So my old AMD has some fun history. I think I got it back in early '04 back when I used to prefer AMD over Intel (the AMD I got after that converted me to Intel, but that's a different story).
I had my computer in a wireless network situation, and found out that WEP (the old wireless security) takes like 4 seconds to crack, and wanted to upgrade to WAP, which is better but probably still takes less than 20 minutes. But I digress.
I had an old-technology WEP card that worked with it, but I wanted to upgrade my security. The rest of my wireless network was running on WAP so I popped in the other card I had. It made my computer freeze. I tried and took back at least 5 different WAP-capable network cards, none of which worked. I came to find out that my particular motherboard's PCI bus had a weird timing issue with the Atheros-based network interface cards, which is pretty much all of the network cards out there. I tried a few odd brands hoping they weren't atheros based, and I may have found one but it didn't work either.
I ended up running a wire.
Today I was given the options of letting my son play kid games on my own computer (which would consist of a. me not using the computer and b. the keyboard and mouse getting sticky. And I hate that.) or getting the old AMD to work.
Somehow I came up with the idea of trying a USB-based wireless adapter.
I bought the WUSB100 from Linksys for $40 and plugged it in. I burned the latest Ubuntu client (3 times- the first was a flat data CD with a .iso file on it, the 2nd tried to write too quickly and was corrupted, third times the charm at reliable 4x speed.) and installed it up. It's a really slick installer, by the way. I probably like it better than the old XP installer. I can't tell you how I like the vista/win7 installer because so far I've managed to avoid that train wreck.
Anyway, it all worked flawlessly minus the wireless turning off about 15 seconds after bringing up the google page and repeatedly asking me for my password. I found this fix (not really sure why it worked but it did) and then had to mess around with flash and quicktime plugins (oh, not to mention a pretty painless Nvidia driver install) and the machine is good to go in all its 2004 glory.
Of course, by WAP I mean WPA.
14 November 2010
05 October 2010
The way of Kings: Brandon Sanderson
This book is good. Unlike most epic-fantasy writers, Sanderson usually picks 1-3 people to be the "main" characters. He's good at letting you really know who the main characters are, what they think, and what their motivations probably are. A lot of epic fantasy just focuses on the what. Which is interesting, but missing a lot of the puzzle.
The first three pages of the intro describe some warriors who come back to fight evil every few thousand years, and then go into some sort of hibernation mode where they are mentally attacked by evil until the next round. If they die, they automatically go into slumber and come back for the next fight. If they live, they have to choose. This time, 9 of 10 of them live, and none are willing to go back to the torment.
Then we get started with the main story, which follows a few cool people (there are probably two main characters, one of which I liked better than the other, and he's probably more "main" than the other.) through their struggles. They have a really interesting caste system based on eye color, which Sanderson does effectively. He has a bunch of other interesting stuff that is interesting but doesn't get in the way of the storytelling.
It's cool, and it's 1,000 pages long. So basically, you get to pay the price of one book and get enough pages for three, which it essentially is. The only real drawback is that he does a bit of rewinding to fill us in on the timeline, while I found myself just wanting to know what happens NOW. But I suppose that was the point, and the back info was pretty interesting, too. I recommend this book!
There's a bit of combat, obviously, and people die but it's not terribly graphic. Brandon does a good job of making you kind of care about even the minor characters before he kills them off.
The first three pages of the intro describe some warriors who come back to fight evil every few thousand years, and then go into some sort of hibernation mode where they are mentally attacked by evil until the next round. If they die, they automatically go into slumber and come back for the next fight. If they live, they have to choose. This time, 9 of 10 of them live, and none are willing to go back to the torment.
Then we get started with the main story, which follows a few cool people (there are probably two main characters, one of which I liked better than the other, and he's probably more "main" than the other.) through their struggles. They have a really interesting caste system based on eye color, which Sanderson does effectively. He has a bunch of other interesting stuff that is interesting but doesn't get in the way of the storytelling.
It's cool, and it's 1,000 pages long. So basically, you get to pay the price of one book and get enough pages for three, which it essentially is. The only real drawback is that he does a bit of rewinding to fill us in on the timeline, while I found myself just wanting to know what happens NOW. But I suppose that was the point, and the back info was pretty interesting, too. I recommend this book!
There's a bit of combat, obviously, and people die but it's not terribly graphic. Brandon does a good job of making you kind of care about even the minor characters before he kills them off.
08 September 2010
Nerds vs Dorks
I'm sure most nerds have had mini-crises wondering if they are actually nerds. In playing some online games I have come to question the definition of nerd, and if I should be associating with the "lower tiered" nerds who obviously are complete and utter morons, but seem to picture themselves as top tier nerds. After getting frustrated over the years and being able to find very little to satisfy my frustration, I finally found this Venn-Diagram.
Let me just explain a little. The three attributes, Intelligence, Obsession, and Social Ineptitude which we could see as the triumvirate of nerd-dom, are each required. I'm not totally sure I agree with the word choices for Geek and Dweeb, but since we need to label Obsession + Intelligence and Intelligence + Social Ineptitude as something, they work for now.
As previously stated, there is a lot of room when playing online games, or really doing anything, to run into morons. On the Venn diagram, they probably have Obsession and Social Ineptitude, but lacking intelligence. These Dorks are out there making true nerds look bad!
Geeks (Int + Obs) can readily observe that they aren't socially inept, and may actually be more comfortable as a Geek, or consider themselves "cool" nerds or closet nerds.
Dweebs (Int + S.I.) at least are OK with not being obsessed, because they can just see themselves as "casual" nerds. Maybe Jack of all trades nerds.
Dorks (Obs + S.I.) are where the problems start. Lacking intelligence and being unable to comprehend it, they automatically assume that Obsession is the definition of a nerd. They wear being socially inept as a badge of honor. Dorks are the people ruining the reputations of the true nerds everywhere. Worse yet, Dorks think that they have attained nerd-dom and make all other categories of nerd question themselves. Do we really want to be lumped with socially inept morons? No. The true nerds then have to find a new way to keep their identity.
I think the days of nerd-gamers are over. In the past, it took some amount of skill to get a computer to work, and to get it to play games. This entry pass in itself usually marked one as at least having intelligence. But with computers getting so much easier to use and the internet much easier to use, the flood-gates have opened and the unwashed masses of Obsessed, Socially inept have diluted the previously clean environment.
