Red's Box

Photo Card

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:23:00 +0000

Big Bright Joy Holiday

Create unique holiday invitations at Shutterfly.com.

View the entire collection of cards.

Steam Double Duty

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Mon, 10 Oct 2011 03:46:00 +0000

While downloading Shogun 2 on my desktop and installing some Torchlight mods on my laptop today I found a neat trick. It has to do with downloading a game via Steam on one computer and playing a game (or downloading, chatting with friends, etc) on a second computer via Steam using the same account. It can be done with minimal hassle which I will detail below the break.

1. On the computer, "first" computer, you plan to just download (not play) games on go ahead and start downloading whatever games you want and leave it running (to the download screen if you want to monitor). Be sure to start all downloads at once because in order to add new games to the download queue you will have to restart this entire process.

2. Start Steam on your other, "second" computer.

3. Even if you have Steam set to auto log-in It will ask you to enter your password because you are already logged in elsewhere. Do it and Steam should start normally.

4.Now observe on the first computer that the "You've been logged out" prompt asking you to log back in appears, however your games continue to download in the background. Don't hit "cancel" or Steam exits and don't log back in or it will log you out on the second computer. If you left the first computer on the download monitor screen you can review their progress as you normally would, but you can't otherwise interact with Steam.

5. Enjoy playing a game on your second computer while downloading on your first!

I haven't verified that this works on Mac, but I imagine it will behave similarly.

Un Awful

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Sat, 14 May 2011 22:08:00 +0000

Saw this in a park; makes perfect sense to me.

The Great Hunt

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 02:19:00 +0000

Had a great weekend with family and the monkey moose had fun hunting for Easter Eggs! Plus it was a great excuse to dust off the DSLR which I have had far too little time to screw around with. Find some awesomely cuteness after the break.

Media to the Max(imum PC)

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 03:13:00 +0000

Maximum PC | Rip, Watch and Organize Everything: The Ultimate Media Guide

Maximum PC has done it again. For a dead simple, feature rich guide to ripping, watching and doing whatever you might ever want to do with your media that have released an updated one stop shop. Want to know my favorite parts of the article? Hit the Read more link, if you want to skip all that rambling hit the link at the top or head over to Maximum PC!

With streaming services getting more and more popular everyday (it is how the wife and I consume media almost exclusively) having to put in a DVD or Blu-ray feels archaic. By far the most useful and relevant portion of this article is the step by step guide to ripping your media for hosting on your own home server or backup. Being able to sit back and flip to any movie you already own is an astounding experience and shouldn't be skipped. Go read up on the article and let me know your favorite part.

Stardock's 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 22 Feb 2011 23:13:00 +0000

Stardock has released their annual report which you can browse here at your leisure.

Best part? Sins of a Solar Empire announcements due this year! Woot!

My Android

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 15 Feb 2011 04:22:00 +0000

I think the resemblance is uncanny. A strikingly handsome Android if I may say so myself.

Words with Friends

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 23:13:00 +0000

The popular Scrabble like game Words with Friends is out now for Android. Hit me up for a word crushing!

Words with Friends

Plague Survival

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 16:05:00 +0000

Back at work after outlasting death itself. Okay so maybe that is a bit dramatic, but the fact remains that I'm relatively human again with only minor zombification.

Sins of a Solar Empire Beta Patch Released

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 22:13:00 +0000

Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity/Diplomacy is receiving an update with quite a few balancing fixes and engine updates to hopefully squash any memory crashes.

Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog

[ Engine ]

The game engine has been updated in order to free up more texture memory. Players should generally use no more than 1.3 GB of RAM on Huge maps with all races represented now. We're very interested to see what everyone's experiences are with this, so please post back and let us know. You can find the total by alt-tabbing out of the game and hitting Ctrl+Shift+Escape, select the Processes tab and look for Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy.exe.

