Conversations in the Back Room: XBox 360 Elite

The following conversation is top secret. It was transcribed from an actual (not really) conversation at Microsoft on the new direction of the XBox 360, more specifically the XBox 360 Elite.

Engineer1: Hey, did you hear about Luke.
Engineer2: I sure did. I heard he got canned for badmouthing the Zune. What an idiot. Just wait and see...that wifi feature we thought of is gonna take the world by storm once everyone wisens up.
E1: Well...he didn't exactly get fired. He actually just signed on over at Apple to work on the new iPod.
E2: You gotta be kiddin me. That lucky mother f*@cker. I send them my resume at least once a month.
E1: Yeah, but whatever. I think we're doing big things here.
E2: Damn skippy. I happen to think we did a pretty good job with this new XBox.
E1: We'll see. Just gotta get final approval from the big man.

Enter Bill Gates

BG: Hello gentlemen. So...what do ya have for me.
E1: Check it out. We call it the XBox360 Elite. It's black. It comes with a 120GB Hard Drive, HDMI, a wireless black controller, and a black headset. It's gonna cost $480.
E2: It's priced a little high. But we're aiming at the hardcore downloading gamer here.
BG: I think I like it.
E1: But, that's not all. So we don't alienate our base of gamers that already have a 360, we're offering XBox-to-XBox hard drive transfers when you upgrade via cable.
E2: And...for the clincher. For the cheap gamer downloader out there, we're offering an add-on 120 GB hard drive for a very competitive price of $80.
E1: I think the hard drive price will really make people happy.
BG: You guys are idiots. Of course the hard drive price will make people happy. They could get a core system and the hard drive for $20 less than the premium system, and $100 less than the Elite.

(long awkward pause)

E1: (speaking slowly) We could...um...make the hard drive...cost...um...$180.
BG: (thinks for a minute) Fine...sell it.

(exit Bill Gates)

E2: We're gonna get fired.

Why My Girlfriend and My Wallet Will Hate Me By September

May 4: Spiderman 3
May 18: Shrek the Third
May 25: Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End
June 1: Day Watch; Knocked Up
June 8: Ocean's 13
June 15: Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer
June 22: Evan Almighty
June 27: Live Free or Die Hard
June 29: Ratatouille
July 4: Transformers
July 13: Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
July 20: I Now Pronounce You Chuck and Larry
July 27: The Simpsons Movie
August 3: The Bourne Ultimatum
August 10: Rush Hour 3

Now I love Movies, but I don't think there is any way that my girlfriend would accompany me to see all of these in theaters. No way my wallet could take it either. What the hell was Hollywood thinking.

Things I Like...Things I Don't Like

Things I Like

1. Road Trips under 4 hours
2. Being on the other side of an interview
   

Things I Don't Like

1. Road Trips over 5 hours
2. Parallel parking
   

Saving for the future: A Perspective

I was reading a post over on GetRichSlowly and it got me to thinking about the future. To paraphrase the article: She is 28; she makes $43K/year; she has $30k in retirement, a car to be paid off in 5 months, student loans to be paid off in 3 years at an aggressive $270/month, and nearly perfect credit. But contrarily, she seems unhappy with her financial situation, as others around her are out living life and taking vacations while she peddles by on ~ $700/month.

As I was reading the article, I could not help but to picture myself in one of two extremes at the age of 28. The first extreme following in exactly the same footsteps as our protagonist: Pinching every penny and living for the future for fear of a meager seniorhood. The second extreme involves my having everything that I covet as a poor college student... a home theater, a motorcycle, a city condo, etc. but being totally unprepared for the future (baby, layoff). I've never been the type to wast money frivolously, but on the other hand I do like to treat myself every once in a while.

To get back on topic, the title of the post is "When Does It All Pay Off". The first thing that came to mind after reading the article is...It Doesn't. If you always have your heart set on the future, then you will never take the time to enjoy the present. You have to take the time to enjoy yourself, or life will be long and unhappy, but secure. I do not advocate living beyond one's means or buying a bunch of crap, but doing things that make you happy every now and then helps to keep you sane.

Never mind when it all pays off. When does it all end? I don't think a person wakes up one day and says, "I'm financially secure. Now it's time to start living life."

