Things Smackie Thinks You Need to Know...

[vansmack]

Originally posted by Venerable Bede:
  the  popular mechanics are at it again

Any article that asks this question Could Apple TV 2.0 End the High-Def Format War? and fails to mention that Apple 2.0 is 720p where Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are 1080p is a useless article.
 
 I expect more from Popular Mechanics (I'm interested to see if they post my comments).

[vansmack]

Originally posted by sweetcell:
  another great vansamck story... but, as hard as this might be for you to believe, i think that i have a story from a latin american strip club that is equally if not more cringe-inducing.  maybe i'll stumble home drunk one night and decide that it's a good idea to share.

I've stopped competing with this guy for the most cringe-inducing strip club story...
 
 Pacman Acussed of Punching a Woman in a Strip Club

[Charlie Nakatestes, Japanese Golfer]

Are you sure? She is Vansmack's sister.   :eek:  
 
   

Originally posted by ggw�?�:
  Story would be better with pictures.
 
   

Originally posted by vansmack:
     

Originally posted by ggw�?�:
     

Originally posted by vansmack:
  Sweetie, did you tell them about the time you and I went to a strip club in Mexico?? Now THAT was a good story.

We're waiting..... [/b]

Alright, I can�??t believe I haven�??t told you guys this story �?? I�??ve probably alluded to it but never told the full version.
 
 So while Smackette and I were awaiting all of our worldly possessions to be transported from DC to SF (July 03), we took a week long vacation in Mexico with my family.  On our way to dinner one night in Puerto Nuevo, we noticed a new strip club had opened up by the house we stay at.  After dinner, my sister and her husband and Mmackette and I all decided that we MUST check this out.  We were pretty sure it was going to be the most disgusting place we�??d ever been, but the curiosity got the best of us.
 
 Apparently we had gotten there a little before the crowd arrives as there was only one other group in the joint, and no ladies working the crowd.  Mind you, it was about 10pm on a Friday night.  We ordered a pitcher of margaritas and waited for the show to start, but no one was on stage.  A little bit of a broo-ha-ha started between the manager and the female bartender and she reluctantly went up on stage and stripped.  In my little ability to speak spanish, she was upset and apparently had taken the bartender job so she could stop stripping.  That and she was pissed that whomever was supposed to be there was late.  For the record, she probably should have stopped stripping years ago.  
 
 So we had been there for about 45 minutes and a second Latina gets on stage.  While slightly better looking than the first (which isn�??t saying much), she was as disinterested as the first stripper.  The place was a little more crowded now (we�??re the only Americans), but still not much going on as far as the entertainment.  At this point, my sister decided to take matters into her own hands and walks up to the manager and asks the manager if she can go on stage.  There was bit of a language barrier at first, but she walked over to the stage and motioned that she wanted to get up there.  He asked her to wait a second.  At some point while my sister was negotiating with the manager, a small group of young 20-something American guys walked in, most clearly after a long day of surfing.  They sat down at the table next to ours.  Finally, the manager came back out with the rest of the male staff from the back, and then motioned that now was the appropriate time for her to get on stage.
 
 So my sister gets up on stage and proceeds to strip for the crowd.   To say that this was the most awkward moment in my life would not be an understatement.  Between her on stage and the realization that she was all too comfortable on the pole for this to be her first time were enlightening moments for me.  At first I didn�??t think she would go through with it �?? dancing and spinning around are one thing, but would she really take her clothes off?  Well, the short answer is yes.  As soon as she started undoing her bathing suit top, I stopped watching.  As Smackette reports, she was up there with nothing on but her panties for at least a song and a half, strutting her stuff around the stage.  
 
 After her show, she put her clothes back on, collected her money and came back over to our table.  While we joked about what just happened, the guys at the table next to us asked my sister if they could buy her a drink.  She said, �??I don�??t know, you�??ll have to ask my husband.�?�  The guy had a puzzled look on his face and apologized saying he didn�??t realize....  
 
 My brother in law, to his credit, said �??Don�??t apologize to me �?? that�??s her brother over there�?� motioning towards me.  Now, I�??ve seen a lot of faces in the Pantheon of Great Faces before, but if I could have a picture of the look on that guys face when I gave him the �??what�??s up�?� nod, I would have the greatest avatar in the history of avatars.  He went back to his table and tried to explain the situation to his buddies.  They eventually bought us a pitcher of margaritas and joined us at our table for a while as we waited for the entertainment, which was sporadic at best for the rest of the night.  We ended up surfing with them the next day where we told them about the rumors of the donkey bar in Tijuana.  They set out for the Donkey Bar that evening and we�??ve never heard from them since. [/b]

[/b]

[vansmack]

The music industry
 
 From major to minor
 Jan 10th 2008
 From The Economist print edition
 
 Last year was terrible for the recorded-music majors. The next few years are likely to be even worse
 
 IN 2006 EMI, the world's fourth-biggest recorded-music company, invited some teenagers into its headquarters in London to talk to its top managers about their listening habits. At the end of the session the EMI bosses thanked them for their comments and told them to help themselves to a big pile of CDs sitting on a table. But none of the teens took any of the CDs, even though they were free. �??That was the moment we realised the game was completely up,�?� says a person who was there.

• [/url]
   
   Really?  It took you that long?
   
