u l t r a m o o k i e

For my grad, dad and birthday gift, my wife got me a spanking new Playstation 3.
Thank you wifey for such a cool gift!  You are a kick-ass wife and the PS3 is a kick-ass gift!
I wanted a PS3 mainly so that I can watch Bluray movies — we already pay for Netflix, so it would [...]

For my grad, dad and birthday gift, my wife got me a spanking new Playstation 3.

Thank you wifey for such a cool gift!  You are a kick-ass wife and the PS3 is a kick-ass gift!

I wanted a PS3 mainly so that I can watch Bluray movies — we already pay for Netflix, so it would be better to take advantage of the Bluray selection, rather than pay a whole lot more for HD satellite feeds.  I must say, the PS3 is quite impressive — although, I guess I could be a bit biased as an ex-Sony employee.

Observations about the PS3:

• Now that Bluray has won the high definition format war — finally — the PS3 has an upper-hand when compared with the Xbox 360.  Whether it really plays out, I don’t know.  But, that was the whole reason why I wanted a PS3:  Bluray.
• Brilliant move pricing the lowest priced Bluray player the same price as the PS3.  It just makes people think that they are getting a “free” game console with the Bluray player.
• Demos on the Playstation Network (PSN) are great!  Usually, I don’t play through a whole game unless I can really get into it — and there are not many games that I can get into.  So, playing a demo from start to finish is usually enough to make me satisfied.
• PSN network speed is horrendous.  It takes forever to download something from the PSN.  I tried downloading the PS3 update from PSN and it ran ~160kBps, which is terrible (my DSL line is a 3Mbps line so I get around 300kBps max).  Sony needs to invest into more bandwidth (or stop throttling).
• Even though Sony is out to sell Bluray discs, there is still a market for downloadable video and audio content.  So where is it Sony?  Sony has a whole library of movies, TV shows and music that it can sell online.  They should get on the ball and start doing it — Microsoft does it with the Xbox 360 and Apple does it with the AppleTV already.
• The PS3 hardware itself is beautiful.  When Alice lent me her Xbox 360, I was surprised by the size of the total package — most importantly that the power brick was the same size as the Xbox 360 console!  The PS3 is all enclosed, the only thing that sticks out are the HDMI and power cables, no fugly external power brick here.
• The PS3 is quiet.  Alice’s Xbox 360 was loud — not just the fans, but the drive also.  And not just “kind of loud”, more on the “this is distracting my gameplay loud?.
• I’m kind of disappointed at the lack of 1080p games.  Most games seem to run at 720p, which is fine, but I figured the PS3 was powerful enough to squeeze out 1080p gaming easily.
• The DVD upscaler (software) does not do as good of a job as a dedicated DVD upscaler.  When compared to the old Pioneer DV-400V upscaling DVD player that we had, the PS3’s upscaled DVD output is a little disappointing.
• The SixAxis controller is lighter than I thought.  Also, I don’t like having to pay for Sony’s stubborness when it comes to rumble.  Sony should have swapped out the SixAxis controllers the minute they settled the lawsuit against them.  One of these days, I’ll get a Dual Shock, but not right now.  I’m fine with the SixAxis.
