Less than useful

Procrastinating a bit from some contract work I need to get done tonight.

I’d seen Amazon Kindles in person a few times, and was absolutely blown away by the quality and legibility of the text on the screen.  I didn’t get to spend that much time with them though to really get a feel for the features.  I didn’t like how a lot of the device’s real-estate was used up by a keyboard though.

Today I spent a while with the Sony eReaders, and was surprised to find that they don’t look or feel nearly as nice as the Kindle.  They looked great in their press-shots and sounded vastly superior to me, but they felt quite cheap comparatively.  When these things are supposed to recreate the “experience of reading a book,” which detractors keep bringing up, it’s apparently a really big deal.

Speaking of e-book readers in general, the ability to change text-size I think is a killer feature.  However one thing I noticed on the Sony readers, and really disliked, was that they wouldn’t justify or typeset the text particularly well.  It’s especially obvious at larger font sizes. I don’t know whether the Kindle does this either, but it seems like it’d be a great feature to further enhance legibility.  Maybe most people don’t notice this sort of thing though.

It does make me think though that I really don’t want to be an early adopter in this instance, and it’s steeled my resolve to get through all the physical books I’ve acquired over the years before I invest in something that will be obsolete in a few months…

I’d been meaning to write about Avatar for some time since I’d seen it, as none of the reviews/articles/criticisms I’d seen on it quite captured my thoughts.  Now this Macleans article, by Brian D. Johnson, captures them far more succinctly than I could manage: Why Haven’t You Seen Avatar Yet?

The only thing I’d really like to add is to chastise people who are reading so deeply into what is really such a superficial movie.  The plot is so thin, the characters are so shallow, you’re just seeing what you want to see, or ‘jumping at shadows’ so to speak.  Despite the lack of depth, the movie still manages to be an awe-inspiring experience.  It’s really okay to just watch it with an open … or possibly empty mind.

I picked up a BlackBerry a couple weeks ago.  The impetus was that I started a new job with heavily-monitored internet, and an extremely restrictive firewall.  I wanted to avoid trouble with my new employer and couldn’t deal with being completely cut off for over half the waking day.  Suddenly having no access to personal email felt really isolating.

I chose a BlackBerry mostly because I really didn’t like tapping out long messages on an iPhone’s keyboard.  For plain internet browsing, I think the iPhone’s browser wins no-contest, but that wasn’t my main concern.  As it turns out though, I’m just ecstatic with this purchase, and I’m discovering more and more to do with it every day.

I was on Fido, but still had 11 months left in my contract.  I discovered that Rogers can be negotiated with to allow you to break your contract once in your lifetime, to switch from Fido to Rogers or vice versa, as long as you’ve been on your respective network for at least a year.

As the gadget comes up in conversation, I’ve noticed some inaccuracies, and as well, have found solutions to some common complaints:

1. Consumer BlackBerries do have push email (at least on the Rogers network).  It does not require a corporate server.  I have it set up with my Gmail account, but you can create an @rogers.blackberry email address instead if you prefer.  Without the slightest exaggeration, emails show up on my BlackBerry before my Gmail inbox.  The address to set this up is http://www.rogers.com/bis/ You can set this up from your desktop PC.  You will need the IMEI and PIN codes.
2. It took me a couple days to figure out, but with the default theme, you change the home screen icons by moving the applications you want to the top row of your apps menu. (Probably obvious, but two friends who’d had theirs for months never figured it out.)
3. The included browser is nothing spectacular, however you can install Opera Mini instead.  The 5.0 beta includes tabbed browsing even.
4. The included Maps application is quite rudimentary.  Google Maps is a spectacular replacement.  More information here.
5. I love the cohesive Messages programme, how it consolidates all incoming messages from your various IM applications, Facebook, emails, etc.  All except for SMS messages for some reason.  You can in fact combine the Messages and SMS apps by going to the Options in Messages, choosing General Options, and changing the SMS and Email Inboxes setting to Combined.
6. BlackBerry apps do not close when you push the red disconnect button.  They stay running in the background, eating at your battery.  This is actually a great feature, and a huge advantage over the iPhone, but if you’re not aware of it, you’re killing battery life and memory for running other apps needlessly.  Generally you can close apps by pushing the menu button and selecting Close.  Unfortunately this isn’t 100% consistent, and some apps require you use Exit instead.  (They often still have a ‘Close’ command, but in that case it won’t necessarily stop the programme from running.)
7. Related to the previous point, you can access applications running in the background by holding the menu button (the one with the BlackBerry logo on it).  Depending on your model, there will be programmes that you cannot actually close permanently.  (On my Bold, the Browser, Phone, Home Screen, Messages, and BlackBerry Messenger apps are always running.)

