Bwana.org » microsoft

BingTweets Mashes Up Twitter Trends And Search Results

Bwana — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 17:37:05 +0000

Microsoft and Federated Media have partnered to create an interesting mashup called BingTweets. This site is in beta and offers a hands free experience on the latest trending topics on the web. After seeing this, I have a bit more respect for the efforts Microsoft is putting behind Bing and can only wonder how and if Google will respond.

BingTweets pulls in trends from Twitter and filters into categories such as “Popular Now,” “People,” “Places” and “Products” enabling easier navigation of the ever changing trends on the Web. You can also fire off a search on any topic of your choosing to see the related search results from Bing and Twitter discussion.

I have the site open in a dedicated tab right now and am happy with the choice of trends, tweets and search results. It has a great animation option which moves between topics on its own and gives you a taste of everything.

I like this.

It’s not perfect, but it gives us a glimpse of how real-time can intertwine with traditional search. I commend Microsoft and Federated Media on a bold approach towards the real-time web.

Are You Selfish With Your Console Recommendations?

Bwana — Thu, 16 Apr 2009 20:36:02 +0000

Often, I get asked by my readers/listeners/viewers which is the “best” console: Sony Playstation 3, Nintendo Wii, or Microsoft’s Xbox 360. I wrote my thoughts about deciding which console is best for you back in December, and I think some people benefited from it. When it comes to gaming, I’ve noticed that it’s extremely difficult to give a non-biased recommendation to someone else. It seems to be proportional to the passion gamers have for their platforms and titles. Take a look at this little tidbit: I made a 17 second video which asks the question, “Which is better, Xbox 360 or PS3?”. I didn’t give an answer, but I gave this:

The result is over 200 comments and 1000 views in less than 24 hours. What does that say? Gamers are passionate about what they love. I find that this passion is driven by their wants and preferences, which I call selfishness. I know some of you are already offended, but I’m sorry to say, everyone is selfish at some point. It’s the truth.

So are gamers selfish when they are quick to say which console is the “best”? Note they don’t usually say is “best for me”, but the “best” period. Here are the classic lines:

Console X has the best games
Console Y has the best online game play
Console Z has the best multimedia experience
Console A gives you more bang for the buck

People will look you straight in the eye, and tell you that these are facts. Yes, they call them facts. Note that if you look at those reasons carefully, they are highly based on opinions and personal preferences. They are hardly factual. How can someone claim they are factual when it’s obviously opinionated? Selfishness. Wow, I can see the steam rising from your heads from here. Watch how Kyle from South Park breaks down how selfishness can warp your reality (Warning: adult language and typical South Park):

Sometimes, I think it can get this extreme for some gamers when it comes to consoles. Their opinions are so valuable that they become factual in their mind and it becomes a passionate, pointless argument. Hear me gamers: Everyone doesn’t think like you. Step outside of your selfish world of perfectness and realize that you are not the center of the universe. It’s OK for someone to love their Xbox 360. It’s OK for someone to love their PS3. It’s OK for someone to love their (Nintendo) Wii.

What Will The Playstation 3 Need To Survive?

Bwana — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 19:31:46 +0000

I have not made it a secret that I absolutely love my Sony Playstation 3 and that I actually use it more than my Xbox 360 and Nintendo Wii. This often confuses people why I seem to be “going against the grain” on this topic because it is the popular opinion to love the 360 or Wii over the PS3.

I believe the machine is the best hardware I have in the house easily, not only because of “Blu-Ray” technology but the whole experience in terms of entertainment. I also love the price of online play (being a PC gamer as well). Sony has been consistently falling short of expectations from the gaming community since they were #1 with their insanely successful Playstation 2. I asked Twitter what Sony needs to do to get their dollar:

SkiCat56: @Bwana There lot's of titles that are PS3 exclusive we would to play but we cannot fit another gaming console into our budget PS2,360 owner

about 5 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 13:50:37 +0000 2009

chokewho: @Bwana Cheaper price and probably some more original games.

about 7 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 11:49:18 +0000 2009

fochsenhirt: @Bwana drop the price under $200 for the hardware and $40 for the games. So basically, nothing. I already have a BD player.

