Day One Hundred eighty: Evening of January 30th 2010

Must complete Mass Effect 2. Must complete ME2. I Must complete Mass Effect 2 before Bioshock 2 is released next next week. Status remains the same.

I spent the day bulking up the crew with upgrades. Upgrades require resources - lots of and many types of resources. You can accumulate small amounts of resources through the scenarios, but those supplies are the proverbial 'drop in the bucket' as far as what you really need to build up both defensive and offensive improvements. How do you acquire the needed resources? Planet mining is the answer.

It's funny, but in order to save the known universe, you have to deplete planets of certain minerals. Granted most of these planets are gaseous or unpopulated worlds. I wonder if the designers, who designed the game to include moral decision points, considered the impact of some of the planet stripping on the non-carbon based entities that might be living, a la the Horta of Star Trek, in the planet. Of course, if the geth, the Collectors, and the Reapers triumph, it won't make a difference. Maybe something like this will occur in the final chapter of the ME trilogy.

We shall see.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-nine: Evening of January 29th 2010

Must complete Mass Effect 2. Must complete ME2. I Must complete Mass Effect 2 before Bioshock 2 is released next week.

Only two active members from the Mass Effect game have made it through to ME2 team. I hope that I can keep them around for the final game of the trilogy.

My over play has improved, but the opposition is getting tougher. I use cover better, but occasionally I get cornered because I didn't scout out the terrain before I engaged the enemy combatants. I'm leveling up, but the skill points for completing a expansive mission have dropped to one point from two. I must change my approach to the distribution of those points when I level up. Luckily, I think I've constructed solid team members for the missions ahead.

We shall see.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One-Hundred seventy-eight: Evening of January 28th 2010

Mass Effect 2 was the game of the day.

I'm getting deeper into the plot of the game. I have reached a point where I have the option to go into the final battle, but after listening to comments made by the designers and reviewers about the need to have the strongest possible crew and ship, I'm deferring to their advice. Of course, that's the strategy that I used in the first installment of the Mass Effect trilogy. I find myself setting up contingency plans, in case I have to engage the main antagonist before I have filled out my crew, and bulked up my ship.

This is one of the reason I like the RPGs - the long term planning required for success. In the interviews with the designers at Bioware, hint that it is possible that the lead character to die in the final battle, making that iteration of the main character unavailable for the final chapter of Mass Effect. So, planning to make sure my character survives becomes very important. The tension generated by this end result, enhances the drama going on in the game.

I hope everyone finds this happening when they play their game.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-seven: Evening of January 27th 2010

Played Mass Effect 2 for about six hours, the plot thickens, shells are flying, and I’m learning how to use cover on the run. ME2 is still a very engaging game even after ten hours of play with more to come. I really feel I’m getting my money’s worth of entertainment out of this video production.

I just finished creating another photo album on Facebook documenting the USCGC Dallas Caribbean tour of 1972. I posted 40 photos that were scanned from slides and converted to digital images. The scanning is a time consuming process, but the uploading with comments took about an hour.

I experimented with setting up some RAID HD arrays. I’ve got to do a bit more studying, but I think I’m getting a handle on the three types available through Apple’s Disk Utility (Mirrored, Striped, and Concatenated). I ran tests, and I’m gathering some statistic regarding performance.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-seven: Evening of January 27th 2010

I play Mass Effect 2 for about six hours today. I was very impressed with so many aspects of it that describing it would require writing a review, but my review would mirror what other reviewers are saying.

How good is it. After about thirty minutes, I’m thinking about maintaining my values in relationship to game play. I’m wondering how long can I test my relationship with one character before I endanger their loyalty to the mission and me. Its gun battles are intense, requiring ‘pin and flank’ tactics. You have to pay attention to your surroundings for clues, supplies, and cover. This description could go on for a long time, but I want to play the game.

