Little did I know that this was going to be one heck of a hassle, that ultimately, is not worth it!

So, here’s the first issue I run into.   I go to Gamestop and buy a copy after work on the way home.  Figured it would be a good way to waste some time when I got nothing else to do at home.  Yea, that’s how I justified it. But anyway, I get home, start to open up the case, and low and behold, I notice that there’s no plastic surrounding the dvd case when I slid it out of it’s box.  And worse, no game, no manual.  Not even a friggin sheet of paper!  Nothing!!  The result of some shoplifter who decided to just lift the cd, and the paperwork containing the registration code.  So, I’m pretty much out of luck until I let them know what happened, and have them set aside a replacement copy for the next day.  I love how this works.  They put in all sorts of copy protection, etc… so the people just steal it from the store.  If people are going to pirate a game, they are going to find a way.  Hell, just make it a little bit cheaper, and therefore more enticing to those who are cheap.  Yea, the deadbeats aren’t going to buy it even if it was friggin 5 dollars, but oh well!

Which leads me to my second problem, and  TON of frustration.  So, with the game finally in my hand, I start the process of installing it on my hard drive and then attempting to play the game for the first time.  But nope!! Even though I’ve bought the game, and put in a valid dvd key, I’m greeted with this

Are you freaking kidding me?  You mean to tell me that since your servers aren’t available, I can’t play the game that I’ve spent my well earned money on?  What if I don’t even have internet access?  I guess I’m screwed huh? So, around an hour later, I try again, and run into another problem.

So, for some reason, your software wants me to download it from the freaking internet for 4 HOURS?   The dang dvd is right in the drive, and you want me to download it off the net?  Fortunately, I started off from scratch and this time it wised up and decided to actually look in the cd-rom drive this time.

Alright, so the game is installed and I’m ready to rock. I click on the icon, and I’m greeted with this

Okay, so since your servers are having issues, I’m once again screwed over by not being allowed to use something that I’ve legitimately paid for.  Wow! At this point, I’m considering downloading a software crack just so I can use something that I’ve actually bought.  It’s like hotwiring my own car!

So anyway, I get past this eventually by just waiting and coming back and finally get to play the game.  Only to find out that my beloved series has been dumbed down in order to ‘appeal’ to the mass market.  The number of units drastically reduced, build times are insanely fast, and not near as complex as it once was.   This appealing to the mass market is simply giving in to the idiots who refuse to buy the product because it was too deep for them.   Once again, stupid, low IQ consumers define the market, and those looking for the full experience they were accustomed to are screwed over.  Yay!

Oh, but wait, it’s not over yet!   While back at my desktop, look what pops up!

You know, there is software out there that installs and runs in the background on consumer’s systems and pops up advertisements on their computer.  We call that malware, spyware, annoythepissoutofmeware, etc…  And it turns out that I actually PAID for something and despite the crap I’ve had to run into with the drm and sever issues, you guys want to have the nerve to throw advertisements in my face?  Screw you!

Looks like it’s back to the Xbox for me!  Pc gaming industry, see ya!  Rot in hell!!

Well, within the past few weeks, I had been evaluating different open source applications for project management.   And I must say, I’m pretty impressed with the stuff that you can find out there that is completely free and pretty dang powerful.  Especially if you are running a web server with php.

I’ve found several different applications that can do project management, and I have to admit, most of them are impressive, but there was one that just stood out WAY above the rest.  I didn’t even know anything like this was out there until I stumbled across another blog that had done some comparisons between different open source web based applications for project management.  First, the runner ups.

ProjectPier – This software has been out on the web for a while, and is actually highly recommended.  Fast, stable, and works pretty well for project management.  I was actually considering sticking with this until I had found my final answer.  Not to mention that the software hasn’t been updated in quite a while.  I tend to be weary of abandonware.

Collabtive – I found the UI to this software to be pretty simple and refreshing.  Not to mention that it was developed fairly recently, which means that it still has a lot of life and potential.  Due to it’s simplicity, I’ve considered using it for clients since my final solution might be a bit harder to understand, but I haven’t made a final decision yet.

