Over the years you end up collecting a fair amount of things that you like that others have put their time into. In other words, fun little internet pages of joy. In my case one of my favorite is a little series of what I lovingly call flash rants by a guy named Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw. He does a series called Zero Punctuation in which he reviews video games (and sometimes other things but mainly games) with snarky and well thought out comments and one liners.
His reviews are not really the type that you might be used to or even expecting but he does a fine job of going through many of the finer points in a game as well as many of the games uh, shall we say, not so fine points? Yea.. I guess we can go with that. Most of the time his reviews of the games are not really on the positive side because let's face it, there is always some sort of fault to find in many of the products put out today. Here is where this little piece gets to the point. I know, you have all been waiting patiently.
While the games developed today often have a great deal of time invested in them it is an accurate description to say that even though this is the case, there is an ironic amount of things put into a game that should not be there. What do I mean by "should not be there"? Well, a lot of things really. It can sometimes mean a game about war and fighting that has a love scene right in the middle of the action. It can mean a racing game that all of a sudden throws in a poker mini-game. It can also mean a game about killing zombies that makes you, out of nowhere, find a cure for your sisters hatred of men.
Now none of these examples are real and none of them are from actual games. But they are meant to illustrate the point that developers today will often times spend time building in pieces of a game that really make no sense to the narrative. Why do they do this? Who knows. But this is what Ben "Yahtzee" Croshaw is great at finding and pointing out in his series.
If you have never had the pleasure of watching one of his videos you should do yourself a solid and find some right away. I am including one in this post that he did for a next-gen game called Killzone: Shadowfall. I am including this one for a couple reasons. For one it is a great game and it is exclusive to the PS4 which I am a big fan of. Secondly, I am including this one because even though he does he natural best and pokes fun at some of the obvious discrepencies of the story it is actually an overall positive review of the game. This is actually a rarity for him. Most of the reviews are somewhat negative in feeling and this one stands out as being quite the opposite.
Either way, enjoy the video and like I said, do yourself a favor and find some more. You can find him on the Escapist website or just search Google for his videos or his name. You are bound to come up with something. Sure, I could include some links for ya but that would take all the fun out of the search wouldn't it?
"Moving on, is a simple thing. What it leaves behind is hard..."
Wednesday, March 12, 2014
Tuesday, March 11, 2014
Some Issues with NBA 2k14
It has been a while since I decided to write about something game related, but there is a variety of issues in the gaming community and some of which I have no other choice but to try and bring some attention to. Today I am going to bring some problems with the next-gen basketball game NBA 2k14 to light. Now the game itself is an above average basketball game. When you also consider the fact that with the next-gen power of the PS4 and the XB1 the graphics are better than ever it is hard not to like the game. However, just because you might really like the game does not mean that you cannot find fault with certain aspects of it.
Now there are plenty of review sites out there and most of them are great at what they do. I am not attempting in any way to take their place. My point here is to bring to light my various opinions about some of the glaring issues with the game. Plus, this is the best way that I can get my point across to developers and the community in general. All other forums that allow for messages to be posted do not allow for enough room for me to say all that I want to say.
First of all, the various modes offered by the game are a lot of fun and one of the reasons the game stands out. It have long been a tradition among the various sports games over the years to offer different modes of gameplay such as General Manager, Season, Franchise, Team Builder, and other such modes. With NBA 2k14 these modes are included and generally the developers did a great job putting them together. That is, if you can overlook a couple glaring faults.
Consider first of all the team building mode called My Team. The purpose is to use the virtual currency that you earn playing the game to build a custom team from various player cards that you can buy or earn. This mode has been included in almost all the various sports games for the last 5 or more years and has been increasingly popular with players. There are a couple problems that I found with this mode in NBA 2k14 but one that stands out more than the rest.
The biggest issue I have found with this mode in the game is that there is no reward for winning. The purpose of all video games, sports or action or role playing is to win. So if winning is the point than you would expect that if you are able to do that, win that is, then you should get something. You should be rewarded for your ability to best the computer in a match up. The problem with NBA 2k14 is that there is no reward for winning.
