I wonder if anyone uses their Slashdot Journals anymore in this age of blogging. It's like everyone and his grandma is running a blogging service of one kind or another.

Looks like the Slashdot eds are toying with the idea of giving the old place a lick of paint and a brush up. Frequently reloading the Slashdot homepage will bring up the following

http://images.slashdot.org/slashtitle-hard.gif

Horror!! Changing the Slashdot Slogan(TM)!! Such blasphemy will not go unpunished! Then again when you've run with the same slogan for eight years...? Oh well, I guess we're overdue for the apocalypse anyway. This would also help explain my ever decreasing estimation on Deathclock.

Slogan change aside, I'd just like to say that the watermark circuitboard scheme will NOT work as a face background not matter how much you tweak it. Face backgrounds should be plain. In the title maybe, but for the love of God don't condenm the world's tech head population to a lifetime of squinting painfully at headlines. Even though most of the clever ones have switched to RSS feeds by now. It's the comfy chair for them! With TWO coffees at eleven!!

There's yet another discussion about Half-Life 2 and Steam going on. Some might wonder why so many slashdotters defend Valve, yet would scream blue murder if Microsoft ever tried anything remotely like Steam.

Two reasons I think.
One, the games section is populated by windows pc gamers, more so that regular tech heads. Most of these are young and innocent when it comes to IP issues. Kind of like a missing link between regular users and frequent slashdotters. Anyway, these gamers do love their games and the companies that make them and will brook no critisisms of them. They're also more likely to be confused by comments slamming windows XP, as they still regard it as "Way cool! I have a computer with XP!"

Two, Steam gives you Half-Life 2 which is a very popular video game. An MS scheme along the same lines would just give you Windows. Not so popular. People will support one and not the other simply because Steam gives them something they really want. I'm sure if Half-Life 2 was awful, no-one would support steam. It's kind of like people who've eaten whale meat, at special restauraunts.(Before you burn my house down, I haven't) Anyway, these people, having tasted the whales flesh are much more open to the idea of hunting whales than other. Well, I know of at least one person who was dead set against hunting whales, a big conservationist. He went abroad, sniffed a whale meat stand, took a bite, and now he's softened up to the whole idea. Apparently it tastes like beef, go figure. The point is, slashdotters hated Steam, then they tasted Half-Life 2, and now they're alright with the whole idea of Valve licencing a video game. We're all just animals underneath it all!

My 2 cents.

I've just spent the last TEN HOURS trying to draw THREE simple images of circles, rectangles, lines and one or two pasted in images. TEN HOURS I've spent swearing, cursing and damning the eyes of whoever decided that "Hey the GIMP is GREAT!!!! Let's thrown everything else out the window!!!!" GENIUS!!!! BLOODY GENIUS!!! ARRRGGGGHHHH!!!!!!!! ...ahem...

As I was saying. The GIMP sucks for making images. Here's why from http://www.gimp.org/
"The GIMP is the GNU Image Manipulation Program. It is a freely distributed piece of software for such tasks as photo retouching, image composition and image authoring. It works on many operating systems, in many languages."

The GIMP is designed for editing images! It is completely useless at creating them! Yet in Fedora what Image Creation Utilities are available by default. Why the GIMP of course! You've also got KPaint v0.6. The danm thing doen't even have a fill tool for christs sake! And let's not forget XFig. Why move into the modern era when you can play arounf with vector graphics for hours. Vector Graphics?!?! WTF?!?! Xpaint people!! Hello!!

Once again Redhat play right into the hands of the naysayers. Newbie Linux users starts fedora. Newbie user hates browsing around in spatial mode. Newbie user can't watch movies. Newbie user can't play CDs. Newbie user can't play MP3's! Newbie users can't even scribble around in a simple mspaint type app!! Newbie user cant update system! Do redhat actually care if they attract new users or not?

The general newbie user will walk away from fedora thinking, "Linux is useless". And you know what? They'll be right. If distros continue with this idiotic structuring the Linux desktop will never get anywhere. You don't attract more linux users with the lastest sendmail or ssh versions. Users don't go, ohhh and ahhh, just because bash now supports 64 bit Unicode languages!!

Users want an easy to use, simple system with good apps! They don't give a shit about security. You supposed to do that! They don't need the GIMP! they need Xpaint. They don't need Rhytmbox! they need a working CD player! They don't need spatial browsing!! That sucks ass!!

