I just got this new server software for my DSM320 Media Center (or Media Hub as the new server software calls it). The new software is called TVersity (http://www.tversity.com) and it's free to download from the site. It does this brilliant job of transcoding all diffferent formats using the MS Direct Show tech, which means it can view all different types of media. It transcodes the media, then shoots it to the DSM in a format it can understand. I love it. It is finally showing the power of internet based broadcasting.

So what does that mean? It means we spent way too much time last night watching a Russian Informercial for some kind of good posture device. I speak no Russian. I was impressed because the visual quality seemed decent (of course, this is streaming over the internet, so it's not exactly HD quality, but it was very good). This thing was like a curvy plastic stick that supposedly helps you maintain the perfect posture. Of course, it didn't look like this thing was adjustable or anything. You strapped it over each shoulder like a backpack, and the "straps" looked like shoestrings. There is another shoestring that goes around your waist, sort of a belt strap. The informercial pitch was intercut, of course, with images of Russians wearing the device under their clothing in their day-to-day activities. The thing was about as subtle as walking around with a broomstick in your back. And probably strapping yourself to a straight piece of wood would be more useful for enhancing posture than a crappy, flexible piece of plastic, no matter how scientistically calculated the curvature is.

So now I have crap TV in a million languages. I watched some Dutch community bulletin board TV. But I don't speak Dutch either. So I switched to Pasadena, CA and found a remarkably similar community bulletin board network. I was surprised at just how similar they looked. For all I knew, the Dutch station was just a design comp full of "lorem ipsum" placeholder text for the Pasadena version.

China has a remarkable number of internet broadcasters. I switched to some Chinese (American) Idol thing, which I think was better because I couldn't understand the words. I jumped to Cuban TV, which played the world's most extended remix of some song that I couldn't place (in my extensive knowledge of, I think 3 Cuban songs). But it went on for like 10 minutes. Then I switched to the UK to get a dose of English. I stayed away from BBC and whatnot, in favor of the Ministry of Sound channel, which was nothing but electro whatnot. I switched to UK MTV, which sucks, too.

Australian TV was dominated by religion and nightly news. There are lots of home shopping networks in all languages. I hope this thing gets Broadcast Machine and Winamp TV capabiliities.

Wow, what a difference a week in LA can make. I still get so giddy flying from sea to shining sea. Why isn't that our awesome Go USA song? Too commie, I guess...

Anyway, a lot has been up with GF! mostly and with some other things, too. I can't really talk too much about those things yet, but I'll drop links where there are links to link. As always. Mostly I've been trying to fill up (e:paul)'s schedule with more programming. haha!

Dig our moblog from E3 if you haven't already (http://moblog.gamesfirst.com). We stood in line for Star Wars a bit (http://moblog.gamesfirst.com/index.php?page=11). That was cool. I met Max Payne, or at least the guy who posed as him in the first game. He looked a lot less constipated. Other than that, there wasn't much in the way of celeb spottings. Well, I saw Ty from Extreme Home Makeover, but he was nowhere near me...

So after going to LA and spending how much ??? money on the trip for the umpteenth time (since 1999 we've been doing this), and making new deals to (hopefully) expand GF! in cool new ways, and meeting a whole new group of awesome writers who are some of the greatest folks around, I get this:

Dear Webmaster
>
>
>
> I am interested in buying your domain gamesfirst.com for $400. I'm only interested in the domain not in your content, so you can sell your domain and move your content to another domain. If you are interested please respond to this e-mail.
>
>
>
> Regards,
>
> Bettina Jensen
>

So I sent this back to her:


Bettina,

GamesFirst.com is an established brand with a 10 year web legacy as
one of the foremost independent online gaming magazines. I'm afraid
your offer is not only misguided but completely insulting. Please
remove us from your spam list.

Shawn Rider,
Editor in Chief

The nerve! Geez, who do these people think they are. I now own GamesFirst.net and GamesFirst.org, so take that Bettina!

Adieu mes amis!