Some personal favourite apps include:

• ÜberTwitter is my favourite Twitter client.  It’s far faster than the seemingly popular Twitterberry/OpenBeak.
• Macleans is a nicely formatted version of the magazine, though it occasionally cuts articles slightly short and tells you to find the rest on newsstands.

The one minor gripe I have is that I can’t access Gmail-specific features from within the Messages app.  The BlackBerry suggested I download a special “Gmail plug-in” when I first set up my email account, which would allow me to do things like flag and categorise messages.  This works great, however I have to run it as a separate programme.  When I look at my email from within the default Messages app though,  I can’t do any of that Gmail-specific stuff.  It sort of defeats the purpose of having a consolidated inbox, and calling the programme a “plug-in.”  Hopefully I’m just missing something, or it will be corrected soon.

Peche Mortel from a cask

I can’t believe I didn’t think to write about this before.  At the time, it didn’t occur to me to take a photo until I was half done the glass…

Over a month ago I had the pleasure of attending the official launch party for Dieu du Ciel!’s, a Montréal-based brewpub,  products in Ontario at Bar Volo.  I discovered Dieu du Ciel! through a friend (blurred in the background of the photo) who’d also introduced me to Bar Volo, previously the only place you could find these beers in Ontario.

I used to love beer.  The problem is, since discovering this brewery, nothing else has been as good.  I’ll occasionally still drop by the LCBO, but if they don’t have Peche Mortel or Corne du Diable in stock, I’m just not interested.

Those are the only two that are being bottled for Ontario currently.  The LCBO is low at this particular moment.  When they do have stock, they seem to primarily fill the Summerhill, Atrium at Bay, and St. Lawrence Market locations.

The brewery has an amazing variety of phenomenal beers.  November is supposed to be bringing a selection to taps at the good beer bars in Toronto (in addition to Volo): C’est What?, The Rhino, Victory Cafe, Smokeless Joe’s, etc.  One of the promised draughts is a cocoa-vanilla stout, Aphrodisiaque, the best beer I’ve had in my entire life.

I just wish I’d been aware of them in my previous trips to Montréal.  I need to make a trip there just to visit the pub.

Part 1

Muhle silvertip brush

How do you prepare a lather?

In classic shaving, you have a choice of cheap plain boar brushes ($15-25), or badger brushes.  Badger brushes are generally broken down into, ‘pure badger’ ($23-40), ‘best badger’ ($40-60) and ’silvertip’ ($60-300+).  There are also synthetic brushes ($20-60) available for vegans ($1).

Boar brushes are stiff; pure badger are soft; best badger is stiffer than pure, but holds more water; silvertip is the softest, and holds a metric tonne of water.  I don’t know much about synthetic brushes, but apparently they’re ‘pretty good’ (whatever that means), so you don’t have to feel like you’re getting a poor experience if you conscientiously object to a rodent being killed for its coat.

I started with a $13 Omega boar-hair brush, found at Shopper’s Drug Mart.  It was good enough to really get me into this whole classic shaving thing.  I eventually upgraded to a mid-range ($160) Muhle silvertip brush.  It was a lot nicer, but it didn’t seem worth the huge premium.  I bought it because I felt I was invested enough into this method, and didn’t want to buy anything else for another twenty years or so.  After getting used to it though, the old boar brush was unusable: it felt like I was pushing a stiff old paintbrush around on my face.

