thewunderbar

Day 4 of Fragapalooza. It may not seem like a long time, but after 3 straight days of playing games on a computer, fooling around with the various contests, and getting significantly less sleep than normal, everyone is pretty wiped out. As a result, the 4th and final day of Fragapalooza is a pretty toned down day, and not a huge amount of stuff goes on. All the tournaments are done, not everyone even plays games.

Waking up and knowing the rush to get out later on, I took a bunch of my stuff out to my car right away, to minimize the time it would take later in the day. I played my last bit of Team Fortress 2, but mostly just for fun to kill time until it was really time to pack up. I snapped a few more pictures, and took in the sights of the final day of Fragapalooza.

There was one contest held on the final day, the wall sit. The wall sit is a great exercise, and a good test of stamina. It is literally as it sounds. Each person has to put their back against a wall, and crouch down to their knees are at a 90 degree angle. I participated knowing full well I wouldn’t win, but it was fun anyway.

The final event of Fragapalooza is the closing ceremonies. The Staff take the time to thank the sponsors, participants, volunteers, etc, and talk about the event. This year’s closing ceremonies were particularly important because the staff talked a bit about how Fragapalooza almost didn’t happen this year because of the recession. Gil Amores, the President of Fragapalooza, made a truly heart-felt thank you to everyone who attended, and thanked us for our support of the event this year. Then, it was prize time. Closing ceremonies are where the majority of the prizes are given away, at random, to the participants. T-Shirts are thrown into the crowd, and there are draws for prizes, everything ranging from Mouse pads to keyboards to motherboards and processors. I didn’t win anything this year, in fact, in 3 years I’ve come away not having my number drawn. Still, that part is fun. Everyone enjoys free things, right?

After the closing ceremonies is the traditional rush for the exit. After the ceremonies the event is officially over, and everyone leaves. I had taken my computer out before the closing ceremonies, which is by design, since the security setup means that on exit each bag must be searched and photo ID must be shown to get computers out. The security is amazing, and why i feel safe at the event, but also causes massive delays trying to get out. Planning ahead easily saved me an hour of time this afternoon.

Fragapalooza 2009 was an amazing event, one I am very happy to say I was a part of. I will be posting a full write up of the event, as well as will be putting all of the pictures and videos I have taken online in the near future. I have some work travel to do this week so no firm dates, but look for it soon.

Day 3 of Fragapalooza is always the one with the most “stuff” going on. It is the Saturday, so everyone for sure is there, all the Tournaments run into high gear, most of the prizes are given away, and some of the whacky contests are held. This year was no exception.I actually don’t game as much on Saturday as I do on Friday, because we get interrupted by trying to win prizes all the time. My one disappointment this year was the lack of a Rock-Paper-Scissors contest. The past 2 years Ive made it to at least the final 8, from a starting of 256, and was feeling good about my chances of winning this year. I imagine it was due to a lack of space. Lining up 128 or 256 people takes up a lot of space, and this year we didn’t have it.

Other contests included a pencil sharpening contest, a contest that pitted two groups of 50 people in a 1700’s style “we’ll shoot at you as you stand in a line, then it’s your turn!” A couple “the first person to the stage wearing [insert random t-shirt here]” contests, a few random drawings, and one contest where everyone had to sit up in the bleachers, and random seats were picked for prizes. There was also a game of Deal or No Deal, with an actual banker, where the 20 “cases” were prizes ranging from a kick in the nuts, and a hug from one of the staff on the low end(although is a hug really a low end thing?) to an intel motherboard and an intel processor on the high end.

The most fun contest of the evening though, was the Rock Band Tournament. An elaborate setup was erected to make them look like a real band as much as possible, and a number of bands competed in a contest that was more about the actual performance than it was about technique. It featured special judges from a local radio station who scored the bands, and declared a winner. Some of the performances were just plan drab, but the finalists were very good, and put on very good shows. there were also performances by a band featuring staff members, and a band featuring event volunteers.

