Computer dreams and E3 things

Well, I couldn't have been more wrong in my E3 predictions. Nearly everything was incorrect. No Apple, no Zynga (well, Apple had its own event, which I won't cover, and Zynga, who cares). My prediction about Sony was wrong: the device was the Vita, but they didn't announce the price. Super Mario 3DS still didn't get an official name, I didn't see as many Nintendo 3DS games as I expected (Star Fox 64 3D and Luigi's Mansion 2), and I didn't even hear too much of The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D's new features.

I can't tell if Wii U is a show-stealing console or an incredible disappointment. I wasn't impressed. Some staffers at Kotaku even have similar thoughts.

Microsoft did not announce any new Xbox 360 media stuff, but lots of Kinect games (well, I was right about that). But non-gimmicky is the key. From a port of Minecraft (what, you stick your arms out?) to Kinect: Disneyland Adventures, everything is Kinect. And Kinect mostly relies on, that's right, gimmicks.

Rockstar showed off nothing. Max Payne 3 is looking to be the new Duke Nukem Forever. EWJ4 and Doom 4 failed to make appearances. And no Steam on the consoles...of course. After all, Nintendo, Microsoft, and Sony have their own systems, and wouldn't want anyone else infringing on it (even if did bring PC ports to the systems, although people like use of their WASD and mouse. Usually attempts like this fail.)

OK, OK, I haven't been in very often, but here's something new: the HTPC guide. See, I photocopied this in 2006 (I think, but I know it was many months after the Feb/05 publication date) as part of the planning process for "Project Citrus", a mid-range computer infused with a mix of old and new technology. The plan was, of course, horribly flawed, I chose to get the motherboard of the last G4 that could run Mac OS 9 and get the most powerful OrangePC card, and choose to soup it up with neon lights that were popular in PCs at the time. Whatever my decisions were, it was going to be many times more powerful than my ThinkPad I had...a monochrome monitor brick that ran Windows 95 (or less?) and only used AC power. Transferring things to and fro it was complicated (from floppy drive to Performa 550, where it was transferred to Zip disk, then the Zip disk to a computer with Internet and printed). I think I still have the disks and the computer.

Anyway, the scan is from an HTPC how-to guide from Popular Science (which frankly, I still think is kind of cool, but to get "media" onto your computer, such as the one I have now, you have to spend lots of time and money or go torrenting, neither of which I like very much, and besides, it takes up a significant chunk of hard disk space).

But rather than scan the photocopy (I think it was printed with inkjet, even), here's the original. I'd suggest, if you want to print it out, print out in black and white. Unless you have an amazingly cool laser printer that prints color perfectly, but I doubt that. (I had to scan this three times to get it out right...)