You are simply given points, My Team Points, for the play of various players on your team based on their level. Bronze, Silver , Gold, and Special players all have various multipliers that based on their performance within the specific game will earn you certain points. Essentially based on this metric you can win or lose and still earn the same points. There is no incentive for winning. The only incentive that really exists is to have your Bronze players do most of the work during the game.
I think that in this mode in particular winning should be the goal and the reason for reward. It is harder to win in this mode than almost any other except for online mode. So that being the case why is there no reward for winning? In my opinion there are two major issues with this game mode and the fact that there is no reward for winning is just one of them. The other, is the type of gameplay that is forced upon the players.
The game pushes you, the player, to work yourself into a type of rhythm. This is fine because basketball lends itself to this in real life too. The problem is that the system puts too much weight on this. Another issue that is weighted too heavily is whether or not your player is taking an open shot or not. Now this is just an opinion based on my gameplay experience and you may have a different one. If you do, I would love to hear about it.
Here is what I am talking about. Let's say you are using Derek Rose. He is a great player. Might not be the best in all areas and I know he is no Lebron but he is a damn good player who you would think should be able to made a 10-12ft jumper. Actually you can use most players for this example. But consider for a moment Mr. Rose. He is standing about 12ft from the hoop and is open. The nearest defender is about 10ft away. Rose takes the shot (assuming release point is perfect) and makes it. No problem.
Okay.. same example but this time there is a defender standing in front of Rose. The defender does not jump and does not contest the shot. Just stands there. Rose takes the jumper and again with a perfect release point and low and behold it rims out. Actually it bounces off the rim. There are other examples too where you can have almost any player about 10-15ft from the basket and contested or not it can be sometimes frustrating how many times they will miss. I mean, if the guy is playing in the NBA you would think he can make a quick jumper. Right?
The game puts too much emphasis on whether or not there is a defender in close proximity to the shooter. Let's face it there are shooters who can make a close shot with a defender contesting the shot at least 7 out of 10 times. But in this game the percentages are much, much lower. Maybe 2 out of 10. This makes for a frustrating time playing and also makes for plenty of rage quits.
While my experience as I mentioned might be different then yours I am willing to bet that most people who read this will have experienced the same things. I have spent a lot of time playing the My Team mode and was actually having fun. Most of my fun came from building my team however. Then again, it was difficult to do this too when most of the tournaments offered did not fit the teams that the available cards allow you to make off the bat. Trying to make a team or even multiple teams that fit the requirements for some of the games can be a difficult exercise.
I am in no way advocating making the game any easier. I am and always have been of the opinion that the harder a game is, the more challenging it is and therefore the more fun it offers. This game however has become nothing but a frustration to me lately. Don't even get me started on the locker code situation. Forcing everyone to spam their friends just to get worthless codes is a recipe for disaster. Or at least for an early trade-in.
Monday, March 10, 2014
Why Shows Like Cosmos Are Important
Not sure how many of you watched the show #Cosmos yesterday but I must say, after waiting a couple months for the show to finally air I was thrilled when it finally started. I was also not in any way let down. I thought Neil deGrasse Tyson did a wonderful job of taking over for Carl Sagan. He even paid a thoughtful homage to the great astronomer with the story of how they met when he (Neil) was 17 and a budding astronomer himself.
The show did a fine job of telling the story of our beginnings and also an small hint of where we could one day go. This is what I want to focus on here today. Our long history and yet how small that history and our lives are in this wonderfully large universe.
It is sometimes funny to think just how big we think we are. You can often times hear people talk about the great things they have done, or how long someone will remember someone else. While it might be true in the context of our lives, how often do you really think about the scale of it all? Consider for a moment just how long we have been here on this planet. What? We have been here for some 200,000 years and most of it we really do not know too much about?
Once you consider our time here, try and think about what it means in the lifespan of the planet. Then, once you have that in your mind, consider how long our planet has been here. Then, take it a bit further and consider our Sun and Solar System. Need some help? I can lend a hand, and I am in no way ashamed to say that I was helped a little with this from the show last night.
Our Universe is a whopping 13.8 billion years old. Now, taking that further, our solar system is about 4.6 billion years old and our Sun, 4.5 billion years. Of course, our planet came to life (along with the rest of them in our solar system) at about the same time. There is some discussion in certain circles about the age of all of these objects. They argument is whether they are 4.5 or 4.54 billion years old. But does that .04 billion years really matter?
