This has popped up four times so far, and I’m already pissed off.
No, fuck off Windows Update! When I’ve clicked ‘Restart Later’ for the umpteenth time, you need to stay fucking hidden down by the clock until I’m good and ready to restart. Don’t fucking pop up every 2 minutes and demand attention!
Ars Technica has written a great article on the Game Boy’s 20th anniversary, highlighting six reasons why it has been one of the most successful gaming devices we’ve seen.
I remember having a Game Boy in the early 90s, including a whole plethora of the accompanying gadgets: light, magnifying glass, carry case, link cables, extra battery pack, you name it. I loved it, playing Game Boy under the covers when I was supposed to be asleep, trying to finish Super Mario Land if it killed me.
I remember how good it felt to finally see the space shuttle taking off at the end of Tetris (when you completed a Level 9 High 5 screen), and how satisfying it was to beat friends or my sister on a Link game. I seem to recall Tetris having a particular sound effect when you suddenly got 4 lines of the black blocks at the bottom when your opponent cleared a big chunk…
My friend across the road had a Game Gear, but I just never got on with that, other than playing Columns (Tetris for Dummies, I always thought). Plus, as Ars points out, it was bigger, bulkier, and munched batteries a lot quicker. The Game Boy was perfect on that front.
My parents bought me a SNES when I was about 11, and that was the last gaming device I think I owned. I’d switched to a PC by the time I was 14-15, and have only used computers ever since.
I’m not much of a gamer any more, although I’m thinking of getting a Wii just so I can play Tiger Woods, as I’ve been a fan of that game across 2 generations of Xbox consoles and on PCs.
It’s amazing to think that the Game Boy is 20 years old. How time flies…
Obama Staff Arrives to White House Stuck in Dark Ages of Technology
Via peterwknox The team members, accustomed to working on Macintoshes, found computers outfitted with six-year-old versions of Microsoft software. You mean they only had XP?! Oh, the humanity! It’s almost as if they were thrown into the real world, where the vast majority of IT infrastructures haven’t yet seen the need to upgrade. But let’s blame the Bush administration anyway. No Macs? They must be in league with the devil. Or Bill Gates.
Reblogged from: peterwknox
Originally posted on: Hello Friend
iTunes Lite for Windows? FOUND.
Thank you Rob! MediaMonkey is the go-to player, it plays great and is free to boot!
You’re welcome. I can’t recommend MediaMonkey enough for managing any music collection. It’s much more powerful than iTunes, and syncs perfectly with iPods and most other mp3 players too. It can rip, burn, organise and do loads more too. Infinitely customisable, with plenty of plugins to extend functionality even more.
I’ve got 13,000+ tracks in my library, and it takes a grand total of 0 milliseconds to have the whole lot available. Searching is instantaneous, as you type, even for a collection that big. And it supports other filetypes too, like FLAC, OGG and WAV.
Highly, highly recommend, and glad you’re enjoying it Kevin.
Reblogged from: fatmanatee
Originally posted on: i am the fat manatee.
All my music is excellently tagged with as much information as possible. Except for the genre field. I don’t see the point; it seems too vague. Nonetheless, I would be interested to hear how people do it; how do you decide between Rock and Indie Rock (or Alternative Rock, or just Alternative, or Alternative Indie Post-Steampunk Rock)? Is it IDM or just Dance? What’s the difference between Europop, Synthpop, Power Pop, Dream Pop (my Chairlift album is tagged that, for some reason), and just plain Pop?
I’m a stickler for tagging all of my music, and definitely do the genre as there can be certain times when I just want to listen to Chillout, or Trance, or Black Metal, or whatever. It’s easy to just scroll on the iPod to that genre, or within MediaMonkey and click play.
I used to be fairly vague with my genres, and go with overarching titles like Alternative, Dance, Hip Hop and so forth, but as my music tastes have evolved and started to really delve into specific niches, I’ve become a little more nuanced with my genre-titling. Dance is now subdivided into all manner of things, and Chillout has sub-sections like Mellow Dance, Mellow Hip Hop, etc.
I’ve started splitting Hip Hop into East and West Coasts, as well as what I call Intelligent Hip Hop, which includes artists like Saul Williams, Talib Kweli and Mos Def. More poetry over a beat than outright Hip Hop, which I tend to still use for all of the gangsta and mainstream stuff.
Usually, it’s a gut feeling as to putting an entire album in a genre, based on an artist’s previous material and/or a quick listen through. But I constantly find myself editing and re-editing assigned genres, especially for tracks that I tagged 5+ years ago.
I think it’s a sign of OCD, and it’ll never be complete. Ever.
Since when does Yahoo Messenger include adverts in the damn chat window? And for bloody Star Wars too?! Gah!
I thought BSODs were a thing of the past with Vista. The last 10 minutes on my laptop have proved otherwise.
My first attempt at a FAIL.
This is my housemate’s computer on our living room sofa. He’s got a wireless card, but it doesn’t want to work, so he’s had to bring his computer to the router and download the drivers.
But now it’s been on the sofa for at least 48 hours. FAIL.
It’s weird being on a computer with a virgin Windows XP install and Firefox with no extensions. I forget just how heavily customised my computers at work and home really are. I use a few Firefox extensions to make my life a touch easier, but it’s the bookmarks toolbar that I’m really missing.
“You mean I have to actually remember the website address, rather than just clicking the button?! This is like being back in the Stone Ages.”
All of this has come about because my office computer has spent the morning turning itself off and on. Mostly off. So I’ve got someone else’s before I leave in approximately 20 minutes. Weekend, woo!
