Wednesday, November 30, 2005
post://113336902385058094/
I was so excited for the advent of the Mazdaspeed 6. It promised so much -- a lot of horsepower to a bigger car, bigger engine, redesigned and better... instead they put a really good engine in a cheap shell and they're charging a lot for it.
I was very disappointed with the car. I had such high hopes and it never met them. I got 0-6 in about 4.2 secconds with my Mazdaspeed Protege (03), the 6 pulls about 6.4 -- just not right. It grips, but it grips after calculating, you can almost feel the computer decide what it wants to do, balancing between the 4 wheels, holding off until it knows that it's got traction, then kicking it. Even stomping on the highway didn't pull me back enough. It hauled, it certainly did, but the quality of the interior and the price just don't seem to match.
I love the engine, but doubt Mazda's first all wheel drive sedan transmission and the computer behind it all. I was also looking for the special touches that made my Protege so appealing. It had reworked bumpers, and the exhaust poked out of the rear, however there were oversized ovals with a tiny tailpipe poking out. They were just for show. The kick panels were also cheap. They were diamond plate, but it was aluminum, or alloy... it was very light. The interior looked nice, like a brushed gun metal, but it was stuck on plastic. I'm sure it'll scratch in no time. The dash was the same quality, guages were mystifying, and the radio was a Bose -- a traditional Bose that I'd want to rip out in a heartbeat.
There were so many things I just didn't like about it. I knew it wouldn't be worth the ammount I'd have to strap to get it, and that I'd never feel it was worth the money.
I'm going to test drive a Subaru Legacy GT - Subaru knows all wheel drive, I'm hoping for better.
It's less HP, but a bigger engine. It's also turbocharged, but I don't think it's got the 12+ psi of the Mazdaspeed 6. The Protege was a measly 5psi.
I'm still weighing if it'll be worth it to trade in the car as is, all waterlogged, or if I should fix it, use it, and get the new car later. In any case I think it'll be spring. Maybe for my birthday. I'll scrounge all winter, hoarding my nuts... and then... nirvanna.
posted @ 11:43
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Tuesday, November 29, 2005
post://113327662695130179/
Codes - enter at the first menu screen
iammostwanted Unlock cars
burgerking Unlocks Burger King Challenge
castrol Unlocks Castrol Ford GTI
I got to play NFS Most Wanted, the full game for PC last night. I'm able to make better comparison's with XBOX 360 now. The video on XBOX was much better, it was running actual DVD instead of streaming off the HD. They should have done the same with the PC version, the video can get choppy, and I'm running a very fast SATA 3G/sec HD.
The gameplay is the same, controls are tight, and the movies are all the same.
I got an extra $10,000 for having NFS Underground 2 installed on my computer, but otherwise started out the same. The graphics can get much better on the PC version, but the same issue with the shadows looking really pixellated are the same. I haven't yet turned up the antialiasing to see if that helps with that issue, however. Normally turning up antialiasing causes more issues with transparent textures, you'll often see white outlines around the "holes", like a badly made transparent GIF.
There's a few exclusive challenges, exclusive cars, and an exclusive DVD in the PC version. I haven't even watched the DVD yet. It got really high ratings, and for good reason, it's a damn good game, really fun, and the graphics can scale for 32mb video cards up to 5x better then XBOX.
XBOX wins out of the box though, no installing, no adjusting, tweaking, and no movnig your computer to the living room to watch it on the HD TV, and a much better controller - cordless even. They need to make a wireless Microsoft Controller for PCs, if that were the case then there'd be no contest. They could also give me an HD TV that I could use as a monitor in my computer room -- yeah, that'd work too.
posted @ 10:03
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Monday, November 28, 2005
post://113322169368990588/
I am installing NFS Most Wanted Black Edition. It comes with a free DVD, because you need something to watch while you're installing the 4 CDs worth of data! 3 Gigs via CD... why not a DVD? It's 2005, they've been around since... like 1998 or something. Only poor people don't have DVD drives at this point, and poor people don't buy games!
