Why the Apple $1000 Monitor Stand is fine by me

     Over-engineered aluminum stand: $1000. Let's not forget the optional $200 VESA mount of you want to connect to something else.. you do have a choice, let's not forget about that.

     It's connected to a $6000 monitor. Yes you heard that right; Apple's professional monitor offering cost's more than a used car. It's 6k(ish), HDR compatible, and some of the most accurate colors and blacks you will see in a monitor.. but $6000.

     The customer for both of the products above is not the same customer that buys a mid range to low end Macbook pro. This customer is not going to buy the new Mac Pro cheese grater without the dual video card option and 128 GB of ram, they are going all the way, because they have the money to spend, and why the the fuck not. This is not marketed towards college kids trying to make music or basic graphic design.. no way. Is Apple going to piss off some people with a $1000 mount? Sure. But they were never trying to be attractive to that particular consumer anyways. 

Video Card Upgrade Progression - When to upgrade

     When is it time to upgrade? What exactly do you need, how much to spend, how much ram... the list goes on. I was reading a post on r/nvidia subreddit, and I saw a small trend: people posting pictures of their video card purchases through progression. A few posts it seemed like 5 or more years went by, but the majority, only 1 or 2 years max. One picture in question:

   Two cards from the same release generation, and another card, the RTX 2080TI being the new hotness. Back to the original question.. when is it time to upgrade? I put together a small list of questions I ask myself around what I think would be upgrade time.

1) Do you play games? 
2) Can you not play the game you want to play in the resolution and/or frame rate that you would like?
3) Can your monitor support various functions of an upgraded video card?
4) Can your current hardware handle a new video card without bottleneck issues?
5) How much money would you like to spend?

     At right about question 4, I think you would tell yourself you are due for an upgrade. Do you play games? Not that playing games is required for needing a video card, you could use enhanced graphical capabilities for a number of work related reasons, alas, the majority of people buying these cards are using them for gaming. Sometimes you buy a game, a good recent game that needs a little more horsepower. Your current card seems to groan under the pressure and frame rate suffers, rendering it all buy unplayable. The quick and easy solution is to buy a new video card. Questions 3 & 4 seem to be very related, so lets keep them in the same bucket. If your existing hardware is not compatible, upgrading is off the table. An old crusty CPU that is 5+ years old may hold you back in the gaming department, and using that same 1080-60hz monitor may not be the best choice to take advantage of your new buttery smooth frames.

     My suggestion? Buy something a little better than you need that has solid cooling and reviews. My video cards typically outlast my computer setup in most cases. There is no reason why a computer/video card can't last 5+ years in today's market playing triple-A titles how they were meant to be played. In the market for $500, trust me, just save a little bit more and get the next step up. You may not see the difference right away, but you just saved yourself an upgrade down the line.

Elder Scrolls Online Disk Space Issues

     I'm downloading this game, after not having played it since closed beta. My wife saw an advertisement for the new expansion and wanted to try it. While waiting for it to download, I googled random things about the install process as I typically do when downloading something new. 85 GB needed for new install? Not too bad for a modern game, on par with what I have seen. Clicking links and reading on the forums, people complained of it needing, much, much more. So I cancelled the download, and monitored it closely this time around. Note: I have ultra fast fiber optic internet so the download is quick, so it was not too big of a deal. What did I find out?

- ESO says it requires 85 for install.

- The above fact is final install after cleanup and patches. I found this to be accurate within 10 gigs. Not bad.

- The core game is 58.5 GB, the main patch is 56.8 GB, and the final patch was right around 16 GB. That's 131 GB. 

-When the last patch is applied, a clean up process happens in the background, leaving the install back at a modest 87GB.

- If you have a 120GB solid state drive that you have and you want to install this game on it, well, don't. You wont have the space for the game to work with. Install it on the main drive and copy the Zenimax folder over when its done and you should have no issues. 

Hope this helps. 

Demon of Steel (1987) (Anime) Full Movie!

 

     Hey! Let's watch strange anime together on YouTube for free. I'm currently watching this, and so should you. So far I dig it.

**Update 9/10/22 - Fixed the video link! The site is old and shit is broken, I'm dealing with it and you should too.**

If you cant see the embedded based on where you live, here is the direct link. 

Press F to pay respects [Game of Thrones]

Well this explains a lot. [Apex Legends]

When you get shot once by something trivial and it feels like there is multiple bullets shooting you?
When you duck around cover or close a door, and then you get shot afterwards?
When damage seems to accumulate when you got shot a few seconds ago?
Feel like your running through quicksand?

