The Jeff Kingdom

Library Overdose

2010-01-05T15:31:00.007-05:00

So after I finished Death Masks, by Jim Butcher, I decided to go to the library and find something new to read.

A couple years ago I had read Operation Red Jericho by Joshua Mowll. I really liked how he treated the book as though it was an artifact from the story. The book is packed with pencil drawing credited to the main characters, photographs of story items and pull out maps and charts. It really helps to bring you into the story.

With my recent order of a Kindle DX the sequel to Operation Red Jericho—Operation Typhoon Shore—seemed like a great book to pick up. It's the type of book that just isn't possible in an e-book format. So, while reading it I wouldn't think about how cool it would be to read on my Kindle that probably won't arrive for a month.

On the way to the library I met up with my friend Scott Pyle. After a discussion about the recently released Doctor Who: Adventure in Time and Space game Scott mentions that the library—where he happens to work—has a number of the Doctor Who novels that have been coming out over the last couple years. With this knowledge in hand I went to the library.

A quick search of the library's catalog discovered Stephen Cole who has written a couple of those Doctor Who books. With this information I headed back into the stacks and picked out Doctor Who: The Art Of Destruction and Doctor Who: Sting Of The Zygons. I also grabbed Operation Typhoon Shore as well.

On my way out of the stacks I passed the graphic novel section. I always look there but rarely find anything that interests me at the time. This time was different, I walked out of that section with Batman: The Dark Knight Returns and Alan Moore: The Complete WildC. A. T.s.

Then again, I skimmed the short story section and managed to grab a collection of pirate stories titled Fast Ships, Black Sails.

Now I have a considerable stack of books to read in front of me and three weeks to get them done. I know I can renew them but for some reason I kind of like the challenge of reading all these books in time.

Dresden Files: Death Masks

2010-01-04T13:09:00.008-05:00

I've been slowly reading the Dresden Files books written by Jim Butcher. I just finished the fifth book: Death Masks.

I really liked it. It was a lot of fun to read. I enjoy how Butcher pulls me, the reader, along through the story by keeping the action going. It's a really fun ride.

I liked it so much that I could barely put it down. I ended up reading it in two or three days. Not too bad when you are a slow reader like I am.

Been a Long Time

2010-01-04T08:37:00.002-05:00

I know that it's been a long time since my last post. But I decided to try my hand at shouting stuff to the world again. We'll see how it goes...

Howto: Play XCom: Enemy Unknown using DosBox

2008-11-07T12:14:00.001-05:00

In my opinion XCom: Enemy Unknown, also released as XCom: UFO Defense, is one of the best computer games of all time. The issue is that on modern computers with current operating systems it can be hard to install and play. If you are lucky enough to have a version that will install on your flavor of Windows you run into an issue where your proccessor is too fast for the game. Things will just happen way too fast.

To get around this issue you can use an awesome program called DosBox. DosBox will emulate a DOS enviroment and handle timing so that the game will play correctly.

What we are going to do

So here I'm going to walk you though installing and setting up DosBox to run XCom: Enemy Unknown. These directions will assume that you are using Windows XP or Vista. If you are running Linux you will probably need to make some adjustments to these directions.

Things you'll need

You'll need to download DosBox and to download XCom: Enemy Unknown [via].

Do it

Install DosBox using it's installer.
Create a directory that will act as your C: drive. Personally, I have use C:\dosbox.
Extract the XCom zip to that folder. Now, you should have an xcom directory in C:\dosbox.
Run DosBox
In at the DosBox prompt type:
mount c c:\dosbox c: cd xcom go

Congradulations you are now playing one of the best computer games ever made.

BitTorrent

2008-09-17T22:16:00.001-04:00

I always feel ripped off when using peer-to-peer file sharing and my upload is more than my download.

Snack Food Zen

2008-09-10T15:01:00.002-04:00

No matter what snacks you have, you always want something else to munch on.

Google Docs Initiative Tracker

2008-08-29T05:07:00.001-04:00

As some of you know I'm running a 4th edition Dungeons and Dragons game. And you might have also have noticed that I recently got a new computer. So of course I wanted to bring these things together. And to do this I used Google Docs.

I did this in two ways. First, I had a notes document for me to jot down anything that I needed to remember. This worked okay but really wasn't all that much better than a peice of paper. Then I also had a spreadsheet to do initiative.

This spreadsheet was really helpful. I set it up with a column for the initiative, a name, and then a couple columns for tracking monster hit points.But what's great is that spreadsheets in Google Docs have this sort bar that you can position. So I put it under my header row. Then when we needed to use initiative I would get all the initiatives from everybody, use the sort bar to put everything in order and go. Then if something happened and the order changed I would just assign that person an appropriate new number and hit the sort bar again. It worked great! This is the best initiative tracker I've used.

What do you use for an address book?

2008-08-26T12:14:00.001-04:00

I would really like to know. I can't seem to find a system that works for me. Do you have have physical address book? Is there a program on your computer that you use? Do you use your phone?

