ZeroDesolation

Check Who's Tracking You With a Firefox Extension

2012-02-29T12:43:00.001-05:00

Collusion for Firefox Shows You Who’s Tracking You on the Web In Real Time [Firefox Extensions]

I'll be trying this out when u get home to see what all it shows.

Reserve iPad 2 Trade-in Price

2012-02-28T13:57:00.001-05:00

Sell Your iPad 2 for More by Locking In a Trade-in Value Now [Selling]

This is actually a very good idea. Two companies give you a time frame for your ipad on the day you register to trade it it. It'll hold true for 21 days for one company and 30 on the other company. If you're going to upgrade, you might should go ahead and do this. Especially since they say on March 2nd will be the day they announce it if they do.

Samsung TV Having Issues

2012-02-23T17:57:00.001-05:00

Well about 4 days ago my TV started clicking when I cut it on in the morning. It eventually cut on but a TV shouldn't do that.

So I decided I'd research it online. How about all Samsung TVs have the same issue. After reading more into it, there are 3 capacitors that were put into the TV on a 12 or 15 volt charge that is needed. In time the clicking on and off will take longer to cut the TV on and will eventually go out.

Since its a huge issue Samsung will actually repair it for free. Better them send a professional than me taking the TV apart to do it myself. I've only soldered once before and I did it fix a Philips DVD player with the same type issue. That DVD player worked better than it ever had.

So setting here typing this out as the guy is here currently fixing TV. So ill have more years to come from my TV.

Google Glasses?

2012-02-23T13:22:00.001-05:00

The Daily Beast: Google to Sell Display Glasses http://goo.gl/mag/ZNOSJ

Now this will be interesting to see.

Nothing Like A Few Hacks to Help You Out

2012-02-23T09:06:00.001-05:00

Watch This Video to Learn 10 Simple Everyday Life Hacks in 60 Seconds [Video]

Kingdom Rush

2012-02-22T20:17:00.002-05:00

Kingdom Rush is the game I mentioned at the end of my last post. I had read a review from a website and it just caught my attention. I finally remembered to download it and it was 66% off this week. So I picked it up for .99 cent. Can't beat that for a game.

Kingdom Rush is another tower defense game but it is very impressive. You have your towers and your roads. You have an archer tower with 2 guys on top shooting, a barracks with 3 guys that come out to block the road, a Wizard's tower with one Wizard standing on it, artillery damage which is a massive cannon, a meteor strike to rain down terror, and recruits (farmers if you must) that you can keep putting down to help out.

I'm only 4 sections deep into the game. On each part you have a Campaign mode, Heroic mode, and an Iron Challenge mode. Campaign is obviously the story for playing through the game. However, you must get 3 starts to unlock the other two modes on each part. Both Heroic and Iron Challenge are hard to beat. I did them all on the first two parts of the map, however, the next 2, I have only been able to beat the campaign. The game has upgrades, so I'm going to progress some so I can upgrade my units in hopes that it will help me but depending on where you are in the campaign the game limits how how a tower and which towers you can use.

Most tower defense games you can mostly breeze through until you get close to the end. This one is getting hard already at the beginning so it's going to be a struggle to actually get all 70 stars in the game.

The game through in achievements as well so you can work towards those as well. I'm up to 11 so far.

The only other tower defense game I've played that has gotten hard is Jelly Defense. I love the colors in that game for the way they made them stand out. The game play is good and you have to learn a good strategy in that game as well as this one. Without it, you will lose for sure.

Spice Invaders

2012-02-22T14:33:00.002-05:00

Before my trip to Colorado Springs a couple weeks ago, I had grabbed a new iPad game that was up on the front page for suggestions. It was called Spice Invaders and it's a tower defense game. Well, on the plane ride over, I loaded it up and I played through the first few boards. It was fun but I stopped because you have to be online for it to register and update your experience to get your rewards.

So later on that night at the hotel, I fired it back up and collected all my stuff and went up a level. So I started running through the boards and there are different ways to actually play each board. So that helps spread out the games for beating it different ways.

One way was actually playing online. So I load it up and randomly get someone else that is online playing and end up in a tie during the match. It's easy enough to win the first 2 boards as it's 1vs1.

So I go back to clearing out the Americas and beat each of the ones that I could and the last one that opened up was set to hard. Well I haven't been able to beat it and I thought I needed it cross over to Africa. Just realized that I have it opened so I can continue on. Guess it was my level that needed to go up for me to move on.

