I was reading a Maximum PC article back about a few weeks ago about getting games to support widescreen. The article talks about how most games don’t actually set a proper POV for widescreen users.  The utility just changes POVs for more recent games (like Bioshock.) I was hoping it would reconfigure older games for widescreen resolutions, and not get black-borders on the sides of my monitor (like watching a 4:5 video on a 16:9 screen).

I’ve been having this problem with many of the old PC games I have had collected over the past 10 years that I spend thousands of dollars on. Mose of these games run fine for the most part; often they won’t support a wide-screen monitor, or NAG you every time you start the game up thinking your DX10 video card is a low-end  crappy PCI video card since it doesn’t detect DX9 (groan!), but they still run.

The walls I end up hitting usually involves the old installer exe (or update exe files) that aren’t compatible with 64bit Win7. They come up with some bogus error that it’s not a valid win32 app, or it’s not compatible with a 64bit OS, or some other cock-n-bullshit.

I don’t understand why something as simple as an installer, or an update/patch file that just moves, copies and replaces files is some how no-longer compatible when the game itself, with its complex graphics and AI, runs fine.  Technically I could use a simple BATCH FILE to update these games.  Yes there’s also the registry it needs to change and update, which is no more than a large text document you edit.

I had this problem with Total Annihilation, and Homeworld 2. I was able to get Total Annihilation installed properly by first installing it on a Win7 32bit PC, installed all the updates, add ons and extras (that wouldn’t run on my 64bit Win7), and then just copying the entire installed folder over to my main 64bit PC.  Works fine.

What’s bugging me now is I have installed Homeworld 2 but the game doesn’t support my monitor’s native resolution (1680×1050) so I selected whatever the highest one listed, and now the lower half of the game’s UI isn’t accessible which is where the OK, NEXT, CANCEL buttons are. So since i couldn’t use the in-game updater, I downloaded the 1.1 update file, hoping to fix my screen resolution problems. But I hit a brick wall because it’s a little incompatible 32bit app that won’t run on 64bit Win7. >ARG<

It’s like nearly EVERY old game I have on CD has this problem. I spend thousands of dollars on all these games and now suddenly they don’t work for some B.S. reason? …and people wonder why Console gaming is so popular now.  >sigh<

I might as well get a Mac and not play games, except flash web games like plants vs zombies or whatever my mom plays when she’s not playing solitaire.

Two posts on Xstreet talk about how they want to charge creators 99L a month for free items.  They believe that freebies are really just promotional ways to get people to buy your other products, so they think it’s logical to charge people a monthly fee to list FREE items.  Details are here.

• the blog post announcing the Roadmap for managing freebies on Xstreet SL
• the FAQ for the roadmap for managing freebies on Xstreet SL

Two threads in the Xst forums (here and here) are exploding over this announcement, and it ’s a really sad state of affairs when they actually believe in the bullshit they spew.  Everyone knows they are just trying to squeeze more money out of this dying economy, so they just squeeze harder allowing content creators to just slip between their fingers.

They actually have the gall to state that there is a cost associated when people get freebies from Xstreet.  How so? It’s no more of an overhead of costs from people just browsing the XstreetSL website, and not buying anything. This is simply ridiculous and they go on to say how they had big meetings and group sessions over this, yet I never heard anything about this. They rarely give much awareness for these things for people to attend.  Sure I’m not a big content creator, but these kinds of choices effects EVERYONE.

This isn’t about SL, but with web pages, and browsers (I use Firefox)

Why is it that my mouse has to be hovering over a blank space on the screen for my fucking scroll wheel to acctually scroll down the page?  I can understand it if my mouse is inside an edit box or frame that can scroll up and down (if it has a scroll bar). However some advert banners, Flash and video boxes (often from youtube) which don’t even HAVE scroll bars will disable the use of my mouse wheel, until I move my mouse to a different spot, which will likely ALSO lock out my scroll wheel too.  Often I’ll find a good spot to start scrolling but as items come up and under my mouse, I can’t scroll anymore… ARG!  just fucking scroll already!

It would be really nice if browsers had some way to FORCE SCROLL the full page, say holding down SHIFT (or ALT, CTRL, whatever) while I spin my mouse wheel.  Maybe this is already a feature I just never heard about?

Think of this as being environmentally conscious in regards too the Second Life Grid.

