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Well, I just tried connecting a Wii controller to use in Cortex Command and lo and behold, no bluetooth adapter is in my computer! Turns out the Best Buy employee who sold it to me wasn’t quite accurate about the details. They’ve offered 50% off on a bluetooth adapter in their store, but I’m a little worried about the quality of their bluetooth adapters. I already bought a Kensington adapter that promptly caused bluescreens and crashes on my old Inspiron computer. I hope the Rocketfish one they’re selling won’t have similar problems.

Anyway, I am also looking at the purchase of a dual-analog gamepad. Not sure what model I’ll go with, any suggestions? In the main time I’ll use my Logitech WingMan joystick and Wii controllers.

Also, I’ll be putting up a review of Cortex Command within a few days. This gamepad is actually to see how it plays in multiplayer (no internet mode, unfortunately). It’s currently still a beta game/engine, at Build 14. Here’s the link, but be warned that it has a lot of blood, despite being a side-view pixel-graphics game.

Well, I’ve been using Vista for a little while now. The first thing you’d notice while using it would definitely be Aero glass, the interface change. Basically, it makes window borders transparent and has other little effects that make everything look better. If your computer cannot run Aero, however, the ‘Aero Basic’ theme looks really bad, so I’d change it to XP theme.

Past the new interface, Vista is basically XP. It does have changes, like User Account Control (UAC), but it other than UAC it’s the same operating system (OS) with minor interface changes. There’s a search bar added to the start bar, better background-image-control, some more customization options, but it is mostly the same OS. There’s no major need to upgrade if you’re using XP just fine.

Onto other subjects, I just got Battlefield 2142 and gave that a whirl. Aside from no widescreen support, the game is a lot of fun. Conquest mode is basically the same from the previous titles in the series, but Titan mode is brand new. Basically, there are two giant air craft. They have a shield around them that only friendlies can pass through. There are also several silos, usually 3-7, on the ground. Standing near one for a little while will convert it to your team’s side, in which case it will periodically fire missiles at the opposing titan, weakening its shield/hull. Once the shields are down, you can directly fly people over and land on the enemy ship. They can infiltrate inside the ship and destroy the ship’s core a lot quicker than external attacks.

Overall, I am very impressed by 2142’s new Titan mode. The rest of the game is really similar to Battlefield 2, though helicopters don’t use rotating blades and are a lot easier to fly. Still, it doesn’t seem much like the year 2142. You’d think they’d have thought of new things instead of still using tanks and dune buggies. Either way, I give it an 8.6/10.

Finally, I’ve blogged previously about Garry’s Mod 10 (Gmod10). However, I was recently contacted about where to download Gmod9, the version prior to Gmod going commercial. So, I checked Garry Newman’s site, but he’d taken down the Gmod9 downloads. Then, via http://forums.facepunchstudios.com, the official forums, I got a filefront link. However, filefront requires registration to download files. Instead of registering, I used BugMeNot to get a public username and password. Basically, BugMeNot is a useful site where people submit username-password combinations for sites that require registration. Then, other people can use said site without registering. I’d recommend it for any sites where you aren’t going to do much after downloading one file/reading one article.

As for Gmod9, I gave it a whirl again. I tried searching for pirate gamemode, but it doesn’t seem there are as many servers for that anymore. Overall, Gmod9 is a major step back from Gmod10, and I’d still recommend the new version over it. After all, it’s only $10.00 if you already own a Source Game (CS:S, HL2, etc.), or $24.99 bundled with Counter-Strike:Source.

-Dravailo

Well, I just purchased a new computer so as to keep up with gaming requirements. One of the more debatable decisions was whether to have Windows Vista Home Premium installed or Windows XP. I had heard that Vista still had a lot of problems with it. However, knowing that soon most games would require DirectX 10 (Vista only), I chose Vista. I also put trust with The Secret (see previous posts) that it would work.

And work it did. I got an HP Pavilion DV9231CA from Best Buy, cost about $3000.00 CAN after taxes. I had to get the display model since it was the only they had, but that was no concern to me. I’ve got it here and it’s running smoothly. Vista has had very few problems, mostly just an annoyance with the UAP (User Account Protection) which, though I keep for safety as I did with Ubuntu linux, is a little too paranoid. Heck, after  confirming to delete a file it then pops up saying ‘Microsoft File Operations’ is potentially unsafe.

However, it does seem to run pretty well. It did mess up and crash while I was writing this, but that’s because of experimental software I tried and got rid of. Overall, it’s a great Operating System (OS). I’ll still be pushing it and testing it, so as to write up a review soon.

Anyway, a great improvement from the new computer is the speed. I didn’t think I’d care about the speedy-aero interface, but I do. And the major games, like Gmod and Half Life 2, they take on a whole new life. It’s so crisp, HDR (High Dynamic Range) is enabled, everything’s on high; in short, it’s amazing. I’ll post a video soon.

And with that, I’m off. I’ll put up a review of Vista in a few weeks, maybe I’ll use Fraps to record some Gmod. With my previous computer, Fraps would kill it. But now I’ll use it, because my computer can take it! Or, if it can’t, I’ll use Source Recorder.

Until next time,

-Dravailo

Want to know something completely random? Try browsing over to http://www.wikihow.com/Special:Random. You can learn how to make a whiteboard, manage conflict, write geometry equations, and plenty of stuff you’d never ask about. It’s a lot of information.

Once your done that, for more fun, go to here! Print off the pdf and fold it up for a little mac-mini, as seen in this image:

  Also, if you’re more a fan of Mario characters than macs, you can fold up popular Mario characters here with just a few sheets of paper.

Plus, there’s Advance Wars vehicles for folding too here. They’ve also got Legend of Zelda characters, Tomb Raider, and Star Wars. Plenty of choice.

See you next time,

-Dravailo

This is a bit technical, but a little useful for hiding files. Add them to a .rar archive (.zip won’t work) and get a regular .jpg image. This works best with smaller files, as remember the .jpg will be the combined size of both which could be suspicious. Anyway, put them in the same-ish location. I’ll be assuming the .jpg is called image.jpg and the archive is called archive.rar.

Open up a command prompt. Goto Start->Run… and type in ‘cmd’ without the quotes. Then, browse to the directory with both files. Use ‘cd directoryName‘ to switch to a directory, ‘dir’ to list all the folders/files, and ‘cd ..’ to go back one directory. When you’re at the files, type this in:

COPY /B image.jpg + archive.rar target.jpg

This will create a file called target.jpg. If you open it with a rar program

Reactable is a really cool demonstration. Blocks of different shapes/sizes have special symbols on them. A camera identifies the symbols and is able to produce cool results like, say, music. In Reactable there’s synthesizers, volume control, ‘pulses’, etc. The blocks all create lines to their nearest neighbor. There’s a dot in the center which receives the sound. The blocks are activated by ‘pulses’ from other blocks. The last block in the chain always generates pulses.

There’s raday, which does a sweep that sequentially activates blocks. There’s ones that can go through a sequence and create music. There’s surround sound, cool schematic-like lights, finger-sensitive control; what more could you want?

The software is free for download, though there’s no real tutorial on how to get it set up. Heck, the software for the full-blown versions in the videos aren’t there either. However, it’s going to come out soon. Click here for their homepage. Check after the break for the video.

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