Opinion – Page 6 – Windy Weather

Steam – Pay $5 First Apparently

So, as you know if you watch things here, I’m a big MMO fan, and recently it’s Final Fantasy XIV. I just remembered that I had purchased a BluRay a while ago of Kingsglaive: Final Fantasy XV, and wondered if I could play that. Not an MMO, but just a single player RPG. So I looked it up.

I tried to install the demo. Figured I’d check it out. I had three choices to get it:

Steam
Microsoft Store
Origins [whatever that is, but the site looks like a steam wanabee.]

First I tried the Microsoft Store. – FAIL. I tried to sign in with my Microsoft account to do that, but I got dumped to a page that said it failed. No real help there.

Try steam. No problem, at first. Program downloaded and installed. Then hung after a few clicks to set it up.

Just hung there forever like it was trying to reach some website. Although why would it by saving stuff online? It’s a single player RPG.

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Experiments in 4K

Ever the experimenter, I recently got a Samsung 40″ Class MU6300 4K UHD TV. As you can see from the price, I didn’t choose MSRP. I was just checking what prices were doing on UHD TVs and came across a deal on a refurbished model at almost 50% off.

The first one arrived broken. But I didn’t despair . After calling Walmart customer service, they agreed to ship me another and emailed a return label for the broken one.

Apparently, the first one had been dropped before it was packed since it was in some serious bubble wrap and there was no mark on the box. Oh well. The pictures above were taken when it was plugged in and the damage was not evident when the TV was not plugged in.

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Engadget – Advertising to the Max

Engadget_-_2018-08-17_12.31.38x.png — Engadget with Ghostery

I use an Ad Blocker – Ghostery – in FireFox. There are several reasons for this:

To keep down the tracking. I know that ad-blocking doesn’t really stop tracking. Of course I disable 3rd Party cookies and enable “Tracking Protection”. But I don’t expect that this really stops tracking since there are so many ways around Ad Blockers and Tracking Protection.
To help prevent Malware infections. There have been many cases of malicious advertisers leaking their malware through ads into systems. Advertisers, including even Google, have been the source of malware attacks since they do not sufficiently vet their advertisers.
To increase the performance of page loading, since all that Ad Ware and Tracking nonsense is often many times the size of the page itself.

Most of my web experience with Ghostery Enabled is just fine. I can purchase items online on Amazon, Newegg and many other sites. I can read most news sites just fine. Slashdot and many other sites show ads in a way that Ghostery does not block, but that is not intrusive or objectionable.

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Dyson V7 is Old News

I called Dyson recently to get some attachments for my Ancient DC 44 portable vacuum, and they offered me a special price on a Dyson V7. Now I get why. And I’m not unhappy, but also not surprised. The latest model is V10, so they want to dump those old V7’s they still have in the warehouse, apparently. My DC 44 is old enough that someday I’ll need a new battery and those are expensive, so I was hedging my bets by taking the V7 deal.

The V7 has some new attachments and a more convenient latch for them. Instead of having to use two hands, you can remove the attachments with one hand. How cool, and how obvious.

I got the V7 “Motorhead” which came with a wide floor motorized brush, straight extension, combo brush and crevice tool. In addition, a few days later a package arrived with the “Up Top” bending tool, the angle brush and the extension hose, probably due to having done automatic registration or something.

Anyway, the V7 is very cool. Easier to empty, with even more cyclone thingies and more powerful suction.

I have allergies, and Dyson’s allow me to clean the house without sneezing since nothing gets by those cyclones. I have an old pre-ball model for the floors and portables for dusting. No rags for me to dust. If you have allergies, you might like to try a Dyson.

:ww

Would You Choose to Play Ugly?

If you had a choice in a Fantasy Life, would you choose to be Ugly?
Would you choose to grow old and die of old age? In a few years?
Well, if that’s your dream, you may soon will be able to do that.

Today I tripped across a character creation video posted by the developers of this game on Youtube. See below. I think they missed the memo that says that “This is a fantasy world where you can be the way you want to be, rather than putting up with Real-Life.”

