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	<title>loofmodnar.com &#187; Travels</title>
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		<title>W00tstock 1.1</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2009-10-27/w00tstock-1-1/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2009-10-27/w00tstock-1-1/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 27 Oct 2009 06:08:07 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Geekery]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Felicia Day]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[rifftrax]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[The Guild]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[w00tstock]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Wilw]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.loofmodnar.com/?p=335</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Last week, I attended W00tstock 1.1. What is a W00tstock you might ask? Well, if you had clicked the convenient link I added you&#8217;d already know but since you asked here&#8217;s the description direct from Paul and Storm&#8216;s site: For decades, geeks were ostracized, picked on, laughed at and punished by the sun’s harmful UV [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Last week, I attended <a href="http://www.paulandstorm.com/gigs/w00tstock/">W00tstock 1.1</a>. What is a W00tstock you might ask? Well, if you had clicked the convenient link I added you&#8217;d already know but since you asked here&#8217;s the description direct from <a href="http://www.paulandstorm.com/">Paul and Storm</a>&#8216;s site:</p>
<div class="mceTemp">
<dl class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 250px;">
<dt class="wp-caption-dt"><img class=" " title="W00tStock: the poster" src="http://www.loofmodnar.com/media/images/w00tstock2.jpg" alt="W00tStock: the poster" width="240" height="370" /></dt>
</dl>
</div>
<blockquote><p>For decades, geeks were ostracized, picked on, laughed at and punished by the sun’s harmful UV rays. But there is only so long that a people can be kept down before they rise up against their oppressors; and, indeed, the dawn of the 21st century has seen the ascendancy of geeks and geek culture.</p>
<p>We now celebrate that rise to power–and let’s face it, nerds pretty much run everything now–with <strong>w00tstock</strong>, a special event for geeks of every stripe. Television host/special-effects artist <a href="http://www.adamsavage.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Adam Savage</strong></a> (”MythBusters”), actor/author/blogger <a href="http://wilwheaton.typepad.com/" target="_blank"><strong>Wil Wheaton</strong></a> (”Star Trek: The Next Generation”, “Stand By Me”) and music-comedy duo <strong>Paul and Storm</strong> (hey; that’s us!) present a night of songs, readings, comedy, demonstrations, short films, special guests, and other clever widgets born from and dedicated to the enthusiasms, obsessions, trials and joys of geek pride.</p></blockquote>
<p>It was the brainchild of Paul and Storm, who wanted to do some west coast shows but weren&#8217;t sure they&#8217;d draw a big enough crowd on their own. So they got Wil Wheaton and Adam Savage to join them and planned three initial shows; two in San Fransico and one in LA. Each one had special guests, in LA it was: <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/hardnphirm.wordpress.com');" href="http://hardnphirm.wordpress.com/" target="_blank">Hard and Phirm</a>, <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/sweetafton23.com');" href="http://sweetafton23.com/" target="_blank">Molly Lewis</a>, <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/feliciaday.com');" href="http://feliciaday.com/" target="_blank">Felicia Day</a>, <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/www.twitter.com');" href="http://www.twitter.com/vork" target="_blank">Jeff Lewis</a>, and <a href="http://http://sandeepparikh.com/">Sandeep Parikh</a>. There was also a hilarious video from <a href="http://www.rifftrax.com">RiffTraxs</a> and a few short &#8220;Moment with Wil&#8221; skits.</p>
<p>It was a great time. For me the real highlights were Wil&#8217;s reading of &#8220;The Trade&#8221; from his book <span style="text-decoration: underline;">Just a Geek</span> with musical accompaniment by Paul and Storm; the acoustic performance of &#8220;Do you Want to Date my Avatar&#8221; and The finale of Paul and Storm&#8217;s pirate song which was a free for all of geeky pirate jokes.</p>
<p>There were a few &#8216;technical difficulties&#8217; along the way including mic stands all over the place, broken mics, crooked projectors but they did detract from the show. If anything it made it more entertaining, you could tell it wasn&#8217;t something they had rehearsed hundreds of times and were regurgitating.  Everyone was having fun even the performers.</p>
<p style="text-align: justify;">Lucky for you, there will be more W00tstock in the future, there&#8217;s not official dates or cities yet but if you <a href="http://eventful.com/performers/w00tstock-/P0-001-000213349-9/demand?widget=1&amp;viral=0">demand it</a>, they might, possibly, maybe come. Also, should you be so inclined w00tstock 1.1 live at the Largo available online <a onclick="javascript:pageTracker._trackPageview('/outbound/article/sharebee.com');" href="http://sharebee.com/216d1991" target="_blank">here</a>. (Thanks to @<a href="http://juliasherred.com/2009/10/w00tstock-1-1-available-for-download/">Jules_Party934</a> for the link). I highly recommend it.</p>
<div style="line-height:0px;"><object id="sticker-P0-001-000213349-9" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowScriptAccess="never" allowNetworking="internal" width="300" height="275" data="http://static.eventful.com/store/stickers/flash/split.swf"><param name="flashVars" value="&#038;bg=yelloworange&#038;sid=P0-001-000213349-9&#038;size=300&#038;fg=FFFFFF&#038;target=myspace&#038;fileHost=static.eventful.com" /><param name="movie" value="http://static.eventful.com/store/stickers/flash/split.swf" /><param name="quality" value="high" /><param name="wmode" value="transparent" /><param name="salign" value="lt" /></object><br /><a href="http://eventful.com/performers/w00tstock-/P0-001-000213349-9/demand?widget=1&#038;viral=1" target="_new" title="w00tstock - Demand in your city"><img height="45" width="300" border="0" src="http://static.eventful.com/store/stickers/flash/assets/split/300x45_mid-yelloworange.gif" alt="Demand w00tstock in your city!" /></a><br /><a href="http://eventful.com/demand/learn" target="_new" title="Eventful Demand - Learn More"><img height="30" width="300" border="0" src="http://static.eventful.com/store/stickers/flash/assets/split/300x30_bottom-yelloworange.gif" alt="Learn more about the Eventful Demand for w00tstock" /></a></p>