One other thing, I think I was successful setting up a simple RAID mirror arrangement just a little while ago. It’s sort of strange. I thought the two drives would appear as separate entities, but no, it’s single drive which shows duplicates of any file copied. That’s why I say, ”I think I was successful…”

Well, I’m going to get a diet Coke, and get ready for bed – not. ME 2 here I come, after walking the dog of course.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-six: Evening of January 26th 2010

I thought that I would be playing Mass Effect 2 now, and tomorrow I would work on the RAID setup on my Mac laptop, but the new hard drive arrived today, so I decided to do both (possible mistake).
It appears that I have to manually pair the hard drives before I can set up a mirror RAID. That is what is happening right now. I'm copying all the contents of the laptop hard drive onto the external drive.
Meanwhile, on the Mass Effect 2 front - success and failure. I downloaded the additional content, but failed to transfer my the correct files to allow a follow through from Mass Effect to Mass Effect 2 - bummer. I guess I'll have to finish up the one I'm playing (Renegade Soldier - Level 55), or shift to the older machine, or transfer more files from the older machine to see if I can find the right files.
Reminds me of an old military service statement, "Hurry up and wait."
For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-five: Evening of January 25th 2010

Most of the day was spent playing Mass Effect to see if I could level up and complete the second play through as Soldier. I advanced to Level 52 before housework set in, and an errand that needed to be run.

There is something that I have to work on for my wife. The question is how to set up a RAID (Redundant Array of Inexpensive Disks) drive configuration. According to Apple, their Disk Utility can set this up, pairing the internal hard drive with an external hard drive. I was going to use my 500 GB hard drive, but while reading I noticed that it was better if the hard drives were the same size. It will work if the drives are of different sizes but the larger drive will be capped at the size of the smaller one. I’m hoping that the software that comes with the external drive will also have software that permits RAID setups.

One draw back to Apple’s Disk Utility software, it’s limited to two of the eight types of RAID setups. I’ve got to read up a bit more on this setup system to better understand the operation and configurations available for me to work with. My wife wants to set up a back up system for her students work. She has twelve 500 GB external drives. I’m wondering if we can work this through the server. In other words, the students’ work is backed up to the server and then the server’s backup files are forwarded to the RAID setup. I wonder how large graphics companies handle the files and backups, or universities for that matter. I wonder if it will work on a small setup? Sounds like a research project. Where to begin?

We shall see.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-four: Evening of January 24th 2010

No stamina today, played about an hour and a half of Mass Effect, leaving the game for breakfast/lunch, did some weekend chores, settled in for the league championships, and promptly fell asleep, a la my dad, in the recliner. Now I’m typing this entry, and still a bit on the tired side.

The Mass Effect sojourn was successful this morning and my character was almost at the next level (46). I’ll see if I can achieve a few more levels tomorrow, but it’s a time consuming process, and I’ll have some errands to run. This preparation for Mass Effect 2 release and the building excitement reminds me when I was in grade school. I’m not upset about this. I think it’s funny, as long as it doesn’t get out of hand, which it won’t.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-four: Evening of January 23rd 2010

Well, I was wrong about being close to the end of Army of Two: The 40^th Day. I could tell because as I moved through the level, I noted the lack of a Big Boss supported by a cast of minor bosses. Now, I think I’ve reached the lair of evildoer supreme. But, I’ve put this game on the back burner as I try to level up my Soldier character in Mass Effect. I reached Level 45 this afternoon, but was hampered from further advancement because I kept falling asleep. I don’t know, but there is something about weekends, my biological cycles, and sleep – all a carry over from thirty-five years of work.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-three: Evening of January 22nd 2010

I almost forgot to work on this today. Blame it on watching the Haiti Relief fund raising show and Conan's final appearance on the Tonight Show.

Still working the kinks out of my Army of Two: The 40^th Day play. The problem is I think the game is just about over.

I received a call today from the local GameStop reminding me that Mass Effect 2 was coming out Tuesday and to pick up my reserved copy. As I said before, I’m looking forward to playing that RPG/Shooter.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-two: Evening of January 21st 2010

I spent a good part of the afternoon playing Army of Two: The 40^th Day on the PS3.

Graphically, it is gorgeous. I haven’t been to Shanghai but the game creates a believable mixture of modern towering skyscrapers and the claustrophobic old city living quarters.

Game play is smooth and engrossing, but I had problem with the partner control. It’s only three buttons, but I get so lost in the action that I forget to control my partner.

The enemy AI is strong. Sitting still will trigger flanking movement (terrain permitting). Cover is used effectively, and few stragglers wander around. Your partner’s movements, targeting, and use of cover match the enemy AI. The partner locator, a small blue disk with a pair of arrowheads pointing down, causes me some confusion when we separate, but it is probably something I’ll get used to. There are occasions when my character selects a location and my partner selects the same, resulting in collisions with him/it.

So far, I’m having fun. I’ll return to the game later this evening, time permitting.

