Archive for the 'Entertainment' Category

Golf Quote Of The Day

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 30, 2008
in Entertainment, Golfing and Personal
. 0 Comments

My wife and I went out for a 10-mile hike today near beautiful Pacifica Beach (stopped at Rockaway Beach). We joined up with the I.N.C.H. (Intrepid Northern California Hikers) group. They do some seriously hard hikes here in the Bay Area. This one was rated a Level 2 hike (out of 5).

The hike was a loop of pieces of Sweeney Ridge Trail, Baquiano Trail, and Mori Ridge Trail

Anyway, while on Mori Ridge Trail, I made a comment about the Sharp Park Golf Course, which you can see from the trail (we had some beautiful views today - a bit too much wind for my liking, but the views were great). A delightful woman we were hiking with, who shall remain nameless, said:

I don’t think I’ll ever golf.
It’s like playing fetch with yourself.

I Loved It!

However, the way I play, it’s often more like an Easter Egg Hunt while I search for my ball in the rough.

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Sony Vaio UX Running Mac OS X At The Hockey Game!

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 28, 2008
in Entertainment, Gadgets, Mac OS X, Mobile and Technology
. 0 Comments

So, I’m at the Sharks hockey game last night, and I notice a guy a couple rows in front of me using a Sony Vaio UX Micro PC. Hey, it’s the Bay Area. People bring high-tech gadgets to hockey games. That’s just how we roll out here.

No big deal, right?

Well, I look a bit closer, and the device appears to be running Mac OS X! WTF?

Furthermore, the Dock appears to be a Leopard Dock, not a Tiger Dock, so I think the device is running Mac OS X 10.5, even…

Geeks.

Sheesh.

Of course, then I get a pang of jealousy.

After all, it is a 1.2 pound device running Leopard…

Geeks (including me).

Sheesh.

Poking around on Google, I find an old article about getting Mac OS X (which they call Mac OSuX for this device) on the Sony Vaio UX. Lots of scary stuff in there. Just get a Macbook Air. The picture above is from jkOnTheRun (i.e., is not a picture of the guy a couple rows in front of me).

So, you know what this means?

It means that you can develop iPhone applications on your mobile phone!

Only in the Bay Area…

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All Joe Thornton, All The Time

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 28, 2008
in Entertainment and Personal
. 1 Comment


Photo courtesy of David M*

My wife and I love the San Jose Sharks. We share season tickets with a set of family and friends. The Sharks fans really know how to support their team and make every game a fun event.

We attended last night’s game against the Dallas Stars. And won in overtime. I’ve gotta say. The overtime victories, where you come from behind to tie it and force the overtime, then go on to win it decisively in overtime, are the best!

The San Jose Mercury News covers it well. The first period was a sleeper, with the Sharks looking like they were on Spring Break, but the final two periods (and the ever-so-brief overtime) was hockey bliss.

My favorite player, the one on my Sharks jersey, is Joe Thornton. The man is an assist machine. Last night, he:

  • Took a great pass from Grier to score the tying goal that kicked it into overtime
  • Saved us from Dallas getting an easy winning goal (by mere inches)
  • Set up a perfect pass to Marleau for the overtime win

Thornton is worth every penny.

This was a key victory.

Go Sharks!

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Taking A Wii

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 27, 2008
in Entertainment, Gadgets, Mobile and Personal
. 0 Comments

image OK.

We broke down.

We got a Wii.

I’m not a big gamer. I do own a PSP, but I rarely play. I don’t own any other consoles, though my daughter did have a Playstation 2 for a while, and I spent way too many hours playing Grand Theft Auto. Oh, and I used to play Doom when it first came out on the PC. Mostly deathmatch with my co-workers at Sun Microsystems. Sun had a great (internal) multiplayer Doom system back in the mid-1990’s - it even ran on Solaris! I even had short bouts with Quake and Descent. Yeah, I’m old.

OK, so maybe I’m a bit of a gamer.

I am Male, after all.

But, I never really liked the current game controllers. The controller interface to the games is way too complicated and unnatural. Yeah, we’re back to that "old" thing…

So, my evil strategy for getting a Wii was to wait for my wife to decide that we really needed it. And, a couple of weeks back, the Sunday Best Buy ad said that each store had 15 in stock, so we pounced and got it!

And, the results are in.

The Wii is incredibly accessible to kids of all ages.

I went to Oregon to visit with my folks. They are in their 70’s. We had a blast playing golf and bowling, with an occasional tennis match thrown in. But nobody wanted to box against me. Tons of good laughs. Well worth the price.

And, since the Wii is such a small package, it was very easy to tote along with us. It’s my new, favorite, mobile gaming platform!

Recommended.

