I Won the Worthplaying.com Contest!!! Free trip to Red Faction Guerrilla Multiplayer event in San Francisco.

I WON! See http://www.worthplaying.com/redfaction_contest.php. So I got the awesome opportunity that every gamer dreams of. WorthPlaying.com flew me to San Francisco and got me access to the Multiplayer Red Faction Guerrilla event. Needless to say, it was awesome. Upon arriving to SF a personal sedan picked me up and took me to the Taj Hotel. Not only did I get to go to an awesome event, I got to stay at an extremely plush hotel. After I got settled in I wanted to do some recon on the event. I walked out the hotel and found the Vassel Club right a small alley street. I knew this was the place, not only because it looked cool, and had the right name, but because it had a generator trailer right out side with a huge bundle of cables leading the way into the dark depths of the club. I scouted a little more then went to grab some food.

Back to the cool part. I return to the event as people are arriving. I walked down the stairs, and it was dimly lit room with a big screen with Red Faction Guerrilla chilling on it. there were consoles everywhere each with their own flat screen high res displays. Like a dream RFG shimmering off each one. A couple consoles had bigger screens, but we will get to that later.I was amazed seemed everyone in the know was there.. A few game reviewers, and other assorted people. The first two people that I started talking to turn out to be Volition DEVS! I am terrible with names, however I was loving it. I later got to interview Luke Schneider on the record, with the two other contest winners. you can read the interview here. Right about now I probably should let you know for those of you who don't know me on a more personal level, I am adopted, and on my birth certificate my first name was Florentino. However people called me Tony. So, when I got adopted, Anthony was the first name used. Online most of you only know me as D4RK_4NG3L. That being said Here is the interview http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=62567

Luke Schneider, introduced the game, and announced that there would be a multiplayer release heading to consoles soon. Then we got to pick out our consoles sin down and the destruction began. As with any new it takes a second to get into the swing of things. It probably took me more time to acclimate to the console being a computer gamer. However I started to get into the groove of things, and it was on. After getting p0wned a bit with the sledge hammer I took it into my own hands and started really causing destruction. The hammer is one of the few weapons that I don't feel really has a counter, I would love to see a block using your weapon to stop the hammer. Other than that most weapons in the game are balanced by one another. I can't possibly talk about every weapon, you have to try it to really enjoy them. The amount of destruction is absolutely amazing. It seems that everything is destructible. This is something you should keep in mind if you want to stay alive long. Between huge towers that people, can snipe off of, to big buildings, that people try to hide in. The only difference is instead in RFG the only thing that offers you safety, is your teammates and your weapons. That is all. If there is someone hiding in a building? You can blow through a wall, or take your hammer to the wall. Then burst through your improvised doorway spraying them with your weapon. Of course if you have a "Rhino Pack" you don't need the hammer or explosives, you can just activate your pack and run through the wall. (works on people too) Full body check style.

Somehow the Volition team was able to make the destruction in this game very smooth and playable no matter what. Using their Geo mod 2.0 etc to push the very limits of the current generation hardware. I also played a little bit of the single player, and the variety in vehicles and tasks is refreshing. I had the pleasure of talking with Rick White a Producer at Volition. The amazing thing about the whole event, with all the amazing talent and people from all over, they were all down to earth and easy to talk to. I will post another time about my chat with Rick White. I will be releasing some video when I have a chance to edit and cut it together nicely.

Again I would like to thank Wothplaying.com for selecting me as a winner. To see more of my thoughts on the game check out the statement I made that they posted up on their site!

http://www.worthplaying.com/article.php?sid=62644

Xfire white sidebar fix Windows 7

Because I have had many people ask me for the white sidebar fix, I have decided to write up a Batch File and guide on how to fix it.

Basically the white sidebar problem arises from Xfire not knowing what Win7 is, so it misplaces a few files.

You can try "Typeing in a chat window (any xfire chat window) this command:
/forceupdate"

If that doesn't work read on.

By default Xfire is installed to
C:\Program Files (x86)\Xfire (if you are running a 32-bit version of Windows there will be no "(x86)")


I have created a batch file to fix this problem download and run by right clicking and choosing "run as administrator"

This batch was written with Default installations in mind, and will not work with custom install paths.

Link to the file.




