EVE Online Screen Shot Contest is Now Closed to Entries October 10, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EVE Online.Tags: contest, pictures, Screen Shots
4 comments
The time has come. The contest is now closed to new entries.
I received entries from the following players. These are the names that were requested to be used for attribution, along with the website if so requested.
If you entered but do not see yourself on the list, or if I have hosed your name or web link in some way, drop me a note.
- Ahb Nelo
- Ardon Gareau
- Arvash
- Blueline Basher
- Cj Didge
- ColdCuz
- De’Vadde
- Dysno
- Eda Hask
- Freddy Facepalm
- Harbinger Zero
- Hull Nightstar
- Jaggins
- Kirith Kodachi
- Krotfric McEnchroe
- Latrodanes
- Leonard Achana
- Lucy Midnight
- Merchantus
- Neyem Praetorius
- Onyxalia La’fiette
- Orkanen
- paritybit
- pkudude99
- Siebellius
- Undarum
That is 26 people in the contest, who together sent in a total of 112 screen shots.
Now for the tough part; picking the winners.
Well, that and figuring out how to use the contract system to award the two top winners their PLEX.
Since some people went out of their way to match some of the possible categories I had listed in the contest rules, I am going to stick with those. I don’t want to run one of those “ignore the rules when it comes to awarding prizes” contests, if you know what I mean. Those categories are:
- Best picture featuring a rookie ship (Ibis, Velator, Reaper, or Impairor)
- Best picture featuring a ringed planet
- Best picture featuring a planet or moon (no rings)
- Best picture featuring a space station (player or NPC)
- Best explosion picture (we love things that go boom)
- Best classic graphics picture (dig into the archives)
- Best mining operation picture (rock breaking)
- Best industrial ship picture (haulers of all sizes)
- Best drone picture
- Best guns/lasers/missiles blazing picture
- Best spacescape
- Best humorous picture
- Best altered picture
I still might create a couple more categories if I find a shots that are truly deserving.
And, finally, because I like to include a picture with every post if I can, here is the very last picture entered in the contest. (Based on the time stamp of when I downloaded it.)
From ColdCuz:
Ogre Formation
Look for the winners next Sunday.
Last Chance for EVE Online Screen Shot Contest October 9, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, EVE Online.Tags: contest, pictures, Screen Shots
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Entries for the EVE Online screen shot contest have to be in my mail box 19:00 hours UTC (also 19:00 hours in-game on EVE Online), which translates to Noon (12:00pm) Pacific Time and 3:00pm (15:00) Eastern Time for places that observe daylight savings time.
So you have a little time left, but not much.
So far I have 97 screen shots sent in from 23 different people, which means I have far exceeded my initial goal of 10 people and 30 screen shots. And there are some stunning entries. It is going to take me the full week to sort out the winners. But I could always use a few more entries.
The best, and most common, complaint about the contest is people frustrated at having to pare down their entries to just five choices. I know it is tough. On the other hand, I have to draw the line somewhere.
Rules, prizes, justifications, categories, and general information about the contest can be found here.
Meanwhile, here is an entry from CJ Didge entitled “Warning.”
Warning
I also want to thank Kirith Kodachi of The Inner Sanctum of the Ninveah for mentioning this contest on his blog, which has considerably more EVE cred than I’ll ever possess. There was a noticeable jump in entries after that post.
One Month of LOTRO Free to Play October 8, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in Dungeons & Dragons Online, entertainment, Lord of the Rings Online.Tags: Free-To-Play
6 comments
A month has gone by since Lord of the Rings Online changed its business model and went live advertising itself as free to play.
I am not sure if enough time has elapsed to declare success, but things are certainly upbeat.
There is some contention over what constitutes free. There are some who are happy enough to be able to get into the game without handing over a credit card number, while others feel that if every single thing in the game is not attainable within the game without paying any money, then it is not free.
I even read something from one champion of the whole cash shop business plan concept decrying LOTRO for selling anything beyond fluff items.
Sure, the LOTRO Store has its share of fluff, appearance gear, house items, and even some special horses for a limited time.
Only available until October 22
I’m sure that the fact that these mounts are for sale will annoy somebody, since you have to work to get them in game.
But no matter what you sell in a game cash shop you will piss somebody off.
