Earlier this year in the summer I went back to SWG for the huge “Oops, we lost all of your credit card information” 45 day trial from SOE. It seemed to be a last ditch effort to regain the trust of the consumers that Sony let down. I have went back to SWG several times over the years since I quit at the end of 2005. Most of the times were for free Veteran trials designed to draw players back to the game. Each time I returned, I played a bit, but decided that the game still was not worth playing. I found it interesting that toward the end of the 45 day trial this year, I was considering renewing. Crafting for Weaponsmith regained the complexity it had before the NGE, and if anything far exceeded it. I really could make a weapon that was as good or better than looted weapons or quest rewards. I also reconnected with some old friends, and made a few new ones. I was still on the fence when SOE announced that SWG would end on December 15, 2011. It seemed I dodged a bullet, avoiding being drawn back in.

Almost immediately, most of the old and new friends I met dropped off the map. The ventrilo channel we gathered on seemed like a ghost town. I finished out the few days left of my 45 day trial and decided it was a waste of time to renew if nobody I knew was still playing. Not long after that, SOE announced that active players would have billing stopped for the last few months of play. It took me a while, but I decided to renew just before the cutoff so I’d get those last few months for just $15. I figured I could play a bit more and about $5 a month wasn’t bad for any type of entertainment. Sadly, it seemed that nobody else saw the need to play.

I logged in just a few times over the last month, recovering some uber ship parts from a friend and blowing up the Star Destroyer in Deep Space a few times for old time’s sake. Out of over 300 friends on my friends list, not one was online until yesterday, December 15, 2011. Slowly, a few friends popped up on my last as the evening went by. I chatted a bit with Aliera (former Exiled Force guild member), Fragpuppie (good Entertainer friend from waaay back), Cobie (from PACE guild), Kobie (from PACE guild), and Icarus’ (Shipwright that helped me out during my 45 day trial over the summer).

I headed to my shop and took a few screenshots, drove around Coronet and didn’t really see anyone around. My next stop was Mos Eisley and there were maybe 10-15 people there. I hopped on the forums to see where the “events” were, and decided to go to the Sarlaac pit. There were maybe 15-20 more people there running around, with some infinite fireworks popping off every few seconds. I ran across one person that said he still had a few of my weapons from back in the day. That was very good to hear. I’m amazed that those weapons are (were!) still hanging around almost 6 years after I stopped making them. About 45 minutes before the servers were supposed to go down, I lost connection and the server showed up as “loading.” For a few minutes I figured that SOE would just write Chilastra off and not worry about fixing it. A few minutes later it was back online.

I logged back in and did a few chores around the house. About 5 minutes before the scheduled end, I hopped in and switched to the ventrilo channel for the old PACE guild. I asked where they were, and they said to come to Endor to watch the Death Star. I did not think I could make it in time, but with the use of my Slave I ITV, I quickly traveled to Bestine, then took the my Advanced X-Wing to the Smuggler Outpost on Endor. I walked up a hill to meet Cobie and Kobie for the end of the server. We took a few screenshots and prepared, wondering if there would be something awesome like the Death Star blowing up Endor or something like that. We were very underwhelmed when all that happened was a message popping up on the screen, seen countless times before, but this would be the last.

“Connection to SWG lost!”

I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I decided to watch 28 Days Later. I have had it for a long time, but never got around to watching it until now. I was surprised by how “old” the movie looked when it started. I could have sworn it was a rather recent film, but it took a quick trip to IMDB to verify. Although this was filmed in 2002, it seemed to me to be from the mid 90’s. I’m not sure if that was due to the DVD transfer or what. Anyway, once I satisfied my curiosity, I continued on watching the movie.

The main plot begins with a group of animal rights activists trying to free some monkeys that were being experimented on. They were being studied with infections of a “rage” type virus. Of course once one monkey was freed it promptly tried to kill one of its rescuers and they were immediately infected. The time shifts forward to “28 days later” where we see the main character, Jim, waking up in a hospital room. It is completely abandoned with no sign of life to be found. The hospital is trashed and he begins to gather food and then sets out to search for others.