From a gaming perspective, the unwashed masses, unable to handle the level of difficulty that the real nerds are capable of, have no option but to whine and moan about it so the games are "fair". They are obsessed and socially inept, but not intelligent enough to play the game "for reals". Because the dorks have superior numbers and due to the lure of the mighty dollar, they eventually get their way.
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of nerds who get pushed out of nerd-dom not due to lack of intelligence. Time constraints could limit obsession, and push Nerds to Dweeb status. A nerd may learn to cope with his social awkwardness and become a Geek. You can't take their Intelligence away, unless they do drugs or something stupid to lower their thinking abilities.
One commenter tried to say, "Hey, I see myself as pure intelligence. I don't even need obsession or Social Ineptitude." Well buddy, my real fear is that you're probably just a confused dork, but let me try to explain this better. The Venn diagram may work better of we think of the three traits as Intelligence, Social Ability, and um... Moderation? In this way, a true nerd has Intelligence and lacks social ability and moderation. I think these three values may all be able to be seen as "positives".
Anyway Dorks, don't get too down on yourself. It's always possible to bump up your intelligence factor. Plus, we really shouldn't see "Nerd" as the goal. We probably want Intelligence, Moderation, and Social skills to be the goal. Maybe someone can come up with a name for that. Maybe then all of us confused nerds/dweebs/geeks/dorks can figure out what to do with our lives.
Let me just explain a little. The three attributes, Intelligence, Obsession, and Social Ineptitude which we could see as the triumvirate of nerd-dom, are each required. I'm not totally sure I agree with the word choices for Geek and Dweeb, but since we need to label Obsession + Intelligence and Intelligence + Social Ineptitude as something, they work for now.
As previously stated, there is a lot of room when playing online games, or really doing anything, to run into morons. On the Venn diagram, they probably have Obsession and Social Ineptitude, but lacking intelligence. These Dorks are out there making true nerds look bad!
Geeks (Int + Obs) can readily observe that they aren't socially inept, and may actually be more comfortable as a Geek, or consider themselves "cool" nerds or closet nerds.
Dweebs (Int + S.I.) at least are OK with not being obsessed, because they can just see themselves as "casual" nerds. Maybe Jack of all trades nerds.
Dorks (Obs + S.I.) are where the problems start. Lacking intelligence and being unable to comprehend it, they automatically assume that Obsession is the definition of a nerd. They wear being socially inept as a badge of honor. Dorks are the people ruining the reputations of the true nerds everywhere. Worse yet, Dorks think that they have attained nerd-dom and make all other categories of nerd question themselves. Do we really want to be lumped with socially inept morons? No. The true nerds then have to find a new way to keep their identity.
I think the days of nerd-gamers are over. In the past, it took some amount of skill to get a computer to work, and to get it to play games. This entry pass in itself usually marked one as at least having intelligence. But with computers getting so much easier to use and the internet much easier to use, the flood-gates have opened and the unwashed masses of Obsessed, Socially inept have diluted the previously clean environment.
From a gaming perspective, the unwashed masses, unable to handle the level of difficulty that the real nerds are capable of, have no option but to whine and moan about it so the games are "fair". They are obsessed and socially inept, but not intelligent enough to play the game "for reals". Because the dorks have superior numbers and due to the lure of the mighty dollar, they eventually get their way.
Don't get me wrong. There are plenty of nerds who get pushed out of nerd-dom not due to lack of intelligence. Time constraints could limit obsession, and push Nerds to Dweeb status. A nerd may learn to cope with his social awkwardness and become a Geek. You can't take their Intelligence away, unless they do drugs or something stupid to lower their thinking abilities.
One commenter tried to say, "Hey, I see myself as pure intelligence. I don't even need obsession or Social Ineptitude." Well buddy, my real fear is that you're probably just a confused dork, but let me try to explain this better. The Venn diagram may work better of we think of the three traits as Intelligence, Social Ability, and um... Moderation? In this way, a true nerd has Intelligence and lacks social ability and moderation. I think these three values may all be able to be seen as "positives".
Anyway Dorks, don't get too down on yourself. It's always possible to bump up your intelligence factor. Plus, we really shouldn't see "Nerd" as the goal. We probably want Intelligence, Moderation, and Social skills to be the goal. Maybe someone can come up with a name for that. Maybe then all of us confused nerds/dweebs/geeks/dorks can figure out what to do with our lives.
26 August 2010
I like this song. It's fun.
I think Baker man is funny and his song is catchy, so I'm linking it. Plus it's a way to say thanks to my follower!
09 August 2010
Mac wins again.
So the past two movies I've purchased, are unreadable on at least two Windows XP machines. I pop the disk in, and the DVD light turns on and off and may or may not lockup my computer to the point of needing to reboot or simply close some programs. Autoplay seems to have something to do with it (Bad DRM?), but I did a registry hack to disable autoplay, but I still get problems. Once I was able to boot with the disc in the drive and I could watch it, but what a pain. I almost wanted to break my dvd drive in frustration.
I popped the disk into my Mac, loads up immediately and plays. Epic win for Mac, epic fail for Windoze.
I popped the disk into my Mac, loads up immediately and plays. Epic win for Mac, epic fail for Windoze.
03 August 2010
I'm not a multi-tasker
I know that multi-tasking is a huge buzzword for resumes, and corporations are always looking for people ready to work in a "fast-paced, multitasking environment" but honestly, multi-tasking is a waste of time.
How many things can you really do at once, not including walking and chewing gum? Anything that actually requires concentration and is worth doing needs full attention. If I try to do 5 things at once, I might be able to handle the gum-chewing and walking, but the important tasks are just going to sit.
In the business world, if I try to juggle too many tasks at a time, I'm going to end up being so distracted that nothing gets done and multi-tasking becomes a necessity since I have to juggle calling all the people back, spending all my precious brain-cycles coming up with reasons why the thing person 1 wants isn't done, all the while trying to come up with something to tell person 2.
Honestly? I'm a one-at-a-time kind of guy. I like to get a task, no interruptions, get it done, and move on to the next. Actually, for things other than gum-chewing and walking, this is more efficient because I spend less time wasting brain cycles on crap to come up with. And, that slush-pile that piles up if I try to multitask? It gets gone.
Embrace your single-mindedness, pick a task and just get 'er done. No use wallowing around in-between tasks.
Now to go attack that list of goals that must not be named.
