XB Mods, Developers and Why My Hand Cramps

Fusion thinking about getting a new game? Here's my recent list:

XBox: Psychonauts, Advent Rising, Midnight Club, Flat Out, Destroy All Humans
(I know both of you guys are anti game piracy, but modding the XB is the way to go if you want to rent and hang on to new games. Plus, if you all worked with game and software developers like I do on a daily bassis, you'd see them for the overpaid, under tasked pricks they really are).

PC: Guild Wars. That's it. Still holding my interest and still having fun with it. Free makes it even better.

PSP: Twisted Metal: Head On and Coded Arms. I will probably get Marvel Nemesis within the next couple of days just to fiddle around in the airports...I've been seeing a LOT of them lately. Movies are great on it too.

I Finally Bought A Recent Game System

You guys know I usually get on the ass end of purchasing game systems. I'm a little behind the times and try to wait til the prices drop. Well, not THIS time boys.

ThinkGeek Roundup

Man I love me some ThinkGeek.

The World's Lightest Indoor R/C Airplane. I want one. In the immortal words of Veruca Salt, "Don't care how, I want it now".

Wrapping Paper for Geeks. Hey, why not? If you're a geek and you know it, then your wrapping paper should show it.

Retro Phone Handset. Let's face it. Cell phones are kind of a pain in the ass to talk on for any extended period of time.

Geek Dog Tags. Sweet! Now you can show everyone that you're a member of the geek army. Be all you can be! I'm still holding out for dork tags.

The first victim of the new TV season is....

Fox's Head Cases

It shouldnt have been too hard to see that coming. The show did look like a failure from the first preview on. Im actually kind of disappointed since some of the actors in it are very funny. The main reason for the early failure?

Well it turns out the Lost premiere dominated so badly it completely sunk every show during that time slot. The big winner in all of it was probably Invasion. In the slot just after Lost is a pretty good spot to be in. I watched most of it and must say it has potential to be pretty good. The biggest problem with Invasion though is the little girl. I havent seen a child actor that bad since Gary Coleman (come on..he was terrible and everyone knows it).

Ohh and be sure to catch Threshold tonight. The 2 hour premiere last week was pretty damn good and Im going to be sure to tune in (mostly because Friday nights are the WORST TV nights). Some of the other new shows tonight include: Inconceivable (puke, puke, puke...talk a terrible concept and even worse execution), 3 wishes (has anyone ever figured out whats wrong with Amy Grants mouth? When she smiles it looks like her mouth is painted on sideways...Maybe that explains the terrible singing) and topping off the stink-fest is Ghost Whisperer (ok...explain this to me, a women who can talk to ghosts BUT the ghosts dont want to kill people or help her solve murders. They just want to "talk" so they can crossover to the next world in peace...what a freaking EXCITING plot that sounds like...Its like Oprah in a cemetary!).

So this leaves Threshold which totally rocks for the following reasons: Hot chick actress who leads the team, Brent Spinner (HELLO HES FUCKING DATA FROM STAR TREK!!!!) as doctor, a midget (dwarf, small person whatever) linguist who tries to decipher the alien messages (who ever this actor is had better be in more stuff because he is seriously funny!) and invincible aliens who genetically alter humans into killing machines in an attempt to take over the Earth! Sounds like we have Friday night winner!!!!!!!

Concerning Highways

Today isn't starting out so well either. I guess no one considered the ramnifications of loading a bus up with elderly people using OXYGEN! In the rush to evacuate people, I can't help but wonder if some corners were cut. Maybe some of these people should have been in ambulances.

And I'm intimately familiar with the Mountain Parkway, since I grew up in Pike County along with all the other yokels. The road is mostly "straight" until you get to Red River Gorge, if that's where you're hiking. From there to Prestonsburg, it's mostly an amusement park attraction. They should really charge admission for all the spills, thrills, and chills that one is sure to encounter along the way. You're bound to see makeshift memorials for people who have died on the road, lots of wildlife flattened beyond all recognition, what appears to be a car from the 50's being crushed by an insanely large boulder, and another large boulder with a Confederate Flag perched on top of it.

When compared to something like the Bluegrass Parkway, the Mountain Parkway is kind of a joke. The road is dangerous in parts and that is only exacerbated by additional elements like rain, snow, or fermented alcoholic beverages brewed from malt and flavored with hops. And that's Allstate's stand. Are you in good hands?

