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The web store at CommodoreUSA.net is showing a mid to late June ship date for the C64x computer. I can’t wait to get one of these. I had a C64 in the 80’s with which, like more Commodore users, I engaged in an emotional attachment. The machine itself was wonderful and I learned a great deal about computers and programming on my C64.
Now it so happens I’m looking to replace a desktop and the CommodoreUSA folks have a retro looking machine that will meet my needs. I pre-ordered a few days after the announcement and was looking forward to a late May/early June ship date. Alas the date slipped a little and I have to wait a bit longer for my new machine. Oh well… as long as it live up to the hype, still in the words of Indigo Montoya, “I hate waiting.”
Update: I got a tweet from CommodoreUSA and the C64X is shipping before 15 June. I really like it when companies I do business with react to my tweets about them. Fairpoint communications does that as well as Commodore. It makes me feel like a valued customer.
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There will be a week or so where we shall be undergoing summer maintenance. This site and the moodle site will be undergoing some updates/changes/etc. Don’t be shocked to not see this site over the next week or two.
For the past few days I’ve been working to run OS/2 Warp on my Macbook Pro. Some of this is for nostalgia but I’m also interested in seeing if one can use a non-standard operating system for infosec purposes (i.e. Pen Testing, Digital Forensics, etc.)
I’m using VirtualBox on a Macbook Pro running Snow Leopard. I have an original blue spine box of OS/2 Warp with the installation floppies. I’ve got sound and TCP/IP networking working and now I’m trying to get better than VGA graphics.
It’s April Fool’s day. Here’s the funniest thing I’ve seen so far:
InformationWeek is reporting a story about FEMA and how they lost access to their lessons learned database. The inspector general concluded that FEMA cannot access lessons learned materials prior to May 2010. Here’s the link to their story http://www.informationweek.com/news/government/enterprise-apps/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=229209496&subSection=News#
I’ve seen this sort of “out with the old” and “in with the new” technology updates a few times in my career and after reading the article I picked up on a few key phrases that suggest this is a fairly normal government technology/contracting update that didn’t work correctly.
The article gives me the impression that the old system was probably a legacy computer running older or even antiquated software. Those systems are usually tended by an administrator who is, how shall I put this nicely, set in their ways. A more direct approach would be to say they are system zealots who have love for their machine and program and everything else is trash.
Managers can become fearful of these types of admins and organizations, especially ones with important missions like FEMA, need to update their technology. The article talks about the functions of the old system being covered by two new projects.
The trouble springs from a few places. Given the length of time it takes to plan, write, bid, and select a government contractor acquisition of new things is very very slow. Typically the new thing you get via the acquisitions process is outdated the day it arrives.
The second source of trouble is the writing of the requirements documents for the new system. If you do have a zealot guarding the old system, good luck trying to figure out what you need the new system to do and how to import data from the legacy device. Even with help of the legacy system admin/managers you’ll have to deal with the new vendors and their tendency to “yes-man” every question just to get the business. From person experience I’ve had vendors promise that their system would accept data from a legacy machine that I needed to replace only to find out that what the vendor really meant was they promise to work with us to write a separate service contract to help migrate for out legacy machine for a price (and a pretty stiff one at that.)
So before you get torch and pitchfork and march on FEMA demanding their IT manager’s head we have to look a little deeper into the situation and unwind the tendrils of contracting, acquisition, personal management, and then find the root cause.
The end of all this investigation will bear out that government systems (really any systems in large bureaucratic organizations) have dangerously long life cycles and poor end-of-life transition plans. This stems from a focus on the system and not a focus on mission assurance.
The commercials are funny. Since I’m not a big Daily Show fan I didn’t recognize the actress when I saw the Xperia Play commercials on youtube. I’ve been following the Xperia play with some degree of interest. My Playstation 3 has become a hub for everyone in the family and has surpassed the family iMac as the most used device in the house. I’m a fan of my PSP and enjoy the connectivity between the handheld and the console. It remind me of the Gamecube/Gameboy Advanced cable connectivity.
Unfortunately I can’t find any information about what carriers will offer the Play and which stores have demo models of the phone. I’ve called the local AT&T and Verizon stores and neither one of them had any information on the phone. Best Buy was also clueless.
I have to repost this, simply because it uses poop to explain something. The video doesn’t dismiss the danger or demean the Japanese people. I pray for them and encourage others to take positive action to assist the people suffering afflictions brought about by the earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear events.
So a customer makes a snarky comment in the Bioware/EA forums and gets his account banned for 72 hours, effectively cutting off any games he’s purchased from Bioware/EA; including the brand new Dragon Age 2. Wow, that’s harsh, Dragon Age 2 is the newest and shiniest game on the market.
Sure sucks to be that person and it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to know that if you bite the hand that feeds you games, you’ll get smacked sooner or later. EA owns Bioware and we all know that EA places its own digital rights over the convience of its users. You can’t play any Sims game without the install CD, Spore was a complete disaster, and low and behold Dragon Age 2 requires some on-line phone-home and make sure the user is in good standing to play buffoonery.
I’ve been playing games on computers since the Commodore 64 and I’ve seen all manner of digital rights management schemes. I remember answering questions from the manual to prove I had a legitimate copy. I recall various copy protection software schemes looking for specific “unreadable” tracks on 5.25″ and 3.5″ floppy disks. That still holds true for many modern games that require the install disc to be inserted before they launch (a.k.a. Sims)
The problem is that I don’t want to truck around a stack of CDs with me when I travel. If I’ve already got to go find a CD to insert to play a game; I might as well just get the console version of the game, put the media in the PS3/XBox/Wii and play. Not to mention that I don’t have to worry about video settings or CPU speed or sound quality. A PS3 version of Dragon Age 2 will function exactly how the designers meant it to function and I won’t get told by the vendor that my PC is too old or my graphics card is too weak for their game. The additional bonus here is that I don’t have to deal with strange DRM tools to stop piracy. My Dragon Age 2 blu ray inserted into one PS3 is the only way I can play.
There are precious few PC games that I play anymore and almost all of them are MMORPGs with FREE client downloads and a monthly/annual fee. That’s right EA, if you provide a quality on-line experience with compelling content and good customer service people will pay you. You should check out Disney’s Pirates of the Caribbean on-line, Blizzard’s World of Warcraft, or Eve online for examples of success. For the record, Spore was not a success.
Yes I am still sore over the flop/ruination of Spore at the hands of EA. I’m sure that vitriol is evident but it’s not just EA. Other software houses do it too. Eventually the PC gamer market will die. Not because the PC isn’t capable of playing good games, but because MMOs will figure out how to work on consoles and folks like PotCO, LotRO, Eve, and Blizzard will realize that they can get more bang for the buck selling to consoles and leveraging existing networks (Xbox live, PSN, Wii channels) rather than trying to maintain development efforts for PC and Mac over the open Internet.
Oh yeah I hear the nay-sayers lauding Steam… You don’t think they are trying to make Steam play on consoles? Really? They probably aren’t speaking about it publicly but Steam on PS3/Xbox would be a have-to-have for everyone everywhere.
When that day comes, it’ll be the final nail in the PC game market’s coffin. I’m sure that a few years after that happens we’ll have to send someone around to tell the C level execs at the PC gaming houses, precious few of them seem to really be connected with the gaming market anymore…
