Two Weeks With the Galaxy Nexus

After having my Samsung Galaxy Nexus active for just over two weeks, I wanted to write a follow up on what I do and don't like about the device. Most of the following has already been discussed at length on various tech blogs and sites, but I wanted to offer my own personal opinion as well as a few things that may not have been mentioned.

Don't Like

Battery
Probably the number one complaint that you'll hear about the Verizon Samsung Galaxy Nexus is it's abysmal battery life. Unfortunately my experience has completely verified this, and while there are ways to make it last longer, compared to my OG Droid and other phones out there it really missed the mark. From my experience it is the 4G LTE that causes the biggest power draw, although form looking at my battery stats Android OS is usually the biggest consumer of power. It seems though Android 4.0.3 (phone is currently 4.0.2) is suppose to address these issues and hopefully it rolls out in an OTA update soon. Flipping over to CDMA only also improves battery life dramatically as many sources have already noted.

Interface
After using ICS it's almost impossible to go back to Gingerbread or Honeycomb. Probably the strangest thing is using my Honeycomb tablet which looks similar to ICS but then lacks many of the features I've started to get use to (application button, app folders, etc). The biggest complaint I have though is I randomly hit the soft keys more than I though I would. This usually happens when typing a text message out and I miss the space bar, instead hitting home or back. Thankfully most messages are auto-drafted and I don't lose any work, but it's still frustrating and interrupts the flow. I can't think of a better way to do this though other than practice, or maybe making the buttons have a larger gap between the soft keyboard.

Keyboard
Using the OD Droid QWERTY keyboard for the last two years really spoiled me on not having to use the soft-keyboard and it is probably the biggest feature I miss from my old phone. It wouldn't be that bad if it weren't for two things. First I seem to mistype very fifth letter, requiring me to correct a word or do a suggestion. This you can attribute to a newbie with a soft-keyboard though. The second, and this is definitely not a newbie thing, is the bug that happens when in landscape mode. If you turn the phone sideways and try to use the landscape keyboard, it becomes slower and slower the more you type in it. This is not just me, but a known bug that hopefully is addressed soon.

Random Locks and Reboots
The phone also likes to lock up and reboot randomly. It doesn't happen constantly, but sometimes I'll take it out of my pocket, fully expecting the normal fast and responsive UI, only to wonder why it's not turning on, and once even having to remove the battery to completely reset it after it froze. This seems more like a software issue as well which I'm crossing my fingers for a fix soon.

Charging Issues
In combination with the poor battery life, it seems it also occasionally with not charge correctly. I noticed this last week when plugging the phone it on my desk, walking away, then hearing the "disconnect" beep. Re-plugging it in seemed to work, only to beep when I was five feet away again. Repeat this dance about five times in a row and begin to realize if you have a bum device.

Poor Signal
LTE is amazing, but unfortunately doesn't always work, which also seems to affect 3G and just phone service in general. I can't count how many times I've seen no bars or tried to load up a page or make a call only to get the "No Connection" window, sometimes even having to reboot the device to get it to come back at all. The battery stats app shows LTE is constantly dropping in an out and there are long periods of "no connection" at all, especially in my house in San Diego. I attribute this to Verizons newer LTE network though and believe it's just growing pains. LTE is if I flat out fantastic when it does work and I've found for a reliable and solid connection flipping over to CDMA only does the trick.

Do Like


Camera
The camera is probably one of the best features of the phone, even though it lacks some of the higher resolution that other Android counterparts offer. The zero shutter lag is something I instantly became grateful for and it's good to know in less than 5 seconds I can have my phone out taking a photo where with other devices I'd still be waiting for the app to load. The time-lapse and panoramic features are a great addition as well and I've found myself experimenting with them in a variety of different ways. The built-in editing software is nice too, but I haven't had much experience with it yet.

Performance
This thing is fast. Opening apps is almost instant and I know when I pull it out (if it isn't frozen/crashed as mentioned above) I can do exactly what I want to do in record time.

Screen
So many things have been said about the screen it's hard to say much more. Surprisingly after comparing it to a HTC Rezound which is suppose to have a better screen the Nexus far outshines it.

Request Desktop Site
I know it's a small feature and most people will overlook it, but the "Request Desktop" feature baked into the web browser is great. Sure there are apps you can download to change the user-agent or use a different browser entirely, but having it two clicks away with no additional hassle is great. At first I didn't think I would use this feature that much, but I use it automatically now whenever a site puts up one of those limited "mobile" sites that hides most of the features.

Google Wallet
Sure Google Wallet it's officially supported on the phone, but that doesn't mean you can't install it still. After installing the modified apk I am now able to make purchases using a Google Pre-Paid card. It has an option for a Citi Mastercard, but since I don't really need another card I haven't set this up yet. I have used it a few times at CVS though and it's fun to see it pay just as fast a a credit card and make a nice charming beep when it's completed the transaction. I hope that more cards are supported soon and then I can start using it as my default payment device.

Conclusion
So after all these problems am I still glad I have a Galaxy Nexus? Heck yeah I am. There are times where I cannot put this phone down, sure the above are pet peeves and obvious bugs, but the overwhelming ability and functionality of the device more than make up for it. The good thing too is most of the issues listed above seem software related, and the bug reports listed with Google have a good amount of visibility. Once Verizon gets it's newer LTE network in order too this phone will be a juggernaut of Android phones in the next year.

One Day With the Galaxy Nexus

Almost two years ago I traded in my LG flip phone for an original Motorola Droid. At the time I was blown away with how customization and responsive Android could be on a device that fit on my pocket. After a solid run of daily use, ~2G monthly bandwidth usage, and countless custom roms and hacks later it was finally time to retire it.

To find a suitable replacement I started making a checklist in my head of what I wanted in a new device:

• Qualcomm Inside
• Dual Core 1Ghz+ Processor
• 1Gb+ Memory
• Android Ice Cream Sandwich
• NFC Capability
• HD Screen
• Verizon 4G LTE
• Physical Keyboard
• HDMI Out
• Accessories (Car dock, media dock, etc)
• Easy to root/mod

These all started to show up in devices in the fall of 2011 when Google had a streaming online event showcase their new Nexus device and release of Ice Cream Sandwich. Along with the Nexus two other phones made a debut, the Motorola Droid Razr and the HTC Rezound. After reading multiple reviews, release delays, and countless speculation I finally decided to get the Samsung Galaxy Nexus.

