Sunday, January 17, 2010
post://2013052032062019405/So I've been playing with the links - you may have noticed. They still update automatically, but need to rewrite the scrolling code so it's imbedded. I'm trying to rewrite anything iframe to javascript and get things to tie in a little better then the current section format.
I've realized the blocks don't really seem to go together but screen size has come a long way since my "throw compatability to the wind" 1024+ super-wide background.
So content still flows here and there but lately it's all about how to better present it. I'm in need of extending the text area and maybe making the bckground repeat in a such a way that it will adapt to a long scrolling last 10 entires or something.
I have an archive but it's difficult to keep going back and going back but also don't want to have the initial page loaded up with over a years worth of entries at a time.
So still figuring things out but you can expect only minor morphing - things will generally stay the same. Besides, Chinese MP3 search engines don't really care what format my website is in since they just hotlink from their results to said MP3s.
posted @ 12:16
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Friday, December 18, 2009
post://4672237220726642051/Windows 7 Games Explorer Manual Customization How To
Windows 7 has removed the ability from Games Explorer to Customize out of the box.
It's not impossible to do, however - it just takes some finangling and registry knowledge.
All of your Games Explorer shortcuts are stored here:
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer
If you have games installed you should see several folders with very long names that start with {######...
Each of these is the unique game ID used by Windows to synch the icons and commands that appear in the Games Explorer to the actual EXE that runs the game.
These numbers correspond to the values in the registry here:
HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\
CurrentVersion\GameUX\Games
By clicking on one of the IDs in the registry you can figure out which game is which:
IE {1396D271-A5F9-4F29-8D7D-767858558567} is Batman for me.
When I click the ID folder the config options are on the right including the full path so you should be able to find which ID corresponds to which game.
To modify the options for a game like change the path, or even add additional play or right click options, just modify or add a folder within PlayTasks for that game. I believe you are limited to 0 to 5 tasks, but try it. Batman's 0 task is Play and the 1 task is Support. So within PlayTask\0 (default) for Batman is a shortcut named "Play". Right click and choose properties as you would on any other shortcut and modify the files as you need to (run as admin, compatability mode, etc). To create a new play task you could make a folder named "3" and within that place a shortcut named as you'd like it to appear on the context menu.
Finally, you can also modify the box art shown in GamesExplorer or even add box art for games that don't have it by default by modifying the images in the
%localappdata%\Microsoft\Windows\GameExplorer folder.
Simply name the file (jpg) with the same ID as the game, voila - you have your game listed with special icon or box art in Games Explorer.
Labels: 2009, games for windows, howto, technology, Windows7
posted @ 16:59
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Wednesday, December 16, 2009
post://624288174965906696/
Labels: 2009, games, games for windows, graphics, racing
posted @ 10:18
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Tuesday, December 08, 2009
post://2179114379212042377/
I had downloaded Battlefield 1942 for the PS3 a while back, shelled out the $15 and it's relatively good. Destructable environments basic gameplay on what Battlefield should be (not Bad Company) and decent graphics for a console.
I was especially excited about the prospect of battling cross-platform. PS3, XBOX, and PC all in the same realm? Sign me up to scalp them with my mouse! In any case the PC version was still forthcoming, but after trying the demo I am abhorred by what they provided for the PC version.
No widescreen resolutions, vile texture quality, simplistic scenes, it's like playing original Battlefield 1942, stunted! I don't even think it looks as good on the PC as the original Battlefield would look if I installed it right now, but enough of me hemming and hawing, let the pictures speak for themselves:
posted @ 20:21
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Saturday, November 14, 2009
post://1716793609455492187/I woke early this morning, a cold rainy November day. It wasn't out of preference, there's a big change to the phone system at work today. It was still very dark, cold, and I could hear the rain pouring down outside. I didn't have to go into the office, which is great, a much better way to do work on the Saturday. Besides, making important business decisions in pajamas and disheveled hair always makes me feel good.
I'm scheduled to stop by Bryans to assist with the brew today and hoping we can resolve this issue in enough time to get there somewhat early. I often miss the first stages and really want to practice so I can do it on my own. Nicole always enjoys the social time and I'm pretty sure the guys like her around as well, so Nicole and the baby are coming along as well. They're actually still in the process of getting up but based on how things are going so far, I don't expect we'll be leaving on time.
