2006 October archive at Puck’s Blog

Archive for October, 2006

Oct

Vista Will Drive Users To Piracy

By Puck 4 Comments

Categories: Rant and Software

Read this article on ArsTechnica about the upcoming Windows Vista’s hardware tolerance and reactivation scheme. Basically, you install Vista on your computer and if your computer hardware changes “significantly” enough times it will require a reactivation. Windows XP already does this. However, Vista will require you to purchase a new software key if this happens too often!

Yes, that’s right, if you’re an upgrade maniac like myself, or simply use the software for a long enough time that you’ve upgraded your system fully a few times, and Microsoft will demand that you buy Windows Vista again.

Faced with this ridiculous demand, what will users do? Some will head to Linux-based OSes, probably, though I believe many more will simply install cracks, auto-activation programs, and “corporate editions” that won’t require such nonsense.

I’ve already done this for Windows XP. Yes, I run a pirated copy of Windows XP Pro Corp, and I do it because I was sick of my computer constantly bugging me to reactivate because I’d changed a few pieces of hardware. Sometimes when troubleshooting a hardware problem I can yank out nearly everything in there and replace them one at a time to find the error. This threw my legally purchased copy of Windows XP Pro into “you must reactivate” fits. The first few times it did it online. But then it told me that I’d activated online too often and had to phone in to activate.

So I did. And the tech on the other end of the phone gave me the third degree over why this had happened. I told them I had changed out some hardware, and they reminded me that the Windows license was only good for one computer. I remember wondering if I had stuttered, and I said “No, this is the same computer, I had my motherboard die on the old one and have had to get a new one and now Windows wants to be activated again!”

“So the old motherboard is no longer in use?”

“No. It’s dead. This is the same hard drive. I haven’t made a copy.”

“Ok,” and they gave me the activation code.

The next time my computer wanted to be activated, I simply downloaded a “Corporate” version of XP that didn’t require activation. Unfortunately my legal XP Key wouldn’t work for that, so I had to also get a keygen. I went from legitimate Windows user to OS pirate because of Microsoft’s policies, and many of you will too.

Hell, I doubt I’ll even bother buying Vista with all the big brother software that comes along with it. I suggest everyone else avoids it for as long as possible.

The quote that keeps coming to mind is paraphrased from Star Wars Episode IV (oh man, I know I’m nerding out here): “The tighter your grip on the OS market, the more users will slip between your fingers.”

Oct

Carl Sagan’s Cosmos

By Puck 0 Comments

Categories: Cool

View This Video on Google

12 more episodes in full follow the “more” break. Cosmos is 28 years old now, and it’s still a brilliant achievement. Take some time and watch this entire series, online for free. Then buy the DVDs!.

Continue reading ‘Carl Sagan’s Cosmos’

Oct

Exterminate

By Puck 1 Comment

Categories: Cool

I wish I was more handy (handier?) so I could come up with super cool things like this Robotic Dalek Pumpkin.

Pumpkin Dalek

Oct

Snikt

By Puck 0 Comments

Categories: Personal

I’ve been growing a beard for the past few weeks. It’s been an itchy hell. I don’t know how guys who keep their faces fuzzy can put up with it.

So why then? Because Halloween is coming and growing “Wolverine sideburns” is easier than actually making a costume. I shaved off the mustache and chin parts today and mission pretty much accomplished. I wish I’d thought of doing this earlier and I wouldn’t have got a haircut last month so my hair would be longer and more appopriate.

I’ll get my webcam up and running tomorrow and update this post with a picture. (We lost our camera at PAX and have yet to replace it.)

I actually like the big sideburns, but they’re just too obviously “wolveriney” and I’m not that huge a geek.

Update: Woke up the next morning, looked in the mirror and realized that they just didn’t look right this time. Far too much late-1800s muttonchops and far too little Wolverine. So I shaved them off! Now I have to figure out a new Halloween costume.

Oct

Worst Neighbours Ever

By Puck 3 Comments

Categories: Personal

Yesterday was “welfare Wednesday” so of course it meant the downstairs tenants all got drunk and played their music and TVs really loud and screamed and cursed at each other all night. I waited for a lull in the fighting and went down to remind them that they’re not the only people who live in the house. They acknowledged that and kept it down for almost a whole hour before getting loud again. This kept up until about 2:00 am.

However, some good news came of the confrontation: they confirmed that they are indeed moving out on December 1st!

This revelation comes at a cost: Now that they know they’re moving out, they’re less inclined to give a crap about being good neighbours. For a group I already call “The Worst Neighbours Ever” this does not bode well for the upcoming month.

Today, being the day after welfare Wednesday means, of course, that it’s an Invite Your Unemployed Friends For A Daytime Party Day. They’re currently downstairs breaking things (I’ve heard at least three separate “smash” sounds) with the music up loud and the bass cranked up even higher so it vibrates my floor and makes my dog hide under the desk, cowering. I bang on the floor and it turns down for a while but sooner or later someone turns it back up, usually when one of their favorite (shitty) songs comes on. I have no idea why “What If God Were One Of Us?” has to be played at maximum volume at least once a day. Perhaps it’s written up in the welfare code.