The Motorola Razr had many benefits going for it. The first is after owning a Droid and Xoom I have had hands on experience with the build quality and reliability with the type of hardware Motorola produces. The Gorilla glass and kevlar backing seemed like a perfect combination for a sturdy and solid phone. Also the Razr has many accessories that would compliment it and continue the daily conveniences that I was used to with the Droid such as a car and media dock. However the lack of a NFC chip and size of the phone (width, not depth since it is a extraordinarily thin) were playing against it.

The HTC Rezound on paper seemed like a winner, especially with all the high praise the screen was getting for being the best and highest definition. It also had the bonus of having a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip in it at 1.5Ghz, 300Mhz faster than the other two. The cameras also outclass the other devices. It too lacked the NFC chip though and unfortunately previous experience with a HTC Touch Pro left a bad taste in my mouth even years after I last used it.

Finally it came down to the Samsung Galaxy Nexus. While the other two phones had the advantage in processor and build quality he Nexus had the overwhelming advantage of being a "pure" Google phone and being built specifically for ICS. While the Razr and the Rezound will most likely get ICS in the near future, they will still have the hardware buttons reminding me every time I use it after the ICS upgrade that they are outdated and useless. The NFC chip was also a major factor, not because currently it's unused, but because in the next few years it will be more used. While Google Wallet may be blocked at the moment, because it is a Google device and rooting/hacking it is easier the limitation is almost moot.

After an adventure on getting the phone, since some retailers won't sell the device unlocked for full retail, or other stores were sold out. My fiance and I finally got on at Best Buy a few minutes before they closed. Since my phone plan is through my employer (hence the Qualcomm criteria above) activating it on LTE will have to wait until approvals go through to port the number and get a SIM card. 

After using it all night and this morning on our wireless-n network I can already say I love it. It's extremely responsive and the new additions in ICS such as the soft keys, folders, and familiarity of Gingerbread really make it a pleasure to use. Strangely with folders I really only use one home screen and only have the power bar widget on the other 4 screens.

Since the phone isn't on Verizons network at the moment it couldn't make or receive calls. Since I use Google Voice I knew there must be some way to use VOIP with my Google Voice number on the device over a data-only connection. After a bit of searching I stumbled on Talkatone which allows you to use Google Chat to use your Google Voice number from your phone (you can see the app stacked with the normal dialer in the lower left menu). It works extremely well, and I had a hour long conversation using it with no interruptions (except when I was trying to play with the app settings mid call and accidently closed it).

After setting up Talkatone I know basically have a fully functioning Galaxy Nexus and have already started to love it even after only about 12 hours of use. I was at first concerned about the battery life after reading a few reviews. But apparently most of that is software related and I'm assuming with a few more patches to ICS it should last just as long as my Droid does. It also covers all the bullets points I listed above with the exception of the physical keyboard (which are rare anyway). I also originally thought it couldn't do HDMI out either, but it can do MHL (Mobile High Definition Link) that has a HDMI converter to hook up.

Even though the Galaxy Nexus may not come out on top in some categories the combination of all it's features added up to be a winner and I'm extremely pleased with it as a replacement for my Droid.

Vim, rdesktop, external monitors, and X Forwarding on a Google CR-48

While there are my other impressive hacks going around for the CR-48 (minecraft, ubuntu) I needed a few utilities that were more pragmatic. The following assumes that your CR-48 is in developer mode and you have a basic understanding of bash, scp, and compiling source code under GNU/Linux.

Vim

When I first went into the developer shell I saw approximately 1000 different binaries to run, but not one of them was a text editor. Eventually I stumbled upon qemacs, but we're just on a CR-48 not the middle ages. It was time to figure out how to get vim up and running.

Although ChromeOS is it's own GNU/Linux distro, it appears to mimic Debian/Ubuntu and is adhering somewhat to the LSB. I first just tried a straight copy of the vim binary from a Ubuntu 10.04 system but after some investigating with ldd saw it had a lot of shared libraries that weren't available on the CR-48 (most notably libselinux.so). So the quickest way to get around this was to build a static binary on a 32-bit Debian host (Ubuntu works as well).

On a 32-bit Debian Squeeze I downloaded latest VIM source code and built a static binary with a limited set of features and disabling GUI and selinux options:

USER@DEBIAN ~ $ wget ftp://ftp.vim.org/pub/vim/unix/vim-7.3.tar.bz2
USER@DEBIAN ~ $ tar -xvjf vim-7.3.tar.bz2
USER@DEBIAN ~ $ cd vim73
USER@DEBIAN ~ $ export LDFLAGS=-static
USER@DEBIAN ~ $ ./configure --with-features=small --disable-gui --with-vim-name=vi --disable-selinux
USER@DEBIAN ~ $ make

This will make a static binary called vi in the src directory. On the CR-48 in /home/chronos/user make a directory called bin and scp the vi binary to it.

Try and execute it, but you'll get a Permission Denied error because by default the /home/chronos/user directory is mounted with the noexec option. Fix this by remounting it with exec.

chronos@localhost ~ $ sudo mount -i -o remount,exec /home/chronos/user

Now the binary will run and you have a basic vi editor.

rdesktop

Rdesktop is much easier to put on the CR-48 since all of the libraries are available. From a 32-bit Debian/Ubuntu host, or by downloading the rdesktop i686 package from packages.debian.org, copy the rdesktop binary to the /home/chronos/user/bin directory. If it's mounted with exec then it will just run. Pass it whatever options you like, and it will open a new GUI window on the CR-48, completely independent of the Chrome UI and any shells.

chronos@localhost ~ $ ~/bin/rdesktop -u USERNAME -g 1280x800 -K -z -r clipboard:PRIMARYCLIPBOARD HOSTNAME

Copy/paste works well, although the arrow keys may not function properly due to the keymap not getting set correctly. This may be due to a libiconv issue and I'll need to spend some more time figuring it out.

External Monitors

While the CR-48 works just fine with it's VGA output without much tweaking, you'll either need to sign in/out or reboot the laptop for it to display to an external monitor. In dev mode xrandr is available making it easy to switch between display resolutions.

