nvidia nForce 750i SLI FTL

Thursday night, shortly after hitting lvl 47 in Forochel killing Tundra Bears and collecting Dwarf Picks, every USB device connected to my computer abruptly stopped working. I could only watch in horror as my Elf-Hunter's dignity was stripped away as he was mauled to death by hungry bears, while helplessly auto-running into a stone wall. After angrily mashing the reset button my computer informed me that it could detect no keyboard. Pressing the CMOS reset button and using Mark's ps2 keyboard to re-enable USB keyboard support in the BIOS had no effect. After cursing the stars for a while, I decided I should ask IT to have a look at it. With the BIOS flashed and the USB drivers uninstalled and reinstalled, the cause and solution had even escaped Paul's mighty knowledge. No one knew how the story could ever have a happy ending. Luckily some five months prior to this when the salesperson at Memory Express asked me if I wanted to purchase an Instant Product Replacement on my motherboard, I had that foresight to say "Yes, yes I would like to do that thing." ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS get the extended warranty on expensive electronics. They have saved my ass (by which i mean my wallet) more than once. This makes the 3rd version of this motherboard that I have had in my new PC since July. nForce 750i SLI FT"W", eh nvidia? 07:47 PM

Bolding going where lots of people have gone before

I've started watching Star Trek: The Original Series in order to be adequately prepared for the release of the new Star Trek movie coming out next year. I've never really watched an episode of Star Trek before this, and have always sided with the Star Wars geeks rather than the Trekkies, but it wasn't as bad as the lightsaber wielding, Lucas-hating, wookie-wannabes made it out to be. I especially thought it was going to be a less-than-enjoyable experience because it was made in the late 60s, and I have seen particularily bad scenes that have been passed around on the internet. Nevertheless, I found most of the stories entertaining and the "late-60s-motif" charming in a way. When i first saw the trailer for the new Star Trek movie I thought the actor for Spock (the guy who plays Slyer in Heroes) was going to be hard to take seriously, but after watching some of The Original Series I find he actually looks quite similar to young Leonard Nimoy. I AM, however, going to be making Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz references whenever Scotty is on screen. I hope they throw a Tribbles reference into the new movie. 04:35 PM

Brightkite Spite

The other day I found this really neat "location-based" social network called Brightkite. It lets you see what your friends are up to in real time via twitter-like posts and pictures, but also displays your current location at the time of the post. It works best with a GPS device like an iPhone, but they say it works on any phone. They have a free iPhone app that I tried out on my iPod touch which is pretty snazzy. Of course, I could only use it when I'm in wifi. Otherwise I can post via SMS or mobile email from my blackberry. Or at least I'm SUPPOSED to be able to. When you sign up it asks for your phone number preceded by your country code (which I had a considerable amount of trouble finding on the internet), and then texts you a confirmation number that you type in at the site. This all worked just peachy, but I still find myself unable to send SMS commands to brightkite. I sent invites to a few friends and they didn't have the same problem. I suspect that Telus has once again spewed copious amounts of FAIL all over my attempts at having fun. That aside, I still think it's a really cool social networking deal that people should definitely try out. It's in beta so it's invite only, but I have a bunch of invites so drop me a line if you want I should send one your way. You can also sign up for an invite at the site, but that takes about a day or so. Here's my "wall", if you want to take a look: http://brightkite.com/people/Brenderous 05:53 PM

10 Years for Ocarina of Time

[caption id="attachment_23" align="alignright" width="340" caption="The future depends upon thee, Link... Thou art courageous..."][/caption] November 23rd 2008 marked the 10 year anniversary for The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time. This is the game that started it all. My Woodstock. The game that changed the way video games were made. The spark that would ignite my passion for video gaming and fuel my longing for epic adventures, sacred blades, and heart containers. I remember playing this all Christmas day. Trying to find enough rupees for the Kokiri shield, navigating through the maze for the Koikiri sword, braving the depths of the Deku tree. I've played it so many times by now I could do all 3 "kid-link" dungeons in one sitting. So many good memories tied to this game. Except for that damn water temple. It may be all the nostalgia that comes with it, but I dare say I havn't played a zelda that I've enjoyed more thoroughly that OOT, and I've REALLY enjoyed pretty much every post-OOT zelda game to date. Wind Waker and Twilight Princess come close, and are both probably better games when I sit down and think about it over a glass of Lon Lon Milk, but theres something soothing about those 64-bit graphics that warms my heart and makes me want to wear a green tunic and run around chopping bushes with a sword. I'm anxciously looking forward to see what Nintendo has in store for the next 10 years of zelda games. In fact, Nintendo, if you're reading this....NEVER STOP. Just don't. If Miyamoto and Aonuma pass away, just freeze their brains and put them to work on more zelda. Thank you. 11:21 PM

Pretty Sweet Set-up.

I have a pretty sweet set-up in my room for gaming. I have my PC, and on the same desk I have a TV. Plugged into that TV I have an 360 and a Wii. [caption id="attachment_14" align="aligncenter" width="404" caption="The Set-up"][/caption] Theoretically, I could be surviving the D.C. wastes in Fallout 3, dismembering zombies in Dead Space, and planting trees in Animal Crossing almost simultaneously. That could lead to problems though. Like trying to bring up V.A.T.S. in Dead Space to buy some time, and then getting devoured. Or trying to cut the limbs off my neighbors in Animal Crossing when they charge too much for furniture. The real test would be trying to play Rock Band and anything else. 05:37 PM