Oh! Gizmo

By Andrew Liszewski

I normally enjoy these mobile posts since they give me a reason to leave my office and do a little writing away from home. But unfortunately today’s post has a sombre mood to it. My LaCie CRT monitor has been acting up over the past week, and this is what I discovered with when I powered it up this morning. The display has collapsed to a thin horizontal line that’s almost as bright as the sun. Reading up on the problem it seems this issue isn’t uncommon, but it came at a particularly bad time since the monitor is dangerously close to being out of warranty.

So I’m writing this post from my local Purolator depot where I’m shipping the monitor back to LaCie for ‘analysis’. While I’m sure the problem is repairable, I have no idea what it’s going to cost me, or if LaCie is even willing to touch it if it’s actually out of warranty. And since this particular monitor was almost impossible to find 3 years ago (Trinitron tube) I’m pretty sure I don’t have a chance of finding a brand new replacement these days. So it seems I may finally be forced to upgrade to an LCD.

By Andrew Liszewski

I guess ‘controversy’ isn’t the best way to describe this, but apparently if you look very closely at the cover art for the Wii version of Okami you’ll actually see an IGN.com watermark in the background. I first read about the discovery on Kotaku last week and I had to check it out for myself. Sure enough, if you find a copy of the game and look exactly where my finger is pointing, you’ll see the logo. It’s pretty faint and easy to miss, but it’s definitely there.

I can only assume that the artist responsible for creating the cover art for the Wii version of the game had a hard time tracking down the artwork used for the original PS2 version from a couple of years ago. And IGN.com just happened to have a hi-res version of the artwork available on their site. A lot of people think the artist responsible for this should lose their job, but anyone who’s worked in graphic design knows that getting hi-res or vector artwork from a client isn’t always easy. (Even if it was all done internally at Capcom.) There have been too many times when I’ve asked for a print-ready version of a logo only to get a 200px wide JPG taken from a company’s website. So while I’m willing to give the artist the benefit of the doubt, I am kind of surprised they didn’t at least try to hide or blur the watermark before it went to print.

And if you’ve already purchased a copy of the game featuring the offending IGN.com logo, you can actually request a free replacement sleeve from Capcom via their website.

By Andrew Liszewski

While walking home last night I happened to notice this bizarre truck stopped at a red light. It was your standard cube van, except for the fact that the cube portion featured windows on all sides. And while it’s kind of hard to tell in this photo, inside the truck was someone dressed like an alien on vacation. The rest of the aliens were actually similarly dressed mannequins, but I guess they felt they needed at least one actual person to make it more realistic.

I can’t deny the fact that the truck served its purpose of grabbing people’s attention (I did stop and take a photo after all) but it was really a lame advertising stunt. And I can’t help but feel that other people might decide to arbitrarily boycott this company like I have, because of it. (It doesn’t take much.) If you work in advertising and are reading this post here’s my suggestion on how to improve this idea. You should replace the aliens with a machine that shoots out money, and instead of driving around the city you should just park in front of my apartment building. Then I’ll buy whatever you’re selling.

By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve come to like living in the downtown core of a big city since the (mostly) reliable public transit has allowed me to sidestep the responsibility of owning a car. But as of Sunday afternoon there was the very real possibility of a public transit strike here in Toronto, which would have meant some unpleasantly long walks for yours truly. Normally I don’t mind walking when the weather is nice, but not having the option of catching a streetcar or the subway if it started raining was a bit worrisome. It was obviously a concern for quite a few others too since I saw a lot of people buying bicycles Sunday afternoon. It was also the first time I ever thought a Segway would actually come in handy. Thankfully a tentative deal was reached just in time which meant that the subway trains, buses and streetcars were running as usual this morning.

By Andrew Liszewski

Believe it or not, there was a time when Radio Shack was actually a cool place to visit for electronics enthusiasts. These days the shelves are lined with the same crap that put The Sharper Image out of business, but as a kid I remember them carrying some pretty cool robots (Robie Junior joined our family one year), computers (remember the Tandy?) and electronic components that were actually useful. Those days are long gone but thankfully there’s a much better alternative where I live. Active Surplus is the kind of place that attracts a wide range of people from geeks to hackers to artists, and it’s mostly due to their eclectic stock of merchandise.

There’s kind of an ‘anything goes’ mentality at Active and you can find everything from empty Lacie drive cases, to chemistry glassware, to any kind of computer, audio or video cable you can imagine. And more importantly, most of the stuff is dirt cheap. The staff is also very knowledgeable (one thing Radio Shack never had) and while they don’t tend to roam the store (the aisles are pretty narrow) they’re always ready to help you find what you need. After the jump you’ll find a few more pictures I took during my most recent visit.

