New Year, New Computer

As I indicated a couple posts ago, my 6-year-old model laptop finally gave up the ghost in early December after a traumatic plane ride to Las Vegas. That's not entirely true. Because of previous experience, I believe it is the trip through the airport luggage system that damages computers, not the flight itself. I did not own this particular ASUS G73 for 6 years, I've actually had a succession of three. The first was stolen in a home robbery forcing me to buy another. The second suffered motherboard issues after a different trip; and this most recent one, a Franken-puter of my old one and another sold to me by a good friend, was getting to be out of spec for modern games and expansions before its failure to boot. According to diagnostics, it's possible it only needed a recovery of Windows, but the DVD drive no longer worked, and I'd been wanting a new computer anyway. I'd started to save up a bit for a new rig already, but unexpected expenses in November threw me off my timeline. My sweet bride offered to use household funds to pay for the new computer, which I would then replenish after the fact.

In talking with a coworker who also travels frequently, I came up with a plan to build my own computer, a portable desktop rather than a laptop. I would be able to plug into hotel TVs using HDMI, and have a powerful computer for less money than a higher end gaming laptop. Plus, I had never built a computer from the ground up before, and I wondered if I was up to the challenge. Many of you fellow techies are probably laughing now, because it turns out not to have been particularly difficult at all, especially with Scooter's help. The part I was most nervous about was screwing up the thermal paste on the CPU cooling unit. However, in some ways, the hardest part was actually getting the necessary drivers to run the network interface card, so I could download the rest of the drivers, many of which updated automatically as soon as I had a connection.

[EDIT: Revised list, not all the components were correct. If anyone is interested, I can add links to Amazon]:

-Gigabyte Motherboard (GA-B150N)
-Intel Core i7 (BX80662I76700K)
-Corsair Vengeance LPX 16GB RAM (PC4-21300)
-Gigabyte GeForce GTX 1070 Mini ITX (GV-N1070IXOC-8GD)
-Noctua CPU Cooler (NH-L9I)
-Intel 600p Series m.2 512GB SSD (SSDPEKKW512G7X1)
-HGST Travelstar 7k1000 SATA 1TB HDD (0J22423)
-SilverStone Milo Mini-ITX Computer Case (ML08B-H)
-SilverStone 500W SFX-L Power Supply (SX500-LG)
-ViewSonic 22" Gaming Monitor (VX2252MH)
-Logitech K350 Keyboard (to go with my M570 mouse)
-Windows 10

I'll blurb a bit in a different post on my so-far limited gaming experience with this setup; I was downloading World of Warcraft as I typed the original draft. When all is said and done, the project has cost more than any other computer that I have owned. However, some of this is due to purchasing the new monitor and keyboard, and a really nice graphics card.

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In addition to providing computer construction expertise, Scooter proofreads almost all my articles before I post them, for which I am very grateful. However, any mistakes are mine and mine alone (unless otherwise noted). If you are reading this post through RSS or Atom feed—especially more than a couple hours after publication—I encourage you to visit the actual page, as I often make refinements after the fact. The mobile version also loses some of the original character of the piece due to simplified formatting.

ArcheAge Old Questions

I really want to like ArcheAge. I do. I do like the mix-and-match skill sets. I do like the story behind the main quest line. I do like the character creation, although I think I overdid it on reshaping my own. I always like highly customizable housing (ever since I wished I could do more with my ship in STO).

But I have concerns. The housing that promises to be pretty cool—and functional, at least if you're into farming—turns out to be another thing I may avoid entirely. The open-world nature of the farms means you're always competing with other players for prime space. I "compete" for real estate in the real world. Why would I want some backwater plot in my pretend one?

Despite the protestations of many, the game is almost completely about PvP. Even those people that say PvP is not the end-all, be-all of the game indirectly admit to actively avoiding PvP combat. Because, while they do manage to avoid said combat, it is no less PvP when you stealth behind enemy lines to deliver trade goods. It just means you're a successful smuggler.