I realized the other day I hadn't written anything much about the baby. It's a completely new experience and I'm probobly set to forget the idiosyncracies soon enough, and certainly before he gets around to asking me what it was like when he was a baby. I'd like to be able to tell him, and even later on, have him see for himself. I started this blog long ago for the purpose of being able to review my own life, and remember things previously forgot, but it has evolved into stories and their lessons learned. One is much more apt to learn from example then by simple advice. I am planning on trusting my child to make the right decisions on his own, and providing him sufficient information to make an educated choice is my goal. There's quite a few things that could be misconstrued until he's old enough, it probobly won't be for a long time. Time to backup the site, now that I think of it ;)
It's been interesting, and I don't think I could do it alone. Nicole's home right now, at least until January, and I've been working regularly and even longer lately. Things should level off once the year end projects are wrapped up, it will take some time for things to ramp up for next year. That means I often get home late and exhausted. It's still great to see him smiling, he just recently started doing that at things he sees. It's a great feeling to see him excited to see me.
We haven't been doing too much out on our own but that's more of a consideration for money rather then baby. We've gone out to dinner a few times in fact and he's been great. He is normally asleep from the ride over so he just sleeps all snug in his bucket. We said we wouldn't be bucket parents, but the alternative is a screamy baby in public, and in almost all cases we take him out and bundle him in the wrap if we're going into a store. So it's taken some getting used to, but it comes naturally. You get the jiggle, you understand the coos, and if all else fails: change, feed, or burp :)
Lately at work I've been working on phone skilling, routing, and strategy inbetween day to day operations in preparation for today and among all the other things that needed to be done by today, I've been very very busy.
It's not the best time for it, but I took on some extra computer work on top of everything. At the time I set it up I had this on the horizon but was pretty sure we had a good head start on everything. I hadn't anticipated changing everything at the last minute and spending hours in meetings for managers to mull over simple changes and attempting to make them as complex as possible. All in all the complex changes were too complex to do last minute so they weren't entered afterall. It may do well to run on a simplified design first "due to technical limitations". I'm hoping they'll find it's actually much simpler then they made it out to be and will work quite well how it was originally designed.
So back to the computer work. There is a guy at work who started his own business a while back. He's got a generic "computer fixing company" website, ticketing system, and a surprising volume of business. I never went the professional route with my website, pushing traffic, embedding items to maximize my search potential. I had see site, call me. I don't think I've ever gotten a lead off it, but don't really need it, it was more of a reference for someone who met me in person. There's so much overhead in dealing with customers - questions, time, coordinating, pick up, drop off. It's hard to charge for questions, and if they're a customer I have no problem answering questions to maintain loyalty and knowing they'll go with me, but it always eventually ends up where they go to me for my knowledge and pay someone new to do their computer work. I don't do a bad job, I'm actually very thorough, which can delay a machine from being returned. I'm not going to replace a blown cpu fan without regreasing it and burning it in with a heavy 3D test for at least 24 hours.
That's what makes this situation so great - he deals with all the customers, face to face or on the phone. I may update a ticket with a necessary part number here and there but otherwise I'm just receiving, fixing, and returning. None of the headaches that he has to endure. It also helps supplement the income until Nicole heads back to work.
Labels: 2009, baby, update, work
posted @ 07:36
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Tuesday, September 15, 2009
post://4635925369993455624/2006 Legacy GT - 3 good, 1 leaky struts w/ 30,000 - Best Offer
2006 Legacy GT - stock shift knob - Best Offer
Numark DJ Mixer DM1050 - $50
AMDFX-55 2.6ghz Media Center PC - $300
MAudio Keystation 49e USB/Midi Keyboard - $60
2 x nVidia GTX 280s 1G (for SLi) - pair for $300 OBO
New ASUS 19" LCD in Box - $125
30" Dell Dual DVI Monitor (2560 x 1600) (no usb/flash drives) - $750
iMac 1ghz G4 (desklamp) - needs new power supply - $100 (1 copy OSX, 1 copy OSX 10.3)
Full size (2.5ft") Computer Case, black with front slide panel - $20
Atari 800XL computer with Atari slot, built in keyboard, 5 1/4" disk drive - Best Offer
Game Cube w/ 4 controllers, standard & HD hookups, 6 games Mario Party, Mario Party, and some others - $75
Labels: 2009, consumerism
posted @ 08:36
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Monday, September 14, 2009
post://6130564000218706830/They're spreading my mixes, so I guess that's good - just wish they didn't stream it directly from me every time. Check out one my top 10 visitors - a very well stocked Chinese MP3 site! mp3.youdao.com
Google translates, most of the english stuff is in English so you can probobly find a few things.
posted @ 23:25
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post://2466185940127249611/
Both are playable at 40 to 45fps.
