I did some local digging to find out where I would need to go to give the iPod Touch a fitting death. First stop will be Leisure Time Pet & Hobby, here in Champaign. They have a crap ton of Model Rocket supplies at my disposal. Stop 2 will probably be somewhere in Indiana. I don’t think sparklers and snakes are going to as much as dent the iPod. Stop 3 will be at the Fair-lab. There I will get things ready. Stop 4 will be a field with nothing around to damage and no one around to disturb.

I’m expecting this can down sometime next week. So hang tight iPod-watchers!

Well using a very complex and specific tool (read: a paint scraper), I was able to crack open the iPod touch today. The first thing I noticed was the abundance of water present inside the case. I was actually surprised by how much water was in there, as it has been several weeks since it had gotten wet and no water came out upon vigorous shaking.

Looking around inside the guts of the beast, one thing that surprised me was the flexibility of the battery. Apparently it uses a sort of Li-Ion polymer putty, which results in the battery being kind of squishy. It was overly disconcerting. Anyway, I found some pretty tell-tale signs of death throughout the iPod. The sickly, ammonia-esque smell, slightly corroded connectors, the piece I broke off while opening it… Though it was my boss Troy who noticed what was probably the actual cause of death: burn marks near the top of the iPod. This iPod had shorted out. Such a shame. Only three weeks old and it already is meeting the big Steve in the sky.

Well, the only step left is to lay this thing to rest. It might be a few days for the conclusion, as I want to plan something rather fire-y and explode-y. I’ll be sure to post pictures when the time comes.

Just got the pseudo-official word. The Water Damage Indicator on the iPod has been turned half-red, which means there was some water damage, which means no warranty exchange. I argued that since the WDI was only half-red, I should have a 50% chance of getting the warranty. However, any red is enough to deny it. Like I said earlier, I wasn’t expecting much from this option.

Oh well. This is actually more exciting, as it means I can now crack this sucker open with impunity!

Let’s get to work.

My current iPod.

Like many, many millions of others, I own an iPod. Mine is a 4GB iPod Mini, the small precursor to the current and popular iPod Nano. I got it August 2005, and it still works as well as the day I got it. It’s been really handy to have around. I use it as a portable hard drive to make it easy to tote around files I’m working on or need to access remotely and when internet is not available. I also use it as a portable iTunes Library to take with me to my various jobs (who would be less than thrilled by me placing a crap-ton of MP3’s on my work computer). I’ve got my money out of it for sure, which wasn’t hard as I got it for free. My hetero-lifemate was buying a new iBook and the iPod came with it. He didn’t really feel the need to own one, so he gave it to me (he’s a nice guy like that).

In the time I’ve owned my Mini, another friend of mine has gone through three different iPods and is now on an iPhone (We’ll call him Mr. Moneybags). I worked out a small trade for his three iPods in different states of disrepair. There’s a 20gb 4G iPod, a 30gb 5G iPod and an 8gb iPod Touch. Moneybags only had his iPod Touch for about a month before he accidentally dropped it into a puddle. Now it refuses to turn on. Since he is a Cingular AT&T customer, he decided to upgrade to an iPhone, which he is absolutely happy with. (As long as he keeps away from those dreaded rain puddles)

I’m going to try to get the iPod Touch back in some sort of working condition. I have a three-phased approach to this:

1) See if Apple will fix it. — It’s possible, I’ve heard of crazier things. Not the likeliest of scenarios, but a good step one.

2) See if I can somehow repair it myself. — If Apple won’t fix it, then the remaining 10 months of warranty are pretty much worthless anyway. I’ll crack that sucker open and tinker till my little heart is content.

3) Destroy it in the most spectacular fashion possible. — If it’s not going to work, it’s not going to work. It then becomes a very expensive paperweight. I’m thinking if it doesn’t melt in some sort of spectacular fireball, I’m not doing my job right.

Tomorrow I’ll be trekking to the local apple center to get their opinion on it. I’ll keep you posted on the details.

A naked iPod Touch.

