Retrogaming

There are times when you simply don't want to deal with the lag of COD, the ganking of WOW or the drama momma's in eq2 or worse the just one more turn action of Civ4. Sometimes you need a quick fix. 30 minutes of joy and pleasure or carnage and destruction.
Welcome to the world of retrogaming. Its some what of a fad right now, buying your old NES off ebay, collecting your old cartiages. All to play a game that you played when you where 12 and yup you still suck at it. There is also the use of mame and some questionably legal roms. These pop up in Homebrew arcade machines, powered by pc's, outputed to 19-21" tv's full 8way joysticks and buttons galore.
The rebirth of some of these games is simply because of time . I don't always have 6 hrs to do a raid, 2 hrs to do a clan Team DM , sometimes all I have is 30 minutes. How far can you get in SuperMario 3 In 30 minutes. Street Fighter 2? Total Carnage? It's simple these games are short and sweet. Can you still enjoy it, all under 30 minutes.

Not what I had in mind

Let's just say that this is not what I had in mind for my Saturday drive. The old woman in the Cadillac (not pictured) had more of a say in how my day went than I like. This picture was taken from the back of the ambulance that I occupied while my poor car was toted off to the auto-graveyard. I have yet to hear back from the insurance company to find out if it's totalled. I am inclined to think that it's totalled.

Something to think about

I am not one to lend credibility to any sort of "divine plan", but sometimes you make realizations about things that are just plain scary coincidental. Let me just state the facts, and you can make what you want of it.

The human race has been using fossil fuel of some sort for centuries, culminating in our current age where oil is king. Whatever the estimates are, there is certainly a limited supply of oil for us to extract energy out of. Eventually we will run out, and it's not going to be in the far off future. I would expect to hear that most major oil reserves are tapped out before I expire. This being the case, we will need a new easy source of energy. Where do we find that energy? Well everything that we have looked at so far has too many drawbacks for a large conversion in the industry. One of the largest considerations in looking for a fuel source is the energy density of the fuel. Fossil fuels have a very high energy density, and that's why we have used them for so long. Alas, the planet is filled with huge reserves of fossil fuels. Thanks mother Earth! Once they run out, we'll find that choosing the lesser of all evils leaves us with nuclear power as the winner. Why? The energy density is much greater than even fossil fuels. One of the major problems with nuclear power is finding clean fuel. The best of all available fuels is Helium-3. H-3 is rare on Earth, so that's a problem. Well luckily that large supply of fossil fuel we had was just enough to get us into space. Cuz guess what! The moon is chock full of H-3! Go figure.

http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17943650-13762,00.html

There is a silver lining

Recently there have been elections in Palestine. Sure they may not have been the icon of fairness that we would like, but they were good enough to facilitate a semi-peaceful change of power from one set of individuals to another. Of course the change was to a group of individuals who openly prescribe violence against civilians as the primary method of communication and diplomacy. This is where my topic is rooted. Yes Hamas is a terrorist organization. Yes they were just voted in to power by the people of Palestine. Yes this is a slap in the face of civilized democratic societies around the world. However, I must depart from the common feeling that this is an apalling situation that has some sort of horrible connotation enough to turn your stomach, and make you cry out in despair.

The newfound "legitamacy" of this so called political party of Hamas seems to be causing woes beyond reason for a lot of the media, and most people that are interviewed about this subject. I subscribe to a different theory. This is the best thing that could have ever happened to the situation in Palestine. There are a few key facts that are now in place that give Isreal and anyone else that deals with Palestine more power than they ever had before.

• The government of Palestine is composed of individuals that are known terrorists. They were known before they were elected, and this points to the fact that the people of Palestine condone and support terrorism. At least ethically, they can now be held responsible for attacks.
• Governments can be targeted by Cruise Missiles
• The government of Palestine will be forced to adopt a no-terrorism policy or face the same fate as Afghanistan and Iraq. This will hopefully pre-empt any need for actual war.
• The popular support for Hamas will allow them to control the people of Palestine in a way that no amount of force can accomplish. Well, I suppose that's wrong since fascist governments have accomplished something of a similar level of control through force. Since the USA does not implement or condone fascism that is not a consideration here.

So while this may be a bitter pill, this actually may be the best thing that could have happened to the peace process.

Digital Rights?

From Freedom to Tinker
"If you’ve been reading here lately, you know that I’m no fan of the Sensenbrenner/Conyers analog hole bill. The bill would require almost all analog video devices to implement two technologies called CGMS-A and VEIL. CGMS-A is reasonably well known, but the VEIL content protection technology is relatively new. I wanted to learn more about it. ......"

Very intresting to find out about this, In addition to the DRM scam they are trying this too.

Electron Frontier Foundation is the first line of defense, protecting our civil liberties in the networked world. EFF broke new ground when it was founded in 1990—well before the Internet was on most people's radar—and continues to confront cutting-edge issues defending free speech, privacy, innovation, and consumer rights today. From the beginning, EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights.