Mirror to a monitor that can do 1024x768:

chronos@localhost ~ $ xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1024x768 --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768

Turn off the external display and reset the CR-48 display back to the default 1280x800:

chronos@localhost ~ $ xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1280x800 --output VGA1 --off

X Forwarding

The simplest piece to enable is X-forwarding from a remote X client. Connect over ssh with the& -Y option and run any X applications:

chronos@localhost ~ $ ssh -Y USER@HOSTNAME

Bringing It All Together

Now that all the binaries are in place let's set it up so they work across reboots.

Edit /home/chronos/user/.bashrc with our new vi editor and append the following:

#Setup our environment
source ~/.bash_aliases
PATH=$PATH:~/bin

#Remount /home/chronos/user as exec so anything in ~/bin runs
sudo mount -i -o remount,exec /home/chronos/user

Create a /home/chronos/user/.bash_aliases and add in any aliases:

alias rdesktop-home='~/bin/rdesktop -g 1280x800 -u USER -K -z -r clipboard=PRIMARYCLIPBOARD HOSTNAME'
alias projon='xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1024x768 --output VGA1 --mode 1024x768'
alias projoff='xrandr --output LVDS1 --mode 1280x800 --output VGA1 --off'
alias ssh-host='ssh -Y USER@HOSTNAME'

Now you have a much more flexible environment to add your own aliases, functions, and binaries.

I Read A Lot Online

While working my way through Google Reader today I accidentally clicked the trends link on the left hand menu. I don't know if it just appeared recently or I just never noticed it before, but there's some interesting statistics there of items read, clicked, shared, etc. It even has friends stats for anyone you share or read items with through Reader. The stat that caught my eye though was total of items read since I started using Reader the end of 2005... almost 150,000... that's a big number.

Hulu and Netflix on Android

Last night I was able to get my Droid to play Hulu and Netflix using the Playon server using UPnPlay and VPlayer. Unfortunately it's only over local wifi and it won't run over 3G, although the Playon team has made mention multiple times they are working on an Android app similar to the iPhone app that can play over 3G. Until then this works relatively well if you're on your local wifi network and want to use your Android phone or tablet for streaming Hulu, Netflix, and a variety of other channels Playon provides.

What you need:

1. Install and setup Playon on a local media server
2. Install UPnPlay from the Android Market
3. Install VPlayer from the Android Market

Connect to the wifi network that has the Playon server, start up UPnPlay and start browsing until you find the content you want. A prompt will come up asking what app to play the media with, select VPlayer and it should start playing. The usual Playon streaming rules apply here; pause/rewind works and fast-forward only works if the content has already buffered to the server.

Playon channel list and Netflix queue:

Video Demo:

Technical Notes:
Motorola Droid 1 running Android 2.2 Froyo
Is rooted with custom kernel but stock Droid ROM
Apps are available in Market and don't require a rooted phone

Droid Screenshots

One of my favorite games last year was Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood, and one of the cool things that came with the collectors edition was a concept art book. Today while reading Kotaku I came across a link to the concept artists Donglu Yu's blog and found they make excellent Android wallpapers.

The panning affect when moving between workspaces is really cool, and below I tried to replicate it with a few screen shots from my rooted Droid. I should also note that I used my excellent Chrome cr-48 netbook and the cloud photo editing site Picnik putting these images together.

TW Cable Modem Status Chart

Chart of our Time Warner cable modem going on and offline. Someone is coming out to replace the line from the alley to the house which hopefully fixes it.


Script that generated data, originally was so I could tell the cable tech when the connection dropped and then I used the data over a few days to make the above graph.
watch.sh

#!/bin/bash
IP=8.8.8.8

while true; do
DATE=`date +"%D %r"`
if ping -c 1 -W 2 ${IP} 2>&1 >/dev/null; then
echo "${DATE} - Ping successful"
else
echo "${DATE} - Ping unsuccessful"
fi
sleep 60
done

Year of Video Games - 2010

Just like last year, a list of games I finished in 2010.

This is the year of Assassin's Creed and Zelda, since there are six of them on the list and what I sunk most of my time into.

A buddy at work who lent me Assassin's Creed II, which got it's hooks into immediately since it took place in Renaissance Italy and had this great virtual reality conspiracy thing going for it. I quickly finished AC II and immediately picked up AC I, which while a bit duller than the second was still a joy to play with all the historical references and it fleshed out the story better knowing the beginnings. When AC: Brotherhood came out I was excited enough to get the collectors edition box set.

Zelda was another big player this year as I was ramping up to finish them all before my 30th birthday in April. While I had completed Ocarina of Time right at the end of 2009 I didn't start Majora's Mask until the Spring. The mechanics of the game were similar to Ocarina, but I just couldn't get into the whole three day time thing until well into the end of the summer. Finally after picking it up and 3-4 hours intervals I finally got the hang of things and was able to power through it in August. Overall I enjoyed the game at the end, collecting every mask was actually fun and the reward of the Fierce Deity Mask made the end boss ridiculously easy. Shortly after completing it the Haunted Majora's Mask story "You Shouldn't Have Done That" appeared and playing it all the way through made it even more creepy. I even went so far as finding an original N64 cartridge at a local game shop and it's sitting on my desk along with an original N64 copy of Golden Eye.

After finishing Majora's Mask I dove right into Twilight Princess. While I had twice tried to start it in the past, I started all the way over with a new game and finished it up. I don't know if it was anxiety that kept me from playing Twilight Princess knowing that it would be the last game in the series until Skyward Sword comes out or what, but I was a bit apprehensive about finishing it. The game itself is beautiful, with many of the locations and dungeons building off of the original formula and fleshing it out in 3D nicely. Some of the ancient landmarks and ruins (Bridge of Eldin) seemed like they were pulled from my seven year old selfs imagination while flipping through the original Zelda instruction manual and map. From some of the boss fights I was fully expecting the Ganon fights at the end to have more challenge. While a sword fight for the final encounter was cool, it was a bit too easy. I was hoping to use some of the more powerful items (magic armor and fairy tears) as a boost if I ran out of fairies and potions, but I made it through with only losing a few hearts. Still, it was a good way to end and overall the game was satisfying.