Linux's future, like most things, depends on getting new people, paticularly young people to support it. New users will only venture into a system if it is friendly to them in the beginning. Newbies will not put up with complicated apps and having to configure /etc/yum.conf to get anything to work, and they shouldn't have to.
Windows will be dominant for the next 40 years! At least! Why? Because millions of kids grew up using windows! They started with solitare, played with paint, worked up to net browsing and went on from there. Legions of users who got good at computer by starting from the simple basics and working up from there. But on most distros, there are no simple basics! You've thrown straigt into the deep end, and guess what? Most newbies sink, or thrash their way back to XP. Why is it that the entire Linux community seems to think that everything is perfectly user friendly right now. Whatever I need to do I can get done using bash and perl scripts. Why just watch me sudo right now

I remember my first forays into Linux. I almost gave up right there. It's as if the Linux community is suffering from some collective brain damage when it comes to UI. We don't need it. We have bash. Meanwhile millions, nay billions, run screaming from the Linux Desktop paradigm. Don't make it easy to use unless you really really have to!

What was I ranting about again? Oh yeah the GIMP. Take my advice friend. Get yourself some of that #yum -y install xpaint. And for any newbie user, who would quite rightly be perplexed by that last one. It means log in as the root user(computer administrator), run the yum program(a software updater application) telling it to answer yes to all questions when installing xpaint(a graphics program very like paint on windows).

You see that's what people need to say to newbies. Not Just edit /etc/runinit.4/ to point to /dev/hdb2 on boot. That is not helpful. We should _never_ have to say that to a new linux user. The fact that we do should be the biggest indicator of all that something is wrong with the linux desktop.

I'm going home to draw up those picture on a windows computer. I don't have right to the university computers and xpaint won't compile. I'll be amoung the great unwashed, uninstalling spyware if any of the people who designed Fedora would dare to retort. Good day to you sir!

I just read this slashdot story about how users across the globe are simply accepting spyware on their computers. As one poster puts it this kind of "clueless luserdom" is rampant on the net. I've got at least one friend who thinks like this. He just doesn't care if bearshare is spyware or not. He just wants to use it.

I used to think he was an exception, but after reading the story and reflecting on expierience, I realise that we are the exceptions. Most people will willingly, nay, gladly sell their privacy for a simple malware music sharer or cd ripper. Maybe we're all just paranoid? Maybe people should just accept eWallet, Download.com, spyware, adware, malware and of course Jay Patel and his legions of data mining spiderbots.

This thought depresses me more than any recent story I can think of. I mean, is the human race just destined to live in blissful ignorence. Are we just preprogrammed to fall for the pretty smilies of that small cunning few. Are most people really just sheep that blindly follow orders. I want to believe that people are otherwise. I want to know that people are individuals, capable of drawing their own conclusions and seeing past rosy curtains to the truth behind. Stories like this put a dent in my faith.

I don't believe all this acceptance of spyware will be without consequence. I believe people who knowingly accept spyware will come to regret their decision. They already suffer financially by having to buy a new PC every two years. But I feel that a larger problem lies in store for them. I don't mean this in a patronising way. I mean that I think a lot of bad things are going to happen to people who don't deserve it beacause of an uninformed choice they made. Global dictatorship, or just more junk mail? I don't know. But I refuse to belive that their are no consequences for so much personal data in the hands of private companies.

"Halo 2 is going to be the biggest game ever!!! It's already got more preorders than San Andreas did!!!"

Thus was I greeted when I arrived into the computer room this morning. And thus Have I been greeted, on and off, every half hour or so, for the last week, and to a lesser extent, the last three years.

Yes that's right folks. Halo 2 is out and if you, like me, cannot recognise that it is The Greatest Game Ever Made(TM) without ever having played it, then you clearly lose on a new level. If you have not yet been awed into submission by the earth-shattering demos, you must be banished forevermore from the lands of the faithful. And if you dare suggest that any other work of mortal hands is even half that of Halo 2's option screen, you will be flamed even unto the very gates of hell itself, to languish Haloless there for all eternity.

OK First off, I don't own an Xbox. My first heresy, is complete.
Second, my favorite FPS, was Red Faction. My blasphemies are boundless.
Third, I'm not going to buy Halo 2. The magnitude of my sins, is unprecedented in all the annals of scripture. But I digress.

