"Don't Be Evil" My Ass...

I'm sure you know who I'm talking about. And why...

It's not so much their choice (though I disagree with it), as they can conduct their business how they want - though ironically that's because they're an American company in the first place. I have a bigger problem with their hypocrisy. This sounds remarkably familiar:

..."while removing search results is inconsistent with Google's mission, providing no information...is more inconsistent with our mission." (source)

Kind of like how all animals are equal, but some are more equal than others...

Hoody Hoo!

This website got mentioned in the latest issue of Knights of the Dinner Table. Two paragraphs even! The Summon Web Scryer column, which looks at Internet gaming resources every month, discussed a variety of software tools available on-line and said some nice things about TableSmith and some of the other tools on the utilities page. Very cool.

If you're not familiar with KoDT, head over to the Kenzer and Company web page and check it out.

Have I Mentioned How Much I Hate Spammers?

Now the f--kers are trying to spam the comments here. I know comment spamming is nothing new, but now it's extra-important because they're trying to do it to me.

Today's incident is actually the second time I've gotten blog-spam, but the first didn't upset me as much because it was a real blog about fishing or hiking or something. I wanted to give the guy the benefit of the doubt and assume he didn't realize that what he was doing was reprehensible because he was new to the Internets or something. But this one was for cheap stocks or some crap that I get in e-mail all the time.

I really, really, really hate spammers and want them to die painfully. I mean, really. WTF are you people thinking? More importantly, who the hell is actually buying from spammers such that they have an incentive to continue doing this? Spammers need to be rounded up and exterminated, but the people buying their crap need to be beaten severely, too.

Modern Technology: Not So Wondrous!

Back in August I posted about the new router I bought. Well, turns out the Linksys WRT54GC is a piece of crap, at least when it comes to wireless. Awhile back I tried running World of Warcraft on my desktop PC, which is connected to my network wirelessly. I ran into major lag problems but I wasn't sure why, so I just installed it on my laptop - connected physically to the router - and I play it there.

Friday I purchased Guild Wars, which is far more graphically intensive than WoW. It "ran" on my laptop, but not very well, even with all the graphics settings at their minimums. So I decided to try it on the desktop and see how well it worked. Graphically, it was stunning. But I ran into the same lag problems as I did with WoW. Which indicated to me that the problem was not with the software but with the hardware somewhere (or the drivers or network settings or something).

Doing some research (which I wish I'd done originally) I discovered that the router I had really sucks when it comes to wireless. It's not super terrible, but if you are using a computer in another room for something more than web-browsing and downloading your e-mail, it's not worth getting. Today I replaced it with its "bigger brother", the WRT54G (which is the same size as the old router I compared the little one too). After I got that set up I saw signal strength in the desktop connection that I never saw with the WRT54GC. And I was able to play Guild Wars for a couple hours with no noticeable problems.

In other news, I've started playing Guild Wars. I'm not giving up on WoW yet, but there's really only one person I know who I can group with on WoW but there are 5 or 6 on GW (I prefer playing with people I know rather than strangers). So far my opinion is mixed on GW, but I need to evaluate it more to give it a proper review. I've played WoW for about a year now and GW for about 4 hours. There's a lot of differences, but I do like it so far - in part because it's different.

Spongebob is F'ing Metal!

(A few people will get that reference...)

Anyway, from the WTF Department: Wallpapers of Iron Maiden album covers with Spongebob substituted for Eddie.

I found that link on another blog but unfortunately I don't remember which one. Thanks to whoever that was!

Tabletop vs. MMO - An Important Point to Keep in Mind

From this post on ENWorld:

And there's a big gap between what can be done with tabletop and what is done. [Emphasis mine]

This is a big point that a lot of tabletop defenders tend to forget. While the possibilities are virtually endless for a tabletop game, how many GMs or groups take advantage of them? Some people like to point out that certain things can't be done in a computer game because it hasn't been programmed for it (you can't swim in Neverwinter Nights, rogues can't scale sheer surfaces in WoW, etc.). But many people don't take advantage of the flexibility that a tabletop game offers. Worse, many people (particularly players of "player power-favoring" systems like D&D/d20) assume that games cannot deviate from the existing rules in any way regardless of whether the deviation is on the part of the GM or the players - often assuming that if a rule doesn't exist to cover some action, it cannot be done in the game. Some examples I've read or personally experienced (quotes are not verbatim):

• "You can't have a DR over 15 - that breaks the game."
• "I can't try to hamstring that ogre; I don't have a feat for that."
• "If you want to mess around with the abilities/powers/whatever that lower-planar creatures have, you can only do it with demons. Devils must adhere to how they are written exactly in the Monster Manual since they're Lawful."
• "If a spell in the Player's Handbook can't lift that curse, then there's nothing that can be done about it."

With attitudes like that, going outside the rules (or what the game has pre-programmed for you) isn't even a consideration, so the advantage a tabletop game has is lost. (Note for the over-literal: Yes, the rules exist for a reason but that doesn't mean that you can't do or try to do something that's not covered if you have a good reason).

Painting Miniatures...for Victory!

OK, I'm a total geek (but I think that's pretty clear from the site):


(Source for the original posters)

I was proud of myself for finishing seven Flames of War miniatures this weekend so I got all geeky by Photoshopping (actually, "PaintShopProing") some old WW2 posters. Not the best editting job, but I don't have all day...

In case I didn't mention it before, I've recently started playing Flames of War, the World War II miniatures game. I haven't gotten too deep into it yet but it's pretty entertaining. Only one of my other friends is currently playing but we've got some other folks showing some interest. This weekend I finally started painting my army (American tank company). I was surprised at how quickly it went compared to the time it takes to paint my fantasy miniatures. Of course, my fantasy mini's are quick a bit more detailed, being 25-28mm, while FoW figs are 15mm (and I would never prime a 25mm figure all in black unless it was dressed head-to-toe in armor!). And I'm not going to win any awards with my paint jobs, but they look decent enough - certainly better than bare metal and resin or primer. I've actually done some basing too (which I've never done, though I plan on doing that with my fantasy miniatures in the future as well). So far I've finished a platoon of five M4A1 Shermans and a couple bazooka teams.

Still a lot to go (rifle teams, M3 half-tracks, M10 tank killers, 105mm howitzers, etc.). But for as quickly as they paint up, I expect to have my tank company done relatively quickly. Wish I could say the same for my Reaper figures...