Day Ninety: evening of October 31st 2009

Happy Halloween!

Day Eighty-nine: evening of October 30th 2009

Pulled an all-nighter, stormy weather impacts my sinuses negatively. Mild pressure behind my eyes just enough to keep me awake last night, but easily overcome by focused activity. So, Uncharted 2 became my focused activity, and I finished it at hard setting about ten minutes before I normally get up. Luckily, this is only the second incident in the past four months. Now, I attempt the ‘crushing’ mode, but I’m debating doing it or going to the ‘very easy’ setting to experiment with trophy categories, like the ‘running over a riot shield carrier’ category. Does that mean running into, or jumping on to the shield? I know I won’t be forgiven in the ‘crushing’ mode for improper attempts, or I just want the trophy. I tried something in the ‘hard’ level and failed miserably.

The balance of the day was devoted to helping my daughter set up a Halloween dance at the high school where she is working. After that was done it was time to catch up on some of the sleep I missed. My body appreciated it. Maybe, I’ll sit down with Uncharted 2 after my wife goes to bed, but I’m not staying up really late tonight (status subject to change-tomorrow is Saturday).

Day Eighty-eight: evening of October 29th 2009

Very low tech today, just running out to pick up a package and then waiting for the delivery of parts of a Halloween costume. Walking to pick up the package at the post office moves me through a neighborhood prepared to briefly feed sweets to the tiny practitioners of an ancient eve devoted to mischief.

A very low tech evening examining the parts of the costume that arrived during the day. Then an item piqued my interest that was a mistake in the order. My daughter thought that she was ordering a bloody knife, but it turned out to be a machete that “drips blood”- wow!

Well it really doesn’t drip blood, the red liquid is contained in clear plastic sheathing encasing the ‘blood’ and a gray insert completing the illusion metal blade. Holding the blade upright results in the ‘blood’ drain into a reservoir in the handle. Turning the blade down, into a stabbing, or in the case of a machete, a slashing motion, results in the ‘blood’ oozing down the blade.

What a fascinating toy. I remember a baby bottle accessories for dolls that looked like the ‘milk’ was being drained by a hungry baby. I can’t recall how many time I turned the bottle to watch it drain and refill. I was an adult. I knew what was happening, and I kept on doing it.

So what did I do with this faux macabre instrument of death and dismemberment. Turning it up and down, over and over, again and again, I wondered how would it look when you twist it this way? How can I make it look even more gross? I’m an adult , but it didn’t take much of a low tech toy to bring out the child in me.

Thank goodness, and Happy Halloween.

Day Eighty-seven: evening of October 28th 2009

I didn’t have much of a chance to even read the websites today, let alone play any of my video games. Well, that’s not entirely true, I did play about an hour and a half of The New York Times Crosswords on the DS.

My wife needed my services as a backup chaperon to go with her and about twenty of her Graphic Communication students to the University of Illinois-Chicago. The university and AIGA (a professional association for design) sponsored a presentation and panel discussion related to design related careers and the importance of continuing education.

It was interesting to watch the variety of image making that relied upon current technology. I mean the whole visual component of the presentation ran through a Mac laptop. Quicktime, Keynote, Final Cut Pro, and unknown sound editors were acknowledged tools for the creation of the presenters' projects. I’m glad that the university and AIGA put the program together. It’s important to let the future designers, filmmakers, sound editors, et al, know where the state of technology is currently and where their potential to push the visual design might take them.

Day Eighty-six: evening of October 27th 2009

I continued with an recent mission in Fallout 3. This is the newest one with me at Level 4 taking on the crew of the alien ship the Theta. I teamed up with the prisoners that I brought out of suspended animation. I’m not going to take them with on any of side missions, because I’ll need them later (The disadvantage of playing it through a few times).

The only significant thing that I saw today related to the upcoming release of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 was the following clip from X-Play:

(http://g4tv.com/videos/42327/Exclusive_Modern_Warfare_2_SpecOps_AC130_Mission_Gameplay/ )

If you get a chance, watch it. It deals with a special co-op mission, although it sounded like it can be a solo one. I was impressed with the idea of coordinating air support with the action on the ground. Basically, the player on the ground pinpoints target for the gunner on the plane to destroy.

Day Eighty-five: evening of October 26th 2009

This morning, after setting up breakfast for my wife and daughter, I was skimming through some of the websites that I occasionally enjoy visiting, when I ran across a few interesting, maybe even bizarre posts.

The first was on Kotaku. The other day after reading the comments in response to a post about a game entitled Bayonetta (http://kotaku.com/5388930/bayonetta-tv-commercial-fight). I mentioned the nature of the comments regarding sexism and objectifying women to my daughter, which, in turn, sparked an interesting discussion about that topic. One point that was stated in one of the comments related to the objectification of women in Japanese culture, with many respondents pointing out that it is not limited to Japan. The points made ranged from the mundane to the thoughtful. After running through a number of responses it became obvious that objectification exists globally. I think it is the degree to which it is exhibited that separates one culture from another was the point of that some of the respondents bypassed in the discussion.