People who are perfectly content buying boxed expansions bristle at the idea of buying content.
People will fret about being able to buy uber elite gear, even though I have yet to see a cash shop that sold that sort of thing. It certainly isn’t available at the LOTRO Store. Not even basic equipment is available so far as I can tell, but my highest level character is only 40. The shop won’t show you things you cannot use… for the most part.
And, as a gaming company, if you sell only useless fluff then your accountant will start yelling at you because you won’t be able to pay the bills.
It is a fine balance and success is a day to day measure, because you could break faith or cause an uprising with the next item you add to your store.
But Turbine has some practice at this, what with Dungeons & Dragons Online being the darling of the free to play proponents, having made the transition from subscription and done very well. Or so we hear.
And now they have LOTRO in that league as well.
When it comes to the business model change, I’m somewhat indifferent. But then I can afford to be. Turbine has me covered.
Three and a half years ago I put down my $199 for a lifetime subscription and have been pretty happy with it ever since. I just want the game to survive because then I can keep playing. That I became a lifetime VIP member with this transition seemed like an excellent payoff.
The Real Levels of LOTRO
Still, I had my hopes for the LOTRO Store when I saw I was going to be getting a stipend of 500 Turbine Points a month for my early investment. Considering that when buying said points that they can run anywhere from 0.7 cents to 1.75 cents a piece, I’m feeling pretty good.
The first thing I went after in the LOTRO Store was the upgraded horse for all of my characters in their 20s. Having the fast horse is nice as travel is simply part and parcel of the game. If you aspire to level up, you will see a lot of Middle-earth from ground level.
After that I spent some of my Turbine Points on individual vault space upgrades. I had been waiting for F2P to go live with a couple of my characters simply because they were out of space. Vault upgrades used to not only cost in-game currency, but were also level restricted. My two space constrained characters couldn’t have gotten more vault space no matter how much gold they had in game.
I didn’t go completely nuts on the individual vault space upgrades as I have a few alts and I could see that quickly eating up my entire pool of points. I did purchase an upgrade to shared storage, though upgrading that is a bit dear in price. On the other hand, it is also incredibly convenient, so perhaps it ought to be a bit pricey.
Then I found an unexpected use for my Turbine Points: Crafting.
When you craft, when you get into a particular tier you get the first batch of recipes for that tier right away, for free, no questions asked.
Generally the next set of recipes in a tier, which make equipment a couple of levels higher, is available from the crafting trainer for your profession.
But there seems to be, I have seen, two more sets of recipes. And for those you have to depend on drops or the auction house. Neither of those avenues are very satisfying. Drops are completely random off of sentient creatures and the auction house is… expensive. I hate to whine about price gouging… business is business… so let’s just say that there are people out there who seem determined to see how much the market will bear. That places them mostly out of my price range. When you have a gold and you wand six recipes that are up for a gold each, you’re probably going to end up doing without.
However, I found that some variation of those last two sets of recipes can be purchased through the LOTRO Store, and at pretty reasonable prices. I generally ignore the last set in a tier as it overlaps with the first set of the next tier, but the material requirements are pretty steep. But that third set, I went and snapped up the recipes I was missing.
And then there was crafting tools. You can buy the deluxe ones that give the best chance of a critical success through the LOTRO Store. That was a no-brainer. We had somebody in our Kinship who was making tools, but he disappeared (peers at Gaff through narrowed eyes) so we’re on our own.
So I found my sweet spots in the LOTRO Store.
And the game itself seems more lively. There are a lot more players running around in the starting and low level areas, what is essentially the free on all counts portion of the game. The chat channels have degraded somewhat. It isn’t Barrens chat yet, but you get at least one bozo a night that makes you wonder why you haven’t turned off OCC yet.
The instance group got into the Lone Lands about the time the business model changed, but a lot of people have caught up with us. People seem to either be okay spending some money on that as their first bit of paid for content, or they figured out that you can earn Turbine points in game to pay for it. The Lone Lands is only 350 Turbine Points, or less than half the price I paid for a 10 slot upgrade to shared storage, and you can earn 650 Turbine Points in the starting areas if you are diligent.
That will get you the Lone Lands and give you a start on the next area.
Other things have changed in the game, small things. The starting quests are a little different and if you are of the race of men, you get to meet Aragorn first thing.
