Lose a sense, the other 4 benefit???

I've noticed something that Totem really likes, but more so, I'm liking... Oddly.

The lack of any "real" significant computing power (my laptop has a speedy 1.4ghz processor but a pitiful 32mb video card), I've been shying away from my computers. Even more so since I have finished all of the computer tasks that I have made outside of my desktop which still lies in wait for memory and hard drives. But here is the other kicker. I've been looking around for different MMORPG's that are out there, especially the free ones. To my surprise, some of the free ones, while lacking (really really lacking) in the graphics end, are doing what a lot of great games back in the early 90's did. Develop an interesting story line. The best one I have found that merged the gap between free and pay was a game called Starport. 2D graphics with many different servers that host different rules and worlds. All free. If you remember Privateer or Elite, or even currently play JumpGate, you'd probably like this game. The only downfall, which ultimately drove me away from the game (for now), was how easy it was to take over another player's colony. I worked my butt off for five days to build what I thought was a really good start and defended colony. Like most MMORPG's the world is live and runs even when you're not online. Well, I woke up one day to my colony being invaded, taken over, my ship destroyed, and my escape pod sent to outspace where it was destroyed by a pirate. Yeah, lost 5 days of work, cash and exp, on 1 late night hour. Wasn't angry, really, because I didn't lost anything that much in game, just the time that it took to build all my stuff up, and it was free so I lost no real cash. Plus the other bonus is that I didn't want to kill myself (half joking half serious b/c it has happened) like you hear about the Evercrack users when they lose everything... :p But the other part of the game is that the servers reset themselves every two weeks so the game can be winnable. Then everyone starts over. If I want to try again, especially if I want to get back at the guy who stole my colony, I get my chance in 3 days. ;) Acquaintances ! Us already 1500000: ukrainian brides .

Now the next game is one I'm still playing and would recommend to everyone who either needs a time killer, wants a game they can play wherever there is Internet Explorer, and wants to get back to good ol' low tech high imagination gaming. It's called DragonWars eXtreme. Long and the short of it, browser based gaming in a midevil world where you advance your way through to earn better equipment, magic, and even entrance to other worlds. It's simple, intuitive, and very community based. The creator is a player in the game. He give tips and ideas while taking contant feedback from the players. Every upgdate brings something new and more specialized to the game. There are guilds that allow you access to more team based ideals and tactics. There are simple worlds to newbies to play in while there are tougher worlds for the vets, some you have to pay (in game credits) to get access to, others you need to beat monsters (that you really can't touch until you're a higher level) to get in and out of. The best part, no software to install and you can leave whenver you want. Your character or characters (yeah, you can control more than one at the same time) will be right where you left them with the stuff they had. You can fight other players, but only if you want. You can even fight monsters, if you want. Seriously, you're open to explore the entire map without even fighting a monster. They're there, but you can just walk past 'em. :) Of course you wouldn't be able to do much as all the goodies are being protected, but you could still see the goodies. ;) Copyright 2008 US Web asp.net hosting Plan Is.

So what does this have to do with senses??? Well, until I get my kicka$$ system up so I can play Doom3 and scare the crap out of myself, the games that lack in the visual area are starting to pick up. So basically, I'm blind but still having a good time. Who'd a thunk it? :)

Busy Weekend...

Things are finally wrapping up with the box building switching thingy type project. The Linux box is back. Ended up putting Debian back on. Right now it's giving me some issues with X and other GUI type applications, but since all I really wanted to do was get the firewall and NAT back up, everything overall went smoothly. My backups are back, DHCP, DNS, SAMBA, and Seti are all back. X windows is... Meh. Not important at the moment...

Spent a couple hours with Jay at a friend's house. New brakes and rotors are a good thing. =)

We saw Stomp too. Unfortunately, we left in a slightly better mood than "Eh". Don't get me wrong. The synchronization between all the actors was great and some of the stuff they did was awesome but Totem and I just didn't have fun. I guess we have our standards set high after seeing the Blue Man Group... All in all, not a bad show, but we won't be going back if they come back to town.

