iPhone and dotMac

One thing that is bothering me about my new iPhone is that it does not have any real interconnection with my .mac account. Given that I am spending almost $100 per year for a really basic suite of services, I would expect them to interact with all of my Apple devices. I am hoping that this will change in the very near future. Namely, I would like the ability to sync my contact and calendar information with .Mac via the EDGE or Wi-Fi connections. I also want to have my published .Mac calendars update automatically when they receive changes synced from the iPhone over the air. Finally, I would appreciate access (even if just read-only access) to the files on my iDisk. I should be able to look at word, excel, pdf, images, and txt files on the phone. Right now, I can get to my iDisk using Safari, but I cannot open any files. All I can see is a list of files. I would also love the ability to easily save or download files to my iDisk. This would protect the integrity of the phone and its storage, while allowing me two-way access to files.

I think it would boost .Mac membership in general if these services were integrated and would be a smart move for Apple in general. Let's see what happens.

iPhone as a PIM

It did not take me long to find my first big fault with the iPhone. Everyone needs different things from a device. I really need a personal information manager (PIM). Basically, I need a great PDA with a phone, e-mail and web access. The iPhone is not yet a great PIM.

The calendar feature is sufficient but is missing a number of features that I would expect in an advanced device like the iPhone. First, I would like a weekly grid view. Currently, you can see a list of upcoming appointments, but if you have too many or too few, you will get more than a picture of your week on the screen. I was surprised to find that the weekly grid was not there, especially considering how useful it would be to allow the user to turn the phone sideways and work with the grid in a landscape orientation.

I also miss having a real task list. My last phone, a Treo 700p did a great job with this. A task list should give me a checkbox for each entry, a description field and a due date with a reminder alarm at minimum. Ideally, it should also allow me to categorize my tasks and give them a priority. Actually, all I am really looking for is true iCal integration, which I don't think is too much to ask.

All of these things would make the iPhone a better PIM. I hope some of the changes come soon. However, I suspect that we may need to wait until Leopard. There are many changes coming to the PIM features in OS X. I think that this may be the real reason why the iPhone lacks so many basic PIM features.

I just got an iPhone

For my birthday, my partner got me an iPhone. It was a big day for me, and a bigger day for my former wireless carrier, who got a hefty early termination fee, and for AT&T, who has me for the next two years. Was it worth it? That is what I plan to write about for the next few weeks. My initial impressions are favorable, but a lot can change over the course of a few weeks.

Turning an old powerbook G4 into a media center

I decided to take on a little project. I just replaced by powerbook G4 with a macbook and I wanted to find another good use for the old laptop. After looking around the web, I found a number of good uses for it, including a classic arcade console, an HD recording device, as well as something to tide me over until Apple TV is available.

Before I could start setting up any of these specific functions, I had to make some initial preparations. I knew that I wanted to run the laptop closed, using only a usb game controller for input (since the G4 does not work with the Apple Remote). I also wanted to send the output to my HDTV and Home Theater unit (HTIB).

For this, I purchased:
1. Logitech Gamepad
2. Apple Mini-DVI to video adapter (some models use a mini-vga, so check with the folks at the Apple store).
3. An S-Video cable
4. A stereo mini-plug (headphone jack) to stereo RCA cable (red and white connectors)
5. USB Overdrive: a driver for usb controllers
6. DisplayConfigX: which enables more resolution choices when sending the video signal to an external source.
7. MediaCentral: which is a multi-function media interface (like Front Row) for the MacOSX

I also downloaded:
1. iRecord: an HD signal recorder that works with HD cable boxes with active firewire ports.
2. XBox 360 Controller Drivers: to allow me to use my Xbox 360 wired controller for gaming, freeing the logitech gamepad to act as a mouse.

I started by reformatting the hard drive and installing a clean and stripped down version of MacOSX (removing other languages, no development tools, etc.) I also made sure that I fully patched the system. Then, I installed iPhoto from the iLife collection to allow me to more easily view photo slide shows (I have not used this set up to look at files yet, however, although it should work.)

Then I installed Perian, which is a collection of Quicktime Components that makes QT more useful with a wider variety of media formats. I also installed VLC for the formats that just won't play in QT. Finally, to allow MediaCentral to stream various types of internet video, I installed RealPlayer, Flip4Mac's WMV components, and flash player.

I then installed the USB overdrive drivers and configured the Logitech gamepad to work as a mouse. I know that there are remotes that are available for Macs without Apple Remote capabilities, but I wanted to keep costs low. I had the gamepad lying around. Although you can configure the software to use the gamepad as a mouse everywhere except in your games, I found that you then could not quit games or use menus to set preferences, etc. So, I decided to install the 360 controller drivers as well, for use only in games. That way I always have a "mouse".

For video, I installed ConfigDisplayX to allow me to get 780p on the TV. It looks pretty good, but admittedly not great. Text is unclear, but media and games look just fine. If you are picky about these things, you can purchase special equipment or wait for Apple TV. I also connected the audio cable to the HTIB at this point.

