New Beer

See the full gallery on Posterous

This time it’s “Solitude Abbey Style Ale”  by Vivant.

Interesting, to say the least.

This is a very smooth, malty beer that goes down like a good ale should.  You can see that it’s dark with a light brown, foamy head on it.  This is actually the second half of the can, as the whole thing didn’t fit in my glass!

A true pint, and a delicious one at that.

This beer is perfect for people who want something flavorful, malty, and easy to drink.  It has no “bite” like most IPAs do (and this is why I don’t like them).  It’s not too bitter.

Comfortable, I’d say.  It’s got a good mouthfeel, with no sour taste.  The end is bready, and I think I detect a hit of some sort of nut.

Anyway, this is yummy, and I recommend picking up a 4-pack from your local grocer.  I’m not sure if it’s only Michigan, or if it’s national, but it’s worth picking up if you like a bready style beer.  I do, and this is good.  It’s not something I want to chug, or something that I want more than one of in a sitting, but it’s something that’s to be savored.

Stars: 4.5/5

Notes:  Bready, malty, nutty.  Has a smooth mouthfeel.  I was maybe expecting something a little sweeter, that’s why it’s down a half star.  Overall?  Great.  Would buy again.

Podcast Review: Linux Outlaws

I’ve saved this one for awhile because I haven’t listened in awhile (oops) but I finally hit the live show today.  The best way to listen to Linux Outlaws is live, if you can.

Firstly, on getting the live show:

Be online on Mondays at about 2pm ET, and point your browser to Ustream here.  To get on irc, grab Xchat (or another irc program) and get in the chatroom at irc.freenode.org, room #sixgun.  Just chill and wait and see what’s happening, and enter into the conversation whenever you feel like it.  (For those not in the know, IRC is a way to chat with people online; I should probably write a little blog post about it.)  You can see some more information about listening live here at the live page for Sixgun.

If you can’t be online, grab the podcast.  It’s here, on feedburner.

I try to listen to all of the episodes.  I say try, but I usually fail; Dan and Fab put out a podcast a week (except during the World Cup, hah), sometimes two.  Like last week, they put out the Jaffa Cakes episode and a special about Bitcoins.  I still have to listen to both.

The podcast covers the linux world.  News, distro reviews (Dan did a great review of Ubuntu 11.04), distro releases, Microsoft and Apple bashing, and Beer of the Week.

I love the banter and (sometimes) arguments that come out of this show.

Fab is a Fedora fanatic, and Dan switches distros often, so there’s plenty of new linux information.

This podcast is good for people who’ve been using linux for a little while, but if you’re a newbie, I wouldn’t discourage you from listening to it.  There are plenty of great information and podcasts out there; this is just one of them.  Ubuntu UK Podcast and MintCast are also (supposed to be) great.  I listen to Ubuntu UK, but not MintCast as I’m currently being consumed by podcasts and can’t keep up with them.

Anyway, this is definitely a 5/5 star podcast.  I can’t remember if I’ve applied star ratings to these in the past, but I’m going to here.  It’s worth your time and effort to listen/watch live, as the IRC chat is amazing fun.

Podcast Review: Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me

I started listening to Wait Wait a couple of years ago, on podcast.  I am never around when it’s on the radio to listen live, but the podcast is quite entertaining.

From the website:

Wait Wait… Don’t Tell Me! is NPR’s weekly hour-long quiz program. Each week on the radio you can test your knowledge against some of the best and brightest in the news and entertainment world while figuring out what’s real news and what’s made up.

I like it because of the irreverent humor, the banter, and the (sometimes bad) jokes.  I think the Wait Wait presenters have the same type of humor and penchant for puns that I do, and that makes me smile every time I listen.

It’s mostly US-centric news, so my international friends might not like it, but if you want to listen to newscasters making fun of the news, this is totally your show.

I love Peter Sagal, Paula Poundstone, Carl Kasell, Tom Bodett, and Mo Rocca.  Everyone that’s on this podcast is hilarious, but those are my favorites.

Seriously, check this show out.  It’ll make you laugh and shake your head, sometimes at the same time!

Podcast Review: “Is This Thing On?”

I’ve been kind of slacking with my podcast reviews, what with my internet being out, and then leaving for Tampa, and getting back and all that stuff.  So here we go with another podcast review.  (Oh, and I couldn’t get the ITHO podcast logo, so I’m going with Nick Tann’s logo.)

