Insanely Awe-dical

2009 Gaming in Review - Part 1

2010-01-05T13:59:00.000-08:00

Closin the books on 2009 and my list of completed games for 2009 looks pretty decent - revisited an oldie but goodie, finished at least 3 games that were games I've played more than 50% at one point only to have to restart them this year and finally finish them. I've completed more than 10 games this year, and I'm going to post about each game and what I loved about them - SPOILER alert for all of these games, but since only two of them are 2009 releases, I'm sure not many people will care.

2008 ended with my birthday and Kate giving me the acclaimed Gears of War for my birthday. I was very excited to play the sequel one of the most exciting visceral shooters ever and I wasn't disappointed.

Gears of War 2 (completed Febrauary 2009)

The gritty intensity returns. This game provides more of the same - over-the-top manly action killing and chainsawing grubs along with a ho-hum story. Some great intense gunfights and revelations and an online system that was just as fun.

Favorite moments: Lab with the AI security system. Unleashing something and chainsawing my way out of the lab. Intense gunfight through the razorhail. Horde mode till 4 in the morning.

Sly Cooper 3: Honor Among Thieves (completed March 2009)

With Gears of War 2 complete, I set my sights on an old favorite that slipped by. Kate and I loved Sly Cooper 1 - one of the few games we played together and beat in less than 15 hours or so. Sly 2 was excellent as well, but never completed it (on the backburner for now).

Sly 3 continued the open world character specific questing that Sly 2 did, but introduced more characters with each chapter. This adjusted the approach to missions as new characters had new abilities - for example, the Guru cannot attack, but can mount bad guys and make them run into each other.

The story was well told as well, opening with the final heist (and Sly seconds before death) and the rest of the game explaining that Sly needed to recruit a gang of specific skills to pull off the heist.

Favorite moments: Finding out the last boss was part of Sly Cooper's dad's gang and seeing how gang camaraderie is different between them. Also, the scenes with Panda King fighting himself, as well as the epic battle against Tsao on the bamboo shoots. Great ending and I hope there are more Sly Cooper games.

7 Years of Bozasm.com

2009-12-29T14:45:00.000-08:00

Tomorrow marks the 7th year of Bozasm.com.

When this started, a blog was a lot of fun and a nice outlet for writing about randomness and sharing thoughts. Since then, facebook, twitter, and texting have become the most accessible sources for brief blah blah stuff.

Of course, this still works wonders when it comes to making larger updates, but then they automatically get transformed into facebook notes anyways, so I'm theoretically reaching viewers (none), rss readers (1-2) and facebook people who read notes (5% of people who read status updates).

Regardless, the writing isn't for anyone else's sake; just my own I suppose and it never really mattered to me "how many people were reading this"

The content this year has been few and far between, but bozasm.com lives on through it's current bits and pieces.

In the last 100 months...

2009-09-01T11:36:00.000-07:00

In the last 100 months, I've graduated from high school, college, got my first car, got my first full-time job, moved to Las Vegas, bought a new house and proposed to my girlfriend.

But in the last 100 months, I have not asked a girl to go out with me. Happy 101 months with Kate.

On June 5th, 2009 I asked Kate a question...

2009-06-10T23:25:00.000-07:00

...and she said yes.

What a Month!

2008-11-19T11:52:00.000-08:00

My game informer came in the mail and LittleBigPlanet is ranked as the game of the month - and honestly - what a month it is!

In the very same issue came reviews of Gears of War 2, Fallout 3, Fable 2, and Mirrors Edge. Also reviewed is Chrono Trigger and Wii Music. A hell of a month and plenty to salivate over.

I didn't even see a review for Call of Duty, which is most likely going to be another amazing title. Next month has Left 4 Dead and probably some other amazing games I'm omitting.

