Sick of being sick

This is the wonderful time of year that most people get sick, including myself. I have not been updating my blog very much lately because of that. I have however been spending more time in front of the Xbox and less at work. Now that I think about it, that part is not so bad. I would trade going into work for feeling better though.

Upgrade your experience, you deserve it

There are many things that are just facts of life, we deal with it and move on. When you purchase a console gaming system, MP3 player or even put a computer system together, the headphones that come with what you have bought suck. I have ran into this a few times this past year and found some audio upgrades that make a huge difference without breaking your bank. The first set of headphones that I purchased were for my IPod. I found that when I travel, my MP3 player gets a whole lot of use. The original set of white headphones that came with the player now reside in a landfill somewhere in the southeast. Sorry, the recycling guy didn't want them either. I tried a few different sets of headphones and decided to stick with the Philips SHE5910.


I found that these have a great sound and use a virtual surround sound technology that works extremely well. This model comes with a carrying case and replacement in ear rubber gaskets. This makes them great for traveling and keeps them clean and organized. I found them for under $20 at many places.

The next set that I found myself needing to buy was for my XBox 360. If you own a 360 and use the Live feature for chat or gaming, then you maybe feel the same way that I do about the headphone / mic combo that they give you. Uncomfortable and useless. The one ear chat and one ear game sound is just distracting to me. I was walking around Best Buy and saw that they have a new product in the XBox section that didn't even have a price yet attached. The Turtle Beach X3 gaming headphones for the 360.

This was one of the coolest products that I had seen in a while but it came at a cost. This wireless set of gaming headphones cost around $85-$100. The main thing that sold me on this set was that I could hear game play in very loud stereo and also hear myself speaking in stereo. The game sound and microphone levels have separate level adjustments. The bass level in these are great and the battery life well exceeds 8 hours of continuous play. I bought four AAA NiMH rechargeable and I was set. The headphones use two AAA and I keep the other two charged and replace them as necessary. Now that I think about it, not very often. I even put the diagram of how they connect to the wireless controller. For serious gamers at an adult price. I don't remember how I played without these truthfully. The wireless signal is line of sight though for the game audio. The voice feature uses the 360 controller signal which is very strong. The IR signal for the audio will reach about 50 feet. I also use these to watch movies and listen to music when others around may not want to hear what I am doing.

The last set of headphones that I received was on a recommendation from Patrick Norton (Tekzilla, Systm, and countless other Revision 3 pod casts). The Grado SR60 headphones.

I have to admit though, I was not impressed by the appearance of these heavy hitters. Truthfully, I thought that the website had shipped me the wrong pair by accident. I took them out of the packaging and put them on to find out that this was the best set of headphones that I had ever purchased. I have tried other sets of headphones out that were maybe better but they were the AKG K701 sorts that run upwards of $180 USD. I found this Grado SR60 set for $69 on Amazon.com with zero tax and free shipping. I definitely recommend these especially for the price. They are comfortable and don't squeeze the head too badly, as long as you don't have a huge melon. One major thing that I like about this model is that you can take them almost completely apart and replace some of the components if they get worn.

This is just a review of some of the items that I have purchased and how they worked out for me. I have been lucky with some of the purchases that I have made lately but unlucky in others. If you are at all like me then you research almost every purchase before you make it. The impulse purchase that got the best of me was the Turtle Beach gaming headphones but I am extremely happy with them. I later found them $18 cheaper online and I feel the burn in my wallet still. Use the Internet to gather information, reviews and prices as always.

Team Fortress 2 problems with Xbox Live

If you are on Xbox Live and have played Team Fortress 2 at all, I am sure that you may have noticed a problem with the networking. To be more specific, lag. Recently an update for the PC version of this game was released but we are all still waiting for the Live version problems to be addressed. I was trying to play today and could not get through an entire game without some type of problem. I know that some say "Maybe the problem is with your network." Nope. I am constantly playing COD4 on Live and have very little issues with that, if at all. You would think that the developers would try and fix the problems for subscribing customers that actually did pay for this game. This is not a jab at PC gamers but they are the ones that pirate the majority of the titles. Microsoft and Valve need to get their act together and get this worked out. It's bad enough that players could not even log onto or retrieve their gamer tags over the Christmas break, now this.

HD-DVD Death Made Official

Toshiba put HD-DVD out of its misery today. Reuters confirmed this afternoon that it will cease manufacturing HD-DVD equipment, following earlier reports from Japan's NHK public broadcasting network.

read more | digg story

Social Wallpapering

This is one of the best collections of desktop wallpapers that I have ever seen. This new web 2.0 type of site offers the user the ability to rate wallpapers and actually save them to your computer. I think that this is a great idea and it also gives graphic artists the ability to show off their work. Check it out.

www.socwall.com

HD DVD vs. Blu Ray is almost over, almost.

This is a graph that I found on several sites and RSS feeds representing the HD DVD vs. Blu Ray sales since Christmas. As you can see Blu Ray is killing HD DVD right now. I could not really care less truthfully and I think that most people follow me in this thought. I think that people are just waiting for one of these formats to be declared the winner and get on with life. There are a few things that will be affected by this decision though. The gaming consoles that back each of these formats could be changing formats as well. The PS3 already has the on board Blu Ray player but Microsoft backed the wrong horse in this race. The XBox 360 has an HD DVD player add on available to go with that nice new HDMI port now available in the newer units. Well recently Sam's Club has lowered the price of these external HD DVD players to $72. They have been selling out and popping up on various market places on the web at a lowered price. Also rumored was Microsoft's new love for the Blu Ray technology and that they could possibly have an external version available for the 360 soon. What this is going to do is lower the cost of older technology such as Dual Layer DVD's and then the Blu Ray drives and blank Blu Ray DVD's will be the new expensive thing. Well at least some good will come from this painful battle but I just want my plasma to have a 1080P feed for movies. After a few hits and more misses it looks like Sony put their money on the right technology.

Whoops. Has someone seen my tape?

This story is just another example of careless people that oversee our day to day lives. An iron mountain "secure" facility that backs up our personal data that has been collected by retailers such as Sears, J.C. Penney and even G.E. have "lost" a SCSI tape that contained hundreds of thousands of credit card transactions and also social security numbers for employees of different companies. The spokesperson said "The tape was never checked out, its just missing." I guess that they work under the honor system at this place. I find it very easy to believe that someone that wanted to steal data from one of these facilities would not sign it out and just take it. This is Social Engineering at it's best if I had to guess. They are going to look at the obvious people that have easy access to the equipment but I think that the blame is going to lie somewhere else. The data has been encrypted on the tape but it depends on the level of encryption that they decided to use. Judging by the level of security around the "protected" data at this facility, the person who took it should not have a hard time breaking the code. Maybe they should try 12345 for the key.

http://feeds.computerworld.com/~r/Computerworld/News/~3/219705350/article.do