The Infinate D'deridex

Fun With Surge Protectors

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 18:17:24 GMT

So...I turn off my computer and go to bed last night. This morning when I try to turn it on nothing happens...the case doesn’t power up, the monitors don’t turn on, and my Ethernet hub is down...so I check my power strip:

Good times...not only was one entire side blackened and charred on the inside, but there were scorch patterns radiating out from the power sockets on the top side...all the cables I had plugged in had blackened prongs. And the really fun part...the carpet under the strip's mounting holes was burned and melted.

...I don’t even want to think about how close that was to starting a fire.

What really gets me though is how it happened...the fuse for the room didn’t trip, and the surge protector was plugged into the same outlet as my alarm clock, which is perfectly fine (normally it resets if there's power interruption). Also, everything that was plugged into the strip was turned off when it happened.

I guess I should just be glad it didn’t take anything else with it…

TOS Remastered - Balance of Terror

Wed, 20 Sep 2006 05:13:22 GMT

Well, I just got done watching Balance of Terror...the first episode of the remastered TOS, and it was exceptionally well done. I was a bit apprehensive when I heard about all the CGI replacements; I had flashbacks to the special editions of Star Wars, and such additions as the CG Jabba in A New Hope...

However, the CG work here is incredibly subtle, in fact it was almost too subtle. When I first saw the episode I wasn’t even sure if it was the new version. Frankly there were times when I wondered if it was really even worth all of the effort to have completely remade the scenes.

I’ll reserve judgment on the project as a whole until I see how they handle the CG planetside...but for the first episode, it’s a small but definite improvement over the original. Essentially all they did were a number of small yet pleasing additions. The computer generated starships are more detailed, yet look remarkably like the originals. Likewise the effects are all in line with the old, just with a little more pizzazz.

In short I’m pleasantly surprised...Paramount has showed remarkable restraint, and an amazing amount of respect to the franchise. Where they could have significantly changed the special effects, they instead choose to recreate them at the same level as the original material; they just added clarity, definition, and a little polish. A rather nice treat for fans on the 40th anniversary of Trek.

Sun, 10 Sep 2006 02:09:08 GMT

Pets make the best userpics. :)

Star Trek TOS Remastered

Thu, 07 Sep 2006 19:57:52 GMT

Well, this falls firmly in the category of week old news that I somehow managed to completely miss -

Starting on September 16th the original series of Star Trek will re-enter syndication for its 40th anniversary, and all 79 episodes will be “digitally enhanced and remastered”. It turns out the “remastering” essentially means every single special effect will be removed and replaced with brand new CGI. The full list of changes is as follows:

•The opening theme song has been re-recorded in stereo, with an orchestra and a new singer for the vocals. A digitally remastered version of Shatner’s “space, the final frontier...” monologue will remain.

•The original opening credit sequence will be completely removed and replaced with a new CGI rendition.

•The film from the original episodes has been up-scaled and converted into full HD resolution.

•The matte paintings used as backdrops on planets will all be removed and replaced with CGI versions; landscapes have been given slow-moving clouds, shimmering water and improved lighting. Once-empty star bases will now have CGI people milling about.

•All of the graphics on the view screens have been replaced with new versions; this includes galaxy maps which will now match the most recent star trek maps.

•And finally...Every Single exterior view of starships is being removed and replaced by full CGI. That means when the Enterprise is in orbit, it will be a CGI ship over a CGI planet…the Romulan Bird of Prey is now CGI; as is the Klingon Battlecruiser, etc... and its not just replacing the existing shots, the scenes will be “reimagined” with ships that “fly more dynamically".

Also a few more tidbits of information hint that they’ll even add scenes that were referenced through dialogue but never shown on screen. And I have to end it with this quote: “Typically, aliens will not be touched, but there may be cases where we add some sparkle.”

Gotta love special editions...

Hats off Intel, a job well done

Fri, 14 Jul 2006 18:41:48 GMT

Even as a big AMD fan, I've got to congratulate Intel...their first new microarchitecture in 6 years, and it’s absolutely fantastic.

However, while its nice to see Intel getting things right for a change, I find myself worrying about what’s in store for AMD in the future. With Woodcrest besting Opteron in the server space and Conroe Demolishing the Athlon 64 in the retail arena, things aren’t looking too good.

