The Mind Of OverlordTomala

Time for a new browser

Seamonkey has been pissing me off lately with a couple bugs. When I watch a video for the first time and want to adjust the volume the video freezes. Another bug and this the most annoying one, whenever I download a file it randomly fails and I have to retry. Most of the time I can get it to work on a retry, but with certain downloads it requires me to redownload a file more than twice… and that’s a waste of bandwidth and time that I don’t need. Another bug and this seems exclusive to my CentOS 7 install is the inability to play audio within the browser… So I’ve made the switch to firefox.

It’s gonna take some getting used to, not a whole lot though since it’s fairly similar to seamonkey, and that makes sense since they’re both under the mozilla umbrella. I installed my usual selection of plugins (FlashBlock, NoScript, etc), and installed NewsFox as my RSS reader. At some point I’ll get around to installing Thunderbird.

I can tell I’ll need to get used to FireFox’s aesthetic. But it shouldn’t be too difficult.

My thoughts on Windows 10: Chapter One

I’ve been keeping up on the news regarding Windows 10 and so far I haven’t been really impressed. One of the things I dislike about it is the fact that you can’t turn off Windows Update unless you have the business version of the OS. This could get annoying if you’re writing a document, working on a project, chatting, playing a game etc as there seems to be no way to postpone the process.

Another problem is datacaps and internet connections in rural areas as people are finding out.

Consumer groups have slammed Microsoft for its policy of forced updates for Windows 10, which is hitting customers in remote locations with massive bill shocks by blowing out their data caps.

But they warn bill shock may affect many more customers, regardless of where they are located. And, with many customers yet to receive their monthly internet bills, the full extent of the problem may not yet be apparent.

Maureen Hilyard, an internet user in the Cook Islands, an autonomous region associated with New Zealand, claims she faces a bill as much as $NZ600 ($A532) for the month of August, thanks to Windows 10 automatic updates.

I’ve never even thought about this before. But because of the way Microsoft wants to roll out updates now, it’s pretty much mandatory to have an internet connection and a good one at that. Why? With Linux and older versions of Windows this wasn’t a requirement, and I don’t see how Microsoft can think this will be a good idea. I’ve been having customers ask me about Windows 10 and so far everything that I’ve told them about has made them either stick with older versions of Windows, or contemplate getting a tablet or switching to Mac, and in semi-rare cases consider Linux.

I remember when they rolled out the XBox One it was supposed to be an online 24/7 console, and if you lost the internet connection you wouldn’t be able to play any of your games. I also remember they got enough flak for that decision. Microsoft has to get it together and realize that yes we have the technology and the internet connections to pull this off, but people don’t always have the access or the money to make it work.

This guy wins the internet for trolling a bunch of homophobes for 16 hours straight.

Target recently took down labels such as “Boy Toys” and “Girl Toys” and made things more neutral. Someone predicted the social media backlash and decided to get in on some epic trolling by posing as a Target Representative. Here are a couple examples:

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I wonder how many of these people found out after the fact that they had their legs pulled tremendously. This was brilliant! Way to turn stupid people into a wondrous source of entertainment.

I should be sleeping but here’s an Open Thread

Once again Skyrim was my go to for fun today, or yesterday if I look at the clock. I should be sleeping now. O_o Needless to say I solved multiple quests, mostly for the College of Winterhold. I’m thinking of heading to Solsteim next time I launch the game. I swear this game keeps wrapping me in it’s tentacles…

Game on.

Since I’ve caught up on all my upgrades I’ve finally gotten back into some gaming. Especially of the Skyrim persuasion.

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But I’ve also been playing some other games too. I already wrote about my Shadow Warrior adventures, and I’ve also been playing some of the Portal 2 fan games like Portal Stories: Mel, and Thinking With Time Machine which is an interesting concept of portals and a portable time machine.

Me looking at my past self doing past things I did.

Later today I’ll be bringing my laptop for an hour long lunch. Wonder what I’ll wreck. 😛

A weekend of zen.

Wow, two days off for a second week in a row. 😀

I went out for Pad Thai yesterday, they had some awesome noodles and iced tea. Then I also watched some anime that I haven’t seen before. The 1995 Ghost in the shell movie, and then Ghost in the shell: Solid State Society. I was overdue for those considering I watched Stand Alone Complex and 2nd Gig, all in all they were entertaining.

Oh, and today I actually beat a game; Shadow Warrior. I’ll need to go back and play it again sometime so I can find all the secrets and more achievements. That and my big collection of games should tie me over until the sequel arrives. 😛

Upgrade status

My laptop arrived yesterday! The moment I got off work I went home, sat down for a moment and took to my old and new laptop with a couple screw drivers (not the ones with orange juice and vodka, although that could have been interesting). I installed one of my 1 TB drives and the SSD for my OS. So far everything has been humming along with no issues. Installed Windows 7 with all the drivers and updates. Tonight I finished installing most of the important softwares, and copied some games over. I’ll probably do some tests with it tomorrow. I’ve burnt most of the midnight oil, and I have some things to take care of before work which requires me to get to bed a bit earlier than usual. Either way, next time I have a long lunch at work I’ll have this thing happily at my side.

I also got my Linux install on my main desktop working the way I want it. I decided to experiment with Mate desktop because while I like xfce, it’s a slight pain when it comes to dual monitor setups. Mate is basically a less graphically intense version of Classic GNOME, and it handles 3D games just as well as xfce. The less going on in the background the better the framerate, especially in FPS games.

Might have to do some serious gaming when I get home. I can tell I’ve been busy with my upgrades lately, my Steam hours have dropped quite a bit. 😀