Today is my last day in the office in 2011 and I’m really looking forward to the coming 10 days off. I bought some used XBox 360 games to play over the holiday: GTA IV, Modern Warfare 2, and Madden 11. There probably won’t be any blogging done over the coming days, unless something unexpected happens. OK, so there is a 2012 predictions post scheduled to go out at a later point; I’m sure it won’t be controversial at all because that just isn’t like me 
This week has mostly been a week of me reading, trying out some Windows 8 stuff on my laptop, and doing some marketing stuff, etc. I’ve stumbled on a few interesting things out there.
For The Mobile Gamer
The G155-Gaming and Entertainment Mobile System is a pretty cool looking thing. The gaming addict addict can put their console in this padded package and it includes 15.5” screen. All you’ll need is power, and you’ll then be ready to start laying down covering fire for your squad or kill that dragon.
For The Kid In You
I loved Lego as a kid. I could spend endless hours playing with the Technics bits, making motors do stuff, pistons pump, or gears turn. And even though they’ve all grown up, a lot of us techies still like to remember those days. I’ve seen a lot of my colleagues in this grown up world buy and build complex Lego models of Star Wars vehicles. When I was a kid, the ultimate haves were the AT-AT and the Millenium Falcon.
This topic just came up in conversation with one of the guys in the office and he recommended a radio-controlled Lego Technics digger. His argument was: TV sucks and this sort of thing gives the techie minded person something interesting and fun to do:
For The RPG Gamer
I played some Ultima back in the day – but I sucked. World of Warcraft isn’t for me because going online sucks for us non-serious gamers. I like the ability to pick up and wander, kill, and so on. The recent release, The Elder Scrolls VS Skyrim is being talked about a lot. It’s available on PC, XBox, and PS3.
For the American Football Fan (Outside of USA)
We’re at the best point of the regular season and we’re fast closing in on the playoffs. Every game counts more than ever. It’d suck if you missed a great game because you were away from home. With NFL Gamepass (only available outside of the USA) you can watch any NFL game as long as you have Internet access. I watch it on my slate PC (HDMI into the TV), on my laptop, on my iPhone and on my iPad (via 3G mifi). I’ve been able to watch my team’s (San Francisco 49ers) unexpected playoff run, even if the local broadcaster is not showing them. I can watch what I think is the best game of the week in the other slots. I can watch those Monday and Thursday night games that kick off after 1am Irish time. That goes double for the playoffs and the Superbowl. Oh, you also get access to NFL Network online and when you watch the games after broadcast then you get them with the TV ads removed.
For Those Who Want To Try Windows 8
With Windows 8 on the way, the geek in you might want to start playing but you don’t want to muck around with your laptop or PC. Don’t worry, because you can use Windows To Go. This allows you to install and boot Windows 8 on a USB 3.0 stick. Insert this stick and your machine can boot up from that instead of the hard drive, giving you a nice clean way to test/evaluate/use Windows 8 without impacting on your production PC.
OK, it’s a little late for Christmas shopping but maybe there’ll be some vouchers you need to spend in the sales and some of these ideas might keep you sane during the break.
With that, I hope you have a safe and happy holiday, and a Hyper-V new year!