Today I lost a close friend...

Today I lost a good friend. 

We have been so close for so long, there wasn't a day gone by in the last 5 or so years, that we didn't have intimate face to face contact, usually all throughout the day, sometimes for hours at a time. 

My day pretty much didn't start unless we visited, first thing in the morning, cup of coffee, and a little time with my friend... 

And my day didn't end until we said goodnight at the end of a long day of being together. 

Today Google murdered my friend, for no good reason at all... 

RIP iGoogle,  

Never Forget. 

#igoogle 
#ripigoogle

HP ENVY 15-j059nr WHQL Nvidia Drivers

Another small update on my journey with the HP ENVY 15-j059nr;

I went ahead and installed the latest WHQL Nvidia generic mobile graphics card drivers, since they were many many versions ahead of the official HP drivers for this laptop.

So far the new drivers are working great, I cannot cite any issues with the update, and the new drivers offer many more options, and better performance.

So for anyone out there with this machine, go ahead and get those NVIDIA updates!


As a side note, I have noticed random audio stuttering for very brief moments randomly while using the laptop.  This has been reported elsewhere on the internet as well.  I have yet to get to the bottom of this, and it still happens with the updated Nvidia GFX Drivers.


*EDIT 10/1

Updated to the latest BETA nvidia drivers, 331.40, so far so good.

2013 HP ENVY 15 - Intel Wireless N 2230 - Wifi Drops randomly

Apparently the Intel Wireless N 2230 wifi card, that came included in the HP ENVY 15-j059nr, has some known issues with its Windows 8 Drivers.

I started experiencing random network drop outs while connected to a WiFi N network, I tried 3 different WiFi routers/networks, same result.  

Drivers are all up to date, so I did a little searching around and found this ;

https://communities.intel.com/thread/38676?start=0&tstart=0

This thread is full of people with all different makes and models of laptops, all with the Intel Wireless N 2230 installed, all having the same exact problem.

While there are a few various recommendations in there as to a temporary fix, it sounds like ultimately Intel is working on a driver that works right.

What I did that seems to have made the network connectivity issues go away, is to DISABLE Wireless N mode for the Intel 2230 card in device manager.

Since doing this I have not had any drops in connectivity, at the expense of the high speeds of Wireless N, which I am not so sure I really got anyways.

Hopefully Intel gets this Windows 8 driver issue sorted out for the Intel 2230 Wifi N card.

I have heard that this issues goes away in Windows 8.1 Preview, so there is hope!


** Update 10-18-2013

I went ahead and did the official Windows 8.1 Update, and the problem seems to have disappeared, I am back operating on Wireless N mode, and have not had a single drop in 8 hours.

The setting reverted itself, as I believe windows installed new drivers for the card.

** Update 11-1-13

I have had a couple random WiFi drops since the update, though not terribly often, maybe once every couple days I have to disable and re-enable my WiFi card.

HP ENVY 15-j059nr notes and observations.

Buying the latest and greatest brand new laptop you can get your hands on is always an interesting experience.

On the one hand you get a device that should have nice new drivers, and official support, on the other hand, since the actual user base is so low, there is very little actual useful information available about it and any problems you may have...

So with that in mind, I am making this post in an effort to put a little more actual end-user information out there about the new HP laptop I just acquired.

Laptop in question - HP ENVY 15-j059nr 

This machine belongs to the brand new line up of HP's ENVY 15 series.  

Features include the newest 4th gen "Haswell" i7 CPU, switchable graphics (nvidia and intel), 1080p screen, and an MSATA SSD cache drive.

Initial observations, this thing is nice and lite-weight, and quite thin for the power inside.

I was expecting the "metal" case to be "metal" all the way around the laptop, but it is a black plastic on the bottom of the laptop.  Also I was expecting the metal finish to look like metal, to me it looks more like silvery plastic, not at all like the pure metal feel and look of the HP TM2t-2100 I have.

