Monthly Archive for December, 2006

iTunes 7 on Vista RTM

Published
by
Mark
on Sunday 31st December 2006
in Software
. 1 Comment

I’ve been testing Windows Vista for work since we got our MSDN key a few weeks ago. So far, the RTM version of Vista seems more stable, and much less annoying, than the release candidates. I still have one big problem: iTunes still has problems.

This is the same problem I wrote about in September. My problem is that iTunes will fail to redraw itself properly after a few minutes of use. For instance, when I was browsing around my music library to make my Life Soundtrack, iTunes would just redraw the track lists on top of each other, making the track lists entirely unreadable.

I like to leave iTunes open on my desktop computer so that I can share my library with other computers on my home network. I will usually minimize iTunes to get it out of the way. When I try to restore the iTunes window, iTunes is as the active application, but the window will never appear. Sometimes iTunes will accept keyboard commands, so I can close it using Alt + F4 or Alt + F, X. At other times I need to use Task Manager to close iTunes. It appears that the application is otherwise running properly, as I can play tracks from my shared library even when I can’t get iTunes to show up on my desktop.

I am not sure if the source of the problem is Apple’s inability properly program for Vista, or if Aero has problems drawing the iTunes interface, or if my video card is an issue. I even wonder if the Cover Flow feature is at all to blame, since it significantly increases the graphics requirements of iTunes. Whatever the problem is, I hope it gets resolved soon. Vista will soon be the default operating system installed on new computers, and iTunes will surely be installed to support the many iPods in the market.

Need For Speed: Carbon

Published
by
Mark
on Saturday 30th December 2006
in Video Games
. 0 Comments

Among the many gifts I received for Christmas was Need for Speed: Carbon for the Wii. Chris gave it to me because she knows how much I like the NFS franchise of games. Unfortunately, the controls are not quite as intuitive as other Wii games’ controls, or controls for NFS games on other systems. I wrote a short review for the game on Amazon.com:

Need for Speed Carbon

I haven’t played any other racing games on the Wii, so I was excited when my wife bought NFS: Carbon for me for Christmas. In the first few hours of gameplay, I struggled to get the controls down. The default controls (using just the remote) seemed unresponsive. I found that the alternate methods were just as unresponsive.

I wish there were an option to try steering with the nunchuk’s joystick, rather than having to tilt anything. The joystick is only used in the non-driving interface, usually to control the camera when viewing your car.

As for the rest of the game, I find it pretty entertaining and challenging. The last NFS games I played were Underground 1 and 2. The free roam of NFSU2 was a great addition to the franchise, but the ability to jump straight to a race from the map in Carbon is even better. Also, the reward cards add a different element to the game, allowing you to earn rewards for various gameplay events or actions.

Overall, it is a pretty good game.

I’m taking a few days off of work this winter break, so I’m going to keep playing to see if I get any better. What I wouldn’t give to be able to use a dual shock controller instead of tilting a Wii remote or nunchuk.

Update: So, on Thursday, January 4th, I finally saw the two controller configurations that allow you to steer with the nunchuk’s joystick. I swear that they were not available to me the first times I played. Oh well, I’m still not going to use it because I’m used to the default controller configuration now.

Congressional aide tried to hire hackers

Published
by
Mark
on Wednesday 27th December 2006
in News and Technology
. 0 Comments

I’m a couple of weeks behind on my RSS feeds, so this is kind of old news. I thought it was hilarious, so I’m posting it anyway. Congressional aide Todd Schriber, press aid to Rep. Denny Rehberg (R-Montana), contacted attrition.org in August 2006 to hire a hacker to change his grades at Texas Christian University. ATTRITION is a security group that collects and disseminates information about computer security.

ATTRITION posted the e-mails between them and Schriber. Network World recently discovered Schriber’s identity. Schriber first denied any knowledge of the incident, but finally owned up to the e-mails after a few phone conversation with Network World. Shortly after the Network World story broke, Schriber was fired.

JD as CB

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 12th December 2006
in Movies and TV
. 0 Comments

I saw this video on YouTube of the Charlie Brown Christmas with the voices of the cast of Scrubs. It has some adult themes, so I won’t post the embedded video here. It’s pretty funny. I’m not sure of the background on the video, but I can only guess that the cartoon was redubbed with spliced audio from Scrubs.

299

Published
by
Mark
on Saturday 9th December 2006
in Video Games
. 1 Comment

That number will haunt me. It will haunt me because that is just one pin shy of bowling a perfect game. That is currently my high score on Bowling for Wii Sports. That damned 7-pin wobbled, then stood defiantly against my hopes for a perfect game.

It’s a good thing I’m not going to the Madrigal dinner tonight. I may be able to obsess over this and keep trying for that perfect game. I’ll just have to remember to eat something, or else Chris might hide the Wii from me.

Import your hard-to-find Wii accessories

Published
by
Mark
on Tuesday 5th December 2006
in Video Games
. 1 Comment

I was reading over at Play-Asia.com that Japanese and US Wii accessories like the remote and nunchuk should work on either region’s Wii consoles. I found this out via a NintendoWorldReport post after a lot of searching. A certain travelling teacher not going to hell may be able to get controllers and nunchuks before returning to the States for a holiday visit.