I’ve had an idea for a short story floating around my brain for a bit, so I thought I would brain dump a few pages onto the blog and maybe solicit a bit of feedback before getting started writing. No title yet, it’s sort of a sci-fi type work at the moment, hard to say much about it at this point, so here it is:
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Just a couple of years ago, a lot of people had never heard of Linux. Although people have proclaimed ever year since the turn of the milenium to be “the year of the Linux desktop” it’s never really happened. Although we haven’t seen mass migragtions and Summer of Linux love in and install fests predicted by pundits for years, the popularity of Linux has been growing. In fact, the most telling thing about the rapid increase in Linux interest is the fact that there are a lot of people now looking into Linux who really have no idea what they are getting into. That’s not a bad thing, but it does pose some interesting quandries. Until now, if a person were looking at Linux, it was generally accepted that that person was a power user at least, and often a highly skilled computer professional or very capable hobbyist. Everything out there to help people get started was aimed at people who didn’t know much about Linux, but who knew a lot about computers in general. So, now there are people who don’t know much about Linux, but they really don’t know much about Windows or OS X either. If you’re one of those people, the help that’s floating around on the internet may seem as insurmountably difficult to understand as Linux itself. To help with that, I’m offering up five things that I think will aid peope who are looking at linux in being able to quickly adopt the system.
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I have discovered a culinary masterpiece, the recipe for which may very well change the world, and today I will share it with you.
Mix 1 part red Gatoraid with 3 parts Ginger Ale.
Quaff heartily.
Motor Storm is an action packed off-road racing game that has been one of the most hyped games for the Playstation 3. I spent a few hours with the demo today, and I thought I would post my impressions.
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I was kind of wanting seafood today. I got some smoked octopus in sesame seed oil, and some lumpfish roe caviar. It was cheap, but I’d never had caviar before, so I thought I would give it a try.
Just in case you were curios, the lumpfish roe- which is called caviar on the package, although I believe that caviar is strictly the eggs of the sturgeon- yeah, it’s horrible. The roe had a very strong flavor that tasted less like the sea, and more like licking the inside of a bucket used to make fish brine. Very salty.
The smoked octopus was ok. The texture was firm but softer than a lot of the octopus that I’ve had, and the sesame oil wasn’t too strong, but the octopus flavor was overpowered by the smokey flavor.
The XBox 360
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Microsoft’s XBox 360 was the first of the three next generation consoles to launch, and so in keeping with chronological order, it will also be the first up for discussion in our examination of the big three next gen systems.
When the XBox 360 launched, Microsoft had a major uphill battle to fight. Although the original XBox sold well in North America, it had only mediocre sales in Europe, and experienced an abysmal reception in Japan. In addition to the reputation of it’s predecessor, the 360 had to face stock shortages, lackluster launch titles, and hardware problems with varying degrees of severity.
Many people compared the system to Sega’s ill-fated Dreamcast, and in fact there were a number of striking similarities. Both systems launched a year ahead of their next rivals, both systems were follow ups to poorly recieved last-gen systems, the marketing team for the 360 was lead by the same person who lead the Dreamcast marketing team- heck even that both consoles were white.
So what could Microsoft do to get a foothold in the market that had cost it billions in the previous generation? They promised gamers a utiopia of connectivity, online play, and unparalleled next-gen graphics, wrapped in a sleek wireless concave package.
Of course, after the launch, there were problems. No huge product launch goes off without a hitch, but a year later, how is the 360 living up to the promise?
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Introduction
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After months of anticipation the next gen systems have decended upon us. The Xbox 360 has had a year to gain momentum, and the PS3 and Wii have both had a couple of months now to lay their cards on the table for this round of console wars. Having spent some time with each of the next generation systems, trying out the various features and games, and looking ahead at what to expect, I thought that it would be a good time to take a look at what the big three are offering up for this generation. This series will take a look at the way each system is approaching the console wars, how they compare to each other, and how well implemented their strategies are.
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I am a software developer, artist, gamer, and free software enthusiast, and The Art of Phoenix is my new home. Along with my image gallery, podcast, and projects, this blog serves as a forum for information and expression.
This blog, as the central art of phoenix hub, is a prime place to keep up to date on all of my articles, investigations, and facinations.
To provide a bit of background on myself…
I’m a professional software developer, and I’ve been developing software in some form- although not neccessarily professionally, for around seven years. Most of my experience has been hacking on open source software under Linux.
Along with coding, I began to develop an interest in computer graphics in late 2000, and started playing around with various 2D and 3D graphics applications. In 2002 I started working a bit with OpenGL, and in 2004 I did some work creating CGI graphics and ads on a freelance basis.
Given this experience as context, I hope that you enjoy reading this blog, and gain some insight from what I have to say.