Runs very cool compared to my previous i7 based laptop (Toshiba x505-q880).

Now on to some problems I have ran into so far;

Upon initial boot up, I let it get all it's windows updates, uninstalled Norton, and then proceeded to do the HP software and driver updates using the HP Support Assistant tool that came pre-installed.

This had a handful of updates, one of which was a BIOS update.

I let the updates happen, and it prompted me to reboot for the bios update, which I did.

The BIOS update completed normally, and rebooted the machine.

At this point Windows 8 would not boot.  

The laptop would show the HP logo on the screen, then almost immediately flash a Windows error screen (saying something about BAD COMPUTER INFORMATION) and would reboot.

It boot looped about 5 times, then the HP Recovery wizard took over and tried to repair windows, and failed.

At this point all I could do was preform a system restoration using the recovery partition and tools included on the laptop.

This led me to a cool discovery, the built in recovery options included with the laptop, include an "Install Clean Image" option, this option installs a clean install of Windows 8, with only drivers and HP software installed, no Norton, no Wildfyre Games, none of the junky bloatware, but all of the drivers you need!

Anyhow, preforming the recovery fixed windows, (de-bloated even!), and kept my BIOS update in place, things have been running well since.

I read a couple random discussions talking about audio skipping randomly, I have had this happen once so far, while listening to Google Play Radio, I attempted to do a speed test at speedtest.net, the playing audio stuttered and skipped for about 1 second while loading the flash speed test, I have not been able to reproduce this yet.

Here is a useful link to a forum post about changing the SSD cache drive into a bootable SSD drive, I intend on doing this myself soon;

http://forum.notebookreview.com/hp-envy-hdx/729085-envy-15t-j000-msata-ssd-hdd-fresh-install-msata-boot-drive.html

In summary;

So far, a good laptop, thin, light, cool, powerful, has a "Clean Image Restore" option in recovery that installs a clean Windows 8 install with drivers and no bloatware.  

Had strange issue when preforming BIOS update, after preforming BIOS update Windows 8 boot looped, and would not load.

Preforming a system recovery fixed windows, and kept BIOS update in place.

Some questions I still have;

How do I actually switch between the two video cards?

The HP TM2T that I have also has switchable video cards, but with ATI and Intel, and on that machine it is very clear which card is active and which is de-activated.  On this laptop I cannot find anything anywhere that says what card is in use, or anything that lets me pick, they both just appear active.


* EDIT  -  This link pretty much explains that the way Nvidia does switchable graphics is completely automatic, and does not have user control.  http://www.nvidia.com/object/optimus_technology.html

More to come as it is uncovered.

Questions about the laptop?

What do Cisco Switches and Lord of the Rings have in common?

While replacing a failed power supply in a Cisco 3750 Switch, we noticed a strange figure etched into the motherboard.

I guess Frodo Baggins is pretty good with networking, or maybe he just keeps the hacker orcs at bay.

Moded HanaHo "HotRod" Arcade Controller combined with modified PS3 controller guts and Arduino.

A while back I decided to gut one of the extra "Six-Axis" PS3 controllers I had, and set it up in such a way that I could either be used as a device to rapidly create custom controllers for various games, or as a "gateway" to control a PS3 with a computer/micro controller.



After gutting the controller, and soldering leads from all the buttons out to jumper wires, I created a little box to put it all in, and give me some basic controls for navigating menus and such, with the device itself.



In the picture above you can see the basic buttons on the device for Up/Down/Left/Right/X/O/Start/PS, the control buttons needed to do simple system navigation tasks, but not for actual playing.

The other things on the box are the tap points that I can connect external switches, or a micro controller to, and thus rapidly prototype new controllers, or experiment with computer based control.

The first thing I crafted using this box was a controller specifically made for Pinball, in particular the game "Zen Pinball" on the PS3.