about 7 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 11:34:42 +0000 2009

robraider78: @Bwana PS3 only good for blue ray. Not a good selection of games on PS3. No Halo. No Gears.

about 9 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 09:33:26 +0000 2009

TaoGao: @Bwana they are Amazing! Besides blue-ray compatible, it has great graphics

about 12 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 06:31:39 +0000 2009

powerspec: @Bwana I use mine only for Blu-ray, but i would use it more if it had some good games. I own 3 PS3 games and ~30 360 games.

about 12 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 06:15:35 +0000 2009

johnsensfan: @Bwana xbox360 vanishing of the face of the earth

about 12 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 06:06:37 +0000 2009

SWB: @Bwana They would have to make it better than the Nintendo DS, which we all know is impossible!

about 12 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 06:02:54 +0000 2009

murphysblues: @Bwana I don't have a PS3, and it would take a radical improvement of my hand/eye coordination before I would buy a PS3.

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:53:19 +0000 2009

dannyblaine: @Bwana a healthier economy?

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:49:14 +0000 2009

chrispirillo: @Bwana The PS3 is great for one thing: Blu-ray playback. Beyond that, it's not of much use to me. I don't have that many BDs yet, either.

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:48:23 +0000 2009

Leica1956: @Bwana a $150 or less base model would get me in.

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:47:19 +0000 2009

CannonGod: @Bwana Good games, ergonomic controller, the firing of all marketing staff involved with the PS3.

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:45:43 +0000 2009

mattbebich: @Bwana Halo, Left 4 Dead many others

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:40:25 +0000 2009

johnxkills: @Bwana the price alittle lower

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:32:29 +0000 2009

se7enjewels: @Bwana simple.price! price! price! The should have dropped the PS3 last christmas to $299. I would have been all over that.

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:32:01 +0000 2009

jercat: @Bwana… $249.99

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:31:25 +0000 2009

chrispugh: @Bwana lower price

about 13 hours ago

Mon Feb 09 05:31:18 +0000 2009

Without getting into a console war, I believe the price is often misunderstood when compared to the Xbox 360, since Microsoft has a done an excellent job with marketing. I have spent much less on my PS3 than I have on my Xbox 360, but the point is moot. The users want a price drop, but what then? Is price the only factor? Users also want *more* games, but if I’m not mistaken, a majority of new games are now cross platform. The handful of exclusives that are considered “must-haves” are dwindling in my opinion. (Case in point: Capcom just announced 360, PC and PS3 support for Dead Rising 2) I believe the games are there, but the mindset isn’t. The mantra of “PS3 has no games” will completely overwhelm the facts and user perception is all that will matter when it comes to a purchase.

What can Sony do about this? Well, in my opinion, they have to change the way they’re doing things now. What they’re doing right now is not working. In a tight market, where Nintendo is breaking records left and right (which I can’t understand honestly) Sony really is put in a tight situation since their hardware is truly next-gen, and a price-cut is a huge gamble. I have a suspicion that a majority of users who claim the price is the only issue, will back peddle if there is a price cut. I believe Sony realizes this every time they read user feedback regarding the price (Yes, Sony DOES read user feedback) I honestly don’t know what they can do win over the users, but they better come up with something quickly or the whole division will be a distant memory this time next year.

Agree, disagree? Let me know in the comments. You can also find me on the Playstation Network (PSN) under the handle, Nuvalo. Add me!

How To Install Windows 7 Beta From A USB Drive To An HP Mini 1000 [Without Vista]

Bwana — Sun, 11 Jan 2009 18:38:14 +0000

HP Mini 1000. Check. Windows 7 Beta ISO. Check. 4 GB USB thumb drive. Check. HP Mini 1000. Check. Google. Check. Windows Vista. Uhhh… no.