I just got the link to a website most interesting. http://www.removemybox.com/ features the image of an attractive, nude woman, from the waist up and the lips down. “So what?!” you may say, “The internet is full of naked women!” The difference here is the gotcha; there is a censor box over her chest and people can then pay a dollar a pixel to have the box removed. There are 100,000 pixels altogether, so essentially she is asking for $100,000 to take her top off. I know that sounds crazy and absurd; but, frankly, I think it is a brilliant idea. I remember when the Million Dollar website came around. I thought to myself “Honestly, who would pay for that?”. Then when people did pay for that, I thought “God, I’m an idiot, why didn’t I think of that?” The extra-brilliant thing is, if this site goes viral it could segue into other money making opportunities (Messrs. Hefner and Flynt do love getting pictures of in vogue people). Time will tell.

Cuh-reepy.

Scarecrows. I love scarecrows. I never really realized this until recently. There is something innately creepy and unsettling about Scarecrows, and frankly I love that. Now, sure, when most people think Scarecrow, they think of that overly-limber twit who accompanied Dorothy on her quest to kill a spellcaster in order to get away with theft and murder; however I think of Jonathan Crane over there in the sidebar. Creepy? Check. Unsettling? Check. Cool as hell? Double-check.

A while back, Mark Gottlieb (of Magic rules manager fame) announced that they were issuing errata to a bunch of Magic Cards to bring their creature types more in line with modern standards. Among particular interest during this mammoth-sized update, was that two (fairly obscure) creatures were getting the creature type Scarecrow. This sparked a raging torrent of speculation and interest in the idea of more creatures getting this type in the future. Of course, by raging torrent of speculation and interest, I mean an internet forum post or two. But raging torrent or no, the next Magic set, Shadowmoor, will contain a tribe of - wait for it - Scarecrows. I, much like the crayon, am tickled pink.

Shadowmoor’s scarecrows will also be much more of a Jonathan Crane scarecrow than a Wizard of Oz type scarecrow; very creepy and a little more than slightly unsettling. In fact the whole block is supposed to be that way, a deliberate flip-side to the storybook wonderment of the previous block. I’m fairly excited by the whole thing. They really seem to be pulling out all the stops on making this particular set a winner. For instance, they’re focusing a lot of the design-space around the Hybrid concept introduced in Ravnica. Hybrid is one of the better innovations to come out of Magic Design over the last five years. It’s very grokable, opens up a lot of design space, and is just plain fun to play with. They really seem to be getting a lot of mileage out of it this set, and I know for certain that they’ve just hit the tip of the iceberg for hybrid-related developments. Another really cool theme is the -1/-1 counters. They show up all over the set, some creatures trade them in for effects, some use them to decide whether or not to come back from the dead, and some deal damage as the counters instead of actual damage. They have a real ‘neat’ factor to them.

Shadowmoor is released May 3rd wherever Magic is sold. For those interested in getting your grubby mitts on product early, there will be prerelease events this weekend. Unfortunately for us in Champaign, there will be a bit of driving involved. We have the option of Indianapolis, Chicago, or St. Louis. I heartily recommend Indy. Not only is it the closest event, but it also has the coolest staff (read: me).

I don’t know if any of you were watching SNL this weekend. I was sort of half-watching while I was running a DnD Session, but I did manage to catch one of the funniest sketches I have ever seen on the show. These are likely to go down in the hall of fame, forever.

A note to NBC: The fact that I had to pull two of these off of YouTube proves that you still don’t “get it”.

EDIT: NBC eventually added parts 1 & 3 to the Part 2 I had posted originally. As a result, I removed the YouTube versions (which were liable to be taken down soon anyway). That said, NBC you’re still on Notice.

You’ll have to forgive the lack of updates this week, the arrival of spring has knocked my sinuses on their collective asses.

I do have some energy, though, to highlight this weeks Game of the Week. The honor this week goes to the venerable roleplaying game, the king of dice, the sultan of stats. I, of course, am referring to Kobolds Ate My Babies, the original Beer and Pretzel game.