I repeat, Halo 2 is out. And with it comes Hype and Marketing, the likes of which, ye have never seen. As I said, I've been stopped on numerous occasions over the last week by madly grinning Halo 2 evangelists, gleefully telling me cheery facts, proving that Halo 2 is the second coming... of Halo. Everyone has been going, on, and on, and on, and on, and on, and on about Halo 2. Websites, magazines, ads, newspapers, blogs, phones, reps. Its guerrilla marketing site ILOVEBEES, featured four times on slashdot. And that's just the bloody marketing campaign. It's already been voted the second greatest game of all time, after only one day! Hell! It even featured on the news last night!

Q: What's the reason for all this?
A: "OMG OMF!!111 h410 2 15 50 gr34t!!1111 U L00Z3R!!11"

No, no I think not.

Q: What's the reason for all this?
A: Patriotism. or to be more specific Console Patriotism.

"L00Z3R!!1111 Ur ju5t 54d!!!111"

Remember all the hype surrounding Halo? Remember all the tales of online play and enemies so smart they just couldn't be beaten? Remember how people went out and paid $500 for a Xbox, just to play one game? Remember the reviews?
And after all that, people now complain about the repetitiveness of the single player campaign, the lacking marine(and enemy) AI, and the absence of Xbox live play.
I played Halo. I was a cracking good game. But it did NOT deserve the hype that surrounded it and it did not deserve the after party criticism it received once the initial hype wore off.(Only to be replaced by anticipation of Halo 2) People complained about the two weapon system(which was good). People complained about the speed. People complained about the lack of Bots(legit). People complained about the difficulty(clearly never played on legendary). People even complained about the coop mode because the second player did not appear in the cut scenes?! WTF?! Remember the complaining. I'll get back to it later.
And so Halo 2 is upon us, promising to fix everything that was wrong with Halo, refine and redefine the FPS genre, bring net generation graphics to this generation of consoles, and deliver the greatest game experience of your life. And the fans will start the whole thing up again. Why?

Console Patriotism.

The reason Halo was hyped so much had nothing to do with the game. It had everything to do with Xbox fans desire to prove to themselves and everyone else, that the Xbox was the No1 Console, with all the No1 games, and that the Dreamcast,GameCube and PS2 could bite it dust.
Now this console patriotism is nothing new. Remember the whole Sonic and Mario thing, between sega and nintendo. Remember how all the kids used to shout down the other console owners and proclaim how much superior their own console was? Remember that? this is exactly what happened with Halo, and it's happening right now with Halo 2.
The current hype is not being driven by Bungie, MicroSoft, ILOVEBEES or anyone else, though they are steering it. The current hype is being generated by console patriotism. Console gamers have made an emotional purchase in buying one console over the other, and they will seek to justify that purchase to themselves and everyone else. Everybody's done it, at some stage. You just
have to get through enough consoles to overcome it completely,(like me :E) Halo 2 is the biggest example, but remember Fable, KOTOR? They were hyped too, but more on that later.
Is there an acid test for all this? Or is it all OMF BS? A little from column A, a little from column B! But seriously, think about this for a sec. When the next Halo 2 fan boy start waffling on about covenant troops that can do high school maths try this test. Tell him you preferred Fable, or KOTOR or some other big shot Xbox game. He'll scoff, or maybe agree that that was a good game. Now tell him you preferred San Andreas. Any results?
The Xboxers hate the PS2. Just like the Mega Drivers and SNESers hated each others consoles. It's even worse of the Xboxers though, because the PS2 is so far ahead, despite the Xboxes clear technological superiority. And GTA:SA, one of the PS2's best, and released right before Halo 2, makes the bile rise in their throat. Bring it up at a Halo 2 convention, or a forum, and watch the flames fly. Not that it doesn't work in reverse as well. PS2ers hate the Xbox because it is so superior. And they loath the fact that Halo 2 got more hype than GTA,(so I suppose the Haloers can be happy about that at least).

They all however, have missed the point.
Console Patriotism only leads to disillusionment

Console Patriotism is just like regular patriotism. It's irrational, dogmatic and blinds people to the truth. Usually this truth is that they're being conned. And of course it will lead to disappointment.

