Last friday, I succumbed to the allure of the latest game console and bought myself a Christmas present in the form of an Xbox 360. I was going to wait for another week so that I won't be distracted by video games as I still have one more final to go; but last Friday was the last day to receive a $100 rebate for the product. I simply cannot pass on a good deal. I also used my thesis research, which actually has something to do with game consoles, to justify for the purchase.

The Xbox 360 is incredibly easy to set up. The package comes with everything that one needs to get the machine running. It comes with a component/composite video cable and a wireless controller, including batteries. Yes, all 7th generation game consoles support wireless controllers. Next, I signed up for a gaming profile on Xbox Live, an online multiplayer gaming and content delivery system designed specifically for the Xbox 360, to download patches needed for updating the hardware. After 20 minutes of initial setup, I was ready to see what my game machine can do. I don't know much about gaming these days; but I have been told by several sources that Gears of War is one game that every Xbox 360 owner should get as it pushes the game console to its limits. Based on that claim, I bought Gears of War as my first Xbox 360 game. As the game appears on my screen, it became clear why Gears of War is the current killer app on the Xbox 360. The graphics is stunningly photorealistic. There is no lag in animation even at resolution of 1080i - the game runs very smoothly. Typically, I am not a fan of third-person shooting game genre because of its mindless brute-force tactical gameplay. Gears of war take on a different approach to third-person shooting, emphasizing on team work and cover-and-conceal tactics. Patience and sound tactical sense are rewarded in this game. Actually, playing this game reminds me of my military training where cover-and-conceal and suppressive firing to support the advancement of my teammates were drilled to our very soul. I am still not very comfortable with the controls. I seem to keep pressing the wrong keys at the wrong time.

Surprisingly, I have been exercising abstinence by not playing video games in the last 3 days instead focusing on studying for my finals and working on other pertinent activities. But I am counting down to the last day of school - just two more days.

12/19/2006 10:43:11 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [2]

Computers

These days, computers have an average of 3 years lifespan. Believe it or not, computers and most electronic devices contain harmful toxics (or e-Waste) that shouldn't just be disposed in landfill. As more and more people and corporations are getting rid of their computers and electronics devices, businesses specializing in e-waste recycling/reuse have proliferated. One of the e-waste recycling/reuse companies that was mentioned on an earlier NPR program is RetroBox. If are on a budget or nostalgic for a particular computer, you can get a cheapo computer from them.

7/15/2005 5:28:13 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [8]

Computers

Holy smokes!!! I can't believe this. As announced by Steve Jobs today, the beloved Apple Mac is switching over to Intel microprocessor. Until now, all Mac software code uses big endian for addressing and integer representation. With an Intel x86 based Mac, Apple will need to address how legacy code will continue to run on little endian based architecture. Today's software code is highly dependent on the compiler and the underlying class libraries. I am pretty confident that code change won't be substantial and a recompilation on the updated code should suffice. This should ease software developers in transitioning to the Intel x86 architecture. Furthermore, I am sure that the upcoming Intel-based MacOS X operating system will feature an emulator that will enable users to continue running existing PowerPC based software.

As an engineer, I feel that switching from one computer architecture to another presents significant challenges. But historically, Apple has shown resilience and success in implementing 2 major transitions for the Mac. First, from M68k to PowerPC. Second, from MacOS to MacOS X. I have no doubts that Apple will make its third transition from PPC to Intel x86 architecture a success. From a business perspective, I believe that the transition to Intel x86 is a good strategic move for Apple in the long run, it may even provide Apple the competitive advantage over Microsoft and UNIX/Linux based products and solutions. However, I won't be surprised if sales will suffer between now and the time when the first x86 based product is shipped. Who will want to buy a PowerPC G4/G5 Mac knowing that it is going to be obsolete soon? Indeed, Apple will face an uphill battle, marketing and convincing the customers the benefits of getting a Mac now. It is also not clear if Apple will eventually exit out of the hardware business and focus solely in software, MP3 players, and music downloads. In addition, I am not clear if the upcoming Intel-based MacOS X will run on existing Intel PC or Apple brand of Intel based hardware. Let's suppose Apple decides to become a pure software player, it is most likely going to go after the existing x86 PC market. In turn, this can seriously undermine Microsoft's dominance in the computer market. On the other hand, are the revenues from the sales of MacOS X enough to sustain Apple operations? Is hardware the bread and butter of Apple business? I can babble on and on with Apple's transition to Intel x86 architecture but I will stop for now.

So how about it? What are your thoughts on this? I am interested in to hear your thoughts from a business or/and engineer perspectives.

6/7/2005 12:31:39 AM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [18]

Computers

How to append two extra blank columns to a CSV file?

awk '{print $0",,"}' data.csv

6/1/2005 1:50:42 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [9]

Computers

I use UNIX quite a lot but my retention rate of UNIX commands is less than desirable so I have created a new category called "UNIX Shell" on my blog to help me remember some of the *NIX (UNIX, Linux, etc) scripts and commands that I have found useful.

First tip on this category is the xargs command that used in UNIX shell to break a data stream into small enough for commands to process. Let's suppose you want to search for MP3 files that you have added to your music library folder in the past week and copy them to another foler, you can issue this command:

find . -name '*.mp3' -mtime -7 -print | xargs -i -t cp {} /tmp

4/4/2005 4:36:38 PM (Eastern Daylight Time, UTC-04:00)

Comments [22]

Computers

I got this picture from a friend. For you Apple aficionados out there, the following picture shows the entire Apple products that have ever been released to the public.

3/16/2005 6:05:29 PM (Eastern Standard Time, UTC-05:00)

Comments [26]

Computers