The one with Sky on the Xbox 360

So after an initial “delay” where the boffins at Sky and Microsoft had to clock in for some over time, I finally got to check out the Sky player on the Xbox 360 last night.

So big deal I hear you whimper at your screen! And maybe you’d be right! Sure if you want to watch Sky you’ll watch it on a TV with a Sky boxed attached! But there’s something incredible about having a video games console pretend its a Sky box. Its a fantastic feat in my book. Stop playing Forza 3 and have a quick peep at Sky News. And sure why not. And the best thing is you don’t have to go changing channels as its all contained in your 360.

Then I had a bit more of an indepth nose around with the on demand services. Being a Sky Movies subscriber I get access to hundreds and hundreds of on demand movies. Which in a nutshell is similar to Sky Anytime, except this isn’t the anorexic Sky anytime. No sir, this is a morbidly obese, ready for a gastric bypass Sky anytime. I was blown away with the selection of movies, as I said hundreds and hundreds. And try the Sky sports section, truck loads of highlights and live events for you to catch up on. If only an actual Sky +HD box had this kind of capability, although I’d imagine the future for Sky will involve alot like this! And speaking of the future, its going to be streaming all the way!

Now, If I had a criticism it would be that there is no HD or Dolby Digital content on the service, which given the Zune marketplace is bursting at the seems with it, is a bit of surprise. But an educated guess would lead me to believe that HD will follow in due course!

You don’t even have to be a sky subscriber to avail of the service as you can pay for it through your 360 but if you are a sky subscriber (Movies/Sports etc) then this is all for free! Just log in with your sky user name and password!

Either way its an amazing process and couple this with the recent Twitter / Facebook /  1080p streaming Vids, you have Microsoft belting this one right out of the park! In the words of Darth, “Impressive”. I’m a huge Sony fan. I’ll always look for a Sony product over anything else but with the recent updates to the 360, the Playstation 3 is so far behind at this point, it’ll need Marty McFly in a Delorean to catch up!

The one with Pulp Fiction mash up

In the words of Darth "Impressive"

The one with Moths

I came home last night and before putting the key in the lock, I was a little mesmerised by a selection of moths attached to the wall. I began to think what the life of a moth must be like, just hanging around on a wall. Are they waiting for some moth drugs to be delivered by the local moth drug dealer? Is there a moth equivalent of Starbucks and they’re just hanging around waiting for a little moth frappecappolattinocha? Or were the actual moths that were hanging around, actual moth hookers? Waiting for other moths to fly by and then proposition them for some dirty moth sex on my doorbell! It might explain a big ass; Daddy long legs, who was lurking in the shadows. Obviously a pimp, and why wouldn’t he be? With a name like Daddy Long legs? He’s gotta be! I’m sure he had a cane and everything! But as I said, he was lurking in the shadows and it was difficult to see!

I think I’ve hit the nail on the head with this one! As there are always other insects hanging around, obviously looking for a little inter-insect erotica and are willing to pay their hard earned cash! No doubt some of them are extra freaky insects as there were a few moths hanging around with missing wings and legs, but what ever floats ones boat.

I know what your thinking reading this, I’ve lost my mind! I suppose in hindsight, there's probably no way in hell moths would be seen dead, drinking a frappecappolattinocha!

The one on the day after the bank holiday

Not a great deal going on today to be honest. I'm playing catchup currently. Didn't see much Jazz, granted just cos you have a straw hat and something you blow into, doesn't make you a jazz musician.

So I was going to dig out a video or funny picture and have the lazy blog post thing, but as its the day after the bank holiday, I couldn't be arsed!

The one with something we all should have!

This is just brilliant!!!

The one with.....

It has been deemed safe for me to go back into the building! So...back on air tonight, from 9pm!

The one with the new Xbox 360 Update

I was invited to partake in a Beta for the new Xbox 360 update ahead of its full release in November and it arrived yesterday. In a tiny nutshell, the update allows you to tweet, facebook and have movie parties all over the place!

The twitter and facebook are fine and functional, particularly using a keypad. Not as fast as using a client or the web on a PC / Mac, but for those moments where you can’t be arsed moving to a laptop or desktop its ideal!

All the music games (Guitar Hero etc.) all now have dedicated stores which is great as it saves you time floundering around looking for tracks etc.etc.

Not sure about the Irish getting Last.fm as there was no sign of it on my update.

So all good so far, but nothing that has melted my mind until I took on the Zune Video Marketplace. And then, my mind melted. 1080P Full HD video, STREAMING. Yeah, streaming. No longer do you have to wait for a movie to download, the shit was streaming. And streaming with no buffering, stuttering or stammering. After part of my brain oozed out of my ears, I decided to press fast forward, just for the laugh. And £%^$%^£%^£$ me, it FF at full speed. I’m not sure how the miracle workers at MS get this working, although I’d speculate its about variable bit rates. Either way, I couldn’t care less. I never, ever have rented a movie over Xbox Live, primarily because of download times and hard drive space ( I got the 20GB Old skool box) but with streaming, its something I would certainly, actually definitely do in the future! And it is the future. 5 – 10 years, this is the way we will all look at movies. That said, it all depends on your Broadband connection I would imagine, but the 360 adjusts accordingly. Spectacular win.

The one with swine flu

Right, this is gonna be short and sweet. The wife has got swine flu and as a precaution, I'm not allowed into the station for the next few nights just in case I'm packing the Bacon flu.

The one thats impressive

Thats impressive....That is all!

The one with the weekend inc. a Rant

The weekends go by way too quick, as I’m sure many will agree. I was still playing catch-up after introducing Kevin Smith in Vicar Street Wednesday night, so Friday morning was spent with my eyes closed. Friday evening was spent with the wife,  my parents and a dinner. Following that, I dug out the old HD-DVD player for the 360 and hooked up Clerks 2, which the wife had never seen.

Saturday morning was spent again, exercising my eye closing techniques and Saturday night I was in Club D’Ville. Then yesterday, we went shopping. And this is where the rant starts. I’ve worked in retail back in the day and I know it can be tough to keep the smiles rolling and so on. But the least you can do is put the item into a fucking bag. Yes! A bag! I don’t give a shit about how bad a day you had. Or how hung-over you are from the night before. Or how the girl you convinced to take off your jocks was completely and utterly repulsed by what she saw and like a Sunday World reporter, made her excuses and left. All I know is; that by me making a purchase in the shop where you work, it helps the accountants smile from time to time. And the more people spend, in the shop where YOU work, the longer your fat ass will be in a job! If you don’t like working there, then don’t bother. You wouldn’t be missed!!! Either way I decided to buy an item yesterday in a shop and the ignorant shit behind the counter didn’t even acknowledge there was somebody in front of him. Obviously still upset at the fact that he was left there with his little winky in his hand from the night before. To be fair though, he did manage to tell me how much I owed, in a Shrek style manner of course. As I was handing over the cash, he eventually put a folded paper bag on top of the item, as to imply I should put it in the bag. No thanks, no nothing. I took my time unfolding the bag etc.etc. and eventually rambled away. It wasn’t just me, all the people in front got the same treatment.

I can only imagine what kind of shallow life you lead! No doubt your bedroom, in Mammy's house is littered with socks all which have a strange toast like texture. You’ll forever be the ignorant pig behind the counter, because you lack a little common courtesy and manners. Hopefully, the people that pay your wages will finally wise up and give you a nice little pink slip and send you on your way, you fuckin Ogre! Then you can go Instant Message the American chick who you sent a completely different picture of yourself to, all about it EVERY LITTLE HELPS MY ASS!!!!!!!