And that was really my hangup; I wasn’t sure if I could love a GTA game sans the A. I enjoy those types of games because even after the game proper is long since finished, it’s fun for me to drive around the city and just play. I couldn’t picture doing that on a horse (or really any other means of transportation). Honestly, the earlier the game’s setting, the less interesting I find the driving experience. The Godfather or The Sabotuer are both good examples of games that are just not modern enough to make the driving element engaging to me.

So I didn’t buy Red Dead Redemption. My recent changes in both mindset (don’t buy every game) and cashflow (inconsistent) have prevented that, so far. However, when I got a “we miss you; free rental!” call from the local video store (yeah, we have those!), I knew what I had to do. Three days should be enough time to get to know a game, right?

I think it was somewhere around hour ten when the truth really hit me. This isn’t just Grand Theft Auto But With Horses; this is a real, bona fide Grand Theft Auto game that just happens to be set in a world before the automobile was ubiquitous. Everything else – the mission structure, the tone, the general story, the gameplay, the feeling – fits seamlessly into the GTA framework (I sincerely hope to come across at least one ancestor of a current GTA character), and when you start to think of this game as an endeavor on the same level with such a behemoth it becomes that much more impressive.

Suffice it to say, Red Dead Redemption is a very good game that I had a lot of fun with in my limited exposure to it. There are a few nitpicks, the biggest being that it’s difficult to tell friends from enemies which wreaks havoc on your reputation; the auto aim isn’t particularly picky about who it points your barrel at and then suddenly you’re WANTED and all hell breaks loose. I still can’t figure out the fast travel system, if there even is one. Something about setting up camp and then jumping from there to a previous settlement, which I never experienced.

In typical Rockstar fashion, though, the pros far outweigh the cons. Visuals and design are solid, and audio continues to be a strong point just as it has in the GTA series. With no radio the music instead is sparse and appropriately Western, mellow when appropriate but becoming more frantic during shootouts and other dramatic sequences. Voice acting is superb, especially in the case of main protagonist John Marston. He reminds me very much of Timothy Olyphant’s character in FX’s Justified.

Unsurprisingly, gameplay is nearly identical to Grand Theft Auto IV, with a few notable exceptions. The new(?) DeadEye system (which effectively lets you slow time to pick off a number of targets) is an absolute joy to use and may stand out as the defining mechanic of RDR combat versus GTA combat; I don’t foresee it working in the context of a more modern setting but it’s very appropriate here.

Most exciting though, is that we’re finally seeing a game from Rockstar with no health meters! RDR has gone the way of many modern shooters in that you still have a finite amount of health, but as your condition becomes more critical the screen turns red. If you can find cover, the reverse happens after a few moments. It makes for a much less stressful experience and unlike DeadEye, I hope this propagates to all future GTA games.

In short, Red Dead Redemption is both a great game by itself and, if you’d like, a worthy entry in the Grand Theft Auto franchise. Three days was enough to get to scratch the surface but I definitely look forward to spending more time together in the future.

1. The Testament, John Grisham
2. The Street Lawyer, John Grisham
3. The Summons, John Grisham
4. A Painted House, John Grisham
5. The Broker, John Grisham
6. Bleachers, John Grisham
7. When the Wind Blows, James Patterson
8. Eaters of the Dead, Michael Crichton
9. Water for Elephants, Sara Gruen

0:12 – That’s a city. It looks… okay.
0:17 – Headlights in a tunnel? Kind of neat, but not something I’d want in a racing game.
0:23 – Why do these cities always look abandoned?
0:34 – Nurburgring. Eh.
0:38 – Car commercial shot.
0:54 – From that previous comment to here, this trailer is awesome.
0:55 – And now I’m bored.
0:55 – Mercedes’ should not be red.
0:58 – That’s better.
1:06 – ACTIVE AERO.
1:12 – Is the front plate really necessary?
1:20 – Stock cars…?
1:29 – Pit crews – that’s cool!
1:36 – That damage is fantastic!
1:40 – Ferraris should be red.
1:55 – They have all these gratuitous glamour shots when really you’re either going to be seeing the back of your car or the steering wheel 100% of the time.
2:25 – Gran Turismo 5: coming… some day?

So in summary:

1. Active aero is cool.
2. Pit crews are cool.
3. More detailed / extreme damage is cool.
4. I don’t care that much about GT5.

Similarly, Bioshock is a great game. If you wanted, you could call it innovative simply because it was a first person shooter in 2007 that didn’t have you fighting aliens or Nazis. But beyond that, Bioshock furthered gamers’ assertions that games could indeed be art. The plot, while still dependent on you fighting your way through… things… was refreshing in the context of this beautifully creepy underwater world. And, like The Matrix, Bioshock has that single moment of clarity in which the jarring reality of things completely blows your mind.

Of course, it could also be argued that Bioshock didn’t need a sequel. And I agree; the game is a work of art that begins and resolves an interesting story, and I would’ve been content with that. But 2K didn’t agree, and so Bioshock 2 is upon us. Like many jaded gamers, years of Tony Hawks and Call of Dutys have made it clear that not all sequels are good sequels. And when I first sat down to play this new installment, it was with much skepticism.

(I could go on an entirely different rant here about how reading reviews and previews of games can drastically and irreversibly alter someone’s opinion of them for better or worse, but I will save that. For now.)

Suffice it to say, I had been reading a lot of reviews of Bioshock 2 because I was genuinely looking for an excuse to skip it. Reading reviews is not something I do for games that I know I want to play, for reasons stated above. But the reviews all played the same tune: yes, Bioshock didn’t need a sequel, but here is one, and it’s pretty good, so get over it.

And they’re right. Unlike the rest of The Matrix trilogy, this new Bioshock turns out to be a lot of fun for those of us who enjoyed Rapture the first go-round. While it would’ve been impossible to do anything but put you in the (very heavy) shoes of a new protagonist, the strategy works. You get to experience some things that are only made possible by who you are in this game, and another layer of the Rapture saga is revealed as well.

All in all, it comes down to this: the original game is so highly-regarded partially because there was a certain novelty about it. That the second installment is enjoyable and interesting even now that that novelty has worn off speaks volumes about how ripe the setting and gameplay are for further exploration.

Rockstar’s approach to TBoGT doesn’t differ much from the previous installment – once again you’re put in the shoes of what was previously only a supporting character. As I said before, the experience you enjoy the most really depends on which character and lifestyle you are most comfortable with. In this case, that character is Luis Lopez, ex-con turned bodyguard of/business partner to nightclub impresario “Gay” Tony Prince (who bears a remarkable resemblance to Robert Downey Jr’s Tony Stark).

As a result, the game is centered around Algonquin, Liberty City’s equivalent to Manhattan, and the high-roller atmosphere extends to fast cars, great new music, and a slew of new over-the-top missions. Of course it’s not all fun and games, but I’ll just leave it at that with regards to plot. You’ll run across plenty of characters that you’ve been previously introduced to, including one loose end from the core game that I was glad to see tied.

