Dylan Greene dot com

I took advantage of being separated from my Xbox and spent the last couple days upgrading this site. Most noticeable is that I made the font smaller. I made this change while using my dad's huge flatscreen, and it looks better here, but hopefully the font is still readable on other computers.

I only use relative font sizes, which means if you change your computer or browser settings to show fonts larger or smaller, the fonts on my site should change size to reflect that. The downside is that there is not a standard size for "medium" - so what might look like a nice readable point size to me might be absurdly small for you.

So, if you can't read this, let me know. :)

After a very nice evening hanging out with my brother and some friends in Baltimore, I parked next to my brother's place about two blocks from Camden Yards. We played some late night Halo 2. I went back to my car and found the following:

Back window broken. Not a good sign.

Everything was there... except a large duffel bag.

The duffel bag has been my standard travel bag ever since I received it as a Bar Mitzvah gift. It's been to Israel, Europe, California, and every business trip I go on. Usually I put my clothes in there.

Inside the duffel bag was my XBOX, 5 controllers, and a CD binder.

The XBOX was an original "launch day" XBOX with an factory-upgraded DVD drive to get rid of the pesky "dirty disk errors." On the hard drive where hundreds of hours of saved games, preferences, my XBOX Live account, and lots of music for games like Burnout 3.

In the CD binder where about 30 games, XBOX Live Beta discs (useless but collectable), and small collection of of XBOX Magazine demo discs.

Also in the bag was the special memory card XBOX Live beta testers received as a thank you, several DVDs I was hoping to watch with my family, and a XBOX Wifi Wireless Access Point so we could have some Halo 2 action at my parent's house after the Thanksgiving Turkey.

Also taken was a loaner laptop from work. Fortunately, it was an old standby machine with nothing important on it (I used it to remote desktop back to my real machine at work). Hopefully my company has insurance for the hardware.

The biggest disappointment is going to be in the morning when I have to face my other siblings, Jared and Stacey. They've been looking forward to some classic Halo 2 and DDR Ultramix 2 sibling rivalry all week long. I think they're going to be more disappointed than I am.

I'm glad nothing else was taken. The only damage to my car seems to be the broken glass. I won't be able to get that fixed until after Thanksgiving, and hopefuly that won't be too much trouble. I had my camera, clothes, and other stuff in the trunk, and thankfully none of that was touched. Next time everything will go in the trunk.

The Good: I'm loving the AudioVox 5600 Smartphone, AT&T's service, the unlimited internet. I'll have an expanded post on this sometime soon.

The Bad: Cingular has bought AT&T, and earlier this week changed all AT&T stores over to Cingular.

The Ugly: Cingular doesn't offer the AudioVox 5600 Smartphone, so they've taken it out of all their stores. Fortunately Amazon still offers the AudioVox for -$25, a great deal for a great phone.

Update: I forgot this when I first posted this message. When in buildings I sometimes see the provider change from "AT&T Wireless" to "310410" and the phone thinks its roaming. I've looked at my bill and haven't seen any roaming charges. So what does 310410 mean?

Tomorrow I'll be going to the World Cafe Live in Philadelphia to see my cousin, Matt Mayers, perform. He's the Mayers of English & Mayers. I'm looking forward to the show and catching up with family.

Matt is also one of the Mayers of the Mayers and Mayers Productions, a production company in Philadelphia that he and his brother, Ryan Mayers, founded this past year. They have some great clips of their work on their web site. Some of my favorites: the promos for CityLivin.com with Fred Barnett, Blackout, and Living History. Ryan and Matt have been making videos ever since we were kids so the fact that they are now doing this for a living is incredibly cool.

From LostRemote.com:

The LA Times reports TiVo is making deals to put up advertiser "billboards" on screen when users fast-forward through the broadcast ads. So far, 30 advertisers have signed up. You'll start to see the meta-ads in March.

For all my complaining about the problems with Halo 2 you'd think I wouldn't recommend the game. Actually I've been playing just about every night and I'm totally hooked, even with the issues I listed, and I still strongly recommendthe game.

Having said that, Microsoft has been listening to the complaints (I wasn't the only one bitching)and has already made available an auto update for Halo 2. Next time you sign onto XBOX Live with Halo 2 it will download and install. It takes about 10 seconds and stores the files on the XBOX hard drive.

The fixes:

• Matchmakingfix- much faster find and connect time, one of my biggest complaints.
• 480p (HDTV) fix - some screens cut off the HUD. This fixes it.
• Foundation - new multiplayer map with support for 4 team CTF.

They still haven't added a server browser.I still hope to see it because there are times I just want to play one or two friends on a server with 14 other people and nobody else on my friends list is online. I'd also like to see even more maps. Bungie (the dev team that made Halo 2) has announced that there will be more downloadable levels but hasn't said when.

