UrbanNerd.com

Dear Scooterati,

I can remember getting my Vespa ET4 about 4 years ago. I sold my 1989 Jeep Grand Wagoneer to buy it. People thought I was nuts. It was November. I was enrolled in one of the last Motorcycle Safety courses offered that year. I took the road test in frigid high wind conditions. It seemed appropriate in preparing me for riding in winter. I rode my ET4 home that weekend, and then proceeded to ride it all winter, daily, for my commute.

For 3 years I rode the ET4 through all weather. It took a beating, but it kept on going & I kept on going. It was liberating. People used to ask, wouldn’t trains be better in such cold? No, I said, nothing really compared to riding. Even in the cold….. especially in the cold!

I found that winter riding could actually be more enjoyable than summer riding. I found that wearing all my proper gear… and actually being warm and impervious to the weather around me while riding to my destination was a wonderful feeling. With the exception of the bitter cold… temps in the teens and below, I couldn’t think of better days to ride.

I think you have to be a person who is okay with wearing gear… proper gear, in order to enjoy winter riding. I always have been okay with gearing up, so winter just seemed like a challenge for the right gear for me. I chose the non electric route, handle bar muffs over heated grips, insulated ski pants pulled over my street clothes, and more recently the Aerostich Roadcrafter.

However, after 3 years of riding and having no other vehicle, I took a job that forced me to purchase a car for some longer trips required from my new job. This past week, it shames me to admit, was the first week in 4 winters when I chose not to brave the teen & single digit temps. I am pondering on that today, as the coldest weather finally lifts. I find myself discontent with that change, and missing the freedom that I once had. We often call cars cages, and truly my car felt increasingly like a cage this week. Did I lose a piece of my scootering identity by giving up that part of it?

I do know one thing for sure. If given the choice to give up one, I would make the same choice today that I made 4 years ago, and gladly trade my car for my scoot.

Scoot on.

Two months ago, I pre-ordered a Wii at the Nintendo World Store. This turned out to be a great idea. While others were camping in the cold weather out by Times Square, huddled and waiting desperately for the chance to buy a Wii at midnight, we spent the evening enjoying a nice dinner, and then heading home to sleep.

Once we woke up, we took the trip to Midtown, parked the bike about a block away from the Nintendo World Store, and joined the line of people waiting for their chance to purchase Wii. As time passed, us pre-orders were slowly plucked from the line, and brought into the store. There, we waited on the final line, as the walk-ins were also processed in a separate line. I’d honestly figure that most people on the line had an excellent shot at walking away with a system, accessories, and some games.

A quick survey of the available games led us to hit multiple genres. We purchased a Wii Remote, a Nunchuk Attachment, and the Classic Controller add on, along with 2000 Wii Points, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, Excite Truck, and Red Steel. A quick walk for some hot cider, and we were ready to head home.

(Interesting fact: The Wii box is just narrow enough to fit in a Vespa GT/GTS top case.)

Hooking up the Wii proved to be quite simple. It ships with component cables, most likely to ensure that just about anyone can make it work with their TV, and the sensor bar is adequate for any setup which places your game console near your screen. Projector owners may not be so lucky, depending on your wiring.

Internet setup took no time at all, once I added the Wii’s MAC address to my access point’s whitelist. After poking around with settings, we started the fun of the prep process: Making Mii.

A Mii is basically an avatar for any game which supports it. They’re primitive, comicky, and can be transferred to your own Wii Remote’s internal memory. We made one for each of us, stored them on our Wii Remotes, and now we’re ready to play at anyone else’s home with our own Mii ready to go. Next up: Wii Sports.

Wii Sports is a little thin, being a package of five sports games. Wii Boxing is a bit of a workout, using the Wii Remote and the Nunchuk as boxing gloves. Cross, jab, or block, and your Mii will do the same. Needless to say, you should give yourself some room to move. Wii Tennis is harder, using just the Wii Remote as a tennis racket. While the controls feel solid, it certainly takes a little time to get used to it. Wii Baseball is an exercise in frustration, giving you a three-inning game with some odd approximations. (I hit a few grounders, and didn’t even have a chance to run for first base.) Wii Golf is, quite simply, hard. It feels like golf, being utterly unforgiving when you use too much power, too little, or swinging at the wrong angle. Finally, there’s Wii Bowling. It’s also hard, but it lets you set your position and angle, and spin control is very intuitive.