Feng Office – Wow!! What can I say?  This software is off the chain. Right now, I have a demo running at http://office.marcellusking.com.  The username is demo as well as the password.  This thing had document management, project management, calender with ical support, and a few other bells and whistles.  I plan on using this software to collaborate with other photographers, clients, etc… to collaborate on anything photography related and to also keep track of my own projects.  Here’s a screenshot of what it looks like when I log in under my account.

Since I have several projects that I’m a part of, any tasks for projects that are assigned to me will show up on my main view when I log in.  I can also click on the projects individually to see just the tasks for that project.  I’m actually VERY excited to see what I can pull off with this software in the near future and to see if enough people that I network with are interested in taking advantage of it.

Welp, back to the grind!

Now granted, the Iphone changed things, and I have one as well, but when it came out, it came out with a lot of things lacking.  Things that ‘simpler’ users would not really care about, but for those of us who know our gadgets in and out and use them to their full potential, there were things that were lacking.  And well, once my 2 year contract is finally up, I’m jumping ship.  I’ve been eyeballing the development on Microsoft’s latest mobile phone platform.  And even though the last one wasn’t ‘pretty’, it did everything I needed it to do. 

But back to the subject on this Ipad. First and foremost, I think it sucks.  There wasn’t enough to separate it from my existing Iphone to justify having a bigger screen. Especially since it runs on the same operating system.  But here are the things that I do not like about the Ipad

• No HDMI ports – Sorry, but I want a device that I can hook up to my TV without having to buy some expensive proprietary cables to do so.  And don’t give us ‘technical reasons’ for not doing so Apple.  You just enjoy making the extra money off of that crap which is ridiculously priced for what it does.
• No expandable space – Secure digital, compact flash, so I can easily transfer my movies, pictures, etc… without having to go through Itunes or just keep documents on my device.  Nope, Apple doesn’t think you need to do so. I have this same gripe in the phone area as well.
• No multitasking – Are you freaking kidding me????? You mean I can’t listen to Pandora while I surf the web, or dart back and forth between face book
• No Bluetooth tethering to your phone – Oh, but if you want to access the internet while out and about, you can pay for an additional 3g service from AT&T.   Wow! Haven’t the consumers been milked enough?
• No flash – "Oh! But it’s too processor intensive!!!" says Apple.  No, the truth is that it will allow people to circumvent the Apple store for some of the cool games out there. Greed and arrogance is at the root of this one people.  Yet this thing can power through HD movies.  Enough with the BS Apple
• Weak operating system – The Iphone operating system is decent for a phone and for the touch, but this is a TABLET PC.  It would have been really wise to include a customized version of Mac OS on the device. 
• No Camera – Oh, this thing would have been SWEET for video calls and chat and many other things with the right software.  But nope!
• No removable battery – Running out of juice? Sorry, you can’t just put in another battery.  You gotta recharge.
• No usb 2.0 ports – SERIOUSLY APPLE!! HATE you guys for not including this stuff standard by now. Oh! Yea! That’s right, you want to use your own expensive overpriced cables and adapters so you can juice the consumer for more money.
• GPS – From the Apple hardware specs page, it looks as if only the WiFi 3g model has it.   Which will cost you around 130 bucks extra over the standard model.
• The back is not flat – Kinda negates the effectiveness of some of the accelerometer featured apps.
• Still have to go through ITunes for your software – Unless I want to jailbreak my phone, I don’t have the option of using some of the really sweet and effective software out there.

I’ll just stop here for the moment on my ranting about what I don’t like about this device.  Apple brought this thing to market too fast in a weak attempt to get the jump on competing products from Microsoft and other tablet manufacturers.  And for those that don’t know, yea, Windows 7 was designed with tablets in mind.  So once the hardware starts appearing, we’re good on the operating system. Not to mention that Microsoft has an "interesting" idea on how they think a tablet pc will be used.  Here are some videos.

But anyway, here’s what I would like to see in a Tablet PC and it’s operating system.

