Cool quote from Heraclitus

For every one hundred men you send us,
Ten should not even be here.
Eighty are nothing but targets.
Nine of them are real fighters;
We are lucky to have them, they the battle make.
Ah, but the one. One of them is a warrior.
And he will bring the others back.

- Heraclitus


--Cheski

1 Billion Dollars

On Monday, the Zimbabwe government introduced the 100 billion Zimbabwe dollar note (for the uninitiated, a billion is nine zeros).

This is a approaching the level of inflation that Germany experienced after World War I.

I hope that I never see this in my country. I am half tempted to exchange some US money into Zimbabwe money... just to have one of these outlandishly large bills.

--Cheski

Plasma speaker

Yes that IS the plasma making the air move back and forth, much like a standard magnetic speak does.

:P

--Cheski

Fallout 3 Gameplay

I am so excited about this game. OMG do want!

--Cheski

Two good movies, one great story

I just finished watching 2001: A Space Odyssey and 2010, back to back. I had forgotten how much I enjoyed these movies. Thanks Roku for bringing them back to me.

2001 leaves some loose ends and isn't as good as 2010 in my opinion. 2010 is that much better had you seen 2001 though.

Watch them both. Learn to hate and love HAL 9000 all over again.--Cheski

Roku Review

My Roku arrived and came in a pretty little purple box. Upon opening, you see that it has a nice little getting started guide, which I did not open. :)

The packaging is standard fare really, plastic wrapped in more plastic wrapped in cardboard.

More goodies underneath. Batteries for the remote, crap composite video cable, and power adapter.

Everything in this package is tiny, except the level of pure awesome.

Wee little remote with super high gloss finish. Perfect for storing fingerprints, in case you ever misplace yours.

The outputs are worth noting as the Roku has some that it can not fully utilize yet. For example, the HDMI. As cool as it would be to hook it up with this now, it would be a bit of a waste... but when HD streaming rolls out... this little unit will add a +5 to DVD killing to your entertainment oasis.

A simple size comparison. It may not seem fair to compare "sizes" against something so awesome as Boom Blox, but rest assured, Roku is pretty damn awesome as well.

The menus are simple and easy to navigate. There is a whole setup wizard that is as easy as this screen. Even setting up the WiFi is a breeze. Well as long as you know the wireless security key. I prefer wired hook up as I went through the trouble of running Ethernet through my house.

System information will tell you only what you ever really need to know... but not really fun info that what us geeks would want to see.

After connecting to your Netflix account and adding movies to your "Watch Instantly Queue"(done from the PC not the Roku), the movies show up here. I will pick a great movie such as Boondock Saints.I was watching it earlier so lets resume playing... (ignore the yellow bar on the screen, it is an artifact of taking picture of a CRT, in this case a rear projo CRT).

It will take about 20-45 second to start the movie as it buffers.

You can press the navigation buttons and click through the upcoming scenes. You can go past what you have buffered, but it will result in another 20-45 second buffering as you are pretty much starting in a new place.

Yes I know that this is not Boondock Saints, it is Appleseed: Ex Machina.

The quality is about 75-85% DVD quality. Like I stated earlier, the Roku can handle more than Netflix is feeding it at this time. The quality is definitely watchable. Even at this quality, I did not run into ANY buffering issues.

My final thoughts on my little Roku friend. $99 + $8.99 subscription at Netflix(you also get 1 DVD out at a time) is well worth having 10,000+ movies and TV shows at hand. This bad mamajamma will be even more worth it when HD is coming down the pipe. When that happens, say good bye to my DVD player. This delivery model, provided the licensing can be obtained to release ALL titles to this, will be the death of the optical medium. Adding features such as streaming music from a popular site, or streaming video from YouTube... should be added to give it the extra bump.

All in all - 4.5/5 w00ts
If you need "Special Features" or to physically touch a plastic disc this isn't for you.

--Cheski

Hellboy 2: The Golden Army

I went to a private screening tonight. Entertaining movie... 4/5...

Take it easy John... Charlotte is a fun city.
--Cheski

MySpace Rant

I go to MySpace about once every 1-2 weeks just to check up on people and my inbox.

Only one thought... I ever have when checking it:

MySpace - upgrade your damn load balancing. I know you make enough on those frakkin ads.

F you MySpace!

--Cheski

Roku Set top Netflix box

I just bought this Roku Netflix box today, and I will of course review it when it gets here.

I picked the $8.99 Netflix package. This could be REALLY cool! Note that the unit has HDMI and Component, meaning that when Hi Def starts streaming, it will handle it. Damn this is going to be cool

10,000+ Movies and TV Episodes at my fingertips... and that number grows everyday.

Bonus!

--Cheski

Devious Activities

I can't think of ANYWHERE anyone would do this....... >.>

--Cheski

Battlestar Galactica, where art thou

I miss you. Show me some of your guarded fourth season.

Oh how I pine for you!
--Cheski

Float trip/Party hat

Win.
--Cheski

Recycling can is happy

Happy to recycle!
--Cheski

A good evening

Fallout + 16oz of fresh Schlafly Raspberry Hefeweizen
--Cheski

GTA4 in real life

Sure looks like a jump to me :P
--Cheski