Brief catch-up post

All sorts of fun being had, and nothing quite worthy of a post of its own... time for another three-fer.

• My Roku box died! Well, to be more precise, the wireless and HD display parts died... so, after hours of consideration and reviewing the state of Internet players out there, I gave the old box to my younger brother (as much for the niece/nephew to watch as anything) and snagged the Roku HD XR. On the plus side, I've got dual-band wireless-N now, so I can run on a different frequency and avoid any issues with other wireless devices in the house. On the minus side, the USB port on it doesn't have any use (yet), and it seems to be a bit more sluggish to respond than my old box. Still, it's a lovely toy, and should only get better as more channels/new firmware comes out.
• On the Sony front, I decided to re-partition my PS3 hard drive, eliminating my Linux partition, on the assumption that I would be wanting to upgrade to the new firmware eventually... unfortunately, even though I backed up my downloaded software, it wouldn't work when restored, because it couldn't "phone home" during the restore, because I was using old firmware. So, to get things working again, I had to accept the new firmware and re-register my PS3 with their network. Not entirely unexpected, but it sure doesn't make me any happier with Sony.
• On the Activision front, it only took them over a month, but yesterday they filed a counter-suit against their ex-employees (link). There's two bits I like from this... first, Activision's assertion that employees were looking to steal "one of Activision's most valuable assets", namely the studio employees these guys presided over, as they jumped ship to a competitor. Note to Activision: no matter how hard you try, you can't "own" your employees... you can disincentivize them leaving by contract all you want, but, at the end of the day, it's their choice whether to stay or go, with or without their leaders. The second bit I liked? The rep for EA, where the jumping-ship-to was alleged to be imminent, replied to a request for comment "We don't have the time to comment on the many lawsuits Activision files against its employees and creative partners." You know, I think he rather enjoyed that... :)