Vista is overclocked video chip / mem ~ 745mhz / 1265mhz
Win7 is stock video chip / mem ~ 705mhz / 1215mhz
Vista .5
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Vista 1
Win7 1
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Vista 2
Win7 2
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Vista 3
Win7 3
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Vista 4
Win7 4
Labels: 2009, games, games for windows, graphics, screenshot, vista, Windows7
posted @ 14:20
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Saturday, September 12, 2009
post://2987336471837986745/6 installations later I have a working copy of Windows 7 with valid RAID, SATA, Chipset, Video, and Sound drivers. I was very careful this time, doing only one thing at a time and restarting after a change to confirm. I was a bit more cavileer when I was under the impression my errors could be undone. The restore feature was not able to handle the driver change for vital components so keep that in mind when you're upgrading. Vista had similar problems, I wasn't able to install it until SP1.
My first step once getting SLi working was to test the performace of games. I was able to test a couple DEMOs as is but GTA required a reinstall since it has so many background requirements. All in all I saw HUGE gains visually, everything ran better, something I'm not used to seeing from new (PC) OSs.
To further put this into perspective - in Vista my video cards are overclocked a good 40mhz higher, the video cards are running at stock speeds in Win 7.
Here are the numbers from GTA:
Windows 7 - GTA v1
Average FPS: 40.12
Duration: 37.37 sec
CPU Usage: 74%
System memory usage: 37%
Video memory usage: 50%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 2560 x 1600 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Render Quality: Highest
View Distance: 32
Detail Distance: 70
Windows 7 - GTA updated
Average FPS: 43.98
Duration: 37.45 sec
CPU Usage: 78%
System memory usage: 39%
Video memory usage: 53%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 2560 x 1600 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 32
Detail Distance: 70
Vista - GTA updated 1920 x 1200
Average FPS: 37.65
Duration: 37.61 sec
CPU Usage: 81%
System memory usage: 44%
Video memory usage: 57%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 1920 x 1200 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: High
View Distance: 75
Vista - GTA updated 2560 x 1600
Average FPS: 32.02
Duration: 37.72 sec
CPU Usage: 74%
System memory usage: 43%
Video memory usage: 59%
Graphics Settings
Video Mode: 2560 x 1600 (60 Hz)
Texture Quality: High
Texture Filter Quality: Very High
View Distance: 100
Detail Distance: 50
*update* Futuremark Vantage Score: 14100!
Direct Link
Labels: 2009, games, games for windows, RAID, technology, Windows7
posted @ 09:54
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Thursday, September 10, 2009
post://4541716393206416641/Windows 7 - Don't Rush It.
That's a cautionary statement, a metaphor, and a realization. I had a LOT of issues with this installation and I'm not even at a point where I can benchmark. 3... maybe 4 installations at this point and I think I've finally got it. I put in another HD so I could avoid RAID issues and I still run into them.
My motherboard has 10 SATA ports 4 on one SATA controller, 6 on nVidia SATA RAID. I avoided trying to bring over the RAID right away, instead having a single HD on the ontroller but not actually in RAID mode and STILL ran into issues. 7 even played with my RAID 1 a bit and broke the mirror after I installed the drivers but I really think that's more nVidia since it was completely dependent on their drivers. If nVidia didn't try and break whatever BIOS RAID existed when they installed their Windows software I might have not been impacted, but instead they gave me a minor heart attack by breaking my mirror. I restored it by killing the secondary RAID mirror and reallocating it via a rebuild to the first but dang if it didn't make me fear for my data in the meanwhile. I've lost too much data, finally learned to go mirror vs striping and this is how I am taunted. Whatever - worked out ok in the end after rebuild.
I finally have my nVidia control panel as I remember it, SLi and all. I can finally do some performance testing, and that's what I'm after.
PhysX off the onboard 780a SLI chip
Enabled SLi for the 2 x 285 2G EVGA cards
clicked apply... and... we have liftoff!
A system rating shows they've gone past the 5.9 max rating and I now get 7.9s on everything except the hard drives. However, Windows 7 is not running off my striping array so it's not really expected I'd get the best performance. It's all awaiting my theory of 2 x 120G SSD drives in Striping. I can't think of anything that could be faster. I don't know what that might drive to game performance but if previous experience is any indication - that's a sure cause to make me drop a hard earned dollar.
