Techno is great: The Sequel + Half-life 2 Info

Date: 1/30/04 at 3:41AM

In school we got our hands dirty. I mean this as a figure of speech of course. The class got to tear apart old IBMs. The motherboards weren’t old, but they sure were outdated. Now-a-days I can just screw those babies to the frame with no troubles, the IDE ports aren’t on a separate board like those ones were. But what a pain in the ass to unplug everything! This particular curcuit board was even wedged against the side with a plastic board underneath. Another pain in the ass is documenting all the plug-ins, and ports inside the computer. I had this nifty idea of using ‘post its’ on the IDE cables. Next week if this computer doesn’t work I could of ESDed it. Abbreviations for electrostatic discharge. We have these super cool ESD bracelets we wear. If I had these a year ago and knew what I was doing, I wouldn’t of spent all that money on new motherboards.

Today I was downloading more ATB albums off the Internet. I only got another 60 MB off iMESH, and another 50 MB off ripcast. I know, who cares how much mp3s I get of the Internet. There are many people who download 100s of songs in a day. Let’s not start that argument. Continuing on, I think some good tunes are ATB and Paul Van Dyke rave mix - DJ Special K and Sunscreen. Sunscreen sounds like Reggie mixed with trance. Not bad. I have some of his other songs like My Dream, Fields of Love, 9am, Let U Go, etc. Don’t get me wrong I’m still in rock artists just not as much anymore. My friends sometime caught me listening to Metallica, SotD, Black Sabbath, and Romstine. Whatever’s on 93X anyways. Go ahead, go to 93x.com. Now that is Hardcore, trance is my softer side.

Unlike other days, I rate this day a 3/5 because it’s not horrible, not very good. I’m trying out this new file sharing tool called Overnet Pro 0.52, and I’m not sure I like it. It’s another network that does the same thing as my usual uses of iMesh and Limewire. Sometimes it will work, sometimes it won't. I’m a little afraid to use Kazaa because my connections get deleted or close often. This doesn’t occur with iMesh or Limewire much at all, or if it does, it's my isp reconnecting, which shouldn't effect the hosts. I have an older version, 2.1. Kazaa now is at 2.6. All I know is that Kazaa! 2.1 still works. I don't know if Kazaa knows it's awful reconnection issues. I'm not the one whos goign to email them and say, I think there is something seriously wrong with your client, because I can't find the hosts I want once I'm disconnected. That's my reason - Kazaa sucks.

Remembering back to a couple segments ago, I commented on the Doom III engine, and how great that’ll be. Now, I think I’m going to comment on Valve Software’s new Source engine used primary for Half-Life 2. No doubt, Valve Software will make a ton of money leasing the source code out to other developers. You know, I haven’t played Half-life for 2 years, it could have been the graphics, or it could be that the game wasn’t fresh. Half-life had the Counter-strike Mod that most Half-life fans have tried. Half-life 2 is more commando based game like counter-strike. When I see Half-life 2, I think of the Resident Evil port on Gamecube. One reason I can think of – it looks like a Western European town. The mansion on RE1 and RE2 looked European with all the old paintings, stained glass, and gloomy, eerie sets. Half-life 2 is going to have some unusually realistic zombies as seen in the screenshots. If you want to read Half-life 2 – head over to Half-life2.com. IGN.com also has a good article on this game. Valve was working on the source engine shortly after Half-life was released. That must be 5 ½ years already. To keep it short I was amazed at the screenshots, the game looks really cool. It's going to be awesome on a lan when it comes out. Just like the original. Maybe someone will release a map pack including all the original Half-life missions. If it ain't broken, why fix it, right?

In game shot of the PC version of Valve's Half-life 2. There are better screenshots I'm sure.

Used the multimeter today at home. I wasn't sticking the ends into wall sockets. I was in the heat room of the basement, trying out the alligator clamps Dad gave me last week. I took readings. I think it was 360 Volts. Of course, I could go outside and clamp it to the electric meter (that box outside that measures voltage usage of the whole house) Then I got a N64, and things were lighting up. That’s before I got old, and what changed? I’m still playing games. Games improved, but same as 7 years ago, I’m pushing the same buttons, sitting in the same chair, watching the same television, and loosing sleep over it. And than I ask myself why? It’s an answer only a gamer can answer. I play less then half as much as I did in 1999 or even 2000. This is an improvement, is it not?

The Internet, unlike games, inspired me to do a lot more. It inspired me to create a website about games, to read up on games, to read up on the Minnesota Vikings, and to write about myself. The Internet got me to download Mp3s, find programs that would rip mp3s, and those that would listen too them. The Internet inspired me to talk to my friends through IM. Most of all, the Internet gave me a reason to stay up late. And play Diablo 2 all night long.