Other Reviews

Seeing as how Jesse's review of the 360 Controller has been up for months, I figured it was time for another review... The 360 itself

Pros: I love the dashboard, not only can you listen to your own music at any point during a game, but its actually somewhat intuitive. The 360 can finally rip music off burned CD's which was a major reason xbox 1.0 never really saw much use as a music player. The Controller is comfortable as heck, and the wireless thing is really nice and so far the battery life (the wireless controller uses 2 AA's) has been great, but I'm probably going to invest in some rechargeables. All in all, I do like that Microsoft decided to use AA's instead of some proprietary battery, far cheaper and easier to replace them that way.

The graphics are great, I've played Gears of War and the graphics are a deffinete step up from xbox 1.0, ps2, etc. Not only does the console have plenty of speed, but loading times are minimal compared to xbox 1.0. I also like the fact the 360 will have an add-on HD player, because i don't have or need HD-dvd, nor do i want to spend another $200 for one.

Cons: The HD is a bit small, while 20 gigs seems like a lot for a console, once you start ripping your own music onto the thing, it starts to pile up. I'm not anywhere near running out of room yet, but I can definitely see it happening to those with more impressive media collection. I'd like to see either a larger HD available, or an adapter allowing you to use a regular computer HD which would see storage capacity limited only by the size of the HD's available. I'd also wish they'd left the start and select buttons where they are on the xbox 1.0 controller, never realized how nice it was having them to the side till now. While in general I do like the dashboard, it'd be nice if you were able to customize the button settings for entering information. It'd also be nice to be able to fast forward and rewind within songs.

Nitpicking: I wish the controller was just a tad larger, like the size of the S controller that is standard with xbox 1.0, It's not that the controller is too small to use, but would be nice if they beefed it up just a bit.

For Christmas this year, I got a wired Xbox 360 controller. I had asked for it, so it was not unexpected. I do not own an Xbox 360, but the controller is usable with a pc. I have been meaning to write a review for a while, so here it goes. Microsoft is trying to push the Xbox 360 controller as the new "Standard PC Controller"

Pros:

• Most Comfortable Controller I've ever used.
• Works great with a Dreamcast emulator.
• Supported by newer games with zero configuration necessary. (Marc Ecko's Getting Up, support expected for Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion with first patch)

Cons:

• *With Microsoft's driver, the same axis is used for the L and R analog triggers, making using both at the same time impossible.
• *Also, with Microsoft's driver, they use a new system for programs to use the controller, only allowing the newest games to use its force feedback function. So far the only game I've found where the vibrate works is Marc Ecko's Getting Up: Contents Under Pressure.
• The D-Pad is lame, not good for SNES/NES games that need any level of accuracy.
• The Four button arrangement rather than 6 as the N64 controller, makes playing N64 games awkward.

Note on *: There is a 3rd party driver which fixes these problems, allowing older games with Force Feedback support to use the vibrate and mapping the controller differently. It though is simply a hack of a driver for the original Xbox controller, and at least last time I tried it was exceedingly buggy.

Honestly, most computer games are designed to be played mouse and keyboard. I've tried a number of FPS games with it, and quite honestly I won't be trading in my mouse and keyboard anytime soon. However I am looking forward to trying it with Oblivion.
Overall, I give the controller an 8/10 rating. (BTW, new rating system on the way)

When yahoo purchased Konfabulator I was suspicious at first, but then they put out Konfabulator 2.0 which was a great release. I thought I had no need to be suspicious. But now with the 3.0 release Yahoo has decided to show their true colors. They have completely destroyed the website. It doesn't render properly in anything other than Internet Explorer, and the page is as jumbled as Yahoo's home page. Next, they bundled hundreds of useless pieces of software with it, and even if you uncheck everything you get Yahoo Messenger which I don't want nor need.

And as if that wasn't bad enough, they decided to add insult to injury. They took down all the widgets I had programmed.

I am horrified at these turn of events.

Update - It's not as bad as I thought

Sub-Profiles

Do you know what a sub-profile is? It's a link to a website of sorts in your aim profile. They add extra space to your profile, and allow for many features. The downside is that you have to access a website to edit them, which takes extra time. It also takes a lot longer to make/edit sub-profiles. Overall, Sub-Profiles get 5 emoticons out of 11, because it takes too long to edit and it's almost not even worth it.

Jesse on Ewoks: (cute * (smart + little) )^(hard to ketch) = ewoks kicking ass

Paul on wookies: (brute force + utility belt) = certain death for ewok and those medling kids

In minnesota there are three definite things, death, taxes (a lot of them), and hockey. While the first two are pretty much self explanitory, the third is so intertwined in our psyche, that we are renowned for it. There's a reason why we've got the most youth hockey teams in the nation. There's a reason why we sell out nearly every game. We've got something damn special in Minnesota Hockey, and we showed it by taking on big money sports, shuting down the Avalanche, and proving that the key to winning is the passion and not the money. God bless the state of Hockey.

For those unaware, SmarterChild is a robot on aim, who talks. You can talk to it, and it has several features. When it talks back, its responses are often very dry. On the plus side, there are many features like traslators, and conversions. These could probably come very handy. Overall, SmarterChild gets 9/11 buddy icons, cause its fun to talk to when you're lonely at night :C.

Fuckin' Sweet

We all know both are essential, but which is better? Both are vital. Shampoo tends to go on first, and often cleans the hair; sometimes needing to be used twice. Conditioner makes hair managable, and creates the after shower smell. In a war, I bet conditioner would win. It'd be insane, and probly use nuclear bombs. Yeah, I said it, conditioner is a totalitarian substance. But then shampoo would be all like "you hurt me, so I'm gonna rape your in the ass". At which point the war would ensue, and then both would die, and soap would cry cause it's all alone. :'C

Greatest blues band ever. I've seen them at Famous Dave's (the one in uptown) a couple times. They completely blow me away. Let's start with the lead guitarist/vocalist. He does NOT look like a blues musician. The guy wears overalls and a denim shirt, looks about 70 (or older) and has a massive gray beard, as well as a big pair of thick glasses. That, and he's white. But he has a blues voice, plain and simple. Deep, throaty, raspy, and perfectly in pitch and time are not usually all attributed to the same voice, but he has them all. Then his guitar solos were simply amazing. I've NEVER heard a better guitar player than he. The guy knows how to improvise, and his band knows how to back him up. This lets him play the most soulful, emotional sounds I've heard from an instrument. You can tell he's into it, because he sort of slinks to the ground while playing, completely lost in himself and the music. By the time he's done, he's laying completely prostrate on the stage, banging away on his axe. There are also times when he'll walk off the stage, and travel all about the restaurant (he has a wireless pickup), playing his solo while stopping at people's tables. Now, I don't know how much you know about this type of thing, but playing an improvised, complicated solo 150 feet away from your amp and band is TOUGH. The sound takes extra time to get to your ear, so you have to almost anticipate the noises coming from your amp, which is hard to do while playing fast.
The rest of the band is just as impressive. There are 4 others: another guitar, bass, keyboards, and drums. The other guitarist plays mostly rhythm, but has a few solos, which are almost as astounding as Farmer Joe's. The bass player is, for lack of any better words, funky. He knows his instrument, and he shows it. The keyboardist plays on a classic Hammond B3 most of the time. God, I love that rotary speaker sound. All these amazing instrumentalists come together to give a tight performance. You can tell they've been together for a long time. As a band, it would be simply impossible for them to be any better.
Go see them sometime at Famous Dave's on Sunday nights, 8 o'clock.
I give them 546 blues guitars out of 546 blues guitars.