The UI has been spiffed up a bit. The icons remain the same though. I’m not sure it is worth another attempt to make them better though. So many of us are used to the silly ones. There is a real art to making an icon that represents the concept you want to get across without becoming a literalistic parody of what you’re trying to say.
And I noticed that a lot of the vendor trash that drops from mobs has been renamed and sometimes given a different icon. The changed ones sound vaguely more useful, something you might actually be able to sell to a vendor. And some of them actually stack to 50 in your bags rather than the old stacks of 10.
But otherwise the game is pretty much the same. Turbine has been busy over the last three and a half years. And while it still does not have quite the same polished feel when it comes to mechanics like UI functionality and responsiveness, it is quite an improvement over how things felt back on day one.
Now if they could just make it so I don’t un-target the mob I am fighting if I accidentally click somewhere on the landscape, I’d be very happy.
How about you? Have you been back to Middle-earth since it went free to play?
[Addendum: Massively says things seem to be going well for LOTRO since the switch.]
Weathertop with a New Lineup October 7, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Instance Group, Lord of the Rings Online.Tags: Candaith, Instanbul (Not Constantinople), Lone Lands, Ost Guruth, Radagast the Brown, Riders on the Storm, Senile Dementia, Weathertop
4 comments
Saturday night found the regular Middle-earth group back in the game.
I had missed out the previous Saturday because… well… I was too damn tired to stay up late. Getting older ceased to be fun about 20 years ago.
Anyway, while I was away… well, while I was asleep… Earl, Enaldie, and Garfinkel ran around the Lone Lands a bit and killed spiders. If you know the Lone Lands, you know what I’m talking about.
This past week though, it was time for a change up.
I should learn my lesson. As with the the original set of instance group characters, I chose a rogue-like class, a Burglar in this case, and found it not really in line with my play style. And, as with the original set of characters, I ended up substituting in a heavy metal melee class character instead.
Back with the original group, Blintz was my rogue, but he was replaced by Vikund my paladin around level 40. And while we occasionally missed not having somebody along with the lockpick skill, Vikund went on to greater glory, hitting level 80 with the group, while Blintz still languishes around level 40.
Now it was time for Roderigo to go.
Replacing him was my champion, Sigwerd. Another nordic name, another heavy armor wearing melee class.
Sigwerd - Man Champion
The champion seems to be the closest match to the retribution pally when it comes to LOTRO classes, being melee dps focused with some good area attacks and able to take a punch.
Plus, we all know how much I love the champion’s skill icons!
So the lineup for the night was:
- Earlthecat – level 26 dwarf Guardian
- Garfinkel – level 27 elf Minstrel
- Sigwerd – level 28 human Champion
- Enaldie – level 28 elf Rune Keeper
And we thought it was about time we headed back to Weathertop.
The last time we tried to help Candaith sort out things on Amon Sul, it did not go so well. Heck, it didn’t go so well in the skirmish version either.
Now though, we had a few more levels. So it was off to Candaith’s camp, which is a happening place on a Saturday night lately.
Candaith's Watering Hole
We took the quest, Retaking Weathertop, to help move us along in the epic quest line. We were sadly behind in that regard. It was a bit of luck that Sigwerd happened to be at just that point in the quest line as well. So we met up with Candaith at the base of Weathertop.
Questing in the Rain
It is a good thing that Sigwerd had something akin to a real cloak, as it was suddenly raining in the Weather Hills and you hate for your armor to get rusty.
We followed the usual path up, let Candaith run off and do his thing, met up with him at the summit where he claimed he sprained his ankle or had rabies or some such. Anyway, he couldn’t join us for the final battle.
And a battle it was. While we were now above level, this is still an instance for a full fellowship of six players, and there was only four of us.
We ended up getting a little too spread out, which makes it tough on the tank to keep aggro when something gets past. With the final troll, things started coming apart. Sigwerd and Garfinkel felt the sting of defeat.
But Earl and Enaldie held on and managed to defeat the troll and pull off a victory.
Defeat and Victory
Candaith gave us a golf clap and sent us on our way with a one-way ticket to the Forsaken Inn. He was so eager to get rid of us that he let us use his extra fast horse. No doubt he was embarrassed by his part in the final battle.
