February 2020
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I am The Cyberwolfe and these are my ramblings. All original content is protected under a Creative Commons license - always ask first.
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Archive for February, 2020

Ahh, Nostalgia… and Big Stompy Robots

Posted in Geekery on February 16th, 2020

So there has been a long-standing argument between console aficionados and PC gamers, that boils down to this: PCs are more configurable, and they evolve in such a way that games can get better as hardware improves while consoles are stuck with what they’ve got. The console guys respond that the console is always the same, so everyone knows exactly what they’re going to get, and barring some odd manufacturer shenanigans, when you buy a game it will always play on that console. PC games, on the other hand, may become obsolete abandon-ware.

This brings us back around to this weekend, when I realized I had completely missed the launch of Mechwarrior 5: Mercenaries this past December. I did my usual digging through the reviews and such, and then the minimum recommended hardware list and discovered the mid-grade gaming PCs I built for the wife and I 2 years ago end up at the very bottom of the list, and one particular reviewer’s performance grid would grade them at just below playable with medium graphics settings.

Crappity.

Even better, I’d be looking at about $575 in parts to upgrade one to play a $50 game. They work just fine for playing things like Civilizations VI, Stellaris, and Diablo III, but apparently the Big Stompy Robot itch needs more hardware. Too bad Mech 4 can’t be played on Win10, it was still a good game especially after the MekTek guys got done with it.

Or can’t it? Read the rest of this entry »

Birds Of Prey (or that Harley Quin movie)

Posted in Geekery, Media, Reviews on February 9th, 2020

(OK, I get the point behind the whole extended sub-title of the movie thing, but I’m a simple guy…)

So, the wife and I went out and saw this on Saturday, and first reactions: damn fun movie. Get a big popcorn and a soda, sit back and enjoy the flick. Margot Robbie and the gang show us a rollicking good time and kick mucho ass along the way.

Now, there’s already been some hullabaloo about this movie on a couple of points: #1: Do not bring your kids. This movie is a HARD R rating, and there is much swearing, violence, gore, drug use, and a couple specific injury scenes that your kids just ain’t prepared for. Harley’s funny and all, but at one point she deliberately breaks both a man’s legs. At once. Unprovoked. (OK, mildly provoked. A slap woulda sufficed…)

#2: There is a bunch of speculation about how much money this movie is going to make, and part of me thinks some of this is hype trying to make the movie seem like a failure because it’s a slap in the face to the Joker-loving’ incels out there all butthurt because Jared Leto proved himself to be a roaring trash fire and lost any chance of ever being the Joker in another movie.

That being said, I also noticed a bunch of empty seats in our Saturday afternoon screening, so there’s going to be some truth to those low numbers. So I will tell you this: if you are a feminist bitching about the low representation of women in the creative process in Hollywood, GO SEE THIS MOVIE RIGHT NOW! It was written by a woman, directed by a woman, and produced by a woman. Not to mention starring a bunch of very able women. It also happens to be a good movie well worth the price of admission, so don’t fret about that.

Read the rest of this entry »

Moving Day

Posted in Geekery on February 2nd, 2020

So waaaaaaay back in 2004 when I started this blog, I went with a particular webhost. They had a simple interface and charged a reasonable fee for their services.

On at least two occasions throughout the years, they have “upgraded” my plan with out asking me first, and both times they also increased the price.

Now, I can fully understand the logic behind their actions, the whole thing just struck me as shady and underhanded. If they had given me an option of downgrading services or something, I might have let it slide… but nope.

So, today’s project was to sign up with a new registrar, a new hosting service, and migrate all the websites to new hosting. All of which, strangely enough went off without any real problems.

(Small issue: apparently Frontier’s primary DNS server is on the fritz, so I couldn’t actually check the sites from home until I changed the DNS servers in the DHCP scope…)

Now, to cancel the old service… you have to call. OK, call them up, wait 25 minutes on hold, identify myself 3 different ways….and the cancellation team only works Mon-Fri on Eastern time.

Of course.

Bastards.