The first few minutes remind me of many other post apocalyptic movies with the same type of “hellooooo? is anyone out there?” type scene. After a little while, he comes across a church full of bodies. He’s then attacked by a crazed zombie type and during his escape he’s rescued by a couple of survivors. That covers about the first 10-15 minutes of the movie. The rest involves a search for other survivors and tracking down a safe haven that is broadcasting on a radio frequency.

This reminded me a little bit of I am Legend, except that instead of there being essentially one survivor, there are a handful. The character development was pretty thin at first, but once Selena (one of the rescue party members) and Jim start talking about what their priorities are, it started to pick up. It was interesting to see Selena grow from a “me first, no matter the cost” type of person, to one that was actively looking out for others. On the flipside, it was interesting to see Jim essentially turn into a complete badass with no qualms about doing what was needed for survival. The movie was pretty good, but not great. I’m interested to see how the sequel 28 Weeks Later turns out.

Luke Skywalker's Cyborg Hand

OK, maybe Luke wouldn’t envy this hand, but it looks like we are much closer to the technology in The Empire Strikes Back when he gets his hand lopped off by his father. Matthew James is a boy born with a defect that stopped the growth of his arm at the wrist. He just got a brand new hand with the help of the Mercedes F1 Team. Matthew actually wrote Mercedes, the car maker, to ask for help getting an i-Limb Pulse prosthesis in return for displaying their logo on it.

After receiving the letter in June, Mercedes invited Matthew to their headquarters, where he toured the factory and met racing legend Michael Schumacher.

The company [Mercedes] said they were unable to pay for the hand but agreed to help Matthew raise the money, by asking fans and sponsors to make donations.

Mercedes couldn’t pay for the hand? That seems hard to believe. Anyway, it’s a good read so check it out. There was a follow-up video that I’m embedding below.

Via The Telegraph

It seems kind of odd that I post a review of a Humble Bundle game, then just a few days later, a new one comes out. I’ll keep it short and sweet this time. The Humble Indie Bundle #3 is out with 5 games, name your price. You get a key instantly redeemable on Steam or you can download them directly. I already have Crayon Physics Deluxe from a while back and highly recommend it if you like physics based games. The levels get pretty damn hard, and to be honest I’ve never finished all of them. The other 4 games look pretty cool, so check them out! Proceeds go to any combination you want of the developers, Child’s Play Charity, Electronic Frontier Foundation, or the Bundlers.

One thing I like about the Bundle sales is that all of the games are DRM free and work on PC, Mac, and Linux. Another thing I’d like to add is that if you plan on just donating a penny, Santa is watching!

–Update–

They just added 2 new games and also you get Humble Bundle #2 if you donate above the current average price!

Revenge of the Titans is the best tower defense game I’ve played so far. RotT has skill trees that span about 5 different “worlds”. The game plays differently depending on what skill tree you pick. There is a Campaign, Endless, and Survival mode. One thing I did not pay attention to is that Survival mode uses your research tree from the last level in that world. This can definitely impact your Survival Mode times if you were holding off for something critical like barriers until just after the next world. Anyway, I managed to get the top time on survival and held it for a few weeks. Right now the record is around 3 hours (scratch that, 6 now!), which is super hard to do. No, you don’t have to play a level for 6 hours, you can hold down Tab to fast forward the level. So far I’ve done at least 3 playthroughs. Once just after the Humble Bundle, another a few months later just before tank droids were added, then again just after.

My one gripe is that the research trees are hidden except for your next “level” up. I found that very annoying and ended up looking up the wiki. Some people claim that is a spoiler, but I disagree. There’s an algorithm that adjusts the difficulty depending on how much cash you are saving up, so you are always kept on your toes. The basic summary of the algorithm is that the more money you end up making and saving, the harder enemies are. This ends up keeping you on the edge of destruction quite a bit. I restarted levels several times after my approach failed, but never picked the restart with easier difficulty option.

This game has a high re-playability factor and is also highly addictive. After a few nights of multi-hour gaming sessions, I found myself dreaming of placing towers in just the right position to maximize my cash. The survival mode is brutal, but satisfying when you see your name rise up on the leader board. I highly recommend RotT for anyone that likes tower defense games. Sure, there are dozens of free variants you can play in a web browser for free, but I don’t think any of them have he same depth as Revenge of the Titans by Puppy Games. Check out the official site, or the Steam store link. Keep in mind that if you purchase through Steam, you do not get free access to the Linux version, just Mac and Windows.