This worked really well. It was crafted in one day using some thick plexiglass and a bunch of arcade buttons from one of my previous projects. I basically hooked up all the buttons to the tap points on top of the previous box, which was inside of the pinball controller.

The only real problem with this setup, was that it blocked all access to my taps into the controller, so essentially it was now ONLY a pinball controller, that could not be used for anything else unless disasembled.

So after some time I decided that wasn't good enough. I needed to still be able to experiment with controlling this thing through an Arduino or computer, AND play Pinball, and hell why not some fighting games, and clasic arcade titles.

So I broke out my trusty Hanaho Hotrod arcade controller. Opened it up, and added the PS3 Controller guts to it, wired it up, made a few holes to run wires out, and its ready for action.



Essentially I now have an awesome arcade style controller for the PS3, that also has the added functionality of tap points on the back of the unit, to plug in other external switches, or control via micro controller.

Ultimately I want to hook an Arduino to it, and program combos in fighting games, or the perfect timing in a golf game, etc etc...

An arcade control panel for PS3, with computer control, wooo!

The Other Side of the Digital TV Transition

Everyone has at least heard of it. The transition to digital television is coming fast. Well here is a peek into the other side of the equation, the upgrades that broadcasters have to do in order to comply with the new rules.

With all the fun stuff I get to have my hands in with my job, its easy to forget that most people don't get to ever get to see a lot of it.

With that in mind, I bring to you, the first, in what will hopefully be a series of videos, that at least give you a peek at the other side of things.

What Kind of Fish is this?

I have had this fish in an aquarium for about 6 years, literally since he was less then an inch long, and totally transparent. At the beginning I thought he was probably a Bluegill, then as he grew, he looked less and less like one.

I have done some looking around and found some pictures of "Green Spotted Sunfish" and they look pretty similar to him, so I have pretty much been referring to him as such.

But I really don't know for sure if that is what he is, and other people have come up with their own ideas as to what he is.

Any fish experts out there?

Slow Scrolling in Firefox 3, Ubuntu, intel graphics

FireFox and a even Epiphany were scrolling super slow on certain sites on my EEE PC 1000h.

This was with both Ubuntu 8.04, and the 8.10 beta.

One in particular was ign.com. It was almost unusable.

After a lot of digging, I found the key, at least for my situation.


In your xorg.conf file (/etc/X11/xorg.conf) add the follwing in the Device section.

Option "AccelMethod" "exa"
Option "MigrationHeuristic" "greedy"


From what I gather, "exa" is the new way for X to handle accerlation for intel chips.

What I know for sure, is that my firefox scrolls nice and fast again, and alot of other wiered graphical anomalies with compiz have stopped happening alltogether.

I am happy!

Stuff and things.

In my never ending search for electronic whats-its and doo-hickys that make me smile, I have developed an interest in electric powered vehicles, of all sizes and types.

As much as I would like to convert a full sized car, or motorcycle, realistically that is a ways out of reach for me, and most people. However with the recent boom in electric powered scooters, and the relatively high availability of cheap scooter parts online, I figure a highly modified electric scooter could be a lot of fun to build and ride.

So I splurged and picked up a Schwinn s500 electric scooter at Walmart for $199, and immediately began modifying it.

So far I have only done the simple step of over-volting it to 36v instead of the stock 24v.

So far it seems to be able to cope with the additional 12v just fine, and has made it an entirely different ride all together, top speed is higher, torque is higher, its just a lot more enjoyable.

The addition of 12 more volts, for a total of 36, makes for roughly 750 watts at the motor, and it sure makes a difference!

The next mod I will do, will be to eliminate the "soft start" feature, which basically delays the throttle input, to ramp it up ultra slowly. Probably a safety feature for kids, but is annoying more then anything else.

Pictures soon!

Full Tank Shot

Stomatella

Unknown Hitchhiker Sponge

I got the final pieces of live rock in place a few days ago, some Tonga Branch that has some nice character, and lots of Coraline algae. Unfortunately it has some other algae forms on it as well.

