moved

I have moved the site to a new web host. The move was pretty much perfect. The new server is a Windows Coldfusion Server that supports PHP. WordPress runs great on it. As a result of the move I’m no longer offering any sort of web services or hosting. So any mention of that in previous posts is now null and void. Not that I had time to deal with that crap anyway.

On the gaming front I found this little quote on Gamespot:

“Considering that Guild Wars Factions was released earlier this year, it might seem that ArenaNet has packed a lot of new content into Nightfall in such a short development time, but Strain said that the company’s development strategy is starting to pay off. ArenaNet has two teams working on Guild Wars, and each team has 12 months to develop a new chapter. Because the goal of each new chapter is to introduce a new way to play the game, it’s safe to say that the future of Guild Wars looks bright. For now, Guild Wars Nightfall is scheduled to launch on October 27.”
-GameSpot

I interpret this to mean that at least once a year we will have a Guild Wars “expansion”. Perhaps twice a year. Which makes me giggle with glee.

Over the past week I have been thinking about Guild Wars and the Nintendo Wii. It has really got me wondering if there is any point in buying a new game system when I’m so addicted to a PC game. Then I found a list of launch titles and went through them. I came up with the following ten games as must haves at launch:

Need for Speed: Carbon
Blazing Angels: Squadrons of WWII
Call of Duty 3
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
Rayman Raving Rabbids
Tom Clancy’s Splinter Cell Double Agent
Rampage: Total Destruction
Excite Truck
Marvel: Ultimate Alliance
Metal Slug Anthology

These are all set to be released on the 19th of November along with the console. Except Rampage which will be released on the 20th. The lack of a big RPG is pretty glaring there. This will hit Nintendo pretty hard I think. There is also a glaring lack of Mario and Metroid in that list. If they were launch titles they would have found their way into it. Putting together that list built up my excitement again though. I will most definitely be picking up my Wii on the 19th.

later,
-junc

An update!

Sorry, been out of the news loop again this week. The Tokyo Game Show is underway and I’m sure plenty of news will come out of that.

Recently I read that the Nintendo Wii will not be on display at Walmart. They will be selling the Wii but claim that they won’t have enough room for kids to be flailing about with the wiimote and nun-chuck. Nintendo should have predicted this anyway and released a standard controller based demo to head off this problem. Hopefully Nintendo thinks that their system has more to offer than a nifty controller.

In related news the Sony Playstation 3 has had a price drop of 20% in Japan. I’ve seen a lot of people getting excited about this. As far as I can tell though, this is just in Japan. Another thing about it, this isn’t a price drop. You can’t really drop the price of something that isn’t for sale yet. They are just changing the release price. My understanding is that this is at a loss to them as well. Sony still seems to have such a strong position in the market yet they are continously stumbling with the PS3 launch. Most of it in the name of things not related to games and gamers. High prices and fancy video players don’t help people play video games. They just seem a little lost right now. However, even though I’m the big Nintendo fanboy that I am, I predict that Sony will pull it together and still be the number one system. I don’t think that will happen until next year though. I suspect they will fall pretty flat on launch. The key thing about a new console is games. It doesn’t matter how awesome or not awesome the console itself is. If the games are lacking it will fail and if the games are abundant and of high quality the system will succeed.

In unrelated news I discovered a nifty piece of software called nLite which allows you to integrated patches, service packs, and third party software with your windows installation disk. I’ve been toying around with building my default install into a Windows 2000 install. It has been a bit of a pain getting all of the correct command line switches for each program. This has left me to decide to create an install that places a folder of all of my apps on the desktop. Which I can then install after the OS is set up. This will end that whole endless search through disks and the interweb to locate all of the programs I use. Could be really slick if I get it set up the way I want. A while back I posted about my fear of Windows Vista and a possible switch to Mac. In the end I think I have decided that Windows 2000 is the solution to that problem. It is a stable OS, runs all of the apps I use, and is not infused with all of Microsoft’s underhanded marketing techniques. I suspect that it will last long enough for all of the bugs to get worked out of Vista so that I can make a final decision about which OS I want to use. Until a major breakthrough occurs in computing though I doubt that the need to switch operating systems will arise.

later,
-junc

New Theme…again.

I updated the theme. A little brighter and hopefully easier to read. I also changed the count down timer to the release date for Guild Wars: Nightfall. Once it is out I will switch it back to the Wii timer.