All AMD has up their sleeves for the next couple years is a die shrink to 65nm, and a revised A64 core (K8L). Meaning their only means to fight Intel’s shiny new processor is to slash prices and milk their current design for some more MHz. With Intel holding the superior product and superior manufacturing capabilities I can't really see AMD winning on either front.

Granted the situation isn’t that much worse then it was before the Athlon 64...it’s just sad to see it happen when AMD finally fought to above 20% market share. Hopefully they’ll be able to bounce back again...but one has to wonder how many times they can come up with a superior processor when they’re fighting a company with such vastly greater resources.

Ah well, Intel has the better chips now; but its so much more fun rooting for the underdog. ;)

Late Night Ramblings

Wed, 10 May 2006 09:09:20 GMT

I had something of a realization as I was trying(and failing) to fall asleep; that not once in my life have I ever taken a risk, or indeed ever made a decision that really mattered. It holds true for both personal relationships and life affecting events in general. I don’t know if its apathy, fear, or just a general lack of willpower, it’s likely a mixture of the three...

When it comes to people, I have never once ever reached out to someone, or been the initiator of a conversation with a stranger. In fact it’s a wonder I ever made as many friends as I did.

The first school I attended (Anderson) had a K-8 program, and the only reason I had any friends there was the amount of time I spent around the same people. After 9 years spending 5 days a week together, it’s rather difficult to stay completely isolated.

At the end of 8th grade, I was faced with my largest decision yet: where to attend high school. And as seems to be my pattern, I decided not to make the decision at all. All of my friends (or rather the people who had befriended me) were going to South High, which is also where my sister went, and Anderson happened to be a feeder school for their Open Program. So, I let the circumstances and the system make my choice for me. I never once looked at or considered another school.

In high school I also never made any friends of my own, I simply hung around the people I knew from Anderson, and when they made new friends I would be introduced to them in turn. No risks, no decisions, I was socializing through proxy.

The one relationship I ever had, was of course brought to me by a friend: it was the old “hey, ___ is interested in you, what should I tell her?” In truth I never particularly liked her to begin with, and the only reason I agreed to the thing at all was because it seemed the easiest was out of the situation. It was as though everyone expected me too, so why fight it? It only lasted three weeks, dieing a quick death after I failed to ever call or take the initiative in a single situation.

When the time came to make a decision about college I once again decided not to make the decision at all. Both my parents graduated from the University of Minnesota and were enthusiastic about me attending, it also happened to be where several friends of mine had chosen to attend. And in addition it was the closest to home, meaning I wouldn’t have to change my lifestyle, all I’d have to do is take the bus…just like I always had.

I enrolled without ever visiting, looking at, or considering another school.

And the major? My biggest pastime during high school had been computers, I had always enjoyed the varied activities that I could engage in on a computer...passing time alone. So, what was the broadest major available that was related to computers? Computer Science. That was literally the amount of thought I put into it. If ever there was a situation begging for disaster...

I found myself in a school I didn’t care for, in classes for a major I didn’t find interesting, and on academic suspension for my plummeting grades. I tried to keep up appearances as long as possible, if only to hide the embarrassment of the situation that I had so willingly entered into, but that could only last so long. And so it came to a head...and I simply dropped out of college.

I did actually have a rational, though: Computer science really wasn’t what I was interested in doing, and the university really wasn’t an environment I enjoyed. I would just take some time to relax and focus, like I should have done when I graduated from high school; I would figure out something I really wanted to spend my life doing, and find the right place to teach me the skills.

Yep, easy plan...at least it probably should have been for any normal person. All I’ve managed to do is cocoon myself in my room and push away all my friends to the point that I barely communicate with them anymore. And so after two years to think on the subject, all I can come up with is that it’s due to my complete and total fucking lack of initiative. In nearly 22 years of living I’ve never done a god damned thing for myself.

I have never once in my life walked up to someone I’ve never been introduced to and started a conversation.

I have never once in my life asked a friend to get together. I have simply sat and waited for someone to call me and invite me somewhere.

I have never once in my life held a paying job. I’m so sheltered in this goddamned house with food, shelter, and my computer, and I can’t fucking motivate myself to get my own source of income.

And so here I sit, fully knowing that I’m digging myself further into this hole every day, and yet not possessing the willpower to stop.