Halo,Fable,KOTOR, even GTA:SA by now. All were hyped to the max. Now they are all fantastic games, but that hasn't stopped people complaining about them, usually very vehemently. I've played GTA:SA. Anyone who complains about it is a twat. I've played Fable. Anyone who complains about it is an idiot. I've played KOTOR, anyone who complains about it will be killed by Star Wars fans for being heretical. Not that the games were perfect mind. But they were miles ahead of the usually junk that clutters game store shelves and no one complains about. In fact people usually give mediocre game more credit than they deserve. that's emotional purchase again.
It's inevitable. If you took part in hyping a game, believing the dogma that this game was going to be the greatest experience of your life, transcending normal human existence, then, when you at last take it home and find it was just software running on a processor in response to your input, you'll feel more than just let down. You'll feel bitter,cheated, betrayed. You'll grow to dislike, or even hate the game, as some have done to these great titles. Already (H2 day +1) people are complaining about Halo 2's ending, mip mapping and multiplayer. I haven't played it yet, but I know it will be a cracker of a game, well above these petty criticisms.
What I'm getting at here, is that Hyping and Console Patriotism, in the long run, are doing damage to the game industry.
How many people bought an Xbox just for Halo, only to become disillusioned and sell the thing, for a loss, at a later date. The same thing has happened for years, and the more it goes on, the more over hyped games people buy, the less they will buy in the future.
Halo 2 happens to be one of the worst example so far(no it won't live up to the hype, nothing could), but there are many other example on every console, and there will be more for years to come. My greatest worry is that companies will use the example of Halo 2 to try the same thing with titles of only half the caliber. Where will the good games go then?

I hope you've read this little treastie before you played Halo 2. If so, remember. Halo 2 is a FPS. A damn good one. Enjoy it for that, not for the fantasy created in chatrooms and peoples minds. And if you've come here, disappointed after playing what was supposed to be the greatest game of your life, go back and play it again. It's still a great game, you just missed that because you were looking for something that wasn't there.

Here's an old email exchange I had with one of the mass mailers in the university. He sent out an ad to all students about a room for rent. This is common practice in my university and none of the mass mailers seem to think there is anything wrong with it. This is paticularly annoying now that Daft.ie is available to advertise rooms for rent at modest cost. I'm posting this here so I can link to it in an Ask Slashdot story I'm submitting.

Perhaps my replys were a little curt, but I was really irked by the amount of mails of this nature I've been recieving. The guys replys were pretty bemusing.

Note: I've censored most of the name of persons involved. I'm vindictive, but I'm not about to go posting raw mail address onto the web. The list of student names is present, but I don't think a list of names very descriptive, I could be wrong. And sorry about the 'backwards' format too.

Well on with the show

----------------------------------------------------

From: ***@***.***.*** [mailto:***@***.***.***]
Sent: 11 February 2004 15:08
To: [ObsessiveMathsFreak]@***.***.***
Subject: RE:

I fyou were interested in the house you reply if not you delete it, I
thought that would have been quite obvious, clearly it wasn't don't
bother
replyin to this email!!!
Original Message:
-----------------
From: [ObsessiveMathsFreak]
Date: Tue, 27 Jan 2004 21:06:40 -0000
To: ***@***.***.***
Subject: RE:

So why did you send me the original email. You included me in your send
list. You expected a reply.

> -----Original Message-----
> From ********
> Sent: Saturday, January 24, 2004 12:11 PM
> To: [ObsessiveMathsFreak]
> Subject: re:
>
> Did you not understand my last email? i don't want to hear from you,
> your opinion is very unimportant to me, leave me alone you maggot
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [ObsessiveMathsFreak]
> Sent: 22 January 2004 09:16
> To: *********
> Subject: RE:
>
> Then don't send me any more mass emails. They are very annoying.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: *********
> Sent: 19 January 2004 21:01
> To: [ObsessiveMathsFreak]
> Subject: RE:
>
> Could you stop harassing me please. I really don't
> appreciate this kind of email.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [ObsessiveMathsFreak]
> Sent: 19 January 2004 09:21
> To: **********
> Subject: RE:
>
> I've reported you to the itd department for
> sending mass unsolisited emails
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: *********
> Sent: 17 January 2004 11:04
> To: [OMF Note: Lots of names. ~1600 I'd say, but this was just the R-N's]
> Subject:
>
>
>
>
>
>
>
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>
> CONTACT: (***) (*******); (***) ******* [OMF note: both mobile numbers]
> OR
> Reply to this E-mail

--------------------------------------------------------------------

With WinFS closing in upon us and GNOMEs recent move to spatial browsing, it seems that the whole world is going to be moving towards a SQL search based filesystem, in which we use queries to locate our files and where deep nested floders will be a thing of the past. Using metadata on files, we will be quickly and easily be able to find the ones we want amid the heaps of data that now resides on our hard drives. Or will we?

First off what are the reasons behind the switch? Isn't our current filesystem good enough as is? Apparently not according to this OS news article, in which the author argues... I have seen, over and over again, that novice users ... don't get the concept of a file hierarchy. ... 80-90% of the computer users do not need more than 5-7 folders where they put their documents .