Nicole got me an early XMas present. It was kinda my doing, but I knew she'd want what I got her (Settelers of Catan), so it all worked out.
posted @ 18:44
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post://113322167998875203/
I am installing NFS Most Wanted Black Edition. It comes with a free DVD, because you need something to watch while you're installing the 4 CDs worth of data! 3 Gigs via CD... why not a DVD? It's 2005, they've been around since... like 1998 or something. Only poor people don't have DVD drives at this point, and poor people don't buy games!
Nicole got me an early XMas present. It was kinda my doing, but I knew she'd want what I got her (Settelers of Catan), so it all worked out.
posted @ 18:44
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Friday, November 25, 2005
post://113296113095402757/
I
went snowboarding today!
It was fairly icy by the time I got there, but my brother hit the slopes this morning and was done about 12 so he gave me his lift sticker. We found if you have another sticker underneath it will peel right off. I had no problems, it stayed stuck, and got today's snowboarding for free. Also -- since my Mom got me a Bash badge for Xmas, it'll only cost me $20 tomorrow.
I was able to get down the slope, and shoosh well enough. I was still sore from Wednesday (I worked out at the gym, attempting to prevent sore muscles in my legs after snowboarding. Thus I ended up snowboarding with sore muscles in my legs because of working out).
It's weird how I forget from season to season. I get the hang of it quicker every year but it's so weird getting the feeling for it again. I only fell once after going particularly fast and then shooshing a little too much the other way but otherwise did OK.
I'll probably rock out tomorrow, it was snowing when they closed this evening, so hopefully that'll keep up for some more powder tomorrow. It's supposed to heat back up later in the week, so I'm glad I'm getting it in now.
I still haven't bought my new board. I was wondering about it today, I think if I got a really wide board I'd be able to shoosh even more, take a nice leisurely way down the mountain. I'm not really in it for the speed. I've found how speed can quickly lead to a bump too far and kaboomaloom, I'm limping for 2 months.
Towards the end I was heading for moguls to get the hang of bouncing all around. Keeping the legs loose, moving with the board, turning into it and knowing where I need to be when I land after taking a j(b)ump.
My goal is to enjoy the ride, not get hurt, and learn to control myself absolutely. So far I'm complacent enough with that.
If anyone wants to go snowboarding in the next month or two, let me know. I may be able to get you a $20 daypass if my brother is busy or not going to go that day, and there's free lodging and food.
posted @ 18:12
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Wednesday, November 23, 2005
post://113296194273289531/
I just got back from Jay's house.
He got an XBox 360. He waited in line at Walmart near Worcester (Leicester?) for midnight, I think he said 6 hours? He was 1 away from the Platinum system, and thus in order to get all the pieces he wants, he's got to hunt all over, and pay a lot more then getting the entire package ready to go.
He has a 42" Hitachi HDTV, maybe 2 years old or so... and he had just gotten the HD cable when I got there. It really did look amazing, and the gameplay was nothing but tight. I had picked up Perfect Dark and NFS Most Wanted. Perfect Dark he paid me for and NFS was his XMas present. I wasn't really jonesin' for a 360, but really enjoyed playing it. I still don't think I'd want one. I'd much rather invest the money in a much better computer. However, I believe I said that about the first one too. I broke down eventually, but for the time being I think I'm good with the PC. I spent enough on that thing to buy 2 XBoxen.
The interface is probably where it's much more improved. You are on XBox live all the time, you can talk to anyone, see when your buddies are on, and interact with XBox live in the middle of any game, talk to anyone while playing whatever game, single player or otherwise, and easily meet up with friends who are also playing -- as long as the XBox is on, and they've got LIVE enabled you're good to go.
The power supply is huge, about 12" x 4" x 4", transformer, whatever it's called, and it makes a whole bunch of noise just sitting still. I wouldn't leave this one on. It's made of a PowerMac G5 processor, which is normally passively cooled but the additional components must generate a lot of heat. It's also got ATI video, some proprietary Hard Drive (optional with the base model, but you need it) and 802.11b built in.
So we never really got to Perfect Dark because NFS was so amazing. Jay never liked the Underground games because they were "in the dark" this was in the light. In addition the game is so well done, it keeps you in the game even between races. For instance: if you are racing and you attract the attention of some police, it ain't over just cause the race is. You need to get away from those cops whose attention you caught while racing. You can hit various objects that collapse, get in their way, or get enough distance and take a backway to avoid them. Avoid them long enough and they lose you. However they're all over the place, so it sounds a lot easier then it is - especially when they are lvl2+.