There we were directed back up to Ost Guruth. It was a good thing that we all now have the fast mount from the LOTRO Store.
Cross country in the Lone Lands
There we had to meet the possibly mad Radagast the Brown. He has possibly one of the most expressive faces in the game… but it seems to express something to do with mental unbalance.
The White Hand stole the strawberry ice cream!
Radagast, along with half of Ost Guruth, had a little mission for us. It was off to the north in the midst of the undead. That area has a set of quests, most of which are flagged as solo, but which are much better done in a group. So we tore into the undead, slew them with abandon, surmounted their highest point, and got our wight supremacy merit badges.
Soon not a corpse had a nose to call its own!
And of course, the bagpipes came out. We had to go the extra mile to taunt the undead it seems.
That done, we were left with what Potshot calls the Bear/Boar/Wolf problem, wherein we have to go decimate the local fauna to satisfy the whim or larder stocking needs of some random yokel. This time it was various bear parts, various warg parts, and gore crow eyes. Those last are considered a delicacy in Evendim I hear.
We even headed over to smite some spiders, since it was found that Sigwerd was deficient in his spider slaying. Enaldie called it a night before we got stuck into the spiders, and it wasn’t too long before Sigwerd was caught up and we were loitering around Ost Guruth playing Riders on the Storm and Istanbul (Not Constantinople) on a corner hoping to collect some spare change from the locals. Bunch of tightwads, really.
Busking in Ost Guruth
And that was about all of Middle-earth we had in us for the night. Next week we’ll see what else Radagast has in store for us.
How Useful is the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor? October 6, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Hardware, Humor.Tags: complaining about Microsoft, Microsoft, Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor
9 comments
Not very.
I swear, some days it is like they don’t want to sell me a new operating system.
But let me pull back and tell my minor tale.
I thought I had better do some research into another aspect of the upgrade equation. I thought I had better look into how much software I am going to have to buy upgrades for in order to get going with Windows 7.
It is fun to talk about the hardware, and it cost there can add up, but you cannot ignore the software end of things either.
As in the past, Microsoft has a utility you can run on your system to help you with that information.
I remember past versions of that utility, used for operating systems long gone. It was a utility of negativity. There was the inevitable short list of items that were compatible, and then the huge, arm-length list of items of that were either known to be incompatible or were unknown. And unknown was always assumed to be incompatible.
But even with all the negativity, the utility at least told you something. You got a hint at what might work or might not.
So I grabbed the current utility, the Windows 7 Upgrade Advisor to see what it had to say.
I downloaded it, installed it, and ran it. It churned for about 10 minutes on my computer and then Microsoft’s Grand Software Vizier came up with its report.
The Magic Advisor Says...
Seven items total were mentioned.
Six were listed as fully compatible.
Four of those were from Microsoft.
One of them was the damn Upgrade Advisor. Glad to know that will still work after I upgrade!
And they weren’t really sure about Steam.
But none of the other applications on my machine was mentioned anywhere. Not a one.
You would think that World of Warcraft might have been deemed significant enough for notice. Or maybe Microsoft Office 2003. Have you heard of that before? Is it going to run on Windows 7?
Yes, it told me a few other things. It said my PC was capable of running Windows 7. I had figured that one out myself. And it told me it had never heard of our printer before. Who are these Epson people? How long have they been making printers?
Nice work there Microsoft. Really a bang up job.
I was invited to go to their compatibility web site and search for individual applications. You know, something you would expect this particular application to handle for me.
I tried that for a bit. It appears to serve as a showcase for companies to display the latest version of their software with no mention of software they might have been selling up to very recently. I’m looking at you Corel.
Well, I guess it is going to take a dive into the pool to tell me how deep the water really is.
Can We Get To Moria by December 7th? October 5, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in Blizzard, entertainment, Instance Group, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft.Tags: Cataclysm, Moria
11 comments
Because we’ll be hit by a cataclysm then.
A date that will live in infamy...
The release date has been announced and as sure as I’ll get out of bed tomorrow, the instance group will be headed back to Azeroth when the cataclysm hits.
One member of the group, who has been out due to simultaneously moving and having a baby show up, has declared he is staying off-line until the expansion goes live just so he is hungry for the re-roll of Azeroth.
Of course, the big question is, what should our path be when the expansion hits.