There also seems to be a theft mechanic to go along with the justice system they have set up. There are those who talk about banding together for protection. Even if it is purely defensive, that ends up looking to me like this. →

On top of all that, Scooter, who was the original impetus behind trying ArcheAge, frequently encounters a problem where ArcheAge literally causes her computer to reboot. Given that it is newer than my own, and there is no heat problem that we can discern, I am at a loss as to what can fix it. The hard drive I have the game installed on was running incessantly during play sessions. But I turned the video settings down, and it seems to be doing better. In the end, if we can't resolve the technical issues Scooter is having, it won't matter whether either of us likes the game or not.

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The Running Aurin

Blaugust is in the final stretch. Hang in there, Cupcake!

Minor SPOILERS for WildStar

I have a great idea for a post, but haven't had time to develop it. Hopefully, tomorrow will be the day. Not to complain once again about the daily blogging thing, but while I think it's a great exercise, I don't feel it allows me to really go in depth with a topic. That may be my own hang-up, since Belghast, Wilhelm Arcturus, and others frequently crank out insightful posts despite a daily or nearly daily schedule.

Anyway, Flint and Lave have buttoned up the case of the Darkspur Cartel and are basically moving past the town of Gallow into what looks to be the last area of Algoroc.

We had fun with the tropes of the Western town, right up to the final confrontation with Throg. This despite Scooter being inexplicably disconnected from the game almost constantly, leaving poor Lave running in place while Flint stood by to defend her. It wasn't our network, because I had no trouble with my connection to the game besides an occasional lag spike.

We considered switching over to WoW, but there wasn't enough time left before bed to be worth it. 

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Summertime, and the Livin' Is Easy. . .

. . . but not the gaming.

Borrowed from TechRepublic. I meant to take a pic last night, but it didn't happen.

So I've managed to break the screen on the laptop I borrowed from Scooter. While it's not a complete showstopper—I have a monitor I can hook up to it—it's putting even more of a damper on my gaming by significantly increasing the hardware logistics of each session. (I have no permanent gaming location.) Combine this with decent (IOW, not too hot) weather, business trips, and a docket of other things to do, and my gaming has ground to a halt.

In late May, Scooter and I bought WildStar, but did not submit payment methods for subscriptions. The kind folks at Carbine sent Scooter and me a pair of emails enjoining us to re-up the other day, but I haven't logged in since it hit my inbox. Here's the thing: I like WildStar, but not enough to pay a subscription if I am barely playing, or not playing at all. I guess they have dropped a patch, "The Strain," chock full of high end content to encourage all those max-level racers to stick around for a while longer. That's cool, but it's not an incentive for me and my two characters who haven't reached 20.

TSW is on hiatus for the same reason really: hardware issues. Now I have to save some money for not just one, but two new portable computers capable of playing modern MMOs at more than minimal settings. And I need a good place to set them up. EDIT: In looking at the site that picture came from, I am wondering if I might just replace the screen on Scooter's old laptop for now. Surely it would be less expensive than a whole new "spare" computer.

This means a probable slowdown for this blog. I'm bummed because I want to keep up the writing; but at the same time, not much is inspiring me to write.

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Limping Along: The State of My Game

I'm lucky Scooter has an older laptop that still functions well. Even though it limits the games we can play due to older specs, it's better than mine right now, with no USB or Sound Card, and an iffy RAM.

I simply haven't been playing very much in the past month or so. I log into TSW to do Beyond the Veil on Thursdays, but I haven't even purchased the mission pack that came out last month. I don't know if I'll get Issue 9 when it is released either. I'll wait until I can play.

Of course, this has dampened my enthusiasm for gaming in general. Scooter and I jumped into Rift the other night, and it plays well enough on low settings. But it's funny what she can see, that I can't because of view distance. It reminds me of my early days in WoW when everything in the distance was a fog.

Since we were playing SWTOR when she got her new computer, it's still loaded on the one I am using now. I have thought about playing that, But the game is unplayable—as far as I am concerned—without a subscription, and I was unhappy with EA/BioWare before the punitive cash shop was introduced. So that's out.

Scooter and I decided to give Wildstar a spin, so we downloaded the client last night. Tonight we'll see how it goes. The Alliance of Awesome is going Dominion, so we'll roll that way, too; even though I personally like the Exiles better, from what I've seen.