PS3 has a lot of catching up to do, but I feel like Xbox 360 is going to beat it by a landslide this holiday season. Of course, Big N tops all charts with the Wii selling 800k and DS selling 400k, easily demolishing MS's 300k and PS3's 190k. Of course Sony headlines it as the "Playstation brand" hitting 370k, but that is a combination of all of their PS systems (PS2/P/3).

Major Steps

2008-11-13T15:10:00.000-08:00

I watched Psycho when I was a lot younger - in the Theater for Joseph Guzman's birthday. I remember going to AMC Theaters after Driver's Education, so this puts me around 15-16 years old - pretty much in the middle of puberty and my manliness had been developing at an unprecedented level.

It was the remake of Psycho, starring Vince Vaughn as Norman Bates. I didn't know Vince Vaughn would soon be the excellent talker Trent Walker from Swingers - a personality I would eventually adore and emulate to some degree.

Anyways, the movie scared the crap out of me. The music, the tension, the suspense. Of course, the iconic shower stabbing scene was burned in my memory, effectivly scaring me from showering with shower curtains (luckily my bathroom at the time had a door, which I felt was more secure for some odd reason).

Since then I have been terrified of scary movies, and have adamantly put my foot down in refusal to watch them. Sometime later I would go see End of Days, which is, by comparison a really horrible movie, but I would leave the theater prematurely and sit outside until it was done - something I have never done prior or since.

My imagination runs wild in scary movies, and it paralyzes me at night, surrounded by silence. I try to stay strong, but it was difficult to be strong against what my mind imagined.

I told myself that I would beat this thing, and I have told Kate in the past that I wouldn't mind watching Scream and various horror movies with her - in an attempt to stay strong and be a real man. She never called me on it or pushed me to do it - something I really adored about her. She must have known that it was something that really was not something I wanted to do.

Fast forward to now - I'm approaching my 26th birthday, which makes it roughly 10 years since my first viewing of Psycho. I told Kate that I felt like facing my fear and had agreed to watch scary movies with her, in fact, suggesting some movies I wouldn't mind watching.

Yesterday, I watched the Hitchcock original of Psycho on AMC, and while the murder scenes were scary, I expected them all and was able to watch it and appreciate it from beginning to end. That was followed by watching the Descent, another horror-type movie. I had my jumpy moments but i survived.

I played Resident Evil 2 in high school and loved it. It was highly regarded as an A+ title and I beat it from beginning to end. However, I did beat it using a strategy guide, while I played it during the day, with the sound off and the radio on. I hope to play great games like Bioshock, Dead Space, and Resident Evil 4 without resorting to those mechanisms and enjoy those A+ titles the way it was intended - dark, frighteningly gripping edge-of-your-seat exciting titles.

ROWNUM and its nature

2008-10-22T21:40:00.000-07:00

The application I work on selects members from a database. Sometimes we want to select a specific subset of the the rows, and we use the database variable called ROWNUM to accomplish this.

For example, if we want the top 100 members we ask the database:

SELECT MEMBERDATA FROM DATABASE
WHERE ROWNUM BETWEEN 1 and 100

This properly returns 100 people.

However, some clients want the next 100 members, so our application asks this:
SELECT MEMBERDATA FROM DATABASE
WHERE ROWNUM BETWEEN 101 and 200

However, this second query returns 0 members. Apparently the ROWNUM value doesn't represent what I think it represents. A quick google search returns the following explanation:

rownum is a pseudo column. It numbers the records in a result set. The first record that meets the where criteria in a select statement is given rownum=1, and every subsequent record meeting that same criteria increases rownum.

Found at http://www.adp-gmbh.ch/ora/sql/rownum.html

This means that asking for ROWNUM BETWEEN 100 and 200 will not give me *anyone*. The first row in the result will be ROWNUM = 1, which is not between 100 and 200, and therefore NO results return. We adjust the query as so:

SELECT MEMBERDATA
FROM
(
SELECT MEMBERDATA AND ROWNUM AS ROWNUMBER
FROM DATABASE
)
WHERE ROWNUMBER BETWEEN 101 and 200.

