PS3 - It only DID everything

So I have long been contemplating creating a separate blog for how much I hate misleading marketing or otherwise abusive behavior against consumers, but considering how little I have been blogging my personal life, there doesn't seem to be much justification for maintaining two separate blogs, so here goes.

When the "It only does everything" campaign launched, I just about applauded, because Sony's marketing team had finally captured the appeal of the PS3 versus competing products. At launch time, it was a hard sell to justify the initial PS3's $599 (USD) price tag versus the XBOX360's $399 price. Those, like me, who did choose the PS3 at launch did so because of technologies it supported that its competitors did not -- BluRay, SACD, BlueTooth, HDD upgrades, various memory cards, WiFi, PS2 games, and Linux. I was personally sold on many of those features because I had never owned a device that supported those features (with the exception of HDD upgrades and WiFi on my Mac), so I felt I was bundling over $600 worth of devices into a single purchase.

Unfortunately, Sony's timing with the ad is terrible. At the time this campaign began, many of the aforementioned features had been removed from the latest iteration of the hardware. Obviously, those who already owned PS2s and Linux PCs probably wouldn't have found much value in paying a premium to have PS2 and Linux support on yet another device, so in order to improve sales, Sony entered a lower price point by removing features. While an understandable business decision, we can effectively say the PS3 no longer does "everything".

To make matters worse, Sony decided to retroactively remove the "OtherOS" feature from existing PS3s, thereby removing any existing Linux partitions on consumer's PS3s. Sony suggested that the change was out of fear that consumers would do too much “tinkering” through Linux – which, in all fairness, is a pretty accurate description of the Linux experience. Sony is now being sued for the decision.

Sony has defended their position saying that “OtherOS” was never advertised, despite official documentation on their website, press statements, and the fact that it was always right there in the menu. Granted, not all consumers cared, but for the same reason, not all consumers are aware of the SIXAXIS feature, which has only been ambiguously advertised, allowing Sony to make claims now that they are finally "breaking into the motion gaming business" despite having supported motion gaming since launch.

Sony is essentially suggesting either that the ability to run Linux didn't impact consumers' purchase decision, or that any consumer who DID use Linux isn't legally represented by this case. Personally, the support for Linux convinced me to make the purchase before waiting for any inevitable drop in price because I was a computer engineering student and felt that building my Linux skills would be vital in getting a good job down the road. (In this same fashion, I originally bought a Mac because its developer tools helped me build my Java skills.) Many consumers probably found as I did that a wired keyboard is impractical from a typical living room viewing distance, so when Sony released its wireless keyboard peripheral, I bought that accessory with the SOLE INTENT of using it with Linux.

Sony finally has cited that consumers do not "own" the software and therefore should not be able to complain about changes. I see several flaws with this logic. First, Sony's HDD is not proprietary; it is a generic FAT32-partitioned 2.5" drive, and the consumer is free to place SW data OWNED BY THE CONSUMER onto the "OtherOS" partition as I had done. Sony is free to patch their own SW all they want, but that legal freedom does not extend to SW owned by other parties, including the Yellow Dog Linux OS and data installed and/or authored by me.

This distinction that Sony owns the GameOS/OtherOS and that I own the data I put on the HDD exposes an additional legal flaw. If I have valuable data on my HDD, back it up to an external drive with the backup wizard, and pull the internal HDD to save two precious copies of my data, you would think my data is safe, right? On the contrary. If the PS3 has to be serviced, Sony does not "fix" your unit. Instead, the unit is replaced, and the new unit recognizes that your HDD was used in a different unit and therefore will be erased. Furthermore, the external backup will only PARTIALLY restore for the same reason. Sony is effectively saying that they own not only their OS but also every byte of data you load into their enclosure.

So here's to the PS3, which truly DID everything once upon a time.

I ♥ NY

With all the traveling I do, I should have more opportunities to blog, considering how I'm deprived whatever opportunities require me to be home. And yet, with all the crazy stories I have on the road, I've found myself thinking so much about life at home that I forgot how entertaining my travels really are. So I've decided to remind myself and pick this whole blog thing back up.

Before I get to my recent trip through New York, I want to reflect on that whole I♥NY thing. I mean, how did that ad campaign become so huge? We've used the heart symbol to be cutesy in other situations... Sony Ericsson even replaced the heart with their (our) own logo to build a corporate identity in phrases like "I [Sony Ericsson] shaking it up", but even all the money we put into that campaign can't rival the popularity of the I♥NY campaign that's been running since the NY Department of Commerce paid for its creation in 1977. Of course, that campaign really picked up steam after 9/11.

A similar anti-negative sentiment (I'm sure there's a more appropriate term for it) has surfaced on MSN messenger by users in China. In response to all the air-time that's been given to the protests following the Olympic Torch (against Chinese occupation of Tibet), many Chinese have changed their MSN screen names to include ♥China. Only problem is, why raise a flag when the only people who are going to see it are other Chinese... and freaks like me who have random MSN buddies in China? My old college roommate Billy (gave me some of the best blog material ever) considered using other icons supported by MSN such as ♥Tibet or [broken heart]China, but upon deciding to go with [vomit]China, he got a verbal smack-down on MSN from his girlfriend in Shanghai.

So as much as I've wanted to go to NYC for a long time, having only flown over it to study in Rochester or driven around it to go to Boston, I finally got closer than I've ever been to visiting NYC: making a connection in JFK airport. Worst airport experience... ever.

OK so I had to book a flight to Mexico for work, but the prices shot through the roof (due to Cinco de Mayo? which apparently isn't even really a big deal here in Mexico City... they get a day off work the week BEFORE for an unrelated holiday, but nobody gets May 5th off). The cheapest flight I ended up finding was on American Airlines' website aa.com. Somehow, this flight, originating in North Carolina, flew north to connect in New York before going to Mexico. My coworker Glen matched the flight. From here on out, I think I need to shift gears so you can appreciate the experience:

In RDU, I check in to my AA flight with the AAdvantage/First Class kiosk. Only one boarding ticket is pritned, and there is nobody around to take my baggage. So I go across the room to the Economy line where there is a guy checking bags. I hear a voice call my name from where I was minutes earlier, so I walk back through the crowd to the AAdvantage line.

AA Agent: I'm DEEPLY Sorry for the wait. You're traveling to Mexico?
Me: Yes, but I only have one boarding pass to JFK...
AA Agent: OK... enjoy your flight!

The plane is a baby jet that doesn't allow carry-ons bigger than purses, so I "valet check" the other bag. Arriving in JFK, I meet my co-worker coming off the plane.

Glenn: Ahh, so you were on the plane after all. Didn't see you.
Me: I was in the first row with my head tilted so it wouldn't go through the ceiling.
Glenn: Gotcha. Well I'm gonna ask where our next gate is 'cause I don't see it listed on my boarding pass.
Me: You have a boarding pass? They didn't give me one...
Glenn: Yup. The machine said "see agent" so they gave me one at the counter. I guess it's because Aeromexico is SkyTeam and AmericanAirlines is OneWorld...
Me: OK whatever. That just means I need to check in when we get to the gate. No biggy.

Glenn goes on ahead while I wait for my "valet checked" bag along with a dozen others at the gate where such bags are to be dropped off. 10 minutes later we learn the gate is broken, so we march back outside to claim our bags. I catch up with Glenn.

Glenn: OK, apparently it's in another Terminal. The agent told me we have to take the AirTrain to Terminal 3.
Well let's get going. Where is this AirTrain?
Glenn: The agent said to follow the green signs to ground transportation.

We walk for about 15 minutes until the final green sign points us past baggage claim and out across the street to the AirTrain.

Me: So this means we have to go through security again?
Glenn: Looks that way... let's hop on the train.

We get on. The train has no map, only a chart showing which airlines operate out of which of the 8 terminals. There is also a marquee displaying the name of the next stop... something along the lines of "Howard Beach".

Me: Are we even going the right way? Howard beach doesn't sound like the name of a terminal.
Glenn: I thought I saw a map that shows this as a big oval, so it shouldn't matter which way we go.
Woman: Where are you trying to go?
Me: Terminal...
Woman: No no no this train goes AWAY from the airport. You need to go TO the airport.
Me: OK, let's hop on the other side. What Terminal are we heading to anyway?
Glenn: The agent said Terminal 3.
Me: Wait... this chart says... aren't we on Aeromexico? That's Terminal 1.
Glenn: She said 3...
Me: OK 3, 3... 3 is Delta... and... oh and US Helicopters. That's it. So unless we're riding a helicopter all the way down, we must be checking in with Delta... hmm... wait... Terminal 2 is Delta First Class? So what, the front of the plane is in a different terminal than the back of the plane? Oh and Delta medallion is Terminal 2... so, we're medallion but we're not flying first class. Do we board from the terminal where the front of the plane is sitting and walk through this apparently mammath inter-terminal plane to the back where we're sitting? This airport makes no sense!

We get off at Termainal 2/3 (they're the same stop). We cross several streets and arrive at a fork where you go different ways around the building depending on whether or not you're flying first class. We go the standard class and walk and walk until getting to some ticketing kiosks. I put in my Delta ID card.

Me: This machine says it can't read my card.
Agent: Here, you need to do it slower.
Me: ... it still doesn't work.
Agent: How about a credit card?
Me: ... ok now it can read it, but it says I'm not on a Delta flight.
Agent: ... well... ARE YOU on a Delta flight?
Me: ... well, I'm on the same flight as THIS guy.
Agent: Well let me check him in then.
Glenn: I already have my boarding pass.
Agent: ... Ok well here's the deal. While it may SAY ***BOARDING PASS*** on it, that doesn't mean it's really a boarding pass.
Glenn: It... what?
Agent: Here let me check you in Sir. ... Ok here's your boarding pass. You're all set.
Me: OK so can you check me in now?
Agent: This woman can help you.
Me: ...
Agent2: (chatting with some friends behind the ticketing counter)
Me: ...
Agent2: Sir, give me your ID. I can do two things at once you know.
Me: ...
Agent2: Ok, my system says you're not on a Delta flight.
Me: I am on the same flight as this guy.
Glenn: Well it's "Aeromexico operated by Delta".
Me: Let me pull up my confirmation
Agent2: Yes, if you have your confirmation number, that'll help a lot.
Me: Here is the number I got from American Airlines
Agent2: Sir, this isn't American Airlines.
Me: I understand but... ok it says my flight number is 405
Agent2: 405? Well I can tell you right now we don't have any flight 405.
Me: What?
Agent2: Let me check something... yes that's an Aeromexico flight. You need to check in with them in Terminal 1.
Me: I was... just in Terminal 1.
Agent2: Just go out this door and make a left and another left.

I go outside and find two Delta employees chatting with each other.

Me: Excuse me, how do I get to Terminal 1?
Woman: You need to cross the street and the next street and around to the AirTrain.
Man: What? Terminal 1? No you need to go down this way and take a left and keep going.
Woman: He doesn't want to walk all that way!
Man: He can walk! A little exercise is good for ya!
Woman: I wouldn't want to walk that far.
Man: Well this man can walk and I think...

I just walk away in the direction of the terminal, leaving the voices behind me, crossing several intersections with my roller bag and no sidewalks. I get to Terminal 1 and find Aeromexico. I don't really remember what I said to the agent, but there was practically nobody in the terminal and she looked bored. I checked in and she had to ask somebody how to say "Window or aisle?" in English and before I could answer she said something along the lines of "Well, you have a Window so go that way." I go through security and she wizzes by me while I'm taking my shoes off. I arrive at the gate and they start boarding.

Agent: We are now boarding First Class and Elite passengers.

My ticket says Elite 'cause I'm super awesome like that. I run up to the special line. When I get to the front, the agent pulls the rope in front of me, seeing I am neither rich enough for first class nor Mexican enough to have earned AeroMexicoPremier status.

Agent: Premier, sir.
Me: Elite, see?

She squints at my ticket for awhile then decides to let me through. Skip ahead to arrival in Mexico. I zip through immigration and wait at baggage claim and watch as they unload 4 planes of luggage, one after another, and my bag never comes through. I put on my "I'm lost" face.

Agent: Senor?
Me: My bag didn't come.
Agent: Que?
Me: um... Mi... um... no esta aqui.
Agent: flight?
Me: Aeromexico 405.
Agent: is here.

I look around for another 20 minutes and talk to the agent again. He finally bursts out a bunch of Spanish I can't understand and when I explain Mexico City is my final destination he points to another counter where I wait in line behind an Israeli man whose family is trying desperately to catch their 4-year-old running on the baggage conveyor belts. I get to the front of the line and report the baggage. I finally get to go through customs where they ask why I have more baggage listed than I am carrying. I am able to explain somehow in broken Spanish. Then comes the fun part.

In Mexico, customs is... special. You VOLUNTARILY declare what you bring. However, after your bags go through the x-ray, you have to press a button. Yes, that's right, there's a table with a button on it. It doesn't take your photo or read your thumbprint, it's just a stupid button. Like the Circuit City "Easy Button". Normally, you press it, nothing happens, and you go on with your merry life. About one in every dozen people or so has a different experience... like mine was this time. Pressing the button in this rare case makes a red light turn on which means the airport can now have its way with you. They go through your bag, and if they find anything that they could consider commercial merchandise, they charge you hundreds of dollars... right there, on the spot, cash only. Luckily my big bag was missing so I lucked out. I made it out, got a "low-carb burger" at Carl's Jr., and began my week without any clothes. At least my 300lb co-worker offered to let me borrow some of his.

Memory

How precious are our memories. I have been thinking about that sentiment lately and what it's like for those of us who have less than reliable recall. After accepting the lifestyle changes that go along with weak memory, the hardest part is accepting the impact on other people's perceptions. Credibility becomes a major issue -- not always because they doubt the reliability of your memory, but because they doubt your integrity and core values.

If a student, for example, completes their homework but forgets to hand it in, studies all week but forgets to set their alarm for the big test, or forgets the instructions for an assignment, the teacher will dismiss the lapse in memory as intentional or even "carelessness". If one lover asks another "do you remember that time..." an the response is "no", this simple loss in memory makes it seem to one as if the other doesn't value the time they spent together.

A couple of months ago, work brought me into a Borders in Atlanta. I came across a book entitled Japanese Cooking at Home. Inside I found the recipe for 親子丼, which is one of my fondest memories from Japan as far as food goes. This may be the only book I've bought all year (pitiful, I know). I shared it with my girlfriend, and a week later she asked me "How salty is donburi supposed to be?" "What?" "The chicken and egg recipe from that book you bought." "What recipe? I bought a book?"

How painful something so fundamentally "good" as love can become when we can no longer share the memories we value. Some people go as far as to intentionally lock those memories away, but in the end, those memories will undeniably fade away. Whether it be in aging or in death, the longevity of our private memories is limited. What is more important is the chance to make those memories and the chance to impact the memories of those around us.

Independence

With graduation comes a sense of accomplishment, relief, or even anticipation. Many people claim that graduation marks the transition into the "real world", but this is often patronizing younger generations as if they have been sheltered all their lives. Of course, I know plenty of people who have graduated and still believe the world revolves around them. No, graduation doesn't inherently MEAN anything -- at least not to me.

Those little pieces of paper that my dean signed say little about my education. Together, they only attest to a fraction of my college experience. Most of my peers sought out degrees to flash in front of employers; they sought professors who would make the journey easy; they sought tactics that would earn a 4.0 GPA on paper without having done any independent work. Not to blow my own horn, but I would rather fail a class than cheat; I would rather have high grade point TOTAL than AVERAGE; I would rather take classes I'm BAD AT than finish a semester on the dean's list. To me, college was a time to learn something, not a time to impress people on paper. If you were to include the classes I audited, I have around 230 undergraduate credit hours compared to the 130 required for my combined degrees.

But then, graduation means the same as dropping out. It isn't an accomplishment -- it's a transition. Is it independence? Not usually. The government is running out of funding for benefit programs, so our generation has to start saving for retirement as early as possible. We are slaves to money, which makes us slaves to our jobs, slaves to responsibility... which isn't always so bad if you don't mind being a slave. American sentiments make this difficult to accept.

I read in "Polite Fictions" that Americans push independence culturally, whereas Japanese push interdependence. Why would Americans not want to belong to something greater? The military makes soldiers proud to belong, and children everywhere hate feeling outcast... so how is it we as Americans dream of independence knowing quite well it is unattainable in any industrial society? The closer together we all become, the greater the appeal to fantasy games that appeal to the need for independence. I'm losing focus on what my point was at this late hour, but to me, independence is the great joy of being out of school... and unemployed. v_v

In any case, I have purchased a domain name to celebrate my independence. I have also (as you may have noticed) redesigned the site. It's all hand-coded, so I hope to get some feedback. Keep your eyes peeled at crockettquest.com for future updates!

I get around

This post is a bit long. Not really worth the read. It's just old (originally from july 13 2005) and needed to be posted. Oh but check me out in the NUPACE ad below.


So what, you may wonder, did I do with all my time in Japan? Well, at least pretend like you have some interest; after all, you are reading my blog. Aside from going to Japanese lessons, studying Japanese culture, and pretty much being an all-around lousy student, I enjoy a uniquely Japanese lifetsyle I will dearly miss when I go back home. Let me paint you a picture of a typical day.

Most mornings I wake up, almost too sore from exercising the day before to even move. I manage to turn and look at the clock and realize either I've slept through 2 of 3 of my alarms, or the sun has woken me up long before my alarms are set to go off. In the latter case, it must be a day I don't have an 8:45 class, so I stay in bed a little longer, enjoying the peace and qu...

「みんなさん、おはようございます。今日、シーツなんですけど、blah blah blah blah」

ARGH, stupid intercom system. I want to just shut off power to my whole room from the circuit breaker. But then my robotic air conditioning arm wouldn't continue to pacify me through its hypnotic swing. Besides, today is the sheet washing service day, which is much more convenient than washing it on my own, especially given the amount of quality time I spend in bed (NOT NEARLY ENOUGH).

So, on go some clothes, off go the sheets, and we'll skip the rest of the morning routine. Anyway, more often than I'd like to admit, I'm nearly out the door of my building, having reached the lobby from the 5th floor, when I realize I'm still wearing my indoor slippers. These are necessary because the Japanese custom of removing shoes in certain rooms of the dorm is a real pain when you have to unlace and lace them every time you want to grab something from the refridgerator, watch TV, etc. So anyway, back up to the 5th floor to swap out my shoes, and I'm off to school.

Of course by now I've had more delays than I accounted for despite setting my alarms earlier, so I'm late to Japanese class. Every day of the week has a different concentration. For example, Monday is reading day, where the teacher just ignores me because, unlike the rest of the class (with the exception of the perfect Indonesians), I'm not Chinese and can't just skim all the kanji (Chinese characters used in higher level Japanese writing) to get the message of the passage. Perhaps my favorite day is the conversation grammar day, where we learn 3 ways to say everything. For example, the key phrase to forward a message a friend gave you is ～てって, unless you are talking to superior, in which case you have to make it longer to make it more polite. In the case of a senior student, or 先輩, you say ～ように言われたんですが. In the case of a professor, you have to say ～ていただけないかとおっしゃっていました, which has to be the longest jargon of meaningless kissing up I've ever heard. All three of these phrases basically translate to "said".

After Japanese, since I've exhausted the supply of English-instruction engineering courses offered, I go to a random culture course, be it a comparison of American/Japanese cultural perceptions, a course on cross-cultural training, or even a Japanese history class. But that's not as exciting as is the fact that western professors get absolutely no feedback from the Japanese students in these courses unless they are directly called upon. Through these courses, I've also been exposed to a lot of West meets East films, such as Gung Ho and Tampopo.

Ok I wrote most of this stuff a year ago... so I'm gonna go ahead and post it. Nobody really cares about day-to-day life in Japan (except for our all-you-can-drink self-introduction parties every week). After all, most of my fun "getting around" involved the Korean... incident. I know what everybody REALLY wants to read: the Billy/Lily updates. Oh yes, by popular demand, they may be posted here. I just have to sort through and see if there's any offensive content first.

Unconditional Love

In honor of Valentine's Day...
no... In honor of White Day....