Halo 2 has some amazingly cool features.

1. In Campaign mode, there are never any "loading" screens besides a brief one when you first start the game. New levels and cinematics just fluidly happen without any pause. It's magical.
2. On XBOX Live, choose if you want a team game or every-man-for-himself and Halo 2 will find people for you to play against.
3. Halo 2 matches with with people at or around your skill level. 1 is the lowest, 50 is the best.
4. Up to four people can play on one XBOX, even on XBOX Live.

Halo 2 has some amazingly uncool features.

1. Right now there are 68,831 people playing Halo 2 on XBOX Live. Despite that (or because of that?), it takes 2 to 5 minutes to find people and start a multiplayer game. After finishing one round, which usually last about 5 minutes, you're back to the selection screen and have to wait another 2 to 5 minutes for the next game. You cannot continue on the same "server" with the same people. I've read that this was done to make sure you play against a variety of people so your stats will be more accurate, but I'd much prefer to spend more time playing, less time waiting, and make friends with people I'm playing against rather than have a new bunch of strangers every five minutes.
2. For ranked games (which is what everybody seems to be playing), you cannot choose any details besides team game or not. You love King of the Hill but hate Slayer? Too bad. You have a favorite map? Too bad. You want to join a game in progress that your friend is playing? Too bad. You want to increase or decrease the number of players? Too bad. While you can create custom games, there's no way to search for them, so the people that play on your custom server are going to find it randomly.
3. Everybody starts at Skill Level 1, even the Best of the Best. That means for somebody who doesn't play very much like me, I'm getting my ass kicked by all the really good players who are new to XBOX Live. There really should be an option for experienced players to "skip kindergarten" and start right at level 10.
4. If you're buddies don't have XBOX Live accounts, or if they do have accounts but they don't have a copy of their account on your XBOX (which requires a XBOX memory card to do the copy), then you can't join ranked games. This is good for keeping track of the stats, but sucks when friends come over and you just want to play a game. I'm also having the same problem bringing my "Party" into a ranked game.

Ranked games are nice because they effect your level (so that you are playing against people at your skill level) and because all of your stats are tracked online. For example:

• My overall stats
• Every game I've played
• Stats for one of my better games
• Screenshots of every kill in that game (cool, but is there a purpose?)

Some helpful info:

• XBOX Live Matchmaking Playlist details and explanations.
• Find an XBOX Live player to see his or her stats.
• Stats and ranking overview.
• Halo 2 FAQ relating to XBOX Live.
• Explanation of the medals you can earn (but there's no running count so I don't know what the point is.)

The estimates are at $100 million for the first day of sales of Microsoft's new XBOX game.

By comparison, Star Wars: Episode 1 made $64 million in the first weekend. The first Lord of the Rings movie made $66 million the first weekend. The Incredibles made $70 million over the weekend. No other video game has come close to Halo 2's sales numbers.

In addition to 1.5 million pre-sold units, Moore said one retailer sold 8,500 units in the first 11 minutes of sales, while another sold 200,000 units by daybreak Tuesday.

Analysts expect "Halo 2" to sell a total of about 10 million units, with some projecting up to half of those sales coming in November. The original "Halo" sold 5 million units and remains the best seller on the Xbox to date.

At the EBX at the Fair Oaks Mall in Fairfax Virginia near my office, the manager told me they had 200 people in line last night at midnight to get their copies as soon as possible. I opted to stay at home and get some sleep, but now that I have my copy I'm going home to play some Halo 2.

• A non-reviewer's point of view: foO's Halo 2 experience
• Online Stats: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/ (49,000 players on Live right now!)
• My Stats: http://www.bungie.net/Stats/PlayerStats.aspx?player=dylan

One other thing... Halo 2 will not be coming to the Playstation 2 or Gamecube any time soon. Halo was made by Bungie. Bungie happens to be owned by Microsoft. And Microsoft owns the XBOX. It's for that reason you won't find Mario or Metroid games for the XBOX or PS2. It's video game economics.

Ohio had 93,000 more votes than voters. That'snot a "minor voting problem" - that's an election travesty.

This isn't the liberal press inventing a non-problem. Even FoxNews is coveringthe inconsistencies.

Click to see the full city.

Photo taken on November 5th and distributed through DigitalGlobe.

The pre-orders: Halo 2 has already broken records as the most pre-ordered game ever, with 1.5 million copies pre-ordered.