<p><font color="#999999" style="line-height:30px;">View all <a href='http://eventful.com/performers/w00tstock-/P0-001-000213349-9'><font color='#999999'>w00tstock tour dates</font></a></font></div>
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		<title>PAX 08: Day Summary</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-09-11/pax-08-day-summary/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-09-11/pax-08-day-summary/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 11 Sep 2008 07:00:52 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Nintendo DS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freezepop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harmonix]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[MC Frontalot]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nerdcore]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAX-08]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pictochat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[TF2]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=149</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Alright this took a bit longer than expected but I&#8217;ve now gone through all the previous posts, separated them out and made them slightly less crappy. Ok so, technically, I did all that sometime last week but at the time I wrote this I had just finished it all. PAX 08: Day Zero PAX 08: [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Alright this took a bit longer than expected but I&#8217;ve now gone through all the previous posts, separated them out and made them slightly less crappy. Ok so, <em>technically</em>, I did all that<br />
sometime last week but at the time I wrote this I had just finished it all.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 310px"><a href="http://www.pennyarcadeexpo.com/"><img title="PAX 2008" src="/media/images/paxlogo.jpg" alt="Penny Arcade Expo 2008" width="300" height="163" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Penny Arcade Expo 2008</p></div>
<p><a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-08-29/pax-08-day-zero/">PAX 08: Day Zero</a><br />
<a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-08-30/pax-08-day-one/"> PAX 08: Day One</a><br />
<a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-08-31/pax-08-day-two/"> PAX 08: Day Two</a><br />
<a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-09-01/pax-08-day-three/"> PAX 08: Day Three</a><br />
<a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-09-02/pax-08-left-4-dead/">PAX 08: Left 4 Dead</a><br />
<a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-09-02/pax-08-rock-band-2-guitar-hero-world-tour/"> PAX 08: Rock Band 2 &amp; Guitar Hero: World Tour</a><br />
PAX 08: Media Meltdown<br />
PAX 08: The Conduit</p>
<p>Overall I had a blast at PAX. The biggest problem I had was there was way too much to do. Spending time in the exhibit hall meant missing the panels. Going to one panel meant you missed 2 or 3 other equally interesting panels and the exhibit hall. There were a least a dozen times when I ended up missing a panel or demo that I wanted to see because I was enjoying what I was already doing. Sometimes it worked out for the best. If I hadn&#8217;t ended up watching all of Nerdcore for Life I wouldn&#8217;t have gotten to see MC Frontalot. Other times I was too engrossed playing TF2, a game I already own, in the PC Free play room. I should have taken some time to look at the schedule ahead of time and figure out what I wanted to see and then setup some calendar appointments on my phone to remind myself.</p>
<p>Of course there were some issues with PAX. There were 58,000 people there over 3 days so it was pretty crowded at times. Some of the panels I would have liked to have seen filled up before I even considered getting in line for them. I didn&#8217;t have trouble getting to see any of the big events like the keynote provided I lined up early enough. It would have been nice if instead of making everyone sit in line for an hour and a half they gave out wristbands to the first 3000 people to show up and said come back in an hour. Of course then there would likely just be a line to get a wristband that would be almost as long.</p>
<p>Pictochat was epic. It was a great way to pass the time while waiting in line although I&#8217;ve never seen so many digital renditions of the male genitalia as I did that weekend. Occasionally the connection was spotty probably due to the sheer number of people using not only DS pictochat but wireless devices in general. I think at least 2/3 of the attendees had some sort of wireless device usually an iphone/ipod touch. Speaking of wireless the wireless connection at the expo hall didn&#8217;t work the one time I tried it my phone&#8217;s crappy WAP browser came in handy more than a few times. Mostly for Twitter which I used for keeping track of everything so I could write all this up.</p>
<p>One of the most annoying issues was the sounds quality. Throughout the entire Harmonix panel there was some pretty noticeable feedback whenever someone spoke. Freezepop had three or four nasty bouts of feedback while they were playing. Most notably MC Frontalot had to do a sound check after their first song because none of their monitors were setup correctly. I don&#8217;t know who was doing the sounds but it was not great. Most to all of the PAX Enforcers are volunteers but next year I&#8217;d really suggest getting some professional sounds guys in there at the very least for the concerts.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m definitely going to try and go back next year, hopefully with a better game plan. I&#8217;d like to get more involved with the non-PAX community activities next year as well like the Tri-Wizard Drinking Tournament or the PAX Twitter Shitters Meet up. I really wanted to get involved with that stuff this year but it didn&#8217;t work out. PAX 2010 is in Boston so that pretty much guarantees I&#8217;ll be there, I might even be able to convince a few people to go with me. <img src='http://www.loofmodnar.com/wp-includes/images/smilies/icon_biggrin.gif' alt=':-D' class='wp-smiley' /> </p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>PAX 08: Left 4 Dead</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-09-02/pax-08-left-4-dead/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-09-02/pax-08-left-4-dead/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Tue, 02 Sep 2008 05:05:28 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[PC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xbox 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left 4 Dead]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAX-08]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Valve]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=129</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Left 4 Dead is absolutely awesome. That&#8217;s really all that needs to be said but I suppose I should elaborate. They only had the 360 version setup so I wasn’t very good at it but I got the hang of it. The controls worked pretty similar to just about any other 360 FPS I&#8217;ve player [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Left 4 Dead is absolutely awesome. That&#8217;s really all that needs to be said but I suppose I should elaborate.</p>