I think this is a valid point, if the figues are a little exaggerated. Most new home users will typically not know where to place files initially, or how to navigate a filesystem. They may well be confused by directories and trees, up and back buttons.Novices will also have to face the real issue of simply where to place their files. Microsoft, to their credit, have attempted to solve this problem by giving users the 'My Data' and 'My Pictures' type folders. Open by default by various programs, it gives users the options of simply saving their files to a predestined folder. However it runs into difficulty when hundreds, if not thousands, of files reside in only one folder. The user is now overwhelmed bu the sheer amount of data presented to them.
So what are we to do? Is the current storage ethos all wrong? How can we better cater to novice users? Is a metadata/spatial/query based filesystem the answer?

A filesystem is, at its most basic level, a method for storing files. To do so it must supply answers to a users two questions:
1)Where are my files?
2)Where do I put my files?

Microsoft and others have proposed a query based filesystem running on metadata. Metadata can certainly be very powerful, as Google has shown us. But our computer disc drives are not the web. Files typically do not reference other files. They are self contained, at the lowest level. Google relies on the fact that web pages link to one another. Files don't.
But at least with a query based filesystem, novice users can simply click save and not worry about filesystems or where exactly the file has gone. Also, once saved users can call back the file with a simple query. This would seem to solve both questions in one fell swoop. But does it.

The analogy often used with WinFS and other query filesystems, is that of a user saving pictures and then retrieving them. This example is probobly used as this is exactly who the system is catered towards, a home users saving their pictures, videos and some documents. Such a user will typically not have a huge volume of data, and even if they do they can use previews to see the data they want.
But what about the serious users? The accountant will multiple excel sheets, the programmers with hundreds of source files, the secretary will thousands of word documents. Even the pre-teen with half a dozen games might run into trouble with this system. Why? It has to so with Question One. Where are my files?

Take everone favourite computer relative, Aunt Tillie. How will Aunt Tillie use WinFS. Most likley she will just type in 'pictures' or 'photos' into her query. Perhaps with a 'last august' as well. She will find her pictures from her last august holidays and be happy. When she takes here christmas pictures, she will just save them and will type in 'my christmas pictures' and will find them. Novice bliss.

What about Joe? Joe's an accountant who's just bought a new computer at work with Longhorn. He has upwards of 1000 excel sheets with customers data. How will his query be structured? 'Report for sales to Toyota in august'. Dozens of files could sping up, all with exactly the simlar title. Ones from previous year, gross sales, sales returns, files linking to that file. The file he wants may not show up as some other accountant worked on and saved it just last week.

What about Max? Max is a programmer with hundreds of source, config, init and version files. How will his query be structured? 'Main.c for database project'. Every main.c on the computer could show up, along with every source file on the database project. He may be left to search through quite a lot of files.

Query filesystem proponents will argue that Joe and Max's problems stem from their bad metadata, or that their queries are not detailed enough. But whose job is it to properly form this metadata? The program will most likely fail in this regard as most of the metatags, author,type,size,name will be quite similar. So are Joe and Max expected to fill in metadata? Are they expected to go to the trouble of typing in more detailed queeries for data they may be unsure about anyway? Last august or september? Is this easier or harder than creating a depp nested folder structure, as Joe and Max have been doing for years?

In short a query/metadata based filesystem assumes that the user does not know where their files are. This might be true for novices, but is certainly not for anyone who has uses a computer regularly.

Query filesystems will make things easier for messy users but harder for tidy users? Is this right? Metadata will be hugely usful, and there is no reason not to incorperate it into our existing filesystems. But to abandon directories and deep nested files as some would argue will be a road doomed to overloaded failure.

Such is the cocky, uninformed, ignorent and luddite tone of my first journal entry anyway. Please comment if you agree or disagree, or indeed if you have read this at all.

Well, I finally got one of these blog things the kids today rave about, all thanks to Slashdot! I found out about a variety of self-hosted blog packages after a /. story featuring a comprehensive blog comparison matrix. So I ended up installing Nucleus.

I was so inspired by this that in a rage of creativity I also remade my main website into more of a games storefront and pushed the development stuff to the back. The storefront is a PHP-Nuke module I wrote that calls Amazon.com web services using PHP. I had a lot of fun putting this together!

http://www.proliphus.com (press the blog button)

or

http://sites.proliphus.com/blueZhift/blog/

Back in the '70s, when IBM ruled the mainfraim computer world like Microsoft now rules the PC Computer world, they pretty much invented the idea of using FUD to keep customers in place. Richard Stallman's principles on closed source as a weapon to use against your customers arose in the context of (and probably in response to) IBM's treatment of customers and rivals... A treatment that is echoed in Microsoft's activities today.