Another surprise this year was Alan Wake, which was the first Xbox 360 game to go onto a list. This is mainly because my buddy Bren let me borrow is 360 which gave me the opportunity to play it. While I haven't finished the second DLC package it opened me up to watching Twin Peaks and reading more Stephen King novels.

Since Zelda is out of the way and I own a majority of the Metroid games already, I'm going to set a new goal of completing all the Metroid games before I turn 40. It's a good chunk of time, but you never know what's going to come up.

Finished Games for 2010

Gameboy
Metroid II: Return of Samus

PS3
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Heavy Rain
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed II
Assassin's Creed: Brotherhood

Xbox 360
Alan Wake

DS
Chrono Trigger (this is actually from 2009 but forgot it last year)
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars

Wii
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess

Virtual Console
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask

iPhone
Beneath a Steel Sky
Civilization Revolution

Android
Angry Birds

Goals for 2011
Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword
Metroid: Other M
Call of Duty: Black Ops
Metroid Prime Trilogy
inFamous
Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time
No More Heroes
StarCraft II
GoldenEye 007 (Wii)

Cutting the Cord

Sometime in the mid summer of this year my brother and I spoke briefly about canceling cable TV and going to an Internet only feed. The idea quickly faded since the alternatives, while there, just weren't up to meeting our entertainment requirements. A few weeks ago with an deal between Time Warner and ESPN (more on this later) and the new media server I built it was time to cut the cord. With broadcast HDTV, a PS3, and Linux based media server here's how we did it and ended up saving a ton of $.

Movies

We had the movie option in our cable TV package, with Encore, Starz, and a few other channels excluding the more premium ones like HBO and Showtime. This was by far the easiest to check off by using Netflix. The PS3 is capable of streaming all of the on-demand Netflix catalog, as well as play blu-ray and DVDs with the 10$ one-at-a-time plan. Netflix is only expanding their streaming library in addition to making more HD streams available. I also have many movies ripped to the linux media server and pushed out to the PS3 via a UPnP server software called fuppes for streaming of my movie collection.

Network TV

With cable we had a DVR package to record and replay shows back later on in the week. Time Warner also had a nice On-Demand feature to play a majority of network and cable channels shows anytime even if it wasn't recorded on the DVR. Since HDTV came about a few years ago network TV looks just as good, if not better, than it's HD cable counterpart. By purchasing a HD antenna and putting it over the bookcase we're able to get the local SD network channels in 1080i. Now this isn't as ideal as having the DVR or On-Demand on TW, but the biggest piece in this puzzle was the software called playon.tv.

Playon.tv runs on a Windows computer and scrapes streaming websites like hulu.com, cbs.com, tv.com, etc. It transcodes the streams on the fly and then presents them as a UPnP media server to various devices such as the Wii or PS3. It also has a mobile feature, and devices like an iPad or iPhone can connect to the media server over a remote 3G connection for playback anywhere. The one downside is the streams are not in HD, although HD support is promised by the developers soon. Total cost is 40$ a month with 20$ a month renewal and it more than makes up for the lack of DVR. On a technical note, playon.tv will run just fine in a Windows XP KVM guest on my linux media server with 2 vCPUs and 4GB of memory dedicated to it.

Sports

By far the most asked question I get when talking to people about this is "what about sports?". There's almost this myth that you NEED cable to get live sports, which is absolutely not true. With the advent of espn3.com almost any live sporting even can be watched via a web browser. There's even sports on there I've never heard of. The only downside here is that in order to get espn3.com your ISP needs to have inked a deal with ESPN3. Up until a week ago Time Warner had not done this but now is available, in addition to a new TW only website called espnnetworks.com which adds even more live sports content. Time Warner unfortunately requires you have ESPN as part of your video cable package, which we do not. Logging into another TW customers account however gets around this. Right now playon.tv supports ESPN3 for non-login ISPs, so for TW customers you still need to go through the web browser. With a media server connected to the same TV this isn't much of an issue. HDTV sports broadcasts look even better than cable since they're still in 1080i but don't suffer from the compression artifacts that most cable channels seem to add. Finally, if you really want to see a live sports even and you can't get it at home, it's probably time to leave the living room.

Notes

While we own all three major gaming systems the PS3 was chosen since it can do everything we need and we have a nice bluetooth remote that looks like it belongs in the living room.

We tried out Hulu+ for streaming over the PS3, and even though it had excellent HD output, it was lacking many of the shows available on the website. Strange since it's 10$ a month and you're paying to get less content... In the future if Hulu decides to do things different I'll revisit it.

Since a lot of this is network dependent, I upgraded our router to one capable of 802.11n and gigabit ethernet speeds so the media server and PS3 aren't laggy when talking to one another.

Time Warner is still in use for the Internet connection, but Verizon is planning on rolling out their LTE network to San Diego before the end of 2010. Hopefully they start offering service as an ISP and we can replace the cable connection completely.

Update


I switched from Windows XP to Windows 7 due to XP seeming to crash daily. Along with improved stability,Win 7 is also 64-bit and can handle all 4 cores when Playon moves to HD streams. The only issue was the AC97' sound card that KVM emulates doesn't have 64-bit Win 7 drivers, and other sound card options don't work either. Playon ships with a virtual audio device that takes care of transcoding the audio to work around this.

Jezebel 7.0

This fall I decided it was time to update my Atom based media server to a more power version.This was driven mainly by the want to rip and encode blu-ray disks and run KVM for virtualization. While the Atom setup was great for power efficiency (using about 40 watts at peak load) there were other tweaks I wanted to make. Below is my new system specs for Jezebel 7.0:

• Intel Core i5 750 quad core 2.66GHz processor
• 8GB DDR3 1333MHz memory
• Gigabyte GA-H55N-USB3 mini ITX motherboard
• OCZ Agility 2 60GB SSD drive
• PNY Nvidia GT430 video card
• Seagate 2TB hard drive
• Apple Bluetooth keyboard and mouse
• LG 10x Blu-Ray burner (reused)
• Antec NSK1480 HTPC case (reused)
• Debian Squeeze 64-bit with custom 2.6.36 kernel

All of the parts were new except the case and blu-ray drive since they integrated without a problem. I originally purchased a micro-ATX motherboard which had more PCI, memory, and SATA slots, but the majority of the SATA connections went right up against the drive bay wall. The smaller board had less expansion space but fit better into the case and didn't limit any of the other components I purchased.

