Foxx Thoughts

New News

Shane — Sun, 14 Feb 2010 15:53:28 +0000

I have paying for a hosting service for some time now and have been using it for next to nothing. Recently, i discovered that the domain name that i had been using for this hosting service had been pulled out from under me ( sad i know that a man would let his domain get taken, but i move on) so i decided to put a new domain to the hosting service and open it up to a wider audience. One thing im proud of is being from Alabama. I take pride in my region and Love the SEC (yes even auburn when they’re playing against someone out of conference lol) The south to me is beautiful and preserved, while still keeping up with the times (my God we have nasa here, doesnt that say something) so i titled the new domain The Southland (see: http://thesouthland.net) In part of opening this up to the public, that means i want more people writing for the site then just me and Dredimus so im looking for people to write about just about anything that their heart desires. Keep in mind though that this will not be your platform to say whatever it is you want to say about anything, as i have limits to what I will let go under my name, but i like to think that im pretty liberal when it comes to someone speaking their mind and will let something completely political and factless go from time to time just to stir up some comments If your interested, drop an email to me telling me a lil about yourself and why your interested in the position. Im sure most people will atleast get to contribute stories, some might even get their own publishing abilities. Send in your requests to Shane@thesouthland.net

Murder

Shane — Sat, 23 Jan 2010 16:07:05 +0000

so, Im sitting here reading over a specific forum i visit, replying to a comment about France attempting to tax Google when someone in France clicks on one of their ads and i happen to look down and see the Google ad at the bottom of the page. I know this doesnt fall under the normal catagories of what we do here, but i just had to share. Everyone should know by now that Google tends to do its advertisement based on the information of the page its being displayed on. This page is talking about the key words: FRANCE TAX and GOOGLE. Here’s a screenshot of the ad

Avatar: Life gone too far?

Shane — Sun, 10 Jan 2010 21:11:10 +0000

Since the 18^th of December, James Cameron’s Avatar has drawn in a great following. As of this past Friday (Jan 8, 2009) this movie has drawn $393.8 million in the US, putting it on path to surpass Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen for highest grossing film in 2009. The following of this movie and its created civilizations resemble that of the followings of Star Trek and Star Wars. After watching this movie in 3D (because that’s the only way this movie should be watched) I found myself coming out of the theaters contemplating when I would return to the theater to watch this film again (yes it’s that good). Having been exposed to the movie and the different things found inside, such as the Navi of Pandora, I began to see things on the internet that surprised me. The first of these things that really stood out to me was a make-up guide on Youtube depicting how you could make yourself look like a Navi. Ok this was cute, you know, something to use for a dress up party or whatever. The next thing that got to me was a website dedicated to learning the Navi language. This began to make me worry about these people who are so dedicated to this movie (that has been out for less then a month) that they are willing to learn the fictional language used in it, but, Star Trek fans speak Klingon, so I let this one slide off too. The final thing that got me, and I mean this one really brought a WTF?!? from me; A forum dedicated to offering support to those who are having trouble coping with the fact that Pandora is a fictional planet and that they will never be Navi’s themselves. Have we become so soft-minded that we allow ourselves to get depressed because something that never really existed does not exist? Personally I’ve never agreed with the “I did it because of ” excuse, but with this latest obsession with the Navi and Pandora, I’m starting to believe that we have managed to produce a generation of people who’s upbringing did not install that wall which divides fiction from reality like we have generations before. If you have yet to see this movie, I recommend that you do go see it, but keep in mind IT’S NOT A REAL WORLD AND THEY ARE NOT A REAL RACE AND ITS ALL FICTION AND NOT REAL. If you get to feeling down because your don’t live on Pandora, remember, it’s not really all that bad, you live on a planet that allows you to visit Pandora any time you want (as long as its during the scheduled showing and you got your 3D glasses) and when things get a little hairy there, you can always come back.

