It's an oldie, but a goodie.  The Xbox Live Vision Camera, Vision Cam for short, came out sometime ago and was set to change the way people interacted message wise with each other on the Xbox 360.  Instead of just leaving typed messages you could now send pictures and perhaps most importantly  video chat.  I had maybe used the video chat client once before but I don't even remember doing it.  Fast forward to the present and now I have a reason why. 

I have an older sister and brother in law, a couple nieces and now a cousin living in Kentucky and I hardly get to see them except holidays.  My cousin Mike moved this summer from his hometown in Wisconsin to live with my sister and his dad for the summer and senior year of high school and he brought his Xbox 360 with him.  I was in voice chat with him last night and the topic of the Vision Cam. came up.  Mike had mentioned he had one as did I so an hour later we were to have our first family video chat over Live.  It was an absolute blast to see my family in Kentucky.  It felt as if they were just a few blocks away instead of a few states.  I got to see how much my nieces have grown and they got to see my other niece and nephew and my parents.  So after about an hour of talking and the nieces showing each other their toys, we called it a night.  I have to admit I got a little choked up and emotionally overwhelmed on how cool and how easy it was to video chat and see my family again.  So now instead of calling each other every so often over the phone, we're planning on having regular video chats.  It's also my understanding that the Playstation 3 has a pretty sweet vision cam as well.  I urge you PS3 owners, if it hasn't been done already, urge Sony to make video chat possible.  It's a service that's been available for some time but is made so much easier through your console onto your television. 

**You can find the Xbox Live Vision Camera at any local electronic store or Target store for around $39.99

After months of reorganization and cutting over 200 ft. and Velcro tying everything, I'm finished. 

This little project started a couple months ago when I bought a new stand to put my DVR and Receiver and Xbox 360 on.  I had all my components lined up on the new stand with my receiver left to go.  As I ran the plug from the receiver through the stand and to the wall something hit me like a ton of bricks.  I just realized the existing speaker wire was too short to reach my receiver.  So with a freshly smacked forehead from my own hand, I ran to Wal-Mart and grabbed 200 ft. of 14 gauge speaker wire for $25 per 100 ft. and ran back home to begin what would be the longest re-wire project I had ever done.

I started by stripping the ends of the wire and plugging them into the receiver in their appropriate slots.  I did the center channel first and then the left and right front speakers because they had the shortest cables and didn't require a lot of hiding.  Next was the left rear channel and subwoofer.  Those two cables were the longest and each ran around 30 or so feet around my baseboard.  And then it was time for the dreaded right rear channel speaker.  I call it dreaded because I have to make to under the carpet passes in my closet and the entry way to my room.  The first time I wired the right rear channel I had to cut the carpet and use a wire coat hanger and a swift hand to pull the wire through.  This time I just tied the new wire to the old wire and yanked it through.  Then with carpet repair tape (stick the tape under the ripped carpet and heat with an iron to piece back together) I fixed what would have been a nasty looking and unprofessional carpet cut.  And after about 4 hours of work i was done and my theater turned on without a hitch. 

I could have called it quits right there because from dead on the home theater project looked complete.  But if you were to look at it from the side, you would see the tangled mess of speaker wire and video and audio cable or what I like to call the wire medusa.  But fear not, there is a simple yet effective fix: Velcro ties.  Velcro ties, unlike zip ties, are reusable.  If you have to take one of your components on the go, you don't have to cut them but only have to un-Velcro them.  Now what used to look like the head of medusa looks like...well it looks cleaner. 

So the total time it took to re-wire my theater set-up, put together the new stand, and reconfigure the receiver ended up taking about 8-10 hours.  What I've learned from this is that it might be a smart idea to invest in some quality wire strippers and ditch the little $10 ones I currently own.  Another good tip for those looking to tackle a wiring project is to keep yourself organized.  Go out and get yourself a tool box just for home heater stuff and get at least one extra cable for all your components.  You never know when you might need to replace one.  And check your retail stores like Target and Wal-Mart for good deals on speaker wire and audio and video cables-you don't have to buy Monster Cables because they claim to be made from the best gold in the world.  Cables made by Monster are damn good and well made, don't get me wrong, but they are also damn expensive. 

*If you have any questions about the re-wire project just shoot me an email.

As some of you might have noticed, the format at nc454 Land is changing a bit.  I'm going back to a few hobbies and things I love to do and leaving things like in depth movie reviews to the pros...that is until Dark Knight comes out.  But I did want to give an update.