How many things can you really do at once, not including walking and chewing gum? Anything that actually requires concentration and is worth doing needs full attention. If I try to do 5 things at once, I might be able to handle the gum-chewing and walking, but the important tasks are just going to sit.
In the business world, if I try to juggle too many tasks at a time, I'm going to end up being so distracted that nothing gets done and multi-tasking becomes a necessity since I have to juggle calling all the people back, spending all my precious brain-cycles coming up with reasons why the thing person 1 wants isn't done, all the while trying to come up with something to tell person 2.
Honestly? I'm a one-at-a-time kind of guy. I like to get a task, no interruptions, get it done, and move on to the next. Actually, for things other than gum-chewing and walking, this is more efficient because I spend less time wasting brain cycles on crap to come up with. And, that slush-pile that piles up if I try to multitask? It gets gone.
Embrace your single-mindedness, pick a task and just get 'er done. No use wallowing around in-between tasks.
Now to go attack that list of goals that must not be named.
15 July 2010
Double-header: FFXIV and LoL
I recently got into the beta of Final Fantasy 14 and gave League of Legends another try. I decided to write some reviews.
FFXIV- This game is still in beta, and I'm sure that they will optimize the graphics speed for the various video cards "soon" (because as of right now, even with a very good system, the graphics are very unresponsive), so I'm trying to not hold this against them. I'm also going to try to pretend that they didn't simply take the exact races/models from FF11 and relabel them and try to pawn them off as "new" races. The old races weren't 100% terrible. Oh, I'm going to give them a pass for the pathetic enemies that we have to fight too, since it's almost Final Fantasy-ey to have that kind of mobs. Not that I'm not bothered by fighting rabid bunnies with a party of 5 level 20s. I mean seriously, the only other place I've ever seen a bunny be threatening was Monty Python, which wasn't going for seriousness.
If I could ignore all those problems, the game could still be passable. But the biggest problem is the interface and controls. The game is built from the ground up to be used with a game pad! This is just terrible, because gamepads are only good when a mouse+keyboard are not available. So much loss of precision, and mashing tab over and over until you happen to be in range of what you're trying to target (and for some reason, tab picks the target right of center, and goes left-to right until it wraps around to just-left of center being the last in the cycle) only to have hit the button so many times that we skip over and have to tab through everything again. Yeah, I think shift-tab backs up a target, but why fight over table scraps? There's no reason to do something so idiotic when simply using the mouse to click what you want to target is 2,000 times better.
The follow camera lags behind, as if we're tethered to a balloon that eventually gets around to floating into approximately the right position. This is just terrible and makes me feel like I'm playing a game on a console with a game pad (/shrug.... again, we could fight over table scraps, but mouse+keyboard is clearly superior to gamepads) which isn't capable of the precision necessary to use an immediate-reaction camera following scheme.
Toggling in and out of combat still takes about 2 seconds, and your character has to stop moving, equip or unequip his weapon, and then ready to continue moving. This gets really obnoxious when you forget you're already in combat mode, run up to a mob (with the terrible control scheme) only to go out of combat, and then have to go back into combat, oh crap accidentally hit tab have to cycle through all the targets again. Crap that bunny walked through me ugh now I have to try and get this dilapidated camera control to move 180 degrees so I can see that stupid bunny that walked under me so I can tab it and hit the "target lock" button (which wouldn't even be necessary with a mouse+keyboard setup, which is 100% superior to gamepads). The game ends up feeling like doing my chores, only in doing so I haven't actually put the laundry into the washer or taken out the trash. Though we may as well just put FFXIV into the trash.
LoL. This is all I have to say about League of Legends. Yes, they obviously knew their game's acronym was laugh out loud, which is what you should do for this game. Let's pretend that the heroes aren't annoying, juvenile, cartoony, and/or cliche, because stylistically they could have just been trying to be different. But eventually all the classes end up seeming about the same. Then I just start feeling like my hero is running in place because everyone in the game moves so slow. The only potentially good thing about this game is that they have a stat called +ability power that allows spell damage to scale (a potential "issue" of DoTA / HoN is that the agility-based classes scale into terrors by endgame, where int/str don't) into endgame. In theory this should be a good thing, but in actuality this just seems to force all of the heroes into farm/carry mode, and instead of anything exciting happening, everyone just farms up for endgame, which never ends up being very satisfying. Essentially LoL is just EM (easy mode) Heroes of Newerth, plus about a suck factor of 500.
Let's just say we ignored all those negative aspects because the game is still fun, and HoN guys are just too hardcore. LoL is for casuals, right? Well, the free to play model fails. Sure, they rotate in 10 or so heroes every week, and then if you have favorites you can drop some real money to purchase the ability to have the rights to play the heroes (which all suck, by the way). You don't have to spend real money, because for playing games, and especially winning games, you get special points that you can accumulate to buy your heroes for "free". This aspect really sucks, because after as many games as I could manage- I think I won 5 of 8 games, I still didn't have enough points for one of the "cheap" heroes. Cheap being 1350 points. I think I ended up with 900 points or so. However, the "cool" heroes cost more like 6000 "free" points, which is what, a weeks straight of winning? And I have to do this with the epicly retarded heroes of the week?
If you still haven't decided this games deserves the trash can, if you calculate how much real money you would have to spend to buy all of the heroes, it would probably be $100 or so (oh, and you can buy special skins! The skins cost real money too!) to just buy the heroes straight up. If you do buy all these heroes, which end up all playing very similarly to each other, and have really lame game voices, you're still going to be playing a bunch of nubs who didn't want to drop $30 up front to play Heroes of Newerth either, and are still just using the weekly heroes. Plus, the hero picking method doesn't prevent both teams from picking the same hero. There's nothing more lame than laning against a mirror. It takes all strategy out and just turns the game into a brute-force and skill match. Ever play starcraft as Terran vs Terran? Yeah, it's really lame.
I'm not even going to recommend you to play LoL casually for a while and then switch over to HoN, because LoL sucks. I'm just going to say, play HoN, maybe watch some casts at honcast.com, and don't waste your time with LoL.