I’m looking forward to the release of Mass Effect 2 next week Tuesday. X-play’s half hour special made it more appealing than I expected. I knew it was good looking but the depth of the plot, and game play, has really made me feel good about pre-ordering it.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy-one: Evening of January 20th 2010

The new PS3 controller and Army of Two: The 40^th Day arrived, as expected - really. But this morning, I decided to check the progress of the package - to see if it was on the truck. Well according to the Amazon site it still was listed as at the drop off site. I copied the USPS ID, pasted it into its tracking entry point, and hit return. Viola? It hadn’t been received by the Postal Service, only notified of its existence – wow! What was going on? I wasn’t going to lose any sleep over this. I’ll wait through the day and if the situation doesn’t resolve itself today, I’ll call up customer service tomorrow. Somewhere in the back of my head, I felt it would be delivered today. Tah Dah!, at about 3 pm the doorbell rang and there was the box sitting near the door.

What was the line from Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is a failure to communicate.” Even with digital communication that line can still apply. Of course in the industry their line is, “Garbage In, Garbage Out,” or GIGO. I guess as long as it works within the tolerance set up by the USPS, all is good.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred seventy: Evening of January 19th 2010

I was waiting for Army of Two: The 40^th Day and a new PlayStation 3 controller that was supposed to be delivered today. Of course, that’s an approximate delivery date, but all during the Christmas shipping season United States Postal Service was on time, or ahead of schedule. I’m not bothered that much by this delay, but just curious. I wonder what the USPS on time delivery rate is. I’m sure there is some organization charts performance. I’ll check out the Inspector General Office, or better yet, the Google search engine.

The initial results from the Postal Service were from 2001 (where the results were mixed-less than the desired 87% on 3 to 5 day deliveries – with other deliveries on or above expected percentages) and the third quarter of 2008 statistics below:

Nationally, delivery scores reached record highs for all three categories of mail the U.S. Postal Service tracks:

- Overnight service was 97 percent on-time, up from 96 percent the same period last year.

- Two-day service was 95 percent on-time, up from 93 percent the same period last year.

- Three-day service was 94 percent on-time, up from 91 percent the same period last year

I’m satisfied with the Postal Service. The individuals that I’ve dealt with were professional and respectful. And, as I’ve said, the service is at or above their stated goals. I like the electronic tracking, although cutbacks or time and motion issues have dropped continuous tracking on the lower priced services. It’s still fun checking the tracking site to see what progress has been made. The downside is that it shows the lack of progress, too.

I’ll see what happens tomorrow. I am looking forward to playing Army of Two: The 40^th Day this week.

For as long as it is needed, I’ll keep closing this way, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred sixty-nine: Evening of January 18th 2010

The network went down today, not completely but enough to remind me of the old land line days with the 5600-baud modem. I wouldn’t have noticed the problem because I only occasionally fire my laptop up in the morning. However, my wife and daughter were immediately impacted. My daughter couldn’t sleep so she decided to rent The Hangover through iTunes, and it took all night to download. My wife always checks her email as soon as possible and that was the same this morning. The cry went up, “Something is wrong with the internet!” So the routine begins.

This has occurred before, sometimes it’s the service provider, and sometimes it’s the local area network (LAN). Usually, when I called the service provider they ask that I disconnect the physical cable from the cable modem and the power cord from the power supply. Then wait a few minutes to allow the cable modem to clear/reset before plugging the cable and cord back in. If the problem is the local network, then I usually unplug the power cord to allow the wireless router. This time I did both the router and the cable modem. The result, strong signal from the router, but no speed increase. The only thing left to do is call the service provider and find out what’s up and what should we do.

Later in the day, the call went out and the recorded message at the service provider stated that there was an area wide problem that was being worked on and service would be improved as soon as possible. About an hour ago we were up to speed again. Things have returned to normal. Facebook and the emails flow smoothly again. I know that I can upload my little post. We didn’t shut down because of the slow down, but it did throw a monkey wrench into some of our activities. We are flexible, and capable of a life without the Internet. But we can get a bit frustrated, but not to the point that we seize up and cease to function. Now if we lost electricity that would be a different story.

As I closed yesterday, the day before and for as long as it is needed, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred sixty-eight: Evening of January 17th 2010

I don’t think that I’m all that into computer technology. I mean, I occasionally get hook by game, but that is only for a few hours a day, due to household duties. I only check my email twice a day. I prefer to check other friends’ and relatives’ status on Facebook, rather than post updates about me. I check Twitter a couple a times week, and that’s usually an afterthought. I don’t feel uncomfortable using things technological, and I recognize their importance.