The Is This Thing On? podcast by Nick Tann is a weekly podcast that is very eclectic.  He has guests, track reviews, album reviews, and lots and lots of different music.

I love the variety.  If my readers couldn’t tell that I loved variety in my music, that is.

Right now, I’m catching up on podcasts, and I’m listening to #87.  Lots of rock and roll in this one and not a huge amount of talking.  Which is fine, because I generally prefer more music to more talking, unless I’m listening to something like Linux Outlaws.

Anyway, it’s hard to really categorize this podcast because each show is so different.  Usually it starts with an opening track, then it meanders around with other music and chat, and then some sort of review, and then ends with more music.  And Nick usually plugging a gig or two.  All in all, it’s a great way to spend an hour or so.

ANYWAY, check out Nick Tann’s Is This Thing On podcast.  It’s awesome.

The Sandisk Sansa Clip+

Sort of a review; I’ve been using the Clip+ for several weeks now, and I think it’s time for my thoughts.

This MP3 player is awesome.  It’s small and easy to fit in a pocket.  It doesn’t have album art (which is fine with me) and has a radio (which is a must for me).  It also recognizes my IDE3 tags, which my rather expensive Sony Walkman started refusing to do.

Oh, did I mention that this MP3 player was $50?  Fifty dollars for a player that matches/exceeds a $100 player.  Exceeds, because it has a MicroSD slot that allows me to increase the amount of music on it.  I got the 4gb model, and expanded it immediately with my 8gb MicroSD card.  Cool beans, considering I spent $20 on the SD card.

How about a picture?

Simple, straightforward buttons; fast startup; few animations; and great sound.  What more could anyone want?

Regarding the radio… if you simply must have a radio, this is a good option, but it depends on where you hold for reception.  I’ve found that if you hold it in your hand, reception is decent, but as soon as you put it in your pocket, the reception gets cut off.  Oh well, I use it for my own music most of the time anyway.

It has a clip built into the back, so you can easily hook it onto your belt/pocket/pants so you won’t lose it.  Very handy.  I haven’t seen any weakness in the clip so far, but I don’t play with it.

If you read the reviews on Best Buy, you’ll find that there are lots of “old” people who are rather technophobic having issue with this product.  Overall, this is a great little MP3 player, and most people will find it perfect for their needs.

I wanted something that plays music, and that’s what I got.  I’ll try to fix the Sony in due time, but this works right now, and I’m happy.

Podcast Review: Good Game and Good Game Spawn Point

I’ll cover these two podcasts together because they both cover games and both have the same hosts.

I’ve been watching Good Game for a couple of years now.  I originally was looking for podcasts about Cricket from an Aussie perspective, but I browsed around and found this podcast, which is actually a regular show on Australian TV.

I look forward every week to the reviews of new games, gamer news, and other geeky fun that come out of putting two passionate people in a room and letting them review games.

This week, GG reviewed some 3DS launch titles.  I’m skeptical of the 3DS (partly because I can’t see manufactured 3D well), but I do enjoy the reviews of the launch games.

Anyway, this show/podcast has lots to love.  Games, geekiness, very cool hosts, and twitter interaction, what more could you want?  Really.

I love the way the hosts review the games, but they don’t seem to let personal biases come into play (and if they do, they will warn you that they don’t like that genre of game).  The balance is there, and clearly the hosts Bajo and Hex not only love games but understand them as well.

Good Game Spawn Point is “for younger gamers by gamers” and they clearly hit that with the games they review, but they don’t talk down to their audience.  This is the key, because so many shows for kids and games for kids really dumb things down.  Kids aren’t stupid; they may need something slightly simpler, but that’s no excuse for shipping a crappy game for younger gamers.  (It’s no excuse for crappy books for kids either, but that’s a rant for another day.)

I picked up watching this show because I was hoping they’d cover some different stuff than the adult show, and they do.  I was hoping for more DS stuff, and for the most part, it has lots of DS stuff.  Bajo and Hex cover plenty of games that I’d never have heard of if I didn’t start watching either of the two shows.

My favorite spot on both shows is the “Ask Good Game” feature.  I really like the questions they get and the way they’re answered.  Lots of fun, especially when they accuse DARREN of being a NOOB.

