ATOMIC’S CLOSING LEAVES HANGOUT HOLE
The Fairbanks gaming community lost more than a store when Atomic Video Games closed its doors last month. The electronic entertainment outlet provided the latest gaming titles and DVD’s. But it was also a place where kids of all ages could find a safe haven.
Ryer Kornkven, 15, is home schooled, so most of his social needs were met at Atomic. He would go to the store almost every day, just to get out of his house. That’s where he met most of his friends. “We all play the same games and we’ve known each other for awhile. We are all good friends and we will still hang out after Atomic.”
As long as customers were spending money while they hung out, that might be a good business model. But more and more, the gang at the video store was there to socialize. Parents would drop off their kids and pick them up a couple of hours later. That’s an inexpensive daycare for parents, but an expensive proposition for Atomic.
Manager Steven Barona said that might have helped lead to the store’s downfall. “I had complaints about too many kids running around or other distractions. When people get fed up, they go somewhere else.”
Loose kids may be a distraction to customers, but having a safe place to hang out was a benefit in a town known for a lack of opportunities for youth. Several youth facilities have opened and closed over the years. A perennial issue for local parents has been finding things for their children to do.
Store owner Gary Grassi knows the issue firsthand. He has taught in the local school district and is familiar with the town’s lack of safe places for kids. “I didn’t get into this business to provide this kind of opportunity, but I always felt proud that we were able to provide a ‘hangout’ of sorts.”
But that kind of public service doesn’t pay the bills. Grassi acknowledged that if every ‘customer’ had actually spent money at the store, he wouldn’t have had to close.
Now that the computers have been sold off and the titles taken down from the shelf, the Eagle Plaza is missing an anchor and a portion of the clientele.
At the Comic Shop on the other end of the outlet, Elizabeth King has noticed a change in the customer base. The 20-year-old girl with long hair and an enthusiastic smile has worked there for four years, long enough to notice that much of their business came from the same patrons who frequented Atomic and the nearby Mayflower restaurant.
“I’ve definitely noticed a reduction in the amount of kids under the age of nine who come in to buy snacks,” she said.
King liked having Atomic nearby. The staff of the two stores got along well. They even managed to thwart a would-be fencer who had stolen a stuffed animal from the Comic Shop and tried to sell it at Atomic.
Logan Kunz had been one of the under-nine set, but grew up along with the store. Now that it’s closed, the thing he’s going to miss the most is a guaranteed place to play the computer.
“Somewhere close to go in case my house is locked. A secure place where I knew there would be people that I know.”
Customer Jeff Kohler echoed that sentiment. “Once it’s gone for good, I don’t know what I’m going to do. I’m still gonna play video games at my house.”
But he has an idea to work towards. “Maybe I’ll save up some money and try to open up a store of my own one day. I love helping people. And a video game store is not just helping people. It’s helping young people.
“Video games themselves might be a game, but it’s also a story line. It’s like a book that you play. I was never really a good reader, but I’ve learned how to type, read and communicate with others better just by playing games.”
MICROSOFT’S 64-BITS SOMETIMES BITE BACK
From paying bills to checking movie times, most people can’t perform the most basic functions without a computer anymore. But consumers aren’t always savvy about what goes on behind the screen, especially when the reason comes down to a matter of bits.
Microsoft leads the industry with its Windows desktop operating system, the program that coordinates a computer’s applications, from web browsing to document storage. Vista, the newest evolution of Windows, is available in a 64-bit version, much like its predecessor XP.
The 64-bit version of Microsoft’s operating systems was historically used by companies in need of high-end computing power and the ability to run more memory-intensive programs. HP, Dell, Acer and other manufacturers are now shipping 64-bit versions of Vista Home on consumer-level machines, causing mixed results among users and professionals.
When Microsoft first entered the computing scene in 1985, they offered a piece of software called Windows 1.0, a ‘desktop environment’ for users of the MS-DOS command-line interface. In 1990, Microsoft established itself with Windows 3.0, which had great success due to the program’s wide acceptance by both hardware and software developers.
A few years later, Windows 3.1 NT came out. The company targeted the engineering sector, but it was the first 32-bit operating system. The 32-bit refers to the Microsoft Win32 application programming interface (API), which offered greater security and stability, and also made it easier for developers to write and support more powerful programs.
It wasn’t until 2001 that Microsoft shook up the computing industry again with their release of the Windows XP 64-bit edition. According to Microsoft’s website, “Windows XP 64-Bit Edition is designed for specialized, technical workstation users who require large amounts of memory and floating point performance in areas such as movie special effects, 3D animation, engineering, and scientific applications.”
In order to use a 64-bit operating system, a computer also needs a 64-bit processor, which was becoming a common feature on new computer systems by 2001. Microsoft then began offering both the 32 and 64-bit flavors of its operating systems.
The biggest difference computer users might notice between the two versions is the amount of memory that the system can recognize. The company’s 32-bit operating systems are limited to seeing four gigabytes of system memory, while a 64-bit system can utilize over twice as much and is only limited but physical constraints.