I have to say, I really liked Luis as a protagonist – while he kept getting thrust into situations that were less than ideal, I never felt that things were completely out of control like I did with Niko or Johnny. One constant across all GTA games is that you can continue to experience the city even after completing the missions. You may find it telling that when presented with that option in TLaD I opted instead to return to the original game. I don’t expect that to be the case this time around.

0:00 – Fire.
0:05 – Cat! Off to a good start.
0:14 – That kid has awesome painting skills.
0:17 – While the dog seems to be incredibly competent at kneading, I’m still not sure this is the best staffing situation.
0:22 – Okay, I don’t know any humans who can make dough look like a bone OR a string of sausages. I retract my previous statement.
0:25 – And some dude fanning himself with his hat.
0:26 – And a dude with a pipe.
0:28 – …and a screwdriver.
0:31 – Wow, seriously. That dog is impressive.
0:35 – Fire.
0:53 – The problem with this television is clearly spiderwebs. But it’s not enough of a problem to actually fix, I guess.
0:56 – The cat looks kind of flirty now.
1:11 – Flirting = success! Maybe?
1:12 – Okay, definitely.
1:14 – Those curtains are magical!
1:22 – A screwdriver is still not the best tool for not fixing spiderwebs.
1:32 – You made a bone? What happened to the dough?
1:49 – It’s just Snow-freaking-White up in here. But at least the spiderweb problem has been resolved?
1:54 – Something awesome obviously just happened.
2:05 – I’m not convinced the kid is speaking a real language. It’s just consonants. Also, does he have pupils?
2:07 – Ooooh, it’s Christmas.
2:16 – And we’re outdoors.
2:19 – I’m thinking the money spent on the zoom lens could’ve been better used on a coat or something for that dog.
2:22 – Wait – the camera has a rifle grip? What?
2:26 – “If he shoots us, I want you to know that you’re my favorite. Also I’m drunk right now.”
2:32 – “I’ve had better.”
2:35 – “Oh.”
2:40 – That’s just not a camera I would be comfortable standing in front of. Or near.
2:41 – Like that guy. I’m with him.
2:47 – “Great! Dinner!”
2:49 – Oh.
2:51 – Beardy is talking about moose. Or ghosts. Ghost moose?
3:01 – Wouldn’t it be better for them to just go inside and watch Mustachioed Pianist Variety Hour?
3:02 – “Whose mustache is better? Be honest.”
3:06 – “Eh, you’re both equally queer.”
3:07 – Cat and boy are both astounded by the forwardness of such a statement.
3:12 – “Ohhh snap!”
3:14 – That lady is certainly… geometric.
3:20 – I don’t think that’s music.
3:28 – Here comes a lady with skis. Is this an Old Navy ad?
3:35 – Mr. Mustache clearly doesn’t understand how this technology works.
3:39 – On second thought – Michelin?
3:46 – She sounds like pretty much every Russian lady I’ve ever heard.
3:56 – Uh oh – something magical just happened, as it’s now time for the traditional Christmas Snowflake Treatment™.
4:00 – Aaaand that’s a wrap. I think we all learned a valuable lesson here.

That was in 2006; Grand Theft Auto IV hit stores in April 2008 with the promise that the first portion of DLC would follow in the fall. And true to form, it was delayed. But finally, last Tuesday, The Lost and Damned arrived and set out to redefine what downloadable content can be.

Instead of continuing your experience as Niko Bellic (protagonist of the core storyline) TLAD puts you in the shoes of biker Johnny Klebitz (of The Lost Motorcycle Club), one of the ancillary characters that you previously crossed paths with. I really like this approach, as the entire cast of GTA IV is ripe for this sort of extrapolation. I was a little hesitant about the choice of a biker as I wasn’t a huge fan of the motorcycle-oriented missions in the original game, but fortunately those fears turned out to be unfounded.

Whether you prefer Niko or Johnny as a “hero” boils down to personal preference; I found both to be likable enough, with a sort of “why does this keep happening to me?” quality about them. As noted above, you’ll end up in a few missions where both characters are involved simultaneously and that may be my favorite aspect of this whole experience – seeing a whole new viewpoint of a scenario that you had previously only witnessed from one angle. Furthermore, relationship between Niko and Johnny versus Niko and the rest of TLMC is quite interesting to follow as they rarely seem to be consistent.

Aside from that the missions are par for course, but enjoyable. I probably spent around ten hours on the story mode, and didn’t find any one level particularly frustrating. Interestingly, Rockstar has reworked the continue system with this expansion, so restarting the mission often puts you at a checkpoint instead of at the beginning, finally.

Liberty City has also received some upgrades in the form a couple new interiors and some new vehicles; most of which are motorcycles. But most notable is the addition of all sorts of new music and dialogue on the radio stations. It’s pretty rad and remarkably satisfying to hear Deep Purple’s Highway Star and Bon Jovi’s Wanted blaring over the exhaust of your bike. Odd though – I can’t help but notice that Rockstar seems to have raided the Rock Band catalog. And while I believe the new vehicles are only available when you’re playing TLAD, the media additions are universal.

So is it worth $20? If you spent countless hours with the original, then yes, no thought required. Buy it and see Liberty City in a whole new light. If you weren’t crazy about the core game, than nothing TLAD brings to the table can remedy that aside from perhaps the continue system. Still, though, it’s not nearly as satisfying or interesting to play if you weren’t already emotionally invested in the characters. It’s not an entirely different game, and it’s not an entirely different story. What it is, is a very strong addition to what was already a very good game.

Except the content providers always seem to ignore that it’s not black and white. My viewing choices aren’t limited to “watch it on Hulu” or “watch it on live TV”. They also include “don’t watch it at all”, “torrent it”, or “watch it on TiVo and skip the ads”. So are those zero-revenue choices (admittedly I’m not sure about the TiVo one) really preferable to the revenue from Hulu’s ads?

1. Spin – Lifehouse
2. 100 Years – Five for Fighting
3. Mandy – Barry Manilow
4. Toxic – Britney Spears
5. Trouble – Pink
6. Na-NaNa-Na – Nelly
7. La La – Ashlee Simpson
8. Little Girls – Oingo Boingo
9. Livin La Vida Loca – Antonio Banderas & Eddie Murphy (Shrek 2)
10. Invisible – Clay Aiken

Terrible music aside, I Twittered recently that it would cost me $135 to upgrade my purchased iTunes music to iTunes Plus. In news that’s both depressing and reassuring, that number has since climbed to $153. Imagine my relief when I read today that iTunes is now offering a la carte upgrades, so I can upgrade the stuff I’m actually glad I bought the first time without having to deal with the guilt that would stem from paying yet again for the shitty songs.

As a bonus, I’ve been able to recover a few songs here or there that managed to lose themselves in my computorial transition last year. The ol’ Powerbook was easily confused and ended up occasionally trying to put music on its internal drive instead of the external where it belonged, and that music was lost when I formatted the machine. I was able to recover a good portion of it either from CDs or off of my iPod (SHHH IT WILL BE OUR SECRET) (also this is why I demand an iPod that will hold my entire library), but upgrading filled in a couple of the gaps that still remained.