There was much gaming going on between these contests. There were quite a few people who chose not even to sleep, and many like myself stayed awake into the wee hours of the morning to get as much out of the last full day of the event as possible.

I took quite a few videos and pictures of the happenings on day 3, but to help save the internet here at the event I am waiting until after the event to edit them and get them on YouTube.

I have also agreed to have a guest author write a post about her experience this year as a volunteer. Look for that coming soon as well.

Day 4 here is already underway, and I’m going to enjoy the last bit of Fragapalooza. Look for my final daily report tonight, after the event has ended.

Day 2 of Fragapalooza has come and gone. I already spoke of tent city here. I didn’t think day 2 would be a good day after such a restless day, but here I am at the end of the night and the day was fine.

Today was dominated by gaming(what else). The games of the day were mostly Team Fortress 2 and Left 4 Dead. I enjoy TF2 quite a bit, however it can get very repetitive. In the morning we had som very good games of TF2, and that kept me hooked for a few hours. After a break, I played quite a bit of Left 4 Dead, the first time I had really put any significant amount of time into the game. And I must say that Left 4 Dead is fun. With a good group of people playing, it may be the most fun games I’ve played in years. It would be very easy to get wrapped up in the game for hours. L4D’s biggest limiter at an event like this is that the biggest game mode only supports 8 people, and in TF2 we were seeing 32 player games at the high point. Overall, between TF2 and L4D there were some quality games being played.

That’s not to say the day went smoothly, however. Unfortunately there were several network/internet outages. There were only 1-2 network wide outages, but the internet went out several times. Unfortunately for games that are Steam based, like the games I spent most of my day playing, the servers went offline just long enough for us to lose our game. While not a huge deal, was a bit of annoyance. The staff did an awesome job at minimizing the downtime when it happened though. And while the internet went down 7-8 times that I could notice, it never lasted more than 5 minutes or so.

Today was also the day the tournaments began, starting in the afternoon and running late into the night. I confess that I don’t pay too much attention to the tournaments, as I don’t participate in them, nor do I wish to. That’s not the reason I come to Fragapalooza.

The day ended with a showing of the documentary “Second Skin.” Second Skin is about video games and addiction, specifically about online games such as World of Warcraft. I watched the whole documentary, and came out with very mixed feelings about it. The main purpose of the video was to show that playing video games can be an addiction, and that that addiction could have some very bad consequences. While that is very true, I feel that the documentary sensationalized and played up the stereotype that people who play video games have. I understand this approach. Going for a little more of a shock factor will get more people to pay attention to what is a much larger problem in general addiction to anything. In some ways that is necessary, however the people that are shown in the documentary represent the 1% of people who play games, and it’s unfortunate that it looks as if they are made to generalize and be the majority. That is unfortunate, and is the biggest reason why I walked away a bit turned off to the show.

There were a couple of other fun things going on during the day as well. in the afternoon there was a massive dodgeball contest outside, with the winner taking home a new video card. The game was not so much about dodgeball as it was about the Fragapalooza staff throwing balls at everyone lined up against a wall until there was only one person left. I didn’t win, and there are videos on youtube of the contest that are at the bottom of this post.

The other things that happened were me receiving my T-Shirt and zippered hoodie that I ordered. The T-Shirts are very nice this year, by far the best one of the 3 years that I’ve attended, and the zippered hoodie is also very nice. Lastly, one of the sponsors, BFG, is holding a free raffle, and gave away a T-Shirt and foam darts. It’s amazing how quickly 300 people can move when you say “free stuff,” and also amazing how orderly we were getting into a single line I got a free T0Shirt, a free foam dart, which was used in a friendly little war with the people around me, and a ticket for the raffle. I honestly don’t know what the prize for the raffle is. I guess I will find out if I win it, whenever they call the numbers.

With that, I’m off to sleep. This has been a very full day, and I’m actually pretty tired.