Back to this morning, as I opened the website and scrolled the posts, I ran across the following post on Kotaku (http://kotaku.com/5389772/blazblue-voice-actress-gets-naughty-mouse-pad) and it brought back thoughts from the previous discussion, especially the comment so about degree would have that abut making something. I never would have thought doing something like that.

The other post was on Gizmodo. It was about transposing the Mac OS to a Intel running Windows machine (http://gizmodo.com/5389166/how-to-hackintosh-a-dell-mini-10v-into-the-ultimate-snow-leopard-netbook). I think the reason for the hack is the desirability of the operating system and the avoidance of the cost of the machine. At first I wasn’t sure what I thought about this, especially after reading that there was the possibility of ‘bricking’ the $300 dollar machine. I mean I’ve lived with the snide comments about my choice of the Macintosh as my primary platform. All of a sudden, there are a number of PC/Windows users wanting to move over to “dark side” of computers. I’ve worked with both platforms and never understood need for the debate. If I needed to drive in a nail, and a Stanley hammer was available, but my own preference was Craftsman tools, I wouldn’t waste time running home to get my hammer. Grab the Stanley hammer and drive that nail into the two by four. Likewise, if I have a TIFF file and I need to print it and the only available machine hooked up to a printer is an Intel PC running Windows, then the flash drive is plugged into the PC and print away. Of course there has been serious convergence since I first started in computing. I’m using a Windows netbook to work on the blog. My personal photograph on this blog was shot by my daughter with my iPhone, emailed to my Mac Book Pro, and then emailed from the Mac Book Pro to the this Toshiba netbook. (note: I bought the Toshiba because I had to sit in waiting rooms and the Mac Book Pro, that I work on most of the time, was a bit bulky with a three hour max on the battery, didn’t work for web browsing those locations).

Anyway it was an interesting, and tempting for the truly adventurous, but I had my Mac for working, and I feel comfortable working in the Windows environment. Now with Windows 7 available, will I shift over to the newer OS, presently no. I mean sinking more money into this machine really would bother me and unnecessary at this time.

Well you can decide which post is “…interesting, maybe even bizarre” after reading them.

Day Eighty-four: evening of October 25th 2009

My wife worked on the video clips she shot last night at the seminar that she had been attending the last two days. Although the video wasn’t finished, enough was done to see how much care my wife put into the creation of the interview, and how well it turned out. I always though the my voice was high, that and the way I spent more time looking away from the camera at the computer screen, was enough to rethink my performance. She said that she’ll be re-shooting some parts and restructure in the direction that video was heading. I’m all for that. It should be fun showing off the shots of my ship.

Also, an issue that needed addressing was solved through an email notice from Toshiba regarding the touch pad. Following the directions was easy, and now the touch pad seems to be performing satisfactorily. I think that this service from Toshiba is worthwhile, and I’m glad that I registered for it.

Day Eighty-three: evening of October 24th 2009

Today’s adventure involved helping my wife out by describing the digitization of my slides while she recorded the activity. She’s taking part in an mini-course covering digital video production, and her assignment required the recording of an interview in association of some form of demonstration. She decided that my digitization project would fit nicely into these parameters of the assignment. It was funny, but for all the digital technology present the toughest part was setting up the tripod for the camcorder.

Now, I’m sitting here, waiting for the a help request, which won’t happen because I’m waiting for it (corollary to Murphy’s Law).

The actual interview covered how my preservation action was triggered when I saw other peoples’ images on Facebook. I wanted to preserve and post my work - a digital footprint - for others to see. The rest of the interview dealt with the nature, scope and depth of the documentation. There was a brief demonstration of the process of digitization, and that was it. I don’t think the actual recording took longer than fifteen minutes.

I’ll have to wait to see how this turns out. Color me curious.

Day Eighty-two: evening of October 23rd 2009

After last night, I was drained. During the day, I spoke to my sister, checked in with our vet regarding our pet‘s nocturnal adventure, took care of some other minor household work, and then I slept (deep, deep sleep - the text message notification went off on my iPhone in my pocket and I didn't hear of feel it).

I did manage to sneak in a little bit of Burnout Paradise, a racing video game. I’m not a big fan of racing games, but I’ve fun play its previous incarnation - Burnout Revenge. Rather than having a selection of individual race course locations, it uses a combination of street grid and open road as the race location. At intersections, you stop, rev your engine and, if your car is capable, you are issued a challenge scenario that can be a variety of activities ( some examples: beat the clock to the next marker, road rage, and positional races). Winning any of the competitions, results in a license upgrade and a new vehicle. I’ve been playing it for about an hour and a half, and even though I’m a relative newb at this game, I feel at ease with the controls. The city and country landscapes are vivid and enhance the visual effect, furthering the impression of speeding along. The ability to save at any point after a race or stunt event, is a nice feature. All this permits me to suspend disbelief, focus on the roadway, the cars surrounding me, and put the “petal to the metal.” Fun with a capital “F.”