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Return to Hyboria

On the hunt again for something interesting to play, Scooter and I have poked our heads into Age of Conan (the second time around for me). It's amusing to play this "sexy" game with my bride. Over the course of a couple nights, we have progressed through the initial phase of the Tortage tutorial more or less intact. I had forgotten many details of the story, but some of it came back to me. Also, the personal story is slightly different for Scooter's Dark Templar, Anfrea, than it is for my Bear Shaman, Bjornek. Much like TSW, Funcom chose to tell different facets of the story through different classes, which makes it interesting to see both.

Scooter is a much bigger fan of the Schwarzenegger movies than I (I still haven't seen any of them, to be honest), and so she gets a kick out of the world of Hyboria. But I have read some of the original stories, and the game is more a reference to them than the '80s sword-and-sorcery flicks. It's definitely more fun doing them as a pair than when I was all by myself three-ish years ago.

I think Scooter likes the Dark Templar playstyle, and I like the organic healing of the Bear Shaman, though I wish there were more choice of weapons. Basically, I am limited to large hammers (two-handed blunt, lol insert 420 joke here) for melee (and all my special moves), though I have access to all the ranged weapons (for pulls?).

Unfortunately, I did something to my computer on Sunday that caused all the USB ports and sound card to become unresponsive, impairing my ability to play much of anything. These pics are from Friday. We'll see if I'll have much to blog about in the coming days and months.

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QOTD: Magic

When we started playing Everquest all those years ago, just being able to run around in a three-dimensional image talking to actual people on the other side of the world seemed more like magic than any of the spells we were learning in the game. Like anything, we got used to it and began to take it for granted.

~Bhagpuss, Talking a Good Game

Arthur C Clarke postulated that any sufficiently advanced technology will seem like magic. But after a while, both the most advanced technology and the most advanced magic become mundane. My lovely bride and I were talking today at lunch about technical advances in the past hundred years, and how things we take for granted today didn't even really exist when we were teenagers, nor did anybody back then realize what the second decade of the 21st century would be like. I carry in my pocket a computer more powerful than the ones used to get people to the moon and back, but I use it to slingshot explosive birds into pig shanties, and chat with people I've never met—most of whom I probably never will. But . . .

But we come together each night in worlds of our collective imagination; communicating across continents and oceans; and casting spells, swinging broadswords—or flying spaceships into the Black. No longer isolated, no longer alone in our adventures, with only pixels and AI to keep us company. There are real people behind those avatars, real people who love the same activities we love.

And that, my friend Bhagpuss, really is magic.

Insert Gushing GW2 Post Here, or No Time to Blog!

Maybe later I'll post a bunch more screenies of GW2. I am also behind the curve on that Gamers Survey analysis post I promised. I might blog more about the fun I am having, but I have been busy at work, and once I get home, I'd rather be having fun in the game than blogging about how much fun the game is. Make sense?

I played quite a bit this weekend, but not as much as I originally planned. On Saturday morning, discussing things we might do outside the house, I discovered that Sctrz had never been to Cabela's ("Why would I go to a hunting store?" "Holy Cow, it is so much more than that! Get dressed; we're going.") If you have not been to Cabela's and there is one within an hour or two of your house, I highly recommend it. So off we went on our little adventure IRL. Three hours after arriving, we exited the place with new Timber Ridge Zero-Gravity Loungers for our "game room."

Where to put the computers (Asus gaming laptops) and our peripherals was the next question. Since we spent the better part of Saturday a couple hours from home, the search for portable gaming surfaces was Sunday's project. After a couple trips to home improvement stores where we fleshed out some ideas, we decided to try some Mainstays Deluxe Laptop Carts from Walmart. These turned out to be incompatible with the lounges, so we headed back over to Lowes Home Improvement and picked up some items for DIY desks. We wrapped 1" x 12" x 36" Stainable Kiln-Dried Pine Panels with Duck Black 7' x 12" Shelf Liners, using LOCTITE 13.5 oz High Performance Spray Adhesive, creating light-weight, sturdy "desks" for our gaming lounges. Add a side table we'd already bought from Ikea, and voila, Gaming Central:

Obviously, that's the living room. The "game room" sets up and tears down in about ten minutes, including gathering everything together and stowing at the end of the evening. There's plenty of room for our mice and my Nostromo, plus snacks and drinks. While there's no mini-fridge, I gotta say, the set-up is fabulous. The lounges are more comfortable than our desk or the bed or the couch, much more ergonomic, methinks. They're perfect for an evening of adventuring through Tyria, the Alpha Quadrant, or even the Secret World.