It's well done, I was very happy that he liked it. It also synched my future purchase of it for PC -- completely scalable in graphics with the same game. Ahhhh, choice.
So XBox got my approval. If you're lucky enough to have one, brag about it, make everyone jealous, and they won't really believe you how good it looks/plays until you invite them over to play it for themselves.
posted @ 02:25
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Friday, November 11, 2005
post://113175373353290380/
I also updated the links page, click the yellow "link" up at the top here -^
I'll set it so it can be resized, but not now, now is time for beer! Beer and games!
Atually not quite yet... still waiting for it to download, about half done and hate to get into another game in the meanwhile. I'm stuck in NFS Underground 2. I've gotten really far, I'm about to go to the next "level" of courses and races, but have to beat 1 of 2 races... and I can't beat either. I can't upgrade my car any more until I go up a level, either. I guess I made a bad choice in cars.
In any case I'm hopeful about the new one. Jay is always saying he doesn't like Underground "because it's at night, I don't like racing at night..." well this one's durring the day, and there's cops!
The other one was missing that "I'm not supposed to be doing this" feel like EVERY OTHER NFS GAME EVER. So looks like they're going back to that, and that's good.
I'm not getting an XBOX 360, but I may get the newest PC games to make me feel better. This system ought to spank the 360 for another year or so, if I compare price it ought to last 3 times as long as the XBox 360. Maybe it'll last twice as long at 1.5 times the quality, yeah... that's it.
I spent all day coding today. The boss was out, and I was feeling inspired. It was a very relaxing day given the past week. It was nice to just do my own thing, there were a few people who were having issues, but nothing major, and nothing I had to do right then.
I have been making a chat tool for the company, modifying one, rewriting it... I took 3 different winsock based text tools and combined them into 1 with specific notifications when a message comes in to each, redesigned the application, and just gone done compiling all the help for it this week. It seems like the work is never ending. Just when I think I've got it ready to go... the boss comes up with more things we should add to it.
It's not necessarily bad, just never ending. I added HTML help, real Windows help instead of cheap "hey, this window pops up when I click the big HELP button" kind of help. Now I can add that to any application I make.
I realized today that the HyperLINK application doesn't even do what it's supposed to. It's missing some major major changes I have been doing with the new program: QuickLINK. It works with the code I've been trimming down for my LINKs page. I've now separated it into a scrolling links page and an image display/animation slideshow sort of thing (used it on the
Teagno Construction Site heh, that's amusing now that I'm writing it out.
So umm... to sum up (damn this is a long post) - work is good, I'm doing a lot of fun stuff, learning VB .NET/2005 as I perfect VB6. Still got a looooong way to go before I reach "professional programmer" status, but maybe next I'll tackle arrays or go back to school to at least knock down a VB2 course.
School would be good, might as well finish up. I've already lost credits I'm sure, but would be good just the same.
posted @ 18:50
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post://113175251961464259/
Wow. Not bad for DSL. Verizon recently upgraded me to 3mb for no charge. I was supposed to get it from the beginning, but started out with 1.5mb, usually got about 150k with that, now I'm getting upwards of 300k... and this is from a public "fileshack" sort of site. Getting the new Need For Speed - Most Wanted demo. We'll see how it is... in about 20 minutes.
posted @ 18:38
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post://113174183171560853/
George Michael - Father Figure
This song takes on a bit of an odd meaning now that we're aware of his sexuality:
I will be your father figure
I will be your preacher
...
I am sick of crimes
I will love you, till the end of time.
Put your little hand in mine.
...
(and later in the final bars of the song)
I WILL BE YOUR DADDY!
...hmmm, I detect some homosexual undertones, insinuations towards the clergy, and that Mr Michael is longing to be the "father figure" for some lucky young gentleman.
...but that's just me.
posted @ 15:43
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Wednesday, November 09, 2005
post://113158022655290411/
wow. Check out this
screenshot from the next 3DMark [tech preview]I got some overclocking pointers today from Overclocker.com
Check out the forums, they've got the most info.