That was my issue. There are a lot of great tutorials on how to create a bootable USB drive from the Windows 7 Beta ISO which Microsoft recently released. This is primarily a good solution for those of us with netbooks without CD drives. Unfortunately, a majority of these tutorials utilize a program called “diskpart”, which is a command line utility for managing partitions and disks. Coming from a UNIX background, I figured it would be easy to accomplish, but I found out the hard way, that the “diskpart” that comes shipped with Windows XP is not able to perform the necessary tasks. Namely, you won’t be able to see the USB drives in the list of drives, and you can’t set the USB drive to be active. I’ve got a lot more long winded blah blah for you, but I’ll get right to the point. Here’s how you do it if you’re stuck with Windows XP like I am. These instructions are were conducted on and are for an HP Mini 1000, I cannot guarantee this will work everywhere else (but I don’t see why it shouldn’t):

Ensure you have a USB Drive with more than 3GB capacity
Download and Install Daemon Tools Lite (or your favorite Virtual CD emulator)
Download the Windows 7 Beta ISO
Download and Install the HP USB Disk Storage Format Tool
Download and Extract MBRWizard
Insert the USB Drive
Launch the HP USB Storage Format Tool. Select your USB drive for device. Select NTFS for File system. Check Quick Format. Click Start to format the USB drive.
Mount the Windows 7 Beta ISO with Daemon Tools (make note of drive letter it assigns)
Set the USB drive to be the active partition with MBRWizard: Open a command prompt (Start -> Run -> cmd) and navigate to the directory where you extracted MBRWizard. Execute the following command: mbrwiz /list.
You should see your USB Drive in the list. Make note of the disk numbers next to the drives. In the following example, the HP Mini hard drive is drive #0 and the USB Drive is drive #1.
Execute the following command to set the USB drive to active: mbrwiz /disk=1 /active=1 In my example, the /disk=1 corresponds on the drive number of the USB drive. Make sure yours matches. Answer “Y” to the confirmation
Execute another list to ensure the active status has been updated. The USB Drive is now ready to be set to be bootable.
In the same command prompt, execute the following command to set the USB drive to be bootable: e:\boot\bootsect /nt60 D: (E: is the drive letter of the Windows 7 Beta ISO and D: is the drive letter of your USB drive)
Copy the contents of the Windows 7 Beta to your USB Drive
Everything should be ready. Reboot your HP Mini 1000, and on the boot screen hit F9. Select your USB drive from the dropdown list.

If it doesn’t boot, check the following:

The USB Drive is formatted properly.
The USB Drive has all the contents of the Windows 7 Beta ISO (including hidden files)
The USB Drive partition is set to “active” (mbrwiz /list)

Like I said earlier, it’s a much easier process if you already have Windows Vista, but I found there were a few kinks with Windows XP. I’m sure someone out there has found an easier process than this one, so by all means, share with the rest of the class in the comments. The fruits of ye olde labour:

Which Gaming Console Should You Buy This Holiday?

Bwana — Wed, 26 Nov 2008 04:53:23 +0000

So it’s that time of year again.

What time is that Bwana?

Well, it’s the time where you need to decide on which console to buy for your loved one. You’ve picked a perfect time to buy since all the consoles, Nintendo Wii, Xbox 360, and Playstation 3 are over two years old and have matured as platforms. Each console has a variety of games to choose from as well as social entertainment features that will knock your socks off. If only Pong! were alive to see this. Microsoft, Nintendo, and Sony are fighting tooth and nail to get your business, so let’s get right down to it.

The Culprits

There are three main players in this space and I’ll give a brief description of each:

The Xbox 360 (360) – First out of the gate, Microsoft’s follow-up to the Xbox console was released with the promise of a more robust online offering and media center capabilities. This console supports high definition televisions as well as standard definition, has wired or wireless controllers, and can connect to the internet via wired ethernet connection or wireless internet.
The Nintendo Wii (Wii) – Formerly known as the Nintendo Revolution, Nintendo’s follow-up with the Gamecube assured gamers that it would redefine console gaming. The Nintendo Wii is the most unique as it offers motion sensing controls to an already stellar lineup of first-party titles such as Mario, Zelda, and others. It connects to the internet via Wi-Fi and offers a variety of other features that take advantage.
The Playstation 3 (PS3) – The king of consoles returns with a sequel to its record breaking Playstation 2 console and offers a high-end spin on consoles. The PS3 promises the glory of high definition optical support in the form of Blu-Ray, and a rich multimedia experience that Sony has been known for. Sony also promised to concentrate more on the online gaming and made a big deal out of their consoles brute strength and offerings.