• The lack of PS2 backwards compatibility is a disappointment, but not that big of one.  It is not like I have played any of my old PS2 games recently and that I would pop one back into play anytime soon.  I still have my slim PS2 in the garage and can pull it out to use when I want.  It would be nice to have the backwards compatibility, but not a requirement.  What is hugely disappointing is the actual reason why Sony stripped out the backwards compatibility from the 40GB PS3.  Sony reasons that “by omitting the option of playing PS2 games, Sony hopes that new customers will instead spend their money on more PS3 games.”
• The one game that my wife got me was Burnout Paradise — because I’m a huge Burnout fan, I have all of the games on either the PS2 or PSP.  Burnout, Burnout 2: Point of Impact, Burnout 3: Takedown and Burnout Revenge on the PS2.  Burnout Legends and Burnout Dominator on the PSP.  Now, Burnout Paradise on the PS3.  Fantastic game.  The only thing that has be a bit frustrated right now is that I still don’t know my way around Paradise City and that makes doing races a bit difficult — as sometimes I find that I have turned on the wrong street and am going the wrong way.  If only Criterion would have made the minimap like a GPS device — mark out a general route (that skips shortcuts) for the player, if the player gets off route, then “reroute” based on where they are heading.  This would help lessen the frustration of being lost in the city — there are subtle hints that Criterion threw in like the blinker on the car will give you a hint where to go.
• The one movie that my wife got me was Casino Royale.  The movie is a gorgeous showoff film for Bluray.  The scene where Bond and the bombmaker are fighting it out on the crane really shows off the resolution of Bluray movies (as the water sparkles brilliantly in the background while the helicopter-mounted camera revolves around the two from a long distance).
• Remote Play functionality — where the PSP can take control of the PS3 and display media (and some games) — works really well.  I was surprised at how easy it was to setup and get going.
• Although the PS3 has no PS2 support, it, ironically has psOne support.  The support works and there are some “enhancement” technologies to try to make the old games look new again — like texture smoothing.  The psOne games I have tried on the system (Gran Turismo 2 and Metal Gear Solid) both work well and look…well, like the are ten years old.
• Netflix continues to amaze.  I sent back movies the day that I got the PS3.  That night, I logged into my Netflix account and flipped on the Bluray option and moved some Bluray discs to the top of my queue.  The next day, Netflix received my DVDs and sent Bluray discs to me.  I got the Bluray discs the following day.  That is normal operating style for Netflix and it continues to amaze me.  Now, if only Netflix to adapt their “Watch Now” feature to stream HD content and stream it to a PS3, that would completely knock me out of my chair.
• The PS3 is made as a media center.  What I love is how the harddrive is easily user-replaceable (which I will do with an old, larger notebook drive.  What I also love is that the PS3 can play all sorts of media — including MP3, WMA, AAC, DVIX, XVID and H.264 AVC.  And all of this can either reside locally, on a USB thumbdrive, on a DVD-RW disc, or can be streamed over the network (from a DLNA server or, as Alice tells me and I have to test out, an Apache server).  The PS3 is surprisingly open for a product that has come out from Sony.
• The PS3 can also take Linux, but I don’t know if I’ll go down that route.  I have enough Linux boxes at home (yes, one can actually have “enough” Linux boxes).  I don’t really want to turn my PS3 into a semi-Linux box also.