The reviews:
(from EvilAvatar.com)

Electronic Gaming Monthly: 10, 10, 10
GMR: 10
Game Informer: 10
Official Xbox Magazine: 9.7
IGN.com: 9.8
OXMUK: 10
XBN: 10
TeamXbox: 9.9
Gamespy.com: 5/5
Gamepro: 5/5
1up.com: 10
Extended Play (TechTV): 5/5
Gamespot.com: 9.4

Midnight Madness: 6,500 stores across the US will be opening their doors tonight at midnight so that geeks across the nation can get their game on as soon as possible. Store Locator

Why all the hype? Halo 1 came out three years ago and is still fun to play. The theory is that Halo 2 should be at least that much, if not more, fun to play.

The draw for it is multiplayer games. Halo 1 and 2 support up to 16 players, with up to 4 players per XBOX. Because it sucks to have your ass handed to you every time you play online against anonymous kiddies, Halo 2 has an automatic ranking system which ranks you as you play online. You are automatically assigned people to play against that are at your skill level, so in theory, the anonymous kiddies you are playing against are just as good or bad as you are. Of course you can ignore all that and just play against your friends, and XBOX Live has an IM-like friends system that shows you when they are online and lets you send voice messages, join their game in progress, and other cool tricks.

My XBOX Live Gamertag is Dylan. See you online.

Arrrrrrrrrrrgh! Get your Episode III: Revenge of the Sith trailer here:

• Movie Download (at bottom of page)
• Direct Movie Download (right click, save as)
• Via BitTorrent (I use ABC)
• Tiny Flash version (thanks foO)
• MS Smartphone 2003 version (see comments)

A little note: The first half is footage from previous movies.
Then it gets good.

It's in Quicktime, so if you want to play it full screen or not suffer the problems Quicktime often has on Windows machines, I strongly recommend use Quicktime Alternative instead.

Hat tip to foO, I saw news about this on his site first.

There's still a bit of waiting to do... Episode III opens in theaters May 19, 2005, but will probably be available online at least a week before that.

Check back at midnight, or go to DABU.com now for the scoop.

I'm disappointed in the media's coverage last night. Well, the Daily Show coverage was hilarious, but that's another story.

Voting Machine Problems. There have been hundreds of reports of e-voting machine problems, such as machines showing up already with votes on them, machines that record all Democratic tickets as an all Republican ticket if the voter leaves a question blank, machines not working, modem lines being compromised, Access database locking issues, security issues, and political influence from creators of the machines. There's been issues of voters being turned away because their signatures weren't dead matches, and even a traditionally Democratic county in Florida that had 58,000 absentee ballots go missing. The media ignored the problems.

Exit Poll Inconstancies. Why did the exit polls showa clear Kerry lead in nearly every battleground state including Florida, but the final voting numbers weren't even close? I know exit polls are not going to be dead on, but they weren't even close. The huge discrepancy makes me wonder what the voting machine counted versus what people said/thought they did.

Phantom Votes.There seems to be anabnormally large number of votes in Florida just for president, ignoring all other questions on the ballot. Now I know people ignore questions or candidates on the ballot they don't know anything about, but Florida is unique case: while most states have at most 1% voters who justvote for President, Florida had 2% - a new record. Yesterday 171,537votes were counted for president on ballots that were otherwise empty. Why is this number so large? Where there really that many people that didn't bother with any other questions on the ballot or is this some bigger sign of one of the other two issues I brought up.

I'm glad this won't be drawn out into another month-long fiasco, but I would like be assured that our right to vote for our leadership was not stolen from us once again.

What would happen if people took advantage of the "Write In" ballot choice?

GO VOTE!!!!

I don't care which side you are for, make your voice heard! Help make this the most active voting turnout ever!

I must warn you: the lines are going to be long! Two or even three hour lines are NORMAL. Please wait! Bring your cell phone, call friends while you wait. Tell them how important it is to vote. Don't worry which side the are voting for. Every voice counts. So many ballots are going to be thrown out for stupid reasons that if you don't vote, you're letting dozens, if not hundreds, of votes from the other side take your place. Make sure you are heard.

Plus, there are other issues besides who becomes President.

Go vote, it's a right many people never live to have, and many have died to make sure you live to have.

This is YOUR country, be part of it.

Robb Finberg, a Republican running for Senate in Hawaii, said on video that he would support a law for "the execution of people found guilty of performing homosexual acts."

Scary... When voting, make sure you know who you are voting for.

From Talking Points Memo:

Some group is South Carolina is circulating a phony letter, purporting to be from the NAACP, alerting voters that they'll be arrested at the polls if they have unpaid parking tickets or are behind in child support.

Here's the report from the AP and more from the SC Democratic party.

This stunt aimed at minority voters crops up every cycle. Here's an example we chronicled from two years ago in Baltimore.