I picked up the Nightfall Pre-release pack. Some nice stuff in it. About 15 minutes of music, some wallpapers, and bonus items. It was only $5.00 so I won’t complain too much. However, I was hoping for a new trailer. It just included the trailer that was released about a month ago. This weekend is the big preview event for Nightfall. I’m pretty excited about that.

School starts on Wednesday so I’m not sure how well I will be able to keep up on the blog. I will try though.

There hasn’t been a whole lot in gaming news lately. Today the Space Quest Compilation came out. Pretty much 6 Space Quest games and DOSbox. King’s Quest, Leisure Suit Larry, and Police Quest compilations also came out. The DOS box thing is kind of disappointing. You would think with all of the amateurs out there that have reverse engineered interpreters for the games that Vivendi would put more effort into it.

I’ve seen a lot of posts around the interweb with people complaining about the Wii price. Kind of silly if you ask me. I was really happy to see that most of my assumptions about the rumors were true. I predicted that September 14th the date would be announced, it was. I predicted that the price would be $250.00, it is. Okay, I didn’t predict anything, I read it on the internet, so of course it was true!

I picked up Lego Star Wars II for the PC. It was only $25.00 at Target ($30.00 with a $5.00 gift card). It is about as exciting as most of the reviews I have read have said it is. Which isn’t all that exciting. Pretty much it is the first one but with the Original Trilogy. This should have been done first, but then again if they were just now releasing the second trilogy, I don’t think it would have done that well. It is cute and fun. A little sluggish on my computer at times for no reason. I guess they updated the engine which was kind of stupid. How good do you need to make plastic blocks look? Does it really take a newer better bigger engine to do so? I guess this is why I am becoming a Nintendo Fanboy.

later,
-junc

Wii Launch Date and Price Announced

Nintendo Wii

$250.00

November 19

later,
-junc

Vista on the Horizon

For years everything I read on the Internet has been about the evils of Microsoft. Always written in forums related to Windows software and almost always written by individuals using Microsoft products. I was once one of these people. Slowly I managed to ween myself away from this attitude. I had realized that it wasn’t the evil of Microsoft; it was the ignorance of people. Then, WGA changed all of that. Windows Genuine Advantage is a tool that is installed as a high priority update through Windows Update. This high priority item checks to see if your copy of Windows is valid. It does so every time you boot your system and perhaps more. So, once a day Microsoft asks me if I’m a thief. Even though their software, serial number, and product activation process has informed them that I am not a thief. Speaking of product activation, this is another line that Microsoft has crossed. Not that I ever liked it in the past, but now you have to activate Windows over the phone. For every install. The third strike for Microsoft is the announcement that Internet Explorer 7 will be launched (after beta ends) as a high priority update. Being a Firefox user I hardly consider some other browser to be a priority of any sort. It is yet more reminders that Microsoft’s browser is too tightly interwoven with the operating system itself. This wouldn’t be such a problem if IE were not such a huge target of malicious software.

Today I learned even more distressing things about Vista. It seems that some elements of the MSN network will be available through operating system components. I’m not sure about the level of integration these services have in Vista, but this prospect makes me nervous. Microsoft controls enough of my personal information and I am not interested in seeing them control more. The final blow is Microsoft closing the door on security software firms. It seems that Vista will have a file system in place that prevents programs from writing to protected areas of the operating system. This is all fine and dandy in theory, but I am sure that hackers will find a way around this. The result of this locked file system is that security software companies are finding it more difficult to provide security for an operating system like Vista. At the same time Microsoft is pushing their One Care system, a security software suite.

The level of inconvenience that seems to be thrown my way in the name of security is of great concern to me. I feel it from my government and even from my software vendors. Security is important but it should not be provided without a choice. Users should be able to defend themselves. The machine shouldn’t be making these privacy decisions for us. I would like to choose the weapons with which to destroy my enemies. Fighting viruses with Microsoft tools is like fighting wars with tanks built by Yugo.