I switched RAM between the two computers, put the 466mhz Dual Channel DDR in the AMD64, then put the 400mhz Dual Channel DDR in the P4. I'm currently attempting to get 3DMark working so that I can see if the addition of faster RAM and my tweaking have given any results.
I also figured out why Battlefield 2 is slow. I'm running in in WinXP64! I'm doing it just cause I can, it supports SLi mode so I've been using it, but remembered that it was MUCH faster in native XP. So I'll give it a shot after this and prove my point. The other item was my voltage. The AMD64FX can handle up to 1.65v, I was running about 1.40.
Slate took a story about a principal cancelling the prom due to "
things getting out of control" and made a
revolution out of it!.
The principal was referring the people who have sex, drink, do drugs, and the parents who let them because they want their kid to be cool and have the
best prom ever. Now I never had no crazy prom, I didn't grow up on Long Island, and I really don't think these people can speak for the rest of the country, which is what this revolution sounds like to me...
posted @ 18:46
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Tuesday, November 08, 2005
post://113150194821988429/
I had just signed out of updating my blog and saw this:
http://hymen-defloration.blogspot.com/
OMG - I'm not even going to link to this, but Jesus... I saw it scroll by on blogger and I must say it caught my eye. Not everyone names their blog Hymen yadda yadda.
I can't believe this... well, I can... but damn if it ain't surprising.
It's got links for porn, and a very descriptive "
entry" so please use your discression in going there and following anywhere it may want to lead you...
Aside from that... I just saw an ad on HBO for an upcoming series:
I have Torrets, but Torrets doesn't have me.
I'm just all sorts of out of it. What the hell is going on????!!!
posted @ 21:04
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post://113150144939848200/
I just saw
Meet the Fockers. I give it a solid 4 out of 5.
No one is more surprised then I about this.
I expected a really tough movie to watch. Similar to the first one, Along Came Polly, and the other painful to watch Ben Stiller movies. It was a little of the sort, but damn it was good.
An incredible performance by Barbara Streisand, it was a heart warming story of two families coming together with a marriage.
It was actually encouraging, though a fictional tale, to see two completely different families coming together with the union of two people.
I know it's just a movie, but I sit here moved, amused, and wanting to let everyone know:
THIS ONE IS GOOD!
posted @ 20:52
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Sunday, November 06, 2005
post://113130239763649757/
Naysayers said nay, the government said "oh, don't worry about it"
Now we see
what they did with the Patriot Act.
I'm all for privacy, I'm all for the government knowing as little about any one citizen as possible. Why do they need to investigate who's used the libraries? Maybe they can see who looked up bombs? or who may be fascinated by Al Queda?
Just because someone wants to know more about something doesn't give you any reason to put them under surveillance. Once you're watching them, who knows what else you may "bag" them for?
I downloaded the Anarchist's cookbook, I read all about hacking and phreaking. If I was looking this up from the library, I could have been tracked, and might be on their list right now. You may think I'm being paranoid, but it's not that simple.
I am afraid, but I'm afraid of a realization of 1984.
Do you think this poses a threat?
Would you care if they were looking into your life?
posted @ 13:27
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Thursday, November 03, 2005
post://113103991602005104/
So I'm trying out Sirius online again. Another 3 day trial.
If you have any technical prowess -- and an interest in getting free radio... let me know.
Even if it's just online I'd still like to figure out what makes them tick.
The quality is 34khz, but the programming content is what I want.
I'll subscribe, eventually, but need to make sure I get the car all hooked up wtih it first.
Here's the deal:
Sign up with Sirius Online (www.sirius.com) and search the programming. You can listen to all the channels right from the web page.
It will ask you to sign up. Use a secondary, or email address just for this purpose.
You'll get a password in the mail.
Log in and the player window will come up.
Start listening.
Pull the window to the right (resize) until you see white.
Right click on the wite and choose "view source".
Send me that source.
If you want to know the ins and outs of why I'm doing this, contact me in person and I can explain.
Thats all I can say about it, but you'll get some really good programming for a few days and you'll be helping me out.
Collect enough pieces and you'll know what the puzzle looks like.
posted @ 12:45
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