Here is what is pulling me back into the game even more. I decided to do the 3rd map for the multiplayer aspect of the game. It threw me off at first as it showed 5 slots. Well 5 slots was no lie. 5 people trying to defend and take out every one elses guys coming out all at the same time. It's mass chaos and I have won yet. However it is fun and I'm still trying to grasp exactly how to place my pieces down as you have to be quick or you don't get any. I can tell I need to level up as once all the places are taken, all you can do is level up your pieces. Doesn't do much good when you've stopped and people around you are still upgrading to a higher level.

So I'm definitely going to have to play more to level up and get some more spice to upgrade my towers to have a slightly better chance of staying in the game longer for a win.

However, I had read about another tower defense game that I started playing as it went on sale this week for .99 cent so I'll try to post about that as it's a very good game as well. It's also very hard. So more to come on my next post for that game.

First Onyx medal in GOW 3

2012-02-21T08:35:00.001-05:00

I got my first Onyx medal in GOW 3 last night. I kept seeing the field engineer popping up, so I guess it was counting down for me everytime I upgraded/repaired a device. I got it the same time I upgraded my sentry gun to level 3. Too bad we were on wave 20 and the board filled with gunkers. They destroyed my new sentry. 8( One thing for sure, in a wide open board like we were on, that gets rough as you can get hit from all directions. The host quit after the 2nd try, so it killed the flow and I left as well.

iVisor for iPad 2

2012-02-15T14:05:00.002-05:00

I got in a study for a new screen protector they were testing in the market. It was for a privacy screen protector, one was glossy and one had a matte finish. Both were descent products but still needed a little work to make them perfect for the market. Waiting to see if they actually come out or not now.

Well by doing the survey I got an Amazon gift card and I used it to buy a new screen protector. I got the iVisor. You can get it over on Amazon for $30. Which for a screen protector is not that cheap of a price. I got my first one free and others I bought were under $10.

However, I will highly recommend the iVisor to anyone. It's worth spending the money for this screen protector.

First reason being, when it says no bubbles, by gollie, there were no bubbles. I've never put on a screen protector that didn't have a bubble left in it. I was pretty amazed at that.

The black layer around the protector blends right in with the iPad 2's black area.

If you ever spill anything on it, you can actually take it off, wash it and then reapply it back on. Bonus for not having to buy a new one. There is a part of the instructions that says do not bend it to where you have made a permanent crease as that will mess up the product.

It's actually pretty thick compared to the other protectors I've used. So it's going to be pretty dependable for scratches or anything that would hit the screen.

Another feature that I did notice was the special EZ-Glide top layer treatment which reduces finger glide friction, making the touch screen maneuverability experience a lot better. It does help pick up my finger movements really good and it helps it move the screen a lot faster.

I've only had it on for a few days but I'm impressed right off the bat.

Xbox 360 Wireless N Adapter

2012-02-15T13:40:00.000-05:00

Finally broke down and got a Wireless N adapter for my 360. Just like the other one, very simple to install and the 360 picked it up right up.

Played Horde on GOW3 last night with it to test it out. Normally I get some lag or I get delayed at one point while playing on the older 3G adapter. I didn't run into any of that last night. Makes me wonder if it is the new adapter with the faster speeds or just luck. Will see as I continue playing different games online with it.

It'll be a really good test when the 3G speed on my router drops offline. Which is another reason I wanted the N adapter as my iPad 2 stays online and works on the N side of the house where all the other devices on G lose connection. From what I've found so far on that, having 5 or more devices seems to mess it up. Also, connecting our cell phones to it seem to make it crash extremely fast. I'm not sure why but it does.

So now that the 360 is off the G and on the N. Will see if Hulu hits any bad spots where it tries to keep loading over and over again. Hopefully it'll smooth it all out and make everything work even better on my network.

No Gaming

2012-02-06T09:05:00.001-05:00

I'm off on a 3 day trip so no gaming for a few days.

Well I guess that's not fully true. I will be playing on my ipad or phone.

At least plants vs zombies is done.

I finished off my first run through in gow3 and got all the collectibles done thanks to Robert. Arcade co-op on all levels is done as well.

Need to get back to some dead island again.

Was supposed to start operation flashpoint red river but john never showed so that killed that.

Need to focus on the puzzle arcade again so I can finish it off. Realized I was half way through the 3 layer fractal puzzle so that's good to know.

