Huuuze Reviews - If I like it, you'll know. If I hate it, you'll REALLY know.

November 19, 2008

New Xbox Experience is LIVE; Sony, take notes

Christmas came early today for all Xbox 360 owners. Microsoft has launched the new "user interface" (to put it lightly) for the Xbox 360, named the New Xbox Experience. I eagerly anticipated downloading the update this morning, but I set the bar low, fully expecting latency issues and other unknown problems.

Well, Microsoft didn't disappoint. The installation couldn't have been easier (fully downloaded AND installed in 2 minutes) and I've already begun poking around the new features. As you can see below, I've created my new avatar (looks a lot better than my Mii) and I spent some time this morning with the most anticipated feature, the Netflix integration.

Once again, no disappointments. My queue was updated as soon as I activated my Xbox on Netflix.com and I decided to give "Ratatouille" a shot. The video ran smoothly (for a streaming video) and I was able to use my Xbox remote to fastforward and rewind. All in all, a very enjoyable experience and I've already started to add "Play it now" movies to my Netflix queue.

If anyone from Sony happens to stumble across this blog, please take notes. While I thoroughly enjoy the content you have in the Playstation Store, downloading new files can be painfully slow. I recently purchased an update to the PSN game, PAIN, and the file size was a meager 211MB. My 802.11g network *should* be able to chew through that in 5 minutes (or less), especially at 10:00 in the evening.

No such luck.

The download took nearly 30-40 minutes and this seems to be typical for the Playstation Network. Granted, PSN is free-of-charge, but when you see such a drastic difference in performance between Xbox Live and PSN, I'm willing to bet that the Sony-faithful would gladly spend $50 per year for a better "experience".

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November 14, 2008

Obama and investing

E*Trade has posted a timely article detailing what Americans can likely expect from not only an Obama presidency, but a Democratic presidency. The graphic below gives us reasons to be optimistic and to stop shoving money under our mattresses.

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November 06, 2008

It's time to start watching "24" again

I fell off the "24" bandwagon when "Heroes" premiered a couple years ago, but it looks like they're getting back to their roots now. "WHAT'S THE TARGET?!!" -- classic Jack Bauer-loudspeak.

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October 28, 2008

How To Create A Google Reader Client Using Fluid

Click here to download:

How_To_Create_A_Google_Reader_.zip (812 KB)

A few months ago, I wrote about my undying love for Google's RSS Reader application. Up until just a few days ago, I was content with popping open a browser, dialing up Google Reader, and perusing my feeds. With well over a 100 feeds, I rarely encountered an instance where I didn't have something new waiting for me. However, I've always lamented the fact that I had no reliable method to be notified when Google Reader had new feeds waiting for me.

That all changed this past Sunday when I took Fluid for a spin. Fluid allows you to create Site-Specific Browsers (SSBs), which in my case, gave me the ability to create a browser that ONLY rendered the Google Reader website. On the surface, that doesn't sound very interesting. However, as you can see in the screenshot above, after using a little CSS/JavaScript magic, I was able to turn my SSB into a full-fledged desktop client for Google Reader.

The Fluid website has an excellent tutorial on how to go about building your own Google Reader client. If you follow the tutorial, you'll have *almost* everything you need to build your client. The things the tutorial lacks can be found below:

1. A great app needs a great dock icon. With that being said, Deviant-artist, "Jvstin", has created a fantastic icon set for Google Reader. You can search for other alternatives, but this one suited my needs quite well.
2. The keyboard shortcuts are critical when navigating a series of RSS feeds. Thankfully, you can continue to use Google Reader's built-in keyboard shortcuts. I've included a screenshot of those commands, but you can always type "?" while using Google Reader to have the list pop-up.

That should cover it. Try setting things up and post your results here. Enjoy!

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October 15, 2008

Glassbooth.org says I should vote for Obama. What about you?

I came across a pretty interesting website named glassbooth.org. In a nutshell, the site asks you to weight the issues that are important to you, asks a few "strongly agree/disagree" questions related to those issues, and then scores your answers. When it's all said and done, you'll have a rough idea which candidate has a similar perspective on those same issues.

As you can see in the screenshot below, Barack Obama and I agree about 76% of the time. Not surprisingly, John McCain isn't that far off either: we agree 65% of the time. And, rounding out the candidates, Green Party candidate, Cynthia McKinney and I also agree 65% of the time. Who knew?

I was able to generate my "score" in about 5 minutes and the end result gave me a good, high-level overview of the candidates and their stance on each of the issues. All in all, the site is worth a look. Take some time during a lunch break (or contribute to your share of "time theft") and then post results in the Comments section of this thread. Should be an interesting, albeit informal, way of seeing where everyone stands.

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October 08, 2008

Fantastic Presidential resource: PolitiFact.com

If you're looking for a great resource to help you weed through the mud slinging coming from both the Obama and McCain camps, then check out PolitiFact.com. It has a great overview of each of the claims made by each candidate and includes a handy "Truth-o-Meter", which provides a detailed analysis of each claim. Some claims are surprisingly true (Obama DID ask for money for a $3 million overhead projector) and some are downright false (Obama has NOT voted 94 times for an increase in taxes or against tax cuts).

Make sure you check out the site before November 4th.