It gets even better.....

Google allows you the option of blocking sites that you choose. I've done so several times so far but NEW bloody urls keep popping up for buying and selling MMORPG virtual goods. Let's keep track of how long I need to do this in order to have them all cleared out. PITA.

Ok now I'm just a bit pissed

So I throw up a few small, random ads on the main page here courtesy of Google Ads. What's starts showing up? Websites that you can buy and sell the EVE in-game currency, something that I'm against. I just don't think it should be done. Why should someone be allowed to spend real money to quickly purchase a virtual commodity for use in a game when it's not even a customer's to sell in the first place.

I may follow up on this but at this point I'm just trying to figure out how to get those particular ads not to show up.

(EVE) War is Hell!

EVE, for those of you not up to date on the subject, is an online MMORPG. You get onto a server and get to interact, in good and bad ways, with thousands of other people playing the same game you are. This leads to some really great social interaction. If, of course, you can call sitting in front of your computer chatting madly with other people sitting in front of their computers as a social activity. I prefer to call it as much so let me continue.

I renewed my subscription today, using Paypal (great service!), I logged in and dispensed a hearty 'Hello!' to all the Corporation (think Guild and you've got the right idea) members on this morning. My greeting was returned by telling me that we were at war and to watch my back as I flew through the different sectors. Reason for this is that when you are at war any member of the opposing Corporation can take a shot at you anytime anywhere. When not at war, you have to abide by many rules about who you can shoot at. In all the time I've played Eve I've not had to deal with one pirate or smacktard PvP'er because of those rules.

I've never been big on PvP, Player versus Player, combat. Too many dicks out there with too much time on their hands. They spend all day getting far better than me at PvP and when they put their crosshairs on you, it's a done deal.

The reason I spent the past three paragraphs describing some of EVE's combat system with you is because I spent the better part of three hours blockaded inside a station. Three.... fucking.... hours. I was leaving the station and was immediately fired on by a few of the opposing Corp's members. Fearing destruction in my hauler that had NO guns on it, I immediately docked back at the station and the waiting began.

They all stayed in the same sector as me and, I suppose, wanted me to come out and supply them with an easy target. At this point I would have been the only target for them as my Corporation is almost exclusively UK based. As a result I am almost always alone between 8 - 12 PM MST. That's what makes this whole war thing so difficult. I don't have anyone to call on if I need an assist.

Bottome line (literally and figuratively) is that being part of this Corp at this point in time is just very dangerous, frustrating and I don't know how long I'll be able to do it. :-(

Douglas Adams Tribute

Was flying through a system tonight and saw this:


You might have to blow it up a bit but in the stars there you'll see the answer to the question. Which question, you ask? Start here. ;-)

Computational Emergency!!!!

Well I had what can only be described as a freak out moment earlier today. It's been hot here past couple days. Damn hot. But at least it's a dry heat. Ba-da-Bump.

So on a lark, I pull up a copy of Sisoft Sandra diagnostic software. Do a quick run on the MoBo and notice a lovely red exclamation mark in the report it supplied to me. Apparently, it was saying, my current CPU temperature was sitting around the 90 degrees Celsius mark and max operating temp for my Barton is 95 degrees. As you can imagine the alarm displayed on the screen was dwarfed by that which sprung into my mind at the thought of melting silicon.

Power down the computer and crack the case. Sure enough an inspection of the case reveals a few resident dust bunnies that simply did not want to vacate the premises. It also seemed that they were incubating progeny within the CPU heatsink fan.

After removing the HS and disassembling the fan to clean it out I'm now hovering around 63 degrees fully loaded and I know this thanks to a great little program called Mother Board Monitor. Grab a copy here and try it out for yourself!

Word to the wise: check your fans more than once a year especially when you are relying on air cooling!

Going all out... Google Style!!!

So I'm using Blogger (obviously. Duh!) to create a blog. I'm using Picasa to categorize my digitial photos. I'm using Hello! to upload the images directly to Blogger. And now I've signed up for AdSense from Google to try and make a few pennies off of this endevour. Will it pay off? Only time will tell.

Meanwhile, here's a picture of Sly (the wife) and I during our honeymoon to Europe this past summer. Yes, that's my hair. No, I don't need a haircut. Yes, maybe I need a haircut but NO I won't get one.

Me on a train, winding our way through Hungary.
Posted by Picasa

I'm sorry.... Back again

I must say I'm very impressed with the interface used to create and post these to my blog. Quite reminiscent of Radio or Movable Type, both products that I've dabbled with before. The whole 'browser as interface' just rocks!

I'll probably, if I follow past behaviours at all, post a whole whack-load of stuff over the next couple of days only to drop the blog entirely at some point in the near future. Funny thing about this service is that if I don't outright delete the blog, it will be here for Internet Eternity.

Back to EVE!

I am a God. Not THE God, but a God

First post! WTFOMGBBQ!!!

Oh wait, this isn't a gaming forum so I don't need to do that. In fact, perhaps this is a gaming forum? Most of what I seem to be doing in my spare time is, indeed, gaming. Hell, I've got some EVE-Online playing in the background as I type this. Ooops, I used the 'H' word. I'm going to Hell. In the timeless words of brain surgeon Britney Spears, Oops I did it again.

I'm not sure why I started this blog, on blogger no less. I had one previously hosted at my own domain but found myself writing for an imagined audience as opposed to writing for myself. I enjoyed putting together the pieces that I did, one in particular comes to mind, but most of the time it felt more like work instead of something enjoyable.

I like writing. I manage to blather on at times though, the words pouring from my fingers as they fly over the keyboard. Let me cut to the chase.

The only reason I'm here, at all, tonight is because of a story on /. about how Google is reacting to Splogs. So to test this, I wanted to jump on here build up a few posts and see if I too could become a target of comment spam and the occassional link to a crap blog. Woot! (That's what the kids are saying today)

So come back once in a while and let's see what we can see. I need to get back to EVE. Seems I've been contracted to go kill off some bad guys. Glee!!!!