City of Heroes is Making People Sick

That's the claim anyway. And it's not just the monotony of the game either, although that's probably a contributing factor.

Its a bad day to be a motorist

Just an observation but today has been a TERRIBLE day to be a driver and/or pedestrian. Just a brief list of the driving woes Ive heard of today:

-100 mile long traffic jam out of Houston to avoid the hurricane
-A 78 year old women is hit by a truck crossing I-75 in Boone County
-A 17 year old crashes into a car killing himself and the driver in Pike County (the 17 year old had previously murdered his entire family)
-A 5 car pile up in Fulton County after a dumb bitch drove down the wrong side of the road.
-A 3 car pile up on the Mountain parkway after a bunch of rubbernecking retards slam into a car on the side of the road.
-A women is mugged and pushed from her moving car after she picks up a stranger on the side of the road and "drove him around".
-A man drives onto the side walk and accelerates into a crowd of people infront of the Paris Hotel on the Las Vegas strip. One person killed and 13 injured (5 critically). It was later found the man had tried to murder his own mother and was driving her car which he had stolen.

ALL of these events occured today September 22, 2005 and I couldnt make all that shit up if I tried.

Lets analyze this list real quick. Of these 7 things listed the crimes include: 4 counts of murder, 2 counts of attempted murder, 1 count of attempted robbery, an infinite number of assault with a deadly weapon (which is what trying to hit someone with a car is considered in most states), who knows how many DUI's and most of all the head aches of all the people who are stuck in traffic because there is so many morons on the road.

What really strikes me about all this is the shear lunacy of some of these actions. I truly believe some of these people should simply be rounded up and shot in the head; hopefully before they can pass their pathetic genes onto a new generation of retards who have hardly evolved past the ability to walk upright. Many of these actions show such a blatant disregard for human life that it forfits these peoples right to exist on this planet.

What I find even worse is how absolutely stupid some of the other people are. A 78 year old women running across an interstate??? Are you fucking kidding me?!? If shes that stupid to try and attempt that then the world is better off without Grandma-Crusty-Cunt using my social security and breathing my air. The 3 car pile up on the Mountain Parkway bothers me because I regularly drive on that road when my wife and I go hiking. That road is straighter then a meter stick. Blind braindead monkeys could drive down it without ever crossing the lines and yet the fucking yokels of Central and Eastern Kentucky cant figure out the concept of "Eyes on the road, car between the lines." I hope those shit heads who plowed into the stalled car are glad they got to see an accident because now they are lucky enough to be involved in one.

I could go on all night but it hurts my brain to think about how worthless some of these people are to society. With 6 billion (and growing) people on earth Im going to go ahead and put the "No Vacancy" sign out and not feel sorry for people who end up killing themselves due to idiocy or the commision of crimes.

I do truly feel sorry for the people who are innocently hurt by these pieces of shit. The person who died in Vegas while on vacation, the man killed by a doped up teenager who murdered his family, and the people who had their time wasted by these events.

Well Im done ranting for the night. Hopefully the roads get better tomorrow.

Want a hybrid? Not if the Japanese have anything to say about it.

I found this article which is rather interesting. Its a claim by Ford that Japanese car makers are actively buying up all the parts needed to make hybrid cars leaving Ford out in the cold. Considering Japan already makes the best selling cars in America its not surprise they would try and put the nail in the coffin for the competition but this seems a little underhanded.

http://www.cnn.com/2005/AUTOS/09/20/bc.autos.summit.ford.hybrids.reut/index.html

On the topic of jobs

Well several of the last few posts have been about working so I figure I would post this. Ive been job hunting since January and FINALLY landed a job. Good old Uncle Sam bailed me out and gave me a job at the Department of Environmental Protection. Ill be working in the Air Quality department and my official title is Environmental Engineer Assistant. So breathe easier knowing Im on the job making sure your sucking in the best and cleanist filth Kentucky industries can pump into the air.

Check out the agencies website which by law has to post all the air permits for all companies who apply for them and see who is polluting what into the air around your house. Im sure you'll be surprised by whats in the air you breathe.

http://www.dep.ky.gov/default.htm

Speed test and popup blocker

If your interested in testing your internet speed I found this tester which gives very good results. If your on Insightbb you should be getting around 4000 download and about 400 upload. Give it a shot and see how it works.

http://www.auditmypc.com/internet-speed-test.asp

Also is the pop up blocker tester. It uses a series of various pop ups to test your blocker. I have found the blocker built into WinXP SP2 works very good and have almost no popups. Test it for yourself.

http://www.popupcheck.com/pop_up_blocker.asp

I Am A Virtual Weapons Specialist

OK not really. Technically, my title is Systems Management Technologist for a company that services combat simulations and virtual training devices all over the world.

