Bacon Tits

People want to see my what? Oh, desk.

I have had several people eMail me and ask for pictures of the things that I buy actually on my desk. It's almost like people do not believe i would waste such money on computer thingys.

After the 32 inch monitor post they started coming in, but i had not posted in a while, being burned out and all, so i did the only thing I'm good at, I ignored them. So, here are some pictures i just took about 5 minutes ago.

There they are, all the shit I have been blogging about getting for the past six months or so. I can't remember if i blogged about the Pen Tablet or not, so there it is, a Genius 10 Pentab with Swipe. Swipe is like an Itampax like touch thing. I don't use it. I used black poster board for the inside of the desk because i was getting terrible glare from the reflection on the glossy wood surface. The speaker system in a Creative 7.1 THX boxed system i got from Best Buy years ago. I replaced the center channel with two other speakers when i upgraded my sound card because it supported that. The subwoofer on the desk goes along with that. The big grey box on the desk to the right is another subwoofer that has a super-duper low bass response that a boxed speaker system could never get down to. It's controlled by a Yamaha amp on the other side of the room. I'll take a picture of that in a moment. Also located on the desk: The Raptor 7.1 gaming headset, an external DVD drive so I burn more than one thing at a time, the Nostromo, the Cyborg, Microsoft gaming keyboard and mouse, remotes for the bullshit laying around, and on top, three multimedia PCs that i made using old DVR boxes designed for those TV's in Walmart. I should do a blog about those sometime as they are pretty unique.

I guess you can call that the power center. It's right behind my desk and consists of two Klipsch floor speakers which have two kevlar 8 inch drivers and one horn tweeter in the front and one 15 inch bass-reflex subwoofer in the back. Above each one is an Altec Lansing double 3 inch loud speaker. I don't normally turn these on unless my wife is not home, or if i want to show off when my friends are over. With those same Klipsch speakers i was able to knock the sliding glass door off the track down stairs while watching Star Wars.

So that's it, ye nay-sayers. I spend way too much time on the computer not to have a good one with the features i like, so.. Keep the emails coming. Sorry I took so long to respond. 



I upgraded my Video Card.

You may be asking yourself, "Why do I care Major?" And the reason is: Because I fucking do, thats why.

Everyone i know had something better than me, i had a Geforce 520 which i overclocked the hell out of for the longest time. Then came Skyrim, and the old 520 just groaned under the stress. So i found an open box GeForce GTX 560 Ti at CompUSA and bought that. No more groaning, noisy fans or crazy overclocking. Well, maybe the overclocking.

The new Geforce App you can get from their website has built in features for overclocking. Super customizable, easy to screw up.. just the way I like it. I kept the old video card and put it in a buddy's computer I'm fixing up. I had an 8400GS laying around so i put that in the other-other buddy's computer I'm also fixing up. Wait, let me a take a picture because this is pretty interesting.

Okay so the computer on the left belongs to Friend #1, and the one on the right belongs to Friend #2.  Left computer is a Core 2 Quad Gateway, the other one is the slightly older Tri-Core Phenom Gateway. Both have blue screens and heat problems with the video card that was supplied with it. I have rebuilt both computers and they are waiting for me to install an operating system.

This model of Gateway, GT56XX series, is the biggest piece of crap on the planet. After two years, the fans begin the quit, the ram starts to die without cause, and are plagued with heat-control issues. Friend #1 supplied a power supply which is a good start until i found that the ram had gone, the video card, the hard drive, and all the cables had to be replaced as well as the video card. An extra fan must be installed in this model so it wont blue-screen every five minutes. Anyways, i did the same to both and they both turn on. Friend #1 could not wait on me to fix the computer any longer and bought a new much better one, so said i could keep the old one. What do i do with it? Friend #2 i think is dead.

If you ever want to buy a used computer, never buy one like the pictures above. If you do, don't ask me to fix them.

**Update** I unlocked the fourth core on the tri-core phenom. It's a Bios thing, anyone can do it, especially if you don't care if the thing dies or not.

The Princess Bride First Ed. Paperback (1973)

Is the Nostromo Cheating?

I don't think so. Not unless you take it too far. I have heard different point of views on this subject in the last few weeks and here is my findings:

1) If you do not have one, you think it is cheating.
2) My normal keyboard has the same macro functions.
3) When people see it they say "What is that?", so if you can not identify it, then it can't be cheating.
4) You can't cry foul because a select few people found out about this first and you were not one of them.
5) My own wife calls me a cheater. I will buy her a nostromo and see how it goes from there.

So in short...

+

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I'm upgrading my monitor. What is too big?

     I'm willing to find out. As you have seen in the previous posts, i have been delusional about my fascination with upgrading my computer. I started to think.. what makes a computer really, really good?

1) You have your tower, which houses all the good bits: Hard drive, ram, video and sound cards, and  processor(s). All the things that make your computer fast and ripe for gaming rape. Less important things abound, but are ignored for the sake of this article.
2) The keyboard and mouse take control of your virtual command center in which to launch imaginary nuclear attacks. These are the tools in which gauge your speed and accuracy, as well as limit you (or not) to human ability and skill.
3) The speakers that you have on or around your desk provide you with a tangible sense of reality that with the correct speakers, you can actually feel.

4) Your monitor/screen. The portal to everything mentioned above. And most likely the last thing to be upgraded on any computer system.

     Why are monitors the last things to be upgraded, when it is obviously the first or second most important component? I think it's because they last so long. People wait for their old one to burn up before getting a new one. I don't know anyone that has a really expensive monitor. They buy the biggest one that was on sale for the least amount of money over $100. I do i blame them? No, i cant say i do really, only because I'm in that majority of people.

