Winning Wednesday: Fantastic Contraption

Things had been a little slow at work the past couple of weeks and in between having things to do, I was getting a little bored. By sheer coincidence fourzerotwo sent a tweet about a flash game he'd been checking out. I decided to give it a try.

It's called Fantastic Contraption and is a physics based puzzle game. Don't be frightened by the word physics, the only physics involved is the force of gravity. The gist of the game is that you have only five "materials" to build a machine within a certain space, and your machine must move a red object into a the red area of the screen. The trial version has 20 puzzles to try and you can save and link to them if you really like your creation and want to show it off. Another cool feature is that once you've solved the puzzle you can view other people's solutions (they can be pretty crazy). Here is one of my solutions.  Give it a try: http://www.fantasticcontraption.com.  If you come up with something you want to share post the link in the comment section.

How did a white dude get this deal?

A few weekends back my wife, a few friends, and I all went out for happy hour and a light dinner. After eating, drinking, and chatting, we received our bill. On the receipt was the usual summery of why we had ordered in the typical truncated fashion, common on almost every computer generated receipt. I gave the bill a cursory glance and my eyes locked on to one particular item. How did I get this? I am neither black, nor a female. It looks like a good deal though, so I'm not going to look a gift horse in the mouth. XD

What funny receipts have you come across?

(By the way it was for the Blackened Chicken Special)

Tech Tuesday: The new Zune Lineup/Firmware update!!!

I've gone through a few PMP/MP3 players (this is my 5th), and the Zune has been my favorite so far. Let me preface this post by saying I do not have nor have I ever owned an iPod or iPhone, but I did do a pretty objective comparision after my third Creative Zen product crapped out and I decided to go with another company. (Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice shame on me; fool me three times, WTF was I thinking!?!?!?)

The Zune is Microsoft's answer to Apple's iPod and has been out for about 2 years now. Since they have been out they have made huge strides in the functionality of the device. The nice thing is that instead of leaving early adopters of the player out in the cold, all then new functionality is added to the older devices through a firmware (basically the operating system for a hardware device) update.

Out of the box, all of the Zune devices offer music, video, and picture support. But they also include FM radio and something called the "Zune Social".

The Social is my favorite part of the Zune community, as it allows you to view your friends listening habits and discover new music. Each Zune owner gets a "Zune Card" (see mine), this card automatically updates as you use the Zune software or sync your device. Your Xbox friends also are automatically added to your Zune social page (and visa versa).

Also Zune's have a feature called Zune-to-Zune sharing which allows you to "squirt" a song from your device to someone else's. If there is a song you really like, send it to your friend.

The current firmware version (v 2.5) also added some really nice features:

• Wireless sync - if you computer is on, you can sync your music, videos, etc. without having to actually plug the device in
• Friend sync - gives the ability to add your friend's Zune Card into your device and when you sync your device it will automatically update their card and download the songs they listened to last
  
• Game support - added support to install games created on the XNA 3.0 framework

Finally on September 16th version 3.0 will be released (as well as a 16GB flash Zune and 120 GB hard drive Zune). The new features expected to be added with this update are:

• Buy from FM - allows you to "tag" songs that you hear on the device's FM radio and when you sync or reach a hot spot, the device will download it
• Wifi marketplace - now when connected to your home's wireless network or a hot spot you can browse the Zune Marketplace and download songs directly from the device
• Games - game support is available now, but with the new update it won't have to be "unlocked". Two free games will also be added Hexic and Texas Hold'em.
• Any friends' Zune cards you have added to your device will now automatically update whenever you connect to a hot spot (instead of having to manually sync them).
  
• Audiobook support - adds support to Audible and Overdrive powered audio books.

Needless to say, I'm pretty excited!

sources:
http://gizmodo.com/5046872/official-new-zune-lineup-packs-more-storage-wi+fi-downloads

http://www.zune.net/en-US/products/

I can't believe youngsters these days!

This past weekend I had one of the moments where you first think "Are you serious?" and then it is quickly followed by "Oh no...I'm getting older". The aforementioned moment occurred while I was waiting in checkout line at Target. I was daydreaming a bit (for some reason the lines were particularly long), when I snapped out of it I overheard a conversation going on behind me. I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, but what I heard blew my mind. It was a woman in her mid to late 20s and a girl who was probably in high school discussing a concert the girl's friends were talking about. She mentioned that her friends were going to a Metallica concert, and that's all they were talking about. I wasn't impressed as I've never really been a big Metallica fan, but then she uttered the words... "Who is Metallica anyway?"
...
Are you serious?
Like I said, I was never a huge fan, but I know who they are, I could sing you a few songs (hell, I can even play a few on Guitar Hero. It was then that things got worse. The woman's explanation was this: "They're a hard rock band, they were big back in the ninties"
...
Oh no... I'm getting older.
Not only are one of the most popular (and overexposed) hard rock bands of all time now a relic of the past, now the entire decade I was so familiar with (including my high school years) is being referenced as "the ninties" in the same tone that we used to refer to "the eighties".

Side note: before the response I thought to myself, "geez! even my mom knows who Metallica is!". In retrospect this did not help my case. :(

I killed a mountain!!!!

One of my favorite games is Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, its a first person shooter based in modern times with modern day weapons. Back in August I even got to go to the game developer's studio (Infinity Ward) and had a chance to meet their Community Relations Manager (Robert Bowling AKA: fourzerotwo)
When we have friends over we often will play a few rounds of multiplayer. One of my friends doesn't have an Xbox 360 and usually gets owned pretty badly when we play (he's getting better as he gets more time on it) and as we razz him about it he usually barks back that he's "actually fired these weapons!" (He's an MP in the Air Force).
This past Saturday I got a call from this buddy, asking me what I was doing on Sunday. I thought he was going to invite me to golf and hadn't played in a while, so I told him I wasn't doing anything in particular and would be down for whatever. He then proceeds to invite me to fire off some automatic weapons and riffle mounted grenades... wait... did you just say riffle mounted grenades!?!?!? Um... Hell Yeah I'm down! So we get to the range and I'm told I'll get to fire two types of light machine guns (LMGs) the M249 SAW and M240 as well as an M203 grenade launcher mounted on an M16. Good times. All in all I squeezed off 200 rounds on the M249, 400 rounds on the M240 and 5 M203 rounds.

There's more pics and video here.

In the wee small hours.

Its mid-morning and already I've experienced the full gamut of human emotions. This morning I awoke to the sound of fighter jets flying by (there is a USAF air defense base in Fresno).
Annoyance: I am not generally a fan of being awaken by loud noises. I turned my head, still drowsy, and see this:

Panic: I start work at 8:00 (even though I am usually late, this is bad.)
Embarrassment: I realize its Saturday and I only work on weekdays.
Panic again: Why isn't my son up yet?!?! He's usually up between 7:30 and 8:30. I turn to where my wife sleeps... She's gone.
Relief: my son is fine and downstairs with my wife.
Guilt: I realize she's probably been taking care of the baby instead of sleeping for at least an hour and a half.
Fear: Worried about how I'll have to make this up to her.
Joy: When I see them smile at me when I creep downstairs.
Hunger: Going to take care of this now...

Did you know...?

Nintendo (of Mario and Zelda fame) will be 119 years old as of September 23rd of this year?

The company originally made playing cards back in 1889.

sources:
http://www.n-sider.com/contentview.php?contentid=34
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo