Author Archives: Brian

My fearsome Jade Empire name

After reading this post at Joystiq, I figured I’d give the Jade Empire Name Generator a try (even though I don’t even own the game). Some of the examples given are “Sagacious Zu, Radiant Jen Zi, and Lu the Prodigy”. What would my name be? Surely something to strike fear into the hearts of men, right? I put in my name and here’s what I get back:
Gracious Brian Pu

Are you scared? I didn’t think so.


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Laptop virus definitions 76 months old

Remember the old laptop I mentioned that I was getting? Well, I got it. The bad news is that it has no PS/2 port so I can’t use it in my MP3 jukebox like I wanted to – the keyboard hack I have done is only for a PS/2 keyboard. Oh well.

Here’s something funny though….when I boot it up it says the virus definitions are 76 months old. GEEZ! I wonder if that is a record for the most out-of-date virus scanner?


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Mastering the Xbox Controller

I’m proud of my daughter for many things. She’s smart, polite, kind, loving, and she plays well with others (just to name a few). Here’s one more thing that makes me proud.

The other day she wanted to play a game on the Xbox while I was on the computer so I threw in the Wallace and Gromit game and tried to get something done real quick before she got stuck and needed help. She really hadn’t figured out the controller yet – it takes a lot of coordination to use an Xbox controller when you’re four.

After a few minutes I realized she hadn’t asked for help yet so I turned around in my seat (the TV is behind me when I’m sitting at the computer), and lo and behold, she had figured out the controller. Just like that. I watched her run Gromit up to a platform and easily jump right up. I kept watching and it was blatantly obvious she had finally gotten the hang of it.

I am so proud.

Podcaster tip – tag with id3v1 also

So I noticed something a while back but have just now decided to write (type?) it down. Some podcasters (especially those using iTunes to tag their MP3s) are not tagging their files with id3v1 – they are only using v2. Why is that a big deal? Well, here’s one reason…..the AudioScrobbler plugins (at least the Foobar plugin anyway) look at the id3v1 tags so if you don’t have v1, you don’t get indexed at AudioScrobbler. Not a huge deal, but why wouldn’t you do that one extra step to get linked/posted at AudioScrobbler? Here are some podcasts/artsist on AudioScrobbler that are similar to Adam Curry. If your podcast is not tagged with id3v1, you won’t EVER show up on that list or anywhere on AudioScrobbler.

BTW- here is my AudioScrobbler page: http://www.last.fm/user/brianpipa

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