Ad Astra per Google Earth
Have you seen Google Earth’s new Sky feature? It is a distilled example of one of those ideas, once you’ve seen it, that seems so perfect, so natural, that makes you wonder why it wasn’t OBVIOUS for all of us to wonder why it wasn’t already in Google Earth, Live Local, and their geography-rendering friends.
Google Earth’s first version featuring the sky (Google Earth v4.2) isn’t without its faults. For example, searching the sky for “northern star” returns no results. But “alpha centauri” takes you straight to a high-res photograph of Rigel Kentaurus, which is exactly right. “Big Dipper” zooms you way too far in to be useful (zoom out to see Ursa Major), etc etc. The timeline feature looks useful but not entirely intuitive. I’d love to hear your thoughts.
The one thing that I would have expected to be intuitive, but isn’t, is how to get a view of the night sky for a given latitude and longitude at a given time, with the presentation making clear the azimuth and elevation of your point of view.
A sample app for such a view (inspired by being here on the lake, away from the city): on a given date, show me the path of the sun all the way down to the horizon. Oh, and, if poss, render the nice 3D geography there too. And then show me the stars that will be there after sunset, and how they will traverse the sky — and what I should look out for in the sky as I listen to the waves crash up.
Anyways, wow.
Fan Expo Canada 2007
I’d better take a moment to explain the most recent photos on my Flickr photostream, which feature folks dressed as Star Wars characters, playing Guitar Hero behind their backs, and getting autographs from sci-fi celebs, sometimes all at once.
I’ve just returned from Fan Expo Canada 2007, which was undoubtedly the geekiest event I’ve ever attended. Which is saying a lot. And I have to say, I had a great time!
Jean-Luc David from Microsoft Canada’s Developer and Platform Group (pictured above with his buddy Batman) had a spare ticket which he very kindly offered to me earlier in the week. There was only one thing to do: charge the battery, set the camera on stun, and spend the weekend in fan land!
You know those conventions you hear about: Sci Fi conventions, Anime conventions, Gaming conventions, Horror conventions, Comic book conventions? The common thread among all of them being the obsessive fans rallying around their common passion? Well, take them all, put them under one roof, and you’ve got Fan Expo Canada.
I’m not one for getting autographs, but if I were, there were celebs like Jonathan Frakes (above) and Malcolm McDowell around greeting and chatting with fans.
My favorite memories would have to be:
- Greg Pak (from Marvel Comics)’s presentation on the writing for comics and how that creative process differs from writing a screenplay.
- The staggering displays of Guitar Hero skill exhibited during the World Series of Video Games, like this girl who played a solo behind her head. The song I can’t beat on Expert mode is Psychobilly Freakout. I watched a guy perfectly play the passage I can’t complete, with the guitar behind his back. Whoa.
(Guitar Hero, by the way, was the clear game of choice, and the XBox360 was the clear system of choice. I would have broken out the game systems being used around the convention centre at 70% XBox360 and XBox, 25% Nintendo Wii and DS, 5% other.)
- The incredible amount of work fans put into their costumes, and the number of characters I recognized.
The photo I most wish I’d taken? A girl dressed impeccably as Midna from Zelda: Twilight Princess. She would have looked great beside my sister’s husky dog standing in for Link in his wolf form.
For the record, if I had gone in costume, I would have tried to pull off Phoenix Wright. Shame I cut my hair last week.
And although I didn’t buy any t-shirts to complement my zillion Microsoft-branded ones, I would have picked up this one:
Anyway, it was by far and away the geekiest event I’ve ever been at, and I had an awesome time.
I suppose Triumph would have a field day, and inform me that I’m an omnigeek, made out of parts of lesser geeks. I’m down with that.
Continue ReadingMazinaw Lake by Night
I was up at Mazinaw Lake over the weekend, where my sister’s fiancé and his family have a cottage. This is proper Ontario, where you head out to the lake and scurry across by boat to your getaway.