<div class="wp-caption alignright" style="width: 298px"><a href="http://www.l4d.com/"><img title="Left 4 Dead" src="http://www.randomfool.net/media/images/left4dead.jpg" alt="Left 4 Dead" width="288" height="174" /></a><p class="wp-caption-text">Left 4 Dead - Coop Zombie Survival Horror. nuff said.</p></div>
<p>They only had the 360 version setup so I wasn’t very good at it but I got the hang of it. The controls worked pretty similar to just about any other 360 FPS I&#8217;ve player with the addition of the left shoulder button making you do a quick 180 degree turn. The thing I really noticed was the team dynamics. This definitely isn&#8217;t a game where you can run off like a commando and kill everything without your team. At one point I attempted to rush into a room only to find myself overwhelmed with zombies. The neat thing is you can keep track of your teammates easily. Their outline lights up on your screen when they&#8217;re in a different room or behind object. White means they&#8217;re ok, and red means they&#8217;re under attack. Reading the previews I thought that might be a weird and hard to get use to it but in reality it&#8217;s just really useful.</p>
<p>Instead of just dying you fall to the ground and pull out your pistol. You can still shoot zombies but can no longer move. Assuming you and your team manage to kill off all the zombies, another player can come over and help you up. They can also optionally heal you if they&#8217;ve picked up a first aid kit and are feeling generous. Of course, if you don’t manage to kill the zombies, they’ll swarm you and rip you to shreds. That effect was pretty cool aside from the being dead part. Respawning works differently too. Once you die you go into a spectator view similar to how it works in CS. As your team moves forward they&#8217;ll eventually see your aura appear ahead of them. To get back in the game your team needs to find the room you&#8217;re in and rescue you. This basically boils down to getting one of your teammates to open the door and let you out.</p>
<p>I only remember 3 different types of enemies: zombies, an exploding fat zombie and a big muscle-y thing that showed up right before I got ripped into a million pieces by about 20 zombies. The random spawning system Valve created keeps things tense. Sometime you won’t see anything for a minute then you’ll run into a group of 4 or 5, or out of nowhere 20 zombies are swarming all around you and it’s all you can do to beat them off. One particular creepy instance came while rescuing one of the previously killed players. While my team was letting him out of the closet, I turned around to see a single zombie running towards. I started shooting at it but it jumped to the side and clung to the side of an information booth. Of course then the four of us blew it to bits. I don’t recall any of the Zombies randomly spawning behind us like they did in System Shock 2 which is nice in a I can catch my breath way. Another really neat thing I witnesses as a group of guy who were on a street, at first there was a group of like 4 or 5 zombies ahead of them. Then one of players somehow to set off a car alarm which caused a shit ton of zombies to come running in from all directions.</p>
<p>I think I can safely say this is will be the best co-op zombie game ever. In just 20 minutes of play time I had 2 or 3 “oh shit moments” and while watching other people play it was apparent they were having the same experience. My only concern is Valve&#8217;s recent announcement that the free updates for TF2 on the PC are going to be Pay DLC for the 360 version. I know both my laptop and PC aren&#8217;t capable of running L4D is a playable manner but I&#8217;m hesitant to get the 360 version only to miss out on extra content later on down the line. I may end up having to finally upgrade my PC to play this game.</p>
]]></content:encoded>
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		<title>PAX 08: Day Three</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-09-01/pax-08-day-three/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-09-01/pax-08-day-three/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 01 Sep 2008 05:43:42 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[NES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nintendo DS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nintendo Wii]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony Playstation 3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xbox 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Bleach: Dark Souls]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Boom Blox]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Champions Online]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Geometry Wars 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jenga]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Little Big Planet]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Omegathon]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAX 10]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAX-08]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Peggle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Resistance Retribution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rock Band]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sega]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Vs. Excitebike]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=115</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[PAX day three was all about the exhibit hall. I went in with a mission to check out a bunch of games I missed the first two times and did pretty well I think Champions Online seem to be pretty much be City of Heroes 2. That isn&#8217;t a bad thing though since I enjoyed [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>PAX day three was all about the exhibit hall. I went in with a mission to check out a bunch of games I missed the first two times and did pretty well I think</p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://www.champions-online.com/">Champions Online</a> seem to be pretty much be City of Heroes 2. That isn&#8217;t a bad thing though since I enjoyed CoH way more than WoW. I talk to one of the developers a bit while I was playing. Cryptic apparently bought the Champions IP so they could have complete control over it and were trying to expand the universe&#8217;s stories to for the game. They have cross-platform play between the PC and 360 working in test versions at the office but she wasn&#8217;t sure whether or not it would make it into the final product. She also wasn&#8217;t sure how DLC and expansions would work on the 360. I got a hopefully but no overly convincing vibe. The game itself played pretty well on using a controller but I could for the life of me figure out how to swap different powers in and out.