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I have already posted pictures of what Tent City this year looks like, and I must say that compared to the spacious experience last year the sleeping experience this year kind of sucks. Perhaps it would be better if I had a tent, but since I don’t, I am sleeping out in the open.

When I went to bed last night the first thing I noticed when I walked in was the snoring. There were 4-5 people snoring, one of them VERY loudly. Then, I had to find my air mattress. The spot I have was literally a piece of floor that was near the back, and very small, since that’s almost all there was left. To get to it, I have to walk pretty much on the sides/edges of other tents, hoping I don’t disturb other people too much. Once i found a path that I was actually able to navigate, I then placed the majority of my worldly possessions with me, including “loose” items from my computer like the keyboard and mouse, on a piece of floor about 24 inches by 6 inches. Sandals were stacked on top of eachother, phone went inside one, and the bag with the computer stuff was placed sideways on the floor. I then crawled into the sleeping bag, and could not sleep at all. The snoring was just too loud. My solution was to just pop my earbuds in and listen to some soft music, just loud enough to drown out the snoring. Stuffing the iPod into the sleeping bag with me, and using my hoodie as a pillow(I forgot mine), I fell asleep.

Waking up was very uncomfortable. I got about 5 hours of sleep, but it wasn’t exactly a deep sleep. Getting up, and out of the tent area was just as difficult as getting in.

Needless to say, I’m not looking forward to the next time I’m going to sleep. Hopefully tonight, there will be less snoring. That would actually make all the difference in the world.

So, if you’re reading this, and sleeping in tent city. STOP SNORING. That is all.

Well, Day 1 at fragapalooza 2009 is nearly complete. Actually, day 1 is complete, since it’s about 2:45am on day 2 as I type this out. Day 1 is always mostly a setup day. The really heavy gaming doesn’t start until later in the evening, after the opening ceremonies. Thursday is also a day to work out network kinks, make the internet move as smoothly as possible, and ensure every facet of the event runs smoothly. And there have been some kinks. The network was lightning fast when I got here around 12pm, but by evening, it had slowed considerably. The internet went up and down a few times. All of the networking staff have done a very good job of minimizing downtime, and making things run very smoothly. The biggest source of downtime we had was actually someone trying to hook up their own networking equipment to the setup that is here, which broke the network for the other 350 people at the event. But since then it’s been relatively smooth sailing.

The venue itself is very nice, just much smaller than in past years. We are actually on the indoor soccer field, set up on the Astro Turf. It is a nice setup they have, if a bit cramped.

Tent city this year is *very* small. As you can see in my previous post here there is not a lot of space. The room we are set up in with the tents is small enough to begin with, and a chunk of it has to be kept clear as a fire lane. Tents are very close together, and I didn’t actually get to set up my tent, just the air mattress in a space barely big enough to fit the air mattress. To get to it I pretty much have to walk over a bunch of tents. I hope I dont’ wake anyone when I go over there to sleep later.

Overall, the venue is very nice, and I’m happy with the gaming area. Tomorrow, or later today I guess, is when things kick into high gear, and I can’t wait.

I leave you with pictures of the gaming area, before and after the lights were turned off.

I’m all set up at Fragapalooza 2009. The venue is pretty small this year, but not as small as tent city. I actually had to forgo the tent and just set up my air mattress open air.

Although the venue is smaller, I am impressed with it. The PA system is quite good, the best one of the 3 years I’ve attended. The Tables are a bit smaller, and that has required a bit of shuffling, but I have managed to get everything set up. I think I have a nice little set up here. Now it’s time to start gaming.

