Rhymes with Toaster

So Nintendo's upcoming video game system has a new name. Initially referred to as the "Revolution" during development, it is now going to be called the "Wii". When I saw that, the first question that popped into my mind was, "how do you pronounce that"? Apparently, Nintendo foresaw this problem, as they knew to explain it within the first few paragraphs of the unveiling announcement. From Nintendo:

Introducing… Wii.

As in “we.”
..
Wii sounds like “we,” which emphasizes the console is for everyone. Wii can easily be remembered by people around the world, no matter what language they speak. No confusion. No need to abbreviate. Just Wii.
...

Okay, so it's pronounced "WE", Not "Why". That's great. The one problem is that I had finally taught my brain to pronounce the name of Intel's new Multi-media platform, "Viiv". It's a new brand for a computer configuration made to work well with multimedia applications, handling video, audio and pictures, similar to "Centrino" for laptops that are configured to work well with wireless. But how do you pronounce "Viiv"? From Intel's page on the subject:

What does the word "Viiv" mean?

The Intel® Viiv™ technology brand name communicates the excitement, vibrancy, and vividness of the latest technologies that enables people to have a great entertainment experience in the home.

Viiv is pronounced "viv" and rhymes with "five."

So, Nintendo's "Wii" is pronounced "WE", and Intel's "Viiv" is pronounced "VIVE". Not "WHY" and "VEEV". Got that? Oh, and just to throw a spanner in the works, here's the last sentance I just saw on the intel page:

In Japan, Viiv rhymes with "sleeve."

What? So, in Japan, "Viiv" really is "VEEV", but in the U.S. it's "VIVE"? Great. That's just great. I'm not confused at all now.

The nice thing is that we won't have to worry about pronunciation any more after we all get the internet jacked directly into our brains and we can just instant message people directly from our thoughts.

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Technorati tags: nintendo : wii : intel : viiv : gaming : computing

Apple today announced BootCamp, an Apple-created utility for dual booting your (and my) intel iMac with OS X and Windows XP. This is certainly more appealing than the OnMac method, which admirably came first.

"Boot Camp lets you install Windows XP without moving your Mac data, though you will need to bring your own copy to the table, as Apple Computer does not sell or support Microsoft Windows.(1) Boot Camp will burn a CD of all the required drivers for Windows so you don't have to scrounge around the Internet looking for them."

If that means native graphics drivers, bring it on. Let's see how Battlefield 2 runs on this baby.

Update:

We're up and running, and BF2 indeed runs smooth as silk at 1280 x 960. It's great to have native drivers for all the hardware. Read More for some camera phone pics from the install process:

Note: I wrote this article for byopvr.com a while ago, but I thought I'd get a copy up here as well. Basically, I turned my old desktop PC into a Tivo, but without a subscription fee and total control over the content. It also has the perk of being able to run PC software on the TV... including games. Which brings us to this article.

I recently was introduced to the video game Dance Dance Revolution and suggested it to The Wife(tm). The game play is deceptively simple-- step on a game pad containing 4 arrows in time to arrows displayed on the screen in time to modern dance music. She isn't really a gamer, but the idea of getting some exercise made her interested. And not just for her, but it was a game that she could feel comfortable recommending to kids. I thought this might be the opening to get a console into the house... but the total cost of a new system, plus pads, plus the game itself just to play one game wasn't really feasible.

So she asked, "Can't you find a program for the PVR?"... which made a lot of sense (as usual). I had recently completed a project turning my old Desktop PC into a PVR which is connected 24/7 to the TV in our family room. It's a modest computer in today's PC market-- 1 GHz Celeron, 512MB of PC100 RAM and a GeForce 5200. But it should be powerful enough to play a relatively low demanding game such as DDR. So after a bit of investigation I found the answer to my quest: StepMania.

http://www.stepmania.com/stepmania/