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I checked out all of the PAX 10 games but the only one that caught my attention was <a href="http://www.mawgame.com/">The Maw</a>, an Xbox Live game developed by Twisted Pixel Games. The basic premise is you play as a captured alien whose only chance of escapes means releasing a blob that will eventually eat the entire universe. You start out the game leading the blob around on a leash and as he eats more and more he grows larger and larger until by the end you ride on him. The blob gains different powers depending on what he&#8217;s eaten and I saw some sort of fire power and some sort of flying power.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I&#8217;ve pretty consistently had very little interest in <a href="http://www.littlebigplanet.com/">Little Big Planet</a>. First of all I don&#8217;t own a PS3 and secondly I had almost no idea what it was supposed to be and no interest to find out. After seeing Sony&#8217;s demonstration of LBP I still have no idea what it&#8217;s about but it did look kind of neat. Sony showed off a small jungle level that was created during the demo. Four players had to then race to the finish line which was rather uneventful until one of them figured out how to use the rocket cars. They then proceeded to kill everyone with it and crashed into the spawn point which caused everyone to die when they respawned.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I played <a href="www.us.playstation.com/PSP/Games/Resistance_Retribution">Resistance Retribution</a> for a few minutes mainly just to get a free hat. The controls were tough to get used to, the analog stick moves you, the ABXY buttons look around and the shoulder buttons fire. It was OK but it&#8217;s not really my thing so I&#8217;m biased. Other people seemed to like it. This was the first time I&#8217;ve ever used a PSP and I was pretty impressed with the PSP&#8217;s analog button.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I briefly played Sega&#8217;s <a href="http://www2.sega.com/gamesite/bleachds/us/index.php">Bleach: Dark Souls</a>. Despite hearing a lot of buzz about the game it didn&#8217;t impress me much. I think they were going for an old school SNES type fighter look but the graphic mostly just looked meh. All I thought about while playing it was how awesome Smash Bros DS could be and why Nintendo hadn&#8217;t created one yet. I mean it&#8217;s just about the only Nintendo IP without a DS version.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Gearbox was doing a promotion where if you let them shave your head and paint Hell on the back of your head they&#8217;ll give you a free copy of <a href="http://brothersinarmsgame.us.ubi.com/">Brothers in Arms: Hell&#8217;s Highway</a>. A free game sure is tempting but I&#8217;m not sure I could pull off the bald look. I also once again hit the PC free play area for some more TF2 LAN goodness. Mmmmmm</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After I was finished with the exhibit hall I got in the very long line for the final round of the Omegathon which also served as a sort of closing ceremony for PAX. The Omegathon is a tournament featuring 20 contestants randomly selected from those who pre-registered for PAX. Over the course of expo they compete in various games that generally aren&#8217;t considered competitive games. The winner of the event gets $5,000, an all expenses paid trip to the Tokyo Games Show, and custom PAX versions of the 360, PS3 and Wii. This year&#8217;s games were Peggle, Boom Blox, Geometry Wars 2, Rock Band, Jenga (the real version) and a secret surprise game. I skipped all but the final round.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The absolute best marketing at the fair was in the Omegathon line. A could of people from 5th Cell showed up right as the line was forming told everyone that they had downloadable demos of <a href="http://www.5thcell.com/games.php?menu=0&amp;game=locksquest">Lock&#8217;s Quest</a> available via DS download play. There were about a dozen people who took them up on this offer. Lock&#8217;s Quest is a tower defense game, but instead of just watching as the enemies pound away at your defenses you can have your character, Lock, who can attack the enemies and repair your structures. I mostly played the battle mode which was just straight up tower defense. I ran through part of the single player campaign but only got through part of the tutorial. It was a fun way to waste sometime in line and an interesting take on tower defense. Hopefully other companies will catch on and do the same thing in lines next year.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The final game of the Omegathon was revealed to be <a href="en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Excitebike">Vs. Excitebike</a> for the Famicom Disk System. One of the guys easily beat the other, 4-0 in a best of 7 matches. It wasn&#8217;t a very exciting end but it was pretty cool to have be watching a video game competition with that many people all of whom were into it as much as I was. Gabe and Tycho then took their turn at the competition and Gabe bested Tycho 4-1 which was apparently the second year straight that Tycho has lost. With that PAX was over. I had a great time and was sorry to see it end but there&#8217;s always next year.</p>
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		<title>PAX 08: Day Two</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-31/pax-08-day-two/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-31/pax-08-day-two/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 31 Aug 2008 10:22:18 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[NES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nintendo DS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nintendo Wii]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Playstation 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SNES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony Playstation 3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xbox 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brawndo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Harmonix]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Coulton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Karaoke Revolution]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[mario kart DS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[nerdcord]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAX-08]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Pictochat]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rad Racer]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Rock Band 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Starcraft 2]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=108</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I started my day at PAX a little bit later than I would have liked. I woke up and wandered down to the Pike Place Market to check it out a bit. When I did get to PAX the first thing I went to check out was Starcraft 2 which was disappointing. Not that SC2 [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I started my day at PAX a little bit later than I would have liked. I woke up and wandered down to the Pike Place Market to check it out a bit.</p>