One of the biggest problems I’ve learned with the lag issue are users wearing objects that are loaded with heavy scripts that aren’t really needed anymore; notably resizing scripts.  Prim hair, prim skirts, shoes, body part attachments (like boobs and penises), and so on use scripts that are using initially, and then never used again.

The issue is being tracked on JIRA, SVC-3895 so please VOTE!

Sure, these scripts help users who aren’t really keen on how to build and edit things, and it’s a necessary evil for items you get that are ‘no modify.’  But once you have your item all properly re-sized and set up, you don’t use the re-sizer script anymore, but it’s still sitting there (often the script exists in EVERY PRIM in the object you’re wearing, which compounds the problem) and it’s still running taking up resources from the region you’re hanging out in.

I also find these re-sizing scripts annoying since if you happen to accidentally click that object you’re wearing (especially hair, prim skirts, or your boobs) you have to deal with the stupid menu that appears, and then see a useless time out message about 30 seconds later telling you that your time us up.

So please, be consciously aware of simulator lag issues, and to help save the grid, GO NAKED!  Don’t wear items that have these scripts that bog the sim down. If at all possible, try to REMOVE the offending scripts once you have it altered to how you need it, since you really don’t need the script anymore once you have it properly set up for your avatar. Even if the object is (no modify) it still may be possible to remove the scripts.  So as long as your object is copyable (or you still have the original box you unpacked with the original copy still in it) you should try to lighten the load you cause on the simulator by removing excess scripts you’re not using.

Also STOP WEARING SPAMY OBJECTS.  I swear to gawd this is my biggest pet peeve.  Why is it that 90% of all the items people wear, have to {llSay(@#!$@#$!$#)} some meaningless stupid inept bullshit no matter now mundane and pointless the action is?  I really don’t need to know that someone is touching your boobs (or has touched anything), or has spanked your ass, or even the really mundane bullshit like how someone is sitting on the sofa.

It is extremely asinine to see this crap because so many content creators for some FUCKING reason believe this is needed; when most people on SL already know how to read and write, and they CAN roleplay/emote/cybersex/netsex on their own… you’d THINK. But all this crap really does is ADD TO THE LAG to the simulator you’re hanging out in.  Then we have those ridiculous language translators which fall into the same category.  It’s annoying and it just adds to the lag.

I also recommend using Emerald Viewer to help ligten your lag-footprint on the grid. Emerald has a lot of built-in functions that make many scripted objects people wear obsolete.  Such as radar HUD attachments, Emerald’s Radar if fucking AWSOME!  Also Emerald has recently added an Animation Overrider (AO) so you really no longer NEED to have an AO attachment anymore.

Less scripts running on your avatar, them smaller footprint you load on the simulator you’re in, the less LAG you incur on the simulator, and the grid at large.

One of the things I did recently was to take even my nude avatar lookset, and removed exesses prims and scripts I just don’t need if I’m not really using them, and still preserve my hot avatar’s appearance.  I even took my new penis, removed all the scripts in it, and removed all the extra prims off leaving only the “soft” sculpted shape and the penis head, plus I don’t bother wearing the HUD for my penis if I’m don’t plan on using it, but just show off.  So if I do plan on using my penis, I’ll just wear the full functional one if I’m going to dance on the poles, or if I get hired.  Otherwise there’s no point in me wearing the full functional penis if I don’t plan on doing anything with it, other than to have it hang between my legs all day.  Makes sense dosen’t it?

Seems like every time there’s a new release of Emerald there’s always something cool they added to it, but they don’t really document those new things very well. Sure they have a change log, but it’s long and tedious to read and a lot of it is esoteric stuff I have no idea what the fuck they are talking about. So if you haven’t been following their changelog since they started development on this project, you’ll be clueless of other features that may not be so apparent in the interface.

One “Feature” i just learned today was if you double click a name on the radar, your camera will instantly snap over to them, if they are in range.  FOOKING AWESOME!  But I don’t know if this is a new function added in since I started using Emerald this past summer, or something that has been in it since early on.

But then there are the frivolous new features like breast physics, which I have no use for since I wear prim boobs (though it will give booby physics to all avatars), but there’s always one douche bag who has to complain about adding “features” and not working on bugs, lag an all those “important issues.”

This reminds me of an pet peeve I’ve had for years since I’ve been beta testing games and software.  Just because a small group (or even just one person) is working on a feature or function of an application that some people may deem useless, doesn’t mean the development team as a whole is being distracted from the so-called “important issues,” and those issues aren’t getting the attention they need to get them resolved as soon as possible. That’s bullshit.

