[Grubb's] Random Thoughts of the Day

[Fluffyumpkins]

Happy Thanksgiving, ya birches.

[Ho]

taqa and I have been playing CS with a few others lately and we tried a new map tonight

this happened

Did you run up and knife those posers in the back?

[Fluffyumpkins]

What are you well-to-do folks buying on Cyber Monday? What did you buy on black Friday? I'll never forgive you if you hoard your money and send us into another recession.

[Amp Divorax]

What are you well-to-do folks buying on Cyber Monday? What did you buy on black Friday? I'll never forgive you if you hoard your money and send us into another recession.

- Nine Inch Nails Halo I-IV Vinyl boxset courtesy of Record Store Black Friday.
- Sound Blaster X7

In the case of the second purchase, I feel inclined to state upfront that the overwhelming majority of users should go for either the Sound Blaster Audigy Rx or Audigy Fx, which are two PCI-e variants of the Audigy 4 Pro. The reason I went with the X7 is the fact that it's the first legitimate upgrade I've seen from my X-Fi card and it works across the board with all of the OSes I develop on.

[Ho]

I bought a new phone on Black Friday.

I had been shopping online pretty much all of last week, so there's not really anything I'm looking for today on Cyber Monday.

[Diamondback1996]

I would like to get a new phone, but I can't decide between an iPhone 6S(+), Galaxy 6 or later, or one of the new Nexus phones. It really depends on what payment system my bank supports. I emailed them and they basically said they would support both Apple and Android Pay. They don't know what Samsung Pay is.

Looking into getting a 360 to use mostly as a WMC extender for my room. Obviously I'll play games on it too. GameStop has a 500 GB E for $120 but I can't get it since it only has an HDMI port, and I need the AV port for the downstairs TV (for DDR and Kinect games). I also want to avoid the original model because of the RROD issue, so I need an S model. I'd get the 4GB version but some games require an internal hard drive because they need to be installed and they can't be installed for some reason on an external hard drive like normal games.

Also looking into a new car radio. Would like one with a touchscreen and HD Radio, but having both seems to give you a poor quality experience or is stupidly expensive. HD Radio is cool but I'm not sure how much longer it will last. A touchscreen would probably be better.

By the way I feel like a baby when I'm on here.

[Ho]

I would like to get a new phone, but I can't decide between an iPhone 6S(+), Galaxy 6 or later, or one of the new Nexus phones. It really depends on what payment system my bank supports. I emailed them and they basically said they would support both Apple and Android Pay. They don't know what Samsung Pay is.

I just bought a Lumia 950XL because I love Windows Phone and am committed to it until its seemingly inevitable doom (not that I'm wishing for its doom--I'm just being realistic).

Given your provided options, I guess I'm of little help to you in this department other than to say that I very much liked the Samsung ATIV S Neo (essentially the Windows Phone version of the Galaxy S3) I had for the last two years until it died of death last month. If I was unable to get the Lumia for some reason, my second choice would have been the Note 4. So I guess if you take anything from this it's that I would support your Samsung option...GO KOREA!

Looking into getting a 360 to use mostly as a WMC extender for my room. Obviously I'll play games on it too. GameStop has a 500 GB E for $120 but I can't get it since it only has an HDMI port, and I need the AV port for the downstairs TV (for DDR and Kinect games). I also want to avoid the original model because of the RROD issue, so I need an S model. I'd get the 4GB version but some games require an internal hard drive because they need to be installed and they can't be installed for some reason on an external hard drive like normal games.

I have two of the S model. I should probably sell one of them, but I never seem to want to part with things. However, I will say that with both of them, I bought the 4 GB version and then added the hard drive. The first one I "hacked" the firmware of a non-official hard drive to make it appear to the Xbox that it was legit. You can buy the shell to put it in for like $5 on eBay or you can just wedge it in there with some index cards to keep it from flopping around. The second one, I think I just bought a cheap knock-off hard drive unit. In both cases, I think I saved > 50% from buying an official drive and I haven't had any problems with either. So, just throwing that out there if you're looking to get a 360 and maybe save a little cash.

Also looking into a new car radio. Would like one with a touchscreen and HD Radio, but having both seems to give you a poor quality experience or is stupidly expensive. HD Radio is cool but I'm not sure how much longer it will last. A touchscreen would probably be better.

I know these feels. I finally got a unit with HD Radio last year. I listen to NPR like 99% of the time, so I can't say I really notice much of a difference in sound quality since it's mostly talk. I think I used the subchannel feature of HD Radio like once when I first got it...just to see that it worked...and haven't used it again since.

I have an Alpine in my main car with touchscreen and navigation and all that schtuff. It's done pretty well for me for the last 10+ years. My car is old now and has > 210,000 miles on it...so I've spent a lot of time with that radio.

The new one I bought last year for the other car is a Kenwood. It seems mostly fine, but I think the UI is kind of awkward.

By the way I feel like a baby when I'm on here.

If it makes you feel any better, I feel old on here.

[Diamondback1996]

I would like to get a new phone, but I can't decide between an iPhone 6S(+), Galaxy 6 or later, or one of the new Nexus phones. It really depends on what payment system my bank supports. I emailed them and they basically said they would support both Apple and Android Pay. They don't know what Samsung Pay is.

I just bought a Lumia 950XL because I love Windows Phone and am committed to it until its seemingly inevitable doom (not that I'm wishing for its doom--I'm just being realistic).

Windows Phone was pretty much DOA. It came after Android started to dominate. It's not a bad OS though, it was just late.