I went through about 4 graphics cards before landing on the GT430. Two were too large, and one was passively cooled but used a ton of power and put out a lot of heat. The GT430 has a fan on it that is a bit louder than I would have liked, but it can underclock itself when not in use to 50MHz to save power and heat. The GT430 is a bit overpowered for what I wanted to do, but it's CUDA support has me hoping for encoding programs like ffmpeg to use it for faster blu-ray encoding.

By far the biggest improvement is the quad-core processor, with two cores and 4 gigs of memory dedicated to KVM for a Windows XP guest install. I haven't tested it for video encoding yet but it has turbo-boost to go to 3.0GHz if needed. I also enabled an on-demand CPU governor and it runs at 1.2GHz while idle.

The drive setup was a big improvement as well. Before it was running the OS off a compact-flash card plugged into a parallel IDE connection, two 1TB drives on the onboard SATA, and the blu-ray into a SATA PCI card. This was less than ideal from an IO perspective and was still running on legacy technology. The new board has 4 SATA connections and I swapped the two drives for one 2TB disk. The SSD has shown a huge IO boost and the OS boots in less than 10 seconds. The 2TB drive is actually slow at 5900 RPMs, but it makes it quieter and is very power efficient.

The system setup is 64-bit Debian Squeeze installed onto the SSD, with /home all on the large disk. I also installed Windows XP into a KVM guest which resides on the SSD as well. GNOME is setup and running off the video card. HDMI out works for video and looks great, however I kept getting stumped on trying to pass sound through it and settled on a 1/8 audio connection from the line out.

The main use of the system is for pushing out content to our LCD TV via a variety of methods which I'll explain in a different post, and ripping/encoding DVD and blu-rays. It's also hooked up to our LCD TV and the wireless Apple keyboard and mouse is great for a living room setup with a range of approximately 10 meters.

Overall the system uses more power than the Atom setup, but the performance ratio makes up for this exponentially due to the advances in efficiency of the other components over the last few years. I'm looking forward to seeing what this system can do with it's virtualization capabilities and performance capabilities.

On some future notes, the next Intel architecture Sandy Bridge is looking to integrate video directly into the CPU. I looked into the on-die graphics available now since this motherboard can support them, but unfortunately the only Core i series CPUs that have it are dual core. Sandy Bridge will have 4 and 6 core CPUs to use it, but it will use a different socket, making this board unsuitable for it. Soon though we'll have HTPC systems like this that don't require any additional peripherals, increasing performance while at the same time driving down power usage even more.

Year of Video Games - 2009

Following up on the games I played and finished in 2008...

This year is a bit different since I recently got an original Xbox and new PS3 Slim which lead to more non-Nintendo games finished as last year. Out of all the games I finished last year I'd have to say Modern Warfare 2, Half-Life 2, and Zelda II were my favorite.

Modern Warfare was a completely different gaming experience than I was used to, giving a blockbuster movie storyline with plenty of twists and challenging environments that keeps you going "just one more chapter"

I played the Half-Lifes in order starting with the first and ending on Episode 2, and even though Half-Life 1 was exception, Half-Life 2 had that same type of playable movie quality that I really liked. The levels and game play were exceptional and kept you hook till the final climax.

Unexpectedly Zelda II was, for me, more fun than Ocarina of Time. Ocarina is constantly praised as one of the best games of all time, but when I played it I didn't really see it. Zelda II offered and extremely, but rewarding challenge and once I was finished I felt a sense of loss that it was over.

I still have a goal of beating all the Zelda's before I'm 30, and with Ocarina and Zelda II out of the way I have the major hurdles done. Spirit Tracks should go quickly since it's on the DS and I really like the cell-shaded top-down 3D style it has. Unfortunately I'm not too excited about the two remaining 3D games and wish I had done those first and left the classic top down ones for last.

Since I've entered the current gen of systems with the PS3 I've found that the movie-style of these games is more appealing than I originally thought. Heavy Rain looks like next-gen Hotel Dusk and games like Uncharted and Assassin's Creed have the action adventure element I like.

The iTouch games made a small dent this year too, with me purchasing classic games from my youth; Sim City, Myst, Wolfenstien 3D, Doom, and adventure games. As the platform matures and mobile gaming takes hold I have a feeling I'll have more to add to the list.

Finally I found that Steam, PSN, and Virtual Console are a large contributor to my gaming experience. The method of downloading a game and having it "permanently" tied to you account and not a piece of hardware is cool.

Finished Games for 2009

Gameboy Advance
Metroid Zero Mission

Sony PS3
Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Microsoft Xbox
Halo: Combat Evolved
Grand Theft Auto III: Vice City

PC
Half-Life
Half-Life: Blue Shift
Half-Life: Opposing Force
Half-Life 2
Half-Life 2: Episode One
Half-Life 2: Episode Two
Portal

Wii
The New Super Mario Bros Wii (finished cooperatively with Oanh!)

Virtual Console
Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
Metal Slug

Currently Playing
Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask
Uncharted: Drake's Fortune
Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box
The World Ends With You
Beneath a Steel Sky (iPhone)
Halo 2

Goals for 2010
Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare
Uncharted 2: Among Thieves
Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Assassin's Creed
Assassin's Creed 2
Okami
Metroid Prime Trilogy
Super Paper Mario
Deus Ex
Heavy Rain

LVM Disk Recipes for Debian

After much wrangling and researching I finally figured out how to get LVM disk recipes to work with Debian preseeding. The following recipe will create a partition layout of what's in the table. When making these recipes make sure that you account for extra whitespace that may be hiding (especially spaces) otherwise it may yield unexpected results.

Mount Point	Type	VG	LV Name	Size (MB)	Filesystem
/boot	Primary			100	ext3
/	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/rootvol	4096	ext3
/var	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/varvol	1024	ext3
swap	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/swapvol	2048	swap
/home	LVM	vg00	/dev/vg00/homevol	remaining space	ext3

Recipe file:

Ubuntu/Debian Custom LVM Disk Recipe ::

100 1000 100 ext3                              
    $primary{ }
    $bootable{ }
    device{ /dev/sda }
    method{ format }
    format{ }            
    use_filesystem{ }
    filesystem{ ext3 }
    mountpoint{ /boot }
.