Go on hikes, watch the meteor shower, swim, chill with the other lads in the wedding party, have a few polites, and gawk at what your future brother-in-law’s D80 can do shooting long-exposure shots of the night sky.
Moving my European XBox 360 to North America
I’m writing this post in case anyone else out there wants to know what will happen to a European XBox 360 (in my case, from Ireland) if it’s moved to North America (in my case, Canada). [update] The story started out not particularly great, but now, a few updates later, it is significantly better. By purchasing a new power supply, you’ll have everything you need. And although games are marked as region-specific, it turns out that many of them are not, and so by checking them against a list, you’ll find you can purchase many games in the shops, even those that are marked as “NTSC only”!
So here’s the run-down.
Buying new games in the shop: You can NOT buy North American games and play them in your European XBox360. XBox360s do not play games that were purchased in other regions, as per this. [Update: It looks like the North American versions of some XBox360 games will work with a PAL (European) XBox360! Thanks to John in the comments for the link to VideoGamesPlus at Blogspot where they test North American games in a PAL system and list the ones that work. And here's a chart at Wikipedia of Region-Free 360 titles.] For titles that aren’t region-free, you’ll need to have them shipped to you. Solution: make some friends before you leave. And maybe give them a few Euros for future postage.
Buying games through XBox Live and XBox Live Arcade: This continues to work just fine and you can purchase new XBLA games using this method. I had to change my Region from Ireland to Canada before I could sign in to Xbox Live. It updated my console before I was able to sign in (this could have been a routine update, I’m not sure).
PAL/NTSC 50Hz/60Hz: My European XBox works fine on an NTSC TV.
Watching DVDs: You can ONLY watch DVDs from the XBox’s home region. So my console rejects Region 1 (North American) DVDs.
Power Supply: The European power supply — you know, that LOUD, GRAY BRICK sitting behind your TV? — DOES NOT WORK in North America. If you use an outlet adaptor to physically plug it in, the unit will not accept as input the 110V power from North America. Trust me, I tried; the power supply gives the amber “stand by” indication, but the XBox360 console itself gives you a flashing red ring. The European XBox power supply requires an input of 200 to 240 Volts from which it will generate an output of 203 Watts for the XBox at 12V / 16.5A. Think about that for a second. 203 Watts is the equivalent of, like, 5 light bulbs.
If you go looking for a voltage adaptor that will step up the North American voltage from its native 110 or 120 volts to the required 200-240 volts, most power adaptors you’ll find will produce around 60 Watts, which is adequate for a toaster or a microwave, but not your XBox360. It sounds like this guy, Mike, had better luck finding one than I did when he moved the other way across the Atlantic.
Your alternative is to pay a fortune for a North American XBox360 Power Supply (I got mine from Future Shop.) They are scarce though, so call before you go. Mine cost $99Cdn. Ouch.
So here are the options, as far as I can see:
Option A: Buy a new XBox360 power supply in North America for ~$99Cdn. Keep your old games. Buy region-free games, and have games that aren’t region-free shipped to you.
Option B: Buy a new Xbox360 core system in North America for ~$299Cdn. Don’t bring your core system with you. Take out the hard drive. Keep all peripherals. Sell your old games that aren’t region free.
If you have any questions about this or suggestions for me, I’d be grateful to hear from you. I have it up and running now, and confirmed that I can play an NTSC title on my PAL XBox (Project Sylpheed, which specifically says on the package it is for NTSC only), but other than that, I haven’t had the time to do any gaming since I’ve been back.
BONUS LINK: If you’re interested in embarking on a cross-Atlantic move in either direction with your XBox360, you should also read Mike and Rion’s guide.
BONUS #2: On a simpler note, here’s my guide to moving a European Nintendo DS to North America: (1) Play it on the plane. (2) Go to store and purchase game for $24Cdn (approx. 16EUR) instead of 49EUR. (3) Keep playing.
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