So I'm trying to play half-life 2 but I can't because the online Steam server is down. Don't ask me why I even need to actually log in to the server as it makes as much sense as logging in to nintendo.com to play tetris on my gameboy. What's more, if you go to steam's webpage it doesn't even make mention of their colossal screwup. Good job boys.
How do I know it's down then? I had to go the slashdot and usenet to find out it was down.
The error message I get when I try to login is "steam is having trouble connecting to the steam servers." At present, googleing that returns exactly 16 hits. I have a feeling it's going to be a lot more than that in a very short amount of time.
I want my money back.
Sunday, January 30, 2005
Thursday, January 20, 2005
Microsoft Windows
So I'm trying to associate movie files on any program BUT Windows Media Player. Why? Because Media Player is bloatware, none of the buttons make any sense, and I can't even use the hotkeys. What's the point of having hotkeys for media if your.. er. media player doesn't even use them.
Anyway, I do some googleing and find that you flat out CAN'T change the associations of media files to another media player (even mplayer2.exe -which is actually decent). So I think to myself, how on earth can Microsoft get away with this? Wouldn't the makers of Quicktime and Real Player have a good lawsuit on their hands?
Then I install Real Player, another player high on bloat and low on ware. During installation, I'm amused when it asks me if I want to associate movie files with Real Player. I choose yes. Low and behold, It actually worked. Then I wonder if Media Player somehow hacked media files so that I can play them with a different player, but it wasn't. File associations are locked to Real Player.
So then I decide to use the old right click, "open with" function and then check the "always use this program" button and with that, I just associated my movie files with VLC player. (Previously, the "open with" feature would not allow me to de-associate programs with Media Player.)
What did I learn from all this? Microsoft knows they'll run into legal trouble if they stick it to competing companies like they are currently sticking it to their customers. Isn't there something wrong with that picture?
Anyway, I do some googleing and find that you flat out CAN'T change the associations of media files to another media player (even mplayer2.exe -which is actually decent). So I think to myself, how on earth can Microsoft get away with this? Wouldn't the makers of Quicktime and Real Player have a good lawsuit on their hands?
Then I install Real Player, another player high on bloat and low on ware. During installation, I'm amused when it asks me if I want to associate movie files with Real Player. I choose yes. Low and behold, It actually worked. Then I wonder if Media Player somehow hacked media files so that I can play them with a different player, but it wasn't. File associations are locked to Real Player.
So then I decide to use the old right click, "open with" function and then check the "always use this program" button and with that, I just associated my movie files with VLC player. (Previously, the "open with" feature would not allow me to de-associate programs with Media Player.)
What did I learn from all this? Microsoft knows they'll run into legal trouble if they stick it to competing companies like they are currently sticking it to their customers. Isn't there something wrong with that picture?
Sunday, January 16, 2005
Titan
Maybe I'm just a complete nerd, but for whatever reason, I was really looking forward to the Cassini/Huygens probe landing on Titan. I think I can remember when they launched the mission in the mid to late 90's, but I've definitely been counting the days since the media talked it up last summer. Scientists talked it up like saying stuff like:
We can find out where where we came from. (As if there will be a sign when we get there that reads: "Earthlings came from aliens on planet X").
Maybe we'll see lakes of flowing liquids, not seen on any other body in the solar system. (That would be cool to see.)
Artists rendered these really cool looking images of what they thought me might see:
.
Now I don't want to ruin it for you if you don't already know, but here's what we got:
.
Now, I realize the differences are subtle, but if you'll look closely, you'll notice we've got better quality of pictures of bigfoot. And even if the pics were of better quality, they'd just be clearer pictures of rocks and dust --Hardly something to write home about. Much less travel 2 billion miles for and then transmit messages half way across the solar system.
I guess I'm a bit disappointed. I think some have called Titan the last great mystery of the solar system. Well, if that's the case, the solar system must be pretty boring other than what's here on Earth.
We can find out where where we came from. (As if there will be a sign when we get there that reads: "Earthlings came from aliens on planet X").
Maybe we'll see lakes of flowing liquids, not seen on any other body in the solar system. (That would be cool to see.)
Artists rendered these really cool looking images of what they thought me might see:
.
Now I don't want to ruin it for you if you don't already know, but here's what we got:
.
Now, I realize the differences are subtle, but if you'll look closely, you'll notice we've got better quality of pictures of bigfoot. And even if the pics were of better quality, they'd just be clearer pictures of rocks and dust --Hardly something to write home about. Much less travel 2 billion miles for and then transmit messages half way across the solar system.
I guess I'm a bit disappointed. I think some have called Titan the last great mystery of the solar system. Well, if that's the case, the solar system must be pretty boring other than what's here on Earth.
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