Gama-ing XM to the max?

Phew. So the first few days at Gamasutra have been hectic, but fun. Mainly doing editing and commissioning, but expect to see an article from me every now and again too. There are plenty of news stories posted every day, and new features or galleries are updated on Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays at 9am PST, plus there's an XML feed for articles, if you want to play along at home. Oh, and remember the site requires free registration, since it's for people who work in the games industry, so sign up, or find the printer-friendly versions for unregistered reading goodness.

Anyhow, the much longer commute up to San Francisco (at least until we buy a condo closer to SF) means that I got a chance to go gadget shopping for the XM Roady 2 satellite radio receiver, and, well, the XM radio service is really rather good if you have a long drive to/from work. 100+ commercial-free stations for 10 bucks a month is a good deal, and having the artist and track name show on the LCD screen is the 'killer app' if you're into music knowledge geekery. Particularly favored channels are, oddly, all the indie/alternative ones named after people - Lucy, Ethel, and sometimes Fred, though their webpages are _not_ indicative of the depth of tracklistings - there's not much repetition, and some obscure gems get played. There's also some interesting niche channels, including stand-up comedy, a movie soundtracks channel, and an all-African music channel (apparently still around due to contractual obligation, but interesting nonetheless!)

But, heck, any radio network where you can listen to John Peel on the way home on Friday, find Ozric Tentacles on a chill-out station, and who play out Jellyfish from time to time is good with me. There's a lack of a more diverse college/indie channel (KEXP-style), though, and the electronica stations are pretty much all cheesy trance or house - with an occasional decent Essential Mix or Solid Steel show, thank God. But overall, the depth and breadth of choice mean XM is _SO_ much better than most of the commercial-spattered local radio abominations.