So I decided to download the new demo of Patapon for the PSP. This marks the first time I downloaded something for the PSP via the PS3. In the past I've downloaded files on PC or Mac and just put those files on the memory stick, but I figured, hey let's try the PS3.
This is a silly process. Here's what you do.
1 ) Download the title via the store. At least you can download in the background now, so you can go play something else while stuff downloads.
2 ) OK, now the title you downloaded (which, mind you is a PSP demo) needs to install onto the PS3. This happens for anything you get from the Playstation Network store - you have to install it to the PS3 before you can use it. It would be nice if this occurred in the background as well, but I suppose I can see how random hard drive and CPU access during gameplay would be bad.
3 ) Now you need to connect the PSP to the PS3. This requires using a USB connection cable, no wireless here, no sir!
4 ) Now you run the program on the PS3 to install the software to the PSP.
5 ) Now you can delete the PS3 installer.
6 ) Now you think you're done, but wait! Has it been more than a week since the last time you upgraded the PSP firmware? (I kid Sony, but they do happen about monthly. Put it this way, I bought a new PSP holiday title (Final Fantasy Tactics) and my firmware was *four revs* behind.)
7 ) Turn on the PSP Wifi and check for Network Updates. Log into your network. (You do have your network configured already right? Else it's another whole hoo-hah.)
8 ) Download the update.
9 ) Reboot the PSP and install the update.
10 ) Delete the firmware update from the PSP memory stick.
That's it! In just 10 easy steps you've installed a hot new game demo on your PSP!
Read moreClosing Comments
One thing about the Wordpress blog is that it attracts more comment spam. (Not sure why, it just does.) So I'm closing out comments on a few older entries. For instance in this entry I referenced "Mr. Bipolar Guy" and about once a day now somebody tries to put some spam comment about bipolarity on that entry. (And I suppose maybe now this one, although I think it's probably a matter of whether the post gets any GoogleJuice(tm).)
Anyway, nobody real is commenting on a one year old post, so I closed it, along with a couple of others that were spam magnets. If you want to comment on an old entry let me know, I can always reopen one.
Read moreiPod/Podcast Tip
Did I mention that I got an iPod classic for Christmas, so now I watch video podcasts on my iPod? Well I did. It's fantastic, and it also plays Phase by Harmonix. :-)
Anyway the fact that podcasts are listed in reverse chronological order is very annoying. I finally got annoyed enough to look up a work-around. Here's the trick:
When you pick Podcasts from the menu you get a list of podcast feeds, showing how many episodes you have of each feed. Select a feed and press Play, not Select. If you do this it plays the episodes in chronological order. As a bonus, it will seamlessly segue to the next track in the list when it finishes. That sounds sort of obvious, but it's NOT the way it works when you play individual podcasts from the reverse chronological list.
I don't know how extensive the support for this is. It works on my iPod classic.
Edit 2/15/08 I forgot to mention that this only works if you have shuffle turned off. Sorry for any confusion!
Read moreThe Most of P.G. Wodehouse
I've piled up some books to review. Let's dive in shall we?
Today's book is The Most of P.G. Wodehouse by well, P.G. Wodehouse (duh!). Some of you may not recognize the name but will know him as the author of the Jeeves and Wooster stories. I picked this up last summer after my quasi-regular Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy binges. (A series that JP should totally read some day!) Often when I do these I only read the first four books, and then add on the pair of Dirk Gently books depending on mood. But this last time I read Mostly Harmless and The Salmon of Doubt. Douglas Adams called Wodehouse one of the greatest writers in the English language, that's good enough for me to check him out. This was not the first time I had considered reading Wodehouse, but this was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Having made the decision to read such a prolific author the next choice is where to begin? This book was positioned as a "best of" sort of title in the Amazon reviews, so it seemed a good place to start. To be honest, I'm not sure it's the best introduction to his work. It contains selections from several of his "themes" - stories from the Drones Club setting, ones about Golf and so forth. Jeeves is the last section of the book and after a few short stories the book contains the complete text of the novel Quick Service
I enjoyed this book overall, but I don't think it really is a "best of". Jeeves is by far the best material and it doesn't start until page 459. Even there, I think the characters get more room to act in the novel, so the best part is saved for last. The Drones Club section that opens the book was decent, but it was my second least favorite section (Golf being the worst). It's a good survey of the breadth of Wodehouse, but that means you're sampling from a variety of plates. I think on balance I would have rather focused on Blandings or Jeeves and skipped some of the other settings.
I'll read some more Wodehouse in the future. I didn't really get the "best wordsmith of the English language" vibe from most of this, but I did quite like several bits.
Read moreUpdate to the Update of Fictional Thing A Week
Clearly this whole "Thing A Week" thing isn't working right. One of the side-effects of converting from MovableType to WordPress has been that I've been reading through old posts as Google or Yahoo or whoever crawls the old links. I'd like to direct your attention to my analysis of posting the original Captain Arcolier story. Specifically there I talk about how the weekly deadline didn't improve the serial format. All of that is still true, but I'd add that in Shore Leave there are pieces that needed to be in earlier section, but because I was publishing as I went I couldn't fix that.
My original Thing a Week idea was very simple, post a whole story every week. The problem became almost immediately clear: I don't always write an entire story in a week. I modified the plan for Welcome to Gameworld and I think it worked OK there, but the trap was that I had backslid into the serial model.
What I'm dancing around is this: I don't actually write a complete story every week. Don't have the time, don't have the energy. While I like the serial posting for some things, my original assessment was correct: I need to write the entire story before posting any part of it.
So my goal, moving forward is going to be a story a month. If the story is short I'll post it in one chunk, and there will be three weeks with no story. If it naturally falls into four chunks then I'll post one chunk a week. If it falls in more chunks … I'm not sure. Maybe it will take more than a month to post and I'll build up a backlog. Maybe I'll post more frequently. We'll see.
This starts now, so my goal is to have a story ready for the beginning of March. Wish me luck!
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