If you like video games, I highly recommend both of these podcasts.

Podcast Review: Rathole Radio

I’d like to have a regular (read: weekly) review of podcasts that I listen to regularly.  Well, at least until I run out of podcasts…

So, I’ll start with Rathole Radio.

I started listening to Rathole Radio after it was mentioned on Linux Outlaws (review pending).

Rathole Radio is a podcast hosted by Dan Lynch every two weeks.  It’s broadcast out of Liverpool England and is a showcase for eclectic creative commons music.

Dan plays a little bit of everything; from rap and hip-hop to folk, country, electro, rock and roll, and nerdcore.  It’s very eclectic and I’ve found lots of good music through this show.  I don’t necessarily like absolutely everything he plays, but I don’t necessarily like everything that the regular radio or NPR plays.  As long as you’re getting exposed to the new stuff that’s out there, it’s all good in my book.  You never know what you’ll like til you listen to it.

He gets a lot of his music from Jamendo, which is a host for creative commons music.

Every week it’s something different.  He’s had interviews with both Jono Bacon’s metal project Severed Fifth, and MC Frontalot.

Recently, Rathole Radio has been hosting a live show called “Rathole Radio Roadshow“.  This year it’s going to be held at the Zanzibar in Liverpool.

So, if you’re into eclectic music, check this podcast out.  He also broadcasts live every two weeks on Sunday at 4 PM Eastern Time.  You can find the fun at the last link, and also in the IRC room: #ratholeradio on irc.freenode.net.  There’s a link on the live page to use a web-based IRC client, so you don’t have to know how to set up IRC on your computer if you want to participate.

Short Xubuntu Review

This is what my netbook looks like right now.  I’m running Xubuntu, along with Chromium, Wakoopa, Dropbox, and Gwibber.  I decided to go with Xubuntu because I wasn’t having a lot of luck with Ubuntu and it’s Unity interface on here.

How about a screenshot?

Screenshot.  I’ve got my An American in Paris wallpaper. If you haven’t been following my Tumblr, I like Gene Kelly.  I really like Gene Kelly.

Anyway…

I don’t really have any problems with this distro.  XFCE plays really well with GTK applications, and KDE applications.  That’s one of the things I love about it.

The biggest annoyance I’ve found is that some programs don’t pay attention to the browser I’ve set as my “preferred” browser (which is Chromium).  CloudSN will open gmail links in Firefox or straight up Chrome sometimes, and I can’t find a way to force it to be my main browser.

I’m also using Pidgin (though not signed in right now).  I’ve gotten used to Empathy, and I actually prefer it, but Pidgin works pretty well.  I just have to make sure I enable the tray icon.

Onto the tray!  I’ve gotten used to the indicator applets, and I’m thinking about installing a panel widget that’ll emulate the indicator applets.  They’re just so clean and easy to work with.  I see why Canonical decided to go wtih them.

I’ve got four workspaces, and I can easily split what I’m doing between them.  I usually have a browser up on desktop number one, Gwibber up on number two, chat (xchat and/or Pidgin) up on number three, and whatever else up on number four.  I don’t have Compiz installed, so I don’t have the neat composting going on like I do on my laptop, but ctl-alt-arrow works just fine for switching workspaces.  So does clicking on the needed workspace in my panel.

Overall, this is a great release.  I really like XFCE 4.8 (enabled via a PPA); it’s matured quite a bit from when I tried it awhile ago.

I would heartily recommend this distro for a netbook, or even a laptop or desktop.  It’s lighter than Ubuntu and Kubuntu, though not as light as something like Lubuntu or Crunchbang.,  Xubuntu has a great selection of applications (including Gimp!) that will give a user (almost) everything they need to sit down and use their computer right away after it’s installed.  And since it’s based on Ubuntu, users have access to the massive Ubuntu repository, and access to the powerful PPA system.

I’ll be testing out the Beta of Ubuntu soon enough, and it might make an appearance on my netbook.  I prefer Xubuntu, because I get the full width of my screen dedicated to what I’m doing, not being taken over by a launcher-bar.  That’s handy, but I hate horizontal scrolling with a passion.  I hear it’ll be hidden in Natty; I surely hope.

Pinboard.in

I decided to take the plunge and try out pinboard.in.

At the time I signed up it was something like $9.17, but it’s gone up to $9.22 (due to go up with more subscribers).