So, after all of that have you thought about how small we are yet? Think about those time frames and the ages of the planets and universe. They are all in the billions. We barely live to be 100 years anymore. This is not even a blink of the eye in universal terms. This is a problem in my mind. Sure, we all want to live as long as possible but just living for the sake of living is not the context that I am thinking of here. Let's now consider where we are in the history of our exploration of the universe.
We have really only started to look at the solar system and the rest of space with our current views and ideas for the last 50 years. Sure, we knew that we all rotate around the Sun for longer than that (thought not too much longer) but most of what we now know about space and how it works came about rather recently. So looking forward, if we are to continue to study the universe and our planet and every other planet we can find, how much time would we need? Well, we would need a hell of a lot of it that is for sure.
It takes us humans a very long time to do anything. Before we can even get into space or send a satellite up there it takes us time to earn money, get the project approved, build something, get the people or the project re-approved, fight the people who do not want the project to take place, and if we are lucky we can finally send it up. Then again.. there is usually some other sort of delay. Now with the time that we humans have on this planet we can safely say that for one person, say the person who is leading the project for this imaginary satellite, the time that it took to get this project from start to finish was a rather large percentage of their life.
With that being the case how does anyone ever get enough done to make a difference?
The short answer here is that they don't. The usual scenario is that people can get about one project like this going per lifetime. If they are lucky or good they can get multiple projects rolling. Or maybe they are in charge of others and they can use that position to help people in multiple situations. Either way, usually one person puts almost an entire life's work into a project like this and by the time it is actually doing what they had hoped and dreamed it one day would, they are old and sadly almost too old to really do much about it anymore.
This is in my opinion one of our major stumbling blocks to our exploration of the universe. The one thing that does help us however is that we can record our past triumphs and failures for the next generation to pick up where we left off. This however does require schooling and for people, kids mostly, to be interested in these subjects. This means we need teachers and people who will try and foster that next generation. Again all of this takes money and lots of it.
All of this is just one small example of how long much of our exploring and studying and everything else can take. This is one example though of why shows like Cosmos are so important. The hope is, at least in my mind is that the show can foster a new thought in a young child's mind. That it can get people excited again about science and space. If that is true, there will be a few more kids who will dream about becoming an astronomer. The more of those we have, the better our chances of finding out more about space or the means to travel through it.
We need to give people a way to experience space and the wonders of the universe to the fullest extent. People who have a desire to learn about these things should be given every opportunity. Our lives are too short to learn everything that there is to learn. This is why our ability to record information for generations that follow is so important. We must take that information and expand on it. We must always give people who have a wandering mind the chances to do just that. And most of all, we must never repeat the mistake that we have made in the past. We must never persecute people for thinking differently, having new ideas, and challenging the status quo.
Our species is a special one. This is especially true on this planet. While this is true at home we have no idea what lies beyond the stars. There is every possible opportunity for there to be other "special" beings out there. There is nothing in science that says it is not possible. Therefore we must prepare for that opportunity and know that someday our species will meet another. It might take a million years so we must make sure that we are around that long. That will take more exploration and furthermore it will take expansion. For this we need more people to take on the role of scientist and astronomer and engineer and others like it. We need the younger generations to take an interest in these and other fields. This is why shows like Cosmos are so important. They take all the information we have talked about and they bring it to the masses. They allow new minds to think further and brighter. They will bring new ideas to people who might have been looking for a new way to explore. We need to keep these minds going and must give them every opportunity to continue on their path. Thank you Cosmos for helping to do just that!
The show did a fine job of telling the story of our beginnings and also an small hint of where we could one day go. This is what I want to focus on here today. Our long history and yet how small that history and our lives are in this wonderfully large universe.
The Long and Short of it All
It is sometimes funny to think just how big we think we are. You can often times hear people talk about the great things they have done, or how long someone will remember someone else. While it might be true in the context of our lives, how often do you really think about the scale of it all? Consider for a moment just how long we have been here on this planet. What? We have been here for some 200,000 years and most of it we really do not know too much about?Once you consider our time here, try and think about what it means in the lifespan of the planet. Then, once you have that in your mind, consider how long our planet has been here. Then, take it a bit further and consider our Sun and Solar System. Need some help? I can lend a hand, and I am in no way ashamed to say that I was helped a little with this from the show last night.