Do we carry on with our original alliance group, now sitting fat, rich, and happy in Dalaran?
Do we get the horde characters, mid-way through the Burning Crusade, back on the road?
Or do we roll up a fresh group and experience the new starting areas, the new class changes, and the new feel of Old Azeroth? And do we roll horde or alliance?
But Moria? I fear Moria won’t be in the cards again this year.
At least not for the group, and I wanted to go in there as a group.
I could still sprint ahead with Silinus. He’s level 40. I could say I’ve at least been there.
But exploring Moria will probably have to wait.
Ah, Lord of the Rings, ever second fiddle to those magic workers at Blizzard.
The Path to My Next System October 4, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Hardware, Lord of the Rings Online, World of Warcraft.Tags: BootCamp, CrossOver, Intel, Parallels, VMWare Fusion, Windows 7, Windows XP
25 comments
Like Zubon, I too am looking at my current computer system and trying to decide where to head next. My fun, or lack there of, with Civilization V is just in the category of “last straws” on this front. My current system has issues and I need to do something about it.
As I see it, I have four basic choices as to how I can go about upgrading. They are laid out below.
Upgrade Current System
If I could nail down my problems to just software, this would be the cheapest solution. While it is a few years old, the hardware I have still has decent specs.
I wouldn’t bother putting XP back on the drive if I were going to reinstall the OS. I would go pick up an Upgrade copy of Window 7 Professional and some more RAM, back everything up, and do the full reformat install.
Unfortunately, I am not totally convinced I have a software-only issue when it comes to my current rig. Have a couple of video cards die, have the system fail to reboot a couple of times (after the bios but before Windows), and see some red lights blinking every so often on the motherboard status readout and you begin to wonder if there isn’t flawed hardware at work.
I could hedge my bets by getting the full version of Windows 7 Professional, which I could then move to another machine, but my RAM investment would be totally wasted.
Maybe $300 total if I am lavish with my RAM purchase. $500 if I get the full, stand alone install of Win7.
Pros: Least expensive choice, know exactly what to buy, would be done in a day.
Cons: Strong suspicion that this will not fix the problem, leaving me to pursue one of the other choices instead.
Buy a New Windows System
This is how I have upgraded systems the last couple of rounds. You go online to your favorite purveyor of gaming oriented PCs, select what you want from a series of drop downs, given them your credit card number and in anywhere from 7-45 days, a new rig shows up on your doorstep.
The advantage is simplicity. A new machine shows up, you unplug the old one, plug in the new one, load your software, and off you go.
The problem is that somebody who is mildly informed as to what is what in the world of computer performance, it can be a frustrating experience making a decisions.
First there is the temptation to spend just a “few dollars more” on every component, which can quickly explode your budget. A faster CPU, a bigger hard drive, a better video card, and then a stronger power supply to supply the juice and suddenly you’re spending a fortune.
Then there is the vendor preferences. You try to configure the same system at a few sites so you can compare prices. Only site A doesn’t have the video card you really want. Site B has it, but their hard drive options are completely different. And site C has the video card, and the hard drive choices are better (although still different from A and B), but they seem to be totally gouging on the price of RAM and why did they choose THAT motherboard?
So you can end up getting past the problem you expect, an eye for parts that your wallet cannot support, only to have to compromise on things that were within your budget, but which you couldn’t get because the vendor in question didn’t offer it.
Likely will end up being $2,000 when all is said and done.
Pros: Fresh, new computer smell. As close to a plug and play experience as you’ll likely get
Cons: Cost, especially if you cannot keep your desires under control, and compromise, since I have yet to find a vendor that offers exactly what I want. Oh, and it always takes longer to get the system to you than you think and the damn case is always bigger than you think it is going to be.
Buy a New iMac
We like Apple at my house and in my family in general. More than one relative of mine hinted in a not-so-subtle way that I should get a job at Apple when I was laid off. I have had some sort of computer or device from Apple running regularly at home since 1983 and, until the great Mac crash of ’96, worked on Macintosh products. So there is an affinity in place already.
We have an iMac already, an older Intel model, that is the “public” computer in our home, out in the family room. This is what my daughter gets to use. If has worked well and has survived the perils of a young child who doesn’t always wash off her hands before she gets to the keyboard.
