Adobe Media Player v1.1 out, but…

So why do I need it when I can’t play the media available? And as a FLV player it’s too big. Oh well.

New JibJab “It’s time for some compaignin’”

New JibJab political animation is out. Funny stuff :)

Multi Touch finally available on the Dell Latitude XT

When I got my Dell Latitude XT, one of the most interesting features was Multi Touch. But, Dell and N-trig hasn’t delivered on that promise until now. It will support Firefox, Google Earth, Office, IE7(don’t use it!), and some other image viewers. Testing for a couple of minutes here and it works ok, but needs some tweaking.

That’s all good, but no info on a SDK, that’s not fun. Let’s hope Dell and N-Trig release that asap.

Direct2Dell and information on installing

Engadget

A good day(fall) for the xbox 360

I do like a good game, and I have all the current gen consoles (PS3, Wii and 360), but I do prefer my xbox. I like the controller, I think the graphics are better than the PS3 and best of all; I like the choice of games.

Today Microsoft had an impressive showing at E3 in LA. Here are just some of the things announced for the fall:

• New interface, the “blades” are finally gone. They worked for a while, but it looked a bit dated. Also as more items are added it got really messy. The blades are still there, somewhere.
• Play from Hard Drive!!! Finally you can install the game on hd and avoid the drive noise from the 360.  (Drive noise is probably my biggest complaint)
• Avatars, the xbox Mii. coould be cool, but I personally don’t care that much.
• Games: Fallout 3, Gears of War 2, Galaga: Legions, Fable 2, Portal: Still Alive, Resident Evil 5, Final Fantasy XIII(!!!), and many, many more…
• Still bad: Europe is still neglected at the video store :( Why can’t we europeans legally rent videos online?

Anyways: Good work Microsoft!

Microsoft press release
Engadget
Kotaku
Major Nelson

Singularity a worldwide Flash/Web conference

Aral’s online Web/Flash conference Singularity goes on sale tomorrow (7/7) . the conference is from 24-26 Oct 2008.  An online conference is a really good idea if done right. From networking to openness to the fact that you don’t have to fly anywhere, it looks like Aral is doing everything right. The speaker list is very good.

I’ll be “there”, hope you are too :)

Garfield is not funny, but removing him is :)

What do you get when you remove the main character from a very unfunny cartoon? A deeply schizophrenic and highly disturbing look into a very, very lonely man,  but in a fun way ;)

http://garfieldminusgarfield.net/

Ubuntu 8.04 Hardy Heron first impressions

I have an old laptop for testing, it’s an HP nc6120 1,86Ghz, 1gb ram. Up unitil today it has been running Vista and Ubuntu 7.10. Both running quite well. With the new Ubuntu out I decided to stratch the disk and use the whole hard drive for ubuntu.

Installation was a breeze, and fast as usual. Nice to not have to run the LIve CD first.

The Gnome interface is snappy, but I can’t really see that many changes. Open Office 2.4 is a nice welcome and Samba seems to work better.

I do have a few issues I didn’t have in 7.10:

• While the interface is snappy, The Firefox 3 beta is dead slow. Almost unusable, I also have alot of  render errors. No idea why they chose to include a beta in the final release. But the weird thing is; Firefox 2 is almost as slow.
• The Intel gfx driver or Gnome seems a bit slower.
• Synaptic did lock up once, that has never happened to me before

Anyways, as of right now; Ubuntu 7.10 and Vista(!!) worked better as a sofa surfing pc even with firefox 2. It’ll probably get better, but right now I regret not sticking with 7.10.

Trysil-Knut Ski Museum

Finally finished with the Trysil-Knut Ski Museum. It’s been a lot of work, but it’s been fun. Expology has been in charge of the project, we have designed and produced the whole exhibit. NRK Aktivum has produced video and archive material, but we have done a lot of editing and afterfx work. All the building, wood and metalwork has been done by Trysil Interiørtre from our designs.

The biggest interactive exhibit is the Ski Jump Simulator which is a Ski jumping game that uses three highly sensitive sensors to determine if the jumper hit the jump at the correct time, the power that went into the jump and the vector of the jump. From that we calculate the length of the jump. It’s based on .net, red5 for communication and a Flash front end. There are a total of 6 computers + an Ubuntu server to get it to work.

We also have small pavilion where you can meet Bjørn Dæhlie, one of the greatest cross country skiers of all time. A radio commentator booth and interactive archive touch screens in addition to exhibits of all the historical material.

Check out this video from the Norwegian News:

Gran Turismo 5 Prologue - The first few hours

I was really looking forward to Gran Turismo 5 for my PS3, I love racing games and simulators. And most of all I would like to finally justify getting the PS3. I’ve never played Gran Turismo 4 before except for 10 minutes at a friends house. I did try the demo (HD) that has been out on PS3 store, which I found ok, but it seemed thrown together.

Anyways, I’ve played for about 4 hours with a steering wheel on professional, all aids off except racing line, and I am almost finished with class B and here is my verdict so far:

Gran “Bumper Cars” Turismo is pretty bad. It’s annoying because it’s so close to good, but gets most everything wrong.

Here’s whats bad so far:

• Collisions are so unrealistic it’s impressive. You’re actually rewarded for using another car for getting around a corner. Burnout Paradise has better collision physics. (slight overstatement, but not by much)
• If you hit the elevated side of the road (camber?) your traction is just as good as on the flat tarmac.
• It took about 45 minutes the first time I started the game. (System update->install 6gb->gt5 update->reboot->start). Today, 15. April 2008 I started the game again, new system update->gt5 update->reboot->start->all settings lost (not credits). I know this is a PS3 issue, but I’m really impressed by how bad the experience is compared to the 360.
• Doing the same race 5 times in a row to get enough credits to buy a car is not game play, it’s retarded.
• In two races I could not floor my throttle. Had to restart the game.
• The tracks are mediocre, and there are too few of them. And they don’t look as good as the screenshots.
• The multiplayer isn’t very good either. (just played a few races)
  -

Whats good:

• The cars look good, as good or better than the screenshots.
• I can use my Logitech steering wheel
• It’s not full price.

So far Gran Turismo is a huge disappointment. As a racing simulator it disappoints, as a graphics show off it disappoints, as a gaming experience it disappoints. I’ll keep hacking away on GT5, but I’m afraid it won’t get that much better, but there is nothing that would please me more than if it did.

If you want a good racing experience on a console, buy Forza on the 360.

15. April 2008

update: 28. April 2008:

I give up! This “game” is beyond repair. It’s just bad, it’s bad as a racing simulator, it’s bad as a game. It’s getting exchanged for something not as bad…

Mini-review: Nyko infrared remote for Playstation 3

OK, my PS3 isn’t used that much for gaming, not that many good games really, but I use it for Blu-ray movies, and for that it has been pretty good. My only problem has been the stupid sony decision to not include an ir (infrared) port so you can use your existing programmable remote. Sony: I’m not buying a bluetooth remote because you say so!

Anyway a solution is finally available for viewing movies without using the ps3 bluetooth controller. Since I have an Universal Remote already I’m using this and not the included remote.

I plugged the usb dongle into the front usb port and programmed my remote. Conlusion: it works! It does have a slight lag but we’re talking milliseconds not seconds. I do miss the numeric keys, but I guess they had to cut some corners.

I would recommend this if you have an universal remote already, and watch movies on your PS3. The included remote is mediocre, I would not use it, but I’m picky about remotes. If you don’t have an universal remote, stick with the controller or buy the overpriced sony remote.

Link to remote