Woo! I finally came up with something to rant about! (Although I wouldn't have thought about it at all if the patch download for my game wasn't running so slowly - 2% in 4 minutes!) Nevertheless, onto the serious matter of blogging.
If you've ever owned or used a Nintendo DS, DS Lite or DSi (I believe the DSi XL has it preloaded as well) then you most probably will have experienced PictoChat, if you haven't owned or used a Nintendo DS, DS Lite or DSi (or DSi XL) then you're a very lucky person and should never consider buying one! (Well in my opinion anyway but you know, you don't actually have to listen to my advice and take it seriously...) Back on topic anyway, every DS and variant thereupon has PictoChat loaded as standard software. On the outset it's a fun thing, be able to chat with your friends by either typing or drawing pictures with the stylus. Although it's not exactly brightly coloured (grey, black and white don't count as bright colours) it still is decently enjoyable, and it breaks the mould set by your average Instant Messaging service like MSN for example.
However, there is one very large problem with it. HOW you communicate. Now usually with an Instant Messaging service, you communicate using the internet via the company's server (or series of servers), but Nintendo, always the ones to be different, decided to make an instant messaging service that communicated through a system to system function. (This is one of the things I dislike about the DS and the DS Lite, because they had no wireless internet capability they used a system to system function to download demos - DS to Wii, and used the same system for PictoChat; why didn't they just change it to a wireless internet system? More about that in another blog post) Great, no internet connection needed! What is not so great is the fact that it only has a very short connection radius (ie the person has to be within earshot to talk via PictoChat) so if the connection radius is so short why not just talk to the person? Do you have vocal chords? Are you capable of communication without the use of an electronic device? If you aren't then either you can do nothing about it (ie you can't speak or move or have another disability affecting this) or you can and are being too lazy (as in most cases). So, basically PictoChat is useless unless it's not.