Open

Closed

I recently bought an Edwin Jagger best badger travel brush, and after getting used to the silvertip, the difference was huge.  It was prickly, scratchy, and took a long time to make a good lather.

Something else it reminded me of, new badger brushes stink.  The silvertip took some time to lose the scent.  I used the strongest menthol soaps I had until the brush no longer had its distinctive musk.  This travel brush will take some time.  Apparently you can use shampoo, conditioner, or Borax to get rid of the smell if you absolutely cannot tolerate it.

Ultimately the point of the brush is to generate a lather with shaving soap or cream, but secondarily it stimulates your follicles, helping lift the hair away from your skin before you actually go to shave.  It probably helps also clear away any dirt and oil.  The larger the brush (the more bristles), the more effective and faster it will be at each of these tasks.

All that said, I don’t think it really matters what brush you start with.  If you’re just experimenting, the cheapest brushes are good enough.  If you’re going to stick with the whole regimen however, you’ll eventually want to upgrade.  The trick is avoiding ‘acquisition disorder’ and just buying one good brush if you have some idea of what you want.  There are fanatics online with a dozen or more brushes (a very informative video on this subject).  So I suggest that you start with a boar brush, but skip straight to silvertip if you can afford it, if you decide to stick with making your own lather while shaving.

It’s awesome.

The general online sentiment however is that this device is a pile-of-crap, that you’re “a motherfucking idiot if you buy that piece of shit,” etc.

I really don’t get it.  One caveat: I upgraded from a PSP-1001.  Things like physical dimensions, and the extra memory cache present in the 2000 & 3000 series devices I have no familiarity with.  I love the tiny dimensions, the quality of the games available to it, and how freaking light it is.  It doesn’t feel cheap.

PSP-1001, PSPgo, 1st gen iPod Touch

Most of the arguments against it seem to stem from a perceived high launch price and the lack of a UMD transfer option.

The price argument is stupid.  It’s the price of admission for being an early adopter.  This isn’t any different from any other new technology.  Can’t afford it?  Don’t think it’s worth it?  No one is forcing you to buy it.  But people love feeling entitled and bitching.

The lack of UMD transfer was hardly a surprise.  Yeah it would have been nice, but how could the company possibly ensure that there wouldn’t be thousands of software copies made from a single physical disc?

It wasn’t a deal-breaker for me.  I actually just went and traded in every single one of my UMDs because I figured I had enough games anyway, and I was never going to get around to beating those particular titles if I hadn’t already.  I’d owned them for years.  Something to be said for the PSP platform in general, the A-list titles typically have a good 50 hours of gameplay each, at least.

Having access to those A-list titles in such a tiny pocketable form though is of immense value to me.  Admittedly the novelty hasn’t worn off, but the Go goes everywhere I do, no pun intended.  The old PSP-1001 was a real brick to carry around; it wasn’t remotely pocket-sized, nevermind with that plexiglass Logitech Playgear case which was popular at the beginning.

With my PSP-1001 I was already ripping all my UMD games to the MemoryStick with hacked firmware and homebrew available to it.  I hated carrying around extra media, and they loaded many times faster from flash.  As it is, I’ve been declaring war on most physical media.  I was glad to trade in my UMDs.  I’m looking to dump my CD collection and have whole-heartedly embraced iTunes.  I’ve been buying PC games from Steam for years whenever possible.  So the Go really fits my mindset.

I did enjoy access to homebrew (NES/SNES emulators, an ebook reader, some indie games) on the old PSP, but I realised I wasn’t using any of it anyway.  The PSP-1001 d-pad was terrible for NES games with its lack of diagonals.  I’ve been reading books on my iPod Touch instead with Stanza.  The indie games were novel, but nothing I couldn’t live without.