I guess that’s a long-winded enough posting for now about the PS3.  I’m sure I’ll have more later.  Do you own a PS3?  What do you think about it?  And what’s your PSN name?  I want to add you to my friends list!

Yes, I have an iPhone. I have had one for a week now — my lovely wife gave the iPhone to me as an early Christmas present! Isn’t she the best?? The acceptance of the iPhone is a complete reversal from my anti-iPhone attitude of earlier months.
So, here were some of my [...]

Yes, I have an iPhone. I have had one for a week now — my lovely wife gave the iPhone to me as an early Christmas present! Isn’t she the best?? The acceptance of the iPhone is a complete reversal from my anti-iPhone attitude of earlier months.

So, here were some of my beefs from previous postings, and some corrections (ie. me eating my words) or “still beefs”:

• Customers need to escape from their contracts to get an iPhone since the iPhone requires AT&T service. Our family plan with T-Mobile had been on a month-to-month basis for almost a year now, so that was not a biggie.
• iPhone costs too much. This was a beef when the 8GB iPhone was $600 and the 4GB iPhone was $500. Now that Apple has dropped the price of the 8GB iPhone to $400, it is not as big of a price pill to swallow (still expensive though) — I bought the very first generation iPod (ah, five whole gigabytes and six years ago) for the same price, but, the iPhone provides a helluvalot more functionality.
• No 3G on the iPhone. This is still a beef, but thank goodness for WiFi — I have WiFi access in all the regular places I am at (home, work, parents, Eileen’s work, etc), so that helps. I also have free AT&T WiFi access because of our DSL package. But, still EDGE access is pretty darned slow and that can’t be overlooked.
• “How can I buy music through the iPhone?” You can’t. You can now.
• Non-user replaceable battery. This is still a beef.
• Screen will scratch up easily. After owning an iPod touch (which is going up on Ebay soon), I have been corrected on this one. The glass screen on the iPod touch and iPhone are really resistant to scratching (unless you carry diamonds in your pocket).
• The iPhone is gonna weight more than a Windows Mobile device and pull down my pants like a Treo. Wrong again on my part. The iPhone is very light — not plastic toy-like light, but it has enough weight to make it feel solid, yet not “heavy”.

What got my wife and I really interested in the iPhone was the iPod touch — jailbroken and running iPhone applications, that is. Steve Jobs really did a number by removing the iPhone applications — especially Mail.app — from the iPod touch. Sure, the iPod touch has Safari and that can be used to check webmail, but the total convenience of Mail.app is indescribable. It really does make a difference. The other apps are also pretty cool; Weather and Stocks by Yahoo!; Google Maps by Google. Steve Jobs was quoted as saying, “The iPod touch is training wheels for the iPhone.” After using both the iPod touch and iPhone, I agree with him. Did the iPod touch have to be training wheels for the iPhone? No. Steve Jobs orchestrated it so that people who used the iPod touch only got a small taste of what the iPhone could do (I don’t believe him when he says the applications were not included just because the iPod touch is a “music” device) — and if they were interested, they would “trade up”. Good business strategy on Jobs’ part.

Let me get this out though: The iPhone is not the perfect mobile device. It has a bunch of flaws: No cut & paste, no Flash support in Safari, it crashes, and other minor things. But, what it does, it does really well — and it is a mobile device that will change the way other mobile device makers think when they start designing iPhone-killers. My SonyEricsson w810i was a great phone and it did everything the iPhone did: Mail client, Web client, music, video, camera, and other things. But, the iPhone just does it much better. The virtual keyboard works great, a lot better than the chiclet keyboard on the Treo, and on-par with the spacious keyboard on the Sidekick II. iTunes syncing makes a big difference when it comes to music management (since I am an iTunes using guy). The camera on the iPhone is not as good as the auto-focus on the SonyEricsson though.

After a week with the iPhone, am I happy? Damn straight, it is the best mobile device I have ever used — and I have gone through a bunch of mobile devices, some of them smartphones too (Nokia 6682, Treo 600, Sidekick II), none of them match the iPhone. I eat my words from my previous posting doubting the iPhone. I have been converted.

Update: I forgot to mention stuff about how I carry the iPhone around. I know people that carry the thing “naked” in their jean pockets with their keys and wallet and stuff. I’m a little paranoid about that (even though I know the screen is pretty scratch resistant). So, for the last week, I have been carrying it around in my old orange Timbuk2 Accessory Case (no longer available). I was looking for a really good case for my iPhone all week long and had been thinking about two: Agent 18 Eco iPhone Shield and the Contour Showcase for iPhone. The Agent 18 got shot down after I found reports that the case scratches the chrome on the iPhone face. The Showcase is really, really nice, but I like being able to hold my iPhone without a case around it. Finally, I found the Sena Ultraslim iPhone Pouch. Perfect case for my iPhone. Eileen picked one up for me today, the case fits the iPhone like a glove and works great.

My Sony VAIO PCG-SRX7S/PB (avery old P3/900 VAIO that is really cool because it is so small) was the last box that I have (not counting my wife’s notebook) which was running Windows. Today, I put Ubuntu 7.10 on it.
It took so long not because I needed Windows XP, but because I could never [...]