It’s as though I’ve let the flow of life push me along all these years, never taking action, never doing anything on my own. And now that life has passed me by I find that I’ve forgotten how to move forward on my own.

Expiration Dates

Thu, 04 May 2006 16:54:54 GMT

I tend to be the only person in the house who looks at the expiration date of a product before using/eating, so it’s not uncommon for me to find something quite a ways past. Anyway, I get this cut on my toe a few days back...it was small so I left it alone, and of course it gets infected. So I go to get the antibacterial stuff to put on the Band-Aid...and realize I can’t remember the last time I used it.

*looks at bottom of tube*

"use before: 04 07 99"

2 Years on LiveJournal

Tue, 02 May 2006 16:37:02 GMT

24 months and 22 entries (including this one)...I should probably be a bit more active on here...

Noooooooooooooo!

Fri, 21 Apr 2006 23:37:22 GMT

Breaking News: J.J. Abrams to Produce/Direct "Trek XI"

"...it is a confirmed project under development with a 2008 release date targeted...The proposed story will focus on the early days of James T. Kirk and Spock, including their first meeting at Starfleet Academy and their first mission in space. " -Startrek.com

Why Paramount? Why won't you let it die!?

Not dead yet

Sat, 04 Mar 2006 21:09:48 GMT

Just figured I'd let everyone know that I am indeed still alive. Not sure if the same can be said for my internet connection though...

After getting a new cable line run to the house, a new cable modem, going through 3 routers, triple/quadruple checking all the connections and cables, and having Roadrunner out to the house more times then I can remember; my connection still looks like This.

The strangest thing is that when I hook one computer directly into the cable modem the connection is solid...no disconnects for days. And then I hook it into a router we get simultaneous disconnects on all computers plugged into it.

So it would obviously seem to be the router, right...? Except that it does that on every router we used, our old one, plus two brand shiny new ones we got to test that theory. Tried every damn setting I could think of on them, along with the latest firmware for the old one. And yet all three routers had the EXACT same disconnect pattern, and the connection is still rock solid with one computer plugged right into the cable modem.

So I'm fresh out of ideas, if any of you folks have any thoughts I'd appreciate hearing them. Not being able to hold a connection to any IM networks is like missing a limb...

A Week of August

Mon, 08 Aug 2005 04:23:34 GMT

August is turning out to be pretty good thus far, this week has been a fairly productive one by my standards. I finally got two things I've been meaning to do finished; namely getting my front bike tire fixed, and having my pocket watch repaired.

The bike tire was no big deal, I mainly just put it off because of laziness, but for the watch I needed to go to the Mall of America...where I found out that there was nothing wrong with it besides its battery being dead. Normally one might expect this from a watch inexplicably stopping to work, but seeing as I had in fact believed it to be a mechanical wind up watch, it was a bit surprising to say the least. I was also perhaps a bit miffed that I had been turning its dial for naught all these months...

Besides getting those things out of the way, I also went to the dentist; no cavities which was good, but they showed me a short video on proper brushing and flossing. I’m not really sure what they expected to accomplish with it. Not only did I really not want to see extreme close ups of whatever unfortunate actor's mouth that was, but frankly if I didn’t know how to brush my teeth at 21, I don’t think there’s any video that could have helped...

Mon, 25 Jul 2005 02:44:04 GMT

My Computer lives again!

The lan was a good time and the new guys seemed to fit in nicely, so hopefully we'll have a couple new regulars. However, (as the people who were there know) I got nicely nuked by a mound of malware. I figured I might as well fight the good fight, and spent the better part of today trying to get rid of the little bastards with 4 different spyware removers + regedit. But I never could find the .exe that was regenerating the registry keys.

I finally resigned and reformatted/reinstalled windows...except that it took about 3 hours waiting for the windows installer to "rescue the orphaned files" on my e partition, and the install itself finished in 20 minutes. *sighs*
One thing I will welcome with Windows Vista is an installer that finally recognizes drives over 120gb.

On the bright side my comp is a lot faster now, and I finally got rid of the quirks of my last install, like my 2 phantom dvd drives that didn’t actually exist, but wouldn’t go away...

Well, SP2 just finished installing and needs to restart my comp for the nth time, so I'll end this here.

