I could show you a chart with all of the technical specs for the XBox 360 and the Playstation 3. I could show you a comparison of the graphics for each system. Neither of those things matter though. The only thing that matters is the games. Which system has the best games? Right now, the PS3 doesn’t really have a title that makes it a must have system. The XBox 360 does with Halo 3. This is why the XBox 360 easily outsells the PS3, and will continue to for quite some time.

History repeats itself. If you look at the history of video games, you will see that the success of a system is based solely on the games, not the hardware that runs them. The ColecoVision was better than the Atari. The NeoGeo was better than Genesis or Super Nintendo. In both cases, they didn’t have the game library to back up these powerful systems, and the weaker system outsold the superior one. People bought the NES because you could play Punch Out, Super Mario Bros. and Zelda. People bought the PS2 to play Grand Theft Auto. Today, Halo 3 is the must have game.

The XBox 360 will also continue to have developers making great games for in the future. It is a much easier system for game developers to make games for because it’s based on DirectX. The PS3? Not so easy. In fact, many games were delayed for the PS3 this past Christmas season because developers struggled to get the games completed.

I know my decision is clear. I pick the system with the games I want to play. So stop comparing XBox 360 vs. the PS3. Compare the games instead and then make your decision.

The title of this post details the approach I am taking at this time in my life. For years I had been striving to make more and more money in the tech industry. I couldn’t complain about where I was as far as money, but something still was missing. I still wasn’t happy. I started seeing a shrink for answers. Over the course of 8 weeks, I started to develop a new philosophy about life. The only reason I have been striving to make more money all of these years is the same reason most people do. They are trying to impress other people. I have always wanted a bigger car, a bigger house, and all the latest electronic toys. It was all a show to show off to friends and mostly to meet the expectations of my parents. Now I’m only out to impress one person, myself. These books helped me develop my new philosophy:

Do What You Love, The Money Will Follow: Discovering Your Right Livelihood - The best book of these 3. It was recommended by my shrink. It’s filled with stories of people that changed their lives by changing their definition of success. The idea is to start doing what you love, struggle with how hard it is at first, and then be happier in the end.

What Color Is Your Parachute? 2008: A Practical Manual for Job-hunters and Career-Changers - A guide to changing careers. This is not really a book you read cover to cover, but one you consult when you need it. A must have for anybody in the work force. It will change everything you’ve ever thought about hunting for a job and your career.

How Starbucks Saved My Life: A Son of Privilege Learns to Live Like Everyone Else - An amazing story about a guy whowas happier working at Starbucks than he was his high-powered, six-figure job.

These books and revelations about life forced me into a new way of thinking about myself. I am not a tech that works for a large software corporation. Although I still have that job right now, it does not define who I am. Instead, I am a writer and broadcaster. That’s what I want to do, and I do it whenever I can. Not for the money, but because it is who I am and what I enjoy. I trust that the money will follow and maybe someday I can will be able to leave my day job.

It is possible to do what you love and make money. It just takes time. You may also not make much money doing what you love, but you will be a more fulfilled person. It’s cliché, but true. Money really doesn’t make you happy.

How to export your Firefox bookmarks to a bookmark.html file so that you may import it into another application.

1. Open Firefox.

2. Select Bookmarks > Organize Bookmarks.

3. The Bookmarks Manager opens. Click File > Export…

4. Save the bookmark.html file wherever you wish. I usually prefer the Desktop.

Now you can use the file to import the bookmarks into another program.

I have spent a lot of time taking helpdesk and technical support calls. I often wonder how much of my time is spent actually solving problems over the phone as opposed to dealing with all the other things that don’t relate or hinder the troubleshooting process. I decided to make a simple little guide that everybody should follow when calling a support line or their helpdesk for their technical related problems.

Stop complaining and let me solve your issue

Us people that take support calls, we are problem solvers. We want to solve your problem and get you off the phone. Ok, so your issue has been happening for a while, and you’ve been dealing with other people in my department. I understand that. Can we please get to solving what you called for please? If I can just do that, there will be no reason to complain. I can understand some level of venting, but when it goes on forever it hinders our ability and desire to help you.