The Questions

When considering these fabulous consoles, you should be asking yourself questions. If you haven’t started asking questions, I’ll get you started:

Do I care about online gaming?
Do I care about high definition gaming?
Do I care about high definition movies?
Do I play with friends and family often in person?
Do I want to leverage this console as a music player, video player, and photo viewer?
Do I have wireless internet?
Do I want to buy or rent movies from my game console?
Do I know what bluetooth is and do I own any bluetooth hardware?
What am I willing to spend after I buy the console?
Do I want to play my old Xbox/PS2/Nintendo Gamecube games on this new console?
What types of games do I like the most? Platformers? Role Playing Games? First person Shooters? Real time strategy? Music Rhythm Games?

These are just some of the questions that I have posed to people when asked which console to buy. As an owner of all three consoles, I can never recommend anything without first getting the needs and wants of the purchaser. So, now that you’ve asked yourself these questions, let’s dig a bit further.

The Profiles

When answering questions about which console you’ll buy, there are four main profiles that you’ll likely fit into (and I do stress likely)

The casual gamer
The gadget freak who sometimes plays games
The semi-casual online gamer
The hardcore gamer

The casual gamer tends to play games less than 5 hours a week, and often has to be invited in order to become motivated. These gamers play when friends and family come over, during parties, events, but do not generally play as a pass time. The casual gamer usually finds out about multimedia features of their console by visiting a friend who uses theirs.

The gadget freak who sometimes plays games tends to play games for maybe 10 hours a month depending on the situation. He or she will buy every new game that comes out, but won’t play it for more than 2 hours after buying it. The game collects dust and the gamer will claim to own it, but never play it. The gadget freak will utilize all of the features of the console except the gaming part.

The semi-casual semi-online gamer may average between 10-15 hours week depending on outside circumstances. If a new game comes out, this gamer may buy it to try it out, and play for it many hours, but eventually taper off into semi-casual mode again. This gamer is generally aware of the multimedia features of consoles and most times will take advantage of one or two.

The hardcore gamer can kill 40 hours a week playing 3 to 4 games online and offline. This machine of a man or woman will forego the love of family and friends to reach that new level, climb that impossible mountain, finish that new game on Super-duper-incredibly-impossibly-hard difficulty. The only music they care about is the music they can play while playing their favorite game. Movies, pictures, and the like are generally secondary.

So which are you? Remember, I did say likely. It’s my guess that you’re probably a combination of the profiles, (I know I am) so let’s dig a bit deeper.

The Method

The next step is to combine the needs, wants, the estimated profile of the purchaser to build a priority list. Let’s take an example to help you out.

Johnny Doodad plays games online only on weekends but usually plays 1-2 hours, Monday through Friday. Johnny has homework and his parents are strict on his gaming hours during the week. If Johnny does well, he gets to go all out on the weekend. Johnny loves first person shooters and platformers but never finishes them. Johnny already owns a Gamecube and an Xbox.

Based on my college education, I would rate Johnny a cross between a semi-casual online gamer and hardcore gamer. If given the chance, Johnny could easily rack up hours playing games, but has to adhere to the parental units. Given his lack of time towards the games, Johnny loses interest and shifts focus to another game before finishing the previous. Now, Johnny likes first person shooters and platformers, but he’s not necessarily loyal (an assumption). So let’s analyze:

Gamer Type: Semi-casual online
Genre Preferences: FPS, Platformer
Owned Systems: Nintendo Gamecube, Xbox
Gaming Preference: Plays on weekends, mostly online, but little during the week.

So which does Johnny care about the most? Let’s try to rank them:

Gaming Preference
Genre Preferences
Owned System
Gamer type

These are guesses, but they could provide an accurate view of where to concentrate your focus. Given that Johnny plays online, likes FPS and Platformers, and owns an Xbox, I would recommend an Xbox 360 in this case. It gives him his top 3 priorities right off the bat. Now, even if Gamer type were misplaced, and would be #2 on his priority list, an Xbox 360 would probably fit him best.