I found THIS ARTICLE that fully describes what I'm doing these days.

MANY THANKS to Righteous Dork for keeping the blog alive in my absence!

DORK FOREVER!

N: Puzzle-Platformer with Physics and Style

I came across this the other day while reading Penny Arcade. This flash game has got it going on. It's a download, I know, but don't worry. No installation required. I thought I would dink around with it for a little bit, and here I am playing it several days later. Great way to kill some time. Did I mention it's free? Just play a couple of levels and tell me you don't like it.

Rocket Cam

Rockets + Cheap Video Cameras = Good Times

IBM to Encourage Employees to Be Teachers

Well look at that! IBM is afraid that the U.S. is losing its competitive edge. The tech industry fears that U.S. students are falling behind their peers in places like Bangalore and Beijing. Hmm, let me think about this one for a second. Is it possible that the students in these countries are doing better in math and science because we keep off-shoring our high-tech jobs to them? Everyone talks about off-shoring and you probably have your own ideas about what that entails. Let me hit with you a little dose of first-hand experience.

I support a customer account that is constantly cutting costs. Here's a hint, they make printers. Anyway, it's finally gotten to the point that we can no longer support all of their Siebel environments with the funding they've given us. For all of their non-production environments, they've decided to keep me on board. I imagine a lot of it has to do with me being a pushover. I tend to work well with others and build bridges when I can. I think I've obtained a certain reputation for being easy-going and what not. So, what's my reward? How about supporting 10 environments along with 4 guys over in India. Woo hoo! Did anyone consider the logistics of supporting an account 9 to 5 EDT with 80% of your team having a 9 hour time difference? The IT industry is in a sad state of affairs right now. There are too many companies thinking only with their wallets. (singing) "If they only had a braaaaiiinnn." (/singing)

Uwe Boll Directing Halo?

Say it isn't so, Joystiq? I had to check IMDB to be sure. I can only hope that this is some horrible prank being staged by IMDB personnel. I have yet to see any movie that Uwe Boll has directed, but sometimes you don't have to actually see the excrement, to know that it's excrement. Sometimes, simply trusting the warnings of others is enough. When they tell you, "You DO NOT want to go in there!", you simply nod and say, "I'll take your word for it."

Video Games Live Update!

New tour dates and a trailer can be found here. I'm super-psyched about this and will definitely be in attendance when it rolls through Cincy.

Nintendo Revolution Controller

No worries Fusion. I think I can muster up enough strength to talk about the biggest thing that came out of the Tokyo Game Show. Nintendo revealed the controller for their next-gen console "Revolution" and the buzz is deafening. You know something big has happened in the industry when all of your tech and gaming headlines in My Yahoo! are talking about the same thing. Here's the hands-on report from Gamespot. But because I'm such a Yahoo fan-boy, you can also read about it here.

Nintendo has definitely raised the bar for odd controllers but the whole thing has a certain classic NES gamepad look to it, which I find appealing. When I first saw pics of it, I couldn't help but think, "How does one play a FPS with that?" After reading about the Metroid Prime 2 demo, I must say I'm very intrigued by this device. I'd really like to see that in action. The thought of aiming the device in the direction you want to look is way cool. I'm not sure that Nintendo will achieve the goal that they're after though. When I look at the controller and read about how there will be all these different accessories to go with it, I'm thinking this isn't going to appeal to the traditional non-gaming audience that Nintendo is gunning for. I'm sure the Asian markets will eat it up, but I'm not so sure about the rest of us. Of course, the proof is in the pudding and we'll just have to wait and see.

Welcome Aboard Fusion!

I haven't posted in a while, so I appreciate you picking up the slack. It's good to have another on board. I don't know you personally, but any friend of Joe's is good in my book. Now...back to the posting!

Lost premiere. Yeah Im excited.