Labels: 2009, crash, desktop, RAID, review, SLi, technology, Windows7
posted @ 23:20
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Saturday, August 15, 2009
post://563346954539740788/Those 4 days went by slowly. I went to work on Monday but that night had Nicole feeling very anxious about the baby's arrival. I worked from home on Tuesday expecting we'd be going in at any time but I worked through the entire day without much incident. Nicole was tired, very pregnant and a couple days past her due date so anything seemed like it could be the time. We went food shopping because we finally had to. We had been avoiding because we didn't want things to spoil if we had the baby and didn't get back to the house right away. We made dinner, sat down to watch some TV afterwards and sure enough her water broke.
We went to the hospital about 9:30 or so, got into an admission room about 10:15. We sat there for some time waiting, heard a few other expectant mothers be told they should go back home and wait, but after a few double and triple checks they were able to admit us. I was glad, I didn't want it to all be for naught. Nicole was having very minor contractions at this point - possibly one every 10 minutes or so. We finally were admitted to a room about 1:30am. The contractions still weren't all that severe so they advised us to get a good night's rest for the full day ahead. We had sent texts or called the major people to relay the message and we settled in for the night.
The next morning I woke roughly 8:30. They had already woken Nicole up, gotten her breakfast and started her on a steady drip of Pitosin. Eventually family started trickling in, Nicole's mom and step father, my mother, and her sister. Nothing much was happening, they visited for a while and left for some lunch. The contractions had started ramping up at that point and it was mainly me in the room. Her mom and sister popped in once or twice after but once the contractions really started hitting her, there wasn't much visiting to be done. Nicole had wanted to try it for as long as she could without an epidural and she did very well, but it was really starting to hurt. She tried the birthing ball, but it took so long for them to get it to her she was a bit out of sorts for it by the the time it arrived. She was going to try the shower as well, but considering how long it took them to get the ball, we were both concerned with how long it would take someone qualified to inject something into her spine to get there so we ordered it.
It took them another good 30 to 45 minutes but they arrived, an anesthesiologist and a medical student I gathered because she was so young and full of inquiry to the seasoned one. They placed it and Nicole began to feel the numbing. There was one key misunderstanding though. They had the tube in and they asked where Nicole felt it, she understood the question to relate to their finger, not to the tube. The finger was right in the middle, the tube, as it turned out - was a bit to the left.
Nicole felt into an instant calm, a little too calm. She relaxed, smiled and laid back as they asked her questions about how she felt. She said she felt good, but her chest was a little tight... right before the pulse monitor measured a severe drop. Her heart rate plummeted and she was breathing very slow. They immediately stopped the epidural drip and let it ease off. She continued to have minor contractions during this time unbeknownst to her. Family came in again for a quick conversation, she was very upbeat, and a tad loopy but happy. She had decided to forgo any narcotics for fear it would interfere with the baby's health and her ability to participate in the experience, I attributed it to relief and fatigue. She recalled a very amusing story about her young nephew having a blast with his Massachusetts accent and one particular phrase.
The relaxation went by the wayside once the epidural was started back up, as the large initial dose they had provided her subsided she began to feel a "window" were the contractions were hitting with full force. They kept asking her to give it time, moved her around a little to try and move the numbing to the area to no avail when the anesthesiologist was called again to assist. The original two had left for the day but a new one was on. He made an adjustment, pulling it out a little bit but that too proved to be too little. After about 2 hours or so of resumed full pain he came back yet again to redo the epidural. Thankfully, as he was very careful and sure about where the needle was placed, it did what it was supposed to do and the pain subsided.
About 7pm or so Nicole was finally able to get some rest, I went down for a nap as well since I had been helping the entire time. I kept thinking how I knew this was going to be difficult for Nicole but never imagined it would be so much work for me. Little did I know that was just the tip of the iceberg. I woke up about 9pm and she was still sleeping. I went out to the waiting room to reconnect with family while she got a little more sleep. I hung out there for about an hour or so and I must say that was probably one of the longest hours of my life. America's Got Talent was on the TV, we weren't really watching it but no one was in too good a shape for real conversation so once I had relayed the major information - that was what I focused on.