FFXIV- This game is still in beta, and I'm sure that they will optimize the graphics speed for the various video cards "soon" (because as of right now, even with a very good system, the graphics are very unresponsive), so I'm trying to not hold this against them. I'm also going to try to pretend that they didn't simply take the exact races/models from FF11 and relabel them and try to pawn them off as "new" races. The old races weren't 100% terrible. Oh, I'm going to give them a pass for the pathetic enemies that we have to fight too, since it's almost Final Fantasy-ey to have that kind of mobs. Not that I'm not bothered by fighting rabid bunnies with a party of 5 level 20s. I mean seriously, the only other place I've ever seen a bunny be threatening was Monty Python, which wasn't going for seriousness.
If I could ignore all those problems, the game could still be passable. But the biggest problem is the interface and controls. The game is built from the ground up to be used with a game pad! This is just terrible, because gamepads are only good when a mouse+keyboard are not available. So much loss of precision, and mashing tab over and over until you happen to be in range of what you're trying to target (and for some reason, tab picks the target right of center, and goes left-to right until it wraps around to just-left of center being the last in the cycle) only to have hit the button so many times that we skip over and have to tab through everything again. Yeah, I think shift-tab backs up a target, but why fight over table scraps? There's no reason to do something so idiotic when simply using the mouse to click what you want to target is 2,000 times better.
The follow camera lags behind, as if we're tethered to a balloon that eventually gets around to floating into approximately the right position. This is just terrible and makes me feel like I'm playing a game on a console with a game pad (/shrug.... again, we could fight over table scraps, but mouse+keyboard is clearly superior to gamepads) which isn't capable of the precision necessary to use an immediate-reaction camera following scheme.
Toggling in and out of combat still takes about 2 seconds, and your character has to stop moving, equip or unequip his weapon, and then ready to continue moving. This gets really obnoxious when you forget you're already in combat mode, run up to a mob (with the terrible control scheme) only to go out of combat, and then have to go back into combat, oh crap accidentally hit tab have to cycle through all the targets again. Crap that bunny walked through me ugh now I have to try and get this dilapidated camera control to move 180 degrees so I can see that stupid bunny that walked under me so I can tab it and hit the "target lock" button (which wouldn't even be necessary with a mouse+keyboard setup, which is 100% superior to gamepads). The game ends up feeling like doing my chores, only in doing so I haven't actually put the laundry into the washer or taken out the trash. Though we may as well just put FFXIV into the trash.
LoL. This is all I have to say about League of Legends. Yes, they obviously knew their game's acronym was laugh out loud, which is what you should do for this game. Let's pretend that the heroes aren't annoying, juvenile, cartoony, and/or cliche, because stylistically they could have just been trying to be different. But eventually all the classes end up seeming about the same. Then I just start feeling like my hero is running in place because everyone in the game moves so slow. The only potentially good thing about this game is that they have a stat called +ability power that allows spell damage to scale (a potential "issue" of DoTA / HoN is that the agility-based classes scale into terrors by endgame, where int/str don't) into endgame. In theory this should be a good thing, but in actuality this just seems to force all of the heroes into farm/carry mode, and instead of anything exciting happening, everyone just farms up for endgame, which never ends up being very satisfying. Essentially LoL is just EM (easy mode) Heroes of Newerth, plus about a suck factor of 500.
Let's just say we ignored all those negative aspects because the game is still fun, and HoN guys are just too hardcore. LoL is for casuals, right? Well, the free to play model fails. Sure, they rotate in 10 or so heroes every week, and then if you have favorites you can drop some real money to purchase the ability to have the rights to play the heroes (which all suck, by the way). You don't have to spend real money, because for playing games, and especially winning games, you get special points that you can accumulate to buy your heroes for "free". This aspect really sucks, because after as many games as I could manage- I think I won 5 of 8 games, I still didn't have enough points for one of the "cheap" heroes. Cheap being 1350 points. I think I ended up with 900 points or so. However, the "cool" heroes cost more like 6000 "free" points, which is what, a weeks straight of winning? And I have to do this with the epicly retarded heroes of the week?
If you still haven't decided this games deserves the trash can, if you calculate how much real money you would have to spend to buy all of the heroes, it would probably be $100 or so (oh, and you can buy special skins! The skins cost real money too!) to just buy the heroes straight up. If you do buy all these heroes, which end up all playing very similarly to each other, and have really lame game voices, you're still going to be playing a bunch of nubs who didn't want to drop $30 up front to play Heroes of Newerth either, and are still just using the weekly heroes. Plus, the hero picking method doesn't prevent both teams from picking the same hero. There's nothing more lame than laning against a mirror. It takes all strategy out and just turns the game into a brute-force and skill match. Ever play starcraft as Terran vs Terran? Yeah, it's really lame.
I'm not even going to recommend you to play LoL casually for a while and then switch over to HoN, because LoL sucks. I'm just going to say, play HoN, maybe watch some casts at honcast.com, and don't waste your time with LoL.
12 July 2010
Synergy by hotkeys
So I got annoyed a few times with Synergy, because I don't always want the edge of the screen to switch to the other monitor. I figured out how to remedy this.
In Synergy setup, there is a section for hotkeys. One option is to switch to screen___. I think this is cool! However, if I got rid of the screen mappings, synergy doesn't allow that computer to login to the service. I found that if I map 0-0 from one screen to 0-0 of the other, I effectively disable the edge-of-screen swaps, but can still swap screens through hotkey. Pretty cool!
In Synergy setup, there is a section for hotkeys. One option is to switch to screen___. I think this is cool! However, if I got rid of the screen mappings, synergy doesn't allow that computer to login to the service. I found that if I map 0-0 from one screen to 0-0 of the other, I effectively disable the edge-of-screen swaps, but can still swap screens through hotkey. Pretty cool!
03 July 2010
Steam
Steam is basically like Itunes for computer games. It's really awesome! No longer do I have to worry about going to the store and keeping track of my license keys for all my games. I just remember my Steam login. There is the negative side in that I have to have internet access in order to play games, but Steam has servers that let me install any of my games onto any computer that I login to steam with.
If those were the only reason to use steam (store.steampowered.com), we would still have a decent product. However, the biggest, keystone reason to use Steam is that they have crazy sales! Usually anywhere from 33% off to 50%, and sometimes 75% or even 95% sales. I just don't see myself ever paying full price again, when I can pay 1/4 of sticker.
If those were the only reason to use steam (store.steampowered.com), we would still have a decent product. However, the biggest, keystone reason to use Steam is that they have crazy sales! Usually anywhere from 33% off to 50%, and sometimes 75% or even 95% sales. I just don't see myself ever paying full price again, when I can pay 1/4 of sticker.