Speaking of economy... How about Credit???

You know all these debt consolidation service you see on the TV??? Did you ever know they can hurt you if you're not in a dire situation??? Yeah.

I just called a bunch of them to see what I could do about consolidating a bunch of credit cards I have b/c of stupid decisions made in college. I'm not behind on any of them nor do I have bad history with any of the creditors. I just have a lot of 'em. And I can't get a secured loan b/c I've got nothing really valuable to secure. (Yeah, I rent...)

First agency I called said their plan was to just let the cads sit in limbo. "Don't worry about it. The credit card companies can only report you as late for 120 days." HA! Don't worry about it??!?!?? I though you were going to help me??? What they actually do is just say ignore the collections agencies and creditors and only speak to them. Over time, the help you manage a bank account where at preset dates, you send in a sum of money to payoff the account. When I asked about the credit thing, they said I can pay $450 to have someone contact all the credit agencies monthly and try to get the old accounts removed after they are paid off.

Nice try. Buh bye!

Agency number two. Sounded much more promising. Sounded. None of this "make the creditors sit and wait" stuff. What they do it setup another bank account at a mutual firm, which gives no interest back to me (but I'm sure it gives it to this agency), and they mail out the payments for you. So all your bills are lumped into one monthly payment. Not bad. The even manage to reduce the payments are are going into each account. So, say your min monthly payment for XYZ credit card is $50. Well, they drop it to $48 or $45. They also collect some extra money from you to pay a little more on each credit card. This goes along with their "pay it off faster" idea. Hmm. Not bad again. So I'm 90% of the way in, feeling pretty good about this (ask Totem, I was) and then I get the contract with the fine print.

There is no guarantee that the reduction in monthly payment was approved by the creditor. So they will be sending in payments, just not the montly minimum required by the creditor. Hello bad credit and lates fees up the a$$. And that extra money doesn't cover it either. They don't promise how much or who gets it... So one account might be doing well, but not the others...

Nice try. Buh bye!

Sure these solutions would be perfect for someone who is behind on their payments or just struggling to get by. But come on. I can just make my payments as I usually do, pay a year or two longer than what these companies are promising me, and still be able to apply for credit or a home loan when I am done. Versus being debt free and not able to get anything...

Why does everything out there meant to help people have to be at the extremes??? Great loans with 0% interest for the perfect people and Bad Credit loans for people who have thousands of dollars of debt and haven't paid any of them for over a year. But nothing for the college student with good credit and a bunch of debt he is trying to pay off early in his life.

::shakes head and walks away:: You try to fix things and no one is willing to help...

Ahead of schedule...

I thought the only game I was going to get this summer was Doom 3 when it was released in early August... Well, not any more.

Bought the Half Life Platinum Edition 2 pack over the weekend. VERY IMPRESSED. Game play is extremely smooth (kinda of expected, the game is old, but no un-popular). I've already jumped out of my seat a couple of times b/c of the sound effects. I've got dolby 5.1 surround sound on my computer and this game sure does take advantage of it... The story line is smooth and progresses well...

But what really blew me out of the water was the multiplayer capability. First of all, no hitches what so ever. After I installed all 5 games that were included in the pack, I was prompted to download what they call Steam, which looks like a third party control program (similar to punkbuster for Quake 3, or so it looks). It updated all five of the products and registered each cd key with my username so they are portable now (good news for me when I want to install on another computer, but not play both at the same time, and not so good news for cd crackers). Basically now, every time I run any one of the programs, Half Life, Counter Strike, Fortress, etc, it checks online for updates and bring everything up to par. What is really neat though is that if I connect to a server that is runnung a map or has characters that I currently don't have installed on my computer, Steam automatically downloads them for me. MUCH BETTER than Quake 3's answer which is "Can't find map" or "Different version than server." iphone 4s screen repair

So I played a little bit of half-life single player, but mostly played multiplayer. Overall, not bad at all! The only downside is that the graphics are not as impressive as Quake 3's. But with all the other game play and features, I'll sacrifice a little bit of flashy graphics for smooth game play and good features. (Lets just say I found a server last night that had 35 people in it and my system didn't flinch. My system starts to lag severely with anything more than 6 people on a Quake server... Damn upload cap...)

