StartingAces commented on Frequently Asked Questions About Google Wave

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 10:04:11 EST

Like other people have said, if there was a "convert googletalk to wave" option in GT, that would be great. Especially if this was rolled into Gmail for notification of new waves.

StartingAces commented on Cook Pizza in a Cast-Iron Skillet

Mon, 11 Jan 2010 09:51:56 EST

Being in a apartment that does not provide an ideal setting to cure cast iron, I currently do this with a hefty anodized aluminum pan. Get it hot, toss the dough on, give it a quick broil to firm slightly, toss on the ingredients, and about 5 more minutes under the broiler.

StartingAces commented on Bono, You Got It All Wrong

Tue, 05 Jan 2010 14:11:29 EST

Downloading music has at the same time distilled the "only the hugest of the huge selling acts make it" angle, as well as democratizing things for many smaller artists. While there is definitely a massive group of artists that are hurting as a result of lost sales from downloads, the barrier of entry is a lot lower than it used to be. For people who don't listen to top 40 radio, word-of-mouth is thousands of times more effective than A&R. In the past decade the succession of MP3.com/Garageband/MySpace/and so on has made it so virtually anyone can be listened to by anyone else at no cost. If you're good and people care about sharing your music, they will. At that point, selling your album on iTunes via something like TuneCore ends up only costing about $40 uprfont, and your margin is far better than it would be in nearly any traditional distro method involving any size of label... IF people care to buy your music. On the other end of the spectrum, popular music becomes a race to the bottom in terms of promoting the mega-single du jour - the only thing that's really going to move any paid units. Ke$ha's "Tik Tok", is a great example of how the digital single has become the focus of the record company. One song alone, with the magic touch of producer/co-writer Dr Luke (also produced "Party in the USA", "Since U Been Gone", ad infinitum) generated over 600,000 downloads in a week. After Apple takes their slice of the money, that means about $549,000 (if the track is $1.29) in revenue, without having to worry at all about physical distro, shipping costs, and so on. Obviously there are still costs involved for many things, but it's essentially printing money - and when the time comes to sell the full-length, the strength of that single moves copies for ten times the money per unit (though drastically fewer units). In short the new system benefits: - truly "independent" artists looking to merely have people to listen to them, or to sell a moderate number of albums themselves/with the aid of a fair label contract. - reasonably successful artists who supplement touring income with album sales - catalog artists/top 20, who were doing well before anyway (U2) - mega-single pop acts who use the power of the single benefit the most While it hurts artists artists who struggle to recoup or are trying to make an independent living via album sales and may not be in a position to profit from touring- as Bono says in the full quote. The fact is that this segment of artists has always struggled to make money, which is not to say that makes the current situation ok. And it is also worth noting that Bono is misguided in his accusations of who is at fault... maybe if they paid their taxes in Ireland some of the money would go to social services used by poor musicians in their home country? Until there is a manner for content and access providers to recoup artists (which there is absolutely no motivation to do) or the system for getting music legitimately is cheap/easy/fair enough, it will not happen any time soon.

StartingAces commented on Target Makes Cashiering More Tolerable By Turning It Into a Game

Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:05:13 EST

I worked at Target about a decade ago, for three years. They had a system for this, and I had crazy good per-item and per-transaction times... but the kicker was that if you got the "holy grail" and got a credit card application - you could get royally screwed if you didn't put the transaction on hold fast enough. Some of my co-workers realized that when a manager un-held the transaction to finish it with the new card, that time would be added to the transaction. Win one metagame (granted, you actually got recognized for getting applications, you just got chewed out if you were slow), lose another. It was basically set up so you were never really doing it right.

StartingAces commented on Borderlands An "Important, Long-Term Franchise" For Take-Two

Fri, 04 Dec 2009 10:12:59 EST

1. UPnP 2. Scaled enemies? better scaled? option to scale? Anything? 3. Better menus on PC If so, in for 2

StartingAces commented on Redbox Closer To Rolling Out $2 Game Rentals

Thu, 03 Dec 2009 09:43:41 EST

I would certainly use this. I currently have GameFly as a "beat a game to completion" type of thing, generally having games for about a month. Having a shot to binge on a game for a day or two before I have to commit over a week of back and forth GameFly time or $50+ is not bad. I'd especially like this for trying out Wii games, as many of those that I've tried lately barely held my interest for a weekend. All it would take is an extra day of brown bagging it at work.

StartingAces commented on How Do You Handle Email Misfires?