I delivered their mail just now (it all comes in my slot) and sure enough, they’re pissed drunk again. The guy I handed the mail to (I just call him “the boyfriend” because I’ve never got his name) slurringly confided in me, “I can’t take it any more, livin’ here man. I’m fallin’ apart.”

You and me both, brother.

In the interest of full disclosure, I was on welfare for a short time after my first business went under. It wasn’t very fun. I believe in the social safety net. I just believe more strongly in not being a shithead neighbour.

Oct

New Blog Theme

By Puck 1 Comment

Categories: Cool and Wordpress

It’s been a while, but I’ve finally found a theme that I like. I’m using Lush 2. I love the colours. Fonts seem a bit small on Firefox, so I might be doing some tweaking over the next few days. That’s if I can find the time. I’ve got several big projects on the go right now.

Oct

Company of Heroes

By Puck 1 Comment

Categories: Play

I’ve been ranting a bit lately, it’s time for a positive post! I picked up Company of Heroes by Relic Entertainment a few weeks back, and the game is amazing. It’s a Real Time Strategy (RTS) game set in World War II and the game isn’t just gorgeous – the gameplay is a breath of fresh air in the RTS genre.

In addition, and after several rants here I can’t stress how cool this is, the game doesn’t require me to have my DVD copy in my drive when playing. Guys, you pretty much guaranteed that I’d buy Company of Heroes II because you decided to treat me, the legitimate purchaser, with respect.

But back to the game! The Wiki page I linked earlier has more info on it, as well as screenshots showing off just how beautiful it is. What will really blow you away is that the cutscenes are shown using the exact same graphical engine that the game is played in. This allows for some seamless cutscene-to-instantly-playing moves that made me go “Oh man, wow!”

And it seems everyone agrees with me that this game is greatness:

As of 10/4/2006, all critic reviews were positive [1].

PC Gamer UK awarded Company of Heroes 94%, the highest they have given an RTS, they also gave it a ‘Must Buy’ tag ^{[citation needed]}. PC Gamer US gave CoH a 96% as well as an Editors Choice Award ^{[citation needed]}.

PC Zone in the UK awarded Company of Heroes 93% in Issue 173 meaning it was awarded with a Classic award

Edge, a UK publication, awarded Company of Heroes a score of 9 (out of 10) in Issue 167.

Metacritic Review average of 94, Gaining Universal Acclaim

Online, Company of Heroes has received a score of 9.0 from GameSpot [2] (original score was an 8.9, revised because 1.2 Patch fixed SLI problem^[1]), a 9.4 from IGN [3], 5 out of 5 stars from GameSpy [4], 10/10 from Eurogamer [5], a 10 out of 10 from 1up [6] and a 9.2 from Gamernode [7].

If you at all enjoy RTS games, you owe it to yourself to pick this one up. It’s beautiful, fun, engaging, and isn’t kicking you in the balls with terrible copy protection schemes.

Oct

Richard Dawkins on The Colbert Report

By Puck 2 Comments

Categories: Cool and TV

View This Video on You Tube

When I first heard he was going to be on The Colbert Report, I was a bit worried. Most of what I’ve seen of Richard Dawkins (like The Root of All Evil? and The War on Science) has shown him to be a bit… crotchety when discussing religion. I was worried that he’d come across on what’s really a comedy show as confrontational and unfunny. He hasn’t been called “Darwin’s Rotweiller” for nothing!

I was quite happy that he did really well. He was pleasant and laughed at Colbert’s jokes and also managed to get in some excellent points that I’m glad America has now heard.

Did you know that 44% of Americans believe that Jesus will return within 50 years?

Oct

Just Say No to Battlefield 2142

By Puck 2 Comments

Categories: Rant

So Battlefield 2142 is out. And I don’t own it. Why? Check this out:

And that ad (and many others) are updated from online sources when you play. “Gosh” you think, “that must have cut the price of the game down, right?” Wrong. It’s the same price it always was.

And from reports I’ve seen from people who played the demo, it’s just as buggy as Battlefield 2 was. As someone who loved Battlefield 1942 a great deal I rushed out and bought BF2. If not for the bugs, the game was a good updating of BF1942. But the bugginess was outrageous, even after years of patching. The one that stopped me from playing altogether was the “red name bug” where one of your teammates would randomly have their name drawn in the colour reserved for the enemy team. It would do this even if the server had friendly fire turned on, and even if the server would kick you off for teamkills. Playing when that bug popped up was an exercise in frustration, and I quit playing and waited for a patch that would fix it.

A few months later, a patch came out. Name bug: not fixed. Then, a big patch. Name bug: not fixed. A year after the game’s release and the red name bug is STILL there. Oh, and did I mention that if the game crashes to desktop (which it does often) that you have to totally reboot your computer to be able to run it again?

Joy.

And Battlefield 2142? Here’s what I’m hearing: It has the red name bug in it. But rather than fix their shitty coding they’re simply explaining it away as the soldier’s Friend-Or-Foe technology only works 98% of the time!

Oh, and those ads? EA has tracking technology in the game that makes a note of how long you’re looking at them and reports back to their servers so they can inform their advertisers how successful they’re being! EA is force-feeding you ads, spying on you when you can’t help but see them, not cutting you a deal on the game’s price, and not using their additional revenue to fix bugs that probably rely on a single “if-then-else” statement to draw player names.

Fuck you EA. And fuck the Battlefield series. I’m done.