And there is much to recommend the current generation. I can get an Intel i7 processor along with the 27″ LCD display, plenty of RAM, all with a minimum of cords and clutter. And the Mac even runs most of the software I want to use.
Unfortunately, it won’t run everything. Lord of the Rings Online is a good example. So there would have to be some sort of method of running Windows in order to run all the software I want. That means installing another OS or finding some form of emulation.
There are several choices. There is BootCamp, Parallels, VMWare Fusion, CodeWeavers CrossOver Mac, and probably a couple others I’ve missed. But most of these tend to be more focused on non-gaming software. When I read, for example, that Parallels 6 is up to 40% faster in 3D graphics over the previous version, I am left wondering how bad it was before and is a 40% boost enough. It could still suck now.
Once we get Windows emulation involved, hard to see how this works out for much less than $3,000, list price.
Pros: We like Macs. Hardware simplicity. Big new monitor as part of the package. Dual OS fun. Friends at Apple who can get me an employee discount.
Cons: Still have to run Windows. Hardware simplicity because you get no choices. Hope you like that hardware, because there are no upgrades. Still burns a hole in the budget even with that standard 15% employee discount. And have you touched the back of an iMac after a couple hours of WoW? I wonder about cooling.
Build a New System
You can exactly what you want!
But first you have to figure out exactly what you want.
It has been a while since I last built a system and there are aspects to the whole process that have changed. Back in the day, cooling for a CPU would be an itty, bitty (by today’s standards) heatsink. Sort of a square hedgehog. Now though. Now they look like altars to strange technological gods. They bristle and are menacing, dwarfing the chips they cool, their fans buzzing with evil designs. And then there is liquid cooling, once seeming insane overkill, now offered not only in kits but by mainstream PC vendors as part of their configurations.
You can tell that I am worried about cooling, can’t you?
Still, I was a repair tech at one point in my career. There was a brief point in time where I had probably installed more post-assembly PowerBook 500 modems than anybody else in the world. I have the tools. I can do this.
I just have to fill in the blanks for the major parts.
Here is what I have so far:
OS: Windows 7 Professional 64-bit – I actually need some of the things that come with Professional. On the other hands, I won’t pay the $10 more for Ultimate because there isn’t anything it adds that I care about.
Motherboard: Gigabyte X58A-UD3R – Supports 9xx series Intel i7 chips, USB 3.0, 6.0GB/s SATA, and got high marks over at Firing Squad.
CPU: If I’m going to do this, I’m getting a CPU that is a serious upgrade. I am leaning towards the Intel Core i7-930 or i7-950 – Never been a fan of AMD. The i7-860 runs faster than either of those in Turbo mode, but you cannot count on that. Meanwhile the price spread between all three of these CPUs is about $30, depending on where you shop.
CPU Cooling: Here is where I need to do some research. Do I go for the spiked fortress of aluminum with a fan in the middle, or do I willingly put a container of liquid in the middle of my new computer. Heat is death to electronics, so I must choose wisely here.
Video Card: Some variation of the nVidia GTS 450 – Low power, low heat, low price, and all my high end video cards have died tragic deaths. Plus I can go SLI with that motherboard if I really need more GPU power.
RAM: 6GB of something. Maybe 12. Depends on pricing. You have to get it in sets of 3 DIMMs for optimum performance with the 9xx i7 chips.
Hard Drive: 1TB 6.0GB SATA would be ideal I suppose, but they are kind of rare on the ground and pricey. I am tempted to get a smaller 6.0GB/s drive just for the OS and the page file. We’ll see. No brands in mind really. But hard drives have been something of a commodity for a while now.
Optical Drive: Will scavenge from my current systems. I have my last two sitting around the house, which gives me 4 drives to choose from.
Power Supply: Something in the 800 watt range, just in case, unless prices are crazy.
Case: The toughest choice of all, really. You need to balance cooling, quiet, ergonomics, and size. And the field of choices is huge. A good friend of mine just went for the Cooler Master HAF 932, which certainly has a lot going for it. But it is a big ‘un.
Now the big benefit, aside from getting exactly the parts I want is that the total price will be less, since I will be doing all the work. Of course, that will mean first, figuring out what I want in all categories, then spending time doing price comparisons and such.
