Technology

Upgrades Upgrades Upgrades

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It seems I’ve found someone who wants to buy a gaming laptop, so I spent the entire night researching a worthy upgrade. I looked between Asus and MSI and have come to the conclusion that Asus would be the better one to stick with for now. While I don’t like how I can’t take out the GPU and upgrade it to a different one the ROG series laptops run much cooler. Asus ROG series laptops have good vents in the back of their laptops whereas with the MSI ones tend to be on the sides. Some of them are on the back and the sides, but the vents are smaller.

I’ve also decided that at the very least I’ll invest in a laptop that has an NVidia 8xx GPU or higher so that I’ll have DX12 support. Although I don’t see myself using Windows 8 or 10 anytime soon it’ll at least be nice to futureproof myself a bit. The G74SX held up more than awesomely over these last couple years, definitely got my moneys worth out of it. I only have to lower my settings in a few of the newer games. That 560m was a great card.

So between the new motherboard and new laptop I’ll be busy for awhile.

Siri is such a prankster

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If you tell Siri to charge your phone 100% she’ll dial 911. O_o

While this sounds like a far-fetched scenario, it’s not beyond the realms of possibility. Earlier this year, for example, a woman used Pizza Hut’s app to alert the police that she and her children were being held hostage by a boyfriend with a knife. Asking a kidnapper if you can charge your phone with some weird passphrase is pretty innocuous by comparison. However, there’s no official mention from Apple of this “function,” and the only evidence of its use online is a scattering of tweets going back to early July of teens trying to prank one another with it. At least that’s a believable use case.

Oh I see… It’s a safety word, and unlike S&M it sends cops to your location. I think Apple needs to rethink their code words.

More things and stuff

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Bought a new camera tonight. It’s a Sony DSC-WX350 with 18.2 megapixels and a nice 20x optical zoom. Got a good deal on ebay as per usual. Should be a nice replacement for my current 7.2 megapixel Sony. It’s still a nice camera but I wanted something more high def.

It should arrive on my birthday. A nice little treat for myself. 🙂

Post Valentines Day Open Thread

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I didn’t really celebrate Valentines Day this year, much like the other years. I spent it with friends and family which is always nice. I was monitoring my server traffic and noticed that we hit a new record of 31 people across all servers! I even had to up my cinema server slots from 12 to 24 and add in reserved admin slots. We’ve been getting more popular lately. In fact we’ve been looking into a more powerful dedicated server box to relocate everything to.

Although in the meantime the hardware should do well enough to hold us over. Just can’t put up anymore servers in the meantime… and I have quite a few server projects that need to be carried out once the new server is acquired (as soon as they come down in price). Plans for a Starbound Server, a goof off Mann vs Machine and an experimental Shoutcast server are on the fabled to do list.

More new toys

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I finally got my hands on a wireless keyboard so that I can type from within bed. This makes it a bit more seamless when moving from the desktop to the living room/bed/wherever I want to go… maybe the bathroom? 😛

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My choice is the Logitech K830. It has a built in trackpad and illuminated keys. It lacks a numpad but that’s not really necessary to me. I just want something to control things from afar because, you know… I’m an Overlord? I have to have full control from everywhere…

It also has some built in hotkeys so that you can change your multi-monitor setup, do a file search, play, start and stop music, and more. All of this works out of the box without any additional software, although you can install Logitech’s Options Software so you can personalize it (which I haven’t yet).

So far it’s been working quite nicely. I curled up with it and my wireless controller and tackled a game I haven’t played yet called Freedom Planet. Which I’ll go into further detail in another future post.

So now my nerd setup is finally complete! Well… Until I decide otherwise.

A new generation of Open Source graphics?

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So it’s been announced that OpenGL has a successor called glNext. Details about it will be revealed on March 5th at the Developers Conference in San Fransisco. It will be presented in a panel called “glNext: The Future of High Performance Graphics (Presented by Valve)”. It will feature developers from other companies as well, like Epic Games, EA etc.

It’ll be interesting to see what unfolds. Ever since gaming under Linux has taken off I’ve been wanting to see an overhaul of OpenGL take place. It’s nice with some games, but really shows it’s age in newer ones. For example: I prefer playing Borderlands 2 under Windows because it keeps a better framerate, while under Linux it’s not as optimized even when you lower the settings. And that’s coming from someone who owns an R9 290. There should be no excuse for that kind of performance on a GPU that has an actual 4 GB of GDDR5.

It’s all assembled

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Got the HDTV setup with my computer and roku. So far everything seems to be working accordingly. It’s kind of trippy having all these windows surrounding me. But so far it has proven useful for monitoring statistics and recording. Also did some gaming on it earlier with a controller using Big Picture. This should do nicely. 🙂

Got the speakers setup too. I now have a true 5.1 surround sound setup. I still need to EQ them, but otherwise they’re in working condition.

Spicing up my nerd station a bit

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I have a second monitor coming in the mail (yes, time to enter the dual monitor club) or rather an 32″ HDTV. Also got some HDMI cables, and a Roku 2 XS for whenever I feel like using it as an actual TV with the computer off. I’ve been considering this for quite some time, and I figure with taxes coming up it would be a good time to treat myself a bit. I’m mainly getting the TV for whenever I feel like gaming in bed with a controller in big picture mode. Should be nice and relaxing for those cold days. 🙂

Is that steam in your pocket or are you just happy to see me?

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I saw this article about a portable steambox called a steamboy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UM63RuEhgHU

This sounds interesting, although the specs do leave me asking a few questions. Like does it use SD cards? What kind of quad core processor will it use? And of course what are we looking at in terms of battery life?

Either way it’s a nifty idea, and if it takes off that would be great. Although the amount of space they give you (32 GB) doesn’t really give you much room for some titles unless you focus on smaller side scroller type games. Imagine playing something like skyrim. Although you could factor in the in home streaming bit, that could be very useful. Hell it’s been great sitting out in the living room with a controller streaming some Devil May Cry or anything else controller friendly. I can fool people into thinking I have a console. 😛

Ladies and gentlemen, the BluetoothBrush

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BrushWavePhone

Not as in a blue coloured toothbrush, but an actual toothbrush with bluetooth enabled on it. Don’t believe me? Check this out:

Procter & Gamble’s subsidiary Oral-B will unveil what it says is the world’s first Bluetooth-enabled ToothBrush at next week’s Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. Part of the company’s Smart Connected Bathroom idea, the innovative device will provide users with “excellent control” over their oral care through an Android or iOS application.

It’s said to come with the following features:

  • Two Way communication – The Brush sends data about your brushing habits to the application and you can use the application to personalize your brushing.
  • Delivers Expert Guidance with Focused Care – Dentists can use insights from the patient’s brushing history and based on diagnosis, they can personalize the brushing experience based on the needs.
  • Programs Personal Brush Settings – You can control the brush with your smartphone as a remote and set basic setting options.
  • Stores Your Data – Tracks details about how you brush and stores it in the free to download app for iOS and Android devices.

This makes me wonder what we’ll have next. Smart toilet paper that teaches you how to wipe? Or better yet maybe bluetooth condoms that alert you if they pop or not. For the ladies there could also be bluetooth pregnancy tests and tampons that send statistical data to your smartphone so that it’ll tell you if you’re pregnant or how fast your flow is! The possibilities are endless!