Developing Character Appearance

Syp, the proprietor of Bio Break, is hosting guest posts this week because he is off doing good in the real world somewhere. This was my contribution, refined:

I once wrote a guest post for Multiplaying about character backstories, developing them as motivation for in-game actions. Having a good idea of where your character comes from goes a long way toward "fleshing them out" in your mind, and even the minds of other people with whom you may share those stories. There are two other aspects of character customization. One is how you combine your character's skills, or talents and abilities, as you progress through the game. The system for this varies for each game that I have played, from the classes and talent trees of World of Warcraft, to the Soul System of Rift and the Ability Wheel of The Secret World. Usually, however, it is a slow progress that occurs throughout the game. The other aspect of character customization takes place within seconds of logging in to the game for the first time, and—depending on the game—is more or less permanent for the "life" of the character. This is character creation.

I am not talking here about choosing a class or even necessarily a faction, though that can impact what I am talking about. To me, the major part of character creation is deciding on the physical appearance of my avatar. Some games have lots of races (species really) to choose from. A fantasy setting will likely have variations on the Tolkien arch-races: crafty dwarves, brutish orcs, stately elves, and, of course, humans. A sci-fi game will probably have aliens of some sort. Choosing a racial appearance may lock in certain racial benefits like extra hit points or expertise with certain weapons, but I find that these tend to be trivial, and moreso the higher the level of your character (assuming there are levels).

A face that could launch a thousand quests.

Some character creation systems, like WoW, are fairly simple, a few hairstyles and colors, a few faces, skin-tones, maybe facial hair or tusks, and jewelry. The clothes are already set based on your race or class. Despite upgrades in graphics, the most recent games I've played are pretty much the same system. Both Star Wars: the Old Republic and TSW really have only a few options for faces, and SWTOR's costumes are fixed at the beginning based on class. Other games have more elaborate facial customization, like the facial shape triangles of Rift and Age of Conan, which seem to have tons of minute variations, so you can make the perfect face.

In addition to the facial customization, which is frankly only a slight improvement on WoW's, and then mostly in the graphic style, TSW has customizable outfits right from the character creation screen. While the choices are limited, especially compared to what can be purchased later in the game, the mere fact that, regardless of class, you can choose your avatar's clothing is a huge leap forward, in my opinion, though not quite revolutionary, as we shall see. TSW's wardrobe has enough variety that you can decide if your character is businesslike, a working stiff, or funky-punky. The clothes make the man (or woman), so to speak. And since clothes are not tied to player attributes like health and strength, you may become quite the clothes horse before you're through, without worrying about how it affects your gear progression.

The most extensive character creation system I have experienced is Star Trek Online, hands down; though I have heard Champions Online, also by Cryptic, is at least as elaborate. There are reasonable limits to established Star Trek races; but if you choose an "alien," the possibilities are almost endless. I have seen Na'vi from Avatar and Yoda from Star Wars running around in Earth Star Base. While there are a set number of uniforms, all the colors are customizable, plus there are uniform styles available from every canon era of the franchise. And again, none of it is tied to gear progression, so you can change out your outfits whenever you like. Re-customization does come with a fee.

It's all up to you.

Sometimes how your character looks can make or break your enjoyment of the game. Things like scars can give your avatar's face character, and be the launching point of a backstory. (Where did the scar come from?) Hair up, or down, can show a difference in personality. While I liked my priest and paladin characters in WoW (they were twin sisters), as soon as it was possible, I changed their hairstyles at the in-game barbershop to be more businesslike, reflecting their serious outlooks on their jobs/classes. In STO, for the first time, I made a character that actually resembled me, or at least an idealized version of me. In contrast, I couldn't get into Lord of the Rings Online partly because I couldn't get my avatars to look the way I thought they ought to.