Once that was out of the way, we moved on to Excite Truck. Jenny didn’t like it much at all. You hold the controller like an NES control pad, and much like Excitebike, too much turbo will burn out your engine. Crashes are expected, and just result in you starting off back on the track, and the truck itself is controlled by tilting the (now sideways) Wii Remote. The drawback of the game is that you have to go through a tutorial before you can play anything, including Versus mode. Compared to Wii Sports, which simply explained your options as you played, this felt like a chore.

Saving the most addictive for last, we loaded up Red Steel. The controls aren’t bad, but you *must* point the Wii Remote at the screen at all times. It determines where you look on the screen, so this is pretty important, or else you’ll end up looking at the ceiling while people shoot you. All in all, it does have the best controls I’ve ever used on a console FPS, and the swordplay adds a nice touch. In a firefight, you spend a lot of time crouching, focusing mostly on finding a target, popping up, and hoping that you’re a good enough shot to get him before you have to crouch again. It’s a neat game for me, but it’s not for everyone.

Finally, Zelda. This is a far cry from Wind Waker, both graphically and plotwise. You’re no longer a kid, you’re not just trying to save a little girl, and the graphics are eerily beautiful. As usual, you’re not a hero when you start off. You take on the role of the legendary hero from the past, just like in Wind Waker, Minish Cap, etc., but you’re a whole new Link. The controls are smooth, the Nunchuk feels like it belongs in your hand the whole time, and the swordplay/slingshot controls just feel perfect. Z-targeting is still there, but it’s nowhere near as important now as it used to be.

All in all, this tiny console packs a decent punch, being effectively a Gamecube on steroids, with probably the best controllers I’ve ever used. The fit is perfect, the button placement is perfect, and everything about the system just feels natural. It’s definitely lacking in the graphics department compared to the PS3 and the XBox 360, but I just haven’t been able to let that bother me in the slightest.

Bungie and Microsoft announce multiplayer testing plans

To coincide with the fifth anniversary of Xbox and Halo, Microsoft Game Studios and Bungie have announced that beta testing for the third instalment in the series will begin next year.

The Halo 3 beta test, which is scheduled to start in the spring, will allow gamers to try out the game’s multiplayer mode via Xbox Live - a first for the franchise. Bungie will use the feedback from players to refine the full game, which is due out later in the year.

Microsoft also announced that new maps for Halo 2 will be available via Xbox Live Marketplace around the same time, and that a new 60 second teaser trailer for Halo 3 is on the way.

It will be broadcast on North America’s ESPN channel on December 4, and will simultaneously be shown on Xbox.com - allowing European gamers to watch too.

“Since its original release, Halo 2 has redefined online play, delivering superior multiplayer capabilities in addition to an incredible social experience, and nurturing a constantly growing community through Xbox Live,” said Shane Kim, corporate VP of Microsoft Game Studios.

“After five years of rabid fan interest in the Halo franchise and with more than 4 million users and counting on Xbox Live worldwide, this is the perfect time to invite fans to join the global Halo phenomenon.”

Source: Variety

Variety reports that NBC’s Heroes (was last night the best episode yet, or what?) is rockin’ in the ratings:

NBC’s “Heroes” is looking like the fall’s hottest new show after winning its time period Monday in key demos for a third straight week and matching its strong premiere score of two weeks ago, according to preliminary affiliate-based nationals from Nielsen.

After “Deal or No Deal” delivered stronger than usual numbers to open the night for NBC (4.4/12 in 18-49, 15.2 million viewers overall), “Heroes” (5.9/14 in 18-49, 13.3 million viewers overall) beat all of its broadcast rivals and notched the highest demo rating for any rookie series in the past two weeks. Net’s momentum on the night also transferred to 10 o’clock, where “Studio 60 on the Sunset Strip” (3.8/9 in 18-49, 8.8 million viewers overall) was up 12% week to week.

I didn’t hear about this movie coming out, so thanks for the heads up RealMovieNews. com.

Real Movie News has posted the first photos of Matt Damon and Julia Stiles on the set of Universal’s The Bourne Ultimatum. The third installment of the popular franchise is being directed by Paul Greengrass for a release on August 3, 2007. Joan Allen and David Strathairn also star.

Click here to view the pics!

Thanks to its $4.5 billion budget deficit, New Jersey’s just instituted a 7% tax for online purchases and downloads of music and videos. For you, that means iTunes, Napster, and other stores are going to be a bit more expensive.

