Jim Barraud

I’ve defeated Bowser. Now on to 120 stars.

I’ve been pretty lax in posts around here lately due to wrapping up end of year projects at work, the holidays, and an end of the year vacation. But now the new year is upon us and it’s time to get the train a movin’ again.

Christmas vacation was a blast for several reasons. The first being it was vacation time for me and family. I pretty much disconnected myself from the outside (internet) world. I got several house projects done that the wife and I have been talking about doing over the past year. And it was pretty much a “Nintendo” christmas since Santa left a Wii for the family under the tree. And the wife and I bestowed the kids each with their own Nintendo DS for Christmas (now Daddy has someone to play with :)

But the biggest surprise for me was the gift from the wife. She blessed me with a new Canon Digital Rebel XTi. Which was a surprise indeed. Apparently it was between that and new sneakers. She choose wisely. The new XTi will serve as the replacement for my current Gen1 Digital Rebel. But it’s also sparking and a renewed interest in sharpening my photography skills. So if I had to make a personal resolution for the new year, that would be it. Sharpening my photography skills. That in addition to the standard resolutions of save money, loose weight, backup my data, etc.

So be prepared for more photographic goodness in the coming year.

I’ve finally had the pleasure of completing Final Fantasy III. Being one of the games that initially made me want a Nintendo DS, it wasn’t a let down. I think it’s safe to say I’ve been out of the gaming loop for some time, especially in terms of RPG’s. Be it because of the game of life or the fact that I opted for the Gamecube in the last round of the console wars. The Gamecube isn’t exactly known for it extensive library of games, much less any RPG’s (though Resident Evil 4 totally kicked ass). The last RPG I played was Final Fantasy VII for the PS1. It was the only reason I bought a PS1.

Back in my SNES years I was all about the Final Fantasy and Dragon Warrior games, so when I heard that Final Fantasy III was coming out for the DS it peaked my interest. Then because of the fact that it was a version that had never been released in the US and was being totally redone in 3D, I knew I’d have to play it.

I’m not going to get into a total review of the game, that’s been covered in detail elsewhere. But I can say it was a joy to play. It reminded me of playing turn-based RPGs when I was younger. Challenging, enthralling, tedious, frustrating… a ton of fun. If you’re looking for a solid RPG for you’re Nintendo DS, this is the one to get.

It’s been about a week, and I’ve been surfing along nicely on my new Airport Extreme(n). There are some significant improvements when compared to my original Airport Extreme.

The most notable new feature for me is the ability share USB Hard drives. Before the new Airport arrived, I purchased a two new usb Hard Drive enclosures for some drives I had lying around and a 7 port USB hub specifically for the new router. With the hub I’m able to plug in multiple drives as well as my printer and have them all accessible wirelessly. This has allowed me to move my entire iTunes music library off my MacBook Pro and onto the external Hard Drive that is shared wirelessly. And with the 802.11n speeds, music & videos stream beautifully (as I had hoped).

But I may have set hopes too high. I also attempted place my entire iPhoto library on the shared drive, and while it technically worked, it was far too slow to be usable. Just scrolling through the library would introduce the never ending beachball. I’m hoping that Apple plans to leverage this new wireless sharing ability with iLife 07. You can now share from computer to computer with the iLife 06 apps, but it would be nice if they were built to recognize a centrally shared library and had the smarts to handle multiple users using the same library.

A future benefit of the shared drives will be once Leopard comes out. With it’s time machine backup feature, you should be able to have your computer automatically backed up without the need to physically plug-in an external drive.

I should also mention that it seems to share any type of storage media that will plug into the USB port, such as the little USB keys that are all the rage. It even seems to mount media cards that are plugged into an external media card reader. My printer that is shared has a built in media card reader and any media cards that are plugged into it also mount, which was a nice surprise

Some other things I like:

• Increased range. (I now get full signal bars anywhere in my house)
• More reliable printer sharing. (The previous Airport was always a bit flaky for me)
• Nicer Admin Utility.
• Shared drives automatically mount when your on the network.
• 3 Ethernet ports. (as opposed to 1 on the previous airport)

So far the only real issue I’ve come across is getting my Nintendo DS lite to connect to the network. It seems to be because of the Airport’s new “Transitional Security” that combines WEP and WAP. Even though I enter the WEP key, the DS still won’t connect. This seems to be a common issue with gaming consoles in general. And since I’m in no way turning off wireless security, my solution has been to plug in my old Airport Extreme into the new one and create a separate network which the DS can connect. I’m hoping that a firmware update will resolve this issue.

Over the past couple months I’ve made some hardware upgrades of note. A bit of technological sprucing up if you will.

I’ve personally upgraded from a Powerbook G4 1.25GHz to a Macbook Pro 2.16GHz Core 2 Duo courtesy of my fine employer. It’s the perfect machine when it comes to web development. With the ability to run Mac OSX, and 2 instances of Windows XP (one for IE6 and the other for IE7) simultaneously on the same machine, productivity has definitely increased. I’ve recently installed an instance of Ubuntu, for no other reason than that I can and too see what the kids have been talking about.

The wife has just upgraded her iBook G3 800MHz to a Macbook 2GHz Core 2 Duo (white). She’s very happy with the new computer and is enamored with the two finger scrolling. It’s the little things ya know. And now that we both have iSights, we’ll be able to do some video chatting while I’m at the office or away on business. Well, that is once Apple fixes this bug that’s preventing it from working over anything except a local network. This purchase was funded with sale of my PowerMac G4 Dual 1.25GHz and the pending sale of my Powerbook G4 1.25GHz.

Speaking of selling things off, once I receive my new Airport Extreme, I’ll be selling off my old Airport Extreme. Sure the new one is faster and has more range, but it was the ability to setup network shares via external USB hard drives that was the clincher. Perfect for sharing files with the wife and setting up some automated backup solutions (come on time machine!).

And while I’m at it, I might as well mention my new Nintendo DS lite (onyx). I got this little badboy from my colleagues at the hive as a 30th Birthday present some months ago. It’s been glued to my side since.

And then there’s the upgrade to this site. I’ve gone with a simpler design and layout, and the usual promise to update it regularly.