Chronicle of Another Month & Lannage

Tue, 19 Jul 2005 18:11:48 GMT

I was going to try and keep more updated, but it always seems to slip my mind to post; so you get yet another fragmented monthly round up. *insert maniacal laughter*

Also, I noticed something odd...14 out of my 16 previous entrees started with "Well, " and I did it all without being aware. It may not be pertinent, but it kinda creeped me out, so I'm going to see how long I can go without beginning any more entries like that.

So, onward to what's happened lately: I got a new mouse, replacing my old dual optical that Andrew gave me for my birthday ages ago. The rubber grip was pealing off, and having bits of rubber on your hand after using your comp gets old after awhile. My new one is Logitech's fancy new cordless laser one, though honestly the difference in precision is hardly noticeable. But that's not to say it's bad...my old mouse was certainly very accurate. Anyway, I’m quite happy with it; my only nitpick is that the feet are placed so that if you rest your hand in a certain position it rocks from side to side slightly. And that can be rather annoying depending on what you’re doing.

My sister and Graham got themselves a puppy, it's a Australian Shepard and American Eskimo cross. It essentially looks like a chocolate lab though, just with a longer nose and a docked tail. They've been bringing it over to our house quite a bit. It's kind of fun having a real pet in the house again, since the last dog we had died when I was really young, and I barely remember him.

Graham's Dad got married last Thursday, so I got to (had to) go to the wedding. It was in a church without air-conditioning on one of the many 90+ degree days we had...so that was fun...on the bright side the reception afterwards was excellent. The food was good, and there was a band of three guys (violin, bass, and accordion) that went from table to table and played requests. Had quite a few odd songs for dinner music, a polka, a tango, under the sea, the pink panther...it was a good time overall.

Sunday I went over to my Aunt's house with the family and took a dip in their pool. Felt pretty damn nice floating in the warm water on a 94 degree day. I never did learn how to swim though, so I'm confined to the shallow end whenever I go in a pool. It's never bothered me, but my family always takes the opportunity to rub it in, which can get rather annoying.

And coming up on Friday is the Lan! Rather exciting since it's been so long since the last one...though it might be smaller then expected. I just talked to Jamie and he won’t be able to be there long at all. Also it looks like Ben Swope wont be coming, though honestly I don’t know since I simply haven’t heard any response from anything I've sent him...who knows maybe he'll come and shock us.

One last thing, Jamie mentioned the possibility of having a second larger lan...much larger. The idea was to rent out a hotel's conference space or the like for a weekend, and then invite everyone we know that would be into a lan party. I know that at least Graham and Loopy have a lot of friends that don’t normally attend; more then anything we're just trying to gauge how many people we could get. Not that we intend to have a super huge one, maybe ~30 people would be a good target. It would certainly be interesting to have one that size, though setting up beforehand would probably be hell. Also, since we'd be renting the space everyone would have to chip in a little money. Anyway, if that sounds interesting to you let me know and we'll see if we can’t get the idea off the ground.

Alright, that’s it for this entry…I really will try to update this more then once a month, I just never remember I have the darn thing whenever something happens...

Old Games...

Wed, 15 Jun 2005 21:05:16 GMT

Well, This is a rather long post...but I felt like saying it :P

(keep in mind all of the following is strictly from a computer standpoint, I never could stand console gamepads)

So, the video card that I bought (Geforce 6800) was mainly so I could have the dual Dvi for 2 lcd's, but it would have been remiss of me not to play some new fancy games with the eye candy on. And that's when I realized something...at the time of putting in the card I didn’t have any games installed that had been made after 2002. In fact, with the exception of expansion packs and WoW (Half-Life 2 being a gift) I haven't purchased a computer game since I finished high school.

Well, I went and installed all the usual suspects, HL 2, Doom 3, Far cry; turned up all the settings and looked at the pretty graphics...I have not played a single one of those games since the week I got the video card.

It's only recently that I've really gotten down to thinking about it. This was triggered partly by working on the game with Doug and Andrew, partly by finding a couple old favorites on bittorrent. How it is that even with the old games I own, the ones I always keep going back to are the even older ones? I play Starfleet Command 2 rather then 3, Baldur's Gate rather then Neverwinter Nights, Daggerfall instead of Morrowind...the list goes on. If you look past the presentation, the originals are almost always more fun to play (with exceptions of course).