• HDMI out for presentations onto projectors, TV’s, etc…
• USB 2.0 – This could be used for charging, or just connecting to your pc in general
• Wifi
• Bluetooth – and support for a Bluetooth keyboard.
• Dual Screen – Which is what I love most about Microsoft’s courier.  The OS seems a bit off for what I would need it for though.
• Ability to Tether via Bluetooth
• Expansion slots – Compact flash or secure digital for transferring and carrying extra data
• Windows 7 or Mac OS operating system.  Even Ubuntu would be a consideration – This would resolve a LOT of the operating system related issues that I have with the Iphone, Touch, and the Ipad.
• Camera
• Accelerometer – Yea Apple, we can thank you for making this popular
• Microphone
• Speaker
• Headphone Jack
• Removable Battery
• GPS – This would be interesting on a tablet device.  I think it could come in handy
• Touch screen
• Ability to install apps without going through a store – This would be resolved by the operating system suggestion though.
• Enterprise level exchange support
• Peer to peer networking capability with other tablets of the same type – Would be sweet in a presentation to push something from your screen to someone else’s or send a message to another person in a meeting without disrupting the flow of the meeting.  Or just sharing files and ideas in general.  

Aight, enough of my rant.  I got things to do.

A photo on the Redmond-based company’s U.S. marketing Web site microsoft.com shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the Web site of Microsoft’s Polish business unit, the black man’s head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.

Microsoft apologizes for changing race in photo – Tech and gadgets- msnbc.com

You know, after reading this article, I’m really kind of stunned.   But the thing is, I’m not stunned at Microsoft.  I’m more stunned at the attention that it’s getting and who it’s coming from.  Of all the people that I have seen complaining about this, I have really yet to notice this being a hot topic within the Black community.  Myself included, we really don’t care.  It’s called MARKETING and it’s for a different country.  Hell, if Microsoft wants to create an advertisement for a different country that really doesn’t have too many black people, then so be it.

Hell, after looking at the photo, I’m not even sure if the guy was ORIGINALLY black.  I mean, look at his wrist in the below shot.

So, should people get upset that the guy was not originally black to begin with? I mean, cmon people.   It’s a shame that stuff like this makes it to the top of our news topics just because people with thin skin consider it racist.  Hell, the ethic groups that were changed in the picture really don’t care. As a black man, I do not see this affecting me or my life in any way, and therefore, I don’t care.   Hell, I LIKE the fact that Microsoft is portraying blacks in the office environment in roles other than the mail boy or the cleaning guy. 

Go Microsoft!  Don’t apologize to these politically correct pansies!

Well, my sister had recently suggested that I start using an mp3 player when I’m working out to make the workout a bit less strenuous.  Not to mention that it would be good to keep me hype and energetic when the music blaring over the speakers at the gym really doesn’t do it for me.  Especially considering that my tastes in music differs from the typical white suburban residents that I share the gym with.

So I head up to Sam’s club and take a look around at the mp3 players.   I took a look at the iPods and wasn’t really too impressed, considering the price of the iPods themselves as well as the accessories.  It seems that anything that says “compatible with iPod” automatically goes up at least 50% in price when compared to accessories for other music products.  But then I found it….  The IPod Touch.

I have to admit, this little bugger is quite sweet.  I decided to opt for the 8 gig version and save the extra hundred bucks for some wireless Bluetooth sport headphones that would work with the IPods.  I’ve been playing with it since Sunday and so far, I love it.  Here’s what I like so far.

• No proprietary headphone jack
• Screen can be turned of while listening to music
• video podcast support
• Audio book support
• YouTube (for video surfing in the bathroom)
• Contacts (Great backup in case contacts on my phone aren’t available)
• Calendar
• Slick user interface
• Pictures

The main thing that I’m really missing on this thing is built in Bluetooth technology, and more pda type functionality.  I know it’s a music player, but with this thing sharing so much of the Iphone technology, they might as well should have had it double as a pda as well.  I’m quite sure though, that developers will start building some pretty cool applications for it so I’ll just wait and see what comes down the road.

So Ora, Chris, Jonathan, Aron, etc… I finally broke down and got an Apple product.  I’m still griping about the price of their stuff, but I’m liking it so far.   But I’m still not ditching my Quad core, Intel cpu.

For those of you who don’t know what the iPod touch is, here’s a link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kj0UZjrSVLA

On other fronts, I’ve been concentrating on expanding some of the photography hardware, creating strategies for building more credit history (for those that don’t know, I typically just save up for what I want and just buy it, which is good that I have absolutely NO debt, but I don’t have a credit history either), and working on dropping some pounds.