100 100000 -1 lvm
    $primary{ } $defaultignore{ } 
    method{ lvm } vg_name{ vg00 }
.

4096 10000 4096 ext3                        
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ rootvol }
    method{ format } format{ }            
    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }  
    mountpoint{ / }
.                                             

1024 4000 1024 ext3                           
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ varvol }
    method{ format } format{ }
    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }  
    mountpoint{ /var }
.                                             

2048 5000 2048 linux-swap
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ swapvol }
    method{ swap } format{ }
.                                             

1024 1000000 -1 ext3                  
    $lvmok{ } in_vg{ vg00 } lv_name{ homevol }
    method{ format } format{ }            
    use_filesystem{ } filesystem{ ext3 }  
    mountpoint{ /home }
.                                             

SATA Drive Power Management in Linux

I recently purchased a new 1TB HDD for a new power efficient server I built and I wanted to share a few of the power saving tips I discovered after reading a few sites.

File system

I was originally going to use ext3 for compatibility reasons, but after reading into JFS more I found that it's lighter on CPU and a bit more power friendly, so I used it to format this new drive. I also disabled atime and diratime within /etc/fstab.

/dev/mapper/jezebel-homevol /home jfs noatime,nodiratime 0 1

hdparm

Many newer drives support advanced power management on the drive itself, mostly at the sake of performance but since this is a data drive that sits idle most of the time the hit is negligible.

sudo hdparm -M 128 /dev/sdb
sudo hdparm -B 100 -S 240 /dev/sdb

The first will enable Acoustic Mode and the second will set spin down after 20 minutes of idle time. You can make the permanent by adding them in /etc/hdparm.conf.

Kernel params

Most of these tricks are for laptops, but they work just as well on an always-on server by enabling them in /etc/sysctl.conf.

#Specific Flash and Power Tweaks
#
#Set Laptop mode for less disk writes
vm.laptop_mode = 1
#
#Set Dirty writeback higher
vm.dirty_writeback_centisecs = 1500
vm.dirty_expire_centisecs = 1500
vm.dirty_ratio = 25

#
#Set swappiness
vm.swappiness = 20

Swappiness is set lower than default to keep swap around in case it's needed but to not use it very much.

My Moleskines

Over the past few years I've had a variety of different Moleskine notebooks that I've used for many purposes. Some were just for random notes and lists, while others were for more specific activities like Fantasy Football or wine tasting. Because of the infrequent use and just grabbing whichever one I could they're mostly sporadic and difficult to find anything other value other than flipping through the entire thing. Since starting at Qualcomm though and having a development goal of better time management set, I decided it was time to get serious about some type of organization for notes.

I first started by reading the excellent O'reilly book Time Management for System Administrators. The author has his own "Cycle System" that he uses to keep track of his daily tasks, appointments, and long term projects. While the system itself is easy and fleshed-out I found that it wasn't exactly tailored to my needs. I did take a lot of his ideas and work them into my use of Moleskine notebooks that are relatively simple yet have some nice features (durable covers, elastic binding band, cloth bookmark, and back pocket). Below is what I did to customize and tailor them to my needs professionally and personally.

The Notebooks

In the book there are three areas the author focuses on; To-do Lists, Appointments, and Goals. Now because the specific notebooks I like to use (either lined or graph paper) do not have a calendar built-in I skipped the appointment portion, and instead rely on Google Calendar for personal and Outlook Calendar for professional date keeping. I also didn't like the idea of keeping both personal and professional in the same notebook and therefore split them up into two different notebooks. My personal notebook is a squared soft-cover, which is smaller than a regular size and fits perfectly into my back pocket. My professional notebook is larger hard-cover lined variant that travels well in my laptop bag and works well for larger notes. The two follow the same criteria for my needs however.

Structure

I wanted to keep the setup simple and similar for both of them and generally stuck to the same format for both. I've read about many Moleskine Hacks and took some ideas, but most of them were too complex and involved for me to use, I just want something simple. Here's how I've set mine up:

• Three Sections: To-do, Notes, Ideas (only in personal) and Goals marked with sticky labels
  
• Initial date written inside front cover and on side with black marker
• Every odd page numbered
• Table of contents on inside cover with the odd page and short description

That's it! The only real difference is the personal one has an Ideas section as well, which is for longer more drawn out thoughts than just a standard to-do list or jotting down notes. Each one has the last few pages reserved for both life and career goals and an estimation of when I'd like to complete them. In general there's not specific page format for my personal one, I just put things down in the proper section and if they're important mark them on the TOC.

Professional Format

My professional one however does have a specific format for the to-do pages which I semi-copied from the time management book. I first date the top of the page, then split the first third of te page into a general todo and project list. Every morning when I first get into work I lay down my todo list, adding new items from our ticket system or email. Each todo item is then assigned a value (A, B, C) depending on it's priority and I get to work, crossing them off as they are done. The ones that aren't done at the end of the day are then moved to the next days list and marked with a - to show they were moved. The projects side is more just to keep in mind what I'd like to accomplish in a more long term sense. The second third of the page is for general notes, small scribblings on something I'm working on, random commands, etc. The final third is a ad-hoc schedule that I just fill in with times for meetings and other appointments that I have during the day. I don't fill any out ahead of time since I let my Outlook calendar keep track of recurring meetings and appointments.

Here are some pics:

Personal notebook on top of professional one

Sticky labels denoting sections

Table of Contents

Side date label

To-do page layout in professional notebook

One Year of Video Games

A little over a year ago I broke down a bought a Nintendo DS for the upcoming release of The Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass on Oct 1st. Upon getting the device I discovered that it had a built-in GameBoy Advance slot for backwards compatibility with older GBA games. I hadn't played a hand-held system since my first Gameboy back in the early 90s, so this was a bonus allowing me to catch up on all of Nintendo's hand-held titles. I eventually picked up and completed Phantom Hourglass and a plethora of DS and GBA games. This helped me get in touch with my inner video game nerd and I eventually completed around 20 titles over the last year on this spiffy hand-held as well as my Wii and Virtual Console. Here's the list of completed titles as well as a short list of games I'd like to complete over this year.

