Browsing Computers And Gaming

Thermal Revision & the Predator…

November10

I recently purchased a Flir One thermal camera, and this thing is so much fun. I’ve always wanted a thermal camera like the one in Predator and getting this little one that slips on the back of your iphone is a lot of fun :).

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Will I keep it?

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Probably not, but it is fun :). My dad borrowed it to look for lost heat in his house and find ways to improve energy efficiency. I think it is a great product for DIYers trying to make their homes more energy efficient.

Props to Anand of AnandTech

September1

I grew up building my own computers and started reading AnandTech right after it started. It taught me how to build my own computers, fix problems, and really got me into some cool stuff :). I even teamed up with someone who worked at AnandTech in college for a short lived review website project, and I wrote my own reviews for my website and other websites at different points. Anand has done a great job and I am really sad to see him go, but I am also happy he is going to tackle something new. Props to Anand and I wish him the best of luck!

TechCrunch posted a nice writeup on him as well :).

Found this bio I wrote in Jan 2000 while cleaning out old storage disks…

April27

Click to read, it was part of a redo of the EmuHQ design from that same year. Pretty cool :).

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UpDesk Review: UpWrite

April12

I love my new UpDesk! I’ve been working standing up for a few years and needed a new desk when I moved back to the States. I highly recommend this one as it works perfect and the added dry erase board top makes it extra useful for small notes and daily plans.

My first desk arrived slightly damaged on one corner due to shipping, and they handled it awesome. In fact I decided I wanted two desks so they gave me the top for free and I bought a leg set. AMAZING customer service!

Hit me up with any questions too :)

Review: New Tomb Raider (PC Game)

March29

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I’ve never been a big fan of the Tomb Raider series, I liked the idea but the game mechanics always seemed boring. After reading some good reviews I tried out the new one and it is one of the best games I’ve ever played. Like Indiana Jones combined with Die Hard. And the plot and voice-acting/acting is fantastic, I didn’t wince once and the story is awesome.

Highly recommended you play this! Fun as hell, took me around 15 hours to beat although I was moving pretty fast.

Crazy Blood Pressure Gadget!

March20

I was in Singapore for a week (had an amazing time and I’ll post soon on that!!) I ended up at a big computer show and found this device that works over bluetooth and your iphone to pull your blood pressure (and stores trends etc). I’m kinda a nut for these things and I’ve been running with a Suunto heart rate monitor for 5+ years.

I took this one after finishing up a longish run, fun to take a few a day just to see what happens. I’m going to try playing a Zombie video game in the dark and see if I can get something to happen with my blood pressure. I’m pretty sure aliens vs predator from around 10 years ago would send it through the roof, as kids that almost caused us to hyperventilate from the slow beep… beep… of the motion detector in almost pitch black conditions as a face hugger scurries across the floor somewhere you can’t see.

Way to go world!

December6

Nice to see even our shitty Congress unanimously say NO to some group of assholes trying to destroy the very fabric of the internet and free speech online. Along with the EU, Canada, Aussies, etc etc.

The 27 EU member states also voted unanimously, joining the U.S. to fight the ITU’s WCIT-12 plans as a unified bloc. The E.U. is backed in its stance by Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Mexico, and other countries who are also members of the ITU.

Nice!

“We need to send a strong message to the world that the Internet has thrived under a decentralized, bottom-up, multi-stakeholder governance model.”

Holy shit a Republican said that? I know it makes your mind want to explode because it’s logical and not some nonsense about the social fabric of this country disintegrating. Quick nobody tell them about all the porn and abortion online :)

KickStarter Project I’m Backing

January27

Sounded cool:

My Google Stats For Last Year

April16

I love Google, here are some interesting stats they give me on my behavior with their searches and web behavior.

My hourly search activity over all of last year:

As you can clearly see I’m not someone who is often up at 6am in the morning ready to go. In fact most of my searches from 5am to 8am are probably because I stayed up the entire night, or I’m in a different time zone :).

So which days am I most active in searching?

I wouldn’t have guessed it but my most active day is Wednesday, I have no idea why.

And what about monthly?

This is for 2010, I was on vacation in February so I’m impressed that I was able to still do so much searching. I’m guessing the spikes are when I am learning new stuff, or trying to figure something out. For example Dec spiked as I was figuring out how to use Google App Engine, some python, and also learning about my new home in DC. And the downward spike in March is because we had some major issues at work, and I was spending all of my time responding to things.