I think you can tell a lot about a character by their appearance. Their personality, some of their background. A fat Sith is more about indulgence and study than a well-muscled one, who is probably more action-oriented, or even vain. A scowling character is not likely to be a carebear type. Much like the backstory, appearance can help flesh out your character, make him or her or it more real for you and increase your enjoyment of the game.

Are you the sort of person that takes an hour to get your character's face just right? Or do you just hit the random character generator and go with whatever pops out?

Quote of the Day: Antisocial? No, Just Immersed

OK, it's the second QOTD, sue me. Here's MMO Gamerchick on The Secret World:

Playing in a dim environment with headphones on, it’s easy to become entirely immersed in the world without realizing that you’ve unwittingly ignored general and cabal chat for the last half hour (so I hope my guildies will forgive me for being anti-social).

MaeveMP, GeeCee, and I were discussing the value of a darkened room on Twitter, not only for The Secret World, but in my opinion all computer games. Much like the 1979 penny in Somewhere in Time, any distraction in the Real World will pull me out of immersion faster than any in-game glitches or flaws.

As far as being anti-social, I have a tendency to ignore general chat and have to consciously pay attention to guild-chat. In WoW, I would start chatting during idle times like the taxi flights. I haven't seen much downtime like that in The Secret World.

Day 15 - In Which I Share My Computer Desktop Background and Why I Chose It

Were you expecting gaming-related art or something? I will admit that I had the WoW 5th Anniversary wallpaper for a while (the one with all the faction leaders looking badass). And I've had Rift screencaps and such. But, for the last 6 months or so, I've been using the one above: a picture I took myself with my then-new Samsung Infuse smartphone. Some coworker friends and I were visiting George Washington's plantation, Mount Vernon—just south of Washington, D.C.—last November. On a path leading up from the Potomac River to the Family Crypt, I stopped and took this shot of the autumn leaves. It's probably the most beautiful picture I've ever taken; I'm not exactly a great photographer. So I chose this background for my Asus G73 and my Infuse because it has a personal connotation.

This is the background on my computer at work, a picture by "SkyHigh" I found on Wallpapers-Room.com: The church at Gougane Barra, County Cork, Ireland. I love misty, overcast weather and lush vegetation. I enjoy Seattle and the Pacific Northwest for the same reasons I love this picture. Granted, this appears to also be an autumn shot. Like many people, I love the fall season with its crisp weather and the brilliant colors on the leaves. I think I could spend hours just enjoying the tranquility of this place. Of course, in reality, it's probably overrun with tourists. :\

Day 6 - In Which I Share a Little About My Workplace

So this is my current workplace/desk. Exciting right. Welcome to life on the road. I kind of wish I'd planned ahead. I'd have gotten a picture of my office desk. It's pretty cool actually. There is a fitness enthusiast at work who requested our facilities guy raise his desk somehow, for which he produced a set of riser boxes. Having, at the time, recently read a few articles stating basically that sitting for 8-hour days is killing us, when I saw it, I asked if I could have that, too. So since October, I stand at my desk, which is about 4.5 feet (137 centimeters) tall. My desk also has more papers and a bunch of Lego Star Wars figures and mini-ships, from the advent calendar they put out this last Christmas (which I got half off after the holidays). And a laptop and peripherals, of course. I'll get a picture of it when I get back (if I remember) and post it here.

Right now I am on the road, teaching. It's been exhausting, more so than most of my trips. But the weekend is only a day away. :D

Gaming in Bed (Sometimes with Pants)

Yesterday Scarybooster posted the ultimate SWTOR-fan gaming accessories. That's a lot of crap for a lot of dough. In case anyone is curious, this is my gaming set-up:

Asus GG73Jh - It's not the ultimate gaming rig, I suppose, and Asus has put out the G74 now. But it handles everything I need it to on some fairly high settings. (I usually turn down ground-clutter and shadows.) And I love the fact that I can easily slip the battery in and out the back, without turning the laptop over.

