Theory Patch

Video Games that echo an eternity

Kevin — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 00:00:00 +0000

Last night I was a bit bored, so I hopped onto good old fashioned Counter-Strike 1.6. I played for a little over an hour. It was a lot of fun, what I don’t understand is how can a game so old be better than many many games that have come out after it. I guess it’s the same reason why I still have fun playing Starcraft or Warcraft 3. The games are just done right. The developers didn’t get caught up in having the best graphics, like so many do, instead they worried about the game play.

Why do I still play the game Chess? The same reason I still play CS 1.6, because it’s a good game! So, if you happen to be a game developer, worry about the game play! I’d be happy with cartoon graphics if the game is solid!

TeraCopy

Kevin — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 00:02:08 +0000

Have you ever noticed that Windows isn’t the best at copying large files or a large number of files at the same time? Windows Explorer, the default application that handles the copies, really just isn’t the greatest. It bugs out on occasion, generally takes a long time, and can plague you with annoying error messages. TeraCopy is a great alternative to explorer that you can pick up for the low low price of free. Here’s why I like it..

If TeraCopy encounters an error while copying it will continue with the copy
You can Pause/Resume copies
It seems to copy faster than explorer
If there is an error while copying, TeraCopy will automatically try again to fix it
It works on Windows 7 64-bit!

If you are interested in getting your copy on, head over to TeraCopy’s web-site.

ZScreen very sweet screen capture!

Kevin — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:36:41 +0000

Recently I’ve been using the Windows 7 screen clipping tool to get what I need off of my screen and into an image file. This is kind of a tedious and repetitive method of getting things done. Today, I’ve started using ZScreen to get these things done for me more efficiently. It has all the hotkey configurations that you would expect from a screen capture tool; capture full screen, capture current window, and free select capture. It also let’s you select the destination of your screen shot from the clipboard to automatically uploading it to the web and putting the URL in your ‘paste’ area. There are some other more advanced features that I will probably make use of. One thing I do like is the built in jump menu in Windows 7. Head here to grab this program hosted by Google code!

Super Antispyware

Kevin — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 00:00:35 +0000

The best Malware removal tool that I have ever worked with is Super Antispyware. Is your computer starting to bog down, do you have pop up windows that don’t make sense, is your computer asking you for credit card information so you can purchase virus ‘protection’? If so, then give this tool a spin! Usually you can run this as a normal application in Windows. However, if your system is really jacked up, then you may need to boot into safe mode and run it from there. Getting to safe mode is easy, just press ‘F8′ while your Windows machine boots up and it will let you select which mode to boot into. Safe mode just loads the bare essentials needed to run the system, thus avoiding loading Malware that can take control of the environment. Another method that I have used is to physically take the infected hard drive out of a computer and hook it up to another PC. Then I can run Super Antispyware on that computer while accessing the connected secondary drive. No matter how you decide to run it, more often than not it will get the job done.

The interface for the program is smooth, it detects most infections, and the scans run fairly efficiently. Not too sure what else you could ask for out of a FREE Malware detection program. Below, I am running a scan on an externally attached infected hard drive.

As you can see, the computer had quite a few problems with it. Well… if you browse a lot of porn, illegally download music, and click on every email link that comes your way; this can happen to you! Super Antispyware isn’t the end all for every situation, but it sure can help if you are in a pinch. Head to their web-site to check it out!

Shutter Island

Kevin — Tue, 29 Dec 2009 22:57:43 +0000

I wouldn’t normally recommend a book before finishing it, but this one has played out very interestingly in the first six chapters. The premise of the book is awesome, and I can’t wait to find out what’s going to happen. You may have seen the previews for the recently released movie based off of this book, but if you haven’t let me fill you in. Basically, the story is that two U.S. Deputy Marshals are sent to a desolate island named Shutter Island. On the island is an insane asylum housing violent offenders. The day before the story starts a woman has escaped from the asylum. The woman just so happened to drown her three children, sit them down at the dinner table after they were dead, and had breakfast with them. That’s what brought her to the island. The two marshals are sent in to find her. However, there is no way off of the island because it is in the middle of the ocean. Things aren’t as they seem on the island.. Well, I haven’t finished the book yet but I’m hoping it plays out like hostel! The more gore the merrier!

