June 2009 Archives

So I figured I'd post before going to bed real quick. I haven't been posting as often as I'd like to, but it's at least more often than before. I'm sure if you actually read this site, (which you probably don't given the complete lack of readers I have since my huge hiatus) you'll have noticed some changes. First of all, instead of using images as my post titles, I'm now using text. If you're using a browser that supports CSS fonts, your browser will automatically download Gentium Book Basic, and use it to display my post titles. It won't install it on your system or anything sketchy like that, just download it like it'd download an image. Also, I got the google ads working finally. It was some stupidity with how my pages were being sent as XML+HTML instead of HTML. They're still all XHTML, completely valid, like always, but now the google ads work.

Also, you should be able to see my twitter status in my sidebar. Just a tiny feature that I've been wanting for a while. I got Wordpress working properly finally by basically deleting it and reuploading it. It had some issues with constantly being upgraded, and no fancy javascript was working in the admin area, including managing widgets. Sucks, but now it works. :D

I've been watching a lot of Dexter recently. All 3 seasons are on Showtime on Demand, so I couldn't resist. Plus, it's HD, which is great! Verizon consistently impresses me. In case you didn't know, I use Fios, which is Verizon's TV/Internet/Phone over Fiber service. On Demand stuff uses the internet on TV, so you'd think that it might adversely affect my internet service. It doesn't. Somehow they count the bandwidth for On Demand differently than the bandwidth for my internet. So I can watch Dexter in HD whenever I want, while uploading all my photos from the past year to my "new" flickr account (not really using it yet, so I'm not posting it), while downloading the latest version of Arch Linux for my desktop which isn't handling the latest Ubuntu quite well. For the record, it took less than a minute. I'll set it up tomorrow.

Since I posted that I was going to fix up the site a bit after finals, I've been getting an unbelievable amount of spam. I'm talking well over 100 spam comments per day. It's completely retarded. Defensio wasn't really doing its job well, so I switched over to Akismet and so far so good. I actually have reworked the site a bit, though it shouldn't really look any different. However, I did recently upgrade to Wordpress 2.8 and I must say, it's pretty nice :)

Speaking of upgrades, Linkinus 2.0 is out over at Conceited Software. For those Mac users who are wondering whether it's worth the 10 euro upgrade, it is. It's a lot less buggy than 1.3 was, which is fantastic, though they really should release a free bugfix release for 1.3. I only have a couple complaints: The "Identities" functionality is a bit strange for IRC. Basically, each nickname you use is an identity. If you use the same nickname with the same password across multiple networks, you're golden. If not, you need to set up an identity for each nickname, which includes your User Name, Real Name, Nickname(s) (in priority order), and Passwords. If you use the same nickname across different servers with different passwords, then things can get confusing but you'll manage. Also, when upgrading from 1.3, Linkinus does not know what kind of nickname authentication service any manually added networks use, so you have to set them up in order for Linkinus to identify for you. Also, the current themes available are a little buggy, and some are ugly, though user-created themes should be on their way. I personally have no complaints on the appearance of the default theme, Whisper, except how actions look, which is really just a minor annoyance. So basically, Linkinus 2.0 is worth the upgrade. If you don't feel like spending 20 euro for an IRC client, however, LimeChat is also worth taking a look at, Adium added IRC support in the latest beta, and there is always Colloquy. Linkinus is my favorite though.

Quitting WoW quite frankly isn’t an option.

Remember when I said that? Well, I quit WoW. Figured there are better places to put my time, and frankly, World of Warcraft is a waste of it. However, I did not leave my guild. I'm still fairly active in talking to friends I made in the guild and posting on the forum. I'm still not going to play WoW again anytime soon, though.

Instead, I'm playing The Sims 3! I am, of course, kidding. I'm not playing it as a substitution for WoW. I've always been a big fan of The Sims franchise, and I've owned every release since the original version. In fact, I recently found my Prima's Official Strategy Guide for The Sims. I forgot I even had it. Anyhow, with the Sims 3, Mac support is through Cider (smooth enough on my mac, but a lot of people are complaining), and it's missing Sims classic items like hot tubs, diving boards, instruments besides the guitar, and some other things. But even though there are a few things I don't like, I really do like the improved Sim customization, traits, moodlets, and the new neighborhood. In fact, I might go out on a limb and say that it's possibly the best Sims game ever. It is at least better than The Sims 2, and I can't wait to see what the expansion packs bring.

That's all for now. Feel free to follow me on twitter at Twitter.com/LouisC.