This isn’t an RTS game, like War Craft, Star Craft, Total Annihilation, or SupCom where the more workers/engineers you have building or repairing a unit, the faster it is built or repaired.  Real life doesn’t work that way.  If you dedicate more people to work on a problem; that won’t guarantee the problem will be fixed any more faster, and thusly if you take away some people to work on something else won’t hurt the over all progress.

Now there IS the risk that when you add new features/functions into an application that’s already buggy, that can exacerbate the problems it already has.  But we live in an age where software development is on such a grand scale like a movie production costing millions of dollars just to produce a days worth of work, it’s impossible to avoid problems that arise when you have so many ppl working on the same project.  Ever heard of the old saying of “too many cooks in the kitchen spoil (or ruin) the soup?”

This “too many cooks…” analogy is status quo in all aspect of productions, TV, movies, video games, even books; especially government too. Mainly so that when something goes wrong, which almost always does, no one can blame a single person for the failure, so the whole group are failures, or that the shit rolls down hill for the blame.

Back in the 80s, most software wasn’t created by huge teams of professionals who each spent four years in collage/universities for their creativity to get sucked out of them and produce mundane software and games (cough-Microsoft-cough). Back then it was done by individuals who mostly created awesome works given the limitations of computers back then.  Now we have extremely advanced computers compared to 20 years ago, but now 20 times more people working as developers to create uninspired contrived unoriginal games like, for example Halo. And continue this mundane-ness umpteen times with squeals, or “prequels” just to make it seem “cool” ever since George Lucas did it 10 years ago with Star Wars. >sigh<

But I digress, I wanted to talk about bugs and requests I have for Emerald Viewer.

Bugs:

• Logins ALWAYS fail the first time you try, claiming it’s a bad login/password. If you log out, and then launch the viewer again and login with a different avatar, it ALWAYS fails. Including if you just installed Windows, and a fresh copy of Emerald viewer for the first time, and you login, it will fail that first attempt, always.  Has something to do with how it handles multiple accounts with a drop down menu, but I’m just used to manually typing in my login and password.
• Double clicking on objects in inventory to “wear” doesn’t always work, and brings up their properties. (this may have been fixed since the new release)
• The built-in AO is a cumbersome to use when you need to turn it on and off, or load up a different set of animations.  I’m considering going BACK to using the ZHAO-II HUD attachment, but I love the concept of the VIEWER having these nessessary functions and not relying on SLS that simply adds more load to the simulator and grid over all.
• At start up, after it shows the “splash screen” and it goes away, there’s a very significant delay between that and when the login screen appears.
• The sitting AO [checkmark] often comes back on on it’s own, after re-logging.
• While on the login screen (before you login), often the random in-game screenshot doesn’t appear. That’s not a big deal really, but the links on the screen do not work, until the the image appears.  Which isn’t a good thing since I often DO want to click the link to see LL blog posts, and Emerald Blog posts that seem important (like down times, updates, and other issues)

What I want in Emerald Viewer:

• Sculpted flexi prims (a la CoolViewer)
• The new shadow rendering engine that’s been seen in different viewers.
• Double clicking on a group in your groups list, activates that group, instead of starting a group chat.
• When an object “speaks” in local chat, you can click on it to see who it belongs too.  It either shows the users profile (if worn) or a smaller dialog with a SLURL, and a button to mute the USER.  Why isn’t there an option to mute the OBJECT?
• Support for wild cards mutes (for objects) so I can specify *xcite* and it will mute every spammy xcite product on the grid (assuming the owner didn’t rename it).
• Full mute function so I won’t get *anything* from that user.  No inventory exchanges, no script pop-up menus, no IMs, no ANYTHING.  Hopefully this will thwart grifers.
• If a user installs the “optimized” verison of Emerald Viewer onto an older PC that won’t work on it, it should give a message STATING SO when the user tries to run the app.  As of right now, it just doesn’t do ANYTHING when you double click the Emerald icon to run the viewer.  No error message, no anything.  Would also be nice if you guys had a “compatibility” list for the optimized version.
• External (floating) Local Chat/IM window.  IM windows that appear as separate window(s) so you can drag your IMs outside of the viwer, or minimize the Viewer, and still have your IM window open for chat (also great for dual monitor users!)
• 64bit Windows, and Linux versions, assuming there would be any benefit to it.
• Speaking of Linux; how about a .deb installer please!

