Well, I've got a new game to blab about. My nerd index rises rapidly. I'm playing, every now and then, a game called "King's Bounty: the Legend." King's Bounty (without the legend part) was a game by New World Computing way, WAY back when (pre-3d graphics card days but post-SoundBlaster days, if that helps) that actually started the well known Heroes of Might and Magic series (which I've blabbed about before). Bounty: Legend, my current interest, was not made by NWC but is very much in the spirit of the original. Only better, much better. It's got all the cool game play elements that made the HOMM series awesome (well at least the first 3 installments of the HOMM series) plus VERY nice graphics, good sound, a role playing/character driven element, and interesting campaigns. It's really, really a blast and if you 1) own a Windows PC and 2) liked even a little any of the HOMM titles it's worth checking out. You can find it cheap at retail stores (or could a few months back) and I know Steam and Impulse sell it online for cheap from time to time. So you have no excuse for not checking it out.
Except that most of our IR's aren't, to my knowledge, gamers and/or don't run Windows boxes. Those are good excuses. But good excuses be damned, CHECK IT OUT!
Sunday, January 31, 2010
Thursday, January 28, 2010
Book alert!
Ok, all you sci-fi/fantasy geeks out there. You know you're jonesing for a new book, right? Well the next Malazan book is out! The Malazan Books of the Fallen, by Stephen Erickson, are now among my favorite fantasy books. They're big, they're complicated, they're gritty, they're mature. They're lots of cool stuff with very little suckage. My only complaint is that there's too much of a good thing here. There's so much going on, so much intricate history, that it's hard to track it all. I have literally felt like taking notes. I didn't though. My geek-o-meter isn't quite that high (well, it is, but my lazy-meter is even higher). But anyway, the books are highly recommended and book 9 of 10 is now available! Woo-hoo! I've got it in my hot little hands, and as soon as I finish the 10 books that are before it on the list I'll be reading it!
Wednesday, January 27, 2010
Did I ever mention that malware sucks?
This is old news, but I'm not sure if I shared it. About a month back, in the midst of a very busy time at work, I tried to use my statistics program at home to work on a paper or two. The program got all buggy and told me, wrongly, that the license had expired. I got all stupid and ornery and decided to try to download a hack to let me ignore the license requirement. This was stupid in so many ways. First, because I didn't need it - my license had NOT expired and I knew it, I was just pissed off that the damn software was screwing with me and so rather than go to work and get them to update the license info, I decided to try to hack it. Second, because hacking it is technically illegal (even if you do have a valid license). And finally, as I've told many people many times, if you go to a website that is specifically distributing illegal software you can't be surprised if you download some illegal software. In the form of malware. Which, as it turns out, I did.
Now I DID scan the program, with two different scanners (damn you Norton), and both said it was fine. Then I ran it. Immediately my email program started to try to send gazillions of spam emails. Norton DID detect that, and gave me all kinds of warnings. So I unplugged the network cable. Heh. Cant' send spam if there's no internet connection. Take that, malware! But then I had to go through the laborious process of running MANY scan and removal runs with MANY malware removal tools (Malware Bytes, Norton, and a few I can't remember). After no kidding a few days I did manage to get rid of almost all of it EXCEPT for this incredibly annoying thing that kept playing adds on my speakers every few minutes. I kept at it, determined to rid my machine of this bug, until I realized that I had already spent 3x longer messing with this than I would have spent wiping my drive and re-installing the OS.
So that's what I did. Reinstalling Windows XP is really not all that hard. Backing everything up is a pain, especially when you have to be careful not to move any infected files over. But the reinstall itself was relatively painless. Putting all the other software on is more of a pain - all the drivers, the office software, the FRIGGING stats programs, and so forth. Altogether I'd say this crap ate up, no kidding, ate least 12 hours of my life. Which is not a lot until you realize that I've only GOT about 12 hours of free time in a week, so that sucked.
Are there any lessons to be learned here? Well, one is "Don't be an idiot." It is QUITE annoying that the whole thing is my fault. The second is this: Norton sucks. I have now battled several types of malware (twice on my wife's machine, once on mine) with Norton finding nary a one. I've had to download a whole boatload of other programs to take care of it. Now I know Norton is AntiVirus, and malware is not always a virus, but for what Norton costs, in money AND system resources, it should be able to do just a little bit more. So Norton was not reinstalled when I redid the whole OS. Instead I'm running AVG, which is 1) free, 2) faster, and 3) can hardly be less effective. I've heard good things about it and so far, so good.
So I am now a repentant Shifter, who has now legally made the stats program realize my license never expired, and who will never ever ever visit another warez site as long as I type.