<p>When I did get to PAX the first thing I went to check out was Starcraft 2 which was disappointing. Not that SC2 is a bad game but the lines to play it were really long, at least an hour and a half. The game itself looked like Starcraft with updated graphics. The Terran Thor units looked pretty sweet and combines with some siege tanks tore through a Zerg base in no time. The interface looks basically the same but with more stuff; they still appear to limit the number of units you can select at once to ~36ish. Nobody had that many units in the demo so I&#8217;m not exactly sure. The interface took up a lot of screen real estate; it would have been nice if they had slimmed it down a bit more. I&#8217;m sure SC2 will be a blockbuster no matter what. Blizzard makes good shit.</p>
<p>Rather than waiting to play I decided to go to the History of Harmonix: The Rockening panel. This was basically a bunch of Harmonix employees sitting around and talking about Harmonix and how everything came together behind the scenes.  It was a little boring at first since it was mostly just them talking about games they made but I did learn some interesting facts there. Disney made one of the attractions at Epcot, it&#8217;s a music game (go figure) where you wave your hands around and it makes different sounds. I remember playing with it when I was at Disney and thinking it was kind of neat. I believe it&#8217;s location in the imagination building after you get off the Figment ride. Harmonix is also the world&#8217;s largest maker of drum sticks. There was also a Q&amp;A section where one guy asked a really technical question about how they did the voice detection in Karaoke Revolution using the PS2 hardware and another guy complained that he couldn&#8217;t re-download &#8220;Brass in Pocket&#8221; on his 360. The answers were &#8220;None of us worked on that&#8221; and &#8220;you need to talk to MS about that&#8221;. The panel picked up a bit at the end and Harmonix made two announcements. First, they are going to be releasing a PAX Pack for Rock Band, featuring Darkest of the Hillside, MC Frontalot and Jonathan Coulton. The second was a new play mode in Rock Band 2 called the Bladder of Steel set list. Harmonix noticed that a lot of people were completing the Endless set list in RB1 and decided to kick it up a notch. The bladderless set list requires that you beat all 84 songs in the game without pausing or failing. That seems pretty impossible to me but I&#8217;m almost positive some will have done it within a week. Although it seems like disconnecting the controller might allow you a brief respite but who knows maybe they&#8217;ve prevented that.</p>
<p>After the panel I check out the table top lounges and then headed back over to the exhibit hall. While there I bought a SNES controller. I also checked out the PC free play room which was probably a bad idea since I ended up playing TF2 on the LAN for about an hour. Eventually I ended up in the Handheld lounge where I played some Mario Kart DS over Wi-Fi and watched people draw penises on Pictochat. Pictochat was a really fun thing to have while waiting in lines. It was a bit laggy at times but when it worked it kept me entertained.</p>
<p>I should also say that Brawndo failed utterly today. Before I had got there yesterday they didn’t have any cups AND wouldn’t let you take the cans. Which made it a bring your own cup event; this was cleared up before I arrived yesterday. However, when I got to their booth at about 11 am today, I discovered they were out of Brawndo. Apparently used up all 40 cases of the stuff on the first day. Today they just had a bunch of empty cans on the table and a pad where you could write your info down for chance to win a year’s supply of Brawndo.</p>
<p>After doing a bunch of non-PAX related stuff (dinner, wandering around the city) I decided to watch the first half of the <a href="http://www.nerdcoreforlife.com/">Nerdcore for Life</a> documentary and then go see what they were playing for &#8220;Geek Movies&#8221;. Nerdcore for Life turned out to be more interesting than I expected so I watch the whole thing and then seeing as I just watch a documentary about it went to see if I could get into the concert downstairs. I didn&#8217;t have any problems getting into the concert and <a href="http://frontalot.com/index.php/">MC Frontalot</a> came out at almost the exact time I joined the crowd. Even though I didn&#8217;t know any of his stuff I enjoyed the concert. After MC Frontalot was the <a href="http://www.minibosses.com/">MiniBosses</a>. I was tired and not really into them at all so I went back to the hotel after the second song.</p>
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		<title>PAX 08: Day One</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-30/pax-08-day-one/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-30/pax-08-day-one/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sat, 30 Aug 2008 09:48:22 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[General]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[New Jersey]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Nintendo Wii]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parsippany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xbox 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Brawndo]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Freezepop]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Guitar Hero: World Tour]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Jonathan Coulton]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Kevin Levine]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Left 4 Dead]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAX-08]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Starcraft 2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Warioland: Shake It]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=87</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[I ended up arriving late and had to wait for over an hour in the will call line to pick up my pre-ordered badge. Which was mildly annoying since it was only a two minute wait to buy a badge. Right after I got out of the badge line I got in line for the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>I ended up arriving late and had to wait for over an hour in the will call line to pick up my pre-ordered<br />