This is a quick list of things noobs tend to do, so try NOT to do them!

1. Avis who wear underwear under their penis. It looks like a STRAP ON like that!
2. People who try to edit their penis longer and end up making it float off their body
3. People with a “solar system” of facelights around their head.
4. Over-acting roleplayers who narrate every non-sexual mundane thing they do
5. Female avatars that are just TOO DAMN TALL!
6. Groups that hand out VIP roles to EVERYONE, and the idiots who join then compulsively.
7. Total strangers who send friend requests w/o greeting me or even saying hi.
8. Girls who wear prim boobs with the pointy ends up to their collar bones, looking like they are wearing a baby’s bib!
9. People who have their hair set to Glow, or Full-Bright
10. Prim finger nails. You’ll look like Wolverine when your hand goes into a fist.
11. People who try to insult me, or argue with me when they barely speak English.
12. People who ask me “R U a Shemale?” when I’m standing there butt-nekkid with my big boobies exposed, cock hang out and a “shemale” group role in my name above my head.
13. People who still have the default avatar face on their hot avi body shape
14. People who are too infatuated with me; they try TOO HARD to be friends, and just come off  as creepy, clingy, and annoying. They think can get a “Free Fuck” if we become friends. Don’t bother.
15. People I barely know who just spontaneously start to roleplay in IM, and say they are being friendly
16. People who have obvious fake RL pics when you can see the web address in the corner
17. People who SCREAM in their profiles “NO MEN!” are probably men themselves in RL.
18. Nude beaches/resorts when no one is nude.
19. Spammy penises (and other addons) that fill the screen with meaningless sexting that no one reads
20. People who use English translators, when they are already chatting in English.
21. Users who wear text floaters over their heads that  redundantly shows their name.
22. People who TYPE IN ALL CAPS. Sign of the douche bag.
23. Avatars who are well over 2 years old but still look and act like noobs!

RROD

Just as I got GH Van Halen, my 360 died AGAIN!  I had the game playing idle looping  songs while I messed around on the net.  I heard the song stop (playing Panama!) I was thinking… oh shit not again!  Restarted it, and got nothing. Not even the red rings at first.  But after disconnecting everything (HDD, MU, Ethernet) and power it back on a couple more times, I saw the the three flashing Red Rings (top right not blinking) meaning the hardware is faulty… again.

Amazing the last time I had a problem with it was the DVD drive broke down exactly two years ago tomorrow (Wednesday October 7th.)  They replaced the DVD drive and sent me back the same unit, so technically this unit lasted for over 2½ years without RRoDing.  Three times before that I had RRoD’s and they sent me a different 360 each time (swapping my Premium model with the Chrome detail on the DVD tray, for a dull looking Core unit). This will be the FIFTH time I’ve had to ship my 360 in for repair.

RRoD’s are still a FREE repair (and free shipping), and I just filled out the online forms at xbox.com. It was painless; so printed out the UPS shipping label and taped it to shipping box my LAST 360 came in two years ago.  Thank gawd I kept the old shipping box, and packing materials with the “bumpers.”  They will likely repair and send me back the same 360 unit, but I hope they send me a NEWER 360 that has an HDMI port. From what I understand those newer units don’t RRoD fail as often since they figured out what the defect was.

Yes it came today. The only really disappointing thing about it is it didn’t come in a normal plastic green DVD jewel case like all Xbox games come in.  It had no manual, just a thin cardboard sleeve which at least has the unique code on the back so I can export the songs if I wanted.  It also had two fliers advertising the other Guitar Hero games that are coming out soon.

The game it self seems to be based off of Guitar Hero Metalica, with OUT all the with the extra features and function thgat GH5 has.  It doesn’t have the ability to “join in” at any time, or have up to four players playing the same instrument.  As per-usual, these band-specific Guitar Hero titles includes songs from different artists, and a lot of them I’ve already played in different music games. >sigh<

Also included was a small letter thanking me for purchasing Guitar Hero 5.  At the bottom of the letter shows the “founder” of guitar hero as “Kai Huang.” Sorry I don’t buy that claim. From my understanding, the people behind Rock Band were the original creators of Guitar Hero 1, 2, and Rocks the 80s, before Activision bought up Red Octane, and dropped the Guitar Hero franchise on Neversoft’s lap when they were doing their umpteenth Tony Hawk game. Harmonix was then acquired by MTV, and Rock Band was soon born.