Our Universe is a whopping 13.8 billion years old. Now, taking that further, our solar system is about 4.6 billion years old and our Sun, 4.5 billion years. Of course, our planet came to life (along with the rest of them in our solar system) at about the same time. There is some discussion in certain circles about the age of all of these objects. They argument is whether they are 4.5 or 4.54 billion years old. But does that .04 billion years really matter?
So, after all of that have you thought about how small we are yet? Think about those time frames and the ages of the planets and universe. They are all in the billions. We barely live to be 100 years anymore. This is not even a blink of the eye in universal terms. This is a problem in my mind. Sure, we all want to live as long as possible but just living for the sake of living is not the context that I am thinking of here. Let's now consider where we are in the history of our exploration of the universe.
We have really only started to look at the solar system and the rest of space with our current views and ideas for the last 50 years. Sure, we knew that we all rotate around the Sun for longer than that (thought not too much longer) but most of what we now know about space and how it works came about rather recently. So looking forward, if we are to continue to study the universe and our planet and every other planet we can find, how much time would we need? Well, we would need a hell of a lot of it that is for sure.
It takes us humans a very long time to do anything. Before we can even get into space or send a satellite up there it takes us time to earn money, get the project approved, build something, get the people or the project re-approved, fight the people who do not want the project to take place, and if we are lucky we can finally send it up. Then again.. there is usually some other sort of delay. Now with the time that we humans have on this planet we can safely say that for one person, say the person who is leading the project for this imaginary satellite, the time that it took to get this project from start to finish was a rather large percentage of their life.
With that being the case how does anyone ever get enough done to make a difference?
The short answer here is that they don't. The usual scenario is that people can get about one project like this going per lifetime. If they are lucky or good they can get multiple projects rolling. Or maybe they are in charge of others and they can use that position to help people in multiple situations. Either way, usually one person puts almost an entire life's work into a project like this and by the time it is actually doing what they had hoped and dreamed it one day would, they are old and sadly almost too old to really do much about it anymore.
This is in my opinion one of our major stumbling blocks to our exploration of the universe. The one thing that does help us however is that we can record our past triumphs and failures for the next generation to pick up where we left off. This however does require schooling and for people, kids mostly, to be interested in these subjects. This means we need teachers and people who will try and foster that next generation. Again all of this takes money and lots of it.
All of this is just one small example of how long much of our exploring and studying and everything else can take. This is one example though of why shows like Cosmos are so important. The hope is, at least in my mind is that the show can foster a new thought in a young child's mind. That it can get people excited again about science and space. If that is true, there will be a few more kids who will dream about becoming an astronomer. The more of those we have, the better our chances of finding out more about space or the means to travel through it.
We need to give people a way to experience space and the wonders of the universe to the fullest extent. People who have a desire to learn about these things should be given every opportunity. Our lives are too short to learn everything that there is to learn. This is why our ability to record information for generations that follow is so important. We must take that information and expand on it. We must always give people who have a wandering mind the chances to do just that. And most of all, we must never repeat the mistake that we have made in the past. We must never persecute people for thinking differently, having new ideas, and challenging the status quo.
Our species is a special one. This is especially true on this planet. While this is true at home we have no idea what lies beyond the stars. There is every possible opportunity for there to be other "special" beings out there. There is nothing in science that says it is not possible. Therefore we must prepare for that opportunity and know that someday our species will meet another. It might take a million years so we must make sure that we are around that long. That will take more exploration and furthermore it will take expansion. For this we need more people to take on the role of scientist and astronomer and engineer and others like it. We need the younger generations to take an interest in these and other fields. This is why shows like Cosmos are so important. They take all the information we have talked about and they bring it to the masses. They allow new minds to think further and brighter. They will bring new ideas to people who might have been looking for a new way to explore. We need to keep these minds going and must give them every opportunity to continue on their path. Thank you Cosmos for helping to do just that!
