Sigh.

My computer speakers have 2 buttonthings: “power/volume” and “tone”. The first button let’s you adjust the volume, and if you turn it to zero then the power goes off. The second button does something that I never use.

Now, whenever I try play something, I need to always turn the volume to the proper level. There’s no much visual feedback on this Creative speaker, so I just need to listen to it every time I launch a game for example, and adjust the volume carefully. (This is due the fact that every time I shut down computer, I also turn the volume button to minimum, in order to power off the speakers).

I know it’s a cheapskate issue, and I admit I was acting stupid buying these speakers. A much better user interface would be “power” and “volume”. Who needs some “tone” anyway? What I care is the volume.

Okay, the speakers cost like 40 eur.. But still. One could argue that equally good way to set buttons would be to make it so that “when Tone goes to minimum value, the power is turned off”. (That makes no sense either, but at least adjusting it back to middle default value would be handy.)

As it does not make sense to have it on volume button. It’s the button people use most, why ruin it by adding 2 most important functionality into one button, when they definitely should be separate.

Okay, enough of ranting. I just go and buy a speakers that have a power button. But I know I’m right. Aren’t I?

And by “gadget” I mean anything from phones to televisions to adsl antennas to foldable keyboards.

I’m no gadget person, and need to think a bit before I can say if I’ve got any cool gadgets for myself. Laptop probably raises quite high. Not perhaps so über cool, but at least useful. PS3 sixaxis controller uses bluetooth which is pretty cool (works much better than tv remote controller which need to be aimed to the boxes), pretty useless though. USB memory stick was cool at some point and has some use every now and then – but not really a cool cool thing anymore since everybody has those.

Damn. I think I don’t have cool gadgets lying around here. Mainly only boring useful stuff.

What about you?

I’m calculating that the decision to get NHL ’10 costs me around 1500-2000 euros or so.

Okay, the game package itself was around 50 euros. But then Playstation (Slim edition, cables, extra sixaxis etc. ectc.) throw in 400-500 eur. And then of course I need a bigger screen (those players are so tiny when watched here “far away” from sofa), so I’m looking into purchasing 40″+ LED television (after summer). Throw in another 1000-1500 euros or so.

So… purchasing NHL ’10 ends up costing me couple of thousand of euros.

Can somebody please explain me the rationale behind this? I don’t understand how my brain justifies this, but apparently it does.

Yeh, I’m following the route of the 400 million other people. I have got my Facebook account done ages ago, but never really used it. Now started to check out what the buzz was all about.

Perhaps it makes some sense to be there: this is one of those “don’t judge things before experimenting them, judge them afterwards” experiment I’m conducting. We’ll see if Facebook is of any use.

With that said and done… Anybody want to be my friend?

P.S. I’ve yet to use the vanity url picking since evil Adrian Crook picked up *my* nick before I had the chance to rightfully claim it (damn you Adrian, damn you!!!) .

My brother said that one of these 3 options is chosen more often than the others. I need to check this theory.

So, what will it be:

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Sleep (instead of writing blog posts, like I did yesterday).

Note to self: playing board games all night long is no long-term solution to anything, no matter how fun it might be.

About a year ago I started testing Twitter to see if it was any use. I made some comments and remarks about how I feel about twitter after one hour of using it.

Well, after 1 year of owning a twitter account I think exactly the same.

People still tell me what color pants they wear and what songs they sang in shower, but I also find it useful: (1) website traffic and (2) good place to get help and beer. (like for example this thing about Great Escape remake got instant reply via Twitter… before the guy even knew that I would give a beer to somebody for helping me out. Well, that guy is one Guinness pint happier now all thanks to Twitter.)

But really… nothing has changed. Twitter is still filled with crap, but it’s also an easy way to communicate with other devs. I recommend testing it.

I ordered The Great Escape movie for some research, and now I’d like to get more prison/escape themed movies/series into my hands.

I already have some items in my list, such as Oz. It was a great series about prison life, and I might continue watching it now. Prison Break – first season – was pretty nice (rest of the seasons felt pretty clued on top of everything). I have 2 prison movies in my dvd collection (don’t remember names now) which I will check out too.

Escape from Alcatraz was another great movie which I gotta get. (In fact, I took a break and ordered the movie right away).

Any other good prison/escape movies I should consider checking out? (Anime is fine too)

Alan Wake (only for Xbox 360, damn) is coming very soon available to purchase. The awesome Finnish game development company has created something that – I hope – is memorable again. (Like they did with Max Payne and “bullet time”).

I don’t own xbox console and cannot play the game, but I have been watching development news about Alan Wake for years now. Good luck Remedy. Rumours tell me, that this has been the biggest entertainment title ever created by a Finnish company.

I hope it plays as well as it looks (spoiler warning: don’t watch the video if you don’t want to know anything about the game events).

I bought PlayStation 3 some time ago. It was the reason why I started to set up a proper wireless networking stuff in my home. Since we have 2 floors, and the router is located in the lower floor and the PS3 in the upper floor, there’s some issues to ensure the signal is good.

First, I bought a better antenna to replace the basic router antenna. This was a pretty cheap upgrade (30 eur) and made the signal somewhat better, but I wanted more. I bought a wireless airstation which I connected to the adsl modem. This made the signal bit better again, but I was still not happy.

I knew that the store would have one more upgrade available, but then I got a better idea.

I went and bought 20 meter RJ-45 cable, some “make the cord stay nicely on the walls” nails and a hammer.

100 hammer hits later I got a cord coming from downstairs to upstairs. I threw away the airstation and just decided to use PS3 with a cord.

Cave man era style, but works bloody well.