Print From Anywhere

2012-02-04T10:58:00.001-05:00

Google Cloud Print: It's Actually Awesome, and Here's How to Set It Up [How To]

The Simple Ways are Always the Best

2012-02-04T10:55:00.001-05:00

How to Install Carrier-Blocked Market Apps on Any Android Phone [How To]

Plants vs Zombies Update

2012-01-26T15:45:00.001-05:00

I've been down to two achievements in Plants vs Zombies for almost 2 weeks now. I've been playing when I can. That endless wave is a little rough. I was trying to use a strategy on TA but it only got me 24 flags the 2 times I tried it, so I gave up on it. You've got to have stuff to stop the bungee zombies. If not, they will take your stuff and mess you up.

At the bottom of the post, he posted another picture of what someone else said was a better setup. Plus it easier on cost to make happen. I've been rolling through with it and I'm almost to that point where I hit 24 flags again. It has been working pretty good and the cost to set it up was a lot lower than the other method. So getting it fully setup early on helps out. Definitely can't wait to see how much crazier it'll get after 24 flags and it's crazy enough already.

One thing I've been doing that wasn't in the picture was putting the spikes down to help stop the zombies on wheels. When they come in, you have one laying down ice that also flattens everything it runs over and the other is throwing stuff to take your guys out at the back. I put it on the 2nd row in from where the zombies come in but I'll probably add it to the front 2 rows when they come in as it will take them out quicker that way. Plus it hurts the other zombies. Only bad part is the gargantuan zombie that comes out will smash it with his club until it breaks. At least it does help slow him down while everything else is taking him out. Plus the spikes hurt all the zombies, so nothing like spending money to help me out more and not just setting there gaining and not spending anything outside of the ice plants to freeze the zombies.

Since I'm almost half way to where I usually get my brains eaten, I've been constantly using the ice plant to freeze all the zombies on the screen. I'm glad to have that duplicate plant so I can put 2 down of the same plant as it helps being able to regenerate it faster.

The other achievement involves the tree of life. I just sold my 2nd set of plants in my zen garden and used it all to buy fertilizer for the tree of life. I got it up to 81 feet before I ran out of money. I figured if I could make through endless mode and then sell everything else at that point, I should have enough to finish it off.

So maybe if I'm lucky, I'll finish this game off this weekend at some point if I can make it through 40 waves of zombies.

This is a Cool Idea

2012-01-21T18:04:00.001-05:00

Make a Secret Toekick Drawer for About $30 [DIY]

Wasteland Empires Update

2012-01-17T15:19:00.001-05:00

Well, I'm still chugging along on Wasteland Empires. I'm fixing to start researching Tier 8 and they just released Tier 9 not to long ago. So closing in on catching up with everyone. I did catch up and pass my friend. Not by much as he's just a few steps behind me on researching but he has more buildings down than I do. Just a different way to play but I'm slowly building that up. Big difference is I keep upgrading my stuff to get more people and he just put more buildings down upgrading a little for each.

One of main things I want to bring up is that now that I'm on higher tiers in the game, the amount of time and special parts slow you down in the game. It's weird how I can get a bunch of one thing but my friend doesn't get any. The game is random and you have to fight and hope to get the part you want. I tried and tried to get a part and finally gave up and just bought the part I needed. If not, there is no telling when or if I would have ever gotten the part I needed. Sometimes buildings don't even drop anything. All higher tier buildings in the game should drop some item and not just the resources. I can understand the smaller more abundant buildings not dropping stuff all the time as you can take out a bunch during your fight. But there is only 1 primary well, hall, barracks, and so forth. Those should drop an item every time. I go more times of nothing than anything, so that part can get you frustrated in the game.

I really hope they put more into the clan stuff here soon so we can see what all this will be about. It might add a ton more to do in the game and it can already suck you in. I know the game is beta but seeing the coming soon doesn't mean in 2 weeks. It could be months and has been already. I also wish the items in the world you can't scavenge would be opened up as well. Having to build your town around those items, which some are pretty big (gas station for example), messes up any design you might have in mind or come up with.

They made a huge blunder recently on one of the updates though. They made it where you couldn't train your troops if you actually in the game. I'm sorry but I don't have time to set there and keep the screen active to build units to fight. I could have been doing fights all day and yet I didn't get to fight any because they wouldn't train while I didn't have the game loaded. I'm glad they fixed that as I probably would have stopped playing being forced to have the window open in the game.