28 June 2010
Console ports to PC
Yeah, so I know my blog is called cool stuff, but this time I'm talking about cool stuff by omission. A video game pretty much has about a 95% chance to be a waste of my time and money if it's a port from a console game. They always hack together a piece of garbage with crappy controls and that crashes all the time in an attempt to make me waste my money. It angers me so much!
12 June 2010
Review: The Black Company by Glen Cook
So I read all four black company books, or I guess you could say all 10, since they have now been re-packaged into trilogies / dualogies(?). It was a very entertaining series, and Glen Cook definitely is able to build an interesting world with very interesting characters, and interesting plot lines. I would have to say this is the first epic fantasy that I also epicly loved the characters!
The first trilogy is probably the best-written trilogy ever. It was completely engaging and probably the most fun I have ever had with a trilogy. He really did a good job coming up with his own lore (if he did copy someone else, I didn't recognize the similarities) that was almost familiar, yet completely not. He handles magic in a way that just really makes sense! The military "with the guys" feeling really put me into the story and made it very believable.
Glen has this habit of putting you in the point of view of a peon in the operation. When that person becomes more important, he puts you in someone else's perspective.
I'm a little torn, because while the first trilogy was the most incredible book ever, and the 2nd trilogy was also very epic, unfortunately books 7-9 (duology and a half) totally bogged down, and the tenth book just felt like he was ready to wrap it up. I will definitely recommend that you read the first trilogy though, and make your own decision from that point on. If you find yourself unable to get enough of the world you should definitely keep reading, and you REALLY get to feel the pain of time passing (I honestly started feeling a bit depressed myself at times). He really drew me in.
Anyway, first trilogy is a 10, the next trilogy somewhere between 8.5 to 9.5 depending on the fact that it leads in to the next two duologies, and the next books really ARE written well, but he so effectively built such an awesome world that I couldn't help but feel a little bit letdown yet also somewhat satisfied in the somewhat satisfying ending. I have to say that this must be because the journey was so well done.
I really really want to tell you details on what makes this book so good and the reasons that I think parts of it could have been better, but I don't want to post spoilers. I recommend that you read the first book and make your own decision.
Oh, the series is a bit gothicly dark, so if your favorite part of LOTR is re-reading the parts about elf cities you may not be into this.
This guy from Amazon says it a lot better than I could, and I totally agree with him: link
The first trilogy is probably the best-written trilogy ever. It was completely engaging and probably the most fun I have ever had with a trilogy. He really did a good job coming up with his own lore (if he did copy someone else, I didn't recognize the similarities) that was almost familiar, yet completely not. He handles magic in a way that just really makes sense! The military "with the guys" feeling really put me into the story and made it very believable.
Glen has this habit of putting you in the point of view of a peon in the operation. When that person becomes more important, he puts you in someone else's perspective.
I'm a little torn, because while the first trilogy was the most incredible book ever, and the 2nd trilogy was also very epic, unfortunately books 7-9 (duology and a half) totally bogged down, and the tenth book just felt like he was ready to wrap it up. I will definitely recommend that you read the first trilogy though, and make your own decision from that point on. If you find yourself unable to get enough of the world you should definitely keep reading, and you REALLY get to feel the pain of time passing (I honestly started feeling a bit depressed myself at times). He really drew me in.
Anyway, first trilogy is a 10, the next trilogy somewhere between 8.5 to 9.5 depending on the fact that it leads in to the next two duologies, and the next books really ARE written well, but he so effectively built such an awesome world that I couldn't help but feel a little bit letdown yet also somewhat satisfied in the somewhat satisfying ending. I have to say that this must be because the journey was so well done.
I really really want to tell you details on what makes this book so good and the reasons that I think parts of it could have been better, but I don't want to post spoilers. I recommend that you read the first book and make your own decision.
Oh, the series is a bit gothicly dark, so if your favorite part of LOTR is re-reading the parts about elf cities you may not be into this.
This guy from Amazon says it a lot better than I could, and I totally agree with him: link
04 June 2010
Sorry if you liked this one...
Apparently a lot of people love the Green Rider. A few people really don't. Unfortunately I think I am with the smaller group. I'm only on page 87, and even the people who liked it have said that it doesn't "pick up" until page 100. One reviewer even said that it didn't get interesting until the 2nd half.
Anyway, this is how I'm feeling right now: Amazon Crit but I plan to make it through this book (as long as I don't have any other books to read momentarily). At least I found one other person as frustrated as I, and now I can feel a little better and try to keep reading.
My big gripe is that the premise (she has to deliver a message to the king) should be more of a side-note that leads into the "real" issue, which would be the actual story with conflict and other "epic" things such as these villains hinted at. Even Incarceron (which, by the way, is a really good book... minus maybe 80 pages or so that were "ok") which aims to be more of a few-and-true fantasy, ends up being epicer than the Green Rider without even trying.
Of course, I may come back and modify this if I can ever get through the rest of the book.
Maybe I'll go write some reviews on books that I enjoyed reading so I don't just seem entirely negative. I guess I was too busy enjoying them to worry about writing a review.
/begin rant (highlight if you really wanna see it)
I mean seriously, these awesome green riders, who are famous for being messengers??!! When push comes to shove, do we call in the green riders? No, what about Ghostbusters? I think we would have to call in either the local militia or He-man, since the green-riders specialize in running away, and getting the message to the king who, obviously, is going to fix all our problems. Or will just die anyway, because the villains are obviously really scary, and the green riders all ran off.
Plus giant eagles, plus cliched named villains, plus a less-cooler version of galadriel, plus a less-cooler version of Shelob. At least the horse is unique. Oh wait, guess not.
(I'm perfectly willing to eat my words later)
Anyway, this is how I'm feeling right now: Amazon Crit but I plan to make it through this book (as long as I don't have any other books to read momentarily). At least I found one other person as frustrated as I, and now I can feel a little better and try to keep reading.
My big gripe is that the premise (she has to deliver a message to the king) should be more of a side-note that leads into the "real" issue, which would be the actual story with conflict and other "epic" things such as these villains hinted at. Even Incarceron (which, by the way, is a really good book... minus maybe 80 pages or so that were "ok") which aims to be more of a few-and-true fantasy, ends up being epicer than the Green Rider without even trying.
Of course, I may come back and modify this if I can ever get through the rest of the book.