badge. Which was mildly annoying since it was only a two minute wait to buy a badge. Right after I got out of the badge line I got in line for the keynote, there were a lot of lines at PAX.</p>
<p>Ken Levine’s keynote was entertaining. He gave a brief overview of his history as a nerd. From his early days of wanting to fuck the scarlet witch and his first awkward experiences with D&amp;D all the way to his failed screenwriting career and his decision to go get into the game industry and join Looking Glass Studios. The theme of the whole boiled down to “We’re all geeks, love it, embrace it and go have fun together”.</p>
<p>I skipped the Q&amp;A panel to hit the exhibit floor. After a quick walk around I stopped and checked out <a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-09-02/pax-08-rock-band-2-guitar-hero-world-tour/">Rock Band 2 and Guitar Hero: World Tour</a> . I discovered that <a href="www.brawndo.com">Brawndo</a> The Thirst Mutilator, did indeed have what I (and plants) crave. It&#8217;s pretty tasty but oddly not got sale. (I&#8217;ve since learned that it wasn&#8217;t for sale because the convention center doesn&#8217;t allow non-convention vendors to sell food or drink)</p>
<p>Nintendo was nearby so I checked out some of their stuff. WarioLand: Shake It seems like a decent platformer although depending on how much it’s used; constantly shaking the controller could get annoying. Kirby Superstar Ultra was fun but there really isn&#8217;t much new about it. After that, I had some fun creating a creature in Spore Creature Creator for the DS. I couldn&#8217;t do anything more than walk around with it once it was created which makes me what the game play would be like in that game. I finished off my day in the exhibit hall with <a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2008-09-02/pax-08-left-4-dead/">Left 4 Dead</a> which was amazing.</p>
<p>Next up I hit the concerts. It was probably the strangest concert I&#8217;ve ever been too. No one was really getting into any of the bands mostly everyone was just sort of hanging out listening. <a href="www.theoneups.com/">The OneUps</a> were kind of neat but it sounded a lot like they were just jamming the whole time and not really playing songs. <a href="http://www.freezepop.com/">Freezepop</a> isn’t really my thing but they ended up being pretty good. During their entire set, there was a guy nearby playing Final Fantasy Tactics which was odd. Freezepop&#8217;s encore ended up being a cover of The Final Countdown and it was really good.</p>
<p>Finally <a href="http://www.jonathancoulton.com/">Jonathan Coulton</a> was up. I wasn&#8217;t really looking forward to seeing him but figured it would be cool to see &#8220;Still Alive&#8221; from <a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/tag/portal/">Portal</a> performed live. Of course, I was completely wrong and he ended up being the best of them all, I suppose that’s why he was “headlining”. I enjoyed all his songs, my favorite was &#8220;re: Your Brains&#8221; there is nothing cooler than a room of people out of sync and groaning &#8220;All we want to do is eat your brains&#8221;. He also managed to Rick Roll the whole audience twice. The first time the video played over the projectors and most of the crowd started singing along. The second time was mixed in the middle of &#8220;Mr. Fancy Pants&#8221;. For &#8220;Still Alive&#8221; <a href="http://feliciaday.com/">Felicia Day</a>, who is like geek goddess, came out and <a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XfyeJ6CX0vI">sang with him</a>. He ended the night with a sing along cover of Neil Diamond&#8217;s &#8220;Sweet Caroline&#8221; which was unexpected and really cool. Over all, Day One was amazing.</p>
<p>Pictures still to come.</p>
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		<title>PAX 08: Day Zero</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-29/pax-08-day-zero/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-29/pax-08-day-zero/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Fri, 29 Aug 2008 07:48:24 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Travels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PAX-08]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Seattle]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=90</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Just arrived in Seattle a few hours ago. The guy I’m rooming with is delayed for a few hours. So I’m chilling on the couch in the hotel lobby waiting for him. I thought about joining the pre-PAX pub crawl but decided against it. I’m tired and don’t feel like walking to a bar a [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Just arrived in Seattle a few hours ago. The guy I’m rooming with is delayed for a few hours. So I’m chilling on the couch in the hotel lobby waiting for him. I thought about joining the <a href="http://forums.penny-arcade.com/showthread.php?t=66247">pre-PAX pub crawl</a> but decided against it. I’m tired and don’t feel like walking to a bar a half-hour away at night in a city I’ve never been too before. Work then PAX tomorrow. Woohoo.</p>
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		<title>XBL Shenanigans</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-20/xbl-shenanigans/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-08-20/xbl-shenanigans/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Thu, 21 Aug 2008 02:15:47 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[PC]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Parsippany]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xbox 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Castle Crashers]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[XBL]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=58</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[The past few days I&#8217;ve had a hell of a time with XBL. First I could stay connected for more than a few minutes without getting strange errors. Turns out I switched the MAC address on my 360 to match my laptop&#8217;s so I could use it at my hotel. It worked great in the [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>The past few days I&#8217;ve had a hell of a time with XBL.</p>
<p>First I could stay connected for more than a few minutes without getting strange errors. Turns out I switched the MAC address on my 360 to match my laptop&#8217;s so I could use it at my hotel. It worked great in the hotel where I only had a single LAN line. When I brought it home and had both of them plugged in to the same switch; however,  it didn&#8217;t work quite so well.</p>