Prior to my sister’s phone call in the morning, I was checking Facebook when I saw a post by one of my Senn alums/friends. He found out that I had more trophies in Uncharted 2 than he did and used that as a spur to get the platinum trophy (meaning he has gotten all the other trophies). That was a pleasant surprise. Now, the group of Senn alums want me to join in an online game, The only thing holding me back is my lack of a headset, so I’m going to have to get one so that we can communicate. I would really like to try a cooperative game with them. That would be a new adventure - will wonders ever cease.

Day Eighty-one: evening of October 22nd 2009

No entry today, we had a pet emergency, requiring a trip to the pet emergency hospital. A lot of time spent in the waiting room, luckily the results were okay. We have to monitor our pet for the next few days. An interesting technology twist-an intestinal x-ray CD to take to our vet ASAP.

Day Eighty: evening of October 21st 2009

I’m not sure if this blog entry will upload, but I’ll give it an abbreviated try.

I had to do some paper work today, and when that was done I played about three and a half hours of Uncharted 2. Now I know that I mentioned that I finished it, but it was at the ‘Easy’ difficulty setting, it’s running at the ‘Normal’ setting, and I’ve realized that I should have started at that level to begin with, but as I’ve stated I like to get a feel for the controls and the environment (rationalization). Overall, I think that my gaming skills have improved a bit.

The one thing that I still have problems with is the treasure hunting used in some games. They become a distraction. Case in point, Uncharted 2, has 100 hidden treasures, of which I found only 19. I don’t know how many times I leapt to my death trying to reach a ledge that I thought would take me to a treasure. So I hit GamesRadar.com to use the hints/cheats to accumulate the treasures. I think I have about 75 items at this time. It’s interesting, the gun fire is more deadly and I’m dying at a rate that is comparable with my treasure hunting faux pas.

I wonder if the coaching will give me insight into the thought process of the treasure hiders?

Day Seventy-nine: evening of October 20th 2009

(Please note that this entry was not uploaded on the 20th because of a location error occurred - basically it was the ‘server could not be found’ error.)

Bazaar opening, but my not feeling well today, resulted in using the games on my iPhone. I could have also used my Nintendo DS or my Sony PlayStation Portable, but the iPhone is always in my pocket, and some times there just isn’t enough time to get the other units.

I have fifteen iPhone/iPod game apps, but six of them are staples whenever I get stuck waiting for short periods of time. I guess they fall in the ‘casual game’ category, but a couple can fall into an extended play mode if the situation arises. Those are Solebon Solitaire and Pop Cap Bejeweled 2.

The solitaire game is what it says it is, however there purchasing options. You can download the free version which has six games, Klondike Deal 1, Klondike Deal 3, Baker’s Game, Baker’s Game Easy, Demon and Spiderette. The Standard version , which has 40 games, costs $1.99. I won’t list them. The truth is, I haven’t even heard of most of them, and it is 38 more games more than I've ever played I’m a Klondike player, so those are the two that I play, almost exclusively. It’s comforting to know that, if I ever get bored with Klondike, I can find out about other kinds of solitaire. I bought the full version after playing the free version for a few months, because I wanted to commit a small cash thank-you to the creators. Consider it applause after a good performance.

Bejeweled 2, which is a gem swapping puzzler, is the follow up to online game Bejeweled. I remember watching my daughter play that game. She seemed to get lost in the game for 15 minutes or longer. Of course, looking over her shoulder would result in the “Why are you doing that. You know it…” comment, so I avoided that. I have no idea how long she play that particular game, but it was awhile before she shifted to another game. Anyway, this is a hand held version of the updated and enhanced the original. I guess you could consider it a more sophisticated variation of the Connect Four table game by Milton Bradley. Bejeweled 2 has three modes: Classic, Action and Endless. Of course, I really only play the Classic mode. I think that I checked out the other modes, but I find the Classic version most satisfying, especially when time restrains are involved.

The only downside to game play on the iPhone is the battery drain. In small doses of game play, there is no significant drain, but with extended play the drain is more noticeable. The primary purpose of the iPhone is communication, so I have to be judicious in my game play. Occasionally I’ll cut it close, but most of the time, I make it home with enough to spare.

Oh, I forgot, there is one more time killer, that I enjoy - Doodle Jump by Lima Sky. It’s addictive, so I usually restrict my play to one or two attempts at this 2-D platform jumping game. I have played it to the point of serious battery drain, so be careful with this one.

Day Seventy-eight: evening of October 19th 2009

I’m very sleepy right now. I thought that I would be able to catch up on some missed hours of sleep, but I was wrong. I stop typing for a few minutes, and I’m asleep I checked the clock, looked at the keyboard, I blinked, and the screen was black. I check the clock and it was ten minutes latter. How it happened, I don’t know, but I’m going to keep it short.