In KAMB, you play the role of a Kobold. You’re job is to roam into the countryside and bring back fresh human babies for King Torg’s (All Hail King Torg!) feast. Failure means certain death, though in this game, death is fairly certain regardless. The game itself is fairly easy. You have four stats: Brawn, Ego, Extraneous, and Reflexes (B.E.E.R., get it?). Creating your character is done mostly at random; which is fine, as your characters die often enough that you don’t want to invest too much time into building them. One person is selected to play the mayor (KAMB’s version of a DM). Unlike most roleplaying games, there is a clear winner to KAMB. Nine times out of ten, it’s the Mayor. (Yes, the DM can, and usually does, win)

The fun of the game comes from getting together with some friends, and just being silly for silliness sake. There are a wide assortment of house rules, and just about anything you do gives you the chance to die on one of the many “horrible death charts”. Unlike in other systems, your character’s death isn’t the end of the campaign or even the session. You stand on your chair, give a brief soliloquy of your characters accomplishments and hop right back in. Sessions are usually accompanied by raucous laughter and amusing anecdotes. You know, the sounds of fun. You remember playing RPG’s to have fun, right?

Kobolds Ate My Babies is currently available in a hardcover edition for the cheap price of $15. There is also an older paperback version available secondhand, for around $5. At prices like this, you have no excuse to not get your Kobold on.

Sound reproduction, whilst a relatively new concept, has quickly evolved over the last 151 years. Let’s throw it down with a quick and dirty bulleted list:

• 1857: Phonautograph invented, recorded sound to paper. Pro: Paper is cheap. Con: The first Phonautograph player was developed in 2008. Ouch.
• 1877: Thomas Edison invents the Phonographic Cylinder. Pro: High Fidelity (for the Time) Con: Was made of wax and could break easily.
• 1889: Emile Berliner develops Phonographic Disk, aka Vinyl. Pro: Easier to transport, and more durable than cylinders. Con: Try playing a scratched one.
• 1935: Germans develop Reel to Reel Magnetic Tape. Pro: Can be arbitrarily long, similar quality to live broadcast. Con: Tape can wear out and break, need big machine.
• 1963: Compact Cassette tape developed. Pro: Portable, rewindable, two-sided. Con: Poor quality of sound, tape wears down easily.
• 1965: Stereo 8 (8-Track) developed by Lear (yes the Jet Company) Pro: ? Con: Pretty much everything.
• 1982: Compact Disc (CD) developed. Pro: Digital Sound, Small Size, Can double as drink coaster. Con: Vulnerable to scratching, does not play well with analog.
• 1991: MiniDisc, developed by Sony. Pro: Introduced concept of skip protection. Con: Proprietary format is heavily DRM’ed.
• 1994: MP3 introduced by Fraunhofer. Pro: Digital file has no DRM, can be played on a plethora of devices, small storage footprint. Con: Can be lossy.

It still amazes me that 119 years later, we’re still making new Vinyl LP’s. In fact, with the exception of Paper, Cylinder, and 8-Track, we’re still producing all of these.
But if you look at the list, from item-to-item, they are all fairly different ways of recording and playing back sound. But where do we go from here? I’m sure some format will supplant MP3, be it AAC or FLAC or some other such malarkey. However, it will still be the same basic concept. Create sound file on computer, playback on computer or iPod, lather, rinse, and repeat. Improved storage space and fidelity, sure. Something revolutionary? Not really. It’s been 14 years since MP3’s were introduced. If you look at the chart above, you’ll see that big innovations happen on average about twenty years apart. So we should be do for the next big thing by 2015. A whole new process for a whole new generation.

My prediction? Something that will playback music stored in your brain. It’s something they’re getting close to achieving now. I’ve seen a video game controller that goes on your head and uses your thoughts to control the action. I’ve seen someone make a cell phone call while never opening their mouth. Sony has a patent on something that can beam smells into your brain. This stuff is coming at us, and fast.