About 10pm a nurse came to get me, Nicole was up and asking for me. I went in to see how she was doing. The contractions were closer, more regular, and it seemed like it was going to happen. We were really shooting for the 29th because that was our friend Heather's birthday and it looked like it just might happen. She went through the contractions much better with the epidural, she could still feel them, but they wasn't the pain she had before it. Nicole kept wanting to converse, but based on the feedback from the machine measuring her pulse it was best when we were both quiet. Whenever she would start talking her pulse would drop and the alarm would go off, I advised her to stay calm and relax, but our short purposeful conversation continued as she kept working through the contractions. In hindsight, Nicole had a somewhat low nominal blood pressure anyhow, the machine was just picking up a slight drop so overall it wasn't something to be concerned about but I couldn't help feeling concerned watching the readings dip into the red whenever she'd start talking. I just tried to keep us both calm and working through the contractions.
Finally around 11pm the midwife decided she should start pushing. The average was 1 to 2 hours, I was hoping for less - that didn't happen. A good hour... then close to 2 and the baby was finally starting to show. Nicole was tired, I was tired but just trying to keep her going. The midwife was great, kept her counting and pushing and finally we were making headway (ha!). About 2 hours and Nicole was really feeling it. Finally, the midwife told her to feel the head - she did and realized it was almost there. A few more minutes and finally the baby came out.
The head was very long, oblong and alien like in it's shape. All purple and bloody, wrinkled like he had been in the bath for 9 months or so. The baby was lifted up and I looked on in anticipation, I didn't even see the cord around his neck because the midwife was so good. As she was lifting him out she had already begun unwrapping so by the time he was all the way out, it was off. I then saw it was a boy and made the announcement! They put him right down on Nicole as they cleaned him up. He was crying by this point after they cleared his mouth. He looked so small and just as tired as his mother. It really was beautiful, my new son.
They brought him over to the corner of the room to examine him, weigh him, and we hoped to have him back shortly. He was crying a bit more anxiously now, with short quips of breath. The doctors started conferring with each other in hushed tones. I was concerned, but they spoke to us as soon as they determined what they were going to do. Since they had concerns with his breathing he needed to go up to NICU (newborn intensive care unit) but we could come see him within an hour.
I had minor concerns because I wanted our baby to be with us, and have as much skin to skin contact in the first few hours as possible, but knew that I had a brief period in the ICU as a newborn as well so knew it could still be alright. It was alright after all - he was wonderfully healthy, and I will continue in pt 2.
posted @ 16:48
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Tuesday, July 21, 2009
post://751856176805052483/So the baby is on the way, 4 days until the due date. The baby's room is finished, floor sanded, resealed, walls painted, and furnished. Nicole and I both wanted a braided rug as we both have fond memories of racing matchbox cards along the braids. It's a built in racing track. I remember setting up my blocks in a track shape and using the braids as built in lanes. We settled on a nice braided cloth one from Thorndike Mills in Palmer. I'd say they're the de facto manufacturer of braided rugs mainly because they are the only ones I've ever heard of.
Since the room's been done I've gotten into the habit of looking into the room at night time and the morning, opening the door which has been closed to keep the cats out, just getting used to the image. I can imagine the baby there in the crib, all snuggled and peaceful in a warm loving house. It's a nice thought, but never thought I'd get to this point.
There's the usual concerns about how to change them, settle the crying, alleviate the gas bubbles, and hold the baby securely while trying to do things with one hand. I've always handled babys well (I think), but I never got all that much face time with any given tiny baby. I'm really looking forward to holding my son or daughter in my arms, looking at them and knowing they are part me.
I'm sure they'll run into the same issues I did growing up and I hope I can help them through it. Not to say my parents didn't try but they just didn't seem to have much of a clue. They were so old by the time they had me, things had been much different when they were children. Generations had gone by since, and their childhood memories didn't really give me much to work off of. I hope I can provide some insight to help prepare my child for the life that lies ahead.
Nicole and I both agree on the same rearing theories so I'm hoping that we'll be a good team.
posted @ 14:25
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Tuesday, June 30, 2009
post://4306510762466182006/I received my EVGA 295 GTX Co-Op today and here are the results!
17:45 - Card installed, powered on
18:00 - Drivers Updated, restarted
21:06 - done with benchmarking
Initial observations:
Compared to the 280 GTX:
- same length
- feels heavier
- a tad thinner
Hardware installation included 2 devices (GTX 295)
I left a 280 in there for strictly PhysX for now but going to do try benchmarks both with and without it on both cards.