Burnout Paradise was downloaded onto the Xbox 360 this afternoon, while I was doing housework. Next, the update patch, which is huge, over a gigabyte of space, so I played some Fallout 3 on the PS3 while I waited. I didn’t feel tired then. I made it to one of the add on scenario, "Mothership Zeta." I did a lot of trouble avoidance, because I started out mid-level, somewhere between two and three, which made me, very much, the novice explorer. On one occasion, I sat back and let a large mutant battle it out with some Wasteland raiders, until only a weakened mutant was remaining. Still, it took me over twenty 10 millimeter rounds to kill it, but it was done and I moved on until I was captured by the aliens. The awakening in the mothership, is preceded by the traditional bright light, watching helplessly as I’m lifted up before passing out, regaining some consciousness in an examination room with the aliens and their probing equipment surrounding me (at least I’m on my back, Cartman), and then losing consciousness for a final time. Basically that’s when I stopped, and went to check the progress of the download. I still wasn’t tired, then.

There is something about an open environment in an auto racing game that fosters experimentation. After driving around the main drags for a while, I started driving down the side streets, into the driveways, and up ramps, even before I got into any of the main competitions. I noticed that I very rarely applied the brake, just releasing the throttle to take the speed down for maneuvering.

So much for ‘short‘.

The graphics were great, the sky, the buildings, the street, all supported the suspension of disbelief. I’m watching the road, and judging traffic. Space and time whizzing by. The physics seem believable, demonstrated the crumpling of the car as it hit’s the wall. It was worth the wait, and the twenty dollars.

The downside, no reference material to handle. Before I go online, I usually like to look through the manual, old fashioned guy that I am. I’ve got to check the controls to see which button is the E-brake is (Emergency Brake). Right now, I can’t think of anything else, but I’ve only played it for about forty-five minutes.

I'm not tired now - Drat!

Day Seventy-seven: evening of October 18th 2009

I noticed an error in last night entry, I’ll repair that after I finish this entry.

I keep finding it humorous how low tech Sunday is, discounting watching football on the television. I did manage to finish off Uncharted 2, and now I’ll up the ante and play it on the next level - Normal (which is what I should have started at). I usually play a game over a couple of times, using different strategies, higher levels of difficulty, or looking for trophies. I don’t understand some of the gear I purchased, so I guess I’ll pull the manual out to see if there is anything there, otherwise, I’ll hit Google for explanations.

I ordered a video game for the Wii, Dead Space: Extraction, a prequel to Dead Space which was released in 2008. My daughter has a copy, and we enjoyed playing it (by enjoyed, I mean, it spooked both of use like a good scary movie does). I had a five dollar credit at Amazon.com, and I haven’t purchased any games for the Wii in quite a while. Although the system is good, I thought I would get my family involved in it, but I was wrong. After getting the component cables for it, the games look noticeably improved (at 480p). I’ve tried a few of the games for it and Boom Blox is one that I return to periodically. It would probably be a nice family game, and solo is fine for me - so it goes.

After I take the dog out, I’ll try to get a little Uncharted 2 in (with some treasure hunting mixed in), before I call it a day.

Day Seventy-six: evening of October 17th 2009

I received a strange bonus code from Amazon.com for preordering Uncharted 2 from them. The description said it was a map of the treasures scattered through out the game. It was for the PS3 and the PSP(?). So I typed in the twelve digit code, accessed the file, and downloaded it. It was about 775 megabytes, and I thought that sounds pretty comprehensive. The PSP version, actually sounded like a good idea, especially since it would be an external demonstration of the finding of the treasures, and referencing during game play would be helpful. So, I upload the 51 megabyte file to my PSP. Now for the disappointment-It only documents the first six treasures. I’m happy that I could see the kind of approach that I would have to take to find all one hundred treasures. But I’m going to drop the 700 plus file from my PS3 HD.

Speaking of hard drive I didn’t have any luck tweaking my netbook today. Hopefully, I’ll be more proactive in the future regarding checking the the state of the hard drive.

Day Seventy-five: evening of October 16th 2009

I went over the twelve hour mark in Uncharted 2 today, and I think I’ve reached the final chapter of the adventure, if Chapter 24 is the final chapter. That’s one of the thing that is interesting about the plot, I know that I’m getting close, and I keep looking at my weapons to see if I’ll have the fire power to take on the “BIG BOSS” when time comes. The anticipation is strong, and the character development really make me want to defeat this one and his cronies.

A bit of advice, the 'run and gun' strategy really impact on your accuracy rating. I prefer taking a few hits and get my hits accurately with the metal sights.

I’m going to cut this short, because my screen when black for not apparent reason just before I started this blog entry. I want to run some tests to check the drive before I take the dog out.