The largest issue facing consumers is that some software must be rewritten to accommodate the greater headroom and capabilities of a 64-bit system or it may not work at all.
According to Microsoft.com, “In order to accommodate 32-bit programs, Microsoft’s 64-bit operating systems provide support through either a hardware compatibility mode (in which the new processors support the older 32-bit version of the instruction set as well as the 64-bit version), through software emulation, or by the actual implementation of a 32-bit processor core within the 64-bit processor.”
Cynthia Adams, the CEO of GrantStation.com, has experienced this issue first hand… and through baseball no less. “I listen to the MLB games on my computer at home,” said Adams, gesturing at her new HP notebook. “They used to play fine on my old laptop, but they don’t work anymore.”
Since Adams was running 64-bit Vista, she needed to download two more programs unique to the 64-bit platform. The majority of users still have 32-bit operating systems, so that bit of information was buried deep within the technical support section of the MLB website.
After downloading and installing the required programs, Adams shook her head and said, “Wow. That was way harder than it needed to be.”
Even software from large companies has issues. In software tests, Adobe’s Dreamweaver CS 4 had difficultly displaying menu boxes on a 64-bit system. A 32-bit system was not victim to these aberrations. There are even online forums dedicated to finding that special blend of technology magic that is required to make older versions of Adobe’s Dreamweaver install a necessary update on a 64-bit system.
Adam Koegle, a tech with Computer Cache, isn’t seeing a large issue with 64-bit systems and in fact recommends that people choose that version of operating system over a 32-bit. “A 64-bit system is backwards compatible with older programs and can support more ram,” he said.
According to Koegle, the 64-bit systems have an option to run software in 32-bit compatibility mode that is selectable right from the program’s icon, so that should eliminate many problems.
He also hasn’t seen many issues that have come to him regarding software on 64-bit systems either. “There isn’t a cost difference between the 32 and 64-bit versions,” Koegle said. “The majority of changes are all under the hood.”
Scanner Transforms Text to MP3s
Plustek Technology Inc. has announced the availability of the BookReader… a gadget that transforms printed words into audio output, which can be saved in MP3 format for future access.
Our Viral Web - Shiba Inu Puppies!
The current rage about the Internet is puppies. And not just any puppies mind you, but Shiba Inu puppies. Cute, fuzzy and on a live video feed, some people say watching them is “relaxing” and that they have their “whole office watching!!”
Can you say, INTERNET ADDICTION?
Anyway, get your fix here:
Damn. They are really cute…
Chinese Define Internet Addiction
The Chinese have defined Internet addiction and apparently all of us have it. The following article comes to us from PC World:
“Users who spend six hours or more per day online, and exhibit at least one symptom including difficulty sleeping or concentrating, yearning to be online, irritation, and mental or physical distress are classified as meeting the definition of addiction.”
It’s a fairly short article, but Internet addiction clinics and halfway-houses abound throughout China. Considering that Chinese addicts haven’t been obsessively checking their email since 1995, it makes me wonder how much better off the U.S. would be (meaning productive) if the country took a collective week-long stay in one of these clinics.
"About 10 percent of China’s 253 million Internet users exhibit some form of addiction to the medium, and 70 percent of those people are young men."
The image and text below are from a Washington Post article written in 2007:
A 12-year-old boy is treated with a series of low-voltage shocks in a therapy that doctors at an Internet addiction clinic in China say helps patients sleep better.
(By Greg Baker — Associated Press)
I think I have found a new calling… Internet Addiction Therapy Specialist. I will make people enrolled in my program go to nothing but bad web sites until it breaks them of their addiction. If that doesn’t work, out come the cattle prods.
Zibra: Open It; Jeremy: He Wants It
ExtremeTech has a nifty little write up on a slick little uber-tool made by Zibra that can do anything an on-the-go tech could want. A cutter, screwdriver and utility knife all in one with safety handles no less, I am very interested in the Zibra: Open It. For $10, its the stocking stuffer I hope I get this Christmas… Hint. Hint.
Microsoft Discontinues Windows… 3.1
I honestly had no idea it was even still being sold, but a recent article posted by the BBC states that Microsoft will no longer sell any copies of Windows 3.1 as of November 1, 2008. According to the article, the first time Windows 3.1 was sold was in May of 1990, over 18 years ago. I remember using Windows 3.1 and loving the space-man theme that you could choose for the background. Oh sweet, sweet memories.
Here is a nice little excerpt on tech specs on Windows 3.1 that you can file away for when you are alone and shedding a tear for its passing:
Windows 3.x required an 8086/8088 processor or better that had a clock speed of up to 10MHz. It needed at least 640KB of RAM, seven megabytes of hard drive space, and a graphics card that supported CGA, EGA and VGA graphics.
But honestly, the first thing everyone did with this program, myself included, was this:
Oh Windows 3.1 solitaire, we hardly knew you!
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