MuddyHorse Farm and Tech » internet

Good Luck, Mr. President

pforhan — Tue, 20 Jan 2009 12:46:21 +0000

I just want to wish incoming President Obama all the best. He has made a lot of noise about changing the way things are done, and I hope he can stick to that.

Along those lines, he has made a lot of announcements that, frankly, haven stolen the thunder of my 2012 campaign, like a bipartisan cabinet and lobbyist restrictions. And I will be truly grateful when he brings me my internet.

Game Review: Portal / Orange Box

pforhan — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 19:56:57 +0000

My wife found a cheap copy of the Orange Box, from Valve. It actually contains 3 full games (Half-life 2, Team Fortress 2, and Portal) and two large expansions for HL2 (ep. 1 & 2) — a lot of content.

There was only one reason I wanted the game: Portal. I heard from friends and reviews about the thing, so I had a feeling I’d like it. I did. Great writing and mind-bending (but not too mind-bending) make for a fun game.

To catch anyone up who has missed out on the Portal premise, the player awakens in an austere lab environment. You quickly become acquainted with your host, GLaDOS, a computer that has a pretty disturbingly carefree attitude towards life and safety. GLaDOS introduces you to the concept of portals and in pretty short order, the Portal Gun (aka Aperture Science Handheld Portal Device), and from there you have to figure out puzzles and how to keep yourself alive in order to reach the next elevator.

Now, the Orange Box contains 4 other games and I really didn’t give them a fair shake. I played through a bit of HL2, and it seemed nice, and polished, but I couldn’t really get into it. It looks like Team Fortress is doing some cool things with multiplayer, but my lack of internet leaves me unable to test more.

Pat’s Rating system:

How much would I pay for the game? You should buy this game if you see it for $40 or less. Portal alone is worth it for $30 or less, and you can now get the Still Alive edition on XBLA for I think $15, a real steal.
How many times would I replay it? At least twice. There are some “advanced” editions of the levels, so you will be hitting some things multiple times anyway, and there’s a great developer’s commentary version. Unfortunately, I failed to do some of the achievements on my first playthrough, so I’ll have to try again.

Internet 1, Pat 0

pforhan — Wed, 13 Aug 2008 18:51:10 +0000

Of course, the $170/month internet doesn’t work. Turns out, Verizon claimed near 100% V-Cast (EVDO Rev.A) coverage of Sainte Genevieve county. They’re lying. While we were able to get a signal, we could never acquire a digital signal.

Accel Networks has got a couple of crack teams on it, including one over at Verizon. Chances are, they’ll ship me out antennas for a different carrier. The experience is a bit disappointing in general… I was hoping they’d have a “best available” solution anyway, not one coded to a specific carrier (they deal with Altel, AT&T, Sprint, and Verizon backbones). But I know AT&T doesn’t have a 3G solution here, so I’m not expecting great things at this point.

And for $170 a month, it had better be great. I mean, mind-blowing, heavy-duty. It should, as a coworker puts it, rock my face.

Never underestimate the bandwidth…

pforhan — Fri, 08 Aug 2008 12:48:15 +0000

I’m so excited. UPS says my Internet will arrive in a truck on Monday. It’s already at Nashville!

The title, of course, is a reference to that oft-heard saying, probably by Dennis Ritchie.

Chicago Arrival…

pforhan — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 21:41:14 +0000

We made it safely to Chicago today. We’re up on the 29th floor! Pretty nice. Thanks to Jim, Stacy, and everyone else who helped in the process of making Pat survive the big city! By the way, no internet access in room? What is that about?