Category: General Geek

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Zuckerberg And a Bold Faced Lie

Think it’s super important for people to watch this and think about how far we’ve come in 9 years. Watch and remember. Maybe it’s time to re-think how much you’re sharing on the “Social Network”.

Remember: if you’re not paying for a service, you’re the product.  More after the video.

When Facebook opened to the public, as opposed to just Harvard students, I signed up almost immediately and thought it was neat. Here’s my first post from July 7, 2007:

How exactly should I feel about jumping on this fucking bandwagon? Ashamed? Oh, most assuredly.Engaged? No, I’ve coded a better web interface in my sleep. I awoke with a hard-on it was so good. Feeling a sense of security? Umm… no. Now any knob who once knew me, knew of me or simply knows my name can peer into whatever detail I choose to leave on this site. Retarded. Ummm yeah. I’m done. I’m on facebook. Yay.

Only slightly prophetic, no?

One day soon, I’m going to swap over all my “social networking” to this site where I have a bit more control. Oh, I hold no illusions; anyone that’s actually interested in my content on the Internet can download it and use it as they see fit but I have control over what I share with the world here instead of thinking I have some modicum of privacy. The illusion that most social networking enthusiasts work under is that they have privacy. Seeing my FB data dump shows me how much I’ve shared over eleven years and that’s making me move more here, under my control.

I think more people should look to control the content that’s about them floating around on the net. Maybe I’m starting to get a bit paranoid but I want my thoughts, pictures, status updates to be mine and not sold to a company that will attempt to make money from me without me getting equal value in return.

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How to make the most of the Steam Controller: a comprehensive guide | PC Gamer

More often than not, I like using this space for storing links I might be interested in for future reference. It helps if I think the occasional visitor might also be interested.

Sly bought me a Steam Link and Controller for Xmas and I haven’t really gotten into messing around with it yet. There’s so many configuration options that it boggles the mind and can easily confuse the neophyte, such as myself. This guide does a good job of guiding you through most of the options available and setting up a very basic control scheme for most games.

I’m pretty big on alternate modes of control: I have a Logitech G27 Wheel and Pedals for my Farming Simulator fix and a SAITEK (Now Logitech) X-56 HOTAS setup for Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen.

G920 Image Copyright Logitech.com
Logitech G920 Wheel. Image Copyright Logitech.com

I eventually bought the wheel because controlling a tractor or other piece of wheeled machinery felt really bad with the M&K. There’s very few things I can’t stand more than having to tap a key repeatedly to get a vehicle to follow a simple arc. With the wheel, I just have to give it a turn and the tractor follows the exact arc I’m looking for. It really added to the realism of the sim and I enjoyed that.

The HOTAS was a different story: I’ve been pledged to Star Citizen for a few years now and it’s only back in October when I felt a need to dive into the Alpha and fly around a bit. Now THAT felt like crap. I left it but felt a need to do some space flying so bought Elite: Dangerous during a Steam Sale. I felt the same way about the Mouse and Keyboard control scheme for E:D so I did a bit of research and purchased the HOTAS.

X56 H.O.T.A.S. Image Copyright Logitech.com
The SAITEK (Now Logitech) X-56 Rhino HOTAS. Image Copyright Logitech.com

Both of these decisions have been good ones, if a bit costly.  Neither of the controllers are cheap but I’ve definitely gotten value out of the wheel (purchased in October of 2015 and had hundreds of hours put on it) but I can’t imagine playing these games without them.

So back to my new control mechanism. When used in conjunction with the Steam Link, you can sit in front of your big screen TV and enjoy some gaming with a decent controller. Now, it would take a great deal of effort on someone’s part to get me to admit that the control that is achieved with a mouse and keyboard is matched by that of a controller.  Maybe I’m old (school) but I’m still of the mind that if you’d like to shoot a baddie in the head, you need the fine control offered by a mouse. I’m going to give this a go with a couple of games directly on my computer first to get the hang of it but then who knows? Maybe I’ll be gaming from the comfort of my couch while enjoying a fine level of control and will have to eat some crow?

If you’re a PC gamer on the fence about buying a Steam Controller, give the article below a read and see if it would fill a niche in your controller arsenal.

Source: How to make the most of the Steam Controller: a comprehensive guide | PC Gamer

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How Gamers Killed Ultima Online’s Virtual Ecology  – YouTube

I’ve been playing MMO’s since Everquest (EQ) but I never got into Ultima Online (UO). It had a huge following and lasted a very long time.

This video talks to Richard Garriot about how they anticipated their players interacting with the world and how they had to create sharding or instancing in order to keep the ecology working on each shard.

Apparently, humans enter an ecology and kill everything they possibly can, regardless of if there are rewards or resources that can be gained. Who would have thought it?

Short, interesting watch for those of us into MMOs.

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New Blackjack Strategy Trainer – Now Mobile Friendly!

I’ve posted about BlackJack Basic Strategy before but I wanted to share a tool that really helps those that are interested learn basic strategy. This link goes direct to a mobile friendly web app that can help you learn BS because it has a strategy trainer built right in. It will correct mistakes and allow you to learn by doing.

Give it a try!

This is an updated mobile friendly version of our blackjack trainer. It’s a free game that teaches basic strategy and warns if you make any mistakes

Source: New Blackjack Strategy Trainer – Now Mobile Friendly!

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Shadow of War: Hitting Me Right in the Feels

Here’s one of the TV spots they released today. It made me laugh and think, “Wow, that’s really cool!”.

Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor was a great game. Open world, really interesting sword combat and set in Middle Earth you were tasked with partnering with Celebrimbor (you’ll only know him if you’re deep into the Tolkein mythos) to try to destroy Sauron. Let’s just leave it there for now.

The game itself was great and had a really interesting game element: as you spent time going through the game you would eventually have to fight war chiefs/bosses that are more difficult than your average orc. If they won or you were beating them so bad that fleeing was the only way to survive, they would remember who you were and jeer at you if they met you somewhere else in the game later on. This was a nice touch and added a bit of personality to the game.

Another mechanic allowed you to dominate an orc and he would join your clan and you could call on him to fight for and with you at your order.

The next iteration of the game, Middle Earth: Shadow of War, will be releasing later this year. They’ve dropped a couple of TV spots that shows an extra aspect to the relationship mechanic in the game: if you save a dominated/befriend orc from a death-blow they will remember that and may  ‘appear’ when you’re about to receive a deathblow yourself and will save your bacon. Again, a great idea that I’d really like to see before release.

 

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Mobile Plan Change aka Canada Day Success

I’ve spoken about the Canadian mobile market (or lack thereof, depending on your viewpoint) and how difficult it is for a consumer in this mobile environment with so little competition. It seems as though there might have been a slight change…..

Today I was reading MobileSyrup and saw a story on a plan that being offered to certain Rogers customers to combat Public Mobile’s lower priced plans that had recently hit the market. Continue reading “Mobile Plan Change aka Canada Day Success”

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Blackjack: What is Basic Strategy?

Almost everyone knows the goal of blackjack: try to get closer than the dealer to a card total of 21 without going over. Pretty simple, no? But is it all guessing about what you need to do when you get a particular sequence of cards? The easy answer is no and hopefully I’ll give you a bit more information about how you can educate yourself on the right decisions.

Continue reading “Blackjack: What is Basic Strategy?”