Well a nice read up can be found here.
Nice that it'll be finding a larger home for the next couple of years. The Hynes Convention was cool, but way to small, massive over crowding, huge queues and virtually impossible to get into any of the talks unless you wanted to spend hours queuing.
Highlights of the event, seeing the indies, a lot of local ones, but also from all over the country. MIT with their Gambit Lab helped having a large stand that local indies could be a part of which was great.
Also loved the classic arcade section, reliving childhood games, even playing the original Pong, that was awesome.
Plenty of new games being displayed, even Atomic Games, with their change in design from the dropped controversial game were there trying to drum up interest for their now download game.
Lots of surveys to be had, lots of prize raffles of gear to be had, plenty of swag, but most of it was pretty boring, nice t-shirts, but would have been fun to see some more original stuff.
Monday, March 29, 2010
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
Autodesk
Just a random post on Autodesk.
Video highlight of Max 2011 - http://area.autodesk.com/3dsmax2011#
Naughty Dog - Character and Animation, basic work flow video of the GDC talk - http://area.autodesk.com/gdc/ondemand12
Video highlight of Max 2011 - http://area.autodesk.com/3dsmax2011#
Naughty Dog - Character and Animation, basic work flow video of the GDC talk - http://area.autodesk.com/gdc/ondemand12
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Lunch Out With the Little One
Just had lunch at a couple of places over the last few days, where I've not eaten before.
First was at Chick-Fil-A which was in a mall. The food wasn't what impressed me, because it was pretty meh, fried chicken and the kids meal was really limited to chicken nuggets and you had to pay extra to substitute the waffle fries for a fruit cup.
What was really good, especially for a place in a mall food court, the service. They offered to have someone take your food to a table if you had your hands full with a pushchair, never had that happen before and certainly makes up for the food. The waffle fries are awesome though!
The second place I tried, The Border Cafe. This was great, the kids menu had a good selection of meals from the usual grilled sandwich to chicken tacos with a decent serving of the string fries, salad, soft drink and a choice of chocolate or a packet of sweats for desert, all for $3.
Only down side seemed to be the fairly open plan of the place, which could have been the location I was at rather than the other restaurants. They had plenty of high chairs, but they were still a little low for the high tables and the lack of booths meant it did get quite nosy during lunch as it was very busy. The service was great, the food was out very quickly, all lovely and well priced with good portions and the fresh tortillas and salsa make for a great free snack while your waiting for your food. Loved it.
First was at Chick-Fil-A which was in a mall. The food wasn't what impressed me, because it was pretty meh, fried chicken and the kids meal was really limited to chicken nuggets and you had to pay extra to substitute the waffle fries for a fruit cup.
What was really good, especially for a place in a mall food court, the service. They offered to have someone take your food to a table if you had your hands full with a pushchair, never had that happen before and certainly makes up for the food. The waffle fries are awesome though!
The second place I tried, The Border Cafe. This was great, the kids menu had a good selection of meals from the usual grilled sandwich to chicken tacos with a decent serving of the string fries, salad, soft drink and a choice of chocolate or a packet of sweats for desert, all for $3.
Only down side seemed to be the fairly open plan of the place, which could have been the location I was at rather than the other restaurants. They had plenty of high chairs, but they were still a little low for the high tables and the lack of booths meant it did get quite nosy during lunch as it was very busy. The service was great, the food was out very quickly, all lovely and well priced with good portions and the fresh tortillas and salsa make for a great free snack while your waiting for your food. Loved it.
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Zhu Zhu Pets are evil?
Quite the fad at the moment, Zhu Zhu Pets!
They're furry little toy hamsters that have little wheels so they can zoom around the floor and through their own little hamster track.
What makes them evil? Kids are kids, and though there is a tiny sticker underneath them saying not to put them anywhere near hair, kids will eventually put on on their or someone else's head. When that happens, the wheels which go like the clappers will tangle and snag the hair and the only way to get out of the tangled mess is by cutting the hair down to the scalp, either that or your kid freaks out and rips a chunk of hair off.
Seems to be quite a common theme, there's thousands of posts of this type of incidence happening all over the interweb.
Definitely not a toy for little kids, even though it does say over 4 year olds, I'd be sceptical about anyone younger than a teen playing with one of these and even then...
They're furry little toy hamsters that have little wheels so they can zoom around the floor and through their own little hamster track.
What makes them evil? Kids are kids, and though there is a tiny sticker underneath them saying not to put them anywhere near hair, kids will eventually put on on their or someone else's head. When that happens, the wheels which go like the clappers will tangle and snag the hair and the only way to get out of the tangled mess is by cutting the hair down to the scalp, either that or your kid freaks out and rips a chunk of hair off.
