heard on some gaming discussion boards:

Personally, I think it is terrible that people who would gladly wait in line for days to get a new PS3 probably complained when they had to wait an hour or so to vote in the elections.

at the phoenix barcamp i had an opportunity to look at the new nintendo wii console.  the facility has just about every console (except an xbox 360...hmmm).  some of the guys from integrum technologies had one in their office and were raving about it so they showed me the ropes.

i have to say, i was quite impressed.  the graphics looked...hmmm...like nintendo if that makes sense...i still felt i was in super mario land versus some street in project gotham...but i guess it is a different target audience.

playing around with the remote was different...it's a mouse essentially communicating with an infrared bar you put somewhere near your television.  then it sense motion for certain games (we were playing the wii sports: tennis, boxing, golf) and makes the players do whatever.  it worked remarkably well and in the boxing game could give you a bit of a workout even.

the integrum guys commented about making sure we attached the remote to our wrists using the safety tether.  and apparently looking at this site: http://www.wiihaveaproblem.com/show_cat.php?cat=2 that needs to be stressed :-)

it's no xbox 360 in terms of graphics quality or depth of games i don't think, but it is a different audience.

i've been getting some feedback about finding the correct registration links for the upcoming launch events...

here they are:

• Phoenix Main Launch event (Developer and IT Professionals): Jan 17 - register here
• Las Vegas Developer: Jan 30 - register here
• Las Vegas IT Professional: Jan 30 - register here
• Albuquerque Developer: Feb 13 - register here
• Albuquerque IT Professional: Feb 13 - register here
• Denver Developer: Feb 15 - register here
• Denver IT Professional: Feb 15 - register here

if you have ever been to launch event for microsoft in the past you'll know that you usually get some good stuff -- i've not gotten final confirmation of what that stuff is, but trust me, you'll want to be there ;-).

visual studio service pack 1 has been released. you can get it at the Visual Studio Dev Center. additionally, the sp1 update for vista is released in beta if you are developing on vista.

c'mon who doesn't love the hoff?

well, while simon is busy creating more compelling samples, i got an itch to make kitt come to life, wpf/e style: kitt + wpf/e (note: i tried to get the theme song playing in the back, but couldn't encode it correctly apparently)