Day Seventy-four: evening of October 15th 2009

Well, I pulled an all nighter playing Uncharted 2 last night. I managed to sleep for about three hours from about 7 am until 10 am this morning. I must have been in deep sleep, because one of the cats was on my chest, purring very loudly when I woke. Somehow, my internal clock, seems to know when “The Price Is Right” is on. I don’t necessarily stay awake for it, but I do change the channel to the show before phasing in and out of consciousness until the early afternoon. Not today, the cats needed to be fed, and once I got to my feet to do my duty, I wouldn’t be drifting off right away.

Back to the reason for my all night affair, Uncharted 2. The story is just that engaging. I would reach a point with a lull in the action, my rational brain would consul bed and sleep, while the Peter Pan side would suggest pushing on to see if I could reach a slightly more advantageous position. The case for continuing seemed so reasonable when stated like that so on and on I went.

I did hit a few glitches, but they didn’t require restarting the whole game, but I did have to die. As I died it was interesting to watch the ‘rag doll physics’ as it took over the fall. Let me tell you, I got to see my character fall many, many times. The depths and distances are beautifully rendered. Sometimes the camera view will get a bit off putting, but never reaching the frustration level that would cause me to quit.

After putting in over a dozen hours, I think PlayStation 3 owners will enjoy this action/adventure game.

As a sidebar, I found out that you could do OCR scanning through Adobe’s Acrobat Professional. I didn’t check it out completely to see how effective it was at format handling , or spell checking. It's nice to know that I won't have to put out cash to handle simple OCR work.

I’m pretty sure there won’t be another all night affair tonight.

Day Seventy-three: evening of October 14th 2009

I managed to play Uncharted 2 for about two and a half hours today. I can say that all the positive descriptions of the game are on the money, with the following exception-me. According to the statistics kept by the program, I spent about a half an hour standing around and I failed to reach any of the scenario’s checkpoint twenty-three times (died).

Other than my ineptitude, the game is slick, has great graphics, exhibits no glaring glitches (so far), presents smooth movement (camera, character, environment), and has a cinematic story line that flows through the character’s adventuring. Also, it’s nice to have a support character, that works with you, gives advice, and stays away from you if the situation warrants it.

A word about my ineptitude. It takes me some time to check out the environment to look for potential routes. It took me a while to realize that the game’s designers use modeling to teach you what some upcoming moves. As you play you’ll see you associate perform a move and have you follow, followed later by a situation that will require you to use that move. And then when I experiment with jumps and takedowns, failure equated to death in most of the attempts.

As soon as I finish this, I’ll walk the dog, and go back to playing Uncharted 2.

As an aside, the final downloads for Fallout 3 on the PS3 were in the store, bringing the total of DLC for the game to six. Each of the downloads in $ 9.99. If I had to pick one to recommend, it would be “The Pitt” with the “Point Lookout” DLC a very close second.

“The game is afoot.”

Day Seventy-two: evening of October 13th 2009

Well, today was burn-in day. I know that they might have done something like this at the plant, but it’s probably not an power on with a load. It’s funny, when I was teaching and a student told me that they were getting a new computer, I told them to get a game that put the specs for the computer a run for its money (if they could afford it). My rational was that the standard suite of apps that came with the computer wouldn’t challenge its processors (CPU and Graphics).

Back to the burn-in, I put in Halo 3: ODST and played it for three and a half hours. I stopped to take out the dog, and then resumed play, but this time with Brothers in Arms: Hell’s Highway. That video game was play for two hours. I stopped to check if Uncharted 2: Among Thieves had arrived - no luck. It had been on the truck since 6 am, so I thought it would be here by now. The Xbox had been on for five and a half hours, operating at 1080p (which is the highest video out resolution for the monitor, console and game) with a lot of action on the screen. The movement was fluid with no discernable hitches, so the processors were do their job. Dinnertime brought food (a very good pizza), dog walking, and the anticipated PS3 game.

I looked forward to playing the game, when my daughter requested a set of OCR (Optical Character Recognition) scans of her students work. Dang, wouldn’t you know it, just when I thought it was safe to go back upstairs and get lost in Uncharted 2. This scanning took about an hour and a half, because I had to familiarize myself with the scanning software. Vuescan has a basic OCR function, but it was acceptable for what was needed. It did get me thinking about checking out a more advance OCR application. I took the originals down to my daughter, so that she can compare the scans to the originals - just to play it safe.

With the OCR mission accomplished, I settled in for a bout with Uncharted 2. The initial reaction is - Wow! I hope to have more exposure tomorrow (I have to wait for some packages), and I flesh out the ‘Wow!’ comment.

There were some other activities in the morning that I forgot to mention, like sending the poster to my wife for printing, and working on the tickets plate for the upcoming Halloween dance (two solutions). Minor details in the overall scheme of things,

Day Seventy-one: evening of October 12th 2009

I worked on my new Xbox 360, transferring previous downloads and straightening out the obtaining of an extended service contract.