Recently I've been working on a massive re-wire project with my home theater system which stemmed from me getting a new stand to put my receiver and DVR on etc... and in turn caused me to re-cut over 100ft of 14 gauge speaker wire-an upgrade form the previous 18-24 gauge wire.  And let me tell you it's not easy.  14 gauge wire is thick and hard to cut when using standard wire splitters.  I highly recommend shopping around high end theater stores for better tools.  The re-wire was worth the time and blood and sweat.  The sound going through my speakers is a tiny bit more crisp and doesn't drop out like it used to.  Now that that's done, including wiring under the carpet and under the base boards, the last step is organizing the cables.  Right now the cables are in a complete mess but have no fear.  I, like many theater buffs, have invested a few bucks in some Velcro ties.  Why Velcro?  Because they are re-usable!  I used to used plastic one use ties and they're great if you don't think you'll ever unplug any of you cables, but if you're like me and you move stuff around every so often, you want to go with Velcro.  The only draw back is finding them is one color.  If you go to your local big box store, you'll find that Velcro ties usually come in several colors in one package.  And once everything is cabled up, all that's left is to put all those wires into a tube or sheath and the massive re-wire will be done.

Look for pics of the new organized system this weekend!

Track List

1. Indestructible
2. Inside the Fire
3. Deceiver
4. The Night
5. Perfect Insanity
6. Haunted
7. Enough
8. The Curse
9. Torn
10. Criminal
11. Divide
12. Facade

A lot of you out there use Firefox as your main browser as do I.  And most of us know that you can find an add-on for just about any kind of application you can think of.  But have you ever been to a site like Flickr and wanted a quick way to browse all of your contacts' photos?  Then you  have to download the add-on Piclens. 

Piclens has been out for quite some time and now runs on Firefox 3 RC2 and presumably Firefox 3 when it's officially released in mid-June.  What this add-on does is pretty simple: as soon as you install it to your Firefox browser, a little icon will appear in the upper right hand corner.  If you go to any site and that icon lights up blue, you want to click it.  You'll be instantly taken to a 3-D wall of picture that will allow you to zoom in and out of and quickly flick through.  If you find a picture you like, you can double click it and Piclens will frame the picture so you can see every detail.  It's a really simple yet useful way to sort through pictures at a quicker pace on the net so if you are running Firefox and even IE7, then give it a try.

Congrats Breego!  For winning the first ever Zune song giveaway on nc454 Land.  Thanks for everyone who tried but fear not.  There will be more chances to win very soon.

The past couple of weeks have all been about catching up on gaming.  With being busy at work lately, it's been a little difficult to really sit down and get into a full game.  In fact I still have GTA IV in the wrapper.  With that said, I've downloaded as many demos as I could from the Xbox Marketplace and on the PC.

For the PC I downloaded Lego Indiana Jones and Devil May Cry 4.  Now Lego Indy was pretty predictable.  It's a comedic version of the Indy trilogy wrapped up into a Lego style button mashing game.  You pretty much break everything in sight and collect coins and solve puzzles.  If you've played any of the Lego series'. then you've pretty much played Lego Indy, just without the same skin.  Devil May Cry 4 was kind of interesting being that it came out on Xbox 360 and PS3 a while back and is just now getting to PC.  However I wanted to see what it was like and for the short time the demo lasts, it was pretty fun the second time around.  I highly recommend playing Devil May Cry with a game pad because using the keyboard felt like I was typing a term paper in high school but forgetting where the keys were.  Jumping was a bit difficult to time but I got used to it eventually.  Visually the game looks as stunning as ever.  I was able to play the game on all high setting (super high being the highest) and at a 1440x900 resolution which turned out an average right around 50 to 60 fps-not bad for a Gateway laptop.  Although I was happy with the demo, I still wasn't impressed enough to buy the game.  Something in the back of my mind kept saying no the the repetitious gameplay.

For the Xbox 360 i downloaded GRID and Battlefield: Bad Company.  GRID is a gorgeous looking racing game with a ton of well known cars and environments.  The only thing I got to play in the demo was a single player race in a Mustang GT-R.  It wouldn't be my first car of choice but never the less it was fun.  Much like Forza 2, a game that I was heavily involved in, the tracks get some getting used to as do the cars.  The first lap I crashed so many times that I would just reset and start over until I figured out all the turns and only then was I able to finish a race with a respectable time and little to no damage to my car.  After all of that i would still put GRID on my must buy before I go broke list.  And then I played Battlefield: Bad Company...insert heavy sigh.  I want to like this game really bad but right now it's just not for me.  It's another shooter where you have a team that follows you around and everything blows up around you and the objective is to get from point A to point B before you die.  In the demo you are thrown into a situation where you must destroy a couple of radar jammers.  The catch is you have to figure out how to destroy them because the game never really tells you.  And if you don't pick up the right gun with the right grenade launcher, you'll be running around forever trying to figure this out.  I did like how everything-wait-most things were destructible.  If there was a fence in your way, you could just blow it up and go on your merry way.  However, this hurt the game for me.  In an intense firefight, stuff was blowing up so much that I couldn't see where the heck I was going and that forced me to rely heavily on the radar.  Hopefully later missions in the retail version will tempt me to play a little more.

