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.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
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.
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.
Monday, April 9, 2007
Things I Like...Things I Don't Like
Things I Like
Things I Don't Like
- Road Trips under 4 hours
- Being on the other side of an interview
Things I Don't Like
- Road Trips over 5 hours
- Parallel parking
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
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.
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.
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)
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)
Monday, April 2, 2007
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.
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.
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