Well, I did an import of all my delicious bookmarks, and found that it was a much faster process than importing into diigo. After importing, I noticed that my private bookmarks were kept (very important to me) private.

The look of pinboard.in is very similar to delicious, but it’s cleaner. I love the way it integrates with my Shareaholic extension for Chrome/ium. To save to Pinboard is the first link in my drop-down menu.

Anyway, how about a picture?

The default Pinboard.in look. Very similar to delicious.

It’s almost easier and faster to send to Pinboard than it is to send to delicious. First off, there’s really nobody to share with, so you don’t have to pick who you send links to. Second, it doesn’t have automatic twitter integration, so you don’t have to deal with that (I have twitter integration though Twitterfeed and my #pinboard hashtag). It’s simple, quick, bookmarking with tags and privacy options. Nothing else.

The navigation is really, really simple. A picture says a thousand words, so here’s a picture:

As you can see, there’s a way to choose what kind of tags you want, a search box, and a way to get to popular places in your account. I haven’t tried the note-taking functionality yet, because I have tomboy notes on all of the computers I use, so I don’t really need them. I guess if I got a Cr-48, I’d need the note functionality.

You’ll also notice that there’s “recent” and “popular” links up top. I’ll go over there sometimes to see what’s been bookmarked, just like I used to when I was on delicoius. Sometimes there’s some cool stuff in there, and if you explore other popular tags, you’ll find even more websites that tailor to your interests. There’s also a networking aspect to pinboard.in that I really haven’t had a chance to explore. I’ve added a couple of people who seem to post linux-related sites, but I’m not sure exactly what the networking will amount to. Pinboard sells itself as “antisocial bookmarking” and to an extent that’s fine. I’m using it as a repository of my favorite links, and I’m sharing through twitterfeed.

The actual bookmark list is very clean and easy to follow. How about another picture?

The bookmarks themselves.

Easy to see tags, when you posted the link, the link itself, and in light grey, you can make out “edit” and “delete” links. I seem to have a lot of GTD stuff in this screenshot. Ahem.

Onto tagging! I’ve gotten used to tagging my bookmarks, photos, blog posts, and pretty much everything else. I like the idea of tagging as opposed to folders. I can assign more than one tag to something and that something will show up in both of those categories; for instance, I have many links that deal with Ubuntu, Gnome, KDE, and Linux. I can assign the general tag of Linux, and have everything Linux-related show up, but if I want to narrow things down, I can go Linux -> Ubuntu -> KDE and get all the KDE links relating to Ubuntu. Simple.

Anyway, here’s what the tags look like:

Tags, oh, how I love thee.

So, pinboard.in is a great service to replace delicious. I’m sure Yahoo is regretting the decision to have that slide show up. I think they’ve lost a lot of their userbase. It might put some people off to purchase the initial login, but it’s well worth the $9-ish for it.

Wytches Brew: Review

I haven’t played through this Wytches Brew by NotSoft Games completely, but I’ve progressed far enough to surmise that this game is awesome.

It’s incredibly addictive.  If you just play the standard “Brew” option, you’ll find plenty of opportunity for improving your score.  This is fun enough, but the even more addicting part of the game is the story mode.  You play as three wytches who are wandering the countryside to find out where the Grey Brothers went.  They help people by brewing different potions.

The game is like Bejeweled in that you move the flowers (jewels) around the board.  The difference is that you can sacrifice some of your “candle wax” (life) and move the flowers farther around on the board, as opposed to only adjacent ones.

You have a cookbook to guide you.  Once you figure out what flowers go in what combination in what order, the game goes from being slightly confusing to seriously addicting.

I’m about a third of the way through the story mode, and I’m loving it.  This game is fun and complex, but simple enough to pick up quickly.

It’s kind of frustrating when the wytches throw more flowers out onto the board and it creates a 3-in-a-row that messes up your recipe!  Frustrating, but you still get points!

Another mechanic that makes the game a little harder is your cauldron at the bottom of the screen.  If you try to fill it up too much, it will overflow and your game will be over!  So, you have to keep your eye on your candles, your cauldron, and the flowers that you’re trying to match up.

How about some screenshots?

This is the start screen.  If you pick “brew”, you can play the standard matching game with no story and try to rack up as many points as you can.

This is the screen you get when you pick “quest”.