Maybe I'll go write some reviews on books that I enjoyed reading so I don't just seem entirely negative. I guess I was too busy enjoying them to worry about writing a review.
/begin rant (highlight if you really wanna see it)
I mean seriously, these awesome green riders, who are famous for being messengers??!! When push comes to shove, do we call in the green riders? No, what about Ghostbusters? I think we would have to call in either the local militia or He-man, since the green-riders specialize in running away, and getting the message to the king who, obviously, is going to fix all our problems. Or will just die anyway, because the villains are obviously really scary, and the green riders all ran off.
Plus giant eagles, plus cliched named villains, plus a less-cooler version of galadriel, plus a less-cooler version of Shelob. At least the horse is unique. Oh wait, guess not.
(I'm perfectly willing to eat my words later)
20 May 2010
Dawn of War 2
During my rant about how bad Starcraft 2 is, a friend of mine told me that Dawn of War 2 is so much better. And that it's awesome. So I downloaded the demo from Steam for free, and played it, and it's seriously the best game I've played in the past 5 years.
The best part is that DoW2 is modeled after Warhammer 40,000, which is pretty much the best Wargame-system in the world. Space marines, Orks, space elves, big ugly bugs—what more could you ask for? Guns maybe? Well, so far all of the space marines have guns, and usually they are big.
"Daddy, I want to play Dawn of ward 2". Oh yeah? Why? "I like guns".
So, I let him "play" by sitting on my lap and watching me play. Then he says "I want to be the guy with the guns". And I say "Well, they all have guns".
DoW2 got rid of one of the most annoying parts of the game, which building a base. Sure, base building can be kind of interesting, but usually you have to spend at least as much time playing base manager as you do actually playing the game. Well, as fun as it is to WAIT for my stupid buildings to build, and for my stupid harvester guys to go get more minerals, I'd honestly just spend my time PLAYING the game. You know, shooting the orcs/bugs/spaceelves with all the guns. Also, Grenades, Rocket launchers, demo charges, and JET PACKS! Yeah, it's just awesome. I'm just going to say, don't waste $180 on Starcraft 2 (or any money on Blizzard junk in general—they're just not doing anything cool lately) and get a good game!
The best part is that DoW2 is modeled after Warhammer 40,000, which is pretty much the best Wargame-system in the world. Space marines, Orks, space elves, big ugly bugs—what more could you ask for? Guns maybe? Well, so far all of the space marines have guns, and usually they are big.
"Daddy, I want to play Dawn of ward 2". Oh yeah? Why? "I like guns".
So, I let him "play" by sitting on my lap and watching me play. Then he says "I want to be the guy with the guns". And I say "Well, they all have guns".
DoW2 got rid of one of the most annoying parts of the game, which building a base. Sure, base building can be kind of interesting, but usually you have to spend at least as much time playing base manager as you do actually playing the game. Well, as fun as it is to WAIT for my stupid buildings to build, and for my stupid harvester guys to go get more minerals, I'd honestly just spend my time PLAYING the game. You know, shooting the orcs/bugs/spaceelves with all the guns. Also, Grenades, Rocket launchers, demo charges, and JET PACKS! Yeah, it's just awesome. I'm just going to say, don't waste $180 on Starcraft 2 (or any money on Blizzard junk in general—they're just not doing anything cool lately) and get a good game!
14 May 2010
Starcraft 2
So I pre-ordered Starcraft 2 from Amazon for $60. The price is a little high but after 10 years since the original, the game was going to be super awesome. With all the hype and possibilities of Blizzard charging $60 for each portion of the storyline (Terran, Protoss, Zerg), I thought that this was going to HAVE to be a very remarkable game.
My beta key comes, I install, play.... My initial impression of SC2 is that it takes at least as long as the original to get your base started and start making units, and it just feels THE SAME. You rush or you get into a boring turtley game. Totally disappointed. Honestly, over the past few years they've put up movies and hyped the game, but it really doesn't feel like they put much thought or work into this. If this really releases in 2 months, it's not going to be good.
Heroes of Newerth, on the other hand, just barely released two days ago. I'd been playing that beta for over 6 months and since the first day HoN seemed twice as polished as SC2 seems now.
Thankfully, Amazon let me cancel my pre-order. At this point I don't think I'm going to be willing to pay more than $20 for this garbage, and definitely not $180. I guess a miracle can still happen, but Blizzard is getting way too greedy. The sad thing is that I know exactly what they will do. People will buy the first third of the single-player game, and Blizzard will assure us that we will always be able to play even if we don't buy the next installment. But what they won't tell you is that you'll only be playing with other people who didn't buy it. And then they'll do it at least one more time, and all of the multiplayer units that should have been in the game from the start, we'll have to wait for. And Blizzard is so used to the little fanboys eating out of their hand that they will do exactly this. And they will totally get away with it. For now, I'm going to wait.
My beta key comes, I install, play.... My initial impression of SC2 is that it takes at least as long as the original to get your base started and start making units, and it just feels THE SAME. You rush or you get into a boring turtley game. Totally disappointed. Honestly, over the past few years they've put up movies and hyped the game, but it really doesn't feel like they put much thought or work into this. If this really releases in 2 months, it's not going to be good.
Heroes of Newerth, on the other hand, just barely released two days ago. I'd been playing that beta for over 6 months and since the first day HoN seemed twice as polished as SC2 seems now.
Thankfully, Amazon let me cancel my pre-order. At this point I don't think I'm going to be willing to pay more than $20 for this garbage, and definitely not $180. I guess a miracle can still happen, but Blizzard is getting way too greedy. The sad thing is that I know exactly what they will do. People will buy the first third of the single-player game, and Blizzard will assure us that we will always be able to play even if we don't buy the next installment. But what they won't tell you is that you'll only be playing with other people who didn't buy it. And then they'll do it at least one more time, and all of the multiplayer units that should have been in the game from the start, we'll have to wait for. And Blizzard is so used to the little fanboys eating out of their hand that they will do exactly this. And they will totally get away with it. For now, I'm going to wait.
07 May 2010
Synergy
Synergy is really cool. If you don't know what it is, and you have at least two computers, it's a way that you can share one of the computer's mouse and keyboard with the other computer(s), and also it combines your monitors onto a shared desktop so you can scroll off the edge of one computer's screens onto the other. If you don't have at least two computers, you should really get another so you can use Synergy with them. Oh, Synergy is cross platform, too, so you can use your new and cool Mac with your old windoze box. And it's cool.