<p>Once that was straightened out, I wanted to add MS points to my account. Every time I tried I got error code 80169d94 and some &#8220;Not available&#8221; message. At first I figured maybe it was a temporary problem on MS&#8217;s end. After a  few hours I began to suspect something else was up. I finally got around to googling the code today and it turns out that my account has been locked. Which means I need to call MS support and then convince them to transfer me to the credit department. From what I&#8217;ve read that isn&#8217;t going to be an easy task. I&#8217;m hoping I can find out what caused this and avoid it in the future. Right now I&#8217;ve got three possibilities:</p>
<p>1. Rapidly connecting and disconnecting from XBL because of the duplicate MAC addresses.<br />
2. I bought points with my 360 using both the original and  changed MAC address.<br />
3. Repeatedly traveling cross country with my 360.<br />
4. Some combination of 1-3.</p>
<p>I&#8217;m going to give MS a call in the morning and see how it goes.</p>
<p>***Update***</p>
<p>0:00  Called MS Support someone picked up right away. She sounds a bit like a character I saw on Mad TV.</p>
<p>19:30 After spending 20 minutes S-P-E-L-L-I-N-G out all my information and explaining my problem I finally get transferred to Billing.</p>
<p>33:24  Billing confirms all my information a second time and makes me update using the XBL site. Transferred back to support.</p>
<p>41:50 Transferred to the supervisor. Apparently MS randomly audits the XBL information and if there is anything missing locks the account. Turns out when I originally setup my XBL account I entered my name as Ryan T and their system didn&#8217;t like that much. In 5-10 DAYS, MS will unlock my account and call me to let me know I can buy stuff from them again.</p>
<p>47:08  Done. For now.</p>
<p>***Update 2 &#8211; 9/01/2008***</p>
<p>MS called me twice.</p>
<p>The first time after putting my phone on speaker and turning the volume all the way up while putting it against my ear all I could make out was that it was the words &#8220;hi&#8230;xbox&#8230;call&#8221;</p>
<p>The second time I managed to get the number but they left the main support number. After 20 minutes on the phone all I had managed to get was a lot of voice prompts without an option to talk to a real person. I hung up and said screw it.</p>
<p>***Update 3 &#8211; 9/5/2008***</p>
<p>I finally made it home and managed to buy more points. FYI, Castle Crashers is awesome.</p>
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		<title>A bit of clean up</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-07-21/a-bit-of-clean-up/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2008-07-21/a-bit-of-clean-up/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Mon, 21 Jul 2008 05:47:01 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[California]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Exercise]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Los Angeles]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Updates]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Dark Knight]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Halo 3]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/?p=39</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[Tonight I decided to clean this place up a bit. A few updates, a new post and a slight layout change. Amazing! Anyway, I bet you&#8217;re wondering: &#8220;What&#8217;s new with this Ryan fellow?&#8221; No? Well let me tell you anyways&#8230;.umm&#8230;not to much. I work about ten hours a day, then I run ~2 miles and [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p>Tonight I decided to clean this place up a bit. A few updates, a new post and a slight layout change. Amazing! Anyway, I bet you&#8217;re wondering: &#8220;What&#8217;s new with this Ryan fellow?&#8221;</p>
<p>No? Well let me tell you anyways&#8230;.umm&#8230;not to much. I work about ten hours a day, then I run ~2 miles and end the day with a bit of <a href="http://www.bungie.net/Stats/Halo3/Default.aspx?player=loofymodnar">Halo 3</a>. I live a very exciting life. I&#8217;ve actually been really enjoying running each night. Almost to the point where I look forward to it. I&#8217;m trying to push myself a little faster/longer each day and my goal is to ramp it up until I can easily do 3 miles a day.</p>
<p>I did attempt to see Dark Knight this weekend but about two hours into the movie the fire alarm went off and they shut the movie off. Luckily it was just a false alarm but oddly enough when the alarm went off no one in the theatre got up to leave. Everyone just started complaining about the movie being shut off . When they got around to turning the movie back on they didn&#8217;t bother to rewind the movie so I missed about 10 minutes of it. About 10 minutes after that they cut the sound to the movie and I left. So I&#8217;ve seen 4/5th of the Dark Knight, at least I got two free tickets out of the deal.</p>
<p>As for the movie what I saw of it was awesome so far. Heath Ledger was excellent as the Joker. I went in halfway assuming that all the press about his performance was hyped up because of his death but I was very wrong. I&#8217;m hopefully going to see it in IMAX back at home this weekend.</p>
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		<title>Project: Connecting a Wii Video Game Console to a Hotel TV</title>
		<link>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2007-12-01/project-connecting-a-wii-to-a-hotel-tv/</link>
		<comments>http://www.loofmodnar.com/index/2007-12-01/project-connecting-a-wii-to-a-hotel-tv/#comments</comments>
		<pubDate>Sun, 02 Dec 2007 01:31:03 +0000</pubDate>
		<dc:creator>loof</dc:creator>
				<category><![CDATA[Nintendo Wii]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Projects]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Sony Playstation 3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Travels]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Video Games]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xbox 360]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Gamecube]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[hotel]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[n64]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[NES]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PS]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PS2]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[PS3]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[SNES and Sega Genesis]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[television]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[tv]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[universal remote]]></category>
		<category><![CDATA[Xbox]]></category>

		<guid isPermaLink="false">http://www.randomfool.net/index/2007-12-01/project-connecting-a-wii-to-a-hotel-tv/</guid>
