More fun with the PS3

We installed Linux on the PS3 yesterday (Fedora Core 5), and it’s a bit of a disappointment. I guess that’s mostly because I have plenty of hardware available to run FC5 on, and seeing it installed on the PS3 is a ho-hum kind of experience. But, it was neat seeing the 6 mini SPE penguins on startup :D . Still waiting on the HDMI->DVI cable to actually do something useful with the machine.

Dec 07, 2006 Read More »

PS3 First Thoughts

My boss just purchased a PS3 (and a Wii too – that’ll be saved for another post) for us to try at the office. I thought I would toss out my observations on the new toy:

• It’s big – I mean, I thought the original PS2 was big (I have the slim model myself), but the PS3 takes it to a whole new level. At least it feels like it should cost $600… Also, I wouldn’t recommend putting it anywhere where it could fall on small animals or children – it’s likely to cause a trip to the hospital/vet, or even worse… it is by far the heaviest console I’ve ever seen.
• It came with a Blue-Ray movie (Talladega Nights), which is a nice touch. The movie selection could’ve been better, but for a free pack-in, you can’t complain too much.
• The SIXAXIS controller really isn’t that much lighter than a DualShock 2. We had the two side by side, and it wasn’t really that much different.
• It only comes with a composite cable – really, Sony, would it have been that difficult to pack in a Component cable with the thing? This is supposed to be an HD console. At least pack in a cable that allows it to be used in HD.
• It came with firmware 1.00, and when we put in Resistance: Fall Of Man, it updated to 1.02. Once we connected it to the Internet, it updated again to 1.11.
• What is up with the lack of background downloading? Luckily, we have an XBox 360 in the office as well to play while downloading demos on the PS3. Ironically, we spent more time playing the 360 than the PS3 today because of that.

Overall, it seems like a nice piece of hardware. We’re going to attempt to put Linux on it sometime this week – just waiting on a HDMI->DVI cable to arrive. I’ll probably bring in a few PS1 and PS2 games tomorrow just to see how bad (or good) the compatibility is on the PS3 (though, sadly, I won’t be bringing in Guitar Hero because of the lack of a real PS1/2 controller port :( ).

Dec 06, 2006 Read More »

Low(er)-tech in the 21st Century

This weekend, I used a lower-tech solution to my TV reception problem. I had been using a pair of rabbit ears (with balls of aluminum foil on the ends) for the TV upstairs. They provided a workable picture on a couple of channels, but CBS and the UHF channels were horrible. That’s where I started on my quest.

Dec 03, 2006 Read More »

Beatles Love

I picked up a copy of the new Beatles mash-up, Love, this weekend. At first I was pretty skeptical. I mean, I already have all of their albums, the 3 Anthology albums, and even the re-hashed #1 and Yellow Submarine albums. I passed on Let It Be… Naked because I didn’t really want another copy of an album I already have.

So, what made me buy Love? Well, it’s a very well done remix of the entire Beatles catalog. Songs flow freely into one another – you catch little bits of familiar songs weaving themselves in and out of songs in ways that you couldn’t imagine. One that particularly caught my ear was Within You Without You – I never cared much for the original version, it just wasn’t my thing. But, when blended together with Tomorrow Never Knows, it really makes a very interesting song.

Nov 28, 2006 Read More »

Picross DS

Whoa – I just found out that there is going to be a Picross game coming out in January for the (Dead Link: DS). For those not aware of what Picross is, the Wikipedia has a good explanation.

When Mario’s Picross came out for the GameBoy around 11 years ago, it was quite addicting. I somehow managed to miss Mario’s Picross 2 because it was released in Japan only. I don’t plan to make the same mistake this time.

Nov 15, 2006 Read More »

Fun with Mach-O

So, I thought I would spend a little time today porting the excellent Atari 2600 emulator z26 to Mac OS X/Intel. Most of the code in z26 is written in x86 assembly, using nasm. z26 already works just fine under Linux/x86 and uses SDL for accessing the display and sound hardware. In other words, I thought this would be cake. Ha!

Nov 05, 2006 Read More »

Game deals

As a software engineer for a game company, I naturally like to play games. My addictions in the past have been almost exclusively for the GameBoy and GameBoy Advance. Naturally, the DS has taken over quite nicely in this regard, along with the PS2 and even playing WarCraft III on the Mac.

Lately, I’ve been picking up games I missed when they first came out. The good thing is that buying them later has allowed me to pick them up cheaper. For example, a few weeks ago, Target had a copy of Advance Wars: Dual Strike for $14.95. Over the past month, I’ve picked up quite a few DS, PS2, PS1, and GameCube games – and the most expensive one was Advance Wars DS.

Oct 27, 2006 Read More »

More free code

Posted up 3 more pieces of code on the code page. One more command line utility, an Atari 2600 demo, and a hack that I actually had to use at work.

I still have more code in the vault that I’ll be digging out over the next few days, so keep checking back.

Oct 25, 2006 Read More »

Code, code, code

I posted some command line utilities that I use on a regular basis on the Code page. Right now there are only 3 utilities, but I have a few more that I am going to clean up and post on here as well.

Once that’s done, I’m going to go back and dig up some of my old Mac and GBA code to post as well. Some of it’s probably embarrassing, but oh well. It might serve as a good example of what not to do.

Oct 25, 2006 Read More »

I'm on the web...

now what?

Well, I guess I can start by introducing myself…. since that is the proper thing to do. My name is Dennis. From the URL, you can probably infer what my last name is. From the title of the blog, you can guess that I’m probably into computers. With that, you could even feed my name into Google and start Google-stalking me. But, let me save you the time.

Oct 24, 2006 Read More »