Logitech M570 - I fell in love with trackball mice while deployed to a very dusty part of the world, playing RTS games like Rise of Nations. They make steering very easy in every MMO I've played, though it takes my friends a while to get used to before they are comfortable with it. There are gaming mice with more buttons out there for the fast twitch crowd. But I wouldn't trade my 570 for anything that didn't have a trackball for my thumb.

Yep that's it. I use earbuds sometimes, but gave up on other headsets. An operator-style earpiece/mic might be nice for vent.

I've thought about a left hand gaming device like Scopique's, but I'm not sure. I have the Zboard Fang (didn't pay that much for it) but never found it as useful as I thought I would. I hardly ever sit at a desk or table anymore when I game. It's either the bed or the couch, usually.

Consumers and Producers

So Tobold ordered a Kindle. His remarks about about tablets vs. PCs struck a chord for me:

Most people on the internet are mainly consumers of content. They contribute very little beyond the occasional link or comment, but they read and listen and watch a lot. I attribute it to the genius of the late Steve Jobs that he realized that existing personal computer were built by content creators for content creators, enabling him to start a revolution of devices built for content consumption instead, which was closer to what the public wanted. This included the iPad, which instead of earlier, failed, attempts at making tablet computers did away with content creation features like handwriting recognition, concentrated on features to consume content.

Unfortunately I am more of a content creator than a content consumer. I don't listen to music much, nor do I spend a lot of time watching videos on the internet. Instead I spend a lot of time writing, mostly in the form of this blog. As a result I don't own a tablet computer (nor a smart phone), as these devices simply aren't all that suitable for content creation. You *can* send an e-mail from an iPhone, or write a blog entry on an iPad, but given the choice you'd rather do it on a regular PC.

While not as prolific as Tobold, I also consider myself a content creator. I use my PC for two things, generally; Blogging (Tweeting, etc.); and Gaming. Tobold helped me put a finger on why I don't see a need for a tablet for me. The basic interface of a tablet computer does not lend itself to the types of games I play, much less the stuff "under the hood." Right this minute, I am producing content. Much of it is crap, and I suspect very few consume it. Thank you, Dear Reader, for consuming it; though my guess is you probably produce some of your own.

I want to interact with the web, not just consume it. A few years ago a work-mate was teasing me and another colleague over our gaming. How much time we wasted. My response to this guy--a Red Sox fan-- was, "How much time do you spend watching baseball or football on TV? The only difference between that and my gaming is that I have an effect on the outcome of the game I am watching." He was a consumer of product, I at least interact with product in a constructive way.

Another thing is that the social (i.e. chat) aspects of the game are hampered by the interface. Unless you are using a VOIP system like Ventrilo, you have to find a way to interact with your fellow players. You could add a keyboard and mouse, but then you are looking at something resembling my laptop anyway. I am not being critical of tablets or people use them. But I don't think I need one at this point in my life.

I know people have tethered their tablets to their PCs and finagled their way through a remote desktop to play MMOs, but really? It's a proof of concept, not a way I want to play the game. Maybe someday soon, MMORPGs will be designed around a touchscreen interface. But until they do, I'll stick with my laptop.

From Stone to Silicon: The Past and Future of Tablets

The following post consists almost entirely of the thoughts of a good friend regarding the future of Tablet computers, published here with his permission. He had made the statement that tablets are a transitional technology. I responded with the offhand question: "If tablets are a transitional market, what are they transitioning to?"

His response follows:

It seems appropriate that in memoriam to [Steve] Jobs, I really consider this seriously.

You've thrown down a gauntlet, whether you know it or not. It's easy for any of us to say, "Oh, this is a transitional product." But really, it's a cop-out, if we can't describe where things are heading.

Here's my take:

The tale of the pad/tablet computer is nothing new. It's long and storied. Beginning back in 1988, I'd say, with the GRID tablet. Followed shortly by the Apple Newton. And then the waves of PDA's culminating with Blackberry. (Side Note: Blackberry isn't doing as great as either of us thought. 'They' believe they're in trouble. Are they really in trouble or has some unnatural part of their audience gone to smart phones which suit them better? Doesn't matter. RIM is panicking. They're self-destructing over this. Officially looking for a 'Strategic Partner.' Insiders have only sold stock for over 12 months.)