The inner query returns all of the data and their associated rownumber (assigned the variable ROWNUMBER). Now that the number is generated, all the outer query sees is two real values - MEMBERDATA and ROWNUMBER. It is able to limit the results by that real data column, and does not fall prey to the rule associated with the psuedo-column. Now we can get the MEMBERDATA of exactly the 100 people we want to target.

Twitter Account and Bozasm.com

2008-09-12T10:37:00.001-07:00

I started getting unknown followers on Twitter and decided to set my account to protected so that only those who are following me can receive my updates.

As a result, my twitter feed on bozasm.com was then locked, and prompted users (at least while I was using Google Chrome) to enter a username and password to see them. Obviously this is not a user-friendly experience, as the twitter feed is for all bozasm.com readers to see, but only I have my own password.

Anyways, hopefully nobody got any hiccups from reading my posts due to that issue.

On discussing RPGs...

2008-09-08T13:04:00.000-07:00

I have an email chain with Drkoo and we've been discussing RPGs and how I've been migrating away from JRPGs (which I played and loved to death as a kid) and enjoying other style of RPGs, such as Knights of the Old Republic. I mentioned Morrowind and Oblivion as games I'm going to check out next and he responds in classic fashion:

I remember playing Morrowind for Xbox for about 10 minutes and thinking I'd rather watch Gigli.

Classic. This is what Headbutt Games will be all about. These sort of off-the-cuff remarks Drkoo can bring to the table will definitely give excellent spicy flavor to our site of gaming debates.

The Time Zone!

2008-07-31T10:07:00.001-07:00

We had a dilemma at work. We had deployed our application to a server for testing and it had been working properly. We decided to get another server prepared for one of our potential clients. We had set up the box and put in all of the groundwork and it was ready. We installed the application and opened it up in our browser and saw the login screen and were happy.

Except, when I login, the page refreshes and presents me with the login screen again. The page is supposed to refresh and grant me entry to the application. This is actually handled by a cookie - the page first determines user has no cookie and displays login screen. When user logs in, it creates a cookie and the page then sees the cookie on refresh, and grants user entry.

We had run into this issue in IE7, but not in Firefox - very odd. At the end of the day (really almost 2 days), Mike discovered the server was on Mountain Time, but had the current time in Pacific Time. The result was the cookie was being created, but for "one hour ago." Therefore the cookie was expired, and rejected by IE. IE renders the page as if it has no cookie - resulting in the login screen once again. Simply adjusting the time fixed the issue.

Gears of War Review

2008-07-21T09:55:00.000-07:00

This was one of the games that I had on my list of "Games to get when I get a Xbox360" I've had the 360 since Christmas (Thanks Kate!) and had not yet picked it up (the reasons for this, I can't recall them clearly).

Either way, the cheap price tag at Gamestop and having the idea of playing co-op with a friend that's in town was tempting, and I picked it up this weekend. One thing I remember reading about Gears of War is that it constantly topped lists of "Games to play to show off your HDTV." I was excited to see the visuals, and I know that the 5.1 sound on FPS games never disappoint. I'm reserving my opinions and curbing my excitement because Call of Duty 4 blew me away so much, that I almost feel like I can't be that impressed anymore.

The game has a dark tone, but hardly has any exposition - you start controlling your character within a minute of starting the campaign and you're moving around. You have a chance for a quick tutorial with the controls - using weapons and finding cover, and you're in the battle very quickly.

As opposed to standard FPS, this uses an over-the-shoulder perspective. Technically, it's a TPS (third-person shooter), but unlike Stranglehold and Max Payne where the character is centered, this character is situated to the left at about 1/4th of the screen. This prevents your character from getting in the way of your target, and I feel is a good choice.