My setup at Fragapalooza

This is where I will be sleeping

Tent City is *quite* full this year

Packing for Fragapalooza, even for someone local like myself, it actually a lot of work. This is my third year, so I’m much better than I was, but it’s still a lot of work. Like many, I plan to spend the majority of my time at the venue. So I feel like I’m packing for a camping trip. I’m borrowing a tent from a friend who is also attending, and am bringing my air mattress and sleeping bag, with an electric pump for the air mattress. There is an area at the venue for tents to be set up, and for people to sleep. We call it tent city. Along with the basic sleeping supplies I’m also bringing other camping supplies like a flashlight, portable power pack with a lantern, and a travel pillow. I’ve packed a few days worth of clothes into a bag, and have a cooler filled with food and drink. All this, and i haven’t even packed up any of my computer equipment yet. My monitor gets stuffed into it’s box, which I kept solely for transporting the monitor back and forth to Fragapalooza. the keyboard gets packed into it’s box, and the mouse, and all of the cables, and power bar, get put in a bag. My camera, flip video camera, and DS and PSP are all packed in my laptop bag with my MacBook Pro. Except for the big desktop computer and laptop, it really does feel like a camping trip.

everything I’m taking, except the chair.

Packing everything into my car is easy, except for one thing: my chair. I’m going to be sitting for most of the 4 days of Fragapalooza, so I want a comfortable chair. This means that I bring my computer desk chair with me. Now, a nice office chair doesn’t exactly fold all hat well. Through some heroic effort, I actually can fit it into the back seat of my car without having to take it apart. But the chair is pretty much the only thing I can put into the back seat.

Once the chair is stuffed in, the computer is secured nicely, and everything else is in the trunk, it’s off to Fort Saskatchewan, and Fragapalooza 2009

I’m going to be attending Fragapalooza again this year(my 3rd year at the event), and this year, since I have a blog, I’ve decided that I’m going to blog from the event.  I will be posting updates in an as of yet undetermined frequency on the blog.  I will be posting updates about the goings on, things I have seen, etc.  I will be taking pictures, however due to about 400 people sharing the internet connection at the event, I likely won’t be uploading too many of them during the actual event, look for those after.  I will also be bringing my Flip Mino HD and shooting some video, however those definitely won’t be up until after the event.  You won’t find me waiting in line at 9am to get in the door, I plan to arrive after the line clears out   This won’t be the be-all-end-all coverage of the event, just the view from my eyes(and by Sunday, my very tired eyes).

Fragapalooza runs from 9am Thursday August 6th, 24/7 to the afternoon of Sunday the 9th.

I’ll be posting frequently to Twitter.  You can find my twitter page in the right sidebar, or just click here.

This is not the first review of the 13″ MacBook Pro that has been published. It is probably not the best either. What it is is a review from someone who has made the decision to own an Apple computer for the first time, and run OS X on a regular basis for the first time.

The MacBook Pro in all it’s glory

That is not to say that I have never used OS X before. I took several classes in school where I used OS X, and I have a few friends who have Apple laptops. Before buying the MacBook Pro, I would call myself an average OS X user. I’m still not proficient like I am with windows, but I’ve had my MacBook Pro for just over 2 weeks, and I’ve been using windows every day for nearly 15 years, so I think that is to be expected.

the MacBook Pro 13.3″ was purchased to replace my netbook, an original Acer Aspire One, with an 8GB Solid State Drive(SSD) and an 8.9″ screen. There are a lot of things to like about the netbook form factor. The size alone makes it a wonderful device to easily carry around with you, and travel with. However, as is the case with many of the early netbooks, my Aspire One did not hold up as well as I would like. The SSD in the drive is notoriously slow, and that has caused running anything that needs to access the drive to just kill the performance of the machine. I originally wanted to purchase another netbook. However, after beginning to shop for a netbook the ones I was looking to purchase were in the $500-$600 range, and that would have been my second netbook purchase in about 14 months. Another primary reason to keep me away was that while the netbook form factor is great for traveling, the machines are really under powered. A netbook is fine for about 60% of the tasks I would do on it, but there have been several occasions over the past year that I have found myself wishing for my netbook to have more power, and more capability. This is not because it is not capable of handling every day tasks, but because I am a very heavy power user, and there are times when my netbook simply could not keep up.