Pretty cool stuff, I wish Google would do a lot more here but they probably don’t want to scare everyone :).

Wolfenstein Review…

August23

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Short Review: Massive Suck

Long Review: Really ID Software? Really? Not allowing users to save? Really? What is this the 1990s and we have to add that to make it seem harder and so people don’t notice how much you suck at game design? Oh what is this demons in Wolfenstein? Awesome, nice job on rereleasing Doom again… Massive ball of suck. Way to destroy a classic.

Most frustrating game I’ve ever tried to “play”.

I Need iTunes For My Kindle Books

June11

I realized today as I tried to sort out my Kindle books that there is no software application to do this with. Amazon or someone needs to make this as it would be nice to have something that can sort and show me my digital books (as well as load them on my Kindle) and allow me to load my actual books so I can see my library.

It can’t be too hard to make something that does this for the Kindle, I know there is stuff out there to scan in my books and handle all that.

Crazy Awesome Technology Alert! Augmented Reality Dolls!

February28

I was lucky to snag this link and you have to check this out! A company in Japan (of course) is coming out with something they are calling an “Augmented Reality” Dennoh Figure Alice (aka Virtual Doll). So how does this work and why do I care?

Basically when you guys this you are getting a small cube about 2 inches by 2 inches. You then install some software on your computer and point your webcam at this cube. Then on top of this cube is a fully animated Alice Maid/Girlfriend type figure. You can then interact with her by using the included squares and “virtual tongs”, which is a weird concept as you are using physical items to interact with something virtual. Being from Japan you get to slap her, take her clothes off, and all that snazz. For pictures of how this all works go here and there is a video below.

I think this is just amazing and really reminds me of a couple of sci fi books I have read lately. I think this might really be something we adopt in the future future as it is an awesome blending of reality and virtual. Just imagine walking down the street as you normally do but you are wearing glasses that can see this augmented reality and gloves or a couple embedded sensors in your fingers in order to interact with this second layer of reality. So stores might have cubes out front or whatever they want that has these figures that then interact with you, or answer basic questions, store times, or even could run transactions. Or public information cubes that give you directions, call for help, etc. Just amazing possibilities, especially as basic AI gets better! Would even be cool to have one of these sitting on your desk with a basic API and be able to view it with those glasses and feed it commands (adds personality to the tech).

Just super awesome, I’m trying to see if I can import one to test with. Here is a video below:

Cars Suck Sometimes + New Computer!

January13

So I lost my keys to my 96 Acura and it turns out that in order to make some new ones you need a red key which I didn’t get when I bought it used (I doubt anyone does). So now to replace the keys I have to buy a new computer for my car, it cost $280 which makes me think this computer really sucks. Can it play Left For Dead or other games? Why does a nice car have such a shitty computer. Anyway it sucks but hopefully by Thursday the part comes in and I can park my car in the garage and ignore it.

In other news I ordered a new desktop computer! I’ve had my old one since 2006 and been having problems lately playing new games on it which blows my mind as it used to be so fast. Being stuck in one place means I need to be able to shoot zombies and other creatures of darkness to keep stress levels low, sometimes I name the zombies after servers I dislike that are having problems such as utu and delbin. Anyway its all coming from NewEgg for me to put together this week hopefully.

Specs:
– Intel i7 920 CPU
– 6GB Memory (DDR3)
– 64 Bit Windows Vista
– GeForce GTX 295
– 300GB 10k rpm SATA2 hard drive.

Plus I’m finally getting some speakers that don’t cost $20 bucks from Walmart! Some Z-5550 from Logitech and its supposed to be quite loud so hopefully I can disturb my roommate with gunshots and zombie death screams.

This is bwb’s personal blog, so he can share his thoughts with the world, however scary or silly they might be. Plus family and friends can track what I am up to, and where I am in the world.

I am pretty simple. I love Mangos. I love the ocean (although mostly at sunset, as I’m a ginger). I love to travel, eat exotic food, do long bike rides, read, and use my imagination. At some point, I decided it was better to be a pirate captain than an admiral. I am a globalist and see the entire world as my responsibility and playground. And I am married to an amazing woman who makes life even more fun :)! And we are now the proud parents of Calico Jack :).


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