I have been in Tokyo, Japan all week and was able to attend the Tokyo Game Show today. This is the first time I have ever attended the show and I am glad I didn't make the trip just for this show. Don't get me wrong, it was good to be there, it just wasn't very large. I was glad I had very productive meetings earlier in the week to justify the trip.
I got to the exhibit hall a little after the show opened and so the floor was not too crowded. The first booth I saw was from Electronic Arts (EA) and was for Battlefield 4. I am a big fan of Battlefield 3 and am looking forward to the next version. There was a lot of information about the new Frostbite 3 engine and it looks to have some great improvements that are especially nice for online play.
My next stop was the Microsoft booth where I was able to play with the XBox One. There were a number of games available which should put to rest any fears XBox fans have about not having a lot of game titles. I'm not sure how much of what I saw will be available at launch but they seemed in a playable enough state that if they aren't available on day one, they will be shortly after.
It was only fair that my next stop was at Sony's PlayStation booth. Microsoft's booth was a ghost town compared to Sony's booth. There were a number of lines, each containing an insane number of people wanting to play the PlayStation 4. There was also a healthy mix of Vita and PlayStation 3 games to sample. In all fairness to Microsoft, the XBox is not nearly as popular in Japan as it is in the United States. For every XBox 360 sold last week in Japan, there were 70 PS3's sold.
I enjoy a limited time spent at tradeshows in the United States and also enjoyed the day at the Tokyo Game Show. The one big difference between the two countries is the number of scantily-clad "booth babes" in Japan. It was not uncommon to see a crew of bikini models running around the exhibit hall. One unusually small booth had an equally unusual large number of models in their booth. I have no idea what game they made even though I passed that booth a number of times. I could probably pass it a dozen more and still wouldn't have any idea what they do.
Friday, September 20, 2013
Monday, September 16, 2013
Home Auto Repair
Last week I got an emergency call from my 17-year-old son. I was in the middle of something very important and so at the next available moment, I stepped out and gave my son a call. He told me that the horn on the family Jeep had just started beeping. He first assumed it was related to the car alarm. He went out and unlocked the car but the horn kept making noise. He then tried to start the car only to have it run roughly and not stop the racket. My son is a smart kid and so his next trick was to turn the car off and disconnect the battery. The horn stopped but it also meant the car was unusable until we could fix it.
The family Jeep is a 1998 Jeep Cherokee. If you are a Jeep fan, it is better known as an XJ. My wife and son only paid a couple thousand dollars for the vehicle but it came with a 3-inch lift kit and a sweet set of tires. It makes a great car for the kids even though it has a tendency to break down on a regular basis. Having it break down is part of what makes it a good car. I use it as a teaching tool for basic automotive mechanics with my kids. The XJ is incredibly easy to work on and tons of them are still on the road, making replacement parts extremely inexpensive.
Unfortunately automobile electrical problems are sometimes the most difficult to track down and fix. When my son turned on the car, the check engine light came on. I plugged in my OBD-II computer that I picked up many years ago and saw that the car thought it had a bad throttle position sensor (TPS) based on the P0123 code it was throwing. I then did a careful Internet search using the following, "1998 Jeep XJ P0123." Why did I use the term XJ instead of Cherokee? Jeep also makes the Grand Cherokee, which is a completely different SUV. Besides anyone that knows how to work on Jeeps calls them by the car's 2 letter code instead of model name.
The Internet search yielded a number of stories about people replacing the TPS only to have the problem still exist. Most had better luck replacing the clock spring which is part of the cruise control, horn, and TPS electrical circuit. Thinking about how the horn started going off while the car was just sitting in the driveway and the TPS is only engaged while the car is running, I decided to look for a quick check to verify it was the clock spring. Pulling off the steering-wheel shroud and unplugging one of the connections to the clock spring (it is located just above the turn-signal lever) fixed the P0123 code. The horn and cruise control no longer work, but the rest of the car does.