I’m part of a podcast now, The Insophisticate. It’s about technology, but really it’s just my friend Dino and me talking for a random amount of time about the stuff we’d talk about anyway. You might find it interesting if you dig that sort of thing.

Wausau Community Theatre is presenting Gypsy at the end of February. I’m fortunate enough to be a member of the cast, which means I get to hone my acting skills and be with people whose company I enjoy. There’s no dancing or singing for me in this one, which I was kind of bummed about at first but has actually been a blessing in disguise since it leaves me with more open evenings.

Mass Effect was pretty darn good once I figured out how to play it; Orange Box is a game no 360/PS3/PC owner should be without. I’m probably 5% into Mario Galaxy but I haven’t picked it up since last month.

But seriously. Good things are coming (I think). There’s not one big thing that I’m looking forward to, but rather a bunch of small things that, when combined, make me happy.

Personal experience with both of these within the last twelve months is enough to make me rethink my buying strategy, as twice now I’ve bought a game in the hopes of a new yet familiar experience, only to conclude that that once was probably enough.

The Benchmarks

Last year two franchises came into my life that I had not previously had an interest in playing. Both were launch titles for the Xbox 360, and both are remarkable games. It didn’t take me long to play through either of them, and I was impressed by the entire experience in both cases.

The Successors

Something got broken in the transition to the newer titles. One sequel was handled by a different developer, and while I’ve heard great things about the multiplayer, I think the single player experience suffered for it. Everything was mostly the same with small changes that seemed more like they were different for the sake of being different than anything else. I bought it right after finishing the previous title and forced myself to complete it before I could move on to other games, but I haven’t touched it since.

The other game showed a lot more promise, and I was genuinely excited for its release. There were some really great features promised, and upon playing through I can’t argue that they weren’t delivered. But at the same time, they again seemed to make some arbitrary changes, and the game lost some of the slickness that I liked so much about its predecessor. I think about the day I bought it. I needed to use some about-to-expire Best Buy offers, and so it was between this, Bioshock, and Halo 3.

I should’ve waited for Orange Box.

The Conclusion

You may be wondering why I haven’t mentioned titles. I’m not convinced it’s really relevant; despite the fact that I was disappointed by the games in this context, they are both quite good. I guess they just weren’t what I was hoping for.

• Page 18: Proclaims that the new race-bred F430, instead of being called the Challeng Stradale, will be called the 430 LP (“Light Pista”). Wrong. It’s called the Scuderia.
• Page 19: Horrible (in-house) concept drawing of a car that Ferrari acknowledges they’re not even building. What’s the point?
• Page 20: Photo of the first-gen Focus, which was available here, accompanying an article referring to the second-gen Europe-specific car.
• Page 21: Two large photos of an Audi RS6 test mule, accompanying a fear-mongering headline about the discontinuation of the RS4. This just in: Honda is discontinuing the Accord. So they can release a new one.
• Page 21: Same article. Used the word blogosphere.
• Page 26: Really, really unflattering photo of designer Frank Stephenson. The guy is a stud, but you wouldn’t know it from this photo.
• Page 76 Article about the Subaru WRX called, and I quote, “omgwrxlol.” Yes, seriously. Too much internet focus, especially when it gets to the point of referring to usernames regarding forum talk about the (ugly) new WRX. They promise to “set the record straight,” about what I don’t know. It’s still ugly.

I don’t know if I’m pleased or disappointed to come up with that many things, but man, that magazine just leaves me with a chip on my shoulder.

Then I went to start up the 360 for the first time since we moved. Lo and behold, the GTA IV trailer is on the Marketplace. Stutter-free playback in HD? Yes please.

After all that buildup, you’d think I’d have a lot to say about the trailer. But it’s called a teaser for a reason, so these are the only things I can say for sure:

• Liberty City is (one of) the setting(s?). And it looks a lot like NYC this time around.
• At least part of the game takes place in the present.
• One of the characters is Eastern-European.
• Graphics look promising. The moving shadows (as the sun changes positions) look very impressive.

What I’m hoping this trailer turns out to be is a misdirection. A way to show off graphics without giving too much away. As it stands, we’re led to believe that we’ll be playing a Russian man, new to our setting of Liberty City. But what if that’s not the case? What if he’s just one of the ancillary characters, and as time goes on, more trailers are released showing others that you’ll cross paths with, all from different cities? Crap, that’d be awesome.

Okay, okay, hopes are up. I’d better settle down now and stop thinking about it. And go reserve my copy.

But it’s not just any musical, oh no. This is Urinetown (The Musical). It’s a story about love, corruption, rebellion, and so much more. Also it’s funny. And the music is the best. The basic idea is that water has become extremely sparse, to the point where one huge company oversees public restrooms (the only kind available anymore) that people must pay to use. Those who refuse to pay are carted off to the mythical Urinetown (the place). So naturally, this… arrangement… doesn’t last more than a couple scenes, as the young hero finds himself leading a rebellion against bathrooms that you have to pay for.

Normally, I’d guess there’d be only a moderate amount of interest in the show before it opened and people actually saw it. But not this time. As this production was already in its planning stages, Stevens Point Area High School (SPASH) kicked around the idea of doing it but it got canned by the higher-ups. Thankfully, media, being what it is, smelled some sort of story, and so now we’re doing “The show banned in Stevens Point!” Hot damn.

Obviously, it’s still too early for reviews, but we did get a preview in the City Pages yesterday. While I admit I read them sparingly, there was one bit that was just too good:

Originally scheduled to be performed in Stevens Point Area High School in November of 2006, the SPASH superintendent and high school’s principal canceled it for what they deemed “inappropriate content” — specifically irony, a concept not dealt with in the school’s curriculum until 12th grade apparently.

Burn!

So anyway, if you’re in the area, come see it, because it’s awesome.

Urinetown (The Musical)
UWMC Theater

• March 9, 10 at 7:30
• March 11 at 2:30 2:00
• March 14, 15, 16 at 7:30

Reserved seating; for tickets call 715.261.6230

• $12 Adults
• $10 Seniors & non-UWMC Students

Well, I was eating lunch, and all the other magazines were upstairs. So, yeah.

Anyway, one article that caught my attention was entitled You’re a Boss, Not a Buddy, and covered the transition from fellow coworker to supervisor. For the most part, it was full of good points about how the writer tried to be a “cool boss” and ended up not being much of a boss at all. What I had to take issue with, so much so that I’m writing a damn post about it, was the sidebar, AKA “The Power Playbook,” a list of 10 ways to be a good boss and advance yourself up the ranks of executivity. From the article I get the impression that this is advice for bosses regarding their immediate employees; not, for example, a CEO vs. an intern. There are a couple decent points, but c’mon:

[Asshole Boss Tip] #2: Stay just out of reach
Let the tyros get carpal tunnel from their BlackBerries. The truly powerful are minimally available, and even then to only a select few.

Wait, what? So your immediate subordinates should have no way to run things by you when they have questions? Then what? You reprimand them for not consulting you? Asshole.