Wed, 02 Dec 2009 16:23:42 EST

I also have a first letter, last name Gmail address. Not only do I get about 2 direct correspondence mails per day, but I also get upwards of 30 subscribed lists. My "dopplegangerS" (PLURAL!) absentmindedly sign up for everything from AT&T to school lunch programs for their kids, to Charlotte Russe with what is most certainly an email address they do not have access to. My many attempts to contact them and let them know they are sharing copious amounts of personal info online have gone completely unanswered, and it's gotten so out of hand spam-wise that I might have to abandon the address. It seems likely that both people are just using a "fake" address to sign up for something, which is even more frustrating. I have phone numbers for both of them (in email subjects, I don't read mail content), but I feel like it wouldn't be proper to call. Tough spot to be in.

StartingAces commented on So, Get New Super Mario Bros. Wii Yet?

Sun, 15 Nov 2009 17:38:57 EST

Very much in the tradition of SMB3, with some staging elements of SMW. I'm not feeling that it's as complex as SMW, but it is enjoyable and challenging enough to keep it very interesting. Multiplayer is an absolute blast. #newsupermariobroswii

StartingAces commented on How To: Hackintosh a Dell Mini 10v Into the Ultimate Snow Leopard Netbook

Sat, 24 Oct 2009 17:47:55 EDT

Just got an Acer Aspire One. Bummed that it's not as easy/effective at hackintoshing as the mini 10, but it runs a (LEGALLY LICENSED TYVM) lite build of Win7 like a dream. #dellmini10vhackintosh

StartingAces commented on A First Look at the Gameplay in NCAA Basketball 10

Sun, 18 Oct 2009 10:16:00 EDT

They did a good job of making a realistic looking Conte Forum, but I'll stick with the XBLA March Madness game I snagged last year - $15 is about as much as I'm willing to pay for NCAA Basketball. #sports

StartingAces commented on Lite iPhone Apps Are Dead: In-App Purchases Come to Free Apps

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 18:02:46 EDT

If you release the demo and full version of an app in the same place, it might hamstring the "sell it for a buck to get to #1 then bring it back to $5" tactic with the way the paid app sales charts work. In fact, it would sort of muddy the free and paid charts in general. If anything, it puts more power in the "highest grossing" chart. #app

StartingAces commented on The Left 4 Dead 2 Boycott Is Dead

Thu, 15 Oct 2009 11:33:02 EDT

For me: L4D = 300 game hours for $50. No problem with shelling out for L4D2 here. #left4dead2

StartingAces commented on New Term: "XBLA Chaser"

Tue, 13 Oct 2009 23:54:00 EDT

Sometimes I play a bit of E4 or Uno after something a bit tense (Fallout 3, etc) On PC or iPhone, peggle is my chaser.

StartingAces commented on Parents Sue Dunkin' Donuts After Rogue Hash Brown Burns Toddler

Sun, 13 Sep 2009 21:51:41 EDT

Not sure if this has been brought up yet. Dunkin Donuts generally cooks their stuff in convection ovens. I've gotten these a few times before (free, they are not worth the price of admission). Not once have they actually been hot, and generally the inside is cold.

I'd consider this a "question the common sense of the OP" rather than a full on blame. They're usually a lukewarm soggy mess, maybe the OP assumed this - still doesn't mean they don't need to check.

StartingAces commented on Valve Plans More Left 4 Dead Content Post 'Crash Course'

Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:32:06 EDT

I've said it before and I will keep saying it: If this "boycott" keeps whiny 12-year olds who don't use a mic and only know how to ragequit out of L4D2, booya.

StartingAces commented on Have You Abandoned a Dedicated MP3 Player for a Music-Capable Phone?

Fri, 11 Sep 2009 21:50:54 EDT

Walking to/from work - I carry my iPhone and a 120gb iPod classic (though this has more to do with having 100gb of my music to listen to at work). Battery life is certainly an issue with using the phone as a music player, I had to charge too much when I just used my iPhone.. When I leave the house for pretty much any other reason, I just bring my iPhone. Only one device to worry about if I'm robbed/etc.

StartingAces commented on How to Build a Hackintosh with Snow Leopard, Start to Finish

Thu, 03 Sep 2009 12:27:13 EDT

Anyone feel like updating the netbook compatibility matrix for snow leopard? I'm thinking of taking the plunge. I love my macbook, but I really want an osx netbook for on-the-go.

StartingAces commented on gdgt, the Data Driven Gadget Site, is Live

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 14:07:47 EDT

If by live you mean spamming the hell out of me. I want to check out the site and all, but it's sent me four automated messages with the same crap (i.e. "hey, thanks for pre-registering") four times in a half hour, and when I go to the site it just says it's upgrading.

StartingAces commented on Seek 'N Spell Blends Running And Scrabble

Wed, 01 Jul 2009 13:51:00 EDT

Hot tip, it's not $.99 yet. Still showing up as $2.99 for me. Will grab it tomorrow when it goes down.