StormEffect

PowerSat is the first company I’ve read about to have a concrete and plausible plan for solar power satellites within the next decade. I explained this concept in a previous post so if you want more info check out the link to their site.

I’m currently testing out the (free) Release Candidate (a kind of late Beta) for Windows 7. Long story short, Windows 7 is awesome and I’ll definitely be picking up a copy when the full version is released. Anyone who installs the Windows 7 RC has until March of 2010 before they even have to think about spending a dime.

The new taskbar, improved memory management, Libraries, Themes, HomeGroups, Device Stage, chilled UAC, and increased zippyness make this a solid (though not essential) upgrade for Vista users. This is Microsoft’s best shot at getting entrenched XP users into the 21st century.  

Even the boot screen is more awesome!

This is on top of my current gaming playlist:

First of all, to those of you I swindled into purchasing a copy of Beyond Good & Evil on Steam, GOG.com (Good Old Games) has recently started selling the same title, but with their patented un-suckify programming the game actually runs well with only a few of the incredible number of tweaks necessary for the Steam version. Check it out, here.

GOG slams this one out of the park, I've been waiting years for this!

Ironically, GOG also offers the (partial) soundtrack as a bonus for buying BG&E. That soundtrack is actually the reason I started doing anything with StormEffect.com. I loved the music, but it was not available from anyone or anywhere, unless you could obtain a PC copy and unpack the sound files directly from the game. So, I did, and then I posted them on my main page for all fans of the game to enjoy. It took me several months to get everything together, and after exploring at least 100 dead links to find parts of it, I vowed to keep my BG&E soundtrack link up and running for as long as humanly possible. It’s been almost half a decade, and it’s still up at www.stormeffect.com/beyond.

OnLive

Here’s a new one! Modern PC games overwhelm many computers today, though this is usually only due to the subpar Graphics Processing Unit in most systems. Yeah, you could go spend 100 bucks on a new state-of-the-art GPU (only if you have a desktop, laptops aren’t upgradable like this), but now there is an incredibly ambitious alternative called OnLive.

When you decide to play a game (examples: Crysis, World of Warcraft, Bioshock, or Company of Heroes) on your computer you install the game and run it. Your Central Processing Unit (CPU), Graphics Processing Unit (GPU), Random Access Memory (RAM), and Hard Drive (HDD) are stretched to their limits in order to drive a real-time  gaming experience. While many games, usually those that are at least 3 years old, will run on most computers due to natural hardware improvements, most modern AAA titles are out of reach for the average laptop system. 

The OnLive Real-Time Gaming Wall of Awesomeness

When you decide to play a game OnLive, you simply open up your browser, log in to your OnLive account, pick (demo, rent, or buy) a game to play (Bioshock, for instance), and less than 5 seconds later you are in the game having a grand time with a very high framerate and maximum graphical settings. How is this possible? When you installed Bioshock yourself your system was reduced to a crawl, you could barely see what was going on at 3 frames per second and the graphics were set so low everything looked like rocks. Here is where the ambitious part comes in: Instead of running the game on your computer, OnLive is actually running the game on their big iron servers (big iron – defined: large, expensive, ultra-fast computers) and sending the resulting video frames over the internet to your computer. Your input, such as a mouse click (shooting a gun maybe), is then sent back over the internet to the server. This is all done with no discernable lag at all. No matter how sad and underpowered your PC might seem, if you can watch a television show on Hulu, you can play Crysis at maximum settings using OnLive. One of the coolest gimmicks of the service is the login screen/user page, which is propped up in front of a giant video wall of hundreds of other users playing games in-progress over OnLive. Once again, it’s all handled on their servers, so while you think something like this would kill your computer, it doesn’t. 

I had an idea like this over a year ago, but OnLive has been in stealth development for 7 years now, so these guys definitely win the race. The implications are enourmous,  this has the potential to turn every PC into a gaming console, instantly putting immense pressure on Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo. Microsoft is put into an interesting position because all of the available games will essentially Windows (PC) games, and OnLive’s servers will be running Windows. We’ll see what happens when the service opens up to the public in Winter 09. You can find more info here.

Also, check out their site frontpage, and enjoy their spiffy introduction trailer.

*groan*

But before that…I got hit with some kind of stomach bacteria. (cue music link)  

BACTERIA!!

(Song: Bacteria by Jonathan Coulton)

Got tired of looking at diagrams today, so I rekindled my passion for all things graphed with an old favorite.

A+ for fantastic use of Visual Aides.

Nothing bothers me more than a capable computer system completely bogged down by useless and ineffective pre-installed software. Many people don’t realize it, but your common Windows computer comes pre-installed with 10-100 trial programs, a very sarcastic ‘Thank You’ from your PC manufacturer or retailer. These programs will slow down your startup, your shutdown, hurt your battery life, and even cause system instability! My favorite forum and review site, Notebook Review, has posted a great New Years article How To Remove Bloatware From Your Notebook.