If you don't trust my batch file, or just want to do it manually, here are the steps to fix Xfire manually:

1. Close Xfire if its running
2. Make sure you can get to the ProgramData folder. This folder is hidden by default. If you can't see it don't worry just follow these steps.
3. Open the Windows Start menu
   
4. Choose "Run..." from the right column
5. Type in %programdata% and press OK (see image below).
6. The ProgramData folder should now open. If there is no folder named "Xfire" there, create it.
7. Then open the Xfire folder. By default C:\Program Files (x86)\Xfire (Remember if you are running a 32-bit version of Windows there will be no "(x86)")

Open up two windows and move one window as far left as you can and it will automatically resize to fill in the left half of your screen, then move the other window as right as possible and it will fill that part of screen.

Now you want to move the files and folders listed here to the %programdata%\Xfire folder :

• Folders
• channels
• downloads
• Icons
• screenshots
• skins
• sounds
• templates
• videos
• Files
• Quicktime.qtp
• Xfire.ini
• xfire_games.ini

If there are any other fixes I will try to keep this updated.

I hope this help you can always leave comments, here or give suggestions to the Xfire team.

Tell Your Friends

Well I have come to the point where I have decided to start pushing my blog more and trying to reach a greater audience, I just got a gift from a friend that I will be sharing in the near future. So tell your friends bookmark my page, because cool stuff will be coming your way. Also if there is anything you would like me to talk about feel free to contact me or leave a comment. Ciao.

Bigger in this case is better.

Like many hardcore G1 users, I love to use my G1 constantly, and try to use its full potential every day. As many others have found out, I have found that the battery that comes with the G1 does not last long enough for the power user. So I went in search of an alternative. There are a couple on the market, however I chose the one that was superior in both looks, and usage time. (to everything else on the market at the time)

You may be wondering, what is this wonder battery that he found? Seidio Innocell 2600mAh Extended Battery for T-Mobile G1. This battery has about 125% more charge than the standard battery, and because of that is slightly bigger, but not to worry, they already thought of the ramifications of that, and when you buy the battery, included with the cost is a new back plate for your phone, so it doesn't look like some freak of technology with a big hump. So because I didn't want to name my phone Quasimodo I chose the better alternative.

This battery, will allow you to use Wifi, and Bluetooth, and every gadget you like on your phone, with out having to worry about how much charge you have left. Although as with any electronic device the power doesn't last forever, so it still is a good idea to have a usb cable with you and a car adaptor. A couple good programs to help you keep track of your battery and settings are Power Monitor and Battery Graph. I will do a mini review on each of those soon stay tuned. I Hope that this has given you some insight to this awesome product. Until Next Time Ciao.

H&R has blown it (RANT WARNING)

I just had the worst experience, ever with H&R Block. Like many people I am doing my taxes, and being that my budget is tight this year I am doing my taxes myself online with H&R Block, when I found I needed the AGI (adjusted gross income for a past tax year. Unfortunately I had to box up a lot of my paperwork recently and I can't find it.

Never fear, I though, I use H&R Block, and I paid $326 last year to have my taxes filed (that was just the fee not what I owed), and the IRS doesn't work on the weekend, so I figured I could call "my personal tax professional" and see if he could help me. I should have know this would be a problem finding him because I didn't know how to spell his name. No problem the H&R Block website lets you look up your tax information if your are a customer, so I plug in my customer information and it tells me that it doesn't know who I am, and that it has no record of me. No record of me!? I paid $326 for them not to have a record of me when I need to look up my tax professional?

So, I figured if I call H&R Block Customer Support they surely will be able to grab my records and at the very least tell me what office, and tax professional filed my taxes. After waiting on hold for a while, a voice finally cuts in and asks what I want. In a tone as if to say I am inconveniencing her. So I explain the situation, and she says, no problem we can have you pick up a copy of your taxes for ~$60. I was livid, you mean I payed over $300 for you guys to prepare my taxes and your site doesn't recognize me as a customer and you want to charge me to tell my one number from my tax return. After a second or to I calmed down, and I could tell she was starting to get irritated that she had to try to help me, or maybe she was just irritated that she actually had to work.