What will I do when Vista comes out? I will hold onto XP until it is no longer possible to do so. Then, when it is time to make a decision Apple and Linux will be key factors in making that decision. As of right now Photoshop, Dreamweaver, and Guild Wars tie me to Windows. With the rise of Boot Camp this makes Apple the most appealing. I would only need to reboot to play Guild Wars. However, I suspect that XP will last several more years. During that time I intend on searching for more games that support Apple and Microsoft. This way when the decision to upgrade to Vista comes, my choice will be easy.

later,
-junc

be gone adverts

Yesterday I posted a bunch of crap about wanting to make money off of the blog thing. I’ve decided to kill the adverts until I get some traffic coming in. They seem to be slowing down the site for some reason anyway. Not much point in trying to generate money off of advertising dollars if no one visits. I’m thinking of changing the theme a little bit in the next few days too. Something a little more “bright”.

later,
-junc

Noises

the Catalog. I’ve been wrestling with this one all day. I don’t think I’m going to do the weekly music thing. I am however going to release a few tracks today:

(Tracks rereleased as part of Detritus)

Some may recognize the Monitor from my myspace account. The others were just tracks lying around that I don’t believe I have released yet.

Bad news in video game land. If you haven’t already heard the PS3 is being delayed in Europe until March. This shouldn’t be a big deal because consoles always come out later in Europe. However Sony made a big deal out of it by claiming that they were recognizing the importance of the European market by having a simultaneous launch. So how does this decision reflect Sony’s opinions about the European market? Guess they don’t care so much about it after all huh…

The other bad news is kind of Wii rumor related but it is kind of a solid rumor. On the Nintendo site there are two pages that list different system specs for the Wii (1 and 2). Those pages seem to have conflicting information about the inclusion of DVD support. Since Nintendo doesn’t seem to be focused on that type of market I can only assume that this rumor is true. The Wii may not have DVD support.

later,
-junc

Free 3D Stuff

Poser and Bryce for free!

Full versions.

You have to register an account with each site but they are full versions. Currently the Poser download is down. If you go ahead and sign up and put it in your cart it will be available whenever you need it according to the site. Looks like this is going to end on the September 8th. Not sure though.

http://www.daz3d.com/

Free Poser from Content Paradise

While you are at it. If this type of 3D package interests you it looks like the daz Studio program is always free. As far as I can tell it is a program to assemble models created with other 3D packages like Bryce and Poser.

later,
-junc

Money, money, money…

As a socialist it isn’t supposed to be important. As an American it makes my world go around. I’m trying to create things to generate traffic for the site. The honest end of day goal is so that it will generate enough money so I can just write all day and get paid for it. Blogging for a living. Problem is, I still lack that thing that no one else has. When it comes right down to it this is just a personal blog. I’m not sure if a personal blog has ever made consistent money. I guess the socialist aspect comes in with the part where just enough money is enough. I doubt anyone ever became rich off of a personal blog. Not that someone won’t someday. For now though that kind of success appears to be reserved for web comics and professional blogs.

It’s not that I don’t want to earn my money. I just don’t know how to go about it. With a lack of feedback I feel like I’m stuck in a silly catch-22. Basically, feedback could guide me toward writing something more interesting. Writing something more interesting would actually lead to feedback! “Something Interesting” is where the problem lies however. What is interesting enough to bring a person back everyday? A comic, a game, the news, or some music?

I have some tracks lying around that I’m going to add in the next few days and maybe I will make some more. Perhaps one track per week would bring in the visitors. Maybe I can do one track a day. I’ve been wanting to write some software that allows me to plug in some parameters and generates music based on those parameters. Maybe?

I’ve started work on a web comic of sorts. It is going to be drawn using amateur adventure game style graphics. Sort of in the style of Reality on the Norm, but worse. At the time I have plans of setting it in a web development office. Perhaps I will move it out of that setting and base it around a guy that makes crappy electronic music and crappier adventure games.

Speaking of writing for a living. I think I have almost made up my mind to pursue a degree in English. I’m sure by reading only a few posts in my blog here you can see that I am in dire need of some further education in the subject. It is kind of like a last resort for me though. College is really taking me for a ride right now and I’m just not sure what direction to go in. English sounds like the only thing that I feel like I can still study and enjoy.

Wow. I’m totally going to be late for work.

later,
-junc

Booo Alexa!

What the heck was that crap? Buggy fricken Alexa code was messing up my page lots and lots.

I worked on the calendar a little.

I seem to be having trouble getting the w3c css validator working tonight. The xhtml validator works fine. Had to do lots of cleanup because of the added images today. I always forget to close my image tags and to convert my ampersands.

later,
-junc