Happy New Year!

I suggest giving it a read if you’ve got a new notebook or desktop this year! Heck, give it a read even if you don’t, the tips are fairly general. 

Here are some additional tips for cleaning up your PC:

1. Try running a program such as CCleaner (Crap Cleaner), it will get rid of most temp files that accumulate over time. Think of it as a systemwide “delete internet cookies” so expect saved passwords to need re-entering! 

2. After a good Crap Cleaning, run your built-in Windows Cleanup software (Start Button > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Cleanup), everything is safe to check, except the hybernation clean up option if you use system sleep or hybernation. Before pressing ok, go to the second tab and click “clean up” under “System Restore”. This will delete extra system restore points if that feature is active on your system, they can take as much as 15% of your hard drive, it is safe to delete these. Then, go back to the main tab and click ok. Be prepared to wait a few minutes if you’ve never done this. 

3. Make sure to defragment your computer after you are done (and before you go to sleep), this process may take many hours to run, but it can result in a noticable increase in startup and shutdown times, as well as a smoother overall computing experience. (Start Button > All Programs > Accessories > System Tools > Disk Defragmenter) Click Defragment, and then enjoy your first sleep of the New Year. When you wake up (and preferably after a restart), your system should be on it’s way to a great 2009.

Happy New Year!

Recently, with the introduction of the ASUS Eee PC, an entirely new class of mobile PC was created. Dubbed netbooks, these diminutive mobile computers are smaller, lighter, cheaper, and generally cuter than notebooks. They follow a recent mantra, ‘fast enough,’ violating the popular and longstanding, ‘it can never be fast enough.’  What does that mean, you ask? It means that these netbooks are built to do one thing really well, surf the internet, hence netbooks. They are, in essence, PC-lite.

Why now?

Up until last year, a company called VIA dominated the lower power processor market. Their products run everything from wireless routers to audio systems, they are masters of small and efficient processors designed for specific devices. While they produced processors capable of running small computers, the performance just wasn’t what modern notebook users have come to expect. Deciding to take a risk, Intel developed an extremely low power (1-4 Watt), extremely cheap, and ‘fast enough’ processor named Atom, for use in a market that did not yet exist. Much to everyone’s surprise (including mine), the netbook market took off with unexpected force.

"Oops, looks like we missed the train! But it's ok, we've got our netbooks!"

Some entries into the netbook market include the aforementioned ASUS EeePC, MSI Wind, and Dell Inspiron Mini. Most of these incorporate the Atom processor, a tiny solid state hard drive (4-20 GB), and Linux instead of Windows. Linux might seem foreign to most users, but it offers a cheap (free) alternative to Microsoft products (much to Microsoft’s chagrin, and the reason they decided to continue offering discounted Windows XP to netbook providers). Not to be overlooked, because of their light performance envelope, netbooks generally last 4-6 hours on battery, an impressive feat. Netbooks do have a couple weak spots, their 7 to 12 inch screens pale in comparison to average notebooks that have 13.3 to 15.4 inch screens. Also, their performance in compute heavy situations, such as high definition video and video games, is absolutely dismal. Then again, netbooks aren’t meant for gaming beyond internet flash games, and most people don’t really care to watch hi-def on a 10 inch screen anyway, so these cons are mitigated somewhat.

What now?

The economic climate is partially responsible for the incredible uptake in netbooks, why get an $800 dollar notebook when you can pay $400 dollars for something that does everything you want (surf the net, watch a DVD) just as well? In addition, companies like Nvidia have added hardware to certain netbooks that supercharges their graphical performance, allowing them to reach into HI-Def and Gaming territories that have previously been out of reach. Intel plans to release a dual core version of the Atom (for use in netbooks) sometime in the near future, and storage space continues to increase. Microsoft’s next operating system, Windows 7 (due out in 09), also looks as though it will provide a powerful alternative to Windows XP on netbooks. The development continues, though at a certain point it begins to invade the territory of more fully featured $800+ notebooks, something of a bother to manufactures like Dell. Profit margins on netbooks are woeful compared to regular notebooks, but that doesn’t seem to be enough to stem the tide of these little monsters. Be afraid, be very very afraid.

I’m not sure if anyone knows what the title for this article implies, so I’ll tell you that it is the nefarious corporation involved in F.E.A.R. and the upcoming F.E.A.R. 2.

Check out the site, make sure your sound is on, and let it “present” for a couple minutes. I promise this isn’t a screamer site, but make sure your volume isn’t maxxed out anyway. An example of great marketing. 

http://www.armacham.com/