     The last monitor i bought I'm using right now, its a 24" Acer i got from Comp USA on sale for $139.99 or something like that. It's the biggest monitor by screen size i have ever owned. Sure I've had some pretty massive 21" CRT monitors in the past topping 60 pounds or more, but nothing as nice as this one. I'm pretty satisfied with it. The picture is bright, there is no lag, i can watch movies on it and so on. So why would i think of upgrading when nothing is wrong with the one I've got? Simple. Pure size.

     I just want something bigger. There has to be better than what i have now. I'm tired of having what everyone else has. I need to feel and experience my games/movies on a different level, even if i don't know what that level is yet. I feel as if a monitor could help me in the technological, and spiritual journey of horse shit my computer desk has evolved into. So, to make a long story short, i ordered a 32 Inch LCD monitor. It should be here on Friday. See the below images for size comparison.

     The monitor the Asian girl is leaning on is a 21" monitor, as is the small one in the top picture. The large monitor is a 32 inch LCD. It's obvious which one is the larger one, by a huge amount. He is also playing WOW, which i plan as one of my many activities.

RIP Steve Jobs 1955-2011

My first computer was a Mac, i lived in Vermont and Florida and all the schools computers were Macintosh computers. I had one at home, school, and at my father's work. I spent my highschool life learning graphic arts, website design, and writing, on an Apple computer.

The picture above is my son, Major II, learning how to use his first computer for the very first time...

8-Bit Princess Bride

Marc Martel - Freddie Murcury has been risen from the grave

Back to the Future: Shoes

I was chosen for the Diablo 3 Beta. Installing it now.

3rd Party WOW Macro Creation - What to avoid

I've learned quite a bit in my month or so creating macros with the Nostromo and other gaming devices at my disposal, and what i learned might save you a whole lot of Ban-Hammering in the future. Of course, I'm referring to World of Warcraft, and their stance on Automated Macros.

Let's go over Blizzard's policy on macro creation first.

1) So long as your using your mouse/keyboard as it was designed (as a mouse or a keyboard) your fine.
2) Macros created with the WOW software are fine no matter what.
3) Macros designed by a 3rd party program that press more than one keystroke at a time are considered off limits.
4) Key-bindings are limited to being mapped one button, per key, per button press.
5) No combination of button presses can be mapped to a single key, timed or untimed.

If you are being watched for suspicious activity, ie., Gliding or Boting, you will feel the sweet justice of the banhammer within seconds, with no way of getting your account back. The way you are flagged in the game (from what I've noticed) is the timed button presses.

What draws a red flag in WOW:

1) Patterns of button presses in sequence.
2) Timed button presses faster than 10 milliseconds. (in the past i wrote under 9ms was safe, but i was wrong, i think) Anything faster than 10ms is not normal by human standards.
3) Exact cool down spell manipulation. (Example: It takes 1.23 seconds for your next spell to become available, and at exactly 1.23 seconds, the spell was cast)
4) Any combination of the above.

I have taken the following steps to combat the above:
1) Created four identical macros for my rotation with different pauses at different lengths between button presses, for a basic faux-randomness. I cycle through the four macro cycles with the software provided with the Nostromo.
2) I change the faux-random cycle about every third enemy.
3) I added ultra slight button presses from the arrow keys to mix it up, sometimes not even noticeable at all and in the wrong places. I call these button presses miss-mistakes.
4) After the four macro cycles or there-abouts, i switch cycles by using the same macros over again, mixed around on another key. Often times i get lazy in raids and use the same two keys without bothering to switch the cycle. Enough randomness is going on that i don't think it would be a problem in that case.
5) I saved the all the macros in numbers (1-8) and letters (A-B) then swap them with alternates, (9-16, and C-D) once a week.
6) Looking for and adding randomness where i can to break patterns. Consecration and Exorcism help. (I use a paladin)

What have gained from this? Nothing really. I've asked myself several times, "Why am i doing all this work?" I programmed macros to maximize DPS to it's fullest, but assume a random nature, all just to become automated so i can just press one key and watch the buttons cycle through. It's time consuming and most likely not worth the amount of energy I've put into it. You may be thinking right now.. what's the payoff?

Automated Exact Timing Macro Pros and Cons

Pros:
- 20% gain in  DPS. Yes, I'm serious. By saving time between button presses you can actually save several seconds on average in a full rotation, which adds up big on your DPS numbers. Even the best players who are professional spammers typically hit the spell they want within milliseconds after it has become available, but nothing can match 100% accuracy. You may be able to hit the same key several times in a second, but the macro can hit it once, at the precise moment, and 100 keys at the same time, several times a second.
- Speed, plain and simple.
- The macro never makes a mistake, and the outcome is always the same.
- Super consistent high DPS in dungeons.
- The macro is optimized to use all available mana for dungeons and be conservative during bosses. (single target and bosses on one side and multi-target and raid on the other side)
- You can organize your bags and read or something while your fighting things.

Cons:
- Boring sometimes when all you have to do is hit one key and watch your spells go off before it looks like the cool down is even over yet.
-The last spell in the group-macro, if the enemy is dead, will fire anyways, and if it is an AOE spell, that might hit something you may not want it to, or use needless mana. I don't know how to fix this, but it does happen about once per dungeon at least.
-Random occurrence spells (paladin - Exorcism) then are triggered as a free action must be hit manually for optimum dps. The macro has no idea if its ready or not, so its your job to hit it when it lights up. Not a big deal, but not totally automated either. This could be listed as a pro as it also adds randomness.