I already broke it

2008-08-23T13:06:00.001-04:00

So that new laptop I just got... I killed it's operating system the other day. It wasn't my fault though. If Asus put a decent OS on their Eee PCs I wouldn't hav killed it.

It started because all I wanted to do was to install the latest version of Audacity on it. I wanted to do this for recording my podcast. The operating system that was on the machine really didn't support installing any new software. So I found some instructions for installing an older version of Audacity. That actually worked. Then when I unsintalled that and tried to install the version that I wanted I ran into a bunch of problems saying that the laptop didn't have some prereuisits installed. And it was when I went to upgrade those prerequisits that the OS died. The next time I went to boot it up it just hanged.

Don't worry it wasn't destroyed. I eneded up installing Ubuntu on it and now it works fine. In fact I'm writing this on it right now. And, yes, Ubuntu did let me install the version of Audacity that I wanted.

A Look Back at Xobni

2008-08-18T18:01:00.001-04:00

A little bit ago I wrote a post about Xobni. I thought that it might be a good time and let you know what I think of it now that I've used it for a couple months.

For me Xobni was not worth it. Since I installed it I only found a use for it once. Perhaps this is because i was using it on my work computer that is connected to an exchange server with a global address book. I simply never needed to look anybody up in Xobni because 90% of the people that I email are in that global address book. There was only one time that I used Xobni for this.

The rest of the features in Xobni just aren't very useful. While it's need to see stats on when and how much people email you I never found a use for it. It also has this interesting fact thing that shows up every now and again but it always shows that same stat about your email usage.

I would say that Xobni isn't worth the money but it's free.

New Laptop!

2008-08-17T20:18:00.002-04:00

So prior to last week I had two laptops. One was more than ten years old and was primarily a toy for me. Whenever I felt like fixing a computer it was always there for me to work on. The other was about three years old and was my primary computer. That computer recently died.

So in response I purchased a new laptop. I got a Asus Eee PC 900 from Amazon. After a long wait for the Super-Saver Shipping it arrived yesterday. I have to say I really like it.

It's fast enough and responsive enough to do what I need it to. Some reviews I've read complained about this computer's disk speed is slow but I haven't ran into that problem. One thing that the reviews had correct though is the size of the keyboard: it's small. It's not something that makes the computer unusable though. It is just takes some getting use to. At the same time if you are they type of person that only types with a couple fingers I don't think it would be noticeable at all.

Edit: It has been mentioned that you might be more interested in what is said here

How can I be tired?

2008-07-28T09:08:00.002-04:00

Perhaps somebody out there on the internet can find the answer to this question for me.

I had a pretty restful weekend. I got a decent amount of sleep. I didn't do anything too strenuous on Sunday. But, today, I came to work and I'm incredibly tired.

If anybody out there can explain this please let me know.

Resume Available

2008-07-20T13:45:00.001-04:00

I recently reviewed my resume and decided to publish it online. You can view it here.

Cheesy Ramen

2008-05-27T12:53:00.002-04:00

Almost every day at work I have Cheesy Ramen for lunch. Here is how I make it:

Ingredients

A package of ramen with flavor packet
A slice of american cheese

Procedure

Place ramen in a microwavable container. Fill with water till half of the ramen is covered. Do not add flavor pack! Microwave on high for 1 minute.
Flip ramen so that uncooked side is in the water. Microwave again for 1 minute.
Drain liquid so that there is only 2 to 3 tablespoons of water left.
Stir in flavor pack.
Place cheese on top of noodles. Microwave for 30 second to melt cheese
Toss noodles to mix melted cheese.

Office of the Budget

2008-05-26T20:59:00.002-04:00

So I created another blog talking about my personal financial situation. You can find an explanation of why I did this here.

Wonders of Jack Thompson

2008-05-22T19:23:00.000-04:00

I love reading news about Jack Thompson. Every time you think that his 15 minutes is over he just makes more of a fool of himself.

It was probably two or three years ago that I first heard of Jack Thompson. I can't remember exactly what it was for. I can only assume that it was him being an idiot. Ever since then it's just been a joy to watch him try to get media attention.

It doesn't look like things are going to good for him right now. It seems like he might be out of a job soon. [via Slashdot] I don't think that will quiet him at all though.

First Game of Golf

2008-05-21T12:40:00.003-04:00

So I played the first game of golf that I ever played today. It did not go well. I wasn't expecting much but I was still disappointed. It's amazing how that's possible.

$80 Golf Clubs

2008-05-08T21:03:00.000-04:00

Earlier today I ordered these clubs for $80.* plus shipping

It looks like I'm lucky that I ordered it when I did because they now appear to be sold out. Sorry I didn't let you know sooner.

Xobni?

2008-05-05T07:40:00.000-04:00

So I take a look at my Google Reader and I've got several things looking at me talking about Xobni. They are talking about how it makes Outlook better.