Follow our direction and do nothing else

Call, describe your problem and then let us take over. It’s now time for us to direct you. Click only where we tell you to click and type only when and where we tell you to type. Forget about the screens you were on before or other areas where there was a problem. Bouncing around and doing your own thing will only result in a longer call.

Don’t say that you are a tech

If you are a computer tech yourself and you feel you are going to win points with the tech you are calling by saying “I’m a tech!”, forget about it. Understand that 9 out of 10 people that claim they are “techs” aren’t able to follow the simple direction they are provided. If you truly are a tech, you won’t need to tell me. I will know just by the way you follow direction. I also know you want to solve the issue now by trying your own things in the middle of the steps I’m walking you through, but please see above.

Have the error message written down

If there was an error message, please be sure you can recite it to the tech when you call. That way we can search for it in our knowledgebase or on the internet and come up with a quick solution. If you don’t have the exact error message VERBATIM, it helps us very little. Don’t just make up an error message that sounds similar either. It won’t help much in most cases.

Be in front of the computer when you call

It amazes me how many people call and think that a problem can be troubleshooted while they are on their morning drive miles away from their computer. This should be a no brainer, but I guess people feel they are somehow saving time instead of wasting mine.

I can’t help you in getting compensation

If you want money back because your computer problems are making you suffer, I can’t do anything about it. Seriously! I have no “pull” in that direction, nor do I care to. Take all that up with your salesman or our billing department. We are problem solvers. We solve the technical issue you are having and that is our only function.

No, we don’t know it all

Some people expect all of the answers to their problems right now. They get frustrated when they don’t get them right away. Please understand that things need to be researched and that may take time.We also may give information that is not true from time to time. Again, we don’t know it all and we are human and may slip up from time to time. It doesn’t mean we are stupid or have less knowledge than somebody else.

Before calling support, please try restarting your computer

I hate asking people to restart their computer, but sometimes I have to. Sometimes I don’t even remember to ask until an hour into the call because this should be tried by the user before they even call. Computers malfunction and sometimes just need to be restarted. If that does the trick, then move on. By doing so you avoid wasting our time and yours.

Be sure you are calling the right people

Check to make sure the product you are using is supported by the people you are calling. If you bought a Dell computer loaded Adobe software on it, Dell is not going to help you with it. They know nothing about it. Call Adobe.

The attitude of the average geeky net admin has always been that they have power over all systems and should be respected. Micheal Bolton of Office Space said it best when he stated “Initech better start treating their software people better. I could write a program that could rip that company off bigtime!”

This has been the attitude of all techies. Mess with me? I have the power to mess you up more. Well, if you’re one of these techies, think again. A woman that worked for an architectural firm deleted $2.5M in files believing she was about to be fired. This act as it turns out is a felony as it was over $1,000 in damage. The files were eventually recovered by a data recovery specialist.

So next time you’re thinking of taking your evil employer down, save yourself the jail time and just build a myemployersucks.com web site instead. Or maybe be like Milton and just set the building on fire.

Crazy Flash animations are constantly getting in the way of my Internet experience. I once resorted to uninstalling Flash player completely, but I quickly found myself needing Flash to play games and for those stupid web developers that have chosen to make an entire site using Flash without an HTML alternative.

I found an amazing solution that fits my needs perfectly. Using the Block Flash Animations & Advertisements Firefox hack, I can choose when I want to let Flash load in my browser. It turns all Flash animations on a web page into a Click to play link. No more Flash covering what I’m reading. No more obnoxious ads hogging memory. I just click on the Flash animations I wish to see.

All you do is add the following code to your UserContent.css file (create it if it doesn’t exist) in your Firefox Profile folder.

/* Block Flash, using a placeholder you can click to unblock a desired Flash animation. */
/* Doesn’t work for embed tags, which are less common than object tags - bug 190970 */
object[classid$=”:D27CDB6E-AE6D-11cf-96B8-444553540000″],
object[codebase*=”swflash.cab”] {
-moz-binding: url(”http://www.cs.hmc.edu/~jruderma/flash.xml#obj”); }

I love you like a girlfriend Flash, but like a girlfriend, you’re annoying and always interrupt my web porn hour.

