The MMO Notebook

I came across a very useful program that allows me to quickly access the contents of my hard drive from the System Tray in Windows or Menu Bar in Mac OS X. It is called Hawkscope and it performs exactly as advertised.

This program saves multiple clicks by adding a button to the System Tray that takes you right to your files. It is a small program and uses very little resources to run.  It is available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.

I saw this story over at Gizmodo and though it was worth talking about here.  It seems a guy purchased what he thought was a brand new Western Digital 1TB hard drive. When he got it home and opened the package, he instead found a 9-year-old 30GB drive. When he took it back to get what he paid for, Best Buy refused to replace it or give him his money back.  Once again, Best Buy shows its true colors.

This is not the first time that something like this has happened at Best Buy (as well as many other stores). Clearly, someone else bought the hard drive, replaced it with an old one, and returned it to the store for a refund.  My guess would be the store clerk took the return without paying any attention and just re-shrink wrapped the box and put it back on the shelf for sale.

It is a shame that Best Buy treats its customers this way, but there is a way that you can avoid such problems. After you purchase an item that comes in a box you can’t easily open or is shrink-wrapped, open the item right there in the store next to a sales clerk. They can’t deny what they see with their own eyes.

I have been using Apple’s MobileMe service since the day it launched.  The main reason I signed up for the $99 a year service is because it offered push email, contacts, and calendar without needing a Blackberry or Microsoft Exchange account.  For those who don’t know about push technology, it allows me to make a change on my iPhone or computer and that change will instantly show up on both devices without me having to enter it in twice. It is a big time saver and I never have to worry about not having information when and where I need it. With all that said, I am in the process of leaving MobileMe behind and switching to Google services.

Why make the switch? The first reason is that Google offers most of the features that MobileMe provides. The second reason is that Google does not charge for this service. Gmail, Gmail Contacts, and Google Calendar can now sync with cell phones and computers. Amazingly, Google calls this service Google Sync.

The process you have to go through to switch email providers is never super simple, but Google does a good job of making the transition as painless as possible. They may not do things as slick as Apple does, but I am finding it fairly easy to do. They provide ways to send your contact list and all your email to them, so you don’t have to go through hoops to get that done. You then need to setup Gmail on your computer and/or phone so that you can retrive all your info.  Again, Google provides easy to follow instructions on how to do this. The last step is to let everyone know what your new email address is.  I would give plenty of time before shutting off your old email services so that the stragglers get used to sending you mail to the correct address.

I will go more in-depth with this process once I have used it for awhile so that I may give it a proper review. Stay tuned for further updates.

The Conficker Worm has made lots of headlines lately about how it has the potential of causing a great deal of mischief because so many computers are infected with this virus. Many people are worried that they can’t tell if their computers are infected with it or if they are safe.

Luckily, there is an easy way to tell if your computer has the Conficker worm. Simply go to the Conficker Worm Eyechart page and you will instantly know the answer.  The website is safe and simple.

The Conficker worm blocks computers from going to certain sites, so the Conficker Eyechart page attempts to load images from those sites. You are Conficker free if you see all six images at the top of the page. If some of the images are missing, then you need to take action immediately. Taking action means making sure your anti-virus software is up to date.  Once upated, have your anti-virus software run a full system scan on your computer. If it does not find anything, then you’ll need to consider other Conficker removal options. The Microsoft Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool would be your best option.

If you own a Mac (like yours truly!) then you do not need to concern yourself with this virus.

Prepping for a raid in Everquest on June 21st, 2002.

If you happen to roam around the MMO blogosphere and news sites, you might have seen some hints and whispers about the possibility of Everquest 3 being a reality.  Some say that has been in production for years while others think it will never be made. People seem to be split on the idea of Everquest 3 seeing the light of day. Personally, I would welcome another Everquest title into the marketplace, but only if it was created in a certain way.

I have mentioned before that the original Everquest is and always will be my best gaming experience of my life. Be that as it may, I can’t see myself ever returning to Everquest, even though I have friends who would like to see me return. The reason is game mechanics. Back in 1999, Everquest was the best game you could play. During those early years, the game played mostly as you thought it should. Due to the lack of other MMO games on the market, we gamers did not have a large frame of reference as to how things could be done.

Other games did eventually come on the market, with Everquest 2 being one of them.  It met with lackluster success at best. It did improve many things over the original version, but it also left many things to be desired in gameplay and UI experience. It took World of Warcraft to show all of us how an MMO can be done right.

