Zune HD 3D games

Today we got our first taste of 3D gaming on the Zune HD that features the delicious Tegra chip. Expectations were pretty high and people have been waiting for this since the launch. And rightfully so. With talks of Tegra being used in a new Nintendo DS and many MIDs (Mobile Internet Devices) running Android, it has plenty of power to pump out some pretty awesome games. Especially on a device with a beautiful OLED screen.

After reading the responses on the usual tech sites and personally playing all of the new games, most people including myself came away pretty impressed.

Here’s the list of new games:

Project Gotham Racing: Ferrari Edition
Audiosurf Tilt
Vans Sk8: Pool Service
Lucky Lanes Bowling
Piano
Checkers

Obviously PGR and Audiosurf are the two biggies here. And both are pretty impressive. Audiosurf is pretty much an exact clone of the PC version and uses the accelerometer to switch between lanes. Likewise with PGR you tilt left and right to steer the car. One thing I especially like is the “Watch Lightshow” feature of Audiosurf that plays some pretty sweet visualizations with your music. Plenty of eye candy in this game.

The skating game is mediocre, as is bowling, and Checkers and Piano are nothing to brag about. Checkers is basic and Piano even more so.

Even so, this is a glimpse into the future of mobile gaming and you can’t argue with a price tag of “free”.

Engadget has a nice video showing the new games in action.

gdgt

Quickly becoming one of my favorite sites is gdgt.com. I first discovered it while searching out Zune HD information and found a great group of tech enthusiasts that could have civilized conversations about gadgets without excessive flaming or trolling. It’s a bit like last.fm for gadget nuts.

The site features a huge database of gadgets that you can add to your “Have”, “Want” or “Had” list. Each gadget has a section of general information and specs, discussions about the gadget, and more. It’s a wonderful blend of community input and social interaction paired with great coding, moderation, and execution.

Check out my gadgets and recent activity under the username ddjay.

Newegg Warehouse Tour

I just read a great post on AnandTech.com titled Inside Newegg that takes a tour of a Newegg facility. I always like to get a peek into the warehouse/assembly line/order fulfillment part of a business, especially a large online-only retailer like Amazon, Newegg, or Overstock. The article details the layout of the warehouse, the “picker”, a system that moves a tub around the warehouse, and the shipping process.

Any self-respecting nerd should know and love Newegg. They have a huge selection, great prices, fast (and often free) shipping, and great customer service. What’s not to love? I’ve purchased lots of hard drives, video cards, motherboards and CPUs, optical drives, a few TV antennas, tons of various parts, and even an Xbox 360 from them. Only once have I returned something and that was because a graphics card was too loud for my home theater PC. Not Newegg’s fault and the RMA was painless.

So how does an online retailer acquire and retain customers? Well, lots of ways. But one of the biggest is efficiency. I hear people all the time say “Oh you’re one of those who buys a lot of stuff online. I would do that more but I hate waiting for the shipping.” Well, if the company is efficient, you can get your order in 3-5 days with free shipping and two-day or even overnight if you’re willing to pay for it. With the money you can save on higher-priced items, the three day wait is almost always worth it. Of course, some of that efficiency comes from the carrier but if the online retailer’s order fulfillment process is not good, your order won’t even be shipped for a few days.

Given the number of products a site like Amazon or Newegg carries, it’s quite fascinating. Automation, optimization, and organization are what makes these places tick.  The process of making relatively simple tasks that you perform over and over, easier and more efficient for everyone involved is something I’ve always enjoyed. Both in the real world and in computers.

I’ve always had fun putting together Windows batch files, programming Job Control Language in a college course, and working with software called Automate at my employer. Automate is basically its own programming language with pre-defined steps that the computer will execute. A huge, visual batch file, if you will. There are about 30 tasks that need to be run either daily, weekly, or monthly that I manage. Being assigned a new task and figuring out the necessary steps, the correct order, testing your steps, and then troubleshooting any problems really gets my brain going.

Maybe I should look in to a career in this area. Operations, I guess? I like the immediate feedback, analyzing the results, and then tweaking the process to make it better as well as removing the possibilities of bugs and errors. I’ve also always thought that doing the ordering and analyzing for a retail or grocery store would be fun; deciding which products to sell based on wholesale price, shelf time, shelf life, etc. to achieve the highest profit.

I had to take two Statistics courses in college. I hated them both for the most part. Now that I look back on it, I think it was for two reasons: the professor was an ass, and both classes were at 8am. I might have enjoyed it more were it not for those factors. In Stats II we did this group assignment where we were running a fictional factory. Every week, the professor would generate some numbers and then you had to decide, based on those numbers, the number of different widgets to produce to maximize your profit. You’d have to consider the price of the raw materials of each widget, the sale price (and thus profit), and how long it took you to assemble each one.

Something like that. Told you it was at 8am. Anyway, the point is that I think this stuff is cool and gets my brain in ways that other stuff doesn’t.

I’ll soon have a post up about maximizing your online shopping experience to save as much time, money, and frustration as possible so check back or subscribe to my RSS feed!

The NFL and awful commercials

What is it about the NFL’s incessant need to feed us terribly annoying commercials over and over again? Maybe it happens in other sports, too. I don’t know. But every commercial break during a football game (and there are a lot of them) we see a lot of the same adverts and they’re extremely annoying.

Last year was Toyota’s infamous Saved by Zero campaign. That one bugged me so much that I actually took the time to email some feedback to Toyota. This year it’s Bud Light’s “Jimmy Football!” and those Ford truck commercials with the big text flashing across the screen and mud flying everywhere.

Sure, you could say the ads were successful because I am recalling them, but the problem is that I hit mute, change the channel, or click pause in Media Center whenever they come on, thanks to my HDHomerun. These “flagship” ads also tend to be the first ones run during a break so I end up not hearing and/or seeing any of them. Good for me, bad for advertisers. I’ve thought about keeping a running tally of the ads during any given game but any gain would quickly be lost by the amount of brain cells I’d lose.

Bergwood.net

Here is a cool little promotion that I participated in last year and I just discovered that they’re doing it again this year. If you create an account at www.bergwood.net, sponsored by All State, you can score points for doing activities on their site that can then be redeemed for free “bergchandise”, which is football-inspired stuff with a fictional “STATE” logo. Last year I got a t-shirt and bobble head doll. Which prizes you can earn and how many points you can score are based on your state. In South Dakota, you can earn up to 750 points and those points can be redeemed for two prizes total.

Some examples of prizes include:
BBQ Grill (2250 points)
Hooded Sweatshirt (540 points)
Jerseys (450 points)
Socks (300 points)
Hats (300 points)
Other trinkets, t-shirts, and stuff that has the Bergwood branding (ranges from 60-300 points)

Shopping Frugal has a guide to maxing out your points in the shortest time possible. It will take me about a month to get the 750 points. Last year was much easier to score points, you could just log out, log back in, and do the same actions to add on more points. This year, there are some actions you can only do once this football season and other things you can do once per day. You will get your prizes in the mail eventually so if you don’t mind spending five minutes on the site each day you can pick up some free stuff.

Here is a promo code to get some free points: m3aturfri3nds