Doing Things Differently

Ok, so as many of you know, I was one of the first people to purchase my Zune on June 13th from a Canadian Retailer.  I have most of the accessories (I’m missing the leather case), and I love them all.

Of the things I really love about the Zune, is that I can now stay up to date on all things going on around me just by letting it wirelessly sync every night in its dock.  I’m hoping the new stereo I bought also allows it to sync, but this is only my first night so we’ll see if it goes as planned.

When I wake up in the morning, I have fresh content fed to it in the form of podcasts and the odd CD-Rip (CD’s I own, not borrowed).  Since I have the 80GB Zune, I don’t seem to have any problem with running out of space; also, most of the podcasts are set to be removed after I’ve listened to them, just to clear up some space.

First thing in the morning, I head to the gym, where I can luckily plug in the TV-Out cable and watch a short vidcast such as Diggreel, Command-N, etc.  After I’m done at the gym, it’s time for work.  Luckily, that trip is covered and I can listen to an audiocast or some music via the car tuner (which is nicely magnetized to keep the wires out of my way).

At work, I often just stick in my headphones and listen to a few songs if I have the chance.  At lunch, I try and sneak in another podcast of some sort.  After work is done, I head back home and go chill with friends.  While I’m waiting, I boot up some Marblets or any other game and just play that, which is a nice time-killer.

Then at night, I plug the Zune into my Xbox 360 to watch a couple more videos or just for a change in soundtrack to whatever game I’m playing.  After that’s over, it gets put back into its dock and gets more content pushed to it for another long day.

Seriously, I’ve had a couple of MP3 players before, but none that have received this much abuse. Poor thing never gets to discharge its battery though, since it goes from being on its dock, to being charged by the car kit, to being charged by the 360, to being back on its dock again.

Now, to just break down and buy a second Zune to do some multiplayer XNA programming…

So, I go to install the Spore Creature Creator trial, and I check the System Requirements, and I appear to have everything needed.

I install it without a problem, and go to the Games folder, and see that EA thinks my machine doesn’t meet the requirements.  Whatever, I’ll try and launch it anyway.

It launched, and crashed.  So, I go through and find out that Data Execution Prevention was killing it because of SecuROM.  I hate SecuROM just as much as I hate EA.

So, I disable DEP on the application, reboot the machine, and I get a fair bit farther into the loading screens, but the application still crashes.  I decide to run the Analysis program that is embedded, and it runs and tells me to send the details to securom.  Well, No. I’m not going to provide them with my system details.  Why do I hate SecuROM so much?  It’s made by Sony. You know, the same Sony that made XCP?  You know, that little rootkit installed with your music?  Ya, THAT Sony.

Here is another reason why I hate them:

How do I remove SecuROM from my machine?

To remove all SecuROM related files (except the license data stored beneath the registry keys (see FAQ No. 5 above)) please follow the uninstall instructions below.

Before you start the uninstall process, close all programs which are running in the background, especially be sure that no instance of the Windows Explorer is running.

———————–

Emphasis mine.  How do you expect me to remove it if I’ve closed down Windows Explorer?  Explorer is the main process on Vista/XP, and closing it down means that I’d need to NOT have any File Manager windows open, which means I can’t run the steps.

So, Dear Will, I’m sorry that Maxis was bought out by EA.  I will NOT be buying your game, sorry.

So, recently I decided to go on a huge “Social Media” and Web 2.0 kick and joined a whole bunch of services, and gathered a small army of stalkers followers.

I joined services that published my ‘status’, connected me with my ‘friends’, tracked what “I’m listening to’”, or provide information about “where I am”, and also brought my pictures online and put them into my ‘”mesh”.

I’ve Dugg things, Pownced files, Flickr’d my images, Tweeted my status, prepared for Upcoming events, and found my old friends in a FaceBook.

Needless to say, I’ve done alot on the Social. But the real question is, how do I keep up with it all?  Sure, things like FriendFeed and Plaxo help others get all the information they want about me, but how do I get their responses back?

Luckily, many of these services provide mobile updates to my cell phone, but what about the ones that won’t?  Is there a use for a service that can’t provide mobile updates?

Comment here so I can find it.

  [Originally posted at http://blog.just2bdifferent.com]

So, after going to the Gym the other day, I haven’t updated this, I’ve only been microblogging over on Twitter instead.  Why?  It’s been a hectic week and basically everything that I was doing to try and change into a more healthier lifestyle went out the window.

At work this week, we’ve had network failures, our email server crashed and email was lost, our phone system wasn’t properly sending people to the voice mail system so callers couldn’t leave messages, 3 servers and 4 workstations went belly up and that’s only SOME of what went wrong.

So, needless to say, during this, my nails all got ripped off, I ate meat (chicken wings), drank coke (you have to if your eating chicken wings and your not drinking beer), I did do some exercise, but that was in the form of Tennis and we lost a few balls to the road.

Tonight I plan on relaxing and going to see Don’t Mess With The Zohan and just taking it easy.  It has been a high-stress week and I really just need some time to cool down and get things back on track.

As for the contact lenses, I might not be able to get them if the next session doesn’t go well.  I gave myself a nice black eye at the last session because my eyes aren’t really that big, and I can’t get the contact to stick to my right eye; the left eye was no problem though.

As you might be able to tell, I’ve started to code a bit in my off time as well, and semicolons (;) are sneaking their way back into my typing.  More people really need to start using them in writing before they go extinct.

Hopefully today shapes up to be a nice relaxing day; I’ve already had an XL coffee and I’m waiting for the next manager to bring me another. At least the Brooklyn Spring Fair is this weekend.

Well, wish me luck! I’ve got to get Monday’s work done before I leave today.

Ok, today I started my fitness tracking and I went to the gym for a bit after work.  I didn’t want to stress myself out, so I only did the treadmill for 45 minutes.

The stats:

45 Minutes - 2.1 Miles - 220 lbs - Heart rate is 102 bpm at rest, 125 bpm at 3.5 mph.

I ended up lucky enough to get a working TV AND got to watch MythBusters.  I can’t wait until I get the Zune and can start watching my TV shows instead of stuff I’ve already seen (Mythbusters was a repeat).

On a side note, the optometrist called my parents house to attempt to schedule a fitting for my contact lenses.  Hopefully they fit properly and all goes well since I really want to move on from these old glasses.