And then there is the anxiety that haunted me back when Potshot and I rebuilt the engine in my ’74 Plymouth Duster: When I put this all together, will it actually work?
Pros: You can get exactly what you want. Costs less than buying a pre-configured system. No shovelware on the drive.
Cons: Decisions, decisions. Price shopping like crazy. Wondering if I made the right decision. Hoping it all works together.
Making the Choice
So those are my basic, likely choices. I could throw some unlikely ones like, say, going to a Linus desktop configuration or upgrading to Vista, but neither of those are going to happen. So which route would you go?
Comments are welcome, unless you want to start a “Mac vs. Windows” debate. Good experiences with particular computer components are especially welcome.
Civ V – Some Progress October 3, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in entertainment, Other PC Games.Tags: 2K Games, Civilization, Civilization V, Sid Meier
7 comments
I thought I was on to something today that would help with my Civilization V problems.
After shutting down all unnecessary processes on the machine, I decided to run try altering the run properties for the game.
My logon account is already in the Administrator group, so I didn’t think that would change anything, but XP has an option to run without protection from unauthorized activity.
I unchecked that box, wondering if it would change anything.
Really, it is hard to say if it did, or if just random chance or some other action got things going, but things did get going better than ever.
I managed to play 89 turns.
I was far enough into the game that I was starting to learn something about playing.
Most Turns Ever
I was invested enough in the game that I will probably go back and try to play from one of the save points.
However, after turn 89 the game hung. Something in the executable was stuck in a loop as it was again driving the processor full blast, although only one of the core this time, but nothing was happening. I let it churn for about 10 minutes, then force quit the process.
Of course, I was unable to launch the game again after that.
There seems to be two hurdles to playing.
First, there is launching the game. This seems to get hung up on something, as the game ab ends four out of five times before I get to the main menu.
Then there is actually keeping the game going. The process gets hung up on something, probably falling through an unhandled exception over and over again to infinity. But what the trigger is for that, I have not yet determined. I’ve spent so little time actually getting to that error.
Still, there was a bit of progress today. At least Steam rolled over and is actually measuring my play time in approximate hours (2) rather than minutes.
Summer of Soda Sampling October 2, 2010
Posted by Wilhelm Arcturus in A Random Post, entertainment.Tags: Black Lemonade, Blue Cream Soda, Chocolate Soda, Egg Cream, Filbert's Banana, Forstie, Kickapoo Joy Juice, Leninade, Soda, Tootsie Rolls, Vanilla Soda
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Early in the summer we were at BevMo and came across their section of bottled soda. Given that we weren’t planning much else for the summer I suggested that we have a soda sampling event.
We ended up picking 10 bottled sodas, driven more by whim and attractive labels than any systematic approach. We put them in the fridge out in the garage and, over the course of the summer, pulled them out one by one to give them a try.
I’ve ranked them here, though there was some disagreement over the ranking. But, being the person who is putting together the post, I get the final word.
In ascending order of likelihood of us purchasing again in the future, here are the sodas.
Sodas Ranked 6 through 10
10. Black Lemonade
Distributed by the people at RealSoda.com, this drink certainly lives up to the “black” part of the name. As you look at it in a glass, the center is an inky black, while around the edges there is a hint of color, as though it is trying to escape the darkness.
Or maybe it is trying to escape the flavor.
Not content to go to extremes for color, they also went over the top on the flavor front, with a very sour version of lemon. No sweetening for you!
While the lemon is authentic, it was too bitter for the whole family and thus ranked last.
9. Choco Fizz Chocolate Soda
Chocolate and soda are two flavor mediums that never quite work together for me. There was an outburst of chocolate sodas in the late 80s that you might remember if you are old enough. But it was a pretty quick outburst, so you might have missed it even if you are the right age.
This was a reminder as to why that rise of the chocolate sodas was so brief. There is simply something unwholesome about a carbonated chocolate drink. It lacks creaminess.
And this soda really tasted like liquid Tootsie Roll, and we have long debated what flavor a Tootsie Roll really is, because it certainly isn’t chocolate.
This was rejected by everybody but myself after the first sip. I gamely finished my glass, but I wasn’t going back for seconds. My apologies to the people at Zuberfizz, but this just wasn’t our thing.