I decided also to push my luck and get 2 hermit crabs all ready. The sheer amount of life and food sources on my live rock, and the stability of my water thus far, made me feel pretty comfortable in the choice.

Well I can say without a doubt, Hermit crabs not only can climb live rock, but can pull out sources of food that I cant even see in the rocks, till its dug out and swirling in a cloud around him, amazing!

I cant believe how agile they are, they look so clumsy!

8 Gallon Oceanic BioCube Log

I have always had an interest in marine aquariums, but never decided to take the plunge. I recently decided to get my feet wet.

I, like many, am coming from the the freshwater world. Most recently I have gotten away from the tropical freshwater world, and more toward the native North American aquarium setup. My FW tank is a 55 gallon, that currently houses a Green Spotted Sunfish, as seen here;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wgueqqSQwpc


Anyway, I have always been interested in the marine aquarium, have done a lot of reading, and recently decided to set up a nano reef in my office at work, where I spend most of my waking hours. I figure I will be able to keep up on the tank much more efficiently while bored at work, then tired at home.

On to the setup;

8 Gallon "Oceanic BioCube"

• BioBalls removed
• All 3 chambers flooded, for future refuge
• Small heater in third chamber
• Temporarily using stock filter cartridge
• Filter floss in top strainer of second chamber

Stock BioCube Lighting

• 18 Watt True Actinic 03 Blue
• 18 Watt 10,000K Daylight
• Dual .75 Lunar Blue Moon Glow LED

Additional Equipment

• Rio 90 80 gph Powerhead/Pump (for additional flow)

Sand and rock

• AragAlive Packaged Live sand.
• 6.5 pounds of Fiji Live Rock (very lively)

Tank start date June 20th, 2008.

I am not sure if I am lucky, or if it is more common place then it seems, but my favorite LFS has a large assortment of Live Rock that has been in their tanks for many months, many pieces are very purple, and have TONS of life. I picked up roughly 6.5 pounds of some very purple pieces, with the intention of getting a bit more at one of the other LFS, for some diversity.

So far the 6.5 lbs I bought initially have been in the tank for almost 5 days. A huge amount of life has been noted. I have seen at least 2 of those type of slug/snails with the half shell on them (stomatella or something?), a couple very small translucent shrimp, a small snail of some kind, TONS of small worms of many types, lots of small feather dusters with red stripes, and what appears to be a rapidly expanding bright yellow sponge of some kind.

There seems to be some sections of the purple coraline algae turning white, indicating die off, but as more white appears, some of the deepest reds and purples are now starting to show up in small areas. The sand bed is beginning to get some color and debris, indicating the beginnings of growth in the sand bed.


So far water quality has been pretty good, and seems to be indicating that the live rock is certainly doing its job already.

24 hours after addition of live rock Ammonia test read somewhere between 0 and .25, Nitrites - 0, and Nitrates 5-10 ppm.

Two days later and the Ammonia dropped to 0, Nitrites still 0, and Nitrates went up to 10 - 20 ppm.

I am assuming the initial bit of ammonia was from some immediate die off, and the raise in nitrates shortly after, is the remaining life cleaning up.


Pictures on the way!

Sirius Stiletto mods, tips, and experiments, Part 1.

My first annoyance with the device, was that you could not have the included antenna headphones plugged in at the same time as the charging cable. The plastic piece that plugs in for the headphones, hangs over the edge of the plug much further then it needs to, and because of this it makes it impossible to have both plugs in.

This design is probably on purpose, so that you basically have to by a dock to get around it.

Well, I decided to get around it with a Dremmel.

Basically the headphone plug has a lot of extra plastic around it on each side. All I had to do was remove about a centimetre from the side closest to the power plug. I used a large rigid wafer type cutting disk, I used it to cut initially, but did most of the work using it as a grinder, slowly grinding away the plastic.