So Lost comes back with new episodes on the 21st. I found this slight spoiler from Damon Lindelof the executive producer of the show:

“by the end of the first episode, you will have seen what’s in the hatch and not just a little bit of it,” and it will not involve aliens, robots, a time-travel portal or a rocket ship. It will be “something great, something cool and something that was risky. I guarantee you there will be some people who do not like what they find in the hatch.” Lindelof insists. “We are erring on the side of giving away too much as opposed to being too vague.”

Well if they know people are going to be mad then people will probably be REALLY mad with the outcome. Also revealed was the introduction of 2 new characters; one is the girl Jack flirted with before boarding the place and the other is a mysterious character.

Other news on Lost: the raft survivors wont get back to the island till the 7th or 8th episode of the season, and if anyone dies the producers are leaning toward a major female character.

New console wars...blah blah blah

I was going to post about the Tokyo Game Show and all the new info which is being revealed about the next gen consoles. As I was sat down to type this though I looked at my Xbox sitting on the shelf gathering dust quicker then my work ethic. I must say Im less then excited about games right now despite my desire to go out and find a good one to play. Guess its back to the job search.

Ohh if you are interested in the next-gen consoles look at www.gamespot.com or www.gamespy.com to get all the info you need.

Upgrading to Athlon 64? Heres the motherboard for you!

Anandtech.com has posted the review of the ASRock 939Duel-SATA2 motherboard. Why its just another motherboard your probably saying to yourself. Fusion I have an motherboard! Why would I need another one? Well listen up chumps Im here to tell you this thing is the bomb.

For those who dont know ASRock is a division of Asus that makes value boards (read: inexpensive). The reason they are so cheap is they have forgone using Nforce or VIA chipsets and have instead used ULi (formerly ALi) chips. But what makes this motherboard so good? First of all it has support for BOTH AGP and PCIe video cards. Unlike many current motherboards which use the PCI bus for AGP cards this board uses AGP like motherboards of old. This means AGP speed for older cards and faster PCIe when your cheap ass decides to upgrade that TNT2 piece of crap you got for christmas from you mo'ma.

Ohh yeah and the best part of it all: this beast only costs about $70. Read the review yourself you sods and go order one now!

http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2524

New game time! Only if the wife lets me.

So Ive been itching for a new game to play lately. To make matters worse Im at the point where Im sick of the 2 or 3 genres Ive been playing lately (MMO's, FPS's at the top of that list). So Ive been looking around for a couple new games and have narrowed my search.

On the RTS front Warhammer 40k: Dawn of War looks very interesting. The expansion pack for the game is just about to hit stores so hopefully the original game will drop in price soon. The reviews on it are all good and the game looks great.

http://www.dawnofwargame.com

In the empire building games the big news is the new Age of Empires III. Since other AoE games made me want to stick hot pokers up my pee hole due to the total crappy-ness of them I decided to venture a little farther down the path of 4X (explore, expand, exploit and exterminate) games. I found this preview of Galactic Civiliazation II at gamespy which got my interest peaked in the game. Many of the features mentioned remind me of Master of Orion II which is a game I loved (but not MoO III which sucked balls).

Read the preview here: http://pc.gamespy.com/pc/galactic-civilizations-ii/649285p1.html

On the console side of things my Xbox has not gotten used in MONTHS so Ive been looking at picking up another game for it. The one which has stood out the most is the new Dynasty Warriors. Its the 5th one in the series and they have always looked cool although Ive never played one. From looking at the reviews they seem very hit and miss. DW 1 and 4 got good reviews while 2 and 3 were ripped pretty bad. I hope the 5th one is good because this will probably be my next Xbox game purchase.

http://www.ebgames.com/ebx/product/257295.asp

The new Burnout: Revenge is coming out next week. Burnout: Takedown was one of the most fun racing games Ive had the pleasure of playing lately. The crash mode is easily worth the price of the game itself. I want to wait and see if there is any huge differences between Revenge and Takedown however. EA is notorious for rehashing games and selling them a year later *cough* Madden *cough*. Why by a 2006 model when you can get the 2005 for a quarter of the price right?

Guild Wars Expands

The first major expansion for Guild Wars has been made available. Due to my job search kicking into high gear I have not been able to play lately. One of the most interesting things about this update is not the amazing graphics, new content or changes, its the fact that almost NO ONE is bitching and complaining.

Usually all updates to games are butchered by the fans who wanted/expected more from the developers. The GW community has taken this update and ran with it in a good way. I think this speaks volumes about this quality of this game. Check out the info on this update at the Guild Wars website:

http://www.guildwars.com