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Brain Fitness Program and VMware Fusion

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 25, 2008
in Entertainment, Personal, Software, Startups and Virtualization
. 4 Comments

image image  image

My wife and I listen to National Public Radio almost exclusively when in the car these days. And, living in the Bay Area, you are in the car a lot. Trust me.

So, we make sure to donate to KQED, our local station, every year. And, with that donation, you often get a gift in return.This year, we received Brain Fitness Program Classic.

That’s a fantastic gift, and one that we were certainly looking forward to receiving. Because, hey, we all need to keep our brains sharp, right? We can’t just rely on blogging to do it, can we? No. I didn’t think so.

The product arrived today!

Installation into Windows was a snap, but it wouldn’t run:

image

The error message is: "Protected program can not be run under virtual machine!"

Now, why would they do that?

So, the problem is that we run our Windows system under VMware Fusion on our Apple iMac computer. Works great and saves electricity (two computers and only one plug in the wall).

However, the fine folks at PositScience that created the Brain Fitness Program seem to specifically check if their application is running on a virtual machine, and refuses to start!

That’s ridiculous.

I now have no way to run the program.

Ridiculous.

Harumpf.

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Fake Steve at EclipseCon 2008

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 18, 2008
in Blogging, Entertainment, Mac OS X, Open Source and Technology
. 1 Comment

steve4 daniellyons

Dan Lyons, aka Fake Steve Jobs, won the keynote slot at EclipseCon and, as expected, gave a very entertaining keynote address. Excellent choice. Refreshingly irreverent.

Dan takes no prisoners. Every big tech company is fair game, and he calls it like he sees it. Something that he cannot do at Forbes. The Fake Steve blog now generates a nice 1 Million pageviews per month.

Some snippets that caught my funny bone:

  • “Mainstream media is like the COBOL programmers…”
  • “I’m a Mac fan. Here with my MacBook Air, that’s didn’t work - that’s why I love Apple. But, it’s so beautiful… and only 3 pounds!”
  • Dan likens Apple to a cult rather than a product company. He says, “If the Church of Scientology made computer products, they would be Apple.”
  • “You look up narcissist in the dictionary and there he (Steve Jobs) is.”
  • Great photos of Uncle Ballster and Dr. Stevil (which I can’t find to link to right now).
  • Lots of Sun and Jonathan Schwartz bashing (I spent 7 years at Sun Microsystems, so I could certainly relate). Such as, “There’s always some new line of bullshit from Sun.”
  • On IBM: “They’re the worst company in the world to deal with as a reporter.”

Anyway. Tune into his blog for more laughs.

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Full Tilt Time Wasting

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on August 5, 2007
in Entertainment, Mac OS X and Startups
. 0 Comments

A good friend suggested that I try FullTiltPoker.net.

She is no longer a good friend.

Permit me to explain.

She plays a lot of Poker. Real poker, against real people, at real tables, for real money. Texas Hold ‘Em mostly. She’s quite good.

I play a bit of pretend poker. Fake poker, for fake money. I’m OK. But, I’m really not much of a gambler. Yeah, I’m an entrepreneur, and some people think of that profession as "gambling" but it’s really not. There is luck involved, to be sure, but that’s not quite the same as gambling. I do enjoy poker, however. Very entertaining.

Anyway, my friend mentioned that she’ll login to Full Tilt Poker to get a quick poker fix in the morning.

I surveyed some of the available (FREE) online poker playing, but very few had support for the Apple Mac OS X system. However, Full Tilt Poker did! I had no excuse. I had to download the client and give it a try.

Wow.

The application is really well done. Gameplay is very good (except when you have somebody at the table with a sketchy internet connection). The graphics and animations are nice. Sound is decent. Gameplay is pretty quick (play 70 hands per hour easily). Play with fake money. Re-fill your fake chips every 5 minutes (if you lose it that quickly, which is quite likely when you get started). Makes it very easy to try different playing strategies. It’s awesome!

Now, they do have a real money side of the site as well. I watched a heads-up match where the pot was $44,700 for a single hand. Crazy. It can be entertaining to just watch. The real-money online tables play hands much faster than the real-money tables at a casino, so you can win it faster (or lose it faster). I just play the free chips and leave the real-money play to the professionals.They have every possible poker game you can imagine - Hold ‘Em, Omaha High/Low, Omaha High, Stud High/Low, Stud High, Razz, Multi-table Tournaments, and lots of events. All really well done.

Now, I wouldn’t necessarily call this "Massive Multiplayer" at this stage. I’ve only noticed about 60,000 people playing on the site at one time (but, to be fair, I haven’t really looked very often).

Bottom line: Full Tilt Poker is tons of fun. And, it’s FREE. However, it just ate a week of my life. Yikes. Now, I need to exercise a little self restraint!