Nexus One: The iPhone Killer

Shane — Sat, 02 Jan 2010 15:35:45 +0000

With its thin design and large touch screen, The Google Nexus One is definitely a physical iPhone killer. The Nexus One is fast and responsive and…Forget it; I’m tired of all this “iPhone Killer” crap. The Nexus One is a great phone from what’s been released about it. My problem here is everyone is jumping in saying “oh this is the phone to finally dethrone the iPhone” No its not. It wasn’t designed to be. While the phone is a great alternative to the iPhone, I doubt it was ever intended to put its competitor into the dark ages. 2 things made the iPhone what it is today. The first is the innovation with the apps. Even though Google does it better with their market, Apple did it first and most people feel if what I have now is working right, why try something else I’m not so sure of? The second is Fanboy/Brand Loyalty/”The Thing”. Because this phone has an apple on the back of it, people flock to it for one of 3 reasons. 1) They’re a “Fan Boy” that person who you’re sure that if you used the bathroom in their house you would find Apple branded toilet paper. 2) Those who find loyalty to a brand. They have an iMac or a Mac Book and are really happy with the product they have there and expect that Apple will do the same with their phone. 3) The people who need to be socially accepted. Right now the iPhone is the socially accepted phone. Those people who are really concerned about what everyone else thinks about them definitely have an iPhone (and I’m Willing to bet money that they left a better service plan to get it).

To make a true iPhone killer, Google would have to follow in the way of Apple. When apple started off with the iPhone, they had no ties what so ever to the phone industry. If this product failed it wasn’t really a big deal, just lost some money off of our Mac enterprise. Google would have to take a chunk out of its search pockets (and we all know how deep those pockets are) and develop a phone similar to the Nexus one (from what I’ve seen of this phone, its powerful and capable of just about anything any other phone on the market can do) but implement every feature on the iPhone (at least all the ones it could offer without violating copyrights, then finding ways to offer something similar) On top of that it would have to be unlocked so as it could work on any companies network. Google would also have to offer a CDMA version for those who are on Sprint and Verizon. The problem with this is it would alienate Google’s Android partners. Because of these ties, I say, at least for now, stop looking to Google for an iPhone killer.

PC vs Consoles

Shane — Sat, 12 Dec 2009 15:06:30 +0000

Ok, hold on tight for this post. This is going to be a Foxx Thoughts first… a rebuttal multi-author post between Foxx and me. I will start with my opinion on the topic, we will have a slight separation and then Foxx will comment… So… here we go… drink your Kool-Aid and follow me…

My stance on this topic is P C… I am a PC Gamer… I have no shame in this… I’m a FPS and RPG junky… everything from Quake to Eve Online… AA to WoW… I had consoles in my early gaming years… and I enjoyed them, but nothing works like a Gaming PC. I hear arguments all the time about how costly PC Gaming is… but I look at it like this:

Decent Gaming PC: $600

New game for said PC: $30 – $60

New game comes out, requires better graphics card: $80

Console: $200 – $500

New game: $45+

Upgradable: Not usually (and in some cases, punishable if you try)

New game released that requires better console: $300+

The console turns into a never ending cycle of buying a new console every few years just to keep up with the times… However, I can pretty much get any game released on anyone of the console platforms (mainstream games, I’m not talkin about franchise games, and honestly, I could care less about Mario or Sonic…lol) and load it on the PC… My control options in game are far superior to any hand held control for a console as are my options for communication while in game. I can also mod my PC in anyway I see fit without fear of having my gaming connection turned off because a company did not agree with me having Linux or a better hard drive…