Wasteland Empires

2012-01-11T14:55:00.002-05:00

Still playing this game. They had made a change a few days ago where they forced you to be in the game to build your army to fight. Well, that really blows as I'm not going to set there waiting on that. My fighting time went down and I spent less time in the game than I did before. Last night the game updated again and they fixed it so it does it offline from what I can tell.

The game is horrible about giving you what you need. You might destroy the building you need but it might not drop anything out. Yet that's the only building in the game that will drop that item and only 1 exist in each town. This part of the game is the most annoying part. Running out resources is rough and you are forced to fight and yet you can't get what you need. So you get stuck waiting unless you want to spend money to buy it but if you keep that routine up, you'll sink money into the game.

I've expanded out a little bit more and there are more bigger items that you can't scavenge that say coming soon. You are stuck building around them and if you have a layout for a town, it's going to mess you up. I seriously need them to start opening that stuff up in the game or take them off the map. They started small with a dune buggy and a tank. Now it's gas stations and the top of a tall glass building from what I unlocked. I know the game is beta but you can't leave that stuff locked like that forever. They need to do something with those items.

They also need to get to turning the clan stuff on. Most people have made clans yet there is only 1 person in them. Need to open this game up and see what that has to offer so people will want to fight more. Would help make the game more interesting and add even more to it. That part needs to hurry up.

Gears of War 3 and New Headset

2012-01-11T14:47:00.000-05:00

Started up GOW3 last night and the game hung up on me right when I picked up the money on the desk. I had to wait until all the names showed up but I could never hit B to get it off the screen. Had to start it back over to clear it out. That was annoying.

The first seen with everything building itself reminded me of Alan Wake. They so had to pull that idea from that game.

Was playing through with 2 friends last night. They helped me find the collectibles as I was going through. They wont' be there tonight, so I'll probably start missing them unless I pull up a guide to know where they are.

The new headset worked great though. It didn't drop out any like the old one does. I thought the plastic piece going around my ear would hurt after a while but it never did. The piece that set on my ear did so I'm going to switch it out to see if that will help on that.

Gears of War 3, Sims 3 Pets, and new Headset

2012-01-10T13:31:00.001-05:00

Finally got GOW3 today. I'll be happy to load this up and start playing through it.

I wonder how much Dead Island I'll play now that I have this.

Picked up Sims 3 Pets when it was $20 just a few days ago. Wife and kids are enjoying that so far. No achievements have popped so that means it's not going to be easy to finish this Sims game either.

I also got the new Headset for the 360 and my phone. I'll be happy to get this charged up. The first wireless headset keeps dropping out and going to the TV and back to my headset. Hopefully the new one won't do that and will stay connected.

Wife Got A Nook Tablet Today

2011-12-30T15:17:00.001-05:00

Well the power cord on my wife's nook color came apart and it wasn't going into the slot on the nook very good either. So took it to best buy with the warranty we had on it (which expired next month) to see about getting a new cable. Of course they can't just do that so we have to swap it out completely.

Well I pushed the fact that we spent $250 on it but it's now $200. So I wanted the Nook Tablet as it was $250 now and the Nook Color was only $200. Well it paid off as she got tired of me harping on it. So we walked out with the tablet over the color.

There is absolutely no difference in the two items what so ever. The tablet is newer so it should be a little faster than the color but that's it. It's just funny to me that they added tablet onto it to try and drive more sales.

Wasteland Empires

2011-12-12T15:39:00.001-05:00

Here I am posting about yet another Facebook game. I was needing people for Castleville, so I made a deal with a friend of mine that I'd play the new game he was playing since nobody was playing it if he'd play Castleville. So here it is 2 weeks later after starting the game Wasteland Empires.

When I first started out playing this game, I didn't think I was going to get into. The buildings in the game have detail but there is no option to zoom in so everything stays at such a small scale that you wish you could zoom in some.

There is a learning curve to this game. The quest helps you get stuff put down to get you moving but it's not going to help you learn what you want to know. When you learn how this game works, that's what will pull you in. So you have to give the game some time or you'll just start it to never return.

This game in my mind is still a true beta as it's in the title where they are doing updates as I've seen a huge one take place where my friend has had it easy up until now. Lucky for him he start 1.5 weeks earlier and he is twice as far in the game as I am.

