Portal:Prelude is OUT!

I'm posting, and I'm Still Alive.

I've been anticipating this mod for all of one week, and it's finally out! Shame you can only get it off FilePlanet. I've been waiting in line for a while now, and I've only moved ten places.

Expect a review or something once I get it downloaded.

Sick.

I'm sick today. I just feel terrible. Maybe I'll try playing a online game. I certainly have the time to do so.

PICAXE is Here!

My PICAXE stuff came in today. If anyone says anything bad about Advanced Micro Circuits Corp., they're wrong. I got everything at a great time, and in my hour of free time, I managed to make this little blinking light (sorry for the low quality):

Darn. (Gmod)

Garry's Mod has a virus. I've been playing Team Fortress 2 lately, but found myself wanting to go online with GMod today. I usually read the latest posts in some forums on Facepunch, so at least I found out about it before I could get it. There's an antidote out, but I'm going to wait for Garry to update it before I go online again.

Weird

You know, for having not posted for a month, my hit counter sure is high. I guess google seems to like me. Well, I am on the first page for "spore crash", "lire...fail" and "intel robot battle", which must be helping a lot.

Ok, that didn't work.

I've been busy lately. Here's a new post!

The AVRs didn't work. I think I had a bad programmer, but it's a lot of hassle just to make a "hello world" blinking LED, so I needed something easier. I chose PICAXE. Now I only have to wait another half-a-week to actually make something.

I'm getting the programmer replaced, so it (and some ATtiny2313 chips) may be up for sale soon.

Parts Update!

The parts arrived today. Ok, they arrived the day this post is set for, and I'm retconing them from the future. Still, they arrived.

Why, Shipping, WHY?

Why is shipping so slow and expensive? I've been meaning to get into real robotics for a while: I guess Lego's robotics kits do count, but I've always wanted to use actual microcontrollers. I decided on Atmel's AVR chips. It uses a programmer, and my favorite out of the ones I've seen, the AVRISP mk2, happens to be available at a vaguely nearby store (Digi-Key); it's in Wisconsin, I'm in Michigan. Shipping is expensive, but should've been quick at any rate.

It wasn't. While the programmer arrived in perfect condition, it took a whole week. Is shipping really that slow? I've had cross-country packages arrive quicker!

I ordered the other parts for my first robots from Jameco. Despite my best attempts, I couldn't keep my order to only items that could ship immediately. 2-4 days later, they call to tell me they've got it ready to ship.

The waiting is killing me. I'll post when they come.

Well, That Was Weird.

Whatever that computer problem I had yesterday was, it's gone now. I still have no idea what it was.

What Ate My Time? (Part 2)

Sorry it's late; I've had a busy week, occasionally without power/internet.

The second time-waster I've been hooked on recently is Garry's Mod. If you haven't used it before, you need to get it and any Source game. In Garry's Mod, you can access props, items and characters from any Source game, and use a set of tools on them in an environment. It doesn't sound like anything when I explain it, but it really is awesome. By itself, it's only a $10 purchase, so I really had no reason not to buy it. Now I only have to buy the rest of The Orange Box; I only have Portal.

In other news, my laptop doesn't seem to want to let me click in a certain area of my screen. I just installed Vista SP1: could this be the source of my problem?

What Ate My Time? (Part 1)

I've been wasting my time on two things. Actually, my time spent on this isn't quite wasted. I make money doing it, even if I only make $0.03 a minute. It's Amazon Mechanical Turk. If you haven't used it before, you should go check it out. It's great if you have a lot of internet-based free time. As I write this, I have over $6! That's almost enough to buy two packs of Altoids, if only I could eat them. I also could buy a VHS tape, which could actually be useful. And this is just from 3 to 4 hours of my free time. Imagine what I could buy after a month!

Back + Near-Final Spore Update

So, it's been a while since I posted last, hasn't it. A few things have distracted me. I'll post about them over the next few days.

On a different note, YouTube never crashed, that I know of, but Spore.com did, in fact, go down after the Creature Creator was "leaked." Then it came back up, and, for all I know, it has still been up since then. I'll remember to mention it again when the real game is released.

Spore Update.

It begins.

I just heard that Spore's Creature Creator might be coming out a day early. Also, a few videos have already been posted from within the Creature Creator. Not to mention Spore's website redesign.

(My favorite of the videos can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W78hNbhllcI )

Will Spore Crash YouTube?

I want to make a prediction. YouTube will go down soon after July 17, the day that the Spore Creature Creator is released. Think about it. At least a million people will either download or buy it. One of its feature is uploading videos of your creature to YouTube. Most people will only do one short video, but I'm sure a small segment of the userbase will make hundreds of long videos. This is a ton of traffic, even without people watching all the uploaded videos. YouTube is already very, very popular, and the combined traffic will definitely not work in its favor.

Modern Ninja Weapon: MacBook Air

I need one of these. Not for another laptop, but as a weapon for self-defense. It'll definitely save me some time during the flesh and bread invasions.

On another note, Safari is telling me MacBook is spelled wrong.

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Martian Conspiracy!

Looking at the new photos from Mars, one oddly sticks out. This one:

It's very clearly a square on the Martian surface. Mars is the 4th planet, and a square has 4 sides. A coincidence? At first, yes, but then we can look at this:

It's a picture of the hexagonal clouds on Saturn. Saturn is the 6th planet, and a hexagon has 6 sides. I think the only way to solve this mystery is to go look at the other planets.

So...