And it's not just that, it's the effort that not only I, but many pc gamers go through to keep playing the old games on new computers. People will make patches and hacks for old win95 games, or windows installers for old dos games...and in the extreme cases they will form a project to remake the game. Creating a modern 3d engine, and having it read all the information from the original game's files. The Goal of which is to keep the feel of the original game while making it playable (and pleasing to the eye) on today’s systems.

The key being feel of the game. These projects differ in size and scope, some like JonoF's Duke Nukem 3d Engine Simply get the game working in XP, while allowing for the possibility of adding more in the future. While others like JDoom Completely revamp the game: dynamic lighting, new high res textures, all redone 3d enemies, even a remastered and remixed ogg soundtrack...yet above all else they focus on keeping the old feel.

The only real saving grace of modern game design is the modding communities that have been created. The industry may be too tied up in its multimillion dollar budgets to make any original games that have flair and personality...but if they supply the tools, original concepts will still be created by modders. Half-life alone has more compelling mods then I've seen good games this past year; Natural Selection, ESF, or Ricochet anyone? Or, on the crazy side, The Yoda mod, Snark Wars, and Monkeystrike. ;)

I used to think it odd that Andrew kept playing Quake 2 all these years, but I'm beginning to understand. There is just something about older games that is fun. Perhaps the pace, the music, the controls, and their way of storytelling...they are simply more fun to play. For all of the eye popping 3d graphics and the surround sound, today’s games have lost something. There's seriously something wrong with the industry when both me and Graham would rather lan a 10 year old game then play anything new…or maybe we’re just odd… >.>

Birthday

Sun, 29 May 2005 18:05:33 GMT

Well, it was my 21st birthday yesterday. I went out to dinner with my parents and my sister and brother in law. Overall it was good, nothing exceedingly noteworthy. I considered ordering something alcoholic, but frankly the thought of drinking has just never appealed to me...even now at 21 I don’t see the point to it. I've never tasted alcohol, so I can’t make a taste judgment, but frankly anything that can cause a loss of ones faculties...well in my opinion there has to be something better to quench your thirst with.

Sigh

Fri, 27 May 2005 23:30:15 GMT

Well, this has been the worst couple weeks in recent memory; irc channel has been all but dead, weather has been terrible, and after being in perfect health for almost a year, I get sick with 2 different things, 2 weeks in a row and miss my friends graduation party...Good times...

.Gif's, LCD's, and Video Cards

Mon, 02 May 2005 17:52:28 GMT

Well, been 2 months since I posted here. Sometimes I think the only reason I have this account is so I have an excuse to keep making gifs...My new avatar is the first gif I've done the coloring on myself (rather then just using the raw frames from the avi). There’s a little flickering due to painting the different layers separately, but I like how it turned out...kind of gives it an old film look.

I've been watching the new Dr. Who series and it's disappointing. I used to watch the old series on PBS when I was a kid, and it was cheesy, but that works with old shows (ala the original Star Trek). However, what worked for the original show just doesn’t work in a 2005 series and that was a pretty big letdown. There needs to be more good sci-fi...

And onto another abrupt change of topic, I've wanted dual monitors for awhile now. The extra room to have windows open and work in Photoshop has been tempting me for ages. But the price of a second 19" lcd had just been too high to justify it. This last week prices on good 19" 8ms lcd's dropped to $350, and I'm thinking I'll finally take the plunge. It's almost perfect since the LCD I got 3 years ago is a mva panel with a crappy response time (lots of streaking in games but has great color reproduction). Whereas the 8ms tn/film panels out today have poorer colors (6bit dithered) but are essentially as good as a crt when it comes to games. So the two would work together perfectly; I could put my high motion apps on the new display, and work with more sensitive colors on the other.

The only downside is that my video card only has one dvi output...and the quality of lcds on vga just can't compare to dvi. So I'll have to buy a video card with dual dvi so support both screens...my dilemma is that there are only 2 decent cards with dual dvi under $250: The BFG Geforce 6600gt, and the XFX Geforce 6800.