So I tried to made it easy for her and asked if she could find the person or office that prepared my taxes, "oh yes now that's something I can help you with." she bitchily stated. I though oh good, at least if I talk to who did my taxes they surely would remember me as a customer and want to help. Oh, did I mention that when they filed my returns last year, they messed up and it was only when I called them and pointed out that I didn't get my refund, that they found the error and amended it. With no real apology.

So back to the problem at hand. She makes me wait a minute or so more then asks for my social. After another minute she says that she is locked out also and for me to have a good day and tries to hang up on me, but I won't let her. I continue talking, irritated she starts trying to blame me, telling me its all my fault. I tell her yes, your right it is my fault for choosing H&R Block.

I was done with this BS. I politely told her that this is the reason so many people don't come back to H&R, and that its really pathetic that they can't do the simplest of tasks right. I ask her to make a formal complaint. I then also asked if she has a supervisor, she says yes you can call back and talk to him if you want, CALL BACK? I said why can't you transfer me? She said there were no supervisors on duty. Begrudgingly she told me her name was Vanisha. So who knows what hoops I will have to jump though, however H&R Block Customer Support Operator Vanisha has successfully put my over the edge and I am done with H&R block. I couldn't help but laugh at her attitude and bitchy babble as I was hanging up on her.

Sound off what would you have done?
Click here to voice your opinion or leave a comment.

Ohh so now I am doing them with TourboTax online and all is going smooth! :)

Testing

Hooking up g1 with blogger

Online TV and Movies

So You like TV and Movies? Well I do to, however I don't like most of the stuff on cable, and I don't want to waste money paying for cable TV if there is an alternative. Luckily there is. For the last 3-4 years I have not payed for TV however I watch all the shows that I am interested in when I want to. (in the little spare time I have) You may ask how do I do it? Well, thats what I will be sharing with you today.

There are many places on the web where you can legally watch TV and movies. There are also some more questionable ways to watch TV and movies however we aren't going to go into that today. The different ways that you can watch stuff online are as follows, Website (Flash), Website (plugin), or program (bittorrent or streaming client). A couple examples of Flash websites that have plenty of content are Hulu.com and Joost.com. I have use both of these extensively and they offer good quality TV and movies for free.

If you are a Netflix subscriber you also have access to view  many movies and TV shows instantly. This does however require a plugin. If you are a firefox person you will have to run this through ietab, however as we speack I am watching the original episodes of Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy full screened on my second monitor. "Don't Panic"  Netflix has done a great job of ensuring qulity, and smoothness.

If you would like to watch TV and Movies else where you can Check out Hulu.com and Joost.com both of witch offer a wide selection of TV shows and Movies. If you make a account with them (which is free) you can save things to a queue and be notified when there are new shows etc. This is a nice option for TV on the web because there are ussually options for hi quality and low quality, and you can pause any of these videos and watch them at your leisure. For people sponsored tv you can also turn to Democracynow.org.

Last of all are the programs. There are a few programs that will let you watch video streams, Winamp , TVUplayer , Miro, and Vuze. The first two do exactly that they play streams of video, and the pause feature is extrememly limited and ill advised. However the last two Vuze and Miro, are quite different. Vuze is a bit torrent client that recently has started making it easy for poople to release their video and other creations. You can choose to download them or play them. Miro on the other hand is still a video client, however it downloads videos or podcasts that you subscribe to (for free) and allows you yet again to play them when ever you choose. Unlike the other options for watching TV and Movies these last two can use up alot of space, however with space being so affordable nowdays, that really shouldn't really be a big concern. If you have questions or would like me to look over a program that you use, let me know by leaving a comment or contacting me.

Vista's Winsxs Folder

Well many of you Vista owners out there probably have from time to time looked to increase your free space on your machine, and you have found that the Winsxs folder seems to be taking up a lot of space. You wonder what is Winsxs and why does it need so much space.

Well WinSxS stands for "Windows Side-by-Side" in really simple terms windows creates a Hardlink to files here, however because hardlinks look like regular files to windows explorer, It seems that this folder is taking up a ton of space when really they are just glorified shortcuts. Windows uses these shortcuts to keep track of important system files, so deleting them could be disasterous.