Now that I knew the real problem, I went back to the Internet and ordered a new clock spring for the Jeep. This is not one of those parts that auto stores keep in stock. Until then my son can drive the car to school and back with the help of an inexpensive air horn resting in one of the cup holders.
The family Jeep is a 1998 Jeep Cherokee. If you are a Jeep fan, it is better known as an XJ. My wife and son only paid a couple thousand dollars for the vehicle but it came with a 3-inch lift kit and a sweet set of tires. It makes a great car for the kids even though it has a tendency to break down on a regular basis. Having it break down is part of what makes it a good car. I use it as a teaching tool for basic automotive mechanics with my kids. The XJ is incredibly easy to work on and tons of them are still on the road, making replacement parts extremely inexpensive.
Unfortunately automobile electrical problems are sometimes the most difficult to track down and fix. When my son turned on the car, the check engine light came on. I plugged in my OBD-II computer that I picked up many years ago and saw that the car thought it had a bad throttle position sensor (TPS) based on the P0123 code it was throwing. I then did a careful Internet search using the following, "1998 Jeep XJ P0123." Why did I use the term XJ instead of Cherokee? Jeep also makes the Grand Cherokee, which is a completely different SUV. Besides anyone that knows how to work on Jeeps calls them by the car's 2 letter code instead of model name.
The Internet search yielded a number of stories about people replacing the TPS only to have the problem still exist. Most had better luck replacing the clock spring which is part of the cruise control, horn, and TPS electrical circuit. Thinking about how the horn started going off while the car was just sitting in the driveway and the TPS is only engaged while the car is running, I decided to look for a quick check to verify it was the clock spring. Pulling off the steering-wheel shroud and unplugging one of the connections to the clock spring (it is located just above the turn-signal lever) fixed the P0123 code. The horn and cruise control no longer work, but the rest of the car does.
Now that I knew the real problem, I went back to the Internet and ordered a new clock spring for the Jeep. This is not one of those parts that auto stores keep in stock. Until then my son can drive the car to school and back with the help of an inexpensive air horn resting in one of the cup holders.
Thursday, September 5, 2013
Text Messages at 4am
I was rudely awoken this morning at 4am from a text message claiming that Chase approved me for a $1000 instant loan. I had a similar message yesterday at the same time. Yesterday's message said I could stop these text messages by replying with the word, "STOP". As it was 4am, I stupidly sent the message. This is always a bad idea because then the company knows there is a real person connected to the number.
Both Android and iPhones have a "Do Not Disturb" function that I decided to investigate today. As I have an iPhone, I played with those options and recommend anyone with a smart phone do the same. The first thing I did was turn on the Do-Not-Disturb feature in my phone's settings. Then I went into the notifications section and turned on the "Scheduled" function. That means my phone will not ring, buzz, or turn on the screen should I get a call or text message between the hours of midnight and 7am.
My reluctance to set this up in the past has been in case there is an emergency and someone needs to get a hold of me. There is are 2 ways around this. The first is to populate my "Favorites" list. Anyone on the list will cause my phone to notify me during the Do-Not-Disturb period. If you are not on the list, your first call goes unnoticed. If you call back immediately after, it will ring through.
My hope is that I will be able to sleep through the night without getting another notice that I am approved for some high-interest loan I don't really care about.
Both Android and iPhones have a "Do Not Disturb" function that I decided to investigate today. As I have an iPhone, I played with those options and recommend anyone with a smart phone do the same. The first thing I did was turn on the Do-Not-Disturb feature in my phone's settings. Then I went into the notifications section and turned on the "Scheduled" function. That means my phone will not ring, buzz, or turn on the screen should I get a call or text message between the hours of midnight and 7am.
My reluctance to set this up in the past has been in case there is an emergency and someone needs to get a hold of me. There is are 2 ways around this. The first is to populate my "Favorites" list. Anyone on the list will cause my phone to notify me during the Do-Not-Disturb period. If you are not on the list, your first call goes unnoticed. If you call back immediately after, it will ring through.
My hope is that I will be able to sleep through the night without getting another notice that I am approved for some high-interest loan I don't really care about.
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