What's New with Life?

Well it's been a long time since I posted here, so I figured I'd give everyone an update. The past few months have been somewhat a RockyRoad. I left the Erie County Home where I was working due to problems with their management. And have been unemployed. Recently I was hired at GameStop in the Eastern Hills Mall where I am a Seasonal Sales Associate.
On another note for all of you that have been to my house, your next visit will be a little different. This is because my room has moved. Yes, you heard correctly I changed rooms from my upstairs room to something a little more comfortable and livable for me.
The formation and start-up of RockyRoad Ent. is taking off to a slow start but there are some projects in the works which at this time I don't feel like disclosing to all. This is mainly due to the fact that I'm not one to go about and brag or mention a product until I have a working prototype because some project just don't work out and I don't want to get any hype around something that won't be pursued or even remotely in a workable state, at least not now.
As for everything life is good, I guess. Nicole and I are not together, but then again what else is new. I'm currently dating this girl Lauren from Holland. And you can usually find me at the clubs on any given Saturday Night, and sometimes Friday depending on what's going on. If you ever see me I'll be with my 3 boys, Bob, Dave, and Alan who are are Staff members at Utopia. So until next time, Party On!

Quick Update on Mozilla FireFox and More Company News

Well I've been having some problems with Mozilla FireFox lately wanting to print out websites to my printer. So what did I do? Of course, being me I uninstalled FireFox all the extensions and installed Deer Park Alpha 2 with the minimize to tray and sessionsaver rewrite extensions. To my amazement after taking time to get everything setup correctly, it very stable. So far it hasn't crashed once and it got me to clean out extensions I never used with one exception being the Mozilla released PopupsMustDie extension which has yet to be updated to work with the new Deer Park Alpha 2 which was from July 17th. But I must say I'd encourage people to take the plunge and help Mozilla test Deer Park Alpha 2, and see where Mozilla is taking the future of Gecko and the Mozilla Foundation itself.
On another note, I've have enlisted the help of a fellow website developer I went to school with to design the next generation RockyRoad Entertainment website. So stayed tuned for more information about that and who this lucky developer is....In the mean time check out InBedBy10.com (hint, hint).

Impluse Buying Update, Again!

Ok, so of course as you all know my wireless keyboard and mouse came into today. I must say I was impressed, as the product was suppose to be OEM but came with everything. This included the keyboard, mouse, reciever, instruction booklet and even batteries. Although it did come in a box label that it should only be given out with new computers. But other than that it works flawlessly and is a great addition to my desktop pc, ecspecially because of it's integration with Windows.
In other news, I bought another new toy for my soon to come Mac Mini. This time it was a DVD Burner, which my desktop system already has, which I plan to put in an external enclosure. Since Apple wants $100 for the super drive I took a shortcut and paid $40 for a SAMSUNG Black IDE DVD Burner Model TS-H552U/BEBN BLK - OEM which has support for DVD+R Dual Layered Discs. So this should round out my Mac Mini when I get it. As for the enclosure if anyone knows of any good places to buy cheap but great external enclosure for a drive like this, let me know.

Business Info, Start-Ups, and More

Well, I must say the plan is forging ahead to start RockyRoad Entertainment as a game development company specializing in porting applications to Mac OS X and Linux. Dave and I have decided that we are both buying Mac Minis as soon as the money is available. Which for me mean that I'll have one by the end of next week or it will at least be ordered. And since the Mac Mini is the headless Mac I already covered my monitor, keyboard, and mouse. For a monitor I have an older 17 inch CRT which the Mac will utilize. Plus I planned on getting internal bluetooth for the wireless Apple keyboard and mouse but instead I was given a Wireless Keyboard and Mouse system from Kensington for my birthday which I will be utilizing for the Mac as well. So know all I need to buy for it is a desk, which is in the works.
In other news, I've been working on another start-up venture which I won't get into too much as of right now but will say that there is another one in the works. And again I continue my buying spree. This time I bought the Microsoft Wireless Optical Desktop Keyboard and Mouse Set OEM from 3BTech.net. Ordered it on July 11th and am set to recieve it tomorrow. Which is good for my free ground shipping I got. And the main reason I bought this was not only the $30 price tag but also the fact that I can't let my Mac go with a wireless keyboard and mouse and not have it for the desktop pc. Of course, I'll keep you updated on that.
In other none tech/business related news, Nicole is in Michigan with her Grandparents and I must say I miss her quiet a bit. She was suppose to stay til sometime next week but the way things are looking she will be home Sunday. I personally can't wait to see my BabyDoLL again. And that's all I got for you today, until next time, So Long!

Spring Cleaning - Without the Spring!