Seems to be quite a common theme, there's thousands of posts of this type of incidence happening all over the interweb.
Definitely not a toy for little kids, even though it does say over 4 year olds, I'd be sceptical about anyone younger than a teen playing with one of these and even then...
Wednesday, February 24, 2010
WD TV Live Media box review
There are loads of these media boxes around so it can be hard to chose, but I personally went with the WD TV Live - Mainly because I know quite a few people who have one, or at least the models down, the WD TV and WD Mini.
First the alternatives, which there are quite a few -
Dragon Tech
Popcorn A-200
Acer Revo - a mini desktop using XMBC media streaming network software.
Main reason I went with the WD, it was a cheap option at $120 did nearly everything I wanted from it and was easy to use as well as being nice and small.
So out of the box, you've got the player which is about the size of an external hard drive, a tiny remote and the audio/video cables and composite cables, you have to get your own HDMI cables.
The player has two USB slots so you can use a thumb drive or plug in a wireless adapter to get it online, but the list of adapters that are certified to work is fairly small, you can see the list here. You also have the option of plugging in a network cable.
There is no hard drive in this, unlike other players, but using a thumb drive to get media on the thing is pretty good for tele shows or movies, but if you wanted to get the most out of this, you should get it hooked up to your network where it can play music and movie files from a shared drive on the network or media shared device.
Once you've got a USB wireless adapter that works for the device, getting it set up is a breeze, plug it in and go to settings to select wireless and automatic settings and then you plug in any network passwords and it hooks straight up. You also can store user name/passwords for any shared drives if you want which is quite nice.
So far, it has played all kinds of media files I have thrown at it, streamed them really well and upscaled non HD content wonderfully. It also remembers where in a file you were if you have to stop the show and go to another show for example. Fast forwarding files also seems to work really smoothly, as does the ability to read subtitle files.
Product support is great too, with regular firmware updates to sort out any issues, which are really easy to install. For the more adventurous out there, they also provide beta firmwares here.
Online features, Youtube, Pandora, Live365 radio, Flickr. Really easy to use and they all work really well with the device.
With all the love and I'd highly recommend this device to anyone, there are a few cons and I'll go over them.
The remote, you can't use the player without the remote and it is a small remote, make sure you don't lose it, and for anyone with a large media catalogue, it would have been nice to have a rocker switch to quickly scroll through your library.
USB slots, only two of them, the one at the back, which you'd probably use for the wireless, it is right next to the HDMI slot, so unless you've got a narrow adapter, you'll have to use and extension or there won't be room for it. The other USB slot on the side is slightly recessed and isn't lit up at all so can be difficult to find if you've got your player in your TV cabinet, but that is a small gripe. There really needs to be a third USB slot though because you can use a keyboard, but there isn't room to plug one in, and you'll see how useful a keyboard is if you use the online features like YouTube, Panadora etc. Still don't know why they couldn't have built wireless into the device as it would reduce there need to support other adapters but oh well.
The online features, it is missing Hulu and other services such as Netflix, which apparently can work if you have a media server set up and stream the content from your desktop and there are also hacked firmware files out there that do add extra services. Would have been nice to be able to put in proxy/VPN details so you could use a BBC iPlayer service etc. Also the player can't play DRM protected content from say iTunes
Audio, it's stereo output, automatically downscales it for you, but it would be nice not to if you've got an A/V receiver to put it through, less of a concern for me but it should be mentioned.
I'm still loving it, works a treat, simple to use and no messing around to get it up and running in minutes.
First the alternatives, which there are quite a few -
Dragon Tech
Popcorn A-200
Acer Revo - a mini desktop using XMBC media streaming network software.
Main reason I went with the WD, it was a cheap option at $120 did nearly everything I wanted from it and was easy to use as well as being nice and small.
So out of the box, you've got the player which is about the size of an external hard drive, a tiny remote and the audio/video cables and composite cables, you have to get your own HDMI cables.
The player has two USB slots so you can use a thumb drive or plug in a wireless adapter to get it online, but the list of adapters that are certified to work is fairly small, you can see the list here. You also have the option of plugging in a network cable.
There is no hard drive in this, unlike other players, but using a thumb drive to get media on the thing is pretty good for tele shows or movies, but if you wanted to get the most out of this, you should get it hooked up to your network where it can play music and movie files from a shared drive on the network or media shared device.
