I got a PS2!

I got the package at Costco, which includes the system, an additional controller, a memory card, and two Greatest Hits games (Gran Turismo 3 and ATV Offroad Fury). I used my mom's $75 Costco "coupon", so in all it came out to just over $200 (which is what the system by itself would've cost elsewhere).

Gran Turismo 3 is a game I definitely wanted. I wasn't excited about ATV Offroad Fury, until I found out it was developed by Rainbow (same guys that did the Motocross Madness games).

Some comments to Greg (if you don't understand these, read all the comments for the October 11th post):

* I will probably drive to Porterville and watch the Jaguars game at my parents' house. I need to pick up my DirecTV stuff at my grandmother's house in Visalia, and get myself set up to have NFL action at my place. Tidbits on the upcoming Jaguar game: Starting Jags linebacker T.J. Slaughter has been re-instated after serving a four-game suspension for violating the league's "substance" policy (he tested positive for steroids - he wasn't careful enough in double-checking the supplements he was taking). He'll play against Tennessee. Tennessee currently sucks pretty badly, but they always create matchup problems against the Jaguars. This time around, though, the Jaguars defense is probably the best it's ever been, and I expect them to harrass Steve McNair quite a bit.

* Xbox is sweet. After playing my first couple of PS2 games, it's VERY obvious that the Xbox is a much more powerful and better looking console. It doesn't have the same kind of game library as the PS2 (which is why I just got my PS2), but what it has is great. NFL2K3 is awesome, naturally. :)

* The new Sam & Max had better rule. :) I was more or less pleased with the most recent Monkey Island game, though I liked the first three games even better.

Here's a cool article: Older gamers now the norm.

Meanwhile, my mom obsesses over crappy FreeCell...

I love the NFL/United Way commercial with Jake Plummer taking kids around a zoo, and a Brooklyn-esque girl (reminds me of the girl in "Life With Mikey") challenges Plummer's claim of the cardinal being fearsome.

Girl: "What about eagles?"
Plummer: "Cardinals eat eagles!"
Girl: "What about falcons?"
Plummer: "They eat them too!"
Girl: "It doesn't look so tough!"

The following are my comments, sent to the Senate Committe on the Judiciary, on the topic of Digital Rights Management (DRM):

"The larger and more intrusive something is, the more cumbersome and unwieldy it is. This does not seem like the direction to go in when the thing being installed is ultimately destined to be defeated. No protection scheme is bulletproof, and the defeats of the scheme eventually are homogenized into a "crack" so simple that any user can use it. Consider how widespread PlayStation game piracy was, and that involved the physical soldering of a chip to the game system's motherboard. No one could have predicted that such a large percentage of the userbase would go to that length for piracy, yet the "hacks" became so simple over time that any 15-year-old could borrow Daddy's soldering iron and do it himself. And when the "hacks" involve only software, it eventually becomes as easy as double-clicking an .EXE file and *poof*, you're done.

Whether piracy is wrong or not is not the issue. The issue is that piracy will not be defeated. There are crackers who will tirelessly work night and day to defeat protection schemes until they're cracked. And once they're cracked, all that's left are the hassles that the system push on the "legit" user.

The issue now is that new business models need to be devised. Some business models don't even need to be touched - compressed video footage from someone's HandiCam, downloaded to a computer, isn't going to replace Friday night dates at the theater. Music's a little more touchy, but an association whose members operate as a money sponge (soaking up most of it, while allowing a little overflow to drip below to the artists) really needs to be brought to justice of their own before "pressing charges" (so to speak) on the public whose money they hoarde.

At this point, I don't understand how a Senate committee could take the current "old world" industries very seriously. Even a cursory glance at the track record of the RIAA (for example) reveals that these associations have far more to answer for on their own part, before they can be in any position to push their agenda onto the public.