Test: -/+ for decreased / increased performance
3DMark Vantage (Ambient Occlusion: ON | PhysX: ON): +
Score: 16209
CPU: 33477
Graphics: 13831
3DMark 2006 (Ambient Occlusion: ON | PhysX: ON): =
Score: 13260
SM 2.0: 4953
SM 3.0: 6965
CPU: 3268
3DMark Vantage (Ambient Occlusion: OFF | PhysX: OFF): +
Score: 12415
CPU: 8610
Graphics: 14560
3DMark 2006 (Ambient Occlusion: OFF | PhysX: OFF): -
Score: 13126
SM 2.0: 4830
SM 3.0: 6935
CPU: 3263
GTA IV: -
Benchark @ 1920 x 1200
Texture Quality High
Texture Filter Quality: Very High
View Distance: 25
Detail Distance: 30
Previous (2 x 280 GTX):
Average FPS: 52.01
Duration: 37.55 Sec
CPU Usage: 77%
System Memory Usage: 36%
Video Memory usage 92%
Current (1 x 295 GTX Co-Op):
Average FPS: 48.96
Duration: 37.72 sec
CPU Usage: 78%
System Memory Usage: 38%
Video Memory Usage: 99%
Crysis: -
I was a custom mix of Very High and High with a lower view distance with the previous cards but durring hectic battles I'd notice everything getting really choppy.
With the new card autodetect chose all High
1920 x 1200 was too much for it at first, but after it settled in and had the textures loaded it went relatively smooth and playable. I turned down to 1280 x 800, the next lowest 16:10 resolution in the list but the quality wasn't worth it. The text was way too blocky, and the trees all had squares where light shone in-between the leaves. I turned it up to 2560 x 1600 and it looked really good but and still had similar performance as the other resolutions. Overall I'd say this is an improvement as I can eek up the shaders and the physics with little to no impact in framerate... too bad said framerate is a steady 30 fps or so. I have the latest version and drivers but I remember a past bug in Crysis where it would run worse if you changed the resolution in game so I'll try this one again tomorrow.
NFS Undercover: +
I had it at 1920 x 1200 previously - with medium world effects (I hate the motion blur) all detail set to highest and 6x AA. I had turned off VSynch previously because it was pulling it down to 30 when I was probably getting about 40 or so, but I HAD to enable it with the new card. I was getting at least 60fps easy and even when I turned it up to 2560 x 1600 I had to turn on VSynch to make it not look like everything was in Fast Forward.
Benchmarks really don't gain much over my 2 x 280s and even go down in the game test. That's partly because the new card actually reduces my available video RAM. The RAM is what I had originally targeted as my bottleneck for draw distance in GTA and this isn't going to help at all, I even need to bring it down a little.
I'm not super impressed, especially since I could get the same performance and even better high resolution performance from my 2 (and now much cheaper) 280s. All in all I'm sure if you're running lower resolution you could kick some ass running 2 of these, but good luck with that.
Rendering is faster due to the increased clocks and there is a noticebly higher quality to the image but as far as sheer frame rates go - this card isn't going to cut it for anyone running higher then 1920 x 1200.
My recommendation is that if you're looking for high performance AND high resolution - stick with the 295 GTX 1g+ cards. I'll be waiting for the higher memory cards to come out, and praying my 90 days for the step up program is enough time.
Labels: 2009, 3dmark, consumerism, games, games for windows, hardware, materialism, video
posted @ 18:03
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Wednesday, June 03, 2009
post://2302350923508456804/The baby is coming in two months (give or take) and I'm feeling a bit... stressed?
I'm excited for the actual situation, but how I'm going to turn everything around in that short of time is a bit daunting.
I have until the beginning of July to finish everything for school. Once class is done and I think I'm in good shape there but the other one I've fallen quite a bit farther behind. I'm just starting on a paper that should have been done a week or two ago and I don't even know where to start.
We've got the baby's room started. It's primed and painted but needs another coat of paint and then I've still got to do the floor. After we pulled up the carpet there was a nice wood floor underneath, but the previous owners went all fuckall with the ceiling popcorn so it's got to be sanded and refinished and since I was going to rent a sander for the occasion I figured I might as well do the office too while I'm at it, since that floor has certainly seen better days.
On top of all this the bathroom is still being redone downstairs. At least we've got the upstairs one so we're not without during all this, but it's taken some time. They're doing good work thus far so I'm not complaining but there are additional concerns and decisions to approve as far as things we need to replace now they've got everything apart or the allotments for improvements to the items we've budgeted for.