What this perspective also creates is a sense that you're right there in the battle. The in-battle intensity is unmatch and distinctly different from other FPS games. The fray is intense with the emphasis on finding cover (a rock slab, a broken car, the edge of a fountain). With your enemies finding cover as well, your forced to flank your enemies. The cover system shines here, giving you commands to allow you to slide to a adjacent wall, jump over a wall and dash to the next wall, and other transitions to get you in flanking position. I want to pay special attention to the dash, which is really like a crouching run, but the camera gets set low and shaky, giving it the feeling you're watching a documentary.

Sometimes you get to flank your enemies - but sometimes you're both hiding behind opposite sides of the same wall. This is a great time to rev up your chainsaw bayonet and get in there melee-style. The chainsaw on your machine gun has a satisfying effect, with blood spattering on the screen and the enemy being horrificly sawed.

There isn't much to say about the visual and the sound other than it's an amazing experience and the in-battle intensity is fantastic.

Like Call of Duty 4, it's fairly short, but it's very satisfying. Call of Duty 4 did an excellent job of putting me in the battle and feeling the fear of the gunfire, grenades and artillery. Gears of War has a much more raw intensity about it through it's use of cover, camera angles and amazing visuals.

Dogs at the office

2008-07-14T09:55:00.001-07:00

So I'm at the office. I walk into the door I always walk into and I hear these noises. It sounds like sort of random tapping on a door. I look around and apparently there are sounds coming from around the door - the door right by my desk. It almost sounds like Snatch or Bailey pawing or tail wagging against the door.

Normally I'd freak out for a second, then chill out. But the sound is still there 1 hour after arriving. And while I'm working, all I can think about is - dammit someone let Snatch/Bailey in or give them a snack or something so they chill out.

Does this make me look fat?

2008-07-10T22:30:00.001-07:00

I was at Starbucks this morning to get a morning jolt, while waiting for my coffee, this skinny lady behind me started ordering. She asked some question about some mint, or iced or some weird drink, and the barista was confused. He said "Oh do you mean the Mint Nonfat Latte?" She scoffs "No - wha? Do I look like I need it?"

My face immediately went to a cold grimace - what arrogance . I can imagine that could say it jokingly, but this woman was in no joking mood - her tone indicated that was almost subtly insulted.

Then I thought - what if the barista was a cold, woman-judging bastard? I suppose then that should be an excellent retort, but I believe the barista was caught off-guard with the questioning to be quick enough to veil an insult in a response like that. In fact, kudos to fast-reacting insulting barista. You made me a great triple shot latte and you insulted the bitch. Kudos indeed.

The Double-Click Event

2008-07-10T22:30:00.000-07:00

At work, we are working on a list of items that we want to rearrange. We have added Up and Down arrows next to the list, and upon clicking on up or down, our code moves the selected item up or down. Often, we had a user add an item to this list, which brings it to the bottom. They intended it to be on the top, so they click on the up arrow rapidly to bring the item to the top of the list.

The effect is a sort staggered move - the clicking isn't responsive for every click. Only by clicking slowly, do we see the correct behavior.

Today, Mike realized the problem - we were responding to the "Click Event" and it was behaving properly, but we were not responding the the "Double-Click Event" If you click twice quickly, the Click Event registers for the first one, and the Double-Click Event registers for the following one. The result - one click we respond to, and one click that has no code to react to it. Mike coded in the "Double-Click Event" to mirror the effect of teh "Click Event" and voila! A responsive up and down arrow images that move up and down the list quickly.

It happened again (Car Trouble)

2008-07-09T22:50:00.000-07:00

A couple of years ago, Kate got into PA school and moved to Las Vegas. I was still stuck in Irvine, and made a plan to visit Kate for the weekend. As I hit Baker, I got a call from her - her tire had blown out and she was stuck. She was safe - parked at a non-descript parking lot in a safe part of town.