See the method? It’s all fuzzy and really depends on a lot of factors. This is the only way I can explain which console to buy this holiday. You have to ask yourself these questions and more to gauge which features are more important to you than others. Here’s a general guideline to go by:

Xbox 360
Pros: Platform has matured, Cheap initial price ($199 base), High definition gaming, High definition movie support (downloadable), Great game library, Online gameplay, Online marketplace, Great online community features, Great multimedia features (movie rentals, tv shows, music, photos, etc)
Cons: Costs $50 a year to play online, Pricey accessories, Prone to break (get a warranty!), No web browser

Nintendo Wii
Pros: Platform has matured, Cheap ($250), Excellent first-party titles (Mario, Zelda, etc), Unique controls, Lots of fun with family and friends, Online marketplace, web browser (costs extra)
Cons: Hard to find (too popular), Lots of accessories (Wheels, Balance board, Controllers, Gun, etc), Game library mediocre (due to poor third-party support) Poor online gaming support, Not so great multimedia support (No DVD Playback)

Playstation 3
Pros: Platform has matured, High definition gaming, High definition optical support (Blu-Ray), Superb multimedia features, Online gameplay is free, Updated often, Online marketplace, Supports existing Bluetooth and USB devices, User upgradeable storage, Built-in web browser, Linux operation system supported (basic features)
Cons: Pricey (starts at $399), Entire game library mediocre, Online community not is vivacious as Xbox Live

Wow!

I just did those off the top of my head. You see why this decision is not straight forward? I didn’t cover everything and it’s already overwhelming the amount of features each offers and also their pros and cons. It’s important to get those questions answered and prioritize them to find out which may be best for you.

The Wildcard

But, what about PC gaming? PC gaming is not dead by any means and offers a wide variety of choices. While price may be a barrier for some people, let me tell you about a deal that Valve has. They are offering their entire gaming library for $99. That’s right, they are offering 22 games for $99. You are not going to find that on a console. Granted, most of these games are first person shooters, it is definitely something to consider. Gaming PCs are coming down in price and if you price one compared to a console with 3 or 4 games, they price difference isn’t all that great. I’m not going to get into a PC gaming vs console gaming war here, but I do want to make you aware of this often overlooked wildcard.

Conclusion

In short, continue to research! I’ve provided a method of soliciting information in various categories and prioritizing them to attempt to find a best fit. There is no one size fits all for this type of decision. So, when asked which gaming console should you buy this holiday, the answer is it all depends on what you want, what you need, and how bad you want and need it.

Happy shopping everyone. It’s hard to go wrong this year.

E3 2008 Roundup: Focus On The Positive!

Bwana — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 00:30:32 +0000

Ah yes, the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3). That conference that all console gamers look forward to. It has a history of providing us with insight into upcoming gaming titles, new features, and new hardware. Over time the conference has lost it’s glitter and mass appeal. Last year’s E3 had it’s moments, but overall, it wasn’t all that impressive. This year was no better.

I’m sad to say, E3 2008′s keynotes from Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony were worse than last year. I went on record to call them out in 2007 and seemingly, here I am again to basically do a repeat of last year. Rather than rant on all the poor presentations, I think I’m going to focus on the positive aspects of each keynote and stay there.

Microsoft

Dashboard redesign and Avatar System – I think Microsoft is taking a step in the right direction by improving the Xbox Live experience. The blade system, while not completely gone, was started to show its age compared to Sony’s Home and Nintendo’s Mii avatar system. The concept of “live party” parallels PS Home’s emphasis on gathering friends in a room in order to watch videos, view photos or play a game. It’s pretty clear that Microsoft borrowed some ideas from both Nintendo and Sony, but I can’t blame them for it since Sony and Nintendo have generally done the same.

Final Fantasy XIII comes to 360 - In my mind, this was Microsoft crown achievement of the event. Very few saw this coming and the way they announced it was fairly creative. Even though FFXIII will retain PS3 exclusiviity in Japan, you have to wonder how Sony will recover from such a huge blow. I mean, this is Final Fantasy!! This is a momentum victory for Microsoft which will widen the gap that Sony began to close in 2008. Well done, Microsoft.