Foxx’s turn. I’ll use Sony’s Playstation system for this. On average, your looking at about 4-6 years before the new console is out and affordable. so that’s 4-6 years of guarantee that your game is gonna work. where as about 6 months on a computer you find yourself needing more RAM, then a better video card and before you know it, your looking at the fact that your processor speed doesn’t match up to the new game you wanna play and your computer is only 2 years old. You’re looking at about $150 there and it’s only been 2 years (that’s half the current price of the Playstation 3 for those of you unaware). So by the time you have spent 4 years worth of upgrades, you’re at the cost of buying a Playstation 3. Now for games, I give that pc games tend to be cheaper. Playstation 3 games sit at about $60 for the good titles, but for $60 I’m guaranteed that I’m going to go home and pop this disc into my ps3 and I’m gonna play.. lets say GTA4. Now this guy may go and buy GTA4 for the PC for about $40 just to take it home and realize that even though his specs match the requirements, there’s an issue where the game doesn’t work so well with the hardware he has. Next example I’m going to use is Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2. This game has a PC version, but its missing everything that makes as PC version worth buying (meaning a direct port from the console version). So now your sitting at Wal-Mart and you see COD:MW2 for $50 on the PC shelf and the same game on the Xbox 360 Shelf (this statement being made assuming you have a pc that will run this cutting edge game and a 360) for $60 I’ll take the 360 each time because I know for sure that the game is going to work like its supposed to each and every time. Finally upgrading the system. Not necessarily needed. Games are still being made for the Playstation 2 and that was what… 9 years ago. This offers the exact same game play with just a hindered graphics card. If graphics are not your thing, your really saving this way, ps2 costs $100 new and games for it run about $40 new. Match that up to a $600 PC needing constant upgrades and its no contest.

Ok, first off…. Using GTA4 is a bad example… I don’t know what RockStar was thinking, but they screwed up with the PC mod for that game… just not a big enough market to require Shader3. And in all reality COD: MW2 isn’t greatly system intensive. Base Suggestions for this game are 2.4gb Dual Core Processor, 1gb ram and Geforce 7800 or better (and the bastard requires shader3 which is standard on most Geforce Cards). We also need to keep in mind that we are talking about gamers; we cannot compare the average person’s computer to that of some one that has the PC for the soul purpose of GAMING (solitaire is not gaming). Yes, games are still being made for the PS2, but honestly what true, current to times modern gamer is going to pick up those games over the modern games such as COD: MW2 and the like… (From everything I have heard cod: mw2 sucks no matter what system you play it on). Let’s say I’m at the local Electronics Shop… I see a game that I really like… the console its on, I don’t happen to have… but I have my PS3 and a PC… Would it be logical for me to buy that new console instead of buying the game for the PC? No, it wouldn’t, what’s the point in having 4 consoles and a PC when most everything you can play on those consoles can be played on the PC?

Anyway, so back on topic, I’m gonna finalize out my opinion with this list of attributes that seal the deal for me.

Cost Effective

Unlimited Modification

Unsurpassable Control System

Extreme Multitask System

In some cases, portability

In most cases the actual game can be mod’ed for single person play and even multi person play. And by modding I mean editing levels, maps, vehicles, player skins… etc…

The ONLY downfall I think is the fact that once you install a PC game in most cases, that game belongs to you indefinitely, and you cannot remove the license… damn pirating laws.

I’ll start off with your modding of the game and roll back to COD:MW2. In this game, there’s no modding, you can’t edit maps, you can change player skins, hell, you cant even host a server. Game makers are moving away from PC versions of games and resorting to simply porting a console version instead of making a version for the PC. Your cost affective argument flies out the window when you talk about making a real gaming machine. You’re not going to find one that’s a true gamer machine for $600. The MW2 base suggestions, that’s a $600 computer, but that’s just to run the game, not for optimal performance. Not much I can say on controls except, hook a USB mouse and keyboard up to your PS3/360. Notebooks aside, a PS3 or 360 are more portable then a PC. As for games itself, every big game that hasn’t been a FPS or system exclusive, has been released for the PS2. all the games with years (Madden, NCAA Sports Games, Fifa, NBA, so on, so on) come out on the PS2, Band Hero, DJ Hero, TMNT: Smash Up, and Marvel Ultimate Alliance 2 just to name a few. If you really want to multitask on the PS3, install Linux on it; it’s natively supported (Yeah I was reaching with this one). The big winner… USED GAMES. You can pick up games at used prices and trade games in for credit towards other game purchases. Not an easy option for PC games.

