I love eBay. Sure it’s a place where one can ripped off and it’s a place where you can buy pretty much anything like someone’s soul or even an old Russian submarine! My needs are a little less grandiose or odd. I’m a fan of old games. You remember those don’t you? The games where you got a massive 200 page manual, reference card, map posters and numerous floppy discs all in a 5 kilo box. But the most important thing included was an actual good game!

Sadly those days are far behind us. Now our lucky if you get a manual in a crappy DVD case and the game is usually some derivative piece of shit that is a rehash of some other derivative piece of shit where you shoot people in the head many times over because that’s what the average ritalin fuelled gamer wants these days.

So I suppose eBay is somewhat of a saviour of mine in that it allows me to still get my hands on some classics that I might have missed the first time around. So what’s my point? Nothing really, I just got Taskforce 1942 today and now I’m happy.

On a recent CNN story regarding the introduction of “Peanuts” to Northwest Airlines in-flight menu (yeah, because that’s considered news!) a reporter must have had another thing on her mind due to her use of the word “Penis”. Not once or twice, but three times!! I suppose it’s a good way to have a break and get some time off work in the form of a mandatory suspension (possibly) seeing as how uptight the yanks are over anything the slightest bit rude. Look at at boob nonsense from the super bowl a few years ago!

Oh well, it certainly makes for funny viewing and what will most likely turn into the latest youtube sensation.

Not literally of course, although that would be good, but no.  After thirteen years of full time working I’m going back to University, something I should have done in the first place instead of turning a gap year into eleven year gap. So with a mix of excitement and nervousness that I do this again. But I’m looking forward to it.

It’s been an interesting a fun few weeks for me. I recently had my 32nd birthday and amongst other things, I received a shiny new D-SLR camera which I’ve been utilizing quite a lot over the summer with quite good results.  I’ve been posting a lot of the results on my flickr for all and sundry to see if that sort of stuff interests you.

As you all know, I’m not a yank (thank heavens!). But I’ll just say, I enjoyed the superbowl for what is was. As someone who is more used to the constant non-stop play of AFL Football, it was a little boring stop startish for me, but that last exciting play certainly made the long sit worthwhile. It certainly was an entertainment specticle though with a ripper ending, but still reeked of style over substance. I also find it a bit arrogant to call a team the World Champions when your about the only bloody country that plays the sport professionally, but I digress.

As for those superbowl spots didn’t last long did they? No matter, here are some direct QT links in 1080p HD, they look stunning on a HD display, so long as your PC has the grunt.

• Transformers 2 Superbowl Spot
• Star Trek

Well, it’s just over seven hours until the the yanks have their biggest annual sporting event in the superbowl and it’s late here in Australia. But good news, superbowl spots have gone up for several movies. More importantly though the Transformers 2 spot is online. Transformers was a film I totally enjoyed upon release, the perfect popcorn vehicle which didn’t take itself too seriously like so many other comic book/television show adaptations.

Now finally the next film is on the horizon and we can see a little bit of what to expect. Let me just say, Devastator looks KICK ASS! Weird, but KICK ASS nonetheless.  Oh, BTW Click the HQ link within the clip to view in HD. SD Vision is so rubbish these days!

What are you waiting for? CLICK, CLICK, CLICK!

Still reading??? Well that must make you a Star Trek nerd also, here’s one for you:

Personally though, Pixar’s new film really looks like total fun, much like Wall-E, Cars & The Incredibles before it!

This week marks a sad day for electronic nerds the World over. Pioneer announced that the last Laserdisc player has rolled off the production lines. Never anymore successful than a niche product, laserdisc to these eyes was a revelation in the early nineties for my movie watching. The quality of the presentation was far and above what I could achieve on my BETA or VHS player and many movies were enjoyed by this  movie lover, even to this day. Looks like I’m going to have to take extra special care of my player now otherwise I’m not going to be able to play my definitive edition Star Wars trilogy set.

