Summer Catch-Up.

OK, I've been lax in writing anything on this blog. But, I have a good reason. Anyway, here's a list of things that took place this summer. You know, for posterity. And also so that going forward my posts make some sort of sense.

• Sometime in June I was diagnosed with Mononucleosis. This is the second time I have had this stupid virus. 
• Mono suppresses your immune system fairly well, so I also got to experience a good handful of other things on top of it. 
• I attended a Summer semester at college. With mono. About as fun as it sounds. 
• I purchased a motorcycle, attended the MSF safety course, and received my motorcycle license. 
• I've been driving the motorcycle almost exclusively for about two months.
• I've been spending WAY too much time playing video games.

There, I think that about catches you up to mid-August. 

Fuck you, NY State. Seriously.

So I get a letter from the NYS Department of Labor on Tuesday. (July 5th) Being that it is from a NY governmental agency, the letter itself really makes no sense. Our unemployment has dropped below 8%, so instead of 20 weeks of extended benefits, we only get 13. And a lot of other stuff that tells you basically nothing.


As I originally understood it, benefits would continue until the end of this year. Which was great, because I have only one more semester left in college before I get my AAS degree. So, I was thinking, OK, seven weeks shortened from that means I will be dipping into savings to live the last seven weeks of school.

And then we checked with the NYS DOL today. Oh, no, they tell us, YOUR benefits end next week!

WTF?!?!?!?!

First of all, one week's notice? Thanks for that, assholes.

Secondly, 13 from 20 is 7 weeks. If it was supposed to run until December 31st, how is 7 weeks shorter July 11th?

Thirdly, what kind of fucking retard writes a bill that bases extending help to people off of an imaginary number. Look, if the unemployment rate drops below X%, we can drop it even lower by kicking more people off of unemployment! We'll look great! (Except for all the starving out of work people that we don't count because we're not paying them...)

So, in conclusion: Fuck you, NY State. Fuck you right up your stupid ass. (And I include our wonderfull bill-writer as well. FUBO!)

XS Big Dot 24/7 on a Walther PPS

I've always wanted to try the XS Big Dot 24/7 sights, so when my laser went kaput on my Bodyguard 380 it gave me the perfect excuse to equip my Walther PPS with them. (I need something that I can shoot at night, right?)

I found a good deal on them online and two days later they were in my hands, ready to install. or so I thought.

The front sight was very easy to remove from the PPS. Simply unscrew a flathead screw and pop it off. No problem. The rear sight was another story. According to the instructions and others online, you simply use the included non-marring punch and drive the rear sight out of its slot with a few light hammer taps. In reality, that sight was damned if it was going to leave its home. I ended up having to use a heavy brass punch, lots of hammer blows, and heavy cursing to get it out. And tape. Lots of blue painter's tape. (So I wouldn't scratch the slide.)

Anyway, once the old sights were off, the new front sight almost fit in easily. I tapped it in a bit with the non-marring punch and it fit flush to the slide. Honestly I don't think it would have moved even after that, but I used the red thread-locking fluid XS supplied and screwed in the new screw. (Don't use the screw from the old sight, it will break the tritium vial in the front sight as it is too long.)

The rear sight, unfortunately, was just as bad as the old rear sight. It would not slide into the slot, even with light tapping. I ended up having to buy a $30 set of files to shave off enough material from the sight to allow it to fit. Once I did get it slid into the slot, I lined it up by eyeball and tightened the set screw. I then applied the red fluid to the sight and let it set overnight as directed. As you can see from the pictures, it seems to look OK.

I took it to the range after the fluid had set and fired off about 100 rounds of 165gr .40 S&W ammo. Eyeballing the sight seemed to have worked OK, as I didn't have any windage issues. It did, however, take me about 40 rounds just to get used to lining up the big dot on the front sight with the line on the back sight. I kept lining up the middle of the dot, and instead should have been lining up the bottom of the dot. So, for 40 rounds all of my shots were low. Once I figured it out, I was able to punch a bunch of holes in the bullseye at 7 yards. I didn't try any farther as I was getting used to the sights and had a limited supply of ammo on me, but I feel confident the sights would do well at longer distances too.

Time Warner Funnies

A comedian recently took out a full page ad in newspapers to bash Time Warner for their appalling customer service. 

Time Warner responded in a pathetic, trying-too-hard kind of way.

What I think is really funny is this line from TW's response:

Missed installs and clumsy customer communications are issues that have plagued us for too long. They’re not unique to us, though — all of our peers and competitors struggle with the same problems, and not just in the United States, either. We have over 47,000 employees servicing 13 million customers. 

Firstly, you sound like an asshole for trying to excuse your company with the old "they do it too!" routine. Secondly, HEY JACKASS *BOING!* Do you think, maybe, perhaps, that having 47,000 employees trying to service 13 MILLION customers might be your base fucking problem right there? Hey, maybe stop trying to step up the bottom line by making each customer service person cover a few hundred customers and instead cut the insane top level bonuses out. You know, the ones where you pat yourselves on the backs for paying the people who do the actual work for your company jack shit while pissing off a huge chunk of your customers and making everyone hate you? But, what do I know? I'm only working on a degree in a business, I don't yet have my masters in fucking everyone over and dying rich but friendless.