So the way I see this working is as follows, I buy a 12 dollar cd. Rip it to ogg and store the cd. I don't fileshare. I just listen either on computer, handheld or stereo. So bottom line is you pay for the right to Listen to it but the cd is property of the Recording artist and Producing lable. So if I deface the cd with a marker with foul language is that Slander? There will and always has been piracy of music. As they try to make things more complex do they not realize the impact on the rest of the world. Try explaining to my parents why the cd player they have had for 5 years needs to be replaced. Now as for software piracy. They keep moving in the wrong way.

In the late 1990's Microprose had one of the best antipiracy setups. You didn't need a key or number. NO copy protection. What you had to have was the physical manual. With that manual you had to match the picture to the name of the ship. Granted its still copyable. However the cost of photocopying the manual was more than buying the game new. Some of the early SSI D&D games had a setup where you needed to find the word on page 12 paragraph 2 line 13 d____. Once again the Cost of copying the manual was the setback. Now the cost is minor as are game manuals. Some games don't even ship with a manual but a PDF of the manual to save on printing costs.
Bottom line the more they try to stop something the more its going to happen.

Am I just being picky?

When I buy a tool I expect it to to what the manufacturer/designer says it will do. Now it would be nice for a tool to do those things well, but sometimes I guess I can settle for just getting it done. Still, the job should be done after you use the tool as intended. The recent target of my ire? Microsoft Defragmentation Tool.

One would expect by the name of this tool, that it defragments files on your drives. I have used competing products, and indeed this is what they normally do. However, Microsoft apparently has a unique take on how a defragmenter works, or their software engineers are incapable of creating a tool that functions as intended. Either one is inexusable in my book. Microsoft did not invent "defragmenting" and to it's credit it did not invent fragmentation either. (Though it seems to be the king of the latter now.) That fact tells me that MS is not permitted to define what a "defragmentation" tool does. Since MS is following in the foot-steps of the true innovators once again, you would hope that the tool that they develop works better than the original. Well, if it were any other company you could expect it, but with MS you have to just hope. Here's a summary of my interaction with the MS Defrag tool:
Action: Analyse
Result: You should defrag
Action: Defrag
Result: Some files were moved, but the majority of the red on the chart remains.
Action: Analyse
Result: You should defrag
Action: Defrag
Result: After a time lapse of mere milliseconds MS Defrag reports completion and it looks like nothing was moved.
Action: Analyse
Result: You should defrag
This now continues for at least another 6 times, during one cycle the tool seemed to hang, and I had to stop the process after letting it try to move on for about 20 minutes. Seriously, I think MS is lucky that it is not judged based on the performance of this tool, because most developers would not include this level of junk even in their beta releases.

Update!

I had to manually copy and rename a 2.5GB file that the system refused to even touch in the defragger. I thought that this process would move the file to a location where it could write everything contiguously since I have 26% free space on the drive, and the defragger shows a good size chunk of open space. Well, nope. It wrote the file with over 26 THOUSAND fragments. At least defrag moved some files around when I ran it afterward. My outlook archive file seems to be lost to any form of help.

Oh and One

Well I played my first official CoD2 match. We lost. Our clan has a long way to go if we're even going to be a worthy opponent. I think... no, I know the other clans laugh at us. Not only because we suck so bad that winning is all but foggy dream. No. It's also because the people we play against are obviously of little intellect, and they enjoy laughing at their opponents and "face humping" them every time they make a kill more than just playing the game for the good sport of it. Oh well, at least I can pick those people out in real life by examining their exceptionally poor grammar. It doesn't bother me to see a computer generated avatar stand over my dead computer generated avatar and repeatedly bash him in the face with the butt of a rifle. Actually I enjoy it. My opponent reveals something to me when he does that. He tells me that when I do kill his avatar he hates himself. That's a silent revenge that cannot be denied.

Now I must go find maps and start developing a reference system for my clan.

Who's cool?

LeVar Burton is cool. Now that G4 TV is playing the old reruns of TNG again, Lesa and I have begun watching them every night, and I must say that TNG is still a great series that has not yet been noticeably dated (And the fans of TNG are still rarely dated). So for two hours we sit and watch the show, and by the end of the event I am somehow feeling better about everything. Not that I am on the negative side of feelings in any way, but it's still a boost to my morale. I think Lesa feels the same. Maybe it's the fact that I am taking in media, and it is the natural order of humanity to be appeased and comforted by such tokens of creativity. Maybe it's the fact that I am sitting with my special someone, and we're doing something together. I am sure that the content of the media is of great importance. TNG is set in a universe where humans live in such ideology that even money has been done away with. When I think about how that can be accomplished, I come to the understanding that such a situation can only be achieved through advanced technology. This fact alone makes me love TNG. Technology is the harbinger of happiness for them, and I see that it's not such a fantastical idea after all. Speaking of technology, recently I read a news item that proclaimed the possibility of subspace propulsion. If I find that link, I will post it here. News like this should make everyone, geek or not take pause and contemplate the possibilites.

Windows XP service pack 3 2007

According to Yahoo News "Microsoft has gone public with a tentative date for its third service pack forWindows XP. And that date — the latter half of 2007 — is considerably later than many company watchers were expecting."

