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Only one more week to save $25 on mini-sessions!

photosbymcdonald — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 14:58:16 +0000

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How you can "save" PC gaming

y8games — Thu, 04 Sep 2008 01:41:39 +0000

f the press is to be believed, we’re a dying breed, friends: the PC gamer is slowly slipping loose the surly bonds of expensive upgrades and Byzantine hardware requirements, and gently rising to grab onto the tray-and-play hem of console gaming. If the press is to be believed, we are an inscrutable genus of fickle software pirates killing ourselves from the inside as we steal the labors of developers, rendering inoperable the very business that feeds our hobby. And as a result, instead of playing Call of Duty 4 on the PC, everyone is playing it on their consoles. Instead of buying Crysis, they’re playing online Scrabble.

Of course, most of the “proof” of this is the result of sales numbers from the research group NPD—numbers that don’t measure any non-retail sales of PC games. That means they ignore digital transactions, online purchases, and MMO subscription fees—only the boxes people pick up at Wal-Mart, Best Buy, or another brick-and-mortar store are counted.

Let’s take a moment to collectively roll our eyes at the sheer WTF of all this - especially given the notion that NPD itself recognizes the absurdity of it. From an MSNBC article dated March 26, 2008: “‘While we haven’t yet publicly released our first quarterly data, I can tell you that non-retail sales related to PC games is bigger than what occurs at retail, so the PC games market is clearly still thriving,’ NPD analyst Anita Frazier wrote in an e-mail." All set? Good, let’s move on.

The thing is, there’s a kernel of truth in some of these arguments...and even if you don’t agree with that, I hope you can agree that bringing more people into the PC fold is only a good thing. So here’s a handy cheat sheet for how you can “save” PC gaming:

1. Be a platform champion. Microsoft obviously isn’t doing it, so it’s up to us. Get educated about how your PC works, at least insomuch as it affects your upgrading schemes. As Dan Stapleton said recently, “If PC gaming is costing you ‘thousands’ per year, you’re doing it wrong.” Today, $700 will get you a new PC that’ll handle just about anything for the next two to three years, with maybe $500 a year spent on upgrades—but not everyone needs to drop that kind of money, which is why you should also…

2. Be a goodwill ambassador, especially to “casual” gamers. After all, they’re just hardcore PC gamers who don’t know it yet. If we want to grow our ranks, we need to make it easier for people to join them. Help new and casual players out when it comes to hardware questions—they can make the PC barrier to entry seem very high. Make people feel OK about learning to game on “easy.” Don’t grief away our future community—we want to bring people into the fold, not run them off.

3. Be honest—don’t contribute to the piracy problem. If you’re stealing games, then you cannot complain, ever, about the demise of PC gaming, because you are directly causing it. Besides, stealing is bad karma, and I don’t want to see you come back as a cockroach or a politician or a reality television contestant

Generations in Passing

omegetymon — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 20:24:21 +0000

A Question of WHYS: The WORLD'S "Balance", and how we may stop becoming like our neighbors around the sun. As I walked towards 'home' on my break from Lion King, Columbus, Ohio, (Ohio Theatre.), I passed a man who greeted me with..." Isn't this weather for July?", whereupon I responded..." It's the AXIS change." As he walked away with a chuckle I turned thinking "what other things may have a bearing on what is happening to the way the Earth is changing"? As I sauntered easterly the little gray matter I had left churned up the following. 1.) Has the acceleration of global warming been helped by... A.) Building Booms in certain countries as their economies have urged such? And do their building materials weights do anything to slow the rotational average? 1.)Can the pressure of a vertical I-beam exert a "staking" pressure to a tectonic plate? B.) With the "URBANIZATION" of the world's populations is the destruction of equatorial forest and vegetations meaning there's less weight to spin the world? ( like removing pieces of the center ring of a gyroscope and then adding them closer to the ends of the axle.) C.) Since we're removing such great amounts of material from the ground and not replacing it with like filler, is it possible that we're affecting how the TECTONIC PLATES' time tables of adjustment have been thrown off, and that's why there have been so many earthquakes in recent years? Not to mention the quick regrowth of some of the largest devastators in recorded history? ( As in VOLCANOES!) Do the weights of man-made sea islands change flow rates of MAGMA and its cushioning affects? D.) Are the building heights affecting a part of the Jet stream, and other air currents, by changing their course? [ How high \'til b-bye?] Do these create a "torque" on soil, or the world's spin rates? E.) Lastly. With the constant search and retrievals of energies COAL has set a dangerous president of not allowing itself to be mined due to its catching fire before extraction, filling entire regions with heat, sulfur, besides various other dangerous gases. Couple those to the loss of unimaginable acres of livable land and we've ALL got a bad thing going on,especially since coal/ underground fires are seldom extinguished. In the state of Ohio alone there are 6,600 old mine sites with 25 of 88 counties affected! [ohcoal.ART_ART_09-02-08_B1_GLB70C0.html?sid=101]

[centralia.htm]

[firehole.html]

Since I'm NOT that bright, how did I get chosen by that man, who quandered as he did, to have this something planted in my head to germinate into this? And why aren't/ haven't REAL scientists asked these questions from ALL these 'FACTS' they seem to have?