It's kind of a new semi-frequent thing I want to start.  Frankly, it's getting a bit difficult coming up with a new thing of the week because of my job at this moment, so I'm going to take it light this week.

Basically it's simple: first one to enter the code or answer a question right wins a prize.  Right now it's for US only due to shipping costs but I'm working on that.  Now for the good stuff.  Do you have a Zune or like the Zune software as your music player of choice?  Or maybe you haven't tried Zune at all.  Well here's your chance: Enter this code: T9743-B8HRH-TGXRD-D42TF-6PPMM to get a free song with the Zune software.  You gotta be quick because if you enter the code and nothing happens, someone already beat you to it, so get crackin'!

Is surfing the web just surfing the web?  Or can you really get a different experience than just using Internet Explorer.  The answer is yes and no.

I've used several browsers from Internet Explorer to Prodigy to Opera and they are or were great and I still use them (besides Prodigy).  But my main browser of choice, for now has got to be Firefox.  Currently in release candidate 2, Firefox is really stepping it up for the user by making things easier.  Sure I could type a laundry list of new features soon to debut in the final version but that would take too long.  What stands out to me is how smooth Firefox is right now.  It runs wonderfully with only a few hitches here and there but it's still in RC form.  Like IE7 and IE8 beta and Opera...okay like every other browser, Firefox has the standard tabbed browsing and websites function the same as they do on the other browsers.  What makes Firefox different is the community.  There is a huge following at Mozilla.com by a bunch of very smart and gifted people who come up with some of he coolest, strangest, and most of the time useful add-ons to make your browsing-the-Internet very easy going.

Right now head over to Mozilla.com and sign up to take part of an attempt to set a record for most downloads at one time.  When you sign up you'll eventually be sent an email on when the official release date will be and from there you can see an updated interactive map of the world that shows how far along the community is on setting the world record.

By now most of you know about World of Warcraft but for those who don't it's the number one MMORPG game.  And for the most part things have been going swimmingly.  The guild that I'm in, the Unwanted Ones, have been such a big help on guiding me through quests and giving me an extra boost when I need it.  But along the way I've run into some interesting people-most friendly, but some not so friendly.

The Good:  Most of the time when I play WoW, I'm playing solo and I'm at a level where I can manage through most of the quests i take on.  But there are times when it pays to have a little help on your side.  I can't remember exactly where I was but I was fighting several winged creatures, possibly Harpies, and getting my ass handed to me.  Then along came another player who was obviously more experienced then myself and wiped out everything around me in what seemed to be a single blow.  I thanked him and he powered me up a bit with a few spells and went along his way.  When I got back to town, I had just finished rebuilding my armor when someone literally jumped in front of my character and offered to enchant a couple pieces of my armor.  In turn I gained a little stamina and strength making my armor that much more better.  I don't know if they were doing it to build up their stats or whether it was out of their goodness of their heart, but I accepted and thanked them.  That person replied "anytime, just send me a message if you need anything".  It really put a smile on my face.

The Bad:  In the many hour I've been playing World of Warcraft, I really haven't run into anything bad or anyone who is a real jerk.  Most people seem to be really helpful and even if they can't help at that moment they tend to offer help at a later time.  With that said, I ran into my first jerk. 

I was wanting to get a quest done that was obviously a little high for me to survive it on my own.  Then along came someone of a very high level who offered to help me out and blast away enemies so I could get what I needed.  So we both began a long walk because I didn't have a mount.  We killed a couple level 40 Mountain Lions and were almost to the point where I needed to get.  And here's where I think I realized i was being taken for a fool.  As I began to enter a larger field full of level 40+ enemies, I noticed my so called party member lagging behind.  I asked him if he was coming and he replied "oh sure, just hit the enemies first and I'll take care of the rest".  Not really thinking straight, I plunged into two enemies at once and began trying to fight them while missing horribly.  As i looked behind me for help the only thing I saw was my party member walking away.  Realizing I was obviously over matched I typed "Where the heck are going?"  The only thing he replied back was 'ha-ha".  There I was.  A Fool.  I was dead and had to walk a long way to get revived and on top of that, it took me a long while to get back to safety without getting killed by everything in sight.  I finally found a safe place to use my hearthstone and when I got back to town I was able to repair all of my armor and weapons for just under 40 silver.  I learned my lesson.