   For those that aren't going to read it, it cites three trends that will continue the problems for the industry:
   
   (1) Because sales of CDs are tumbling, big retailers are cutting the amount of shelf-space they give to music, which in turn accelerates the decline.
   
   (2) Because the majors are cutting costs severely, artists are receiving far less marketing and promotional support than before, which could prompt them to seek alternatives.
   
   (3) Record companies face such hostile conditions that their backers are loth to spend the sums required to move into the bits of the music industry that are thriving, such as touring and merchandising.

[vansmack]

The industry could always try to make some money this way....
 
 http://www.news.com/MTV%3A-%27Rock-Band%27-sells-2.5-million-songs/2100-1043_3-6226743.html?tag=fd_nbs_ent&tag=nl.e703
 
 MTV: 'Rock Band' sells 2.5 million songs
 
 I'm so buying my first songs this weekend.  An Oasis pack is also scheduled for release on Jan 22.

[godsshoeshine]

i have a (nonprem) question: where is my travel channel hd?

[nkotb]

And what's the word on Rock Band coming out for the Wii?  Ever gonna happen?  I'm working on deciding which new system I should pick up, and the Wii is the likely front-runner.  Still, without Rock Band, I feel empty  

[ratioci nation]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  The industry could always try to make some money this way....
 
  http://www.news.com/MTV%3A-%27Rock-Band%27-sells-2.5-million-songs/2100-1043_3-6226743.html?tag=fd_nbs_ent&tag=nl.e703
 
 MTV: 'Rock Band' sells 2.5 million songs
 
 I'm so buying my first songs this weekend.  An Oasis pack is also scheduled for release on Jan 22.

you finally get an xbox 360 and all you have played is Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, and Call of Duty 3? something is missing there, and why COD3 and not COD4

[vansmack]

Originally posted by pdx pollard:
  you finally get an xbox 360 and all you have played is Guitar Hero 3, Rock Band, and Call of Duty 3? something is missing there, and why COD3 and not COD4

To be fair, I've played GHIII for about 6 hours.  COD 3 for about 3 hours and Rock Band for approximately 1 Million hours!  I simply can't quit it.  The best party game out there.
 
 As for Halo 3 - I only have one controller still (but 2 guitars and a drum kit!).
 
 As for COD 3 and not COD 4, I like to go in order, and I won't play 4 until I beat 3.  I have COD 4 on my shelf right now (with Halo 3, Bioshock, Gears of War and something else I'm forgetting) and it was tempting me all weekend - so much so that I went out and rented COD 3 yesterday.  I've got about a 2 hours left before COD 4.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by vansmack:
  The industry could always try to make some money this way....
 
  http://www.news.com/MTV%3A-%27Rock-Band%27-sells-2.5-million-songs/2100-1043_3-6226743.html?tag=fd_nbs_ent&tag=nl.e703
 
 MTV: 'Rock Band' sells 2.5 million songs
 

The game's impact on song sales for participating artists, however, remains unclear. While not providing exact sales figures, MTV did say that the Metallica three-pack of "Ride the Lightning," "Blackened" and "And Justice for All" is the best-selling "Rock Band" download.
 
 According to Nielsen SoundScan data, those same songs saw digital download sales spikes of 31 percent, 39 percent and 48 percent, respectively, for the month after they were featured as a "Rock Band" download, over the previous month.
 
 But those increased sales numbered only in the hundreds, while the "Rock Band" downloads numbered in the hundreds of thousands. Still, label executives are thrilled with the results.

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22757091/?GT1=10755

[vansmack]

Originally posted by nkotb:
  And what's the word on Rock Band coming out for the Wii?  Ever gonna happen?  I'm working on deciding which new system I should pick up, and the Wii is the likely front-runner.  Still, without Rock Band, I feel empty      

"Absolutely" was the only answer I've ever heard with no timelime or official announcement ever made.  I know Harmonix was first worried about downloadable content, but they fixed that with GHIII.  
 
 I've only played the wii and not taken a close look at it - does it use USB for additional controllers?

[vansmack]

Sierra Club proposes �??couch potato�?? tax on videogames and TVs
 
 Alternatively, Smackie propses a one-hundred percent beat down of stupid ideas.

[vansmack]

Originally posted by nkotb:
  I'm working on deciding which new system I should pick up, and the Wii is the likely front-runner.  Still, without Rock Band, I feel empty      

Just so you know, I was on the fence about wii vs 360 for a long time.  Around August I was nearly 99% decided that it was going to be the wii.  Then I started thinking about all of the cool non-video game features of the 360 - downloadable content, HD output, HD-DVD capabilities, rentable movies, external hard drives, Media Server etc - and coupled that with the list of games that were available between the two and was back to deciding which camp to be in.   After playing Rock Band over Xmas in So Cal, I bought both the 360 and Rock Band on the way back to SF.
 
 I think it's a matter of time before the wii controller aspects make their way to other consoles.  For the wii to catchup to the 360, it's a lot more than a firmware upgrade.  It's an entire hardware upgrade or entirely new model altogether.
 
 That's just my two cents.

[vansmack]

Our bad.  Did we say 44%? We really meant a number closer to 15%.  Silly math we should have learned in college.
 
 MPAA admits it overstated the effects of college student piracy on the industry.

[vansmack]

Motorola's profits dropped 84% last quarter, but this article makes no mention of the iPhone when discussing why the #3 cell phone maker in the world is continuing to struggle.  Amazing.