My DS signed by Gabe & Tycho from Penny-Arcade during Comic-Con 2008

Nintendo DS
Legend of Zelda: Phantom Hourglass
Hotel Dusk
Trace Memory
Mariokart DS
The New Super Mario Bros
Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney - Trials and Tribulations
Professor Layton and the Curious Village

GameBoy Advance
Final Fantasy I: Dawn of Souls
Final Fantasy IV Advance
Final Fantasy VI Advance
Metroid Fusion
Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap

GameBoy Color
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons
Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages

Virtual Console
Legend of Zelda
Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past

Wii
Boom Blox
Super Mario Galaxy

Almost Complete
Metroid Prime (Gamecube)

On Deck for 2008/9
Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess (Wii)
Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time (Virtual Console)
Zelda II: Adventure of Link (Virtual Console)
Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem (Gamecube)
Super Mario Sunshine (Gamecube)
Okami (Wii)

Updates:
Completed Oracle of Ages in the beginning of Oct 2008

Ubuntu Inside of Etch Inside of Sid

Fun screen shot I took today while seeing if Ubuntu Linux I installed on a laptop was up;

Debian Sid->Debian Etch->Ubuntu Hoary

Oanh and Micheal's Comic-Con 2008 Schedule

After going through the newly posted Comic-Con schedules Oanh and I have decided on the different events we'd like to see. Since some of them may be more crowded and we may not make it we also included alternate events.

Primary
Alternate

Wednesday
6:00-7:30 - Fringe Pilot Screenings - Ballroom 20

Thursday
10:30-11:30 Comics Arts Conference Session #1: Guerilla Warfare and Sneak Attacks - Room 30AB
11:00-12:00 The Disney Animation Story Process - Room 32AB
11:30-1:00 20th Century Fox: The Day The Earth Stood Still and Max Payne - Hall H
11:30-12:30 SPORE: One-on-One with Will Wright - Room 6CDEF

12:30-1:30 DC: Superman: Man of Tomorrow - Room 6B

1:15-2:00 How to Tell a Story - Room 4
2:00-3:00 Science Fiction That Will Change Your Life - Room 2
3:00-4:00 Wizard's First Rule - Room 6B
4:30-5:30 Episodic Games: Rewriting the Adventure Genre - Room 3
5:30-6:30 The Science Behind Science Fiction - Room 6B
5:45-6:45 Showtime: Dexter - Room 6CDEF
7:00-9:00 Will Eisner: Portrait of a Sequential Artist - Room 7AB

Friday
10:00-11:00 Marvel: Your Universe - Room 6A
10:00-11:00 Batman: Brave & Bold - Room 6B
11:55-1:00 Warner Bros.: Watchmen - Hall H
12:30-1:30 The Art of Adapting Comics to the Screen - Room 5AB
12:30-1:15 Spaced - Room 6A
1:00-2:00 Looking at Our World: Eye on the Present - Room 3
1:15-2:00 Trailer Park - Hall H
2:30-3:30 Radical Comics! - Room 10
2:45-3:45 Lionsgate and Odd Lot Entertainment: The Spirit - Hall H
4:30-5:30 Vertigo: View of the Future - Room 5AB

5:00-6:00 Mythology, Secret Societies and Lost Civilizations - Room 2

5:15-6:15 Entertainment Weekly's The Visionaries: Filmmakers - Hall H
5:30-6:30 Penny Arcade - Room 5AB
6:15-7:00 [adult swim]'s Robot Chicken - Room 6B
8:30-10:30 SCI FI Friday Night: Eureka and Stargate: Atlantis - Room 6B

Saturday
10:30-11:45 Heroes: Exclusive First Look at "Villains" - Hall H
11:00-12:00 IDW Publishing: Ideas and Dreams 2008 - Room 3
11:15-12:30 Quick Draw - Room 6CDEF
11:00-12:00 Watching the Watchmen— Author and artist Dave Gibbons - Room 7AB
12:00-1:00 Dark Horse Comics - Room 2
12:00-1:00 Lost - Hall H
12:45-1:45 Exclusive Q&A with the writers of The Office - Room 6A
2:30-3:30 Disney Pixar: Bolt and UP - Hall H
3:30-4:30 Chuck Screening and Q&A - Ballroom 20
4:45-5:45 SCI FI Eureka - Room 6CDEF
5:00-6:00 Oni Press Panelmonium 2008! - Room 3
5:30-7:00 Sony: Underworld: Rise of the Lycans, Quarantine, Pineapple Express - Hall H
7:15-8:15 MythBusters Q&A and Sneak Preview— Jamie Hyneman and Adam Savage - Room 6B
8:30-10:00 Marvel: Wolverine and The X-Men Animated Screening - 6CDEF

Sunday
11:30-1:00 Comics Arts Conference Session #14: Postmodernism and Revolution - Room 30AB
12:00-12:45 Harold & Kumar Escape from Guantanamo Bay - Ballroom 20
3:30-4:30 Dave Gibbons - Room 7AB

Sierra Wireless MC5725 on Debian Linux

When I started my new job I was given an HP Compaq 6910p as a work laptop, which came with a nice embedded 1xEVDO (Sierra Wireless MC5725) card that I could use to get online anywhere where there is a Verizon signal. Over the past week or so I've been migrating from Windows XP to Debian, and this was the last bit of hardware I needed working. Here are my notes on how to get it up and running:

Requirements:
Kernel 2.6.21 or newer with sierra module compiled or latest from http://www.sierrawireless.com/faq/ShowFAQ.aspx?ID=607
Device activated in Windows and powered on (disable turning power off in preferences)

Load the modules:
sudo modprobe usbserial vendor=0x03f0 product=0x211d
sudo modprobe sierra

Setup kppp:
Uncomment noauth in /etc/ppp/peers/kppp-options
Modem device: /dev/ttyUSB0
Flow Control: Hardware
Line termination CR
Connection Speed 921600
Phone Number: #777
Authentication: PAP/CHAP
Login ID: your_device_phone_number@vzw3g.com
Password: vzw

Automatically load modules in Debian:
edit /etc/modprobe.conf/usbserial and add:
options usbserial vendor=0x03f0 product=0x211d
edit /etc/modules and add:
sierra