Yesterday evening and this morning was Christmas tree removal day. The new lights are far superior to the old monstrous bulbs. The personal memories associated with some of the ornaments are not stored on a flash or hard drive, and I wonder if they were, would it make a difference. I enjoyed the interaction with my wife as we disassembled the tree. I even controlled my orneriness. I didn’t think that stereotypical behavior of mine (grumpy old man) really was appropriate any more. When I was finished with this task, I went upstairs and took a nap, while everyone else scanned the Internet searching for stories about current events or Facebook activity. While I was watching the football playoffs (and falling asleep again) everyone else was still on the Internet. Later, I thought I would hit the Xbox 360 or the PlayStation 3 and play a few rounds of something, but didn’t feel like it. When I returned, it was nice to see that I wasn’t the only person who needed a nap. But, once the individuals went vertically, the laptops flipped open and more electronic interactions took place, including ordering dinner.

There are times when I feel out of sync with current technology. This really becomes apparent when I watch others busily engaged in the electronic environments made available by the computer. I feel in sync now because we are all using our laptops, but that will change shortly, once I quit typing this post.

As I closed yesterday and the day before, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred sixty-seven: Evening of January 16th 2010

I was watching X-Play on G4tv, as the hosts were interviewing members of the design team that worked on the upcoming title, Mass Effect 2. It was interesting as clips were shown, and questions were asked about game related mechanics, gameplay dynamics, and the philosophy underlying the development of the game. One thing that was mentioned that piqued my interest was the continuity from the first game. I wonder how the game will play with my maxed out character?Better yet, I can’t wait to see how that will work out!

In closing, and as I closed yesterday, please check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

.

Day One Hundred sixty-six: Evening of January 15th 2010

Many years ago, when I was in the Coast Guard, we pulled into Port-au-Prince. We were to be tied up two days, and I left the ship with a great sense of adventure. A couple of shipmate of mine decided to ‘rent’ a car and driver so we could tour the countryside. At first the level of excitement was maintained, but after really seeing where I was and what was happening around me, I began to wish I was back on the ship, but the tour continued. The next day, I passed on touring and gave a short list of some rhum liqueurs to a friend to pick up for me at the Barbancourt Distillery. I was depressed about what was Haiti, and the conditions that generated it. If I started describing it, it would be a book. That one book would probably trigger more. Maybe, if I were a writer, I would have done that but I didn’t. I checked about and hit upon The Daily Beast’s list of books about Haiti. After reading the synopsis of each book (plus a documentary, music, and literature) it sounded familiar, too familiar. That is scary considering my visit was over thirty years ago. All old tech solutions, but as far I’m concerned they still work.

So, just check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford.

Day One Hundred sixty-five: Evening of January 14th 2010

Just check out a good organization that’s providing aid in Haiti and make whatever kind of contribution that you can afford to it.

Day One Hundred sixty-four: Evening of January 13th 2010

It was an iPhone day, again.

This time after chores were done, I decided to watch one of my Blu-ray videos. I tried to find The Watchman video, but I couldn’t locate it. It’s in the house, but where is the reason for the search. After a while I decide to call off the search and pick out one of the more recent acquisitions. I settle on 9. As I separated the videodisk from the case, I thought something to the effect, “I’m going to have to buy a remote for the PlayStation 3, so I don’t need the game controller to play the DVDs.” I grab the controller, plug in its recharge cable (it’d running low again), and insert the disk into the PS3 slot. I don’t remember punching play, but the menu appeared on the screen. Now normally I don’t pay much attention to most of the trailers, but something caught my eye, and I watched ad for a free iPhone app called pocket BLU. It was a remote control for the Blu-ray disk that I had just inserted. I went to the App Store on my iPhone, found the app, and downloaded it. Once it loaded, I activated it, and, lo and behold, it worked. Not only did it work, but it recognized the video on the disk. I was impressed. The app controller worked like a regular TV controller. I think it is the free price tag that’s driving my excitement. Well, to finish up this little entry, I fell asleep while I watched the movie. I knew this would happen; it’s usually when that I’m not sure about. Today, it was during the intro. When I woke up, the movie was about a half an hour from completion (I’ll watch it again, I usually do.), and I started to look at the apps feature. I found out that this app only works with Blu-ray disks that have this feature enabled.

Ratz! It looks like I’ll have to get a controller after all.

Day One Hundred sixty-three: Evening of January 12th 2010

The iPhone was the most used device today.

