Mal

The Moon of my life is here!?

Prompted by the survey I just took for ASUS for my purchase... In ways I feel like I jumped the gun on the T100 (I'm liking it) when I look at the other products in the Transformer line. There are the relatively beastly (In size) T300LA and TX300. They're the bigger and badder brothers to the T100. Imagine snapping off the screen from your laptop. Kind of big, too big but I can see the appeal. Not for me though.Then there is the odd TX201LA. It has a dual OS of Windows 8 while in laptop mode and then Android 4.3 while in tablet. It confused me when I saw this while taking the survey but this is when it gets interesting (to me)... you can use both separate. You can hook up and/or perhaps stream your Windows 8 system to a monitor. I know plenty of professors who hook up their laptops to a separate monitor in their offices and I know that they need to read tons of papers (for research) and junk. If they can pull off doing their regular desktop stuff while having a freedom of reading a paper on a tablet on what is one device then man, I think they might like it. As you can see and imagine, I could see myself getting the TX201LA. It is the most intriguing of the bunch and it would seal all the niches I could have computer wise. Work computer, laptop and tablet. My T100 is that too (It got HDMI out) but the TX201LA takes it a step further with two usable devices in one. Give me the option of replacing the HDD (For Windows 8) for a SSD before or after purchase and I'll be sold on the concept. I'm sure at this point it'll be sodding expensive so I hope this concept doesn't die so it may improve and evolve. With that all said, I suppose you can look at my T100 as a glorified netbook since profile wise it is one. Specs wise, not really. Its a snappy little machine. For the record, I loath netbooks. This is what the netbooks from the early to mid 2000s should of been like but only now technology has finally caught up. I'm liking this 2-in-1 concept a lot. Recently in class my professor couldn't make enough copies of a handout for everyone. No problem for me since I downloaded the electronic copy while in laptop mode (for ease of access via typing), popped out the screen and rotated the screen so the handout will be in portrait view at easily readable resolution. It fulfilled it purpose then and when I had no other computer to use to type up a paper. Success. Motherfucker I am happy.

I love this way too much.

Oh hey, my like went through and shows up on my screen automatically... Guys, I think we're being watched.

http://club2.nintendo.com/3ds-pokemon-promo/ If I am reading that right then my reaction. But then I realized that I don't care for Pokemon anymore.

So original lore-y. I like-y.

Banished took the #1 spot on Steam yesterday, the 23rd (Beating out the long standing DayZ and Rust), before losing it to Thief today (24th). Pretty damn good I say. One thing I got to comment on. While it may not be fair since they're not the same thing but Banished pulled off a far more compelling agent system than SimCity. You can see wheres the resources are going by tracking the town folks. You also can track a person as they age, go to work, change jobs and then die. On the job front, you can see the same person at that job for quite a long time. If that person do move on to another job, they get replaced by a similar aged person thus keeping the illusion alive. Another thing is that they all pretty much live in their own houses. Case in point... I tracked this teacher starting from age 50. She was a crusty old teacher, living alone in this one house. I checked back later to see she aged to 70 and still going. I went back again when she was at 80 and she switched to an herbalist. The teacher who replaced her was about the same age. Not to say that it is perfect but it forms quite a good illusion and that is really all you need. Now about that 80 something years old miner...

You can leave it be on 1x without too much problem. One year on 1x is actually kind of long. The same time I played my current town to year 50, my 1x town on my T100 is only up to like 10. I'm super bummed that there is no soil quality. He took it out. I can see why but I don't see why it couldn't be an option for the masochists like me. One for the reasons for him taking it out is that it was a shit ton of work to manage compared to say hunting and gathering. It should be that way when you realize just how many times civilizations has collapsed because of fields not being tended to properly (Our global one isn't doing much better...). The degradation is slow but steady. It should be an option for "hard" mode. As a gamer, it is nice to have options. For him turning into a bug killing mode, I'm fine with that. I wouldn't be surprised if he is burnt out. Anyways. Expansion (Nomads especially) without having enough food will do this. It was really poorly timed but I survived since I had fields that I could throw everybody at to create the surplus. You got to remember, this is a communist society where everybody gets an equal share thus collapsing the system if spread too thin... Also a fire nearly did my town in. I have since expanded to two other sub-towns with some more on the way. I'm just laying out the grid during the winter... Next post I'll post about some of my grips and wishes for the game. I love it but as with the no soil quality thing, of course it could of gone at it better.

I haven't watched it but it is pretty hilarious. I wonder how many people are going to force them to spend hours trying to look for Mew under the truck. It also will be fun to see what they use the Master ball on.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/n_1s0jlh5 The list of studios going in.