[Asshole Boss Tip] #4: Freeze out the new kids
Teach entry-levels the hierarchy by studiously ignoring them. You’ll motivate them to prove themselves worthy of your time.

No. You’ll motivate them to find work elsewhere. Asshole.

[Asshole Boss Tip] #6: Forget details
Take a cue from your grandmother and occasionally lapse on rookies’ names…

“Where’s what’s-his-face? Oh, he quit?” Asshole.

[Asshole Boss Tip] #10: Be cryptic
A terse e-mail—more William Carlos Willams than Willam Wordsworth—isn’t just a time-saver, it’s a mindfuck. A three-word reply will resonate much more deeply than a lengthy treatise.

Wow. So apparently you’re employees aren’t getting frustrated enough by their clients or customers who think this kind of communication is appropriate, you thought you’d join in too. Goes great with #2. ASS. HOLE.

I have been lucky not to have any bosses like this, but I feel really sorry right now for people who report to those who take details seriously.

• Rachel Dratch
• Tina Fey
• Finesse Mitchell
• Chris Parnell
• Horatio Sanz

New cast members:

• All the featured players are now regulars, but that’s it, leaving an awkward space of music between Kristen Wiig’s name and the band announcement.

That seems, uh, rather thin.

Over the past year I’ve stumbled upon a couple more; Dean Gray’s American Edit takes the Green Day album and mixes it with songs across the board with great results, while The Gnotorious Gnarls Biggie was not quite so impressive. But earlier this week I came across The Silence Xperiment’s Q-Unit, the unlikely combination of 50 Cent and Queen.

Far and away, this is my favorite of the group. Tracks 2 and 7 are the best. Check it out.

• F.E.A.R. is some kind of paranormal tactical first person shooter that just barely makes the list. Why? Because there is technically nothing wrong with the game and even the demo is scary (the whole point). Therein lies the problem; I have never been a fan of being terrified by my own media, which is why I tend to avoid scary movies as well. If you’ve played Half-Life, then you get a sense of the vibe, but imagine it much darker and with more blood. There is no doubt it’s a great game in and of itself, but not for me.
• Dead Rising involves zombies and is also rather scary. It inches ahead of F.E.A.R. because, for some inexplicable reason, I actually bought it and I still don’t know why. Probably because the demo, which I naively thought represented the overtone of the game, was fun and simple: kill zombies with TV’s; kill zombies with shovels; kill zombies with park benches; etc. Unfortunately they decided to go and put a story in it. And psychopaths. Great. And I haven’t gotten to the point where my character is strong enough to make it fun. And the save system is terrible.
  EDIT: I meant to mention this before, but forgot. I need to actually get myself to play the game some more to get myself leveled up, and then it will probably go a little more smoothly.
• Test Drive Unlimited is on here for wasting two hours of my life. Those familiar with the demo will realize I played it to the maximum time limit twice, which is indicative of how crack-like it is. I play and play, and all I can think is “I’m totally wasting my time on this,” a feeling reminiscent of Driv3r which (surprise) is from the same company (Atari).
• Uno: the computer freaking cheats.
• Sonic the Hedgehog, everybody’s best friend from Sega, will be arriving soon on the PS3 and Xbox 360. This doesn’t seem like bad news until you realize the last good Sonic game made for consoles was Sonic Adventure on the Dreamcast, and even that was debatable. That game was at least fun; the camera was decent and the movements were relatively predictable. It was easy enough to get through the first level or two without dying if you were familiar with 3D platformers. This new one though—and this seems to be a common issue—has been throwing a lot of people for a loop (and not in a good way). I used up my allotment of lives making it through the first section of the demo level, and then when I loaded it up again, I used them making it through the second section. After that I contemplated deleting it because let’s be honest, a Sonic game that you can’t just pick up and play is not worth playing at all.

With the recent developments on the Zune front, Microsoft Points have suddenly become a much more relevant topic. According to CNET:

The new Microsoft cash system will work by adding money to an account, as with a prepaid phone card. Points will then be deducted from the account with each purchase. A single song will cost 79 points, “the equivalent of 99 cents,” according to Microsoft spokeswoman Kyrsa Dixon.

Fair enough. The article goes on to indicate that the Points will be universal, meaning Live users will be able to use their Points for music and vice versa, which is not a surprise; rather, that’s how it should be.

Well, that’s how it should be if Points are involved. The question is, why are they involved in the first place. According to Microsoft:

On the original Xbox Live, transactions had to be around five dollars U.S., the minimum for most credit cards. But with Microsoft Points, the price for most anything—maps, skins, levels, demos, and more—can be much lower than that. That’s a big deal. For example, say you want to get one of the new maps for your favorite shooter, but you’re not that interested in a few of the others. Lucky for you, Marketplace can offer each map individually for just a few points.

So Microsoft’s logic behind the Point system is to bypass the $5 credit card minimum. This sort of makes sense on the surface, but there’s one problem with telling people this: the iTunes Store. Enter your credit card information once and you can buy as little or as much as you want at any given time; no silly $5.00 limit.

After some discussion with a fellow gamer (AKA: my boss), we landed on the theory that it’s not that you can’t spend less than $5.00 on a card purchase; it’s that the retailer gets charged an amount if you do. So rather than a way to circumvent this $5.00 limit, the Points are a way to save Microsoft money.

Don’t get me wrong, at this point it’s still not that big of a deal. I don’t think most 360 owners are put off by Points, especially after you get an idea of the dollar/point conversion rate (as stated above, $1.00 is approximately 80 Points). Then again, I would venture that any 360 owner who uses Xbox Live probably has a decent amount of comfort with technology and downloading media as opposed to buying a physical copy.

I would also venture to guess that Microsoft’s intended market for the Zune is much broader; of course they want technophiles to buy it but they also want to appeal to the normal not so computer literate person; the one who assumes it will work with their machine because it says Microsoft and not Apple. If the goal is to get these people comfortable with buying media online, I think the Points are the biggest obstacle (aside from terrible hardware or software, but I’m giving MS the benefit of the doubt).

I’m not sure what the lowest amount of Points you can buy at a time is, but let’s say it’s 500. By today’s rate, that’s about $6.25. If a new Zune user wants to try the music store, they have to commit to $6.25 instead of $1.00 as they would in iTunes. Furthermore, I’m curious how unobtrusive it will be if you decide to add points; say, if you want to purchase a whole album but don’t have enough in your account, is it easy and fast to add more?

The final and potentially worst aspect of the Point system across the board is the exchange rate. I don’t know if anyone could tell you why Points don’t convert equally to cents, which makes it more complicated to figure out exactly how much something costs (rev up your calculators). Aside from it being just plain inconvenient, I think there’s a hint of deceptiveness about the whole system. It’s a rather conniving way of making everything appear less expensive than it actually is, and that’s not cool.

I’ll close with this. I think the Zune, because it’s not completely reliant on the music store for content, can survive in spite of the points if it’s a good piece of hardware. But if the music store itself dies, I think the Points will be the ones holding the knife.

