Archive for the 'General Stuff' Category

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Relinquishing my PS2

playstation 2 logo

I had to give up my PS2 this evening… why? It’s all about growing up.

No no no… you got it all wrong… I’m not growing up, silly goose. My son Aidan is growing up. Seeing as I have an Xbox 360, Dreamcast and 2 laptops in my garage, I figured I could spare the hardware (well not really, but I’ll find a way to cope with my loss). He’s 3 1/2 now and we’re trying to find ways for him to become more independent.

First thing first is getting him out of our bed. I totally blame my wife and she takes full responsibility, but he’s used to sleeping in our bed. It all started when he was really young and I worked shitty hours. My wife didn’t like sleeping alone so she brought him in bed with her. Now that’s all changed and its becoming really annoying waking up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in your back because his elbow or knee is digging in. So how do we solve this dilemma? Bribery. I told him I would give him the PS2 (along with the Guitar Hero controller) if he started sleeping in his bed… then after a solid week of doing so he’ll get a new game.

I’ll report back in a week and we’ll see how it went. By the way, while searching for the PS2 logo I came across this image. Holy fuck.

Video unrelated…

I’m an idiot

Been working hard on the server lately, trying to get everything configured the way it needs to be. Setting up security, installing applications and managing game server content… all the normal shit you would expect.

Oh, then I disabled Remote Desktop connections.

FUCK ME



Update: After giving my host detailed steps on how to fix it, its finally fixed… woooo!

Server progress

Okay so I’ve been doing a lot of work on the server, its almost ready to start properly hosting game servers. On that note I’m going to officially introduce The Arcadium website (for those of you who haven’t found it).

What is The Arcadium? Its not just a Garry’s Mod server anymore… its the adopted branding of all our projects (“our” meaning Chad and I). We ditched the name Bakburner and prior to that we ditched the name Modulus. WHRY? Good question with a simple answer: none of them felt right. Plus we’re weird, and what does it really matter to you?

Anyways… we’re still putting stuff together but here’s the link: http://www.the-arcadium.com. The Bakburner website will also redirect there now as well.

New server is alive!

My new dedicated server is online and live!

Just gotta set it all up and get the game servers running…. woot!

Bringing back a classic… sorta

Remember The Arcadium? Most of you probably do.

I remember back when it was a Garry’s Mod server that became a favorite to many people, around the same time PGM was around. And then everyone requested more and more game servers, and I complied. And then the community got bigger, and problems arose, and more bullshit happened and kept happening. So I tried to bandage the community by reinventing it into a bigger community that encompassed all sorts of games… well you know the story.

The saddest part is that The Arcadium got lost in all the commotion… until now. Yes The Arcadium is coming back. When? Soon.

After nearly two years with my current server host I decided to switch to a new host. This time its going to be a provider on the east coast. WHRY?!? …you ask. Well, mainly because the provider is a really good one (from what I’ve been reading) and they only have data centers over there. Most of the people that play seem to be east coast as well. I did a few traceroutes and ping tests and I get a pretty good ping to there location anyways, so it shouldn’t be that big of a deal for me and the other west coasters.

So once the new server is ready I’ll get The Arcadium server up again and let everyone know!

The hardest part

…is coming back and posting again. I took a long vacation from the blog and other activities, but I’m inclined to get back to my roots and do what I love doing.

When Chad and I decided to work on our game engine, we made a big mistake. We thought, “lets drop all our other projects so nothing gets in our way!”. Bad move. Dropping all our other projects just made the game engine a chore and we lost touch with what we enjoyed most… having fun :)

I’m cooking up some cool stuff… more on that soon to come.

Tips and tricks for fucking

So, I guess that’s what I have on my blog… I never knew. Thanks guys.

blog search results

Stuff Specs

At random intervals I have people ask me “hey whats your <some-item-here>?”. Not all the time, but it happens… anything from video card to mouse or whatever. I figured this could be a good place to sorta lay it all out and explain why I use what I use.

Keyboard


keyboard
My keyboard is a Logitech G11. At the time I purchased it, the G15 was already available but I didn’t see the need for the LCD display. I liked the idea but I felt it was a waste of money as I would rarely use it. I picked the G11 over other keyboards because after reading many consumer reviews, the back lit keys seems to be the most dependable and had the best visibility. I do most of my work on the computer in limited light situations and this was an ideal feature. Plus it had media keys and a toggle that disables the Windows Key, which always seems to get pressed during the most intense part of a gaming experience.

Mouse & Pad

mouse + mousepadSimple mouse is simple. Its a Microsoft IntelliMouse Optical USB. This was an easy pick. Wired = check. Scroll wheel = check. Mouse 4 & 5 = check. Optical = check. Cheap = check. Bingo.