To preface this, I'm going to try to limit any obvious hints and tips. This game is to me intuitive enough for you to pick up as you go so I don't want to spoil anything.Though I've heard that the tutorials do give out good information but I'm foregoing them to go at it myself. I got a town together that looks like it shouldn't be failing. The only "die off" (It was really only a person or two) was in the beginning when, yes, I had a minor food shortage. What happened was I was building houses too fast. The earlier houses horded the food. Bigdan, this was what you were seeing. To get out of a downward spiral, you'll need to have a field up and going by winter's end. At this point in time, I find that its not food that will kill my village but warmth via firewood. This firewood comes directly from the wood you would use to build so there is direct competition for this resource. I'm currently just hovering about having a massive freeze off. Building wise, stone is also a major issue. Iron can be as well but my map has blessed me with massive surface deposits which allows me to store up a ton for trade. I got my chicken and cattle this way. Ultimately the fun part, to me, about this game is not the buildings (I have already pretty much made them all) but the expansion without caving in on yourself. Expand in the wrong way and you might be stagnant for a while or even crash. Disasters are also starting to roll in onto my town which might pose a major threat to my food supply. I have made multiple wells around the town to ward off any potential fires. Lastly... about no window mode and going off to do something bit... I didn't see an option to toggle the auto pause function. Why does there need to be an auto pause function?

That. Its kind of good to have running on a separate computer while I work on my homework. At 1x speed, I can leave it running while I do other things if stuff doesn't go horribly wrong like not having any tools... winter is coming and I don't have enough fire food. Motherfuckers better Steve all the logs into firewood!

Your villagers sure are hungry. Anyways, I am disappointed in finding out that the game auto paused when you have the game in window mode and you go off to do something else. So much for having the game run itself for a few minutes while I do some other stuff. Side note. The game also runs on the T100. You'll need a mouse at the very least. Bummer.

Oh, Firefox do remember them. I just want a magical computer that can read my mind and intent where it would autoplay the music that I'm feeling for and auto load up the front pages of all the sites I go to.

So. I've been doing the sleep instead of shutting down thing. Kind of is moot but I suppose it is nice to just jump straight to my browser and have music playing. Now if only my computer can read my mind and start a new window with tabs and play whatever music that I'm in the mood for. If only. Anyways, 2 TB HDD... is pretty nice. When it goes inactive it does take a bit longer to spin back up to get to where I want it to go. Especially true with playing my music. I also got my T100 today. Purely initial impressions... Physical impressions I feel that screen estate wise it feels a bit larger than the netbooks I have used before. It also feels a bit heavier too, of which it is surprisingly heavy for its size but nothing unworkable. Personally I wish all the buttons were at the top wide edge. The Start and volume buttons are to the left side and can be kind of awkward to reach for. I also realize that I have quite greasy fingers... The USB power cable length is a joke. If it had at least about 6 inches it would of been fine but as of now it is too short. Right now it just barely reaches to the top of my desk. Built wise, it feels pretty solid. I don't think I'll be punching it so it should be fine. A case for just the tablet might be needed. As with a netbook, a wireless mouse and number pad might be a good idea too (Especially the mouse). I also might have to invest in a micro-HDMI cable with an adapter for presentations. Software Impressions This is my first real foray with Windows 8. When I really played with it, it really wasn't that much different. Desktop view is desktop and while Metro looks a whole lot different but the Start menu has everything there. The only thing is that using touch while with the desktop is awkward and conversely using the touch pad (By extension, the mouse) with Metro is awkward. Since I can switch between the two, it can feel pretty damn odd. This part is for sure the learning curve part of this experience. With a desktop/laptop or a tablet, it is one or another but with this I can switch between the two quite often. Not to say that I am regretting my purchase but this setup will take a bit to get used to. I got to figure out how I am going to use this as in am I going to carry the keyboard with me all the time or go with a tablet w/ cover? This is kind of odd bro. I'm only just getting used to all the extra things my Note 2 (Great multimedia device) can do and now I got this to deal with. I'll have to use it for a week or two to finalize my impressions.

Its 720p and 60 fps on the Xbone. 30 fps on the 360.

Looks good. Knowing myself, I'm going to try to stretch it to the limit as in a scattered village and stuff like that. It also seems like you might be able to designate a person for a specific task. The names and ages are all there, there just needs to be a mechanic of saying directly who does what. So maybe I can set a woodcutter cabin out in the wilderness and have a house by it for those workers to live there. So yeah, going to try to setup a village with two settlements. An agrarian center with a gathering fringes. I think a setup like that could survive a bad harvest. Not to say that the people in the agrarian center will all survive... Maybe I'm putting in features that the game doesn't have... we'll see. $20, tomorrow. I'll be deciding soon if I want it. It is certainly pretty compelling. I'm hoping I can just break the optimistic way of playing the game. Edit: Also might I say that this game can have an impressive modding potential. It just depends on whats under the hood and how The Dev want to go about it.

My heart sank more for this than Finding Nemo.

http://www.animenewsnetwork.com/news/2014-02-12/legend-of-the-galactic-heroes-novels-get-anime This will either be really bad or really awesome. There is no in between.

FLD post inspired. S.S.H. is an oldie but a goodie to me. Seems like he's more into Touhou stuff now... sad.