Often, and I’m not sure what the cause is as it seems to vary depending upon location or “some other set of conditions”, my PC will shutdown and reboot. I’ve been running temperature monitors and everything is well within tolerances. One possible correlation is that it happens soon after I load into a new area.

The googles suggest various bits of voodoo but nothing official. There are also enough occurrences of this that it doesn’t appear to be specific to my machine.

I’m posting my configuration in case others have had similar problems:

• Intel i7 2600K
• Asus P8Z68-V Pro Motherboard
• Asus 560Ti
• Windows 7 64bit
• OCZ Vertex 3 240GB SSD
• Tons-o-RAM

Please leave a comment if you’ve had this problem yourself. Double-plus bonus points if you have a fix for it.

Update 2012/04/04: It isn’t my RAM:

But one area where iOS has a distinct advantage is in games, or so I thought. They have some awesome titles. For most of them, I’m pretty happy playing on my iPad as it’s a great platform for games. There were a few that I always had with me on my phone though. Games that made sense on a phone, were kind of casual and easy to get into but you can put them down at a moment’s notice to do something else. And I’ve found them on Android.

Orbital (Bitforge Ltd). $4.00 for the “pro” version, Free version to try, but trust me, you want the full game. It’s simple, it’s fun, has a two player head-to-head mode and entertaining noises. I have probably logged more hours on Orbital than any other game on my iPhone. And now it’s on Android! Sweet.

Dungeon Raid (Fireflame Games). $3.19CDN. I used to play this a lot on short-hop flights, in line at the grocery store, couch surfing or well, anywhere. Kind of a connect-three dungeon RPG thing with different character classes and abilities. Humorous loot names and scary monsters. It has endless replayability.

Tiny Tower (Mobage). Free! OK, this is a new one to me having never played it on the iPhone. But with it winning Game of the Year on iTunes I figured I’d give the Android version a try. Also, the price is certainly right. Not disappointed! Takes only a few seconds to keep your tower running. It will haunt your dreams.

Other standbys like Doodle Jump, Flight Control and others will keep your thumbs entertained for hours. You don’t have to fear, there are plenty of good games on Android. You’ll just have to buy them all over again.

I put off reading this for so long, I’d forgotten why I never read it. It certainly came recommended from many sources.

A great, sprawling book like the city fixture for which it’s named, Perdido Street Station is a modern fantasy with hints of steam punk. Set in a city not unlike a Victorian-industrial London, it answers the question of what the world might be like if magic were just another form of science. In the city of New Crobuzon, humans co-exist awkwardly with Xenians (weird human-animal hybrids) and Remade humans forged from metal machines and other creatures. As readers, we’re given glimpses of still stranger beings that exist in and around the city.

China Mieville is a wonderful world-builder. His books breathe with convincing setting and life. The city itself a character in his book (not unlike The City and The City which also offers a setting as a main feature) is teeming with activity and color. It exudes a convincing reality that is equal parts lively and filthy. The dream-like quality of the world hints at nightmarish potential early on before delving headlong into it.

With all of this it would be easy to forget to write a story about characters the reader might actually empathize with, and yet even some of the most alien come to life and pull you into their story. At its core, it’s an adventure story about a group of characters facing impossible obstacles, and it’s a real credit to Mieville’s writing that he manages to imbue these characters with real heart and feelings.

A great read. I will add mine to the list of many sources of recommendations.

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Gripping.

A burnt-out cop settles down in a small California town to deal with the aftermath of a hostage negotiation gone wrong. Separated from his family, and unable to communicate about his traumatic experiences, he withdraws into himself.

Then a bungled robbery turns into a hostage situation and he’s in charge.

Your typical thriller. The intensity keeps getting dialed up as more intrigue and plot-twists are piled on. A good summer read.

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Only 8 seasons to go…

Tilt to Live

Prod mentioned this to me this week on IM. A single line message that read “tilt to live”. I was all, “wtf is that? What are you talking about?” I believe he replied tersely, “iPod”. So I did the search, found the game, saw that it was on-sale and said, “why not?”.

And I’m super-glad that I did. This has become my latest “I’ve got 5 minutes to burn” game on my iPhone. After starting, the pace gradually picks up until you’re tilting for your life (as the title suggests), your little arrow-ship being pursued by an ever growing and evolving field of red dots. Gameplay is basic. You have a number of floating power-ups to help you defend yourself against the red swarm. Music is a jazzy little number reminiscent of a Ren & Stimpy cartoon that is pretty amusing, though if you’re like me, you’ll eventually just turn it off or listen to your own tunes. The motion sensing is excellent and fluid.

What really makes this game stand out is some of the online features from AGONline(?). Built-in awards and social networking features keep things interesting. The awards themselves are pretty funny.

highly recommended.

Orbital

My previous “5-minute” game is the surprisingly strategic Orbital. I learned of this game when I saw tech journalist Andy Ihnatko mention it in one of his iPad reviews. I looked it up and thought it seemed interesting.

And it is! Gameplay is simple, you fire a projectile that bounces around the field until it slows to a stop at which point, it balloons into a disc that expands until it touches a wall or another disc. Said discs need to be struck 3 times by your projectiles to be removed from the board and giving you a point. If your projectile comes back to a “death line” and touches it, you die and it’s game over.

There are three different game-types, but you’ll really only want to play Gravity mode where the discs cause your projectile to curve around them as if affected by a gravitational field. The grid background warps in a pleasing way to indicate where the gravitational pull becomes strongest.