Have a weekend getaway every few months. Go out on the town with friends some nights. Buy those $100 shoes you've been eyeing for four months. Just not all at once. If stretched out over the course of a year, these things wouldn't set you back far at all in your overall plan.

Useful Useless Tools

So I was getting my daily dose of Lifehacker, and I saw the headline Combine Several Word files into one without copy-and-paste. So, I clicked through to read the article and found that a free Microsoft Word add-on was the genius behind the scenes. I thought to myself, "What a great tool!" A few weeks ago I had to painstakingly combine two similar resumes into one document.

So, I downloaded the item and began to install it. But shortly afterward, I stopped. I realized that I would never ever use it. It's not that I would not find cause to use it, but that by the time I need it I will have probably forgotten that I have it. And I began to reflect on the other "great" add-on tools that I've downloaded but never use.

Mouse Gestures and Download-Them-All for Firefox. Stuffit Expander for archiving. Rainlendar. The list can probably go on as I am sure I have forgotten others. But the point is that when I have a use for one of these niche tools to serve a need that seldom arises, I either do it by hand before I remember that I have the tool, or I just plain forget about it.

A few nifty tools are great when used. What I really need is a program to remind me to use all of these other programs when I need them. I'd just probably forget to use that too.

Seeing Classic Movies for the First Time

A few months ago I got my first DVR, a Motorola box from Comcast. I am also an off and on user of Blockbuster online and Netflix (depending on the availability of free or cheap trials). But anyway, I am starting to watch a lot of classic movies for the first time. My girlfriend and I use Yahoo! Movies, Rotten Tomatoes, IMDB's top 250, and previous Oscar winners to decide which films to watch.

Recently I have watched The Graduate, Schindler's List, The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly, Raging Bull, Ed Wood, Pulp Fiction, Taxi Driver, and A Clockwork Orange just to name a few. Some them I liked. Some of them I didn't. And others...I just didn't get. Not that I didn't get the movies in and of themselves, but I didn't get the cultural impact that most of the movies had...and I hate that.

If a movie is lauded because of its cultural appeal and timing, then chances are that I am not going to get it if it was made before 1988. I know that one day movies like The Matrix, Children of Men, and Little Miss Sunshine (all of which are on IMDB's top 250) will be to future generations what Taxi Driver and A Clockwork Orange were to me.

I've got a few more classics yet to watch like The Godfather, Casablanca, It's A Wonderful Life, and others. Hopefully when I am finished with them I can say "I Get It".

For the record...
Movies I liked (Pulp Fiction, Schindler's List)
Movies I disliked (Ed Wood)
Movies I didn't get (Taxi Driver; A Clockwork Orange; Raging Bull; The Good, the Bad and the Ugly; The Graduate)

What Grinds My Gears Gripe of Today: SI.com

So, being a guy, sometimes I like to read sports stories. My daily dose of Sportscenter does a bang up job of covering most of what I want to see, but, sometimes I miss Sportscenter, or I may want to read a nice convincing editorial on who knows.

Most of the time I head to Espn.com to get my fix. Well, CNN.com does have a sports section, and most (if not all) of their sports stories link to SI.com (sports illustrated). Tell me why the writers of SI feel the need to inundate the website with suuuuch loooooong stoooories. Take a post from today on the sports section of CNN.com entitled "Fearing mistake, teams leery of trading at top of draft". It's an article about how many NFL teams would rather trade away early draft picks rather than waste time and money (but mostly money) on unproven players. It sounds like something I would normally want to read. Go ahead...give it a look.

Its Five. Freaking. Pages. Long.

Now, I am not a slow reader. But I certainly don't want to read a five page article. This is why I stick with ESPN.com. Sorry SI.

Things I Like. Things I Don't Like.

Things I Like
Radio Personalities - Good FM radio personalities should make more money...they make my day
Nintendo Wii - envy of mine
RSS Feeds - they just make life easier
XBox 360 - I just like the idea of having one
Springtime - loving the weather

Things I Don't Like
Pollen - ack
HD-DVD vs. Blu-Ray - c'mon, give me a break
Playstation 3 - almost Sony. almost.
Sony in general - just seems like they're trying to hard

Interesting point of view on Smokers

"You know what sucks...that, when people are smoking around you, you can't just go up to them and punch them in the face." --Angry friend of mine

After the initial shock of the comment, one starts to think. That is absolutely true.