One of my favorite features of Xbox Live is the downloadable content that’s available. Namely, the free downloadable content, most notably game demos. One of my first downloads was the demo for Just Cause, one of the main reasons I bought the 360 when I did.

Since then, I’ve had my fair share, even going so far as to try out the much-loved Uno (the computer totally cheats!). But yesterday was my first time actually buying anything through Xbox Live. I downloaded a demo called Cloning Clyde, an addictive little platformer available in the Arcade section (MS’s area for sub-$10, party-esque mini games).

Sure enough, as demos tend to do, it hooked me and within 15 minutes I paused the game, bought some Microsoft points, and nabbed the full version.

Great. Another way to spend money that’s as easy and fast as iTunes. That’s certainly just what I needed.

• Gapless playback (ON THE 5G IPODS TOO!)
• The new nanos
• Graphic design for the new nanos
• Steve’s non-black non-turtleneck
• iTunes 7

Undecided, or I just don’t care:

• The “iTV”
• Movie downloads
• The new shuffle
• iPod games

Thumbs down:

• No gapless playback in pre-6G iPods (firmware update please?)
• Steve, unbutton that top button!

I started out with Mercenaries which is really quite good. You play a mercenary (obviously), in the midst of a war against North Korea and you’re running around performing missions for different factions in an effort to gather info on the infamous “Deck of 52″ (this sounds… familiar). The whole game looks great (dark and dreary – typical war game), and has a Grand Theft Auto feel to the mechanics of it, not that that’s a bad thing.

Speaking of GTA, after making my way through the entire suit of clubs in Mercenaries, I dropped it for Total Overdose, aka GTA: Mexico. Pinning it down like that isn’t totally fair, as the driving is nowhere near as good. On the other hand, the gunplay in the game is ridiculously fun, with you hopping all over like you’re in The Matrix or something. The premise of the story is similar to that Chris Rock movie Bad Company (great movie), but in Mexico and with more action.

I also ordered a copy of Crazy Taxi 3: High Roller, a game which was an Xbox exclusive way back when that I’d forgotten about. It’s in Vegas! Probably that’s where the game actually is right now, too, since it’s not here.

In the midst of all this single player action, Abe and I have also started playing Halo for the very first time ever. We’re playing through in co-op mode, which is a great alternative to having to do the entire thing alone and then beating eachother up in versus mode.

Most recently, I’ve started playing Saints Row, another Grand Theft Auto-looking game, with one notable exception: it’s on the Xbox 360. And it looks amazing. I’d write more but, well, new toy… and… yeah.

Back in the 90′s, Wired was strictly a magazine for nerds. I don’t mean that negatively, but it’s true. I never felt smart enough to read it, but maybe that’s because I was in high school and didn’t know what was going on anyway.

Similarly, GQ always had an unapproachable air about it; I’d never be gentlemanly or fashionable enough to be a GQ reader! It’s so… hoity toity.

Now though, everything’s completely crossed. Nerds read GQ, fashionistas read Wired, and I read both. Furthermore, it’s become more and more apparent that one person can actually be both and this is acceptable in modern society. That makes me happy.

I think a lot of this stems from the fact that certain pieces of gadgetry have crossed the boundary from being purely functional to being fashionable as well; it’s cool to be in the crowd that owns them.

At the same time, we’re seeing certain pieces of fashion take a more technological approach. Shoes are the best example of this. Nike shoes are the best example of this, and they use the technology as a selling point. This is not to say that everything in both worlds will eventually overlap completely; suits will continue to be sold based purely on appearance and servers will continue to be sold based purely on their tech, but it’s nice to see that the overlap exists.

There are a few companies that thrive in this overlap. They’re the tech companies that it’s cool to buy from or the apparel companies that are secretly nerd havens. I suspect we’ll be seeing more and more as time goes on.

Last week a copy of GQ showed up, with a note about how Cargo is no longer so we’d be receiving this instead. I wasn’t really sure what to expect since I’ve never really read GQ before. As it turns out, it’s better. Way better. GQ manages a nice medium between the list-ridden Cargo, the bitchy details, and poor, bi-monthly, ad-stricken Complex. Those other magazines were all fine, but I actually quite enjoy GQ‘s selection of content and sense of humor.

We also seem to accumulate Metropolitan Home magazines in spite of the fact that neither of us is a subscriber. I’ve grown to like them quite a lot as well since they also strike a good balance of content, photos, and actual real information (floor plans, etc). Unfortunately, while our home is rent-controlled it is neither metropolitan nor open for modification so the ideas we see are doomed to occupy the back burner for now.

One such idea was in an article about a pair of guys in a Boston loft. They have two dishwashers, and the space from each is adequate for all of their dishes. As a result the entire array of dishes resides in the dishwashers and gets shifted from one to the other as they get used, which struck both of us as quite a brilliant idea. Considering that cabinetry for dishes probably costs nearly as much as a second dishwasher it seems to be a clever solution especially if you’re lazy or your cabinet space is limited.

So then I was curious as to whether they could be imported like a normal track, especially since I don’t have just the audio for this particular song. Again, the answer is yes (since after it goes on the disc it’s just another generic song).

I’m not totally sure this will work with videos purchased from the Music Store (though I don’t know why it wouldn’t), but it works with the video that just came off my hard drive and was in the iPod format.

Flickr says this doesn’t delete your photos (as evidenced by the fact that you can still access individual photos), it just removes them from your photo stream, meaning they’re no longer available to people browsing. Any tags associated with those photos disappear if they’re not found elsewhere in your library as well.

One consolation is that if your photos have been added to pools or groups, they remain there. I find this kind of surprising, but at the same time it makes sense for the sake of other users.

I wasn’t really planning on buying a Pro account in the near future since I’ve had no problem staying under the monthly alloted bandwidth (for uploads) so far, and I don’t have a huge need for more than three sets. But this restriction kind of clinches it and I’ll probably be upgrading shortly.

Things I did buy

Clipless sandals. So much better than the shoes I have because there are no socks required. Considering if it’s not warm enough for me to be wearing sandals I’m not going to be going biking either, it all works out pretty well.

Also, some parts for a thing for my car.

Things I won’t buy

For the last two months I’ve been thinking pretty hard about getting a digital SLR camera, namely the Canon Digital Rebel XT. It came highly recommended from a number of people and I really think it’s a nice camera especially compared to the others in its price range. As a bonus there’s a hefty rebate going on through one of my favorite companies. That brings the price down to under $700 for the whole kit, and it comes in black:

But I don’t think I’m going to jump on it for a number of reasons. I don’t know that I’d really use it enough to justify the price, regardless of how affordable it is. I’ve also noticed that I’m not even taking my small camera with me everywhere (even though I should). And honestly, I know that if I really wanted it I’d already own it. So that’s delayed, for now. I’m still thinking a larger one would be nicer just because of how grainy everything is with this tiny lens.

Things I saw

Finally, Cars, like every Pixar film before it, was a great movie. I can’t often say this about movies I watch, but there was absolutely nothing I didn’t like about it.