Anyway, the Windows interface is a little clunky, but head over to http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ and grab the windoze installer (SynergyInstaller-1.3.1.exe) for your windoze box, and for Mac you would get synergy-1.3.1-1.OSX.tar.gz version.
On a sidenote, if the mac version didn't just come with a couple files and "synergyc" and "synergys" (one for client, one for server), you downloaded the wrong file. I can say this because I did it, and was having a heck of a time figuring out what I did wrong.
For my setup, since my windoze machine is the desktop with a keyboard and mouse attached, I made it the server. The windoze version seems to have an interface that is at least semi-usable, where I couldn't find an interface for the mac version. This is OK because after telling the windoze machine what computer name to expect (It ended up being nickwhipple.mac_123 or something really dumb and long like that), all I had to do on the Mac was run "synergyc -f windozecomp", with windozecomp being the name of my windoze computer. Mine is named beast.
Actually, if you open synergy from the windoze computer I think you can simply put it in test mode, and then run synergyc -f windozecomp from the mac, and the windoze machine should find the name of the mac computer. Then you can add that to your windows machine, along with settings on what side of what screen should go to what.
That's all for now. But if anyone reads this blog and finds this a big confusing, let me know, and I'll put up some screenshots.
Update:
Yeah, SynergyKM for mac is way better than plain synergy, because it has a graphical user interface. So if you are using a mac definitely go for that. Its naming scheme is a little bit different from the other synergy so if you have already been messing around with one you may have to re-do some of your settings.
Anyway, the Windows interface is a little clunky, but head over to http://synergy2.sourceforge.net/ and grab the windoze installer (SynergyInstaller-1.3.1.exe) for your windoze box, and for Mac you would get synergy-1.3.1-1.OSX.tar.gz version.
On a sidenote, if the mac version didn't just come with a couple files and "synergyc" and "synergys" (one for client, one for server), you downloaded the wrong file. I can say this because I did it, and was having a heck of a time figuring out what I did wrong.
For my setup, since my windoze machine is the desktop with a keyboard and mouse attached, I made it the server. The windoze version seems to have an interface that is at least semi-usable, where I couldn't find an interface for the mac version. This is OK because after telling the windoze machine what computer name to expect (It ended up being nickwhipple.mac_123 or something really dumb and long like that), all I had to do on the Mac was run "synergyc -f windozecomp", with windozecomp being the name of my windoze computer. Mine is named beast.
Actually, if you open synergy from the windoze computer I think you can simply put it in test mode, and then run synergyc -f windozecomp from the mac, and the windoze machine should find the name of the mac computer. Then you can add that to your windows machine, along with settings on what side of what screen should go to what.
That's all for now. But if anyone reads this blog and finds this a big confusing, let me know, and I'll put up some screenshots.
Update:
Yeah, SynergyKM for mac is way better than plain synergy, because it has a graphical user interface. So if you are using a mac definitely go for that. Its naming scheme is a little bit different from the other synergy so if you have already been messing around with one you may have to re-do some of your settings.
06 May 2010
Honcast.com
So, I've ranted a couple times about Heroes of Newerth, and how so many people are bad at it. But really, the game does make sense a lot. If a team gets a nice early lead, it's very likely they will keep building their lead and win by mid or late game. Unless the other team does decently early/mid game and picked heroes that have a much stronger late game.
Anyway, Honcast.com has been a nice way to pick up on some good strategies, but more importantly to get an objective view on how games are won or lost. It's taken my nerdrage factor down by about 300%! I recommend you check it out if you are a HoN player. And if you're not, you may as well check it out too, and then go play yourself some HoN.
Anyway, Honcast.com has been a nice way to pick up on some good strategies, but more importantly to get an objective view on how games are won or lost. It's taken my nerdrage factor down by about 300%! I recommend you check it out if you are a HoN player. And if you're not, you may as well check it out too, and then go play yourself some HoN.
06 February 2010
Week 4
I got sick of cut/pasting these so I finally turned on Japanese input method. I'm trying to figure it out.
64．校
６５．母
６６．毎
６７．気
６８．水
６９．火
７０．父
７１．生
７２．男
７３．白
７４．百
７５．目
７６．社
７７．空
７８．立
７９．耳
８０．聞
81．花
82．行
83．西
84．見
64．校
６５．母
６６．毎
６７．気
６８．水
６９．火
７０．父
７１．生
７２．男
７３．白
７４．百
７５．目
７６．社
７７．空
７８．立
７９．耳
８０．聞
81．花
82．行
83．西
84．見
02 February 2010
Week 3
There is a week three, and I'm still studying! I've just been a little busy so far this week(end). I'll list them soon!
43. 子
４４。学
４５．安
４６．小
４７．少
４８．山
４９．川
５０．左
５１．年
５２．店
５３．後
５４．手
５５．新
５６．日
５７．時
５８。書
５９．月
６０．木
６１．本
６２．ライ
６３．東
43. 子
４４。学
４５．安
４６．小
４７．少
４８．山
４９．川
５０．左
５１．年
５２．店
５３．後
５４．手
５５．新
５６．日
５７．時
５８。書
５９．月
６０．木
６１．本
６２．ライ
６３．東
24 January 2010
Kanji Week two
These are already looking more difficult that the first week. Here they are:
22. 分
23. 前
24. 北
25. 十
26. 千
27. 午
28. 半
29. 南
30. 友
31. 口
32. 古
33. 右
34. 名
35. 四
36. 国
37. 土
38. 外
39. 多
40. 大
41. 天
42. 女
22. 分
23. 前
24. 北
25. 十
26. 千
27. 午
28. 半
29. 南
30. 友
31. 口
32. 古
33. 右
34. 名
35. 四
36. 国
37. 土
38. 外
39. 多
40. 大
41. 天
42. 女
23 January 2010
New Year's Resolution: 2048 x 1152
Well, I saw this clever signature somewhere that said his New Year's Resolution was 1900 x 1200, and I was planning on buying a bigger widescreen LCD for my computer, but when I went to check on the one I had my eye on, it's no longer available from Newegg! So now I have to find out if the monitor is just so good they are out of stock, or so bad that they don't carry it anymore, or if it was just a random decision? But now I hear there is something called OLED (Organic LED) that is coming out "soon" that is going to make the old LCDs seem obsolete. I guess that's par for the course though, right?