I'm worried I can't get everything baby-ready in time, and in order to do all these pending items I kind of need to be home but we keep making ourselves busy. VT was last week, and NY this week - Pregnancy: Get it While it Lasts! (The Mom Tour)
I'm currently ready to head to our last birthing class, so once Nicole's lab is done at school we'll at least have Wednesdays back to normal. I might not be able to squeeze all the house stuff into a weeknight, but it might help me catch up on my school assignments. It's a great class, really interesting, but I'm so not getting what they apparently think I should be getting out of this because I read the materials but have NO idea what they're talking about in the writing assignment that's based on them. "wait... what do you mean 'all the different views?' I can name one... I think"
It all builds on itself so I'm starting to get a little tense. Work has been well, at least. Everything finally settled down, but apparently today was "nothing based on Access will work properly and needs to be fixed" day. There's a potential good thing coming up in the prospect of a trainee at work. They shuttle college graduates on a "fast path" to management - sending them to various areas a few months at a time to get as broad of a perspective as possible. We're getting one in my area and I'm going to be the mentor, so it'll be a little practice and I'll see how I do. I don't really want to get into the management side, but I'm thinking that might be the only route that'll get me any more moolah in this area and I would like to think my background would mean I could recommend and deligate well.
Ultimately I'd like to do full time programming, hopefully it'll be varied enough to keep me interested. I'd need more official training and if I can ever get to it I've got some additional programming classes coming. My development plan - read: list of classes for a degree - is fairly intense and involved so I might not really get to the actual programming classes until later. I know .NET but I've only been through official VB6 classes so I'm really looking forward to it for the best practices end of things.
Labels: 2009, baby, school, status
posted @ 18:13
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Sunday, May 24, 2009
post://6427700829808250218/You may have played "Peggle" on PopCap before, but now you can get it on your iPod - I just found Peggle on iTunes for $4.99
Labels: 2009, consumerism, download, games
posted @ 09:43
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Tuesday, May 19, 2009
post://3410978190845501729/Got an idea to pull in my twittering to the sidebar. I know it exists already but knd of looking forward to writing it myself. Javascript is like a baseball glove. My plan is to pull the whole page (unless there's an RSS) via javascript and then find the start tag of the twitted text and pull each consecutive line to a string until reaching the end tag. I could then adapt the script for a bunch of stuff.
Labels: 2009, idea, mobile, web
posted @ 15:28
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Wednesday, May 06, 2009
post://8494446360010875168/Now I know how the other half lives. Private parking in Hartford, marble building, art and comfortable chairs. I know the business side has the money but they're so all businessy.
posted @ 10:40
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Tuesday, April 07, 2009
post://7853510666201610976/more to follow, teaser:
Labels: 2009, consumerism, games, games for windows, hardware, technology
posted @ 21:05
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Friday, April 03, 2009
post://4393375386350855146/There is an amusing story behind this - but better to tell in person.
Jay found it.
posted @ 18:40
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Thursday, March 26, 2009
post://6837641428007151744/This year's birthday spoils:
- iPod Nano
- Novint Falcon
- NFS Undercover
- BF2142 Deluxe (for the living room PC)
I ended up working half a day today, spent the 2nd half being productive and hanging out with the dog.
I went and got my winter tires off the car, I think we're safe for snow. If it comes now I just won't go anywhere :)
I spent that time waiting listening to my iPod - I was totally that guy in the store with the iPod on. I meandered around Home Depot, looking at some bathroom stuff, and I found a fence I liked. I picked up a rake, and walked back to pick up my car. I didn't really think that much of it, but people look at you funny when you walk into a waiting area with a rake.
It wasn't too long, though I noticed something odd about the iPod touch. Even if you have video in your audio playlist it won't make it to your iPod unless you add the playlist under the video section. I have this thing about rating. I love rating my music, and now that I've perfected moving my whole Library (album art, comments, ratings, along with all the files themselves) I've gotten more serious about it.
1 star - don't like it, don't like it at all - I'll probably delete later
2 star - I appreciate it, but I don't like it enough to have it be played in my background music
3 star - background music
4 star - really good
5 star - makes me stammer when attempting to describe, tear up, or jump up and down
Armin Van Buuren - Shivers (Rising Star Mix) is a good example of what I'd give a 5.