Well, Windows7 seems to be running quite well so far. Installation was super easy, and relatively quick too. I never had brought Vista myself, use it myself at work so the Windows7 layout seemed like a logical extension of Vista.

The new pinned taskbar is a nice feature where you can pin your most commonly used programs. It’s much better than the quick launch within the start menu of XP. Auto windows update is also a much smoother, easier experience too. Speed of the OS is surprising from these eyes. Compared to XP or Vista for that matter, Windows7 flies!

Compatibility with my exisiting software is all good so far. That said, I haven’t chucked a lot of my old legacy games on yet, that may be another story. Knock on wood.

So how did you go in your Windows7 Beta download adventure? Talk about fun just get a beta.  Microsoft have really got to overestimate the demand on something like this. Do they use commodore 64’s for servers or something??

Well obviously not, but it’s a staggering thought about the amount of data transfered in such a short amount of time: 2.5 million downloads x 3 GB image = 7300 TB = 7.15 PB. In a 12 hour download session, that would require something like a 175 GB/s connection. Glad I’m not paying the bill!

Anyway. I’m off to install. Hopefully I see you on the other side from Windows7 land.

Got the new HD Basics Blu-Ray yesterday which I’ve used to re-adjust the settings on my BRAVIA television. Previously I’d posted settings for my “X Series”, but these new settings are wildly different to my previous settings.  I quite like these new settings, they bring out excellent shadow detail with very natural colours.  Novices may not like these settings due to the fact that there are no overblown colours and a low brightness level. But the detail in return is quite astonishing compared to the previous settings.

Let me know what you think.

• Backlight: 2
• Picture: 85
• Brightness: 52
• Color: 55
• Hue: 0
• Color Temperature: Warm 1
• Sharpness: 51
• Noise Reduction: off
• MPEG Noise Reduction: Low
• DRC Mode: Mode 1
• Black Corrector: Low
• Advanced C.E.: Low
• Gamma: Low
• Clear White: off
• Color Space: Standard
• Live Color: off
• DRC Pallette 50/60
  • White Balance
  • R-Gain: -7
  • G-Gain: -7
  • B-Gain: 0
  • R-Bias: 6
  • G-Bias: 4
  • B-Bias: 0-10

• Detail Enhancer: Low
• Edge Enhancer: Low
• Motionflow: High
• Cinemotion: Auto 1

I’ve also attached images below taken after calibration. They’re not totally indicitive due to the camera, but they give a good idea of what the image is like.

Kevin Stalin????

Here in Australia we’ve had a new government for just over 12 months.  Typically for a labor government they’ve done a rubbish job. They’ve taken a 20 billion plus budget surplus and put it into the red. Rudd has also fallen for what I call the “chicken little” trick. It’s the alarmist condition that the hippies of the World use to trick us into believing that the World is coming to an end. So now they are going to propose a carbon trading scheme. (Even though as a country we don’t pollute half as much as countries like China or America). And now the do-gooder state is going to place taxes on what they would class as “unhealthy foods”. These do-gooders won’t be happy until we’re all living in plastic bubbles locked away from the world.  What a fun bunch…

Really they’ve got to be kidding. Some of these “unhealthy foods” include Vegemite, Blue Cheese and Jams because of there high salt & sugar levels. Talk about a nanny state. They want to control what we eat due to high salt and sugar contents, but things like McDonalds, KFC and Hungry Jacks are exempt. There’s something a bit wrong there isn’t it. Sounds like yet another dumb idea just like the proposed Internet filter.

Obviously Kevin Rudd loves the works of George Orwell. I remember what it was like living in a free an democratic country. Now the hippy communists and there politically correct agendas are filtering through into mainstream politics which means that for us, our lives are becoming controlled more and more. Gone are the days when Australia was a free country, where adults were allowed to make their own decisions about their lives.  First there was the Internet filter, now they’re telling us what we can and can’t eat?  Next you’ll find that Rudd will be monitoring all of  our activities, institute a blanket curfew and execute dissidents. Looks like I’m in trouble. And you thought communism was dead!