The word of the week is intense.
Nov 28 – Mission Accomplished!
It's funny how you sometimes find yourself back
at the start of things...
I was comparing all sorts of prices from various
Canadian online tech stores for half a dozen video cards last night, and in the
end I wound up purchasing the very one I'd had my eye on all along, but was out
of my budget's range:
The deciding factor was, of course, price: after
9 PM, all sorts of Cyber Monday discounts popped up and for this particular
card by MSI, there was suddenly a 10% discount... which put it squarely inside
my budget, and it was the only card of all the ones I was considering
that such a substantial discount appeared for. It's crazy that some cards out there cost close to $1000+tax... which is nowhere near what I paid.
I confess, it was stressful, as my finances have
been very tight this month and I was fretting that having waited all year for
these sales, I wouldn't be able to get the level of replacement video
card I'd be happy with, that I have to settle for something that I didn't
really want but couldn't afford to jump to the next price bracket. All my
months of research would be wasted and I'd have to try again when the prices
finally dropped sometime in the summer of 2017 or later - a long time to wait.
Thankfully, that didn't happen, and I caught a
break last night.
Now I just have to wait for the card to arrive to
see just how much of an improvement it's going to make in my computer's overall
speed. Even though I didn't manage to win anything in several months of trying my
luck in online giveaways, I'm still pretty pleased with the price I paid today
for what I got.
Nov 29 – Spacecraft 2000-2100AD!
I love how modern technology can enable fans to
make incredible things.
Back when I was a boy, one of my favorite books
growing up was Spacecraft 2000-2100 AD! which was a spectacular
selection of sci-fi works by various artists. Each spaceship depicted had a
story told over one or two pages, depending on the layout, and each one was
fascinating in its own right. I vividly remember trying to get inside those
stories and discover more about the ships themselves.
Now, decades later, fans of that book have taken
it to the next level! Using modern CGI technology, they have created an
animated 'tour' of the book, showcasing each of the ships, with the exact style
and background art of the book, which is astounding. I never thought I
would ever see these ships in motion!
Nov 30 – Son of a... really?
I was hoping it would last longer...
The sad news today: Pebble is getting
bought out, and will vanish sometime in 2017. Meaning my lovely Pebble Time
watch will be a relic, albeit a useful one until it dies.
Apparently, Fitbit is going to be buying Pebble, then shut them down.
It's a shame, but not unexpected, as Pebble's
best days are well behind them. A year ago, there was an offer by Citizen to
buy the company for three-quarters of a billion
USD dollars... which Pebble turned down at the time, as they were riding
high on their success.
Now, the company owes $25 million to their
suppliers and the Fitbit buyout offer is rumored to be around $40 million -
1/10 what was being offered a little over a year ago.
Still, I'll keep using my Pebble watch until it
dies, and perhaps pick up a few more cheaply on eBay sometime in 2017 to have
as backups. I don't need a fancy smartwatch, just one that does everything I
need it to... like the Pebble.
I certainly
won't be buying a FitBit. Jerks.
Dec 1 –
More Bad News...
Guess what
was waiting in my inbox this morning?
A message from the CEO of GlowForge: it's
being delayed.
However, the news isn't actually all that bad:
the announcements is about a pushback from a ship date this month( December )to
sometime in April or May 2017 - I can handle that.
It gives me more time to get my business website
up and running, as well as focus on other things, like finishing work on my
novels. It'll be nice to have some breathing space and not have to think about
my GlowForge sitting at home, being underused because I don't have everything
in place for it yet.
Also, the e-mail contains some very interesting
addendums to help soften the blow of the shipping delay, one of which made me clap( yup! )in delight:
Isn't that incredible? My substantial investment
in this device seems an even smarter choice now that it can be modified
into other types of devices, albeit with the purchase of additional hardware.
BUT, that expansion-hardware will listed at a be significantly lower price point as it
utilizes the software and hardware that are already in place inside the
GlowForge.
I'm still absorbing the news, but in the
meantime, this was also released today: Adam
Savage from Mythbusters test out the
Glowforge!
Dec 2 – My MSI Arrives!!!!
Dec 2 – My MSI Arrives!!!!
Talk about stressful...
Recap: After all was said
and done, I managed to get the type of video card I wanted for my PC for $10
under my maximum budget, which makes me Happy.
It arrived today in the mail, which makes me even
happier:
As it was my day off, I had plenty of time
to pull out the old pair of video cards( two ATI 5770's from 2009 )and
configure the system for the installation of the new card, which has twice the
memory of both of the old ones put together and four times the speed - at least.
Installation was smooth as butter with no
hiccups, and by noon I was gaming... testing out MechWarrior Online, as that's
the game that I wanted to try to have the greatest graphical improvement for -
and for the most part, it worked - a great card, as the reviews said!
While I discovered that I can't play the game
with maximum eye candy turned on, by the afternoon, I had found the right
settings to allow a much smoother average of 45 FPS( Frames Per Second )which
was a big increase over the 30FPS MAXIMUM I was getting with the old setup. -
one that would drop / stutter / lag significantly during the more heated parts
of the game.
All in all, I'm really happy with
my purchase. This card will carry me through quite nicely for the next few
years until I'm able to move it into a much more capable system, which by then
I should have some funds saved up for.
Dec 3 – MW5 Announced!
Finally, after 10 years, we are getting a new MechWarrior
game!
It's great timing, to balance out the double
whammy of bad news this week with the Pebble and the GlowForge.
To be honest, I never thought that there'd be another standalone
MechWarrior game and that MechWarrior online was all there was going to be...
but I'm glad to be wrong!
Here's the demo, part of the announcement today at the MechWarrior Online 2016 World Championships, just across the water in Vancouver:
If you don't remember what the original games looked like, this short but wonderful video will catch you up, as it shows all the MechWarrior games released to date in order. What a long way we've come in 27 years...
Dec 4 – GoG v.2 Preview!
Dang it, not again...
The stress of this past week, combined with the
carryover stress from shopping for my video card last weekend has resulted in
an extremely tense set of neck muscles. While it's not debilitating to the
point where I can't move my head, it does hurt to sit with my head up
for long periods: my neck tendons feel like taut cables under my skin.
Ouch.
Along with using my neck massager( carefully )as
well as some hot showers, I'm just sitting around today with a neck brace( go
ahead and picture that if you must ) trying not to tense up anything above
my shoulders. Good thing I don't have to go anywhere today.
Happily, the latest trailer for Guardians of
the Galaxy V.2 was released today, which really helped to take my mind off
things:
I'm being be very careful this coming week at work, so as not to aggravate my neck. On the bright side, I managed to walk to work - slowly - for out of the five days this week without a problem, which bodes well for considering myself as recovering in full a month or so from now. Considering all this silliness started this past August as a result of simple exercise, I'm in no hurry to rush back to that - I've still got a lot of reading to do to fully understand how to ease myself back into getting in shape again without further injury.
I'm being be very careful this coming week at work, so as not to aggravate my neck. On the bright side, I managed to walk to work - slowly - for out of the five days this week without a problem, which bodes well for considering myself as recovering in full a month or so from now. Considering all this silliness started this past August as a result of simple exercise, I'm in no hurry to rush back to that - I've still got a lot of reading to do to fully understand how to ease myself back into getting in shape again without further injury.
