1/31/2006top

7:32 AM
A guy named TheSpecialist has managed to rewrite the firmware on his XBox's DVD drive so that it reports all games (even 'backup' copies) as authentic Xbox media. If turning your XBox into a media center isn't a priority for you and playing copied games is, your day has finally come. Say goodbye to modchips and softmods forever!

This news would be much more awesome if it had happened, say, three years ago. The good news is that TheSpecialist is now setting his sights on the Xbox360 and if all goes as planned it shouldn't take too long to get things rolling.

More info here.

-Brett #

1/27/2006top

9:39 AM

"I am SuitSat-1. I will destroy you."


SuitSat is an old Soviet Orlan spacesuit that'll soon be put into Earth's orbit as a satellite. It'll contain a few batteries and a 0.5 watt transmitter; an onboard voice synthesizer will transmit a greeting in multiple languages followed by an update on the satellite's condition every 60 seconds. They're saying the batteries should have enough juice for three to four days of operation.

You can listen to those transmissions with a scanner or transceiver by tuning in to 145.990Mhz. The ISS will also be repeating on 437.80Mhz at 10 watts. SuitSat will also transmit a 'secret' image via SSTV. Info on decoding that image is over here!

You'll only have about ten minutes to listen in while the suit is overhead, so be sure to get the timing right. You can find out when to listen at AMSAT or by using NASA's shitty Java-based J-Pass utility.

-Brett #

1/26/2006top

8:51 PM
Did you know that Gran Turismo 4 is the only PS2 game capable of outputting a signal at 1080i? It's true.

-Brett #

9:27 AM
The Toy Story 3 sequel that Disney had been working on internally with no input or collaboration from Pixar has been scrapped. That's the best news I've heard come out of the company since the merger.

-Brett #

1/25/2006top

9:29 AM

If you're running late for work and want a little Cream of Wheat for breakfast, make sure to leave out the maple syrup. The plastic squeeze bottle that it's in has probably turned brittle from being in the fridge for six months and is likely to shatter when you accidentally drop it on the floor, spraying ant-attracting syrup all over the place and leaving you with just minutes to clean it up before you're late for work.

The more you know.

-Brett #

1/24/2006top

10:16 AM
Big news at work this week. We now host over 200,000 domains. We're seriously starting to get gigantic.

We're even bigger than RackSpace - one of our competitors who no doubt has a huge overhead. They've got to pay for things like phone support, international offices, Windows server licenses, an insane amount of TV advertising, and their highly-paid suit-wearing executive team no doubt has at least one Hummer and two yachts among them. We have none of those things!

Rackspace has over 500 employees. We have 30. Granted, Rackspace mostly hosts dedicated servers and requires more staff to deal with that, but it also means they need to spend much more money than we do to purchase and maintain their customers' servers! Huh-hoo!

-Brett #

1/23/2006top

9:48 PM
Aww man. The Stargate SG-1 game has been cancelled. I was kind of looking forward to playing it, and now I'll never get the chance.

-Brett #

9:21 PM
Growing up along the coast I never really understood the whole "Santa Ana" winds thing. Whenever the local news was going crazy with Santa Ana wind coverage, I was like "What are you talking about Fritz Coleman! There is no wind today! You are a pretty lousy weatherman to not know that."

But! It turns out that Fritz Coleman wasn't lying after all. The coast of the South Bay was mostly spared from the Santa Anas.

Now that I actually live in the Santa Ana Canyon - birthplace of this insanity - I'm beginning to see what all the fuss is about.

Last night the winds were so loud I thought my house was going to cave in. This morning as I filled my tank with gas and stood beside my car I had to fight a little to stand upright and keep a grip on the gas pump. It was as if Chuck Norris himself had blown a single breath across all of Southern California.

Learn more about Santa Ana winds at Wikipedia!

-Brett #

1/20/2006top

8:51 AM
Dude.

The Diablo II MP3 player that's on the front page of Battle.net today is taking me back. Way back.

Man that was a great game.

-Brett #

1/19/2006top

11:06 AM
I've become a coffeeholic over the past few weeks, and that has encouraged me to do some research into the single-cup coffee-making revolution that's sweeping the nation! Here's what I was able to find!

In the world of single-serve coffee makers there are three basic styles from which to choose: the Coffee Pod, the K-Cup, and the T-Disc.

Coffee Pods are easy to find in supermarkets and are growing in popularity!



While Senseo may be the most popular pod coffee machine, there are many, many other machines out there that can use pods. In fact, coffee pods are probably the most popular single-serve coffee solution in use today! I'm pretty sure pods don't involve licensing fees of any kind so they're like the open-source of the coffee world. Anyone can make them, and anyone can make makers that can brew coffee pods.

K-Cups are used exclusively by coffee makers made by Keurig.



Each K-Cup contains a pre-measured amount of coffee or tea as well as a filter. The coffeemaker pokes a hole in the top and bottom of the sealed k-cup and forces hot water through, giving you a fresh and consistent cup of coffee every time. The variety of k-cups available is staggering and growing every day. Unfortunately they're not widely available outside of the Internet.

T-Discs are the newest kid on the block and also the most interesting!



T-Discs look similar to K-Cups but offer much more promise! Designed to work only with Braun's Tassimo drink machines, they work on a similar principle as K-Cups. However! The Tassimo was designed to be a "Hot Beverage" machine, not a coffee machine! Each T-Disc contains a barcode that tells the machine exactly how to to brew each drink! So whether it's a columbian dark roast or hot chocolate it'll always come out perfectly. The downside is that T-discs are a little more expensive than your other options, and you'll wind up using multiple discs to make more elaborate drinks. You'd need to use an espresso T-disc followed up by a milk T-disc to make a latte, for example.