The public has been able to copy VHS tapes for years. It's been able to copy audio cassettes for years. While these are no longer the cutting edge of media, they once were. And while copying them was always an easy possibility, it never met any of the doomsday prophesies that were offered then, and are being offered all over again now. History has a curious way of repeating itself. "

I've had a pretty good study session so far today. I just hope that it translates to good test performance. My instructor is so cryptic and vague that I have absolutely no clue what to expect, except that I know what "range" of material the exam will cover. And she said that what we write on one portion of the exam will then be used on the following problems, so I have a feeling that we're going to write some basic code and then proceed to optimize it in the problems that follow. This class is all about reducing the number of instructions it takes to perform a certain task. Where it gets hard is in the "pipelining" of the SPARC architecture, where one instruction is being copied into memory while another instruction is being executed, making for all sorts of weird possibilities when the program jumps to a non-consecutive line of code.

Today's listening: Orbital's The Altogether (CD1), Thievery Corporation's The Mirror Conspiracy (cool down-tempo electronic with strings and horns and touches of ethnic influences added in), and Monolake's Bicom Remoteable Cut EP (much more machine-like and less human than the Thievery Corporation album). Now starting: Dvorak's String Quartets #10 and #11.

Heh... I'm logged on to CSUF's "Triton" server (which runs SunOS Unix on the SPARC architecture, so I can write all my assembly on there), and I used the Unix command "users" to see who else is online. Practically everyone is using a class temporary account (such as "cs112a04", which designates the class - cs112). There's one person from C SCI 115, three from ECE 71, one from C SCI 40, and four from C SCI 41. There's only one person online using a permanent account (something that I need to go and get soon).

Assembly language exam tomorrow. Fun fun fun. Currently studying a tutorial on SPARC architecture assembly.... someone on the Fresno-CSCI list posted a link to it, and so I added it to the group's Links section. Pretty good tutorial... I should print out a hard copy and keep it in my CSCI 112 binder.

I got my summer temp work money yesterday! $133 for updating (and rebuilding in parts) a department's website over the summer. I now call this my "PlayStation 2 money", for it will help pay for a PS2 sometime after the 15th.

I installed and played NHL 2003 on my PC, and I must say that I'm mightily disappointed. The gameplay is very slow and jerky.... not at all fast or fluid like NHL 2002. I like that they "shrunk" the rink so that it's more like an NHL rink (even though I hate NHL regulation ice, and wish that the NHL would go to the large international-sized playing surface). I know I could use a better video card in my PC, but I think most of the slowness is just in the gameplay itself. I'll try the game on console, but I think Sega's NHL2K3 might be this year's hockey game to play. I kinda miss my old copy of NHL FaceOff '97 for the PlayStation... one of the first PSX games I bought.

I asked Derek if he wants to go to the Fresno State football game this weekend. He said he might be going to Santa Cruz for the weekend, but isn't sure, so he'll get back to me later tonight. Stacey's babysitting that night, but we get to go out Friday night. :)

I love having my wireless network. Ever since I got it, I've been roaming around my apartment with my laptop. I'll sit on my couch and watch the hockey game (LA Kings won their opener last night, 4-1 over the Phoenix Coyotes) and do some coding or Internet stuff. I'll go upstairs and be online. I can access MP3s that are on my desktop computer right now, but once I put those big hard drives into my server, I'll have my entire music collection online (part of Project: Integration).

Once this week is over, I think I'm going to get one of those Blockbuster cards that lets you rent however many games you want for a month. I'll need that. This exam assault has sucked. I hope my next exams are spread out a bit more.

OK, back to studying.....

test:
cmp %c_r, 5
bg done
add %c_r, 1, %c_r
mov %a_r, %o0
mov %b_r, %o1
call .mul
nop
move %o0, %a_r
ba test
nop
done:

Since Stacey and Shelby are always complaining about having nothing to do online....

