So I splurged a little today... I bought Wario Land 3 for Game Boy Color (still need Wario Land 2 for Game Boy and Game Boy Color, Wario Land 4 for Game Boy Advance, Wario Land for Virtual Boy, Wario: Master Of Disguise and WarioWare: Touched! for DS, WarioWare: Mega Party Games for GameCube, as well as WarioWare Smooth Moves and the upcoming Wario Land Shake for Wii... And I guess Wario Blast too ;) ), Donkey Kong 64 (oh holy crap, the intro is horrendous! The actual game doesn't seem all that great either so far; I'm having a hard time believing that this was made by the same company that made Donkey Kong Country and Conker's Bad Fur Day), Donkey Kong Jungle Beat (with the bongos... SO GOOD!!!), Link's Crossbow Training (surprisingly deep, and lots of fun so far), and LostWinds (really, you should just buy this one if you haven't already; it's gorgeous, intuitive, great fun, and only $10). Now, I still have 1000 Wii points left... I was thinking of downloading Opera so that I could play these, but does anyone else have any other suggestions?
Read this article at Ars Techinca... Does anyone else find what MediaDefender has at its disposal frightening? Seriously, it reads like the beginnings of some new techno-thriller story!
Oh, and today I learned how to write nifty login scripts using VBScript.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Friday, May 23, 2008
Who knows...
Got a pre-POST hang at 2.4GHz @ 533MHz FSB... Seeing as how the CPU, RAM, and HDD all pass numerous diagnostics with flying colours, swapping video cards and CMOS batteries made no difference, two clean installations of two different versions of Windows solved nothing, and there were months of flawless operation with the exact same configuration for months before this all started, I'm beginning to suspect the PSU... Guh... I'm just gonna put up with the sketchy startup until something dies :\
Thursday, May 22, 2008
Hrm...
DDR320 speeds didn't fix things... Looks like the CPU is going back down to stock speeds for the time being.
On a happier note, the demo for Penny Arcade's new game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, is pretty sweet. Very pretty to watch, awfully funny throughout, and it sports some pretty solid combat mechanics. My only two gripes were the lack of colour choices in the character creation section and the pacing of the first area; things felt a little stilted, running from screen to screen, searching objects, and interacting with characters. Then again, these complaints were derived from a sampling of what looks to be a pretty unique game, and it's likely that these mechanics will make more sense (or at least be something I'll become accustomed to) as I play the full thing. Yes, I intend to play the full thing :)
P.S. Does anyone else think that these look awesome? ;)
On a happier note, the demo for Penny Arcade's new game, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness, is pretty sweet. Very pretty to watch, awfully funny throughout, and it sports some pretty solid combat mechanics. My only two gripes were the lack of colour choices in the character creation section and the pacing of the first area; things felt a little stilted, running from screen to screen, searching objects, and interacting with characters. Then again, these complaints were derived from a sampling of what looks to be a pretty unique game, and it's likely that these mechanics will make more sense (or at least be something I'll become accustomed to) as I play the full thing. Yes, I intend to play the full thing :)
P.S. Does anyone else think that these look awesome? ;)
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
DDR320?
Just a brief update: I've ramped the CPU back up to 3.6GHz @ 800MHz FSB, but I've scaled the RAM down to DDR320 (yeah, 320... That's what the BIOS says). So far so good...
AdSense thinks I'm gay?
I just added a Google AdSense box over in the right column of this page (for testing purposes; I don't expect to make any money from this site), and while previewing the changes, there were all kinds of ads for gay bloggers and gay dating sites... I don't remember writing anything like that here, but then who am I to question the power of Google's omnipresence. Perhaps it's a little joke the Blogger people like to play on bloggers previewing their sites, or maybe they were pre-emptive ads meant to make me post something like this ;)
Anyway, the bad video card theory fizzled, as my old GeForce 6800 yielded the same results. I scaled the CPU back down to stock speeds (2.4GHz @ 533MHz FSB from 3.6GHz @ 800MHz FSB), and things seem peachy again, but that's a preformance sacrifice I'm not prepared to make... Especially since it also scales the RAM back to DDR333 speeds. What happens if I find a replacement CPU that runs on an 800MHz FSB stock and the RAM starts acting up again at DDR400? I could start swapping parts and build-up around my Athlon XP 3200+, but that raises the question of nForce2 support in Vista... *sigh*
P.S. The FireWire Solo doesn't like S3 in Windows XP either.
Anyway, the bad video card theory fizzled, as my old GeForce 6800 yielded the same results. I scaled the CPU back down to stock speeds (2.4GHz @ 533MHz FSB from 3.6GHz @ 800MHz FSB), and things seem peachy again, but that's a preformance sacrifice I'm not prepared to make... Especially since it also scales the RAM back to DDR333 speeds. What happens if I find a replacement CPU that runs on an 800MHz FSB stock and the RAM starts acting up again at DDR400? I could start swapping parts and build-up around my Athlon XP 3200+, but that raises the question of nForce2 support in Vista... *sigh*
P.S. The FireWire Solo doesn't like S3 in Windows XP either.
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
*grumble grumble*
Installing M-Audio drivers and then installing Windows XP SP3 works fine, but my system started hanging pre-POST again with the XP installation... So I went back to Vista SP1. My current theory is video card overheating; it's plausible since this all started after running Assassin's Creed, a particularly taxing game. I will test this theory further this evening. I'm pretty sure the card in question is still under warranty.
