Posted by: Trent Polack at November 21, 2008 8:45:14 AM
I'm writing to you from a fresh install of Vista x64 after a few too many blue screens every day or so coerced me from my ever-comfortable prior install into a the nerd equivalent of a brand new desk chair. Now, maybe I'm just OCD (little bit), but does anyone else have a very meticulous set of settings/programs that absolutely must be installed within mere minutes of the first boot-up of any new OS install? I do. It took me a few hours. At least.
A mere handful of months after it's initial launch, Google kills Google Lively citing that the company needs to "prioritize [their] resources and focus more on [their] core search, ads and apps business." Lively.com will be shut down at the end of December and "everyone who has worked on the project will then move on to other teams." All respect to the Lively team but I hope I'm not the target for Lively because, quite honestly, I wasn't aware it existed. Did I write about it here back in July?
The 1Up Network division of Ziff Davis, which shut down the PC gaming-focused superbGames for Windows Magazine back in April and shut down their PC platform-focused PC Magazine yesterday is now contemplating shutting down Electronic Gaming Monthly as well. The New York Times report on the topic, despite offering any direct quotes from Ziff Davis CEO Jason Young, says that "Mr. Young said the company was considering taking its other print magazine, the video-game publication Electronic Gaming Monthly, into an online-only format, but would not make a decision before the end of the year." I've been reading EGM since I was seven-years-old and the magazine, in its current incarnations, is the best American gaming magazines I am aware of and the transformation of that into an online-only form would be sad.
In more positive news, Rockstar is giving a late Valentine's Day present to gamers in the downloadable form of Grand Theft Auto 4: The Lost and the Damned. The estimated $15-20 USD DLC will place wanton criminals into the shoes of Johnny Klebitz, a member of The Lost (a biker gang from the original game). I can't wait to shoot run people over with the power of Euphoria again.
Finally, Sony has realized that if their system of gamer achievements is to take off then, like Microsoft, developers/publishers must support Playstation 3 Trophies in all games. I prefer the simplicity of the Xbox 360's achievement system (pseudo-tiers of achievements determined by a common "gamer points" currency) over the three-tiered trophy system of the Playstation 3 but, really, I just like the idea of achievements so anything is good.
You should be playing games this weekend. It's a good weekend for it. We've got Left 4 Dead a zombie game (!) which GameDev.net'ers like myself, Ravuya, and Run_The_Shadows have been playing all week. Alongside that I will also be acting all tactical-like in Valkyria Chronicles. Also zombies.
I'm exactly like that too, though not with the 'within minutes' bit... I usually set aside a weekend for the long process of installing and configuring things in the correct order, tweaking things, defragmenting at various stages and generally being unnecessarily anal about everything. I have a *list* that I print out and tick items off.
It annoys my girlfriend no end. "Can we play a game yet?" "no, games are down here in the next section, I've only just gotten to foobar! Maybe tomorrow."
TacoGrandeMember since: 4/9/2007 From: San Clemente, United States
Posted - 11/21/2008 10:44:58 AM
I usually pop in my drivers cd install those, play on dells website for not putting some correct drivers on the drivers cd they gave me, hence thats why everyone should build their own system, but this is a laptop. I then install nvidia graphics card to make my resolution super big. Then firefox, then my email client, then i run the windows updates thats about 3 hrs of rebooting and downloading. :S this is on an xp.
Google Lively, hah, i didnt think it would last, controls were terrible, the idea was worth a shot being able to embed a 3d realm onto a website and have your users check your place out without doing much than a single click to get in.
Now, maybe I'm just OCD (little bit), but does anyone else have a very meticulous set of settings/programs that absolutely must be installed within mere minutes of the first boot-up of any new OS install? I do. It took me a few hours. At least.
Think it must be something about you Windows types and your lousy backup procedures
I just replaced my MacBook's HD, total turnaround time: 65 minutes - including bringing backups up to date, replacing HD, reinstalling operating system, updating to current version and then restoring applications and data.
eedokMember since: 9/15/2003 From: Edmonton, Alberta
Posted - 11/21/2008 11:55:03 AM
I think arch was the best when it came to being transferred between computers, as I literally copied it from one hard drive and pasted it over the network on a livecd, and changed my hardware info in the main config file and it worked
I screwed up my old windows installation while trying to set up RAID0 :P. Apparently Boot.ini is stored on C: even if Windows is on E:. It turned out to be liberating as all the old programs I had but never used are gone. I did have a rush where I downloaded Firefox, VLC, CCleaner, Steam, and all the other programs I can't live without. Luckily my old hard drive was intact except for windows so I was able to recover many of my old settings.
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CaesarsGhost
Member since: 4/24/2007 From: Clearwater, FL
Posted - 11/21/2008 9:19:04 AM
Posted - 11/21/2008 9:27:59 AM
Posted - 11/21/2008 10:08:44 AM