Of particular interest to me was Gnarls Barkley, in part because I’d never heard the music before but also because of their presentation. They decided to go with a Star Wars theme which sounds a little cheesy but was way, way better than it sounds. Aside from how good I thought the song was (which resulted in me buying the album), I couldn’t help but be reminded of PDF by the bass-playing Storm Trooper.

And Chewbacca on drums? Priceless.

Finally, just for the record, I am convinced that Christina Aguilera has the talent and versatility to follow in Madonna’s footsteps.

Regardless, in a matter of minutes I can have more information than a TV show could provide in an entire hour. I think TV is an excellent jumping off point for figuring out what you want to learn about, but beyond that it’s all down to real research (reading). On the subject of skimming over information, I offer a criticism of nearly every modern home magazine (Dwell, Metropolitan Home, etc). Any time I am reading about a house (or seeing it on TV), I immediately want and need to see floor plans. This doesn’t work on TV for obvious reasons, but unfortunately floor plans are not provided for some of the nicest houses featured in the aforementioned magazines. I chalk it up to a space issue, but on occasion they’ll show a multi-level house and floor plans for one floor. I don’t really get that and that’s why I don’t really find myself reading them except as a last resort.

On the other hand, Fine Homebuilding (last I checked), had an annual issue dedicated to specific houses and complete floor plans for them.

Sony, overall, left a lot of disappointment among a lot of enthusiasts. Complaints were rampant about three main things:

1. Multiple Levels: Similar to Microsoft’s approach last year, Sony plans to sell two different versions of the PS3. The base model includes a 20-gig hard drive while the fancy-schmancy model ups that to 60 gigs and adds a myriad of other things. Unlike the 360, however, these aren’t necessarily accessories so much as actual hardware differences, namely HDMI, wi-fi, and built-in card readers. Sony has said there will be add-ons for wi-fi and the card reader, but you’re stuck with the high-end model if you want HDMI. Another point that was brought up was how difficult it will be (possibly) to get the console you want at launch time. Last I checked only the black PS3 will be available at launch so at least there won’t be color issues (yet).
2. The Price: The issue of multiple SKUs is of course exacerbated by the moderately ridiculous price: $499 for the base unit and $599 for the hot-damn bells and whistles model. Is this too much money? Not necessarily. If it was really, really good I would spend the money, but it’s not going to be that good.
3. The Controller: The controller from last year was a disappointment to many, so Sony labeled it as a “concept” and chucked it before the show this year. Instead they’ve introduced… the Dual Shock. Again. The new controller looks exactly the same but hey, it’s wireless now. And it doesn’t actually have the rumble feature anymore. And they decided it needed to be motion-sensitive. Wonder who gave them that idea.

Whatever. The PS3 isn’t shaking up to be such a good deal at this point. We’ll see where it goes.

On the other hand, I’m all over the Nintendo Wii. I was pretty skeptical up to this point and some of that skepticism remains, but if they make it as fun and irreverent as the DS, I’ll buy one. If they make it as fun and irreverent as the DS, and keep it under $200, I’ll buy one at launch. It just looks fun.

Much to my delight, Grand Theft Auto IV is officially in production and scheduled for a Fall 2007 release on both the PS3 and Xbox 360. I’m going to follow this closely as I’m very excited about it, but I’m also interested in seeing what changes will be in place between the Xbox and Sony versions, if any. I am seriously trying to keep myself from preordering it right now.

Also, for our impending (read: tomorrow) trip to Vegas, I picked up Brain Age and (of course) New Super Mario Bros for the DS. I’ve only played through the first world of Mario so far and can say that it’s the quintessential DS Mario game. And as expected, Nintendo has pulled out the stops for the accompanying website, which they use to rub in the fact that we poor Americans still have 2 more weeks (June 11) to wait for the DS Lite.

I’ve found myself much more engaged with Brain Age, maybe because of its promise to make my brain work better or maybe just because I like the activities (math problems? memorization?). It also has sudoku puzzles which Abe thinks are extremely stupid but what I think will be occupying the majority of the plane flight.

Back to the subject of the DS Lite for just a sec: I was also really happy to see that it will be selling for $129.99 (the same as the outgoing “normal” DS) rather than the expected $149.99. I need one so, so bad.

If you haven’t downloaded the torrents and you have the bandwidth (and the disk space), you may as well; it’s free music! If you have, then maybe give these a listen:

1. Avantcore
   Busdriver
2. Be Gentle With Me
   The Boy Least LIkely To
3. Blue Sky
   Gliss
4. Cowbell
   Tapes ‘N Tapes
5. Devils & Angels
   Toby Lightman
6. Don’t Let Me Down
   A.J. Croce
7. Everyone’s a Winner
   The Meligrove Band
8. Fork in the Road
   The Stringdusters
9. Freewheel
   Duke Special
10. Get Your Way
    Jamie Cullum

11. Ghetto Ways
    Scissors for Lefty
12. Girl Anachronism
    The Dresden Dolls
13. Give a Little Mo’
    The Mutaytor
14. God of Hell
    The Rodeo Carburettor
15. Junkyard
    Page France
16. Love Don’t Care
    Lab Partners
17. New Comes and Goes
    Oranger
18. Right About Now
    Talib Kweli
19. The Vice & Virtue Ministry
    The Happy Bullets
20. Walkin’ on Nails
    Mac Lethal

So suffice it to say, I feel bad. The difference between insulting a company and insulting a band is that bands aren’t necessarily in it for the money. It’s a creative expression and any comments made can be taken very personally. With that said, I apologize to the band since the my commentary could be considered rather harsh and possibly over the top. While the style of music is not one that I particularly care for the band’s talent for improvisation is one to be respected.

Hopefully this will serve as a reminder to me to rethink what I write in the future.

Fast forward two days, and the first thing Abe says when I wake up is “Do you want to go see Madonna?” This is kind of out of the blue but after having seen what her performances are like I know that it is definitely something I’d want to go to. Abe says that she’ll be in Chicago in the middle of June.

And this is where it happens. My response: “where else is she playing? Is she playing in Vegas? Can we see Madonna in Vegas?” She indeed is playing in Vegas, as it turns out, but we’re pretty sure we can’t go because that’s in May before the school year ends. So we figure Chicago is a good enough alternative.

Abe calls me at work: “She’s actually in Vegas on the Saturday of Memorial Day weekend. We could go if you want to. Tickets for that go on sale Saturday (the 8th).” I’m kind of unsure at this point because I was halfway serious about the Vegas thing. It would be fun, but it will definitely be expensive. He checks out travel info anyway while I try make up my mind.

We are going to Vegas! That night we book the tickets for the plane and the hotel. We’ll be flying out at 9:00PM from Madison on Friday and returning at 12:00AM on Sunday night. The flight’s a good deal and with it timed the way it is, we only need two nights at the hotel. Now the only issue is actually getting tickets for the show, which has to wait until Saturday at noon.

That’s not to say we aren’t prepared. The iMac, Powerbook and Alienware are all in full-on ticket-buying ready mode, along with the two cell phones. We manage to snag two tickets along the side of the arena, much to our relief, and the worry ends. TicketMaster sells out by 12:05, but we don’t care:

We are going to Las Vegas to see Madonna.