Looks like you can do a little more too with HL than you can in quake... It's not every day that you can have a virtual mass murder in McDonalds with missles that fire out of the bathroom and turn down the hall to hit an opponent waiting at the fryer for you. ;) Or not at least in Quake 3...

The SOHO Connection...

ICS, Internet Connection Sharing. I've only heard bad things about it, but never actually tried it myself. Seeing that my Linux Box is a sitting duck atm, I wanted to give my laptop a shot at being the gateway for my LAN. Wireless external network and wired internal network.

I found a bunch of directions on setting up the ICS and it seemed really really simple, IMHO. Why would it have such a bad rap if i was so hard to setup??? Heh. I found out soon enough. No matter how hard I tried, or how many times I reconfigured it, or what network configs I used, it just did not work...

On to the next trial. I had a couple of ICS program that I got a few years back but I knew Windows XP was not around at the time so I didn't really want to risk anything...

Enter Download.com and the SOHOConnection...

It was a little bit hefty (12 megs) but seemed to be written entirely in Java so that was just a cool factor for me... Downloaded it and installed. Seemed pretty smooth and simple which was a welcome change. The program started and all I had to do to configure it was tell it which network to "sit" on (acting as a DHCP server), and how long I wanted the DHCP leases to last.

Seeing that ICS crashed and burned by this time, I wasn't too hopeful. So after everything was set, I left the program running and ran downstairs to Totem's laptop to see if I could get her online.

The only thing that it says you need to do to the client systems is turn on the option to Automatically Detect settings within IE. OK... So I did that. Opened up IE and Bingo! Totem was online. Not too shabby.

I ran back upstairs and tried on my desktop system, same result. One little check mark and I was online. :)

Granted, the program is not that powerful, like it will bascially only allowed web-browser traffic to be shared so her AOL and AIM wasn't working... Neither were any of the other protocols that I use (SSH, SFTP, etc...). But for a simple system, I think it rocks. To have a Java based program serve as a DHCP server, a DNS server (it would act as the Primary DNS Server and rewrite all the requests as if they were coming from my laptop instead of the systems on my LAN - which is a piece of cake for IPTables but I didn't know it was possible in Java), and create the bridge between the networks was very impressive.

Not to mention a geek factor of connecting my LAN to the Internet over wireless...

If you want to share an internet connection and don't want to spend the money on a DHCP based router, be sure to give this a shot! You won't regret it...

EDIT: The routers normally add a firewall too so make sure you are running one as well. I don't trust the Windows XP firewall so give Zone Alarm a try... After all, its free. :)

The Matrix Revolutions...

It was going to good up until the last 15 minutes of the movie. Every conversation I've gotten into about this movie has gotten way too deep so I don't really want to stir the pot up any more by writing a long rant here...

All I can say is that towards the end when Neo gave up and Smith started doubting everything, I felt as if the directors said, "Oh $hit. We've only got 15 minutes left and need to wrap it up."

I won't be buying the Matrix Reloaded DVD or Matrix Revolutions DVD when they come out, though. I don't think the movies were horrible or bad. I just don't think they are worth the money to see again...

Bad already...

Just hours after Matrix Revolutions has been released, so many people around the world are giving it bad reviews. I'm kinda glad I'm not trying to go see it tonite. Especially if I'm going to have to fight long lines. I'm gonna go see it on Sunday morning when all should be quiet to see how bad, or how good, the movie really is...

The only thing that I hope is that the hype, like there was in the Matrix Reloaded (that it is going to be really good but ended up bombing), will not prove to be this movie's downfall...

The Complex Tour...

Last night Totem and I went to see the Blueman Group performing their Complex Tour at Sheas Performing Arts Center in Buffalo.

In short, it rocked!!!

