The Life Of A LittlBUGer

As the title states, I don’t have a whole lot to say today except…

IT’S MY BIRTHDAY TODAY!  HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!  WHOOPEE!!!

“The cake is a lie…” isn’t true today!  AH HA!

OK, maybe I had a little… 

Yes, Thanksgiving has come and gone and I was terribly ill throughout my 4 days of vacation.  It was kind of a time of hell for me, especially trying to deal with my family as I went through it, but alas, I’m still here, working and OK on Monday.  Luckily, for the first time ever, my wife was nice enough to be kinder than usual while I was sick and decided to give me a little bit more computer time than ever before.  As thus, instead of going the Vista route as that OS is horrible, I decided to wipe my PC and start from scratch with Windows XP Pro x64 Edition (the 64-bit edition, yes).  As I can conveniently use my job and get a valid license and copy of the OS, I went this route to see if there really was any performance benefits of using a 64-bit OS over a 32-bit OS, as well as any programs that ran natively in 64-bit.  As I’ve been finding out, I was correct and things have been working quite nicely.  It took me a couple days to get everything back up and loaded, but it was worth it.  I’ve only had one minor driver issue, which is actually with a device I don’t even use, so I’m quite happy.  Gaming has been great and whatnot else so that’s all I need for the most part.  I’ll have to test it more but for now, I’m good. 

Also, I’m sorry for the lack of posts recently, but work has been very chaotic lately as a program I’ve been working on is coming to a close so I’m trying to get everything ready, including documentation and whatnot, so ‘play’ time at work is down to a minimal amount.  I’ll try to post more later, but for now, please enjoy my rant above.

Yay, it’s finally, FINALLY, snowing! Yes, I like snow and yes, we were supposed to get snow like 3-4 weeks ago, which is typical for where I live. But the weather has been strange this year as most of you know, so we didn’t get it until today. I usually don’t even listen to the weather people as 95% of the time they don’t know what the weather will be like until 10 minutes before it happens. But they were right about this, finally. It’s been snowing like crazy for the past couple hours and we’ve got maybe a good inch or so actually sticking. What fun it is! I know many people don’t like the snow and a lot of people don’t know how to drive in it… A LOT, but I do just fine in my little 1996 Nissan Pickup truck with 2-wheel drive and extra weight in the back. Lesson of the day for those who don’t know how to drive in snow: ALWAYS GO SLOW! And don’t drive at night when all of the melted snow is freezing (if it isn’t already). For those of you who don’t get snow at all, I pity you, you sad fools of the heat.

Please enjoy a crappy pic of what it currently looks like here:

Well, as some of you may know, I have a gaming laptop.  And for the most part, it’s great.  But it does lack the handy RAID 0 that I miss on my old PC and of course the dual video cards, but that’s OK.  Or so I thought until I started playing the damn Crysis demo!  Holy crap, I thought BioShock was a little bad (I mean, I could do it with maxed out video settings at 1600×900 resolution and everything was perfectly smooth), but not Crysis, oh no.  I can barely get away with everything on the ‘Medium’ setting and a 1440×1050 resolution (or whatever the hell it was)!  This is a new laptop for me and I’ve played at least 10 new games on it fine and then suddenly this?!  BAH HUM BUG (no early Christmas pun intended)!

Anyway, because of my frustration, I decided to look around for things I could possibly do (other than buying a new damn laptop) to help increase my overall system performance.  And I’m not talking about stupid simple things like malware/virus scan, defrags, file cleaning, disk checking, startup optimizations, registry cleaning, driver updates, etc.  No, I wanted something more, something maybe part software part hardware based.  And then it hit me, just like that… and out of the clouds came eBoostr, ready to quench my thirst for speed!  I was overjoyed to see such a small and new program to actually seem to live up to what it says it can do.  And the fact that it trumps Vista’s built-in similar technology is just another plus for me.  ;)  Based on some initial tests, the program said I could only sustain about 10MB/s random read/write on my current HD (7200rpm 160GB SATA) but with my old USB drive I could sustain over 23MB/s?!  What, how could this be?  I must be dreaming!  But then I ran some other practical tests and saw some decent results, so I moved on…

But that wasn’t enough, no, not for me.  After doing testing with the software and realizing it’s potential, I knew I needed something better than just my old 512MB Cruzer Titanium USB drive.  I needed the fastest USB drive a consumer can buy.  And thus I found the amazing 4GB Corsair Flash Voyager GT .  My mouth watered at the thought of a possible 25MB/s or so sustained read/write capability.  I knew I must have one to get the max out of this new software.  But alas, this software can handle up to 4 devices!  And though I have that many USB ports, all of them buy one are in use!  GAH!  So what is a guy like me to do?  Remember that he has a 4-in-1 card reader on his laptop as well!  Here we come 4GB SD card!  That should hopefully give me a good 8GB of total combined fast access cache and make me a happy camper for the rest of my days (or for the rest of this laptop’s days).