Nintendo

Wii Motion Plus – I have mixed feelings about this new peripheral that Nintendo announced. I believe by increasing the accuracy in the existing Wii-mote, they have enabled the way for new types of games. Nintendo announced Wii Sports Resort, which is essentially Wii Sports 2. It shows off the new abilities of the Wii Motion Plus add-on with a sword fight and a “Wave Race” type game. My mixed feelings are derived from Nintendo’s “yet another peripheral” syndrome. How many more do we need? There’s the Nunchuk, the classic controller, the Wii Wheel, the Wii balance board, the Wii gun, and now the Wii Motion plus. Is every new game going to require a new peripheral? We’ll see.

Wii Music – I have mixed feelings about the newly announced Music game, Wii Music, as well. Imagine Rock Band, without the instruments. Wii Music employs the Wii-mote and the nunchuk to simulate movements used in playing instruments. Sound gimmicky? Well, it is. It does look like it’ll be fun for a couple of weeks and on holidays, but, I can see this title collecting dust next to Wii Sports. Nintendo made it a point that they are making it a goal to stay ahead of the game, but it seems like more of the same to me.

Sony

PSN Video Content – Starting tonight, Sony will be offering video content on demand on the Playstation Network. This is one of the few announcements which will come to fruition in the next coming days. While Sony is still playing catch-up in this area, I think they are making strides in the right direction. Why? By offering the ability to transfer downloads the PSP, they are presenting a value-add to owners of the Sony brand. This is standard and high definition video for sale and rental. Good show, Sony. (no pun intended)

Massive Action Game (MAG) – From the OMGWTFBBQ dept, Sony pulls out an unexpected title called Massive Action Game, or MAG. MAG is very early in development but promises a 256 player online experience with 8 man squads in each “world”. Wow? This seems too good to be true and a lot of folks are crying foul until they see it in action. Me? I’m hoping it also comes to PC since I ain’t too good at first person shooters on the PS3. Otherwise, this thing screams I gotta have it. I heard 5 people say right after the announcement, “I’m getting a PS3 for this.” I think this announcement was a must-have given the FFXIII situation. Sony had to restore faith in those who have invested in their brand, and I think announcing MAG was a good start.

As I stated earlier, there were so many things that I didn’t like this E3, and some of them even were stated in the positives. I want to keep the tone of this post positive so that gamers will know that competition between these three companies is constantly driving them to win your loyalty. Very few industries can demonstrate such dedication to delivering new and shiny every single year. I do hope, for the sake of the future E3 conferences, that Microsoft, Nintendo and Sony jazz up their presentations. Sony really impressed me by using LittleBigPlanet to demonstrate business numbers. Hello! Now that’s innovation. I hope Microsoft and Nintendo do something else next year. These presentations are painful to sit through.

E3 kicks off with a yawn

Bwana — Wed, 11 Jul 2007 16:08:55 +0000

Last night, Microsoft conducted a press event at the Electronic Entertainment Expo. I watched the event on G4 and streamed it live on bwana.tv. If you wish to see a detailed list of what was announced, visit xbox360fanboy for ample drooling and over-excitement. Overall, it was a yawner. The presentation itself was poorly done with lots of errors and awkward moments, and the announcements were mostly predictable and “ho-hum”. The only real surprise was the Disney partnership, since AppleTV is indirectly competing with the Xbox 360. I wonder if Steve Jobs knew about this, or was he consumed with the iPhone launch.

At any rate, some cool games were Mass Effect, Assassin’s Creed, and Bio Shock. Call of Duty 4 was clearly the best game visually which was surprising since Microsoft puts Halo 3 on a pedestal. Personally, I never was interested in Halo since I’ve pretty much seen it all before in games such as Tribes years ago. But hey, FPS fun is not always about innovation so I don’t blame people for getting into it with their friends. Oh yeah, there was an announcement regarding a new Halo edition 360 model. It got exactly 3 claps from the audience and a yawn from me. Let’s hope Nintendo and Sony do something more exciting today or this E3 will officially be a bust.