In the morning, the local television station had a promotional activity that I thought would be fun to enter. There were two parts; one part was an online chat room where viewers could ask questions of the on-the-air personnel. I didn’t really have any questions, so I passed on that. But sending an image of you watching the program sounded like fun, so I took part in that activity. My laptop was open, so I turned on the Photobooth application, which activates the built-in video camera, positioned it so that laptop was between me and the television screen, made sure you could see me on the screen in front their broadcast on the TV. Then I took my iPhone positioned so it captured my image on the laptop and the morning news crew on the screen behind it. A few experimental shots and I had an acceptable image, which was emailed from my iPhone with a caption that read something like “Nothing like multitasking while watching the morning news.” The tag stating it was sent from my iPhone followed.

Then, I watched the rest of the program to see if I had made the cut and the news crew would show my ‘masterpiece’. I had regressed to that old child like state of unbridled anticipation. How do I document my success? Of course, I’ll capture it on video with my little iPhone. I could have turned my laptop around, but it was the iPhone that I had in my hand. For the next hour and a half, I watched and recorded each segment that dealt with the chat room, followed by sent in images. I guess I wasn’t cute enough, my daughter told me I looked to serious, before she left for work. I guess she was right, most of the images shown were of smiling happy families, fans with sports jerseys on, and a Fire Station crew (I would have shown that over mine). As the program was coming to a close, the second to the last segment, my spirits flagging, I noticed, as one of the crew was hanging some of the recent photos, off to the side the familiar layout of my photo. Why had I stopped recording? To late it had past by, but there would be one more appearance of the promotional segment before the news show ended (I had forgotten that I could have recorded the show on the DVR cable hook-up - D’oh). I was ready for that final segment, and I missed it. The initial angle made it difficult to discern the image. When it was more visible, I had lost my chance to capture the better image. Mild depression set in, but the ‘D’oh’ turned into ‘Aha!’ as I remembered the DVR.

To make an already too long a story short, I got my shot. I could make out my little masterpiece. I was validated, and I felt goood. When will I grow up!

Day One Hundred sixty-two: Evening of January 11th 2010

Today’s activity was again one dominated by inactivity. I was just out of focus enough, because of the mild cold that I had, to require deeper periods of rest after mild exertion. Laundry and walking the dog required almost a two-hour nap. Making the bed, cleaning the bathroom floor, and putting away the dishes required over an hour asleep. After a large cup of coffee with breakfast, I was able to play Dragon Age: Origins for almost an hour, but stared to drift off, so I saved my progress, and went off to make some beds while I had the physical energy to do something.

This cycle of energy and depletion was the mode of the day. I’m glad that I had my laptop loaded with some digital copies of favorite films. What I mean by watching isn’t necessarily ‘watching’ a copy of a video. It breaks down as follows: I setup my laptop, push back in the recliner, load up a video in iTunes, begin the film, start watching it, and find out how tired I am by seeing how long I stay awake. When I wake, I wonder how I was able to fall asleep so smoothly, so inevitably. Many times there is no transitions. I’m watching and the next thing I don’t know is I’m asleep, to awaken some undetermined time later.

Viewing those movies using my laptop was the other use of technology. I have stored movies on both my Toshiba netbook and my Mac Book Pro. I wondered if I could transfer some of the iTunes movies on my Toshiba to my Mac Book. Grabbing my eight gigabyte memory stick and copying (yes, highlighting the video file and using the 'Copy' command) to the memory stick, Then, after plugging the memory stick to my Mac I simply activate the ‘Add to library’ command to have the video file transferred to the iTunes movie library (on average six minutes).

That was easy, and I’m glad it was. I’d have no energy or patience to begin trouble shooting if there was a problem.

Day One Hundred sixty-one: Evening of January 10th 2010

I did that stupid all night thing playing the latest Borderland DLC - 'Mad Moxxi’s Underdome Riot.' The first time I played it, I used co-op play and got a sense of the first area. This was a big help when I approached it as a single player. I died a fewer times than I expected. But then, embolden by my success, I walked into the next un scouted area and promptly was handed my cockiness on a bloodied silver plate. The most troubling part was the failure came in the final round as I battled an enhanced Boss character from the main game. One thing I can tell you, learn how to run backwards while firing as recoilless a weapon as you can find. Ultimately, I will prevail, and I’m sure you will too.