Is IBM a paragon of the Open/Free Source movements? no. On the other hand to the extent to which they take on, accept, and promote the principles of the Open/Free Source communities, they should be encouraged to continue doing so. The should also be discouraged from activities at odds with our principles.

The thing here is to not depend on IBM to carry the Open Source community. Just about any corporation is the the equivalent of a meta-psychopath. It's the nature of the legal entity. We can be thankfull that SCO has decided to fire the first big volley of the Open Source war at IBM -- a company quite capable of absorbing and returning that kind of fire. We can also use that situation to our advantage, but that shouldn't stop us from holding IBM to account if (and when) they violate Open and Free Source principles

This is where the US fell down with the US and Osamma. The USA allowed, supported and even trained these people to do things that were against the (overt) principles of the country. The CIA trained Osamma in the terrorist tactics that he's now using against the west -- they knew that he was a psychopath when they did it. It could be said that that's why they traind him. They also provided much of Iraq's WMD technology. During that same period, the US gave only the most tepid support to Nobel Laurates and other advocates of peacefull tactics and human rights. Then, the US ignored international law and widespread disagreement in chosing the timetable and terms of an invasion of Iraq. Given that history, it's no surprise that the US is now mired in a nasty and violent uprising against them. Few people in Iraq trust the US's motives and tactics, and rightly so.

You very much reap what you sow. To that end, I agree with SUN questioning RedHat on the "openness" if their most recent corporate tactics. I may com to a different conclusion, but I agree with asking the quesiton. It's important that we don't lose sight of our principles in promoting our goals. The fact that one corporation or another is the current darling of the Open Source / Free Source communities shouldn't stop us from questioning them about things that they are doing that go against our principles.

"What good does it do to gain the whole world if you lose your soul" applies as much much in the social and political world as it does in the personal/religious world. The "souls" being spoken of may be very different in the two contexts, but the principle remains sound.

It's a fun explanation, but I think that the anti-particle thing is a bit odd. It doesn't pass Ocam'z razor test.

On the other hand it got me thinking: Perhaps an explanation for the quantum problem really is a parallel universe, but what's hsppening is that the photons are essentially 'phansing' in and out of the parallel universe. It's the phasing of the particles which determine their interaction. The Photons that 'arrive' at the dark bands are simply consistently in a 'dark' phase (i.e. in the alternate universe and, thus, non-interacting).

This would allow photons to keep their particulate state, and simultaneously explains their wave features.

For further explanation "Parallel universe" ~= extra dimensions.

After what seemed like an eternity, Final Fantasy XI Online is in the house! The installation and set up of the hard drive was pretty easy. And I really love the background music that accompanies the menu screens.

One thing I immediately noticed was far greater use of multimedia candy in setup screens and such. I definitely like it!

As for the game itself, I've only played maybe 3 or 4 hours at this point mostly taking in the sights and learning my way around. I got the impression that a lot of the new PS2 players may not be playing with USB keyboards because chatting with other n00bs like me didn't evoke many timely responses...or maybe it was my breath!

It'll be interesting to see how this develops. I'm really pulling for Sony and Square that this will be a big success. So far, I'm having a lot more fun here than I did on EQ or SWG! Ugh! Still 10 more hours before I can play again!

Arghh! My poor wallet! There are too many good games coming out this year!

Right now I'm counting down to Final Fantasy XI for PS2. After much thought I decided to go with the PS2 version because upgrading my console is cheaper than upgrading (ie rebuilding) my PC. Besides, playing in the living room is sooo much more fun.

Later this year, hopefully Gran Turismo 4 will make its appearance stateside. Along with all of the expected eye candy, I'm looking forward to racing minivans! Yep, I heard minivans will be in there too. I'm just waiting for the NASCAR Better Homes and Gardens Cup Minivan Championship now...:-) In the meantime, maybe I'll take Need for Speed Underground for a spin.

Oh, is that my XBox screaming for Knights of the Old Republic? Could be... I generally like to stretch my purchases out over time, but there's just too much out there now. Man, my wife's gonna kill me!

Dale Jarrett wins the Budweiser Shootout, at last the NASCAR season has begun! Oh yeah! :-)