Just think about the possibilities. You wouldn’t have to spring for that band’s new live album, cause you were at the show, and the music is now in your brain. That song that is stuck in your head? Share it with the co-workers, through mind2mind song sharing. A term that will be ever-prevalent in the upcoming mind-age. This isn’t to say it will all be in your head, either. Some sort of receiver will be able to play it back to you. You’ll be able to transfer it to your computer (which will be painted on a wall somewhere in your house) to send it to other people’s minds. Sadly, though, we still won’t have flying cars (*shakes fist futilely in the air*).

Well, what do you think? Do you agree, disagree, think I’m a nutjob? Let me know.

The best show on television returns tomorrow with the season premiere that we’ve waited over a year for; and I, for one, am ecstatic. Today I go over the many ways you can catch the new Season, even if you don’t receive the Sci-Fi channel. I also go over what happened last Season, and what I think could happen happen in this the Final Season. This page will be Spoiler-Free, but the next page includes speculation about Season 4 and spoiling information from Season 3.

5 Ways to Catch the New Battlestar Galactica

Watch the Sneak Preview online

Sci-Fi will be airing the Episode in it’s entirety at 11am tomorrow (or today, if it happens to now be Friday the 4th) on their website. Take an early lunch and you could be lording your sudden knowledge over your classmates or co-workers in no time. There is a downside to this, since it is a live stream it could be possible for your network to hiccup, causing you to miss a vital part of the episode and leaving you without the ability to rewind.
http://www.scifi.com

On the T.V.(a.k.a The Old-Fashioned Way)

For those of us in Champaign who are lucky enough to have the Sci-Fi channel (those with Satellites, Digital Cable, or Premium Cable), we can catch Battlestar Galactica the old-fashioned way: on TV. Battlestar Galactica will be airing “He That Believeth in Me” (the season premier) four times over the course of the next week. You can catch it:

• Friday, April 4th at 9pm (The official premier)
• Friday, April 4th at 11pm
• Sunday, April 6th at 10pm
• Next Friday, April 11th at 8pm (2 hours before Episode 2 airs)

On the Internet

There are now two sites where you can catch the latest and greatest Battlestar Galactica Episodes. The first one is, naturally, http://www.scifi.com. They should have the new episode posted shortly after it airs on TV. While you may not get the same resolution that you would get over the TV this is a fairly good way of watching the new episode. You can rewind, if wanted, and if it stutters it will simply rebuffer instead of skipping ahead (as opposed to the aforementioned live stream). There are also shorter commercial interruptions than regular TV; in the last online episode I watched, there was 4 minutes of commercials, as opposed to 16 minutes that a normal broadcast has.

The second site is a newcomer to the scene. http://www.hulu.com/ is a sort of coalition of various TV networks streaming their video online. You can catch the new Battlestar here after it airs, in addition to Family Guy, Simpsons, and others. It’s good to see TV Networks finally realizing the demand for these services, though my one complaint with this, is that they only have the five most recent episodes of Battlestar Galactica. I personally think they should post the entire back catalog.

On DVD (probably in 2009)

You can also catch the new Battlestar on DVD or Blu-Ray when it comes out (probably) sometime in 2009. Granted this is probably the slowest and most frustrating option, but on the bright side it means there will be no commercial interruptions, can be watched at your convenience, and will be in high quality. I do know a few people that do this, though I marvel at how they manage to avoid spoilers in that period of time. For an even cheaper option, you can always rent the DVD’s as opposed to buying them.

Illegally

Let me start by saying that neither the217 nor it’s producers condone any sort of piracy. That said, I know a lot of you out there will be watching Battlestar this way. To be honest, this is how I got started with the show,and now I’m an addict who watches it on TV and buys the DVD’s. So I can see good coming out of this (even if the TV execs and Comcast can’t). It has similar advantages to DVD in regards to commercial interruptions and quality. But it doesn’t help their ratings or webview counts (which let’s us enjoy more Galactica goodness).

With all these ways to watch it, there is no excuse for missing this show. If you’ve never seen the show, I recommend renting the mini-series and giving it a shot, it may surprise you. Chances are you’ll be rapidly devouring the series until you get caught up. Then your biggest problem is dealing with the shakes while you wait until your next fix.

Next Page: A look back at Season 3 and at what Season 4 might contain.