Day One Hundred sixty: Evening of January 9th 2010

“Once again, Alicia Keyes,” is said by Charles Barkley as he host Saturday Night Live and I can hardly keep my eyes open. It’s been a long day, and the only thing that I played were some games on my iPhone when I was in the head.

I remember watching a program dealing with the impact of Star Trek on the development of technology, it seems that holding the iPhone gives credence to the premise of that show. But then Dick Tracy had his wrist radio, late it became a wrist television, and I’ve got my iPhone. Did that comic strip have an impact on any of the writers of Star Trek. I don’t remember if the question was asked, but it would be interesting to interview some of the writers of the Star Trek writers to see what were some of the inspirations for the equipment that the crew of the Enterprise used.

Hold on, let me check the Internet.

On the website www.startrek.com there is an interview with Andre Bormanis, initially he was a science consultant for Star Trek: Deep Space and Star Trek: Voyager, and later a writer/co-writer on Voyager. To the question “Has Star Trek foretold any scientific discovery?” his response began with, “When people dream of things, someday somebody is going to try to build them. If you look at the ideas DaVinci had for flying machines, his helicopter is not something that ever would have been able to fly. But certainly he started people thinking about the possibility of that form of flight . . .” That describes the relationship that I recognize, but what about their sources. Then I checked the web search results and found that there were 778,000 hits to the search phrase “writers tell where the ideas for the star trek equipment came from” and that dampened my desire to continue the quest. Maybe Dick Tracy did have an impact on a writer on Star Trek.

Day One Hundred fifty-nine: Evening of January 8th 2010

I worked on advancing in Fallout 3 most of the afternoon, but drifting of to sleep figured into about 40% of the time playing. Luckily, no disasters occurred while I was in the "Land of Nod. However, poor choices were made as I came out of my slumber and a great many stimpacks (life force supplements) were wasted. As I played, occasionally I ran across sites that I never have discovered in my 500 hours of adventuring on the PS3 and the Xbox 360. That certainly shows the depth of the Fallout 3 world.

Last night, after walking the dog, I decided than it was time to set up an album on Facebook. The night air and the little nap before walking the dog generated a second wind, so I wasn’t really tired. I didn’t feel like playing any video games. I haven’t finished scanning in my Coast Guard slides and I really don’t want to do their uploading in dribs and drabs. I have a small collection of photos on my iPhone – decision made. This shouldn’t take long. I’ll pick out a set, upload them, make an album, and put them in – fin. So at 3:15 am, I realize that the thirteen photos took a considerable amount of time to set up, import them, label them, and finalize the organization.

Once I finished tweaking the images in Photoshop, it wasn’t hard uploading a single image, but it took me a while to find the album link. But it was there in the photo set up section. When I uploaded the images there was a caption box, so I entered a short description and uploaded the set. When I went to check the images, the captions weren’t there, so I re-entered them. The last operation was arranging the photos in chronological order.

I’m impressed with the various lighting conditions under which the camera produced images. That was probably the most significant reason for the photos appearance in this album.

Day One Hundred fifty-eight: Evening of January 7th 2010

Fallout 3 and Borderlands were the games of the day. This, of course, was squeezed in between the routine housework, a moderately heavy snowfall (which required shoveling), and the beginning of a head cold.

The nice thing about video games when I’m a bit under the weather, is the distraction it provides. Initially, the congestion and runny nose dominate my state of being, but if the game is challenging enough, the discomfort is diminished. A drawback, caused by the illness, is that I fall asleep when the action becomes monotonous.

In Fallout, I’ll be walking along, going from Point A to Point B, and the next thing I know “Where am I?” is filling my thought or worse, “Why is that monster pounding on me? Run!!!” I think that happened about three times today.

I would have returned to Fallout in the evening, but I notice that the latest downloadable software for Borderlands was posted on the PlayStation network. I had been waiting for 'Mad Moxie’s Underdome.' I downloaded it and played it in split screen. Definitely a survival challenge, but I didn’t quite understand what was going on. I’m going to have to try it again in single rather than split screen mode. Just a brief statement about where the confusion occurs - I couldn’t figure out how to get out of it after the first round of challenges. I just wanted to test it out and quit.

Tomorrow will be another snow day, maybe, I’ll feel better after shoveling and squeeze in some more gaming, especially Borderlands.

Day One Hundred fifty-seven: Evening of January 6th 2010

I just ordered Army of Two: The 40^th Day and a new controller for the PlayStation 3.