The concert started with two other bands playing their own music, which was a mix between techno and new age stuff. Both were good, but each had their own flaws in my mind. Tracy Bonham's band had a good all types of music from country with the violin, to hard rock, to almost slow music. Her voice is unmistakable and very rich. She had a great personality on stage and kept the audience entertained during breaks. But, and I don't know why, I don't really like music that has a woman's voice in it screaming at really high pitches even though they do not have a high pitch voice. (Cher and Melissa Etheridge (sp) some to mind...) While I wasn't displeased by her performance, and I don't think their music was bad, I don't think I'll be buying her CD...

The second group was completely opposite, almost entirely. Venus Hum was loud and awe inspiring with their music. The best way that I can describe it is to take Enya and speed it up. Then add bass that will knock you over. I am definately going to buy their CD(s). The music was so full that I wanted to sit back and go into a dream (there's the Enya influence)... The only things that turned me off about them, and they really didn't turn me off to the group, was the vocalist and the way she danced. She had a beautiful voice, when she wasn't screaming. Sometimes I just wanted to mute her mic and listen to the ambient music in the background. And I'm sorry, but she couldn't dance. I'm not saying I'm a pro dancer but I know a bad dancer when I see one (myself included). If you want to know how she dances, watch a video of Celien Dion dancing at one of her concerts. Choppy and not with the beat. Sorta off on her own. Not bad, but definately not good. I think it pulled the attention away from the songs... But then again, so did her clothes but I think that was the point (she wore a tall pink shirt with a white top, the waist coming to just below her chest, and for her second appearance she wore what looked like a 1970 alient space suit that lit up rainbow style...) Probably didn't help that all she said to the audience between songs was, "Thank you" while Tracy had full conversations...

Anyway, after an hour, they gave us an intermission. We hadn't even seen the Blueman group yet and we were in intermission. I was a little wtf'd but it didn't last long. While waiting they had two message boards on each side of the stage that relayed the usual get refreshments and go to the bathroom messages for everyone to see. But as time went on, each of the two developed personalities and went at each other. The right kept giving out useful info (like statistics) while the left kep the audience amused by saying things to mock out the sign on the right. It was so funny! Sometimes they'd mock each other at the same time. The sign on the right would say, "You still have enough time to make a trip to the restroom." while the sign on the left said, "It's time to pee. Don't listen to the sing on the right." Little antics like this are what made the concert great.

Finally, the Bluemen came on stage. Nothing can descibe the quality of the music we heard yesterday. It was amazing. It was original and loud and striking and full of bass... And all made on homemade instruments using tubes and the like... The only thing I can say about the music is that if you buy their cd and do not want to go see the concert, you must not have an appreciation for techno-ish music. Totem doesn't even listen to techno and she loved last nights concert. ;) Even if you don't want to buy the cd, you can check out their website where they have a bunch of online music videos that were featured in the concert. You won't regret checking them out!

But the music was not all that the concert was about. The main theme throughout the concert was becoming a rock artist and how to run a rock concert. A voice would come on saying, "Rock Concert Movement #X" and the Bluemen would follow. Some were as simple of getting the audience to bob their heads. Others were funny like getting the Bluemen to shake their hips. While others like "Saying hello to the people in the cheap seats" got the Bluemen to come all the way up to the balcony and say hi. Between this and the way the Bluemen acted made everything worth it.

If you read my entry from last night, I said Sheas was bouncing. I was not lying. One of the movements got everyone in the audeince to stand up and start jumping up and down. Imagine about 4 or 5 sections of rows, 5 or so columns in a blacony (5x5 about), each with about 10 rows of seats, all filled with people, jumping, at the same time. Sheas was literally bobbing up and down with the music. I don't think it has ever done that before. :)

Totem and I had a great night and we think the concert was the best thing that we have seen in a VERY long time. If they ever come back to town again, you can expect us to be there.

New category...

I've made a new category called Reviews because I'm going to be writing some reviews and I figured they could use their own category...

Icons for this and more categories are coming soon...

Sweet...

Just got home... Very tired... FRIGGIN' AWESOME CONCERT!!! :) Full review tomorrow...

For those who are in the area, the Blueman Group had Sheas bouncing. Litterally bouncing, the balcony was bouncing. ;)