Making Friends on the Wii is NOT Easy!

I've had my Wii for probably over a year now but never really did much with it online other than the normal web browsing or Everybody Votes channels but recently that changed.  I picked up Mario Kart for the Wii on Sunday when it was released.  I decided to try out the online component of it and boy was I surprised.  At first I thought I was going to be hit with a lot of disconnected errors but that went away and I was playing Mario Kart online!

What I will say is that even though I've only won once and I've had to fight just to stay at the front of the pack (2nd place feels like a win mostly) its been a TON of fun.  Having made some friends on the Comic Forums I decided to trade some "friend codes".  That's where the trouble lies.

Its not bad enough that Nintendo requires you to swap Wii codes for friends but then you have to swap codes for Mario Kart then if you want to play some Smash Bros. its time to swap codes again.  UGH if that's not bad enough once you send a friend a code they have to send you there's back! I can't even tell you if on the other end it tells you the name of the person who's sending you a code or if anything happens at all on the other end?

Its kind of like for Live your telling someone your name, but on the Wii you have to swap Social Security Numbers, how often would you make friends that way?  That's what I figured too.

del.icio.us Tags: Wii,Nintendo,Mario Kart,Live,Super Smash Bros.

What Did We Do Before DVR's?

Well the weather is getting warmer and more time is being spent outside, and its being spent outside later.  So what that means is that while the shows start at 8 p.m. I am nowhere near ready to watch them.  Its especially needed on a night like tonight because I'm a big Survivor fan, an office junkie, and I'm still trying to figure out Lost.  The DVR makes sure it takes care of it all for me, one after another they get recorded and prepared for viewing.

So I ask, what did we do before the DVR, well I can tell you at times what I did and it was utilize multiple VCR's to get everything recorded at times. Yet even with the VCR it really mattered how well you set the darn thing, not clearly as easy as preparing the DVR.

Although it's funny that the DVR is still not as prevalent as the cell phone or email, there are actually people out there that still don't have them.  While it was a short time ago that I remember the excitement of getting my first DVR, it seems like everyone at least should have one these days.

If you still don't have a DVR and you're still struggling with that VCR, perhaps knowing that you'll not have to deal with that blinking 12:00 anymore might finally set you straight!

del.icio.us Tags: DVR,VCR,Lost,Survivor,The Office

Pennsylvania Representative, Me?

Well that's what I'm going for at least, hey I've been blogging, twittering and podcasting now for awhile (okay I've only been podcasting for like two months) but still if a tree falls in the woods and no one hears it, well you get the idea.

Anyway I'm submitting this truly wonderful blog of mine to 50 Bloggers in 50 States and hopefully I'll get some notoriety!

I've never been one for politics so this is the closest that PA Representative and Daytona24 will likely ever come!

del.icio.us Tags: Theres a Blog in my Soup

Hope You Like the New Design

I decided today that it's time to move beyond a tech only Blog.  After spending some time working on Too Old to Grow Up for a few months now I like the flexibility of being able to tackle different topics.

I'm using this as another way as well to expand the uses of my Twitter and Flickr accounts as well.

My old Blog over at Live.com which you can still find here was similar in its content.  When I acquired daytonatwentyfour.com I decided to keep things focused to tech, while I won't be going into life philosophies or anything I'll use this time to expand onto some other "off tech topics" in the future.

By the way if your looking for some more fun, please check out Too Old to Grow Up! 

del.icio.us Tags: Too Old to Grow Up,Blog,Tech,Flickr,Twitter

Too Old to Grow Up Tech!

In the beginning of this year I had such high expectations that I would post every weekday to my tech blog, then reality set in and I realized that wasn't going to be possible.  Then among other things not long after the year started at the end of March I started up Too Old to Grow Up! with my friend Logan MacLeod.

Turns out it's not easy to run two blogs and a podcast when its not your day job!

In any event its been a blast, and its also been a great way to put to use some tech.  The laptop gets the most use as it actually records the episodes we do each week.  In preparation for the podcast we made the decision to get some decent equipment early on and purchased a nice mixer and some good Radioshack microphones but it was getting the iMic that has recently been the biggest difference!

Audacity has been the software of choice although early on we thought Podstation was going to be it.  Along with our in studio equipment both Logan and I picked up different but great Olympus portable audio recorders, I also picked up a nice portable mic to go with mine, Logan takes home the prize as his records in WAV format which easily imports into Audacity.

Of course although my video camera which I've had has not gotten any work for the new podcast its only a matter of time, but surely my new Nikon D40 will be taking some great pictures at shows etc in the future.

Hey I'm a geek at heart in many ways, whether its Daytona24's Digital Life or Too Old to Grow Up! I get to have a little fun and hopefully someone out there is doing a little reading and enjoying a little listening!

del.icio.us Tags: Too Old to Grow Up,Radioshack,Olympus,Nikon-D40,iMic

We're gonna need a bigger MyBook!

Changes are abound in my life in the upcoming year (all good don't worry) and with changes in life come changes in tech. A location that now houses a secondary PC will be needed at which point that PC will be moved to replace another. Hopefully the PC removed will find a good home rather than be tossed out, but that remains to be seen.

In any case along with the changes came a need for more backup space, you see I had a 250GB hard drive so a 250GB My Book was sufficient for back up purposes of course that was until I went and got myself a second internal hard drive of 500GB. So this past weekend I took advantage of a price cut in the Circuit City flyer on a 500GB My Book Essential drive and added it to my main PC. Of course this forced me to take out a USB 2.0 PCI card in my secondary PC to add the necessary USB ports to add not only the new My Book but the photo printer which would be moved from the secondary PC to the main PC.

Good changes of course, yet I hate to ever remove technology and in this case I had to make the choice to leave behind fax and caller ID features on my main PC and remove the modem PCI card. Wow, you think that wouldn't be that big a deal!

I also decided it was time to put away the iBook for now, it now resides in the same location where I keep my new laptop when not in use, still in good order just not in full operation for now.

So along with a good weekend test with my new digital camera it was a good weekend for technology, allot of moves and restructuring took place in just two short days, more to come in the future!

del.icio.us Tags: MyBook,iBook,PC,digital camera,USB,PCI

SDTV Disappearing Act

There was a time when if you were choosing to buy a new TV you thought about buying an HDTV, nowadays it seems like if your looking to buy a new TV it must be an HDTV.  There is still a very small selection of SDTV's out there, but its not a great selection.  So you may ask why its even a thought, well for the most part I figured it was price.  While it's true price is the biggest factor size does play into it as well. 

For the record the TV in question to replace was going to be for the bedroom, the current TV is not a bad TV but the problem stems from its lack of any inputs, not even the very old composite kind!

For a guy who proud's himself on a digital lifestyle you can only imagine the anguish of having not only an SDTV but one with no inputs.  Sure there's a PS2 hooked up to it as a DVD player but there's a need to jack the volume way up because of the connection and connecting say my Zune to it isn't even an option.

Yes that troubles me, but as it seems for now I need to set those troubles aside.  Unless I'm willing to spend quite a bit of money on a large enough HDTV or settle for a sub par SDTV  its something I'll have to pass on for now.

It is interesting though to see now more than ever to see the transition from SD to HD, with all this talk of digital converter boxes it seems sooner rather than later owning an HDTV may become the norm.

del.icio.us Tags: SDTV,HDTV,Composite,Zune,digital converter box