For her birthday, I ended up getting Chris a Kobo Touch eReader.

I did a bunch of research, talked to friends who had one etc. and in the end decided it was a better option than the Kindle, mostly because it used an open source book format and because it's more friendly to Canadians (Kindle has a lot of US only features). And while we already have an iPad, the iPad really isn't a good eReader between the glossy screen, larger size, and heavier weight.

Overall she's been really happy with it. the eInk based screen looks terrific, much like the pages of an actual book look like.

Today she asked me to hook it up to our WiFi network. Now normally this is a straightforward process, but I've put in some advanced security features such as not broadcasting the SSID (network name) and employing MAC filtering - only devices I authorize can join the network. So I wrote down the MAC address of the Kobo, plunked it into my Apple Airport Router's exception list, went to the Kobo network settings and punched in the info, hit the Join button....and....it gave me an error saying the password was incorrect.

I then spent about an hour mucking with it and swearing until I finally got it to work. I searched Google and it seems a lot of Kobo users have issues with getting WiFi to connect. It works at a friends house or at a Starbucks, but when they try it at home they get the same error I was getting. So I read through the forums and tried the various suggestions (Factory reset, turning off MAC filtering, switching from WPA2 to WPA etc. etc.) with no luck. I also tried updating to the latest firmware but it still wouldn't work.

Finally I came across one posting where the person said they got it working after power cycling their router. At this point I had exhausted all other options so I tried it and it connected! So the moral is, when all else fails, yank the bloody power cord.

Now off to download some smutty romance novel...

Almost five years ago (can't believe it was that long ago) I came across a game that I didn't know much about called Bioshock. I likely saw the cover, was curious, and read the reviews which were overwhelmingly positive.

In it you play a character who ends up in an underwater world called Rapture. Once there you must fight all kinds of deranged citizens called Splicers and the occasional bathysphere suit wearing brute called Big Daddy's. These monsters guard possessed little girls called Little Sisters who wander around sucking the life force out of fallen residents. After exploring this world equal parts beautiful and horrifying you finally end up making your way back to the surface.

Bioshock was a terrific game. Although it was technically a first person shooter (FPS), the world they created, the involving storyline, the use of special abilities, and the gameplay made it a winner.

I bought the sequel over a year ago and it sat on the shelf as life got in the way of my gaming. Last week I finally got around to firing it up and ended up finishing it yesterday. In all respects it's as good as the original.

The beautiful Art Deco inspired world is the same as before which is a good thing and the combat system is even better. The plasmid powers and hacking abilities are still there as is the moral dilemma of whether to save or harvest the Little Sisters. As before you have the option of turning off the Vita Chambers which is where you are resurrected when you die. I left them on as the alternative is having to constantly save the game. The major twist is that instead of avoiding clashing with Big Daddy's you end up being one this time. And while not technically a horror game like F.E.A.R., there was more than a few times that I jumped in my seat.

About the only possible thing that I didn't overly like (which was probably an issue in the original as well), is that ammo is much to readily available. In fact near the end of the game it was pointless for me to even search things as I was maxed out on everything anyway. One oddity I noticed is that unlike before the Little Sisters don't really talk. That was one thing I loved about Bioshock...."Kill him, Mr. B!". I couldn't figure out how to get into a room on one level so I looked up a walkthrough on YouTube which was running on a console and in it they talked as before - so it must just be a glitch with the PC version. In the end it probably took me a solid week of playing several hours a night to finish it.

Along with the Half Life and Portal games, the Bioshock series is one of my favourites.