A Collection of Daily Wisdom by Dennis Sylvester Hurd since September 2003.

A Sony Playstation 3 can use its local network in order to play files shared under Windows MediaPlayer. Who knew?

Labels: Mediaplayer, PS3

Cool .. another toy. Being that a "Leap Day" only occurs every four years I thought I'd make it special. My new Sony Playstation 3 is downloading a movie trailer through the same Internet connection as I'm using here.

Being in the over 40 camp, I'm the demographic with enough cash to actually afford one of Sony's little, overpriced boxes. It certainly wouldn't have made sense for me to get one had it not contained a Blu-ray drive. Sorry Microsoft, I used to be a fanboy but times change.

I snapped up one of the few remaining old 80 GB bundles with game, MotorStorm. I can't imagine myself ever getting interested in First Person Shooters. Some of the adventure titles might be okay.

I had to put the slick, stylish box through some paces by seeing if it could play my monster collection of old +R and +RW DVD discs. It seems to handle even the old copies. Still, I'm contemplating walking down to a video store just to rent something on Blu-ray for a test run. In fact, I'll end now .. and do just that.

Labels: movies, PS3, technology

There are a large number of Chinese students in my class so they often end up falling back into their own language during break time. I was correcting some worksheets today. Mahmoud is a student in my class. I was chatting with him in English during the class break today too. I learned he was born in Saudi Arabia. There are no other Arabic speakers in my present group.

This prompted me to consider my time in the Middle East. I am in this picture taken in Saudi. Out in the desert, we ran across this camel which had obviously seen better days. It was dried and baked to a crisp so I have no idea how long the carcass had been there. This picture was taken well before Mahmoud was born!

Labels: flora and fauna, Saudi Arabia

This week, I decided to organize a junk drawer. It's in a tacky, living room cabinet that contains the souvenir shelves. I'd buy a real glass, curiosity cabinet but then I'd loose the five or six cubic feet of hidden space to keep stationary, tools, and assorted junk.



While getting together most of the tax receipts, I found these lottery tickets that made it back from Sri Lanka a year and a half ago. They were not winning ones but somehow got stuck with other paperwork and exist here now. Before tossing, I decided to scan them.

A physical item may not be at all valuable, but sometimes I like the memory it provides. I'd be very willing to throw away most old paperwork as long as I could keep a digital copy. Dumping stray files onto a hard disk is easy and useful especially if a blog entry can narrate the resulting tale.

Labels: blogging, Sri Lanka 2006

I grew up in a working-class home but we had all we needed and much more. It was back in the days when one income was enough and my mother was a stay-at-home mom. Wasn't the term, housewife? It's a little sad that's a choice no longer possible for most families today.

The inspiration for today's entry occurred when we were flying back from California earlier in the month. The Alaska Air plane was packed with every seat occupied. Jay and I sat across the isle as the two seats closer to the 737's windows were filled to each side of us. A mom and dad sat next to Jay. I sat near the kids who obviously wanted to sit near the windows (and away from their folks). There was a boy who I'd estimate being about 13 and his sister was younger by a year or two. The family was obviously returning from a trip that included Disneyland as they were wearing the clothes and carrying the swag.

I also saw Mickey, the rather scary walk-around one, on the screens of both their digital cameras. These youngsters were gadgeted up with devices galore. As well as the means to take photos, they also each had iPods. The boy was playing with a PSP and the girl some other sort of specific electronic game. I'm sure all these toys plug into their own computers at home. There's certainly a whole lot more than simply buying clothes and paying the dental bills for these parents.

I have been following Sony Playstation 3 news on the Internet. I'm trying to figure out when the time is right to buy into the product lineup. Apparently, there is no new, upgraded version due out in the next few months. It was announced today that the 80 GB model bundle will seemingly be replaced with a different game and replacement controllers but the price will remain at $499. I've seen that the average prices for new games for the device are in the neighbourhood of $50 to $60. It seems like providing what's necessary for children in this day and age must break the bank.

It must cost a lot to raise kids. When I was small in the 60's, there were far fewer products to own. No wonder why moms have to work nowadays!

Labels: flying, opinions, PS3, technology

Last year, I mentioned the fact we'd be viewing the Academy Award ceremony in high definition. As we haven't been going out to the movies as frequently, the Oscars generally go to films we've not yet watched. I didn't say we were watching fewer movies; it's just they're generally on DVD now. In the previously-mentioned entry, I also complained about the HD disc format war. At least that's something that has changed. Perhaps, by the time we get around to seeing most of this year's winners, we'll be watching 'em on Blu-ray.



One other difference between watching last night's awards and previous ones is we've now been inside the Kodak Theater in Hollywood.

Labels: HDTV, movies, television

My most recent vacation ended almost exactly one week ago to the hour. When we got off the plane at YVR last Sunday it was a beautiful afternoon. Actually, that situation has continued throughout the week. Today, again, has been wonderful. Two weekends and a full dry week around here in February is quite a pleasant rarity.

We had fine weather throughout our Mexican cruise too. The sky was deep blue during most every day from Long Beach to Puerto Vallarta, Mazatlan, and Cabo San Lucas. I must admit it was nice returning to hear the weather in Vancouver had been awful while we were away. Does that make me a bad person? Apparently, there had even been snow here during our trip.



I've had to rely on the fickleness of people's poor memories. It is really easy to locate weather forecasts for upcoming days but nearly impossible to find any account of the history of recent weather.

Labels: Mexican cruise, Mexico, weather