I think you probably can't go wrong with any of these choices. Coffee pods are hot right now, but they don't offer the consistency of K-Cups or the variety of T-Discs. It's an exciting time to be a coffee drinker, that's for sure!

-Brett #

1/17/2006top

10:35 AM
The Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny pits some of the world's greatest heroes against some of the world's greatest badasses. Well worth the download time!

It's brought to you by the same dudes who did the hilarious flash animation at ebaumsworldsucks.com.

-Brett #

1/15/2006top

1:27 PM
I've been daydreaming of getting a plasma TV for a really long time. Unfortunately I've never really had the money to spend thousands of dollars on a TV. Mostly I just want to free up some space in my living room by hanging a TV on the wall.

I still don't have a plasma (or the money) but I told myself that if Panasonic introduced a 50" 1080p at this year's CES, 2006 might be a year where I actually pull the trigger and make it happen one way or another.

1080i is great for TV, but when the PS3 hits the streets and outputs 1080p, I want to be ready.

Whelp, it looks like Panasonic let me down and saved me the trouble. Their only 1080p model for 2006 is a 65 incher, and that's just way too big for my living room.

I guess I'm stuck waiting for the 2007 models now. Frustrating!

-Brett #

1/13/2006top

2:35 PM
I used to love the smell of coffee but I hated the taste. This has recently changed. In the past month I've started drinking coffee. A lot of coffee. I'd say I go through three to six cups per day. (I blame it on the coolness of our office's new Star Trek-like coffee maker, but that's a story for another day.)

I get no buzz from caffeine, so being able to sleep or focus my brain after a few cups is no problem at all. I have, however, found that drinking that much coffee seems to snap my body into a state where my appetite is heavily supressed. Suddenly I'm no longer hungry for lunch most days. In fact I don't usually start to feel hungry until I get home from work around 5pm.

My 10-year high school reunion is coming up in July and I could stand to lose about 20 pounds before then. I'm thinking if I keep heading down this coffee road I'll be in pretty good shape!

Black coffee contains no calories, no carbs, no sugar, and no fat. I drink it black and I drink it often! I'll let you know in July if this all-coffee, all-the-time diet worked for me.

-Brett #

9:23 AM
Mike Tyson's Punch-Out as a live action video.

Watch The Kid take on Don Flamenco and Great Tiger!

-Brett #

1/12/2006top

11:23 AM
I have to admit, I've got a bit of a man-crush on David Byrne.

When most people hear his name they usually think of The Talking Heads, but he's got a great solo act now and every now and then he'll put out a new album. Some albums are good and some are a little weird, but each has a very unique sound that makes it very hard to classify his music.

Look Into The Eyeball from 2001 is, I think, his greatest work so far. I even consider it to be a part of my "Top 10 albums ever made" list.

I really need to see him play live someday. The 12MB Quicktime video of The Great Intoxication over here is just absolutely awesome. It's one of my favorite songs and it's performed flawlessly. Check it out, dudes.

-Brett #

1/11/2006top

12:38 PM
Jupelo is my new hero.

He's spending $100,000 of his own money to spend an entire year at the Walt Disney World Resort. He flies home one day a week, and the other six he's spending in Disney hotels. He's blogging and videotaping the whole thing. When the year's over he's off to college.

I could probably make this happen for half as much money. Staying on-property and buying merchandise are his two big mistakes!

-Brett #

9:04 AM
How did it get to be Wednesday already?

We spent most of Sunday at The Magic Castle. I had been there once before, but it's still as fun as ever. The place is like one giant maze with secret passages and people doing magic in small poorly-lit alcoves all over the place. It's probably as close as we'll ever get to a real-life Hogwart's. Except the place has like five fully-stocked bars...I didn't see any of those at Hogwart's.

Cameras aren't allowed inside so I can't show you the things I saw, but here's a picture of the 'haunted' fountain at the entrance.


-Brett #

1/07/2006top

9:03 AM
I am both amazed and relieved to see that an Xbox360 modchip was created so quickly.

-Brett #

1/06/2006top

9:14 AM
Announced yesterday at CES: Tivo Series 3 with HDTV support! And thanks to its CableCard slot you won't need to use a clunky box from your cable company - PVR or otherwise - ever!

There's no word on pricing yet, but I'm sure it won't be cheap.

-Brett #

1/05/2006top

12:01 PM
Reno 911! is headed to the big screen!

-Brett #

1/04/2006top

12:33 PM
Conan, I swear to god if you touch that fish I will kill you.


-Brett #

11:37 AM
I'm back in business, baby! The fever's gone and I'm back in the office today.

Celebrate my good health by watching the Top 25 Viral Videos of 2005.

-Brett #

1/03/2006top

3:42 PM
It's been a hell of a few days since New Years rolled by.

Sunday night I couldn't get warm enough, no matter how many blankets I put on the bed. When I woke up drenched in sweat I took my temperature - 100.7. Yeeow. I spent the whole day flipping back and forth between being freezing cold and burning hot. My temperature finally topped out at 103.1. I was sort of slipping in and out of consciousness all day, and I'm pretty sure Darth Vader asked me to make him a sandwich.

My fever seems to have broken this afternoon, and now I'm just sore all over. I've spent the day in bed drifting in and out of sleep since 8am, so hopefully I won't be too dizzy to drive to work tomorrow. We shall see!

-Brett #


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