The one thing you will want to watch out for is the little metal hook that comes out the side to hold the whole assembly in the Stiletto. Do not grind or cut this.

Also do this process slowly, and check it often to see if it will fit it yet. You DO NOT want to go any further cutting/grinding then you have to in order to get it to fit. Otherwise you will find that the clip no longer has anything to push against to stay in place.

So it worked beautifully, and I now can simultaneously have the DC power adapter, the included antenna headphones, and some additional headphones, or line out, all directly on the Stiletto, no dock. This works on the both the Stiletto 2 and Stiletto 100.

This is handy for me, because I have a few places I use the Stiletto throughout the day, but I do not want to buy 3 docks, at 50 bucks a piece, I would end up spending more on docks then I did for the Stiletto 100!

Sirius Stiletto tweaks, mods, and experiments intro.

When my room mate got a Stiletto 2, the first thing I thought was, "I wonder how many mods are out there for it".

I was pretty surprised to find virtually no information on even basic mods, which in reality, was all I was looking for.

So the next few posts will be just some of my tips, experiments, and a basic modification or two, of the Stiletto 2 and also the Stiletto 100.

PAiA Fatman Analog Synthesizer

The Fatman is a DIY, midi controlled, analog synthesizer kit from PAiA.

Essentially you get a bag full of resistors, capacitors, potentiometers, IC's, a PCB and some other odds and ends, and put it all together following the instructions. This project requires some patience, a still hand, and lots of beer.

I have read of people stretching out the build over the course of a month or longer, but not I. I had this thing together after about 3 days/nights of nothing but soldiering.

There is a certain sense of pride when you build it yourself, and it works correctly. I highly recommend PAiA products if you are interested in electronics, as well as music.

One problem I ran into initially, was with the power supply. The "wallwart" style transformer it comes with is an AC to AC adapter, not AC to DC like most you have around the home. My original power supply was not providing any voltage, I noticed it was 12V 2A, and just assumed it was DC. I found a 12V 2A "wallwart" transformer I had laying around, and plugged it in, of course it was DC, not AC. The unit did power up, sort of. The LED's were doing some strange things, and there was a weird constant drone sound coming from it, that was not affected by any of the potentiometers.

Anyhow, after emailing PAiA's tech support, I got a prompt reply, that nailed it right on the head, of course, the DC vs AC PSU.

A year and some days...

It has been over a year since I have really even thought about my attempt at some sort of a coherent blog. Most things talked about in here have come, gone, and in some cases come again.

"Nvidia Geforce 6800GT Super Cooling"

OLD - Went great, had no problem with it. Cooling was definitely more efficient.

NEW - Now have an Geforce 8800 GTX that I would like to get after market cooling for.

"My quest for making a "Gaming Pod"

OLD - Gaming pod thing came together, however a bit differently than the example images. Worked great for racing games, used for many months.

NEW - Didn't work that well for much else, now is outside rusting.


"Ubuntu, Linux for all"

OLD - Used Ubuntu 6.06 for a few months, worked great. I ended up needing windows on the laptop for various reasons, and completely removed it.

NEW - Ubuntu 7.04 (Feisty Fawn) is not only back on the same laptop, but is also dual booting on an additional work laptop.


"The Truth"

OLD - Apple sucked.

NEW - Apple still sucks.


"Computer license and registration please."

OLD - People that can barley operate a microwave, have computers.

NEW - To make matters worse, they now have Vista.


"The suffocation of MMORPG's and the Rise of the SuperCade"


OLD - SuperCade was born.

NEW - SuperCade was robbed for parts, then reborn, then salvaged from again, and reborn again, and again.




So things have changed, and yet remained the same.

Such is life.

Geforce 6800GT Super Cooling

CardMod01
Originally uploaded by ModestOne.

While cleaning the dustbunnies from my videocard's stock cooling setup, I decided to pop off the stock heatsink/fan assembly and have a look around. I found a very sloppy thermal paste application, and horrible pads for the ram.