So while I don’t know the exact history and the names behind these music games (other than the fact that Konami invented music rhythm games, including a three-button guitar YEARS before Guitar Hero came out for the PS2) I’m sure this statement of Kai being the “Founder” might be true.  But history is a funny thing, and can be re-written to mean anything one wishes; you just have to be in the position to do so.

I deal with a lot of cock every day, and this is one of the MAIN reasons why I’ve created my own penis and give it away for free, because frankly, MANY of the penises out there in Second Life, freebies, and retail ones, just plain SUCK.

Onduty

• Notoriously spams channel 2 (turn on a listener some time in a big sex area, and you’ll be amazed!)
• Bad scripting with regular run-time errors and Stack-Heap Collisions
• no soft mode, it angles down looking broke like you snapped a wooden stick
• HUD shows advertisements that you can’t remove w/o buying a full version

REALISM

• Better suited for large male avatars
• pee hole looks like a vagina
• Ugly texture. It appears dirty, as if it was dipped in chocolate syrup

Bad@zz Photorealistic Penis

• Does NOT look photo realistic at ALL, nor “realistic” for that matter
• Looks like a freebie cock from 3 years ago
• Never matches skin tone of the user, and looks very fake
• Not sculpted
• The base of the penis looks like it has a “knuckle” when soft.
• Sex-Text spam when touched by others, akin to Xcite

Xcite (x2, x3)

• Notorious for being sex-chat spammy
• cumbersome interface for doing simple things like rotation angles and cumming
• Looks bad when angled down, trying to appear soft. It has no true “soft” mode just get’s smaller and angles down.
• Annoying 3rd party interactions from strangers making it do functions w/o your knowledge.
• All these annoying aspects (chat spam, touch interactions) are not disabled by default

Dark Delights Real Penis (Ishtara Rothschild)

• Has a “fan” of pre-angled penises so no fine control of it’s angles
• Freebie version is either hard or soft and isn’t scripted
• Looks similar to Freehy’s freebie penis (see below)
• Spams messages for every function/action it does

Sculpted freebie (Freehy Korobase)

• Another “fan” cock
• Bad particle effect, only works on “center” penis position

VAW XTC cock

• fucking ugly textures, looks like tree bark.
• Penis head texture is way-way off, pee hole looks like a Moebius strip.
• ridiculous cum texture
• texture on the balls “band” around them resembling the planet Jupiter.

Sensations Cock (H)

• Ugly prims
• Wood like texture

S&S Freebie sculptie cock

• Literally looks like a TURD with two walnuts attached to it.
• Sculpt shape is so poorly made, you can see SEAMS like a pea pod, as if it was made from construction paper by a kindergartener.
• Not scripted at all, doesn’t do anything at all (no hard/soft, no cum)

Brands I do like (besides mine)

• Lotus
• Kori (though some look like elephant trunks but looks good on most people who buy’em)
• Sensations v2 sculptie

This new “Baucus Bill” that was just hammered out by our Congress this past week, is a prime example of lobbyist influences and corruption, and shows how our elected officials are so isolated from the real world. According to this bill, everyone will be REQUIRED (read forced) to have health insurance, or pay a penalty.  How exactly is this going to help uninsured people who can’t afford health care in the first place?  This doesn’t change anything, but force people to pay for something they can’t afford already.  I’m sure insurance company execs shot a huge wad when they saw this new bill, since it will give them more business.  Maybe this could lead to more jobs to be had at insurance companies?  Either way it’s a good time to buy stock in insurance companies.

This sounds a lot like how in California all drivers are forced to have car insurance.  But at least you can choose not to drive a car, and therefore you won’t be forced to have car insurance.  However everyone ALIVE is going to be forced to pay health care insurance, or just go and die. Sure there will be provisions for people who can’t afford health care to get that, but that isn’t the so-called public option, and it’s really no diffrent from the system we already have now, but worse!

Insurance companies don’t want a public “single payer” option, since they won’t be able to compete with it and go out of business.  People talk about how we should open this into a free market, and let companies compete for better services and prices, but this bill isn’t doing that.  If anything this bill was practically written by health care insurance so they can be shovel-fed more money from people who are already too broke to buy health insurance in the first place.

This is not health care reform, this is just reinforcing how fucked up it already is.