The only nitpick I have with the device is that it’s silly that, while you can leave the screen on and watch video with the device closed, there are no real play controls outside.  There’s volume … but then screen brightness and mute/equaliser (really helpful).  At least you can pause with the ‘PS’ button.  This really makes it almost useless as an MP3 player as well, something that with the slightest bit of effort it could have been at least competent with.  (Technically, you could make playlists in advance…)

The only major issue I have with it is that you’re tied solely to the whims of the Playstation Network store.  You can buy digital titles from Amazon.com as well, but their prices are all worse-to-substantially-worse when you consider conversion from USD to CAD at the low end, and arbitrarily inflated prices at the high-end (Killzone: Liberation is $13 CAD on the PSN store or $40 USD on the Amazon.com store).

So far though, Sony seems to have been pretty good with sales, which is how Steam suckered me in.  I already owned Patapon 2 & Jeanne D’Arc digitally from my original PSP, but picked up the well-priced Killzone.  The sale this week had me picking up a Mercury bundle for $10 (Marble Madness-like games) since I felt I was lacking a good puzzle game.  That’s already a something-stupid 250 hours of gameplay or so…

Another post, another blog category.  Totally inconsequential too, but hey, it’s a hobby.

IGN has reviewed the new portable Gran Turismo game, and assuming the reviewer didn’t miss something painfully obvious, gave it a fair, relatively low 6.8/10 score.  The main complaint is that the game lacks a “career mode,” instead making all 800 cars available to be purchased, and all 35 tracks open from the start,  rather than making/allowing you to work through events in a steady progression.  ¹

It seems to me that the design philosophy behind this is to just turn it into a portable ‘pick-up-and-play’ game, while if you want the real experience you need to buy a Playstation 3 and the full version of Gran Turismo 5 whenever it too is finally released.  A problem with this is that the huge selling point of major-release PSP games is that they offer  full-console-game-like experiences, and are all packed with anywhere between 25-50 hours of gameplay.  Even Locoroco, a game about rolling a big blob around has surprising amounts of depth and things to do.

I can understand that kind of philosophy from a commercial standpoint, trying to make gamers double/triple-dip, but it seems horribly unfair to be charging nearly full-price for a seemingly crippled game that fans of the series and PSP owners have been waiting for for four years.  [4-4-4!]  Alternatives, the PSP game would be probably be outstanding value and make for an excellent game if it were priced just as a budget title.  The high expectations would vanish.

While this isn’t a deal-breaker for me, $40 isn’t even too much, this seems extremely unfair to fans of the series.  A PSP is affordable vs. a PS3 and the necessary HDTV to do it justice.  This portable release ought to be a complete title, building on the name and reputation of the series.  The Gran Turismo games has historically sold staggeringly huge numbers (GT3 & GT4 selling a combined 25 million copies on PS2), yet it appeals to a very different segment than the stereotypical gamer.   I personally didn’t give a crap about them until I tried the PS3 GT5: Prologue version, and now I’m obsessed.  It’ll have been five years when GT5 comes out, since GT4 was released.  I can see there being a huge segment of adult gamers now who keep a PSP around, but have otherwise aged-out and lost interest in doing the whole console thing.  I think I’m on the cusp of it myself, owning just a PS3 with a very small selection of games this generation.

This is one of those posts where I hope random Googlers find it and may be able to offer some insight. Alternatively, hopefully I’ll be able to fix this eventually and offer a solution.  [While writing this post I discovered it was in fact iTunes that broke my drives.  It just adds to the hatred I have of that programme.]

My DVD and CD drives are missing.  They used to work fine, but I noticed yesterday that they had vanished.  I thought maybe a reset would fix it, but when I turned my PC on this morning, they were still missing.  I’m not sure when they stopped working.  I keep the old CD-ROM around because it’s excellent for getting a good rip out of scratched CDs with EAC.  (It doesn’t cache audio…)

Device Manager showed this:

Opening one of these reveals:

It got me thinking that something had ‘damaged’ the drivers.  I thought back and remembered I had installed The Settlers II: 10th Anniversary Edition a week ago, but not gotten around to playing it again.  I knew that game used Securerom 7 copy-protection, so I reasoned that maybe it didn’t play nicely in Windows 7, seeing as it’s an XP or Vista-era game.  Uninstalling and restarting didn’t fix anything, though that didn’t really mean anything since these copy-protection schemes are notorious for staying on a PC even after the title they’re supposed to be protecting is removed.