The two previous 360s contained paperwork to extend the warranty of the machine.

I know that I could have purchased a service agreement from BestBuy, but I have backup machines so sending a machine in for repairs isn’t a big deal. The last repair took just under 14 days. So, I passed on the store plan. After setting up the machine, I checked the documentation and discovered that the was no paper work for the extended plan. I called Microsoft’s Xbox customer support in the afternoon, only to hear that their database system was down and the service agent told me that the system should be back online in four to six hours.

I returned working on reinstalling the remaining files onto the new machine so that I could switch machines whenever I wished and seamlessly transition between machines. I appreciate the fact that Microsoft allows a user to quickly recover their gamertag and then recall any previously purchased DLC on to the hard drive. I just cue up the downloads and the console take care of the downloads. While this was happening, I shifted to the PS3 and played IL-2 Sturmovik. I broke for dinner then returned to finish up the downloads.

During the second update, I contacted Microsoft customer support again and found out about obtaining an extended service plan. It took about twenty minutes, and I was told that Microsoft had started omitting the documents for the contract, but, I could purchase it over the phone. So that transaction was taken care of, and now all my machines were covered (until the first week of November when the first Xbox 360 falls out of protection).

Big game release tomorrow, Uncharted 2: Among Thieves, I can’t wait for my copy to come (Peter Pan Syndrome?). Review copies were released last week and the write ups are very good. Waxing poetic probably best describes them ( “best of …” phrases dropped all over the place).

Day Seventy: evening of October 11th 2009

Today was a four and a half load laundry day. Today was a three dog walk day, so far. Today was a normal Sunday, sans Bears game, at home. The big change since retirement can be best described as, “Today has not been a weeks worth of clothes ironing day.” An early morning Sunday wakeup, followed by strawberry pancakes with whipped cream and a catch up nap rounded out the morning until 1:30 pm. It was pleasant, and then the day began.

One of the power supplies for one of the Mac laptops went out. It was a strange, and intermittent problem. I tried it on another laptop and it worked for awhile, and then it stopped. I swapped cords, no luck. I tried a different electric outlet, and it worked, for a while. I began to think it was a heat related problem. The longer the device was on and as it heated up, the temperature increase caused something to breakdown. After experimenting a little longer, we decided to purchase a new power supply. When I checked it out online I discovered that the model we were using was not the correct one. It was under powered. The laptop required an 85 watt model and the one that was being used was a 60 watt model. I guess supplied enough power for the laptop to work, and charged at a diminished rated. It wasn’t readily noticed, because it charged over night - I guess.

A visit to the local BestBuy is always fun. The lights, the cameras. the action, its all so over powering, just like a trip to a hardware store. I’m too embarrassed to document my purchases, but we did get the power supply.

After the visit, it became a four and a half load day, a three dog walk day, a normal Sunday at home.

Day Sixty-nine: evening of October 10th 2009

This wasn’t much of a day for thinking about or using technology. The process of transferring images to a digital medium is tedious, it takes about six minutes per slide. When I look at the images, memories surface, personal memories, they are mine, so why am I doing it. I wonder if others, who look at the images will respond in some way. I don’t expect their thoughts to be the same as mine. I hope the images trigger some kind of response. Some of the photographs have the potential to do so. It would be nice to leave another kind of footprint, just like this blog.

Day Sixty-eight: evening of October 9th 2009

A few days ago, I mentioned the blessing and curse of computer graphics. It takes the form of the flexibility to make that last minute change. Remember the poster for the Halloween dance, I finished it off two days ago and sent it off to the client and the printer. The dance sponsor needed it ASAP, so the printer can have the posters done on Monday with the tickets done on Tuesday. Guess what happened today (rhetorical question)? So, I sat down this evening and made the changes - red background an twelve dollar tickets. Mission accomplished and it happened again.

While I was studying the project, I dozed off, again. I should have had some coffee, earlier. Nothing really happened, other than I lost about fifteen minutes, but I’m retired so I have time to waste - right. Well it’s getting late, and I have to walk the dog.

Before I hit the sack, I think that I’m going to download a bargain game from Direct2Drive that pushes the system requirements of my Mac running Parallels 4.0. I just want to see how far I can go, before I reach the extremes of the system’s capabilities. I always like testing a computer with a game, it addresses any number of system functions.

Day Sixty-seven: evening of October 8th 2009

I didn’t work on digitizing today. I’m going to re-evaluate the slides that I scan for posting. I’ll probably continue with the USCGC Dallas shots. Ultimately, I’ll try and forward the shots to the unit for the ship’s history. As far as the rest, I’m going to be more selective/critical of the images that have similar content.

