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"...