Nintendo's Drawbacks

Last night was the ACM Holiday Party and I must say that it's the most fun I've had at a college party in a long time. It would not be wise to detail my adventures here, but you can IM me if you're really that curious. The great thing about being around other CS majors is that you never feel any nerdier than them. Speaking of dorky stuff, I ran into an article today detailing the greatest failures of Nintendo. It's misnamed "Nintendo's Ups and Downs" because it very rarely focuses on the good. It was probably written in response to the fanboys who have stuck with it since the beginning and think that the Big N is infallible. I think it's unfairly harsh on the company, but they have done some pretty stupid stuff in all honesty. I really have no idea what they were thinking when they came up with the Virtual Boy. The decision to stay with the cartridge with the N64 was a horrible play and gave Sony an in to steal market share. They always seem to be one generation behind, like their support for DVDs in the revolution and online play. I still see them as an old-fashioned company with their heart in the right place, but they really need to work on the execution. I think that the Nintendo DS is more than just a gimmick as the article wants to call it, and it's probably much better than the PSP in its value.

While I'm on games, Engadget toured the Microsoft Xbox offices and posted some pictures for your viewing pleasure. It looks to be a very open environment. It seems to be more and more likely that Apple will be releasing a 13.3-inch iBook in January with an Intel chip inside of it. I posted about how this could potentially be a very damaging move, but they're probably smart enough to make it work for them. If you're looking for a good technical book but just don't know what to get, this bookshelf has a great selection of books to look into. My favorites are the Dilbert selections. Yahoo has upgraded Konfabulator to Version 3.0 with a new name to boot: Yahoo! Widget Engine. I prefer the old name, but it seems to be largely the same (it may take up less RAM). Lastly, McDonalds may soon include pieces of multimedia with Happy Meals rather than toys, and the more you visit the more of it you get. This is all based on a patent application
they recently file, but I think kids may just appreciate the toys more.



Yes, you're seeing right, that is Blade. This is not another sequel though but rather one of a few first shots from the upcoming television series that will be on SpikeTV, and no word yet on how good it will be but maybe it'll be fun to watch. The Mission Impossible: 3 trailer premiered today and I was pleasantly surprised by it. I had no interest in it before but now I really hope that it turns out to be a good movie. There's also a good trailer up for Michael Mann's Miami Vice, but it's a pain to get to it. It's worthwhile when you do though because it perfectly conveys his style of filmmaking. The good DVD edition of Sin City is just around the corner and so Yahoo! Movies has a couple of clips from the special features that they were holding out on us before. Lastly, there's a decent poster online for The Pink Panther, and let's hope that Steve Martin can make this movie good.

Now for some Monday Madness:

For the following, please list as many words as you wish...

1. Words most commonly mispronounced.
"Guadalupe", that's all I got.
2. Words used improperly.
"Literally" is all I've got, once again.
3. Words most often misspelled.
I can never spell "recommend" right (I use spell check in Blogger).
4. Words or phrases that you feel are over-used.
Like, lol, pimp (noun and verbal usages)

I think I've wasted enough time via AIM and blogging, so back to the books I go!