Can I just say something?

If you've experienced hardship, if your life is sucker-punching you, if it seems like money is a plague to your bank account, this message goes out to all those hopeful for a better life.  Stop hoping, and start doing.  If you aren't fighting day and night for a better life, you either are to some degree complacent with your life (and you should be happy about this), or don't care enough to go that extra 5 feet, or that extra hour, or that extra few steps (and you have no reason to complain, since you have the means to improve).  Anyone else, my heart goes out to you, since it is unfair to fight with every breath in your body and STILL not get ahead.

Five things to do before you you hit the panic button......

Here's a list of five things you should do, if you have any love for your computer:

1. BUY an antivirus program.  Most of the free ones are third-rate or reduced-feature programs, and you might need a hard copy of the program if something happens to your computer.
2. DO WHAT THE ANTIVIRUS PROGRAM SAYS (unless you have a GOOD techie saying otherwise).  Programmers code the living heck out of these programs, and they do it with years of experience and training backing the warning messages that pop up from (insert your antivirus program here)
3. NEVER give out your passwords, not even if someone on the 'Net asks for it.  Every business that does business online stores your password and login ID's (upon you consenting for it) at their computers, so they already have it.  Anyone asking for it doesn't work for said businesses.
4. Windows (generally) knows what it is doing.  When a warning message pops up, don't just click "ignore" or "clear" or "OK" unless you KNOW (or have been made aware) of what those clicks will do.  Trust Windows.
5. Be nice to your administrator/IT guy.  He knows how to invade your computer without a single trace.

The future......it was far out, man.......

(open into a techie-computer room/office)....5 Years Later......"If you had asked me if I would be spending most of my conscious time using an octocore platform running at 3.4 THz to hunt down cyberterrorists while simultaneously placing a bid on vintage Playstation op-d's - that's optical discs for the great unwashed - I might have laughed at you.  And then slapped you.  But times have changed.  The world has become more interconnected than ever before - and with that communitization, came conflict.  Lots of conflict.  People huddling around vid-screens for the latest news - because no one has the patience or presence of mind to talk; cyberdens overtaking hotels and restaraunts wholesale; media sources battling each other with the ferocity of third-world militias; companies being absorbed left and right by bigger companies; and all the while, the average Joe is asking what happened.  The globalization of "thought-tech," processing at the speed of human thought, has run roughshod over the planet - we are tripping over ourselves to keep up with it.  And yet, some people are still quaint-of-heart enough to try and steal information - silly enough, but at least it keeps me employed.  My job is to hunt down these data-thieves, and stop them from theiving.  It's a dog eat dog world these days - people are just trying to lift enough to get by.  Unless you are incorporated into the global community - then you are set.  You are also living on the hairy edge of survival, which is what drives some people to commit thievery of data.  You'd think stealing food or money would be simpler.  Maybe it is - but this is the World Network, and data matters more here than money, and to some, more than life itself.  I should be happy it turned out this way - keeps me employed."

Better late than never....

I need to take time out of my usual bout of endless blathering and droning on about me (because I am JUST that fascinating a subject) for a public service announcement.
This goes out to the men out there.  Actually, the married men, although the single ones can listen in - prep work for you guys.  She's there in the morning, and again at the end of the day.  She knows more about you than the Man, yet despite numerous opportunities, refuses to take advantage of that knowledge (I hope! :P).  You pledge your blood, sweat, time, and freedom to her, and profit none by it.  She is your best friend, your closest confidant, your most insightful counselor, and if you don't keep your eyes open and be aware, can be your worst nightmare.
So let us take a moment, bow our heads, and give thanks............to our wives.
Thanks for being there for me honey!

Inspiration can come from odd sources...

People lend inspiration from sources that transcend moral strength - usually.  Some of the inspiration I took to make me the person I am today, was in fact from positive sources - my parents, my sensei, my wife and kids.

 

This isn't always the case.

A lot of the inspiration I took into my worldview, my view of myself, and how I interact with others, came from negative sources.

I can hear you thinking that I just made a typo.  Not true.  A LOT of boneheads, degenerates, slackers and addicts contributed positively to my lifestyle more than they should have (or know, for that matter).  My brothers' antics, the infighting in my family (and boy, was there ever), a massive dose of thickheaded and lazy behavior, and a secondhand run in with legal trouble her and there showed me just what can happen if you let yourself go.

I've come to realize that people in general are bad-leaning neutral - generally not predisposed one way or the other, but looking at the bad things more than they should.  I look at all these people at their worst, and think, "It's WAY too easy to sink down to evil - there has to be a better way.  Sure it's tough, but so is life.  The easy path is a false life, and a false life is equal to death."

Does this view make me extreme?  Sure.  But you can't argue with the results.

Salvation, a soothing balm to my seared ego, has a name - Joy2Key

So, as you have all been reading - and you have, as my information can help you reconnect with the lost hours spent in arcades, basements, and the occasional laundromat - I felt a personal loss when my gamepad wouldn't map perfectly to the keystrokes I had assigned to my games.  Well, some bright, generous spark from electracode.com slapped together a program to do just that - called Joy2Key.  Testing will commence tonight!

Sadness befalls the gamer....