[caption id="attachment_178" align="alignnone" width="300" caption="No people"][/caption]

One Stupid last question: Does the water in a flushed toilet, at exact center of the equator, Not turn but drop straight down?

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EYES OF TRUTH

werievents — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 14:53:10 +0000

Money Tip #2 - Cheaper Hotel Rooms

Seth — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 13:49:34 +0000

Alright. You have a big meeting or outing coming up in Chicago and you need to book a hotel room. Well, how much is it going to cost and how can I get a cheaper rate? Well, this article should answer both those questions.

First off, to find out how much a normal room will cost, either call the hotel you would like to stay at or check that hotels website. Simple. But whats that, you don't want to pay that much. Not so simple. Let's say it is a weekend outing starting on a Friday and ending on a Sunday. So you need the hotel for Friday and Saturday night. Well, it turns out these are the most expensive nights to book a hotel room. For a normal room, you are looking to spend at least $100 a night (2 nights= $200). But, let's say you book on a Thursday, even though you aren't going to be there. When you book on a Thursday, rooms are usually around $60 a night (3 nights= $180). You just saved $20 by not going to Chicago on a Thursday, but acting like you were. Hey, maybe you can skip out of work early and get there on Thursday! Either way, book on a mid-week day and save some cash.

The next way to save some cash on a hotel room is use either frequent stay program or your credit card rewards. Most hotels have some type of program where they give you a free night or two for every 10 nights you stay in there hotel. Save these up and you can enjoy some free nights on them. And a lot of credit card reward programs allow you to redeem your points for nights at hotels. Check with them first just to make sure. American Express rewards offer this type of program (www.americanexpress.com).

The last way to save is to use websites like priceline.com or hotwire.com. How these sites work is they contact the hotel to see how many free rooms they have that night, and offer them a cheaper rate to fill that room. You may get cheaper rates on weekday nights, but weekends usually book fast and there aren't always free rooms. Remember, book well ahead of time to get the cheapest rate.

I hope these tips help you in your next stay!

Downgrade from Vista to XP on HP

ZoMBie — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 11:47:49 +0000

Hi, I am writing after a long time and that too because of a request by a friend. Off late I have been asked questions on how to downgrade from Vista to XP because Microsoft has produced such a marvel of an OS that people just can't handle it at this time.

About the downgrade, I haven't tried it myself!!! Actually my sister bought an HP-vista laptop and I used it for 2 days and 3^rd day I somehow got used to it. Still XP is XP and people like me still prefer their old laptops with 1gb ram against new ones with 3 GB coz we are still better with XP. Though vista isn't that bad, some suggestions to try before chucking it:

Stop the User Control feature. For me it bugged me a lot and interfered with my natural speed and flow of work coz it asks permissions even for basic features like copying sometimes.
Stop all unnecessary programs. These days all laptops come with a whole lot of preinstalled softies which are basically useless. I'd recommend of going to program manager and uninstalling any program you feel you have never used and never will. Also run msconfig utility and stop all useless startup services and applications.

Now if you still are fed up with vista, then let's go for it. I would still say to refrain, coz I myself have not done this, and also coz some of my friends have had some pretty bad experiences with it.

STEP I:-

Make a recovery disc and keep it safe in case you screw something up, you will need it.

Also go to HP support and download all drivers under your model but under XP. An e.g. of drivers for dv9507tx is

http://h10025.www1.hp.com/ewfrf/wc/softwareList?os=228&lc=en&dlc=en&cc=us&lang=en&product=3446847.

Step II:-

Supposedly Vista comes with native SATA hard drive support, and XP doesn't. To fix this:

On boot up, enter the BIOS and disable native SATA support. WinXP will be able to read the hard drive. You can run WinXP with it disabled now.

However, to use SATA support, you will need your hard drive's controller driver. The driver must be made into the Windows XP installation disk, so you will need to rip, edit, and burn the installation disc. For instructions on how to do this, seehttp://www.powerdonkey.net/windows/x...ver_update.php

Step III:-

Install XP pro

Step IV:-

Start XP and Click Control Panel > Add New Hardware
- This should tell you what hardware needs drivers
Use your recovery disc to search for and install drivers
For each driver that won't install, try the ones you downloaded
Your XP installation should be working

Deal of the Day September 3, 2008

BeThisWay — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 09:12:25 +0000

Here's a way to get a free sample and a chance to have Tim Gunn, from Project Runway, give you a style consultation!