How do I stop the Mac from going to sleep. First, I turn off the screen by dimming it all the way, using only the TV as a monitor. I don't want to add to the heat problems that may occur from running the machine closed. Second, I closed the lid with the gamepad disconnected from the laptop. Once the laptop is asleep, connect the gamepad and start to move the pointer. The laptop should wake up and you are ready to go.

Finally, I configured mediacentral and irecord (you will need to connect your mac to the cable box using firewire). Finally, I installed emulators for all of the old 8-bit machines sitting in my closet. Instead of pulling them out to play the classics, I just start an emulator on the mac. I'll leave it to you to find those applications, which is easy enough to accomplish. Now I have something to tide me over until I can get AppleTV... unless something better comes along.

Oh, and why am I not using my Xbox 360 as a media server? I am, actually, via Connect360. However, currently it only streams WMV+WMA encoded files, and I wanted a wider variety to be available to me.

Thanks America

While I feel sad about missing my chance to vote, I was happy to find myself surrounded by so many people that care so much about the country, the world and its people. I attended an election night party with some co-workers and their friends. Everyone was so excited as the results rolled in, cheering or booing... Although most things seemed to go the way that I had hoped, there were disappointments. This was a completely different experience than the last election, where so many people that I knew avoided talking about it... before and after.

On another note, a friend from back east came to visit Seattle and stayed in our apartment while we were travelling... back east, stragely enough. It was great to see an old friend in my new city for a day or two before we left. Even when I moved here, I didn't realize just how urban my neighborhood is. I live in Capitol Hill and walk everywhere... to work, to shop, to go out. Anyway, I never realized how rough-around-the-edges it is here until my friend got propositioned by a street hustler on a busy sidewalk! Well, Seattle always had a reputation for being friendly... to a point.

Election Day

This election day is a little bittersweet for me. For one, it is my first election on the west coast. This is great because I won't have to stay up all night to see what is going to happen. However, it is a little sad for me because this will be the first election that I have missed since I started voting. I really believe in the electoral process, even if it isn't perfect and does not always go my way. But, because of the move, I cannot vote in my old district and I am not yet registered in the new one. Since this is such an important election, I hate to feel stuck on the sidelines. So, regardless of what you support, please get out there and vote. But only once and in your own district!!! :)

On the road

So, after almost a one-month absence, I am finally ready to post again. The move from the east to the west coast was not uneventful. Unfortunately, my car died in the middle of the trip and I was unable to use it to complete the move. So my partner, my cat, my friend and I rented another car and abandoned the old one. Eventually we made it across the country, but not before I had to pay over $1k to get it back to where it started for repairs. Sadly, I am not sure what I will do with it now, but I do know that life without a car is both liberating and limiting. Now that I live in the Pacific Northwest, I would like to take advantage of the many opportunities for hiking, but can only get to a few places.

Sadly, in the course of the move, I had to give up so many of the things that I owned. Some I gave away, others are stored back home. It was a lot to lose all at once. Certainly this is true at a time when I find myself grasping for anything that feels familiar. But rather than feeling homesick, I feel only lost. My friend told me once that he is still searching for home. I feel like my search may be beginning.

Packing my library

Well, I have not posted in a while because I am getting ready to move to Seattle. As much as I am looking forward to the change, there is a lot that I am going to be leaving behind. Not only will I miss Pittsburgh, but I will not be able to take everything that I own with me and that means losing a good part of my collection of systems and software. I am in the process of sorting it all and placing what I decide to part with on eBay or Craigslist. It is amazingly difficult and every time I start, I quit and do something else to avoid making decisions. Part of the problem is that I am a pack rat. I know this and I think that most people who collect things are. However, these systems played an important role in my childhood, both as toys and teachers, but also as unattainable desires that we could never afford. Getting rid of these things just as I leave the city where I was born and raised makes this break with the past even more salient. Tonight I think I will start with some of the newer items (like my original xBox). If I can get momentum going, maybe I can finish.

It is strange though, because I may be leaving a place, but the past it represents is no longer there. The other day I drove out to Wexford, a northern suburb, to the site where there used to be a David Weiss. If you did not have one in your area, it was kind of like a Service Merchandise. Anyway, back when my family had little money, we would go to stores like David Weiss and my brother and I would play with the Atari 2600 or the computers that were on display. In so many ways, I wish that I could go back to some of these places and see them just one more time, but then I am ultimately disappointed... it is not the place that I really want to visit, but the time.

A few weeks ago, my partner and I took a drive down to Uniontown to visit Ohiopyle State Park. Along the way there is a discount store that my father would take us to called Peachins. It was another place where my brother and I would stare longingly at the 2600 cartridges that my mother invariably called "Atari tapes". I saw the sign for it along the side of the road and immediately tried to visit it, only to find that the original part of the complex had burnt to ground just days earlier.

Hill's, Zayre, Dahlkemper's and so many other places where I spent so much time as a kid... spending time in air conditioning, playing with toys that someone else would own someday... are all gone now. Sometimes, not even the buildings remain. And for as suburban and embarrassingly commercial as it all was, it was my childhood, and I miss it.