Later on, I was wondering what the Mac Book Pro processor speed would look like when it was running the in PC emulator Parallel 4.0. So, as usual, I decided to do an online search and discovered that the company didn’t state specifically what it might be. They mentioned how much faster it was than the previous version 3.0 and something about virtualization management (?). What caught my eye though was on a forum as I rummaged about. Someone asked why their virtual PC seemed to be so sluggish. Down the thread, other individuals chimed in, and then an interesting post suggested that the individuals with that problem should try making Windows XP take over by going full screen, with OS X appearing to be in stasis. “Hey!“ My brain exclaims. “Why not try this!” Forgetting the processor speed, I quit Safari, started Parallels 4.0, and fired up Company of Heroes to run the graphics check. When the options screen loaded, I selected the graphics set up to tweak the setting before running the analysis. I notice that the memory usage was yellow which meant the potential for inconsistent performance. So I started changing the graphics characteristics (texture, shadow, etc.) to low, until the memory usage went green. Then I accepted the new values, and ran the test. I was surprised to see the frame rates in the 50s and 60s, with the overall performance classified as “Great” - Wow! I quit the game. I’ll get back to it later. On the way out I checked the properties of my system in the control panel, it read 2.93 Ghz - another Wow! The next time I decide to fool around with Parallels, I’ll have to see what happens with Windows XP running in a window (ha, ha).

I managed to fire up Fallout 3 on the PS3 and play for awhile. The ‘awhile’ was the result of falling asleep. I must have been really tired, because I wasn’t in the recliner.

Day Sixty-six: evening of October 7th 2009

Completed the poster for the Halloween Dance, and am awaiting any adjustments.

The ease of making changes on a digital document is both a boon and a curse. On the one hand, you can make changes at the last minute. This is very helpful if there has been a breakdown in proof reading, and a serious flaw rears its ugly head. On the other hand, the curse lies in the fact that you can make changes at the last minute. I don’t know how many times I or my wife have been contacted by individuals, we were working with, asking if a change can be made. Well as long as the job isn’t being processed by printer, a change can be made. Of course, it takes time, which might generate increased pressure to finish on time. We ,both, have had any number of similar situations. I remember going to bed at 3 am as my wife finishes up a project due the next day in the morning, or sitting in a Kinko’s at 2 am waiting for the pages of the student newspaper to print . I thought it was both fun and tiring at the same times.

So, when you use or work with technology, you have to realize that there is this two edged quality. You play a video game, you’re drawn into the adventure, losing all sense of time, and enjoying the experience. But don’t be surprised when you discover that you’re cutting corners in order to just get to an appointment (if not being late). Or you say to a friend, “Sure, I can make that change,” and then curse yourself for doing it, when you realize you won’t getting to bed on time before that important event scheduled for the next morning. As my West Coast friends would say, “Bummer, dude.”

Day Sixty-five: evening of October 6th 2009

Fallout 3 on the PlayStation 3 received the most continuous attention today, but digitizing the slides took the longest amount of time (multiple scanning sessions). I should have played IL2 Sturmovik, because it demands more of my attention. I say this, because I fell asleep in a straight back chair. I mean, there is action in Fallout 3, but there are slower more contemplative moments, that can lull me into a relaxed state. With me, that can turn into a nod and then sleep can becomes a state that I can drift off into.

It even happened while I was working on this entry. I’ll stop typing, start reading, and I’m off (as in turn the light off). I worked on the slides-no slippage. I worked on the Halloween poster-no drifting off. Of course there is an extenuating circumstance as I type the blog, I’m in the very relaxing recliner as I type. Way too comfortable a device to work in.

When I do the laundry tomorrow, I’m going to get some more slides to work with. Once you can establish a procedure, the task has become more manageable (even though the tediousness remains). All the tech gear is functioning. The TWAIN plug in makes using the scanner through Photoshop so much better.

I moved the Xbox Arcade down to my daughter’s apartment, with her old console games. That went quickly, as I was able to use a single HDMI cable, compared to a composite cable with is five lines). I’m so happy that I can use the HDMI when I can.

I have to finish this up, the recliner is working its magic on me, again.

Day Sixty-four: late evening of October 5th 2009

There was some video gaming today, a little bit of Fallout 3 on the PS3. Otherwise, I spent most of my time working on a Halloween poster and some more slide digitizing.

As I was scanning in the my transparencies, I noticed how good my ship, the USCGC Dallas, looked in the shots. That white hull, and sleek lines translated into some interesting shots. I’m sure being a part of the crew and the pride that goes along with that membership might have had something to do with it.

I’m out of practice working with Photoshop, but thanks to Goggle searches, most of my problems were solved. Typing in a specific tool, or a desired effect, usually resulted in a number of hits, but beware, some of the tutorial or step-by-steps were confusing or had video clips that didn’t launch. I could find a solution after four or five clicks. Another interesting occurrence were the times the tutorials had slightly different steps, but the end result was on the money. If I had the desire, I might actually check out Adobe, to see what the party line is regarding that operation.

