Andy Laub

If you were to wander over to my Flickr account looking for pictures of the Chicago Auto Show, you’d be out of luck. It seems I’ve hit the cap on the 200-photo limit provided to holders of free accounts, and so my earlier photos are slowly disappearing into a black hole.

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.

Stuff that’s been happening:

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.

I am finishing up my viewing of the (Tivo’d) MTV Movie Awards. I really thought it was a well-done show this year, eschewing overly complicated backdrops in favor of a relatively simple arc of (massive) monitors. It proved to be incredibly versatile and looked awesome for all three of the musical performances (Gnarls Barkley, Christina Aguilera, and AFI).

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.

As much as I like to take in information on various topics, I find that TV is a fairly useless medium for doing so. Most of this is due to control issues. I have no control over the programming on TV. I can record things I’d like to see, but I can’t tell the show itself how in-depth I want it to go on a particular subject. Shows about cars are an excellent example of this. While I enjoy watching car builds on shows like Overhaulin’ I can’t say that I actually absorb any of the information in any of them. Magazines and online publications are much more tailored to this kind of thing. If I’m reading a story about the original Ford GT40 which was said to average 135 mph at Le Mans back in the 60’s, it makes me want to know what the Audi R8, winner of this event for the past few years, is capable of. Google says it’s about 143 mph, but then I would need to figure out whether this is at Sarthe, and if so then it fails to take into account the kink they added to the straightaway (according to Gran Turismo 4).

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.

In continuing my habit of writing about major events at least two weeks after they happen, I give you my thoughts on E3 2006. Just a quick note for those not aware, E3 = Electronic Entertainment Expo and is generally the place to be for the biggest and baddest of video game-related announcements. Last year we were given a taste of the PS3 and Wii, and a full-fledged preview of the 360. This year the spotlight shifted to Sony and Nintendo and what they’re bringing to the next-generation table.

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.

Remember those SXSW torrents? Over the last couple of months I’ve managed to listen to a decent portion of the 900-something songs that were contained within, and I’ve been slowly building a playlist of those that I have enjoyed. This is not to say these are my 20 most favorite considering I haven’t managed to listen to every song downloaded, but I certainly like them.

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

Last month I wrote briefly about the music of SxSW, where I mentioned Happy Flowers and a song of theirs that I didn’t much care for. What I forgot when writing that was that everyone succumbs to that inevitable temptation to Google themselves, which I’m assuming is how I ended up with a comment from one of the band members on my post.

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.

During a discussion about travel last week we were discussing places that we’d like to see. Among others, I mentioned Las Vegas just because it seems like one of those cities that everyone should visit at least once. I mentioned that it would be great to go if there was a really good reason.

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.

Results of Car & Driver‘s May 2006 comparison “$15,000 Cheap Skates:”

• 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.

Nope, no South by Southwest here. At this point for me to attend something like that seems like it would be a poor financial decision, what with the time I’d have to take off and the money I’d have to spend to get there. It’s not that I think it’s a bad idea; it’s just not something I’m ready for. Maybe someday.

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.

As of Saturday evening the TiVo was up and running, but not before the requisite setup struggles. The biggest issue is that TiVo boxes, unless shipped with OS 7.2, require some alone time with a telephone line to get going (most importantly, to initiate the software update to 7.2 so they can function on a network). Our TiVo was one of the unlucky ones, so that night we took it over to Abe’s parents’ house for a slumber party.

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.

Something I (never) used to do all the time when I (never) used Napster and similar programs was just go on a total artist binge and double click every single search listing available for a particular query. This was back before it got all corrupted with half-songs and loops, or at least it was less corrupted with half-songs and loops (not that I would know, having never illicitly acquired music in my life).

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.

For months, on and off, I have been looking for some kind of simple WordPress plugin (or something along those lines) that would do for my collection of media what del.icio.us does for bookmarks. I like to use it as a sort of catalog of internet things that I think are worthy enough to pass on. My first attempt (labeled as Intake) sputtered and died after only a few weeks of usage, simply because I did not want to hand-code each entry.

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.

Our apartment is one of six in recently-renovated (2004) historic building. As is common for this sort of thing, the apartments had to be architected to fill up the existing space rather than the other way around. This is important because of its fundamental contribution to the existence of what we call “the media room.”

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.

A couple years ago a friend of mine asked me if I could burn a couple of songs onto a disc for her. Rather than do it right away, I procrastinated for a month or so, and it just happened to be right around Christmas shopping time when I got to it. Rather than just throw those songs onto a CD and call it a day, I went one better and picked out some additional music (for a grand total of 20 songs) and designed a nice lil’ CD jacket. She loved it. Last year was the same — mix some nice design and some good music and you can call it a day. You could say then, that it’s become a tradition, and with that here is the track list for volume three, presented on 12/25/05:

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

They pre-empted Family Guy for this?

That’s a lotta songs.

This is not what I want to see.

So I’m pretty much through the E’s as I continue to rip my CD collection. I’ve rediscovered Everclear, particularly their album “Songs From an American Movie Volume 1: Learning How to Smile.”

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.

I’ve spent a lot of time over the past week importing my CD library to iTunes and being reminded of songs and albums I liked at different times in my life. It’s a very strange feeling – there are certain songs that will automatically drown me in a particular memory for better or worse. It’s an effect that is capable of tainting certain songs if they were listened to during a period I’d rather forget.

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’m approaching a week of ownership on the new iPod (with video) and there were a couple of issues raised by both me and others regarding it. First of all, the screen is not just good. It is nothing short of amazing – like they’ve taken one of the cinema displays and shrunk it down to iPod size. Videos are still a comfortable size for viewing and the only issue I have is that it’s not as readable as the monochrome screens when the backlight is off.

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 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.

My parents were in town to get the oil changed in my dad’s car, and so I met up with them and they gave me some mail.

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!

The time has finally come. I picked up a spanking new 60GB iPod on Friday night. The thing is just hott, too – this is easily the sexiest generation of iPod ever. The 60 loses a little something in aesthetics compared to the unbelievably thin 30, but more than compensates with capacity. Fitting also, that the 5G iPod coincidentally constitutes the 5th member of our household iPod family.

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.

Anyone who enjoys the show Whose Line is it Anyway? may want to catch The Green Screen Show on Comedy Central. It takes the comedic improv elements and cast from WLIIA? and drops them onto a greenscreen. After the show is taped live it’s given to some animators and, in the spirit of films like Sky Captain or Sin City, the sets and props are dropped in. It’s a neat idea, and I hope it takes off. In addition to material that actually makes my jaw hurt from laughing, each of the ‘scenes’ are done in different animation styles.

I promise, no more phone pictures after this.

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.