I’m hard on controllers. I consistently drive the stick into the upper edge to emphasize the need for speed. I don’t think anything really goes faster if this is done, but it feels so good. Now I get forward drift when I’m using either of the two controllers. I went online yesterday to see how to get into the controller to try to fix the problem. From past experience, I know that I won’t be able to do anything, because I didn’t see a drift adjustment (potentiometer bias adjustment) in any of the online descriptions. But I wanted to try, who knew what I would find inside the controller. When the exploratory work was done, nothing could be done to fix the problem. For a minute, I considered pulling out my soldering iron out and use parts from the one broken controller to fix the other, but I wanted to continue playing. When the new controller arrives, maybe then I’ll fix the other units (if I can find my soldering iron).

Speaking of returning to something to work on, I mentioned that there was a login for the CoolIris plug-in, and that I was going to check it out. It appears that it’s primarily a demographics thing - to see who the viewership is in order to tailor the information place in the plug-in. The developers state that the information supplied will be kept private. You can, also, be put on an email list to keep you abreast of new developments in the plug-in.

Today’s game play was Fallout 3 on the PS3. It was fun, and there were some new surprise in store for me today. Sometime it plays the same, but that wasn’t the case today.

Day One Hundred fifty-six: Evening of January 5th 2010

I caught the closing minutes of Attack of the Show on G4tv, when the acting host, Chris Hardwick, mentioned a plug-in for the FireFox web browser. It’s called CoolIris, and is an image oriented browsing tool. In other word, images trigger the links to the underlying story, products, or videos. Going to the site, I discover that it works in the Windows and Mac environments with Safari, FireFox and Explorer (v7.0 and v8.0). Clicking on the 'Download Now' button causes the website to check your browser and automatically load the appropriate plug-in for your browser. A quick restart then activating the plug-in, brings up the plug-in’s opening screen. What is striking is the way you interact with two rows of what appear to be floating image tabs laid out as the user’s guide to CoolIris. In the upper left corner is the access menu to the actual browser of CoolIris. When you open this menu your choices drop down and you can peruse the content of the Web. Granted the designers have set up the plug-in to pick the images, but this maybe something that the user can control can adjust to taste. I haven’t had a chance to explore the tailoring aspect of this plug-in. Also, there is advertizing, in this case Nikon has a contest /ad grid inserted on the less active pages. Not a big factor now, but this could give you a clue into “the shape of things to come.”

Anyway, I’ll be returning to this plug-in periodically, just to see what’s happening with it

One other thing that I forgot to mention and haven’t checked out fully, there is a login button. I don’t know what you would be subscribing to with this function. I didn’t notice any mention of a trial period, so I’ll have to check that out later.

Day One Hundred fifty-five: Evening of January 4th 2010

So on yesterday’s post I stated that I would get the name of the registry optimizer for today’s entry. Little did I realize that I bought into a controversy when I purchased Advanced Registry Optimizer by SammSoft.

In order to find this out, I had to check the path of the icon back to the actual application, which I found a bit of a bother. After checking out the title of the software on my Toshiba netbook, I decided to look up the review on cnet.com. It was during the search process that I notice one of the Google hits had the word “spam” tacked onto the name of the application. Whoa! Brakes screeching. What was that all about? I clicked on that link, started reading the text and became totally confused. It seemed like the page was a set of ads for other software. At the bottom of the page was a set of references that had selected/edited comments followed by more link after the entry. I was uncertain about what the intro comments were trying to communicate. Some actually had a negative bent, and other hedged their bet by sounding like ‘well maybe’ statements. I didn’t bother to click on any of the links, because I wanted to hit the cnet.com review to see where I went wrong.

The first thing I noticed was that I’ll have to update to version 5.1 of ARO. Then I reread the review, noting the cnet.com editor’s four stars out of five rating. That had not changed, but the user reviews had dipped below three out of five. So I continued to read. The one star reviews range from application flaw evaluations to enraged claims of the cnet.com editors being in the pocket of SammSoft. I think one five star review was a lead to a source of a ‘free’ full version, which sounded questionable. There was one poor review that claimed that the registry cleaning actually broke registry links to software, which has happened to me. However you can customize the software to address this issue, but it was a time consuming operation to actually find the applications link and mark it as a ‘skip’ link. Another individual commented on the poor customer support, but I didn’t bother to seek out kindred spirits in the 200 plus comment. A few others noted the fact that the company offered a free version but it only tagged the first twenty registry errors, and you had to pay for the full version. This elicited comment about phony hits, and how can you be sure. A downward spiral became apparent.