GG Dred. I Enjoyed this. In the end I myself think that Consoles offer more reliability while PC’s offer more versatility.

Tebow’s Tears

Shane — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 17:29:19 +0000

Never, have I ever intended to write an article solely about a Florida Gator player, much less Tim Tebow, but after reading a comment on huffingtonpost.com (link found here ) I felt inspired to put my two cents in. Normally I would just throw in my reply to their comment, but I want to be sure that everyone sees in a more up front manner what I think about the situation. The first thing I’m going to address is the Bible verse on Tebow’s black eye. It’s just the book and verse number, it’s not like he’s reciting the verse to you. You actually have to go pick up a Bible and flip to that page to even see what it says. It’s not being forced on you, stop wining. Now let us move on to the main topic.

Machiventa68 says:

“When Tebow started crying at the very end of the game against Alabama, I was dismayed by his emotional immaturity. Tebow is one of the most famous college athletes of all time, but his lack of self-control was infantile. Alabama dominated Florida from the first play of the game and outplayed them for all four quarters. Tebow should have understood he was going down to defeat long before he started sobbing on the bench. Losing gracefully is part of being a first class athlete.”

I agree with this person on one aspect of this quote; that Alabama dominated Florida from the first play of the game and outplayed them for all four quarters, other than that I find that this person has no experience with playing in a sport where you’re limited by time. There was no doubt in my mind that Tebow was a world-class athlete and after his words at the end of the game, he only confirmed what I already knew was true. Tim Tebow plays for a team that everyone in the nation knew was capable of repeating a National Title. As a senior you have no greater wish in athletics than grasp this title. This is considered the ultimate way to go out. Tebow, being the man that he is, felt it was his responsibility to get the Gators to that game. The SEC Championship block killed his hopes and dreams while also possibly making him feel like he let down not only his team but all the Florida fans as well. I know if I were in his place, and all that pressure was on my shoulders, I would come to tears as well. All Tebow did was show emotion. He was saddened by not only the loss of a single game, but the true end of his season (He has a bowl game left but it will not be remembered in a week barring something amazing/horrid happening). If he had been bawling his eyes out and sobbing like an infant, I would be with everyone making fun of him, but he did not. Only a few tears rolled down his cheeks showing how emotional the game really was to him. Sure people tell jokes, and some are funny, some are horrible, but deep down, everyone repeating these knows deep down the real reasoning and has some sort of respect for that. For those who criticize him and call it an act of infancy, please step back and look at how little class you have before you begin to say something about someone with so much more class yourself.

BCS National Championship Game

dredimus — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 15:28:49 +0000

Good Tuesday Morning Folks… this is DRED, Ive been chosen to write on yet another hard topic… The Alabama Vs. Texas BCS Championship game. I know that the picture really doesn’t have anything to do with the National Championship game… but I wanted to show off my 1337 paint skills. I also believe I have let it simmer down enough to say that the Tide rolled over the Gators with a freakin vengeance. Now… lets go ahead and jump directly into the stats for the upcoming game….

Alabama’s QB, Greg McElroy will start us off, a basic run down…

176 yards gained on rushing, with 1 TD… he averages about 8.5 yards a per rushing possession. As for passing, he is holding his own with 2450 yards this season 192 completions and 468 attempts which ends with only 17 TD’s

Texas’ QB Colt McCoy brings in 348 rushing yards and 3 TD’s. Passing game is at 3512 Yards (330 complete / 468 Attempts) with 27 TD’s tossed this season.

I’m going to go ahead and lay the rest of the QB stats out like this…

Completions: McCoy

%: McCoy

Yards: McCoy

TD’s: McCoy

Yards: McCoy

Yards Lost: McElroy (had to get his name in there some where….)