The Warcraft:  What makes this game so addicting?  Is the word addicting a little too strong?  For me it's the customization and constant evolution of my character.  A couple days ago a friend of mine walked by my screen and asked "is that your same character?"  "Of course" i replied with a smile of pride from my 80's style shoulder pads of armor.  So to really see how it had evolved, i took off every piece of armor and weaponry i had on him and was left with my beginning bare looking Undead Warrior and then slowly put everything back on.  I felt good at what little I had accomplished and felt excited to know that I've just hit the tip of the iceberg.  But just as equally as good as character customization is, I love the people interaction as well.  As I mentioned before, the good out weighs the bad so far and enduring long fetch quests with friends has been some of the most memorable times I've had playing video games.  Now as my quest for level 40 and a mount gets closer to closing, I'm getting even more excited because I won't have to walk as much-more on that in the future-in the mean time I'll keep clicking away...

This past week was definitely Zune focused but I'm glad it was.  I might seemed bias toward the Zune but in actuality I've owned almost every single iPod up to the touch version.  And my problem wasn't necessarily with the hardware but was actually with the software.  I just don't like iTunes and it was never that user friendly to me.  To me the Zune software ver 2.5 feels right for me.  It's very stylish and customizable and not so sterile feeling like iTunes.  But then again, I'm a very visual person.  With all that said, I thought it was really cool that the Zune is starting to really see a large community following and we'll soon see some cool casual games coming out as the community gets their hand on the XNA Game studio 3.0.

Game of the Week: Games for Zune?

Website of the Week: Kotaku

Music of the Week: Juno Soundtrack

Movie of the Week: Disappointment

Gadget of the Week: 80GB Red Zune

Keeping in line with this weeks Game of the Week is he 80gb Zune.  I've had an original Zune since almost day one and couldn't be more happy.  When the new Zune came out I was able to update the 30gb model so that it acted much like the new one.  But then I hit a wall.  My music collection was growing and I ran out of space.  I was tired of picking and choosing what music I could carry with me and what music I had to leave behind.  So I decided to drop the $249 on a brand new red 80gb Zune.

You might be wondering why red.  Well I chose the red model because I was tired of having all of my electronics being the same boring color.  I also chose the red Zune because they were out of black.  But anyway, I'm happy with my choice.  It plays a variety of music file types from MP3 to Lossless much like the 30gb version but one thing I noticed is that you no longer have the option of an equalizer.  You used to be able to select pre set audio equalizers like Rock, Classic, and Pop but that option has mysteriously disappeared.  It's not such a big deal because audiophiles know that your original source material should stay unchanged but played on awesome equipment instead.  But most of us have just a set of ear phones or our computer speakers.  But if you purchase an 80gb Zune, you also get a set of Zune premium headphones.  Now I'm not a fan of in ear headphones for the simple fact that I don't like jamming anything into my ears but these headphones felt pretty good.  They do a good job of isolating noise and have now become my lawn mowing headphone of choice even over the Bose Quiet Comfort line.

Right now if you still have an old Zune, you're fine.  But if you have an expanding library or want to get the Zune pass and download as many songs as you can, I would definitely go out and pick up the 80gb version.

You might be wondering what the heck is Disappointment about?  Well to tell you the truth it's not a movie, it's how I felt after watching Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.  Usually I don't review a movie I don't like but since Indy 4 is such a big time movie, I thought I had to voice my opinion.

I went into the movie with an open mind.  But after the five or six trailers, I was ready for the movie to start.  First of all, I think I got the shaft on the screen I saw the movie on.  The movie looked horrible  and felt a bit washed out.  And the fact that I couldn't understand half of what the actors were saying because the audio was too low didn't help. With all that aside, I don't think a better theater would have made a difference.  The movie was indeed action packed but the story seemed all over the place.  i could follow it but it felt really choppy and unorganized.  I think it was at the 15 minute mark where most of the audience including myself moaned when they figured out the movie had something to do with aliens.  Believe me, it's not a spoiler at all.

There was something else about the movie that made me feel uncomfortable and I narrowed it down to how the movie was shot.  Every shot was either up close or in a cramped spot.  It made the movie feel like every shot was inside a movie set hanger and nothing felt real.  So about half way through the movie, i was ready for it to be over.

I really wanted to like the new Indy.  If I enjoyed anything, it was the banter of Harrison Ford and Karen Allen.  They kind of reminded me of how my parents joke back and forth.  But their good acting just wasn't enough for me-not even enough to post pictures with my review.