• 7. Suzuki Reno
• 6. Dodge Caliber SE
• 5. Hyundai Accent GLS Sedan
• 4. Toyota Yaris S Sedan
• 3. Kia Rio5 SX
• 2. Nissan Versa 1.8SL Hatch
• 1. Honda Fit Sport

Some high points:

• Quickest to 60 mph and in the quarter mile (8.7 and 16.7 seconds).
• Most supportive seats and overall nicest interior. “Acura-grade gauge cluster.”
• Set apart by handling — lane change faster than the competition and even the Corvette Z06.
• Shortest and narrowest, while maintaining 42 cubic feet of cargo space and a flat load floor when the seats are folded.
• C&D elects it “the president of economobiles.”

I don’t know why I’m so psyched about this, but I am. Score another for my favorite team. On another note, all of the above manufacturers with the exception of Nissan have clean URLs for these particular cars. To be honest, this seems to be the exception for Honda since the Fit page is treated like a microsite at this point. Still cleaner than Nissan’s, though — those are a mess.

But on a more positive note, I decided to get the torrents that PDF painstakingly analyzed and came away indifferent. Part of this is because to ask me to listen to 900 songs by anybody is a stretch. I listened to some and continue to experience them as they pop up on the iPod. It’s quite a variety, which is nice, and I haven’t run into any that are just awful. Except one.

The song They Cleaned My Cut Out With A Wire Brush by Happy Flowers makes me hurt inside just because of how incredibly bad it is. A brief synopsis: some kind of screaming; repeat the title; more screaming; then the title; band maybe falls apart at some point; then it’s over. You owe it to yourself to never, ever listen to this song. Ever.

On the other end, the song I was trying to think of today that I pretty much liked was Everyone’s A Winner by The Meligrove Band, which I’m not sure proves or disproves the “The + n” theory of good songs.

We picked it up Saturday morning, took it home, and lo and behold, it hadn’t updated the software (it was still running 5.4). So back to their house we went, to try to get lil’ TiVo up to date. Second time’s a charm, I guess, because the software downloaded and installed as necessary. Setup after that was really, really painless. The wireless adapter worked as advertised and within a couple minutes of getting the now up-to-date TiVo back home we were up and running.

Beyond that, I have to say that it’s totally worth it. It’s ridiculously easy to use, and we spent the rest of Saturday setting up some season passes which give you different options for catching every episode of a particular show. It also tries (emphasis on tries) to pick up shows that it thinks we might enjoy, which has been a largely unsuccessful effort so far. Fortunately you can give shows a thumbs-up or thumbs-down to help TiVo determine what your tastes are.

The only issue that I’ve run into so far is that some of the scheduling didn’t quite match up with what was actually on. For example, I scheduled two of our favorite shows (Home Movies and The Brak Show) that are now only playing late at night. Unfortunately, and I don’t know if this is a Cartoon Network issue or a TiVo issue, we got shows labeled as such but instead turned out to be 12 oz. Mouse and Aqua Teen Hunger Force.

Regardless, the benefits far, far outweigh the drawbacks, especially when one of the benefits is coming home to 3,000 episodes of saved SNL.

Furthermore, I (never) did this on dial-up for quite awhile until we got DSL, meaning I could let my 800 assorted Shirley Bassey tracks all continue to download while I was off galavanting (not that I ever did, even though I could have (download songs I mean, not galavant; I did that all the time)).

iTunes sort of gives you that freedom, though it requires money, meaning you should probably be a little more sure if you want to buy a song and not just add every single Dolly Parton track to your cart on a whim. I suppose you could use Limewire or the like (but you shouldn’t; I don’t and never have and never will), but like I mentioned before you’ve also got to worry about misnamed, incomplete or flat-out broken files. Torrents are also (not) an option, but they don’t seem to work well on a track-by-track basis (based on third-person research that I’ve done).

I guess I’d better go spend some money.

At that same time I was already looking for some way to take the data from Delicious Library and have it spit out an RSS feed that could then be parsed for this site much like what Magpie does with the other (free) del.icio.us. I still have not found that. There was some hope when I read somewhere that DL can output XML but I gave up on that after not finding such an option. It also seemed incredibly cluttered and complicated considering I was hoping for something more web-based.

I briefly considered just creating another del.icio.us account and linking to Amazon with every post, something that would probably be the most straightforward but somehow also feels like cheating.

In the meantime, however, I came across a plugin called Addictions which, while it doesn’t do exactly what I’m looking for, is rather close and as a bonus, it’s simple enough to dissect and rearrange things to my liking. As a result, after maybe 30-45 minutes of fiddling with the code I now have a nice window into the media that currently keeps me from posting more often and generally being more productive. As a nice bonus, there are some things to look forward to with Addictions 2.0 when (if) that happens, and it sounds as though it will be evolving more into what I want, especially with the auto Amazon linking and the archive.

Something that the WordPress 2.0 update and this most recent plugin adventure made me realize is how much better I’m getting at messing around under the hood of this site. I still couldn’t write any kind of PHP from scratch to save my life, but I do enjoy going in and trying to figure out how to make stuff do what I want it to.

Back when the building was a multi-level store (I believe), there was an accounting office that sat on its own level, between the formal first and second floors of the building. As you walked up the back stairway, you’d stop on the landing leading to the office before continuing to the second story. When this most recent of renovations happened the lower stairs were removed and the accounting office became concatenated with one of the apartments — ours.

Like I said, media room. A place to get away from everything else and just play games, watch movies, or just make as much noise as possible.

One of the best parts is that thanks to said stairs, the media room walls are not adjacent to any other apartments; just with the (empty) business on the first floor.

Countless feet of cables.

There’s a whole box of assorted remotes waiting to jump in and take over for this one.

Considering my obsession over black gaming hardware, what’s with that spice Nintendo controller? Good thing it’s Abe’s favorite color.

I told you — black.

And some obligatory macro shots…

…of the ceiling light…

…the CD changer…

…and some candles.

1. All These Things That I’ve Done
   The Killers
2. Picture Book
   Tommy Womack
3. DARE
   Gorillaz
4. Undone
   Owsley
5. Jerk It Out
   Caesars
6. Wires
   Athlete
7. All at Sea
   Jamie Cullum
8. Golden Touch
   Razorlight
9. L-L-Love
   Astaire
10. Canned Heat
    Jamiroquai

11. What You Waiting For?
    Gwen Stefani
12. Galang
    M.I.A.
13. There’s a Million Ways to Sing the Blues
    The Features
14. C’mon C’mon
    Von Bondies
15. Don’t Ask Me
    Ok Go
16. Theme From Dr. Pyser
    Ben Folds Five
17. Do You Want To
    Franz Ferdinand
18. Country House
    Blur
19. Hung Up
    Madonna
20. Zorba the Greek
    John Murphy & David Hughes

If you’re familiar with Everclear’s catalogue of music, then you already know that this one stands out like a sore thumb among some of their more moderately harder stuff. It’s a very eclectic album for them, with some songs verging on folky. I really like it for the variety of instruments and unexpected arrangements, so I was a little disappointed when Volume 2 (Good Time for a Bad Attitude) came out and returned to being semi-rock.It wasn’t necessarily bad, but it just didn’t seem to have the same intricacies as the first and so I didn’t find myself listening to it nearly as much. Same goes for their last one, whatever that’s called.