It sounds simple, but there’s a real art to surviving for any length of time. As in all good games, it’s quick to learn but takes awhile to master. It’s challenging enough that you can keep going back and enjoying subsequent games.

Doodle Jump

The game that keeps on giving. You really gotta hand it to the developers of Doodle Jump: They keep adding value to this awesome accelerometer powered platformer. It’s incredibly simple. Your doodle-dude jumps on platforms. You tilt to move side-to-size to position him over the next platform. You try to get as high as you can. Various power ups like jetpacks, propeller beanies, springs and trampolines help propel you to new heights. There are monsters that you can shoot with your doodler’s nose.

It’s 99¢ and if you don’t have it, just go get it. Come back when you’ve made it past 30k points and we’ll talk.

Uniwar

This is another new title (to me) that may have been around for awhile. I’m a sucker for turn-based strategy games and this is basically a straight copy of the online game WeeWars. I never really got into WeeWars not knowing anybody else who was playing it for very long, so kind of forgot about it. There’s something to be said for having a game like this on a portable device as you can play it anywhere.

It comes with a stand-alone campaign and an online component. The kicker here is that they’ve done a great job of implementing both push and email notifications so iPod users can still get notified when it’s their turn.

I’ve only played a couple of games so far, and would like to see a couple of new armies added to flesh things out a bit. And maybe a map editor so you can roll your own games. Still, the implementation is so well done that these are minor quibbles.

Sword & Poker

This is a weird one. I logged quite a few hours playing this through to level 28 or so. The premise is pretty simple. You have a 5×5 grid with the inner 3×3 populated with playing cards. You have a set of 4 cards with which to make a hand of 5 in any of the rows, colums or two diagonals. These poker hands do “damage” to your opponent who you’re fighting in a kind of pokemon-esque battle to the finish. You have shield and a weapon which determines how much damage your hands do. And there’s magic. And you’re in a dungeon fighting monsters.

If it sounds weird, that’s because it is. But it’s surprisingly fun and really well put together. Very addictive and the various weapons and shields you can buy keep you progressing against the steadily tougher enemies you meet in the later levels.

I’ve got a bunch more games installed, including some of the biggies by NGMoco and others. But these are the games that I keep coming back to and playing. What are your favorites?

So, here we have it:

• Atlas Sound, Logos
• Bat for Lashes, Two Suns
• Crocodiles, Summer of Hate
• Fever Ray
• Grizzly Bear, Veckatimist
• Handsome Furs, Face Control
• Metric, Fantasies
• The Raveonettes, In and Out of Control
• Silversun Pickups, Swoon
• Yeah Yeah Yeahs, It’s Blitz!

I actually had a hard time coming up with 10. If I were being honest, I’d probably drop Metric and Silversun Pickups out of this list. “Fantasies” didn’t have any stand-out killer tracks on it, though it was probably a more consistent album than any of their previous ones. “Swoon” was similar, lacking anything truly earth-shattering, though “The Royal We” and “Panic Switch” are solid tracks.

Notable albums that didn’t make the cut: The xx, xx. That album was pretty over-hyped and gets tired fast. Tegan & Sara’s “Sainthood” (despite a couple of excellent tracks), and the already boring Phoenix’ “Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix”. If you’re gonna sell your songs to car manufacturers, at least wait a few months for me to get tired of your music first. Still catchy though.

It occurs to me that I’m spending more time talking about the music I liked less than the albums I listed above. If I had to buy just three of them, I’d probably pick Atlas Sound, Bat for Lashes and Grizzly Bear. But I couldn’t buy just three because then I wouldn’t have Handsome Furs’ excellent minimal electro-rocker “Face Control”. And Fever Ray is truly strange and excellent.

Did I miss any? Leave me a note if you think I’m missing out on anything 2009 had to offer. Happy listening.

Currently listening to All We Want, Baby, Is Everything by Handsome Furs from the album Face Control

In an attempt to further understand the writing phenomenon of Joss Whedon, I have decided to attempt to watch the entire run of Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Yes, dear reader, I am serious. So far, I’ve made it one whole episode and was so overcome with feeling, that I had to write about the experience.

Y’see, Whedon has a strong following. This is unusual for a writer of television. He is in elite company with the likes of J.J. Abrams and… the writer of that show… about the… stuff.

Anyway, I’ve reviewed a Joss Whedon thing before and it wasn’t pretty. Since then I’ve gained a new respect for him because of Firefly and Serenity. They’re good pulpy sci-fi, but not exactly high art or strong science. His newest venture Dollhouse is teetering precariously on the verge of cancellation and each new episode makes me wonder if it wouldn’t be for the best. Sure, it achieved some semblance of decency in the first season, but there was enough bad stuff in there that execu-producer + series star Eliza Dushku had to plead with people to keep going past episode 6 because “that’s when it starts to get good”.

So it is with a healthy heaping of dubiousness that I approach the Buffy the Vampire Slayer series. I was one of the few people who liked (and remembers) the original throw-away movie. What I did not know was that Whedon wrote that original template for the show. With a great cast, I always felt it was an under-appreciated bit of comedy. Even better, it didn’t take itself too seriously, but managed to create tension and a bit of horror.

Sarah Michelle Gellar is no Kristy Swanson. She presents a pretty faithful depiction of 1990s 2000s California without going overboard on valley-girl-isms. There are glimpses of dialogue and I know enough about some of the characters to know that they get to enjoy some serious development over the length of the show. So I’m going to be a little forgiving of the weak action sequences. Maybe they’ll get better!

I think I’ll watch another.