We're heading to LA for the Electronic Entertainment Expo (http://www.e3insider.com) We'll be moblogging our journey with some images here and as always you can check out GamesFirst! for much more stuff, if you're into the videogames and whatnot. It should be an exciitng year -- three new hardware platforms makes for some fierce display of corporate excess! haha

I'll try to post using the swanky WAP interface at least to say hello.

the new wap estrip is way cool. now i just need a qwerty phone. ttfn

Scud -- whoa there, cowboy. You're gonna make a mess on that fancy new Xbox 360.. Here's a link to my impressions from last night. I'll also be moblogging from E3 all next week, so you might keep up with that. I'll make a post here on (e:strip) before I head out with some links, or just head to GF! (http://www.gamesfirst.com) and get the latest. Support your local gaming site, too. haha

And while talking about support, support (e:strip). I dig it. It's fun. I pitched in a little bit. A little bit from everyone goes a real long way. If everyone here pitched in like $10 it would be a big deal, right (e:paul)?

Also, I think classifieds would be a good thing for (e:strip). Set up a special classifieds section, make classifieds show up inthe sidebar, and charge like $5 for a month run of 60 words. I think people wanting to sell/trade/whatever could more easily get attention from the general population, and that way it wouldn't be like we were having cruddy corporate ads on our individual journals...

This is what GF! looks like on PSP. I dig it. I really love twoplayer on PSP because the color and resolution looks so good. I think we should make a PSP page for twoplayer because that could be really popular -- PSP is awesome for digital comics viewing.



Unfortunately, the old (e:strip) doesn't do so well on the PSP. Here's a shot of my computer showing eStrip and my PSP showing the same section of the page. The background doesn't come in, none of the stylesheet stuff works (which isn't eStrip's fault), and of course the layout is too big. But I'm sure the WAP version looks a lot better, and, as (e:paul) points out, one could either use the booky interface (customized for low-res screens) or simply email in posts.



And here is what it looks like as it tries to load another time for me. It never finished any images on this one except the divider. How weird is that? Anyway, it's more of a close-up.

This image is a bit blurry, so a translation (the note is from Dee, and I obscured his phone number with my thumb):

Baby, that walk got me going crazy for yo ass. Let me suck that pussy. I will suck a fart out yo asshole.

Yeah, now that is a pickup line for you (e:ajay). I can't believe it. Who would be turned on by this? And it's not like I have anything against a good rimjob, but WTF is up with sucking farts out somebody's asshole? That's nasty.

Oh, and big thanks to (e:chaibiscoot) for the links. Great stuff there. I had not seen those blogs. BTW -- did you notice the guy who harrassed Anne Coulter was wearing a Penny Arcade t-shirt (http://www.pennyarcade.com). woot!

By the year 1990 there could be as many as 10,000 computers in britain.

Experts like Computer Jones will eventually become irrelevant as, by then, computers will be able to program themselves, clean their own laser ribbons and will even be able to help us organise trade union ballots. -- From Look Around You: Computers

Look Around You is brilliant. It is like a technology magazine TV show from an alternate reality 25 years ago. I can't express my love of it enough. Do whatever you must (Bit Torrent?) to find any of these episodes. The most insane and insanely cool thing I've seen lately...

The Time Traveler Convention
May 7, 2005, 10:00pm EDT (08 May 2005 02:00:00 UTC)
East Campus Courtyard, MIT
42:21:36.025°N, 71:05:16.332°W
(42.360007,-071.087870 in decimal degrees)

What is it?

Technically, you would only need one time traveler convention. Time travelers from all eras could meet at a specific place at a specific time, and they could make as many repeat visits as they wanted. We are hosting the first and only Time Traveler Convention at MIT in one week, and WE NEED YOUR HELP!

Why do you need my help?

We need you to help PUBLICIZE the event so that future time travelers will know about the convention and attend. This web page is insufficient; in less than a year it will be taken down when I graduate, and futhermore, the World Wide Web is unlikely to remain in its present form permanently. We need volunteers to publish the details of the convention in enduring forms, so that the time travelers of future millennia will be aware of the convention. This convention can never be forgotten! We need publicity in MAJOR outlets, not just Internet news. Think New York Times, Washington Post, books, that sort of thing. If you have any strings, please pull them.

Great idea, I'd love to help! What should I do?

Write the details down on a piece of acid-free paper, and slip them into obscure books in academic libraries! Carve them into a clay tablet! If you write for a newspaper, insert a few details about the convention! Tell your friends, so that word of the convention will be preserved in our oral history! A note: Time travel is a hard problem, and it may not be invented until long after MIT has faded into oblivion. Thus, we ask that you include the latitude/longitude information when you publicize the convention.Quoted from: The Time Traveler Convention - May 7, 2005

Well, I'm not going this time around, but I'll catch it again when they invent time travel. I think I've got this immortality thing down now. 30 years strong, and still feeling good!