I decided to expand my search for a notebook to a full size notebook computer, one in the 13″ size range. In early June, Apple announced a new revision to their notebook line, the biggest change coming in their 13″ notebooks. The all aluminum MacBook, known as the unibody MacBook, gained an SD card slot, Firewire, longer battery life, a backlit keyboard and joined the MacBook Pro line. All while dropping the price by a couple hundred dollars. After this announcement I began to take a hard look at the new 13″ MacBook Pro, and after careful consideration, placed the oder for it.

Hardware

I will go so far as to say this is the most beautiful computer I have ever used. the unibody enclosure means that the laptop is made only of 3 pieces of aluminum, and the glass screen. It feels solid, and seems quite durable durable. I’m not going to test to see if it can take a 4 foot fall onto a sidewalk, but when I carry it around I don’t feel like I’m carrying something made of glass.

Keyboard

The black keyboard is a nice contrast to the aluminum case

I have been a fan of MacBook keyboard style since it was first introduced in the white macbook in 2006. I actually use an apple keyboard with my windows desktop PC. The keyboard here is no different, and having the backlit keyboard is nice in when in the dark.

Trackpad

The trackpad is massive

Anyone who has used a trackpad on a windows PC knows how difficult it can be. they are usually small, and difficult to navigate. The trackpad on the unibody MacBook is nothing short of brilliant. It is by far the largest trackpad I have ever seen on a laptop, the glass surface makes it very smooth to the finger, and the multi touch capabilities are a joy to use. It did take some getting used to having the entire trackpad function as one large button, but after about a week of use I adjusted well. The controls, once you learn them are quite intuitive. One finger to left click, two fingers to right click. 1 finger to move the mouse pointer, 2 fingers to scroll a document. In supported applications, you can pinch to zoom as with the display on the iPhone and iPod Touch, 3 finger swipes can also allow you to go back and forward in the Safari web browser. Usually on a windows laptop I carry a mouse with me, and if the computer is on a desk, I’m using a mouse. For the first time ever on a laptop, I have had no desire at all to use a mouse, and that’s saying something.

Ports

All of the connection ports live on the left site of the computer

All of the ports can be found on the left side of the MacBook pro. on the 13″ you will find the MagSafe power, gigabit ethernet port, Firewire 800, mini DisplayPort, 2 USB ports, an SD card slot(for the first time ever on an Apple computer), and a line in/line out port. Note that there is no seperate microphone port here. If you want to use headphones and a microphone, you either have to use a USB set, or use the iPhone earbuds with a microphone. The mini DisplayPort, while actually being a standard, is not used on a lot of hardware yet, and requires an adapter to connect to almost every monitor. On the right side you will find the SuperDrive and the security lock slot. On the front is the IR port and the standby light.

Screen

Glossy much?

The screen on the MacBook Pro is beautiful. The LED backlight makes for even backlighting, and a very bright screen. The colours are vibrant, the black levels are good, and everything I have thrown at it looks very nice so far. The screen has an ambient light sensor and will automatically adjust based on how bright the room is.

Where i have run into problems, is the high gloss of the screen. I am a fan of glossy screens. I think that in general glossy screens look better, and provide a better experience. However, the screen on the MacBook Pro borders on being *too* glossy. Since I am a fan of glossy screens, the fact that I am even mentioning that I think the screen borders on too glossy means that it could likely be a big issue for some.

Battery

One thing about all of the unibody MacBook Pro’s now is that the battery is no longer user replaceable. Apple’s claims are that by eliminating the need for a seperate compartment for the battery, they have been able to increase the size, and capacity of the battery, by about 20%. The battery is also a Lithium Polymer, which Apple claims will last for 1000 recharges, which is more than double the 400-500 reated recharge cycles of the standard lithium ion batteries found in most other notebooks. This has been a very controversial feature of the new MacBook Pro. Many frequent travelers have two batteries for their laptops, and with the MacBook Pro, you cannot have a second battery to change out on the go. Now, for some, this is a deal breaker, but for the vast majority of people, this will not be an issue.