There is one tool that can up slim it down slightly removing the out of date non performing hardlinks. You have to run the tool in administrator mode, here is the file. C:\Windows\System32\vsp1cln.exe remember after you have run this you will be unable to ever uninstall SP1 should you need to. Not that you ever would however I have to include that disclaimer. Run this program at your own risk, it made by Microsoft and I have no connection to it, however that being said it slimmed my WinSxS folder down a few Gb. 

Post comments here letting others know how this tool worked for you. As a side know if you have a Vista where Sp1 was slipstreamed into it already when you installed it, this tool will probably not help you much.

EA connection issues fix

After getting a couple EA games that I couldn't play because of " network/DRM  issues " I was really upset. It seemed that because I have Vista x64 Sp1 I couldn't play the games. After alot of searching I found the answer. Its the new network settings in Vista, so I figured out the network settings, and was going to write a batch file to fix them, when I found one on the internet. It was written by Marluxia Kyoshu I modified it slightly so that it explained better what it did, and I am putting it here for you all on the internet seeking answers. 

Games I know it works for:

• Spore
  
• NFS:Undercover
  

I believe it will also fix the EA Downloader issues (though not tested)

Also if you like my blog tell your friends...

Remember you need to run the file in administrator mode.

Link to the file.

The code incase you want to look over it without downloading it

@ECHO off 

ECHO Welcome to Marluxia.Kyoshu's EA Server/General Network Connectivity for Vista!

ECHO This tool will fix the problems that cause error messages like the one below,

ECHO Or similar network error messages. Bat Optimized by D4RK_4NG3L

ECHO ---------------------------------------------------------

ECHO 'The game can not start'

ECHO.

ECHO 'The game needs access to the internet in order to verify 

ECHO 'ownership of this game. Please ensure that your computer 

ECHO 'is online and try again.'

ECHO ---------------------------------------------------------

ECHO.

netsh interface tcp show global

ECHO. You may want to write down these settings incase you want

ECHO  to revert to your original settings.

ECHO.

ECHO Please press the 'ANY' key to begin the tool.

PAUSE > NUL

netsh interface tcp set global rss=disabled

netsh interface tcp set global chimney=disabled

netsh interface tcp set global autotuninglevel=normal

netsh interface tcp set global congestionprovider=none

netsh interface tcp set global ecncapability=disabled

netsh interface tcp set global timestamps=disabled

netsh interface tcp show global

ECHO.

ECHO The above and below tables should be exactly the same.

ECHO.

ECHO TCP Global Paramaters

ECHO ----------------------------------------------

ECHO Receive-Side Scaling State          : disabled

ECHO Chimney Offload State               : disabled

ECHO Receive Window Auto-Tuning Level    : normal

ECHO Add-On Congestion Control Provider  : none

ECHO ECN Capability                      : disabled

ECHO RFC 1323 Timestamps                 : disabled

ECHO.

ECHO.

CHOICE /N /M "Are they the same? Type Y for yes, N for no."

IF ERRORLEVEL ==2 GOTO NO

IF ERRORLEVEL ==1 GOTO YES

:YES

ECHO.

ECHO Just start up the EA Game now and it should work now.

ECHO Enjoy the game!

ECHO.

ECHO Press the 'ANY' key to exit.

PAUSE > NUL

GOTO END

:NO

ECHO.

ECHO Once the program is terminated, right-click NETFIX.BAT and click 

ECHO 'Run as Administrator...'

ECHO.

ECHO If you have already done this, try running twice more at both

ECHO Administrator and User level.

ECHO.

ECHO.

ECHO Press the 'ANY' key to exit.

PAUSE > NUL

GOTO END

:END

EXIT

A more in depth look at the file.

BSOD while pumping gas?

This is actually a gas pump running windows that shows TV while you pump gas. The only problem is that since it runs windows, it also BSODs lol I thought this was humorous so I took a short video, which I will update and place on here when I upload it to YouTube.

Find where your suppost to vote. (the easy way)

I am really suprised that it is kinda hard to find your place to vote (also called polling place). You would think that just like knowing where the library, or police station is, it would be easy to find your voting place. After I had gone through the old school way to track down your polling place, I found that yet again Google had a way to make my life easier. If you know the home address that you are registered with, just go here and input your address. It will then tell you where you are supposed to vote at, and even give you directions if you want. 

Have fun excersizing your right to vote.