A story screen.  The models aren’t anything to be excited about, but this is a puzzle game.  There also don’t seem to be any consequences for messing up in the puzzle play; if people don’t get their potions, they’re disappointed, but not pissed off.

The game board screen.  This is where all of the gameplay happens.  You can see the flowers on the board.  Each wytch has a section of the board, and if you move the flowers around too much, you have bits of your candles melt.  The cauldron is on the bottom, and that’s where the flowers go when you line up three or more.  If you try to stuff too much into the cauldron, it’ll overflow, ending the game.  If your candles burn down completely, your game will end.  The box to the left of the cauldron is your cookbook.  I don’t have any recipes up on there, but you have to get the flowers in the right order.

See some official screenshots here.

I got the game for free through this offer.  It’s a very solid game, and for free, it’s even more awesome.

I guess I’ll get to a rating.  Overall, I’d say this is a 4/5.  The story mode is interesting enough to keep you going, so that’s a 4/5; the gameplay is addictive, so that’s a 5/5; and the graphics are fine for what you need them for, a 3.5/5.  The models of the wytches and other people are kind of goofy looking and they’re not animated, but for a puzzle game, kick-ass models aren’t really expected.

This is a great game; go out and get it and give it a whirl.  It’s very addictive and free ‘til January.

Evernote

Yes, Evernote.

This program/website is amazing.

Some background:

I’d tried this before, and I wasn’t pleased with it; I didn’t see what it would “give” me, and I wasn’t sure if I’d ever use it.  Cue me going through my old accounts and getting rid of stuff.  I deactivated the account, thinking I’d never use it again.  I was wrong.

I noticed there was a new plugin for Tomboy that I wanted to try out that would sync with Evernote.  I wanted to try it out, and to do that, I’d need an Evernote account.  Cue me trying to get my Evernote account back, chronicled here and here.  I got my account back, and tried to sync my notes through Tomboy.  Well, the plugin didn’t work for me, so I decided to try something else.

Enter NeverNote.  It’s a Java-based program that interfaces with Evernote, and works pretty well on both my laptop and my netbook.  I can also use the Google Chrome extension to interact with Evernote; it works great for clipping webpages that I want to store for research and the like.

I also wanted to try the Windows version of the program, and I can say that it’s amazing.  Much better than Tomboy under Windows.

Now, if you mostly do text notes (I do), Tomboy will still be great for you under Ubuntu.  It’s integrated with the desktop, which is great.  Until the plugin is completed, NeverNote is what I’ll be using on Ubuntu.

Now I just need a mini-Android tablet so I can take notes on the go and upload them when I hook up to wireless.

Amazing; why did I not use this before?

Windows 7: A First Impression

So, I went out and actually purchased a copy of Windows 7.  This is my first operating system purchase ever.  I’ve bought computers with Windows on them, but I’ve never bought a copy of Windows for installation to my computer.

The reason?  Games.  I have a bunch of games that REFUSE to work in Wine and also won’t work well in a virtual machine.  Also, the Winter Olympics are coming up, and I wanted to be able to watch my favorite sports when I want, where I want.  Silverlight is required to run the internet video, and I wanted to have everything set when the games started.

It took me a couple of tries to install it, as I wasn’t doing it the “windows way”.

Tries 1, 2 and 3

I repartition using my Ubuntu disk, restart with Win7 inserted, and the Windows Installer starts up.  I attempt to install to the partition I’ve carved out of my /home directory and formatted and I got an error saying that Windows couldn’t figure out what to do with the partition.  I reformatted it several times, and decided that it wouldn’t work my way, so I’d have to partition again and install.  Argh.  The frustration level rises.

Try 4

Ok, so I repartition and finally get things set up to install.  The install process itself isn’t too bad.  If you’re not careful, Windows will take over your entire hard drive.  Since I’d already partitioned, I picked the first partition on my hard drive and let it go.

Like I said before, the actual install process isn’t bad.  You go through the whole authentication process that’s standard for Windows, and once you’re done, you have a desktop.  It’s pretty basic.

I had to find and install all of my hardware drivers.  This was a pain, as drivers had been updated to work with Win7, but were not all on the System76 website.  Many of the Vista drivers worked just fine, but I had to still find nVidia drivers, touchpad drivers (so I’d have the scroll area), LAN drivers, and camera drivers.  Most of these were found through the device manager, but I still had to find and install some drivers from the net.  Oddly enough, my wireless card was automagically detected, but my LAN wasn’t.  Strange.