Well, a lot has been going on lately at RockyRoad Entertainment. So of course it's a little past spring, but I began my spring cleaning. So as you may or may not notice the Technology page and Partners page got cleaned up a bit. Here are some of the links that didn't make the cut:

Nutch
Clusty
Koders
Sourceforge
Skype

Other than that Dave and I have been doing a lot of talking lately and it may be shifting my focus a bit, business wise. The main point being I'm going to be investing in a Mac soon, and with Dave's Linux skills, it may be more useful for a while to help port some games to the Mac platform. I mean, I've always had a thing for the Mac platform just never invested in one. Even though the switch to Intel is going to change things it's not proven yet. I mean the PowerPC architecture alone is bringing in some serious customer like Sony and Microsoft, so now's the time for me to learn to program Carbon and get going. So we will see when I go get the Mac which is no longer than a few weeks at most away.

On another note, I must say that I got the brand new Logitech QuickCam Communicate. And I must say I'm impressed. It has great frame rate and get color making this an overall great webcam. And while I'm on the new thing binge, I also ordered VoIP service for my house. The service was ordered from ViaTalk a new company in the VoIP brought to you by the web hosting company HostRocket.com. This was because I signed up to test (give feedback on the service) which entitled me to $50 of free service. So why not, right? So I ordered service, they sent me the equipment (a nice looking Linksys PAP2-NA box, yes it's unlocked but in order for them to give you the password to access everything you need to buy the box from ViaTalk for $50), and it was a breeze to hook-up. I mean I got it two weeks ago, and I'm still learning new things about it. It's definately been useful to me and isn't at a bad price either. The service I would highly recommend if your in the market for a VoIP service and want to steer clear from Vonage and their locked equipment.

And that's all I have for you tonight. So until next time.

LexMark Z515 for $20.99?

Well, I did it again! I added another piece of equipment to my Computer Arsenal. This time being the much needed Printer. I decided I look at PriceWatch first and it turned out to be a great decision. I found a LexMark Z515 Inkjet Printer with a USB Cable (not including Ink Cartridges) for $20.99 from a company called Legend Micro. At first I was skeptical and then I did my research on the printer. To my avail I found that it was a decent printer and I decided to go ahead and order it. So I did even though I never delt with the company and kept a close watch on the order. It was great because within a couple of days the order was shipped and I recieved the product the day after it was shipped from Legend Micro's Ohio Warehouse. I've since setup the printer and used it and I must say it's a great deal for anyone in need of a printer.

As for life, Nicole and I have been back together and life is going great. Look for more information on RockyRoad Entertainment very soon.

Product Purchase and a Quick Life Update...............

Well after ordering my Hauppauge WINTV-GO TV Tuner/ Video Capture (OEM) from TigerDirect on Monday using the $10 Ground Shipping Option, I finally Received it today. Having never delt with TigerDirect before, mainly due to my love for NewEgg, I have to say I'm quite pleased. Not only did my card come within 2 days after being shipped but it's packaging was superb. I don't think I could have done better. So I opened the box and installed the card. Now since this was an OEM card I didn't get drivers for it but luckily Hauppauge has them available for download on there website along with the WinTV32 application which will allow you to watch and record the television signal coming in from the TV Tuner Card. So everything works and it's great considering I still get to use the DISH Network remote to change the channels. Must say I've very pleased for $19.99 plus shipping and handling. The only thing I don't like about the card is that it has Software Encoding rather than Hardware which can eventually put a drain on the CPU when your recording video. Other than that I highly recommend it.

As for life, Nicole and I broke up but I don't want to get into that. Alden, for those that have been wondering why I haven't been going to Harkness, has finally agreed to let me drop Harkness enlight that I take 2--10 week classes at Alden, which will be 20th Century Wars and Personal Finance Management. Finally glad I'm out of Harkness but while this isn't completely what I wanted it will do especially for 10 weeks. So starting next Thursday I'll have 20th Century Wars, Advisement, Gym, and Personal Finance Management.

Random Links and Stories

First off, I was right Tupac Shakur is alive, check it out here.
Secondly the UK might have a smart idea in Zopa.
Third, De.lirio.US has challenged De.lici.ous after rolling out it's Open-Source Solution, check it out here.
Fourth, Here is a proof of concept idea on having unlimited anytime minutes using unlimited mobile to mobile minutes and voice over ip technology. The idea is located here.
Fifth, Here is some Free PVR Software that runs on Windows, definately some to check out along with this.

The State of the Industry....