Luckily, I know how to change a tire, and I told her I'd get there and help her. I started to change the tire, and things did not go smoothly. One lug nut had a key, and upon trying to take it out, I ended up wrenching off half of the face of the nut. Another lug nut was simply very tight - I was able to remove the nut, but I also removed a portion of the actual rod it was connected to it. As a result, I'm left with a lug nut I cannot remove, and a lug nut I cannot replace. It's been a long day and a long drive and it's late - I vote to lock the car, go home, and get the tow truck in the morning to get it taken care of.

The next day, it's the hot Vegas summer, and we call to get a tow truck. We are new to town, and tell the tow truck company we are at the Jones exit off of the 215 freeway. Apparently, there is another Jones exit off of the 215 elsewhere, and we called the tow truck company to confirm - we are at 215 and South Jones. The dispatcher/operator said that's what they had down before, and we were sure it would be fine. WRONG - we waited for over an hour with no truck and called back. The dispatcher confirmed that the truck had gone to 215 and N Jones, and was on their way to us (link to maps showing difference in distance).

The Vegas heat had been getting to us, and we waited patiently. Eventually someone comes - some lanky dude in a car - not a tow truck. He comes out with a tire iron thinking he'll save the day. He sees the problem we had and said that we needed a tow truck. NO SHIT SHERLOCK - we asked for a tow truck. Another hour or so in the heat pass and a tow truck comes. They say they cannot tow the car because the busted tire is a rear tire and it's a front-wheel drive car. Well great - we have to wait an additional hour or so for the flat-bed truck to pick us up.

After a day of waiting we get to Pep Boys, where they tell us that the Toyota dealership tightened the lug nuts way too tight. We complained, and received compensation from Toyota, but it is not without losing 4-6 hours of my Vegas weekend in the god-forsaken heat.

What an ordeal. But the crazy thing is - IT JUST HAPPENED again:

Kate's car breaks down

She just got it serviced from Toyota a couple of days ago

Her lug nuts are fucked up and can't be removed manually

Tow truck company sends guy to wrong location (this was a confusion between i-15 and i-215 link

Company sends tire guy who can't do shit and calls a tow truck for us

This damned bad luck and incompetence is ridiculous. As insult to injury, when the tow truck comes to save us, he asks which car needs to be towed. It's a legitimate question because now my car apparently has a flat tire. I rush over to change my flat, and upon doing so, realize that my hazard lights have been on for over an hour and my car has died. The flatbed took Kate's car away, while the tire guy jump started my car after i changed my tire.

I will say this - I feel lucky that it did work out that way - if the flatbed came right on time, my tire might have blown out while driving.

We ended up getting home around 9pm last night, stressed, annoyed, dehydrated (vegas heat damn you), and filthy (my shirt and pants had asphalt stains all over).

Just once, I'd like to be able to save my girl - get the distress call, go there, and change her tire and be the man. Both of these situations, I've been the guy who fails to change the tire due to Toyota's incompetent mechanic servicing.

Casual Fridays

2008-06-27T22:30:00.000-07:00

I just adjusted my pants and I heard a rip. Correct that - two rips (by the knee).

Sent the following text to Kate: "Geez I was adjusting my pants and they just ripped. Both legs by the knee now have a sexy tear. This looks unprofessional."

What did I do next? What any man would do - use Scotch Tape and tape 'em up. I'm not going home during lunch, and I don't have any business meetings - just gotta get through the day.

It happened again

2008-06-02T10:38:00.000-07:00

My fly was down. How long was it down? It was the first time I went to the bathroom today. I probably never even zipped it up this morning. I bet there are magnets in the floor in the bathroom - they just pull down zippers and embarrass men at the urinals.

This is the sad part of my morning. Back to work.

Pay Day!

2008-05-30T10:04:00.000-07:00

I get a little angry when I see my gross pay next to my net pay. I suppose it's almost AMERICAN to complain about taxes and how much the government gouges my bi-weekly check (moment of neurotic clarity: that's once every two weeks, not twice a week. I totally agree with Sheldon from Big Bang Theory - the term bi-weekly is ambiguous). I'm just doing my duty as a loyal/faithful citizen of this glorious country.