But speaking of photography, I’m finally going to get my hands on the Canon 40D slr camera.  I’ve been shooting with a digital rebel for the longest, and it’s about time that I’ve started stepping up when it comes to the features that I’m now wanting in a camera.  Although my trusty Rebel will still be by my side, the 40d is going to get the majority of the work.  Especially in sports and low light photography.  Ordered in another lens that I’ll be using for portraits as well.  A Canon 85mm 1.8 to be exact.   And if the budget permits and stays on track, I’ll be able to get some lighting equipment in later on this month.   We’ll see how that goes.  Fall season is here, so that means football, and fall portraits. 

Speaking of photography, I’ve agreed to once again shoot my company’s annual party for the employees this month as well as the fundraiser for the Jellybean conspiracy foundation.  For those of you not familiar with the Jellybean conspiracy, here is the link to their website

http://www.jellybeanconspiracy.org/

I got involved with these guys by accident, but I volunteer my photography resources to shoot the fundraiser as well as the occasional play.   Sort of my feel good thing to do in order to offset my evilness.

On a side note, I was reading Jason’s blog and came across this little snippet when he was talking about the issue of finding a good man.

DON’T shake the box! Sometimes when you get a gift you shake the box to see what’s inside. If it sounds like something you want to keep then you open it. If it sounds like crap you give it to your little sister. The thing is that most things that are best for you in life sound like crap when you first shake the box. Or, they will be wrapped in a way that makes them less attractive to you. But, looking inside is what really matters. And that goes for people as well. When you look inside a person and you see the goodness there you realize what you have. But, most people are too busy shaking boxes and moving on to the next guy because so-n-so doesn’t have rims on his car, doesn’t wear expensive cologne or clothes, isn’t 6′+ and have a set of shark white, straight teeth..

I would suggest reading the rest of this entry as far as the finding a man bit.  Good practical advice, but it was the shaking the box portion that I took special notice in.  Many times I have noticed that good men are passed up because they don’t dance well enough, don’t dress flashy enough, etc…

I’ve been using windows live writer to write all of my posts for at least 6 months for all of my blogging.   So, I was quite excited to learn that there was a new version of windows live writer available for download.  And like a good little Microsoft fanboy, I hurried on over and clicked on the link to download the latest version of this toy.

DENIED!  Here’s what I encountered when I tried to install the windows live software on my machine.

F$%K….YOU…..MICROSOFT!!!

Okay, so you mean to tell me that even though this is made by the same company that made my operating system.   And even though my operating system is the latest version, ULTIMATE version at that (yea, I know, that sounded geeky, but for those of you living under a rock, there is a version of vista called ultimate, which is what I’m running), Microsoft does not support their own 64 bit operating system?  Wow!! Just wow!!!  I can expect this from other developers and companies, but getting this from Microsoft is really a slap in the face to the consumers who have plunked down and bought into Microsoft’s operating system shortly after release.  

Ever since installing vista 64 bit, I’ve had mostly nothing but problems with the operating system as far as hardware and software support goes. Here’s a brief list.  I know that a lot of these aren’t Microsoft’s fault, but Microsoft could have done a LOT better in getting better hardware support for it’s operating system.

1. Drivers for my motherboard not initially available for 64 bit operating system.  Had to track them down from the manufacturer’s web site
2. Same thing with the graphics driver for my Asus Geforce card
3. Operating system takes up around a gig of ram just by itself upon bootup. A good chunk of this is used to run that damn Aero theme.  I installed the system with 2 gigs of ram and ended up disabling the Aero due to it being a resource hog
4. Most 32 bit applications will install, but they can’t address memory in excess of 2 gigs.  In most cases, this isn’t a problem unless you are a gamer with a fondness for supreme commander or some other resource intensive game.  I’ll rant more on this a bit later.
5. When upgrading the system to 4 gigs, the operating system immediately blue screened upon bootup.  Tracked the issue down to a problem where Vista would crash when 4 or more gigs of ram were installed in the system under certain hardware conditions.  Took me almost a whole weekend to figure this one out.  I initially thought I had installed some bad ram.  Thanks a lot Microsoft.  Maybe you should have put that one your auto patch that reboots our pc’s without permission. You would have saved me some time!
6. Internet explorer 7 crashes ALL of the time.
7. Internet Explorer also had an issue caused by the phishing filter, which had to be disabled.  Couldn’t load any pages at all due to the error
8. Even without Aero, the system is a friggin resource hog. And if you throw more ram in, it takes up even more.
9. Obviously many problems with popular 3rd party applications not wanting to install in the 64 bit operating system.

