Dark Side of the Carton

I really hate to knock other gamer’s efforts at producing media, because at least they are giving it a go. With that being said, sometimes people need their cameras and mics stolen and destroyed. I am referring to the following video which I hesitate to link to since I don’t really want anyone else to suffer through it like I did.

I am going to refrain from tarnishing my clean reputation by saying anything more. Watch this and formulate your own opinion. Be sure not to miss the Ultimate Spider-Man review by Mr. Black Suit Spidey who is no doubt filming this in his grandmother’s bedroom.

Source: Google Video

I just have one thing to say and that is AWESOME!

Pics and specs here.

You can read about the issues that I have with Vonage here. After waiting to ensure I wasn’t going to get charged a ton for cancelling on my stupid anniversary date I cancelled my account. Melissa, the lady that took my call was very nice and processed it quickly. The only downside is that it took 20 minutes for my call to get answered. Oh well.

I have often thought that the eBay site suffered from horrible layout and was a nuisance to work with. It seems that I was not the only one. They have a preview of the new eBay Express up and online.

Source: The Inquirer

So last night was game 1 of the Spurs/Kings series. For as much talk as Ron Artest runs, he sure didn’t show up last night. I missed most of the game, but from what I hear the Northern Sacramento HS players probably would have done better than the Kings did.

Spurs 1
Kings 0

My prediction? A sweep is inevitable.

Google launched the beta of their web based Calendar software today. So far, I am quite impressed for a free web based program. Good job Google.

Source: Ars

With the release of Vista, Microsoft is pulling out a new tool from its antipiracy toolbox. Aero, the new whiz-bang UI for Vista, will only be available to registered users of Windows. That’s right–no matter how fast your CPU and graphics card are, if Microsoft determines you are running a pirated version of Vista then it’s the toned-down interface for you.

 I can’t fault Microsoft wanting to slow the pirates down. I don’t think this will do much more than slow them down, but I think it is a quite interesting way to encourage people to purchase Vista legally. It will be interesting to see just how this security feature of Vista works. If it is completely local it will get cracked in a few days.

Source: Ars

I recently looked into the wonderful world of Bookmarklets for Firefox. Basically they are bookmarks with javascript functionality. Since I make use of the same sites over and over I figured making a few bookmarklets would be a smart idea. Here are a few of mine:

• Microsoft KB Article
• EB Product ID
• EB Games Product Search
• Gamestop Search
• Whois (via Whois.sc)

You can install these by dragging them to your bookmark toolbar folder or copying the link and pasting it into the Location box for a new bookmark. In these Bookmarklets they will prompt you for input or they will utilize whatever you currently have selected in the browser. On occasion this can bite you in the butt. Enjoy them.

Finding good customer service is becoming a rarity. I work for a company that was founded on the idea of Fanatical customer service and support so it is increasingly frustrating dealing with people that could care less about providing a satisfying customer experience.

That being said I feel inclined to let everyone know when I have a good experience. Yesterday I went to Home Depot to get some 3” bolts to mount a ceiling fan. The guy in lighting dropped what he was doing to walk over to hardware with me and help me find what I needed.

Yeah it was something minor, but I left there feeling like I was helped out when someone could have easily said “I don’t know” and sent me away. You can bet that is where I will be going if I need something in the future.

Having looked into this issue and done far too much reading on it, there is finally a real workaround that trims down your memory usage.

http://www.realtechnews.com/posts/2920

How To Stop The FireFox Memory Leak
1. Open Firefox and go to the Address Bar. Type in about:config and then press Enter.
2. Right Click in the page and select New -> Boolean.
3. In the box that pops up enter config.trim_on_minimize. Press Enter.
4. Now select True and then press Enter.
5. Restart Firefox.

As of this writing my Firefox is at 189MB.
I just minimized and it dropped down to 8MB.
After maximizing it memory usage jumped up to 40MB.

I’d say that this is definitely going to help until the Firefox Devs can track down all the core memory leaks.