OK, so now about the game. The story is set off in the future where the only source of survival is having water. Without water there is nothing you can do. You are locked down to the range of your water hole. With in this space you put down buildings to help expand; town hall, houses, farms, barracks, towers, reserves, and more. The game does have a age of empire feel to it as you are required to have a certain level of this building in order to build this building. So it becomes a big circle of updating all your buildings to get to the next level. Once all that is done, you can research the next tier which the cycle will repeat itself all over again. From what I can tell, you only have 6 tiers in the game right now. I'm not sure what is past that as the game also has 6 chapters to go through for the storyline. I'm in chapter 2 right now but I'm on tier 3. So I can only assume the tier's will go higher at some point.

There is another aspect of this game that just changed with the update where before it didn't matter and now it does. That other side is building an army to go to other players wasteland empire to destroy them and get resources. You have to do this in the game otherwise you can't get the tools you need to build the buildings you need in the game. The latest update made a change where when you get attacked you do lose your resources now. So now the defense side of the house matters as well. You can build towers to defend your empire you're buliding. You can also build fences around your town in order to protect it as well. So you have to learn how to strategically put down your stuff to defend properly. The higher tier the better stuff you can get. One interesting part is depending on the level you're at, that's what the tower will be when you put it down. Otherwise you're stuck updating the tower with resources to make them better later on.

Which moves me into the time to play this game. It goes quick at the beginning but this game is based on time. Right now I'm try to scavenge rumble that requires 40 towns folk for 24 hours. I have another one going that required 40 for 48 hours and my next big one is 40 for 72 hours. Granted I will get a lot of resources when they are done but the time in between will slow you down waiting just on that. Luckily the game gives you buildings to mine the 3 resources you need in order to progressing which you have to level them up to get a lot from them or you're just wasting your time. Especially since now you can lose all your resources from an attack.

Back tracking a little as I mentioned towns folk for scavenging. Your army comes from the towns folk as well. That ratio is like a 1:5 ratio. so you need people to have a big army and you have to have them available to use. Like right now, I have 80 being used up with only 8 available. I have a very small army. You have to build houses and farms to increase your population in the game.

Something else to remember is whenever you put down a new water reservoir, you will never be able to move it again. The game asks you like 3 times are you sure this is where you want it as it's important. So you might can move everything else around but you'll be stuck not being able to move these later on in the game. Which brings me into the design concept of you MUST have water. You have to build roads in the game to connect everything. If a building isn't touching a road that is touching the water reservoir, then it's not doing anything. Running roads and setting everything up in the game gets hard to do. Especially with the limited space you are going to have.

We have found out that some resources just don't show up in the game when attacking. Which is where you need friends to play in order to get the resources. Which you can only send 1 a day, so the more friends, the more resources to build faster in the game. Already having to us it to build early in the game as well otherwise you'll be spending the gold coins in the game which you get 5 per level you are at in the game. The fighting in the game has a reputation system built in, so yet another part of the game.

To wrap this up, this game has a lot of different aspects and can be overwhelming. However, once you set down and give it the time it needs. You get pulled in and it is a game you can enjoy playing. Waiting to build and research to the next level to expand out is currently where I'm at. It'll be a week before I advance to Tier 4.

Maybe I'll see a friend playing it soon beside just me and my other friend.

Good List of What's Coming to Xbox Live With the Update

2011-12-05T12:14:00.001-05:00

Here's the List of Partners That Microsoft Hopes Will Make the Xbox 360 the Future of TV [Video]

Allergies

2011-12-04T13:44:00.001-05:00

My allergies have been messing with bad the last 4 or so days. Yesterday was the worst. Don't feel like gaming with all this going on.

Castleville

2011-11-28T13:56:00.001-05:00

Thanksgiving is over and I'm playing a Facebook game called Castleville. I really wanted to play this game as the makers from Age of Empires helped make the game.

I'm enjoying it but like most Facebook games, having friends playing along with you will help you get the resources you need faster or you'll be waiting to get stuff done with only a few friends. You need 4 for sure to fill a barracks up. So shoot for that number of friends to have as neighbors in the game for starting out. Not sure how high that list will go the farther I get into the game.

It is neat and fun. Looking for people to play it with me to help me get through getting stuff done faster. I definitely want to expand the kingdom faster than I am now. I actually have gotten ahead some of the quests in the game so I've had to do some things twice to get by quests in the game.

The game did crash and go down for about 2 hours one night. I've some problems with it dropping my connection to the game and forcing me to reload the game and losing some progress in the game. It's not too bad but when it happens 4 times in a row ion the same spot, that gets a little annoying.

So will how far I stick with this game and how much it pulls me away from my 360. 8)

New Coin

2011-11-22T12:10:00.001-05:00

My boss finally remembered to give me a coin for Veterans Day. I really like it.