Friday, February 28, 2014
Bring your Own Planets (BYOP)
So Kepler has found 715 more planets. Or they have found 715 more planets within the data they already had. Either way this brings the total to a whopping 1,750 planets that we know of beyond our solar system. OK, that's great. But what most people might be asking is, "what exactly does that mean? Furthermore, what precisely does that mean for me?"
We humans are a strange, strange species. For a very long time during our past history we actively searched out people who spoke out against the existence of a supernatural being that created everything on the planet. We persecuted scientists who said that the Earth was round and that it was not the center of the universe but rather that it rotated around the Sun!
In a short period of time however we have sure come a long way. From what I just described to us actually having a telescope in space, orbiting around the planet, searching for others. It truly is amazing. So now that we have this information, what next? That is just it. At this point the count of these planets is just information. We really do not have any other info about them like their size or what their made of. Are they like Earth or are they like Venus or Mars? We really don't know.
Because of the way we found these planets it is really hard to tell. But don't let that make you think we had other options. Honestly, I think the way these planets were found was probably the best way to do it considering what we were working with. These planets were found using a method that, to make it as simple as possible, basically the telescope watches a particular star and waits to see if the light from that star dims at all because something passed in front of it. When something passes in front of it, the amount that the light dims can tell us something about what is passing in front of it. So to can the rate at which it happens. All of these things put together, and done on a massive scale and for a long period of time is how Hubble found these planets.
So here we are. We have all of these planets and we know very little about them. So we can go back to that original question. What does this mean for us? In my opinion it means a lot. Consider Galileo. Yea, he is the guy that was persecuted for saying the Earth was round and that we rotate around the Sun. When you consider what he knew in his time and what we know in ours, the difference is tremendous. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, the amount of time that has passed between his age and ours is minuscule. On a cosmic scale it is an amount of time that is barely even noticed.
Regardless of how small it is or isn't we are here now and we are living in that period of time. So it is up to us to do something with it. Consider further what is happening in our day and age. Look at all the technology that we have and what we are doing with it. A quick example. My 9 year old daughter. She is the youngest of three. She got her first phone a month ago. Might be a bit young, I know, but we have our reasons and this is not the topic of conversation anyway. Back to the point. My daughter has a cell phone that she knows how to use every inch of. What does this mean?
Back in the 1960's the technology that she holds in her hands is more than the government would have trusted to the average soldier. It is more than most intelligence or counterspy agents had. Yet today it is not only in the hands of children but used by millions of people across the globe. In addition the technology in these phones, as great as it is, pales in comparison to the tech found in anything that is considered "high tech" for today's age. Where am I going with this?
How much have you paid attention to the general "news and information" of the space industry these days? Let me give you a quick crash course. The government run programs have cut budgets in a big way and have essentially re-purposed themselves and what their main goals are. The private space industry has grown from one company to multiple companies. Each of them have a stake in our future. That is after all where all this is leading. Just as in the past with Galileo, his discoveries were all about where the human race could go with the new knowledge. Where will we go with our new knowledge?
The planets that we have found and continue to find are all too far away at the moment to do anything about. But to me, this is what we need. We need something that will push science to create a way for us to travel through space faster. Our biggest stumbling block in space exploration is the distances we must travel and the time it would take to do so. Planets, galaxies, and everything in space is hundred of light years away from us. In order for us to go and really explore anything we need to be able to travel much faster than we have the means to currently. This is not easy science.
So out of all of the things that we have recently discovered in space, the planets are among the most interesting. They are because they provide us with a way to increase our reach. They provide us with a way to secure our future. We must at some point face the fact that our time on this planet is limited. Eventually there will be a natural disaster that will be big enough to be an extinction event. It happened to the dinosaurs and it will happen to us. It is a fact and all that stands between us and it is time.
So what are we to do? We cannot fight it and we cannot prevent it. Those who are able to survive whatever it turns out to be will be able to rebuild our society but in order to do that they must survive. The only way to do that is to not be on Earth when it takes place. I know this sound a bit strange and maybe even pretty far-fetched. But consider the facts for a moment. Yellowstone National Park. The park is basically a huge super-volcano. This is a scientific fact! They have also discovered that over the lifetime of the planet the super-volcano has erupted multiple times and it happens about every 100,000 years or so. At this point it is over-due.