The 6800 is faster (about 10%)...and not only that, there's a rebate this week and its actually cheaper then the 6600. So, faster and cheaper, what's the problem? The thing that makes it difficult is that the package with the card. The 6600 has a lifetime warranty and great service and support, whereas the 6800 has a 2 year warranty (I think so anyway, its hard to find exact warranty information on the card) and crappy support based in china. Also the 6600 has a quieter fan, takes less power, and runs cooler, along with a few extra perks that don’t really factor in, but are nice (led’s on the card etc.). Optimally I'd want to buy a fast card that had a great package too. Unfortunately, no one makes one with dual dvi...at least not for a sane amount of money.

So, a question to you: Do I opt for the slower card with great features and service...or the faster card that comes in barebones packaging? I'd rather not wait for another card to come out (could be quite awhile, and the things I've been doing on my comp lately could really benefit from a second display on dvi)...I *could* just wait on the video card and get the monitor now, though that’s something I'd rather not do. Anyway, I've rambled on long enough for one post, any buyers advice appreciated. ;)

Death of a Guild

Fri, 18 Feb 2005 07:03:13 GMT

Well, seeing as my previous post was happily talking about being in a guild in World of Warcraft...it seems sadly appropriate that the next update (5 months later, go regular updates!) be that the guild has disbanded.

We formed in closed beta, lost a few in the transition to open beta, and then picked up a few we carried into the retail release. It's a particularly painful loss since I'd made a website and we had forums that I moderated... This was a great group of friends that I'd grown accustomed to having around. The problem was the nasty one which resides in the heart of every massively multiplayer game. Levels...depending on how much time you play, you level up and move out of old areas into new harder content, and if you play more then your friends...well, you cant play with them anymore, because the places you go would get them killed.

So, with everyone having different amounts of time to play...we spread out across the spectrum of levels in the game and it reached a point where there was hardly anyone on that you could actually play the game with (that being the point of multiplayer...). So, we parted ways with rather heavy hearts, everyone was pretty damn depressed about it. We had after all spent at least several hours a day talking to each other for almost half a year...

Anyway, I followed the only 2 members that were near me in level to VANQUISH...the largest guild on the server, with 237 members (5 of whom I have ever played with). It's nitpicking, but it also pisses me off that the guild name is all caps...I mean seriously, why the hell would someone do that? They say the thing that matters most about a MMORPG is the community, and now I'm really inclined to agree. Maybe I'm just depressed at loosing a part of my life I had grown so accustomed to, but frankly the game just doesn’t hold the appeal anymore. I find myself having free time and wondering wtf I used to do to fill it...

RIP Hegemon
~September 9th 2004 - February 17 2005~

Of Things WoW

Tue, 19 Oct 2004 06:46:46 GMT

Well, the Guild that I was a part of in the World of Warcraft beta stress test looked me up on msn messenger last week. And while it was unexpected, it was a rather plesant suprise, they were a good group of people (the reason I joined/helped make the guild in the first place). Anyway, seeing as I was one of the founding members in the guild they wanted to know if I was going to be playing in open beta...I said of course, and we've been ploting evil ever since.

Just figured I'd post now, since we got our website up today. It's been in the works for a week now, and it's still just an empty shell that links to our forums, but hey, its up. it still needs a ton of work (aka any content at all), and we're going to ditch the table layout for a full css page...but I figured since I made the banner and the background I might as well show it off. Even if it is in a somewhat sad form at the moment. http://www.geocities.com/hegemonguild/main

And on another note, since I was an original member and helped make the website, I'm a moderator on our forums...which is a little odd. I mean, even if we're only in contact with 7 people now, We had 30 at the end of the st beta, and we're going to have way more at the end of open beta. So...should be interesting moding a forum.

And yes andrew, I too now have internet friends that I've never met. You should join us, you know you want to try WoW ;P

Wed, 04 Aug 2004 20:27:49 GMT

Well, Its August now, and I figured I was due for an update...

My last post here was about getting my 'ol Athlon 1800 back into one peice for the lan, so I might as well start there. So, the lan: my Comp was the Fastest one there, which hasnt been the case since andrew got his 2100 and usurped mine about 2 years ago, so that was a welcome change of pace. It certianly was nice being the first person to load the game :D On a negative note however, my case was forced to roll on the dreaded battle scars chart, and while it was not casterated, it came away with several deep scratches in its shiney finish :'(

As for whats happened since the lan...really not that much. My old computer still has no purpose, and is sitting in my closet, not doing anything, and I've pretty much just been sitting around wondering what the hell the everquest people are doing and watching anime. I did however beat Farcry, and I downloaded DOOM3...which I suppose I'm obliged to comment on.