I finally upgraded my WordPress install today, and like a responsible web admin, I backed up my database and also my file tree. After my upgrade I noticed that my comments were all gone! I grumbled a bit and figured I’d extract the files from my backup. I opened my file up and noticed there were no comments. Doh! Where are they? I checked my backup from June, no comments. The latest backup I had with comments included was from February. The phpMyAdmin console showed the table “in use”. Not sure exactly what to do, I opened up a quick Live Chat with my hosting provider, HostGator, and noticed that I was #1 in queue with what, 147 agents available? My problem was fixed in less than 5 minutes. The fix also recovered a few comments that were posted after my last good backup.

I apologize to those of you that tried posting comments the past few months, because they were all eaten up due to the table being locked. I’m not sure what happened, but the support guy told me how to fix it myself if it ever happens again. Essentially, there’s a GUI in the cPanel to check and repair individual databases. I work with MySQL quite a bit at work, but I wouldn’t consider myself a DBA. Now I need to find a better WordPress backup plugin, because I think it should have thrown out some type of error if the table wasn’t readable.

Anyway, I’d like to take this opportunity to recommend HostGator. If you need hosting, please check them out. Any signups done through my link will help pay for my web hosting. Also, you can use code SCIFI25OFF for 25% off your first order. They offer 1 click WordPress installations if you are looking for something like that.

Here are my steps prior to all WordPress upgrades:

1. Backup Database via Plugin, also can be done through phpMyAdmin
2. Open cPanel and through File Manager, copy my WordPress directory “/installdir” to another directory like “install2011backup”. I think you can only do this quickly if your blog is not installed directly into the root /  – note, this takes just SECONDS, rather than downloading thousands of individual files
3. Run upgrade, hope for the best

Here is how I restore

1. Restore Database via phpMyAdmin
2. rename install directory to /install-bad
3. rename backup directory from /install2011backup to /install

Do you have a blog? What is your disaster recovery plan?

Falling Skies takes place in a near future alternate reality where aliens invaded Earth and just about destroyed everything. The series opens with a kid describing the first contact and subsequent invasion. All of the major cities and most of the military was destroyed all in one swoop. The series follows a group of resistance fighters that are struggling to survive. Some people want to strike back, but the military commander is convinced that splitting up and going to ground is the best move right now. The main character, Tom Mason played by Noah Wyle, happens to be second in command of a small splinter group. He has three sons, one very little, another in his late teens, and the last one has been captured by the aliens. The general feel seems to be something similar to Terminator and the new Battlestar Galactica.

Tom Mason was a US history professor, so quite often he quotes how some historical battles were won by underdogs. His repetition of this got on my nerves a bit. Another thing that bothered me was that his youngest son wanted to wish for everything to go back to the way it was for his birthday. His son asked if that was OK to wish for and Tom said yes. That really bothered me, because the sooner his kid understands nothing will be as it was, the better. Overall I would have to say the premier was mediocre at best. Some of the acting seemed a bit weak, but nothing terrible. I’ll have to watch the next few episodes so I can form a better opinion.

A friend of mine recommended that I watch Monsters. It was available on Netflix streaming, so I added it to my queue.  The premise is that a survey mission to investigate extraterrestrial life burned up on reentry to Earth over Latin America. The “Monsters” appear later on, for what seems to be a seasonal basis. They terrorize the locals, and the main character is visiting to try and capture some photographs of the destruction. There is an invasion coming and Andrew, the photographer, is anxious to get some pictures so he can cash in. His plans get interrupted by a demand from the publisher to escort his daughter out of the country. She’s engaged to be married, but the fiancé has already made hit home. Why? Probably some type of fight. The movie came across as being a suspense, romance, and science fiction flick all at the same time. I usually like it when I see genres mixed, but Monsters was spread too thin. Nothing made me think, “this is a good movie.” The action scenes were rather intense, but I didn’t really get scared or startled. The awkward romance that blossomed between the photographer and the girl was predictable. The mystery behind the nature of the Monster invasions was interesting, but not enough to carry the rest of the movie. It wasn’t a bad movie, but not one that I’d recommend someone spend money on to see.

This comic gave me a little giggle. If you like Isaac Asimov, check it out.

http://www.sheldoncomics.com/archive/101109.html