Behemoth Droppings

So the fall update for the Xbox 360 came out yesterday. I have to say it is a pretty cool update. The biggest add-on is the addition of being able to stream Netflix movies to the 360. What’s even cooler is that the 360 is the only Netflix streaming device that will do movies in HD. Leslie and I watched Little Shop of Horrors last night, and the quality was pretty good. The movie didn’t skip at all. I added a movie in HD, and the quality was great!

Now comes the childish action of Sony. Sony owns Columbia Pictures, and have blocked all the movies from that studio from being streamed over the 360. What’s funny is that Sony is saying it’s not because of Microsoft, and that is a “licensing” issue. What’s funny about their claim, is the fact that all the movies not available on the 360 can be streamed to any other Netflix capable device on the market today.

This seems not only childish, but illegal and stupid. First, what’s the difference of the streaming as apposed to me renting a Sony movie and watching it on the Xbox 360? Sony is still going to get money for the rental! Second, I bet Sony’s studios, gaming division, and corporate office use a lot of PC’s. What would happen if Microsoft said Sony could no longer use Windows? And not only that, they couldn’t put Windows on any Sony Vaio’s to sell. They’d be sued for monopolizing again!

So in short, there are a ton of movies to stream now to the Xbox 360 and it is a pretty cool service. It’s just sad that Sony, who is getting their butts kicked in the console war by both Microsoft and Nintendo, have to take their ball and go home. Hopefully this gets resolved soon!

The DSL vs Cable argument isn’t as mainstream as it used to be. Both are extremely fast and seem to be getting faster all the time. Plus, there is something called The Grid, but that is many years away. By the way, if this grid comes to fruition, it will completely change the way we view the internet and what we do there.

But that’s still in the future. For now, lets talk about what we have. And what we may have are cable companies that provide internet service going back to the days of dial-up and charging users for the amount of data they transfer. I think this is absolutely ridiculous considering companies like Netflix are starting to offer on-demand movies that you can download and view anytime. But regardless, Time Warner is leading the way into this old/new venture. Fortunately, DSL is not structured the same way as cable. A user does not share the bandwidth of their connection, so there is really no reason for one person to be charged more than another. Good news for me, since I use Zoomtown from Cincinnati Bell and am completely satisfied with there service. Plus, with the possibility of ADSL2, VDSL, or even VDLS2, I see no reason to move from the phone company. So, if you do a lot of downloading and surfing then you might want to consider DSL over cable…just to be safe.

Here is a little suggestion from me. Do yourself a favor, and go download Joost. It’s free tv over the internet. Yes, it’s really free. Yes, it’s legal. Once you have it downloaded and installed, watch some G.I. Joe or Transformers…it’ll brighten your day!!!

Recently I’ve become more and more cautious about my identity on the internet. It’s obvious with the precautions I’ve taken on my website. On Facebook and MySpace I have taken the precautions of blocking anyone from viewing my profile that isn’t a “friend”. I, unlike a lot of people on these social networking sites, do limit my “friend list” to my real friends. Some people let anyone view their profile, or will add anyone to their list. This gives them access to quite a lot of information, especially on Facebook. Many people have their birthdays, spouses name, town they live in, phone number, and email address listed in their profile while it is viewable to anyone with an account for that site (or will add them as a friend without knowing them). It really is just asking someone to steal your identity if you stop and think about it. Even if they don’t steal your identity, your opening the door for spam email, spyware, and malware through emails. Here’s your warning…go to your accounts, see how much personal info you have displayed, and check who can see it. Take the precautions, it’s well worth it! Below is an article about the issue:

Some people (like my mom ) may have noticed that my picture gallery disappeared for a little while. Well, it’s back. I integrated it into my blog design, but that isn’t the main reason it was gone. I decided to make it for registered users only, and this caused a few issues with how I wanted to integrate it. As you may have noticed, I took all my personal information down as well. Having a little daughter and seeing all the horrible things that can happen with “bad people” and the internet (sorry, I don’t want to use any words that might put this post up in search engine rankings), I decided it best if I don’t give out my identity and only let people I approve see the pictures. You can call me a paranoid parent if you want, but I’m not taking any chances. So as of now, if you want to view my pictures you have to go to the picture page and register. I’ll approve it only if I know you. There may be some time between when you register and when you can log in, because I have to approve each request manually. I’ll send you an email when it’s done, so make sure to put in a valid email. And no, your email will not be visible to anyone but me! I’m sorry I’m giving everyone another site to have to register on, but humor me…it’ll make me feel better

Oh, almost forgot. I’ve added 2 months more worth of pictures of Gwen!

I found this on Stumble Upon. Stumble Upon is a plugin for Firefox and IE that allows you to randomly find websites of a certain criteria. Say, for instance, you want to look at websites that pertain to baseball, comedy, or videos…you just click the stumble button and it takes you to a random site which you can rate and your friends can view. Many of you received an invitation from me for this. I think it’s a pretty cool little program/plugin.

Anyway…on to what I was talking about. I stumbled upon the “Ultimate Rejection Letter”. If you have ever applied for a job and received that “Dear John” letter, I’m sure you’ll appreciate this. The letter can be found at http://www.chaosmatrix.org/library/humor/reject.html:

Herbert A. Millington
Chair – Search Committee
412A Clarkson Hall, Whitson University
College Hill, MA 34109

Dear Professor Millington,

Thank you for your letter of March 16. After careful consideration, I
regret to inform you that I am unable to accept your refusal to offer me
an assistant professor position in your department.

This year I have been particularly fortunate in receiving an unusually
large number of rejection letters. With such a varied and promising field
of candidates, it is impossible for me to accept all refusals.

Despite Whitson’s outstanding qualifications and previous experience in
rejecting applicants, I find that your rejection does not meet my needs at
this time. Therefore, I will assume the position of assistant professor
in your department this August. I look forward to seeing you then.

Best of luck in rejecting future applicants.

Sincerely,
Chris L. Jensen

I’m sure as many of you noticed, it was impossible to get to my website for a few days. Turns out my web hosting company was having some issues, but it looks like they have resolved it…so welcome back!

Ok, for the few who know what RSS is, I thought I would let you know that I found an RSS feed for Xanga’s comments. It’s not really from Xanga. It appears someone else wrote one. It isn’t perfect. It doesn’t interpret all html correctly, but it does well enough for me to see what people are saying on Xanga. Anyway, here is the url. Just replace ‘USERNAME’ with the Xanga ID, and your good to go. If you don’t know anything about RSS, Atom, or syndication, I would be glad to dedicate a blog for you to learn…although I’ve already posted one and you didn’t pay attention

My question is, where was this website when I was in college? It would have helped me not choose several bad professors. Anyway, this is a website where students can go and rate professors from almost any college or university. It rates the professor not by how much they were liked, but their effectiveness and the ease of the class. I would recommend any student go and check it out.

www.ratemyprofessors.com