I decided since this card will eventually be water cooled, and the stock stuff removed, I may as well come up with my own aircooled solution. Hopefully it will preform quite a bit better than the stock cooler.

Tonight is the testing night, hopefully it doesnt blow up.

My quest for making a "Gaming Pod"

I have wanted to have a semi enclosed "pod" specifically for computer usage/gaming for a long time now. The idea has been thrown around many many times, and has always seemed like something that would be easy to do, and have a great benefit. However its just one of those things I have not gotten around too. Now that I have a full sized arcade, I need a "cockpit" like enclosure as well!

I want to design it in such a way, that it is not only great for gaming, but also can make for a productive workstation as well. The main objectives? A semi enclosed environment, that can remove unwanted distractions, as well as act as a sound buffer. Full access to all types of control/computer input that would come to be expected in a workstation, and gaming environment.

Anyways, these are some photos from across the net of a particular design I like. While it is not enclosed, it can be made to pretty easily.

Dual monitors in Ubuntu

On my laptop I go from using dual monitors during the day, to just the laptop display at night. In Windows this usually happens pretty seamlessly. However Ubuntu does not seem to have a very evolved interface for setting up and using dual screens. I had to do a little digging to find the necessary information to get everything how I wanted it.

The requirements were;

• Dual Screens (duh)
• An "extended" desktop, not "cloned"
• Automatic detection of monitors, and automatically set up X windows for single or multi
  

I got most of these things working within short order, but getting automatic detection / configuration took a little more looking. I am going to try to include all the information required here, but will also link off to the pages that I found the bits of info.

The "xorg.conf" file, located in "/etc/X11/" is the main config file for the display system of Xorg. This file contains the information for monitors, video cards, X screens, and the instructions on how to make them all work together. The first thing most people should do is plug in their second monitor and run "sudo xorgconfig". This should make X scan for hardware and update the Xorg file accordingly. This way all the info needed for your two monitors and video devices will be in there. It will probably be cloned, and it defiantly will not auto detected/adjust at boot.

unfortunately that step did not detect my additional monitor on my IBM Thinkpad, however it did work for my co-worker's laptop. Try it out and see what you get. I had to manually enter the information for my monitor.

I am not going to go into full detail on how to get all of this working, instead I am going to link to the pages that I used to get what was needed, and supply my own config files for use/examination. This way I don't have to re-hash what they already go through.

This page here has a very good xorg.conf file, and a guide to the file. Here you will learn how xorg.conf works, and what means what. This xorg.conf file is almost identical to mine.

This page here has lots of information, a little ways down is information about dual monitors, and below that is a guide on getting what is needed for auto detection of the monitors. This page also contains the script and packages needed to get it all working.

The auto-detection relies on a couple small packages, and a simple script. It also requires that you make two extra xorg.conf files. One for single screen setup, one for multiple screens. Mine are named "xorg.conf.single" and "xorg.conf.multi". You then register the script as a startup script that. It runs before X windows, and checks through the "read-edid" package to see if there is a second monitor hooked up or not. It then moves over the appropriate xorg.conf file to replace the last used one.

The script will need to be edited to indicate your two xorg.conf files, and their location. All of this information is available through that last page.

While this may seem complicated it really isn't to bad. I do however, hope that the Ubuntu developers incorporate something like this in their next release!

Ubuntu, Linux for all

So I have decided to jump back into Linux, with the intention of really only messing around a bit, and seeing how some things have come along in the many years since I used it exclusively. Ubuntu has changed all my "intentions".

I intended to partition my laptop out so that I could dual boot from there, play around, and be back into Windows when I inevitably get frustrated trying to make things work that just don't want to play nice in Linux. So I went ahead, reformatted, partitioned out a small section of my drive for Linux, and installed Windows on the rest. I then proceeded to decide what distribution of Linux to use, and ultimately decided on Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper Drake).