This is but one example. But across the country, the Republican ground game is simple: prevent as many newly registered voters from voting as possible. It's really as simple as that.

Yet another example here from Ed Kilgore.

From New York Times:

The American inspectors say all of the sealed structures at the Muthanna site, 35 miles northwest of Baghdad, were broken into. But it is unknown if usable chemical warheads were in the bunker, what may have been taken and by whom.

From LostRemote.com:

Journalist punched, arrested in Florida
Can you believe this? A sheriff's deputy tackled, punched and arrested a print reporter for taking pictures of people standing in line to vote in West Palm Beach. The sheriff's department says it's enforcing a new county rule that prohibits the press from interviewing or photographing voters lined up outside the polls. As you can imagine, lawyers are scrambling. (Thanks, Michelle)

FOX News does their own poll... and puts Kerry in the lead.

From AmericaBlog:

I'm watching CNN and this is just amazing. First they've got a panel of 6 or 7 people looking at each absentee ballot to determine whether the signature on the absentee ballot is the same signature the person used to register to vote before, sometimes decades ago. Then they vote on whether to keep the ballot or not. I can't believe they're doing this again. Then CNN shows another woman who wasn't allowed to vote in FL because when she filled out her voter registration she failed to check the box that said she was mentally competent. So now she can't vote.

A QUICK GUIDE TO AVOIDING PROBLEMS AT THE POLLS

Before you go to the polls:

• Find your correct polling place. Click here: http://www.mypollingplace.com. They are getting crushed with requests, so if you don't get through right away, try again later or just call your local Board of Elections.
• To avoid confusion and save time, study the ballot. Check your local newspaper for a copy.
• Find a form of identification to bring to the polls. Unless you are a first-time voter who registered by mail without sending identification, you have the right to vote without providing ID. However, to avoid hassles just bring ID anyway. A government-issued ID is best (such as a driver's license), but you can also bring a utility bill, paycheck stub, phone bill, or similar papers with your name on them. If your ID does not have a signature, bring two forms of identification.
• Allow plenty of time to vote, preferably in the morning. There may be lines. Bring something to read. If the line is really long, consider getting a box of donuts or cookies to share to lighten the mood. Someone might be challenging voters just to slow things up in the hope that long lines will scare away voters. If this is happening, let folks in line know so it stiffens their resolve to stay and cast vote.
• Learn your voting rights:
  • Even if you are not on the voter list, federal law gives you the right to a "provisional ballot." Insist on one and vote. A regular ballot is preferable, so you should do whatever you can to get a regular ballot first, like going home and getting a second form of identification or going to the polling place where you are definitely on the voter list. But rather than be turned away, demand a provisional ballot.
  • You have the right to vote if you are in line when the polls close. Stay in line until you vote.
  • Find out if your employer will give you time off to vote, if necessary.

At the polls:

• If you are confused about ANYTHING or feel you are being harassed, ask the official poll workers to help. Do not rely on fellow citizens for advice about the ballot, how the voting machines work, or why you are not on the rolls. If someone is challenging your right to vote, ask the poll workers to intervene.
• If someone harasses you, don't cause a ruckus. Just ignore the harasser, report it to a poll worker, and let the voting process continue. What kinds of things might somebody try? Well, in the past people have insisted on more ID than is required or argued that someone is at the wrong polling place.
• If something goes wrong, document it. Write down what happened, when, and descriptions of the people involved, including their names, if you can get them. If you have a camera or camera-phone, take pictures.
• Report voting problems to an organization ready to respond to problems at the polls:
  • Common Cause: Call 1-866-MYVOTE1. This is a hotline you can call to report any voting problems.
  • 1-866-OUR-VOTE. This hotline has been set up by a coalition of nonpartisan groups to deal with the most serious problems on Election Day. They have hundreds of lawyers standing by to immediately respond to the most egregious problems. 1-866-OUR-VOTE is the "911" of voter suppression hotlines. Please don't call unless your problem is serious enough that you have to talk to a lawyer immediately.

• Contact the media. If something is going terribly wrong at a polling site and you have reported it to the folks above, you might want to then call local radio, television, and newspaper reporters. Often problems clear up quickly after a reporter arrives.

It's odd that it's come to this. But given how hard Americans have fought for the freedom to pick our government, it ought to take a lot more than these inconveniences and ham-handed attempts by desperate political operatives to dissuade us from casting a ballot. See you at the polls.

The party was great, we had about 60 people, and the house hasn't been to difficult to clean up. I rented a helium tank so we had balloons in every room. We had a fog machine in garage, and one outside but I never had chance to hook up the outside one. It didn't matter, we had plenty of alcohol, food, and people. And just about everybody was in costume.

Photos will be up tonight hopefully.