Day Sixty-three: late evening of October 4th 2009

No video games today, I’ve got to make sure everybody is ready for work. Well, that’s not entirely correct, I did check to make sure the Fallout 3 downloads worked on the PS3, and managed to fall asleep while I began a new adventure.

The balance off the day was spent working on a poster for a high school Halloween dance. My daughter has been the sponsor of this dance the past two years. I’ve done the posters for each of those dances, so it was time to hit Photoshop, and Safari again. Safari was used to search for ‘scary clowns’ and Photoshop to manipulate the images. So far I’ve done three drafts, two have not had the desired effect, and the third rough draft is wending it way through the internet, and it will probably take awhile before it shows up in my daughter’s email, due to its size (approximately 1.2 megs.)

I keep forgetting just how complex the whole email message process is when I mail large documents. This is where the web concept comes into play. Simply put, your document is broken up into packets, routed through various strands of the web and reassembled at the destination when all the parts have arrived. Originally, the web, ARPANET at the time, was set up with multiple links to multiple nodes for security reasons (Department of Defense). If any one node fails, the multiplicity of links can re-route the packets, ultimately ensuring the arrival of all packets, and creating the complete message. I’m amazed at how something so complex can function without anyone recognizing the complexity. A hint of this surfaces when a large file is sent and it seems to take a long time before it arrives and is assembled at its destination. Amazing!

Day Sixty-two: late evening of October 3rd 2009

I did some laundry, took a long nap round noon, and ate supper with the family, but the rest of the day has been digitizing slides. Wow, I thought spotting prints was bad, but these old slides are inspection intensive. The zoom feature make finding flaws easy, too easy as a matter of fact. At 200% magnification, I can see speck that are less than 4 pixels. I’m going to have to find some of my old photography equipment to see if my ear syringe is there, otherwise I’ll get another one to handle the dust on the slides.

Handling the underwater slides was an adventure in discovery. I started using the exposure controls in Photoshop, and then began playing around with the color balancing tools only to discover fish that I hadn’t seen before in some shots. I’ll have check those controls out further. Fascinating, how many times I looked at those shots before and never really noticed them, and now, after thirty-seven years there they are.

Day Sixty-one: evening of October 2nd 2009

Most of the day was spent working on the scanning of my old slides. After doing about twenty slides with the X-Acto knife, I remembered how to cut the film out of the cardboard. It is significantly faster, less tedious, and not as hazardous (X-Actos have sharp, sharp blades).

An interesting announcement was made regarding Nintendo’s latest patch for the Wii, version 4.2, on “The Feed” during Attack of the Show last night. Apparently targeting modified (mods) machines, besides some system tweaks, it has had an unexpected side effect. It damages some unmodified Wiis, turning them into non-functioning bricks. According to the report, Nintendo says that the only way to fix the unit would be to replace the mother board. “The Feed” recommends, “Don’t update!”

Well, I will wait until v. 4.3 is issued before I do anything, and even then I’ll wait a bit, thank-you very much.

Day Sixty: evening of October 1st 2009

I started the scanning of my 30 + year old slides.

More importantly, I found the solution to my sync problem with Photoshop CS4 and my scanner. It started after I sorted edited my slides this morning. I intended to work through the Canon Solution Menu to do my scanning, but I had to try one more time to find the ‘patch’ that allows Photoshop to recognize the LiDE 700F. I started a Goggle search with the keywords ”canon scanners and photoshop.” The fist ten hits appeared on the screen. I tried the first link, to Maria’s Guide, but it just sited my problem, but with a different LiDE. The next link, was a request for help, and suggestions for solutions, which I had tried. The third, was in an Adobe Forum, and specifically names CS4 as an element of the problem. I clicked on it, and, viola, the second response to the problem, posted a fix through this link, http://kb.adobe.com/selfservice/viewContent.do?externalld=kb405072&sliceld=2. This directs you to “Using TWAIN in Photoshop CS4“, http://kb2.adobe.com/cps/405/kb405072.html. The title sounded great, and the final entry, “To install the TWAIN plug-in on Mac OS:” was exactly what I was looking for. It sounded so right, because it dealt with something I thought didn’t needed to be installed. I though that the TWAIN plug-in was in the Import/Export plug-ins, which is why I never checked for it. The plug-in provides a link to any external undefined import device. I followed the directions for installing it, and began checking out the scanner interface. After playing around with the settings for about a half an hour, I had the settings working to achieve the desired results.

Cutting the film out of the slide, orienting the film in the special carrier, previewing the scan, and finally getting the scan done takes about five minutes. If I notice a flaw, using the modifying tools, smudge, or clone, I’ll correct it. So the total operation takes about six to nine minutes.

I worked on a set of slides that I’m forwarding to my sister. It took me about an hour. Memories are attached to those slides, as I was sending them to my sister, I hope her memories are pleasant and warm, but you can never tell about memories. I hope I haven’t done something that might hurt my sister feelings. I’ll probably find out when I speak to her in a day or so.