Hopefully this will sort out the previously mentioned issue with Joy. It’s odd buying dish detergent a gallon at a time, but at $6 or so it’s not particularly expensive, nor does the smell offend me.
At the rate I use dish detergent I’ll have this bottle when my house is paid off. (Seriously. The 64oz I emptied this year was purchased in 2001.)
Now, back to cleaning the basement.
Some interesting points regarding consumer goods…
Joy Dish Soap:
For years I had a giant bottle of some Dawn-branded dish detergent. It worked great. Eventually it ran out, so while at the store I bought a bottle of some Lemon-scented Joy. Well, you know that musty / moldy / mildewy smell that dish clothes and sponges get when they are left to sit in a too-moist state for too long?
For some reason since switching to Joy, I’ve had my dishwashing sponge turn rancid once a week. Previously with Dawn I could use the same sponge until the scrubby side had worn flat and it was replaced because of wear, not stink.
Currently, after having been replaced a week ago, the sponge smells so bad that I can’t wash dishes with it, lest the stink permeate my hands for the next 24 hours. (Washing doesn’t get it off.) I guess I’ll be buying some Dawn on the way home and throwing out another perfectly good sponge.
It really is a fun game. It will absolutely, completely piss you off until you understand what is going on, but after that it’s a good bit of fun. Definitely worth the 400 points. It’s one of those games where once you get it you want to keep playing it. Too bad I had to go to bed last night… I wanted to play more this morning, but I was close to running late for work.
Other XBLA Demos I’ve Tried:
· Alien Hominid HD: Like the original, but without the bugs (it’s playable!), better graphics make the cartoony-ness even better, and still absurdly hard.
· Beautiful Katamari: A HD version of Katamari Damacy, which is good. What is bad is that instead of cheesy, poor translations there is intentionally bad English in the dialogs, reminiscent of LOLCATS type crap. Hopefully it doesn’t cost more than $30.
· Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved: Fun, Robotron-like (but not), hard, cheap. I forgot to actually buy the full version last night so I’ll do that tonight.
· Viva Piñata: Cute, just not fun for me. Seems like Danielle would like it. Basically you maintain a garden in order to attract very well rendered piñatas. There may be more, but I only gave the demo about 30 minutes.
Xbox 360 UI:
This is typical Microsoft crap. It is not easy to find where demos vs. downloaded XBLA games vs. whatever else is located. I don’t understand why I shouldn’t be able to be in the downloadable game store, where it says that I have already downloaded the game, and start it from there. Instead you hit a button and it tells you how to launch the game. (Go to this menu, then that, then pick this.) It’s somewhat shiny, but a bit too busy for me. Also, I don’t like the built-in banner ads, even if they are just for other games.
iPod w/ Apple Lossless
Sounds really, really good. The DAC in the iPod is actually pretty nice. However, battery life on an iPod is greatly decreased when using lossless. I think this is because the iPod has (if I remember right) a 32MB buffer which it fills before spinning the disc down. This is plenty big for a couple of lossy tracks to fit in, but not lossless. Therefore the disc has to spin up a lot more. Perhaps this will be changed in future iPods.
To work around this I might make a new iPod cable with built-in charging bits for use on my desk along with the headphone amp.
E 74 on my brand new Xbox 360I just spent about 45 minutes cabling up my brand new Xbox 360. What happens at first power-on? E 74.
I powered it down and then back up and it’s now at the intial setup screens, but still…
Fucking Microsoft.
Space Giraffe Playing DeviceI gave in.
(After ensuring I still had a network run to that corner of the basement, and that I was purchasing one with the HDMI port and new heatsink design.)
I figure that I can find the spare $390 (total) for an Xbox 360 and a copy of Space Giraffe, but somehow I didn’t notice that 360 doesn’t have built in wireless networking. Arraugh. Everything else near my TV (Wii, TiVo) has a wireless connection, but the 360 doesn’t without spending an extra $100. Bah.
I’ll have to check to see if I still have the network line run over there (I don’t think I do), and if I can free up a port on the switch (I don’t think I can).
290151976614: Just under 24 hours since listing and it’s been bid from $1 to $478 after 19 bids, and there are currently 78 people watching it.
This is amazing.
Wow, the Canon EOS 40D looks hot.
I’m also normally not too big on battery grips / wireless transmitters, but the new Canon WFT-E3 also has a wired connection and can plug straight into external USB disks and dump files there.
There’s also a live preview mode which allows full tethered shooting with live previews and triggering can happen via HTTP thanks to the network stuffs. Replaceable focus screens (hello grid lines / prism-type focusing), 14-bit RAW? Mmm…
I’m going to be really, really tempted to get one of these.
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x0xb0x #496 For Auction
Hey there… In case any of you are interested, I’ve listed x0xb0x #496 for auction. If you are interested, it is auction number 290151976614.
If any of you know anyone who might be interested in this, please do share. Thanks!
My x0xb0x auction will go live tonight. I plan on emailing the folks at matrixsynth about it, posting to the ladyada.net forums, and mentioning it here.
Do any of you have suggestions for other sites who might be interested in linking to the auction?
Also, I have the same question about marketing the P3. I’ll post to the aforementioned sites, and also the Sequentix P3-related Yahoo group. Any other ideas for where else to market it once that auction goes live?
I don’t want to linkspam, I just want it listed where people who are actually into that sort of thing may see it.
(I’ll post the auction links here, of course, once they are live. The x0xb0x will go at 10:30pm EDT tonight, the P3… after I get the auction written. Probably Tuesday night, or so.)
Thanks very much…
One other thing… I’m going to sell the x0xb0x I finished back in June, #496. Seeing as the last x0xb0x on eBay went for $845, I think it’s worth selling this one now. After all, I basically built it to sell.
If anyone is interested in snatching it up before it hits eBay, please let me know.
Oh, and if I can ask folks for a bit of help, here is the current draft of my x0xb0x auction. I’m pretty certain it’s complete, I’m just curious if some of you could skim it and see if it needs any drastic changes. I’m not looking for perfect grammer, case, or amazing thoroughness, just a decently worded auction that doesn’t scare anyone off.
Thanks!