     Anyways, see above for the average network lag, Apex being the worst in class, no surprise there. Their forums range from, "I can't seem to shoot anyone", to "Why do I die with purple armor on by one pistol shot.", and other magical comments. Sorry, I'm going to pour gas on this unoptimized piece of garbage. I'm glad its losing popularity.

Cable Management

Inside your computer? You should give a shit.



Outside your computer? Who gives a fuck. 

Apex Legends... I don't like it.

Above is a logo I found on Google images

Reasons why I think Apex Legends is crap:

1) I'm just not a fan of the style of game.
Don't get me wrong, 10 years ago I most likely would get super in to a game like this. I tried Fortnite and PugG. I could  not get in to it at all. Something about not knowing if the guy is on your team or your friend? No clear path to winning. Very seldom winning or killing at all, just being dead and playing over and over until you win the frag lottery and possibly kill a few people and very rarely, win a game. Not my cup of tea,

2) Entry Level difficulty is too hard.
I started Fortnite as a 20 year vet of first person shooters at a competitive level, and i was getting my ass handed to me for weeks. This game is no different. You drop in, search around for some guns, and someone clicks on that one single black pixel from 50 miles away and its game over. 9 out of 10 games you die before you fire a shot, and you have no idea how they pulled it off... until you do it yourself. The last game I played, I dropped in, found a pistol, thought i may have seen someone an impossible distance away and emptied the clip in his direction. Kill. My 4th kill actually in 20 levels. In what game do you get to level 20 and killing your 4th person MILES away is some kind of achievement?

3) I saw someone that was level 89, had zero kills.
What the actual fuck you Origin scumbags. You made someone play 89 levels of this game, baiting them along with loot boxes and some cosmetic upgrade, and they have never even killed someone? What is the point of this game? grab guns and loot and die; over and over and you better get used to it.

4) Winning a game is over 250 to 1 against you.
Why play a game you can't even have a chance to win unless you just put hundreds of hours in?

5) Good players with money get discouraged. 
I consider myself a better than average gamer, especially first person shooter games. I play competitive Overwatch and CODBO4 quite often, and hardly miss a AAA game ever. I spend lots of money on gaming, both in the actual software, and hardware to play. Software developers design games hoping I will like them, as I have disposable income and a penchant to spend it on stupid games. Well Apex Legends, I wont be following my impulses and spend money on your game for the above reason, I'm discouraged. I can't win. I can hardly ever get a kill. I can't do anything I want to do, unless I play 24 hours straight and all the stars align. I can't get a good team because the match making system had a few gears missing. I've uninstalled your garbage cash-grab of a game and I will not be playing it ever again.

6) You have to pay money to access other characters.
I would willingly pay for a game that puts everyone on the same level playing field. This game is not one of them. Yes its pay to play, no it's really not that bad.. but it is. Any game that gives an advantage to paying customer is a shit game, period. No, I don't care to argue this point, its how I feel and that's it.

Reasons why Apex Legends is not crap:

1) It's free.
2) Graphics are not horrible, can play on potato systems as well.
3) It's popular?


I'm sure you're asking yourself, well if you don't like this game, you like other games. Which games are those? Why do you like or dislike them?

Overwatch.
The good: Games are quick, you can re-spawn without restarting the game, its forgiving with mistakes, changing characters is encouraged, games are quick and rewarding. The bad: Matchmaking can be horrible, when new characters are introduced you can love to hate them, competitive sticks you with certain characters and the pressure to play them.

Call of Duty Black Ops 4.
The good: Quick rewarding games, entertaining graphics and death animations, quick re-spawn, easy on new players, even newbs will get their first kill in their first game and not after 89 levels of playing. The bad: There is some pay to play to unlock other characters. I've paid for the game, now time to pay some more? No thanks. I think this game is amazing, play it all the time, but that bothers me quite a bit.

Anthem.
The good: Have you seen this game? It's magic to the eyes, and in your pants. Controls are legit as fuck, gun play is amazing for an MMO. The Bad: Repetitive. Not enough to do. Not a super balanced game, but is fun and replayable. Say what you will, but this game has REAL potential. Some updates could fix it.

Destiny 2.
The good: First person shooter MMO done right. You can survive, you can kill with the big boys right out of the gate. Lots to do for the first 40 levels or so. Visuals are top notch for a game a few years old. The bad: It's on easy mode. You can be horrible at any game and manage to putz around and kill things, complete missions and advance the narrative. Playing raid content costs money, which for this kind of game is not that much and may be worth it. has repetition issues, but I like this game very much even though I don't play it as often.

TLDR; Apex Legends can kiss my ass, it's not rewarding and too hard, and other games are much better.