Crash Last Night

Jolted out of a deep sleep by a satisfyingly huge crunch followed by a few bangs, some les satisfying crunches, a peel out and finally quiet. After making sure my apartment was secure and talking to my girlfriend, I hit the road to take pictures and try to get an idea of what happened!

Sleepily I stumbled towards where I thought the crunches came from, and I see debris in a lot of the street, some extremely long skid marks and a few cars that are definitely miserable with the recent events.

As I follow the skid marks back to their begginning, it seems a big vehicle decided to have a violent violation visit with a parked truck, violating it from the rear, violently.

From the debris and skid marks, I can see the big vihicle wasn't satisfied and decided to visit a few more cars and a curb before giving up the ghost for its sins around the nearest corner. Like the drunk that was driving it, with no regard for its surroundings, it just pissed oil and fluid on the ground as it went into its slumber of death.

Its drunken sleep was interrupted, however,by flashing lights. A stern policeman promptly brought a tow truck to take the disheveled van back to the station for interrogation. As it turns out the van's partner possibly the instigator in these crimes (rumored to be a drunk illegal woman) is at this very moment, to the best of my knowledge, at large.

As terrible as these atrocities are, I think you have a right to see the violated. So here are the pictures I took. If you have any information that might help this case please contact the Anaheim Police.

T-Mobile G1/Android Community Stepping up again

Many people are wondering if and why the G1 is better than the iPhone. There are my reasons some of them include hardware features, but I think the biggest reason is that the operating system of the phone is Open Source, with the only restrictions being ones that keep vandalism and other devious acts to a minimum.

You may be wondering why this is such a big deal. The iPhone has a shop for applications. Well unlike the iPhone pretty much anyone who has a drive to create an application can on Android with out big licencing fees. Then without becoming a criminal he can use it on his phone, and give or sell it to friends or the world. No need to jailbrake your phone etc. worry about the next firmware upgrade and your apps still working. 

The next intelligent question would be then will anyone really take the time to make these progams being that as of right now being that the G1 hasn't launched and there are no other phones that use android yet? (other than people hack projects) The answer is yes, there has already been a contest to support the community that builds these applications, many times using their own money and making them available for donations. The imaginative and creative applications that emerged were nothing short of amazing. I would like some of my favorites however there are just too many interesting ones out there look for your self would you like any of these programs ? 

http://code.google.com/android/

http://code.google.com/android/adc_gallery/index.html#3

Sound off what do you think about all the open handset hype? How much would you pay for some of these programs? What programs would you like to see?

Android Features I Crave

Of course we all want different things from our cell phones, here are some of the features I would like to see (no particular order). Let me know if there are other features you would like to see? 

• Video MMS / Video recording / streaming / Video Out via mini usb adaptor to hdmi or ?
  
• Screen orientation / Step counter / G force meter for use in car / inclimeter (using accelerometer)
  
• Turn by Turn Navigation with traffic avoidance.
  
• Call Recording (with and without beep)
  
• Ability to view flash websites like Skyfire does http://www.skyfire.com/
  
• Divx player
  
• Bluetooth keyboard / other bluetooth profiles
  
• Internet sharing ie: 3G->Wifi or 3G -> MiniUSB etc.
  
• gdesklets http://www.gdesklets.de/
  
• the ability to use the mini usb port as a usb port ie usb flash and hdd support or wireless usb (dreaming)
  
• touchscreen keyboard for when you don't have the time or will to open the phone, or when you have it in a dock.
  
• Call filter. http://www.anfymobile.com/callfilter/
  
• WIDSETS (all you Nokia fans know this one :) ) http://www.widsets.com/
  
• Multiplayer games (quake :) )
  
• 3d or 2d cad (ok I know it sounds odd but it is helpful for inventors like me drawing up blueprints while we are waiting for shit) 
  
• A lite version of open office :) (although I think google docs will suffice)
• Gas Mileage tracker using GPS (& for tax man)
• Remote Control for electronics devices (TV, DVD, DVR, Stereo, Laptop, etc.)
• Graphing calculator / ti89 emulator
• FTP hosting
• BitTorrenting
• Graphic editor (with reasonably cool features)

Cool Features I found with the Android Emulator 1.0 r1

• Looks Like Android already has some of these built in you can filter calls in the contact book by checking the box send calls directly to voice mail.
• The Web Browser allows you to use most webpages. Including Google. Documents, Reader, and most all the other Google services. It seems that all google features are specially formatted.  
  