While I was reading a funny article over at PCGameWorld I began to realise that this really is what the game industry is shaping up to be if it isn't already. The article while focusing on VU Games and Irrational Games follow-up to the Tribes Series; Tribes:Venegence, hits home on a lot of nessecary points. For the most part it's wrong that a publisher such as VU Games would publish a product and then leave it to dry. I think the publisher, if it chooses to fund and publish a product, should stick behind that product through thick and thin. Whether it be in the form of patches (such as in this case), support, marketing and public relations, etc. With a publisher standing behind a product, what makes you think the consumers will. For instance knowing that bugs won't be fixed and there will be no more patches for Tribes:Venegence why should I run out and buy it, better yet why should I even be wasting my time mentioning it? Why? Because of the simple fact that it seems all products that are losing publishers money are being abonadoned. For instance Jeff Tunnel Co-Founder GarageGames, and former Dynamix founder, did some of the math for VU and Tribes Venegence. You guys can check it out here.

With those be my thoughts on the State of the Industry I also will leave you with some links:

Crunkie-Mobile Phone Mapping Application
The PC Info Dot Com - Find out about your PC
Linksys competitor to AirPort Express?
CutePDF Writer - Free PDF Writer
Email Icon Generator - Stop those Damn Harvesters from Getting Your Email
Link Popularity Check Tool - For All You Web Designers Out There
Dijjer - Free P2P Software that Dramatically Reduces the Bandwidth Needed to Host Large Files
SmashTheTones - Service to Put Free Ringtones and Pictures on Your CellPhone

Updated -- Blog Construction

Well I figured I'd update you all on the canges that will be happening to this Blog VERY soon. First off, I must say that the Yahoo banner will be getting replace (somewhere in the near future, hopefully). TextAmerica's Moblog will be phased out as I will phase in Mafia, an opensource Moblog, to which I will be trying to contribute to. Plus I will be restructing the links on the side. It seems the more I look at the links the more garbage that is being to show up in there. So thi sis priority as well as phases out the old only to be in with the new.

Edit: Ok, what can I say. I said it was going to happen, it just so happens I was a bit amibitous. So almost everyone of those changes are now done, except saying goodbye to TextAmerica and hello to Mafia. it's in the works once Mafia's Recent Picture Code is Stable.

Network Managability and XM to Increase Prices.

Long time no post. That is mainly due to the fact of school, work, and hanging out with my wonderful girlfriend. So whats happened in the past few week? Quite a bit!

First off, I finally got my AT&T 6800G Router to function as a Wireless Access Point. Why and how did I do that? First off, if you look at the pricing for a router and wireless access point, you'll see that access points run about $100-$150 while routers can be bought for $9.99 and up after rebates. So now on to how I did this. First you need to login to your wireless router that you want to become the wireless access point (usually this is done by plugging a LAN cable from the PC's NIC card into a LAN port on the router). After that you need to turn off dhcp (since there can only be one dhcp server on your network, and for me this was my wired linksys router). Then go and change the device's IP to correspond with your existing LANs IP Address (for most routers it's either 192.168.1.1 or 192.168.0.1). For me I had to put the AT&T router on the Linksys' network. So I did and then plugged the lan cable from my Linksys router into a LAN port on the AT&T router. And there ya go, a completely cheap and inexpensive Wireless Access Point.

Also I happened to stumble across a great Network Management Application called Network Magic. It's currently in the Beta Testing stages but it's well worth the free download, at least for now. Will the application eventually be sold? Most likely but for now go to here.

I've also been informed that XM Satellite Radio is uping it current price from $9.99 for basic service to $12.95. The new price will include basic service, free online access, and High Voltage (The Channel featuring Opie and Anthony). The price comes as a bit of a suprise but then again I'm already paying $11.98 for basic service and High Voltage. So another dollar for the online access isn't a big deal to me, especially figuring I've been getting it for free anyways, due to a problem with XM's javascript sessions. You can see the news for yourself here.

Also check out the links of the day:
Known Hole Aided in T-Mobile Breach
More On the Paris Hilton Hacking

Anyways I'm off for now so until next time!

XM Satellite Radio and Cheesy Poofs?

Ok, so the title is a little off. I guess the two don't have anything in common but it caught your attention didn't it?

Anyways the past month has been a very busy one. I got ahold of a new Delphi Roady 2 to get my daily dose of Opie (Gregg Hughes) and Anthony on XM's Satellite Radio Service. I must say that it's great. It was easy to hook up and within two days I found myself buying the home kit because I found myself listening to this more than FM, AM, or even CD's.

On another note I have been spending a lot of time with the girl I love. So things with RockyRoad have been moving slowly, but then again RockyRoad has a lot of time to take off and this girl means a lot to me. So it's a small price to pay.

Anyways there your little update and I'll try to post more if I remember.