So, we all know how much I rely on my computers. Well, yesterday one of them died. My laptop, which is my work machine died on me. The video card died — and died hard. The machine won’t even post now. So, I called HP, and I have to admit the experience wasn’t bad at all. But, I have to send my machine back to them to fix. Of course part of the process of fixing the machine is wiping my hard drive!! DOH!! That is this weekend’s project. Ugh… I hate hardware…

Ok, Brenda! I’m downloading it now! :) I speak of course about the Sauerbraten Game Engine. Brenda has recommended this twice, and the first time I just let it slip into the comment void. I’m downloading it now. What did it for me this time was the map in the picture. That’s FACES!!! You old school Unrealers out there know what I’m talking about. HOURS of fun on that map. So, I will have to check it out. If you miss old school Quake, Unreal, or have a machine that can’t run Crysis (I so have to get that game), then give this one a shot. Or give it a shot even if you don’t meet those criteria. It’s free for shit sake!

There was a time when I would definitely call myself an avid gamer. I’d still like to call myself that. But, lately every game I play seems to fall short of that proverbial mark — whatever that mark is. Perhaps the problem is I am not aware of the mark I am trying to hit.

I just LOVE Massively Multiplayer Online games. I’ve loved them since the days when we mudded on terminal screens at the University…

I’ve played a lot of MMOs since those days: EQ2, Planetside, Dark Age of Camelot, Eve, Tabula Rasa, Guild Wars, Second Life, and now Age of Conan… Some of these did well to capture my attention, some did very poorly. However, lately, it’s as if no games are capturing my attention at all! Not sure what that is about. I mean, the latest MMO I’m playing is Conan… Yeah, CONAN! I should be all over that like white on rice, but somehow I’m not…

The reigning theory is that the heat is rolling in and we all feel a bit lethargic. Gotta love the oppresive summers here. Well, I have thirty days on Conan and we’ll see how it goes. I might just stick to Angband… ;)

Ok… Well, two out of three ain’t bad. I’m hanging at Drew’s place. We’re geeking out, pretending we are accomplishing something, when actually all we are accomplishing is killing off his Private Stock Captain Morgan’s rum, which, by the way, is quite tasty! ARRR! And, it’s not even Talk Like A Pirate Day!

We just installed Windows Core, and found that we don’t have credentials to login… Yep, that’s right, it didn’t give us a place to set up our Admin account… DOH! More likely, we missed it in our drunken stupor… YAY for drunken stupors! :) Boo for work in the morning!

Congratulations KDE Team on their Beta 1 announcement! I’ve been a fan of KDE since way back when. I don’t recall what version they were on when I first found them. I’ve tried many Desktop Environments and Window Managers and I always find myself coming back to KDE. It was always a toss up between Fluxbox and KDE for me. I finally ended up staying in KDE for my desktops and using Flux on my servers.

Recently I switched my main desktop back to Windows Vista (pausing for sighs of dismay). Right before KDE 4. Right before the beauty of Plasma. Right before KDE went to the next level! I will definitely be trying it out to see what Plasma is like. I just have to ask, WHY CAN’T WINDOWS LEARN FROM THIS!? I mean, Aero has the ability to do all of this stuff, but they don’t. Hate that.

I miss my Kontact, aKregator, and most of all amaroK! Well, anyway, I just wanted to give my congratulations to the KDE Team! I may not being in KDE anymore, but I still think of it fondly. :) Keep up the good work, guys and gals, and keep showing the world what Open Source projects can do!

So, last night I finally extracted my two nVidia 6800GT cards out of my liquid cooling project box. Everything in the box was salvageable except the Mainboard — it had a hole the size of a quarter in it.

Anyone out there in the market for a nice couple of video cards? I used this card and a twin for SLI gaming. Oh my god, SLI is badass. The new box I have (A Dell, dude!) has a nice card in it, and since I think I’m out of the hardware tweaking business I’m getting rid of these cards. They are still quite viable and good performers. Hit me with an offer if you are interested in a new video card. I used them only for like a month before my mainboard fried. Good times.