I played so much multi-player marathon in the mid-late 90’s that I remember those maps as if I actually physically walked them.  Our version of the game was hyper.  We had our own custom physics with punch to fly and modified weapons that shot faster and had bigger clips. It was called Adrenaline. We played a lot of one against one games and team games.  I remember one map was called 101 Deaths Per Minute and it was no lie.  Especially with our Adrenaline physics.  So these sounds take me back.  Hearing them brings up memories of places I never actually were and of things I never actually did.

I tossed together a big batch of marathon ringtones.  It’s basically the full marathon game sound library converted to .m4r’s and zipped up.  Unzip them and drop them in to iTunes, from there copy or sync them to your phone, and they should be ready to use. Continue reading →

I was going to write this cool post on how much I hate those Microsoft “To The Cloud” commercials because they’re about on the same level as the kinds of magical technology that’s found in tv shows and movies..  where hackers type on a computer real fast for a second and are then logged in to a government supercomputer where they can magically open locked doors, change people’s police records, or tap into cameras.  But two problems, one is that someone sort of beat me to the punch, and two is that some of it is sort of possible – even though the commercial is very misleading on many levels.

Still, these commercials are crazy fake. The one that gets my goat the worst is the one that shows a bored couple sitting in an airport, and after the announcer tells them they’re in for even longer wait, the husband says “To The Cloud” and suddenly they are logged into their computer at home, looking for shows that were recorded so they can watch them over the net from the laptop in the airport.  Speaking as someone who actually has a setup that would allow me to do this.. the facts in the ad are complete poppycock!

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Wanting physical media to die is valiant. But the fact is that BluRay is a very convenient way to store the huge chunks of data that is high def movies. Think of this.. if you only rent movies via netflix or apple tv.. you’re never going to get a high quality bandwidth stream. Even watching movies on HD TV is a low bandwidth stream. With current compression technologies (mp4) a good quality stream takes no less than 20 and more like 25 to 30 mps. The best network connection available at my house is pulling down about 20 megs, which isn’t quite enough.. and that’s a burst speed. Sustained, especially if everyone in my neighborhood was doing it simultaneously on a ‘friday movie night’, wouldn’t provide instant access or even same night access. Even when a connection in my modern city gets significantly faster (years and years from now) the connection in less modern cities won’t yet.

Lower bandwidth steams.. like a sub- 5 mps stream of a 720p apple tv rental.. actually looks pretty good. And it’s fine for a lot of viewing.. including sitcoms, kids shows, animation.. but what about when I want to watch the next big action movie like Inception or Batman. I want to see that in real 1920 hd, high bandwidth 1080p. Otherwise why even buy a 1080p tv? If all you’re gonna watch is youtube videos blown up to full screen.. why not just buy a 720p tv?

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