Monthly Archives: December 2010

A Long, Strange Trip.

As mentioned here, my laptop has been angry with me for going on 4 months or so.  This cause me to retreat away from my usual comfort space of Team Fortress 2 and MMOs, and try to find ways to amuse myself.  I went two totally different directions – Facebook games, and diving back in the Xbox 360.  It’s come back now, in time for me to test SW:TOR and get back in to WoW for Cataclysm, but the damage has been done.

Facebook games are what they are.  I found a couple nice card based ones that occupy me well enough (Eredan and Urban Rivals, primarily, though Clash and Tyrant are in there too).  It’s the 360 part that’s really interesting to me….

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Board Game Geeks: Dominion vs Ascension

Carlos’ gift guide prompted this – it was originally just a comment, but once I noticed the size, I figured it needed a post of its own….

For the Board Game Geek (see what I did there?), Ascension: Rise of the Godslayer is quickly coming to be the new Dominion.  It’s another “build your deck as you play” CCG-esque game.  But there are several key differences that make each of them appeal a bit more or less to certain player types….

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Gah! Last Minute Geek Christmas Shopping

For everyone else, there’s Mastercard; for you, Star Wars geek, there’s THINKGEEK. April-fools-joke-turned-licensed-product, the TAUN TAUN SLEEPING BAG is still available! Thinkgeek also has all kinds of other neat stuff. Like a working Doctor Who sonic screwdriver. That’s right.

RPG Geek: If your geek doesn’t have it yet, Paizo’s Pathfinder Core Rulebook is just amazing. If your geek is a rabid 4E fan, try the Dark Sun Core Rulebook if he or she doesn’t have it yet. And check out the Pathfinder miniatures line while you’re at it. ^_^ If your RPG Geek is in the Austin area, I’m sure gift certificates to Dragon’s Lair or Rogue’s Gallery wouldn’t be amiss. ^_^

Games geek? The Dominion card game and its many expansions is a favorite right now…

Movie? Comic? Music? Try SCOTT PILGRIM. Get the movie. The comics. The soundtrack. GET IT ALL.

Movie Geek… no, any kind of Geek…. no, in Austin? Visiting? Passing through? Looked at it on a map? ALAMO DRAFTHOUSE GIFT CARD. It’s… just… awesome.

So, other people? TV shows? Video Games? Movies? WHAT DO WE GET? I will update this post as I think of things and/or take your ideas! =P

First forum contribution: Star Wars Cookie Cutters!

Gawker Hacked

So if you use any of the Gawker sites- Kotaku, io9, Gizmodo, Jezebel, Lifehacker, etc.- you may have received an email address from hint.io expressing their shock and dismay that Gawker hadn’t publicized the fact that they were hacked, and 1.2ish million accounts potentially compromised. Since the hint.io email seems a bit shady- and I certainly wouldn’t follow the links- you may have done as I did and deleted the thing. Sadly, they were telling the truth. Gawker’s user database, and a whole lot of other material, was compromised. Here’s their FAQ.

I say “potentially” compromised because they were using some security (although if reports are to be believed, a lot less than they should have been- including not using a salt). If any of your information was there, it’s a great idea to change your passwords about now.

Blog Hijack!

I know, I know.  I post a burst, talk about how I’m gonna do more, and disappear.  Then return to hijack.

I do actually have a post coming up on the strange trip I’ve been on for the past 3-4 months.  See, my laptop (an ASUS G50vt from Best Buy) went wacky on me.  Of a sudden, possibly tied to power issues, possibly not, my laptop started get hot.  Like, super hot.  When I bought it, it had a warning that said “This is a notebook, not a laptop.  Don’t put it on your lap.  It’ll light your junk on fire.”  Something like that, I forget the exact words.  Maybe it said don’t put it on a flat surface.  Whatever. 

So it’s always run hot.  It’s a gaming laptop.  I expected it to be hot – it’s cramming a fair chunk of power in a portable(ish) box.  But now it was going up to 200-220 degrees pretty much instantly on launching a game.  Mass Effect 2 was unplayable due to stuttering.  I could play maybe 10 minutes of TF2. 

This happened 12 months ago or so, when it was under warranty, and I sent it off to Asus.  They fixed it (they blew it out and reapplied the thermal paste from what I can tell).  Now it’s not under warranty.  So it’s been sitting idle (mostly) for months, which led me to the land of Xbox Live (a scary place), found me a spectacular new community (Sword and Shield Gaming, aka SSG) that Im proud to have become a part of, and gotten me a new gamertag (SSG Wookiee) – but that’s for later.

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