So I download and install it and while it's installing I'm looking at at Xobni's site. I find this page and I'm blown away by it's video.

I'm a huge fan of Gmail. I think that Gmail's email client is the greatest email client out there right now. Anything that can get me closer to the functionality in Outlook has my vote.

So I'm very excited about Xobni and I hope that it lives up to it's hype.

Time

2008-05-04T14:49:00.000-04:00

Lately I've noticed that I have a hard time judging long time spans. Here is an example:

Warhammer 40,000 is going to be coming out with a new edition this summer. This will be it's fifth edition. When I heard this I sent an email to my friends commenting on how weird this was since they just came out with fourth edition a little bit ago--I was thinking like two years.

My friends responded by saying that the fourth edition has been out for quite some time. So, I was kind of confused. I went to my fourth edition rulebook, which I bought when it first came out, and checked out the copyright date... 2004. It came out four years ago. How did I miss two years?

A different look?

2008-05-03T10:16:00.000-04:00

So I'm back to Blogger.

I was using WordPress for a while to host this blog. There were a lot of things that I liked about it. I think it's WYSIWYG editor for creating posts is much better than Blogger's. I also think that it's site management capabilities are significantly better. I also liked that it had the ability to have static webpages that were not blog posts--even though I never used that feature.

So why go back to Blogger if WordPress is so great? Well because Google provides a web service API for Blogger. I wanted to play around with this as a little hobby project and this is something that WordPress doesn't offer.

I can live without WordPress's WYSIWYG editor and other features. When it comes down to it Blogger does everything I need and I'm willing to handle anything more myself.

Kung Fu Fighting

2008-04-21T09:47:00.000-04:00

Last night I was over a friends house playing some games. I have to say that the star of the night was Kung Fu Fighting by SlugFest Games. It was great! The concept of the game is that you play out a cinematic Kung Fu fight. The mechanics to the game are good but not great. What really made the game though was the people I was playing with. We were all really getting into it and narrating what the cards were saying. Anybody that has a group of friends that would have a good time blocking a flying, spinning, running up the wall kick because “Your Kung Fu is too weak,” would really like this game.

So that didn’t work

2008-04-14T09:46:00.000-04:00

Title says it all. Typing on the bus hasn’t worked out for me. I discovered that when typing in a confined space (between the window and that fat dude) my wrists tend to cramp up.

So that is one idea down. I’ll let you know when I have another.

Been A While

2008-02-17T09:45:00.000-05:00

I know that it’s been a while since my last post. I think I might have found a system that would help to rectify that issue. I’ve found myself busier than expected due to some changes at work. This has caused a large chunk of my free time to evaporate.

But, just this morning I had a thought. I spend about 2 hours a day on the bus–an hour going to work and an hour coming home. If I could somehow leverage that time to write I might be able to do blog posts again.

To leverage that time I broke out my old laptop. This puppy is a beast. It’s has 266mhz, 96MB ram, with a 6Gb hard drive. All of that for a weight of only 13 lbs. The upside to this laptop is its battery life. It can last for about 2 hours on a full charge. When you compare this to my modern laptop that barely lasts 30 minutes you can understand why I keep the old one around.

So that old laptop is what I’m writing this on. I guess we’ll all find out how this works out.

I hate Word

2008-02-16T09:45:00.000-05:00

I really do not like Microsoft Word. I know that there a lot of people out there that use it. But, I don’t think they really like it either. I think they just use it because it’s what everybody else uses. Well, I’m not jumping off that cliff.

Word has some very annoying features that I can’t get around. The first and foremost is copy and paste. I know! It’s amazing but they even managed to mess up copy and paste. The issue is that when you paste into word the text retains it’s formatting. There is no way to turn that off. Then if you want to make that text that you just pasted look like whatever else you worked with you need to set all of that formatting yourself.

So, what most people that use Word do is they have a copy of notepad or another text editor open. That you paste the text into to remove the formatting. Then copy it out of that program and paste it into Word. That is ridiculous. Why do you need another program just to copy and paste?

My other issue with Word is more an issue with the people that use it. A lot of people use Word but most of them don’t know how to use Word. How many times have you seen people use spaces to have a line aligned to the right? How many times have you seen people use multiple carriage returns when they want a page break?

I realize that I sound elitist in saying this. I know that some people that read this do these things. My wife does these exact things! My problem isn’t with your knowledge of Word though. It’s with Word’s difficulty of use.

Word’s best feature is it’s Style system. It provides a way to define sections of your text so that when you change the formatting of the style everything in that style changes. It can do more than that too. It allows for the creation of things like tables of contents and indexes. Styles is the greatest tool that Word offers. But, nobody uses it because it’s so difficult to use. Word’s best features are things that are difficult to do.

So my response is to use Word as little as possible. There are times when I have to use it for work but when I have a choice I mostly work with plain text. If I need to write a document that looks good I use a system called LaTeX. LaTeX is a document markup language and preparation system that can create professional documents. But that is a whole other post.