The early bird gets the bugs. It has been quite the first week for Microsoft's new multimedia console, the Xbox 360. There was the usual launch madness -- stories about shortages, an armed robbery, a few near-riots and eBay auctions which showed that there is little discretion in some people's discretionary income.
Then, a day after its release last Tuesday, reports began to surface about systems crashing. Pictures were posted of blue screens of death. It is difficult to know how widespread the problems are -- Microsoft says not very, and there is the possibility that squeaky wheels get the press -- but the reports reshaped the Tickle Me Elmo storyline that Microsoft had hoped would emerge.
Thus far, the most common complaint has been overheating leading to crashes. One user reported fixing his 360 by suspending its brick-like power supply in the air with a piece of string. Expect 360 harnesses, complete with foam padding, to be on sale within the week.
With high-tech gadgets and software, I have come to expect some glitches in the early going. Civilization IV started crashing my PC the day after I wrote a review of it for the paper (many others have also reported problems, to me and in on-line forums). I have purchased three different versions of iPods soon after their release over the years, as gifts and for myself, and all three have made quick trips back to Apple for service. A box with a shipping slip appears when you report a problem, and a new or repaired unit is in your hands in less than a week -- painless, if annoying.
I wouldn't stand for any of this if these products weren't basically luxuries -- a car overheating on a back road at midnight is far different from a console that lets you play games on your TV -- and part of what you are paying for is innovation, something new and relatively untested in everyday conditions.
Perhaps what we need is a new cautionary name for early adopters, those intrepid types who brave each new generation of tech as soon at it is released. "Beta buyers" has a nice, if annoying, ring to it.
The Mashington Post
The Washington Post's innovative on-line arm started a unique project this week. Post Remix invites web developers and amateur coders to reshape its content, presenting the news in new ways. These mashups -- a musical term for mixing a vocal track from one song with the music from another -- are then shared with readers.
One early favourite is called a news cloud, a grouping of keywords with various font sizes depending on how often that word is used in articles. It is both a browsing tool -- you can click on the very large "Cheney" or the very small "Darfur" to get stories in which those terms appear -- and a visual way to see what is getting coverage and what isn't. Other examples can be found at blogs.washingtonpost.com/post_remix/.
Tag, you're it
Those keywords above are also called tags, and many websites use them to sort information. Social bookmarking on sites such as Del.icio.us allows users to tag pages that appeal to them with whatever terms they like -- games or gardening or health. This helps those individuals sort their bookmarks but also lets the wider community do searches to find popular pages.
Two people, however, may look at the same site and use different terms, which means macro tagging -- cataloguing the whole Web, or large portions of it -- has proven to be problematic.
One site that uses tags well on a smaller scale is Millions of Games (http://www.millionsofgames.com), which lets users rank and tag casual, arcade-style games they find on-line. Focusing the tagging on one topic seems to work very well -- I found four very fun games in a matter of minutes.
Three to try
Received a lot of responses to last week's question about how video games affect behaviour in the real world -- check the web version of Plugged In for a selection of readers' comments -- and some good sites for film fans looking for something to watch. The last one is slightly controversial, but it received several votes. Below is next week's topic so be social and send some bookmarks.
1. Internet Movie Database. Comprehensive does not begin to cover it -- how did we check film facts and solve trivia debates before http://www.imdb.com came along?
2. Movie Origins. Many movies say they are "based on a true story." This site lets you see which parts are true and which parts are exaggerated. Film fans will also find all kinds of diverting areas here, from trailers for classic films to well-researched best-of lists.
3. TV Shows on DVD. For people who go to the rental place to get a movie but end up coming home with a season of a TV series instead. Sorry cinephiles, but you had your chance.
Next week's topic: Sites for book lovers who are stalled rereading old favourites and want to find a new author or two. Send comments and sites to pluggedin@globeandmail.com.
