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...