Sacks: McElroy

So as far as quarterbacks go, Texas has the power of grey-skull…

I think this game is going to rely heavily on our old trusty “Ingram/Upchurch/Richardson Holy hell where did this team come from” strategy.

Nothing else about the longhorn’s lineup really thrills me. In my personal opinion, I don’t think Texas is prepared for what we will be bringing to the table after what we did to the Gators. Bama’s spirits are high, Saban can almost taste the national championship, Ingram has his hands outstretched for the Heisman, and McElroy is looking like he might actually be a real QB now… I hope this game isn’t based on luck, but based on the men on the field… the skill and the will and determination to do what Bama has to do to make this their first national since 1992.

I wont make any predictions for this game, I will say that this game will not be a close one, its going to be run up and controlled on one side or the other.

And as for the picture up top, yeah, ill comment again… I know I could have used the one of Tebow crying like a little girl at the end of the SEC title game… but I couldnt bring myself to do it. Even though I may not like the gators or him for that matter, I do feel the need to show a little respect. I have never seen a player fight so hard for his team and I realize that losing the SEC title game must have hit him hard, it was his one chance at going undefeated and the Tide ripped that wall down… Anyway… post back with any questions or comments and ill be glad to do more research… later folks…

Texas Stats Link: http://www.mackbrown-texasfootball.com/sports/m-footbl/spec-rel/fb-statistics.html

Bama Stats Link: http://www.rolltide.com/sports/m-footbl/stats/2009-2010/teamcume.html

SEC Championship Game Time

Shane — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 19:36:30 +0000

Finally, here it is, the week of the 2009 SEC Championship game. Once again it’s the Florida Gators Vs the Alabama Crimson Tide. Since its creation in 1992, Florida has made 9 appearances and Alabama has made 6. Every time that Alabama has made it to the SEC championship they have been met by Florida. Florida leads the series 4-2 including Florida’s 31-20 win over Alabama just last year. Anyone who follows the SEC, or just either one of these teams, knows that when it comes to a game with this much at stake (just in case you’ve been living off where no sports media can reach you, this is pretty much the semi-finals for the National Championship). Florida is looking for their quarterback Tim Tebow (2,166 passing yards and 796 rushing yards) and receiver Riley Cooper (703 reception yards) to lead Florida to a 2^nd Straight National Championship. Alabama has some expectations from their leading players too. Alabama’s quarterback Greg McElroy (2,211 passing yards), Mark Ingram (1,429 yards rushing) and Julio Jones (545 receiving yards) are expected to lead the team to their first National Championship title since 1992. Alabama stands with the better offense, but statistically, Florida has the better Defense. Florida has only allowed 233.1 yards per game on defense, holding their opponent to only 9.8 yards per game. Alabama isn’t far behind with only 234.1 yards of defense allowed per game and only 10.8 points allowed per game. The game will take place on Saturday December 5^th 2009 at the Georgia Dome in Atlanta at 3:00 P.M. CST.

Possible 4G iPhone

Shane — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 21:44:06 +0000

Normally I would not make a post speculating the existence of a phone and normally I wouldn’t write an article about the iPhone, but this is the exception. When you browse a site, your browser tends to tell the server what type of browser you’re using. This way, if the server has multiple versions of the page you want to view it can display the one that is most compatible with your browser (the best example of this is the difference between desktop browsing and mobile browsing). Apparently some apps used by the iPhone check the version of the phone to make sure you have the best version of the app based on your phone version. Lately in the San Francisco area the version 3,1 has been popping up. In history, the 1,1 version of the iPhone turned out to be the 2G version of the iPhone. the 2,1 version showed up about a year later turning out to be the 3G version. This speculation matches with the supposed leak of the 4G midboard from China. The fact that the testing is taking place in San Fran also helps out because San Fran is where Verizon is testing their 4G LTE service.