This is only one example. There are a number of other extinction-type events that could take place at any point. So we should be somewhat prepared and the only way for us to do that is to find another home. It might seem a bit "out there" but it is our only choice. Besides that it is also something that everything is leading up to anyway. All of our space exploration and space travel all leads to one eventual outcome and that is to colonize another planet. It will happen at some point and it is one of those things that in every way is a positive for our species.
So these planets that we are looking for and finding, we should recognize that this is but the first step in our space evolution. We are evolving into a race of people that will explore space and eventually find a new place to call home. As we continue to progress through our evolution and generation after generation continue to move into the future we will find more about these and other planets in our galaxy. Hopefully we will then have the ability to travel to them to explore them further. Hopefully we will have used these planets as a reason to build the means to travel through space at a pace that allows for a timely exploration of these and any other planets we can find. We will need to because our planet has a lifespan just like any other living thing. Eventually it will die and I surely hope that we have a place to go when that happens.
Planetary Potluck.. BYOP (Bring your Own Planet)
We humans are a strange, strange species. For a very long time during our past history we actively searched out people who spoke out against the existence of a supernatural being that created everything on the planet. We persecuted scientists who said that the Earth was round and that it was not the center of the universe but rather that it rotated around the Sun!In a short period of time however we have sure come a long way. From what I just described to us actually having a telescope in space, orbiting around the planet, searching for others. It truly is amazing. So now that we have this information, what next? That is just it. At this point the count of these planets is just information. We really do not have any other info about them like their size or what their made of. Are they like Earth or are they like Venus or Mars? We really don't know.
Because of the way we found these planets it is really hard to tell. But don't let that make you think we had other options. Honestly, I think the way these planets were found was probably the best way to do it considering what we were working with. These planets were found using a method that, to make it as simple as possible, basically the telescope watches a particular star and waits to see if the light from that star dims at all because something passed in front of it. When something passes in front of it, the amount that the light dims can tell us something about what is passing in front of it. So to can the rate at which it happens. All of these things put together, and done on a massive scale and for a long period of time is how Hubble found these planets.
So here we are. We have all of these planets and we know very little about them. So we can go back to that original question. What does this mean for us? In my opinion it means a lot. Consider Galileo. Yea, he is the guy that was persecuted for saying the Earth was round and that we rotate around the Sun. When you consider what he knew in his time and what we know in ours, the difference is tremendous. Yet, in the grand scheme of things, the amount of time that has passed between his age and ours is minuscule. On a cosmic scale it is an amount of time that is barely even noticed.
Regardless of how small it is or isn't we are here now and we are living in that period of time. So it is up to us to do something with it. Consider further what is happening in our day and age. Look at all the technology that we have and what we are doing with it. A quick example. My 9 year old daughter. She is the youngest of three. She got her first phone a month ago. Might be a bit young, I know, but we have our reasons and this is not the topic of conversation anyway. Back to the point. My daughter has a cell phone that she knows how to use every inch of. What does this mean?
Back in the 1960's the technology that she holds in her hands is more than the government would have trusted to the average soldier. It is more than most intelligence or counterspy agents had. Yet today it is not only in the hands of children but used by millions of people across the globe. In addition the technology in these phones, as great as it is, pales in comparison to the tech found in anything that is considered "high tech" for today's age. Where am I going with this?
How much have you paid attention to the general "news and information" of the space industry these days? Let me give you a quick crash course. The government run programs have cut budgets in a big way and have essentially re-purposed themselves and what their main goals are. The private space industry has grown from one company to multiple companies. Each of them have a stake in our future. That is after all where all this is leading. Just as in the past with Galileo, his discoveries were all about where the human race could go with the new knowledge. Where will we go with our new knowledge?
The planets that we have found and continue to find are all too far away at the moment to do anything about. But to me, this is what we need. We need something that will push science to create a way for us to travel through space faster. Our biggest stumbling block in space exploration is the distances we must travel and the time it would take to do so. Planets, galaxies, and everything in space is hundred of light years away from us. In order for us to go and really explore anything we need to be able to travel much faster than we have the means to currently. This is not easy science.