As for the mouse pad (Rocketfish Gaming Mouse pad) I chose this because of the dual surfaces and the large size. I do not like material mouse pads, I strongly encourage metal pads and always have (well as long as they’ve existed). Material is so undependable and doesn’t have any continuity across several passes. I’ve always had more precise aim in games with metal pads.

Tablet

tabletI don’t have the biggest or the best tablet in the world, but it totally fits my requirements. Its a WACOM Bamboo Fun. Great price for a great starter tablet.

I use it pretty frequently and I very rarely run into occasions where I would need anything bigger. Sometimes for detailed areas the small tablet makes your hand cramp up because you’re trying to use such little movements.

Display

dual monitorsDual monitors… a fucking must. If you don’t run dual monitors you have no idea what you’re missing!

I have a 22″ widescreen as my primary and a 20″ 4:3 secondary. Not much more I can say about that, except I wish the Windows 7 Smartbar would extend across both of them! :(

Sound System

headset speakers amp bass speaker
My sound system is a bit tricky. I split the audio and feed one line to my speakers and the other line to my headset. The speakers are a 5.1 surround sound setup designed for a home theater running off a mini JBL amp. Having the center speaker close to me and the sub near my feet adds to a great gaming experience. Gunshots sound like their in my face and I can feel the rumble of bombs in the distance.

And speaking of feeling… my headset has force feedback too. The eDimensional Audio FX is not only a great sounded headset with a great mic… but it has rumble ability. So not only do you hear a gunshot from the left, but you feel it over there too.

System

computer towerI’m Running Windows 7 Ultimate on a ASUS P5N-E SLI motherboard married with an Intel Core 2 Duo E6400 Conroe 2.13GHz. I have 3 Gigs of OCZ Platinum DDR2 SDRAM and a EVGA GeForce 8800GTS 640MB video card. My ATX case and all peripherals are black, except for tray of my DVD burner. I use the onboard ethernet and audio which work perfectly. I have 3 hard drives, one is a high performance Raptor drive which I run my OS off, the other 2 are SATA 3.0Gb/s for a grand total of 450 Gigs… which isn’t all that much but it works for now.

Misc Stuff

misc computer stuffI plug so much shit in I had to recently get a USB Hub, which is a Rosewill 7 Port Hub, it can be self powered but I’m using so much juice I had to use the wall adapter. I also have an adapter to use my wireless Xbox 360 controller on my PC which is mainly for adding support to our game engine.

Phone

G1 closed G1 open
I have a T-Mobile G1 Google phone running the Android OS. I love this phone! Its my computer away from my computer. With a full web browser, YouTube viewer and countless+endless applications to get from the Android Market; it does everything I need and more. I recently downloaded an application that allows me to control my music on my PC from my phone, and even stream the music from my PC to the phone. It even has the ability to use the touchscreen to move your mouse and the keyboard to type on screen. Sometimes I lay down on my bed and control my PC from there… lazy fucker aint I?

I use it to Twitter all day long, chat, send/read emails, play games on the shitter and even take pictures. All the pictures you see in this post were taken with it… even the pictures of the phone itself.

In closing…

I don’t have the best of the best of anything… I do that on purpose. You save a fortune if you find the top of the line and then buy one below that, which is what I tend to do. Some of my stuff needs an upgrade but right now it runs any app and plays any game I want at awesome settings so I have no real reason to upgrade… yet.

I think I covered just about everything… if you guys have any more questions ask in the comments and I’ll try to answer them.

Disneyland…

This is my son Aidan’s yearly passport for Disneyland. Boy does he look excited!

Disneyland

He actually loves the place, just doesn’t like getting his picture taken. Oh well, these are the memories we’ll cherish. My wife took him there for the day because tomorrow he’s got to get his tonsils and adenoids removed, poor kid :(

New coffee mug

So… you may have seen a post where I briefly introduced Mr. Frosty my coffee mug. Like I said in the post; I don’t drink much coffee. I stick to green tea most of the time. On occasion I’ll have a cup of coffee and I use Mr. Frosty…

…only problem is… I’ve discovered you can’t microwave the cup. I normally drink the coffee almost immediately, but today I brewed a cup and forgot about it. When I put it in the microwave HOLY FUCKING ELECTROCUTING SHITBALLS OF FIRE!! I’ve known you can’t put it in the dishwasher, but now you can’t even put it in the fucking microwave?!? So its a coffee cup you can’t wash or put in the microwave. That’s like a car you can’t sit in or drive. Fucking hell. Mr. Frosty has been replaced:

New coffee mug

Introducing Tigger :D

I retired Mr. Frosty to a pencil holder in my garage. Sweet merciful crap.