Looking into getting a 360 to use mostly as a WMC extender for my room. Obviously I'll play games on it too. GameStop has a 500 GB E for $120 but I can't get it since it only has an HDMI port, and I need the AV port for the downstairs TV (for DDR and Kinect games). I also want to avoid the original model because of the RROD issue, so I need an S model. I'd get the 4GB version but some games require an internal hard drive because they need to be installed and they can't be installed for some reason on an external hard drive like normal games.

I have two of the S model. I should probably sell one of them, but I never seem to want to part with things. However, I will say that with both of them, I bought the 4 GB version and then added the hard drive. The first one I "hacked" the firmware of a non-official hard drive to make it appear to the Xbox that it was legit. You can buy the shell to put it in for like $5 on eBay or you can just wedge it in there with some index cards to keep it from flopping around. The second one, I think I just bought a cheap knock-off hard drive unit. In both cases, I think I saved > 50% from buying an official drive and I haven't had any problems with either. So, just throwing that out there if you're looking to get a 360 and maybe save a little cash.

I heard you can get banned from XBL for that. I assume that's probably not going to happen since you didn't mention it?

Also looking into a new car radio. Would like one with a touchscreen and HD Radio, but having both seems to give you a poor quality experience or is stupidly expensive. HD Radio is cool but I'm not sure how much longer it will last. A touchscreen would probably be better.

I know these feels. I finally got a unit with HD Radio last year. I listen to NPR like 99% of the time, so I can't say I really notice much of a difference in sound quality since it's mostly talk. I think I used the subchannel feature of HD Radio like once when I first got it...just to see that it worked...and haven't used it again since.

I have an Alpine in my main car with touchscreen and navigation and all that schtuff. It's done pretty well for me for the last 10+ years. My car is old now and has > 210,000 miles on it...so I've spent a lot of time with that radio.

The new one I bought last year for the other car is a Kenwood. It seems mostly fine, but I think the UI is kind of awkward.

Yeah, I feel like I'd barely use HD Radio. FM quality is fine, and I don't see myself using the subchannels. Also I don't listen to AM so I guess it's not really useful for me. Plus, many stations seem to be shutting off their HD signals anyway.

[/quote]

By the way I feel like a baby when I'm on here.

If it makes you feel any better, I feel old on here.[/quote]
That's why I feel like a baby.

[Ho]

Windows Phone was fairly early if you count the old Windows Mobile...but Windows Mobile was god awful, so even MS probably doesn't want to count it. I struggled through many years of it. It was nice in that you could pretty much do whatever you wanted with it, but you pretty much had to because it didn't do much of anything for you.

Ironically, the platform is now branded Windows 10 Mobile rather than Windows Phone 10. I get that they want to lead with "Windows 10" and they don't want to limit themselves to phones since there are many other types of small, portable devices now. But sticking "Mobile" in the name is giving me flashbacks to a darker, more frustrating time.

---

I have had zero problems having non-official hard drives in my 360s. And I think if they were going to get mad about it, the time has long passed. But both of mine identify themselves as official, so I'm guessing they don't even really know. I'm sure they don't want people trying to break gamerscore or online play or whatever, but I'm not trying to do anything like that. I just didn't want to pay 2-3x for what was essentially just a hard drive.

[Fluffyumpkins]

My car has an HD radio, and I'm surprised how much better it sounds. If I choose a music station, it usually sits on FM for a few seconds before switching to HD. The quality difference is very noticeable for me. NPR is fine either way

[Riot]

I'd sell my XBox 360, which I think is an "S" model maybe? It was one of those Arcade models that came out in like 2008 or 2009. Only game I'd play on it is UMvC3, but I don't want to buy XBL Gold just for one game that is pretty much dead online anyways. =(

I didn't buy anything for Black Friday/Cyber Monday. There just wasn't really much that I felt like I wanted/needed. I peeked at 4K TVs, but that's more of a thing for next year I think. I'd kind of like to get one of these gaming chairs - http://www.amazon.com/Racer-FE57-NG-Rac ... s=dx+racer

My chairs have always had crap support and my back has hurt since college because I'm always hunched over playing CS or something. I also need a new computer desk that's bigger (an L-shaped one to support three monitors). I'm using a crappy old wooden one that Meg's friend pulled from a curb in Bloomington in 2009 lol.

[Diamondback1996]

I'd sell my XBox 360, which I think is an "S" model maybe? It was one of those Arcade models that came out in like 2008 or 2009. Only game I'd play on it is UMvC3, but I don't want to buy XBL Gold just for one game that is pretty much dead online anyways. =(

X360 Arcade is an original model, not an S. The S came out with Kinect.

[Fluffyumpkins]

I learned that the hard way when I wanted to trade mine in.

[Riot]

I'd sell my XBox 360, which I think is an "S" model maybe? It was one of those Arcade models that came out in like 2008 or 2009. Only game I'd play on it is UMvC3, but I don't want to buy XBL Gold just for one game that is pretty much dead online anyways. =(

X360 Arcade is an original model, not an S. The S came out with Kinect.

Well I'm pretty sure internally it's updated from the original RRoD-prone models from everything I read. I remember being worried about that when I bought it at the time, but it's never had any issues.

[Merk]

You know that one fighting style, Craw McGraw? It's talked about in that one Always Sunny In Philadelphia episode "Dee and Charlie Find Love"

Today I learned it's actually spelled/pronounced as "Krav Maga" and that it's a real thing from Isreal. I literally thought my whole life that it was spelled Craw McGraw and that it was named after a dude.