Pac-man, Galaga, Street Figther II. These video games represent everything that was great about the traditional video arcade. I wanted to experience a traditional arcade once again upon my recent visit to Chicago only to find that the arcade I loved as a teen is now gone. It was the last one left of the four I frequented.

After these places survived for years on quarters from players yearning for a new challenger to find them, video arcades have been fading from the urban landscape. I thought about reasons why and struggled to find solid reasons. Was it home video gaming systems? Everybody owns a home system now. Gamers can play at home or play against somebody online if they would like an opponent. But arcades were very popular in the ’90s and back then everybody had a NES or SNES. So this reason alone couldn’t be what killed the video arcade.

Then it hit me. The reason? It was the coin-ops! Coin-ops never evolved like other electronic gadgets do. Smaller, faster, cheaper, better is the evolution every successful electronic item follows. Coin operated games did not follow this evolution. Compare the Galaga machine to the Street Fighter II Machine. Both games were created about 15 years apart, yet they pretty much are the same. A huge cabinet, a huge screen, controller and buttons. These machines became way too expensive to make any money on. I remember being told that an arcade had to rent a coin-op for about $500 a month or more if the game was any good. If the arcade owner were to buy the game, instead it would cost $3,500+. It takes a while for arcade owners to make their money back when you consider the overhead.

Why didn’t game makers start making the games smaller and cheaper? Why not do away with the huge cabinet to cut costs? Make it just a screen with a controller and a box for the tokens, or even better, a card scanner. That’s all you need! This would’ve resulted in huge savings for the arcade owner and the chance to make better profits. Instead, coin operated games stayed bulky and expensive. Arcade owners stopped buying them. With fewer orders, game makers eventually stopped making new coin-ops altogether.

Now when you are lucky to find an arcade that still operates, you’ll find that the owner has cut costs wherever he can. Machines are regularly out of order. Other machines often have problems with the screen or joystick. Games that should be 25 cents to play are still 50 cents to a dollar. All of which could have been prevented had the coin-op evolved.

These days, when you want to face a challenge from a stranger, the only option we have are Internet arcades. In a way the Internet arcade is an evolution of traditional arcades. Not many people are into the games that I always liked in these places though, so I never go. I guess I’ll just play my PS3 instead.

How to make the Leopard Time Machine run the backup right now.

1. Run Terminal from the Utilities folder.

2. Type /System/Library/CoreServices/backupd.bundle
/Contents/Resources/backupd-helper &

The ampersand at the end runs the backup in the background.

Alternately, you can right-click/control click on the Time Machine icon in the dock and click Back Up Now.

It seems a study has given people more reason to cut out caffeine. I have been cutting caffeine out for other reasons. If you’re female a study shows that caffeine increases the risk of miscarriage. Read the Chicago Tribune article about it.

This is just another step toward the soft drink industry becoming what the cigarette industry is today. The only difference is the drug is sold directly to kids legally. It might take 100 years, but it will happen some day.

I had a laptop that has been sitting in my office for about 6 months. The thing was too slow to even run Windows 2000 and had cracked LCD hinges, so I didn’t bother to repair it. So there it sat. What do I do? Pay a recycling firm to get rid of it for me? Risk dumping it in the garbage and getting a fine from the city?

I looked to eBay where I thought I could sell it. The model of the laptop I owned was going for about $150. That was for a model that had working LCD hinges though.  I would be lucky to break $100 selling the thing on eBay. So I broke out my tool kit and started to take it apart, piece by piece. I thought I could probably get more for the laptop selling it per part. I was right. Here were my results.

LCD - $55
LCD Cable - $11
Sound Card - $5
Keyboard - $22
Motherboard & Processor - $40
DVD-ROM Drive - $19
Palm Rest with Touch Mouse - $12

My total made was about $164 for an item I didn’t even use anymore. More than a fully functioning laptop. I also have a hand full of parts I could maybe sell for a couple of dollars each. No matter how old the item, somebody will want it or like in my case, parts from it.