Beyond Occident

Today I’m am showing two anthropology movies by Prof. Michael Wesch from Kansas University. The first is about Digital Ethnography and the second is an intro into one of their anthropology classes that looked pretty sweet. Enjoy

Microsoft just started a nifty little program rewarding gamerscores (with real prizes!). Here’s how it works. You get into the Xbox rewards page. Then you look at the list of current challenges. Right now, the only one is the 1500 Old Spice challenge. Basically, you have to get your gamerscore up by 1500 points by April 12th. Connected with your gamertag is a rank, one through three. If you are between 1 – 5000 gamerpoints, you’re level 1. Between 5000 – 9999, you’re level 2. And from 10000 to infinity is level 3. The higher the level you are, the better the prizes. As I’m level 1, I get Contra, a gamerpic and a theme for getting 1500 points. I’ll take Contra.

Alas, getting into the program has been the hardest part. When the site launched a couple days ago, every live member and their uncle logged on thus crashing the server and bringing everything to a screeching halt. Everyone’s pissed and I don’t really blame them. This has happened before (Halo 3 beta anyone?) and you’d think M$ might realize sometime that they might need to deal with the server strain issue. Anywho, I was able to fight my way in and I’m now on the road to 1500 points and a reward. Current total? 125! I finally finished the rather easy G.R.A.W. storyline so now I’ll have to move on to harder difficulties. I have CoD 2, CoD 3, G.R.A.W., Gears of War, and the final portions of Oblivion to beat so I should have no shortage of available points.

As you can see when you look up, the standard header that the template came with is now gone and in its place is a strange and odd looking…thing. That folks is the first version of the new header. I loaded up Photoshop tonight knowing nothing about the program and when I finished, I still knew nothing. But at least I had that header and a few nice tutorials to look at. I’ll be adding details (a lot of details!) as time moves on so don’t be terrified if you think Beyond Occident is scarred forever.

Any feedback on it? Post anything (as long as you’re not hatin’ on my creation )

First off, I have a request. I need everyone that has a heart to pray for my friend Steve. While watching a DVD today on his Xbox 360, the horrid, terrifying red ring of death showed up. He is understandably in a state of mourning while waiting for Microsoft to respond to his cry of aid. I only hope his suffering will be brief and he can once again return to the Land of Gaming Bliss.

But now onto happy news! Minutes ago, we received the call that school was off tomorrow due to some rather icy weather. Hoody HOo! That’s two days in a row for those who are keeping track. Besides Valentine’s Day being delayed, I am catching up on all the sleep I have missed out on since Christmas break. Now only I need the Xbox Achievement Reward program to come up and I will have a lot to do…

Speaking of the Xbox, it was announced today that Quake Wars is coming to the 360 and PS3. This was the only game coming for the PC (well.. besides Dragon Age) that I really really wanted to arrive for the 360. It’s a pure multiplayer shooter. You can never have too many of those. In other gaming news, both Dance Dance Ultimate and Guitar Hero II are coming for the 360 in the next month. I checked my bank account and I can barely afford one…uh oh.

In basketball news, March Madness is fast approaching. And just in time for these festivities, Louisville upsets 7th ranked Pitt at Pitt. Things were looking a little bleak for Pitino’s team but it looks like it’s time to hop back on the bandwagon! And to all my D&D players: I’d say about 64%.

So here I am on a Thursday night, sick with a cold. And what’s the only fun thing you can do when you’re ridden with nasty bacteria and viri? Configuring computers of course. And with college coming up, I am proud to present three laptop configurations and their accessories, the Compaq V3000T, Dell e1405, and the Apple Macbook. So without further ado…

The Compaq V3000T – $1060

Operating System Genuine Windows Vista Home Premium
Processor Intel(R) Core(TM) 2 Duo T5600(1.83GHz/2MB L2Cache)
Display 14.1″ WXGA BrightView Widescreen (1280×800)
Graphics Card Intel(R) Graphics Media Accelerator 950
Personalization Imprint Finish + Microphone + QuickPlay
Memory 2048MB DDR2 System Memory (2 Dimm)
Hard Drive 80GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
Primary CD/DVD Drive 8X DVD+/-R/RW w/Double Layer Support
Networking 802.11b/g WLAN
Primary Battery 12 Cell Lithium Ion Battery

And then the accessories!

Western Digital My Book Premium 320GB External HDD – $160
Logitech VX Revolution Notebook Mouse – $60

Grand Total – $1280

This is my numero uno choice thanks to incredibly good looks and a very cheap price. It’s got speedy performance and long-lasting battery life for only a grand. The external hard drive is for use with the built in media center capabilities of Vista.

Dell Inspiron e1405 – $1038

Processor Intel® Core™ 2 Duo T5500 (1.66GHz, 2MB L2 Cache, 667 MHz FSB)
Operating System Windows Vista Premium
Screen 14.1 inch WXGA+ UltraSharp™ TFT Display with TrueLife™
Memory 2GB DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHZ, 2 DIMM
HDD 80GB 5400 RPM Sata Hard Drive
CD/DVD Drive 24X CD Burner/DVD Combo Drive
Graphics Intel® Graphics Media Accelerator 950

And the same accessories that the V3000T came with.

Grand Total – $1258

The price is very similar to the HP/Compaq notebook. The only difference in the notebooks is that the V3000T looks a lot better and is a bit smaller and lighter. This model also has the extended battery.

Apple MacBook – $1356

Processor 2.0GHz Intel Core 2 Duo
Memory 2GB 667 DDR2 SDRAM – 2x1GB
HDD 80GB Serial ATA drive @ 5400 rpm
DVD/CD Drive Superdrive 6x (DVD+R DL/DVD±RW/CD-RW)
Screen 13 inch Glossy
Networking AirPort Extreme Card & Bluetooth
Operating System Mac OS X

And all the same accessories as the other two notebooks plus…
Windows Vista Premium OEM – $120

Grand Total – $1696

With the MacBook, I want to dual boot into Windows so I have to decide whether OS X is worth a few hundred dollars. Probably not and at this price point, I’m approaching MacBook Pro range.

Any comments, suggestions or opinions? Don’t be shy!