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2005

DirecTV NFL Sunday Ticket

I don’t understand the black out rules around NFL’s Sunday Ticket on DirecTV.

Last week, the Packers the play the Steelers at 3:15 on CBS. CBS stays long on the Raiders / Chiefs, so I flip to the Sunday ticket channel for the Packer game. No go, it’s blacked out, as it usually is when broadcast on the local station.

While I appreciate CBS for staying with the hot game, I was annoyed that I couldn’t see the game I wanted to see, when I supposedly pay for “all” the games.

Yesterday, the Packers are at the Falcons, 3:15 on Fox. The Vikings are the noon game, and are going long. I switch to the Sunday ticket channel, assuming the Redskins / Buccaneers game is the game of the week at 3:15, and watch the Packer game on Sunday ticket. At halftime, the signal is disconnected. Sure enough, the Packer game is on the local Fox affiliate.

So why one week do I get the game and one week I don’t? Is it up to Fox and CBS to determine when DirecTV puts the blackout in effect? Worked out for me yesterday, but still annoying.

Watching all 6 Star Wars (at the same time)

And… we’re back.

Not that this hasn’t already posted everywhere on the intraweb right now, but is still very cool. Someone with way too much time on their hands has transcoded all 6 Star Wars movies and is watching them simultaneously and noting all the similarities.

Some are to say, at the least, quite interesting parallels in some of the movies, just from a time perspective.

Check it out here.

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Will Resume Soon

Work’s been kicking my ass, and I’m traveling this week – blogging will resume soon.

Blizzard is spying on you

Donna Wentworth gives you an overview of how Blizzard is spying on you.

If this was the government, as the article points out, they’d have to get a warrant.

What’s even more distrurbing to me, is the blog comments on this article – the gamers just don’t care if it stops cheating. This is right up there with those who say “I have nothing to hide, let the government videotape/phonetap/etc”.

Where do personal rights start and end? Just because you click on a EULA, does it really give a software company the right to capture what programs you’re running, who and what you’re communicating over instant messenger, and what websites you’ve visited?

What's in a name?

I’ve received a number of questions over the years of where the name “Silwenae” came from. It was randomly generated in Everquest – the second name I chose within EQ. It was unique enough that I stuck with it, including registering 3 domains. (And for the record, it’s pronounced sill-win-ay).

CmdrTaco, co-founder of , has written an op-ed piece on Slashdot on how Blizzard made him change his name due to the use of “Cmdr”, a title, in his World of Warcraft name, and how it’s affected him.

Online persona’s are interesting – there is a lack of accountability in using a handle for your pixels. There’s safety in anonymity. It wasn’t until recently I even put my real name on my blog – not out of safety, but out of privacy. (Though smart interweb people just look at Internic to see who owns a domain, and I’ve never faked that). I grew up on BBS’s, and using popular characters from books I liked – and I see that trend every day online (how many Drizzt’s did you see back in the EQ days?)

What does an online handle mean to you?

Flickr launches Photo Printing

Flickr has finally begun to offer online printing of photo’s (if you’re in the U.S.). They have a FAQ up, and prices appear to start at $0.20 for 4×6 and go up from there, so it’s competitive. Looking at the Flickr Blog, I see they’re also available for in-store pickup at Target. Very smart.

What’s interesting, is you, as the photo owner, can limit who can order prints from your photo’s. I never thought of that – I would have assumed it was just for the user, but when combined with a copyleft model, that’s pretty darn cool.

Miyazaki Film Festival

Via BoingBoing:

CartoonBrew.com is reporting that Turner Classic Movies is planning to air 9 Miyazaki films (the one’s Disney acquired distribution rights for) in January. The titles include Spirited Away, Kiki’s Delivery Service, Princess Mononoke, My Neighbor Totoro, Nausicaa: Valley of the Wind, Castle in the Sky, Porco Rosso and Whisper of the Heart.

If you haven’t seen a Miyazaki film – even the popular ones such as Princess Mononoke or Spirited Away, you owe it to yourself to check out these animated classics. It’s unknown at this time whether they will be dubbed or sub-titled, but either way this is some of the best animated movies you’ll ever see.

More X-Box Fun

Playing around with the hacked X-Box, I figured out how to edit the XML configuration file to have My Music & My Movies on the XBMC point directly to my Buffalo Terrastation that houses all my movies and music – no more network browsing to get there, nice and easy.

Then I did something which I haven’t done in forever, which was hop on IRC. Got the link to download some emulators, and threw up MameOX and a Sega Genesis emulator. Threw some roms on the X-Box, and I was playing Elevator Action. I had upped Vanguard as well – I don’t think my wife is happy with me now as that was one of her favorite games growing up and she knows it’s there just to distract her. 🙂