[ Gameplay ]

Pirates

The Pirates system has been completely overhauled with this update. Rather than relying on random upgrades which could result in a huge power curve, the Pirates will now scale gradually in abilities, fleet size and power as a game progresses.
The size of the Pirate fleet is now based off of the current raid level (Low, Guarded, Elevated, High, Highest) and there are now preset fleet compositions for each.
Pirates now take into consideration the total amount of bounty on offer before sending out their fleets (at High and Highest raid levels). If there isn't enough booty on the table, the Pirates will send out a smaller fleet. This is to prevent 250 credit cheese scenarios that could spawn a massive Pirate incursion.
Pirates have the opportunity to purchase upgrades after every launched raid. There are 20 levels of upgrades available to them which include bonuses to Armor, HP, Weapon Strength, Weapon Range; plus special abilities including Intercept, Quick Jump Calculation, Timed Explosives, Heavy Fallout, Embargo Planet and Sabotage Reactor. Basically if you let the Pirates live in a really long game, they will become very nasty indeed!
The Pirate mission system via diplomacy has been updated. Players must now pay a pre-set credit amount to generate a raid (same fleet composition as for bounty-spawned raids). This eliminates the guesswork of paying too much/little and not quite knowing what you'll get (and makes issuing raids generally quicker).
The Pirate base's population upgrade will now properly increase population growth rate.

TEC Balance

Kol:
Gauss Blast: Reduced AM cost from 75 to 50/55/60; increased damage from 325/650/975 to 400/725/1050.
Flak Burst: Range changed from 2400/3000/3600 to 3000/3300/3600.
Finest Hour: AM regen reduced from 5 to 3; HP regen increased from 10 to 15.

Dunov:
EMP: Range increased from 4500 to 4500/5000/5500; AM cost changed from 100/90/80 to 90/90/90; cooldown reduced from 50/45/40 to 40/35/30.
Magnetize: Max affected strikecraft increased from 8/12/16 to 12/20/28.

Marza:
Incendiary Shells: Stacking limit increased from 1 to 3.
Missile Barrage: Range reduced from 10,000 to 8,000.

Hoshiko:
Demolition Bots: Changed needsToFaceTarget TRUE to FALSE.

Novalith Cannon:
Cannon shots now cause a planet to suffer 100% reduced trade income. This effect will no longer stack.
Pinpoint Bombardment: Increased range bonus from 0.1333 per level to 0.6667 per level.

Advent Balance

Radiance:
Animosity: Increased max targets from 8/16/32 to 12/24/36; effect now channels every second over 20 seconds instead of being an instant action so new targets entering the AoE are hit; auto-cast will only activate if 3 or more enemy ships are in range.
Absorptive Armor: Increased armor bonus from 1/2/3 to 2/4/6.

Rapture:
Vertigo: Increased range from 4500 to 4500/5000/5500.

Revelation:
Guidance: Now a triggered, caster-based area of effect that affects friendly capital ships, frigates and structures. AM cost is now 90/100/110; range is 8000/8000/8000, cooldown is 50/50/50; buff applied grants 25%/25%/25% boost to ability cooldown rate, duration 20/30/40.
Clairvoyance: Duration increased from 90/120/150 to 90/150/210.

Communal Labor: Allows constructor ships to buff the rate of whatever a structure does (i.e., ship building) by flying within range of it.

Vasari Balance

Jarrasul:
Colonize: Now grants additional constructor frigates instead of a structure build rate bonus. Gives 1/2/3 constructor frigates for 360/480/600 seconds.

Skirantra:
Scramble Bombers: Reduced expiry time from 120 to 75; reduced cooldown time from 35 to 30.

Antorak:
Distort Gravity: Reduced cooldown from 45 to 40.

Vulkoras:
Phase Missile Swarm: Increased range from 5000 to 6500; increased max targets from 3/5/7 to 4/8/12.
Assault Specialization: Increased bonus damage from 60/120/180 to 90/180/270.

Stilakus Subverter:
Shield Disruption: Reduced Phase Missile Block reduction from 25% to 20%; reduced Shield Mitigation Reduction from 10% to 8%.
Distortion Field: Reduced radius from 2000 to 1600.

Kostura Cannon:
Will no longer damage and stun enemy ships.

Orkulus:
Debris Vortex will now only activate when debris is in range of the effect.
Debris Vortex's second level will now unlock correctly.

Raider Xenophobia: Tech moved to level 5; reduced from 2 upgrade levels to 1; will now reduce the Pirate fleet size sent against the player by 1 level (i.e., an Elevated level fleet size becomes a Guarded level fleet).