My Sony VAIO PCG-SRX7S/PB (avery old P3/900 VAIO that is really cool because it is so small) was the last box that I have (not counting my wife’s notebook) which was running Windows. Today, I put Ubuntu 7.10 on it.

It took so long not because I needed Windows XP, but because I could never get Linux installed onto the VAIO. The problem was that the VAIO doesn’t have a built-in CD-ROM drive. There is an external one that plugs in via a PCMCIA card. When I boot any Linux, the boot process would get stalled halfway through — apparently, Linux loses track of where the PCMCIA card went.  I tried all sorts of workarounds (like “linux ide2=0×180,0×386″).
Nothing ever worked. Ubuntu never worked. CentOS never worked. Fedora never worked. That is until I figured out how to install using a mini CD and my Apache server. This is mainly documentation for myself - for the next time I want to install Ubuntu onto this notebook.

What I needed to make this all work:

• Ubuntu Alternate CD — Very important, to make this work, you will need the alternate CD, not the LiveCD. Get the ISO here.
• mini.iso — This is a very minimal boot CD. It apparently does not get to the point where a PCMCIA card is lost. Get the ISO here. That is the i386 gutsy link.
• A local box running a webserver.

On the webserver (mine is running Scientific Linux, ymmv with Ubuntu Server), mount the Ubuntu Alternative CD:

mount -o loop ubuntu-7.10-alternate-i386.iso /media/tmp

In /var/www/html create a softlink to the mount:

ln -s /media/tmp /var/www/html/ubuntu

If you haven’t already started apache, start apache.

Now, boot your notebook (or box) from the mini.iso that you burned to a CD. Go through the prompts, when you get to the prompt about choosing a mirror of an Ubuntu archive, scroll all the way to the top of that list and select “enter information manually“.

The installer will then ask you the hostname of the server that you want to install from (that would be your webserver) and the directory that youw ant to install from (which would be /ubuntu/). Complete the rest of the prompts and away you go with a local network install of Ubuntu.

You could, of course install directly from an Ubuntu mirror, but if you want to install to multiple machines, this way is a bit faster.

This year, Camp Yahoo! was different, instead of going to Blackberry Farms in Cupertino, we went to the San Mateo Event Center where there was a huge Camp Yahoo! setup.
I imagine the change in venue was for two reasons: 1) Yahoo! has really expanded in the last few years, so we needed a [...]

This year, Camp Yahoo! was different, instead of going to Blackberry Farms in Cupertino, we went to the San Mateo Event Center where there was a huge Camp Yahoo! setup.

I imagine the change in venue was for two reasons: 1) Yahoo! has really expanded in the last few years, so we needed a bigger place and 2) the last eight Camp Yahoos where held at Blackberry Farms — long timers were getting bored and not coming anymore, this change should bring them back. The change in venue was great, there was a lot more to do and the picnic area was huge. It is great to see people at work outside of work. It is great to see their girlfriends, boyfriends, wives, husbands and children.

And what a difference a year makes. Last year, Eileen was three months pregnant. This year, Jacob got to experience Camp Yahoo!.

During my five year run at Sony, I had my desk moved almost twice a year — yes, it was ridiculous. But, never did I get moved from one building to another — mainly because Sony had only one building in San Jose.
Yahoo!, on the other hand, has a bunch of buildings (and campuses) [...]

During my five year run at Sony, I had my desk moved almost twice a year — yes, it was ridiculous. But, never did I get moved from one building to another — mainly because Sony had only one building in San Jose.

Yahoo!, on the other hand, has a bunch of buildings (and campuses) here in the San Francisco Bay Area (plus a bunch of campuses around the world). In two weeks, I will be moving away from the building I have spent the last two years in — “Building F” as it is known, which is located across the street from the main campus, aka Yahoo! HQ. My group is growing fast and we need more floor space to accomodate new hires. Management wanted to avoid shoving people into “bullpens”. Bullpens are created by removing the wall between two ajoining cubes. Therefore, you can shove three people in a space made for two. I have yet to experience a bullpenning situation and I am glad I am not going to.