Of course, I thought about getting the 8GB versions of each above, but seriously, do you really think I crap money out of my ass every day?  I’m already going out on a limb here to do the stuff I mentioned above (and thus, I graciously thank any and all donations, especially large ones…  ).  Feel free to give your suggestions on other ways to improve my system performance.   I’m here to help, as usual, but sometimes I need help myself. 

Oh yes, how could I forgot.  Your funny link of the day is: Fox News Porn.  Enjoy! 

Well, I thought I might as well fill more of my blog with crap and post some of my favorite quotes. What’s better than posting new crap? Quoting old crap!

Quote 1: “Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.” - Albert Einstein

Quote 2: “Computers are really strange - first everything works fine, then something goes terribly wrong and nothing works, and then - like a thunderbolt from a clear sky, everything is back to normal again. It’s like nothing ever happened. Like the computer were female.” - Unknown

Quote 3: “Some people say that I must be a terrible person, but it’s not true. I have the heart of a young boy. In a jar on my desk.” - Stephen King

Quote 4: “If there is anything the nonconformist hates worse than a conformist, it’s another nonconformist who doesn’t conform to the prevailing standard of nonconformity.” - Bill Vaughan

Quote 5: “Microsoft Windows [n.]: A thirty-two bit extension and GUI shell to a sixteen bit patch to an eight bit operating system originally coded for a four bit microprocessor and sold by a two-bit company that can’t stand one bit of competition.” - Unknown

BONUS: Some Rock-Paper-Scissors fun!

Hello all and sorry that I haven’t been posting much as of late. I just haven’t seen, heard of, or been through enough drama or crap lately to make any meaningful posts. Though, I guess my grandfather’s 80th birthday was something special, but nothing worth noting here. And I do have some crapified issues at work I can express to the world here, but still not good enough. Eh, oh well, I guess I’ll leave you all with a fun poem I found. Enjoy.

A Poem for Computer Users Over 40

A computer was something on TV
From a science fiction show of note
A window was something you hated to clean
And ram was the cousin of a goat.

Meg was the name of my girlfriend
And gig was a job for the nights
Now they all mean different things
And that really mega bytes.

An application was for employment
A program was a TV show
A cursor used profanity
A keyboard was a piano.

Memory was something that you lost with age
A CD was a bank account
And if you had a 3-inch floppy
You hoped nobody found out.

Compress was something you did to the garbage
Not something you did to a file
And if you unzipped anything in public
You’d be in jail for a while.

Log on was adding wood to the fire
Hard drive was a long trip on the road
A mouse pad was where a mouse lived
And a backup happened to your commode.

Cut you did with a pocketknife
Paste you did with glue
A web was a spider’s home
And a virus was the flu.

I’ll stick to my pad and paper
And the memory in my head
No one’s been killed in a computer crash
But it makes their face turn red!

Why the alias ‘LittlBUGer’ you might ask?  Well, it’s quite simple really.  Way back when, you know, 1995-ish or maybe a bit earlier, when I first started to really get into in the gaming and online and just the general PC scene, I know I needed an alias as all do.  At that time, it was ‘Redeye’.  Why that, I can’t remember for the life of me, but it was short lived.  Soon came the day where my friend had internet access through AOL (yes AOL, it was like version 2.0 and it was all we had damit) and they were going to put me on their account with my own screen name and everything.  So, I had to think up something, something that would be unique, bold, be semi-comical and yet describe me as a person in the online world, of course as well as being within the AOL 10 character limit, naturally.  And thus, I remember playing good ol Doom back in those days, kicking other people’s asses, and I remember very specifically one quote from someone a moment after I killed them during a multiplayer match for like the 10th time in a row.  He said “Damn you little bugger!” and that just stuck.  I had to shorten it of course and for fun, I decided to capitalize the ‘BUG’ part, but essentially that was it.  It was only later that I found out a ‘little bugger’ in some extreme slang form in England or some other country actually meant ‘gay or homosexual’ or something of the not-so-good sort, but that was no-nevermind so I put it behind me (no pun intended) and just corrected anybody if they said anything (which was once or twice in my life).  Then again, most of the mistakes in my alias come from people not being able to read and stating it as ‘LittleBurger’…. Grrrr that gets on my nerves.  Anyway…

Have you ever wondered what it would be like, to write some sort of diary online, maybe about yourself, and then to have anyone in the world be able to read the same thing as you sit there, reading everything about yourself that you just got done writing, and then wondering “What the BUG?  Why did I write that?  I don’t even know what that means?!”?  Yea, me neither. 

