On Sunday night, I passed my 2nd Apple Certified Associate certification test. This one was for iWork 09. A few weeks ago, I passed the test for iLife 09.
While these certs aren’t a big deal, they did allow me to learn more about the Apple software, and I gained much bigger appreciation for iWork, which I had not used until I began studying for the test. iLife is a good suite as well, but I don’t see myself really using anything more than iPhoto and iMovie. (more…)
If you’ve spent any time reading through my blog or profiles at Twitter or Facebook, you’ll know that I’ve become quite fond of my Mac and OS X. On September 27, 2008 one day before OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” was released, and less than one year from when I first started using a Mac I obtained a Apple Certification. That’s right, I am now an Apple Certified Support Professional (ACSP) 10.5. I’m also looking at becoming an Apple Certified Associate for both iLife ‘09 and iWork ‘09, as well as following up my ACSP 10.5 with the 10.6 which should be available in a few months.
Where to after that? I’m planning on obtaining the CompTIA Linux+ and Network+, and at least one of the Microsoft SQL Server certifications. Obtaining all three of those will help save me about $6,000 if I go back to school, which is something I am looking into for next year. I am already a Microsoft Certified Professional for Windows 2000 Pro as well as a A+ Certified Technician. I would also like to continue my Apple certifications with the Apple Certified Coordinator, Apple Certified Technical Specialist, and Apple Certified Systems Administrator.
What does this mean for me? No, I don’t get any kind of discounts at the Apple Store (I wish!!). It just shows that I know a bit about OS X. It’ll help me should I apply for a job with Apple or at a company that uses Apple products. I learned quite a bit while studying, and will hopefully be able to help support someone. 
Who knows, maybe one day you’ll see OverclockersClub.com open a Apple related website.
Came home this afternoon, and my Windows Vista system was sitting on a screen everyone loves to see. No, not the BSOD, but rather the boot disk failure screen. Yippie.
After a few reboots, the system came back online for a while. Though I did notice an odd sound coming from the system. Upon further inspection, I was able to narrow it down to one of two hard disks. And about that time, the system crashed again. Grrr.
Disconnected the FUBAR disk, disabled the RAID in the BIOS, and now Windows has been reinstalled and is downloading the available updates. I reckon a 2x 500GB setup was a bit overkill for a system that did nothing more than sit and run Folding@Home. I do have to hand it to Microsoft, Windows Vista does feel like it installs much faster than XP. Granted, it’s been ages since I’ve done a full install of XP.
Yesterday afternoon Microsoft released the much discussed Xbox 360 fall update which contained a major overhaul to the Xbox 360 dashboard. Dubbed Xbox Experience (or NXE), the new dashboard operates much faster, but takes some adjusting as it is drastically different.
With the new update users now have the ability to create cartoony “avatars” (very similar to Miis on the Nintendo Mii). Hopefully they’ll be some more customization options added later on (and hopefully they wont cost MS points).
Probably the biggest thing is the addition of Netflix. That’s right, you can now stream movies from Netflix to your Xbox 360, provided of course that you have a Netflix membership. This might just cause me to renew my membership. 
One last thing that I’m happy to see is that you can now “install” Xbox 360 games to the hard drive. I’ve not tried it out yet, but it’ll be nice to not have to swap out disk to play games.
On the downside, since updating to the NXE I’ve had some major problems with my system just freezing up. Granted, I did just get my system back from Microsoft after a RRoD so this may be pure concidence. However, some folks over at Neowin are also reporting freezing during games or while on the dashboard. Anyone else having problems?
Feel free to friend me on Xbox Live. As you’d probably expect, I use the gamertag “d3bruts1d“.
Early this morning, I received an email from the Microsoft XBox repair shop. Thankfully, the subject of the email made since, or I might have suspected the email from Xbox_ AOC Web EN (XBOX_.HARD.NA.00.EN.000.000.TS.T01.SPT.00.WB@css.one.microsoft.com) to be spam. Seriously, what’s up with the email address?? Was repair-services@microsoft.com already taken??
The email states that my XBox 360 has been received by the service center. Good news indeed, as the UPS tracking number I had showed that the package was delivered on 11/07/08 @ 3:45 pm. Following the link included in the email, I’m taking back to the XBox “repair status” website, which shows that not only has it been received, but repaired and reshipped. I even have a new UPS tracking number that indicates it is on its way back to me.
While I applaud Microsoft with the quick turn around time for fixing my XBox, clearly their notification system needs some tweaking.
