The Switch From Cable To Satellite Television
I grew tired of Comcast’s high prices and lack of HD channels so I decided to make the switch to DirecTV. DirecTV has some great deals going on, including $20/month off your monthly bill for 12 months and free installation. I pulled the trigger on it a little over a month ago, and overall, I’m glad that I made the switch.
I went with the Choice Xtra with HD & DVR package that gives me over 200 channels with about 40 of them being in high definition. That is 40 HD channels compared to the 10 that Comcast offered in my area, and the DirecTV package is less expensive. I also got a bunch of premium movie channels free for three months. Being a true geek, I am very happy to finally watch the Sci-Fi channel in glorious HD.
Installation went just fine and no issues were encountered. I had the HD DVR installed in the living room and a standard box placed in the bedroom. Since I didn’t want to pay for a third box just to watch television in the office, I had the installer “mirror” the signal from the bedroom to the office. Whatever channel is on in the bedroom is on the office. This, of course, makes changing channels a pain, since I would have to walk across the house to the bedroom to change it. I got around this issue by purchasing a “remote control extender” made my Terk. You place one little receiver next to the satellite box, and put the other in the office. I point the satellite remote control at the Terk receiver in the office and it magically sends the remote control signal into the bedroom and changes the channel for me. Brilliant.
I only had one problem with the DirecTV service but it was a big pain. The first HD DVR that I received had a very loud hard drive. It would make these “clink” and “clunk” sounds that I could hear three rooms away. They sent me a new one at no charge but the replacement had a problem as well. The hard drive was silent but the box kept losing my HD channels. I had to reset the box several times a day to get them back. Thankfully, it seems the third time is the charm, as the latest box is both quiet and I have had no channel problems with it.
The picture quality is excellent and I am really enjoying the large number of HD channels as compared to Comcast. As I said, I get about 40 HD channels, but they offer many more if you get the higher packages. In my opinion, if you have a high definition television, you owe it to yourself to get a service that offers you the most HD channels. DirecTV turned out to be a perfect match for me.
–Wolfen
Read MoreTreehugger
Well, after listing my thoughts on what class to play when I start up Vanguard, I have completely changed track and I have decided to start off with a druid. I am told that druids are rarely played but in high demand, so we’ll see how accurate the grapevine is.
The Vanguard druid varies from the standard druid mold. Unlike the EQ-esque druid, the Vanguard version does not have a heavy focus on direct or heal over time spells. Instead, it is an arcane caster, blasting enemies in a higher dps role. In a neat little twist on the class, the druid can call down some potent spells called Calamities. These are powerful spells that can only be used every so often, but when used, can dish out the damage. The Vangaurd druid isn’t all about dps, either. It can benefit groups as well with its dps increasing spells and other utility spells.
So, the druid might just make for an interesting time. Add the above skills with the ability to solo well and it sounds like a good choice for me. Only time will tell.
–Wolfen
Read MoreAlas, poor Netscape. I knew ye well.
What Shakespeare was to literature, the Netscape browser was to the internet. It was the first real web browser to bring graphical goodness to the internet. When it made its appearance, using things such as “Gopher” and “Archie” were the common way of finding things on the web. The internet was text driven in a crude and basic way. Netscape helped bring about the “web explosion” that brought the internet to the masses. When it came to browsing the web back in those days, Netscape was the only game in town. Now, these many years later, Netscape is going the way of the Dodo bird.
I first used Netscape after purchasing an internet software suite called “Internet In A Box.” It came with a Gopher and Archie client, FTP client, and the Netscape browser. Even with a web browser, the web was still mostly texted based. The fastest internet pipe I could get at that time was a 14.4 dial-up connection. 36.6 dial-up was considered super fast. Either way, Netscape changed the way the web was used. It made it much easier to use.
Internet Explorer and Firefox has obviously taken over as the browsers of choice for most people these days. Netscape failed to innovate fast enough and they payed the price in the end. Where once everyone used it, now I don’t know of a single person who has used it in the past few years. A sad end to a once great product.
–Wolfen
Read MoreYe Old Computer Upgrade
As mentioned in my previous post, I have a new gaming computer on the way. Unfortunately, due to the holidays, shipping is rather slow. So, that leaves me with only being able to write about it instead of using it. Currently, I’m using an Apple Macbook Pro and running Bootcamp to game with. It’s a higher-end model running at 2.4ghz, with 4gigs of RAM, and a Nvidia 8600GTm 256mb video card. It runs Everquest and Lord of the Rings Online surprisingly well at the 17″‘s native resolution of 1920×1200.
Since I’m going to start up Everquest 2 and Vanguard again, I wanted to get a beefier machine. I don’t like to play games on lower settings and I was worried that Vanguard would be a problem. That prompted me to order a desktop PC with a stronger video card. I have built my own computers for years, but this time around I went with a pre-built solution. Computers are so inexpensive these days that it wasn’t worth my time doing all the parts/pricing research that usually goes into my building a custom PC.
It didn’t take me long to find a decent PC at at great price. I ended up purchasing a HP Pavilion m8200n Multimedia PC from Amazon.com for $669. The specifications include an AMD X2 6000+ processor, 3gb RAM, 500gb hard drive, TV tuner, etc. The included video card is very weak, so I found an Nvidia 8800GT 512mb card on sale at Best Buy for $250. This system is certainly not the best, but it’s a fast computer at a cheap price. The bummer for me is the estimated arrival date isn’t until January 2nd, so here I am waiting for it. But, soon enough, we’ll find out how well it performs with these games.
–Wolfen
Read MoreMerry Christmas!
Hello and Merry Christmas to all!
I suppose it’s a strange day to start a blog, but it is as good a day as any for me. As a bit of introduction, my online gaming name is Wolfen. I am a 38 year-old casual gamer who likes to play MMO’s. This blog will chronicle the playing of certain MMO’s from a casual playing point of view.
For a bit of my history, I started playing online games with Everquest. I played it starting with beta and continued to play it for more than five years. After that, I quit the game, returning rarely to play from time to time. I am currently playing it now. I have played many more online games as well. Those include Dark Age of Camelot, Everquest 2, World of Warcraft, Lord of the Rings Online, Vanguard, Planetside, and others.
Two games that I will be picking up again will be Everquest 2 and Vanguard. My plan is to report the current-day newbie experience in both games and see what has changed since these games first launched. This may not sound all that exciting to you, but I’m curious to find out how casual friendly these games can be. We all know that World of Warcraft is the god of casual games, but I want to see how these games compare. Should someone even consider starting up with one of these two games? We will see.
I was fartin’ around in Everquest last night and ran across some Frostfell NPC’s in Qeynos. Who knew that Santa was an ogre?
Ol’ Santug gives out a couple of quests. One of them sends you off to kill invisible grimps that drop pieces of his Naughty and Nice list that he lost. The reward given is a single use breastplate that turns your character into an ogre. Seeing my ranger as an ogre was a neat novelty, but having only a single use was disappointing.
So, my first post is done. I will be starting up EQ2 and Vanguard very shortly after the first of the year. I have a new computer on the way that will allow me to run them better than my current machine. This will be especially true for Vanguard, which is high on graphics and low on optimization.
–Wolfen
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