I went back to the “Uninstall a program…” dialogue, and had the insight to sort the programmes by the day that they were installed.  This revealed that since Settlers, I’d also upgraded iTunes to the much-ballyhooed version 9.  Uninstalling that, and all four of its forcibly-installed components also didn’t fix anything.

I started Googling more actively, and came across this blog post of Farhan Ahmed’s where he points toward a fix on Microsoft’s support pages.  The fix worked great.  The only thing was that it needs to be run in compatibility mode (right-click on the installer file and select “Troubleshoot compatibility”.

This fix is pretty old, so interestingly there have been iTunes issues for some time, not just anything new with version 9.  I’m stuck with the programme, for all its headaches, because I cannot find any other way to manage my otherwise mostly-decent iPod Touch.

In the late 90s I’d started getting extremely sick of the alternative  (“alternative to what?”) rock I’d been listening to through middle & high school.  My older brother had a friend working at a major record label who’d flip him extra promo copies periodically.  These would sometimes filter down to me, especially if my brother had no interest in it.  One of these albums was Praise the Fallen by VNV Nation, an electronic British band.

‘Electronica’ like The Prodigy or Chemical Brothers were popular, and I was casually into bands like Depeche Mode,  but VNV Nation were something different.  It was electronic, but probably owed more to the likes of Industrial giants such as Skinny Puppy or Front 242.

Leading from that album, I got into other bands like Covenant, Assemblage 23, Apoptygma Berzerk and Seabound.  It’s Seabound who really got me into the genre.  That said, one of the top albums in it was 2000’s Welcome to Earth by Apoptygma Berzerk.

The production was tight, the songs and album were cohesive and consistent throughout.  I loved the X-File-like theme of the album, about alien life visiting Earth and moving on.  The cover of Metallica’s Fade to Black was awesome.

They then had a live tour which produced a DVD and live album, APBL2000.  This was excellent.  That tour, and the subsequent recordings, were the best example and use of electronic music mixed with live guitar I’d seen and heard up to that point.  (Now I think that this live Trentemoller clip surpasses it…)  The live mix really seemed to be pushing the band and genre forward, and made such a great case for mixing guitars and electronics.

The next album however, 2002’s  Harmonizer, was back to being purely electronic.  It still sounded “good;” it was just boring.  It was intensely personal for the writer I suppose, but I couldn’t relate to it, and therefore it wasn’t particularly interesting.

2005’s You and Me Against the World was a total travesty and made me completely lose interest in the band.  It was a crappy lo-fi throwback to 80s rock I suppose.  Never mind the slick electronic production of Welcome to Earth and Harmonizer, this album sounded like a crappy cock-rock guitar band got drunk in the studio and WHOA DUDE happened to stumble upon a synthesiser.  They then decided to add some “ironic retro shit” to their album.  Don’t get me wrong, I love guitar bands too; just not Apop’s approximation of one.

Yet, it was apparently their most successful album.

This year’s Rocket Science is similar to You and Me Against the World in style, but even worse.  It even features a member of Good Charlotte on it.

So finally getting to the point:

I went to see Apop live two nights ago, and they were fantastic.  Completely unexpected.

They almost played my favourites exclusively, only four newer tracks.  The newer ones were far better live than the album versions too, for the most part.  The only still-horrid track was the Good Charlotte one.

They played so much of their ‘old’ stuff it got me thinking.  Do they know that their new music sucks?

And if so, that begs the question, why do they make it?  Maybe they’re actually insidious geniuses,  crafting perfect tunes that are palatable to ‘mainstream’ pop audiences, suckering them in, with the express purpose of then exposing them to the ebm/electro/electronic/futurepop/goth/synthpop subcultures…

Yes.  Clearly that is why the last two albums are such horrid departures.