So out of all of the things that we have recently discovered in space, the planets are among the most interesting. They are because they provide us with a way to increase our reach. They provide us with a way to secure our future. We must at some point face the fact that our time on this planet is limited. Eventually there will be a natural disaster that will be big enough to be an extinction event. It happened to the dinosaurs and it will happen to us. It is a fact and all that stands between us and it is time.
So what are we to do? We cannot fight it and we cannot prevent it. Those who are able to survive whatever it turns out to be will be able to rebuild our society but in order to do that they must survive. The only way to do that is to not be on Earth when it takes place. I know this sound a bit strange and maybe even pretty far-fetched. But consider the facts for a moment. Yellowstone National Park. The park is basically a huge super-volcano. This is a scientific fact! They have also discovered that over the lifetime of the planet the super-volcano has erupted multiple times and it happens about every 100,000 years or so. At this point it is over-due.
This is only one example. There are a number of other extinction-type events that could take place at any point. So we should be somewhat prepared and the only way for us to do that is to find another home. It might seem a bit "out there" but it is our only choice. Besides that it is also something that everything is leading up to anyway. All of our space exploration and space travel all leads to one eventual outcome and that is to colonize another planet. It will happen at some point and it is one of those things that in every way is a positive for our species.
So these planets that we are looking for and finding, we should recognize that this is but the first step in our space evolution. We are evolving into a race of people that will explore space and eventually find a new place to call home. As we continue to progress through our evolution and generation after generation continue to move into the future we will find more about these and other planets in our galaxy. Hopefully we will then have the ability to travel to them to explore them further. Hopefully we will have used these planets as a reason to build the means to travel through space at a pace that allows for a timely exploration of these and any other planets we can find. We will need to because our planet has a lifespan just like any other living thing. Eventually it will die and I surely hope that we have a place to go when that happens.
Wednesday, February 12, 2014
PS4 Headset Companion App Upload Help
Looking for a way to get your sound profiles uploaded to the headset? Look No Further!
Quick informational post for all those looking for a way to get the PS4 Headset Companion App working. At the moment there is not a whole lot of information available.
I tried all the various ways to get this thing to work and sadly it took me about 30 minutes to get it to work as it was advertised. That is not good at all. This should be a quick 1 minute process.
Basically it gives you the opportunity to have a customized sound file for various games or actions you are performing on the system when using the headset. I have the Gold Headset but this should also work with the Pulse and possibly Elite as well.
Here is the bad part about all this and something that Sony really needs to fix. When updating (uploading) sound files from whatever choices you are making from the app menu, you would assume that you could do so while using the headset wirelessly. This is how it should be. However, this is not the case. The headset MUST be plugged in to the system in order to get it to work/upload.
Another point to keep in mind. Plugging the headset in with the charging cable or another micro-USB will not work. At least from my quick testing it had to be the shot cable that originally came with the headset. Why? Not sure.. I was not even aware that these were coded somehow. Anyway.. more on that later.
So you have to plug the headset in. Turn it off and then back on again. I also turned the app off as well just for giggles. Not sure if this matters, but the headset themselves should be power-cycled for sure. After doing that I went back to the Companion App and clicked on "Shooter" which is the profile I wanted. The corner of the "Shooter" page/icon folded over and then I went over to the left to highlight the Upload portion of the icon. I clicked the X button on the controller and it finally said "Upload Complete"!!
While this is a method that is sure to work, I am not sure if there are any alternate ones out there. As of the time of this writing this is the only way to get it going as I looked through Reddit and a couple other places for info and there was none to be found. At least none that were too helpful anyhow. If you have any questions/comments feel free. I will help if I can. Good Luck. Enjoy.
PS4 Hideaway
Another few days have gone by with not so much as a peep out of me.
Sorry folks, I have recently purchased a Playstation 4 and it was something that I had been waiting for since its launch back in November. As an avid gamer since I was 12 this is not something that I could have avoided. That is, the prolonged absence from all normal resemblance of life. I basically just emmersed myself in the virtual world that is the Playstation Network.
I must say there are quite a few features that I am impressed with and even though it pains me to say it, a couple that I am not so impressed with. My biggest disappointment in the system is the lack of ability to insert a flash drive and copy/play my own video and sound files. From what I hear it may be something that is added in a later update but I will not hold my breath. The latest DRM talk from both camps (Sony and Microsoft) is not to promising. Seems everybody wants to keep what they have.