Previous pads/tablets ultimately failed. Why?

1) They were by nature tethered. They downloaded stuff from a real computer.

2) In the beginning, companies thought people wanted something to scribble on. Handwriting recognition became the axle everyone was hopelessly wrapped around.

3) The visual interface moved backwards in computer time. The screen was something circa 1978.

4) The tradeoff was always sophistication vs size. No way for any product line to really evolve. Phones and PDA's got bigger and bigger until they were too big to carry.

So, what's different today?:

1) WiFi and cellular Internet. Very, very, loose tether. What tether there is, has nothing to do with another computer.

2) Pads, for the most part, can replicate a computer multimedia experience, as we understand one.

What remains as an obstacle:

1) The data tether is an ongoing recurring charge. That limits the audience who can afford this.

2) They're large. Lugging becomes an issue fairly quickly.

3) The promise of Internet disguises the pain of interactivity. 'Touch screens' and 'typing' are non sequiturs.

So, what will we be left with?:

Another island of devices that the vast majority of people can never own. It doesn't replace anything. It costs too much. Don't be swayed by sales numbers. LOTS of PDA's got sold in the late 90's. How many survived? How many got put in a closet? People will get tired of buying $15 movies and books for their iPad. Then what happens to them?

People will not leave their smartphones behind for a Pad. People will not leave their laptop behind for a Pad. It's really the same boat that the Netbooks found themselves in. Neat functionality that doesn't replace anything.

Transition:

I see two game changers:

1) Detachable Pad. When docked, it's a laptop. When detached, it's a Pad. Some companies are showing something like this, but they fall short. I say when it's docked, it runs Win-7. When detached, it boots into a battery friendly version of Android. That parts tricky, but very doable. It just runs counter to the thinking of the Dells, Microsofts, and Apples of the world. The people that can afford a Pad now, would prefer this. Many people wed to their laptops would embrace this. This would be a killer machine, and a game changer, if under $1500.

2) Car Pad. Just like car stereos trumped the impracticality of the portable transistor radio in the 1960's, I think car mounted Pads gets around most of the transport beefs with Pads. Most idle time in America is in cars. That's where Pads will flourish. Why not build them in? Size and weight as considerations go away. What would families give for a device that could stream Pandora in the front, and stream Netflix in the back of a minivan? Very easy to do with a tablet and 4G. Look at how close Ford and Microsoft are to this with Synch right now.

I feel I should point out the there are a couple of items on the market that are very close to what my friend describes right now. The Motorola Atrix has an accessory "laptop" dock that turns the phone into the CPU for a larger user interface with a keyboard mouse and screen. The current Windows Phone 7 is a precurser to Windows 8. My friend's fully functional, dockable Tablet is not far off.

Prurient Load Effects

OK, so I noticed this little artifact of the graphic loading process the other night coming out of the tailor screen on STO. Rock it, my sexy Vulcan.

Old Laptop vs. New Laptop

I commented in another post how much better the graphics of STO are on my desktop vs my laptop. Now with my new laptop, it's even better, mostly with distant objects. Up close it's about the same. Anyhoo, I got shots from my old laptop and though I'd compare them.

I'll start with Blish, Locke's Chief Engineer. Realize, Dear Reader, that I made many initial appearance decisions half-blind. For example, I didn't realize what the slider next to the tattoo/scar dropdown did. Auzzie the Trill ended up with drastically raised spots that I had to fix.

Witko, Locke's Chief of Security, also looks much better on the new computer. Check out the backgound, as well. Same "location," the tailor screen.

Locke himself benefits from the heightened graphics. The old laptop didn't show a difference between the Heroic complexion and the Standard1 Complexion.

Rowan. Notice the difference in the uniform texture.

Shrel, one of Rowan's Andorians, shows the differences there.

Finally, though not a crewmember, Sulu was one of the drastic things I noticed. I hadn't realized how old he actually is supposed to be.

Equipment Upgrade

From a gaming standpoint, my laptop wasn't cutting it, and my desktop is stretched to its limit, so it was time to get a new computer.

I am currently downloading WoW and the patches for STO, while watching a History Channel show about "How the States Got Their Shapes."