[ Active Surplus ]

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By Andrew Liszewski

I’ve been using the same Logitech wireless keyboard for a good 6 or 7 years now. While I’m sure it would easily last a few more years, I decided to replace it because I’m convinced there’s a complete self-sustaining biosphere lurking beneath the keys. So for the past few weeks I’ve been checking out keyboards here and there, but I kept coming back to the latest version from Apple, seen here at my local Apple Store. Now I’m a Windows guy, and intend to use the keyboard under XP and Vista, but I’ll gladly admit that Apple have become masters of product design. They’re pretty good at marketing too, but have a bad habit of letting their campaigns run a lot longer than they should.

Not surprisingly, the people at the Apple Store were as useless when it came to answering my questions as any other retail employee, but thankfully the keyboard works nearly flawlessly under XP. I’ll have to make a few registry changes to get my printscreen button back, but other than that I’m really liking the new keyboard. It’s exactly like typing on a laptop, which I know some people don’t like, but I have no problem with it. The position of the CTRL and ALT keys are swapped compared to my old Logitech keyboard, but I’m sure the muscle memory in my hands will soon adjust. In fact the only real complaint I have was when I tried to plug my Wacom into one of the keyboard’s USB ports and found that it didn’t supply enough power for the tablet to work properly. Unfortunate, but far from a deal breaker.

By Andrew Liszewski

While it’s nice to see nearly every store in my city with GTA IV displays, April 29th is still just too far away. I know it’s already the 17th, but that last stretch always seems to drag on forever. I’ve been a fan of the GTA series way back to the original ‘overhead view’ versions but I have to admit I was a little worried when they announced the series was switching to a fully 3D environment. (Not to mention the PS2 exclusivity.) But things seem to have worked out for the best.

And while the series has become the poster child for adult gaming and the debate over video game violence, I really only play it for its ’sandbox’ virtues. In fact I haven’t even come close to actually ‘completing’ any of the recent GTA games. I’m more than content just to drive around getting in car chases, or enjoying the occasional helicopter flight with the inevitable crash at the end. But the addition of multiplayer has tempted me to get back on XBox Live. That is, if the 29th ever actually gets here.

By David Ponce

This may seem terribly off topic, but there’s a bit of a link to the OhGizmo! ethos here. Hear me out. Part of the reason I started the site was that new things have always fascinated me. Sure, most of the new things I’ve always been interested in were gadgets; innovation (in gadgets and tech) quickly became a focus for the site as a result. But this fascination with new stuff is still a part of me. And sometimes, it backfires, as can be seen above.

See, this is why, when sitting comfortably at a new sushi joint in town, I decided to order the most obscure sounding thing on the menu, something I’d never had: “Fried salmon head with some sort of spice combo I can’t remember”. Sounded nice. Sure. Except that in my head, for a moment, a salmon fish was the size of a goldfish, and the head I was expecting to get was no larger than maybe a thumb. Good one. This is what showed up a few minutes later. This.

But I ate it. Sure. I picked at it. But eventually ate it. Fun stuff.

I’d love to hear your culinary horror stories.

By Andrew Liszewski

Given the ridiculously nice weather I decided to go for a walk yesterday, and as is usually the case, I ended up at my local comic book store. Much to my surprise, in their display case of ’stuff that’s so expensive you’re not allowed to touch’ I discovered this handsomely displayed set of Kryptonite. Now I was always under the impression you needed some crazy, Luther-esque plan in order to obtain a usable amount of Superman’s achilles heel, but it seems my own dreams of taking down the man of steel might actually come true.

Unfortunately, after doing a little research online it turns out this is actually a replica of a set of Kryptonite found in the Justice League’s trophy room. So not only is it a fake, but it’s also based on an item that only exists in a comic book. Sigh… Anyways it looks like the BigBadToyStore also carries it for $204.99.

By Andrew Liszewski

I guess my XEL-1 review unit from Sony must’ve gotten lost in the mail, but thankfully I was able to get some one-on-one time with the OLED TV at my local Sony store. Not surprisingly the display looks amazing, and is exactly what you’d expect with a 1,000,000:1 contrast ratio. And even though it only has a native resolution of 960×540 pixels, you don’t really notice it since the display is just 11 inches in size. But am I tempted to take one home? Absolutely not.

As far as I’m concerned the XEL-1 is nothing more than a tech demo/marketing exercise. Sure, it’s cool that Sony was the first company to get an actual OLED TV to the market, but who’s going to pay $2,499.99 for a display that can’t even do 720P? Even the XEL-1’s design seems engineered to promote the technology first and foremost. By keeping all of the controls and connections in the base of the unit, it allowed them to make the actual OLED display remarkably thin. And it works, as that seems to be the biggest feature most people noticed as they walked past. But while OLED technology is definitely a viable contender when it comes to who will rule the flat screen market in the future, it’s probably a good idea to wait a few more years before making the investment.