... here's a fun website: www.psychoexgirlfriend.com. Listen to some of the voice mails that this psycho broad left for her "boyfriend". It's great. She tries *every* trick in the book to try and get this guy back. Tries to make him jealous, tries to make him feel guilty, obsesses over some stupid cell phone thing (she cries about not being able to figure out her cell phone, and he promised to teach her... how stupid does she have to be?). Many of the voice-mails were left within minutes of each other, sometimes immediately after each other. It's twisted.

What can I say? I am fascinated by stupidity.

Today, I spent most of the day with Stacey - driving around, then hanging out at my place, then at hers. I haven't done much productive. Time to start studying for my 112 test.

NHL 2003 released on PC. I downloaded and burned it, but haven't played yet.

Nothing much to talk about. It was a good day, but nothing much interesting to write about.

I want a PS2. I will get one soon.

Tomorrow's C SCI 112 lab was cancelled, due to our test being this week (Friday). A small reprieve. I have a C SCI 1 assignment due on Friday, but other than that, I don't have any other assignments to do this week (though I'll probably get C SCI 60 homework for the weekend, and I need to write my concert report for music by next Monday).

This weekend was one of rest and recuperation. After last week's trio of tests, I was beat. I still have my hardest exam (of the first round of midterms) on Friday. My music exam tomorrow shouldn't be too tough. As for Friday's C SCI 112 (assembly) exam, well, got some serious studying to do. Might want to organize a couple of people to study for it. At least I can focus on it all week, as I won't have anything else due this week.

Recapping the weekend:
(1) Friday - Fresno State Bulldogs vs. Colorado State Rams football game. Fresno wins, 32-30. Stacey and I went with my parents (the season ticket holders).
(2) Saturday - Fresno Fair. Food, interesting things to see, and Michelle Branch concert.
(3) Sunday - Drive to Porterville to watch the day of NFL action. Jacksonville scores a big win over Philly, 28-25.

The weather got warm again today. It was up to 88° today, and it's supposed to get to 91° tomorrow. CRAPPY. But, after another 88° day on Tuesday, we'll see 85°, 84°, and then a sharp drop to the lower 70's (where we dang well better stay). Some overcast would be nice at some point.

A laptop conneted to a personal wireless network is a wonderful thing. Everyone ought to have one.

Not only did the Jaguars win 28-25 today, but it wasn't even that close. It was 28-10 and the game was over at that point.

I drove down to Porterville, all by myself, to watch the games at my parents house.... all by myself. My parents are still in Vegas. The drive was worth it, because Jacksonville kicked.... even though the running game had a hard time getting going.

Music test tomorrow on jazz. Louis Armstrong, Charlie Parker, Glenn Miller (bleh), John Coltrane, Miles Davis......

Finished installing my wireless network yesterday. My wireless router is now handling all my routing duties, rather than my FreeBSD box. Is this because I thought the hardware router would be better? No, it's because I couldn't figure out how to make the router act as only a wireless access point. I must say, it is easier to administrate the SMC Barricade than it is FreeBSD ipnat (though I got pretty handy at typing "vi /etc/ipnat.rules" and "ipnat -CF -f /etc/ipnat.rules").

So, anyway, Stacey and I went to the fair today. The food was good. Don't ask me how I managed to avoid eating the barbecue ribs, though. Just never had time to sit down and eat them. Pizza and nachos and snowcones are edible on the move. Anyway, the Michelle Branch concert was fun. Granted, pop music isn't my style, but I prefer Branch's style of music over the whiz-bang of so-called "bubblegum pop". At least it's honest, and not manufactured. So I was able to enjoy myself. I'm still far more looking forward to hearing TOOL play, naturally, but this was enjoyable. Stacey and I took some pictures - they'll be on each of our sites eventually.

Driving down to Porterville tomorrow to watch the football games tomorrow. A nice way to cap off a fun weekend. I needed a good weekend too, because the exam studying starts again on Monday (my C SCI 112 assembly language exam is on Friday, and it's going to be TOUGH. I have SO much studying to do for it).