TOYS R US – A BLACK FRIDAY REVIEW

Shane — Sat, 28 Nov 2009 16:21:32 +0000

Some how, my dad talked me into going with him to Toys R Us at the midnight opening on Black Friday. We left the house at about 11:30 and arrived at the store parking lot just after 11:45. It was hectic just getting around to the actual parking spaces, but we managed. Dad let me and my girlfriend out to go ahead and secure a place in line. All was looking good when we realized our spot in line was only about 100 feet from the door. Midnight rolls around and the line starts moving. Everything is looking good until we get close to the door. We then find out that the line we are in goes past the door, around the side of the building, into the Toys R Us parking lot, past the back side of Beauregard’s, all the way to the Starbucks then raps back along the previous path back to the door. Here is where I started to question if there would be items left on the shelf by the time I got in. So the line slowly moves. Now the time is about 12:30 and we’re barely passed the u-turn at Starbucks ( oh could they have made a killing, 38 degree weather with people standing in line outside). Now the store is at its capacity, so they have to wait for people to come out of the building before they can allow more people in. By 12:45 I’ve only made it to the Joes Mugs Coffee Shop patio outside Books-A-Million. The line continues to slowly move until shortly after 1:00 in the morning, I finally make it thought the sliding door into the building. The heat hits my face and I rejoice, so happy to be warm once again until I open my eyes to see just how many people are in this building. Now I’m debating on whether I really want to deal with this or just go hang back in the cold (trust me the cold looked a lot better). Since we had not been in Toys R Us in I don’t know how long, any relative knowledge of where the stuff we were looking for did not exist. After running around and squeezing through holes I did not even realize I was capable of squeezing through, we finally got the 3 items in which we were looking for. On now we go to the checkout line. It turns out that the checkout line ran down one isle around another and back up another isle parallel to the original isle. While I am standing in line with my girlfriend and these 3 decently sized items, I get hit on the butt. Being as packed as it was, I just brushed it off. Shortly after that I was hit two or three more times. Now I was curious as to the cause, once or twice is an accident but 4 and 5 times gets you wondering. I turn around to find a woman balancing like 10 items on top of a longer item that she is holding in both hands like a two by four. While standing in this line, I did like most people in today’s modern society would do. I Hit Facebook. I found out while posting on Facebook that one of my friends was working at this Toys R Us. While talking to him I asked if he could get a hold of a buggy for me. This woman behind me was having an awfully hard time and had even more shopping to do. I went to look for the doors my friend told me to meet him at, only to find that they were blocked off by another line to get to the electronics section of the store. I find out after a quick post that he’s now moved to the front. I head around to the front before the cashiers looking for my friend so I can get this woman a cart. A manager steps in front of me and tells me I cut in line and need to turn back (I have nothing what so ever in my hands so I find it hard pressed to say that I was cutting, rather then, I don’t know, looking for someone). So being that I had the card I turned away instead of picking the battle like my instincts told me to do. This time I went around to the exit of the store, where my friend just happened to be unloading items. I go to speak to him about getting a buggy and the same manager interjects himself telling me and my friend that he needs to get to work unloading these boxes and that I was slowing him down (never mind the fact that my friend had not missed a beat on unloading since I had arrived). This time my temper rose a little. This man was literally stopping me from helping out one of HIS customers. Words came to my lips, but I bit my tongue because I still had the card and the last thing I needed was to be removed from the store for making a scene. I rejoined my girlfriend where shortly after my arrival, we checked out at 2:00. Upon review with my dad, we discovered that we had been over charged on two of the three items. Once again we referred to the Toys R Us add from the paper to be sure we did grab the right item. Upon further review, we found that those two items didn’t officially go on sale until 5:00 that morning. This lack of respect or concern for their customers tied in with their cheap gimmicks to get people to stand in line for hours for sales that don’t exist has convinced me that I have no reason what so ever to do business with Toys R Us any more.

Here’s a map to give those of you who dont know the area an idea of what I went through. Where the red line starts on the left is where I first got in line. Exuse the map as it seems to be a little old. Starbucks had not been built at the time of this snap-shot.