Who's the hardest person to shop for on your holiday list?
My Dad is very difficult. He doesn't overtly want anything, and I (and probably everyone else in my family) have no idea what things he'd find neat. I guess clothes are ok, but what;'s the fun in that?
I am looking forward to hearing my sisters complain about me.
Well, I did it, I went and bought a Mac. A refurbished black MacBook, to be precise. Here it is coming out of its box:
You can't tell that it isn't 'new', the Mac was perfect when I took it out of the box. Either it was DOA when it was purchased the first time, or it isn't really refurbished.
I've used it for a few hours now, and I generally like the Mac. I've never used a Mac before, so setting things up is a struggle at times. Setting the windows network settings was non-intuitive, but I guess they aren't obvious for new Windows users, either.
The things I will need to get used to are related to Apple's 5% market share. There aren't drivers for my Dell laser printer, I'm going to have to install a kludge to get the printer to work. Also, the only poker site I use with Mac software is Full Tilt.
I also hate the trackpad. That is more due to my seven years of using IBM Thinkpads with their little joystick thingy than any real problem with Apple's trackpad. This may be the one thing that will make me return the Mac, I am giving myself 2 weeks to get used to it.
I'm going to try to record a video tomorrow using the built-in webcam, I'll post what I come up with.
What's on your Top 5 video games list?
Submitted by mileena.
Nerd question!!!
1. Civilization (I-IV) (PC) - I have purchased every edition of this game since it originally came out as a DOS game in 1990. Civ 4 is a great game.
2. Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas (PS2/XBox/PC) - The best 3rd person shooter ever. The whole "Hot Coffee" thing was dumb. This is the greatest game. Yeah it's violent, yeah, it's vulgar, yeah, you play a pimp for a while, it's still great.
3. Wolfenstein 3-D (PC) - The original 1st person shooter. Still a fun game.
4. System Shock (PC) - I really enjoyed this game. Probably the first game with a "cyberspace" element.
5. Microsurgeon (Intellivision) - One of my favorite Intellivision games. Yeah, I'm showing how old I am. Travel through a body in a mini spaceship blasting tumors. Probably one of the first 2 person collaborative games. One player steers the ship while the other person shoots the tumor.
Apple has announced iPod integration with airline seats.
Being able to watch videos off your iPod on your seatback video screen is pretty cool. If I flew internationally, I would definitely use the airlines with the iPod jacks.
On a related note, why haven't any other MP3 player companies started using the iPod dock connector? It is pretty much an industry standard and there are thousands of accessories for it. Apple can't win a lawsuit against you since it isn't difficult to reverse-engineer how the connector works.
I saw this beer at Sam's yesterday & had to buy it:
It didn't taste too much like ginger, but it was good & had a good 7% alcohol kick. Not sure it was worth $4, though.
How do you eat your pizza: folded, flat or with a fork and knife?
Submitted by danimass.
There is only one answer: It Depends!
Real NY pizza (or Sbarro) is folded.
Other thin crust pizza is eaten flat. The Chicago custom of cutting a round pizza into squares is dumb, btw.
Stuffed pizza usually needs to be eaten with a knife & fork. Unless, of course, if it is cold you can eat it flat.
I went to an authentic Naples-style pizza place (Spacca Napoli) in Chicago recently. Their pizza came out to us uncut. I was told this was the custom in Naples. So we had to use a knife & fork. It was incredibly good & messy. If you go get the 4 cheese pizza and the tartufo.
End of lesson.
How did you pick your Vox name? Does it mean something?
Submitted by LeendaDLL.
I have been playing the Civilization PC game since it was a DOS game over 15 years ago. In the game you are the leader of a civilization which you develop over time. They use real life leaders like Napoleon, Lincoln, and Montezuma. Since I don't have that much imagination I would change Montezuma to Mattazuma when I played as the Aztecs.
So a few years ago I started using Mattazuma when I signed up for forums. Since it was a nonsense name, I haven't had to put a number on the end of it. I bought the domain name a few years ago.
Amusingly, there was a harness racing horse named Mattazuma a few years ago.
Oh yeah, Ln reminded me of another Mattazuma story. I received a couple E-Mails to my GMail inbox from a travel agent with itineraries for flying to Japan. There was a phone number on the itinerary, so I called it to see what was going on. I ended up speaking with a woman with a very heavy Japanese accent. She was trying to send to itinerary to someone named Matt Azuma and just guessed at his e-mail address. After sending me two or three more itineraries (with the real Matt Azuma's e-mail address on them too) the travel agent finally figured it out.
What is your favorite scent?
Submitted by Erinen.
I have a Pavlovian response to the smell of cilantro. No idea why, but the smell makes my mouth water and I feel happy.