Refrences:
http://www.ka9q.net/5220.html
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-networking-3/motorola-e815-evdo-cant-dial-phone-592375/
http://tuxmobil.org/ibm_lenovo_thinkpad_t61_nc216ge_umts_linux.html

Some Technical Info:

lsusb -v:

Bus 002 Device 003: ID 03f0:211d Hewlett-Packard
Device Descriptor:
bLength 18
bDescriptorType 1
bcdUSB 1.10
bDeviceClass 0 (Defined at Interface level)
bDeviceSubClass 0
bDeviceProtocol 0
bMaxPacketSize0 64
idVendor 0x03f0 Hewlett-Packard
idProduct 0x211d
bcdDevice 0.02
iManufacturer 1 HP
iProduct 2 HP ev2210 1xEV-DO Broadband Wireless Module
iSerial 0

dmesg:

[ 1976.898309] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial
[ 1976.898435] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for generic
[ 1976.898527] usbserial_generic 2-1:1.0: generic converter detected
[ 1976.898645] usb 2-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB0
[ 1976.898738] usb 2-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB1
[ 1976.898828] usb 2-1: generic converter now attached to ttyUSB2
[ 1976.898897] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbserial_generic
[ 1976.898957] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial Driver core
[ 1982.544979] drivers/usb/serial/usb-serial.c: USB Serial support registered for Sierra USB modem
[ 1982.545685] usbcore: registered new interface driver sierra
[ 1982.545762] drivers/usb/serial/sierra.c: USB Driver for Sierra Wireless USB modems: v.1.2.8

I Saw Red

Oh Weezer, you make my heart sing. Your last three albums have, for me, been a bit lackluster. When I first heard you were coming out with another new album, and going to name it another color, after such high expectations for Green, I was a bit disappointed. Hearing the first single Pork and Beans and seeing the noting the lyrical similarities between it and Beverly Hills made me worry even more, so much in fact that I didn't even bother to really seek out any info or samples. But you've had your grip on me for as long as I can remember, and you knew I'd buy Red the day it was released. And I am so glad that I did. So glad.


Troublemaker
My Name is Jonas and Tired of Sex were perfect album openers for Blue and Pinkerton, they started off quick and deadly hitting home with the first notes and starting each album journey off right. You nailed it here, if this were a movie this is the opening scene where you're introduced to the characters without any dialogue, just some good establishing montages.

The Greatest Man That Ever Lived
How about The Greatest Living Study of Modern Music this decade?! Take a simple tune such as Shaker Hymn, and then performing in almost every modern style; hip hop, thrash metal, crooning, marching chorus, 80s hair ballads, modern alternative, pop country, Pinkerton style, spoken word, baroque chamber music, and finally finishing with Blue style, brilliant!

You don't like it, you love it.

Pork and Beans
Yes, you're the single, I've heard you about 200 times the last two weeks. You know what though, your crunchy chords still make me happy. Your music video makes me ever happier.

Heart Songs
In the Garage part II: Now With More Emo!. Reminds me a bit of when I first listened to the NOFX 13 Stiches where they rattle off all the bands that influenced them. Although I doubt I'll go and grab some Gordon Lightfoot like I did with Descendents. Points for the Fresh Prince of Bel Air reference too.

Everybody Get Dangerous
Probably my least favourite track on the album, and I could possibly see it becoming almost a club song.... Still better than anything off of Make Believe.

Dreamin'
Freaking-fan-tas-tic. Has a nice Blue quality to it, and I just when I thought it would totally ramp up and bust into even more hard crunch chords.... chirping birds? Huh? Then it gets kicked up a notch into full duet territory and then switches back into Blue, and back again, and again. This type of progressive mixing of styles is one of the main reasons why I'm Weezer fan.

Thought I Knew
Talk about switching gears, this isn't ever Rivers on vocals. Wait a minute, did they accidentally mix in some generic pop singer? Nah, it's Brian Bell, and he's done good, damn good. Not one of my favourites, but like noted before, the creativity shown on this album more than makes up for it. Sort of reminds me of something I'd heard in a mid to late nineties teen movie.

Cold Dark World
Nice collaboration with Rivers and the new guy bassits Scott. Sort of sounds a bit like Lincoln Park with some of the spoken word lyrics but it's a nice little tune.

Automatic
I can't listen to this song enough, and it doesn't even sound remotely like Weezer. Pat Wilson takes control and truly shines on the album. My brother and I were trying to figure out what group it sounds like, but we just couldn't put our fingers on it. We even thought maybe early Silverchair almost. That alone is a good sign since it sounds so familiar yet so new. The drums and chords are almost so simple it's surprising to listen carefully and hear the full spectrum of what's going on.

The Angel and the One
And we come full circle. Only in Dreams and Butterfly were perfect endings for Blue and Pinkerton and this is no exception. Like the song at the end of a really good movie this song just flows over you and lets you reflect on what you just experienced. You just don't want it to end.

Overall this album is a major shift in Weezer's style since they came back with Green 2001. I'm not going to compare it overall to Blue or Pinkerton, since all three can stand alone on their own. After losing faith in Rivers and thinking that Alone would be the last chance of hearing any of the magic Weezer first captured me with in my teens, I am mollified. I can't wait to hear some of the bonus tracks and see what they have planned in the future. This album is easily one of the best of the decade.

Okami and Baroque

In preparation for not having any free time with my new job coming up next week I felt it was necessary to get a few video games to enjoy before then. Both were released in the past week and both are remakes of games for other systems (PS2 and Sega Saturn). Below are my simple reviews.

Okami is awesome, the perfect meld of Japanese mythology, music, and style and looks simply stunning on the Wii. Unfortunately the gameplay mechanic of drawing with the brush is troublesome at times, but with a bit of practice you come to realize it's just part of the challenge. I really like the way it ramps up the learning curve and just engrosses you from the start. The opening cinematic is simple but effective in getting you excited for what's to come. There's also a website featuring the art of Okami which in turn inspired me to redo my laptops theme.


I actually haven't played Baroque yet, although reviews for it are less than stellar. It's apparently very Roguelike, with a multitude of weapons and equipment as well as randomly generated dungeons. The dark style and themes seem like something I'd like and I'll update this once I play it some.