Apple claims up to 7 hours of battery life on the 13″ MacBook Pro, and astonishingly, it is not that far off. with brightness set to between 30 and 50%, doing basic internet and word processing, the MacBook Pro gets almost bang on 7 hours. Naturally, as more intensive applications are used, battery life goes down. But you can expect well over 3 hours of watching a DVD, and about 4.5-5 hours of watching a video file stored on the hard drive.

Other features

The model I bought has the base processor, a Core 2 Duo running at 2.66GHz. I had 4GB of ram installed at the factory, up from the standard 2GB. I found a better deal on a 320GB hard drive than what Apple had to offer, so the first thing when I got it was took the stock 160GB hard drive out and put in a 320GB. The rest of the features are stock. It comes with a nVidia GeForce 9400M graphics chipset, which will not blow anyone away, but will be able to handle most day to day tasks well, and allows for light gaming. Spore, which is the only game I own that I can install on OS X, runs adequately on this computer.

Other hardware features include the iSight camera, and microphone. I have also noticed that due to the one piece construction of the body, the edge at the front of the keyboard feels a little sharp, and I’ve definitely noticed it while typing this review.

Software

Although this is my first Apple computer, I am by no means a rookie when it comes to OS X. I have used it many times in the past, and as I have stated I feel myself to be competent. After a couple of weeks of using OS X, I find myself very used to OS X. I will be updating the “My Stuff” section of this website with the common software I am using for OS X. Most of it has come from friend recommendations, and searching on Google when I need s specific kind of application. Overall, except for a few odd circumstances, transitioning from Windows applications to an equivalent in OS X has not been an issue.

One thing that I have done, however, is used virtualization technology which allows me to run Windows within OS X. There are a few applications for Windows which do not have an OS X equivalent, or are otherwise better for me to use on Windows. the product I use is VMWare Fusion. I run virtual, and legal, copes of Windows Vista, and Windows XP. I use Vista for the day to day tasks, and Windows XP is only installed to facilitate easier troubleshooting/helping for me. VMWare fusion allows me to run Windows applications, such as Microsoft’s excellent OneNote note taking program, within OS X. This allows me to have the best of both worlds. I have OS X, but also the windows apps that I need. I will be posting a more in depth article about virtualization in a different article.

Conclusion

After 2 weeks of use, I am very, very impressed with the 13″ MacBook Pro. It is a solid, very capable machine. It has it’s quirks, and to own an Apple machine you have to be willing to accept those. But overall I am very happy with this purchase. I personally do not believe there is a better notebook computer, PC or Mac, in the price range of the MacBook Pro. There are some things that will be deal breakers for some. The screen is the biggest one. If you do not like glossy screens, you will not like the screen on the MacBook Pro. Even if you’re indifferent, it is still a cause for concern. I highly recommend that if you are considering buying this computer, that you go look at it in a store first, to see how glossy the screen is. The lack of a user replaceable battery will also be deal breaker for some, although that subset is a much smaller audience. Overall, the MacBook Pro June 2009 revision comes highly recommended, as long as you are comfortable with using, and learing, OS X.

You can find more pictures of the MacBook Pro, including the unboxing, on my flickr page here.

Hi everyone, just to let you know I’ve made a couple updates to the site

I’ve updated the “My Stuff” section of the site. I’ve added and removed a few things, most notably adding my new 13″ MacBook Pro(review coming soon), and creating 2 new categories, one for the hardware I currently have in my desktop computer, and an OS X software section that I will be populating soon with the software I use on my shiny new Mac.

The second change is how I handle website url’s. It used to be messy, with no way of knowing what post you are linking too. Now, a much easier way to tell the post by url. It will be sorted by the year/month/day and post title. So, for example, the url for this posting is:

http://www.thewunderbar.net/2009/08/01/updates-to-the-site

Please not that all old links will continue to work, but the new system will also work for all old posts. Going forward this is the system I will be using, for less confusing.

That’s it for this update. Look for part 3 of my Windows Vista articles, and my MacBook Pro review, coming soon.