So, Doom3...how is it? in my opinion its actually not a good game at all, I would give it about a 73% in the grand scheme of first person shooters. In my honest opinion Farcry was a much better game in every single way, Doom 3 is simply so dirivative of every other fps made that it has a certian mononity to its gameplay, a sort of been here done that feel. Its disturbingly similar to System shock 2 (one of the greatest single player games of all time) it is as though you removed that games rpg elements, turned down the gamma, and replaced the aliens with demons and zombies...oh, and made it really really pretty. Because really all the game has going for it is its prettyness...and make no mistake, its Damn pretty. But it hides all its fancy graphics under a veil of darkness, entire areas of the game are pitch black...I mean ENTIRELY black, the only thing you see is the small cone of illumination from your flashlight...and the graphics that are covered by this darkness arnt all that much better then farcry (and honestly I think farcry had better textures, not to mention the physics engine which was vastly superior)...so in closing Doom3 = Really pretty/Very dark game, with completly unoriginal uninspired gameplay, and an overall feel thats a mix of half-life and system shock with the gamma turned way down. Definatly not the best fps of 2004...let alone a good fps.

As for what else is new, I skipped out on ultimate Frisbee with the gang on sunday and had planned to just spend the evening relaxing, but around 8 a couple old friends from high school called and asked if I wanted to hang out and watch some dvd's...so I got off my ass and hug out till around 3am with them. We had some good times, watched hellboy, and starsky and hutch...the latter was pretty good...and Hellboy SUCKED. Definatly one of the worst movies I've seen in years. It's only saving grace was that it was so incredably bad that we could have some good laughs making fun of it...a high point was when ben actually collapsed and proceded to roll on the ground in laughter at one of the many terrible continutity errors. Gotta love bad movies...

Also, a good thing about hanging out with those guys was that I FINALLY got the pictures from our road trip back :D :D :D

It was a trip that 4 of us took summer of '02 as a "yay, were done with high school...lets do something crazy before college" thing. The planning phase consisted of us picking the city within 500 miles that we thought had the craziest name...and then deciding to go there. So we ended up going to Woonsocket South Dakota, and damn was that a crazy trip...we spent a good deal of the time driving around random dirt roads in the absolute middle of nowhere and then asking random farmers how to get back to the highway...and then going back on random dirt roads, it was a grand 'ol time :D One of my favorite pics was a street sign on a dirt road in the middle of corn fields as far as the eye can see that said 850th St/10th Ave.

Well, Thats All I've got to report on...I'll just leave you with a picture of my crazy escapades from my post college days...

Uses for an older comp?

Mon, 19 Jul 2004 02:47:17 GMT

well, its been awhile since I got my new comp, and today I finally got around to putting my old one back into one peice. I had to move all the components from the old case into an even older case (my original one I got 3 years ago) because of the now vacent gaping hole in the back. I had cut into the case to mount a larger cooling fan, but its in my new comp now, so just the hole remained. The process was actually a bit harder then I had been planning on...mainly due to the incredably massive quantities of dust that it contained. It seemed as though every little crevace was filled with it, not just normal dust mind you, but those big dense wads that it forms when theres too much of it...I actually had to vaccum my room afterwards due to the amount of it. I suppose that shows me for not cleaning it in 6 months...

Anyway, it actually worked right off the bat, and there appears to be nothing wrong with it...Which begs the question of what to do with the thing? I put it back together mainly because doug needed a system to play newer games with at the lan party(since his comp is even older then my old one)...but after the lan party this weekend, what should I do with the thing? Its an Athlon 1800, w/512Mb ram, a 120Gb raid array, and a Geforce2 Pro 64Mb...which is by no means worthless, but I'm having trouble coming up with a use that would actually be benifical. What do you think I should do with it?

Monthly post

Fri, 09 Jul 2004 02:06:18 GMT

I noticed that my last post here was on june 9th...and I just figured I was obliged to put something here at least once a month to keep up the appearance of having an account.