NOT ONLY does my PS3 controller work on only ONE emulator I have, but I BROKE MY MAIN CONTROLLER.  :(     At least there's eBay to bring me a band-aid for my wounded pride - in the form of a replacement controller.

Finally! My Education is Paying Off!

Well, I did it.  No, not that.  I finally rigged my home arcade (for those of you who were paying attention, I described how to get one of your own) to run TWO profiling gamepads simultaneously!
Despite what some "experts" tell you, you can use a wired PS3 controller as a PC gamepad.  Just plug it in, and make sure your game supports "press and set" button configuration - that is, when you are in the input configuration, and you want to tell it what button 1 does (or more precisely, what the PC sees when you press button 1), you press a button, and the computer maps the response over, say Button C (this shows on mine as "joypad(0) +").
Now, I can play multiplayer on the umpteen million games I have on my laptop! HUZZAH!

Random Quote of the Week

"Do nothing that is of no use..."  Miyamoto Musashi, Book of Five Rings

In keeping with the theme of a tech job - that I never had....

People expect PC techs to know about computers.  Most people expect PC techs to know how to solve problems with PCs, using some simple and not so simple tricks.  As a tie in from my previous blog (for those who care enough to click "follow"), I have a trick that, is either overlooked as too simple, or quasi-legal.  Whatever.  I know how to set up a home arcade system, on your PC.  First, make sure you are running XP or better - 98, for all its brawn, still had the BSOD to deal with.  2 GB or more of ram, about 200 GB HDD available, 64 MB of video memory AT A MINIMUM (preferably higher, for obvious reasons), and at least 2 usb ports.  Pick up a logitech gamepad with a profiler (sells for about $15-20; the profiler is a proprietary mapping program that convinces the computer a button press on the gamepad is actually a button press on the keyboard), and a second gamepad, NOT logitech.  Logitech only allots the mapper to profile ONE gamepad at a time. 
Now for the software.  Games that have been out of publication for 10 years or more TYPICALLY have had their licenses expire, and are therefor not piracy protected PER SE.  I claim no responsibility for ANY legal actions taken as a result of this blog's informative attempts. 
Moving on. 
Finding these titles is not tough - they are labeled ROM files, with a myriad of extensions that I won't go into here.  After finding these files, you need some way to run them.  That's where the emulator comes into play, as it were.  Searching for these programs is no different that searching for the files - just replace ROMs with Emulators.  MOST sites have "click-traps;" these tell you to "click here to"...whatever.  Use your common sense when, not if, this comes up.  After you have a working emulator (and this will take some time) up and running and the rom files unzipped and placed where the emulator can see them, time to set up the gamepad.  Logitech's Profiler, like I said earlier, will let you customize every button press to emulate a keystroke.  Consult the help files in the Profiler Help menu for a step-by-step.  Then, configure the emulator's input configure to match what your gamepad is set at.  Most emulators are friendly enough to recognize keystrokes (and by extension, button presses) when setting the button config in their input or options menus (TYPICALLY). 
After that, Game On!

Specs of a Deified Computer

AMD Phenom II X6 1100T Black Edition Thuban 3.3GHz, 3.7GHz Turbo 6 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 125W Six-Core Desktop Processor HDE00ZFBGRBOX

 Corsair Force CSSD-F115GB2-BRKT-A 2.5" 115GB SATA II MLC Internal Solid State Drive (SSD)

ASUS Crosshair IV Extreme AM3 AMD 890FX SATA 6Gb/s USB 3.0 Extended ATX AMD Motherboard

COOLER MASTER HAF X RC-942-KKAA00 Black Steel / Plastic ATX Full Tower Computer Case w/ Cooler Master RSA00-80GAD3-US 1000W Power Supply

I/O MAGIC Black 22X DVD+R 8X DVD+RW 16X DVD+R DL 22X DVD-R 6X DVD-RW 16X DVD-ROM 48X CD-R 32X CD-RW 48X CD-ROM SATA DVD Burner LightScribe Support

EVGA 02G-P3-1387-KR GeForce GTX 460 2Win (Fermi) 2GB 512-bit GDDR5 PCI Express 2.0 x16 HDCP Ready Video Card

G.SKILL Ripjaws Series 16GB (4 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory Model F3-12800CL9Q-16GBRL

Sony BRAVIA 55" Class (54.6" diag.) 3-D Ready 1080p 120Hz LED-LCD HDTV KDL-55EX720

Energy Take Classic 5.1 5.1CH Premium Home Theater System

Logitech F710 Wireless Gamepad with broad game support and dual vibration motors

Logitech K350 Black USB 2.4 GHz Wireless Ergonomic Keyboard

 Microsoft Mobile Mouse 6000 Purple 5 Buttons Tilt Wheel USB RF Wireless Laser Mouse*

 *(this was an update to the school posting - original was wired [silly me...])

Logitech 960-000683 5 MP Effective Pixels USB 2.0 HD WebCam

HP Deskjet 3050 CH376A Up to 20 ppm 4800 x 1200 dpi Wireless Thermal Inkjet MFC / All-In-One Color Printer

All these components came off of Newegg.com and are readily purchaseable.  You can cut and paste the descriptions right into the newegg search bar - these came right from the item descriptions themselves.

Be amazed, and stop drooling.

$4,686.54 BEFORE TAX
$4,967.73 AFTER TAX