Monthly Archive for August, 2005

Xbox 360: Too Expensive?

Published on August 17, 2005 in Video Games. 0 Comments

Microsoft today announced pricing plans for the upcoming Xbox 360. Here’s the breakdown that I got from Gamespot’s article:

Xbox 360 Core System – $299 (299 Euros, 209 GBP)
•Xbox 360 console
•Wired controller
•Detachable faceplate
•Xbox Live Silver membership
•Standard AV cables

Xbox 360 – $399 (399 Euros, 279 GBP)
•Xbox 360 console
•20GB detachable hard drive
•Wireless controller
•Wireless Xbox Live headset
•High-definition AV cables
•Ethernet cable
•Xbox 360 Media Remote Control (limited time)
•Detachable faceplate
•Xbox Live Silver membership

Alternate names considered for the Core System were “Dork System,” “n00b System,” and “Pokemon Edition.”

In my E3 2005 wrap-up, I posited a $500 price tag for the PS3. I didn’t say it, but I anticipated a $300 price tag for the Xbox 360 with hard drive. I’ve always felt that three bones is acceptable, but four bones is a tad steep. Now it’s looking very much like both systems will hit the middle ground, and drop for four hundred bucks.

Obviously, the Xbox 360 is “available” for under three hundred dollars. But let’s look at that package. No wireless controller, the latest promised addition to baseline console equipment; and no hard drive, the latest promised addition to baseline console equipment — five years ago. The pricier package comes with both, along with a wireless Xbox Live headset, HDTV cables (instead of standard RCA cables), an ethernet cable, and the mouthful Xbox 360 Media Remote Control (let’s just shorten that to 360 Remote). Both packages come with a detachable faceplate and an Xbox Live Silver membership, which is basically the crap version. Also, according to this News.com article, the Core system will be green, while the full version will be cream colored.

But let’s be serious. No one is going to want the dumbed-down, crapped-out, stripped version of Xbox 360. First and foremost, Halo 3 won’t be out until April at the earliest, so anyone who owns Halo 2 will want the backwards compatibility. Include that group when you consider people who don’t want to keep two Xboxes sitting on their entertainment center.

Analysts speculate that Microsoft may drop the price from $399 to $299 in time for the PS3 launch. I’m inclined to agree, and I suspect that rather than offer the light version for $199 or $249, Microsoft will simply phase it out.

I was going to say that the Xbox 360 will be the first system I get so early in its life cycle since the Super NES, but I forget that I got a Gamecube on day one. Poor Gamecube. Poor, stupid Gamecube.

Jimi Hendrix

Published on August 16, 2005 in Music. 0 Comments

I just read a story on CNN.com called The strange life of Jimi Hendrix. It talks about a new book about Jimi, Room Full of Mirrors, written by Charles R. Cross. According to the book, Hendrix got discharged from the Army by pretending to be gay.

Hey, maybe Jimi did say, “‘Scuse me, while I kiss this guy.”

Bob Novak: This is Bullshit

Published on August 9, 2005 in Politics. 0 Comments

In case you didn’t hear, Robert Novak cursed on-air and then stormed off the set of CNN’s Inside Politics during Thursday’s show.

If you watch the clip (here on iFilm.com), it looks like Bob got pissed at James Carville’s zingers. But if you’ve ever seen CNN’s kaput Crossfire, you figure that Bob has taken — and dished — a lot worse. So why did Novak drop a BS-bomb and walk off? I suspected that it had something to do with the Valerie Plame business.

But it still didn’t explain why Bob chose that moment to flip out. Then I read an article in yesterday’s USA Today, which seems to wrap everything up in a neat little bow.

Last week in his column, Novak wrote of the outed CIA operative that “she could be identified as ‘Valerie Plame’ by reading her husband’s entry in ‘Who’s Who in America.’” Again, if you watch the clip, you’ll see a large book sitting on the desk. It’s a copy of “Who’s Who in America.” The theory here is that Ed Henry, host of Inside Politics, planned on questioning Novak about his column, his involvement in the Valerie Plame mess, etc. Novak saw the book and decided he wasn’t going to deal with the Plame story. He decided he wasn’t even going to give Ed Henry the chance to ask him about it. So during discussion about Katherine Harris’s Senate bid, Bob decided to get huffy and walk out.

I wrote about Karl Rove a few weeks ago, and ultimately I believe that Rove leaked Plame’s identity to Novak, who was more than happy to do the White House’s dirty work. I don’t know if Novak will ever face jail time for this, or be forced to give up his source. I don’t know if Karl Rove will lose his job over this. But it would be poetic justice if jailed New York Times reporter Judith Miller gets out of jail to see her career flourish based on her integrity, while Novak gets drummed out of television. On the other side of coin, a reporter doing time to protect her source strengthens the freedom of the press and more importantly, the notion that we live in a free and open democracy — while a talking head like Novak proves once again (see: Armstrong Williams) that getting in bed with subject matter you’re supposed to cover objectively can cost you your credibility.

Mile: Wikipedia

Published on August 8, 2005 in Language. 0 Comments

Something that I’ve found very interesting over the years is units of measurement and their conversions, particularly those that record linear distance. I’m talking about inches, feet, miles, centimeters, meters, kilometers, etc. I even find it interesting that you can say KILLO-meter or kill-LOM-eter.

One thing I’ve always been curious about is how it came to be that a mile is 5,280 feet. I did some Google work, and the best hit I found was a copy-and-paste from Wikipedia. The article was about inches, but I really wanted to know about miles, and Wiki had an article for that, too.

Apparently miles come from ancient Egypt or ancient Rome. A mile was the length of 1,000 pairs of strides by a Roman soldier. The word “mile” is derived from mille passus, thousand paces. But in 1593, England’s Queen Elizabeth I changed the mile from 5,000 feet to 8 furlongs. A furlong is 660 feet, so that’s where we get our current value of 5,280 feet. So where does the furlong come from?

A furlong is the length of a furrow in a one-acre plot of land. Okay — what’s an acre?

The acre is today defined as 4,840 square yards, but it was originally come up with to describe the amount of land that could be plowed by one person with one ox in one day.

So in a nutshell, that’s what a mile is.