Just heading out of the office and catching a plane in a few hours to Denmark, land of famous cheese and Reboot. Looking forward to meeting people and eating hot-dogs. Will be staying at the Cab Inn Express which looks interesting to say the least.

I enjoy my fair dose of cat-Jenga where I simply pile every day objects over my pet until the structure collapses or she gets annoyed enough to jump off the couch. Glad to see I'm not alone.

I am a bit neurotic about the order my taskbar items are in. I like having e-mail first, Firefox second and Photoshop after that. I know it's bordering on obsessive but I will actually launch my applications in order to satisfy my desire for desktop order. As always the intarweb has the cure, check out this little gem. (via Lifehacker)

What a show. The three big players doing their mating dance, showing off their brightest feathery tails, and desperately trying to wooh undecided gamers to their nest. What's interesting is how reliable everyone's been since the beginning of this next-next-gen re-revolution.

Microsoft's been, well, Microsoft, the geek. Able machine at a good price. Glitzy marketing and MTV-sponsorship won't cover up the fact that these guys also run campaigns where people wear dinosaur masks. To everyone this is still very much a tech geek after a make-over (ahem). Maybe being more comfortable with who you are would help. The inability to talk effectively to anyone that's not American has hurt them, especially in Japan where nobody's buying it.  The impression that, while their striving for convergence, they don't really know how to go about it. This idea was further reinforced by strange decisions like only allowing Windows Media Center users to play videos on their 360s. (Hint: allow anyone to play any media off any OS. Tap into the web-video thing by feeding YouTube, Google Video, etc... to the box and to the living room. You'd be the first.) Another problem is that Microsoft seems unable to genuinely surprise people. At E3 we knew the big announcement would be Halo 3, lo and behold Halo 3 is announced. Same thing happened with the Origami. Reactions are usually "that's it?" and quite never "holy crap!". This usually reflects in the press the company gets, they seem unable to gather the media momentum that Playstation has had. The 360 is a fantastic machine and their Live service is incomparable to anything that has come before it; so while people in the know usually adore it, others mostly simply, well, don't know. Microsoft must feel a sense of deja vu when Sony steals their thunder in 3 phrases spoken at a keynote, just like Apple does yearly, while their developers are saying "why is everyone so impressed? We can do that too, damn it!" Update: Well it seems that GTA4 will be on Xbox360. That kind of helps now, doesn't it?

Quite unlike Nintendo then, who have managed to keep an elephant sized secret hidden until it completely blew everyone away with their wiggle-in-the-air controller. This is what Nintendo does well because Nintendo is the artist. Fixated on gaming as an ideology and determined not to get into the petty technology fueled pissing contests of Microsoft and Sony. They have maintained a steady stream of effective keynotes and a slow drip of appetite wetting facts. Speaker in the controller anyone? Always on, always connected? While most people (including myself) dislike the new name "Nintendo Wii" I have to admit that it is original and not likely to be forgotten. This E3 was big for Nintendo because it was the first time that the Wii became a real console in a way. Playable, demonstrable and very, very real and a fuck load of fun. Some have claimed that it would launch at 199$ which could mean the Nintendo would be at that sweet spot where it's viable not only as a main console but also as a second piece of kit to sit under your TV.

Which can't be said about the Playstation 3. Somehow, ever since its announcements it has felt a lot like vapourware. The pre-rendered reels, the Spider-man fonted logo, the phallic designer joypads, the DVD-player from the future look. Everything looked like it was a university student's able attempt to mock-up the next Playstation. In a way it could have been as we now see that the possible graphical quality of launch games was somewhat exagerated, the box now looks fatter and the joypads have reverted to their PS2-selves (minus rumble plus wireless). Playstation 3 is the aging rockstar that knows or thinks he can rely a long succesful career to overcharge for concert tickets. This bigger, better, faster lifestyle has taken its toll though and the extravagant lifestyle might push it out of the limelight. There are going to be two versions of the PS3: expensive and hideously expensive. At $500 and $600 a pop it's now comparable in price to a very able MacMini or half-decent PC, twice the price of a 360 and maybe even three times that of the Wii. Le'ts hope for Sony that I am underestimating the power of Playstation.

So to recap, Microsoft does nothing much, Nintendo does much well and Sony tries to do too much. Nintendo are in a good spot as being profitable and having detached themselves from the tech-wars they can now focus on talking to gamers on a different level. Microsoft should really be able to grab a foothold if Sony maintains that pricetag, they've got until Novemeber and will hopefully do a bit better in Japan with their current games line-up. Sony, I don't know, I'm really not planning to buy a PS3 and I don't see it becoming as ubiquitous as the PS or PS2 (which you see pretty much anywhere).  It's unlikely that Microsoft will come out a winner (althought their possibly the most 'well-rounded' contender), Sony should lose out because of price and the fact that the Playstation brand isn't what it once was, Nintendo will continue to be highly-profitable and cozy in its ever-growing niche. This outcome is going to be tough to predict and chances are that there won't be a clear winner in this round of the console-wars.