Diplomacy System

The Aggressiveness Rating for all players has been changed to be a random value between -1.5 to +2 (from -2 to +2).
The calculation for Military Presence has been updated to look at the ratio of the players' used fleet points instead of just overall fleet points. This should make the overall diplomatic rating more balanced overall, especially at higher difficulty levels. We'll be looking for feedback on this.
Added a new Trade Bonus modifier for diplomatic relations. Players who have a Trade Alliance will slowly gain a positive diplomatic relations bonus with one another as trade ships reach foreign ports up to a maximum of +2. If the Trade Alliance is ended, this bonus will decrease gradually back to 0.

[ AI ]

The AI will no longer max out all of its gravity wells with mines. Mine building is now based on AI type. This should help reduce memory use and improve performance.
Fixed bug where the AI would form a Pact, break it, and then immediately reform it if the players' relationship value dropped to a certain level repeatedly.
The AI will no longer send Envoys to non-aligned gravity wells where the player controls a resource (i.e., if you controlled a neutral extractor at an asteroid belt).
AI players will no longer "spam" the player with mission requests after a mission has been rejected. Each rejection will cause the AI to wait four minutes before offering another mission (culmulative up to 10 times for each consecutive rejection).

[ Interface ]

The far planet icons that show up when far stars are visible are now turned off by default. Hovering your mouse over the far star icon will now show the far planet icons (if visible). Alternatively, holding down ALT will now show all visible far planet icons.

[ Misc. ]

Fixed a couple errors in the entity files that would cause the game to crash.
Ability PhaseOutHull will now play the proper sound effect.
Adjusted max dot for graphics to 0.95 from 1. This should largely eliminate the strange white lines that would appear for some players on the edges of ships/structures. Special thanks to Aractain and Kitkun for this info!
Missions can now be rejected so long as there's at least half the original mission time remaining.

Against the Wall

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 19:57:00 +0000

In their first post of Humanity week ArenaNet discusses the spirit of the human race and has many sound clips for readers to enjoy. I highly recommend checking the article out.

Plan on getting Guild Wars 2? Going to play a human? I am very tempted to roll a human warrior myself, to carry on the legacy of Redeye The Wall.

Against the Wall: Humanity in Guild Wars 2 – ArenaNet Blog

Ghosts of Ascalon

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:18:00 +0000

Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this book for both the story and the subtle spoilers and hints provided for Guild Wars 2. I have always been a huge Guild Wars lore fan and this just added more fuel to the fire. I can't wait to read the second (and third?) book and am eagerly anticipating the release of the second Guild Wars game!

View all my reviews

First Haircut

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Sun, 30 Jan 2011 10:00:00 +0000

Ethan is no longer the proud owner of a mullet. Yes, it is true; Amber and I took him up to get a haircut on the 21st and he instantly looks 6 months older. Hopefully this will reduce the number of "cute girl" comments he gets while out in public!

Ghostmaker

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Fri, 28 Jan 2011 00:46:00 +0000

Ghostmaker (Warhammer 40,000) by Dan Abnett

My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I really like Dan Abnett's style, but felt this book was a little less engaging than First and Only. Mostly I think I was thrown off by the flashbacks that are throughout the novel.

View all my reviews

Fallout: New Vegas

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:21:00 +0000

Fallout: New Vegas just released. See you in 2011.

Magicka

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 03:11:00 +0000

Magicka

This little co-op gem has caught my eye and is worth a quick look. The game is Magicka and is currently scheduled to release in January 2011, which the reasoning for the delay can be seen in this video. Check the game out and keep an eye on it to release here in a few months.

Android Post Test

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 03:32:00 +0000

Once again time to test a new platform for posting! What excuse will I come up with this time for never adding new content?! Stay tuned.

Published with Blogger-droid v1.6.3

A Single Demand

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Mon, 21 Jun 2010 03:27:00 +0000

For our (only Amber was in attendance unfortunately) baby shower we got an awesome new Kodak Zx3 HD pocket cam. Here is the first result! I think we're off to a good start, hit the break to watch.

The Unveiling

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:49:00 +0000

In response to absolutely no demand whatsoever I have gone ahead and thrown together a quick "tour" of our new pad. Pad, is that what the kids are saying these days? No bother, hit the jump for the tour brought to you for FREE because I'm such a nice guy.

GameSave Manager

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 18 May 2010 05:43:00 +0000

The good folks over at Lifehacker have shared a little gem of gaming greatness. It isn't any new digital distribution services or even a new game, but rather a backup utility called GameSave Manager that hunts down all your save game files hidden away on your hard drive and backs them up in a few simple clicks Hit up the read more link for my take on the program or just click here to cut to the chase.