In two weeks, my new home will be 1MC — Building 1 of our Mission College campus in Santa Clara. If you look at the aerial view above, it is the building on the bottom right. I toured the floors that we will be taking over with Discher and Vito yesterday and the place is nice. I know there are some people that do not want to move (because 1MC is farther away from Yahoo! HQ). But, I’m OK with the move. It is right behind the Mercado shopping center — with an In and Out Burgers, Ben and Jerry’s, AMC 20 and Microcenter. It is a short walk away from Paramount’s Great America. And there are a bunch of good restaurants in the near vicinity (yum!  Tobie Tylers). There are some good perks with going to 1MC.

The ironic thing? As JR was moved away from 1MC a while back.  Alice got moved out of 1MC yesterday.  And I am moving into 1MC soon. Even better? I will be sitting in the same section as JR. And if I lobby my manager, I can even have JR’s old cube. Weird. And of course, in keeping with the unwritten rule of keeping the evil maniacal world-taking over bloggers of Yahoo! apart: JR is now on main campus, Alice is now in 1GA, and I’ll be in 1MC.  One of these days, there will be a shuffle mix up and us maniacal bloggers will be put into the same building. Then all hell will break loose.

I’ll take some pictures of the new place when I get moved in.

Well, I finally updated my iTunes and got iTunes Plus. When I visited the iTunes Plus store, it asked me if I wanted to upgrade my music to the new DRM-free format. Sure, why not for $2.40. The music is truly DRM-free AAC encoded at 256kbps. I threw the files onto [...]

Well, I finally updated my iTunes and got iTunes Plus. When I visited the iTunes Plus store, it asked me if I wanted to upgrade my music to the new DRM-free format. Sure, why not for $2.40. The music is truly DRM-free AAC encoded at 256kbps. I threw the files onto my MemoryStickProDuo and put that into my SonyEricsson w810i. The w810i played the files just fine. This is still not as good as eMusic’s approach at DRM-free music — I prefer the more universally supported MP3 format instead of AAC — but it is a good start for commercial music. I hope more studios and labels go DRM-free in the near future.

I was at Fry’s today looking at the displays for HD-DVD and Bluray. Bluray was a nice setup, a Sony Bluray box hooked up to a large Sony LCD HDTV running Nacho Libre. I don’t really agree that Nacho Libre is the best film to be showing off high definition video, but it [...]

I was at Fry’s today looking at the displays for HD-DVD and Bluray. Bluray was a nice setup, a Sony Bluray box hooked up to a large Sony LCD HDTV running Nacho Libre. I don’t really agree that Nacho Libre is the best film to be showing off high definition video, but it still did its job. Bluray was really nice and the picture was sharp and captivating.

Next to the Bluray setup was an HD-DVD setup. It was a Toshiba HD-DVD player hooked up to (and this is sad) a Sony HDTV. The HD-DVD setup was running Batman Begins — a movie I’ve seen many times on DVD. I was very impressed with HD-DVD. Batman Begins was a great movie to show off its capabilities — I watched the chase scene through downtown Gotham. The chase looked spectacular, I could see the rivets on the bridges!

But, of course it comes down one question: Which was better?

Neither.

They both offer great looking HD content, but either way it was the same. And I think that in the end, Joe Shmoe would either not be able to tell the difference between SD-DVD and HD-DVD. And if he could, he would not be able to tell the difference between Bluray and HD-DVD.

In my dream world, we’d all have fiber to the house with gigabit connections. We’d have a nice HD-DVR system at home that can get content from multiple online vendors. Movies download to the box and I watch the movies from the box. If I get a new box, I can redownload all the content that I already paid for. Or if I choose, I could go with an all-you-can-watch download system. That would be the best thing. Who needs discs anyways?