current devices are made of spit and duct tape

Continuing the trend of technology hating me this year, at my 10 year HS reunion, my Canon SD450 decided that it doesn't want to open its lens cover anymore.

Annoying, I thought, but fixable.

So I get to a camera repair shop this morning, and the guy took a look at it and said "Buy a new one."

Keep in mind this is a 9 month old camera, and its only issue is that the lens cover is jammed. There's nothing wrong in the guts, no CCDs are cracked, this is purely mechanical. The guy told me that the cameras aren't built to be taken apart, and that if I send it back to Canon, they'll just throw it away and give me a refurb.

Seriously, this is where we've gotten? Anything I buy is built with garbage, assuming that I'll need a new one in a year? The repair industry has fallen to the point where they just throw up their hands in despair? This wasn't some cheap shitty camera, this was the nicer end of the Canon home line, 9 months ago.

Maybe 30 years from now, we can just design and create items on the fly with nanoclouds and disperse them when we no longer need them, but in the meantime, I wish we'd put a little more effort into it. I'm gonna check with Canon, hopefully I'm still under warranty.

computer pain

Let me say right now, don't ever, ever buy a computer from cyberpowerpc.com. Ever.

I bought a new machine from them about a year ago, it was in a gorgeous case, customized to hell and back, neon blue and deadly. It arrives and doesn't recognize its hard drives. I look inside, and they'd used cheap power cables that fall out when you blow on them. Next, the machine boots, and the RAM was bad. I paid to ship it back to them, they sent me new RAM, it worked fine.

A few months later, the hard drive goes bad. The master hard drive, with all my shit on it. I lose a bunch of data, pay to mail the hard drive back, they mail me a new one.

Last week, the onboard RAID controller went bad. I've never in my entire life seen such a poorly made, expensive machine with cheap shitty parts. Cyberpowerpc is a horrible company who should burn in the lowest reaches of hell.

So today I said fuck it. I went to Dell, checked out their outlet, and I bought a freaking dual core 3 ghz system for $450, I shit you not. Free shipping. That's roughly 1/4 the price of my crappy cyberpower system. I've had two Dells since college, and I've never had a SINGLE problem with them, I don't know why I ever left. But I won't be leaving again.

I highly recommend checking out the Dell outlet if you're looking for a machine, they've got a bunch of returned machines where people ordered something nice, and shipped it back. Hence I got a $1k machine for $450. Plus their machines aren't shit. You can browse through all the returned systems and find something you like. They had some machines for like $300.

Anyway, yeah. Buy from Dell. It's cheap and works. I can't wait for my system to get here. Especially since I have no goddamn desktop to work on. Thank god I bought that terabyte RAID.

blogged!

An important milestone was reached today for NooBTooB. We actually got blogged by someone who doesn't know us. And the review was glowing! So hey, thanks Grim Gamer. Noobtoob started out with mostly our friends subbing and commenting, but I think we're finally getting some word of mouth among a few gamers anyway.

I'm really glad that everyone who actually listens to our podcasts seems to really enjoy them, it's been frustrating trying to get the word out around the forums and social news sites. Any mention of any project you're working on gets immediately pegged as spamming and people get furious. This wasn't always the way the web was, I think now that some people are making money with their blogs, and viewers equate to cash in some circles, the whole sharing ethos of the net has gotten kind of jealous and angry.

It's especially strange to me because if you go check out NooBTooB, we don't have a single ad. I don't have any interest in nickle and diming people with google ads, I want to make a funny and interesting gaming podcast and have people actually listen to it.

So yeah. All I'm saying is that I was really excited today to get some positive feedback from someone who wasn't some snarky shithead from a social news site, slamming something without even checking it out first. Our attention spans don't have to be so short and our anonymous online nature doesn't have to turn us into assholes. I'm gonna keep spreading the word about NooBTooB anywhere I feel like it, because it's a great podcast, and once people actually listen to it, they really enjoy it.

guitar hero 2

Okay, I feel kind of violated. It's weird when a game is aimed so directly at your demographic that you're both elated and a little bit dirty and used.

They've got a finalized list of games for Guitar Hero 2, and it's making me drool and pee myself a little bit..

"Heart shaped box" by Nirvana. Freaking Nirvana. This is one of the best decisions ever. I love that song.

This new mix is very grunge-heavy, which I identify with greatly. "Trippin' on a Hole in a Paper Heart" by Stone Temple Pilots, and jesus christ "Them Bones" by Alice in Chains.. it's like my high school years wrapped into a video game.

Then add in classics like "Freebird" by Skynrd, and "Message in a Bottle" by The Police... it's gonna be freaking glorious. I can ignore the fact that it's stuffed with tired ass workhorses like "War Pigs" by Sabbath, because the rest of it is so delicious. I can't wait.

Soon, so soon.

coolest place ever

This might be just about the coolest idea I've ever seen.

http://www.techshop.ws/

"TechShop is a fully-equipped open-access workshop and creative environment that lets you drop in any time and work on your own projects at your own pace. It is like a health club with tools and equipment instead of exercise equipment...a Kinko's for geeks.

The TechShop workshop provides a wide variety of machinery and tools for the open and unlimited use of its members, including milling machines and lathes, welding stations and plasma cutters, sheet metal working equipment, drill presses and band saws, industrial sewing machines, hand tools, plastic working equipment, electronics design and fabrication facilities, tubing and metal bending machines, electrical supplies and tools, and pretty much everything you'd ever need to make just about anything all by yourself."

So they have 15,000 square feet with every tool you've ever imagined in your entire life.

They have classes where you build a goddamn working hot rod. Or a working steam boat. Or play with plasma welders. Look at this freakin equipment page. Or this class list.

Want to design something in 3D CAD, and have a machine carve it for you? Done. Plastics injection molding? Build a combat robot? Yep, they have that too. There's classes on blacksmithing, airbrushing.... my mind reels at how cool this is. They do not fuck around.

They're having an open house on Sept 9th, and I'm definitely going, if anyone wants to come with me.