8. Jack Black’s Blue Cream Soda
Blue cream soda is the most mis-understood of the cream sodas. Blue just isn’t a color that suggests the same flavor to everybody. And so you get some that think raspberry is the way to go. Others follow the snow cone tradition and go for a bubble gum flavor.
Jack Black (and I don’t know if it is that Jack Black) appears to have decided that color and carbonation were what really mattered. It was very blue and fizzy like no other, but the flavor was ambiguous. It was almost the opposite of the black lemonade, which a very strong, if very sour, lemon flavor.
Here there might have been some bubblegum, or some raspberry, or perhaps a touch of mint. It was hard to distinguish. The carbonation alone was overwhelming the flavor.
There were no strong negative reactions to this soda, but nobody wanted seconds either.
7. Jeff’s Vanilla Soda
An attempt to put a New York egg cream in a bottle. Heresy to some, I am sure. This being the vanilla version, you had to really like vanilla to partake. I am, apparently the only one in the house that fits that bill. I finished off my glass, and then had to finish off everybody elses. None went to waste, so it ranks above the previous three, but even I wasn’t clamoring to go out and buy some more. Information about this soda is available at Get Creamed, which certainly has a Times Square sound to it… 1980s Times Square.
6. Filbert’s Banana Soda
From Filbert’s Root Beer Company, this is banana soda.
And banana it is. It has a very strong, deep, rich banana flavor. Almost an banana liquor in texture.
Universally praised for its flavor, nobody could finish more than a very small glass of it. It is too rich. A whole 12 ounce bottle might last me a week at my maximum rate of consumption.
Still, you cannot argue with the banana flavor. It might make a good base for a banana milkshake.
Sodas Ranked 1 through 5
5. Leninade
We have here the victory of socialist style over substance, a true metaphor for the fall of communism.
I picked this particular soda, drawn to the slogans on the bottle like a sophomore poly-sci student. And such slogans! The bottle says:
Join The Party
Get Hammered & Sickled
LENINADE
A taste worth standing in line for!
Drink Comrade! It is this or the gulag!
Surprisingly Satisfying Simple Soviet Soda
Misha, chill down this bottle & chill out!
Our 5-Year Plan: Drink a bottle a day for five years and become a hero of socialist flavor.
All of this on a clear bottle of a pink-ish red liquid and featuring a hammer a sickle, a bust of Lenin, and some Cyrillic lettering.
And the flavor? Sort-of grapefruit-like in a proletarian sort of way. Drinkable, but no worker’s paradise.
Worth it for the bottle.
4. Sprecher’s Puma Cola
This is a contentious choice. My daughter ranked this number one, but I am writing the blog post, and for me it only makes it to number four. (The picture shows it elsewhere in the lineup, more proof of our rankling over this issue.)
Sprecher has a decent cola here, something not easy when going caffeine free, with a heavy cinnamon secondary flavor. For my daughter, this was a winning combination. For me, it was Safeway Cragmont cola from the 1980s, or two flavor revisions ago for the Safeway house brand soda.
3. Frostie Cherry Limeade Soda
I should have photographed all of the bottles full, but I only thought about it after we were well into drinking them. This soda is a beautiful red color. And it tastes pretty good. The cherry and lime flavors go surprisingly well together. This is the point on the list where hit sodas we might purchase again.
2. Kickapoo Joy Juice
Another soda living on a retro image. Claiming to be “The Original Dogpatch Recipe” and featuring Al Capp-like artwork on the label, it is essentially a variation on Mountain Dew. Mountain Dew is a popular brand at our house, and this is close enough to it, only in bottled form. It tastes better than the current Mountain Dew in a can, but not quite as good as the Mountain Dew Throwback that Pepsico has been selling this year. When Throwback is finally gone, I might go looking for another bottle of this.
1. Orange Crush
I decided we had better have a ringer in the group, a soda I know would go down well with the family. Well, the rest of the family. I’m not big on orange as a flavor, having a citrus allergy thing going on, but my wife and daughter were all over this. We went back and bought a six pack of bottles and then my wife started picking up cans at the grocery store for treats. It tastes nearly as good out of the can I am told. So while hardly fair, this was the #1 choice.
And that was our sampling.
Next time I think we’re going to head down to the Mexican grocery store and grab some strange candy. I have a strange fascination with those chicken flavored lollipops.
