My living room entertainment center is a device nightmare. I have a Toshiba television, a Sony receiver, a digital cable set top box with DVR functionality, an original Xbox running XMBC, and an Xbox 360. That’s five remotes, and that’s after I got rid of the Sony PlayStation 2 and Nintendo GameCube.

For example, if I want to watch video served from my home network I have to:

1. Turn on the television (Toshiba remote)
2. Turn on the Xbox
3. Turn on the receiver (Sony remote)
4. Find the program I want to watch on the Xbox (green wireless Xbox controller)
5. Adjust the volume on the receiver (Sony remote)

I’ve gotten used to it, but trying to explain how things work to new folks required literally pages of documentation. Until I can reduce the number of devices in my entertainment center, I needed a way to reduce the number of remotes necessary to do basic tasks.

Enter the Philips Prestigo SRU 8015 universal remote, which I purchased during a recent Woot-Off.
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I like getting the most bang for my buck — and as such really like my 1911 handguns from Rock Island Armory. I own both the 5″ barreled Government model (my review), and the 3.5″ barreled Officer’s model (my review). I like the Officer’s model so much that it replaced my trusty Glock 27 as my routine concealed carry piece.

It’s been a little over ten months since I bought the Government model, and I bought the Officer’s model seven months ago. While not a long term test by any means, I thought you’d like to know how the Rock Islands have been holding up.
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Week two of growing my beard (and participating in the Ars Technica beard growing event).

It’s still filling in, but I’ve passed two important milestones:

1) My face is warmer inside of my motorcycle helmet. The beard is definitely blocking some of the wind that bounces off of my chest and up into my helmet.

2) I am now combing my beard out after showering.

I’ll probably let it grow another week or two and then tighten it up a bit with my Norelco G390.

If you ride street a lot, you may have encountered this type of driver before: someone who rides their brake pedal as if their life depended on it. Accelerate, brake. Go downhill, brake. Go uphill, brake. On-ramp, brake. Brake, brake.

It’s frustrating and dangerous at the same time. Motorcyclists need every bit of advanced warning to avoid trouble. If someone brakes all the time it can lull you into a sense of complacency or make you so nervous about the car in front of you that you get tunnel vision.

The most important thing to discern is why this person is braking. Is the car in front of them also panic braking? Do they look lost? Are they trying to signal you (I’ve had cars to this to me to “help” when a law enforcement officer is in front of them)? If they are just being stupid or timid, you have a Braker on your hands.
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My youngest dog Pearl has always been a bit of a klutz. I think part of it has to due with her mixed breeds (Akita and Border Collie), and part of it has to be due to her odd position within the house pack. Both sides of her heritage tend to be super-active, which leads to adventurous chewing when she is bored. While she is the youngest in the house, she is more assertive than Porter, the oldest. This leads to some interesting romps between the two of them as they half-play half-argue their way into some sort of social hierarchy.

All of that can lead to exciting times, like when Pearl inexplicably broke a toe on her left front paw last Friday.
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When I saw the Colgate Wisp for sale at my local Target, I thought to myself, “this is a Gibberish review waiting to happen.”

The Colgate Wisp is a mini toothbrush that does not require water, and does not require you to spit. I bought it thinking that it might be nice to use at the office. I have never wanted to store a full-sized toothbrush and paste at work. If the Wisp did a great job, it might even end up in my go-bag.

Despite a great idea, the Wisp is too uncomfortable and unwieldy to use. I am a little concerned that it might damage your teeth during the initial brush strokes.
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I guess I’m officially old. When the sequel to Infinity Ward’s Call of Duty: Modern Warfare video game launched yesterday I was super excited. I took yesterday off in order to play online as late as I wanted to Tuesday and Wednesday.

I played the original Modern Warfare a ton online, mostly “free-for-all,” which pits players against each other. There were other game modes that were team-based, but I preferred the lone wolf style of FFA. I didn’t like my playing skill to handicap an otherwise good team, and I didn’t want to feel like lesser-skilled teammates were pulling me down.

After struggling with my Verizon FiOS-supplied router for over an hour, I finally got connected to Xbox Live!. After a short game patch I was in the multi-player lobby. I joined a game of other new players, and was ready to relive all of the fun I had playing COD4.

I spawned, took two steps, and was killed. I respawned, ran about ten yards, and was killed again. And so on. And so on.

Now, when you play a game like this online there is an adjustment period where you learn the maps, and the mechanics, and what not. But something felt different. It turned out that the “difference” was an increase in weapon damage and game tempo that I disliked. I sold my copy of MW2 after five hours of gameplay.

Here’s what went wrong.
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I wrote about how I merge onto the highway on my motorcycle last month. Now that you’re on the horse, we’re going to discuss the dismount. Here’s how you can stay safer when exiting the highway.

You really have to look out for two things when leaving the highway: cars also trying to exit and your turn entry speed.
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Hopefully by the time you read this, Amazon.com will have delivered my copy of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 for the Xbox 360. This is the first game I’ve purchased on launch day in recent memory. I think Everquest was the last game I bought at launch, which would have been in 1999.

Modern Warfare 2 is a first person shooter. There are many game modes, the vast majority of which are only available online versus other human players. The single player (offline) game mode seems to be expanded from the original. The trailer below is from the single player campaign.

Playing online is a quasi-role playing game experience; you start at level one with your choice of three “classes” that have different weapons packages. As you level up by killing opponents and helping team mates, you can select different equipment and customize your gear. While I am unsure of the details for MW2, the game will operate in roughly the same manner.

I played the first Modern Warfare, COD4, to the point that I canceled my subscription to GameFly, the Netflix-like video game rental service. In preparation for the game’s release, I’m taking tomorrow off at work. I haven’t decided if I want to finish up the single player campaign first, or jump right into multi-player. There will definitely be an advantage for starting the online component early. Learning the key points around the map is one of the most important parts of the game.

I already have my article typed up for tomorrow and it’s set to auto-post, so if I don’t come up for air for 48 hours you’ll know where I’ll be.

Torchlight by Runic Games is an isometric game for the PC that keeps in the tradition of Diablo, Diablo II, and Titan Quest, among others. The premise is simple: control your character as they fight their way down a very deep dungeon below a besieged town. When most video games are trying to cram in as much stuff as possible, Torchlight keeps things simple. And unlike those epic games, Torchlight won’t break the bank at $20USD.

Torchlight is a fun, one-dimensional game that happens to fit right into my gaming style right now, and I highly recommend it. Here’s why.
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