• Robust alarm clock
• Many sweet graphical features for developers, many sample API's to take advantage of.
• Widgets

New Nvidia Drivers !! 178.13 WHQL for all

Well Nvidia has done it again they, released drivers that make all sorts of improvements under the hood. Here is their release highlights.

• WHQL-certified driver for GeForce 6-series, 7-series, 8-series, 9-series, and 200-series GPUs, including the newly released GeForce 9800 GTX+, 9800 GT, 9500 GT and 9400 GT GPUs.
• Adds support for NVIDIA PhysX acceleration on all GeForce 8-series, 9-series and 200-series GPUs with a minimum of 256MB dedicated graphics memory (this driver package installs NVIDIA PhysX System Software v8.09.04).
• Experience GPU PhysX acceleration in several full games and demos today by downloading the GeForce Power Pack.
• Adds support for 2-way and 3-way NVIDIA SLI technology with GeForce GTX 200-series GPUs on Intel® D5400XS motherboards.
• Supports single GPU and NVIDIA SLI™ technology on DirectX 9, DirectX 10, and OpenGL, including 3-way and Quad SLI technology.
• Supports CUDA™.
• Supports Folding@home distributing computing application. Download the high performance client for NVIDIA GPUs here and join the NVIDIA team: #131015.
• Supports GPU overclocking and temperature monitoring by installing NVIDIA System Tools software.
• Includes several 3D application performance improvements. The following are examples of improvements measured with v178.13 WHQL versus v175.19 WHQL driver:
  

o Single GPU increases up to 11% in 3DMark Vantage (performance preset)
o Single GPU increases up to 11% in Assassin's Creed DX10
o Single GPU increases up to 15% in Bioshock DX10
o Single GPU increases up to 15% in Call of Duty 4
o Single GPU increases up to 8% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
o 2-way SLI increases up to 7% in Bioshock DX10
o 2-way SLI increases up to 10% in Company of Heroes: Opposing Fronts DX10
o 2-way SLI increases up to 12% in Enemy Territory: Quake Wars
o 2-way SLI increases up to 10% in World in Conflict DX10

• Includes numerous 3D application compatibility fixes. Please read the release notes for more information on product support, features, driver fixes and known compatibility issues.
• Users without US English operating systems can select their language and download the International driver here.

So Are you running the latest? here you can check right here on my blog.

Re-visit of Nike Contacts

A while back I showed you guys my Nike contacts, well its been a while so I thought I would update you on the status of them.

While they are very good to use like sunglasses I found that them changing the colors of everything was annoying enough for me not to wear them all day long. While I still can recommend them for specific ativities like volleyball or running, I think you will find wearing them only for specific activies is th best way to go. Very comfortable, but you probably want to have clear backup contacts. If you guys have anything you want to know about them, let me know. 

Mylar balloon strikes close to home

Well With all the talk about Mylar balloons and people trying to get laws passed, this last 4th of July I heard a great big crackle .. snap.. and pop.. and the power to my apartment died. (No Rice Crispies didn't land in my neighborhood to start invading), I ran out side and found that the power was out at my neighbors also. After further investigation I found that the whole neighborhood was out, I called my power company, and they said they were currently aware of the situation and are working on it. So I decided to do some driving around my neighborhood. I found that the outage was quite wide. The next time I talked to the electric company they let me know that a hundred thousand homes had lost power with this outage, however power is being restored, systematically. When I last checked in at 3:00 am the amount of people that were with out power only a few hours after the event was down to 12 thousand. Pretty good work I would say, and the cause? Yes, you guessed it a Mylar balloon from the 4th of July festivities.

Should they be banned? You make the call. Personally I think that they could just be designed to not conduct electricity. What do you think?

UT3Gameplay Footage

Enjoy a lightly edited UT3 Gameplay. A Drama Free Gamers and Finger Works UnInc. Production.

Audiosurf Gameplay Footage

Just some gameplay footage from the new game Audiosurf

Making Tortilla Chips

A quickly put together video on how to make Tortilla chips from corn tortillas using a deep fryer. Enjoy.