Games, Software and the Reality of Price

I like to scan the news about computers every day through a series of sites and blogs for about an hour a day.  One of the sites that I like going to is Googles Sci/Tech News.  It gathers news stories from across the Web and I find that it is a pretty good source.  There was an article about a game company called Capcon trying to "recover" some of their losses to the "piracy" of one of their games.  This article was of course a reprint of another article which was a repost of a post about what was going on in Japan with the sale of Resident Evil: Mercenaries 3D for the Nintendo 3DS video game.  Such is the "viral" nature of the Internet.  Now I will wade in with my two cents about the issue instead of the facts of the case.  Why the issue instead of the facts?  With this kind of third, fourth and fifth party reporting who knows what the facts are.  It seems Capcon is trying to "discourage" people from reselling their game by making it impossible to erase the saved games so that another later user/consumer can't play the whole game.  Is it true and is it right?  Well I don't think either is that important in the grand scheme of things.  It really boils down to, "what is a game company do to?"  The other issue is, "what is a gamer to do?"

An Old iPod touch a Apple One to One iTunes Session and Apple Support

I have been debating about getting a new iPod touch.  The built in two way camera that takes stills and videos really appeals to me.  I plan to go to Comic-Con again this year and would like to have a camera that would fit into my pocket.  A camera is something that my current iPod touch does not have.  I am sure most people would just tell me to get an iPhone but I am just not ready for a smart phone with that extra monthly charge for a data plan.  I was also hoping to download app versions of Pages and Keynote to my old iPod touch.  The Apple App Store said these programs were compatible with the iPhone, iPad and iPod touch.  When I tried to purchase them I was given a message that my iPod touch was too old and not compatible with this software.  So either I live without these features or buy a new iPod touch.  Basically the typical Apple approach to legacy support and the mindset of forcing consumers to buy new hardware if they want up to date software.  Well, we all tend to forget that Apple is primarily a Hardware company in their approach and not a Software company like Microsoft.  If you want to play with Apple expect to upgrade hardware at least every two years.  My iPod touch is over three years old so I am "due" for an upgrade.  I want the new bells and whistles so now is the time to learn before I shop.

No Place Like Gnome

For the last week I have been playing with Linux distributions.  I have tried several different desktop environments like Xfce, KDE, Gnome and LXDE.  The most stable and easiest to install have used Gnome with the exception of Linux Mint LXDE.  KDE looks great but always feels slow and clunky.  Xfce seems to use the least amount of RAM but has been really buggy form me.  LXDE works in Linux Mint LXDE but not so well in Debian LXDE.   I don't like the standard Gnome desktop layout but it just seems to work better.  Desktop environments like LXDE and Xfce promise low resource usage but Debian Gnome was really low on resource usage and not as buggy as Debian LXDE or Xfce. 

Apple One to One Keynote First Impressions

My first impressions of Keynote is a good one.  When I bought the iWork suite I didn't know what to expect.  The first impression I had of Pages, the word processing application of the suite, was sort of disappointing.  I didn't think it really matched up to Mircrosoft Word feature wise and there are other free alternatives, like Open Office for Mac.  My first impression of Keynote is good though.  It seems very easy to use and intuitive.  I have a MOS certification for PowerPoint 2007 and it wasn't an easy program to learn.  Unfortunately most people who are going to use a "presentation" program are not going to be professional clerical workers who work all day long in an office suite or people who will suffer through a certification process.  Keynote was very point and click, drag and drop, and seemingly easy to use.  The one feature that I loved was the ability to use an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad as a controller during a presentation.  How cool would that be to give a presentation with a controller like an iPhone or an iPad?  I was even told that the iPad can run a cut down version of Keynote and use something like Apple TV to stream a presentation straight to a TV in a conference room during a presentation.  Pretty slick showing up to a presentation with Apple products to show off.  Well, I can see some problems that I need to research.

VMware Tools and Silent YouTube Videos

I use VMware Player to install and use different Linux distributions.  I find that using a virtual machine is easier since I am still in the learning phase of using Linux.  When I make a mistake or I don't like a distribution it is just easier to start over again in a virtual machine.  VMware Player has extra software that it calls VMware Tools.  This software makes it easier to move your mouse in and out of the virtual machine and host as well as improves the virtual machines video performance.  Some operating sytems like Ubuntu install in VMware through a process they call Easy Install.  VMware will install these tools automatically for you but many distributions like Linux Mint versions require you to install VMware Tools manually. VMware provides instructions for manual installation  but they are a little hard for me to follow since I don't know how to use the command line.  I have been able to complete the VMware Tools installation in the past by using these instructions and fumbling my way through it but I end up forgeting how I did that a month down the road.

One to One

Probably the best purchase I have made at the Mac store was to add the One to One service to my MacBook Pro purchase.  About once a week I go in and get a one on one tutorial from one of the staff at the Apple Store.  For an extra $99 at the time of my MacBook purchase I get unlimited tutoring sessions regarding my computer and Apple sofware such as the iLife suite and the iWork suite.  The staff have always been great.  They all seem to be very knowledgable and friendly.