So, tonight I will go home and start unpacking the boxes that house my collection, deciding what will go with me and what will stay behind. Just like the places of my past, I know that the times I associate with them are forever gone and through forgetting and recreating them, they grow ever more idyllic.

Xbox Live Arcade Wednesdays!

Finally, I can justify (sort of) my purchase of a $500 MAME box(I mean Xbox360). Microsoft has announced that it will release a new Xbox Live Arcade title every Wednesday this summer, many of them classic arcade updates. The line up includes Frogger, Galaga, and Pac-Man, among others. I downloaded the demo for Frogger last night and played the one level that they gave away for free. The game play is similar, but the graphics and sound have been updated. I'm not sure if I like that. At least with Joust (which has been available early on), the graphics look authentic. The only really noticeable change is that the designers drew a copy of the original screen overlay on the background. Overall, it is not distracting. However, Frogger's update is a little disappointing, and here's why: it still looks outdated, but not in the charming, 8-bit way. It looks like a re-do of a version for the PS1. Sometimes graphics updates make original game play ideas look hokey because they obscure the constraints under which the original game designers were working. Still, I'm glad that there is interest in these older games.

I will probably still unlock the full version. I am hoping that somewhere in there is an original version to unlock. We'll see...

Sex in video games

One of the things that I am curious about is the apparent chilling effect that licensing control has on the content of video games. Although there are a number of titles with more adult themes and situations in today's generation of games as well as a few hacks and cheat codes, the amount of explicitly sexual video game title seems to have actually dropped since the days of the Atari 2600. I could be wrong on this and would be curious to find out if it is true. A company named Playaround greated a number of adult video games for the 2600s. Surely with no pun intended, many of these were "double ended" cartridges that allowed you to flip them over and play a different game. They also provided a way to switch the gender of the characters to satisfy all sexes and orientations. In a way, it was innovative (although perhaps not as innovative as the Rez vibrator). However, it was also a little safer. Back then, although the rhetoric emphasized realim in 8-bit graphics, in reality, you had to imagine a lot of what was going on, not just in adult games, but in all games. Concepts, themes, and game play itself meant more. Today, in order to produce similar games, you would need to hire actors and actresses and provide a level of realism that would not only restrict the imagination, but game play possibilities as well. Strangely, I haven't played these adult games myself, but thinking about this topic has made me even more nostalgic for the days when a simple, but entertaining concept could make a game fun to play. Today, there are tons of games that are exciting to watch, but no fun to play. I'll take Yar's Revenge over Prey any day.

8bit sounds in contemporary music

I was listening to my favorite Sirius station yesterday, Left of Center, when I heard what sounded like the beginning of Pole Position. As it turns out, it was The Comeback by the Shout Out Louds. I'm not sure if it is a sample, an imitation, or just a coincidence, but it made me wonder about arcade and console sounds in music. I knew about the "Game Over" controversy regarding a song by Lil' Flip that used a Pac-Man sample. Namco and Sony settled, however, that isn't the only song sampling Pac-Man out there. I'm not sure how many more are out there. In some ways, given licensing problems and the ephemeral nature of consumer culture, I would be surprised if they were frequently used.

Both of these examples made me wonder about the currency of classic arcade games in music and in pop culture in general. Tastes in music and fashion seem to cycle such that the styles of the previous 5-10 years are rejected temporarily until they return as retro kitsch. However, video and arcade games do not seem to have undergone the same cycle. People were running clones, emulators, and updates of classic arcade games throughout the history of console gaming. In some cases, cartoons and tie-ins have outlasted the games themselves, i.e. Pitfall. So, I wonder if there is something more permanent about these classic games that surpasses their status as fads or consumer products. Perhaps it is just that these icons make us think of a simpler time... or a time that was no less conflicted, but we were too young to notice. These days, I suppose I shouldn't be surprised to find these references at all.

Virtual Adventure

My friend Dave showed me this great site where you can play Adventure in a web browser. The site uses flash for the game, and it seems to be a pretty faithful recreation except that it runs at warp speed. In this game, you, a square dot must find the chalice while avoiding the dragons, depicted as ducks. There are tools and treasures to be found, including something like a bridge that you can carry along with you. Defying physics and challenging the imagination with its 4k of code, I give this game 3 pixelated bats. Now get this fricken duck away from me!

The game is available here.

10 PRINT "HELLO WORLD!"

In this blog, I want to write about my experiences collecting and using classic computers and console games. It comes at a sad time for me, as I am moving and will soon have to part with some of my collection to make room for furniture. However, I hope that reviewing the games and systems here will help me to decide what to keep and what to get rid of. I am also interested in emulation and will probably talk a little about that as well, plus whatever else comes to mind.

As soon as I inventory my collection, I'll post details. I have mainly Commodore and Atari systems, with a few other interesting things thrown in. They were the systems I had when I was a kid and still like to use today.

I think I am going to hook up my Astrocade today and see what the games are like. I'll write about them here if I get to it.