Once I got my graphics drivers and rebooted, I had access to some of the Aero effects.  All I can say is, “wow”.  Microsoft seems to have gotten something right with this.  The transparency is great.  It’s not Compiz, but then again, nothing really approaches the flexibility and power of Compiz.

Installation of Programs

Now I had to go about installing my programs:

• Flock
• Firefox
• OpenOffice
• Some sort of Twitter/Status.net client (I chose MahTweets; review pending in a future post.)
• Microsoft Security Essentials (Microsoft’s antivirus program.  Works really, really well and stays the heck out of my way, like a antivirus program should)
• Wakoopa
• Pidgin
• Snarl (Popup program that supports several apps; better than guifications and fits in well with Win7.)
• Songbird
• Foobar2000 (Upon high recommendations from my brother, I decided to try this out. It’s not bad, but I totally prefer Rhythmbox. Heh.)
• Flash support in Flock and Firefox
• VLC
• Games: Baulder’s Gate 2, Sims2, SimCity4, and Diablo 2.  They all work. Yahoo!

I still think I should do something with Hulu.  I haven’t tried out the Windows media center stuff yet.

Thoughts so Far

I’d have to say this is one of the best versions of Windows I’ve used.  I’ve used everything except ME and Vista (3.1, 95, 98, 2000, and XP).  This is a MAJOR upgrade from XP.  I really thought XP was the be-all-end-all of Windows systems, as it was an industry standard.  It had decent performance, clean lines, and a decent start menu setup.

Ah, the start menu.  I have not gotten used to it.  I can’t quite grasp the way it works.  Maybe I’m dumb, but I really, really, really liked how XP did it, as well as how Ubuntu does it with the menu bar.  I can easily find what I’m looking for, barring an unruly app that decides to insert itself into a non-conforming category.

UAC isn’t too much of a pain.  I’m still running as an administrator, so I should probably start up a root account and do some tweaking of my regular account.  That’s for next week.

The whole Aero thing works well.  The windows look very nice, especially after installing the correct drivers.  Windows 7 wouldn’t be the same without the Aero effects.

~~~~~~~~

All-in-all?  Windows 7 is a decent operating system.  I’ve only used it for about two days, but I like it so far.  It is nowhere near as flexible or easy to use as Ubuntu.  Installing codecs (including Silverlight, Flash, Java, etc) was very easy.  There’s still the “search, download, install” method of getting software, which I don’t particularly like.  Can you tell that I’m a Linux fan?  I really like the idea of a package manager.

Anyway, I’d say Windows 7 comes to a 3.5/5.  The reasons why include: overly difficult install prep and not playing nice with my Ubuntu install, search and download process of driver installation, the start menu changes, UAC (it’s annoying but can be fixed), and the price.  It’s a brilliant use of my PCs cycles though; it looks very slick.  We’ll see how it as after a couple of months of running.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

New Speakers: Cyber Acoustics CA-3080

I have a vase speaker for my laptop with the Ubuntu logo on it (Love it) but I wasn’t getting a nice, deep sound out of it.  If I hook up a pair of decent headphones (even earbuds) the sound is incredibly awesome.  I think I have a decent sound card in this laptop.

I decided to get a new pair of speakers (the vase one is more portable if I’m working in the kitchen) so I have some deeper and less tinny sound.

Anyway, the speakers were all of $35.  They’re not anything comparable to a hifi, but they’re not supposed to be.  It’s a 2.1 system with two satellites and one sub.  I have no need for anything more.

Below is a picture of what they look like:

Cyber Acoustics CA-3080 speakers (iPod not included, unfortunately).

Setup was a cinch.  A couple of plugs, hook to my computer, and blamo! it’s set up.

I had a little more difficulty setting up the bass just right.  I had to balance the bass with the volume coming out of my computer so I didn’t have massive distortion.  Turns out I need the volume on the computer set to about 75% and the sub set at about 40%.  I don’t need wall shaking bass, just enough to know it’s there.

I’ve got the speakers set on the desk to slide easily back and forth when I slide the laptop back and forth to accommodate what I’m doing (writing with a pen, typing, using reference material, etc).