Anyway, more on that later. I am sure at some point I will put out a couple articles related to this topic. So stay tuned. For now, I have a couple articles in the works with a bit more practical meat on its bones. They should be posted soon. Maybe even later today. Until then, there are ome life-matters that require catching up on.
Tony Out!
Sorry folks, I have recently purchased a Playstation 4 and it was something that I had been waiting for since its launch back in November. As an avid gamer since I was 12 this is not something that I could have avoided. That is, the prolonged absence from all normal resemblance of life. I basically just emmersed myself in the virtual world that is the Playstation Network.
I must say there are quite a few features that I am impressed with and even though it pains me to say it, a couple that I am not so impressed with. My biggest disappointment in the system is the lack of ability to insert a flash drive and copy/play my own video and sound files. From what I hear it may be something that is added in a later update but I will not hold my breath. The latest DRM talk from both camps (Sony and Microsoft) is not to promising. Seems everybody wants to keep what they have.
Anyway, more on that later. I am sure at some point I will put out a couple articles related to this topic. So stay tuned. For now, I have a couple articles in the works with a bit more practical meat on its bones. They should be posted soon. Maybe even later today. Until then, there are ome life-matters that require catching up on.
Tony Out!
Sunday, February 2, 2014
Struggles of a Writer Struggling to Write
We all find, unwillingly, the hardships and obstacles to doing whatever it is that we do. For some being a painter is difficult because you cannot find others who share your vision. If you are a lawyer you are undoubtedly disliked by those you oppose. If you work in an office by day and care for your children at night it can seem that everybody is against you. If you are a writer, you are no more or less than anyone else, but just like other professions or hobbies they all come with a unique set of obstacles.
If you are a writer it will seem like nobody you love or call a friend, not even your spouse, will read your work. It can sometimes seem like a cat taking a bath. The water will not hurt the feline. As a matter of fact, the cat might be better for having taken the bath, yet it fights and struggles against doing so. Just like trying to get my wife to read my daily blog posts or something else that I have written.
One of the bigger obstacles that a writer will face is that of the daily duties. Things like taking out the garbage or washing the dishes. All of these things conspire against the writer if only to keep him or her away from the keyboard for half a day. There are times where taking the dog for a 2nd or 3rd walk for the day can seem like a great break from the days work. Either way, taking a "break" means that there must be work getting accomplished to take a "break" from. Sometimes there is nothing getting done. No words written, no sentences typed. When this is the case a few chores or tedious household tasks might acceptable, but not welcomed.
Finding that we are being kept away from our writing or even that we have walked away from it is another hardship for the writer. Sometimes the previously mentioned struggles can lead to a writer taking a step away from their work. Sure, this is both good and bad and it all works on a balance kept by the writer. Sometimes the ability to balance is not there and it all falls apart. Yet for those who have the ability to balance it all it can become too easy to just stay right there. Never moving, never changing.
The struggle to proceed to where you know what is next is the hardest of them all for some.
Distractions, self-loathing, ego, fear, or time can all get in one's way. Figuring out how to move past this can be done but it is difficult when you will not allow yourself to do so. It is very easy to let all of this and what others have said get in the way of taking further steps. A writer struggles with all of these things in an effort to put words in motion. We sometimes look too deeply at something trying to find a meaning that is either not there or that others cannot see. But for this we will often let everything else pass by. And for what?
For a writer living through life, time is precious. There is so little time to try and formulate intelligent thought around the sometimes chaotic ones in our heads. When we are able to push everything else aside for that moment and get it written in a way that we can present those thoughts to others it is magic. We have accomplished what we set out to accomplish. It does not happen too often. For some it comes in multiple pieces during multiple moments, and for others only once or twice. Regardless of which happens for you, you must capture it if you can. The struggles will always be there, they are for everybody. Some say hardships and struggle can mold the individual. Do you need further construction?
Writing, just like anything else can be difficult. However, just like everything else in life it is only as hard as we make it. Yet, we cannot just make life fit around writing because there is no longer a balance and the material will reflect that. We must live life with all its hardships and all the things that make being a writer so hard. That is because life itself is not easy and it is the struggles that make every other moment we have worth living and worth telling others about in our writing.
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