However, I suppose I should be happy that my taxes "only" take away 20% of my check, and not much more. I suppose a bit of dutiful math can help someone reading this determine what my salary IS, but that person has to be very curious, nosey, and decent at math (or google). Of course, there's the whole x-factor of how much I contribute to my 401(k), my medical/dental insurance, and my flexible spending account, which all comes out before taxes. That should effectively throw off any math that anyone reading this may or may not be capable of doing with or without the help of google. At the best, someone can come up with some range that includes my salary, all of which makes this incredibly moot.

Why are the lights off?

2008-05-29T17:38:00.000-07:00

Sometimes at the end of the day, the bathroom lights get turned off. It's not on some timer - there's a classic light switch in there, flipped to the off position. It seems like the perfect time for me to get murdered by the guy hiding in the dark. I flip the lights and it's usually fine though.

On a side note, we have those paper towel dispensers that have motion sensors. Sometimes when I'm in there by myself, I hear some the motion sensors click and some paper towel dispense. I suppose in movies that would be when an attacker is sneaking up on the protagonist, but something unsuspected (the motion sensor) tips off the hero in time to defend himself. I'm sure I'll be fine, but I need to remember to be alert next time that happens.

Personal Space

2008-05-29T11:03:00.000-07:00

So I went to South Point to go bowling the other night, and needed to hit the bathroom. This is a casino, mind you, readily designed to handle a large amount of traffic - including bathroom traffic.

It's close to midnight, so the casino is fairly empty, HENCE - the bathroom was empty as well. Against standard urinal rules, I decided to pick the first urinal I found. I'm not sure if people are aware of the standard urinal rules, the heart of the rules is: pee at a urinal where you have space to both your left and right, with a preference of one urinal open between a wall or another person.

Apparently, the guy that entered after me had no idea of this standard of rules. He had the option of about 10 stalls and about 15 urinals, and decides to trap me and take the urinal next to me.

All of a sudden, that song by the Police started playing in my head - "Don't stand - Don't stand - Don't stand so close to me"

Gah - damn you - there are tons of other urinals.

Whatever - zip, wash, get the fuck out of there.

Happy Friday!

2008-05-23T17:03:00.000-07:00

One thing I've learned about professional life is there is a Friday culture. A constant throughout the week is the desire for the week to be over, no matter who or what you do. People don't necessarily hate their jobs - just prefer the times away from the job. Who doesn't?

The point is that Friday tends to have it's own sort of of culture. I even feel it on Thursdays - the excitement that Friday is just around the corner. Friday signs the end of the week, and thus the beginning of the weekend - the time where you can have fun and GSD (get shit done). When you are at your job, and you think "If I could do anything now, what would I be doing?" - that is what you do over the weekend. That's when you listen to music, sit on the couch, eat dinner, take a nap, run errands, cook, clean the kitchen, enjoy a movie, sleep early, or stay out late. I feel like sleeping early during the week sucks - it's like what precious time I have between work ends and work starts again has been "wasted" on sleep.

Either way, Friday culture is all the more prominent on a Friday before a 3-day weekend. Thursday becomes Friday when people take Friday off, and it's sort of amazing how the office becomes a lot more tolerable and enjoyable.

Enjoy your three day weekend! I'll leave you with these words from Greenskeepers. The song is called Vagabond, and it's the song from the Grand Theft Auto 4 commercial:

"If the truth be told, I'm in love with this city and I'm out of control, I'm out of control, But I live in this city and I'm out of control, I'm out of control.
But I live in this city and I'm out of control."

Didn't expect that...

2008-05-21T07:42:00.000-07:00

Thomas: what up B
me: http://www.fandango.com/indianajonesandthekingdomofthecrystalskull_85983/movietimes?location=89178
Thomas: midnight showing? im down
me: 2 hr movie means we'd be home and out around 3 or so
me: ha imma take a nap when i get home
Thomas: dude
Thomas: fucking fire alarm
Thomas: gotta go
Thomas: haha
me: k lates
Thomas: later man

Palm Centro vs RIM Blackberry Curve 8130

2008-05-20T17:30:00.000-07:00

I spent some time weighing these two in my head, and I feel like sharing the comparisons.

