Saturday, June 2, 2007

24 - season 1 ending

OK, the ride was definitely better than the destination. I realize that they have a schedule for the show, but that had to be one of the most anti-climactic endings for a TV show. And it wasn't even the whole episode, just those last few minutes. They realized they were running out of time, rushed the script to fit everything in, and it shows. I hope season 2 does a better job with the last episode.

Still trying to get through Daybreak. It's not that I don't like it - I actually really like it - I just don't have time. I recently watched 2 more episodes, though, and I have to say, the show starts out OK, and goes from there to awesome.

Friday, June 1, 2007

0x8015193

Ok, here was my deal. It may be different for others, but I got this solution with the help of some nice Microsoft GFWL engineers.

My Killer NIC was preventing me from reaching the LIVE service. I was skeptical of this at first, but they asked me to uninstall the Killer NIC and then try the onboard Ethernet. Well, after uninstalling the Killer NIC, I couldn't get either onboard Ethernet port to work. Oh, they said they worked, and that I had an internet connection, but I really didn't. I tried for a couple of hours to get those onboard ports to work, then I threw in the towel and reinstalled Vista.
Long story short, fresh Vista install, using NVidia Ethernet drivers and motherboard NIC, Game For Windows LIVE now working fine. I just enjoyed an hour of Shadowrun with some Xbox 360 players, got some nice achievements, kicked some butt.

I notified the people at Bigfoot networks already, hopefully they can come up with a driver solution, or Microsoft will patch the game, but I'm in for now, so the Killer NIC is getting shelved until the issue is resolved.

I'm guessing 0x8015193 is a NIC error code, so even if you don't have a PCI NIC, you could maybe try reinstalling your Ethernet drivers, or getting a cheap PCI NIC card.

Thursday, May 31, 2007

BTW...

...I did install a new toilet in the downstairs bathroom, finally. Of course, it required about 20 trips to Home Depot and Lowes, some cursing, a little wax meltdown, some more cursing, a caulk gun "incident", and a little more cursing, but hey, it was worth it for a new place to poo!

Now I just have to pray it doesn't explode and flood my house someday.

New Review is up: Razer DeathAdder

http://mmorpg.com/showFeature.cfm/loadFeature/1258

Shadowrun and Halo 2 for Vista

So, I bought Halo 2 last week, and Shadowrun this week. I can't play either game online, because Microsoft's Games for Windows - LIVE! service doesn't want me to connect. A GFWL engineer is taking my info via email today to try to solve my issue, but I'm a bit dissapointed that I can't really play either game online, and that half of my LIVE gold free trial is over without me ever having logged in.

Shadowrun seem cool, from the little bit I played of the training levels. People the 'net over are bitching about how loose the mouse controls are, but they really don't seem all that bad. Maybe they suck if you are used to Quake 3 or Unreal Tournament levels of accuracy, but they seem pretty much like a lot of other FPS games I have played. The more you move, the less accurate you are. Plus, it's Shadowrun! I have been waiting for another Shadowrun video game forever. I loved the pen and paper RPG when I was a teenager. Not to mention the magic and technology stuff really seems to add another cool level to the combat.

So, anyway, I guess I get to wait for Microsoft to figure out what 0x8151913 means before I can try against other players.

Halo 2 is dated, the graphics are looking kind of ugly. The game is fun in single player though, since the story is what really elevates it above generic shooter 1k. It'd be nice to get acheivemnts through LIVE though, since that was a big advertised part of the game.

I guess when it comes to Games For Windows - LIVE! I am giving it two big BLAHS for now.

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

Yay!


Two and a half years after I started playing the game, I finally got my first epic mount in World of Warcraft. Yeah, I'm slow like that. The issue really was that I didn't want to grind out cash to buy one pre-expansion, and now that The Burning Crusade is out, it's much easier to get money for it. Now I'm only 600 gold away from getting my flying mount.

When does that next expansion come out?

Also, I was remiss in not mentioning my wife's part in getting me the epic mount, since she is the gold earning queen.

Sunday, May 27, 2007

Windows Media Player 11 Stopped playing MP3s? Here's a fix.

If you're like me and want to break everything in your house when something simple in Vista just stops working for no apparent reason, well, you're probably going to die early from heart failure. Anyway...

I thought this might help some poor soul like me who had to spend an afternoon troubleshooting instead of writing, or gaming, or whatever. (Installing a new toilet?)

Here's the skinny:

Problem: Windows Media Player 11 just stopped playing MP3s. It now says the codec is not recognized.

Solution:
This only works for those of you with Soundblaster X-Fi cards. Why? Because the X-Fi is the cause of this issue.

1.- Download the X-Fi Vista drivers from: http://www.soundblaster.com/language.asp?sDestUrl=/support/downloads

2. - Simply reinstall the X-Fi drivers and reboot.

That's it. After trying everything else, a simple reinstall of my soundcard drivers and a reboot fixed the issue. Vista booted normally, and MP11 played my MP3 files again with no problems.

F**king Vista. F**king Creative. F**K!