Tattoo Designs 3 - The Return!

Alienware Aurora R3, GeForce 590 GTX note

Just a small addendum to my Alienware articles. I wanted to note that the GeForce card that came in my system (which I specifically upgraded to when speccing it out) - the GeForce 590 GTX - was noted as having 3 DVI and 1 HDMI outputs. This is incorrect for the card I received, as it came with 3 DVI and 1 mini-Display port outputs.

Also, since I did not have any DVI cables, I had to run out and buy an adapter for my HDMI cable. As a warning to others, this is a Bad Idea. Oh, it works. You get a nice picture and can use your existing HDMI cable. But, the communication between the adapter and the cable gets interrupted every once in a while to the tune of a black screen for between two and ten seconds. Irritating if you are reading or watching something, devastating if you are playing a game. I finally sprung for a new DP cable to stop it. (After getting killed ins everal different games because of the black screen.)

Just something to be aware of.

My Alienware Experience - Part 4

Well, it's been two weeks now, and I am still using my Alienware Aurora R3 PC, and I still love it. I've had the chance to really give it a workout in some new, high end graphical games, and it really shines. It also works great for the day to day computing that I do.

Let me start out by saying that if you are like me and research the crap out of major purchases before you commit, then you will have read all of the internet horror stories about Alienware. They ship broken, or they don't work right, or you have to spend two months working with support to get the right stuff, etc. Of course we all realize that the Internet is 90% bitchfest, and only 10% praise. People don't come online to tell you how great a purchase they just made, but they sure do come on to complain when something goes wrong. So you may be a tad bit anxious about purchasing a computer that even has it's own sucks.com site. I say "don't be."

My Alienware shipped on-time - actually, a couple of days early. It was working flawlessly when I set it up. (Yes, I had to install all of my software and update some drivers, but hey, that's life with a PC. If you don't like that, you shouldn't be using a PC.) It has performed with excellence in all tasks that I have shoved at it, and I have yet to have occasion to complain.

As far as performance goes, let's talk briefly about two modern games: Brink and Rift. I ran Fraps during both of these games for extended periods to make sure that I was getting decent performance for my money. I chose these games because they are both newer releases, and because they both push the graphics card to work hard. In fact, these two games are the only games that I played recently that actually caused the graphics card fan to spin up to a faster level.

During multiplayer, 16 person Brink sessions, the fps (Frames per Second) never dipped below 38. They averaged out at 44. This is with all of the graphics options turned up as high as they will go and at a resolution of 1920x1200. The game looks nice, and it played smoothly, with no detectable hitching. I will note, however, that Brink is a really new release, and that it still has its share of graphical bugs. I expect that as the game is further optimized, I will see an increase in fps.

Rift is a newer MMORPG game that really has spectacular graphics. Of course, in order to enjoy those graphics, you need a PC capable of showing them to you in an acceptable framerate. I ran Rift at a resolution of 1920x1200, on the Ultra setting at first, and I was getting an average of 62 fps. But then I noticed that the "ultra" setting left quite a few graphics sliders turned down. How ultra is ultra if it isn't actually ULTRA? So, I went ahead and turned all of the sliders up to the max. Go big or go home, right? When walking around solo and questing, I averaged around 45 fps. In groups doing dungeon runs, my fps dropped just a tiny bit to average around 42. And the real test, giant raid sized outdoor events where rifts are opening and spilling out hordes of monsters and 100+ players are all on the screen at once battling those monsters. During these chaotic events, the Aurora R3 still averaged 28 fps, with a low of 24fps. Even with that many things happening onscreen at the same time, the gameplay was smooth and I never noticed any detectable graphical hitching. My old system hitched during World of Warcraft raids with as few as 20 players present, and it wasn't out of date or under-powered. it just wasn't as top notch as the new Alienware.

So, I am going to end my series of articles on the new Alienware Aurora R3 with a positive rating for the system and a few notes. The only thing even slightly bad I can say about it is that when playing Rift and Brink the GeForce 590 GTX card's fan kicks up the speed quite a bit, and the exhaust sound is quite loud. It actually makes me turn up my speakers a bit. Of course, my system sits level with my desk and about a foot away from my monitor, so moving it might make the noise a non-issue. (Or liquid cooling it, like the CPU.) The only time the system ever crashed was the first day that Brink was released. The open GL interface between the game and the graphics card locked it up tight. Other than that, it has run flawlessly. The lighting system looks great, and is fun to set up with different color schemes for each game or flashing lights when you receive an email. So far, my Alienware experience has been very positive, and I would definitely recommend them to others who want a custom gaming PC, but don't have the time to build and support it themselves.