I set up a running playlist of only non-rated files listing the newest out of whatever size, or number of files I restrict it to - but never put much of a dent in it, at least not until I got Jamie's old iPod. It was kinda broken, had synching issues - but she gave it to me for helping with her computer and I got it to mostly work. Doing things very patiently I could reload it ever 5 synchs or so and I'd get about 4 days worth of ratings at a time before I'd have to reload the firmware on it. With an iPod I could now rate the music during the day in the car or at work - I got a lot done.
It eventually frustrated me to the point of crushing it, so of course I took it apart to check it out. I've been non-rating MP3 playering since, at least I had a backup. Now I'm back in the groove. I also had to get a new case because the neoprene DLO case I had for the 1st gen nano covered the bottom 40% of the wheel on the new model - bastards, change it juuuuuust enough.
So I got BF2142 all working for the weekend - coupld of the guys are coming out and we'll have a multi-computery dethmatch of deth, so wanted to make sure all was in tip top shape. I also just installed NFS - I know it's going to be corny, but lets go see what they did with the graphics and this new "Heroic driving engine".
Labels: 2009, birthday, games for windows, hardware, music, technology, update
posted @ 10:09
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Friday, March 13, 2009
post://3876978030638891391/I start school on Monday - already hopped online to get a peek at the workload. I stuck with 1 major class and 1 short class this semester to start out. I would like to have an idea of the workload so I can plan for the following semesters.
I'm taking Science and Technology in Western Culture as well as Planning and Finalizing the Degree. I can also get college credit for real world experience which ought to start me off with about 16 credits + the 12 from the bit of college I started. I really can't say how long it might take to get my degree this way but that puts me a little ahead of the game.
I'm nervous about the obligatory math class. I can program a computer to do many complicated things and can wrap my head around writing an application that considers what our work load would have looked like last week and speculates future need but give me a basic trig or calculus problem and I get a little overwealmed. I get the concept, but it needs to be tied to something tangible for me to understand.
Of course History has never been my strong suit either, I'm interested by it, but I can't remember it - and they test you by asking really specific information. I get the general concepts but can't remeber the names and dates very well. I also never saw the purpose in memorizing those things just for the test. I always felt the point was to get the idea, know where we came from and learn from the past.
There's a fair ammount of reading, quite a few DVDs to watch, and a lot of discussion with this history class. You're also supposed to post everything online in the forums and respond to at least 2 other posts by other people. Maybe being able to write out my answers will work better then vocalizing my thoughts. I was never very good at speaking in front of the rest of the class.
Labels: 2009, history, science, technology, update
posted @ 11:42
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Sunday, March 08, 2009
post://3051153165600884304/We've been cleaning the house this weekend, and as I was vacuuming I wondered if I was nesting. I don't think so, I think it's cooincidental with spring cleaning time. I tend to hoard over the winter and then do an overhaul in the spring. I try not to stay inside in the summer, so less likely to dirty it up again and it stays relatively neat until the fall / winter when the whole process can start over again.
It feels good to have things picked up though. We finally got around to hanging a lot of artwork / prints / photos that have just been leaning up against things, and it makes it look nice and tied together. All just in time to probably have to rip apart the wall in the dining room.
We noticed some water spots on the blinds, but I assumed it was from the plants hanging next to it... paying no mind to the fact that they're at least 2 feet higher then the highest hanging plant. In any case it appears that either the roof is going or they damaged that part of the roof when they put the gutters on about 2 years ago. It lasted through 1 winter so there's not much I can do by going back to them about it.
The paint started peeling and we noticed the wall looked a bit soggy, there was also a water spot on the ceiling next to the wall... so the roof is leaking up there and dribbling down the wall. Add that to the leaking roof in the side porch (roundabout the same issue except it's coming right in the ceiling, and then some water where the radiator was leaking in the TV room.
We had a couple contractors come out to see about redoing the bathroom but not it seems we'll have to do these items first. No hope of a home equity loan either - though it couldn't hurt to try. I've kept relatively good credit so far so maybe the bank will be wanting to give out some safe loans.
With what they were quoting us we wouldn't be able to do all that mcuh to the bathroom and we both feel if we're going to re-do it, might as well make it look nice rather then an updated version of what it was.
posted @ 15:30
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I had to put all the links here so they could still be robot'd since I was having issues with the whole dual click nature of the modern browsers.
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music recommendations
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discuss (no longer in service)
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