Author Archives: Filemon

Apr 24 2009
Technology

Netbook time

I really consider the netbook more of a gadget than an actual computer.  Something with a real keyboard that happens to be able to access the internet and “act” like a computer.  Or enough like one that I can do all of the things that I need it to do while I’m out.  Like post to wordpress or access my email.  That’s all I need it to do.

The Dell Vostro 9 inch netbooks keep going on special, starting at $249 with a 16GB SSD.  I’d run Ubuntu of course, as it would be pretty familiar to me at this point.  Plus the 16 GB hard drive would pretty much force me to really think about which apps I’d need to run on it. I’d like to see one in the wild of course before I end up making a decision to drop that cash.

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Apr 23 2009
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Bookstores

I used to love bookstores.  When I was younger, I could sit in a bookstore, pick up a book, and finish it in a couple of hours.

Now that I’m older, I want to at least carry it over to a table.  Easier on the knees that way. I still love bookstores although now I’m just more wary of the people in them.  And I tend to stay away from the self help and erotica sections.  I do however, find it amusing that they’re usually side by side.

There is just something about all the books together, neatly arrayed by author and by subject.  I believe it’s the idea that everything could have a place and be orderly.  It’s something to strive towards, something missing in my own chaotic and cluttered life.  For everything to have a place (and to stay in place) is a dream that I’ve yet to see come to fruition.

That and to have so many books in one place.  Although admittedly, I could just go to the library and do the same thing.  And it would end up being cheaper.

I did however, pick up a pulpy noir fantasy novel about a wizard in Chicago.  Looks promising.

Apr 22 2009
Games

Mission Architect: City of Heroes

I had some time to kill the other day so I cranked up the old gaming rig and patched up City of Heroes to see how long it would take to whip out a custom mission.

Really, not that long.  After taking the grand tour, I pretty much dove straight in to the Mission Creator.  It’s pretty cool.  Setting up a story, and setting objectives is really simple.  You can also create your own enemy groups, with minions, lieutenants, bosses, elite bosses.  You can even create NPCs and the mission contact.

I whipped up a story about “transporter buffers” going amok after a “power surge.”  This if course, occurs in the Synergy Gestalt’s base, “The Workshop.”  As a result, every member of that supergroup now has imperfect clones running around.  Additionally, the least imperfect of the clones (the first copies) got the idea to steal the transporter components and use them to create an army of clones to take over Paragon City. I think for the finale I’ll have the heroes defend a transporter while a technician reverses the polarity.

So right there, that’s a mission with a lot of fighting, bosses to fight, and components to destroy.  I created various designs of the clones, for minions, lieutenants and bosses.  I found that the clone angle was really a “cheat” since I could just reuse the character designs over and over again.  Then I could tweak various aspects, like skin tones or add goatees to make the variations of the clones.  The bosses of course, were just character designs from the characters in my Super Group on Virtue.

Which really only has four active characters in it, so that made it easy as well.

I added some flavor text, dialogue and then saved the Arc title and I was off and running testing the new mission.  It was that easy.  I think concept to execution was about 45 minutes total.  After playtesting it for a while I’ll publish it to the main servers and then people can play through it.

Overall, it was very cool seeing something I had written become a part of a video game.

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Apr 21 2009
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Home Media Setup

Well, I finally have a solution I like.  Let me take that back.  I finally have a home solution that works.

So far.

I’m running TVersity on a Win XP box and streaming the media to both the 360 and the PS3 over the wired network.  What’s nice about this is that I can dump mostly any media on there and just have it stream to the 360 or the PS3 without any input from me.

What’s also nice about the PS3 is that using the Remote Play feature, I can also access that media on my PSP.  In theory, even over the internet.

I’ll have to try that out.

Apr 20 2009
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Tabs I have yet to close

Tabs will often remain open on my laptop.  I’ll close the lid and then not think about it, picking up my browsing where I left off.  I have the usual suspects.  Flickr.  WordPress.  Amazon.  Google Reader.  I’ll close tabs every now and again, open new ones.  Since new tabs open on the right, it is often the case that the tabs on the left are the “oldest” tabs.  They’re the ones that survive the culling process which begins the moment I have opened enough tabs that it forces me to scroll.

Whether a tab stays open or gets the command-W is the result of an extensive question and answer process.

Do I have multiples of this site open currently?  Do I have it bookmarked?  Am I going to bookmark it?  Do I have something to do on the site?  Why is it still open?

Currently the oldest tab in my browser window:  This picture of Audrey Hepburn.  So.  Hot.  This tab is open because it’s a very atypical picture of her.  I did want to share it, so now that I have, I think I’ll probably be able to close it.

Second oldest tab:  Yaya Han cosplaying Christie from Dead or Alive 4.  Her fight stances need work.  Her other stances do not need work.  But yeesh, her fight stances are just bad.  On the other hand, that outfit probably requires a certain level of strategy.  If you know what I’m saying.

Third:  How to make domo-kun marshmallows.

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