Zune's Real Competition: Media Player

Well how could that make any sense? Here's how.

Why did Microsoft spend the time concurrently developing Windows Media Player 11 and the Zune software at the same time. Both turned out to be pieces of shit. Okay, maybe that was a little harsh. I actually kind of like WMP11, but it is not where it should be. There are a lot of little issues that irk me, none of them quite a deal breaker for a pc user, but irksome nonetheless. When you're trying to dethrone the king of all portable media, you have got to be nearly flawless. This is (obviously) the 11th iteration of Microsoft's music management software. They should have gotten it right by now. The Zune media player should have been something to work perfectly within the operating system, and WMP11 I might add. Instead the Zune software is full of bugs. The Zune doesn't play well with Vista or MCE proprietary recording formats. Seems to me things are out of whack.

Zune's about the music with the new fangled MTV Urge stuff. WMP is about all media as the name implies. Why not try to bundle all of the features into WMP11. Oh, and by the way, please tell me where the podcast support is. I have a Creative Zen that syncs with WMP, but I have to use iTunes to gather podcasts (don't get me started on Creative software).

Let's examine how Apple conquered the world of portable music to gain some clarity. They were first to market which obviously no one can repeat. Initially they were plagued with bugs in syncing, but they worked it out. A luxury they had because they were first. At this point the iPod only worked with Macs. Here is where the history was written...iTunes. Apple opened up the software to PC users. If a PC user wanted to own an iPod they could do so as long as they had the software. If they didn't want an iPod, hey no problem, they could still try out iTunes. Guess what. Many people tried the software first and later migrated to iPods.

Why is Microsoft alienating Windows users with their Zune software? Let's examine my own personal journey. I was in the market for an mp3 player right around the time the Zune came out. My personal choices were as such: iPod, Zune, or Zen Vision:M. I ultimately chose the Zen Vision:M over the Zune on ergonomics and price. But what if I were able to use the Zune software with my player. Or, better yet, what if it's features were bundled into WMP11. I might have fallen in love with the software. You may ask: How does that benefit microsoft if you continue to use their free software with someone else's player? Here's how. The Vision:M's software is not very good. It's good enough, but not great. Next time I'm in the market for an mp3 player, I would likely go for the Zune instead of something else just because of the software.

Instead, things are complicated. If I were someone not so tech savvy, someone with no desire to do market research, someone who just wanted to buy a player and get on with life...what would I do? iPod. Why bother with anything else.

Apple Dissertation: An Exercise in Rambling

So I've come to discover that I have an obsession or enfatuation with Apple (not the fruit, nor the celebrity baby, but the company). But its not the typical Apple fanboy obsession. I don't own a mac, but rather a pc. I have a Creative media player rather than an iPod. I have no intentions of owning anything from Apple in the near future. Not an AppleTV. Not an iPhone (read jesusPhone). Not an 8 core mac pro. So where does the Apple obsession come into play.

I think I'm more obsessed with the apple phenomenon. I often find myself wandering into the Apple store on mall trips to gander at the pretty white computers like the average (rich) joe schmoe. I sometimes use an iMac at the library just for kicks. But, at the end of the day I come home to my pc. Don't get me wrong though, I'd gladly accept a 30-inch iMac if offered.

I can understand why some people do it. Sure I could ask why one would pay $2,000 for a laptop when you can get a comparably equipped windows pc for a damn site less. Why pay $600 for an iPhone that doesn't do corporate email. Why spend $300 on an AppleTV when an xbox 360 can do the same and more for $100 more. I could ask that, but I won't. There are some hardcore computer users out there that swear by macs. Nearly all of the Lifehacker editors use them, and they are some of the most resourceful and productive people out there.