~~~~

Specs:

System Power Output:
18 watts total system peak power
8 watts total RMS
Satellites – 1.8 watts/ch x 2 @ 4 ohm – 10% THD
Subwoofer – 4.4 watts @ 4 ohm – 10% THD

Drivers:
Satellites – 2″ dynamic, 4 ohm drivers
Subwoofer – 4″ poly carbon high excursion driver, with ported wood enclosed cabinet

Cables:
Cord to source and satellites
Complete cable assembly included for immediate setup
Chrome 3.5mm plugs

Power:
AC adapter included; UL/UCL approved

Dimensions:
Satellites – (H) 7.00″ x (W) 2.75″ x (D) 2.75″
Subwoofer – (H) 7.75″ x (W) 6.00″ x (D) 6.75″

~~~~

All-in-all, these are a decent set of inexpensive speakers to hook up to your laptop or desktop for listening to MP3s, podcasts, internet video, streaming radio, and the like.  They were a hella deal at Kmart ($35, like I said before) and sound very good.  I’m sure one could spend much more on a set of speakers and get similar sound.

Blogged with the Flock Browser

Indiana Jones and the Staff of Kings

Has anyone played this for Wii?

If you have, I’m sorry.

Whilst this could be an awesome game, it seems to fall hard on its face.

Let’s start at the beginning, shall we?

~~~~SPOILERS~~~~

You start out in the Sudan and it goes into a tutorial mode.  This is fine for someone without any experience with the Wii, but if you’ve had the Wii for more than 10 minutes, you’ll have played Wii Sports, so this is kind of a moot point.  (Note: I prefer to not be hand-held in a game. I can figure it out, thanks!)  The action is great, till you get killed because you didn’t see you needed to hit the “A” button and get blasted by a cannon.  Or a bullet.  Or run over by a boulder.  Then, you get to start the whole sequence over again…

This is especially infuriating in the first “carnival-style” shooting sequence in San Fransisco.  I couldn’t get the aiming feature just right, and couldn’t seem to shoot anything.  Therefore, I kept getting shot up.  Then, I’d have to restart the whole thing.  Again.

You go up against a bunch of Nazis; not much different from most other Indy games.  There are a couple different ones; the lacky and the thug.  The lacky is easy to whip, drag and kick into submission; the thug, not so much.  You have to use an object (rake, trash can lid, stick, broom, piece of armor, whatever) to smack him down.  It takes a couple of hits for you to dispatch the thug.  In the meantime, do watch out.  If you don’t time things well, you will get smacked and there’s no way to get away from some of them.  Again, very frustrating!

In San-Fran, there’s a car shooting sequence, and if you don’t get the timing right, you’ll end up getting killed by the Nazis.  Again.

The best battle was in Panama when you battle a fire-eater.  It’s timing, but this time, you have control of Indy and can move around quite a bit (except for the ring of fire that surrounds the arena) so it’s not so bad.  I prefer to have control over my character.  (Note: I’m in Panama right now.  This review isn’t complete on the whole game, but I’ve experienced enough gameplay to give it a once-over.)

~~~~END SPOILERS~~~~

I think the issue with this game is the fact that it doesn’t allow you to have control of Indy for the whole thing.  There’s a limited set of motions he can do at certain times, and I’d like to be able to do more with the game.  The motion controls are killer (I pulled my right arm muscle from playing too much yesterday).  It’s neat to use the Wii-mote to whip enemies and such, but you can’t steal the weapon from their hands, just knock it to the ground.  You can whip their neck, middle or foot (I seem to get their feet most often) and drag them to you and dispatch them that way.  You can’t use your gun to dispatch enemies from afar, except when the game allows you.

The story is awesome, as is the voice acting and pacing.  It’s much like being in a movie.  I wish I could skip cut-scenes, since after getting mowed down in a spray of bullets, the last thing you want to do is to have to watch the cut scene.  Again.

If there was a different control scheme (or a better one) I’d give this game a higher rating.  I’ll break it into two scores:

Gameplay: 1/5.  Almost the worst I’ve seen.  I like the idea of using the Wiimote and nunchuck, but it needs to be revised.
Story: 5/5.  If you realize the cheese is supposed to be there, then the story is good.  It’s standard Indy stuff, but I love it.

If LucasArts releases another Wii Indy title, I think they should review the motion-control and allow the player to move Indy around more.

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