**1/7/09 Update** I finished the book, and it’s worth reading!

Network Lights

Kevin — Mon, 07 Dec 2009 20:42:04 +0000

Network lights is a simple program that turns your Num Lock and Scroll Lock keys into network activity status indicators. Blinking lights on your keyboard that let you know network traffic is flowing, how fun!

Get it here!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2

Kevin — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 23:47:43 +0000

There’s a reason this game set the world record for biggest release in entertainment history (including video games, movies, books, CD’s, etc).

If you like fps war games, you’ll love this one. GET IT.

No time to do anything else… must play more!

Synergy

Kevin — Sat, 14 Nov 2009 22:28:32 +0000

I’ll admit it, synergy has been around for a while. However, I had not used it myself until today. Have you ever had two computers, two monitors, and the desire to control both of them with one mouse and keyboard? Synergy can do just that. Currently I have the server application (which is the computer with the keyboard and mouse that you want to use) installed on a Linux fedora machine and the client application (computer with monitor that you want to extend to) on a Windows 7 machine. After a little bit of network troubleshooting which resulted in disabling the firewalls on both computers, I can control both of the computers with the same keyboard and mouse. This is very important for me, as I don’t like moving when I don’t have to! Yes… I are lazy. Check out my set up below.

If you are interested in trying out Synergy for yourself, head on over to their web-site. Looks like it runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux.

Ultimate Boot CD = Ultimate Boobs CD

Kevin — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 20:40:28 +0000

I love boobs. You should too. They are quite amazing. That’s why I’ve renamed the ultimate boot CD to the ultimate boobs CD. Because it’s that good!

What is the Ultimate Boot CD?

It is a boot-able CD packed with various tools to troubleshoot your PC. When booted, it contains a windows like environment that has many tools for the cpu, memory, peripherals, sysinfo, benchmarking, BIOs tools, etc.

Why would I use it?

You can use it for a number of reasons. Maybe your computer has a virus and you need to get into a windows environment to diagnose the problem. Well UBCD loads directly into RAM memory so any residual virus damage is left alone on your hard drive. UBCD doesn’t boot from the hard drive in your PC so you are virus free to troubleshoot.

Currently, I’m in the process of imaging about 25 new computers for a new location that my employer is putting up. Each of them are getting booted into UBCD and I am applying the image directly to the idle hard drive. This allows me to apply the exact same image to all of the machines.

How do I get started?

Head on over to the UBCD web-site here and download an .iso image. From there you can burn the image onto a CD and use that CD and start booting like a ninja.

*Side note* you can use a utility on the UBCD to prepare a USB drive for booting. If you boot from a USB flash drive things load much faster than when running off of a CD.

So, what are you waiting for? Go give it a try and leave me some feedback below!

Grooveshark (free streaming music!)

Kevin — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 00:00:35 +0000

I have been streaming online radio stations for a while now. I started out listening to Digitally Imported to get my techno fixes. They have several different genres of techno music to chose from. Then I progressed into using things like Pandora and Slacker Radio. Pandora lets you enter a band name, then it creates a station for you with bands that have music similar to the one that you had selected. It lets you give the thumbs up or thumbs down to different songs as they play. It is supposed to learn from your selections and create a station that you enjoy listening to. Slacker has the same concept as Pandora, the difference there is that they have many pre-made stations to choose from. However, there is one problem with all of the aforementioned stations. What happens if there is a specific song that you want to hear? The best you can do is create a station with the band name and hope that you get lucky. That isn’t the case with Grooveshark.

Grooveshark has a smooth interface that allows you to search for specific bands and create custom playlists. So whatever mood you are in, you can create a station for it. There’s not too much else to say about it, it runs inside of your browser just like Pandora and Slacker Radio do. Head to http://listen.grooveshark.com to give it a try!