The scary thing that I noted was that there wasn’t a response by a company representative or a cnet.com editor. I’ll have to hit the ‘See all’ link and check if any responses by either group are buried in the user reviews.

Then again, maybe I won’t. The application, as a part of a periodic maintenance system, seems to keep the system running well.

As an addendum, I think there was a piece of SammSoft software that I had a long time ago for my Mac 512e that worked. I wonder if I can find it. If memory serves me correctly, it was a memory management application-squeezing a few extra kilobytes of RAM out of the system.

Day One Hundred fifty-four: Evening of January 3rd 2010

Nothing serious in the way of tech work was done today, other than updating my daughter’s PlayStation 3. Normally, I do all of the updating wirelessly, but her machine’s reception is poor. I don’t quite understand why it can’t work with that level of reception, when I have my Toshiba or Mac Book Pro in approximately the same location, even with poor reception connections are made, and files can download.

Although I’ve done it a few times before, I went to the PlayStation support site and re-read the directions for doing the update. Following the directions, I created and nested the prescribed two folders. The update file was downloaded and place in the correct folder. This was all done on the Mac Book Pro, and the update folders were loaded on a flash memory stick. I haven’t had a problem doing this, if I’ve followed directions, and this time was no exception. I was done in about fifteen minutes, start to finish.

The last thing that I did was to check to see if the update is in effect. I usually restart any machine that I’ve done major update for the same reason. With the computers, there are additional actions that I take. With the Mac, I use MicroMat’s Tech Tool Pro. With the Toshiba, I use a registry cleaning software that was recommended by CNN Tech (of course I’m on my Mac and nowhere near my PC to get the name of the application). In searching for the name at CNet.com, I couldn’t recognize any of the listed applications, so I’ll mention it in my next post. I guess that is the problem with clicking on an icon and activate the tool. I do the same thing with the antiviral software.

When I was in the service, we had a Preventive Maintenance System (PMS-no comment here) that was used to check the performance of the electronic equipment that we used. In essence, it was sets of scheduled tests, from daily through to annual checks, tests, and alignments. Because our, the crew’s, lives would depend on this system in critical situation, we knew the importance of even the most trivial test. Of course, my equipment performance isn’t as important as that, I still feel the importance of some kind of maintenance program is needed to keep even the gaming equipment operating at optimal levels. So system updates are an important part of system maintenance.

Just a word of warning, every once in a while, some updates have negative effects upon the system or software. That is why the warning is given, whenever you implement systemic changes that you should back up your hard drives. To be honest, I don’t always do this, but I do back up critical documents on the hard drive periodically. Another, approach would be to hit the Internet and check, via a search, if there are any negative effects being experienced by other users.

That was a lot of text for a light tech day.

Day One Hundred fifty-three: Evening of January 2nd 2010

I noticed that the post added extra line spacing between paragraphs. I tried to remove it, but it kept appearing. I wonder what coding is picked up by the text editor used by Blogspot. It doesn’t look that bad, but it is strange that I can’t easily control it.

As of right now, Borderlands highest level is fifty. I played today for about two hours, forty-five minutes in the morning and an hour and fifteen minutes in the evening. I watched the experience points as they were accumulated and noticed no change in the HUD’s display of that information at the bottom of the screen. So, Level 50 it is. There might be a change is future downloadable content pushes it up.

We’ll have to see.

Day One Hundred fifty-two: Evening of January 1st 2010

The shift has occurred, I’m typing this entry in MS Word 2008 for Mac. I tried once more to work with the MS Works files from my netbook, trying the insert approach but that resulted in the same outcome – failure to cleanly open file. I guess it’s appropriate that I start the new year out working on a different, hopefully more stable, application.

We shall see.

Batman: Arkham Asylum was started today. It’s an action-adventure video game with a stealth element incorporated into the game play. Basically the Joker has tricked and trapped Batman in Arkham Asylum which has been conveniently been stocked with Joker’s henchmen. I’ve just fought through the tutorial section where I learned the basics of movement, fighting, and the use of special functions. One such functions is the detective mode, which, when activated, alerts you to any points of interest that you might need. It is fairly straight forward, and flows smoothly from one learning experience to the next, while getting you deeper into the Joker’s trap. It was fun, but after dinner, I decided to play some Borderlands. It is still rewarding primarily because the difficulty has matched, if not exceeded, my level of development. I’m not sure if the experience point additions from my battling will result in any more advancement.

We shall see.