It being Memorial Day, only a select few stores are open. Fortunately, GameStop was one of them. I managed to pre-order the Spore Creature Creator, which the guy there didn't know existed. "You mean for DS?" was what he asked me. I got him to check the database again and he found it. I spent the whole $10 on it so I can just go in and pick it up next month. I also went to get Wii Fit, but it turns out they only had boxes in the store to tell people it existed. It was still a positive experience though.

Game News: Spore Will Require Near-Weekly Online Validation

Looks like Spore is getting SecuROM, which will require activation every 10 days. Sure, this will prevent piracy for say, 9 days, but by the first time it'll need to connect, it'll be cracked. I just wish I could place a bet on it. Then I could profit from piracy, unlike everyone else.

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@#$@ You, UPS!

Uggh. I order a laptop. I order 3-day shipping. They tell me it'll be here today. It didn't come. I really hate UPS (The S is for Sucks!)...

New Laptop Tomorrow!

I should be getting a new laptop tomorrow, so expect some posts and pictures. I just hope "3-day shipping" really does mean "3-day shipping"...

Broken: FAIL(!!!)

Here, look at this ad I saw today.

Right off the bat, you can tell what it's for. If you saw it live, you'd see two characters fighting. At a first glance, it's not broken, but if you look at it longer you see the "-Lire... FAIL!!!-" text at the bottom. Does this mean anything ingame? Dev inside jokes? Guess it must be its main selling point: "Find out what -Lire... FAIL!!!- means!"

It got even more broken from there. While I was pondering the meaning of -Lire... FAIL!!!-, the animation suddenly stopped. Didn't they think people might look at it for a minute or two?

They have such a terrible ad, but somehow I actually kinda want to play it. I'm lucky it doesn't run on Macs.

EDIT: Apparently, it's some secret programmer joke that no one's ever heard of. I think I read that somewhere.

Holographic storage ships next month!

Everyday I find another thing I want, can't wait for and really don't want to spend all my money on. This is one of those things. Of course, I really would have no use for it, not counting showing off. I still want it though. Anyone want to give me $18,000?

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Strong Bad WiiWare this June!

I was wondering why the "actual gameplay footage" looked like it was a little too actual. I just hope the WiiWare game won't take up all my Wii's memory and cost over $10. Honestly, This game will be the best 8.95 bucks I ever spent.

By the way, why are all the great things coming out in June? Spore's demo, SBCG4AP, and I'm sure at least a few more things..

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Tech News: Linux Declared 'Hacker Proof'

Linux (on a Sony Vaio) was all that remained unhacked at a hacking challenge Friday at the CanSecWest conference. Apparently it was laziness, not security that protected it, anyways.

Isn't calling something 'unhackable' like calling a boat 'unsinkable'?

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In the News: Bum Bots in Atlanta?

A man named Rufus Terrill owner of a bar in Atlanta, has created the Bum Bot 2000, a remote-controlled machine that he uses to chase loiterers, prostitutes and drug dealers away. The only question I have is whether he (or the robot) could be arrested for this.

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Happy Pi Day!

How did spend Pi day? Sick in bed. At least I can play Brawl online while I heal.

Super Smash Bros. Brawl

I think I can sum up this game in one word: Awesome. I think that's all I need to say about it. If you haven't already, go out and buy it.

Broken!

Look at this picture. It's from this page. The mouse doesn't seem to be going through the maze like it says you should.

What has Nature Done?: Black Fungus Found in Chernobyl Grows off of Radiation

Apparently, fungus grows better with radiation. I think this ruins our chances of ever winning a man vs. fungus war.

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Why doesn't This Exist?: Curved iMac

This is yet another thing I want. I want a cubicle made of these. I could know who was walking by on all sides and quadruple my productivity!

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Cool New Invention: Gravity Powered Lamp

I want one of these. It may not save a lot of money on the power bills, but it's still pretty cool. Plus, gravity powered device may have some better uses...

Any idea if it could power a motor to turn it over? I know I could make one that falls over once it's done, for 8 hours instead of 4, but the idea I have would still need someone to let go of it.

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Intel's Robot Battle Game

I was seeing ads for this yesterday, and I have to say It's actually quite addictive. I really, really hope Intel will continue to advertise with games for all eternity. Or at least for the next 50 or so years.

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In the News: Spy Satellite Shooting a Success

It looks like the Earth-bound spy satellite shot down last week is officially dead, or so we're told...

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20 views!

Today I got my 20th view! I probably should be posting about something that actually happened, but my internet is oddly slow today. Couldn't even load this page a few hours ago.

In the News: Elmo's at it again, this time with death threats.

It seems like any moving or talking Elmo toy causes some sort of trouble, from jumping off tables and shelves, to swearing at kids. One of the newest ones, Elmo Knows Your Name, is continuing this with its chant of "Kill James".
On another note, with "Elmo Knows Your Name" in stores now, are we really so far from "Elmo Knows Where You Live", which would make threats, not just to your kids, but to your whole family?

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In the News: Retailers rebrand HD-DVD players to HDMI players

Like I mentioned on Tuesday, HD-DVD is officially dead. What do stores do with the now useless players? Say they're meant for something else, of course.

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In the News: The new US $5 Bill. Got purple?

I've been waiting for this, and now it comes. Of all the new security features, one confuses me. The small numbers on it will supposedly prevent image editors from viewing it. Somehow, I fail to see that working.

According to moneyfactory.gov, "The $1 and $2 bills will not be redesigned." Kind of a shame that the most (and least) common bills never gets a change.

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In the News: HD DVD is dead, the war is over

So HD-DVD has fallen. For some reason, I always liked it. At least it's death ends the war between it and Blu-Ray...

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It Starts.

You know, I set up this ages ago.  For some reason or another, I never touched it again. Now, I think I'm ready to go through with this blog. Expect another post later today.