		<description><![CDATA[**Update** I also want to note that this will apply to just about any console with composite (Red/White/Yellow) or component (Red/Blue/Green and Red/White). PS, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube all have composite out by default and use the same basic process except of course the Nintendo Wi-Fi connector will only work with the Wii. [...]]]></description>
			<content:encoded><![CDATA[<p class="MsoNormal">**Update**</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I also want to note that this will apply to just about any console with composite (Red/White/Yellow) or component (Red/Blue/Green and Red/White). PS, PS2, PS3, Xbox, Xbox 360, Gamecube all have composite out by default and use the same basic process except of course the Nintendo Wi-Fi connector will only work with the Wii. Of course older consoles like the NES, SNES, n64, and Sega Genesis, don&#8217;t have composite out so you&#8217;ll have to use an RF adapter in most cases.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">**Original Article**</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I noticed a couple of people were directed by Google to <a href="http://www.randomfool.net/index/2007-08-29/13/">this post</a> in search of how to connect a Wii to a hotel TV. I figure if Google is desperate enough to send people here maybe it might be good idea to expand upon my previous entry.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Most consoles come with a composite (Red/White/Yellow) connection by default (Red/White/Yellow). I connect to the TV using a component cable (Red/Blue/Green and Red/White). Either way it&#8217;s the same idea just different ports. Start by connecting the cable directly to the back of the hotel TV. If you only see red/white connectors then just plug in those two, if you don&#8217;t see any colored connections then you need an RF adapter and you can skip to the next paragraph. At this point you can turn the TV on and try hitting the source/input button. If it changes the screen and you can see the game you&#8217;re done. If not that&#8217;s because most hotels have the inputs disabled by default. The idea being you&#8217;ll be more likely to buy pay per-view movies. This is pretty easy to get around by buying a a cheap universal remote. This will let you access the menu to re-enable the inputs on the television. In general all you need to do is program the universal remote for the brand and model of the TV and then you&#8217;ll be able to use the input/source button just like at home. Every TV and remote has different programming sequences and menu structures so I won&#8217;t get into that here. Suffice to say follow the directions that came with the remote and you can usually pull the model number of the TV off the sticker on the back.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If the TV does not have any composite or component connections on it then things are a bit trickier. *Disclaimer* I haven’t tried this method yet. **<br />
In this case, you&#8217;ll need to use a RF modulator to convert the composite connection into a coaxial connection. Which you can then plugged into the the back of the TV. You might also need to use the universal remote to set the TV to the correct station usually 3 or 4.  Most hotels have a metal or plastic cover over the jack on  the TV, to prevent you from messing with things. If you&#8217;re feeling bold you can either cut them off and assume no one will notice they’re missing or come up with a way to unscrew them. Whether disconnecting whatever system the hotel uses for their television will set off alarms I can’t say. I will say I have heard stories of people who unplugged the TV and had the front desk knocking on their door to make sure the TV wasn’t stolen. I&#8217;ve disconnected most of that stuff with out issue in various hotels and never had an issue but YMMV (Your Mileage May Vary). Just don&#8217;t blame me if you end up sleeping on the sidewalk because the hotel staff kicked out out.
</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">To get internet access on my Wii I use the <a href="http://www.amazon.com/Nintendo-Wi-Fi-USB-Connector/dp/B000CBWQUY">Nintendo Wi-Fi USB Adapter</a>.  The adapter allows the Wii (and/or DS) to connect to your PC and through the magic of internet connection sharing to the internet. The adapter was recently updated to support both Windows XP and Windows Vista. (Sorry Mac &amp; Linux people, Windows wins this round). This allows you to avoid the registration pages most hotels use (which the Wii won&#8217;t display) and the general lack of in room Wi-Fi. Another option is to get the Nintendo LAN adapter or just setup a wireless router in you room.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For my Xbox 360 I came up with another solution. This requires two things, one that you have a laptop and 2 that the hotel has a wired internet connection. Under the network settings options there&#8217;s an advanced page that will allow you to change your MAC address. Basically a MAC address is you computer&#8217;s unique ID on any network, similar to how your phone number works. First you need to connect you laptop to the network and register as you would normally, there&#8217;s usually directions on the card neat the desk. Once that is done go into the start menu and click on run, enter &#8220;cmd&#8221; in the box and click ok. This will bring up a command prompt type in the following</p>
<blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;ipconfig /all&#8221;</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal">and you&#8217;ll see a whole bunch of information pop up somewhere in there you&#8217;ll see an entry that looks something like this</p>
<blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal">&#8220;Physical Address. . . . . . . . . : 01-5A-74-1B-94-8E&#8221;</p>
</blockquote>
<p class="MsoNormal">This is your MAC address. Now you&#8217;ll need to update the Mac on the 360 to match here&#8217;s the steps taken from <a href="http://www.xbox.com/en-US/support/connecttolive/xbox/highspeedisps/charter.htm">xbox.com</a>:</p>
<ol>
<blockquote>
<li>From the Xbox Dashboard, choose <strong>Settings</strong>, and then <strong>Network Settings</strong>.</li>
<li>From the <strong>Network Settings</strong> screen, select<strong> Advanced</strong>.</li>
<li>From the <strong>Advanced</strong> screen, select <strong>MAC Address</strong>.</li>
<li>Enter the MAC address of your PC in the Xbox Dashboard. <em>Do not</em> enter any dashes, just letters and numbers.</li>
<li>To attempt connection to Xbox Live using the new MAC address, return (Back) to the <strong>Network Settings </strong>screen, and then select <strong>Connect</strong>.</li>
</blockquote>
</ol>
<p>After that you should be all set. Just remember to change it back later on or you&#8217;ll run into trouble.</p>
<p class="MsoNormal">So there you go, how to setup a <span style="text-decoration: line-through;">Nintendo Wii</span> video game console in your hotel room. Enjoy!</p>
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