The problems get much deeper than this, but I’m not wanting to get into some deeply technical post which only half of the people reading would understand.  My point is this…  From a consumer standpoint, Microsoft did a piss poor job of getting suitable 3rd and 1st party support from major software and hardware manufacturers.   Not to mention that Microsoft has a history of problems with newly released operating systems.  So much in fact that a good portion of users make it a policy to not upgrade until at least the 1st or second service pack.  I don’t care what Microsoft says as an excuse for all of this.   This is what we see as consumers.  Especially the bleeding edge first adopters like myself.  Not only that, but we’re stuck with a cd with the first generation of the OS.  This means that if our system goes down, we have to load ALL of those fixes and service packs after reinstalling.   How about just sending your registered and legit users latest copies of the install disk upon request after a service pack has been released.  You got the damn product key locked down to our hardware anyway so piracy is not an reason for coming up with excuses for not doing that for your consumers.

Now back to the issue that started this rant.  The last version of Live Writer.  I doubt if anyone there at the Microsoft campus is reading this, but I’ll say it anyway.  If you’re going to come out with various versions of your operating system, at least TRY doing a better job of supporting all of your current operating systems rather than just worrying about certain versions when your company releases software.   And while we’re on that, stop forcing your operating system down our throats just because we want to play games that you ONLY support on your latest OS even though we all know it would fun fine in XP.  Tell those rat bastards in marketing to die in a fire for suggesting such a horrible idea.  There are power users out there who run your operating system.  And right now, they hate you! We want to play Halo with a mouse and keyboard.  Can we do that without being forced to buy a damn 200+ dollar operating system with a crapload of problems?

And as far as your latest live writer application, maybe we don’t want it in a suite of applications.   Maybe we don’t want the latest version of .net runtime to be installed on our machine.  Maybe we don’t want to have to get a latest fix from liveupdate since we are on a corporate network.  Beta 2 worked perfectly, but I guess that was the problem.  Microsoft had to just go and screw that up since it worked so well, like a lot of other things.  I guess I won’t be upgrading anytime soon.

And when it comes to Vista, the fact that we have multiple versions as well as both 32 and 64 bit just COMPLETELY sucks ass for the consumer.  Hmm, I want to access my computer remotely,  so I can just use the business version, but oh! I can’t play my music via media center through my xbox.   Ahh, the consumer version has that, but not the business version.   But oh! I can have both features if I go with the super expensive “Ultimate” versions even though I can care less about the multitude of other features.  Yet, the two features power users want the most are spread out between two variations and in order to get both, they have to get a super expensive version of the OS.  So I just paid a crapload more money for features I would rarely use but the two or 3 that are spread out between different variations.  What a load of crap!

And here’s my second problem!  I want to process many photographs at a time, play games with HUGE maps, edit video’s, and develop applications.   Basically, a lot of things that require lots of memory.   And if I want to get past the 2 gig limit that any one application can access, I have to get the 64 bit version of windows.  But at the same time, I’m screwed due to 3rd party support for my 64 bit OS.  Damned if you do, damned if you don’t!

How about this Microsoft?  Try coming up with just ONE operating system next time.  Intel and AMD have processors that run either 64 or 32 bit code, yet you can’t do that with your operating system and drivers and certain software.  WTF!!!!  And if we want certain features for business or home, then let us just friggin have them all and let us choose which ones we want to install or enable rather than forcing us to get more expensive versions of your operating system.

I’ve been buying your operating systems for a while now, but I’m seriously thinking about pirating your crap due to your crapping on your customers.  I pray that the marketing idiots responsible for all of this don’t bring their crappy and idiotic ideas to your xbox division.  I’ve had a few friends defect over to the Macintosh side.  I had to give them crap for that.