It’s not something that happens with every song, just some, and it’s more noticeable if I haven’t listened to the album in some time. In a way, by listening to music almost exclusively digitally these days, I’m preventing this from happening by jumbling songs up I otherwise wouldn’t have chosen to hear, thereby preventing potential bonds between experiences and music. I’m not totally sure if that’s a relief or a disappointment.

I’ve had no issues with scratching but I can see where it could become a problem mainly over the screen area. It’s not such a big deal when you only glance at the screen for information but when you’re using it to view media it becomes a whole different animal. I’m not totally concerned about the rest of the iPod scratching – if it does, it does, and it definitely will. I’ll just continue to use the kindly-included case for now.

This is a more isolated victory, but the new 60 Gb iPod will fit snugly in the dock of the 3G 15 Gb iPod. Therefore, taking into account different thicknesses for different drive sizes, you can kind of infer which models this will work with and which it won’t. I’m just happy that all my old stuff works with all my new stuff (except, of course, the remote – but I never used it anyway).

Finally, we get to the heart of the new iPod: the video. I have not yet been suckered into buying videos from the iTunes Music Store so I can’t give any information about how long they take to download. I have, however, been busy trying to make some of my current library play nice with iTunes. The easiest way is to use QuickTime Pro to export your video to the iPod format as noted here. This worked for about 90% of the videos I tried to do.

A couple successfully showed video but no sound. After some research, I found this page that states, in short:

If the [audio] format is “MPEG1 Muxed” or “MPEG2 Muxed,” the audio portion of the file may not be retained with QuickTime Pro or iMovie. You may want to consider using a third-party utility to convert the muxed file to a format that does allow you to edit or export (known as demuxing).

So there it is – files intended for conversion must be demuxed before they’re exported in QuickTime. The thread points to an app called MPEG Streamclip which basically takes a given video and exports it to a different type. From just playing with it it seems capable and it has alot of different options. I tested one of the files that originally didn’t work and was confirmed to have muxed audio. I exported it to a .mov format and now I’m waiting for QuickTime to do its thing. I have no reason to think it won’t work, but that brings me to my biggest issue with this newfound iPod capability: the waiting.

Expect to spend a lot of time multitasking if you’re planning on putting videos on your iPod. A music video on my machine (1.0 Ghz PPC G4 with 1.25 Gb RAM and 5400 RPM HD) took at least an hour if not more, and some 11-minute TV clips have taken at least 3-4 times that. You may have better luck than I have (and I’m itching to give it a go on Abe’s 1.8 Ghz G5 iMac) but chances are there’s still going to be a hefty delay. The points are: a) don’t expect to spontaneously throw any old video onto your iPod at a moment’s notice and b) make sure it’s really worth having that entire season of The Brak Show on your iPod where you’ll probably never watch it.

A final note: I noticed after this research that the videos that had audio issues were all in the MPEG format, whereas the trouble-free ones were AVIs.

UPDATE 1 : 10 November 2005

I just wanted to note that the MPEG Streamclip to QT Pro to iTunes to iPod method does indeed work for videos with muxed audio. As mentioned before, I exported to the Quicktime MOV format, and used Apple’s H.264 video codec and the AAC stereo audio encoding at a 320 x 240 resolution.

UPDATE 2 : 11 November 2005

I’ve been playing a little more, and if you have a music video on the iPod, it’s listed in your audio library as well as your video library, meaning the audio from the movie is included in the “shuffle songs” function. Nice if you only own the video for the song, since it’s doubly functional. It’s this bit of information that makes iTMS’ music video offerings worth $1.99. The only drawback is potentially burning it to an audio CD – I’m not sure whether that’s possible or not.

Mixed in with the three Motor Trend magazines and various university-related stuff (“give us more money!”) were not one but two demo discs for the PS2. One was a standalone demo of a game I’ve been meaning to try, Shadow of the Colossus, and the other was a mix-tape of sorts, with some of Sony’s newest sequels and other junk. I wasn’t to sure about the former after playing it. I’m sure I’d like it as I got more used to the controls but I just couldn’t push through it today.

The sampler was rather nice. It had some givens on there like Jak X, Ratchet: Deadlocked, Sly 3, etc. But like last year’s, the game that I figured I wouldn’t care much for (previously it was Star Wars Battlefronts) turned out to possibly be my favorite of the disc. This time around it was Heroes of the Pacific, a WWII-era flight sim. The gameplay is decent and the in-game graphics are pretty good as well, but what really blew me away was how nice the menus looked. It was a cross between a comic book and the standard WWII propaganda look from back then. They mixed it together so incredibly well that I wanted to buy the game just so I could see more of the navigation. It makes me wish I’d been hired to build their site – the design is that beautiful and gives that much to work with.

All this, plus a coupon for $5 off any PSP or PS2 game? Thanks Sony!

I also bought one of the new universal docks because I was unsure as to whether the 3rd-gen dock that I got with my other iPod would be compatible. They both fit snugly in the same dock adapter (#10) that came with the new one, but I’ll have to wait until Tuesday when I get to work to see whether it’s a similar situation with the existing dock.

For $40 the universal dock also includes adapters for the iPod mini and all the 4G iPods which is rather convenient but unnecessary. I only wish the 5G iPod came as well-equipped. $360 2 years ago got me a 15GB iPod, a dock, a firewire cable, headphones, a carrying case, and wall plug. And while this new iPod adds some great features, the dock becomes an extra rather than a given, and I’m just happy I can continue to use the old power brick. Fortunately, a very nice simple case is included, and while I was disappointed in the lack of FireWire support, the USB 2 seems to work just fine.

I’ve yet to play any videos on it and have only used the photo feature briefly. According to this, a copy of Quicktime Pro will convert any videos you’d already view in Quicktime (mpeg, MOV, or AVI) into an iPod-ready format. I’m trying this right now, so I’ll try to follow up. It seems to work well, and given that Pro for Windows and Mac are the 3rd and 4th best sellers in the Apple Store right now I’d bet others agree.

Anyway, I’ve been noticing Honda’s seemingly newfound advertising talent. They’ve been pushing the new Civic like crazy, of course (even the months-away Si), but what I am even more impressed by are the recent set of spots for the updated Honda Element. They’ve added a new trim level that makes it resemble a baby Hummer even more.

But rather than doing a straightforward, smack-you-in-the-face type of ad that shouts “body-colored panels” they’ve developed some very irreverent and memorable commercials in which the shiny new Element has a brief chat with its various wilderness friends. See them here (thanks to BoardsMag):

• Crab.
• Rabbit.
• Burro.
• Opossum.
• Pig.
• Platypus.

Also, Cow and Chicken is on. That’s… weird.