But what about everyone else? What about Joe College who's gotta have a macbook. What about Tabitha Teen who needs nothing but an iPod. What about Business Bill and the iPhone craving. Does great marketing really have that big of an effect on people? Is Apple a superior company or does everone else's marketing just plain suck? Granted, when apple does decide to include in its products, they make sure it works well and beautifully. But sometimes after using OSX or reading specs on the latest products (AppleTV, iPhone), I'm left with an overall feeling of..."Is that it? Is this what people swear by? Does cool mean that much to people?"

So, basically what I'm getting at is this. I need to get rich. I need to start a business. One where I could give people less of what they need at a higher price, while making them exceedingly happy and undeniably smug. That appears to be the secret to success. Or I could take the Bill Gates route: find a way to rule the world and the money will follow.

What to Expect

So, I mentioned in the last post that I really didn't know why I was starting a blog. Well it's partly to work on my writing, since everyone in the whole corporate world values it as a valuable skill to have. But aside from that, its just to have a place to have an opinion on things. Of course everyone has a blog by now, from tweens to baby boomers and everyone in between. I don't know if I even want anyone to read this, but its nice to have someplace where, years and years from know, I can look back and say: "I knew it" or "I called it" or "I told you so". Any of the above will suffice.

So what should one expect from this blog. Movies, Technology, and Sports dominate my interests, so there should be a lot of opinions about that. But moreso than the above, life in general. I am at a transitional point in my life. I don't necessarily know that things ever get harder as life progresses, but they do get more complicated. I'm not even out of school yet, and I find myself already worrying about retirement, and college funds for my children, and marriage, and my first house (home theater baby!), and just everything. I've got massive loan debt. I haven't procured a job yet. I don't know what lies in store.

Basically what worries me is uncertainty. I've learned a lot in college and I can't say the majority of it has been while seated in a class room. Everything is political. From everything to everything. I can't say I like it, but I must accept it. Living life is about building relationships and using people. The latter I have really struggled with and probably will continue to struggle with. (I'll elaborate on "using people" later, because I don't necessarily mean that in a bad way.)

Talent and aptitude only go so far. Life is about building bridges and taking short cuts. These may seem like two contradicting philosophies but the genius comes from knowing when to use each.

Who knows...This may be complete crap. I'm only 22.

The Grand Opening

First Post...Ugh. Firstly, what the hell do I say. Secondly, what the hell am I going to write about. Only God knows why I decided to start a blog, but here I am...writing away. Part of the reason is that I am an insanely slow writer. Not to say that I talk slow or that I think slow (it's actually quite the opposite), but when it comes to writing, it just takes forever to get things going. Hopefully this blogging thing will help. Since I have nothing to write about, I'll start with something that has been (as Peter Griffith puts it) "Grinding My Gears" for quite some time. Who knows maybe this will become some sort of a "What Grinds My Gears Gripe of the (insert-arbitrary-time-period-here)".

I have been telling myself that I would start a blog for a while now and that this would be the first thing I wrote about. Well to lay the foundation a bit...I work at a gym and have for quite some time now. I am no Lance Armstrong myself, but I would say that I am fitter than 90% of the (American) population. I exercise regularly but I don't always eat as healthily as I could. I have abnormally high cholesterol for someone my age and weight (genetics...sigh) but that's neither here nor there. So, anywa...to the story.

I am a senior (super-senior as some affectionately know it) at Georgia Tech. So, the gym that I work at is, as you guessed it, the Georgia Tech gym. So, during the day, we get a lot of faculty and staff members coming in to use the gym on their breaks and what not. Well a particular person, who would remain nameless even if I knew the name, comes in to the gym everyday around noon. Said person is more than overweight, in fact I would venture to quite obese. If anyone were reading this they would say, "Great! Good for You! I'm glad you decided to take hold of your life." But uh-uh. Said person's lunch hour is spent in the gym cafe, eating perpetually unhealthy foods, watching soap operas, and chatting up gym staff. I know the phrase has manifested itself in many a form and for many a reason, but I'll say it here just for kicks: That's what's wrong with America.

Firstly, why make the trip to the gym at all. Secondly, Oh my God. Thirdly, we happen to have TVs in all of our exercise equipment, so a modest 20 minute workout would leave a hefty 40 minutes for lunch and chatting without missing nary a minute of precious soaps.

Whew. Glad to be rid of that. I actually hated doing that, but I had to get it off my chest. Bye for now.