinking it's another Metal Gear game (which it is). It doesn't play the same. Instead, it uses a trading card type of interface. Having played several of those type of games (remember Etherlords?), I felt right at home. This game is quite awesome and a very good launch title.

2. Twisted Metal Head-On: I put this one in when I demo the PSP for other people. It's fast paced, has awesome graphics, is easy to figure out and is just plain fun. I will admit that it does get a little boring since there's not much more to do than drive around shooting down other vehicles, but it's great for those quick 10 minute game fixes your body craves. One very cool thing about this game though is that it's the only one that I know of right now that supports Infrastructure mode. On the PSP there are 2 types of wireless gaming connection types. Ad-hoc lets you play wirelessly with someone in the same room as you. Infrastructure lets you play with anyone on the Internet (as long as you have a wireless Access Point to connect to). However, the only thing I've done is connect to the Internet and check out the game lobby (where 93 people were playing). I haven't played an Internet game yet.

3. Untold Legends: Brotherhood of the Blade: This too is a cool game although GameSpot only gave it a 6.9 rating. It's a lot like Baldur's Gate or Diablo, the graphics are top notch and it's also good if you need a quick 10 minute game fix. It's not an in depth RPG but then it's not supposed to be. It's an Action RPG and what it does, it does well. I recommend this one to any RPG fans.

So there's my synopsis. It's been a successful launch. There are reports of many people that have dead pixels on their PSP screens, but I must be one of the lucky ones. I don't have any dead pixels. I was worried about battery life too until I played it. With full brightness turned on and the wifi connection turned off, I can play on the PSP for about 4.5 - 5 hours on a single battery. That's longer than my average plane trip so I'm happy. If I add another battery, it is more than enough.

Thoughts?