Public Relations Stuck in the ’90s

One of the things I hate seeing in my day job are companies who’s concept of public relations and product announcements are stuck in the mentality of a previous decade. Case in point: there’s a company, who shall remain un-named, that launched a couple of new products, but only in the European market. They decided not to tell me about the products, even though they’re right up my alley, because I’m based on North America. The concept of regional product announcements is a quaint idea from a bygone era. The Internet has obliterated the idea that information is relevant only to a certain group of people living in a geographic era. Public relations and marketing people need to grasp that the Internet is global, and it’s changed the way product launches work.

This also applies to all those companies I meet at CES who look at my press badge and see “Canada” then don’t want to talk to me. Do these people believe that the Internet is some sort of temporary fad?

Movies Worth Renting: Max Payne

Never having played the Max Payne games, or knowing anything about them, I went into this movie purely based on the strength of the movie trailer, which I thought looked cool. All those dark angel-type-creatures, and the dialogue (“The devil is building his army…”) gave me the impression that this movie would have a Constantine vibe to it. I don’t want to ruin the movie for anyone, but let’s just say that the trailer gave me a false impression and as a result I was kind of disappointed in the movie. It wasn’t bad by any means, but in my opinion it wasn’t worth seeing in the movie theatre – it’s more of a $5 investment than a $25+ investment.

Word Web Site Design Ever?

There are some things word can’t express, and this is one of them. Go on, look, I dare you. Like what you see? Evidently you can hire this guy and he’ll bring his, uh, creative skills to bear. Isn’t that like paying someone to hit you with a car? Why would you do that? Thanks to Ed Hansberry for putting this plague into my head. đŸ˜‰ Want even more fun? Check out these sites.

Geek Heaven: Sideshow Collectibles

One word: wow. If I ever have an extra $2000 sitting around that I don’t know what to do with, I could easily find things to spend it on at Sideshow Collectibles. The Iron Man figurine pictured above is “only” $174, but the ultra-cool life-sized Iron Man bust is $699. They have amazing items from all genres: comics, fantasy, TV shows, movies, and a lot more. I mean, seriously, who wouldn’t want a replica of Thor’s hammer?!? Must…put…credit…card…away.

Japan 2008: Day 12

Our twelfth day in Japan had us first going to Ryukyu Mura, a historical village where they re-enact what Okinawan life used to be like in the past (I’m guessing 100 years ago, give or take a few decades). It was a colourful, vibrant place, so I snapped quite a few photos. After that, we went back to our hotel for a couple of hours, and then we started our tattoo adventure – which had us going to a beach, an animal shelter, the tattoo studio, and then Tony Roma’s for dinner. It was a very fun day, but by this point we were definitely missing home and looking forward to returning.

A Saturday Operating System Re-Install

It’s been a while since I’ve had to do this, but my installation of Windows Vista Ultimate on my media editing computer was acting so funky it was time for a wipe and re-install. I’ve been watching it go down hill for a few months now, mostly around codec problems (which is a rant for another day) and random application crashes. This morning was the last straw though: I kept getting DEP (Data Execution Protection) errors when using Sure Thing label-making software. Crash crash crash. I was somehow wishing that Windows Vista was different in this regard, but Windows is still Windows: shared DLLs, shared codecs, sloppy third party development, and a tendendency towards instability over time. I’ve found Vista to be better XP – most of my installs last a good year – but it’s still a frustrating problem to have.

I decided to roll back to a squeaky-clean image I had created last year using Acronis TrueImage. The idea being that I have a version of Vista installed, activated, and with all the drivers I needed for the on-board hardware. I installed this clean version of VIsta (after dealing with TrueImage’s tendency toward idiocy in dealing with USB-based keyboards), then I let Vista patch itself up to current status. When SP1 never appeared I did a manual download and install. That worked well, and the final update I did was an NVIDIA driver update. After the install of the video driver, I rebooted my system, only to be presented with an error messages generated by my monitor telling me that the system was displaying a monitor setting that the monitor couldn’t match. I rebooted a few times by punching the reset button, then I booted into safe mode (which worked), but I was unable to set the system to a resolution that the the monitor would support. It’s worth noting that this is a 24″ Dell LCD monitor that runs at 1920 x 1200…so I can’t imagine what resolution the video card was set at (2560 x 1600?). System restore? It seems I turned it off on the image I’d created with Acronis TrueImage.

My only real choice left was a re-install from scratch of Windows Vista. I pondered whether to go 64-bit or not, but in the end I decided that I wanted compatibility more than any of the rather nebulous benefits of going 64-bit (other than getting to use an extra 698 MB of RAM). The install has now finished, and the system is fully patched. What I haven’t done, however, is to re-install all the drivers from Shuttle. After Vista installed, everything just worked: audio, networking, video, etc. In fact, looking at the Device Manager, there wasn’t a single unrecognized device. That’s quite impressive. So the question now is, do I stick with the WHQL-certified plain-jane drivers that come with Vista – which tend to be stable, but not optimized for speed – or do I seek out the proper drivers for my hardware? I updated the video driver of course, but I’ve left the sound, networking, and chipset drivers alone. Decisions, decisions. Opinions?

One thing worth noting: Vista absolutely screams when it’s brand new!

Note To Self, Re: Costco

Note to self regarding purchases made at Costco: before purchasing three boxes of noodles, each with four packages per box, make sure what you’re buying actually tastes good. Simply Asia evidently spent all their budget on great-looking packages and not on making their noodles taste like something other than soggy cardboard. Bleh.

The Calgary Cladding Miracle by Edge Xterior & Development Group

Here’s the thing about me: I’m really not a “handyman” fix-it type of guy. I am with technology, and most types of electronics, but when it comes to yard work or home maintenance, I really don’t enjoy it, nor am I very experienced at it. So that’s my excuse for the incredibly poor shape the back deck on our house was in as of a few months ago. We’ve been in this house for seven years, and good old Bay West Homes decided that painting our wood was better than staining it – so guess what paint does over time? Yeah, it peels and looks ugly.

If I would have known better, I would have insisted asked that they stain the wood instead. Last year I bought some paint and a brush to attempt to tackle the problem, but I did it too late in the season so I had to wait until this year to start. After the snow thawed this year, the wood on the deck looked 200% worse than it did the previous year – this seemed to be the tipping point for peeling. Wittness the horror…

I was going to sand and paint it, but my father in law recommended a process whereby someone (usually a siding company) wraps the wood in aluminum. It took a few phone calls, and a few poor explanations of what I wanted, before I learned that the process was called “cladding”. I found a Calgary-based company called Edge Xteriors who did the process, and they were fairly affordable compared to the quote I received from another company. Check out how good my deck looked after the cladding process:

I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner! If you’ve got a peeling paint problem, and want a maintenance-free way of fixing the issue, cladding is your answer. Continue reading The Calgary Cladding Miracle by Edge Xterior & Development Group

TV Worth Watching This 2008/2009 Season

Beyond my usual fare of The Daily Show, Smallville, and all the CSI shows (even the oft-mockworthy CSI Miami), I’m enjoying a new show called Fringe. It’s sort of like X-Files for the 2008 era, only with better special effects and a broader paranormal scope. This time instead of a red-headed hot FBI agent, they’re using hot blond Australian import (Anna Torv)…as an FBI agnet. I think she looks shockingly like Poppy Montgomery from Without A Trace…whom I’ve just discovered is also from Australia. Something in the water perhaps?

I’m also enjoying Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles with Summer Glau, who channels some Sigourney Weaver ass-kicking vibes. What are you watching this TV season?