OK, so it's been a while since I've had the time to work on this thing. Truth be known, I have errands I should be doing right now. But I have 3 half-written blog entries that need to be posted. One is dated as far back as July 2005.

I've been thinking a lot about love, and so I started writing this entry on Valentine's Day. Short on time, I thought White Day (Pi Day here) would be a good chance to post it. In Japan, Valentine's Day is a chance for women to give gifts to men. One month later, White Day is an obligation for men to give something to every woman who gave him something for White Day. I guess this is a way to encourage Japanese to get past their shyness. (HAHA from now on, Super Mario Shy Guys are "Japanese Masqueraders" in my book.)

What's been on my mind lately is the ideal of unconditional love. Raised in a Christian home, I heard this term a lot, and it's hardly exclusive to any one religion. (Grace may be the one thing exclusive to Christianity.)

Is unconditional love pracical in today's society? Jesus said if a man asks you to walk a mile, walk two. If anybody asks you for something, give it to them without question. I'm thinking, children who follow this advice will go without lunch money on a day to day basis. A few greedy gluttons will be able to live a very happy life.

With some obvious reservations, I still try to demonstrate unconditional love as much as possible. Unfortunately, I've tried to be loving to a lot of people who maybe aren't used to the attention, so they in turn think they've fallen in love. Hard thing to do, tell somebody "you're not in love with me". Hard thing too, when some of these people expect sex, only to hear me say "not interested". In the end, how am I expected to be loving without eventually hurting somebody?

I'm not especially interested in having a foreign girlfriend, but if I am fair to everybody, equally loving to everybody... the foreigners notice it more. It's not a fetish; it's just statistics.

Free? Free?! It must be a scam!

I know I've talked about having left a lot of money and store credit behind in Japan, but what little I had left in my bank account here at home has just been consumed by a company that goes by Vital Basics, Inc. I had serious difficulties with this past semester's courseload, getting the worst grades of my college career thus far, for all sorts of reasons:

• my natural auditory deficiency -- I can post more details on this, but you might compare this to ADD or dyslexia in terms of contribution to study difficulties
• fatigue from going straight into the fall semester from my summer semester in japan
• inability to sleep due to my roommate and his girlfriend arguing every night at the top of their lungs until 3am
• reverse culture shock
  

So, it occurred to me that I could use some extra help focusing in class. Every day my roommate wuld turn on The Daily Show or just leave the TV on while making dinner and I'd see commercials for this supplement, Focus Factor. The original Focus Factor TV ad went something like this:

Free? Free?! You're giving it away free?

Hi I'm Rob Gray; I'm the president of Vital Basics, and I wanna give you a bottle of Focus Factor, one of our best-selling supplements, absolutely free. Why would we give away a free bottle of Focus Factor? Because we know that if you'll try it, you'll buy it. Focus Factor contains nutrients that work with your natural brain chemistry to support focus, concentration, and memory. Simply call ... and we'll you a full-size bottle of Focus Factor, absolutely free. You simply provide $4.95 to help cover the cost of shipping.

They let you try it FREE?! It must be good!

After seeing this ad for over a month, I thought I'd give it a try. Sure enough, it turned out to be similar to one of those trial magazine subscriptions where you get a few free before they start charging at the normal rate. The woman on the phone explained to me "If you want to continue receiving bottles of FocusFactor, simply do nothing and we will send out your next shipment in 3 weeks."

One week later, I receive the bottle of Focus Factor. Those pills are huge, impossible to swallow, and have no noticeable affect (unless I can blame the pills for the headaches I got at that time). Just 3 days later, I get a credit statement that I've received two charges from Vital Basics already -- one for $4.95 and one for $69.95. A few days later I try to call, but customer service doesn't have the same hours as the 24-hour promotional number to buy the pills. So I wait another few days and call during their service hours and the guy tells me the next shipment of bottles is on its way and so he can't refund any money until I send them back. So I send back the pills and check my bank statement. An additional $159.85 has been charged to my account. Now nearly a month has passed and still no refund. All I have from Vital Basics is the one "free" bottle, and yet they have not refunded a dime of the $234.75 charged to my credit card.