If Everquest 3 is indeed on the horizon, I would like to see it play like a cross between WoW and Lord of the Rings Online. Give us a UI that blows our socks off. One that is super simple to start using yet easy to delve into the deeper parts of what is possible. I would also like to see the game go in a much different art direction than current Everquest games. The environment does not need to always look super-realistic. I want the designers to use their imagination and surprise me. Show me something that has not been done before and let me see it without needing to buy a new computer to experience it.

Everquest 3 should take me back to its roots. Don’t take me to a future reality or magically transport me to a moon. Show me the “old west” of Norrath, one that I envisioned in my mind as the game taught me about the Combine Empire. A world more barbaric and yet more civilized at the same time. In other words, show me the lore I have only read about and never seen.

Is there room on the market for another Everquest game? It is difficult to envision three Everquest games operating at the same time. Original Everquest turned 10 years old this year. It obviously is still making a profit or Sony would not keep it running as long as it has. EQ 2 has more subscribers, which one would think brings in more money than EQ 1. Should Sony shut down EQ 1 to make room for EQ 3? It is a tough call, but as they say, it all comes down to money. Just how profitable are these older games? Would a new version generate more revenue?

I hope that Everquest 3 will be released. I also hope that they do it right. Only time will tell.

The problems with Windows Vista are myriad and well-known since the day it went on sale. Subsequent updates and service packs have done a great job at getting the operating system running as it should, but the stigma of performance and compatibility issues continue to harass Microsoft.  In fact, the problems are so well-known that even the government has heard about it.

The state of Texas has banned the use of Windows Vista on all government computers. Senator Juan Hinojosa, Democrat, says “Windows XP is just fine, thank you very much.”  Who knew the government was tech savvy? Microsoft sees it as a slight against the company.  I think they should see it as an opportunity to fix their software.

To be fair, a fully patched Windows Vista does run much better than it did when it launched.  My biggest gripe with it is that it is still a memory hog.  I once had a Sony Vaio with Vista Home Premium on it. On a fresh boot, with only minimal start-up programs running, it still used almost 2GB of RAM before I launched any of my programs. That is ridiculous.

There are many ways to protect your computer. You can use anti-virus, anti-spyware, and firewall software, but have you ever considered power protection? It is one of the most over looked areas of a computer setup.  The video below will talk about power protection for your computer and what you can do about it. As with all upcoming content on this site, it will be explained in an easy to understand way that bypasses all the geeky terms and specifications and gets to the point as to why you should or should not use something.

You might have noticed that the name of this blog has changed.  I have decided to slightly change the focus of this blog so that I may talk about more technology than just MMO games. I would like this blog to be a place where non-geek technology users can come to get easy to understand information about technology in general.  I will still write about my experiences with MMO gaming, but I will also mix in other tech subjects as well.

So I welcome you to the new Casual Tech Notebook blog.  I hope you will enjoy what you find here.

Kevin

The newbie introductory instance in Lord of the Rings Online ended with me defending the town of Archet while it was under attack. The bad guys were driven off, but not before the town went up in flames. This is a good example of instancing done right. When you exit the instance and enter the game proper, Archet is a burned out town from that point on.

The first few quests are of your standard newbie type. I was sent out to kill diseased boars and a few spiders outside the Archet gates. I was whacking spiders around the Sprigley farm when I discovered their cellar. This is where my memory fails me because I can’t remember if this was in the game during the initial launch. I can only assume that it was.

When I entered the cellar I discovered underground caves full of spiders. I roamed around a bit and eventually came across an elite spider named Iornaith. The room this big spider called home was full of baby spiders but they did not attack me. I engaged Iornaith in battle and was easily victorious.

As it turns out, all of that was wasted time. I made it back to town only to be given a quest that would take me back to the caverns. I was tasked with finding a missing dwarf named Bali, and I found him near a cave entrance that turned out to be the rear entrance to the Sprigley cellar. Bali barely escaped the spiders with his life. His companions were not so lucky. He sent me into the cavern to find his dead companions and retrieve some journal entries from them. The bodies were wrapped in cocoons and were found in various sections of the cave. Once that was done, another quest sent me to kill Iornath, so I went back and slayed the big spider again.

Things have been easy so far. My character has not come close to dying, which is either good or bad, depending on how you look at it.   The Guardian class has been fun so far.