After going through the VERY nice install procedure for Ubuntu, I prepared my self for the inevitable, at least a couple hours trying to get sound to work, or WiFi to work, or networking, or video, like I almost allays had to do in the past with Linux.

To my complete surprise, I heard the Ubuntu start up sound. "Well that's a good sign", I thought to myself. I then started thinking about how much of a pain it was going to be to get Linux drivers for my IBM Internal WiFi card. Only to look up by my clock and see that Ubuntu apparently has already jumped online through my WiFi and found 3 system updates ready for download. WHOA! Not only did it get my card configured, and working properly, without any input from me, but it also has an automatic update feature! Awesome.

So far so good with Ubuntu. Seems to be a very refined Linux desktop. It is clear that they are trying to bring Linux to the masses, and are doing a great job at it. There are still some things to learn with Linux if you are converting from Windows, with no Linux experience. But with Ubuntu, it takes care of all the pain in the ass things, and lets you learn the parts that are fun and interesting.

Expect to see more posts about Ubuntu in the near future!

The Truth

*Comic by Ctrl-Alt-Del

"Computer license and registration please."

Some people may believe that being "computer illiterate" is a victimless crime, but I am here to dispel this belief, once and for all. I will say however, being computer illiterate, and also not having a computer, is much less dangerous.

The problem lies in the fact that most people that do not believe they have time to spend learning how to properly use a computer, also believe that the rest of the world that does know how to use a computer, is forever in debt to them, and therefore must act as their personal slave of technology. It almost seems as though the ideology is that they would rather spend their time talking to tech support, then actually exploring/learning/using the device they bought. Now you may say, "But James, don't people learn things when they call tech support?", and the simple answer is "no". People seem to click their brains off when they call for help. Suddenly the person is unable to make any decisions for themselves, let alone even process what they are seeing on screen. They must now have extremely detailed descriptions/instructions on how to close the active window!

So, we have now determined that computer illiterate people effect those in the IT field. However this "effect" is minor, and some would argue is "part of the job". So lets look a little closer at how this all pans out.

There are people that legitimately need tech support for the products that they own. However the bulk of Internet related, phone service calls, go from "Tech Support" to "Computers 101" in the blink of an eye. Instead of troubleshooting a supposed "internet problem", suddenly you find yourself teaching someone how to use bookmarks, or how to set up email rules in Outlook, or giving a lecture on spyware and spam, the list goes on and on. The main problem with this scenario, is that troubleshooting problems with an internet connection is a relatively basic procedure, with minimal variables, and the problem can be determined quite quickly in most cases. This all falls apart however, when the person needing tech support, suddenly also needs a personal computer tutor.

So what is the end result of all this? Besides frustrated phone tech's, and lots of time on the phone? I believe it has been one of many contributing factors to businesses outsourcing phone support over-seas. As more and more people that are unfamiliar with technology are getting involved with it, this problem intensifies. Suddenly service centers are needing to double and triple their staff, or offer less effective tech support, with more on hold time. In general, if all calls to a given tech support call center, actually had a legitimate problem, and both ends of the phone had people that have a basic understanding of their respective computers, then tech support call centers would be drastically smaller, and more effective.

Of course in the real world, it is a lot easer to pay a whole building of people from India to do your job, and for a lot less. The companies don't care, they are paying less for support then ever, and don't have to listen to you complain about it, because they don't even run the show.

Obviously there are many, many, many reasons for outsourcing jobs. I believe this is one reason for the large scale move over of tech support related jobs. It is a sad truth.

So what will come first, a required license (or training at least) to operate a computer on the internet, or a couple generations of people using computers from childhood?

The suffocation of MMORPG's and the Rise of the SuperCade

rant/

I have been into gaming, on and off, for most of my life. If you would have asked me 5 years ago where I thought my gaming future would go, I would have seen nothing but MMORPG's in store. However as of late, I have found that I don't get the same sense of "awe" that I once was infused with through the likes of Ultima Online. That feeling of adventure, that the world around you is alive with people, just waiting to create new experiances with eachother.