I have personally been using a combination of Windows Live Sync and a dedicated server to keep all my game saves synced between my laptop and desktop. This has worked great and I will continue to use this method, however the biggest issue I had with this method was having to hunt down every game's save files which could be quite a chore. Now I have begun using GameSave Manager in combination with Live Sync to manage my save game files with much less frustration and far less time consumed. Since GameSave Manager hunts down all my save game files for me, all I have to do is sync the single folder where GameSave saves the backups across my server and I instantly have access to all saves regardless of what computer I'm using.

So far this has worked great for me and has minimized the amount of time it takes me to setup new games allowing me more time to actually play the games! Check it out for yourself even if you don't sync between multiple PCs, having all those saves backed up is quite a boon for the PC enthusiasts out there.

Mother's Day 2010

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Tue, 18 May 2010 05:21:00 +0000

Some pretty exciting (and sad) events have been occuring around here lately and one of the more enjoyable events was the mother's day lunch this year. The number of mother's has quickly grown in the past year, but we are at a theoretical maximum at least until Ella gets a lot older. Hit the read link for pictures!

Adjust orientation, fire fire FIRE

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 06:23:00 +0000

Flotilla, a little gem of a game just landed on Impulse and for the low, low price of $10 you can own one of the best indie strategy games I’ve played in long time. The basic premise is you maneuver your ships into favorable firing positions in relation to the enemy ships. Frontal attacks are ineffective forcing you to flank in 360 degrees with a control scheme reminiscent of Homeworld. During paused turns you issue orders to your various ships and once orders have been transmitted you watch the outcome. The enemy is maneuvering to a firing position as well, so anticipating their next move is critical especially with multiple ships on each side. The combat is addicting and the art style is retro and fabulous. Buy it from Impulse or from the developer directly.

If you enjoy good old fashioned tactics and strategic maneuvering you will probably enjoy Flotilla.

Acceptance, closure and the distance in between

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Fri, 12 Mar 2010 08:16:00 +0000

Most of my you know by now that I've accepted a job offer in Fort Worth, Texas with Lockheed Martin. I will be doing proposal and project management type work for thew F-35 JSF program. You probably also know that the wife and I are well on our way to pur first minion. All this change has got me thinking about the way things come around. What few of you might know is it was originally LM Aeronautics that I had tried so desperately to hire on with out of college, but after months of unemployment an offer to work with Lockheed for NASA was too good to pass up, despite it requiring a stay in Houston. Two days after I accepted the offer in Houston I was called by Aero for an interview, but such as I am I declined. I had already committed myself and I was afraid any hesitation would cause me to stumble.

So here I am. Almost exactly three years later after having done some crazy things in order to pull my weight in the US manned space flight mission returning to what I rejected to even my own surprise. I find myself preparing to make a transition to that "thing I've always wanted" with a lot more reservations than I thought I should have. Maybe it is partly because of the uncertainty and unsteady future that is looming over this little space industry or maybe because I've made more friends here than I thought I could. One thing is for certain is that I definitely learned how much a person can learn about one's self by doing something you thought you didn't want followed by something you thought meant everything and then examining the delta in between.

I am very excited about the new job and can't wait to have a Jerod 2.0 to corrupt. I just wish the cost of change wasn't always so damn high.

New York Trip v2.0

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Thu, 11 Mar 2010 05:28:00 +0000

I has been far too long since I’ve posted here (I’m ignoring the previous NY picture post that was an epic fail) and need to get back on the ball. A lot is going on down in Houston, the biggest is that we are GETTING OUT OF HOUSTON. Yay!

The real reason I’m writing this is to share our pictures from New York. The wife took me on an awesome trip for a Christmas/Birthday joint gift and we had a blast. Check it out below.

1/20/2010 – Empire State Building

1/21/2010 – Statue of Liberty and Ellis Island

1/22/2010 – USS Intrepid and Blue Man Group

1/23/2010 – St. Patrick’s Cathedral

New York, New York

noreply@blogger.com (Redeye) — Mon, 22 Feb 2010 16:42:00 +0000

Frigg'n cold town. Pics below.

(technical difficulties pics soon!)