Stay tuned.
Stay tuned.
17 January 2010
Kana fun and Week one!
So we both went over our Kana today. Apparently I was a little more rusty than I thought up front, mainly because I could recognize stuff but there were about 10 that I had trouble remembering when it was time to write them from stratch. But we got through it and are very freshed up now!
We then decided we may as well start in on the fun stuff. I decided that doing 3 a day would be pretty dang borish, and it would be more fun to get 21 at a time to work on during the week. At least so far it's pretty fun. We decided to work on the Kun readings and later in the week do the On.
This week's characters:
一 one
七 seven
万 10,000
三 three
上 up
下 down
中 middle
九 nine
二 two
五 five
人 person
今 now
休 rest
会 meet
何 what
先 before
入 enter
八 eight
六 six
円 circle
出 exit
So far we have written each one out a bunch of times, and done flash-card quizzes and writing quiz (one person read and other person writes them).
Anyone know where I can get a good gridded writing tablet for practicing? I kind of like boxes that are a little bit bigger because my handwriting is terrible.
We then decided we may as well start in on the fun stuff. I decided that doing 3 a day would be pretty dang borish, and it would be more fun to get 21 at a time to work on during the week. At least so far it's pretty fun. We decided to work on the Kun readings and later in the week do the On.
This week's characters:
一 one
七 seven
万 10,000
三 three
上 up
下 down
中 middle
九 nine
二 two
五 five
人 person
今 now
休 rest
会 meet
何 what
先 before
入 enter
八 eight
六 six
円 circle
出 exit
So far we have written each one out a bunch of times, and done flash-card quizzes and writing quiz (one person read and other person writes them).
Anyone know where I can get a good gridded writing tablet for practicing? I kind of like boxes that are a little bit bigger because my handwriting is terrible.
16 January 2010
Two-yearly Resolution: Kanji
So I was thinking about how it's been 8 years since I've been in Japan, and I'm still essentially illiterate in the Japanese written language! I thought that a really awesome resolution would be to be literate by the 10 year mark.
I mentioned this to my lovely wife Natalie as a way to get myself accountable to someone, and she said she would do it with me! So now I'm even more pumped!
We'll spend the next two weeks brushing her up on her Kana (If she only needs a week we'll start a week early) and then we will divide the characters listed for the JLPT up throughout the next two years. This boils down to about 80 characters a month.
We're still working out the details for whether we will do a 3 characters per day thing, or 21 weekly, or a 28-monthly with extra days in the month as review days, or exactly how we will stay learned in the lettering we have already been through.
I've found some cards that I like fine so far from White Rabbit, and they have three sets. The first has 284 cards, the second has 739 and third has 903. They offer a 3-set deal that is cheaper than buying them individually, but I got mine at Amazon where they were a bit less.
We're still working out exactly how we will study. At least quizzing each other on the cards and writing them over and over on some sort of large grid paper.
Stay tuned, and anyone who wants to do this with us is welcome.
I mentioned this to my lovely wife Natalie as a way to get myself accountable to someone, and she said she would do it with me! So now I'm even more pumped!
We'll spend the next two weeks brushing her up on her Kana (If she only needs a week we'll start a week early) and then we will divide the characters listed for the JLPT up throughout the next two years. This boils down to about 80 characters a month.
We're still working out the details for whether we will do a 3 characters per day thing, or 21 weekly, or a 28-monthly with extra days in the month as review days, or exactly how we will stay learned in the lettering we have already been through.
I've found some cards that I like fine so far from White Rabbit, and they have three sets. The first has 284 cards, the second has 739 and third has 903. They offer a 3-set deal that is cheaper than buying them individually, but I got mine at Amazon where they were a bit less.
We're still working out exactly how we will study. At least quizzing each other on the cards and writing them over and over on some sort of large grid paper.
Stay tuned, and anyone who wants to do this with us is welcome.
05 January 2010
The Black Company review
I've been loving YA books and frowning upon the more traditional "for adults" (not adult content) fantasy books for one main reason: character interest. YA is usually very good at character development. Actually, that's pretty much what it's about. Usually one or up to a few main characters are the central topic of the book. We really get to know these people.
Traditional fantasy books usually focus on "the world". Which is nice and stuff, but they always leave me feeling empty in the end. There are various interesting characters, but usually the books just make me sad thinking about the old days back when they had all this awesome technology, or when there was more order, or some special king dude was around protecting the world, or when DarkLord_37 wasn't about to dominate the world. Oh, and elves.
Enter the Black Company. The main character is Croaker, the physician. That's it. He doesn't have magic, though he has some friends who can do it. He's not a military genius, though he's decent when he has to. He's very "regular guy"ish, that regular people connect with. He lives in a very grey world (not black or white) that is also kind of a drab grey color, because it's old school and dusty and stuff. Plus, there is cool fighting! There is also some funny stuff and a bit of the romantic. So it's cool.
I recommend this book!
(You may have to get the trilogy, which would be labeled as either "The Chronicles of The Black Company" or "Annals of the Black Company" depending on edition.
Oh, it's written by Glen Cook. I'm totally going to check out some of his other books. Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Cook
But seriously, if you happen to find one of the original non-trilogy books with a really pathetic picture on the cover, don't despair. It's good.
Traditional fantasy books usually focus on "the world". Which is nice and stuff, but they always leave me feeling empty in the end. There are various interesting characters, but usually the books just make me sad thinking about the old days back when they had all this awesome technology, or when there was more order, or some special king dude was around protecting the world, or when DarkLord_37 wasn't about to dominate the world. Oh, and elves.
Enter the Black Company. The main character is Croaker, the physician. That's it. He doesn't have magic, though he has some friends who can do it. He's not a military genius, though he's decent when he has to. He's very "regular guy"ish, that regular people connect with. He lives in a very grey world (not black or white) that is also kind of a drab grey color, because it's old school and dusty and stuff. Plus, there is cool fighting! There is also some funny stuff and a bit of the romantic. So it's cool.
I recommend this book!
(You may have to get the trilogy, which would be labeled as either "The Chronicles of The Black Company" or "Annals of the Black Company" depending on edition.
Oh, it's written by Glen Cook. I'm totally going to check out some of his other books. Also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Glen_Cook
But seriously, if you happen to find one of the original non-trilogy books with a really pathetic picture on the cover, don't despair. It's good.
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