For those of you who know (or those who don’t), I’m a “hardcore gamer”.  Yes, my family kind of sucks the life out of that term because I may get an hour a night or less to actually do anything on my computer, nevertheless actually game, but still, I consider that phrase good.  The reason?  There is nothing else in this world that can help get or keep me sincerely calm and relaxed like a good game can.  My family/wife?  Bah!  My friends?  LOL!  Nope, it all comes to my gaming and I.  It’s just something I love to do.  I love to explore new worlds and kick other faceless people’s asses (though it’s also fun to kick your friend’s ass too) and to mainly just get away from all of the crap in the “real world.”  There’s so much stress and chaos and dullness and no adventure here that it’s just natural to feel so much better in a game.  I mean, I could have a stomach ache or a headache or some other type of pain and yet once I get into a game, I really don’t feel anything buy happiness.  Sure, there’s games where things can get frustrating and difficult and whatnot, but that’s easy to deal with, as if it becomes too much, you stop playing that game and move on to the next for a while.  Simple, easy, fun.  Real world?  Not simple, not easy, no fun.  Some of you may think I’m a horrible beast, that my kids nor my wife can’t make me happy and such.  I never said they couldn’t make me happy and whatnot, I just said they can’t take all of the stress, dullness, depression, and crap away from the world like a good game can.  Nothing more… now… where was I going with this…?  Hmm…. oh yes!  I’m curious, is anyone out there just like me?  If so, what games do you play as I’d love to kick your ass some time (though co-op is just as fun). 

Anyway, somewhat related to the above, some very recent games I’ve played have been BioShock, Half-Life 2: Episode 2, Portal, Team Fortress 2, Overlord, TrackMania United, etc.  Well, here’s some rants I have for those games before I move on to new ones like Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3 and so forth:

• BioShock: Fantastic game and made me miss the good ol days of System Shock 2.  A little short, but still great.  Only downfall—why the hell did you not provide a multiplayer interface like you did with System Shock 2??!!  SS2 actually had a fantastic multiplayer, where the only thing you can do is play the single player game with up to 3 of your friends.  Full storyline and cut scenes, saves allowed, the whole works.  Why not in BioShock as well damit!  Ending was OK, though short for either version (’good’ or ‘bad’).
• Half-Life 2: Episode 2: What??!! You ended it like that!  NOOOOO!!!!  I’ll try not to spoil it, but damit!  NOOO!!!!  I wanted to know everything he knew before he went away like that!  Sheesh!  Otherwise, wonderful game.  Oh, and bringing Achievements to the PC finally… nice touch.
• Portal: More fun than I’ve had in a long time and also added a new level of thinking to my daily brain vocabulary.  Wish there was more, but I know it was more of a long tech demo than anything.  Great job.
•  Team Fortress 2: As I’ve mentioned before, I like it the more I play it, but seriously, no grenades or armor?!  You’ve got to be kidding me!
• Overlord: A very fun game to play and provides kind of a new style of gaming, at least it was to me.  Maybe could have been slightly better, but still a good fun.  Great endings too, depending on if  you’re ‘good’ or ‘bad’. 
• TrackMania United: Some crazy racing going on here which can give great fun or great frustration.  There are types of races I can do with ease, others I can’t even get past the 3rd track.  Fun overall and I like that’s it’s not a simulated real-world game, it’s just pure crazy racing fun.

As for Crysis and UT3, you better run nicely on my gaming laptop… or else!  Until next time… 

Well, Halloween has come and gone, and so comes the time of year, where the next couple of months is spent on gaining 30 pounds after first eating candy for weeks, then eating Thanksgiving food for weeks, and then Christmas food after that.  Seriously, for people like me, who just don’t have the time (motivation) to exercise and work out, it just damn sucks.  But we get through it, only to realize Valentine’s Day will be near and so on and so forth.