So, as to whats happened in the last month...The new computer arrived, I put it together, and everything actually worked right. It's still working great, and rock solid at a 10% overclock. Since I turned it on, the only time its had to come down has been restarting for new drivers and whatnot, so I'm pretty happy about that.

I also made a new and improved user pic, I finally managed to find 5 frames that made a fluid loop (they're not even concecutive frames), and without even needing to mess up the color :) So yeah...I thwarted the lj file size limat at long last.

In addition I've been working slowly but surely on finishing my Enterprise-A model, just the warp nacels and the bottom of the saucer left. I would have finished ages ago, but I've been busy with watching anime and star trek tos. But there's nothing wrong with going slow, at least it keeps me from getting tired and sloppy. Of course now that I've just finished downloading all the extras from the star trek tng dvd's it may be awhile before I get back to it...

What else...ah yes, I finally got around to playing(and beating) knights of the old republic, which was the best damn computer game I've had the pleasure of playing in years. It had been awhile since I played a game that really sucked me in to that degree, only bad thing about the game was that it was too short...but then single player games just arnt as long as they used to be...

On the topic of gaming, I've also been waiting this whole month for a perticular one...where the hell is the everquest 2 beta? they said they'd start in june, which for a 2004 release date makes sense...but its still nowhere to be found. Games are pushed back all the time, but when they have beta sign ups, they're generally pretty accurate date wise. I just hope there's nothing seriously wrong over at sony, and they dont cut the beta short because they're running behind, not only wont I get to play as long, the game could suffer in the end :\

well, that seems fitting for a monthly update, I'll stick up something else come august...unless something happens before then thats worthy of posting on.

It Begins...insert ominious music

Thu, 10 Jun 2004 02:14:29 GMT

Well, its official...I have begun ordering the parts for my new comp, namly the case for now, still hoping for a selight price break on the socket 754 platform before buying my mobo/proc, but I'll definatly order it all within the next week.

My Specamacations are as follows for all of you who may care: Athlon 64 3000 (newcastle core) Socket 754, Nforce3 250Gb chipset, 1GB DDR400 Corsair Ram Cas2.5 timings, Seagate 200GB Beracuda 7200.7, 10/100/1000 eathernet, 52x24x52 CD-RW, 350watt Antec Low noise psu...and I'll be using my current 16x DVD, Radeon 9500 PRO 128MB, and Creative Labs TV Tuner

As for the case, its a black 10-bay Atx midtower, with 2 120mm fan's, one in the back and one the front (with cleanable intake filters of course)...and a rather spiffy hard drive rack mount system with rubber gromets, along with a key lock side panel for all you losers who may want to screw with my case at lans (you know who you are) I Leave you with a picture of what shall soon be Bradyonic v2.0

Birthday

Fri, 28 May 2004 05:17:57 GMT

Well, 20 now, Bye bye teenage years...take that passage of time! Nothing else to say really, figured I should post ;)

Feelin' Good

Sun, 09 May 2004 02:45:25 GMT

Well, I have finally finished converting my Grandma's records to CD...Recorded them, split the tracks, burned them, and they are now sitting wrapped up in a box ready for mothers day. Its a good feeling to be completly finished with something that was so anoying to get done, and my mom actually gave me $50 when I finished, so all the sweeter.

In addition, I now have all of Star Trek the Next Generation DVD Rips (fittingly) burned on DVD's...So I can finally say I'm completly done downloading TNG, after I started downloading it almost 3 years ago off Kazaa.

So yea, good times...and my birthday is getting close as well, finally gonna be 20, no more teens for the Brofo...and I know, I updated twice in a week...but hey, I'm in a good mood :D

The Infinate D'deridex

Fun With Surge Protectors

TOS Remastered - Balance of Terror

Star Trek TOS Remastered

Hats off Intel, a job well done

Late Night Ramblings

Expiration Dates

2 Years on LiveJournal

Noooooooooooooo!

Not dead yet

A Week of August

Chronicle of Another Month & Lannage

Old Games...

Birthday

*Sigh*

.Gif's, LCD's, and Video Cards

Death of a Guild

Of Things WoW

Uses for an older comp?

Monthly post

It Begins...*insert ominious music*

Birthday

Feelin' Good

Sigh

It Begins...insert ominious music