Maybe this idea will get traction, but no other popular MMO that I’m aware of makes this choice. All other MMOs that I’ve played have made it easy to be attractive. Yes, there is usually a race or two that are, shall we say, Dramatic in their appearance, But they are usually not designed to be ugly. Apparently all the tribes of Elyria are designed to be, what I’ll call here, Dramatic, and all look similarly so. That is, all the Races, or Tribes, look like variations on a single or two similar looks. For me this is a turn off. An interesting take, but still a turn off. Here are some choices that they showcased in the character creation video. I don’t mind a dramatic choice, but there don’t look like there are any “Attractive” or “Fantasy” choices.

I’m not into “Body Shaming” or criticizing folks looks. Personally, I’m not that handsome. But I don’t seek out ways to identify myself with an Avatar that looks worse than I do. At least not all the time.

I admit that there is novelty here. But I’m not clear that this is going to be popular, especially since these are the Only Choices in the game. Looks like a turn off and bad choice for the game. This is a screenshot of the Concept Art from the website. Is this the fantasy life you would choose?

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Mobile Phone to Every Residence?

Mobile Phone as a Utility? To Every home? Too Expensive you say? Really? While we pay an average of $71 / month in 2012.

In one survey, 46% of Americans with mobile phones said their monthly bill was $100 or more, and 13% said their monthly bill topped $200 per month. The average individual’s cell phone bill was $71 per month last year, a 31% increase since 2009, according to J.D. Power & Associates.Oct 18, 2012

Time Article in 2012

So don’t we think that is enough income to allow mobile phone providers to provide coverage at every home and business?

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Mobile Phones Are Not A Utility

In this age of Mobile Phones, or Smart Phones, and the Internet and Cord Cutters, we are tempted to think of Mobile Phones as a Utility. But they are not, primarily because they are not regulated to be so. Shouldn’t this service be a Utility?

ATANDT-MOBILITY_4G_See_coverage_map_&_speedtest_map_-_Sensorly_-_2017-11-26_08.42.32

ATANDT-MOBILITY_4G_See_coverage_map_&_speedtest_map_-_Sensorly_-_2017-11-26_08.47.52

ATANDT-MOBILITY_4G_See_coverage_map_&_speedtest_map_-_Sensorly_-_2017-11-26_08.46.05

These are crowd-sourced coverage maps for AT&T 4G from Sensorly. Does this look like a utility to you? To me, this looks like the Provider has decided that coverage is important on main roads, and not in residences or minor roads. So don’t get stuck or have an Emergency on anything except a major road. Don’t use your mobile phone from home, use it from your business.

What if the electrical grid or land line phone service was done this way? What does this say about folks – an increasing majority of us – who only have a cell phone and no land line?

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Mystics er Warlocks Done Right

Ok. So it’s Wow’s 13th Anniversary and we got glasses and a XP Buff with a nice Tabard for the rest of the month.

Last time we talked about how Tera changed the Mystic skills sometime around May 2017 when I wasn’t playing. And they basically messed up leveling by removing the tank pet which used to arrive at level 4 and delayed it until level 50. Update: See at the end

Well let’s take a look at the Wow Warlock, which is essentially the same class as Tera Mystic.

Notice you get a Summon Imp spell – which is a ranged DPS pet that follows you around – at level 5. This is not a totem that is fixed in place for a limited time, but a pet that does not time out, follows you around and attacks what you attack. You get control of it – Move it, Passify it, Sick it on a target, etc. – at level 10. You get the Voidwalker, which is the tank pet, at level 20. There are lots more pets, some of them are higher level talents, which means you get choices about which ones etc.

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Tera Mystic Changes for the Worse

Sometime during this year, apparently, the Mystic class was completely changed. Turned on it’s head actually.

The biggest issue from my point of view is that the Thrall of Protection, a tank for solo leveling, was changed from level 4 to level 50. So you no longer have a tank to use during solo leveling.

This is a severe quality of life change as far as I’m concerned.

Basically the entire class skills have been turned on it’s head.

Skills that you get when you were level 60, you now get when you are level 4. So instead of getting Thrall of Protection so you can solo easily, you now get Boomerang and Contagion, which are AOE skills that were added with the level 60 update a few years ago.

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