Sadly, yes, I’ve actually thought about every single month of the year which holidays happen, how much it costs, etc., etc.  I got sick an tired of always having things change and always having to compensate our budget for holidays and special occasions, so I tried to figure out which time of the year things would calm down and be nice and quiet.  Because there’s people out there, like me, who don’t have savings, and who have a family to feed and just get by on the money we make each month.  Well, it turns out, it never does get calm and quiet damit!:

• January:  New Year’s Eve - Where you get drunk off your ass and don’t remember where that $500 went to… or that stripper you gave it to.
• February: Valentine’s Day - Can’t you just hear the fat melting off of you during your passionate love making?  No?  Neither can we… the fat remains while the sex does not.
• March: St. Patrick’s Day - Seriously, must we repeat the month of January so soon?  Oh, we throw in the color green and crazy leprechauns? Party!
• April: April Fool’s Day - Where either you paid to make the big laughs, or clean up after them.  So who’s the fool?  The fool that fools the fool or the fool who’s fooled by the fool?
• April (2): Easter - Shall we learn about Christ and praise Jesus on this holy or create ridiculous candy, food and games loosely based on bible themes that almost shame the purpose of the day?  I bet you voted for the candy!
• May: Memorial Day - Eh… yea you’re right, that doesn’t count.  Onward!
• May (2): Cinco De Mayo - Yes, this IS a real holiday!  :p
• May (3): Mother’s Day - It’s bad enough we have the wife’s birthday and Valentine’s Day and our Anniversary and other crap to deal with and buy shit for, but this too?  Damn…
• June: Flag Day - Seriously, this is a big…. oh who am I kidding, this doesn’t count either!
• June (2): Father’s Day - Don’t worry dads, you don’t actually get a day to yourself and not have to spend any money.  You should have re-thought that joint checking account and 5 kids idea…
• July: Independence Day - A time where it’s actually fun to spend your money because you get to blow people shit up!
• August: Don’t worry, though there’s no big holiday this month, you’ll have plenty of birthdays, anniversaries, fall parties, and other things to empty your pockets with.
• September: Labor Day - Hey, what do you know, you may end up not spending any less than $10 this day.  Good for you!
• September (2): Grandparents Day - The time of year where millions of people see and smell the joy of silly sweatshirts, cotton socks, and Old Spice cologne!
• October: Columbus Day - I need to seriously stop posting these useless holidays… but it’s just so fun!
• October (2): Halloween - Haven’t we just recently been over this before? 
• November: Veteran’s Day - Sorry, I had to post one more just one last time!
• November (2): Thanksgiving - Nothing says ‘thanks’ more than a bunch of old guys with beer guts hanging out yelling at the TV.
• December: Christmas - The grandest and most expensive day of the year… so big, it sometimes begins in late October and ends in early September.  Now that’s celebrating The Lord isn’t it!  Wait, screw that, I just want the gifts…

So, as you see, there’s no end to the misery of your money, time and energy floating away for you.  Because big business is smarter than us and we seem to accept that.  Oh well then eh?  Let’s go out and buy a new computer, because everyone knows, Christmas start on November 1st!  What about Thanksgiving?  Who cares! 

On a brighter note, just for fun…

The Portal Game End Song Lyrics:

This was a triumph,
I’m making a note here: Huge Success.
It’s hard to overstate my satisfaction.

Aperture Science…
We do what we must because we can,
For the good of all of us,
Except the ones who are dead.

But there’s no sense crying over every mistake,
You just keep on trying till you run out of cake.
And the science gets done and you make a neat gun,
For the people who are still alive.

I’m not even angry,
I’m being so sincere right now.
Even though you broke my heart and killed me,

And tore me to pieces,
And threw every piece into a fire.
As they burned it hurt because,
I was so happy for you.

Now these points of data make a beautiful line,
And we’re out of beta, we’re releasing on time.
So I’m GLad I got burned, think of all the things we learned,
For the people who are still alive.

Go ahead and leave me,
I think I’d prefer to stay inside.
Maybe you’ll find someone else to help you.

Maybe Black Mesa…
That was a joke, ha ha, FAT CHANCE.
Anyway this cake is great,
It’s so delicious and moist.

Look at me still talking when there’s science to do,
When I look out there it makes me GLad I’m not you.
I’ve experiments to run, there is research to be done,
On the people who are still alive.

And believe me I am still alive.
I’m doing science and I’m still alive.
I feel fantastic and I’m still alive.
And while you’re dying I’ll be still alive.
And when you’re dead I will be still alive.
Still alive…
Still alive…