Is this a product of getting older, and not finding joy in the same things? Or is it the over decline in innovation and progress in MMORPG's. Since my long bout with Ultima Online addiction, I have played a variety of more current MMORPG's. I have played the WOW, Anarchy Online, Guild Wars, Redmoon, Legend of Mir, Project Entropia, and while I have not played EQ, I have been around it enough to know more than the average non player.

While I have gotten into all of these games in varrying degrees, there is one common thread. I get bored with the pre built worlds, pre built experiances, pre built friends and enemies. They come and go, with the same "static" feel, allways slightly different, but allways the same. This has led me down the same path each time. Have some fun, like some of the new things, then loose all motivation to repeat the same things I have done the last 8 years in past MMO's.

Ultima Online, I belive, is the one MMORPG that has a fully dynamic feel to it. Perhaps I feel that way because I have allways played on player ran shards, which give complete control (or lack of it) of all parts of the game, to the players. Because of this fact, I see UO as living on forever in the player ran MMORPG world.

However, as it is now, I do not play Ultima Online, or any other MMO for that matter. I have found my gaming bliss as of late, to come from the past. When games were valued for their sheer enjoyment factor, and not all the extra frills. When games HAD to be fun, at least enough to convince hundereds of teenagers to dump all the quarters they had in, just to see what was next, or get that high score. This my friends, is the true foundation for the current gamming industry.

There is something about that golden age in gaming that calls to me. I have had more fun trying to beat my friends score's in the likes of Galaga, Gradius, and Joust, (to name a very select few), then I can remember having in my entire time of killing Murlocks and Bandits. There is just something about gathering together around the dull glow of an arcade, and competing to see who's the best at staying alive. All the while with full social interaction and tactile feedback from the people around you.

These games didn't need dual 3 ghz processors, or the latest $700 video card, or a cell proecessor. They survived on the fact that they are great fun, and highly competitive. It is all to common these days for the main selling point of a game being sheer graphics. The game looks great, but plays like a bucket of rocks. To which I ask myself "Why not just watch a CG movie" as I get 100% in the third bonus round in Galaga.

Well, ranting and raving aside, having an Arcade at home, that has an unlimited amount of classic arcade games, is pure gaming nirvana. Of course there is some satisfaction knowing you built it yourself as well.


/rant

Vacation 2

So theres a pretty sizable difference between Southern Utah, and Northern California. Besides the given things, like cost of living, average wages, and other things of this nature, there are some other differences that aren't observed right away. Some of these differences seem to possibly have some lasting effect on thier subject matter.

While living in an area that is 95% blonde hair, and blue eyes, you kind of forget about the rest of the variety that makes the world interesting. There was a point that I thought I liked the lack of variety. To be in the majority felt different, felt good. I guess I kinda forgot about everyone else in the world, and began to aclimate myself to the point that my views on other types of people, that were not so common around these parts, began to change and shift. And without even noticing the effect, I was being altered.

Upon returning to a much broader scope of the ethnic population, I feel there has been something missing from my day to day life. Variety! The very thing I allways thought of as a non-beneficial force, on one level or another. Belive it or not, there are very nice people from ALL backgrounds. Not only that, but they are typically functioning parts of society. Imagine that!

However, on the same token. Regardless of what groups make up the general population, to many people is to many people. Period. And there is deffinatly ALOT of people here. General rule, don't plan on going anywhere on the weekends...

While I'm sure I could babble on, more and more about this relativly mundane topic, I should probly put an end to it right now...

Vacation

So vacation is allways nice. Some time to relax, not go to work, relax, oh and not go to work. Allthough, the knowledge that that fateful monday will come again, to snap you back into your mechanical reality, allways looms on the horrizon. However, that is what mind altering chemicals have been used for thousands of years. To forget about monday.... monday monday....