Do not download this application unless you, too, would like to say goodbye to a week (or more) of your life.

Enjoy!

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Scott Adams on Dilbert at EclipseCon 2007

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on March 7, 2007
in Entertainment, Software, Startups and Venture Capital
. 1 Comment

Scott Adams, creator of Dilbert, did a great job with the EclipseCon 2007 Keynote talk on Tuesday.

While the talk was certainly entertaining, the thing I liked most about his talk was the focus on things like "failure", "timing","luck", and "persistence".

Scott pointed out that his "list of failures" got to 29 items before he stopped counting. Of those 29 failures, most would have been successes had they been shifted forward or backward in time by as little as 5 years. As I’ve said before, timing is everything. Startups are often too early to market. Lots of VC-backed startups do not have the patience to wait for the market to catch up to them. Patience.

In addition to his 29 failures, Scott did recognize 3 successes. And, certainly, a bit of luck played a part in the successes.

However, Scott’s spin on "lucky" and "unlucky" people was interesting. Lucky people are those that expect success to happen to them and, as a result, they have a broader perspective of the world around them. Unlucky people do not expect success and often miss the signs that would otherwise drive them toward the right opportunity. Interesting. Don’t forget to look around.

Finally, don’t ever give up. Be persistent. Create a "product". Create lots of products. Something will eventually stick, perhaps with that component of "luck" playing its part when you least expect it.

Nothing in here about Eclipse or EclipseCon 2007. Still, very well done, informative and entertaining.

Be sure to take a look at the Dilbert Blog.

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You Are Spider-Man

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on January 2, 2007
in Entertainment and Personal
. 0 Comments

Spotted this on TechCrunch.

As a Superhero, looks like I am Spider-Man (or, Iron Man, as the mood suits):

Your results:

You are Spider-Man

Spider-Man
80%
Iron Man
80%
The Flash
75%
Superman
70%
Green Lantern
65%
Robin
58%
Supergirl
58%
Catwoman
50%
Hulk
50%
Wonder Woman
43%
Batman
35%
You are intelligent, witty,
a bit geeky and have great
power and responsibility.

Click here to take the “Which Superhero are you?” quiz…
As a Super Villain, looks like I am Dr. Doom:

Your results:

You are Dr. Doom

Dr. Doom
76%
Apocalypse
64%
Lex Luthor
61%
Juggernaut
60%
Poison Ivy
58%
Dark Phoenix
58%
Magneto
58%
Mystique
56%
Kingpin
54%
Mr. Freeze
53%
Catwoman
53%
Venom
48%
The Joker
47%
Green Goblin
44%
Riddler
32%
Two-Face
28%
Blessed with smarts and power but burdened by vanity.

Click here to take the “Which Super Villain are you?” quiz…
As a kid, The Flash was my favorite. I’m off by just 5%. I’ll take it.

I grew up reading and collecting comic books. Still have an old box in the garage with some nice ones saved away for a rainy day.

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Questions To Ask Before Marriage

Published
by
Brian Berliner
on December 21, 2006
in Entertainment and Personal
. 0 Comments

Well, just moments after I announce my engagement, I stumble upon the following New York Times article, Questions Couples Should Ask (Or Wish They Had) Before Marrying.

Here they are:

  1. Have we discussed whether or not to have children, and if the answer is yes, who is going to be the primary care giver?
  2. Do we have a clear idea of each other’s financial obligations and goals, and do our ideas about spending and saving mesh?
  3. Have we discussed our expectations for how the household will be maintained, and are we in agreement on who will manage the chores?
  4. Have we fully disclosed our health histories, both physical and mental?
  5. Is my partner affectionate to the degree that I expect?
  6. Can we comfortably and openly discuss our sexual needs, preferences and fears?
  7. Will there be a television in the bedroom?
  8. Do we truly listen to each other and fairly consider one another’s ideas and complaints?
  9. Have we reached a clear understanding of each other’s spiritual beliefs and needs, and have we discussed when and how our children will be exposed to religious/moral education?
  10. Do we like and respect each other’s friends?
  11. Do we value and respect each other’s parents, and is either of us concerned about whether the parents will interfere with the relationship?
  12. What does my family do that annoys you?
  13. Are there some things that you and I are NOT prepared to give up in the marriage?
  14. If one of us were to be offered a career opportunity in a location far from the other’s family, are we prepared to move?
  15. Does each of us feel fully confident in the other’s commitment to the marriage and believe that the bond can survive whatever challenges we may face?

The good news. Amy and I have covered most of these already.

Heck, even if you’re married, these are good discussion points to review at your anniversary with your spouse.

In my opinion, the key ones here are: communication, money management, and a similar moral compass.

Oh, and did I mention Communication?

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