So, yesterday afternoon while the wife was sick in bed, I was playing a bit of Fable II (which I’m rather enjoying). I paused for a moment, and when I came back my game was frozen. At first I thought the issue was with the controller, but quickly ruled that out. I shut down the system, and when I turned it back on a minute later, there was nothing.
No video, no audio, and not even a Red Ring of Death. The power light was there, and the drive would eject, but other than that I had nothing.
So this afternoon, I decided to give it another try. Turned it on, and bam! Red Ring of Death. So, I’ll be sending my Xbox 360 back to Microsoft so they can fix it a second time.
I applaud Microsoft for attempting to fix the issues with the Red Rings of Death, but when are they just going to give up on the 360 like they did with Vista and just do stupid commercials? 
I kid, the 360 is nowhere near as bad as Vista (or Office 2007!).
Everyone refers to the Xbox 360, PS3, and to a lesser extent the Nintendo Wii as a “next gen” gaming console. Does that mean the next round of consoles (Xbox 3602, PS4, Wii2) will be third gen, or will they just be the new “next gen”? I know, who cares, right?
A while back Apple announced to investors that there would be a “product transition”. No one is really sure what this is, or when it would be. Some think it was the new iPod Nano, the change to the iPod Touch, or even the new MacBooks. Others think it may be some kind of NetBook or Apple Tablet. Still others think it could be a new networked type TV. And some people think we have yet to se it.
Well, what if Apple were to venture into the realm of console gaming systems… better yet, what if they already had, and you didn’t know it. Perhaps you already have an Apple console in your living room, office, or bedroom. It may not be as big of a stretch as you think. (more…)
Neowin.net turns 8 years old on October 1, 2008 and to celibate they are having a little challenge. If the Neowin forums can reach 8 million posts by 10/01/2008 then they will be selecting one active member and giving them a copy of Windows Vista Ultimate.
Ok, so it may not be the best price to win, but its sure better than buying the OS.
What are the chances of hitting 8 million posts by then? Pretty good. 7 days left, they are already sitting at 7,984,042 total posts. All they need is 2,300 posts per day. Not a hard task if everyone helps out. When the contest was first announced (May 7th) they were sitting at 7,640,544 total posts which means they’ve been averiging 2,471.2 posts per day. See, we should be able to make it no problem!
In case you missed it on Plurk or Neowin, Wednesday afternoon I bought my first Mac. Yes, you are reading that correctly… I now own a Macintosh computer. To be more specific, I now own a Mac Mini. Why a Mac Mini? Well for starters it was cheap. (more…)
Too Human might best be summed up as a beautiful disaster.
So far, it has been an extremely fun game with some major flaws. Flaws that for the most part have really aggravated me. It leaves me wondering how any developer who played through this game while testing could have found it to be fun or enjoyable.
Flaw #1: Death – Death in Too Human is inevitable. Sure, there are achievements available for completing a level without dying, but if you aren’t playing in co-op with a healer, I do not see how this would be possible. Thankfully, when you die the monsters do not regain health. They are, as they were at the moment of your death.
So then, what is the problem you ask? My problem with death in the game is the 25+ second “animation” that you are forced to watch each and every time you die. While it is a beautiful animation the first time around, after that it is simply annoying, and by the time you finish the game you’ll have spent a good hour or more doing nothing more than waiting for this sequence to finish.
Flaw #2: Lack of Healing – Flaw #1 is greatly brought on by Flaw #2. There is only one class withe the ability to heal himself, so if you are any other class you have two ways of recovering health. Leveling up, which you should not rely on as your healing method, and picking up health orbs. The bad news about health orbs is they are few and far between. And when the monster’s swarm at you, you’ll need them a lot fast than you’ll get ‘em.
Flaw #3: Control – Too Human is one of the few games I’ve ever seen where the developers for some reason decided not to allow you to edit your controls. Personally, I think the game would have been much easier had the attack been based off of the left control stick rather than the right stick. Alas I cannot test my theory.
Flaw #4: Into The Great Wide Open – Too Human has some amazing areas. Most of which are grand, and empty. Take Cyberspace for example. You’ll spend a ton of time in here. Never once fighting an enemy, but rather running back and forth waiting for areas to become open to you. Sadly, the greatness of these areas don’t really make much since. It’d be like playing GTA with no people or vehicles around. Just a power up every 20 miles or so.
Thankfully, done of Too Human’s flaws are anything major and pretty much can be fixed with the release of a patch. And, as this game is first in a planned trilogy, I’d like to see some fixes before the next game is released.
In all, Too Human can be a fun game. Though my recommendation is to wait and see if a patch is released. Without a patch, I can see a number of people throwing their 360 controller through their TV.