It seems I have a knack for temporary obsession - when I was deciding between receivers for my stereo system, I made no less than 3-4 panicked emails to family and friends, comparing the two down the the wire. This comparison did not leave me with as many late nights of searching and feverish comparisons, but granted, I'm more familiar with what I do with a cell phone than what I do with a HTS receiver.

Key elements for me

Calendar: Both calendars are straight-forward ports of Outlook - appointment time w/recurrences, reminders, notes. Centro has a slight edge since it has a touch-screen and can take advantage a little bit more.

Text Messages: Palm presents texts in a conversation format, keeping related messages to a contact together in one item in your inbox. As new items arrive, they are added to the bottom, as in a chat in an instant messenger client. In the Curve, text messages are like e-mail - one line per received item, and new info is added to the top, like an email thread. This is particularly annoying when text messages are long, and are split between two, resulting in the second part of the text appearing above the first.

Contacts: Just like the calendar, this mimics Outlook very well, with multiple phone numbers, details, address info, etc. Pretty much even since touchscreen isn't as much as an advantage here.

Navigation: Palm has touch screen, and a 4-way directional pad with center button. The center is really a large round button with a rim that represents the directions. Can make mistakes there. Blackberry's trackball works wonders in all directions.

Keyboard: Blackberry by a long shot - a wide, spacious keyboard with intelligent things like double space adds periods and autocorrect. Centro's keyboard is packed and has room for error (IMO a big step down from Treo's keyboard)

I don't do any web browsing or any e-mail to phone, so those were not considerations. However, any review will tell you that e-mail is Blackberry's bread-and-butter. Even though they are perfectly viable solutions on Palm, if you do any e-mail on your phone, the decision is a no-brainer.

I was really leaning towards the Palm for a couple of reasons - the Palm OS is open, which means lots more software for it. Palm OS also feels very responsive in it's simplicity. I enjoyed the touch screen and the texting interface, as well as the audio recorder that allows me to record my own ringtones and sound effects

However, I ended up going with the Blackberry. The keyboard was a BIG factor for me, as well as being a little more future-proof. Palm OS seems to be losing every battle it fights, while Pocket PC and RIM OS being the dominant handheld operating systems. I would have actually been more inclined to go for Palm, were it a Treo 700p with a larger keyboard.

My limited experience with the Blackberry so far has been great - discovering where every thing is, organizing my contacts, using the full PDA functionality.

UPDATE: An additional factor to consider - Palm will lock it's keys fairly easily (and automatically after a few moments of idle), while a BB uses the holster system, which automatically turns off screen and locks keys, until it is unholstered, and automatically accessible. Sort of a nice feature that BB's utilize that others do not.

Yeeeeeeeeeeeah

2008-05-15T13:29:00.001-07:00

I've used the phrases "task item" and "progress report" today. I went to a meeting where we said something along the lines of "adjust this version, and push that to the next release." I am sending a report to somebody who reports to someone else. Yes, I work in an office, and that is what happens in an office. The only sounds I hear at the moment is the hum of a copier machine, the rattling keys of surrounding laptops/keyboards, someone mumbling about email and support, while well-dressed people discuss at a nearby conference room.

A startling realization

2008-05-13T17:46:00.001-07:00

So I went to the bathroom after lunch only only to realize the my fly was already down. Panic swept in as I thought about how long my fly was down. At the longest, it was since the last time I had gone to the bathroom, hours earlier.

Luckily, I wear large shirts and keep them untucked. The front flaps of my shirt prevent the world from getting a glimpse of my patterned drawers. I'm not sure if this is a happy or a sad moment, but amusing enough for me to post, so it can't be that bad.