No idea how they’re enforcing this, but maybe changing your State in your iTunes account can get around it?

Link here

Don’t get stung by this up close and personal look at the yellow and black robot in disguise.

Here’s a close up look at Bumblebee from the upcoming Michael Bay-directed Transformers movie, courtesy of Ain’t It Cool News.

Meanwhile, fans report from the production site: “There were a ton of security guards walking around, but we tried to be sneaky and got some cool video of some street devastation. The video doesn’t do justice to what the special effects people did. We saw them set the whole thing up from bare street. They placed a bunch of black Styrofoam pieces around to look like a crater. Then they took a crane and placed some beat down cars on some metal braces to make it seem like they were blasted out of the craters. It looked absolutely amazing! The video gives you an idea about the size of the devastation. Toward the end of the video, you’ll see some footage of Bumble Bee Camaro and the Ratchet Truck.”

Check out the video at Latino Review.

A survey conducted by the Piaggio Group (the guys who make Vespas) concluded that almost one in three Americans would be extremely or somewhat likely to consider using a motor scooter (like the new Piaggio MP3 pictured above) for their everyday transportation needs. Conducted during the first week in May 2006, the survey respondents indicated that they’d be willing to transfer 35% of their weekly mileage to a scooter. “Scooters” were defined in the survey as two-wheel vehicles that can reach 40-100mph, whose average cost is $2,000 or above. The survey found other strong factors motivating consumer’s willingness to consider utilizing a scooter, including environmental concerns and overall cost savings. The survey found that 33% of Americans would be likely to use a scooter to reduce emission harmful to the environment, 35% would be likely to use a scooter to save $25.00 a week on gasoline

Source

SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) - Tax breaks benefiting buyers of sports-utility vehicles fly in the face of a good energy policy and are costing American taxpayers billions of dollars a year, according to a report from Rep. Edward Markey.

“It is incredible that the Bush Administration and Republican Congress can be so blind as to leave these tax loopholes in place while our dependence on Middle East oil soars, the price of gasoline spikes, and our soldiers are mired a war in the Middle East,” said Markey, a Democrat from Massachusetts.

The study, which includes estimates from the Joint Tax Committee of Congress and focuses on two policies favoring the purchase heavier vehicles over smaller models, showed that the tax breaks will cost $2.6 billion next year and $15.7 billion over the next 10 years.

The first break is the exemption light trucks and minivans get from the Gas Guzzler Tax, a levy imposed on autos rated below 22.5 miles per gallon. As an example, the report said an Audi station wagon that gets 20.5 mpg incurs a $1,300 tax, while a 15.8 mpg Jeep incurs no penalty.
Markey also criticized a policy that allows businesses to purchase SUVs and write off most or all of the cost of the vehicle on their income taxes in the first year. That amounts to a subsidy of almost $600 million a year, and $4.1 billion over the next 10 years, he said.

“This makes no sense. Congress is using the tax code to generate artificial demand for inefficient vehicles in the automobile marketplace,” said Markey, who introduced a bill aimed at eliminating both tax breaks for SUVs.

“Regardless of whether we ever ramp up and modernize the minimum fuel economy standards, providing these out-of-date tax incentives that reward the purchase of inefficient vehicles just make things worse,” he added.

Meanwhile, demand for the so-called gas guzzlers has fallen off steadily in recent years, a blow to domestic automakers that depend heavily on the full-size vehicles for profits. Truck sales at General Motors (GM :
General Motors Corporation plunged 31.2% in July, while Ford’s fell 43.8%.

From the Staten Island Advance (NYC): A police officer from the North Shore’s 120th Precinct suffered a leg injury when he fell off his scooter yesterday morning during a minor accident near the St. George Ferry Terminal, police said.

The officer, said to be in his 40s, was traveling on Bay Street toward the ferry terminal shortly before 7:30 a.m. when his scooter skidded on the wet and oily pavement, hitting the rear of a sedan stopped for a red light at Bay Street and Richmond Terrace, according to police sources.

Police said they didn’t know how fast the scooter was going.

An officer responding to the scene suffered a laceration of the forehead, police said; it was unclear how the second officer was injured.

Both officers were listed in stable condition at St. Vincent’s Hospital, West Brighton, according to police sources and a hospital spokeswoman.

The extent of damage to the red Pontiac Grand Prix with which the officer collided was not known.

A rainstorm had slicked Staten Island roadways just in time for the morning commute.