Now I DID scan the program, with two different scanners (damn you Norton), and both said it was fine. Then I ran it. Immediately my email program started to try to send gazillions of spam emails. Norton DID detect that, and gave me all kinds of warnings. So I unplugged the network cable. Heh. Cant' send spam if there's no internet connection. Take that, malware! But then I had to go through the laborious process of running MANY scan and removal runs with MANY malware removal tools (Malware Bytes, Norton, and a few I can't remember). After no kidding a few days I did manage to get rid of almost all of it EXCEPT for this incredibly annoying thing that kept playing adds on my speakers every few minutes. I kept at it, determined to rid my machine of this bug, until I realized that I had already spent 3x longer messing with this than I would have spent wiping my drive and re-installing the OS.
So that's what I did. Reinstalling Windows XP is really not all that hard. Backing everything up is a pain, especially when you have to be careful not to move any infected files over. But the reinstall itself was relatively painless. Putting all the other software on is more of a pain - all the drivers, the office software, the FRIGGING stats programs, and so forth. Altogether I'd say this crap ate up, no kidding, ate least 12 hours of my life. Which is not a lot until you realize that I've only GOT about 12 hours of free time in a week, so that sucked.
Are there any lessons to be learned here? Well, one is "Don't be an idiot." It is QUITE annoying that the whole thing is my fault. The second is this: Norton sucks. I have now battled several types of malware (twice on my wife's machine, once on mine) with Norton finding nary a one. I've had to download a whole boatload of other programs to take care of it. Now I know Norton is AntiVirus, and malware is not always a virus, but for what Norton costs, in money AND system resources, it should be able to do just a little bit more. So Norton was not reinstalled when I redid the whole OS. Instead I'm running AVG, which is 1) free, 2) faster, and 3) can hardly be less effective. I've heard good things about it and so far, so good.
So I am now a repentant Shifter, who has now legally made the stats program realize my license never expired, and who will never ever ever visit another warez site as long as I type.
Triathlon on the horizon
Turns out the triathlon is going to be on Superbowl Sunday. Not a huge loss for me, I'm not much of a football fan, but it sure does explain why there were so many open slots for the afternoon heats of the event. Yes, I'll be able to keep my head above water and I'll probably even avoid falling off the bike. I've only been on a bike 3 times this training season. Clearly it won't be my strong point, but who the hell cares? I'm a runner. And I'm going to be swimming for 30 minutes! That has to be good enough.
My hopes/expectations are:
Swimming: .66 miles (I'm doing 24 laps in 30 minutes routinely now, and 36 laps is a mile, so this should be a doable goal since I'm already there).
Biking: 10 miles. (this is more of a stretch. When I swim, then bike, I turn in about 9.5 miles in 30 minutes. I'm counting on a bit of adrenaline to help me out).
Running: 3.5 miles (this is maybe a bit of an underestimate. Normally for 30 minutes I'd say I could, in a race on a treadmill, do 4 miles or pretty damn close - a 7:30 pace. But I'm going to be worn out so I figure between an 8:30 pace is reasonable).
The real gains have been in the swimming - when I started training I could barely do 10 laps, now I'm more than double that with very few stops. I'm sure it's still crawling to a real swimmer, but it's strategic drowning at a whole new level for me. I should *really* buy a new swimsuit though. I've got the same one for this tri that was old for the last one 4 years ago. It was once blue.
This is likely to be the very last triathlon post until the post-even summary, so wish my luck!
My hopes/expectations are:
Swimming: .66 miles (I'm doing 24 laps in 30 minutes routinely now, and 36 laps is a mile, so this should be a doable goal since I'm already there).
Biking: 10 miles. (this is more of a stretch. When I swim, then bike, I turn in about 9.5 miles in 30 minutes. I'm counting on a bit of adrenaline to help me out).
Running: 3.5 miles (this is maybe a bit of an underestimate. Normally for 30 minutes I'd say I could, in a race on a treadmill, do 4 miles or pretty damn close - a 7:30 pace. But I'm going to be worn out so I figure between an 8:30 pace is reasonable).
The real gains have been in the swimming - when I started training I could barely do 10 laps, now I'm more than double that with very few stops. I'm sure it's still crawling to a real swimmer, but it's strategic drowning at a whole new level for me. I should *really* buy a new swimsuit though. I've got the same one for this tri that was old for the last one 4 years ago. It was once blue.
This is likely to be the very last triathlon post until the post-even summary, so wish my luck!
Fuzzy slippers
There's really not much more to say. Fuzzy slippers rock. You don't know that if you don't live in an arctic climate 6 months out of the year. If you do live in an arctic climate half the year, and you don't know that, then I pity you and your very cold feet. And I envy you the joy you'll feel when you first put on your pair of manly, cozy, fuzzy sleepers. Warm, feety goodness has arrived. Watch the white cloud flow from my mouth in the frigid air of my study as I breathe a sigh of contentment.
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