Once you've got a USB wireless adapter that works for the device, getting it set up is a breeze, plug it in and go to settings to select wireless and automatic settings and then you plug in any network passwords and it hooks straight up. You also can store user name/passwords for any shared drives if you want which is quite nice.
So far, it has played all kinds of media files I have thrown at it, streamed them really well and upscaled non HD content wonderfully. It also remembers where in a file you were if you have to stop the show and go to another show for example. Fast forwarding files also seems to work really smoothly, as does the ability to read subtitle files.
Product support is great too, with regular firmware updates to sort out any issues, which are really easy to install. For the more adventurous out there, they also provide beta firmwares here.
Online features, Youtube, Pandora, Live365 radio, Flickr. Really easy to use and they all work really well with the device.
With all the love and I'd highly recommend this device to anyone, there are a few cons and I'll go over them.
The remote, you can't use the player without the remote and it is a small remote, make sure you don't lose it, and for anyone with a large media catalogue, it would have been nice to have a rocker switch to quickly scroll through your library.
USB slots, only two of them, the one at the back, which you'd probably use for the wireless, it is right next to the HDMI slot, so unless you've got a narrow adapter, you'll have to use and extension or there won't be room for it. The other USB slot on the side is slightly recessed and isn't lit up at all so can be difficult to find if you've got your player in your TV cabinet, but that is a small gripe. There really needs to be a third USB slot though because you can use a keyboard, but there isn't room to plug one in, and you'll see how useful a keyboard is if you use the online features like YouTube, Panadora etc. Still don't know why they couldn't have built wireless into the device as it would reduce there need to support other adapters but oh well.
The online features, it is missing Hulu and other services such as Netflix, which apparently can work if you have a media server set up and stream the content from your desktop and there are also hacked firmware files out there that do add extra services. Would have been nice to be able to put in proxy/VPN details so you could use a BBC iPlayer service etc. Also the player can't play DRM protected content from say iTunes
Audio, it's stereo output, automatically downscales it for you, but it would be nice not to if you've got an A/V receiver to put it through, less of a concern for me but it should be mentioned.
I'm still loving it, works a treat, simple to use and no messing around to get it up and running in minutes.
Sunday, February 14, 2010
The Indie Bundle
http://www.theindiebundle.com/
For a short time you have the opportunity to get 6 great indie games for $20 which is a great bargain.
Worth it just for Eufloria and Machinarium on their own so well worth checking this bundle out.
For a short time you have the opportunity to get 6 great indie games for $20 which is a great bargain.
Worth it just for Eufloria and Machinarium on their own so well worth checking this bundle out.
Friday, January 29, 2010
Boston Science Museum day out
Something fun to do with the little one in Boston.
The Boston Science Museum makes for a lovely day out with the family, especially at the moment when they have the Harry Potter exhibit.
At the moment it is $26 a ticket for the museum and the Harry Potter exhibit, but one thing to consider, get a library pass card from your local library as it'll save $30 on admission for a pair of adults, the pass allows up to 4 people. Kids under 3 go for free which is really nice.
Definitely bring a push chair for the little ones as the place is pretty huge and will take much of the day to get around, but well worth it. Parking at the museum is in a multi story, and is around $16 for the day which is really good.
The cafeteria isn't to badly priced and the food generally isn't all that bad, some of it better than usual and some typically cafeteria fare, but over all not bad, especially for the kids.
There are plenty of bathrooms and water fountains through out the place as well as lifts making it easy getting about and taking care of little ones.
Plenty of extra shows that cost extra, but the butterfly exhibit is a good one and worth the money, certainly for little kids, the others probably not so much, certainly for little ones at least.
The Boston Science Museum makes for a lovely day out with the family, especially at the moment when they have the Harry Potter exhibit.
At the moment it is $26 a ticket for the museum and the Harry Potter exhibit, but one thing to consider, get a library pass card from your local library as it'll save $30 on admission for a pair of adults, the pass allows up to 4 people. Kids under 3 go for free which is really nice.
Definitely bring a push chair for the little ones as the place is pretty huge and will take much of the day to get around, but well worth it. Parking at the museum is in a multi story, and is around $16 for the day which is really good.
The cafeteria isn't to badly priced and the food generally isn't all that bad, some of it better than usual and some typically cafeteria fare, but over all not bad, especially for the kids.
There are plenty of bathrooms and water fountains through out the place as well as lifts making it easy getting about and taking care of little ones.
Plenty of extra shows that cost extra, but the butterfly exhibit is a good one and worth the money, certainly for little kids, the others probably not so much, certainly for little ones at least.
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