Now I’m wondering if I was the fool.  Hmmmm

Update: Looks like I’m not the only one who was burned by the lack of 64 bit operating system support.

http://jcheng.wordpress.com/2007/09/05/windows-live-writer-beta-3-released/

I’ve been doing customer service for quite some years now.  And even though I’m a bit higher up on the totem pole now vs my early years, I still have to deal with the end user quite often.  After a while though, as with many in the IT industry, you start to really hate a lot of the end users out there.   This hatred is focused on either the stupidity of the user, or just the sheer lack of his/her self control.

So here are the things that pretty much annoy me about users.  The majority of these refer to phone tech support.

• You called ME for help.  So what that means is don’t start bitching me out as soon as I answer the phone.  I support the product, but I didn’t make it, I didn’t sell it to you, and I don’t own the company.  BUT, I’m the one who’s going to help you.  Therefore, I’m the absolutely last person you want to piss off. Just shut up and explain the problem 
•  The best thing you can do if you made a mistake is admit to it. If you tell me right off the bat that you deleted a certain file and the PC just went to crap afterwards, the call is going to go a lot quicker now that I know what you’ve done.  Trying to lie your way through the call is only going to waste your time as I pummel you with question after question to get down to what the problem is.
• I know you are computer illiterate, but do you have to be dumb as well?  I swear, when people call tech support lines, their IQ immediately drops to the lower 50′s.  Basic questions like “Is it plugged in?” Are often answered with an “I don’t know.”.  Please! Before you call me, try to think.
• And speaking of plugged in, don’t get pissed off at me when I ask you the basic questions.  I’ve lost count of how my idiots come back with “Of course it’s plugged in! I’m not an idiot” only to find out 30-45 minutes later that the cable was loose.  Or to find out that your retarded dog went and horked the wiring.
• I really don’t care if you’re a doctor/pharmacist/lawyer/executive.  Just because you’re in that profession doesn’t mean your automatically smart.  As a matter of fact, some of the biggest idiots to ever deal with tech support personnel originated from one of these fields.  I also really don’t give a rats ass what you do for a living either.  To me, you’re still a Neanderthal that needs my help just to check his e-mail.
• If I tell you to something, then do it.  Don’t try to anticipate what I’m trying to have you do just to prove how smart you are.  I’m able to gauge your technical skill level 30 seconds into the call and will work with you accordingly.   Don’t assume you know more than me.  Even if you’re 90% sure you think you know where I’m headed with the solution, slow down and shut up anyway.  I’ve lost track of how many times the problem has been made worse by the “Overzealous Wannabe Techie”.
• Speaking of knowledgeable, don’t say that you work in the IT industry as soon as the call starts.  If you truly have the tech skills, we can tell within the first 30 minutes.  Also, if you’re supposedly a tech, then troubleshoot the issue and remember the steps you took before you call me.  The guy calling in saying that the video card doesn’t work because he’s reseated it, tried it in another computer, and tried another video card in the same pc with results pointing to a bad card is going to get through a call a lot quicker than the guy who calls in saying “Your video card is bad”.  Regardless of what you think, if I replace  a piece of hardware without question, I’m just wasting my time as well as yours. Over 60% of hardware replacements in the industry are actually false diagnosis.
• Don’t you EVER, EVER, call me for help and then say that you’re too busy to troubleshoot the issue.  If you’re that hard up for time and you’re too busy, then DON’T CALL US.  You want it fixed without using up your own time, put your kid on the phone.  If you don’t have one, pay a local tech. But don’t call me and then say you have no time to fix the issue you dick.  What did you expect?  For me to fold my arms, and then blink my eyes to fix your issue?  Yea right!
• Asking for my manager over some stupid crap is only going to get you into hold hell.  A good example of this is the guy who got pissed because I told him the repairs were out of warranty since his son shot the computer screen with a bb gun.
• It’s not my fault that you didn’t back up your data, you idiot.  Here’s a clue, hard drives don’t last forever.  They do crash you know.  If your data is important, you should have been doing this from day one.  This is a common sense thing.  Your laziness is not my fault.
• Don’t call us asking how to format a paragraph in Microsoft word or how to get to a website.  Learn to read a manual.

Man, the days back at Gateway.  If Hell actually existed, it was there.