Get a free sample of Tide TotalCare from the folks over at Proctor & Gamble. Once you've requested the sample, you'll also be entered to win one of five prize give aways, with the top prize being a style consultation with Tim Gunn, a new wardrobe worth $3,000, and a one-year supply of Tide. Offer valid through 10/20/2008 or while supplies last.

Check back tomorrow for another great deal!

Subscribe to my RSS feed to make sure you don’t miss a thing!

Google Chrome: Turn off Password Save

Arul John — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 02:27:55 +0000

One of the first things I do when I install Firefox is to disable the password save option. I have no intention of letting my username/password pairs get saved automatically for others to view later on.

In Google Chrome, to disable the save-password option, click on the little spanner icon on the top right (beside the address bar), select Options, click on the Minor Tweaks tab and select Never save passwords. If you want to view passwords already saved, click on "Show saved passwords"!

[caption id="attachment_111" align="alignnone" width="498" caption="turn off password saving in google chrome"][/caption]

UPDATE: Commentator Jim has this useful information to add in the comments section.

Here’s a scenario no one has discussed.

1. Allow Chrome to import information from a previously existing Firefox installation
2. Look at Wrench(Spanner)/Options/Minor Tweaks/Show Saved Passwords
3. Select a site, then click “Show Password”

Your saved password from Firefox is displayed in plain text. Chrome has read your password from Firefox, then made it available to anyone in possession of your machine. Physical security is still the most important aspect of security! We really need the master password now!

Maximizing Your iPod touch's Battery

jahfer91 — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 00:24:58 +0000

Recently, I took a trip down to Ottawa from my hometown of Oakville, Ontario to drop my older sister off at university. The time it takes to get there is roughly around five and a half hours. Naturally on a rip of this caliber I decided to take my trusty iPod touch along for the ride. On the way there I was using regular settings and was able to watch around 20-30 min of video and a couple hours of music - no other applications.

When we arrived at our destination, I got the warning that my iPod had only "10% battery life remaining" and I thought to myself, Oh crap!. And of course, being the great planner I am, I didn't bring an iPod charger with me so I would have to make do with what I had. And so I set out to achieve a record battery life on 10% juice remaining - 7 and a half hours!

Curious as to how I did this? I am kind of too...but what I can tell you are the settings I used for the trip back to limit my power usage. The first thing I did was to turn off the "Ask to Join Networks" option (Settings>Wi-Fi). That saves a chunk of power because it won't constantly be looking for new networks to join. The second setting I changed was the brightness (Settings>Brightness). I lowered the slider all the way to the bottom and turned auto-brightness off. Finally I made a personal decision to listen to only to music and to keep it off unless I needed to change a song. In which case I would use the handy double-tap on the home button to bring up the simplified music controls.

That final step may not be everyone's choice but I have a feeling that it was one of the major reasons that it lasted so long. Feel free to experiment for yourself and if you have any other battery-life saving tips, feel free to post them below.

Cheers!

Bora salvar o Miguel?

nunomiguelneto — Tue, 02 Sep 2008 21:57:20 +0000

Ora estava eu muito descansadito a arrumar as tralhas, para voltar a Lisboa, quando em conversa on-line, com a minha amiga Margarida (aquela que dizia ontem que eu não lhe agradeci). Reparo com espanto num belo de um site que ela tinha no nickname. http://www.savemiguel.com/e fico meio embasbacado a olhar para aquilo a pensar tratar-se de alguma coisa daquelas para dar o tal sangue raro ou pagar um tratamento em cuba. Mas não! Copy paste para o browser e dou de caras com um vídeo do youtube e com quem mais? Ora pois com um conhecido das comédias de Hollywood a defender uma causa portuguesa? Fiquei reticente, e perguntei à margarida se tinha sido ele... Nahhh logo vi, foi o Grupo Amorim (Cortiça e tal)! (não me lembro mesmo do nome do actor)

Causa? A causa é mesmo a de vender mais cortiça... como? consumindo mais vinho, ora eu gosto de vinho (não sei se tanto como de cerveja mas pronto) e até aderi plantando uma árvore virtual... Portanto vamos todos beber mais vinho e plantar mais árvores! E esta é a minha boa acção do dia!

P.S.: Obrigado Margarida!

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moneyforschool — Wed, 03 Sep 2008 04:29:08 +0000

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