This is what happens when your develop a monopoly. Customer base LOL. Support LOL.
Every other week there is a Serious Security Flaw in Windows XP, and I thought SOE was bloatware. Microsoft its time to get your rear in gear and fix what you have out. While there are alternatives for nongamers out there. (Linux, BSD) We gamers are stuck with either a console platform or PC's for gaming. I tried Linux as a desktop for about 3hrs, while it performs well for an office or developmental platform it is lacking on support for WINE. VMware does offer an alternative threw emulation. Performance on the other hand is lacking, that is unless your idea of gaming is playing Solitare or Minesweeper. So we are stuck with even more bloatware then we will even need in Windows Xp. Like the tootsie roll pop commerical , the world may never know.

The compass points toward $

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I should have known Mesothelioma would top this list. Apparently there is still a lot of money to be had if you can find anyone that was affected by Asbetos. Are there any responsible parties still around or are people just suing the unfortunate heirs of properties of the Asbestos companies?

Feeding The Hourglass

My new camera is ON ORDER. These are the days that seem to creep by. It may be fully possible that the gears of time itself spin in an inverse proportion to my anticipation level. The tragedy is that I don't have enough credit to prolong my life into eternity. Just slowing down this week was expensive enough. However once the time comes, and the package arrives I may find that the excitement of using my new toy is sufficient to make me forget that I am once again hurtling toward my demise at the usual speed. There will be pictures forthcoming once I figure out the throng of settings and options on the Rebel XT.

I Clanner

Well, I have now joined the Lamer Tamer Gamer clan. We play mostly Call of Duty 2. These guys sound pretty cool, so I hope this turns out to be a lot of fun. Once I figure out the template I'll add them as a link on my sidebar. :) My bro made an in for me with them by being a crazy CoD2 death machine, so I'll have to try and keep up! http://www.lamertamers.org/forum/

SOE Can they get a MMO Right?

Seriously can SOE actually develop a game that can be played for 4hrs straight? I played SWG for a quite a while and about 2 hrs of PVP and my some what current computer (At the time) would slideshow and eventually just dump me to desktop. How about standing for 5 minutes in a house so the engine could load items, only to find out your stuck in a vendor that loaded into your body. I quit SWG for over a year, came back to check out NGE. Oh my in one year the game with almost no one playing (4 people in Theed on Radiant) runs worse than ever. 678 megs of memory usage to load from logout into Keren? They are joking right? Warping mobs, half assed network code, Force running after a mob and within 1m and a lvl 80 jedi can’t hit a ikopi?

While I love Everquest 2 it is the bane of my 6800GT. Every Nek castle run, I could almost predict when I was going to lock up. I’m not even going to discuss DFC or Permafrost. How in the heck does SOE expect this game to make it to a mass market and sell well. If my computer has a hard time running it, how is the average Dell/HP/Compaq computer going to handle it.

I’m not some Overclocking look at my 3dmark l33t d00d. I would say I’m far far from having an average computer. I worry more about stability and compatibility then raw speed. SOE its time to look at blowing out the Bloat in your programming and doing something better for memory management.

Look at Guild Wars, wonderful game, great graphics and it runs on my p3-700. World of Warcraft , 11hrs of running between Ironforge and Stormwind, not one desktop crash or fatal error. Still silky smooth. City of Villians, Super jumping around Nerva and sharkhead, with my 30 brute, 8hrs not a single issue. So answer me why is it that SOE games have play time of 2 hrs? BLOATWARE SOE BLOATWARE

Mild Disappointment Major Success

Well, I am back from my adventure in test shooting and I must say that I am disappointed with myself for not realizing before I wasted my time that the people at Best Buy have no clue what they are talking about, and will say anything to separate a customer from their cash. Well, all is not a loss. Luckily there is a local Ritz Camera where I found an employee who had experience with the Canon Rebel XT personally. He was immensely helpful in answering my questions, and after a couple rounds of realizing that I am a complete noob when it comes to SLR cameras, I was able to walk out of there with test shots in hand, and a fortified respect for specialty shops. It's actually shocking to discover that the spectrum of knowledge is so wide that I know volumes more about SLR than the guy I talked to at Best Buy, and can then be schooled by a guy at a specialty shop who probably considers himself "Intermediate" in skill.

It looks like I will be needing some extra cash for a good lens, and a large SD card as well. I like what I saw so far with the XT. Very nice indeed. Comments are welcome on what anyone thinks about the XT or any SLR in that price range.

For now, I have to go round up Lesa from her digital-crack addiction to Harvest Moon, and get some sleep. I didn't realize what I was doing when I suggested that game.

The Concession

I finally have caved and started a blog of my own. It's nothing special right now, but hopefully a crowd will gather and find the atmosphere here comfortable and entertaining enough to keep reading for a long while. I'm not going to set out a "plan" for the blog, but I guarantee that regular readers will find a common theme as things move along. That's it for now since I have to go pick out my new Digital SLR and my fianace is waiting to leave... Thanks for visiting!