Today, at work, I deployed BlackBerry Professional Software on the server. Wireless e-mail synchronization is cool :)
I finished Halo 3's single-player campaign the other day. It was fun and a good length, but I found the story a little hard to follow, especially since the voices were kinda quiet in relation to everything else... Though my sporadic gameplay and the great length between playing Halo 2 and Halo 3 likely didn't help either ;)
Today, at work, I deployed BlackBerry Professional Software on the server. Wireless e-mail synchronization is cool :)
I finished Halo 3's single-player campaign the other day. It was fun and a good length, but I found the story a little hard to follow, especially since the voices were kinda quiet in relation to everything else... Though my sporadic gameplay and the great length between playing Halo 2 and Halo 3 likely didn't help either ;)
Wednesday, May 14, 2008
Grrr...
I wiped my main computer's C: drive before messing with the hardware any further... Decided to go with XP SP3 instead of Vista, just for the hell of it. Looks like M-Audio doesn't want us installing SP3-uncertified device drivers post-SP3 installation. I guess I could've installed the OS, then the drivers, and then SP3, but that's something I'll test later (unless they get SP3-certified drivers out in a timely manner). So my main PC is now running Windows XP Professional SP2 and all seems well. No pre- or post-POST freezing so far *fingers crossed* I'm still tempted to blame Assassin's Creed.
At work today, I've set up WSUS 3.0 SP1 on the server, which entailed learning more about IIS and GPOs.
At work today, I've set up WSUS 3.0 SP1 on the server, which entailed learning more about IIS and GPOs.
Tuesday, May 13, 2008
Silver linings...
Luigi's Mansion is a little short, but oh so sweet! In all seriousness, one of the best games I've played in a long time. Super Mario Sunshine is next, and anything else on any platform is on hold.
Replaced that sketchy drive in the RAID array at work. 68-pin Ultra320 SCSI drives are getting harder to find around here... It's all SAS these days.
Still can't figure out what's wrong with my main computer. Changed the CMOS battery, disabled my motherboard's integrated sound hardware (which had been enabled around the same time things started acting funny), tried bypassing Vista (to see if it was something caused at shutdown), tried different ACPI settings... Still no luck. I'm gonna try scaling the CPU back to stock speeds, different RAM, and a different hard drive. If none of that does the trick, then fuck it. Salvage what I can, sell the rest, and build myself a nice 64-bit quad-core setup ;)
Replaced that sketchy drive in the RAID array at work. 68-pin Ultra320 SCSI drives are getting harder to find around here... It's all SAS these days.
Still can't figure out what's wrong with my main computer. Changed the CMOS battery, disabled my motherboard's integrated sound hardware (which had been enabled around the same time things started acting funny), tried bypassing Vista (to see if it was something caused at shutdown), tried different ACPI settings... Still no luck. I'm gonna try scaling the CPU back to stock speeds, different RAM, and a different hard drive. If none of that does the trick, then fuck it. Salvage what I can, sell the rest, and build myself a nice 64-bit quad-core setup ;)
Monday, May 12, 2008
Just more stuff...
I'm may have mentioned this already, but I picked up one of these from a local shop a little while back. I also picked up Metal Slug: 2nd Mission and Dark Arms: Beast Buster 1999 for Neo Geo Pocket Color.
On the Wii/Game Cube front, I've picked up a new Nintendo 251-block memory card and a new platinum Nintendo wired controller, Luigi's Mansion, Wario World, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest.
One of the older physical drives in one of the RAID arrays on the server at work failed... I updated controller drivers, firmware, and management software; rebuilt the array for now; deciding what do next. Remote management is cool :)
On the Wii/Game Cube front, I've picked up a new Nintendo 251-block memory card and a new platinum Nintendo wired controller, Luigi's Mansion, Wario World, Metroid Prime 2: Echoes, and The Legend Of Zelda: Ocarina Of Time Master Quest.
One of the older physical drives in one of the RAID arrays on the server at work failed... I updated controller drivers, firmware, and management software; rebuilt the array for now; deciding what do next. Remote management is cool :)
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Wheee!!!
Impulse-bought a Wii while I was waiting for a friend's photos to be developed at a local Wal-Mart. Picked up Wii Play (mostly for the extra Wiimote), Sonic And The Secret Rings (quite possibly the best 3D Sonic game yet; too bad the story's so lame), NiGHTS: Journey Of Dreams (analog control is a little sketchy and having to replay entire levels after failing to beat bosses is lame; pretty good otherwise), and a bunch of GameCube games (Super Mario Sunshine, The Legend Of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, F-Zero GX). I'll be borrowing the likes of Super Mario Galaxy, The Legend Of Zelda: The Wind Waker, the Metroid Prime games, and Zack & Wiki from my brother, and I'll buy Wario World and anything else awesome that I've been missing as I find them. Had to knock my XBOX off of the component switch to make room for the Wii in 480p though :(
Still not sure what's up with my main PC hanging around POST, but I did end up buying one of these and got my important stuff backed up.
Also, I think I'm starting to get the hang of Pro Tools :)
Oh, and the server at work is finally in top shape. Dual dual-core 2.8GHz Xeons, 4GB of RAM, two RAID 1 arrays totalling ~240GB plus a single 500GB back-up drive. No more error reports aside from the odd mistyped login info and failed print jobs.
Still not sure what's up with my main PC hanging around POST, but I did end up buying one of these and got my important stuff backed up.
Also, I think I'm starting to get the hang of Pro Tools :)
Oh, and the server at work is finally in top shape. Dual dual-core 2.8GHz Xeons, 4GB of RAM, two RAID 1 arrays totalling ~240GB plus a single 500GB back-up drive. No more error reports aside from the odd mistyped login info and failed print jobs.
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